Haley Davis: The Haley Davis Team

Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. Today's guest is a team lead for a top producing team here in the greater Jacksonville area. She just passed her sixth year anniversary last week as an agent. Oh, is that right? I saw, I saw last year. Was fifth year. I was watching your Facebook.

Tracy Hayes  1:21  
She recently took her team over to compass. This past fall, she began the real estate career only a couple years out of college. So for a new agent, young person considering a career in real estate, listen up as this is an episode for you. Let's welcome the leader of the Hayley Davis team. Hayley Davis to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. I'm glad I finally got you on.

Haley Davis  1:43  
We had some we had some setbacks. Yeah, I know that seal very well. I don't even notice it healed that that was holding me back. I knew I was going to be recorded. I was like, I cannot walk in here with a gash in the middle of my forehead. No, not with this new high definition cameras and everything to watch is too close, but I'm healed. I'm good. I'm here. It was funny that day that you you posted on Facebook. I'm like, Oh, she's gonna be calling me soon. Yeah, yes, I do run into cabinets. I just get distracted even, oh, man, so great to have you on the show. I really want to accent, you know, you know, as a young person. What I have found, and I've talked about on several other episodes, you know, when I grew up going to high school in the 80s and so forth, and going to college 8090s your stereotypical real estate agent was that older. Maybe their spouse was a successful career job, and they started off as a hobby or whatever, but now we're seeing this migration of a young person like yourself, basically fresh out of college, and I've seen some really great agents doing really well, even at 25 years old. And so I really want to dig in. And you know, I want you to please express some of the trials and tribulations that you've gone through, yeah, as a young person, and of course, being also leading a team. That's a whole challenge itself as well at the same time. So yes, we'll kind of, if we can, kind of make that theme as we talk through but let's kick off everybody as I do everyone. Where'd you grow up? I grew up in Orlando. I grew up in a little town called Oviedo. Our claim to fame is Blake Bortles. I went to high school with him. Oh, very, very weird part of town nobody really knows about unless I, like, mentioned Lee portal. So like, yeah, that's where they're where he's from, but we're also known for chickens. We have, like, free range chickens running around. But also, UCF, it's a college town, so yeah, Oviedo, Orlando, okay, yeah. And then, which led you to Central Florida, yeah, yeah. So we, I lived in Central Florida my whole life. But my husband is from Fleming Island, so when we got married, we moved up here, well, University of Central Florida. Yeah, you went there. Now you emerging media management. So what was Hayes vision as a young person of kind of like what she wanted to do? So I wanted to manage a gallery, like curated gallery, basically, they call it a gallerist, so somebody that owns, like a fine art gallery and curates the space, curates the artists and all that. I was in fine art sales for a couple years after I got out of college, and my degree was, my degree was a good degree for what I was doing, because it was, it was a business art degree, essentially. So mostly business, with a little bit of art with it, art history, all that kind of stuff. Definitely nothing even remotely close to real estate, because that wasn't even in my brain ever, right? So the but the art, though, I mean, is that something you enjoy doing as a young person? Yeah? Yeah. I mostly I was very artistic growing up, but I felt like working with artists was something that I wanted to do. I didn't really ever want to be an artist from a business perspective, but artists themselves are so they're so focused on their art, and they really need somebody to help push them and market them and sell them basically. And that's what I love doing. Because I was like, wow, these people are so incredible. They have these incredible.

Haley Davis  5:00  
Skills, but you can't do both. Like, they don't have both sides of the brain. Basically, they do. They're amazing, but they're very smart, but they need somebody to be like an advocate for them.

Tracy Hayes  5:10  
Basically, well, if you want as, and we'll talk about in the team, if you want to dedicate, you want someone to be really good at something, you can't be off having them do something right that, yeah, they can do it because they're smart, but it's not what they can really excel at. Yes, and obviously, you know, we talk about real estate bringing in revenue. Yeah, they need to be painting and painting paintings, yes, to make money. Yes. You know, having, you know, hiring someone like you to specialize from the sales standpoint. So you get out of college. I was just looking at your LinkedIn as my basis. And you're one of you. You're probably one of 6070 I wouldn't even say 70% 60% of our agents have their LinkedIn put together. Yours is there? You had a couple jobs? What I have here? Creative Directors, yes, positions. What were you doing there? And then just tell us, because that leads you somewhere in there, you make the connection with real estate.

Haley Davis  5:59  
Yes, yeah. So when I got out of college, I, like I said, was in fine art sales. So I worked for a couple galleries in Orlando. I flew to New York to work for a pop up gallery there. I worked in the Hamptons, and just with with this international gallery, I got some really good experience. And I ended up at a gallery in Orlando that was half an art gallery, fine art gallery, and then the other half was custom framing business, because artists, they would, you know, partner with this gallery. And then framing is very expensive, mounting things like that is very expensive. So they would partner with this they would hang their art in this gallery, and then when it sold, they would just reduce, you know, their income because of, you know, them framing or whatever. So I worked for this gallery. The gallery was going under. There's just not, there's not a great market. Well, there wasn't a great market for fine art in Orlando back when I graduated high school, and it was really upsetting. I remember, like, being really sad that it was shutting down because I'd worked there for, I think, two years or a year and a half, and I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. Like, this is the only thing I have. Like, there's not that much opportunity for this in Orlando. And so at the time, I was experimenting with graphic design, and so I basically, like, talked to the owner into, like, hiring me as a graphic designer. Because I was like, your company needs help. I need a job. Like, I'll just switch over to the framing side of business, and I'll be the graphic designer. And I had no idea what I was doing. I had just dabbled in these programs, and I just learned as I went, I became a graphic designer, basically, for, you know, four or five years after that, essentially,

Tracy Hayes  7:34  
graphic designer kind of, yeah, give me a picture of what, what you're

Haley Davis  7:38  
so, yeah, we I just did social media and stuff like this. Was like, I don't know when Instagram kind of was, like, starting to get interaction with marketing, online marketing and stuff. And so I would just help them with their social media and their website, and they worked with a lot of artists in like, a Photoshop perspective to like, you know, size art and stuff like that. So I was just, you know, doing what I could to help them, basically, like, please keep me on like, I'll do anything basically, right? And so I got kind of sick of that job and applied for another job, and then I was a graphic designer, like, pretty, pretty intensely for the next,

Tracy Hayes  8:13  
like, four years. So where do you, where do you start get the sense of the real estate,

Haley Davis  8:17  
real estate. So Real Estate did not pop up until quite a bit after we had a friend in Orlando. His name was Brad. He's awesome. And he was talking, he's a surfing buddy of my husband. And Brad was probably, like, maybe five or six years older than us when we first got I mean, he is five or six older, five or six years older than us when we first got married. And Brad had this quad Plex, and this was, like, I don't know, it's like, six years ago, me and my husband were like, This is so cool. Brad has a quad Plex. He's living in it. He's renting it out. He's like, getting free, you know, rent, like, his mortgage, let's say, and we're like, house Hocking, like this. It's a thing. It's a name, you know, if there's a name for it, like, this is incredible. Like, our minds were blown. And so me and my husband were like, This is really cool. Like, like, we just both got super into it. At the same time. We started listening to bigger podcasts. I mean, bigger pockets, yeah, we became obsessed with Brandon Turner, we learned about the burr method. All of that were like, like, this is like, we didn't know it was a world we didn't know existed. And so then I was working at another job in LA. I've had a lot of jobs, but I was working my job in LA, and I got, basically got laid off. And at that point, I was kind of studying for my real estate license. But I wasn't California, yeah, yeah. So I was remote, so I was going, like, every couple weeks to California and back. It was a lot, but so I was already studying to get my real estate license, because me and my husband we're like, okay, Brad did it. We should start thinking about doing so I was getting it, not intending to work. Basically, I was just getting it so that we could make a discount when we purchased which is not the right reason to get a real estate license. And so, so I got laid off from my job in LA and I was like, All right, well, I can either go into graphic design again, because that's easy, I can get a graphic. Design job super easy because I have a great resume for it, or I can pivot and just do real estate. And so at that point, I was like, I I think it took me, like, two times to pass my real estate test. And the first time I was like, I'm just gonna go back and freaking graphic design, this is not for me. Like, this test is stupid. Like, I'm not doing this. And so then I passed it the second time, and I was like, Okay, I think I can do this. So I was like, All right, well, how can I make money? When I first became a realtor, and that was to be a graphic designer for the first brokerage that I worked at, which doesn't exist anymore, but so anyways, I was doing graphic design and real estate at the same time. Essentially, it was perfect.

Tracy Hayes  10:37  
So was it just the you just walked in there and said, hey, I can do your help. Yeah? Like, it was, it wasn't, wasn't like you a friend of the family or somebody you I didn't know anybody. Didn't know anybody, yeah, yeah.

Haley Davis  10:50  
I was really interested in, like the historic areas. I was, like, really passionate about those houses, because they're just so gorgeous. And I found, like, the top, the top historic brokerage, the brokerage I was doing the most in the historic district, the most of what I wanted to do specifically that. And I was like, Hey, I don't have any experience as a realtor. I know you guys are very selective on who you hire, but I was like, I can make you look so good, so easily with my graphic design. And so they're like, Oh yeah, that sounds great. Like we would love, we would love to work with you. So I just started, like, being part time for them, with that interesting weaseled my way in, because I was like, I'm gonna help you. And then ended up paying out there for a year.

