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When agents follow the status quo, they get mediocre results. It, therefore, behooves them to find individuals and communities that can help them take their brand and business to the next level.
We have the opportunity to listen to Kevin Kauffman, co-founder of Next Level Agents, here on the show to talk about what it takes to become a Next Level Agent.
Show Notes
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart. And as you know my mission and my passion are to help you think bigger, so that you can have the business that you want, which produces the options and the impact that you want. Super excited today to have kind of a real estate industry icon, possibly even celebrity depending upon what standpoint you're looking at it from
nationally known, at least His name's Kevin Kauffman. Let me start off by saying a big thank you to Kevin for being willing to come on to think bigger real estate show.
Kevin Kauffman 0:28
Yeah, my pleasure. I love to do it. You know, I think you and I connected over the fact that we both love to give back to the real estate community. And so I'm literally my pleasure to do this.
Justin Stoddart 0:38
That's awesome. Good stuff. Let me tell the audience here a little bit about Kevin Kauffman, again, he's a wants to be known as a realtor. I think that's pretty cool. Out of Tempe, Arizona, from another perspective, he looks at Real Estate a little bit differently. He goes about a different we're going to talk about what that's what that looks like for him. He has an expansion team and if you're familiar with expansion teams, where you have one hub
and one location, and you add other agents in different parts of the country, he's done. He's got five different locations about 50 agents, what he calls a small expansion group. Some might beg to differ that that's that small. He's also co-founder of the group next level agents, and the podcast, Kevin and Fred's Next Level podcast. And in talking with you, Kevin, prior to this, I love kind of your passion behind that, which is, you've been fortunate to be surrounded by some really great people. And why not give back? Why not record those conversations and let more people have access to them?
Kevin Kauffman 1:35
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like, you know, I, I realized a couple of years ago that something I've done naturally my whole life is to seek out mentorship. And sometimes it's a mentor for a season. Sometimes it's for like, one individual little thing, one topic, and sometimes it's for life, right and,
and so I love learning about the genius inside of people and being able to want to
My reasons for having the Facebook group I mean, the day I started that and then told Cody and Fred: "Hey guys, we now have a Facebook group, surprise!" And the reason I started the podcast was that I wanted to be able to do that on a bigger level as you can only teach live to so many people so often without being on an airplane 300 days a year, which I'm not willing to do. And so it's kind of like my ability to kind of deliver on that stuff that really lights me up.
Justin Stoddart 2:27
You know, I feel the same way. A very similar motive for the bigger real estate show is I'm I guess, gutsy enough and passionate enough advocate for the industry, that I want to get the brightest minds in real estate. Like I want to be around them, and I want to be learning from them. And why not offer that to a bigger audience? Why not? Like, let's like with technology these days, there's no reason why we can't be broadcasting great conversations all the time. So thank you again for being a part of that. Yeah. Let's get into kind of your definition, Kevin of what it means to be a next level agent.
You've obviously carried that through your kind of your branding, both in the Facebook group as well as the podcast, obviously, in your mind, you have some concept of what it means to be a next level agent help define that. For the rest of us.
Kevin Kauffman 3:14
You know, it's funny, Justin, that's a great question. No one's ever asked it to me that way.
But you just forced me to think about it differently. And one of the things I love is the fact that there's not this one size fits all recipe for success in real estate business. And so for me, when I think of like, what, like I say this to people who want to be coached, and I'm, I'm like, we go through an interview process to see if I'm gonna, if I'm going to coach them if I could be a good fit for them, but they'd be a good fit for me is, I don't care if you sold 10 houses this year, and your goal is to go to 25. Or if you sold 500 houses and your goal is to go to 1000 I really don't. But what I want to know is the desire to hit your personal next level there and Will you follow through on the actions that are required
So when you ask the question that way, you just reminded me, number one, it's about whatever that next level is for you. And number two, it's also about it doesn't not like you don't have to go the expansion team route. You don't have to go the team route. You could go the luxury route, you could go the investor, right, like there are so many ways to be massively successful in real estate. And so I guess at the end of the day, that's how I would answer it is like, it's the person who thinks like, what is my personal next level? What's the next level for my business? And for myself as a person in my personal development?
