KGCI: Real Estate on Air - The Dos and Don'ts of Relocating as a Realtor

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

Summary:This episode with host Ian Lobas is a tactical guide for real estate agents who are relocating to a new city. It breaks down the process into actionable steps, emphasizing the importance of doing thorough research on the new market, building a new sphere of influence from scratch, and leveraging your existing network to generate referrals. The discussion offers a clear blueprint for how to quickly get up to speed in a new location and restart a successful business.

Hey, real estate rock stars. This is Aaron Mucci Stegi, the host of today's podcast. So I just finished interviewing Ian Lobos. So Ian is a good friend of mine. So we met a lot of years ago at a mastermind. He has a lot of fun real estate stories. You know, in this podcast, we did a lot of kind of big picture stuff. He talked about soul searching and kind of once you find success as an agent, maybe questioning who you are. He talks about when he tried to move from Baltimore to L.A. to start a new business, you know, what worked and what didn't and what he would have done. different. I know a lot of agents have thought about what if I moved to a different city, will I be able to start over? He goes into that quite a bit. And if you stayed at the end,

near the end, he started talking about ways that he really was able to build a database from scratch. I thought it was really, really interesting. And I do think that it's a method that anybody could use. So without further ado, I hope you love today's episode of Real Estate Rockstar. Well, Ian, it's great to have you back on the show. It's so funny before we hit record, you talked about your history with the Real Estate Rockstars podcast. And you were involved in this before I was. So back before I took over from Pat Hybin in 2019, you were helping him with a lot of hosting,

with really getting some really cool guests on the show. You went to these like kind of podcast conventions and a lot of the guys from like million dollar listing who ended up getting on the show and getting interviewed. Those were guys that you had pitched and you had tracked down and convinced them into coming on, like some of the biggest names that we've had on the show ever. And so it's cool to have you back and get to get an update on what you're doing in real estate and help listeners get an idea of what's happening in the world. Where are you living right now?

What are you doing? I'm in Baltimore, back in Baltimore. So you're back in Baltimore. And that's kind of a big change, right? You were in Baltimore and then you went, did you go to California for a little while? Yeah, I went to L.A. for two years. And then, you know, I just missed, I missed the community. I missed $3 and change gas prices.

There was so much I missed, my parents, my family members, that I realized I couldn't, no amount of success was going to ever buy that time back that I was losing. And I didn't value, I wasn't valuing it enough. I loved being there. I made some incredible connections, amazing experiences, surfing in February every day after school with my kids, like in Malibu. I loved it. I just kept thinking about the time that I was losing with the people. that I love that I can't buy back. Yeah. How long have you been an agent? Well, September 5th,

2012. So the 2012. You and I met in like 2015 or 2016 and Tahoe at a go bonnet's event, which is a pretty cool memory. We got plenty of history that we can go into, but we won't get into today. But before we get into like what you're doing now and real estate, I'm guessing there might be a story around L.A. and like what you learned and what you didn't, not just along the personal basis. My understanding is when you moved out there, you had a great business going in Baltimore, but you wanted to move to L.A. and kind of start a new real estate business, kind of start from scratch. How did that go? What worked? What didn't work? Because I think a lot of agents actually do that right, especially right now when the market is starting to get tight or more

difficult or maybe people are doing great and they're looking for other opportunities. I think there comes a time when people are considering, hey, maybe I should move and go do my business somewhere else. So what was that like? I mean, my business at Baltimore, my sales business was doing amazing. I just didn't love who I was in the business. And that's all on me, right? That's not not blaming anything. It's just I didn't love the person that I was showing up as. So let me just kind of prefaced it with that. Yeah, what do you mean? I wasn't being authentic me. I was people pleasing. I was so desperate for, and a lot of agents are going to relate with this, I was so desperate for the approval of these clients, the next deal, the next check to make me feel like

I was valuable and that I was important and approved of. That just started wearing on me hard, because there was a big resistance between the real estate agent that would go out the front door, And then the person that would come back home and I'm like, I don't want to keep doing this. Like the money has this hold on me though. It's so good. You know, and now I have all these employees and I have all these clients that are, you know, counting on me and considering or continuing to come back. I built my own golden handcuffs and I just hated myself for it.

