Brandon Tracy Shares How His Team Sold 123 Houses in 2017

Steve Trang: Everybody. Thank you for joining us for today for today's episode of Real Estate Disruptors. Today, we've got Brandon Tracy with BTG.

Brandon Tracy: Hey. Hey.

Steve: And he's here to share how his team sold a 123 properties in 2017, and they're already on pace for almost double in 2018.

Brandon: Yes.

Steve: If this is your first time tuning in, I'm Steve Trang, broker, owner of Stunning Homes Realty, cofounder of the OfferFast app, the one app you need for wholesaling, and I help people become real estate entrepreneurs. If you're excited for today's show, please give me a thumbs up or a a wave. And before we get started, I did start this show because I wanna get back to our community. I definitely struggled before, and Brandon's gonna share some of the struggles he had as well. And we wanna shortcut that struggle for as many young leaders as possible.

I don't charge a dime for this show. I don't make any money doing this. So here's all I ask. All it costs you to listen to the show is you gotta get if you get value, please tell a friend, whether tagging you, them below, sharing this episode right now, or giving them the best takeaway later on. And that way, we can all grow together.

And don't forget, this is a live show. So if you've got questions, please post them below and Brandon and I will be happy to answer them for you. Ready to go? I'm ready. Alright.

So first question, what got you into real estate?

Brandon: Oh my goodness. You know, I'd have to go back all the way to 2004. And I promised you I was gonna give you the straight answers here. Normally, I'll dodge this a little bit, but, I had a brain tumor in 2004.

Steve: Oh, wow.

Brandon: Yeah. Really, really scared me, quite a bit. It was, you know, it came on really fast. It was it was, you know, pretty pretty dangerous situation, and it just kinda flipped me. You know, flipped a switch inside of me.

I was like, wow. You know, my I was 24 years old.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: So I kinda went from just this young, you know, kid just finding his way through the world, coming out of ASU for kinesiology. I was doing some athletic and personal training. And, you know, at that age, you just feel bulletproof. Like, that that's how you feel at that. You can't imagine, you know, possibility of something being wrong with you.

Yeah. So I was I was certainly operating on that wavelength in my head. Like, you know, I'm I'm bulletproofing, you know, and and just in a in a almost a blink of an eye. And, you know, there I was laying in the emergency surgery room at Baroneurological Institute in Phoenix. And, you know, hey, you got a ping pong, you know, size golf ball size tumor Wow.

In your brain behind your left eye. And, throughout that whole experience, you know, I I just came through the other side like most people do with something that kinda shakes them to their core a little bit and kinda, you know, kinda really, really pushes your you know, the the fact that you're you're you're gonna die someday. Right? Like, this is this is real. We we all do that.

And I came out of that just with, like, a renewed vigor of what I wanted my life to look like Mhmm. And what I wanted to be about as a person. And and I don't think I got there right away. You know, you develop as a as a young man. It takes you know, you you go through hardships, you learn from failures, and you do all that stuff.

But, ultimately, that was where the decision was made, in a hospital bed at Baroneurological Institute that, you know, hey. I'm gonna I'm gonna do real estate. My mom had done some real estate when I when I was younger. I was familiar with it to a certain degree, and I came out of that. And, you know, like most people did, mind you, this was, you know, o three, o four, o five, and and I got into investing, buying houses and flipping them.

I mean, I bought my first house on whatever whatever you hear from this, don't do this. But I bought my first house in Downtown Phoenix on a credit card and fixed it up on credit cards and flipped it over and, you know, made some money. I thought, wow. This is super easy. Right?

Steve: Oh, you can get rich quick.

Brandon: Yeah. I don't know. And and, you know, what I what I didn't realize, what I was too young and arrogant to realize at the time is that it wasn't my skill that was, you know, helping me flip houses or do this. I thought I was, you know, I thought I was doing doing some good things. I was

Steve: like, man,

Brandon: I'm a pretty smart dude. In reality, it was just the boom. You know? The the market was absolutely going crazy. So I never had a chance to fail during that time because the market was correcting every single, you you know, mistake that I was making.

All your mistakes. Yeah. It covers all all your mistakes. So you don't ever have a chance to learn. And, you know, when you're when you're that age, you do have a tendency to be a bit arrogant, and that arrogance can grow, in that environment.

And I think I think that's exactly what happened to me. So ultimately, you know, like most people in in o eight, you know, that ended quite tragically Yeah. To say the least.

Steve: So you're in your hospital bed

Brandon: Yeah.

Steve: And you decide, well, now it's time for real estate. I mean, you you said you're getting a degree in kinesiology? Yes.

Brandon: At at Arizona State. So how

Steve: is so why real estate?

Brandon: You know, I think like most people that come into real estate, that decision was also quite naive. Mhmm. You know, because even today, we see what Facebook and HGTV does to set expectations for people that come into our world.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: So so I'm not gonna lie and say that I don't think there wasn't a level of naivety that that, you know, was part of that decision.

Steve: Uh-huh.

Brandon: But regardless, that's where the decision was made. And, you know, and I and I came into it, you know, just going, well, I I think this is my path towards financial freedom. And like most people, I said, you know, I I really want control over my own schedule, and and I I wanna be my own boss. And I said all the things that other people say. But fast forward to 2009 after the crash, I lost everything.

I was sleeping on the floor of a friend of mine's apartment complex.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: You know, and coming from where I was, you know, really, really humbled me in that moment. Gave me an opportunity to become self self aware

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: To learn about myself and and who I was, as an individual and who I wanted to be as a man. And and and I think that, you know, essentially being at rock bottom there was was critical to to being where I'm at today. Yeah. But, ultimately, I got a a job at a place that I really hated. You know, one of those one of those jobs that you have that just sucks the soul right out of you.

Like, and you, like, you just show up every morning and you go, I the the most exciting thing that could possibly happen in my life is me getting up from this desk right now and walking out and never coming back.

Steve: Right? Put on a planner for that.

Brandon: Yeah. I just wasn't, and I knew that. I felt it at my core. I just just felt it at such a cellular level that I was I didn't belong in that environment, that I that I needed to step out. I needed an opportunity, but I was also at the very lowest point of my personal confidence that I've ever been at.

Mhmm. Fighting these two, like, you know, competing ideas. But I'll tell you what. I, I was driving down the 101, and I was in traffic from I was going from Frank Lloyd Wright to the 60 on the 101, bumper to bumper traffic. And listen, I I'm just gonna be honest.

I'm having a conversation with my mother, in that moment. And, again, confidence is low. I'd lost everything. The shame that I felt, You know, at that time, you know, losing everything and and losing investments and going through that, at the time, you didn't realize how many Americans were going through it.

Steve: A lot.

Brandon: All you knew is that you were going through it and felt horrible. Yeah. I felt so much shame. Like, the amount of shame that was oozing from me just crushed my confidence. It it killed me.

And I'm driving down the 101. I'm talking to my mother, and I still remember this. And she and I talk about it to this day. I have tears coming down my face. And I just tell her, I said, you know, all I want is is the door to open for me one more time in real estate.

Just just one small door to open for me, and I'll never look back. I'll get in there. I'll figure things out. I'll be humble about it, and I'll never look back. And I'll use that as a catalyst, not only for me to to to right my wrongs and fix the shame that I felt and and, you know, the foreclosures and the and the, you know, the people I had invested with and all of that.

But also, like, honor myself in that decision that I made in that hospital bed

Steve: Right.

