Brittany Nolan: Enlightened Leadership

Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. Your host, Tracy Hayes, I have the leader, a leader in the House of the number one real estate brokerage in Northeast Florida, and certainly the fastest growing she will be an icon in St Augustine real estate for decades to come. Coaching and mentoring the newest of agents is her superpower. At a very young age, she has given birth to many good and great real estate agents that she has worked with. Let's welcome the broker of the DJ and Lindsay real estate. Brittany Nolan, to the show. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Thank you for finally coming on. I'm really excited about this. I've had some a lot of very young real estate industry professionals. You're now, you're really, are you actually going out and listing and working with buyers agents or something? Are you more managing it as a broker?

Britany Nolan  1:32  
Yeah, I'm completely out of production for out of production.

Tracy Hayes  1:35  
Okay, so obviously, I've had a lot of real estate agents, so I'm really curious. I'm gonna dig in to you, and maybe you don't know the answer. Maybe I have to get DJ Lindsay on the podcast to actually find out the true answer. But I really want to find out there's something in you. Obviously they saw, I mean, because they have just an amazing operation that they run, and you in charge of a lot of it, that's a lot of responsibility.

Britany Nolan  1:59  
Yeah, yeah, making me nervous. I

Tracy Hayes  2:02  
mean, when you break down the numbers, there's, I mean, I mean, you're, are you 30? Yet? I'm 30. You're 30, yeah, I thought I saw something on Facebook where you had a birthday party or something like that. So I was gonna, I was gonna guess 30, but I didn't want to, okay, we're there. So, you know, at the age of 30, and you know, when you look at the volume and the, you know, the dollars, that of production, and you compare it to, say, other industries there, you're on a very short list of people who have that, you know, that rate of responsibility on a day to day basis,

Britany Nolan  2:35  
yeah, I mean, I think it just when we started, I was their first hire. So I think it just transitioned from trust and, you know, doing everything collaboratively, we work really well together. Not to say they've completely relinquished everything, and just, hey, go around the business, they're very much involved still, but I don't know why. Well, I mean, I don't know why they chose me, necessarily, but I

Tracy Hayes  2:58  
don't think it's a position anyone can do. But obviously, you obviously have a similar ideology that they, yeah, absolutely, they're, I think that's important, but I think the biggest word is trust, yeah, yeah. But that they know they can say, hey, we want to go this direction and you're going to do it.

Britany Nolan  3:14  
Yeah, no, absolutely trust. And, you know, the collaboration is really big. We really respect each other in and outside of business. So that helps a lot, obviously, but, I mean, I think coming in to it when none of us really knew what we were doing, it was just having the trust right away to we'll try this, we'll try that. That was the only way to kind of get where we are now, because we didn't know

Tracy Hayes  3:34  
what was going to work. Well, it's been a I mean, really think about it in a very short period of time. I mean, relatively speaking, when you look at other, you know, we talked earlier, like Keller Williams, are these big how, you know, DJ Lindsay, now they're DJ Lindsay real estate and the volume and the production the, you know, I'll use the term machine that you guys have there, your processes, yeah, yeah. Are just amazing. And I'm sure you're always, constantly improving. So we'll talk about a little bit that. Let's talk a little about you. Let's get everyone a little bit background. Where are you from?

Britany Nolan  4:09  
So originally, I'm from, kind of the Sanford area, Osteen, Florida, very small, kind of out in the trees, very small.

Tracy Hayes  4:16  
I did a brief stint at deltona High School back in 2000 it was during the Bush Gore election, yeah, 21 I think you were probably about 11 years old at the time.

Britany Nolan  4:26  
Yeah, Deltona, okay, grew up in Osteen, and then in 2010 moved to St Augustine.

Tracy Hayes  4:33  
Okay, all right. And you went to Flagler. I went to Flagler. Yep. Was that you looked at different colleges? Or you just love St Augustine? What was it about Flagler brought

Britany Nolan  4:42  
you there kind of a combination. I looked at a few different schools. Gad and Savannah was a big consideration, and Rollins I played soccer, so that kind of guided some of it. And my brother actually was at St Augustine. We're very close, so I decided take a leap in Flagler. And it was, you know, two. Me, I was very comfortable already.

Tracy Hayes  5:01  
I'm going to put something out there. This is slightly off channel, but you mentioned that your athletics and playing soccer, and I know the DJ and Lindsay team are very involved with the Jacksonville Jaguars. When is flag are going to get a football team? I am

Britany Nolan  5:16  
just thinking about that. We're pretty good at all the rest of the sports, and we're growing significantly.

Tracy Hayes  5:21  
Yeah, well, exactly. The college really has no room to grow other unless they start growing on the other side of 95 but I really think they could build an athletic facility on the west side of 95 there's room at a nice stadium for the county, much like Daytona has their stadium where Bethune Cookman plays. Yep. And I think it would take flagger to a whole nother level, just like UNF, but they keep fumbling the ball too. So all right, just a little side note there. Flagger should have a football team. You? I for your I think was it communications? Was your degree?

Britany Nolan  5:52  
Yeah, degree was in communication. I actually got rid of my actual field. It was print journalism. And right after I graduated, it turned into multimedia, which made way more sense, where the world actually is. But yeah, I loved writing, loved directing, didn't love being on camera, still don't love it, but coming to terms, you

Tracy Hayes  6:11  
just do it. I always tell people, you know what, you have your family and friends, they love you no matter what you do. So just go out there and do it, winging it, and the other followers will come on. How and do you, I mean, there's some of the stuff you picked up. No Luke, newcomer. Newcomer. He is. He actually does appreciate his time at Flagler, even though he will tell you the story, he kind of just landed there. But what he learned there, and what's like, because I think communications and all things you were talking about is very important in what we do, in in marketing, our real estate services, absolutely. So, I mean, do you pull some stuff there? I mean, there is there professors there? You remember that kind of taught you a couple things that still resonate with you?

Britany Nolan  6:56  
I mean, I definitely am not quite in that field. We have a whole department that's more or less in that field. But when I was more in production, I do feel I used it a lot more. Just even something as small as writing the descriptions for all the listings, things like that, everything kind of helped. But there's no, not one person that sticks out that didn't really fall into the field I thought I was gonna

Tracy Hayes  7:17  
belong to with your statement you just made there a little bit. Okay, Brett does not do all the talking, does he?

Britany Nolan  7:23  
Brett does all the talking. Says all the time. I've been hiding for seven years. I'm not out there. I catch

Tracy Hayes  7:29  
his morning show probably a couple times, a couple times a week. I'll catch it fast enough to where it truly is. Live. It'll pop up, and I'll just see what he's got to say. So he, you kind of let him do the motivation of the troops?

Britany Nolan  7:42  
Yeah, I mean, I'll pipe in where it's specific things that I have come up with, or what have you. I don't mind speaking. I like to know what I'm speaking about. I don't like the pressure of like, you know, more power to him to just think of something really powerful every single day to talk about. Don't love that part, but well, most part, he teaches the classes too,

Tracy Hayes  8:00  
as a leader, though communication, and as you go on, is a big importance, whether you're communicating to the public, communicating to the 75 agents you have, right, and how you're doing that. So you're, I'm sure you're DJ Lindsay's, whether it's coaching or whatever, you're constantly staying abreast of how that little piece is just as the leadership piece is, right? Yeah, making that up. Okay, so you do some waiting stuff at the winery by the registry, yeah, kind of overlap. You're still a Flagler, and then you know you're doing like any young person does? You go out and try to make some money, and you work at the winery. I was

Britany Nolan  8:39  
working at three different places when I started with DJ Lindsay, is that right? Well, you know, when you play a sport your whole life, and then you go to college, and then it is just gone. So I had a lot of time. So I was Lindsay always said I was collecting jobs, kind of was did a lot of things. So the winery, I was at surf station, I was at another big box brokerage. I was doing a lot of stuff, just to kind of kind of fill the time and then and just work ethic. My parents installed a very strong work ethic in me.

Tracy Hayes  9:08  
So you, when you were at Flagler, did you, I mean, did you have kind of a vision of what you wanted to do, or what are some of the careers that went through

Britany Nolan  9:16  
your No, I was completely no clue, just rolling with it. I was just rolling with the punches. I mean, I had no idea. I really didn't think past soccer, right? And then I really liked the creative side of it. But that kind of ended when I chose Flagler over SCAD. So didn't know I was ready to pack my bag then move wherever.

