KGCI: Real Estate on Air - The Leadership Gap, Radical Responsibility & Building a Winning Culture with Blake Sloan

Episode Date: November 22, 2025

Friday Focus is your weekly mini-series from KGCI Real Estate On Air—a deep dive into one theme, broken into tactical, easy-to-implement episodes. Every Friday and Saturday, we unpack the strategies, scripts, and systems agents use to win more business—without the fluff.Catch every episode in the series to get the full picture, and put these moves into play by Monday.Summary: In this insightful episode, we sit down with industry leader Blake Sloan to tackle the critical challenge of The Leadership Gap in business today. Blake shares his powerful philosophy built on radical responsibility, revealing how top-tier success hinges not on external factors, but on taking 100% ownership of your outcomes. Learn his blueprint for cultivating a winning culture—one where high standards, clear accountability, and a shared vision empower every team member to perform at an elite level. This is a masterclass for leaders and entrepreneurs ready to stop making excuses and start building an empire.  Ready for more? Subscribe to KGCI Real Estate On Air and grab the Always Free Real Estate On Air Mobile App for iPhone and Android. Inside, you’ll find our complete archive, 24/7 stream, and every Friday Focus mini-series—ready when you are.

Tactical, focused, just like a top producer. Here's a sample from this week's Friday focus on KGCI, real estate on air. 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. Get ready to think bigger and transform your business into a path to lasting freedom. What is happening to everybody, man? Thank you guys.

tuning in to another episode of one big fire and we've got a massive fire coming in the house today. I am super excited for today's conversation. A very dear friend and one and only Mr. Blake Sloan in the house with us. What is happening fellas? What's up, my brother? What's up, man? Glad to be here. Got to hang with you guys a little bit? Yeah, man. Always love talking. Yeah, it's, it is, man. I always get fired up and it's always great, great conversation and just super excited to jump in and you know coming out of labor day and and you know all of us kind of hitting that point in reset statistically right this is where everybody gets dialed back in for the next couple months September and October and which in real

estate tends to lead why most agents have a really good you know November before the holiday season and you know definitely definitely no different in in all aspects so I'm excited to jump into that. But, you know, Al, you know, coming out of, kind of coming out of this, this weekend, Labor Day weekend, I know you had some thoughts around it that wanted to kind of share before we really jump into Blake's story. Well, yeah, man. And it really kind of goes to Blake. I was actually just thinking to myself, the first time I met Blake was in 2010 at EGS. And we were all much younger than, especially Blake. Especially Blake. He's got this, you know, $1,000. He's got this, you know, $1,000, $2,000 suit on.

I mean, that's how I met this kid. And he was on the panel. And I'm, this is my first time. And I didn't even know you, Jay. I didn't know John. I didn't know anybody. I flew down there by myself. And I said, and then we went, we went to the bar afterwards.

And I seen Blake walking around. I was a little intimidated, man. I'll be honest. I was like, I don't know if I, he's pretty intense. And, and, you know, what was really cool is that's kind of like the beginning of, at least my part of the beginning of the journey and me. meeting you and watching you that was 15 years ago guys 15 years ago and it made me think about work because man the one thing I've always watched is that we're all hard workers but watching

you Blake I mean I remember on stage you declared I'm I'm gonna be driving a mazorati next year like you said it and I'm like this punk thinking you're driving a mazorati know you had it like three months after that but yeah work is just something that we've done man it's something we've embodied as our culture and of course coming out of labor day i found this cool quote by cahill gil brann i don't even know who that is but he said that work is love made visible every conversation every connection every follow-up we make is more than just a task it's a chance to show love through action and there's like that made me thinking you blake because i mean you're growing a beautiful family we've been we've been we've

literally traveled all over the world and you've grown this amazing empire in Myrtle Beach, arguably one of the one of the toughest markets, you know, with a high average sale price right now, a lot of big 50% fallout rate. And, um, and yet you still win. And I believe it's because you have focused on, on your leadership and, and what's going on between your ears since I've met you. And, and you just keep challenging yourself and getting better and better. So, I appreciate you being on here, but, you know, what, what would you say if you're kind of pointing back at your leadership journey? Because we know you're going to be speaking at the agent of CEO in Cleveland.

