KGCI: Real Estate on Air - The Profit Engine: Transitioning from Transactional Agent to Strategic CEO

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

Summary:John Kitchens and guest Joel unpack the "Profit Engine," the fourth pillar of the Agent to CEO process. This episode moves beyond the "transactional treadmill" to provide a blueprint for building a team-driven business that isn't dependent on the owner's personal production. Listeners will learn the four core components of a scalable machine: the economic model, value proposition, marketing magnets, and service delivery. The discussion emphasizes maintaining a 30% profit margin and avoiding "half-built bridges" to ensure long-term momentum.

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? Man, excited. I'm loving this series, so pumped for the next one. Yeah, me too. And just a really good, you know, a deeper dive, a little more clarity on, you know, the, the, the, the component.

in this process. And really the process, the more, the deeper I dive and going through this and kind of being forced kind of on the project we're working on to help tell the story, had to go through this and revamp everything. And really looking at kind of the true agent to CEO process. And, you know, part one was the clarity compass. that we covered really kind of working from A to B, a real honest look at current reality.

And, you know, kind of the saying is, you know, all progress begins with telling the truth. But also charting, you know, for us to chart the course, we've got to know where we're going. And once we know where we're going, then we get to chart the course, which really is the vision framework that allows us to really truly create the soul of our company.

and what's been really instrumental in a lot of the conversations as we're talking about 26 and beyond. And I know you're conveying the same message, Joel, is like, listen, 26 has to be the fuel that puts us on the path to where we want to be in 27, 28, and 29. Like, that's the shift in moving from an agent that's stuck on the transaction treadmill to moving and actually building a business is that everything we're doing and building and building. has to be moving us in the direction to three years down the road. But we need that fuel the soul of our company because if part of our objective is to bring people in, even if it's admins, VA, support, fractional or agents, we've got to have a vision that people believe they can accomplish their dreams in and talking with agents that are that are taking their teams or they're part of, you know, vision board exercises, getting them to dream. And I'm like,

listen, you can take your team through that. But if you're pushing them to challenge their dreams, if they don't believe or know the vision for the company and if it's not big enough to where they can believe they can accomplish those dreams, he just gave them, you know, you know, the keys to to leave is essentially what you just gave them. Because they're like, I've got these big dreams that you're helping me get clear and push. But I'm seeing your vision, your dreams, and they're tiny compared to what I want. I can't be a part of this. So that's why it's so important to nail that to chart the course to have the vision.

And then last week, part three, where is where we upgrade kind of our operating system mentally, right? That's where the critical thinking component, the mental models, the way we think, those frameworks. and the stuff that you and I geek out about all the time, right, that we're talking about and how to think and think more accurately to stay out of the drift and really focus on, you know, accurate thought and accurate thinking, but having the frameworks to navigate through different scenarios. So that was part three. This week we're going to touch on part four, which is the profit engine.

So this really gets into the model that we have to have in order to really build, to build that out. So we're going to build that blueprint out. So we're going to dive into that. we're going to be off next week and then we're going to come back in week two and week three of December to hit parts five and six of the agent to CEO process. And so part five, it will be the roadmap, right? That'll be the execution roadmap.

And that's really those 90-day execution cycles that we operate within. That's our strategy. And then the final component is really the leadership flywheel. This is the magic, right? This is really, you know, to where we get to the point to where it all comes down to people. It all comes down to the team. It comes down to your life team that you have that's going to support you in executing, you know, those 90-day execution cycles within this profit engine that we're going to talk about that we've changed the way we think. We don't think like a transactional treadmill, you know, AFA, average frustrated agent, or you can put F in there for whatever you want to use it for. and then, you know, as we're in pursuit of the vision, we charted the course and we're operating with tremendous clarity from where we're at and where we want to go. So that's the process. And, you know, I look at it both ways, Joel, and I love your two cents on this before we

jump in. I've looked at it like a ladder to where you start with, you know, the destination, where are we going? what's what's this engine this profit engine what do we need to execute on every 90 days in the team that leadership flywheel built to execute on that 90 day execution within this profit engine in pursuit of the destination right so it can kind of go up and down but you could also flip it and put it into a flywheel because once you have more clarity you're knowing where you're going you've got great thinking you're implementing that in not only yourself but the people around you

you've got the right profit engine with the right execution with the right people that's going to help you get more clear that's going to then continue to you know make sure we know and amplify the soul of the company so it can also work in a flywheel or it can stack up and go kind of go up and go down. Either way is a great visual for both, but I just, I'm, I know this process is right, but the way we're kind of going about it and reframing it, it's just, I'm loving it even more. Yeah, yeah, same with me. For me, the visual that resonates with me is the flywheel. And for anybody who's not really familiar with that, it's basically an upward spiral where each component of the process fuels the next component. And it just, it gains momentum and energy as it

goes continuing to get upward. But what I like about the idea of the flywheel is, is none of these ever really stop. At a certain point, you know, some of these pieces might not take a lot of time, but it's still, I just still think it's so valuable to revisit them every 90 days. You know, the clarity compass, that might be set for a few years and it takes us a half an hour, you know, to review it. But I still think it's valuable to include it in that because it really does just continue to drive everything forward. And that flywheel ideas. is exciting. You can figure out a real flywheel. Like that's, you know, that's kind of a business dream. So I love that. Yeah. Visual. I could go with that. I can fall more in love with that too

