#726 Building Community - The Secret to Leading Agents and Loving Clients with Cindi Shields - John Kitchens Coach Podcast | Life. Coaching. Real Estate.

Episode Transcript
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[Music] [Music] What is happening everybody? Man, thank you guys tuning in to another episode of Expert Mentors Live, episode 301. And uh we've got the the one and only Cindy Featherstone Shields back in the house. Cindy, how are you? >> Oh, great. Great. John, I want to thank you for having me on today. This is always a pleasure to come on. You >> Yeah, I I mean I love every time we get to jump in here and uh and and chop it up. And looking back, so this is our our fourth goound on Expert Mentors. So,

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it's good to good to always have you back. And it's been about a year and you know it's just really interesting especially you know your perspective and you know um longevity in in this industry to be able to see you know the es and flows and the cycles and things that that we kind of go through and it's u definitely been an interesting ride the last 12 18 months and you know I know we're going to get into you know really the essence even inside of the the AI era is still, you know, a focus

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of building connection, bringing people together and building community, which you're one of the best at and have really centered your whole business model around, you know, bringing people together and connecting with with folks at a high level. But I would just love, you know, for you to kind of share your your perspective of, you know, what this market feels like, what it looks like, where you kind of feel things are things are moving towards. >> You know, John, you know, when you build

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community, it kind of makes your business a little bit recession proof. You know, we uh have, you know, we we have a community that we have really dug into here in our area in East Texas. Uh me personally as an agent, it's a a golf course community. That's where I live. My husband plays golf there. And you know, just building that community out. I mean, it it continues to pay uh very well. It's because you make these connections. Your businesses is good because you keep the connections going.

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You don't slow down. You don't stop. Even though that the economy maybe doesn't seem to be as good as it was, you continue. You double down on it. Um, this year I actually put a billboard outside the community uh just to make sure everybody knew who I was when they were driving in. >> Yeah. >> And uh and we still have our moving truck. It's parked in the community as well. >> So I think building those relationships is even more important. You know, we want to talk about AI a little bit. AI

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cannot build those relationships. Um, I know I've listened to a lot of uh training on AI possibly replacing real estate agents and that in my opinion will never happen because uh you're you're looking at a demographic of people at least my demographic of people the people that have money that are in golf communities a lot of times they are not on AI they're not AI users um they are uh still face-to-face people they want the agent that knows uh the community They want to know that the

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agent is familiar with and connect them with other people in the community. >> That's been my experience. >> Yeah. I I love that. And looking at, you know, all the ways and I and I'm sure we'll I know we're going to unpack and get into it as we talk about all the ways to make deposits into that community, right? To stay stay connected with them. I guess a couple things thinking you know proximity to and we're saying you know obviously community pouring into the community but also

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geographical um how I mean how important is it that you I mean you live there I I would feel that we would have to have some type of connection or upside or why why does Cindy even care about this particular area this community um if you know kind of an outsider trying to come in and and you know how hard is that if you were not living inside of the Cascades? If you weren't living in there, do you think it would be to be a to be able to really build that that presence? >> It definitely would be more difficult.

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That's why, you know, we do live there. We've lived there since 2008 and we've built this uh community of people and we've built products around it. I mean, a website, for instance. I mean, people still got a website. So, we live in a high-rise building. I actually got three people yesterday that hit me on my website through the website page interested in units in our building and I control that website. I mean I'm the one that's on the website for our high-rise. And so it's um you want to be

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the person that they think of >> uh when they think of going and for instance living at the Cascades. You want to be that person that they think of and you want to be that person that that they tell if they're driving down the street and they start asking about real estate, oh, you need to call Cindy. There's always one person like that in a community usually. And if there's not, you need to be that person. That means that there's more uh opportunity. It's a little harder to dig into a community

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when there is that one person. We do have people that do list property in the Cascades, but uh it's it's it's h it's it's hard for them. It's a little harder, a little bit more difficult for them. >> Yeah. >> Um because just the network of the people that you know because you have sold most of the property there. >> Uh when I say most of the property in our residential high-rise, there's 80 units there. I've sold most of the units. >> And then the ones I didn't sell, I got

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to know the people once I got there. And the way we get to know them is we drop a little chariterie box on their door uh about once a month or we drop some some kind of value all the time. We're always hosting a the margarita Friday with guacamole live in the uh lobby of our high-rise. And so it just it it continues to build that community and then it filtrates out into the community because it's a golf course community of the people that live in the homes. There's about 367 doors is our farm area. That's all. But it it

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it's very it's a very lucrative community. Uh when you love on the people, um I have a meeting, a set meeting every Sunday at four o'clock with the same client and we've had this for years. We we go to the country club and have dinner together. Uh we we have become friends. She travels with us. We have groups of people that travel with us. When we go on cruises, when we go on golf trips, >> a whole group goes usually. Yeah. >> It's is an amazing community. >> It It really is. And you poured into it.

