KGCI: Real Estate on Air - The CEO Standard How Great Leaders Drive Results With Accountability with Blake Sloan

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

SummaryThis episode provides a masterclass in leadership, featuring an essential conversation with top-producing real estate team leader Blake Sloan. The discussion goes beyond basic management, revealing the core principles of building a high-performance team rooted in a culture of radical accountability. You'll learn how to set a clear vision, hold your team—and yourself—to a high standard, and create a system that drives predictable results and fuels consistent business growth.Key TakeawaysAccountability as a Leadership Tool: Understand that a leader's job is not to manage people but to manage accountability. The episode highlights how to create a culture where every team member is empowered to take ownership of their results, leading to a more efficient and productive team.The "CEO Standard": Learn how to set the example for your team. Blake emphasizes that a true leader operates with a CEO mindset, which means focusing on the big picture, making data-driven decisions, and demonstrating the level of discipline and work ethic you expect from your team members.Build a High-Performance Team: Discover the key to hiring and retaining top talent. The discussion reveals how to recruit agents who are not just looking for a job but are committed to a high-performance culture, a shared vision, and a relentless pursuit of excellence.Master the One-on-One: Get tactical advice on how to conduct effective one-on-one meetings. The episode provides a blueprint for using these meetings to review key performance indicators (KPIs), address challenges, and provide the coaching and support your team needs to succeed.SEO Keywords/PhrasesBlake SloanReal estate leadershipTeam accountabilityReal estate coachingCEO mindsetCall-to-ActionReady to lead your team to success? Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and start implementing the CEO standard today!

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. Joel and I were chatting as Blake jumped in and we were like, man, like getting people to attend to show up to anything these days is, is a heavy, heavy lift. And Blake was like, yeah, we had six interviews scheduled yesterday and only two people showed up. So it was like, you know, what's happening out there? And, you know, Blake just just love kind of maybe kind of open up that a little bit before we dive in and see if anybody else is going to jump in here with us.

But is it just absolute fear that's paralyzing people? Like what, like what is kind of your perspective, especially the leadership groups and things that you're a part of, like the conversations and the observation that people are having? I've spent a lot of time on this lately. We've been started like recruiting pretty strong in the past, you know, four or five months. And just people I'm talking to, people I've seen, I've been teaching my team. So I think you've seen the marketplace change, right, with resistance, with headwinds, with buyer resistance, where they're much more resistant to actually, you know, take action. So you're seeing this massive resistance in the marketplace from both sellers who are obviously wanting more money than it's worth, right?

They bought a couple years ago and the buyers go a little bit. So you're seeing this massive resistance. And so, in my opinion, I've seen the industry change, but what you're seeing is a lot of agents are refusing to develop personally to be able to overcome a lot of that. And it does bring a lot of fear, a lot of paralysis. And I just can see it in people's eyes. I can hear it in their voice. I can see that where they're not doubling down on personal development right now. They're not pushing through in terms of action where, unfortunately, it takes more phone calls to get more conversations to get more people.

And I'm just seeing that across the board, right, where anybody that was in the business for a little while, who had things in a little bit easier, it's just not keeping up with the change that we're seeing the industry and it's creating that resistance right now. You're just seeing it be very, very, very painful for a lot of people. Yeah, and it is. I mean, it's something that I've seen, you know, just definitely across the country, definitely up in Canada,

just a lot of people. And the ones that are, that have had momentum, that have stayed consistent with something, and really even more so the deep dive in the personal development. They haven't stopped reading. They haven't stopped doing the daily things within their control, the ones that are navigating through it. Even if it is rough, right?

It is a lot of white water. It's, you know, buckle up for sure. I was kind of poked my head in, obviously hanging out here in Matt and DJ's office here in Pittsburgh. And they were on, you know, they're a part of place. So they have a Monday call. I was here Monday afternoon. and I kind of stuck my head into DJ's office and kind of listened for a second and that he came out and talked to me.

But Ben, so being a part of place, they have that Monday call with Ben Kinney and Ben, Ben basically said, listen, y'all buckle up. He said, just buckle up. It's going to be a ride the rest of this year. But Blake, brother, I appreciate you, you know, jumping in here and, you know, kind of diving into this month's topic and really around what, there's really nobody that I look up to that's, I believe, navigating and leading at the level that you have been. And I want to take us back a little bit. I know Kev and Renee and Joel for sure have heard

the story. And we were trying to escape what was happening in 20. And I remember, you and I ended up in Key West. I remember it vividly to even this day. The conversation we were just kind of killing some time before we took off that last day we were there. And we were sitting over at our little hideout that have the big old buckets and conversation you and I you know had asked you I said you know what's the you know the greatest thing that you guys have done this year and you like you didn't even hesitate you're like daily daily accountability daily wins yeah and just being able to look back on it and everybody that I've shared that with and told that story to that have actually gone on and implemented it have seen dramatic

increase in production and that have really ran it to the T and try to emulate what you guys have done. The one thing, though, that I noticed it did, right? Because we look at culture as just our core values plus the way we behave. And that really is the culture. And what I saw just kind of from an observation, you know, us running it, you know, more internally, not with so much sales, but with, you know, support and administrative, seeing what you've done, but those that have, have, implemented that as well. I'm like, damn, man, that created a culture of accountability. It created a culture of winning. It created a culture of leadership just by one simple act. And here we are five, almost five years, whatever later, since that's been implemented. What has changed? Like,

what has that done for you? What has that done for your organization as you, you know, really cultivated and created that culture. Yeah. I mean, that was by far one of the most valuable things we did. And it was during the struggle, and I'm like, man, what do you have to do? And so it's one of those things that we obviously morning, huddle every morning, but the key part is having a weekly leader that runs the huddle that entire week. And that was because I was having trouble at the time developing more leaders and having

them be able to be leaders. Because it's easy to watch and kind of judge. But once you're there and you're trying to hurt cats sometimes, right? And make sure people get their win. And so we win and lose as a team. So everybody that morning shares a positive from yesterday in the morning huddle, right, get their mind right, and they're frame it up, and then they have a very specific, clear win for that day. And everybody doesn't.

