March 11, 2025 • 39 mins
Diana Zaya, the esteemed founder and CEO of Maverick Systems, engages in a profound discourse with host Bill Risser regarding the critical importance of agent retention in the real estate industry. At the forefront of this episode is the salient observation that retaining agents is significantly more feasible than recruiting new ones, a point that underscores the necessity for robust retention strategies. Zaya elucidates how her company employs data-driven methodologies to enhance coaching practices, thereby fostering better conversations and ultimately improving agent performance. The episode further explores the challenges faced by brokerages in navigating the complexities of data interpretation and application, which are pivotal in shaping effective recruitment and retention strategies. Through her insights, Zaya advocates for a consultative approach that balances technology with personalized support, thereby addressing the multifaceted needs of the real estate sector.
Maverick Systems: Revolutionizing Real Estate Recruitment and Retention
In a compelling episode of the Real Estate Sessions podcast, Bill Risser hosts Diana Zaya, the accomplished CEO and founder of Maverick Systems, leading a conversation that explores the intricacies of recruiting and retaining real estate agents. Zaya articulates the often-overlooked truth that retaining existing agents is significantly more cost-effective and manageable than the recruitment of new talent. She advocates for the implementation of robust retention strategies, primarily through coaching initiatives that leverage data analytics to facilitate targeted conversations and support for agents.
Zaya's journey from her early days as a Chicagoland native to her entrepreneurial endeavors in the real estate sector provides a rich backdrop for her current work. She shares insights about the influence of her immigrant parents on her work ethic and ambitions, emphasizing the values of discipline and education that have shaped her professional trajectory. Coupled with her passion for data, these experiences laid the groundwork for the creation of Maverick Systems, which aims to modernize the recruitment and retention processes within the brokerage landscape.
The discussion further delves into the functionality of Maverick Systems, highlighting its capability to analyze extensive datasets, offering brokers critical insights into agent performance, market dynamics, and potential areas for improvement. Zaya highlights the importance of fostering a positive organizational culture, noting that it is often the deciding factor for agents considering a change in brokerages. She concludes with a profound piece of advice for new agents: the necessity of crafting a business plan prior to obtaining their license, thereby ensuring they enter the industry with a clear roadmap for success. This episode not only sheds light on the challenges faced by real estate professionals but also offers actionable strategies for overcoming them.
Takeaways:
- Diana Zaya emphasizes the critical importance of retention strategies, which are primarily achieved through effective coaching and data utilization.
- The podcast reveals that it is significantly easier to retain an agent than to recruit a new one, highlighting the importance of focusing on existing talent.
- Diana Zaya discusses how Maverick Systems provides over 70 data points on agents, enhancing decision-making processes for brokers and leaders.
- The conversation covers how culture plays a pivotal role in recruitment and retention, with agents prioritizing cultural fit over compensation.
- Diana shares insights on her journey from real estate to data analytics, demonstrating the value of adapting to industry shifts.
- The episode concludes with advice for new...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It really is a lot easier toretain an agent than it is to recruit
an agent. So, but, but asbrokers and as leaders, we don't
want to take that for grantedthat agents are just not super mobile
right now. We still want towork on retention strategies and
that's primarily done throughcoaching and so we can use that data
to have better conversations.
(00:23):
You're listening to the RealEstate Sessions and I'm your host,
Bill Risser. With nearly 25years in the real estate business,
I love to interview industryleaders up and comer and really anyone
with a story to tell. It's thestories that led my guests to a career
in the real estate world thatdrives me in my 10th year and over
400 episodes of the podcast.And now I hope you enjoy the next
(00:44):
journey. Hi everybody. Welcometo episode 411 of the Real Estate
Sessions podcast. As always,thank you so much for tuning in.
Thank you so much for tellinga friend. We're going to be talking
to another founder of a youngcompany doing some great things.
It's Diana Zaya. She's the CEOfounder of Maverick Systems. It is
(01:06):
a tool that helps brokerageskind of manage that recruiting and
retention process. And it's alot of data involved in it, a lot
of data driven stuff. I lovetalking about that. So that's going
to be a blast. So let's goahead and get this thing started.
Diana, welcome to the podcast.
Hi, Bill. Thanks so much forhaving me. Greatly appreciate it.
Yeah, well, you referred to mefrom one of my favorite referrers,
(01:30):
which would be Marcie James.She, she's amazing. I'm sure you
have, you, you've known Marcy for.
Absolutely, Yeah. I couldn'tagree more. Marcy is amazing. I've
known her for several years.She's a great friend, great colleague
and I think the world of her.
Yeah, good. I think a lot ofpeople do. So that's awesome. Look,
the. I start my podcast prettymuch the same way. I like to find
(01:52):
out like where people grew up,a little bit of your background.
You and I had a chat a coupleof days ago. So I know that you're
a Chicagoland native, which issuper cool, but I want you to kind
of share with me becauseChicago, you know, it could. Some
people love it, other peopledon't love it. I'll just be kind
there. Give me, give me. Sinceyou grew up there and still live
(02:13):
there, give me your. Thebiggest misconceptions others might
have about the Windy City.
So I, I just have to say in,in My humble opinion, it's probably
one of the best US Cities. I.I did grow up. I was born and raised
in the city. And I think oneof the biggest misconceptions is
that it's a scary city to livein, that there is a lot of crime.
(02:34):
And, you know, we've got ourfair share of big city problems,
like any large city in theU.S. but in addition to that, we
have, hands down, got some ofthe best food. And I know we always
mention the food, but we'vegot great culture, great sports teams,
theaters, museums, world classshopping, so you name it. And it's
(02:55):
still relatively affordable tolive in the city of Chicago, right?
Yeah, that's a. That last oneis super important. But I'm also
a big fan of the sports stuff.We'll talk about that in a second,
because I like that. Give me,give me. What. What's your most favorite
thing about the city that you love?
Probably the lake and thearchitecture. So you can combine
(03:17):
the two and do, like,architectural tours. There are boats
that'll take you up and downthe Chicago River. You can even take
a kayak up and down theChicago River. So there's just so
much to do. City wineriesalong the river, so you can just
grab a glass of wine and sortof walk along the river. But I would
say having the lake, which Ifeel like is sort of the third coast
(03:38):
because it's so large, and sowe've got sailing. I've done sailing
on the lake. You can goboating. It's just. It's a lot of
fun.
That's great. I. I thought youwere gonna say Wrigley Field, but
that's okay. You know, that's. That's.
It's up there. It's up there,but definitely the lake.
I've had the pleasure of goingto a couple of games at Wrigley Field.
Just fantastic. And so are youCubs or White Sox? Because it's definitely
(04:02):
one or the other. Right.People aren't both in that area.
You. You're gonna. You'regonna be born into a side.
Usually, I think if you'reborn in the city and raised in the
city, you have your team. Butif you're from the suburbs and like
outlying areas, you're like, Ijust like Chicago teams. I'm definitely
a Cubs fan. So I was. I grewup about a mile west of Wrigley,
(04:23):
and so very strong Cubsculture in my neighborhood. So definitely
Wrigley is absolutelybeautiful. Spent a lot of time there.
So highly recommended ifanyone's visiting Chicago.
Yeah. One of the best loopsaround any ballpark in the country.
Just to see all the stuffthat's around there, whether it's
the homes in the outfield orthe great bars that are kind of more
(04:44):
down the first and third baseline.
Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Andthen they have like the rooftop.
So there's all the buildingsright around there that you can get
space up on the rooftop. Andso I have a, I have a 28 year old
daughter who lives in thatneighborhood now. Wow. Yeah. So I
get to get down there quite often.
Awesome. I love that. So Iwant to go back to something else
we chatted about a little bit.And you mentioned, as we were kind
(05:06):
of getting to know each other,that your parents are immigrants
in this country. Right. You,you and your brothers and sisters
are all, were all born here.But can we talk about that a little
bit? And I would, I'm going toventure to say from what we chatted
about that that those parentsand that upbringing really led to
a lot of the success youexperience today. Is that fair?
(05:28):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. SoI've got, there's four of us kids
in our family, all born andraised in the city. My parents came
probably in 1975 from themiddle east or from Syria. And they
kind of came from like reallydifferent worlds. So my mother was
from the city, her father wasa physician, so she was very much
(05:49):
a city girl. And my fathergrew up in the countryside. He was
a farmer and they had about200 acres. But the really cool thing
that I actually didn't findout until I was much older, like
until I was an adult, was myfather actually grew up in a mud
hut. So like, wow. No runningwater, no electricity. They actually
(06:12):
would get their water from aspot spring fed river and saw the
like little villages dottedthe river and they would filter it
in clay pots and that's howthey got their drinking water.
