February 25, 2025 • 31 mins
Are you running a real estate business, or is it running you? Whether you're a solo agent (and plan to stay that way) or a brokerage owner, in this episode, I sit down with my longtime friend Jennifer Myers, founder of Agent Grad School, to talk about the crucial shift from being just a real estate agent to becoming the CEO of your business (or, as Jenn prefers, a badass business owner).
We get real about:
✔️ The exact moment we each realized we had to stop winging it and start running our businesses with intention
✔️ The financial wake-up calls that changed everything (hello, $50K tax bill)
✔️ Why every agent—solo or team leader—needs to think like a CEO
✔️ The three key pillars that helped us scale without losing our sanity
✔️ How to create a business that funds your dream life (instead of consuming it)
If you’ve ever felt like you're on a never-ending transaction treadmill, this episode is your permission slip to step into your next-level business era—on your terms.
💡 Learn more about Jennifer at AgentGradSchool.com
🔥 Ready to step into your CEO era? Let’s chat!
Let's stay connected!
💼 Coaching with Lindsay – happyagent.co/coaching
Get personalized strategy, support, and mindset shifts to scale your real estate business without sacrificing your joy.
🎓 Happy Agent Academy – happyagent.co/academy
Your go-to resource for freebies, on-demand courses, templates, and tools to help you grow a thriving real estate business.
📩 Join the Happy Hustle Newsletter – happyagent.co/subscribe
Weekly insights, strategies, and real talk to help you build wealth, lead boldly, and create a business you love.
📲 Let's Connect on Instagram or Facebook – instagram.com/happyagentco
Daily tips, inspiration, and behind-the-scenes of what it really takes to create success with joy.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to this super special episode of Happy Aging
Co.
I am here in Phoenix, arizona,with one of my BFFs, jennifer
Myers.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
She is the founder and I think she's a coach, but
she wants to be called a trainer.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
It's fine.
You're just a genius.
You're an educator.
That's what you are.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Badass, you can definitely swear.
Badass boss babe.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
badass, you can definitely swear, badass boss
babe you are of agent gradschool and we've known each
other for a long time, so longwe were so little, so little
baby so we I am still abrokerage owner in washington dc
area, but jen also had her ownbrokerage in the dc area, so
(00:46):
that's really how we connected,because we're both All right.
So today we're going to talkabout shifting from agents to
being the CEO of your business,and Jen has already informed me
she does not like the word CEO.
(01:06):
I do.
I think it's important.
I like the word.
Okay, good.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
But I never, I think I never thought of myself as
that which is like its own setof therapy.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
We like business person, business lady.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
And I think for some people they may not resonate
with that.
So that's the only reason.
But you, you know, ultimatelythat's what it is.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Whatever you call it, whatever you want to call it as
long as it feels empowering andI think, like you're making
that shift.
So we're going to talk aboutshifting into what I like to
call your CEO era, or yourbusiness lady area era or.
I guess if you're a man, you'rea businessman era.
So let's talk about personallywhere that happened for each of
(01:50):
us, Because I think I don't knowif it's going to be different
or not, but I feel like itprobably will be similar.
So why don't you go ahead andlet me know when do you feel
like that shift from being justlike an agent selling homes to
being the intentional businessowner happened?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
yeah, I will say, when I started as a real estate
agent, I didn't realize trulythat was becoming an
entrepreneur and becoming whatcould be a CEO of a business.
I never in the in the beginningthought of it that way.
I thought like, oh, I'm gonnabe a real estate agent, I'm
gonna a couple of houses andhave a lot of time and have a
lot of money, and what ended uphappening was I struggled for a
(02:29):
long time and then finally Istarted having clients, finally
I started having consistency.
And then I for me, I think itwas right around when I got to
that three transaction a monthso what is that?
36.
That's when I realized like athis was repeatable, this wasn't
like a fluke, and b I needed todo this in a more streamlined
(02:50):
way, in a more enjoyable way,both for myself and my clients,
instead of feeling like I waslike whoa, like all the time you
know, and so for me.
I think that's when I startedlooking at my business
differently.
And I will say the other thingthat happened was when my, my
CPA, was like yo, like you needto keep track of your expenses
and like you need somewrite-offs and stuff like that,
(03:11):
and I was like what, like?
So those were like the twothings when I was feeling out of
whack with my systems andprocesses and like just feeling
like I was winging it.
Yeah, to then my CPA being likeno, you're actually starting to
make money.
You have to keep track ofthings, and I was like I was
winging it.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Yeah to then my cpi being like no, you're actually
starting to make money.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
You have to keep track of the things, and I was
like that was the moment for methat I and I had no idea how to
do that.
I felt very out of my element.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
So but what about you ?
Okay?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
when did you feel that, oh boy?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
so I started selling real estate when I was super
young.
I was 21 and I was doing newhome sales and then I went into
general brokerage and, yeah,it's through to real footage in
2007.
And I fortunately had likereally good success and I think
I had really great timing in themarket because it was like
(03:59):
millennials really became firsttime home buyers and I was a
millennial and so I had a prettygood run, like I did 6 million
my first year and then I think Idid 10 million and then it just
kept going up and up and up.
I think, similar to you, I wasat 20-ish deals a year and
(04:20):
that's when I felt like itstarted impacting my mental
health, my energy levels, theability to like have fun and
live my life Like I likedtraveling.
I liked I actually was datingmy now husband and he was in
Louisville, kentucky, and I Iwanted to visit him once a month
.
That was a non-negotiable forme, like I love this guy, like I
(04:40):
want to be visiting him.
And so I was at a brokerage andI just remember being like all
right, I'm at this crossroads, Ieither have to start a
brokerage or I have to just beokay with doing 18 deals a year.
And back then, this is like 2011.
(05:01):
Actually, when I startedthinking about it, it was 2010.
I was like, okay, teams weren'ta huge thing in the DC market
then.
So I feel like, really theoption was you either start a
brokerage or you just keep yousettle, like you settle at 18
deals.
So I started a brokerage andthat was when I felt like I had
to shift from agent to CEO,because at that point, like
(05:26):
you're really running a legitbusiness.
You're supporting other realestate agents and you're trying
to figure out the repeatableprocesses of like, all right, I
had the success.
Obviously, this is kind ofsnowballing.
What am I doing that's workingand how can I scale it?
How can I work for other people?
Yeah, I think we're similar.
It's like it's that that 24, 36home work where you have to
(05:49):
something has to give.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You can't just keep winging it, yeah, but I also
think for me, as you weretalking, I was like going down
memory lane and I can remembergetting a call from my CPA and
being like, oh yeah, you owe 50grand in tax.
