Okay. Alright. Good morning. Welcome to another Real Estate First Friday. My name is Matthew Hodge, executive vice president here at LBT Realty. I'm joined by Lewis Furman, my co VP. Good morning. We've got some special guests in the house today. So excited to be here with you guys this morning. I should have probably fixed this before we started. We're excited to be here with you guys this morning. We've got some special guests that we talked about over the last couple of days. We've had some of our largest team leaders, here at at HQ, kind of going through masterminds and talking about things that are working in their business, helping each other, you know, overcome obstacles, and really just kinda being in community with each other. And that's been really exciting to watch. We've done this a couple of times in different ways, but this this is a little bit different in the way that we are kinda putting the Ascend University together. So, I'm gonna introduce Shana Moats, who's sitting to our right, and then we're gonna kinda introduce our panel today. Shana Moats, who I always mess her title up, who's VP of operations and implementation. Close. Yes. Yeah. Close. Right? Okay. Yeah. We got there. We're somewhere in the world. So I'll turn it over to you to introduce yourself and then introduce the panel. My name is Shana Moats, and I am incredibly excited to have spent the last two days with all of our team growth plus leaders, masterminding, getting to speak with RP, glean wisdom from him about business, about how we're leading the modern real estate team. And what's been most unique and really fun to watch is the community that has been built over the last two days in this room. And I'm I'm super excited to introduce our panelists today. We have four of our Team Growth Plus team leaders here to share their experience, to talk about masterminding, and what they've experienced over the last two days. So I'll hand it off. Miss Gabby, if you wanna start us. Hi, everyone. My name is Gabby Martinez, and we together with Tony, my husband, we own Xtreme by LPT Realty in Davie, Florida. We joined last year, and we are we could be happier. Awesome. Love it. My name is Larry Fisher with the Military Vet team. We're in, Pinellas County, Florida. We have a hundred and seventy seven agents, and we joined LPT May twenty twenty three. And, we've five x ed our team since joining. Awesome. Wow. It's my turn. I'm, Chris Feimster on the Strata Group here in Orlando, Florida. We have a hundred and seven agents. They're your show off. We've been with LPT for just over two years and have almost tripled our size since we got here. Good morning. My name is Chanel Hart Dupree out of Chapel Hill, North Carolina with Hart and Jehu Real Estate Group. We have fifteen agents and growing every day. Awesome. Awesome. Well, we're gonna have some fun here today on Real Estate First Friday. It's definitely been a very fun twenty four hours. We have another twenty four hours ahead of us of masterminding and working together collectively. It's great to, you know, bring the brokerage and community. I mean, that's one of our commitments that we here at LPT are definitely pouring back to our agents. I mean, we have agents here from Maryland, Vegas, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, South Carolina, North Carolina. We have them all over the state, so it's really cool to bring everybody together collectively here today. And today, we're gonna, you know, collaborate and share some experiences behind Masterminding. That's the topic of today. Right? Absolutely. It sure is. So, you know, we have enjoyed the last twenty four hours together. Many of you didn't know each other before this yet have formed some really solid bonds, gotten some really good advice on your business. What is your, you know, from the last twenty four hours that we can share with our audience? My moment, it's that, first of all, being in a room with so many talented individuals, everybody pursuing the same that I am. And being able to actually learn what they have put in place, they're being very successful for them. So to me, that's very valuable. I was just telling Tony that many times you go to these, you know, panels, places and you people are asked, well, what are your secrets? But they don't reveal their secrets. Mhmm. But I feel like, the community that has been here, these last two couple of days has been amazing. Everybody has been very transparent in sharing wonderful, wonderful tips and different things. Love that. So with, so many amazing leaders and and great minds to come with, collaboration and love, you know, it's important to match your mission with your culture. And I think a lot of us have shared how we match our mission with our culture. And, also, your team must believe in your mission. You know, that in itself is a driving factor for growth and, you know, where you wanna go and see yourself. One of the biggest takeaways, I got it from Paramount Group, Keegan, is, one in five grouping, group coaching. With that, we, we could take top performers, low performers, and coach them in a group of five and share those metrics, you know, the efficiency levels on that. So that was a big takeaway for me. For me, it's less of an more of a reminder. No matter how big, how small, there's always an opportunity to learn. No matter where you are in your journey, there's there's nuggets. You can pick up along the