Lisa Pruitt: Find Yourself

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progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, potential savings will vary, not available in all states. Hey, this is Lisa Pruitt with Better Homes and Gardens, lifestyles, Realty. If you're looking to improve your real estate business, you need to be listening to the real estate excellent podcast with my great friend Tracy Hayes. Welcome to Real Estate Excellence, making lasting connections to the best of the best in today's industry, elite. We'll help you expand your circle of influence by introducing you to the leaders in the real estate industry, whether it's top agents who execute at a high level every day, or the many support services working behind the scenes, we'll share their stories, ideologies and the inner workings of how they run a truly successful business, and show you how to add their tools to your belt. Now please welcome the host with the most Tracy Hayes,

Tracy Hayes  1:03  
today's guest comes from a background that is very popular with agents education. She taught elementary school for 25 years between Nassau and St Johns County, Florida, before coming and the agent. I've known her for about five plus years, going almost six pretty much since you really got started, right? It was really early there. She's moved a couple brokerages, which I we know if you listen to my show, is very important. We want to know why and why we match up with certain brokerages. And then recently, here, in the last year, she was a Platinum Award winner at Better Homes and Gardens lifestyle Realty, where she's been the last couple of years. Let's welcome Lisa Pruitt to the show. Thank you for having me. Thank you to be here. I appreciate it. I appreciate that. And I, you know, I saw the platinum. I think it was, was March. You had a good March, right? That was your Facebook post. And I'm like, Whoa, what's Lisa been doing? So I went back, and I'm looking at the numbers, and, you know, talking to a lot of agents, you know, 100 and this is 100/40 episode. So probably, probably about, probably about somewhere around 130 of them were actually real estate agents. And, you know, some catch on really good maybe they get with a broker or mentor and shoot up. But you are really someone that people really need to dig into. I think they can relate to you. Coming from 25 years in the classroom to then going in the real estate trudged along. You were learning, you were learning, you changed brokerages, and then it looks like, you know, by your numbers, really this, this last 1218, months, things started to click for you. And I want to dig in and what, what you think it was, because I think a lot of people can relate to that, and are at that point, you know, maybe they're two or three years into their real estate career, and they just haven't. They haven't. They're seeing some other numbers, seeing the numbers you're getting, reaching those million dollar clubs a month at their brokerage. And what is it that you were doing? Maybe, maybe we could shorten their learning curve a little bit. Yes, yes. So as I kick off every show, where are you from? Lisa, I was born in upstate New York, in a very small town. I actually at 10 years old, moved to Cocoa Beach. Cocoa Beach area. Grew up on the beach. My family decided to open a business there, then left for college at 18 to North Carolina, realized I was too far from the beach, came back to Jacksonville to finish up my education degree at UNF and met my husband. So I have been here since 1988

Tracy Hayes  3:26  
That's right, did you I'm trying to remember from LinkedIn, if you had mentioned I know someone else across there, because I think, I think I've told you I was born in Peekskill, New York and then, but then we moved to Cape Cod, and I was seven, more or less, grew up there. But you know, coming from well, as we know, a lot of New Yorkers are coming here, right? I was telling a group this morning, there was an Instagram actually posted on the Instagram. So if anyone wants to call my Instagram right now, there's a post I forwarded from a real estate agent. I don't know where he's from, but he was listening like, the top 10 states of where everyone's Well, the top 10 states with population decreasing and how many. And it started with like, like Minnesota to, obviously, New York and New Jersey. That whole Northeast Corridor is, you know, Massachusetts was on there of decreasing population. And I would say, if it's not 50% it's 60% are moving right here to Florida, seven families a day. I heard, yeah, it's in a crazy which we'll, we'll dig into that a little bit. Now I looked on your, your, your, I think it was your LinkedIn, you were at u n f from 88 to 91 right? So then you, you pretty much go right there, right? They hire you right out of there and go in the

Lisa Pruitt  4:34  
classroom, right into the classroom in Nassau County.

Tracy Hayes  4:36  
So was teaching just something that was just always in you or something. You like, hey, what am I gonna do? And you like, you know, in 88 when you went into the unit, I was just like, let's go into teaching. And Florida's growing, I can get a teaching job. But was it a passion that you

Lisa Pruitt  4:50  
had at the time? It really is, and I honestly believe that all the good teachers that is their passion, you know, that's what they want to do in life. They enjoy serving. They have a heart for it. What makes the. Passion.

Tracy Hayes  5:00  
Well, put 25 years, and it has to be a passion,

Lisa Pruitt  5:05  
yes, but I still to teach. I'm just teaching in a different area, yes, which was one of my questions. I was since you brought it up. I mean, you know, you think about the 25 years of teaching, what are some? Do you ever catch yourself, you know, you're working with a client, a family, or whatever, and and kind of, you know, reflect back, rely back on some of those experiences or trainings that you did with 25 years of classroom experience. Sure, absolutely, it's kind of built in me. So everybody learns differently, everybody hates differently. Everybody is on their own journey, right? So you kind of have to meet people where they're at, just like in the classroom, you need to know those people have that relationship, know where they're at, and kind of take them from there are going to get them to the end result. The best way for things. I was having a discussion this morning with a real estate team, and that the what you just said, resonated a little bit, because we were talking about, they wanted to talk about,

Tracy Hayes  5:59  
least from my experience, because I had a lot more experience in lending, in real estate than they were real estate agents, probably by over a decade. They were a young team, but, but you know, how do you get some of these people, you know, off their you know that can buy to say it's time to make a move right? Rents arise and rents are rising. Yeah, the rates are up and so forth. But our conclusion was, and the leader of this team, Hayes, she, I mean, she, she agreed with you've got to actually come in and for a lot of them, so you have to sit down and like you're sitting there at the kitchen table, and have that discussion with them, so that they can they have time to process and so forth. Would you? Are you? Are you seeing that with some of your your clients, you've, you know, you've been doing it five plus years now, almost six the angle you take today, versus, for not to say, every customer, for good percentage of them now, versus, say, just two years ago, where it was as fast as you can make the offer in there as being accepted. Now you're trying to okay that one wasn't accepted. Let's go look at another home, and let's keep the positive, you know, attitude going and sitting down and having those Yeah, heart to hearts,

Lisa Pruitt  7:05  
yeah, absolutely. And sometimes the hard conversations, first of all, they have to have your trust, and you have to earn that trust. It's something that's earned, and you have to be real with them and honest. And I think that part of my success is I'm going to tell you the truth. You know, here's the realities, but I'm going to do it nicely. You know, we have the same, same thing in mind. I want what's best for you. Yeah, it's a business deal, but I want what's best for you, right? So here are the facts. Let's go based on it. And the market has changed, like you just said, Yeah, and that's another part of the success in this business is you've got to be flexible, you've got to be able to grow and you've got to want to

Tracy Hayes  7:44  
did that well, you we, you know, we talked about it again. We're jumping, but these are things I want to cover. But since we're kind of on that subject that you, over the five or six years, you've learned that you slowed your game down a little bit, not necessarily from you've upped your production by slowing your process down where before it was, hey, the customer call. Hey, you got a pre call. Great. Meet me at the house. Boom. Let's make an offer and grab it. Well, we're not, you know that we're still trying to do that, but not every offer is being accepted, right? You're slowing your gain down a little bit to focus in. Is that something you've more or less have learned through trial and error or or meeting up with other top agents and kind of picking their brain a little bit?

Lisa Pruitt  8:28  
Yeah, you know, My motto is, and it has always been this, even my kids, I have two adult kids, you are who you hang with. And so for me, I had to find the group of people that had the same business model in mind. You know what was going to work for me, might not work for somebody else. So I had to find those people. I am in a brokerage with highly successful agents, and I do, I learn from them. I listen more than I talk. I pick up what is, what works for them, and we talk a lot about what's going on in the market. How do we make those shifts? How do we become good at the game the market is now, I think,

Tracy Hayes  9:03  
you know, some of these things that you're like, No, I'm using the phrase, you know, slowing your game down. I officiate the Jags practice. And somebody was asking me the other day, you know, how, because I do still do the high school I was doing college and officiating football and, and I said, you know, what's really helped me with my officiating game is the Jags practice is not. You're not officiating like a real game. There's certain things they want you to we don't blow a whistle. But I spend a lot of time observing, and you're looking at professionals and what they're doing and what I do on then I go on Friday night to officiate a high school football game. The game has slowed down. I now, or see, I see things that never would have saw before, or my first few years officiating now, I'm seeing multiple things and then making decisions of whether or not Isn't it worth it, is that really and from a real estate professional standpoint, by hanging with these top people, would you agree? Right? Your processing of how, like you're talking about, you're taking your teaching experience, you're looking at how these people are dealing with, why are they successful? Well, they have, you know, I don't know they do better, buyers, consultations, whatever, because they're taking the time to listen.

