Episode 58: The Pivot: How Bryson Rebuilt His Team for the Shifting Market – The Bryson Smith Team

How Bryson Smith Built a Highly Profitable Real Estate Team in a Shifting Market

In a time when most real estate teams are struggling to stay afloat, Bryson Smith has not only survived — he’s thrived. In this episode of The OT: Only Teams for Real Estate Podcast, hosted by Daren Phillipy, Bryson shares how he went from dropping out of college with $200 to building a lean, profitable real estate team in Peoria, Illinois — closing over 318 units and $56M in volume.

From grassroots lead generation and community connection to team restructuring and strategic investment in Google Ads, this is a must-read for team leaders looking to navigate market shifts and come out stronger on the other side.

💥 From Retail Clerk to Real Estate Powerhouse

Bryson’s journey into real estate started with a leap of faith. After switching college majors and feeling stuck in retail, a friend’s mom — a successful local agent — offered him an opportunity that changed everything.

“I dropped out of college, had $200 to my name, and I said, ‘This is going to be something I put my mind to.’” – Bryson Smith

Just 14 years later, Bryson is a top producer in central Illinois, known not just for sales volume, but for profitability, leadership, and community impact.

🧠 Key Strategies for Scaling Profitably in a Down Market

1. Profit First Mentality

Bryson radically restructured his team — scaling from 26 agents doing 900+ units to just 4 agents and 5 admins, all while increasing profitability.

“Last year was one of my most profitable years ever — even after scaling back from 900 units. That’s because we focused on the right things.” – Bryson Smith

His shift away from volume obsession to profit-driven decision-making was sparked by the harsh reality of overspending during market highs.

2. Cut Zillow, Double Down on Google

Bryson eliminated all spending on platforms like Zillow and Realtor.com, citing rising costs and diminishing ROI.

“I was spending $40,000 a month on Zillow. Now I spend $1,500 on Google Ads and get 40–50 calls a week from it. It’s the highest ROI lead source by far.”

His strategy? Invest in Google reviews, optimize for local search, and own his online presence with consistency and authenticity.

3. Teach Agents to Fish — Don’t Hand Them Fish

Bryson isn’t just a rainmaker — he’s a leader who believes in building skill, not just handing out leads.

“I used to hand out fish. Now, I say ‘Come to the lake and learn how to fish with me.’” – Bryson Smith

His culture is built on prospecting accountability, minimum production standards (5+ transactions a month), and daily activity tracking.

🛠 Tools & Systems That Power the Bryson Smith Team

• CRM Smart Segments to match investors with off-market properties and tenants
• Field representatives to deepen client relationships and support listings
• Commercial & investment channels to diversify income streams
  

“We’ve done 80 to 90 deals where I sold the property, found the tenant, managed the rental, and earned commission across all sides.”

This vertically integrated model includes residential, Airbnb and midterm rentals, and commercial investments — supported by a boutique property management division.

💡 Lessons Learned: “If I Could Do It Again…”

Bryson’s biggest hindsight? He would have built a team of admin before hiring agents.

“I would’ve had two rockstar admin and just referred the excess leads out. A lot less stress, and more money.”

This realization echoes with solo agents and small teams: leverage starts with operations, not always sales.

💬 Staying Top of Mind with Community and Sphere

Bryson’s touchpoints are deeply personalized and community-driven, built around local philanthropy, handwritten notes, and authentic interactions.

“We’ll drive by a past client’s house and text them, ‘Hey, your fence looks amazing — here’s a gift card for coffee.’ That stuff matters.”

He stays heavily involved with St. Jude’s Heller Center and CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) — creating lasting relationships and brand recognition through service.

❤️ Work-Life Balance, Family, and Real Talk

Bryson admits the grind took a toll at times. After closing 220 deals himself last year, his son said, “Daddy, I miss you.”

“I don’t miss movie night with my son. Clients will respect your boundaries if you just communicate them clearly.” – Bryson Smith

His approach to balance is grounded in calendar discipline, delegation, and transparency with clients and his team.

📈 What’s Next? Real Estate Development and Building Wealth

Bryson’s next big play? Developing entire blocks in Peoria. He already owns multiple units and is mapping out the future with strategic investors.

“I want to be hands-on first. But I’ve got the right ‘who’ upstairs from me — now it’s about building the right plan and getting educated.”

His growth mindset and curiosity drive him to explore new verticals while staying rooted in what’s worked.

🧠 Final Takeaways from Bryson Smith

• Know your numbers. Profit beats volume every time.
• Invest in your brand, not portals. Google is king.
• Train your team to hunt. Don’t create lead-dependent agents.
• Be part of your community. Philanthropy builds your brand and your soul.
• Simplify. More agents doesn’t mean more business.
  

“If I could go back, I’d slow down hiring agents and build a million-dollar admin-driven business first.” – Bryson Smith

🎯 Looking for a Referral Partner in Central Illinois?