Wow.
Yeah, wow.
So your mom and dad come heretogether. They're maybe they're already
together, they're alreadymarried, they decide to make a change.
(06:34):
Where did they kind of starttheir journey?
So there was a small likeethnic community that was starting
to develop in Chicago. And sowhen you're an immigrant to a country,
it's nice to settle in withinyour own ethnic community because
you get, funny enough, you getassimilated a lot easier that way.
Oh, that's great.
And so it was between Chicagoand San Jose. And I was so angry
(06:57):
with my mother when I foundthis out. I'm like, why did you choose
Chicago? We could have beenCalifornians. And she said, because
the paperwork was alreadyprocessed and the job offer came
later in San Jose. So I waslike, okay, well, we're Chicagoans.
But. But yeah, certainly goingback to your question about shaping
my work ethic, both my parentsreally did shape it. And I, you know,
(07:20):
I think about people that,that immigrate to the US or really
to any country, but especiallythe US People come here primarily
for the opportunity. So I, forme, my thought about people that
are coming to the US is bytheir very nature, they tend to be
ambitious or they're lookingfor a better life. And that certainly
(07:41):
wasn't lost on me and mysisters and my brother. And, you
know, it's funny becauseyou'll always hear parents say, you
know, to their children, whenI was your age, I had to, you know,
walk 10 miles up a hill in thesnow to get to school. And that story
was actually pretty true. Imean, he's of my father. He was in
(08:03):
the Middle east, so we didn'thave the snow, but certainly he was
commuting or he was riding hisbike 10 out, 10 miles a day to get
to school and back. And sothat was not lost on us. And it's
certainly not lost on my kidseither. And so, you know, my father's
no longer with us, but one ofthe things that my kids remember
(08:23):
about him when we do talkabout him is how much he stressed
discipline and education andhard work. And so it's nice to see
that legacy with my kids.
That's awesome. You just, youmentioned education, and I know that's
a big part of your growing up.Right. And I know that you headed
off to Purdue and there's somany different schools in your area,
(08:45):
tons in the Midwest. WhyPurdue? Why are you a boilermaker?
Well, so I actually, I didn'ttake a straight path to university.
I actually, I got married outof high school, so all of my siblings
went to university. Rightaway, my path was a little bit different.
I don't know why. For somereason, I felt like I was always
(09:06):
rushing to become an adult.And so, so I ended up getting married
and starting a family at 19.We purchased our first home at 22.
And so my journey touniversity life came much later in
life.
Oh, okay.
Yeah. And it, it just becauseof the upbringing that I had. It
just always sort of felt likethis unchecked box. And so when the
(09:30):
opportunity arose and the timewas right, I did go back. I did pick
Purdue because of thecurriculum and just A lot of logistical
things that aligned and so, so how.
How old were you at this time?
When I went back touniversity, this was. Oh, gosh, like
I probably started in my 30s.
(09:50):
Wow, that's great. Yeah,because you have how many children?
You have how many children?
So I've got two. I've got a 28year old daughter and a 17 year old
son.
Yeah. So that had to be tough.I mean, you were talking about trying
to get that degree while you,while you're raising children. That's.
Well, there you go. There'swork ethic right there. Nothing tougher,
I would think.
Well, I just feel like it's agood thing to be a lifelong learner
(10:11):
too, whether you're going backto university or, you know, just
reading books all the time ortaking classes or certifications.
And I, I really do believeyour children will pick that up and
develop that culture withinthemselves, even if it's not right
away. I think those kinds ofthings really resonate with kids
and they will instill that intheir children at some point.
(10:36):
What was the first job you hadafter leaving Purdue?
Well, my first adult job whenI was younger was, was working as
a corporate travel agent. So Idid, I did take a certification early
on in life to become, tobecome certified to work on the airline's
booking systems. And so I washired as a corporate travel agent
(10:58):
for American Express. Myaccount was Sara Lee, which was like
huge. This was like back inthe late 90s where Sara Lee was,
you know, buying differentbrands like Champion and Jimmy Dean.
And so we got to book travelfor like their CEOs and their executives
and, you know, theirleadership team. And it was a lot
of fun. It was, it was a lotof fun. And this was at, this was.
(11:21):
So this was pre 911 when Istarted there. And the travel benefits
were amazing. So we didn'tmake a ton of money, but we had tremendous
benefits. So you get to travelthe world essentially for free and
stay in like really nicehotels and, you know, really great
perks. Probably one of thebest companies I've ever worked for.
Wow.
Yeah.
And then. But somehow we'vegot to get you into this data space.
(11:44):
Right. Because what you'redoing now is, well, super cool. We're
going to talk a lot aboutMaverick Systems, you know, here
shortly. But let's talk abouthow did you get into that world?
What was that thing that drewyou into that space?
So when I was working forAmerican Express Express, so I was,
I was working there when 911happened and that sort of changed
(12:06):
the travel industry. This alsowas at a time when online travel
agencies like Expedia weregaining traction and were becoming
a thing. And so companies likeSara Lee were moving more to those
online travel agencies andworking with corporate travel agents
a lot less and sort of 9, 11accelerated that. And what ended
(12:27):
up happening is I was in myearly 20s, I think I was like 23,
24. And I ended up, they endedup laying off thousands of employees.
I was one of them. I made itto the fourth round and they were
kind of going by seniority andmy name came up and I was let go.
And I was so young and I wasunder maybe a false impression at
(12:48):
the time that layoffs didn'thappen to young people. And so when
it happened to me, it was likeout of left field. It was really
a shock. And I was soindignant, I was so angry about it
that I ended up taking myseverance and saying, you know, I'm
going to go in business formyself and what is the most low barrier
(13:10):
way to do that? And I wasintroduced to real estate and I thought,
this is a great profession.And back then it was really easy
to get into it. I took a oneweek course. I went Monday through
Friday, 9 to 5, which youcan't do. You can't do.
Not quite. It's close, but not quite.
Not. Well, not in Chicago. Youcan't do anymore.
Gotcha.
Everyone in Chicago has to bea broke, has to have a broker's license.
(13:32):
Oh, okay. That's different.
Yeah, yeah. Or maybe it's anIllinois thing.
So the real estate part camefirst for you. That's, that's. So
you're, you're, you're arealtor in Chicago. A Young realtor
at 24.
Yeah.
Yeah. How did that go? How didthat go?
So not so great. And verycommon. Not so great my first year,
(13:53):
actually, I think I did worsemy first year than most people. So
to any real estate agents thatare listening, Keep hope alive, it's,
you know, there's a learningcurve. But I was, I was very young
and as you can imagine, not alot of people want to work with a
24 year old to buy or sell ahome. But what I did have going for
(14:15):
me were a few things. So Iended up coming into the business
when you could purchase a homewith no money down. Okay. And I had
purchased my first home when Iwas 22 with no money down. And I
had a lot of friends that werelike, hey, that's pretty cool. And
I want to do the same thing.And so I started selling homes to
(14:38):
my friends. My first year Ididn't sell any homes and I didn't
realize that I could sellhomes to friends until my second
year. So not one sale my firstyear, second year, started selling
to my friends and then theyreferred me to their friends and
on it went. And it wasprobably by my like third or fourth
year in real estate, I wasselling just under 4 million in production.
(15:00):
And this was at a time whenhomes were like 150,000 too.
Yeah, that's, that's a great number.
Yeah, yeah, I didextraordinarily well. Started hosting
first time home buyerseminars. And really it was during
that time in real estate iswhen I would start, I started sort
of tracking my own metricswhich I think is like critically
(15:20):
important to look at. Youknow, what market are my deals in,
what are my lead sources,where are they coming from, you know,
how many deals that I did, Ido, how much do I want to increase?
And I didn't realize what alove of data I had. I just was sort
of like trying to manage mybusiness, but that's really where
I kind of got my feet wet.
So you're actually a realtorwho created a business plan of.
(15:45):
I did, I did.
That's, that's, that's reallypowerful, especially at a young age.
Right. Because there seems tobe a lot of wing in it even to today
at times, you know, we have,there's lots of conversations with
agents about what's the planfor next year. So yeah, that's, that's
really cool to have that, thatalready baked in.
It was like just a lot oftrial and error. You know, I think
you fall on your face enough,it hurts and you don't want to, you
(16:09):
don't want to repeat it. Soyou iterate and you, you know, you
try to think about like, well,what can I do differently?
So, so is, is there, am I, doI have this right? Is there kind
of a breakaway from realestate for a little while where you
decided to try something or dosomething else?
