KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Structure Over Struggle: Why Agents Fail—and How FastCap Fixes It

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

Episode SummaryThis week on the Big Agent Meeting, Real Estate On Air's Ian Wheatley fills in for Russ Laggan and brings the 🔥 as we unpack why so many agents struggle with inconsistency��and how to fix it with structure, systems, and support.We’re joined by a powerhouse lineup of Alyssa Specht, Lynne Miller, Ruben Garcia, and Austin Cheviron to break down what’s working right now at eXp Realty—from a full walkthrough of FastCap, to the game-changing Canva updates every agent now has access to, to CRM strategy and automation tips that can truly transform your business.Plus, Lofty shares how agents are using their AI-forward CRM to turn leads into long-term pipeline with real automation—and real ROI. If you’re looking to build a business that performs (and not just one that looks good), this is the episode for you.What You’ll Learn in This Episode:📅 Why Most Agents Fail—and the 3 Things That Change It (06:28) 🏆 How FastCap Graduates Average 7 Appointments & 3 Contracts in 6 Weeks (15:38) 🛠️ The Canva Upgrades That Eliminate Marketing Chaos (34:20) 🤖 Lofty CRM: 91K Emails Sent, $150K GCI—Here’s How (47:45) 🚀 How to Use eXp University’s New Website for 24/7 Agent Growth (30:03)Episode Breakdown:🎙️ Intro – Systems, Structure & the Problem with Inconsistent Marketing (00:00) 📉 Market Update: Flat Inventory, Sticky Rates & Midwest Momentum (02:13) 📊 Real-Time Market Tactics You Can Deploy Today (04:21) 🔥 Why Most Agents Fail: Ruben Garcia & Austin Cheviron on FastCap (06:28) ✅ Alyssa Specht: What Makes FastCap Actually Work for New & Stalled Agents (21:25) 📚 What’s New at eXp University + Upcoming Trainings You Can’t Miss (27:12) 🖥️ Lynne Miller on Canva Visual Suite 2.0: Automate Your Brand, Save Your Time (34:20) 📈 Lofty CRM Deep Dive – Real Agent, Real Systems, Real Results (44:09) 🎯 Solutions You Didn’t Know eXp Already Offers (57:04) 📢 Feedback QR Code + Wrap-Up from Ian Wheatley (58:05)✅ Take Action!If your pipeline is slow, your brand is inconsistent, or you’re simply feeling stuck, this episode is a playbook to start moving again. Whether you’re new, plateaued, or scaling up—structure beats struggle every time.📲 Subscribe to KGCI Real Estate On Air Live & the Big Agent Meeting Now streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and in the KGCI mobile app (iPhone & Android).🧠 Explore eXpUniversity.com The all-new platform is live—searchable, mobile-friendly, and packed with curated training paths for agents at every level.📅 Register for FastCap Scan the QR code or head to eXpUniversity.com to reserve your spot for the next 6-week FastCap experience with Ruben Garcia & Austin Cheviron.🔧 Need a solution? Explore solutions.exprealty.com—you might be surprised to learn your biggest tech headache already has a fix.

Good morning and welcome to the big agent meeting. I'm Ian Wheatley from KGCI Real Estate on air. Big thank you to Russ Lagin for asking me to fill in today because I'm super excited to be here talking with you about what's working right now at ExP Realty. Let's talk about two things that keep agents from growing. Inconsistent systems and inconsistent marketing. If you've ever felt like the days slip away before the real work of the day even gets going, you're not alone. In about 10 minutes, you'll be hearing from Ruben Garcia and Austin Chevron, two of the sharpest minds in the field on why most agents fail and what FastCap can do to change it. And spoiler alert, it's not about working harder. It's about working with a system that moves you forward every single day. Austin and Rubin will be co-teaching an upcoming session of FastCap that begins in just five days. You can register now at the all-new, eXPUniversity.com.

Plus, there is an update to Canva that every agent across EXP now has access to. I'm talking about AI-powered design, data-driven visuals, and a full rework of the listing workflow, all inside a tool you probably already have and haven't even scratched the surface of. And if you've ever said, I'm just not creative. This new Canva update was built for you, specifically for you. And we've got all that plus agent news, compliance clarity, and some actions you can take out in the field. So West Coasters, grab your coffee. East Coasters, it's time to hydrate.

Let's get into today's big agent meeting. All right, let's start with a quick check of the market. Last week, Holly laid it out perfectly for us. We're in a market that's not moving fast, but it is still moving. Inventory stuck at nearly half of all major metros and in the places where homes are available, affordability is still a bit of a problem. We're short over a million homes in the price spans that everyday home buyers actually need. And while there's some relief in the Midwest and the Southeast, you know, we're still lagging out here on the coasts. And interest rates, they're not our friend, but they're not spiking either.

the latest outlooks say that 6% are here to stay. That's not a glitch. That is the baseline. And the Fed's still holding. Inflation's still sticky. And now 3% rates probably not coming back. And as Holly put it, probably not coming back in our entire lifetimes. But there is a little bit of an update and a little bit of a reprieve this week that 90-day truce in the U.S.-China Terra for that is giving an industry.

a bit of a breather. The National Association of Home Builders says that 27% of building materials come from China, and when that supply line tightens, everybody feels it. And maybe the best news, Altos Research says that sales may finally start turning around. We're still about 3% behind from where we were last year, but those May June numbers should start to look a little bit better because last year's comparison point was pretty brutal. But that does mean that if you've had buyers or sellers on the fence, there is an emerging window. The data is flat, but that opportunity is real. So what exactly can I do as an agent with this information? Well, it starts with a couple of things. You know, I started by pulling my current affordability data in my market.