way. It's helpful, and it's refreshing to get in a group like this where everybody is sharing. A big thing for me, kind of piggybacking on that was utilizing more mentorship in my team, getting new agents out of the experience agents, kind of leveraging the resources that we already have. But again, just constant learning, getting around people no matter where you're at. There's always something to learn from somebody, which is a nice reminder. It's it's been really nice last couple days. It's been incredible to be in a room with so many leaders across the country and meet so many amazing faces, and more so it was about what didn't work for them. So it's amazing to hear all the success stories, but more so, wow. Don't try that, Because I tried it and it didn't work for me. And, you know, maybe consider this. Not having to reinvent the wheel over again and over again and over again and be able to take from so many amazing leaders has been phenomenal. Yeah. Okay. I think, you know, one of the really unique things that I've seen is Robert really took the time in the beginning when the first teams were coming into LPT to mentor them, to challenge them, to help them grow their business. And now we're seeing that that pass down to the newer teams that are joining. Right? Keegan, I heard you get many shout outs. Keegan spends so much time with me. It that culture that we're building here is really incredible and something special that we're really lucky to be a part of. Yeah. I mean, that's definitely what it's all about. Right? We're in an entrepreneurship type of business. And in this line of business, you know, we learn from one another. And being committed to continuously being a part of, like, these mastermind groups, we're being able to play be placed in a room where we can share experiences with like minded entrepreneurs in our business. And what we tend to notice as we are inside of these groups is we're gonna have different categories of subject matters. Right? We're gonna have subject matters that, you know, maybe we've already experienced. We've already broken through those glass ceilings, but there's gonna be individuals inside of that room who that's their current experiences. And even though we have broken through it, it gives us an opportunity to sharpen our skills so when it happens again. So when we do experience those issues again, we are in position nicely teed up to be able to handle it when it happens in the future. And there's gonna be current glass ceilings that you're experiencing in your business, which maybe other like minded entrepreneurs inside of that room are experiencing those issues inside of their businesses today, where now you can collaborate together to figure out, well, how can I break through it? How can I go to that next level? And then we have the future issues where you may say, hey. I'm not that size yet. I'm not experiencing these things inside of my business practices today. But guess what? By you talking about it today, when those issues do arise in the future, you are gonna be much more well equipped to be able to handle it in the future. And that's the beauty of being in rooms together like this in mastermind types of groups is you get all aspects of the of the flavor, the past, the current, the future, and you definitely will start positioning yourself to be able to handle these issues as they arise from time to time. Yeah. And it's, that's a good point. And, you know, kinda Robert talks about it all the time and says, hey. The brokerage, like, while there's a responsibility to help you be more successful, ultimately, like, we can't make you more successful. Right? It's the effort that you put in. It's the people that you surround yourself with. It's the consistency that you do something for long periods of time even when things feel kind of bleak. Those are the things that contribute to your success. And so, you know, looking in this world of, like, entrepreneurship, it's really about the people you stand next to. Right? Because I know that there's been days, even in our roles, where we're like, oh my gosh. You know, you feel so overwhelmed. And so having someone who can say, well, hey. When I feel overwhelmed, I do this. Or, hey. What's a good way to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed is x. You know, you you you tackle it from kind of both angles. But to this group, I wanna kinda ask some specific questions. So the market has become obviously very suppressed with transactions. We were at six million transactions, annualized sales, you know, a year or two ago. Since then, we kinda had a steady decline, and we're right around less than four million annualized sales, which means that all of us are doing less deals. Right? Maybe some of us are doing more, but you can say the majority of people are doing less. And we found some people in this group who are doing more transactions. And so I just wanna kinda figure out what's the climate, what's working for you today that maybe wasn't working a little while ago, like what's happening to make you successful today. So I'll turn it to anyone who wants to start. In my case, I love implementing the box with the, door hangers and all the amazing materials as being completely a game change for, for us. You know, in this now age that a lot of agents are just doing basically social media and bombarding the social media with different posts and flyers. Having that