Jeffrey Levine: Be Purposeful to Break Your Lid

REE#181_Jeffrey Levine
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[00:00:00] Tracy Hayes: Real Estate Excellence Podcast. Today, I'm fortunate to have the
current secretary of the Florida of Realtors. He has been a real estate agent for over 25
years and was rookie of the year at his first brokerage. He has been a managing broker of
a company that had 750 agents in nine locations. Today is the director of productivity at
Keller Williams and Boca Raton.
[00:00:21] Tracy Hayes: He is. Also the team lead of Lux Places and Spaces Group. I like
that. In 2015, he was a Florida Realtors ArtPak Chairman. And in 2021, he won the Merle
T. Anderson Leadership Award for Broward, Palm Beaches, and St. Lucia Realtors. 2022, he
served at the NAR Board of Directors and was 2019 Chair of the NAR's Business Issues
Policy Committee.
[00:00:45] Tracy Hayes: He's the owner of Levine Coaching Company. Let's welcome Jeffrey
Levine to the show.
[00:00:52] Jeffrey Levine: Awesome. Hey, good morning.
[00:00:54] Tracy Hayes: Good morning. I appreciate you coming on. I know you've been
traveling and, uh, we postponed from yesterday, but it's [00:01:00] got some rest and,
uh, I can see what your smile, you're fresh and ready to go.
[00:01:03] Tracy Hayes: I'm
[00:01:04] Jeffrey Levine: ready to go. Yeah. Excellent.
[00:01:05] Tracy Hayes: So, um, Jeff, I like to kick off every show. I like to give
everyone a little bit of background on you so they know where you're coming. Cause I
think our listeners, um, you know, by knowing that can, you know, things will resonate
with them and maybe see some similarities, but also highlight your extensive experience
in, in real estate as we dig in.
[00:01:23] Tracy Hayes: So the first question is always the easiest one. Where are you
from?
[00:01:27] Jeffrey Levine: Originally, I'm from Brooklyn, New York. Um, I grew up in
Brooklyn. Uh, spent my first 22 years in, uh, New York city, uh, product in the New York
city school system. And, uh, moved out to New Jersey. Um, right after that and, uh, had
some family businesses, you know, the Dunkin Donuts and some chain of video stores.
[00:01:50] Jeffrey Levine: And that's when I realized I was a serial entrepreneur and
that I could never work for someone. So, uh, after, you know, technology was taking over
the video store [00:02:00] business, I decided to, uh, Go get a real estate license. And
that's what I've been doing for the last 27 years. Now started my real estate career in
central New Jersey, um, and, uh, became a managing broker for the first company that I
was with after you need three years in New Jersey to get a broker's license, became their
first sales manager, and from that point on, it just, uh, it's been a ride.
[00:02:25] Tracy Hayes: You jumped in the leadership right away. Do you think some of
you, you know, the entrepreneurial, you know, uh, uh, spirit is obviously being your,

your own man. I mean, you're running, you're running, you know, the, the, the stores, the
Dunkin Donuts, having that experience and then transitioning over into real estate.
[00:02:43] Tracy Hayes: We're all self employed, but that background and confidence that
you had of, You know, running your own show, you know, you, if you didn't get up, you
didn't get paid kind of attitude, help you quickly move into a leadership role and, and
then part of your rookie of the year. [00:03:00] Well,
[00:03:00] Jeffrey Levine: you know, it's interesting.
[00:03:02] Jeffrey Levine: Um, I never looked at it that way, you know, to me, leadership
is something that just happens, you know, opportunities happen. I believe, you know, I
actually have a friend out in Oregon who I'm probably going to butcher this quote, but
he, I love what he says. There's an opportunity in front of us every single day.
[00:03:21] Jeffrey Levine: It's just realizing the opportunity and taking advantage of
it. is what the challenge is, right? You know, every single day, you know, we just talk
about these lifetime opportunities. They come by actually by the minute for us. It's just
realizing him and sometimes we realize them too late, quite frankly. Um, so I never to
anything or look for any leadership opportunity in that regard.
[00:03:44] Jeffrey Levine: Um, you know, I got involved in the leadership opportunity in
the, in the markets at that time. It's not the market center, but the office at that
time. And then I moved over to REMAX. Um, they needed a, um, a managing broker and I ran
some REMAX offices in [00:04:00] Central New Jersey after that, uh, before coming to
Florida.
[00:04:03] Jeffrey Levine: But, you know, as far as my leadership journey on the
volunteer side. It took somebody tapping me on the shoulder, quite frankly, for me to get
involved. Um, I just, it, it just, you know, and I think that's the great aspect of every
leader. And for those leaders out there listening to this and for those future leaders,
make sure the number one thing is find your replacement, find those next group of
leaders.
[00:04:24] Jeffrey Levine: That's what leaders do. And that's what somebody did to me.
Um, and tap me on the shoulder and then Quite frankly, he tapped me on the shoulder a few
times to get involved in the volunteer side of leadership.
[00:04:35] Tracy Hayes: Uh, you know, I'm, I'm a, I've obviously most of my listeners
know Tom, a John Maxwell, a fan, and that, that is one of the things he, you know,
teaches, preaches is that true leaders create
[00:04:47] Jeffrey Levine: other leaders.
[00:04:48] Jeffrey Levine: Absolutely. And actually I am a John Maxwell team member. I'm
a certified John Maxwell coach. And I'm so glad that you said that because John is my
guy.
[00:04:58] Tracy Hayes: I went to one of his, uh, [00:05:00] In 2019? Yeah. So it was
just before Covid, uh, when he was doing over at the Marriott in Orlando. I don't know, I
think it was like three days there.
[00:05:08] Tracy Hayes: I went over and spent it, you know, and obviously I, I read his
books and I just, uh, love everything, uh, love everything about him. Um, and, uh, you
know, we could talk about that, the experience
[00:05:18] Jeffrey Levine: that week, uh, on, you know, Tracy just, you know, it's
interesting because. When I was running for the office of Florida, relative secretary, I
actually had a John Maxwell quote that I would say every time I spoke and it was one of
my favorite.

[00:05:30] Jeffrey Levine: And John says, leadership is not about title influence, a
title or flow charts. Leadership is about one life influencing another. And that's,
that's so important to remember
[00:05:42] Tracy Hayes: one, you know, whether you're, uh, you know, I'm coaching my, my
son's, uh, Uh, you know, youth basketball teams and everything and, and whether it's,
it's helping that one kid improve through the season or a real estate agent, uh, you
know, move [00:06:00] the needle.
[00:06:00] Tracy Hayes: You know improve their business, you know over a month over a
year whatever to where they can look back and say it's made A difference in their life. I
think that's that's yeah, absolutely.
[00:06:09] Jeffrey Levine: Absolutely. Yeah
[00:06:11] Tracy Hayes: Let's talk talk about um, because I always like to experience if
you can bring back some highlights from that that rookie year Um for for the new agents
that are out there if there's a listener that you know Maybe in licensing right now
taking the class or whatever or thinking about becoming a real estate agent What do you
think are some key things?
[00:06:29] Tracy Hayes: Um, that you did, uh, in that first year that really helped you
out. I mean, did you, were you working on the coattails of a mentor or what was going on
there to really, uh, helped you get off to a great start?
[00:06:41] Jeffrey Levine: That was a great question. And I didn't realize it till many
years later, how important the things that we teach now are.
[00:06:47] Jeffrey Levine: Right. And that's consistency and persistence being persistent
and consistent, and it's really important and be intentional also. So what I did is, you
know, at that time, when I came into real estate in 1997, [00:07:00] this thing called
the internet was just really kind of new. Right. And, and there was no such thing as
internet leads.
[00:07:05] Jeffrey Levine: We still had the books, uh, for the appraisers and stuff like
that to come in, you know, and, and the mortgage brokers. I mean, the only way for
somebody to really, truly find out what was going on in the area was to walk into a real
estate office, the local real estate office. And, and, and, you know, what we realized
there was a value that was part of our value proposition at that time, right.
[00:07:28] Jeffrey Levine: Is that we offered value to the consumer. And, and, and fast
forward to today, right at the age where the consumer has so much information at their
fingertips through the internet, we need to find our value today for the consumer. And we
need to be able to express it clearly back in 1997, it was implied.
[00:07:52] Jeffrey Levine: We really didn't have to do so much today. We have to really
be good at telling our story. So. [00:08:00] But when I say consistency and persistency,
it's, it's just anybody at back in the day, we had what was called floor time and we
signed up for floor time and basically we would have nonpaid receptionist, but in return,
if somebody walked into the real estate office, somebody called them, that was a
potential lead.
[00:08:19] Jeffrey Levine: So I. Told everybody in my office, you don't want to come and
spend your four hours today. Give me a call. I'll be there. I took every available shift.
I, if somebody needed somebody to cover, I took care of it. So, you know, getting out
there, talking to your top producers in your office, talking to other people, let them
know you're there to assist if necessary.
[00:08:41] Jeffrey Levine: I took every advantage of every opportunity that I had. And
that year I did 48 real estate transactions. And by the way, fast forwarding to today
where, and I'm sure we'll get to this, we have buyer agency and true buyer agency is
going to become very super important as it is. It should be now, but it's really going to
[00:09:00] become super important to most agents.

