Accountability in Action: How to Drive Team Performance with Dustin Runyon

[00:00:00] Dustin: Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do inside your organization is let go of the people who resist the very thing you are. or who you've decided you're going to be as a, organization. So in my opinion, for me, I would say no worries. , if you want to not follow these things, you don't want to be what we're about. You don't want to be what our values are. No worries. You're just not a fit for us. Like if you're not into personal development, if that's my new standard, is that the core value of mine?

[00:00:28] Dustin: Personal development. And that's not something you're super into. No worries. It's who we're going to be from here on out.

[00:00:40] Nick: Welcome back to the reside platform podcast. I'm your host and co founder of the reside platform. This is Nick McLean. And I'm here with a special guest second time on the podcast. If, unless I'm wrong, Dustin, and you were with Suneet at one point, but this is second time is Dustin running. He's the owner and team leader of Apex Real Estate Real Estate in Lake Havasu.

[00:01:03] Nick: They're. Absolutely crushing it. He's also a coach for those looking to grow and build their teams and their businesses. Dustin, welcome back to the platform.

[00:01:14] Dustin: Thanks for having me, brother. I'm excited to hop on here. I know we wanted to talk about teams today

[00:01:19] Nick: of course.

[00:01:21] Dustin: and, I have this question for you because, over the past five years we do discovery calls, right? With our clients that, that, that are seeing if we're a fit for coaching. And, this is one that I get a lot, , and I wanted to get your take on it, which was.

[00:01:34] Dustin: I have someone who wants to start a team. They have an admin or a buyer's agent, and they're wanting to grow their team. Well, they have a few agents, but not a big team yet. And this is what they tell me they get on. They go, Dustin, I want to grow this big team while I grow this big team. I want to have more time off.

[00:01:49] Dustin: I want to travel more and I just want to have more time to do the things that I want to do.

[00:01:55] Nick: Right.

[00:01:56] Dustin: I want to get your take on that. What is your answer to something like that? Or what is your response to, to a statement like that?

[00:02:06] Nick: That's a tough one because it's a trap. I mean, it's an absolute trap as a, as a consultant when I put on my consulting hat, because it's like, and it's a worthy goal, but is it obtainable? And if you did, achieve it, are you sure that's what you really want? And that's not my answer to them, but it's like, what is happening in your life right now in your business right now that is making you desire to not have any responsibility or not be involved in your business, right?

[00:02:43] Nick: Like, why would you want to work so hard or build this thing? So you don't have the time and energy and enjoyment of the thing. And what I find Dustin and my take on this is they're caught in the moment of they can't get their agents to make phone calls. Their agents are leaving them. They feel stretched.

[00:03:06] Nick: They're overwhelmed.they're making sales, but there's no profitability. It's something in there that's causing them to want to like, want this like big team that runs itself. And they can go to Cabo San Lucas and sit on the beach.

[00:03:22] Dustin: Yeah,

[00:03:22] Nick: I mean, what's your take on that? I mean, because I know the answer is we can talk about reality after this, right?

[00:03:29] Nick: But what's your take on it?

[00:03:30] Dustin: yeah, I think reasons matter a lot. And so that's what I was going to ask you next was like. When someone says they want to start a large organization, they want to build a team. I always ask, what are your reasons? What's the reason why you want to start a team? And if it's for more time, I don't find that to be the best reason, especially, just starting out.

[00:03:51] Dustin: what have you found are the best reasons to start a team?

[00:03:55] Nick: That's right. That's right. I think you're nailing something, Dustin. The reason to start a team, if it's to not Not be responsible for the team or not work within the team. You will fail 100 percent of the time,

[00:04:10] Dustin: Ding.

[00:04:10] Nick: or you build a big team and you're like, where's the money? This isn't what I thought. But so for me, and I want to get your take on the reasons to build a team.

[00:04:20] Nick: I love, I love. Being part of a team. I enjoy it. I get energy being around other people. I love leadership. I want to be a leader. I want to be a better leader. it's a journey that I think I will never achieve mastery. And I, I'm up for the challenge,and I just, so I'm a, I played sports.

[00:04:44] Nick: I was a firefighter, 20 man crew. I was an airline pilot. I like the, Camaraderie of it. I like the camaraderie of it. I don't want to be around people that are weak. I want to build strong people. So those are the reasons I do it.I could do less transactions and make a higher profit margin, but I'm willing to risk that to have other people come along with me.

[00:05:08] Nick: And it's not cliche. I just think that I can do it. what about you? I mean, what are your reasons to having a team? Right?

[00:05:17] Dustin: that shouldn't start a team. Right. Like I really, I really, those that really truly want to lead those that truly want to help people grow those who truly want to grow themselves personally, it really is in there. Like, I love seeing people win. I love winning myself.

[00:05:37] Dustin: Part of a group where people are winning. I'm very similar to you. And I find that often when I ask those reasons is they're similar to yours. the only one that I would add to that is my minor identical to yours. The only thing I would add to that would be like, There's so much stuff that I don't like doing that.

