July 17, 2025 • 36 mins
Episode Overview
In this episode of the John Kitchens Coach Podcast, John, Al Stasek, and Jay Kinder sit down to talk real estate leadership, scaling beyond sales, and what true CEOs are doing differently in 2025. While the spotlight is on the upcoming Agent to CEO + Rock the Spectrum event, the conversation dives deep into what it actually takes to build a scalable, profitable, and freedom-driven real estate business.
They unpack why most agents stay stuck in production, the importance of operating systems like Scaling Up and EOS, and how elite agents like Blake Sloan, Tina Caul, and Dustin Black are running world-class organizations—even in tough markets.
Whether you’re an agent stuck in survival mode or a team leader ready to scale up and step out, this episode shows you exactly what’s working now—and how to stop playing small.
Key Topics Covered
From Agent to CEO (7-Figure +)
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Why scaling requires more than hustle—it takes systems and strategic thinking
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The power of events like Agent to CEO to create awareness, action, and accountability
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The importance of getting in the right rooms and surrounding yourself with people operating at a higher level
Why Most Agents Stay Stuck
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The cost of staying in production too long
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How awareness and environment can break the ceiling
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Why the right room challenges you to think, act, and lead differently
Operating Systems & Frameworks for Real Estate Teams
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How Scaling Up, EOS, and The 4 Disciplines of Execution provide a blueprint for growth
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The value of knowing your numbers: top line, gross margin, and net profit
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The “dumbest in the room” concept—and why that’s where you want to be
Lessons from High-Level (7-Figure) Operators
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How Blake Sloan runs a 43% profit-margin team in a 120-day DOM market
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What makes Dustin Black’s model scalable and service-driven
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Why Tina Caul and Michelle Wilson are examples of women CEO leaders in real estate
Thinking Bigger: The Science of Scaling
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Why most agents set goals that are too small
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How setting “unachievable goals” forces a higher standard of thinking
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The role of clarity, focus, and noise elimination in reaching big visions
The Power of Events & Community
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What makes Agent to CEO and Rock the Spectrum unique
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Why this isn’t a recruiting event—it’s a business transformation experience
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How attending impacts both your business and a greater cause (RIM Farms)
Resources & Mentions
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Seven figure success starts whenyou start thinking like a CEO.
Welcome to the John Kitchens Coach podcastexperience as your host, John Kitchens.
Get ready to think bigger andtransform your business into
a path to lasting freedom.
What's happening, everybody?
Man.
Thank you guys.
Tuning into one big fire and, uh.
(00:23):
We should have hit record seven minutesago as we were diving in, but, uh, we
definitely hit the record button this timeand we're ready to rock and roll before,
before we kind of continue what we werediving into and, um, wanting to touch on.
I think it's gonna, you know, lead rightinto it, but I want to let everybody know.
We are gonna be talkingabout agent to CEO.
Um, Al has brought up a couple goodpoints, what sparked the conversation
(00:47):
that we had before we hit record.
But you guys, you know, go to, um,if you're looking to come to agent
to CEO in Cleveland, um, kind of our.
Signature event on, on really what ittakes to evolve from being an agent.
Maybe you have a lifestyle business,maybe just being a practitioner to really
want to become the true CEO of of yourbusiness and run it like a business.
(01:11):
This is the, the event.
This is really the only event there.
There's all the other stuff.
We've got a lot of amazing peoplethat are even a part of the Honey
Badger Nation, but they're reallynot in there teaching you how to,
to think about and grow a business.
And so I'm, I'm.
You know, one, obviously biased, butalso proud, um, you know, of this event
and being to be able to be a part of it.
(01:31):
You can go to agent to CCLE or as,as we've told you guys over and over.
I'm gonna keep tellingyou guys over and over.
The go-to resource ishoney badger nation.com.
This is actually on theHoney badger nation.com site.
You can go right there, whichwill take you to the page to where
you guys can get your tickets.
Only a hundred seats.
Um, I know a handful oftickets are already gone.
(01:53):
Um, and we haven't even hit the gason the promotion, so if you guys
are, are thinking about it, wantto grab your tickets, honey Badger
nation.com is the go-to resource.
Al tee it up man.
You had, uh, grabbed oneof, um, the resources.
That's what I always call that, that book.
I throw it into the resource manualof how to operate your business.
(02:16):
And we, we shared a couple weeksago, you know, we've, we've talked
about the transformation for us,which was the light bulb that.
Really led to a lot of the things thatwe did at NAEA and the Mastermind was,
you know, how do we, how in the helldo we get kinder out of production?
Right?
And we'd always talked about thetwo things we'd always talked about.
(02:37):
CHSA proven repeatable system to, for,for anybody to articulate the value of why
anybody would wanna do business with you.
And then the other was, you know,simple member, straight talk,
big profits, those two things.
And the conversation with Kylea couple weeks ago sparked
the thing that I was like.
Those two weren't even possibleuntil we had the first.
And the first was having a, a, a planto really operate and run our business,
(03:02):
which we, we, we gleaned from masteringthe Rockefeller Habits with Vern Harnish.
And you've got the, uh, the,uh, graduate level edition
book there, Al um, scaling up.
Uh, you know, there's,there's other, there's other
operating systems too, right?
It's the EOS.
You can grab traction, you cango through all of Gino's stuff,
which Gino's a disciple of Verne.
I mean, he gives, he givescredit to Verne, right?
(03:24):
Right.
In the opening page of, of traction.
The other is four Ds of execution, right?
But you've gotta have some framework to beable to, to think about and strategically
run and operate your business.
But Al you were, you were readingus, um, um, a really important,
uh, distinction and, and awareness.
Section out of scaling up.
(03:44):
I think it's super important foryou to reread that for everybody.
Yeah, man.
I mean, um, it's, it's tough to, youknow, there's, there's a lot of noise
out there and everybody's trying tograb your attention, including us.
You know, this just happens to be atopic we're super passionate about,
but I wanted to share something withyou guys I didn't even share before
when we were, when we were shooting it.
(04:05):
And, um, I bank a PNC bank.
And this is, no, I'm not, youknow, endorsing them by any means.
Uh, I've been with 'em for a very longtime, and I walked into the bank, um,
to do some banking, and, and I saw,I, I've seen this a couple times and I
wanted to tell you guys about it becauseit kind of ties into this, is that,
um, their newest, like, like promotionthing they're doing is, is, it says on
(04:27):
the wall, we've been brilliantly boring.
For X amount of years and, and Iwas just like I said to the manager,
I said, that is a brilliant.
Uh, marketing campaign, youknow, brilliantly boring uhhuh.
And it's because, look, this is notgonna be a boring event, so don't,
don't, don't draw that conclusion.
(04:48):
But I say that because, you know,this isn't the, the super sizzly ai
sexy stuff that you're, you're seeingeverywhere in, in, you know, this is
focusing on the things that you have.
I may, maybe it's alittle boring at first.
Or maybe from the title, you know, youthink scaling up, it's, it's, you know,
it's not some big flashy thing, but.
(05:10):
What I wanted to get to was, youknow, the dumbest in the room.
Okay.
I opened this book upmany, many years ago.
I read it and I picked it back upbecause a lot of the principles that
are talked about in this book, we'regonna be really transforming into what
it looks like to grow a real estateteam, grow a real estate organization
into something that works harderfor you than you're working in it.
(05:32):
In order to do that, um, you know,you gotta be the dumbest in the room.
So I'm gonna read, canI read the passage boys?
Yeah, please.
So team leaders know they havesucceeded in building an organization
that can scale and is fun to run.
I love how they threw that in there whenthey are the dumbest people in the room.
(05:54):
In turn, if they thi think theyhave all the answers, or they act
like they have all the answers, itguarantees organizational silence.
And e elaborates blindness.
Hmm.
So, you know, that kind of just leadsright into, you know, what we're gonna
be doing, you know, at agent to CEO.
So we talk about two different rooms,guys, and I wanna, you know, Jay,
(06:16):
love, love your opinion on this.
'cause you've been in a lot of rooms.
I mean, joined every mastermind,you and Mike John, you as well.
Um, and, and, and I have as well.
But I wanna find out like, likewhat does it feel like, like how
do you know you're in the rightroom as it relates to an event?
And then I wanna move over tothe dumbest in the room as it
(06:39):
relates to your company and that.
That's the, that's mm-hmm.
Really the real, the real, wherethe real magic comes in is when
you're looking around the boardroom,you're like, dang, I'm surrounded by
people that are way smarter than me.
Yeah.
And that's the pinnacle, right?
Yeah.
But, but in order to get to thatroom to be the dumbest in that room,
you first have to start insertingyourself as the dumbest in other rooms.
(07:01):
What do we mean by that?
You know, it's, it's, it'sgetting in rooms where people
have, have, when you can look ateverybody in the room and they're.
Levels above where you're at andyou can start to see where your,
what's your next biggest obstacle?
It's like being able tosee around the corner.
Um, you know, when we were a part of themastermind, we did three times a year.