Tracy Hayes  11:31  
I mean, did you, I mean, the initial feeling, because, like you said, you you failed the test the first time, you're like, do I want to even really do this? And then when you did pass, you kind of got a little more confidence, because now you actually you got your license, so to speak, you tiptoed your way into real estate, so to speak, by having the graphic design as your fallback. Yes, you you got and you knew, or you're gonna get paid something exactly at the end of the day, exactly, type of thing. So talk about the that first you know, the first few days, first few months, where you're going in, because you're you're getting their graphic design, yeah, which I imagine was part of your initial things. But where do you start actually learning or do they do you grab a mentor? What? How do you start picking up your What's up momentum, with your momentum, with real estate, but just your knowledge and everything, and digging deeper into it.

Haley Davis  12:21  
Yeah. So I the broker, owner of this brokerage that I was with was just like top of her game, as far as, like, negotiations for this specific type of house, which was about in the, I would say, the six to $900,000 historic house in Avondale Riverside that was like her cup of tea, like she just owned that niche. And she would always tell me riches and niches, riches and niches. And so I was like, well, I need, like, a niche to be a part of, you know. And so I would just follow her around, learn everything I could about these historic houses. And she just took me under her wing, basically. And the co owner of that brokerage actually does a lot of beautiful flips in the Avondale and Riverside area also. So they, they're not working together anymore, but at the time, it was just like a dream team. I was like, you have this guy that's doing these incredible multi million dollar flips over in the historic district, so I'm learning about how to renovate these houses. And then you have literally the master of sales on this specific market. I it was just a slam dunk for me. And then on top of that, I was getting, you know, whatever. I was getting paid, very small to, like, do graphic design. So it was just like, This is too good to be true. So do you do you

Tracy Hayes  13:29  
quickly realize, I mean, or maybe, I mean, you might have had that plan when you walked in there is, I'm going to, I'm going to really observe them, yeah, take notes, Oh, I did, and shadow them and were they? And what was their it's not everyone's a teacher, yeah, or a trainer or whatever. What was their kind of, you know, mindset in in spilling into you their knowledge?

Haley Davis  13:50  
I don't know. I they were just they were so invested in me doing well, and I'm not really sure why, but it just seemed like they were like, Yeah, you can tag along, of course, because I was getting, like, some content while they were doing this. So that's like, how I made myself useful, is like, I'm going to be here. Anyways, I might as well, like, get some content of you guys. And so that's what I did. I would just follow them around. But I'm it was just an amazing scenario. And I always tell people, like, in real estate, like, for me, anytime I've had some weird situation, or some situation where I would think that I would get, want to get out of real estate something really amazing after happens. So it's like real estate, not not right now, yeah, exactly, yeah. But they were just really invested in me, and I'm so grateful because I couldn't. I don't think that my love for real estate would have truly been so amazing if I had that experience in the historic district, doing what I really loved

Tracy Hayes  14:44  
so looking back and reflecting, and you may not even realize it at the point, what were some of the were some of those really kind of Cornerstone things that you learned from those successful people doing selling in the areas that you wanted to sell and flipping? That kind of thing. What were some of those things you look back now and say, I remember learning that, you know, my third week I was working.

Haley Davis  15:06  
Oh, yeah, so the broker, owner of this company, was just like, we call like, I don't know if you've heard this in real estate, but like, a shark, like, they used to call me a Baby shark because they're like, because you look so unassuming, and then you're an aggressive negotiator, and I would consider myself an aggressive negotiator. And the reason that I learned that I could do that was from this broker owner, basically, who had this amazing negotiation style, like I would hear on the phone, and she was younger. She was like, I think she was mid 30s at the time when I joined. And I was like, this is incredible. This lady is so smart, so amazing. She knows so much, like people just she's so unassuming, and people really listen to her, like when she asks for something or she's trying to negotiate, people take her very seriously, like she's she was very knowledgeable, and she just was basically in a niche with people way older than her in the historic district, and She was just doing these incredible deals and negotiating so flawlessly. And I was like, This is amazing. Like, I have to model my business after this. Like, this is the kind of broker I want to be, basically. So what do

Tracy Hayes  16:11  
you think was her? Did she do some vast studying, or is this some some personal self confidence? She was

Haley Davis  16:19  
very confident. But also she had been in real estate for, like, over 10 years, and she was young, like her mom was a realtor, so she became a realtor very young. She had been doing basically her whole adult life, so she that's why people just didn't expect much from her, because she looked very young, but she had way more experience than most people did. Yeah, and you know, like your your real estate career can be fast forward 20 times. If you're doing the same amount of deals in a smaller period of time, then you're getting the same knowledge of these other people that have been for 10 years growing

Tracy Hayes  16:53  
up with mom being an agent, yeah, and so forth. You already living it as,

Haley Davis  16:57  
oh yeah. It was her whole life. She, like, lived, breathed and slopped real estate.

Tracy Hayes  17:02  
Look again, digging back in that that first years, and now you have a team. So you are there's some young people on your team. So I imagine some of them are new. What are three things if someone wants to be a real estate agent, what do you think they need to know even before they go get that license? I'm sure you're approached by a lot of people in your peer group. Yes, hey, what do you know? I'm thinking about being a realtor. What do you think are? What are three things that you you tell them, hey,

Haley Davis  17:29  
I think you have to be ready to work for yourself. I don't think a lot of people understand, like, what working for yourself entails, because if you have a salary job, you don't understand, like, how you can stay responsible to yourself throughout the week. And so I think when a lot of people get their real estate license, it's not actually the real estate that's the hard part. It's the time management and like the twiddling of the thumbs on the couch, like not knowing what you're going to do. So you really have to have a clear vision of what your week's going to look like and what your life's going to be like, managing yourself once you start working for yourself, essentially. So that's number for sure, I guess, just the clear vision, yeah, clear vision of like, what your week's gonna and that's hard. You don't know what you don't know when you first start, but you need a clear vision of like, what it's gonna be like to work

Tracy Hayes  18:11  
for yourself, realistic. So just to tag on that a little I mean, they talk to you, you're giving them one perspective. Yes. Do you suggest to somebody, because these friends come to you and talk to you about it, you really need, or see someone listening right now. They need to go and talk to someone who has some some years on them, so to speak, has done some deals and doing this 510, years, and learn, you know, the truths of what's really behind.

Haley Davis  18:40  
Yeah, you don't need to recreate the wheel in real estate like everybody's basically done everything that you're going to do anyways. It's just a matter of, I always tell people, find the person that you want to model your business after and work with, whether it's mentorship or being on a team like you really don't want to recreate the wheel. You want to do a method that's working already, and improve it for yourself, or make it work in a way that's going to work for you, but you really want to model your business after somebody that's done it already, essentially.

Tracy Hayes  19:09  
Well, you know, what's so brilliant about that you've, you've learned that there's agents been doing this twice as many years as you have. Have not learned that, yeah, and having spoken to, you know, 125 you know, top agents in the area. That is what we really drill down on, because a lot of them have gone through, starting with that first brokerage. It doesn't quite mesh with them. They signed up with them because their friend was there or something, and they're they don't do business the same way. Or, I was talking to Dustin Brome with massive agent podcast. He started because he wanted to flip houses, but realized that guy business was completely opposite of his personality and to take the time upfront, and I think you would agree with this, take the time up front to find that brokerage go and talk totally. Talk to the agents that are actually working. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Haley Davis  20:02  
I think it's like finding, finding the perfect brokerage is like finding the perfect partner. Like it just it doesn't exist. Like you get to choose the things that you love about it, and you can draw towards these. You know, maybe they're incredible at teaching you networking and marketing skills, but maybe their CRM or whatever they're paying for isn't like exactly what you want. Like, you're never going to get everything perfect in a brokerage. So you really have to draw to what you feel like is going to be a bigger part of your business,

Tracy Hayes  20:31  
which is a challenge. I think I was talking to someone the other day about, you know, really, you have to look inside yourself, right? There's some people that actually like knocking on doors, for example, totally Yeah. And they're really good at it. They enjoy it, and that's probably why they are good at it, right?

Haley Davis  20:45  
Because they have a smile. Yeah, right, not for everybody, right?

Tracy Hayes  20:49  
Or the cold calling, or, you know, the different types of way you're prospecting. And obviously, as someone coming into the business who's never done those types of things doesn't know yet, right? But to sit down, and I know there's a different personality test. I mean, everyone has their different opinion on, on, on finding that thing is finding what you enjoyed totally. And would you agree? And I'm sure you talk to people, Christina Welch made this statement. It's not HGTV that you see money that the agents make. Yes, they can be, they can be change your lifestyle, yes, for sure, but if that's your sole motive, so very tough to get there.

Haley Davis  21:27  
Yeah. I mean, like these, I work with a lot of new agents, like, mostly new agents on my team, and like, I've seen people when they receive, like, their first check, like, some people have never seen a check over $5,000 before, and it's a blessing to be able to get a check like that. And it's even more amazing to watch their faces when they get it, because they're like, This is mine. Like, what? Like, it's it really is just an incredible like, you can't be like, we use the phrase like, thirst on my team. Like, yes, we are in sales. And like, yes, we want to achieve big things. And like, retire early, and, like, all these things. But you can't be thirsty for a sale when you're showing people a house and be like, Oh, you really need to buy this. Like, we're not in the business of, like, really making somebody buy something like that. They're going to make a decision, you know, not based off of your opinion of it. You know, most, most of the time. So you can't, you really can't be doing it for the money, because it's you. Just sometimes you make a lot of money in real estate, and sometimes you don't, and so you have to do it despite of your circumstance. And sometimes the money is not great with it.