I'm over in Syracuse, New York, and using it in conversations with sellers. So here in Syracuse, New York, we did top NAR's recent Metro report for a whopping 17 percent. appreciation year over a year. So when it comes to selling, you know, we need to be fishing where the fish are and knowing where that buyer pool is deepest does allow at least me as an agent to coach a seller in the range of momentum and not resistance. And this works because sellers do respond to buyer behavior trends. This isn't the market is soft. It's let's price things where people are buying. And there are two other things I'd recommend that you could implement today if you wanted to. Go back into your CRM and tag buyers who paused in Q1 due to rates or affordability

concerns, right? You can send a simple direct text, something along the lines of, hey, there's a bit of breathing room in the market right now. Let me know if you want to take another look before rates or material cost shift again. And that works because it gives a little bit of urgency without pressure. You're leveraging the current pause and tariffs and slight momentum gain. And the other thing that you could be thinking about doing is simply posting a local social media update, a short video, tying job stability to housing opportunity. One of the ways that you could do this is be simply, if you've been holding off on buying because of uncertainty, here's what job growth and unemployment it look like and insert your city here because confidence is local buyer confidence is local it is not

national and when we're talking to real buyers this is why this works they are driven more by job confidence right now than the interest rates so you can shift that conversation from fear to opportunity so hope that helps now beginning thursday austin chevron and ruben garcia are their industry powerhouse expertise to FastCap. FastCap is a game-changing six-week program from ExP University that brings a true path for EXP Realty agents to, as CEO Leo Perea says, build whatever size dream they want. But what gets in the way of a new agent? Why do they fail? Let's kick it over now to Austin and Ruben. Hey everybody, Austin Chevron here with my buddy Ruben Garcia. Rubin, what are we doing here today? up everybody. So we're going to talk a little bit about what we have found that have agents struggling

when they first enter the business and what might be the solution. Now, we're coming to you here because we are the new takeover host for Fast Cap starting on May 28th. I believe it's already at least halfway full is what I've heard. So make sure to get in there. If not, Rubin, you want to give us a little bit of background on you? Yeah. So I'll just say real quick, Ruba Garcia. We do something called Real Estate CIA. So we do coaching or consulting. We do investing in real estate, short-term rentals, mid-term rentals, long-term rentals, and the agent side of the business.

So we're active. My wife and I are a team here at EXP, and we sell real estate. And we've been doing this for about 10 years. So it's been a lot of fun. Rubin, did you get an award last year that I remember? I did. I did. Yeah.

So I got the EXP or a certified mentor of the year award. So that was pretty cool. Thank you, EXPU and everyone who is involved. Love it, love it. Guys, if you're thinking about getting into Fast Cap and committing, you want to be trained by this guy. He got the award for training people like you. Let's go.

Let's go. What I'm looking for here? So quick, quick background on myself. A lot of you guys know me, Austin Chevron. I've been with EXP now for almost six years that's been working on. Amazing time. I led the last Fast Cap takeover series. and I just want to let you know, like, it was amazing.

Okay? If you are serious about moving your life and your business, get in there. I have over 35 years of experience. I know I'm only 41 years old. Some of you saying, how does he have 35 years? Because my father was a real estate agent. I grew up in it. I've been licensed for 20 years.

I've been at the bottom of the barrel and I've been at the top of it. And me and Rubin have 19 hours of showing you and teaching you, not only the fast cap material, but how we put that into our lives and the reality of it. So make sure you get in there. Like I said, I know there's still time. Last we checked, it was a little over half full. Ruben, let's go into why do most new agents fail? Yeah, so, you know, there's many reasons, I would say, but I think three solid ones,

at least that I've been thinking about for the last few days when we got this, which is number one, a community of accountability, a community of accountability. I think that sometimes agents put themselves in situations where they are very comfortable. And yes, they might have cheerleaders around them. You got this. You could do this. But what does it look like for you to share what your true Northern Star is, your true why? And people hold you accountable to the activities you have to do in order to accomplish that.

And when you have a community of those people, it gets very, very powerful. And would you say that FastCat might be a community of that? Oh, buddy. Yeah, it definitely. is. There's some of that A word going on there. Now, people say they want accountability, Rubin. What do you see when they say it and then you give it to them? What is their normal reaction then? Pain, pain. But, you know, what's that quote? It's a, you'll move faster away from pain than you will towards pleasure. And it's supposed to be painful. So if you feel a little, you know, a little nagging poke at you in turn, and we'll call it accountability, the

pain is supposed to be there. It's supposed to be a little uncomfortable, but you're fighting for something bigger. That's why we call it a Northern Star, right? It's the guide for why you're even doing this. So yeah, it's painful, but it's a good pain. It's a good pain. Yeah, Ruben, you remember when we were running through my last Fast Cap, you remember my little piece of paper I had everybody ride on? Like, we'll help you find your Northern Star and why you're here because 19 hours with me and Rubin, I'm telling you, that's a commitment. That is 100% a commitment. And we're going to be going at you hard.

That's what we're here to do. Yes. For me, Rubin, what I found, you know, being licensed now for 20 years and then around it for 35, the reason I think most new agents fail is they don't realize that they're running a business from the start. Because they're normally coming out of a job in which they always got paid. They were told what to do. They probably wanted more than the two F words. What's the two F words in real estate?

people get in for? You know? Freedom and finances? Flexibility. They think that they get the finances. So that's the funny part. But everybody gets in for freedom and flexibility. But what they don't realize in the beginning is that they're running their own business and they're in charge of themselves now. Now they figure it out in time. And unfortunately, a lot of times it's when the money is out. There's no more money. All the investments been made in your business. And now I'm out of money. and what do I do? I got to go get a job. Yeah. Which causes the failure.

