Brokerage owners and team leaders, I want you to start watching for something, and I want you to be opportunistic. That might sound negative, but it’s not.

As an office leader, you have a duty to yourself, your business, your family, and your colleagues. That duty is to recruit consistently. One of the easiest ways to do that is to be opportunistic in a positive way.

What does that mean? Look for trigger events.

Trigger events in your community could be:

• An office leadership change at XYZ Company
• A brand change
• A staffing shakeup
• A technology challenge

I hear about these things all the time, and when they happen, they give me a reason to engage with that company.

For example, I might ask in my office, “Do you know anyone who works at XYZ? They’re having some changes over there. I’d like to reach out.”

Then I’ll make the call:

“Hey, I understand there’s been some changes at your company. I’ve always been impressed with your work. You’re probably very happy where you are—a...

What is your real estate company worth right now? What would you sell it for?

I ask because many people tell me, “I don’t want to do this forever. At some point, I want to escape. I want to sit on a beach with a margarita in my hand. I don’t want to die with a pen in my hand at a desk.”

My answer is always the same: Your company is not worth what it should be today.

Here’s why:

For a company to be truly profitable, it needs experienced agents. The more experienced agents you have, the more sales you generate and the more profit you create.

So, what is a real estate company worth? The answer depends on market conditions, how long your agents have been with you, your brand, and other factors. But in general, companies are valued at two to five times net income.

Now, what if you don’t have net income? Then your company is worthless. In fact, 70-90% of real estate companies in America today fall into that category.

How do I know? Because the brokerage owner still has to sell real es...

As a brokerage owner or leader, are you treating your current agents as your own personal SOI—your sphere of influence?

As an agent, you were trained to do this. You’ve heard it repeatedly from gurus, speakers, and podcasters: work your sphere. You need 20 to 50 contacts per year with your sphere to generate referrals.

But are you applying that same principle to your own agents?

Most brokerage owners and team leaders don’t. Then they wonder why recruiting is so hard. Recruiting feels difficult because they’re not getting referrals from their own agents.

The number one recruiting strategy for every brokerage owner in America should be this: your agents are so impressed, enthusiastic, and in love with what you do that they’re shouting from the rooftops, telling every agent in the market to work for you.

If that’s not happening, it’s because you’re not treating your agents with the same intensity and intentionality as your SOI.

So let’s change that. Treat them with the same respect ...

If you're a real estate broker, I want you to do something the next time you're in a grocery store. Look at the shelves and notice how many products say new and improved.

Now apply that to your own real estate company. Ask yourself: What about my company, what I'm offering to agents in this market, is new and improved?

If you can’t think of anything, neither can your current agents—and certainly no one outside your company can either. But this is the secret sauce.

We often think recruiting is all about commission splits. It’s not. If the lowest split was all that mattered, then the operator with the lowest split in your market would have every agent working for them—and we know that’s not true.

So what is attracting agents to join one company over another? It’s the tools, the technology, the services, the support, and most importantly—which company they believe can help them close more transactions at the end of the day.

Here’s the challenge: What can you roll out every quarter th...

People often ask me, “Jim, what’s the secret to recruiting?”

Here it is: spend one hour a day recruiting—just like your agents are expected to spend one hour a day lead generating. We tell agents to prospect daily; as a brokerage owner or team leader, you need to do the same thing with recruiting.

I call this the “Five by Five” system. It’s a proven strategy we use in our company and with our brokerage coaching students across the country to drive performance and success.

Here’s how it works. Within that one hour of recruiting, you commit to:

• Making 5 calls
• Sending 5 texts
• Sending 5 video texts
• Writing 5 personal notes
• Doing 5 social media touches

If you hold yourself to that standard, you’ll start unlocking new opportunities.

The next question is: what do you say? What should you be texting, saying on calls, writing in notes, or posting on social media?

The key is natural, authentic conversations that resonate. Great recruiting isn’t about pushing for an appointment eve...