[00:05:55] Dustin: I wanted to build a business big enough to where I could only do the stuff that I really love doing and, or that I was good at.

[00:06:02] Nick: Hmm.

[00:06:03] Dustin: So I wanted to build it big enough to where I can hire out people that were better than me at these things that I didn't overtly like doing so that I could do the thing that I was really good at, that I loved, which was coaching and leadership.

[00:06:18] Nick: Yeah, that was true. Okay. Yeah. It does. You're right. I left that out.when I got into real estate, it didn't matter that we were selling real estate. It just mattered that I was building a business. That's what I really wanted to do. I really wanted to build a business.

[00:06:35] Nick: It just happened to be real estate. And because I approached it as a business, I looked at other businesses. Well, what do other businesses have, right? Well, they have sales and marketing. They have administration. They have back end support. They have employees. They have a handbook. They have policies and procedures.

[00:06:56] Nick: And the ultimate goal of a business is to make money. it wasn't to sell a thousand homes or, be the biggest team and, have a four hour work week like Tim Ferriss and even hit, even Tim Ferriss would admit the four hour work week. It's a great title, but it's not what he actually.

[00:07:15] Nick: Got out of his life with his podcast and all of his businesses. I think me running a team, building a team was just building a business and all so that I could, do the things within business I like to do and also do things in business. Other people don't want to do, and they're going to join me because I'm doing that.

[00:07:35] Nick: I don't know. I talk to people all the time. I was talking to a guy the other day about partnering. Cause we, top partnering about building. We were talking about building Dustin, right? And if you don't know this Dustin, and he could tell you about it, he does building as well. And the builder is an amazing builder.

[00:07:52] Nick: He's a great technician. He is like a master carpenter. He can build a house from ground up. Beautiful. , from the foundation to the dirt work all the way to the finished work. But you know, he said, I don't like business. I don't like the back end. I don't understand regulations. I don't understand tax codes.

[00:08:10] Nick: I don't understand accounting. I don't understand finance. I don't understand all these things. And he said, wow, that's what I like. Well, I don't know if I like it, but I'm good at it. So that's the opportunity. The opportunity is you have skills that have taken 24 years of dedication to your craft to acquire.

[00:08:30] Nick: I can acquire those skills, but I've acquired the language and the art and the science of business that I can apply to anything. And to me, that's exciting, Dustin, like that's where the opportunity is. And if I'm stuck showing buyers homes or if I'm stuck list going to listing appointments, I can't have those conversations.

[00:08:48] Nick: So building a team allows me to have those conversations because I built a business that happens to be a team. What are your takes on that? I mean, that was very, I had to reflect on my journey to get there,

[00:09:01] Dustin: Yeah. No,

[00:09:02] Nick: it wasn't to do nothing. It wasn't to do nothing.

[00:09:06] Dustin: yeah. And those are the people that I find fail the most. If you want to build a team so you can do less and do nothing that, that type of personality trait and or entering into it and starting out into this growth as that , I just don't see that working out very much. because there's going to be sacrifice that comes, you're going to probably have to double down, you're going to probably have to spend more time than you spent in the past.

[00:09:28] Dustin: You're going to have to do some things differently, so you're going to have to sacrifice some, some comfort and sacrifice some certainty that you have in your current business. So, I, there's this old saying, and I didn't really understand this till a few years ago, which is you can have it all. You just can't have it all right now.and when I was younger in my twenties, I, I'd make a, I'd make a couple hundred thousand dollars and I'd try to live like, like people that have had millions for, for decades, cause I wanted it all right now, or, sometimes, you want to go on heavy growth mode,well, at that time, you can't have freedom and massive growth.

[00:10:05] Dustin: Sometimes, there's seasons that you have to have. So, but I did want to ask you, you brought up something that was really good where, and we've talked about this in the past with, with, with our coaching, because you work with our team, which is, a lot of teams that we're seeing that are struggling with profitability.

[00:10:21] Nick: They,

[00:10:22] Dustin: organizations doing, anywhere from 50 million to half a billion in sales, and they're struggling with profitability from the teams that you work with and that you consult with or have seen in the past, through your, coaching, what do you see the reason as to why you see so many teams struggle with that?

[00:10:38] Nick: Black control. I think they lack control or they've they don't understand in business. There's the owner of the business. There's the person that maybe finances the business. There's the person that makes the decisions on a day to day basis. There's the person that makes the decisions on the for the strategy and the vision of the company.

[00:11:02] Nick: and then there's the person that ultimately has the control who has the control. And so I don't, I, let me explain this first to get, I was working with a team today \ and I was looking at their P& L, they had a fantastic month, Dustin, I'm talking for most people, 260, 000 in gross income, right? You would think on the surface, 260, 000 in gross income, there's a lot to go around. And you look and the net profit was 6, 000. So how do you start with 260, 000 ended up a six? Well, we got to dive. We got to look into the expenses and the F I D I didn't get past line. Number one expense, number one, and it started asking questions about it.

