Solo vs Team Realtors: Finding Your Best Path in 2026

Lauren Kerschen00:00:00

Yeah, I mean, for me, the solo agent was the only way when I first joined.And the reason I thought that way is because I had looked into different teams, larger teams that I'd heard about in the area, and I asked about their structures and it just like didn't make sense to me, what they were offering versus what I would have to pay to be on the team. And so I was like, you know what? I know myself, I'll probably be able to figure this out.But what I quickly realized is being on your own, even when you're in a large brokerage like I was, that has training and all that stuff, it's still very isolating. You are still the person wearing every single hat. Marketing, you're the financial person. You have to budget, you have to do the legion.You're also doing the sales. You're doing boots on the ground, like walking around, doing the stuff, writing handwritten notes, doing everything yourself.It seriously becomes so isolating because you don't necessarily see the work that is coming from that as being beneficial to you, yet. You don't see the transactions, you don't see the closings. You just see, all right, now what do I do next?Because I've done X, Y, Z that I read on this book or I listened to Tom Ferry podcast and he told me to do this. So I tried that. And then I listened to Brian Buffini's podcast and he said to do this and you get overwhelmed.So for me, when I started out solo, I had to make a decision to actually show up and work every day like it was a real 9 to 5 job, like what I had before. That's really hard to do when you are on your own terms. Freedom is great until it's.

Mike Mills00:01:27

Foreign. Welcome to the Texas Real Estate and Finance Podcast. I am Mike Mills, a North Texas mortgage banker with Service First Mortgage.And the Fed just cut the fed funds rate yesterday for the second meeting in a row. Now that doesn't directly move mortgage rates since they're tied to mortgage backed securities. And in fact, mortgage rates actually rose yesterday.But that is going to be a topic for another day. What it does signal is a continued shift towards looser monetary policy and a path towards cheaper borrowing costs that are ahead.So the housing market's been at a standstill for the past couple years. High prices and high rates of really cool demand. But that is all starting to change. Mortgage applications are up 7% from just last week.Home sales in Texas are up nearly 5% from this time last year. And if that trend continues this coming spring could shape up to be one of the busiest seasons that we've seen in quite a while.So if you're a realtor listening to this and wondering how to position yourself for success, one key question might be, am I in the right place or in the right structure to succeed? And that's exactly what we're going to be diving in today.So joining me today is Lauren Kirschen, residential realtor and team lead at ARC Realty and dfw. And in just five years, Lauren has built an impressive career from a top producing solo agent, and now as a successful team leader.And she has a background in corporate retail, so she has really sharp insight into marketing, sales, and many team dynamics. And she's built a standout social media presence that has really fueled her business for the last several years.So whether you're thinking about going solo or joining a team this spring, Lauren's experience is going to help you make that decision with clarity and confidence. So, Lauren, welcome to the show. How are you doing today?

Lauren Kerschen00:03:12

I'm doing great, thank you. I'm very excited to be here.

Mike Mills00:03:15

Good. We were discussing right off the top that we were having some technical difficulties when we weren't quite live yet.So hopefully things don't chop up too much on us. And I told you before, I apologize. I'm.I'm wearing my Mansfield Tigers playoff shirt today because my daughter and her team are going to play first round of playoffs here against Keller in a couple hours. So very excited for that, but very excited to talk to you, too.So, you know, with rates starting to ease a little bit, we had a little bump, you know, that. That occurred yesterday, and it'll probably settle back down again.A lot of realtors right now are asking, you know, how are they going to position themselves for the string market? So from your perspective. So what separates agents who capitalize on the rebound now versus those that just kind of watch it happen?

Lauren Kerschen00:04:00

Well, I think if you've been working this whole time, even through when it was, you know, 8%, 7.9%, all of those crazy numbers, if you were powering through during those times, you've probably likely built up enough momentum to catch a wave. Right now, you've been basically paddling the whole time, and you're going to catch that wave.So I think if you haven't been and you have been sitting on the sidelines and waiting, finding a way to mobilize yourself with a group of agents that have been paddling and have been working through these challenges will accelerate that. Otherwise, just get to work. I mean, at the end of the day, this business isn't rocket science.It's just consistency and discipline and working over and over again every day the same things.

Mike Mills00:04:47

Yeah.It's funny, you know, especially these days on, you know, social media and all kinds of things, you see all kinds of videos and, you know, coaches and gurus and, you know, everybody coming out of the woodwork with all these secrets, you know, that are going to transform your business. And, you know, I, I agree with you 100. You know, the reality of it all is it always just comes down to work.How much are you willing to work, how much time are you willing to put in, but also to some degree, how smart you work. Right. Because there's a lot of people out there that will put in the leg.Legwork and the hours, but don't necessarily do it on the right things and then sometimes can get kind of trapped in this.Well, I'm working and I'm busy and I'm doing stuff, but maybe I'm not doing the things that are going to give me the most success, at least when I'm, you know, in my career that I'm working on. So. So I think that is.It is a very salient point in that, you know, often we're looking for this secret, and the secret obviously, often is just work, you know, and that's. That's kind of where I think a lot of agents get stuck. Don't you agree?

Lauren Kerschen00:05:45

Totally.And finding the motivation to do that work when either it's not, you know, coming to fruition as quickly as you would like, or you feel like you're working really hard and you're. And you're maybe not even working on the right things, like you mentioned.I think that that's the perfect equation for burnout for most agents because you're just out there grinding and you. Do you feel like, oh, gosh, I'm putting all this work, I'm hustling, and I'm not seeing the results.And that, I believe, is the number one reason why a lot of agents quit as quickly as they do in their early careers.I think if they weren't spending so much time trying to figure out what it was that they're supposed to be doing and then instead plugging into, you know, strategies that are already working for other people.

Mike Mills00:06:30

Yeah.

Lauren Kerschen00:06:31

Have an easier time.