So the quicker that somebody can understand that, the running a business and seeing the pieces like, how do I even do this? What are the things I need to look at? What do I need to be doing? And how do I know that being busy and being productive are two different things? That's right. Yeah, I totally agree. You know, I was talking to someone and I told them that getting into real estate is definitely

a double-edged sword. You know, you now have time and you're starting to scale time back into your life. And but that could also hinder a lot of people because they start to kick their feet up and like, well, now it's my time and I can do what I want. And they really have to be very intentional with the time that has now been given to them through real estate, you know. And that's literally one of the things I wrote down as well slash time management and managing that time and focusing on your 20% will get into all this stuff, the 8 to 20,

but creating the business and servicing the business, both of those have the word business in it. And you have to treat it like a business from day one. But the good thing is, we may be teaching you a little bit about that within this fast cap. So we might got you on that. What's funny, Rubin, my number two reason I wrote down why most new agents fail is they have the wrong focus. And the focus is their time. And I've always, what I've learned now, it's lead generation and education. you need to be focused on lead generation and education.

You'll learn how to write a contract in time. Trust me, when it's time to write a contract, you'll learn how to write a contract. And don't get me wrong. You've got to figure that out too. But if you're only figuring out how to write a contract and you're thinking that you're productive by doing it, you don't have anybody to do it for.

You're just practicing until you go broke. Yeah. And so lead generation, how do we keep on the forefront? That's one of the things I loved about Fast Cap. It is getting you moving. And so how do we feel? focus on lead generation, constantly moving your business, you're in charge, and then education. And then what is the education that I need for where I'm going? And so what I found is most new agents,

they don't know where to focus. And because we don't have the right focus, the wave then comes and really just sucks us under and takes us down and good people, good intentions, wrong focus. Yeah. And you're going to have waves in real estate guys. But we, you know, we have. have floaties, you know, we've got the floaties for you. So that way it doesn't drown you, but that's literally the third thing that I wrote down was leads and where to get them. And I was told two things a long time ago. One, we're not in the real estate business. We're in the lead generation business, which I believe we're tie with any business out there. So yes, lead generation is going to be a big, big conversation. The second thing is this

business probably ties into all businesses as well, which is you create business and your service business. That's really the two things to this. And you know, with the education piece, we're going to talk about not only creating business, but what does that look like? What do you say? Where do you get your leads? And then you got this one, which is service business, which is what do you say? How do you service these people to a high level? And the good thing is, we're not just going to be talking at you the whole time. We have a community. So people are going to be sharing some of their experiences in both of those categories throughout FastCap. that you could pull out and roll into your own business as well.

But I agree, lead generation's huge, and we might be covering that as well. I think right now we've heard, if you're coming into FastCap here, get ready to increase your lead generation. So I think our average stats right now, and I don't have the numbers memorized, but I'm pretty sure over this six-week course and training piece here, you're going to get on average our fast cappers who have completed, I think are averaging seven appointments and three contracts during this period. I mean, if you think that would help your business, come in, come hang out with me and Rubin.

It's going to happen. Like, that's the average, by the way. Yeah. So one last piece here on my end that I was thinking through is, you know, going back to, why do most new agents fail? And I can say this, out of the 1,200 agents we had in the last one. session, last takeover. There was, the majority were new, but there were some intermediate.

I mean, you were there, Rubin, you're not new. And there were some intermediate. And then there were some advanced agents. And when I say advanced, I mean, I was getting feedback from people 30 years in the business, doing 20, 30 million dollars in sales. And so I'm going to give this advice, not just for new agents, but for anybody coming in. Why most real estate agents fail is they fail, to balance the three main components, life, business, and financials. So real estate, what I really love is when I work with someone who's like, I'm great at

real estate. I'm like, well, how's your life? And they're like, horrible. And I'm like, can we fix that, please? Like, what's the point? You know, so, so if you want to do well, let's understand how the business supports the lifestyle. I heard Glenn Sanford say once when we were in Nashville.

He said, and he was quoting Don Hobbs, he said, the purpose of a business, it's to support the lifestyle of the business owner. So if you're going to be in this business, if you're brand new, if you're five, 10 years in, my question to you is, how does your business support your lifestyle?

And are you even focused on that? Are you getting that right? And then the last piece is, are you managing your financials? You know, how well are you doing with understanding the money going out and the money coming in? And making sure the money going out is serving you

and you didn't just buy things with the shiny object syndrome, most of us real estate agents have. So, Rubin, you got anything you want to end us with here? Well, I agree with everything you're saying. And, you know, that's why we wanted to do this video too, is to not only make this announcement, but also start getting into your head some of these very important factors. We truly wish that you're going to be there.

But even if you're not going to be there for whatever, reason you've heard some really good nuggets that you could take away and start implementing right now but for everyone who is coming just imagine how deep we're going to get in on all these subjects because again yes we're going to be the the instructor facilitator but there's going to be so many more people in there going through the same thing that you are that we get to lean on each other and help each other through this thing so we're excited to do this man um i know you're very excited i'm very excited so you all better show up excited too because we're going to feed off your energy and we're just going to make this thing one of the best fast caps that's ever been. Rubin, what day do we kick off again?

In my mind, it's next Wednesday. Next Wednesday we're kicking off. So get in, get registered. Let's go. This thing will fill it filled up last time. And I can't tell you how many people came back saying, hey, can I get in? It's like, what you already knew about this was been here. Like now's the time. Or is it another time after this with me and Rubin coming in? This is it. So if you're considering it, come in, commit, invest 19 hours with me and Rubin. I promise you there is no way it won't be a great investment of your time. That's right.

And if you got anything from this, please share this video, at least one to two things that you've learned from this video. And we look forward to seeing that. That was some absolute fire from Austin and Rubin just now. And Ruben Garcia, friendly reminder, he is one of our hosts. over streaming on KGCI real estate on air. And every Tuesday on KGCI real estate on air, I do a show called Real Estate on Air Live. I'd recommend you check that out, real estate onair.fm.