Brandon: About what I wanted to do. Well, what I didn't realize at that time in 2004 when I wanted to make that decision and go into real estate was, okay. I knew what I wanted, but I wasn't the man I needed to be yet Mhmm. To go ahead and take action on that goal. And luckily, through the collapse in o eight and the humbling and hitting rock bottom and becoming self aware and learning about yourself and who you are, who you wanna be.

I think in that moment, I just realized, like, I I'm ready. I'm I'm mentally and emotionally ready to take this seriously and act like a man and take responsibility for for my actions. And and sure enough, within a week, and and it's no exaggeration, within a week, a guy that I knew, that I had done some investments with that I thought felt really poorly of me because we had some investments, and those fell apart. Go right. Yeah.

Again, I didn't realize we were all going through it. All all I knew is in that moment, I felt so much shame, and I've You were inside you. Inside myself on that. And I get a phone call from him. And he goes, I met somebody, at a bar last night.

Shocker. Right? And he goes, and I gave her your phone number, and I think that you should talk to her about real estate. And, it turns out that he wrote my name and phone number on a bar napkin and slid it over to a extremely wonderful woman who I absolutely adore and love, Steph Martini.

Steve: Mhmm. Do

Brandon: you know Steph?

Steve: I think she was a team leader for KW. She was.

Brandon: Yeah. She was a team leader for KW and and but she's so much more than that. I mean, so much more than that as a person.

Steve: I mean, she's the one I gave the Jabari book.

Brandon: Yeah. That wouldn't surprise me at all. Yeah. But I I came in to meet with her, and and, you know, the rest is is kinda history. Yeah.

It was that moment, that defining moment, that conversation with her. And later on, I had another very defining moment conversation with her. But you know how you talk about really influential people that came into your life at a very specific time. Like, Steph was that person for me. She was that door, that little crack that I tearfully explained to my mother.

Like, I just need I need this opportunity to show up.

Steve: Well, I think that's amazing, right, is that you had you had the brain tumor, and then you had the the crash. And in both instances, it would have been really easy to just fold up shop and give

Brandon: Defining moments. Right?

Steve: Yeah. But it's easy to give up. But instead, you embrace those two things to bring you to where you are today. Right? Yeah.

Instead of because most people would just be like, alright. Screw it. You know, this wasn't for me. Whatever. We took failure, and you use it to propel you forward.

So I think that's powerful. Right? It's all matter of perspective.

Brandon: Yeah. Well, you know, and now with hindsight being being an older, more mature, and more responsible individual, you look back and you start to understand and realize the value of failure.

Steve: Yeah. Like,

Brandon: it's one of the most valuable things that we can have, both for personal and professional growth. Mhmm. Right? We all think that we succeed our way to success, but what we really do is we like, the people who are most successful in the world simply failed their way there. Yeah.

You know? And you hear it like

Steve: yeah.

Brandon: Every guru has whatever version of, you know, flipping the script on failure. Mhmm. But the reality of it is, and especially in the new Instagram meme world where we're just seeing, you know, one quote after another after another, and we're scrolling through quote after quote after quote, and we like them, and we move on. Well, we gotta sit for a moment and let that information, that language, what it's telling us resonate at a deeper level. Mhmm.

And that's and that's what we're talking about here with failure is, you know, how you respond to failure and how you use it is a massively determined like, it it massively affects how well you're going to do in the future because it's a learning experience. And and you you get to choose to learn from that, evaluate what you just did, evaluate what you did well, evaluate what you did poorly, and then use that to reinvent yourself for the next day.

Steve: Well, I love what you say there, though. You get to choose. Yeah.

Brandon: And it's all a choice. Onto it. It's all a choice. Everything that we do is is a choice. Yeah.

And I know that that's so hard for people to hear because life is hard. Like, let's just face it. Like, life is is difficult. Like, we're we're in a very interesting capitalism society here. It's difficult.

I get that. But it it's important. Like, it's really important that you understand that it's a choice that you make every single day whether or not you wanna take action Mhmm. Whether you wanna give into fears or reluctancies, whether or not you wanna sit at home and and watch Netflix all day, or whether or not you wanna get up and change something about your life. Personally or professionally, it doesn't matter.

It's a choice.

Steve: So this is really horrible. But with my kids, whenever they complain life's not fair, it's like, get used to it. What are you gonna do about it?

Brandon: Yeah. I mean, you know what? I don't think our parents would have taken it that far. Right? Because but but the reality of it is is, like, maybe it doesn't have to be that harsh.

We're joking about it right now. But, like That's but if we can set if we can set better expectations for not only our kids, but people who come into our industry

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: If they have better expectations set for them, then maybe they won't come in. Or maybe they'll come in and find success or find a different path towards success that Right. Is much more valuable to them. And I think it's one of the things we do worst in real estate is set expectations for what our world really looks like.

Steve: Yeah. Well, I mean, we all fell for it. Right? I mean, mean, we all thought we were gonna be on the beach and be drinking Mai Tais all day. Yeah.

So if you were to start over today, like, what are the first two or three things you would do now starting real estate today versus, you know, for someone

Brandon: Yeah. You know, there's not too much that I would do differently. Mhmm. And that's out of sheer luck. Yeah.

Because, you know, regardless of how your path looks, here's the truths about when I got in into the industry. I came in, with Steph. Mhmm. You know? And and I was very, very lucky to have someone that was so willing to open her heart and be truly honest with me and and to guide me.

And, of course, it was my responsibility to take action, but she was there, you know, to push a little bit. And then two, I joined a team. And what some of the best things that came out of that was I understood real estate at a volume level. Like, I under I understood what it was gonna take to sell a lot of real estate. Mhmm.

And and I understood why that was necessary. I also started to learn the effectiveness of systems and and processes and and what that meant to building a business. And I think too often, we get really caught up in the idea of, well, we're just gonna be a real estate agent. Well, there's a there's a big difference between being a a real estate agent and a good real estate agent. And there's an even bigger difference between being a good real estate agent and being an effective business owner.

Steve: Right. Well, that's the next step.

Brandon: Yeah. And that's I think that's one thing that we just think automatically happens in our industry is, oh, I sell a a lot of real estate. Therefore, I'm going to build a team and, yeah, you know, I'm gonna go on.

Steve: It's really easy.

Brandon: There's really no correlation between being a good real estate agent and being a great business owner or leader.

Steve: I had someone's like, oh, yeah. What do I need you for? Right? All I have to do is just hire an ISA, get couple of buyers agents, a listing agent, and Like, it's that easy.

Brandon: It's all I need. Why don't you just slap me in the face because of how painful the you know, building a business really truly is, the risks that are involved. Right. Right? I mean, you have to be highly risk tolerant to even start a real estate team if you're really truly gonna stick it out.

Yeah. Because we're talking a five year I mean, we're talking five years to really build. To

Steve: really pay off.

Brandon: And and you don't know whether a couple of those years are even gonna be profitable or not. Yeah. Right?

Steve: So

Brandon: there's just No.

Steve: There's gonna be some skinny months for sure.

Brandon: There There may be a skinny year or two. Yeah. Right? There was for me. You know?

So, you know, joining that team was an important part of my growth because I started to understand the business at a deeper level rather than just just showing up and trying to sell real estate.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: And, of course, you know, I got some guidance there around, you know, plugging in and and being very mindful of advancing myself intellectually within this this business as well, participating in trainings, and really just understanding that, you know, it's not our job to reinvent the wheel in real estate. You know, so many people have come before us and set these, you know, very specific models. There's there's things in place. It's our job to just effectively repeat those things.

