KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Building a Team with April Stephens

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

see all the mess behind me. Usually does a countdown, but it didn't do one today. So that's called Casey operating the technology. So today, welcome back everybody. We have April Stevens with us. And I'm Casey Steyers, your host. Holly is with a client still. She may hop on in just a few. But I work the Raleigh area and also known as the downtown guru. And April is, I mean, she's one of the top realtors in this area. She's done amazing things. She's also what city commissioner. Is that correct?

County Commissioner for Jodd State County and has built a real estate school. And I've known her since pretty much her first day of real estate. Haven't said that. Welcome, April. I'm well honored that you're on here, A. And it's funny how things go in circles. And here we are sitting together doing this. Not on the parent teacher conference table.

I know. I love saying everything happens for reasons. So yes, you met me right after I got good into real estate. And it's been a whirlwind ever since. And I'm honored to be here as well. So thank you for having me. You are so welcome.

So tell us a little bit about how you joined the real estate world and where it's taking you and team. So ironically, yesterday was September 11th. So thanks to September 11th, unit got deployed and I ended up going into labor the day that my unit deployed with my daughter Abby. So ended up not being able to deploy with my Army National Guard unit and then subsequently got out and needed to go to work. So I started working part-time for a general contractor and I just loved everything about it. He was building houses and commercial buildings and I loved the marketing

side and he said, you know, if you think you want to do this, I'll send you to real estate school. So I went to back then it was night school, like literally three nights a week for six months. It took me to get my real estate license and went to night school. And the rest is history right after that. The recession happened. And he quit building houses. So I went to a local remax and started growing there and then eventually went on to grow a team. And then eventually went on to be a remax broker owner and then moved to EXP about three years ago.

So it's been a 17 years. now, which is crazy. Right. I mean, that speaks my age because it was one of my first kindergarten students I ever taught. I tell people I'm fax machine old in real estate years. Like I remember getting offers on the fax machine. So I don't feel that old, but I'm that old in real estate. So I felt that old with a lot of things. So let's talk a little bit about team building. What made you decide you wanted to build a team? I feel like every, every decision I've made always goes back to Abby. And if you know me, you know, Abby is my world. So that makes sense. I've gotten really busy, which was a blessing. And Abby decided to compete in pageants. And I will ever forget, we were sitting,

she was going for pretty much like a Little Miss North Carolina title. She'd won a local pageant in Garner. And she went on for Little Miss North Carolina. And that day, I remember I was trying to to negotiate three offers and trying to write one. And I was just pulling my hair out and trying to be there for her and thinking, I can't do this. I can't do, I can't be all things to everyone. I felt like I wasn't giving her my full attention.

I felt like nobody was getting my full attention. And then she won. And I was like, this little girl is going to be very busy for the next year. And she deserves my full attention. She's worked so hard for this. And there's got to be a better way. And luckily about that time,

one of my close friends in the business, we'd worked together, had just moved back to town. And I literally called her that day. And I said, hey, do you want to be my buyer's agent? I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how we're going to do it, but do you want to be my buyer's agent? And she was like, yes. And I was like, great.

So we met the next week. I think I was doing like almost 90 deals myself at that time and had a part-time assistant. And really, that was just for paperwork stuff. It wasn't even transaction management. It was just making sure my paperwork. work was right. So we started working together and her and I worked together for about three years. And then we had some new construction opportunities where we needed to be on site. We needed to, you know, do all the open houses every weekend. And it was like, okay, I think this is the perfect time to scale.

And I was looking to grow a team. And that's when I had kind of discovered Marty Hampton and Christina Balkinaw for huge mentors for me and Sharon Evans. They were all at Remax One. And I was like, that's where all the teams are. That's where I want to go and that's where I want to grow. And that's what I did. And so, I went to dinner with Marty one night and she was like, step one through five, do this. And I was like, well, I can follow breadcrumbs. So I just did what she told me to do. And I can follow breadcrumbs. And so I think I had my first teammate interview in February. And by July, we went from one to six. So we grew very fast, which was great because I had some experience. agents and I had some newer agents. So it was a great mix, great camaraderie. Yeah, and it just worked. So I love, I realized then how great it was, not just having people support you, but being support for other people. I think that's the biggest thing I've gained from having a team is it's not just having somebody to go open doors and do open houses that I don't want to do, which is what a lot of people think every team leader wants. No, for me, it became helping other

people be successful and that's where I really found my joy and why I wanted to continue growing. Yeah. So surrounding yourself by people you trust. Yep. Yep. Really big thing. And now you've grown, you have gone on to build an actual real estate school, correct? Yeah.

So again, helping people be successful has always been a passion project of mine. I remember when I got my license, the builder I worked for was a broker. So who's my broker in charge? So I literally had to learn everything myself. It wasn't like I was in an office. I had trainings and things like this. It was none of that. If I had a question, I had to call the Real Estate Commission.

I had to call the Association of Realtors. I had to figure everything out myself. And luckily, he was very experienced in some things, but not day-to-day brokerage type of thing. So when, you know, I kind of grew and started a team, you know, I poured in my team. I do a lot of trainings. And I found myself doing trainings at other people's offices. And I will say the catalyst, and this sounds terrible, but I had a deal with an agent. And I'd already been kind of thinking about this.

Like, how can I get training out there to just any agent? Anybody who wants to learn what you really need to know about real estate school, about real estate. Because let's be honest, real estate school doesn't teach you any of that. I was doing a deal with an agent. This is not her first, second, third or fourth deal. And she calls me one day. She was a buyer's agent, one of my listings.

And she said, hey, uh, what? what did you do with a septic tank? And I was very puzzled. And I said, what did I do with a septic tank? And she said, well, I see in the pictures from the ortho photo, you know, it was in the backyard. What did the seller do with it? And I said, that was an old oil tank that has been abandoned. Like it was removed.