Well, I was in real estate upuntil the housing market collapse
in 08 and so I ended upleaving. I just didn't have the book
(16:31):
of business to sustain it. Iwas so young and me and my clients
were all first time homebuyers. So I worked in real estate
for about six years up untilthat point and then I ended up leaving
and I sort of wanted to goback to hospitality but I really
didn't want to go back intothe travel agency. And so I sort
of went adjacent and started,had an opportunity with a hotel to
(16:51):
work in their sales andmarketing, ended up staying in the
hotel industry for a bit oftime, worked for Hyatt and Hilton,
led corporate sales and didsome marketing with them. And that's
really where I deepened mylove of data. Because much like real
estate, the hospitalityindustry is extremely data rich and
you know, you can, you canpretty much track everything. And
(17:13):
so I started to, I took a fewclasses on data and reporting and
that sort of thing likebusiness reporting. And I started
building out reportingpackages for the properties that
I worked for to see how wewere trending and, you know, how
we stacked up against ourcompetitors and that sort of thing.
And really I would say that'swhere my true love of data really
(17:35):
started to evolve and deepen.
But then there's theentrepreneur side of you come rears
back up and you're ready to goout on your own again, right?
Yes, I do have anentrepreneurial spirit and I find
that a lot of people that areentrepreneurial, a lot of certainly,
certainly a lot of people inour industry have a really hard time
(17:57):
working for big companies andwe either do our own thing or we
like startups where there's alot of creativity and you know, you
can contribute a lot. Likeyou're not really boxed into a small,
tight role. So, so it was thatjust kind of getting disillusioned
from working for largecorporations and feeling like I had
(18:19):
a very narrow role in what Iwas doing, combined with the fact
that technology was on therise and it's been for a number of
years. And I just felt like,you know, gosh, I'm missing the boat
and I really want to get intothe tech space. And so the opportunity
came up to be part of thefounding team of Relytics, which
is a data analytics companycompany in real estate. And so I
(18:42):
jumped on that opportunity andI joined the team.
Talk a little bit more aboutwhat Relytics did. Were they helping
enterprise at an enterpriselevel, at a brokerage level? What
was their, what was their.
Yeah, we, so we worked withreal estate brokerages to help with,
with their growth initiatives.We essentially supplied data insights
(19:03):
that would allow them to makebetter decision making about any
coaching opportunities withintheir own agent pool, how to identify
high value recruit prospects,you know, things like that.
And that, that seems like thenthe natural lead in to what, what
you're currently doing now,right, with Maverick Systems.
(19:23):
Yeah, 100%. So I really lovedworking there and because it was
a startup environment, I Had achance to contribute pretty heavily
to product development as wellas development of our advanced analytics,
and got to work with a lot ofreally great teams and brokerages
across the nation and reallyfell in love with the industry on
(19:44):
a much deeper level. One ofthe things that. And it really valued
my time there. But one of thethings that I noticed when I was
working with a lot of thecompanies and teams across the US
Is that many of them struggledto adopt data. And so I started to
dig in deeper and did a lot ofwork on more like account management
(20:06):
and spending a lot of timewith our clients and, you know, would
ask them questions like, youknow, tell me, you know, how do you.
If you have information aboutan agent, how do you approach them?
Or how do you take the dataand apply it? Like, what tools are
you using? How do you knityour systems together? Do you have
a system? And take me. Starteddoing sort of like a process flow
(20:28):
analysis where I was like,take me through your process. Like,
you sit at your desk, what doyou do? Just, like, show me what
you do. And it was so funnybecause it didn't matter how big
or small the company was.Didn't matter if it was a team or
brokerage. They all sort ofstruggled with the same challenges.
You know, they. They had thesame challenges. Which one was, we
have a tremendous amount ofdata, but how do we actually put
(20:50):
it into action? Like, Iunderstand the information you're
telling me, but what do I dowith it? So that was a struggle.
And even, like, the datainterpretation was a struggle because
if you're supplying somebodywith, you know, hundreds of data
points, there's a little bitof a challenge in understanding how
to interpret all of thatinformation and then how to put it
(21:11):
in action. And then I alsorealized that our industry struggles
with a lot of reallydisconnected systems and softwares
and solutions and platformsthat people were trying to knit together
this sort of, kind of like,kind of a Franken system.
(21:33):
I like that.
Yeah. And, you know, manypeople didn't even do that. So I
thought, you know, there's theoverarching theme here when dealing
with teams and brokerages is astruggle to interpret the data and
to put it into action.
Okay.
And so I saw an opportunitythere, and that really was a catalyst
(21:55):
for Maverick Systems.
So it's really finding thatpain point. Right. Ultimately, and
solving for that has led to alot of really successful companies.
Yeah.
I want to ask you thisquestion. You talk about the Franken
systems, which I'll be using alot of that now. But that's great.
There's so many, so manypromises of end to end solution.
(22:18):
We take care of everything.You know, you've heard there's lots
of companies that have usedthat phrase. Has anyone really nailed
it in your opinion or is itkind of almost impossible to be com.
The one thing for every, for,for multiple types of people? I don't,
it doesn't make sense to me, I guess.
I think, I think there arecompanies that obviously are, are
doing it, but are they doingit well? And I think sometimes if
(22:41):
you spread yourself too thinand you try to acquire too many companies
or build too many solutionsthat you kind of have many that don't
really work for the consumer.Yeah, I think that would be sort
of the pitfall of trying todevelop too much too quickly and
try to meet everyone's needs.Yeah, that. So I don't, I'm not saying
(23:01):
that that's what they'restruggling with or not, but it's
certainly a pitfall that acompany could fall into. But I think
solutions that are flexibleare probably going to work better
for the consumer. And so whatwe do at Maverick is we have our
(23:21):
sort of out of the boxplatform, but we use integrations
to be able to semi customizethat platform to our clients needs
because not everybody needseverything and that's what makes
us a little bit different.
Yeah, your company is focusedon really helping brokers solve a
(23:43):
really big problem and that isrecruiting and retention. I guess
those have to go together, Iwould imagine. Yeah. So talk about
that a little bit, how that works.
Yeah, so we're certainlystarting with the data. I think data
is really the foundationalpiece of it because that's the insight.
So we do license MLS data atour clients request and then we will
(24:08):
process all of thatinformation and turn it into insight
about the agents that are notjust in their market that they're
trying to recruit, but theagents internally that they want
to try to keep. Becausehonestly, especially in today's climate,
it really is a lot easier toretain an agent than it is to recruit
an agent. So. But, but asbrokers and as leaders, we don't
want to take that for grantedthat agents are just not super mobile
(24:30):
right now. We still want towork on retention strategies and
that's primarily done throughcoaching and so we can use that data
to have better conversations.So at Maverick Systems we supply
over 70 data points on anagent and it's everything from like
not just production, butproduction years in business, sales
trends, top markets, listingcapabilities. I mean you name it,
(24:53):
it's in there. And then we doa really fine job at interpreting
that data for our clients. Andwhat I mean by that is we'll actually
grab a segment of theprospects that are in their market
and we'll say, hey, there'sthis little sub segment here that's
really struggling with gettinglistings to close, for example. Or
(25:15):
like, we'll use that strategymore internally to say, hey, you've
got some agents in your officethat are actually taking quite a
few listings or not reallyclosing on them. When they do close
on them, the days on market isreally high and the list to sell
ratio is really low. So maybeit's a marketing and pricing issue
that they might have. And soif you do some training around that
(25:36):
or coaching around that, Ithink that would go a long way. And
so that's how we work with ourclients on the coaching and retention
side. But likewise on therecruitment side, we'll help them
develop Personas that aresuited to the types of agents that
they want to bring into theirfirm and then help them with their
messaging. Like, what doesthis Persona generally struggle with?
(25:58):
What should your overarchingmarketing message be to them? Like,
how do you have messagingthat's resonant with this group of
people?
Yeah, I hear all the time thatculture plays a huge role right inside
a brokerage. I would imagineyou would agree with that.
Yeah, a hundred percent. Ahundred percent. I think. I think
culture is probably the numberone reason agents will either join
(26:21):
a firm or leave a firm,followed by compensation. And you've
heard people say it's, youknow, it's compensation, it's not.
And in fact, Inman didprobably one of the most comprehensive
surveys that I personally haveseen about a year ago, where they
surveyed hundreds of agentsacross the US and they asked them
(26:42):
several questions. They askedthem many questions, but there were
several were aroundrecruitment. And so they asked agents
what they valued most abouttheir current brokerage. Okay, what
they valued most. And themajority, 35%, said it was their
culture. And then they askedthem of the ones that had switched
(27:03):
brokerages in the past year,what the reason was for the switch,
for the change. And again, themajority, over 40%, replied, Culture.