And one of the things that I do every week is I chat with one of our hosts and share some of my top takeaways from that conversation. So I thought I'd do the same thing right here on today's big agent meeting. So new agents, you're going to want to lean into this. Mentors, this ought to be a refresher. Number one, lack of accountability is lack of action. new agents fail when they don't have a structure or a community that helps hold them accountable. And FastCap builds a community of accountability around the agent's true north.

Number two, time freedom, we're honest about it, is a double-edged shored, right? Real estate gives agents time flexibility. But without intentional time management, that freedom becomes inaction. FastCap instills a discipline schedule and planning habit from the jump. Number three, most agents don't realize that they're business owners. You know, new agents often treat real estate like a job, not a business, and FastCap helps to reframe that immediately. You're the CEO.

Now go own it. Number four, wrong focus equals good agents who still fail. Many agents focus on contracts, branding, or getting ready, not lead generation in education. FastCap redirects that focus immediately into, the actions that will truly drive success. And last but at least at number five, real results, not just training.

Fast Cap grads are averaging seven appointments and three contracts in six weeks. It's not just inspiration. It is action and conversation. And Rubin and Austin, they laid it out perfectly that most agents don't fail because they're lazy. They fail because they're unstructured. And that's what Fast Cap aims to fix.

Alyssa Speck is one of EXP university's top trainers. You've seen her many times on other university trainings, including other fast cap sessions. Alyssa, thanks for popping by today to the big agent meeting. Well, Rubin and Austin, they laid it out perfectly for us that most agents don't fail because they're lazy. They fail because they're unstructured. And that's what fast cap is aiming to fix. Alyssa Speck is one of EXP university's top trainers. You've seen her many times across many other university trainings.

including other fast cap sessions. Alyssa, thanks for popping by the big agent meeting today. Oh, thank you for having me. All pleasure is always ours. Now, you've worked with hundreds, if not thousands, of agents at EXPU at this point. When you heard Rubin and Austin talking about time management and accountability, does that track with what you see in FastCap?

Yeah, I couldn't agree more with everything that Austin and Rubin were saying, because, yeah, like you said, we were saying, Yeah, like you said, we worked with thousands of agents through EXPU, and I can tell you firsthand, it's it's not lack of hustle. It's lack of structure. So most agents, they are, they're trying really hard, but they're waking up every day saying, all right, well, what should I do today? Instead of saying, I know exactly what to do today. So that's where Fast Cap, that's where the change comes in. So we're going to take the guesswork out of it. You don't have to wonder what to focus on, because we're going to give you the plan.

You show up, you take action, and we track your results in real time. Because when you combine structure with intention, with accountability, that's when things really start moving. That's awesome. Now, FastCap, it is more than just training. It's training with motion. The real call counts, real appointments, real contacts. Alyssa, what makes FastCap different from a self-paced course or even like a great

workshop what is truly unique about how fast cap moves agents forward what's really unique is what i think is we actually don't need more videos to just watch and ingest what we need as agents is we need momentum fast cap is is training that actually gets you moving you're making calls you're having those real talks those conversations you're following up you're running cms you're doing the things that actually generate business. You're not just talking about them. And we start tracking those results. And what we're saying is that we're not coming to you saying,

well, I think maybe this will help. We're saying agents who complete fast cap, do their DPAs, they close deals, period. This is all about building confidence through that action because the confidence, it doesn't come from watching someone else succeed. It comes from doing the thing yourself. That's awesome. That is truly awesome.

Now, it's not just new agents that need structure. You know, we heard in that segment with Austin and Rubin that they have 30-year veterans joining FastCAP and still getting value. This is about rebuilding discipline, as much it is about getting started. So, Alyssa, as you see agents at every stage of their journey, why do you think FastCap works for that brand new agent and those that have just simply hit a production plateau? I love this question because this is such a good reminder. that discipline is not just a beginner problem. We've got agents who are coming in FastCap, who've been in the business almost as long as I've been alive, Ian,

and they tell us this is exactly what I needed to get back on track. So it's not about starting over for these agents. It's about rebuilding that rhythm, rebuilding that discipline, rebuilding that clarity. Because the truth is here is that, you know, maybe when the market shifts, your pipeline dries up for whatever reason you hit a plateau what brings you back it's its structure its support it's recommitment to those basics and fast cap is the place to come home to that now we

are just a few days away from the next fast cap kick off and it's filling up fast elisa if an agent was on the fence about joining maybe they're afraid that they don't have the time what would you say to them Okay, if that's you right now, here's what I would say. If you are afraid that you don't have the time for fast cap, it probably means that you really need fast cap. So this guys, this isn't about just adding more to your plate. It's about giving you a system to make what you're already doing actually start paying off. You're already spending time on your business. So let's make sure that you're doing the right things and making sure that you're doing the right things, consistently and tracking all of those.

Fast cap is going to save you time because you're not spinning your reels anymore. Now you're focused, you're in motion, you're surrounded by people who are doing the work right alongside of you. So if you are on the fence, please jump in. This might be the thing that helps you actually break. There's truly strength in numbers. Coming up on your screen right now is a QR code. You can scan that. It's going to bring you over to the registration page for,

Fast Cap. It starts next week, hosted by and coached by Ruben Garcia, Austin Chevron, two names that have been a part of EXP University for a while. Ruben Garcia, as you heard mentioned in that video, he was last year's certified mentor of the year for EXP Realty. That's a, that's a pretty big deal. Those are some pretty big names. Austin's gone through and has also trained in a previous fast cap session just a really just a just a few feels like just a few weeks ago so you've got you've got two individuals who are going to be there walking walking right with the walk in the path right beside you and it's going to be a great opportunity scan the QR code get that business reset that you're looking for and now elissa expe university is more than just

fast cap what else is going on in the wild world of expe you well thank you for asking and buckle up because we have got so many good things happening right now at EXP University. If you have not tapped in yet, this is your moment. We have got a full lineup every single week. There's going to be something for everyone, whether you are a brand new agent, you're building a team, you're scaling. We've got something for every one of you. So kicking off on Monday, we have level up. So you're going to start your week strong with one of my favorite session. And this week, we've got Ryan Gomelion, who's absolutely crushing it using Instagram and YouTube to attract clients. So he's going to break down how to go from maybe a little bit camera shy to

to a little bit confident. He's going to also break down what to post and when. So you're going to get some mindset. You're going to get some strategy and then some real life tips from someone who's actually doing the work. So make sure you tune in to level up on Monday. Then on Wednesday, If you are still on the fence about FastCap, we are going to have Austin and Rubin back to talk about all things FastCap and get you over, get you signed up into that session. So tune in for Wednesday. But then on Thursday, we're still not done yet. We have got one of my favorite sessions. It's the executive masterclass.