It's no longer on oil heat. She was looking at an old Google image or ortho photo. And I thought to myself, I told her, I said, ma'am, septic tanks are never going to be above ground. You're never going to pump it out. And it for me, I literally hung up the phone and I was like, wow, agents really don't know what they don't know. And, you know, thankfully, I was again brought into the business by a builder and I learned a lot of things about construction and homes and that at an early part of my career. but, you know, for people that moved from the city and have never been on a septic tank before,

they have no idea what to look for. They don't know what it is and how to find it and what all the things. And so that was kind of a catalyst. Like right then, I was like, I'm starting a school. And it's going to be called the real school, you know, capital R.E for real estate, but mainly what you really need to know about real estate. So we focus on things like Pull and Platt's Covenants, Ortho Photos. Tomorrow we have an attorney coming in to explain estate.

you know, if you're going to list an estate or if you're representing a buyer in an estate, these are the things you need to know. I got in big trouble one time because I was representing an estate. And I asked them, do you have an estate attorney? She said, yes. I didn't ask any more questions. Well, it came down to it. They never filed for the three weeks that it has to be in the paper.

So we were getting ready to close. And next thing, you know, we have to be delayed. And everybody's mad at me. And I was like, I didn't know. You said you had an estate attorney. I thought they knew what to do. but I'm going through that as we speak, but I'm disclosed everybody. You've got to be open to a closing date.

We have to have three weeks. We have to, you know, go through all of that. So, you know, then the next week we'll do how to be the second listing agent. So I'm doing a training on that because as we know, the market's changing. Not every listing is selling right out of the bat anymore. So how do you come in and be the second listing agent? It's a different approach than when you go on that very first listing appointment. So it's not just about lead,

It's a little bit of everything, but it's all real world training. The biggest thing I tell when I have new agents, I have a new agent on my team now. And she wants to know everything. And I'm like, there's zero possibilities of you knowing everything. Yes. I can spend every day for the next month trying to teach you everything. And then there's going to be something it's going to come up. Like, it's just every transaction is going to be different.

17 years and thousands of deals. And just yesterday I had an agent calling. And she was like, um, this is never. happened before, but I think we wrote an offer on the wrong house. It was one of my new construction and a lot of the houses do kind of look similar so I can get it, but I'm like, all right, well, we'll figure this out now. Okay. Well, just it's like, well, I may not have an answer right now, but I'm curious. I'm sure. Let me get to work on that. I don't know. Well, this is the one you're in a contract for. So yes, we got it all worked out. But it was, again,

day is that I tell people all the time my favorite part about this job is it no day is the same the worst part about this job is it no day is the same I mean I got a call Saturday and it's one of my listings in Jacksonville and apparently the tenant came back and was he's already taken the AC so we had to change that and explained to everybody what happened there and then we moved on to now he's removing the doors and the windows from the property so that one was a new one I mean, at this point, he should just pitch to it and just drive off with the whole thing. It'd be a little easier. But everybody thinks all we do is open doors.

That's all. He just walks straight. He took the door. So. Yep. So, but the school's going away. We just got, you know, officially accredited with the real estate commission. So we're going to start offering CE this fall and pre-licensing in person in-person in January.

So I'm very excited. I came to sign up with you then. Yes, very excited to do in-person pre-licensing. I think anybody, you know, a lot of my teammates that are newer, they came through from COVID. So it was all online. And every time they sit in the real school, they're like, this is so different.

It's so great being around other agents and just having these conversations and talking things out. And I'm like, can you imagine how much easier real estate school would have been? Had you been at, I mean, I remember having study groups and all the things. So same. I'm actually writing a book teacher turned relator and I love it. Section how many times it took me to get through the test. And it was hard.

So like I said, yeah, I passed the class the first time, but it took me the third time to pass the test. Yeah. So, yep, it's one of the hardest. And I was a biology minor. So, I mean, it's, that biology was a walk in the park compared to this test for me. I'm just not a test taker, but that doesn't resemble. I mean, look at what amazing agent you are. It doesn't resemble ability.

It just resembles ability to retain, to retain information that you'll never use. Exactly. I know. My next passion project is going to be to petition the Real Estate Commission to change how they license agents. Because I think, you know, appraisers have to have two years of apprenticeship. I don't understand why realtors don't either. I mean, teaching, you had to have a year. right. It's just amazing to me with the things that we are now in charge of.

A lot of people, this is their last penny, like the most expensive thing they'll ever buy. And you can get it in three and a half weeks. And it's amazing. Some people and some people that pass it the first time, I'm like, it's kind of concerning and now you're going to just know. I took the broker-in-charge class. I was floored at the questions that were being asked. And I was like, y'all broken charges. Yep, it's scary. That was very scary. So I really, I hope the real estate commission starts making some changes. Like I said, if an appraiser takes a two-year apprenticeship and we do all the things that an appraiser does for the

most part, they don't teach you anything really about the documents or anything. They just teach you the laws and stuff. And my assistant was like, I don't get it with these new ages. They don't know how to write the offer. I was like, because they're not taught that in glass. They're talking how to fill out a CD and things like that. And the, yeah, CDs that we never fill out. I've done one HUD in my entire life. And it's literally because the power went out in the attorney's office. And we couldn't get the software backup and running.

Him and I both had a calculator and a pencil out. We were like, you got this? I'm like, I think we got this. Yeah. Very interesting. But that's the only HUD I've ever done. And it was like in the middle of a hurricane. So.

So. But I, yeah, I think it should be harder to get your license. and there should be some type of apprenticeship or internship that goes with it to make sure. Because like I said, I didn't know what I didn't know. And not only that, but just like you were saying with the contracts, our contracts change every year. So there are so many agents that are with independent companies that if they're not very involved with the association or very involved, you know, in some type of training, they're not paying attention. I see it all the time in agents. I'll get offers on contracts that are two years old.

I'm like, we don't use this anymore. This is 20, 23. I need you to rewrite this on a 2023 contract. And they just look at me like, I have seven heads. Yep. And these are the agents that are working by themselves. Like, I'm my own brokerage. I'm independent.

I do this. And I'm like, you are, you're being left behind because it is moving at light speed. Yep. So that's the good thing about being with the XP. I mean, that brings us to that. You know, I mean, it's a growing company, but I feel like they keep us up to date. And they're very in the know of things.

I tell people all the time, if you are not getting enough training from AXP, it's because you're not showing up. You're not doing what you need to. Because. Funny story, I did build my little person for the world. And just the technology part here. Here we go again.

It does not look anything like me. I'm a tall, bald black man wearing pearls and a skirt, and we don't know how to fix it. I don't ever even use it. I have mine. I think it's set up from the very first day. I have it only if I'm going into the university or if I'm teaching or something. I remember the first time I con. Well, now you can know if I'm in there because you're going to know it's going to make.

