KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Pivot, Process, Profit: Building a Scalable and Sustainable Real Estate Business

Episode Date: April 15, 2026

Summary:In this episode, Knolly Williams outlines a strategic framework for real estate agents to transform their careers from a frantic hustle into a structured, profitable business. He intr...oduces the "Pivot" concept—realigning one's mindset and strategy to meet current market demands—followed by implementing rigorous "Processes" to automate and delegate routine tasks. Finally, he discusses how these elements converge to drive consistent "Profit." Agents will learn how to identify their most productive activities, eliminate time-wasters, and build a business that can thrive and scale even in a shifting industry landscape.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Seven-figure success starts when you start thinking like a CEO. Welcome to the John Kitchens Coach podcast Experience. This is your host, John Kitchens. You're ready to think bigger and transform your business into a path to lasting freedom. Oh, welcome back. So good to see. Welcome back to another episode of Expert Mentors Live. Tansi, this is our fourth go-around.
Starting point is 00:00:26 You saw there in the little intro who closed out that little. I saw it. I was in the intro. That's so cool. So cool. Like we we jumped right in as soon as we got on before we we hit go and already got right into it. So I love, I love connecting with you, love talking with you. And really around kind of the whole pivoting, what is pivoting?
Starting point is 00:00:49 What does that even mean? I got to confess a little bit. So we there towards the kind of the tail end of the NAEA days. And we all had little sayings. There was little sayings and we had a shirt design that had a dog, right? Like, like, you know, squirrel, you know, the dog's chasing the squirrel. But it said pivot. So like, like, I get it.
Starting point is 00:01:15 When you said, hey, we're going to talk about pivoting why it's important. I was like, it brought up a little PTSD maybe, but hey, we'll rock in here with you a little bit. I love that so much. I love that. So cool. So, so Chonsie, what, I mean, what the heck is going on? What do you've been up to? you've got a plate full of stuff.
Starting point is 00:01:35 You know, you're kind of joking, you know, just part of the ADHD. You got to keep yourself, you know, moving and moving in different directions. So, yeah. Yeah, what's happening? So, I mean, since the last time I was on here with you, I've wrapped the television show. So we're no longer filming that show. We wrapped that around this time last year. And we've just been rocking and rolling with our flipping business.
Starting point is 00:01:57 And then the flipping business kind of really made me lean into this whole pivoting. thing, which, you know, flipping was fun. It was my creative outlet. It was very profitable for us because we are very process-driven people. So we never, we didn't get into the business and just started flipping houses and just hope for the best. We built out a duplicatable process. But because we built out that process, we were then able to build all of these ancillary services and businesses and build out this vertically integrated system that has now become our bread and butter. And that's where we've been spending most of our time. So yeah, so you see me online right now. You know, most of what I'm talking about is teaching realtors how to get into investing, dip their toe in investing,
Starting point is 00:02:39 leverage their commissions for things other than just going out and buying a nice car or purse when they get a fat commission check and teaching them how to get into this world of investing and ultimately really maximizing their earnings potential. Yeah. And, you know, we were chatting a little bit. Just fewer transactions, you know, obviously, you know, we saw that last year. And, you know, I mean, statistically we should see an increase. However, we'll see, right?
Starting point is 00:03:10 Time will tell to kind of see how things play out. But things are taking longer. And, you know, the days of I could have a conversation with you and we could be at the closing table in 30 days. It's just those days are pretty much gone, right? We're getting back to the longer lifetime cycle, the cash conversion cycle. Things are just taking longer. So I love to your point to maximize the opportunity. You're doing the thing.
Starting point is 00:03:36 You're acquiring the opportunity, really being able to maximize. What does that look like right now and moving into the future from what you're seeing, what you're doing, what you're coaching, what you're teaching on? So it's interesting. What I did about a year and a half ago is I sat down and I looked at our business and I did this little exercise. and I encourage agents to do this. And I actually just put up a video on TikTok about this, which is take a sheet of paper and write your name in the middle of that paper and circle it.
Starting point is 00:04:08 And then I want for you to think about all of the people in a real estate transaction that ultimately you're the nucleus of, right? Like you're going to bring the client, you're going to get the ball rolling on this transaction, but write down all the different industries and people that are going to get paid from you bringing that transaction to the table. And then write down or circle, all of those that you're actually getting paid on.