[00:11:53] Dustin: Yeah.

[00:11:53] Nick: in, in inspecting it, and it was, administration expense.

[00:11:58] Nick: For transactions, it's like 10, 000. I said, what is this? She's like, well, it's a transaction management fee. I go, , is that a salary? Is that an employee? Cause it's not under, it's not under the payroll section. It's under the expense section. So he goes, no, no, no. I, so, so is that a third party?

[00:12:19] Nick: And she's like, yeah, I pay 500 per transaction and then I pay 1, 000 for every listing. So I said, you're outsourcing it. She says, yes. I go, what's going to happen to that expense? If you double your sales, double your listings. And she was like, Oh, crap, it will double. I was like, interesting.

[00:12:42] Nick: So how are you going to become more profitable if as you grow your variable expenses increase, that's hard to do. You need to get in control of your listing process and your transaction process, which means you're going to have to bring it in house. Which means you're going to have to hire an employee and train them and give them procedures and systems.

[00:13:06] Nick: So that's my long winded answer, Dustin. It's like control, right?

[00:13:11] Dustin: don't you bring it up? One of the greatest things you did was you have a photographer on staff. Cause you figured out how much you were spending on photography, which if you're not conscious of it and in control of it, it gets out of hand pretty quick. Yeah.

[00:13:25] Nick: like, something like that because it's a variable expense, right? It's like, you don't have to pay it unless you actually earn money. And I think what I think real estate agents run into this trap of like, I don't get paid unless it closes. So that's just hire everyone else based on contingency they lose the efficiency. Right? Because they don't. Yeah. If they become, if you take the expense up front and you can make the process efficient and optimize it, you're going to make the margin. That's where profitability comes from. Right? Does that make sense? I know you kind of think this way in general, because working with Dustin and being around Dustin, he's like, I mean, you know what's going on in your business.

[00:14:08] Nick: You have a pulse

[00:14:10] Dustin: Yeah. And it's cause I have it in the past before I found this working at, the last, organization I worked at, leaders tried to purchase retention. And what I mean by that is like poor leaders try to throw money. To try to keep agents what you'll find is great leaders, great leaders, just lead.

[00:14:30] Dustin: They create great environments. They have great systems. There's a level of implied accountability because the way that leader leads their own personal and private life, they, and how they decide to, live with aligned,live aligned with their own personal values and the team's values. But weak leaders tend to like throw money at problems.

[00:14:50] Nick: And throw money at retention as trying to keep agents and throw money at widgets and gears and things that, I mean, I don't even know half of the things that, you know, that if I look, I've looked at a certain P and L, I don't even know what half the stuff even means, that can happen when you start , shooting at the wrong target. and that's more units, more sales volume. It's a great metric, more units, more sales volume, great metric to go after. In fact, if you want to, if you want to grow your team, you need to grow your sales. Start there.

[00:15:20] Nick: You got it. You got to make sales and the, but once you're making, sales, you really need to dive into the sale. And the components of the sale and I mean, really break down every single component and , find the efficiency, optimize it, remove unnecessary steps, go to your person on an individual level and improve their skills and understandings, right?

[00:15:45] Nick: Because people talk about conversion rate. What's your conversion rate? Well, that's a terrible, it's like, that's a terrible question. It's like, what's, what's Dustin's conversion rate on my team is a better question. So I can go into your roster and go, yeah, Cody on your team has a different conversion rate with the, the sign writer texting leads then say, Sarah, that just joined your team. But what's Sarah going to be like in a year? If you give her some attention and some feedback, right?

[00:16:17] Dustin: one thing. Yeah, that's one thing you really helped me focus on was like, okay, what can we delete from the transaction? What can we remove from this transaction? That's costing it money

[00:16:27] Nick: Mm

[00:16:28] Dustin: And another thing you gave me, this is what I loved. And this is what we've been really focused on is you said, where can we improve the revenue within the company without having to do more deals?

[00:16:39] Dustin: I wouldn't

[00:16:40] Nick: right,

[00:16:41] Dustin: my mind. Mm hmm.

[00:16:44] Nick: I'll give you an example, and you shouldn't talk about commissions, but let's say, let's say you get two and half percent commission on average, but you are able to get 3%, that would be an 18 percent increase in revenue, 18 percent increase in revenue. Is it, is it easier to do that or to go increase sales by 18 percent when interest rates are going up and inventories going down prior to an election in an election year? I don't know. Unless you're Dustin in Lake Tavasu

[00:17:24] Dustin: Ideally you would work on both, right? Like I know when we,

[00:17:29] Nick: if you could do both. Wow.

[00:17:32] Dustin: wow, but focusing on increasing, cause we looked at ours and we're like, oh, we're like 2. 68

[00:17:39] Nick: which

[00:17:39] Dustin: and in three months, we've been able, we've been able to bring it up to almost right at three.

[00:17:44] Nick: Wow. In

[00:17:46] Dustin: Which is incredible in three months.

