Culture, Profit, and People: The 3-Part Formula to Scale Fast

[00:00:00] Lauren: hot take.

[00:00:00] Lauren: If you don't have the setup, go set that up today. , Your Google reviews, if you're asking for reviews, yes. The reviews are amazing. However, I always, if I'm coaching operations, will lean towards these Google reviews because when you're in the search engine and however technology works in the backend.

[00:00:16] Lauren: The more Google reviews and five star reviews you're gonna get, likely you're gonna get put to the top of those search results when people are looking in your area.

[00:00:30] Mie: Is your team really struggling with leads or is the problem something deeper? I'm Mia, your host for the Reside Platform podcast taking over for Suneet, and today I'm sitting down with Lauren to uncover the truth about why agents fail to convert. We're gonna break down the biggest mistakes that teams make with lead distribution, how to build real accountability and the best coaching frameworks to turn under performers into closers.

[00:00:53] Mie: If you're ready to boost conversions and stop letting good leads go to waste, you won't wanna miss this conversation. Hi Lauren. How are you? I'm good. How are you doing? Good, excitable. Other than that, really good.

[00:01:05] Lauren: I know. I'm really excited to have this conversation today.

[00:01:07] Lauren: I have been thinking a lot about lead generation and the systems we set up, so I'm ready to dive in. Yes. And you know, I could talk about this literally all day long and so, , let's go girl. it all comes down to. Lead generation. Yeah. So a lot of times we hear, oh, my team has a lead problem. you don't have enough leads or you have too many leads.

[00:01:29] Lauren: I don't have enough agents to cover all these leads or my agents. Again, we brought this up on our last podcast when we talked about agents showing up. My agents are lazy.

[00:01:37] Speakers 1: Mm-hmm. In my

[00:01:38] Lauren: professional opinion, doing this for about eight years now is you don't have a, lead problem, you have a conversion problem.

[00:01:46] Lauren: Yeah. And it really comes down to having a system for your sources, which goes into lead distribution.

[00:01:52] Speakers 1: Mm-hmm. So

[00:01:53] Lauren: holding the line, holding the standards for your teams. A lot of the time we hear well. They're 10 99 employees. They're agents. I can't actually tell them what to do.

[00:02:03] Lauren: That's actually where you're failing probably in your business is 'cause you're not holding that standard. You're the ones who are paying for those leads. And if they're not getting worked properly, , we'll talk about the system for setting those up, but that's where you're gonna find the most common mistakes happening.

[00:02:17] Lauren: Yeah, and I was thinking about this today in terms of accountability and auditing is, are you auditing your database? Every single day. Mm-hmm. And another point of that is, are you looking, we use Follow-Up Boss for CRM. If you use another system, know how to look at the logistics in the backend of your system, but for reporting, when is the last time your agents logged into follow-up Boss?

[00:02:40] Lauren: Mm-hmm.

[00:02:40] Mie: So, , the only way that someone is going to actually adopt the use of A CRM and stay in front of this very expensive piece of technology that you pay for as a team owner is if you are consistently bringing everything back to the database.

[00:02:56] Mie: If you are consistently bringing everything back to the follow-up. And we could probably, , circle back into inspecting the database. And the way that you know, if your agents are staying in the database every single day is if you are going in and you are looking to see if they have been in the database today.

[00:03:12] Mie: If you do this a week later, if you do this once a month, if you're just randomly spot checking with no rhyme or reason and with no real system, what you've basically said to your agents is, this isn't as important as I said it was. This isn't as big of a deal as I made it out to be because We get into that old school like rotisserie chicken, set it and forget it. You remember those? , And we cannot set it and forget it with human beings, with agents, with people. And so we do have to stay in front of them. I mean, John says this every single time you hear him speak, like you have to spend an hour in, the database just inspecting it, like period.

[00:03:49] Mie: And that's where. You reach out to them and you say, Hey, I noticed that this X amount of leads came in and you haven't, spoken to them today. What's going on? Or, Hey, I saw that you talked to this lead and I don't see anything on their LP mama, or I don't see an updated stage, but you spoke to them.

[00:04:04] Mie: And so like the way for them to get adoption into your systems is giving them the ability to practice the adoption by you staying in front of them with it, and then helping them hone in that habit and that behavior so that it becomes more reflexive. When we let them kind of skirt away from it, oh, my sphere, oh, what about this?