If you don't have your ticket, the link there, you're going to see this guy live and he's going to blow your mind. But like, kind of looking back at work and your focus and what you've done to build this, this kingdom that you've built in Merrill Beach, like what would be the one turning point from a mindset standpoint that changed everything? as a leader. Yeah, that's a great question. I actually just taught on this this morning, our weekly team meeting a little bit, just about like what's separating everybody right now in the marketplace. And you're watching as a market, obviously, it's difficult right now, right?

Difficult across the country for everybody. But I'm noticing, though, is like as if as buyers have gotten more hard to close, right, they're more resistant when they want, sellers think their property's worth more. The gap has been widening between buyers and sellers. But what's happening is that personal development gap for agents has just gotten wider. And so, the ones who are obsessed with growing the work and being in love with the work on themselves and growing the man or the woman are the ones that are seeing results in their winning most people are just kind of staying in that status quo but like back to that turning point you mentioned um i was talking about this today in a way just before the podcast i

was thinking about it and jay used talk about this thing will be a long time because jay was i think it was one of your de first like kinderrease coaching client or something we met at correct proctor back in the day but he said hey man we got to live a few years of our lives unlike everyone else we can live the rest of our life unlike everyone else and that leadership came from developing ourselves and be obsessed with like person development we used to always send pictures at 5 a.m. like reading books and doing all these things and so like now that has continued on i was talking my team i was like hey if you're struggling right now raise your hand if you spent over five hours in person development last week and only like two people raise your hand which is like

really pissed me off i'm like dude what the hell market has widened the skill gap has widened and uh It's really creating this massive gap for agents right now. And even team leaders, right? They're still operating like it was 2021, 2021, 2022, and they're getting their ass kick. And I'd tell you, man, like, it's been hard for me this year. But I was just telling my team, I was actually sharing that the gratitude. And last week I taught my team this, I said, look, I want you guys a little bit. That pain is a gift from God.

And I told them, I said, pain right now is the only thing that's going to make you change, do the shit you know you do you've been avoiding. And so we talked about that. And I went back and, like, did a gratitude stack, a journal on it. and like I've grown more this year since February than I probably have in the last 10 10 years at least and because it's been difficult I've had the changes we've had the challenge I've had five different coaches in every part of life physical I lost 24 pounds in the last four months doubling down on body every single macro dialed in because I'm like dude this is

fucking game this is like wartime right and so I've been leading from the front of our team but most of that up every morning study and reading up every morning journaling talking to God every night doing my my my cardio reading listening going back through old school stuff man went back to like grant cardone university all kind of stuff like so i can make sure i'm able to bridge that leadership gap right now that we're seeing as team leaders where everyone's kind of getting stuck back and just living the status quo and i just kind of shared my team today too of like look man here's the deal everybody overcomplicates this uh in my my way everybody's just overcomicating and the reality comes down if i'm willing to do what others are not willing to do

right now i'm going to have what other people are going to have that's simple but we're over complicating it. So if I'm doing the same thing your about it and just reading a couple of books here and there or just getting up when I feel like it or not studying, not investing, not have a personal development. Like, they're not going to have anything different than everybody else is and the masses are getting their ass with right now.

So that's just kind of what we're doubling down on. Love it. Wow, man. Dude, that blew me away on so many levels and I connect on a lot of those because I'm on that same journey. You know, making big changes. Decided getting up way earlier than I've

ever gotten up getting my my readings in opening you know listening to the bible verses filling my brain with the right stuff what it actually made me and i actually reminds me a john we all know when we think of john we think of coach and we think of insane crazy runner running a hundred mile races and and he didn't start doing a hundred mile races he started out you know maybe doing a 5k or whatever what you kind of described was the foundation that you built when you're talking to your agents. They're like, yeah, we're not really doing a whole lot of personal development. Every week, like, this is a, Jay, everyone that's on this, we've been doing this for so long that we have this foundation we're building off of. We're not just, yes, we might be

making some new changes right now, but we're building them off of the foundation that we've been building. And a lot of that goes to you, John and Jay, because they coached us, right? Like, they coached us when, you know, and taught us, you know, and connected us with the right people in the right rooms um so man thanks for sharing it yeah you know it's it's pretty crazy too right blake as you as you come you know come back around and um i'm pretty sure most of us have tapped into uh ben hardy's new book the science of scaling and that's the the scaling framework right impossible goal impossible timeline but then you got to raise the floor and it feels like kind of when i was listening to you i was i was kind of processing through his his framework is that

you've essentially raised the floor for yourself. Looking at kind of the foundation, because I think this would be really useful for people that will tune in and listen to this conversation. What is that floor? Like what is what we say personal development and, you know, you're talking, you know, the fitness, you know, you're talking, you know, the mental, the spiritual, you know, emotional, everything, business wise. And, you know, what, what is that floor?

