Sarah Rocco: Social Media, Process, Leadership

Tracy Hayes  0:15  

Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. Your host Tracy Hayes today in the studio, I have one of the most successful, respected real estate agents and team owners in Northeast Florida. Her team is consistently month over month on the short list of Keller Williams Atlantic partners, best in 2021 her team was awarded the quadruple platinum Award. She is a nationally recognized speaker trainer and featured advisor at the University of Florida, Warrington business sales seminars, her passion for real estate has resulted in a deep understanding of the industry and its nuances, acting as a valuable resource available to all her customers. She consistently producing results for these customers through her relentless focus on delivery of value and relationship building. Her daily goal is to be dynamic and insightful professional, leading her team at the Rocco group with integrity, supporting others as they tackle their personal goals. She is the rock of the Rocco group. Let's welcome Sarah Rocco to the show you so much. Thank you to be here. Excellent. It's about time. I stole a little bit from your Yes, it is about time. So there are some that jump right on the opportunity. Others need a little more. You know, nagging.

Sarah Rocco  1:28  

It wasn't for lack of desire.

Tracy Hayes  1:33  

I stole some of your bio there, obviously, from LinkedIn, from that you you word it more better than I probably English wise, but I kind of want to dive in real quick. Obviously, want to know where you're from, which I obviously read that on your LinkedIn. But tell us a little about your involvement with the University of Florida, though.

Sarah Rocco  1:54  

Yeah. Thank you. So my son is a junior at the University of Florida, but one of my mentors is a professor there, so as he's seen my journey, he brings me in two to three times a year to speak at the sales seminars. Oh,

Tracy Hayes  2:07  

cool, yeah. So these are students, or they're

Sarah Rocco  2:11  

students that are pursuing or open to a career in sales, okay, and exploring what it would be like to be in 100% type commission based industry.

Tracy Hayes  2:21  

It's interesting. My city alumni group, the president of and we actually had a four star general, who's the president now, used to be the Assistant Commandant Marine Corps. And it's so interesting how the school has changed since I was there many years ago. And the focus on setting these kids up, young adults, setting them up for a career, and the fact that you're in there talking about sales, and then real estate, like, I mean, obviously we know a couple people did go from college to real estate, but who does that? You never heard that before. And to start tell talking about about real life and opportunities that are out there above and beyond. Because I think a lot of our young people, and if you agree, I mean, obviously they only know what they know. Yeah, you know, What did mom and dad do? What did my uncle do? That type of thing? And that's about as far as they can go. And first career experiences, when there's so many things out there,

Sarah Rocco  3:12  

yeah, and they're always looking kind of for a safer bet, something, and they're encouraged in our society to take a safe bet, something that's going to provide benefits and a stable salary. So showing them the rapid results we've had in the rapid growth coming from having zero business experience ready, right? You know, I'm right where they were.

Tracy Hayes  3:38  

That's got to be eye opening for some of them. I imagine it just kind of blows some of them, obviously. Some get it. Some don't know next, but yeah, some sit there and see what you're doing with some of the young people, because your team seems to be fairly young when I look at the picture overall. Yeah, you're fourth. I want to actually make a comment. You're when I went on your website. I love that video playing in the background as you're that is whoever put that together. You have a videographer on staff. I noticed, yeah, yeah.

Sarah Rocco  4:07  

We actually went through a transition, but we have one rejoining in June. Oh, cool,

Tracy Hayes  4:12  

yeah, because that that video looks really cool. Be playing behind the actual thing. So you're from Montana, yes. Tell us about

Sarah Rocco  4:19  

that. Tell us so, born in Billings Montana, and a lot of my family is still there. So I say I have Montana roots, but I'm Florida grown because I moved when I was fairly young. My dad transferred here from Montana steel industry to steel industry, large steel industry. Here Can Am steel so, oh, yeah. So, I mean, my

Tracy Hayes  4:43  

imagine when he got that memo, like, hey, we want to transfer someone. Come in your head, we want to transfer you to Florida from Billings, Montana. I guess it depends on what his hobby is. I was a big hunter. He's probably like, but you could still do that here, yeah.

Sarah Rocco  4:57  

But Montana, I have grown to absolute. Love as, like a secondary home, yeah, because, you know, aunts, uncles, they are both in Bozeman and Big Sky and skiing and summers and glacier. And, I mean, it's beautiful.

Tracy Hayes  5:10  

It's one of those when my dad, my parents, did RV for like, a decade after they retired, and that was one of my places my dad wanted to go, and they worked a summer outside Glacier National Park there, because he just wanted to, you know, spend his time in Montana. So you're you come here, I assume you went to the University

Sarah Rocco  5:30  

of Florida. I did not, actually decided not to pursue college. Saved a lot of money, saved a lot of money, and the stress of all that for myself, and then actually got married fairly young, the right way. I got pregnant six months after we got married, but I got married young and started a family. And I came from, like a family of entrepreneurs, so it was always exciting to me, the idea of it,

Tracy Hayes  5:56  

right? Yeah. So that's interesting, because, you know, more and more the top agents that I'm meeting college education. I mean, some of them do, some of them are actually very educated, but others, you know not that you're not. You're educated in probably a better way. But you know, when you're standing in front of some of these college kids at University of Florida and say, you know, I don't, I don't have a degree. I didn't throw I don't know what it well, in states, probably not too bad. But imagine I had a state of state of University of Florida is probably 4050, grand a year, you know. So you say $200,000 right there and then where you've gone with your career and success. Because obviously,

Sarah Rocco  6:32  

I will say, though, before I started the real estate company, I did go back to college and pursue that, and I thought it's what I would want to do, and it wasn't fulfilling like I expected. Now, later in life, I actually may end up going back.

Tracy Hayes  6:51  

I think, yeah, I think obviously, to me, it's a grown it's a it's another, it's four years of trying to mature a little bit more and come in the workplace and say, Well, I got a degree. So obviously, I think one of the things young people miss today is actually accomplishing things. You know, my son's in the in the boy scouts, and then I tell you, just stick with it and get your Eagle Scout, because that's the one thing you can't take away from you. And you complete it, just like your college degree. You get it, you can't take it away from you. And that's just one measure there. So you start, you start your family. Yes, young Yes. Are you working at this time? You just kind of stay at home.

Sarah Rocco  7:23  

Mom, at home. Mom, that was the choice that we made. And my ex husband at the time, or now, ex husband, he ran a company, so I got to see the ins and outs of that and the chaos that's included. But it was always intriguing, because you had the ability and the flexibility and freedom, right, right? That was always really exciting. So raise the family. Had three kids home schooled for many years, and then my life just shifted completely when I was 28 years old. What

Tracy Hayes  7:56  

happened? Then went through a divorce, okay?

Sarah Rocco  7:58  

And, you know, unexpectedly, had

Tracy Hayes  8:01  

to regret it today. Figure out what's that. I'm sure he regrets it today, but go ahead.

