The Non-Negotiable CRM Rule That Built a Top 1% Real Estate Team

[00:00:00] (teaser) ​

[00:00:00] Sarah: the first thing we have to do is have everybody on this team use the CRM with fidelity. that's not negotiable. That's the only way you can run a business and know what the heck you're doingif, can't just guess and be like, well, you know, I just think, this is a bad lead source 'cause we're not closing a lot,

[00:00:17] (interview) ​

[00:00:21] Suneet: Hey everybody, welcome back to the Reside Platform podcast. My name is Sunni Agarwal and I'll be hosting today and I'm really excited about today's episode.

[00:00:32] Suneet: Because I get to sit down with my friend Sarah Hardy, director of ops at the Hardy team at re max marketing specialist. Sarah, what's going on?

[00:00:45] Sarah: Not much. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

[00:00:48] Suneet: Yes, absolutely. So guys, Sarah's story is pretty awesome. I think it's super awesome, and I tell her this all the time because she went from being deep in like the education. Field school principal and instructional coach, which is also fascinating to running ops for a top real estate team with your husband.

[00:01:08] Sarah: Right,

[00:01:09] Suneet: Right.

[00:01:10] Sarah: How much time do you have? This is only 45 minutes.

[00:01:12] Suneet: Yeah. Right. and since you guys have been in reside and since you've been on it, your team has really grown. You've got a bunch of new opportunities, recently got flex. And I think the really cool thing with you that I can't wait to dive into is just how you like, think about putting together systems in the business.

[00:01:34] Suneet: And your guys focus when it shows the numbers on the team culture, which I think is great, and I think so many people listening can get something from that. you know, kind of melding all this put together to actually achieve results. So Sarah, thanks for hanging out with me

[00:01:50] Suneet: today.

[00:01:50] Sarah: Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:01:52] Suneet: why don't you tell me about what was going on when you decided to.

[00:01:55] Suneet: Begin working on, or maybe it was just helping out in the beginning. Right. Tell me about that transition to coming into the business with, Ross or awesome husband.

[00:02:06] Sarah: So, believe it or not, this is gonna be the Cliffs Notes version because it is a long story. But, I was in, education my entire adult life, so that was my job. ever since, you know, I, got my, degree in, varying exceptionalities. I started out as a special education teacher,

[00:02:20] Suneet: Bachelor's in.

[00:02:22] Sarah: varying exceptionalities.

[00:02:24] Suneet: I've never heard that.

[00:02:25] Sarah: Yeah. It's all encompassing. when we talk about, people who have special needs, yeah.

[00:02:30] Suneet: Okay. Okay.

[00:02:32] Sarah: so I started out as an ESE teacher. And then, I just a few years in, got a job at the district office and I was an instructional trainer coach. So I started out by training, the ESE teachers, all over the county. And then the next year I moved into instructional, practices. So, I had to really learn deeply all of the instructional best practices at the time in the school system it was called,

[00:02:55] Sarah: Marzano. and I, along with some other people, there were four of us coaches. We taught all of the principals and assistant principals how to do that teacher evaluation system and how to really deeply understand it. and then we would go into schools and also help those schools, understand that, how to use those practices and also try to turn, failing schools, into schools that were thriving and doing better.

[00:03:16] Suneet: Now was the main focus, special needs the whole time.

[00:03:20] Sarah: No. So that was only for my first year of coaching. after that it was just instructional best practices across the board. Like as a teacher, what are the things that you should be using? You know, what are the, the methods that work the best for absorbing new information and showing that you understand something, that's new.

[00:03:39] Sarah: So,

[00:03:39] Suneet: I

[00:03:40] Suneet: love that.

[00:03:41] Sarah: Yeah. Okay. It's, been huge for our team, so that's definitely something, that at the time when I first started this job, I didn't realize the connection, but I've seen it over time. but then from there, I, became, a assistant principal at a high school, and then I was assistant principal at an elementary school for seven years.

[00:03:57] Sarah: And then I became a principal. And, I do have some health issues. So I have an autoimmune disease. It was pretty taxing on me, honestly, because it really, where I was working, they really do expect it to be your whole life. and I was getting there before the sun would rise and I would get there after the sun would set.

[00:04:15] Sarah: and I was a newlywed, Ross and I had gotten married, recent to that. and we have three kids between the two of us. 'cause we're a blended family, so I have two and he has one. So together we have three. And I was never around and I was also like, if I was around, I was in bed 'cause I was exhausted.

[00:04:31] Sarah: and so for about a year he had been saying, please come to work with me. You have the skill set. I need a director of operations. I really wanna be the number one team, re max team in the state of Florida. Like, please come in. I would, I always just thought like. Okay. You know, he just wants me to go work with him, you know, and, I've always been taught, you know, I was raised by a single mom, like, you don't rely on a man, you don't rely on someone else.