[00:17:48] Dustin: And so, through just training and through some education and sharing what you shared with me, with my agents, guys, listen, what if you could generate more revenue doing the exact same amount of deals as you did the year before,

[00:18:00] Nick: And just as a disclaimer, commissions are negotiable. There is no fixed rate, there's no standard rate. But what we're saying is what will the consumer or client be willing to pay for a given experience, value result, and how can we provide that? As a service and have that conversation with your agents

[00:18:23] Dustin: 100 percent

[00:18:24] Nick: collectively, and then you're going to find out your service is going to increase because they're like, wow, really Nick?

[00:18:29] Nick: So if I find out what their favorite latte is, and I bring that to the showing or the appointment before they show up, if I give them,A text prior to that, I confirmed the appointment, I show up and I look like a professional and I show up prepared with the CMA and the market analysis.

[00:18:45] Nick: I could make 18 percent more money or I could outcompete my competition or beat my competition. And you, as a leader, that's the metric I'm looking at, I'm looking at this metric. And if the leader says, this is the metric I'm looking at, and. That's the one I'm going to be helping you with.

[00:19:06] Nick: You'll see improvement on it, right? Just like I think what's your take on this? I know calls are important, right? But a lot of teams never move past the calls

[00:19:18] Dustin: hmm.

[00:19:18] Nick: they get a team, they get agents. And the first thing they do is we got, I got to get my agents to make phone calls. I got to get in on phone calls and they never get past that.

[00:19:29] Nick: Part of the sales process, what's your take on the calls? Calls are important. You have standard and expectation. And I think a standard and expectation to calls allows you to move forward. So how do you check the box on calls so that you can then move forward with these people and develop them as.

[00:19:45] Nick: Real estate professionals is

[00:19:50] Dustin: focus on calls. We focus on connects. And a connect is defined by a two minute conversation. this is from John, two minute conversation about real estate. Ours is, our connects are, we do 20 connects a day, period. And I want to share this with you because I want to share this email that I sent out the other.

[00:20:08] Nick: Yes, I think I sent this out yesterday, which was it was labeled call sheets. So not only do we do the 20 connects a day, the 2 minute conversations a day, but you have to fill out your call sheets every single week. So within our organization, in order to receive any sort of, opportunities within our organization, Whatsoever you must turn in your call sheets every day, show up to our team meeting and, don't be an a hole. So.your team clear on that?

[00:20:36] Dustin: crystal clear, crystal clear. I mean, you could come in, you could ask any, any person inside of my organization, exactly, what the standards are, they know, and an asshole is defined by, blaming and complaining, being toxic, I'll be honest with you.

[00:20:50] Dustin: there was a trip that was done for,a portion of the team. And,one of the people shared, some of their, Displeasure with the team and some things that they were kind of playing the victim on yet They weren't filling out their connect sheets weren't filling out those these specific things and we just asked them to part ways You know politely but it's a standard that I really hold tight to and I want to share this with you because this is an Email I sent the other day and this was to people that were not turning in their call sheets So how serious I am about this.

[00:21:16] Dustin: I wanted to send out a quick reminder for those who are not turning in their call sheets in order to sit or take part in any deal, ranch, Trinity or spec home or anything Apex West development related does, you must turn in your call sheets every week. No exception. It's crazy. I even have to say this, LOL.

[00:21:34] Dustin: If your call sheets are still not turned in weekly, we will be turning off your mojo. And your CRM. I do not do elite behavior where people feel as if they are above turning in their call sheets or above any standard or activity we have in this organization. Remember, this is a standard on the team and for the benefit of you and your goals.

[00:21:54] Dustin: I just care enough to hold you to the standard. If you feel you cannot turn in your call sheets consistently, please let me know and we can have a discussion on how we can move forward. Please know that me and Michelle's number one priority is to make sure that you get the systems, the processes, the standards, and the environment to get you to where you want to be.

[00:22:12] Dustin: Thank you to everyone who is turning in their call sheets. For those of you that aren't, please begin.

[00:22:18] Nick: That's a master class in leadership and accountability.

[00:22:22] Dustin: That's it. And so, Once someone's starting to take their connects, what you're going to see is they're going to start setting a lot of appointments or they're not. And if they're setting a lot of, if they're connecting with a lot of people every single day and they're not setting appointments, what's happening is they're either lying about their connects or they don't know what to say.

[00:22:40] Nick: Exactly.

[00:22:42] Dustin: So I'm going to quickly find out if they're lying, because I've been doing this 16 years and I can tell, right? I know the triggers or I know that the behaviors and the patterns or we're going to, we got to get them in. And so what we do every morning after our, Michelle runs our scripts every morning for 15 minutes, it's quick, simple.

[00:23:00] Dustin: Now, if they're getting, I make it this simple. If they're getting appointments and they're not getting contracts, they need help with what to say.