[00:09:02] Jeffrey Levine: 45 of those were in buyer agency relationship transactions.
[00:09:08] Tracy Hayes: You tipped a little bit on and I think without actually saying
it, uh, or first thing I thought of is the NAR lawsuit and what that will actually bring
us back to the, uh, the real estate agents. Obviously, I'm on the mortgage side and so
when I say we, I think the real estate industry in general, we need to be better at
explaining our value that we bring.
[00:09:30] Tracy Hayes: Absolutely. We do all those things below the surface that people
[00:09:32] Jeffrey Levine: don't see. We do absolutely do. So Tracy, back in the day.
People went to a mortgage person, professional in 1997, typically a, a customer or client
went to a mortgage professional first, got pre approved and then came to the real estate
agent.
[00:09:50] Jeffrey Levine: Right. And that was the relationship. That was the flow or
they went to their local bank or whatever it was today. It's almost the exact opposite,
right? They, they reach out to the real estate agent [00:10:00] first and then the real
estate agent. a good real estate agent, make sure that they are positioned in the best
way possible to become, you know, to be that best buyer.
[00:10:09] Jeffrey Levine: And that's what I think that's truly lacking at times is that
making that consultation process, that, that, that conversation with the consumer, you
know, consumers come in as customers. We hope we get them into a client relationship. And
the only way we can get them into a client relationship legally under the state of
Florida rules is to have a buyer agency agreement.
[00:10:33] Jeffrey Levine: Signed by them in order to create that quiet, um, agent
relationship. So it's all about showing value. And I truly believe that in anything that
we do, any business we're in, the consumer wants value and they will pay for value. They
will pay for what your value is worth. And that is, again, what we have to get really
good at as real estate agents, expressing our value, showing our [00:11:00] value, and
showing all the things that we do in the real estate transaction.
[00:11:04] Jeffrey Levine: I mean, if you go Google out there and you Google what does a
real estate agent do in a transaction, you'll find lists of up to 176 things that a real
estate agent does within a transaction. It's not about just opening up a door and showing
a property and say, do you want to buy it? there's so many things that go in to our
services and Again, explaining counseling sitting down with that person.
[00:11:29] Jeffrey Levine: You know, I always had this little soapbox I used to get on
especially when I was training We would go out there and spend an hour and a half trying
to convince a seller why they should go ahead and sell Their property with us But yeah,
when a buyer calls lots of real estate agents say, great, what time do you want me to
meet you at the property?
[00:11:48] Jeffrey Levine: Why is a buyer any less valuable or should be treated any
differently than, than a seller in a real estate transaction? So those buyer agents that
are really doing [00:12:00] buyer agency at a very high level, this environment, this
market, their business is going to be greater than it ever was before.
[00:12:10] Tracy Hayes: I was, it was interesting.
[00:12:11] Tracy Hayes: I saw someone posted that. I don't know if it's Let's see.
Today's friday was probably wednesday afternoon. There was a post on facebook and uh,
somebody said hey I'm looking at this neighborhood these three neighborhoods in my area.
Um, And uh, what what does everyone think about them? And I said my response was you need
to you need to um, Find a real estate professional who's an expert in this area Because
there's a lot of actually neighborhoods in between those neighborhoods that probably
could satisfy you Save you money or get you a bigger house for the same amount of money
Um, and obviously to contact me because I know a lot of them in town and I could refer

them uh to understood to get that expressed across uh in today's [00:13:00] world, the,
you know, we call market experts, right?
[00:13:03] Tracy Hayes: You know, uh, Krista Mishore, she, she, uh, pushes out a lot of
stuff. He's, you know, about, about being the neighborhood expert, you know, two or three
and just be everything off. What is, what is your your vision, your, or what do you, what
do you preach? What do you try to do to try to be seen as that market expert?
[00:13:22] Tracy Hayes: So these people are calling you to talk about the things that are
in between the lines in some of these areas, you know, these neighborhoods that, you
know, they see the new construction going on and in neighborhood a, b, and c, but
there's, there's these D E and F neighborhoods that they're not seeing that.
[00:13:39] Tracy Hayes: Actually offer more but they're just they're not advertising
anymore because there's no more new construction going on there, right? You're just
buying existing homes, right better
[00:13:47] Jeffrey Levine: built homes Yeah, absolutely. You know, I just, you mentioned,
I just got back. I just actually got back from Las Vegas. I was at the Keller Williams
family reunion.
[00:13:55] Jeffrey Levine: Um, I happen to be a Keller Williams agent right now, as you
said, director, I was director of [00:14:00] productivity for a large office down in East
Boca Raton, Florida, um, down, down in Palm Beach County. Uh, you know, Gary Kellen, It
just blew my mind. I mean, as many times as I've seen him, the state of the company
address, um, the numbers, knowing the numbers, even somebody that's in the business that
follows the numbers and tracks the numbers and tracks what's happening on a national
level, local level, um, state level, I got to tell you, when Gary started breaking down
the numbers and really Opening your eyes to the fact, one of the things that I, and maybe
some of you listeners out there know, I'm sure you do as a mortgage professional, but if
you took a 25 year average of interest rates today, 6.
[00:14:46] Jeffrey Levine: 8 percent is where it comes up. 6. 8%. So people think we're
at all these such high interest rates because they remember two and three quarters at 3
percent and 4%. 6. 8 percent was the average over the last 25 years. We're [00:15:00] at
the average of the last 25 years. And yet people think the sky is falling when it comes
to interest rates, right?
[00:15:06] Jeffrey Levine: So knowing, as you said, being that market expert means more
than just. Opening a door or using the MLS or, you know, sending a couple of properties,
but really understanding what's happening. In our business, you know, to the consumer and
asking the questions to the consumer of, you know, what, what, what is, what is your
concerns?
[00:15:29] Jeffrey Levine: You know, why do you think this way? What would have to
happen? How are you going to get there? And knowing the market, like you said, you know,
zeroing in on communities. Becoming the market expert, knowing how many units are in
those communities. We, you know, when a buyer comes in and says, Oh, well, that's a great
community.
[00:15:46] Jeffrey Levine: There's 375 units in there. And the average sales price is
this, and there's four different models. And, you know, and having that knowledge, the
consumer says, wow. Wow. This guy knows what he's talking about. That's the person I want
to work [00:16:00] with. And, and you know, with the internet, I think we've all become
lazy.
[00:16:04] Jeffrey Levine: We just feel that we could just go out and Google the
information, but it only takes you so far. And then how much information is available out
there that contradicts each other. Right? What is the true information? What's the true
story? I mean, each, each thing that you come up with may have a piece, but what is the
real true story?

[00:16:23] Jeffrey Levine: And that's where we show our value, right? The consumer is
zeroing in on what they want. Usually a real estate agent has a broader market knowledge
and area knowledge. And yes, one of the values you mentioned, um, Before we also know
what's coming online. We know what's happening. You know, if good real estate agents in
their market areas, they attend their community, uh, you know, they go into the city and
they, they go into the planning commission and they know what's happening and they know
what projects are coming to the law online.
[00:16:53] Jeffrey Levine: They know what's, you know, what's being built in certain
areas. They know what roads are being constructed. You know, these are all the things
that go into picking [00:17:00] and choosing the right communities.
[00:17:02] Tracy Hayes: I, it just made me think, you know, I was on my community
development district, CDD board for 11 years and, uh, you know, I actually, I haven't
done it recently, but I'd probably need to get out there and give some color to the real
estate agents, uh, of what a community development district obviously brings.
[00:17:20] Tracy Hayes: But what you were just bringing to light to me is a lot of them.
Yeah, go on the internet and you get the 30, 000 foot level. And if you really pin down a
handful of communities and really get in there and whether it's knowing the management
company That might be running that community development district or advising the hoa Uh,
you're just getting in there and knowing those things and knowing what's going on It can
give you such an edge.
[00:17:45] Tracy Hayes: Uh, and again, it might just be one phrase or one statement
Saying hey, yeah, they're actually building. Uh, they're going to be replacing the
playground set, uh here in six months That right there just saying that Says you're on
top of things.
[00:17:59] Jeffrey Levine: [00:18:00] Absolutely. And you know, it's so easy for us as
agents. I mean, especially you talked about new construction.
[00:18:04] Jeffrey Levine: There's nothing better, easier for a newer agent to master the
new construction. Just go into the model center, sit with it, sit with one of their sales
agents, get the brochure, view each of the models. Ask them if you could take some
pictures or video or if they have something that they could give you so that you could
put it on your websites.
[00:18:22] Jeffrey Levine: There is no reason, there is no excuse that a new agent can't
be a master at the new construction that's happening in their market.
[00:18:31] Tracy Hayes: I've, I've had agents tell me that you, uh One of them thinking
of it in particular moved brokerages because I thought it would give them a, you know,
greater area of coverage.
[00:18:40] Tracy Hayes: I mean, Northeast Florida here where, you know, where it's pretty
big. I mean, you go down to basically Palm Coast all the way up to the Georgia line and,
you know, West, I don't know, 50 miles to Stark or so. I guess, you know, most people
would consider that Northeast Florida. That's a pretty wide area for one agent or even a
[00:19:00] small team to be experts at.
[00:19:03] Tracy Hayes: In your experience, what, what do you, you know, we're talking
about being a market expert. How, uh, narrowed down should they, should they really be?
Yeah, you'll go show a house in Fernandina. If somebody refers you, obviously you're not
going to give up a sale and you're going to travel. You know, for here, it'd be probably
30 miles or more, uh, to get there.
[00:19:23] Tracy Hayes: But on a day to day basis in your marketing and really getting
down to fine tuning it. How, how important or what is your advice that you give them to
really own an area?
[00:19:36] Jeffrey Levine: Well, great question. So you, first thing you mentioned about
agents moving brokerages. And I just, I don't want to let that go. Okay.