[00:04:50] Sarah: You need to have your own career. You need to have your own stuff going on. And, like I said, this is the short version, I promise. But, I went to, to a teacher recruitment thing. 'cause I was 12 teachers short all year long that year. And I went

[00:05:03] Sarah: to a teacher recruitment thing that normally had thousands of people that would come to look for jobs and it had under 100 people.

[00:05:10] Sarah: And I remember standing there and it was like, immediately I was like, oh my God, this is my new normal. Like I can do anything if it's temporary, but if this is what it's gonna be. I don't think I can sacrifice like my family for this. Like, this is too crazy. So I went home and I told him like, I'm gonna leave.

[00:05:30] Sarah: And I left. Two days later, I will say earlier that week, he had sat, I forgot. he made out a list of all the qualifications. the director of operations that he thought I had, and he said, listen, I think you think I want you to do this because you're my wife. I want you to do this because I really think that this would be a great job for you and you could really help this team.

[00:05:48] Sarah: And, and he showed it to me and that's when I was like, okay, he's being serious. And then that weekend, that thing happened, at that recruiting, expo and I just. I decided right then and there and, I'm not a person that takes risks. I am not risky, you know that well about using

[00:06:03] Suneet: yes. yes. You're methodical with your decision making, which is, is good, right? Like you wanna look at all the angles of it first,

[00:06:10] Sarah: But, I'm glad I did. and I, I never looked back. So that's how I got involved in it.

[00:06:15] Suneet: and when was that?

[00:06:17] Sarah: Oh gosh, I guess it was three years ago. And it's funny because my

[00:06:21] Suneet: Oh, so not that much before I had met you.

[00:06:24] Sarah: Right. Yeah. I mean, really. Yeah. and it's funny because my very first day on the job, we went to Orlando, and visited Veronica Figueroa's team because they were the number one exp team in the world at the time. And it was like, oh my gosh. And, you know, we had this in with them.

[00:06:42] Sarah: And so I sat with their director of operations who at the time was Eric and,

[00:06:47] Sarah: he didn't have his license. 'cause I thought, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to get my license and my realtor's license and I don't know what I'm talking about. How can I be a director of operations? And he was like, girl, I don't have that.

[00:06:57] Sarah: And look at me, I'm helping run this huge team. Like, and so it really, helped me, see kind of my value a little bit more.

[00:07:03] Suneet: so you still don't have your license.

[00:07:05] Sarah: No,

[00:07:07] Sarah: Yeah. I don't need to sell or, buy anything for any, I don't need to help. we have a whole team of people that do that, and they're excellent.

[00:07:12] Sarah: So I'll let them do it,

[00:07:14] Suneet: So you've taken the team from just a handful of agents to over 20 now. And always growing the right way with the right people. And that's pretty good. That's pretty big, especially in like a smaller market where you guys are. Right.

[00:07:29] Suneet: So

[00:07:30] Suneet: What are some of the first moves you made to make that growth happen without getting super messy?

[00:07:35] Sarah: Sure. so the first thing, well, when I sat down with Ross, you know, he, he was about to get rid of Zillow. Like I was just kinda asking him like, where are you at with things like, what's going on? And he was gonna get rid of Zillow and he was gonna make some changes. And, when I joked deeper with him and it was asking him, well, why?

[00:07:54] Sarah: And everything in the school system is data driven. So that's like, that's all I know. And you don't just take one data point. It's a, like, you triangulate the data, you have different kinds of data, you know? and so I'm asking him for the data and he couldn't give it to me. And what we uncovered was it's because the CRM wasn't being used pervasively amongst the team.

[00:08:16] Sarah: you had like five agents and none of them were really using follow-up boss to actually have communication with anyone. They were getting the information, putting it on their personal phones and then having personal conversations. And so I said, well, you can't make big decisions based on no data.

[00:08:32] Sarah: Like that's. Wild. So the first thing we have to do is have everybody on this team use the CRM with fidelity. That's not negotiable. That's the only way you can run a business and know what the heck you're doing is if you, have the data, how else can you, like what if, can't just guess and be like, well, you know, I, I just think, this is a bad lead source

[00:08:53] Sarah: So many team leaders, so many entrepreneurs just go off of feelings and not facts, right? And I think that's like detrimental.

[00:09:05] Suneet: When you ever make a decision like that, it's funny, one of my good buddies, Chris Martinez, shout out to Chris, he wrote a book Facts Not Feelings, right? And it's so true because in talking about two marketing agencies is you gotta decide what to scale based on the data only,

[00:09:22] Suneet: Because what happened once you guys started working, Zillow leads and the CRM.

[00:09:27] Sarah: We became the top 1% of Zillow teams in the nation for two years. I mean, within a year we were there and we were in that 1% spot for two years, and now we're a flex team.