Mike Mills00:06:33

And that's probably as what we're going to talk about today. One of the benefits of being on a team, obviously, is that you get to have shared experiences from other people.On your team and people that have had success. And you know, often, I think when, when new agents get into the business or just solo agents decide to go solo on themselves.You know, brokerages will always promise to have you have a mentor. You have, you know, somebody that's going to kind of walk you through things. But I don't know that, you know, just. See, my wife's a realtor, so.So seeing it from the outside, looking in, the mentor situation can be great.But often, you know, they're doing their own transactions, they've got their own clients and customers, and they're willing to help and answer questions, but they're not really going to be like, you know, be your Jedi Master, that's going to lead you down the road to try to figure out what you need to do to get your, your business off the ground.

Lauren Kerschen00:07:18

Yeah. Typically the mentors in a larger brokerage are the, the busiest ones. Right. They're the ones that have the highest number of transactions.That's why they were asked to be a mentor. But when you're in a team environment versus just a mentor environment, you can partner up. And that's a lot of what we do in our team.We co agent a lot of transactions, especially newer agents with more experienced agents. That is like on the job training, as you would do if you were like shadowing someone.If you're becoming a waiter, you got to follow around that person for five shifts or however many it is. My team members are encouraged and asked to go on every single listing appointment with me, and any of them can raise their hand and say yes.So it's true on the job training, where you can hear me or the other agent saying the same thing over and over again. So you don't have to question. What am I supposed to say when they ask this question? Like, how do you feel this objection.What do you, what do you say to get them to overcome pricing issues? Those kind of things?

Mike Mills00:08:18

Yeah, yeah. Now obviously you started off in the business as a solo agent, so you were on your own to begin with, and then you made the shift to the team side.So I'm sure there are certain, you know, definite benefits to being solo, and then there are some benefits and drawbacks to being a team lead. So why don't you start with the, the solo agent experience and, and what you learned doing that, good and bad?

Lauren Kerschen00:08:40

Well, yeah. I mean, for me, the solo agent was the only way when I first joined.And the reason I thought that way is because I had looked into different teams, larger teams that I had heard about in the area and I asked about their structures and it just like didn't make sense to me what they were offering versus what I would have to pay to be on the team. And so I was like, you know what? I know myself, I'll probably be able to figure this out.But what I quickly realized is being on your own, even when you're in a large brokerage like I was, that has training and all that stuff, it's still very isolating.You are still the person wearing every single hat, like marketing, you know, you're the financial person, you have to budget, you have to do the legion.You're also doing the sales, you're doing boots on the ground, like walking around doing the stuff, writing handwritten notes, doing everything yourself.And it seriously becomes so isolating because you don't necessarily see the, the work that is coming from that as being beneficial to you yet you don't see the transactions, you don't see the closings, you just see, all right, now what do I do next? Because I've done XYZ that I read on this book or I listened to Tom Ferry podcast and he told me to do this.So I tried that and then I listened to Brian Buffini's podcast and he said to do this and you, you get overwhelmed. So for me, when I started out solo, I had to make a decision to actually show up and work every day.Like it was a real 9 to 5 job like what I had before.

Mike Mills00:10:16

Right.

Lauren Kerschen00:10:17

That's really hard to do when you are on your own terms. Freedom is great until it's not right.You're like, I have to be completely self motivated to show up and do this every day and also try and figure out what it is I'm supposed to be doing at the same time.

Mike Mills00:10:33

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's tough. I mean, you know, anytime you're, I think for a period of time becoming a realtor was very much a, it's a low barrier to entry job, right?You, you gotta pass a test. You have to, you know, do a little study and gets your licensing done.But, but for the most part, you know, if you just put a little effort forth, it's, it's not difficult thing to get.And, and then when, when people coming into the business see, hey, I close, you know, one transaction and I make 6, 8, $10,000, you know, that's, that's more than I make in a month, you know, period. And so they see that money piece and they're like w I want and another side to that, too.And I see this a lot with, with newer agents because I, I do classes periodically at Champion School of Real Estate.And I'll always ask, you know, I do the classic right before they take their test, and I'll ask them, you know, how many of them actually have transactions ready to go and lined up once they get their license. And I would say 80% of the class raises their hand.And, and part of that reason is, is because when you're going through that process, you're excited, you're telling everybody that you're become. Going to become a realtor. You're, you know, telling your friends, posting on social media, all that stuff.And so people want to help, they want to reciprocate, they want to, oh, I need a place, you know, you can, you can help me. And they get through those one or two transactions, and then everything falls off a cliff and they're like, oh, my gosh, what do I do?And now I'm trying to figure this all out because I thought I had it. I thought I knew it, you know, going into it, because I already had deals, it was going to be easy. No, no big deal.And now they go two or three months and they don't have a buyer or seller and they're freaking out because you are running your own business. You're not just working for a brokerage. You're.You just happen to hold your license with somebody, but it's still your business that you're in charge of.One of the big hurdles for people that go from doing their own thing or to a solo agent or vice versa, or, excuse me, doing their own thing to a team or leaving a team and going solo is the money, right? It's always about the money. It's about the splits and how much am I paying and. And all this stuff.So when you made the decision to, to either join a team or start doing the team thing, how did you overcome that in your mind of, okay, I'm going to make a trade for a bigger commission per transaction for, you know, more transactions, whatever the case may be. What was it that kind of helped you get over that hump?