Tracy Hayes  22:31  
Well, that underlying thing, and I know you would, we would eventually get to this, is with that young team that you have, you know you've been through it like, I'm sure you've had different times in your career where you're like, my doing the right thing. Oh, totally, you know. And how, how do you get across them, stick with it, stay on the road. Be consistent. You're doing the right things. Just got to be consistent. How do you how do you help them with that?

Haley Davis  22:58  
That's every Monday morning. That's what we're talking about. We call, I call it like the formula, like the formula that works. You send your bi weekly emails out, or you maybe you send them weekly. You're sending follow up texts. You're doing your social media 30 days at least, planned. You're doing, you know, two to three reels a week. You're doing this many calls a day. Like, it is truly a formula, and that's the baseline for success in the business. So if you're not seeing anything, then if you're not doing that, that's a pretty good indication why nothing is moving. And, you know, in real estate, we work like three months behind, basically, so every 90 day cycle, yes, yeah. So everything that we're working on now is going to help us in the summer. So how do you want your summer to look, do you want to be like going to the spa, or do you want to be doing nothing and be bored? And I know none of the people on my team want to be bored because they hate their lives when they're bored like that. So we have to have that baseline formula of these are the things we do throughout the week. That's an absolute bare minimum, then anything above that, going to brokers opens, doing an open house, you know, going to show houses and filming it on social media or whatever. That's all extra, the baseline emails and the social media. And I don't care if you hire somebody for it doesn't matter. As long as you have it there. You have to have it.

Tracy Hayes  24:14  
Do you structure? You know? You know, one of the questions I had is basically the onboarding process for the team. Do you have a structure period of time for that brand

Haley Davis  24:24  
new green agent? Oh, yeah, totally. We have like a onboarding guideline book that very much a setting expectations type scenario for the agent. It's like a 3060, 90 day plan of what I expect for you to do, and not so much of what I expect for them to accomplish sales wise. Because, you know, sometimes it takes longer people, longer than others, to get into it, but is a complete guideline of what your day should look like every single day when you wake up for the first month, essentially like what every day is going

Tracy Hayes  24:56  
to look like. Are you having them come in the office? Office, is that something?

Haley Davis  25:01  
Oh, yeah, definitely. Like, when you're a new agent, I spend so much time with you, which is why I haven't really hired as many, like, brand new, fresh agents, because I don't have as much time. But what the

Tracy Hayes  25:12  
Yeah, we have a lot of virtual stuff out there. USP, real now is out there in Florida, homes and so forth. Is might as well be considered virtual in in your career, obviously, starting a team, I would imagine your vision was, yeah, having those Monday morning, getting the energy, sharing the energy together. Yeah, between, how important is that maybe someone who's got an agent spend five or six years can and just wants to be a solo agent, can go virtual, but for that very green agent, how important you think it is for for whatever period of time it is, till they ramp up and understand the business to going to that office and making it like they are going to the nine to five right to get there at 839, o'clock in the morning and get their day going?

Haley Davis  25:57  
Yeah, definitely. I mean, when you're a new agent, like, I said, like, it's the formula. You absolutely need to be in there nine to five and maybe you take Fridays off or whatever. But I think the minimum you should be working when you're a new agent is 25 to 30 hours, very focused energy on exactly what you're doing. But the thing is, a lot of agents not on a team, they go into an office they have no idea what to do, like, they're scared to go into the office because they don't want to just sit there and do nothing. Right? Do nothing, right? So you have to have a plan for what you're going to do when you get in the office. And I feel like that's more of the issue than actually getting there in the first place, which is why I do believe in companies like exp, because it very much is, I didn't join exp, but it very much is a lot of mentorship there, and I think that matters more than office space. So I do believe in virtual but I like agents to be in the office. So it just works better for me as a leader to be able to look people in the eye and tell them like I'm not really loving what you're doing right now, like you're not doing enough. You need to be doing more. Why am I not seeing you here so well when

Tracy Hayes  27:00  
you're when you're, you know, bringing because initially, you know, as you know, most agents like they feel they need to be interviewed by the broker when they should be interviewing the broker or the team lead, however you want to describe that. But then when they get there and they realize, okay, well actually, this is my business. If I want to show up, I can show up or not show up. You're not paying me any, any sort of salary. So I would imagine, when you're interviewing that prospective agent to be on your team, you want one. I assume they're coming. They're talking to you because they already have some respect for you. Yeah, they wouldn't be, they didn't but to know that you're going to hold them accountable, and you may tell them some things they don't like, yeah, and they're just still going to sit there in that seat like they were an hourly employee.

Haley Davis  27:40  
Yeah, exactly like you have to have. I've never recruited for my team. Really. I've never gone and, like, held interviews. I've put on social media, hey, we are hiring. I'm trying to, like, attract the right person, right? I'm not holding like, interviews of 20 people to get like, the next person on. And I think the kind of people that join my team, they are very much a similar mindset as maybe just a few years before in real estate, and I really understand what they need to do better, essentially. So it's very it's the very fluid conversation when I'm saying, like, like, what are you doing? Like, why are you not doing this? You told me you wanted to make 100 plus 1000 a year. Well, you're not. I'm gonna be going to the spa and you're gonna be hanging out at home. Like, I don't know what to tell you. Like you told me you wanted that. Like you're you are disappointing me. I'm sad for you, because I want to hang out and go to dinner, but like, at the same time, like, you told me that's what you wanted to like, we're supposed to retire at the same time. Like, page here. Like, come on, let's go

Tracy Hayes  28:43  
what we were actually one of the questions I had was why you chose your first brokerage. We know that through your story here. So to summarize, to kind of conclude, a little bit of what we were just talking there to is an agent who may be listening here in Jacksonville, maybe listening in San Diego to the show, but or picks up your this on YouTube or something. What are some important things that they should be doing or should be asking? Because I think a lot of new agent doesn't even know what to ask. They haven't been there yet, and they're not being mentored by they have latched on to that senior agent that's going to tell them. What would you tell someone or your friend called you from California? Say, Oh, hey, I want to start getting getting real estate in California. What are some things that you would suggest that they need to find out about the brokerage that they're going to sign up with?

Haley Davis  29:31  
I think they need to figure out what kind of education is provided and how far that goes beyond just the first point of when you join, like, the first week, like, how is that prolonged? Because, as an agent, we're constantly learning. We have to, there's a red line contract, there's new laws, there's this that we have to be constantly learning. But another thing is, how much time do you have to hold me accountable? Like, who's going to do that? Like, who's playing that role? Essentially, especially if you don't join a team. Mean, like, Who do I have to count on, basically, to call me once a week and make sure I'm doing what I'm supposed to, because I feel like you're paying a brokerage to do something. And this is part of the reason I wouldn't, wouldn't join a, kind of, like an in house coach. Yeah, exactly. Like, that's part of the reason I don't tip, like, I don't tell people to join, like, 100% brokerage, or however you say anything, however you call that brokerage. But because I know that I'm an educate, I'm a sponge. I want to learn everything. So if you don't provide any of that, I don't know what to tell you, like, you have to constantly be learning. So I think education is number one, accountability is number two, and then I'm a big software person, like I was a graphic designer for a long time, so I can appreciate a good CRM so, like, what are you providing me for the split that I'm giving you? Essentially, like, what kind of technology are we like in the dinosaur age, or are we, you know, using Boomtown or whatever, you know, like, what are you paying for on my behalf?

Tracy Hayes  30:53  
Essentially, some brokerages are focused on the new agent, you know, you to go to the other end, say, like an Ingle and Volkers. They want producers because they want to focus on the next level, so to speak. Call it that. So I think a lot of agents don't understand. And again, Dustin Brown, who was on my last show, you know, explaining he actually stuck around and hit the brokerage he was at for five or six years, right? Because he didn't know any better, right? And to understand that you may run your run the running course on that brokerage, and now you need to move to newer ground, because the brokerage changes in leadership, changes in, you know, attitude, ideology, whatever is on the education part of it, yeah, because how important is, I mean, because I think one of the reasons, or one of the cornerstones of success of any sales person, or any person in general, is confidence, right? Yeah, so if that brokerage is not giving you the education is not, you know, you know, tips and tricks, and you're hearing in the office of, Hey, how did we handle this squirrely sale that we had? If you're not getting that kind of information. When you run into those things, you're not confident right before you are not as effective.

Haley Davis  32:05  
Yeah, and I think there's some agents that dangerously just let her rip. When they get into real estate, they just try everything, and they don't really care about the repercussions, or are aware. Maybe they're not aware of the repercussions, but they're doing these crazy things in these sales because they see, you know, Ryan Serhan or whatever, and they're like, Ah, I'm gonna do this. And like, they just fly by the seat of their pants, and I never want anybody to do that. Like we're talking about legally binding contracts, and the amount of trouble that you can get yourself into your brokerage, your seller, your buyer, it's just too, too scary to just not know what you're doing, right? And the barrier to entry is so small anyways, that's already scary in and of itself.

Tracy Hayes  32:50  
So Well, I would imagine in your in your earlier especially working in the older part of town, or if you are out at the beach, and we talked to a lot of agents, you know, if you're working in St Augustine, things aren't the cookie cutter planned or in development subdivisions. Yeah, you've got a title issues, you've got easement issues and so forth going on, and you need to be working with an agent, or be working with a Senior Agent as a partner, so to speak, at least, watching what you're doing, and can, you know, guide you through some of those possible pitfalls, or when the pitfalls show up?

