Why Agents Disengage – And How to Fix It with Lauren Holland and Mie Yamashita

[00:00:00] Lauren: Okay, it says recording, so Brittany, this is to you, please let us know if we did something wrong, well if I did something wrong. Give me the hook. Are you facing the challenges of keeping your agents engaged and present on your team? Join me, Lauren Holland, as I sit down with the inspirational Mia Yamashita to unlock the secrets of cultivating a motivated, high performing team that consistently shows up.

[00:00:31] Lauren: In this episode, we're going to dive into the reasons behind agent disconnection, explore the true drivers of attendance, and share actionable strategies to revolutionize. Your workplace culture. This is the leadership insight that you've been waiting for. So tune in with us today as we construct confront one of the industry's most pressing issues.

[00:00:51] Lauren: Prepare for an enlightening discussion as I interview agent productivity coach Mia on the real truth about agent engagement.

[00:00:59] Mie: love when I do 1 more, so you have a 2nd clip if you need it, or you feel good.

[00:01:04] Lauren: I'm breathing

[00:01:05] Mie: Yeah.

[00:01:06] Lauren: talking. It's so,

[00:01:09] Mie: Yeah.

[00:01:10] Lauren: um, okay. Let me get it one more time. All right. Breathe belly, man. He is taking up all the space. All right. Are you facing the challenge of keeping your agents engaged and present? on your team. Join me, Lauren Holland, as I sit down with the inspirational Mia Yamashita to unlock the secrets of cultivating a motivated, high performing team that consistently shows up.

[00:01:40] Lauren: In this episode, we are going to dive into the reasons behind agent disconnection, explore the true drivers of attendance, and share actionable strategies to revolutionize your workplace. This is the leadership insight that you've been waiting for. So tune in with us today as we confront one of the industry's most pressing issues.

[00:02:00] Lauren: Prepare for an enlightening discussion as I interview agent productivity coach Mia on the real truth about agent engagement. I think I'm good with either. All right. My name is Lauren Holland. You know me formerly as Lauren Rathgeb, and I am the Director of Team Operations at Reside Platform, and I am here sitting slash standing today with the lovely Nia Yamashita, Resides Director of Team Productivity.

[00:02:30] Lauren: We're back and taking over the podcast. Hi, Mia.

[00:02:33] Mie: Hi. How are you?

[00:02:34] Lauren: Yeah. How are you doing?

[00:02:36] Mie: Good. How's the baby?

[00:02:38] Lauren: We're, we're going, we're breathing. So yeah, we're here today to discuss one of the most burning questions that we get all the time. You know, how do I get my agents to show up? They're not doing the activity. I'm paying for all of these leads and no one but me is working them.

[00:02:54] Lauren: So, excuse me, with your background as a top performing real estate coach, which is so impressive, you've coached what thousands of agents across the country. Mason,

[00:03:04] Mie: Yeah. I don't know that I'm, I'm, I'm in the single thousands. I'm not in the tens of thousands, but I'm in the single thousands of training and coaching. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:03:12] Lauren: uh, can you share a little bit of your background with what initially inspired you to focus on agent productivity and engagement? I

[00:03:22] Mie: Yes, so if, if anyone's listened to the podcast before, you've probably heard a little bit about my background. Um, but I actually like the way you post voice that question, um, because. Um, I, what I have found really interesting about the agent journey is that it's this really cool conduit to human experience and, um, understanding how people think and how people operate.

[00:03:45] Mie: And. It's taught me to be more compassionate towards myself. It's helped me understand myself better as well. So it really had a lot of alignment with self work. Um, and so I love real estate because you can get some sort of measurement out of that production or out of that journey. It's not about the measurement necessarily, but it's cool that you can see benchmarks and you can see, you know, how the, uh, how a human being shows up to this experience.

[00:04:12] Mie: So I've been, I've been really intrigued by it. So,

[00:04:16] Lauren: love talking with Mia because she puts things so eloquently and really makes you think so. I can agree with you. Business is a conduit for personal growth. That's, that's what I'm hearing. And really with what you do, you've gotten so good at tracking metrics and having KPIs, if you will, maybe we don't call them that, but we're going to get into how we measure the results and get agents to show up.

[00:04:39] Lauren: So let's start with, you know, in your experience, what are the most significant barriers that prevents an agent from fully engaging in their role?

[00:04:51] Mie: um, that's a loaded question and, and it's a really good one. Um, So, John, I think, summarizes it really well. It usually comes down to fear and overwhelm. Um, and I think that there are some other factors, too, that we need to consider. You know, me, I'm always going to go to the mirror and look at the leadership with first.

[00:05:12] Mie: I'm going to look at myself in the mirror as a leader and say, where do I contribute to that? You know, my standards actually. Um, communicated well, are they consistently in front of the people that I lead? Do my systems actually support the standards that I have? Like, you can't people actually show up to the standard.

[00:05:31] Mie: So, like, if I'm like, you need to track your numbers. Do they have a place to do that? Do they have a system to try? Like, do I can I actually support the standard that I'm asking them to live by? And so if I can check the boxes on all of that. Um, then I'll, I'll look at an agent and say, okay, what is the thing getting in the way?

[00:05:52] Mie: Oftentimes agent or as leaders, we think like the agent must not want it enough. And I'm just a firm believer that that's not true. I mean, I'm not saying it never happens, but it's just unlikely that someone goes through everything that they go through to become. An agent who is going to be 100 percent commission, and most of them were employees before, and so they were, even if it wasn't the money they wanted to make.

