(Replay Ep. 59) Why Most Agents Are Getting Lead Follow-Up Dead Wrong with Tristan Ahumada

Tristan [00:00:00] The one message that is very clear is that, Hey, we're here. We've got the solution for you, and we're gonna figure this out together, even if we're figuring it out along the way. Be that consistent voice of reason, hope, and setting the vision we live in consistent change. When it comes to value. We have to be clear.

Tristan What value is that that we're offering? I wanna work with you. I'm impressed with what I see, and that changes the game. We're moving faster into a world that requires you to attract those people that wanna work with you.

Suneet Hey everybody. I wanna welcome you guys to another episode of the episode Reside Platform podcast.

Suneet This is Sun Agarwal and I have a real treat for all our viewers and listeners today. None other than Mr. Tristan Ada, my bro, Tristan. What's up, man? What's up dude? It's really nice seeing you and talking

Tristan to you.

Suneet Yeah, we were just talking prior, probably for too [00:01:00] long 'cause we were just excited to see each other.

Suneet Um, and the reason that I'm so excited, let me tell the story that I always tell every time I introduce Tristan to somebody is about nine years ago I was a pretty green agent and I wanted to make more money and I figured out the way to make more money was to get really good at lead gen and understanding the whole lead game.

Suneet Prior to that, I had spent a couple bucks on Zillow, 400 bucks a month. I didn't know anything else about leads. So my, I was at Keller Williams at the time, uh, and the team leader took me to lunch. I ordered some squash soup. It was delicious. And I said, where do I get leads? And she goes, I want you to go to this Facebook group called Lab Coat Agents.

Suneet Ladies and gentlemen, you know, Tristan created that Facebook group so. I'm a lab coat agent, super green agent ing on everything, and Tristan was so grateful. I started blowing [00:02:00] him up in the dms, asking him questions. God is number called him. Totally. That guy and this man, so kind, so Abundant was my first mentor in real estate from afar.

Suneet Right. And dude, you totally guided me into understanding about leads, understanding about CRMs, understanding about leverage, understanding about social media. So number one, everybody who's view, who is listening and watching, go over to lab code agents of Facebook group right now for you, if you're one of the two agents in the country that isn't a member of it and just join it, the perspective that that you'll get will be invaluable, right.

Suneet Because it's a big. It's a big melting pot. So Tristan, talk to us about, like, a little bit about lab coat agents these days.

Tristan Yeah, man, I think lab coat agents has taken a, a shape of its own over the last few years, but I do [00:03:00] notice something, and it happens every few years now that we've been running it for 10 years, is that years way to go, dude, every few years when, when shit hits the fan, right?

Tristan COVID, uh, NAR settlement, right? We become the source people go to, to find certainty and because we're so large, right? Yeah. We've got the newsletter, all the social sites, the Facebook group, and I find that when it comes to that as leaders, everyone here listening in, you have the opportunity to do the same thing.

Tristan You just have to show up consistently and make sure that the message. Is relevant to the audience that's listening in. And the one message that is very clear is that, Hey, we're here. We've got the solution for you, and we're gonna figure this out together, even if we're figuring it out along the way.[00:04:00]

Tristan That's really been the me the message lately, and

Suneet I, this, that group gives so many perspectives. It's easy to go down a rabbit hole sometimes, right? So if you're watching and listening, my advice don't go down the frigging rabbit hole. But it's good to understand the perspectives and see the opportunities that every challenge creates in Lab Code Agents is ground zero for that.

Suneet Do you have any

Tristan thoughts

Suneet on that, Tristan?

Tristan Yeah, man, I think you're gonna have rabbit holes everywhere. It's a good opportunity to look at, uh, what the industry as a whole thinks, right? You've got those people that are focused and they're, they know they're going to make it regardless of what happens. And then you've got the other people who are scared.

Tristan And they don't know if this is for them anymore or they're saying, Hey, I'm out. Thank you so much. Uh, so you are seeing both sides of it and then people that are just sitting back and waiting, it's like, I'm not sure. Yes. And then maybe no. Right. Uh, [00:05:00] which is kind of like a microcosm of what's actually happening, you know, the real estate world, which is very cool because we have a, a small glimpse of about 160, just the Facebook group, 165,000 people that are coming in and out and saying, Hey, this is what we think.

Tristan This is our challenges, these are our problems. Oh, this is very cool. Hey, have you tried this? Hey, what about this? And it just becomes a really cool place to see what's actually happening. Yeah. And I want to give you prompts

Suneet too, because you, as the leader of that group, you're messaging dude, and I know that you're writing it unless you got some fancy prompt for chat.

Suneet GPT you haven't shared with me, but I I, yeah. You hiding it. But it's a message of. Overcoming hope and challenges and you have like, dude, you somehow lead 165,000 agents, right? Like that's big actually coming up with those messages. 'cause I'm super curious and so it's just a message of hope and being kind.

Suneet Right? So

Tristan yeah, I think you, you pay [00:06:00] attention to what the culture is in the group and anytime it goes a little bit off to the side, you're like, I think I, I, I think I need to step in and, and remind them why we're here and remind them that it's not easy that we're all going through shit or we've all gone through something and it's, it's good to just refocus and say, it's going to be hard, but we're gonna figure this out together.

Tristan I think, yeah, at the core that's what, if you look at what leadership is. It's, it's like us consistently reminding people, this is the vision, this is the overall place we're heading to everyone. We're gonna get to it. This is how we're gonna figure it out. We're in this together. And just be that consistent voice of reason, hope, and setting the vision.

Suneet Yeah, dude. So good. Love that. Thank you for that. Uh, so since when you did mention the NAR settlement and you're getting the perspective of the entire group, what are your thoughts on that [00:07:00] whole thing? Macro view? Yeah,

Tristan man, I think you're seeing, you're seeing um, a few different types of people coming in and saying, this is what we think.

Tristan One, nothing is gonna change. You're seeing the people that actually mean nothing's gonna change. And then you're seeing the people are like, well, we don't know yet. 'cause it's proposed. Right? And then you're seeing the people that are like. The whole world's gonna end. Watch out, we're all gonna die. Right?