Sarah Rocco  8:09  

But yeah, so it was, it was surprising, and I had to really invent myself, because my only identity was a mom at that point. Yeah, yeah. And so when I think of these other single mothers going through identity challenges, I can completely relate to

Tracy Hayes  8:27  

that. It is amazing. Again, a good number of the top agency. This is your episode 65 and you know, I've obviously spoke to almost almost 60 agents, of them been agents, and how many of them are single moms? Or like Shonda last week, she was, she was not a single mom, but she was stay at home. Mom, before she jumped in, but there's been many others that have kind of, you guys have treaded over the same turf, so to speak, in a sense of being that stay at home. Mom, divorce, or, you know, you're you've got to got a couple kids, and now you've got to create yourself, yes, so what do you're out there. This happens to you? What are you

Sarah Rocco  9:10  

doing? I think. So there was no backup plan. It was either I succeed at this, or else, like there's nothing else, you know, you got three kids, hungry kids, and you have to make it work. So I think the fact that I was a little bit naive in the sense that there were so many giants in our industry that had come before that were doing it really well. I literally would read books and study podcasts and different things and just implement so if they said to door knock, my golly, I would door knock five times a week, right, right? And I didn't know that actually, most people don't do that

Tracy Hayes  9:50  

well, everyone, they don't, they don't let that secret out or

Sarah Rocco  9:53  

cold calling, right? I didn't realize it said to do it if you want to have success. So I was going to do it right. And so I just started implementing exactly what was told in these models.

Tracy Hayes  10:04  

So on your LinkedIn, you have sclp, property management, yes, was that your, was that your husband's company or that that's kind of your

Sarah Rocco  10:12  

first job? That was my first international property okay, that I started, oh, okay, that I bought, and then I created, grew it into, like a property management

Tracy Hayes  10:23  

company. Okay, yeah, all right. So you're, you're, you're 28 years old, who introduces you to real estate? Or is that something you like, you've been thinking about for a

Sarah Rocco  10:32  

while? So I think that's something that makes it very interesting, is it wasn't in my family, or, you know, it wasn't something that was like, highly talked about. But my aunt in Montana, she said, I know you're going to school and you want to be a nurse and but I really think you'd be great at real estate, right? I was

Speaker 1  10:53  

like, Okay, I'll give it a shot. But she wasn't a real estate agent

Sarah Rocco  10:57  

herself. No. Interesting. An entrepreneur. Never went to college, super successful, and she, yeah, she plants a seed. And then I started reaching out to people I knew. And my sister in law is in Atlanta at the time, and she had gotten her real estate license and had some early success, and I reached out to her, and I said, How's it going? She's like, Oh, you got to do it 16. Yeah, yeah. And so I got my license pretty quickly, and started January 1, 2016

Tracy Hayes  11:29  

and yes, so it's for those new agents out there. And I'm sure you have some young agents on your team. I know they're just getting started. Tell us about you know, that's a, where are you learning from? Who is there a mentor? You're, you're linked up to tell us how you you get, you'll get to that first, you know, couple of sales,

Sarah Rocco  11:49  

yeah. So I took everything and anything. If you look at my first 27 families helped in that first year, I had a $33,000 purchase, all the way up to, you know, three 400,000 so I was open to taking anything that would give me information or give me knowledge, but I I joined Keller Williams. And Keller Williams, to me, is just a great base of education, right? So the education there, the people I was surrounded with, I was like a little sponge, like I was always listening, like it was annoying, right? Probably the people. So there'd be teams all around, and they come from a very sharing culture, yeah, which I love, yeah. And so they would share things with me, and I would go implement it.

Tracy Hayes  12:31  

Isn't the the you know, one of the common themes that I have is surrounding yourself by successful people, and the Keller Williams, Atlantic partners, especially south side here seems to have so many people, that is so it's just I admire in the other agents there, in that SBS people. And, you know, I've had several of them on, but their business and they're doing well, I can imagine just, you know, if you Yeah, you want to start, you want to be around that office. If there's any one office in Jacksonville to be on, that's one of them. You should be there because of all the greats in there. Can you comment on this? The you don't really see, I find the top agents. This is another thing they don't see the other agents as competition. Oh, right. And being in an office like the partners on South Side with with other great people, or England Volkers I know Corey talked about, you know, he's a young guy, and he's, he's recruited all these really top producers, and that how they feed off each other. How important? How was that when you were growing up in your real estate career at Southside?

Sarah Rocco  13:40  

Well, I will say that there was, there used to be, what, eight to 10,000 listings on the market, and it was a lot less than my competition. Now, with 1800 I'm like, You are truly, like, honestly, but otherwise, but that, I mean, as far as sharing, because you don't see that as, like, scarcity mindset, like, I'm not going to share my secrets, because you're going to go do it like, most people don't implement it. No, they hear it, but they won't implement it. So I always share all the time, right? But, yeah, it's a sharing culture, yeah, which is and it's refreshing.

Tracy Hayes  14:15  

And I mean, how important, I mean in your success. So I mean, you're only six years coming out, yours, this is your six year, right? Six years, and where you're at and the size of your team. I mean, how important. I mean, you know, because I know you I see your posts and the things you're doing in the in some of the places you're going, and events that you're, you know, putting out, or whether you're speaking or whatever, how, how important was to be around those people to create the Rocco group as it is today. I mean, not say you you politely borrowed ideas from all these great people all

Sarah Rocco  14:48  

around you. I wouldn't be where I am today had I have not been invited to family reunion, which is a large conference that be wary right after I start. I went to that conference. It cost me money. It was painful. The growth I experienced in that one conference. Interest changed my life, because it took me from being a local, locally, seeing real estate as a local on a local level, to global right interest on what I could see

Tracy Hayes  15:21  

you so you just got started, obviously, probably didn't have a lot of money. How much? How much you think it cost you? 2500 bucks for a few days in Dallas, I would imagine, is where it was right? Yeah, and but the conference, and being now, you didn't even talk about the guest speakers. You You were more referencing the people who were just there, yeah, Keller Williams, all over the country, yeah. And actually,

Sarah Rocco  15:47  

one guy was on the stage, and afterwards, I reached out to him on Facebook, and I was like, can I get 10 minutes of your time? And that is one thing I always do, is the speaker, I address immediately, and I get in their face, Oh,

Tracy Hayes  16:01  

little tip right there. Grab the speaker, ask for

Sarah Rocco  16:03  

10 minutes interest. Or say, Can I get one minute of your time, whatever they'll give you, right? Yeah,

Tracy Hayes  16:09  

well, that one minute ends up because they, they, they're they're speaking because they want to share, of course, and then the fact that you actually took attention and took the initiative. Say, Can I get a minute with you that ends up being that could end up being an unto a lunch or a dinner.

