Can you guys hear me okay? There we go. Are we good? You hear us? Thumbs up in the chat if you can hear us okay. I hear you okay. Alright. Fantastic. Luis has gotta test his mic because he just got here, like, twenty seconds ago. It was it was longer than that. No. No. You slid in right now. There there is proof. But, anyways, guys, good morning. Welcome to Real Estate First Friday. My name is Matthew Hodge, executive vice president here at LPT Realty and joined by my co VP, Lewis Furman. And, we have a special guest today. Before I bring her in, want to just kinda level set what we're gonna talk through today. So as you guys know, we have been, you know, speaking with so many team leaders and individual agents and, you know, picking their brains on what they're doing to be successful in this market. And, we've been bringing them on to Real Estate First Friday, and that's been really received really well. We had Pamela Tucker who really kind of kicked it off for us where she talked about her open house method and, the three days of her open house series. And so, she had, like, two hundred and seventy five people come through her open house, and they took up, you know, like, I think they got ten buyers from it, two listings. And so she shared her strategy with us on Real Estate First Friday a couple weeks ago. So if you didn't see it, go back and watch the replay. She came back, I think, two weeks later and talked about her farming strategy, and how she stays visible in a geographical area. So it's they'll pick a neighborhood, and then they'll do these exercises and these tactics to be very visible to that community and hopes to, you know, kinda dominate that that area, and that has worked really well for them. So, today, we're gonna bring on Angie Cole who is from Acol Realty. Her and her team did, I think, three hundred I'm gonna mess this up, but I'm just gonna say right under four hundred houses in twenty twenty four. A hundred and seventy two million in sales. And so massive operation. She's gonna be talking to us today about the systems and processes on how she built that. So whether you're a single agent looking to be more efficient, you're a team leader looking to become more efficient or grow your team, she's she's gonna be able to give you some insights. And so with no further ado, I will bring her up on screen, here in just a second. Hey, Angie. Good morning. How are you? Alright. Good morning. How are you? Oh, fantastic. Fantastic. Thank you so much for for joining us today. We're excited to be with you and kind of learn from you, pick your brain. So, we know that you've, you know, have some content you'll go through. We'll kinda pause and stop you and ask some questions and, really make it interactive. But we're so excited that you are taking the time out of your busy schedule to be with us today and kinda share some of the things that have helped you build your your business. So can you give us a quick rundown of of, you know, your team makeup, you know, how many agents, your volume? Give us a little insight to to your operation. Yeah. You had numbers correct. So last year, we were at three three hundred and eighty eight units, hundred and seventy two million. You know, last year, we were really focused on recruiting, so we are sitting around forty agents. But when you attract to the team and, of course, with a lot of brand new agents, we're still working on getting them up and rolling. So, you know, like a lot of teams, the top probably five percent do about fifty percent of the business, which seems kinda crazy. We have, you know, around seven admin staff. We actually are bringing on two virtual assistant, ISAs on Monday, so super excited about that. So, yeah, great team. Uh-huh. Loving it. Have a team for about eleven years now. Awesome. Awesome. Okay. And so, you've had the team for eleven years. How long have you been in real estate altogether? Yeah. I've had my license for eighteen years. Okay. Fantastic. Alright. And by the way, congratulations on your recent engagement. Congratulations. It looks so cool. You did. And so, we're we're excited for you there. Okay. Well, we're gonna go ahead and dive right in. Louis, any, beginning thoughts for you? Yeah. I mean, beginning thoughts. I mean, I had the honor of meeting Angie almost a little over a year ago. I mean, it was November actually of twenty twenty three. And one of the things that resonated so immediately was, like, her willingness to, like, wanna pour back into her agents and a lot of focus with her infrastructure and the systems and the softwares, etcetera, that she has. So it's exciting to have her here on today to kinda share some of those nuggets. And, you know, as indicated, you know, this is gonna be very relatable whether you're an independent agent, whether you are, you know, a team leader, whether you have a bigger team or small team, it it doesn't matter. You know, there's gonna be nuggets here today that I think will be relatable that you'll be able to immediately apply into your business practices. So very excited to have, Angie on here today to share that wealth of knowledge with all of us. Yeah. Awesome. Alright. With that being said, we'll go ahead and pull up your, slide deck on our end, and we'll let you kind of jump right in. So Davey, if you could pull up slide number one. And, Angie, just let us know when you want us to advance slides since we're, we're gonna be moving it on our end over here. Sure. Sure. So, yeah, first of all, when it comes to systems, systems should start from day one. Right? When you are a solo agent, you know, that is the perfect time to get your systems in place. As soon as you have your very first transaction, you understand kind of the ins and outs of what it looks like to run through from start to finish. So go