Lisa Pruitt  10:16  
Still important. And I learned this early on, it's your systems. You have to have those systems in place. But you're right. I have slowed the game back. You know, a year and a half ago, we were fast and furious. My husband said that I was the backup queen. I get a lot of backup offers because I put in those backup offers and I waited, right, you know? And I coached my people, my customers, and I'm like, we can do this. We're just going to hold tight. Don't know yet, yep, yes. I have to slow down now and just take a look, and I don't have to take every deal. And that's nice. I have not always been like that. You said I jumped in the game and I worked hard and I took everything I could.

Tracy Hayes  10:51  
Well, you're not in the slowdown, not in a like, a bad way, like you're you are still moving at a furious pace. It's just you're being a little more strategic. Yes, you're listening to the customer. You're keeping the customer attentive. And therefore, obviously, I would imagine your business is picked up because your referrals have picked

Lisa Pruitt  11:08  
up Absolutely. My repeat business is huge, I mean, and I'm very thankful. Customer service is 100% my game. I will go above and beyond. I'm in your corner,

Tracy Hayes  11:21  
if you were talking to, you know, we were talking pre show, you know, a new agent, and explaining them the real value of each and every client, that clients that's in front of you right now could be five or six deals over the next, even if, even if it's five years, and They give you a referral a year. That's huge. Absolutely.

Lisa Pruitt  11:43  
Yeah, absolutely. And that's kind of how it works. You know, you just have to treat each other, or treat your customers, the golden treat somebody how you want to be treated? It's hard in this day and age to find good customer service. I don't want to be known for that. I want to be known that I went above and beyond and you were be, you would be happy to refer me to whoever you know, your friends, your family, your colleagues.

Tracy Hayes  12:05  
So going back to was, I think was late, 2017 right? Well, I guess you, you finished school in the spring of 17. You were right. That's a funny story. Yeah, okay, you want to tell it? Yeah, go ahead.

Lisa Pruitt  12:17  
Around spring break, I did leave a little bit early. Oh, sometimes when I'm done with something, I'm done and it's time

Tracy Hayes  12:24  
to go. You couldn't hang on for another month and a half. I

Lisa Pruitt  12:27  
didn't my proudest moment, right? That's okay, right?

Tracy Hayes  12:31  
You are right. We are checked out. I just, you know, it's so tough on the administrators today to keep people. I know here in St Johns County, they hire people, and then they came, they they have to turn it back before school starts, because they can't find a place to live they can afford and and that sort of thing. So it's tough on them. But, like I said, checked out anyway. But go back to what we're So, Lisa, fall 1718, in your your mindset then and the things that you were concerned about on the transaction versus Lisa, 2223 you're thinking about, how am I going to get, how am I going to degrader service? How am I going to get a referral from this customer? You know? I mean, what was, what's the two mindset change? What were you thinking about then and those first 612 months versus the last six or 12 months in the process?

Lisa Pruitt  13:28  
Oh, when I jump into something like I jumped into real estate, you know, it's my second career. I'm always all in. So in the beginning, it was, I'm gonna go get those deals. I will cold call. I Will not I will do whatever it takes. I'll let my whole sphere know. No longer teach Alisa, teacher, Lisa, real estate. Lisa, right? I did. I worked hard. I dug in seven half years later, I run my business by referral and repeat business. And again, it was just putting in the hard work, the dedication, the sacrifice of doing things that others wouldn't do. No, I sacrificed time, money, whatever it took, whatever I really dug into. I went all in, right, and now I can be more selective. I mentioned that a little bit earlier. Now it's more making sure that I am knowing how the industry is changing, and I'm on top of there are 12,000 agents that I'm not so much competing with, but really competing with, right? I've got to earn somebody's business, and so I have to be top of my game. I got to know my job. I got to know every step of the way. Got to surround myself with Title people and lenders who make this transaction go smooth, right? And so really, that's where my focus is. Now I've learned a lot. Now I've got to stay at top of my game and the knowledge and the industry changing, because everything changes in this industry moves quickly.

Tracy Hayes  14:48  
Yes, speaking of your mindset and a little bit of I want to use the word control. Do you feel more in control the transaction?

Lisa Pruitt  14:59  
Absolutely. Absolutely, absolutely. And I think if you were to ask me, you know, what would I tell a new agent? I would say, learn the game inside, you know the business, know the context, know the steps to get to close, because it's crucial. And when I first came on board, I joined a team, was a buyer's agent, and I didn't do that long because I needed to, for my own self, to learn both sides of transactions so that I could feel comfortable with my customers telling, okay, this is how it works. So, yeah, absolutely forgot the question. I just keep talking

Tracy Hayes  15:33  
about it. Well, just control. Control in what I'm leading to is this I find, and you know, some people won't say it, but I'm going to say it, and it's not rude or anything. There are, I won't even list it to just real estate agents. There are people who can't even refer a good restaurant, right, let alone refer someone a good lender, home inspector, etc. And when you are spending the time. Because, again, you talk to some, you talk to the really top agents, like when I go on my system and I put, you know, St John's, Duval, basically Northeast Florida counties, Florida, and you know, it starts from the top producers down right. And those people that are on that, that first half of the screen, or really that first screen, less than 100 of them. Many of them really focus on or have over time to make sure they're in control of everything that their person, that their person is getting with the right lender. They're the we know the title company is going to do a smooth closing. No issues. And there are issues. We always have issues. It's how we solve them and smooth them over and get you to get the person to closing and so forth, absolutely, but you mentioned your team is not only a transaction coordinator or assistant, whatever you may be using, it's also those peripheral services, the lender, the title company, the home inspector and anyone else that might be maybe a general contractor For house needs work or whatever, and having those people on the speed dial, not only as giving you confidence allows you to deliver the product, which is the service of that transaction, but gives great confidence to your client as well. Would you agree

Lisa Pruitt  17:16  
absolutely they're trusting me for the real estate transaction? But I always tell them, that's not my only job here. You know, I'd be dealing you a disservice if I couldn't get you people to get you all the way through. One of my mottos is I take the stress from it's my job to take your stress away in this financial transaction. So let me help. Let me give you those service providers. Control is is probably hardest for a lot of real

Tracy Hayes  17:41  
I'm going to use, actually going to change the word to strong influence, okay, yeah,

Lisa Pruitt  17:46  
because you'll, you'll probably notice, and you talk to a lot more top producers than I do, most of those people that are successful are very strong personalities, right? They feel very strongly about what they do. They are leaders, yes, and it's hard to give away that control, but you almost have to to make a circle of people get that one person to close, right? So yeah, I'm selective about who I work with. I'm selective about who I refer as far as lenders and title companies, and I have the most wonderful transaction coordinator who I did bring with me from another brokerage. And, you know, again, it's knowing who you work well with, right? You know, not everybody wants to work with me. I can be a little bold, cut the line and, nope, this isn't working. We're gonna make a change.

Tracy Hayes  18:32  
But there, but there's just as many that like you because of that as well. I think my opinion, thank you the same way. So I'm gonna tell you what I think yo for again, the agents out there, the young ages are maybe listening. You've already, you have dove into a lot of good stuff already, and we're gonna break it down. Learning the business inside and out. Having a team around you this gives you confidence Absolutely. You know when a customer says something in conversation with you and you and it might say something about lending, and you don't really address it right there and then, but you're quickly on the phone, calling your lender, saying, hey, this, this guy's looking for he's talking about bank statement loans or whatever it is. And and now said you now you're getting coached from this. And so now you come back, hey, I remember, you know, I didn't address that with you when we talked the last time you mentioned something about this loan product or whatever, and I checked it just, you make it. It's professionalism, absolutely, you know, and you're consulting, dig in a little bit about some of the things that you did, which is, I think, the A cornerstone, which is the educational piece, getting the business. What are some of the things you did that are sort of outside the box, so to speak? You know, when I say inside the box would be like going to nefar or St John's board, taking classes, you know, structured situations. What did you do, kind of the nonstop? What are the things you went out and did to gain a. The real you know, where the rubber meets the road? Type of education,

Lisa Pruitt  20:04  
great question. So when I came to Better Homes and Gardens, I started with Buffini model, hired a coach, and once I hired a coach, I started taking trainings, and now I travel once or twice a year to conferences. Again, if you're not learning, you're not growing. And for me, on top of my game, learning what's out there, learning from other top producers, and really just, you know, changing, just making it work for you, knowing who you are, knowing what you want, setting those goals and following through.