Haley Davis  33:24  
Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think that's also why I liked starting in the historic district, because it's much harder. I don't know if you know Aaron king. He works at, he worked at my first brokerage with me, and now he works at my second brokerage. And he calls like, the older houses, like Frankenstein houses, and it's true, because they all have these, like, separate little rooms that people have built over, like, the series of 100 years. 100 years. And a lot of things change over 100 years. So I always thought it was kind of good that I learned, like, one of the hardest house styles to sell in the very beginning, because now I, you know, a new build like, get what you get there.

Tracy Hayes  33:56  
Well, yeah, whether or not was that ever permitted things like that. You know, people converted garages and never went and got the permit.

Haley Davis  34:04  
Or, like, a firewall is missing. Like, you don't even know what a firewall is. Like, I don't even know there was a firewall in house. Like, it's just so many things pop up, yes, in those old houses, yes. How important is it for a new agent? And you may do with this on your team, just, you know, or maybe you are the mentor to each person. Define them, and doesn't necessarily in your brokerage, but define that, that senior agent that will have coffee with you, that you can get on speed dial to answer, you know, some of the the questions. Or, you know, if you're a new agent and trying to negotiate, how important is it that to have, you know, a mentor, or more on your speed, dot, I think that is the most important thing you can have in the very beginning. That's why I do encourage a lot of people to join a team. Some people are just not meant for a team, and I get that in which case it would be more beneficial to have a mentorship. Maybe something like Tom Ferry would benefit you. Little bit better, a little bit more solo kind of situation, but I think, I think it doesn't get enough like attention to have a mentor. Like people don't think of how important it is. But I really, I really do, and a lot of people have, you know, they have something against my style of team. They don't think, like, it's fair to the agents that are coming on my team and I and I just question that so much, because if you talk to any of the agents on my team like I am providing, I hope I am, and I know I am, but you have to provide value to somebody like that, you know. And the value is not only the amazing brokerage that we're at, and they probably couldn't be at that brokerage if it weren't for the team, but other than that, the value is the mentorship. It is like, literally, you can call me, you have total access to right? And that's a lot, because I do a lot of business, and I don't have that amount of time for other people you know, and I want to help everybody you know. But to have a mentor like you can call basically the middle of the night is just

Tracy Hayes  36:03  
that's as a leader that you've chosen to put yourself out there to do, yeah, exactly. And so you bring them on, on your team,

Haley Davis  36:10  
and I don't answer my phone in the middle of the night, like, turn my phone off at like, nine.

Tracy Hayes  36:15  
Basically, yeah, nothing's gonna happen between nine and

Haley Davis  36:19  
No, no, no, no. Like, I need my sleep. If I don't get that,

Tracy Hayes  36:22  
or if you're stressed out, call me before nine, exactly. Please, please. Collaboration is some commonality that I hear with all the top agents, and they're willing to. I mean, I see like Melissa Rick's going over to Heron real estate and doing a training. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that the younger or I would say young, let's say younger, younger or less experienced agents need to understand that there are people out there with you that you have, you have the experience. Don't be bashful in picking up the phone, right? Because I think you having, you know, it's impossible to have every single agent to be awesome, right? But we can still strive in that direction anyway, and it just makes the industry just that much more reputable. I mean, why do people do for sale by owners, right? I know, because they don't see, yeah, because they don't see the value. Or used car sales went into that yeah, they don't understand the value in the agent, right? So if everyone was, you know, doing because obviously, they probably most likely had a bad real estate agent experience.

Haley Davis  37:20  
I always tell people like the team, like I we use the phrase, I would love the opportunity to earn your business, because I feel like all the people on my team are so charismatic, they're good interviewers, which is probably why they're on my team. And one of the reasons and I just think like you can't have the opportunity unless you've earned it. So if nobody's willing to meet with you, to work with you in the first place, and you're never going to get the opportunity. So like, you're a for sale by owner, like, I would love the opportunity to earn your business. Like, I promise you, if you sit down with me for an hour, you'll get something out of it. You still don't have to hire me at the end of it, but I promise we'll probably end up friends, like we're probably going to you'll learn something and right, I can probably talk you into working with me, like I would want to work with me. I mean, that's a confidence thing, but you know what I mean?

Tracy Hayes  38:07  
Tell us, tell us a little bit about your team, how it's structured, you know, from a support staff and then from the the agents you have. Tell us a little about about your

Haley Davis  38:16  
crew, yeah. So we have six full time agents, and I consider a full time agent, anything over like 25 hours a week, 25 to 30 hours. So full time agents, we have an in house operations manager. She basically functions as like, I call her an assistant to the team, essentially. So she does our she does my social media, both the team and my personal and then also is an assistant. So if somebody needs a sign or something like that, they're calling her, not me, which is crucial, yeah. And then we have a transaction coordinator, which is really nice. We've always had a transaction coordinator. And if you're a new agent, just spend them. Like, just do it. Like, don't be silly. You don't need to be doing that paperwork. You need to be making sales. So get yourself a transaction coordinator

Tracy Hayes  38:57  
handling the other chores in your life. Yeah,

Haley Davis  38:59  
exactly. You just don't need to be doing that paperwork. And so then we have that. I have had inside sales, but for right now, it's not really necessary for like this market. I think perhaps in the future, if I, you know, come to a point where I have a bunch of unattended to leads, which you know as the team ebbs and flows. Sometimes you have right two, sometimes you have six. So we try and retain everybody, but always, yeah, so. But anyways, we have had a we have had an inside sales agent. We don't anymore for this market. But yeah, that's it. We're a small but mighty team. I'm trying

Tracy Hayes  39:30  
to remember who I was, who said this, and I don't know if I, because I do you know as much as I put the show out there on social media and stuff, I kind of, I do study what some of the other real estate industry people are doing, and so as far as social media is concerned, and things like that, of course, obviously talking to everyone on the show. So sometimes I could use the information, but this is the first thing you should do, actually, you know what I think I now it's coming to me, Ken, I was talking to Jordan for and kidnap was the first person you should hire. Is that assistant? Oh, totally. How and how important is it in your leveraging? It's not just your assistance the team's assistant, that that person's going in every morning and that, you know, they're getting that, that social media spin out there, getting those things going for them, that they're not even having to think about it, right? May they go, they may go create some content and send it to her so they can, you know, post later on, but they're, they're moving forward and doing what they need to be, which is truly prospecting from this moment. So you know how important, especially as a, even a solo agent, when they reach a certain level, to bring that assistant on.

Haley Davis  40:38  
Yeah, I think, well, we as humans have decision fatigue, right? And I feel like that's something that I struggle with every day, is decision fatigue. And like we can only make like, 10 big decisions a day, or something like that. I read a book and it's at that and yeah, I feel like the less decisions I have to make up front on things like social media, the more space there is in my brain to make other more important decisions or make an important phone call. But if I'm filling my brain with social media, which it's fun, then I don't have any more room to prospect or procure business, which is the most important aspect of our entire job. So if, if I, if you, if you're not thinking about doing a social media or you feel like you don't have enough time yet. Like, there's different levels. There's different levels of hiring somebody like that. Like, we have somebody that's full time in it pay her salary. But like, I didn't always have that. I couldn't always pay her salary. I paid her hourly, and I could, you know, maybe only do 15 hours a week, and I had, you know, these specific things I wanted her to accomplish during those 15 hours, and you just scale it. But you you have to start somewhere, because you really can't do it all by yourself. You have to delegate

Tracy Hayes  41:47  
at some point. So and I mean, have you used, you know, in your growth process, there's a lot of whether they're virtual assistants that are out there. There's these transaction coordinators that work on a you know, per deal basis a fiver. There's guys out there that'll you can just send them the video and they'll cut, you know, make the reel look really nice and then put it out there. Have you utilized anything else?

Haley Davis  42:11  
Yeah, yeah. We've, I've used anything and everything you can think of. I feel like you just have to keep trying to figure out what works and fail forward, essentially. But, I mean, I've hired fired people, I've had a role, like, I said, inside sales that works for some markets, for me, doesn't work for others. So you kind of have to, like, make that decision. But as far as, like, different types of management of social media, doing it like, like a virtual assistant versus like somebody in person, I'm just like, a very in person kind of person, like, I want to be able to meet with you, and I'm very visual, so I want to be able to meet with somebody and see, like, the ideas that they have for like, how they're going to make my social media look. And it just so happens that our operations manager, we have the same brain creatively, I feel like so she already is thinking it. By the time thought about it, all right, by the time I've asked her, which is cool, and she's done with me,

Tracy Hayes  43:01  
you started to sync together. What your your tastes are, so to speak.

Haley Davis  43:05  
Yeah, definitely, definitely. So

Tracy Hayes  43:09  
you've grown you've grown up in the real estate business, as social media has become an important play. How important is it? I was, I was interviewing Dustin Brome, and I was listening to the podcast, because I always re listen to the show when it actually comes out on Apple and so forth. And my question to him is, you know, was one of the things like, what should, what would you recommend? Any three things you'd recommend to a new agent? He's like, video, video, video, yeah. So when you are chatting with your team existing, or someone coming on, yo, explaining to them, because I would imagine you have the same feeling they need to be doing some level of social media consistently.