ahead and start implementing certain systems so then you can just automate. You have the ease. Things are seamless. And then so as you continue to grow your business and units with more clients, maybe you decide to have a team, everything will be in place. So, yeah, we can go ahead and flip on over to the next slide. So I'm just going to quickly run through, and here's really where where I wanna focus. So just process for lead follow ups, CRM, attracting leads, attracting agents, leverage, time blocking, automation, processes, ancillary businesses, and then, also, do you have a playbook in your business? So we can go ahead and go on to the next one. Alright. So first of all, so let's talk around a process for lead follow-up. So, you know, there's all different types of leads. Right? Whether it be someone you meet at an open house, maybe someone you someone you meet at Starbucks, maybe it's a paid lead. No matter what type of lead source we have, we should have the same systems and process in place as far as how often we're following up, how quickly. You know, I am big on how often. First of all, our team, we're hitting them definitely more than once, especially with the Internet based lead. You hit them several times on the same day. Right? It's all about speed to the lead and getting in front of someone. As far as follow-up goes, you should have a call, a text, an email. I personally I love video text. I think that those really just can speak to, a potential client, and they now can be relatable as far as a face with a name. And then y'all got rid of my slides. Luckily I Oh, sorry. I was actually gonna just ask you a quick question about that. We're gonna bring that right back up. Alright. Yeah. So real quick slides. I I know that you said regardless of where you get the lead from, you interact with them pretty much the same way. And I think that there's a lot of people who think like, hey. If I meet someone, you know, in a a Starbucks, I'm going to interact with them this way. If I meet them online, it's this. If it's my sphere, it's this. Are you saying that regardless of how you meet them, whether you know them or not, the interaction is the same? Like, the the follow-up process is is that is treated the same? Yeah. Until you actually make that connection. So until you actually have a connection and you have then a next step in place as far as when the next follow-up will take place, you continuously follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. We always talk about a connection being a two way conversation. So whether it's by, you know, the call, the text, or email, once we've had truly a two way conversation and we have a follow-up to that meeting, yes, there needs to be some automation. You know, there used to be set steps in place as far as the follow-up goes. Yeah. I I love that that you you kind of call that out because I think a common thing that happens is if we kind of know somebody, if it's a referral, if it's we treat them differently. Right? Like, if it's a friend, you're like, I don't have to be quite as professional. I don't have to follow-up. I don't have to set the next meeting. I don't do these things. You give them this watered down version of yourself because they know you. And so we kind of take these shortcuts, I guess you could say. But really, you're missing an opportunity to service, you know, your sphere or someone that you know at the highest level. So I love that you that you called that out. Alright. We'll bring your, you'll bring your screen back up so that, so you can cut it here. You're great. Yeah. And speaking of your sphere, I mean, for us, you know, follow-up should be, I would say, at minimal every single quarter. Right? And when you're following up with them, that I feel like most get very awkward when it comes to their sphere. But with your sphere, you're not asking them if they're looking to make a move. Instead, just use the standardized script like, hey. Do you know of anyone looking to buy, sell, or invest in real estate that I should be in touch with? And stop talking. Don't say if. Say, do you? Wait for them to respond. They might say no and say, well, that's okay. If you hear of anyone, I would love the connection. Please send their info over to me. Would it be okay if I follow-up with you in a couple of months next quarter? You're getting the yes, so then it's not awkward when you ask them for business again. They're expecting it. So, yeah, you know, there's different ways to handle leads. So if you do have a team, will it be by round robin or pawns? At one point, we did the round robin. Okay? What I find there, though, was not every agent's the same. Some are amazing at conversion. Others maybe don't convert as high of a level. Some are wonderful when it comes to, follow-up. Other ones, not so great. So for us, the way that we have found success has been by pawns. And what pawns means, all leads come in. Anyone can have at it, you know, based on, of course, like, level and expertise within the industry. But as soon as they have a two way conversation, they, being the agent, can determine if they wanna put that lead into their bucket. And then, of course, we have expectations of their bucket as well. Always ask your lead what type of preferred method of follow-up do they prefer. Okay? You know, some people prefer a text, but we have to also remember there's others that they enjoy the phone call. So ask how they wanna be communicated with. Also remember that online leads are not a fast game. Okay? They are long term plays. Most buyers start their, you know, home search online a good probably six to twelve months before they're actually ready to do things. And then, actually, it can take a long period to continue to nurture them. So it's all in the follow-up. And then the