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And so moving in into that area in 2008. Give give some context, right? Because we're what what is that 17 18 years now inside of this community. So yeah, >> a lot of agents coming in, right? They're okay, Cindy, I hear you, right? And they're like, "Oh, well, you know, she's got all of this. You know, I'm trying to get there." And it's like she's on chapter 18. You you just opened the book. So >> yeah, >> how long, you know, 2008? And obviously

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all the stuff that you've done, we just didn't come dump everything, right? It's just a it's a build and build and build upon it. But what was kind of the time frame to where that community really started to, you know, you know, start where you can pull some withdrawals because of all the deposits you were making? >> You're exactly right. We did a lot of deposits into this community. It was a a new construction to begin with. I think if anybody ever lands a new construction

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gig, you need to stay with it. I see so many agents who go in and they sell the new construction. Maybe they're the person in the model that sells the new construction and then they abandon it. They abandon the people, they abandon. But what I felt like whenever I was selling a property to someone in this area, I'm selling to my friends. >> They become my friends. And you have to make sure that and I'm selling for my friends. It's it's it's an interesting position to be in because these people

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will buy and sell through you five or six times. There's some of them that I've sold and bought right in the community. Five or six times the same person. So, we have people that move out of the community, then they move back into the community. So, you want them to be you want to be the one that they call. >> Yeah. >> Uh we have a move moving truck. It's parked down on the curb. People see it every day when they come in and out of the building. And the key stays at the front desk

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and anybody can use it at any time. They just call me and they put it on the calendar. >> Yeah. >> I had a guy that's reserving it for Saturday. I sold him his unit probably eight years ago. >> And he has referred different people to me since then, but he says, "Hey, Cindy, I got a couch I got to go get rid of." Okay. The moving truck's there. >> So, you're constantly giving that value. >> Yeah. And and for us, I mean, the moving truck was probably had one of the the

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highest ROIs out of anything that we ever did. And it it just allows you to um make a lot of connections a lot faster. >> And what what we found to your point, right, you know, clients, current clients, past client, people that we, you know, um maybe haven't transacted with in in a long time utilize it. But what we found was the community was utilizing it more and more for for different aspects, right? Like whatever there was um tornado that ripped through, you know, Oklahoma City and so

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they set up a you know um a supplies drive and water and everything else that they were running, you know, running up to to Oklahoma City from Lton >> and our moving truck was there, right? There was they were one of the first people, hey, can we y'all's truck? You know, heck yeah, come get it right now. And so I think, you know, that is such a great great investment, especially inside of a a community like like that to where or even a smaller smaller community like LT, right? A smaller

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town. I mean, Tyler's Tyler's a pretty good size, but but still it's still a small connected community to be able to have that visibility. And then you take it even niche, even tighter inside of inside of the Cascades area. >> Absolutely. because it's a golf community, you know, we host a golf tournament every year for Wags, our nonprofit. Uh our nonprofit gives money back in spade, neuter, and uh transport of uh rescue animals here in our area. We have a high-end retail shop. Uh we

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have about 6,500 square feet of retail space uh in another location in town, and it's it's fully staff ran by a manager. But that's one way we give back to the community. And we find that a lot of our people that are in our golf course community, bring furniture in and out of it, buy furniture, donate furniture, they can sign furniture with us. So, um that's another thing that that they this golf community uh supports it. >> Yeah. And then we turn around, we're going to have a golf tournament on

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October the 13th to raise funds for our nonprofit 501c3. Uh the golf tournament tonight, we're having our first committee meeting. We've got about 45 days to put this together, but it's going to be a slam dunk because we put them together every year. Uh it brings that community close together. we'll we'll raise some good money in it and again more community >> and I think it really helps too doing doing those events you know trying to obviously for for good causes but it's

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it's all designed to bring people together >> the other thing that I that I love especially if if you are in a position you want to be a team lead you want to you know grow and I know we're going to talk about you know building the agent community in a second >> but what I always found is it it gave us an opportunity to get our team together and our team involved in something be it being an event, a charity event, but we're all together. The team's together, but the community gets to see the team.

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Although like you're the face, but they also get to see all the other, you know, people that make you you and allow you to do what you can do. And so that that's why I mean I just like if you are really you know committed this is going to be a gig that you're going to stay committed to for a 5 10 15 20 year career whatever run >> you know this takes time right to really start to to go but you got to make as many deposits as you can and just know that it just it's just a matter of time.

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>> Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, back to the golf thing, even tournaments that we don't have anything to do with, they've asked us to do the beverage tent for them. And we set up the Bloody Marys and the U mimosas, and it's usually geared toward the ladies events. And because the ladies make a lot of decisions, buying decisions, and so we give the snacks away, we give the drinks away, we have a branded tent, a lot of times we bring our dogs out to to meet them. And so it just again it builds it more and more

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community. Uh we have the ladies golf association that actually supports us now supports and writes a check to wags uh because of the support that we give the ladies golf association. That's a great point what you what you were just saying because I was thinking about this and I know we can talk about it with the with the agent side of things, but when you get into okay, who's who's my ideal, but maybe who's my best avatar in this geographical location, right? Because it's that's