Tracy Hayes  20:40  
I like the WHO YOU ARE thing, especially, just listen that picked up that thing because, you know, we talked about a little bit in finding your right brokerage, but you can't find the right brokerage if you don't know who you are and how you want to run your business, type of thing. But you miss mentioned Buffini, what are, what are like? What are like? A couple things that you picked up right away, or maybe, maybe since you started coaching, that really said, Man, this was worth it. Because of this,

Lisa Pruitt  21:08  
I think the whole system of a CRM was a little bit foreign to me, you know, since I was in real estate, I started with a CRM, but none of them really clicked. And that was the first piece of Buffini that worked for me, because it was relational. It wasn't just some random thing I was sending out or some random text or email. It really was personal to my customers. You know, my customers and my CRM are based on relationships that I know and give or take, somebody will agree, somebody's going to disagree. When I say this, my database is real and it's relevant. It's people I've done business with. It's people that I speak to on a regular basis. Is I'm in a relationship somehow with people in my database.

Tracy Hayes  21:50  
All right, so you have the CRM and it's sending out a text message or sending out an email your designated times. How are you making with the lack of better what word you actually use? You know, you made it sound like you're almost sending them a personal message, the way you're doing. How do you give me a picture? What that's like?

Lisa Pruitt  22:11  
So each month, I have an email that goes out, but it's a personalized email. You're not just getting a random thing with an item of value. It's teaching you something. It's not necessarily just about the reach, you know, real estate, but it's real and relevant to something you might eat, paint colors, hiring a lender, hiring a landscaper, things like that. And then once a month in the mail, you're going to get from me a letter again with an item of value helping you along the way, personalized to you from me with my face staying relevant. So are

Tracy Hayes  22:42  
you, you directly going in and and sending that to John Smith, or

Lisa Pruitt  22:48  
it does come for me? Okay? Well, I do. I mean, because people,

Tracy Hayes  22:51  
okay, okay. It was, yeah, because what I'm, I guess I was trying to differentiate, is the one where you just program it and, you know, this mass, same mass, mass email goes out to everyone. Well, okay, might reach, might be somewhat related to these people. Might be in the middle, but you got these people too far ends that are like, what's this? This is garbage email. How do you

Lisa Pruitt  23:11  
have and how many emails do we get? Right? Yeah, so I don't know Tracy, if they're opening emails every I can see the return. I can see who's opening. I can see who unsubscribes, but what they're seeing is my face coming across them. I'm staying top of mind. So that's one piece they get that communication. They get personal notes from me, coming from the teaching profession, when I went to this brokerage and learned about Buffini, that was huge. Personal Notes are something I would write the kids all the time, and then phone calls. I mean, I have go through my database, and every day I make five, six phone calls, just checking in. Not that I'm ever asking, you know,

Tracy Hayes  23:49  
just for the the agents out there do, I mean, schedule those things for an anniversary, birthday? You know, obviously, if you're calling six or 10 a day, you know, prior to a holiday you might get, not actually reached there, unless you started a month in advance of that.

Lisa Pruitt  24:06  
It just kind of depends. Yes, I recognize 123, year anniversaries of purchasing and selling a home. I recognize birthdays, anniversaries, if I know them. But again, think about who's in my database. It's pretty intimate, if you will, database. So I kind of have notes that jog my memory. Oh, this person we talked about this last time. Let's bring that up or

Tracy Hayes  24:31  
so I can hear someone saying right now. Oh, I don't have any, I don't I don't have the personal contacts that Lisa has. But really, well, obviously you put you know you have you're not 25 years old. You've taught for 25 years. So you would expect to know some people and some families, one way, shape or form another. Maybe you've run into them again on Facebook or run into them in the grocery store, say, I haven't seen you in 20 years, or whatever. That type of type. Going to think, what if you were giving advice again to that 25 year old agent just getting started about the CRM, what would you tell them?

Lisa Pruitt  25:08  
Be genuine? You know, I've been here since 1988 and I do know a lot of people, one of my challenges in becoming a realtor was losing that persona of, is this a midlife crisis for her? Is she just gonna do real estate for a little bit? So not everybody that I know uses me for real estate. We all know plenty of Realtors, but it's being genuine in the relationships that you currently have, and earning their business, earning their trust, because when they trust you, they will trust you with their financial Tracy,

Tracy Hayes  25:41  
so let's go back here, because I think this is really, again, just tailoring on the subject what are what you said you concentrated early on changing everyone's picture of you as Lisa the teacher to that Lisa the real estate agent. Tell us some of the different things that you did to to kind of get that Paul roll going.

Lisa Pruitt  26:02  
Yeah, it was tough, because I knew Lisa as Lisa's teacher, but this industry is a little bit different. Came in thinking everybody was going to be nice, like people are teachers,

Tracy Hayes  26:13  
not really. I don't know how you did it. For 25 years, the abuse that some of these teachers take and some of the areas worse than others, but, man, yeah, well,

Lisa Pruitt  26:23  
I was Elementary, right? I've done every grade one through five, so it was pretty easy. Part of the reason I got out anyway, yeah, so really, just staying present. You know, I'm a lot older than a lot of agents out there, and I hear video and social media and all of the tricks of the trade. And 100% I agree. So I had to adjust myself. I had to put myself out there via social media. Whether I was comfortable with it, comfortable do it. I live in my non comfort zone. I yeah, there is nothing in this industry that makes me comfortable, but I am fearless. I will do it and try.

Tracy Hayes  27:00  
I wouldn't say nothing. No, you feel you when they're signing the paperwork at the closing table. Okay, at that point, are you breathing now? Are you breathing at that point?

Lisa Pruitt  27:09  
No, you know what? I think maybe that's not the right to say, I do live outside my comfort zone. And you, you mentioned something earlier about being out of the box. My husband will always tell you, I'm always out of the box. I dance on top of it, but I don't think that if you're if you're comfortable with what you're doing, you're not learning and growing, you're definitely not growing and changing and evolving. So am I comfortable in what I'm confident in what I do? Yes, right? I stay uncomfortable. I do the things I don't want to do sometimes.

Tracy Hayes  27:39  
Well, you know, I've heard so much recently, and least as I've paid attention to it recently, anyway, in just thinking of some different people are flashing through my mind, but basically, what they're saying is, if you're feeling little, you know, you're feeling that uncomfortableness, whatever, however it feels, it really means you're headed in the right direction. You need to just keep pressing against that. You know, it's kind of like, you know, working out and pain, you know, pain is weakness, leaving the body, right? That's a, that's what they say anyway. But you know, if you're feeling a little uncomfortable, you're going to do a, you know, buyers present, or sellers presentation, or something, or whatever it may be that you're doing or getting up in front of a group and speaking, you know, you obviously be in the classroom. That was natural for you to do and but I'm sure the first week you had those kids, there was a little but obviously, then you saw them every day, and it got a little easier. You're meeting new people all the time. You're sitting down some of them, some of them have been referred and they're total strangers to you. It's been referred by by somebody that knows you. So you have, you know, a little bit of an angle, but there's always that, you know, all of us have. Is any professional athlete has, you know, they typically will have some of those butterflies. You know, before you guys keep pressing through, it means you're doing the right thing. Yeah.

Lisa Pruitt  28:55  
I agree. Yeah. I agree. You know, you just have to push on.

Tracy Hayes  28:59  
So again, go back to changing from teacher Lisa to real estate agent. What? So you've got your your, I imagine at one point you sat down and said, Who do I know? Right? And made a list of some sort. How did you attack that list?

Lisa Pruitt  29:16  
Made phone calls, texts, let them know what I had done. Letters saying, Hey, I have changed jobs. I'm new career, going a different path. Love for you to, you know, tune in and learn about my journey.

Tracy Hayes  29:29  
Now how often? Because, like I said, everyone doesn't read their email me read that one, or they heard it once, didn't really set in or like, they're like, oh, okay, well, I just saw her last month at the school, right? How you know that again, that new agent, how consistent, how regularly were you, you know, touching them. And I imagine you probably changed up how you touched them, you know, whether it was a text one month or this, what was kind of your. Game Plan with that list as far as consistently sending something to them?

