The late, great Lou Holtz had a way of speaking. If you’ve never seen him speak, I recommend you go check him out on YouTube. Incredible speaker.

But one thing he taught me was that the way people buy is they ask themselves three questions—the essence of these three questions.

First of all, can I trust you?

Can I trust you?

How are you showing that people can trust you? Online reviews. Written recommendations. Testimonials. Can I trust you? Number one question I have.

Second question is, are you good at what you do?

Are you good at what you do? How are you showing that? Are you showing that you're actually getting the job done, or are you getting what I call resistance from your own sphere of influence—not doing business with you or referring you on a regular basis?

Why would that be?

The reason is you're not showing them you're good at what you do. You're not saying, hey, I sold this. I got this pending. I'm out here working every day. I'm working, working, working, and you're...

If you're a real estate agent, I've got an idea for you.

And the reason I got this idea is because it just happened to me. I'm a rental owner, and I got a letter in the mail from a local real estate agent, but he had partnered with a local property management firm. I thought this was a brilliant strategy.

They co-branded the letter, and the letter said something like this:

“Hey, I'm a local listing agent who specializes in working with investors. If you're in need of real estate services, on the buy side or sell side, I'd love to work with you. And by the way, I partner with a local property management firm who would love to work with you on the property management side.”

And it was a brilliant strategy. On the bottom, they had both the logos.

Now, from each company's perspective, they're ancillary and complementary to each other.

They've taken their mailing costs and cut it in half. Think about that. Instead of it maybe being a dollar 50 or a dollar, now it's half, and they can ...

One of the things I'm asked as somebody that specializes in recruiting is how does it impact your recruiting strategy when A) you're going after an office where there's a competing broker, and B) what if you’re the competing broker in your market?

So let's start with a question: what if I'm going after an office where there's a broker that's out there still selling real estate? And that's very, very common. In fact, the vast majority of brokerage owners in the country still sell.

So here's the trick. When you're looking at those companies, when you're looking at the overall agent productivity of that office, you've got to break out the leader, because the leader is inevitably the top producer in the office.

And when I break their production out, it will bring all those other agents' production down. So I'm having a meeting or a conversation with somebody, I can say”

“Hey, I took a minute and I looked at your overall office productivity. Looks like you had a pretty good year. But wh...

Hey guys, we're coming into Spring, and this is a great time of year to offer your concierge services to all of your clients.

What is your concierge service?

You want people to think about you when they think about anything related to their house — whether that's putting a new roof on, new carpet, refinishing the floors, needing an electrician, needing a plumber.

You want to be the first point of contact when they have a need related to their house. But you've got to say it out loud.

You've got to reach out to them. This is a great text, a great call, a great email where you say:

“Hey guys, a lot of times this time of year, coming into Spring, is when people like to do home improvement projects. If that's you and you need a contractor of any kind, reach out to me.

I've got relationships with the best contractors in the market. They give my clients great service and great pricing, so please reach out to me.”

Now, here's how I'm inserting value: I'm saying they're going to get whi...

Why do agents stay at a company rather than leave and go somewhere else? Forty-three percent of agents report the number one reason they're loyal to their current company is not their compensation plan. In fact, only 13% rate their compensation plan as the number one reason they're staying.

Forty-three percent rate the culture at the company—the culture, the vision, and the leadership of the company they're working at—as the number one factor for sticking around and staying loyal. So think about that from your perspective as a brokerage owner or team leader.

What’s your culture like when somebody comes in? How do they feel about working in your environment or office space? Does it feel like a family? Does it feel like you’ve got esprit de corps, you're having fun, you're energized? Is it a fun place to be with a shared vision of what you're trying to build? Or do you not have that?

If you don't have that, you're at risk of losing people to other firms that have a better vision, bett...

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...

What is push-button recruiting?

If you're an office leader or team leader, you might be tempted to say, “I want to recruit, but I don't want to spend the time doing it. I just want to plug into a system—a CRM, AI platform, or some kind of tech—that will do the work for me. It’ll send emails, send texts, and every day it’ll do the job automatically.”

Then, like magic, people will just start calling, wanting to work for you.

Well, I wish that were true. That would be nice.

Another version of this is hiring virtual assistants overseas to make a thousand calls a day.

I'm going to tell you something you might not want to hear:

These systems, by and large, do not work.

On the rare occasion they do set an appointment, it’s usually with the lowest-hanging fruit—the kind of agent you don’t want anyway. These are people who’ve changed companies five times in a year.

Why doesn’t it work?

Because it’s not personalized recruiting.

Imagine you’re on the other end. If you're getting a gener...

Here's a question for you: Are you a real estate concierge?

What’s a concierge? If you’ve ever been to a hotel with one, they’re the people who connect you with local shows, restaurants, and experiences. They make your stay smoother and more enjoyable.

That’s exactly the approach we should be taking with our clients—and even our potential clients.

You can start the conversation like this, “Hey, as a real estate professional, I work with vendors all the time—gardeners, plumbers, electricians, carpet installers, landscapers, you name it. If you ever need anything related to real estate, call me. I can connect you with the best.”

Because I refer clients to these vendors regularly, my clients usually get the best pricing—and they move to the front of the line. It’s a win-win.

When you position yourself as the go-to person for anything home-related, you naturally start having more conversations with clients. They’ll call you and ask, “Who’s your landscaper?”

You say, “I’ve got a great...

Have you ever lost an agent? I have.

If you're a broker owner or a team leader, you probably have too. At some point, an agent decides to leave, and it feels terrible—like getting punched in the face. It's emotional, and you might wonder: Why did that happen? Was it my failure, or is it just part of the industry?

Here's the hard truth: it often is a failure on our part.

Specifically, it's a failure to understand where that agent was in their career. And that failure stems from a lack of communication with the agent.

Retention—that's what we're talking about here. Keeping agents starts with building relationships. And relationships come from spending time with your agents.

Time leads to relationships, and relationships lead to retention. So, the first step is spending more time with your agent team.

Now, you might say, “Jim, I’ve got a 200-agent office. There’s no way I can spend more time with all of them.” But it’s not about hours of one-on-one time. Even five or ten minutes can...

Here's a massive opportunity for you when you're looking at your sphere of influence. If you've got a list of people in your sphere that own businesses or are entrepreneurs with locations, we’re in a unique position with the commercial market right now. In many areas, the commercial market is really struggling.

The script for reaching out to these business owners in your sphere of influence is straightforward. Start by asking, “Do you rent or own your current location?”

Most will be renters, some will be owners.

If they say they are renters, you can respond with this:

“If you'd like to own, this is one of the best times in the last 10 years to buy commercial property. There are several factors at play:

• Vacancies are high
• Rents are declining
• Rental prices and commercial real estate prices are stable, with some areas seeing decreases

There’s a real opportunity to get a bargain in today’s market.”

Or if they already own their property, ask, "Have you ever thought of adding a ...