[00:09:36] Suneet: So let's be real, real, real. Right now. Almost , well, I'm not even gonna talk about real estate. Almost every sales organization that uses A CRM fights a wicked CRM battles. Implement to get the team to actually buy in and work out of the CRM every single day.

[00:09:55] Sarah: Well, so Ross had worked with the people he was working with for quite a while and they had a really good relationship. because that's one thing about Ross is like he's the sweetest, most honest, good person down to his core. And so I told him, you need to go about it. by explaining how it affects your business, you know that , you're losing a lot of money, that this is really affecting, your work and your livelihood and your future and their future.

[00:10:22] Sarah: because you don't know what's going on, and, and you can't be the leader you need to be for them. The whole point of them joining a team without knowing. Where to help them or, how to support them. You know, how would you know that? and so we broke it down that way, and I'll tell you, there were a couple people who were very unhappy about it.

[00:10:40] Sarah: and I will say a pro tip For any, you know, leaders out there is, you always wanna get like your top people on your team aside, first one-on-one. Don't do it in a group and get them on board first And then that way when you, open it up to everybody, they don't buck you in front of everybody and, and make it a nightmare.

[00:10:57] Sarah: that's like the kiss of death. So you wanna

[00:11:00] Sarah: gauge it. First privately and have a private conversation about it beforehand.

[00:11:04] Suneet: Yeah.

[00:11:04] Suneet: Pick up the phone and have the conversation. It's not even a text message, you know, like have a real conversation with someone that you know and who you have a fiduciary responsibility by them joining organization to shoot 'em straight.

[00:11:17] Sarah: Yep. Yep. So, some people were unhappy and they did leave and you know, that's okay. We wish them well. It's nothing personal. It's literally business. And so, that just became the norm. You know, this is what we do. And it was some time though before we had actual, like, standards around it because we just wanted them to use it, and

[00:11:39] Sarah: so that's where we started. And so at that time, you know, we only had a few people because a couple had left, and so it was easier when we hired people on to just say, this is the expectation. Like, this is what we do

[00:11:49] Suneet: And then how do you maintain that standard without micromanaging? Or are you

[00:11:54] Suneet: micromanaging? Like, like I do,

[00:11:58] Sarah: I think there's like a, it depends on my energy, let's be honest. Depends on the month. I'll tell you the truth.

[00:12:04] Sarah: There's some months where I'm like, I don't even know what the CRM looks like. And then there's some months where I'm in it every day. so on our team, they do 8,000 points, in follow up boss.

[00:12:12] Sarah: 'cause, you know, each, action that you take in there is worth a certain amount of points. And so they need to have 8,000 points not including, the appointments. But then we do add, 500 points per open house that they do in the month. So it's 8,000 points a month or two deals that go pending in the month.

[00:12:29] Sarah: It's one or the other. 'cause we figure if you're, you know, we have some people on the team that do a lot of sphere deals. And so if they're doing a lot of personal deals and you know, they may not have the points and follow up boss 'cause they really are talking to those people on their personal cell phone.

[00:12:44] Sarah: But if they're getting the deals in, what do we care? Right? So that's why we have either or, and it's worked out fabulously. And that way it's also not a feeling like the data's, the data's the data. I'm not going by if I like you or if I don't like you or what I think you're doing or not doing. Like, you know, you either do it or you don't.

[00:13:00] Sarah: And so that's how you get on leads or not on leads.

[00:13:02] Suneet: I like those standards. They sound awfully familiar too, but hey, we want, I do it a little bit differently, because I'll just, for everyone listening and watching and follow a boss, there's a leaderboard that gives certain number of points for certain activities, one of which is appointments.

[00:13:21] Suneet: The appointment one is the easiest one for somebody to flub. Right. So, many teams like the Hardee's decided to take that away. I've left it in mostly because I just want to be able to show the damn thing on the screen without having to do a math problem every time,

[00:13:38] Suneet: So I just have a running total, but that's just my preference and something easier for me.

[00:13:44] Suneet: and for you guys, you have two escrows of any kind. I have one escrow of a team generated deal only. So just these little nuances. Right. I'm just giving some context to the people that are listening is, from what Sarah just said, is it's not a feeling, hey, here's the metric. You guys have that included in in your contract too, right?

[00:14:04] Sarah: Absolutely. Yeah. And we talk about it all the time and, each month I will, like, I already have a pre-populated text. That I keep on my computer. 'cause I have, I messenger on my, computer. And so at the end of the month, or really the first of the month, I will send them like, oh, you met the goal.

[00:14:21] Sarah: and I put this specific metric that they met and like, congratulations, like, I'm so proud of you. You know, keep it up. And they love that because it's a personal connection, it's a congratulations. They also know what their data is and what's going on. And I've never had someone be mad at me for saying like, you know, Hey, you didn't meet the metric this month.