Lauren Kerschen00:12:56

Well, I, when I actually, I went from solo agent to starting a team, so I never joined a team, but I had a lot of friends who were on teams. I knew a lot of team leaders. I knew them also through the Tom Ferry organization.So across the nation, I knew a lot of team leaders and was able to talk to them a lot about how they run their structure. The one thing that I knew for sure I didn't want to bring into my team was the feeling that it was my team and it was about me.Like, I didn't name it the Lauren Kirschen team on purpose because I think one of the reasons why agents don't want to join a team is because they don't want to be in somebody else's shadow. They want to be able to build their own brand.And I think for as far as the commission that the splits go, what a lot of agents don't realize, and what I didn't realize also is if you join a small team that's maybe not tied to a major brokerage, the splits are probably really similar to what you would be getting at another brokerage. Okay, so I'm not talking about like the, like the Internet brokers who you don't actually have like a person to talk to or an office to go to.Those are not what I'm talking about. Talking about the brokerages that have offices that, you know, have mentor programs, have training programs, all that stuff.Those splits when you're starting out as a new agent are typically 60, 40, maybe 70, 30, if you get a really good deal in rare occasions, 80, 20. And if you sit down and you talk to a team, you might find that that is also the case. Those brokerages are not going to give you any leads.So your 60, 40, 70, 30, 80, 20 on your own personal things that you bring to the table. That's also what teams offer.The only difference, and there are some teams that are pure 50, 50, don't get me wrong, I know that that exists, but I'm just using what I know about the teams that I work with through Tom Ferry and my team specifically. The only 50, 50 splits on my team are if I actually like hand you the person and go, here is your lead, now go run with it.Yeah, and there is quite a bit of that. But if you bring your own business, it's just like if you were on a major brokerage, just a solo agent in a major brokerage. So I get that argument.But if you find the right team that's offering a really competitive offering and has a lot of opportunities to provide to you, it's worth it 100%.

Mike Mills00:15:31

So when, if someone is considering leaving solo going team wise, what would you suggest? You know, obviously they want to talk to multiple teams, right? Have conversations with, with multiple groups.What are some questions that you would ask going into it as an individual agent? Just to decide if this is going to be the best fit for you and, you know, and how many do you, how many would you talk to? Would you talk to three?Would you talk to 10? Like where would you try to find out, you know, what's going to make the most sense for your fit?

Lauren Kerschen00:16:01

I mean, definitely more than one.I, I don't know that I'm the best person to tell you how many people to talk to because when I joined real estate, I talked to nine different brokers before I chose my broker.

Mike Mills00:16:12

No, that's great.

Lauren Kerschen00:16:14

And the reason being is I felt like I didn't want to be a fair weather friend in, in the eyes of the people that would be watching me make this career change. I didn't want to make a bad choice in the beginning and then have to be like, oh, just kidding, never mind.Having said, I did switch brokerages, but it was two and a half years later, so.

Mike Mills00:16:34

Right, right, right.

Lauren Kerschen00:16:36

But I think the questions that you need to ask are similar to what you would ask a broker. But teams specifically should be providing you leads. That should be not a question.

Mike Mills00:16:48

Okay.

Lauren Kerschen00:16:49

Because that is one one of the main reasons why somebody would want to be on a team versus on being a solo agent is because there are lead opportunities on a team that you would not get just being a solo agent in a brokerage. So how many, how many lead sources do you share with the team? Would be a great question.How many conversions have your team members had on those lead sources? What is the average number of leads that you're giving out? You know, those are very specific to leads.Other questions I would ask are what types of things do you guys do together? What is your communication like?I think, you know, part of the benefit of a team is honestly just the momentum that you get from watching the other people do the work also with you.

Mike Mills00:17:39

Yeah, yeah.

Lauren Kerschen00:17:39

Not everybody is doing the same thing at the same time. We all have different pillars of lead generation that we're working on because it's, it's whatever works for you.Personally, as a team leader, I want you to do things you'll actually show up and do. So I'm not going to like make you cold call or door knock if you absolutely hate that.I want you to do things you're actually going to show up and do. So I'd ask, you know, what kind of of legion do we do or train on? What types of assistance am I going to get in like AI slash social media world?Because a lot of people come in without that knowledge. And you know, does your team do anything outside of transactions?Like do you have parties, do you throw events, do you have get togethers, do you do training together? All of those things should be the reason why you join over just being a solo agent, right?

Mike Mills00:18:30

On the leads thing.Because that was something I was going to ask you, but since you brought it up, you know, I think that a lot of brokerages, teams, et cetera, they, they all, in many places, because it happens in my business too, they promise leads. Oh, we have leads, we have these leads, we have these leads.And, and then when you get there, either it's not true or they do have leads, but they're not great, or they're saying, well, the leads come from your database because we work off your database. And then you're like, well, I don't have a database really, or I do, but it's a spreadsheet with like 20 names on it.Is that gonna, you know, so, so getting into that part of it a little bit, where are you seeing? Because you know, these days, obviously agents used to get leads from Zillow all the time. That's still there.It's changed a little bit on, on how they do it. And now with Zillow partnering with Chat GPT and those two things being integrated, there's a whole other side of things that are happening there.So where are you seeing as far as the actual leads? Because, you know, most agents, when I ask them the question, how do you like get business? The 99% of the answers are, I work my sphere.That's relationships. I work my sphere. Very few agents will ever say they work leads.And the ones that do usually don't work leads very well because as you said, what's the conversion rate? It's like the Zillow leads were great. You would get 100, but you would convert one, you know, maybe.And so now part of it's your system and how you work and all. You know, there's a lot that goes into it.But talk about that a little bit with the leads, you know, where are you seeing these days running a team where you're getting the best leads from? Where are you focusing your time and energy to make that happen?

Lauren Kerschen00:20:11

So I run ads.I run ads on Google for like, if someone types in three bedroom, two bathroom house in Arlington, a dedicated search landing page will pop up and it, and it will have our website name, which is DFW's finestrealestate.com and it'll say, See all available houses for sale. Three bedroom, two bathroom, Arlington, Texas. And it.And then they click on it, comes to the website that we have and they enter their information, their phone number is their password. It's all very simple to, to create the account and get to look at the houses. The website looks like Zillow.So it's, it's no different than what they would experience if they scrolled down a little bit further on the Google and picked the next option which would probably be Zillow. Right, right, right. The other thing I Pay for is YouTube ads.So I have seven or eight different versions of a seller lead capture ad running on Google. Well, YouTube but also Google is the same and we throw about 50 to $100 a day into those ads. And those are very high intent seller leads.They are responding to a seller guide that I'm offering to help them maximize the sell price of their home. So that's a huge source for us.And then we also use, you know, I think these aren't as standard because they cost money, but like my agent finder and upnest through realtor.com those do have a fee that you pay every single month. So a lot of agents don't use them because of that reason. But they have a lower referral fee so we utilize those as well.These are all things that I pay for by the way, for the team.So when you're thinking about these getting leads and not necessarily having a large database or a large sphere yet a lot of the free lead sources like OpCity and HomeLight don't do a lot for newer agents. OpCity just because it's mostly rentals. HomeLight specifically feeds off of your personal production.So you're a brand new agent and you're like why have I never gotten a home light lead? Oh duh. Because I have no transactions. So they have no idea who to send you because you have no closed transactions in those cities.