Steve: Yeah. And then so I watched that, Gary Keller, Brad Inman thing. Right? There's that small survey. Right?

Yeah. Are the books still relevant today? Is the MRA books irrelevant today?

Brandon: Yeah. That's

Steve: a 100%. It's still relevant. Percent.

Brandon: Why are

Steve: you reinventing the wheel? Yeah. It still works.

Brandon: Yeah. Well well, people wanna people wanna go back on fear. Right? There there's a lot of fear out there right now about the role technology is gonna play and how our industry is gonna evolve. And the truth is our industry is absolutely gonna evolve more in the next five years than it probably has in the last twenty five years.

Yeah. And technology is absolutely the major player in that. But this is still a relationship game. And and what I what I say by that is in the real estate world, relationships, you know, we're often applying that concept to our clients. But we need to apply it to our our whole industry at this point, our relationships with one another, our relationships with our staff.

You know? Like, one of the things I'm most proud of at BTG Real Estate is is my relationship with my CEO, Kyle, who is just an exceptional talent and and my relationship with my operations manager and some of the top leaders on on on our on our team. And the relationships that we've created within that team and how we preach that, how we value it, how we've how we've kind of interwoven it into the fabric of our culture, and how we treat each other matters as much as how we treat our clients. Yeah. And I think that we would all be, you know, we'd all benefit from the idea of applying that concept to one another, whether it's brokerage to brokerage in the same brokerage model, whether it's a brokerage to a to a competing brokerage.

Mhmm. But at some point, you gotta think, like, we need to apply those those principles as concepts, all those things that we preach about our businesses and our clients to each other and to our industry because I think that unifying that Mhmm. Is gonna like, that's gonna need to be in place for us to really stay agent centric long into the future. But we gotta stop all this other nonsense. Right?

Yeah.

Steve: Okay. So talking about when you first started and, you know, you got your place or you would help someone helped you find a team. So Mhmm. Next question is a lot of people always ask, like, you know, how do you find a mentor in this in this? So do you just tell people to just join a team?

How do

Brandon: what would your

Steve: your advice be to them?

Brandon: I think I think just join a team is probably the worst advice you can give to anyone or just get a mentor is probably because

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: Here's the here's the thing. Do we know what a team is anymore in real estate? Like, do we have a do we have a definition of what it what it means to be a team? Because we the best

Steve: webster definition.

Brandon: Yeah. Because what we have right now is we've got just a bunch of single agents that, you know, they're creating brands, and they're getting caught up in the art of their business.

Steve: Just need to put group after your

Brandon: name. That's and that but that's what's happening. Right? So what what's happening is we have all these people that just put group or team or there's a bunch of agents, and they get together. And then they call themselves a team, but there's no there's no backbone.

There's no administrative support. There's not there's nothing there to suggest that that's an actual viable business. Right. Right? So now what we run into is this dilution of what teams really are.

Mhmm. And then within the teams that really are teams, the differences are absolutely crazy. I think Tom Ferry put on his website, recently, and I love this. And I'm I'm gonna say him so that when I say this, I'm not the person that that people are throwing tomatoes at.

Steve: Okay.

Brandon: But he talks about, like, the four like, the the the the main four structures family team, which is kind of the the oldest. That's that's the one that's been around the longest. But Yeah. Typically, that's a number of family members that all kinda play a role in in building a team. But the problem that he cites and that that other leaders have cited around that is it it can be difficult to pull people into that system because they might you know, people outside of the family might not see that as an opportunity to grow within the organization because they're not family.

Right? Yeah. But some of those teams and I have, you know, I know a couple of them that are just phenomenal. Yeah. Right?

And the second one in there that he talks about is the the king and the servant team. And we know lots of these. Right? This was a this was a very specific model that was even preached for a long time in our industry, and that's usually when there's one really charismatic leader at the top. Mhmm.

But everything that happens in the organization is meant to prop up that leader. It's meant to validate that individual person. Right? It's not a very collaborative environment. It's more of a supportive environment to keep one individual on a pedestal.

Listen. That model's worked for a long time. It it I'm not saying I'm not talking about this as if it's good or bad. It just is. Yeah.

But that model's been under fire because it it's it has a high turnover. And believe me, we I mean, we looked at this model as is this the direction we wanna go? And, ultimately, we settled on no because of the turnover, because we wanted to we wanted to value retention a little bit more. We wanted to value helping agents build legitimate businesses Mhmm. And not make it all about me or make it all about one central figure because we kinda felt like we'd we were gonna be behind the boat on that anyways.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: Right? And then he talks about the last one, which is the one that's really kind of taking storm right now, and that's the collaborative model. Yeah. Right? That's where you really get into collaboration and department heads, and everybody's playing a role, and you're creating synergy within a team, and everybody's moving in the same direction, and everybody wins as a result.

Sure. Maybe the person at the top makes a little bit less money, but they've got a more sustainable, healthy business that can survive long into the future because there's a lot of people winning and invested in the result. And I think, ultimately, like, we're starting to see a lot more of that. We're even starting to see, you know, really, really talented real estate agents all across our industry partner with each other. Mhmm.

Not because they have to financially, but because they're starting to understand the value of collaboration, and we're starting to think bigger. And we're starting to think of real estate in in more terms of how not only how we provide value to clients, but how we provide value to our agents on our team or or in our brokerage Yeah. Because it's it's being demanded now.

Steve: Well and I think that's a really big thing that you're talking about because that's it's actually done this way in many of the industries that we admire. Mhmm. Right?

Brandon: You

Steve: know, Costco, Nordstrom's Right. Southwest. Yeah. And we're finally seeing it here in real estate. And I think, Darren Hardy talks about this with, Branson.

What's this? Richard Branson.

Brandon: Richard Branson. Yeah.

Steve: Right. And he says that, you know, he'll take his team side any day of the week. Right? Like, you start bashing his people, Great. We don't really want clients like you.

Exactly. So if you treat your people right, don't treat your clients right. Yeah. So I think that's a really, really powerful point. So Yeah.

And I was just putting here, I still remember meeting you at a RSTLM event. I don't know. They don't call that anymore, but I wanna say it was, like, eight, ten years ago I met you.

Brandon: That was a long time ago. Yeah. And you

Steve: were a rising star. You were, everyone's like, you gotta know who this this Brandon guy is. It's like, okay. I see that guy over there. But, I just wanted to put that note in there.

It's just interesting to see, you know, they were saying, like, watch out for this guy. Yeah. And here you are today.

Brandon: Yeah. And I think that, you know, that was a pretty interesting time for me because, like I said, I was even when I came into the industry, I was at a real low personally from a confidence perspective. And I kinda had to re, rediscover myself and my confidence and figure things out. And I was doing some things well in real estate, but I was naive in in a lot of areas too. But, you know, even at that time, I don't know that I was really ready to step in and lean lean into, you know, accept your greatness as they say.

You know? And so but I wasn't ready to lean into that. And I think a lot of it was because at the time, I just didn't feel like I deserved it. You know? I was still kinda punishing myself.

You know? And we think We do that to ourselves. Right? We we do that. We have a tendency to, you know, really let the human side of us kind of, you know, just take us down some some rabbit holes sometimes.

But Right. Yeah. I do remember that. And and that recruits what you're what you're referring to, RSTLM, was recruit, select, train, lead, motivate. Yep.

