Exit 1 Stop Realty

Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. Your host, Tracy Hayes, today, I have little different show. I have the leadership circle of exit one stop Realty of Jacksonville in the house. These three superstars lead a dynamic team of agents. They've continued to recruit, and most importantly, some of the agents who have left have actually come back. So get your notebooks out, get a pen. Let's dig in to the success of Valley Womble, if I pronounce that correctly, the acting broker, along with Jan and Walter Collins, as all three are owners of exit one stop Realty. Thanks guys for coming on the show.

Jan Collins  1:26  
Thank you so much. Thank you. I

Tracy Hayes  1:28  
appreciate I don't normally do the ensemble, but hopefully you guys work every day together. Hopefully the show will go as smoothly as normal. It's a little easier one on one, but one on three, we'll see how it rolls. So bear with me today. So Jan told me we were talking a little bit yesterday. I figured we start off because normally start off like, hey, where you're from, but you guys actually went to high school together. Tell us, tell Walter, tell us a little bit about that. And then how did you guys actually because you didn't hook up in high school. She didn't

Walter Collins  1:57  
want nothing to do with me in high school, so, but we went to a smaller school here in town, university, Christian and literally, I think we had 60 people in my graduating class. Hers was even smaller. So we all knew one another real well. I tell everybody, once she went off to college, got her Master's, she brightened up, and then we started dating. So that's the little joke I have. But we have known each other. We've known the circle of friends right for a long time.

Tracy Hayes  2:23  
So Jan, you stumbled back into town. How do you run into him again? Because you, if you had a master's degree, we're now looking seven, eight years later,

Jan Collins  2:29  
right, right, right. Well, let me just say I wouldn't date him in high school because he was a year younger than me. He likes to brag about that now, but back in high school, that wasn't cool. So after I got my master's degree, I moved back home. And funny story I met him out at was it t birds, T birds? Remember T birds from way back when?

Tracy Hayes  2:51  
That was probably might be former I didn't move to Jackson the first time until 99 and then really didn't move here.

Jan Collins  2:58  
Yeah. So I saw him, and we started talking, and that's where it went, excellent.

Tracy Hayes  3:07  
So at this time you guys are getting married, is exits not on the radar screen yet, not at all. What are you guys doing at that time, professionally?

Walter Collins  3:16  
Well, I tell everybody, when we met, Jan was in corporate America, and she was making more money than I was.

Tracy Hayes  3:24  
Yeah, he's smart enough.

Walter Collins  3:26  
But no, we got married and had a family. Jan ended up we were blessed to be able to let her stay home and raise the children. I was in the commercial tire business my father had been in that I had honestly felt that would be my life. Did very well there, moved to Tampa for a few years, came back home to Jacksonville. Was it selling? But the independent owned company was sold to Michelin. And when that happened, everything changed. So at the time, Jan was pregnant with our second I jumped back into corporate America because I needed benefits, right? And a friend of mine at church introduced me to the thought of, Hey, have you ever thought about selling real estate? And I bought a house when I was 19. I bought my third house in Deer wood. I knew the value of real estate, and I've always been a people person, and did well in sales. So I gotta go back

Tracy Hayes  4:13  
into my episodes, and how many people were recruited through church? Yeah, that's like, seems to be a popular place either find someone, say, looking for a job or whatever, and then recruited in the real estate business. Okay, so we're gonna pause over here, Valerie, we're your company. You were a teacher, if I recall, did I put my notes against for

Valerie Womble  4:33  
a minute?

Tracy Hayes  4:35  
You got, I think, was you did what, one or two years? If I think, yeah.

Valerie Womble  4:39  
So I actually went to college in Missouri, and then I moved here for a job. The chaplain at our school ended up being the pastor at university Christian so that we all are interesting, and he hired me as a secretary. So I was the church secretary for a year, worked in the church office, hated sitting at a desk trying to I was 24 trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life with a. Business degree, and they needed another first grade teacher. So I was like, I'll try that. I love kids, and I'll teach, and I love the kids. I hated teaching and being in that control. I wanted to play with the kids I taught first grade. So it was like trying to make them stand in straight lines, and all of that was not my cup of tea. So I was trying to figure out I also was a youth counselor. So I was trying to figure out what I could do, that I would have the freedom to go to youth camps and go have lunch with them and not be stuck at my job. And my best friend and her husband were moving here, and I was riding around with their real estate agent. She was like, you should get your real estate license. I said,

Tracy Hayes  5:33  
Okay, so that's how I ended up getting my license, because you actually started at exit.

Valerie Womble  5:38  
I actually started with the brokerage that from the agent that recruited me, and I was with her for about a year and a half. And then I knew Walter's sister, and was just looking for, I mean, it was Oh 607, the market was not awesome. And I was like, I really want to make this work, so I wanted to be with a brand that I knew could help me grow and give me opportunities and stuff like that. So I got connected to Walter

Tracy Hayes  5:59  
so that kicks the ball back over you Walter, where do you start? So that you're in church says, Hey, once you're real estate, where do you go? What do you do at that point, where you

Walter Collins  6:07  
so even the gentleman that talked to me actually did own an exit franchise here in town. It was the only exit franchise at the time, but I still went and talked to other brokerages to try to get a feel. I just didn't want to jump just to the first one, like most people, but I looked around and by interviewing the different or companies, realized this was the best fit. It was what I felt the place I could control my destiny, right? So I got my license. I became an agent with exit back in oh five, when I started. At the end, things were still pretty good and right. Fast forward, oh six, signs of things starting to turn Yeah. And unfortunately, the brokerage where I was at was not doing that well. And so the reality in late oh six was I had to make a decision that I needed to go find another job. And there wasn't another brokerage to be with, right? There was not another exit office. So I went out and interviewed again at different places. And I just really was torn, because I still felt the formula that exit offered me was the best system originally. Yeah, I mean, even going back a second round of interviews, and this is only a year and a half, and luckily, my first year of business, I did it over 100,000 in commission. I really took off in the business. But, you know, I still went out and interviewed at other places. Ironically, late 2006 I ran into a neighbor, Jan, actually, after church, we were in the loop eating lunch, and Jan introduced me to a neighbor that had a mortgage company in a real estate title company, okay? And at that point, I was trying to make the decision on where to go, and we got together and said we could start this business together, and we opened up exit one stop. So at the time when I came on with exit, there was only 14 of us right in Jacksonville. That was it. By time we opened in oh seven, we still didn't have a lot of offices. It was just my office, but we had more agents coming on, and then we also had other people opening other offices later that year. So as an agent, started with exit, and then look to move, opportunity came up to open a brokerage and decided, well,

Tracy Hayes  8:11  
what's interesting is you elaborated a little bit, and I value. I want your comment on this, talking to new agents and going out and actually spending some time talking to different brokerages and different leadership because there's one thing I found everyone will tell me that they went to their brokerage because of education, don't I very rarely hear the leadership part. It's more like, oh, they offer all this training. So I really find that as a common denominator, it's one's perception of what a lot of training is, what how important is for a new agent today to do what you did 15 years ago, and to go out and really find out what, who's doing what, and what's going on, and who's the best to work with. The value, if you want to make coming how important it is today for

Valerie Womble  8:57  
someone to do that? Yeah, I think it's very important. I mean, I think for me, when I was looking it was important for me to feel comfortable with who I was with. So I think relationship is a huge part of that, and that was what I felt comfortable with Walter. I knew I could pick up the phone when I first started, and he was the owner, and I could ask him anything. So having that comfortability was a really big part of it, too. So I think for me, that was a big part, and then also being around like minded people that have the same desire to do business, like, I want to do business, because that's not always the same. And every brokerage, right?