It was a change of culture.And then they asked them if they
were to make a move of theones that hadn't, what would be the
(27:25):
reason for. For a move, ifthey were to consider a move. And
again, the number one answer,and it was about 30% said they would
move for a better cultural fit.
Wow.
Yeah.
So That's a big conversationwith a broker when you start working
with them, like what are youdoing here? And maybe that needs
to be ironed out first or atleast codified. Right. Some way so
(27:46):
you know exactly what it is. Wow.
Yeah, we work with our clientsto find out like, you know, are,
are you guys doing dailystandups? Do you have training classes?
Like, you know, do you haveevents that you just get together
and have fun? You know,because all of that can be used in
your messaging when we aresegmenting your database for you.
Right.
Especially when it comes to training.
(28:07):
You know, we're talking aboutbrokerages here but you know, there's
this rise of the teams that'sbeen growing. You've had some people
say that one day the big boxbrands are going to be gone because
it's going to be teams thatare driving everything. Do you also
work with teams becauserecruiting is a big part of their
world?
Yeah, we definitely work withteams. And one of the things that
I would say about like thebiggest difference that I've noticed
(28:29):
about teams and brokerage isespecially when you're talking about
like multi office brokerage,teams are just way more nimble, you
know, they, they can move witha lot more speed and teams are more
system oriented and likeprocess oriented. And so what I didn't
touch on earlier is yes, weprovide the data insights but we're
(28:49):
integrated with a CRM andother solutions. We have like built
in sales enablement solutionsand things like that. They give you
a comprehensive system and Ifeel like in my experience teams
really seem to get that andget the importance of having a comprehensive
solution and to be realsystematized in how they approach
(29:11):
recruitment, retention, coaching.
Yeah, so there's, look,there's pluses and minuses to both
opportunities, you know, but Ithink it's, it's very interesting
that you're, you're able toservice both, which is, which is
great for the company. Youlike to write.
I do.
You do because you're anauthor for Inman Housing Wire Riz
(29:36):
Media who goes against Imminall the time.
So.
Yeah, yeah. So that's reallycool that you like to do that. So
you like sharing out to theindustry what you're learning, what
you, the, the trends and kindof things that you see. Talk about
that a little bit. I thinkthat's super cool.
Yeah, I just love connectingwith people and I feel like writing
(29:57):
has allowed me the opportunityto share my thoughts, but it's also
allowed me to better connectwith our pretty small, tight Knit
real estate community, youknow, and I go to conferences and
you know, like many of us goto events and it's funny how many
times I've had people say tome like, oh, I read your article
and I honestly didn't eventhink people read it that much. But
(30:19):
people say like, they'llreference articles that I've written
and they'll share theirthoughts. And to me that like is
the best feeling. It's sorewarding and it's cool because,
you know, we, nowadays, I feellike we all sort of have a platform
with social media and I justthink that if we can share things
that resonate with otherpeople or maybe are thought provoking
(30:42):
or share something thatsomebody may not know, we, we build
deeper connections than justtaking pictures of our food, which
I also do. But.
Who doesn't? Come on.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's,it's a lot of fun. And honestly,
I feel like it's even likecathartic in a way. Like I, like,
I feel like I've solved a lotof my own problems or you know, struggles
(31:04):
like just being able to write,you know, because you start to share
your thoughts and sharing yourthoughts in that sort of like that
platform will provoke otherthoughts, you know, and it'll lead
to other things that you wantto research or think about. So, yeah,
it's been fun.
Is there something that you'rethinking about that is next for Maverick
(31:27):
Systems? Is there? Or are youkind of always hard to do what you're
doing now? But sometimes Ialways like to find out if there's
something in the future thatyou can talk about.
There's, there's alwayssomething. Especially, you know,
being a young company. It's.
Yeah.
I was talking with a friendthe other day and I'm like, you know,
I think the hardest thingabout being like a young company
is you have a lot ofopportunities that come at you, people
(31:51):
that want to work with you ondifferent really cool sounding projects
and then you have a lot ofyour own ideas on things that you
want to try or do orimplement. And the hardest part is
narrowing that focus to whatis going to advance the company.
When is it the right time tobuild on what we're already doing
(32:12):
and when is it the right timeto sort of put the brakes on it?
So yes, we have a lot ofideas. Nothing I can share today.
All right, good. So deeperlike that. Deeper versus wider conversations
just happening all the time. Right?
It's happening. It's all thetime. It's all the time. I Think
whenever you're in business,you have to constantly be looking
(32:34):
at what's coming. You have tolook at different trends, emerging
technologies. I quite oftenwill go outside of our industry to
learn about things that arehappening in other industries, different
technologies or businessprocesses or different methodologies
of doing certain things. And Itry to bring some of that back into
(32:56):
Maverick and implement it inwhat we're doing. So, yeah, so it's
always you. Just as a founder,I think you have to be really. Or
as a business leader, you justhave to be very flexible and you
have to always be on thelookout for opportunities and emerging
trends.
I didn't bring this up, andnormally I talk about it in most
(33:18):
episodes, but AI in datascience, I would imagine there's
definitely some help there. AmI right?
Yeah.
Or not.
AI, I think AI is. Is great.We're going to see a lot more of
it. Obviously, it's likeexploded onto the scene.
Yeah.
So, you know, it's. I thinkit's something that it's gonna. It
(33:40):
will. It will replace somejobs, but it will also create many
other jobs. So I wouldn't beworried about that as a general public,
but I would also just stay ontop of these sort of trends in whatever
industry somebody is in.Certainly in real estate, we see
it taking over. And so I thinkit's really important that whatever
your role is within ourindustry is to look at your role
and think about how AI maychange that. And I think there's
(34:03):
a lot of truth to the sayingof evolve or die. And I think people
that fight the trends and tryto hold on to the old way of doing
things are going to reallyhurt themselves that way and are
going to struggle. So youdon't have to go out and, you know,
have everything AI. But Icertainly would start to explore
(34:25):
it, like, stay. Stay on top ofthe. Stay with the trends, you know,
because if you let. If you letthe technologies go by too much and
you let the world go on toofar without you keeping up, it just
makes it increasingly difficult.
Yeah, it's hard to start atthe beginning when the pack is, you
know, 100 miles down the road.It's really tough. Right.
(34:48):
It's very hard. And just. Evenon the data alone. I actually recently
read a study, and this is likethis. It kind of blew my mind, but
not really. I was kind oflike, yeah, that makes sense. There
was a study Oracle did acouple of years ago. It was called
the Decision Dilemma. And theyended up interviewing, like 14,000
business leaders across. Iwant to, say, 17 countries. And yeah,
(35:12):
it was a really comprehensivestudy. And they. They were asking
him. This was specificallyabout data and using data and data
driven decision making intheir businesses. And what was like,
what really stood out to mewas that people, as much as we say,
we're like, we have a dataculture and this sort of thing, people
are struggling to keep up withhow to use it. And this is just one
(35:35):
thing that, you know that. Andthere's so many other technologies
that are coming out. But they.They found in this study that 85%
of respondents said theysuffered from decision distress,
which meant that they eitherhad a lot of anxiety over a decision
they made or were reallystressed out about using data. Like,
(35:58):
whenever the conversationwould come up about using data, it
caused them great stress andanxiety. And another 72% admitted
that the sheer volume of datahas actually stopped them from taking
action.
Wow. Yeah, yeah, that's.That's tough there. Someone's got
to solve that, right?
(36:20):
But it goes to my point that,yes, yes, we need solutions that
are. Are working for peoplerather than working against them.
So I didn't want to have acompany that provided you a ton of
insight that you couldn'tutilize. And so for me, our approach
and the way that I runMaverick is we're very consultative
with our clients, but we use alot of technology to try to carry
(36:42):
a lot of that because you haveto balance being consultative, which
is like, very hands on, verytime consuming, and balance it with
being efficient. And so Ithink we do a really good job of.
Of that right now where we canserve our clients sort of in a way
that feels very personal andconsultative, but we can use technology
(37:03):
to do it really efficiently.
As a founder, that's veryimportant for you to make sure you
get that balance there. Yeah,that's cool. Well, Diana, this has
been amazing. I'm going to letyou go, but you have to answer one
final question, the samequestion we've asked every guest
since August of 2015. And thatis what one piece of advice would
you give an agent just gettingstarted in the business?
(37:25):
Okay. If I had to boil it downto one, Write a business plan before
you get a license.
Sweet.
Yeah, write a business plan.And. And I. If you don't know where
to. Where to get a template orhow to write it, you probably have
a business development centerin your county, probably through
(37:45):
the SBA or something likethat. So reach out to your county
business development center,make an appointment, go down there
and say, I want to launch abusiness. What Do I need to know?