So it really the early stages of me learning what it what it was like to to attract talent, to to train people, to lead people, to motivate people. And I don't think I realized at the time taking that class how relevant all of those things are in building a business Right. And how much time it takes to invest in yourself, to really create a mastery level understanding of those things. Yeah. And then once you have the understanding of it, even if it is a mastery level understanding it, now you've got to get into action action and apply that.

And through action and applying what you've learned, you're inevitably gonna fail. So then you get back into failure. Right? So And take a class again. Yeah.

And it was just it it's so great that our industry has these kind of things to plug into Yeah. Especially if you're someone who is, you know, gonna self evaluate and who is gonna step up from failures and figure new things out. And, I mean, there's no better industry to be in with with we don't have a ceiling if you're willing.

Steve: No. Not at all.

Brandon: You just gotta be willing.

Steve: So I went through one of your classes recently, and it was the and correct me if I'm just butchering the name. But, eight proven steps for referral success was

Brandon: Yeah. We've we've changed the headlines a couple of times. I think now it's eight powerful steps to generating referrals and building a profitable database.

Steve: Okay. So if we can do, like, a ten minute version, what would that

Brandon: Yeah. So

Steve: whatever is appropriate amount of time for that.

Brandon: Really, I think the most effective way to explain, you know, how this class was developed was, one, I did it. This was how I developed my business. And, you know, when I first branched out on my own and I had to go figure out how to how to how, you know, how was I gonna get business? What was my lever gonna be? Yeah.

And and I chose referrals and open houses, and that's, the you know, that's really what I wanted to do. So over time through failure and through evaluation, I started to realize, you know, how I articulated my message was important. Follow-up was extremely, extremely important. And being able to do all of it in a systematic way so that it was scalable for me to manage a lot of relationships at one time, that I started to realize how important those things were. So through that experience and through applying what I was doing, what I was learning, I started to systematize what I was doing so that I so that it would be easier for me to do in the future.

I wanted to be more effective and be able to do more with less. Right. So, ultimately, what what we've really settled on was this really amazing kinda eight step process. And really what we're trying to do is every every real estate agent when they come into the industry, you notice this. Right?

They post on Facebook or social media. I got my I got my real estate license. Right? And, you know, everybody's posting gifts and making it rain. And it's it's just like you know?

And the expectation is just so out of control. You know? It's like you almost feel bad for them. But the idea there is you you you post on Facebook, and you have all this support. And you have it it's really false support.

Right? Because all these people are telling you congratulations. Oh, you're gonna do great. Oh, you're such a people person. You know, fill in the blank.

There's a million of them.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: But in reality, what we haven't done and what what those people haven't done and what I hadn't done early in my career was take all of those people that were willing to say congratulation who liked me. Mhmm. Maybe they even loved me. Yeah. But what they didn't do was trust me as a professional.

Mhmm. So what we've gotta do is we've gotta take relationships and move them from like and love to trust and confidence. And that's really what the whole eight steps class is about. The whole first hour of the eight steps class is all mindset. It's all theory about why.

Why are we doing this? Why is it effective? And why do we use the language that we use? Yeah. Right?

Because everything that we do through there is not about it it it can be somewhat contradictory to what we're being taught out there, in my opinion, which is very old school hard sales techniques. Yeah. But what we really wanna do with our sphere of influence with the people that matter most to us in our lives is we want the opportunity to earn their trust and confidence. And if we can start there with just requesting requesting that you give me the opportunity to earn your trust and confidence. And listen, Steve.

I know 100% that that there's no obligation for you to use me, I realize, and I'm gonna have to earn that. Mhmm. Once you get into that mindset and you start humbly. Yeah. You you gotta get to people first.

Because, listen, the majority of people don't even think they can contact us or talk to us until they're ready to buy or sell. But where we're most effective is helping in the due diligence and preparation point of the process. Mhmm. As a result of doing that part really well, the sales process, excuse me, has a tendency to be exponentially easier as a result. So that's really what the whole thing is about is move people from like and love to trust and confidence in a very systematic and professional way.

Because, you know, like, when people talk about scripts. Right? And in that class, we give out all of our scripts.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: And we live role played the scripts when when you were there. And I and I told you why we were using the language that we were using. Right? We went through that. And inevitably in that class, everybody, you know, you know, talks about objections that they have or reluctancies or fears.

And one of the ones that we get all the time is, well, the script doesn't sound like me.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: And it's yeah. Of course, the script doesn't sound like you. Right? The script is meant to sound like a professional person with years of experience that's humble and wanting to earn trust and confidence.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: So we do this to ourselves all the time. We say the script doesn't sound like me. Scripts aren't supposed to sound like you. They're supposed to sound like the version of you that's a professional. That's what that's what's really trying you know, that so it you know, when you can inspire people and get them really kinda anchored about why the script is a certain way Mhmm.

Then they're a lot more, they're they're a lot a lot more likely to use it. They're a lot lot more likely to stick to it, and then they're a lot more likely to get the results from it. Yeah. Because we talk about scripts all the time. People say, well, can I change it?

Of course, you can change it. You know? But the thing about changing scripts is when you change them, you'll you take out the most important part of the script because it's the part that makes you feel most uncomfortable. Right. Right?

And when you should be thinking out of the mindset is I'm gonna role play this until it's just ingrained in me, and I'm so comfortable I can say it in any situation.

Steve: 100% internalized. You don't have to think about it.

Brandon: Yeah. So, I mean, I I love that. We talk about theory, and we go through all the eight steps and and how we kinda move those people in the relationship along. We started at Like and Love. And by the end of the eight steps, hopefully, we've we're well along our journey to earning trust and confidence as a professional.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. And this is, what do you say, 80%, 90% of the business that you've done for this year Yeah. And last year?

Brandon: You know, last year was about 86%, and I think we're hovering right around 80% repeat and referral client this year.

Steve: Okay. So if someone wanna do, like, 80% of, like, let's say, 200 transactions, it'd be probably

Brandon: be worth going to this class. Yeah. Yeah. I I built my entire business off

Steve: of it. So if someone wanted to see this class,

Brandon: how would they? You know, we should have probably prepared for that. Yeah. I just you you know, I just got back from Montana. I taught the class class in Montana.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a I'm a native Montana and born and raised. Although I've been in Arizona for twenty years, I have had an awesome opportunity to go up there and spend some time with my family and work with some brokerages up there and do some teaching. So now that we're back, I've been only been back for a few days now, and we're gonna be working to get, at least one or two on the books for September and, again, one or two on the books for, October. So if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, I will put out our next dates as soon as we have them.

Steve: Alright. So, guys, make sure you follow Brandon on Instagram and Facebook. So Max has an interesting question. Do you think then the solopreneur is dead?

Brandon: Wow. Man, I've been asked that question, like, three times in the last two months. Yeah. And I, you know, I wouldn't say that my answer is gonna be the most educated answer, and it's probably gonna be a bit of ride the fence answer. But I think that it is possible.

It is possible that as we continue to go through the next three, five, ten years in real estate that the collaborative environment is going to overwhelm the solo agent, in what teams and collaborative groups of people can accomplish both for their clients and for their staff. So I think there's always, always gonna be a place for a great solo agent that maintains awesome relationships. That person will always exist.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: But I think that you're gonna have to be really, really great. And you're gonna have to maybe bridge yourself from just being fully solo to at least leveraging yourself in areas that can benefit your clients through, you know, whatever marketing or technology or communication that is needed. Yeah. I think the hardest part about being a solo agent going forward into the future is we we taught you know, I'm gonna say this word, and everybody's gonna panic, and there's no reason to panic. But we we likely will face downward pressure on commissions in a at a much more exponential rate.

