Beyond Bricks and Mortar: Building Culture First with Jon Foster

[00:00:00] Jon: the most successful people I've ever met have had a coach. I don't even mean real estate people. It's anybody in your life successful, at least in my world, has had a coach.

[00:00:16] Suneet: All right. Welcome everybody to the reside platform podcast. I'm your host today. And one of the co founders of reside Suneet Agarwal. today I'm super stoked to welcome our guest, John Foster. John, what's going on, dude? How are you?

[00:00:35] Jon: Thank you, SSuneet I am super excited to be here and I'm doing great. Looking forward to this.

[00:00:40] Suneet: Yes. So if you guys don't know, John, John Foster is a leader in the Bay area of California, and the co founder of the J and L real estate group with his lovely wife, Leslie, you guys have sold about 1200 homes and are about to hit a billion dollars in production. John is known for his innovative leadership.

[00:01:01] Suneet: He's a really great leader. So I hope you guys can see that. He really cares about his people and ability to solve complex challenges. John brings decades of experience and navigating crazy market changes, growing high performing teams and providing exceptional client services. All right, is all that true?

[00:01:21] Jon: I hope so because it sounded really good.

[00:01:23] Suneet: so. It's all true. So the way that I know, John, for everybody watching and listening is we coached together for like three years. and saw you guys grow and do all kinds of great things. Why don't you talk about that a little bit?

[00:01:35] Jon: I mean, we can talk about coaching and the aspects of coaching. And I've always said that the most successful people I've ever met have had a coach. I don't even mean real estate people. It's anybody in your life successful, at least in my world, has had a coach.

[00:01:49] Suneet: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:01:50] Jon: You've been super Suneet, in helping us grow, and it was really fun to be with you through some of those growth years that were surprising in a good way.

[00:01:58] Jon: Right?

[00:01:59] Suneet: There was a couple of really good years in there. So we all had great, great times and still having great times. So, why don't you tell everybody where. The business is located, kind of the makeup of the team.

[00:02:12] Jon: Sure. I mean, our physical office building is in Castro Valley, California. We're in Alameda County, so we're in the San Francisco East Bay, about 30 to 40 minutes east of San Francisco. And probably, Suneet, like a lot of agents you talk to, you know, you start in this small geographic area. Yeah. The team starts to grow.

[00:02:30] Jon: And as the team starts to grow, the geographic area that you cover tends to grow as well. So we're now, very easy for us to say that we service Contra Costa County and as of probably the last 12 to 18 months, really getting into a little bit of the Central Valley and County and in the Bay of Santa Clara County and the peninsula, , San Mateo County.

[00:02:50] Suneet: And most of my Bay area, East Bay referrals, especially go to you guys. So great team, full faith in you guys. And I love sending you guys referrals cause you frigging close them. So keep it up. so let's just be brutally honest. The Bay area real estate market is savagely competitive. Let's face it.

[00:03:11] Suneet: There's big money on the line for a lot of these deals. So you've been in real estate. What did you start in real estate?

[00:03:18] Jon: I started 20 years ago.

[00:03:20] Suneet: Damn, really

[00:03:21] Jon: Yeah, it's been 20 years, two decades.

[00:03:23] Suneet: two decades. So 2004, right before all the shit kind of went down the tubes. Right. Yeah.

[00:03:32] Jon: got married, 2008, the market crashed, which is a ton of fun, but that's a different conversation.

[00:03:39] Suneet: what do you think has helped you succeed? I mean, I would call the Bay area. One of the most competitive markets in the country. Right. I mean, do you agree?

[00:03:47] Jon: I agree. I mean, we tell our agents all the time, you've got to bring your a game every single time, every single day. We've got a training in our office every single Monday meeting every Tuesday. a lot of times you get the same people that show up and some people show up occasionally.

[00:04:02] Jon: I just tell people like to basically what you said, Suneet, like we are competing. In the most competitive market, maybe second to New York city.

[00:04:11] Suneet: Yeah.

[00:04:12] Jon: I don't really know, but I mean, Silicon Valley, it's competitive and the expectation is high. So we encourage our agents to plug into all of our systems and all of our trainings, like their life and their income depends on it.

[00:04:25] Jon: And I jokingly say, but it's really not a joke that, they got to take that seriously. And if they're showing up, Where the expectation is up here, but they're prepared down here. They're not going to win the business.

[00:04:38] Suneet: Good. Yes. I mean, everybody there it's big money. And everybody's pretty educated, right? I mean, you got a lot of engineers, right? You got a really diverse culture too, right? So you're dealing with a lot of nuances and people who are analytical about the deal, right? Cause you got a bunch of engineers.

[00:04:57] Suneet: Good. so bringing your a game is how you succeed. Now, And running a team. And how many agents do you guys have now?

[00:05:04] Jon: Uh, we're about 63 agents right now.

[00:05:07] Suneet: Ooh, you guys are grown. I love it, dude. So for any team leader listening, there's always challenges in running a big team. What are some of the big challenges that you can remember? Give me like two big challenges that you can remember and what you did to overcome those challenges.