in place, truly had changed my my my game because now me and my team, you know, we can actually present, walk into a listing presentation with so many different things material wise that the sellers most of the time are blown away. Yeah. And not just that, it's the quality. You know, hosting open houses and being able to just hand those flyers. I had a situation, on my last open house when the guest has said, oh, I gave it back to you. And I go, no, that's for you to keep. And he was, oh, really? Yes. And he left with that, you know. So that is for me what really, I love, you know, of being and have been increasing my my business. Awesome. The the listings business is is going up, up, up. Awesome. Cool. Oh, there's so much to unpack, you know? You know, just being obsessed, you know, highly obsessed in our business. If you're not measuring it, you can't manage it. And utilizing the tools that LPT has given us to be intentional when we do our open houses to bring those nine critical questions, those active marketing campaigns, to plant those seeds that will come back and just be obsessed in the open house. Again, you throw twenty open house signs out there because when those home sellers come by, they're interviewing you in that neighborhood. So we have really just embraced all of that, and learning from everyone here has just been a, you know, a game changer for us. So I appreciate having this event. Yes. So I think, firstly, it's deciding to do the open houses. So we have an agent on our team who is committed to doing at least twenty five open houses every single quarter. It has brought so much business because in the triangle, we're seeing a huge number of unrepresented buyers who are showing up and running through open houses. So our agents are garnering a massive amount of business that way. So if you're not actually hosting the open house, if you're not utilizing all of the LPT material to ensure that people know that the open house is happening, that's number one. Number two for us is mindset. You know, just turn the noise off. Turn it off, plant the seeds like you were saying, and just keep moving forward. You know, one percent better today than you were yesterday is making a huge difference in our team. So I want to deviate a little bit from the theme here with the open houses and things, for us. You know, I talk about change is inevitable. We either get to make the change or the change is going to happen to us. And so for us, you know, our nurture cycle, we used to a lead would come in and we would close it in sixty seven days. That was last year. This year, it's ninety one days. And so the nurture cycle is longer. So we're more intentional about being on the phones, managing that nurture process. I think, you know, agents get complacent when, you know, it feels like a lead comes in and then a lead close, the lead comes in a lead close, it becomes easy for them, and they forget what it was like when things weren't easy. And so we focus on being more intentional, going deeper, really paying attention to that nurture cycle. You know, we talk about the three stages, if you will, The first thirty days, generally speaking, what they're used to is going on a contract in the first thirty days and closing in the next thirty days, roughly. And so now we're really focused on that next thirty days being a nurtured cycle. They're used to thirty days. They work for thirty days to get a contract, and they kind of forget about the person as it relates to the nurture function of it. For us, it's that next thirty days. If you're spending the first thirty days nurturing somebody and you don't spend the next thirty days nurturing somebody, you're constantly in that first thirty days. You're just working on the hot stuff, working on the hot stuff, and you're not actually getting return on your effort for the first thirty days. You're you're you're basically forgetting that lead. The leads going to somebody else, another team, another agent, and they're closing with someone else, and you're wasting your time. So for us about being more intentional, understanding that change is inevitable. We get to make the change of the change is gonna happen to us. And so we're just going deeper with the leads, being more intentional about nurturing, being on the phones longer, sticking with a customer longer because it's taking longer to sell a home. Yep. That's something that we had talked about where, you know, when, you know, two years ago where you would meet someone and, you know, everyone's trying to buy a house all at the same time, that that nurture period was much shorter. The time you had to spend or build that relationship or provide value to them was much shorter. And now as you're in an environment where maybe someone's waiting for rates to come down or the inventory selection isn't, you know, what it used to be, so it's taking them longer to find it. You have to put yourself in a position where you're adding value for longer or you're, you know, supporting them in a different way. So with that being said, transactions have kinda slowed down and you kind of bring me right to my next question in terms of, like, instead of working with someone for sixty days, you're working with someone for ninety one days. So what does that look like now in comparison to what it looked like then? Like, what is working for that interaction for ninety one days? How do you provide value for