[00:04:23] Mie: Oh, what about that? , And we make exceptions. We are essentially loving them into failure and we're also negating the, our own processes that we have said this has to happen. And then it actually does it.

[00:04:34] Lauren: And so when's the last time you actually audited what you're sending out to clients that you're nurturing? Oh, so good. Yeah. another habit to build.

[00:04:41] Lauren: If you're not scripting at least, at least two to three times every single week, you're not coaching your agents to actually be able to convert those leads. Mm-hmm. So it might not just be a, conversion issue. It could be a leadership issue as well. And that can sting a little bit, but that's okay, because that's what we're here to talk about today.

[00:05:00] Lauren: Yeah. Right. Yeah.

[00:05:00] Mie: so, , can I touch on that for a second with you? Yeah, please do. Because that happens more often than I think people realize that they don't, they're like, oh my gosh, I've been sending this email out and had no idea. Like, they're not looking at the drip campaigns and know, we have, , LMSs or learning management systems.

[00:05:17] Mie: You and I have a lot of experience working with learning management systems. And we know all too well, we love the idea of just like putting content in there and then it being done. And we see the pain of not keeping that updated or going back and changing things as it's pertinent to changing or like inspecting it to see is this actually still effective?

[00:05:34] Mie: And so it is something you have to actively be involved with regularly when you are, you know, when you're looking at your drip campaigns. Yeah. But what I'm not saying, and don't go telling anyone that Mia said do, do, do. I'm not saying constantly change them. Yes. I'm not saying go get creative and, you know, get backwards with it or, make it, you know, more fun and more like, no, no, no.

[00:05:55] Mie: you should have like a regular period of inspection around what your text message campaigns, if you have, that, your email campaigns are, and even just the cadence that your agents are operating in. Do they need to up it, do they need to improve it? Are they getting two minute conversations, like, what do I need to update and improve periodically or what needs to stay the same?

[00:06:12] Lauren: Mm-hmm. Well, you're, giving me a thought too. One more in terms of, and I know this is kind of going in a different way than we originally planned, but I think that this is really good. In terms of auditing the database, it's looking at when your agents last logged in. It's probably going to surprise you because a lot of the time we've said it and forget it, or we're like, oh, our agents are so great.

[00:06:32] Lauren: They're of course logging in. I've had agents, teams log in and it's been over 30 days since their agent last logged into their CRM. It is insane, pointer. Number two to that is make sure your agents have a follow up boss, have a follow up boss phone number. Mm-hmm. For example, I think I told you on this past week, my phone broke and the screen just stopped working.

[00:06:54] Lauren: I could not get into it. I have insurance on my phone, but you're in real estate, you need a phone. So the reason I'm going into this is because. The last time I backed up my phone was two days prior, thank God. not too long. Mm. But I still lost two days of content.

[00:07:08] Mie: Yeah.

[00:07:09] Lauren: Or context in my phone.

[00:07:10] Lauren: Yeah. And that is why if you have a follow-up boss number and you're actually working out of your database, you're not gonna lose that context. Yeah. For that history of that report. Yeah. So it's so important why we say. , A lot of the time too, I'll get a question of, well, my SOI knows me in here.

[00:07:27] Mie: Yes. I was just thinking that I hear it three or four times a day minimum, you know, in training. And guys, I get it. Like I get the confirmation bias. And as a team owner, you've probably heard this from your agents as well. I don't wanna call my sphere through my follow up boss number because they know my number.

[00:07:43] Mie: Fair. Totally fair.

[00:07:44] Speakers 1: Yeah. There

[00:07:45] Mie: are ways to get adoption around that. Here's why it's so important for them to be in your CRM. Do you currently have a 10 to 17% conversion rate out of your sphere of influence? The answer is almost always no. and I would say that someone that is decent at communicating to their sphere is usually getting around a 7%, but it is very, very easy to get to a 10%.

[00:08:05] Mie: Very, very easy. And it comes with systematic communication. And you are not going to get the benefit of the systematic communication without data history information. And so. Number one, it living in your CRM is a gift to your future self. And then number two, when you have , their information and their data and their history inside of the CRM, it also improves your touch program.

[00:08:27] Mie: You can do a whole lot more when you have their address. You can do a whole lot more when you have their email and, and not just the phone number. Even if you can, you know, , incorporate the social media aspect like yes. Love that, but you should absolutely be calling your, , , sphere of influence through your F number.