And I hated who I became. And I know that's getting really deep real fast, but I know a lot of agents out there. I've coached thousands of agents around the world. I know so many of them feel like that. There's an imbalance in their lives between their real estate business and their personal life. Yeah. And most people in general, not just real estate agents, but most people in general are trying to figure out who am I without all these things that are on the outside, without my real estate business, my family, my house, my car, my suit, my this. like is there a is there a person in there or am i just the sum of all these things and i was

getting honestly after a couple um psilocybin and iwaska ceremonies i started really thinking about that hard like who am i really if all this stuff got stripped away and like none of my life as i know it was there would i be okay with who was staring in in the mirror at back at me And the answer was no. Yeah. So I set out on this mission to find me, the human, right? And that's why my company is called the irreplaceable leader is because I wanted to find the irreplaceable version of me that no one else could be like because they're not me.

They don't have my essence. They don't have my DNA. They don't have my personality. All that stuff. What makes me me? And then apply that to real estate or that's my coaching business or whatever it is. So I set out to be the irreplaceable man, the irreplaceable. father, the irreplaceable leader, the irreplaceable husband, and the irreplaceable real estate agent

that I knew I could be. I was capable of being, I just didn't know how to do it. And so that's, that was my journey for many years was trying to figure that out. And then once I figured that out and really learned what made me authentic, I stopped caring about what people thought about me, who I didn't really know. And I started really paying attention to the people, people that actually cared about me, like really about me, not the person that gets them that deal or can negotiate hard or the aggressive real estate agent that'll go door knock, you know, for three hours around an open house. But like, they valued me as a human. And they also really enjoyed my business acumen and my systems and processes of my business and the way I run my scripts and

the way I close my transactions or whatever. That is where I started to enjoy my life. in real estate and outside of real estate. And we were doing flips and multifamily and all the buzz. And it's still in Baltimore. So in Baltimore. And then the pandemic kit and my coaching business, because here's the thing, I actually didn't love selling real estate. I really loved building the systems and processes.

I just was really good at selling real estate. And the sales process, because that's what I learned from my dad's business before. The challenge was, though, that I wasn't. happy. And so where I was happy was being an introvert and building systems and processes behind the scenes to make my business flow and to make my employees, you know, understand my expectations without having to talk to me because I'm despite what people think, like, I'm a big introvert. And I don't want to talk to anybody if I don't have to. And so I learned about documentation and, you know, building compounding systems that could keep me out of the

middle of so many things. And we can we can expand on that. And as I learned that, I found this love for it. And then as I started to as I started to break myself down as a human, I started creating my own curriculum for myself, which sounds really bizarre, but I wanted to. I needed that hyper focus, hyper obsession on can I build my own program that helps me find me? And then I build a coaching business because people started noticing changes and they were like, how'd you do it? Who'd you go to? And I said, truthfully, as defiant as I am, I did it myself. I figured out my own program. I figured out my own exercises.

And I stayed very disciplined and very diligent. I set consequences for myself, timeframes. And then people said, what, can you do? Can you take me through it? Can you take me? And this coaching business, like grew like crazy. And at that time, in 2019, I had been asked to come on and be the host of this podcast. and I don't know how many episodes I did a lot.

And it was cool for networking so I could go out and I can meet some of the biggest names like you had mentioned. And I could say, hey, I host this amazing podcast. It's top notch and super popular. You should come on and people were just coming on in droves. And I realized how much more I liked the coaching aspect and the psychological aspect than the sales aspect. And so my coaching business, by the time the pandemic hit, you know, kind of like right around 2020, I just said, all right, I'm going to next year, I'm going to let this business. go because it's just wearing on me. And no matter how much money I'm making, like, not happy.

Stay focused on the coaching business. My wife actually said to me, if there's ever an opportunity to go pedal down on the coaching business, it's now. You know, there's a pandemic. You can't go show real estate. You're not going to meet with clients. So I bumped up the coaching business. And by the summer of the next year, 2021, I sold my database and my book of business. And by the summer of the business and my systems and processes to someone in town here, which didn't work out. But that's another story. And I went to California to live this dream and to scratch this curiosity itch that I was feeling like, can I build a new life somewhere? Can I show up as? Yeah. Okay. So you were there all your life, right? So you're there. So that was probably part of the challenge or the challenge to

yourself of you had worked for your dad, then you had built your own business and then you kind of looked at yourself and said, hey, is this, is this who I am? Is this because of me? Do I get my own credit? Or is it because I grew up here or whatever? And I mean, I tell people they should live in as many cities as they can because then that's how they know if they love the city they're in. So that was probably part of you. You'd grown up there. So now you're like, all right, I'm going to sell my business. So you sold your real estate book, maybe a conversation for later to somebody else that I'm not going to do any business in Baltimore anymore. I'm going to go out to California and go try this new one. Yeah. At first it was I'm going to build a team in California.

because I've been a real estate agent and investor coach for a long time. Again, packaging up the systems, processes, you know, training tools, personal development tools because, you know, the business grows to the extent that you do. So you can't just do the business development. You got to do the personal development too. It's crucial. And so as you grow, your business grows. As your business grows, you've got to grow.