We still do the same exact way. Like, I'm actually leading this week, and just through the rotation, I stepped up. We did Monday Mayhem on Monday, which is crazy. We did that. We booked 60 appointments in one day, which is awesome. But, like, I still jump in and lead from the front with it, but it's powerful. And, like, we actually lost one day, Tuesday. as an organization and I went back and reflected what I could have done differently. I was just

doing it. I was in there 12 hours just in the office back to back to back and I got behind a little bit of pushing the one person that I knew was probably behind and they didn't get their win. And so we lost as a group. The next morning reflected on it, the agent reflected on it what they could have done differently, which was time management, getting ahead of it. And so allows us to extract a lesson on whatever the issue is the same time, you know, hold ourselves accountable and be real and live by a code where we don't hit it. We know. We admit it. We don't lie about it. And it's just powerful. So we haven't changed a whole lot since then. It's a grind sometimes, but it's one of those things that we create this environment where people plug in.

And anybody comes to different brokerage is like blown away because they're like looking around the first couple of days, like trying to figure out what's going on. Everybody goes around and sets their win, put all the win in a group and that's each person hits their win. We used to put it up on a board with a sticky note, but now we just do it in like our Slack group. And it's powerful, man. And so you watch each person go down a couple nights this week. haven't got our team went until like nine o'clock but that's just how it goes and we don't give up until we hit it but it's been powerful for us especially in this marketplace where action matters right picking up the phones matter follow through matters and that's how we're kind of making a difference as a team what does that cadence look like in the calendar for you guys right now i mean you

you have the huddle then throughout the day and then where else are you guys checking in and Joel and I, I mean, I hadn't even thought about it since like 2012, 2013 was the 4Ds of execution. And we talked about that coming into this year. And I'm like, damn, man, that framework is spot on, right? You know, two wild important goals. What's the one thing that we're rallying in the metric? You know, the clear visibility, the scoreboard that really, you know, compelling, that drives

behavior and drives action. And then, you know, that cadence of accountability. So what is that cadence that everybody's committed to and bought into on a weekly daily basis for you guys? Yeah, so same way, obviously Monday through Friday, we have the morning huddle, daily wins. In Mondays, people turn in. It's basically a weekly plan. It's a one key, basically one thing and four keys. So what's the one thing most important they're going to hit that week?

They have four keys that are getting it. It's one pager, take a picture of posting our group, and then each person posted it on Monday. And you kind of base it down. So it's like how many, the one thing is obviously you get a contract in most cases for like general brokers or buyers agents. Listing partners are to get two contracts is kind of their goal under contract. And we break that down by how many dollars they need for the week. Typically it's been 500 now with connection rates being a little bit less. You probably need to push that closer to 800 to 1,000 depending on marketplace who they are.

How many appointments are booked? How many people are signed? And there's a free one number four for the fourth key is like, what do I need to do to develop personally for me to help move that that along. So they can really change the fourth one. And so that sets a tone for the whole week. And so basically then your daily win is kind of broken down based on what your four keys for the week are. And the cadence of the leader kind of leads the morning huddle, lunchtime check in, afternoon check in, end of day check in. And then typically there's updates to the night. And so what most leaders learn when they do it is that they'll

always try to start to lead in the group, right? Lead as a whole. And if they realize is it takes a lot more one-on-one touches, a lot more reaching out via phone call, via text message, via instant messenger through Google, to make sure you can stay on top of who's falling behind, who's getting caught up, and who's behind on their win, aka their dials in most cases. And as they learn that, it makes a much better leader because now they're reaching out individually faster. You know what's looked for, and then obviously give an update at the end of the night, typically, but at it before 9 o'clock.

Yeah, that's wild. How are they, from a leadership perspective, I mean, still leading at the front doing what they say they're going to do as well? Oh, yeah. That's what's the coolest part about it is you watch people kind of level up. I don't think I've ever seen the leader not hit theirs, which has been interesting because it kind of makes them be the example. We all kind of talk about that. And at the end of each week, we kind of go back the next Monday and ask that leader, hey, what was the biggest lesson you learned about two things? Number one, what's the biggest lesson you learn about you as a leader and what you could do different?

And then number two, what's the biggest thing you learn about other people? And that typically is they learn like, man, you got to be a lot more interactive, a lot more one-on-one with them, which is a lesson that goes back to lead follow-up because people try to think linear, right? They just try to think like get X amount of calls, X amount of text messages versus how do I go deeper, not wide, right, and go deeper with the potential leads and connect with them and get a better relationship with them and have the ability to figure out where they're at and what's going on. So it bleeds over into follow-up, too. And so that's been really powerful for us as a whole.

Are you guys, like, you know, everything collectively together? I mean, how often, I mean, are you pushing everybody to get in the office? Are you getting them to get in and make the calls together? Is in person in the office. And so the majority of people are there. We track shuttle attendance. You know, some people have other stuff coming here and there. But to maintain leads, they need to have a certain,

huddle attendance and we don't do virtual with it just based on our structure we thought about if we get bigger and maybe get you know really big we can do that virtually but for now it's just in person i noticed that we did that kind of during covid after cov there's a little bit of a hangover people people just call in and you can just feel the energy wasn't quite there they're kind of calling their wind but they weren't falling through and there's just an energy about being around other people being around winners upstairs we have like music playing people on the phone which you can hear so-and-so talk And so it's kind of uncomfortable to not be on the phones and everyone else is on the phones. And so we obviously make our calls 9 to 11, some people 9 to 12 based on what their target is.