Mike Mills00:22:34

Right.

Lauren Kerschen00:22:34

So until you have those closed transactions, they don't send you the leads. Anyways. Long story short is you likely don't have that money when you first start out as a new agent to pay for the lead sources.And so that's another benefit of being on a team because they are paying for those lead sources.

Mike Mills00:22:50

Right.

Lauren Kerschen00:22:50

But all that to say, don't get me wrong, your sphere and your referral business should be like 75 to 80% of your business. Eventually it won't be in the beginning at all. And that's not because you don't have a sphere.That's because your sphere is waiting and watching in the wings to see if this is a real job that you're going to actually do and like show that you can do it and show success in it before they, one, muddy the waters of your relationship with that financial transaction and two, entrust you with such a large financial transaction in their life.

Mike Mills00:23:25

Yeah.

Lauren Kerschen00:23:26

So I, I always encourage my team to work their sphere and to nurture their sphere, but understand that they're not going to be typically working very many sphere leads in the very beginning of their transaction.And you need the lead sources in the beginning of your career to give you that trajectory and Runway and that proof of concept that your sphere is waiting for.

Mike Mills00:23:50

Yeah.You know, I'm curious, when you were talking about the Google and YouTube ads, when your background, because you were in retail, you know, corporate retail for a long time, you know, and kind of helping with the sales side of that into things, did you, did you gain a lot of knowledge on just general online advertising and stuff inside of that environment on what to do for your real estate career? Or is this something that you went through coaching to learn or you just figured it out?Because through trial and error, which is what a lot of people do. Like, how did you dial in that process?Because I think a lot of people have tried those things before but haven't had as, you know, a ton of success with it or felt like they spent money and didn't get their return. What, what have you found that is, how did you, how did you learn how to do that in a way that you felt was effective?

Lauren Kerschen00:24:36

Well, I was in supply chain, not marketing, when I was in corporate retail, but I have a marketing degree that I, that's probably why that was confusing. But. So I was a logistics strategist, basically, was what I did. But no, I, I actually take the approach of like what the president takes, which is.I know, I know what I don't know.

Mike Mills00:24:58

Right.

Lauren Kerschen00:24:59

And therefore I'm going to find the people that do know it and bring them into my circle and I'll call them czar of YouTube or whatever. I'm just kidding.

Mike Mills00:25:06

Right.

Lauren Kerschen00:25:07

But yeah, I mean, I understand that that's not.Even if I watched a YouTube video to figure it out, which anybody could, I know I still probably wouldn't be doing it as well as the people who do it for their job.

Mike Mills00:25:21

Yes.

Lauren Kerschen00:25:21

And, and so for the YouTube specifically, I have a company that I work with that they run the ads for me. They also helped me develop the ads.I, I filmed the ad, plural, but they run them, they do all the, the, you know, they look and see which ones are performing, which ones are not. They Send them out in different orders and all this stuff. And then the Google pay per click ads that is run by my CRM website. Okay.So I got an all in one CRM website solution with verified contact information. And I was like, let's run with that. That works, right?

Mike Mills00:26:01

Well, yeah, I mean, it kind of goes along the lines of what you were saying earlier too.Because I love this philosophy as well, is, you know, when you bring in new agents and you, you know, let's say you ran your business on door knocking, whatever, and you're like, everybody's going to door knock. And somebody shows up and says, I am terrified of going to someone's house. I don't want to knock on their door. I don't want to do this.Well, you could take one approach and say, well, this is how we do it and that's what you're going to do. But you're also going to set that person up for complete failure.Or you can figure out what they like to do and what they're good at and try to enhance that and build upon that. And that's kind of the same idea. What you're talking about is could you learn the most effective way to run Google Ads?Could you learn the most effective way to run YouTube ads? Yes, you probably could. It would take time, it would take effort, it would take trial and error.Or you could cut to the front of the line and pay someone that does it really well and then generate the business. Because your time is better spent dealing with real estate transactions, not learning how to run Google Ads. Right?

Lauren Kerschen00:27:03

Yeah, 100%. That's exactly how I feel.

Mike Mills00:27:06

Yeah.

Lauren Kerschen00:27:06

And it's the same even if you are a solo agent.What I did in the very beginning was I took like, I had already set myself up for knowing that I probably wouldn't have any transactions in the first year. Like, I know that some people do, they jump out the gate and they do. And I did. But I also got my license in 2021. So let's be realistic here.

Mike Mills00:27:27

Hey, at least you have, you have perspective on that. There's a lot of people that don't understand.

Lauren Kerschen00:27:33

You're like, best year ever. You're like, you're right. But so I had already budgeted in a way that I knew I wasn't going to have that money coming in.So when I did get those transactions in the beginning, I put a lot of it back into my business.

Mike Mills00:27:49

Right.

Lauren Kerschen00:27:50

Specifically doing exactly what you're talking about, getting help doing the things either I hated doing, which that list is quite long and getting help with things I just knew I wouldn't know how to do or I wouldn't be very good at that. And that's a, that is probably a really important thing for solo agents to hear because you really do try to do it all in the beginning.You really try to be the everyman, and that's how you get burned out.

Mike Mills00:28:16

Yeah.

Lauren Kerschen00:28:16

So fast.