Tracy Hayes  9:37  
Well, you're no different. I think the majority of people going to college right now? Oh, yeah, it happened, yeah, 30 years ago. I'm going to my 30th year engineer in a couple months. I mean, you go through and you're like, you're just focused on, like you said, you're playing soccer, and then it's like, Okay, I gotta pass these classes. I gotta graduate. And that's as far as you can see the rest of it, like, right there, type of thing. So you get so who you said you were working for? What, who introduced your how'd you fumble into use the word fumble, because it sounds like you kind of

Britany Nolan  10:05  
just, I literally fumbled, I don't know. So I, I was an assistant, and I don't, you know, I don't want to name drop or anything too crazy, but it was a big, big box brokerage here, all over the nation, and there's no real rhyme or reason, but I don't know, I just kind of randomly got my license. I didn't have to, actually, it was, were you working there as, like, some admin or something? Kind of, I was an assistant, okay, so doing a lot of unlicensed work, and then I kind of wanted to do more, so I went and got licensed, but it was not something they wanted me to do, so kind of didn't really know what I was gonna do. I posted the photo of my license on Instagram. And my husband, he originally did DJ Lindsay's website, and so DJ saw my post and messaged my now husband and said, Hey, she just got licensed. Does she want to join a team? And I'm like, I don't know what else I'm doing with my life. I don't even know what a team

Tracy Hayes  11:01  
if I know this, know the background, they were there as well at that brokerage. No, they weren't there. Okay, I thought one of them are totally different. They were but they haven't worked for that brokerage that you were talking about. I think Lindsay

Britany Nolan  11:12  
did very short amount of time. Yeah, yeah. I've heard some stories

Tracy Hayes  11:16  
St Augustine

Britany Nolan  11:17  
gossip, but not at my same office. I didn't know them at all, and they just blindly reached out.

Tracy Hayes  11:23  
So it was just a relation with your now husband. Well, you already married?

Britany Nolan  11:27  
No, we weren't married. Yeah, I we've been together for, I think this February is or March. It's like 1010, years or so. So, I mean, it was literally

Tracy Hayes  11:37  
trying to create a team. Yeah, it was just an idea they had, and they saw, you know, obviously, they know you're now husband, and figured, obviously, well, if he likes you, then bring you over there, young enough to mold. So do you jump right over and start immediately falling in your leadership. Now you've got your license.

Britany Nolan  11:55  
What happens? Yeah, so right away they both. So way we were set up. DJ was doing a lot of the negotiating. Lindsay was writing a lot of the offers, and I was more boots on the ground, and we literally, I'd show home, I'd give them to DJ to negotiate it, and he'd give them to Lindsay to write it. And we had just this circle of doing all the things together. And then gradually, you know, we all couldn't do all the things. So then right off the bat, we were like, I can't be two places at once. Lindsay's too busy writing so many offers. DJ, so we that was ancient city real estate, and that's when we had other agents in the office that weren't necessarily on our team, but we could lay leads up to and, you know, kind of all be in a big pot of leads.

Tracy Hayes  12:35  
All right, so this is very interesting, and, um, and I'm just hearing your story and trying to put this together, because the one thing I find very amazing, and I think it creates some of the animosity, because DJ saw it early. Lindsay saw it early. I don't know whatever, whoever saw it first or whatever, of what could happen, right? One of the biggest things on this podcast of this is episode, I think 95 we're on, if I've interviewed 8590 top agents in the area, hiring their first assistant is something that like they, you know, hey, I should have done it two years. Oh, yeah, type of thing. It's just amazing to me Just hearing that quick little story, and it just triggers a thought in my head that they brought you on, and immediately they started creating random maximizing everyone's strength, strength, yo, you're young and green at the time. They're a little more experienced. You're out there showing the house. They're doing more technical stuff on the back end, and then all and then it just starts this circle. Really curious to how this, this, this little triumvirate grows from that. That is, that's very interesting part there. What shape your How long was it just the three of you? How did that long? That last very long before you're already starting hiring others,

Britany Nolan  13:59  
all kind of blend. Whoa. You know, we had the hurricanes in the mix. We've had so many things that kind of halted, pivoted, but we did bring on one of at the time, one of DJs best friends, to partner with me, Adam. He was with us for a little while, I would say, maybe two years in, we brought him on, and he was exactly the same as me. We but then we were partners. Could work the same customers kind of pass things back and forth, and then actually think, then the hurricanes hit, and we, our office flooded the first time, and it was in Davis shores, so it flooded pretty bad, fixed. It got back in there, flooded again. And then that's when we were just randomly like, hey, I'll just move to Jacksonville. So I bought a house in Neptune Beach, and then at that time, Adam wasn't my partner anymore, so we, I got very much back in production, but we decided, like, why can't we have 10 of those people that all work together versus just partners? We're just we're all partners. All 100 of us are partners, having moved up to the office in Jacksonville and then slowly reopened St Augustine.

Tracy Hayes  14:59  
Are you? Guys, you're this period goes on your gut. I got a couple questions about the hurricanes, because obviously we have this storm coming here. I have one question here, and I'm gonna hold off for a second. But I'm trying to really dig in to the brainchilds here. I'm trying to dig in and get you know you're the you know, assume DJ and Lindsay probably have you by a decade in age, right? I mean, how long? I don't know how old they are, not in a decade now they're not that much older. DJ, looks older, just Lindsay, you look great. I'm not telling you. She's a little older than you. Yeah. So I'm trying to, like, really dig into this brainchild you guys are having. You're seeing something like you said you recommended. Hey, why don't we just, you know, hire, you know, the core, let's go to, like, 10 agents. And, you know, we've got this

Britany Nolan  15:52  
one time with me, right? We can do it. Let's just keep duplicating it. We have the system.

Tracy Hayes  15:58  
And isn't that? I mean, that is the key to doing the volume that you're doing, is the process. You know, if you know DJ and Lindsey said, hey, I want to get, I want to sell my real estate, they're selling the process. That's what someone that's the value in it. And the processes that are established in you, executing in that everyone, executing in that whole circle of things. How, I mean, are you guys, have you guys regularly, like meeting and having, like brain child. So how does, how do you evolve and start to grow this, these thoughts and these visions?

Britany Nolan  16:29  
Yeah, I mean communication. We do have a very open form of communication, you know, all with purpose of needing to pivot. So usually, if we see an issue, or we see a struggle or something. You know, we all talk about it pretty regularly. We have meetings with our leaders, with DJ, included, once a week, and then we have a meeting with myself and our leaders once a week. And then, you know, we have a lot of communication getting together. We also frequently meet with like our preferred lenders, our preferred title company, all the different

Tracy Hayes  16:59  
ways, I guess, because and I, and maybe you DJ or Lindsay, or both they, you know, something either a vision came to their mind, which obviously you absorbed into it, and obviously I, obviously, yeah, you inputted into it. What you have today, yeah, something started. Because, I think what, I guess, what I'm digging after, is what is, what they're doing in, I steal, is bold. You know, they're going out there. That's why you have a lot of, you know, I hear, you know, some naysayers, well, that's the way they want to run the real estate business. And we tell you, if I, like I said, if I have 8590 agents on here, you guys all run your business differently, yes, and you know how you do your teams, and so where he that's how they run their business, and he's, you've mastered it by the processes. And what just, my curiosity just, is how those how that actually evolved. A lot of someone else doing it, or, I'm sure he stole some stuff from other people, just, oh, yeah,

Britany Nolan  17:54  
we all do, yeah. I mean, I think the biggest part of it that caused, like, the evolution of it was all customer service based, like, because I, you know, I'm not someone who's going to do it halfway and not do a good job at it. So that's where we were, like, Okay, this one person can only do so much. This one person can only do so much. So it slowly started to Okay. Now we need another and instead of saying, oh, Brittany needs 10 assistants. I can need assistance. I just needed other people I could recreate and just keep duplicating exactly what we're doing. And it was all, it was all customer service based, you know, the boundaries of, okay, can't do a good job at this anymore. Where do we need to grow? What else do we need to do? And it just kept going. It was, it really isn't rocket science.