[00:08:43] Mie: Now, if you get them to update your contact card, which is very easy to do, it just shows up as you, whether you call them from your phone number or from your personal cell phone number or your phone number. So it's a weak excuse.

[00:08:55] Lauren: have you ever just called somebody, even your own family member and they have two numbers in there.

[00:08:59] Lauren: They have their work phone and then they have their personal Yeah. I'm like, I actually don't know which is which. Yeah, sorry, mom, I don't have your phone number memorized.

[00:09:07] Mie: I have no idea. I don't have my dad number memorized either.

[00:09:10] Lauren: yeah. Even my sister doesn't know mine, so it's like. Bad excuse now I

[00:09:14] Mie: do believe there's merit to if they don't have my work number saved, it's not gonna show up as me. Okay. So that needs to happen that's an easy gap to bridge.

[00:09:23] Mie: So it's not a good enough reason not to like get inside of your CRM. Another thing I hear too is like, , Oftentimes what I see is agents are just trying to avoid putting their information or their sphere in somebody else's database, and more often than not, that's hurting the agent more than they realize. Most teams, and I can't say every team because it's not, I don't know every team, but most teams are not going to take your sphere and do something with it.

[00:09:47] Mie: Like they're not gonna be icky about it. most teams are gonna let you pull your sphere out of there like, put it in there so you can get the benefit of a system.

[00:09:54] Lauren: , So speaking of systems, having a system for your sources. So let's talk about a couple different ways that you can, you know, rate how you distribute these leads. So, I think it's really helpful to name these sources when we're talking about, so, Google Paper, click ads.

[00:10:10] Lauren: What happens when the lead is coming in? So these leads are the ones that are generating traffic to your website. We also have Google business leads that we talked a lot with Nick last week about why this is relevant and I. Subconsciously didn't even realize I do this every single day. That's why we talk about with Google Business, hot take.

[00:10:31] Lauren: If you don't have the setup, go set that up today. , Your Google reviews, if you're asking for reviews, yes. The reviews are amazing. However, I always, if I'm coaching operations, will lean towards these Google reviews because when you're in the search engine and however technology works in the backend.

[00:10:47] Lauren: The more Google reviews and five star reviews you're gonna get, likely you're gonna get put to the top of those search results when people are looking in your area. Right. so Google Pay per click, Google Business sign calls, that's not something we usually talk about. your phone number or should be on the rider.

[00:11:02] Lauren: Mm-hmm. Or on the sign, right? Yeah. So do you have a system with those sign calls as an office line? Is that being, I don't like this as much. Having your assistant pick up every single sign call, I think it's more efficient. Yeah. I'm not a fan

[00:11:17] Mie: of that either. And unless you are a single agent and you don't have a team, which, like if you have a team, let it not be the assistant that's picking up that phone call.

[00:11:25] Mie: Yes.

[00:11:26] Lauren: And we can go into that later. But however, the best practice I would say is you can either have that ring and go to a round robin where the agents can. Answer the phone call or have it go straight to voicemail. Have that voicemail go to a group inbox and it's first come, first served if your agents are eligible to take leads that day.

[00:11:45] Mie: Yeah. Yeah. Really good. So there's also an option with sign calls where, , if on the rider you only use one specific number and you have it go to like a RingCentral or, or you know, some, tech where it can. Create of that lead source off of that specific number, you can have that distribute to certain agents, depending on your CRM, where it only like allows, eligible agents to get access to that lead source.

[00:12:08] Lauren: It's just so good. There's so many ways that you can set this up. So just deciding what is the best for your team. And then something I just thought about is how your agents are eligible for these leads. So do you have standards set in place of, do you expect your agents in office? . Four outta five days of the week.

[00:12:27] Lauren: what time do you expect them at? Do you have the same time Every single day? So like for me, we always had agents come in at eight 30. We would practice gratitude, go through, Did you do what you were gonna say you did, you were going to do yesterday? Y or no, no judgment if you did or didn't.

[00:12:42] Lauren: What? Got in the way? Go over appointment set Matt, and then go right into scripting. I would say script almost every single day. If you can, Monday through Friday, at least 15 minutes, get some role play in, lead a script. Inferno. Do you wanna talk a little bit about that? Yeah,

[00:12:57] Mie: First, let's talk to the metrics and then I'll talk to the script inferno.

