Show Notes
Nate Joens: All right. What is up everybody? My name is Nate, I'm with
Structurely. We have an exciting webinar today that we're getting started finally on this beautiful spring day out of Iowa.
Robby T: Oh, yeah.
Nate Joens: We are joined by Robby T and LeaAnne today. Robby, would you like to kick us off?
Robby T: Hey, first off we got to celebrate the fact that we have no tech issues today. Sometimes tech is a pain. Funny part is as well, I was just on another webinar right before this about snap offers and we had some little tech issues. So major celebration. Other thing is, we have no snow in Fargo so life is fantastic.
Robby T: Hey, excited as heck to have a bunch of you join us today. We have one of the supreme ISAs, not just in real estate. LeaAnne also served as an ISA, and tell me if I'm wrong LeaAnne, but in the car industry. So I got to hear about that.
LeaAnne Ledford: I did.
Robby T: And now you've transitioned into basically being the lead ISA and overseeing your department, so would love to hear about that, but LeaAnne introduce yourself and tell us a bit about you.
LeaAnne Ledford: Hey, so I'm LeaAnne from Johnson City, Tennessee. I have been, collectively, from the car dealership to real estate, in this whole phone conversion thing, for several years now.
LeaAnne Ledford: Started out at [inaudible
00:01:33] Developments. When you say seven years, it's a long time. I mean, that's older than my kid, but obviously I like it so ...
LeaAnne Ledford: I started out business development internet sales in a car dealership. Very high volume car sales. I'm talking 30/40 car sold a week. Sometimes 300 a month. So I was one of two, and then our department with the help of the two that were there slowly grew to about six to eight at all times back there.
LeaAnne Ledford: I came into real estate in 2016. August, 2016 was my first month, and I'll be honest with you, I started out with these high hopes thinking, "Hey, I'm going to go here, and I'm going to crush it." Not only my teams only ISA. I was the only [inaudible
00:02:26] in our entire market. So I had no one around me. No one in our whole area knew what an ISA was supposed to do.
LeaAnne Ledford: These were big dreams and I sucked. I sucked. I almost left the industry altogether and the only thing that saved me was going to Family Reunion in Vegas in 2017.
LeaAnne Ledford: Since then I've been in it. I did my whole first year and went from having three closes from August to December in 2016 to having 74 the next following year.
LeaAnne Ledford: I'm on my own and kind of self trained, built all of our systems and then the next following year worked part-time. So half the hours, half the dials and got 101 closings.
LeaAnne Ledford: So-
Robby T: I love it. LeaAnne that's a good introduction. Lots to hit on there. You have a fascinating story. If you don't mind, I'd love to go back to the car dealership ISA stuff because-
LeaAnne Ledford: I don't go back there, but yeah we could do the talk.
Robby T: Well, we're going to go back for a minute. What's funny is we started this ISA stuff all about being an ISA in the real estate ball game, and I think you probably agree that the skills that we talk about and the skills that you're going to talk about, it's not just the one industry if I had to guess. So give us some insight. You said you were doing 300 car sales in a month?
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah.
Robby T: What does that mean? I don't understand that. Give me some insight there.
LeaAnne Ledford: So our dealership was the number one volume Toyota dealership in all of the east pretty much. We were doing 300 sales a month. Roughly 65 to 70 percent of those sales at all time were coming out of our internet sales department. We, much like an ISA in real estate, we got the leads.
LeaAnne Ledford: We were the first person speed to lead on that in a matter of seconds and then we would nurture them. Not quite long as we nurtured real estate. I was used to the gratification of setting an appointment today, and it goes under contract, they drive away today. So that was the difference. That was the game changer was coming in here and saying, "I'm going to talk to these people for two years? Two years?"
LeaAnne Ledford: Back there it was two weeks or they've made a decision and they're gone, but when you put it together and you look at the role, and you look at what's important, and you look at what it takes to actually help people to their goals that they reached out to you to get help for, it's the same. You can equate it to restaurant industry, car sales, anywhere. It's the same concept of listening to people, coming up with a solution, and making a pathway to get them there.
Robby T: Gosh. Listen, create solution, create a game plan or a pathway.
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah.
Robby T: I love it. Okay. So you did that for how long LeaAnne? How long were you in the car sales?
LeaAnne Ledford: Four years.
Robby T: Four years. Okay, I understand why you don't want to go back.