Oh yeah, and I was like whatare?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
you talking?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
about how do you just call someone and break that
news like it's no big deal,because I think he thought
what's the money that I wasmaking?
then I had my financial mindsetof like running a business and I
was not I think that was thecall that I was like, oh, I'm
not taking this seriously enoughor not planning ahead enough,
(06:26):
and I felt like that for me wasthe moment.
It was like to me it was likeboth you've got to take in
consideration the financial partof the responsibility of that,
but also then the everythingthat you're saying, like the
systems, the business part.
Because I think, when you are aCEO or you're running a
business.
What is the business you'rerunning, and is it a business?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Right, so what makes it a?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
business Right, I think.
For me it was a repeatablesystem that I could rely on,
knowing exactly when thishappens, this happens.
That felt like a business to me, I think.
Things like having a bookkeeper, things like opening the bank
account, for the business.
Really like I felt like I had toput like my big girl panties on
(07:13):
and like I had to call a lawyerto create an operating
agreement that cost $7,000, youknow those kinds of but you know
, my CPA suggested it because itwas going to save me money.
Having that bookkeeper doingthe books every single month,
understanding your financial,projecting the financial,
knowing what you can spend on,instead of just like taking
(07:35):
every dollar that you areearning as a real estate agent
and putting it in your, like,personal bank right, exactly.
That's not.
That's not having a businessright.
Having a business is like Ihave a bank account, I pay
myself.
That was the other thing likestarting to pay yourself a w-2.
Then you feel like what?
I'm an employee, I have a 401kplan.
Now we're in business and itreally takes a different mindset
(07:59):
instead of doing a transactionor two to like pay my bills.
It's totally different.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I think going into that like financial piece a
mistake I see a lot of realestate agents make is that I
think going into business isthere's a lot of really bad
advice out, there is that youimmediately have to create an
LLC, you immediately have tocreate an S-corp, you
immediately have to do thesethings.
What they don't realize is whenyou have no income none of that
(08:28):
matters and it makes zero sense.
So there's definitely athreshold that like and
definitely talk to yourfinancial planner, your tax
person, but there's an incomethreshold where it starts to
make sense to utilize thosecorporate structures.
So, like you need to not followthis blanket advice that's out
there, that's you have to be anS-corp.
That is horrible advice yeah.
(08:49):
So I think to your point.
It doesn't require you to goout and create an LLC or create
an S-corp talk to your CPA oryour attorney but I do think it
means treating your money like abusiness.
It's not just like it flowsinto your personal bank account.
I like your point.
You need to have a bank bankaccount.
(09:09):
You need to be setting asidemoney for estimated taxes.
You need to start like thinkingof yourself like an employee of
your business and then, yes,there's expenses that are
involved.
Like you need to start likethinking of yourself like an
employee of your business andthen, yes, there's expenses that
are involved.
Like you need to start trackingyour profit and loss every
month.
You need to be taking a look atdid I lose money this month,
Did I make money this month?
And like the goal is obviouslyto have every month be
(09:31):
profitable, but really keying inon not being scared of that
piece, because I see a lot ofpeople who are so freaked out by
it.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
it is scary though, because it's like when you get a
bill, an attorney bill, forthousands of dollars and you're
like, what did I just do?
But it actually is aninvestment in your future
financial like structure thatwill pay itself.
And again, you know I'm notgiving financial advice on it,
but the advice that I was givenfor myself personally was right
(10:04):
when I was kind of at that 150200 mark was like you need to
start changing things to benefityou financially.
Those may have changed it waslike back in, you know, mid
2000s, when this was happeningfor me.
So all of this may be different,but yeah, that was it.
And also, I think, another onefor me is like seeing you have
(10:25):
money in your business accountand not draining it.
Yes, right, like that is a hardthing to do, but that is again.
That's kind of like running abusiness.
It's like, no, that's mybusiness account and just
because I want to buy, you know,a new car or you know, that's a
good example If I want to addan addition on my house, that's
(10:45):
not.
I have to pay myself that money.
Save that money separate frommy business, exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah, there's definitely a money mindset shift
that has to occur, because it'sthat money that comes in is no
longer yours personally theagent, that money that comes in
is now the business's money andthat's you.
You get to decide, as the CEO ofyour business, what you do with
that money.
But that money isn'tautomatically yours.
It might be allocated forexpenses down the road.
(11:13):
And I think that's another partof getting into the money
management is that real estateis so cyclical that cash flow
can be really hard to manage.
I know we usually get a spikein cash flow in June and July
when we have our big closingmonths, and then it takes a dip
and then it's back up a littlebit in October and November and
then usually it crashes throughthe floor until April.
(11:35):
So I know that from 14 years ofowning a real estate brokerage.
But when you're initiallygetting into really starting to
track this stuff and payingattention to your money, knowing
those cycles can become reallyimportant to managing your cash
flow.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
So well, and on that note, right like, one of the
thoughts you have to have duringthose times is not I'm the
worst, I'm never going to sell ahouse again.
This isn't for me.
You can't have that thoughts.
It's like this is a business,so how would a CEO or how would
somebody who owns and runs abusiness think about those dips
A?
It takes a few years to figureout what yours are.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
And they always.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
They're always ups and downs, and some of them may
be more extreme than others incertain years.
But right, just because youknow a business, you know an
apple has a down year exactlythey don't fold up shop and tell
themselves that they're like,not worthy of this.
They weather it and they lookat it and say, okay, what is?
(12:32):
What is the storm that we'reweathering?
Is this normal or is itsomething that needs to be?
Do we need a new product?
Speaker 1 (12:38):
yeah, and something.
Yeah, is there a tweak thatneeds to happen?
Like, because there's reallyonly two things you can do to
make more money sell more, getmore commissions or decrease
expenses, like literally itthose are your choices as the
ceo of your business, are yougonna cut expenses.
Are you gonna sell more houses?
Yeah, hopefully it's both, andthen you're really making money,
(13:00):
okay.
So another thing I want to talkabout is, like your why of
becoming a CEO of your businessor stepping into that business
owner era.
So what was your big why on?
What made you make that shift?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
You know it's a good question.
I think at the time I kind offell into it because I was kind
of I was guided to do thosethings that was happening.
And I'll be perfectly honest,you know, I felt like when I
started learning all the tricksof the trade and the advantages
of having a business, thingslike being able to create your
(13:41):
own 401k plan, things like youknow, I was fortunate enough to
have a defined benefit plan andbeing able to put so much tens
of thousands of dollars away forretirement every single year.
That is intriguing to me, andso it was almost like this game
that I got oh, yes, yeah, and Iwas like what is all this?