what is the personal development that you're referring to that you're pushing out to to your team as a leader yeah that's a great question and it's so like last couple years been to great i'm ever since we've been i think al said it's been a foundation for us and i even shared my team as when it look like for me it's hard i can't wrap my head or anybody that like i just i've been doing for so long it's like i can't wrap my head around getting my ass whip for six straight months and not learning not trying to like study some stuff or figure out like i just call people like even like on our you know like uh listening team or just getting crushed by sellers or price you how i'm like well how have you logged in and watch the programs well no what's the logging like dude it's just but back to that point john is

i had this aha of like i could just see things shifted i could feel a shifting the pain was kind of escalating i'm like all right i got to double down i've been kind of comfortable for a while and you know we're talking about traveling the last two years i travel one week a month for the last two years in business is still pretty good right and i was still comfortable but i was still growing and had coaches and doing all the stuff but like something like i'm like this is like an oh shit moment for me. Something switched and I doubled down business coaching, spiritual coaching, relationship coach with my wife, physical coach, in terms of my body and that accountability. But a lot of that came through doubling down on my body.

John, you obviously wear this too, of like, man, you push that mental piece. It really kind of like you eat the same meal every day for four months. You don't have any frigging sympathy for anybody who can't show up and make some phone calls, right? Like it's just a small, like, little details of like how you do anything, how you do everything. And so for me, it's just, it's been spiritual journey. It's been a business journey. It's been a capacity journey through pain and betrayal and all these issues that you kind of go through.

And as a team leader and a business owner, and it's really how me just grow fashion. I've really grown, I said, in at least a decade. And so I've been hitting all different areas, man. It's been, it's been wild and it's been powerful in terms of the significant, the certainty I've been able to build, the confidence has been able to build and just kind of push through what I feel is a very, very difficult market. no one's really talking about. Yeah, it really is. It really is a challenge. And we talk about the, like you had mentioned, the gap is widening. And we've talked, you know, on, you know, the one big

fire last, last few weeks going back to, you know, 2013, 2014 with the, you know, expert advisor positioning and the gap of the AFA, right? And it's just more and more and more. And we're definitely also, to me, that foundation of personal development, but as we're in the AI-driven error, you know, how are you as a leader, you know, not letting, you know, your agents get consumed with fear, with possibly, you know, how is AI going to replace us or how is AI going to make things easier for me to still not lose focus of the habits that are absolutely critical as we navigate into the AI-driven era? That's a great question, dude. That's so funny. I just taught this same Tuesday meeting, I did a balance of both. So one was like, we have three main

things that really, you know, are making a difference right now. Number one, radical personal responsibility. I talked about that. Like, no matter where you have, what's going on, where you have, you have to have radical personal responsibility. Like, is it the market is down and the seller's crazy? Or is there other people that are closing deals and getting stuff under contract? So if they are getting it done, then you should go to get it done, right? And there's just a great piece there. The second, obviously, is the personal development piece. you have to make sure you're doing personal development to bridge the gap of what's happening because here's why as there's massive resistance in the marketplace you have to have people are craving that personal connection even with AI and the tools and stuff we have which I taught that separate and you have to make sure you're able to go in access and use sales IQ to access the pain expand the pain that's how you're able to reduce resistance in the current marketplace is going super deep on what their pain is what their real reason because everybody's you know I'm just looking but they're really not just looking right I'm just just one of my house is worth I'm not really really thinking about selling, but they have somebody over their house to potentially

list it, right? You have to see through that defense mechanism they have right now and the resistance they have to really unlock that and get them to move in a very high resistance marketplace overall. And three just massive contribution to your clients, to your team to kind of push through. But then the other side of that, I've been reading that AI driven leader. I knew you read it recently too. That just kind of talks about like using that for strategic thinking, for guidance, for help and going deeper. And so the second part of our meeting, we taught about that of like, look, here's the best ways to use it. Here's how to make great decisions.