LeaAnne Ledford: I tried [inaudible
00:05:44] to get out of there if James is listening.
Robby T: Yeah, so tell us about that. We have a little back story. It's really cool to hear that a lot of the stuff translates, albeit different time frames.
Robby T: I think the funny thing is most people calling internet leads have the, "If it ain't going to close in two weeks, I'm not going to do anything with it," and frankly that's why most people convert a pay per click [inaudible
00:06:10] at sub one percent if that, and it's because most internet leads, especially fourth registration pay per click is so long term.
Robby T: When we measured it, it's been ... The conversion cycle is 18 to 24 months, and they're long term, just like you said. Up to two years. So it's kind of cool to get your perspective on that. But tell us, LeaAnne, how the heck do you get out of car sales and how did you get into being an ISA in real estate? Give us that background.
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah. So it's much easier to fall in then it is to fall out. So I took the car sale job expecting fully for it to be temporary. Went to school for health, could not find a job, and I was like I have to make some money. So I sold my soul to the devil, as they say, and I went to the wonderful world of car sales.
LeaAnne Ledford: Now when I started, I was an extreme introvert, and I had at my previous job that I had actually gotten fired from for not being able to say hello to people when they walked through the door.
Robby T: Wow. I would not have guessed that at all.
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah. So extreme introvert. Awkward. Super awkward.
Robby T: Sure.
LeaAnne Ledford: So over the course of the four years in the car industry and just getting beaten down every day, developed a love for talking to people, developed a love for just human interaction and for problem solving, and about two years into that ... A year and a half/two years into it, I had seen an ad for pretty much the same job but just in real estate, and I was like, "Well that sounds more long term. That sounds like a good plan."
LeaAnne Ledford: So I actually applied to work for Jim three times over the course of almost three years, and the first time I was to be considered. The second time they told me that I'm not an ISA, that I'm actually an agent profile and they offered me a job being an agent. I gracefully declined and went back to my cubicle at the car dealership. And the third time I would say he hired me out of complete desperation, because he just really needed somebody. Never give up if you're out there. Don't give up.
Robby T: Never give up. It's funny because a lot of people have heard us say, even on this show, that we usually say you want somebody who is very balance or a higher DC on the disc, and we always ... I make sure to emphasize it's not a strits. You got to be this. So I can help but think that Jim maybe heard us say that and said, "I can't hire this lady."
LeaAnne Ledford: Maybe it was your fault, Robby.
Robby T: You can blame me. [crosstalk
00:08:59] Give me some insight because I'm assuming if you're built like an agent, you're a [inaudible
00:09:08] which means you went from being an introvert over here to now being extremely extroverted it sounds like. Give me some insight into how you were successful in the ISA role if it's not a super natural fit for you.
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah. So when push came to shove I had a reason. So I had my one thing of why I quit the job in the car dealership and that was because I found myself being a young expectant mother, and I had no health insurance and no job. So had to do something. So I walked into this industry and almost gave up multiple times, but luckily I had a mentor, somebody that was helping me that pretty much one day grabbed the phone from me and stuck it to my face and was like, "Hey, they can't bite you on the other side of this phone. You're going to forget the conversation the next conversation you have of what they just said to you."
LeaAnne Ledford: So it was just a lot of people that knew my one thing and it was just me sharing my one thing with people for them to hold me accountable to that. And so now on our team that's one thing that we do often when we have new members come on, when we hire, everyone knows everyone's one thing, and we make people tell us the excuses they will hide behind.
LeaAnne Ledford: My excuse was just that I was scared, but it wasn't really that I was scared, because I wasn't. It's just that I was uncomfortable, and I don't like to be uncomfortable. And she knew that was my excuse that I would hide behind, and so when she saw me gearing towards that excuse, she pushed me out of it. So now when I mentor others, that's one thing I try to do for them. At the end of the day, you have to know why you're there. You have to know what motivates you to show up that morning, and you have to keep it in front of you at all times. When it gets hard, you have to think if I stop this right now, who am I effecting? Whose family am I effecting? Whose goals? So it's not just about you.
Robby T: LeaAnne I was telling people before this interview that you were going to bring some fire, and you just became a dragon.
LeaAnne Ledford: My screens kind of flashing red a little bit too.
Robby T: Oh. I love it. I love that.
Nate Joens: Was that a Game of Thrones reference, Robby?