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what it's always about because then it's like, okay, well, what is what is the best opportunity, the best avatar that's going to be the one that makes most of the decision, the decision-making power? what are their pain points >> and how can I be a solution to to their struggles and their pain and if I can win that person if I can win in the the mind of that person then it should help me you know make it easier to win the rest of the community >> and and for you is it the the you know

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the the women in the community that play golf is that really the ideal the best avatar in in your geographical area. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Our our avatar is about 55 years and older and usually they are on social media. They're watching what you're doing. Uh they watch very closely what you're doing. I had one of my clients the other day that texts me every morning some kind of motivational first thing in the morning. I get it from her, but she saw where I posted where I did a u Labor Day

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challenge to my agents and I posted a little something. So the next morning she said, "Time to get out of bed. You got to go today. You've got some big goals." >> That's how I started my morning with my clients seeing social media. And she's probably in her 70s. >> Uhhuh. >> But again, they they're on social media watching what you're doing. I'm friends with all of them on social media. They're watching you real close. >> Real close. And

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>> very close to what you're doing. >> And so it's it's it's really really, you know, interesting when you step back and and start to think. And that's the knowing your your your best avatar, right? We have that whole ideal avatar. We have that in the value proposition, but like who's the best? Like who's the one that can really move the needle for me? >> And once you know that, then you can start making content specifically speaking to your best avatar. Not

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speaking to everybody, speaking to them. >> And and and obviously we'll we'll get into the agent side of things because you're avatar, you're speaking to them, too, right? Help helping them solve. But you know the know the age. >> So t so 55 and above. Okay. Where do they hang out? They hang out on Facebook. They're on Facebook all the time. All the time. >> So your content has to be where they are >> and and so it's just just super important to to understand that. And

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then then you just just flood it with with the content that speaks directly to them. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. They like to see you travel. They they a lot of times want to go with you. They like recipes. They like social. They like getting together. If you're hosting events, they like to come to your events. We host a Christmas party that has two 300 people at it. And all of our clients are invited to that. And so, and it's like the who's who that's going to the Christmas party.

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>> It's uh they love it. They love coming to our events. We host several through the year also smaller events at the high-rise that we live in and people will come. Uh my husband he was got um qualified for the US senior open this year. >> I mean within five hours we had put together an event and I think there were 50 people at it just like that from the neighborhood uh from the time that they announced it to him driving home to surprise him when he got home. >> Yeah. So it's just it's just all that

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wonderful community of these people that become your friends. >> Uh it's so enriching. It I mean not just from sales but it's so enriching just to have these people in your lives. >> Yeah. It's a fulfillment side of things and it's just because of of the time frame. So talking to a newer a newer agent moved in kind of kind of give them the the ABC. Hey hey hey this let let it let let it cook for a little bit. Let's do it a little then we move into this let it cook a little bit longer. Move

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into this. let it cook even longer. Um, you know, you're not going to get to to what everything you're talking about. I mean, we're talking 18 years, right? And and so, what would you say to an agent that's looking to to to get into and start like, hey, you know, I I I love to socialize. I love connecting with people. I love building community. Where do I start? >> The thing about you can't be just a surface. You can't be on the surface. These people got to know you care. You

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have to be in their community. You You're an agent. You're going to live somewhere. Think about it. You may as well move to an area that you actually want to dig in to the neighborhood. And when I say dig in, I mean give it your all with mailers, the moving truck, the billboards over a period of time. Like I said, you're going to live somewhere. Uh my husband is totally fine living where we live because he knows it's part of our business. >> Uh we again have lived there since 2008.

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I would suggest as a brand new agent and you know you're going to burn burn the boats and this is what you're going to do. There's no alternative because I'll tell you in my opinion there's no other business for a female to do that you can make the kind of money and support your family and change their lives than real estate. >> Yeah. >> I mean you can't replace this I can't replace this what we have with anything else. >> I don't have a college education and

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even if I did it wouldn't matter, >> right? You can't replace what we have here. So, if you're really going to plan on building a business, you dig in somewhere. That's the first thing you do. Uh I train this all the time to our agents and people, oh, I don't know if I want to go move into this neighborhood and really dig in. You need to do it like your life depends on it. And that's what we did. We uh moved to the Cascades. We did the high-rise project. It's It's good to be involved in new

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construction of a project to begin with. >> U there's lots of new constructions I could have dug into now that I've seen the formula for it. I've seen some of our agents do new constructions and they never moved into the neighborhood, right? They did it from afar and then when they sold their last one, they move that they they're just not there anymore. So, but there's a lot of business to h to have happen >> if you go live in a neighborhood that you want to develop.