Here's how we go deeper in having a interview you to get a much better context in terms of what it's doing. And so that's how you've been alternating both of those. And I've noticed like most agents and people and leaders are just using service level, right? They're not going deeper. They're just talking, having brief light conversations instead of utilizing the actual tools. But the key part is that's not going to save you. You have to go back to the fundamentals and go deep and have high level of sales IQ right now

to really unpack what the true pain and true. reasons are that people are wanting to move so we can get them to take action they know they need to i think jay knows something about that rabbit hole ai and oh yeah oh yeah yeah no it's it's it's fascinating but i know you know it's it's up level and skill man like you know the what you're saying blake i went through at a super high level in my own into my own marketplace and you know when people don't you know you know there's if you don't uncover the pain and get in and get and get and really get them to share what happens if this if you don't do this what does that mean what is that going to mean like all of those things are things that you know we've developed those skills over years and years of beating on our craft um but teaching people how to get better at that it's just so much easier now with chat gpte because you can take this and go down a rabbit hole on how do i how do i overcome resistance with a seller in this situation you know you there's so much more personal information you can bring in to it now easier gather the information and find out about them so you can build rapport

easier and make that connection like there's so many ways that you can integrate it and make things easier for you um it's just you know for those that are seeking and and trying to get better it's easier i think now to get better than it was when you know with us it was repetition you know yeah well i remember like you would take uh every every conference you would or you would travel dude you would take two suitcases one was like your actual suitcase you were closed and the other suitcase was like your books and your CDs and stuff that like your studying stuff right that's crazy that was a big lesson I learned from you too of like look even travel dude I'm taking my personal development tools and my items and things with me now it's just like

you know right here but still right yeah yeah but now you got that now it now you've got that all literally every mentor you could ever imagine every book you've ever ever could read you get specific to your situation in your pocket I mean there's no problem you can't solve and you can't figure out. So it's very empowering when you realize how much access to information instantly that you have to whatever problem it is, whether it's, you know, even little things like, you know, the song, you know, like, you know, you got somebody you're trying, you know, trying to recruit, you can create a song and send it to them.

Like little, little, just so many little things and ideas and angles that you can use AI to do things that are going to help you, depending on, you know, you just have to be willing to test and try it, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And one thing I noticed, too, is that a lot of people just, they're, they're, you got to teach them how to think, right? Teach them how to prompt the right way and how to reverse engineer.

Those people are just, they're just not great at writing. And so you have to kind of, here's the way you think through it. Here's how you sound this certain, you know, context roles, you know, all the stuff to do. But then, like you said, how do I reverse engine the problem to make it actually go deep enough where I can get leverage on the seller or the buyer or the client, whatever it is, and get what you want. And that was something.

I think it's been an eye-opening thing for me is teaching that to people so they can think the way they need to think to get the result. They need to result in the back end. Yeah. I always try to. My prompts are sometimes that like I'm just like, okay, here's what I'm trying to do. And here's the situation. Here's this. I give it everything.

Like if I was sitting down with J Bram and I had to explain to him what it is I'm trying to do, that's how I try to explain to the chat GPT. And so that, you know, giving it all that content. I have broke it a few times. I don't know if you've run into this, but you can break this somebody. That's for sure. Just yesterday I just said I'm out of, I'm out of memory or I'm like, what do you mean? I'm out of memory. So I got to upgrade my thing.

But what you guys were just talking about, what popped into my head was when it clicked for me, and this is more like a spiritual lesson. And, you know, I told John and Jay, the book that I'm real deep. In fact, I just finished it. And now I'm on the next kind of version of it. It's the lecture series on the untethered soul. best book I've ever read in my life hands down and I'm about to reread it but they have the lecture series on it one of the many lessons in it is letting go and just and just stop resisting and I'll tell you

this that is the opposite of what I did for the first 20 plus years of my career man it was all about there was it was all about force force and the power versus force is a whole other you know great book and everything but when you understand the distinction between the two and it's tough too but like letting it what's going to happen is what's going to happen the the part that i will i will make a bold statement and say for you know some of the success that i've seen i've had a zero in the spirituality category every time i took the test the five the five um you know circles of life whatever like that was just always a big goosey for me and i you know i I was, I'm a recovering Catholic and everything like that, was altar boy, all that.

I didn't get that spiritual part. That book helped me. And now what's amazing is the dots that it connects for business, for relationships, from being able to communicate at a higher level and solve conflict. And I just didn't get it for so long. I'm glad you had said, you know, you got the spiritual coach. You know, John introduced me to Dr. Matt, who's been life changing for me. I think going back to the AI conversation, for me, the biggest thing was being able to get vulnerable with the AI.