Mike Mills00:28:17

Yeah, yeah. It. When you're, when you're trying to. Because it's.Again, it's that whole thing of you're, you're, you know, cutting off your nose despite your face a little bit, and that you're saving money. Or I guess a better, a better analogy would be the, or saying would be the pennywise pound foolish, right?Where you're, you're trying to save money in this place, you don't want to spend it.But if you really examined where your activities and time were best spent and the money most appropriated to, you know, generating leads would definitely, probably be one of those things, you know what I mean? Like, it definitely be a place that you would want to land.So it seems sometimes, because we're trying to save a penny here because we're, we want to earn as many commissions or as much of our commission as we can. So we don't want to leave and join a team for that reason because we're trying to save our money there.And then we don't want to spend money on Facebook ads or YouTube ads or whatever because we're trying to save money there. And then we save ourselves into irrelevance because we have no way to get ourselves out there and actually, you know, make money.

Lauren Kerschen00:29:14

Yeah, that's exactly. It's.That's a perfect example for the whole commission discussion because yes, you can find 100% commission brokerages, but you can find brokerages that offer very, very high splits, meaning you get 95 or more percent. And they do exist. But the opportunity is all on your shoulders.

Mike Mills00:29:36

Right?

Lauren Kerschen00:29:36

Every single thing is all on your shoulders. There are agents and I, trust me, this is the thing that I think people get really frustrated with because they hear all of these stories.They're like, well, I know this guy who, he was rookie of the year because he did 55 open houses in the first six months of his career. And you're like, yes, that is great for that person.How many of us actually have that ability to nose to the grindstone, put in the actual elbow grease and grunt work that it takes to do it all free, like no budget type work, and all by Yourself?

Mike Mills00:30:12

Yep.

Lauren Kerschen00:30:13

Most of us don't. Especially if you're parents, you know.

Mike Mills00:30:17

Yes, well. And.Well, because a lot of, A lot of agents, not all of them, but a lot of them get into becoming a realtor because of the flexibility of their schedule, because they have a family and the kids and I mean, that's my wife. That's why my wife did it, because we had, at the time, we had two young kids that we wanted to be a part of their lives as much as possible.And so this, that afforded her the ability to go to all the baseball games and all the volleyball games and all the football games and all the UIL competitions and all the things. Right. So, you know, then if you're saying, okay, well, I can grind it out and go to open houses every weekend, great.Like, that works for some people, but for most it doesn't. Especially if you have all those other desires because the weekends get really busy.You can, you can make time to go show a house and you can make time to go do this. But, you know, open house is a 3, 4, 5 hour commitment sometimes on the weekend. So, you know, Saturday and Sunday to do that over again.And it's not for everybody doesn't mean you can't have success. It just means you, like you said in the beginning, you got to kind of find your lane and know what you're good at and, and stick to that thing.I noticed. And I, I want you to talk a little bit about this as far as, like, how the two interrelate.Because when you look at leads, right, you say, okay, people call in. These are strangers. These aren't my sphere, you know, these are people coming in, looking at me. I reach out to them, we talk, whatever.Well, everybody knows that part, and I think everybody knows the second part, but it gets left out a lot, which is if I'm a person that's never met you before and I reach out to you about a listing or I'm thinking about buying a house, we talk on the phone and maybe even before that, but definitely after I hang up with you, what's the first thing I'm gonna go do?

Lauren Kerschen00:31:52

You, as the person who called me.

Mike Mills00:31:54

He is the person speaking to you. A complete stranger.

Lauren Kerschen00:31:57

Most likely Google, right?

Mike Mills00:31:59

You're going to a social platform of some kind, a search engine, and you're looking for this person to figure out who they are. So that moves to the next part of this, which is the social media side of things.And I do classes for agents on AI and, and we talk a lot about The Internet and social media and how AI interrelates with it and all this kind of stuff. And one of the things I try to help them understand is, again, going back to this.I work, my sphere is like, okay, well, if you never post anything on social media, anything, right?

Lauren Kerschen00:32:29

Or.

Mike Mills00:32:29

Or only stuff about, you know, what you had for lunch or your kids or whatever, but never anything about your real estate business or never anything about what you do, then your sphere or. And these complete strangers are going to have no idea that you sell real estate or what you're about, and that's the first place they're looking.So if you're. If you don't participate because, you know, you don't like Facebook or you don't like YouTube or whatever the case may be, that's fine.That is your prerogative. But this is 2025. This is the time of information.And your presence online, whatever that is, is someone's access to you and the information around you. The reason I do this show and I do this podcast is because I don't particularly like posting on social media very much.But this gives me clips and all kinds of things that I can do and gives me a reason to that I enjoy it. So I'm always out there. But a lot of agents that I talk to just have a big hesitant hesitancy with it.So I want you to talk a little bit about that and then kind of how the team dynamic relates to that a little bit. Because I think my. My guess is, is being a part of a team kind of helps you with the motivation of wanting and willing to do that stuff.If that's not something that you're comfortable with.

Lauren Kerschen00:33:43

Yeah, absolutely. I 100% agree with you.I was actually just going through an exercise yesterday where I was looking at some of the newer agents in our marketplace and trying to find them on the Internet. And, and I couldn't. Like, a lot of them just had zero presence.I could find their brokerage and maybe like their welcome post from their brokerage, like, welcome XYZ agent to the team. Yay. You know, like. But that was the only thing about real estate ever.And that's tough because I think one of the number one mistakes that new agents make is they think that they have to have a separate web presence for their real estate business. I, I disagree. I. Feel free to argue with me.There's a ton of camps on this, on this argument, but I think that the people in your life who already know, like, and trust you want to know what you're up to. I also think that the people who don't know you already want to know like and trust you.And showing them the other side of your life that's not just real estate will help them do that as well. So hopefully they can find you in both lights on on the Internet.But the way to get over the fear of like being on camera for example, that's one excuse that a lot of people have about it.If you do FaceTime ever or like an app like Marco Polo or something like that with a friend or a family member that you feel totally comfortable with talking to a lot it will get you used to seeing yourself on camera and seeing yourself talk, which I think a lot of us don't realize what we look like when we talk. And then you see it and you're like what? But that helps a lot. And then also there are tons of ways to post video that you're not in.Like there's a lot of non face showing video options out there called faceless.