(14:02):
Like it was so eye opening to methat like all these things
existed and I was like how is itthat no one knows about this
stuff?
And I want to play this game.
I just thought it was so Idon't know.
I thought it was so interesting.
It sounds like it just gave youa bigger playground.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, you were able to do more stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
It's like the difference between playing
checkers and chess.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You know, it's like what is this game and this is so
cool and there's a strategy andlike, if you play it right, you
really can win.
I liked, that Is that cool.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yeah, you really can win.
I liked that is that cool.
Yeah, I never thought of itlike that, but you're right, it
does create a bigger it.
There's just bigger stakes andlike a bigger playground.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I would like there's more tricks that you can play
and they're all legal andthey're really fun, but at the
end they're like for you as thebusiness owner and I was like
what is this wizardry?
Hey guy, what is?
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I know, when I got a solo 401k, I was like like give
myself free right, like what areyou doing?
Oh, it's a deductive.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I know, and then I get to like save it and then
great, yeah.
So it was like that.
I was so fascinated by thatthat I was like into it and I
was like, how do I maximize, howdo I play this game at the
highest level possible?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yeah, that's awesome, that's a good, I mean, that's a
really fun one.
How about you?
I think, for me, what wasreally motivating or what's
successful?
I was tired of the I'm going tobe really honest the patriarchy
.
I was like I felt like I was inthe Barbie movie but like I
went to Ken's Mojo Dojo Casahouse and it was, and it was all
(15:41):
named after a bold white man.
I'm not going to name all ofthem, but you guys know them.
You know them.
It's the there's usually twonames associated with those
brokerages.
There's lots of them, and so Ijust like literally felt like I
was in Ken's Mocho Dojo Casahouse in Washington DC.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, I would say yeah Because you and I used to
see each other at these likeevents.
Yes, and it was like I wasyoung and female and I was like
what is going on here?
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Why do I exist here?
So I think for me I know I gotso fed up with the patriarchy
that I'm like I am just notgoing to participate in this
anymore.
I'm going to create my own safehaven where I can be myself, be
(16:33):
a woman, be a tech forward,millennial, and not feel like an
alien that landed on a planet.
And luckily that worked out forme because I attracted other
people who were kind of fed upwith the existing structures and
the existing support and allthat.
So that was definitely a bigwhy.
For me and I think success hasalways been like we were talking
(16:58):
about this earlier over coffeeis like freedom, fun and being
creative like those have alwaysbeen my late guiding principles,
and so I thought that running abrokerage would give me freedom
, fun and creativity.
And, girl, that did not happenfor a while, which is why I like
helping other people shortcutand fast track.
(17:20):
I I'm like, hey, do you want my?
But I've learned because thatshit didn't happen until I had a
baby and really had to likefeel to the fire.
It was like had to do itbecause I had no choice.
So, yeah, that's success for meis like freedom, fun, creativity
.
Then my real big.
Why is that?
I just want to be arepresentative of female
(17:41):
leadership in the real estateindustry, because I do think
we've made progress since 2011,but there's still not enough.
Like I still look at stages andthere's still not enough women,
there's still not enough peopleof color, there's still not
enough LGBTQ plus people Likethere is not enough
(18:01):
representation in our industryand the leadership, for sure
yeah leadership stages like I.
Just it's really infuriating andthat has.
It's not about money.
For me it's literally aboutrepresentation, and I've had
buyout options like in fairlygood figures and I'm just like
no it's not about money for me.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
I'm not selling out, sorry so what's interesting is
it feels like with your, withwhen you became a CEO.
It's like when you started yourbrokerage yeah, and for me.
I feel like I stepped into thatbefore I started my brokerage.
Yeah, so I just for thoselistening, like it may be when
you start a team, or it may bewhen you start a brokerage, but
I, I think also you should beconsidering it.
(18:44):
Um, even if you are forever asolo agent, I you know.
Yeah, I totally agree with you.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Let's dive into that a little bit more, because I do
think there's this misconceptionout there that you have to
start a team or you have tostart a brokerage.
But let's talk about solo agent.
I know agents out there who aredoing 75 deals a year
technically by themselves, butthey've learned to delegate what
isn't necessarily important,Like they're not the dollar
(19:13):
driving tasks.
So what have you seen on thesolo agent side that works
really well in terms of becominga business owner, in terms of
delegation.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, delegation specifically.
I'm a big proponent of lean andmean, especially nowadays with
all the automation that couldhappen.
So I think the process to me isfirst know your systems, define
your systems, like, really,what is the business?
What is your business?
Because, like, how Lindsay runsher business is going to be
(19:48):
different than how I run mybusiness, and when you really
look at what a business is, itis essentially your processes
and then how you get clients andall of that.
I think for so long I wasconfused about this word
business, because I think welearn that a business, you know
they say you don't have abusiness unless the business
(20:08):
doesn't need you to operateRight, and I personally don't
agree with that.
I think that's like an amazingthing to aspire to and I think
you could get there eventually,but I do think you have a
business before you're able tostep out of that.
Yes, eventually, but I do thinkyou have a business before
you're able to step out of that.
So to me that means you haveconsistent revenue coming in,
(20:31):
people are coming to you, theywant you, they want to work with
you.
So you have to have that enginebecause that fuels everything,
and then the next piece of it isyour systems and processes,
which essentially creates theexperience that the people want
to tell everybody about, whichthen drives the reason why they
want to choose you.
And then the third to me is howmuch of that can you put on
automation?
Because you could do a lot ofit.
Now, that's not to say thatlike you're not involved.
(20:52):
For me, that automation meantpinging me when it was time to
do X, y and Z, and that can allbe automated, but I don't have
to think about it.
And then last is then havingdelegation, which for me meant
really two, three, threedifferent buckets of delegation.
One was things that drove, uh,lead generation day, and having
(21:16):
being able to take a lot of thatoff of my plate so that my job
became solely meeting with theclients, yep.
The next bucket was admin.
So having somebody who couldrun the systems after I defined
them and said this is what itmakes my business different in
other businesses, havingsomebody be able to run that and
(21:37):
essentially run the automation.
And then, last but not least,was for me, the biggest change
in my life was that admin andthe showing assistant.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Showing assistants are absolutely not different If
you're going to stay solo, not abuyer's agent very different
than a showing assistant.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
That was the game, those were the, those were my
hires, which was very, verysmall team Because, as you know,
I'm cheap, there's nothingwrong with that.
One would call me like a moneyhoarder.
I'm very cheap, and so for meit was always like how do I not
spend money?
