Half a Billion in Sales with 50% Fewer Agents—Here’s How with Elias Astuto

[00:00:00] Elias: If you were compelled by your vision, then you would have no excuses. None, nothing stands in my way. I have challenges. I have insecurities, but nothing will stand in the way. And so if I can help an agent see that, then they can't come to the calls. Like, oh, I didn't do this. I didn't do that because now they're letting themselves down and their vision.

[00:00:20] Elias: True state that they're on, there's no alignment, there's no congruency. So if I can get them in alignment and get them congruent with their feelings and their thoughts and their actions, It's game over.

[00:00:38] Nick: Welcome back to the reside platform podcast. I'm your host, Nick McLean, co founder of the reside platform. And I'm really excited about today's episode because this is the missing link for teams that I'm studying, helping build, grow and scale to actually. Building and owning an asset that's worth selling and being able to scale your team to 50 million, a hundred million, 200 million, a billion dollars in sales.

[00:01:06] Nick: I'm here with Elias Tuto. He's the director of sales and coaching at Fast Real Estate in California. They have just closed $590 million. They're number two exp worldwide. And a lot of it has to do with what you're going about to learn today. So you're going to want to take notes.

[00:01:26] Nick: You're going to fall along because I was introduced to Elias because John texted me. And when John Sheplak texts you to say, you need to have this guy on your show, on the podcast, you have them on the show. And John's a co founder of the Redite platform. So here we are. Welcome to the show.

[00:01:42] Elias: Well, I appreciate it, my man. Thank you. Happy holidays to you. Happy holidays to anybody that sees this. And just a quick correction. We're at 562 million closed this year with 50 million coming. So, close though, really close.

[00:01:55] Nick: You know, a half a billion dollars in sales in a marketplace that probably had a lot of struggles. California. I mean, not all the marketplaces in California we're seeing. I mean, we were hearing about people leaving town. Maybe that's good for us. But, tell us a little bit before we get into the current state of California.

[00:02:12] Nick: We want to talk about team building, scaling and success. You're obviously seeing success. How did you end up here? How did you end up? At fast real estate, give us a background so that we can move forward.

[00:02:23] Elias: Yeah, just a quick Reader's Digest version in 2016, I was working for a Coldwell banker as a district sales manager over their entire leads department, online leads department and ranked number two in the entire country for conversion at that time, Realogy purchased another small brand called Climb Real Estate.

[00:02:43] Elias: Super funky indie brand. Completely different than what Caldwell Baker was. And so through my years at Caldwell Baker, I obviously started hearing the name and I would see it on different publications. And so I interviewed with them. I said, I want to know what this is all about since it's a sister company.

[00:02:58] Elias: And I went there and you walked into the office and it was like the Google of real estate and they had all these themed rooms and it was this. Open concept, no cubicles. And it was so cool. And everyone was themselves, you know, that tattoos and they were rocking their hair out wherever they wanted to.

[00:03:14] Elias: And so it was just an environment where I felt at home. And so I got in negotiations with them and ended up coming over to climb real estate. Well, in 2018, and going into 2019, I didn't know, but Realogy had been in conversations obviously with Corcoran at the time and deciding which. Product were, they can want to launch to the masses.

[00:03:35] Elias: And at that time they decided to sunset the client brand and go full tilt with the Corcoran brand. So in 2019, at the end, they closed climb real estate and left us all in free agency. And that's where I met Kenny. Who's my business partner. Now, Kenny, you had been the number one agent in all of Oakland for 11 years.

[00:03:54] Elias: He ran the online leads department for climb. And then they pulled the wool. Are the carpet from underneath us. And so in January of 2020, we interviewed every single brokerage out there and we came to exp at that time. And the reason why we came here is because two reasons a it was very inexpensive to come here from a brokerage level And b which has always been most important for us We were able to build a brand that didn't have to conform to what industry standards set our brand needed to look or feel like And from there, we just, we never turned back.

[00:04:25] Elias: We never lost sight of the vision from 10. We hit 90 by the end of the year for agent count. We did 127 million our first year by year two, we did 680 million. And so we got to a point where at one time we're at 374 agents in our population. We've downsized since then we've raised our standards. We've reduced our, agent population, but, That was the start

[00:04:49] Nick: this is interesting. So when you go to and you've been in the role of director of sales and coaching since day one, were you working with Kenny at climb?

[00:04:57] Elias: Yeah. So I was the East space manager and he had a small team called hashtag team fast, which I think at that time he had like four people.

[00:05:04] Nick: And were you just associated, you guys were just associated with each other, not working together for the common mission and vision and the goals.

[00:05:12] Elias: yeah, my role was productivity for the company. And so of course, you know, fast agents fell into that. category, he was hooking them up. He was feeding them leads. He was training them, working with them out on the

[00:05:21] Elias: field.