Starting point is 00:04:31 And the chances are you're going to be lucky if it's one outside of the nucleus. And to me, that's just a waste. It was totally a waste. And so looking at our flipping business, I'm an understanding that, okay, when I go and buy a house and I renovate this house, all of these people are going to get paid from the time that I buy it until I sell it. So why can't I figure out a way instead of constantly being on this hamster wheel of figuring out how to get more deals and how to do more and going wide, how about I go deep, which is something
Starting point is 00:05:04 that, you know, Jay Kinder, that you guys have always preached even with building out our revenue share groups and doing different things like that was, you know, instead of going wide, you want to go deep. And I really leaned into owning our process. And so every step of the process, I wanted to have my hand in it. In some way, it may not be that I'm the jack of all trades and I'm building out, you know, each individual business, but partnering up with people and having some sort of way to capitalize on as many steps as possible in a process that you are triggering, that you are initiating, I think is very, very important for realtors, especially in today's climate where everything is taking longer and there is just less of it.
Starting point is 00:05:48 Tossey, how do you, so the question that I want to ask you is how do you determine what's a fair value exchange within within that process. And you look at, you know, who's getting a bite of that apple every time that you do the transaction. For example, you find the flip. Now you got all of the trades, everybody that's going to get paid off of that, the whole ripple effect from that. And even as working with a buyer or a seller, when we get them into a, you know, getting them through the process and getting them into a home or getting their home sold, there's all of the people that get a bite of that apple. And it's always been, you know, to the the point of like listen you are either sweat equity probably some check equity to acquire that
Starting point is 00:06:31 opportunity and then you're just going to give that to somebody else and they're going to get paid and you're not getting anything but you spent the money to acquire that opportunity be it through through your your sweat your effort or you're paying for the opportunities you're paying for the leads you're paying for the lead systems and and you're just going to give it away so that that's the first, right? The mental shift is like, oh, wow, right? I am spending time and money to acquire that. But now, okay, they're getting a bite. How do I get compensated in what is a fair compensation trade for me giving you that opportunity? How do you evaluate that? I think that's a great question. I think that it starts with actually integrating all of
Starting point is 00:07:19 these things into your process. We were talking before we went live about building out a framework, building out a duplicatable, a proven process that you have. And I think it's really more about integrating all of these other variables into your process. And when you integrate things into your process, then those other variables become dependent on your process. And at that point, when things are dependent on you and on your process and on your machine working, when they or just a cog in the wheel that you've created, then ultimately you set your own damn price because they understand that they wouldn't exist without you. And that's ultimately what we've done, you know, kind of with our business. And so to give like an example with building out these
Starting point is 00:08:06 verticals, I feel like we're talking almost in code here. So, so, you know, with the flipping business, you know, acquiring a property. Most people that get into the business are going to use a wholesaler. They're going to have someone that just brings them a deal. Well, instead of doing that, I made acquisitions a part of our process. Now, do we take deals in from outside sources? Of course. But to have a duplicatable process built in there, then that's a part of it. And then the hard money lending, the commercial lines of credit, like we figured out a way to tap in and be able to actually provide lending for others. And in providing lending for others, then now I get a discount on my lending. So it's helping me twofold. So whether I'm actually
Starting point is 00:08:49 involved in this process for myself or not, like, I'm going to profit off of it. The construction part, instead of hiring a general contractor and having their cruise work, we own that part of the process. So whether I'm flipping my house or I'm flipping a house for you or even just doing a retail job, I now have a construction company. I now have design. I now, if I'm going to be ordering cabinets and countertops and flooring, I have direct contacts with wholesalers, with wholesale companies and suppliers instead of having to go to
Starting point is 00:09:19 Home Depot and paying a markup. So essentially, I've removed the middleman from a lot of pieces and the things that I couldn't remove the middleman from. I've just integrated those services so hardcore into my process that they're coming to me every day saying, when do we have more? And they understand my value. And I can pretty much name whatever stake that I want in that because they largely wouldn't exist without me. So what is a good stake without like taking too much from them to where it does it tarnishes the relationship right at some point you're like man you know this isn't this isn't a win for me it's i feel like chancy's winning more than me so how do you how do you value to where hey you know this is this is good this is good for me this is this is good for them