[00:13:00] Mie: So, with, , accessibility, it can depend based on your setup, but what I find to be highly effective is looking at lead measures as qualifiers, , versus skillset in certain areas. So. , , I wanna see activities for leads. I, obviously, I want the agents to have skillset, but if the metric is going to be you have to have X amount of skill or conversion rate in order for you to be considered like a competent skillset before you get this lead.

[00:13:25] Mie: We might never get a lead distributed because it can be really ambiguous, especially if you're looking at pay per click leads. Like ideally, I wanna see the amount, a five to 8%, but most of them are at a one to 2%. And so, , I look at show up now, I can even look at, , two minute conversations and say, if you didn't hit X amount of two minute conversations, then you know, you don't get access.

[00:13:43] Mie: But with a lot of teams, I've even rolled that back to did they show up and make X amount of dials? Because even getting to a two minute conversation, which is the goal, that is also a skillset. And so, , it's on me as the leader to look at that information and say, what do I have to do to help them bridge the gap Now?

[00:13:58] Mie: , I see this all the time. We are smart people, okay? Human beings are, fairly smart and I don't think that we are inherently, I. Deceptive. I do think that we can do things that help us survive, , which is why like, you know, I don't get butt hurt over people lying, and that's a hot take, but like, I know like we're always gonna self preserve.

[00:14:18] Mie: You know? That's what a lot of people are doing. Not, everybody has like super, super, super deep integrity around something like. Calling my mom to get my two minute conversation, calling my grandma to get my two minute comfort. I've seen it so many times. Oh, every day? Yeah. Yeah. I don't accept that, by the way.

[00:14:34] Mie: That's not behavior. We're like, that's okay. I'm just not gonna get emotionally charged around it. But me inspecting the database and saying, oh, hey, we're not counting that. That doesn't count as a two minute conversation. and then I might even say, what made you think that that would be okay you know, help me understand, when you called your grandma, if that led to a real estate conversation or you know, like I'm gonna get curious around it.

[00:14:54] Mie: But if I see that happening over and over again, like that's a hard and fast line for me where I have to set the boundary and then the natural consequence of that has to unfold if they break that boundary again. So like. If I say, Hey, we don't count two minute conversations with your family members, short of them actually wanting to buy a home or like your best friend, like, I'm looking for leads that came in, I'm looking at, and absolutely we're gonna call our sphere so I can see my grandma, , come up through those calls that doesn't have a real estate need once every quarter.

[00:15:23] Mie: That's totally acceptable. That's in my, database schedule calls. But if I'm seeing that like consistently, which by the way, I would only know as a team owner if I'm inspecting the database. , which that would give me insight to like who they're actually calling. And so, yeah, I wanna make sure I set, you know, a standard around that.

[00:15:39] Mie: If I catch it, I don't like it. I wanna make sure that I let them know and I haven't given them that standard that I make sure that standard is implemented and then I have to hold them accountable to it. And then there's gonna be a natural consequence around, you know, that being broken. 'cause that's actually how you hold the boundary or hold the standard.

[00:15:55] Mie: Now I like to look at activity. So in order to get. , Let's say 22 minute conversations per week. I'm gonna need somewhere between 50 and a hundred dials. Ideally, like perfect, world like ideal situation that I wish every agent would just follow. This equation So a hundred dials, 10 contacts outta that. hundred dials. So about a 10% answer rate. Out of those 10, 40 to 70% of those would turn it into two minute conversations at the low end.

[00:16:21] Mie: That would be about 20 conversations a week, and that is a huge win. At the high end, that would be 35 conversations per week. That's an even bigger win. And so, , I want the minimum for the agents to be 22 minute conversations per week. So when I'm inspecting the database, I wanna see a valiant effort.

[00:16:38] Mie: When I'm looking at the metrics and the reporting I'm looking at, did they get their, , dials and contacts in? And, I might not disqualify them from getting opportunities if they're not getting two minute conversations, unless months have gone by and their skillset has not improved. And that's a higher level conversation.

[00:16:56] Mie: Mm-hmm. So for me, when we look at like lead distribution and what's acceptable, not acceptable, I wanna see that, , they've made a valiant effort. And then if there's a skillset deficit or a skillset gap. I want to work on that skillset deficit or gap with them, and I want to see the effort of them working on that skillset.