[00:05:22] Nick: how did that, conversation go? Take me back to that point where Kenny and you have this conversation about going to eXp or about working to make not eXp, but working together. How did that come about?

[00:05:35] Elias: so as soon as Klein closed down, Kenny was figuring out what he wanted to do while I have a small child at the time, I was used to having a salary, you know, I need to make sure I made ends meet. And so I took a temporary job. Why it was temporary. When I look back at it in my mind, I took a job.

[00:05:52] Elias: Better homes and garden as the regional director of sales and business growth, right? They need a resurgence in our market. It is a really, really archaic brand in our market. So I was like, Oh, I could take this brand to the next level. Well knowing who I am and knowing my skills and how I express myself, it was a complete identity crisis.

[00:06:13] Elias: So I was there for about 30 to 45 days. Kenny and I started talking. He's like, I need a sales manager to help me build this thing. He's like, but I can't pay you. What does that actually look like? He's like, there's this thing it's called rev share. And I was like, all right. He's like, but you got to get the agents productive in order for you to receive any money.

[00:06:33] Elias: And then you and I could form a partnership and on the deals that come into the company. So I said, listen, I believe in it so much. I believe in the vision, the cause, the purpose crusade. I said. Let's do this. So I left the guaranteed salary. I left the insurance. I left everything that was stable and took a chance and took a leap of faith.

[00:06:51] Elias: And I've never looked back, nor have I ever regretted it. And Nick, I've worked harder now cause I'm so entrenched in, and I'm a part of it than I've ever worked in my life, but I'm more passionate about it than I've ever been in my life, so,

[00:07:04] Nick: The reason I'm interested in that is because I truly believe that the director of sales is the missing link and it's a linchpin for. Some of the best, most successful teams I've ever been a part of or coached and consulted, but it's a position that is, rarely in place. It's rarely on the org chart is typically the team leader is holding that hat or wearing the hat.

[00:07:24] Nick: And sometimes the team leader is really, really good at it, but Kenny actually said, I need one. I need to find that person that who. And so what would you say to the people out there that they're going to be inspired by this promise you what is it? What is that role? What are the duties and responsibilities?

[00:07:42] Nick: And then I want you to layer in that. Who is that person? what's their personality like? What makes them tick? What makes them drive? And a lot of that is who you are. because I'm seeing a lot of similarities in your personality, the way you think, the way you drive, the way you want to work with other people in that.

[00:07:59] Nick: So let's start with director of sales. What is that role look like to you? What does it mean to you? How's it fit?

[00:08:04] Elias: yeah. And I think too, when you think about. Team leaders that can do both. I get that. don't think that that works for the masses. When I think about Kenny and who Kenny is, Kenny is the visionary, right? And I think of Kenny is like a, a Walt Disney. Walt Disney is designing the experiences, but he needs imagineers to bring those experiences to life.

[00:08:25] Elias: Hence why I'm in my role. And so I consider myself as an imagineer to say, okay, what is the big vision of the company? And what is the vessel that's going to get us there? What is the, It's a small world. What's the star Wars experience. so it's my job to look at the collective of what the company goals are and say, how can I move production and move behavior?

[00:08:45] Elias: And how can I move change on a massive scale? And at first my calendar was stacked one on ones. All day long. And then I started moving people into group settings and now I let the collective wisdom start to train and coach and inspire other people and everyone's sharing their strategies. And so early on, it was just go, go, go.

[00:09:03] Elias: And then I started a group and put people in these, rooms together. And what I've seen change and what I've seen. mean, the most to me and most impact is watching somebody fearful, scared to get on the mic, won't have their camera on a little gun shy. Their voice is cracking a little bit. When we ask them to speak on stage or on a zoom to where six months later, a year later, if they trust the process, if they believe in the things that I'm sharing with them and they know the impact it's going to have on their business.

[00:09:32] Elias: And then you see them grow and you see them grow. And then you say. It's your time to talk and they grab the mic or they share something with the team that is so powerful. And then you watch their production from struggling moms, struggling, single dads, not having anything to having so many opportunities in their life because they've been a student of coaching.

[00:09:52] Elias: They followed the sequence. They follow the pattern. I say, I don't need any accolades. Show me your receipts. Your receipts. Are you on social? You post in the sales, you out there making an impact in your community. what I want to see, right? You go in and purchasing a home for you and your son, you know, not having anything before.

[00:10:11] Elias: So for me, the passion comes from seeing them elevate their lives. the money comes and goes right. But their growth is something that means the most to me, means the most to me. And I get inspired by that. And it forces me to keep on going and keep on pushing and finding new ways to connect with them.

[00:10:28] Elias: So if you ask me what it means to me, it means everything to me to see them grow at the highest level.