[00:23:08] Nick: and I want to jump in there real quick because let's say they're not lying. Thank goodness. And they're actually doing the work and they're making phone calls, but not getting wins and you just tell them to keep going, keep going, keep going. I mean, you're lacking. Leadership, you're abandoning them.

[00:23:27] Nick: They are struggling. They don't know what to say. And if they don't get a win, they're going to stop making phone calls because would you continue to make phone calls if it never resulted in anything good? And you can't just blame them for not being good. You were terrible too. I'm sorry. Right? I think I'm one of the best in the nation on the phone.

[00:23:51] Nick: But I'm humble enough to know I was atrocious when I started, right?

[00:23:58] Dustin: Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[00:23:59] Nick: I think we, I think where there's a survival bias where survival bias is one in which because we survived and made it, we think we're great. No, you weren't, you weren't, you weren't. So go back in and help them out. So they're actually making the phone calls and go help them.

[00:24:16] Nick: So that's

[00:24:17] Dustin: absolutely. They, they need, they need to see and or hear one of the best, most powerful things you can do is go make phone calls with your agents, like go sit with them, make phone calls, let them hear you on, on, on the phone, early, starting out at Nick, my first year, I went on. We closed 104 deals our first year.

[00:24:37] Nick: I went on every single listing appointment with every agent that we had. We had six agents and I went on every single listing appointment with them. Every single one. So when you're first starting out, sometimes you have to do that.funny. My first year as my team, we sold 101 homes. You did 106 homes. That's so funny. I deal with. 104 homes. I did it with five agents. And you did it with six agents, so everyone listening. I mean, in your first year, you can do that, but I think I have a similar story to yours. Dustin, I was, I was involved in every one of those.

[00:25:12] Nick: I swear I

[00:25:14] Dustin: Talk about how involved you were your first couple of years. I want, I want people to hear this on people that either you're wanting to start a team right now or you're, or you're like have a smaller team and it's just not coming off the ground. How involved were you?

[00:25:27] Nick: You know what? When you asked me that question, I almost get chills like neurologically. I get. I get chills over it because it, I was so relentless. I was so relentless. It was the Eric Thomas. I wanted it more than I want. I wanted to breathe. I mean, I really did. I couldn't fail. I couldn't fail. I mean, I could, but I wasn't going to let it fail.

[00:25:50] Nick: No way. I was, I was first one there. Last one to leave first one there. Last one to leave. I,

[00:25:58] Dustin: to hear that.

[00:25:58] Nick: I never wanted to, did you, is this the same with you, Justin? I never wanted them to see, I never wanted anyone to be there before me. And I would stay some, I remember some nights going, golly, is Kerry going to go home?

[00:26:12] Nick: Oh no. She, I just found out she has a seven o'clock appointment. And I would stay at the office until her appointment showed up and I'd sit in with it. And then I called my wife, Emily and be like, Hey, I'll be home at like eight o'clock. I mean, it was like 12, 14 hour days. Our, I remember our first office was 600 square feet and I put five off a five.

[00:26:32] Nick: Five agents in there. No, it was 250 square feet. I put five agents and an admin and I could listen to every single phone call, every phone call. And you know what? They got so good because they would be on the phone. And if they were on the phone, it was like, Hey, what's going on over there? Why is it? Why don't I hear your phone ringing?

[00:26:54] Nick: Why don't I hear your phone ring? And then they'd get on the phone calling. Everyone would stop. Anytime someone got someone on the phone, they'd stop and listen. And as soon as it ended, we'd go, how'd it go? What'd they say? Did you say this? Yeah. I mean, it was, it, we, we didn't even role play as much as we just, they got immediate feedback, immediate feedback, immediate feedback, immediate.

[00:27:17] Nick: Feedback. And guess what? Stephanie, 26 homes, Carrie, 28 homes, Sue, 19 homes, Greg, 17 homes, right? Like it was like, duh. I mean, the, the, the, the, the rate of improvement was extraordinary. And I was, and these were brand new agents and I was a brand new broker. I mean, I didn't know anything either. What was your experience?

[00:27:45] Nick: Like, was it similar? Or is it different? Or how was

[00:27:48] Dustin: so crazy every time we talk more and more, it's our, we're, we're almost identical in this, which, is what it's great though, is that I see, and I want people to hear is not only your involvement, but your example, like you're not asking anybody to do things that you're not willing to show them that you're doing, telling somebody you used to do it.

[00:28:11] Dustin: And actually showing them, especially when you start out before you have what I consider. I call it a subculture. A subculture is a group of agents that are inside of your organization that follow your systems processes and are bought into the values of the company all in. So before you have that, you have to be that you have to be the subculture, which is the foundational culture of the organization.

[00:28:37] Dustin: And so I would ask you, do you think those agents, if you weren't showing up earlier and leaving later than them, do you think those agents would have came into the office and made calls every single day, like they did

[00:28:48] Nick: No

[00:28:48] Dustin: with each other?

[00:28:49] Nick: No way. No way. No chance. No chance. It was implied.

[00:28:57] Dustin: It was applied.