[00:05:24] Jon: a big challenge. I mean, I know Suneet, you and I have so much in common around running large teams and your team's larger than mine, but we talk about, a team leader term, but it's per agent productivity. Like we've all heard that.

[00:05:35] Suneet: Yeah,

[00:05:36] Jon: So if you're

[00:05:37] Suneet: said that in a while, but yes,

[00:05:39] Jon: I mean, it's among team leaders. That's like a very common saying.

[00:05:42] Jon: So you go back to that, that saying. Per agent productivity. What does that mean? Well, my YouTube channel, and you asked how I solved this problem. My YouTube channel is called winning agent movement, because one of the things that would frustrate me of something that I felt I had some control over, but I didn't see the needle moving in the right direction were too many agents selling too few homes. So this YouTube channel was one solution to that problem. Where every week throwing a new video out there and how agents can get out there and when, there's the whole thing about, you can't want it more for them that they want it for themselves. So that's 1 component of it. I can maybe answer your question again with this answer is me being a good leader.

[00:06:28] Jon: I don't want to get ahead of your questions, but growing as a leader is also telling people the truth. over the last 12 months, really tried my hardest to put out a message to show up, show up like our team has dug in deep. Our leadership, our executive staff has, I think, shown up in a big way in a tough market.

[00:06:47] Jon: In 2024, it hasn't been easy

[00:06:49] Suneet: It hasn't.

[00:06:50] Jon: are a game to them, but if they don't show up to receive it, it's just lost.

[00:06:56] Suneet: Sure. So how does a team leader and their leadership, how did they bring their a game?

[00:07:01] Jon: I mean, personal development, we talk about investing in the stock market. We talk about investing in real estate and cryptocurrency and Airbnbs, whatever it is that you want, but doesn't the success in any of those things or anything else you're interested in require us investing in ourselves to be the best at any one of those things.

[00:07:19] Jon: really, my messaging it's all around mindset and showing up and, we go to a lot of events and Suneet, that's where I see you in person. It's real estate events and we go there to have fun and network, but we also go there to learn. And I hear agents that they don't want to spend money on a coach or going to a real estate event or A one day coaching event. We just went to a Tom Ferry one in San Jose with like 20 agents on our team. Like the amount of money to invest in that is so small, but it has the ability to move the needle in such a big way. And when agents don't show up for some of the simple things, it frustrates me. It's their decision, but I want to inspire them to do more of investing in themselves because I just know would move the needle.

[00:08:01] Jon: I probably see that it would move the needle more for them than they see it would for themselves. And that's used to answer your question. That challenges me.

[00:08:08] Suneet: Yeah. you know, your business will only grow at the rate that you develop yourself. I think that's a Jim Rohn quote. and I know you love Jim Rohn too. So we could spend a whole hour talking about dude sidebar. I've been listening to the ultimate Napoleon Hill library. It's all him talking. So it was like recorded off of albums from like the forties and the thirties.

[00:08:33] Suneet: And he's all in those bits in the end. In those tapes, man. And, for anyone listening and for you go get that, frigging audible, get ready to listen to an old man talk from like the 1940s, but it's so good. Ultimate Napoleon Hill library.

[00:08:47] Jon: He's sober.

[00:08:48] Suneet: It's so good. and the cool thing for me is I've had.

[00:08:51] Suneet: Like four coaching calls today and on every one of my coaching calls, I quoted Napoleon Hill and I felt super good about that. So yes, yes, it's working. what is some stuff that you like for personal development? Are there any books or podcasts or, speakers or philosophers that you like to follow and think will be helpful for people to learn about?

[00:09:14] Jon: well, I love Napoleon Hill and I appreciate you bringing up his name. I mean, think and grow rich, right? My favorite book of all time is written by Earl Nightingale, which is in the same era, maybe of some of the stuff we just

[00:09:24] Suneet: totally is. Yeah. Right.

[00:09:26] Jon: and it was in the sixties, I think. the reason it's my favorite book is, is Earl Nightingale says that most people use a fraction of their computing power in their brain.

[00:09:39] Jon: And he says that equates to less critical thinking and less common sense. And it's like, you just ask like. How competitive is our market in the San Francisco bear? And I'm like, I don't know, maybe the most competitive in the country, maybe. So what does that require? It requires a lot of critical thinking, more brain power, which is exactly what Earl Nightingale says.

[00:09:59] Jon: The majority human beings don't do. And. I've read that book several times, but I've encouraged everybody on our team to read it. Some of them have, some of them have not. The ones that have have come back to me and are like, Oh my gosh, John, this book is going to change my life. I'm like, yes, it will. If you implement a hundred percent,

[00:10:17] Suneet: Yes. you can go to YouTube and get lead the field read by Earl Nightingale for absolutely free right now. You can listen to it. Also Earl Nightingale. I love acres of diamonds.

[00:10:29] Jon: amazing.

[00:10:30] Suneet: It's so good, dude.

[00:10:32] Jon: You talked about our market, you talked about these computer scientists and data engineers. So, so smart. I mean, they're going to hit you with really hard questions that they want answers to right now. That are well thought out, well crafted and not stuttering, stumbling, fumbling, whatever. And that is critical thinking

[00:10:52] Suneet: Yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent.