Guys, this is where the big thinking happens. This week, we have the wonderful Mr. Russ Leggan, who is leading a mastermind. about attraction through production. So he's going to walk you through how to build a business that's actually worth following and how to use your production as your biggest recruiting tool. Then after that, I'm going to just tune in for next Friday. We're back here on the big agent meeting. We always know this one's fire.

And next week we've got Renee Funk, who is one of the most dialed-in communicators that I know. She's an amazing team leader. and she's going to be talking about leading with connection and communicating with clarity. So guys, you are not going to want to miss this. She's going to give you mindset. She's going to give you scripts and systems and dropping a lot of good stuff for you. But then we're still not done. Friday, we're coming back with the lab.

So, well, this session is so interesting and so impactful. And this week on the lab, we're going to have Nikki Miller. So she's a real estate coach and a CEO of Lever. And she's breaking down on how to convert leads with systems, how to build a database that actually works. And guys, this is one of those sessions where you're going to want to lean in. You're going to want to listen, especially if you're a solo agent or leading a small but growing team. We've got something for all of you. And we're still not done yet.

One of the things I'm, no, not yet. What I'm most excited about here. Exactly. And here it is. we have a brand new website. We've been cooking some things up behind the scenes. And when I say it's a new website, this is not just a new layout. This is a full-on evolution of how you can grow at EXP.

The new EXP University website is training at every single level, whether you're a new agent, you're a capper, you're an icon. We have tailored training paths that are going to take you exactly where you want to go. And it's fully searchable content so you can get, you can find what you need in seconds here. It is mobile, mobile friendly, it's 24-7 access. You can train anytime, anywhere. So make sure that you tune in because, guys, this site is, our goal here is to support your productivity, to support your agent's attraction, to support you on your next level of leadership.

And check out, it's expeuniversity.com, dive in. It's pretty amazing. That sounds incredible. And a little rumor that you can listen to KGCI Real Estate on air is nearly 2000 on-demand podcasts on that beautiful brand new EXP University website. You sure can. I told you we have everything there. That's awesome. That's awesome. How do we get there? What's the website? It is expeuniversity.com. Oh, very simple. Also scan the QR code coming up on your screen right now. You can get there. Alyssa, thanks for popping by the big agent meeting today. Thanks for having me.

Well, I know I may be a little biased because it is where you can find the podcast from KGCI Real Estate on Air, but the benefit of the new content and training search for EXP University's new website is absolutely incredible. Never before have you been able to from one place call up all of the industry tested solutions that EXP University provides to agents at no cost. And what does Tony King say about real estate on air? It's free 99? Yeah. Well, this This is to eXB University.com. Hey, are you thinking about updating to a different CRM? It's becoming an option.

If you are thinking about Lofty, we are going to have an exclusive look coming up on the big agent meeting in about eight minutes. Now, we did start today's big agent meeting talking about the inconsistent systems. Now, let's talk about some of that inconsistent marketing, because let's be real. Creating marketing materials is still one of the biggest time wasters in real estate. flyers, social posts, open house signs, websites, CRMs, and half the time, we're building them in six different places and in six different programs that never talk to each other. Now, this week, Canva has rolled out a massive upgrade that solves all of that.

And as an EXP agent, you already have access. Joining me as EXP Realty's Director of Marketing Operations, Lynn Miller, and I have learned more about Canva watching Lynn Miller's training for EXB Realty agents than I'd care to admit. So I figured who better to talk about it than our own resident expert about how agents can actually use the tools that they've got. Lynn, thanks for popping by today to the big agent meeting. Well, let's be real. Creating marketing materials is still one of the biggest time wasters that happens for real estate agents. Flyers, social posts, open house signs, websites, CMAs, And half the time, we're building them in six different programs.

They don't talk to each other. But this week, Canva started rolling out massive upgrades that solve all of that. And as an EXP agent, you're getting access. Joining me is Lynn Miller. And I have learned more about Canva watching her training videos on Canva for all of us exP agents than honestly I'd care to admit. So I figure who better to talk about Canva than our own resident expert about how agents can actually use these tools that they've got. So Lynn, thanks for popping by today to the big agent meeting.

Yeah, hi. Thanks, Ian. Thanks for having me. Yes, this week, Canva officially is rolling out some really incredible features to our enterprise account. And those main features are Visual Suite 2.0, which means that now all of your creative design assets, you don't have to have a separate file for your fly. or a separate file for your postcards and for your social media posts, for example, you can have those all bundled into one file. So you can imagine the efficiencies when it comes to a listing.

You can have all of your promotional listing materials in one file. Events, for example, you can have all your different components in one file. So that really just revolutionizes the way that you stay organized and the way that you create. And we're really super excited about that one. There's also canvas sheets. So we know Google Sheets, we know Excel. This is Canva Sheets, which just takes it up a notch visually and also integrates to produce some really incredible data visualization.