[00:19:44] Jeffrey Levine: Because as a coach, the first thing I say to, to a new
coaching client, I talked to him a little bit about their business, where it is right
now. And part of that is, you know, how, how they set up is what their organization looks
like and that type of stuff. [00:20:00] Biggest suggestion for any agent out there, brand
new or, or, or.
[00:20:05] Jeffrey Levine: Season, you know, instead of getting a new iPad, instead of
getting a new Mac book or a, um, or a new phone or whatever it is, the first thing they
should get is a mirror and you know, they should look in that mirror and they should say,
am I doing the things I need to do to be successful? Because it's easy to, it's easy to,
to really blame your brokerage.
[00:20:28] Jeffrey Levine: It's easy to blame your broker. It's easy to blame your mentor
while you're not doing business. Look in the mirror. And really ask the hard question. Am
I doing what I need to do to be successful? That's where it starts, right? Because every
brokerage adds value. Every broker adds value. We all have the same product to sell,
right?
[00:20:50] Jeffrey Levine: Am I doing the activities that I need to do? So I would have
thought that's number one. Right? Number two, going back to, you're asking, the Broward
Palm Beaches and St. [00:21:00] Lucie's Relatives, which I was president of, I was
actually the person, the president that combined all of that, uh, to create the third
largest merger in NAR history, is 111 miles.
[00:21:12] Jeffrey Levine: Our board literally spans 111 miles up and down the coast, up
and down the east coast, the southeast coast from my, from the Miami border, all the way
up to Port St. Lucie. The Miami Realtors has all of Miami, the fourth largest city in the
country. Between the two associations, we have a hundred thousand members.
[00:21:31] Jeffrey Levine: And to put that into perspective, Florida Realtors has a total
of 238, 000 members. So almost 50 percent of the membership of Florida Realtors are
within two boards. The Miami Association of Realtors and the Bravo Palm Beach and St.
Lucie Association of Realtors. So when we, when we look at the size and of our market and
the competitiveness of our market, you, in order to survive, you [00:22:00] have to be
that market expert.
[00:22:01] Jeffrey Levine: And, and yes, can I sell Miami? Can I sell all the way up to
St. Lucie? I'm in Boca for me to St. Lucie is about an hour, hour and a half drive,
depending where in St. Lucie I'm, I'm going, can I do it? Absolutely. Am I the best
person to do it for my client or customer? I always ask that question. Can I provide the
services they need to get the best term, price, terms and conditions and understanding
the market of the area I go if I check off the boxes and yes, I'm willing to go if not,
I'm going to refer that business to somebody else because that is what her job is to get
the best representation.
[00:22:41] Jeffrey Levine: We're all licensed to sell the whole state of Florida. We are.
And even if we don't belong to an MLS in the area, there's ways of getting the
information on properties throughout the whole state of Florida. But am I really the
person that should be going up to Destin in the panhandle and selling a property when I
have no idea?
[00:22:58] Jeffrey Levine: I've never been to Destin. [00:23:00] I don't think that's
probably in the best interest of our clients or customers. So as agents, what we could
do, especially in markets that are as big as Northeast Florida or the South Florida
region is get to as many networking events with other agents. So that we could build
relationships, look for those agents that list property in your market that is not from
your market.
[00:23:21] Jeffrey Levine: Pick up the phone and say, Hey, I'll take your referrals. If
anybody calls you, I'm willing to work with you. I'll take your referrals. Let's build a
relationship. And if I have somebody in your area, I'm willing to work with you. I'll do
the same. I think that's the way to handle these larger markets at a much higher level.

[00:23:38] Jeffrey Levine: But yes, I mean, we need to specialize in something. I believe
in the one thing concept. And if anybody's ever read the book, the one thing written by
Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, it's not a real estate book. It's a life book. It's called
the one thing. And I actually listened to this book once a month. I have it on audible.
[00:23:55] Jeffrey Levine: I play it from, you know, when I'm driving, but it, it has
been [00:24:00] my. It's been honestly, the, the, the one thing that has really expanded
my business, my, and my personal life to a new level. And a lot of my coaching is based
upon the one thing. And in the one thing concept is what is that one thing that we need
to do today?
[00:24:16] Jeffrey Levine: And if we do it so well, and we, we concentrate on it and
focus on it so well, so great that nothing else matters. That everything else will fall
into place. Nothing else matters. And for a lot of us in our life and our, and in life
and in our business, I mean, we might have two, one things, but in real estate, think
about it.
[00:24:37] Jeffrey Levine: Lead generation is our one thing. It, you know, without lead
generation, nothing else matters. If we don't, if we're not talking to people, if we're
not following up, if we're not having new conversations, if we're not adding people to
our database. What, what is, what does it matter? We'll have no business. So, so, you
know, so when I look at you asking the [00:25:00] question about these large geographic
areas, yeah, find your two, three, four subdivisions that you want to become the expert
in and become the expert in that it's like farming.
[00:25:08] Jeffrey Levine: When we set up farm areas, we look for a specific area and
then we concentrate and focus and we know everything about that market. Well, the same
thing on the buyer's side. We need to know everything about the, and when we get good at
that, we can add another one. And then when we get that, we could add another one in and
expand, but do not try to be everybody's everything, you know, Jack and Jill of all
trades, master of none, that's not going to work moving forward.
[00:25:33] Jeffrey Levine: In this business. And especially if you want to be showing
your value to the consumer, I'd rather get a referral fee, send somebody to somebody else
for the 20, 25%, whatever that referral fee is. And, and have them satisfied and have
them get the best quality service that they can get. Well, I'm concentrating on my one
thing.
[00:25:53] Jeffrey Levine: Could
[00:25:53] Tracy Hayes: you tap a little bit deeper into, uh, cause it's a topic that I
bring up often, uh, with, with [00:26:00] different agents, the importance of building.
That relationship networking with other agents because i've had agents say, oh, I don't
want to go to that social It's just going to be a bunch of real estate agents, and
they're not buying houses, you know So they don't want to they don't want to go there.
[00:26:15] Tracy Hayes: I had patty ketchum say Uh made a great story for the first
number of years. She regrets that she never cast a shadow Uh in the um at the board of
realtors realtors out in tallahassee at her board Um, and she regrets that because of the
relationships she didn't Create. Um, how important has it been?
[00:26:36] Tracy Hayes: Because I think some people will look at you and say, well, you
want to get in the leadership, your secretary, uh, you know, Florida realtors, you're
that, you know, you networking is important for you to go for those aspirations. But how
does it help the everyday agent to be regularly mixing and mingling and networking as far
as growing their actual, [00:27:00] uh, you know, uh, buying and
[00:27:02] selling
[00:27:02] Jeffrey Levine: business.

[00:27:04] Jeffrey Levine: You know, it's so funny you mentioned Patty Ketchum because
she's one of my favorite people. I think anybody that's ever met Patty Ketchum, not fall
in love with Patty Ketchum, right? But for those who may be listening that don't know who
Patty Ketchum is, she's actually a current Freck commissioner, but she's also, she's the,
I call it a godmother of, um, teaching in the state of Florida, you know, when it comes
to instructing and learning and teaching, she teaches the L.
[00:27:28] Jeffrey Levine: S. S. D. Of the class that florida realtor instructors, um,
you have to take in order to become a florida realtors approved instructor. She has a
licensing school. She teaches. I take my instructor continuing education with patty every
two years. Um, and the funny thing is if If you go online and you look at any of these
groups, lab code agents, any of these groups that people ask, Oh, who do I, who do I need
to know in Tallahassee?
[00:27:55] Jeffrey Levine: The first name that comes up from everyone is Patty Ketchum,
[00:28:00] right? And, and you know, and I didn't even know that story that Patty told
you that at the beginning, she didn't give it a valve because as I've always known Patty
Ketchum in my whole life and career. Right. So, um, so it's very interesting to hear
that.
[00:28:14] Jeffrey Levine: So I'm at Keller Williams university. Approved trader. There's
only about 150 out of 180, 000 agents in the country. So I, I am, I'm hired to go into
market centers throughout the country to, to teach Keller Williams University material,
um, for the market centers. And they're usually a full day and I pay for my own travel.
[00:28:36] Jeffrey Levine: I pay for my hotel. I pay for all my expenses. I get a very
small stipend for teaching the classes. But where the real value is. Is if I have six or
seven or eight hours in a market center in Tennessee with 80 students, I'm building a
relationship and lead generating for eight hours and the [00:29:00] amount of referrals
that could come from that group.
[00:29:02] Jeffrey Levine: I could say when, if somebody. That sat in one of my classes
has a need to refer somebody to South Florida. They're going to pick up the phone and
call me. They're going to pick up the phone and call me. And that's the same thing that
in the volunteer world, that is the same thing in your local networking world.
[00:29:23] Jeffrey Levine: Okay. The more people you interact with, the more people that
liked and trust you, just like your clients have to like and trust you, the more
referrals you're going to get. I know agents that are doing. You know, a million dollars
a year in gross commission income, just from agent to agent referrals, there are classes,
there are organizations by referral or there's, there's groups that just teach this,
right?
[00:29:47] Jeffrey Levine: Not just client referrals, but agent to agent referrals. And
listen, it's no different than a client referral. If you look at your group of fellow
agents as another group of potential clients and lead [00:30:00] generation, it's the
same processes, you know, setting up plans, communicating with them, making sure that
they, you remain top of mind with them.
[00:30:10] Jeffrey Levine: So it's, it's, it's amazing when you, you, the business at a
Patty Ketchum or, you know, some other folks around the state and around the country have
created. Just on agent to agent referrals.
[00:30:23] Tracy Hayes: Well, I've, I've had many agents come on, you know, they love
like going to the family reunion and connecting with people from all over the country and
saying, Hey, I'm, I'm in Jacksonville.
[00:30:33] Tracy Hayes: You know, someone moving to Jacksonville and they, and they pride
themselves on those, uh, relationships they build
[00:30:39] Jeffrey Levine: at those and you know what, don't be embarrassed to ask for it
because that's why you're in business. Right. I mean, at the end of the day, people think
maybe this is not the venue or not the place or whatever it is.

