Start With A Win - Building a Brokerage Through Intention with Kendall Bonner

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone, Producer Mark here. Just want to let you know that Adam and I's hearts and our thoughts are with you as you navigate these unusual times. Today we have an episode that we recorded several weeks ago that we did with Kendall Bonner, who is a broker out of Florida who's just doing some amazing things. And she's really cracked the code on having an effective online presence. And so we thought that this episode would definitely be relevant to you, that would encourage you and give you something to maybe take your mind off everything that's going on. Anyway, stay safe, stay sane, stay positive, and we'll see you next week.

Starting point is 00:00:33 Every day is filled with choices. You're here because you're choosing to start with a win. Get ready to be inspired, learn something new, and connect with the Wynn Nation. Adam Canto, CEO of Remax here. Start with a Wynn podcast. We are in a remote studio in a secret location unknown to anybody outside of the government. We've got sharks with lasers on their heads. That's right. It's our secret lair. That's right. And we're in Producer Mark's studio

Starting point is 00:01:13 here, Brand Viva Studios. That's right. We're just down the road from the Remax World headquarters. Right. We're on the third floor, not the 12th floor today. That's right. We're like a third of the way up. We're good. We're at the top of the building though, right? That's right. We are. we're like a third of the way up. Yeah, we're good. We're at the top of the building though, right? That's right. We are. Top of the building at Brand Viva Studios. And we have a very special guest today, don't we, Mark? I know. I'm so stoked. She's like the best.

Starting point is 00:01:35 I met her the first time this past year at BOC. And I was just like, this girl is so cool. She has to come on our show. This is one of my favorite human beings on the planet here. We have with us the broker of Capital Realty in Florida, originally from California, our favorite Kendall Bonner. How are you doing? OMG. I am so psyched to be here. This is fantastic. This is super exciting for us because we're mean, we're good friends and we talk pretty regularly and we certainly communicate on social media a ton. Yes. And challenge each other. Yes. Because you're always into getting me to level up and improve my hustle. Yeah. And you

Starting point is 00:02:17 get me to start with a win every day. I love it. Kendall, we have a lot of stuff that we could talk about here. Let's start with a little bit about your background. So you're an attorney and you run businesses and things like that. I mean, give us your history a little bit here. Yeah. So yes, I'm a lawyer since 2003. I love, love, love what we do now, but I always wanted to be a teacher when I was a kid. And my mom said, they don't make any money. So you need to get a JD, MD, or PhD, pick one. So that's how I ended up in law school. And I actually didn't want to be a lawyer. My joke was that I was going to get my MRS degree. And I tell people this story because it's funny, be careful what you say out loud and what you put out there in the space. Because on Saturday, I got married. On Sunday, I graduated law school.

Starting point is 00:03:10 And on Tuesday, we were driving from California to Florida. So I practiced law, did criminal defense, I did workers' comp insurance defense. And I had no passion for those things. Even though I could work hard and I was good at them, I didn't have any passion for them. And then one day, I thought it would be a good idea to get my real estate license for fun. And I thought I would do it part-time. Right. Why not, right? That's how naive I was.

Starting point is 00:03:36 Yeah. I mean, you look at this, you go, this person eats stress for lunch. Because you bet there are a few things there. Oh, yeah. I think I'll go wrap up a few years of education, a big, huge, fat test in the process, get married and the whole thing, and then drive across the country and start over again. Yes, I know. It was big. But I have no regerts, as I say. No regerts. You're a super inspirational leader, Kendall. It's awesome to No regrets. just a blast to work with. So how do you keep your attitude great every day when you look at all the different things you've been through and the stresses and stuff like that? Because I'll tell you, when I get to talk to you, it's like, how do we conquer this, whatever it might

Starting point is 00:04:33 be we're talking about? How do we have fun with it? How do we enjoy ourselves? How do we help people? How do we make this fulfilling? What gets you going in the morning? You know, that's a great question. And I thank you, honestly, because you have done a great job keeping those of us in the network very inspired by your encouraging words all the time and your encouraging leadership. But I have to say, I have been so humbled by some of the things I've experienced in my life that I just, honestly, I'm so grateful in life. I'm so grateful for these opportunities. I'm so grateful for REMAX. I feel like REMAX has changed my life. And it's my pleasure to participate and give back and be a part of this network

Starting point is 00:05:19 because it literally has had such a huge and major impact on me, both personally and professionally. And I guess one of the ways that I stay inspired is by honestly staying grateful and humbled by it. I think I got into this business with an ego, as I think most of us do. We think we could be a realtor, a great agent, or a great broker. And I think there's a lot of ego that exists behind that because now I realize like, oh God, what did I get myself into? I had no idea. You don't know what you don't know. But now that I'm here and I'm on this ride, I'm just so humbled by it and so grateful. So I think honestly, that's what keeps me inspired. I love that. I always talk about somebody who had a huge impact on me, just a major company CEO said, stay humble and stay hungry. And you fit both of those things.