Downward pressure on commissions in a at a much more exponential rate over the coming years. And as that happens, can the solo agent adapt and sell enough volume to overcome that? Whereas collaborative groups and teams will be able to pull resources to handle that, you know, together where it affects one person on the team less than it would a solo agent. So that's my, like, again, really uneducated take opinion on it. Take it for what it is.

Steve: But uneducated. Well probably got some probably put some thought into it, but, you know, I'm with you. I don't I don't I don't see how in three years a solo guy can do it by himself with just the CRM costs, the lead gen, if you're gonna do lead gen, the follow-up, the process, the procedures, everything. Yeah. I just don't see how one person could do it by themselves well.

Right?

Brandon: And yeah.

Steve: Can do it? Yes.

Brandon: Can can you do it? Yes. Can you do it well? Maybe. And is doing it well going to be enough to stay in business in the future?

Likely not.

Steve: Right. And that'd be

Brandon: the exception.

Steve: I was at at the high performance firm that that I went to for Darren Hardy. He's like, look. What used to work back in the day, if you're average, you're dead.

Brandon: Yeah. If you're average now, you're in real trouble.

Steve: Yeah. If you're good, like, you're getting by. Mhmm. Like, if you wanna thrive, you gotta be excellent.

Brandon: Yeah. You do. Yeah. I don't know. I'm so biased.

I'm just gonna say it. I wouldn't I wouldn't wanna be solo in this environment. Yeah. But here's the thing. It's like, we we don't do a good enough job of of giving people the resources to understand what certain teams provide and what they don't because we're all competing with each other for for talent.

Steve: That's true.

Brandon: And and I think that we're we're doing the newer agents a little bit of a disservice by not being a little bit more transparent about what teams do provide Mhmm. And how different each of them are and and what they provide to the agents. But, ultimately, if you get if you get a a new agent in a in a great team that helps develop them, train them, monitor them, help them, you know, develop standards and goals and help them with execution, and then you fully leverage them with listing management, marketing, and transaction coordinator, phenomenal environment for a a new and budding real estate agent to be in because it accelerates

Steve: experienced agents.

Brandon: Oh my goodness. It accelerates their growth so much. And I'm and the way that real estate is moving now, you need to accelerate your growth quickly. Like, you you need to do that. Now we're just talking about, like, developmental agents, right, or new agents.

Now you move to agents that are doing a decent book of business. Well, we know anyone who runs a team knows, whether they like to admit it, how thin the margins can get. They can get sideways on you really quick. Just because you have a team doesn't even mean you're profitable. You might be losing money.

Mhmm. But on Facebook, you look like you're balling. Right? But, again, we don't we're not transparent enough to let people in to know that, like, hey. Just having a team doesn't mean you've made it.

You know? Tension does not equal success. We talked about this earlier. But we've got agents coming on our team now that, you know, $8.09, $1,012,000,000 in production. And what they're doing is they're coming to plug into everything that we worked on in 2017.

Mhmm. And, you know, we we did a 123 units in 2017, and I'm gonna say this and it's gonna sound crazy. We weren't focused on production last year at all. We were focused on infrastructure. Yeah.

We had a plan. And that plan was not to keep pace and be relevant with units and show off and, you know, use units as the way to, like, you know, pump us up. We were building infrastructure. And as a result of building infrastructure now, we're, like, we're attracting our tribe at a level that we've never attracted before because people wanna plug into the leverage that we have. And I love working with mid range, really talented agents in that regard because they they get it.

They know what operating expenses do to their business. Oh, yeah. And if you can plug into a very systematic, highly leveraged business with with extremely amazing and talented administrative staff members on a team with no turnover, with really healthy culture and all of those things, they're actually making more money.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: Right? And and I'm not pumping us or recruiting to us, but I'm saying there's there's collaborative teams like that all over. Yeah. Right? You just can't it's just so hard to find them.

Steve: Yeah. How do you

Brandon: It's so hard to find out. But that's a that's an ideal situation where a lot of these teams are filling the gap between brokerage and agent. And what I mean by brokerage is the brokerages have it tough. Like, you know this because you've gotta be soft. Right?

You're too hard on people, and your agent count dwindles. Right? The great thing about being on a d a team and a and a especially a high highly accountable team Mhmm. Is you have standards. You have accountability.

But then you train to those standards. Right. Right? You hire to those standards. The expectations are properly set when you come into the business.

You get to hold the entire thing accountable at a level that brokerages really just can't do because they have to put their arm around everybody and say, you know, rah rah, come on in, and they provide the resources and the training. But, ultimately, you're you're highly dependent on that individual plugging in and taking advantage of it. Mhmm. And most of us just aren't built that way. We need accountability.

That's why we have coaches. Right? That's why that's why some of us pay thousands of dollars a month for a coach. And then someone asks, why are you doing that? You seem to be successful.

It's because I understand the value of accountability, and I understand the value of knowledge and mentorship.

Steve: Successful without the coach.

Brandon: Oh, no no chance. Yeah. Absolutely no chance.

Steve: Okay. So speaking of that, who do you personally coach with?

Brandon: I've I've bounced around. I've done MAPS coaching through Keller Williams. I think one of my favorite coaches from from years ago, Glenn Neely from Busy Blondes Real Estate out of Los Angeles made a big impact on me early on in my career.

Steve: Busy Blondes. I haven't heard of that one.

Brandon: Yeah. Glenn's a MAPS coach. He's he's a extremely, extremely successful individual. He and his wife, Rae Wayne, are are are just very, very talented, you know, come from contribution givers to the real estate community, and and, you know, you just gotta love them. But, over the last year, I've been coaching with Michael Mayer, who most people know of as, you know, New York Times best selling author of the seven levels of communication.

Mhmm. And I've been coaching with him as well as, participating in his master series certified referral coaching program. Yeah. And that's been really fun because it's gotten me a little bit out of just being in real estate coaching and being a little bit more in business speaking coaching. Mhmm.

And it's fun to add different elements to that and increase my skill sets in areas that maybe I've avoided whether whether, purposely or not

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: But getting me out of my comfort zone and and making me a, you know, a better professional as a result.

Steve: What is business speaking coaching?

Brandon: Well, you know, you there's there are strategies to to teaching and speaking. Right? And I think one of the things that Michael said to me about six or eight months ago when I was when I was really kind of working with him on being an effective trainer and speaker was it it it doesn't matter so much about what you have to say. It matters what they learn. Right?

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: And and when they receive. Yeah. What what do they take away? Like, you can get out there and puff your chest and get, you know, high fives and standing ovations, but are they taking anything away? Mhmm.

Because if they're not, then what was that really about? It was probably about your ego. Yeah. Right? It was about you being seen and you being held up on a pedestal.

And I'm really uncomfortable with that in the first place, which is why, you know, I you don't see my name and face all over everything that that we do because, you know, the truth is partially I'm I'm uncomfortable with that that spotlight. Yeah. But once I started to realize that I could have a positive influence on people and that I could that I could teach in a in a in a more humble and organic way, and then I started to learn the techniques to make sure that when I did teach, it wasn't all about me and it was about what they could learn and what they could take away. That really just inspired me to to lean into it more and and be okay with me being uncomfortable in front of crowds and in front of lots of people. And I started to kinda let some of those butterflies and that nervousness go away when I finally figured out that this isn't about me.

This is about this is about you helping other people.

Steve: Yeah. So are you currently then so you're you're affiliated with seven levels?