How do I. How do I write abusiness plan?
That's awesome. Look, becauseit's so many people, it's. They don't
think in the terms of a. Andreally, they're. They're little startups.
They're just little startupsjust getting going, you know, and
(38:06):
there's lots of help, but youstill gotta perform and do all the
things that are laid out therefor you. But, yeah, it's. I love
that answer. That's great.
Yeah, yeah, it really helpstremendously. It just sort of is
like, that's your roadmap.That's. That's also your way of vetting
your business, you know?
Yeah. So, Diana, if someonewants to reach out to you, what's
the best way for them to do that?
(38:27):
Yeah, you can go to ourwebsite. It's www.mavericksystems.com.
if somebody wants to schedulea demo of the solution, they can
do so on the site. If theywant to reach out to me personally,
please feel free to email me.It's just Diana D I A N A Mavericksystems.com
well, thank you so much.
Give a shout out, anothershout out to Marcy. When next time
(38:48):
you see her, tell her. Billwas super happy this referral. Yeah.
I love your story. I thinkit's fantastic. It'll be fun to watch
your company grow and besuccessful. And once again, thank
you so much for being here.
I appreciate it. It's a lot offun. Thanks, Bill.
Thank you for listening to theReal Estate Sessions. Please head
over to ratethispodcast.comresessions to leave a review or a
(39:10):
rating and subscribe to theReal Estate Sessions podcast at your
favorite podcast. Listening.
It really is a lot easier toretain an agent than it is to recruit
an agent. So, but, but asbrokers and as leaders, we don't
want to take that for grantedthat agents are just not super mobile
right now. We still want towork on retention strategies and
that's primarily done throughcoaching and so we can use that data
to have better conversations.
(00:23):
You're listening to the RealEstate Sessions and I'm your host,
Bill Risser. With nearly 25years in the real estate business,
I love to interview industryleaders up and comer and really anyone
with a story to tell. It's thestories that led my guests to a career
in the real estate world thatdrives me in my 10th year and over
400 episodes of the podcast.And now I hope you enjoy the next
(00:44):
journey. Hi everybody. Welcometo episode 411 of the Real Estate
Sessions podcast. As always,thank you so much for tuning in.
Thank you so much for tellinga friend. We're going to be talking
to another founder of a youngcompany doing some great things.
It's Diana Zaya. She's the CEOfounder of Maverick Systems. It is
(01:06):
a tool that helps brokerageskind of manage that recruiting and
retention process. And it's alot of data involved in it, a lot
of data driven stuff. I lovetalking about that. So that's going
to be a blast. So let's goahead and get this thing started.
Diana, welcome to the podcast.
Hi, Bill. Thanks so much forhaving me. Greatly appreciate it.
Yeah, well, you referred to mefrom one of my favorite referrers,
(01:30):
which would be Marcie James.She, she's amazing. I'm sure you
have, you, you've known Marcy for.
Absolutely, Yeah. I couldn'tagree more. Marcy is amazing. I've
known her for several years.She's a great friend, great colleague
and I think the world of her.
Yeah, good. I think a lot ofpeople do. So that's awesome. Look,
the. I start my podcast prettymuch the same way. I like to find
(01:52):
out like where people grew up,a little bit of your background.
You and I had a chat a coupleof days ago. So I know that you're
a Chicagoland native, which issuper cool, but I want you to kind
of share with me becauseChicago, you know, it could. Some
people love it, other peopledon't love it. I'll just be kind
there. Give me, give me. Sinceyou grew up there and still live
(02:13):
there, give me your. Thebiggest misconceptions others might
have about the Windy City.
So I, I just have to say in,in My humble opinion, it's probably
one of the best US Cities. I.I did grow up. I was born and raised
in the city. And I think oneof the biggest misconceptions is
that it's a scary city to livein, that there is a lot of crime.
(02:34):
And, you know, we've got ourfair share of big city problems,
like any large city in theU.S. but in addition to that, we
have, hands down, got some ofthe best food. And I know we always
mention the food, but we'vegot great culture, great sports teams,
theaters, museums, world classshopping, so you name it. And it's
(02:55):
still relatively affordable tolive in the city of Chicago, right?
Yeah, that's a. That last oneis super important. But I'm also
a big fan of the sports stuff.We'll talk about that in a second,
because I like that. Give me,give me. What. What's your most favorite
thing about the city that you love?
Probably the lake and thearchitecture. So you can combine
(03:17):
the two and do, like,architectural tours. There are boats
that'll take you up and downthe Chicago River. You can even take
a kayak up and down theChicago River. So there's just so
much to do. City wineriesalong the river, so you can just
grab a glass of wine and sortof walk along the river. But I would
say having the lake, which Ifeel like is sort of the third coast
(03:38):
because it's so large, and sowe've got sailing. I've done sailing
on the lake. You can goboating. It's just. It's a lot of
fun.
That's great. I. I thought youwere gonna say Wrigley Field, but
that's okay. You know, that's. That's.
It's up there. It's up there,but definitely the lake.
I've had the pleasure of goingto a couple of games at Wrigley Field.
Just fantastic. And so are youCubs or White Sox? Because it's definitely
(04:02):
one or the other. Right.People aren't both in that area.
You. You're gonna. You'regonna be born into a side.
Usually, I think if you'reborn in the city and raised in the
city, you have your team. Butif you're from the suburbs and like
outlying areas, you're like, Ijust like Chicago teams. I'm definitely
a Cubs fan. So I was. I grewup about a mile west of Wrigley,
(04:23):
and so very strong Cubsculture in my neighborhood. So definitely
Wrigley is absolutelybeautiful. Spent a lot of time there.
So highly recommended ifanyone's visiting Chicago.
Yeah. One of the best loopsaround any ballpark in the country.
Just to see all the stuffthat's around there, whether it's
the homes in the outfield orthe great bars that are kind of more
(04:44):
down the first and third baseline.
Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Andthen they have like the rooftop.
So there's all the buildingsright around there that you can get
space up on the rooftop. Andso I have a, I have a 28 year old
daughter who lives in thatneighborhood now. Wow. Yeah. So I
get to get down there quite often.
Awesome. I love that. So Iwant to go back to something else
we chatted about a little bit.And you mentioned, as we were kind
(05:06):
of getting to know each other,that your parents are immigrants
in this country. Right. You,you and your brothers and sisters
are all, were all born here.But can we talk about that a little
bit? And I would, I'm going toventure to say from what we chatted
about that that those parentsand that upbringing really led to
a lot of the success youexperience today. Is that fair?
(05:28):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. SoI've got, there's four of us kids
in our family, all born andraised in the city. My parents came
probably in 1975 from themiddle east or from Syria. And they
kind of came from like reallydifferent worlds. So my mother was
from the city, her father wasa physician, so she was very much
(05:49):
a city girl. And my fathergrew up in the countryside. He was
a farmer and they had about200 acres. But the really cool thing
that I actually didn't findout until I was much older, like
until I was an adult, was myfather actually grew up in a mud
hut. So like, wow. No runningwater, no electricity. They actually
(06:12):
would get their water from aspot spring fed river and saw the
like little villages dottedthe river and they would filter it
in clay pots and that's howthey got their drinking water.
Wow.
Yeah, wow.
So your mom and dad come heretogether. They're maybe they're already
together, they're alreadymarried, they decide to make a change.
(06:34):
Where did they kind of starttheir journey?
So there was a small likeethnic community that was starting
to develop in Chicago. And sowhen you're an immigrant to a country,
it's nice to settle in withinyour own ethnic community because
you get, funny enough, you getassimilated a lot easier that way.
Oh, that's great.
And so it was between Chicagoand San Jose. And I was so angry
(06:57):
with my mother when I foundthis out. I'm like, why did you choose
Chicago? We could have beenCalifornians. And she said, because
the paperwork was alreadyprocessed and the job offer came
later in San Jose. So I waslike, okay, well, we're Chicagoans.
But. But yeah, certainly goingback to your question about shaping
my work ethic, both my parentsreally did shape it. And I, you know,
(07:20):
I think about people that,that immigrate to the US or really
to any country, but especiallythe US People come here primarily
for the opportunity. So I, forme, my thought about people that
are coming to the US is bytheir very nature, they tend to be
ambitious or they're lookingfor a better life. And that certainly
(07:41):
wasn't lost on me and mysisters and my brother. And, you
know, it's funny becauseyou'll always hear parents say, you
know, to their children, whenI was your age, I had to, you know,
walk 10 miles up a hill in thesnow to get to school. And that story
was actually pretty true. Imean, he's of my father. He was in
(08:03):
the Middle east, so we didn'thave the snow, but certainly he was
commuting or he was riding hisbike 10 out, 10 miles a day to get
to school and back. And sothat was not lost on us. And it's
certainly not lost on my kidseither. And so, you know, my father's
no longer with us, but one ofthe things that my kids remember
(08:23):
about him when we do talkabout him is how much he stressed
discipline and education andhard work. And so it's nice to see
that legacy with my kids.