average conversion rate, I mean, it's kind of sad, but when you're looking at Internet leads, it's low. So it's speed to the lead and constant follow-up. And go on to the next one. So it's it's interesting that you talk about most of the people are starting their journey for six to twelve months beforehand, and then you still got okay. Now we're ready to start the journey, and then there's a period of time after that depending on what the market conditions are. And it's important to understand that because if you approach Internet leads thinking, hey. This is gonna be bottom of the funnel. I'm meeting you today. We're about to have a transaction. Then you're not gonna approach it the right way. Not only are you mentally gonna feel discouraged because that's not gonna be the interactions you're having, if you're planning your finances off of that, that can also create some some issues there as well too. So understanding, you know, that piece and the expectation around the type of lead you're interacting with. Now we know that there are some other leads that will be closer. Right? We we categorize them internally as, like, a, b, and c. Like, c is your furthest out. That's probably your twelve month plus. Your b's are between six to twelve months, and then your a's are pretty much, hey. I'm ready to take action right now. But the majority of the people that we're dealing with are not going to be a's. They're gonna be people who started as your c's who come down to the a's. And so while at some point you're always dealing with the a's because they've been in your pipeline for so long, You're not meeting them at a status. And so there's a lot of people who don't understand that. And because of that, they become discouraged Yeah. And that is that is not the right way to look at the business. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's definitely it's very important to have it organized like that. Not just mentally, but also, like, in your CRM. Like, I love how you gave that example whether it's c, b, or a, whether it's hot, warm, or cold. Like, having it organized in that fashion inside of your CRM is gonna be very important because the reality is your c's are probably gonna be your biggest concentration of of customers, and your a's are gonna be the least. And you're gonna need a lot of automations to be able to speak to those c's because of how big that pool is. So then that way as they're going towards the a level, you are able to pour back differently inside of those individuals relative to what you could be doing from a c perspective. But, yes, to your point, like, identifying whether they're c, b, or a, how we're calling them here is very important, not just for the business flow, but also just for your own mindset because you will feel discouraged. If you get that Internet lead, you get the excitement. You're like, I'm gonna have a closing in thirty days. Like, the reality is, like, that's not the reality. You have to have the systems in play to be able to nurture them adequately, you know, where you are gonna have that longer burn to be able to nurture those clients. And that will, you know, set those expectations just for you just naturally. Right? So that way you are not discouraged. You stay them you keep motivated. You have the proper flows in the systems to speak to the closer people, the later people. You know, that's it it it's very important to have it organized in that fashion. And last kinda thing I'll add there before we kinda turn it back over to Angie is, you know, to your point, the c's, that is where it's gonna be higher level of automation, less personal touch. As they're getting closer to that a, you kind of turn off some of those automations and then then you become more of a personal touch and that kinda defines the workflow in that sense. But if you think about when we were during kind of the hot period, like the COVID period where things were in an Lot of b's and a's. Yeah. A lot of b's and a's. A lot of people who are ready to move right now. As things have, you know, moved out, people don't have become less certain about what's happening in the market, the election, blah blah blah. Like, all these things that aren't necessarily real estate focused, but they have caused people to be less quick in their timing. And so you have to extend that relationship longer. So you have to work with them longer. And so to your point, those c's are gonna be probably your biggest pool while your a's are, yes, those are the transactions I'm doing today, but your concentration is pulling the c's down into the into the phone. And if you go with the same mechanisms from back in, like, twenty twenty two or twenty one when things were hot, you may tell yourself my systems don't work because things are not converting as quickly. It's not that your systems don't work. It's that you had a system that was geared to speak with a's and b's and not c's. Correct. So do you even have a system? Right. You know, that becomes a lot of the question. Yeah. Good point. Alright. Let's turn it back over to Angie. Yeah. Couple one response to that, you know, I think a lot of agents, they feel like when a lead immediately comes into the system, like, those are our hot leads. Those are our now people, and that's actually the completely the wrong set. Those are the people that we need to build the rapport and we need to nurture. It's actually if you kind of go back into your later and older leads, those are the golden nuggets because they've already been online for those nine to twelve months. They're doing their online search and on their own. And when you get in front of them, when you're the first agent in front of them at the right time, now they're ready to connect with you. So, yeah, it's not always the people that come into your, system