Tracy Hayes  18:36  
No, it's it you're but I'll tell you what, you know, the fresh breeze blows through me when I hear inspirational stuff. What you're saying. The typical person, even you know, 52 years old, still doesn't get it and wonders why they're running into a lid. See it every week. I deal with it every day in corporate America, they're like, when you get those numbers, then I'll do that. No, you can't get out of those numbers. You have to hire the right people and trust in them. They're going to do not because, well, now you got an assistant, so now you can take the rest of the day off. No, well, sometimes you need to let people take the rest of the day off, because tomorrow they're going to come in that much better. And like you said, you can't overload somebody to where they're buried, right? And now they're, they're their own skills and inspiration. I'm sure the ideas that come, those ideas typically come when you're it's quiet time, when you're driving home, yeah, like me and I had a great day. And also, you know, oh, these, those things come, but when you're hammering all the day and you're under this pressure, hey, I got to get these certain numbers because I want to get an assistant, you never get there. You never get there, but you give them the assistant because you hired the right person, knowing their work ethic and so forth. That I don't know if you know that, but let me tell you if I'm listening, because I do listen a lot of podcasts and and read, you know different people, and I'm sure even Bill, I know Billy will back you. That, that right there, the fact that 30 years old, do you understand that sky's the limit for you? Because you understand how to utilize people and their skills and let them go do what they do and do it well,

Britany Nolan  20:12  
I think a lot of people have a hard time recognizing their weaknesses too, or admitting I'm fine with that, like I'm not good at that, all these other people, and that's when I have my time to think better and feel better, and it's always when I'm blow drying my hair for some reason, because you can't do anything else when you're blow dryer. But yeah, I appreciate that.

Tracy Hayes  20:35  
That's actually very interesting, because I think you because you, what are you doing? You're in front of a mirror, typically blow drying your hair, and you're looking at yourself and you're thinking about you start to really think about yourself. You said, dude, a lot of people are not willing to admit their weaknesses. Hire for them. And what were you told as an athlete, right? You'll work on your weaknesses. Oh, you're not, you know, you're not good at that pass or whatever. You need to work on that. Okay, yeah, at practice, yeah, you should try to be a little bit better, because it might come up in the game situation, but in the game, what do you have to do? You have to go work your strengths. You have to know your teammates strengths. And when they're in that spot where they know, you know they can, you know basketball is easy, they're in the right spot on the court, and that's their favorite spot to shoot, you gotta give them the ball, because that's where they're going to shine. And I think in we lose that in in a business sense of understanding whose strengths, what their strengths are, and let them 10x their strengths? Yeah, and that's where everyone makes money. Yes, you

Britany Nolan  21:31  
can blow it up, the right people in the right places, exactly

Tracy Hayes  21:35  
the right people other. I love the terminology. You have a nice bus, but the people are not in the right seats. You put the people in the right seats on the bus, and then everything, you're good. Yes, that that, if anyone's listening right now, you know, take it from Brittany, the successful DJ, and Lizzie, and the fact they understand it now, now going off of that, do you guys, when you bring on agents, are you doing a DISC assessment or a strength assessment? Are you digging into them and seeing what their strengths are?

Britany Nolan  22:02  
Yeah, I mean, and it depends, in a shifting market like right now, we do get a little more in depth on the hiring and who we bring on and what they have. But with us, we already have the systems in place, especially with the TCS. So you know, if they're we just assume every all agents are not good at paperwork, right? So we already kind of implemented some of these things. So the strengths are all pretty similar. What we're looking for in all the agents. But we also know you can teach certain things. So if they're a little bit weaker on, you know, even like negotiating or things like that, we can teach right? But if they're weak on work ethic, can't really teach that. Either come to have it or you don't. You either show

Tracy Hayes  22:40  
up they're not really like to meet new people. That's probably not.

Britany Nolan  22:44  
I've been asked that in interviews. How do introverts do and I'm like, well, it's gonna be a little tougher for you, but you know, none of it's impossible. And I think that's also kind of what we have really come to terms with, is we can create really good agents out of really young or really introverted or what have you. Sometimes it just takes a little bit longer, but with us, it's still a guarantee. You might have to work a little bit harder, but at the end of the day, you'll still have the opportunity, as long as you have the certain things gotta have. You have to want it, you have to be passionate about it, and you have to, I think one of the biggest struggles is showing up and doing the activities Well, since we're whatever

Tracy Hayes  23:18  
you want to, because you're leading, I'm gonna, I'm gonna leave my question, other question for later, since we're on this subject right here, which I think is important, and anyone watching this and researching, maybe if they want to come chat with you about joining the team, you know, what is the daily schedule? Because I'm assuming, and so I want you to clear up my perception here. What goes on in the machine at DJ Lindsay Realty, real estate, right? DJ, Lindsay, what is going on there in a daily basis? If someone's coming in, imagine you have a structure training period. Say someone is brand new to the business as they know what a contract even looks like. You know you're structured that way. But then those agents like Theo, who's been there a while. I mean, how do things if you want to use the term loosen up, not as rigid as a schedule, but what is your expectations? Because you guys are investing a lot of dollars, and not only in leads and training and so forth, to make them successful. So kind of give us a picture of a new agent, and then what an agent who's been there for a little bit while and is showing success, how things might loosen up for them. Yeah.

Britany Nolan  24:21  
I mean, it is all relative to the market. So I'll just give you today with things kind of shifting expectations are kind of the same for everyone, as far as prospecting in every real estate coach, every you know, Team Leader, what prospecting is the thing have to do it. You have to talk to as many people as possible every single day. So nine to 12, nine to 11, if we're being flexible with the experienced agent that's prospecting, that's it. You were just your only goal during that time to talk to as many people as possible, ideally 20, but the more the better. And it's really not anything too crazy, because we're giving them the leads and the opportunity to call and

Tracy Hayes  24:55  
talk to all right. So you're you set up a goal to at least have 20 conversations a day. Yeah, a 20. Conversations a day. Now, as broker manager Ian, I know you have some support staff helping you in that area. Are there, is there a follow up on those conversations? In other words, are, how often are you verifying? Are you just taking the agent's work for it that they had 20 conversations?

Britany Nolan  25:17  
Oh, no, accountability is high. So we have systems track their conversations or dials. You know, if I see someone called 300 people that day but didn't have 20 conversations, I like the effort. You're I'm all day for that. Like the conversations will come. But yeah, on a daily, weekly, monthly level, we're constantly tracking back. I mean, you have to be ahead of the agents too, because what they're working for right now, it's gonna feel probably okay right now, but 30 days from now is where they're right really gonna feel the good the bad. So we're pretty on top of it. As far as that goes. If they don't show up and you know they're supposed to be there, so if they didn't tell us they have a closing or they're on vacation or whatever, if we expect that they're gonna be there and they aren't, we'll follow up with them.

Tracy Hayes  25:57  
Now, is your technology design? I imagine there's some of those people that you're feeding them the call, I wouldn't imagine some safe, some of them, they're pulling circle or

Britany Nolan  26:06  
Yeah, so our CRM is, that's basically what we use. It's a boom town. And then it's tied into sisu as well, which is, tracks everything. So yeah, on a daily level,

Tracy Hayes  26:17  
are they actually, you know, obviously I grew up Maries. I've been in this 17 years, but 12, first 12 years was in the call center environment, from a quick and slash rocket to even, you know, when I originally worked for loan depot, was call center stuff. So they literally, their systems actually are recording, or for, you know, for us, like, how many credit polls, how many minutes did you stay on the phone? Obviously, they know how many dials you made, how many you know? Even if you are taking inbound calls, you know much. How many times did you say, No, I'm not available? Yeah, tracking every sort of second

Britany Nolan  26:50  
on your days. Yeah, it's all tracked inbound, outbound.