[00:10:55] Jon: demand right now.

[00:10:56] Jon: So that's why I love that book.

[00:10:58] Suneet: Yes, dude. I love talking about this stuff so much. Um, so let's talk about how you guys team, cause you guys are very modern team. How do you, guys use tech, and working with your clients and then what are some tech tools that you think everybody, regardless of team size or production should consider looking at?

[00:11:18] Jon: Yeah. I mean, I guess I'll just quickly rattle off. I mean, follow up boss by Lopos, then the CRM feed. I mean, it's all about how you use it, right?

[00:11:26] Suneet: Yes.

[00:11:27] Jon: Cause there's a lot of good stuff out there. Maverick is something that's not so much agent facing, but that's more on the operation side.

[00:11:34] Suneet: A hundred percent. Yes.

[00:11:35] Jon: so the agents get emails that will alert the maverick is trying to give the operation side and the executive leadership the insight to what may be gaps in the sales cycle process.

[00:11:47] Jon: For example, if you've got an agent that's going on setting a lot of appointments and then going on a lot of appointments, but there's not a lot of contracts. Coming from those appointments. As a result, it probably means that the agent isn't creating good enough rapport and you can coach them on that.

[00:12:04] Jon: I'm just, this is one example. Does that kind of answer your question?

[00:12:08] Suneet: Yeah. How about for group messaging within the team? what do you guys use?

[00:12:12] Jon: We use slack

[00:12:13] Suneet: Slack. Okay, good. yeah, I remember when I told you guys about Maverick and by the next call, you already had the frigging account and I was all, Whoa, that was fast.

[00:12:22] Jon: yeah, and

[00:12:22] Suneet: not what it takes is you got to implement fast, take action.

[00:12:26] Jon: it's easy and I don't want to spend all this time on average, but there's a new feature and you have to activate call recording and follow a boss, which is going to just tell your calls that this call is being recorded. For compliance purposes, Maverick will then listen to those recorded calls and give coaching based on the AI's, interpretation of how the quality of your

[00:12:49] Suneet: It's so good. It's ridiculous, dude. It's so good. how about any other like new tech that you guys are using? You guys trying anything else these days?

[00:12:57] Jon: Brand new tech. I can't say I think the newest tech we're trying to really focus on what we've got like that book, 10x is easier than 2x. Fellow is probably the newest tech we've had, but we've had it for about a year

[00:13:10] Suneet: Yeah. And fellows great for, finding hand raisers within your CRM who have properties to sell. Big fan of fellow shout out to Ryan Young and the fellow crew doing the hard work. So let's talk about. You got 63 agents, you got more than me right now. , I just got rid of a bunch on purpose.

[00:13:28] Jon: for you.

[00:13:29] Suneet: yeah, I had a hard time, right.

[00:13:32] Suneet: But you know, you know, my whole mindset around that. Um, yeah. So do you maintain. A connection with 64 agents or 63 agents, brother,

[00:13:44] Jon: You know, that's such a good question. And I'd like to talk to you about that because it is a daily struggle because the relationship we talk about relationships matter with our clients. Well, relationships matter within the team to showing up. If I never see anybody, it's hard to maintain a connection.

[00:14:01] Jon: there's gaps in production in any team, and that's normal. So the reason I say that is like the, you take your top producers and we'll do a quarterly top producers dinner with those top producers. So it is,

[00:14:13] Suneet: at the house too. Right. So you make it more, more of an intimate thing. Right?

[00:14:18] Jon: we do. And I have fun with it. I flew in a brisket from Texas

[00:14:22] Suneet: Of course you did, bro.

[00:14:24] Jon: overnighted it to me. Because

[00:14:27] Jon: it's fun.

[00:14:27] Suneet: Yeah.

[00:14:28] Jon: It's like, well, why not? Because it's more going to get takeout food down the street. we did a hibachi guy a couple of times in the summer. It was just a kind of a crazy fun experience for everybody. But so we'll do fun, weird things like that.

[00:14:42] Jon: I think the next one we're flying in cat's deli from New York, like pastrami sandwiches again, because why not just make

[00:14:48] Jon: it.

[00:14:48] Suneet: saw that on Instagram. Oh dude, you got to tell me how that is. Cause I see that ad all the time.

[00:14:54] Jon: Always. So just like make it fun. So to answer your question, like to keep engaged with the top producers, that's one way that kind of makes it easy, but then. we'll do top golf and that's just for everybody. We celebrated a big award that we got at eXp Realty. It was like the number one team for GCI for midsize teams.

[00:15:12] Jon: At that point, we're now considered a mega team nationwide. We didn't even know the award existed. It kind of blew us all away. Like shockingly, like, Oh my gosh, we really earned that achievement. So we took everybody to talk off

[00:15:25] Suneet: Yeah. Awesome.

[00:15:26] Jon: super fun.

[00:15:27] Suneet: it seems to me from your social media and from knowing you are working with, you guys, that you guys have a good, people come to the office Is that true?

[00:15:37] Jon: Yeah. I was going to mention that too, is like the part I can't, I know I've said showing up several times, but you know, I'm at the office almost every day. At least four days a week, and I love seeing people that show up and I'll just say, Hey, how's it going? You know, is there anything I could do to help you out?