That's awesome. You just, youmentioned education, and I know that's
a big part of your growing up.Right. And I know that you headed
off to Purdue and there's somany different schools in your area,
(08:45):
tons in the Midwest. WhyPurdue? Why are you a boilermaker?
Well, so I actually, I didn'ttake a straight path to university.
I actually, I got married outof high school, so all of my siblings
went to university. Rightaway, my path was a little bit different.
I don't know why. For somereason, I felt like I was always
(09:06):
rushing to become an adult.And so, so I ended up getting married
and starting a family at 19.We purchased our first home at 22.
And so my journey touniversity life came much later in
life.
Oh, okay.
Yeah. And it, it just becauseof the upbringing that I had. It
just always sort of felt likethis unchecked box. And so when the
(09:30):
opportunity arose and the timewas right, I did go back. I did pick
Purdue because of thecurriculum and just A lot of logistical
things that aligned and so, so how.
How old were you at this time?
When I went back touniversity, this was. Oh, gosh, like
I probably started in my 30s.
(09:50):
Wow, that's great. Yeah,because you have how many children?
You have how many children?
So I've got two. I've got a 28year old daughter and a 17 year old
son.
Yeah. So that had to be tough.I mean, you were talking about trying
to get that degree while you,while you're raising children. That's.
Well, there you go. There'swork ethic right there. Nothing tougher,
I would think.
Well, I just feel like it's agood thing to be a lifelong learner
(10:11):
too, whether you're going backto university or, you know, just
reading books all the time ortaking classes or certifications.
And I, I really do believeyour children will pick that up and
develop that culture withinthemselves, even if it's not right
away. I think those kinds ofthings really resonate with kids
and they will instill that intheir children at some point.
(10:36):
What was the first job you hadafter leaving Purdue?
Well, my first adult job whenI was younger was, was working as
a corporate travel agent. So Idid, I did take a certification early
on in life to become, tobecome certified to work on the airline's
booking systems. And so I washired as a corporate travel agent
(10:58):
for American Express. Myaccount was Sara Lee, which was like
huge. This was like back inthe late 90s where Sara Lee was,
you know, buying differentbrands like Champion and Jimmy Dean.
And so we got to book travelfor like their CEOs and their executives
and, you know, theirleadership team. And it was a lot
of fun. It was, it was a lotof fun. And this was at, this was.
(11:21):
So this was pre 911 when Istarted there. And the travel benefits
were amazing. So we didn'tmake a ton of money, but we had tremendous
benefits. So you get to travelthe world essentially for free and
stay in like really nicehotels and, you know, really great
perks. Probably one of thebest companies I've ever worked for.
Wow.
Yeah.
And then. But somehow we'vegot to get you into this data space.
(11:44):
Right. Because what you'redoing now is, well, super cool. We're
going to talk a lot aboutMaverick Systems, you know, here
shortly. But let's talk abouthow did you get into that world?
What was that thing that drewyou into that space?
So when I was working forAmerican Express Express, so I was,
I was working there when 911happened and that sort of changed
(12:06):
the travel industry. This alsowas at a time when online travel
agencies like Expedia weregaining traction and were becoming
a thing. And so companies likeSara Lee were moving more to those
online travel agencies andworking with corporate travel agents
a lot less and sort of 9, 11accelerated that. And what ended
(12:27):
up happening is I was in myearly 20s, I think I was like 23,
24. And I ended up, they endedup laying off thousands of employees.
I was one of them. I made itto the fourth round and they were
kind of going by seniority andmy name came up and I was let go.
And I was so young and I wasunder maybe a false impression at
(12:48):
the time that layoffs didn'thappen to young people. And so when
it happened to me, it was likeout of left field. It was really
a shock. And I was soindignant, I was so angry about it
that I ended up taking myseverance and saying, you know, I'm
going to go in business formyself and what is the most low barrier
(13:10):
way to do that? And I wasintroduced to real estate and I thought,
this is a great profession.And back then it was really easy
to get into it. I took a oneweek course. I went Monday through
Friday, 9 to 5, which youcan't do. You can't do.
Not quite. It's close, but not quite.
Not. Well, not in Chicago. Youcan't do anymore.
Gotcha.
Everyone in Chicago has to bea broke, has to have a broker's license.
(13:32):
Oh, okay. That's different.
Yeah, yeah. Or maybe it's anIllinois thing.
So the real estate part camefirst for you. That's, that's. So
you're, you're, you're arealtor in Chicago. A Young realtor
at 24.
Yeah.
Yeah. How did that go? How didthat go?
So not so great. And verycommon. Not so great my first year,
(13:53):
actually, I think I did worsemy first year than most people. So
to any real estate agents thatare listening, Keep hope alive, it's,
you know, there's a learningcurve. But I was, I was very young
and as you can imagine, not alot of people want to work with a
24 year old to buy or sell ahome. But what I did have going for
(14:15):
me were a few things. So Iended up coming into the business
when you could purchase a homewith no money down. Okay. And I had
purchased my first home when Iwas 22 with no money down. And I
had a lot of friends that werelike, hey, that's pretty cool. And
I want to do the same thing.And so I started selling homes to
(14:38):
my friends. My first year Ididn't sell any homes and I didn't
realize that I could sellhomes to friends until my second
year. So not one sale my firstyear, second year, started selling
to my friends and then theyreferred me to their friends and
on it went. And it wasprobably by my like third or fourth
year in real estate, I wasselling just under 4 million in production.
(15:00):
And this was at a time whenhomes were like 150,000 too.
Yeah, that's, that's a great number.
Yeah, yeah, I didextraordinarily well. Started hosting
first time home buyerseminars. And really it was during
that time in real estate iswhen I would start, I started sort
of tracking my own metricswhich I think is like critically
(15:20):
important to look at. Youknow, what market are my deals in,
what are my lead sources,where are they coming from, you know,
how many deals that I did, Ido, how much do I want to increase?
And I didn't realize what alove of data I had. I just was sort
of like trying to manage mybusiness, but that's really where
I kind of got my feet wet.
So you're actually a realtorwho created a business plan of.
(15:45):
I did, I did.
That's, that's, that's reallypowerful, especially at a young age.
Right. Because there seems tobe a lot of wing in it even to today
at times, you know, we have,there's lots of conversations with
agents about what's the planfor next year. So yeah, that's, that's
really cool to have that, thatalready baked in.
It was like just a lot oftrial and error. You know, I think
you fall on your face enough,it hurts and you don't want to, you
(16:09):
don't want to repeat it. Soyou iterate and you, you know, you
try to think about like, well,what can I do differently?
So, so is, is there, am I, doI have this right? Is there kind
of a breakaway from realestate for a little while where you
decided to try something or dosomething else?
Well, I was in real estate upuntil the housing market collapse
in 08 and so I ended upleaving. I just didn't have the book
(16:31):
of business to sustain it. Iwas so young and me and my clients
were all first time homebuyers. So I worked in real estate
for about six years up untilthat point and then I ended up leaving
and I sort of wanted to goback to hospitality but I really
didn't want to go back intothe travel agency. And so I sort
of went adjacent and started,had an opportunity with a hotel to
(16:51):
work in their sales andmarketing, ended up staying in the
hotel industry for a bit oftime, worked for Hyatt and Hilton,
led corporate sales and didsome marketing with them. And that's
really where I deepened mylove of data. Because much like real
estate, the hospitalityindustry is extremely data rich and
you know, you can, you canpretty much track everything. And
(17:13):
so I started to, I took a fewclasses on data and reporting and
that sort of thing likebusiness reporting. And I started
building out reportingpackages for the properties that
I worked for to see how wewere trending and, you know, how
we stacked up against ourcompetitors and that sort of thing.
And really I would say that'swhere my true love of data really
(17:35):
started to evolve and deepen.
But then there's theentrepreneur side of you come rears
back up and you're ready to goout on your own again, right?