Tracy Hayes  26:53  
You're seeing those. You're seeing those as management, seeing who's doing things. Because I think people don't realize in the business model, correct me, if I'm wrong, in the business model that DJ and Lindsay real estate have is they are investing a lot in leads to create those phone calls, create those or people to call, to create interactions, to hopefully, obviously, eventually to relate to sales. And if you're going in and you're not, you don't you're not showing up. Or, hey, you only feel like doing like five calls. Or, obviously, call reluctancy, whether you're a real it doesn't matter what sales in it, everyone has call reluctance. So setting up that structure kind of helps some of those people have a little more call reluctancy, that they have accountability. Yeah, you guys do. Because when you take away the accountability. Yes, I'll tell you. I'll tell you after show, something they're doing here, and you'll laugh, because you'll on the subject. So all right, so you have you had their expected nine to noon, or at least 911 that you wanted every single one of your 75 agents Monday through Friday. Monday through Friday, of 20 conversations,

Britany Nolan  27:59  
yeah, in the office, hitting the phones. So the energy, the environment, is great because it's not fun to do it by yourself, like, Okay, you got to be in the office. That's where the culture, that's where the brainstorming, that's where other really cool things kind of happen. And it's not nine to five. You don't have to sit behind a desk. I need you to sell homes too. So, you know, it's just kind of almost getting that part out of the way, beating people to the conversation. So, you know, a lot of agents don't understand that. They're like, well, it's fine. They'll call me later, but they're gonna call them on their time. If you call them on your time, you can kind of structure your day a little bit better and kind of control everything else you have to do a little bit better. So we try to get that out of the way in the morning, and then the rest of the day is showings, closings,

Tracy Hayes  28:40  
I'm gonna, I'm gonna go out there, and I know you'll agree with this. If you're a new agent that changes cameras here for a moment, if you are getting into this business, you are sub 30 years old. You haven't been you don't have all this big circle of influence, because you haven't been really involved in other things and worked in another industry to come in to a structured environment like this and really put your nose to grindstone. Because I think you guys have probably have seen some people who have quickly came in and now this is almost routine for them. Oh yeah, they don't even think about it, and their business has gone through the roof. I know I see Caitlin all the time. She does a little bit of social media. But I when I first met Caitlin, I was at the Board of Realtors and there, and obviously she was with her previous broker, so she's one of her your semi experience people come over. So even someone like that, because the structure that you have there is going to make you money. And I think, I think most people, if they knew, if I do this, and this is what will come out, I'll make on the other end, everyone will do this. And this, the only tangible is, it's real estate. It's real so you might do this and this for a little market changes, or whatever this and this, you're like, oh, I don't know if this is gonna work. And all of a sudden, it works. All of a sudden, boom, yeah, you're getting cold now. You're like, I'm really I can't even make my 20 calls.

Britany Nolan  29:59  
Yeah, I do that deal. Yeah, I can't make my calls. And I'm like, think about the next 30 days. But you know, and it does, you know, leniency is one thing from us, but real estate, as you said, so it's because I say, Oh yeah, you don't have to work at three o'clock. What about the seven customers that you're working with? They might require you to work. So the rest of the day is, you know, do what you need to do. Showings. We do. We wish all of them would come back to the office, but we know that's not realistic. You know, they do have life. Things right afterwards, travel, come back. Yeah, they travel. And if the office is 30 minutes out in the other direction, it's not super realistic. But we it's highly encouraged. And we do have, you know, staff, admin, mentorship, what have you they're in office every Monday through Friday, nine to six. So if you do come back, you have kind of that extra support, that extra downtime, that extra that's when you can do one on one, and stuff like that too.

Tracy Hayes  30:50  
So it's so I want to go. So one of the I always jot down here several things that are very commonly brought up by the top producers showing up is one of those. Now that's a, it's a wide that's a showing up can mean a lot of things, like showing up to social, showing up, but you actually at or not you but DJ in Lindsay, real estate, these agents are required to show up every day. Show up. There is no at nine o'clock, you're working from home, although I do see Brent on there seems to be talking to some people who are remotely, or they're just in the other offices.

Britany Nolan  31:22  
They could be other offices. Or, like, if their kids are sick, we're not, like, you can't get

Tracy Hayes  31:29  
motivated, all right, we gotta let Brett,

Britany Nolan  31:31  
some of them slide, but yeah, usually, or our South Florida office, they're only, we're transitioning offices that they're not all in office every day right now. Okay, so you'll see a few that are

Tracy Hayes  31:40  
so you have this requirement of showing up, because, like you said, when you want those 20 conversations, it's a lot easier when you see the other people doing it or all, you know, there's always this chatter. I've been Nicole center inviting. There's always this little chatter, and all of a sudden someone says, Hey, let's get on the phones. And then all sudden, next, you know, it's quiet, and everyone's heads down, they're dialing. Then often you'll hear people are walking around. The conversations start happening, and you get that energy. And then I'm sure in those conversations that they're having, the other people might be listening. They can hear them over the queue, and they start getting, I call it the mental ammunition, because it you know, hey, if someone's really good on the phone, you might want to listen to that. Listen in. I'm sure, I'm sure you guys are doing that precisely for new people, like, hey, you know, sit here and shadow someone.

Britany Nolan  32:27  
Literally, they just go sit next to Theo, go sit next to who you want to tell them what you're doing there. Just work, but listen

Tracy Hayes  32:32  
Right exactly and giving you and how to have that conversation. And, you know, create the referrals, or create the immediate lead that obviously, you guys put a lot of just, you know, the first 50% of your day, or at least 40% of your day, is right there before noontime, in getting that part done, showing up, getting some coaching, getting, you know, feel, getting the energy going and stirring something up for the day. Like I said, what's good? And it could be 6090, days, you know, really, you just don't know when someone's going to buy or sell a home or run across someone who is right? Yeah? So showing up obviously hugely important. So I'm going to go back to the question I skipped earlier, because we started talking about the agents and their daily Well, we didn't actually spend so, as you know, say someone like Theo Caitlin, they've been through kind of the initial incubation period I saw that was the other day. Yeah, I saw someone use that word the other day, incubation, I know as actually, they sent it to me about my first couple months here at loan depot. Into my first incubation, they start, they're producing. They're starting to get things done. So they still required to have that 20 conversations. You still on top of them for that, or you let them, you're letting them slack based on their production. Because obviously no clients. I gotta have so many hours.

Britany Nolan  33:42  
They're kind of the ones that even set the bar of 20 conversations. The more successful agents, they just naturally have 20 conversations because they're working. Their pipeline is building. They have people to talk to. It's harder for the new agents to have 20 conversations. So that bar is set by the Theos, the Caitlin's, all the people that come in and genuinely have 20 people they need to talk to that day because they told them they were going to talk to them, or they just showed them homes, or something popped up on the market, right? So they don't get any slack. They're like, now you really have to call those people. Show up, call your people, I mean.

Tracy Hayes  34:13  
And what a great power you know, from the lead, from a leader, in that that you're not you have these, Theo and Caitlin's. I'm sure there's others. I know those two. So they're doing it, they're doing it, they're doing it. They've seen success. They're now, they got a high on it. They probably want to do 40 conversations that

Britany Nolan  34:31  
sometimes they do. They just keep going, Yeah, and they got a high on

Tracy Hayes  34:35  
it, and how that leads down, trickles, down to the new people. Because we all go through doubt. You know, I'm sure you get those new people in there, and they're trying to get those 20 conversations, and it gets a little frustrating. And you got, you know, obviously, no matter how much you told them, you're going to get frustrated. Yeah, you got to reach these certain points, but at some point it's going to tip Yeah, you know, some people happens earlier than others. It's just that's the way it is. But to have that. In your office is so precious. I think,

Britany Nolan  35:01  
oh yeah, especially us myself. Brett being out of production, we can't lead by example anymore. It was easier when I was sitting there prospecting, and I was having the 20 Conversations. I'm like, if I can do it, you can do it right. And those numbers are there because of doing this. So having the Theos Caitlin's, Jamie's, Marcus's, all those people that naturally have all those conversations is super powerful.

Tracy Hayes  35:23  
Let me define the conversation for a little bit. When we say, what would you if someone you know you had this checklist to say you had 20 conversations? What is it that they need to have in that conversation? They have it credited it as

Britany Nolan  35:37  
if they don't hang up on you. It's pretty much if there's two ways, no, it's usually some type of progress, moving the needle forward. So, you know, and we're not super crazy about, like, what did you talk to them about? We just if it's some type of progress to getting them pre approved, showing them a home, writing an offer, some type of progress, it's conversation.