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It's going to be hard developing one that you don't live in. >> Yeah. You you and and and um Andrew are the best ones I've ever I've ever seen to take over to really really like we hear agents say, "Yeah, you know, I took the like but really take it over like the massive amount of market share. I mean I I mean your market share has got to be off the charts just like Andrew's." But Andrew did the same thing, right? He wanted to live in this lake community and he just got out on

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the boat and ran into a bunch of, you know, the, you know, the loud people on the lake that talked to everybody that that socialized with everybody and he hit it off with them and then it just it, you know, took a life of its own. >> But I agree with you. You got to be there. You got to live there and it just it gives you just so much more opportunity to connect. and the collisions. I think that's the biggest thing is that you you know we do the events but if you're there you have an

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opportunity to collide with them a lot more. >> Absolutely. You you become a part of their world. I mean they become uh a part of your children's world. You know we adopted Tony when he was two years old and he's 18 now. These people have seen this kid grow up. They're supporting everything he does. >> He has a mobile detailing business and he's on the street mo detailing all their cars on the weekends. And so it's just a big community that supports everything. >> Um, so anyway, but that's that's the

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advice I would give. Find figure out where you want to live when you're when you get into this business. >> And like I said, you you dig into an area. Listings are the name of the game. Uh, when you have the listing, you attract the buyers. And when you dig into the community, you know the lifestyle. I mean, we're not just selling houses. We're selling a lifestyle here. where you can take a widow widowerower that has moved from across the country and they land there at the Cascades, we're able to network

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them into people. Uh they're they're not going to be lonely anymore. Uh we have people where their spouses die uh and they move to a different condo or move to a different house. We're there for that. um as they meet their new person and they get married again. We have seen so much their their lives evolve right before our eyes because we've been there so long. We've seen their kids grow up >> again. We've seen their spouses pass away and so you just really intertwine.

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Again, this is not transactional business. >> This is business that you love these people. I mean absolutely adore the people that uh you are buying and helping sell and you want to protect them. >> That's the biggest thing. >> It what what I really love about it right you you know we all have to understand that it's it's you know customer acquisition cost and then lifetime value. And when you look at this, right, like quantifying the lifetime value of the relationships that

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you've had just just in that community since 2008 and then think about all you put a lot of sweat equity. Yeah, you do make a financial investment back into it, but but you put a lot of time and energy in connecting with people and you know that's the acquisition cost is your time and then all of a sudden you know you're able to reinvest, you know, throughout the whole the whole community. But the lifetime value, I mean, it's hard to measure, right? It's so it's so, you know, exponential

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from what the uh the acquisition cost was. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, again, if I had this to do over again, I would have done it just exactly the way we did it. Uh again, we are about uh entertaining people. We're about giving and we're about supporting the community. Uh, I remember there's been events that we've hosted at the country club where we would pass out dessert vouchers and the country club would just put everybody's dessert on our tab that night. We would give them a little

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voucher and desserts on the property shop tonight. >> I mean, there's so many little things you can do. >> Yeah. >> Uh, that brightens people's day. I mean, people love it. >> Yeah. And and they don't forget the way you make them feel. And that's really what it's what it's about. So Cindy, let's shift gears a little bit. Let's go to the agent side of things. We talked about geographically and being able to, you know, connect with the the homeowners and then the new buyers

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coming in and and really, >> you know, being a um, you know, an integral part of of that geographical community and and whatever that is for you. And so shift gears a little bit because you you've really have the same concept with with the agents and and really bringing people together, creating collisions and and it's the whole connecting, right? Being able to connect with the people you need to connect with um you know, pouring in. So kind of talk about it because like your your take you have the best office I've

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ever seen and just but but it was strategically designed and it was done through a lot of learning >> and you know what people resonate with what what keeps bringing people back um and and how you can connect and and deepen the relationship. >> So yeah, let's let's shift on the agent side of things. >> I love this. You know, one of the things uh John, I I've got to stop and tell you this. I got to spend a few days between a call. Yes. >> And she the first thing she did before

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she really talked to anybody in the house, Mary sent out links to everybody for working genius. >> And everybody took the test and then we fed it into AI and came up with your uh leadership blueprints. Uh Tina was amazing to you know when you we talked about Working Genius before but we've never really dug into it and I would encourage anybody to dig into Working Genius uh because we came back to our office. We tested everybody all of our staff, all of our agents. We've got graphs and we've got charts now of

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what people are. And I tell you this because you want to know who you're dealing with, what brings them joy, what they love, >> especially if they're going to team up and partner with you. >> And so here in our office, anybody we hire, any agent we hire, they're going to go through the working genius because we want to know how what makes them tick. >> What do they enjoy doing? Because >> as they say, if you're doing something that you're not enjoying, you're going

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to burn out pretty quick. U we do have a lot of galvanizers. Our u industry is full of galvanizers, but you have to have the people with tenacity also and discernment that goes with that. And that's what we're kind of looking for when we look at agents. So where is their strong points >> and what is their love? And so to imple we have implemented working genius in our office thanks to Tina call and we are um really thriving right now because we're able to put people together and have

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them build projects. >> Our golf tournament committee tonight, a lot of our agents are a part of that, the ones that are the galvanizers. And then we have the people that that want to do uh the book work part of it and the communicating part of it like the tenacity people. >> So we've built our committee around that for our golf tournament tonight that we're having. >> So I I wanted to before we got into that I wanted to tell you that >> but our office is built on community.