[00:30:50] Jeffrey Levine: The fact of the matter is that's what we do. We lead generate
every single part of a day. And one, a part of our lead generation is to build agent to
agent [00:31:00] relationships. And again, all relationships, no matter whether it's
agent to agent relationship, client to agent relationship, mortgage broker to agent
relationships.
[00:31:10] Jeffrey Levine: They're great. But if we never ask for the business. Why did
we create the relationship to begin with? You gotta ask for the
[00:31:18] Tracy Hayes: business. You just made me think, you know, going to one of those
events and not saying, Hey, if you have someone, you know, it's looking to move to
Jacksonville, make sure they call me.
[00:31:26] Tracy Hayes: You know, kind of asking him that business. It's kind of like two
people dating. Uh, do you like, cause the other person's thinking the same thing. They
just haven't said it yet. You know, they get a referral if they're moving to San Antonio
or something,
[00:31:37] Jeffrey Levine: wherever they're at. If you're in the business mind, if you're
working today in your business, you're focused now, this is your business.
[00:31:43] Jeffrey Levine: Every conversation has to ask for the business somewhere along
the way. And there's different ways of asking for it. It may not be as direct, but every
conversation has to have a point where you ask for the business.
[00:31:56] Tracy Hayes: Um, moving transition, cause I'm eventually I want to transition
[00:32:00] into your, your coaching, but mentors, um, you know, we talked a little bit
about brokerages and if you want to tap on this a little bit, I think, you know, having
interviewed 170 agents, uh, top agents in, uh, well, actually around the state now, a lot
of them here in Northeast Florida, obviously, but, um, Yeah.
[00:32:21] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. You're going to the right brokerage or finding that person
in the existing brokerage that you're at, that will, you know, share some time. Maybe
that, that top producer that will let you tag along, especially when you're new, or if
you are a struggling agent to find somebody that, that you can pair up with in, in mirror
and kind of, you'll get some.
[00:32:44] Tracy Hayes: Free coaching. I, you know, I think a mentor is a free coached,
uh, uh, in translation there. How important is it to search out those for those who are,
you know, whether they're getting started or maybe just want to move. They want to move.
They want to do more and they don't know what [00:33:00] it is. It's
[00:33:00] Jeffrey Levine: holding them back.
[00:33:01] Jeffrey Levine: Yeah. Great question again. And it goes back to my answer
about asking for the business. If you don't ever ask if somebody, if you could tag along
with somebody, if somebody, if you could shout at them, if you don't ask somebody, if
they'd be willing to mentor you, the answer is going to be no. Right? So why not ask?
[00:33:18] Jeffrey Levine: Let's put it that way. You can never get a yes if you're not
willing to hear the no's along the way. So one of the things that I do want to start off
with, and I think this is a big misconception in our business and in our brokerages,
there is abs people use the term trainer. mentor coach very interchangeably.
[00:33:39] Jeffrey Levine: They are absolutely three distinct different things. And I
think that we have to really be careful about the, you know, it's like using that client
and customer. Everybody says they have a client, they have a client, they have a client
yet only about 5 percent of the people really do have a client because they actually are
in an agency relationship with them.
[00:33:58] Jeffrey Levine: Right. Everybody else is [00:34:00] a customer and people
don't get that, but we hear that all the time. My client, my client, my client, and you

want to have some fun, ask them, Oh, great. Do you have a buyer's agency agreement with
that person? And they'll be like, no. Right. And so if you want to have some fun and look
at my numbers, believe me, a lot of people are using that wrong.
[00:34:20] Jeffrey Levine: Trainers. Let's start with trainers. Trainers teaches, um, you
go to a class, you learn a skill, like how to write a contract. Right. How do you use the
MLS? You sit in the class for an hour or two. You say goodbye. You thank them for
everything that they wanted. You move on. And hopefully you use what you learned in
class.
[00:34:39] Jeffrey Levine: And if you don't, you maybe go back to the class again the
second time to learn and ask other questions. But typically in a trainer teacher
relationship, you see that instructor. You never see them again. You move on. Right.
Let's swip all the way to the side of the coach, because, you know, that's what I
actually do.
[00:34:57] Jeffrey Levine: And that's that that's In all my [00:35:00] 27 years, it's
been my most, um, heartwarming thing that I do. And I'll, and you hopefully you'll
understand why, but coaching is a hundred percent coaches don't teach you how to play the
game. They don't train you. They, they, they make sure that you're getting the resources
you need to, to get your foundation in place.
[00:35:23] Jeffrey Levine: And in most cases, you really don't want to coach until you
have your foundation settled that you could build upon. Because a coach is then going to
take your natural abilities, your foundation. And they're going to just make you help
you. They're not going to make you, you're going to make you, but they're going to be a
partner with you to get you better and better each and every day.
[00:35:47] Jeffrey Levine: Right? I have some professional athletes that are part of my
market center. I've had professional athletes in my coaching program and professional
athletes actually love coaching because that's what got them to their level in their, in
their [00:36:00] world. Right? And if you look at, at the greatest coaches, Coaches are
motivators.
[00:36:06] Jeffrey Levine: They work 90 percent of success in anything we do is mindset,
right? It's not skillset. It's mindset. The skillsets only 10%, but being in the right
mindset. is what's going to get you there, right? My son, um, my oldest son was a great
baseball player played in travel teams, played all over the country but he was built,
given a 5 foot 6 inch frame and he was a lefty, okay?
[00:36:34] Jeffrey Levine: And um, he was actually a catcher and there's no such things
as lefty catchers but he was a catcher up until high school and he was a good catcher but
nobody would give him the opportunity because he was a lefty. to be a catcher in a
further thing. So they turned him into a pitcher, but he wasn't built with an arm that
could throw a hundred miles an hour.
[00:36:54] Jeffrey Levine: It just wasn't there. So they created it, he became a
submarine pitcher and [00:37:00] basically he was crafty. Lefties, the ball moves a
little, it confuses batters. He would only come in sometimes to face one batter or two in
specific situation where they needed a ground ball. And that was his role. And that's
where that's, that's so it's so he found the coach that realized where his value was and
what he would excel at and be part of.
[00:37:23] Jeffrey Levine: That's what it was. He was never getting a division one
baseball scholarship for his athletic abilities because he just wasn't built that way.
But his mindset was there with his willingness to do whatever he needed to do was there.
And you know what? He did get a division one scholarship to the University of Central
Florida.
[00:37:41] Jeffrey Levine: He was there for it. student manager for four years at the
University of Central Florida on on an athletic scholarship because of his mindset,
because of the way he brought the positiveness and whatever he needed to do to be part of

the team and to be successful. And he actually won the [00:38:00] award at UCF in his
junior year as the student manager out of all the sports at UCF of the year.
[00:38:06] Jeffrey Levine: Because of the stuff that he did now. He's in the finance.
He's actually in, uh, he's a CPA and he's, um, he works in real estate sector and, uh,
he's doing really well, but it's, it's just, it just amazes me. He's a product of just
watching what mindset can do. We all have egos. We all want to be, I mean, real estate
agents are built on egos, you know?
[00:38:32] Jeffrey Levine: Um, yeah. But we got to really understand that this is a
business and we have to get the best out of us and what we can do and focus on. And
there's ways of giving back these ways of changing lives. We change lives every day. And
that's what I love about coaching.
[00:38:50] Tracy Hayes: So you see him over mentor. Let's
[00:38:52] Jeffrey Levine: go. Yeah, I will get back to that.
[00:38:54] Jeffrey Levine: I'll get the bedroom because I just wanted to touch this with
the coach because we changed lives each and every day. [00:39:00] Agents, agents are able
to change lives each and every day, right? These are the biggest financial decisions that
most people are going to be making in their lives. Let's get to the mentor.
[00:39:10] Jeffrey Levine: The mentor is kind of a little bit in between, right? Mentors
are not necessarily trained in coaching techniques, the mindset, but the mentor shows you
what they were, they have done to become successful. Where I'm, where I just want all,
anybody here that's listening, whether you're a mentor or a mentee, and I actually am a
mentor in a couple of different programs today of stuff that I went through and now I've
become mentors to.
[00:39:38] Jeffrey Levine: Because it was successful the way I did it does not
necessarily mean it's going to be successful for you. Okay. So, so, you know, following a
mentor when you're a mentee, the mindset is you have an open mind. I'm going to look at
things, but if you want to 100 percent duplicate somebody else, you're never going to be
successful because you're not them.
[00:39:59] Jeffrey Levine: Right? [00:40:00] So you have to really pick and choose the
things that you want to implement into your business. Good mentors are not, not afraid of
telling you all their secrets because guess what? That holds them accountable. That makes
them better. You know, I will give everybody, um, anybody that's listening to this call,
you want to pick up the phone and call me and ask me how I got successful.
[00:40:22] Jeffrey Levine: I'll give you, I'll give you the playbook. I'll give you every
step that you need to do. If you look at Gary Keller, he wrote the millionaire real
estate agent over 25 years ago, and it's still the number one bestseller in real estate
today. And he gives you the plan. If you want to make a million dollars in real estate,
he gives you the actual plan on how to make a million dollars in real estate as an agent.
[00:40:44] Jeffrey Levine: Why doesn't everybody make a million dollars in real estate?
Very simple. They're not, they don't follow the plan. And not only don't they follow the
plan, they don't have the mental capacity to want to follow the plan. It takes a lot of
work. And, [00:41:00] and, and you know what, you look at your mentor and you say, wow, I
want to be that guy one day.
[00:41:03] Jeffrey Levine: I want to be Jeff one day. I said to my coaching guys, no, you
don't. You want to be Sam. You want to be Julie. You want to be Jane. You want to be the
best Julie, Sam, or Jane that you can be. But yes, take some hints from me. Take the
lessons. A mentor, the biggest value of a mentor, find out what didn't work so you don't
have to go through that headache in the future.
[00:41:27] Jeffrey Levine: Whether it be a trainer, whether it be a mentor, whether it be
a coach, Tracy, it's so important to understand, none of them are magic pills. There is
not a magic pill in any one of those things. It's you, it's you that is going to be