[00:10:34] Nick: That's awesome. And when you're, talking about this and you're listening to what he's saying, he's talking about his developing is the people within the company. And these are sales agents, right? These are people on the team that are going to be face to face with the consumer. And so Kenny has this vision on what the experience is going to be like, what the amusement park is going to be like, what the movie is going to be like.

[00:10:55] Nick: And then you go out here and you're training the. staff, the salespeople to deliver that as an imagineer. Is that what it was? It's so beautiful. So there's this book called rocket fuel and it was probably like eight to 10 years ago, it was trending in the real estate team world where you wanted it.

[00:11:15] Nick: There was visionaries and integrators. And I just wrote about this this morning. It's funny that we're having this podcast today. That everyone interpreted that book as the visionaries, me, the CEO, the leader to cast the vision, the mission, and then I need to integrate her to put it all in place.

[00:11:31] Nick: And so they went out there and they hired the best thing administrative assistance they could find. And these people are awesome. And trust me, a lot of them hired awesome listing coordinators, transaction coordinators, executive assistants that could put their systems in place to manage the transaction, to manage the process.

[00:11:49] Nick: But I think we missed the point. And the point was the integrator is also in a sales organization, the sales manager. And you just nailed it. The sales manager is the integrator because they're integrating the people that are coming onto the company into that sales agent that can perform the experience.

[00:12:09] Nick: Do you agree? Do you disagree? Add on to that.

[00:12:12] Elias: Yeah, so I, think that I do consider myself an integrator and a people mover when I think about what I do. I think I'm a people mover. I learned this from chap, you know, I'm in the business of human development. And if I can impact the human, then I can impact the production side. And that's my claim to fame.

[00:12:28] Elias: We also have an integrator that is our director of operations. So she's an integrator of processes. Right. And then we have an integrator that is there for anything that is contractual. so believe it's broken into three pieces. We have an integrator for processes, director of operations. We have an integrator for compliance, let's say compliance and contractual.

[00:12:49] Elias: And then there's an integrator who's the mover of people. we've been together now for four years, it's been Kenny. Karina director, executive director, Molly, who is the director of operations and me as the director of sales and coaching, Kenny and I are front of the house, Molly and Karina are back of the house.

[00:13:05] Elias: So I think that all three of us operate as integrators.

[00:13:13] Nick: integrator right there. So you need to go back and listen to that again. Now those three integrators, the same hack can be worn by the same person until you reach a level of revenue where you can afford three amazing people like, the three people you just named,

[00:13:28] Elias: wasn't like that in the beginning. So Molly was like, marketing assistant, she would help with some of the marketing, then she was, in charge of onboarding and now she's, behind the scenes and helping the whole entire organization run. Now, Karina does some of that, but her main focus is making sure she's the Oracle.

[00:13:44] Elias: How do we teach everybody what they need to know? How do we do contractual? How do we do all the got a minutes and how do we compartmentalize? That four times a week to where it's not every single day. Hey, I got a minute. Got a minute. Got a minute. Got a minute. That sucks up time. I don't do any of that.

[00:13:59] Elias: What I focus on is the development of the agents, coaching, training, and productivity.

[00:14:03] Nick: who's bringing on the agents who's owning, recruiting agent attraction. Interviewing.

[00:14:08] Elias: I do every single interview of agents that come unless it's somebody that is close to Kenny and that he's known from our, industry, I do, I'd say 95 percent of all the interviews and the reason why is because I create a better experience than Kenny he'll himself, I create a better experience and he would,

[00:14:28] Nick: I mean, you could call yourself director of growth. You could call yourself a recruiter, because you're owning that part of the silo, that company as well. You got to bring the people, you not only have to integrate them into the process, but you got to bring them in

[00:14:39] Elias: totally. But here's the cool thing, Nick. So Kenny and I aren't out calling agents. Hey, we want to talk to you about growth opportunities within our organization. I'd say more than 50 percent of all the agents that we've brought on this year are from agent to agent referrals from people that are already on the team or people that are already at EXP and say, have this person, they'd be a good fit for your team because you guys can coach, train and develop them.

[00:15:02] Elias: And so a lot of those are internal referrals.

[00:15:05] Nick: you have created this experience in which people are raving about it, just like you would your buyers or sellers and referring you more people. Yeah, experienced that in the growth of my team where, you know, one agent does so well and transforms their life You know, personally and professionally, then they start telling their cousins to join.

[00:15:24] Nick: when you start getting people to refer their family members, you know, you've earned some trust. Have you seen that friends and family, right?

[00:15:31] Elias: totally. and we do a really good job at events. And so we obviously open the events to the entire market. And then typically when someone is in our environment, when you talk about the intangibles, right, the energy, the feeling, the spirit, right? Well, if they're in the room and they're a part of that energy and that feeling, that spirit, then when we have that conversation with the agent, they've already felt it.

[00:15:54] Elias: They've already felt it. Now let's just talk about the particulars. Let's talk about splits and all the other stuff. But if we can have them experience the intangibles from there, it is a really, really easy conversation for me to bring them into our environment. So we do a lot of agent traction through events.