Justin Stoddart 4:35
That's a super, super compelling answer, I think, based on what you said earlier, which is about this concept of growing yourself right of growth. I found for me that that happiness includes growth. And I think, by design, we as human beings aren't happy unless we are growing like there's, there's this deeper underlying purpose as to why we're here which is just to grow and progress and become more and impact more
And I think probably guys like you and I get a little bit addicted to growth, like if we're not experiencing it, or if the people around us aren't experiencing it, like we get uncomfortable, like what? And I can sense that from you. And really super cool to hear that the purpose of this branding is that you want to be around people that are like that, that are like hungry to get to some next level, whatever that means for them. Right.
Kevin Kauffman 5:21
Yeah, you know, I would argue that true happiness isn't possible without growth like you have to be growing somewhere in your life. You know, one of the things I've learned from many of my mentors over the years is like, your business can never outgrow you as your personal development. It just can't, it's not allowed you. Now, some people will choose to let their personal development outgrow their business. And that's definitely possible, but it can't be the other way around. So you've got to have some growth somewhere, I believe to truly be happy and fulfilled, and to be a happy person. I mean, I'm just one of those airy-fairy believers, that as I believe as humans were like we are hard-wired.
To connect, and that if we're going to connect with people, we're going to have to grow in order to be able to truly be connected.
Justin Stoddart 6:07
Yeah. powerful stuff. And I agree, I think it's in our DNA, that growth is part of who we are. And when we negate that or when we avoid that it causes people to be really dissatisfied I do you see people interesting story. I had an economics, no, accounting teacher in college, and he hit it big had a big acquisition for a company he was a part of was like, like, done like did not need to work anymore. And his wife goes home to his wife. He's like my job's kind of done here. I'm going to, I'm going to get a golf club membership. And, like, your job's not quite done yet. kids haven't raised I he was joking about this, right. He wasn't actually that chauvinistic. But he said I golf for the next couple of years. He said I've never been so miserable in my entire life. So so they actually went back to the university that he was a graduate of, and he said, I want to work for you. And they said, Well, you can't because you don't have a Master's. doctor and he said I'll do it for free. And they said, Okay, we'll do that. He said all of a sudden he got happy again. Because he started growing again, he started helping other people grow around him. But he said literally, it was the most, even though he made it. He was financially done for life. He said it was the most unhappy couple of years of his entire life, which is, I think, resonate with what you're saying here, is it? It's really hard to be happy if you're not growing.
Kevin Kauffman 7:22
Yeah, it is. I mean, like Tony Robbins, talks about all the time, like some of the most depressed people are people who hit up the pinnacle in their career early on. So think about this is not a political statement. But think about how young Bill Clinton was when he became the president. Like there was a and I use that example because Tony Robbins coach them through a lot of that stuff, right? And there are some other like athletes and astronauts, but people who literally got like you there's, there's not a political job in the world. That's a higher level than becoming the President of the United States of America. Right. And so when you view yourself as say a politician and
You're 39 or whatever he was when he got the job. Like there's nowhere else to go but down until you can get connected to whatever your purpose is in life, etc. And it's the same thing with, with business people with athletes why you see people like, burn through their entire, like hundreds of millions of dollars. I guess that's a lot of the reasons why and you've got to have a bigger purpose and you so you've always got to be growing no matter how high you reach, you know how high of a rung you reach.
Justin Stoddart 8:29
Great stuff. Talk to us about this, this group next level agents, what do agents I would imagine that it has a lot to do with growth.
Tell me how does what does that look like? What can people expect to get when they join next level agents?
Kevin Kauffman 8:44
you know, myself
My thought is what they can expect as an online community to kind of come and share best practices ask questions in a kind of a judgment-free zone. It's not that we don't have jokes but it's not all fun and games and
It's not all business and it's not a pitch fest. It is a place where brand agnostic like I don't want to hear a brand's name unless it's about a discussion not my brand versus your brand.
It's about bettering the real estate agent because if there's one thing I believe, it's that we as realtors, like we have to stick together. And
to me that's, it's a safe place there for that. But it's also a place of growth. Like, you know, we just had our second annual next level live next la live next level agents live event in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, and we had just over 400 people actually show up in attendance for a two-day event. Some of the best speakers on the planet, a couple people from your hometown, like you know, Cody Gibson and obviously he was a co-founder with me and my business partner Fred and the group. Leanne Harris was a speaker there she rocked it like we like this group has the best of the best. Jason Abrams was there and he came in and spoke and john chap last
And my buddy Ronnie Das, he's not even a real estate is just a leadership guy came in and spoke and gave a keynote. And it's just people giving back so we can grow as humans, we can grow as business people, we can grow our skill sets, etc. Right? And so that's what it is. It's this online place. It's this virtual place, if you will, for us to go and just have a conversation.