as well because it's the one thing that we talk about, it's always about building momentum. And the faster that flywheel is turning, the more momentum you have. And I'm also going to tell you guys listening into this, if you have momentum, it is the number one thing you never want to lose. because if you lose momentum, it's 10 times harder to get it back going than what it was to get it. It's the whole thing. It's easier to stay in shape than to get in shape. It's easier to maintain momentum and accelerate it than try to rebuild it. So whatever you have working, wherever you feel some mojo, wherever you feel like some wind in your sales,

like don't do what Joel has coined that real estate agents are the most notorious for is building half-built bridges. And, you know, it's essentially like I'm here in Pittsburgh. It's essentially like if you guys know there's more bridges in Pittsburgh than any place on the planet. And it's essentially like if you were in Pittsburgh and you couldn't get anywhere because all of the damn bridges are half-built. That's what real estate agents do with their company.

So it's like truly, truly finishing. And that's why when you have momentum meant you never want to get. get complacent. There's always a little bit of extra squeezing, you know, to squeeze out of that, out of that orange. There's a little bit more left for, it's good seeing some new faces on here. So I appreciate you guys jumping in. We're going to jam through this. If we have a little time, we'll open up some questions. But I was telling Joel, we love the format of, from a book format of, I think, I think Jocko's book, Extreme Ownership is like the best format that you can you can structure a book because it tells a story he distills a principle

he applies it to business and one of their business partners are one of the people that work with them at echelon front which is a leadership training organization company is a gentleman by the name of dave burke and dave burke is a marine that got into flying jet jets getting to be able to fly F-16 is in F-18s. And he was an instructor at Top Gun. And so he got to working with Jocko. They served together in Iraq. And so they were boots on ground in Iraq.

And as a Marine, he was boots on ground, but he's also a fighter pilot. But he tells he's got a great leadership, new leadership book that came out called The Need to Lead. So if you kind of did, you know, anything military, fighter pilots, you know, Marine Corps, you know, combat, if that's kind of your thing, especially like top gun, this book has been fantastic so far. And it's in the same principle, same format. And Chapter 1 was, as Joel has heard me say this over and over, there are no business problems. It's all leadership problems. Everything is a leadership problem. and then the second chapter Joel got into I'd have to go back and look but the chapter I'm on chapter three right now but it's all about complacency oh chapter two is humility so the most important word out of a from a leadership framework is humility and then number this chapter three is complacency and that's the thing that will kill you and so when you have momentum how you'll lose it is complacency and he got complacent in a little bit. And he's like 99.9% of the top fighter pilots ever.

And he got taken out in a dog fight exercise by his mentor instructor. And because he got complacent in a turn and his mentor exposed him. So that's just a great example of momentum is everything. Guys, I just like, I can't stress it enough. So when you have something working, I can promise you you haven't squeezed all of it out of there. So as you're thinking about, you know, kind of the future, what you're going to commit to, where is your business going to come from, how you're going to continue to grow going into 26,

you always want to make sure you start with what's working and how can you maximize it? How can you add more to it before you try to build another bridge? Make sure the bridge you have is fully built and don't leave it half built like Joel always talks about. So I know I rambled a little bit there, Joel. Final thoughts, we'll jump in? Yeah, just it's momentum. Don't, don't coast. Don't coast.

If you got good momentum, put your foot on the gas and keep going. Don't coast. It runs out quicker than we think sometimes. Yeah. Kind of adopted. Charlie's saying, go max, right? So like, go hard. Go as max it out as much as you can.

Ed Milettes, you know, max out. So it's just continue to keep your foot on that gas. So we're going to jump into part four, which is the profit engine. And essentially the core concept of the profit engine is the blueprint for a business that is no longer dependent on the owner's personal sales. So this is important, right? If you have aspirations or goals or dreams of someday building a business that is not dependent upon your production.

Now, can you sell if you want to? Absolutely. But what we're trying to get to is that if you want to escape production, you've got to move from this agent to CEO mindset. And listen, there's nothing wrong in this business. If you want to build lifestyle, Joel's broken down the five business models of the future, and a couple of them are the ATM model, right?

ATM, where the agent does everything. You print as much cash as you can. The other is, you know, ATM support it, right? Where you've got some leverage and some support around you, but the whole objective is for you to just sell as many dang houses and stack as much cash as you can, use your cash and your profits to go invest in assets that are going to generate a return to where that's your exit. So whatever kind of the direction that you want to go, but there's still

a profit engine to whatever it is you're trying to try. But in this context, what we're talking about is an approach design that is team-driven business model that we're using financial drivers, scalable lead sources, and really protect that profit margin, really protect that bottom line. And this is where we can ensure stepping out of production leads to profit increase, not a dip. That's the biggest thing that we've always seen, helping team leads, step out of production is that the profit takes a dip because they don't know how to structure it correctly. So the key activities as we design, we're the architect, right? This is a creative world, not a reported world.