So think of putting in your data and it outputs your really nice pie chart, for example. So that's in partnership with a company called Flourish and that's all available directly within our platform within Canva to start outputting some really beautiful visualizations on your metrics. There's also Canva AI. So we've seen some of the AI stuff already. when it comes to Magic Studio. And now we're talking about Magic Studio at scale. So that means that in, you know, using Canvas sheets in conjunction with some of the AI functionality, you can now bulk create, for example, content at scale. So if you have multiple different components that you want to

change something slightly across all of them, you can control that from a spreadsheet, from your Canvas sheet and, you know, push it over to your creative with the click of a button. So just thinking about how you can produce more without the manual changes across each file is quite amazing. That's Magic Studio at scale. And just AI in general, I mean the enhancements that we're seeing when it comes to code, like Canva code is something new. Vibe coding is all the rage right now. This is a really incredible tool that you have access to directly in the platform. And just AI in general with image generation, you know, you can prompt to create your marketing

materials. You can prompt and say, I want to create a listing post. These are the, this is the information, and it will do that for you directly in Canva and then be editable from there. So those are some really incredible, you know, enhancements that we're seeing. It is truly incredible. You know, and I'm thinking of, I have just flashes of agents objections kind of popping into my head right now. One of them is, you know, I don't have time to figure it out. I'm not all that creative. I just end up going back to my same old templates anyway. So Lynn, when you hear those three things, let's start to dismantle them. How are these new tools that are rolling out across Canva Enterprise going to solve those objections and those legitimate problems that our agents deal with on a daily

basis? Yeah, I would say, I mean, the new features for sure are going to enhance the speed at which you can create. But Canva Enterprise, to begin with, it has that stuff there for you. We've got a ton of brand templates. Canva offers literally hundreds of thousands of templates to choose from and customize to your own branding needs. So you never should feel locked in a box or I feel like you have to start from scratch. Like, no, never start from scratch. Use what's being provided in the platform and customize from there. We've got our EXP listings app, which allows MLS integration. So all of your listing information is directly in the platform where you can pull your photos over, your listing description, et cetera. So it really makes creating your content.

very quick. We recently did a training where it was producing four different listing promotional materials. And we did it, I think, in like 20 minutes. That included a website, a listing brochure, a flyer, and your social media. So it's quick to do it. Just utilize the templates available. That is, that is wild. I'm 20 minutes? 20 minutes? Yeah. That is incredible. That is absolutely incredible. Now, you know, I know agents still think that they do need to design something. I guess the Canvas AI, how does that help with like creative blocks or blank canvas syndrome? Yeah, I mean, it just solves that for you, right? You don't ever have to think about a potential color scheme or what the layout should look like. If you input what you're looking

for, it will give you, you know, multiple recommendations for you to choose your favorite and go from there. So you always at least have a starting point if you start with a prompt, and then you can always tailor it to your needs from there. You know, and I think also think about agents wasting time, jumping in between different platforms, that's what Visual Suite 2.0 solves it. So how does it, how does it do it? Do we know? I don't know. I don't really know. It allows you to have all the different components of Canva in one file. So, you know, we're talking about sheets, for example, Canva also has docs similar to a Google doc. So the way we're using it on the marketing team, for example,

is we may see a project brief, which is a dock in one. And then you're seeing your sheet, which is powering your, you know, your at-scale content. And then you've got your websites, you're this, you're that, all in one location. So just from an organization standpoint, it's like cleaning everything up and keeping it all nice and nice and tidy. Now let's bring it home. Every agent across EXP already has access to Canva Premium, including all of these new features that we just talked about.

For those that that's maybe new information for them, how can they get started? Yeah, I would start by going to exPtoolkit.com slash Canva. That gives you all the details of how to gain access through Octa using your EXP email address. and it has, you know, training, training exercises and links to our most popular templates and different training things that are upcoming because we do continuously put some of those out. So that's where I would start, exPtoolkit.com slash canva. That's awesome.

Lynn, thanks for popping by today to the Big Agent Meeting. If you're listening over on KGCI, Real Estate on air right now, that would be ExPToolkit.com And friendly reminder that each week, the Big Agent meeting is streaming over on KGSI. I see I real estate on air. And coming up right after today's big agent meeting, we will be spending our weekly Friday focus on short form video. We're talking reels, TikTok shorts and the tools that you can use to elevate your real estate game if you know how to use them. Now, do you golf? I like to think that I can golf. Did you happen to watch last weekend's PGA championship? Rory Mouton, in case he didn't, Roy McElroy, he's a golfer. He's a professional golfer, a very good one. He was coming off a win at the Masters tournament. And he was the statistical favorite heading into last weekend's BGA championship. Because Quail Allo, that's where they played the championship. At his course, he is dominated there many times before.

But just before the tournament, there was a routine equipment check that revealed that his driver, his trusted go-to driver, was too worn down and no longer compliant to be played with. So he had to switch over to a backup. And the result was he didn't win. He didn't even content. He tied for 47. And of course, in my own round of golf earlier this week, this is all I heard about. And this was a charity event.

And I'm not going to enact the charity. I will not discuss how the folks I was playing with played. But here's the thing. Even with the best tools, if that rhythm is off and if the adjustment isn't made, performance can slip. And honestly, that can be agents on social media. We have access to the tools, the CRM, the content, the camera. maybe we even have the self-confidence to be in front of the camera. But if you're not adapting,

if you're not actually using the tools properly to tell your story, show your value, and stay consistent, you're not winning the tournament. You're just showing up. So today, before we dive into that Friday focus, I will be talking with Haley McCrory, co-host the Realtor Hacks Tips and Trick podcast, and she's not just creating content.

She is closing more deals through short form video and social media than some top producers around the country do all year. So as we unpack what works in short form strategy, just remember it's not about having the tool. It's about using it on purpose. So if you want to sync that ace, open up the app store on your iPhone or Google Play on your Android and search KGCI. You will find our always free KGCI real estate on air mobile app. You can also scan it over here if you're watching on the big agent meeting because this is your constant companion to real world real estate business building strategies anytime,

anywhere, even in your car, integrates beautifully with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. But thousands of agents are using KGCI Real Estate on Air each and every week. And this is the best way to do it. So scan the code and be sure to pop over after we wrap up today's big agent meeting to KGCI Real Estate on Air. Now, what's happening next is very exciting. If you've listened to me on Real Estate on air live on Tuesdays, you already know that I die on the hill that effective CRM and effective use of a CRM is like the one thing that an agent can do to improve their business.