I'll go to laugh. He's like, you're like in a connedo. I mean, Casey could go either way. So people don't know. I mean, really, you could just be whoever you want to be. He was like, you are tan. Come on, Gacy. The first time my icon, I remember I was having a meeting,

we were preparing for me to do my first class. And we had one of our little meetings in the world. And she was like, oh, you got your icon badge. And I was like, I don't know what that is. And she's like, it's a badge. And I still don't know what that is. And so she literally took a screenshot of my avatar and texted it to me. And I could see I have a big old eye.

icon sticker on the front of my avatar. I was like, oh, cool. I mean, it's not like you look in a mirror with your avatar. I didn't know what I look like. No, right. What I do after everything. See me a picture on this big old sticker in front of me and everybody's like, yeah. That's a good thing. And that's awesome. I mean,

icon and the XP is really a big thing. Yeah, I love teaching in the world. I encourage everybody to do it. It was so much easier than I thought it was going to be and so much more engaging. Like almost every time I felt like I was running over because we were just chatting away about stuff. So I'm excited. I'll be speaking at EXP Khan next month. So I know I'm so proud of you. That's awesome. That's my biggest fear though. Public speaking is not my jam. So we shall see. It's not mine either. Believe it. I can talk one on one.

I can talk on here. This is taking a minute like but we do this podcast every week and it's wrong. We just hit our year anniversary last week. Yes. So I love a. panel or a roundtable, but it was just me and I've got to keep everyone's attention. It makes me so nervous. Well, maybe I'll end up looking at a ticket to the last minute and I'll come. You should come. You'll never. So we're all about tips and tricks and hacks on here.

What tips would you, what's one of the main tips that you can think up if you have to tell a new agent coming into this world? Network, network, network. And networking is not a sprint. a marathon. But I built my business. As soon as I got my license, the first thing I did was joined the Chamber of Commerce. I joined Civitan. I joined mom groups. I joined, you name it. I was somewhere all the time. And I can, you know, correlate some of my biggest closings to date from the connections that I made 15, 16 years ago. Back when I was 23 years old and didn't know what I

was doing, but I made these connections and I, you know, built my business and people still trust me. So you name it. I have served on just about, I've been a member of or served on almost every board that you can think of between the chamber, between the home builders and TMLS and different chambers, you name it. And now a county commissioner, but just being involved, obviously I didn't do county commissioner for networking, but I've just always been involved. And you get to be that go-to person. You know, the church I go to, there's like eight realtors. But at the end of the day, nine times out of ten, they come. to me. I'm the go-to person because I'm very obvious that this is what I do. This is my passion. I am real estate all day, every day. And I don't market at church at all, but everybody knows that that's what I do. And it's because I stay present all the time. And, you know, I tell people this and a lot of times to be like, well, I went to a meeting and I didn't get a lead. It's not about

getting a lead. It's about making a connection. And I feel like I am a connection person. The biggest other piece of advice I have is always go for the ask. One of my biggest connections is I was on a pre-sell appointment with one of my builders. And this guy and his wife come in, they're looking at building with my builder. And just in general, chit-chat, I'm like, hey, what do you do? And he's like, actually, I'm a developer. I was like, oh, cool. You know, obviously, I love new construction. I do a lot of new construction. I'm working with this builder slash developer. And we left the meeting and I just called him. And I said, hey, you know, if I come across any land, you know, can I bring it to you? would you be willing to look at it to see if it's something you'd be interested in and maybe we could

work together? Absolutely. And then turns out he does flips. And so I brought him a flip. And then next thing you know, three or four years later, I mean, I'm his main agent. He rents the office here and we do a lot of projects together. And it's all because I literally pick up the phone and just said, hey, can I give you an opportunity? And I think that's another big thing. A lot of agents expect opportunity to come to them. You have to create the opportunity. That is what I feel like I've done in networking. You create the opportunity. You create those bonds that you create those communications.

And I have people call me all the time. Hey, do you know somebody who does this? Yes. I don't care what it is. I got a guy. I got somebody who can do that. And the next thing you know, that person turns around and refers me because I just referred them.

You know, I've never been in a BNI group. I know that works for some people. I like to do it more organic than feeling like it's forced and paid for. That's just my opinion. If you're in a B&I group, I've heard great things. So don't take that as a knock. I've just never, I mean, I probably have spent more time, effort and energy creating it organically than it would have done through B&I.

But at the end of the day, I feel like the relationships are stronger and more solid. And we're built on true relationship building versus, hey, we're in this club and we're supposed to refer people. Yes. Do you do anything such as, like, I like to do this thing where I call people. I try to call five people. I haven't spoke with in a while, almost every day. How about you, do you do any of that?

I need to be better at that. Sometimes I'm good at Facebook, you know, shooting little messages on Facebook. I set some time aside to just follow up with people and how's your mom and them and time like that, which is not as personal, but I'm not a big texter. I really hate text messages. I do too. And my friends have a hard time with that. But if you spend your whole entire day texting, you just want to have a personal conversation

that last two minutes opposed to 10 over 10. Yes. So, no, I'm trying to get better at that. To be honest, that's one of the biggest regrets I have is I scaled fairly quickly and got very busy, very quickly because of my social media, because I was just beating the pavement. I was doing two and three open houses every weekend. You know, so I put in the time and the work and it paid off.

But then I didn't put in the time and effort into really nurturing my past clients like I should have. And it wasn't until probably about eight years ago. I finally did my first past client event. And I was so nervous because I think we all have past client anxiety where we're worried that the first time we talked to them, they're going to be like, my roof is leaking, my HVAC broke, this is wrong. I don't like this. I don't like my neighbor.

All they're going to tell us is something negative and we feel like it's our fault. Like there's not even to this day, some of my, obviously, best friends are my clients. And they've been in their house as 11 years. And when they say something breaks, I still feel personally responsible. Like, I'm sorry, I didn't know that it would go out on you 11 years later. Like, I think we all have that anxiety for whatever reason. I had one in your kitchen caught on fire and they called me. I was like, probably should call the fire department.