Tristan And obviously what you and I think are like, wait a second, we'll figure this out. Whatever it is, we just don't know. We just dunno where it's heading yet. Right? So let's pay attention and let's see where this ends, because losses are still coming out. This is a proposed settlement. The Department of Justice is getting involved.

Tristan Yeah, they should but are getting hot this week and yeah. So we don't know yet. But is it gonna change? Definitely. But dude, what doesn't change, right? It's like, and now it's our [00:08:00] turn. Our industry is now going to take a bigger step into bigger changes. But that's okay. It creates a bigger opportunity for those that are still going to be in this business.

Tristan And that's how I see it. It's, that's why I say nothing's gonna change. Why? Because everything's always changing. And dude. You and I and everyone listening in, that's our world. We live in consistent change and that's why we say nothing's gonna change because we're always having to adapt. Yes.

Suneet The only thing consistent in life is change folks.

Suneet Right. And that's just part of it. Um, the, with with that nar settlement and everybody talking out there and now the Department of Justice, let's talk about first inside your organizations. You know, Tristan runs multiple teams and multiple organizations. Uh, are all the, are all the agents in Cali right now or are you national?

Tristan We're, we're [00:09:00] na we're national in different parts. Um, but the majority of them are still in California. The way that it works is we're, we run more of a referral type business. Right. Because we had to get around the legalities of it. My team being in like exp, kw Compass, Douglas Elliman, um, Berkshire remit everywhere.

Tristan And so the way that it worked simply is in some cases we co-brand together. In some cases it's a straight referral. So

Suneet in all those teams dealing with all those agents, have you ever spent any time teaching agents, this is a question for myself, how to use a buyer broker agreement?

Tristan No. Believe it or not, I never had before, man.

Tristan I never had before. Uh, because you and I, you and I come from a world of online leads, right? Yes. And the way that online leads work to [00:10:00] at least have the best results with them is you create less friction. And when you create less friction, you create the opportunity for the buyer through the online process.

Tristan To connect with the agent because it's not a used car. Sales. Well come over here, we'll sign you up over here for this and that. It's like, uh, red flag, red flag, red flag. And what we've done is said, well, we're gonna remove that. You wanna see a property? Great, we'll meet you at the property. Right? Yeah. And it created a great amount of success so that we have a larger conversion rate.

Tristan Right? Absolutely. Uh, but now, now the fact that they added that, um, now it adds a different layer of complexity. But still, I think when you look at that piece of the proposed settlement, I actually see it as a benefit. Because now since they're gonna, it's going to be hopefully part of the law, then we can go in and say, Hey, look, this is how it works.

Tristan And, and now as I, I know what can [00:11:00] happen. Are we gonna have a contract for one property, right. Or are we gonna have a contract or the life of this relationship? And if it becomes for the life of this relationship. Do a really good job because yeah, they could be like, I'm out. And then are we really gonna go after them and be like, I still want my commit.

Tristan Imagine those lawsuits tying up the court system. Dude, it's not gonna work.

Suneet No, it, it is not. And, and if you look at the language and the current California association and realtors buy or broker like buyer can cancel anytime, just send an email. Right? So it's not even like that, that, that, how binding is it?

Suneet Yeah, no, it's not binding. Like I just looked at it again on Tuesday. I was all, well, no doubt all the associations will most likely incorporate some kind of new agreements, right? Yeah, I agree. It's, it's

Tristan all gonna be, I think we're gonna see local and then we're gonna see state, right? Yeah. If, if this goes through and then [00:12:00] nationally they'll be like, this is a recommendation.

Tristan But dude, some states are already functioning like that, like Seattle in Washington, all of Washington, they do that. So I think it's a good thing, but. Let's see how it rolls out. I'm not sure yet. I

Suneet mean, here's the thing. Number one, every challenge is a damn gift, right? And I like getting presents. Every challenge is a gift.

Suneet Me too. Number two is the hardworking agents who are comfortable with pivoting will thrive. Just like any kind of market, any kind of professional job, things change. The ones who who get it are gonna change. Like what do you think surgeons said once they started bringing like all the robots in into the operating room.

Tristan Yeah, that's a true man. Right?

Suneet Have you started giving the agents in your organization any training around this buyer broker procedure?

Tristan We have. [00:13:00] In fact, as soon as we saw the proposed settlement, uh, that the next three days, we just spent a lot of time looking through. What we currently do and how we shift over into doing some type of a presentation, some type of a meetup Yes.

Tristan Or some type of a download that explains what we offer, what we do, and why it's important to work together in this manner. So yeah, we definitely have, uh, and I think it created a lot more clarity for the buyer's agent, which was cool to see 'em like, oh, okay. Awesome. And more importantly, it really created a lot more clarity as to the value that the buyer's agent brings to the buyer.

Tristan I'm like, oh, this is cool. And then that's why I was like, oh, this is an opportunity, man. Yeah. Uh, definitely an opportunity.

Suneet I mean, so we've had our VIP buyer guide probably pull half of it from you once upon a time. Right. We've had our VIP buyer guide, uh, giving it to my buyer side agents. And, you know, the, [00:14:00] the use was the agents weren't consistently using it.

Suneet Right. Yeah. However, for everybody listening and watching. My advice to you is, you know, put something together. In fact, if you want mind, just leave a comment on here and, and I can send you my, Tristan I'll, I'll send it to you too. 'cause you know, I've been working with, uh, Jason Flatley through, uh, Perry's, uh, MA Mastermind.

Suneet And I, I'm real good at presentations now after working with Jason. So, uh, okay. Yeah, send it over, man. I'd love to look at it. Yeah, totally good. And I would love to get all your feedback. Same with everyone who's listening and viewing. If you get it, you have any feedback, I wanna know. 'cause I wanna get, make it super tight.

Tristan You know, what's a good place to start too? It, once you, once you start going that way, uh, I know NAR released 105 more ways, uh, that agents or buyer's agents, uh, earn their value or something along those lines. I'll find it. I'll send it over [00:15:00] to you.

Suneet Yeah. I mean, absolutely. Yeah. I've been telling the agents in my team and agents I, who's, you know, I, I get to coach is.