And so I thought, okay, well, I'll build a team out there. And then, you know, I'll coach that some. brokerages just to meet people and I'll, there were so many different things I wanted to do, but the coaching business was still my primary. And it just like the, the, the, the selling it and kind of being on a referral basis with my entire database, like that didn't, it didn't pan out because I didn't know what I was doing and neither did the other person, but I trusted this person. They didn't do anything wrong. They just didn't do everything right. And that's fine. Like, it's all good. Because we still, we still do.

selling a real estate company is challenging, right? And we've had a couple of people on before that have talked about it, but it's just not easy to, no, clients trust you because they trust you and they use you because they use you. And then later, if they call back, you know, two years later to go, hey, you help me buy my home. Will you help me sell it now? When you go, well, actually, this guy's doing my business now, that also gives them permission to like ask all their other friends that are agents, kind of thing, right? If you were coming back, they owed you some like reciprocity. they owed you the first chance because you treated them right. But as soon as you hand it off, they're like, oh, well, if Ian's not going to do it,

then I don't really owe him anything anymore. I don't know who this new guy is. Let me just see, you know, my other friend says they're an agent. Maybe this is the chance I can give them. Yeah, I mean, I think the way I do it this time, because I do more in referral business now than ever before. And I mean, to the tune of like six to eight million a year in referral business alone, just from our database. that I have the database.

We're definitely going to get into that. But did you start a team in California when you're out there? No. I mean, kind of. I was coaching. I was doing a bunch of coaching for some really big teams. And then I'm like,

you know, I found some really amazing agents. But as you know, like throughout the country, it is challenging to find people that think like us, that hustle and grind and really want to put everything they got into it. So you have to, unfortunately, in my opinion, you have to lower your expectation a little because they're not

going to be us or they would just do what we do. And it's not a bad thing to lower your expectation. It just is. And so I started meeting some great agents and I'm like, hey, I'll just run the team. I don't want to sell real estate. I'll coach you. I'll build the back end. I got an admin team. Like, this could be great for you. I'll teach you how to sell and you sell and I'll take a percentage. And that's what we'll build a team. And so we did that. I wasn't an official team because I didn't have a license at the time in California. So I couldn't be the team leader. And, uh, was fine. I just appointed somebody else on the team as a team leader, but I still got, I still got paid. So it's, it was fine. It just wasn't a, it was a, it was like a hodgepodge

it felt like. It wasn't like an official thing. So I guess if you think back to that whole journey and then we'll jump back to Baltimore and what you're doing now, like the. So if somebody is thinking about moving to go move their real estate career. move to a new city to be an active agent or moved to a new city to start a team. Like, what's your biggest lesson with that that you wish you would have known or thought about before you went? Like, what's something that it's like, yeah, what was just your biggest your biggest lesson from that? We were like, man, in hindsight, I wish I would have thought about this. There's 40 of them. There's like so many less. Yeah, then give me a few.

And then target this for the person that's thinking about moving their real estate business. So it's kind of like a multi-parter that all revolver. around your lead gen strategies. And whatever lead gen strategies may have worked for you in your community, your local community, maybe where you grew up or went to high school or college, that may not work in a new town. In fact, it probably won't work in a new town because you don't know anybody. So one, you've got to understand that your lead gen source or method is going to change. But the other thing that you've got to understand is the way of lead generating and how you show up for

those leads, whether they're referrals or open houses or that kind of thing, people that know you in a community, you've got to know how when that lead gen source or tactic changes, you're going to have to change your skills, your habits, your behavior, and your expectations of yourself as you grow into that. Because if you're not doing the same type of lead gen in your current market and you've got to change it all up and the way that people are getting deals is cold calling or door knocking, and you really have to. haven't done that and you don't know about that, you're going to go from a PhD classroom to a freshman classroom very quickly. Your ego will stay in the PhD classroom. Your skills and habits and

behavior and attitude are going to go back to, are going to go to the freshman classroom. And it's going to be a big resistance piece for you. And it's going to be tough. So I would have researched leg-gen strategies more because the way I started was door knocking and cold calling. And I hated every minute. of it, but I had to do it because my family needed to eat. And for anybody that's like, oh, that's, you know, you guys are special. I threw up before every listing appointment. I know Joe cried in my car the first year almost every single day. I was so scared that I was going to fail. And so all the talent is built and the confidence is built. It's not inherent.