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Back when we started selling the high-rise, we were placing ads all over the state of Texas to bring people to Tyler um D magazine, Texas Monthly. We would spend thousands of dollars in marketing to get people into Tyler to see this high-rise. And you know what? It didn't work. It It didn't work. People People saw these beautiful ads. We We spent lots of money on Google back then. and it didn't work. But what did work is when we brought community together and we hired a chef and we began to feed people

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>> and people started coming to dinner on Thursday nights at the high-rise where they got to bring a friend and they would sit and they would eat together some great meal. We spent less money on food than we spent on ads. So >> it's crazy. >> Yeah. >> And that's how we filled this high-rise up is feeding people having events. So we carry that along with our company. We have a chef that works for us and she feeds people. She feeds our agents. She feeds when we have we had a

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big C class yesterday. We had it's sp it's a sponsored out uh we sell ads also on our television screens here in our center. It pays for a lot of this. So that's how we bring people together for community. People know that we are about really good food >> and we do it very well. >> I think Michael Ree says I run a restaurant. >> You do. You do. >> I do and I do very proudly. >> Yes. Yes. You do. I'd rather spend $1,500 a month on food than spend it on

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a funnel. >> Yes. >> That brings in a whole bunch of people into a CRM that you have to weed through to get one or two buyers. >> Yeah. >> That's not for me. That's not me. That's not how I market, >> right? >> I get the value face to face and we eat and we talk and we develop lifetime relationships. >> Yeah. And you're get I mean you just accelerate the process, right? the ones that are willing to take it out of their time. Yeah, they're coming for

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something, but yet they are coming >> and they're showing up and they're getting they're getting knee to knee face to face with you >> and you're able to then really accelerate the process because now you're able to start having a conversation >> and you just get to talk. You get to, like you said, build the relationship. It was um I had I had whistle on expert mentors um on Fourth of July and um we kind of went through you know the five things that team team leads all have to

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have you know moving into the future. Um every business has to have these five things and he said after the fact he goes you know there's really only two things that matter right now and he goes I used to clown on these guys. He goes know how to build relationships and know what to say. He said, "If you know know how to bring people together and build relationships and you know how to communicate and talk to people, you're going to thrive." And it's it really is, you know, you accelerate the process

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when when you have, you know, curated an environment that and and like your office is strategically designed, right, to be able to, you know, bring people in together and facilitate conversations even with the little different sitting areas around the area. that you can you can kind of um curate a specific conversation in in whatever it is that you want to have. Either clients coming in or other agents >> and being able to to to really get them to feel comfortable in an environment to where they want to open up and they want

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to share >> and that's just it's it's really brilliant of of what you've been able to design and do. Yeah, we we designed an office about three years ago now. We've been in this space and >> and when people walk in the door, they go, "Wow." >> Because it's not like your traditional real estate office. It's not called uh the property shop. It's not called It's called uh the Center for Real Estate Professionals. And it's got success

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center when you walk in the door. It's got lights shining down on the logo. It's uh got these big round booths. It's just very comfortable. People love it. Usually you can smell a little food of what she's cooking for that day and you just feel like you've just walked into a coffee shop. >> U it's warming. You you have snacks on the bar. We have all the sodas and waters. It's it's opening and it's inviting. >> Anybody can walk in here and feel welcome. That's the whole key. We wanted

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people to feel welcome. If we're having an event, usually I'm at the door hugging people. Uh we are big huggers here and we're greeting people. We don't want anybody to ever walk in to our office and never be spoke to. >> Uh there's some offices that you walk into and the owner never speaks to you. >> Yeah. >> And that's not how I ever want to have anybody leave our facility is not being spoke to. >> Yeah. >> And not feeling good about coming. Uh so

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the working genius um that was one of my things is is I'm a galvanizer but I'm also an enabler. >> Support your team bring people together. >> We bring people together and we support them and we want them to feel that way. So uh we have built our whole culture around that. Our agents are that way as well. So anyway, >> I love that. I was I was just pulling up um I was trying to find um I I have all of the uh um the you know the major breakdown of of that and and obviously a

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deep understanding spending a lot of time with Tina going going through everything. But what I what I really love about and this is just brilliant in the committees and bringing people together and strategically placing them. I mean you're like the I mean you're selecting the jury, right? you're strategically putting, you know, the jury the way that you want it um to to stack the odds in your favor. And that's really what we're trying to do, right? We're trying to bring people together

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that that can come together that is going to have a higher probability of the output that we're looking for. >> Because if you put if you put frustrated people into a high level conversation, so if you put your, you know, your your GTs in a vision conversation and a problem solving conversation, they're probably going to get pretty frustrated pretty quick. >> They they're like, "What are you doing? man, I got to go. I got stuff to do. I got to I got to knock I got to knock my

(34:18):
I got to knock my stuff out. Like what? Like this is a waste of time, right? And and I remember before the working genius, I was like like why are you getting frustrated? Why do you think you just got to go and go do like what what's going on here? And it's then going through it, you're like, ah, okay, that makes sense. Okay, I know not to include you in these conversations in the future. >> So, it's just it's really good um at at bringing people together. I love what she done. I can't wait to see her her