Robby T: Yes, it was.
LeaAnne Ledford: I don't know.
Robby T: LeaAnne, we'll get to that. Let's not ruin the surprise. But I love ... First off, I got to say, huge kudos to you, because a lot of people are in those types of situations where they feel like there's a lot of resistance or there's a challenge in front of them, and my biggest fear in this world is many people shy away from it.
Robby T: Because if I had to guess, you've went through a hell of a lot of discomfort, a lot of pain, a lot of frustration, probably don't like rejection, yet you literally signed up for two jobs where when you're succeeding, 2 percent of the time and losing 98 percent of the time, you're actually killing it. So major kudos to you for stepping up.
LeaAnne Ledford: Thank you.
Nate Joens: I really like the one thing that you had ... I can't remember. I've been trying to think of this. Was it you guys at ... I'm sorry I got a train.
Nate Joens: Was it you guys at Hatch, Robby, that did the trading cards of everyone on your team?
Robby T: Yeah, so we-
Nate Joens: An awesome oppurtunity to write your one thing on the trading card amongst ... That'd be a really cool idea.
Robby T: Yeah. I love it. I couldn't agree with both you Nate and LeaAnne more that you got to know your why. You're calling it your one thing. We refer to it as your why. Simon [inaudible
00:13:03] implanted that in my brain. We're saying the same thing, because if I had to guess, LeaAnne, it's probably fair to say making the phone calls isn't what lit you on fire every single day, and you probably tolerated it, but what pushed you to pick up that phone was knowing you got bills to pay and you want to be a great role model, a great parent, and you probably want to enjoy some stuff in life as well. So huge kudos to you. I love it.
Nate Joens: Could you tell us a little bit about the team that you manage now? I'm really curious to learn about how you're dealing with those ISA's. Really how you're mentoring them too.
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah. So I moved into being our teams director of [Legion
00:13:51]. So with director of Legion, I'm not only helping out ISA's but I'm also helping out all of our sales team members. So I help in recruiting new agents. We do hybrid models. So new agents, I help bringing them on board. Training them in the scripts, the dialogues, the processes, the systems, everything like that.
LeaAnne Ledford: My ISA right now, I have two. Full time ISA's who are back there right now grinding it out and they ... I started last year and I made one really bad hire. It was completely my fault that this person did not succeed, and I carry that on my back, but I learned from it. I hired more carefully the next time, and the two guys that I have right now, their first month with zero experience ever, between the two of them, they set 55 appointments, but we're just very transparent. Everything that they do is shared with the other ISA and with myself. So if one ISA sets five appointments today, the other ISA is seeing that. It's that little push. So we are all about transparency. That's kind of how we run things. Very system, very process, and very transparent.
Robby T: If you wouldn't mind, I'd love to hear more about how you guys are making that a reality LeaAnne. How are people seeing ... crushing it? How have you created these systems and this transparency? Are there tools they're using? Give us some insight there. How are you doing it?
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah, so I'm not a tech friendly person. I actually don't even use apps on my smartphone. I use browser for everything. Well, not browser, Safari. Not tech friendly. So I use a google sheet, and the google sheet is shared amongst my ISA's, myself, and our rainmaker. It's also shared with our director of operations.
LeaAnne Ledford: So we mark ... So when they set an appointment, we have a column on there of which agent it went to. We have a column of whether it was buyer or seller. What lender it went to, and then each one of those, was it converted to a met? Was it converted to assigned? And was it converted to a close. That way at a glance, the ISA's don't need me to help with lead rotation. We don't do round robin. It's based on you earn it, you get it. And so they at a glance can know at all times what every agent's standing. They can know where a vendor is standing.
LeaAnne Ledford: The agents were transparent with them as well. They know if one of the other agents took seven listings this month off of appointments that we gave them and they didn't get any, it's because that other agent was crushing it. So old school google sheet, updated every time they set something, and we are viewing it at all times to see the break down of how many appointments were set this week by each ISA, what the conversion was.
Robby T: Sure. I love it. Can you get a little more in depth on ... you said you don't do a lead rotation, and you give it to the agents that are performing. How would I as one of your ISA's know which ISA is performing and crushing it?
Robby T: Give me some insight there.