Bryson and his team service Peoria and a 1-hour radius — from Bloomington to Galesburg and Springfield. For referrals, contact:

📧 [email protected]
🌐 brysonsmithteam.com

Transcription

Daren Phillipy  00:00

Cord here. Okay, Bryson, you did it. You made it here today. I’m so glad to have you guys. I’m grateful that all of you guys are here. We’ve got a full room here today. I was just telling Bryson before the call, I’m all wound up. If you guys didn’t listen to last week’s ot with Eric and Matt. This portion, this this time. This hour is a massively valuable, much needed hour for teams that are in the industry. Many of us don’t have an opportunity to be able to rub shoulders and hang out with amazing producers every single week, like Bryson and and really dig into the real challenges and the real struggles of of what you guys are dealing with. And it’s perfect. This was purposely set up to not be. Let me teach you how to build a team. This is we all know we’re running a team, and we know the real answer there. There are plenty of people that start talking and they say, this is how you do whatever. And we’re like, there’s no way that is the way it is. And so this platform, and this time is, is, I guess, my gift to my agent specifically, but to, I guess, the industry where teams can collaborate and be real and address the challenges that you guys are dealing with, because I believe that you guys are underserved. And so Bryson is such a stud. He’s from Peoria, Illinois, and I tracked him down downtown Peoria, Illinois, 318, units, 56, million in volume the last 12 months. Awesome. Producer. Bryson, thanks for hanging out with us,

Bryson Smith  01:48

dude. Yeah, thanks for the invite. Appreciate it. You bet. Tell us a

Daren Phillipy  01:51

little bit about how you got in the industry and a little back story behind you and your team.

Bryson Smith  01:57

Yeah. So I got into the real estate industry. Just through a mutual friend. I was working retail. I was going to college, and, you know, my buddy Nick, his mom, is a big named agent here in our area, and she’s in kind of retirement phase now, but she’s, he said, you know, you do so well with selling retail. Why wouldn’t you do real estate? And I was already kind of burnt out. I felt like I was the Van Wilder of college. I had switched, you know, professions, degrees, so many different times. And I’m like, I don’t know what I’m going to do. So I just, I took a leap of faith and joined his mom’s team, you know, I quit college, dropped out. I had like, 200 bucks in my pocket, in my bank account, you know, we were me and a girlfriend, were just, like, barely making ends meet. And I was like, I this is going to be something I’m going to really put, you know, my mind to. And then that was 14 years ago, and the first two years I was on Christine’s team, and, you know, things just kind of kind of blew up, you know, at that point. And so I, I was like, You know what? I’m just going to go off and do this on my own. And went to kW and said, I need a I need an office immediately. And then hired my transaction coordinator, who was a client I was currently working at the time.

Daren Phillipy  03:10

So crazy. And then here we are, 14 years later, you’re rocking 300 units and more than $200 in your pocket. Yeah, job, dude, Congratulations on the win. That’s That’s awesome. I’m sure you’ve got lots of wisdom, lots of pain that we’re going to be able to tear into. Would you tell us a little bit about your org chart and what your org chart looks like?

Bryson Smith  03:31

Man, that thing has changed so many times. I feel like a lot of us are having that changed right at the current moment. It’s me, my chief administrative officer, Ashley, and then we have a transaction coordinator Ryan, and then we have our listing coordinator Sarah, and then we have our Field Representative Josh, and then me, Jill, Sydney and Zach are agents, and it’s it’s crazy to think that that’s our org chart now, because I was a team of 26 agents doing 900 units a year. And this real estate market is just just suppressed, and it’s making it’s revealing which agents want to get after and which ones don’t. But yet, last year was one of my most profitable years, even doing 900 units two years ago,

Daren Phillipy  04:20

Dude, I’m so glad that you were straight with us and told us a little bit about that, because I believe most of the teams that were are in the market right now have that very similar story. And I want to talk later about how do you rather than chasing the number of the production, chasing that profit and and being able to scale and learn how to not just scale up, but also scale back with the market. So awesome. So you’ve got what five admins? Was that five admins or six? Admin,

Bryson Smith  04:53

five admin, four agents, perfect, perfect, perfect. And, and

Daren Phillipy  04:58

Gary says that we needed. Know the top five, typically the top five lead sources. What is your number one lead source, and what are your other lead sources to feed your team?

Bryson Smith  05:10

I’d say the number one lead source is me. You know your good

Daren Phillipy  05:14

looks in your modeling career. What does me mean? You

Bryson Smith  05:18

know the ability, and I think most rainmakers relate to this. The reason why we start teams is because we’re so good at our job that we need leverage. We gotta, hey, you know, so and so in the market center come join my team, because I’ve got these three sellers, these three buyers I can’t handle, I can’t fully take any more on my plate. And so we kind of joke around with the, you know, with the team that, you know, Bryson’s going on his spree here, he’s got his headset on, and, you know, a couple hours of prospecting a day, I usually will hand them out, you know, stuff, and I’m teaching them to also be able to learn how to fish too. I think that was a problem that I had with my old team, was they were all sitting there waiting for the plate with the fish on it. And I’m like, come stand over here by the lake with me, and I’m going to show you how to do how to do it. But we saw those fly by night. Agents between COVID years that you know, saw a opportunity to get in and get out, and now I can save my entire team prospects with me at the same time. But me Google, that’s definitely a huge one for us, kind of going through that, I would say, going from, we’ve always been a very hands on relationship team, but we’re we’re shifting from transactional back to just super organic, which is how we started the team. I was talking to our team lead, and he’s like, Yeah, the other day we were eating lunch, and you said, it feels like 2012 and then he showed me the trend lines from Gary’s, you know, family or, yeah, family reunion. He was like, You’re right there at 2012 he’s like, how did you know that? And it’s just, you know, the feeling of, you know, the grind of where we’re at. So I would say me Google golden letters are really popular in our area, open houses. I know everyone has. They either love them or hate them. I love them personally. Getting me in front of you, I’m going to sell your whole family. So I’d say those are probably the top four, I don’t know, just in touching base with past clients. It’s huge.