Sarah Rocco  16:22  

And it did. I ended up they fly, flew me out to Maryland to meet the team. It ended up being great,

Tracy Hayes  16:28  

just because you asked for 10 minutes. Yes, wow, yeah, that's so one of the things we talk about is investing in yourself. You You didn't ask for someone else to pay for it. You probably borrowed on a credit card to get out there and that change, that change your trajectory, right off the 1,000% launch. Wow, that's powerful stuff. Invest in yourself these events, and you know, so you were there for a couple days, I imagine, right? These events go on for a couple days. You're only talking about one little instant where the guy might spoke for half an hour, 45 minutes, and then you asked for 10 minutes, and the rest of it was not even at the event. So literally, in less than one hour and two days, you took out something there, and that $2,500 now is worth. It's priceless, right? Yeah. So you come back, you visit these areas. You're still, you know, in your first year, how are you? What did you grab from that? How are you? How are you getting started? Is the Rocco group something like in your vision now, or you're just worried about, hey, I'm worried about getting my first couple sales, my Well, 27 in the first

Sarah Rocco  17:32  

year, right? Right, right. So I was very small minded prior to that, that event, meaning not small minded, like I still had a big, big vision, but it was Sarah sells Jack's, which is very singular, very focused, inward, and it's great like that. That's fine if that's your vision. But I realized that to attract talent to that would be I'd hit a ceiling pretty quickly. So after that, like about eight months in, I decided I needed to rebrand. And I was Sarah Schneider at the time. I was like, well, there's no way in. I'm going to brand my Yeah, oh, yeah. So I went back to my maiden name. There you go. And Rocco's such a strong name. And then

Tracy Hayes  18:16  

I just hit short to the point, yeah. It's like, see your hand, yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, exactly. So you rebrand, but tell us some of the, I mean, tell us some of the real nuts and bolts you mentioned, cold calling and knocking on doors. What are the, what are some of the first things you're doing to market yourself? You just rebranded. So what are you doing to get that out there? What you know is a new agent listening right now. What are you? Because I've heard a lot of agents say, let everybody know that you're doing, that you're doing real estate. Well, that's easy with if you're willing to get on social media right now, right? But five years ago, that right there, six years ago, that was

Sarah Rocco  18:55  

a little different. I was an early adapter, adapter of social media. So I jumped into social media right away. I posted when I was door knocking, I posted when I was doing open houses. So I actually jumped in pretty quickly to that, and that's how I got exposure. But I mean, I was hustling like anyone says it's that, it's not work is lying?

Tracy Hayes  19:19  

Well you must have been get you. You sold 27 in the first

Sarah Rocco  19:23  

year. I actually so when, when my dad decided to relocate here, we didn't relocate to Jacksonville. We relocated an hour west of here. So when I wanted to start the company, and I went through my life change, I moved to Jacksonville, where I didn't know a soul. So when you know, most people have roots somewhere, and so my only friends were the people that would talk to me at Starbucks, or, you know, exactly like we're knocking those became my friends. Like, actually, recently, I had people reaching out to me that I had met, like, years and years ago, because they were. Getting our newsletters right? Yeah.

Tracy Hayes  20:02  

So that answer your question? Well, it I want to what I want to lead in is the you were letting everyone you were going to Starbucks and meeting people. You were handing out business cards. You were really doing the real grassroots campaign.

Sarah Rocco  20:18  

It wasn't fancy, though. Now we're so focused on it being perfect and on Canva for five hours before door knocking. It's like it was not fancy. I was literally plugging into whatever CRM was provided by Keller and printing off a very generic flyer and going right my business card. I literally spent what, no, I used Keller Williams templates, like I didn't use anything fancy, because it's not about right? They want to work with

Tracy Hayes  20:45  

one of the guys I follow. His name's Steve Kyles, and he says, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly. Sure, and I think not say you were doing it badly, but it wasn't perfect. Oh yeah, you didn't wait around for the perfect flyer. You didn't wait around for the perfect business card. You didn't wait around till you had $2,500 to go. You went and stretched and you went and did it. And that's, that's the, that's the the difference maker, if you want to get off to a fast start or not. I mean, I have to be

Sarah Rocco  21:12  

naive enough to know, like not let all the hearsay, right? You know, sink in, right? Is what I would Did

Tracy Hayes  21:19  

you? Did you ever have someone we talked about, you know, hearsay. Tell you you couldn't do it. Oh yeah, yeah,

Sarah Rocco  21:26  

oh yeah, all the time. So I actually took, like, my core group of people that did the education with me for eight weeks, and I quit being with them, because there was so much, like, negativity around the things they were experiencing in their first 12 weeks. And I was

Tracy Hayes  21:42  

like they were getting nose, like you were getting nose, but when you hear their nose, it doubles down.

Sarah Rocco  21:48  

I look back at my core ignite group, and there's maybe two people out of 20 some that are in the industry today. Yeah, yeah, which maybe those numbers are

Tracy Hayes  21:58  

good. What do they say? Shut off, shut off the noise.

Sarah Rocco  22:01  

Or, you know, literally, turn that noise, turn that off,

Tracy Hayes  22:05  

turn the negativity off. So what do you do today? You know you're leading, you know, I don't know roughly is about, what do you have about look like, about 2019, so you're leading these young people today. What do you do to stay sharp? Is there anyone particularly you're following, or are you just picking up industry, books, podcasts? What are you doing to stay sharp?

Sarah Rocco  22:26  

Yeah. So as a leader, if you aren't continuing to grow right, then they're going to they notice it essentially, yeah, and you're no longer bringing value to them. So for

Tracy Hayes  22:36  

me, it is powerful. That is a very

Sarah Rocco  22:39  

powerful statement. You quit bringing value to them, yeah, what's gonna happen? They're gonna leave,

Tracy Hayes  22:45  

yeah, yeah. They got enough out of you. They're gonna go find another broker that's gonna pull Yeah, of course,

Sarah Rocco  22:49  

yeah. So I read a lot of books. I listen to podcast audio books. I have two coaches and a mentor, which is a game changer. I have two coaches. I have a visionary, more big thinker coach, and then I have a mentor that I've been mentoring with every and those are weekly calls. So three calls a week,

Tracy Hayes  23:13  

weekly calls, keep it because you have to stay to me, those calls my coach and reading the books. It's like, you're like, it's energy. To me, it's power, it's your feeling. So just so when you stand up and it's like, Oh yeah, well, yeah, you got it, they're telling you, like, yeah, you know, you got pie in your face. You just stopped doing that and trying to break you of the habit, but yeah, the energy you get out, because when you get in front of these, these things you got, that's part of it,

Sarah Rocco  23:46  

pouring out so much, yes, that if you're not refilling in some capacity, you will be exhausted.

Tracy Hayes  23:54  

It's going down. Yeah, that is so important. I don't think people that's saying I preach, you know, the personal development, you know, and that's a wide, that's a such today is so many areas you can get that from. Again, obviously, the obvious things is the books and podcasts, but going to events, investing yourself to go find these things, because you need these little boosts of energy. Yeah, the chasing the next, yeah, the next little shiny object. That's exactly, that's actually the phrase that a lot of people use, because you can, oh, what's, oh, there's this new Instagram thing, or it's the, it's the new, you know, text messaging, or whatever it is, you

Sarah Rocco  24:30  

simply become like a conference junkie, or you become that person that's at everything. But what are you actually implementing and changing?