[00:16:09] Nick: Where would somebody in any one of the States or even in Canada, they're listening to this going. I want you. I need you. I want this role where they find a sales manager.

[00:16:21] Elias: I would look internally. First off, I would look for leadership, abilities. I will look at people that have asked to step up that are mentors that are just leading without even having a title. I would look there first, but I would also look outside of the industry. I think that we can get a lot of different ideas and different perspectives from people that aren't in the industry as long as they know how to lead and coach and drive sales production.

[00:16:47] Elias: I don't care what industry they come from. So I would, open up my mind to say, it doesn't just have to be real estate leaders. It could be somebody that ran, an organization at Netflix or at Google, or I don't care. As long as that person has an ability to move people and move the needle in a sales organization, they can prove that and they have a track record of that.

[00:17:07] Elias: I'm open for that conversation. I'm open for that conversation all day long.

[00:17:11] Nick: Yeah, because you know, we were talking before this podcast. You also do coaching

[00:17:15] Nick: group coaching and coaching. If you were taking on sales manager. You're going to develop and train a sales manager to do what you do for their organization. how do you train somebody to do what you do?

[00:17:28] Nick: what are you teaching them? What are you coaching them on? How are you guiding them?

[00:17:32] Elias: So one of the first challenges that I do have, working with sales leaders is how to remove the ego first and then start to do the work with the agents, right? Oh, it's my way. And this is the way don't talk to other people. I've heard this time and time again. It's like, how do we remove our ego first?

[00:17:48] Elias: Get out of our egoistical mind and say, okay, now let me be present in this moment. And I think a lot of sales leaders think, Oh, I need to tell you what to do. No KPI stats and figures are not going to move people if you've not connected with the human being. So first and foremost, I want to do an audit of the people.

[00:18:05] Elias: Where are you at with the relationship with the people and how are you communicating with those people? And what is the biggest challenge that you have in your communication? What do you believe is not received well from the people that you're working with in your environment and tell me about that.

[00:18:18] Elias: That, that's where I wanna start. I wanna know about the communication, your relationship that you have with the people. Then I want you to show me your data. I want you to show me the appointments that have been set, the appointments that have been met, the conversations, and I want you to look at the data and I want you to tell me on each deficiency that you have on your data set, how would you coach?

[00:18:37] Elias: And how would you hold people accountable based on the data? And I want to hear it from them. I want you to share with me how you would actually coach somebody if their appointment set rate was at 75, but their appointment met rate was at 20%. What is the deficiency there and how are you going to coach them?

[00:18:52] Elias: So, Hey, the people. The communication and then be being able to look at all the data and saying, how do I coach, train and develop agents based on what the data is telling me? Because the data tells a story and the data tells you how to hold the people accountable in your organization. And if a sales manager can't look at the numbers and say, okay, there's a gap right there, there's a gap right there.

[00:19:14] Elias: Okay, cool. You found it. Now, what are we going to do about it? Wonderful. I'm going to hold you accountable to that. And let's get to work. That's where I would start. That's where I would start.

[00:19:22] Nick: what was an aha for me listening to say that is number one, you got to start with the people in terms of what's your relationship like, how's the communication delivered? How is the communication received? Before you go to the numbers and then when you go to the numbers, number one?

[00:19:37] Nick: Are you capturing the numbers? are they accurate? Who cares? But based on the numbers you have, how are you going to deliver that as a coach To your agents. And that's kind of a role play, right? How do you role play that KPIs to move the people to change action? I mean, the whole point of keeping the metrics is to probably change the behavior or continue behavior you want to see persist and continue.

[00:20:01] Nick: So give me an example of this role play for a second. Let's imagine if you're open to that, are you open for a

[00:20:06] Nick: little role play? you know, I'm an agent. You're the sales manager. And how often are we meeting? Are we meeting once a month

[00:20:13] Elias: let's say you came to me and you had a challenge in your business. I said, are you committed to growing and changing and making an impact in your life and business? And you tell me. Yes. Cool. I need you to go on my calendar right now. I need you to schedule for the next six to eight weeks.

[00:20:27] Elias: Okay. One hour a week. we don't skip those meetings. We don't cancel those meetings. And if you have not done the things that I'm going to ask you to do this week or next week that we do not proceed to the next week. Are you committed to that? Yes, I'm committed. All right. So let's get that commitment out of the way.

[00:20:41] Elias: So now we're here. Go ahead. Let's role play

[00:20:44] Nick: so you get them to commit not just to one meeting, but to six, eight meetings. And at those meetings, I have to deliver reports or figures or numbers.

[00:20:56] Elias: so it's wins challenges. The biggest focus that you have right now, like where are you focused on your business and then accountability from the prior week, whether that was dropped a certain amount of videos, track X amount of activities, wherever that is. If that's not done, then I don't want to move forward.