Suneet California Association of Realtors is offering that buyer agent specialty course for free right now. Is it car or is it nar? I don't know. Maybe it's both. Um, take it, it's free. Get that buyer agent certification. Right. True. Tristan, when was the last time you advised anybody to get any kind of certification?

Suneet Dude, I don't,

Tristan I don't think I ever did. And I'm always like, I don't know if you should, you should just go get the actual experience. Oh. But now it's like, okay. Might be a good idea. I just texted it to you. I found it. I texted 105 ways there.

Suneet Oh, sweet. Yeah. I'll, I'll put the link. We'll have, uh, the producers of the episode put the link in the episode.

Suneet It won't be me. That's why I changed it. 'cause I don't know how to produce a podcast episode. So, um, [00:16:00] yeah. What should agents across the country be doing right now?

Tristan They should really take the time to do three things, and they all have to do with one thing. Uh, but, uh, the three things, it's time to reimagine, rein, recreate your mission, vision, and values.

Tristan Like what do you actually stand for? Because I, I, I can bet you anything that the consumer looking in at who you are at your brand, they don't really know who to connect with. Is it clear who is your audience? And as you reimagine what you stand for now, your mission, mission, what you're shooting for in the future, your vision and your values, like who you are, what you stand for, when you get those down, you by accident or reverse into it.

Tristan Who your audience is, who are you trying to [00:17:00] attract? And the clearer you are with that, the more success you're going to have. Because the number one thing that you're watching on the media right now, uh, about agents, how the consumer feels about the real estate is it's pretty sad. It's disgusting. It's like totally, I can't believe that they, they actually feel that the majority of agents are that bad, like greedy, awful.

Tristan They don't deserve that much money, lazy, like all this stuff. It's like they're only door openers that hurts to watch and read. And, and I think part of that has to fall on us saying, okay, we may be part of that problem overall. We need to do a better job. What can we do? Right? It's a lot more down to actual value when it comes to value.

Tristan We have to be clear. What value is that, that we're offering? Let's outline it and let's be clear to specifically tell those people we're working with. This is what it looks like. Right. And it all comes down to [00:18:00] attracting, over chasing too. Yeah. Like if I'm attracting you Sunni through social media, through Google, through all of these different avenues, that's already much better than me having to chase you.

Tristan And doing it. The old school way was, there's nothing wrong with calling expireds for sale by owners and all that, but dude, I would rather you come to me through attraction because now you already found value in what I was putting out there. That you're coming and saying, yeah, I wanna work with you and I don't mind paying you.

Tristan I wanna work with you. I'm impressed with what I see. And that changes the game. So I think the, the three things you need to do, listening in, it's time to look at your mission, vision, and values. What do we stand for and who are we trying to attract? Is it, is the message clear? To them.

Suneet I love that. So mission, vision, and values.

Suneet Absolutely. Uh, and for everyone listening and [00:19:00] watching, there's so many great resources out there, right? Find a framework that makes sense. Ask yourself the right questions. And I think in Patrick Bed, David's new book that Know Your Enemy book, I don't know if you read it yet. Um, he talks about building this stuff.

Suneet I mean, there's so many articles on it you can get for free. Um, Tristan, any resources you can think that would help people with that,

Tristan uh, for mission, vision, and value? I think if we look at, if we look at studying, uh, these few books, instead of just reading them, uh, over the next few months, I think studying them means you sit with them longer.

Tristan You take notes, you go back, you rephrase, you. Come up with your mission, vision, and values, go and check and saying, does it match what these authors are telling me with the experience they've had? Uh, I think that's what it looks like versus just passively reading. You study them

Suneet and you always said that, and I love [00:20:00] the way that you read.

Suneet I see pictures of it in my head, so yes. Here. Well,

Tristan yeah. And these are the books, man. These are just, these have been valuable to me and to other people too. But Built to Last and Good To Great. By Jim Collins and Jerry POAs. It those, okay. Those books, um, I think it was Built to Last, was used by Jeff Bezos to build out Amazon, and that's how important these books are to our world, right.

Tristan Built to Last. Great. And Good to great Both. And if you look at them, they outline exactly why companies are successful and why companies fail, and then the different types of leadership. And then the vision, how leaders focus on vision. And when they hire the right people, they continue to focus on vision.

Tristan They're not managers. Because if you hire the right people, they're led by the vision. They're not led by you saying, Hey, you forgot to do that over there. What happened? Right. [00:21:00] And and those two books I would study along with the book by Seth Godin, I think this is probably his best book. It's This is Marketing.

Suneet Yeah.

Tristan And it really shows you, for us, where we're at in real estate. Exactly what to do next. Because it's almost talking to us right now. And his books are short. Yeah. So this is marketing shows you, oh damn. This is how I transition from these old way of doing business. To this new way of where we're going.

Tristan This is beautiful. So those would be the three books, and then maybe I'd layer it, layer it with, um, Simon Sinek's book. If you wanna start, start with why. Reread that one. Yeah. And, and take that as part of creating your mission, vision, and values. 'cause it's, it's why you're doing it. Who's your audience and why do they care about you?

Tristan Why should they love that?

Suneet Especially this is marketing. And start with [00:22:00] why both books that you told me to read a long ass time ago and I did. So I'm thankful for that. Um, I mean, Seth, Seth Godin go and sign up for his newsletter too and just get those little tips in your email every day. Right? Right.

Suneet It's really good. Um, so what about. On the opposite side of that are on the one level higher than that for the team leaders and brokerage owners.

Tristan For the team? Yeah, for the team leaders and broker owners. I, I think if you're still focusing on the things that really make us tick and that's recruiting. Yep.

Tristan Retention and ROI, those are the three rss and they, they're changing a little bit though, and that's because you, you're still watching a little bit of the old school way of doing it. You look at some brokerages, they're still doing it the old way and then they're suffering through all the changes that are happening.

Tristan But [00:23:00] if you still focus on those three things through the new era and culture that's being set because of ai, because of all the changes that are happening. In our industry specifically, you're like, oh, I understand retention. Retention happens through the culture that you set, the communication, the examples that you set through the vision and the mission.