Starting point is 00:10:05 hey let's keep let's keep doing this i don't know that it's um i i really think it's all just dependent upon the relationship and it just depends on on how much you're putting into it um it's no different than with realtors when we send a referral out to somebody. All we've done is made an initial conversation and then we pass that referral on and then we're like, I want 25 or 30 percent. It's an arbitrary number. We haven't really done anything for it besides spark up a conversation. And so for those, you know, 10, 25 percent, whatever that end buyer feels like is the value on it. But I don't necessarily know that there's a number, but I know that you need to position yourself so that you can at least even have the conversation because if you're not in a position,
Starting point is 00:10:49 then the number is always going to be zero. So if it's 10% or 20% or 40%, you know, that's something that you'll just have to determine based on who you're talking to and the process. Yeah, 100%. So that was always kind of our rule of thumb. We defaulted back to always to the 25%. Because everybody, especially dealing in the real estate industry,
Starting point is 00:11:11 everybody kind of understood that, right? Even if you were a trade. Yeah, they were familiar with that number. Oh, yeah, 25%. I've heard that. Yeah, that makes sense. how we would we would look at it as like okay well what are they making off of the deal like what is their service even all the way down to the carpet cleaning guy right and and you know he charges
Starting point is 00:11:32 a hundred bucks for example right to come in and do do his service well 25 percent is 25 bucks is it worth 25 bucks right and then you know you look at some of these other these other trades that that we would look at and we would be like okay well, they probably don't want to give up the $25% or $25, but they would be willing to do something. And what we found is that we could just do a trade and like, hey, I'm going to need my stuff cleaned a couple times a year. Could we just, you just hook us up a couple times a year and I'll keep hooking you up.
Starting point is 00:12:08 And so there's a lot. We did a lot of deals just handshake off of that type of an arrangement. Right. So find the value exchange based upon like you said. I mean, you know, when you're, when you're cranking and you have a lot of opportunities and you're able to acquire a lot of opportunities, you can demand a little bit more. And so I think it's it's super, super smart for agents to be thinking about that. These bigger teams, and I've been, I've been on Matt and DJ here in Pittsburgh. I've been on a pretty hardcore on like, listen, guys, I mean, what do we know with, you know, older cities, older communities?
Starting point is 00:12:44 There's always going to be plumbing issues. there's always going to be, you know, you know, HVAC, heater issues, coal climate, there's always going to be those type of issues. Why not own a stake in one of those, those companies that you're sending out all the time?
Starting point is 00:12:59 Absolutely. Absolutely. It's so important. And realtors just are not having those conversations. But I also think a lot of them are not having the conversations because they haven't built a process or a framework of value. And that's the root of the problem, right? is they don't have a framework.
Starting point is 00:13:16 They don't have a community that they can say, hey, X, Y, and Z vendor, I'm going to plug you into this community, and now you're going to be in front of this many people, and I can bring, they don't have any of that. And so I think more now than ever, it's so important for realtors to be building out communities and building out real processes and frameworks
Starting point is 00:13:36 for their business or else they're just not going to make it. Back to your point, go deeper in the relationship. Absolutely. Go a lot deeper in the relationship. I love that. So we were chatting before we came on. I was sharing with you because kind of get into and then we'll get into kind of the pivoting and what that means and how you're applying and you're using it. But back to your point, I was sharing with you.
Starting point is 00:13:56 I'd have to look it up. I don't know what the exact book title is. But Vern Harnish is one of our longtime mentors, mastering the Rockefeller habit, scaling up. And in his, he does a weekly newsletter that comes out. I've been subscribed to it probably for, geez, 14 years maybe that long, 15 years, been subscribed to it. It comes out every week. And he, at the end of every year, he drops his top five book recommendations to read.
Starting point is 00:14:25 If you haven't read going into the new year based upon each of the, you know, kind of the pillars and in his methodology. And one of the ones from this past year was a book that did, they did the research and the study on, what were the common characteristics of the top companies in the Fortune 500 that bootstrapped. That didn't take any capital to be able to grow. And the overarching, the number one thing is that every one of them had one proven sales process that had a high close ratio. One process. And so I think back to kind of what you're saying, back to your point, being able to have, okay, raw material, we create a raw material, we create an opportunity, we create a lead, we create a contact,
Starting point is 00:15:14 we give them, or we provide value in exchange, we get a phone number, right? You know, we have the objective of a funnel is to get a phone number. We got a phone number. Then what happens, right? And then, you know, is there, what's what's the value add? What's the, you know, the pre-close video? What's the conversation all the way through? Like, what is that proven one process that has the highest close?