LeaAnne Ledford: So as far as ... are you asking which agent's ... how their ISA's know which agents-
Robby T: Yeah. You kind of said that those that are crushing it probably get more appointments than those that aren't crushing it. What does crushing it mean? Are you saying that the assigned ratio is higher? Or give me some insight there.
LeaAnne Ledford: So for me crushing it is more than conversion. It means more than just converting it. It means that they are compliant with the things that we are asking of them. So if one of the team members who is skipping team training, and they're skipping that oppurtunity to better themselves ... If they're skipping our team outings, if they're running in late to team meeting, if they're not on our morning role play call, which by the way, we use Hatch as a lead generation, whatever you call it.
Robby T: The role playing game! Yeah, yeah sure.
LeaAnne Ledford: Those are incredible. Those have made our team ... love, love, love prospecting. We use those every morning, and if they are not at role play practice, then that's a notch against them, and then when it comes to ... When we're seeing off a lead from an ISA to an agent, we're going to base it on who's compliant, who's trying to benefit themselves.
LeaAnne Ledford: You didn't get an appointment last week, you lost it. That's great. Do you know why you lost it? Did you come back and tell us why you didn't get that appointment? Are you working on that? Are you working on that objection handler? Are you looking for ways to add value so that next time you won't be caught in that? If you're not doing, then you're going to have to go find your own next opportunity to practice on. You're not going to do it on one of ours.
LeaAnne Ledford: And then it comes down to personality. So we match people up a lot personality wise. You can give me the best realtor in the world and if my personality's not going to match theirs, I'm not going to work with them. So that's how our ISA's are kind of trained to give the appointment.
LeaAnne Ledford: And we tell our agents upfront, life isn't fair and neither are we. So no round robin here.
Robby T: So the ISA appointments are not something someone is entitled to- [crosstalk
00:19:25].
Robby T: Go ahead, sorry.
LeaAnne Ledford: Team leads are not a right. Anybody joining a team, nobody owes you leads. It's a right. I went to a class that Seth Campbell was teaching and he made a very profound statement. He says, "What they join you for, they'll leave you for," and that's true for ISA's, that's true for agents, that's true for anybody. I mean, anybody you're entering a relationship with, whether it's a friendship or any sort of relationship, what they join you for, they will leave you for. So make sure they are joining you for the right reasons, because if it's leads, they are going to leave you for more leads, because they want something more. But yeah you have to earn team leads.
Robby T: I love it. Nate, go ahead.
Nate Joens: [inaudible
00:20:13] Could you kind of tell us a little bit ... I'm switching gears a little bit, but can you tell us a little bit about that first hire you made that you said was more or less a failure? Could you tell us a little bit about how it was a failure? What did you learn from that process and how would you do it differently?
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah, so when I kind of with my rainmaker made the decision that we were going to expand and bring more people into this ISL realm, I immediately jumped to familiarity. I didn't want to be uncomfortable, again. So in my mind I was like, oh, wait I have a guy I worked with at the car dealership who I know could do this type of work, because I knew how to do this type of work, and he actually just lost his job. So perfect timing, perfect hire, right?
LeaAnne Ledford: So I did not take him through the full process, because I was basing it off the emotion, not the logic. I'm going off of emotion, which is the worst thing to do, and I'm like, "I know this guy can do it, because he's coming from the same place that I did," and so I made the mistake of bringing him on based on my emotion, setting expectations that he was never going to hit, and worst of all, I did not have the systems and the processes ready to go to bring someone in. So I was setting him up for failure and he just didn't know it.
LeaAnne Ledford: So I brought this guy in and my biggest thing was every time that he would do something I would revert back to this thought of, "Well, I came in with no training, nobody to lead me, and I figured it out, why can't you figure it out?" Because I didn't have the systems and the processes there. So it ended up ... I mean, he lasted two months and then he just ended up . ... He wasn't a team fit, first of all. He was not a fit for our culture. I didn't know anything about bringing people on at that time. He wasn't a culture fit. He was actually not a fit for the role at all, and I completely set him up for failure because I did not plan to succeed.
Robby T: I love it. I got a question on that. You said you didn't push him through the full process. Would you mind ... After you hired two people, and I'm assuming with those two you went through the whole process. So I'd love to kind of have you share what that full process looks like, and maybe what you skipped with the other guy.