Tristan People that are, that are now starting to come into the workforce and are are brand new to it. All these brand new agents, a lot of them wanna belong to something, belong to something that's bigger than themselves. And you see that that purpose that drives these companies becomes more important and that has a lot to do with recruitment.

Tristan Right. And one thing Keller Williams has done well I is the culture piece, right? The culture piece is really important outside of everything else. 'cause they do a lot of things bad obviously, but every company does. Yeah, every company does man. But the culture piece they've done a [00:24:00] good job with. If you notice that.

Tristan And it's like, that's always been interesting. So I always look, I'm not kw, but I look at them and I'm. What can I learn from that culture piece from them that they continue to maintain a good grip of, of agents and, and moving forward, even though they're a little late on some things. I think that's important, number one.

Tristan And when you look at recruiting, think of the attraction piece. So it goes back to vision, mission, and values. What's attracting those agents, the group of agents to your company. And I don't know that we actually outline that for ourselves. That where, where we have an avatar of, okay, I want to attract this agent and then this agent, this is going to be my messaging because I'm solving these problems for them and this is important to them.

Tristan Now I'm gonna go on social, I'm gonna build the [00:25:00] newsletter, my website, everything, all this marketing. It goes out to that specific niche because we tend to do this as team leaders and brokers, because I've done it. I'm gonna just grab everyone. And when you try to grab everyone, you grab no one, you mean nothing.

Tristan But when I focus in and I say, I wanna target this type of agent, what happens is you do so great with that type of agent that it feels like you're talking to them. It feels like you're helping them. And then they get, they're like, damn, I love Suneet. And then they say that to other agents. To other agents, and that's how you start attracting other agents and you start growing because you focus so well.

Tristan On one avatar. And that's a big mistake that, that I made at the very beginning. I'm like, I'm gonna cover everything. And I'm like, oh, damn, I ended up covering no one. Let's [00:26:00] refocus. So that's on recruiting. And then ROI, that's probably the biggest challenge right now because, because things are changing so damn fast in our industry with that, right?

Tristan With online leads, it's like, wait a second. Um, things even got a little bit more complicated with the SEC, getting involved with the type of, you get a little bit, so it's like, okay, uh, buyers now have to function this way. Online leads, oh no, they're getting tightened up. Um, so now we're going to see a pivot or a shift into focusing more on the listing side and, and you're going to start seeing companies come out and saying.

Tristan This is how we focus on listing opportunities on sellers. So we're in the middle of it on that piece. But ROI is still gonna come down to one thing. This is a relationship business. This [00:27:00] business is strongly based on referrals. Referrals from creating longer term client to client. 'cause one will refer another and client to agent relationships.

Tristan So this is why I'm looking at this and saying, what are our biggest opportunities right now? Reaching out to our database, reaching out to our past clients, our coerced fear, and I've gotten heat on this Sunni, but we're doing it anyway. Um, we're, we're in Southern California, so a lot of the, a lot of my clientele here.

Tristan They, they already know about the lawsuit. They've already seen the CNN article about 6%. They, they're the ones telling me shit. Okay. Right. And I'm like, and so when people on lab coats or anywhere else say you shouldn't be bringing that up to your clients, I'm like, I don't think you're actually doing business.

Tristan That's why you think that, right? Yeah. 'cause if you're doing business, it's [00:28:00] already come up multiple times in listing presentations. It has. Wow. It's already come multiple times when we're with buyers. It has. And so instead of that continuing to happen, we're reaching out to our core, past clients and our core sphere.

Tristan These are people who know us by name when they're, when we're in like the supermarket. Sure. So I, I did the Live Sun last week a few times so people could see what it looks like. And it's simple. It's this, uh, this is creating relationships and making sure that you're listening to the people that. That are your past clients and love you already.

Tristan It's me texting you, Sunni. 'cause let's say you're a past client of mine, okay? Hey Sunni, uh, do you have five minutes? I have a real estate question for you, for a change. And then you'd, you'd respond back. 'cause this is what happens. Uh, you'd respond back and say, yeah, and you probably would put a little smiley face.

Tristan That's what I give back. You're like, that's weird. Okay, yeah, sure. Call me. Um, and, and then I [00:29:00] call and I say, Hey uni, it's Tristan. I've got a real estate question for you, for a change. And then they laugh, right? And here's the part, I'm sincere about it. I want to know what my past clients think about this.

Tristan And then there, here's the question. It's a little bit open, but I say Sunni with everything that's going on in real estate right now in the media, what do you, what do you think's gonna happen or what do you think's going on? And that just shut up. And then two things happen. Uh, one goes directly to the settlement, right?

Tristan And then the other one goes directly to the market, affordability, interest rates, and I let it go wherever it's going. And with that, the most amazing conversations happen because this is what we do wrong. I call up and I'm like, Hey, DIA, have five minutes. It's a business call. Hey, I'm just touching base with you.

Tristan Hey, how's your home? And then I want to talk to you about real estate. I wanna talk to you [00:30:00] about real estate. You're not ready for that shit. Yeah. But now I'm asking, what do you think? You tell me, Sunni, what you think, and then guess what happens? Then you're like, what do you think, Tristan?

Suneet Yes.

Tristan And we just set it up so that now you're listening because now you're gonna listen to what I think and you care because I cared about what you're saying.

Tristan And that has been like the biggest ninja move in the last three weeks, man, because this is, these are the conversations we're having, uh, Tristan, blah, blah, blah. This is what we think. And we're like, oh, damn. Okay, cool. And what do you think? I'm like, well, I think you're right on that one. Um, and this is what we see happening too.

Tristan And then this was what happens, man, I'm tired of living in California. I get those. Yeah, I, I'm, I'm like, where, where would you go? Is what I get? Um, well, I don't know. And then we start talking, oh, you know what? I was talking to my son and they wanted to move. [00:31:00] They bring up real estate on their own always.

Tristan And, and you just need to find a way when it comes to the third r, the ROI, to connect deeper with those people you've already done business with, because that becomes so important to your future business. So that's what I would say, if you wanna focus on those things, three things. Recruiting, retention and ROI as a team leader and as a broker owner, that's not gonna change.

