Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are about to go inside, not one, but two high performing real estate teams. The Nickley Group, a 65 agent team in Orlando, Florida, and home team for you. A 32 agent team outside Madison, Wisconsin. I sat down with their leaders and a live audience at Unlock at the Fountain Blue Las Vegas last month to get key components of their team operating systems as well as their game plans for 2026. You'll learn the who, what, when, and why of three very valuable roles. Agent Success coordinator, director of Culture and Engagement, and director of growth. You'll get a unique take on a mentorship program. You'll learn their key takeaways from Unlock and their priorities for 2026, and you'll get other strategies and tactics that you can implement for yourself in the year ahead. Enjoy our time with Alexis and Tom Nickley and Jen Statter right now on Real Estate Team os. 

Speaker 2 (00:54):
No matter where your business is today or where you want to take it, you'll get there faster and more profitably with an operating system. Welcome to Team os, your guide to starting, growing and optimizing real estate team. Here's your host, Ethan Butte. 

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Welcome back to Real Estate Team OS here at Unlock. We're doing live interviews for the first time ever on the show. I appreciate you both so much for participating. Feel free to introduce yourselves. 

Speaker 3 (01:20):
I am Alexis Nickley of the Nickley Group. We're located in Orlando, Florida. And this is my husband Tom. 

Speaker 4 (01:27):
I am Tom and this is my wife Alexis. And yeah, we run a big real estate team out of central Florida. We've got a bunch of our awesome team members it up here with us today. So shout out there. We're about 85 total people on the team. About 65 of those are agents, 20 are admin staff. We'll close around 900 transactions this year for about 400 million. 

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Awesome. Congratulations. How long have you been building this? 

Speaker 4 (01:56):
I started the team back in 2014, so 2015 was our very first year. One of the craziest things that I did, but one of the best decisions is when I got into real estate. I got in 2013. I sold houses for one year and one year only, and I figured I can learn everything that there is to know about real estate in 12 short months. Surprised they didn't. And then once I started the team in 2015, we had four agents, no admin, no operations. I took myself out of production and since then have just focused solely on pouring into growing, developing, and pouring everything that I have into our team to try to grow to where we are today. 

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Cool. Talk a little bit about the division of labor between the two of you. Go ahead, Ben. 

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, I would say for me, I am really focused on everything agent facing, all of our training, all of our systems. So I focus more on that side of things. We do make all of our decisions jointly together, but that's my area of specialty 

Speaker 4 (03:05):
I focus on at this point. I've kind of worked my way up through every position in every role. I feel like I did everything at one point or another, but at this point I am having all the big crazy ideas, the ideas, the systems processes. I spent a lot of my time working with our leadership team, working with our director of marketing and working with Alexis and her team and our director of growth. Really just trying to drive the ship and continually focusing on getting better and improving and getting better at our processes, deciding what we're doing right, deciding what we're doing wrong and what we can do better. So I spend almost all my time just growing the systems, processes and ideas and future of the team. 

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Cool. So sales and productivity and agent relationships and training, everything else, 

Speaker 4 (03:57):
Everything else. Cool. Everything else. 

Speaker 1 (03:59):
And it's obviously working for you. Yes. How would you describe the culture of your organization? 

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Oh my gosh, that's such a big question. I will say our culture is hands down, the most important thing to us. We come in the office every single day. Our agents are in the office every single day. We have a culture that promotes positivity first. So the other piece of that too that is really important is the positivity, but the competitiveness behind that. As teammates, we all work individually to be the absolute best that we can be and we look at our partner to the side and we want to help them get there too. Yeah, 

Speaker 4 (04:44):
You hear it all the time. I'm sure you've heard it many times. So you hear it on your podcast, you hear it up here. But culture is literally our north. Everything that we do, every decision we make starts and finishes with culture. I think one of the things that is one of our superpowers is we have hands down the best group of people on our team, like truly our family, truly just the most positive, energetic, driven, passionate, coachable people that you can find. They truly, yeah, Jay, we are really, really, really, really blessed. But that starts because we are really, really intentional about who we partner with on our team. We have an entire recruiting department, we have multiple recruiters in the office. We have a director of growth and we still hire probably slower than anybody that you talk to because our driving force is they've got to be a culture fit. 