Lisa Pruitt  30:04  
Yeah, you know, looking back, probably not as consistent as I would have liked. I think I learned early on who was going to be with me and who wasn't. So some people just naturally fell by the wayside. My most consistent Avenue, then was social. Will be the first to tell you, I don't like to talk on the phone, and my family laughs at that, but I am a phone person. Absolutely have to do it, but now I when I absolutely have to, right? So more often text messages, but social media was huge for me. I made it look like I had the business. I made it look like I was doing things, you know, videos of other people with me going to open houses. I, my first year, sold four homes from open houses,

Tracy Hayes  30:49  
everywhere you were sitting for other people. And I know

Lisa Pruitt  30:53  
what my I have a supportive husband who's amazing. He would go with me so that I wasn't there alone my signs. He's my sign me, but I did the things people didn't want to do, and I put it out on social media.

Tracy Hayes  31:04  
Well, you know, it's interesting. You say that, like I would think if I'm becoming a real estate agent and I have no no business at this point. It's not like you got your license and the next day your mom wanted to sell her home or something.

Lisa Pruitt  31:18  
It's funny. You should say that, you know, the first house I sold,

Tracy Hayes  31:21  
my own, your own. Yeah, you're not the first person to say that, so, but to to go out and sit open houses, yo, you're saying that. And now I'm thinking of the Ferreira team. They were explaining that team, by the way, huh? Great team, yes. And those two, they sit, oh, that right away they were out sitting open houses. I mean, that's what they they understood that the weekends, that's what you you did, what you did, you know, you could start taking a weekend off a month if you've got business, but if you're getting your business started, you know, plan for the first six or 12 months will be every Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, I've had numerous people, you know, you tell your family that there would be no there's no weekends, no weekends. There was a vacation in the beginning. Yeah, you're trying to get so but there are a lot of new agents that'll come in say, Oh, I don't, I don't work on the weekends, or I don't work on Sunday. Unfortunately, half your open houses are on Sunday. That is correct. And Sunday actually is a fairly busy day, especially right now. Have you got offers coming in on a house over the weekend? Sometimes the seller is ready to make that decision that night. Yes, you know, they're not waiting for Monday morning. They're already closing out Sunday night. And we done that type of thing and working through that. So I'm gonna, we've gone on, I say, got off on a tangent. We just dug into a lot of things that I wanted to talk about anyway. So I'm gonna bring it back around. Yeah, let's talk. Let's talk about, well, actually, I never asked this is a question I generally ask early on, at what point I assume, before you actually walked out of the classroom, that you actually said, real estate's my direction, where I'm going, when did you start getting the taste for real estate?

Lisa Pruitt  32:55  
So I grew up with a mom who was a realtor, a very successful realtor, for a few years, and I actually always said, I'll never do that, because she was never home at that time in her life. And when I left teaching, I saw an ad or a Watson real estate instruction instructor, and I thought, I can do that because, you know, I'm a teacher, right? But I can't teach what I don't know. So I'll go get my license. And it was quickly after that that I taking the test and learning about

Tracy Hayes  33:27  
so you walked out of the classroom before you even I did. You did okay, okay, yeah, you jumped into learn how to fly on the way down.

Lisa Pruitt  33:39  
So then it became a challenge, right? Sink or swim? Lisa, yeah, and I just thought I over the years since I've been married, tomorrow is my 31st anniversary. Excellent. We have bought and sold, we've moved 14 times in 31 years. And it's just a love. I have a love for new, different, change, you know? And I love the process, right? Been burned a couple times by realtors, and so I've learned how not to do it, and important to me to do it the right way, right?

Tracy Hayes  34:08  
So it was, you see that ad? Funny, you're like, I got a good license, so I imagine you sign up for the Watson school.

Lisa Pruitt  34:16  
No, did it

Tracy Hayes  34:18  
from home. You did it from home. Ce shop. Okay, you're so the subject we're going to get into a little bit and talk about it, because obviously, you've had the taste of three different brokerages in your time. Yeah, what was, what was the decision on the first one? Why did you go with the first brokerage originally? What were your What was your reasoning?

Lisa Pruitt  34:38  
I don't know, recruit isn't the word, but I got a letter in the mail saying I could make over 100 grand a year. And you know what? As a teacher of 20 years who was making less than half of that, I thought, Oh, this could be awesome, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  34:51  
So good advertising, yes. Got you in. Yes. Okay, but you again, you don't know what you don't know, right? You didn't know. What you needed to know. You're just like, Well, yeah, but like anything, I'll learn how to do it, but this, but now, you're not getting that paycheck every two weeks, or whatever you're you're getting you're not, you're not, you know, there's no benefits there other than what you save for yourself. When did, when is the realization of that kind of set in as you're, you know, starting with this new brokerage that, hey, I need, what do I do first?

Lisa Pruitt  35:26  
Yeah, it was great. They had some training, but it was very, very small brokerage. So I think you said three, I might have been at four, okay? And then it was like,

Tracy Hayes  35:35  
I'm going off your LinkedIn. I can't remember what Jed on there.

Lisa Pruitt  35:40  
I'm not gonna mention okay. So it was very quick that I realized, again, as an educator, okay, I'm gonna need more than this. So I went over to Keller Williams. Actually, they have phenomenal training. I will always say that, yeah, and that is kind of what jump started me in knowing what I needed to know. Know the contract in and out, they offer training point to be there almost every day. Yeah, just soaked in what I could soak in.

Tracy Hayes  36:07  
Julia Olmsted said this to me when I know, you know Julius and that a lot of people will go in. And this is not just Keller Williams. Keller Williams has that creates that atmosphere and, you know, and tells you, hey, you got come in the office, get your desk base. They got training room. The top people are constantly education is being offered, I'm sure, either even virtually, but live a lot, and that there's some people get caught in this learning circle, yeah, and it comes a point where you need to actually say, I need to actually go out and get the ball rolling. Yeah, there, because there's really no end to learning how. How would, if you were, if you had someone that won the team up with you, or, you know, your your your daughter, and you got it right here, and you're, you're teaching her the ropes of real estate, how would, how would you explain to him what to expect that first six months, like you were you were there, but the way you based on the knowledge you have now,

Lisa Pruitt  37:07  
think I would go about it the same way, right? Knowledge is power. I had to know the basics. I really that contract always was a little bit intimidating to me, so I needed to be comfortable in that alone. Pretty much I'm a people person, so talking to people face to face was one, something that was easy for me. But what would I say? I would say, You know what? There are people who are talkers and there are people that are doers, and you have to be a doer. Just have to tackle it and do it right again. That's my learning style. If I'm going to learn it, I have to do it right.

Tracy Hayes  37:41  
Hey, folks, this episode was produced by streamline media, the number one media company for helping brands generate content that converts I knew I wanted to start a podcast to reach more people and bring value to the world, but I did not have the time or the knowledge. Streamline media became my secret weapon to building my show. They handle all my back end work, production and strategies to keep my show going strong. If you're in the real estate business and looking to make content that generates more leads and brings in more revenue, check out the streamline media link in the show notes and discover how partnering up can supercharge your path to real estate excellence. When? When do you, I mean, has there ever come a point where you're like, you know, I would call it a tipping point of education, where also you just felt, you know, the transition from one client into the next clients, like all saying, I got a little more I got a little more power to a little more confidence and confidence power, you know, did you feel that, that you tipped, that you're actually like, I know you in your mind, you knew that you knew most, more than anyone, than you would typically run into in any course of the day. You know, I'm saying there's those top agents, those handful of people in the office who have been doing it longer. You You know, longer you, you know they're, they're already steps ahead of you because they're years ahead of you because of experience. But at some point you become the realization, okay, the common people out here have no idea what I know. Yeah, and you gain that, and all sudden you get, you get this power, and also that just flows into the people that you're working with.

Lisa Pruitt  39:18  
Yes, so I do know when that transition was, and I will say it was very fascinating to me. There are a lot of people that don't know a lot about real estate. Think that was so foreign to me because we had bought and sold so many houses. But that transition happened for me when I knew that I knew how I wanted to run my business, and I had set goals for myself, and I started achieving when I started saying okay, and it just happened at my last brokerage. I mean, this has been a journey for me. It is like it solidified who I was in this business, and I became the most comfortable with myself,

Tracy Hayes  39:56  
you said, when you realized how you wanted to run your. Business. What brought you to that point was it was, was the number of trainings and event, the talking about it, that all sudden, it just clicked with you. Like, how did that evolve?