It is what I consider the silver bullet. Now, Lofty's award-winning platform is specifically designed for real estate agents combining IDX websites, lead generation, marketing automation, advanced lead management, and powerful AI. to cost effectively capture and convert leads into new businesses. And if you are looking for a CRM upgrade, this is one that is available to you as an EXP agent. But why should you? Let's find out. Hi, Adam.

This is Brian Hoyleman, the chief strategy officer for Lofty, and we're here introducing and talking a little tips, tricks, and some problem solution-based stuff for what Lofty could do in the space. Again, we have Adam Gillespie here. He's a team. He works a lot with EXP and is an agent with the XP. We're going to go through real quick here. We've got 10 minutes.

We're going to make it count. So, Grant, let's get started. So I often get in 15 years of doing this with the XP agents, what are the problems that universal problems? And there's a bajillion of them, right? Adam, we could go through every day agents have a problem, right? And there's always a tech stack like the golf industry. It's a fancy tea that's going to help you, right? something else.

We always, you know, it's kind of like the merry-go-round of tech stacks. So one thing I like to talk to agents about a problem that I see that is kind of pervasive is one is that every agent 80% have websites. In recent study, 65% say they've never gotten a lead. So you have a website, but you don't get leads. And then about 90, maybe even 100% of agents have some sort of CRM, something. yet 90% of those agents or whatever they say, they don't have any way of generating leads with their, quote, CRM.

I see this as a problem. And so for everybody here, you know, if these things are happening with like a lofty tech stack and maybe other tech stacks that are out there, you use Lofty, and I'm obviously here at Lofty, what do you see in the Lofty system with our full marketing system that's helped you think about going beyond those two problems that most agents listening probably run into.

Right. Yeah. Like, well, most CRMs either don't have a forward-facing website on them in the first place. So they end up just being a storage for leads, right? Whereas Lofty's an all-in-one suite. So we've got our website. Not only do we have a website, but it's a beautifully designed website that's designed for lead generation. Right. And then having that integrated inside of the CRM changes that whole platform from being just a place to park some leads to an actual lead generation system.

that's integrated with proper automations, AI, and nurturing that we can actually nurture our clients in a more personalized fashion than just trying to force them off the fence. So I love Lofty in that aspect because it's really the one CRM out of the millions that I've been on, well, not millions, but I've been on a lot of the CRMs. And this is the one that I feel is the best for real estate agents because of all the integrations on it. Like most of us will have a WordPress website or something like that. And then you got to plug in your IDX. You got to do all of this other stuff to make it work. Whereas inside the lofty platform, I mean, we're sending out automatic market updates, automatic property alerts. I got the IDX

connection. The website is way prettier than Zillow or our MLSs or Realtor.com. So I'm able to get a lot of my clients to actually buy into the ecosystem with me. And this is where a lot of my lead conversion takes place is throughout the journey that I can take them on inside of Lofty. Absolutely. So you think of it as it's kind of like it's a restaurant and it's a business in a box. It's a restaurant. You can have the best food, the best equipment, the best everything. You can give the best. But if you don't get people to your restaurant, you got to have traffic. You got to have lead capture tools. You can't just have a CRM. And so the cost of going out and buying these custom websites, the cost of doing that,

everybody listening in is you want a complete story and not just a complete, a complete sentence. You want to have this traffic programs, website programs, SEO programs, full on front end, mobile app. You want to be the portal lifetime value is really critical for your customer base. So they stay in your living ecosystem. To do that, you need front facing end to end, but you also need to be able to have all those marketing and Google and traffic.

So there's no reason to leave Lofty to run your business on traffic and lead gen. So there's no secret sauce out there. So for people looking in one of the problems we saw in Adam, thank you. By the way, Adam doesn't work for Lofty. Adam is an ex-P agent, team leader and an influencer. So just he just, so just so you guys know. I just love the second thing we caught. The second best practices and strategies for maximizing

lofty CRM and AI feature, you know, I'll just say one of the things that we get caught up in and it's a problem, but inside of a system, you don't have the power. Like I talked to somebody yesterday builds his own AI. Everybody on this call 99.9% it's not going to just build their AI. It has to be something that they don't have to think about or touch. And so what I like to talk about my best practices is I tell agents, you have to learn the simplest way to learn is to put yourself in as a lead. Pretend you want to market to yourself, advertise yourself.

What are the things you like to do? What do you put yourself in? Put yourself on alerts. Have the AI. Play with it. My tip is to basically market to yourself as though you are the consumer and follow up with yourself. and it's amazing how cool the lofty journey is from search to settlement, put yourself. So my tip is pretend you're the consumer, put yourself in and use it to find yourself,

and you'll get more leads, more prospects, and it'll make it easier to learn. What would be a good tip for you? Yeah, I mean, obviously like where you're saying there, you're best at selling to the way you want to be sold to, right? So putting yourself in the CRM like that is a great, great start to understanding the inner workings of the lofty CRM, which is. really, really user-friendly. So I think some of the biggest things that I liked for my best practices is I've developed a set of standard operating procedures. So every time a lead comes in,

whether it's generated for my website, a Facebook ad, whatever, it comes into the system. And because of Lofty's tech forward thinking and their planning in the business, I've got all those systems automated. So I basically have, like I said, a set of standard operating procedures for every lead that comes in the system. And then that's sent off on an individual automation for each lead source. And it's way better for the customer experience because unlike a lot of the out-of-the-box strip campaigns and plans that you'll see on other CRMs, my leads come in and the correspondence that goes out to those leads is in conjunction with exactly how they signed up to my website

or how they came in through my lead generation source. And I love that. And everybody's going, well, man, I don't know how to build it. But there's all kinds of campaigns. There's tutorials. There's guys like Adam in the world. we all have influencers, but the thing is you don't have to reinvent. You could just feed it leads with the lead gen services and the system is still automated,

but you can also customize your niches. And so one of the one of the next last question, and you know, because it's, you know, short time here, I really like success, actual planning. Like what is a success story you have and I've had? And so once I have two success stories that I, this is specifically for EXP, right? is I was at a conference and recently last year, EXP agent comes up to me and asks me, hey, help me make some money.