Yeah. What's the number? 9-1-1. It was like, oh. So I waited way too long to do a client appreciation event. And the first one I did, I was in tears at the end of it. I was like, I will never not do this. again because it was so good to reunite and seeing people with their kids they didn't have when

I first sold them a house. And, you know, it was so funny. One guy walked in the first time he stuck his head and we do a dinner at Logan's at Whiteout. We run out the side room. We have it catered. And it's just a free meal. We always have cakes and cupcakes and swag and stuff like that. It's just a how's your mom and them sit down and have dinner on us? Let's catch up. You know, thank you for being our client and being in our family. And one guy walked in, I'll ever forget. He kind of stuck his head in the door. And I had an assistant who was helping like check everybody in, who are you, who was your agent type of thing on the team. And he was like, is this a timeshare thing? Like, are we going to have to buy anything? We were like, no, we really just thank you for

being in our family and we're going to treat your family to dinner. And there's no catch. No, you're not going to have to sign up for a year by your agency or anything like that. You don't have to sell. So it was, it was so fun. And it was just so great to reconnect. And, So we do that every year now. And then we try to plan one in the fall as well. So I would say do that sooner than later and love, love, love on your past people. I bought leads way too early. I'd never paid for marketing until I started my team.

And then I felt very personally responsible for everybody and everybody's family. And so I started buying leaves. And then I had seasoned agents who stopped following up with their past clients because I was giving them low hanging fruit. So now I've had to go. I mean, obviously I have to have leads. I have 21 agents now. So it's important that there's enough business to go around, but I'm also teaching them to fish.

Instead of just having a, here's a fish, feed them for a day mentality. My mentality now is I need to make sure I'm teaching them to fish. So I'm feeding them for a lifetime. That's a hard line right there, like in between because, as you know, a lot of the agents that came out of COVID, it was easy. It was just like you snap your finger. a listing, you've got a buyer, you've got something during that time. And then when that went away, a lot of them, we're like, I really don't want to do that. I don't want to call. I don't want to work

open houses. Am I going to get paid to work this open house? Are you going to give me a percentage if you sell this? Like, things like that. And it's like, no, just go do it, learn and take the experience. But that's how I feel like if agents are, if they have to do some type of internship or apprenticeship, they'll be so much more successful. I've had an intern pretty much every year for like the last five years, and they've all gone on to be very successful. And it's because, I mean, one of them is still with me, and he's one of our top agents in the business. I've got a first, I've got one coming on under me as we speak. So he was just with me everywhere. And he sat right beside me and he'd listened to me talk and he'd listened to what I did and what I said. And he's seen me

go to festivals and be willing to put up tents and work them all day long by myself and not leave the table and not go eat. You know, he saw, even to this day, I still do the grunt work. And I want them to see that. Yes. Because when things get hard, there's only one person left to do the grunt work. And I've always, I've always said, I can outwork anybody. You know what I mean?

I'm not the smartest person, but I can outwork anybody. Same. Do you have any hacks for anybody? I wouldn't say hacks per se. I mean, we've all heard about chat GPT. That's my new favorite thing on the planet. Because I'm working on it. I love chat GPT.

It just, I feel like it brings out things that I think and it just says it for me. Like it makes everything I say that much better and that much more eloquent. So I'm really using it for listing descriptions. for listing descriptions and Facebook posts and making things just seem, I know it sounds crazy, but I feel like they seem more genuine because they're longer. And it talks more about what I actually feel, whereas when I was typing at,

I would get bored of typing and be like, I don't know what else to say. I feel like I'm being redundant. But with chat, GPT, like I can put in a thought and I'm pretty, you know, descriptive, but I put in a thought and then it puts it out and I'm like, that sounds even better than I was a nice. I'm imagining. And so. Have you heard of

Stringer? He's out of Greenspur. Yes, I have his whole AI, like, download slides. He was on our podcast a few weeks ago, and he was talking to, so I've been trying to learn. That may have been where I got it. I think I may have jumped on,

but it was in one of them, and I downloaded his whole, like, slide deck of the tips and tricks and things that you send you. Do I haven't... My thing, and he's put that out there, and we shared it with a bunch of people, Yeah, I haven't had time to dive into it too much. I'm still very basic in the chat GPT,

but it's crazy to come across people that haven't heard about it yet. And I'm like, it will change the game. And I'm saying I should use it for my book, but I'm like, how do I do that? These are my thoughts. These are my memories. How do I put it into? So I'm scared to try that.

So I'm just going with. Once you get used to it and I feel like I played it mine enough, like I did, gosh, what was it just the other day? Oh, when I did the post about the fact that we opened up a coastal division. Yes, I was going to ask. I'm glad you said that. I wanted to ask you. I gave it like two sentences to work off of.

It automatically knew that I was a triangle native, how long I'd been in the triangle, you know, that we worked North Carolina, everything about North Carolina. Like, I didn't put half of that stuff in there and it populated it. And I was like, like, my marketing team made a post, but the chat GPT was better. Better. Yeah. So I think once it gets. used to you, it really, the AI, it really starts to figure out who you are.

Yeah, Hallie said she's free now. She was going to hop on. So I'm going to hop on. Yeah, I, um, she's a big Jeep or chat jeep chat. Chat. Yeah. I just say, it's all the thing. She's a, um, she's a big like person with that. So she like loves it. So I'm just like, But like I said, I'm figuring it out, the book thing. I need to use it for my listings. So maybe I was going to reword one of mine because we fixed some things. We got some feedback on one of our listings. And we went in and fixed it over the weekend.

So I can reword that now. I had one a couple weeks ago. I had a really tough listing. I think, you know, one of my teammates passed away. She was showing houses and died in a car accident. And it's been a couple years, but it's still, you know, it still hurts. and she was just one of my best friends. And I just had to list her house.

And I've never cried at doing a listing description before in my life. And I would get through like four words. And I was just like, I can't. And so I wanted to chat GPT. And I just put in like my favorite things about the house and what I thought. And what it populated made me cry even harder. I was like, it's exactly what I was thinking, like what I was trying to say. And so I love it.