Tristan It's all based on relationships. It's actually sun. I just came up with it. It's, it's the fourth R surrounds the three RS relationships. There you go. Oh, dude. Good. There you go. That was good. I love talking to

Suneet you. Hey, we come up with good stuff. You'd better trademark that before we, uh, put this episode out.

Suneet Funny. Um, so I wanna circle back real quick on KW and their culture as a owner of a brokerage or a team or [00:32:00] a mortgage company, I got a bunch of companies. What do you think, I don't know why I said that. Maybe just to hear myself talk, but why do you think that, or in, in your perspective, what is KW doing right with their culture that we can learn from?

Tristan Uh, they, they took time to, to write out their values and I don't remember it. But it's like 14 TCE something. Remember those things they put on the walls? Yeah. Um, win-win. Yeah. Yeah. That, that what whatever it is, that's on every market center. Right. And I think that because I was thinking about this, I'm like, what did, what did Gary and the team do so well in growing?

Tristan And it comes down that to this, they've segmented their big company into all of these little companies that make the agents feel like they belong somewhere, right? Mm-hmm. Imagine, imagine Lab Code agents. [00:33:00] But now I go Lab code agents, California Lab Code Agents, Arizona Lab Code Agents, Washington. And then I go even further lab code agents, LA Lab Code agents, Seattle, right?

Tristan And what happens is, because they're getting in so down to niche, they're connecting with that small audience and then. They're telling them, this is how you function. This is what you believe in. This is what we believe in. And our vision then aligns with a local group that then takes it to a bigger realm.

Tristan And this is why they also packed the house with the events dude. 18,000 real estate agents at an event. That's, to me, that, what is that, how much it was last time? 18,000. Yeah. 2, 2, 2 months ago. 18,000 people. I'm like, how do they do that? It's those market centers. Those market centers, those markets, they push people.

Tristan They're like, Hey, do the, so, uh, it's come down to breaking the bigger, bigger piece [00:34:00] down to the small pieces. Right? And, and then having those small pieces have a purpose driving Yes. Uh, this message. And I think I can learn from that. Uh, in fact, we're learning from it. We're saying, how can we do that better?

Tristan Right. In whatever company I'm in, it doesn't matter. Um, but they've done that great job because of that. Something

Suneet like the a LC where people have purpose and almost some sort of inherent ownership over a part of the company. Right? Yeah.

Tristan The ownership piece, uh, is definitely feeling like you, you own the decision or part of the decision as to where the company is heading, right?

Tristan Yes. Because I don't, I don't think, I don't think that, or else they'd be the number one, right? All these companies, I don't know that, uh, profit share and, and rev share is the driving factor to culture, to massive growth. [00:35:00] I don't think so. So yeah, I don't, I don't think so either. I think it comes down to leadership, vision, mission, and the values that you align with so that I, it Sunni, if you're starting a company and you're saying, this is what I believe in and it matches what I believe because of the culture, I'm like, I'm in.

Tristan Yeah. Right. I think that trumps everything else. And this is why you have big companies like Apple, right? Have this amazing culture or, or other companies like Tesla, right? Sure. They have this amazing culture because of the, the leadership and the things they believe, right? Think differently. And Elon, I want to go to Mars.

Tristan Oh, I can back that, right?

Suneet Yeah. So, well, it's like, you know, with the values and the mission and your vision, you're building like your principles. And if you come from principles all the time and they're your principles, then you're gonna win for your definition of winning, period. Um, yeah. So I know you just came out with [00:36:00] a book, dude, and I haven't read it.

Suneet Sorry. Okay. Okay. Oh my God, I Amazon right now. Like, shit, like, here's the thing is like, you've been talking about writing a book, I think the whole time that we've known each other. Long time. Oh very. I'm in the middle of writing one right now. It is an endeavor with all the other stuff you gotta do. That schedule of book writing time keeps that getting moved over.

Suneet Right. Um, in fact, I've moved over mine today right off my schedule to next week. So, dude, what's the book call?

Tristan Yeah, right. It's called The Real Estate Prospecting And, and the subheading is Create a Million Dollar Life Through Relationships, online Leads, technology and Social Media. And I'll tell you the story behind that.

Tristan Uh, I originally got connected to the publisher through Chris Smith. Uh Okay. No, Chris Smith. Yeah. And he said, man, you need to write a book. Hit up Wiley. I'll connect you. So he hit me [00:37:00] up, he connected me to Wiley Publishing and I pitched them 'cause they're like, okay, cool, we're we're listening. We want to, we want you to write a book.

Tristan We, we saw who you were. We want you to write a book, pitch it. And I'm like, okay, this is it. Right? And I'm like, it's the routine. It's the evening routine in the morning. And they're like, no, no, listen. They're like, who's your biggest audience? I'm like, real estate agents. And they're like, you're gonna write a real estate book?

Tristan I'm like, but I don't wanna write a real estate book. Right. And then they made me write a real estate book. So I wrote a real estate book, even though that was not my first choice. And it's a great book, let me tell you. But my first choice was something different.

Suneet So, um, anyway. Well, I think that's great that you went the traditional publishing route.

Suneet Yeah. Were you actually picking it? Picture the book. I haven't heard anyone say that in like a decade, dude. Like, right. Yeah. Yeah. So shout out to Chris for the [00:38:00] hookup. So, so true. It was because of him. It was because of him. Last time I saw him, I was with you actually last two times I saw him. I was with you.

Suneet And it was both times in San Francisco. That's cool, man. It's been a while. Yeah, it's been a while. Yeah. Um, so it's about, man, as soon as mentioned, like it's about

Tristan real estate. It's broken into three parts. Uh, first part is working on yourself because as leaders Oh, we, we forget how hard it is to, to show up our best selves for those around us.

Tristan Right. But when we do, man, everything else goes a lot smoother. Right? Yep. So that's number one is broken. That part. Then the middle part, which is this is what prospecting looks like, and we mix a lot of tech into old school. So we show processes, we show systems. I've got graphs and charts and everything.

Tristan And then the last piece where real estate is, is heading. How [00:39:00] we can leverage, um, staff members VAs and just grow out an organization if you choose to do it that way. Sure. So that's broken down into those three sections. I

Suneet love that. 'cause you had mentioned like morning and evening routine prior to us hanging out.