Lisa Pruitt  40:14  
So I knew when I came into the business, I didn't want to be one of the people that took the leads. It freaked me out a little bit, right? I mean, a woman, I don't want to just meet anybody randomly on the street, go to an open house, etc. I really wanted to do this business and help my friends family, their friends and family. So in my gut, I knew that I'm a follower of my gut didn't know how to get there, yes, so when I made the connection of how to get there, and I this is what I've been looking for.

Tracy Hayes  40:43  
That's off for me. Was it Buffini or before you started, it was when I What are some of the tips that you got all sudden, started to make that bridge. Yeah.

Lisa Pruitt  40:52  
So when I sat down with my current brokerage, and I met the broker and the owner, and I asked to speak with some of the high producers thank you at the brokerage, they gave me their contacts, and I talked with them, and I was like, yes, so maybe this is the path that's going to get me where I need and it was, it

Tracy Hayes  41:16  
was because where you're at now, with majority of Your business is basically coming through referrals and past customers. It doesn't have to be that far away. You know, would you think that the average person goes, Oh, well, yes, she's been doing this 1015 years. That's why she lives off referrals. So I'm 15 years away from that when really it's with a proper coaching, proper business plan, yeah, got just all suddenly accelerated you to where you want to be. You could have done it a year earlier if you had the knowledge,

Lisa Pruitt  41:50  
yeah, and the confidence, I guess, or it's meeting the right people, which is why networking is is important in this business. You know, I don't go to anymore all of the happy hours or the morning breakfast. But I do stay in contact, and I am open to if somebody says, hey, you need to meet this person, I'll meet that person. You know, we have to help each other out in the industry, and the more people that you meet, one, the more you're going to learn. Two, the more connections you're going to make with who does business your way. So let's work together.

Tracy Hayes  42:22  
I use the analogy you got to turn over the rocks to find out what's absolutely right. You're absolutely if you had a scratch off card and just said, you know, keep scratching until you find the million dollar hit. You just keep scratching. Turn over as many as you can. Yeah, yeah. I think a lot of, well, just a lot of people, just from their person, their I don't see personalities. They just their again, their mindset. You know, I hear some things on motivational. Thing is they say, stay away from the 97% roll with the 3% which is what you're sort of, you know, saying, hanging out with these top producers. Because that mindset of, Hey, I gotta go out meet someone. And I think real estate agents are devalued or, or in from two different standpoints, the clients say, Oh, they're out, you know, they're out doing a social, they're at this, they're at, you know, that thing, you know, just having fun. Or, you know, you're, you're going out to, you know, dinner with people. But really, you are going out the for the the win win situation of doing that, you can go out with people you actually like to go out to dinner with and have conversation with, or whatever. But also you're, you're in front of them, and you're reminding them as an agent, and there's nothing wrong with that. People have this thing. Oh, I can't sell them. My friends or family, you're not selling them, and they're calling you for a service that they would pay the same amount to anyone else, but they'd rather give it to you. And if you're actually really good at it, that's even better, absolutely. Yeah, so get good at it. Yes, take good get get good at it. Where I was going with that, I think that was the thought, that was, that's the thought there mentors and coaches. You mentioned Buffini. Has there been some brokers or top agents that you have tried to mimic? And I go back to again, going back to Hayley Davis, mentioning, she said, Don't try to recreate the wheel. The others are doing it. Find someone who's running their business like you want to run yours and learn from them. Is that what you found when you started making some of those phone calls about how they were doing their businesses, things started to what you were thinking is what they were telling you, and this, you're like, Yeah, I want to I want to be like you. I want to run that way. Yes. And then where did you take that when you when you started to connect that you knew that they kind of had the same

Lisa Pruitt  44:41  
mindset, so I jumped in and went into as many trainings with them, that I'm meaning the people at my brokerage, that Buffini system, and sat in those trainings and listened. You know, I started going to masterclass this year. I'm going to P I'm surrounding myself people that do business like I do business. I could continue to learn from. Them. Yes, I can gain referrals from them, but it is motivating to see success for me. You know, it's motivating. It's a it's a hard industry. I can't tell you how many times I've been quit, right, right? So seeing people like that, 1020, 30 years in the business motivates me to be like you can do this. You know, there's just a couple bad deals, right?

Tracy Hayes  45:22  
Some of them have just give me a slice of what they do, right? So these people are amazing. Yeah, talk about going to events. I think this is an area that that I think agents need to do. But, you know, in any of the big good developments, or any these guys will tell you you have to spend a portion of your income, a portion of your revenue on, you know, personal development or going to an event like this. And sometimes, you know, because you're reading and you're listening to a podcast, or whatever it may be, when you actually go to the meeting, you're actually, you're kind of hearing some of the same stuff over again, type of thing. But how important is? Sometimes you have to hear it a lot of times. Repetition is key, right? It's like this guy keeps telling me, this keeps telling me, but I haven't done it yet, you know? But how do you feel like, I mean, do you see, do you feel a little, a little energy spike a little worse in your when you come back from one

Lisa Pruitt  46:18  
of these events? Yes, yeah. I think anytime people that are gathered together in an event like that synergize from each other, you know, they get the energy from each other. They realize what they're doing is working. They I mean, it's caffeine shot, or you don't drink just black coffees.

Tracy Hayes  46:38  
Well, espresso shot, but, yeah, it is. And

Lisa Pruitt  46:40  
when you start talking to them and seeing what they're doing, and what they're doing and realizing they're facing some of the same struggles, you do, you know, urine, don't recreate the wheel, yeah, just, hey, this is how I solved the problem. You know, sometimes we feel like we're an island and we're not. There's people out there who have been there, they've done that, and they're willing to help. You can't be afraid to ask,

Tracy Hayes  46:59  
I want to go back. Because I think the what brings us all around for you is you learning about yourself. This is the way you want to run your business. And then you were able to find somebody who's running the business as you are revisioning yourself running the business that you can't go well, that person's really top producer, and you're looking at the what they're doing, go, Well, I guess I could do what they're doing. Who knows they're knocking on doors, whatever. But knocking on doors, and this is really an analogy, more than a factual thing, knocking on doors in August and in St Augustine, you're gonna want to quit, yeah,

Lisa Pruitt  47:37  
and you're even gonna want to quit more if it's not your personality and not the right thing for you to do, right?

Tracy Hayes  47:43  
What are some of the things that you did to bring out or come to that realization? I mean, was it meditation or going to an event where finally it clicked with you? Like, I gotta, I need to find out what I like to do, yeah, you know, and how I want to run my business. What, what kind of, what triggered that, that thought, and what did you do to really dig down, and because, I imagine a lot of these people said you really got to get really narrow on, on, on how you want to run your business, so that you can match with someone else.

Lisa Pruitt  48:16  
So a couple of things of a very strong faith, thank God. I meditate every morning. I go for a walk most mornings. But really, my relationship with God and my conversations with him every morning led me to where I need to be or who I Right. Does that make sense? I put him first. You know, I talked to him. Think that's crazy sometimes, but that's how I compare this crazy world, right? He's first in my finances and my relationships, in my business. Am I absolutely perfect, bro,

Tracy Hayes  48:50  
you're taking it and I go, I go back to Billy Wagner with right way insurance. Had him on the show months ago. But one of the things he does, he goes out and does his walk the dog for an hour or morning, 30 minutes of it, he is likely listening to a podcast or something of that, some education. But then he says, he goes silent for 30 minutes and allows you know. You know, in your case, you know you're you're talking to him, and you know through your mind, and he's putting these thoughts in there, or making these thoughts rise to the surface within your mind, your your things. And really, everyone needs to take that time every day, 1530 minutes, shut everything off around them. And really just, you know, listen to the wind go by, because it will allow your mind to I like to use it allows your mind to catch up absolutely.

Lisa Pruitt  49:44  
Yeah, no, when I first started, I think I was more focused on opening up social media and starting my day that way. That wasn't necessarily working. Saying it's about doesn't work for me. I have to fill my mind with things. Another slogan I use often all. Always have when I was raising my kids, garbage in, garbage out. If you're putting garbage in, you're give garbage out. That's not what I want to get my customers, right? I want to give them the best of so I fill my head and my spirit with the Word of God, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  50:16  
positive energy, positive thoughts, but the meditation, I think you allowed you to really dwell on that, that thing, how you wanted to run your business. You, I'm sure you heard things before that were saying, learn how to run or, how do you want to run your business? How do you run your business? You're like, what are you what are you talking about? How do I want to run them? I'm looking at all these other people. I want to do like they do. No, you have

Lisa Pruitt  50:38  
to run your business again. It's finding who you are, and what's important to you? Yeah, I think for me, and I think also Tracy, because older than most of the agents out there, I have to have that silence. I have to have that peace and that calm, so that I can go out there and be the energetic Lisa, the personable. Lisa, you know that's what it takes for me. I think we all need to just take a breath and slow down.