Justin Stoddart 10:23
You know, this, the whole expansion model, I think ties into this. Well, I sat through a presentation about expansion, and I heard someone for the audience say, you know, I live in rural central us and I've outgrown my leadership like my you know, the head of my brokerage does nothing for me and I've I've far outgrown them, this is them speaking. And I've,
I've wondered like, do I need to switch brokerages all together? Do I need that like there was this real concern they were looking at expansion help solve that problem? And I think the similar problem you guys are trying to solve is it sometimes is
You need more leadership than what is right in your backyard, right that you have easy access to walking down the hall. And so part of what I'm hearing you say is that like the design of this group is to provide that sort of mastermind where people can go to get pushed to get stretched to where they don't have to have these artificial ceilings that are imposed by based on where we live and you know, who's down the hall?
Kevin Kauffman 11:25
Yeah, you know, that's a good thing Yeah. Ronnie Dos said something during his keynote session in LA live and he said
I'm going to probably totally butchered this but something to the effect of like, when are you going to stop waiting for a leader and just be it
and in there's the there are times when we were we need to hear that and there but and there are times we gotta You know what? The power of proximity is real. I need to make sure I'm around other people who can push me and help me to think bigger, right? I'm it's the whole premise of why we're here is about thinking bigger. And you know, it's the power, the power of proximity is Who were you spending your time with daily, weekly, monthly? And who are you giving your energy to? That's, that's pushing you.
Justin Stoddart 12:12
It's great stuff. You know, and I think more so than any other time in history. The real estate industry needs leadership, right? I mean, anytime you're potentially coming into new uncharted waters, which real estate industry is with, you know, technology shift that's happening, that they need leaders to stand up. And what I'm also hearing you say, and what I've seen from next level agents, is that you're, you're not just about giving resources to people, but you're about developing leaders, right, you're encouraging and developing leadership within people because the only way for the industry to move forward is to be able to offer more value to the consumer, which requires leadership right like consumers need to be led. Therefore, brokers need to be led brokerages need to be led like leadership is the key is the way for all of for the entire industry.
Kevin Kauffman 13:03
Yeah, Be careful man, you just like mentioned two of my current soapboxes and which is number one, like leadership to me is all about you as a person and you as a human being, it's not about like, Oh, can I have a team and all these most people fail in leadership or what we generally call leadership because they aren't aware of who they are as a person and what their behavior is. And so that makes it hard for them to place themselves with the right people. So they set themselves up for failure as a leader because they hire the wrong people for them. And so,
yes, leadership is like a very internal thing, and it's different for you and it's different for me, right? It's not going to be the same thing. So that's kind of one piece of something you just spark for me, but the other pieces so much of the education and the and the
the talking heads that I see out there right now, it's all about like,
Oh, we gotta you know, we got to save the agents and we got to protect our commission and I know that is the wrong frickin message like, this is about the country.
consumer and then tell real estate agent understands that the consumer is number one, like by a mile, like nothing else matters the reason why offer pad open doors Zillow fill in the blank with the other 20 companies are out there is because consumer behavior has driven that. And there we have for too long. I've sat back and said, Well, how do I protect my commission? How do I make money instead of being true fiduciaries, and as well as like, making the experience for the consumer easier? Like how do we give them the ease of I order on Amazon is delivered this afternoon? How do we do that for our buyers and sellers? And I think that that is truthful, that's the thing. We need to be focused on most as agents practicing agents because that's the deal right there that it's consumer behavior. We've got to meet them there and stop being so inward focused.
Justin Stoddart 14:57
Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more.
If more so than ever, consumers will win. And if there's we try and build a moat around the status quo of what's the way things have always been that the faster path to losing your place, right? Yeah, the faster path that like the only path forward long term sustainably, is to ask that question that you posted, like what is in the best interest of the consumer? What is the ideal overall experience for the consumer? And how do we help provide that those that are asking that question, I believe, will have a very bright future while those that are standing back trying to dig the moat a little bit deeper? So the tech companies can't get in. I think I don't think that's the right way forward.