successful or not. It's you. That's going to be willing to do the things you need to do
or not plain and simple.
[00:41:51] Jeffrey Levine: The coach is there to help push you, prod you. There's an
expression of professional sports. You don't need to get [00:42:00] 10, 20, 30, 40, a
hundred percent better every day. You need to get 1 percent better each and every day. 1
percent Ed Mylett is another great guy that I love to follow. Um, Ed Mylett wrote a book,
The Power of One, which basically means imagine if I made one more phone call.
[00:42:18] Jeffrey Levine: How could that change my life? If I did one more rep in the
gym, how could that change my life? You know, I did one more thing each and every day and
compounded over time. That's going to produce a super amount of results. So they're all
important. All three of those things. And they're all important at different steps of the
of their career of your career.
[00:42:43] Tracy Hayes: You said something when you were talking about your son, uh, in
transitioning back to the coaching and what you do. Um, and I wrote down here to coach
who understood stood you because of his uniqueness of what he did. He had obviously had
[00:43:00] to find a coach who's like, okay, you know what? I could actually use him to
come in for one or two batters, you know, late in the game when we need that out type of
thing, uh, in, in a transition from one pitcher to another, we're going to insert him in
there and understand his value when someone's looking for a coach such as yourself, um,
how important is it for, you know, uh, you from the coach to really dig in to, uh,
knowing, uh, yeah.
[00:43:34] Tracy Hayes: A lot about, well, I mean, you got, you can answer a lot, uh, you
know, knowing enough about them, not just going, Oh, how many sales you have last year?
You got to, as a coach, what do you do to dig and find out a little bit more about it
before you start
[00:43:50] Jeffrey Levine: coaching? I love that. That's the greatest question I've been
asked in a very long time, because I think that is the most important part, an aspect of,
of hiring a [00:44:00] coach.
[00:44:01] Jeffrey Levine: So in my, just going through my process, when I hired my first
coach. Um, I interviewed some large national coaching companies, names that are still
around today that we all know. I found some value in every single one of them. And then
I, I was looking for the person. that did it, that wrote the book, that helped that.
[00:44:24] Jeffrey Levine: And I wound up with a guy named Walter Sanford. And at that
time, in the 80s, Walter Sanford was selling a million dollars a day worth of real estate
in Southern California, in the 80s. Okay, which probably would be 10, 20 million dollars
a day today, right? And he wrote The books and I met him at a REMAX actually conference,
and he only coached 12 people at any one time throughout the country.
[00:44:46] Jeffrey Levine: Somebody's coaching companies are coaching thousands of people
at one time, and you're not getting the actual coach or the name on the door. You're
getting somebody that was trained by the company in their systems and stuff, [00:45:00]
and that's great, and there's value to that. But I wanted, I wanted the person that wrote
the book.
[00:45:05] Jeffrey Levine: I wanted the one on one. So I found Walter and at that time I
was paying 750 a month. And that was about 18 years ago. So quite that today, it was
probably quite a, quite a, quite a, quite a bit more, right, but it was a lot of money at
the day and I was averaging 80, 000 a year in sales and I couldn't break through that
ceiling.
[00:45:25] Jeffrey Levine: The year I hired Walter. I went from 80, 000 to 175, 000 in
one year. So, a 10, 000 investment brought me about 100, 000 in additional income. I
would say, I will pay anybody out there that's listening, if you could give me 100, 000
more income, I'll send you a check for 10, 000. Okay? Alright? But, but I interviewed so
many people before.

[00:45:54] Jeffrey Levine: Don't a don't jump in high. The first coach, right? Call
around, speak to [00:46:00] people, get referrals. Who? Okay. And your friend who loves
his coach might not be the right coach for you. I, I, as a coach, I have coaches and I
had two coaches at one point because I had two different aspects of my business and life
that I wanted to focus on that required two different skill sets.
[00:46:18] Jeffrey Levine: Quite frankly, and I have actually, I had coaches or actually
move from one coach to another coach and I've done it in my coaching program where I
brought an agent to a level where I couldn't continue to work with them, but I knew that
there was somebody that specialized in what they needed next. And I moved them to that
coach.
[00:46:39] Jeffrey Levine: So there's reasons why sports teams have a head coach, and
then they have a whole bunch of coaches that specialize in different positions and stuff
like that and strength. And in mindset, even professional athletes have a lot of mindset
coaching, right? So in real estate, though, I'll just transition to me.
[00:46:57] Jeffrey Levine: I don't coach many. I don't coach many people at all anymore.
I [00:47:00] actually used to have over a hundred coaching clients. Right now I have 15.
I've changed my focus because I focus on people. That a have the skill set to begin with
B. Um, and when I say skill set, that means the willingness to do what they need to do in
order to be successful and are continually growing and learning and have a have a
learning and growing mindset.
[00:47:24] Jeffrey Levine: But B, I know that I could be a bigger value to those 15
people than I could ever be to 120 people because it's going back to my one thing. I know
what I need to focus on. Now, each one of my coaching clients, it's very, very specific.
They're coaching. It's I coach to what they need, their needs to them.
[00:47:45] Jeffrey Levine: It's not one program. It's not one model. It's not. And I, by
the way, I do coach inside and outside of Keller Williams. So it's not branch specific
either. Okay. What I, what I focus on is what [00:48:00] is their need at that time?
Where do they want to go? So there is a piece where you have to deep dive into really
what they want.
[00:48:08] Jeffrey Levine: And what somebody tells you they want on the surface is not
necessarily what they want in their heart. And, and we got to dig and we got to go deep.
I don't believe in our business. And you can just coach business without coaching to the
personal. And you mentioned this before we're independent contractors, which means if we
don't make money, we don't eat, we don't pay the rent and that's going to affect our
family lives.
[00:48:32] Jeffrey Levine: That's going to affect what happens in our world, how our
children and everything else. So I. coach to the whole. I do more transformational
coaching. So we're going to talk about your business, but then we're going to also talk
about your personal life and see how that all interacts. When people say they can
separate business and, and, and personal life, I think you better look in the mirror
again.
[00:48:54] Jeffrey Levine: Okay. Because if you're not having a great time at home, Your
business is going to suffer. And if you're not having a great [00:49:00] time in your
business, your life is going to suffer. So we're going to, we, we, we, we look at both to
make sure that we're in tune with each other. Of course, we're going to focus on the
business, but the question is, if the business is running well, how does that affect
life?
[00:49:15] Jeffrey Levine: You know, what are the things you can do in your life that you
never thought you could do that the business can fund? You see, your life doesn't fund
your business. Your business funds, your life. So that's, that's where the focus comes.
[00:49:29] Tracy Hayes: Well, I like how you, you, you brought it because I think you're
the, one of the misconceptions of especially people coming from the corporate world.