Tracy Hayes  51:01  
Yeah, yeah. I always say, let the brain catch up. But it processes, it starts to file away these thoughts and experiences. And then eventually, like I said, you know, your meditation, or through your your praying, all of a sudden,

Lisa Pruitt  51:15  
boom, yeah, there's pops in front of you. Oh, I didn't think of that, yeah, you know,

Tracy Hayes  51:19  
I mean, how many, they tell us, if you, if you, you're laying there in bed at night, you're trying to fall asleep. And also a thought comes in your mind, you better

Lisa Pruitt  51:28  
write it down, because,

Tracy Hayes  51:30  
you know, you're like, oh, hold a second. I gotta write that down. That was, I forget where I heard that one. My name is John Maxwell millionaire, if I did that, yes, the brilliant thoughts our brain pulls up. So we kind of talked a little bit about these things, but let's, I want to really just be straight, boom, boom. Here's the answer type thing, because we'll create some good reels out of here for people to watch and listen from knowing, from what you know now, what are three things you would tell someone entering the business today, like, you know, Hey, these are three things you must do this. I would do this on day one. What? What are three things that you are think are

Lisa Pruitt  52:07  
crucial day one, get training, you know, get with somebody that you're comfortable with. Get training. Know the business, know what you want. And, okay, can I do four? Yeah, go for it. Get a mentor, get a coach for get out there and do it. Don't just talk about it. Go do it.

Tracy Hayes  52:27  
You like anything great you're gonna tell you, fail forward. Gosh, so go out and do an open house and say stupid things because and be it's the only way you're gonna get better. You are going to be the biggest critic of yourself. And, you know, I go back and everyone knows the YouTube guy, and he just said, Hey, go out and shoot 100

Lisa Pruitt  52:46  
videos. Yes,

Tracy Hayes  52:48  
commit to 100 videos. And by the time you're over, you, I listen to every one of my podcasts. I look at the different reels, and I'm constantly tweaking, and this is 100 and 40th episode, and I'll be continually tweaking it, how I want to do the cameras and so forth. I know how I sounded at the beginning. You know, I still do it where, because I do have an open conversation, versus like some sort of scripted conversation, and you trigger a thought, and then I have to actually how I want to verbalize that question back to you, or whatever it may be. And I hear myself sort of, sort of stuttering. I know what I'm doing, but someone listening doesn't even know me. They're like, what's this? What's wrong with this dude? I know because my brain's processing how I want to ask the question, and I always like to ask deep questions. Bless him, you mentioned find a mentor? Yes. Would you? Would you think we need to fine tune that just a little bit you want to find somebody, and you're how you want to do your business may evolve as you learn more about the business. Yeah, but finding someone who's running the business not just successful, not to say they're the top producer in the office, and I better be a mentor of them, because they may be doing something you totally don't like, right doing, and they like doing it and they're good at it. Find someone who actually, again, going back to that business, how you want to run your business. Find someone who you think is running their business the way you want to run your business.

Lisa Pruitt  54:11  
Yeah, absolutely. And that is going to evolve over time. You know, when somebody told me, find a mentor, I was like, even know what that what does that look like? Yeah, when I was teaching, I was the mentor, right? What do I do now? Again, going out there and meeting a lot of people and talking to them, I think you find who that mentor is, yes, or they lead you to that mentor, right?

Tracy Hayes  54:30  
Well, you start conversing. You're like, oh, we have like, we're like minded. Yes, we think alike. We like to insert but, but obviously this person is few years ahead of me. They're that I would like to be where they're at in whatever amount of years, right? Whatever it is. But the only way to do that as you're out there talking and exchanging

Lisa Pruitt  54:46  
ideas, ideas, thoughts and real conversations, what do

Tracy Hayes  54:50  
you think are two or three characteristics of a real estate agent? What are some characteristical traits that you think at the top. Agents have,

Lisa Pruitt  55:01  
they're bold, right? They're they're bold. That's the first word that

Tracy Hayes  55:06  
comes bold from the Give Me you can give probably a lot of gotta give a give us some color to that. What's the

Lisa Pruitt  55:14  
not afraid to try new things and adjust. They will do the hard things other people won't do. If you're going to be a top producer, you're going to do things that are hard and that most people will say, No, I'm not doing that. That's not an option. Do it anyway. Just get out there and do it be genuine. You know you have to have it's not about the dollars or the transaction. It's about the person making the person in front of you at the moment, correct. And every transaction will be different. So what that person needs, and I also, I'll stick to this, you have to be a good listener. Most of us want to talk more than we listen, and that doesn't work real well. So if you can listen and learn what that person wants and needs, you're going to meet them where they're at. You're going to make that transaction work well for them, smoothly for them, and then they're going to be happy

Tracy Hayes  56:05  
and learning their needs. What is your practice right now? Someone you know, someone you know, past client, whatever refers you to, someone you don't know. You're having a call with them, buyer or seller. What is something that you are doing regularly now, in in really setting the atmosphere to be able to divulge from them, you know what they're really what really are their wants and needs?

Lisa Pruitt  56:33  
I ask a lot of questions. I start out by saying, you know your business is important to me, and you're important to me, and I want to earn your trust. So how can I do that? First, how can I serve you with excellent customer service, and then tell me about your needs. What is it you'd like to get from this transaction? Because I want to get

Tracy Hayes  56:54  
you now, I mentioned a lot of people don't know how to answer that. If you're asking that way, they don't know really, because they don't they only if they've had, if they if they're a first time home buyer, they wouldn't know, right? They've only sold one or two homes, they wouldn't even know, really.

Lisa Pruitt  57:07  
So if that's the case, then I have what a buyer's consultation that I walk them through, and I kind of summarize the steps for them and say, Hey, this is what it takes in a real estate transaction. I'm here for you. My transaction coordinator, Stacy's here for you, and we, our job is to walk these steps. Okay, you're never on your own. If you if you have a question, there's no question. Dumb, please ask it.

Tracy Hayes  57:29  
I like the way you brought up the transaction coordinator, because you've been talking to other people in the industry, especially the loan world, your top loan officers typically have an assistant, hopefully, that assistance well known by the agents that you're working with, that this is, you know, your right hand person. And you're setting, you're already setting the expectation that, hey, this transaction person, they are someone in this transaction. Yes, they're actually better at what they're doing than I am. I'm good at having the buyer consultation, find you a home, or actually, how we're going to market your home and so forth. They're going to handle a lot of the cleanup work and a lot of the dot the Is cross the T's type of thing. How important is setting expectations in that that initial talk with either buyer seller,

Lisa Pruitt  58:16  
it's it's your lesson, telling people this is how it's going to roll out. You know, I need to know what I need to know about you and how you'd like it done. This is how the process is going to roll out. You've got two of us here, you know, we're on the same team, and this is the initial part of the team, if you're a buyer. And a bit, I'm going to introduce you to somebody else who's part of the team, right? That's the lender. And then we're going to meet the title company. Before that, I've got these people that will do your inspections and your appraisal will come from your lender. I mean, it is setting expectations. This is how a smooth transaction goes. Let's get us there, right?

Tracy Hayes  58:52  
Painting that painting that path. So when you are saying, hey, they need your deposit for the appraisal, oh, yeah, you already told me that that's coming, that sort of I just, well, you were talking about that in the movie air came out, I don't know, last week or two, with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. And I always want to mention Jason Bateman, because I love him as an actor. I love it. He's, he's so funny. He can do anything. Yeah, the movie's night not about Michael Jordan. He's, Michael Jordan is the he's in the background, so to speak, the house is in the background of this of our, you know, talking to a buyer or seller, the house is, yeah, ultimately, what we want to do, but really the conversation, and now, when you were just explaining what you're talking about the process, and you're talking about them and building a relationship and getting to know what they want and so forth, It just really reminds me that those of you, when you see the movie, which you should see it, because it is actually really good. When Matt Damon goes to Michael Jordan's house, does he meet Michael Jordan? No, he gets to mama. Mama's running the show, and he's talking to mama. And he's telling him this is what's going to happen. Now, in his case, he was telling him what was going to happen at Adidas, what was going to happen at Converse, which the funny thing is, it's exactly what he says. And you could see the look on her face going, he told me they would actually say this almost verbatim, right? So he painted that picture of them and then spun it. Obviously with this is what I'm going to, you know, I'm going to view, and obviously puts his heart out there on the on the table, which is hoping to this movie. But watch the movie and think about what we're just talking about, setting those expectations, what's going to happen. Or, you know, hey, you know, I'm a little different than most agents. This is the way it's just the way it's going. Because would you bet 90 something percent of them of the agents are not actually sitting down, or even if just even is a phone call and saying, Hey guys, all right, here's where we're at. This is what we need to, you know, and actually talking them through the next step so that they know what's coming next. And then they're like, oh yeah, that's what she told me was coming next. Okay, you can keep moving through. Most are not even doing that.