Starting point is 00:06:12 You are a humble human being. Even the most challenging situations you walk into with a smile and you're like, okay, we can do this. Let's take a look at how do we make a win out of this. And that fits right into the real estate space because there are some challenges when it comes to people buying and selling houses. It is not an easy situation a lot of times, nor is it when it comes to running an office. Let's unpack that real quick. When did you become a real estate broker? That would have been in 2014.

Starting point is 00:06:40 Okay. How that came to be, honestly, that was Remax. I have to give all the credit, literally all the credit to Remax. I used to say when I was a real estate licensee, because I was a listing agent, that I never wanted to be a broker. And then one day, I get a sales call. I get a message that Remax called me and they were looking for me to talk to me about opening a brokerage. And I honestly thought it was a prank call. I was like, who am I? Why are they calling me? And so I never returned the phone call. But you have great salespeople. So they followed up

Starting point is 00:07:17 and they called me back and I set the meeting. And I'll never forget who came to visit me. I'll never forget the process I went through that led to me opening my Remax franchise. But it was pretty fantastic. It was a pretty amazing experience. I met a lot of wonderful people that I'm still in friends with today just that influenced my decision to actually move forward with my Remax franchise. And I bought the franchise before I actually became a broker. So I did that about two weeks before I was supposed to open up my office. Wow. I think I'll jump out of the airplane and then put the parachute on, right? Yeah. Yeah. I used to have to get up at 5 a.m. to study for my broker's test because I had a full real estate business going during the day. So I used to get up at five and study to get that done. I

Starting point is 00:08:06 got it done in two weeks. Wow. Nice. You get into real estate brokerage business, which by the way, is not an easy business. It can be very rewarding if you approach it the right way. What are the big challenges that you've had to overcome in building a business? Because you're a small business owner. You've taken this and made something rewarding, something fun. Yes, it has challenges, but how did you make this transition through challenges? What does that look like? So I think some of the bigger challenges in owning a brokerage and building a business like what we are all aspiring to do that are broker owners out there is, number one, structure and systems. And I think that that's one piece of the puzzle that is easier said than done.

Starting point is 00:08:57 And part of that is what the structure and systems of staffing. A lot of us think that we can do it all and that we have to do it all because we're afraid to take the leaps to make the investments. So a lot of us are actually living with three jobs and we're the broker. We're still selling real estate sometimes. We're the recruiter. We're the trainer. We're wearing multiple hats. And one of the things that I think helped me, honestly, not only because my husband and I had had our own law firm before we started

Starting point is 00:09:25 the brokerage. So I had employees before. I knew all of that part of running the actual business. But I had staff. I had more staff when I opened my Remax than I did agents because I started as an agent of one. I was the only agent at the time. I refused, out of whatever mindset of integrity that I had at that time, to try to recruit any agents from my current brokerage at that time. I refused out of whatever mindset of integrity that I had at that time to try to recruit any agents from my current brokerage at that time. I really wanted to purely grow from scratch and, I don't know, do it the hard way like I always do. But it was staffing and figuring out the right combination, which I'm finally happy to say five years later, I am fully staffed according to Momentum Way, which I'm finally happy to say five years later, I am fully staffed according to Momentum Way,

Starting point is 00:10:05 which I'm really excited about. But I will say that Momentum, that was probably other than Remax itself, the second biggest, most influential aspect to my business that really took me from one level to the next and working with David Scott. That was such a blessing for me. And that program, I still operate under it to this day. And it's life-changing for me.

Starting point is 00:10:31 It's been transformational for my agents. And it's something that I'm very, very, very, very grateful for. And I'm so glad that we use that program. We have quite a few listeners that aren't part of RE-MAX as well. Can you give us just a quick overview? What is Momentum? Momentum is a complete business system for a real estate brokerage and incorporated within that. So it helps me run the company and it gives me goals. It sets the plan. It sets the structure. It sets the systems. It sets the daily activities that need to be done, as well as it gives me a structure

Starting point is 00:11:12 and a system for my agents. So it gives me a value proposition for my agents as well. And it allows me to be unique, have a different language, have a different approach to how we do things that sets our agents and our company apart from the competition. So it's a framework for kind of establishing both brokerage, the business, the agent's business, things like that. Exactly. And it's interesting because you look at people in the industry, in entrepreneurship, small