initially. They're not the now people, typically. Someone asked a question conversion rate on buyer versus sellers. Honestly, what I find with a buyer is getting in front of them at the right time. So for me, as soon as someone even speaks of maybe potentially wanting to purchase a home, I wanna meet with them first because when they're ready to do something, it's going to be the agent they know. The average buyer is not out there interviewing agents. Once in a blue moon, they do, but the average buyer does not interview agents. It's the agent that's in front of them at the right time. Now on the flip side with a seller, as soon as I know that someone is potentially thinking of selling even if they're year or two out, I wanna get in front of them first because most sellers in this day and age, they are interviewing agents. So I wanna get in there first. I wanna build rapport. I wanna get the, you know, agency agreement under play or under wraps. And so, honestly, I handled them both the exact same. I don't focus on, well, they're a year out of two years out. They're not front of them now to build that relationship. And someone also asked about the script where I'm calling Internet leads. So in our CRM, we use Follow-up Boss, which, LPT is wonderful. They give you three options. We use Follow-up Boss. We use certain things. We use lead source and we use tags to focus on our conversation. So for example, if someone comes in through realtor dot com or Zillow, I can say, hey. I see that you just signed up on realtor dot com. That's a trigger that I'm not just a stranger calling them out of nowhere. Yes. They just signed up on realtor dot com, and you inquired about one two three Main Street, or you were browsing for homes in the Raleigh area because I can pull that from my tags. And I'm immediately focusing on, do you wanna go take a look at the home? Okay? I'm getting to it. I'm not asking qualifying questions, okay, because they don't know me. They don't trust me. I just wanna focus on why they signed up initially, and that was to potentially ask questions about that home or to go see it. So I'm going straight to the appointment. So we can go ahead and go on to the next slide. I'm blown up. Yeah. I can work off my sheet. I think we're on the tracking. Okay. Yeah. And and as you're as you're pulling that up, what I'm hearing there also, Angie, is, like, not creating these unnecessary hurdles. Right? Like, oftentimes, we're like, hey. We have this buyer. Like, I'm gonna create so many hurdles before I even get face to face with the customer. I wanna see preapproval letters. I need to go through this entire questionnaire and intake and so forth. What's gonna happen is you're gonna have an agent who's gonna sweep in there, who's gonna make it frictionless, who's gonna make it very simple to interact with that customer, and then they're gonna win the deal. Right? You created too many unnecessary hurdles to gain that face to face, to gain that interaction. You know, at the listing presentation, how do you get in front of that house? How do you start physically now building that relationship with your customer? Because that's gonna be key. You know? And the longer burn client, that's okay because the reality is you're now working with them for a six month period, let's call it. You are their expert for six months. The longer that you are their expert, it becomes very difficult now for another agent to be able to take your business. And that becomes the biggest risk. Right? The longer away the client is from transacting on a property, if you are not their expert continuously during that period of time, you risk somebody else sweeping in when the time is hot and when the iron is hot. And that's what you need to prevent. Right? You had the opportunity of getting there first. You had the opportunity of interacting when they first had that seed planted of transacting inside of real estate. Don't drop the ball at the finish line and fumble it at the one yard line, line, you know, because we didn't do what we needed to do during that period of time. Yep. And that's, it's interesting that you kinda talk about that way because that was something that we preached in the very beginning a lot. Like, hey, guys. Listen. If you are so busy that you can't meet with people, I get it. Maybe you're gonna put some barrier there that says, hey. Let me make sure that you're qualified before I take the time to go meet with you. Not preferred, but let's just say that's that was a real constraint for you. But if you're not busy, you absolutely wanna take that opportunity to say, yeah. Sure. I don't care whether you're qualified or not today or whether you like, that that doesn't matter. What I wanna do is get face to face with you and start building that relationship so that when we finally discover what you are qualified for or when you're ready to purchase, you like you said, you've got that leg ahead against someone who's not met them. They they don't wanna restart that process again. Right? If you meet them there, start building relationship, and start bringing value to their to their process, they are going to the likelihood of them sticking with you is going to be higher. It sounds so simple, but the reality is what you have to fight is like, oh my goodness. Am I gonna go show this person a property who does not even qualify or who's just, you know, kicking tires or whatever? And that becomes that trade off, but you have to get through that process because we know that gives you the best chance of converting that. I think think about it this way. Right? Like, if a closing usually is thirty days in a due diligent period from contract execution to close and you're working with a client for six months, you are, like, legitimately a resource for a client longer than