Speaker 4 (05:46):
We don't care about anything else. It doesn't matter how many houses they've sold, it doesn't matter how much time they've had in the industry, it doesn't matter how great they are. If they're not a culture fit, then I'm sure that they'll do great elsewhere, but they won't fit with us. And by doing that, we've been able to continue to grow. And the energy on our team, the cohesiveness on our team has only gotten stronger and stronger and stronger. Many times you hear people when they grow a team, they add 10 agents a month or 20 agents a month, or they're getting up to 150, 200 agents. And to me, I know that works, but it is the anti model that we have if we focus 

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Because it's a threat to the culture, 

Speaker 4 (06:29):
It's a threat to the culture. And because we've been so intentional about the right people, we live and die by our core values and our first core value is that a positive attitude is not an option, it's a requirement. So for our team, if we're hiring positive people that are coachable, that are humble, that take ownership for their decisions and you surround them, it is competitive and you surround them by other people that think that way, we do have a competitiveness in the office, but everybody else also wants to see everybody win. So it's huge for us to call. 

Speaker 3 (07:01):
Someone once interviewed and she is actually a team member of ours, and at the end of the interview process she's like, are you guys like a cult? And we're like kind of, I guess. 

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't know the relationship between the word cult and culture, but I imagine there's a relationship there 

Speaker 4 (07:20):
For sure, 

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Shared vision, shared values, and I'm sure your recruiting team is developed processes to pull that out of folks earlier than later. 

Speaker 3 (07:30):
We don't make their job easy to find people, that's for sure. But when they do find people, I mean, it's amazing 

Speaker 1 (07:38):
And I feel like a lot, I mean, you talk with a lot of team leaders. I know that a lot of people talk about culture. It's really hard to put your finger on it or put a handle on it, but it sounds like you've created some standards around it that have helped you grow in the way that you want to grow. So the show is Team os. OS is operating system. I regard the team operating system. It's the people, processes and technologies that allow you to grow in the way that you want to grow. When you think about those three ideas, people are roles, processes, and systems or key pieces of technology, what comes to mind is a few things you could not have had the success you've built without it. 

Speaker 3 (08:14):
Well, I know when we were thinking about this question, we both looked at each other and said, Jeff, for sure, but I'm going to let Tom talk about Jeff. They have a little bromance. But the role that I think of is for us when we were early on, we always started with our vision first. So what do we want our team to look like in the future? And I think one of the most important things for us is creating a world-class experience for our clients and our agents. So like we said, our agents come into the office every single day. Well, if we want them to come into the office, we want to create wow experiences for them that make them want to come into the office, that make them want to come and be a part of our TNG family. And then also on the client facing side, we're here to develop lifelong relationships, whether it's with our agents, our clients, we don't want anybody to leave. So when we were a lot smaller, one of our first major hires that we made was actually pretty unconventional. It was our chief happiness officer. So we probably had about eight, maybe eight agents on our team at that time, 

Speaker 4 (09:29):
And one admin 

Speaker 3 (09:30):
And one admin. And she joined our team and she was amazing. It's actually developed into our director of culture and engagement, but for us, that was just key to our culture in creating amazing experiences for our agents and our clients. And our first client event, the clients fit in a classroom and we just had a client event in October and we had over 450 people show up, and we could not have done it without that role. For sure. 

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Well, before we go on to Jeff, I don't want to delay it too long though. What are a few key functions in this role? You mentioned events. What are a few other things that someone is doing to fulfill this vision? 

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, I will say so for client facing events in giveaways, but for us, our giveaways, our next giveaway coming up is a trip to New York City in December to the Jingle Ball. So we pour into our clients, but we do it at a really high level for our agents. It's celebrating their wins, their anniversaries, their birthdays, making them feel the love, their special moments that they have when they have children. Just those personal touches that make them feel like they're a part of our family, which is really important to us. 