Starting point is 00:11:44 business, things like that, if you don't have a framework, you're going to have problems. You're going to have challenges because you don't know what to do each day. Yeah. You have problems no matter what, right? And when you add something like momentum or a framework like momentum, it helps you to deal with those challenges and it helps you avoid certain pitfalls. And it's a map. It's really like a complete roadmap, really like a treasure map. Because at the end of that, there's definitely a pot of gold. I love it. Let's make a transition into the business, talking to agents, talking to other entrepreneurs, things like that. You are a huge proponent of an

Starting point is 00:12:24 online presence. I mean, you've been massively growing your online that. You are a huge proponent of an online presence. I mean, you've been massively growing your online presence. You just keep like 10Xing it over and over and over again. Why is it important and how important is it for, let's call it, real estate agents to have an online presence? Well, one, I think it's 100% very, very, very important. And there's a difference between being present online and having an online presence. And I learned that from a book that I read by Tony Giorgiano. I'm always going to screw his name up. I'm so sorry, Tony. But he wrote a book, The Social Agent 2.0. And I got so many great nuggets out of that book. And one of them was

Starting point is 00:13:03 the differences between that, being present online and having an online presence. And I'm going to tell agents and those solopreneurs out there, as well as these REMAX brokers, in the past, we had an about page on our websites. Your social media profile is now your new about page. That is where people are going to find out about you. And they don't care about your scripted version of yourself, your bio. They don't care. They want to know who you are. That's no like and trust. And what better place to know who you are and to find out who you are and determine if they like you and can trust you, then your social profile.

Starting point is 00:13:48 Because that is oftentimes the opportunity to be your truest self. And so whether it's good or bad or ugly, what you put out there is what people are going to see and perceive of you. And so that's why I don't separate, for example, a business page from a personal page. My personal social media profile is also my business profile. I know that people are going to go there, both clients and agents and consumers, to learn about me. And so it's very important to me to protect that and to show them who I am in an authentic way, but also to remind myself not to be too personal or too non-neutral. In Tony's book, he also talks about you have to

Starting point is 00:14:28 have a digital twin. I love this concept. Your digital twin is a neutral party. You're not too political, not too religious, not too anything. Because real estate professionals, he said, this is a quote, he said, real estate professionals do not have the privilege of using social media the way our friends and family do. And that was so powerful for me and such a great message because I 100% agree with him that that's the future. That is where people are going to go to learn about me. So I want to make sure they know me, but at the same time that I can separate my personal and my professional self. Okay. So let's unpack this another layer. So you start a social media page called a Facebook page, something like that, or a LinkedIn page or whatever it might be. How do you grow that

Starting point is 00:15:17 and stay relevant on there? Give us a daily or weekly suggestion of what do you do, how do you do it, and why? Sure. Oh, that's a lot. I could speak to... These are my favorite topics, Adam. I know. That's why you're on here, Kendall. And by the way, for our listeners, Kendall's really good at this. So listen to what she's about to say. Okay, your turn. So I believe in having... Momentum has always taught me to be intentional and proactive. So in order to be intentional and proactive, you have to have a goal, you have to have a plan, you have to have daily activities that you're doing in order to ensure the plan shows up or the goal shows up. And you've got to hold the plan accountable.

Starting point is 00:16:01 So I apply that concept to a lot of the things that I do, including social media. And what I've learned is your goal in social media is to do two things, grow your audience and engage your audience. And part of how you do that is growing your audience requires you to go out and be social. It requires you to go out and make friend requests, start following other pages, get people to follow you, provide relevant content that people might actually be interested in. So you can do that through video and other types of postings. I'm a huge proponent of video. In fact, I'm doing a challenge right now with my office.

Starting point is 00:16:38 It's called hashtag RCR 100 days. So 100 videos in 100 days, just to help people that have the fear or want to break into a habit of doing more video. By the end of doing 100 videos, you will not be afraid to do a video ever again, I'm sure. And then in terms of engaging your audience, it's a matter of setting out daily activities that you want to do. So for example, I don't believe in scrolling. I am not a scroller on social media. I set first, identify close friends and first people I want to see that I know I want to track and pay attention to. I also have groups that I follow and closely watch and find the people that I have things in common with and that I want to learn from

Starting point is 00:17:25 and engage with. And then also, it's important to me to pay attention to my notifications. So when I drop a piece of content, I'm engaging with the people that are engaged with my content. I think it's important for us to reply to every comment in some fashion. And I think that not doing that... In fact, that impacts the algorithm, guys. You want your content to last for days and weeks. You know what?