Tracy Hayes  35:55  
Well, some of these people imagine you have to trickle on. You know, especially right now. Some of them have pulled back because of the market. So you might be trickling on them for the next six months before they decide to move forward or longer. Is it? I guess you know someone who might be listening to the show or listening to you. Explain this to them what a conversation is. Yeah, you know. Are you asking? Did you ask them for that? You know, if they knew anybody who might be you know, are you asking for referrals? So there's some standard things that you want them to kind of throw somewhere in that conversation.

Britany Nolan  36:25  
It depends. A lot of them have kind of gone back to calling their sphere of influence, or people that have bought houses with them before, but a lot of them it's educating people consistently talking about the rates, talking about what that looks like for them, being very in tune with their life, their wants, their needs. But it's not, we don't have a certain you have to say this, then this, then that. You know, it's just the agents are pretty good about knowing the steps to take, to get in front of them, or to get them pre approved, whatever that first step is, and then it just kind of trickles. But yeah, they're definitely longer right now. You're having to get more touches.

Tracy Hayes  36:59  
Yeah, yeah. So in having conversations, listening to your explanation of my question, digging into what does that conversation actually mean? I, when I first got in the business, in 2005 you know, quickened. They put us through with, you know, everybody did 30 days in a classroom. You know, learn about mortgages, learn how to, you know, do this. But obviously you don't know everything, but they're giving some baseline of education. The next thing is sitting on that floor. If you're listening to other people who are, you know, been there longer than you You're obviously having trial and error, having conversations, calling these leads. What I'm leading into is, how important is the education piece?

Britany Nolan  37:40  
Yeah, so we, well, we were kind of talking about this earlier. When we bring new agents in, we do have an onboarding where we teach them, like base layer contracts, what their day looks like, how to physically use the apps and the all that stuff. But, you know, to us, education is constantly like evolving. So we don't stick them in a class for 30 days and think that they're going to actually know X, Y and Z. We teach them some of the base, but our knowledge is out in the field. So when they learn how to ask someone for their pre approval, there's a nest in it, you know. But they know by probably failing a few times and probably getting their head ripped off a few other times and then, you know. So the education is very much the glory of being with us is we give you all the opportunity, and you kind of fail forward by then, you learn as you go. So we don't stick them in a classroom for 30 days, and we're not like lecture,

Tracy Hayes  38:28  
right, right? But I can't believe you're I can't believe you just totally throw it. You sound like you're throwing them to the window a little bit. You got

Britany Nolan  38:37  
it something? Oh no. We teach them, but we teach them more like they're so hands on with us. For instance, they'll get a lead, and they'll say they want to see this property at one o'clock, and we'll literally sit down with them and say, Okay, let's do some research on the neighborhood. Let's do some research on the comps. Let's learn as we go.

Tracy Hayes  38:51  
Okay, well, yeah, the nut, the nuts and bolts of how to actually handle coffee. Yeah, be an agent, but when it comes to you've been in it long enough, the terminology, yeah, the, you know, St Augustine, you've got, you know, what's an unwarrantable condo, that is, those type of things. How much time do you spend with them? Or you guys have in house, or, you know, you're setting aside so much time, versus, obviously, yeah, going down to the board, wherever they're at, they're in South Florida, or any far or whatever, going to board and getting that structured education for those newbies, those real green people, are you taking time literally every day, maybe for their first three or four or five months, where you're spending 30 minutes an hour, actually sitting down real estate, 101, Yeah.

Britany Nolan  39:40  
And we have probably two to three classes a week that do go over some of the beginning, more beginning stuff, and that's when we'll pull in a lender, that's when we'll pull in the title company. And we'll bring people in that really teach you those things. But we're so hands on that we learn. We're learning all day with them. They can call us and say, Hey, someone's ready to write an offer. What do I do now? So it's very, it's very in the field, on call. I mean, we're on call 830 to 830 every single day of the week, right where they're learning with us. But, you know, we did the more lecture style in the classroom, sitting there for 30 days and then putting them out in the field. And we're like, these guys are, some of them are ready in two weeks.

Tracy Hayes  40:16  
Get them out there. You know, they have to have something this. I call it, stick to, yeah, you can sit there and lecture somebody and, okay, okay, implement and yeah, they might not. It might be six months before that situation comes up. They go, Oh yeah, that's what they taught me back in the class. Right now, I'm just, you know it's coming to me, so yeah, to learn on the go, so to speak. But I guess I don't want to, I don't. I can't believe you guys are. You're not putting someone out there who's not ready. No, they know enough to know what they know and then know when they call you, or bread,

Britany Nolan  40:48  
or whatever they call us right away. Sometimes they'll even three way us with the customer. We're partners with them, so it's very evolved. But, I mean, they know enough to not be a liability, or we're just like, get out there. Good luck out there.

Tracy Hayes  41:02  
You're such a large team, and you guys are very in hand, like those first you know whether they're going out for a listing appointment for the first time, I imagine they're not going out alone. No, we go with them. Yeah, yeah, we go with them. All right, what are some I want to talk about you personally, first started, Lindsay calls you over joining the team. What are some of, what are some of the initial challenges that you had that? And even talking about some of these new agents, obviously, there's a lot of stress under them, because there's things they don't know, right? Yeah, to me, that stresses me out when I don't but I don't know the whole picture. And I'm going in, I'm like, yeah, they're very walking, you know, lightly, right? So what are some of the challenges that you had a really and what are your daily challenges today?

Britany Nolan  41:43  
So early on, I was, I mean, I was very young. We're almost seven years in, so I was 23 years old. So I think my age was a really big challenge, constantly having to prove myself, having to dress up. Look, you know, look the part, act the part, be, highly educated. So I put a lot of pressure on myself at the beginning to know everything, either through DJ and Lindsay or just through just asking a lot of questions. So, you know, it was for me at the very beginning the same of just like, Hey, you don't really know what you're doing, but, like, get out there. Don't do any if you don't know what you're doing, don't do it. Call and ask questions and kind of work your way through it. That was hard because I'm a I like control. I like knowing what I'm doing, right? So it was very but once I got it so you only had to tell me once, and then I could figure it out, and I could run with it and replicate it 50 different times. Now, I'd say the biggest challenge now, I mean, obviously my career has evolved to now I'm more holding people accountable, which is tough, because sometimes I might want it more than they do, or it's hard to manage so many different people, so many different personalities, and be in it and still kind of be on top of it. So that's been very challenging, because I like to be in the mix of it, and so delegating some of that stuff is tricky.

Tracy Hayes  42:55  
Well, it doesn't matter whether you're 30 years old, 50 years old, you know, some people like to make that those hard conversations seem easy, but they are, oh, it doesn't matter. Yeah, it doesn't matter. You may know the best for them. You've seen it. You've seen it in a very short period of time. You've had people that get it. And, like I said, there's some people that just, you know, unfortunately they don't, you want them, yeah. That's like, you could do this, yeah,

Britany Nolan  43:21  
those are the hardest ones, because I see that they can do it. They're capable of doing it, but if they don't want it, yeah, they don't want

Tracy Hayes  43:29  
it, yeah. And I know just you from a turnover standpoint. I mean, you guys must gage that in your business model, now that you guys are where you're at. I mean, initially you're like, whatever we're gonna run through some people, but now you understand the cost effect, yeah, of bringing in someone who isn't going to right fulfill now, you know, I'm assuming you guys already planned like nobody's going to stay with you. Well, most are not going to stay with you forever. But you know, what is that period of time that that you need because of the investment you're putting into them, initially, the lead flow you're helping them with. And then, you know, there's got to be that Gage. So, you know, when you guys are, I mean, what's an interview process the DJs, who do they start with? They starting with you? Or how does that even No,

Britany Nolan  44:17  
so they even before they're licensed, or when they just got licensed, we do kind of an introduction, meeting with them, sometimes in a group setting, sometimes at coffee, and we have agents and recruiters and whoever kind of brings them in first, and then we usually do three interviews. I'm myself or Brett, are usually the final interview, or the decision makers, even if I meet with them once, I still want them to meet with someone else, because it's crazy. There are some really good people that they just do really good interviews. So it's good to kind of sit down a few different times, or, you know, the first interview, kind of throwing them right at me. They're not really themselves. Sometimes they're a little guarded. So, yeah, we have extensive we don't really let everyone in. We did go through a phase during covid where we did let everyone in. You. That was mainly based off of lead volume. And for us, we always kind of have in the back of our mind you can kind of trip and fall into a deal. Let's get them here. Let's teach them what we can. Give them the opportunity they can do it. And so we did have a good bit of turnover during covid. It was mainly around when gas prices went up and a lot of people were like, Oh, I'm sending a lot of money. I can't wait another 60 days to get paid. And we're like, that's crazy, because it's a sales

Tracy Hayes  45:23  
Right, right? But we're like, I don't figure it out you started your own business.