Daren Phillipy  07:14

So let’s talk a little bit about the touching base. You said you grew up in Peoria. You told a story earlier, before he got on the call that that that community has been your community for years. What are you some of the things that you do to stay on top of mind with your database, your sphere, the the you that drives the business.

Bryson Smith  07:37

I mean being involved in the community, like from a philanthropy side. I mean, our team has done very well with like, st Jude’s big in our area, so we they have a new branch called the Heller side of things, which is people that, what are they? The stuff they go through after they beat cancer, like how they’re adjusting back to their life, and actually have a personal experience with that. With my stepson, Gavin, he had a brain tumor. St Jude helped them. You know, we’ve been there at all the events. They’ve got a couple of the hospital rooms named after our team, just because we’ve donated and been top of mind there in our in our area, medical is huge. So if you, if you want to work with incoming doctors, you got to be down there doing things. We do a lot of CASA, which is like a court appointed special advocate for children that are in need. So that kind of, like philanthropy stuff over the years has been really helpful, but I feel like we’ve built up such a huge like, in my database, I have 100,000 past, you know, or like people, not clients. I mean, our past client list is around 5500 but like 100,000 people that we can either stay in communication with, and I just feel like, so if I, if I’m thinking about somebody, or we’re driving through a neighborhood, you know, I’m like Ryan, send, you know, Joe a card, a $10 gift card from Duncan. I just drove past his house. Tell him his fence looks good, you know. And just simple things like that go a long way, because I feel like we’re entering into a stage of, you know, where human interaction. We all crave it more now, but I feel like it’s just so far away,

Daren Phillipy  09:12

so good, so good. So you mentioned earlier that, and you said back in the day, in another market, your agents would be like, Hey, where’s the fish, dude, and you now have a community of of agents that are on your team that fish with you. How are you able to make that switch? Was it a mind shift switch with the team, or did you have to change the culture and change the people

Bryson Smith  09:40

a mix of both, because the people that didn’t want to go and fish with us at the pond, the proverbial pond, they just went out on their own, you know, like they they they thought either a that they were, because as rainmakers, we, you know, we push all of our agents up on pedestals, and we encourage them and help them. And. Everything. Sometimes we also give their ego too much, you know? And they’ll say, oh, I can go do this on my own. And then they get their butt kicked on the market because they didn’t learn the principles, the fundamental principles. And I’ve had a lot of those agents call me back and want to be back on the team, or, you know, you were so right. We should have been working on our database the entire time. So some of it was the market forcing them out. And then a lot of it was like, we have the same thing as kW, a mission statement, a vision, a belief system, core values for our team. And we would just start calling, not in a negative way, but start calling people out on if, Hey, that’s not within our culture or whatever. And they just kind of like, silently quit out. And some of them, we just say we just had to let go. You know, it’s, it’s not fair to you. It’s not fair to me for you to pull, be pulling in one sale a month. I mean, baristas make that money like let’s I, you know your your passion was to get into this over here, but it’s clearly changed, and helping them self discover the new where we’ve coached people out and it was the best thing for them.

Daren Phillipy  11:02

Awesome. I love it. Now. You said something, it kind of struck a chord on me. You talked about how when you are you put them up on a pedestal, and I think a lot of teams you want to encourage and you want to support and help them feel better, and at the same time. Part, you could step into the giving them the pedestal that they haven’t earned as in the market did it so, for instance, Career Visioning, there’s the third section, which is success through others. Success through others says that you have mastered that skill or mastered that role for a period of time, and a lot of times as as motivated, excited, supported, whatever, they’re six months into it, they close three transactions, and you’re like, oh my gosh, you’re a rock star. Well, many teams that’s that’s standard. You’re not a rock star. That’s what’s expected. And so being able to balance that out. Have you ever been able to do that?

Bryson Smith  12:04

Yeah, going to, I mean, you hit the nail on the head with that. In our area, we are a high units based team, because we’re not in Chicago, where it takes like, 45 minutes to the next appointment. We can get to 100,000 people within minutes. And so our team, you know, I’d go to family reunion, and they’re like, Wait, you’re selling 600 what, how? And I’m like, it’s our area that helps us a little bit with that. So we’ve, my golden rule was you had to sell five a month. And that was baseline, you know, and that was, like, attainable, because I’d had a probably 40 to 50% of my team was doing eight, nine transactions a month, and so it had been that way. I mean, I’m looking at our board right now, and Jill’s got at least 10 up there, and we’re doing more with less agents now, instead of splitting it all. But back kind of the question, if somebody would fall down in that where they were going to two or three, it’s like you have to jump immediately into action with those people, or they get to zero, and then they they see all this poison all over your agents. And we had a we basically gave them a homework assignment, like, you have to be prospecting in the office if you are under five units till four o’clock in the afternoon, within reason, right? Like, I know that’s we’re not chaining people to the desk, but like, if you have like, three or four pendings or less, you basically spent more time in the office mingling with the rest of the prospectors are here. And if you had 678, you could leave at noon, and I would say, sign her do what you do and have fun with your family. And we wouldn’t keep anybody from their schedule that they have. You got to put all your important stuff on your calendar first. But there was some of that where me and Ashley and I had another director of operations at the time that were like mingling and making sure that they were doing this stuff, where we, like, passed them a freebie here and there and or sit down and call with them, right?