[00:21:10] Nick: Well, instead of role playing it, where do you see the biggest gaps? Typically at the beginning of this eight week process, where are the gaps? that you're seeing? Lack of phone calls, lack of action.

[00:21:20] Elias: I think it's the same across the board when you're dealing with people that are, Kind of in growth mode, they're up and comers. And that's kind of where our sweet spot is new agents. And then up and comers, Hey, show me how you're spending your time. I want to see your calendar. So I know that you can actively choose the energy that is going to be needed for all of these endeavors. And if they're not on there, then that's going to be one of the things that we have to do. Show me your CRM. I don't want to see any consumers and lead status. I want to know that.

[00:21:49] Elias: Each of them have a disposition. They're moving them down the sales funnel. Show me that. Show me your Instagram. You say that you want to be known and you want to create this amount of money for you and your family. Then show me your Instagram and I'll tell you how visible you are or you are not. And then lastly, tell me about your workout routines and your me time, how much time you actually spend.

[00:22:11] Elias: Spending on your own temple, focusing on your health, your energy, and your vitality. Because if you're going to run at this pace and build this business and be everything that you want for you and for your family, and you're not putting yourself first, you're going to lose that battle. You're going to lose that battle.

[00:22:25] Elias: You're going to get stressed out. You're going to hit a wall and you're going to have burnout. You have burnout because you didn't make the choices correctly and everybody got all of your energy because you didn't protect it because it wasn't scheduled. So that's where I would start.

[00:22:36] Nick: love that show me calendar. inspect that that's open up the CRM. And that immediately tells me when you jump on these calls, zooms one on ones in person. You're on the offense, you're not on the defense, are you? So you have control of that as a leader.

[00:22:56] Elias: You may have heard of, it's called Shiloh AI and Shiloh AI, any calls that are made through follow up boss, they automatically get called, they get recorded, but then they get categorized and then there's coaching notes on every single one of those calls. So I could bring up your calls, Nick.

[00:23:11] Elias: I'm like, okay, cool. You made the calls. Awesome. Now let's go and watch tape or listen to tape you're how well they are doing or how well they are not doing and they listen to the cringy calls or the really good calls or the in between calls. And so it gives me an ability to say, okay, you did the work.

[00:23:27] Elias: That's the step one. Now let's get some feedback based on the work that you did. And so I have a bunch of data that now I can coach to it. We said earlier, I can't do all that without knowing what is moving them. Like sometimes people say, Oh, well, my, why is my family? Is it really your family or is it something deeper?

[00:23:46] Elias: Is it something that doesn't have anything to do with your family? It's a chip on the shoulder. It's somebody that told you no, when you were younger, it was living on the streets when you were a kid, whatever that is, if I can get there and I can help them realize that If you were compelled by your vision, then you would have no excuses. None, nothing stands in my way. I have challenges. I have insecurities, but nothing will stand in the way. And so if I can help an agent see that, then they can't come to the calls. Like, oh, I didn't do this. I didn't do that because now they're letting themselves down and their vision.

[00:24:19] Elias: True state that they're on, there's no alignment, there's no congruency. So if I can get them in alignment and get them congruent with their feelings and their thoughts and their actions, It's game over.

[00:24:29] Nick: there's no surprise that you ended the year with over half a billion dollars in sales with, and you shared this with me, 49 percent less agents. In the previous year, so you actually got more out of fewer agents or you had to get more of the same age. It's just a match last year.

[00:24:46] Nick: there's no doubt. It's because you're having conversations like this. Is this what really moves the needle in production?

[00:24:51] Elias: What moves the needles in production is standards, right? I think there was a time where we brought on so many people and that standards would, sometimes move, but when the standards move or the rules move, then you have no rules and you have no standards. The moment that we said, no matter what happens in our organization, this is the standard, this is the principles that we operate on.

[00:25:12] Elias: And if you're not willing to live up to those or work in those standards, then you no longer should be a part of this organization. You put some heat on people and they're either going to rise to that, or they're going to see themselves out the door and we wish them all the best. And that's what's happened.

[00:25:27] Elias: We've raised the bar, the business got more challenging in how we articulate our value to our consumers. And if people are not willing to do those things that are not willing to raise their own standards, then peace out.

[00:25:38] Nick: I believe that you should have the fewest rules. Strictly enforced versus having a ton of rules that you can't enforce at all. And you kind of said the same thing, right? Where it's like you have all these rules, but rules are moving, the standards are moving, therefore you don't have anything that was brilliant, very, very brilliant.

[00:25:55] Nick: take me to that time where you, you know, you have 300 agents, 350 agents. Probably production is going down per agent. Some of them don't show up to anything. It's not the culture you want. You know, they're not going to make it anyways. What are the top three rules you would recommend someone put in place?