Suneet I didn't even know what it was. And you're the one that told me to read about how, how, um, yeah. Lro, right? And then you introduced me to him on a live call. You're like, Hey, hop on Zoom. And then it was Hal and like Hal started giving me crap about something. I was not prepared. I don't know if you remember that or not, but it was totally I do remember that.

Suneet Yeah. You're like, Hey, hop on the Zoom. I'm all, oh, I'm live. Oh, there's Halal L Rod. That's so funny. Very funny. Um, but I mean, dude, you gotta show up at your best if you're gonna lead people. And if you're leading people, we're not only talking about being a CEO team leader, brokerage owner, you're leading clients, you're leading this trusted, um, consumers, customers who are looking to you for.

Suneet Leadership, [00:40:00] so great. Dude, I'm gonna get it. Uh, the lead follow up stuff, like give me some nugget that the viewer and listener can take from the lead follow part. 'cause

Tristan yeah, there's, there's, there are a lot of things on the lead, on the lead follow up part. Um, I break it down to the simplest form. So, and the cool thing is we still do this dude, like on Thursdays, I do this live, so I reach out to people and they're like, there's no way it's that easy.

Tristan I'm like, you, you're hearing it. It is that easy. I'll give you two things. One, the breakdown of calling any online lead that's coming through first and the breakdown's super easy. It's call, call, text, email, nudge text, and hopefully you're doing that the first four within the first. Three minutes, I hope.

Tristan Yeah. And, and then the fourth one, um, you can do within 15 to 25 minutes as a nudge text. But the call Sunita, I'm calling you rings three or four times. I hang up. I wait 20 [00:41:00] seconds. I call you right back up 20 seconds later so it doesn't go directly to voicemail. 'cause if I do it too quick, it will Right Then if you have a voicemail, sometimes I leave one.

Tristan Not that you're gonna check it. Sure. But it serves the purpose of how I text. So if I leave you a voicemail on the second one, I'm like, Hey, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. I'm gonna pick up the phone and then text you. I'm gonna say, Hey Sunane, I just left you a voicemail. Sorry I couldn't reach you.

Tristan That's my text. And it says you were on our website. Are you looking for a house or a condo? Are you looking for, are you looking to be on the beach or on the mountains? Are you looking for a fixer or something to move into? It's always either or, it's not. Yes, sir. Mm-hmm. Yes sir. No, no. Then I grab that text.

Tristan That becomes the email. I simply grab it, put it in the body subject line, Sunni, I just tried calling you and then the body, same text, and then I go to the next call and then 15 minutes later, if you haven't [00:42:00] responded, I nudge text you let me know Sunni, so I know what to send you. Yeah, let me

Suneet know. You taught me that years ago and I've sent that sucker millions of times probably at this point.

Suneet Um, something interesting. So you don't let the automation send the email?

Tristan No, I don't, man. I don't, 'cause sometimes I feel like, um, I feel like it's just, I, I do a lot of tweaks, so I learn how people respond back. Right. And I, it's, it's different. And here where we live, we notice that executives, but we're at Malibu, so we get a lot of executives or CEOs are doing.

Tristan Board members, um, they respond to email. They respond to email more than, uh, phone, which is nuts to me, but it becomes important. So tweaking the messaging and testing things out helps a lot.

Suneet Yeah. I mean, [00:43:00] something I learned from good old Dan, Dan Kennedy, we know nothing. We test everything.

Tristan Yeah. We don't know anything, man.

Tristan And that leads me into the second part of this. Um, I, I created an outline where when we're calling, um, I'm always thinking of, it's a, it's an acronym. PSLV ps Love. Remember it's PS Love. Okay. PS Love. Okay. I can remember that. Fine, easy. The very first thing I'm doing when I get you on the phone. I'm giving you permission to waste my time.

Tristan And we do this opposite as real estate agents because we're like, oh shit, you're not preapproved, you're already working with an agent. Right? Please, yeah. For me, it's so need, it's Tristan. Just visit our website from whatever I, um, listen. Are you looking for right? Or, and then you're like, uh, you know, no, I'm just browsing.

Tristan We get that all the time. Or the worst one, my son clicked on it. I don't know how the hell that happened. Uh, all the [00:44:00] time. So I immediately go into, I'm gonna give them permission. I'm gonna make them feel like it's okay to waste my time because that's when they'll open up and I say, Sunni. Yeah, listen, don't even worry about it, man.

Tristan I just don't wanna spam you. I did this yesterday live. I don't wanna spam you. Uh, I wanna make, I wanna make your time on my website. Even if you never buy. As enjoyable as possible. So tell me, that's so good, bro. That's

Suneet so good. I don't wanna spam you. That's so good. Downer. Okay. Goes right through them and

Tristan they're like, oh, okay.

Tristan Cool, cool. A little old lady yesterday looking at a mobile home, she's like, oh, okay. Yeah. And then she went and told me everything and she has a $5 million house to sell probably.

Suneet And so that would, yeah, would, yeah.

Tristan So funny. It might be, it might be, alright. Permission, right? P And then I get into specifics immediately.

Tristan And here's the specific thing. I ask specifically, this or that. And I'm saying Sunni. So listen, so I [00:45:00] don't spam you. Are you looking for a home up on the hill or closer to the beach? Or are you looking for a condo or a house? Or are you only looking in Westlake Village or are you also open at Calabasas?

Tristan Mm. I get specific. And then the next part. L-P-S-L-V-P-S love L is, I shut up and listen because you know what we do? We don't listen enough after I, this is what happens. 'cause I hear recordings, we give the specific question, this or that, and then we get uncomfortable with a little bit of silence or a, or the wrong response that we thought.

Tristan And we're like, oh, but, but what about this? And, and what? And then we just fucked up. So you're so right, dude. You do listen to golf. Yeah. So shut up and listen. Right? And then they'll tell you, yeah. Oh, um, uh, last week, uh, you know what I want? I wanna be closer to the hills. I'm like, [00:46:00] oh, interesting. Closer to the hills.

