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 things slow down.” Most of it never left the shelf.
And right about now, as Q4 kicks in and we start thinking about next year, the temptation is to go looking for one more. The perfect recruiting system. The retention model that finally fixes everything.
Here’s the truth I’ve learned in 30+ years in this business: action produces data. Theory produces opinions.
Why Theory Feels So Good
Theory feels productive. Strategy meetings, whiteboard sessions, debating which CRM to buy or which script works best. It feels like work. But it doesn’t tell you anything about your market, your agents, or your value proposition.
Only doing does that. One recruiting conversation tells you more about how your offer lands than ten planning sessions. One honest sit-down with a top producer tells you more about retention than a committee ever will.
When Steve Murray and his RealTrends team studied 15 brokerages that grew through the 2008–2012 downturn for their “Against All Odds” study, they didn’t find a magic program. They found leaders who got closer to their people and executed the daily fundamentals.
What One Step Looks Like
- For the Broker-Owner: You don’t need a new recruiting program. You need one recruiting conversation today. Then another tomorrow.
- For the Recruiter: The script you’ve debated for three weeks can be tested in one afternoon. Make 20 calls. Write down what landed and what didn’t.
- For the Manager: You can theorize about why agents leave, or you can ask your top producer this week, “What would make you stay here for the next five years?” One stay conversation beats a dozen retention ideas.
- For the Staff: Pick one point of friction in the transaction flow. Fix it. Ask the agents if they noticed.
None of that requires a budget, a vendor, or a kickoff meeting. It requires a decision and a calendar.
How to Take the One Step
- Pick One Metric That Matters: Recruiting appointments set. Stay conversations held. New-agent check-ins completed. One. Not five.
- Start Today, Not Monday: Waiting for January is just theory with a start date. The smallest step taken today beats the perfect plan launched next quarter.
- Track It Honestly: Write down what actually happened, not what you hoped would happen. That’s your data.
- Debrief Weekly: What worked? What didn’t? What will we do differently next week? Small adjustments compound.
- Earn the Next Step: Only add the next step when the first one has become a habit. Momentum first, complexity later.
The brokerages that win aren’t the ones with the most programs. They’re the ones that learn the fastest, and you can only learn by doing. Opinions are free. Data is earned.
So take one step today. Then let the results tell you where to go next.
Win the day!
A System Will Produce What A System Will Produce, Nothing Less and Nothing More!
Want help applying this in your brokerage? Book a 30-minute conversation with Mark at calendly.com/mjsession.