I just want people to know that. Yeah. I mean, those are two great pieces of advice for people thinking about moving is one, whatever worked before may or may not work next time, right? Like the, and again, if you, when you move somewhere new, you don't have a sphere of influence anymore, at least for direct production. And so you're trying to build that up. And the, and maybe another, maybe kind of along the same lines as you would have researched ahead of time. In theory, you could have started your lead gen way ahead of time, right? Before even moving out there, before I moved to Texas, I would fly here once a month and do business out here. Right. So before I finally moved, I'd actually been doing business here for like three or four years.

So maybe you had to research this stuff better. You would have done some lead gen ahead of time, maybe before you were out there all the way. And then also learn, and I guess most of the biggest part is probably humbling yourself and saying no matter how successful I've been here when I move, all bets are off. The same thing might work, but it more likely probably won't. And so I need to be ready to treat myself as if I'm starting over. And it's not as easy to start over when you're not as hungry. Like when you're hungry and you're trying to eat the first time and you've never seen success,

it's really easy to try a whole bunch of things. Well, that's a big point there is I went to California with a very successful coaching business that I was loving life on. So did I have to push myself to do the things that were uncomfortable in my real estate sales business? No. And did I really want to sell real estate? No.

I wanted to build a team that helped others. sell real estate because that's what lights me up more is the coaching and the guidance and the mentorship and the leadership aspect versus actually going on a listing appointment or a buyer consultation or something like that. So yeah, I technically I did a lot of lead gen. I built a database of 161 people before I left and I did that intentionally. It just so happens that one thing that I didn't realize was that the volume is very different. So I thought, who doesn't sell 20, 50 houses? Like, who doesn't sell 100 houses out there? Well, like, the vast majority of agents only sell, like, one or maybe two. Yeah. And maybe those are like, price points really high. Yeah,

totally. So I was moving to like the heart of, of the big money L.A. or big money houses, right? Beverly Hills, Bel Air, West Hollywood. And I was working at the, not working, but I was doing some coaching at the KW in Beverly Hills and the KW in Hollywood Hills. And so I figured, all right, well, you know, let me shift this thing. I'll start a, I'll just start the team. But I still kind of wanted to sell a little bit. I just, I never ended up doing it. I always sold through other people or I referred the business out. But the one thing that really helped me was getting to know myself, which LA was a very humbling, very growth oriented experience. One of the things that helped me was really understanding my personality style.

And a bunch of my friends were like, dude, come to this networking event, come to this event, come to that event. And I'm like, dude, I don't want to. I don't like that. Unless there's a sign on people's back that says what they do, who they are, how old they are, what they're looking for from the people at this networking event, I don't want to talk to people. Because I got two little kids at home that want their dad to go to bed or to read them a story. I don't want to be talking to some random dude about insurance. and I could care freaking less and I want to claw my eyes out. So being a facilitator and orchestrator, like I own that.

And so instead of going to networking events, I just built my own networking event. It was called Sunset Connections. And our first event had 160 people. Our second event had over 250 people. And so guess what? When I'm the guy that stands up in front of the room and talks, they're like, oh, that's the guy that owns this thing. So the flow started happening. And I didn't realize that until like the very end.

But I wish I would have done that in the beginning because I met so many incredible people that would have referred their butts off to me. And actually kind of they still do. And that probably would have changed the game. But really understanding what it is that I truly want to do that I'm going to put my ass into and not kind of like go, oh, I'll try it. But if it doesn't work, I don't know about this because I don't really have to. So let's say somebody goes to a new town.

and the and they want to host their own networking event like you said they're new they don't have any of the resources you got 160 people at your first event what what what was the event and how did you get people there i used the keller williams office in hollywood hills which is in the hbo building right in sunset boulevard like the hot spot so you found a group that was going to let you use their spot in a great spot yep found a great spot so that's number one um it's a huge one A huge one. And then I just, I did the branding.

I did the messaging and marketing. And I did the client avatar, like the ideal avatar of the person that would be coming to this networking event. So it wasn't open to everybody. It was invite only. And invite only makes it rare. So people want to come. And they have to send their little application in,

which is all BS. They all got in. But it weeded people out. Like they self-weeded out. And so I said this is, I forget the tagline. It was like, you know, where L.A.'s top influencers come to enjoy an incredible environment, build sustainable relationships and like future something. I forget the, I forget the exact messaging. So it was a cold email that you just sent to agents or you sent to like you just on Eventbrite, just on Eventbrite.