Tracy Hayes  24:39  

Right? You can go from one conference after another and become an expert. You're an expert at the conference, and you've and you've been but, but it's, it's like, you know what I got out of grants book 10x was, yeah, find that thing that, find the thing that you like doing. And actually, John Brooks led me. Into something I haven't tasted the strength. It's a DISC assessment, but more and we'll actually find what you're what you like doing and what you're good at is, which is where he broke it down. I gotta take it and see what it actually says for me. But to find that thing and 10 exit just like you

Sarah Rocco  25:17  

saying, execute on it, leverage everything else that you're not

Tracy Hayes  25:20  

as good at, because there's so many, I think we forget that a lot of these advertisements that we see and stuff for all these trinkets that we can use and so forth, they're just people out there, just, obviously, they're trying to make them money, not saying that. It won't work for you. It's a tool. But you can go from one tool, one tool, one tool, one tool, and never actually, you know,

Sarah Rocco  25:38  

yeah, construct the house that do the work. Yeah,

Tracy Hayes  25:43  

yeah. That's, that's, that's, that's high level, right there. That really brings it down to some people.

Sarah Rocco  25:48  

If you're thinking of building a team, the only things you listen to is about team building. You only go to conventions that would support team building. If you're looking to fix your marketing or work on your marketing. You only focus on that

Tracy Hayes  26:02  

10x on it, yeah, like, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, actually, that's huge advice right there. And so many, I think, get in, into the, you know, the new agents get in and loan officers too. You're, oh, there's, we got the CRM over here, and we got this, and we all these little triggers. Oh, it'll, it'll print this flyer off for you. And no one wants to fly over. No one wants to fly we all want conserve trees. The and if you want to do something is that, I see that you can your business card on your phone, you can tap someone else's taps on and boom, is right there. That's you could do that. That won't take up too much time of your day. Is there any one person, though, in the six years you've been doing is like, been like, that, that mentor or just resource that you've always just looked up to, and like, can you know you could you know that something happened to that person today? You'd be right there because they were right there for you.

Sarah Rocco  27:00  

Yeah. So one guy, right off the bat. His name is Peter Darby. He was a past customer of mine two and a half years ago, moving from California, very well established and well known in his industry. And as we as I was selling them their home, he told me that he enjoys mentoring people. So I said, Well, should the transaction go? Well, would I be able to earn the opportunity to have you as my mentor? Okay? And so we talk every Monday at 2pm we have for years, they've become my family, yeah, and vice versa. Interesting, yeah. And it's changed my life.

Tracy Hayes  27:38  

How, when? So, just someone out there doesn't have a coach or mentor. How important has it been to your career? You got two coaches and a mentor? Right? Some people don't even and I have talked to, you know, Angie bell with the partnership, you know, she is a coach. And she said, when she first got into real estate, she knew from the corporate world, the first thing she did was hire a coach. Right? How important is to have that mentor or coach, you know, especially if you're new and you really want to get off to the right start and get moving in the right direction.

Sarah Rocco  28:10  

So I hired a coach as soon as I could afford it. And I hired them in October 2016 I took one year off in 2020 when, you know I was going through some personal stuff with my father without a coach, but I have had a coach ever since October 2016

Tracy Hayes  28:28  

always it's made a complete difference. Well, I shorten your learning curve.

Sarah Rocco  28:32  

I could get there on my own. I knew I'd get there, but could I get there 10 times faster? Right? With Coach and, hey, do this. Don't do this. Like, yeah, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  28:42  

because they're bringing it to have that person that's knowledge, the knowledge. And on your team, obviously you either you want them to bring knowledge, but has that experience, but someone you can call up and say, Man, what do you think of this? Right? And for them to turn it back to you with some great thought, and is powerful, and it definitely moves you along. And I think the

Sarah Rocco  29:01  

biggest thing is a lot, thing is a lot of people don't realize that someone would be happy to pay that forward. So the gentleman, Peter, he said, I said, How can I compensate you? Like it is your time every week, and there's no charge. And he said, pay it forward. Pay it forward. So I I will be seeking when I get to a point that I can to pay it well,

Tracy Hayes  29:27  

you are you aren't awake because you are your team. You are their coach, mentor. You know all the above, probably mom sometimes, right? They didn't hear that. They're not watching. So when does the Rocco group come to vision for you? I mean, is it something you initially say, I want to get this. I want to have a huge team, but it sounds like you, mean, did you work up to it? So you know what? I can actually create this. Now,

Sarah Rocco  29:54  

when I went to that first convention, I said, I'm going to be the number. And since then, my vision has changed a little bit, because I'm a big proponent of work life balance, right, and having a really big personal life. So we'll see number one isn't so much the goal, because I realized that was a little bit ego driven, and I really had to reestablish my why behind why, I wanted to create this big life.

Tracy Hayes  30:21  

We mentioned there's a lot of fairly young people on your team. Obviously, some are new, some hopefully have some experience. When you're recruiting agents, Are you actively recruiting? Or did they come to you?

Sarah Rocco  30:35  

So agent wise, they are coming to me, but we're always recruiting for agents. Right their talent and they're hungry and smart and humble. We're always recruiting agents.

Tracy Hayes  30:46  

So have you ever turned someone down? Oh, yeah, okay, yeah. Well, we're very particular, so when you have that person sitting across from you, I mean, what are some of the keys that you're looking for to pick up on this, you'll obviously someone who has potential.

Sarah Rocco  31:00  

Yeah, I love potential. But the issue that I run into is I can. I want to fix everyone, like, I know exactly what you need to do, but they, I like them to have the ability to be successful on their own. Like I'd like to see that they took the first initial steps that they were doing, open houses, door knocking. And I like to get them when they're about six months in, where they have realized that they need more they need more help. They need they need that coach, they need the coach, they need the mentoring. And then I can just take them to six figures like that.

Tracy Hayes  31:33  

Now I noticed on your website, some of them are you do split them up, listing and buying dual agents. You have dual agents as well.

Sarah Rocco  31:41  

Yeah, dual agents. So I believe that to get good at anything, you need to focus on that until you have it down. So our model is the first 24 families helped our buyers. Once you test out of that, then you go through a listing boot camp that then allows you to be a dual agent.

Tracy Hayes  31:59  

Because the listing is a little more from what I understand, not being an agent. It's a different it's a different focus, a different mindset. It is and come out and just do both, unless you're just talented in that way you like said, to focus on the one thing and master that, and then you can move on to the next graduate

Sarah Rocco  32:18  

up. Yeah, it's a different level of skill, and you have to have a little bit tougher skin to be eliciting it, and you have to know your stuff.

Tracy Hayes  32:28  

What do you do to help them expand their circles? I mean, are you guys? I meant, do you buy some leads? Or is everyone organic, or is there a mix? What do you so they all

Sarah Rocco  32:41  

have, they get to choose their three lead gen levers, and we're 7525 so 75% of the business is Team generated. 25 is Agent generated. So that's what we like to see. Team generated, mean leads. Okay, yeah. So we'll provide about 75% of the leads, if you will, bring in 25% we like to say

Tracy Hayes  33:02  

about that ratio, I imagine, obviously, the goal is to wean off of having to pay for them. Yeah, well, we're pretty organic now, yeah, what are, what are the some of the things that in your six year career, yourself or you have your team do, to really dig in. I because my I think a lot of people don't understand the influences that they have or positively exploit the influences they have. Oh, well, my kids on the ball team, you want everybody there to know that this is what you do. You know I am my alumni association. Everyone knows, because I'm on social media all the time with the podcast and stuff. So they're constantly seeing me all the time. So that's that's probably one of my biggest is my the 350 alumni that are in the area, that's probably my number one organic lead source, even more than real rivers. They're calling me every month or refinance my daughter's moving into town, or whatever it is, and then sometimes I, you know, it does go out of state. So what do you do to really get some of these young people to dig deep and find those circles and hopefully expand them?