Haley Davis  43:52  
Oh yeah, that's the baseline I was talking to you about, and that's part of the formula. You got to post every day. And you definitely have to do video, especially when you're first starting. And I like to tell people like, perception is reality. So even though I wasn't like, this big agent when I first started, I wanted people to think I was educated, and the best, fastest way to do that was through video. I could take people through the houses that I was going to with my boss, and I could be like, oh, you know, this panel, you know, might be uninsurable, and like, these ungrounded outlets, and people were just like, loving it because it was, like a more real version of HGTV, and that was a couple years ago, and I feel like more agents do that now. So you gotta, like, think of way more, you know, unique ideas than just taking somebody through a house. But I think, like, it's just invaluable. But I also want to stress how important relationships are as well. Like, it is not enough to do just video in that I don't think it will ever be enough. Like, my business is basically 100% based, even though I buy leads for the team, my business itself is 100% referral based. So, like, the most important thing to so. Social media, but also the personal connection I get with people like I don't feel like that should be pushed to the side.

Tracy Hayes  45:08  
Hey, folks, this episode was produced by streamline media, the number one media company for helping brands generate content that converts I knew I wanted to start a podcast to reach more people and bring value to the world, but I did not have the time or the knowledge. Streamlined media became my secret weapon to building my show. They handle all my back end work, production and strategies to keep my show going strong. If you're in the real estate business and looking to make content that generates more leads and brings in more revenue, check out the streamline media link in the show notes and discover how partnering up can supercharge your path to real estate excellence when you meet the person for the first time who has been watching your social media. Because I imagine you may not say, oh, that I got the lead from that, right, but we know these people coming from out of state. They are googling. They're watching us. Yeah, they want to know watching. They want to know who they're meeting. Yeah, and if you're out there doing it consistently, is it not giving you a little bit of street credibility? That, because you are doing, like, informative videos you were just talking about, it gives you some credibility?

Haley Davis  46:17  
Yeah, for sure. Like, people know you. Well, I think it is street cred, but I also think it's personality, because people want to work with people that are like them. That's just the nature of business. So I think, like, yes, it's important to inform people and have them remember that you're the informer. But it also is very important for people to really clearly see my personality, because I want to win them as fast as possible over anybody else. And I think I don't know Melissa Ricks very well, but I know she does that very, very well. She is herself. 100% people know what they're getting before they start working with her. And I think that is way more valuable than the information that you're teaching somebody about a new a new home community, a new building, right? So I think the I use social media to get people to really understand, like, who I

Tracy Hayes  47:06  
because I can't be with you all day long, right? They don't know the other things and, yeah, their interests you have in your life exactly. You know, the you know, whether you're a soccer mom or, you know, you like Sundays, you like to go out in the boat, like I do, people bond to that kind of stuff, or, you have, I know there was one host listening to a podcast the other day. The guy started putting his Bulldog in his Yeah. Video, yeah. And the guy called them, they get made contact.

Haley Davis  47:34  
Yes, exactly. That's how it is in my golden doodle. I think my golden doodle gets me a lot of business. Was that, you know, he has other friends all across the metaverse.

Tracy Hayes  47:43  
So the circle back to the team. You know, how long have you because you changed brokerages, but how long has that Hayley Davis team been in existence? I was

Haley Davis  47:52  
thinking about this this morning. So, three years. Three years. Yeah. What is

Tracy Hayes  47:56  
the number one challenge, if someone, someone came to you, said, I'd like start a team too. What is your biggest challenge? What would you tell

Haley Davis  48:03  
the biggest challenge is separating friendship from work. I think in my mind, because I am a younger agent, and a lot of younger agents join my team, and we are on the same level, but we can't be really so like I don't I don't want to ever feel like I don't want anybody to feel like I'm better than I'm not, but I am in a position of leadership, and in order to maintain that position, it's a very fine line in between who you're friends with, who you hang out with on the weekends, like hanging out with other people and their spouses that are on your team. It's just it can be very, very messy, and I think some of the relationships and some of the agents that have been on my team the longest, those boundaries are very sacred and respected. And like, we don't hang out with them and their spouse or their boyfriend on the weekend. We just, we don't, it work. I totally, I

Tracy Hayes  48:56  
completely understand. I want to, I want to pin this down from the standpoint of, you know, especially in corporate America, where you have that, you know, very corporate structure, right? And then, you know, there's management, and then there's the employees, right? And the union not, you know, if you're in a unionized area, management's on the other team, right? You're there, you but you want to also, you know, they're not, they're not coming to your office because they have this assignment, and they're getting paid a salary, and they'll tolerate you. They are coming to your office because they actually want to be closer to you to hopefully, you know, pull some of their you're giving them value, and you want to give them value, and they want to be there to receive it, right?

Haley Davis  49:35  
They're paying me to be here, right? And I don't want to ever, I don't want to ever mistake that in my brain either. Like they I don't pay anybody. My brokerage pays people. They're not employees to me. They're not even contractors, technically, so they're paying me to be with. So I also try and remember that too, and that's why I try and like, spoil my team too, because I'm so blessed to have them, I could. Be doing what I'm doing without them. But with that being said, you have to respect boundaries.

Tracy Hayes  50:05  
All right, so what is it that you don't want your team to know about Hayley, about me?

Haley Davis  50:09  
What do you mean? Like, well, I'm I'm care, I withhold more than I extract from other people. So like, I think that's maybe a sales thing is, like, I want to know everything about you more than you know about me. And so that kind of it is the way with my team too, like it's therapy session sometimes, but I'm not not venting to them. I can't run. I'm not their job. So, I

Tracy Hayes  50:37  
mean, let me do a little psychology. I mean, do you feel? Do you feel? Well, I think all of us have, we know our weaknesses, right, right? And some of those weaknesses, we don't want to let others know. Some of some things we will let out tonight. We're not, we're not really good at that, but, but you've been doing this enough years, and you've got enough wins under your belt and so forth. But do you still have that kind of behind the conscious that you don't want to let them see you with your guard down, so to speak,

Haley Davis  51:07  
for sure, like, I have to, I like to present. I come in on Monday and I'm dressed professionally because I have to set the bar for other people. But like, when I'm home, I'm just wearing, I don't know, beach clothes. I live at the beach, so, but I I don't want, I always want to have myself presented like together for my team on it. Am I allowed to curse on the show? Of course, okay, I want to look like I have my shit together. I always want to present my Do you consider that a curse? Yeah, I want to present myself like that to my team, because that's what I want them to think. I want them to think I am doing everything I'm telling them to do, plus some because you do because I do it, you have to do it. I've done this before. I'm telling you, and you need to have your shit together, and I want to look polished, and I want to have my words polished for them. But in actuality, a lot of it is just my confidence. That's kind of like covering up other stuff. You know, just like anybody else in sales, like, I'm definitely not perfect. So, and I struggle with anxiety and depression, but I don't bring that to work. I can't, right, you know? So if there are people listening that do stuff, suffer with anxiety, that do real estate, you understand, like, what a struggle that is to, like, keep your shit together. It's very difficult sometimes. But do you

Tracy Hayes  52:21  
think that will, as time goes on and you get older and more sales and more experience and so forth, that that will ease off a little bit that right now, because you are as young as you are with the team, there's a lot of pressure on you,

Haley Davis  52:36  
yeah, oh yeah. There's a lot of pressure. Like, sometimes you, I don't even know how to explain it. It's like, it's, it's, it's pressure that nobody else is putting on you. You're putting it on you. So, but that's the type of person has success. Is the person that feels pressured by themselves, basically. So I try to remind myself, like it's not real, the facade of what I have to put on, like my team doesn't expect me to be perfect all the time, I'm a human, so

Tracy Hayes  53:02  
failing forward, you mentioned that earlier. It and that's, you know, you're listening to any of the top people out there. If you haven't failed, you haven't tried. I think Steve Harvey said that. So I want when, what are some of the things that you feel you have failed forward and that you would, you know, if you put in front of a bunch of people at nefar and say, Hey, in your success here as a real estate agent, what are some some important things that you failed forward to learn? Yeah, I think

Haley Davis  53:36  
one of the things I struggled with when I first started was I wanted to know the contract so well, because the better you know the contract, the better you can negotiate. But I didn't know it as well as I it took me six years to really get that contract, like, under my belt and really have leverage with it in your head, in my head, yeah, so like, in the beginning, I would just say silly things that weren't like, necessarily true to my buyers or somebody else, like in negotiating, and then I look back and I'm like, that's actually not true, like there's a lot of gray area in that contract. So I think when I didn't know it as well, I played up the gray area a lot, and I don't mess around with that anymore. I try and make things as cut and dry as I can, because the gray area is where you get in trouble. So I, while I was utilizing that to my advantage when I first started, it's not an area I like to

Tracy Hayes  54:22  
snap you in the butt, though, anywhere along the line now 100 oh my gosh,

Haley Davis  54:27  
I've you know, are we need a story now, I'm a fairly unproblematic agent, I will say. But when we were doing whole when we were doing the appraisal gap situation, appraisal gap dance that we were doing, like last year and the year before, I would say, like, I put on my contract. Like, you know, if the house doesn't appraise, then you know, buyers will come up X amount. And one time I told this is the first time I put it on, or the second time, first time, maybe it appraise. The second time maybe it didn't. And I was like, well, the buyers just don't want. Pay it, like they just don't want to pay it. And they're like, Well, you're in default. And I'm like, really? And the agent was just like, going off on me. And I like, look back and like, my buyers were such, like, little like, savages. They were in like, my ear saying, like, we're not gonna pay it. We're not gonna pay and I'm like, they're not gonna pay it. And they're like, you're in default. I'm like, I don't care. This is what my buyers are telling me. They don't care. Like, sue them. Basically they're asking the seller with an attorney. So he's like, the agent is an appraiser and also an agent. It's just a worst situation you can think of. And then, funny enough, so we got along. We got the deal done. My buyers ended up coming up, but not as much as we said we were going to come up in the contract saying that that's right. I'm just saying that's what happened from negotiation. And we ended up closing, and I saw this agent at like, a garage sale my friend was having, and she's like, Hey Hayley. I'm like, Hey girl. I'm like, I know that she probably she a thinks I'm dumb and B thinks I'm just a pain in the ass for arguing with her and making her like a living hell, basically, for a full week. But right, her seller again was an attorney, and mine was being a little, like, so antagonistic. So it was just, it was such a fun experience

Tracy Hayes  56:15  
because you just, you just played

Haley Davis  56:19  
dumb, yeah, like, Oh, you don't have to pay. She's like, they're in default, honey. I'm like, so she did not like, be very much. We're good, though.