And I spent 50 bucks boosting it up. All right. So on Event Bright, you said, here's the event that I'm going to do. You boosted it. You didn't email out to people or cold outreach to people. But you would say like, hey, here's this event. Apply. And then through Event Bright, you got a bunch of people to apply and 160 people show up.

And that started your networking where if you would have done that right out the gate within a year, you'd have been generating your own business from that network. 100%. Yeah. All right. So fast forward to Baltimore. Yeah. Now you're back in Baltimore.

And you learned what you did from L. You learned that maybe Baltimore wasn't so bad and being toward family was underrated. How are you making your money as a real estate agent now? So I don't sell houses as a real estate agent. But here's the other thing you might be interested in. You don't know about this. So one, obviously, my coaching business has continued to grow

and even expanded into fractional CEO and COO work, which I do a lot of now. I either like mainly with real estate agents and investors where I go in as a third party expert, trim their business out, build their business up, help them scale, help them grow.

And I love, I love every minute of that. That is so much fun. You've got your other stuff. But let's help our agents that are listening right now. So how do you make money as a real estate agent? So you don't sell, but you talked about getting tons of referral commissions,

right? So for our agents that are new or they're trying to expand their business right now, that's how we can teach you how to that. what I did. I expanded my business to the Caribbean. So I wanted to sell real estate in a place that I actually wanted to go to. L.A. was that place, but I don't want to go back to L.A. I don't live in L.A. So I built a business for somebody, a brokerage in St. Martin a number of years ago, fell in love with it, got to know it really well, and built a pretty big database. And started going down there and seeing like that there was a part of the market that was missing.

which is people that have high standards and have a work ethic that doesn't quit. And not to say that everybody on St. Martin doesn't, it's very few and far between to find somebody that works like we do and who has the integrity to honor their commitment. So that's a big deal, a very big deal. So I started putting together a business plan and said, all right, you know what? I'm going to sell real estate down in St. Martin. So I'm going to buy a brokerage. And I'm going to start a property management company.

I'm going to build that brokerage out. I'll probably go, I bought somebody's brokerage. We're going to build that out. And I'm going to create a reputation for myself. I'm going to call every broker on the island. I'm going to create a reputation for myself as the highest standards in the industry. All right. So back up.

So you didn't live there, but you wanted to do business there. Yep. How much does it cost to buy a brokerage? What was the deal like? Because when you sold your book, it didn't really work out. So what was the difference when you actually bought one? No. I bought it with sweat equity.

Okay. Because the brokerage was kind of doing okay. And I said, look, I think there's a lot that needs to change. I'm going to redo the branding. I'm going to redo messaging, the website, and I'm going to build this thing out. I'll run it. I'll bring my admin team in. And then I want ownership.

And that was how he'd worked it. Okay. So they had an existing business where they had a database and some stuff. You could tell it wasn't working very well. Some stuff. And you said, all right, let me come in and help you build this. So then you started helping to use the stuff that you knew from your skills back in Baltimore, you applied that to it. Instead of trying to start a business from scratch like you

did in L.A. Now in St. Martin, you took an established business and said, let's like take your guys's footprint and make it better. And then I interrupted you and you said like you were branding yourself as the as like that best experience out there. Yeah, five star guest experience or client experience without compromise and people like that. So by the way, let me just be clear. This business was not like setting the world on fire. It was dragon bottom. And I saw an opportunity to enter the market without having to establish a new brand because the brand had been around for a while. It just wasn't doing any work. I mean, it was it was barely getting by. Well, there's plenty of that right now. Plenty companies like that right now that were established and right now are a little bit

slower. Totally. It was a single agent brokerage. And, um, and I saw the opportunity to take my skills, my talent, the systems and processes that I created for my sales business and hiring and training agents and all that stuff and apply that there. And I thought I can really, I can make something of this. What that turned into was an understanding of how great the investment market is in St. Martin, especially on the Dutch side, where there's no property tax, there's no capital gains tax. The sales tax is pretty minimal. And so I started opening that up. And I'm like, okay, so instead of selling to other people, what if I just pulled a bunch of investors together and sold it to ourselves, got commissioned from that, but also got the property

and I will arbitrage the property and or property manage it for them and just keep the thing in my book. And so that's what we built down there. And we have a pretty scaled up business now. And it's it's pretty insane. So we either, um, We either will arbitrage, which, by the way, for anybody that's like, oh, I arbitrage in the States, it is a thousand times harder when you are managing from 2,000 miles away, and you have to trust a ground team, and you've got to build relationships and trust that somebody's not going to destroy a $2.5 million villa on the ocean, and that they're following your exact systems and you've got your software set up. It is very difficult. And I knew that that that was a massive barrier. to entry for most people. Plus the scary fact of like, you're going to do this in another country. There's laws. There's regulations.