Sarah Rocco  34:16  

Yeah, honestly, we're not that great at it, but it's our focus in 2022 is to teach them how to have those conversations with their sphere of influence, teach them to dig into the uncomfortability of making it a work. Conversation like, Hey, this is what I do, and you've been a big supporter of me in my life. I would love you to take a chance on me and my team.

Tracy Hayes  34:39  

You use social media. What are you preaching to your team? Use

Sarah Rocco  34:43  

social media. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that, if that's not their lever, I don't preach it. So if that's one of their levers, we go deep in that lever, okay? But and if they go deep in social media and they're not getting the results, then we're going to change the lever, or we're going to just. Gas on the lever.

Tracy Hayes  35:01  

How do you how do you measure that? How do you measure they're deep in the social media, but they're not getting any results. I mean, obviously some of these people are young, it takes like,

Sarah Rocco  35:12  

six months to see any type of results from social media. I believe, like a lead standpoint, like you'll get likes and clicks and shares and all of that. But as far as, like, actually getting income earning ROI from it right? It's, it takes about six

Tracy Hayes  35:27  

months. I was given advice wisely by when I when I first, because I first 12 years I was in the call center when I came out on the street, and advice, the advice was, you know, don't go after, you know, the big the big fish like yourself from a loan officer world to come after something because of you generally, and they want to see what you're going to do is from some of these young people, in relation to the social media, it's probably going to take them six months of saying, I'm a realtor, I'm a realtor, I'm a realtor, and all the different ways you can do it before Someone goes, Oh, I guess they're actually sticking with this, you know, because people are watching you. You don't know they're watching and subsequently They're watching you. You're still doing that. Okay, oh, you actually must be doing something, you know.

Sarah Rocco  36:12  

And it does sometimes feel a little braggadocious, but it's just kind of leaning into the industry that we're in is sharing your win sharing what you're doing, and you have to have a healthy balance of personal and business, right? You know? So like, my Instagram page is all personal, and we have the business page, right? Because I have just chosen that I want people to get to know me, right?

Tracy Hayes  36:34  

I found we were talking just last week with a couple topics, and how, if you're putting out enough of that content, which it sounds like some of the stuff that you were doing initially was like, Hey, I'm doing a showing today, or, Hey, I'm, you know, going visiting this great restaurant at this great coffee shop to do. Yeah, that's what they're doing. And people are following, and they do create you are creating a relationship, because they are getting to know you, to see where you hang out. They see you know what you're doing today, what you're wearing, whatever you know, and they kind of get to know you. And from that standpoint, and I think people are missing out also, I think here is not that social media doesn't work everywhere, but here in Florida, people, a lot of people, obviously, are moving from out of state. They don't know who you are. And then, if you putting that social media out there, maybe they see you. They go there. They are Googling you. They are finding out who you are. They want to find out if you have an arrest record, who knows? You know they're Googling you to see what's there. And if you're popping up on, you know, the YouTube videos popping up, your Instagrams popping up, and they're able to click on that. And you know, we're all hooked on the Instagram reels right now. And you know, people are doing some funny and great stuff out there. People get hooked when they start looking at one picture of you. They're looking at the next and the next and the next. They're going back and just they get a whole vision of what you're doing and that you are human.

Sarah Rocco  37:59  

Have to get some return. Yeah, yeah. Like, otherwise, why? Why are you spending all this time for a beautiful feed or beautiful content if there's no return, right?

Tracy Hayes  38:10  

So, well, that's so, that's the question. What is there? Is that just a natural click that happens? Or, I mean, how can you engage? How do you engage?

Sarah Rocco  38:21  

So I engage by, well, I was a big proponent of Facebook, so I have friends list alphabetized so and then I every quarter reach out to those letters of the alphabet. I hope none of my customers.

Tracy Hayes  38:35  

Well, when you have so many friends, you kind of have to do that. Kind of have to categorize intentional.

Sarah Rocco  38:43  

And then a lot of people share their personal life on social media all the time. And then I'll plug it into the CRM so I have that info. And then when I call them on my quarterly Happy Birthday, yeah, no, it's more so like, oh my gosh, I saw Jimmy won his tournament. Yes, you know. And then I'm writing that their son's name is Jimmy, and he turns six, and so on. It's so on and so forth. So people want you to know more about their children and their fur babies than their own life. So if I can talk to them about their children or their fur animals,

Tracy Hayes  39:14  

there's a tip right there, the fur babies and the kids that that's that's actually brilliant, yeah, when you think about it, but that you know, when you think about the great people that we know in life, and like, for example, I had the event this weekend, the president the Citadel came down four star general. He didn't become a four star general by not knowing the kids and the fur babies, right? Because that is that becomes a political role as you move up. And it's the same thing in sales, the longevity that, oh, I remembered. They remembered your My name. Now, well, you may have had to reference something, but you were actually smart enough to write it down because you felt they were important enough to write it down and know that their son was Johnny, and he played baseball or whatever. Yes, I. A lot of people underestimate the power. It's just like, well, how to win friends and influence people using people's names, right? They want to hear their name. It's the same it's the same thing. It is important

Sarah Rocco  40:10  

to them. In an industry where you could be replaced with technology and AI and so many other disruptors, the relationship is going to be crucial. But aside, in addition to the relationship, now we're seeing is people are choosing convenience over the relationship. So how do you become the convenient person, the convenient option that used to be just have that loyalty, that relationship, that yeah, that it's still it still matters. There's always

Tracy Hayes  40:40  

forces trying to come in and say they're bigger, better for bigger, better, faster. How do

Sarah Rocco  40:44  

you become both? How do you give them the relationship and the convenience factor that's so attractive,

Tracy Hayes  40:51  

that's powerful right there. That's something I don't think we've ever convenience in the relationship together. We've always, always talked about relationships on the show. Everyone you know, obviously related relationship building is key to our industry, but the how do you make it convenient for them? Yeah, so well,

Sarah Rocco  41:06  

and it's actually through programs. It's through platforms that you have for selling their home. It's no longer just standard real estate. You have to have a menu of services you provide.

Tracy Hayes  41:18  

Give us an example of you, we know you're building the relationship part, but convenience is something that you're bringing in. We're not, and we're not using some, you know, Quicken Loans Online, or loan depot online, or something like that. How are you making it convenient? What's some little things as an agent that makes it convenient for your customers?

Sarah Rocco  41:38  

So for instance, we have a cash offer program. We have a concierge program. So if they don't want to put in the upfront money to renovate their home to get a higher ROI, we fund all of that up front, and they pay out of the proceeds. So again, it's just that we're providing this opportunity for them to make more money and more that convenience for them.