And then when I do spend money,so when I do hire people, I pay
them, well, you know, to dotheir job.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
We did not talk about this in advance, but I have the
same exact three buckets andit's exactly how I've structured
City, chic, real Grail State,because I want to be able to
take admin tasks, marketingtasks and transaction
coordination off the agent'splate.
So I think, if you're a soloagent, I actually really think
that before you go and start ateam, before you start go and
(22:35):
start a brokerage, that youstart scaling yourself as a solo
agent because it gives you ataste.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
You need to do all that because once you build that
for yourself, you can buildanything on top of it, and you
can plug agents into it so it'slike the engine's already built,
so then you can plug otheragents into it.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
That's a big mistake I see people make is that if
they jump from I'm just me to Ihave a team.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
There's no system.
There's no system.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
There's no foundation systems.
There's no system, there's nofoundation, there's nothing for
them to get into.
So delegation, I think, is areally key piece and like it
does take a lot of work, likeonboarding an assistant or
creating your policies,procedures, like your checklist
for things like that takesintentional time.
And that's something that Idefinitely do with my coaching
(23:19):
clients is like we really takelike what do you want to
outsource, what is not servingyou anymore?
Like what do we need to getsomebody in to do?
But I think it's those threebuckets.
If you're starting to thinkabout thinking about your
business in those three buckets,I love the marketing lead gen,
transaction support whetherthat's a transaction coordinator
or a showing assistant and thenyour admin stuff, literally
(23:42):
just like maybe your calendar,maybe it's your email inbox,
maybe it's appointmentconfirming and scheduling.
It's anything that people cantake off your plate and I think
that that's just that's how youreally start making that
transition.
But I do see so many agentsjust go straight to the.
I started a team and it's like,yeah, but there's nothing there
to support that team and theyalways disintegrate like they
(24:05):
don't last yeah and um, I don'tknow.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
For me it was all about why are you having those
things, why are you having thosethings take off the plate?
For me and this was different,especially back then, because we
were so conditioned to likejump to a team for me, or to
jump out of the transaction, andfor me, I loved my clients.
I love my clients to this day,and so for me, I took everything
(24:31):
off my plate that didn'tinvolve me being in front of my
clients, right.
And so you might say like, oh,what about our showing assistant
?
I mean, I was still in front ofmy clients a lot of the time,
but there were certainactivities my showing assistant
did for me, like second showings, like the beginning of my home
in section you know if, like,they want to see it one more
time and you're like writing anoffer.
(24:52):
Those were the moments, but it'snot like every showing.
My showing assistant showed forme.
For me, I wanted to be in frontof my clients because that's
for me where I had the biggest.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
I think, as a my clients, because that's for me
where I had the biggest, I think, of the solo agent that's dead
on because you're the productLike at that point.
That's how you're gettingreferrals, that's how you're
building your personal brandwith that client.
So, yeah, if you're outsourcingtoo much of the face time, that
dilutes it and they're notassociating their great
experience with you the person,which totally agree.
(25:23):
So I think if you're going thatsolo agent route like that
again, I think everyone shouldstart there, don't skip ahead to
the team.
Do not skip.
That's dumb and be the like.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
The point of this episode is to be the business
owner, be the CEO of thatbusiness.
Then, once you get that downreally well and you can ask
yourself, as a business owner,what do I want next?
And you have three options.
Option one is keep doing whatyou're doing, because you're
freaking awesome.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
And you make a lot of money doing it.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
And when you have it firing on all cylinders like
it's good yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Good.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Two, you could start a brokerage Right.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
For the gods of that.
We're gonna make a lot lessmoney and that had a lot more
stress, but I'm not saying youshouldn't do it.
Yeah, there's pros and cons.
I'm gonna say talk to me firstif you decide and then talk to
me, and then talk to me maybewe'll just like have a little
like wine and zoom, becausemaybe that's what we should do
great, but it is a different job.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
It's a very different job.
Or your third option, to starta team.
I guess you have a fourthoption, which is do something
totally different quit, but whatdid I say?
Speaker 1 (26:27):
yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
some.
We're conditioned and taught inreal estate to want to get out
of the job of production.
Yeah, yeah, yeah somebody hasto sell the houses, so what I
will say.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
the further you get removed from the actual selling
of the houses, the less moneyyou're going to make for a
transaction 100% and the morelike you give up the referral of
it, you know the cycle of itlike the churn of it explodes
(27:01):
and it does become like a peoplemanagement business more than a
doing the transaction business.
So that's another thing I thinkpeople don't understand is when
you get the team lead, when youget to brokerage owner, so much
of it is agent management andemployee management and people
management, which I am terribleat, which most real estate
agents are horrible at.
Like most of them are likethey're just people pleasers,
(27:24):
they're non-confrontational.
That's what makes them goodreal estate agents and it's a
disaster.
So I think that that's anotherthing to keep in mind.
Like do you like managingpeople?
Because if you do not likemanaging people, the solo agent
track is probably the right onefor you and you just need to
crush it as long as possible andthen retire.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
And I think, like the takeaway my hope is of this
converse, part of the takeawayis you can be a badass business
person at any one of thosechoices, Not just having a team
that makes you a business personor having a brokerage business
person you should.
There is a point in your careercareer which I think is like a
(28:05):
couple of like 150, 200, 000,which is probably two to two to
three transactions.
That's when you have a choiceto make.
Are we?
Are we going to continue tokind of just be a real estate
agent who sells a house or two amonth, which is perfectly
acceptable and fine, or are wegoing to turn this into a
business that is a differentanimal than being a real estate
(28:30):
agent who sells a house or two amonth?
And there is no right answer.
It's a personal answer for you.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
It's why I love this business is that there?
Is no one size fits all.
And it's actually one of my.
We're not going to dive toodeep into this rabbit hole, but
it's why I get so irritated byreal estate coaches where they
prescribe one thing, onesolution.
Let's evaluate what your lifegoals are.
What's going on in your life?
(28:57):
How much time and energy do youhave?
Like it's a holistic package.
You need to figure out what'sgood for you and maybe there's a
solo agent.
That's like.
I'm never going to treat thislike a business.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
And that's totally cool, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Totally cool, but at least know your limit and know
that if you start getting toomuch business in the door, you
at least have a referral partneryou can send business to, or
the people come across yourinbox that you're like I know
that that's not a good fit.
That's not one of the 18 I'mdoing this year, because I can
only do 18 and it starts makingyou more.
(29:30):
You have discernment, like youstart becoming more discerning,
and that also can build abusiness.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
That you know, I was gonna say that sounds like a
badass business babe but it islike you're, but you're being a
bit you.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
I mean, you're still being a business owner, yeah,
but maybe it's not to theextreme of a solo agent who has
a showing assistant or whatever,but it's.