Brandon: Yeah. Yeah. So I'm a sir I'm a master series certified referral coach through seven l. And if you're interested in that, hit me up on Facebook. It's a really awesome program.

You're not only gonna learn all of the just incredible referral techniques and stuff that Michael Mayer has laid out in the seven levels of communication book and through his other teachings and accelerate and catalyst, which are coaching programs within that. But you're also gonna learn how to be a better speaker even if you don't have aspirations to be a speaker. Mhmm. You know, just like Toastmasters would do, just gaining confidence and being able to be your most authentic self in front of other people. There's massive value in that.

And it what it really is is self awareness and personal growth.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: Right?

Steve: So have you been speaking then?

Brandon: I have. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. I mean, you know, I I do the teaching, and and that's kind of my primary role is just to go around and and and teach the eight steps class.

And I've been doing a mindset course as well that is kinda higher level stuff about self leadership and and different things to challenge kind of some status quo in here. And I think I'm being a little more vocal now than I ever was before about some things that in real estate that just aren't they just don't sit well with me. And I think that if we articulate them in a way where it's solution based versus just complaining, I think maybe we can make an impact and make some changes. So I'm gonna lean into that a little bit more now, you know, especially, you know, towards the end of '18 and going into '19 as more of a primary objective for myself.

Steve: Yeah. Very cool. And I think that, you know, you and I have talked about some of the challenges right now facing our industry. Yeah. So I think it's great, right, if you can lead some of those changes.

Brandon: Yeah.

Steve: So what does your team look like today?

Brandon: Oh my goodness. We've so we've got our core, and, I think we talked about we sold a 123 units in 2017 while focusing on infrastructure. And that really worked for us because now we've sold more units this year already than we did all of last year.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: So I figure this year, we'll figure in somewhere between two hundred and twenty and two hundred and fifty depending on how some of our new talent really blossoms at at you know, especially as they get towards the end of their ninety day training. And we really we really don't just put people on our team. Right? I mean, I think there was two months ago, we had 10 people 10 candidates to put on our team, and we ended up not hiring a single one.

Steve: Oh, wow.

Brandon: And it wasn't that they were they were bad people or they didn't have, what we were looking for. Ultimately, like, we focus a lot on the items that we think are gonna fit well with our culture. You know, people that are gonna fit well with our culture. And we don't we try not to add too too many people at one time because you add a lot of people into a culture. They have a tendency to immediately change the culture.

Mhmm. And what we wanna do is culture is one of our biggest strengths at BTG Real Estate. So we want to absorb people into our culture and how healthy it is. The camaraderie, the support, every level of it, we wanna protect that first and foremost.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: So we won't bend away from that just to throw 10 people in the room. We may solve a, you know, a unit problem or a financial problem by doing that in the short term. Mhmm. But we're corroding the business as it goes forward. So we really focus more on organic growth and attracting people to our tribe that that that our message resonates with Mhmm.

A little bit more. So we've got that, going where we are launching our our first, I guess, full legitimate expansion in Missoula, Montana, this next month. We're super excited about that. So

Steve: It wasn't official this whole time?

Brandon: Well, it's kind of been unofficial. But, now we have our we have our people. Yeah. We have our infrastructure. We have our talent in place.

We we're slow. You know? We we go slow to go fast. Yeah. That's awesome.

We prepare so that when we get into a situation, we do we do it the right way. We don't want people having doubts when they partner with us. We want them to come into it and go, this is exactly what I expected. This is phenomenal.

Steve: Very cool.

Brandon: Yeah. So we're really excited about that. And then you and I were talking about too. We've got kind of a business partnership in in Tamarindo, Costa Rica

Steve: as well. Some international aspirations.

Brandon: We we do. Yeah. So we're we're branching out. And I just love the leverage that we've created at BTG Real Estate allows me to focus on this big picture stuff now. Mhmm.

And now that I can fully focus on that, it's been a lot of fun. We're gonna see exponential growth as a result of that. And I've just got I've got so much love and respect for the people that work at BTG Real Estate alongside and with me and their ability to grow their departments independently of me having to look over their shoulders. Yeah. These are these are such talented, well rounded people.

And it it at this point, it's my job to make sure that they never have to leave my organization to find their next opportunity. So now I've got to go out and create bigger opportunities so that I don't lose these just amazing people that have helped us all get to this point. Right.

Steve: So that's amazing. So one of the struggles that I'm having and, you know, I think you're concerned about but, you know, we were talking about an organization that we're all familiar with that's doing really well in Texas, but culture didn't necessarily permeate throughout the entire country. Mhmm. How do you make sure your culture stays where you're not at? So for example, you know, Brandon's in Tempe.

How is Montana gonna have the same culture

Brandon: Yeah.

Steve: As Tempe? And then likewise, how is Costa Rica gonna have the same culture as The US?

Brandon: Those yeah. And those are viable questions that keep me up at night. I mean, they they literally do. They they keep me up at night. But, ultimately, I think that it comes down to a couple of key elements that I'm gonna go ahead and ride with and see where it takes me.

Expansion is it looks a lot of different ways to a lot of different people. Mhmm. And there's not one particular business model in expansion that that is going to take over all others. Right? Yeah.

You got a lot of people that are just kind of going out to different market centers, and they're plucking somebody from the bullpen. And they're saying, hey, you know, join my team in whatever city. And, you know, they're they're influencers. So, you know, these people are kinda like, oh, a little bit starry eyed. And you you see that a lot.

And listen, it's not it's I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I mean, it's a business model, and it works, and it does help people. But ultimately, what you're doing is you you what what are you doing to absorb that culture? Right? And some of these guys are doing a phenomenal job with it through, you know, video and through you know, they're they're creating a whole online community with their teams and stuff, and brokerages are trying to do that.

I think there's some more challenges there. But what we're really focused on doing is we're we're not trying to we're not actually trying to expand. People keep showing up in our world right now, and they're and they're just such phenomenal people. And they're they they're they they fit our culture and our moral standards and everything else that comes along with our business, and we start to collaborate together. And, ultimately, Montana, we wanna repeat exactly what we do here up there.

We don't wanna just grab a person up there and then plug them into our hub here. We wanna repeat the value of what we bring to the table here, not only to the people that decide to work with us, but also to their brokerage and be able to go and teach and coach and bring different people, you know, cross cross reference some of that value between the brokerages. So for us, it's about more than just expanding. It's about being a valuable piece and an asset to the brokerage and and making a difference both in the in the clients' lives and the and the people that decide to work with us and and otherwise. But it looks different for us because I I don't think my aspirations are to expand all over the country.

They're just not. You know? I wanna have two or three or four of my locations that I can really plug into and be involved in.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: And, you know, that's that's where it's at. And then we'll see who on my team or who in my organization or world steps up and wants to take it a little bit further.

Steve: Yeah. Well, good for you for me, you know, for having that that courage, like, that stuff. Because, like, me personally, I got people like, why don't you open office in Gilbert?

Brandon: Mhmm. Why

Steve: don't you open in Tim, in in Tucson? I got people saying, hey. Why don't you open in Texas? Yeah. And for me, it's like, I don't know if my culture or leadership is strong enough today to lead that.

And that's that's my biggest

Brandon: And when you say yes to something like that Mhmm. You have to evaluate what did I just say no to everywhere else in my life. Right. And what will the impact of that be on my business and my relationships here? Mhmm.