ninety one days? Like, what does that look like in comparison to when that that time frame was, compressed? Yeah. So going back to the intentionality piece, you gotta be a better listener. Right? You've got to be more patient. You have to be a better salesperson, you know, a lot of times, at least an organization, I always talk about leaving something for the next call, leaving something and people, if you, you know, if you give everything on the first call, the next call is gonna be like, hey, I'm following up. Hey, I'm checking in. Nobody wants to be followed up with. Nobody wants to be checked in with. Nobody really wants you to ask them how they're doing. They want value. And so we have to focus on is, how do we listen better? How do we make sure we're getting more information from them on that initial call? So that we continue to add value as things goes on, go on and be more creative in the ways that we add value, you know, if you set up an MLS search and, or whatever you use, if it's sending out listings, you're not doing a good job. You got to listen better. You got to be more intentional. You got to call ask questions and just take more time with that person and be more patient. Not rush the process, not understand that it's going to take a longer time. You have to be more intentional on that first call so you can continue to add value as things go along, be more resourceful, add add more resources, and just exercise patience. It's going to happen, but the frustration comes in. Again, if you live in that first thirty day cycle constantly, you're gonna say, oh, I'm doing all the work. I'm I'm super busy, but you're not productive. And we focus on being productive, not on being busy. Yep. Great great answer. Don't let assumption drive your business. Don't assume sellers know what's going on in the market. Don't assume the buyers know what's going on in the market. You know, they're listening to national news. It has to be very specific to your market. So what we're telling our agents and training our agents is to fully understand what's happening. And, you know, you know this. If sellers are reaching out to you for communication, you've already missed the bus. So you just need to be always a step ahead, two steps ahead, three steps ahead, and don't allow that assumption because assumption just drives problems. I can say that in my case, for example, when I'm meeting with a seller, most of the times when there's these high expectations of a high price, I always said, well, this is, like, let's say for example, this is the price of your property. How soon do you wanna sell it? You don't wanna sell it in thirty days, sixty days, one year? So it depends on the price. So to me, it's always being honest with your clients. Sometimes we as agents, we're afraid to tell the truth to the sellers because we say, well, I just want this listing. So I I'll do whatever. So no, it has to be, to me in my case, honestly from the very beginning, telling this is the price of your property if you wanna sell it in sixty days. Now, if you wanna sell it in one year, because that's the price you're telling me, I'm gonna need a longer listing. So we're gonna need, one year listing. And most of the times their faces are like What? One year? Well, that's the price you want. Being honest with your clients. Don't be afraid or tell them rightly on their face, you know, this is the price of your property. Because if you don't do, then they're gonna be, like, six months and not selling and then going listing listing with somebody else. So for me, transparency and honesty all the time. So with a few fewer transactions in the market, you know, the big thing is, pipeline management and following up with value, sort of what FEMSA was saying. The big thing too with that is providing that that value is data. You know, data doesn't lie. And, you know, just like getting listings, you have these sellers that can go online and say, oh, I think my house is worth this. But if you look at the data points of what's trending on pending, closed, and having the backbone to stand up to not waste your time because that's one of the most precious resources that we're never getting back. And if you could support your decision and your, with with the data that's out there in the market, I say protect your time with that. Yep. Great. And, you know, one of the things that, it can be a quick tidbit, and I I used to use this all the time when I had someone who was maybe on an extended search. Right? We all have them on some drip. And to your point, that's not really adding value anymore. Right? Because they can go to Zillow. They can go wherever they want and find that information. There was a period of time where it was harder to come by and that represented more value, but everybody has access to that. So putting someone on that drip is not gonna do that, but maybe checking in every couple of weeks and say, hey. I know that you've been on this search for x period of time. I wanna see if there's anything that's changed in your search. Are you looking for something differently? There's some other houses that I saw that maybe might work for you, but it's not currently your would you like me to adjust it? So I think little things like that to your point, Feemster, of being intentional, figuring out ways to extend the conversation or always have something in the future to talk about versus just being like, hey. I'm