If you're a brokerage owner or team leader and you're saying to yourself, “hey, who should I target in terms of recruiting in my local market,” I'm going to give you The 20% Rule.

This is something we should all be aware of: There are people that are more likely to move than others in your market area, which falls in The 20% Rule.

Here’s what The 20% Rule means:

People that have had an upswing in their business by 20%, or a downswing in their business by 20% over the past 12 months.

So let's look at the downswing folks. The downswing folks are looking to be rescued. It's a perfect opportunity to be calling them because who do they blame? They never blame themselves.

There's never going to be a time where they say, “well, I didn't do what I was supposed to do.” They're always going to say, “well, my brokerage should have given me better marketing or better support or better training or better leads. It's their fault, not my fault.” It's just a natural tendency of what agents do.

A...

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 ...

Hey guys, if you’re a brokerage owner or team leader, one thing we tend to do this time of year is say, “Okay, what are our production goals for 2026?”

And you should do this. You should know what you’re shooting for in terms of Gross Commission Income (GCI) and closed volume.

But one thing we often forget is what’s actually going to produce those goals—those transactions closed, that volume closed, that GCI. What is it going to take to create that?

Often, we get lost in this idea that all we need to do is motivate our current crew enough for them to create the production goals we’ve set for the team or the company.

But the reality is, that almost never works.

As someone who coaches brokerage owners, franchises, and team leaders across the country at the highest levels, I can tell you that almost never works.

Why?

Because what’s going to create higher production and higher GCI isn’t motivating your current team to produce more. Now, we want to do that—that’s absolutely a goal.

Hey guys, I want to give you a really easy equation for your business, and it starts with understanding something very fundamental.

Every single listing you take and every single transaction you create will be the result of a conversation you’ve had in the last two weeks.

Hear that: every single listing and every single transaction you create will be the result of a conversation you’ve had in the last two weeks.

By nature, that means if we have more conversations, we’ll have more closings.

That’s the big challenge for many agents out there. They don’t really put numbers to this.

The path is in the math.

When it comes to sales, we often want to think it’s an art form, but it’s not. It comes down to hard work and actually doing the work necessary.

So let’s put some numbers to this.

In our training and coaching, we’ve found that for every 30 conversations you have, you’ll average one closed sale.

So we can really plug some math in here and say, if I want to close 30 transactions ...

As a brokerage owner or team leader, one thing we often do—and we see agents do this a lot—is run into what’s called “The Einstein Problem.”

The Einstein Problem is this: we’re introduced to a new idea or concept, and we say, “You know what? I’ve heard that before. I’ve tried that before. It didn’t work for me, so I’m not going to do it again.” We stop listening to that idea, concept, tool, technique, or strategy. We say it doesn’t work in our market.

We’ve all heard agents do this, and we’ve done it ourselves. Let’s be honest.

One of the areas we commonly say this about is recruiting.

We’ll say, “I’ve tried recruiting. It doesn’t work in my market. I’ve tried going after top agents. They never come.”

Or, “I’ve tried experienced agent recruiting. I’ve emailed, texted, called, taken them to lunch, and it just doesn’t go anywhere, so I’m going to stop.”

But here’s The Einstein Problem behind that attitude—and this is true for your agents with lead generation as well.

I want you to...

Let me tell you the number one mistake rookie recruiters make when they're first released into the field. They've just been given the job of becoming a recruiter, and they think, “Okay, I better get out there and start making things happen.”

So they go to a REALTOR event—could be an MLS meeting, a board meeting, maybe a training or education event—and they jump into full-on “mayor mode.” They’re shaking hands, kissing babies, acting like the VP, president, or CEO. They’re working the room.

And then they make the classic rookie error:

They start trying to recruit in public.

Professional, high-level recruiters never recruit in public. Ever.

We build relationships in public. But we always recruit in private.

Why? Because if you’re seen recruiting openly at a public event, people will run from you. They’ll think, “I need to get away from this person before anyone sees me talking to them.”

Nobody wants to be seen as the agent who’s being recruited, and you don’t want to be the recrui...

Hey guys, have you had a chance to talk to your social and sphere audiences about the importance of flood insurance?

This should be a priority, especially with what's happened with Helene and Milton—it’s on the top of everyone's mind.

Here's something interesting: typical homeowner’s insurance doesn’t cover flooding. Since 1996, 99% of counties in the U.S. have experienced some kind of flooding event. What’s more, 20% of all flood claims come from homes not in traditional flood zones. And just one inch of flooding in your house can cause at least $25,000 in damage.

That’s a huge reason to encourage your clients to get flood insurance.

To help with this, there are a couple of things we can do:

First, partner with a local insurance agent who specializes in flood insurance. We could record a webinar or have them join a live stream to discuss the importance of flood insurance.

Another option is to direct people to the government website, FloodSmart.gov, which has a ton of information...