Right? And and, you know, Gary said this, a number of years ago. Like, you've got it you've your home base has just gotta be so strong. Every crack, every hole needs to be filled. You need to be really, really solid at home before you step out and you and you do that.

And I think it's really difficult to get to that point. It takes time, and most people aren't patient enough. They they're so concerned with keeping up with the Joneses that they cut all these corners in their business. And culture use usually is one of the biggest corners cut so that they can go be relevant, whether it is expansion the new hot thing, let's make sure I'm relevant. Is whatever else is the new hot thing, let's make sure that I'm relevant.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: Right? But, you know, it's really hard to build culture with high turnover. So you gotta balance that stuff.

Steve: I know. That's that's my great fear.

Brandon: Yeah. And we we just figure if we focus on retention, and the right retention, then, you know, things will work out for us well.

Steve: Okay. How many agents do you have on your team right now?

Brandon: Let's see. I think we have at this point, we have 13, agents. We have five, what we call, leverage series agents. And then we have another seven now that are in training and development. We really try to train our agents to, one, to understand and build a book of business, a sustainable book of business.

Mhmm. And then we want to give them opportunities within our organization to not you know, once they are capable of doing things that we no longer have to train them to do, that they have opportunities to to earn more money. Yeah. We gotta give them a path to go to. Right?

And and we find it our responsibility to give them a path to get higher commissions while still holding on to their massive amount of leverage that we provide, while at the same time time as a business, we've gotta balance that by, you know, remaining diligent on training and providing value to those agents in ways that we can, you know, make money into. So everything that we do is based around creating win wins for the client, our agents, and our business, and being wholeheartedly transparent about it so that everybody sees it, understands it, and completely buys into the mission of it.

Steve: Yeah. What's a leverage series agent? And what's So

Brandon: that's our language within our team. So, essentially, a leveraged series agent, with us is is someone who doesn't necessarily need to go through training. Maybe they already have a book of business. They're doing 6 to 12,000,000 or 15 or 18,000,000 a year. They're tired of trying to hire and train staff and, you know, they're they're tired of having to fire people and tired of having people quit, and they're starting to realize how difficult it really is to build a business.

Yeah. And it is. It is unbelievably difficult to build this business and and sustain that that growth. And if you're still in production trying to do that, trying to build a team, and you're you're not just wholeheartedly focused on it, you have all the time in the world to commit to it, it's really, really hard. Mhmm.

So when they start to figure out, like, oh my gosh. I can plug into a situation like this that doesn't that doesn't take me out of the spotlight, that keeps me front and center to my people, and I can get all of this leverage that I really, really truly need. And that'd take us two hours to go through like, we've we've built out an administrative staff that is wholeheartedly built to create raving fans and leverage our agents into future referrals and repeat business. Everything we do inside is about making sure that happens for our agents.

Steve: That's awesome. I kinda wanna start working for you. Okay. So then is it fair to assume that you don't have any ISAs then?

Brandon: We have a version of it. So we have a director of lead generation who is that's how we refer to her inside of our organization. Of course, you wouldn't say that to the clients as client care coordinator.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: But either way that you shake it, we decided that we took what Gary Keller had to say years ago to heart when he said, fill every crack and hole in your business first. Mhmm. So we really evaluated where agents are weak. And listen. This isn't a like, we we know I know I was weak at this.

All of our agents know they were weak at it before that they came in. But are you answering every single phone call? And if that was all that happened, how much more business that would you do? Yeah. And listen, most of the time, it's not about whether or not they want to.

Most people will say I want to, but life gets in the way. Right? Stress gets in the way. Anxiety gets in the way. We've got a deal blowing up, and everything becomes just about that.

That phone call that phone call comes in, and that's a person calling that represents, you know, a large portion of commission and you're so stressed you don't pick it up. Mhmm. When you fill those cracks and holes for agents and, you know, that's how we kinda do it inside of our organization, our director of lead generation can understand when that phone call comes in. They can see right away which of our agents listing that is. Mhmm.

She's extremely well versed at delivering value, on helping the person understand our value and how we can help them. And the fact that she's there to answer the phone all the time, get back to leads very, very quickly. She's converting at, like, 18% right now on our Internet leads, which I'm I'm waiting to see the anomaly that's going on there that's, like, what is what has happened? Did we have we stumbled onto something? I don't know.

But, ultimately, I think it's just that we always come from contribution in the way that we sell Mhmm. And the way the way that we present business. We don't hard close. We don't do that. We ask great questions.

We come from that place of contribution, really articulate our value proposition in a way that disarms them and gives them an opportunity to step into our world a little bit and just learn a little bit more. And as a result of us doing that, we're seeing really, really phenomenal results. So that is Impressive. That's really what our ISA version is, is just fill every crack and hole in inbound lead generation that there is. Because we do a lot of business.

I mean, we're gonna be somewhere in that $2.20 range this year. There's plenty coming in. In. Yeah. And if all we did was make sure we got all of that, then we're in really good shape.

Too often, we start looking for an external thing to fix our problems before fixing the internal thing. Yeah. And and when we really committed to that, it was like, we're we're so happy we did.

Steve: Well, that's a huge takeaway for me. So that's I'm gonna have to hire someone for that. That's awesome. Yeah. And then

Brandon: it's about the right person. Right? I mean, that person our our our gal, Shante Kirkendall, has like, she's just blown all of us away. Like, when you talk about hiring talent and how that one person can make it really, really, it can have a huge impact on your business, like, hiring is that important. Yeah.

It it really is because that one person can make a huge difference. The right person. Yeah.

Steve: What is your biggest struggle right now?

Brandon: Delegation. I think that I I sometimes feel guilty for giving my people our next project. Right? And this is a self problem. It's not a them problem because they laugh at me when I finally tell them, like, I've been kinda holding this back, and I wasn't sure how you were gonna feel about it.

Right? And then I get the slap across the head, like, what are you talking about? I can do this in twenty four hours. Right? Yeah.

Sometimes I gotta realize that what's difficult for me and my behavioral style, which is typically details and and research and that kind of stuff

Steve: What is your DISC profile?

Brandon: I'm a HighDHighI99D88I.

Steve: So it's like a So you're trying to

Brandon: handle details? Yeah. I don't even know why even try. Right? Like, at some point, you gotta be self aware enough to know.

But, you know, it's it's something that I struggle with, and I'm coming out of it right now. And as I come out of it and lean into my people more and give them their opportunity to shine and do what it is that they do so great, I realized that I I just need to take the wheel and let them do what they do.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: And it's not that I don't have all the confidence in the world in them. It's my own, you know, it's my own stuff. It's my own hang ups, you know. And and I still have those, and I think we have them till the end of time. We're always trying to overcome something Right.

You know, in inside of ourselves. We're always trying to get over something. And and I hope that never ends because the challenge of that is is one heck you know, it's a heck of a cool thing to be a part of.

Steve: Oh, yeah. For sure. And I still my struggle with delegation is just getting out of my head because there's Yeah. Right? It's like, oh, we should do this.

I got I'll have I'm driving.

Brandon: Yeah. You know,

Steve: it's in my meetings. Oh, we should start doing this. And then you completely forget about it.

Brandon: And it sounds so complicated in your head Yeah. And then you give it to them and they simplify it in three seconds. You're like, oh, I feel really stupid for, like, making this so complicated. Right? But that's the beauty of that's the beauty of collaboration.

Here we are back. Right? It's, like, being a great leader means being a great collaborator and a great communicator. Right? And when when you when you lean into that and I'm still creating a mastery level understanding of that myself, like, really what it means to be have a mastery level understanding of of culture, collaboration, and communication, and how the delegation process flows through all of that stuff, how you truly utilize other people's strengths.