Lisa Pruitt  1:01:04  
I don't know that saddens me, because, you know, I think probably that comes from not wanting to do it. We're not really always taught good communicators, so it's a skill that has to be learned. Not only do you have to learn the real estate industry, you have to learn to be a good communicator. Yeah. And when I set those expectations just to take a step back, I set them with my voice, right? We have a conversation. I gave it to them in writing, and then along the way, they hear it again. We're at the step okay,

Tracy Hayes  1:01:33  
yeah, you got to keep reminding them of what's going on. But you you've learned that through some trial and error. I imagine you weren't as thorough at the beginning, and you are now. Now you're realizing, by taking that little bit of time and setting these kind of templates up, that your customer satisfaction rating is going up because you're telling them numerous times. You're reminding them numerous times. Because most people, you could tell them 10 steps, but they're really, really only going to remember the next one. Just what do I got to do next in this transaction?

Lisa Pruitt  1:02:05  
I know we wish people in every industry would do that, right? Yeah, but yeah, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  1:02:10  
Well, you guys, you have to go watch that movie, because you just really brought it around. For me, of why that movie is a really good lesson, I think, in consistency, passion, being thorough, and obviously, you know, as he, as many ages I've had on some of them, actually said it directly. You're leading with the heart that you actually do care. And you're telling them, Hey, these are the pitfalls that could come make sure you do this because you care. You don't want them to fall in those pit holes. You don't wait from the happen and then react. You you already are foreshadowing things the move to Better Homes and Gardens, things really start to change for you. There, you mentioned you, you, you spoke with the brokerages. You made some of these phone calls to some of the top people in zoom. Now you've been at there two years, so that that got you to the first day you were positive there. What are some of the value adds that you Feel Better Homes and Gardens adds to the way you're doing your business.

Lisa Pruitt  1:03:07  
Huge support system for the Buffini method. So that's, that's

Tracy Hayes  1:03:13  
you enjoy Buffini. The broker is the broker, or all better homes the into Buffini as well.

Lisa Pruitt  1:03:18  
There's a group of us, there's a group of agents. And I don't know, I think just, you know, real estate's competitive. Again, I mentioned how many agents are in our brokerage, right? Or Northeast Florida? Yeah, yeah, you're competitive by nature, I think, as humans. But in this brokerage, we're not competitive with each other. We have our own market share, and we help each other. So it's easy for me to shoot out a text or put in our Facebook group, hey, what about this? Or do you know somebody that does this, or this just happened? What do I do? And there's a quick response and there's a genuine we just out for each other. I guess, you know, we're there for each other. Doesn't mean that we're all friends and we all go to dinner and we but we all share professionalism that is important.

Tracy Hayes  1:04:06  
So you so again, go back to one of the original things. You said, surround yourself so now you have this peer group. You guys, sort lot of think alike. You probably poke holes. You got a difficult contract, or, you know, maybe it's how you want, how a structure an offer, whatever it may be business related, you've got this collaborative group around you.

Lisa Pruitt  1:04:26  
So for example, I did a I do three VIP client events a year, and several of the agents in the office do that as well. The last one was at Valley smoke. We did lunch, and one person brought up, hey, this is what I'm thinking about doing. I mean, put it out there for my VIP clients. I'm going to serve lunch Valley smoke. Anybody want to go in and, you know, we'll, we'll team up and do it as a big group, yeah, five of us went in. We had a great lunch, like 400 people at Valley that's probably too much people at Valley smoke. We had caricature, we had some live music and a great life. Much, but one person put it out there, and, you know, asked anybody else,

Tracy Hayes  1:05:04  
I think, and I see it a lot in my side too, people get a little protective to me. I want that. I want that person that I invited. They know who invited them. Yes, that they they went there, and maybe they met three other people from that use another total agent. It doesn't mean they're leaving you. They know who invited them there, but the energy, how when they leave there, they're like, oh my god, that was so awesome. I got to meet these great people. Or maybe you saw an old friend you haven't seen in a while that's in someone else's circle, and they just had a good time. Yeah, and they'll remember that.

Lisa Pruitt  1:05:43  
And that's what it was about. You. You support and help me. Let me do something nice, you know, let me give you a good lunch on a beautiful kind of venue that is on the water.

Tracy Hayes  1:05:54  
I well, I was at the Jacksonville producers event last Tuesday, and I was introducing a friend of mine that has a he's doing. Matt's a videographer. And I said, Matt, let me go introduce you to some people that I've obviously, you know, they're having a podcast and whatever, and I'm going over. And he goes, Well, let me, let me take a picture of you guys. I said, Yeah, that's fine. Take a picture of us talking, but I want you to meet them. They already know. They know who I am. They know what I do. I mean, so I don't, yeah, but the power of the influence is me introducing them to you, the to influence them and say, Here is Matt. He's a great videographer. If you need any work done, he does some other stuff. You should see his website, because his experience, his his past experience of working in movies and stuff like that. Oh my god, it's just awesome, right? And you probably, I don't know if you ever picked up on it, because we've been to networking events before, but that's one of the things I pick up from John Maxwell. One of the greatest way to influence people is by introducing them to other people.

Lisa Pruitt  1:06:55  
That's how this business is done. Yes, yes. You don't know who you don't know, right?

Tracy Hayes  1:07:01  
And you never know. I'm trying to think someone was telling me a story. I don't want people basically, the gist of the story was, you don't you go to event like that, you run to someone new, and all of a sudden it's like, oh, man, I really thank you for introducing me to that person, because I needed that. I whatever it is, you made a connection, and they're not going to forget that. You introduce them to someone they didn't know. And now things sound different. Take different paths. We talked a little bit about marketing. You brought up the CRM, and then you're doing it social media wise. What is your mindset and ideology? As far as marketing on social media, other than obviously, you need to

Lisa Pruitt  1:07:45  
do it. So yes, you need to do again. I've said this three times been chatting. I'm a little bit older than most of you, so it doesn't come naturally, not the one that's gonna I

Tracy Hayes  1:07:57  
really don't think it comes naturally to anyone, actually the one that's

Lisa Pruitt  1:08:00  
gonna put myself in front of a camera and be like, Hey, I am third of three girls in the world is not about me, right? But I'm happy to post where I'm, where I am. I'm into reels. I will do what it takes that way. The one thing you probably won't see much of in social media is pictures of me. My strength, I think, is kind of combining my work life my home life. I shared a little bit about my home life by nature. I'm kind of a private person, so I don't put a whole bunch out there, but it's important people see the release, because that's who they're doing business with, right? What You See Is What You Get, right?

Tracy Hayes  1:08:37  
Which is, I mean, the baseline game plan is your little bit of, you know, hey, I'm showing this house. I got an open house this weekend, whatever it may be. Or, you know, here's just hey, one of my teammates. The other part is showing, you know, a few reels of yourself personally, you know, out with the family, whatever may be. Yeah, we just, you brought this up earlier. Have you ever felt discouraged and wanted to quit had that down on my list?

Lisa Pruitt  1:09:06  
You know what? You don't Yes, absolutely, because it's hard. Tracy, you know, I think sometimes, and oftentimes, top producers, or people like me, because I still don't often consider myself a top producer, you don't see the hearts, you know, you just you see what we're posting on social media. But got there because we failed. Got there because we had a lot of bad days and a lot of hard transactions.

Tracy Hayes  1:09:28  
And we learned a young agent called you today. You're two in the business. Is like, Lisa, I don't know what, how would you what would you say to that person?