[00:06:16] Mie: They have some version of stability and it's a huge leap to walk away from that and to step into something like this, which is completely unknown. And so, um, that to me really aligns with the fear and overwhelm concept. And, and I think that that can be deeply layered. But if we were to like, generalize it, it's fear overwhelm.

[00:06:35] Mie: Right?

[00:06:36] Lauren: So what I hear you say is how do I show up as a leader? Do I have the systems to properly prepare someone to succeed? And agent agents, agents aren't lazy is what you're saying. It's do I have the right things in place for someone to go and do the right activity?

[00:06:58] Mie: Right. And I'm not saying that, um, people can't do better. Right? Because that's sometimes where we get, we can get hung up. Yeah. I really do believe that everyone is showing up the best they can at any given moment. I don't think that laziness is a real thing. I don't think it has anything to do with laziness.

[00:07:14] Mie: If someone is not doing something, something is in the way of them wanting to do it.

[00:07:20] Lauren: And I can relate to that more so than ever. I think with this journey of pregnancy, because, um, I think I shared on a Facebook post, I am so used to just like. Overachieving, proving and performing, if you will, whatever has been rooted in me from childhood. So we won't get into that, but having to slow down to speed up, people do go through things in their life.

[00:07:41] Lauren: It doesn't mean they don't want it. They're just faced with some sort of challenge. So maybe coming from curiosity and an approach of like, how do I support you in this journey? Remembering it might just be a season for some agents too. Um, and so a couple of things leading into the next question is you discuss in a lot of your training programs, the psychological aspects of agent disconnection, such as the fear of rejection.

[00:08:07] Lauren: And I hear you say a lot. Every no is a yes. With those repetitions. Can you go into a little bit about that practice?

[00:08:15] Mie: Yeah. So actually, so we have another rise starting today, which rises our, um, reside intensive sales experience. It's a, our 6 week training that we do with all of our agents inside of reside. And we have like a launch every 2 weeks. We have a launch today, um, uh, where day 1, we talk about that, that fear of rejection and the psychology on the fear of rejection with a disclaimer here that I'm not a therapist or a psychologist.

[00:08:38] Mie: Okay. This is just coming from. My own collection of data and doing my own personal work. Um, although I do think it's, it's pertinent to the agent journey. So when we experience rejection, when we experience discomfort or we step into a space of challenge, very often our parasympathetic nervous system is deployed, it's engaged, and we step into a fight, fight, freeze or fawn response, which is, you know, it could be avoidance, can be frustration, picking an argument.

[00:09:08] Mie: Um, can be just total free state paralysis, can start to be like people pleasing. So, fawning is people pleasing. So, uh, an example of that is. Hey, did you, um, how did your lead generation go today? Oh, I didn't do my lead generation, but you'd be so proud of me. I, I'm at inbox zero. Or, hey, you'd be so, you'd be so proud I ended up getting XYZ done.

[00:09:28] Mie: So, fawning is like, you're not acknowledging what needed to be done. So, I had this rule when, um, people report. And like, when I, we're doing like, person to person reporting, or like, public, pure, pure public reporting. No story. So, when you're, if I'm asking you how many met consultations that you have, you can only give me the number.

[00:09:48] Mie: You can't give me, you can't say, oh, but I'm going to have 1 today or, but I'm going to dot, dot, dot, or I didn't get met consults, but I did get an appointment. And so we have a hard and fast rule, but there are no stories when we're reporting so that we don't step into. That habit of trying to appease ourselves for the work that just, like, we just have to accept things as they are.

[00:10:08] Mie: It was a zero. Great. Let the sting of the zero resonate a little bit. Let it marinate in the background so that you don't show up, continually show up with that, that same behavior over and over again. So, um, when, when that parasympathetic nervous system response, uh, gets deployed, what we work on in our class is teaching them how to take action despite it getting engaged.

[00:10:34] Mie: So it's less about trying to control our physiology in terms of like, just, this is a natural system that like, just, it just deploys based on, you know, things that variables that show up in our life every day. Which some people have already established a tolerance for rejection. So, when they get the no, it's like, it's nothing to them.

[00:10:54] Mie: Some people have programming that supports that. Most people don't. Most people don't, and just, I'm going to do like a really quick side quest here. The people that do have a tolerance for it are usually the people who are frustrated by the people that don't have a tolerance for it. And where I see that dynamic show up the most is team leader agents, you know, high performer.

[00:11:18] Mie: Not as high of a performer and, and, you know, I say this a lot, like your agents, aren't you, they never will be you, you're going to have a few that just like go hard in the paint that are super high achievers. But the majority of them, you're going to be pulling them a little bit. You're going to be pushing them a little bit.

[00:11:34] Mie: You're going to be challenging them to step outside of their comfort zone and they won't be as driven. It doesn't mean that they're below average performers necessarily. It just means that. Yeah. They're they're have a, they have a different program and they're running a different race. So, when you get into that.

[00:11:52] Mie: Um, fear of rejection phase and an agent is avoiding the activities that would cause them to feel that feeling. We get them into action and really small, consistent action. So, hey, all you got to do is make 1, what can I follow that action up with? And we're just trying to reprogram their response to that parasympathetic nervous system being engaged.