And then that's in the morning and the afternoon they're doing appointments. Yeah, I love that. And I mean, I do. I love the, you know, bringing them in together, right? It's just that forced accountability. You got to step it up. There was nowhere to hide. Well, that's the one thing I'm hearing right now with so many agents as we started this outreach and recruiting.

Because I'm telling there's a massive shuffling the deck right now. you're seeing just agents across the country, or seeing a lot more headwinds. Even me, I'm seeing agents in the marketplace that are other companies been here for 10, 15 years, or their business is down like 50%, 60%, they can't figure out what's going on. But the big thing I'm hearing are two main things.

Number one, they feel alone, right? They're not sure what to do, what's going on, how to adjust. And number two, the environment that they're around hasn't really been conducive for them to be able to plug into. And so they need the energy to feed off of, they need the environment to feed off of. And so that's what we've been providing.

and creating as a part of our culture to really help push through it and help push the resistance. Yeah. And, man, and Renee even messaged me about this and just like, have you seen Sloan's social media? And I'm like, yeah, he's like, it's, I mean, I love it. It's definitely, you know, the language. Where, you know, are you, and I just know all the work that you've done personally and then just, you know, how that's just become who you are and then just carries off into into your organization. You know, is there a certain kind of mantra? I mean, what are you starting to see the language that even, you know, your agents that are coming in,

obviously, that have been there? I mean, is it a lot of, you know, finally getting that everybody pulsing together, speaking the same language, saying the same thing, thinking the same right? Yeah, and I made a conscious decision, I don't know, whatever months it was, maybe January, February, I'm like, dude, you know, I'm leaning from the front during this because I could just feel, right? You could feel the resistance. I'm like, something's just going on. something's different, right, with the industry and things going on and deals and just something

like, dude, I'm leaning from the front. I'm leading by example. And I'm just like, I'm going to put it out there and you got to see my stuff, right? I'm up early. I'm doing my morning journal by 520, usually every single morning, gym by six, and just all this stuff. And I just, here's the key thing that I wanted to share. And you see with me a lot of times my stories be the same thing every day.

And the reason is most people struggle with consistency. And so I'm just being the example, right? And I'm living from the front and showing my team that. you've done. Some of the guys in my team started doing, which is super cool, right? So you're, you're seeing them do that, and they're starting post in the morning, and they're doing their stack and they're reading. And so, and here's what I told them, like, dude, even if nobody does it, I'm still doing the same exact thing. Markets up, great, I'm doing the same thing. Markets down, doing the same thing. People leave my team, doing the same exact thing. People join my team,

same exact thing. Why? Because I'm going to control the controllables, and I'm leaning from the front, and that's the key part of what it's been in. It's give me so much more power and certainty when I'm doing in a time where it's been difficult, but I think that, What people are missing right now in many cases is that power of consistency, right? The boring work that has you work on you, but that's the only thing that brings you certainty and power, which is what's needed right now to get through this resistance place market that we're in. I love it, man. And no, it is the boring and it is the consistency and being able to do that.

And obviously lead from the front. And it's really cool when you start to see it, like you said, right? They're doing the starting to do the same thing. I saw Colby actually, I smile real big. I'm like, oh, there we go, you know. And it's just cool to see that. They kind of pick it and they're doing it. And I didn't even, you know, I don't talk about too much, but I'm just like I told him,

I'm leaving for the front. I'll never ask you guys you something I don't do. And that's the one thing that we're kind of living by, like you said, is a poll to as a culture. We've had some people lately and churned out some of the people that have been here for a while that just doesn't want to make the adjustments. And you're kind of feeling that energy of it. But I'm kind of told everybody, look, man, you're going to have. have to change your habits you're going to change the ways to dominate through this right now and

anybody that does that's going to be able to capture so much market share right i was told some guys this morning like look um listings right now on our marketplace like 120 days on market uh i think there's we were looking yesterday only 10 percent of listings are actually pending which is crazy if you look at the whole mLS so like it's difficult right that i'm like man but i was telling like dude this is a time where you're doubling down you're doubling on person development doubling down your development and you're pushing through. This is like that storm in Forest Gump, right? The shrimp boats are getting pushed around.

But as soon as that storm's gone, it's wide open and we're just scooping up all the shrimp, right? And that's kind of where we're at. I feel like you mentioned that whitewater. But it takes doubling down on you, doubling down as a leader, doubling down on your health and physicality and your energy and the ability to sustain through what's going on and be able to dominate when most people, like you said, are frozen, they're paralyzed, they're not showing up, they're not sure what to do. and that's when you need that certainty and clarity to help push you through.

What habits are you like, hey, man, you need to prioritize these habits. And if you give them kind of a sequence, I mean, I know it's a kind of a melting pod, but it's like, listen, I mean, obviously consistency, but like, hey, focus on this. Don't even give me any energy to this. Like, what's that mantra that you're constantly repeating to them? Well, kind of always, we've been sticking out of body being balanced of business, right? It's number one power. You have to have power right now in your body.

I'm down 20 pounds this year. Which is, you know, and that's diet style. in, macros are dialed in, and that was a massive lesson for me where I worked at this gym for six days a week for nine years and just kind of hovered the same place and finally made the investment into an IGB Pro, you know, bodybuilding coach who got my macros dialed in, workouts down, working out less time-wise, less intense, but the results were off the chain. Why? Because my macros are dialed in. And that's a great example for business right now. I tell my team, like, there are macros of business that people are just off.

You can do the same thing for nine years and not get results, or you can find somebody who's doing what you need to do and what your goals are and have them dial your macros in before you hold you accountable and get massive results in a short period of time. But right, but right now, bodies are huge and why because you need energy to sustain. Number two, obviously your being, which is a mental piece, which is why I show every morning I'm doing my journal. Why is that?