[00:28:58] Nick: my first call, by the way, when I was prospecting, my first call was always the roster of who's not there. I mean, if, if I'm sitting there in the office, I have five agents and Carrie Sue and Stephanie's there. Right. But Trevor and Noah aren't Trevor.

[00:29:17] Nick: Noah is my, they're my first two phone calls. Hey guys, where are you at? You coming along? And then I would also hold my team accountable. Hey Kerry, Stephanie, where's Trevor? They're like, I don't know. I don't know where Trevor's at. Why would I know where Trevor's at?

[00:29:34] Dustin: that's powerful.

[00:29:35] Nick: That's powerful. Then I go, Oh, really?

[00:29:37] Nick: Well, how can you text him? Maybe reach out to him. He is a team member, isn't he? I mean, that's what a team's about. Like, well, I don't know where they're at. Well, maybe you should find out. Yeah. And in fact, if I got Noah, Trevor, Noah, by the way, if I got Noah on the phone first, I'd say, Noah, Hey, are you coming in?

[00:29:55] Nick: Yo, sorry. I'm running late. Awesome. Can you also call Trevor? He's not here either on your way. And I'd have him called and it's because Noah's going to call Trevor and go, Hey, Trevor, you better get your booty in the office. Nick's about to call you.

[00:30:07] Dustin: Another masterclass on accountability right

[00:30:09] Nick: Yeah. Yeah. And you can do that when you're small. I guess what people worry about is what do I do, Nick?

[00:30:15] Nick: I set it up the wrong way. What would you say to someone that's like, Oh, that sounds right. And I want that. And I need that. But right now I got eight agents, 10 agents, 20 agents, and I can't get them in the office.

[00:30:28] Dustin: Well,

[00:30:29] Nick: Do you have to burn it down? Do you have to start over? What's the plan?

[00:30:34] Dustin: my first thing that I would ask is what, what are you as the leader and as the owner of the organization, walk me through what your commitment level is to this organization. Walk me through your day to day, walk me through how involved you are in the organization. Because my, my first question would be is, is what is it about you as a leader?

[00:30:53] Dustin: That's not making your people not show up. What is it? Is it the standards? Is it the values of the organization? Is it the way you operate? What is it? I want to dive a little bit deeper into what is it that, that you did a decision you made or how you're operating or running, in your disciplines throughout the day.

[00:31:11] Dustin: That's making people not want to show up.

[00:31:13] Nick: Yeah. What, what? Oh, okay. What is it about you? Your actions? Your words or, what are you allowing to, what are you not doing

[00:31:24] Dustin: Yeah. So it's extreme responsibility, right? And so like, That's where I'm going to first two is here's what has to happen. Not every organization, not every person in your entire organization is going to love change ever. I don't care how much influence you have inside your organization, how big of things you're doing.

[00:31:47] Dustin: If you're going to, if you're going to make changes inside your organization, it's very, very, especially if it's bigger, 18, 10 to 18 agents, to a hundred plus agents where a hundred percent of people are going to love the change you're going to make. One thing you have to do is commit to the disciplines, commit to be an all in on your team like that.

[00:32:06] Dustin: You have to want it more than you can breathe. One, two, you have to set set clear standards and you have to live by them daily and then you're going to see the people that surrender to those standards and those that resist those and those that resist those standards. We have to let go. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do inside your organization is let go of the people who resist the very thing you are. or who you've decided you're going to be as a, as an organization. So in my opinion, for me, I would say no worries. , if you want to not follow these things, you don't want to be what we're about. You don't want to be what our values are. No worries. You're just not a fit for us. Like if you're not into personal development, if that's my new standard, is that the core value of mine?

[00:32:52] Dustin: Personal development. And that's not something you're super into. No worries. It's who we're going to be from here on out.

[00:32:57] Nick: And I want to add to setting a standard, so you, you reinstitute a standard or you maybe, maybe go back to one that you had already put in place, but you let you. Let not happen is you have to be willing to stay strong to that standard longer than they think it's going to take before you quit.

[00:33:20] Dustin: Ooh, say that again.

[00:33:21] Nick: You have to be willing to stick with that standard longer than they believe they have to wait it out until you quit.

[00:33:28] Dustin: Yes, that's huge. So

[00:33:31] Nick: kind of huge. There was one moment in my career where I was making all these standards, standards, calls, calls, and trying to manipulate and trick them into doing it. Like, okay, that didn't work.

[00:33:40] Nick: Let me try a different way. That didn't work. Let me try a different way. Let me do a sales contest. Let me do this. Let me change the time. Let me get their commitment in, let me get their feedback. And it was like, I was trying everything. Every other week. And I remember someone coming into my office and they go, Nick, I just got to tell you something.

[00:33:55] Nick: I see how hard you're trying. you're, you just want us to make phone calls. You just want what's best for us. I go, Oh, thank you. for noticing. He goes, but I got to tell you so and so I just overheard so and so Leave the team meeting and you were so inspired and they said, Hey, everyone don't do anything nickel forget about this next week, right?