Tracy Hayes  9:27  
So, right, ideology, vision, where it's going. And, yeah, that is extremely important. Because sometimes you dive in, no matter what job you're actually going into, you go into an office and all of a sudden, like, well, they don't have the same integrity I have. They don't see you to do business that that's important to know, and especially, you're self employed, right? You're going in there. You were telling Hey everyone, I'm at exit one stop. And then you find out, Oh, well, this isn't the exit one stop. I may have to make another stop, right? Well, how, what did you learn from doing. Talking to a lot is good.

Walter Collins  10:01  
I still talk to agents about it today. When I interview with them, is that I wanted to feel the landscape of what was out there coming from a sales background. I knew their companies do things different ways, and what I kind of identified was we have the traditional brokerages out there that have a really great name. They're well known throughout the country, and a lot of it is their name, and they tout their training, but their splits are usually a little lower, whereas we have other offices out there that have higher commission splits, but usually got fees involved or maybe not much broker support, right? So you got to find what lines up with you. Everybody's different. Where I do feel like exit kind of is in the middle of those we have all the things that the traditional companies do, the training and all of that, but we have the ability to make unlimited income in the same time.

Tracy Hayes  10:51  
Yes, yeah, again. Do you find some of the new agents? I mean, is it really they just kind of are focused on the commission split more or less, or maybe their friend works there. But that doesn't necessarily mean they line up ideologically or vision wise.

Valerie Womble  11:06  
I think when we like, when we interview, I think the number one thing is they want support. They want to be trained. And because we all know, when you go take the real estate class, they're teaching you how to be legal, your license, when to renew your life, how to pass the test. So I think that they want to know, what do you do? How do you get business? Like, are you providing business to me? Like, what all does that look like? And they don't, most the time, as a new agent, they don't even know what to ask. They are just trying to interview and see what opportunity they have for them. And I think that we do a good job of trying to make sure we tell them, even if you don't go with us, make sure you keep in mind these things, ask these questions when you're trying to figure out what's a

Tracy Hayes  11:44  
fit for you, because they're coming to you from that standpoint. But I mean, do you you're kind of interviewing them a little bit too, because you don't want to bring poison into the office, right? Jane and

Valerie Womble  11:54  
I talked about this yesterday. It was just and even this morning, we were on the phone, and it was talking about, we're not trying to collect everybody like we have, and we have our mission and vision statement, and we want to make sure that everything we do in our office matches that down to the agents that work there. It's a reputation of us, and you hear a brand, and you know exactly what that agents like, good, bad or not. And so it just we want to make sure that they're representing what we want to put out into the marketplace as well.

Tracy Hayes  12:20  
All right, so the big question here, and I know I haven't brought Jan in, because Jan really is not in the picture just yet. As far as real estate is concerned, you guys are you guys start your career a year or two before the complete, you know, collapse, really, of the housing market. What are you What were you guys doing to get through that? Because you guys are actually together now, right? You're at Exit One Stop. What were you doing to hold the office together?

Valerie Womble  12:44  
So for me, I took on short sales. I did so many short sales, and people didn't want to touch them, because the agents that have been in the market before the crash were like, I'm not messing with that. That's way too much work. Where I was like, I'll work.

Tracy Hayes  12:57  
Yeah. So sometimes the fruits a little higher.

Valerie Womble  13:01  
So I figured out how to communicate with the banks. I had agents that were giving me deals that I didn't even pay a referral fee on because they were like, if you will, just help my customer. Wow, you know what I mean. And so that's kind of where I built my business is trying to figure out the short sale process. I've heard that

Tracy Hayes  13:14  
mentioned before, because I've had other successful realtors that entered the market similar time you guys did, but didn't ask them this question. I mean, what did it really take to learn how to do the short sales? Or was it really just some more phone calls or

Valerie Womble  13:27  
trial and error, winging it and not being scared to pick up the phone and call these banks and just persistence, like you just had to stay on top of it and not get discouraged and just keep going. And Walter can share how he stayed like, for me, I'm originally from Savannah. If I went back to Savannah, I could sell real estate all day, every day. I know everybody. I went to high school there. I grew up, my family, all of that. So I could have made the excuse that I didn't have that, or figure out how to make it work. So we're Walter, and that's why I kept I would ask Walter, and you can share how you but like he was, he had connections everywhere,

Tracy Hayes  13:59  
so you kept digging. Yeah, well, it was on the phone and Walter. What was your mindset during this time period?

Walter Collins  14:04  
Well, as an owner, short, sales were inevitable. If we were going to survive, we were going to have to get in that now, obviously, Valerie was one of our top agents at the time, but I think we did a good job of really helping them understand this process, understand it from the bank standpoint, understand it from the seller. We really dug in, and we did a lot of business. Luckily, one of the benefits of the time was having a partner that had a title company, so I was able to have that title company work hand in hand with us, right, to help us through that process, right? So that was important. But I do say to people all the time, we've had 2007 open the doors. And throughout the years, maybe the best year we ever had was 2010 and it wasn't about making a lot of money. We just stayed in business that year when everybody else was shutting the door, right?

Tracy Hayes  14:51  
Because, I mean, I mean, was it almost daily that agents are probably just throwing up their hands and just walking away?

Walter Collins  14:57  
Yeah, we cut in about half the number. Of agents we had, but the ones that were working and that were willing to work, we're still making a living, I can tell you, since I've been in the real estate business, even personally, up and down on the number of sales, but I've been pretty consistent throughout the years. And it's like Valerie said, if you're willing to work, and for me, you keep connections, make connections farm, the areas you'll make a paycheck, right? I'm just,

Tracy Hayes  15:25  
I'm thinking my nudge. I'm thinking how much you guys were working during that time period. And it's, I'm thinking like a truck pulling a heavy load, and you're in your grinding, grinding now, all of a sudden, 2021 22 you're like, going downhill. And do you

Walter Collins  15:41  
run over? I'll tell you. I'll say this. And Valerie, I think, can add on this very well, as everybody talks about how hard the short sales were in the work was. But there was some real reason that the people had to get this done right the last year, honestly, is as much as the numbers have gone up, I think the work was harder than when the short sales were,

Tracy Hayes  16:04  
from the standpoint, just from obviously strategy, making the offers, how you're listing the property, to get the most out of it. Obviously, I don't know. I even never asked this question for sale by owners go up last year percentage wise at all, because people just thought they could just stick a sign in their yard and people were just going to throw money at them.