We get to design, so we're the architect, the core components of the business machine. Number one is the economic model, right? This is where the math is the math, and sometimes the math don't math, and we have to make sure that it does. And listen, business is just math. Then it's just layered with leadership on top of it. But at the core, the economic model is super, super important to get. And so it was the third component for us that unlocked everything after strategy in a strong value proposition is that we had to nail this.

We didn't have this. We couldn't escape until we nailed the economic model. And so we want to design the clear financial model that outlines how the business makes money at scale. This includes defining commission structures, team companies. compensation plans, operational budgets that are profitable for the business while still attracting and retaining top talent, right? How do you attract and retain?

How do you keep top talent? And without getting crushed with the margins or giving away to too much agents, your cost of sales too high, your gross margin, you don't have enough dollars to make the thing work. number two is we want to nail and systemize the lead flow right we're the architects of the lead generation and conversion systems that will fuel the engine okay the focus is on creating predictable measurable and team executable lead sources that are not dependent on the owner's personal network or rainmaking efforts the other word that i would throw in here this is system you know we're putting a system with it, but it has to be consistent. Listen, I get it. A word of mouth, a buffini model is a highly,

highly profitable model built on reputation, built on word of mouth. It's slow to build, but it's not consistent. I don't care how good you get at it. It's so inconsistent when you're trying to build a business on word of mouth and referral. So you can do it and it can be highly profitable. It's just not going to be consistent. So I would throw that keyword in there. What can I do? That's going to be consistent. And then we've got to define the service model. So we clearly define the client. They're not customers. They're clients. What's the client journey and the roles and responsibility of the team to deliver a world-class experience? If you guys have been hanging with me and Joel at all, you know, one of the key words moving into the future is experience.

And what type of experience are you creating that is going to have people latch on to you and your brand and then truly become that advocate for your business? So the operational clarity really service quality has to remain high or continue to improve as you as the owner steps back from the day to day in the trenches, right, to where you're stepping back because why? Because you're utilizing your business to unlock opportunities and utilize your profits to go invest in assets that's going to build wealth and freedom for you and your family. Listen, this is not about building a business and not in residential real estate that's going to be worth anything. Like, we ain't build an EXP. You can, if that's your goal and your aspiration,

get after it. I love you. Support you on it. You want our help. We'll help you get after it. But the real name of this game is utilizing and building a real estate model that's going to unlock opportunities and provide enough resources cash to go invest in those assets and unlock other opportunities. That's the real exit in this game. And so, you know, I love telling the Kyle Whistle story, right? Kyle arguably had one of the best, biggest and best, I mean, he lives in damn Southern California, his model, profitable, printing cash. Had the business sold, had it sold, but guess what they were doing, who was buying it? They were going to tie him to the business for three years as part of the buyout.

He had to stay committed to it for three years and get his buyout over time. He's like, why would I do that? I'm going to come to EXP, which he did and built, utilized his brand to build his organization, which now has unlocked him. But now he's loving it. He's even bigger. He's building bigger. You know, rolling companies in.

So we just want to understand. what is the goal and this goes back to part two of charting the course right and charting the course is only possible because we know where the clarity compass has taken us what is freedom for you so this engine is going to drive it so really in short the profit engine is where we architect the business model that funds your vision it's a step-by-step blueprint for building a predictable team driven revenue machine that ensures your profits grow as as you systematically exit production. I would escape production is a better word to use for that. Joel, I'm going to stop right there and then we can touch on, you know, kind of kind of maybe unpack that a little bit more,

talk about some benefits, and then we'll get into walking through the blueprint. Yeah, love it. I think an important point that gets overlooked a lot is, is your circumstances, your market is going to dictate a little bit of what's available to you. And so sometimes, you know, we talk to clients of ours or mastermind members who are like, oh, I want to do, I want to do what he's doing. Well, he's doing that in a market where his average sale price is $800,000. You're in a market where your average sale price is $200,000. You're not going to be able to run the same, the exact same model and expect the same results.

So, you know, having a high overhead, large office, lots of staff model in a low price point market is going to be really tricky to pull off. So just what's available to you, you know, it's going to be different depending on where you are. So this, again, one more reason why we sit down and we really map this stuff out. All right, what's my average commission going to be that I can expect? What can I charge here in this market? There might be higher price point markets that have already had some commission pressure and you're making less per deal. So we have this information available to us, which is one of the great things about real estate. It's not a brand new product that we're trying to figure out what the market's going to pay for.

This data is all available, which gives us such a leg up as business owners here, but we still have to take the time to model it out. What can we expect to collect? What is the going rate of talent, of leads, of software, of office space, whatever we need. We can map this all out. It's one of the reasons we get so excited about still helping people build real estate teams. It's because it has the potential to be so predictable because so much of this has been figured out in some way or another. It doesn't mean it's easy, right? it's still a hard business, just like any business.

But real estate is such an opportunity because there's so much that's already been figured out or that we have all the data we need to make good decisions and we just need to spend the time on it. Yeah, 100%. So getting into the blueprint, really, like I said, remember, we get to design this. And, you know, obviously there's some principles and things in place, but we get to, you know, design out the journey. And this is, you know, following within from agent to CEO. And listen, your personal production is a job, you know, not a business model.

