Every month at least one broker-owner tells me, “I have people who just won’t do the work.” Sometimes it’s an agent. Sometimes it’s someone on staff. Either way, the diagnosis is the same: they aren’t motivated. Angela Duckworth, the Penn professor who wrote Grit, offered a better diagnosis. Full effort depends on four thoughts: Miss even […]
Small Inputs, Big Days
Maybe you’re a broker-owner who just watched a good agent walk out the door. Maybe you’re a recruiter who has heard “not right now” six times this week. Maybe you’re an agent staring at an empty calendar, an affiliate watching referrals slow down, or a student wondering if you picked the right career at the […]
From 42 to 75 Agents in One Year: A Recruiting Case Study
Broker-owners ask me all the time whether a recruiting system really changes the numbers. Here’s one answer, in the client’s own words. Jeremy and Lindsay Sinnes own John L. Scott Yakima in Yakima, Washington. They started 90 Days to Recruiting Success, Recruiting Insight’s 12-week coaching program, at 42 agents. A year later they sent me […]
Your 2027 Plan Is Already Written
You Just Have to Read Your 2026 Numbers It’s Q4, which means planning season. And most brokerage plans start the same way: “We’re going to grow 20% next year.” That’s not a plan. That’s a result, and an opinion with a number attached. Earlier this week I wrote that action produces data and theory produces opinions. So […]
How Brokerage Leaders Coach Agents to Consistent Production
Consistent production isn’t a personality trait. It’s a set of daily habits that leaders can coach. Here is how brokerage leaders build them in agents.
Action Produces Data. Theory Produces Opinions.
Ten days ago I wrote that one step beats a dozen programs. Last week Joe De Sena reminded me why: complacency kills. The cure isn’t another program. It’s one step. Let’s be real. Every broker-owner I know has a shelf full of programs. Recruiting scripts. Retention playbooks. Onboarding binders. A webinar series bookmarked for “when […]
Complacency Kills
Which Generation Is Your Brokerage? Joe De Sena, the founder of Spartan Race, has a two-word warning I can’t shake: complacency kills. He starts with a line made famous by novelist G. Michael Hopf: “Hard times make strong people.” The rest of the cycle goes like this. Strong people create good times. Good times create soft […]
How to Recruit Experienced Real Estate Agents: A Daily System That Works
Recruiting experienced agents is a daily discipline, not a campaign. Here is the activity system, the follow-up model and the numbers that make it work.
Rates, Not Prices: Coaching Ourselves and Our Agents Through the Real Market
This week a reporter reached out to me with several questions about a new report showing that nearly one-third of U.S. counties are now seriously unaffordable for homebuyers. One question stood out: why aren’t falling home prices making homes more affordable? It’s the right question, and the answer should shape every coaching conversation we have […]
The 8 D’s of Agent Movement: Why Agents Really Leave, and Why They Stay
They say it’s the split. It almost never is. Ask an agent why they’re thinking about moving and you’ll usually hear one word: money. A better split. A lower cap. A bigger signing bonus. There’s an old line, usually credited to Henry Ford, that if he’d asked people what they wanted, they would have said […]