[00:12:15] Mie: And what ends up happening is they develop a new programming or a higher tolerance. To the rejection and their habit then becomes, even though I feel this way, I can acknowledge that that's showing up, but I, and I can keep going. I can trust myself to keep showing up.

[00:12:31] Lauren: That's so good. Alright, well that was it.

[00:12:37] Lauren: So, okay. So having people do the next right thing is what you're saying? Getting them to show up, you know, 'cause there is a lot of, right now we are focused really on maybe in office people. As I was going through this in my mind today There's a lot of remote and hybrid options still for real estate offices So if you're tuning in and you might not have an office right now But that's your plan and you're really working just remotely you might have um agents come into a coffee shop or whatnot.

[00:13:08] Lauren: It's when we say show up, have them show up to the zoom call. Just have them in person, be present with you and make that one phone call. That one phone call turns into two. Perfect.

[00:13:20] Mie: So we used to do that when I had a productivity coaching program. So I got started in, in, um, coaching and, uh, you know, we have 5 people when it started, we built it to over 180 people in under a year. And, um, we were between 2 states, we were in North Carolina and South Carolina, and we had 8 different locations from Myrtle Beach all the way up to Jacksonville, North Carolina, um, between business centers and market centers, and so we were completely virtual because the program.

[00:13:51] Mie: Launched in the birth of COVID and so, um, I just, I, I love agents being in office. I'm a big fan of being in office myself. I think that energy is irreplaceable and I had 60 people, 50, 60 people every morning on a call for 30 minutes with me Monday through Friday. Wednesday through Thursday. God, I don't remember.

[00:14:12] Mie: Several days a week, um, from all over two states where we were able to cultivate energy. We lead generated together. Everyone would go on mute. We'd support each other in the chat. We'd do questions in the chat. But you can absolutely create community and culture virtually. Um, you just have to have a good system and, and some good standards around that activity.

[00:14:34] Lauren: Perfect. And we're going to go into systems and standards because I know you have amazing accountability and a high return on attendance with your classes. We'll get to that. I really want to know from you. Do you have a six? Can you share a success story from coaching where an agent overcame maybe disengagement and transformed their performance?

[00:14:52] Mie: Yeah. Uh, which one? Um,

[00:14:57] Lauren: I know you have a lot.

[00:15:00] Mie: so I, I actually want to go back to my productivity coaching program, which I think out of all the things that I've done in my career, that's, that's still one of my proudest moments. Is that productivity coaching program? Um, most of the agents had left it there. There were 25, um, you know, before the turnover of the previous coach to me, there were 5 left at the end of that.

[00:15:24] Mie: Um, and there were, I basically had to re, recruit the whole program and then grow it and I called every viable candidate for like, that, um, for that program. Initially there were 3. Um, agents specifically, and if they're listening, they were totally going to, uh, chuckle out of this, um, that they were getting ready not only to leave, um, uh, the program, or they, they didn't want to join the program.

[00:15:50] Mie: They were getting ready to leave the brokerage and they were upset because their experience, they were in a location that was getting started and. Um, they didn't have a lot of support yet. And so they were disappointed by the quote unquote value that they were getting. And I walked into that having to be the one to say like, Hey, I'm sorry.

[00:16:09] Mie: And I'm like, I didn't do anything. So I was like, I was like, I'm done with these people. I don't want to do anything. Um, and Amanda, my, my team leader was like, no, like, we really don't want to lose them. Like, you know, let's, let's offer them whatever we need to offer them. I get on the call with them. They don't love me either.

[00:16:26] Mie: Okay. We're not like tight that they, uh, three, two of them had been licensed for like a year and sold maybe one home between the two of them. Um, and so not only were they struggling with not just the engagement, but like the production part, um, both of them are in the top 20 percent of their market now.

[00:16:45] Mie: Um, and we're like, 6 years later. Okay. Uh, both of them refused, uh, or had a really difficult time with their sphere in the very beginning. 1 of them refused to call 1 of them just did not have a sphere. So, um, and listen, they did the work, but we absolutely created the environment for them to thrive in and they, they throw out, they're like super involved in their community.

[00:17:06] Mie: They're like leaders inside of their community. I'm, I'm, uh,

[00:17:10] Lauren: Awesome. Sorry, barking dog in the background. So, and Mia, I, your personality, so on the disc profile, you're a high, is it a DC?

[00:17:20] Mie: I was a high eye for a very long time and now I'm a DC. Yeah.

[00:17:24] Lauren: Perfect. Which is one of the more rare ones. So, your brain is very much, you, you interact very well. And you have a high focus on operational efficiency. So, and I think that's why, or that is one of the reasons why you've done so well with leading agents into this engagement piece. So this might be another loaded question, but how do you implement clear expectations for agents to be able to come show up and support perform?

[00:17:50] Lauren: Because. I think a lot of team leaders struggle with maintaining that supportive environment. Do they go hand in hand?

[00:18:00] Mie: Yes. And, um, okay. So this is where my, I was a high eye for, and if you don't know what the disc profile is, a high is the connector right there. Like, they're more concerned about the relationship and. The emotional connection than anything else that, with stepping into a coaching role and building a business inside of it. Not following through on my systems made me look bad. So if I said I wanted them to do something, or like, hey, this is the process, it was really tough to hold them accountable, and I was the one who was failing on the back end of that system. And so, my high I, my people pleaser, actually ended up driving this, like, C in me, who was, like, very systematic, because Um, if I didn't have a system that supported my expectations and I didn't show up to those expectations by not only inspecting them, but like, staying connected to the agent around those systems, then I was the failure like, no one could look back and point anywhere, except that me.