Because it's a mental battle right now. It's a long-term marathon of the mindsets who can push through just constant resistance, constant setbacks, constant challenges, right? Your team leader especially, team leaders are very difficult. As I'm hearing right now, I'm seeing a lot of it, you've got to make sure that you have a clear mind to help push you through that. So that's through personal development. And number two, dealing with your own shit, right, your stories and the things that you run.

And so part of that, my morning journal routine is to call myself out on my bullshit and make sure all my story is real. And that's been super powerful. And then the same time, relationships, right, with those that matter your life because you can't neglect that to help manage the business part. But that's what you've been. Obviously, Keith got two kids, two and a half year old, 10 month old. So that's a lot and that's chaos in itself.

And then obviously the business is what matters the most. But all that together brings in the power to push through. And most people right now kind of run up for the hills or they're paralyzed and not really sure what to do. What are the macros that you're having on the business side to focus on that you're saying, hey, you know, hit these critical metrics. This is like, you know, great example, like you said, right? six days a week, the gym, like hovering around the same thing, right? And, you know, what has to change? And so loving dialing in those macros. But what's the macros on the business?

There's a lot of different piece. So we really kind of obviously dials number one, outbound. And I like really kind of what Dustin Runyon said lately, too, about connections is super important because I think you've seen connection rate go down a little bit lately. So we kind of bumped that. We used to be $100 a day, which would be, you know, 10 to 20 connections. But now we're seeing about an answer rate about 10%. So it really needs to be $200. dials and so a lot of people are kind of pushing that but ideally like you know 20 conversations today is really the target you're seeing a lot of people have number two appointments either buyer or listing appointments depending on what side of they're on or you know what your business model

looks like overall and then the one thing we've been really huge on right now against resistance so what would happen is we'd sign buyers they go cold right sign buyers they won't reach out to the lender they won't answer to the lender the same thing we listings we kind of we list them and they had to do a few things. So we've been really big on setting deadlines for the client as soon as we sign them. So we signed the client. I told my team, hey, look, here's what's going to happen. We're going to go look at properties in 48 hours, whatever, they're local. Either pick 40 or 72 hours. Let's say I sign them on Monday, right? I'm going to say, hey, John, here's the deal on Wednesday. We're going to look at houses. We're going to pick your top five. I need you get those to me by tomorrow from the list I send you

so we can have the top five look at. I'll book them tomorrow night. We'll look at them on Wednesday. And what we're doing there is still trying to push them through why are they still hot, right? Because you know it's it gets super hot, and they get cold. They get hot and they get cold. And so we're seeing that a lot with people getting frustrated because the buyers are hot and cold. And again, why is that? Because there's resistance to the marketplace, right? Higher interest rates.

You're seeing, you know, a gap between affordability for a lot of people and what they want. And so we've been really big at setting deadlines for them. And so once I set the 48-hour deadline for the buyers, then we set the 24-hour deadline for the lender. Hey, look, my lender is going to call. We need to make sure that pre-approval handle by tomorrow. morning. So my lender, XYZ, he's going to call you tonight or tomorrow, whatever the day is. We want to have that by tomorrow so we can go look at properties on Wednesday and we'll have all that lined up for you. And so what we found was when we booked the 40-hour meeting,

it encouraged them to make sure they actually answered it for the lender to get pre-approved. And that was just a major breakthrough for us that we figured out a couple months ago. I love that. Really taking the leadership role in navigating the conversation, really navigating, you know, not letting it just kind of linger out there, like you said, really taking control and driving, you know, the situation. I mean, I love that. And here's the other thing that we found that's been a big breakthrough for us is a lot of agents were taking the path to each resistance, right?

So we, we follow a lot of leads. We're a vacation destination, so a lot of our, you know, 80% of our buyers are not from, they're not here, right? So what we're doing is anybody local, we've always booked. appointments with face-of-face, met them, signed them, you know, that process, whatever. But we were finding a lot of non-locals or even agents were just getting very soft and just trying to get their criteria and be like the nice guy and, you know, be their buddy, but they're getting smoking in long run.

So we've really, really, really, really push. And I think that in any location in the country right now, the new currency is appointments, right? Appointments, appointments, appointments, appointments, you have to push. And so we prove that, you know, when we just did that Monday Mayhem, we went for a huge push. we gave cash awards for whoever got the first person at 20 connections and then whoever had the most appointments at the end of the day and what we found was um people were like

realize that one of the biggest lessons when we went back in debrief here i was like man i didn't realize how much i was not pushing for appointments when i could have and um even our inside seals guy this is a funny story i can cuss on here right or no yeah you can damn sure cuss the uh the inside sales guy is awesome right so he has this lead he calls this lead and the guy it was like a cash offer lead from one of our stuff and the guy goes he said well how much looking for your house and he said the guy says fuck you he's like oh he's the man I've been doing this for a long time I haven't got that one in a while and he's like what do you mean and long story short he goes back and asks him a few questions and books the fucking appointment with the guy but he said the major

lesson was that if it wasn't such a focus on appointments he would have got triggered giving the guy some shit back and he would have basically blown that lead and blown the opportunity but just having that laser focus on the appointment, allowed him to save him. We met with the guy, I'm pretty sure we got him listed. I haven't gone through the whole list yet, but I was just going through some stuff this morning, that the appointment was met,

point was held by our listening partner. But I do not with his first word as fuck you, which is crazy. Yeah, that's wild. And I think, you know, just the conversations we've had with folks and kind of the direction and especially with the AI, you know,

