KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Natasha Koch on Building a Powerful Referral Business

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

Don’t miss out! Subscribe to this podcast now for actionable strategies and expert insights from over 1,500 on-demand episodes.SummaryDiscover the secrets to building a thriving, referral-based business with real estate veteran Natasha Koch. This episode dives into her client-centric philosophy, revealing how a personalized approach, strong negotiation skills, and a commitment to making the real estate journey stress-free have led to a 99% client return and referral rate. Learn how to transform every client into a lifelong advocate and build a business that scales on the power of authentic relationships.Bullet Point TakeawaysThe Client-First Philosophy: Learn why Natasha's success is rooted in the belief that clients are not just transactions—they're family. Discover how an unwavering commitment to your clients' needs, from the initial consultation to well after closing, is the foundation for building a powerful referral machine.Beyond the Transaction: Unmatched Service: Natasha emphasizes that providing phenomenal customer service is not just about being responsive; it's about anticipating client needs, going above and beyond to exceed expectations, and staying in touch to maintain a relationship after the deal is done. This creates a lasting impression that makes clients eager to refer you.Proactive & Out-of-the-Box Negotiation: Understand how Natasha's proactive and out-of-the-box negotiation skills are a key selling point for her team. By combining a results-driven approach with a soft disposition, she ensures a stress-free experience for her clients while still securing the best possible price.Leverage Your Sphere of Influence: Discover how to turn your network into a referral machine. Learn strategies for staying top-of-mind with past clients, friends, and family through routine check-ins, sharing valuable content on social media, and providing a vendor list of trusted local businesses.Systemize Your Referral Strategy: Natasha's success isn't built on luck. Learn the importance of creating a system to track referrals, set goals, and reward those who send you business. This intentional and organized approach ensures you're consistently nurturing your most valuable relationships.Topics:Natasha Koch Referral BusinessReal Estate Referral StrategiesBuilding a Client-First BusinessAgent RelationshipsReal Estate Lead GenerationCall-to-ActionReady to build a business that grows itself through referrals? Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and learn Natasha Koch's secrets to success! Take your business further with the KGCI Real Estate On Air mobile app. Download it for free on iPhone and Android—just search ‘KGCI’ in the Apple App Store or Google Play.Grow your business with KGCI Real Estate On Air

Hey there, Real Estate Pro. You ready to keep growing your business? While you found KGCI Real Estate on Air is more than 1,500 on-demand podcast packed with actionable strategies, expert advice, and tips from top performing agents. But if you want to keep growing, first, make sure you subscribe to this podcast right now so you don't miss a single episode. Then take your business at that next level by downloading the KGCI Real Estate on-air mobile app. Available for iPhone and Android, it's the perfect companion wherever you go. Just search KGCI in the Apple App Store or Google Play. Let's build success together. All right, and we are live. Welcome, everyone, to the power half hour. Every single Wednesday, we interview a top producer in our market. And this week, our very own, Ms. Natasha, coach, who has 23 years of real estate experience. Welcome today. Thank you for being here, Natasha.

Thank you for having me. Awesome. Well, we always start by saying, how did you get started? started in real estate. How long have you been in real estate? Well, I got started in real estate 23 years ago, so going into 24 years now, year 2000 is when I got licensed. And I'm originally Toronto and I started selling real estate actually on Vancouver Island. Yeah, it said to you led a team. Was that more of like a pre-construction team? Or, an actual team doing resale back on the island. Back in the day.

Yes, so it was resale real estate. So when I first got into real estate, things were a lot different. We didn't have the technology base. So everything was in word of mouth. And I had a pager. I did have a cell phone, but at the time it was a flip phone that you didn't really text from. So it was definitely, it's definitely changed over the years for sure.

We handwrote all of our contracts. We wrote in our own clauses. There were, we used a typewriter at the very beginning. And even before I got into real estate, I was a receptionist for a real estate office. Oh, boy. Okay. So was that like in the late 90s that you were a receptionist? And then you got your license transitioned into sales and ran a team on the island?

Yes, and the team itself was the coach approach, which was my slogan at the time. And so I hired buyer and seller agents to work on our team and ran that on, in Nanaimo, actually. Wow. So year 2000, you were doing this before teams even was a thing. Yes. Well, when I first got into the business, it was on the upswing of the market. And I did that on my own for quite some time. became so busy that there were days where I just couldn't do it all as a single agent any longer. And nowadays, I don't know how any single agent can operate. I don't think it's even possible effectively.

Yeah. There's a physical cap, that's for sure. So you got to a point where you got so busy, then you started building a team. You know, back then it was probably more of a different structure than what we were. call teams today. How do you not get burnt out in 23 years? Well, I did, actually. I did get burnt out. Tell us about that.