Britany Nolan  45:27  
Like, yes, we're going to give you these things, but you still started your own business. You still need some type of investment. You still need to be able to pay your mortgage for probably six months. But a lot of people will just dive in and think, oh, I'll just it'll be fine. And then we invest 90 days of time and money into them, and they can't pay for their gas. So it's it was really hard during that time. They've gotten really good at like, Hey, this is the money you need to decide. This is what your day is going to look like. This is when you actually get paid, and this is the dollar figure that usually looks like. So we really nailed it down pretty good. Yeah, no more turnover. Once they're here, we want to hug them forever, that

Tracy Hayes  46:01  
that's pretty that's that's enlightening, because I, you know, one thing I talked to Jennifer Henry with Game Changer we were talking about, because, you know, she's doing some coaching and stuff, and I really feel and what you the numbers, like the numbers, you guys have probably broken it down to the science, because you've had these numbers come in. You know what you're spending, you know, you know what needs to come back, relatively in a period of time, or as deals and so forth. And you know, although it's not a perfect science, you're close enough. I really see, like some of these eight very new agents, they need to come in front of. This is my pitch to Jennifer. Was this to have a board of top people, brokers, they can come in, they're not recruiting, and they say, I want to be a real estate agent. And those four or five people on that panel are going to explain to them, and then they're going to explain their situation, because I really feel there are brokerages that are really good at totally green people, or you have like an INGO and Volker who doesn't want to hire, they don't want they don't want green people, they want people with experience, right? And then there's some, a lot of brokers in between. And what fit, where would they sit? You know, I'm saying, obviously your ideal agent guys probably have a pretty good idea what that is. Oh, yeah. But like any business, like you're saying, you get a highly, you know, lot of demand, the volume coming in. You need enough agents to handle the volume. Yeah, that's business.

Britany Nolan  47:25  
That was a tough time. Yeah, you know, we have bosses too. You know, Zillow and all these people. If they give us this, we have to convert this. So we needed a lot of people. Never again will we do that. We're very protective of who comes in the door. Now, what that looks like, what you know, what we're going to do for them, as well as what they're going to do for us.

Tracy Hayes  47:42  
To do for us, or we, okay, well, you say, you make that statement, because obviously, you guys have had this conversation, and rightly so. There's situations where you'll need soldiers and lower the you lower that threshold. You have to because, yeah, like you said, you have a, you know, business relationship. It has to be satisfied. You know, last three years spent working with a large builder in town, when they had demand, there had to be nothing. I'm going to answer those phones for those, you know, those calls. So it's a it's demands. Gonna be a demand on you for the rest of you know, as long as you are in this position and stay in this position, you know, you and your team to figure out what is that threshold? Yeah, and hiring the right people is always the, you know, that's the biggest question mark. Biggest question just right. Because a lot of your people are young, and it's not like they have all this work experience. You're like, well, you know, you got, you know, you spent five years or 10 years, over a year doing that. How? You know, a lot of your people assume my right, or I

Britany Nolan  48:40  
fry it, but yeah, a lot of people that they don't come to us with a right. Us with a resume, have a resume, but it's a variety. I'd say 5050, we have a lot of people too. It's their second career, third career, a lot of different things like that. But a lot of them, I'd say, come with some type of experience. We do get some fresh out of college that we're teaching them everything. All right,

Tracy Hayes  48:57  
so here's a test question. This is your challenge. This is because I we've been talking a lot about DJ and Lindsay real estate. Talk about Brittany so and you sound like you're probably like me, a lot of people you see sit in front of you and you want so much more for that. Yes, you're like, wow, it'd be so great to help you change your zip code, whatever you know, help you get a new car, whatever put your send your kids to the schools you want to send. What are some of the things that some of the do? You have some couple standard questions that you like to ask and see how they respond, because I imagine, again, correct me wrong. You're in this role that they DJ and Lindsay probably helped you or sent you to people who kind of structure how you should interview, because this is very important, what you do. And you know, what are some of the things that in an interview process, or what's going through your mind, and maybe a question or two that you are asking?

Britany Nolan  49:48  
I mean, by the time they make it to me, I just want to get to know them, so I like to, you know, I obviously just normal questions when you're trying to get to know someone, like about their family and what they do for fun, all that stuff you should know. All these you should know, well, you know who they are, right? You know, it's hard to, it's hard to get that information passed. When they've been on two other interviews, information passed and then feel like you know who they are. So I like to in our interviews, when they get to me, they're usually an hour long. So we're really kind of getting to know each other and making sure we're compatible. I, you know, do talk about their work experience, what that looked like, what kind of challenges they faced. But I mean, one question I really like to ask is, you know, what kind of whether they want to tell me in $1 figure or in a goal, but like, at what point is their life going to change? What does that look like? A lot of them, it's when I can pay something off, or when I can go on this vacation, or when I can get this certain surgery, or whatever it is, I like to know that they have some type of why, and it's not just their kids. I'm like, Well, yeah, every everyone kind of raises and lives and works for their kids in their family or their whatever. But I think a big reason knowing why they're going to show up every day, or a few reasons are good that are a little bit easily attainable, I guess so. Some of them like to say, well, I want to pay off my house. And you can literally break that down. Okay, what does that look like? How much money do you need to make?

Tracy Hayes  51:09  
Because the average person did. I mean, I imagine they come in and I think they do it in every kind of sales thing is like, Okay, you want to make $150,000 a year. Okay. What's it going to take? What does

Britany Nolan  51:18  
that look like to you? Why do you want to make that money? That's what I want to know. What is the actual dream? Yeah, because, yeah, a lot of them will come in and say, Well, I want to make six figures. That's you can do that. Like, what's going to keep you showing up every day? What are you going to do with that money?

Tracy Hayes  51:31  
What if you go out in the next 90 days, you sell for $1 million homes that should put you there, right?

Britany Nolan  51:36  
Yeah. What do you get? What are you gonna do after that? We're gonna get you to 100 after that? Why are you gonna keep showing up? Yeah, taking less than 100

Tracy Hayes  51:46  
at your DJ, Lindsay, real estate, I imagine this probably not going to be there very long in relative Yeah. I mean, I think

Britany Nolan  51:53  
most of them, do you guys are Yeah, because the volume, I mean, some of them do kind of run into a bad month here or there. So I you know, maybe 16 months if they don't make six figures this market,

Tracy Hayes  52:06  
if they're making 100 you're looking in to find out why, and if what's going on. They're not this because they're goofing off. And, yeah, they're not. You got to cut them out of the program.

Britany Nolan  52:17  
Yeah, we try to. If they want it, we're going to make it happen.