Starting point is 00:17:48 Sometimes I've even done... Oh my god, I'm giving you guys all my strategies. That's okay. But don't think that it's not authentic because it still is. I do reply because I really actually do care for your comment. But you can also extend the life of your posts by responding strategically to the comments on your page.

Starting point is 00:18:09 And I test these things. So my whole thing, Adam, in 2020 is learn, test, teach. So sometimes I do things, not because it's all strategy, but I'm trying to learn things and I'm testing the things that I'm learning to make sure they work. So then I can actually teach other people what I'm doing, how I do it, and how they can also duplicate that for their own success, right? So these are some of the things that I've learned.

Starting point is 00:18:31 I think groups are super important right now. Obviously, they're very important to Facebook because they now have their own button. And so I think this is a great opportunity if you want to have your content reach a greater audience, is sharing into groups and engaging in other groups. And then also, even you and I were talking about when you post matters to gain engagement.

Starting point is 00:18:52 We're talking about everyone's always trying to figure out when's the best time to post and things like that. I know I've posted. I do hashtag Wednesdays. And that's W-I-N-S. This is one of the things Adam and I geek out on is Wednesdays. Yes. Starting with a win. And I love hashtag Wednesdays. And so when I post those videos, which are meant to be messages for my target audience, which is other real estate professionals, it's to do it early in the morning so that I can manage the exposure throughout the day and extend the life of the post throughout the day and maybe even throughout the week. Wow. That was some gold. And you did share some of your ideas, but you know what's beautiful about these ideas here?

Starting point is 00:19:38 There's enough room for everybody on social media. Oh, yeah. So it's perfect. Oh, yeah. Well, I just don't want the people to think I'm unauthentic because I am. I promise. I love all of you so much. No, you care about connecting. I mean, that's really what it boils down to. I do. Care about connecting, right? It's blatantly obvious to people when you're not transparent digitally and when you don't care about connecting. So I love it. And I love all that you're doing online. I get to see you in person, call it three, four times a year, but I get to see you in person every day. And I love it because I mean, I feel like we're just great friends as a result. And that's ultimately what happens when you as a business leader, an agent, broker, whatever,

Starting point is 00:20:24 connect digitally with people, especially with your, I mean, an agent, broker, whatever, connect digitally with people, especially with your, I mean, and this is brilliant, this 100 days of videos. I've heard a lot of people talk about 30 days, which I'm all for. If you can do 30 days of video, you can do 100 days of video. Do it. Right. Because by then, you know what? You're either sick of hearing from yourself because you're going to see yourself on video and hear yourself, or you're okay with it. And frankly, you're just going to have to become okay with it because none of us like the way we look or sound. Oh, yeah. I call it the Shrek syndrome. We all think we look and sound like Shrek. And it's like, but you don't. It's fine. Right. The other piece of that is, think about the body of work that you will have collected

Starting point is 00:21:04 after 100 days of video. Oh my gosh. You worry about having enough content. It's like, man, you put out content over 100 days, you're going to really fine tune your craft at that point. We've unloaded the value truck on everybody today, Kendall. So lots and lots of information here. I do have one question for you, though, before we wrap up here that I like to ask all of

Starting point is 00:21:27 my guests, and that's Kendall Bonner. How do you start with a win? You know, I think about this because I listen to your podcast. And when I decided to come on the podcast, I knew you were going to ask me that question. And I really wanted to think about that and give you an honest answer. And one of the things that I think is really been an important factor for me in starting my day with a win is I wake up early and I have quiet time with myself. And I honestly, I pray too. I spend that time in prayer. I spend that time just quietly thinking about what the goals are for the day and what I plan to accomplish for the day and what I need to get accomplished.

Starting point is 00:22:12 And it's just that almost like meditating for some people. I think that that's been really helpful to me to keep me calm and encouraged and moving forward. Kendall Bonner, amazing broker, great human being, digital strategist, business warrior, woman leader. I'll tell you, Kendall, first of all, I'm honored to be your friend. I'm honored to be in this industry and on this planet with you. And thanks for all you do for us. And thank you for starting with a win. Thank you, Adam. It's a pleasure and I feel the same. And the one thing I will say I think I'm the most honestly is a student. And I believe that if we can all at the end of the day remain students, you can't go wrong there. Thanks, Kendall. Thank you so much for listening to Start With A Win. If you'd like to ask Adam a question or Thanks, Kendall. Twitter and remember start with a win

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Start With A Win - Building a Brokerage Through Intention with Kendall Bonner

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