(34:45):
leadership blueprint. I don't know if she talked to you about the relationship blueprint, but uh that's a another uh exciting project. Hopefully uh be able to to unveil uh sooner rather than later. >> Just a tad. >> Just a tad. >> I love it. It is it's it's um you know I I I look back on just you know rough patches in relationships and if I just understood them and the way they they ticked then that whole the whole frustration would have been avoided >> and it's just it's it's really you know

(35:17):
important and I think even >> from different types of events and different types of value add to agents if you know their their genius their competencies and their frustrations you know where to plug them into and where not to plug them into. >> Absolutely. 100%. It's it's very eye openening. Very eye opening when you can get your agents to do the working genius and you actually map it out and you understand if they're not coming to sales meeting, why are they not coming

(35:44):
to sales meeting or if they're not they're coming to sales meeting but they're not getting on the 8:30 calls in the morning. You just kind of start looking at them. But then you hear how productive they are. uh it you you can really see what their working genius is coming alive. >> Yeah. >> Well then and then you know how to best support them, >> right? >> I think I think that's also going back to your community. You know what what is my gift? What am I what is my you know

(36:12):
working genius? How can I utilize my strengths to better support this community? How can I better support you? you know, you know, agent, um, and what you're trying to accomplish instead of forcing, you know, you know, a standard on them or hitting them over the head with something like, you know, taking stuff away that like they're like, like, let me let me run. You know, I'm a I'm a runner. That's what I'm I'm built to do. >> You know, one of the things it did,

(36:38):
John, is it actually allows you to step into your working genius. Mhm. >> You know, you think that you have to be all these things to everybody. And when you find out what you operate in that brings you the most joy, it allows you to step into it and own the role. >> Yeah. >> And that's what I found that whenever they, you know, I'm a I'm I feel like I'm an introvert quite a bit of an introvert person, but then when my t my top thing in Working Genius was a galvanizer, and I'm thinking, "Oh my

(37:10):
goodness, now I could step into this role better. M >> because that is what the my love is. >> Uh so it's it's it helps you yourself not just to be able to communicate with other people, but it helps you to be able to communicate with yourself. >> I I I love that. Right. And I think you know even before mapping out the these community plans, these community things like you just you need to have as much self-awareness about who you are. Um, that's why, you know, take the disc,

(37:41):
take the predictability, you know, quiz, take take colors, take the KBY. Um, but make sure to take the working genius. And and and the reason I love it so much is because it's so simple. >> Like, it's so simple, so easy to understand, and you get it quick, right? Um, it's like, oh, okay, okay, do that. Don't do this, and okay, then I need to understand these other these other type of, you know, people. and and what to avoid with them to where, you know, we can we can keep trying to accomplish

(38:14):
whatever we're, you know, trying to work together to accomplish. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Back to building community with agents, man. You got to love on your people. You got to be able to talk to them. Uh make sure that that you're available. One of the things that we do is we do that 8:30 call every every Monday through Friday with the exception of Tuesday and it's face to face. John, when I was coaching with you, you're the one that told me to do that and I will tell you we have been

(38:42):
consistent with it ever since then. And how long ago was it that we started our coaching? >> I mean I mean when did we start working together? 11 12 12 time frame. So >> getting that implemented as soon as possible. >> Um you've been so consistent with it. You've been so disciplined and consistent with it. >> We have never stopped doing it. We have we we actually was it was a phone call back then because Zoom was not but after co Zoom you know everybody was on Zoom

(39:09):
at that point. It's a Zoom call now. We see each other face to face at 8:30 in the morning. People get on the Zoom call and we don't miss we don't we don't not have the Zoom call. >> If I'm not there leading it, somebody's leading it, but I'm usually the one leading it. And so they get to actually as a leader, they get to talk to you. They if they have any questions, but it's a very structured call. Uh John told me how to structure it from the very beginning. It's tell us something

(39:35):
good. Um and then it's your KPIs, your pay performance indicators that's moving the needle for you that day >> and they are gushing to tell you what they have going on. Agents want to report their KPIs on that call. So, and they're very excited about it. Especially if you can put a challenge together. Uh, Labor Day, we started a challenge when people aren't usually they're going to be off for Labor Day. Not us. 8:30, man. We're on that call. >> I called a special call that day because

(40:07):
what we want to do is we want to finish out the next four months to the end of the year with as much production that we did the first eight months. So, that's the challenge I put. And then our new people, six transactions. If you're brand new in the business, you're just now getting your wings starting, uh, we got a lot of new people, six transactions is their goal by the end of the year. And then our more experienced people, some of them are having to do 13, 14 transactions, double basically

(40:34):
their production. >> Yeah. >> So, um, they're ready to go. They're warriors right now. Not >> you got you got them laser focused. They're focused in. And it's more of that, okay, well, I did that in eight months. I got to do it in four. What has to change? Right. >> Exactly. You can't keep doing it the same same way. >> I'm raising I'm raising the floor. What has to change? Right. What what do I need to eliminate? What do I need to say no to? What do I need to focus on? It's

(40:59):
it's absolutely critical. You do some awesome awesome challenges. Layer that into the, you know, the agent. I mean, obviously, we're talking, you know, the agent community, but now we're talking the community of of of your organization, your people, your team. How critical has incorporating challenges into your your agents um on a pretty consistent basis having a challenge going almost all the time? >> Yeah. And you know we truly we got away from a lot of the challenges. You know