you are. You know, what we oftentimes think of as being a realtor, which is being under contract and negotiating inspection issues. Like, that bulk of the race, it's much greater than the consolidated period of time that exists once you're under contract. That's a good way to think about it. Alright. Let's turn it back over to Hinge. I know we're kind of, like, jumping all over the place with you, but back to the, the tire picker comment because someone actually stated that in the, the message group as well. Guys, no one is just looking. Just looking is an objection. Same thing as, oh, I'm already working with an agent. That's an objection. Okay? Because they don't wanna be bothered. They don't need your help. Okay? So no one is just looking. I don't go to the car lot to just look. I don't go into the mall to just look and take laps. Right? I'm going because I need to buy something, but I quickly tell the representative on the other side, oh, I'm just looking because I wanna do it on my own. So my common response to that when someone you call them, hey. I see you part about one two three Main Street. Do you wanna take a look? Oh, no. No. I'm just looking. Oh, that's wonderful. You're just looking. What areas you're just looking in? You just keep asking the questions because they're not just looking. They just don't feel like they need your help. Okay? That's right. So, yeah, so moving on to the next slide was all about just a CRM. Okay? And so with your CRM so we made this massive mistake. In the beginning, we were working off an Excel spreadsheet, trying to keep track of everyone. When did I last follow-up with you? There was no automation behind it. It doesn't matter if you're a solo agent. You just, you know, got started. Get a CRM. Okay? LPT, they have lofty, kvCORE, follow-up boss. Figure out which one you like. So a CRM, of course, is where all your leads should go in, whether they're automated leads flowing into the system, you meet someone at Starbucks, your sphere, all leads go into the system. Make sure that every single lead is set up on some type of action plan or drip campaigns. Most of these CRMs already have so many action plans built out. Of course, you can edit them, create your own, but, like, don't overthink it. But the whole point of an action plan is when you forget to follow-up, the system is doing it for you. Always set a future task. And when I say a future task, future task should only be set for those contacts that you've already had a connection with. Okay? The worst mistake you can make is setting a future task for a lead you never spoke with because all of a sudden you have a gazillion follow-up tasks and you're not focused on those that should be the priority. Okay? So we always say if they're sitting in kind of our prospect stage, every single prospect must have a follow-up task so you know when to contact them next because everyone's on different timelines. Make sure, of course, you record all notes. Notes are super important just for building rapport. Hey. They have a dog named Max. Next time, hey. How how's Max doing? Make sure, of course, all third party websites are syncing into your CRM. So your website, if you buy leads, make sure, of course, you're using your tags stages appropriately like you you guys were mentioning. We love the dialer. We actually require that anytime that one of our agents is lead generating, they are required to dial through the system. Because it's recorded, we can hear it. We can use that for training purposes. I don't know about you guys, but I hate when I listen to myself when I leave a voice mail how awful I sound. Well, if I feel like I sound awful, how does the other person on the other end feel like I sound? Right? So listening back to yourself and, like, hey. Or you got stuck maybe on an objection. Listen back to it. Write down how could I have overcome that objection and then practice that script. So recording yourself is an amazing thing to do. I even, I always tell, like, our listing agents or even, you know, buyer agents, when you go out on a presentation, take a little recorder and put in your pocket, record yourself, and listen back to it. Like, how did that sound? Was there parts of the presentation you could tweak? Did I say a lot? I'm speaking I I'm a fast talker anyways, but I'm speaking really fast. I'm gonna go quick through this. But, like, do I need to slow down to record yourself? Make sure we are lead source. By the way, you're digging deeper. You know, initially, someone could have said or came into the system because, they found you on the website, but ask, hey. How did you get to our website? Oh, I heard you on your radio show. And that's important to know where your leads are coming from. So if you do wanna spend money on leads, you know where to pour into that more. And then, of course, just track your conversion rates. You know, we track a conversion or a conversation anytime you've been on the phone for two plus minutes. That means you probably had more of an in-depth conversation. Anything less than that, hey. We need to work on our scripting on how we can keep someone on the phone a little bit longer. Yeah. I I love that. And, again, you're hearing all these different layers of how she's looking at the business and what she's using as success. Hey. We know that when someone's on the phone for two minutes or longer, they're likely having a a deeper conversation that's excellent. So we are gonna measure it this way. If someone's not getting that consistently, it means that their starter, their engagement point, like, that's probably what needs to work. You understand what part is broken when you've got this system built out. And now you're not gonna get all this in day number one. Right? But this is to give you some insights. Maybe you've