Daren Phillipy  14:01

I love it. I love it. One last thing, and we’ll move from the listing side, you’ve made adjustments, obviously, with the shifting market and a shifting team. What are some lead generation strategies that you used to do that you’ve cut off and said no more, and why

Bryson Smith  14:18

we don’t do any Zillow realtor.com, any of those websites anymore. They had their place. But see, I felt like over the years, through the COVID years, that that was the that was those were always planned for be little drop ins, you know, like that was you’re supposed to do the majority of your prospecting, and these are just little pick me ups here and there. And it became all of our business for the most part. I was spending $40,000 a month in Zillow and and then that was before they hiked the prices up. And I’m like, wait a second, we have all of these people in our database that we could have been like allotting an ISA for which we attempted a few different times. We just never could get the right one. All. Um, and then once they up their prices, and you know, there’s fewer buyers, and you know, the demand from buyer side. So we don’t do any anything like that anymore. We mostly do the old school stuff, like you were saying at the beginning, like these are the tried and true things that we are sticking to, like mailers, calendar, magnets, and they’re having this huge impact. Because, you know, if I paid for realtor.com or Zillow, the leads triple expensive, and they do cross sell it to other people, so not I’m like, or I could go to my past client, who’s his family bought homes for me, and just touch base with him and get that free 1,000% ROI. And it was easier to do it that other way, because it didn’t take as much accountability. But in this market, you got to have a lot of accountability, a lot of self control and discipline in that market. And those in some teams might still keep a little bit in their budget, but I’m like it Profit First, that book that is the one to read, and I’m not spending any money on that stuff, because, you know, it’s not fair, not fair to my family.

Daren Phillipy  16:03

You think, you think that just making that adjustment is a big part or big reason why you’re more profitable now than you were then?

Bryson Smith  16:11

For sure? Yeah, for sure. And we, and even if the market got crazy like that again, I don’t think we would even go back into it. I really don’t, if

Daren Phillipy  16:21

you had extra money, where would you send it, or where would you put it?

Bryson Smith  16:25

Google, Google. I mean, if you go to my page, we have all five star business, like, like, legitimate five star reviews. There’s only me and one other agent in the area, that’s the mega agent. And so they always because, just like, if I wanted to buy a new car. I’m gonna go to Google. You know, 1969 Mustang. I’m gonna Google something so like we we probably get 40 to 50 calls a week on just general inquiries, listings, buyers from just Google. And we spend 1500 a month in Google, like hardly anything, for Pay Per Click, so that that that has yielded the highest ROI out of everything so far.

Daren Phillipy  17:06

Okay, I love it. Let’s tell me a little bit about what unique listing strategies you do to to capture business, if any,

Bryson Smith  17:18

something unique that we do. I was, I was, it was funny the other day. The one thing that people, especially agents, they’re they, they give different classifications for leads. They’re like, well, this is this type of leader. This is this type of lead which is not as good. And I’m like, if you have a name and a phone number that lead is worth the same no matter who it came from. And so when I was telling a story, actually this morning about this, I heard these people talking about real estate in front of me, and I was, I was staying in a line of Walmart, and I took a fake call. I’m like, I pulled up my phone, and I was like, Yeah, sure, we do have, yeah, we have plenty homes in that area. Whatever the late they turned around and I was like, alright, Yep, I’ll send them over. Turned around and they were like, Are you a realtor? And I was like, yeah, yeah, I am. And, you know, got their contact information right there. Versus, like, hey, like, tapping them on the shoulder, I let them come to me. And I, honestly, I just did it, just to see if it would work. But I wouldn’t say that’s like a strategy we use. Oh,

Daren Phillipy  18:22

that’s, that’s, you don’t lie, dude, that is number one. You walk around the mall and you make amazing so where would you like to, uh, deposit that $100,000 that I just made you from buying that house and that investment? So funny. All right, let’s talk about the levered side, because I’d really like to camp out there. What are, what are some tools that you have used that make a big impact in running your large team

Bryson Smith  18:52

from like operative side, or just like in general,

Daren Phillipy  18:56

or whatever, whatever. Because it could be an operative thing. It could be a habits thing. It could be a accountability thing.