Tracy Hayes  56:28  
Same on the subject of failing forward as far as the team in the structure, because when you know, I've had many of the top team leaders on Christina wells, CeCe Underwood, Sarah Rocco share a Cavanaugh on here. Yes, they've all sat there.

Haley Davis  56:44  
Yeah, all those people you just listed,

Tracy Hayes  56:48  
yeah, amongst others. I just, you know, those ladies always come first to mind to me the Keller, Keller Williams Hayes, yes, team leaders, because each at Melissa Ricks, each of them structure their team so differently. Okay, so in your, you know, three years of, you know, putting this team, people coming and going, you know, what are some of the things that you failed forward there, that you've learned, you know, and continue to tweak your team's ideology, or, you know, how you envision the team would be, originally, versus now, right? Because of some of the missteps along the way.

Haley Davis  57:22  
I think my most important decision making comes in in the hiring process, that I think is one of the hardest parts of having the team. So I think my failure was not because of a specific agent. It was my lack of knowledge on who I was looking for, essentially the type of agent that I really wanted to have on the team. I don't think I had that exactly clear when I first started. Has some pretty sassy people on the team, and I appreciate this. Like, it comes in handy with negotiation, but like, if we don't have mutual respect, and, like, you really, truly do not respect my style of negotiation, we're gonna be butting heads so bad. And so I've, I've had to fire a ton of people. I've had people leave like, I think, I think, Well,

Tracy Hayes  58:06  
okay, walk me through that part there. You didn't like the way they negotiated.

Haley Davis  58:10  
I don't like people that are passive aggressive. Like, I like just everything on the sleeves, like, it's all out in the open. We're not trying to, like, amen sister, yeah, yeah. I can't walk on eggshells. I am not a mind reader, so if I have somebody that I didn't realize was passive aggressive, or maybe was more internal, and I really couldn't figure out what their brain was doing to help them, then it's just not a good fit.

Tracy Hayes  58:34  
Yeah, if they're if they're not, you know, again, divulging their their weaknesses, or, you know, hey, I don't understand this. I need you to, you to, you know, help because you're on the same team.

Haley Davis  58:43  
You don't know who people are until they get put in a situation where they're under fire. You know what I mean? Like, if they're in a contract where they're freaking out, you know, I've had people, like, been like, girls or whatever, on the team, teammates, and they'll be going through something really stressful with the contract, and they're like, Well, you're not freaking out about it. I'm like, well, you're already doing that, so I don't need to do that. And like, they they thought I didn't care, because I wasn't freaking out as much. I wasn't on their level, you know. But like, that's just not a good age. Sounds like a spouse relationship. So it's so complex. It really is so complex. So, yeah, it's hard to know who you're looking for in the beginning.

Tracy Hayes  59:22  
How important where you're at now with the team. And I'm sure every day is another learning process. But looking forward for the next three, five years, whatever you know time period you're projecting your vision of the team as it evolves. Retention, yeah, and knowing when you're bringing this person on, is this person going to be part of my inner circle? Because I think one of the greatest successes is everyone will put Christina Welch on on a sort of a pedestal as team leader, and I've seen her grow. Is her ability to that she kept some core people, and they are bought. Into the Welch team, even though their name's not on it, and they can go anywhere they want, right? But they're bought in as that inner circle.

Haley Davis  1:00:06  
Yeah, I think the people that I have on my team now, like I've really fine tuned who I'm looking for, the type of personality I'm looking for, and I have had people on the team for over two years now, and it is that's a I've only had my team for three years. So I consider that that's a win for me, and I hopefully a win for them, because they're still here. So I'm still providing them a value that they feel is valuable. But I agree. I think retention of good people like it. It is so important. It is so important. And some, some people really do run their course, and you know, they need something else, or you're not able to provide that for them, but I feel like for the most part, if you're a good leader, you're going to retain, hopefully, a good amount of people, because that is your core. Sir.

Tracy Hayes  1:00:49  
Rocco said it's so well, and I've repeated it numerous times, when you when they feel you're not adding value to them anymore, that's when you're going to lose them. Yes, so retention being a challenge always is, how do I how do I retain but being the thing to retain them is adding value. So I mean, what goes on on a weekly, monthly basis, as far as you is being forward thinking to continue to add value, you have your Monday morning meetings, which, to me, I've seen a lot of poorly done sales meetings and waste a lot of people's time because there's no agenda, right? No one's leaving with any value at the end of it, say, Hey, I learned this today, or whatever it might be, how important is it, you know, a as a leader, to be forward thinking, so you are adding value. And what are, what are some of the things that go through your mind in that challenge?

Haley Davis  1:01:37  
Well, our Monday morning meetings are super productive, and when people miss them, they're very sad, because it doesn't start to wake off on the right foot. And if they can't be there, I'm like, I'm like, oh, you can't be there. Like, what's going on? Like, why can't you be there? And they're like, oh, you know, I had this I'm like, Well, you had to schedule it during a Monday meeting. And they're like, Yes, I did, and I would want to be there if I could. So like, I know they're trying to be at the Monday morning meeting so, but our Monday morning meeting does have really good structure. We go through articles, interest rates, deals that we have, leads that have come in, the conversations that we've had with the leads, gosh, upcoming events for like, the brokerage things I expect them to be at. I obviously do not employ them, so I cannot require them to be at a meeting. But as far as the value add from me throughout the week. Obviously, we have our meeting. I'm available for the meeting to go over whatever anybody wants to talk about, and typically we'll sit for about 30 minutes after and kind of chew the shed and talk about, you know, the contracts that we have. And it's not part of the meeting. It's just we're all there, and we're just kind of mastermind while we're there, maybe most of our time, but we do one on ones probably every other week. I found it's a little overwhelming for agents to do it every week, but that's 15 minutes of extremely focused time. What are you doing good? What are you doing bad? What are your goals for the next two weeks, basically, and then that's like a word vomit of everything that's happening with their deals and their life and everything. It's very focused. Phone is off. I am there 120% so we have that. I have book club, which we do every other week too, and then we're typically in the office, like, two or three times a week. And I'll text like, hey, go into the office if anybody wants to work. I'm here. And people will come in, you know, throughout and, you know, make the use of time they have with me, just sitting next to me while we're working together. So, yeah, that's, that's the value, I think, is, well,

Tracy Hayes  1:03:22  
if they're coming to join your team, they're coming, yeah, to spend that time with you. Them not to show up, yeah, would be why you even on the team, right? You know, you can just go be your own solo agent. Yeah? You know, type of, type of thing, you know, and obviously getting the, I think people, as I think I mentioned earlier in the show people underestimate, ramp up in the knowledge when you're around, because our business, every deal is different. There's different buyers, it's a different house. You know, you know different types of loans, different inspection issues that come up, different title issues that might come up a different negotiation, because they there's so many variables in it, and sometimes, yeah, the person loses it, and the reason why they're losing it situation is because they don't know what to do, right? And so they're panicking. And that's they're just their emotions coming out there that when you're in that office and you're sharing these stories like you are on Monday mornings, or, you know, when I always tell people, when I always tell people, when I first got started, I was working at Quicken Loans in Detroit, yeah, outside Detroit, in a call center. For first three years, I was in a call center where I could reach across and touch the guy, and we're sharing story, and we're having sales meetings or huddles or whatever we're talking about, or we immediately could walk over to our sales manager, because we've got people on the phone, right, you know? And, hey, this is a situation. How can we right, you know? Or how can I present this differently?

Haley Davis  1:04:44  
I will say there's not a lot of panic on the team, and I think there's not a lot of panic with the agents on the team, because I'm there so much and they've heard so much of what I've been through with my deals already, that the expectation for them is they've heard most of already. You know, they haven't experienced it all, but like, We're not a team of people that are frazzled all the time. Like you're not supposed to present yourself like that anyways, and that's just not how our team is so but I find when you do have a team that's actually functioning, well, nobody's frazzled because they've all had so much shared experience that there's no reason to be frazzled.

Tracy Hayes  1:05:19  
Well, I'm gonna get a compliment there. Part of that is leadership. If you they feel that they have a leader that has their back. Yeah, they're both, yeah, both, whether it's you know you're when that deal goes awry, whether you actually know how to solve it. You've experienced it yourself. You know who you need to call right to get or who they should call to get advice on how to, you know, come back and represent or whatever, whatever the situation is, you are, you have been around long enough in your it's you pouring out the confidence to them that, you know, it's not a big deal. And I love the ring. Christina weld Tracy said, houses don't cry.