Mike Mills00:35:32

Faceless YouTube channels or faceless Facebook, whatever.

Lauren Kerschen00:35:36

Yes, faceless. Faceless video.

Mike Mills00:35:38

Yeah.

Lauren Kerschen00:35:39

And so follow those accounts and, and do what they're doing in their industry for real estate. I mean I think that it's totally doable. What we kind of offer is the assistance on the how, the ideas, the R D which we call rip off and duplicate.

Mike Mills00:35:58

Like I love, I love that. That's great. Yes, yes.

Lauren Kerschen00:36:01

Yeah. Like I don't want you to reinvent the wheel for anything. So if you see a video or a post that I've done in the past, you can go way back.You can go all the way back to the beginning of my career. Yeah, rip off and duplicate. And then the other thing that we do for each other is support each other on those platforms.So we share each other's stuff and we comment, like share, repost, do all the things to help get those posts traction. But at the end of the day repetition is the name of the game with that as well.If you go way, way back into my videos, you'll see I was pretty terrible at it in the beginning. I've gotten better over time. I still have room to improve. But you're not going to be perfect out the gate.Nobody expects you to be but they would like to see you.

Mike Mills00:36:48

And nowadays not being perfect because. Because everything online has become so curated to a certain extent that.And everything is so professional, you know that I think it's more appreciated these days of just the real raw person that's just there talking and giving their five Minute, you know, opinion on whatever it is, you know, market or whatever, I mean whatever you wanted to do.But this idea that you have to hire a photographer and you have to have certain lighting and you have to pick the music and have all these edits and all this cuts, don't get me wrong, it's great. It does well.It gets a lot of views sometimes, you know, those things are not bad, but just as powerful and just as effective is you just turning your camera on, flipping the phone around and, and speaking from your heart for two minutes. Like it's just, it works just as well, but it takes a little more, you know, takes a little more balls to do that.But you know, sometimes that, that is what you need just to get yourself over the hump.And oh, by the way, when you do that, especially for the first time or the first couple of times and you are, are honest about, hey look, I don't do this, I'm really uncomfortable. But here's something I'm going to say, blah, blah, blah.You will be amazed at the people that know, like and trust you that come out and say great job, that was amazing. We agree, whatever.They're going to interact with you a lot more because people appreciate, they know that that stuff's hard and they know that it isn't. You're not this polished professional and they're, they're going to support you either way.And this, this fear, you know, that everybody's going to shun you and you're going to have all these people, you know, it's calling you bad names because you flubbed a word. It's just crazy.

Lauren Kerschen00:38:22

Yeah. And those people aren't your people anyways, like if they're gonna do that. So.Yes, I mean some of my very best videos, like best performing videos were me talking about different types of mortgages while I was crocheting a baby blanket.

Mike Mills00:38:37

You just, I think that the, the reality to all this stuff is just be you like do, do what you do. Like again my show, the reason I do this, and I've been doing it for almost three years and is, is because I enjoy doing this.Like, this is what I like to do.I like having one on one conversations with people about their business and trying to find out who, what, what makes them tick and who they're all about.I don't like going to network meetings and talking to 15 other sales people and us all trying to pitch whatever it is that we're trying to sell to each other. You know, it's not really my jam But. But this type of thing I enjoy. So I will do this because I like to do it. So it's kind of one of those things.It's like find the thing that you like to do that you enjoy and then just focus on that and try to figure out how to put that. Whatever that is online. And truly, what you just said about crocheting, and I see this with my kids a lot, which is.Is crazy to me, but this is a thing. I guess I don't know much about it, but most. If you want the tick tock now or. Or some of these reels, I don't think. I don't see it as much.I'm 47, so my algorithm isn't quite tuned to this, but every single video that my kids watch and the ones that have seen lately, they're all split screen and there's some random thing happening on the bottom. Somebody's playing a video game, there's a cat running around, whatever. I don't know, it could.It's a million different things, and then someone on the top side or is now telling you their opinion on something or talking about something. And I'm just going, what is going on? Is it just because our brains have to have 10 things going on at once to focus whatever it is.There's all kinds of ways to skin the cat. No pun intended. It's just. It's just you have to find the thing that you're good at and then just try to figure out how to put that on the Internet.

Lauren Kerschen00:40:19

There's a guy that plays the violin while he talks about him. Yes.

Mike Mills00:40:25

No, I know Tim very well. Tim was on the panel with you because I picked him. Yeah, Tim's great. And you know what's funny?Him and I worked together a lot in the beginning and we were kind of talking about that because he was trying to do all kinds of different home tours and Instagram videos and all this other stuff. And. And he had done a few violin videos. And so we were talking about some social media stuff like, dude. And I'm not saying this is he. He's the guy.But. But I was like, you need to lean into that. Like, you know that. That needs to be the thing. It's like nobody wants to see.I'm like, that's the point is that nobody else does that. Like, that's. That's a unique thing. So no matter what, you get eyeballs on that because you're passionate about playing the violin.Obviously you're very good at it. You've been Doing it a long time. It's a part of your life, it's a part of your kids life, it's part of everything that you do.Why would you not wrap that in your business and make that a thing? Especially because nobody else does that kind of stuff, you know, I mean, it's, it's, it's great.And he's a prime example of taking something that you're passionate about, that you're good at, that doesn't necessarily have to do with real estate and trying to figure out a way to wrap your business around that so you can promote yourself online better.

Lauren Kerschen00:41:30

Yeah, I agree. I, I think lean in to whatever it is.

Mike Mills00:41:34

Yes. So don't be a secret agent, basically.So I have a question too about your, your experience in, as you called it, logistics with these retail companies. Because another thing that I'm personally a big believer in, and I'm sure you probably are too, is processes and systems. Right?Because everybody goes into a business of any kind and thinks, okay, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that.And then you look up and you're 6 months, 12 months, however long into it, and you've only accomplished May 10% of all those things that you set out to do.And often I think it's not because of lack of desire or lack of will necessarily, but it's more about I don't know what to do or I don't have a system in place that ensures that I accomplish this thing that I'm trying to do on a consistent basis, whether it be adding to your database or following up with leads or posting social media content or whatever it is. Right.And so being a part of a team and what you've put together, what do you think are some key, you know, processes and systems in with your experience in logistics? Because that's what, that is what, you know, what has carried over for you to kind of put importance on those kind of things?

