When I got into the real estate business, and I bet you're like me, when you walked into your real estate office in the beginning, there was a leaderboard. Some people call it a brag board in the office, right?

It had the listings and the sales. You'd write your name down when you took a listing and write your name down when you took a sale.

And we liked it, man. We're ego-driven people. As real estate agents, we all want to see our name on the board.

So when you open your company, some of you brokerage owners and team leaders might have done the same thing. You thought, "Well, I'm going to do the same thing. I'm going to have a big brag board, and I'm going to fire people up about getting on that brag board every month."

Is that a good idea, though?

Here's why it may backfire on you:

The reason it may backfire on you is, who are the same people that are going to be on that board every single month, month after month after month? They'll be your top producers.

And you might say,...

If you're a brokerage owner or team leader, I want to talk to you about something that's kind of outside the box—and that is what we call “adoption rates.”

What's adoption? Adoption means you bring in technology, a system, a tool, or maybe a training program into the company, and you watch as only 20% of the people utilize it—and 80% do not.

That's the rule of thumb: The 80/20 rule.

So you start to wonder why the heck you would bring anything into this company? You feel tempted to cut everything: the technology they’re not using, the training, the mentorship program—this, that, and the other.

Well, remember there's also an 80/20 rule in production too:

20% of the people are doing 80% of the production.

So when you cut these things, you might actually be hurting the people who are supporting the company the most.

But I want you to rethink the 80/20 rule for a second.

When we measure whether we should cut, keep, or add something to the company, don’t just look at whether people a...

If you're running a great office meeting, and hopefully you are as a brokerage owner or team leader, you should be hosting these at least once a week. These meetings should be inspirational, motivational, and educational. Something people actually get excited to attend.

If you're doing that, I want you to start thinking about using your meetings as a recruiting opportunity. If you have strong relationships with co-op agents at other firms, why not invite them to your office meeting? Worst case, they say no. But you could say something like:

"Hey, we love working with you. We'd love to have you join us and check out our company. Just come experience an office meeting. I know we haven't closed a deal in a while, but if you want to see what we're all about, we'd be happy to have you. By the way, we invite co-op agents all the time. You can even pitch one of your listings or a buyer need—no pressure, just a chance to connect."

Another approach is if you have a guest speaker - a lender, ...