[00:19:02] Mie: And so, um, I, I over complicated it at 1st. Because one of the things that's really fun about leading and growing a business is all of the ideas that you get and all of the things that you're like, man, it would be so cool if we could dot, dot, dot. And yes, that's true. Um, but now, and I do this with like all of my coaching clients that I have, like, we have a good idea tank.

[00:19:26] Mie: And when we have fun ideas, they go in the good idea tank until the things that we need to accomplish that will truly move the business forward get established. Then I can go play with my good ideas. And so I implemented that pretty early on where all of these good ideas that I had, I only got to play with.

[00:19:44] Mie: Once I had established a really solid foundation and so what I would see a lot of leaders do is, um, my old PC coach would call it like she was a cruise director where she would think of all these like fun events and fun activities. And it's like, yeah, you want to do that. And how do we get their production moving?

[00:20:03] Mie: And it's also like, how do you not get lost in the minutia of the systems that your agents think are really important? Like, uh, I need to learn every detail of this contract. You know, before I can lead generate, because what if I get an appointment before, you know, and by the way, that uncertainty is what usually helps them sabotage themselves even getting appointments because they're like, what would I even do if I got an appointment?

[00:20:25] Mie: So, number 1, I had to focus on lead measures. But it wasn't enough to say like, Hey, you just need to do these things. Agents needed to understand why that focus was on those things so that they could free up energy and brain room, like a mind space for the things they were worried about not knowing yet.

[00:20:44] Mie: And so there was a lot of conditioning that has to happen. And I do this in RISE too. Like, you know, day one is orientation. So we go through the logistics of everything, but then I. Explain to them, like, here's what your brain is doing in the background. Here's what's going to show up for you. And so once I understood what the process looked like, like what the agent journey looked like, I could start preparing them for the thoughts and emotions that were going to show up along the way.

[00:21:09] Mie: And then I had to develop trucks, which means that I had to be credible. So this is how my brain works. Like I'm, I'm I confusing anyone?

[00:21:16] Lauren: good.

[00:21:17] Mie: So I knew that credibility was going to be really important to trust. And trust was going to be the thing that kept them stay focused on the things that I've led them to focus on.

[00:21:28] Mie: So I said, hey, you need to dot dot dot. I needed to be able to show up to that expectation and stay in front of them with it enough for them to know that it was important to me. And that's what accountability is accountability is not. Hey, I can just lay down the law and and I can throw out some demands.

[00:21:48] Mie: Accountability is saying, I notice what you're doing because I care about your outcome. It's not, I, I want you to follow my rules or else. And then sometimes I think that's what we get mixed up with accountability. So, you know, in my trainings, you have to be on camera. You cannot be driving and you cannot be in a moving car.

[00:22:08] Mie: And. Leaders love this agents are usually a little bit resistant at 1st and there's sometimes I can get the body language in the room is very clear. Like, and by the end of it over and over people are like, I'm really glad you have me on camera and kept me accountable because they could actually get value out of the experience.

[00:22:25] Mie: But if they're not on camera, what happens? I boot you off the call, but I don't do it in this weird power flex way. I say, Hey, love, you mean it come back as soon as you can be on camera. There's no, there's no punishment for it. Just come back. The punishment is the natural consequences. You lose out on the value.

[00:22:40] Lauren: hmm. Yeah. And you hold that standard to team leaders and agents. It's not just, not just the agents. Yeah, and that leads. So it's really not, it's not getting ready to get ready because a lot of the times we'll get questions like, hey, does my CRM need to be ready before I join rise? Or do I need to do X, Y, Z?

[00:22:57] Lauren: And you say, no, join. It might take a little bit more work, but still join to get the content.

[00:23:02] Mie: Yeah, absolutely. It does not have to be perfect there. And by the way, that's what it looks like to be able to show up to people's nuance and their stories is like, no, there's a path for this. It will, it will look a little bit different, but there's a path for this.

[00:23:19] Lauren: Okay, so one of my favorite phrases that you say is, uh, not loving someone into failure. Can you elaborate on what this means and in the context of agent accountability? Mm

[00:23:30] Mie: So, um, sometimes we keep people in our world because we're afraid of what will happen to them. If we get them out of our world, we're afraid what will happen to us if we kick them out of our world. And so we keep them there because it's convenient or because we're uncomfortable. And, um, for me, loving someone into failure means.

[00:23:53] Mie: You're not showing up.

[00:23:55] Lauren: hmm.

[00:23:56] Mie: You're not doing the work and I keep telling you with my behavior. That's okay with me. I might be saying you need to show up. Hey, I'm going to take you off the leads. Hey, I'm going to put you on a pit. Hey, what performance improvement improvement thing? Hey, I'm going to dot dot dot.

[00:24:14] Mie: I might come up with all these consequences. But by the way, you, you are no longer speaking to the best parts of them. You are, you are speaking to their fears and. That can be effective sometimes, but if it's your only skill, if that's your only tool, it's not effective anymore. It's a dull, it's a dull life.

[00:24:34] Mie: And so, um, accountability, uh, or not loving someone into failure means that accountability is coupled with the natural consequence of. That behavior. And I think it's important to mention that behavior is nothing more than an unmet need. And so if someone is doing something and it's and it's not favorable to their desire, there's something they don't know how to meet inside of themselves.