Speaker 4 (10:50):
And we also, she does some just random acts of joy and fun. We'll do national Margarita Day people show up in the office and we'll have a margarita bar or just fun little moments that people don't expect. And again, our team does run different where everybody's in the office every day, but it's not an environment where we crack the whip and you have to be in the office and you have to be there. We want to create an environment that people want to be at the office that people enjoy coming to the office. They enjoy the people that they're around. They enjoy the leadership that's there pouring into them every day. So the director of culture is really just doing all of the things to help maintain that, to celebrate, to celebrate wins, to celebrate special moments, to celebrate things and days that you didn't even know, 

Speaker 3 (11:37):
National Popcorn Day, 

Speaker 4 (11:38):
National Popcorn Day. So it's a lot of really calculated client touches and moments, but it's also some impromptu things just to keep it fresh and exciting. 

Speaker 1 (11:49):
Okay. Simple lesson for everyone. National Day of, there's something literally every day. So pick the ones you like and surprise your agents and clients. Talk a little bit about Jeff and the director of growth position. 

Speaker 3 (12:01):
We love you, Jeff. 

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah, 

Speaker 4 (12:03):
So Jeff is my everything. So 

Speaker 3 (12:06):
After me, 

Speaker 4 (12:08):
Yes. Jeff is my second. He's my side chick. 

Speaker 1 (12:11):
Second. Second thing. 

Speaker 4 (12:14):
Yeah, second thing. So yeah, you had mentioned people, processes and systems, all of those things are very important. Obviously we are very systems and process based, but I truly believe that everything that is possible in our world is because of our people. Without people, without people. We grow on the backs of our people as an organization. We never set goals. We want to recruit a hundred people or we want a hundred agents, or we want to do this much volume we have when we have people that step up and we have people that we think are right for roles and positions and that have a passion about something that helps us create future opportunities and growth. And Jeff, it is one of those things that, like Alexis had mentioned, when we started the team, we had a big vision of what we wanted to build and where we wanted to go before we did anything. 

Speaker 4 (13:05):
And we wanted to be world-class, right? The center of what we do is we wanted to be world-class and we wanted to be world-class on the client facing things and we wanted to be worldclass at the agent facing things. We have two customers. So part of that vision was is if we're going to grow a big organization, if we're going to grow an organization that can impact a lot of lives positively, we have to have people help us drive the growth of that organization. So I got lucky. I hit the jackpot. Jeff is actually, I met him the very first day that I walked into the office. He actually taught me everything that I know about real estate, but he is a true believer in everything that we do in our beliefs, in our values, in what we do and how we do it. He takes what we do as serious as anybody on our team, and he has kind of been the everything and the utility guy throughout the years. 

Speaker 4 (14:03):
He was our training manager when I took myself out of that role when we wanted to, we waited many years to start an ISA department when we started the ISA department, he was the guy who started the ISA department. He has recruited probably 80% of the people on our team. He has been responsible and that's agent facing, that is admin and operations facing. So it kind of developed over time where we didn't have titles for him over the years. You're an agent now, you're a sales manager, now you're the head of the ISA department. But that's kind of naturally gone to the director of growth because all of these growth initiatives, we know that he's going to figure it out, right? He's going to figure out what he needs to do. He is an executioner of all things, and now we've expanded to other markets and he's led that charge. So he is literally the director of growing everything. 

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Awesome. So this just speaks again to the power of culture, shared values and not just having them and not just documenting them and not just kind of hiring to them, but also in finding those people that are going to embody them in the way that you need and want to. And that as the foundation for not just retention, but casting that vision further and supporting that growth 

Speaker 1 (15:26):
Speed of which obviously 2026, I assume you want to do more than you will achieve here by the end of 2025. But before we get to kind of what's on the radar for you all, how do you think about annual planning? I mean, some people are, they start in the summer and they have their plan locked in by the start of Q4. They're refining it, they're communicating it, they're developing a launch plan for it. Other people are quarter to quarter because it's a really interesting and challenging business. How do you all think about annual planning? 