you know, craze and just everything that's happened. I mean, it still has to be, you know, from the forefront, from a mindset, you know, perspective and understand, you know, it's, it goes back to even Chris Voss, right, tactical empathy and really being able to understand. And, you know, you and I've talked a lot about this and it's definitely, you know, my coach Matt, you know, his whole smoke and fire. And it's like, listen, you know, there's, you know, that trigger that that that fuck you is just smoke, right? Like, and don't get choked up in it and get triggered like you said and get down to, okay, let me explore what's going. on here where's the fire at and typically that's just all the great question and great uh runway of emotions right we're let most people are so wound up right now they're so reactive and that's why those morning you know dealing with your stuff and dealing with your stories and getting your mind right and having that that all dialed in helps you because it gives you the capacity and the runway to help basically observe them instead of react to them and so at that point you're just immovable right hey no problem i appreciate that what makes you say that you know and the guy end up saying like

you know, you guys just want to take my money for your cash offer, whatever it was, and we'd back and just ask you questions, explain that wasn't the case, explaining to our track record who we are, what we do, boom, point in his book, which is awesome. Yeah, that is freaking awesome. What I know for you, you know, obviously a lot into, you know, the kind of the warrior and the stack, do you give, do you provide that for your team? Do you give them that framework if they want it? Or, like, how do you go about kind of distributing the stuff that you're consuming,

the stuff that's working for you? I share my stuff. I share by example. There's a few of them that I've had them. They just signed up for their own account with that too. But we built out over the years Google sheets and Google forms where they can go in this kind of stack and ask questions. We've had to simplify it in many cases for a larger adoption, right? But we just want to get them to really do two things.

Number one, question their stories, right? Most people are just emotional pinballs that are balancing around on everything that's happening all around them. And so part of that's like, man, how do we? we just help you get your stories in control that's the first step and that's what everybody says once they come here like man it's like being the matrix all of a sudden you're watching everyone around you be triggered all the time and have issues and be such emotional you know roller coasters and so with that it's like what why a lesson imply right what happened why is that actually a positive and it's that negative right what's a lesson behind that that i can learn from and get better

from then how do i apply that to all four years in my life and that's been very powerful um for us we kind of that simplified version but then there's also some some large ones but yes So we have the software they can get from obviously Warrior. We have kind of some stuff built out for them, which is merely helpful. And half probably choose to use it and do it. But whenever somebody gets, you know, Trigger has issues, they kind of go through that. But it's funny, our team will kind of go through and they'll have something to go. I know what you're going to say.

Like, what's that? It's a great story. But, you know, and ideally they already know because they're questioning them stories and they're understanding before. Like, look, the narrative I'm running in my head may not necessarily be fact, but in my head I feel that it's true. and so the reality is when you start questioning your story, you start looking at the world a lot differently. I love that.

How are you, so, I mean, obviously being able to break through, you've established the trust with the agents on the team. How's the conversations with the agents in the marketplace? I mean, I know you said like a lot of them are, you know, given some of that feedback. They're not having opportunities, accountability, environment. There's just a lot of not being provided what they need out there. So, you know, are they gravitating to you just through content, social media? I mean, are you being aggressive putting some ads out there? Are you cold calling out agents?

Like, how are you connecting with agents? Yeah, it's been a great, interesting journey. I've had this, like, journey where I was, like, in my bubble for so long. We'd detracted people. I didn't do any outbound recruit myself. We had a seal's marriage that was supposed to be doing it. He was not doing it effectively. We replaced him in a Q1 and have some guy in there doing it now.

But I basically stepped up doing it too, because I, I, I wanted to get my, again, leave from the front. And it's just been so eye-opening the past few months of just what people are experiencing out there. And I find that most people just don't have great leadership. They don't have great guidance. They don't have great targets or tools or anything. I'm asking, hey, what scripts you guys got?

They don't really have much. What presentations do you guys? They don't have much. What's your self-development look like? They don't really have much, right? And so I feel like you're just kind of feeling like they're in treading water right now in so many cases, seeking leadership, looking for leadership, looking for people that can guide them. And it's been eye opening, man, that's what even our sales manager and we got a recruiter now too is like, dude, it's crazy how no one really has anything like this out there.

And so I think that's a big gap that can be filled very easily by people willing to lead right now. And we're going to lead by example and willing to lead out loud. What are you, you know, besides the, you know, just making the calls, making the calls, making the calls, like what else are you kind of pushing on them to kind of? of put some more, you know, stability into their business model, you know, be it focus on these two things, focus on these three things. Like, are you, you know, pushing them with open houses? Are you pushing them with, you know, social media? Like, where else are you kind of, you know, like, hey, we're seeing traction here. You need to, you know, take a hard look at this. For team agents? Yeah. Yeah. The number one struggle with any agent, if I found, is just consistency,

right? They ride the roller coaster, they get a lot of deals. Except for your top producers that you have their consistent, you know, animals that, you know, you kind of just keep developing them based on what they have. But for the most part, it's just massive. They need consistency. And so we provide that structure. But then, I mean, there's a lot of pieces to it right now. So like right now, I've just kind of been talking a lot, like I mentioned earlier, we're seeing just a lot of resistance, right? So how do help them overcome that? We're doing, obviously, open houses for people that work really well. We've helped and get their social game up. That's a lot of things people are struggling with, too. As I've had these outreaches,

I look up their stuff. They have posted in 2020, 2022, 2023. And what we're, I taught my team is on Tuesday, like 90% of buyers and sellers, once you call them as a lead, look you up immediately on Facebook. And so if you're a secret agent or if you don't have anything on there that's inspiring or really shows that you're an expert in what you do, they're looking at somebody else or their perception of you is already in negative light where they don't see you as an expert. And so part of that, we just kind of broke down this kind of 2025 social media triangle where you have to have enough business stuff out there to show, look, I'm an expert at what I do,

I'm very good about I do. But then you see that a lot of agents that post, they're like only business, right? And that just, you can tell it's not believable. It doesn't look genuine, doesn't look real. And so any of your clients and past clients are friendly will unfriend you and follow you. But anybody looks you up, they know it's total bullshit. So you have to have that second piece, which is personal, right? How they connect with you as a person?