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah, so I am on a team that's with Keller Williams, so we career vision everyone now and we actually ... I went to a career vision class to learn how to take someone through this process and so before we hire anybody we have sets of things that they have to go through. So we have different assessments that they have to complete, and then we bring them in and we go over the assessments. We dig into their motivation, what pushes them, their life story. We basically try to come up with any red flags, and we try to discuss those red flags before we bring them on, and it is a process. I mean you don't find amazing talent, most of the time, that's just ready to burn it up and start tomorrow. Most people that are amazing talent, are already talented in a role somewhere else. So it's a month long process.
LeaAnne Ledford: I took a lot of shortcuts with this guy, and I wanted him to start in the next couple of days, and I didn't set him up for that, but I did get two guys after that. One was actually my waiter one night at Outback Steakhouse. Brought him into the whole process, and another guy came to one of our client events, and so I hired. Didn't post any ads. Did it for people that were within the sphere and within past clients. Things like that.
Nate Joens: So you're saying the best source for new ISA's is outback?
LeaAnne Ledford: Waiters and bartenders are made for this type of work. They are made for it. If I had to hire another person tomorrow ... Well, okay, so I'm not going to hire another person tomorrow, because that's ... but if I had to start recruiting for another person tomorrow, I would definitely be looking for bartenders, service industry people. They are conditioned for this.
Robby T: Yeah, why do you think those people are good fit? If I were to ask you ... Just give me some insight into the two guys. Why are they crushing it and why did they ... Obviously they came in and you've trained those next two really well, and it's funny how ... and I posted this today in [inaudible
00:25:06] that everybody ... Failure's kind of looked down upon by many people, and if anything, failures are the best things that I think can happen as long as you use them as motivation to learn from.
Robby T: So what do these guys look like? Why are they crushing it? And how are they setting 55 appointments in their first month in the role? Give me some insight there.
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah, so they both came from completely different backgrounds. Neither one of those background ever included real estate, calling, being on the phone, anything, and so they came in ... When we took them through the process, I spent a lot of time getting to know them personally, and I needed to know them and I needed to know what made them tick, what pushed them, what they would hide behind ... I needed to know all that before I brought them on, and I brought them on and they didn't know much about each other. So we never acclimated them before for them to get comfortable with each other, and they honestly ... I brought them in telling them pretty much there was only one position.
LeaAnne Ledford: So they've always seen each other as competition but at the end of the day, they see each other as a team, and if they need to push each other, one will call the other out. They sit back to back in a room together, and they'll call each other out, and I think that's a great culture to have.
LeaAnne Ledford: They both have something they were fighting for, and it's two completely different things. One's fighting for advancement and one's fighting for a family. But they both have something that they are fighting for, and I set the expectation upfront that Im not going to drag them to their goals. I'm not going to drag you there otherwise, I'll cut the chains, and I'll go and you stay back here. I'm not a dragger. I'm not the person that micromanages and everyday says, "Hey, let's do this, let's do this."
LeaAnne Ledford: So they want it. It comes down to the same thing that helped me to succeed: They want it. And they want it for themselves more than they want someone else to want it for them.
Robby T: When I talk to people that ... I always talk about how you have to be hungry and humble, and what it sounds like ... and I love that you bring up that you have your own thing and then these two other guys each have their own independent outlook, but they clearly know what they're pushing for and why they're willing to make sacrifices to actually get there, and I think you're hitting on something that you could hire the most talented people in the world. You could technically ... You could train really good people, but the reality is if they don't have the hunger to pick up the phone and do the work and self start, I don't think it'll ever work.
LeaAnne Ledford: If you ever want it more for somebody then they want it for themselves, you're battling an uphill battle. Something's going to give and it's probably going to be you. You're going to get exhausted trying to push this person that is just not going there.
LeaAnne Ledford: True talent, we call it bottom up talent, true talent pushes you. So they're the ones that are constantly challenging you. They're calling out your systems. They're calling out your processes and they're saying, "You know, I get why you said this, but this is a quicker way. This is a better way. This is more efficient." They're challenging you to be a better person every day. If you're having to do the opposite, then it's the wrong fit.
Robby T: Love that, and kudos to you LeaAnne. I read, I think it was something this morning, but it said that ego is all about who is right, and truth is all about what is right, and I've seen far too many people get in the trap of, "Hey, we've done it this way, because I created it that way," and if I had to guess, you're two ISA's are starting to do things differently than what you trained them, and frankly, better, because they have different perspectives, but kudos to you for being willing to not at all have an ego and say, "No we do it this way because I said so." That's the kiss of death in innovation.