Walter Collins  16:22  
I don't feel like there was a big difference on that. What I will say is, when you, on average, have six buyers or six properties, that you write an offer with a buyer before you get accepted contract, right? That's a lot of work. Generally, Valerie might write one or two offers and she's going to get a house under contract, right? But it was six, eight or more. Many of our agents were going through that, so that was tough. And then obviously, on the listing side, yeah, it's great. Everything sells, but it was little overwhelming when Valerie, you had listings with over 20 offers, and it gets a little crazy

Tracy Hayes  17:00  
out, right, right? How do you process that? Valerie, when you got 20 offers coming in, I find I think sometimes I see or hear my wife's an agent. Sometimes these buyer the sellers want to just like, take the first offer that comes in. It's like, just wait another day or two, right? And they will come flying in. How do you manage that?

Valerie Womble  17:17  
I think you a big thing that we do in our office, and I think you have to know your customers personality. So you have people that are very emotional about the process. We have people that are super analytical and figuring out which way you can communicate with them the best way that it's they're going to be comfortable, because ultimately, it's their decision and your it's your job to facilitate and guide them, those type of things. So for me, I always make a spreadsheet and just, like, here's everything you have you made before.

Tracy Hayes  17:44  
I mean, you actually launch of, hey, this is what I expect to happen, right? Be cool, yeah.

Valerie Womble  17:49  
Like, I've had, I have a friend of mine, her husband was, I don't want to be in that situation. Don't make me compete like that. He we got the first offer. He's like, it's everything we wanted. Can we just take us so you can do whatever you want. You might get more money, but if this is too stressful for you, he's like, take it. Let's just take it so you have and then you have other customers that love the game. They love the game

Tracy Hayes  18:12  
because, yeah, I mean another $20,000 more that's offsetting your commission. Yeah, I don't understand why people are so antsy like that, although I have at one time when my wife and I first got married, we were living in Little Rock. She was with altel, and we actually bought a HUD home that had been sitting there for a while. We bought as investment to clean it up and flip it. And we passed on the first offer, and I don't know how many was, three or four or five months later before we finally got back to that original offer, and then we were like, Okay, go ahead. Well, we should have just took the first off.

Walter Collins  18:47  
Yeah, the one thing though, Tracy, you said, like, you can't understand why someone would do that, but you think about it, that's the whole reason. Like open doors open because people don't want to deal with it, right? And so there's a lot of people willing to take less money, which I agree with you. I don't quite get but that just shows you how different everybody is.

Tracy Hayes  19:06  
That's true. That's true 100% All right, this is a question I always ask. I'm going to get to you, Jan, eventually here. So hang on. I want you guys each just to kind of tell us a little bit about for those new agents out there, someone looking to be an agent, or maybe someone's in their first year, because you didn't own exit at ninja, you just you came in as an agent off the ground. What are some of those things you did or that you were being coached on or trained on to get your careers going in that first 12 months?

Valerie Womble  19:35  
I think my biggest thing that I really push it our office, with all of our agents, I don't care how long you've been in the business, is have a database and have a CRM that you're working and build that database and stay in communication with your past customers, your friends, your family you meet.

Tracy Hayes  19:52  
So while you as the broker now, you hire a new agent. You're giving them, let them start dialing into that old database. Yeah, so that.

Valerie Womble  20:00  
As well, not into my data, but like, into their database. Like, start the first thing we tell them is, think of the top 100 people in your life. We all have, like, who works on your car, who does your hair, who does start building that database and letting people know that you're in the business?

Tracy Hayes  20:13  
What were some of the ways that you exposed think about your first year? Yeah, what were some of the ways you expose those top 100 people to that, hey, I'm in real estate.

Valerie Womble  20:21  
Well, I was actually really involved in my church, so a lot of it came from church and making sure that I just let people know about what was going on the market. I'm not a super salesy person, so I'm not going to go and, like, chase you down and beg for your business, but I want to, I want you to know that I do it, and I'd love to help you. I come from I think I really, that's where I shine, is I want to help.

Tracy Hayes  20:40  
So Right? Walter, what were you doing that first 12 months?

Walter Collins  20:44  
Well, the question is, the new agent, your fan, what's the important?

Tracy Hayes  20:49  
What you did then maybe, and then you can spin into what you would tell them today, because I'm sure it's different.

Walter Collins  20:55  
What I what I think a little bit very different thing I did. So we joke about getting a license. And the reality is, when I went to work at this brokerage, there was a receptionist and the broker went in the office very much, right? And what I realized is coming, having some corporate background, real estate, kind of missed the boat on the job training. They get you to get license. They do a lot of classroom stuff, but no on the job training. So I was sitting there, and I'd watched a VHS tape I'm gonna on how to get started in the business. It was talking about sphere of influence, which I am a firm believer, is 100% number one thing. What I realized was nobody's taught me how to do this. Somebody needs to hold my hand and walk me through this, right? So the time, there was a lady named Beth in our office, and she was a little bit older. She'd been in the business like 30 years, and I went up to her and said, Look, I don't need you to get me business, but what I need is, I need a mentor. And would you hold my hand and walk me through my first couple deals? And I paid her 50% on my first deal, 25% my next two deals. It was the best investment I ever made in my life. That is how I learned to do the business. I knew I had to go get it, but I needed to learn how to do it. And I think that's what happens to a lot of agents. They come in the business, they have this big guy that they're going to make a lot of money selling real estate. They go to this class to learn real estate, right? But they learn nothing about what to do, right? And then they sit there and flounder, because even when they finally get a lead, they don't know what to do with them exactly. So with that said, that's one of the things we implemented about a year ago in our office, was we require brand new agents. Now, if you're an existing agent, it doesn't, you don't fall under this, but a brand new agent. We do have an assigned mentor for their first two deals, and then they pay that mentor 25% of their deals smart the agents, yeah, yeah,

Valerie Womble  22:50  
absolutely, yeah, even if you don't think you need it. And they get in and that, we tell them, that's your lifeline if you need anything. Of course, Walter and I are there for you, but having that person that you can call no matter what you're trying to write a contract, you're trying to open a lock box. I mean, it's just even the little, tiny things that they know they can call that person. It just makes it so much a smooth transition into the business.