(07:22):
Uh, we were in the mastermindwith Clay Mask when they were
scaling to a bi, uh, to a billion.
And you know, when we started.
It was, you know, their biggestchallenge was, you know, they
hired so many employees that theycouldn't get all their chairs.
They had a big stack of chairs whenwe got there and they were trying
to put all these chairs together,their biggest bottleneck at the time
where they're hiring so many peoplethat they couldn't get the, the, the
(07:42):
office chairs put together fast enoughfor the people they were hiring.
I was like, that is a problemI've never encountered.
Right.
So, you know, seeing them, uh, youknow, grow, you know, and their
leadership team and how they executed,how they made decisions, but getting
in the room with people that are.
Double the size that you're at andseeing how they operate and seeing how
they conduct their meetings and theirstrategy and how they make decisions.
(08:06):
That's the, that's like seeing,it's like seeing the future.
Once you see it, you can't see it.
I remember when Mike, Mikewent down and visited, um, in
Austin, uh, what's his name?
Um.
Oh, dang.
I just lost it.
It was, uh, yeah, I can see his p and atthe time they were doing about 12 million
when we were at about three or 4 million.
And, and he said, dude, I would've walkedon, you know, glass barefooted all the way
(08:28):
down there just to see how they operated.
Because once you see that, youcould go back and you see now what
you're, what you should be doing.
And so it's really just about seeingwhere people are at that are above
where you're at so you can see whatit looks like and how they operate.
I think that's the.
It's not about them necessarily beingsmarter, but you see the operation
of what you have to be, who you haveto become as an organization mm-hmm.
(08:49):
In order to get there.
Yeah.
There's, there's a slide that Ialways share at the beginning of
kt, um, and it's, it, it asks thequestion, right, does the group
increase my awareness of who I am,where I am, and what I have to do?
Does the group inspire me to takeaction based on my new awareness?
And does the group offer accountabilityfor the actions I'm, I'm committing to?
(09:13):
So that's kind of the threequestions to check the box, right?
You know, um, awareness,action, and accountability.
Right?
Does that group do that?
Is there inspiration there?
And most of the problem that, that.
You know that we understand, but a lotof people don't, is that they're just
not problem aware and, you know, gettinginto rooms that are gonna challenge you.
(09:35):
It's not that you're the dumbest one inthere, but you're not the smartest one.
And, and in whatever area of yourlife that you're trying to improve.
And you know, that's the firstthing, man, do I have aha, do
I have a level of awareness?
Is it realizing, you know, that there'sthings that I'm just not seeing?
Because we all have blind spots, right?
That's why we hired great coaches becausethey can see around corners, they can see
(09:56):
our blind spots that we can't see, but.
They also have to inspireyou to take action.
That room is like, like, damn, Idon't wanna show up at the next.
And that was how we were with Clay, right?
We didn't wanna show up at the nextthing and not make progress on what it
is, because we knew the other groupsthat were gonna be in there, they were
gonna, they like, they were on a rolland we were like, man, we can't let them.
So there's a little bit of acompetitiveness, but inspiration.
(10:19):
But then a group like that, right?
Like showing up as accountabilityand it's like, man, it's like.
I'm not gonna show up and notdo what I said I was gonna do.
So I think those are kind of theimportant factors, uh, to look into.
Um, you know, in anygroup that you step into.
I think, I think part of the, the, thebenefit I, I used to always say half
of the benefit of being that specificmastermind, and there were several
(10:40):
that we were part of that were, werevery similar in, in their structure,
but knowing that we had to presentin front of that group where we were,
where we were trying to go, and whatwas the biggest problem we were that ha
knowing, getting to that clarity beforeyou go is, is probably half the value.
Yeah.
Right.
It's like, you know, you have topresent, you have to be crystal
clear on where you're at, whereyou're trying to go, and what is.
(11:01):
What is, what is the, the problemyou're, you're trying to solve so that
you can get that feedback from peoplewho have been through it and, and get
some, you know, and, and confide, youknow, confidently move in a direction.
'cause a lot of times you thinkyou might know what your next step
is, but you really haven't had any,you know, any peers that are at a
higher level say, man, maybe checkthis, or maybe you need to do that.
(11:21):
And getting that feedback so youcan go back with confidence and
take that next move is I think, um,extremely valuable, uh, in those rooms.
Yeah, man.
It made me start thinking about myjourney and the first time I stepped
into the room with you guys was in2010 in Dallas, and it was at the
EGS, and this wasn't a big EGS.
(11:42):
This was like maybe200 people in the room.
It's before you guys started, youknow, getting to 6, 700, 900 people.
And, um, I was, I'm grateful to thisday there was only 200 in that room
because that was when I had my aha.
If it was too big of a room, I don't knowthat it would've the impact, you know?
Um, but I started, so, so first thing,the first step, if you're thinking
(12:04):
of stages, is where are you, whereare you at in your journey to know
if you're the dumbest in the room?
And the first step is awareness.
You had brought it up, John.
Now let's talk about, are youaware, maybe you're not aware of a
good reason you should, you shouldgrab a ticket to agent, to CEO.
You will get awareness quick afteryou have, maybe you have an awareness,
(12:24):
maybe you know that you're stuck.
Maybe you know that you don't know whatyou don't know or what you need to know.
And then the next step is, okay, what?
What do I need to grasp onto?
Who do I need to connect with that'salready been where I'm at so that
I can actually now take action?
I have the awareness now.
What do I do next?
You know?
(12:45):
And so for me, sitting in that room,I had the awareness, I became ultra
aware, and then I gained a, um, aninspiration or a bel a new belief that
I can actually do that because I'm,I'm, I'm with other people that, yeah,
they, they, maybe they're smarter thanme, maybe they're not, but they've been
(13:05):
where I want to go already, and they're.
The, the culture that you, MikeJohn created with that event.
Um, is a culture of bringingpeople up, pulling the people up.
And, uh, John, you, you know,there, there's that analogy.
Um, you're, you're in one of threeplaces, you know, you're, you're
(13:25):
either in a room where you're pullingpeople up to, to your level, right?
Or you're in a room where you're,you're in equal kind of like peers.
Peers that are in the samespots you are, or you're down
here looking to get pulled up.
And, and so this is definitely aroom where I think you're gonna get a
little bit of all three, but I mean,we're gonna have some powerhouses.
(13:47):
We're gonna have people.
What's cool about this too,is we have an equal amount.
Of lady CEOs and men CEOs who havegrown massive organizations and teams
that have actually been able to replacethemselves and step out of the business.
Tina call, um, and she's not completelystepped out, but she's replaced herself.
(14:09):
And actually it was, it was John Shelac,I think this been the second year, uh,
that I went and she, he stood up there.
Never forget this is is the, one ofthe many wise things he said was.
You know, are you replacingyourself every day in your business?
Yeah.
And, and that's a really good questionto start asking if you're wondering like,
(14:30):
am I right person to get in this room?
You know, um, are you replacing yourselfwith all the low dollar per hour, um,
tasks that you find yourself doing ona daily basis that are getting in the
way of you doing high dollar per hourtasks or even thinking strategically?
So we got, you know, we gotTina, we got Michelle Wilson.
(14:50):
Wow.
I mean.
The, the, the, the lady powerthat we have coming to this
event is so inspiring to me.
We also have, you know, Dustin Blackand Blake Sloan, and, uh, you know, you
guys can touch on on, on what he's done.
I mean, uh, dude, Blake, Blake probablyruns the most efficient organization.
(15:10):
John, you would know, you've lookedunder the of more than, than any of us.
Interpret.
Nobody leads like him.
I've never seen anybody lead theirorganization the way he leads.
I've never seen anybody to beable to strategically, so this is,
was his objective in 2024 was tospend one one week gone each month
with, with him and his family.
(15:30):
He accomplished it.
Um, I know he had set out originallyfor the goal to be this way, but it's
a little easier to do that with one.
But, you know, now, now now two car seats.
It's a, it's a little different, but,um, you know, but I've never seen
anybody to the level that he operates at.
And he does it through, he doesit through, you know, culture.
He does it through leadership, hedoes it through accountability.
(15:52):
He does it through, you know,doing what you say you're gonna
do, um, and, and really excellingat a, at a high, high level.
I'm, I'm excited for him to come in.
I'm really excited for db.
Um, just because of, of, youknow, what he's been, he, he's
been able to accomplish and.
You know, he, I mean, he's a connector,but being able to build what he's
been able to build and, you know,as a, as a consumer of his, of his
(16:17):
services, right, utilizing his company.
'cause I know you've used him a few times.
I've used them.
They are the best in the business.
I've never had anybody else that, youknow, especially moving a lot lately.
I've never experienced thattype of service of what they're
able to deliver and, you know,what he's been able to build.
So it's gonna be fun, um, to be able tohave him in the room with us as well.
(16:37):
Hey, going back to Blake.
So the metric that I look forwhen I'm looking at, you know,
what, what's that benchmark?
