Inside the High-Stakes World of Concierge-Level Real Estate with Jessica Boswell

[00:00:00] Jessica: ;you know, if, you feel uncomfortable holding people accountable, then you have no business being a leader. And I was like, oh, shit, oh, shit. I've got to figure it out why and, I did, I finally came to the conclusion that it was just a selfish thing that I felt uncomfortable holding people accountable and I had to stop.

[00:00:20] Jessica: I had to get my ego out of the way. I learned that leadership is extremely uncomfortable. It just is. And it can be even more uncomfortable. I think for women, right? Because we're perceived as whatever the B word

[00:00:37] Suneet: Welcome to another episode of the reside platform podcast. I am your host, Sunita Agarwal. And today I am stoked to chat with Jessica Boswell, founder of the Jay Boswell team in Connecticut. Jessica, what's going on?

[00:00:53] Jessica: Hey, what's up? Happy. It's Friday going into the weekend.

[00:00:58] Suneet: going into the weekend. I can't wait to talk. So, Jessica is not just a top performing team leader, agent and speaker. She also, which is kind of cool as a brand new coach at the reside platform. I'm really interested to hear about that. Jessica's story and her journey is really cool for building a standout team to helping others grow in the business and like fitness and stuff like that, which we're all into, right?

[00:01:23] Suneet: So I'm super excited to be here with you today,

[00:01:26] Jessica: to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:01:29] Suneet: Good. So, tell everybody like where you're from and a little bit about your real estate team.

[00:01:35] Jessica: Yeah, for sure.

[00:01:37] Jessica: I'm from Connecticut. I was a scientist. I've Been asked this question on every podcast I've been on. So the scientists for a decade decided to hop into real estate, fell in love with it. And I mean, it just, grew from there I was on two teams and, really found my passion for the industry.

[00:01:55] Jessica: And when I went off on my own, I just. I had tunnel vision and wanted to do things right and then found reside and so much has happened since then, like an unbelievable amount of transformation.

[00:02:06] Suneet: I think something cool that I don't hear too often is that you were on other teams,

[00:02:14] Jessica: Yes.

[00:02:16] Suneet: weren't you? An admin on a team Once upon a time.

[00:02:18] Jessica: I was not. No, I, I was a listing agent on my first team and a listing agent on my second

[00:02:24] Suneet: Okay. Way off.

[00:02:26] Jessica: Then it allowed me to really see what was working and what was not working. And I brought those things into how I operated my team. You know, I had incredible mentorship on my first team.

[00:02:39] Jessica: She saw something in me that I did not see in myself just yet. And her, the director of operations is her sister and she like hated how like forward, how aggressive I was. I remember during our 90 day onboarding, like, I was supposed to be setting appointments for the Rainmaker, right?

[00:02:55] Jessica: And I set an appointment with a Fizbo and I was like, I'm going on it. So I prepped myself, I went on it and when I got it under contract before it went live, she refused to help me with dot loop. I didn't even know how to use dot loops. I did it all myself.

[00:03:10] Suneet: Oh man,

[00:03:11] Jessica: It was funny, but then, the leader like took me under her wing and made sure that I learned a lot.

[00:03:17] Jessica: and then on my second team, I got great leads. Like I got great internet leads, no training, but great leads. So I took that training element from the first team, the internet leads element from the second team and brought them together. It's part of my philosophy.

[00:03:32] Suneet: I love that. That's so great. So you recently just. Became a coach for reside. What are you most excited about in this new opportunity?

[00:03:43] Jessica: Yeah. potential for growth. Potential to help other people. I mean, you knew that when you asked me at first, it was like, this is terrifying. But yes, like, I've said just so many things in my life lately. And when I say those things, really good things happen. And I know that, this is going to be huge for me. I already have my first, mentee. And, we had a great first meeting and

[00:04:05] Suneet: Oh, awesome.

[00:04:06] Jessica: yeah, it was just really cool to like see how other people run their business and, you know, I was like, all right, how am I going to make the most of it? I'm going to design this questionnaire so I can learn all about her business and understand exactly what she wants to drill down into.

[00:04:19] Jessica: And, you know, just find out like what her personality is like and what her background is like and what's most important about her personal life. And, it just brings it to like a whole nother level. And I feel even more a part of the reside family than I did before, which was a lot.

[00:04:34] Jessica: So

[00:04:35] Suneet: That's awesome. I love that. I can't wait to see that journey. Are you coming to John's next week?

[00:04:41] Jessica: I am, I'm excited.