Starting point is 00:15:39 ratio. And so it was just extremely valuable understanding is that quit dabbling and doing too many things. What's the one consistent process that you can run everybody through? And then it doesn't matter to your point. Let's shift over here. Let's shift over here. But it doesn't matter. We still have our process that we're going to run things through. The framework never changes. The framework never changes. But that's the number one reason that agents, you know, are struggling right now is they just don't have a framework. So they're flailing because things are different. The environment of real estate just feels different. And they're having a really, really hard time because they don't really have anything to plug and play into. And once you have that system, once you
Starting point is 00:16:22 have that framework, you can literally pivot and do anything and you just keep using it over and over and over and it works. So I think that that's going to be the key to unlocking sustainability and success in today's real estate environment. Do you want to walk through kind of what you see as kind of a, it doesn't have to be like a thousand moving parts. Like what is kind of your simple framework, your proven process that just, just, I mean, we don't have to go too deep with it, but just kind of certain points that it transitions from. What does that look like for you? Oh, that's big. That is such a loaded question.
Starting point is 00:17:05 Well, because I'm not, you know, retail sales much anymore. So my business is very, you know, operations focused. And so let me kind of go at it as a realtor. And what I tell people as I'm speaking to them as realtor. And I'm not sure if I've ever talked about this on one of our other episodes that we've done. But it's as simple as this. Your real estate business is a freaking store. It's a store.
Starting point is 00:17:33 And everyone looks at these. service-based businesses and they get lost on what they're supposed to do. And it's because there's not a tangible place for them to land. But if they start looking at their real estate business as a store, and think about if they were to have signed a lease for $5,000 a month for a storefront because they wanted to open a damn shoe store, clothing store. No one would have to walk them through what type of framework and what the steps are to building it. First thing they're going to do, standing on the curb is look at this empty shell of a store and they're going to say, I need a sign. You know, I need for people to under my names.
Starting point is 00:18:08 That's, you know, the marketing side. They, you know, need store hours on the door. That's my operations timeline. That's my time blocking. How do I get customers through the door? You know, also that's going to be the marketing. Once they come through the door, where's my inventory going to come from? That's, you know, the lead generation process.
Starting point is 00:18:25 So I think that it starts with understanding that, that that's what you're ultimately building. And then within that store, you're going to have a ton of different processes. And it's all about really perfecting it and understanding what you're actually going to do and then where you need to plug in those resources that again, you're going to be able to take a piece of because every store has multiple departments.
Starting point is 00:18:45 There's accounts payable. There's customer service. There's accounts receivable. There's operations. There's the buyers and there's inventory and there's all of these pieces. And your real estate business is the same exact freaking concept. And you need to just sit, write it all out, understand all of the pieces of how the larger operation is going to work and then break down all of the steps of how do you get someone
Starting point is 00:19:08 from walking through the doors of your store to the damn cash register. And once they check out, how are you staying in front of them? What's that process? And then just build that out and then just run it every single day consistently. And however you've got to pivot in your business, you just kind of plug and play with that same system. Chauncey, I love that. I like setting back and kind of thinking through it is, that's it.
Starting point is 00:19:31 right like everybody can can grasp their head around their favorite restaurant their favorite store that they go into and being able to start that you know with a blank like a blank box and okay we're going to build this out but if you had to rebuild your favorite place that you either you know shop for clothes shop for shoes favorite restaurant think through that right and you know it's all by yourself until you've got so many customers coming through the door that you can't do it all. And then you start to say, okay, well, where do you need to be? That's the most valuable to the process of delivering that stake or delivering those, you know, selling those shoes or whatever the case may be.
Starting point is 00:20:15 That is such a cool framework to be able to think through and how, you know, to design and redesign, you know, the agents, their business moving into the new year. And it's like, listen, you know, think about your business. I mean, what's missing? If you don't have traffic coming through, what's, what's, what do you, what do you not have? What's what's, what's, what's not going on? So that's, I love that. That is so cool.
Starting point is 00:20:39 Yeah, it's simple. It's not easy, but it's simple. So just start thinking about it like your store. And that's how I thought about my flipping business and now moving more into, you know, the interior design space and just doing all of these different things. That's how I think. I've got to build out a store for every single thing that I do and then plug and play all of those missing pieces. So let's talk about pivoting.