Kevin Kauffman 15:39
Yeah, I'm in total agreement and this is about the consumer and their behavior and it's a call it's a challenge to us. It's why there are all these lawsuits that any ours having to respond to you right now around, you know, around commission and antitrust and etc because the consumers are going
Justin Stoddart
Hey, you're not catching up to my demand. And we got to do that. Like we got to do that. Like that's priority number one. Yeah. Yeah. Great stuff, man. Really, really enjoyed the conversation. Let me let's kind of ask our signature question here. What is it that Kevin Kauffman does on a regular basis to intentionally think bigger?
Kevin Kauffman
You know, I definitely like to read. And by read I mean, listen, on Audible. I like I picked my mentors I picked you to know, I've picked the people that I love to speak into my life. I, I attend learning and training events. There's no doubt about that. I'm addicted to learning. I suppose that that's for one thing, but I also purposely put myself around people who have achieved more when I say achieved more, it could be in business, but it could be personal. It could be health. It could be finance, it could be whatever, like fill in the blank, right? It's something bigger than where I'm currently at it. You know, like a great example, I joined a mastermind group, it's ridiculously expensive, and it's easiest $25,000 check I write every year, like, true and none of like there's almost nobody in real estate connected to real estate in the group. But there's like 300 entrepreneurs from probably 100 different industries, most of them, you know, who have made far more significant strides in their walk than I have. And you know, so just putting myself around people like that, to be reminded of like, there, there's absolutely a bigger Bullseye, there's a bigger, whatever's next for you, no matter
Justin Stoddart 17:43
the thrive is that those solutions aren't just going to come from inside the industry. Right. So I think it's super bright that he built a network outside of there that people have solved these very similar problems in other industries and found a path forward to making the consumer situation ideal, while at the same time have its leaders and other industries I think is, is brilliant because not all solutions will come from inside our industry.
Kevin Kauffman 18:15
Yeah, and I should add on to that. And I spend my time with around as many Top Producing top achieving real estate owners around you know that I mentioned a few of them. Ben Kenny, who was also an MLA live Leo Pereda, Cody Gibson and Leanne Harris, like people like yourself, people, like read more it So Patrick Woods we were talking about Patrick earlier, right. I've made sure I also spend ample time around people like that in my own industry, who are doing great things that may or may not be doing the same thing I'm doing. Hopefully, they're doing something at least a little bit different. So that way, I can learn from them as well. Because I need I believe I need to have the viewpoints like the thing is like there's a reality, and then there's our view of it. And so I want
Be able to catch other people's viewpoints. I was kind of I was having a conversation with an agent yesterday. And I was saying to her, you know, like, I really enjoy polarity. I really enjoy being around someone who has just an absolute opposite viewpoint of me, because I'm curious as to how what, how and why they see it that way.
Justin Stoddart 19:17
Yeah, I think it's healthy. And I think if you can come in, and listen and respect other people's opinions and learn from it, and you might disagree, but not be disagreeable. I agree, Kevin. I think that's a powerful place to be from that as soon as we stop listening to other perspectives, our world gets smaller. Right, and our possibilities get smaller.
Kevin Kauffman 19:38
Totally. Yeah, I mean, that's the beginning of the end of my opinion.
Justin Stoddart 19:41
Yeah. And this has been such a pleasure. I want to thank you again, for being such a great value add to the think bigger audience. Appreciate you very much. I'm, in fact, let me do this. For those of you that are not yet a part of Kevin's group, Next Level Agent. I would imagine a lot of you are, go find this group facebook.com forward slash groups for its foot forward slash next level agents. And I'm sure Kevin, I'll let you in. If you need to reference the show,
Kevin Kauffman 20:14
say Justin sent you, and, and we'll definitely get you in. Absolutely. We'd love to have more people. Yeah, but here's the deal. Don't come if you wanted, like, show off your open house, I don't I don't give a rip. If you want to talk about, you know, if you want to tell jokes, like I don't give good do that somewhere else. There are other groups for that stuff like this is about making ourselves and our lives better. So if you're in growth like, absolutely, come join us, we want to help you get to your next level.
Justin Stoddart 20:39
It's great stuff, man. Thanks again, Kevin. And wanna thank everybody for tuning in to this episode of The think bigger real estate show. And where again, our mission of passion is to help you think bigger. And Kevin, you've been a great contributor to that today. So appreciate you again.
Kevin Kauffman 20:50
Thanks a lot.