Tracy Hayes  23:12  
I see it in the loan officer world too. There's brand new loan officers come walking in. They don't realize, okay, unless we're I've worked in a call center at Quicken Loans and loan depot, where the leads were being fed to you and you were on the phone all day long. But when you're out, hitting the street and entertaining you guys, it's a different mindset. I think it's mindset that they have to get into. And then the circle of influence, some people don't realize the circle that they actually have. They really need to dig down deep into what do I do? You're obviously, you're involved in the church. My Alumni Association is one of my immediate circles, and just touching those people, consistently letting them know, social media makes it a little easier today to reach out to our friends and so forth. Hey, I'm still in real estate, still doing this, but that mindset that has to change from the corporate America or hey, I show up to work. What's my assignment today? Type of thing to Hey, yeah, I actually making my schedule today.

Valerie Womble  24:10  
Yeah, when we sat down and we're trying to figure out what we else we wanted to add to the brokerage, that's how we came up with the Mentor Program. Is Walter every you just told your whole recruiting thing. Just Push Play now that he always tells that story, and mine is my biggest regret is not doing that in the beginning, like creating bad habits out the gate. You just don't know what you don't know. So having someone that's whether it's a coach or a mentor or something, that just keeps you on track and helps you get to that next level. We all need that. We we're going through coaching right now as a brokerage because we know how important

Tracy Hayes  24:41  
it is all the successful people, and I've had a lot of them on the show, either have coaches or have had a coach at some time. And I was listening to a person who I follow in a group that I get coached with, and the head guy, Carl white, he was talking about just on the podcast this morning, that he still has a coach today. This guy making you. Millions, and he's teaching others. He still has a coach to go back and bring himself down, and to have that mentor is so huge. I think too many people get in. They have their ideas, but it's like, okay, trust me, we've probably done all those, and we'll tell you which ones work, and you could just go to those.

Jan Collins  25:17  
Another thing that we tell our agents is, when they first come on. Don't be a secret agent like let's let everybody know. It goes back to the database, the CRM thing, but on social media, through email, send cards, but basically, you own a business now. So let everybody know if you had a brick and mortar building, you would go to that building every day and unlock the door and turn on the light. So this is your business. Post it, share it. Tell people. Hand your card out.

Tracy Hayes  25:52  
You mentioned cards, and because there's obviously one on one is the best way to create a relationship with someone, text messages fall in there, and snail mail is actually ahead of email in creating those relationships. And I said it, I don't know how many times on the show, the guy who sold 13,000 cars or 15,000 cars in 13 years, and every he still goes around and talks now he was sending cards out every month, and obviously that built up the 1000s of cards, and people go, Oh, I think when you were saying that cards, I was like, the average person. Oh, well, I got like two or 300 people here, I guess a two or 300 cards a month. But there is an expense to that, but that's why you're paid as much as you are, because hopefully one will turn over, hopefully, one a month, and it starts to build as your reputation in every deal that you do and get better better. But you have to come into the business with that business mindset and know that you have to

Jan Collins  26:53  
invest in yourself, right? We promote handwritten cards. We follow Brian Buffini, and he really encourages people to do that. Two or three a day is what he does.

Tracy Hayes  27:04  
But everyone you touch or talk to send a card out and say, hey, yeah,

Jan Collins  27:08  
because if you think about it, what he says is, you go to your mailbox and you get your mail and it's all bills and it's all advertising, but if you see a handwritten card, is that not the first thing you open? And it just means so much to people that you took the time out to write the card. Yeah, so that is one of our big things that we put and just

Valerie Womble  27:28  
making sure we make our agents feel good, our customers feel good like it's so important how you feel, that's just a big

Tracy Hayes  27:34  
part of it. Goes out to Teddy Rosa, right? It's not how much until they know how much you care, right? And that it's an emotional thing when they see a card. Everyone you get, yeah, everyone gets a little excited, right? You see someone see a card for me and Sue and my kids. Now might she's putting $50 bills in there for them. I'm like, I never got $50 but you get excited, not necessarily looking for the money in there, but someone actually is reaching out and touching you, is thought of you. And the emotional, I think people shorten or don't give a lot of credit, the emotional part that you give somebody for that 30 seconds that they may be they see that card. Oh, someone wrote me a card. They that's the first Yeah, first thing they go in, they said all that other mail down, and they open that one right?

Jan Collins  28:17  
Buffett says that handwritten cards is the least expensive form of advertising that you can do, but it takes some time.

Tracy Hayes  28:26  
Yeah, you've got to get it going. And keep reminding those people we don't know who's going to be at a cookout, or someone in their office today at lunchtime says, Yeah, I'm looking to buy a home. And they're like, Oh, I just got Jan's card yesterday. Yeah, yeah. Well, Jan's not an agent. Walter and Valerie sent them a card, but Jan probably sends cards too. So yeah, all right. So no, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna turn a little bit to Jan, a little bit here, because we talked about a little bit, because you were very involved with Plexus, and I think multi level marketing is whether you were good at it. You tried it, whatever, most of the good ones. Mary Kay, I've heard on the show before. I know Plexus is very popular right now, the personal development part of the multi level marketing. And if you could expand on what Plexus does, and then how you've brought it to the office, yeah.

Jan Collins  29:15  
So MLMs get a bad rep a lot of times. What was so what I love so much about Plexus and MLMs is it was basically a personal development business with a compensation plan attached, because that's what they do, right? They build you up. They encourage you to build yourself up. You're doing something you've never done before. So it really is a journey and personal development. I started with Plexus six years ago, because I love the products. I have a friend who has lupus, and she is symptom free now, so I started taking the products, they work for me. I was not planning on selling, right, but I shared, and people wanted to know, what are you doing, right? How do I get this? Well. Was like, What are you doing? But it's it really was just kind of a slow roll and but that

Tracy Hayes  30:08  
correlates to the real estate business as in the same way, letting people know what you're doing, sharing your

Jan Collins  30:13  
story, right? Social Selling, network marketing, absolutely, is the same thing. I feel like that anybody in sales does you're sharing what you're doing, what you're selling, and advertising it on different levels. And I think what really crossed over for me from Plexus to exit was the residual income piece, and that is what makes Exit Realty unique. In the real estate industry, there is an opportunity for people to sponsor in, invite in agents and receive residual income based on the other agents work. So I feel like it just kind of Plexus and exit just kind of crossed over in a really great way. Well, in a lot of ways,

Tracy Hayes  30:59  
there's a lot of things to relate there. It got you probably got out of your comfort zone a little bit, yes, but you did it your way because you were social selling. But then you're like, oh, people actually like this. Let me push the envelope a little. Got out of your comfort zone, which you guys have to do every day, as every new agent does, to say hi to strangers and so forth, to get out of that comfort zone. So I would like to just go around the table real quick. Valerie, what do you do? You're leading the agents. You're you've got the broker title under you. What do you do to stay sharp? Your podcast, you read books. Are you following Buffini? Like them?