[00:14:38] Sarah: You know, and, but I know you can do it and, let me know how I can help you. Like, how would you be mad at me for that? That's wild, right? Like, so I've never had that happen. I've only had people go, I'm so sorry. I'm gonna, come back this month or whatever. But it's gotten to the point where it's so incredibly rare.

[00:14:53] Sarah: For people not to meet the, points or the, you know, the metric that we have set. It's so rare. For the first five months of this year, we didn't have a single person miss it.

[00:15:03] Sarah: And this month we have had a couple, but there's been some personal stuff going on, so,

[00:15:07] Sarah: you know, it is.

[00:15:07] Sarah: what it is.

[00:15:08] Suneet: love that. So what was your approach, because I know that you, as you guys are growing, you're developing other leaders in the group. , In the team and like what's that approach been like because it's so important and it's also scary, I think, for many business owners. So like how have you rolled that out?

[00:15:27] Sarah: Well, that's how we've been able to scale our business is by having, other people take on some leadership, roles. So honestly, I mean, I use a very similar. set up to what we did in the school system. So if you think about it, right, you have a principal, an assistant principal, and they're like mom and dad.

[00:15:43] Sarah: so any little conversation that happens in the day with anybody, you let the other one know because you never know if it could be a data point that they have other information to, you know? and so together you're like, oh, I see what's going on here. Or, you know, they might ask you something and then ask the other person something hoping to get a different answer.

[00:15:59] Sarah: It's no different than, you know, that's how it is in the school system. So, gotta be on the same. Page just like mom and dad and so there's that. There is, also there's team leaders. So every grade level has a team leader. And so that's the, usually a person that has a great skillset, and usually has some good leadership qualities so that they can then help coach and mentor the other teachers on their team.

[00:16:20] Sarah: And so that's really the approach that we have taken. There's some people who don't wanna do that. They want to just work on their business. they have their vision and I think that is wonderful. but there are some people who want to be leaders themselves and want to, they find it very fulfilling to work with other people or to mentor new agents.

[00:16:40] Sarah: And, those are the people that we just. Grabbed onto and we're like, please help us. Because then we're actually able to continue to help all of the agents, because they're not all coming to us for every single little thing. It's those little things they go to those mentors for so that we can then help, appropriately, support our mentors and the other, leaders and, and agents on the team, and

[00:17:02] Sarah: be more available to everybody.

[00:17:03] Suneet: exactly. It can be so hard because you wanna be accessible and available for everybody, but if that's your whole day, then you're missing out on the growth activities. It's a real hard thing for a lot of people. Yeah.

[00:17:18] Sarah: Yeah. and Ross was getting like, you know, calls and texts until we would go to sleep at night. I mean, it was never ending. And he gets a lot less of that. and I do feel like we're much more supportive at a deeper level now too.

[00:17:31] Suneet: Yeah. So your support has increased and Ross's time has also increased and been able to focus on other cool stuff like. YouTube. I know Ross is gonna be on this soon too, talking about YouTube. You guys have been killing it, but YouTube, give everybody a taste of what you think Ross will say about YouTube

[00:17:47] Sarah: Oh my gosh. It's his, it's his passion. So like I'll give you, I'll give you an example of, you already know this, but I wanna out him right now. I want everyone to hear this. So, you know, he'll get these calls from people you know, from the YouTube line and it'll be. Let's just say, oh, well, 'cause everything's recorded.

[00:18:03] Sarah: 'cause it's in follow up Boss. And he'll go, hi, you know, hi, this is Ross, you know, how can I help you? And they go, oh my gosh, I can't believe you're the one that actually answered the phone. Oh my gosh, honey, come here, honey. It's Ross on the phone. You know, it's, oh, we've been watching all your videos. and it's constant by the way.

[00:18:20] Sarah: And so he'll call the kids in and be like, oh my God, kids, we have to talk about something and I'll act like it's really serious. And they'll all come in, they'll be like, what? What's going on? And he'll go. I need you to sit down and then he'll press play and he'll go, I need you to listen to this. And they're all like, oh God, not again.

[00:18:35] Sarah: It's so funny.

[00:18:36] Suneet: I didn't know that whole story and I'm really grateful that he told me because I don't think Ross would ever say that. he might now I'll have to bring it up when he's on next week.

[00:18:45] Sarah: he's not really like that in real life, you know? That's why it's funny.

[00:18:47] Suneet: yeah. Well, I mean, but that's also awesome.

[00:18:51] Suneet: Are working out for you guys.

[00:18:54] Sarah: They are freaking amazing. Almost all of them end up in a deal. They are, almost all people really, like 99% of them are people who are coming from out of state. they are almost always a higher price point. The average price point in our area is like, 253, like 300,000, let's just say

[00:19:11] Sarah: 300.

[00:19:12] Sarah: 10, something like that. And they're typically between like 500,000 to a little over a million, so That's awesome. they're more serious buyers because they're moving here for a job typically, and they're doing their research ahead of time. So they're actually for sure gonna move here. And he's showing that he's the specialist.