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart. And as you know my mission and my passion are to help you think bigger, so that you can have the business that you want, which produces the options and the impact that you want. Super excited today to have kind of a real estate industry icon, possibly even celebrity depending upon what standpoint you're looking at it from
nationally known, at least His name's Kevin Kauffman. Let me start off by saying a big thank you to Kevin for being willing to come on to think bigger real estate show.
Kevin Kauffman 0:28
Yeah, my pleasure. I love to do it. You know, I think you and I connected over the fact that we both love to give back to the real estate community. And so I'm literally my pleasure to do this.
Justin Stoddart 0:38
That's awesome. Good stuff. Let me tell the audience here a little bit about Kevin Kauffman, again, he's a wants to be known as a realtor. I think that's pretty cool. Out of Tempe, Arizona, from another perspective, he looks at Real Estate a little bit differently. He goes about a different we're going to talk about what that's what that looks like for him. He has an expansion team and if you're familiar with expansion teams, where you have one hub
and one location, and you add other agents in different parts of the country, he's done. He's got five different locations about 50 agents, what he calls a small expansion group. Some might beg to differ that that's that small. He's also co-founder of the group next level agents, and the podcast, Kevin and Fred's Next Level podcast. And in talking with you, Kevin, prior to this, I love kind of your passion behind that, which is, you've been fortunate to be surrounded by some really great people. And why not give back? Why not record those conversations and let more people have access to them?
Kevin Kauffman 1:35
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like, you know, I, I realized a couple of years ago that something I've done naturally my whole life is to seek out mentorship. And sometimes it's a mentor for a season. Sometimes it's for like, one individual little thing, one topic, and sometimes it's for life, right and,
and so I love learning about the genius inside of people and being able to want to
My reasons for having the Facebook group I mean, the day I started that and then told Cody and Fred: "Hey guys, we now have a Facebook group, surprise!" And the reason I started the podcast was that I wanted to be able to do that on a bigger level as you can only teach live to so many people so often without being on an airplane 300 days a year, which I'm not willing to do. And so it's kind of like my ability to kind of deliver on that stuff that really lights me up.
Justin Stoddart 2:27
You know, I feel the same way. A very similar motive for the bigger real estate show is I'm I guess, gutsy enough and passionate enough advocate for the industry, that I want to get the brightest minds in real estate. Like I want to be around them, and I want to be learning from them. And why not offer that to a bigger audience? Why not? Like, let's like with technology these days, there's no reason why we can't be broadcasting great conversations all the time. So thank you again for being a part of that. Yeah. Let's get into kind of your definition, Kevin of what it means to be a next level agent.
You've obviously carried that through your kind of your branding, both in the Facebook group as well as the podcast, obviously, in your mind, you have some concept of what it means to be a next level agent help define that. For the rest of us.
Kevin Kauffman 3:14
You know, it's funny, Justin, that's a great question. No one's ever asked it to me that way.
But you just forced me to think about it differently. And one of the things I love is the fact that there's not this one size fits all recipe for success in real estate business. And so for me, when I think of like, what, like I say this to people who want to be coached, and I'm, I'm like, we go through an interview process to see if I'm gonna, if I'm going to coach them if I could be a good fit for them, but they'd be a good fit for me is, I don't care if you sold 10 houses this year, and your goal is to go to 25. Or if you sold 500 houses and your goal is to go to 1000 I really don't. But what I want to know is the desire to hit your personal next level there and Will you follow through on the actions that are required
So when you ask the question that way, you just reminded me, number one, it's about whatever that next level is for you. And number two, it's also about it doesn't not like you don't have to go the expansion team route. You don't have to go the team route. You could go the luxury route, you could go the investor, right, like there are so many ways to be massively successful in real estate. And so I guess at the end of the day, that's how I would answer it is like, it's the person who thinks like, what is my personal next level? What's the next level for my business? And for myself as a person in my personal development?
Justin Stoddart 4:35
That's a super, super compelling answer, I think, based on what you said earlier, which is about this concept of growing yourself right of growth. I found for me that that happiness includes growth. And I think, by design, we as human beings aren't happy unless we are growing like there's, there's this deeper underlying purpose as to why we're here which is just to grow and progress and become more and impact more
And I think probably guys like you and I get a little bit addicted to growth, like if we're not experiencing it, or if the people around us aren't experiencing it, like we get uncomfortable, like what? And I can sense that from you. And really super cool to hear that the purpose of this branding is that you want to be around people that are like that, that are like hungry to get to some next level, whatever that means for them. Right.