When you're able to just let it go and let it flow into there is where you're going to see the biggest results as far as you're, you know, like, dang, you start to grow as a person when you're able to do it like that. And that's what I've been really, you know, seeing as far as from a leadership standpoint. Hey, before we move on, every great business strategy starts with one question. What's really holding us back? If you're not sure how to answer that, take five minutes and complete the growth score assessment. It gives you insight into the eight areas that drive growth and will show you exactly where to focus to increase revenue, improve operations, and grow with confidence. Go to my growth score.com and take the assessment now. Now back to the show.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that, you know, the thinking component to it, right, is so, so important to be able to understand. But where I think thinking better and accurately comes in is grown through pain. And it's the tough challenges and the things that we sometimes knucklehead ourselves into, right, to navigate and work through. But also some of the tough things that we just force ourselves to do, right? that's like for me where we're running is right now is just pushing the boundaries of of like exploring you know the level of pain just because i've seen the correlation that everything else is is not painful stuff that people lose sleep and and you know tend to do harm like doesn't even really phase when you're when you're able to to understand and work through but also i think to thinking and questions to ask and who to pay attention to and consume and the coach is when you know what the problem is. And I love what you said about radically transparent. That's Al's

100.0. That's, you know, own the outcome, whatever frame that you want to use. And when you can just take responsibility and understand that, hey, I, I cause this, right? In some aspect, it might not be 100% my fault, but I cause this. It's 100% on me. And then that, to me allows where to start working and what to start consuming and what questions to start asking because too many times right what did what did jay always tell us you know is it you know intellectual entertainment or is it really helping you you know solve and navigate the problems that you're trying to trying to solve yeah so let me share i'm not this this is me being vulnerable I'm afraid I shouldn't even do this, but so this is, let me find the right one, mindset coaching tips.

So, so I'm going to start. So this is me talking to chat in CPT about Riggs. I'm having hell getting my kids to understead mindset. As you know, we came to agreement on core values and watch motivation movies. So I'm going through like this whole thing with it, right? And then so this is what it said. Got it. Here's the strange truth.

You're trying to teach an 11-year-old the mindset of a Navy SEAL. yeah right so i'm like like i was laying in bed and i was like man like like i've got to figure it out because i because i lost it i mean he triggered me with with with complaining about something after football practice because he dropped a couple passes and i'm like bro you got to suck before you get better that's the process like that's we know this we watch motivational videos every night we had no and so so it helped me though like we were watching them in the morning watching him at night. Then we went to watching them, writing down your takeaways. How are you going to apply it? What are the commitments you're going to make? Like, and getting, you know, then watching

them, like, I went from watching Riggs not work on his handles left handed when he knows he needs to to all day long because he picked the time the next day he was going to do it by. He came home from school and he's like, man, I thought about it all day to day at school. He's like, I decided I'm just going to do it. Like, I didn't have to tell him, right? And so like, but, but for me as a leader trying to lead these monkeys i'm like man i can't go to sleep tonight knowing that i could go get the answer or how i could be better i can't just go to sleep and not not try to go get better right like that's not in me and so now i'm a wet get up and i'm like type it all up it gives me this whole plan on how to approach it the next day implement the plan right like it's just it's crazy how

no matter what problem you have if you leverage ai to help you it don't matter if it's with your wife with personal spiritual money whatever it is i use it for everything and it's just been it's been it's changed my life like you know it's not like i got to go buy this one book and read this one book to get that one idea like i can get it all in a breakdown in a checklist and a spreadsheet and like you know the whole thing done for you hey would you like for me to put that in a spreadsheet so you can track it every day like oh okay yeah that sounds good i didn't think of that but it's just it's been it's been fascinating how much better you can get you know at anything instantly like i feel like we have all our mentors in our pocket now yeah dude

what you just described is the gap that's the new gap right right and i think i think the key part though is like we've sent years and years and years stripping away layers and layers of just the bullshit right and like i find that the more radical responsibility you have the more truthful you are and the less lies you tell yourself the more clarity you can have in the pain or the actual problem, right, where a lot of people tend to avoid the problem and just create a story to justify their situation. You have to be real and raw with yourself, right? We call it in our office, SFL. Like, stop fucking lying, right? To make sure you have the truth. There's, there's the reality, right? And there's a fact and there's a truth. People tend to twist the