[00:25:00] Mie: And I'm not saying any team leader has to have a solution to this because that's self work. But there's something that they're not knowing how to give themselves that's projecting outwardly. Okay. And so even as team leaders, we do this when we keep people like they are enrolled. Okay. And we try to solve all of their problems.

[00:25:15] Mie: I'm always like, you need to look at yourself because you might be projecting your people and try to do your work through them, which is a rabbit hole. We won't be able to get to go down today. So, loving someone into failure saying, I'm okay with the behavior that you're showing me, and I'm not going to hold the boundary around.

[00:25:34] Mie: And when we don't hold boundaries, not only do we love that person into failure, but we obliterate. The respect that they could have for us will not truly respect us. They might say they respect us, but if I know what I can get away with, it's not because I'm a deceitful person. We are hardwired not only for connection, but also self preservation.

[00:25:55] Mie: Okay. So when someone is. Lying or not showing up or avoiding there's something that they are trying to make themselves feel safe about and so it's not about always malintent, but impacts could certainly have some sort of a negative landing. And so, if someone's not showing up, someone's not doing the work and they're saying, I want to do the work and you're saying, you better do the work or dot dot dot.

[00:26:20] Mie: And you don't actually follow through on the natural consequence of that behavior. You're saying it's okay and I'm fine with it. And now you are loving them into failure. So if you're not showing up and you say you need to show up and you say you're going to show up, I'm going to make a first a generous assumption.

[00:26:39] Mie: Is it okay if we go down this road?

[00:26:41] Lauren: Heck yeah, keep going.

[00:26:44] Mie: A generous assumption. Is everything okay? That's always my first message when someone doesn't show up. Is everything okay? I noticed you weren't on the call. Is everything okay? I noticed you didn't come to dot dot dot whatever the expectation was. Is everything okay? I noticed you didn't enter your numbers.

[00:26:59] Mie: Okay. I'm just going to make a generous assumption first and foremost. That's one super key, important piece of, of building trust with someone is making a generous assumption. It's everything. Okay. Yeah. Excuse. Excuse. Dot, dot, dot. Reason. Reason. Whatever they say. Okay. I'm not going to take that as an opportunity to lecture them.

[00:27:20] Mie: I'm going to set the expectation right there. I'm going to hold the boundary. So it'll sound like this. Um, yeah. Uh, uh, Hey, I noticed you were on the call today. Okay. Uh, for the team meeting, is everything okay? Oh yeah, we just had a crazy morning and, and life, life, life. Um, totally can appreciate that. I can't wait to see you tomorrow.

[00:27:39] Mie: I know you'll be there. I trust you'll show up. Um, let's say they don't show up the second day after, you know, they said they were going to. Yeah, I'll be there tomorrow for sure. They don't show up. Hey, uh, I missed you again today. What's going on? Okay, I'm going to come from curiosity. Uh, again, I'm making a generous assumption.

[00:27:57] Mie: Hey, I noticed you weren't there today. What's going on? Oh, life, life, life, dot, dot, dot. Not a good reason. Okay. Help me understand. Is there something more serious going on that you need support on which, by the way, I can still hold a boundary on to tell you what that looks like in RISE. Is there something you support on, or is it possible that you're avoiding see if they'll take ownership if they say, oh, I just got something with life going on.

[00:28:19] Mie: I'm going to start a conversation with them. I'm going to see if we can dig deeper. I'm going to determine if it's something that I can support or if this is a step up or step of conversation. So, like, in rise, we have people that get sick all the time, but you cannot be off camera in class. We offer you the recording.

[00:28:34] Mie: Um, uh, there are, you know, ways you can get back to the value, but you cannot be in that class and be off camera because it devalues the, uh, um, uh, experience of everybody else on the call. So if someone says, you know, I'm really sick, hey, um, I'm thinking about you hate that you're sick, um, I'll send you the recording.

[00:28:52] Mie: I want you to watch it, get a role play scheduled. Let me know when you role played and then just come back when you're feeling will keep me posted. So I give them a way to I still hold the expectation. You need to consume the content. You need to do the activity. So you're still on. You're still on the hook for the homework.

[00:29:06] Mie: We're still on the hook for doing a role play, but do it in a time that makes sense for you to get that. Okay, but if it's constantly that same thing over and over again. Hey, it looks like you might need to push to another launch. Hey, it looks like you're not truly committed to the expectations of the team, which is fine.

[00:29:22] Mie: It looks like you don't want to show up to this. And again, totally fine. And I cannot allow you to stay here and I can't continue to love you into failure because it's letting you down and everyone else on the team.

[00:29:35] Lauren: And if an agent's doing that, how does that impact the team's overall morale and culture?

[00:29:40] Mie: I think we know it's like super toxic and by the way, it's giving everyone else the same permission to fail because and, and there's a, there's a campy up here. And John says this too. And Lauren, correct me if I get this quote wrong. I treat everyone differently, but everyone fairly. Is that right? That's the right quote.

[00:29:59] Mie: Um, but what I mean by that is like, if someone's popping out, you know, pushing out 3 or 4 transactions a month and they're consistent in their pipeline looks good. I'm not worried about how many 2 minute conversations that they're getting or how consistent they are to these other metrics. But if I have someone that is.