[00:34:17] Nick: Basically, I had people self sabotaging my, my leadership, but they were right. I was going to give up in a week. They knew that if they failed, if it didn't work, I gave up. Cause here's what happens as a leader, when we fail, we give up to, when we fail, we give up to. So let's say you're saying, okay, we're going to meet every Thursday at four o'clock and make phone calls together.

[00:34:43] Nick: And one person shows up, you failed, you show up and you're like, I failed. So what do you do? You stop doing it. And so you kind of have to have this like pigheaded discipline. Okay. I'm going to do it on Thursday at four o'clock and I'm going to do it every Thursday for a year. Even if nobody shows up, you know what I mean?

[00:35:07] Nick: And I just want to show, I mean, I'll take a selfie of me all alone and make them feel like I'll see you guys next week and then we'll do a team meeting. Hey, nobody showed up. I'm doing it again. I'm doing it again. I'm doing it again. I'm not quitting. You kind of have to show them that guy. It's not going away.

[00:35:24] Dustin: true. Inconsistencies in a leader have them. That's how you lose trust that your team loses trust in you.

[00:35:34] Nick: That's right. Yeah. And you're, you're not, you lack integrity because you're saying, Oh, I want you to call and they fail and it doesn't work. They're just doing the same thing. Inconsistency. Yeah. People do want a consistent leader.

[00:35:48] Dustin: They want predictability.

[00:35:49] Nick: They want

[00:35:50] Dustin: so, and so, and this is something I did exactly what you did in the beginning, where I would try to do this. I drew a little trick over here. I tried to trick them into making the calls over here. And I try to do, a game where

[00:36:01] Nick: new training, new title.

[00:36:05] Dustin: Now it's, I say the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. I found this weak leaders try to say different things to the same people. Strong leaders say the same. Same exact thing. Always bringing new people in,

[00:36:22] Nick: Mm

[00:36:23] Dustin: always bringing new people in, but it's, it's that consistency and that predictability for the past five and a half years.

[00:36:29] Dustin: We've had the same training time every single Monday through Monday, Monday, and Tuesday at one o'clock every single.

[00:36:36] Nick: I think, if, if people take anything away from this is you need to repeat yourself. I've, I've heard this oftentimes from team leaders. I shouldn't have to terrible. It's terrible. I shouldn't have to tell them to do it. I shouldn't have to tell them to show up. I shouldn't have to tell them, guess what?

[00:36:57] Nick: That's never going to go away. You want your attendance to be 80, 85, 90, a hundred percent. And guess what? You're going to have to remind them.

[00:37:04] Dustin: Mm-Hmm.

[00:37:04] Nick: That the meetings at Tuesday at nine, which has been Tuesday at nine in my company for 13 and a half years, I still have to do a reminder, true story. This is the day after the election, by the way.

[00:37:16] Nick: And we're, it's, what is it? Wednesday?

[00:37:19] Dustin: Yeah. One sec.

[00:37:20] Nick: Wednesday, and I forgot to send a calendar invite for the meeting today at nine. We have a meeting at nine every Wednesday for 13 years. And I called Trevor and Trevor's like, Oh, we have a meeting today. I didn't see it on my calendar. I thought something was up there.

[00:37:38] Nick: They're so thrilled when it's not on the calendar. They're so thrilled because they got an excuse.

[00:37:43] Dustin: Yeah.

[00:37:44] Nick: I'm inconsistent. Right? So, so it's so true. Yeah. You have to remind them. You have to send them an email in the morning saying, Hey, today, today we're meeting at went on Wednesday at nine. Here's the schedule.

[00:37:57] Nick: And you got to remind them. And then on, on the meeting, you got to remind them about the next meeting. And you got to remind them about the meeting you had yesterday. They didn't show up for like, you just, Have to continue to do that, right?

[00:38:10] Dustin: Well, it's that old a adage of like, most people don't need to be instructed. They just need to be reminded consistently all the time.

[00:38:19] Nick: And they may, if they're annoyed with it, that's usually cause they're not, they're not there, the ones that show up, it's not annoying to them. They like it.

[00:38:31] Dustin: Oh, yeah.

[00:38:32] Nick: and they'll leave, they will leave you and then something will be missing in their lives.I had an aha moment one time where an agent was with me for four months, only four months, but I had known him for a decade.

[00:38:47] Nick: And we set goals, we set standards, and I wrote him because we, I'd known him for 10 years. So I had the permission to do it. He left. And then two years later, he goes, Nick, I was so wrong. I was so wrong, man. I need to come back. I didn't realize how much it mattered that you cared. I thought you were annoying.

[00:39:11] Nick: I thought you were overbearing. I thought you were micromanaging me, but now I know you care and that's what I need. And he came back, right? Not everyone's gonna come back. Not everyone's gonna come back. They're, they're completely fine. Never having a leader. That's going to hold them to a higher standard.

[00:39:27] Nick: Right.