reality to match the truth they want. You have to get to the fact so that you can give the right information, the right data to get the right output. And it's just saying ourselves in our own mind or, you know, our human intelligence or the artificial intelligence, the same thing, the same principles. And I think that's something that we spent decades, you know, of perfecting of just being real ourselves and get real the problem. And that allows you to get so much faster response and growth. But like you got another pain, like John said. And one of the best quotes I got was from Garrett White. You said, when I know your pain better than you do, I own your mind for life. And I was like, man, that was like, that really hit me. And I think about that a lot because

most people, like most people have pain, but they can't put the worst of the pain to help them figure out and get out their own way. Right. And so the more we you help them get clarity on that the more you can help them move and I think that's where like the true gift comes right now in sales and leadership and yourself of like how do I put to words and then you said you guys AI now to help go through the question interview of like helping me put what I'm feeling into words and boom now I can get the outcome I want or the plan I want at least right yeah right so getting people to understand their pain like that you know they they they mask it and it's hard to get it's hard to get to that point where people are how do you get how do you get

how do you how do you how do you how do you help people see that it's not true like without without them resisting and getting defensive and wanting to make you know what they want to own all those excuses how do you how do you break through that barrier so with our team wise right like number one started to getting vulnerable me being vulnerable and like you know being vulnerable with myself and things I've gone through and things I'm going through and just share my my shit sometimes right but number two the the the first and we tell this like phase one is we call it live by the code right And this is some stuff from like the warrior things that we do. But it's like, I got to live by that code, meaning I tell the truth, no matter how painful it is, right?

I look at the facts, not how I feel. And most people live in feelings instead of facts, right? But facts are the only thing that allows you to dig yourself out and have that radical personal responsibility where I own everything. And back to 100 to zero. But even if it's like, you know, I was still an example like today, like, hey, so it's on, you know, on their third or fourth divorce, they could have four crazy wives or they could be the problem, right? in terms of how do I and even though let's say that the four wives were crazy it's still their fault for picking four crazy women right so like you have to have that ability to pull that in and say okay what am I doing and how do I have that radical responsibility but one as leader starts myself we just got to preach it over and it takes time man like people have been conditioned their whole life to to create stories and to justify for protection right of their ego and themselves and to try to have some status in in their culture and so we have to strip that away because that's the ultimate power I think in today's world is anybody can stand in that truth and have no skeletons in the closet and they can have all that internal power because they can deal with themselves. And now when I don't give that power to

somebody else, I can change the outcome. But if I blame my childhood or my parents or my spouse or friends, I can never change the outcome. I just gave all the power to them. And that's where they feel helpless. Right. Oh, that's good, man. That's good. One of the things that I, that I picked up on with my kids in doing this has been if they don't do the work, work, getting them to think about what were the thoughts that they had and understanding that the only reason it didn't happen was because you talked yourself out of doing something you knew you should do too, right? So like, like, paying attention to the internal and your internal voice and realizing it's

not because you didn't want to do it or you didn't want to do it. You know, you said you were going to, you committed. You said you were going to do it. What did you say to yourself? How is your mind controlling you to not do the things you're supposed to do? pay attention that's as much of the lesson as the at you actually did the work right is that when you didn't do it you you learn something about how you talked yourself out of it and that that is something you have control over and so man it's it's fascinating man it's fascinating but

kids kids are a different level apparently i'm a little too intense cord to chat gbt but um you know we all try to learn i mean back to what you say our minds it are are are the problem because it's our are our ego and we all manipulate we manipulate ourselves into thinking or you know making making making an excuse even if it's just internally not externally or whatever and that's what I learned is like you know one of the things that the doctor Matt had said is that when you find yourself in this it's having that awareness to stop and step into the spirit yeah and let it flow then now you're you're observing it from from from a spiritual standpoint and you're looking at you like dude i'm making a i'm making a fucking excuse right now stop i wrote it down dude stop fucking lying

when the the sFL when you guys are you know when you say that you're referring to yourselves not lying to other people right like and you're both right we manipulate yourself right you lie to yourself more than anybody right and that that's what jay was saying to it and if the way to really unpack it is you always got to look at the story what's the story I'm telling myself because the story is always a justification, right? The story that the reason that the because or, you know, the this or that the story around it is what ultimately is the way that you can lead yourself out, but you've got to be able to identify this story and say, okay, is this fact or feeling? And then ultimately, how do I go back and reframe that story is something

that's more powerful? It's like, Jason, like, you know, with Riggs, like, what's the story telling itself to let himself off the hook? That's where the key piece of leverage is, right? And if you can teach them how to uncover that faster and correct that faster and how do I create a powerful a more powerful story that can lead me out of that hesitation or whatever it is that's how you find the action mode but yeah I mean it takes a lot of personal work like you said it takes a internal out but it's like you said ala first thing I thought that's my team all the time and one you got to realize it right you got a pause and just like okay I call myself out my own stuff and two give those around your permission to call you out like Kaylee keep causing me out all the time