Yes, I do have anentrepreneurial spirit and I find
that a lot of people that areentrepreneurial, a lot of certainly,
certainly a lot of people inour industry have a really hard time
(17:57):
working for big companies andwe either do our own thing or we
like startups where there's alot of creativity and you know, you
can contribute a lot. Likeyou're not really boxed into a small,
tight role. So, so it was thatjust kind of getting disillusioned
from working for largecorporations and feeling like I had
(18:19):
a very narrow role in what Iwas doing, combined with the fact
that technology was on therise and it's been for a number of
years. And I just felt like,you know, gosh, I'm missing the boat
and I really want to get intothe tech space. And so the opportunity
came up to be part of thefounding team of Relytics, which
is a data analytics companycompany in real estate. And so I
(18:42):
jumped on that opportunity andI joined the team.
Talk a little bit more aboutwhat Relytics did. Were they helping
enterprise at an enterpriselevel, at a brokerage level? What
was their, what was their.
Yeah, we, so we worked withreal estate brokerages to help with,
with their growth initiatives.We essentially supplied data insights
(19:03):
that would allow them to makebetter decision making about any
coaching opportunities withintheir own agent pool, how to identify
high value recruit prospects,you know, things like that.
And that, that seems like thenthe natural lead in to what, what
you're currently doing now,right, with Maverick Systems.
(19:23):
Yeah, 100%. So I really lovedworking there and because it was
a startup environment, I Had achance to contribute pretty heavily
to product development as wellas development of our advanced analytics,
and got to work with a lot ofreally great teams and brokerages
across the nation and reallyfell in love with the industry on
(19:44):
a much deeper level. One ofthe things that. And it really valued
my time there. But one of thethings that I noticed when I was
working with a lot of thecompanies and teams across the US
Is that many of them struggledto adopt data. And so I started to
dig in deeper and did a lot ofwork on more like account management
(20:06):
and spending a lot of timewith our clients and, you know, would
ask them questions like, youknow, tell me, you know, how do you.
If you have information aboutan agent, how do you approach them?
Or how do you take the dataand apply it? Like, what tools are
you using? How do you knityour systems together? Do you have
a system? And take me. Starteddoing sort of like a process flow
(20:28):
analysis where I was like,take me through your process. Like,
you sit at your desk, what doyou do? Just, like, show me what
you do. And it was so funnybecause it didn't matter how big
or small the company was.Didn't matter if it was a team or
brokerage. They all sort ofstruggled with the same challenges.
You know, they. They had thesame challenges. Which one was, we
have a tremendous amount ofdata, but how do we actually put
(20:50):
it into action? Like, Iunderstand the information you're
telling me, but what do I dowith it? So that was a struggle.
And even, like, the datainterpretation was a struggle because
if you're supplying somebodywith, you know, hundreds of data
points, there's a little bitof a challenge in understanding how
to interpret all of thatinformation and then how to put it
(21:11):
in action. And then I alsorealized that our industry struggles
with a lot of reallydisconnected systems and softwares
and solutions and platformsthat people were trying to knit together
this sort of, kind of like,kind of a Franken system.
(21:33):
I like that.
Yeah. And, you know, manypeople didn't even do that. So I
thought, you know, there's theoverarching theme here when dealing
with teams and brokerages is astruggle to interpret the data and
to put it into action.
Okay.
And so I saw an opportunitythere, and that really was a catalyst
(21:55):
for Maverick Systems.
So it's really finding thatpain point. Right. Ultimately, and
solving for that has led to alot of really successful companies.
Yeah.
I want to ask you thisquestion. You talk about the Franken
systems, which I'll be using alot of that now. But that's great.
There's so many, so manypromises of end to end solution.
(22:18):
We take care of everything.You know, you've heard there's lots
of companies that have usedthat phrase. Has anyone really nailed
it in your opinion or is itkind of almost impossible to be com.
The one thing for every, for,for multiple types of people? I don't,
it doesn't make sense to me, I guess.
I think, I think there arecompanies that obviously are, are
doing it, but are they doingit well? And I think sometimes if
(22:41):
you spread yourself too thinand you try to acquire too many companies
or build too many solutionsthat you kind of have many that don't
really work for the consumer.Yeah, I think that would be sort
of the pitfall of trying todevelop too much too quickly and
try to meet everyone's needs.Yeah, that. So I don't, I'm not saying
(23:01):
that that's what they'restruggling with or not, but it's
certainly a pitfall that acompany could fall into. But I think
solutions that are flexibleare probably going to work better
for the consumer. And so whatwe do at Maverick is we have our
(23:21):
sort of out of the boxplatform, but we use integrations
to be able to semi customizethat platform to our clients needs
because not everybody needseverything and that's what makes
us a little bit different.
Yeah, your company is focusedon really helping brokers solve a
(23:43):
really big problem and that isrecruiting and retention. I guess
those have to go together, Iwould imagine. Yeah. So talk about
that a little bit, how that works.
Yeah, so we're certainlystarting with the data. I think data
is really the foundationalpiece of it because that's the insight.
So we do license MLS data atour clients request and then we will
(24:08):
process all of thatinformation and turn it into insight
about the agents that are notjust in their market that they're
trying to recruit, but theagents internally that they want
to try to keep. Becausehonestly, especially in today's climate,
it really is a lot easier toretain an agent than it is to recruit
an agent. So. But, but asbrokers and as leaders, we don't
want to take that for grantedthat agents are just not super mobile
(24:30):
right now. We still want towork on retention strategies and
that's primarily done throughcoaching and so we can use that data
to have better conversations.So at Maverick Systems we supply
over 70 data points on anagent and it's everything from like
not just production, butproduction years in business, sales
trends, top markets, listingcapabilities. I mean you name it,
(24:53):
it's in there. And then we doa really fine job at interpreting
that data for our clients. Andwhat I mean by that is we'll actually
grab a segment of theprospects that are in their market
and we'll say, hey, there'sthis little sub segment here that's
really struggling with gettinglistings to close, for example. Or
(25:15):
like, we'll use that strategymore internally to say, hey, you've
got some agents in your officethat are actually taking quite a
few listings or not reallyclosing on them. When they do close
on them, the days on market isreally high and the list to sell
ratio is really low. So maybeit's a marketing and pricing issue
that they might have. And soif you do some training around that
(25:36):
or coaching around that, Ithink that would go a long way. And
so that's how we work with ourclients on the coaching and retention
side. But likewise on therecruitment side, we'll help them
develop Personas that aresuited to the types of agents that
they want to bring into theirfirm and then help them with their
messaging. Like, what doesthis Persona generally struggle with?
(25:58):
What should your overarchingmarketing message be to them? Like,
how do you have messagingthat's resonant with this group of
people?
Yeah, I hear all the time thatculture plays a huge role right inside
a brokerage. I would imagineyou would agree with that.
Yeah, a hundred percent. Ahundred percent. I think. I think
culture is probably the numberone reason agents will either join
(26:21):
a firm or leave a firm,followed by compensation. And you've
heard people say it's, youknow, it's compensation, it's not.
And in fact, Inman didprobably one of the most comprehensive
surveys that I personally haveseen about a year ago, where they
surveyed hundreds of agentsacross the US and they asked them
(26:42):
several questions. They askedthem many questions, but there were
several were aroundrecruitment. And so they asked agents
what they valued most abouttheir current brokerage. Okay, what
they valued most. And themajority, 35%, said it was their
culture. And then they askedthem of the ones that had switched
(27:03):
brokerages in the past year,what the reason was for the switch,
for the change. And again, themajority, over 40%, replied, Culture.
It was a change of culture.And then they asked them if they
were to make a move of theones that hadn't, what would be the
(27:25):
reason for. For a move, ifthey were to consider a move. And
again, the number one answer,and it was about 30% said they would
move for a better cultural fit.
Wow.
Yeah.
So That's a big conversationwith a broker when you start working
with them, like what are youdoing here? And maybe that needs
to be ironed out first or atleast codified. Right. Some way so
(27:46):
you know exactly what it is. Wow.
Yeah, we work with our clientsto find out like, you know, are,
are you guys doing dailystandups? Do you have training classes?
Like, you know, do you haveevents that you just get together
and have fun? You know,because all of that can be used in
your messaging when we aresegmenting your database for you.
Right.
Especially when it comes to training.
(28:07):
You know, we're talking aboutbrokerages here but you know, there's
this rise of the teams that'sbeen growing. You've had some people
say that one day the big boxbrands are going to be gone because
it's going to be teams thatare driving everything. Do you also
work with teams becauserecruiting is a big part of their
world?
Yeah, we definitely work withteams. And one of the things that
I would say about like thebiggest difference that I've noticed
(28:29):
about teams and brokerage isespecially when you're talking about
like multi office brokerage,teams are just way more nimble, you
know, they, they can move witha lot more speed and teams are more
system oriented and likeprocess oriented. And so what I didn't
touch on earlier is yes, weprovide the data insights but we're
(28:49):
integrated with a CRM andother solutions. We have like built
in sales enablement solutionsand things like that. They give you
a comprehensive system and Ifeel like in my experience teams
really seem to get that andget the importance of having a comprehensive
solution and to be realsystematized in how they approach
(29:11):
recruitment, retention, coaching.