And it's very tough to jump through those hoops, even though like we have and, you know, we have a, we have a Dutch business license. We have a Dutch bank account coming soon because it's very hard to set that up. But I wanted to make sure we were fully compliant. Once we started doing what we were doing and our reputation got out there. And I literally shared my vision with anybody and everybody that I met. I called every broker. I have a calling team calling brokers, every owner I could find. I banged out those cold calls because that was fun. Banging out a cold call for a $200,000 listing in Baltimore,

I don't care. But trying to find out if I can arbitrage a $2 million house that has a 331% ROI on and all I've got to put up is $25,000, you better believe I'm calling on that. So I just changed my model up. And the same systems and processes that work with my, short-term business up here. We have a business out in Oklahoma and Missouri called Victory Properties where we do a lot. It's all short-term. A lot of that stuff didn't work down there. A lot of the stuff for my sales business didn't work down there. Yeah, all short-term, no long-term. The challenge is that your systems and processes might not work, but your standards of performance will bleed through. And so what I noticed that people were kind of getting onto was the level of

expectation that I was setting. So every interview that I did with a cleaning person or a plumber or whatever, and I set this very high bar, I weeded out a lot of people. And the people that we have on our team today are absolutely incredible individuals that hold themselves to a very high standard and appreciate not only the money that we help them make, which is like five times more than they were doing before. But that they have somebody that believes in them and is holding them to a higher standard. And they just didn't know how to do that before. So the business model is freaking incredible.

Dude, I work on this business seven days a week. I freaking love every minute of it. I'm heading down as we're recording this. I'm heading down in a couple days. We're onboarding seven new properties this week or next week, 10 in the pipeline to onboard two weeks later. 15 in the pipeline for November. We'll be at 50 by the end of December. And like now our reputation is growing and growing. And now we're getting people. They're like, hey, my friend started

doing property management or hey, you rented my buddy's villa. Can you rent our villa? So our team is incredible in the back end. Our, dude, our processes are, they're obsessive as like the least explanation. They're obsessive. So you've taken your real estate business as originally you were an agent and then it was a team and you became a coach and now you've like owned and run it some businesses and you've found some really cool opportunities in other places I think are pretty unique I think a lot of agents do kind of become property managers or short-term rental managers but the I guess the last part of this podcast I want to focus on or you know the individual agents right now you have helped lots of agents succeed

and like, what is the, if somebody comes to you today and they're looking for you to help coach them and they're like, hey, you know, I feel like my business is stagnant. I did, you know, 20 deals a couple years ago. I did 20 deals last year and I've only got 10 on the books so far this year. It's a lot harder than it used to be, you know, essentially like they come in and they say, what should I do? So what do you see agents right now that, are successful and not necessarily with the, you know, I like the idea of finding investment properties and then buying them yourselves with the team and things like that. But for people that are trying to just increase their agent business, what's the best advice you can give them right now,

either on the buyer or the seller side? Yeah, it's a great question, dude. And I have a lot of these clients, I still run the coaching business. That's still my primary. The other stuff's a side hustle, even though it seems like it's not a side hustle with almost 50 properties. It's a side hustle. So every business is a formula. It's all formulaic. Businesses don't have emotions or feelings. It's all a math problem. If you work the math problem in the correct manner,

and you are the one variable that is incorporated into every component in that formula, and you're dialed in, it works. And it'll hit whatever goal you want. So we have to start breaking it down. Number one, are you consistent in your activities, period? most agents will answer honestly that they're not so we have to start looking at that do you have a unique value that you offer the market it is mad let's start that one at the beginning so like for lead gen whether they're door knocking whether they're cold calling whether they're texting or

sending out mailers whatever method they're doing the first question is are you consistent right and the next question are you doing it all the time yeah are you tracking your your metrics and course correcting when need be Cool. So are you consistent at your lead gen, whatever that is, whether it's Instagram posts, outbound calls, whatever. And then two, are you tracking it? Are you saying this is how much effort I did this week? And this is what my ROI is this week. And when the market slows down, our ROI will go down. But it doesn't mean that sort of the business stops working. You know, unless volume is happening. Yeah. All right. So first it's like, are you consistent and

Are you tracking? All right, keep going. But at the end of the day, like, let's say if you're in the same lead gen field, if you're working your database and you're completely database driven like we were, we're 95% database driven. Like, what is your tactic that you're using to consistently work that database? Is that tactic actually effective? And that you'll get those numbers from tracking, right?