Valerie Womble  31:34  
Or yeah, I'm a big Buffini. I actually hired one of the Buffini coaches, which was one of the best decisions I made. I'm not currently with them, but I definitely want to go back to that. So the Buffini system really did change the way I do business. That's a big one. And I do like, I like the Buffini Podcast. I'm kind of like a Buffini cheerleader over here, but yeah, I do, and Jan probably is the one that pushes Walter and I the most to read this book, listen this podcast. And then we have another employee in our office that she really is big on personal development stuff. So we are all we are. We have book clubs and all of that kind of stuff too. I'm not a huge reader, but I know it's so important. So if it's if you tell me to read it, I will probably read it.

Tracy Hayes  32:13  
So Walter, you do anything different than the ladies here?

Walter Collins  32:18  
Well, I'm not a big reader. Tell you that I do listen to the podcast. Can't help but she makes sure she plays them every morning. But no, I think luckily, when you're out there doing business, you kind of are keeping up with what's going on. I think having great relationships with partners that keep you abreast, obviously, of what's going on in the mortgage business right now, any changes or things that are happening from a title, the inspectors give me good information. I think just having a good network of people can help keep you sharp. But then the other thing is and

Tracy Hayes  32:53  
actually taking it in. I guess if you want to, I'm going to use the term manual. You're manually taking it in from these people, but actually putting it in in your so when you actually are talking to a customer, you are able to talk with confidence

Walter Collins  33:07  
and knowledge. Yeah, absolutely. And for our agents, because a lot of times I'm hearing stuff going on before they might be hearing that and bringing it back to them, we do a kind of a training class every other week. We do and we call it real world, real estate, and we ask the agents to bring in the deals they're working on, what problems you've had. Why did that fall apart? What's new here is there a program we could have done this with? What about a repair situation? So working with the agents and knowing what's going on out there in transactions all the time, right? I think keeps us sharp, and we see trends like Valerie immediately a year ago, knew we got to have round tables. We got to get them in here and teach them how to deal with these multiple offers. How do you win these offers? I mean, we were pounding that because that's what the market was telling Sure,

Valerie Womble  33:55  
yeah, I think real the real world. Real Estate is probably one of our number one most attended classes that we have, I like that. And we tell our agents, even if you don't have a deal coming on, you haven't even touched real estate yet, come and sit in that class, because you're going to learn so much just listening to the other agents talk it out.

Tracy Hayes  34:11  
It's part of first 12 years of my career were in a call center. Now, granted, good part of that was at home, but the first three years where I was doing most of my learning was in cubes, where someone's over there talking to a customer. I'm talking, you know, and you're in, you're hearing the situations go on. How do we do this? How do we do that? And I think a lot of agents, especially, obviously, the last couple of years, have gotten, or not just the agents, I think the loan officers have as well. A lot of them got disconnected, and they've gotten, I want to use, I'm going to use the term lazy, sitting at home, but they're missing that there is a little bit credit to the cooler, the water cooler talk. Hey, we had this deal, and this is what happened. So that deal is going to fall in your lap again. Murphy's Law is coming to you, whether it's tomorrow or three months from now, and now you're going to know what to do, because, hey, I remember that deal. Walter. You. Had, what did you do for that? And then that's a really great all agents should attend that. That should be 100% attended. I think we've gotten too disconnected and have lost a little edge in our industry by working too much at home, right? Yeah, staying in the PJs, so to speak. I know it's not one, so I want to go back to Buffini. Was a question that to both of you, does Buffini and I'm relating this back to Marissa Scott, who had on the show a few weeks ago. She, I'm sorry, Sarah Rocco said this two months into her career. She went to an event, she put it on a credit card, went all out, and it turned out into going to this person's office, the keynote speaker in New York and all this stuff, but she, all of a sudden they realized her mind just expanded on what real estate is and does do you get it at a Buffini when you're listening to him, is not just you and Jacksonville, that there's actually this whole world of real estate going on. It starts to expand your vision of the industry.

Jan Collins  35:58  
Yes, absolutely. I feel like attending events. That's where leaders are born. So we try to attend as many events as we can, but when you can't get to the event, listening to the podcast, listening to the live webinar that Buffini does twice a year, and that's not the only one we follow, but I think a little bit of all of it, iron sharpens iron. It makes us better, and then we collaborate on what we learn,

Valerie Womble  36:24  
right, right? Yeah, yeah, I can't say that. I've never, I've been to an event where I didn't come back a better agent from it, even Ari bar that we have in locally here it. I mean, just bouncing ideas off of local agents even, and like, what's working for you? What apps are you using? I mean, even down to that kind of stuff, just learning from your peers in the industry, but also going to events other places as well. It just makes such a difference.

Tracy Hayes  36:50  
So did you all go to rebar? Everyone go to rebar?

Valerie Womble  36:53  
I did. They were out of town. These guys

Tracy Hayes  36:55  
are traveling the world. So I had never been before this. My first year I've gone and there's, I don't know, 1000 1200 agents in there. Does that have? What's the mindset you work with in other agents? Because I deal with loan officers, and they're like, oh, there's all these other loan officers I got to compete against. And now we don't have an event where there's 1200 loan officers from Jacksonville, greater Northeast Florida, in in one room, there you were with 1200 other agents from the greater area. How, what's your mindset in that? What's your thoughts in that?

Valerie Womble  37:30  
I love networking with the other agents. In fact, I hung out with my first broker during re bar, like she was there, and we went to all the classes together. We joke around like there is I think that having those relationships is so important. Like the cutthroat industry, I'm not part of that. You just don't want to be part of that. And I think that, I think Northeast Florida is different than a lot of other areas. We, for the most part, agents. We all get along. No matter what brand you come from. Let's get the deal done. And of course, you have, everybody has those.

Tracy Hayes  37:58  
Well, that's the common theme that I hear in leadership, and I always talk about there are a lot of top agents who, yeah, they all work for different brokerages, and they're having lunch together or happy hour or whatever, or meeting up at events, and they don't see themselves as competition. It's more collaboration is the word Absolutely. And I think for anyone listening, the biggest obstacle in your way is actually yourself you've got. And I think Plexus and working on the personal development, they will tell you, the only thing stopping you is you there. It's not the other agents are getting more deals. They got flashier logos or whatever it is, just you,

Jan Collins  38:39  
yeah, there's enough work for everybody. Yeah. And if you change your mindset from that scarcity to the abundant mindset and just realize,

Tracy Hayes  38:49  
love me some. John Maxwell, there's

Jan Collins  38:52  
enough for everybody to go around, right? So I think that it just comes back to you, I'm

Tracy Hayes  38:59  
going to switch gears. So let's talk. Let's not that we haven't been already digging into exit, but I want to, more or less, for lack of terms, we're going to advertise exit one stop when you've got I assume the two of you, or three of you actually are monitoring has a pulse on the culture that you've created. And since there's three of you actually in ownership roles, and then each of you have your designer, Jan's doing mostly marketing. You've got the broker. Are you Walter? You just over there selling? You're just

Walter Collins  39:28  
the I would say, I manage more like the books back office, numbers guy, so I'm constantly operations, overseeing the operation side of the company where she's dealing more, you know, Valerie's dealing more with the agents, and then Jan says marketing, but it's also relations, right, with agents, with our sponsors, different things like that,

Tracy Hayes  39:51  
getting the name out there, and so, so. But in collaboration, I imagine the three of you had to get together and talk about how this is what. We want to happen, or these are the type of people we want to bring in to the circle. How do you I mean, is that something? You guys have regular conversations with you out the lunch or over coffee in the morning and say, hey, you know what? I don't think this is working. How does that conversation go?