[00:39:30] Dustin: time ago. If you have someone in your life that will tell you the truth, that will push you, that cares enough to not bullshit you, that sees more in you than anybody else sees in you and pushes you to be that person. that you have a true friend and they come around very, very, very rarely.

[00:39:49] Dustin: And they are priceless people inside of your life. And you, you can't always, you can't always, it's not always tangible their value, but if you have someone like that in your life, you're lucky. And so. It was always my goal to become that person for other people, because I was lucky. Now I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by these people, right?

[00:40:11] Dustin: Like the implied accountability from you and all of my friends that I have and investors I have in my own organization. But, sometimes it takes. two years to look back and go, wow, I was really blessed to have somebody who cared as much as Nick.

[00:40:24] Nick: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah. And I think at the end of the day, part of back to our beginning, what are your reasons for building a team?one of the reasons we want to be that person for somebody, and it's a character. It's a character builder, and what character are you, are you striving for to a certain degree, I think it's a deep thing.

[00:40:48] Nick: It's a, it's a purpose. It's a purpose for you. And it's not so you don't have to work and you have more time at the end of the day, I guess, rounding it all out.

[00:40:59] Dustin: Yeah. I found this man, the most elite and successful people inside of my life. They, they attach a lot of meaning to what they do. They make it very meaningful. they, they attach something deeper to it. They attach something that's more than just the activity itself or the action itself. There's something in there that's driving it more than that.

[00:41:20] Dustin: and, it's an empowering meaning, I had this little speech that I give where I said, everything in my life is all, everything that's great in my life has came from a cold call. And some of you just brush a cold call every single day. You just brush it off,

[00:41:34] Nick: Yeah.

[00:41:35] Dustin: whole company is based off of one cold call.

[00:41:38] Dustin: The success of the past brokers was based off of one cold call where I asked a gal if she would want to start a real estate school with me.

[00:41:44] Nick: Yeah.

[00:41:46] Dustin: And, so cold calls have this deep meaning for me and the people in my life, I look at their kids and the subdivisions that we do, I just dream of like families being raised inside of these cul de sacs, like it's more than just building a house to me. And so, back to you, it's like, what you said is like, there's something deeper there. It's not just about having more time so I can go screw off on vacation.

[00:42:08] Nick: Yeah. Cause yeah. I mean, cause then you're, setting an example for your team that they should be doing the same thing. They should sell real estate so they don't have to work and they're going to, they're going to act like they don't have to work. And if they don't see you at the office.

[00:42:23] Nick: They're going to assume that you've achieved what you set out to achieve, and that is not to do anything. So they're going to mimic you. They mimic you. , they model you. I built my team up to a level through COVID and other, and with some great people and great systems where I didn't have to come to the office ever. know, it was a two year period. I think I was in there probably three, three hours. Now I was involved. I think that's where people got a little bit confused. Nate McLean was still highly involved and they knew it. They just knew it in a different way. But working with you, Dustin, I'm back in the office.

[00:42:56] Nick: And I think I called you the other day and I was like, I had one, I had two of my best months ever. It was the last 24 months. Andit's, and it's because I was showing up at the office and you were kind of like, it's kind of crazy what happens when you just show up at the office. it's like just conversion rate.

[00:43:14] Nick: You want your conversion rate to go up. Be your power proximity for sure. Well, Dustin, I know we got to wrap this up, but I think we're going to have to have you back many more times. If you guys are interested in coaching, find Dustin, I mean, where they find you online or now

[00:43:31] Dustin: Yeah. just reach out on social media. Dustin Runyon. shoot me a, an, an email. Dustin at apex APX west. com. Would love to hop on a call with anybody. I'm in this stuff. I love it. I'm obsessed with it. I'm in it. Like you, last thing I do want to give you is when you weren't in the office though, you were in that CRM for hours, every single day, every day, touching it every day,

[00:43:57] Nick: I, yeah, I know this. I know if people think, hopefully it's true, they're being observed. They do a better job. It's 100 percent true. So if you're in the CR, I'm just tagging them and it's not an automation, right? There's the other thing is, if you think you can hold them accountable with automations 100 percent of time, as soon as they find out it's an automation, it no longer works.

[00:44:21] Nick: So, so try delegating accountability to automation. Good luck. Now it can automate and give you a report, but then you have to show them that you're watching it. You don't have to watch him the whole time. You just have to watch him enough times where they think you're watching him Some of the time, right?

[00:44:37] Nick: And nobody wants to get caught flat footed, but yeah, if you guys love this, listen to the other podcasts, thank you for listening to the reside platform podcast. We do this because we want to see you guys build teams and contribute and have a purpose driven life. We also want to eventually work with you and partner with you where we don't partner with you, but consult with you on the platform to help you.

[00:45:00] Nick: Build and scale your team. If you don't join the reside platform, there's always ways to be involved in our community from events to the podcast, to sharing it, to coaching with Dustin and so much more. So thanks for tuning into the reside platform podcast. I