Tracy Hayes  52:22  
You offer. You have to understand the value of what you offer, I think you do. And for everyone out there, the value of the DJ and Lindsay real estate team and Brittany and Brett running a lot of the day to day operations in the office and the structure and the ideology that you guys have, you're trying to create that plug and play, yeah, but you got to have the right lug plug into it to get it to play. And not everyone is the right plug in. Obviously, like said, everyone you bring on, even though they're 1099, there is a cost of bringing those people on leads. They get that they don't convert, you know, that sort of thing. So you get, you guys got to hire the right plug, yeah, and, but you've set the processes in play, which makes you just priceless. And my that's we talked about your biggest challenges. Let's start going, I wanna go back. And we're talking, let's talk about Brittany. So obviously it's hard to talk about they do a lot with Tom Ferry, yeah, I assume you're getting coached. I had multiple coaches, yeah, yeah. Tell us how that's like, I mean, because I you tell me how it's affected you feel because of the coaching at 30 years old, leading a team, and the volume that you're doing, you can sit in a room with any broker in probably four I mean, I commit maybe there's some guys down in South Miami that sell $5 million homes all the Time. Maybe they're like a different level. I can't imagine people what you're doing. You're running 75 agents. You're running this high volume operation. You're 30 years old. How has the coaching really prepared you to do what you're doing every day and continue to move forward? How has it changed your career if you didn't have coaching versus the coaching that's been provide, you know,

Britany Nolan  54:03  
yeah, so I've had a few different coaches all through Tom Ferry, and then, of course, you know, DJ is still day to day, a really big coach, DJ and Lindsey, but the coaches were more in tune with me as a person. So I remember certain things they do because I'm a human too, like I fall off too, and I have to have a reason, or, you know, someone has to reset me sometimes, so, you know, they there weren't really any crazy things. It was just more talking to someone and getting words of encouragement and brainstorming and stuff that aren't in it with me that was very helpful to someone that kind of could see from the outside how to implement certain things. And then circle back with me, what

Tracy Hayes  54:42  
about a person? Your personal accountability? Yeah, because as a leader, you're challenged because you want to stay out front, yeah, people and so you've got to do certain things to be that one step ahead, like I'm sure Brett, he prepares every morning for his little spiel, so he's trying to stay. Out in front. How have the coaches helped you stay out in front? You know, as far as your people the industry,

Britany Nolan  55:06  
tough accountability. Yeah, tough accountability. So I've even had coaches tell me at one point, I was to me, I was kind of failing. I was like, I can't keep up with this certain thing. And they said, every single day, text me. When you finish that text, I'm never I'm never I'm not going to respond to you, but if you don't text me, we're never talking again. I was like, oh god, oh my god. Last because he believed in me. He knew I could do it. It was just physically getting myself up and doing it and every single day. And it was something very simple. And I just, it was

Tracy Hayes  55:37  
frog, right? Thinking about eating the frog has nothing to

Britany Nolan  55:40  
do with the actual task. It was just believing in myself to do it. And he was like, Well, if you don't believe in you, I'm done here. And I was like, Oh, wait, I believe I could do this. So, you know, it's just having that person kind of on the outside, which, to me, daily level, is DJ. DJ will always and I get very frustrated sometimes. I'm like, DJ just beat me to that. How did you see that before I saw it? But I'm just tough on myself. But you know, it's because we're doing the same tasks. We kind of have the same bird eye view of everything. But he holds me regularly accountable to my leaders when I'm teaching with them, when I'm implementing with them, and how they're putting it

Tracy Hayes  56:16  
into play. Just amazing stuff. You gave me a thought there. Think one of one of the challenges, like I said, I mentioned earlier that a lot of top agents is hiring that first assistant right relieve them of just some of the tasks that have to be done when in last day transactions. And you also mentioned duplication. You guys were early. You said, Hey, why don't we just hire we can get 10 of me. Can duplicate me 10 times, bring on more volume, etc. And how, in your opinion, from where you're at, the fact you said DJ saw it before me? Was it? Do you think DJ saw it before you? Because DJ has the ability, because he has you, he has Brent, he has Travis and so forth, to stand out at 30,000 feet and down

Britany Nolan  57:04  
Exactly, yeah. And I'm, you know, so he's up here, and I'm a little bit lower, and I, you know, it'll be simple things, but I am very, I immerse myself too much a lot of the time, and I'm very in it with them, so that I miss something from above. You know, that's one of the things that, really, I struggle with when it does happen, I'm like, gosh, you know that? I knew that was gonna happen. I saw I just didn't do something about it or make it recognizable before he did sometimes, and

Tracy Hayes  57:30  
sometimes you don't realize someone else actually saw it. So you're like, Oh, someone else saw it. No, I'm always, you know? I'm like, I should

Britany Nolan  57:39  
have known that so far ahead. We're always thinking, 3060, 90 days. 6090, days ahead. So, you know, something as small as if the agent isn't doing the activities. Sometimes I'm literally sitting there with the agent, and they look like they're doing the activities, but because I didn't get that bird's eye view, I need you know, I missed right? They're not doing right. They're thinking they are, or they're trying to, but they're not hitting it, going

Tracy Hayes  57:59  
through the motions, just yeah to get to the yeah to take over. Oh, hey, I gotta go home.

Britany Nolan  58:04  
So he's always in, you know, constantly, my coach, as far as how that goes, of this is what's going on. He's the same as me, though. He tries to immerse himself a lot, to

Tracy Hayes  58:13  
get involved. Well, because, I mean, obviously they love real estate passion. Yeah, he's not gonna get out. And then there's always that thing too. You know, us older guys, we want to show that we can still do it. He's not as old as me. But with that, I mean that that is, I think you the success that you guys have had. And you know, it could be the DJ Lindsay Brittany team, I'll just say that, but the fact that they have that. And Billy Wagner talks about it. The great talk about you got to have that time. You got to step away. He's working on his business, not it is a he has you working in the business. He's working on the business. And that's why he's able to guide you and keep you going in the right direction, and hopefully remove any pitfalls, holes in the road that you might hit. I always we talked about surrounding yourself by great people that sound you know, obviously, you have some great people in the office. But is there anyone you know? Obviously, I assume you listen to some Tom Ferry, because you guys are very involved in it. Is coaching. But is there anyone you know? Do you pop around and listen to different people? Or is there a book of the week that you guys what do you do?

Britany Nolan  59:18  
Oh, gosh. I mean, I kind of have my hands in a lot of different things can't get overwhelming.

Tracy Hayes  59:23  
Sometimes it tells us like, Oh man, I haven't read a book in a while, or I haven't listened to something new because I'm just so busy.

Britany Nolan  59:29  
Yeah, well, right now I'm trying to finish my continuing education and all that stuff that I didn't realize is due. I literally am telling people to do their stuff, and then I'm like, oh gosh, where's mine? Who's over there for me? Haven't been able to read a ton lately, but one that I always if we're gonna go books, we'll go book route. One, I always like to read, and I always refer agents to Rita, is the alter ego effect, or ego effect? Yeah, that was one that really helped me a lot. In the beginning was figuring out how to be, who I need to be, versus just who I am. And strengths in business, strengths and all kinds of different areas of life, you kind of put on this alter ego. And a few people that are in it are like Kobe Bryant, Beyonce, all these people that have this kind of person that they turn into when they're working or they're playing or, you know, so that, to me, is a really good one. Is a really good book to try to figure out, like, Okay, this is who I am. How do I implement that into who I also need to be in business? And then how do I turn that off?

Tracy Hayes  1:00:29  
Is there? Do you feel? I mean, you feel you're two different people? If we were in your backyard having a cookout, you'd be a different person than you are.

Britany Nolan  1:00:35  
No, I'm pretty normal, but I think it's because I also don't have my game face on anymore. I don't have to, I don't have to get out there and, you know, perform. I don't have to get out there and try to sell something anymore, necessarily. But these

Tracy Hayes  1:00:47  
two, okay, well, because you're in a management position, yeah, having tough conversations, or you're trying to be the encourager, you're doing the trainer, you're being all those things that that you need to do on a daily basis, the agent themselves. Do you feel, I hear a lot of people talk about it's important to the social media shows a lot of your personal stuff to show people who you are,

Britany Nolan  1:01:09  
very real. Yeah. I mean, especially in my position, how it's evolved, the empathy side and all of that is really big. You have to really connect to people. But I think that's also in sales and in business, if they're not really sure who they are or what they like, or it's hard to connect with other people. So, I mean, there are tons of good books. The never split the difference. Was one that I was obsessed with. I love negotiating How to Win Friends and Influence People. That's cornerstone. They're all Yeah. You know, there's so many books, I think just finding the right one at the right time. DJ did put three books on my desk last week. You guys should read these. Like, I'm gonna make sure I keep my license first, and then I'm gonna read those. But, and I don't have a lot of driving time anymore. When I was an agent, I was obsessed with podcasts. I was driving all the time, right? It was so much easier. And now, you know, when I think about sitting down and reading a book. I'm like, I there's a lot of stuff I should be doing, but I also should be reading and educating and

Tracy Hayes  1:02:07  
learning new type person. You show you show up at 730 in the album.