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah, and we give them the freedom to do that. To make those choices and to make those improvements. Success isn't a one size fits all. Everyone has a different picture of what success is, and for me, I may say that success for them is to have X amount of closings a year, but it may mean something completely different for them, and I feel like if I give them the oppurtunity every day to own the role that they're in, they're going to appreciate it so much more. They're going to see the longevity in that role, and they're going to make me better as they get better, but we'll give you the freedom if you try it the system and the process way first, because you got to start out learning the basics. You've got to learn the systems and processes. Once you learn those, you got that flexibility and that freedom to do things that are more your style and more geared towards you, but if they don't work, guess where we're going? We're going back to the basics.
Robby T: Truth. I love it.
Nate Joens: I really like Kyle's question here. I think it's a good segway kind of. Tell us what your why is and when you lose, what keeps pushing you forward?
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah, so my why is a little complex. I try and keep it simple. I was raised by a mom who spent all of her time working. Every memory that I can recollect she was working, working, working, trying to better us. From her working, we never got to spend quality time with her. We never got to go on vacations. We never got to do anything, and unfortunately I lost my mom three years ago, and the one thing that I learned from that is you can't get memories once the oppurtunity to make those are gone.
LeaAnne Ledford: So for me, my why is I'm here so that I can be more present with my child when I'm not. So I know that when I'm here I'm present, so that when I'm not here, I can be present with her and I can make memories with her and I change the way that I leave her behind. I can change that completely. So for me that's kind of a short, condensed version of what keeps me going is knowing I don't have to make the same mistakes and have the same regrets that somebody else did.
Nate Joens: That's an awesome why. [crosstalk
00:31:48] I was just going to say that's probably one of the most ... I can see why Robby was saying although you didn't exactly match the standard disc, your why is kind of just like ... it's really, really present. And is that something ... I know Robby continues to coach on hiring this time of disc, how can you ask those probing questions in an interview or a recruiting process to really get at that why and how do you kind of know who ...
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah. So my viewpoint is if they're an amazing ISA fit, I don't have to probe them, they probe me. What's the number one thing you're hiring an ISA for? To dig deeper, to ask the right questions, to guide the discussion. So when I'm interviewing somebody, when I'm considering somebody, if I'm having to do more of the guiding, then I know they're probably not going to be the best fit. I want somebody that asks me that question first before I even ask them, I want them to ask me.
LeaAnne Ledford: When I say something about my daughter to somebody that I'm interviewing, I want them to stop, acknowledge the fact that I said I had a child, ask me a little bit more and keep going, because if I say something instrumental like that, which is a way that so many people lost the ability to connect with a client with, and they just keep going, I know they're going to do that on the phone too. I want them to stop me, and I want them to ask. I set them up into traps like that too when I'm interviewing them, but you don't have to probe a good ISA. You never have to probe.
LeaAnne Ledford: But what we do is we just ... Just like when we're on the phone and just when we're doing our dialogues and everything like that, we go deeper. Tell me more about that. What does that look like to you? What would that mean to you? Just keep going deeper.
Robby T: Love that. I know for us one of the things that we've learned to ask is ... We always just start, give us your life story and it's crazy that just asking that one can lead to finding out ... It always leads to the why if you do it right if you're digging deeper. I'm assuming you all do something similar where you know someone's why at least at some level before you hire them.
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah, and there's always the real why behind the smokescreen why. So my smokescreen why is my daughter. I can keep it really quick and simple and just say my daughter, and that's the smokescreen. That's the surface level, but you have to dig and get below that surface level, because it's so much more than my daughter. You'll never push me to my goals thinking it's just my daughter. You have to get behind the emotion where my mother's tied into that to really push me. So it's just like when you're on the phone, you have to get past surface level.
Robby T: I love that. I love it.
Nate Joens: So kind of switching gears on that though, when you're coaching your ISA's, obviously it's kind of a reoccurring theme that asking why is definitely what we kind of believe makes a successful ISA. I think you mentioned you trained these people on script. [inaudible
00:35:22] says there's no such thing as a script. What are you doing to train those people up to make sure that they're asking the right amount of questions to move it forward, but also digging deeper? How are you kind of coaching them up on that as well as, what is one piece of advice that you would give to a brand new ISA?