[00:04:43] Suneet: cool. I'll see you in a week. Yeah, for everyone listening and watching, we're doing a mastermind at one of the co founder John Czeplak's newer ranch in Louisiana. So. We're going there for the first time in a week, and it's going to be really cool.

[00:04:59] Jessica: yeah, it looks really peaceful. It'll be nice to mastermind and get away and have some more by the fire.

[00:05:05] Suneet: yeah. What do you hope to achieve with the people you get to work with and the coaching to reside?

[00:05:14] Jessica: What do I hope to achieve? I hope to help them reach their goals. I mean, that's the ultimate. I wouldn't consider myself a good coach if I didn't listen to what they needed and then, you know, show them what I've done to make that work or connect them with the proper resources that can teach them as well.

[00:05:30] Jessica: Like, I have honed in on every little bit of information, every document, every video, every soundbite, every meeting. Like, I pay so much attention to all the reside information and I don't know, like all of John's. Products mixed products, and I feel like I have so much to interject here and there from like, you know, everywhere from white glove listing all the way to leadership and accountability to, I've absorbed so much information and learn so much over the past 2 years.

[00:06:02] Jessica: Like, I can't wait to share it to help people in their businesses. It's gonna be great.

[00:06:06] Suneet: That is awesome. I'm glad I asked you that question. That was a really good answer. And you also, switched up the brokerage that you're at and you went over to LPT.

[00:06:17] Jessica: Heck yeah. Yeah.

[00:06:19] Suneet: What made you make that move?

[00:06:20] Jessica: Yeah. A lot of people are asking me lately. First and foremost, it's a great recruiting opportunity. like I firmly believe. That agents on my team are going to be taking more money home

[00:06:33] Suneet: Absolutely.

[00:06:34] Jessica: attractive to, to agents that are paying ridiculous splits at other brokerages or like franchise fees or even caps that are too big.

[00:06:43] Jessica: Like, not everybody wants to build a rev share downline. Some people just want to practice real estate. Right.

[00:06:49] Jessica: And Robert Palmer is. Extremely interesting and seems really passionate about what he does and I just love all of the choice he gives the people that partner with him.

[00:07:02] Jessica: 1 of the gaps in my business was paper marketing products. So I absolutely love that. He provides postcards, mailers, door hangers, brochures, like all of that stuff. We have an aging population here in Connecticut, and I think that that's a really

[00:07:17] Suneet: Oh, smart. downsizing. Right? Also, going back to the compensation model, a lot of agents are struggling right now.

[00:07:26] Jessica: So, like, how wonderful is that? That they could only pay the 500 per transaction with a 5, 000 cap. Like, that's awesome. Maybe otherwise they would have to get out of the business. it's smart. The market is hard right now and we need to be smart about it. And what we offer our agents.

[00:07:43] Suneet: Yeah, really good answer. so, you know, we've, talked about this in the past and I really want to talk about it more, but like you talk about like concierge style experience for your clients. Right. So what's that mean and how do you make it happen?

[00:08:00] Jessica: Oh, okay. That means exactly what it sounds like. Like it's not blowing smoke,

[00:08:04] Suneet: Yes.

[00:08:05] Jessica: know, like, and it takes a lot of preparation and coordination and organization like on the back end. And so, I knew even like, as a solo that I wanted to offer a level of service that far surpassed like any other agent in my market.

[00:08:22] Jessica: like translating that into a team has been interesting because I've had to put all of this stuff in place for all of the listings that have come our way. I mean, we do everything you know, now it's like, if you're not doing professional photography and a staging console, what are you even doing in this business?

[00:08:35] Jessica: But so a staging consultation, a deep clean, A pre listing home inspection, a home warranty that covers not only the seller, but also translates through to the buyer. Right? And then we have an in house. Videographer and photographer and production team who has an assistant helping with marketing. what else do we do?

[00:08:57] Jessica: I mean, Zillow listing showcase brokers opens. We coordinate all of the quotes for our clients that do not have time to worry about contractors not showing up. You know, it helps them get their houses ready for the market. Does it cost a lot of money? Yes, it costs a lot of money, but I firmly believe that the quality is going to speak for itself and it's going to separate us from the herd.

[00:09:24] Suneet: So you have a great product for when people hire you to sell their house.

[00:09:28] Jessica: Oh, my God. and we have the buyer equivalent. Like, there's nothing better than what we offer in Connecticut. Nothing.

[00:09:34] Suneet: Yes. So. Tell me about, like, as you were talking before I asked you the next question, I'm a man, you do more stuff at the listing than we do by a lot.

[00:09:46] Jessica: A lot, a lot, a lot. Yeah. I mean, I mentioned everything. I didn't even mention like all the stuff that goes into the full marketing life package.