Tristan That means the way she said it, I was like, I think she might own another one. I said, why do you wanna be closer to the hills? Just going further with that question, she's like, well, we have a house on the beach. And I'm like, I'm like, oh, but we wanna be closer up so we can look down. And so I just went further.

Tristan I didn't say anything about the other house. I kept digging into why is this important to her, right? I said, oh, do you wanna be up higher or do you wanna be more inland? Because I'm listening. Mm, thoughtful. I'm listening. And then the last one for V I'm listening to give value, right? Because now she says, well, is there a difference between being up higher or more in the valley?

Tristan And that's my opportunity to give value. Well, you know, if you are up higher and you have a view, those homes are worth a lot more than the ones that are in the valley in the back with no view. It's like, oh, that makes sense, Tristan [00:47:00] value. And then it goes back to specifics. So tell me, do you want land a lot of land here or do you prefer just the view and then I shut up and listen and I give value again.

Tristan And here's the biggest piece to this. 'cause we circulate. At the close, I do two things. Two things. I say, Sunni, uh, listen, I'm gonna do two things for you, then I have a good idea of what you want. I'm gonna text you so you have all my information. You have any questions, or if I actually am spamming you, just let me know, right?

Tristan Text me back. And then number two, since you already live here in Malibu, I'm gonna send you some information as to what it looks like to live up on a mountain, some situations that you may want to consider versus being in the valley. I'll text that over to you. It's A PDF, and then you read it when you have a time, maybe this weekend, and I'll follow up with you on Monday and tell me what you think.

Tristan Tell me if that made sense to you. And then I shut up [00:48:00] and they're like, okay, I hang up, I text, and then I have follow up. We go over the PDF and dude, that value, that's an online lead, Google, PPC. They're like, we're not getting

Suneet anywhere. And that that's how you lock people in. Dude, I love that. Um, a selfish follow up question for that.

Suneet 'cause we're both leveraged with ISAs, those leads going to overseas ISA No, not

Tristan anymore. They were for a long period of time. No, really. I know, I know. They were for a long period of time. Uh, and there's nothing wrong with it. I just felt like I wasn't doing a good enough job, um, training them. Right. So what we did instead is the overseas ISAs that we have are just simply nurturing.

Tristan So if we've had a conversation in our database with people, they're just nurturing, making sure it's smooth, making sure they're getting the communication. Anytime we see [00:49:00] anybody that's, that's coming in brand new, we like to have a conversation with them as an agent. So one of, one of the team members goes through, gives 'em a call and do the thing that we've seen in our area.

Tristan Is that we have a better ratio of connecting deeper and converting if it's an agent locally. Right. Um, so we've shifted our, our ISA team to do a lot more of the nurturing.

Suneet It's fascinating 'cause I have a different perspective, but also, yeah. We're not running as many Google leads as you, I'm still heavy portals.

Suneet Right. Flex RDC. Um, and we just want to get that appointment on the first call and get the age and face to face. And then we used to have the ISAs do the nurturing. However, I have found there to be a higher rate of success when the agent actually does the nurturing. 'cause they're just not say, Hey, I have Sun Tristan's assistant.[00:50:00]

Suneet Yeah. They say, well, where the hell is sun? Or where the hell is, where the hell is, what's Tristan? Yeah. Right. So anyhow, dude, good. See, I love that. There's so many great ways to do this. I love it. So a couple years ago, you were the first that taught me this. Of course. And I'm gonna keep saying that 'cause every time is true.

Suneet You told me to start making videos and post more on social and dude, you took the content game in real estate to a frigging whole other level, bro. Thanks man. Tell me about like your content plan, because I know you guys have a, you guys have a program too that helps agents with their, uh, content. Yeah.

Suneet Which, look, if people need help with lot of email about it all the time and I, I haven't unsubscribe. I'd love everyone. So,

Tristan um, uh, I, I think, tell me about that. The key to, to, if people just wanna run content, if you look at where [00:51:00] the consumer is, five, five top, top, most visitor websites in the world, five top five, you've got Google as number one.

Tristan I.

Tristan Four and X is number five. These are most visited websites on the planet, and four of those are social. So you've gotta think like as an entity, as a brand, as an individual agent, what's your plan for all five things? I mean, Google itself, there's, there's already multiple things there that you can do, right?

Tristan There's SEO, there's PPC, there's the reviews, there's Google My Business, which is a Google profile. Now Google, you better start using Gemini. Gemini, their new ai, which is almost as good as chat. GBT. Almost, almost, almost. Uh, but there's a lot of opportunity on Google. I think YouTube YouTube's still tied to the Google search, right?[00:52:00]

Tristan People, we get business from our YouTube videos. But again, you have to be niched. What's your, what's your plan for Facebook? Right? Is it, is it video? Is it lives, is it reels? Is it written content, pictures? Same thing with Instagram and, and, uh, X and then TikTok. But the idea behind this is this, we're moving faster into a world that requires you to attract those people that wanna work with you.

Tristan And when you can turn social into an attraction business, that's when you start seeing the growth happen faster. Because the world we're in doesn't want to be called anymore. They don't want to be reached out to when they didn't ask for it. They never asked for permission. Yeah. Right. And this is, this is in fact why Zillow and realtor.com have done so well, because people are asking to be reached out to It's different.

Tristan Yes. So now [00:53:00] you shift that mentality over to social media and you find the niche and then you're able to monetize this and create a business out of it. But a lot of us don't see it that way. So yeah, that's what we help with. Samit.

Suneet Yeah, I love that offer, man. Um, so when you go to sit down, I think it's super valuable for anybody out there who wants to create way more content, which you should.

Suneet I mean, I don't know, but you know, we publish 16 short form videos per day. You know, 10 tweets, you know, 10 LinkedIn posts, like we go crazy. Um, because it's great. ROIs oftentimes very free. You have a VA help with some of the production. When, when you go to create, what is the first platform that you think of

Tristan to create for.

Tristan I think long form. I think YouTube, I think YouTube still has the e even though Facebook has 3.06 billion monthly active [00:54:00] users as of last month, uh, they're the, they're the biggest platform. Uh, YouTube still has a deeper reach because of the wider audience. So you've got a five-year-old watching Minecraft videos and you've got a 90-year-old trying to figure out why they have back pain, right?