following up to see if the houses that I never even looked at, you know, are a fit for you. Like, that doesn't work anymore. And so I think that's a that's a great point. So I wanna go ahead. If you're calling to say, I just wanted to follow-up with you. I think that that's literally the worst thing that you could say. So why are you calling? What is the value that you're going to give them? Hey. I saw this house and I thought of you. Right? There's nothing more valuable than that. Or, hey. There's some news in the area that you're looking at. Did you see that this new restaurant is opening? This new school? Right? How can you position yourself as that local expert because that's will be valuable to them. Yeah. And then and then one thing we keep hearing is, like, this concept of change. Right? Like, we are in an industry that's ever changing. You know, there are new dynamics that exist. Last year, we went through the NAR changes. You know, this year, we're going through t TPA changes. Like, there are things that are always happening inside of our businesses. And one of the things that we have to identify regardless of where you are inside of your real estate journey is, you know, what are you looking to accomplish? You know, are you looking to kinda stabilize, you know, your positioning in the market, or are you looking to grow? And if you are in the camp of, hey. I wanna grow my business and my goal is to ultimately grow, and that's my definition of success, Then one of the things that you need to implement inside of your businesses are things that will allow you to stay nimble because you gotta be able to pivot at any moment in time. Robert just wrapped up here on stage, and he talked about spinning more plates and, you know, different things that he was able to implement inside of his business to be able to spend those more plates to stay nimble and adapt as the environment is ever living and changing. One question I have for the panels is, you know, what's one recommendation that you would give to agents to allow them to spend more plates, to stay nimble inside of their businesses if they are looking to, you know, have that goal of growth inside of real estate? Well, I don't know if this is gonna necessarily be spending more plates. For us, it's for me, it's focused on income producing activities. You know, I try to in our team. I want our agents focused on income producing activities as frequently as possible. Try to take as much off of their plate. That is non income producing. If I was an agent, I would try to produce enough income to have somebody that could take income producing, non income producing activities off of my plate. So I could stay prospecting, you know, being on listing appointments, being in front of buyers and or sellers, and not doing the things that did not generate revenue for me. It's a very, it's a very minimal cost to hire someone to do that stuff as compared to what the return would be if you were actually out in the field doing things. So I wouldn't necessarily say spending more plates for me. It's what's your highest and best use, and then, you know, getting someone else to do the stuff that does not generate revenue. So we've talked a lot about imposter syndrome the last couple days. And so what I would say is just get out of your own head and don't allow that imposter syndrome to drive your decisions and drive your business. That's number one. And number two is exactly what you're saying. Understand what your value is and more so, what are you passionate about in the real estate industry? What do you really wanna hone in on? What is your niche? And just make that your passion. Go all in on that thing and become the very best at what you're doing. And I think it's going to drive activity for you. In my case, I would say just go out, get out. A lot of times we just focus on all the administrative work that we have to do and we're missing out. Just be yourself, be genuine. You know, talk to people, go places. But get involved. Genuine, so talk to other people and network events. You never know where your next deal truly is going to come from. And sometimes we have the tendency to minimize different activities. Like in my case, I become part of the PTO one time for one of my kids many hundred years ago. And I didn't realize much business, you know. But I joined it because I really wanted to get involved with my kid's school. And I needed to know what was going on. And the business just started coming in suddenly. So, that's something that I would recommend, you know, be part of different places. What I would recommend, you know, look at your routine. You know, identify the biggest impact of your effort. Create a regimen. Follow that regimen because hard work works. And if you follow that to a strict discipline, you'll be successful. Says says the military. Yeah. You can tell. Perfect. You know? Perfect. Gabby, I loved what you said. You you said essentially follow your passion into production. And I think whether you are an individual agent or an agent on a team, enabling yourself to go into the PTA, to go into a soccer league, to go into whatever excites you, build community there. And naturally, by showing up in the right way, your business will follow that. So I think that's really important feedback. I saw in the chat someone asked where they could get the LPT shirts. They're they're Team Growth Plus team shirts, so you have