You'll get that from like, I made this many calls or sent this many text or this many DMs and this many people got back to me and I booked this many appointments and I got this many prospects and client like your whole pipeline. You have to know that, especially in today's market, today's industry. This industry, in my opinion, is going to get, it's going to shake up so much that most agents are going to fall. They're going to fall by the wayside, worse than they ever have before because they just don't have a solid foundation to stand on. When you understand the tactics that you're working for your lead gem, you're practicing your scripts and you're understanding how to show up and how to serve someone, not serve yourself, not look for the next commission

check, but really serve somebody's needs. You understand your value proposition and what value you actually offered to the market, especially in a market like yours, dude, that is the craziest market I've seen ever right now in Austin. I have a bunch of agents that I work with where shit's just not moving. It's just not moving. We went back to the beginning and they said, okay, what's the brand look like, what's the messaging, what's the value proposition we're offering people because other agents are going to fall by? What's our tracking metrics? Are we staying consistent? Does our, method of lead gen still work? And our businesses out there are all events based. They're all events based, which is fun. It's not your traditional like, hey, you want to buy or sell? I want to

throw up thinking about that. And it turns out, yes, they do work. And yes, we're getting a lot of referrals from that. So our metrics are good. The market is just stagnant. like worse than I've ever seen. So there's sometimes where you just got to accept the fact that like it is what it is. It just is what it is. So all that stuff, that's what you got to look at first. Then the next thing is, do you have a trackable system and process for your business? Do you understand how you made it successful the last two years when you sold those 20 deals a year?

Do you understand how that happened? And could you repeat that? like word for word to me or to train somebody, like if you were going to go away, could you train someone in exactly the right steps that you took to sell that business or to close that business or those deals? Again, most agents do not have the consistency,

the value proposition, the strategy that really is working, the tracking method, or the process documentation to understand the repeatability of it. So one of the things that we work on with agents, who, like, I work with agents in LA who have $100 million businesses that are in debt because they're blowing every dime because they don't have a financial process. They don't have a reinvestment process. They don't understand how they sell. Like, these are single agents doing 50 to $100 million.

Now, that's the price point. But once they understand this is how I do this, that's when an admin can come in and start taking stuff off your plate. That's when a buyer agent can come in or a showing agent could come in and you can teach and train them your exact ways. The leader's job is to is to set expectations and hold accountability, not manage. You want to get self-managed people with great attitudes who are coachable. I want to set my expectations and just hold accountability based on metrics every week. That's all I want to do. And that's what I do today. So just those things that I mentioned guaranteed that most agents, because I when I speak, like I've spoken all over the world in the last year, thousands of agents I've talked to, they're not hitting on all those cylinders. And you have to

hit on all those cylinders. So are you consistent? Are you tracking? At that point, you're like, what is my ROI? And then you want to break up those steps into like, what's every step of this? Lead gen or listing or writing offers or going through closing or meeting with inspectors. Here's all the different things I do. And then start to see if there's stuff that maybe some other admins can help you with. And the stuff they can't help you with can help you. you scale. How did you grow your database when you started? So an agent comes in right now and says, I don't have a database. Ian's talking about I need a database, but I don't have a database. How do I start? Yeah, remember, I'm a massive introvert. I don't want to talk to people. That's the last

thing I want to do. I want to sit in my room and just be an introvert. But I know that there's a part of my personality and a part of my job that I have to go out there. So my dad taught me the top-down method versus the bottom up method where the bottom up method is like go meet 50 million people at a company and hopefully one of them will get you to the next wrong up and the next wrong up and eventually meet the boss so i just went to the bosses and i started going up and down uh same thing i did in my dad's business to to be uh very successful in my 20s um i just went to restaurants and i would eat with my friends like breakfast with my friends or something and i would ask the server to uh if the owner was there And then I would ask the owner, send the owner over.

And what's an owner think when he gets requested to a table? It's going to be negative. So the moment, so what I did during the, this sounds crazy coming, like in my head right now, like saying it. It sounds crazy. But it was, it's my obsession, man. I love it. So I would write down every positive thing I thought was great about the restaurant, the service, the food, the way they played it, the way they serve it. And when the owner would come over, you could, you could, you could.

see they're always defensive, like consistently defensive. They're like, hi, you needed to see me, right? Immediately they're like getting some bark back from some Karen. And I'm like, hey, man, I just, you know, I know you probably don't get this a lot, but I just wanted to compliment you on the incredible business that you're running here. I actually wrote down a bunch of things that I really enjoy and I just want you to know that just in case you're getting shit on all day. Like, I want you to know how great I think this is.