(41:32):
you just kind of sit back and go everybody you know you're adult you should be able to do this but guys that is not how it works. It fuels people when they're challenged. Uh I can even just tell since Monday how fueled our people are to go out and get it done >> and they love the challenge. It's it's gamification is what it is for people. >> Mike Sheen talks about it's it's gamification. You need to gamifica gamify your people. >> It's always got to be some kind of

(42:00):
promotion and you know and it doesn't have to have a big prize at the end of it. It's it's the bragging rights. It's the competition. Uh we have two people that are competing heavily right now in our office. They're always wanting to know. They're looking at CESU to see who's ahead. Uh we we do subscribe to CESU. Uh that's where all their numbers go. But we're tracking conversations right now. But it's I'm really kneeling down on the right conversations. It's

(42:27):
not just 20 conversations or 10 conversations or five a day. It's having the right conversations with people, the people that are ready to to buy and sell. >> Yeah. um you can call a cold call list all day long, but those people are not ready. >> So, it it's also and it it was really good because I had I'd kind of latched on to the, you know, um the four Ds of of execution, right? What is your one number? And I got so fixated just kind of thinking about the one number and I was talking with with Blake

(43:01):
and he's like if you just focus on proteins your your your carbs and your fats can be out of whack and throw it all it it all out the window. He's like you got to have the balance and and what does that all tie under? Right. So it's like hey we want to hit proteins, carbs, fats within our calorie count. And I was like oh okay. And he goes, "So we do that with with our agents. It's like to your point. It's not just conversations. Yes, that's that's the that's the

(43:32):
protein, >> but did you ask for the appointment?" >> And he said when he started expanding just one metric and and looking at the macros, it changed their behavior in that to your point, I'm just chasing. Hey, Cindy said I got to have 20 conversations. I had 20. Okay. Well, how many of those conversations did you ask for the appointment? >> Ah, now I need to have 20 conversations that can lead to me asking for the business. There's another step to this. Instead of chasing one number, I know

(44:08):
this number and I need to how do I need to handle it will lead to to the next number >> to be able to pay attention to. And he's like, you don't want to it's not overwhelming. I'm not going to give you one number. I'm not going to give you 10. I just want you to track three. and and it was it was really eye opening. So I I love that what you just said. It's like not just chasing 20 20 conversations. It's it's 20 meaningful conversations that lead to an appointment.

(44:32):
>> Absolutely. And and and guys, if you have the listing, we're chasing the listing. We're not chasing the buyers. >> Uh you chase the listings, the buyers come. And so many funnels are built to chase the buyer. You need to chase the listing. you need to chase the seller because when you get the seller, you get the buyers. >> Uh, and it's you will burn yourself out. I feel like in your in this business if you're just calling people just to call people. >> You got to get really laser focused on

(45:02):
people that are needing you. >> And you need to figure out how to filter those people out, the ones that need you, expireds or so by owners. >> I told my agents this morning, you you've got to focus on the sellers and stop focus on the buyers so much. Mhm. >> of chasing chasing the buyer lead that doesn't want to buy. >> They just happen to click on something on the internet. >> Yeah, >> it is. It's it's so important and and because >> it dilutes focus and then I think it

(45:31):
just drives up more frustration, Cindy, like you were saying. And if you can be like, okay, like like I can only I can only focus on one avatar in the market, the best avatar. It's always the motivated seller. >> And it's like if that's all you could focus on your day, you know, you're going to be laser focused. You're looking for nothing but motivated sellers. >> And and it's the reticular activator. It's like, you know, you're like, "Hey, John, I'm thinking about getting this,

(46:02):
you know, matte black, you know, SUV with this interior, this, and then all of a sudden you start to see them because your reticular activator goes up." And now it's like, "Hey, I just want you to focus on motivated sellers." That's it. That's your reticular activator. Now, everywhere you look, that's all you're going to be looking for is is motivated. It's like it's like if you if you never knew the arrow and the spoon were in the FedEx logo, but once you know it's in the FedEx logo,

(46:27):
you can't help but see the spoon and the arrow every time you look at the FedEx logo. >> Um, and I I love that you just got to get them, >> hey, singular focused. I want you waking up. I want you going to bed thinking about motivated sellers. >> Exactly. Exactly. >> Instead of everything else, you know? Yeah. >> The funnels, the the social media, the the Tik Tok videos, all that stuff. It's got to be about the lead. It's got to be about the person. It's got to be

(46:54):
about the seller right now. >> Yes. 100%. It It has to Everything has to has to gear towards that. If not, >> it's it's the whole It's just noise. And you've got to you've got to get it out of the way so you can really laser in and focus. >> And right now, by the end of the year, it's go time because we're going to be setting ourselves up for 2026. Right now, we're going to be finishing the year strong. But uh what you do now I think is going to really determine what