[00:15:53] Jon: we do check ins, , our operations and our director of operations, Jill's doing a great job. She's stepping more into like a sales manager role, doing check ins one on one. It's very time consuming, but I would say very rewarding. Which is to answer your question. We've struggled with what's the best way to keep relationships tight with everybody on the team?

[00:16:14] Jon: And some of it's in a group setting. Some of it's one on one. I think there's not one easy answer. We're trying hard to, like, figure out ways to really touch those people. I think if there's anybody that's on a team that's watching this, If you feel like you're on an Island, I would sort of just challenge who should be accountable for like you or the team, like the team can stay in good touch with you if you're never there

[00:16:36] Suneet: Yeah. It's really hard for us to, for a team leader and have to chase somebody down. It's honestly. not motivating for us to do that with the specific contractor isn't showing up themselves. Do you ever feel that way?

[00:16:52] Jon: for sure. And I think it's fun to really feel apart. Like, you know, you talk about these awards or recognition, like, it's never 1 person. Oh,

[00:16:59] Suneet: Oh, never.

[00:17:00] Jon: you did all these amazing things to me. You've won your team's 1 number 1 team in California. That's an award for your entire team, It's not just an award for you.

[00:17:10] Suneet: I mean, it was my face and all the marketing, but yeah, just, just kidding. Yes. You know, it's absolutely like, I'm still number one in Sacramento like four years and I haven't sold a house in five years. So it's definitely not just me. you have to share the successes. You have to share the wins.

[00:17:27] Suneet: if you're a team leader and your ego is dictating that you did all the work. Well, bro, you're tripping. And we see people like that. but yeah, I mean, you, you guys are doing it, right?

[00:17:37] Jon: Yeah. And it shows up, they can partake in that success,

[00:17:40] Suneet: yes, they can celebrate with you.

[00:17:42] Jon: With that community, a hundred percent

[00:17:45] Suneet: Yeah. That's so awesome, dude. I love that. Let's, switch gears here So. Your wife, Leslie, shout out to Leslie Foster. One of my favorite people. you guys work with each other you also have, aren't our kids around the same, but you have nine and five.

[00:18:00] Jon: nine and 11. Yeah. Boy and a girl,

[00:18:03] Suneet: Nine and 11. Oh, I was way off. Why did I think that? Oh, no, you're a younger daughter is the same age as my older daughter. That's why. Yeah. So you guys have two kids and you've been building a real estate team, but their whole lives. So inside of coaching and in reside, and which is evidenced by you as well, by you and Leslie, I've coached a lot of husband, wife teams, many of the husband and wife teams. That I've worked with didn't start their team while having children. It seems like to me, in a lot of cases, the wife would come into the picture.

[00:18:38] Suneet: Once the kids are in high school, have you ever noticed that? Like, right. So, but not for you guys yet, you guys have built something so frigging awesome. See, what is work life balance a thing, John?

[00:18:51] Jon: man. And I know you, it's like a thing for you too. Like it was, we've talked about that. You've got a beautiful family yourself and you got to make time for it. we don't call it balance because balance is kind of a joke, right?

[00:19:01] Suneet: Total joke. I was hoping you were going to go there. Yeah.

[00:19:05] Jon: You said to be honest, right?

[00:19:07] Suneet: Yes, yes, yes.

[00:19:09] Jon: there's none of that.

[00:19:10] Jon: I guess you can call it rhythm. So this is kind of a fun story we call it magical moments and I'll give you a perfect example of that. we've always just booked trips well, we travel all the time, a lot without our kids, a lot with our kids. The trip that my kids will never forget.

[00:19:25] Jon: It's like nine months ago, we booked a flight to universal studios down Southern California. Yeah. Both of the passes, not

[00:19:33] Suneet: did? Awesome. Yes.

[00:19:34] Jon: and literally got our kids up at 4 a. m. We already packed their suitcases. I've worked, didn't tell them, told them we're going to universal studios. They freak out. They get all excited, get on an airplane, do the whole universal studios, VIP all day, get on a plane that night at 10 o'clock at night and fly home.

[00:19:51] Jon: We were back at home at like midnight, so the kids were just exhausted. Truthfully. so are we

[00:19:57] Suneet: Yeah, right?

[00:19:58] Jon: stuff like that all the time. we just got invited by our company to ring the bell at NASDAQ in New York city next month, and we quickly called my in laws, Leslie's mom and dad. Hey, you guys want to go with us?

[00:20:12] Jon: Cause that way we can bring the kids. So, and they said, yes. So it's like a work thing, but we're bringing our kids, we're gonna do all this crazy fun stuff in New York city.

[00:20:20] Suneet: Yeah. Awesome. it's interesting. You said work life rhythm And my second year in real estate, my eldest daughter was one or two years old, two or three years old and work life balance. I had heard my team leader, Keller Williams at the time, talk about it all the time. She didn't have any kids and she was single, right?