I really think that. I need to utilize. So that's a good half. So your coastal, you started there. So are you all over the coast or are you in area? We're going to start in Wilmington. We're doing all the coast. We're already working on a listing in Atlantic Beach. But it's, again, you manifest it. And it happens. As soon as I said coast, I mean, I hadn't even had the signs design yet. And so my call, I'm like, where you list my mother-in-law's house at the beach? I'm like, absolutely. So when I'm like, Ashley, she's from Wilming. which is from here, moved to Wilmington, got married, moved back here, and then her husband just got transferred back to Wilmington. So now they're there, and she wants to, you know, stay on the team, but she wants to obviously do it in Wilmington. And I mean, Wilmington's not that much farther than Fayetteville, to be honest. I take care of my clients. Like, I just, it's easier. So two-hour drive, it gets me out of Raleigh for the day. And I live at 40 and 95 and 70. So, I mean,

it's like, I'm right near everything. And with her being in the, there. So that was kind of the kickoff of it. And then it's already spiraled. I mean, of course, three of my agents on the team have places at the beach. And so I'm like, as long as it's not outside of your scope, you know, we're joining the association. We're going to know what's going on. You know, that's the biggest thing I think is important. It's just making sure you're not working outside of your scope. You know what's going on. And we're paying the money and we're doing all the things, you know, to make sure we have the access that we need so that we're not dependent on other agents. So, so yeah, very excited about that. We

I feel this agent to work with you. Actually, Bill and Christy Kane, Christy and I worked together during my first teaching job in Wilmington. And her husband was starting Blue Coast at that point. My first door knocking experience. We would go print off flyers, use our little numbers. Print off our flyers and go walk around and door knock. That was back when we did that kind of thing before social media.

There's my aging. And he built up one of the large. just next to intercoastal down like Blue Coast and he sold it off and now they just fish offshore fishing so very cool but yeah it was just it was kind of a good segue we'd already had a lot of our clients like hey can you represent us down there and you know now that we have the the regional MLS it makes it easier so you know before I've helped several people buy down there but I would only take a referral fee because I knew I was going to be dependent on the listing agent for a lot of information but now that we have that information

I have boots on the ground down there. I feel comfortable, and it was just, it's perfect timing. I love that's going like if you're still on a boat dock. You need to know the tide and you need to know the depth. These are things that a lot of people wouldn't think to ask. You need to know wind ratings and you need to know. The insurance. Yes, exactly.

So like I said, I made sure we didn't do this move until we had, we were educated. We had the right people. And I feel like we do. So we're very excited. Yes. So, well. Well, I'm very proud of you. She's probably might.

We were trying. I think I got a, there we go. There we go. Hi, I'm sorry. Hi, April. Hi. How are you? I'm good.

I'm good. Just crazy busy. I thought I had enough time and then this client just went over an extra 30 minutes. So totally my fault apologies, but I'm glad we were able to get it. You're fired. So we can talk. We were talking about districts and hats, and she was talking about she just moved or not moved. She just opened it up her business up on the coast at the beach.

So what part of the, or like what which be? All of the North Carolina coast. So, I mean, between agents that I have, I have one in Wilmington, and then I have others that actually have places between Harkers Island, Oak Island, Atlantic Beach, you name it. there's it's like again my team is very strategically placed that's why we cover six counties is because i have people you know either from those areas or living in those areas that are very strategic yes love it runs your sign guy to death but he doesn't mind it and um a little blurb there her husband is also he works side by side with her he does the commercial and

commercial and lane acquisition. Yeah. So similar to us. All right. Sally's husband is a builder. Oh, okay. Yeah, and she's out of San Angelo and she just moved into the Dallas area.

Oh, very fun. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess catch move to speed. What have I missed so far? Lots of things. She's a big HG or GP. Chat GPT.

That word. Okay, love it. She's asking for hacks. And of course. everybody, you know, it's kind of on that, but that's one of my new favorite things. You know, my biggest tip is about networking. I built my business through open houses and networking. Social media, obviously, is a necessary evil. It wasn't back then when I started. I told Casey, I'm, you know, fax machine old in real estate years. So when I first started on Facebook, it was brand new.

Now it's not. So there's 17 other platforms. So I've just recently gotten on TikTok, which I hate, but my daughter and my young teammate are making me do it. Oh, it'll be good. I met through her daughter. Okay, cool. I taught her daughter in kindergarten. Yes. Full circle, right?

Yeah, literally go way back. She'll be 20 this weekend, Casey. Okay, let's keep aging me here. I'm talking about handing out flyers and printers and fax them. And now, um, My best friend actually, who does key title, Jamie Gaston, is marrying her husband's cousin. So we spent the weekend together at Atlantic Beach. It's so fun.

My world. And I talked about Ocean Isle for my first time, too. Speaking of North Carolina coasts. It was awesome. Yes. Ocean Isle is awesome beach. It's quiet, laid back as chill. Have you guys talked? So Casey was telling me.

a little bit about you and how you've built a big team. Have we talked like about hacks, tips or tricks with, with that? We did. And we talked about real estate school. And, yes. So, and she built her team kind of how I did. She just kind of hired here, April, I'll let you tell it. Real quick, the quick version.

Well, we heard very quickly. I was telling her. It just kind of snowballed when I first said I'm hiring. It came out of necessity. And so I kind of heard very quickly. we had some new construction coming on that we had to staff. Luckily, it worked out really, really well. And, you know, I think the biggest thing, though, I didn't, I didn't focus enough on the leadership part early on. All I thought was leads, leads, leads, I need to feed these people.

I need to love on these people. I need to be everything and all things to these people. And that only gets you so far if you don't have accountability and leadership in place. And so that's something I feel like I've really learned in the last three years, especially being with EXP, like just, you know, listening to John Shepleck and Dan Beer and people like that that, you know, really preach on accountability. You know, one of the first things I went to a John Shepleck event and he's talking about loving on your people. And I pulled him aside and I was like, listen, I have loved all my people to no end.

I'm telling you birthdays, Christmases, you name it, their family events. They had an anniversary. I'd have champagne and strawberries. like they're my best friends to a degree and I've loved on them I said and some of them still left and he said what did you hold him accountable and I was like well and he said accountability highest form of love and I was like no sure words have been said you're right I did not make sure they were being successful I just made sure they were happy yeah happy does not equate to success So that's one of the biggest things I've learned.

And I was very, very scared to grow. I stayed stagnant for about four years. I did not want to hire anybody. I didn't want to change our dynamic. I didn't want anybody to be upset. I used to have everybody on my team interview, anybody that was coming on because I wanted to make sure they were a good fit. And then I had somebody tell me actually on my team,

you were the leader for a reason. Yeah. It is your decision who you bring on to this team. And I was like, fair. And so then I really started diving into, I took some leadership training. There's a group out of Charlotte. I can't think of his name. John East maybe.