[00:19:30] Sarah: He knows everything about. This entire place. He knows about all of the builders. He knows about all of the different neighborhoods and everything you could wanna know, so why wouldn't you go with him? You know? and they come into town and they're here to buy. They're here to look for their future home.

[00:19:45] Sarah: And so they're serious about it.

[00:19:47] Suneet: Wow. , So much cool stuff on YouTube and I'm so glad you guys are crushing it at

[00:19:53] Suneet: that. So that's awesome. so. We talked a little bit about data-driven principles or data-driven approach from being in the education system. what else from the education system?

[00:20:06] Suneet: And I've been curious about this since I met you, so I'm glad that we got some time to talk about it. my parents are professors. My aunt was elementary school

[00:20:13] Suneet: teacher, my grandmother, elementary school teacher, stepdad, you know, he's like 78, still teaching like somewhere.

[00:20:20] Suneet: he's a, so, and my mom's done administrative stuff at the, you know, at the junior college level. So I grew up, every single dinner of my childhood was spent, my parents talking about junior college politics.

[00:20:34] Suneet: so what other, skill sets and approaches did you bring from the education system to the team?

[00:20:41] Sarah: You know I think that's like the biggest aha honestly for me because, you know, what I've seen in this industry is you can be an amazing, amazing realtor, right? Like you can know. Everything back to front, front to back. Have a million experiences be awesome, awesome, awesome. And be like, I'm gonna start a team.

[00:21:00] Sarah: But leadership is a different skillset.

[00:21:03] Sarah: They're not the same thing. and some of them overlap, right? Like some of them will help you become a better leader. Obviously you have good people skills, you know, and, you know what to say and things like that. But that's really the thing that, I brought I think to the table and has really.

[00:21:17] Sarah: Helped us, you know, like Ross has this specialty of this 20 years experience in real estate and marketing and he's so great with people and he has these great skills, but as far as like how to train agents to where they're actually understanding it, oh my God. I remember the first week I sat in on a team meeting and it was like, there's no attendance.

[00:21:38] Sarah: You have no idea who's supposed to be there, who's not, who's late, you know, people are coming in late. There's no. documentation of it. And Ross was talking at people, so he was like telling them I want you to do this. And he, I, this is what it looks like, da da, da, da, da. And he was going so fast.

[00:21:52] Sarah: And I was like, whoa. So afterwards I went through that with him and I said, content is awesome, but that is not how you tell people you need stuff done. Like this has gotta be done. with a plan in place, you know, first you have to show them what it looks like. You have to give them data behind it so they understand like, this is tried and true practice.

[00:22:13] Sarah: You have to talk about how it benefits them. People don't wanna do anything unless it benefits them. That's just human nature. first thing that people think is, how's this gonna affect me? Is this gonna make me harder? Is this gonna be easier? Is this gonna help me grow? You know, so like, there's method to the madness.

[00:22:27] Sarah: and so, you know, and also keeping track of who's coming in on time, who's here, who's present. That stuff matters, you know? so those were the kind of things that, I really have been helping him over the last few years is, is like how to train, how to. Support people, you know, how to check in on them.

[00:22:44] Sarah: and also creating supports for them, you know, so having an organized system so that they can find the things that we've talked about. It's not enough to just talk about it or have a great training where those resources, so I can go back to them, I can print them out, I can practice them, I can use them, I can, you know, practice in real life.

[00:23:00] Sarah: and then I think the other thing is like the, I do, we do. You do model, which is what I learned, you know, from the school system, is I can do something and I'll show it. I'll model it for you, and I'll model it a few times if you need it. Then let's do it together. So maybe we're talking about a listing appointment, right?

[00:23:17] Sarah: Ross will go out on a listing appointment and he'll take, you know, a new agent with them, and he'll do that a couple times so they can see the way he does it right, and then he'll help them, right? Third, fourth time, whatever it is, he'll help them. He'll sit down, he'll do the CMA together with them.

[00:23:30] Sarah: Instead of him showing them, now they're doing it together. Now they go out together and he's just. You know, he's a guide on the side, so they're kind of going back and forth. They're both in it, you know, it's like team teaching is what I would call it, in the school system. And then, once they do well at that and he feels comfortable with that, he'll let them take the lead maybe on the fifth, sixth time and he's just watching to, you know, see how they're doing.

[00:23:56] Sarah: If there's anything that he can say, great job afterwards, or, Hey, this was great, but these are some things I would change. Or, Hey, you forgot to do this. that's called gradual release. That's a gradual release process. So those are things that we've all implemented and it's been helpful.

[00:24:07] Suneet: That's so cool. Great answer. Great answer. you know, growing fast like you did, like you are, like you have,

[00:24:16] Suneet: tricky and it can be super fucking messy. So how do you keep the culture strong and make sure everybody feels like a part of a team as you guys grow, especially maybe even when you came on board as Ross's wife coming to start working.