Starting point is 00:20:57 What is, you know, when you say that, what is, What does that mean? You know, I think for realtors, it's very, very difficult for us. So I'll tell you this. This year, actually it was, yeah, it was the beginning of the year. So the first week of this year, I made a post on social media because I'd gone through every year at the beginning of the year, I go through all of my social media profiles, and I update my branding because I normally do a photo shoot in December.
Starting point is 00:21:23 So I update my pictures and I change my colors. And this year, I did. something rad. I took because I always struggle when you update your bio, you only have so many characters. And I always struggle because the very first thing that I always put is realtor. And then I put all of these other things than I am. So then I'm a house helper. I'm a speaker. I'm a coach. I'm a mentor. I'm a interior design. I do all of these things. And I ran out of room. And I had to figure out what I was going to take out. And the hardest thing for me to do was take out the word realtor. And I took the word realtor out, not because I'm not licensed anymore.
Starting point is 00:22:04 I'm actually, I'm a licensed realtor. But that's just not my focus anymore is residential retail real estate. It's just not. And that was so, so difficult for me to do. And I made a post about it. And finally, I did it. I'm doing all of these other things. And I think that a lot of realtors, that that will kind of resonate with them because a lot of them do some fantastic things outside. of just typical retail real estate. But our identities are so caught up in our production. And our identities are so caught up in our unit sold and in saying that I'm a multi-million dollar producer and having clients that we almost hold ourselves back
Starting point is 00:22:47 from a lot of other things that are actually our gifts that we could be giving to the world because we're so caught up in the whole realtor thing. So when I say pivot, I'm not saying, abandoned real estate. Real estate is the nucleus of what you're doing. We should all be encouraging everyone to continue with transactions and keep this train moving. But it is okay to leverage your knowledge in real estate, your network in real estate, and pivot to some other areas in the business that you just may find is your home more than where you are in residential sales. And that was a lesson that I've been learning over the last few years, but I've just been so afraid to let go.
Starting point is 00:23:30 I'm a realtor. And I'm a realtor first that I really, really struggled with that. And so, pivoting for me is really just encouraging people to dabble in some other things and that it's, it's okay to do that. It's okay to give yourself permission to do that. Yeah, you know, you're so spot on with the identity. And I think it's, it's maybe redefining what success is to them. Yeah. And, and, you know, I think they get so latched in, oh, you know, if I'm not, you know, chasing this, you know, that's not success. Chasing more transactions, more, more of that. You know, I, Kinder and I, October was 20 years together. And so did, did some, you know, reflecting, leading up to that coming out of, coming out of the end of the year, end of,
Starting point is 00:24:20 you know, into this new year. And I, and I look through it through a couple lenses, one, one as a coach, looking through the lens of as a coach and thinking to myself, you know, how would I coach these two 26, 27, 28 year old knuckleheads? And I would have, I would have been really, really adamant on, um, not chasing status. Oh. And that was kind of a downfall. of ours. And one of the things that kind of our experience, and especially for me, being
Starting point is 00:24:58 in the number two position, second in command, that chasing status will set you back decades. And so what I would have coached us on and would have been around you guys understand process.
Starting point is 00:25:16 Everything you and I are talking about. We understand process. We understand And but let's, what is success? And I would have, I would have pushed us on success of being more towards finding our freedom instead of chasing status. Yes. And, you know, 27, 28 year old, you know, two guys and in that competitive. It's hard.
Starting point is 00:25:40 Yeah, it's hard. It's hard. And so it's easier looking, looking back. But I, I really would have, that would have, you know, obviously we wouldn't be, you and I wouldn't be on this call if it wasn't for that. So it's it really is. I mean, everything happens for a reason, but really looking back and being able to convey that message and is exactly what you're saying, right? It's like get a framework, get a process, and go where your passion is and in what you want success to be.
Starting point is 00:26:08 A hundred percent. And I've learned that and it's been, it's been fabulous. And I'm in a really happy spot where I am now. And I really, I'm encouraging so many other agents to do the same. Like, it's so important. Do you go kind of where your heart goes, where your gut goes, or is there indicators, or is there things that you pay attention to? Like, oh, there might be an opportunity here. How do you kind of look to where you want to give your attention?
Starting point is 00:26:37 You know, I tend to stay. I never veered too far off the ship, okay? So I stay in the real estate realm and what I'm doing, but then I just kind of dabble again in all of the different areas. So whether that's, you know, I need leads. So then I'm going to dabble a little bit into running ads and agency. I need design. I'm going to dabble in that instead of having to hire an outside designer.