And again, saying this whole talk track is I said, what do you like to do? You like to do. And she says, well, I'm, you know, I'm da, da, da, da. And I said, well, here, just join a bunch of fan groups related. She was a football fan. She was a Raiders fan.

Join a bunch of fan groups for the Raiders and join all their groups. And talk about moving to Vegas. and she happened to be from Vegas, talk about what it's like to be a fan and a real estate agent, da, da, da, da, da, post a video with you on a landing page about that. And she did. She got 150 leads because they're just people.

Right. And she got an opportunity to show a home within a week. So that's a success story. Yesterday, I talked to an expe agent that's in probate. And she's like, how do I build a probate funnel? I said, you could do that right in lofty. You can have an attorney as a part. partner. You could create content to have those pro have a probate dual will and trust and have it's

all about those sales are recession proof by the hundreds case you happen to be in Florida. What would be a, you know, that could all be built out with lofty easily. You don't have to go and find a trick out there. Everything's here. That could be overwhelming. So start small, connect to your niche, your people, your personal business. What would be a great tip for you? Yeah, 100%. I've actually niched down inside. of Lofty for every single type of lead source that I generate, right? Whether it's first time homebuyers, downsizers, upsizers, whatever it may be. I have a personalized tailored approach that's set up in the automations inside of Lofty. So like take for instance last year, I, without having

to do any of the manual emailing or texting myself in my in my lofty, I sent 91,155 emails with a 38.17 percent open rate. Out of that, all of that nurturing was only to about 1,400 agents. So I'm having massive amounts of value add inside those automations. I'm educating and informing people versus trying to push them over the fence. And what happens is I just keep stacking my pipeline in there, and these leads continuously drip out. So it's not uncommon for me to have a lead that converts two to three years down the road from when they landed in my system based on that automation and approach that I take through Lofty. And last year I made over $150,000 in GCI on just the lofty platform itself based on those

automations. So it took very little time. I mean, you have your initial setup. But once you set it up, it's off and running. And all you have to worry about is updates. And that nurturing and all of that education and that rapport building takes care of itself on the email and tech side while you only have to focus on calls and relationships. So let's sum it up and a couple things here.

And for everybody listening here, a lot of what we just said, you can't just do with the CRM buy itself because it's not consumer facing. It has to be all consumer searched settlement. And one thing I'll emphasize is we're talking niches. We're talking lifetime value. One of the mistakes that we've made in real estate as a parting gesture to everybody here is that this is a relationship building endeavor. It means that you have a lifetime value. And if you have 10,000, 5,000, you know, it's great that you have 80 people in your sphere that bring you your business, you're ignoring 5, 6, 7,000 people that are transacting. By creating those funnels in a way, we all call it click funneling,

and having an automated system, you're able to build influencers within your own ecosystem and it's basically on autopilot. And so the theme of this whole call and the beauty of this is use Lofty or use systems like Lofty. I don't want to just be all about Lofty. I am. I am.

Yeah, yeah. I'm just trying to use lofty. Use lofty as a, you have to feed it. It's a feeding. You feed it people. You feed the people into the system and you grow a farm. You grow a business. You grow your ecosystem.

It is about growing data, fruit, apple trees. As an industry, we've thought, oh, we just buy a lead, pick it on the tree because I don't want to do business because it's too hard. This is the easy button. So for everybody here, it's easy. pick a piece of fruit. It's my favorite part about Lofty, man. It's so complex, but yet it's so user-friendly. There's no other CRM out there like it that I've used, and I've been through all of them.

I've been on KV Core. I've been on Boomtown. I've been on all of that, which, you know, obviously they've merged together. But it's still nothing compared to what we have here at Lofty. So if you're thinking about jumping into Lofty and you ever have any questions, you guys hit me up on YouTube. I train agents all the time on Lofty. It's one of the easiest systems you'll ever adopt.

and it will be the biggest ROI in your entire business. Your database is the lifeblood of your business. So let's get off the spreadsheets and let's get on to an AI forward business like Lofty and absolutely scale our business. Thanks Adam, I really appreciate me. We went over five couple minutes. Thank you. Have a good one.

Bye. Wow, that is some incredible value there from Lofty. And it did get me thinking a little bit. How many problems do we as agents have that are solved by the solutions here at at EXP Realty that we may not even know about. So if you have a problem in your business, I'd encourage you to head over to the ExP Solutions Group over in Workplace or go over to Solutions.exPrealty.com and click through the pages of our Solutions Partners because you may be surprised to learn that the problem with your CRM

or supporting buyers with their utility connections or finding a contractor to help that client of yours get their listing ready may already be solved for you. Knowledge is power and solutions.exbriilty.com is your secret weapon. I'm Ian Wheatley from KGCI, Real Estate on Air. Thank you again to Russ Lagan for letting me sit in the hot seat today. Be gentle with me in your phone. It is a code that lets us know what you thought of this week's big agent meeting. We are always looking to make the show better for all of us as agents.

And the way we can do that is by taking action on what you thought was the good, the bad, and the ugly. For those who want to the big agent meeting right now in the main auditor, of the EXP world. I see you. I want to see some emojis. And don't forget to stick around. Eye Conversations is vexed.