Tristan Yeah. All of those. And you have really the widest reach. And then, so I think of YouTube, even though TikTok here are some cool numbers. TikTok, the average user on TikTok spends 53 minutes on TikTok. YouTube, the average user spends 47 minutes. So pretty close, right? Pretty close. Pretty close. Um, but you only have 188 million Americans on TikTok and you've got 260 million on YouTube.

Tristan So a lot more. So I'd say for me, number one choice is still YouTube because if you are watching my [00:55:00] video, my average watch time, uh, that the consumer sees on my YouTube, it is six and a half minutes. Wow. Versus I go to TikTok three seconds, 16 seconds, which is not bad. 16 seconds. Yeah. But dude, six and a half minutes versus 16 seconds.

Tristan I'll take the six and a half minutes please. Yeah. Right. And you have a lot less people creating content on YouTube, like dramatically less. It's the number one platform where. Most people don't post at all. And I'm like, the biggest opportunity is on YouTube 'cause nobody's posting. Why? Because it requires this long form content.

Tristan It gets a little scary. My number one place YouTube second is normal Facebook. Right? Because of Facebook groups. I can build out a group locally or I could just engage on my personal, that's still my favorite big group reach too. Right? Which, you know, it's awesome. And then third [00:56:00] probably tie between TikTok and, and um, Instagram.

Tristan The silent one that I think is gonna be Big Man is XX is gaining a lot of momentum. Um, but I still have to personally, uh, figure out what route I want to take with it because that's my, also my lowest amount of followers. Like, it's very low.

Suneet Yeah. And X honestly has become my favorite social content to consume

Tristan mine too.

Tristan I literally, the first place I go to in the mornings is X because I'm following certain amount of people that give me the news and the latest on real time. I don't have to get the interpretation of the media. I want data. I want people that understand the world that you and I are in. And I want, I want to know what they're saying based on facts.

Tristan That's why I love X.

Suneet Yeah,

Tristan dude,

Suneet so much gold. So much gold in this episode, [00:57:00] bro. Let me ask you, um, if somebody wants to connect with you, Manny just dropped so much coal. I have all these notes. Like I texted my, um, admin during the call and said, Hey, make sure that you do this. Um, if somebody wants to connect with you further, dude, where should they go?

Tristan Just follow me on Instagram, it's tristan.al and message me. Or just Google me and then find me somewhere. But best one's Instagram. 'cause I'm always checking that one. Yeah.

Suneet Always checking. That's, that's the one thing that I go to Instagram for, is to check my messages and see how many people watched my last reel.

Suneet That's true Also. That's true Also, yes. Vanity metrics. You do what? Any speaking gigs you got planned for the summer yet? Uh, dude, I've got

Tristan a few coming up. Um, but I'm gonna also be truthful to you. I hate traveling and speaking after COVID. I mean, for me, COVID was, it sucked, but it was also great. 'cause I'm like, I didn't realize how much I hated [00:58:00] traveling.

Tristan Yeah. Until, until I, until during COVID I'm like, man, I hate traveling. The only reason I like traveling was because I got to bring my family wherever we went. Yeah. It was cool. And then I love speaking and talking to people, but it's, well, you're good at it. So good. I lose, I lose so much time because you and I are always creating content, dealing with certain situations with our companies.

Tristan Meetings that we have to have to keep other things going. So I literally, I literally lose two full days every time I travel to, oh, minimum, minimum. It's bad. And so I'm like, I would rather not speak and just get to a hundred thousand people on a good video and yeah. Serves a purpose. And then say, if you want me to speak, this is what I charge because it eats up a lot of my time, multiple days.

Tristan And dude, if people pay, I'll go. [00:59:00] Yeah. Um, so I'm going a couple of times this summer, but that's it.

Suneet Yeah, same dude. And you know, last year I think I did like 17 trips or something and Holy cow, dude. And like, mine isn't like, you like drive to San Diego. Mines like fly every time. Yeah. So, you know, and honestly all that travel like.

Suneet My wife was mad, my kids missed me. I come home from a trip, decompress, go back to being a dad, and now, oh look, gotta go again. 17 times in a year. Right? So, uh, yeah, I would rather make content and try and impact more people at a broader scale. Absolutely. Well,

Tristan I learned that from Seth Godin when I was talking to Seth.

Tristan He's like, Tristan, this is what you do. This is a side note. He said, uh, I only speak if it's, I don't even speak if it's New York anymore. I just speak if it's Manhattan, if I can drive there, I will speak. And he goes, he goes, [01:00:00] I'll speak for free sometimes, right? Uh, if it's local. And, but outside of that, he goes, this is my price.

Tristan I make it so high, Tristan, that it makes me think like I'd be stupid not to go. And that's the, oh, and that's who I learned it from.

Suneet Yeah, that's something I learned from John. Like John, John raises his rates to speak all the time. Shelac. And he is all, look, he's all, I get paid per hour for coaching. I gotta travel.

Suneet If you cover my cost then I can go. Yeah, right. Good. Well everybody go out there. Number one, go to lab code agents. Number two, buy Tristan's book because I'm sure it's good. I'm gonna get it. Number three. Tristan, thank you so much for everything throughout my career, man. You've been a beacon of like success and opportunity to me and I appreciate you that, appreciate you for that.

Suneet Always. So yeah dude, I appreciate our friendship and you know I [01:01:00] love you so Yeah, I do. And you know that it's like we gotta get the kids hanging out. It's been last time we were in uh, Coronado, that was a Coronado really cool thing we did around the fireplace on the beach. He has another marshmallows.

Suneet Yeah, dude, I only had one kid, man. I know, I know. And now it's like, dude, it's a family, right? It's, yeah, it is. Not a bunch of dogs anymore. Now I got just kids. So. Well, everybody, I hope you go follow Tristan. You go to Lab Code Agents and buy his book, and I hope you got something out of this episode. If you did, please share, like, and subscribe.

Suneet We have plenty other great episodes that I want you to listen to with additional great guests, and we'll see you next time on another episode of the Reside Platform Podcast. See you later.