You know your limits, you knowyour boundaries and you're
sticking to them, and I thinkthat that is actually seeing
your business as a business andbeing the CEO of your business
and your life yes and of yourlife.
I feel like we need to end it.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
I think all right Mic drop, mic drop, we're done.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Thank you so much for chit chatting with me on our
girlcation.
It's been so great.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Thank you, I love you .
Speaker 1 (30:14):
I love you.
If you want to learn more aboutJen, you can go to agent grad
school.
She is not really on socialmedias, but you'll just have to
check out her beautiful website.
I am on social media you canfollow me at happy agent co.
And I just want you all to havea business and a life that you
love, and if there's anything Ican ever do to support that you
(30:35):
just give your girl a shout.
Welcome to this super special episode of Happy Aging
Co.
I am here in Phoenix, arizona,with one of my BFFs, jennifer
Myers.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
She is the founder and I think she's a coach, but
she wants to be called a trainer.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
It's fine.
You're just a genius.
You're an educator.
That's what you are.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Badass, you can definitely swear.
Badass boss babe.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
badass, you can definitely swear, badass boss
babe you are of agent gradschool and we've known each
other for a long time, so longwe were so little, so little
baby so we I am still abrokerage owner in washington dc
area, but jen also had her ownbrokerage in the dc area, so
(00:46):
that's really how we connected,because we're both All right.
So today we're going to talkabout shifting from agents to
being the CEO of your business,and Jen has already informed me
she does not like the word CEO.
(01:06):
I do.
I think it's important.
I like the word.
Okay, good.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
But I never, I think I never thought of myself as
that which is like its own setof therapy.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
We like business person, business lady.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
And I think for some people they may not resonate
with that.
So that's the only reason.
But you, you know, ultimatelythat's what it is.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Whatever you call it, whatever you want to call it as
long as it feels empowering andI think, like you're making
that shift.
So we're going to talk aboutshifting into what I like to
call your CEO era, or yourbusiness lady area era or.
I guess if you're a man, you'rea businessman era.
So let's talk about personallywhere that happened for each of
(01:50):
us, Because I think I don't knowif it's going to be different
or not, but I feel like itprobably will be similar.
So why don't you go ahead andlet me know when do you feel
like that shift from being justlike an agent selling homes to
being the intentional businessowner happened?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
yeah, I will say, when I started as a real estate
agent, I didn't realize trulythat was becoming an
entrepreneur and becoming whatcould be a CEO of a business.
I never in the in the beginningthought of it that way.
I thought like, oh, I'm gonnabe a real estate agent, I'm
gonna a couple of houses andhave a lot of time and have a
lot of money, and what ended uphappening was I struggled for a
(02:29):
long time and then finally Istarted having clients, finally
I started having consistency.
And then I for me, I think itwas right around when I got to
that three transaction a monthso what is that?
36.
That's when I realized like athis was repeatable, this wasn't
like a fluke, and b I needed todo this in a more streamlined
(02:50):
way, in a more enjoyable way,both for myself and my clients,
instead of feeling like I waslike whoa, like all the time you
know, and so for me.
I think that's when I startedlooking at my business
differently.
And I will say the other thingthat happened was when my, my
CPA, was like yo, like you needto keep track of your expenses
and like you need somewrite-offs and stuff like that,
(03:11):
and I was like what, like?
So those were like the twothings when I was feeling out of
whack with my systems andprocesses and like just feeling
like I was winging it.
Yeah, to then my CPA being likeno, you're actually starting to
make money.
You have to keep track ofthings, and I was like I was
winging it.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Yeah to then my cpi being like no, you're actually
starting to make money.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
You have to keep track of the things, and I was
like that was the moment for methat I and I had no idea how to
do that.
I felt very out of my element.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
So but what about you ?
Okay?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
when did you feel that, oh boy?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
so I started selling real estate when I was super
young.
I was 21 and I was doing newhome sales and then I went into
general brokerage and, yeah,it's through to real footage in
2007.
And I fortunately had likereally good success and I think
I had really great timing in themarket because it was like
(03:59):
millennials really became firsttime home buyers and I was a
millennial and so I had a prettygood run, like I did 6 million
my first year and then I think Idid 10 million and then it just
kept going up and up and up.
I think, similar to you, I wasat 20-ish deals a year and
(04:20):
that's when I felt like itstarted impacting my mental
health, my energy levels, theability to like have fun and
live my life Like I likedtraveling.
I liked I actually was datingmy now husband and he was in
Louisville, kentucky, and I Iwanted to visit him once a month
.
That was a non-negotiable forme, like I love this guy, like I
(04:40):
want to be visiting him.
And so I was at a brokerage andI just remember being like all
right, I'm at this crossroads, Ieither have to start a
brokerage or I have to just beokay with doing 18 deals a year.
And back then, this is like 2011.
(05:01):
Actually, when I startedthinking about it, it was 2010.
I was like, okay, teams weren'ta huge thing in the DC market
then.
So I feel like, really theoption was you either start a
brokerage or you just keep yousettle, like you settle at 18
deals.
So I started a brokerage andthat was when I felt like I had
to shift from agent to CEO,because at that point, like
(05:26):
you're really running a legitbusiness.
You're supporting other realestate agents and you're trying
to figure out the repeatableprocesses of like, all right, I
had the success.
Obviously, this is kind ofsnowballing.
What am I doing that's workingand how can I scale it?
How can I work for other people?
Yeah, I think we're similar.
It's like it's that that 24, 36home work where you have to
(05:49):
something has to give.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You can't just keep winging it, yeah, but I also
think for me, as you weretalking, I was like going down
memory lane and I can remembergetting a call from my CPA and
being like, oh yeah, you owe 50grand in tax.
Oh yeah, and I was like whatare?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
you talking?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
about how do you just call someone and break that
news like it's no big deal,because I think he thought
what's the money that I wasmaking?
then I had my financial mindsetof like running a business and I
was not I think that was thecall that I was like, oh, I'm
not taking this seriously enoughor not planning ahead enough,
(06:26):
and I felt like that for me wasthe moment.
It was like to me it was likeboth you've got to take in
consideration the financial partof the responsibility of that,
but also then the everythingthat you're saying, like the
systems, the business part.
Because I think, when you are aCEO or you're running a
business.
What is the business you'rerunning, and is it a business?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Right, so what makes it a?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
business Right, I think.
For me it was a repeatablesystem that I could rely on,
knowing exactly when thishappens, this happens.
That felt like a business to me, I think.