[00:24:33] Suneet: Like that must have been

[00:24:33] Suneet: interesting, right?

[00:24:35] Sarah: Oh sure. Because you know, some people think, you know, there's some nepotism involved or like, maybe I don't deserve that spot or something. And listen, I have my master's degree in, in leadership, so 20 years experience in education, I promise you I have the credentials. but those are the people though that you don't want on your team anyway.

[00:24:53] Sarah: right? Like. What's that? You know? And so what really naturally happened is, the right people kind of got together and that's what created the atmosphere. Like, when I started interviewing people, I'll tell you the truth.

[00:25:06] Sarah: I don't care what their background is or their skillset is because I can teach them kind of anything, right? Like, but I can't change their personality. Like, if you suck, you suck. or if you're, you know, a nice person, you're a nice person, like that comes across when you just have a casual conversation with someone.

[00:25:22] Sarah: And that's what I look for when I talk with people. And if I think if I get the vibe from them that they're going to lift other people up. They're going to be kind, supportive, they're gonna have healthy competition, like those kind of things you're in. I love it. You're in, you know, we don't do gossip, we don't do negativity or any of that kind of crap.

[00:25:42] Sarah: And so that has made all the difference in the world because when your team consists of people like that, they like being around each other, they're productive and they're kind, and you know, they help each other out. So

[00:25:54] Suneet: I mean, I think the fact that you guys have been able to do that though is really good because it's really, really hard.

[00:26:00] Suneet: Because you are leading a group of independent contractors.

[00:26:04] Sarah: sure, sure.

[00:26:06] Suneet: Right. So being able to do that, I think is a big challenge for a lot of people that they may even not know, right? Like for the longest time, I feel like I.

[00:26:15] Suneet: Maybe in 20 17, 20 18, as the teams were really coming up, hard culture became a buzzword. You know, it's like a cyclical buzzword. Culture comes and goes like, right? Like, and in 20 18, 20 17, I felt like it was a real big buzzword that, was very interesting. To me and that I was like chasing too, right?

[00:26:38] Suneet: Like I, I remember going and visiting a big office of a colleague, of a top broker and just the whole conversation was about culture. So your approach for a team is really good. So good job.

[00:26:50] Sarah: Thank you. I appreciate it. And I'll tell you too, like Ross always had this vision of people coming into the office. Like that goes with culture, you know? And they weren't. And so what I told him is, they're not gonna be there unless you're there. You have to be there regularly so that way they see, oh, he's going to be there when I'm in.

[00:27:08] Sarah: And you have to be available to them. Like you can't just be like holed up in your. office like the door has to be open. You have to be

[00:27:14] Sarah: available so And so that made a huge difference though, because, you know, he really would kind of come in sporadically or you know, he was very busy himself with all of his listings and stuff, and so he made it a point to make sure he was way more present, way more available, and.

[00:27:28] Sarah: Don't, you know, people started coming in regularly and we also would talk about that all the time at meeting, you know, whatever you want. You gotta, you gotta talk about it ad nauseum. You, like, you have to just talk about it constantly, right? If you want them to come in, you have to tell them, oh, the other day, you know, someone stopped in looking for a realtor and, and Shaq was here.

[00:27:45] Sarah: And so, you know, Shaq got to work with that

[00:27:47] Sarah: customer. Awesome. Shaq, you know,

[00:27:49] Suneet: People by sharing stories. Yeah.

[00:27:52] Sarah: Yeah. The other day, Shane was in the office and, you know, he wasn't sure what to do and so he came in and he asked me, and, you know, we ended up doing this great deal, like, whatever it is. and so, you know, hey, it's really great when you, you can concentrate and you're not having to worry about laundry or, making this or doing that.

[00:28:07] Sarah: You, can focus better in the office. Come on in. We're here, we're here to help you. It makes a difference. Now we have people come in regularly all the time. It's awesome.

[00:28:14] Suneet: Yes, that is awesome. And shout out to two of your, great agents. Shout. And Shane. So what's

[00:28:20] Suneet: up guys? you just got a shout out on the podcast. So good. Wasn't Shane on one of these podcasts with me or something?

[00:28:27] Sarah: was, Shaq was, yeah. He just did it.

[00:28:29] Sarah: Yeah, we were talking about that today actually. We did like a little bowling thing today for lunch and yeah. Yeah, we were talking about that. He was, yeah. He was excited to be on.

[00:28:39] Suneet: Yeah. So for everybody watching and listening, go back and listen to a couple episodes ago with Mia and some agents, one of whom is Shaq from the Hardy team. All right, so, you know, real estate isn't really a nine to five job. well, real estate isn't really a. Because you're an independent contractor, right?

[00:28:59] Suneet: You should treat it like a job, but it's not literally a job. And things are always changing in the real estate industry. You know, last, recently we went through all that NAR stuff, which is whatever, but I already did enough episodes about my thoughts on that. so how do you, like, what have you guys found?