I went to a training there, which was so good because nobody else was in real estate. It was 30 team leaders in all different fields. Some leaving virtual teams before COVID. And it was just great to have leadership training. So then I started really pouring myself into, you know, the love languages of appreciation, the, what is the team one? It's such a good way. Like seven levels of communication?

Seven levels of communication. That's one. But this one is, I probably have it up here. Let's see. I've got How to Be a Great Boss. This is the other one. There is, I'll send it to you, Casey, so you can upload it.

But it's about, it's a real story about a team. And there's like seven of them and the top producer, It's a technology team. So it's nothing to do with the real estate. I can't think the name of right now, but it's so good. Anyway, so I really started diving into leadership and figure out who I wanted to be as a leader. And then from then on, it just kind of exploded. And I went from, and I heard a coach for the first time.

I heard a business coach, which was great for me. And it went from feeling like I was being held hostage by my team to truly. being the team leader and not living in fear that somebody was going to leave or somebody is going to get upset or somebody's going to do this, but focusing on what was moving the team forward and that's all that mattered. And since I changed my mindset and I've got out of that fear factor, we are just crashing through the ceilings that we had not been able to break through before. Oh, I love it.

So you should have a coach. You should have a course with it. I'll sign up. It's in my, it's in my goals plan. It's in my three year plan. I start some type of coaching. So, because I want other people to learn from my mistakes. And, you know, I also had to learn that your job as a leader is to, you know, produce other leaders.

And, you know, I hope that, you know, the first agent that I had, Casey, that I was telling you that I called. And I was like, you want to be my buyer's agent? We worked together for 10 years. And one of the biggest reasons that we moved to EXP was because she could still, she could start her own team, but her and I still linked together. Right. Yes. I have, I'm her biggest cheerleader.

You know, everyone was so devastated when she announced she was starting her own team and they're like, oh my gosh, you and April broke up and we're like, no, I'm her biggest cheerleader. She has spread her wings and she is flying. I'm so excited for her. And I'm helping her build her team. And I'm just so proud of her. And that is what you should want.

Now I have some agents on my team that they're happy. They just want to be on the team. They don't want to do that. They want to do 50 deals. a year and go home at night and that's it and that's great there's nothing wrong with them either but if you recognize somebody wants to do more just like marty did for me give them the bread crumbs and then cheerlead for them yeah she said that earlier haly and i really like it she goes i can follow breadcrumbs he tell me what to do i can do it yes yes i like that and it's um

oh sorry yeah i was just going to say the leader position hb you do different like i let a classroom full of 25 kids for 13, 14 years. But now leading adults, it is more challenging than making five-year-olds line up. And making sure they'll be on theirself. So these are struggles I'm fighting right now. So I'm glad she said that. I'm glad this podcast took this turn. Well, I think Casey, you and I have talked, that's, I think, one of the hardest parts of our jobs.

you know, is like client management, expectation management. You know, it's a skill you have to learn as you go. I was going to ask the question though, April. So when you're talking about keeping your team accountable, are you able to elaborate on that a little bit on how you do keep them accountable? And I guess it's kind of a two-part question. When you say like,

team, do you have a true, like a true standard team or is it like a self-organized team? We have a mega team. And then I have what I call the New Homes Division. So it's like a separate small team of other team leaders. So like Tracy, for instance, she has her team, but she's also in my new homes division. So if I have some divisions come up, we have different agents work them. And I realized, you know, a long time ago starting a new construction, it's really hard to manage general brokerage and new construction with the same constant group of people because you get burnout.

And so this gives me a way to give them more business, give the other people my new homes division opportunity. Now, there are some on my team that are also in my new homes. There is crossover. But I also like having this bucket of people to pull from. So like in my downline or my organization, whenever I have a new subdivision come up, I have an application process and everybody gets an opportunity to apply and whoever is the best fit, you know, we have trainings for them on new construction and, you know, standards that they have to meet and that type of thing. But that is who gets some of this new construction. They get to co-list it with me so that it doesn't burn my team out and my team doesn't get used to that new construction, low-hanging fruit and stop going after general brokerage.

Yeah. And at the same time, it gives people in my organization more opportunity to be successful. Yeah. Love it. So the other pieces for our, I would say for our mega teams or what I call them. I called them my family and my new homes division are like our cousins. So we're all related. It's just, you know, a little different. So we have Mary Monday check-ins. Every Monday we send out an email at six questions.

Like, did you, how much lead gen did you do? How many showings did you do? How much this did you do? And the last question is always, is there anything we can help you with? And they're supposed to turn that in every Monday. And then we have team meeting every two. Tuesday at 10. Connect to them before Monday or do you submit, you said you said it.

They should turn it in on Monday. Okay. And it's just an email. And then we have our team meeting every Tuesday at 10. And then we have training at the real school every Wednesday at 11 that they're encouraged to come to. We have one-on-ones every quarter. Once we grew to about 15 or 20 people, there's no way we could do it monthly. We were spending all of our time in one-on-one.

So between myself and my CEO of Holly. we do their one-on-ones and it's just a two-page we revisit where their goals are what needs to change what are they doing you know and this is just a time for them to tell us what's working and what's not and then we also ask them what are you going to do for yourself this month what are you for your quarter what are you going to do for your friends and family this quarter you know so if they tell me i'm going to take my family on a trip next quarter okay i want you to now go figure out where you're going and how much it's going to cost and i want to report back to me and i'm going to put that on your sheet because every time we get a commission check, I'm going to say, did you put $500 away for Disney?

Did you do this? Like, I want these things to be, these things are important to me that you have a good quality of life. So I'm going to keep these front of mine for you. Yeah. And then we do a mid-year retreat, which is always a pool day at my house where we, you know, look at our goals where everybody is at. They all get their own print out with a pie chart where the business came from, where they're

at in accordance where their goals are. And then where the team is at. And then we do a what we call a team advance at the end of the year, which is a two-day team building. And we, again, we set our goals for the next year. We go through where we're at. We do a community service project. So we always get an angel tree. And we all go shopping together and team up at Walmart.