Haley Davis  1:05:59  
Yeah, it's so true. But if everybody, for the most part, is just very collected, like, I look at all the contracts, like, if you're gonna make a mistake, that's that's okay, you can make a mistake, but it probably is gonna be smaller, because I'm looking at everything we're talking about it as you're putting the contract in, so the mistakes are minimized and, like, anyways, on top of them being calm.

Tracy Hayes  1:06:19  
So all right? So you started off with this initial brokerage, and then if you want to mention the second brokerage, you were there because you were there for a few years, right? So you talk about the in general terms, and however specific you want to be, why you felt it was a time to change. Because, like we said, we mentioned earlier in the show, it's important that agents need to know that sometimes you run their course at a certain brokerage, and it could be for many different reasons. It could be that brokerage just is really good at New newbies and not good at senior people, or maybe leadership changes what they're focused on. Maybe they just get lazy in what they're doing and not staying, not being forward, thinking in that and knowing they need to add value, they get lazy with it, right? So, you know, what was it? Some of the reasons why you, you know, you've changed brokerage and obviously gone to compass here recently.

Haley Davis  1:07:10  
Yeah, I was definitely outgrowing my last brokerage, because I was definitely kind of the big fish in the little pond. And I never, I don't want to be at the top in any space I want to be bottom middle, so I can be learning from the people that are at the top, you know. And there's a time and a place to be at the top, but I was just at a point of where I wanted to be kind of moving more into the luxury space. I felt like I kind of paid my dues with our volume and, you know, with the type of people that I was working with and that kind of thing. Like, it really was just time to go. And sometimes you just you just know, but I spent a lot of time there. I understood the concepts that they were teaching. I understood each brokerage has a different way of teaching you productivity and efficiency and whatever you else you learn at the brokerage. And I feel like I mastered, like I really do feel like I mastered the time management tools they gave me, the leadership tools that they gave me, and it was just a time to go and learn from the top of our Jacksonville market. Basically, I wasn't around people that I wanted to be around, and not that those people are going to have the time for me anyways, but I I wanted to be challenged and be in a room with people that were speaking like they were the best, because they were the best.

Tracy Hayes  1:08:19  
So, mean, obviously you thought that was important, yes. And you can get into sounds like you were in a point where it was flattering, because obviously you may have actually been doing a lot of the instruction at the previous pro because you were considered the top person there, but at some point you're like, Hey, I got to run my business. Yeah. And I'm really flattered that you want me to, you know, be on this panel or all this other stuff, but that doesn't pay me any money, right? And so forth. That, you know, how important is you can did not a compass come and chat with you and kind of, kind of bring that to your attention? Or is this something you kind of learned through your own personal development, listening to bigger pockets or whatever you were listening to? So you started going, what's going on here? I need, what's going to take me to the next level?

Haley Davis  1:09:05  
Yeah, I think, well, compass had reached out to me, like, probably a year and a half ago, and I had some pretty serious conversation with them about, like, their systems and everything that they were offering, but they were just starting in Jacksonville, and I was like, I'm not really like, I'm not ready to go yet. I just didn't feel like it was, like, my time to go yet. We had our biggest year last year, and I was just, I don't know, I was just not positioned. I was very happy with what I was getting at the time. And then things started to change at my last brokerage, like leadership was kind of changing a little. And I don't know, I just honestly got kind of a gut feeling, but I knew in the future I wanted to do luxury anyways, so it always been working up to that, and then I just got to the point where I was like, we had a really strong year. Like, our systems are insanely strong. We're very efficient. Like, if I'm going to challenge myself to redo all the CRM, all this stuff, like, it really felt like September was the time. And so I called my operations manager, Morgan, and I was like, we need. To go make sure I go, like, it's, this is the time we're all leaving. And I lost half of my team, like moving over, which was a bummer, but I think some of those people needed be kind of thinned out anyways.

Haley Davis  1:10:09  
And sure, Kavanaugh said the same thing, yeah, it

Haley Davis  1:10:13  
was a blessing, honestly. Like, things just happened the way they're supposed to happen. So, so yeah, but it was, it was an amazing decision. Like, compass is an incredible company. They get a lot of flack, but Flack, but from somebody that's with the brokerage that values social media and technology, and it is a very technology forward company, like, literally, one of the most innovative, innovative companies that you know, present right on this market. So their systems are just like, I can't explain how great they are.

Tracy Hayes  1:10:42  
You. You mentioned process and systems, and it was, you know, like I mentioned, I was cutting some old reels from my interview with Melissa Ricks, and she talks about processes and systems. How important? Again, someone comes in chat and you say, I want to, I want to do a team like you. How important from the credibility standpoint or and just fluid up, you know that you're not caught up in a day to day minutia of non income producing tasks. Is your processes and systems within your team.

Haley Davis  1:11:14  
It is absolutely everything from the second that we get a contract to getting, you know, inspection quotes, there's a person with the responsibility for those things. It is, get the contract. You get the get the quotes. You send it to the transaction coordinator. The transaction coordinator does this. You do that, and then you go back to selling like the more time that's spent trying to figure out what you're supposed to be doing is less time you could be procuring business, which means we're going to make less than we should be. So I think, like, processes and systems, I'm just huge on efficiency. I don't want to be wasting my time. Like, if I have extra time, I want to be with my dog, with my family, with my husband. Probably should have said husband, family dog. He's amazing family dog. Like, or on the beach somewhere, like, I don't want to be spending any more time enjoying the fruits of your labor. Exactly. I don't want to spend any more time working than I have to. So it's like if I have these amazing systems, and I get to spend more time with my agents, but also more time doing what I want to do. So from

Tracy Hayes  1:12:16  
the get go of the team, how? How quickly did you realize that you or did you have a good mentor that you were watching, you know, that really drilled that into you? Because I really, you know, we talk about these, you know, these degree team leaders we've had on processes, systems, the faster you can get those down. And, of course, you're always tweaking something here and there, but that's easy, but getting those things down and knowing everyone, everyone knows what they're supposed to be doing, or in their lanes. Were you able to, you know, get a mentor, or was that something you had to fail forward on early in your team building?

Haley Davis  1:12:51  
Yeah, my last brokerage at Red Zone, he had an amazing coach there, and I was able to bounce off a lot of ideas with him on, you know, how systems and processes looked and I spent a lot of nights staying up super late, just being super type A and writing out, if this, then this, if this, then this. Like, there is a solution to every schematic. Yeah, exactly. It's just all written out. It's a timeline. It's everything like, and I, I enjoy that. I like, I like setting expectations for myself and for other people. And like, I like to know what's coming next. That's probably the type A and me, but it's just so important, I think spending the extra time to stay up till one or two, not all the time, but one or two. If you're really feeling like you're in the mood to get some shit straightened out, stay up till one or two. You know you're you're going to be so much better off with a clear plan of how you're going to move your team forward, versus, like, throwing things against the wall and seeing if they work that way. Like I'm all for failing forward, but you there is a level of organization that is an absolute must to reach any kind of success.

Tracy Hayes  1:13:53  
And if you want to start a team, these processes are out there. There are teams that are doing it. You may tweak it a little bit, but because, I think you staying up to one at two o'clock in the morning and actually drawing out the schematic, whatever they say yes, or they say, oh, go through, you

Haley Davis  1:14:11  
know, anything you fully

Tracy Hayes  1:14:12  
understand the process that you're able to look at your production report and see where deals are at appraisals in, you know, whatever types of things, and you know who should have that right, or who you need to call, because, right? Why hasn't that file moved right? You know, to the next

Haley Davis  1:14:30  
step well, and I think it's comforting for the agents on your team to know who they call, and I don't want them calling me to order signs, not ordering you a sign. Like, you know, not to call me for so like, but there is somebody that you can call, and she answers the phone every single time, probably more than I do,

Tracy Hayes  1:14:45  
so it knows exactly who to call Exactly. Just did it an hour ago. I was like, Why are you calling me?

Haley Davis  1:14:49  
You know, I'm not gonna, this is not gonna be a fast process. Nobody wants me to order a sign for that. I promise you will take me forever, and I'm not. I can't stay focused that long. So call the person you need to be calling for. The sign or the thing, all right, let's,

Tracy Hayes  1:15:01  
let's, let's finish up here in a couple, just last couple minutes, and really talk about Hayley, the real estate agent. Okay, so hopefully we can get some good reels, or someone's watching this, like I said before the show, you know one of your possible fans, someone considering you know, using you sees this show or sees this clip right here. What if someone's hiring Hayley to represent them, buyer or seller, and you can differentiate what you do, you know, because obviously you do something just slightly different for a seller than you do for a buyer. But Vanessa, why should they be using Hayley?

Haley Davis  1:15:32  
I am probably one of the most organized people. You know, I always have my systems in my processes hammered out so well to decrease any kind of stress that a seller or a buyer might have. And I've sold multiple houses and purchased multiple houses, it's a stressful process, so me taking on the stress for somebody else, I'm happy to do it. And honestly, it doesn't stress me out that part of the real estate doesn't stress me out taking on other people's stress, but when you are organized and there is somebody to call for everything, it makes your client's life so much better, because they have jobs, they have all these things, they have kids, they're busy. They don't want to be managing all the minutia, like that is our job to take all that on, we are corralling everybody to get the deal done, and I don't want other people to see, you know, the kind of stress that I'm taking on. So I really do try and take it on for other people and, like, just make the process as seamless as possible. Like, we treat everybody like a luxury client.