In the year 2008, where the mortgage crash happened in the U.S., and it did affect our real estate market. So from year 2000 and 2008, eight years in real estate, I was going strong and producing pretty, pretty big results, especially with our price point being as low as it was, I was probably doing at least 100 ends each year. So 100 sales a year, you know, was very taxing. So 2008, everything kind of came to a halt because no one knew what was going to happen or how it was going to affect the market. And at that point in time, I actually took a hiatus for a year

and a half and went to Mexico with my son. Amazing. Yeah. So I did. Probably the best time to do it. You know what? It was the best time and it was the best time for family as well because one thing I can say in this industry is that takes a lot of work and a lot of time and you can become

you can lose sight of the important things in your life. So I think that striving for that balance is always important to maintain and remembering that it's a business and that you need to be working on it and also on yourself at the same time. So spending that time with my son was probably the best thing I could have ever done. That's amazing. So a year and a half moving to Mexico. And so coming back in mid-2009, I would guess then, when Marcus started to pick back up? Yes. So it actually picked up before I even came back. When I came back, I started to form my team. So that was when I actually created the team. Prior to that, I was running solo for the eight years. And when I... Oh, I see. Yeah. So I built my team during that time because I realized that I needed to delegate some of the responsibilities and things that I wasn't the strongest at. I mean, in real estate, well, I think that people get into real estate because they're quite independent and they want to be able to do everything.

But really, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. And recognizing those early enough is probably key because then you can delegate those weaknesses to others that are stronger at them. Ooh, I love that. I've been reading the book, By Back Your Time. And it's an absolute game changer. So tell us a little bit about that. How did you learn to let go and delegate? It's really hard for real estate agents.

It is really hard for real estate agents because we want to be everything to everyone and you can't. So I guess getting really clear on why you're doing what you're doing and setting boundaries, setting really strong boundaries as to who you want to work with, how many hours, how many hours, hours a week you want to be working. And so quality over quantity, I think is probably the key. Compress the time and make sure that you have boundaries for time and boundaries of who you will not work with. That is so hard to do in real estate because the best part about real estate is you create your own schedule. And the worst part about real estate is you create your own schedule.

So you can literally work no time or you can work all day long. long. And a lot of us workaholics do do that. So how did you learn to pull back? Was it was it from the eight years of being burnt out or like you were mature in the business or were you a person that just knew how to let go like automatically? No, actually I sort of ran by the seat of my pants and most of the time and remember everything. But as I got older, I guess experience probably added to it. Some of, some of the agents around me, I started, I started looking at what other people were doing and easier ways to do that. Often we, you know, we're, we're just concerned with reinventing the wheel, but if you, if you look around, you'll see that people have already been there, done that,

and probably could teach you a few things. So, um, listening a little bit better, uh, and talking and learning from what other people are doing. Yeah. I love that. Being coachable, learn how to learn, learn how to listen. I mean, these are some of the things that don't come easy to real estate agents. And what I'm hearing and getting is that you need to have a lot of patience as well. You do. I think actually that when people get into this industry, they have a misconception, of course, by, you know, thinking that they're going to make a million dollars in the first week that they're in real estate because, you know, because they see someone that's successful that may be. inspired them to get into it in the first place. However, they don't know the steps that that person went through to get to where they are or if the reality is in fact that they're as successful as they portray to be. So I definitely think that educating people on the timeline that it actually does take to get things going and getting really clear on what you value, really. I mean, it's not always

monetary. So the quality time that I spent with my son, you know, a lot of people thought, oh, you left the business. I didn't leave the business. I just redesigned it for a way that worked better. Guys, she didn't leave the business. She redesigned her business and life to fit her life better. That is amazing. Now, most people won't take a year and a half off. I mean, not many people do. How did you get through that in terms of finances? Did you have a lot of cash saved up? Like, most people can't do that. Well, that's true too. So one of the things that when I first got into real estate, of course, I got excited about the commission checks and the size of them. And I started to shop a little bit more than I would have before for larger priced items because everything equated

to, oh, one more sale and I can have that. And it's very easy to get into that. But my father told me when I was young and I listened to him much more now than I did then, that it's really not about how much you make, it's about how much you keep. So how I survived that was because I saved my money. So I spend wisely and I learned how to do that even better as I grew in the industry. Wow. Okay. It's not about how much you make. It's about how much you keep. Realtors always get into that spiral. And most people, most realtors don't like to talk about it.