I think it's, you know, pro, you know,profit per agent or productivity per
agent, or gross margin per agent.
I think he's at 43% out of production.
I don't think there's anyone I knowthat's producing at that high of a level
(16:58):
that's just efficiency across the board.
Mm-hmm.
And just mind blowing when you seethat type of number, uh, for someone
that's outta production and they'renot in an average sale price of a
million or eight and, and holdingand holding a profit percentage.
Right, right.
So to, to that metric that you weretalking about, but also the bottom line.
Right.
And I think that's where, you know, a lotof agents, and like for us, that was the
(17:21):
third thing that allowed us to efficientlyoperate the business, get you fully out
of production, was understanding thatdynamic of top line revenue, gross profit,
'cause that's what you're talking about.
Mm-hmm.
After paying broker fees, sales,referrals, agents, all of the, the things
that you have to pay and then profit.
That leaves you salaries andexpenses to put the, essentially
(17:43):
put the best team on the field.
And he's done an incredible job atholding tight with that profit margin
and, you know, getting the agents to,to perform while keeping a lot of money
into the company, um, in, in one ofthe toughest markets on the planet.
Yeah, Myrtle Beach is oneof the hardest markets.
I mean, it's the first market that I'veheard that has over 120 days on market.
(18:04):
Like what other markets out there rightnow have 120 days on market average?
I remember those days theywere freaking painful.
Um, I mean that's 200active inventory days.
'cause if you remember that, that's like,I still have nightmares about those days.
Yeah.
It, it's, it, it's extremely difficult togo from a good market to a down market.
(18:26):
'cause the, the things you haveto get better at those systems
generally are not the ones you'refocused on having in place.
So price reductions.
Um, getting properties priced correctly.
Those are, those are things that will,will kill your net net profitability
if you don't have that dialed ingoing into the, into the down season.
And so, yeah, it's, it's super fascinatingthat, you know, I think, um, you know,
(18:48):
with all the different, you know,angles that people are taking with their
teams and they're going Zillow Flex andthey're getting referrals and they're
all that, like, if you're not trulyrunning a financial model that shows
profitability, you know, everything looksgood, but you're not making any money.
And you know, I think Blakeis just a great example of.
Of really how to tweak it and, and makeit profitable and be consistent every
(19:10):
single day with your leadership and,and drive profitability to, to numbers.
We've really rarely ever seen anybody.
Yeah.
At 800 units or 500 units.
He's still cranking the profitability,still cranking the profit, but
the margin's still the margin.
And um, you know, Ithink just thinking back.
In 2010, you know, to your point there,Al, I think that was the, the first
time, it was the first time I met Blake.
(19:31):
Yeah.
And I know, I know Jay was coaching himpersonally, one-on-one at that time.
And, and so really getting to know, youknow, Blake at that time and, you know,
just, just a, you know, an aggressive.
A good looking kid that just hustled and,you know, just, just, he was a, he just,
he's always been a tremendous student.
(19:51):
And, and so then being able to reallybecome a business owner and he knows
the numbers backwards and forwards.
And, 'cause that's, that's what Iwas trying to pull out of there,
is you've gotta know the numbers.
Mm-hmm.
And listen, what, what won usover was, was Crabtree, right?
Because.
If there's only a handful of numbers,then you can go deep if that number's
(20:12):
off, but you only need to payattention to a handful of numbers.
And that really changed for us.
I mean the, the three things.
But that, that one was, was amassive shift for us to really
get everything under control.
Yeah.
And, and I think, you know,another, you know, fascinating
thing to think about too is, is.
You know, where for years we lookedat people on stage and they're, you
(20:33):
know, they're, they appear to bedoing well and things look great.
And then you, you open the hood and yourealize, you know, they got a ton of
debt and they're not, you know, they're,they're miserable in their personal life.
Like Blake is, you know, is a personthat, when you, when you look at how
he operates and how he lives his lifeand, and, and the balance that he has,
you know, you would trade places, mostpeople would trade places with him.
(20:53):
Yeah.
And I think that's, uh, you know,one of the things that you're looking
for is, it's not just numbers.
We're looking at, Hey man, what, whatare you, how are you living life?
And, and is this serving you orare, do you, does your business, are
you, is it your, are you a slave?
Are you just adding bars tothe jail cell around you or,
or are you actually business?
And so.
That's, you know, that's, uh, Ithink again, super excited, you
(21:14):
know, for all the people we've got,speaking all in their own rights
are doing this at a high level.
And so, yeah, you know, you can't getthere without, you know, once you see
it, you know, I'm just one of thosepeople that will, like, when you put me
in the room and I see somebody's doingsomething, I know it could be done.
So now it's just a matter offiguring out how to do it.
And if that's the kind of personthat you are and you know, you're
not where you need to be, thenyou gotta get in rooms like this.
When you, when you think about Dustin, um.
(21:36):
You know, grew a what?
Eight.
Eight figure business in black tie moving.
Mm-hmm.
And then says, one day, I thinkI'm gonna be a country music star.
Okay.
You know, had to hire a CEO toreplace himself in his business.
It kept running, kept cranking.
Um, no, you know.
(21:57):
It, it, it oftentimes, some, sometimesstill comes with some stumbling
blocks where you gotta, yeah.
Go back into the business, whichwe know that's what happened.
You'll, you'll learn the whole storyfrom, from Dustin, you know, agent to CEO.
But I mean, imagine that, imaginesaying, I think I'm, I want to keep my
real estate business going, but I wantto go chase my dream, whatever that is.
(22:19):
You can't do that unless you,you, you fall in love with the
boring process, the process of.
Figure, you know, when we talk about thesexy stuff, we're usually talking about
marketing, the fun part about marketing,you know, social media, how do we post,
you know, the right content, you know,and, and all that fun stuff, right?
And then it comes down to, allright, what does a p and l look like?
(22:40):
And, and where do I haveto make an adjustment?
And those adjustments can be painful.
Are you paying a too highof a split to your agents?
Are you maybe not payingenough of a split?
We're gonna have people in thisroom who've lived all of that.
And that you're gonnabe able to learn from.
And, um, so if you're hungry, humble,smart, I would recommend getting
(23:00):
a VIP ticket too, because the, thething that we, I don't know that we've
talked about on the pod yet is, is, uh,the VIP experience is something new.
We haven't done that in the past.
Now there's 20 tickets.
There's less than 20 tickets.
Now, I, I gotta look atthe, uh, at the numbers.
But the VIP, uh, if you buy theVIP ticket, there's only 20.
(23:20):
Um, we're gonna have a dinner.
That's a private VIP dinner where you'regonna get, you know, we're, we're gonna
dig even deeper in with, with some ofthese players that have done things,
um, that frankly I haven't even done.
You know, like I, I've never, youknow, uh, got my business to a
point where it's on, you know, um,on, you know, somewhat of a, um.
(23:44):
A trajectory where I can actually go and,and then chase a country music career.
You know, I mean, that's a big deal.
To be able to do that.
You really have to have your, yournumbers dialed in to be able to do that.
And you're gonna learn that, uh,from, from a lot of these great,
great leaders, um, that, thatyou're gonna meet that agent to CEO.
So get that VIP ticket.
It's also gonna come with a, a ticket.
(24:05):
You're gonna, not only areyou gonna hear Dustin's.
Business journey and all, youknow, you're, I think that
people are gonna learn more.
You're gonna hurt a lot of, offailures, you know, like, oh man, I
tried this and then this happened,and here's how I recovered.
Here's the lessons I've learned.
Those are the biggest nuggets thatyou're gonna be pulling out of this.
And then you're gonna get to hearDustin, um, performed for us as well.
(24:28):
So, proof in the pudding.
Um, we got, you know, wegot Dustin, we got, um.
A lineup of, of, uh, of just pure starsand talent coming for our, uh, rock,
the spectrum that follows on day two.
So it's gonna be fun.
Good.
I'm, I'm, I'm excited for it.
I'm excited for that.
Um, you, you know, you always put togetherone hell of a show, Al and, uh, kind
(24:49):
of running with, uh, a little, a littletootsies singer songwriter theme this
year, um, is gonna be, is gonna be pretty,pretty spot on, pretty exceptional.
I'm looking forward to.
You know, two, two, you know, greatdays, you know, helping agents
build their business, but then beingable to just unwind, listen to some
great music and uh, you know, reallyconnect and celebrate with everybody.
(25:10):
Yeah.
We got our, our boyMichael Rotundo is coming.
We got Rotundo, we gotMichael Ray is the headliner.
Uh, look him up.
If you haven't.
I'm sure you've heard his songs.
He's had multiple top 10, um,hits on the country charts.
Michael Ray, uh, we got Josh Phillipswho've wrote, who's wrote probably over a
(25:31):
dozen number ones for, um, other artists.
Artists, you know, you know,um, that, that you're hearing
on the radio every day.
Josh is gonna be there.
Um, it's just an amazing lineup.
So two days of, uh, you're gonna,you're gonna leave changed.