[00:17:17] Mie: So showing up is number one. , Instead of going four to five days a week, I like to go with the 80 20 rule overall per quarter. And so let's say that, you know, there's 13 weeks in a quarter and me personally, I. Budget agents goals on 48 weeks a year. And so I'm expecting there to be like four weeks off a year where there's like, you know, having a day, days, personal days, vacation days, sick days, et cetera.

[00:17:39] Mie: So out of those, , 13 weeks, I wanna see like 80 20. Did they show up 80% of the time? So 13 times five is 65, I think is the number. 13 times five. Yeah, and so they could miss 13 of those 65 days. But that's including, you know, if I'm doing five days that weekend. that's including the, even if it's just a scripting of that day or a team meeting.

[00:18:01] Mie: So you might not have five days of show up opportunities. If you only do two days a week of show up opportunities, then you would do that 13 times two and it would be 26 opportunities, and then it would be like five days out of those 26 they could miss. So I like an 80 20 rule personally, because life is gonna happen.

[00:18:21] Mie: . Now with that, , with the role playing, my recommendation is for one-on-one role plays, meaning that, , if I am, , an agent that is going to role play with another agent, not in a group, , structure, but really like just one-on-one, I wanna see that they get three per week minimum.

[00:18:38] Mie: Three per week minimum five max five maximum script practices because we don't inherently value script practice or role playing the way we would cashing a commission check or getting an agreement signed. And although logically we understand there's a massive benefit, even as the individual agent would, understand there's a massive benefit to role playing.

[00:19:01] Mie: Intrinsically. More often than not, their dopamine response is not wired that way. It's kind of like the stretching of a workout or the salad of a meal plan. It's like you're not gonna see 10 pounds come off with a salad and you're not gonna see the muscles blow up with the stretching, but you never regret it being done and you know that it's a benefit towards your like, overall goal.

[00:19:20] Mie: But you get more wiggle room with, falling off. So like if I. don't stretch before my workout, it'll be a while before I realize that that had a, negative impact on me. And role play is very similar. I'm not getting that like immediate, , feedback on like the downfall of me not doing that behavior or that activity until much later on.

[00:19:40] Mie: And so, , we don't want them to burn out on it. So if we do more than five and we have them doing, like if they take it upon themselves to do two a day, I'm like, stop immediately. No more than one per day, no more than 15 minutes, unless you're sitting down to do like a full consult, role play. Mm-hmm. that 15 minutes should be, it can be that initial conversation.

[00:20:01] Mie: So like if your, , , conversion rate is one to 2%, which is essentially, you know, , 50 to a hundred nos to find one yes. For my contacts. Then my skillset, , focus should be around that initial call the actual phone conversation with the lead source. Okay? However. Let's say that I'm like somewhere between the five to 8%.

[00:20:22] Mie: Yes, there's absolutely room for improvement. Yes, I should incorporate those lead sources, , or that initial conversation with the lead inside of my role plays, but my actual big focus can shift a little bit. So now I might wanna look at. The MET consultation, what's my conversion rate on getting a consultation signed?

[00:20:39] Mie: And then I wanna break that up a little bit. So I'm gonna practice the conversation in that 15 minutes, which really that means I get six to seven minutes if my partner also is taking up half of the time that maybe we're gonna practice the me asking to get the agreement signed or me explaining what the process will look like or me explaining how to interact with my tech in the consultation or me practicing the listing.

[00:21:01] Mie: consultation through the pricing conversation or working through my commission or how to talk about a seller net sheet. So my role play doesn't have to be limited to. Those initial conversations. However, it's absolutely where everyone should start until they know what they convert at. So I wanna see realistically that it only takes you 20 nos to get one.

[00:21:22] Mie: Yes, I'll meet with you. So 20 contacts for one. Yes. I'll meet with you.

[00:21:25] Lauren: Okay. And I'm writing a lot of things down that you're saying. 'cause I think it's really important to highlight the benefit to this conversation because it's not, we're not just talking about leads here and we are, talking about the actual conversion of that lead.

[00:21:40] Lauren: Mm-hmm. And the psychology and the life cycle of that lead. Yeah. the lead comes in. Mm-hmm. And we are trying to convert that lead. 'cause that's likely a cold. It's a cold lead. Yeah. We've never built this relationship with them.

[00:21:51] Lauren: Right. So we're lead generating, we're cold calling. , We're trying to figure out and master how to ask for that appointment. Yes. That's the first goal. This first set, right? Yes. So you set the appointment and you actually need to go meet. And have that appointment. It does not matter if you set 'em and don't go on 'em.