So how do you stay disciplined with your finances as a real estate agent? Because like you said, oh, one more deal. I can make that payment on that car, right? One more deal, I can buy this purse, whatever. How did you stay disciplined? I'm much more disciplined now than I ever was before because I think that maturity set in a little bit further as you get older. But I actually got a, I started coaching myself later in the years of real estate and really started tracking and recording. So I think that tracking and measuring is also something that I learned along the way that really helped. And determining what your ROI is on things. Like, what is your return on that investment? Because it's very easy, and there's so many ideas in real estate, that you would love to do all of them,

and you want to buy every program that there is available out there. But is it going to work for you and how well is it? So tracking and measuring those really determine how much you're willing to spend on certain things. Yeah, so really tracking everything that you spend budgeting. I really never learned that until now, running a profitable real estate team. So how do you stay profitable in your real estate team? Well, I only spend, I have a rule of thumb that I don't spend more than 25% towards my overall costs. So whatever I'm making.

So if I want to spend more, I have to make more first in order to spend it. So that's one rule. Another thing that I do is I do also invest in other areas. So I invest in real estate myself. I believe in having multiple streams of income because obviously real estate markets and life changes. And so having those different streams definitely is helpful. and also making sure that you maintain a consistent lead follow-up in order to continuously generate leads at all times because at the beginning of my career I realized that I was kind of running paycheck to paycheck

or commission check to commission check. And I didn't like that inconsistency because, well, because it makes you feel unsafe. Yeah, big time. Yeah. So just creating consistency, I would say, is probably one of the other big keys. Creating consistency in cash flow, creating consistency in lead generation and being disciplined with your finances, being disciplined with your investing.

And no more than 25%. If you want to spend more money, you've got to go make more money to spend more money to spend the 25%, which you're putting right back into your business anyway, right? That's right, yeah. Yeah. And also saving for taxes. So I actually have separate accounts where I take out the money for my taxes right from my checks because these commission checks that we get, we have to accommodate for, you know,

all the expenses that go with it. So for all of you out there that think you're making a million dollars, when you first get into real estate, the tax man is going to get paid regardless at the end. I don't know why that's so funny, but I'd rather cry on that one. So how much, let's say a check of $10,000, how much are you putting away to reinvest into your business? And how much are you putting away for taxes? Well, I'm now incorporated, so I have a little bit of a better tax rate. But I would say for anyone just starting in the industry that might not be ready to incorporate,

they should be at least saving their 20% towards their tax and then 25% to spend on their business, whether it's to delegate to someone to help you with your business or towards lead generation. Another thing that I do spend the money back in my business is on different streams also of lead generation. because is that within the 25% Natasha yeah I spent 25% on my business yeah okay okay so the rest is mine the rest is yours so whatever you uh for investments or whatever have you is this so 45% you're putting away 20 to taxes 25 to reinvesting into the business and then the rest of the 55% is Natasha's money yes amazing amazing so So then it's investments and then whatever you want to do with your money, right?

Basically, yeah. I mean, I'm developing a coaching aspect now that I've been in the business so long, so I'm definitely reinvesting some of that now in another business. Love it. Because they sort of enhance one another. So now the coach approach that I had initially started when I started, when it was the coach approach team is now coach approach coaching. And so it's reviving.

The coach approach is now coming back to life, but in a different... I love it. It sounds like it's your passion. Tell us a little bit about how you coach agents. Well, I'm learning based on the coach that I currently have. So as I said, I am being coached weekly. And I really believe that everybody needs a coach of some sort or an accountant. ability partner or someone that you're going to make you're going to you're going to well you're

going to voice what your promises are and and they're going to hold you accountable um i need a very tough coach and i have one so what i have done is basically replicate what i'm learning from coaching and offering that uh for free to other agents that are free yes i do it i do coaching for free at this Oh, wow. I do. Yeah. So I host once a month now. I was hosting once a week.

I do a newsletter once a week for anyone wanting to get some tips on selling real estate. And then once a month I do an actual event, which is a full hour of real estate coaching on a different theme each month. Amazing. How do people get a hold of that coaching? Is it through a Zoom call or is it through a Zoom call? or is it through another platform? It is through Zoom, yeah. So we do on Zoom.

Yeah, so we can actually post the link, so that way you can register on Eventbrite if you'd like to. I've got one coming up. Like I said, it's once a month. It's free of charge, and it's for any new agents or seasoned agents or anyone just wanting some new ideas. Hopefully there's something in there that might be a value

to your own business. What's the most that you talk about in your coaching? Is it more about lead generation or you incorporate social media, AI? What's the unique selling proposition of the coaching? I actually format it into four areas. So basically, I think that our business, to have a full rounded business, you need to be focused on finance and sales and marketing and operationalizing because you can have lots of ideas, but if you don't have an operation or a system lined up, then the ideas likely won't happen.

So I cover all four of those areas as a main focus with different ideas to interject. So yes, we cover social media, but obviously social, media isn't going to be the only way that you want to generate leads. So, you know, perhaps you want to get into farming, a certain area, maybe the area that you live or the area that you spend the most time in is usually the best. Or postcards, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of old school ways of selling real estate that are still very effective in the market, which is why I'm still probably here. And then using technology. to enhance them just makes it much better.