And I'm a business owner too. Never would I tell them I'm a real estate agent. Dude, the level of, of like peace in this person and enjoyment and energy and happiness when I'm spinning through my list. I'm like, your server, amazing. She greeted us within a minute. She put the plates down softly. She made sure that the napkins were folded and straight.

Like, this is a place I love, right? Leave it alone. I'd come back the next week with a book, like the one thing or seven habits of an team or whatever, five habits, whatever it is. And I'd say, hey, bro, remember I came in last week? Oh, Ian, yeah. Not one time did they forget my name? Not one time. And they still don't know I'm a real estate agent. And I say, hey, bro, I read this book. You're running such a great business here. This one improved my business. And I think I was running a great business too. I just wanted to give you a copy. I bought a bunch of copies for people that I like in the community. I just want to leave this

with you, right? Week two. Week three, go back, have lunch. Call them back over. Another compliment. Hey bro, did you read that book? I'd love to just sit down and chat with you about it. I'm like, I don't have anybody in a book club, and I just want to get feedback. So you want to see what your thoughts were as a successful business owner. Compliment, compliment, compliment, stroke, stroke. And then without fail, that third time or the fourth time, because I tracked this,

they would ask me, what do you do? Are you a business consultant? I'm like, no, I'm a real estate agent. They're like, what? It's like you're a business consultant. I'm like, no, I just admire great business. As a real estate agent, like I still can admire great businesses. I'm a fan of great business. And you run a great business. And I just wanted you to know that. And I don't want to push my real

estate stuff. I don't have an agenda. I just wanted you to know that you're running a good business. And I'm sure you got the stuff that doesn't work and the headaches you have. And bam, bam, top down. Like the referral rain shower started. And now I've got 25 restaurants and local businesses up and down the main road in my town that are now all referring. So my lead gen every day, which is make my rounds, five businesses a day. And I would just sit there. Like I would have lunch at one, or before lunch, sorry, like there's a diner up the street. I would have breakfast, but after like 10 o'clock, when the whole crowd's gone and they're prepping for lunch and the restaurant's quiet and the locals are there, like the local locals. And they would come out,

Hey, Brett, hey, Ted, hey, Ryan. This is a great real estate agent I was telling you about. You got to meet him. Sign, sign, sign. Like, it was like clockwork, man. It was awesome. And that was my main lead gen strategy. And then in addition to events.

So that's how I grew my database extremely fast. Wow. Well, man, I think there's a lot of stuff in there. As we close this out, you do have something to put on our free gifts. If people go to go to the website and sign up for the toolbox, what do you put in the toolbox? So like I mentioned earlier, your business grows to the extent that you do. So if your business isn't getting you the results that you want, if you're not getting the results from your business that you know are possible or that you're capable of getting, the first place you look is you. It's you. You're the main cog in the wheel. You're the main operator of the machinery. It's you. And so the irreplaceable leader assessment that I'm putting in there is a great way for people to get illumination and awareness around how they actually show up as this potentially inauthentic or replace. version of them, which is what I described in the beginning, this person that I just like facade that I had to put on. And maybe your family and your employees are getting that. So the replaceable

leader assessment is to identify how you show up. And then from there, people need more. I got more free, you know, exercises and assessments and stuff like that. But dude, I love what I do. I love the life. Like all of our businesses are growing really well. I'm getting paid to go speak around the world about real estate and investing and business building and St. Martin is our baby now and it's like just freaking incredible man to take a business trip to the Caribbean every month and stay in these like multi-million dollar villas as we as we furnish them and build them out like and then meet the clientele that comes from them and that gets added to my database. I found my stride. I found my like real happy place in real estate. Well, that sounds. That sounds like that sounds

a lot of fun man 12 years later 12 years after becoming an agent that's why we get to have a lot of the evolution and the things if people want to follow up with you more ian what's the best way they can find you at ian lobos l-obas on instagram or um ian at irreplaceable leader dot com super simple cool well ian thanks as always it's always fun getting a chat and catch up with you the love your stories and the history of the stuff you've been able to build i'm sure i will see you soon but thanks for coming on the pod of course brother real estate rock stars thank you for for having me back. This is Aaron and Mucostegi. As always, thanks for listening. This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts,

visit c-sweetradio.com.