Bryson Smith  19:03

Well, when, when the market started to like, we started feeling in our area, a shift, I would say, summer 2023, where the buyer and the seller really started like, combating each other. The seller was using high price comps, and then they were going off those, and the listing started to sit, and the buyer’s demand was just very low, you know, because even though we know 7% six and a half percent interest rates aren’t, are atrocious. You know, their buddies are, like, I got a three and a half percent, and they’re laughing at each other, you know, like, how come you didn’t get yours, man? So they think that they’re they’re waiting for something, and they’re just not as motivated. So one thing our team has done really well throughout like the COVID years and through today, is we shifted gears into commercial and investments. And so we were mostly a single family, home selling team. You know, we helped first time, second time, all buyers, all that. But I really. Dived into commercial in 2018 and some of my biggest sales, I mean, one. So I’m looking outside my window, I sold for $8 million it’s a 36 unit. And just being able to, like, walk different paths in the real estate, then I’m like, Oh, how can I even take this further? And so I started taking, you know, properties that were I’m like, we could make this an Airbnb, and I would find an investor. Then I would pre sell stuff, and then all the way to the point where I started a property management company. And our property management, we only manage high end properties and clients. But I would, I would find, I would say, Okay, so I’ve got an investor that wants to buy. You know, I’m already saying I’m going to make someone some good money, I’m going to help you distribute and get wealth in different way. So that we would take that investor, we’d go and find the house off market, and then I would sell it to the investor. I already had a tenant lined up to rent the place as well. So I’d take a commission on the finder’s fee, the Commission on the buy a side, the Commission on the sell side. And then I got the management. And so transactions where you’re selling up 70, $80,000 house, and normally would make 2600 bucks. I’m making 10,000 because I’m getting all of these different pieces within that. And then both every everyone in the transaction wins. Seller sold their property. Buyer just acquired an Airbnb. I got the renter who was bugging me looking for a place, you know, all of that into one. And so I already made that process repeated. We probably did that 8090, times. And now

Daren Phillipy  21:32

so are you? Are you like? Do you have a process to be able to let me comb this and let me comb this, and let’s see if I can match them up? What does that process look like to do what you just did?

Bryson Smith  21:44

Mostly, it’s just in our CRM, you know, where we can do smart segments, where, if, say, I saw a house come on the market, that’s 90,000 I’m like, you know that that would make a great rental. Let’s look. Let’s go do our smart segment and our CRM, see what buyer would buy it, you know, investor, and then at the same time, simultaneously doing a smart segment for all of the tenants that we have in our database that we’ve screened already, and then say, Hey, Mark, if I sold you this home, and we got it for this price, and I already had somebody renting it from you day one, and I’ll manage the property. How would that sound? So you’re going, you know, you got 10,000 year bank account, 20,000 that’s sitting there making you five bucks a month. I’m going to turn around and you’re going to use that money. I’m going to make you 600 to 800 over here, and I’ll do everything. You just sign some papers, and we, I can’t even tell you how many time we repeated that. That saved my business.

Daren Phillipy  22:40

So smart. When do you and you started doing that when

Bryson Smith  22:44

back in 23 July, and it’s helped me acquire, you know, a lot of properties on my own. I have 17 Airbnbs now. Well, mix of Airbnbs and midterm, the long term rentals.

Daren Phillipy  22:56

So the relatively recent in the last couple of years, you’ve made that adjustment.

Bryson Smith  23:01

Yeah,

Daren Phillipy  23:01

wow, that’s awesome. Look. I want to talk about the very beginning of of the call you talked about, you used to do 900 and you had 20 people, and now you’ve got five people, and you’re doing three, you know, 350 or so step us through that process of doing that business, looking at the numbers and looking at the business, and then the steps you took to adjust to be the profitable business that you are now.

Bryson Smith  23:34

Well, that’s why I said those things kind of saved my business. Because the other reason why I think that I would never go back to like a Zillow or something like that, is because they put you in long term contracts. And when a lot of those agents kind of either were got forced out of the business, I was stuck holding the bag on all these contracts, radio, television, you know, everything, billboards, because we did those two, we did the trifecta. And, you know, I’m like, oh gosh, you know, I’m normally, I have to make 125,000 a month to break even, and half my team is either dissolved or gone, and we’re bringing in 70 80,000 in commission. So I gotta, like, do something quickly. So when, when that happens, you just have to get really raw and cut what you can immediately without sacrificing, like, the most important things, like, I wouldn’t cut admin staff. I wouldn’t cut our CRM, but we were just trying to renegotiate. And to that day, it’s built this program, or built it into us that we renegotiate on every term, every time, every month, every week, and that’s all Ashley does is is renegotiate what we currently have, even to this day, because we’re still thinking about it from where we had all that pain. Was that answered,

Daren Phillipy  24:54

yeah, that’s exactly, that’s exactly what I was looking for, and I knew that there was a correlation. Conversation, but it was so interesting when you first said that I’m like, I want to get into a little bit later. So you’ve been building your team. You’ve made some awesome I’m a genius moves, and you’ve some I can’t believe I did that, and I can’t believe I did it again. What’s a mistake that you’ve made, that that has helped you that you’ll never do again, maybe, and it’s going to help you lead from this point moving forward. When it comes to

Bryson Smith  25:30

your team, hold on to Well, I mean, the way I hire people is going to is much different. We actually, we are hiring another agent this Friday, but and we, and we did kind of go through the process a little in the past, you know, we would disc, we would gallop, we would do all the things. We’d put them on a 90 day, but, and then I would take my high eyes on my team, and I’d get them, I’m like, Hey, I think we’re going to bring on this agent and get them to, like, cheer and, you know, so when I brought the agent in the room, you know, the DS were just like, well, you know, but like, I had enough, like, so now the team is in it. They have a role in who we hire as well. So that’s why, you know, so Zach, Sydney and Jill, they know that when we hire Sadie this Friday, they were able to do kind of a panel with them, you know, we made it a little bit informal, but I wanted their buy in, because I don’t want to wreck what we have right now. And then, you know, back in the day, we had, like, a board of directors for the team, and there was people I trusted. And like, now I know that I should have probably just included everybody in the decision, and maybe that’s not the long term thing, but for this market, I think having everyone’s buy in on the team,

Daren Phillipy  26:42

so you’re doing the portion of the CV process of the group interview. Um, are you present in that, in that interview, or do you step out?