Tracy Hayes  41:59  

Could that be someone like needs a roof repair and they don't have the cash, and you're willing, you'll put it up to have it done just to get the Whoo, there's one there for you guys right there. That's powerful when you know when you reach Sarah's level and expand on that. And obviously there's some contractual paperwork that's handled here, I'm sure. But what I mean, how, you know, especially like right now. I mean, just, I just mentioned roofs, because that popped in my head, because I got a deal right now where they were worried about the appraiser might say something about the roof. Luckily, they didn't, so they can handle it after closing. But, yeah, you try to sell a house and you got an old roof on it right now, right? That's the people are going to come in and low volume because they know their insurance is going to be higher. It's an expense they're going to need to put out within, you know, probably the first year, if not, if not, you know, doing a loan within a, you know, escrow hold back on the roof, you know, which is other expenses you're stepping forward and adding that concierge

Sarah Rocco  42:57  

that can be paid at closing by a vendor. But we're talking about like, the paint vendor, the flooring, the new cabinets, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's even thinking, it's just, it's

Tracy Hayes  43:08  

further, because right now, in the marketplace, by making it even though you could, you know, the houses are selling right away, you might have an investor come in, but obviously, everyone's trying to save money. They don't. They don't want to give you more than what you know you're but you go in there and and spend a few $1,000 on paintings and new carpet, all of a sudden you're getting 10, $20,000 more with that little investment, which is always been part

Sarah Rocco  43:31  

of real estate, that with the the box real estate, you know, right?

Tracy Hayes  43:35  

You need an out of box thinker like Sarah to take that. That's, that's a tidbit I'm I assume others, some others may be doing that. I'm sure others, others are probably holding back on, oh, I don't want to put out that money, but you know, you, you obviously researchers. You probably picked that someone probably picked up that idea from somewhere else. Yeah, one of your conferences, yeah, yeah. So in being in Jacksonville, there is a lot of older homes that are in this type of situation. They don't need a complete renovation to sell it, but, you know, they may need some landscaping or, like said, the paint in the carpet, roof, or whatever that that is concierge, someone else mentioned because we were talking about luxury buyers. Lisa Barton, that's right. Lisa Barton, with Keller once out at the beach. And she was talking about, she goes into home and maybe the kitchen does need to be updated. She's she's having her contractor out there and getting a number. So when the buyer comes in and says, Oh, yeah, well, this is what it would cost, they're not saying, hey, we'll go get your contractor. Go think about it. Or obviously, if the buyer's coming into someone else's home, they're just going, I'm not going to buy that because the kitchen needs are done. She already knows that you're providing that up front. It's removing that objection right away.

Sarah Rocco  44:51  

And if it's like a full renovation, we'll have a sketch drawn of what it could be to provide it to buyers, because buyers typically cannot. Not see past what they first seen. Yes, to see a different vision, right? It's not, it's not their horse,

Tracy Hayes  45:07  

yes, beds not made or something. It turns them off. Yeah, well, my bed fit in here. Yeah, that's a king size bed. Your king size. Focus on that. And it brought up another question. Maybe we'll come back to me here. So tell us about tell us about your team. You have some. Tell us about the key players and who's been with you long.

Sarah Rocco  45:29  

You said that in your industry, you don't pursue the big fish, like a lot of lenders think, you know, I'm going to stick with like, maybe some newer, maybe some as a

Tracy Hayes  45:39  

newbie on the street, because they want you to, you know, I knew a lot of because I've been doing this for years. You know, I knew some big fish. They knew me, but now, going out in the retail world, they were his, his advice is, you know, don't, don't go after them, because they already have their business. Do some business. Show them that you can do it and who you are, build the, you know, a little bit of influence and obviously credibility that you are actually out here doing it. Because even though, coming from a call center to retail, I was like, where's your book of business? You know, other types, it's not that difficult. But you are, if you are not willing to actually go out and sit down and have coffee with a real estate agent. You probably shouldn't be a loan officer in the retail environment. She may go to a call

Sarah Rocco  46:25  

center. Yeah, I just I've been surprised, knowing our industry is closely aligned, that not that many people reach out. And I will always say no the first time, and most of the time they do not reach out again. Interesting. It blows my mind. And I say no to everyone the first time, and I love persistence. Now, don't go reaching out.

Tracy Hayes  46:51  

They're gonna call her every day for the next week.

Sarah Rocco  46:54  

Yeah, we follow up until you buy, sell or die, right? But like, why isn't that, if we are your customer, right?

Tracy Hayes  47:03  

That's, that's, that's interesting. But you know what's funny, I was talking to my coach this morning, and we're talking about something. I'll talk to you about this after the show, because I really do want you want your opinion on or at least any an idea on it. It's kind of like dating, okay? And, you know, it's like, okay, so I asked her. She said, No, okay. Now some guys obviously will stay persistent, but then you don't want to be that guy who's or girl who's asking all the time and like they not. I have done told you no three times. Now I'm telling my now I'm telling the other agents. You say no one time you don't tell anybody. Oh, this guy keeps calling me every week. You know wants to do business. But yet, when you go to our conventions, they're just loan officer things they are talking about, hey, you know, call this person for 12 weeks once a week, or text, hey, yeah, because halftime there you're not gonna answer anyways. Gonna go voicemail, or whatever, send a card, or, yeah, touch him for 12 weeks. After about 12 weeks, if they just move on to someone else. That's kind of their advice, yeah. So tell us about some of your key players on the rock over.

Sarah Rocco  48:07  

Okay, great, yeah. So we have, well, we have a lot of people. We have three virtual assistants in the Philippines. We have two in house, transaction coordinators, listing manager, marketing director, videographer. We recently reshuffled the deck, and our Director of Operations and executive assistants saw other opportunities, so we're actually hiring right now. I have eight interviews this week. We had like 100 plus applicants, and we whittled it down.

Tracy Hayes  48:36  

What are your virtual assistants doing?

Sarah Rocco  48:38  

They are doing agent concierge. So they are the Concierge Team for the agents, because our goal at the Rocco group is to take off the 80% off the agents plates so they can do their 20% show up for customers, shake hands, kiss babies. Look great. Make

Tracy Hayes  48:55  

the phone ring. Make the phone ring. Interesting concept, trying to preach that here,

Sarah Rocco  49:01  

so we take off the 80% so that VA team, virtual assistant team is vital.

Tracy Hayes  49:09  

Are they? They're calling past customers.

Sarah Rocco  49:12  

They are not, no, that's our client care team. That's our transaction coordinators or listing managers. Myself, well, I

Tracy Hayes  49:19  

mean calling past customers, as you know, maybe someone you sold a house to last year, calling up. No, you calling up. Now you're still doing

Sarah Rocco  49:24  

that in house. More personable, personable I want, I want it to be, I don't want them to feel like they're being cold called, right? They could cold call, but not, not my database.

Tracy Hayes  49:32  

So I guess simple that down to what that virtual assistant, so you're saying, yeah, yeah. Agent

Sarah Rocco  49:39  

concierge. So we have someone who runs the phones from Friday through the weekend, so she is there for them. So it doesn't have someone always answers the phone Well, answer the phones and answer any question an agent needs, okay? I need to set up a showing for me. I need a showing assistant. I need a purchase contract written up like. They are their right hand, ah,

Tracy Hayes  50:02  

so the virtual assistants actually preparing, preparing the contract,

Sarah Rocco  50:06  

but they don't send it out. We don't allow that. Yeah, it's still the age comes

Tracy Hayes  50:10  

back for you to quickly review. They just filled in the basics and got it. So they'll do

Sarah Rocco  50:14  

the templates to all the email offers. They'll do templates. So then on the seller side, if we get 20 offers. They submit all the offers to the seller on a spreadsheet they create. They take off all the back, wow.