Speaker 3 (15:55):
Yeah, I think when you run a business with your spouse, you are constantly talking and implementing changes. It's an 24 7 job. I think for us, there's three ways that we talk about planning for next year. First is going to be what you want to do in your sales and agent count that you want to grow, which Tom mentioned we do at a very small scale each year. The second piece that really I like to focus on the most is refining our systems. Sometimes I find that people want to chase the new shiny objects all of the time, and your systems are probably pretty solid. And if you're in this room, you're probably a pro and you probably have a good foundation already. So for me, the big thing that I like to focus on is what do we have in our systems already? And I obsess over those systems and for our client experience, for our agent experience, how can I make it better? 

Speaker 3 (16:56):
What can we do that we can give back to our agents more? How can we improve their experience? How can we take more off their shoulders with our clients? How can we continue to give that wow factor? And I feel like the reason behind that is keeping that underdog mindset, never feeling like you've arrived. I think both of us, we kind of have that imposter syndrome where we're like, okay, we're never going to be good enough. We're going to keep always improving. So I think that's a big piece of it. And then of course, implementing anything new. Just in the years that I've been in real estate, the market has completely changed so much every single year. So continuing to implement and add new, whether it be tech or systems. 

Speaker 1 (17:40):
Cool. I am going to go out on a limb here. I'm going to assume just by the way we've chatted before, but just based on what I've heard here and that everyone else has heard live and in recording, I'm going to guess that some version of humility is represented in your core values. 

Speaker 4 (17:55):
Yeah, I mean, be humble. Yeah. I mean, yeah, for 

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Sure. That's it. Yeah, good. Because I feel that from you all. It's really sincere. And so that's 

Speaker 3 (18:04):
Our core values, learn like you will live forever, and we always say, there's a saying that Tom used to always say, which is, if you're green, you'll grow. If you're ripe, you'll rot. So we just keep that mindset of continually growing. 

Speaker 1 (18:18):
I love this language since now I need you to walk through your core values. I don't mean to hard quiz you, but the language that you're using is really interesting and it makes it a little bit more memorable and a little bit more provocative in a positive way. 

Speaker 3 (18:33):
Yeah, I think another core, there's two core values that I love too. The next one is never be a victim. Whenever our agents come to us with a situation, they hate it, but they'll come to me about a situation and they'll talk through it and they'll be super frustrated. I'm like, okay, what can you do better next time? So understanding that in every situation, there's controllables in that for you. And then my absolute favorite is persist without exception, where a team of action, 

Speaker 4 (19:01):
She just stole the two of mine. You told me you were going to let me say those. I'm just No, no. Those are two of the important ones is that persist without exception, we're a team of action and we never give up, and we're always fighting and we're always growing, and we're always learning and we're always pushing forward. So yeah, that's 

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Cool. When we get together at Unlock next year, if we don't see each other in the 

Speaker 4 (19:25):
Meantime, 

Speaker 1 (19:27):
What would you like to have gotten done? Is there a role that you want to add? Is there something that you, I mean, I hear a lot of continual improvement in the values and in what you just shared, but is there something that you're really focused on for 2026? 

Speaker 3 (19:39):
For us, we do a lot of things at a really high level, but the way we've done tech for the last couple of years, we just got into Follow-up Boss this year in August, we transitioned. Welcome. Thank you. This was a long time coming, so we just transitioned our team over into Follow-Up Boss, and for me, I want to build upon that our agents have been so manual. Every note has been so manual, every reminder. So just continually looking into the tech stack that we have and building upon that to create an amazing experience for our agents and our clients. That's a big one. And you can talk about the branding and the marketing. 

Speaker 4 (20:16):
Yeah, I mean, we're always looking to improve all the things that we do, and I think that's a big part of our, like Alexa said, a big part of our planning is not something new and something shiny and something different. It's just we often say we do the same thing today that we did 13 years ago when we started. We just do it better. So for me, it's just really just refining the agent experience, creating more value. We're working on some really awesome things to help agents build their own brand and build their own identity on their own outside of the Nickley group. So yeah, I don't want to give away too much though. We got the team here. 