How do I know who John Kitchens truly is? And we just talk about, you know, things to share with that, family dogs, if they have dogs, right? People connect with dog people. people connect with people like them. What about the lifestyle? Like, what type of things are you passionate about? What are you doing in the community? Those type of things make a big difference.

And obviously, the third part of the triangle we taught and had was just about being an ambassador. And so we're in Myrtle Beach and we're like, hey, how are you an ambassador about Myrtle Beach, sharing things that you're doing that people are seeing and liking. For example, a lot of our clients are from up north. And so they're up north in Pittsburgh, right? Think about, man, I want to be at the beach and all this stuff. And so we kind of hit that part about it. We're just hitting all those, man. I mean, we're hitting all that stuff, really,

because it's a very complex marketplace right now. Yeah, it is. That's, no, I love that. And, you know, I mean, guilty of it as well, right? Kind of, you know, fallen, you know, stagnant, kind of getting paralyzed. For you, you know, just even mentioned in what Renee had pointed out earlier in the year, does a lot of your content come from that morning journaling, the morning reflection? Yeah.

I mean, so it's just asked myself questions. and get myself lessons. Man, I had one this morning I was going to share. I haven't had time to share it yet, but it's like, it's so true. Like, it's just, yeah, I have so many lessons. I'll just show you like the one I just had. I mean, it's powerful to just look at,

but it's like, I screenshot it, so I was going to share it later, but it's just, this is my lesson from, you know, but it just says all the shit you're worried about and stress about right now, you want to remember in a year or two. Quit worrying and stay focused on the solution. It's not emotional.

It's just taking the right amount of action needed. You'll be fine, right? And you just look at this. So it's a matter of reframing the brain going through that but um i made a decision just to start living out loud a little bit i could be much better at it um but the second thing too is like after having children i look at my social as a way for them to know who their dad is right and so many people just kind of live like this quiet desperation or they're scared to post stuff out there and like they have so many memories and options

and and things about their voice and things about who they are they just let die in their phone and so like you've seen some my stuff we travel a lot posting that stuff with it and um at the end of every year, there's a software and service that'll print all your best photos out for you, the most light photos, it has an algorithm for it, and it'll print it, put it in a hardcover book, and you send it to you. And so that's been my two ways to look at. Number one, obviously attracting the right people, living out loud and just living from the front from my own team of people.

But number two, my children knowing who I am as a father and as a man and as a businessman. Might be one of the best nuggets I've gotten all year. So I appreciate that. That is, that's awesome. And it goes back to exactly what, you know, I've learned a ton from you, but that being it is just constantly reframing it into the, to what's right, right? Into, you know, the real truth and being able to be like, listen, man, you know, there's a lot of things, you know, but leaving that for the kids, right, to really see, okay, all right, this is who my dad really is. That's, man, that's awesome. And let's your levels of, like, how do my dad think, right?

How do my dad, like, you know, for me, like, I think I maybe have. My dad died like 12, 13 years ago. I have like six pictures of my dad, right? Like there's that, but like how much cool. It may not be a big difference. You know, like, I don't know how long I'll be here, obviously, but the reality is I want to be a look back 15, 20 years from now on that timeline. And I'm like, dude, this is crazy.

I want to be able to look and watch some videos or watch some of the things that it's my thoughts. And I don't really give a shit what people think that like it, don't like it, my friends, my aunt, my people I went to high school with, right? I care about two things. people who are my avatar, right, who is an agent that may potentially be a part of our team. But number two, my children, when they look at that and read that down the line, like, man, my dad was a badass.

That's what he was, and that's what he did. I love that. I love that. Well, Kev, Renee, Joel, since you guys, you know, carved out the time and jumped in here. I mean, I mean, shit, I can say here and talk to Blake all day. But I just want to open it up to you guys, whatever questions, you know, being able to pick Blake's a little bit. Yeah, you talked about kind of what what the marketplace is looking for right now. What are you looking for with the agency recruiting? You know, being a leader is keeping the,

you know, who you're allowing into the team and into the circle. Like what does that look like for you? Yeah, we've really talked about that a lot lately. Number one, people want to do the work, right? I think that that gets exposed very, very quickly. Everybody talks a great game. Everybody has, you know, reasons why I don't. And that's been an interesting process for us to identify agents that are just a level eight or nine, you know, talent, but in a level two or three opportunity, right? And so I'm trying to find those people, like who's an eight or nine or seven, you know, seven, eight or nine talent, but they're in a level two or three opportunity. Because all over me in a two or three opportunity, but what I've talked to so forth, like, no one has any of stuff

that we have or the, the self-development or the tools or the process or the support. And so I'm trying to find those people like who is out there praying right now for some type of breakthrough of somebody like me to reach out to them right and number two people that are from other industries we're getting a lot of people who still come in but right now it's a heavy lift right it's a heavy lift for people that are brand new outside the industry and so I want somebody who's hungry who has something to prove and and that's the two main things right I find the pattern is that the people I'm talking to that are making it have something to prove and typically I come up and something that's something that happen with their parents or they were you know parents got divorced parent died um they have somebody who

told me would ever be anything whatever it is i'm looking for that edge right now and that chip on their shoulder that can take them put them in power and give them right tools and they're absolutely going to run with it because i do find that suicide right now and business is trying to push a bunch of people who don't want to do the work and who aren't motivated right that's the hardest thing i think is is very difficult for a lot of people how do you pulling that out of them i mean what's the what's the dialogue what's that conversation. How are you trying to, you know, uncover and pull that, that hunger and that, you know, they do have that chip on their shoulder. They're wanting to prove something. Yeah, that's one thing I always been teaching our recruiter and our sales manager, and they've been

watching me. He's like, dude, watch you do interviews way different than, you know, that they got before because I'm going deep about them and who they are and what they do. And I'm looking for the second and third level questions about their story and why. Like, they'll give me one or two things I can go down the rabbit hole with. And I'll be telling me more about that. And I'm looking for like, what motivates you? What do you think that comes from? What does that come from your childhood?