[00:26:11] Nick: What are those rules for your company that people could use as a principle or foundation for rules that they can have in their team?

[00:26:19] Elias: Yeah, we've made it simple. We've made it very, very simple. Two transactions within six months. If you don't hit that transaction number, but you've been doing all the action, right? You've been doing all the imperfect action. And we could see that you're showing up on social and you're coming to the group coachings and you're coming to script role play sessions.

[00:26:37] Elias: And like you were there and you were fully committed. We can see that and we're going to give that person a chance, but if you haven't done anything, you're not visible, you're not on social, you're not coming to coaching, you're not doing any of the things, then we have a choice at that point, you either recommit to your business, you go full tilt with the bootcamp with me for 30 days.

[00:26:58] Elias: And you have to complete that bootcamp and do all the metrics. And if you don't do that, then it's probably time that you just go back to being a solo agent or remove yourself from the company entirely. That's one standard second standard. If you're going to be on our online leads department have to maintain a certain conversion number.

[00:27:17] Elias: And if you're below that conversion number, then you have to attend two conversion clinics every single month. If you don't attend the conversion clinics, then your leads are going to be paused until you get yourself back into our good graces. So before, you know, with our leads department, Oh, we need coverage.

[00:27:36] Elias: So. Keep that person on Nick's a really good converter, even though he's gotten 50 leads and he hasn't converted anything. It's just been a bad run. No 30 leads. If you don't have anything converted, you're paused work. The leads that you have. Once you get one converted, we'll get you back on leads. If you are below your standards, then you are going to come to your conversion clinic.

[00:27:55] Elias: And that's a non negotiable. Production from, you know, all agents and then our conversion clinic. And we implemented a conversion coach and that person does what I do, but just with all of the online lead numbers, they are dead centered on, Oh, this person's below the metric pause. This person didn't hit the standard pause, And so he's been instrumental to the growth of that. Department. And I think we'll close out this month at about 125 percent of budget on our online leads department because we have raised the standards and that standard does not move at all. And I've pushed him and I've been hard on him. I said, we do not waiver at all.

[00:28:32] Elias: And if people want to be on this program, wonderful. We're going to support them, but they have to live up to the standards. And if they don't, that's not the program for them. We'll still support them overall in the company, but they're not a fit for the leads.

[00:28:42] Nick: so he's a direct report to you. He reports to you. So there's two, parts to this that I'm hearing. And there's the rule and the standard to be on the team and the organization, the business. And then there's another one, which is if the team is providing you leads, online leads, there's a certain conversion.

[00:28:59] Nick: Show me your receipts. There's a certain conversion percentage we need to see. Otherwise, we pause you and you work the ones you have. And then on both of those, if you don't meet the standard, we're not going to just First time you're out, you're going to recommit by doing a bootcamp or recommit with conversion, class, these bootcamps and conversion classes, they're probably already on the books.

[00:29:20] Nick: Are they already thought out they're happening on a rhythm?

[00:29:23] Elias: We do it. We do an audit of our, roster every quarter. Our next one is going to be on January 4th, just me and senior leadership. So we do an audit of our roster. We go through single person we have a pulse on. . .

[00:29:34] Elias: And then, for our online leads department before it was like, all right, if you get to 30 leads and you don't have a conversion, you're paused. Now I told Vernon, I said, you need to check with them at 15 leads to see, is there any challenges that we can get in front of. At 15 leads, right? Maybe their appointment set is really, really low.

[00:29:52] Elias: Okay. Tell me what we're doing, what we're saying. Let's listen to some calls. I said, I don't want to get to 30. I'm going to get to 15. I want you to listen. I want you to really get in tune with what they're doing and make some adjustments earlier. So it's not 30 leads in. So man, we've tightened up on our leads department.

[00:30:08] Nick: Oh, for sure. Like why wait until they failed? You're actually getting ahead of the defect and preventing them from failing. you guys understand this and listen to this again, like that's a realization. Don't wait for them to fail, go back and help them before they fail so that you can prevent them from having that conversation.

[00:30:28] Nick: You're trying to prevent people at having to recommit, having to go back to bootcamp,

[00:30:31] Elias: I tell my conversion coach, this is what I'll say this is to anybody that sees this protect the asset, the asset is the company generated leads. We have a responsibility to protect that asset. And a lot of times companies are like, well, I have to keep those people on because I need coverage. Well, hello, then why don't you go and recruit agents that are hungry for lead opportunities and to fill that void instead of saying, I have to lower my standards 'cause I need coverage.

[00:30:57] Elias: No, you need to go and recruit people that can handle the lead. Flow that you have, or tell your online lead platforms that, Hey, we need to reduce our lead count for right now until we can get our numbers back up and then launch with more leads down the road when we have more agents.