Lauren Kerschen00:42:53

Well, I think the biggest thing that I've realized is you've got to have small chunks of things that you're doing on a consistent basis versus trying to do them all at once.So when you sit down to create whatever you want to call it time blocking or your system or your schedule or whatever it is that you're, you're going to do for your business, and let's just say you want to do, I want to update my database with, you know, 40 people a week, chunk that out into Smaller groups. It doesn't have to be every single day. But like for social media, for example, I used to batch create.I would do it all on Wednesdays in my house and I would just change my shirt, shoot a new video, change my shirt, shoot a new video. Now I can't do it that way because of my schedule. So whatever fits for your schedule. But what you track and measure is what you will succeed at.So you have to have a plan that you can hold yourself accountable to. That is the piece of it that if you're not good at that part, right.If you're not good at coming up the plan or holding yourself accountable is another benefit of a team. Because they likely have those checks, lists and systems in place already.They likely are going to hold you accountable to it in some form or fashion.Whether that be just a minimum standard of expectations or, you know, if you want to have more accountability, you know, put on yourself, you can come up with a system for that as well. But I actually sometimes cringe when people say the word systems and processes.Even though that was my job, I was a Six Sigma black belt, which is that, that's the whole jig. And the reason is, I think it's because it's played out.I think it's like every single agent is hearing you've got to have systems and you've got to have processes and you're like, what does that mean? And like at the end of the day, all it means is developing a plan for consistent activity.

Mike Mills00:44:47

Yes.

Lauren Kerschen00:44:47

What, whatever that activity is going to be, that you do it consistently.

Mike Mills00:44:52

Yes. And I think as you add to.Because kind of what you were saying about the small chunks is the idea that whatever it is that you're deciding to create for yourself. Right. The. The database thing.

Lauren Kerschen00:45:07

Right.

Mike Mills00:45:07

I want to add 40 people to my database every week. You know, add two or three per day or five every other day or whatever the case may be.But if you're also then trying to post on social media and you're also then trying to make sure you schedule your open houses and then you're also then trying to X, Y, Z, F. Right. Then it's too much. Right. It's too, it's too many things.So even when you are deciding, hey, these are the things that I need to focus on, a lot of times you have to pick one. Right.Develop your process system, whatever you want to call it, develop your, your habits, better word, develop your habits for how you're going to accomplish that thing.And then once you feel like that's kind of running on autopilot, whatever that may be, because you do it all the time and you're consistent with it or because you figured out how you want to do it and you hired someone to do it for you or whatever the case may be, then. Then you can move on to the next thing. But when you try to be great at seven things at once, you're kind of really mediocre at all those, if not bad.

Lauren Kerschen00:46:08

Yeah. I use my husband as the example in this, and I'm pretty sure he hates it, but I'm going to do it again anyways. But, like, he's the quintessential.I gotta make changes. So starting tomorrow, I'm going to wake up every morning at 5 and I'm going to only eat meat and I'm going to work out five times a week. And.And then he's got this whole list of things that he's going to completely 180 overnight.

Mike Mills00:46:32

Right.

Lauren Kerschen00:46:32

And of course it, it's never sustained. And. And the reason is because you can't. Like, I don't know anybody that could do that.When I set out to make massive change in my life in all places, I did it one thing at a time. One tiny little thing. There's this book called the Lazy Genius.And this is when it really hit home for me because I. I realized I was doing this, but I didn't have a way to explain it to people.

Mike Mills00:46:57

Okay.

Lauren Kerschen00:46:58

She wanted to get into yoga. And she was. She was not a yogi. She'd never done yoga in her life. She was like, I don't even know what yoga is.So she spent every single day for like five to 10 minutes just doing downward dog until she got to a place where she felt like, my downward dog is good. I'm holding this position. My. My heels are touching the ground. I have downward dog. I can do it. Then she moved on to the next pose or whatever.That is exactly what you're talking about. That's exactly what I preach to myself and to my. My team is pick one. The shiny objects are abundant in real estate. There's so many things you can do.There's so many strategies. There's so many paths to the same, you know, achieving the same thing. Pick which one excites you the most and do that one.

Mike Mills00:47:45

Yeah.

Lauren Kerschen00:47:45

And if you need to get help on that one, get help and then figure out how you can run it really smoothly, like you said, till it's second nature. Handoff. If you need to hand off or just let it Run and then add the next thing later.

Mike Mills00:47:58

Yeah, well, I, I probably fall in the category of your, of your husband. I'm very much that way as well, where I always have 100 different. I'm planning on doing. Very few of them actually ever come to fruition.But, but I also know that about myself. So I'm a recovering, I'm in recovery on it, let's just put it that way. Yeah, but, but you have to be aware of yourself.And also too on the same note, like you're going to. I think people are very hard on themselves sometimes.Not, maybe not outwardly, but certainly inwardly in that you have all this, you know, kind of negative self talk, a little bit of like, oh, I'm terrible at this. Or again, you're not saying that out outside, but you're saying that inside your brain, which is what matters more than anything.And, and you, you try and want to do something and then you fall off, right?You, you, you can't, you don't accomplish that thing or you, you, you miss a week or whatever and then you have all these negative thoughts in your brain and they're like, okay, well I'm just not good at this. I need to start over again.And it's like, look, what you, what you miss when you look at people that have success in this type of stuff is all the times that they have fallen down and they have failed and they have not followed through on what they were trying to accomplish. And then also the, all the times that they got back up and kept going because everybody does it. Everybody.You're, whether you're a solo agent or you're on team, or you're a mortgage guy or you're whatever, like everybody, it happens to everyone.And you have to know that even though what you see online, what you see on social media is everybody having great success and I've close all these deals and I gotta, I'm D magazine and I'm this and I'm real producer and all these things. And so you were sitting there going, that's not me, I'm terrible. Like, you're, you're looking at the, the fantasy world, okay?You gotta, you gotta focus on what you can control and who you are and don't judge yourself against others because if you want to truly have success, narrowing your focus down into one of those things that you talked about and just being really good at that is the quickest and fastest path to get there, but you're gonna fall down and you're gonna fail at it a few times. Before you really starts to take off. And that takes a little bit of time to kind of come over that hump, don't you think?