And, um, I think like the biggestthing in change is, you know,
are you gonna hear some tactics?
(25:53):
Probably you're gonna hear a lotof tactics, but it's, this is
gonna change the way you think.
Mm-hmm.
That's the biggest gift I think that.
This event can, can give peopleis that it's not gonna just
give you all the answers.
It's gonna teach you how to think better.
Yeah.
Be a better leader so that you can leadan organization to get you to that point.
So, um, yeah.
(26:15):
Anna, uh, Anna or Anna Medina.
Savannah.
Yep.
Honey imagination.com.
You're gonna find the link to the event.
Um, can't wait to see you there, Anna.
Yeah.
You know, the, um.
The thing we, we've talkedalways about this, right?
And understanding theory of constraints.
It's finally understanding,you know, why it's burn's.
Number one book recommendation.
(26:36):
Just, just how to look andoperate through anything.
And we heard, you know, Glen, a coupleyears talking about the, um, you
know, the importance of, of to set.
You know, massive goals, right?
We talk about, you know, an agent, Hey, Iwanna make a hundred thousand this year.
Well, what if you had to make a hundredthousand in the next 30 days, right?
So you, you change,you change the problem.
(27:00):
Um, and I don't know if you guyshave seen, you know, uh, uh, Dr.
Benjamin Hardy, who co-wrote WhoNot, how the gap in the gain and 10
x is faster than two x with, uh, DanSullivan just released his own new
book called The Science of Scaling.
And, um, the launch process and everythingfor it is just gangsters super spot on.
I mean, it's all aboutbuilding this coaching program.
(27:21):
But, um, they, what they, what theytalk about in there is setting, um,
unachievable goals.
Setting unachievable goals,goals that, like if you put your
brain to it, you're like, it'snot a big hairy, audacious goal.
It's beyond that.
It's like there is no way conceivablethat my brain, that there's no way, right?
(27:47):
Like, go from.
So, for example, it wouldbe like, you know, NAEA, you
know, we got to 10 million.
If we set an impossible goal, it wouldbe, what if we had to get to a hundred
million in the next three years?
So you set that massive goal, and what hesays is, it, it, it changes the frame of
the conversation, it changes the frame ofthe business, but now it raises the floor.
(28:10):
It raises the floor to, okay, Iknow what it took to get us to 10.
What has to happen forus to get to a hundred?
And, and then what?
Then it gets down to the next pointthat we've, we've all talked about,
I think Al, you even sent me a reelon it, um, about signal and noise
is now everything that you do has tobe, signal has to be in alignment to
(28:36):
achieve, to go from 10 to a hundred.
And eliminate all of the noise.
'cause it mm-hmm.
If it doesn't help, then it's noiseand you've gotta eliminate it.
And it's, it's a reallygood way to think about it.
And it's, it's what we, whatwe talk about agent to CEO.
Right.
You know, what is thevision, what's the goal?
What are we trying to do?
And then, but, but it's then pokingback at you and going your goal's too.
(28:58):
Your goal's too small.
You're not thinking big enough.
That's the problem.
You're playing too small and I think it'sjust a great reminder for all of us, um,
kind of heading into the second half ofthis year heading into a massive headwind
in this market, um, to to to step back.
And you're like, dude, I'mjust trying to survive.
I'm trying to get a deal together.
Well.
You're playing too small 'causeyou're thinking about survival.
(29:19):
Mm-hmm.
But what if you, what if you had todo, you know, how do I do one deal?
What if you had to do a hundreddeals in the next 30 days?
How would you do it?
And it just changes the way you think.
And it's some, some really goodexamples that Ben talks about.
Um, I think you can go downloadand get the audio book for free.
Tony Robinson wrote the forward to it.
It's pretty freaking awesome.
Yeah, man.
(29:40):
Love it.
So, Al what else we, what else do we got?
What else?
Any, anything pressing, anything that'skind of out there, that's a topic that
we want to, uh, to touch on this week?
Yeah.
I mean, you know, when you're bringing upBlake and, and to, to just bring up Myrtle
Beach, you said 120 days on the market.
Think about, um, and I, I don't know.
(30:02):
All the members on, on Blake's team,you know, intimately are close.
Um, he grew up, you know, his,I'm sure his team has transformed
over the years since he was inour mastermind and everything.
But think about, you have to imaginethat probably at least 80% of the
agents on that team don't evenunderstand how to do a price reduction.
(30:24):
Because you hadn't had todo one for all these years.
You hadn't, you know, we've talked aboutthis Fridays for me, when I was fully
engulfed in listings and I, you know, Iwas carrying 20, 30 listings as a solo
agent, whatever, uh, or when I had a smallteam, Fridays were price reduction day.
Mm-hmm.
This was the day that I would sitdown, look at all my listings that
weren't moving, weren't selling, and,and Okay, what's the new strategy?
(30:49):
Well, it's, you know, as long aswe've checked all the other boxes.
There's only one and it's price.
If it's not price red, it's notgonna sell In a market like this.
Now that wasn't the case fiveyears ago, 2020, you could put
something, those 20, 30,000, 50,000overpriced, depending on your market,
you're gonna get offers still.
Yeah.
Nuts.
(31:09):
And that's just not the case right now.
You have to learn different strategiesand, and, uh, it just blew me away, Jay.
'cause actually the average dayson market nationally is like thirty
six, thirty five days, let's call it.
Right.
They're at 120.
Yeah.
And he's, he's still been able to do it.
So yeah, make sure youget that, that ticket.
(31:30):
If, if you, if you can't do the VIP,get yourself a general admission ticket.
Both include tickets by the way.
To the, uh, to the concert afterwards.
And I wanted to bring this up, um, alittle bit off topic, but you know, you
talked about the goal, Jay, the goal.
Of this event for us is not to make money.
Every penny, uh, of profit goes rightto a charity that, um, we, we picked
(31:55):
out, uh, it's gonna Rim Farms, which isa farm that employs, uh, uh, autistic
adults and teaches them how to be farmers.
Uh, Matthew and I are, uh, onThursday we're gonna go out and
shoot some video of, of this place.
I've already visited the site.
Super inspiring.
Um, so, you know, this, thisevent for us is about value.
(32:17):
It's about extending the valueto not just our people, but um,
and, and Honey Badger Nation.
But outside of our, our group as well.
Everyone's invited.
Um, this, this is a brand agnostic.
Agnostic I, I guess you could say.
Mm-hmm.
So make sure you grab a ticket.
Um, this is not an e exp event, althoughwe, that is, you know, we, we are, you
know, we have, uh, built our foundationoff of and we believe it is the best,
(32:40):
but that's not, um, this isn't gonna berecruiting event or anything like that.
This is digging deep into the weeds.
You're gonna be really blown away.
Last year we had peoplewalking outta there in tears.
Uh, not because they came 'cause,because it hit a, an emotional nerve
for them and they had this aha momentto where they're like, holy crap.
(33:04):
Like, there's another level that I, youknow, I just wasn't thinking big enough.
And so from an inspiration standpoint,there's gonna be a giant check in
that box, but understand that, um,this is also for a really good cause.
And, uh, yeah, we, wedo this to give back.
So if, if that's one of yourgoals is to be giving back and
you're like, how do I give back?
(33:24):
Come to the event andyou'll be a part of it.
Yeah, so, so good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So good.
September 24th and 25th.
It's, um, land.
Yeah.
Just, um, under, what,six days away or so?
Uh, actually a littlemore than 60 days away.
And, um, the weather will be beautifuland even if it's not, uh, this year it's
(33:47):
gonna be all, um, under, under the roof.
And, um, we're moving itright next door from forward.
Everyone that's been to the event.
Uh, I've been getting alot of calls for sponsors.
We haven't even taken any sponsors yet.
We will be, I promise you, we're havingthe, we're gonna have the, the input
sheet ready and be able to, um, everyonewho's been reaching out, wanting to
sponsor the event, they, we've hadmostly the same group of sponsors
(34:10):
who sponsor it every single year, andbecause they, they, they love the event.
We're now combining the agentto CEO with rock the spectrum.
Yeah.
So every penny, every penny fromthat event goes right into rock.
The spectrum goes right into, youknow, the cause that we're rallying
behind you, Al Um, you know, this isyour, your 10th year obviously started
(34:31):
out, you know, Cleveland Food Bank.
Then moved into, you know, really, um.
You know, given as much as, as we couldto child and, and women, you know,
trafficking and then now to anothercause, um, with Rock the Spectrum.
So this is awesome.
Yes, sir. Love it fellas.
Um, man, I know 60, 60 somethingdays away, so it's coming up fast.
(34:53):
Um, I'm excited to, you know, buildthis as, as we lead up to it and,
um, you know, the cast of charactersthat we've assembled this year is
gonna be, um, world class as always.
Speaking of life by strategy.
Uh, Jay had this really coolbackground with palm trees, which
we used to see on a regular basiswhen you were living in Puerto Rico.
(35:14):
Yeah.
But you're coming to usfrom a different island.
Yeah.