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah. So kind of along what Robby says, when my ISA's start, they get one piece of paper and that one piece of paper is everything script wise that we have and it's literally a page of questions to dig deeper on things that matter like motivation, location, price ... It's not a script. I call it a blueprint.
LeaAnne Ledford: So we will coach them on finding ... every single person's different, and so when I sit down to coach, every last person's opener and closer is going to be a little bit different, because it's going to be geared towards their personal style. The worst thing to do is to give someone a script that's going to make them sound uncomfortable, and so we gear it towards somebody's personal style.
LeaAnne Ledford: So their opener, and they have to know the inside of the sandwich ... where to ask those questions and then where to take it. So that's kind of when they start ... That's what we do. We work a lot on their opener. We find what's comfortable for them. We go back and forth, me and the trainee, a lot. They have partners outside of the market, and then we just work on it every single day until it is natural. And they will learn the objections as they are given the objections. You can't completely train an ISA on everything they're ever going to ... I've been in this seven years and I still have not heard it all. So it's ongoing and ever-changing.
Robby T: I love that. One of the things that people oftentimes say to me is when they hear the approach that we're talking about where ... I even say the best script in the book is tell me more, and I think you're saying the same thing. There's a lot of different ways to ask that. People always say, "Well, it doesn't," ... "Don't people feel like you're invading in their life? Aren't people upset about that? Don't they get frustrated? Don't they hang up? Don't they want to hang up on you? Don't you feel intrusive doing it?"
Robby T: So I have my perspective on it and my idea, but I'd love to hear if someone were to say that you, "LeaAnne, your approach sounds like you're probing and you're putting your nose where it shouldn't be," I'd love to hear your rebuttal.
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah, so you just gave me your opinion and what does everybody like to do? They like to share their opinions and their thoughts. So thank you for sharing yours.
LeaAnne Ledford: If you make them feel comfortable, if you're building rapport ... Like I said, if someone mentions their child or, "I want to be close to work," you stop and you slow down and you quit worrying about going for the close. It's so overrated. Don't worry about going for the close, worry about contributing.
LeaAnne Ledford: So, "Hey, Robby, I know you said you wanted to be closer to work, where do you work? Oh that's awesome, how long have you been there? What do you do?" People love talking about themselves. It's a natural human ... People love talking about themselves, and so for you to give them the stage and to shift the conversation towards who they are and not what you can do for them, that makes them so much more comfortable, but you have to build rapport as you're digging. You can't just dig in like a Frankenstein voice, just, "Hi ..." You have to make them feel comfortable. You have to do it. If you're not going to build rapport, then don't try and dig deep.
Robby T: That's great.
LeaAnne Ledford: Save the [inaudible
00:39:08] questions for last. I always start with information, because if I can get them talking about the why, then the how is so much easier.
Robby T: I oftentimes say you can know every what in the world, and it is nowhere near as powerful as one why, and you're hitting on a fundamental truth, and the fundamental truth is everybody loves to talk, and I agree. I agree 100 percent.
Nate Joens: What is one piece of advice that you give to a seasoned ISA? How would you coach up Robby here who is still an ISA?
Robby T: I love it.
LeaAnne Ledford: Somebody who has been at it for a while? The biggest thing is don't ever think that you have it figured out. Don't stop trying to learn even if you are at the top of the totem pole, there is always someone to learn from, and that very well may be the person at the bottom of the totem pole. So never stop looking for those opportunities. You're never going to know it all even if your mama tells you you do. Everybody that you meet is a learning opportunity one way or the other.
Robby T: I just love the, "Even if your mama told you so," that's my favorite thing I've heard all day.
LeaAnne Ledford: Mama's love telling their little boys that they're right. So don't listen to your mama on this one. It'll never go well.
Robby T: Your mama's wrong! I love that. So first off, I can't thank you enough LeaAnne. It's really fascinating to get your perspective through all of this. You're obviously aren't just skilled at what you're doing, you're extremely skilled, and I have about three pages of notes. So thank you for helping me. I love everything you're saying.
Robby T: When we like to wrap these up, because we tend to be nerds as ISA's in our world, so it's kind of our joke. For a while we've always said, we'd only hire someone that likes Star Wars. That's not always true, but...