Speaker 1 (20:48):
I know. Thank you for sharing it with me, and I won't share it with them yet. There's a good surprise coming for agents. I love what you all are up to. So I challenged you with giving me one takeaway for folks, which is difficult to do, who's covered a fair amount of ground here in a short conversation. I would love for you to give some context and color to this takeaway. 

Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, I think it goes back to what I was mentioning earlier is keeping that underdog mindset when you're planning and preparing and always understand that there's room for improvement in everything that you do. We all want to be number one, but my favorite place to work from is second place. I feel like you're so highly motivated and you have that taste. You're right there almost to first place. So constantly being in that underdog mindset, never feeling like you've arrived, always going back through your systems, seeing how you can improve and keeping your agents and your clients first. 

Speaker 1 (21:39):
Love the energy. Love the focus. Love the attitude. Love the humility. Tom, what's one thing you picked up here at Unlock that you are either going to be thinking about or that you are going to implement yourself or maybe assign to someone else to think about and implement? 

Speaker 4 (21:53):
Yeah, I think a big thing for me is every time we come to these events is not necessarily a takeaway, but it just reaffirms there's so many different ways to succeed at this business. So many different ways. There's been so many of these classes that I've gone to where you have two people sitting on stage that are doing the same amount of business, that are successful in that metric in the same way. But when you deconstruct it, it's completely different business models. And that's always great for us because as business owners, we're always looking and saying, you're naturally going to compare yourself against other people. Well, they're doing it this way. Should we think about this? Should we think about doing this differently? Should you think about doing that? So for us, it's always great because I always walk away reconfirm that man, we are doing exactly the right thing the way that it should be being done by us, and it doesn't have to be the same as this guy or that guy or that guy. We all have our own paths and we all have our own thing that we do. So again, I think for me it's just reconfirms that every time is that there's just so many different ways to succeed in this business and so many different styles that you can tap into. 

Speaker 1 (23:07):
It's absolutely true. That is the spirit of what we're doing on real estate. TMOS is bringing you the stories, hard learn lessons and insights from people operating businesses in the way that they want to in a diversity of markets, diversity of sizes. I appreciate you adding to the stories that we're telling here on the show. I wish you continued success in the year ahead. Clap it up for the Nickley group. Tom's takeaway there from Unlock is exactly what we're doing for you every week here on Real Estate Team os exploring and celebrating the different ways that team leaders and operations leaders are finding success. By the way, if you want more content from unlock, go to realestate team os.com/subscribe. That's realestate team os.com/subscribe. When you sign up there absolutely free. Not only do you get email exclusive insights every week that allow you to cherry pick the best ideas, the most relevant ideas for you each week. You also get instant access to 10 subscriber only episodes, including sessions from Unlock on Lead diversification and on recruiting. Next up is Jen s Statter, who is at that recruiting session with me at Unlock Pay special attention to the unique role of the agent success coordinator to specific things that coordinator is doing and her unique background. 

Speaker 1 (24:29):
So tell us a little bit about Home Team for you. Where are you, what are you all doing? Who are you and what are you all about? 

Speaker 5 (24:35):
Okay, so I'm Jen Starter with Start Company Home team for you. We are located in Wisconsin. We work the south central Wisconsin market, which is, if you know where Madison is, it's about an hour around. I started as a team of four family teams. So with my dad, my stepmom, my husband and myself, and we've grown to 32 agents. So it's great. 

Speaker 1 (25:04):
That is what's the spirit behind the team? If you were to kind of characterize the personality or the motivation or the vision or the values from a cultural perspective, tell me a little bit about how you've drawn 32 agents into the organization. 

Speaker 5 (25:17):
We really focus on bringing value. It is one of our core principles. So it isn't about sell, sell, sell. It's more how can we love on these folks, how can we help them to get where they want to be? 

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Any tips for someone who is thinking about partnering with other family members? So you started as a family team, that can be super, super helpful. It can also maybe be challenging. Any tips for anyone about building with family? 