What does your childhood like? Do you play sports growing up? What was it like when you lost? What was it like when you won? Right? I want the guy who hates to lose. I don't really care about the one who just likes to win when it's convenient. I want the one that hates to lose because me, I'm going to fight way harder not to

lose and I am to win. Dude, I can't agree with you more. Like literally, I'll assess that these days, like probably over the last 10, 10 years. I really assess because I, I'm like you, I hate to lose. So I really assess the probability of me playing that game based upon my skill set. And if the probability that I can't win, I won't even play. Just because I know how how it triggers me and I know how like it'll like it'll eat at me. And like I will back away from a monopoly game. That's how that's how bad. If I, if I don't have the time to sit and win, like I just won't play. And and and I just think that's,

But I love how you can pull that out of people and being able to go and why that's important. I'll say the one of the biggest lessons I gave Ryan, our sales manager, and he was like, man, he just had this big aha after like, sit with me a few times. He's like, you go so deep with these people. I'm like, yeah, because I care, right? And I'm trying to connect with them at a soul level. I don't care about your bullshit interview answers, right? I'll tell them that, look, just be real, like, open, real.

This is a real open conversation. You don't feel like you got to give me the interview answers. I want to know who the real John Kitchens is. And I kind of give them the opportunity and the openness to be themselves, and they can feel that with me. And then I obviously am able just to kind of go deeper, but I'm just flowing in a state of flow of what I feel from them and what they're kind of guiding based on their story, based on what they like to don't like. And sometimes they don't get them. Hey, what really motivates you right now, John, to be successful in this business? And they'll give me one or two things.

And I interviewed this girl yesterday. And she was kind of like guarded, guarded, guarded. at another brokerage, new home sales, and I finally got her open up when she finally came that, hey, my mom was a single mom, and there was four kids, and my mom never had money for us, and we struggled, and I had to get my first job when I was 13, and all of a sudden, boom, now we started getting to her, and now I started getting to who the core of that person really is and what really drives him, and then that led to that's why I worked two jobs myself through college and get a degree, and then I went back out of my MBA, and so all that stuff kind of started stacking up,

and it really came to the ultimate driver was that moment when she was obviously didn't have the dad around single mom was fighting saw mom fighting and did not want to be in that same situation dude that's so good is that allow you to kind of anchor into that even if they do come on board you still have that as that kind of that motivational trigger that you can push on when absolutely and again it's in a positive light right and I just know like people that win like that has something to prove and it's just for me like I've been on loan since I was 17 right everyone go back to zero I'll fucking do anything not to go back to zero and have that pain and eat at Walmart on 30 a week dude I'm never doing that again right and so that's the thing that that I'm looking forward who will be willing to because you know like it's it's a painful

process to get good at real estate it's a painful process get good at sales is a painful process to become elite in this business and you need someone who has that why behind them to push you that fight yeah that's so good kev what you got i know you got some questions there well you know i just look back and you know blake you talk about consistency and i met you and it was 2009 or 10 you're in a five-piece suit and they did the King Kong Award with Mike and Jay and you come walking up and the slick back hair and I'm like going, who is this kid? And it's and it's like you, but you've, from that day forward, it's like you are, you, you walk, you walk, like, I mean, and it's, and you're very consistent and I admire you for that.

And I mean, I have a page full of notes and we've had so many conversations and I every, every time we talk, it's something different, but it's still, you're so clear on your path and what you believe and, and you can see that. And, you know, you can see it when you, when you became a dad and how you speak. And, you know, again, I go back to, you know, your words of one of your kids to understand their dad and who you are as a man. I mean, that's, that's very impactful. It's powerful. So, I really appreciate that. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that, man. Yeah, so good. I have a question. Sure. So you said you're, you know, you're looking for level eight or nine talent in a level two or three opportunity.

Are you specifically targeting individuals that recognize that they're in a level two or three opportunity? I mean, I would imagine through your transactions, you know, your your co-brokes, you see people that like have some amazing talent. You're like, man, I just can't believe they're over there. Yeah. Not with that company. are you are you going after those people that may not know they're in a level two or three opportunity are you working for people that are more self-aware that they're in that level two or three opportunity i'm looking people in pain right so like and i can see it we have some

software you know that shows like their their business um being down or what's going on or we have like an avatar of the transactions they fit for like a team right now if i'm recruiting for like a you know, EXP or some of that, it would be a different, you know, you can be create any level there, but the reality is from my team at least, I look at people who are in pain, but what I'm finding is they're all, they don't realize they're in a level two or three opportunity. They just think that's how all real estate places are, right? And that was been a big aha for me. Like, I thought they would all just, like, be blown away once we start talking about this, because they've never seen anything like you. They never had this type of support, this type of

help, this type of leadership. But they've been so used to mediocrity, like, it's harder for them to believe and like I talked to to somebody just last week that it's like hard for them to even believe that it was real and this one lady I'm like you know what's what's been the biggest thing that you know was what's the biggest thing for you to really like about what we have and she's like I just don't know if I can believe it because I had a lot person lied to me lied to me lie to me like lie to me after a lot of me basically three different brokerages that she was I think I posted about the other day where they promised her everything delivered nothing and that was like just the biggest aha to me of like, man, the hardest thing for me to get past is just like their