[00:22:09] Lauren: That is not moving the needle forward.

[00:22:10] Mie: And set to met is a big gap conversion rate because you go from 5%, which is high for contact to appointment set, and then I wanna see contact to conversation somewhere around 40 to 70%. But that's not a metric that's talked about a lot. , But if I'm gonna get four per day and I need to get like 10 contacts per day, it's about 40%.

[00:22:29] Mie: And then. appointment set to appointment met is the next big gap. And this is where agents can really struggle, , because they are learning how to walk the line of too aggressive and not aggressive enough. Because if you're like overly aggressive and someone will say whatever it is you wanna hear, just to get you off the phone, including, yes, I'll meet with you.

[00:22:48] Mie: It doesn't help you to the set to met goal. And then if you never ask for the business and you don't know how to keep them on the phone, then you lose on that set to met goal. Mm-hmm. And so ideally we wanna see them at 75% minimum set to met. Like that's the first average benchmark we want them at.

[00:23:05] Mie: Many of them are somewhere between a, , 25 and 50% when they're like unskilled and just getting started and working just with cold leads. So I wouldn't incorporate sphere or warm referrals into that, , conversion rate initially.

[00:23:17] Mie: I like to see the first half of lead generation is prospecting for new business. So if I have a new lead come in and they don't answer, I call 'em on day two, they don't answer.

[00:23:26] Mie: I call 'em day three and I, so I call them 10 to 14 days. So that one lead can be called every day for up to 10 days, so I don't have to have a hundred new leads a day. Yes. Okay. These touch points

[00:23:36] Lauren: are something I don't think we've talked about yet too. Mm-hmm. It's a lot of times agents are giving up too quickly.

[00:23:42] Lauren: On the lead, that is what is hurting our conversion. So if someone is truly not ready to buy, they have whatever reasons and they actually cannot even get pre-approved yet for the loan, stay in touch with them. That doesn't mean they're a no forever, they're a no for right now.

[00:23:56] Mie: Yeah, exactly. I mean, we all know like the old adage, that like real estate agents don't follow up.

[00:24:02] Mie: , and I believe I've identified the core reasons why that happens. and I would love to, you know, break this down with anyone who disagrees. , Number one, they don't know what to say. They don't know what to say. They don't know how to follow up, , and exactly what to say. For real estate agents, he has a really simple structure that I think you could use for every intro call, every follow up call.

[00:24:21] Mie: A polite greeting, a mutually agreeable fact, and an easy to answer question. Hey, Lauren, the last time we spoke, you were looking in the Phoenix area. What's changed since we spoke last? Hey, Lauren. , , This is Mia over at Brokerage. , Last time we spoke you were looking for a three bedroom, two bath, but I see that your search has updated.

[00:24:36] Mie: What's changed for you? , I can make it a really simple, mutually agreeable fact and a really simple. , Easy to answer question and there's my follow up framework. Mm-hmm. It doesn't ever have to include the words. Just following up. Just checking in. And number two. They're too hyper obsessed or hyper-focused with the low hanging fruit, and they don't know how to look at their business from the full picture because they're desperate for money right now. Or they're just like taking the instant gratification path unbeknownst to them.

[00:25:04] Mie: It's just usually a subconscious behavior. I. And so they don't value nurtures and follow ups as the business that feeds them forever. It's that I gotta find business right now, and if I don't, I've been defeated. I didn't win. I'm sucking at my job. I'm not like, so we have to help agents reframe the way that they actually, , , operate or, , play inside of the process versus making everything about the end game and the outcome because we've created our own monsters.

[00:25:29] Lauren: Mm-hmm. A lot of what I'm seeing right now in the industry is it's painful, I'm also seeing so covid aside, you know, or the pandemic aside, when business was just falling into people's laps, everyone was getting licensed. We're back to inventory is low or Wherever you live, something is always going wrong.

[00:25:47] Lauren: It's always going to be like this. Yes. I think it's fair to say. So nothing has changed. It's how hard are you willing to work? And so I think if we need to strip it down, it's some of the most successful real estate agents I've seen, if they're truly hungry enough, they're calling.

[00:26:05] Lauren: First thing in the, morning to last thing in the evening. You know, those are those VIP agents that want it. They're hungry. , I'm seeing a lot of, I'm gonna put quote unquote burnout in the industry right now. Mm-hmm. And I think we need to qualify and quantify what burnout actually looks like.