Speaker 5 (25:50):
The one thing when you're working with family is that you are going to need to go to holidays with them. So you're not going to be able to say, I'm out of here. I'm not doing this. Or throw a big fit. You have to work it out. 

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Yeah, good call. Okay. So Team os. The OS is operating system people, processes, and tech that you could not have built home team for you without. What are a couple people, processes or pieces of tech that come to mind when you think about what you've built? 

Speaker 5 (26:20):
The first thing that comes to mind for me is last year we needed to switch our CRMs. The CRM that we had been using since 2014. They got hacked, which made it so that our agents couldn't get in and get their leads for about 15 to 20 days, which was really unpopular. And then we also found out that they got bought out and they were just getting picked apart and they weren't going to be doing any AI and things. So we're like, okay, we need to switch to a new CRM. So we did all kinds of research and we ended up picking Follow-up Boss with switching from that old CRM to follow up Boss. I have a team full of, if you guys know the disc, I have a lot of css, scs, iss and sis. So you heard me say SA lot. That means I had a lot of people that didn't want change. 

Speaker 5 (27:20):
They were scared. So when we started using Follow-Up Boss, they wanted it to look exactly like our old CRM. They went in and they wanted the smart lists to be the same names and things like that. So what helped us the most as that we hired an agent success coordinator. Her job was to go in, do all of the trainings and get our team comfortable with Follow-Up Boss and the accountability with it. One of the things that is fabulous that she does is she twice a week, she has a class and it's called Fub Catchup. We have mandatory sessions for our team members. If they're not hitting their certain metrics, they are to come to this Fub Catchup session. And what is really great about it is she makes it fun. They want to be there, they're learning and it's still accountability. So that has really helped us. And the other thing that she does is she created a what to Do if guide. So when you have team members and they're working their CRM and they have a lead and it's like, oh, well that lead, they moved out of the area, what do I do? We didn't have people paddling in the same direction and everybody was doing different things, but now we have this guide and it makes it really, really easy to know what to do with your leads. 

Speaker 1 (28:54):
Okay, so Agent Success Coordinator is what you titled the position. Where did you find this person? What did you see in this person that made you say, this person could help us in this way? Because what I'm hearing is it's a layer of accountability, it's a layer of training. It's fun. I think you said 

Speaker 5 (29:12):
Lots of fun. 

Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah. So that seems like a really, obviously a valuable role, a unique skillset. Where do you find someone like that? 

Speaker 5 (29:20):
Well, we interviewed a lot of people and we ended up finding her on LinkedIn actually. And when we interviewed her, I don't know if you've ever had the kind of interview where you start asking the questions and you're just like, yes, yes, I want you. It was like that. And it turns out she was actually a teacher. No background in real estate. She taught eighth grade special ed, which made her, I mean, she could teach anything, and she made it fun and she's learned so much about real estate in a short period of time. It's amazing. 

Speaker 1 (30:03):
So the teaching skillset was far more important. You can teach the teacher anything you need them to teach. In this case, follow-up Boss, it's Best Practices. Talk a little bit about the standards for who has to go to those 

Speaker 5 (30:17):
Trainings. So she does switch up the training standards, but right now we have a smart list called Engage, and that is all of the leads that are in set and met because we are trying to make sure that our agents are getting them to that next level. And she started with, if you have 40 leads in that smart list category, you must come. And as people brought their lists down, the number went down. So it was like, okay, now if you have 30, you have to come. And then it went down to 20, and it's like, okay, you have that. We do have a little bit of trouble putting, we use ypo, so we have people that will forget to put their stars on and their seller report. So it's like if you're not doing those things, you have to come and it gets people in, but she makes it fun, 

Speaker 1 (31:14):
Good. And it takes that off your plate, which is really, really 

Speaker 5 (31:17):
Nice. It's fabulous. 

Speaker 1 (31:18):
Was that net new, like net new behavior, net new training, net new everything? Or did that come off your plate a little bit because it was something that you were doing in addition to a bunch of other things. 