got some of this built. Maybe you don't have any of it. But it gives you some insights of what you need to be striving for if that's how you wanna run your business. But again, the there's some universal things there that are never gonna change. One, you've gotta you gotta track your numbers. Right? You're never gonna grow at a consistent level or have a big business without tracking your numbers. Two, you are not going to be able to understand what to improve on if you don't have a process. Hey. I seem to do really well when I get in front of someone but I never really I have struggles getting someone to meet me in person. Okay. Now I know what part I need to work on. You know? So it's like without a process, you don't know which pieces to attack. And, and then lastly, you know, the concept of saying, hey. Look. When we are going to put someone inside of our CRM, we're gonna tag key information so that we understand touch points. Like, hey. I get it. You're looking in Raleigh. You came from this lead source, and you are looking at houses that are three two. I'm gonna pull that data and and shape the conversation when I reach out to you so that you know that, again, there's some familiarity when we're speaking. Hey, Louis. I saw that you just signed up on zillow dot com, you know, and you were looking at Estates of Ocayba. I'm happy to show you this area. I've seen, you know, many houses or sold many houses in this area. Would love to see, you know, which house you're interested in or whatever that looks like. But the point is you connect with them on what they are connecting you with, and that helps build that relationship. I mean, your your CRM is there to help you be more efficient through organization, but the CRM does not work if you are not organized inside of the CRM. Like, you have to have the organizational flow happening from both aspects of it. And one one thing that Angie pointed out that, you know, I would highly recommend to implement immediately if you don't have it implemented is this whole concept of having a task for, you know, types of clients always living there and having some follow-up task always. You know, follow-up boss does a great job where they have, like, a task report where if you have your CRM organized appropriately, you can literally wake up in the morning and see all of your tasks for your day for all of your customers that, you know, have a task happening that day. Right. You know? And I know when we ran our team, we made it a point that, you know, every client that was in within a category carry that follow-up task. Mhmm. And it just organized yourself so well where you wake up, you're having your cup of coffee, you're going through your correspondences. That's one more to do for mission critical for that day is getting through that task list and making sure you clear the task, you add a task. Right? And you never have a task nonexistent because the CRM is keeping you organized and structured to maintain those efficiencies in play. Yeah. That's right. Awesome. Okay. We'll move on to the next slide. Yeah. So let's talk about attracting leads. So make sure you're tracking your return on investment. I know, for example, one year I was killing it with realtor dot com. We were hugely profitable. And then we watched in the next year, oh, wait a minute. We just went in the negative. So at different stages, different market shifts, and, you know, as things pivot, different lead source might work one year and then they don't work the next. So make sure you track those continuously. Don't spend money unless you have money to test. And I say that truly, like so my business, a hundred percent, was started on relationships I built just out and about and then also on social media without spending a dime. But when you have the money to spend, you can invest it back in the business, but expect for it not to work. Example, one time we decided to advertise with our local, like, baseball team here. Twenty k later, I don't have one lead to track back from it. Okay? But we had the money to test. We had high hopes it would work, but I wasn't disappointed when it didn't. Right? Also, when you are testing a lead source, make sure you give it at least six months. You're not going to see immediate return on it. So you need to give it time to see if it actually works. And I would say after six months, if you're not seeing some type of, you know, lead, leads flowing into the system from that lead source, okay, maybe turn it off, move on to something else. Also, we make sure that we, track our lead cost. And as far as, you know, where we're seeing the return oh, wait. Let me come back. I'm sorry. Better relationships to assist with lead cost. Oh, that's what I'm going. So ask your vendors, your lenders. I know that's always one we all know about. How about your attorney? How about your inspector? Like, how much business are you giving them? So we track exactly how much business we send to our lenders, our attorneys, our inspectors. So then every single year, we can go back to them and say, hey. We give you a lot of business. We love this partnership. Can you help us out as well? Because if you're helping us, then it's more business to you. So make sure you're tracking that. Free resources. You do not need to spend money to make money. So there's networking events, referrals from agents, social media, open houses. I in my past, I killed it on open houses. Door knocking expires for sale by owner. So don't feel like you have to spend to get leads either. Alright. I like that. That was my that was always my approach. Hey. I don't I I don't wanna spend any money. We started off through with open houses. And when that when we maximize that opportunity to its fullest, then we started doing some additional things, and that is that is