And everybody has kids. And they go buy for and we come back and just all check out together. And we come back and wrap it and then deliver it. And then I usually have somebody come in from the outside and do like a team. team building thing. You know, we did the six working geniuses this summer, which was amazing to figure out how we're all different and why you're different and that type of thing. So, you know, I'm not a very strict team leader. I don't expect people to be in the office 830 to 930 power hour making calls, things like that. Most of my teammates are moms and they have small kids.

And I know for me, you know, I treated this business like a 9 to 5. I'd drop Abby off at school and I'd go straight to the office and I'd work it until it's time to pick her up and I'd go right back, you know, working when I got home. And so, you know, I try to be respectful of I want them to have the reason you get in real estate most people is for the flexibility, which we all know it's not flexible. Yeah. But, you know, for the most part it is. You don't have to miss things at your kids school. And I don't want them to miss dropping their kids off and picking them up because I want them to be calling random strangers. If they can do that from 10 to 11 or 2 to 3, what's the difference? Right.

So. Aw. If you've been so much information, I feel like I need to bring me now. I thought your daughter now. Let's see you train me. So I definitely want the book. I know we're coming up on with that. And I know you're busy.

So she's also County Commissioner. So. Oh, my gosh. I just needed another job. Right. I know. But I know you're busy and we're coming up on the whole hour thing. but I do want you to send me that book title that you were talking about.

Well, I'm trying to think of it. It's five dysfunctions of a team. Five dysfunctions. So good. It's a very easy read. And it was very eye-opening for me because the person that they thought was like the ringleader and the top person in there was actually the most toxic. And oh, the other one is the energy bus. The energy bus, I based my whole team advance off of that two years ago.

It's also a very easy read. And it reads like a story. Ravens fans? Ravens fans? The raving fans? Yes, raving fans is a good one too. Yeah.

And the Miracle Morning for Real Set Agents was a game change. Oh, yeah. I love that one. I love how Elrod and all the things, how Elrod. So fun story about April, I don't know I did this, but I look at her stories

because she's always got a new book and I try, and I think the five this, the five, you don't have to send me that title. Five. It's all the screen got it. And then the word of the day. She does like a word of the day, like religion-wise. That's my devotions in the morning.

I just screenshot it. Who else needs to hear it? And I kind of copy her books because whenever she's going on vacation, she always has an amazing leadership book of some sort, it seems like. I have a library here for anybody to check stuff out on. And, yeah. But yeah, mine, when we get off here, just text me that name. I'm going to get that books.

I wonder if they have it on where I can listen to it in the car. That's when I listen to a lot. of mine. I don't know if that one would be good on, I don't know, because I do like a lot of books on Audible. The friggin, Ryan Seerhan one is so good on Audible. Oh, you get your money or selling Sourhan. Selling Sirhan.

He's hysterical when he talks out like, I just jumped on a plane and go meet this guy. I didn't know what it was going to turn. Like he was so real. I love Liss. He's not lost in Japan or somewhere. Yes. but the five dysfunctions of a team was such a good read

I'm wondering like if I could hear different personalities if it had changed my opinion because in my mind I made up who these it reads like a story so you made up who these personalities are I'll read it first and then I'll say if I don't know them yeah yeah same I'm I can't wait to read that yeah it's very very good you have time for one more question yeah I'm then so I guess I

I'm coming up on two years married. Eventually, I don't know when, but eventually we'll start thinking about kids and such. And it sounds like you're a mom, you know, lead a lot of mom, real estate agents. You know, how do you guys, I don't think balance is the right word. I feel like I've heard that integrating is more of the right word.

Work life integration, not work life balance. Right. Do you have any like, tips for someone who's nervous, you know, I'm nervous about being able to juggle everything I have going on and have a kid. Or actually, potentially, too,

because twins run in both me and my husband's family. So are you able to just, you know, kind of touch on how you do that or what you, you know, coach other moms on? That is one of my favorite things. And it's been a new season for me. because for some reason when I first started my team, everybody I hired was getting engaged.

I threw more Bachelorette parties than I did for my friends in high school. Like every time I would interview somebody, I'm like, are you getting engaged anytime soon? They're like, actually? And I'm like, of course you are. So we're going to throw another back. I'm out of Bachelorette ideas completely. Yes.

Then luckily they've all gotten married now. I've done the weddings and now we have babies. So like literally today, our team meeting was a gender reveal. We found out before her family even found out. So I've been the keeper of the gender for both. for two of my teammates now, we've done gender reveal party. So we love our team babies. Blair was the first one to have a team baby. We threw a big baby shower. And it's almost mandatory that she has to bring her to the team meetings. And we all just pass her around.

Or I'll meet a meeting with her in the front all the time. I'm a very, you know, passionate about integrating your kids when it makes sense. Like you have to make good, good calls. So one of my agents was also a foster mom for several months. And she had an emergency and she had two toddlers. And she had a closing, a big closing the next day. Like not big as in money wise, but big isn't, there had been a lot of issues. Yeah. And now her husband travels all the time.

So he's not in town. Yeah. And she's like, I'm just going to take him to closing. And I was like, absolutely not. You're going to leave him right here. And me and Holly sat in the floor and we colored with them and watched, you know, freaking whatever cocoa melon on the TV. Blueie.

Yes. Yeah. And, you know, and there are times, you know, Blair who has M.G, she's nine months old. She's our first teammate. And she's precious. She does a lot of our new construction. And she'll say, you know, I have a nine month old. She's strapped to me. She's very good. Is it okay if she comes with me to the walkthrough? And I'm like, absolutely. You know, now, no, you can't run up there with three rambunctious children that are running up and down and around the house. But nine times out of 10, M.G. steals the show at the walkthroughs. And everybody's happy to see. year. So, yeah, you know, for me, I run a team that is made for agents to be successful and also have a good quality of life. I know I overdid it way too much. Casey will tell you that. I mean, I was coming in on two wheels. I never missed anything for the most part, but I was not the PTA mom bringing in cupcakes. I'm like, can I just when they change that graduation, you didn't miss it. We're not talking about that anymore. I'm never going to forgive my son. Under the bridge. A long story.

