As brokers and managers, one of our jobs is crisis management, as we all know, right? We're dealing with crises all the time.

Agents that come into your office and they say, “I have a problem.”

They all think the problem is a crisis. So I'm going to give you a little tip on something I learned years ago. I call it the “1-3-1 Approach” for helping agents kind of learn to fish.

In other words, teaching them how to deal with the crisis in an effective way. Even if maybe you're not there to help them, you're going to train them how to address a crisis, address a problem that they're going on.

And this is a great retention tool, guys.

So the 131, here's how it works:

First, when they come into your office, you're going to cut to the chase. You're going to identify the problem. So you can identify one problem at a time, not ten. But let's talk about one problem. So that's the 1.

Then we talk about three possible solutions, three possible ways that we could get this issue solved. And I...

Hey guys, if you're a brokerage owner or team leader, I've got an idea for you. And that is the power of gifting.

Why is gifting so important? Well, gifting is important because it helps you show up in people's lives in a whole different way. And if we're somebody that's trying to recruit or retain agents, gifting is a super powerful strategy.

Let me give you both:

So if you have a staff, a small staff or a big staff, why don't you empower them with a small budget? Not a large budget, a small budget, maybe $200 to $300 a month, where they have the power to gift someone in the office or on your team because of something that's happening in their lives.

They had a sick baby, or they've had somebody graduate high school or college, or their spouse is retiring.

Whatever you see, whatever they see as your staff, they can say, “hey, I'm going to go spend a few dollars on a little gift, personalized gift for this person.”

And of course, who is going to be the one that's listed as saying...

People ask me all the time, Jim, how do you retain amazing agents? You've recruited and retained some of the best agents in America. They've stayed with you for years. You took a company from a hundred million to 1.4 billion over 10 years, created a company from 39 agents to one of the top companies in America. How'd you do it?

Well, the answer is, I want you to think about the people that work for you. Just think about the landscape of people that work for you today. And I want you to ask yourself, how many of those people consider you to be their personal friend? And if the answer is, I don't think any of them do, you have a problem because you're looking at them transactionally. And that's the first mistake.

It's the same mistake agents make when they look at their clients and customers transactionally too.

I look at the top agents in America. The top agents in America don't look at their buyers and sellers as buyers and sellers. They look at them as friends. And when ...