[00:20:40] Suneet: work life balance. So I really started to study a lot of it and I wasn't getting a real answer. Until I listened to some Tony Robbins and he said, it's not work life balance. Work life balance is bullshit. It's work life integration. And what you just mentioned about bringing your in laws to help with the kids while you guys travel on the trip to New York to ring the frigging NASDAQ bell, that's a huge opportunity way to go to get to do that, but still have the kids be there. That's work life integration. So I think that's really powerful that you guys do that. And but you don't bring you guys, I want you to go to John Foster's Facebook and look up his Awesome Doberman Pinscher named Penny, John also has a great dog and I'm a dog guy.

[00:21:30] Suneet: So tell everybody about Penny real quick.

[00:21:34] Jon: we've always connected on dogs, a lot of dogs, pennies, a seven year old female Doberman pincher. She's 90 pounds. She's huge. And she, yeah, she's in a lot of our social media. She comes to the office. Sometimes she's a good dog, not like a vicious Doberman. Like, We've talked about this.

[00:21:51] Suneet: Yeah, not like that. not like that movie from the seventies. Have you seen any pictures of my new puppy?

[00:21:58] Jon: have so cute,

[00:22:00] Suneet: I love her. I'm obsessed. Just like you are with Penny. I'm obsessed with my cookie. Anyways, before this turns the dog lovers podcast, something you said or something that I know about you. Is you guys put a lot of focus and energy on like building relationships and treating clients like friends, right.

[00:22:19] Suneet: And like really fostering those relationships. I think a lot of that just has to do with your personality and you're a giver and you love helping people. do you. boil down that message. So the team gets adoption and believes in it.

[00:22:35] Jon: Man, that's such a good question to me. So the success of, I think. Leslie and I's businesses has absolutely been like, especially when you look at the last five years of our career, selling a lot of real estate, that's almost all referral. I think I tell our agents that that is the definition of a real business is that when you go on vacation, your phone is ringing continually because it's not that you're cold calling when you're in Hawaii.

[00:23:03] Suneet: sure.

[00:23:04] Jon: I hope you're not,

[00:23:05] Suneet: At least, yeah, at least we hope you're not,

[00:23:07] Jon: but I asked the team, can you get a referral while you're in Hawaii? Okay. Of course, but only if you've taken time to build the relationship And we talked about this maverick AI that's reading into calls. that's something that does at scale that you just wouldn't as a team leader have time to listen to everybody's calls.

[00:23:23] Jon: It's impossible. One of the things, and I knew this already, but when you look at something at scale with a large team, one of the things that's really crazy that you asked me this question that has been really identified as kind of a bigger problem than I realized is agents not having enough quality conversations.

[00:23:42] Jon: They're having surface level conversations. When are you buying? When are you selling? Are you pre approved? Okay. We meet Saturday. Yada, yada, yada, yada. They're not getting deep and really getting to know who these people are and is conversion. hurting.

[00:23:59] Suneet: and I think that that's part of commission breath. I think that's, which equals just desperation, I think it comes down to training. I think it comes down to. Us as leaders focusing on the wrong KPIs, let's face it. If we were selling almost anything else and somebody called in, are you called? You might be able to get them to make the purchase on the phone for something, Many things, but to buy a house. That's going to be the person's most likely their biggest purchase ever. That's what, we're told anyways. And I know like my house was my biggest purchase ever. I'm sure, you know, after your remodel yours was too.

[00:24:38] Suneet: Right. do we fix that with the wrong KPIs and with the desperation? How do we fix that?

[00:24:46] Jon: I don't know that I have a good answer other than I've, spoken my mind to the team and, trying to be, when I say speaking my mind and it's sort of an educational. Let's be aware of this sort of way and try to lead by example and just ask more asking questions. Right? I think that's, again, that goes down to, are you building relationships?

[00:25:06] Jon: If you're not asking questions, you're probably not. you're doing all the talking in your quote, unquote, prospecting, that's not building relationships. Asking more questions and being curious and then being a good listener is really probably, I don't know the exact formula here, but. I think it should probably be 70 percent listening and 30 percent you doing the talking allow that relationship to be built.

[00:25:33] Jon: And you mentioned something that's, I think, very interesting. You said like desperation and commission breath, well, with interest rates being so high and inventory issues being low, it's been a difficult market. So I think there's probably some of that desperation, I've got to quickly get to the next call.

[00:25:51] Jon: To try to find the next sale to get to the next commission. Well, if you're not building relationships along the way, how is that working out for you?

[00:25:57] Suneet: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:25:59] Suneet: I think in my experience, you have to talk about it a lot. You know, there's the book, the advocates by Patrick Lencioni, and maybe he's not the advocate, maybe it's something else. he has a couple of, but anyways, one of the Patrick Lencioni's good books. Number one, we're not the CEO. We are the CRO, the chief reminding officer. So you have to be consistent in your messaging to your people. Number one. Number two is you have to be able to walk away with the right information. And I don't know if I, I think I got this from DJ Lindsey, out in Florida.

[00:26:34] Suneet: Shout out to DJ Lindsey is, from a conversation, do you know, What this person specifically wants and why they want it. Number one, do you have clear actionable next steps for that prospect? And finally, how do you go above and beyond to earn that person's business? Because in this competitive market, maybe more so in the Bay area, maybe not.