Speaker 5 (31:28):
We had systems for all of the accountability, all of the kinds of things that I have her doing now, just we didn't have the manpower to have anyone actually implementing it. So I know what all of this stuff is, but did our team members before her role know what they were necessarily doing or their expectations? I thought they did. They didn't. 

Speaker 1 (31:53):
Yeah. I know that you have a mentorship program, and I know that a lot of people are implementing it a lot of different ways. Some people are still thinking about doing it. Give me a couple minutes on how you set up your mentorship system when it occurred to you and what kind of function or role it plays. Because a lot of people will say, oh yeah, we have a mentorship program. And then I ask them three questions and they're running a different program from the other person who has a mentorship program. So I think a lot of people use the language, but everyone's doing it differently. That's the spirit of what we're trying to bring on the show. Share a little bit about what that means to you all and what role it plays in the organization. 

Speaker 5 (32:27):
So for us, our mentorship program, we have five mentors on our team. And when we have new agents joining, we first a three day streamlined success training that the new recruits go through. Then they need to get their license and then we have them start meeting with the mentors. The mentors actually have six months of curriculum that they are going through with those new agents. The cool thing is that we rotate the newbies with the mentors. So they start with one and then every month they go with another one, and then by their last month they go back to that first one. It allows them to see the different ways that the different mentors work. We have one top producer who's really into mindset. We have another one who's really into construction and things like that. So these newbies can go in and say, I really like that. That's awesome. I'm not doing it like that. And really learn what they're doing and going on. And for me with these mentors, when we have our mentor meetings with them, we are able to bring them ideas and things that we're going to be doing in the company and say, Hey, what do you guys think of this? Because they're out doing all of the things and what I might think is a great idea. They may be like, yeah, no, you got to do it this way. So it's really helpful. 

Speaker 1 (34:03):
I love the structure that you built there. It sounds a little bit like what some people have called an agent advisory board, for example, like a trusted set of agents that have proven themselves successful in the system that you've designed. Therefore, they are ideal agents, so much so that they're training the other agents because they're meeting and training these other agents. They can represent the voice of those agents, but in a trusted circle instead of the push and pull and the kind of topsy-turvy nature of announcing things prematurely to the whole organization. So I love this truck that you've built. So we're recording this obviously midway through Q4 of 2025. We're releasing here at the end of 2025. I know you all are running kind of an EOS driven shop. Talk a little bit about how you are thinking about annual planning. What are some of those steps? What does that process look like for you all at a high level? 

Speaker 5 (34:53):
Like you said, we do use EOS. Last year when we were doing our vision traction organization, we realized that we weren't getting past the levels that we wanted to, so we're going to be continuing to move that forward. We had plateaued at about 300 transaction, and when you're working on your VTO, you can see that you have your one year plan, your three year plan, and your 10 year plan. And our 10 year plan is to get to a thousand transactions. And if you have three years in a row where you do 331 up to three 50 to 3 75, it's like, hmm, that's not where I need to do. We're not on pace. So we had to dig really deep within the organization to figure out what is working, what is not working, and we found out that we had some wrong folks on the bus, so we needed to get that switched up. And adding the agent success coordinator and having a ton more accountability really matters. And then we're going to be doing a lot more recruiting. 

Speaker 1 (36:06):
What does that recruiting process look like for you? What's worked in the past, and I know that this is still in development because you and I around the recruiting workshop that I produced with Tiffany Williamson and Jeffrey McGonigle, both of whom have been real estate team os guests, you have a lot of ideas floating around, but do you have targets for yourself or just share a little bit about how you're thinking about growing the team in part to grow to toward your goal? 

Speaker 5 (36:33):
So we actually bought a building last year and we have 5,000 square feet. We have a tenant that we're moving out and we're going to have another 3000. So I need to get more agents. I would like to get to 50 agents. So we need about 20 more and we need to be able to keep them and grow. What I have found that has been successful so far with the recruiting really is just consistency, making sure that I have my good marketing materials, I'm following up and just like when you are selling actually real estate, it's the same kind of follow-up process with the recruiting and really just being consistent. What's been working for me so far. 