[00:31:11] Nick: That's right. You got to go to your lead provider and say, cut me off a leads because I'm not getting to them and all hands on deck, go get some agents and recruit them. Bring them on the company. what a lot of team leaders do. You've seen this, right? They increase their lead count.

[00:31:26] Nick: Well, I'm not getting the conversion I need. So then let me keep the conversion where it's at and just add more leads and it makes it worse. And then your standards go down.

[00:31:34] Elias: Yeah, man, Nick, I'm so glad we're having this conversation. We just implemented a lead certification through agently. Agently is another tool that I highly recommend that you explore. Well, now they have to go through 13 steps to get certified, to even receive a company generated lead. What does that certification include?

[00:31:54] Elias: It includes them listening to calls, making calls, making appointments, scoring at a certain level on the scale from one to five, doing a questionnaire.

[00:32:03] Elias: Because what I want to do is I want to reduce the amount of time it takes for an agent to convert a lead once they get into being able to receive leads from the company.

[00:32:12] Elias: So now they have to go through an actual certification and then they get certified to now be on the bench to be able to receive leads. So if something happens, the standards are met. We have to cut somebody, pause somebody. Good. You ready to come up from the minors? Wonderful. We've got a major league spot for you.

[00:32:28] Elias: So now we're going to have a bench of agents. And some of these agents are brand new. They've never worked the phones before, but by going through that certification, they're ready, right? We've heard their calls. We know their flow, their cadence, how they respond to consumer. And now we have a bench that is built so we could just place people in versus worrying if somebody has to get cut from leads or get paused,

[00:32:51] Nick: This is probably the greatest podcast on sales manager position and what's required. I've ever been a part of is something that I think about on a daily basis. And I, think this is so much needed in our industry right now. And for the people that don't have a sales manager, don't make an excuse that, Oh, I got to get one.

[00:33:10] Nick: No, you got to step up and build up your systems and do what we're saying to do right now. don't wait to put your rules in place or your standards in place. Have those in place so that when the sales manager can come in and can fulfill that. But I want to go to this roster idea. Whether you have one person on your roster or 100 people on roster or 300 people on your roster, you're looking at this roster on a quarterly basis.

[00:33:33] Nick: Where do you start? Do you put your energy at the top or the bottom

[00:33:36] Elias: we just work from, A to Z everyone has, you know, keep doing really great. Recommit or release.

[00:33:44] Nick: So you're going to keep, you're doing it. You're meeting the standard. Congratulations. You're below the standard. Barely. Is that what you're saying?

[00:33:53] Elias: Correct. Yeah, we crafted this email that says we understand things happen in life. You have a choice. You can either just , you know, be removed from the roster or go be a solo agent, or, go full tilt Elias for 30 days for our recommit program. It's going to be tough, but he's going to help you get back on track.

[00:34:11] Elias: And so the moment that they feel that pressure. They have a choice. do you want to spend 30 days with me? Because I'm going to kick you in the gut a little bit it's going to be hard, but I'm also going to love you and I'm going to pick you up throughout this process, or you just decide that I no longer want to be a part of it.

[00:34:26] Elias: And every time we send that email out, somebody bows out. Somebody texted me the other day. So it's the choice that I work with you for 30 days or leave the team. And mind you, this is a person that hadn't done a deal in quite some time. yeah, she says, I think I'm just going to leave.

[00:34:41] Nick: because it's two deals in six months or whatever it is for you. That's so funny. And then the bottom, the bottom half is.

[00:34:48] Nick: Release

[00:34:48] Elias: so the bottom half would be people that are,

[00:34:51] Nick: not half, not the bottom half, but below, below, below the standard.

[00:34:56] Elias: correct, so they have a choice, leave or

[00:34:58] Nick: recommit,

[00:34:59] Nick: So they can still recommit, right? For sure.

[00:35:02] Elias: correct.

[00:35:03] Nick: You remind me a lot of a position we have at the reside platform. Mia, I don't know if you've ever met Mia, but you need to meet Mia. Mia is essentially our sales manager for reside and she does a six week rise program. It's basically the recommitment program, but it's also the.

[00:35:19] Nick: The ramp up program. I mean, the bootcamp is essentially the start and also the recommit, like you got to go back to bootcamp, right? You got to go back to the six week and it's like, what you said, something like I'm going to punch you in the gut or kick you in the gut, but I'm also going to love you.

[00:35:34] Nick: Right. is that the dichotomy of it? Cause Mia does this so well where it's like, I'm going to kick you off the zoom because you don't have your video on, not because you don't have your video on it, because I love you. And when you're ready to come back, it's so brilliant. When you're ready to come back on the zoom with your video on, I'm going to embrace you, I'm ready for you, but right now, see ya gone.

[00:35:54] Elias: It's like they leave on their own emission, right? It's like, listen, you told me that this was important. You recommitted. So the fact that you have not recommitted, then you know the next steps. I don't need to tell you that you're removed. You didn't fall through, but we also do something three times a year and a four times a year.