So the blueprint is the tool to help design the actual business machine, financially sound strategically, dialed in and operationally, you know, to where we can continue to grow and scale. So obviously, as we kind of gone through this, every section connects to the other, right? it all write things right order everything has to has to connect and and really this helps us as we as we kind of walk through this build build the engine for what we what we want is consistent predictable growth right that's that's really what we're what we're trying to to push and unlock so you know part one is the math it's the economic model and listen top line revenue is is vanity um how much it

keeps is what we're is what we're after what is what is truly coming to the bottom line. What is that healthy profit percentage that's not hoarding too much money that is stopping you from investing in growth? But what is a good healthy number? And so we really want to be able to back in and reverse engineer as we're really trying to get to our freedom number. And we talked about it in the clarity compass. Y'all have heard my definition of freedom is two things. How much money do you need to come in, you know, that you're not trading time for dollars through investments, through other revenue streams? Yes, your business can provide, you know, the predictable profit and the profit margin, but we want to utilize

and harvest those profits as much as we can to invest in assets that's going to provide revenue streams to where you guys have money coming in when you're sleeping, when, you know, you're, you know, taking the trip on the other side of the planet to go visit, you know, awesome locations and just live life, experience life. And that's really what we're really trying to get to. And that's what your real estate business can fund. And listen, we have, they put Martha Stewart in jail for less than what we have access to, right? Think about that, especially if you run a motivated seller offer to your market, a cash offer working with motivated borderline, you know, distressed type opportunities, desperate seller type markets,

your cash offers, your guaranteed offers, you're going to unlock opportunities, right? Like information that you have a privy to, to be able to make those investments. But you've got to know what that number is. That's one part of freedom. The other is are we living and moving closer to our perfect day? But that number one is like, what number are we working towards? and that's like if we can get locked in on that

that's also part of the decision making process that, you know, Joel and I would ask you, you would say, hey, I don't know, should we do that? I don't know. Is it going to move you closer to your perfect day or is it going to move you further away? Is it going to move you further away? Is it going to move you further away? So really being able to know that the decisions we're making

is moving us in that known direction, but we've got to know what the number is. And being able to just really look at that and back into it and how much money do we need to be trying to look to invest. That's the profit targets we're really looking to invest in. I mean, Joel, if we follow Crabtrees, you know, he talks 15% up to, you know, whatever, but 20 to 40 is really is really healthy. I think really depending upon team size, market size, that number is really going to kind of fluctuate.

we were selling $120,000 homes. Our target was 15%. Not in production, 15%. But you've got the Blake Sloanes of the world that are locked in 25, 30% or more. So where do you really push to think, man, we really need to set this target profit margin? Like we really want to stay right in this range. Hey, quick break before we move on. If you've ever wished you could clone yourself to handle all the behind-the-scenes stuff in your business,

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Back to the episode. I've changed my mind a little bit on it when it comes to real estate. And for me, it's getting to 30, 30% of it. or above. And the reason I say that is because if we get below that, definitely if we get below 20%, it's almost not worth it. You can make so much more money doing it on your own than having a large business that's not super profitable. So let's just say we're making a million dollars in GCI and your 10% profitability, right? You're getting an extra $100,000. It's so much easier for you to go sell a bunch more houses by yourself to make that than it is to have a business at a million

dollars with 10%. Now all of a sudden you need to get up to a three, four, five million dollar business for that slight profit margin to make sense. But if we're at 30%, you're at a million dollars, now you're getting 300,000 in profit, you know, at the end. Now it's starting to make sense for all of the work that goes into that business. Now maybe all we need to do is get to one and a half to two million in revenue. And we're talking about, you know, five to six hundred thousand in profit. So for me, it's shoot for 30. Like is it still worth it at a little bit less than that, fine, you know, but for me, for me, it's in a real estate team, not in all business, right? But on a real estate team, it's 30%. Otherwise, it just, just go sell more

houses on your own and make more money. Yeah, and use that money to, you know, invest in those assets. I think, too, once you kind of reverse engineer into that freedom number, what is, what is kind of the philosophy around compensation that you have? What is the primary goal of your, of your compensation model, attract the absolute best, most experienced agents. That margin means you've got to give a little bit more than what you're going to keep. So that makes the margins a lot tighter. Do you have maximize the profitability of every company generated lead? Right.

That's the Blake Sloan model, right? He has everything is after motivated sellers. And so he has listing partners that are only getting compensated 20, 25%. He's keeping 80 to 75% of the opportunity. and or create a loyal, stable team that grows with the business. Is there a good balance in there, right, to where you are providing opportunities, but also, you know, being generous on sphere. I'll tell you one thing that, that, and Joel, we don't need to go deep on it,

but having the teams, especially the team leads that are still kind of in production and we're trying to get them under 40, 30, 25 percent of the overall production, and as they're growing the team, pretty generous on the sphere and then anything team generated, you know, kind of defaulting back down to the 50, 50 or even 40, you know, 60 to the company, 40 to the agents. But one of the things that we started looking at, and I really love this, the real expenses is your time as a team lead, right? That you give your time to the team. You want to support them.