[00:09:55] Suneet: for you. That's awesome. Let's talk about the team and. Some of our favorite things to talk about recruiting and leadership. At least some of my favorite things to talk about. What's the biggest thing you've learned about finding and keeping great people on your team

[00:10:09] Jessica: One of the biggest things that I have learned is getting rid of The myth that you can have a small number of agents producing ridiculous amounts, that's one of the first things to accept.

[00:10:22] Jessica: And 1 of the 2nd biggest was something that you taught me , and that, had to do with, accountability and I'll always share it, like, in every meeting where we're talking about that, right? You shared a book with me. About, you know, people that choose to be leaders and why, why do they choose to be leaders and question the motivations behind leadership?

[00:10:41] Jessica: And, one of them was like, you know, if, you feel uncomfortable holding people accountable, then you have no business being a leader. And I was like, oh, shit, oh, shit. I've got to figure it out why and, I did, I finally came to the conclusion that it was just a selfish thing that I felt uncomfortable holding people accountable and I had to stop.

[00:11:03] Jessica: I had to get my ego out of the way. I learned that leadership is extremely uncomfortable. It just is. And it can be even more uncomfortable. I think for women, right? Because we're perceived as whatever the B word when we, when,

[00:11:15] Suneet: Oh yeah. I never think about that. You're absolutely right though. Yeah, you're absolutely right.

[00:11:19] Jessica: Yeah. So those are two of the biggest things that I've learned about retention.

[00:11:23] Jessica: I think the people that should be on your team, want the accountability they want to know that, that you care.

[00:11:30] Suneet: If, whether they want it or not, if you're around me, you're going to fucking get it. and I think I've told you this, but everyone listening, like, every Friday we've moved away from doing one on ones due to my schedule. Let me be just, straight up and I do a group call for agents who are active, who are on company provided leads. Right. So every Friday I do a meeting and yeah, it's just straight fire for an hour.

[00:11:56] Suneet: Right. Sometimes it's less fire, sometimes it's shorter. And today, one of my senior agents who I absolutely adore, we were all talking about leads and my sales manager said, Hey, I've been calling some of your guys leads and I got people who want to buy houses. And then one of our top agents said, well, I don't want anyone to call a lot of my leads.

[00:12:16] Suneet: And I was like, well. And then my, one of my other top agents said, I don't want people calling my leads either. I'm like, look, we got standards. We also have assistance. I'm going to call my damn leads. If you don't follow the standards, I hope this is uncomfortable. I want you to know, like, this is the real, stuff. If you want to be a great realtor, you have to have hard conversations with your consumers and your clients. Hey bro, your house is way overpriced. Hey dude, ain't no one buying this, right? Like if you're afraid to have hard conversations, even in your interpersonal relationships, like you're not going to get anywhere.

[00:12:49] Suneet: You're just going to get walked on.

[00:12:51] Jessica: yeah.

[00:12:52] Suneet: So, when some leaders grow their team, they're worried about like losing their production identity. I know I lost my production identity, but I, that on purpose. How do you keep yours while still doing that?

[00:13:08] Jessica: . All right, all of the preparation strategy, hunting attention, doting on whatever pouring into has translated from the client to the agent,

[00:13:22] Suneet: Yeah,

[00:13:23] Jessica: all that energy. Like, and yeah, at first I was like, I'm never getting out of production, like never, never.

[00:13:30] Jessica: And now I feel like there's so much more to be had by spending that time and energy on an agent rather than a client. like teaching somebody to feel the way that I did about servicing clients is that's a gift to them, whether or not they stay on the team, it's a gift

[00:13:46] Jessica: The way that I poured into my people, I just got a phone call from the daughter of a woman who I sold a house four years ago.

[00:13:54] Jessica: My mom says you're absolutely amazing and that I should call you. It's time for me to buy a house. now I will pass her on to an agent that I know uses my systems and has my passion.

[00:14:04] Suneet: What a good answer. God, you're killing it, Jessica. So. You are like me and we're kind of geeky and we like getting all kinds of tech and shiny objects. What is some cool stuff that you're using in the team right now?

[00:14:20] Jessica: It's not as cool as like all of your stuff. You're

[00:14:23] Suneet: we're not talking about my stuff.

[00:14:26] Jessica: you're like, how about you write an entire series of books for me, design my next memoir movie series. And by the way, build me a house like, I mean, my stuff is. Is cool and organizational, but it's definitely not like yours. I

[00:14:40] Jessica: don't know if I have to conclude you there.