[00:26:21] Lauren: it's like a hamster wheel running and running and not producing a result. Yeah. So if you're doing that, The definition of insanity is doing the same, thing over and over again and expecting a different result. So if you're doing the same thing, or maybe you are doing all the right things too, we're not saying you're doing these things wrong.

[00:26:38] Lauren: You could be calling and you might not be seeing a result, and there truly is, , a low inventory or something going on in your market that's preventing you. How are we going to get ahead and get creative? To solve that problem because it's not gonna go

[00:26:50] Mie: away. And that's when you get permission to do that though, you have to look back.

[00:26:54] Mie: Okay? Over the past three months, over the past six months, have I shown up consistently to the metrics that I actually have to do day in and day out in order for me to move the needle forward? if the answer is yes. Then I get to play with strategy, then I get to play with creativity, then I get to dip into things.

[00:27:08] Mie: Yeah. So like I have a coaching client right now. I love him and his wife. They're so awesome. They'll know who they are if they're listening to this, their market, they have so many buyers and like the inventory is basically non-existent in their market right now. So they are showing up, doing the work.

[00:27:24] Mie: And guess what? They got a ton of buyers. And then their market boom. which is why you always need to keep a lot of listings. And so what are we doing right now? Our focus is heavily on creating, listing inventory, creating inventory, creating inventory, creating inventory. So not only are we calling old expired and doing the golden letters and like focusing on, like every seller lead source that we can, we're reverse prospecting for buyers, you know, so we're calling old expires and saying, I've got these buyers who can't find a home, which is what we did in Covid too, by the way.

[00:27:52] Mie: , To create the inventory. And so you still have to, like, the metrics aren't gonna change. You still have to show up and do the work. How you do it might look a little bit different based on what the need of your market is saying, but you don't need to go create a brand new drip plan. You don't need to go put on this massive event.

[00:28:06] Mie: Like if you're impulse is to go get creative, you're avoiding the pain, that's really what's happening. You're avoiding the discomfort of the situation you're in, and you really have to double down on the activities portion. That's really what's gonna come down to.

[00:28:19] Lauren: It's the same thing is looking at your bank statements. If you're saying, I don't have money, okay. What we're gonna do is now let's go look at your, p and l. Let's go look at your bank statements and see where the money's actually going. What you're spending, oh, you went to Starbucks every single day, twice a day, maybe.

[00:28:33] Lauren: Maybe that expense has gotta go. Yeah. , Same thing of I'm doing all these activities and nothing's happening. Okay, let's go inspect your calendar and then inspect your follow up boss. it's how we hold ourselves accountable. It's the same exact thing with lead distribution and going into your CRM and auditing your database. Mm-hmm. It's auditing, fitness, financials, calendar database. Okay. That's how we hold ourselves accountable.

[00:28:55] Lauren: So. to put a bow on this Mia, what is our biggest takeaway out of this today?

[00:29:00] Mie: , Dude, and maybe this is like annoying for everybody, but it's always gonna come down to the very simple metrics of like, inspect your database. We generate with the agents, we generate for the agents.

[00:29:09] Mie: and if you struggle is with the agents. You model what you want from them. You are modeling, , for them what you expect of them. So if they don't see you lead generating, if they don't see you, if you're not inspecting the database, then you're not modeling the behavior that you want from them.

[00:29:24] Mie: Mm-hmm. Now, if you're completely out of production, who's the person that's modeling that for them? By the way, Nick McLean still inspects his database. and I love, this is such a baller move. We'll see an agent. , , , Inquiry come in for an agent, and if it's not taken care of, he'll just throw 'em in a group text together.

[00:29:41] Mie: All right? That's accountability. That's accountability. Mm-hmm. And so, , , don't be afraid to stand up for their highest good, because unintentionally what can happen is you love them into failure. When you let those things slide.

[00:29:52] Lauren: Accountability is not micromanagement. It is clarity. Consistency and care.

[00:29:57] Lauren: Love it. I appreciate you. I'm glad we got to

[00:30:00] Speakers 1: do this

[00:30:00] Lauren: today. Appreciate

[00:30:00] Speakers 1: thanks for having us

[00:30:01] Mie: everyone.

[00:30:02] Speakers 1: Thanks guys.