sweat equity at its finest. I will doorknob. I will do whatever it takes to not spend any money until I've got the money to spend. I love that you you approach it that way. And I think there's so many people who are like, oh, I don't wanna do this because it's not you're like, um-mm. Nope. That's not my that's not my rhythm. I don't. Yeah. And and then also that givers game mentality. Right? Where it's like you're not just building relationship expecting to receive. Like, you are also providing as well, which is so important. Like, how can I, you know, positively impact the lives of those who are positively impacting my life? That's right. And that givers gain mentality is something that's so important. Oftentimes, it's like, I wanna build these relationships because it's a one way street, and you kinda lose sight of that. Right? And sometimes we need to take a moment to, like, recalibrate that a little bit. Yeah. You know? How could I positively impact someone else because they're positively impacting me? That's right. That's right. Okay. Let's, let's keep it moving. Yeah. And remember, guys, real estate professionals, we are salespeople as well. Okay? You gotta build the rapport, but we are still salespeople, and you need to put yourself out there. You have to go after the business that's not going to come to you. Okay? Just because you have your real estate license, people are not going to flock to you or everyone would be doing it. So put yourself out there. Go doorknob. Call the expireds. Like, it shouldn't be easy. Right? If it was, again, we'd all be doing it. So if you get to a point that you are feeling busy in your business, then I would say, typically, I would say most could probably handle maybe around twenty five to thirty contracts on their own for the year before it's time to kinda talk about leverage. Leverage can mean hiring, like, admin staff. Leverage can also mean hiring and attracting agents. So if you're at the place that you're attracting agents, you have to remember that the attrition rate is super high right now. Okay? Because we are in a difficult market. And so just as quickly as an agent comes into real estate, they are getting out. The numbers are I mean, the numbers are clear. So seventy five percent of agents fail in the first year. Okay? This is this just came out, and they are, in February twenty twenty four. And then within the first five years, eighty seven percent of all agents fail. And I say those numbers to say that if you hire one agent to your team, more than likely, that agent is not even gonna make it in the business. So how many agents do you need to attract for just even one to stick? Okay? Also, on average, agents stay with the team about two to three years. Now I have agents that have been on my team for over ten years. But also, on average, how long do they stay with the team is two to three. So as much as you give back to them, y'all have an amazing relationship, let's be real. They might leave your team. Okay? From day one, when I'm sitting across from a brand new agent that's about to join our team, not brand new, even the seasoned agent, about to join my team, I already have the mentality. Hey. We might have a partnership for about two to three years, and they might be gone. So you have to always be thinking about replenishing and attracting more agents. Also, goals change. Right? I can't place my goals on someone else. Everyone has their own individual goals. We have an agent on our team, for example, who, at one point, she was selling fifty homes a year. Now we'll be lucky if she sells ten homes a year. And that's okay. It's just her personal life change. She doesn't care to do fifty homes, you know, anymore. So how do I fix that problem? I need to hire more agents to replace, you know, the gap between the ten and the fifty. Number one thing always say was culture fit. So when you're attracting agents, though, you need to make sure that they, number one, fit with the team. Before, I've had to part ways with our number one producer because they were drama. And it's like, if you don't get rid of that bad person, everyone else is going to leave. And ways to attract agents, you can host seminars, masterminds, always be willing to share. I'm always an open book to any and every agent, and I'm a giver. But I also look at it, hey. If I'm openly, like, willing to give, maybe one day they say, you know what? I don't want being solo anymore. Let me join forces with you. So great ways to attract agents. Yeah. Awesome. I like that. And I I to your point, around the attrition in the in the, marketplace, or I guess you could say in the industry, if you are in your second year, give yourself around five. Be a high five because You broke the stat. You've broken the stat, man. Because, you know, it says seventy five percent of the, you know, of of everyone fails in the first year and then eighty seven within five years. But what they don't tell you is it's the eighty seven left of the of the original, I guess, twenty five who make it. It's not like a it's not the same number. It's like, hey. Okay. So seventy five percent of the people gone. There's twenty five percent left. And then out of that twenty five percent, eighty seven percent of those people are gone within five years. So it's a really small number that makes it in the industry, and we talk about this all the time. The reason why is because there's not like a, hey. Just do this and you'll be successful. Right? It's no playbook like that that really exists as an entrepreneur inside of a real estate. You can go at it so many different ways. There's so many different things you can specialize in. You can run different types of businesses. And so because of that flexibility, it also makes the path to success very unclear. Right? Because what