[00:27:06] Suneet: In any competitive market for every home buyer or home seller that hits the scene, how many agents are fighting for that person's business? Is it

[00:27:16] Jon: fun.

[00:27:16] Suneet: is it a hundred it's definitely double digits So if everybody's providing the same kind of information, if everybody has potentially the same level of desperation, if somebody has the same inventory to sell them for the most part was listed on the MLS, how the hell are you going to stand out?

[00:27:35] Suneet: You have to go above and beyond what does going above and beyond mean? Well, but before showing, do you offer to get him a cup of coffee? are you answering that call and maybe you don't want to, are you patiently, are you being the trusted ad advisor or are you so focused on selling that house so you can pay your mortgage for next month?

[00:27:53] Suneet: And look, I get it. I've been there. I'm sure you've been there too, John.

[00:27:56] Jon: Absolutely.

[00:27:57] Suneet: You have to think about the client first. That's your fiduciary. It's not about you.

[00:28:02] Jon: Yep.

[00:28:03] Suneet: and the main thing is you got to, you got to program your mind and put yourself in the right head place, headspace to be able to do that. And it takes work, it takes intentional work, at least for me. so, you know, as this market and technology and the world changes, we just went through a presidential election. Clients needs are always changing and pivoting. And I I know your answer to this, but what do you and your team do to stay ahead and Give the clients what they need

[00:28:32] Jon: So that is something that, this is my opinion. I'm sure there's multiple answers to your question but your question is what do you give the clients that they need and that does evolve because like you just said the world is constantly evolving.

[00:28:46] Suneet: to,

[00:28:46] Jon: I have been coaching my agents lately to do this and this is maybe one component that other team leaders may be doing something different but Here's the problem with my market.

[00:28:57] Jon: You mentioned, you know, Silicon Valley and all this meat, most of the top agents show up with the same tech. Okay. So it's not like, Oh, I have something special, but the other guy doesn't probably. So what I have seen of the agents that are winning the listings. my personal observations, they are connecting better with the client I'll use a very like, I know this is like a role playing thing here, but one of the things I've told my, my team is, let me give you one example, seller called you, I want to sell the house.

[00:29:27] Jon: A typical question of the real estate agent may be, what's your timing to get the home on the market? There's nothing wrong with that question, but a better question, if it was me. I would say it this way, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, it seems to me from listening to you, you've been thinking about this massive decision to sell your home for a very long time.

[00:29:54] Jon: I'd love to hear more about it and stop talking

[00:29:58] Suneet: the F up. Yeah.

[00:30:00] Jon: the hell up and listen. That may sound silly, Suneet. I'd love to hear any different question, but that's what conservation agents that are doing things like that are winning listings.

[00:30:12] Suneet: Yes. I mean, the quality of your questions indicate the quality of your, answers. And if you're looking for surface level answers to quickly get off the phone and make them talk to the next person, That consumer on the other line can tell, like, Oh, that was quick. like the quality of your questions.

[00:30:31] Suneet: I wrote this a while ago, the quality of your questions determines the quality of your answers. And if you're trying to sell something, you want to know exactly what this person wants, why they want it. And how to exceed their expectations.

[00:30:44] Jon: Yeah. And are you seeing anything different within your team around, as with, in regards to the question you asked me, as the world's evolving, what are agents doing to land the business?

[00:30:54] Suneet: I mean, I really think it comes down to the fundamentals, and you've heard me say this, every agent needs to have a listing presentation down and now more than ever, a buyer presentation down, You have to know what your value is and you have to be able to Recite it, speak it with so much clarity and confidence that there should be no question and your ability, and just ask the right questions.

[00:31:20] Suneet: Right. And then, you know, I guess the only way to really work on this is by a lot of practice and being intentional. And while I answer that, The own question that I asked you, it's making me question of how I'm doing that inside of my own business. So, yeah, good. Okay. Moving along. Yes. other team leaders out there. And I think that we nailed that we talked about this. If you're going to give a couple of main pieces of advice for people that want to follow on your footsteps and build this incredible business, what would it be? Dude,

[00:31:53] Jon: energy goes where there's focus and attention placed towards it. And I love what I do, and I just think that if someone's considering starting a team and they're not willing to devote their full energy towards it, it's not going to be successful. And I'm not saying that to discourage anybody, but I'd hate to see somebody start to go down that path.

[00:32:13] Jon: And then it's like this massive failure. The thing implodes. Or whatever happens because their, their heart just wasn't in it, but that's what it is for me. I think if you ask any of the agents on my team, where am I passionate? My heart is, I do this because I really do love it. Yes. I'm running a business.

[00:32:29] Jon: I mean, but to set that part aside, I really do love getting the calls, helping agents with a difficult deal.

[00:32:35] Suneet: really do.

[00:32:36] Jon: I really do. I really do enjoy it. I welcome those phone calls. I tell my team that all the time and the mindset piece of it. I know that's why, you know, you asked me what my favorite book. If agents read lead the field, it will change their life if they implement what they read.