You want to be there. You want to help them, you know, feed them, not necessarily feed them, but help them convert, make sure that, you know, they're doing well. And one of the things kind of loved was, if I have to step in as the team lead to help you secure an SOI deal, that should be defaulted as a team compensation instead of an SOI compensation. And the kind of one person that kind of talked about having this conversation is that how did the agents take you that? And they go, they absolutely loved it. They were like, thank you. Yeah, I'm willing to pay a team structure for you helping me secure and close these deals.

So I thought that was kind of an interesting kind of twist to what defaults down to a company-generated comp structure versus just an SOI agent-generated comp structure. So just food for thought. Just, you know, if you guys have hung out with us long enough, we're going to throw a bunch of things out to just to change up and challenge the way you're thinking about your business. So define your philosophy. What is that? What are the, what's the model scenario? healthy is about 50-50, right? You know, 50 company gin, 50 agent gen.

If you shift a little bit more to the agent-gen side of things, you're going to have to figure that out because if agents feel like they're giving more than they're getting, they're not going to hang around with you. I know, Joel, when we were before we transitioned to EXP and stepped away from partner model out of Texas, we were faced with a real riddle that. we were going to have to solve. And what we were going to have to solve is the agent-generated business side of things. And we had a couple agents that paid us six figures in one year off of their business.

They brought to the table. And they're like, guys, this isn't a healthy relationship. We go, we agree. Thank goodness, we didn't have to solve that problem. But I think what we were going to have to do is we were going to have to, we were just going to have to cap how much money they paid in from their side of the business. That I think was what we were going to have to land with that. I don't know what the math was going to math.

But you got to model out these scenarios. And I can tell you, if you're running a 75, 25, 25% to you, you ain't ever getting out of production. You're going to get sucked back in at some point unless you have other revenue streams to where you don't get sucked back in. But if you're trying to depend upon this business in that structure, it ain't going to work because that only gives you 25 cents of every dollar for profit, salaries, expenses, which includes marketing.

So your value promise has to change. That's why, you know, you got to make sure you know your numbers. And really modeling out where the business is going to come from to be able to nail the value proposition. And then what is the cost? What is the machine cost? And this is where you get into salary cap and nailing. the budget. And I've been asking this question, Joel, in every room I go into the last few months.

And I ask, how many of you have a budget that you look at on a weekly basis and you're updating every month and you're running a budget versus actual? What do you think the percentage of people in the room that raise their hand? I would guess less than 10%. Yeah, accurate. Accurate. And so if you guys don't have a system to be able to run it. I know looking at, you know, the technology side of things, especially like, you know, these companies offering whatever, you get tapped into Sisu, got a bunch of agents utilizing CTE or spreadsheet. You got to have something, right, be able to really pay attention to that. But when we look at kind of nailing kind of that salary cap, top line revenue, how much is going out in cost of sales, how much are you paying your broker,

how much are you paying your agents. We want to be in the 45-55 range is kind of where we want to try to get to what we're bringing in that's coming to us after that split. What is how much money are we spending on marketing and lead you in? How much are we spending on salaries, including what are you paying yourself? And then what are all the operating expenses. You've got to know what those targets are, what those measurables are. And also leaves room for that 25, 30, 40 percent.

I would say probably 25 to 30% on the profit target because then that allows you enough money to keep reinvesting back into the marketing and lead in. To continue to grow. And then guys, just really making sure the math maths. But the first thing in the profit engine is the economic model. You've got to know the math.

And you can't stick your head in the sand. You got to really dive into it. The book, I'll tell you, the book, two books. The one book that unlocked, all of this for us was Greg Crabtree's book, Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits. I think where we can kind of see a hybrid within real estate is bringing in McLewitz's profit first. And you can kind of create a hybrid of wherever you're at with your business, incorporate the McLewitz kind of profit first, layering in the salary cap and understanding

the critical numbers to pay attention to within the Crabtree book. And then I think the one book that I know people that kind of, you know, struggle with the money side of things that's really helpful. And I'd have to look up his name, but the name of the book is the psychology of money. And so I think, you know, unlocking that mental aspect of it and then utilizing the tool framework of Crabtree and McLewitz and kind of massaging those in together will really help you nail down the financial buckets and the financial model for you. So that's that's that's that's part one. Part two we get into the promise. This is the value proposition. This is so important. And I remember

hearing Ryan dice talk about it. And I think Joel I told you earlier this year. He's like, I don't I don't care about your goals. I don't even want to know what your goals are until I know what your your value promise to the market is. Once I know your promise to the market, then I can help, then I can then I can help you accomplish your goals. And and I can also tell you, if you're going to be able to achieve your goals. So what is your value promise to the market? So remember, our businesses compete on promise. What is our promise?