I'm like that's a that's a great story I'm like that is a good story I like that story you know it's like uh but listen man i wrote that story that's a good one was that dude what i want to put out like to like you know the the all of this that that you're doing for your team and it's a culture you created like you created a culture where it's okay to hold each other accountable which i think accountability is the highest form of love right like y'all live by these values

and you i know you live by them by day by night and you're no different no matter where you're at you live by these values and you created a culture where it's not okay to not be like that and and that's why you've been so successful it's why you won it's one of the most profitable teams that that exist in in real estate today is your team in Myrtle Beach and and it would not be that if it wasn't for the culture that you've built around these principles that that's what allows it to happen there's no other way to get there and so like you you know you've you've done what i for me from the outside look looking in having us looked under the hoods of thousands of of these vehicles this this is the

machine and you have laid the foundation as perfectly as one could be laid to do what you do so i'm proud of you brother i appreciate you guys appreciate you like building that on um building on that i i want to if you if you don't mind just unpack that just a little bit because what what jays you know culture is is not what you say or the words on the wall it's it's it's how you truly behave right you are what you are. And so for you, obviously the radical transparency, the personal development,

but what are some of the other values that you guys live by? Because this is so important for people to get, right? You know, core values drive everything. And those are our decision making filters that should, should not. And, you know,

higher fire, train, coach, lead mentor to them. What are some of your other values that you guys, you know, live by? That's a great question. I tell you, like back to that. It's hard.

You guys know, like if you, you kind of the hardest part about being a leader just holding the standard, right? And I think that without, and this is my big lesson I've learned in last year, I'll get that in second to answer that, is that if you're not recruiting consistently to the team, like you need to enough, you'll tend to be hostage, right, to these people on your team or whatever it is, and you'll tend to want to bend the rules, right? Because then all of a sudden you're worried about profitability and things go on. And so this year it's been one of my biggest lessons.

like, look, man, like, I'm living me and all of me, 100% of me and who I am. I'm leading to the front regardless of what the costs there may be. And obviously, it takes a lot of self-reflection. I'm always trying to call myself out on it and lead from the front, lead by example. But the same thing you always talk about, right? 100% of it can almost zero excuses, right? Excellence in every aspect. We live by that for our clients and things like that.

Obviously, when we talk about all the time is do the work in terms of who we are, what we do, how we do it. obviously person development is huge because I feel like that comes through when people actually do personal development they actually feel fulfillment they feel progress they feel like they're growing and we're constantly hammering on those and I was just sharing this morning because we have all this all this stuff on the wall right I'm like look if you take the three they're most important right now what's going on is number one obviously radical responsibility number two personal development number three contribution to the team people around you things that and I think you're seeing everybody who's doing this at a high level right now like that's all that really kind of matters I'm trying to like simplify it right now in this chaos with our team of like look i told me in the meeting like we're all this shit in the wall you know the three that mean the most are these right here and that's why i talk to the day i said we overcomplicate everything right now and i said back to that point i was talking about i was like if i show up the same time everybody else does guess what i'm getting the same as everybody else if i leave the same time everybody else says i'm getting the same as everybody else if i read the same amount of books everybody else i'm getting the same as everybody else i'm like y'all we

overcomplicate this shit so much all you got to do is just double it down and do more than everyone else i got to be here earlier than anybody else stay here later to anybody else read more books study more stuff role play more and just do the basics that we know we should be doing but we want to avoid that and try to overcomplicate it so we can avoid that accountability and know what we need to do and so that's what i've been hammered on lately um and i've been lean for the friday i'll show my people this picture i'm like look and i was intense today in our team meeting i was like look i don't actually i'll do any of the shit i don't do and i said the reason i can stand up here with intensity i share the picture i was like this is me last night at 10 at 9.59 p.m. walk and do my

listening to audio and training getting better while everybody else is fucking sleep in a party and whatever it else is on Labor Day. And I asked my team to say, hey, we had like six or seven you guys here, which is always like, I was like, who here can raise your hand and tell me what Labor Day is about and the history behind it? Not one person. I'm like, cool. Does anybody know?