[00:32:52] Jon: And if I can have some sort of a positive effect on somebody, because I do spend a lot of time personally, I'm always reading a good book. I just finished, never split the difference. I actually got a chance to meet Chris Voss in person, which was. But when I have opportunities like that, I feel like it's my duty to pour whatever was poured into me, into them

[00:33:14] Suneet: It is your duty. Thousand percent of this.

[00:33:17] Jon: to the best of my ability, I do, and I'm not perfect, but, every Tuesday at the sales meeting, I pour my heart and soul into some message.

[00:33:25] Jon: That I personally think is relevant. Am I always right? Is my messaging always on point? I'm sure it's not, but I'm willing to put the effort in and I'm willing to try really, really hard. And again, if I've discouraged anybody from starting a team that may be listening, that's probably a good thing because it's not in it you shouldn't do it.

[00:33:43] Suneet: If your heart's not in it, or if you're in it for the wrong reasons, being a leader is about inspiring and leading, It's not about being the boss so you can make more money because it's starting a real estate team. Is it always easy money, John?

[00:33:55] Jon: Never easy money.

[00:33:57] Suneet: Yeah. Which is a good time to bring up the reside platform.

[00:34:00] Suneet: Just kidding. So, so, um,

[00:34:03] Jon: never,

[00:34:04] Suneet: Yeah, you know, you guys have built out like a good executive level team, I would say, can you just let everyone know kind of like what kind of staff you guys have? I mean, tell everyone about Jill and what she does and then the other people you have. Jill is a rock star. So

[00:34:21] Jon: she's incredible. Shout out to Jill.

[00:34:23] Suneet: shout out to Jill.

[00:34:23] Suneet: Big shout out to Jill.

[00:34:24] Jon: Have you listened to this? Maybe

[00:34:26] Suneet: good. she had better. I hope he listens every week.

[00:34:30] Jon: she started out as an assistant, which is funny. You know, we said, Oh, this is years and years ago. We can't afford you. so it worked out. She started in a small capacity, grew and grew and grew as a person and in her skills and in every sort of way that she could and really proud of her.

[00:34:46] Jon: Moved into director of operations and now she's really taken on really more of the sales manager role because she really has found out that is her passion

[00:34:54] Suneet: Good. Yeah. You

[00:34:56] Jon: lot of the operations stuff because she's done it so long, but got a new office manager who's doing great. Her name is Lindsay and Jill's training her with a lot of the operational stuff that she can assist Jill with.

[00:35:06] Jon: We've got a full time, marketing and social media manager, Katrina, who's killing it doing such a good job. Yeah.

[00:35:14] Suneet: guys started showing us killing it, dude. I love seeing it. Yes.

[00:35:18] Jon: She's done a great job with our social media. She's done, managed our YouTube channel, winning agent movements, done a great job. we've got an ISA department that consists of three ISAs. That's about it.

[00:35:29] Suneet: Awesome job, dude. So I love seeing the wins after working with you guys for so long. I thought, I swear you only had like 20 agents when we started, maybe less.

[00:35:38] Jon: Yeah. Yeah. It's grown a lot. I forgot our amazing listing coordinators. Allison and T have done a great

[00:35:45] Suneet: better not forget them. Yep. Shout out to the listings, to the listing department, cause you guys sell a bunch of great listings. So, uh, they must be working their butts off. Yeah. Huge shout out. So dude, the last year in real estate between less sales happening, factual, the NAR settlement, the bigger adoption.

[00:36:06] Suneet: Of the industry as a whole to cloud based businesses. I mean, did you ever think I would shut down my brokerage and join a cloud based place, John, probably never.

[00:36:17] Jon: Never say never, but, a surprise, but I'm excited for you.

[00:36:20] Suneet: Yeah. So with that question being said, and you being such a pioneer and having so much great success and a great mindset, meaning great guy. to what's the future real estate.

[00:36:32] Jon: Brick and mortar is a rough, a rough game. Like you, I just say that cause you mentioned cloud based, leasing a bunch of square footage when you talk profitability is a real, real. I would say dangerous game to play right now. I think market conditions, the upside there, so it's only going to get better in my opinion.

[00:36:51] Jon: We've, I think tackled inflation, so to speak, heading into an environment where the fed's going to be cutting rates, setting up 2025, in my opinion, to be a way better year than this year. And I think 26, even better at 27, heard somebody say rates in the threes in 2027. Maybe

[00:37:09] Suneet: That's a big, far, far ahead forecast. I don't know where they're pulling that information. It's always getting pulled out of someone's ass, but sure.

[00:37:16] Jon: it could be, that's a few years out. I don't know that I bet money on that, but

[00:37:21] Suneet: although I'm, here for it.

[00:37:23] Jon: that would light the market on fire.

[00:37:25] Suneet: Yeah. Buyers are everybody listening to this podcast. Did not start telling your prospects that rates are going to be threes in two years. I will come and find you and tell you that you're doing it wrong. So,

[00:37:38] Jon: Correct. Do not say.

[00:37:39] Suneet: Yeah, I did not say that. So you're seeing the same thing as me. It's hard to have a bunch of offices because it's really frigging expensive.

[00:37:48] Suneet: And the reality is the attendance in many offices is pretty low post COVID. Especially in California. I have a big office. It's almost completely virtual at this point, which I'm fine with having a big office fits my ego. but you should really see my personal office, John.