[00:49:38] Tracy Hayes: Um, you know, I know we have a lot of really young agents now
coming in, you know, some of them getting their license while they're in college. But you
know, the people, most of, I think the agents that are out there have transitioned from
another career. Uh, you know, they're in corporate America and nine to five and, you
know, they can, They're not in the real estate industry.
[00:49:57] Tracy Hayes: So at five o'clock they put their jacket on and go home and they
[00:50:00] don't worry about getting an email, a text message, a phone call at seven
o'clock saying, Hey, I want to see this property. Or, you know, there's an issue, uh, you
know, and we're dealing with it when you're out there, you know, talking to the many
agents you, I'm sure you get asked all the time by, you know, people about the industry
and so forth, how real estate.
[00:50:21] Tracy Hayes: Being a real estate agent is a, is a lifestyle in, in knowing how
the business affects the personal, because it's so
[00:50:30] Jeffrey Levine: overlapping. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, Tracy, one of my,
last year I took on a coaching client. He wasn't with Keller Williams. He was with
another company and he, he, he was referred to me by somebody.
[00:50:43] Jeffrey Levine: Yes. And he said, Jeff, this young guy, he needs, he just, he
needs you. Would you sit down and have a conversation with him? And by the way, um,
Tracy, I will have a conversation with anybody. whatsoever. No obligation, no fee. I give
everybody [00:51:00] complimentary hour to sit and talk and see if there's a way that we
could work together.
[00:51:04] Jeffrey Levine: I can help them because I don't take our clients unless I feel
like they have value to them. It's just, you know, but I, but even for that hour, I can
guarantee you, you'll get something out of it that you'll use in your business. And I'm
always happy to do that for people. But, um, This young man came in, he was making 300,
000 a year in GCI.
[00:51:25] Jeffrey Levine: He was doing about 8 million a year in, in production. He was
29 years old. He was at four different real estate companies. I'm ready. And I'm sure a
lot of people sitting out there saying, Hey, listen, I, I'd be happy making 300, 000 a
year at 29 years old, but he was ready to quit real estate. He had no life.
[00:51:44] Jeffrey Levine: His relationships all fell apart and his personal life. He had
no life. He was working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, nothing else. And he was
burning himself out at the age of 29. And we sat down and I worked [00:52:00] with him
for a year. We built a business plan. He went from at 8 million in production to this
year closing close to 25 million in production.
[00:52:10] Jeffrey Levine: But he also spent two weeks in Europe, twice last year. He
goes to, you know, friends, he's in a serious relationship. He goes on short trips. And,
and, and, you know, and has hired his first administrative assistant to help take some of
that load off his business. And so we created an organization where he could actually do
more business.
[00:52:34] Jeffrey Levine: He's still a single agent by himself. He's going to do close.
He will be a millionaire real estate agent, you know, a GCI of over a million dollars and
he has a life and he's so much happier. And, you know, this is what a coach can help you
with. This is, you know, take a look at your business from that 30, 000 foot level.
[00:52:57] Jeffrey Levine: And, and then question [00:53:00] you and ask you, what do you
really want out of your business? What do you want in your life? Cause it's not my job to
tell anybody what they should be making or doing or how hard they want to work. That's,
that's up to them. My job is what, when you tell me that. Is to help hold you accountable
to that, remind you of that, and help you with the systems, building the systems and
models and strategies that you're going to use.

[00:53:23] Jeffrey Levine: To become successful in anything you want to do. So you want
to make a hundred thousand dollars a year. Great. You want to make a million dollars a
year. Great. Either person is as important to me because that's what they want.
[00:53:36] Tracy Hayes: Common. Is that situation that you just described with that
gentleman?
[00:53:40] Jeffrey Levine: Cause I think it's very common, especially with top producers.
[00:53:43] Jeffrey Levine: I think they, because you mentioned moving from, you know,
there's this phase called eat, eat a pea entrepreneurial to purposeful. Okay. We all come
at this business. We're kind of entrepreneurial, right? We're, we're independent
contractors. We, you [00:54:00] know, we're starting our own business. I knew right away
when somebody came from the corporate world, because they said, I got a new job.
[00:54:06] Jeffrey Levine: This is not a job. This is a business. Well, I got hired.
Yeah, I got hired. Right. You can go right away where they're coming from. Right? This is
not a job. This is a business. So first thing we have to remind them. Is this a business?
Gary? I should work today. Actually, Gary Keller has a t shirt that I wear it quite a
bit.
[00:54:25] Jeffrey Levine: It's called think like a CEO. Each and every one of us are the
CEO of our business, right? So the first thing we have to decide is if I want to make
300, 000 a year as this kid was making, right? I called the kid 29 years old, but you
know, make it 300, 000 a year. Are you showing up as a 300, 000 a year employee?
[00:54:48] Jeffrey Levine: Basically, if I had to write a check to me for 300, 000 a
year, and I was the CEO of this company, would I pay myself or would I fire myself?
That's the first thing. [00:55:00] And I would tell you the biggest response for most
people is, yeah, I would fire you. I would fire myself. They're not doing what they need
to do for what they want to make.
[00:55:09] Jeffrey Levine: So I, I think that, and they also, that, that, that not having
somebody to tell them what to do or have necessarily have the metrics that they have to
meet in order to determine whether to do a good job or not, that's what they're missing.
And that's where coaching comes in because we could create those metrics together.
[00:55:29] Jeffrey Levine: We could create that business plan together. We could hold
them accountable like their boss or supervisor or manager did in their previous life. So
we can make them comfortable being in business, quite frankly, because it's comfortable
for them to have that accountability and somebody looking at that, right?
[00:55:46] Jeffrey Levine: So, you know, professional athletes have coaches, singers have
coaches, actors have coaches, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. all have coaches, right? But
the coach is there to help them with what they need to be helped with, [00:56:00] not
what the coach wants them to be up with. And I think that's where you really have to find
that person that is willing to say, Hey, that's not the way I would do things, but I
understand that's the way you want to do things.
[00:56:14] Jeffrey Levine: So let's figure out how's the best way we can do those things
together. If you hear from a coach, the comment. A good coach like me. I will never tell
somebody they're wrong. But if you have a comment, something similar to like, well,
that's, I can see why you might see that that way. Have you thought of anything else that
may be possible?
[00:56:36] Jeffrey Levine: That's a coach telling you, I think you're going down the
wrong path. Let's, but they don't tell you you're wrong. And by the way, if you want to
continue down that path, that's not for me to stop. It's for me to help you figure out
how we're going to make that successful. How,
[00:56:54] Tracy Hayes: how important is it? You know, and I was thinking that a
[00:57:00] story you're telling, you know, John Maxwell uses the lid.

[00:57:02] Tracy Hayes: You know, a lot of agents hit that lid, you know, what, what,
what would, he was only able in 24 hours of the day, 365 days of the year to, to get them
to 300, 000. And then of course he had no life. So he felt he had to sacrifice that,
which he didn't make less money. You know, you, you helped him break through the lid.
[00:57:19] Tracy Hayes: And, um, but when you're, when you're coaching, helping the, uh,
agents find what they, cause there's so many different ways to market. Yourself as a real
estate agent, there's just, you know, the 170, some things that real estate agent does.
I'm sure there's 170 ways Different people do their marketing different social media,
whatever it is How important is it or you know, how often even maybe you have a story
when you're coaching to help that agent find That that thing that they love to do because
obviously 70, 80 percent of their time is really marketing, marketing themselves, their
personal brand and their [00:58:00] reputation and so forth.
[00:58:01] Tracy Hayes: But to find the best way that they love to do it, that they get
out of bed every day, excited that they're get to do this.
[00:58:09] Jeffrey Levine: You know, you see a big smile on my face because I couldn't
have said it better. The only thing I'll change is we don't do marketing. We shouldn't be
spending our time on marketing.
[00:58:16] Jeffrey Levine: We should be spending our time on prospecting. Prospecting is
for now business, right? Where the marketing is a little bit more passive. We need to be
more, you know, in, in, in, in, in. Today. So we do marketing and prospecting, but we're
prospecting based, marketing enhanced, where when I started it was the exact opposite.
[00:58:33] Jeffrey Levine: We were marketing based and prospecting enhanced, right? We
sent out postcards, we put stuff in the magazines and stuff like that. Today it's a lot
different. We have to be knocking on doors, making the phone calls and those type of
things, and then let the marketing build our brand. Um, but going back to the EDP
concept, that's the concept.
[00:58:51] Jeffrey Levine: When we come in as entrepreneurial, we hit a. Ceiling or a
lid. Like you said, that John Maxwell uses term. I've heard both of them, ceilings and
lids, but John Maxwell is [00:59:00] a lid. And in order to break through that ceiling or
lid, we have to become purposeful in what we do. And when we become purposeful in what we
do, and to give an example is you pick up the phone.
[00:59:12] Jeffrey Levine: I'm going to lead generate today. I'm going to call 20 people.
Right. And I'm going to sit there and I'm going to call 20 people and I know I have to do
it today and I'm going to say, Hey, do you know, do you want to buy or sell real estate?
Hey, do you want to buy or sell real estate? Hey, do you want to buy or sell real estate?
[00:59:26] Jeffrey Levine: And I called 20 people and at the beginning I'm like, Oh, I
hope nobody answers the phone. I just want to get through these 20 calls, whatever it is.
Right. But when you come with the mindset is. I'm going to get 20 listings today and I'm
going to make the calls and I'm going to be purposeful and here's, I'm going to practice
and I'm going to be prepared for the conversation.
[00:59:44] Jeffrey Levine: I have all my objection handlers in, in place and, and I, I
can't wait for that next person to pick up the phone because that's my next listing.
That's becoming purposeful. And when we become purposeful in everything that we do, and
we know [01:00:00] exactly where we want it to go, and we know the steps that we're going
to take to get there, that's when we break through the lids.
[01:00:07] Jeffrey Levine: That's when we break through the lids. And then we set up
systems and strategies that we use for each particular thing. Now going back to the one
thing concept, we can't be. We cannot be. Masters of everything. And if you go back and
look at the success of very top successful agents in the business. And when I say I call
mega agents, agents over six, 7 million in volume, you know, they make it a pretty nice
living right at that at that point.