No. One person, like, I had a guess. I'm like, no. Actually, it started by labor unions, right? In New York City to celebrate the industrial revolution and the workers in there. I was like, how many of you guys are super passionate about the Industrial Revolution? They're like, no? I'm like, well, then why the fuck are y'all taking the whole day off, not doing anything,

getting hammered, not getting better, not progressing because you're just following the masses and doing this status quo. And I said, to have power and difference in today's marketplace, you've got to be different. And that was my message this morning. And I was like, I was pretty fired about it, as you can probably tell. And they were laughing about it. Whereas our insights, the other guys are like, bro, I can't believe you just went there with the Industrial Revolution and who's passionate about it.

It's true, right? Because people are just like, you know, they're just going along doing just enough to status quo, barely enough to show up. And they can't figure out while life's not working, while they're overweight, while they're not, you know, able to be present or kids, while they're struggling. It's like, man, I was telling them, like, some of y'all have been struggling with the same objections for six months, but you won't get up early and watch some videos and tell you how to overcome it. But so, like, that's the key part about that. I think right now the big, in multiple teams I'm seeing, multiple agents I'm seeing across the country, it's that same. They've got to level up and have those three main core values. right now. I love it. I love it. Money. I can't wait to be you in Cleveland, man. You're going to

like this city up. I thought John, man. I'm just, I want to be just real and wrong. Like, we've had some pain and struggle. And we've done pretty well. Like I said, I can't, I can't remember the last time we sold less than 500-ish homes. And like, I mean, it's been a long time. And to maintain that for so long, it has been very, you know, it's difficult to do. But the reality is like, there's a lot of pain that comes with that. And a lot of stuff that look Looking back, it's like massive amounts of gifts. And I can't wait to share some of that about like why the problems that you're having are and how to really break that down and how to embrace them. One of the biggest problems that people have right now is thinking that they shouldn't have the problem and thinking that they shouldn't have the pain with the problem.

And so if they can embrace that and look at like, look, this has happened either for me, because of me, for me to be able to change. Do I need? That's where the enlightenment comes in. So I'm excited, dude. I can't wait to share about some of the stuff we've been through and the stuff I've grown through and help everybody. I think, I was telling John, a lot of people having this pain. they just aren't talking about it right i think now it's kind of talk about it so people get power from it and they can grow from it and they can shorten that learning curve instead of just ignoring

what's right in front of their face and feeling that pain yeah so good i love it man and um if everyone's listening to this like i hope that you're getting some takeaways that you know don't wait for the pain to be so intense to where you're in this dark deep hole and like you know what i mean like this is about stop fucking line like own it where you're at at this moment and and if if you know that you need to grow. I mean, if you're trying to grow your business, you have to grow personally and professionally. You've got to grow between the ears

before you're going to grow in the bank account. And this is a perfect. I got to end on this quote because it's right up this alley. And for a lot of people in our business, they get into this business to make a lot of money. I want a better life for my family. I want to make a lot of money. I mean,

nobody gets into real estate. It's like, eh, I think I want to make $50,000 a year. That's okay with it. You know, like they want to go big. And this is this line.

I don't know who the quote was. from but the highest reward for a man's toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it which is exactly what we've been talking about yeah what if that was the reward is it about it's about shifting our perception of what the outcome should be versus transformation and your experience you said more transformation since February than maybe even the last decade I feel like that in the last four weeks yeah and And so, you know, it's a gift, right? And I'll tell you, it really is, man.

If you heard anything on this podcast, I hope you wrote some writer-downers, and that's a writer-downer, so I appreciate you guys. We're going to see you in three weeks, three weeks from today in Cleveland, O'Nyle. I'm excited to run it back with you guys again, man. I love it. We had lots and lots of memories, lots and lots of growth, lots and lots of pain stories. And so I'm super excited to hang with you guys and share and learn and just kind of be a part of the great energy. Yes, man.

Looking forward to that. Agent to CEO, CLE, or you go to HoneybadgerNation.com, get your tickets, and we'll see you guys in Cleveland. Brother, appreciate you. I love you guys. We'll see you guys. We'll see you guys. We'll see you guys. Thanks for tuning in.

If you're done guessing and ready to lead like a real CEO with a custom strategy, real accountability, and proven systems, check out my executive one-on-one coaching at john kitchens.comch. Fill out the application and book your one. on one call with me. Be sure to hit follow so you never miss an episode. Catch you on the next one.