[00:38:06] Suneet: It's dope. Um, but I, gotta get you guys up sometimes, but, it's going to be hard for these old school people with these Unnecessary, like additional franchise fees. I had an agent leave and they got a lower split by 20 percent just on what the organization said. They didn't know about the extra 7 percent franchise fee. They got to pay on every deal, whether they're capped or not.

[00:38:30] Jon: Yep.

[00:38:30] Suneet: When you got places like the cloud based models, the, Hey, fees are pretty straightforward and you can earn other ways. Besides just selling homes, So I think that that pivot is really going to continue to grow with exp leading the charge, For like, as they have for so long, I think that that is really going to grow into becoming the more. Popular model.

[00:38:54] Jon: 100%. And the newer models that are competitors, honestly, I am thankful for, and I'm super excited for you coming over to LPT, that cloud based model, because it's validating the model, are there different companies out there now that agents have the option to choose from? Yes. And again, I love that because it goes back to the validation that not only is the model working, It is absolutely, this is a bold statement, but I really think that like in five years from now, or where does it put us almost to 2030 that I think that probably 75 percent of the transactions will be run through cloud based brokerages simply because the expenses are so much lower. You talked about our, the expectation of our clients in our market, and I know it's the same in a lot of competitive markets, but to meet that expectation, guess what?

[00:39:44] Jon: It costs money. Hello. All this tech we talked about all this other stuff that we do. It isn't cheap. It costs money. So if we can remove the brick and mortar out of the equation, which is potentially the biggest expense. And we just got rid of it. And so did you, it opens us up because this all goes back to like, what's the main goal?

[00:40:05] Jon: We've got to serve our client at the highest level. These models are allowing us to do that. And I don't see it going reversing in any other way.

[00:40:14] Suneet: I think that your forecast makes a lot of sense. Five years, 75 percent of the transactions will be from a non traditional big box brokerage, I'm not going to say the names, but any of the old school ones. great. So John, dude, you brought the fire. This was good. This is good.

[00:40:33] Jon: It's a lot of fun. Hopefully we didn't run feathers.

[00:40:37] Suneet: Hopefully we did, right? Yeah, that's what makes people listen to it. if people want to follow you on social media, where should they go?

[00:40:45] Jon: Instagram, Mr. John Foster, and I've got my link tree, which is my YouTube channel or website. YouTube channels, winning agent movement,

[00:40:53] Suneet: Great. And if somebody wants to send you a referral, how should they send it? Anywhere in the Bay Area. Does not Sacramento.

[00:41:00] Jon: not Sacramento that you send those to Sydney, um, Instagram is great. And again, my link trade Instagram, there's a bunch of ways you can put a call with me on my Cowley link right there. So I'd love to hear from anybody that, I can assist in the greater Bay area.

[00:41:16] Suneet: Yeah. And you guys, everyone listening, like John is a great leader. Hearts in the right place. Minds in the right place. Give him a follow. He's always such a giver to all the environments. So, I want to encourage you to reach out to John because he's a good guy to, know, John, any parting words for our guests are for our viewers and listeners.

[00:41:35] Jon: I'm grateful. You've poured into me a lot yourself personally over the years. I'm eternally grateful for you. , it was really fun to be on this podcast today and, maybe on purpose, rattle the cage just a little bit, the industry is changing. It's not like me saying that cause I feel like it, it's just the facts.

[00:41:53] Suneet: Yes,

[00:41:54] Jon: I'm just, I'm trying my hardest to just constantly be aware of what those changes are. It's a full time job is trying to try to stay ahead of that curve, but I would just encourage is if they're feeling a little bit out of touch, listen to that voice and do something about it. Make the changes in your business that you need to.

[00:42:14] Jon: so that into 2025, 26, 27, the years ahead. You're in a position to win some great business that's out there with some great people.

[00:42:24] Suneet: dude. I love that. I'm going to make that part as a quote on my social quoted by John Foster. I love it. You guys. Thank you so much. Oh, actually let's take a selfie real fast for the

[00:42:35] Jon: I would love to. Yes.

[00:42:37] Suneet: Yeah, let's take a selfie. All right. All right, let's go. Awesome. Good stuff. everyone out there listening and watching, thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of the reside platform podcast. A huge shout out to our guest, John Foster. Dude, thank you for taking the time to come join us and. To share all this business and life changing advice.

[00:43:02] Suneet: I hope everybody listening got something out of it. If you did, don't forget to like, and subscribe, leave a review, share this episode with other leaders in your circle. Take this in for this information that John so abundantly shared with us and. Implement a couple parts of it into your own real estate business.

[00:43:22] Suneet: If you need any more tools or tips or strategies, visit the reside platform website. I have about 10 books that I've written on there. 10 eBooks that are all free for download that will help you get everything that you're looking for. Maybe not everything. Maybe that's a lofty statement, but a lot of what you're looking for.

[00:43:42] Suneet: anyhow, thank you for being here. We'll see you next time. Keep working towards your goals and building the business and life you always wanted, and we'll see you in the next episode of the reside platform. Later guys,