Things like having a bookkeeper, things like opening the bank
account, for the business.
Really like I felt like I had toput like my big girl panties on
(07:13):
and like I had to call a lawyerto create an operating
agreement that cost $7,000, youknow those kinds of but you know
, my CPA suggested it because itwas going to save me money.
Having that bookkeeper doingthe books every single month,
understanding your financial,projecting the financial,
knowing what you can spend on,instead of just like taking
(07:35):
every dollar that you areearning as a real estate agent
and putting it in your, like,personal bank right, exactly.
That's not.
That's not having a businessright.
Having a business is like Ihave a bank account, I pay
myself.
That was the other thing likestarting to pay yourself a w-2.
Then you feel like what?
I'm an employee, I have a 401kplan.
Now we're in business and itreally takes a different mindset
(07:59):
instead of doing a transactionor two to like pay my bills.
It's totally different.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I think going into that like financial piece a
mistake I see a lot of realestate agents make is that I
think going into business isthere's a lot of really bad
advice out, there is that youimmediately have to create an
LLC, you immediately have tocreate an S-corp, you
immediately have to do thesethings.
What they don't realize is whenyou have no income none of that
(08:28):
matters and it makes zero sense.
So there's definitely athreshold that like and
definitely talk to yourfinancial planner, your tax
person, but there's an incomethreshold where it starts to
make sense to utilize thosecorporate structures.
So, like you need to not followthis blanket advice that's out
there, that's you have to be anS-corp.
That is horrible advice yeah.
(08:49):
So I think to your point.
It doesn't require you to goout and create an LLC or create
an S-corp talk to your CPA oryour attorney but I do think it
means treating your money like abusiness.
It's not just like it flowsinto your personal bank account.
I like your point.
You need to have a bank bankaccount.
(09:09):
You need to be setting asidemoney for estimated taxes.
You need to start like thinkingof yourself like an employee of
your business and then, yes,there's expenses that are
involved.
Like you need to start likethinking of yourself like an
employee of your business andthen, yes, there's expenses that
are involved.
Like you need to start trackingyour profit and loss every
month.
You need to be taking a look atdid I lose money this month,
Did I make money this month?
And like the goal is obviouslyto have every month be
(09:31):
profitable, but really keying inon not being scared of that
piece, because I see a lot ofpeople who are so freaked out by
it.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
it is scary though, because it's like when you get a
bill, an attorney bill, forthousands of dollars and you're
like, what did I just do?
But it actually is aninvestment in your future
financial like structure thatwill pay itself.
And again, you know I'm notgiving financial advice on it,
but the advice that I was givenfor myself personally was right
(10:04):
when I was kind of at that 150200 mark was like you need to
start changing things to benefityou financially.
Those may have changed it waslike back in, you know, mid
2000s, when this was happeningfor me.
So all of this may be different,but yeah, that was it.
And also, I think, another onefor me is like seeing you have
(10:25):
money in your business accountand not draining it.
Yes, right, like that is a hardthing to do, but that is again.
That's kind of like running abusiness.
It's like, no, that's mybusiness account and just
because I want to buy, you know,a new car or you know, that's a
good example If I want to addan addition on my house, that's
(10:45):
not.
I have to pay myself that money.
Save that money separate frommy business, exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah, there's definitely a money mindset shift
that has to occur, because it'sthat money that comes in is no
longer yours personally theagent, that money that comes in
is now the business's money andthat's you.
You get to decide, as the CEO ofyour business, what you do with
that money.
But that money isn'tautomatically yours.
It might be allocated forexpenses down the road.
(11:13):
And I think that's another partof getting into the money
management is that real estateis so cyclical that cash flow
can be really hard to manage.
I know we usually get a spikein cash flow in June and July
when we have our big closingmonths, and then it takes a dip
and then it's back up a littlebit in October and November and
then usually it crashes throughthe floor until April.
(11:35):
So I know that from 14 years ofowning a real estate brokerage.
But when you're initiallygetting into really starting to
track this stuff and payingattention to your money, knowing
those cycles can become reallyimportant to managing your cash
flow.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
So well, and on that note, right like, one of the
thoughts you have to have duringthose times is not I'm the
worst, I'm never going to sell ahouse again.
This isn't for me.
You can't have that thoughts.
It's like this is a business,so how would a CEO or how would
somebody who owns and runs abusiness think about those dips
A?
It takes a few years to figureout what yours are.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
And they always.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
They're always ups and downs, and some of them may
be more extreme than others incertain years.
But right, just because youknow a business, you know an
apple has a down year exactlythey don't fold up shop and tell
themselves that they're like,not worthy of this.
They weather it and they lookat it and say, okay, what is?
(12:32):
What is the storm that we'reweathering?
Is this normal or is itsomething that needs to be?
Do we need a new product?
Speaker 1 (12:38):
yeah, and something.
Yeah, is there a tweak thatneeds to happen?
Like, because there's reallyonly two things you can do to
make more money sell more, getmore commissions or decrease
expenses, like literally itthose are your choices as the
ceo of your business, are yougonna cut expenses.
Are you gonna sell more houses?
Yeah, hopefully it's both, andthen you're really making money,
(13:00):
okay.
So another thing I want to talkabout is, like your why of
becoming a CEO of your businessor stepping into that business
owner era.
So what was your big why on?
What made you make that shift?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
You know it's a good question.
I think at the time I kind offell into it because I was kind
of I was guided to do thosethings that was happening.
And I'll be perfectly honest,you know, I felt like when I
started learning all the tricksof the trade and the advantages
of having a business, thingslike being able to create your
(13:41):
own 401k plan, things like youknow, I was fortunate enough to
have a defined benefit plan andbeing able to put so much tens
of thousands of dollars away forretirement every single year.
That is intriguing to me, andso it was almost like this game
that I got oh, yes, yeah, and Iwas like what is all this?
(14:02):
Like it was so eye opening to methat like all these things
existed and I was like how is itthat no one knows about this
stuff?
And I want to play this game.
I just thought it was so Idon't know.
I thought it was so interesting.
It sounds like it just gave youa bigger playground.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, you were able to do more stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
It's like the difference between playing
checkers and chess.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You know, it's like what is this game and this is so
cool and there's a strategy andlike, if you play it right, you
really can win.
I liked, that Is that cool.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yeah, you really can win.
I liked that is that cool.
Yeah, I never thought of itlike that, but you're right, it
does create a bigger it.
There's just bigger stakes andlike a bigger playground.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I would like there's more tricks that you can play
and they're all legal andthey're really fun, but at the
end they're like for you as thebusiness owner and I was like
what is this wizardry?
Hey guy, what is?