We're, uh, we're in Grant Cayman,so, uh, got a couple more days here.
We did the Stingray uh, trip.
It's probably, I was telling Johnthis earlier before you jumped
on, like it really is probablythe best island in the Caribbean.
When you take into consideration howclose it is, uh, just how friendly
(35:34):
people are, how Americanized it is, thequality of food, you know, the beaches.
I mean, it, it really is a fantastic,a fantastic vacation location.
So I highly, highly recommend, youknow, I've lived on an island, so I can
tell you, I, I got a little experience.
This is, uh, probably one ofthe best, best vacations you
can plan as Grand Cayman.
That's awesome.
Thanks for breaking out the timeaway from your family to, uh, spend
(35:56):
here with us and the one big fire.
Of course, John.
Always great.
Excited to see everybody inCleveland, honey badger nation.com.
Grab your tickets.
Let's go.
All right guys.
Appreciate y'all.
See ya.
That's a wrap for today.
I hope you got somethingvaluable from this episode.
If you did, hit follow andvisit John kitchens.coach for
(36:17):
more ways we can work together.
See you on the next episode.
Seven figure success starts whenyou start thinking like a CEO.
Welcome to the John Kitchens Coach podcastexperience as your host, John Kitchens.
Get ready to think bigger andtransform your business into
a path to lasting freedom.
What's happening, everybody?
Man.
Thank you guys.
Tuning into one big fire and, uh.
(00:23):
We should have hit record seven minutesago as we were diving in, but, uh, we
definitely hit the record button this timeand we're ready to rock and roll before,
before we kind of continue what we werediving into and, um, wanting to touch on.
I think it's gonna, you know, lead rightinto it, but I want to let everybody know.
We are gonna be talkingabout agent to CEO.
Um, Al has brought up a couple goodpoints, what sparked the conversation
(00:47):
that we had before we hit record.
But you guys, you know, go to, um,if you're looking to come to agent
to CEO in Cleveland, um, kind of our.
Signature event on, on really what ittakes to evolve from being an agent.
Maybe you have a lifestyle business,maybe just being a practitioner to really
want to become the true CEO of of yourbusiness and run it like a business.
(01:11):
This is the, the event.
This is really the only event there.
There's all the other stuff.
We've got a lot of amazing peoplethat are even a part of the Honey
Badger Nation, but they're reallynot in there teaching you how to,
to think about and grow a business.
And so I'm, I'm.
You know, one, obviously biased, butalso proud, um, you know, of this event
and being to be able to be a part of it.
(01:31):
You can go to agent to CCLE or as,as we've told you guys over and over.
I'm gonna keep tellingyou guys over and over.
The go-to resource ishoney badger nation.com.
This is actually on theHoney badger nation.com site.
You can go right there, whichwill take you to the page to where
you guys can get your tickets.
Only a hundred seats.
Um, I know a handful oftickets are already gone.
(01:53):
Um, and we haven't even hit the gason the promotion, so if you guys
are, are thinking about it, wantto grab your tickets, honey Badger
nation.com is the go-to resource.
Al tee it up man.
You had, uh, grabbed oneof, um, the resources.
That's what I always call that, that book.
I throw it into the resource manualof how to operate your business.
(02:16):
And we, we shared a couple weeksago, you know, we've, we've talked
about the transformation for us,which was the light bulb that.
Really led to a lot of the things thatwe did at NAEA and the Mastermind was,
you know, how do we, how in the helldo we get kinder out of production?
Right?
And we'd always talked about thetwo things we'd always talked about.
(02:37):
CHSA proven repeatable system to, for,for anybody to articulate the value of why
anybody would wanna do business with you.
And then the other was, you know,simple member, straight talk,
big profits, those two things.
And the conversation with Kylea couple weeks ago sparked
the thing that I was like.
Those two weren't even possibleuntil we had the first.
And the first was having a, a, a planto really operate and run our business,
(03:02):
which we, we, we gleaned from masteringthe Rockefeller Habits with Vern Harnish.
And you've got the, uh, the,uh, graduate level edition
book there, Al um, scaling up.
Uh, you know, there's,there's other, there's other
operating systems too, right?
It's the EOS.
You can grab traction, you cango through all of Gino's stuff,
which Gino's a disciple of Verne.
I mean, he gives, he givescredit to Verne, right?
(03:24):
Right.
In the opening page of, of traction.
The other is four Ds of execution, right?
But you've gotta have some framework to beable to, to think about and strategically
run and operate your business.
But Al you were, you were readingus, um, um, a really important,
uh, distinction and, and awareness.
Section out of scaling up.
(03:44):
I think it's super important foryou to reread that for everybody.
Yeah, man.
I mean, um, it's, it's tough to, youknow, there's, there's a lot of noise
out there and everybody's trying tograb your attention, including us.
You know, this just happens to be atopic we're super passionate about,
but I wanted to share something withyou guys I didn't even share before
when we were, when we were shooting it.
(04:05):
And, um, I bank a PNC bank.
And this is, no, I'm not, youknow, endorsing them by any means.
Uh, I've been with 'em for a very longtime, and I walked into the bank, um,
to do some banking, and, and I saw,I, I've seen this a couple times and I
wanted to tell you guys about it becauseit kind of ties into this, is that,
um, their newest, like, like promotionthing they're doing is, is, it says on
(04:27):
the wall, we've been brilliantly boring.
For X amount of years and, and Iwas just like I said to the manager,
I said, that is a brilliant.
Uh, marketing campaign, youknow, brilliantly boring uhhuh.
And it's because, look, this is notgonna be a boring event, so don't,
don't, don't draw that conclusion.
(04:48):
But I say that because, you know,this isn't the, the super sizzly ai
sexy stuff that you're, you're seeingeverywhere in, in, you know, this is
focusing on the things that you have.
I may, maybe it's alittle boring at first.
Or maybe from the title, you know, youthink scaling up, it's, it's, you know,
it's not some big flashy thing, but.
(05:10):
What I wanted to get to was, youknow, the dumbest in the room.
Okay.
I opened this book upmany, many years ago.
I read it and I picked it back upbecause a lot of the principles that
are talked about in this book, we'regonna be really transforming into what
it looks like to grow a real estateteam, grow a real estate organization
into something that works harderfor you than you're working in it.
(05:32):
In order to do that, um, you know,you gotta be the dumbest in the room.
So I'm gonna read, canI read the passage boys?
Yeah, please.
So team leaders know they havesucceeded in building an organization
that can scale and is fun to run.
I love how they threw that in there whenthey are the dumbest people in the room.
(05:54):
In turn, if they thi think theyhave all the answers, or they act
like they have all the answers, itguarantees organizational silence.
And e elaborates blindness.
Hmm.
So, you know, that kind of just leadsright into, you know, what we're gonna
be doing, you know, at agent to CEO.
So we talk about two different rooms,guys, and I wanna, you know, Jay,
(06:16):
love, love your opinion on this.
'cause you've been in a lot of rooms.
I mean, joined every mastermind,you and Mike John, you as well.
Um, and, and, and I have as well.
But I wanna find out like, likewhat does it feel like, like how
do you know you're in the rightroom as it relates to an event?
And then I wanna move over tothe dumbest in the room as it
(06:39):
relates to your company and that.
That's the, that's mm-hmm.
Really the real, the real, wherethe real magic comes in is when
you're looking around the boardroom,you're like, dang, I'm surrounded by
people that are way smarter than me.
Yeah.
And that's the pinnacle, right?
Yeah.
But, but in order to get to thatroom to be the dumbest in that room,
you first have to start insertingyourself as the dumbest in other rooms.
(07:01):
What do we mean by that?
You know, it's, it's, it'sgetting in rooms where people
have, have, when you can look ateverybody in the room and they're.
Levels above where you're at andyou can start to see where your,
what's your next biggest obstacle?
It's like being able tosee around the corner.
Um, you know, when we were a part of themastermind, we did three times a year.
(07:22):
Uh, we were in the mastermindwith Clay Mask when they were
scaling to a bi, uh, to a billion.
And you know, when we started.
It was, you know, their biggestchallenge was, you know, they
hired so many employees that theycouldn't get all their chairs.
They had a big stack of chairs whenwe got there and they were trying
to put all these chairs together,their biggest bottleneck at the time
where they're hiring so many peoplethat they couldn't get the, the, the
(07:42):
office chairs put together fast enoughfor the people they were hiring.
I was like, that is a problemI've never encountered.
Right.
So, you know, seeing them, uh, youknow, grow, you know, and their
leadership team and how they executed,how they made decisions, but getting
in the room with people that are.
Double the size that you're at andseeing how they operate and seeing how
they conduct their meetings and theirstrategy and how they make decisions.
(08:06):
That's the, that's like seeing,it's like seeing the future.
Once you see it, you can't see it.
I remember when Mike, Mikewent down and visited, um, in
Austin, uh, what's his name?
Um.
Oh, dang.
I just lost it.
It was, uh, yeah, I can see his p and atthe time they were doing about 12 million
when we were at about three or 4 million.