[01:00:38] Jeffrey Levine: You look at every single one of them and you look at where
their business is coming from on average, there's not more than four sources of where
their leads and lead generation efforts are put towards number one. I'm going to give
everybody this. They should write it down. It's your database. It's your database.
[01:00:56] Jeffrey Levine: Everybody. There's not a successful top agent that I
[01:01:00] don't know that I know that has not worked at database to the highest level.
Your database is it. But then what is the other two or three things or four things that
you could have implemented your business? Is it door knocking? Is it farming? Is it
networking?
[01:01:17] Jeffrey Levine: You know, what, what, what are the different things? Is it for
sale by owners? Is it expires? And when you choose that one, until you get really, really
good at it, you don't add another. It's focusing on your one thing. Right. So if your one
thing is lead generation, now we break the lead generation up into two or three different
types of lead generation and we get mass masterful at it and we get really good at it.
[01:01:42] Jeffrey Levine: And we know what we know our conversations. We practice them
every day. We have dialogue practice and we have objection handling practice until we get
so proficient in that in those objections for that particular type of lead generation
that we we go out and do and when we get successful [01:02:00] and we're ready to move
on, then we had another thing.
[01:02:02] Jeffrey Levine: So, uh, yes, I think the biggest challenge. For those of you
who know the DISC profile, if anybody ever heard of that, D I S C, the I, most great real
estate agents are very high I's, and I's are great because they're influential, that's
what it stands for, they're influences, but what they really lack and what the challenges
are, A focus.
[01:02:26] Jeffrey Levine: They love the shiny new objects. Their attention span is
usually very, very short. Okay. Because that's the type of person that they love to tell
everybody everything they know, which is not what a client or customer needs. You need to
know what questions they ask because they have all the answers within them.
[01:02:44] Jeffrey Levine: So I'm a very high I, by the way, and I have, that's why I
read the one thing every month because I have to keep on reminding myself that I have my
eye and I got to stop doing the things I do. In order to be successful. So you were
laughing and smiling. I think you know what I'm [01:03:00] talking about, but that's,
that's, that's, that's the makeup of real estate agents.
[01:03:05] Jeffrey Levine: So we need to learn how to focus and focusing is concentrating
on your one thing, the top 20%. I think people have heard that concept, the Pareto
principle, you know, 20 percent of what you do will create 80 percent of your business.
So why do we spoke focus so much time on the 80%, not the 20%. And that's what, again, we
have to make sure, and that's where accountability partners help, and that's part of
coaching is being your accountability partner.
[01:03:36] Jeffrey Levine: To make sure that you're doing what you need to do when you
need to do it. None of us, there's not a person out here that wants to be held
accountable. We're adults. We all need to be held
[01:03:46] Tracy Hayes: accountable for our listeners. I'm going to put obviously Jeff's,
your information is going to be in the show notes and so reach out to you.
[01:03:52] Tracy Hayes: Obviously you're on social media and so forth. Um, from a time
standpoint, I want to transition into, because you've [01:04:00] taken your career.
Current secretary of the Florida Realtors. I always make sure I pronounce that
[01:04:05] Jeffrey Levine: correctly. If you don't, you don't get anything right. You got
reprimanded. I know.
[01:04:14] Tracy Hayes: Uh, I think it was, uh, Cindy Hayden.

[01:04:16] Tracy Hayes: She was the, she's like, make sure you pronounce that
[01:04:18] Jeffrey Levine: correctly. Excuse me.
[01:04:23] Tracy Hayes: You have, you've, you know, you're involved at NAR. You're
involved at Florida Realtors. Yes. Um, uh, you know, that's my lights on a timer here in
my office. How important is it? You know, not every agent wants to take it to the level
that you have, obviously.
[01:04:42] Tracy Hayes: I mean, it's just, you know, um, but how important it is,
especially this day in time with, with the problems with insurance really nationally,
it's not just here in Florida. Insurance is an issue everywhere. That's one of the bigger
topics, but there's things that are going behind the scenes to, to. Be [01:05:00] aware
of what's going on and then obviously supporting Um, you know through our pack, uh or
giving feedback to leaders like you who are up there Hopefully guiding decisions that are
made that are affecting the quarter of a million agents in florida.
[01:05:15] Tracy Hayes: Let alone florida housing For everybody but how important it is
to support Uh, that in, in, in be involved in
[01:05:23] Jeffrey Levine: some level. I appreciate it. And sub levels, the key word
here, because I do want to, this is really important and I want to caution every single
agent out there right now. Do not overextend yourself.
[01:05:38] Jeffrey Levine: Your business comes first, because if you don't have a
business, it's nothing else matters. Right. And I see a lot, unfortunately. Agents get,
try to get too involved on the volunteer level without making sure that their business is
in order first. Okay. And I could not do what I do today. I [01:06:00] cannot do it at
the level I do today.
[01:06:01] Jeffrey Levine: If I didn't have the support. And and of my business, quite
frankly. Okay, so I do want to question every agent out there, but there are ways to be
involved from day one. Our pack was one of those things that you mentioned. You know, our
pack is our insurance policy to make sure that we have the money to lobby and do the
things that we need to do on a local, state and national level to make sure that we have
an industry of a business to go to every day without our pack.
[01:06:33] Jeffrey Levine: you know, we would have had this business would kind of look
quite a bit different. And moving forward, those are packed dollars are going to help us
get to the next iteration of what our industry is going to look like. You know, we talked
about submissions. Yes, you talk about insurance. We talk always about You know,
attainable workforce housing, you know, but there's other things that are facing.
[01:06:53] Jeffrey Levine: We have artificial intelligence, the development of artificial
intelligence that needs to be regulated at some level. And what that [01:07:00] what is
that going to look like in our world? You know, valuations in your business valuations
are important. In the last few years, we've had these automated valuations, AVM's and
stuff.
[01:07:10] Jeffrey Levine: What does that look like compared to an appraiser? Or how does
the appraisal business fit in with the AVM's? So, you know, there's a lot more that your
RPAC dollars go to than just the hot issues of today. Um, you know, whether it be
vacation rentals or private property rights. So whatever you can do, your, your
investment in RPAC is the first step, right?
[01:07:34] Jeffrey Levine: And then as you're able to find what your passion is, get
involved in a committee at your local association, volunteer, even for a day. You know,
there's things you could do for a day, there's things you could do over the year, but
again, make sure that you're not taking away from your business in order to do that.
[01:07:54] Jeffrey Levine: Make sure that your business is solid. Be able to do that. We
talked about showing up at networking [01:08:00] events. Those are usually after hours.

They don't affect your business. It helps grow your business. You get to learn things,
but it is important for you. Let us know the leaders that are in your local level.
[01:08:10] Jeffrey Levine: You stay loving national level. Let us know what's happening
in your community. Communicate with us. You know, send us an email, send us a text, pick
up the phone and call. I know the members of the Florida leadership team from Gia to Tim
to George and Chuck into myself. We pick up the phone, give us a call, pick up the phone.
[01:08:28] Jeffrey Levine: I mean, our numbers are out there. It's all Florida realtors.
We, we all return a call. We all pick up the phone. We're active real estate agents. You
have a question about the business. We're happy to answer the business because at the end
of the day, our role is to make you productive and profitable. And everything that we do
and even the decisions on the political side and you know, and, and, and those types of
things is order is to make you productive and profitable.
[01:08:52] Tracy Hayes: Kim Knapp had a discussion with her last week and she brought up
something. I think a lot of people take [01:09:00] for granted in the business and that's
the ethics. Um, I had Patricia Delanoy down south on, and she was talking about what it's
like to be a real estate agent. Um, Uh, in France is actually because she was talking to
someone there and, you know, we're literally because of guidelines, ethics, standards of
practice here.
[01:09:25] Tracy Hayes: You don't have six or seven real estate agents putting their sign
in the front yard. You know, uh, that kind of thing that I think the average American
involved in real estate takes for granted not understanding that it's these. Florida
realtors, it's NAR that's setting those standards and, uh, uh, making the
[01:09:45] Jeffrey Levine: business better.
[01:09:46] Jeffrey Levine: Yeah. You know, these lawsuits unfortunately have taken the
eyes off of what's really important at the end of the day, right? I mean, listen, in any
business, any industry, there's lawsuits. It's part of, it's part of life. [01:10:00] But
really we need to focus. On the core aspects of being a realtor. And that is by far
following our code of ethics.
[01:10:09] Jeffrey Levine: That's what separates us from everything else. That's the
value among many others. But what are the main values of working with a realtor is they
are bound by a code of ethics. right? And all of those articles are specific to protect
the consumer. And, um, that's in the best interest of the consumer. You know, there's
lots of industries that we could go to people that are licensed or non licensed, right?
[01:10:35] Jeffrey Levine: Or that have accreditations or non accreditations. There's a
reason why people have these, um, Accreditations, why they're members of these
professional associations and, um, and, you know, having that ability for us to self
police for better words, our industry, um, to make sure that we're all following the code
of ethics that we have agreed to.
[01:10:59] Jeffrey Levine: Is in [01:11:00] the best interest of the consumer. It truly
is. And that's what we should be focusing on. What's in the best interest of the
consumer.
[01:11:09] Tracy Hayes: I've, I've seen some stuff on, and actually one of the reasons
why I was kind of smiling earlier, because it popped up on my screen. And I didn't, I
haven't looked at this video, but it's a huge real estate agents in the United States
are, are paper pushers.
[01:11:21] Tracy Hayes: Um, and then there are people out there who are trying in my
mind, uh, or my perception, take the business down or devalue the real estate
[01:11:29] Jeffrey Levine: agent. Yeah, you know what? And we can't let that happen. And
the only way we're not going to let that happen is by going direct to the consumer and
explaining our value and showing our value and showing our value on everything that we do
each and every day.