Bryson Smith  26:50

Yeah, I, I’m present for the most part. But they, they all exchange numbers and talks and so, like, I’m, like, I know that’s gonna happen.

Daren Phillipy  27:00

Love it. Um, what? What’s, what’s one of the lessons that you wish you learned earlier in building your team.

Bryson Smith  27:10

You know, if I can be brutally honest, I don’t know if I would have built a team. I would have built a team of an army of an admin around myself and in the in the reason is, is so when you bring on when, when you’re bringing on people, you have a responsibility of obviously helping them, because you’re not tricking them. It drives me nuts when people bring agents to their team just to get their production like that’s a bad, bad team lead. And with me, I was, I was I was producing so much business that I had to give it to Anthony and then to brandy and the Marissa and but what I should have done, and maybe this is good for solo agents, so I should have just had two exceptional admin and then refer to people in the market center, my over my my lever, this, my over edge of business I had and do that for a while, And so I would have slowed down on hiring another agent to onto my team sooner. And like I said, going back into time, it just me to rock star admin, and I’d make a million dollars a year, and I’d have to not mentor, I mentor and coach my admin, but it would be less people. Like, once you get to 26 people, that’s a lot of and being a team lead of a whole market center, it’s hard to keep keep on there, but I would have been slower to hot to add agents to my team. 1,000%

Daren Phillipy  28:32

thing, yeah, it’s like, that catch 22 it’s like, Dude, I need help. I’ve got I like, you said. Business just comes because you, you’ve done such a great job, and at the same time, it’s that one superpower that’s created the business you have to remove yourself out to now lead people who have less skill, less desire, less focus, less relationship or anything like that. So I could, I could see that. So then how do you, how do you lead your current team now,

Bryson Smith  29:01

just through more transparency with them, like, you know, with my old team, they don’t care, like, what kind of bills you have, or, you know, like, what you’re paying for. They just know that what they need is, they need that fish on the plate. Or so with this team now it’s more, it’s back to my old team when I started in my 20s, and I had four other people that were in their 20s around me, and we were just so more family, tight knit, and so I feel like with Jill, Sidney and Zach and now Sadie, it’s going to be more tightly fit, where I think we could be a powerhouse team with just five agents. And overdue, you know, last year I sold 220 homes myself. And I’ve never been able to do that. Most of the time, I hit like, 100 maybe 120 and I’m like, How did I do that? And of course, I got permission for my spouse. I was like, let’s make some extra money. And that kind of stuff this year. Let me go. Let me go. Let me cook, you know. And so I. I think just being more, I mean, they come over for dinner, and just being more transparent, where I tell them, like, hey, you know we want it. We want to purchase this, but whatever we need a little bit more sales in this area. I think that I’m not going to rewind the team back to me. I do love having a team. I do love changing people’s lives, and so that’s why I wanted to be more inclusive with the team on who we bring on if we ever do.

Daren Phillipy  30:27

Okay, love it. Love it. Last question, then we’re going to ask one stupid question. We’ll go and then we’ll put it up. So for those who are have questions, I’m you’re welcome to raise your hand. We’ll be getting to those in about five minutes or so, we talked about your family. You’ve you’ve got kids. How do you balance the the massively productive part of your business and also be with the people or the purpose of why you’re doing it in the first place? How do you balance that out as as a rainmaker,

Bryson Smith  31:01

we gotta marry your admin. No, I’m kidding. That’s the that’s the cheat code. No, you know, my son said something to me the other day, because this year we’re not on the same pace as me doing the 220 that I did last year. He’s like, Daddy, I miss you. You know. Why do you always work? I, you know, I didn’t get to see I don’t get to see you that often, because I do lean on my, you know, spouse to help with the kids activities, and I do. I’m not an absentee dad either. Like, I’m there for a lot of their events, and it is stressful. And I, you know, thank God I have Ashley, because I don’t know if I would, you know, if I had like, another spouse who wasn’t part of the team and understood the what we go through they were on call and the demand of our jobs. But I think that if you just put it in your calendar and you really, really follow it, and you don’t let anything interrupt it, and just being you know, I always told my clients, because once you know them and you can build rapport quickly with them, you can give them examples of why, like, Hey, I can’t do Friday night because of this. However, I could have my other agent show it to you, or I can find someone to fill in for me, because I don’t ever miss movie night with my son. They’ll respect you for it. They don’t want to buy or sell because of that. Instance, there’s the next person around the corner, in line, and so don’t feel like whatever lead you’re like, oh gosh, that was a good one. The next one, if you just keep putting the energy out there, is going to be there.

Daren Phillipy  32:31

That’s right. That’s exactly right. And that’s also that mindset of the abundance and and all of that. What’s your next step? What’s What do you feel like you need to learn or or implement to continue with what you want, getting what you want?