[00:30:16] Mie: Super volatile with their production where the constantly up and down where they have no production. You own this, this standard, you own this behavior until you earn the right to be the type of person who doesn't get an act.

[00:30:29] Lauren: um, I'm jumping ahead a little bit, but I'm working with a team right now and There's some frustrations because, uh, the, in the inverse of this, the team is doing the right activity, but they're not producing. And it's driving the team leader a little crazy because her team's showing up, but the morale's not there.

[00:30:49] Lauren: What would you, what advice would you give to that person? Yep.

[00:30:55] Mie: numbers. And so if they're showing up to the activities, and I'm going to 1st, I need to find out what does that look like? What does that mean? So, if if you're showing up to the activities, does that mean they show up to the call? Are they showing up to the lead generation?

[00:31:10] Mie: How often is that lead generation? How long is that generation? What does it showing up to the activities look like on average? I want to see agents that don't have production. Get a minimum of 2 hours of lead generation. I want to see that they have 10 contacts between those 2 hours and 4 to 7 of those are over 2 minute conversations 5 days a week.

[00:31:30] Mie: So I'm looking for something anywhere between 20 and 35 2 minute conversations per week. And dependent on where they're at in their business or where they're at in their skill set will determine whether or not they're able to get past that two minute conversation. That is my 1st metric that I can dial in on and look at the gaps on the skill set.

[00:31:48] Mie: So, 1st, I'm looking at what is showing up mean. What are those activities actually look like? Um, uh, and then I'm going to look at their skill set. Now, as a team leader, I need to provide them training to help them develop that skill set. Here's something else. Sometimes, as team leaders. We attract people into our world that meet the level of our self worth or meet the level of what we believe about ourselves.

[00:32:15] Mie: So, I have seen teams or, or environments of unskilled people that don't know how to get past that. So, I'm not going to say they aren't capable of it, but they might not have the right environment, or they might not have the right training, or they might not have the right people who can respond to that training.

[00:32:35] Mie: So. When I see like a super common denominator, I also say, okay, what is that common denominator? And what does it have to do with you? And so sometimes I see people avoid recruiting certain people, people that they feel like because they don't feel worthy of leading those people, or they don't feel worthy of the value, or I don't have the skills.

[00:32:56] Mie: And so, you know, you've got to up your level yourself up as a leader, too, to be able to provide or leveraging

[00:33:02] Lauren: And Sunita always says your picker is broken because a lot of the time, uh, we see people saying, oh, that person's going to make it or that person's not going to make it. And I think that. In this line, can we actually tell who's going to make it or not?

[00:33:17] Mie: never, never, never, ever, it'll be confirmation bias that gets you there. Truly, it'll be confirmation bias. And I, again, with working with thousands of agents, I've seen. Every type of person come through this industry and I've seen people that, I've counted people, it was a huge lesson for me when I first started.

[00:33:36] Mie: There were some people I counted out. And that lesson, it never left me. I never count anybody out, but I don't, I don't automatically count anybody in either. We'll see how they show up because, um, someone that's a, that's got the gift of gab, that's a good talker. It doesn't mean that they can be consistent and sustainable.

[00:33:54] Lauren: Yep, they can look great on paper and then they're a great interview and then they show up and they just don't do the work. They don't have this 90 days and you have the structure laid out, but that's all it was. It was a good interview. Okay, pause for one second. Let me keep scratching the door. Go on in, buddy.

[00:34:16] Lauren: Okay, perfect. All right, where do I want to go next? You've answered a lot of these questions too, so I'm skipping. Go ahead. All right, you ready? All right, so you, we've talked a lot about what does it look like for an agent to show up? What are the activities? How do we measure that success? I want to go into managing leads and expectations.

[00:34:40] Lauren: So when we're talking value, agents more or less want to know what kind of lead opportunities that teams provide. So I work with tons of admins across the country, lots of team leaders, and they express concerns about managing leads effectively. So, how can leaders balance the need to assign leads while still fostering that accountability amongst agents?

[00:35:05] Mie: So, just real quick, I don't think leads are true value of a team, and that might be a hot take, and people may disagree with me. I think it's something you need to have as a team because of the perception of the value. But I know several teams that don't offer leads at all. They just, they kill it with sphere of influence and they do five, 600 units a year.

[00:35:26] Mie: Um, you know, the true value of a team is what you are leveraging and mitigating. So what I mean by that is you mitigate risk and overhead for an agent. You stabilize their net profit, and you remove and you leverage the speed at which they can go. And so, you know, leads is 1 way to get there. I think it's a great way to get there, but I don't think it's the only way to get there because.

[00:35:51] Mie: Um, at the end of the day, the lead, the agents have to be confident enough to convert the leads. And so usually we're going to see somewhere between a 1 percent and 2 percent conversion rate with agents on those leads. Now, that's not me saying don't do leads and there's no value in leads. I'm saying that that's not a good reason not to recruit agents to your team.

[00:36:11] Mie: And then you need to learn how to. Articulate your value more effectively to an agent's bottom line, which, you know, that's a conversation for another day that actually John and Sydney and Nick and Preston would would tell. But when it comes to. Like, like, uh, delivering leads to the agents to help me understand, uh, the direction you want me to go with that, or like, what you're saying, the question let's go

[00:36:39] Lauren: Maya.

[00:36:41] Mie: So, hold on. Um, we'll stop it at. They'll kill it on that. And then give me the 2nd, part of the question. I'll pick it up from there.