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I know, when I got a solo 401k, I was like like give
myself free right, like what areyou doing?
Oh, it's a deductive.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I know, and then I get to like save it and then
great, yeah.
So it was like that.
I was so fascinated by thatthat I was like into it and I
was like, how do I maximize, howdo I play this game at the
highest level possible?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yeah, that's awesome, that's a good, I mean, that's a
really fun one.
How about you?
I think, for me, what wasreally motivating or what's
successful?
I was tired of the I'm going tobe really honest the patriarchy
.
I was like I felt like I was inthe Barbie movie but like I
went to Ken's Mojo Dojo Casahouse and it was, and it was all
(15:41):
named after a bold white man.
I'm not going to name all ofthem, but you guys know them.
You know them.
It's the there's usually twonames associated with those
brokerages.
There's lots of them, and so Ijust like literally felt like I
was in Ken's Mocho Dojo Casahouse in Washington DC.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, I would say yeah Because you and I used to
see each other at these likeevents.
Yes, and it was like I wasyoung and female and I was like
what is going on here?
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Why do I exist here?
So I think for me I know I gotso fed up with the patriarchy
that I'm like I am just notgoing to participate in this
anymore.
I'm going to create my own safehaven where I can be myself, be
(16:33):
a woman, be a tech forward,millennial, and not feel like an
alien that landed on a planet.
And luckily that worked out forme because I attracted other
people who were kind of fed upwith the existing structures and
the existing support and allthat.
So that was definitely a bigwhy.
For me and I think success hasalways been like we were talking
(16:58):
about this earlier over coffeeis like freedom, fun and being
creative like those have alwaysbeen my late guiding principles,
and so I thought that running abrokerage would give me freedom
, fun and creativity.
And, girl, that did not happenfor a while, which is why I like
helping other people shortcutand fast track.
(17:20):
I I'm like, hey, do you want my?
But I've learned because thatshit didn't happen until I had a
baby and really had to likefeel to the fire.
It was like had to do itbecause I had no choice.
So, yeah, that's success for meis like freedom, fun, creativity
.
Then my real big.
Why is that?
I just want to be arepresentative of female
(17:41):
leadership in the real estateindustry, because I do think
we've made progress since 2011,but there's still not enough.
Like I still look at stages andthere's still not enough women,
there's still not enough peopleof color, there's still not
enough LGBTQ plus people Likethere is not enough
(18:01):
representation in our industryand the leadership, for sure
yeah leadership stages like I.
Just it's really infuriating andthat has.
It's not about money.
For me it's literally aboutrepresentation, and I've had
buyout options like in fairlygood figures and I'm just like
no it's not about money for me.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
I'm not selling out, sorry so what's interesting is
it feels like with your, withwhen you became a CEO.
It's like when you started yourbrokerage yeah, and for me.
I feel like I stepped into thatbefore I started my brokerage.
Yeah, so I just for thoselistening, like it may be when
you start a team, or it may bewhen you start a brokerage, but
I, I think also you should beconsidering it.
(18:44):
Um, even if you are forever asolo agent, I you know.
Yeah, I totally agree with you.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Let's dive into that a little bit more, because I do
think there's this misconceptionout there that you have to
start a team or you have tostart a brokerage.
But let's talk about solo agent.
I know agents out there who aredoing 75 deals a year
technically by themselves, butthey've learned to delegate what
isn't necessarily important,Like they're not the dollar
(19:13):
driving tasks.
So what have you seen on thesolo agent side that works
really well in terms of becominga business owner, in terms of
delegation.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, delegation specifically.
I'm a big proponent of lean andmean, especially nowadays with
all the automation that couldhappen.
So I think the process to me isfirst know your systems, define
your systems, like, really,what is the business?
What is your business?
Because, like, how Lindsay runsher business is going to be
(19:48):
different than how I run mybusiness, and when you really
look at what a business is, itis essentially your processes
and then how you get clients andall of that.
I think for so long I wasconfused about this word
business, because I think welearn that a business, you know
they say you don't have abusiness unless the business
(20:08):
doesn't need you to operateRight, and I personally don't
agree with that.
I think that's like an amazingthing to aspire to and I think
you could get there eventually,but I do think you have a
business before you're able tostep out of that.
Yes, eventually, but I do thinkyou have a business before
you're able to step out of that.
So to me that means you haveconsistent revenue coming in,
(20:31):
people are coming to you, theywant you, they want to work with
you.
So you have to have that enginebecause that fuels everything,
and then the next piece of it isyour systems and processes,
which essentially creates theexperience that the people want
to tell everybody about, whichthen drives the reason why they
want to choose you.
And then the third to me is howmuch of that can you put on
automation?
Because you could do a lot ofit.
Now, that's not to say thatlike you're not involved.
(20:52):
For me, that automation meantpinging me when it was time to
do X, y and Z, and that can allbe automated, but I don't have
to think about it.
And then last is then havingdelegation, which for me meant
really two, three, threedifferent buckets of delegation.
One was things that drove, uh,lead generation day, and having
(21:16):
being able to take a lot of thatoff of my plate so that my job
became solely meeting with theclients, yep.
The next bucket was admin.
So having somebody who couldrun the systems after I defined
them and said this is what itmakes my business different in
other businesses, havingsomebody be able to run that and
(21:37):
essentially run the automation.
And then, last but not least,was for me, the biggest change
in my life was that admin andthe showing assistant.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Showing assistants are absolutely not different If
you're going to stay solo, not abuyer's agent very different
than a showing assistant.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
That was the game, those were the, those were my
hires, which was very, verysmall team Because, as you know,
I'm cheap, there's nothingwrong with that.
One would call me like a moneyhoarder.
I'm very cheap, and so for meit was always like how do I not
spend money?
And then when I do spend money,so when I do hire people, I pay
them, well, you know, to dotheir job.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
We did not talk about this in advance, but I have the
same exact three buckets andit's exactly how I've structured
City, chic, real Grail State,because I want to be able to
take admin tasks, marketingtasks and transaction
coordination off the agent'splate.
So I think, if you're a soloagent, I actually really think
that before you go and start ateam, before you start go and
(22:35):
start a brokerage, that youstart scaling yourself as a solo
agent because it gives you ataste.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
You need to do all that because once you build that
for yourself, you can buildanything on top of it, and you
can plug agents into it so it'slike the engine's already built,
so then you can plug otheragents into it.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
That's a big mistake I see people make is that if
they jump from I'm just me to Ihave a team.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
There's no system.
There's no system.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
There's no foundation systems.
There's no system, there's nofoundation, there's nothing for
them to get into.