Starting point is 00:27:01 Like maybe I'm good at that. I'm going to dabble in staging. And so as I'm dabbling in the different areas of what my business needs, I find and I have found over the years like where I'm really good and where I belong. and then all of the other parts of it and what I enjoy. And then all of the other parts are the things that, you know, I'm just not not fooling with anymore. And I think that that is the trick to building a business that gives you a feeling of freedom
Starting point is 00:27:31 and a business that feels fulfilling beyond just financial is the business is still there. All the pieces is still moving. Like it's there. But I am focused on these particular parts of the business that then allow me to, still have the financial success that I want, but I'm working specifically in these certain parts of the business. And what I have found is that I'm very creative. And I've always known that I'm creative. And it's typically come out through social media. And that's why I ended up kind of, you know, on television, which is basically creating content on a larger scale. But now it's more
Starting point is 00:28:06 design and staging. And, you know, it's on that side of the business and creating content on a larger scale with building out my TikTok and my YouTube and things like that. And so create is driving my business from that perspective, but I don't fool with the money anymore. I don't want to go with that part. I don't want to raise capital. I don't want to pay people. I don't want to deal with any of that crap. And so, again, it's allowed me to settle in my business.
Starting point is 00:28:33 And the business is still running and it's still doing great financially. But I'm focused on my one area. And I'm okay now with saying, I don't even list my own dang flips. I have an agent for that. You know why? Because I'm not the best damn listing agent. Like I'm just not. That's not my thing.
Starting point is 00:28:49 And it's okay to say that, you know, and work in your business in the capacity that you like. I love that. So for you, is it more that? So it's the gives you energy or takes energy. Is it more fulfilling? I mean, at what point, you know, it's not making money, but it is very fulfilling and it's giving me energy. Do you still still stay there? And then it's like, all right, I need to get somebody else.
Starting point is 00:29:13 Like, I got the agent to handle this. Like, I need somebody. else to handle this, but I'm going to stay right here because this is giving, you know, allowing me to stay creative. It's fulfilling. Yeah. And then the money will come. Also helping us make money. A big part of the business, you know, is the fact that the product that I'm able to create is a lot more creative than the competition. But if I would have just focused on what I thought I had to focus on, which is just selling houses and just the listing process and and the acquisitions process.
Starting point is 00:29:45 If that's what I focused on, because that's what everybody tells you you have to focus on, then I would not have discovered that I have this knack for, you know, building out really cute spaces and cranking out a really pretty product that then makes people want to send their grandma's house to us because we have more integrity over the other guys that are just going to buy it and paint everything gray.
Starting point is 00:30:09 That, you know, it's going to get us a following in our area of people that literally follow our properties and they, you know, realtors that are constantly bringing us buyers because they, they know that we put out a quality product. Like, like, so again, I'm working in the capacity of the business. The business is still making the money, but I have figured out a way to tap into my business in a way that is a lot more valuable than what I thought I was supposed to be doing. And now this is something I actually enjoy.
Starting point is 00:30:35 How do you, how do you give yourself permission to do that? I think that's where a lot of people. Yeah. So it's, it's the failure piece, right? That they're so afraid of failing to even try. anything. Oh, I got, I got a little momentum here. Like, I don't want to, I don't want to step over there and fail. How do you give yourself permission to move in that direction? It's hard. I don't even answer for that because I've, I've rolled with that for so long, John. I remember calling my
Starting point is 00:31:06 good buddy, Nick Good, and I was almost in tears, you know, when I started just even pivoting out of production and just pivoting more into the coaching space and the mentoring space and building out, you know, a large team and speaking. And I didn't feel like I deserved to be in that space. Because I thought that my job is just to sell houses, like you're just a realtor. And so I struggled with that for years until finally, I was just like, screw it. But it took a long time. And I don't know what light bulb moment happened. It just happened over time. But it was very, very difficult. It was. Yeah. I remember, you know, at Gove's first build event, you know, you know, saw you over there leaning against the wall trying to, you know, blend in, blend in and kind of sink into the wall and
Starting point is 00:31:51 disappear. And, you know, and for me, seeing, you know, just having conversations with you and just seeing your presence and, you know, I can just feel your confidence, but you didn't feel that at that time. And I think there's a lot of, a lot of people feel that way, right? You know, and I don't know if it's the fake until you make it, but you, you know, you brought yourself and then all of a sudden I can see just in our conversations over the years how that confidence has grown and you just have really become okay with with who you are and you're going to go and do what you want and so it was just just a process was it just time was it just more reps yeah it was just time um and it was hard and in and having conversations with people that
Starting point is 00:32:40 you know we're telling you that you can't do this and that you're focused on the wrong thing like It was really, really tough. But I'm glad that I kept pushing and kept pushing myself into these uncomfortable spaces. And yes, I do remember being at that build event and I was leaned up against the wall. And you came over and I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm on the damn stage and talking from the 10,000 people like it was terrifying. But, you know, it's just a process and it's going to take time. But the number one thing that you have to do is let go of your ego.