Kevin Kauffman 5:21
Yeah, you know, I would argue that true happiness isn't possible without growth like you have to be growing somewhere in your life. You know, one of the things I've learned from many of my mentors over the years is like, your business can never outgrow you as your personal development. It just can't, it's not allowed you. Now, some people will choose to let their personal development outgrow their business. And that's definitely possible, but it can't be the other way around. So you've got to have some growth somewhere, I believe to truly be happy and fulfilled, and to be a happy person. I mean, I'm just one of those airy-fairy believers, that as I believe as humans were like we are hard-wired.
To connect, and that if we're going to connect with people, we're going to have to grow in order to be able to truly be connected.
Justin Stoddart 6:07
Yeah. powerful stuff. And I agree, I think it's in our DNA, that growth is part of who we are. And when we negate that or when we avoid that it causes people to be really dissatisfied I do you see people interesting story. I had an economics, no, accounting teacher in college, and he hit it big had a big acquisition for a company he was a part of was like, like, done like did not need to work anymore. And his wife goes home to his wife. He's like my job's kind of done here. I'm going to, I'm going to get a golf club membership. And, like, your job's not quite done yet. kids haven't raised I he was joking about this, right. He wasn't actually that chauvinistic. But he said I golf for the next couple of years. He said I've never been so miserable in my entire life. So so they actually went back to the university that he was a graduate of, and he said, I want to work for you. And they said, Well, you can't because you don't have a Master's. doctor and he said I'll do it for free. And they said, Okay, we'll do that. He said all of a sudden he got happy again. Because he started growing again, he started helping other people grow around him. But he said literally, it was the most, even though he made it. He was financially done for life. He said it was the most unhappy couple of years of his entire life, which is, I think, resonate with what you're saying here, is it? It's really hard to be happy if you're not growing.
Kevin Kauffman 7:22
Yeah, it is. I mean, like Tony Robbins, talks about all the time, like some of the most depressed people are people who hit up the pinnacle in their career early on. So think about this is not a political statement. But think about how young Bill Clinton was when he became the president. Like there was a and I use that example because Tony Robbins coach them through a lot of that stuff, right? And there are some other like athletes and astronauts, but people who literally got like you there's, there's not a political job in the world. That's a higher level than becoming the President of the United States of America. Right. And so when you view yourself as say a politician and
You're 39 or whatever he was when he got the job. Like there's nowhere else to go but down until you can get connected to whatever your purpose is in life, etc. And it's the same thing with, with business people with athletes why you see people like, burn through their entire, like hundreds of millions of dollars. I guess that's a lot of the reasons why and you've got to have a bigger purpose and you so you've always got to be growing no matter how high you reach, you know how high of a rung you reach.
Justin Stoddart 8:29
Great stuff. Talk to us about this, this group next level agents, what do agents I would imagine that it has a lot to do with growth.
Tell me how does what does that look like? What can people expect to get when they join next level agents?
Kevin Kauffman 8:44
you know, myself
My thought is what they can expect as an online community to kind of come and share best practices ask questions in a kind of a judgment-free zone. It's not that we don't have jokes but it's not all fun and games and
It's not all business and it's not a pitch fest. It is a place where brand agnostic like I don't want to hear a brand's name unless it's about a discussion not my brand versus your brand.
It's about bettering the real estate agent because if there's one thing I believe, it's that we as realtors, like we have to stick together. And
to me that's, it's a safe place there for that. But it's also a place of growth. Like, you know, we just had our second annual next level live next la live next level agents live event in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, and we had just over 400 people actually show up in attendance for a two-day event. Some of the best speakers on the planet, a couple people from your hometown, like you know, Cody Gibson and obviously he was a co-founder with me and my business partner Fred and the group. Leanne Harris was a speaker there she rocked it like we like this group has the best of the best. Jason Abrams was there and he came in and spoke and john chap last
And my buddy Ronnie Das, he's not even a real estate is just a leadership guy came in and spoke and gave a keynote. And it's just people giving back so we can grow as humans, we can grow as business people, we can grow our skill sets, etc. Right? And so that's what it is. It's this online place. It's this virtual place, if you will, for us to go and just have a conversation.