I'm still leaning into that as a leader as well. And every time I do, it is amazing, the results.

Steve: So what I'm learning right now so I'm also going through strategic coach as a coaching program I'm going through at the moment. And what they say and I'm trying

Brandon: Wait a minute. Who's they?

Steve: Do you

Brandon: know the rule of they? I mean, anytime you say they say, you have to cite three specific people that say it.

Steve: Alright. So it's Nick Sullivan.

Brandon: There we go. The head coach.

Steve: Two? Stephanie Song. Alright. She's the quarterly coach.

Brandon: And three.

Steve: And Adrian Duffy, the one I see when I go.

Brandon: You guys can use that out there. Anyone that says they say, make them cite 3 individual people. Otherwise, it's just an opinion. Right?

Steve: Right. Yeah. So what they say is that you gotta write down the ultimate deliverable.

Brandon: Mhmm.

Steve: Here's some ideas that I have on it, but this ultimate deliverable, and you give it to them.

Brandon: Let them create the the past. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So that's something I'm working on myself.

Brandon: Why do you why do you think it is that we do that as leaders? Why do why do you think we're so reluctant to to get in there and and do that? We're holding ourselves back most of the time.

Steve: It's because we think we're amazing.

Brandon: We do. We do. And that's where I was going with this. We get caught up in the fact that we think that you know, sometimes it's about ego in the sense that we think we're the only ones that could solve a problem. But, also, sometimes it's just about it's something completely different in the in the sense that we're either scared or we're, you know, or or we're we're going to be embarrassed or or feel like we're not qualified to lead our people Mhmm.

If they solve a problem for us. And that's that's dangerous. Right? That's why they're there. That's Yeah.

That's why they're there to be a part of the organization, to solve problems, to create a hive mind mentality when it comes to growth and problem solving.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: Right? And we gotta get out of our own way most of the time.

Steve: We have to. Yeah. So what is your superpower?

Brandon: Oh, man. I've I really don't know. I think that a skill that I've developed purposely because I wanted to be a better person, was empathy. I wanted to understand people in the way that they think and the way that they respond and all the psychological nonsense that we deal with in the world and with our upbringings is I really put a lot of effort into philosophy and psychology. One to understand myself.

Mhmm. Not only, you know, who I am, but again who I want to be. But throughout that process, I realized that part of understanding yourself is understanding that you're part of something so much bigger. And all of those individual pieces that are in that bigger picture are as complex or more complex as you. Yeah.

And the better you can understand them, the better you can help them, and the better you can collaborate with them. And and it all just starts to fall into place. So, I wouldn't say it's a superpower, but I would say it could be. Yeah. You know, the the more I the more I hone this part of myself, yeah, I can see it being that way.

Steve: Well, yeah. I mean, I think the combination of the empathy and then the the, self awareness, I think it's Yeah. Hugely powerful because you can't connect with other people if you can't really understand.

Brandon: You know when you're in front of somebody that hasn't gotten that right. Yeah. You can feel it coming off of them. You know that whether it's whether it's the self awareness or the empathy or you know when you're in front of somebody and they haven't broke out of the shell of their ego yet. There's and I don't mean ego in a bad way.

I mean, ego is just it it's a it's a thing that we lead with.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: And, boy, you can notice it right away when you start challenging yourself.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: You start to see it in others. And

Steve: Well, another thing too is that, the the message is people wanna feel understood and loved. And if you don't have empathy

Brandon: You you can't possibly understand. Yeah. Yeah. You can say that you do, and you can nod your head and shake and do all the, you know, all the stuff.

Steve: General scenario. Objection handling.

Brandon: Yeah. Wait for your turn to talk. You know? Yeah. But you're you're exactly right, man.

Exactly right.

Steve: Alright. So we'll leave this one last question, unless someone else wants to ask. But, what is the greatest lesson you can impart right now? We've gone through some great amazing stuff today. What is the greatest lesson that you've learned that you'd wanna impart on today's young entrepreneurs?

Brandon: Just one. I think that for for a young entrepreneur, I think the idea of coming out of the gates and thinking that you can do it all on your own is extremely, extremely dangerous.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: I don't think enough people that come into our industry value, leadership and mentorship and being around people that can show you the ropes. Like, we we have opportunities to make a lot of money, a lot of impact in this business Mhmm. A lot like other other industries in our world. And, you know, we always use the doctor analysis or the lawyer analysis in real estate. And we say, well, if you were a doctor, would you analysis or the lawyer analysis in real estate.

And we say, well, if you were a doctor, would you go to Starbucks and meet your client for a consultation? No. You know, we go through all this kind of, like, boring language. But the truth of it is, like, there's not many of us that are great. I'm sorry.

Like and most of us are still striving to be that way. But there's mediocrity rampant inside of our industry, and I'm gonna bring it right back to choice. You it's a choice that you can make. You can choose to go get yourself in in an environment and become truly professional, truly valuable to your clients.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: Or you can choose to just want to be relevant on social media or be popular or have the attention of a producer. But it's all that choice. And I think that if you can come into this industry and humble yourself and not get caught up with having to have the sexiest Facebook logo or business logo and all the nonsense and getting caught up in the art, humble yourself, get in there, learn how this industry And you're going to be exponentially further along than your peers that you started with or even the people who have been in the industry for for years. Right. Because you and I talked about this over over lunch of of, what, six or seven weeks ago.

There are so many purposeful distractions in our industry that are meant to extract little bits of money from agents or or distract them, and they get caught up in the idea that education is somehow work. Mhmm. We all know education without implementation is just entertainment. Yeah. So you can't just run around to all these classes and say that you're working.

Eventually, you're gonna have to learn what work really looks like in this industry. Mhmm. And then you're gonna have to take action on it. And it's not gonna feel great. There's gonna be fear and reluctancies, and there's gonna be rejection.

Rejection is such a huge part of what we do. And you're gonna have to not only grow as as a professional, but you're gonna have to grow emotionally in how you handle those things. And if you do, if you're willing and you do that, coming out the other side of that, what we're capable of accomplishing in this industry is truly great.

Steve: Right. Yeah. Limitless.

Brandon: Limitless.

Steve: Awesome. Alright. So, what is the best way for someone to get ahold of you? I know you mentioned a couple of things, but you wanna reiterate?

Brandon: Yeah. I mean, obviously, I'm I'm getting better at Facebook Messenger now. I check it at least every few days. I'm not a fan of it. I just like text messages.

Like, why don't we just do that? Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, you can always reach me on my cell phone, which is (602) 826-0213. My email address is brandon dot tracy, tracy,@btgrealestate.com.

Steve: Awesome. And we got potentially two of their eight, steps class for, referrals. Yeah.

Brandon: We'll we'll certainly have two in September and two in October. No doubt.

Steve: Awesome. Awesome. Alright. And, guys, again, if you like this show, please share this episode right now. And, also, I want to, implore you guys to reach out to me.

If you guys have any struggles, I mean, I wanna help. Right? So reach out to me. You can message me, and I'll respond to you. And then, please do join me next week.

We're gonna have Tyler Hixson with Open Door. So that's gonna be a really fun one. There's gonna be some really angry questions on that one. So it's gonna be a lot

Brandon: of fun. Few more on that one.

Steve: Alright. Thanks a lot, guys. And thank

Brandon: you for the closing. Appreciate

Steve: it. Great episode.