Starting point is 00:33:14 You have to. None of it even starts until you let go of your ego. But that was that was even a problem that I had coming over to EXP. I had my own little boutique brokerage before I did EXP. And I wouldn't make any money, John. The year that I came over, I made $21,000 in my brokerage. I had like 10, 12 agents. I was producing and, you know, it was flat fee because who's going to really pay me anything outside of that. I don't have any resources or any buying. behind me. I'm just one person trying to run this brokerage and I only made $21,000 from my agents in that brokerage once I boiled all of my numbers down. And it took me probably six months to
Starting point is 00:33:58 say, okay, I'm going to walk away from this and then go over to this other place and immediately built my revenue share group and blew that out of the water but I couldn't even let that go because it was my ego of saying that's my name on the door. That's my brokerage. It's my thing.
Starting point is 00:34:13 And until we can learn to kind of really let go of bad ideas and sometimes let go good ideas, then you can't change. Was that just a moment for you? Or was it just maturity? Was it just growth? What was it that just like, ah, okay, this has got to go. This is what's holding me back. Yeah, it was definitely growth.
Starting point is 00:34:34 It was definitely just maturity and growth. And it just took time for me to figure it out and say, be honest with myself, stop lying to myself. And so just growth and time, maturity. How critical or how important was maybe you pouring into others in seeing, kind of starting to see yourself and them and then you're giving that advice and you're like, I need to take some of this, some of this medicine myself. That was big. That was definitely big. I did not. And it's interesting that you'd say that because I was talking to to someone else about this, an agent that I saw grow that's been with me for the last four or five years.
Starting point is 00:35:17 And we were having this conversation in that I saw a lot of myself and her and I would get really frustrated and kind of coaching her and mentoring her through where she is, has gotten me where I am now. And sometimes it takes somebody else like holding a mirror up to yourself for you to understand that you're the problem. And so, yeah, definitely coaching and mentoring and training helped me be very introspective because I did. I saw myself in a lot of those people and they got on my nerves. And so I was like, you know what?
Starting point is 00:35:50 You're getting on my nerves, but you remind me of me. That means I'm getting on my own damn nerves. I need to fix myself too. And so that helps. That's a really good tactic is help others and yourself. It's one of the favorite, most favorite concepts and so important for everybody. to kind of embrace is from Frank Shamrock in his MMA studio. And when you would go in, he would have this concept of the plus, minus, and equal.
Starting point is 00:36:22 And day one, he'd be like, listen, you got to find a plus. You got to find somebody that you look up to. That's a higher belt that you can model after that you look up to that can possibly mentor, mentor you. You got to find a minus. You got to find somebody that you can pour into somebody that you can mentor, somebody that you're learning and you're giving. And it's like, well, I'm brand new. Right. So even thinking in the real estate industry, well, I'm brand new. What can I, like I just got my license. What can I, what can I pour into somebody? It's like, well, listen, how did you pass your real estate test? You know, what did you think about? How can you chose to get into this industry?
Starting point is 00:37:02 you can pour into somebody that's just thinking about signing up for classes. So you can find a minus. So you can teach and pour into other people. And then you've got to find an equal. Somebody that's going to run with you, that's going to be your accountability partner that like you guys are texting each other at the end of the day. Did you do what you said you were going to do? If not, what's the penalty?