to join if you want the t shirt. But for those of us, you know, for our LPT family that maybe can't be here in person, what would y'all recommend for how they can find community of like minded people that they can mastermind with and learn from and grow with? What's your recommendations? Well, you can start with the, LPT Facebook group. Mhmm. I would recommend everybody to plug in. There's a lot of comments and different people sharing, their values. So, I would recommend to start with that. I really, I'm very impressed with this company and how many people share their knowledge. Like, they take their time to teach a class, like Steve teaching, Lofty. It's great. I mean, I really appreciate that. I don't see that's what I love LPT is that I don't see people as selfish. You know, everybody is open to share. So, I would recommend just going into the LPT groups and to the connect. You know, that's what the name is connect. It's it's both ways. You know, plug in and connect. Mhmm. So Yeah. I was gonna say LPT connect. The circles, the streams, if you're looking to join a team, you know, check out LPT, the the message board. That was what I was going with. What can I say? Well, ditto. So that was a short answer. No, what what I would say is, you know, the last company that our team was with was very much siloed. There was not this collaborative environment unless you were in a specific silo, you guys fill in the rest. But I would say reach out, everyone here is very selfless. Everyone here is, you know, ready to help someone. So their answers plus, if there's someone is doing something that you want to do message them on Facebook, you know, reach out to them. I think that that's the most direct thing that you can do is just be honest. Hey, I'm interested in what you've got going on. Would love to to catch up with you. And in my experience, everyone's been very selfless and and open to those conversations. So just don't be soft. Reach out. We have a very collaborative community in the Triangle in North Carolina. And Pamela Tucker, who's here with me, has been hosting a mastermind open to all firms and brokerages for the past four years. And it's been incredible to connect with so many people and just learn from everybody. So I'd say if you do not already have one, if you are not hosting one, create one and just open it up. And because we all can learn from each other. And it's been amazing and we look forward to it. It's every week. Awesome. That's awesome. Alright. We're just about at time. So Yeah. Shana, any final questions that you would like to ask the group? You know, I think that this week has been very powerful for all of us. I'm super excited for future masterminds and opportunities for Team Growth Plus, for LPT Plus, and for all of the events that we're going to have at Ascend University, that we announced. Was that last week? I Listen. I know it's all blending together. It's blending together. I've lost track. Called LPT time. Within two weeks. Within two weeks. Within two weeks. Within two weeks. Yeah. And so, you know, if if you are looking for that community, I think it's an incredible opportunity to come to Ascend University, experience this in person, and connect with other agents across the country to build that community with. Yeah. Definitely. Definitely well said. And that's something that we look forward to doing, into twenty twenty five and beyond. And there's talks about putting additional universities around the country and, you know, some Are we allowed to talk about that? Yeah. I mean, that's not it's not it's just a thought. You know? But thoughts is where it starts and we and we put it into action. But, I mean, that's the that's the goal, right, is to be able to figure out other places for people to connect. And, of course, we have places here and, you know, there's been talks around, let's say, the the conferences and, you know, we've got different options for people to plug in in different ways. You know, people are at different places in their career. People find things differently in terms of value. And so you have to figure out what that is. But at the end of the day, you have to put some step forward. You have to make an investment in yourself at some level. You know, you can pick that what that is for you, but you have to do those things. And if you do that, you will receive something back from it, but it it takes you taking that first step. So, always excited to be in community with you guys here in person, of course, our Zoom family as well too. Looking forward to seeing you guys, of course, soon. So we will go ahead and end it here. I think we are just, yep, at eleven thirty four. So I hope you guys have a blessed and prosperous weekend. We will be back here for motivational Monday, Robert Palmer and I. I think we are traveling directly afterwards, so we're either gonna be in the sprint or maybe we'll be here before we hit a flight. But looking forward to seeing you on motivational Monday where we'll have some additional brokerage updates. Robert's gonna break down what's happening in the market. We had some the FedPals speak this week, and so Robert's gonna be breaking that down in terms of what that could mean for interest rates and kinda some of the soft data that we're seeing in terms of some trajectory there. So looking forward to seeing you guys on this Monday, motivational Monday, and have a blessed and prosperous weekend.