[00:36:50] Lauren: So I said, how can leaders balance the need to assign leads while still fostering accountability amongst leads? So I think you're answering the question of, is there one right way of lead generation or lead sources?

[00:37:01] Mie: Okay. Um, so as far as like, when I'm distributing leads to an agent and I'm holding accountability, I, I do think that, um, I love money time for leads, which is, you know, agents can sign up to get like a chunk of leads. I'm a big fan of speed to lead, but I also love Nick's approach on this, which is, you know, give them 5 leads at a time instead of like, you know, it's not that speed to lead isn't good.

[00:37:28] Mie: We know it is. Do you need to pause one more time. Okay.

[00:37:33] Mie: We'll go back. That's funny.

[00:37:35] Lauren: Sorry, I was trying to be good. We can pick it up. So,

[00:37:40] Mie: the beginning. Okay. So, as far as distributing leads goes, and like accountability to those leads, Agents should get leads distributed, um, uh, that they can work with. There's not just one good way to do it. There's a lot of ways you can do it. You can do something like money time.

[00:37:59] Mie: You can do sharp tank. You can do based on, um, production or volume, uh, close. Um, you know, uh, Nick has even mentioned before where you give them like 5 leads at a time and you kind of bypass the speed to lead conversation. Not saying that it's not important, but you get agents to actually show up to these leads a little bit more consistently.

[00:38:24] Mie: So there's a lot of good ways. To distribute leads. And it doesn't always have to be just leads. Your agents also need to know how to cultivate their sphere. And they also need to know how to create leads, meaning open houses, door knocking, circle, dialing, out in the wild, adding people to the database. Um, one of the things we do in rise is we have them add five people a week to their database.

[00:38:46] Mie: My friend always says. Uh, take them from who are you to how are you and that's essentially what it, what, uh, a database ad is, is someone I didn't know before that I'm now adding to my database that can come from working, that can come from working at open house, that can come from your book club. They're meeting them out in the wild randomly, so it can come from any source, but they should constantly be added to the database and nurturing people.

[00:39:09] Mie: Yeah, so when

[00:39:10] Lauren: what you're saying is lead generation might look a little different depending on the agent and their personality. Correct. Okay, so showing up, I don't even know, can we really define it? Is there an avatar necessarily? I mean, we're talking about we provide the standards, we provide the systems, and then allow the agents to own their role and take and run with it.

[00:39:33] Lauren: Correct? Okay. Okay.

[00:39:36] Mie: you mean like, what, what's like a blanket expectation to give the agents or you're saying there isn't one?

[00:39:42] Lauren: Yeah. So I, I guess I, that's the question, right? It's, uh, we always hear this burning desire of like, how do I get my agents to show up? They're being lazy. They're not doing what they should be doing. And we uncovered that in the first piece of, uh, we can't want it more than they want it. So coming from curiosity, checking in on them, um, it's, it's really, it's, do we define, is there a blanket way of defining how agents show up or is it up to the team to define how they show up?

[00:40:10] Mie: It is up to the team and everyone does things a little bit differently. You know, some people degenerate in the morning together as a team. Some people do a huddle every day. I'm a big fan of the 10 to 15 minute stand up at all, which should be you could easily just do. On the phone, or if you have a culture where everyone shows up to the office, everyone's there by a certain time and we, you know, we do the huddle.

[00:40:30] Mie: I think that there has to be room for flexibility in the world that we live in now. Like, it's very different than. What it used to look like where everyone would go into the office and, um, if your culture supports it, run with that, but if you work an expansive, um, uh, market and you're in multiple locations, you need to have systems that support that, you know, all of your agents can show up and so, um, showing up can look a little bit different to me showing up isn't just morning huddles.

[00:41:00] Mie: It's not just team meetings, it's team events, client events, expectations, showing up to entering your number, showing up to the lead generation. So, showing up isn't just events where everyone gets together. Showing up is like, do you show up to the expectations? I'm not going to be as. Um, generalized about what those metrics have to look like, but I am going to define the path of the metrics.

[00:41:26] Mie: So I can't say to everyone. Everyone has to do X, Y, Z, because if I have someone who's a super producer, I might not be as concerned about some of those little metrics as long as I can look at that pipeline, but I need to define what their standards look like. So I still want top producers showing up to the meeting because their contribution to the team is sharing their wisdom.

[00:41:48] Mie: Um, you know, offering people to come shadow them on consultations or just, you know, uh, giving input in those huddles. So I still expect the top producer to show up to the meetings. Um, I still expect a top producer to lead generate, but I'm going to define what that looks like. So, Hey, I might not get too worked up about two minute conversations, but all of your conversations need to be in this VR app.

[00:42:12] Mie: Now I hear this all the time. I've got a top producer. They're just too busy. I've seen it over and over leverage them, leverage them, talk to text and send it to a VA. Totally fine. My standard can't change, but I can absolutely find a way to support that top producer.

[00:42:27] Lauren: Yep. That was exactly where I wanted to go next. And I want to give a shameless plug to the admin that are listening to this. And when I say admin operations who are the backbone of the team, you know, you show up as well. It's it's how You show up and bring the energy to your team. We all have days, right?

[00:42:44] Lauren: We all may be driving in the traffic and someone cuts us off and it really just takes us off. And then that puts us in a tailspin. How do you always get yourself back to that place? Okay, that happened. Control what you can control, right? So admin when you're saying, okay, how do I get my agents to be more engaged?