Starting point is 00:37:21 And I thought that was like, like one of the this, the plus minus and equal. Who's your plus? In any equity of life, right? In your health, in your relationships, in your business. who's your plus, who's your minus, who's your equal. And if you, when you get that figured out, because, you know, I know you were pouring into people, you were mentoring them, and I know what it did for me. And I remember, like, when I first started coaching back in 2012, so February of 2012
Starting point is 00:37:50 was my first one-on-one coaching, like paid coaching. And I remember going through that time because I was really, really dialed in on the broker's side of things. We were humming. I mean, we really had it streamlined, dialed in. We were doing everything. We're doing flips. We had developments. We were doing new construction. We own multiple companies. I mean, we had to because of the market we were in, right? And I think that's kind of to your whole point of what you're saying. We're kind of in a tough market. And you got to look at where are all the opportunities that you can tap into. But I remember when I first started coaching And I was like, man, I feel like I'm getting dumber.
Starting point is 00:38:32 And it was just frustration, but I think it was a lot of ego. And getting in the way of a coach and driving instead of like, listen, I'm not the hero here. I'm here to pour into you and see you grasp and make the changes. But what I found when I give back, when I coach, when I teach, it's fulfilling. But it also makes me look in the mirror. Oh, absolutely. And dial it in moving forward. Yeah, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:39:03 I will say that the one thing that there was a moment that my husband made me understand in coaching that was really kind of a pivotal point for me. I had a full day of coaching clients and they were all realtors. And I had so much anxiety built up. And I was just really freaked out and I was almost in tears. And he's like, babe, what's wrong? And I'm like, I don't feel like I'm giving them enough. And he said, babe, your job as a coach is not to constantly feed people trick plays.
Starting point is 00:39:37 Your job as a coach is all the boring stuff. What do coaches do? They make you condition. They make you run laps. They make you do drills. They make you, you know, just work on yourself and do all of the boring, repetitive stuff. And you have anxiety because you're constantly trying to feed people trick plays. and there are only so many trick plays.
Starting point is 00:40:00 And I remember him saying that to me, and I was like, you know what? You're right. But I was looking at it the same way. So I was very introspective. That was me feeling like I had to give people trick plays because that's what I wanted. Because I wanted instant gratification from anything that I looked at,
Starting point is 00:40:17 from any coach that I talked to, from any training that I attended, I needed something instant to fix what was going on. And the reality is none of it fixes. immediately. There is no, you know, quick fill or button that's going to fix anything. And so that was something that I learned, you know, introspectively through coaching. And so I definitely think that that helped me kind of wrangle in a lot of my issues, too. What great advice. That is so, that is so true, so spot on. And, you know, what timely advice too, right, when you were, you were wrestling with
Starting point is 00:40:49 it and being able to paint that picture for you to be able to be like, got it. Like that, that is so, so powerful. It really is. It is that good place. What else do I tell them to do? Well, then it's it's a slippery slope too, right? When you're thinking that way, because then now you're like, well, I'm not valuable. And it's like, hold on. You're extremely valuable. Extremely valuable. Yeah. That's so good. So Tonsie, so looking in, you know, kind of where you've navigate it in kind of where you've pivoted and where, you know, you're going. But for most, you know, agents just still focused on, you know, trying to open up the value, but they're really dependent upon, you know, sellers, buyers, trying to recruit, grow the organization.
Starting point is 00:41:45 Where, what advice would you, you know, make sure that, hey, listen, you need to have this foundation before you do anything else moving into the new year? What is that? build out your store. Build out the store. That's it. There's nothing else. And just like stores get resets and stores change things around, stores change where they're getting their inventory from, stores change their employees, stores change their prices,
Starting point is 00:42:13 stores change everything about their look. They change their signs. They fix your store. You need to start looking at yourself as a business. in that sense and that you are a store and fix it. And if you remember at that Gove event that we're talking about, that's what I talked about on stage, that I built my revenue share out as a revenue share store.
Starting point is 00:42:36 It's legitimately how I picture everything that I do. And I think if agents start looking at their business in that capacity, whether it's their rev share side of the business or the actual retail side of the business, then they can fix everything. So good. Chansy, you're amazing. And, you know, we were chatting before. And just, just your growth and your evolution is, is really inspiring. And so, you know, you really embody what this whole expert mentor series has been about and really just pouring back in and giving at a super high level.
Starting point is 00:43:11 And I can't thank you enough for carving out the time and jumping in and adding a massive amount of value as always. Well, thank you for having me. And hopefully you guys focus on building out your damn store. Get to it. Build out the store. Awesome. Chansy, thank you. Thank you guys. I'll see you. That's a wrap for today. I hope you got something valuable from this episode.
Starting point is 00:43:31 If you did, hit follow and visit john kitchens.coach for more ways we can work together. See you on the next episode.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.