So delegation, I think, is areally key piece and like it
does take a lot of work, likeonboarding an assistant or
creating your policies,procedures, like your checklist
for things like that takesintentional time.
And that's something that Idefinitely do with my coaching
(23:19):
clients is like we really takelike what do you want to
outsource, what is not servingyou anymore?
Like what do we need to getsomebody in to do?
But I think it's those threebuckets.
If you're starting to thinkabout thinking about your
business in those three buckets,I love the marketing lead gen,
transaction support whetherthat's a transaction coordinator
or a showing assistant and thenyour admin stuff, literally
(23:42):
just like maybe your calendar,maybe it's your email inbox,
maybe it's appointmentconfirming and scheduling.
It's anything that people cantake off your plate and I think
that that's just that's how youreally start making that
transition.
But I do see so many agentsjust go straight to the.
I started a team and it's like,yeah, but there's nothing there
to support that team and theyalways disintegrate like they
(24:05):
don't last yeah and um, I don'tknow.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
For me it was all about why are you having those
things, why are you having thosethings take off the plate?
For me and this was different,especially back then, because we
were so conditioned to likejump to a team for me, or to
jump out of the transaction, andfor me, I loved my clients.
I love my clients to this day,and so for me, I took everything
(24:31):
off my plate that didn'tinvolve me being in front of my
clients, right.
And so you might say like, oh,what about our showing assistant
?
I mean, I was still in front ofmy clients a lot of the time,
but there were certainactivities my showing assistant
did for me, like second showings, like the beginning of my home
in section you know if, like,they want to see it one more
time and you're like writing anoffer.
(24:52):
Those were the moments, but it'snot like every showing.
My showing assistant showed forme.
For me, I wanted to be in frontof my clients because that's
for me where I had the biggest.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
I think, as a my clients, because that's for me
where I had the biggest, I think, of the solo agent that's dead
on because you're the productLike at that point.
That's how you're gettingreferrals, that's how you're
building your personal brandwith that client.
So, yeah, if you're outsourcingtoo much of the face time, that
dilutes it and they're notassociating their great
experience with you the person,which totally agree.
(25:23):
So I think if you're going thatsolo agent route like that
again, I think everyone shouldstart there, don't skip ahead to
the team.
Do not skip.
That's dumb and be the like.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
The point of this episode is to be the business
owner, be the CEO of thatbusiness.
Then, once you get that downreally well and you can ask
yourself, as a business owner,what do I want next?
And you have three options.
Option one is keep doing whatyou're doing, because you're
freaking awesome.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
And you make a lot of money doing it.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
And when you have it firing on all cylinders like
it's good yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Good.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Two, you could start a brokerage Right.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
For the gods of that.
We're gonna make a lot lessmoney and that had a lot more
stress, but I'm not saying youshouldn't do it.
Yeah, there's pros and cons.
I'm gonna say talk to me firstif you decide and then talk to
me, and then talk to me maybewe'll just like have a little
like wine and zoom, becausemaybe that's what we should do
great, but it is a different job.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
It's a very different job.
Or your third option, to starta team.
I guess you have a fourthoption, which is do something
totally different quit, but whatdid I say?
Speaker 1 (26:27):
yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
some.
We're conditioned and taught inreal estate to want to get out
of the job of production.
Yeah, yeah, yeah somebody hasto sell the houses, so what I
will say.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
the further you get removed from the actual selling
of the houses, the less moneyyou're going to make for a
transaction 100% and the morelike you give up the referral of
it, you know the cycle of itlike the churn of it explodes
(27:01):
and it does become like a peoplemanagement business more than a
doing the transaction business.
So that's another thing I thinkpeople don't understand is when
you get the team lead, when youget to brokerage owner, so much
of it is agent management andemployee management and people
management, which I am terribleat, which most real estate
agents are horrible at.
Like most of them are likethey're just people pleasers,
(27:24):
they're non-confrontational.
That's what makes them goodreal estate agents and it's a
disaster.
So I think that that's anotherthing to keep in mind.
Like do you like managingpeople?
Because if you do not likemanaging people, the solo agent
track is probably the right onefor you and you just need to
crush it as long as possible andthen retire.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
And I think, like the takeaway my hope is of this
converse, part of the takeawayis you can be a badass business
person at any one of thosechoices, Not just having a team
that makes you a business personor having a brokerage business
person you should.
There is a point in your careercareer which I think is like a
(28:05):
couple of like 150, 200, 000,which is probably two to two to
three transactions.
That's when you have a choiceto make.
Are we?
Are we going to continue tokind of just be a real estate
agent who sells a house or two amonth, which is perfectly
acceptable and fine, or are wegoing to turn this into a
business that is a differentanimal than being a real estate
(28:30):
agent who sells a house or two amonth?
And there is no right answer.
It's a personal answer for you.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
It's why I love this business is that there?
Is no one size fits all.
And it's actually one of my.
We're not going to dive toodeep into this rabbit hole, but
it's why I get so irritated byreal estate coaches where they
prescribe one thing, onesolution.
Let's evaluate what your lifegoals are.
What's going on in your life?
(28:57):
How much time and energy do youhave?
Like it's a holistic package.
You need to figure out what'sgood for you and maybe there's a
solo agent.
That's like.
I'm never going to treat thislike a business.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
And that's totally cool, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Totally cool, but at least know your limit and know
that if you start getting toomuch business in the door, you
at least have a referral partneryou can send business to, or
the people come across yourinbox that you're like I know
that that's not a good fit.
That's not one of the 18 I'mdoing this year, because I can
only do 18 and it starts makingyou more.
(29:30):
You have discernment, like youstart becoming more discerning,
and that also can build abusiness.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
That you know, I was gonna say that sounds like a
badass business babe but it islike you're, but you're being a
bit you.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
I mean, you're still being a business owner, yeah,
but maybe it's not to theextreme of a solo agent who has
a showing assistant or whatever,but it's.
You know your limits, you knowyour boundaries and you're
sticking to them, and I thinkthat that is actually seeing
your business as a business andbeing the CEO of your business
and your life yes and of yourlife.
I feel like we need to end it.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
I think all right Mic drop, mic drop, we're done.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Thank you so much for chit chatting with me on our
girlcation.
It's been so great.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Thank you, I love you .
Speaker 1 (30:14):
I love you.
If you want to learn more aboutJen, you can go to agent grad
school.
She is not really on socialmedias, but you'll just have to
check out her beautiful website.
I am on social media you canfollow me at happy agent co.
And I just want you all to havea business and a life that you
love, and if there's anything Ican ever do to support that you
(30:35):
just give your girl a shout.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
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.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.