Jan Collins  40:16  
I mean, I talk to Valerie a couple of times every day, it seems like, except maybe the weekend. So we're just always talking about issues, talking about where we want to go. Of course, I talked to him every morning, and

Valerie Womble  40:31  
I think, yeah, I think one thing that we do too is we have what our what is it? The motto that is Ty, which is trust in this initiative and expertise. So when we talk to people, that's the first thing we lay out is we want you to have be trustworthy. We want you to demonstrate initiative and develop an expertise. So if you are doing those things, and at our sales meeting, we do, obviously, production awards, but we have a tie award every month, we really put out like, are you trust, initiative, expertise. Those are the things that we are looking for in the agents that we hire and recruit.

Tracy Hayes  41:03  
Trust, integrity, I assume is obvious, yeah, initiative. What would be give me an example, someone taking initiative in the office of someone who won the award the last month or something. What do they do?

Valerie Womble  41:14  
We have an agent that did a first time home buyers program, and she took the initiative to set up in the office and bring her customers in because she kept hearing about people. She's like, there's so many people on the fence that are ready to buy. They just don't know what to do. So she took her expertise, but also the initiative to get that going and all of that. Another one is our agents help each other out so much. I joked when I came back in as an owner, I was like, this is such a kumbaya office, because everybody is just like, hey, I know she haven't been in the office in a while. Come in and let me help you get set back up. You seem like you've kind of fallen off the tracks for a little while. So we don't do it as much as our agents do. They really look out for each other, which is what we wanted in our culture.

Walter Collins  41:52  
Yeah, we're in addition to the tie she talks about, we lay out. We build our company on five pillars. And the one thing about the formula with exit and having the ability to sponsor is, if you think about this, everybody in the organization has been sponsored by someone, right? Someone cares about them and cares for their success, right? So it kind of, if everybody's already in that mindset, it kind of feeds into that. And then obviously, the training, the branding, the marketing, the culture, those are all important, but it ties around that formula there. But as far as I do, most of the interviewing, and yeah, there's some people that we don't offer them the position, per se, right? But for the most part, I do believe that some agents that I've interviewed, I had no idea they would be as good as they are. Some I thought would be great and weren't very great. That's so true in life. So we do like to give the opportunity. If we have a comfort level with them, and they seem to believe in the same things we do right, then we're going to give them a chance. But ultimately, at the end of the day, we want people to stay with us. We want them to stay long term. But in the same sense, if they're embarrassing us or doing something wrong, we've had to cut ties as

Tracy Hayes  43:10  
well, right? It was, it's been said before. I think it's a common thing in any office, even whether it's corporate America and you got a bunch of w2 employees or in a real estate office, you constantly have to be giving some sort of value for those agents to hang there, otherwise, whether they themselves have gotten distracted and lose track and they're going to blame it on leadership. But what are some of the things that you do, Valerie as a broker, to add value to your team of agents?

Valerie Womble  43:39  
I think the round tables are a big part of what we train, trying to do the day in and day out, like real life experiences that are happening, and making sure that we are like Jan said, iron sharpens iron. So making sure that we're training, going through the new contracts, all of all the broker side of the duties, but also sitting down with them. Where are you getting your business? Let's think about, we do a lot of analytics, so looking back and going through their files and saying, Okay, your last five deals came from this source, right? You might want to focus on that source and really having those one on one coachings with them. They know, between Walter and I that our doors are always open. Just make an appointment with us and we'll go through. We have them write their goals down at the beginning of the year. We try to make sure we sit down with them at least a couple times a year and say, Okay, this was your goal. You're there or you're not. What do we do to get you there? Are you still feeling that's your goal? And we don't throw our goals on them. We let them. That's one thing that we talked about, too. We're not a cookie cutter office. We're more boutique. If you want to only sell five houses this year, awesome. Let's see how you can get your five if you want to sell 50, let's do it. Let's figure out how to

Tracy Hayes  44:41  
do it. So I know Jan's prepped you all because I asked this question all she mentioned yesterday, she prepped you in there. And there's probably some overlap, and there's probably, there's probably some things that Walter or Jan thinks they should be doing an addition. But what are three things that whether it's a first time agent or. Even some of the most experienced agent are trying to sell 50 homes. Obviously, as someone selling five could probably fumble into that right now. But what are three things do you think that these agents need to be doing today, on a daily, weekly, just in their routine?

Valerie Womble  45:12  
Number one is having a coach or mentor. I think that's number one for me. Number two is staying in contact with your sphere, maintaining that database. And then number three is networking and finding where you're getting your next business from, whether that's in your alumni group, your church group, whatever, but staying active in your community and making sure you're giving back that's a huge part for our office even is not with the mindset that you're trying to get business from it, but just giving back to the community is such a big part that's helped me with my

Tracy Hayes  45:43  
business too. Walter, what would you add to that

Walter Collins  45:46  
for the three things agents need they shouldn't be

Tracy Hayes  45:49  
doing on a regular basis, that should be a foundation of their of their business.

Walter Collins  45:54  
You know, I obviously think your sphere of influence, your database, is number one, huge, right? I think that for me, it's like you got to be doing business to stay up with the business and to get to the successful so Jim mentioned this, if you had a brick and mortar, you go open the doors every day, lights on and I think you got to get up and go to work every day. I mean, it sounds so easy, but willingness to work is the big

Tracy Hayes  46:19  
thing, showing up. That's the term, gotta show up.

Walter Collins  46:23  
Yeah, and then I'm not, I'm not big on necessarily that you have to do all the trainings. But when markets are shifting, like when we shifted to short sales, or we're shifting to multiple offers, or when there's things that happen out there, you've got to come in and get involved and understand what's going on with Right, right? You can't just be on the sideline all the time. It just doesn't work that the synergies of having multiple people out there doing business together, that's what helps all of us do more.