Speaker 1 (37:19):
How do you decide, what do you know is true about the most successful agents? When you think about the folks that are mentoring that is that the type of agent you're looking for and what are a few of those characteristics? 

Speaker 5 (37:33):
Isn't a real great recruiting tactic to say real estate is boring and you have to have grit and you just have to do the same thing again and again and again. But that's what you have to be able to do. If you are not making your calls and doing the things, it's not going to happen. So I have someone on my team who had no real estate experience and she actually had a background in genetics, but she has that CS personality. I said, okay, if you do what I tell you to do, you are going to be successful. And she's number two in the company now. She just makes the calls, does the things, and that's what I'm looking for. People that can just, I say, here's what you need to do and they'll do it. 

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Beautiful. And then that's proof of efficacy for the next conversation with the type of person that fits that personality. 

Speaker 5 (38:21):
Right. 

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Really good. Tell me a little bit about buying an office building. 

Speaker 5 (38:27):
So in buying an office building, that is a commitment. And when we were buying the building, actually it had about five or six different suites in it. And so my husband and business partner, he's very handy, and so he had the vision that we were going to blow all of those out and we did. But when we were doing that, he was busy building the building and getting it all built out. We were in our brokers building, that building flooded, so we had to drive across town and we're just like, but our building's almost done. It is really nice to be able to control the whole environment 

Speaker 1 (39:13):
And it's an adventure. Yeah. Okay. So I challenged you to give me one takeaway that we could share with folks toward the end of this conversation. This is yours. You don't need to do more. You just need someone who makes sure it happens. 

Speaker 5 (39:25):
I'm a workhorse, so I will just keep going and going and going and keep working. And you get to a point where you realize that you have to be able to have people help you and hire those roles out. And with our current team that we have, I trust them implicitly. I am a recovering micromanager so I 

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Can identify. 

Speaker 5 (39:52):
Yeah, it is a real thing. So with that, having folks that a hundred percent I know I can say, you do this, you do that. Or they even come up with the ideas themselves now. It's just fabulous. So having the right people around you makes a huge difference. 

Speaker 1 (40:11):
Really good. Before I let you go, what is something that you've picked up here at Unlock that you will be thinking about or maybe even implementing? What are one or two ideas or conversations or sessions that really stuck with you here? 

Speaker 5 (40:25):
Yeah, here at Unlock, I did a lot of the sessions about the recruiting because that is going to be a big part of our next year, and I likely am going to hire a recruiter or definitely somebody to help me do that. I would love to get that off my plate, but I want to be hiring the right people, so it's going to be good. 

Speaker 1 (40:46):
Cool. So you got some good momentum in that direction. 

Speaker 5 (40:49):
100%. I really appreciated all of the sessions on that. I took notes upon notes upon notes. 

Speaker 1 (40:55):
Good. If someone wants to learn more about you or home team for you, where would you send 'em to catch up, connect with you, learn more? 

Speaker 5 (41:01):
Yep. They can DM me on Instagram. So I'm Jennifer. I took my husband's last name, which is Stead, K-O-R-N-S-T-E-D-T. So it's really long. You can look for me there. Otherwise, ask us at home team for you.com. You can email me and I'm happy to help. 

Speaker 1 (41:21):
Awesome. She is Jen's daughter. I appreciate you Jen, and thank you for doing this. 

Speaker 5 (41:26):
Yep, of course. 

Speaker 1 (41:26):
Thank you. Thanks again to Jen, Tom, and Alexis for joining me live on stage. And thank you for checking out two of our first ever conversations recorded with a live audience. You've got two more ahead next week, so head to realestate team os.com/subscribe. Sign up, it's absolutely free. You won't miss an episode, and you'll get instant access to those subscriber only episodes. That's at realestate team os.com/subscribe. 

Speaker 2 (41:57):
Thanks for checking out this episode of Team Os. Get quick insights all the time by checking out real estate team Os on Instagram and on TikTok.