Tracy Hayes  50:28  

These are the little tools that they have for real estate agents, and you're executing by because I imagine there's some sort of software. They insert that so it spits out a nice report for the seller.

Sarah Rocco  50:39  

Yes, yeah, correct. Cool. So that's what they're doing. And then we have seven agents on our team, and then we have two inside sales associates that just make calls.

Tracy Hayes  50:46  

So what I find interesting in your concept here is is you almost, you're almost like a cruise ship. You almost have a one for one. You have one support for every sales person. That's the goal. Yeah. And

Sarah Rocco  51:01  

we're very heavy in the operation side my piano. Expand those happy bit. Yeah, it makes up for it. Oh, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  51:08  

Because you're so expand on your ideology a little bit with that concept. Because I think a lot of people, much like, say, Melissa Rick's concept of how she runs her team, how you're, you're, you really want that one support staff for every producing agent that you have. What is your overall, your 30,000 foot ideology on the on that.

Sarah Rocco  51:30  

So I love the Philippines assistants, like they're amazing. We just call them admin assistants. I would like every person to have a VA, just for them. So an agent to have an assistant. Everyone to have that, because that's a huge help. Yeah, and then showing assistant so they can go out and and get the deals done, and they have a showing assistant when they get to a certain level of production. To me that level of production is probably around 60 deals a year, and then they need 60, yeah, to the

Tracy Hayes  52:08  

point where they can have assistant,

Sarah Rocco  52:10  

yeah, were they sure they need a full time showing assistant

Tracy Hayes  52:14  

with it on their own. They're not just, hey, you know, I got something going on this weekend. Can you cover for me

Sarah Rocco  52:20  

all the time, right? But for them to actually bring someone on to their pod or their team 60? Yeah, I think that's around 60 transactions, and that leverage is, is priceless. You

Tracy Hayes  52:30  

did 27 your first year. You pushing these people to

Sarah Rocco  52:36  

60, what they want, like, what's

Tracy Hayes  52:38  

your income? Right? Goal that is, that's such a it's so refreshing. Because I don't think people realize the power, like you're talking about the personal development time and going to events and so forth. And when you have that, as Donnie has Derek here to take that load off, so because he's got to go out and make the phone ring, but he also needs time to think and vision and do all those things. It's not something, it's you come in, there are those people, those virtual assistants. I'm hearing it all on podcasts. I'm hearing it from coaches and so forth. These virtual assistants. They are highly educated. They speak good English, and there's services out there that will see

Sarah Rocco  53:15  

them at some point. Oh,

Tracy Hayes  53:16  

is that right? Okay, yeah, I had a guest on actually, back it was back in October. She actually has that service where, in your, you know, depending on who you're using, five to $10 an hour is really what you're looking for, an expense. And maybe they're working 20 hours for you a week. And, I mean, not say just telling you how busy are, but there's a lot of things they can be doing. I mean, she talked about virtually, it's like her executive assistant, because she has a office in real estate in Atlanta, is virtually that virtual assistant, because they're up when you're up, and they're taking the phone calls, and they're scheduling, and you're saying, I need to do that. And they're, you're they can do all that. Oh yeah, you don't realize the power of what's what's out there, and how much that relieves for the creativity, the because there is a, you know, the you talked earlier about personal life and doing some things. Because if you work your tail off and you never take advantage of the fruit you you're eventually going to say, Is this even worth

Sarah Rocco  54:13  

it? And you're going to reach burnout, and then you're going to burn it down. Yeah,

Tracy Hayes  54:17  

that that is, that is, that's some powerful stuff out there, because I know there's so many. The big talk, a lot of these, lot of common talk right now is those agents reaching out for that first assistant or first transaction coordinator, someone that takes some of the load off of them so they're not up all night long, going to the MLS. They get a call. You know, I see

Sarah Rocco  54:37  

too many team owners that hire more of them. They hire another quarterback. They hire multiple quarterbacks on the same team. You don't need that,

Tracy Hayes  54:46  

right? Oh, I love that other.

Sarah Rocco  54:49  

You need the other

Tracy Hayes  54:50  

parts. I love that you do use a DISC assessment. Or you, what do you

Sarah Rocco  54:54  

we do disc? We do kPa, color, personality assessment. It goes assessment. It goes right? Than that, because, because it's behavioral and personality, and then we go into life story motivation. Because I want to know if someone comes in my organization, I know what their entire life look like, where they struggled, where they excelled. I know how to pull them out of it,

Tracy Hayes  55:21  

powerful, powerful stuff. This is, I'm hearing this from, again, John Brooks was on the other he was, we sat after the show and talked about this stuff. But you're hiring, and it doesn't matter whether you're in real estate or out there right now, you've there's really good assessments out there, because there are people who like to sit in the cube and just, you know, handle customer service and the paperwork and so forth. There's others that need to get out and they make the phone ring. There's, that's two separate personalities, and you gotta

Sarah Rocco  55:51  

know that everything. So you just leverage the things you're not.

Tracy Hayes  55:55  

I think some of them hire the the potential quarterback. Sure thing, Oh, this guy's but that potential quarterback comes into play. You put them in a cubicle. He's doing all the support. He's like, Okay, I know enough now, but the reality you come so dependent on them. And then they're like, you're not going to promote me. I'm

Sarah Rocco  56:10  

out of here, right? Yeah, or you're not bringing value to me anymore. Why would I stay right?

Tracy Hayes  56:15  

Exactly? Why would they stay exactly? And obviously, we know the power of keeping an employee long term and so forth. All right, we talked about several things. These are, I circle back on this because I've telling everyone I'm going to write a book on this, because these are common themes. But just so we could touch base with education, we talked about the importance of going, whether it's convention reading and so forth. How about just, even just going down to like ne far and going and taking the classes there, down

Sarah Rocco  56:41  

there, yeah, sure. And expanding your sort of certification, absolutely,

Tracy Hayes  56:46  

yeah. And not just go, Well, I got my CS for the year. I'm done, right? You should actually keep going. Sure, yeah, yeah, absolutely. How much time do you think, or maybe some of the new agents you coach, that they should be spending on some of that stuff? What percentage of their time do you think

Sarah Rocco  57:00  

I knew agents I wouldn't Not, not on education, yes, but on increasing their certificate. You don't get

Tracy Hayes  57:10  

paid more because you have a certification. Yeah, it's just educating themselves. On Being around, talking to others, or

Sarah Rocco  57:17  

I was talking to my friend, Mel Washington. I don't know if you know him, but he talked about how he implemented something where 10 minutes a day he's looking at something educational for whatever focus he has, 10 minutes a day, which is like

Tracy Hayes  57:32  

nothing, 91 hours just read 10 pages in the book a day. A lot of your personal development books are actually set up 1012, pages, and that's a chapter or section. So

Sarah Rocco  57:42  

I would say you need to, it needs to be a daily habit, the education piece, and you can do conferences and so on and so forth. But if you're going to truly become educated in investing 10 minutes a day, if you're going to become educated in senior, you know, senior areas, 10 minutes a day, luxury.