Tracy Hayes  1:16:37  
Basically, I, you know what you just said? I relate back. You said your team. You know, you don't realize people panic on your team. And I'm going to go back to you again. It's you because you're cool. You have your processes down. You know, as stuff hits the wall over here, that you need to do something right, to act so you because you have taken the time to map out your schematic of all the different ways that you can turn you've got probably, you know, eight other really experienced people, brokers, top agents in your speed dial that you know you can call on. You know, something squirrely that you've never seen before comes up. And I really, yes, definitely the processes and but that gives you the confidence, and I think that error is just your whether it's your team or your customer. Is feeling it from you. I feel in front of you right now, you're confident in what you're you were talking about. You didn't You didn't hesitate in any of the questions that I had. And like, had to, like, go in this deep thought you knew exactly what to do, because you've got everything channel. Maybe it's that a personality you talk about. Yeah, you know, you you've got done, and that client looking to work for you is, is going to and just, even though you are younger, to go, you know, buy a $10 million home in Jack's Beach, Hayes gonna have everything squared away.

Haley Davis  1:17:51  
Oh, yeah, we're good, yeah, it's gonna be great. Might not be great for me. It might be really stressful for me, but you never know.

Tracy Hayes  1:17:57  
Well, they're always, they're always stressful, especially, especially when they're borrowing money in the higher and so forth to make or or their income isn't exactly the just nice, easy, w2

Haley Davis  1:18:10  
that creative income that people have, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  1:18:13  
but I think that confidence comes from you, because you've taken the time to put the processes and systems done, not only as an individual Agent, but obviously you've poured it over into your team, and so they they know what to do when stuff hits the fan.

Haley Davis  1:18:25  
Confidence is literally everything. Yeah, I can't, and it's, it's something that you really have to work on and, like, really work on with yourself, too. And I we learned this at my last brokerage. But like, if somebody's not working with you, they're doing a disservice to themselves, and I truly believe that our team is superior when it comes to knowledge. So I don't want you to be working with another realtor that doesn't know as much as I do on the subject that's that's scary. Why would I? Why would I want that for you? I like you. I don't I don't want, I don't want you to go to Joe realtor, you know what I mean? Because A, I want the business, but B, I know more than them. So why are you going to trust your

Tracy Hayes  1:19:05  
Well, it's actually the other way. A, you know more than the business.

Haley Davis  1:19:08  
Yes, exactly, exactly. So I really do feel confidently about that, and I try and steal that to the people on my team too. So they feel like, okay, like I really I can't let my friend go work with this other agent. Like it has to be me. Like I need to protect them. It kind of comes from, like, that type of, like, a protective Yeah.

Tracy Hayes  1:19:26  
So what you you mentioned in the other agent, and it was a reel that I saw a couple weeks ago, so I started asking this question, what is your biggest pet peeve when working with an agent on the other side who isn't, whether they're just a bad part timer, because I know there's good part timer, so I don't want to label because they're part time, they're bad, but a bad part time agent who's not staying abreast, or they're just lackadaisical in the way that what is, what are some of your your your pet peeves that sometimes you you have to control yourself because you really want to reach through the phone and, like, grab them by the throat. It's. But I

Haley Davis  1:20:01  
think people that like, like, I hate to say the word mansplaining, but like, when a man is on the other side of the phone, or even a woman, and they they act like, literally better than you because they're older, and I'm literally like, we've probably done the same amount of business, like we probably have done it you've been in probably not. I've maybe done more than you at this point, so I don't know why you're speaking to me in a manner that's so like, what do you call it like, like you're looking down on somebody else, yeah, but I people don't do that as much to me, but they'll do it to my agent. So it's, it's not a pet peeve of mine, because I can handle myself when somebody's on the phone and they're, you know, talking down to me, but when they're talking down to my agents, I literally want to, like, be like, Give me the phone. I'm going to talk to them in a call and be like, listen like we are on a top producing team. You're talking to this person right now, but I'm on the other end telling them what to tell you. So you speaking to them like that. It makes, oh, nothing gets

Tracy Hayes  1:20:57  
Do you have you conferenced sometimes? Oh, you said, Hey, let's do a three way,

Haley Davis  1:21:01  
like the way that these my new agents on my team get spoken to by some agents in the industry. It's disgusting, like it makes me it makes me furious. Nothing makes me madder than somebody like speaking down to one of the agents

Tracy Hayes  1:21:13  
on my team. What do you you understand? It's It's stressful. And there are people who like, you know that that commission check isn't is important. I mean, you spend all this time and energy, maybe you haven't sold anything in months, or maybe this is your first sale, and you know, you've been blank for four or five months, and this, this is gonna be your first deal. It could be a little stressful, because we all, we all want that win. But, I mean, what do you think that that sets some of these agents off to be more adversarial versus being collaborative. Because I find that obviously the more experienced in successful agents, not saying they all were like that at the beginning. I don't know, but they're more collaborative and understanding, hey, we got to get we're trying to you're trying to sell the home, and I'm trying to buy the home, and we're all trying to get there at the end of the month to close. Why do they Why do you think they get some adversarial type attitude? Sometimes, I think

Haley Davis  1:22:03  
people's perspective of what a good negotiator is is very skewed. Sometimes, I think in order to feel like they have any leverage in a transaction, they have to take on this defense mode that's good negotiator. The Negotiator is the person who's your friend. That's the person you should be scared of. And I had a deal, a couple deals passed where a lady was on the phone like, you should know this. You should know that. And I'm just thinking, like, I literally just slow her down and be like, I don't want you to mistake anything I'm saying on the phone right now, as me not being on your team, I want this to close. And it was like a shack. I was closing a shack. My sellers, where investors are, like, get rid of this. So I'm on the phone. Like, listen me and you, we're on the same page. Girl. Like, I want to get this closed. I want everybody to be happy. Like, Please do not mistake my tone of voice for me being confrontational. That's not I'm just a very frank person, and I want to accomplish the same goal. So I think when you bring it down and humanize it like that, it really is. It's a true reminder to other people. Because I really, I think she was Russian, she was so fiery. I loved it. I love that she was fiery, but she was difficult. She was difficult for me to deal with on the phone. And so finally, I just leveled with her. I'm like, listen, like I I like you, like, we're gonna get this done. Like, I really feel like it's gonna happen for us, but like, I want you to know we're on the same page, because half the battle is just getting along with the other agent, right? So many deals. I mean, I've even killed deals because I've gone off on people, for sure, and I'm not proud of that, but, you know, it gets fiery, so you have to just level with the other person. It's like, hey, like, well, how

Tracy Hayes  1:23:41  
important you're talking about that is to actually, as an agent, to get out to some of these, you go injects, real producers at the end of the month. Good. All right, so we'll see you there. So to get out and you'll meet some of these agents face to face, yeah, because there's no doubt, there's animosity, and people don't know each Right, right? You think, but when you actually have met face to face, right? It, you know, just makes it a little easier for them to pick up the phone.

Haley Davis  1:24:06  
I mean, the top 10% of the agents do 90% of the business, and so half the time when I'm showing houses, I know the agents that are on the other side, so it's in my best interest to be friendly. And your reputation is everything anywhere, but especially in Jacksonville, because it's a huge, small city. You just we know everybody here, if you go to Publix, it's crazy, but it it benefits me to befriend the other agent in more situations than one. So when I go to these real producer events or whatever, when I'm meeting the top people like those are the people that I want to socialize with in the real estate industry, because those are the people whose listings I'm showing and negotiating with, and if I do have a good relationship with them, that's going to reflect amazingly on my buyers if I'm submitting an offer. So just as in your best interest to befriend, like, catch more. Yeah. I mean. Hayes with honey, so to

Tracy Hayes  1:25:01  
have a relationship. And if I called you and said, Hayley, my sellers are being real pains in the butt, yeah, they've got to have this. You know that I'm telling you because it's the truth and what's going to close so you then know how to go and you're positioning yourself to your buyers to say, we need to do this to get it done, right? Vice versa, whatever the situation is, and it's not adversarial, or I'm not trying to throw you, I'm actually getting right down to the brass tacks this. Hey, this is what we because we're collaborating. Our goal is to put these two relationships together. I'm not

Haley Davis  1:25:33  
a fluffy words person. I just need to know what you want, and I will try and bring that to you, like, if this is the kind of offer that you want to, I will do my best to bring that offer to you. I don't like this back and forth, like, crap. Of like, people feeling like they have to be like, use these fancy words to like, be an incredible negotiator. That's not part of being an amazing negotiator.

Tracy Hayes  1:25:54  
The interesting thing is, their clients are generally not hearing the negotiation, so there's no show you have to put on.

Haley Davis  1:25:59  
Yeah, exactly, exactly, and I don't feel like I'm performing for anybody, and I am an advocate for my buyers and my sellers, and i That's why I try and set the expectation from the very beginning of like, what kind of negotiator I am. So you know how I'm speaking to these other people when I'm on the phone, is the same way I'm speaking to you? Basically, you just have to humanize the whole process, because it really is just like the wild west out there. Just have to rein it in as much as you can, try and get it all to the closing table as smoothly as possible. I'm gonna wind up anything you'd like to add.

Tracy Hayes  1:26:30  
No, I appreciate you having me here. I'm glad it got you on. Yeah, appreciate it. Great story, great. There's gonna be a lot of great reels out of here. I will share for and repurpose. I'll send your team, obviously the video if they want to cut it up, but I think that's a lot of great information, great story. Thank you. This was fabulous. Thanks, Hayley, thanks for coming on.