[00:14:43] Suneet: far people watching without me going down a rabbit hole.

[00:14:46] Jessica: Okay.

[00:14:46] Jessica: yeah, I mean, right now, like Monday. com is my favorite. It's my favorite.

[00:14:51] Jessica: yeah, building out all the flows of absolutely everything from even minor things, and that's something that I started from the beginning. I didn't I wasn't using Monday from the beginning, but I, planned out all of my flows as if I already had 50 team members.

[00:15:06] Jessica: I remember my admins like, is this is overkill. Is this really necessary? Jessica? Yes. Because if we develop it as if we have 50 agents now, it's going to be way easier when we do. And so that went from how to treat leads to then obviously T. C. Flows. Now we have such an elaborate pre listing process that like Monday is the jam for that

[00:15:25] Jessica: You know, between what we do on the team and L. P. T. And all the different trainings and all the different software we just sign our people up for like 20 different software accounts. So being able to have automation. So like, you know, Yeah. And when this is done, okay, we're ready for this is, I think it is the reason why I have, I can have a bare bones VA staff and still be like highly productive.

[00:15:50] Suneet: Sure. Because of Monday. Absolutely. I have a question for you. Is for your personal tasks, do you use Monday, grocery shopping, dinner, macro planning,

[00:16:00] Jessica: gosh.

[00:16:01] Suneet: planning?

[00:16:02] Jessica: No, I haven't even thought of that. Do you use it for that?

[00:16:05] Suneet: I use something else for it. I have another task management for personal stuff.

[00:16:09] Jessica: Okay. Yeah. I mean, I

[00:16:10] Jessica: use

[00:16:11] Suneet: is overkill. This is overkill.

[00:16:13] Jessica: I have a my fitness pal and there's a special one called fueling that gets my stuff just right around my workouts And we just do like curbside pickup for groceries And guess we probably should because our kids are like doing all the things and it's a lot between my husband and I like juggling house Children.

[00:16:31] Jessica: Both of our workloads. Yeah, it's a lot,

[00:16:34] Suneet: So I map out my personal Facebook on notion. I do my grocery list and I get everything delivered, but in real time, When I go on vacation and I pack.

[00:16:46] Suneet: I plan out the whole week and I write it out. all like my social media are, I mean, are you surprised about, about this with me?

[00:16:55] Jessica: I mean, no, I guess I didn't think you were. Wow. That's awesome. That's like organization to a whole nother level. I think my husband might like My proper leave me if I did stuff like that, but

[00:17:09] Suneet: Oh, my wife thinks I'm crazy. Trust me. so you can do a lot of those things in. Monday, sometimes I prefer just to write in notion,

[00:17:19] Suneet: like, do you ever plan out any writing on like what you're going to write about or post about or talk about?

[00:17:25] Jessica: so I don't I just it's like whatever's in the moment So I get up really early about 5 in the morning and I'm having my coffee And that's the time when stuff will come to me or as I'm running That's really like, those are like shower thoughts, like running thoughts,

[00:17:42] Jessica: and those are the, that's the time when I have some of my best like business ideas and social media stuff like that.

[00:17:46] Jessica: So, I don't pre plan. It's just kind of off the cuff,

[00:17:50] Suneet: like what I learned from like a writer's viewpoint. Is to have a queue of ideas. So I have a file on either notion or Monday called the writer's queue,

[00:18:04] Jessica: Oh,

[00:18:05] Suneet: and I put all the ideas in there. Some get written about right then. Some I just say for a rainy day,

[00:18:14] Jessica: that's awesome.

[00:18:15] Jessica: , that's a great idea.

[00:18:16] Suneet: Yeah. Got to have a queue. How do you. Introduce new tech to your team without making it seem crazy.

[00:18:26] Jessica: No, it's crazy. It's pretty much,

[00:18:28] Suneet: I was all, yeah, like, does she have a secret? Cause I don't know it. Yeah.

[00:18:32] Jessica: that's funny. So like I do John's feedback loop and on one of the feedbacks, it was like, can we learn how to do one thing before you had another? so yeah, I just keep revisiting it and revisiting it and revisiting it. I use fellow, I use real scout. Obviously, Sierra, Fubb, and as new team members come on, we keep revisiting and I also find that older team members are like appreciative of the reminder.

[00:19:02] Jessica: And then, I train my agents as they onboard. So I make sure then that my brand new agents really know what they're doing, like going into it. It took a long time, like, it was a real mess at first. It really, really was. But as time has gone on and I built more and more of the boat and just kind of nailed down, like what exactly I should be, what seats I need to sit in right now before I can get the sales director seat filled.