Bryson Smith  32:50

Well, you know, we’ve kind of gone through, like the commercial, the investors, the single family, the luxury, like we’ve done it all. The only thing I haven’t done is developing and, you know, working with hands on, with villages or townships. And, I mean, we do that to a degree. But I, you know, with when I was talking to you earlier about our block, I love to develop this entire block that we, we now own, you know. And so I’m like, what would that look like? Who do I need to talk to? I have investors out the wazoo. That would be like, here’s a million dollar check. Make make me some money back from it, but I need to put a plan into place where I can leverage myself that it’s moving without me necessarily doing it, and I’m getting some new sort of education.

Daren Phillipy  33:34

So is that a who that you need to add? Or is is it to to do that part? Or do you need someone to step into what you’re doing so you can lean into that.

Bryson Smith  33:42

I think I’d like to learn it myself first. That way, if you know that, when you do get the who, you can tell if they’re if they’re knowledgeable enough that you can trust that person. So it’s probably more research, so maybe, maybe heading to the village and just or the townships and just asking them, just some point blank questions. You know, this is what I’m looking to do. I’ve got, ironically enough, my business partner, who I own the homes with. He’s right upstairs. He’s a tenant of mine, and he is definitely the who that could make things happen. I mean, that guy is, he’s awesome. So I just want to know what I’m doing first. I like to get hands on with stuff first before I just and some I used to be more of a high D, where I might just that person do it, okay, whatever, and

Daren Phillipy  34:35

it was going to be good guys. I hope that wasn’t frozen everywhere i i hope that wasn’t my internet. Oh, I’m sure you said something amazing. Did you guys hear that? Were you guys able to hear that?

Bryson Smith  34:58

No, yes, we are. So I don’t know where I left off, but I was just, I was just saying that, you know, I’ve got the WHO for it. I just, I like to be hands on and learn it myself first, because I’m getting a little bit more enjoyment out of that part of my job.

Daren Phillipy  35:12

So good, so good. And we got the most of that too. So I appreciate that. Last thing I, you know, I grew up, graduated 9092, and Wayne’s rule world ruled my world. And I kept on thinking that Peoria was where they were at. But they’re from Aurora, Illinois, and so if I come to Peoria, where do I get the best pizza?

Bryson Smith  35:39

Probably either, Well, depends on if you like deep dish or if you like the stone stone pizza. But I would say my favorite is probably either sugar or barenzos. They’re, they’re both where they put it on the, you know, like the tray, and put it into the wood fired oven. It’s just, it’s good.

Daren Phillipy  36:01

Okay. Note to self, Jay, when we go to piora or that’s where we’re going, Dude, okay, now’s the time. If you guys have question, raise your digital hand. Oh, look at Ozzy fell out here. Let’s put him back in. Um, who’s got, who’s got a question? I’ve got more questions if, if we don’t have any questions on that, I’ve got some more fastballs to throw at you while, while they’re thinking, how do you how do you, personally and professionally, grow as a as as a business owner and as a person? What do you do to feed yourself?

Bryson Smith  36:40

Stay around people that are smarter than you.

Daren Phillipy  36:43

How do you do how do you do that, though, dude, when, when you’re in your community, my guess is you’re one of the top producers, if not the top producer. How? How do you do that?

Bryson Smith  36:54

Well, things like this, or like, I’ll reach out to other agents, you know, like Mark Spain. I talk with him on the phone, you know, he’s, he’s one of the top producers in the world for units, Ryan Dallas and and Adam and those guys just, you know, kind of seeing what they’re doing, being in philanthropy, you know, and running into these doctors sometimes just asking them questions. Like, so what does that look like when you have to open up someone’s skull to, like, work on their brand and like, you know, just to, just to hear it, you know, because they probably it’s always like, what can you do for me? But nobody’s like asking them when they can do, what could you do for them? Or just having a casual conversation and learning something new every day

Daren Phillipy  37:35

they’ll create. How did you purposely get into the the doctor portion of that? Or is that because of your son and him being sick, that got you connected to that?

Bryson Smith  37:49

No, no, we had already worked with the doctor community before that, because so when I hired Ashley six years ago, she wasn’t my spouse at that time, and so he was going through all of that. And, you know, so it wasn’t because of that. I’ve always just had a good network of doctors. I don’t, I don’t know, honestly, I couldn’t even tell you how I got a good network. As soon as you do a good job for one of them, they’re, they are starting to refer so I have any from pediatricians to foot doctors to every every person,

Daren Phillipy  38:21

yeah, I know you get into that niche, you get into that area, and you knock it out. I’ve got an agent in our office. She did a great job with a celebrity. She was just friend, like, was a fan of them. Something happened. She did a couple of things to really, she basically sent that celebrity. Her his favorite line, and it started something, and now he’s all she’s all in with them, and all the connection and stuff. And it’s just being very purposeful. I just got done this is interesting. I just did the Phil Jones language of leadership last week in New York. And one of the things that he shared, and I thought this would, and it pertains to what we’re kind of talking about, too, is he said, If there isn’t a room, let me see real quick. Just give me a second, guys, I’ll edit this crap out. If there is a not a room, if the room doesn’t exist, build a room, which means if there are people that you want to spend time with, if there are people that you want to learn from, and that community, that group doesn’t exist. You create that group? He said that he he is involved in this group where he’s with some other offer authors from across the country. He said it started with four or five, and now there’s like 20 or 30. And he started it, and he is able to now. Be in with. And he said, I’m in a room with people that I shouldn’t be in the room with. And he goes, if you’re trying to get people to come to an event or or to build a relationship with someone, create that event and have them come over and and you be the central part of it, and and they’ll come. And I thought that was so, so amazing, amazing thought. And so if you’re interested in getting into doctors, or if you’re interested in getting, you know, with attorneys or anything like that, if that room doesn’t exist, create that sucker. Love it. I just going off on on that, Jay, you’ve unmuted yourself twice. You got a question, Did you

Jay Hendrix  40:38

raise hand? Raising, no, I just don’t use it. That’s stupid. I got, I got, I got a hand. I got, like, a physical hand.