Britany Nolan  1:02:10  
What? So I am. I show up at the office every single day between eight and 815 because I had, like, a show up by eight and, God forbid, I hit traffic and it's 801, it would like, I'd spiral. I'd be like, Oh my gosh, very like, type D, in that sense, eight and 815 like, that's my comfort zone, right? But I wake up early in I just have my own time where I don't really talk to anyone, even my husband, but he works from home, so he wants to chat in the morning. It's the only time to socialize. Yeah?

Tracy Hayes  1:02:37  
Because, you know, sometimes you get home and it's like, you just want to mentally check out.

Britany Nolan  1:02:41  
I mean, yeah, I drive Island. That's my time to, like, comprehend what the heck just happened to me. That Exactly, exactly. And then I get home, and, you know, that's when I spend time with Kate, my husband. But, I mean, there's, I'm in so many different little groups and different people that I follow. Tom's obviously a big one, but I usually start with Tom and then end up different places, whether it's articles or different influencers

Tracy Hayes  1:03:06  
or he's, he's having a guest on his podcast. Yeah, then I lead you off the Yeah. Then I'm all over. All right, we're because we've been going on here, and we definitely could, we could talk as I changed this, I particularly change this question, obviously to you being a broker now versus in production. And let's just there's someone out there who's, you know, heard us talking. They heard how things are structured at DJ and Lindsay real estate. They're interested you, but they're coming to work for you. You're the broker. And, you know, although, I mean, would you agree? Obviously, I'm not in your office. I don't know they're going to see more of you than they are. DJ and Lindsay, yeah, absolutely. 100% so tell let's sell you're on, you're doing a record, you're doing a recruiting video, for example, here, and just sell people. What makes Brittany Nolan a unique and accomplished broker, and why someone should come and follow.

Britany Nolan  1:04:02  
Oh my gosh, yes. Did I mention I don't like talking about I mean, I think, I don't think I can give all credit to myself for anything or any reason that I'm here, but I think a real reason to work for me is actually for us. It should work with you. Work with me. Yeah, work with me. But it's also a lot of it is given to Brett and Travis because they're even more hands on than I am. But I think, I think our passion for real estate is really big. You know, no one DJ and Lindsay never told me I had to keep showing up to the office every day. I just wanted to be in it. I wanted to be with them. I wanted to go through it with all of them, and I wanted to be very hands on. I want to know our agents. I want to know their struggles. I want to know who they are and why they show up every day. So I think kind of that hand to hand combat. I think people even forget sometimes I'm the broker these I'm that involved, like they can call me on a Sunday if they have a question. We have boundaries. Of course, everyone needs them. I think just kind of the passion of wanting, really wanting them to be successful. That is my success. That's why we structure the way we the. We don't have agents that aren't successful. Everyone is selling real estate. Everyone is selling, you know, upwards of 20 homes in their first year. So working with me is just more of a partnership than just kind of someone above that, just kind of hanging out and making sure you don't get us sued.

Tracy Hayes  1:05:15  
Can I in clarification? Because it's what I'm visualizing, and how you expressed yourself there. And I can only imagine for people to be able to do that kind of volume, it'd be new. They need you to come in just as DJ, make sure you know they're as smooth as road as possible for you, so you can keep doing what you're doing. You're are involving yourself and not letting your real estate transaction can be a bumpy road. Oh, yeah, if you if it doesn't have one, at least one bump in the transaction. I mean, go play the lot stump, seriously, yeah, repair or appraisal, or the lending side, or whatever it is, there's always something. And then, you know, smart people to get together and they get it corrected and get it closed for the most part, that when they come and work for you. You are overseeing them to make that transaction as smooth as possible. You want them to be out there getting the next one. You have the greatest confidence in world that they could say, you know, hey, I've got the best broker. We've got the best processes, got the best vendor list to work with, vendors and all the other all the other people to support and that because I've got Brittany. It's a partner, Tracy on my back, yeah, not on my back, but has my back, yeah.

Britany Nolan  1:06:24  
And I always say that to him. I mean, that that is something I literally always say when they first start, like, don't worry about failing, because I have your back. You can come back to me. I can try to fix it. Or if I can't, it's fine too. But, yeah, it's very much working together. But with I can't credit Brett and Travis enough. I mean, they it's more of me seeing or being immersed with it, and then then adding their special touches with Travis on the process side or Brett on the coaching side. We all collectively make sure everyone shows up and does the activities. So it's very group effort.

Tracy Hayes  1:06:52  
Well, I think, you know, going right back to the original part of our conversation, having people doing what they do best, and Travis, Brett and all three of you supporting each other to make sure every transaction for every real estate agent goes through. And obviously your volume is the tail of the tape. I mean, that really tells it all that you guys are really good, even with the youngest of greenest of agents to the most experienced you guys are. You're after it. You're not overwhelmed with the stuff that is not your strengths, and I'm sure you guys compliment each other, obviously we do in your different areas. All right, we're gonna wind down my call, my two minute warning questions, what's your favorite you and what's your husband? Cave two and Cave's favorite thing to do in Northeast Florida or St Augustine. What do you guys just love doing?

Britany Nolan  1:07:37  
Oh, gosh. So we'll talk about right now we're building a house in St Augustine, so that's our new obsession. We bought a house in the water there. We run it as an Airbnb, and then we're building so we're pretty easy going people. We don't do anything to elaborate, but honestly, I think travel is one of the things we love doing, even if it's like a weekend trip. We've been bad about it since covid, but our dog is our world.

Tracy Hayes  1:07:59  
Loki, I did see that in one of your bio says, Son and I have a seven year old lab.

Britany Nolan  1:08:03  
That's my baby. Like, you have kids. I'm like, I have a dog and 75 children. But, you know, we do a lot of things with her. It's kind of random, you know?

Tracy Hayes  1:08:15  
Well, you guys have a favorite restaurant in town that you reach out. What's your No It depends. Yeah, restaurant.

Britany Nolan  1:08:23  
He's not so restaurant D, and it depends, he will go somewhere. If there's live music, that's kind of his thing. Like, okay, cool. If we can grab a drink and listen to music, I can rope him in. But sushi, we always love good sushi. Thai, I've

Tracy Hayes  1:08:35  
been recommending that new it's, I don't know how it's couple years old now that new St George inn that you took over the pizza place at the end of the St George Street. Oh, it's right across from the end. Say that called now it's called the St George restaurant. I think it's, Oh, I haven't been you need to go in there. That's really nice, really good. Yeah, really good.

Britany Nolan  1:08:54  
Yeah, pretty boring.

Tracy Hayes  1:08:56  
All right, here's the last and final question I've asked on all 95 episodes. Some more important who you know or what you know.

Britany Nolan  1:09:03  
Oh God, listen to the end. I mean, I think a combination of both, you need to know the right people, but you need to know the right things.

Tracy Hayes  1:09:19  
Well, there's no doubt you don't you can't be incompetent, yeah? But I would say yeah, if I was looking at your career for me, you had some people that saw your potential or whatever, or gave you a shot, and you've taken it, yeah? So you knew the right people, but you're not. You then learned what to know,

Britany Nolan  1:09:37  
learned the right thing. Yeah?

Tracy Hayes  1:09:39  
Be willing to listen. Be willing to follow their lead, so to speak, and, yeah, and all the rest of that. And I think you know, as I said in my intro, you're only 30 years old. There's another 30 years and beyond. And unless you got, unless you decide to move from st August or something, but obviously you're, you're going to become a pivotal player in the decades to come. In. The Area Real Estate. I hope you might not get against many speaking gigs now, but I imagine in due time, you're going to be getting calls from people that I want you to come and present and express, if not nationally. I think you know a lot of these. You see a lot of these conferences around and some even my podcast coach I was talking to last night, he's gonna invite you to speak. Yo, the what you're doing, people are going to want to know what's going on inside. Yeah, there's the flash out front, you know, hey, yeah, advertise, whatever. But what is actually going on inside? Keep that core structure, you know, humming all the time, you know, retaining employees and stuff that's so vitally important.

Britany Nolan  1:10:39  
Yeah, I mean success. Going on seven years, I've kind of cut my head down. Haven't really put myself out there, and then I changed my names. That really hid me.