But anyway, you know, I wasn't Pinterest mom, and I had to be okay with that because, you know, my kid, and she'll tell you to the day, like, I remember she did a report at some point. I think she was a junior in high school. And something in there said, my parents are workaholics. And I was very upset about that. But then after talking with her more about it, not at that moment, but now that she's a, you know, fast forward senior in college, she is a workaholic. And she loves it. she's very motivated every job she's ever had like brian and i have to tell her she can't work anymore she you can only work one weekend a month that's only so she can keep her airy discount but

every job she's ever had they've tried to promote her to manager she's like 17 years old working at chargriel and they wanted her to be manager i'm like no no this is not her end game we're not staying at chargill um because she's late she never misses work she's always on time she loves to work she loves, I mean, if that kid calls us for anything, it's only because she absolutely must need it. She will. She's always been a good kid, though, even when she was a very smart, hard charging, and that's why she's going to graduate in two and a quarter years. So, that's crazy. Wow, you must be proud. I am. Yeah. She turns 20 this weekend, and she's a senior in college. So her, Miss Dyer says, happy birthday. I will. I told her. I told her. I told her. I told her. I told her.

I sent her the picture of us from the other weekend. She was like, oh, my gosh. Brian came in at the beginning, Hallie, and she was like, what are you doing? She's like, I'm on a podcast with Casey. Casey, Casey, Casey. Miss Stiers, Brian. Spires. You're like, it's Casey.

Yeah, I would say, you know, when I went to night school, I was working two part-time jobs. And I don't know if you heard that. I actually went to real estate school at night. So it was 60 to get my life. And again, that's how old I'm in real estate years. And I was working two part-time jobs and Abby was too. But just like I was saying with Casey, when I got involved in all this networking, Abby was on my hip because Brian worked on the weekends.

He worked in the food industry. So wherever I went, she went. And same things. If I was putting out flyers in new construction, she would run in the houses and she'd turn on the lights. If we were having open houses, I mean, I didn't take her with me to every open house. I had, you know, my mom or me. But I would go get everything set up.

and she'd go with me. So we had a little extra time. Then I'd drop her off, go work the open house, go back and pick her up. And she just thought it was neat. She's like, I want to work with mom. That's kind of how I was too. My mom was, well, she was an agent and also worked for a builder,

like a production builder at the time. And I remember like always hanging out in the model homes and just like playing with the fake food and stuff. And I'm like, I'm never going to be real estate again. I'm like, it's so boring. I'm like, of course. Yeah. I'm just like my mom, like you said.

I'm... Have you used to say this is my mom? Yes. Because I'm on the phone. One minute. One minute. I'm on the phone. Totally.

So funny. Well, thank you for sharing. The more I talk to other, you know, mom agents, the better I feel about it going forward. There's also a great podcast from Darren Hardy. He says that once we become moms, we become superheroes. Because once you become a mom, you can, you figure out how to do. do everything three times as fast, three times as good. And I've seen that with Blair.

Her business has gone through the roof since she's been a mom. And it's because she's had to figure it all out. And it's like you don't get downtime so you don't have downtime anymore. And you just, you just hard charge all the time. And I'm so proud of her. And she's, you know, she just posted a real, she's supposed to two reals. One went viral the other day. But she just posted one.

And it had, she was at a walkthrough. And she had M.G. Strap, too, her name's Madeline Gray. but we call her M.G. And she had Madeline strapped to her, and she's like walking around the corner with her iPad and her phone like this and her coffee in her hand. And she was like, I'm teaching my daughter what it looks like to be a strong woman. And I was like, yes, you are.

Love that. That's so sweet. Oh, my gosh. I'm going to have to follow you on. Yes, please, too. He's also speaking at EXP, Halley. I know. I decided, you told me that I decided not to go this year.

I just, I bought my ticket and stuff, but it's just, I have so much going on. And I feel like I'm going to like drive myself to the point of being sick if I try to swing a Vegas trip right now as well. I will say, I feel like I get the most done on those trips. I'm a multitasker by nature. So like when I'm sitting in all of these sessions, I'm also on my iPad just crushing my email. Like I get so much on a conference. And then we go to the pool. I meet all these people and that's where I learn the most.

It's just talking to other team leaders in different areas. I know. I feel the same. I mean, I saw Hallie and I know. We met at 10x ladies and it came out. I was like, hey, my best friend, and it turned out we knew Kermann's best friends were not actually one of my best friends from Wilmington. Yeah.

I'm in a rest of the Greensfield. We just be friends after that because Lisa Copeland's like, just come, Casey. What do you have to lose? I was like, nothing. Good. That one I was doing deals and I kept looking at Hallie. I was up and out and out of the room. I was like, take notes from me.

I'll be ready. back. Yes. So. I love it. I'm not going to hold you much longer. I mean, I know you're busy, busy lady. So we're grateful for the opportunity. Halley. It was so nice to meet you. I know. I just followed you on Instagram. Thank you so much for coming on. And I'm sorry I was late hopping on. I'll go back and watch the beginning. But seriously, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it. Yeah. Let me know if I can have a little bit. too. And April, I will see you soon. Oh, and if you're a leadership thing together, let me know.

Well, and if you guys want to follow April, she's April Stevens realtor on Instagram. Yes. Oh, well, now she's on TikTok too. Yes. So what's the best way for people to contact you if they have questions or they want to get, like, come to your real school to do their CE? The Real School is the Real School NC on Facebook. That's where we post all of our trainings. Our website is getting ready to be up and running while I have a full calendar. But email, April at April Stevens.com, I live and die by my email. It's like my to do list. Yes, same. I'm a terrible texter, so I'm not even going to tell you to text to me because I have two. I begged for a pin to top button and then they only gave me 12 and I'm like, I need more than 12.

I have 40, I need 40 pentatops at my. Too funny. I can't stand for things to be unread. So everything has to be geared. Thanks. The hour changed. Love it. Awesome. Well, everybody who's watching, this is a pre-recorded session, but we will be on,

so this is going to be played on a Monday, and we'll be on the following Monday. So I don't think we have any other holidays coming up right now. April, you'll be all this coming Monday. Oh, perfect. Thank you. Yes. Cool. Well, thank you so much, April.

Thank you, Casey. Appreciate you guys. And for our audience who is tuning into this, thank you guys too. Wouldn't be possible without you guys. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify podcast. And if you do that, send us a screenshot and we'll send you a gift card. We're only doing this for a limited time. So get on it and we'll send you a gift card.

Bye. Bye. Bye, guys. Thank you.