[00:36:09] Elias: It's called. Hashtag intensity, no excuses, no bullshit results only. This is a high level accountability group that ops in. And when we do it, we typically have about 50 to 75 people sign up and. our accomplished rate or our finish rate is typically around 35, 40%, and it is tough.

[00:36:29] Elias: you come more than five minutes late, you're done. You're removed. You get one strike throughout the entire six week program. That means if you miss one metric, okay, Nick, you got one strike. I have to run perfect for the rest of this. If you come on next week, zoom, and I wasn't able to hit my open houses or door knocking, whatever, Nick, it's been great having you intensity, but I'm going to have to remove you from the group, best of luck with everything else that you're doing, bam, I removed them high level accountability group.

[00:36:53] Elias: It's called intensity. We have t shirts, we have, you know, videos and we have, you know, this cool community that we've built and I am all for them all for that's people that are already doing pretty good, but just want to raise the level. Of intensity

[00:37:06] Nick: they want to hang around other people that want it.

[00:37:09] Elias: Yeah,

[00:37:09] Nick: want to hang. around the people that had to recommit that have failed. They want to say, okay, Oh, these are the elites. These are the people that want to push, push, push. That's what I want in there. Intensity.

[00:37:19] Nick: I.

[00:37:20] Elias: launching again on January 10th,

[00:37:23] Nick: 10th.

[00:37:23] Nick: That is so incredible. Achievers want to achieve and they want to be around people that are achievers. They don't want to be around lazy people that are, struggling. Right. And this is opting in. These are people that want to be there.

[00:37:34] Elias: testimonials and the growth that we've seen from that program and you know, my emerging coach Verdon, I'm like, bro, run this with me. Side by side, two coaches, high level intensity, no excuses, no bullshit results only. And we are in people's faces and they appreciate it. I tell them you're going to see a different side of Elias that you have never seen before for the next six weeks.

[00:37:55] Elias: I'm going to push you harder than you've ever been pushed in this business. But guess what? You raised your hand for this. So you're ready to go. Let's go full tilt. And so we go full tilt for six weeks.

[00:38:05] Nick: That's a great way to build a business because. as you're training agents, there's comes to a point where, Hey, Nick, Hey, Elias, I would like a little bit more advanced training. the training you're doing, I get it. It was good for me at the beginning, but now I'm kind of like an OG. I'm kind of experienced.

[00:38:24] Nick: Well, this is perfect because it's like, Whoa. This is ratchet up the intensity Basically you're saying, I want to be challenged. I want to, you know, I want to be challenged. It's not that they need to know how to write a special contract that they'll maybe never use.

[00:38:37] Nick: Maybe it's a 10 31 exchange class, maybe, but I'd love that intensity of, okay, fine. That's ramp up the intensity and see if you really want advanced training. If you really want it to advance training, then opt in baby. I love it.

[00:38:51] Elias: we're going to do some things different this time. Cause before it was four weeks, but what I was realizing is that I wasn't allowing that first week to be scheduling. Like, okay, you have all of your metrics now without me giving you a little bit of time to go in your calendar, get with your accountability homie.

[00:39:05] Elias: Understand what days you're going to do these things and I'm not setting you up for success. So for this first week, number one goal is that I want all of these activities in your calendar. And I want you to understand the choices that you're going to be making throughout the next six weeks. And I want this to be on your calendar.

[00:39:21] Elias: So go plan for the first week with your accountability homie, and then come back and we're going to get started week two. And so, we've really analyzed it and dissected it and I'm excited where we are for this next round. So yeah.

[00:39:33] Nick: That's incredible. Well, this has been a jam packed episode, worthy of sharing, worthy of commenting, worthy of listening to again, and also sharing with the people within your organization that directly touch leads. They directly touch the agents. and I'm not just saying a sales manager, I'm saying your staff needs to hear this.

[00:39:51] Nick: . So how do people follow you? How do they reach out to you for coaching for opportunities or just being in the presence of people like you and I am and reside how they find you?

[00:40:03] Elias: Yeah, Instagram is my platform. So it's just my first and last name. Elias is studio. You can find me on Instagram. Shoot me a DM, say hello. We'll have some communication and let's just get into each other's ecosystem. That's my platform.

[00:40:16] Nick: I love it. We'll put it in the show notes as well. Thank you so much for being on the show. look forward to seeing you guys continue to crush it in California and grow. And I'm sure you have a huge. Visions with Kenny and all the people around there. If you liked this episode, you're going to love all the previous episodes we've done.

[00:40:32] Nick: So definitely subscribe. We're going to be pushing more and more content out with great people like you just listened to. So thanks for listening to the reside platform podcast.

[00:40:42] Elias: Thanks for having me.

[00:40:43] Nick: You do.