Tracy Hayes  58:01  

Break it down. Break it down. I mean, you can go on YouTube and find all this stuff too. Watch a 1015, minute YouTube video. It's all there. It's all there, surrounding yourself by successful people. We talked about that earlier, yeah. How impact to reach out in some of these new agents. I mean, I imagine you're, you're accessible. Email, you call you, your phone numbers out there. I mean, if you want some, sit down with Sarah and you know, maybe you want to be on her team, you know, talk to her about that, or just talk to her about her ideas of how she created the team. Yeah,

Sarah Rocco  58:35  

I love sharing. I do, and I will always give someone homework to turn into me, to earn my my time. Oh, interesting. They don't turn in the homework. Most don't turn in the homework. Most don't turn in the homework. They don't earn the opportunity.

Tracy Hayes  58:53  

Consistencies, there's if you look back in six years, and maybe it's something you just started. But what do you can What do you been consistently doing throughout your entire you know, through your career, and I'm sure it's developed as you join the team, but what, what are the things that are consistently that you are doing? I so that is the foundation of your success. My

Sarah Rocco  59:13  

work love language is responsiveness, like acts of service. So from a success in my business, I love by being extremely responsive. Sense of urgency. Yeah, well, it's to customers, but it's more so like to my team, giving them, if they have a question, I come with knowledge. If they need something, I'm there. So being like, oddly responsive,

Tracy Hayes  59:38  

I start to wean them off a little bit though. They can come over. They can come and come and come over, dependent, right? Because

Sarah Rocco  59:44  

you just teach them, yeah, hey, if I didn't answer that question, where would you go? And then next time they don't come, because they know where they would go,

Tracy Hayes  59:50  

all right, you give them a homework assignment. Yeah, exactly. All right. Summarize. If a new agents came to you, or, you know, maybe new agents on the team, what are three things you're telling them right now that they need to do to be successful in this business? Three things,

Sarah Rocco  1:00:08  

three things, definitely, make sure you know who you are. Number one, like do an assessment on yourself, figure out who you are, so you know if you're in the right industry. First, self assess. Yeah. Self assess, make sure you have people in your circle, the five you hang out with. If you need a new circle, you seek it out in audio books or podcasts. Make that your circle, and then be ready to work hard for at least two years and have the patience to get the result. Have patience delayed gratification. If you do not have that, you will not laugh.

Tracy Hayes  1:00:46  

You can help yourself by surrounding yourself by the successful people, and obviously self assess yourself will make that two years a little more enjoyable, versus just trying to learn something recreate the wheel. Because there's people out there like yourself, who are resources, who are willing to help as every, every, every top agent on here is willing. They all are giving back, is why a lot of you guys created teams, right? You know, yeah, I think I asked this question earlier. Well, actually, no, no, I'm gonna change Alex. I'd skip this one here earlier, I want to finish up with this. You mean, correct me if I'm wrong from what I have evaluated on your social media, okay, you You seem to develop, you have developed a lot of processes and so forth for your team. Am I correct? Okay, tell us. Tell us a process that you maybe got at a convention or read or heard on a podcast or even, or even, took it, heard something, and just recreated it to your own, okay, yeah, a process that you've implemented in your team that's that you work every day. Yeah.

Sarah Rocco  1:01:50  

So it's definitely the promise. We call it the promise. So before we work with the customer, agree to work with them or work with us, we give them a promise that will give them a five star experience, and in return, they have to give us a referral or a review. And if we get to the closing table, we don't have one of those, then we're going to sit down and be like, Okay, what could have we done differently to make it a five star

Tracy Hayes  1:02:13  

shoot? You set this expectation up front, at the front that we're going to be asking you for a review or a referral in the end, so be ready.

Sarah Rocco  1:02:20  

Okay, if I don't have those at the closing table as we revisit, why? Yeah, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  1:02:27  

I've heard someone else talking about that. I am trying to implement it. It's tough to teach, but you have to stay on it. But it is important set the expectation up front for that referral, right? You know, that's which is a great, great comment. We're obviously just a review. All right? We're gonna go in our Two Minute Warning question. Minute Warning questions. We're going to round up, as we've been just about an hour now. Is it more important who you know or what you know? Oh, who you know, who you know, so in your career, who is that? Who to kind of give you that

Sarah Rocco  1:02:55  

little, gosh, every coach I have, every coach I've had, yeah, getting

Tracy Hayes  1:03:00  

to know the name they're getting to know you, and then giving you that great advice. Now you travel a lot, besides Montana, yeah, imagine Montana is not really a bucket list, which on your travel buckets.

Sarah Rocco  1:03:11  

Oh, man, I go to Iceland solo trip with a group that I've never met in September.

Tracy Hayes  1:03:19  

Oh, cool. Yeah, interesting. Yeah, my cousin and my aunt actually went, actually, right before covid. But, yeah, it is an interesting My wife wants to stay in one of those ice hotels. Oh, yeah, and

Sarah Rocco  1:03:34  

the kids want to go to Hawaii, so we'll probably do that. And then right now, I'm getting my dual citizenship in Italy. Oh, why is that? Because I'm able to through my family and the kids will all be dual citizens as

Tracy Hayes  1:03:46  

well. Interesting. So we're loan officers here. So I'm going to finish up with a loan officer question. Kind of, if you haven't listened to all my this is some people have listened

Sarah Rocco  1:03:57  

to all 64 you did

Tracy Hayes  1:04:02  

not you have some referral partners, some of them you've been probably using for years, even in not just maybe just loans, just whatever. What is the number one thing that you require out of that referral partner relationship?

Sarah Rocco  1:04:15  

They have to get the team's buy in

Tracy Hayes  1:04:19  

coming your Yeah? So they will work

Sarah Rocco  1:04:22  

on me a lot, and it's not me, right? They have to be it will service. Customer service is a given. But if there's one thing, they will get the buy in. They will, they will

Tracy Hayes  1:04:33  

open the door for them. So they've got to build a relationship with everyone on the team. Interesting,

Sarah Rocco  1:04:38  

yeah, okay, that was not force them to use anyone

Tracy Hayes  1:04:40  

Interesting? Yeah, that's a new that's actually new one. Communication is generally the common answer that I get for that one. But you actually dug a little

Sarah Rocco  1:04:48  

deeper. Well, I think your customer becomes the agent. The customer service to our customer should already be there, right? You're not coming through the door if you don't have a reputation, right? So then the one thing you could do would be that.

Tracy Hayes  1:04:59  

Right? I like it. Sarah, appreciate you coming on. Finally, hopefully we'll edit that video. Hopefully that Facebook didn't cut out too much, we didn't lose too much of it, but, but we'll definitely put the video together. From that, the audio will be out next week, and I'll share those you can put on your social media.

Sarah Rocco  1:05:18  

Thank you. I'm excited. You you.