Yeah, so there's, look,there's pluses and minuses to both
opportunities, you know, but Ithink it's, it's very interesting
that you're, you're able toservice both, which is, which is
great for the company. Youlike to write.
I do.
You do because you're anauthor for Inman Housing Wire Riz
(29:36):
Media who goes against Imminall the time.
So.
Yeah, yeah. So that's reallycool that you like to do that. So
you like sharing out to theindustry what you're learning, what
you, the, the trends and kindof things that you see. Talk about
that a little bit. I thinkthat's super cool.
Yeah, I just love connectingwith people and I feel like writing
(29:57):
has allowed me the opportunityto share my thoughts, but it's also
allowed me to better connectwith our pretty small, tight Knit
real estate community, youknow, and I go to conferences and
you know, like many of us goto events and it's funny how many
times I've had people say tome like, oh, I read your article
and I honestly didn't eventhink people read it that much. But
(30:19):
people say like, they'llreference articles that I've written
and they'll share theirthoughts. And to me that like is
the best feeling. It's sorewarding and it's cool because,
you know, we, nowadays, I feellike we all sort of have a platform
with social media and I justthink that if we can share things
that resonate with otherpeople or maybe are thought provoking
(30:42):
or share something thatsomebody may not know, we, we build
deeper connections than justtaking pictures of our food, which
I also do. But.
Who doesn't? Come on.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's,it's a lot of fun. And honestly,
I feel like it's even likecathartic in a way. Like I, like,
I feel like I've solved a lotof my own problems or you know, struggles
(31:04):
like just being able to write,you know, because you start to share
your thoughts and sharing yourthoughts in that sort of like that
platform will provoke otherthoughts, you know, and it'll lead
to other things that you wantto research or think about. So, yeah,
it's been fun.
Is there something that you'rethinking about that is next for Maverick
(31:27):
Systems? Is there? Or are youkind of always hard to do what you're
doing now? But sometimes Ialways like to find out if there's
something in the future thatyou can talk about.
There's, there's alwayssomething. Especially, you know,
being a young company. It's.
Yeah.
I was talking with a friendthe other day and I'm like, you know,
I think the hardest thingabout being like a young company
is you have a lot ofopportunities that come at you, people
(31:51):
that want to work with you ondifferent really cool sounding projects
and then you have a lot ofyour own ideas on things that you
want to try or do orimplement. And the hardest part is
narrowing that focus to whatis going to advance the company.
When is it the right time tobuild on what we're already doing
(32:12):
and when is it the right timeto sort of put the brakes on it?
So yes, we have a lot ofideas. Nothing I can share today.
All right, good. So deeperlike that. Deeper versus wider conversations
just happening all the time. Right?
It's happening. It's all thetime. It's all the time. I Think
whenever you're in business,you have to constantly be looking
(32:34):
at what's coming. You have tolook at different trends, emerging
technologies. I quite oftenwill go outside of our industry to
learn about things that arehappening in other industries, different
technologies or businessprocesses or different methodologies
of doing certain things. And Itry to bring some of that back into
(32:56):
Maverick and implement it inwhat we're doing. So, yeah, so it's
always you. Just as a founder,I think you have to be really. Or
as a business leader, you justhave to be very flexible and you
have to always be on thelookout for opportunities and emerging
trends.
I didn't bring this up, andnormally I talk about it in most
(33:18):
episodes, but AI in datascience, I would imagine there's
definitely some help there. AmI right?
Yeah.
Or not.
AI, I think AI is. Is great.We're going to see a lot more of
it. Obviously, it's likeexploded onto the scene.
Yeah.
So, you know, it's. I thinkit's something that it's gonna. It
(33:40):
will. It will replace somejobs, but it will also create many
other jobs. So I wouldn't beworried about that as a general public,
but I would also just stay ontop of these sort of trends in whatever
industry somebody is in.Certainly in real estate, we see
it taking over. And so I thinkit's really important that whatever
your role is within ourindustry is to look at your role
and think about how AI maychange that. And I think there's
(34:03):
a lot of truth to the sayingof evolve or die. And I think people
that fight the trends and tryto hold on to the old way of doing
things are going to reallyhurt themselves that way and are
going to struggle. So youdon't have to go out and, you know,
have everything AI. But Icertainly would start to explore
(34:25):
it, like, stay. Stay on top ofthe. Stay with the trends, you know,
because if you let. If you letthe technologies go by too much and
you let the world go on toofar without you keeping up, it just
makes it increasingly difficult.
Yeah, it's hard to start atthe beginning when the pack is, you
know, 100 miles down the road.It's really tough. Right.
(34:48):
It's very hard. And just. Evenon the data alone. I actually recently
read a study, and this is likethis. It kind of blew my mind, but
not really. I was kind oflike, yeah, that makes sense. There
was a study Oracle did acouple of years ago. It was called
the Decision Dilemma. And theyended up interviewing, like 14,000
business leaders across. Iwant to, say, 17 countries. And yeah,
(35:12):
it was a really comprehensivestudy. And they. They were asking
him. This was specificallyabout data and using data and data
driven decision making intheir businesses. And what was like,
what really stood out to mewas that people, as much as we say,
we're like, we have a dataculture and this sort of thing, people
are struggling to keep up withhow to use it. And this is just one
(35:35):
thing that, you know that. Andthere's so many other technologies
that are coming out. But they.They found in this study that 85%
of respondents said theysuffered from decision distress,
which meant that they eitherhad a lot of anxiety over a decision
they made or were reallystressed out about using data. Like,
(35:58):
whenever the conversationwould come up about using data, it
caused them great stress andanxiety. And another 72% admitted
that the sheer volume of datahas actually stopped them from taking
action.
Wow. Yeah, yeah, that's.That's tough there. Someone's got
to solve that, right?
(36:20):
But it goes to my point that,yes, yes, we need solutions that
are. Are working for peoplerather than working against them.
So I didn't want to have acompany that provided you a ton of
insight that you couldn'tutilize. And so for me, our approach
and the way that I runMaverick is we're very consultative
with our clients, but we use alot of technology to try to carry
(36:42):
a lot of that because you haveto balance being consultative, which
is like, very hands on, verytime consuming, and balance it with
being efficient. And so Ithink we do a really good job of.
Of that right now where we canserve our clients sort of in a way
that feels very personal andconsultative, but we can use technology
(37:03):
to do it really efficiently.
As a founder, that's veryimportant for you to make sure you
get that balance there. Yeah,that's cool. Well, Diana, this has
been amazing. I'm going to letyou go, but you have to answer one
final question, the samequestion we've asked every guest
since August of 2015. And thatis what one piece of advice would
you give an agent just gettingstarted in the business?
(37:25):
Okay. If I had to boil it downto one, Write a business plan before
you get a license.
Sweet.
Yeah, write a business plan.And. And I. If you don't know where
to. Where to get a template orhow to write it, you probably have
a business development centerin your county, probably through
(37:45):
the SBA or something likethat. So reach out to your county
business development center,make an appointment, go down there
and say, I want to launch abusiness. What Do I need to know?
How do I. How do I write abusiness plan?
That's awesome. Look, becauseit's so many people, it's. They don't
think in the terms of a. Andreally, they're. They're little startups.
They're just little startupsjust getting going, you know, and
(38:06):
there's lots of help, but youstill gotta perform and do all the
things that are laid out therefor you. But, yeah, it's. I love
that answer. That's great.
Yeah, yeah, it really helpstremendously. It just sort of is
like, that's your roadmap.That's. That's also your way of vetting
your business, you know?
Yeah. So, Diana, if someonewants to reach out to you, what's
the best way for them to do that?
(38:27):
Yeah, you can go to ourwebsite. It's www.mavericksystems.com.
if somebody wants to schedulea demo of the solution, they can
do so on the site. If theywant to reach out to me personally,
please feel free to email me.It's just Diana D I A N A Mavericksystems.com
well, thank you so much.
Give a shout out, anothershout out to Marcy. When next time
(38:48):
you see her, tell her. Billwas super happy this referral. Yeah.
I love your story. I thinkit's fantastic. It'll be fun to watch
your company grow and besuccessful. And once again, thank
you so much for being here.
I appreciate it. It's a lot offun. Thanks, Bill.
Thank you for listening to theReal Estate Sessions. Please head
over to ratethispodcast.comresessions to leave a review or a
(39:10):
rating and subscribe to theReal Estate Sessions podcast at your
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