[00:19:30] Jessica: Yeah, I make sure my baby agents really know, know how to use those tools well, because they're not cheap. So we need to make sure to get a good ROI on them.

[00:19:39] Suneet: absolutely. So at the same time, a lot of team leaders are nervous about trying new things like digital marketing or other tech. What advice to give those guys?

[00:19:49] Jessica: Quit being a bitch. No,

[00:19:51] Suneet: Good, good answer.

[00:19:54] Jessica: Don't be nervous. Like, what are you nervous about? I mean, unless it's like a 12 month contract and it's ridiculously expensive. Let's do it. Like,

[00:20:02] Suneet: Unless you get a text message from a lead company you never heard before that charges you like 1, 000 onboarding and a 12 month contract. Don't do any of those. Anything else, you know, it's interesting. Most of the other websites that we talked about, my face is on the homepage. So then, you know, it's good.

[00:20:20] Jessica: Yeah, there, just follow Sunit's head and you'll be, you'll be good.

[00:20:25] Suneet: So what do you think are the biggest challenges for realtors right now?

[00:20:30] Suneet: maybe not even just in your market, but just in the conversations that you have period.

[00:20:35] Jessica: I mean, obviously interest rates, right?

[00:20:37] Jessica: yeah, that's a big scary thing for people right now. I know a lot of agents that are single parents. And this is a very hard thing to do when you're a single parent. And so I think in general, like trying to figure out how to juggle that all, and some of them have other jobs, right?

[00:20:53] Jessica: That's another thing, the agent with a job in addition to this job, I think that that's common, like, it's tough for people, right? I shared somebody's post today. 74 percent of agents sold nothing last year. All right. And then, percent sold 5 to 11.

[00:21:09] Jessica: . So , whether or not we want to talk about it, a lot of agents have to do like the gig economy or part time or even full time jobs. And so I think balancing that and team leaders being open to finding a way to onboard and train around that I think are going to, they're going to do well in the upcoming year or two.

[00:21:27] Suneet: Yes. Okay. What is your advice for real estate? Team leaders out there right now.

[00:21:34] Jessica: For team leaders. Don't worry about why you get into it. I hear so many people telling me when you get into it for the wrong reason, like whatever motivation and impetus that you have for, for wanting to be a team leader, embrace it. Just fucking embrace it. If you want to get rich off it, awesome. Embrace it. You'll like figure it out.

[00:21:55] Jessica: If you, Need to prove to somebody else that you're better than they think you are. Awesome. Great. you can use that almost your dark, your shadow side, dark side energy to start and then it will evolve if you're meant to stay in it, like it will evolve and morph and you'll understand that.

[00:22:16] Jessica: That was great to get you started and that fire was great to get you started, but as you go, you need something bigger than that. I think, yeah, just do it and don't be a perfectionist about it. I was too busy getting ready to get ready to get ready and then I felt bad after I get started, like, oh, well, you know, is this the right did I get it to get into it for the right reasons?

[00:22:35] Jessica: But, like, I've had a complete 180 mind shift.

[00:22:38] Suneet: if somebody is curious about reside and talking to you more about that, where should they go?

[00:22:43] Jessica: they should find me on Facebook. Super easy. Jessica Boswell, Instagram, Jay Boswell team. Email Jessica at Jay Boswell team. com.

[00:22:53] Suneet: Hey, that's pretty easy. Jessica, jboswellteam. com. Hell yeah. What if somebody wants to send you a hot referral or learn more about LPT?

[00:23:04] Jessica: Oh, they can call me 860 777 0703.

[00:23:09] Suneet: There it is, guys. You got every which way to get a hold of Jessica. Jessica, what's next? for you.

[00:23:16] Jessica: What's big and next for me? My trail racing cup and to just 50 agents, world domination, LPT, all over Connecticut.

[00:23:26] Suneet: Yeah. All right, Jessica, I'm so glad that we were finally able to do this. I appreciate you so much. I love seeing your growth and I'm excited to see what you do next. Hopefully I'm riding right along with you and get a free, get a front row seat. Right. Everybody, a big shout out to Jessica, make sure you reach out to her for any of those things sound cool.

[00:23:50] Suneet: And if you enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to like and subscribe and share with a friend. We don't run any ads on this, so. you show your appreciation and the fact that you like the show by giving us a thumbs up, sharing with a friend, leaving a review. If you have any more questions about the reside platform, I want to explore that.

[00:24:10] Suneet: We got the link in the show notes, reside platform. com. We are always here dropping fresh content every week. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you in the next episode of the reside platform. Okay.