And, and he said, dude, I would've walkedon, you know, glass barefooted all the way
(08:28):
down there just to see how they operated.
Because once you see that, youcould go back and you see now what
you're, what you should be doing.
And so it's really just about seeingwhere people are at that are above
where you're at so you can see whatit looks like and how they operate.
I think that's the.
It's not about them necessarily beingsmarter, but you see the operation
of what you have to be, who you haveto become as an organization mm-hmm.
(08:49):
In order to get there.
Yeah.
There's, there's a slide that Ialways share at the beginning of
kt, um, and it's, it, it asks thequestion, right, does the group
increase my awareness of who I am,where I am, and what I have to do?
Does the group inspire me to takeaction based on my new awareness?
And does the group offer accountabilityfor the actions I'm, I'm committing to?
(09:13):
So that's kind of the threequestions to check the box, right?
You know, um, awareness,action, and accountability.
Right?
Does that group do that?
Is there inspiration there?
And most of the problem that, that.
You know that we understand, but a lotof people don't, is that they're just
not problem aware and, you know, gettinginto rooms that are gonna challenge you.
(09:35):
It's not that you're the dumbest one inthere, but you're not the smartest one.
And, and in whatever area of yourlife that you're trying to improve.
And you know, that's the firstthing, man, do I have aha, do
I have a level of awareness?
Is it realizing, you know, that there'sthings that I'm just not seeing?
Because we all have blind spots, right?
That's why we hired great coaches becausethey can see around corners, they can see
(09:56):
our blind spots that we can't see, but.
They also have to inspireyou to take action.
That room is like, like, damn, Idon't wanna show up at the next.
And that was how we were with Clay, right?
We didn't wanna show up at the nextthing and not make progress on what it
is, because we knew the other groupsthat were gonna be in there, they were
gonna, they like, they were on a rolland we were like, man, we can't let them.
So there's a little bit of acompetitiveness, but inspiration.
(10:19):
But then a group like that, right?
Like showing up as accountabilityand it's like, man, it's like.
I'm not gonna show up and notdo what I said I was gonna do.
So I think those are kind of theimportant factors, uh, to look into.
Um, you know, in anygroup that you step into.
I think, I think part of the, the, thebenefit I, I used to always say half
of the benefit of being that specificmastermind, and there were several
(10:40):
that we were part of that were, werevery similar in, in their structure,
but knowing that we had to presentin front of that group where we were,
where we were trying to go, and whatwas the biggest problem we were that ha
knowing, getting to that clarity beforeyou go is, is probably half the value.
Yeah.
Right.
It's like, you know, you have topresent, you have to be crystal
clear on where you're at, whereyou're trying to go, and what is.
(11:01):
What is, what is the, the problemyou're, you're trying to solve so that
you can get that feedback from peoplewho have been through it and, and get
some, you know, and, and confide, youknow, confidently move in a direction.
'cause a lot of times you thinkyou might know what your next step
is, but you really haven't had any,you know, any peers that are at a
higher level say, man, maybe checkthis, or maybe you need to do that.
(11:21):
And getting that feedback so youcan go back with confidence and
take that next move is I think, um,extremely valuable, uh, in those rooms.
Yeah, man.
It made me start thinking about myjourney and the first time I stepped
into the room with you guys was in2010 in Dallas, and it was at the
EGS, and this wasn't a big EGS.
(11:42):
This was like maybe200 people in the room.
It's before you guys started, youknow, getting to 6, 700, 900 people.
And, um, I was, I'm grateful to thisday there was only 200 in that room
because that was when I had my aha.
If it was too big of a room, I don't knowthat it would've the impact, you know?
Um, but I started, so, so first thing,the first step, if you're thinking
(12:04):
of stages, is where are you, whereare you at in your journey to know
if you're the dumbest in the room?
And the first step is awareness.
You had brought it up, John.
Now let's talk about, are youaware, maybe you're not aware of a
good reason you should, you shouldgrab a ticket to agent, to CEO.
You will get awareness quick afteryou have, maybe you have an awareness,
(12:24):
maybe you know that you're stuck.
Maybe you know that you don't know whatyou don't know or what you need to know.
And then the next step is, okay, what?
What do I need to grasp onto?
Who do I need to connect with that'salready been where I'm at so that
I can actually now take action?
I have the awareness now.
What do I do next?
You know?
(12:45):
And so for me, sitting in that room,I had the awareness, I became ultra
aware, and then I gained a, um, aninspiration or a bel a new belief that
I can actually do that because I'm,I'm, I'm with other people that, yeah,
they, they, maybe they're smarter thanme, maybe they're not, but they've been
(13:05):
where I want to go already, and they're.
The, the culture that you, MikeJohn created with that event.
Um, is a culture of bringingpeople up, pulling the people up.
And, uh, John, you, you know,there, there's that analogy.
Um, you're, you're in one of threeplaces, you know, you're, you're
(13:25):
either in a room where you're pullingpeople up to, to your level, right?
Or you're in a room where you're,you're in equal kind of like peers.
Peers that are in the samespots you are, or you're down
here looking to get pulled up.
And, and so this is definitely aroom where I think you're gonna get a
little bit of all three, but I mean,we're gonna have some powerhouses.
(13:47):
We're gonna have people.
What's cool about this too,is we have an equal amount.
Of lady CEOs and men CEOs who havegrown massive organizations and teams
that have actually been able to replacethemselves and step out of the business.
Tina call, um, and she's not completelystepped out, but she's replaced herself.
(14:09):
And actually it was, it was John Shelac,I think this been the second year, uh,
that I went and she, he stood up there.
Never forget this is is the, one ofthe many wise things he said was.
You know, are you replacingyourself every day in your business?
Yeah.
And, and that's a really good questionto start asking if you're wondering like,
(14:30):
am I right person to get in this room?
You know, um, are you replacing yourselfwith all the low dollar per hour, um,
tasks that you find yourself doing ona daily basis that are getting in the
way of you doing high dollar per hourtasks or even thinking strategically?
So we got, you know, we gotTina, we got Michelle Wilson.
(14:50):
Wow.
I mean.
The, the, the, the lady powerthat we have coming to this
event is so inspiring to me.
We also have, you know, Dustin Blackand Blake Sloan, and, uh, you know, you
guys can touch on on, on what he's done.
I mean, uh, dude, Blake, Blake probablyruns the most efficient organization.
(15:10):
John, you would know, you've lookedunder the of more than, than any of us.
Interpret.
Nobody leads like him.
I've never seen anybody lead theirorganization the way he leads.
I've never seen anybody to beable to strategically, so this is,
was his objective in 2024 was tospend one one week gone each month
with, with him and his family.
(15:30):
He accomplished it.
Um, I know he had set out originallyfor the goal to be this way, but it's
a little easier to do that with one.
But, you know, now, now now two car seats.
It's a, it's a little different, but,um, you know, but I've never seen
anybody to the level that he operates at.
And he does it through, he doesit through, you know, culture.
He does it through leadership, hedoes it through accountability.
(15:52):
He does it through, you know,doing what you say you're gonna
do, um, and, and really excellingat a, at a high, high level.
I'm, I'm excited for him to come in.
I'm really excited for db.
Um, just because of, of, youknow, what he's been, he, he's
been able to accomplish and.
You know, he, I mean, he's a connector,but being able to build what he's
been able to build and, you know,as a, as a consumer of his, of his
(16:17):
services, right, utilizing his company.
'cause I know you've used him a few times.
I've used them.
They are the best in the business.
I've never had anybody else that, youknow, especially moving a lot lately.
I've never experienced thattype of service of what they're
able to deliver and, you know,what he's been able to build.
So it's gonna be fun, um, to be able tohave him in the room with us as well.
(16:37):
Hey, going back to Blake.
So the metric that I look forwhen I'm looking at, you know,
what, what's that benchmark?
I think it's, you know, pro, you know,profit per agent or productivity per
agent, or gross margin per agent.
I think he's at 43% out of production.
I don't think there's anyone I knowthat's producing at that high of a level
(16:58):
that's just efficiency across the board.
Mm-hmm.
And just mind blowing when you seethat type of number, uh, for someone
that's outta production and they'renot in an average sale price of a
million or eight and, and holdingand holding a profit percentage.
Right, right.
So to, to that metric that you weretalking about, but also the bottom line.
Right.
And I think that's where, you know, a lotof agents, and like for us, that was the
(17:21):
third thing that allowed us to efficientlyoperate the business, get you fully out
of production, was understanding thatdynamic of top line revenue, gross profit,
'cause that's what you're talking about.
Mm-hmm.
After paying broker fees, sales,referrals, agents, all of the, the things
that you have to pay and then profit.
That leaves you salaries andexpenses to put the, essentially
(17:43):
put the best team on the field.
And he's done an incredible job atholding tight with that profit margin
and, you know, getting the agents to,to perform while keeping a lot of money
into the company, um, in, in one ofthe toughest markets on the planet.