Justin Stoddart 10:23
You know, this, the whole expansion model, I think ties into this. Well, I sat through a presentation about expansion, and I heard someone for the audience say, you know, I live in rural central us and I've outgrown my leadership like my you know, the head of my brokerage does nothing for me and I've I've far outgrown them, this is them speaking. And I've,
I've wondered like, do I need to switch brokerages all together? Do I need that like there was this real concern they were looking at expansion help solve that problem? And I think the similar problem you guys are trying to solve is it sometimes is
You need more leadership than what is right in your backyard, right that you have easy access to walking down the hall. And so part of what I'm hearing you say is that like the design of this group is to provide that sort of mastermind where people can go to get pushed to get stretched to where they don't have to have these artificial ceilings that are imposed by based on where we live and you know, who's down the hall?
Kevin Kauffman 11:25
Yeah, you know, that's a good thing Yeah. Ronnie Dos said something during his keynote session in LA live and he said
I'm going to probably totally butchered this but something to the effect of like, when are you going to stop waiting for a leader and just be it
and in there's the there are times when we were we need to hear that and there but and there are times we gotta You know what? The power of proximity is real. I need to make sure I'm around other people who can push me and help me to think bigger, right? I'm it's the whole premise of why we're here is about thinking bigger. And you know, it's the power, the power of proximity is Who were you spending your time with daily, weekly, monthly? And who are you giving your energy to? That's, that's pushing you.
Justin Stoddart 12:12
It's great stuff. You know, and I think more so than any other time in history. The real estate industry needs leadership, right? I mean, anytime you're potentially coming into new uncharted waters, which real estate industry is with, you know, technology shift that's happening, that they need leaders to stand up. And what I'm also hearing you say, and what I've seen from next level agents, is that you're, you're not just about giving resources to people, but you're about developing leaders, right, you're encouraging and developing leadership within people because the only way for the industry to move forward is to be able to offer more value to the consumer, which requires leadership right like consumers need to be led. Therefore, brokers need to be led brokerages need to be led like leadership is the key is the way for all of for the entire industry.
Kevin Kauffman 13:03
Yeah, Be careful man, you just like mentioned two of my current soapboxes and which is number one, like leadership to me is all about you as a person and you as a human being, it's not about like, Oh, can I have a team and all these most people fail in leadership or what we generally call leadership because they aren't aware of who they are as a person and what their behavior is. And so that makes it hard for them to place themselves with the right people. So they set themselves up for failure as a leader because they hire the wrong people for them. And so,
yes, leadership is like a very internal thing, and it's different for you and it's different for me, right? It's not going to be the same thing. So that's kind of one piece of something you just spark for me, but the other pieces so much of the education and the and the
the talking heads that I see out there right now, it's all about like,
Oh, we gotta you know, we got to save the agents and we got to protect our commission and I know that is the wrong frickin message like, this is about the country.
consumer and then tell real estate agent understands that the consumer is number one, like by a mile, like nothing else matters the reason why offer pad open doors Zillow fill in the blank with the other 20 companies are out there is because consumer behavior has driven that. And there we have for too long. I've sat back and said, Well, how do I protect my commission? How do I make money instead of being true fiduciaries, and as well as like, making the experience for the consumer easier? Like how do we give them the ease of I order on Amazon is delivered this afternoon? How do we do that for our buyers and sellers? And I think that that is truthful, that's the thing. We need to be focused on most as agents practicing agents because that's the deal right there that it's consumer behavior. We've got to meet them there and stop being so inward focused.
Justin Stoddart 14:57
Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more.
If more so than ever, consumers will win. And if there's we try and build a moat around the status quo of what's the way things have always been that the faster path to losing your place, right? Yeah, the faster path that like the only path forward long term sustainably, is to ask that question that you posted, like what is in the best interest of the consumer? What is the ideal overall experience for the consumer? And how do we help provide that those that are asking that question, I believe, will have a very bright future while those that are standing back trying to dig the moat a little bit deeper? So the tech companies can't get in. I think I don't think that's the right way forward.
Kevin Kauffman 15:39
Yeah, I'm in total agreement and this is about the consumer and their behavior and it's a call it's a challenge to us. It's why there are all these lawsuits that any ours having to respond to you right now around, you know, around commission and antitrust and etc because the consumers are going
Justin Stoddart
Hey, you're not catching up to my demand. And we got to do that. Like we got to do that. Like that's priority number one. Yeah. Yeah. Great stuff, man. Really, really enjoyed the conversation. Let me let's kind of ask our signature question here. What is it that Kevin Kauffman does on a regular basis to intentionally think bigger?