should you do? So many people are successful in different ways. What is my version of success and how do I achieve it? And so, you know, again, I I just applaud everyone who's particularly still growing in this market and, you know, encouraged to go forward in this market because it is a difficult market. It is a a quite a bit of contrast of what we've seen over previous years when, you know, the market was moving much quicker and transactions were at six million versus, you know, fifty percent almost of that down now. We're we're barely gonna hit four million this year. Where have those transactions gone? Right? That's coming out of somebody's pocket. And so we understand that that's a dynamic. So, really appreciate you taking the time to walk us through a lot of those pieces, Angie. We're gonna we have to come back to you. So we are just about at time right now. So we'll we'll turn it over to you for final thoughts, and then we'll then we'll wrap up. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I won't, go through, you know, more of the slides. I mean, I think the biggest thing is think about leverage. Where can yourself where where can what do you do in your business that way you can focus on the top twenty percent and what can be leveraged out as simple as maybe you need an assistant, a sign installation company joining under a major or larger umbrella. That's why we joined LPT. It was one of the big reasons. We were an independent company, and we said, hey. By joining under LPT, we no longer have to deal with our compliance. We no longer have to write the checks. We no longer have to be the broker in charge. So where can you leverage in your business is hugely important to continue to grow and to see success. Awesome. Awesome. Well, we appreciate your time. I know we had a few slides that we left behind. So we're gonna have to have her come back on and walk us through the second half of that. But really valuable, we hope that you guys appreciate this. And, again, whether you're a solo agent or you're a team leader, there's so many different nuggets that you can pull from this that will help you improve your business from looking at your own skill set and understanding how to measure it. Hey. Where am I falling short and what do I need to improve on? Hey. Here do I how here's how I interact with, you know, everyone that's interacting with me whether it's someone that I am familiar with or someone who's a brand new cold lead off of the Internet. Like, let's figure out what that process looks like. And then lastly, let's set some realistic expectations on how long I should be working towards something before I say it's not working and I'm gonna go somewhere else. Right? Because again, if you spend money with the expectation that you're gonna have it back in thirty days, you're likely gonna run out of money. Right? But if you put it in the place where it's like, hey. I get it. I'm probably not gonna receive a return for six months or I'm not even gonna know if it works for six months. You're gonna, you know, approach it a lot differently, and you're only gonna spend the money that you can risk in that sense. Yeah. I mean, yeah, no matter whether you're an independent agent or a team leader, the reality is we are all entrepreneurs. Right? And in real estate, we are entrepreneurs. This is an entrepreneur based business which carries its own challenges. You know, as Angie mentioned, you know, a lot of the fallout probably happens because a lot of agents expect to get the real estate licenses, and then it's magnetic marketing. Right? Everyone's just gonna call you because you got a real estate license, or you're gonna go out there and apply for a job because now you have this newly earned license. You know, that's not the case. You know, we have to be self motivated. We have to be inspired. We have to have, you know, the organizational track to go out there, create business, to be a salesperson. There's a lot of hats that we wear inside of real estate. But what I could say is everyone who is plugged in, everyone who joins us on motivational Monday or real estate first Friday, like, we are doing the right thing. You know, we are already the anomaly. We are pouring back into our businesses. We are acquiring nuggets. We are sharpening our skills no matter where you are in your arc. You know, whether this is, you know, something you could apply today or whether it's something that, you know, you're aspiring to, you know, achieve or your blue whiteboarding right now to ultimately achieve. You know, you guys are doing the right thing by pouring back. And even though the market's tough, even though the industry is tough, when it clicks over, all of the hard work you do today will be there at that time when it does click over. So we're excited to see all that happen, and I'm I'm happy to have each and every one of you guys on here every single week. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Alright. Well, Angie, thank you so much for your time. Looking forward to having you back on Real Estate First Friday. Hope you guys enjoy that. Make sure you tune in on this Motivational Monday. We're gonna be going through the marathon that we talked about, last week. We mentioned that there's gonna be a two week marathon coming up in the month of April where we are gonna be going through tools and systems to help you kind of navigate the busiest time for your tradition in real estate. And while we know it's still a tough market, we wanna be able to empower you with the tools. And so we're gonna be doing a two week marathon starting April fourteenth. So you'll find out additional details on that on this motivational Monday. So we look forward to seeing you guys there. So have a blessed and prosperous weekend, and we will see you then. Yep.