The promise we can make, and more importantly, the promise we can keep to the market. And if you're building a team, and you get north of 15, 20, your clients change. But you have buyer, sellers, investors, builders, inside of the marketplace. But you also, if you're building, in a team, you have agents. And like I said, when you get north of a dozen, a baker's dozen,

two dozen, your clients become the agents. So what is your value proposition to the agents? What promise are you making? And more importantly, what promise can you keep? And so that really becomes the unique value you deliver. The example, guys, what I just told about, you know, where it changes, hey, I'll lead and support you. I'll even step in and help you close deals. Now, the economic maths will math based upon time, but that's value proposition. Hey, I'm going to provide leads. Hey, I'm going to provide support. Hey, I'm going to provide transaction. Hey, I'm going to provide your marketing. Hey, we're going to do content days. I'm going to shoot all of your content. Hey, we're going to provide a social media manager for you. Oh, by the way, we did get to a certain

level. We're going to hire a VA for you. That's going to do all of your backhand stuff and support you. Whatever that is, that is your value proposition. And so you've got to define, like I said, buyer sellers and real estate agents. You got to have two. This is where it gets a little tricking in this business is you're running almost two businesses within one business. And so what is that value proposition? What is the differentiator for you in your market? You guys have heard us talk about this. Listen, there's two choices you can make because people are trying to get to an outcome.

They either have a desire or they have a pain. So you have a choice. Are you a vitamin company? or are you a painkiller? What I know is that vitamins are extremely important. We would all agree. However, when you ain't got no money, you ain't buying no vitamins.

So what you're better off is understanding that when people have pain, they will give you, they'll leverage their kid to remove the pain. So you're better off being a pain killer. So identify the pain. what are the top three frustrations or fears your ideal client has? When we talk about, oh, you got to have what is the avatar? The avatar gets into demographics, gets in all that. That doesn't matter.

What matters is who is the client in the marketplace that has the biggest pain that you're qualified to solve? That's how you've got to think about the value promise. And you want to design that solution. So how does your business solve? one of these pains in a way nobody else does. Like how do you solve the pain for your ideal client in the marketplace? And this is always a great question because the ideal client can change based upon the

market conditions. As we're moving into a tough headwind, we're seeing a lot more desperate sellers. That might be the real opportunity in the market. So your value proposition might be the solution to that pain point in the marketplace. and you really want to forge that, you know, statement. We are the only real estate team in Milwaukee that solves, you know, helps motivated sellers, you know, sellers, desperate sellers, you know, first time home buyers, whatever it is that your ICP is, which means they can get the result, right?

So, for example, why we ran our guarantee, they still run it to this day. I think they just removed the days, but your home sold in 59 days guaranteed or we'll buy it. The 59 days, a seller could go, ah, okay. So if I work with these guys, I know in 59 days my home's going to be sold. Okay, I can see that, right? I know I got three months a runway. I got four months a runway. Hey, we need to be sold.

We need to be transitioning down south in three months. I know 59 days is going to be gone. So that's it, that's the only we statement, right? Hey, hey, we're the only real estate company in the market that guarantees to sell your home in 59 days or we'll step in and we'll buy it. That solves it, right? So that's that kind of that that value proposition. Hey, you know, we're the only, we're the only real estate team in, you know, in the market that guarantees you'll make, you know, 100,000 in your, in your first 14 months working with us or, you know, well, we won't take any. it until you achieve it, whatever the case, right? You can throw in there whatever you want,

but that's really where you get into that only we statement and really nailing that value proposition. So remember, you got a promise to the motivated market, buyers and sellers, and then what's the value proposition to your agents? I'll tell you right now the best way to work through this. Our tool is Hoosie. That's our favorite AI tool is Hoosie. You can go to coach kitchens.aI. But, you know, if all of you guys are using Chat GPD at least, what you could do right here is like, hey, listen, I'm a real estate agent. I'm building a small team in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I want you to help me build out my agent value proposition.

I want you to ask me as many questions as you can, one question as you need, one question at a time until you have enough information to help me build out my value proposition to the market and just go, right? That's how you are the thought leader and AI is supporting you in really now. navigating and working through, you know, these questions that you know you should be doing, but she's like, where do I start? That's where you start. You start with the conversation with the AI to really help you walk, you know, walk through this. So really nailing that, that value proposition. How are you different? How are you supporting, you know, the agents in the marketplace?

And I'll tell you right now, you know, be clear on what value that you want to do, you want to provide. Like, don't go recruit brand new agents if you don't have a great training and onboarding system. Like, if it's just you and you need some support, make sure you attract the right agents that are going to support you in the business model that you have. Now, listen, if you have world-class onboarding, you have world-class training, by all means, go build agents. Go start a real estate school and bring them into your business. So it's just certain ways you want to think about it, but what you're uniquely gifted and qualified to solve. There's one great Ed My Let podcast with Rory Vaden from brand builders.

It's early on, maybe it's what, two, three years old, Joel. That is probably one of the best podcast you can listen to that will help you really unlock your value proposition to the market. There's some great brand DNA helix that Vaden will take you through. It's fantastic. But if you want to work through this the fastest way, start having conversation with AI. It can really challenge you in working. and help you work through this.