Yeah, Myrtle Beach is oneof the hardest markets.
I mean, it's the first market that I'veheard that has over 120 days on market.
(18:04):
Like what other markets out there rightnow have 120 days on market average?
I remember those days theywere freaking painful.
Um, I mean that's 200active inventory days.
'cause if you remember that, that's like,I still have nightmares about those days.
Yeah.
It, it's, it, it's extremely difficult togo from a good market to a down market.
(18:26):
'cause the, the things you haveto get better at those systems
generally are not the ones you'refocused on having in place.
So price reductions.
Um, getting properties priced correctly.
Those are, those are things that will,will kill your net net profitability
if you don't have that dialed ingoing into the, into the down season.
And so, yeah, it's, it's super fascinatingthat, you know, I think, um, you know,
(18:48):
with all the different, you know,angles that people are taking with their
teams and they're going Zillow Flex andthey're getting referrals and they're
all that, like, if you're not trulyrunning a financial model that shows
profitability, you know, everything looksgood, but you're not making any money.
And you know, I think Blakeis just a great example of.
Of really how to tweak it and, and makeit profitable and be consistent every
(19:10):
single day with your leadership and,and drive profitability to, to numbers.
We've really rarely ever seen anybody.
Yeah.
At 800 units or 500 units.
He's still cranking the profitability,still cranking the profit, but
the margin's still the margin.
And um, you know, Ithink just thinking back.
In 2010, you know, to your point there,Al, I think that was the, the first
time, it was the first time I met Blake.
(19:31):
Yeah.
And I know, I know Jay was coaching himpersonally, one-on-one at that time.
And, and so really getting to know, youknow, Blake at that time and, you know,
just, just a, you know, an aggressive.
A good looking kid that just hustled and,you know, just, just, he was a, he just,
he's always been a tremendous student.
(19:51):
And, and so then being able to reallybecome a business owner and he knows
the numbers backwards and forwards.
And, 'cause that's, that's what Iwas trying to pull out of there,
is you've gotta know the numbers.
Mm-hmm.
And listen, what, what won usover was, was Crabtree, right?
Because.
If there's only a handful of numbers,then you can go deep if that number's
(20:12):
off, but you only need to payattention to a handful of numbers.
And that really changed for us.
I mean the, the three things.
But that, that one was, was amassive shift for us to really
get everything under control.
Yeah.
And, and I think, you know,another, you know, fascinating
thing to think about too is, is.
You know, where for years we lookedat people on stage and they're, you
(20:33):
know, they're, they appear to bedoing well and things look great.
And then you, you open the hood and yourealize, you know, they got a ton of
debt and they're not, you know, they're,they're miserable in their personal life.
Like Blake is, you know, is a personthat, when you, when you look at how
he operates and how he lives his lifeand, and, and the balance that he has,
you know, you would trade places, mostpeople would trade places with him.
(20:53):
Yeah.
And I think that's, uh, you know,one of the things that you're looking
for is, it's not just numbers.
We're looking at, Hey man, what, whatare you, how are you living life?
And, and is this serving you orare, do you, does your business, are
you, is it your, are you a slave?
Are you just adding bars tothe jail cell around you or,
or are you actually business?
And so.
That's, you know, that's, uh, Ithink again, super excited, you
(21:14):
know, for all the people we've got,speaking all in their own rights
are doing this at a high level.
And so, yeah, you know, you can't getthere without, you know, once you see
it, you know, I'm just one of thosepeople that will, like, when you put me
in the room and I see somebody's doingsomething, I know it could be done.
So now it's just a matter offiguring out how to do it.
And if that's the kind of personthat you are and you know, you're
not where you need to be, thenyou gotta get in rooms like this.
When you, when you think about Dustin, um.
(21:36):
You know, grew a what?
Eight.
Eight figure business in black tie moving.
Mm-hmm.
And then says, one day, I thinkI'm gonna be a country music star.
Okay.
You know, had to hire a CEO toreplace himself in his business.
It kept running, kept cranking.
Um, no, you know.
(21:57):
It, it, it oftentimes, some, sometimesstill comes with some stumbling
blocks where you gotta, yeah.
Go back into the business, whichwe know that's what happened.
You'll, you'll learn the whole storyfrom, from Dustin, you know, agent to CEO.
But I mean, imagine that, imaginesaying, I think I'm, I want to keep my
real estate business going, but I wantto go chase my dream, whatever that is.
(22:19):
You can't do that unless you,you, you fall in love with the
boring process, the process of.
Figure, you know, when we talk about thesexy stuff, we're usually talking about
marketing, the fun part about marketing,you know, social media, how do we post,
you know, the right content, you know,and, and all that fun stuff, right?
And then it comes down to, allright, what does a p and l look like?
(22:40):
And, and where do I haveto make an adjustment?
And those adjustments can be painful.
Are you paying a too highof a split to your agents?
Are you maybe not payingenough of a split?
We're gonna have people in thisroom who've lived all of that.
And that you're gonnabe able to learn from.
And, um, so if you're hungry, humble,smart, I would recommend getting
(23:00):
a VIP ticket too, because the, thething that we, I don't know that we've
talked about on the pod yet is, is, uh,the VIP experience is something new.
We haven't done that in the past.
Now there's 20 tickets.
There's less than 20 tickets.
Now, I, I gotta look atthe, uh, at the numbers.
But the VIP, uh, if you buy theVIP ticket, there's only 20.
(23:20):
Um, we're gonna have a dinner.
That's a private VIP dinner where you'regonna get, you know, we're, we're gonna
dig even deeper in with, with some ofthese players that have done things,
um, that frankly I haven't even done.
You know, like I, I've never, youknow, uh, got my business to a
point where it's on, you know, um,on, you know, somewhat of a, um.
(23:44):
A trajectory where I can actually go and,and then chase a country music career.
You know, I mean, that's a big deal.
To be able to do that.
You really have to have your, yournumbers dialed in to be able to do that.
And you're gonna learn that, uh,from, from a lot of these great,
great leaders, um, that, thatyou're gonna meet that agent to CEO.
So get that VIP ticket.
It's also gonna come with a, a ticket.
(24:05):
You're gonna, not only areyou gonna hear Dustin's.
Business journey and all, youknow, you're, I think that
people are gonna learn more.
You're gonna hurt a lot of, offailures, you know, like, oh man, I
tried this and then this happened,and here's how I recovered.
Here's the lessons I've learned.
Those are the biggest nuggets thatyou're gonna be pulling out of this.
And then you're gonna get to hearDustin, um, performed for us as well.
(24:28):
So, proof in the pudding.
Um, we got, you know, wegot Dustin, we got, um.
A lineup of, of, uh, of just pure starsand talent coming for our, uh, rock,
the spectrum that follows on day two.
So it's gonna be fun.
Good.
I'm, I'm, I'm excited for it.
I'm excited for that.
Um, you, you know, you always put togetherone hell of a show, Al and, uh, kind
(24:49):
of running with, uh, a little, a littletootsies singer songwriter theme this
year, um, is gonna be, is gonna be pretty,pretty spot on, pretty exceptional.
I'm looking forward to.
You know, two, two, you know, greatdays, you know, helping agents
build their business, but then beingable to just unwind, listen to some
great music and uh, you know, reallyconnect and celebrate with everybody.
(25:10):
Yeah.
We got our, our boyMichael Rotundo is coming.
We got Rotundo, we gotMichael Ray is the headliner.
Uh, look him up.
If you haven't.
I'm sure you've heard his songs.
He's had multiple top 10, um,hits on the country charts.
Michael Ray, uh, we got Josh Phillipswho've wrote, who's wrote probably over a
(25:31):
dozen number ones for, um, other artists.
Artists, you know, you know,um, that, that you're hearing
on the radio every day.
Josh is gonna be there.
Um, it's just an amazing lineup.
So two days of, uh, you're gonna,you're gonna leave changed.
And, um, I think like the biggestthing in change is, you know,
are you gonna hear some tactics?
(25:53):
Probably you're gonna hear a lotof tactics, but it's, this is
gonna change the way you think.
Mm-hmm.
That's the biggest gift I think that.
This event can, can give peopleis that it's not gonna just
give you all the answers.
It's gonna teach you how to think better.
Yeah.
Be a better leader so that you can leadan organization to get you to that point.
So, um, yeah.
(26:15):
Anna, uh, Anna or Anna Medina.
Savannah.
Yep.
Honey imagination.com.
You're gonna find the link to the event.
Um, can't wait to see you there, Anna.
Yeah.
You know, the, um.
The thing we, we've talkedalways about this, right?
And understanding theory of constraints.
It's finally understanding,you know, why it's burn's.
Number one book recommendation.
(26:36):
Just, just how to look andoperate through anything.
And we heard, you know, Glen, a coupleyears talking about the, um, you
know, the importance of, of to set.
You know, massive goals, right?
We talk about, you know, an agent, Hey, Iwanna make a hundred thousand this year.
Well, what if you had to make a hundredthousand in the next 30 days, right?