Lisa Pruitt  1:09:38  
I've been there, done it. It's the nature of the beast. No, stay strong. Don't take it personally. Yeah, just take a deep breath. You're going to have a better day tomorrow. Hang in there,

Tracy Hayes  1:09:50  
and then, right now, would you agree in this? Because there are enough people that are falling out. This is on the loan side, on the real estate side, you got to stick with it. We're in a. Pocket right here of high demand. You know, even though the interest rates are high, you got a house that's priced correctly, in decent shape, it's going to sell. We don't have enough homes for sale. Just keep trudging along. You still can make a decent living. You know, selling eight, 910, homes a year, you actually are making a really good living doing that. You want to make six figures, you got to start applying yourself. Yeah, yeah. What is one thing that you've worked you've had roughly four brokers now, what is one thing that you found that I wrote successful brokers do? But what is, what is the app? How? How important is it to know the the ideology, the you know you don't know until the first day you show up to the office, what the office is really like? How, how? What is it that you some of the traits that you're seeing with some of the brokers that you have admired, that you've met, you're like, wow, that person. I'd like to follow them, or you're following one. Now, what are some of the things that they do?

Lisa Pruitt  1:11:08  
So what's important to me in business and in life is, if you say you're going to do something different, brokers are in the business, and this is just Lisa's perspective, you know, to recruit, to gain agents and appreciate that, and they want the same thing we want. They want those agents that are a good fit, right? But what I have found successful, for me, to help me be successful, is the brokerages that when you're sitting down and having conversations with them, they tell you, this is how we run our business, this is what it's like. And you make that decision, you jump on board, and you find out you know what, that they're doing, exactly what they say, right? That's hard. I mean, that's hard for anything in life. I'm not sliding brokerages. I'm not saying that the other ones I've been at have not done that. That's not the case at all. It me not knowing the questions to ask sometimes those other brokerages, because I was so right. It was beginning of my journey to get me right.

Tracy Hayes  1:12:04  
Well, I mean, it goes back. You know, you have the visionaries and you have the integrators, going back to rocket fuel. Thank you Sarah Rocco for giving me that book. Yeah, they're great agent, and there's the lot of them have visions of how they want to run their business, but they need the integrator to actually execute on running the business that way. Very few brokers actually can do both in do you to find out? Yeah, hey, here's the visionary. Here's Mr. Tufts, Keller Williams, or whatever he has this visionary of how this is or Keller Williams, you know, this is how they're they're so they're running their they want to run their business, but they have to have the soldiers or the integrators that actually make it happen, yes, to truly run, you know, a large brokerage, and that's where you really got to analyze, you know, the fancy software to fancy programs is all great, but if no one's there, actually had to teach you how to use that CRM, it's not worth anything.

Lisa Pruitt  1:13:00  
And something else I've learned which kind of has been helpful to me because of my own personality, is that I would think this is very hard for brokers. You have to have people that are self motivated, motivated, and can self motivate themselves. Yeah, you know, you've got to have a self starter. And if you're somebody who has to be pushed along the way and told step by step what to do this. Be the industry you want to be in.

Tracy Hayes  1:13:22  
You're an employee. Yeah, yeah, the self starter. It was, who was Lisa sweat, who I was talking to last week. She used that, yeah, she used to sell starter. She that's exactly what said. You got to be a self starter. You've got to, if you're not, you know, the broker can provide the tools and stuff. You still have to execute. You still got to get out of bed every morning. You don't show up at nine o'clock, the broker's not calling you, going, Hey, you're Where were you at? Where do they assume you're you side going to beach today if you wanted to. Is there anything I didn't cover that you want to? I don't know. We covered a lot. We did. We did cover a lot. You, 2022 you, you Platinum Award.

Lisa Pruitt  1:14:00  
So just right at 12 million,

Tracy Hayes  1:14:03  
right at 12 million, when we go back, and we were talking about a little bit before there was the move to the Better Homes. Was that when it clicked, started to click, when you when you finally got there, or were you starting to ramp up before you went to better homes, where? When did it? When did it all suddenly, you know, click in for and, you know, again, you probably haven't thought about quitting, since that's not true.

Lisa Pruitt  1:14:35  
Nothing to do with just hard. Yeah, so yes, I think I was on an upswing when I went there, just another funny, quick story. When I went there, I had come out of ankle reconstruction surgery and a broken leg. I'd been on the couch for six weeks, a lot of time to think, and I went and talked with them on crutches. I'm not. Ready to make a move. Look. I moved a lot. I'm not going to just jump and move, clearly, not going to jump, right? But I just knew, for me, it felt like home. I knew I was looking I knew what I was looking for. Didn't know where I would find it, and I just happened,

Tracy Hayes  1:15:15  
but, but you, but you did your due diligence, and that's, that's what you've learned over the time you took the time you you spoke to him, You didn't make you didn't you called the other top people and started in there. They were talking music to you, because they start, we're talking they didn't know you. You were just asking questions. But they, what they were saying was music to your ears, yeah.

Lisa Pruitt  1:15:37  
So I followed that up with actually having conversations with people that have been there a long time, yeah. And when they were saying the same thing, you know, on multiple accounts, I thought, okay, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  1:15:47  
I mean, when you look back now, I mean, obviously the changing of the brokerages was different stages of your career. Absolutely, I don't think you I don't think people should be you can comment on this. I don't think people should be afraid of changing brokerages, because the brokerage has changed too. They may paint this pretty picture, but all of a sudden someone leaves, someone in the in the leadership circle, or someone that has that influence, they leave, they leave or so, and someone else comes in and now they want to change things absolutely well, you were locked into that ideology, and that's been good for you. You this new ideology may not work for you. People grow. People may come into the business, come become that broker in the first couple of years, or like, doing all the right things. But then they start, they started getting a little fat and lazy and don't do, don't follow up on those things that you're talking about, or vice versa. You know, they come in, they don't really, they're trying to feel their situation, feel the room out, and all of a sudden, their second, third, fourth year being a broker, they start to click. And now they start getting better. So it might be time to go jump and grab onto their coattails, so to speak. But I would you agree the when you're clicking in that group, energy that comes through you people, I think, neglect that, yes, like going to one of those events and hearing Buffini, you're like, oh, that's, yeah, it's also you leave there with this boost of energy. But when you are in a room with others like minded, you just feel good.

Lisa Pruitt  1:17:20  
I do. I think that's where you thrive. What you were talking about is changing, right? Brokers. I call it shopping brokerages, not hopping. But it's true, like any industry, anytime there's a shift in leadership, things change, yeah, no. New leader comes in and keeps things exactly the way it was, right? So I feel as though sometimes when you're changing brokerages, there might be a stigma to that, but I never really looked at you know, as you grow, you change, you need to be able to be or have the courage to make change to get what you want and where you feel like, yeah, and I don't think there should be a stigma. I don't think there should be any hard feelings. I just think it's business. This is a business decision, right? New Leadership, new change for you know, well, and you have to know yourself.

Tracy Hayes  1:18:08  
And there's some people that we know that are, you know, we mentioned Sarah Rocco, we mentioned that there's some people that are running their own teams. When they're on they're, yeah, they're with that brokerage, but they're on their own planet, you know? They're on their own moon going around that thing that where the brokerage changes, unless they did something like completely drastic, you know, took the technology away, or something like that. But those, those satellites are, are running on their own, a different type of agent does feel the synergy, or a smaller office, so to speak, where the broker is more in a not only the broker over the the business owner type position, but they are in the hands to hands, you know, training and teaching and, you know, going over offers and so forth, right with you, as a senior agent would, because typically they're seen. So there's different situations, and obviously you got to find the important thing is, I think we come to find the one, and you, as you said it, that matches your, your business model that you want to run

Lisa Pruitt  1:19:05  
and and as you grow as an agent, you know that may shift, and that's okay.

Tracy Hayes  1:19:09  
That's okay. It will shift. We know. Well, it has to shift with the markets. The markets change. So you have changed how you how you do business. I think in your core thing working off family and friends, that's a core thing. I mean that that's going to work in every market, but, you know, you still got those other things. Like, you know, how do I convince a one of these friends and family like to actually make a move, right? Everyone's, everyone's wondering, how can I get these, some of these, there was a, there was a panel, how can I get some of these buyers off the fence? Yeah, right. So you got, again, you got to change your game, your game, a little bit, and work that piece. But Lisa, I appreciate you coming on. I think our listeners got a lot from it. I think your your story is awesome, and this is, you know, wasn't just some flash you got. And everyone's like, Oh, she just must be really good. You work through it. Yeah, you're good. But, I mean, you. Work, and you put the time in and the practice in, and you and you, the key component is you. And you found out, you learned about yourself, and then that allowed you to excel from there. Absolutely. 100% thanks for coming on.

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