Yeah. Yeah. So basically giving your 23 years of experience in, you know, generating leads, converting sales, saving taxes. So working on the finance end as well, that that's what you coach as well. So sounds like a pretty holistic view of real estate sales, not just the lead generation part. It's like everything.

It is everything. Yeah. And it's based on all those four on those four. for those four quadrants now. Perfect. Free of charge, guys. Free of charge. Come and join me. I'm hoping I do plan to charge for it at some point in time. So definitely now would be the time to get in on it rather than later. 100%. Yeah. 100%. So yeah, let's post the Event Bright link on the Facebook wall here. As we go along in 2024, what do you think is that happened this year, like in terms of the market, interest rates.

You've been through a couple of cycles. What are you seeing? I have. Of course, some of the cycles have similarities and some don't. You know, I've never survived through a pandemic, as we all know, that had some definite effects. Ciclically, we've got, you know, now coming into the spring market. So a lot of families will start to transition. and this is the time where they are out looking for buyers that have families because they want to have their children situated by the summer months,

and that way they will be in their homes and solidly set up for September school starts. So if that's an area that you want to focus on families, now would be the time to be marketing to those downsizers, people that have family homes to sell. to those families now would also be the time that they know that the upcoming spring will be a lot of maintenance to their homes and maybe now's the time to sell it and get into something smaller so that they don't have to do that maintenance so if downsizers is another area you want to focus on now would also be the time to do that um i think it's going to be a fantastic year uh january typically is very slow and it wasn't this year so it's been it's been right active uh I I think that then during the summer months, of course, we are still busy.

September typically is, again, slow. We'll see what 2024 brings. And then October is usually all the families are settled, and we've got the, again, the downsizers and the retirees that kind of come out to play. So that's kind of the every year cycle. But yes, I think that it's going to be a busy 2024. That's amazing. Well, good to hear. I've never heard of that, actually. The downsizers take action in the spring and in the fall. Is that what I'm hearing? Yep, they do. The downsizers do take action. Do they take action in selling their properties in the spring and again in the fall so that they can maybe winter elsewhere somewhere warmer, like perhaps Mexico, or in the spring prior to having to look after their large properties or maintenance.

needed during the summer months. So guys, reach out to the downsizers right now because they're going to take action in the springtime and they'll chill in the summertime. They'll probably not want to do anything because the weather is good. They'll take action to get out of the winter, get out of here from the cold to go somewhere warmer. So I never thought of that. This is brilliant.

So, wow. It's kind of exciting for me as well because as I transition, I have an exit strategy of moving out of production, growing the team, and getting more into coaching. But during that time now that I'm excited about EXP moving into Mexico, I own property now in Mexico after having been there. And so I will then be transitioning those downsizers, hopefully to Mexican destinations or other destinations for sure. That's exciting.

So that's very cool. So you plan to transition out production. moving to Mexico as well yourself? I'll be there for my intention is to be there during the winter months. So six months and six months will be the perfect balance. Life balance for me. Oh, I love it. Yes, six months and six months.

That's the dream. You're going to be living the dream. On the agent side, Natasha, what do you think agents should do here in the first quarter to make sure they set themselves up to, dominate 24? Well, I'm a true believer actually to working in 90-day increments. So, and the reason why I do that is because you, you will really know if somebody, something is working if you do it for a full 90 days.

So we're already midway through the first quarter. Yeah. And so whatever the business plan was, and hopefully every agent out there has one, if they don't, then get yours done quickly because whatever you had hoped to have in your first quarter, you're going to have to ramp up for the second. But I always work in 90-day increments. So have a 90-day action plan. It's much easier to follow something for 90 days than it is for a full year.

And make sure that you have a consistent strategy for every area that you want to focus on for the next 90 days. Yeah, it's all in 90-day cycles. If you have good business right now, that means you did something right 90 days ago. If you don't have good business now, you know what you were doing 90 days ago as well. What's one last piece of insight overall for agents if they want to succeed? Be consistent. Be consistent is really because we need to be seen. It's a very competitive industry, and people will only see you if they see that it is

repetitive because that is what actually builds confidence in people's mind. So meaning if you show up all the time and you be consistent, your clients will actually trust you because you show up all the time. That's right. This is a relationship industry and it's based on trust. So absolutely. Consistency builds trust. Consistency builds trust, guys.

If you've got nothing else from this. Well, I certainly learned a lot. I'm going to start putting away money. Natasha, for taxes and for reinvesting into our business and become a smart businessman. So, guys, if you want to see more of Natasha's content, click the link below. She will share it. It's free coaching, guys. Look forward to seeing you on her calls.

Natasha, thank you so much for today. I'll look forward to seeing you soon. Thanks, John. All right. Have a good day. Bye-bye.