Robby T: I ended the last one asking Jim, what do you prefer: Star Wars or Game of Thrones? And I don't know if I've ever seen Jim so hyped in my life. I thought he was ... He was jumping up and he was like, boom, boom, boom. So I'm going to ask you the question Star Wars or Game of Thrones and why?
LeaAnne Ledford: So Robby cover your ears. I have never seen either. I have never seen a single episode of Star Wars nor a movie. I have never seen Game of Thrones.
Robby T: So everything LeaAnne just said, don't hear any of it. We can't trust her. [crosstalk
00:42:05]
Robby T: Anyways, is there anything ... What do you love that's nerdy? What do you love that's maybe kind of nerdy in some way, shape or form? We'll pivot.
LeaAnne Ledford: Well, I don't have a ton of super nerdy tendencies when it comes to TV preferences, things like that. I won't willingly tell my TV preferences because people will hold it against me, but one of my nerdy tendencies is sometimes I get really into folding laundry. I know it's not horrible, but I get really into it. Like giant piles of it. Making sure everything is done just right. Mastering the retail folds. Mostly, Marie Kondo folds. I geek out on some organization systems from the container store. Things like that. Closet systems, drawer organizers.
Robby T: I love it.
LeaAnne Ledford: That's about as geeky as I get.
Robby T: I love it. So you're Marie Kondo. You can teach us some of those things.
LeaAnne Ledford: I don't like to get rid of stuff.
Robby T: Oh so you organize but you don't like to get rid of-
LeaAnne Ledford: I'm not a hoarder, but I do need all probably 80 pairs of my earrings. They all still bring me joy.
Robby T: I have never heard a hoarder say they are a hoarder. So we may have to talk later.
LeaAnne Ledford: Yeah, maybe. We may need an intervention.
Robby T: Well, LeaAnne, again, from my perspective this is really great. Thank you for bringing a ton of value to people today. It's really great to have you on. We'll have to have you on again at some point. This is the beginning for these types of conversations, and again, we can't thank you enough for your time.
LeaAnne Ledford: Thank you guys as well.
Nate Joens: Absolutely. Thank you very much LeaAnne and Robby. We appreciate both of your guys' time. As is tradition here at Structurely though, we're not done yet. Now we got our prize specialist. He's making it around.
Speaker 5: Are you bringing a bucket?
LeaAnne Ledford: Hello.
Nate Joens: So what we usually do here is we have a giveaway at the end of these fun hour long sessions. [inaudible
00:44:33] what do we got today?
Speaker 6: Today we got two people winning 50 free leads. So what that means ... whoever is the winner of the free leads, you will be able to upload 50 of your old leads into our system in AIISA homes, Artificial Intelligence Inside Sales Agent will long term nurture them for you. So really good way to bring some leads back to life, and we've got two winners today. So we got the first winner of the 50 free leads is Laura Fleming. Way to go Laura.
Nate Joens: Laura Fleming, Hawaii.
Speaker 6: Winner two of the 50 free leads is [Tiffany Keylander
00:45:25]
Robby T: Keylander.
Speaker 6: There is a J in there.
Nate Joens: Sorry, Tiffany. I don't know how to spell your last name.
Speaker 6: You missed the J.
Nate Joens: Well, we'll follow up with you guys after this?
Speaker 6: Yeah, you will get an email from us and anyone who is registered will also get a copy of this webinar two hours from now. Re-watch it, keep your notes.
Nate Joens: It will be sent to you automatically via video. We're also working to put together this episode, as well as the last one, in our podcast, which you can subscribe to at theisaradio.com or on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, really anywhere you listen to podcasts you can find us at TheISAradio. Lots of other episodes with great ISA's, just like LeaAnne, as well as Robby T and Mr. Erik Hatch as well. Well, with that guys, I really appreciate your time on this Tuesday. There's a train going by, which seems like my cue to leave. So we'll see you guys next time.
Nate Joens: Oh, our next episode I should mention that. Robby, it's still pending, right?
Robby T: I believe.
Nate Joens: Okay, so-
Robby T: I think we're good.
Nate Joens: Pretty well confirmed with Alex Vincent on May 7th 1pm central. So that's may 7th at 1pm central in a couple weeks here we'll be back to talk more ISAs. With that, we'll see you guys later.
Robby T: Thanks again my friend. Thanks, LeaAnne. Appreciate it.
LeaAnne Ledford: You too, bye.
Robby T: Have a great day now, bye.