[00:29:18] Suneet: That has the systems working, but still gives the team members the flexibility that they need.

[00:29:26] Sarah: Sure. Okay. So, well, I think people thrive with, Having clear procedures. So, people, appreciate that, right? Like, and they appreciate consistency. So I mean, I think that's a big, part of it, honestly. because those aren't telling you, How much work you have to do. Like we don't have a quota where that says you have to do two deals a month or something like that.

[00:29:49] Sarah: you know, we do our go to the board exercise, which we learned, you know, from check black and

[00:29:53] Suneet: Uh, you learn from me, but that's okay. You can.

[00:29:55] Sarah: Oh, I'm sorry. I thought it was him at first. It was your you? Yeah. Who's Che? I dunno who that is. It was ine obviously. It all melds together at some point. You all are just

[00:30:04] Sarah: one at some point.

[00:30:06] Sarah: but anyway, from you guys, from you Sunni is, you know, to go up quarterly and talk about like, what are my goals? You know, what am I committing to? and those are their goals. Like we're not saying you have to do five deals. In a quarter or 20 deals, it's up to them. We have agents on the team who their goal is to do 60 deals, and we have people on the team whose goal is to do five in a year.

[00:30:27] Sarah: That's fine with me. Like if that's what they want to do, that's what they want to do. Our job is to support them to reach that goal. And so we do that through having our procedures in place, the best practices, right? Teaching what works, like offering one-on-one coaching with them, you know, going through their CRM and saying, okay, you know, this looks good.

[00:30:47] Sarah: This was a perfect thing here. Hey, the reason why this person's not responding to you is 'cause you talked to them, had a great conversation, and then you didn't reach out for seven. So it's gonna be tough getting 'em back, like, oh, hey, this should have ended in a question. Right? Things like that.

[00:31:00] Sarah: And so it's those little tiny tweaks that they can make and it makes such a difference, in their performance. But I don't force that. I say, whoever wants it, sign up. Here's my Calendly link. You know, I mean, if they don't wanna do it, what am I forcing? Like, that doesn't help anybody ever.

[00:31:15] Sarah: Right. It's wasting my time. It's wasting their time. So, I just do that with people who want it.

[00:31:19] Suneet: Something I learned, phrase I learned from Robert Palmer recently from LPT is the agent's ideal definition of success. Right. What is their own ideal definition of success? And we asked that. And then let's go to the board exercise. And then it's important for everyone to remember. Like, let me tell you, my first team contract, I said, if you don't do two deals a month, then you are terminated.

[00:31:44] Suneet: Right? And for me, I said, well, what if they do 3, 1, 3, 1 month and zero the next month? This contract is kind of shitty, right.

[00:31:51] Suneet: So it took a lot of, different kinds of, iterations. To understand that I got through coaching with John, to understand someone's ideal definition of success and how it's our job as their leader.

[00:32:04] Suneet: It's our fiduciary job. Like

[00:32:06] Suneet: that is our job, right? That's our

[00:32:07] Suneet: business,

[00:32:08] Suneet: to support them in their ideal definition of success. So if you look back over the last couple years, last three years, what's either a big lesson or even like a big mistake that taught you something? Important as a leader of a real estate business.

[00:32:25] Sarah: Well, I would say, a mistake like don't get too, too close, to people. I know that sounds probably awful, but, I love the members of my team. I truly actually love them. I have love for the people I work with and I care about them. But, I'm also, you know, I'm careful with the type of relationship we have because we have been really, really close to people before and thought, gosh, this is person's like my best friend and, you know, or something like that.

[00:32:53] Sarah: And you really let them in on some, you know, private information and then, Unfortunately, they just, stab you in the back and, you know, leave and go to another team and try to recruit all your agents. So, you're like, whoa, what happened? I did not see that coming. and so that was like really shocking for me and, really hard for me actually, emotionally and so.

[00:33:16] Sarah: You know, stuff like that. Like I learned from that to just not get too emotionally attached. Then you can love people and care about them. but, with some healthy boundaries there. So that's a lesson I learned.

[00:33:27] Suneet: Yes. You gotta keep it at a professionally surface level.

[00:33:31] Sarah: Yep. Yeah. You have to,

[00:33:32] Suneet: You really do because if you haven't been cracked, meaning, mistreated somehow in your business by someone who may have worked for you or been an independent contractor, you haven't had enough people on your team yet 'cause you will get cracked.

[00:33:45] Suneet: And it's just human nature, so not a business. And it also hurts my fucking hell. Like, you said.

[00:33:51] Suneet: it's super funny. I was, I was talking to my wife the other day, shout out to my wife Christine, who has never listened to an episode. Probably doesn't even know we have a podcast, and that's okay.