[01:11:47] Jeffrey Levine: every second of the day. Listen, your industry has gone
through iterations, right? And you know, I remember when the online business started,
right? And now we realize there's a [01:12:00] value of having that local loan officer,
that person that's in the community, that isn't in the state of Florida alone. I mean, at
least we don't have that issue where people from Alaska could, you know, sell property in
the state of Florida, right?
[01:12:13] Jeffrey Levine: Um, there's things that are specific. Right. You mentioned
insurance. I've had so many deals fall apart from a loan officer that didn't understand
our insurance issues or, or, or condo requirements or, you know, things that are specific
to Florida. I mean, it's great that you can write it in all the states.
[01:12:31] Jeffrey Levine: And if you're doing a single family home that with no HOA, and
it's pretty clear, okay, maybe, maybe that you could do it. But there's so many things
that are specific to the state of Florida. You want everybody in that. Transaction to
know really what's happening in that, that market area. And
[01:12:51] Tracy Hayes: I can speak from example on that.
[01:12:52] Tracy Hayes: When I had my first eight and a half years, I was actually
worked. I was in Michigan at the time in 2005 and started working [01:13:00] with.
Quicken Loans now rocket and when we started doing purchase business probably in 2009
2010 because the refi Uh where they realized that eventually refi the rates would rise,
right?
[01:13:11] Tracy Hayes: Of course, it took a you know 12 years later or whatever before
rates rose or or where we're at now to where there's no refi business pretty much Um,
they realized they needed to open the purchase side. So Being and talking to people in
florida They didn't know what the customary fees were Um, so they were quoting their
customers, basically all the fees, cause that's what the law says.
[01:13:34] Tracy Hayes: We got to, we got to put forth every possible fee they could
possibly be charged, not realizing what's customary in Florida for the seller to pick up,
for example.
[01:13:44] Jeffrey Levine: Right. You know, even like the issue of taxes paid in arrears,
that doesn't happen in most states, right. Uh, you know, and, and homesteading and, you
know, uh, I had a VA loan where.
[01:13:55] Jeffrey Levine: I mean, they were shocked when it came to the, you know, they
had the wrong quote on insurance because [01:14:00] it, it just, it was so off on the
insurance quote because it just wasn't customary in Texas. They used numbers that they
were familiar with in Texas, right? So there's just so many different aspects that it's
important.
[01:14:13] Jeffrey Levine: And by the way, our code of ethics clearly states that you
should not be doing business in areas that you don't have expertise. In our code of
ethics.
[01:14:25] Tracy Hayes: A hundred percent.
[01:14:26] Jeffrey Levine: Right. Um,
[01:14:27] Tracy Hayes: I want to finish up with you here. This has been a great
conversation. And I think you, you and I can probably talk for
[01:14:32] Jeffrey Levine: hours, but, oh my God, this may be the longest podcast I've
ever been on.
[01:14:36] Tracy Hayes: We can do a Joe Rogan style. But there's so much great
information out there and I'm, I'm hoping that, you know, when we spend some reels off of
here, obviously the video, the full video will be on YouTube, it's already over on

Facebook and I'll put it, make sure you're, we're friends on Facebook so I can share it
or put it on your, on your page there.
[01:14:56] Tracy Hayes: Um, but I, I just want to finish up with a very simple question
from, from an [01:15:00] experienced real estate agent. Who's really in touch with what's
going on, our, our insurance issues and everything. What do you think if, you know, uh,
You've mentioned several times during the show that focus on, you know, what's in front
of you, uh, prospecting and, you know, doing the steps to keep your business moving
forward.
[01:15:19] Tracy Hayes: Give three things that an agent with the current market
conditions, rates are at a three month high. Um, you know, the, uh, inventories, uh, not
there for the demand, especially here in Northeast Florida. I'm sure Boca Raton probably
has the same issues there. What are three things that. Every agent should be doing
[01:15:37] Jeffrey Levine: right now, so Very interesting.
[01:15:40] Jeffrey Levine: First of all, we have to get really good at our skills. We
have to constantly get better and better educate in 27 years. I don't know everything,
right? We have to constantly every single day work on that 1 percent each and every one
of us, you, me, everyone out here. No, no matter how successful, because when you get
[01:16:00] successful.
[01:16:01] Jeffrey Levine: Everybody's trying to knock you down. Everybody's trying to
take that business right so that you have to make sure that you're constantly on your
game. You can never, ever, ever get lazy or laid back. You have to constantly be pushing
for that 1 percent so. Getting better at your skills. Find somebody to role play with.
[01:16:22] Jeffrey Levine: Find somebody to work on your conversation practice with. Find
somebody to work on objection handling with. There's lots of stuff, like you said, out
there on the internet. There's a lot of YouTube channels, but there's nothing better than
getting in there and having those conversations. By the way, I do, we, when you put out
my information, if anybody wants to contact me, I'll send them a link every morning at
7:45 AM for about a half an hour.
[01:16:45] Jeffrey Levine: 30, 30 or 40 minutes. We do a role play every morning, kind of
a round robin role, play with agents, um, go through objection handlers and that type of
stuff. If I'm not traveling, I'm on that call myself every single morning at [01:17:00]
7:45 AM so feel free to jump on.
[01:17:03] Tracy Hayes: It's anyone
[01:17:03] Jeffrey Levine: that you're coaching, anybody that wants to jump on.
[01:17:05] Jeffrey Levine: I'm happy to do that. As a matter of fact, when I started that
a few years ago, there was an agent from Fort Myers, a brand new agent from Fort Myers.
Her name was Natalie Turnquist who jumped on that call, was on that call every single
day. She was actually one of my classes. That's how she got the call.
[01:17:20] Jeffrey Levine: And when my sister wanted to buy a house in parish, um, north
of Sarasota, here in Florida, I referred her to Natalie because she was on my call every
single day and for being on that call. You know, Natalie wound up with a 20, 000
commission, um, for just, we got that call. And so I love to get agents from all over the
state, you know, involved in that call.
[01:17:41] Jeffrey Levine: So cause it creates a network, like we said before, but that's
number one. Number two, I absolutely will. I definitely will. I definitely will. Um, and.
Number two is it is super important that we [01:18:00] continue to show our value, your
value proposition, telling your story. That is something that I work with in my coaching
program.
[01:18:07] Jeffrey Levine: The first step of every one of my coaching program, no matter
what level you're at, is to make sure that we have your 30 second elevator pitch down and

that we know what your value is. If somebody says, why should I choose you out of 238,
000 real estate agents in the state of Florida, realtors, I'm sorry, almost 400, 000 real
estate agents in the state of Florida, why should I choose you?
[01:18:29] Jeffrey Levine: It comes down to that 30 second elevator pitch because quite
frankly, you only have 10 to 12 seconds to capture somebody. They decide in 10 to 12
seconds whether they're interested in doing business with you or not. You could go on and
off for an hour. It doesn't matter. In the first 10 to 12 seconds, they've decided
whether they're interested in doing business with you or not.
[01:18:47] Jeffrey Levine: So you've got to find a way to capture them like that. You
need to know your, your value proposition. You need to know it. And it needs to just roll
off your tongue simply. And we all need, [01:19:00] especially your buyer agents out
there. We need to get proficient in using buyer agency agreements. As part of our value
proposition.
[01:19:07] Jeffrey Levine: And there is a value in using the buyer agency agreement.
There's a value for the consumer and you using a buyer's agency agreement. It allows you
to represent them in a different way at a higher level and more concentrated on their
best interest. So please make sure you learn. agreement. You take classes on it.
[01:19:26] Jeffrey Levine: I know Florin realtors is giving a ton of courses on it. And
they are giving a ton of courses on it. On it. A. B. R. accredited buyers representative.
Great designation to get. I got that 23 years ago. Great designation to get. Um So
education, education, education, value proposition, and working on your, um, and working
on your skills and getting better and better every
[01:19:47] Tracy Hayes: day.
[01:19:50] Tracy Hayes: Jeff, I appreciate you coming on. Is there anything you want to
throw out there? I like that. Uh, there's, there's a group that does a, they call it the
breakfast club for loan officers. They're doing something [01:20:00] similar to your, uh,
thing there. Do you guys have, she have a name to this group that you have?
[01:20:05] Jeffrey Levine: Yeah, we call it Miracle Mornings.
[01:20:06] Jeffrey Levine: miracle. We call it miracle mornings because it's a way of
getting us just started. You know, a day started. It goes to that miracle morning concept
that, you know, from the book, um, it's just a good way to get things going. It gets us,
you know, you warm up before play against on the field. They warm up, right?
[01:20:23] Jeffrey Levine: This is the warm ups. This is, this is where we get all the
kinks out, you know, and, uh, and we get it to the right mindset. There was a little bit
of mindset that's thrown in there too. And we call it a miracle.
[01:20:33] Tracy Hayes: Someone can actually just get on, you know, through their phone
and be listening to the others.
[01:20:38] Tracy Hayes: Zoom
[01:20:38] Jeffrey Levine: link. That's all it is. It's a zoom link. You're taking the
kids to school, whatever it is. Again, if you know, the value is to get involved and be.
We have one agent become the consumer and one agent become the agent, whatever you want
to practice. If you're doing for sale by owners, if you just doing care calls, whatever
you want to practice, but you'll listen.
[01:20:56] Jeffrey Levine: The values in the listening and listening to the other agents,
[01:21:00] right. And, and seeing how they handle the objections. And I'm going to tell
you, everybody starts off and that not the greatest, but I'm going to tell you within a
couple of weeks. You could see the improvement. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's