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...

Hey brokers, team leaders, I’ve got a question for you: when was your last wow moment when it comes to marketing for your firm?

When did you roll out a piece of digital marketing — maybe a new sign design, new branding, new flyers, something fresh and exciting technologically? Maybe it’s a new website or a new social media skin. Something that wowed your agents.

If the answer is you can’t remember, or it was sometime last year, I’m going to suggest that you commit to doing this once a quarter.

Once a quarter, you should be rolling out a wow moment for your agents where they’re like, “Whoa, that is cool. That is really exciting.”

This keeps your company fresh. It keeps it exciting. It gives you a retention tool, and it gives you a recruiting tool at the same time.

Then the question becomes: what is it?

We’ve got to go in search of it. We’ve got to look for people outside of our company, ideas, strategies, marketing pieces, branding pieces outside the company, and be in tune and sa...

A quick question for you brokerage owners and team leaders out there: do you eat your own dog food?

What do I mean? I mean this: that you're using the same systems that you're providing your own agents. So if you're giving them a certain CRM, if you're giving them a certain platform to use, if you're giving them a follow-up program, you're telling them to use social media, you're telling them to do video, you're telling them to have a YouTube channel, etc.

You have all these systems at your office. But are you using the systems that you're providing, and do you know them like the back of your hand? Can you train them on these tools? Are you an expert in it because you're eating your own dog food every single day?

When you do this at a high level, agents respect you because they want to be led by somebody that's at the front. They want to be led by someone else using the same systems.

And number two, you're going to be able to help them grow their own businesses.

The worst thing I'...