consistency of being let down and having to help build that trust of like, hey, there is actually a real thing out there that can help you and to build that trust for them. But yeah, I'm looking people who are in pain. They were successfully that stuff going on and the business has gone backwards or they're brand new and they're very hungry and they can make it. They just don't have the right support around them. And so we hired another agent a month ago, a month to half ago, she was different brokerage startup brokerage had no support it was independent brokerage

she had no guidance the lady didn't even help her write her first contract she ended up buying her own Zillow leads kind of figuring it out and brought her on to us she's got four in her contract in like a month and a month and a half I mean it's one of those things that they were just amazing skills person lots of talent

and the wrong opportunity and so obviously you got to sift through a lot of people that aren't that good or that talked a good game or and I look for things like victim language, right? There's a lot of victim language there, then typically that's going to be someone who doesn't take ownership, what they have

or the results. And so I look at people like, man, I'm working my ass off right now. I'm not getting the sport I need, but I know I can do this. I've been trying to do this. I'm like, well, what have you done? And I usually look for two things. If they go on YouTube and try to figure stuff out,

they're probably self-starters, which means like, okay, they're pretty good at trying to figure things out, right? Or they bought their own zool leads, or they did something else or whatever. And so I can take people like that who are self-starters, plug them into our system,

them and they'll be massively successful. That's been very powerful. What do you do? I think a lot of us, Blake, run into where we want them to be, we want them to be more, we want success for them more than they want it for themselves. And, you know, and I think that's probably personally been one of my biggest challenges the last several years, especially with the market the way it was, is, you know, you try everything that make them successful and they're just, it just seems like they're like, you know, they just don't get it. And they, you know, and they're in there just flat-ass lazy and they just they won't do it like what does your when you bring somebody on what is that what is that first how do you entrench them into the belief of

of believing in you in the system or i guess or those qualifying questions to know that you got the right person yeah that's a very question and it's it's difficult and i'm like a lot about that right but so we we do two things and i've just worked my leadership team my basically my salesman to recruit lately about this. Now, I've screwed up on this before. The key part is once bringing them over, hiring them is having that pre-frame conversation of like, look, here's the deal. Let's talk, let's have a conversation about the reality of the market, is what I call it. And so it's super tough. It's very difficult right now, but you can be very successful. So take a lot of work. It's not going to be easy. And you're going to have to make sure that you push through this and you develop

yourself. And now talk about two things. Number one, trust the process. Number two, don't quit. Over and over and over. Number one, trust the process. Number two, don't quit. Over and over and over. We have a success school brand new. Hey, here's a deal. Trust the process. Don't quit. Because I find that the too many reasons people fail is they want to do their own thing, right?

It's perfect. They have everything. And we're all guilty of this. I'll never forget what that bodybuilding coach guy had, right? He had this weird, like, diet. My diet was kind of weird, my macros, and it just didn't make sense. I feel like I was, like, over-eating a couple things. And I asked him, and he goes, man, hey, how about just follow the process exactly and shut

the fuck up and I was like okay and I did it and it worked exactly how it's supposed to and I was just a powerful lesson you know and I'm like dude you know just why why I'm that you know this dude's a professional bodybuilder here I'm questioning and stuff because I think I know I'm talking about and her agents do it the same way and so it was just so powerful and to say that and thankfully he had the results in the frame on me for him to be able to tell me that and listen and me not get you know obviously I'll get triggered that but I was like yeah you're right and I said I think I wrote uh what I read back I said like not check but I basically said got it comfortably you know whatever and that's the tea and he's like

told you and it worked exactly how it's supposed to but the key thing I do think that people miss on I missed on a lot and I screwed this up a lot is I didn't pre-frame him so hard between the hire and the coming on and the start date right it's like the morning of the day up here's the outline here's the plan here's what we're doing and that needs to be like a sit-down meeting for a while and just say look here's deal and tell me here's deal Kevin like the last thing I want to for me to want your success more than you do. And I'm going to lead you through this, but I'm not going to save you. And you have to do the work.

You're willing to the work. But if you're willing to the work, I'll guarantee you one thing. You won't outwork me. I'll lead you from the front, and I'm never going to actually do anything that I don't do. And the two, rules you live by, number one, trust the process. Number two, don't quit. And they say it over and over and over and over. Because we have to be reminded.

They have to be reminded. I think that's something that's a big lesson, that I would go back and do a lot differently. That's great. Thank you. I'm going to lead you. I'm not going to save you. that's uh i love that that's that's that's that's way powerful way powerful because you've got to save them they'll crucify you at the end every time right you'll be the

one they'll be the one that they they try to place but here's the deal you there's going to be some that don't do the work and they all you know may look like they do it some don't some will some won't you know so what but you's got to make sure that you have enough coming on that they can kind of sort themselves out and that's been a lesson i've learned too right the Navy's stuff is hard to do in this marketplace. You've got to have to seek out, find the right ones. You know, half may make it, and they do that. I want the ones that want to run with me, and that's it.

Yeah. That's so good. I love that. Brother, you're absolutely amazing, man. I can't thank you enough for jumping in here, just like Kev. I've got two pages of notes. And as always, it's, man, I can't say how much I appreciate you. And even more so, you know, just being an incredible human, amazing friend.

So proud of you. Just even like, you know. Love you guys, man. Appreciate you all. Thanks for having me, man. Anything I ever do. Let me know. Hey, you guys, man, y'all have all helped me in some way in some form. And I'm very grateful for that. And most of it, man, just know we're not alone, right? We're out here fighting to fight, doing our thing. And just one step after another, as most people kind of give up. Yeah, for sure. Brother, appreciate you. Guys, thank you. And see you guys. See you guys soon. Love you. Bye. Bye. Bye. That's a wrap for today.

I hope you got something valuable from this episode. If you did, hit follow and visit john kitchens.coach for more ways we can work together. See you on the next episode.