As a recruiting coach, one of the things I hear most often is, “Jim, I’d love to recruit experienced agents every day like you recommend, but I just don’t have the time. My schedule is already stretched too thin.”

I get it. As brokerage owners and team leaders, we’re all busy. But here’s the truth: We can’t control time. If we could add two hours to the day, that’d be great. But since we can’t, the real focus has to be on self-management, not time management.

And self-management comes down to priority management.

The number one priority for every brokerage owner in America should be recruiting experienced agents every single day. Until you gain control of that, your company won’t grow.

Here’s the magic of self-management: if you want to start doing something important—like dedicating one hour a day to recruiting—that means you have to stop doing something else.

So the real question is: what are you willing to stop doing that isn’t leading to results?

Recruiting daily is the singl...

As a brokerage owner and team leader, I have a question for you: when’s the last time you fired someone?

That’s a big one, isn’t it? Have you ever actually fired someone, or do they just leave on their own? A lot of brokerage owners and team leaders don’t have the strength to say, “This person isn’t working here anymore.” But avoiding that creates roadblocks for recruiting.

Sometimes one agent creates what I call the “bad apple syndrome.” They’re so difficult—dramatic, gossipy, toxic—that potential recruits won’t join your company because they don’t want to work with them.

Think about your roster right now. Maybe everyone is fantastic. But maybe not. Maybe you’ve got someone with barnacles—someone others don’t want to work with.

And here’s another question: how many people on your roster haven’t closed a deal in the last year? You might have five, six, eight, even ten agents producing nothing. Why are they still on your roster? They’re dragging down your company’s production number...

Brokerage owners and team leaders — I have a question for you: What problem are you solving for agents?

If you're not solving a problem for them, there's no reason for them to come work for you.

The number one problem you can solve is helping them unlock the door to more transactions. Most agents are struggling here, so giving them a roadmap, tools, strategies, and techniques to close more deals should be your top priority.

But there are other problems we often overlook. Maybe they’re struggling with time management, technology, client management, building out a CRM, or having a reliable way to evaluate potential listings.

Agents have many challenges, and if we’re not addressing them, we’re giving them no reason to join our company.

All great businesses — especially industry disruptors — solve problems.

Think about the great companies you do business with today. They’ve solved a problem.

You need to be the problem solver.

Take a moment to reflect on your market. What are four o...

Hey, brokerage owners and team leaders. I’m going to do a quick role play with you right now.

Let’s pretend you’re an agent who just had a failed transaction with one of my agents. I’m going to call you—not text you, but call—and say:

"Hey Jim, I just wanted to reach out. I know you had a transaction with Bob that didn’t come together this morning. I got the bad news, but Bob told me you were an absolute pro throughout the process. This has nothing to do with you or your client—sometimes things just happen. I just wanted to say thank you for your professionalism. We look forward to working with you again in the future. And if there’s ever anything I can do to help, I’m here."

Now, imagine making that kind of call after every failed transaction where the other agent handled things well. What do you think is going to happen on the other end of the call?

Do you think that agent will appreciate it? Absolutely. No other broker is making that kind of call.

What you’re doing is laying a ...

Brokerage owners and team leaders, how do you establish trust with agents in your market area?

The number one way to build trust today is through social media. Specifically by recording video daily. The most effective way to build trust is by letting people get to know who you are.

Thanks to video, people can now get a real sense of your personality, your energy, and your overall vibe.

Think about an agent who’s never seen you on video and hasn’t met you in person because everyone’s so busy. All they know is that you're the owner or leader of XYZ Company. You’d be surprised how many agents feel intimidated. Not because you’re intimidating, but because of your title, experience, and success. They might think that they could never talk to you, let alone calling or texting you.

They don’t know you because you haven’t made the effort to show up.

And the way to break down those walls is to consistently show up on social media and post videos daily. Post them to your personal page. Frie...