Kevin Kauffman
You know, I definitely like to read. And by read I mean, listen, on Audible. I like I picked my mentors I picked you to know, I've picked the people that I love to speak into my life. I, I attend learning and training events. There's no doubt about that. I'm addicted to learning. I suppose that that's for one thing, but I also purposely put myself around people who have achieved more when I say achieved more, it could be in business, but it could be personal. It could be health. It could be finance, it could be whatever, like fill in the blank, right? It's something bigger than where I'm currently at it. You know, like a great example, I joined a mastermind group, it's ridiculously expensive, and it's easiest $25,000 check I write every year, like, true and none of like there's almost nobody in real estate connected to real estate in the group. But there's like 300 entrepreneurs from probably 100 different industries, most of them, you know, who have made far more significant strides in their walk than I have. And you know, so just putting myself around people like that, to be reminded of like, there, there's absolutely a bigger Bullseye, there's a bigger, whatever's next for you, no matter
Justin Stoddart 17:43
the thrive is that those solutions aren't just going to come from inside the industry. Right. So I think it's super bright that he built a network outside of there that people have solved these very similar problems in other industries and found a path forward to making the consumer situation ideal, while at the same time have its leaders and other industries I think is, is brilliant because not all solutions will come from inside our industry.
Kevin Kauffman 18:15
Yeah, and I should add on to that. And I spend my time with around as many Top Producing top achieving real estate owners around you know that I mentioned a few of them. Ben Kenny, who was also an MLA live Leo Pereda, Cody Gibson and Leanne Harris, like people like yourself, people, like read more it So Patrick Woods we were talking about Patrick earlier, right. I've made sure I also spend ample time around people like that in my own industry, who are doing great things that may or may not be doing the same thing I'm doing. Hopefully, they're doing something at least a little bit different. So that way, I can learn from them as well. Because I need I believe I need to have the viewpoints like the thing is like there's a reality, and then there's our view of it. And so I want
Be able to catch other people's viewpoints. I was kind of I was having a conversation with an agent yesterday. And I was saying to her, you know, like, I really enjoy polarity. I really enjoy being around someone who has just an absolute opposite viewpoint of me, because I'm curious as to how what, how and why they see it that way.
Justin Stoddart 19:17
Yeah, I think it's healthy. And I think if you can come in, and listen and respect other people's opinions and learn from it, and you might disagree, but not be disagreeable. I agree, Kevin. I think that's a powerful place to be from that as soon as we stop listening to other perspectives, our world gets smaller. Right, and our possibilities get smaller.
Kevin Kauffman 19:38
Totally. Yeah, I mean, that's the beginning of the end of my opinion.
Justin Stoddart 19:41
Yeah. And this has been such a pleasure. I want to thank you again, for being such a great value add to the think bigger audience. Appreciate you very much. I'm, in fact, let me do this. For those of you that are not yet a part of Kevin's group, Next Level Agent. I would imagine a lot of you are, go find this group facebook.com forward slash groups for its foot forward slash next level agents. And I'm sure Kevin, I'll let you in. If you need to reference the show,
Kevin Kauffman 20:14
say Justin sent you, and, and we'll definitely get you in. Absolutely. We'd love to have more people. Yeah, but here's the deal. Don't come if you wanted, like, show off your open house, I don't I don't give a rip. If you want to talk about, you know, if you want to tell jokes, like I don't give good do that somewhere else. There are other groups for that stuff like this is about making ourselves and our lives better. So if you're in growth like, absolutely, come join us, we want to help you get to your next level.
Justin Stoddart 20:39
It's great stuff, man. Thanks again, Kevin. And wanna thank everybody for tuning in to this episode of The think bigger real estate show. And where again, our mission of passion is to help you think bigger. And Kevin, you've been a great contributor to that today. So appreciate you again.
Kevin Kauffman 20:50
Thanks a lot.
Creators and Guests
Host
Justin Stoddart
What is Think Bigger Real Estate?
The road to success for real estate agents is well-marked. The road to significance is not. Here, we help you to Think Bigger than just your business. We inspire you to seek success AND significance, income AND impact. We do that by interviewing the biggest thinkers and highest achievers in the real estate industry, extracting the secrets to having it all.