[00:43:03] Lauren: How do I get them into production? Mia, do you agree start with the crm go look at the activities and see who's making the calls and who's not?

[00:43:12] Mie: Yep, and I also am a big fan of admin tracking attendance as well and being able to go back to that attendance. I generally fall with the 80 20 rule here. So if they're showing up 80 percent of the time, that's good to me. Um, I want to define what that 20 percent can look like. So I call it the vacation days, sick days, personal days, and habit of day days, we're entitled to those.

[00:43:34] Mie: So I always budget 48 weeks a year. And so like four weeks out of the year or a week out of the quarter, like I'm not really worried about how they show up necessarily. I just ask for communication. So the expectation is let me know what's going on. And then also there is a metric here. So yes, life can show up, but this is what their budget for that looks like.

[00:43:54] Mie: And so I like admins, um, track that so that I can actually hold that metric to accountability because I can't, I can't use, it feels like you haven't been around a lot or, and I can't use like sweeping generalizations and say things like you always, or you never, because that will also not be true. And so I haven't even that, that system of how do I track my expectations?

[00:44:19] Mie: I look at that at attendance still.

[00:44:22] Lauren: Yep, always tie it back to a number when you have a conversation and the numbers are there It doesn't bring as much emotion and admin that you're listening. You are the leverage. So when Mia's bringing up different types of lead gen to getting agents more engaged, if you're doing some kind of call night where you guys have certain hours, maybe in the afternoon that all the agents are being present with each other.

[00:44:44] Lauren: Do they have a tracker sheet in front of them? Is there a call list or their call lists ready? If you're putting together a team event, the agents should be calling. Are you providing those lists of past clients or community members that they should be calling? You are preparing them and getting them ready to then go get ready and make those calls.

[00:45:01] Lauren: You know, if an agent's not doing something, you can't get frustrated with them again, if the system isn't there and you're not there to support them. So there are plenty of ways to make sure they have door knocking lists. Circle prospecting list, expireds list. You are the ones that should pull them and then not get frustrated.

[00:45:18] Lauren: In my opinion, hot take maybe when the agents aren't showing up and doing what they should be doing, because were they prepared and supported to be doing that?

[00:45:26] Mie: Or, and that can also look like, did you give them the instructions and did you do follow up on the action? So, like, if the agents are in charge of pulling their own past client list or pulling their own prospecting list, and they have, do they know how to do it? And then, if I'm going to set that expectation, did I check in and make sure that they did it?

[00:45:43] Mie: And if they did it, did I say what support team? So, like. It may be your admin doesn't give that type of leverage, which I love it when they do, because it's just anything I can get to remove a barrier from an agent keeps them selling. Um, if an admin doesn't have the bandwidth to maybe do all those things, and the agents have the competency and the time, then I can implement systems to make sure that those things are accomplished.

[00:46:05] Mie: I can't say I told you once and then wipe my hands of it because that's core leadership.

[00:46:10] Lauren: Yeah, and I was having a conversation yesterday and someone said, my biggest pet peeve is repeating myself. We're in the business of constant repetition and repeating. That's why we show up to these podcasts. That's why we show up to these rep webinars. It's not recreating the wheel or this fancy thing, shiny object.

[00:46:26] Lauren: It's getting back to the basics and hearing it again and allowing it to be applied and taking action on

[00:46:31] Mie: Right. Well, and just as the agent is developing a tolerance for the way they show up to the things that are hard as a leader, you also have to develop a tolerance for things that you find difficult, which will be repeating yourself, which will be showing up to something over and over and over again.

[00:46:46] Mie: That does not. Inspire you or excite you or stimulate you, you know, it's that you have to develop a tolerance for some of those things that are absolutely a part of leadership.

[00:46:56] Lauren: that. So good. So we'll, we'll end it with that. Mia, do you have any final shots, anything else that you'd like to share before we, we end today's podcast?

[00:47:04] Mie: KFR keep freaking recruiting. Um, yes, yes, you, you have to pour into your agents as a leader and you have to connect with your agents, but I don't want you walking away from this podcast saying Mia said I needed to become, you know, their mommy mentor, best friend parent. Like, that is not what I'm saying.

[00:47:24] Mie: You have to have boundaries. You have to have standards, you have to have systems, and you do have to show up better as a leader. And, um, you need to keep recruiting because people are going to leave you, people are going to evolve, people are going to grow, people are going to disappoint you, people are going to impress you.

[00:47:41] Mie: You can't control all of that, but if you truly want your business to grow and scale, um, you need to release the, the need for it to feel like a family. If you, if you have the right standards, boundaries, and, and systems. Uh, that your culture will naturally do that for you. Your culture will create that, that quote unquote family feel, that community feel.

[00:48:01] Mie: Um, there are people that are just gonna be toxic, get 'em out. They're poisoning everybody. And, um, and, uh, you just need to keep adding and adding and adding if you wanna grow. And don't be worried about retention. It's, it's, it's, there are, there's nuance where you're gonna dive into some retention issues.

[00:48:18] Mie: We can look at something, but mostly KFR.

[00:48:22] Lauren: KFR season reason lifetime. We'll leave you all. Thank you all for joining in and tuning in and listening with us. And thank you so neat for letting us take over the podcast. We'll catch you next time.