Daren Phillipy  40:46

Who do you think you are here? Watch this. I just get them.

Jay Hendrix  40:50

Okay, and hey, look at that. So hey, Bryce, a couple things real quick. First, thanks for doing this is the I really, I really appreciate it. It’s awesome to get to hear from people like you, you know, you said something while ago that we’ve heard a lot of time on this podcast, and I think it’s always people like you that figured this out. And sometimes people like me, it takes me to hear it 10 times, but you said the theory of next man, when you really embrace and wrap your head around that next that, hey, listen, just because you know, every person that you get in front of is not a person you should be doing business with. And if you really believe that, it’s not a thing of a scarcity, it’s a thing of man, there’s a lot of business out there. And obviously you’ve proved that you’ve you’ve done a ton of business. I think that right there is it’s awesome to continue here from from great agents like yourself. So I appreciate you sharing that with us? No, thank you. I

Daren Phillipy  41:42

love it. Bryson, do you got any other, any, any other bombs or nuggets that you want to drop on us before we bounce?

Bryson Smith  41:50

No, I just appreciate being able to be on, you know? I mean, I don’t get it’s, it’s funny, because he used to get, I used to get asked to do a lot of things like this. And then sometimes when you see your production kind of go down a little bit, even though nobody sees the full story. You kind of stop getting it which, which is fine, you know? But I just, I’m humbled, you know?

Daren Phillipy  42:13

The reality is, you’re a great producer. There’s no doubt about it. My interest in this, this is to have discussions about exactly what you’ve experienced. The reality is, most of the teams that we’re talking to on the ot have done exactly what you’re doing. And for you to be able to come in and share those pains, the decision making, being able to help us go through that and let us know that we’re not the only ones going through it. Me as a team leader running this brokerage. Little side note, two years ago, I went from 300 agents to 200 agents. I lost 180 agents in one year. That’s a brokerage in itself. And, and having, if I had other people that I could turn to and and and say, What are you doing while the whole markets going crazy and and, and thinking, having that, that community and that resource is why I’m doing this. And so I’m grateful that you’re willing to share and and have you know, be open with everybody else, and it helps all of us. What does it say in the y, 4c, 2t, together, everyone achieves more good. Well, that’s pretty much it. Any other questions before we bounce? That is it? Bryson, you killed it. I am dying. There are lots of people that want to send business to Peoria, and you cover Peoria, which is in the middle of the state, is that right? Yeah, you cover about an hour, an hour perimeter of Peoria, it sounds like even up to Chicago. Do you do any Chicago

Bryson Smith  43:45

business? We’re about an hour and a half, two hours south of Chicago. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing I have really good kW referral partners in Chicago, but we do anything from like Bloomington to Galesburg down to like Springfield.

Daren Phillipy  44:01

Okay, perfect. So if we have listeners in in on this that want to send referrals to you, where do they send their or where do they send that referral? How do they contact you?

Bryson Smith  44:11

Do sold at Bryson Smith team.com,

Daren Phillipy  44:15

b, r, b, r, y, s o n, S O n, y, yep, sold at Bryson Smith team.com is

Bryson Smith  44:25

that right? That hits all the admin, perfect.

Daren Phillipy  44:28

And then we’re in and when we’re in the area, we go over to sugar and get get ourselves a good old fashioned pizza. Is that right?

Bryson Smith  44:34

Yeah, I was thinking, actually, agatucci is valid. That’s, that’s where you want to go. I had to think, think a little bit more on

Daren Phillipy  44:40

that one. Oh, he’s getting a kickback from agatu Cheese. Guys, he heard, they heard this saying, Why didn’t you say anything about this? I’m not, I’m just taking this as personal notes. It doesn’t actually go out to anybody. So anyway, anyway, that’s pretty much it. Guys, thank you so much for being here. Let’s since we have one more minute, you. Um, for those who of you who have attended the only team live event that I did in in February, I’m considering doing another only team live event in in in San Antonio, around Austin, or around the mega camp time who I’m not holding you to it, raise your hand digitally or by hand, if you’d be open to doing it. Just kind of keep it up so I know who would be willing to go. Okay, perfect. All right. It was an awesome event and and I know we had a couple of people drop off or whatever, but I’m, I’m really considering doing it, and I it was I learned so much, and everybody who came had so much, gained so much and stuff. So I’m probably going to end up doing it. So thank you very much for that. Bryson, you’re the man. Tell your little man Hi for us and keep on rocking. We’ll see you guys next week.

Bryson Smith  45:57

All right, see ya.