Joe, before I move into the third part, really kind of talking about, you know, the magnets. But anything else that you want to, you know, touch on with the math or the promise? I think thinking of these two things, I think of all the things that you've been teaching for years and that we teach now, these are the two things that most agents don't do after when they work with us. They still, they hear it, they believe it, but they don't. don't go back and work on the financials at a deep level and they don't really come up with

with a real value proposition. You know, we see agents that we talk to all the time that their value proposition is still some version of, I'm experienced, I'm an expert, I'm a good communicator, I have local knowledge and you can trust me. That's what, 90% of agents default to something in there, right? And that might be a real value that you have, then you have to find a way to either system monetize it or articulate it. So if you said, all right, you know, we're, our value proposition is that we have, we give a great experience for our customers. Well, everybody else is saying that too. So how are you going to articulate it? Maybe you have to say, you know, hey, our team, we're famous for our XYZ system for taking care of our clients. And here's what that means. Okay, now that's an actual value proposition around your experience that you provide. I don't think communication is a good one because that should be just be table stakes. But if you wanted to make a communication, then you can say, hey, at, at, at, at, our team we've got this you know this proven communication system for keeping you up to date every single day or we've got this 32 touch plan of whatever it is right so it has to be something it can't just be these um i'm experienced and i'm a good communicator and you can trust me you you have to get

something to articulate and something that you can prove so if it's experience you better have a bunch of reviews of people saying you they had an incredible experience with you if it's getting a better result in the competition and you better have some listings that you sold for a higher price per square foot than the market average that you can point to but there has to be some systems and the more that you more things you can have in your business that are we have a proven system for x and then we can it has a name and we can articulate it that's you know we've got some building blocks of a value proposition you guys still at n aaa had the best one ever well best two ever number one was and i it's funny i I still remember it and I never even worked for you guys.

Proven repeatable system backed by market research to sell your home for up to 18% more than traditional methods. Right. That's an incredible and then and then we've got the placemount to show how we accomplish that. The other one that you guys nailed was CHSA, CHBA, all of our, all the agents on our team are certified home buying advisors. And that means something they went through this trend. That's a value proposition to the marketplace, right? So you can keep it, communication, experience, you know, trustworthiness, whatever. But you have to find a real way to articulate that and then prove it.

Yeah. 100%. And the proof has to be there. That's super important. You know, we've talked about it. You know, I love, you know, hearing Nick and obviously Eric at Housie talk about it as, you know, it's been whatever. We're moving into the trust economy, right? So what are we doing to build trust in the marketplace?

And, you know, knowing the math in our business model, but also having a value proposition that is, we have proof back behind it with testimonials and case studies and reviews and people that are like, listen, these guys are the real deal. And that was like even on the 18% more. And Brett Jennings did the best. And he was like, God, dang, that was amazing. Right. So he started taking every home he would sell and he would show how they sold it for a percentage

more than what the market was, you know, square foot on average in that area. So he's a, boom, example, example, example, example, example. So being able to have that is super important. Once we have that, then it's all about the magnets, right? Now it's about lead flow. It's all about consistent lead flow. And your value proposition is a promise. Your marketing is how you communicate that promise to attract, attract,

your ideal clients. And it's, you know, it's the callout. It's, it's, you know, the attention grabbers. It's the headlines. It's the hook. Right. And so identify for you guys, what is your core marketing channels, core marketing channels? So based upon your unique value proposition and ideal client, where is the single best place to communicate your message? Choose one primary channel first. So Renee's not on with this. But Renee's really nailed her market. We've been working with her on this, Renee Velazquez, in the Cleveland market. And she's really nailed her message to the market.

And it's really those towards kind of getting into the pre, getting into probate, getting into kind of that last move. Like, you know, it's the aging. it's the aging homeowners like what where are they going what are they doing are they you know you know what she calls right sizing um or have they you know transitioned out of the house you know is the house you know set up are the kids taking the house or is the house being dumped in somebody's lap they didn't even know they were going to get it so she's really that that aging market is is really nailed her ICP and and we're like Renee if you had one if you had one if you

You can only do one channel to market your message. What is that one? It's Facebook, right? Everybody, 50 and older, is on Facebook. Everybody. So she has to nail Facebook in content and consistent content, calls to action, start running her content that's performing. Now we can juice it.

We put some money behind it with clear call to action. But that's her first one is right there. And so that's the primary channel to master first. And if not, this rolls into Joel's, what we were talking about earlier, Joel's concept of half-built bridges. We're trying to hit every damn channel. When we need to be hitting the channel that our people are hanging out at, that's super, super important, you know, for us to have that distinction to be able to stay right there. Nail that core message, right? What is your core message, that statement?

Hook, story, offer, right? What's the headline? What's the grabber? What's the promise? and what is this CTA? This is the biggest thing that I see real estate agents miss is they don't have a clear call to action. Tell people what you want to do. DM me, grab this, go to this link, do this, call here, do whatever.

You've got to have a call to action. People need to be told what to do. So, hook, what's the promise, the story, and then what is the offer? What is the call to action that you want them to take? make sure you don't miss any of those. And then how are we measuring success? What are the metrics that we're paying attention to to know if the thing is working? Right.