[00:34:01] Suneet: is, when I was coming up as a team leader, when there would be challenges with an agent or somebody leaving in an un abrupt way. It would shake me and it would like shake me at the house. I would be upset and she would definitely know I'm all babe, like, do you remember when I used to just complain about this and be beat up?

[00:34:22] Suneet: And she's all, yes, I was, how is it now? She's all, I don't even know when people leave or not. And I was all, maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that's a bad thing. Right. So you just gotta take those licks.

[00:34:32] Sarah: you get used to it. You know, like when I was, when I was in the school system, I used to, you know, at first I would hate taking phone calls 'cause it was always like someone, you know, angry. Like, my kid didn't do that. What did that teacher do to make him do that? You know?

[00:34:44] Sarah: And I'd be like, and I would stress me out and everything. And then after, you know, a couple years of that, it was like nothing, you know, I could get cursed at, screamed at. I've had to trespass parent. Like, it was like nothing. honestly, I mean, I can take. that all day long.

[00:34:56] Sarah: Like I'll run to a fight like I'm good. but I think it's the same thing though. It's like, this is a kind of a newer experience and so you just kind of get used to it after a while and it doesn't affect you as, personally anymore, which is probably a good thing.

[00:35:07] Suneet: Yeah, you, you just get another set of thick skin.

[00:35:11] Suneet: Right? Another shield. okay. So final question for today. Maybe for the team leaders listening right now, what's one simple thing they could start doing? This week make their teams more efficient and grow faster.

[00:35:26] Sarah: that CRM, using the CRM with fidelity is like the most

[00:35:29] Sarah: important thing in the world.

[00:35:31] Suneet: I love the way that you say that using the CRM with fidelity said so. Well, good job on that.

[00:35:38] Sarah: it's real. Yeah.

[00:35:38] Sarah: because you, you can use it. But are you using it with fidelity? Like Are you using it pervasively to record, all of your calls, for all of your text messages, are you putting your notes in? Are you using tasks? Are you checking it daily?

[00:35:52] Sarah: Like, that is the key to success. I mean, of course you have to follow up with people and reach out to them, right? But those two things together, that's it. I'm telling you, that is the majority of what we go over with our team. This is how to say it. This is what you say. And you need to follow up.

[00:36:08] Sarah: Say it, follow up. Follow up, do the work. Do call, do the work. And you know, people who don't wanna do the work, they don't do well on our team because. We are not gonna hand them leads ready to go, but if you're gonna do the work, we will. We're gonna give you some great leads. But a lot of the people that are on our team are doing amazingly because they do the work that no one wants to do.

[00:36:28] Suneet: Yes.

[00:36:29] Suneet: So They do the Work Work works. Yes. Good. Okay. So that wasn't the final question. One more, because if somebody wants to send you guys a referral or to you guys about any of the cool stuff that you're all doing, how should they reach out?

[00:36:42] Sarah: Sure. So our email is pretty easy to remember. So it's our first name. So it's Sarah, SARA h@hardyrealtor.com. And Ross is ROS s@hardyrealtor.com. and you can reach out to me there, or you can call me. I'm, (352) 584-3183. Text

[00:37:00] Sarah: me, call me.

[00:37:01] Sarah: I really wanna help people. My favorite thing is coaching people, so I freaking love it. I love it so much. It's my favorite thing. I do. I love to help people. So we're here to help you.

[00:37:09] Suneet: Awesome. Well, Sarah, thank you so much for coming on. I always love hanging out with you guys, you and Ross, and

[00:37:17] Suneet: hearing all the cool stuff you're doing out there. It's been real fun on this journey for almost two years, and

[00:37:23] Suneet: I think there's so much that I take. from a education pair, family background, not in it like you, but a lot of what you said really resonates with me and I love that.

[00:37:33] Suneet: So everyone watching and listening, reach out to Sarah if you have a deal for them out

[00:37:39] Suneet: there in Winter Haven.

[00:37:41] Sarah: What? No, we're not there. We're like, I mean, it's 40, it's like an hour from us.

[00:37:49] Sarah: . We're about 45 minutes north of Tampa, so we do the Tampa area and then we're in Hernando County, so Hernando County, Pasco, citrus, Hillsborough, that's our area.

[00:37:58] Suneet: Yeah. Okay, good. Okay, so. If you got a deal for not Winter Haven, but all those other places, you wanna learn more about all the cool stuff that Sarah's doing over the Hardy team, reach out to her. you guys, thank you so much for listening.

[00:38:14] Suneet: Sarah, thanks for hanging out

[00:38:16] Suneet: and, Ross will be on soon. So make sure you hear that episode. And also make sure you go back and listen to one of the agents on her team, Shaq share in a previous episode.

[00:38:29] Suneet: Like, share, subscribe, all that good stuff, and we'll see you on the next episode of the Reside Platform podcast.

[00:38:37] Suneet: See you later everybody.