So you, you change,you change the problem.
(27:00):
Um, and I don't know if you guyshave seen, you know, uh, uh, Dr.
Benjamin Hardy, who co-wrote WhoNot, how the gap in the gain and 10
x is faster than two x with, uh, DanSullivan just released his own new
book called The Science of Scaling.
And, um, the launch process and everythingfor it is just gangsters super spot on.
I mean, it's all aboutbuilding this coaching program.
(27:21):
But, um, they, what they, what theytalk about in there is setting, um,
unachievable goals.
Setting unachievable goals,goals that, like if you put your
brain to it, you're like, it'snot a big hairy, audacious goal.
It's beyond that.
It's like there is no way conceivablethat my brain, that there's no way, right?
(27:47):
Like, go from.
So, for example, it wouldbe like, you know, NAEA, you
know, we got to 10 million.
If we set an impossible goal, it wouldbe, what if we had to get to a hundred
million in the next three years?
So you set that massive goal, and what hesays is, it, it, it changes the frame of
the conversation, it changes the frame ofthe business, but now it raises the floor.
(28:10):
It raises the floor to, okay, Iknow what it took to get us to 10.
What has to happen forus to get to a hundred?
And, and then what?
Then it gets down to the next pointthat we've, we've all talked about,
I think Al, you even sent me a reelon it, um, about signal and noise
is now everything that you do has tobe, signal has to be in alignment to
(28:36):
achieve, to go from 10 to a hundred.
And eliminate all of the noise.
'cause it mm-hmm.
If it doesn't help, then it's noiseand you've gotta eliminate it.
And it's, it's a reallygood way to think about it.
And it's, it's what we, whatwe talk about agent to CEO.
Right.
You know, what is thevision, what's the goal?
What are we trying to do?
And then, but, but it's then pokingback at you and going your goal's too.
(28:58):
Your goal's too small.
You're not thinking big enough.
That's the problem.
You're playing too small and I think it'sjust a great reminder for all of us, um,
kind of heading into the second half ofthis year heading into a massive headwind
in this market, um, to to to step back.
And you're like, dude, I'mjust trying to survive.
I'm trying to get a deal together.
Well.
You're playing too small 'causeyou're thinking about survival.
(29:19):
Mm-hmm.
But what if you, what if you had todo, you know, how do I do one deal?
What if you had to do a hundreddeals in the next 30 days?
How would you do it?
And it just changes the way you think.
And it's some, some really goodexamples that Ben talks about.
Um, I think you can go downloadand get the audio book for free.
Tony Robinson wrote the forward to it.
It's pretty freaking awesome.
Yeah, man.
(29:40):
Love it.
So, Al what else we, what else do we got?
What else?
Any, anything pressing, anything that'skind of out there, that's a topic that
we want to, uh, to touch on this week?
Yeah.
I mean, you know, when you're bringing upBlake and, and to, to just bring up Myrtle
Beach, you said 120 days on the market.
Think about, um, and I, I don't know.
(30:02):
All the members on, on Blake's team,you know, intimately are close.
Um, he grew up, you know, his,I'm sure his team has transformed
over the years since he was inour mastermind and everything.
But think about, you have to imaginethat probably at least 80% of the
agents on that team don't evenunderstand how to do a price reduction.
(30:24):
Because you hadn't had todo one for all these years.
You hadn't, you know, we've talked aboutthis Fridays for me, when I was fully
engulfed in listings and I, you know, Iwas carrying 20, 30 listings as a solo
agent, whatever, uh, or when I had a smallteam, Fridays were price reduction day.
Mm-hmm.
This was the day that I would sitdown, look at all my listings that
weren't moving, weren't selling, and,and Okay, what's the new strategy?
(30:49):
Well, it's, you know, as long aswe've checked all the other boxes.
There's only one and it's price.
If it's not price red, it's notgonna sell In a market like this.
Now that wasn't the case fiveyears ago, 2020, you could put
something, those 20, 30,000, 50,000overpriced, depending on your market,
you're gonna get offers still.
Yeah.
Nuts.
(31:09):
And that's just not the case right now.
You have to learn different strategiesand, and, uh, it just blew me away, Jay.
'cause actually the average dayson market nationally is like thirty
six, thirty five days, let's call it.
Right.
They're at 120.
Yeah.
And he's, he's still been able to do it.
So yeah, make sure youget that, that ticket.
(31:30):
If, if you, if you can't do the VIP,get yourself a general admission ticket.
Both include tickets by the way.
To the, uh, to the concert afterwards.
And I wanted to bring this up, um, alittle bit off topic, but you know, you
talked about the goal, Jay, the goal.
Of this event for us is not to make money.
Every penny, uh, of profit goes rightto a charity that, um, we, we picked
(31:55):
out, uh, it's gonna Rim Farms, which isa farm that employs, uh, uh, autistic
adults and teaches them how to be farmers.
Uh, Matthew and I are, uh, onThursday we're gonna go out and
shoot some video of, of this place.
I've already visited the site.
Super inspiring.
Um, so, you know, this, thisevent for us is about value.
(32:17):
It's about extending the valueto not just our people, but um,
and, and Honey Badger Nation.
But outside of our, our group as well.
Everyone's invited.
Um, this, this is a brand agnostic.
Agnostic I, I guess you could say.
Mm-hmm.
So make sure you grab a ticket.
Um, this is not an e exp event, althoughwe, that is, you know, we, we are, you
know, we have, uh, built our foundationoff of and we believe it is the best,
(32:40):
but that's not, um, this isn't gonna berecruiting event or anything like that.
This is digging deep into the weeds.
You're gonna be really blown away.
Last year we had peoplewalking outta there in tears.
Uh, not because they came 'cause,because it hit a, an emotional nerve
for them and they had this aha momentto where they're like, holy crap.
(33:04):
Like, there's another level that I, youknow, I just wasn't thinking big enough.
And so from an inspiration standpoint,there's gonna be a giant check in
that box, but understand that, um,this is also for a really good cause.
And, uh, yeah, we, wedo this to give back.
So if, if that's one of yourgoals is to be giving back and
you're like, how do I give back?
(33:24):
Come to the event andyou'll be a part of it.
Yeah, so, so good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So good.
September 24th and 25th.
It's, um, land.
Yeah.
Just, um, under, what,six days away or so?
Uh, actually a littlemore than 60 days away.
And, um, the weather will be beautifuland even if it's not, uh, this year it's
(33:47):
gonna be all, um, under, under the roof.
And, um, we're moving itright next door from forward.
Everyone that's been to the event.
Uh, I've been getting alot of calls for sponsors.
We haven't even taken any sponsors yet.
We will be, I promise you, we're havingthe, we're gonna have the, the input
sheet ready and be able to, um, everyonewho's been reaching out, wanting to
sponsor the event, they, we've hadmostly the same group of sponsors
(34:10):
who sponsor it every single year, andbecause they, they, they love the event.
We're now combining the agentto CEO with rock the spectrum.
Yeah.
So every penny, every penny fromthat event goes right into rock.
The spectrum goes right into, youknow, the cause that we're rallying
behind you, Al Um, you know, this isyour, your 10th year obviously started
(34:31):
out, you know, Cleveland Food Bank.
Then moved into, you know, really, um.
You know, given as much as, as we couldto child and, and women, you know,
trafficking and then now to anothercause, um, with Rock the Spectrum.
So this is awesome.
Yes, sir. Love it fellas.
Um, man, I know 60, 60 somethingdays away, so it's coming up fast.
(34:53):
Um, I'm excited to, you know, buildthis as, as we lead up to it and,
um, you know, the cast of charactersthat we've assembled this year is
gonna be, um, world class as always.
Speaking of life by strategy.
Uh, Jay had this really coolbackground with palm trees, which
we used to see on a regular basiswhen you were living in Puerto Rico.
(35:14):
Yeah.
But you're coming to usfrom a different island.
Yeah.
We're, uh, we're in Grant Cayman,so, uh, got a couple more days here.
We did the Stingray uh, trip.
It's probably, I was telling Johnthis earlier before you jumped
on, like it really is probablythe best island in the Caribbean.
When you take into consideration howclose it is, uh, just how friendly
(35:34):
people are, how Americanized it is, thequality of food, you know, the beaches.
I mean, it, it really is a fantastic,a fantastic vacation location.
So I highly, highly recommend, youknow, I've lived on an island, so I can
tell you, I, I got a little experience.
This is, uh, probably one ofthe best, best vacations you
can plan as Grand Cayman.
That's awesome.
Thanks for breaking out the timeaway from your family to, uh, spend
(35:56):
here with us and the one big fire.
Of course, John.
Always great.
Excited to see everybody inCleveland, honey badger nation.com.
Grab your tickets.
Let's go.
All right guys.
Appreciate y'all.
See ya.
That's a wrap for today.
I hope you got somethingvaluable from this episode.
If you did, hit follow andvisit John kitchens.coach for
(36:17):
more ways we can work together.
See you on the next episode.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.