Jan Collins  46:52  
Jan, would you add to that? I think social media is very important. Some people don't like it, but it reaches the masses, and it lets people know that you're open, and it keeps you top of mind. So I really push the social media thing, like post at least once or twice a day. It doesn't all have to be real estate. Put some personal stuff in. Let people get to know like and trust you. How are they going to do that if you're not posting

Tracy Hayes  47:20  
huge week. We had an event last week and with three very well respected agents in the area, and it was on getting more listings, but it expanded in the I think 75% of the conversation was about social media. And if you're in a neighborhood, a couple of these agents, they have gone deep in their neighborhood. So every month, they're posting the Market Report for beacon lakes, or, I forgot what the other neighborhood was, but they are known as that person and that that resource in the neighborhood. And it's, I think so many are missing out. They're like, well, it's social media, but you know what the reality is? It's great because so many people are, I don't know if afraid or nervous about what they might look like. I always tell people they don't care. They don't care what you look your friends and family don't care. They already love you. Trust me, they're not. They're hearing your message though every day, or that market report every month. And trust me, when they think of a real estate agent, you're in, you're right there. That's exactly what

Valerie Womble  48:26  
it stands that I always tell our agents is, don't worry what everybody thinks. You don't want to work with everybody,

Tracy Hayes  48:33  
trust me, the shock and awe of it all, Howard Stern made a lot of money off of people who didn't like him, right? Because they stayed listening to the show to see what he would say next. Yeah.

Jan Collins  48:45  
So the other thing I would add, and Valerie and Walter are so good at this, I think it's part of our culture, is answer your phone. When someone calls, answer the phone, and they are constantly answering the phone anytime that the agents are calling that have questions. But I think when you're in sales, answering the phone means a lot to people, and if you can't get to the phone, make sure to call the person back.

Tracy Hayes  49:09  
So you know, it's that we were having this discussion just yesterday in the office too, because obviously, as loan officers, we everyone's got their cell phone, but in your case, you have an actual someone sitting at your front desk more or less, and to hey, I'm in an appointment or I can't take that call, you can actually set up your phone or get the service. I'm sure there's an app out there that everyone can use, that if you don't take the call, will at least go to that person, and someone actually does answer the phone. And how much that will change your business because someone answered the phone and said, hey, oh, they're on an appointment. I can take a message for you or send you the voicemail, whatever you're going to do with it. But someone answered the phone that, yeah, 100% we talked about education and the importance of it, we didn't you tapped a little bit on surrounding yourself with, well, with his coaches success. Successful people, and how important in Avicii, just go around real quick. How important is like Walter, I think getting out and learning, surrounding yourself with the best inspectors and that sort of thing, how important it is to surround yourself with other successful people in the industry.

Valerie Womble  50:15  
I think it's super important because, as in the real estate industry, I think agents, anytime you go to those networking groups, everybody looks to the real estate agent, because you become a resource of everything. And that's that really goes back to kind of the Buffini mindset too. Is I, anytime you think of anything to do with real estate, I want you to think of me and let me help you. And I want to be able to connect with other like minded people in the industry, whether it's a home inspector mortgage, whatever that is, and I have the best that we have the same goal in mind and that we are we're helping as much as we can.

Tracy Hayes  50:48  
How important to expand on the question just a little bit, because I find a lot of energy, like when the podcast has become addictive to me, because it's like reading a personal development book area, hearing everyone's stories and trials and tribulations, how they fumbled the ball, but then picked it up, and all that stuff. It is absorbing another book a couple times a week. So I've gotten a dick down, but it gives me energy. It gives me inspiration when I'm like, I fumbled the ball, but you know what? I've heard 69 other stories or other people fumble the ball and pick it up. I can do it too. How important is that? And when you're surrounding yourself with those other

Walter Collins  51:25  
people, well, I mean, I think the most I learned in my life is from mistakes or challenges or things I've gone through, right? And so in our real estate business, when I got in that, I realized real quick the the transaction, per se, there's a lot of people involved in this transaction, and there's a lot that's out of my control. So if I can put as many people around me that I do believe in, that do good work, that are like minded, that have the same goal as I have right then I'm going to be more successful. We've all seen anywhere from an appraiser to a back end of a mortgage company to an inspector that can really throw a deal. So I definitely want to put myself around good people, but also from a learning standpoint, talking with the successful people of what they've done well, but learning, as you said, you learn too that other people have made mistakes. They were successful, how what happened there, right? That's where you can learn what not to do.

Tracy Hayes  52:27  
They're saying how you see the reels on social media, and, of course, all of us have read the personal development books. All these people have come successful because they failed enough times, right?

Jan Collins  52:37  
Yeah, I think you don't ever stop learning. I think it was Jim Rowan that said, work harder on yourself than you do on your job, and you'll make a fortune. Yes, right? So you can't ever stop learning. Education is so important.

Tracy Hayes  52:52  
So we're gonna, we're gonna finish up with a couple questions I want you guys to and let's do it this way. Says as three owners we're talking to, whether it's a new agent or maybe an experienced agent out there. Why should they come to Exit One Stop? Who wants to start?

Valerie Womble  53:08  
I think for I've thought about this question. I know you're probably gonna have I'm ready. I think for us, whether you are a brand new agent or you're a super experienced agent, our formula really you can fit in there. If you're the new agent, and you may have to have a job in order to get yourself we understand that you got to pay your bills. We don't have all the extra fees. We have the support. And our goal is to get you to full time. And so that is for those first time in the training that we have is unmatched, from what I can see. And then the experienced agents, we have everything set up for you, from marketing to support to all of those things, training, help, anything that you need. You're ready to go. If you want to build a team, we have the experience to show you how to do that. You want to do this on your own, and you just need some guidance, and you need to be able to drop your stuff off at the office and say, I need some flyers made. We have that for you. So no matter where you are, in the in your experience and your career we have, we're set up for that and to help you grow and get to the next level.

Walter Collins  54:09  
Yeah, when I opened the company back in 2007 The biggest thing I was asking myself is, if I'm going to have a real estate company, I want it set up to support agents like myself. I'm out there doing business, I'm closing deals, and I realize there's a lot of this work that, per se, is administrative. Work might be a $15 an hour type job, but it's very important. All of them are important. So by setting up an office full of support like Valerie mentioned, I think we do offer everyone. We have the support for the new agent. We can hold their hand and walk them through. We can, we give them a mentor, we get them all started for an existing agent, again, a lot of support. They don't want to do the minuscule task. And in addition to that, the formula, you have the ability to make over 100% so if I can go out there and sell real. Estate, and I can make a good commission split, and I don't have fees and overhead to hang it over me. But then I also have this other line of income through residual income, right that over time I can keep adding to to me, no fees, high money, high money, value that's controlling your destiny.