(47:21):
happens to you in 2026. >> Yeah. >> I and I tell our people I says you need to burn the boats. You don't need to be thinking about what am I going to do? What job am I going to go get when this doesn't work. >> You got to get all in. Get all in. >> Yeah. There's a it's it's a really good one. It's um I I've got it I've got it teed up for on the on the event playlist and um you'll know you'll know what song it is, but it's um it's uh where's it

(47:50):
at? Um let me get it. Yeah, backup plan with Bailey Zimmerman and Luke Combmes uh song, right? The the backup plan is is get back up and there there's no there there's no plan B. There is no backup plan and it's just it's got to be allin. >> Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And I I've encouraged our people also to get out of our area and go to some of the EXP events. Go to some of the u we just got back from Phoenix to an elevated series that uh Dustin Renan and Tyler Blair was

(48:25):
putting on. John Chaplac was there. Phenomenal event. Phenomenal event. And our people attended Build 2025 this year with Brent Gove in Dallas. And I mean, you got to encourage your people to get out, get out of the office and go to some events so they can see and broaden that vision. Our people came back on fire after seeing Brent Gove uh in the lineup that was at Build 2025 this year. >> So that was another team building thing that we do and building that culture. Um birthdays, birthday part birthdays are a

(48:56):
big thing. I mean people want to say that birthdays aren't don't matter. They do matter. They do matter. your clients, your agents, if you can celebrate their birthdays, get them a little gift, they think about it, they remember it. >> Our go-to is Kendra Scott. You know, we give earrings, bracelets, things like that from Kendra Scott, and they all love it >> and spending time with them, having lunch with them. So, uh, we we like to pour into our agents. And you know, EXP gives us an incredible opportunity now

(49:28):
to uh build uh build under them in their downline. Uh we're helping several of our agents right now build out their downlines. >> Yeah, it it is it's it's especially the ones that you know that want to do that. You're there to be able to to support them. You're not forcing your agenda. You have you have principles, you have standards, you have values which align the community, yet you're there to support them in whatever endeavor they're looking, you know, to to be on.

(49:56):
>> Absolutely. Absolutely. >> I I mean, you know, I know that was kind of the the topic is the secret to to leading the agents. That's the secret, right? is, you know, you know, giving them getting them into um an environment that they have an opportunity to be able to, you know, achieve the outcome that they want to achieve and they they believe it's possible to do what they want because you've curated and casted a big enough vision. And that's a lot of conversations that we've, you know, and

(50:26):
you know, I mean, I mean, I'm a I'm a DW, right, on the working genius. So, I'm going to I'm going to poke holes at everything, but I'm also going to, you know, put your head, you know, 30,000 foot in the clouds. >> Mh. >> And and if you, you know, don't have that massive vision and they can't see them accomplishing their dreams, they're going to go down the road until they can find somebody or find a vision or or >> if they're visionary enough to be able

(50:52):
to to create that big future. But I think the other the other you know thought to this had you know another great leader had you know yourself obviously today had Blake on yesterday um on one big fire had uh Steve Z on um the podcast yesterday as well talking talking to these these leaders that are pushing themselves as well and um I was listening to Ben Hardy's new book the science of scaling driving in to the office this morning >> and I was on the part to where he was talking about you have to be the best

(51:26):
you because he said no 10 talking about talent level 10 talent will never stay around with a level eight leader and so if you are not leading the community if you're not leading yourself and if you're not making yourself the best going to these events taking your team to these events if you're not pouring into yourself the even the opportunity to build a community like this doesn't exist. >> Absolutely, 100%. 100%. I agree with that. Uh get get to the events. Get get to see get to see

(52:03):
the vision and bring back the vision. Get your agents to the event so they can bring back the vision to the agents that didn't go to the event. >> Yeah, >> it's um it it definitely has a trickle effect. It's it's amazing >> what happens when you plug into some events with your people. >> And I mean, you're such a you're such an inspiration and a role model. I mean, you never stopped doing the work. And I think that's that's the lesson, you

(52:26):
know, folks listening in is like I mean, you've been you've been playing this game a long time. You've got you can you can kick it back in the Cascades. You can just keep hanging out. You can keep playing golf. >> You ain't got to you you ain't got to be on this call. You didn't have to be on an 8:30 call Monday, you know, Monday morning. And that that to me is the sign that somebody's doubling down on themselves and on the fundamentals because the ripple effect is the

(52:55):
community is the agents. It's not possible if you're not, you know, making yourself the best version, staying plugged in, staying into the events, non-stop learning, always asking questions. I mean, you've got every time we jump on a call, you got three or four questions just lined up ready to go. And I think that's that's what people need to pay attention to, right? Pay attention to those that are actually doing the work like yourself. >> Thank you, John. Thank you for having me

(53:22):
on today. It's been such a pleasure. Such a pleasure. >> Always connect with you. >> We will do it again for sure. So, those of you guys out there, make sure you give Cindy lots of love. If you're not following her on social media, get on social media, follow her. She's all over Facebook and Instagram. And uh Cindy, I can't thank you enough. You're amazing. Thanks, Sean. See you, guys. Bye. [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

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#726 Building Community - The Secret to Leading Agents and Loving Clients with Cindi Shields

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