So is it how many leads? How many new contacts of the database? What's the cost per lead? What is how many leads are we getting new contacts per day? How many contacts per week? How many contacts per month? What is our connect rate? What is our lead to appointment set ratio?

What are the two to three main metrics that you've got to be paying attention to to know if the thing is working? So once we have the leaf flow in the magnet, then it's getting into the last step, which is the delivery, right? Fulfillment. So what is the service model? So a great value proposition is a promise made. A great service model is a promise kept. Okay. So it's really designing the repeatable, scalable, and team-driven process that will deliver the promise every single.

time. So you have to map the journey. What happens? What are the five to seven major milestones in the journey? So somebody submits information that leads to a conversation, that leads to an appointment, that leads to what are you trying to do? Here's our unique process, or up to 18% more to help you accomplish what you're wanting to accomplish. We take you to market, either you agree to move forward with us and then we then we get the deal done and then we follow up with you until you become that raving fan that's referring people our way right you become the advocate so you have to map that that journey and you've got to do it listen you've got to do it for buyers you've got to do it for sellers and if you're recruiting agents you've got to do it for agents you've got to

map the journey for all three because that's who you're working with you're working with three different ideal clients, you got to map that journey. And one of the things that I really like, we get into kind of this unique journey process is how do you know what happens when they move from one step to the next? And in a perfect world, there's a commitment in a deliverable. There's a commitment in a deliverable. So what is, for example, you have the conversation. So they submit their information.

They get what they want, right? So the commitment is they gave you the information for the thing, the magnet, and the deliverable was the thing. It was access. It was information. It was a white paper. It was a download. It was they scheduled a phone call.

Then you have the conversation, right? The conversation leads to an appointment. Remember, the phone is designed to set an appointment, set the appointment, and then qualify the appointment. And so maybe there the commitment is they confirmed. the calendar invite. The deliverable might be a pre-appointment video that they get to consume information about you and your process and does all the heavy lifting before you actually get face-to-face. Maybe the face-to-face they agree to move forward with you. The commitment is they sign

the agreement. The deliverable could be a copy of the agreement. So you want to be thinking as you're moving from step to step, how can you get a commitment to move to the next step? But what is the deliverable that you can give to them. That's just a great way to be thinking about this five-to-step major milestone journey that we're taking them on. Define who's doing what. That's super important, right? Define who's doing what. You know, the roles, the handoffs, how does the hand-offs look? You don't want to break down in communication. You want the experience to be seamless and really define the function in the role, which will become more delight when we get into the leadership flywheel when you're talking functional accountability, but you've got to know

who's doing what. Where are things handed off so everybody knows their role in this process. Example, if you have a showing agent supporting you, where's the handoff with the showing agent? How does it come back? How does the client not feel neglected? They feel, wow, I've got all of the support around me. Or even the simple one is like when you hand it off to a TC, right?

Where does that go? And then, you know, what is repeatable action that proves your promise? If you're promising, you know, confidence, if you're experience, simplifying things, you know, where are you connecting, right? When are you making, you know, the touch? When are you doing doing the things? So how are you making the value proposition tangible? That's really where you want to step in and think about that.

So I want to recap kind of as you guys want to think through this on four steps. Got to know the math. What's the economic model? Number two, what is the promise you're making to the ideal client in the marketplace? The client that has the biggest pain that you're qualified to solve. number three what's the magnet to generate the lead opportunity and number four what's the delivery okay how are you working through that how are you how are you really navigating that's the profit engine that you want to be thinking about Joel I know we we jammed here I will let you

kind of any any final thoughts and then if you guys hanging out have any final questions I know we're pushing up against the hour. Joel, any final thoughts? Just like so many things in business and I guess life too, the simplicity that we're after is on the other side of a little bit of complexity. So all of these exercises that we're doing, instead of just ignoring or flying by the seat of our pants, we're adding a little bit of complexity to our business.

And it takes work to get through these things. But on the other side of this isn't a complicated business. It's a simple business. it just takes a little bit of work to get there. So there's a simple business that you have in the beginning when you don't know what you're doing, you're flying by the seat of your pants. Like that's not a good way to grow business,

but it's pretty simple. You're just reacting to everything. That's simple, right? Now we're adding complexity to get back simplicity after. But so the stuff that we're talking about right now is the little bit of complexity that you have to add to your business and work through it to get simplicity on the other side.

And that's what we're after. And now we can really talk about scaling a company, because we've put some time and effort into getting the right kind of simplicity, which is through clarity and through systems and these exercises that we're sharing with everybody. So put the work in. It's so worth it. I love it. Brother, I appreciate you.

Guys, tune it in. Alan, amazing. Good seeing you, buddy. Castle in the house. I know. I love it. I love it. If you guys have any, you know, thoughts, questions, you know, DM us, message us.

You can email me, email Joel, give us a call. We're here to support and help you guys loving kind of this series of the power hour. So like I said, we'll be out next week, week after that week, second week of December and third week of December, we'll jump into the final two components, the execution roadmap, which is the 90-day execution plan, and then really get into the people component that leadership flywheel. Love it. Thanks, coach. Thanks, guys. Awesome. 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 101 coaching at john kitchens.coach. 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.