Tracy Hayes  55:19  
I like the fact is, because this is what I talk in the loan officer conversations right now, and the people that I follow that support. There are people who are really good and enjoy in the cube, like Valerie does not like doing that, but there are people that are comfortable with that. They want to work nine to five, or whatever the hours are. They just want to be part of it. They're actually doing something, and they're really good at there's others who want to get out, create marketing plans, go out and handshake, kiss the babies, whatever you want to do as real estate agent or a loan officer out in the field. And that's the support that would sell me, right there, the fact that whether you got your transaction coordinators that are handling doing those administrative tasks, and that's what they're good at doing.

Jan Collins  56:04  
Yes, we have an in house marketing coordinator that you met, and she is available to all the agents at any time. They can call in and set an appointment with her, and she will do their flyers. She'll help them brand themselves. She'll do whatever they need. And there's no fee.

Tracy Hayes  56:18  
You took a little bit on social media. How important is it for the agents to get their social media lined up and use that marketing coordinator to do that?

Jan Collins  56:26  
It's so important if they don't, if it doesn't come naturally to them, then our marketing coordinator will help them. Hey, here's a schedule of things that you can post every day. Hey, let's get you set up on Instagram. Some people are really good at social media, and they don't need her help, right? So she's there if you need it.

Tracy Hayes  56:44  
But the whole the branding part of it, I because I go when I do a social media background, stalking on everybody before I have one show, and a lot of times I find their LinkedIn hasn't been updated, and who knows how long if they have one, most people have one, makes it easy for me to go, Oh, here's their timeline of their career real quick. And I can create questions off of that, but others haven't updated it recently. And how important is these our customers are Googling us Yes, to have those things lined up and coordinated and updated. So they're it's saying the same thing on LinkedIn it is on Facebook.

Jan Collins  57:17  
Yeah, it's difficult now Tracy, because there's so many different social media platforms, and you really kind of have to pick one that you're really going to concentrate on, you're going to be consistent on, you're going to learn it in signing out and do it and then try to keep the other ones consistent. But it's hard to be on all of them. No.

Tracy Hayes  57:37  
I well, you can set up auto things. Yeah, goes out, the Facebook and LinkedIn is where I've got it. When it goes on, the audio goes out.

Jan Collins  57:48  
We've got YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn figured out. Twitter, I just now tick tock coming in. I mean, it's hard.

Tracy Hayes  57:57  
Tick tock is probably Instagram. Seems to be what a lot, at least a lot of female agents, yeah, are going to from that standpoint, but it's very it's important that whatever you're using, whether it's one or three or four or five, that you line them all up so they are at least branded in the same Yeah, you're not clicking here, but clicking on LinkedIn, and it's like, doesn't even mention you're in

Jan Collins  58:17  
real estate, right? And the best platform is going to be the one that you use. So, like, we have an agent in our office who is phenomenal at YouTube. He's so good at it, he might not be good at Twitter or Facebook or whatever, but the most

Tracy Hayes  58:31  
one of the major ones, it's one of the ones Sony, second to Google, is a search engine. So it's important, yeah,

Jan Collins  58:38  
so I think pick the platform that that you're really gonna do the thing on? Yeah, I think

Valerie Womble  58:43  
real estate is big enough that you can, if you're not a social media, media guru, that doesn't mean you're not going to make it in real estate, but you got to figure out what you're going to do. There's so many different opportunities. No matter what

Tracy Hayes  58:53  
that looks I think it the social media can accelerate Absolutely, your business much, much quicker. And like I said, maybe you, maybe you have 1000 friends, or maybe you consider everyone at church a friend, so that I don't have any 1000s of people that might be and you guys like, Oh, I gotta finish that many cards a month. No, but if I actually go through Facebook and I'm posting several times, several times a day, is great. There's, agents I know right now, if I open my Facebook, they will be on there. Funny.

Jan Collins  59:27  
I mean, if you know a group like your church group, I will post, and people at church will come up to me and say, Oh, I saw you were so and so, or I saw your post like it's I know them, but they're getting to know me.

Tracy Hayes  59:39  
Yes, 100% Yeah, 100% and there people are building relationships on social media. They feel they know you before they even have met you, yes. And the great thing, I think, that it adds, is they see your face. They have a family. You like the boat, whatever it is, and that's where they start bonding with you and create the longer term relationships.

Jan Collins  59:58  
So can I say why I think you should? Join exit one stop, Realty.

Tracy Hayes  1:00:01  
Well, yeah, I thought that's where we were going.

Jan Collins  1:00:04  
Say what they wanted. But no, I think I, what I love the most is that you can make more than 100% you. We start out with a 7030 split, but even that slides up, we move to 8020 and then we go to 9010 but the opportunity to earn residual income on people that you invite in, it's not based on profits at the end of the year. It's when you bring someone on and they have a transaction, you get paid that same month immediately. So I just I think that is what makes us so unique in the real estate world as Exit Realty, the brand,

Tracy Hayes  1:00:46  
and that's where a lot of the multi level marketing stuff went to that because of the instant gratification part of it, they I recruited somebody, of course, you could go negative if, in that world where people just fell out, then you could get a charge back, but they had to sell The property. Sold. It's done. You're gonna get paid. You weren't getting paid on just recruiting someone. It's important there. I'm gonna go around the table, because I normally have one person here, so I'm trying to, I just thought went, you know, through my hand. I asked this question on every show. All right, Valerie, is it more important? Who or what?

Walter Collins  1:01:15  
Walter, well, that's about 5050, but ultimately, if y'all gotta pick one. I'd say who, right?

Tracy Hayes  1:01:22  
There's somewhere along that line. Well, someone invited you to exit, right? It's changed your entire life, right?

Jan Collins  1:01:27  
Right? I think first it's who, especially in sales and, I mean, it's all about relationships, right? But I think after that, if you don't keep up with what, then you're not going to excel. So it's really

Tracy Hayes  1:01:42  
both, well, each of you. Now, this thought just came to my head as you were talking about Buffini earlier, and I listened to some other people in the loan officer world, because, you know of we think that's education you're learning, but somebody told you to listen to that somebody, Hey, this guy's really good. Now, I don't know if you've met him personally or it's not, not really, but because you're listening to his podcast, you understand his ideology and his thought process. So who you knew has opened your the what, that's where I fall, is you could go through life, and, yeah, you can go to Harvard and learn everything, but if you you sit in your your house and, I mean, maybe the computer gets you out, but you got to start taking it in, start interacting with people, and someone's gonna say, hey, this person's got the skill, and introduce you to real estate and so forth. So, guys, I appreciate you coming on today. Thank you. We're gonna put your information in the show notes. Obviously you guys are all on Facebook. Anybody wants to reach out and so forth there, but all your social media and so forth, your phone numbers, that sort of thing. So if a new agent, an existing agent, singing about exit or hopefully a buyer out there or seller wants to list or buy a home, we'll give you guys a shout.

Commercial  1:02:53  
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