Lauren Kerschen00:50:01

100 there is no such thing as an overnight success. And honestly, what you miss, like you said, is the 10, 000 hours that it took to get there.

Mike Mills00:50:12

I am curious about your experience because I, I think you. My guess is because I've.I know a lot of realtors that when you tell somebody I've been in the business for five years, they're like, I've been doing this for 25 years. What could you possibly teach me? Right?Yeah, but I don't believe that, by the way, because I've met a lot of people that are, you know, if you're really good at just doing work, you're really good at doing work. Whatever industry you're in, doesn't matter how long you've been in there. So what, what have you found?You know, the kind of general sense that you get, especially when you're recruiting agents to your team on. On how many years you've been in the business and all that kind of stuff. And then what do you, what do you say to that kind of thing?

Lauren Kerschen00:50:56

I mean, it almost never comes up in the conversation because I don't think that they look at me and think, well, she's a noob, you know, Right. I have agents on my team. I have multiple agents on my team who have been agents longer than I have.And, and that's just because they're craving the, you know, to get out of the isolation, to find momentum with the community and to build the business, you know, off the backs of people who are doing it every single day, it's there. I wonder sometimes if agents who have been in the business for a long time think, well, I don't need to join a team. I've been doing this forever.Well, maybe it's not working for you anymore. Maybe, like, new ideas would help. But I think there's so much of that, like people looking at your license number and going, what does she know?Or what does he know? That doesn't really matter as much because it's all about being a practition.So if you're out there doing it, or you're out there shadowing, or you're out there learning in some form or fashion, you're getting that experience. If you've had your license for seven years, but you've only total career done 15 transactions, where were the boots on the ground?

Mike Mills00:52:09

Yep.

Lauren Kerschen00:52:10

So I don't think time in the Business matters. Just like timing, the market doesn't matter, time in, I don't know, whatever. But no, I think it.It could be a deterrent for some agents thinking they don't need to because they've been in the business for a long time. But teams are not just for new agents. Let me just put it that way.

Mike Mills00:52:28

Right. Yeah, you can, you can. Well, also, by the way, you gain someone else's perspective.A different perspective, a newer perspective on a business that's been around for a very long time. And so just because you haven't been held your license for the number of years.But like you said, transactions matter too, because you learn a lot by doing a lot of transactions. But also too someone coming into it going, well, why is there. Why has nobody ever tried to do it like this?Or why has nobody ever tried to do it like this? That doesn't make any sense because back where I'm from, what I used to do, we used to do these things, and it was successful there.I don't know why I wouldn't be successful here and being open to that.And the idea that, hey, maybe there is something I can learn from someone that's been doing it for less time than I have because they have a different.A fresh, different perspective on how the business runs versus, you know, the same old guard that's been around for 30 years and, you know, been doing it all the same. Not. Not that there's no value in that. Yeah.

Lauren Kerschen00:53:24

And multiple people's perspective. It's not just who you choose as your team leader, but the.One of the best things that happens in this room is the amazing ideas that come from every single person during our team meetings. It's like, doesn't matter how long they've been in the business. Sometimes I'm like, gosh darn it, that is a great idea.

Mike Mills00:53:42

What did I think of that? How did I miss that?

Lauren Kerschen00:53:44

Yes, yes.

Mike Mills00:53:47

Changing just a little bit before I let you go here, because we're almost at an hour already, I do want to chat just a little bit about, because it's a topic that I talk about a lot. And, and on the show too, I like to get people's perspective on it.But, you know, technology is obviously changing dramatically as we speak week with the advent of all these different AI tools, large language models and all kinds of things. First off, you know, what are you guys. Where are you guys utilizing AI in your business right now and, and.Or even where you plan to start utilizing it? And then what do you think as far as you know, the reality versus the hype and how to kind of balance those two things out.Because there are certain things that are very beneficial that you can use it for, to bring down, to bring up efficiencies and cut time working and all kinds of things.But you know, like I tell people when I do my classes, one of the questions I ask them is like, who hopes that after you do this class you can just push a button and you know, it'll all be done for you. And they're like, oh yeah, it's like it's not how any of this works. But anyway, we're gonna learn something else. So.Yes, so, so what are you guys, you know, as far as the technology things and maybe there's outside of AI anything else that you're doing. But I'm just curious where you guys are finding success in using that.

Lauren Kerschen00:55:06

I think I would say 90% of us use it on a daily basis, even for simple stuff. Like I think most of us use it as Google now.You know, you're either, you're either search, searching in chat or searching in grok or whatever the case may be. Deep research. We use particular plexity for the most part. Now if you've gotten deep into AI, you can start using the agency.AI Perplexity has an agentic browser called Comet and that's where you can actually let it run and do things for you. You just ask it to log into different websites that you would normally log into and do the things you would normally do. So we, we use it for that.One of my favorite ways that we use AI is deep research on a particular property before looking listing appointment.And so we, we get really nitty gritty about everything, about what it's like to live in that house, in that neighborhood, in that community, what the lifestyle would be like. So going into that listing appointment we really kind of already know who the buyer might be.

Mike Mills00:56:07

Yeah.

Lauren Kerschen00:56:08

And so that can shape the conversation quite well.I would say we use it the typical way that a real estate agent uses it as well to help write, whether that be listing descriptions or emails or posts or whatever. Obviously AI staging in some cases is being used by your team.And I've even in the past used AI Remodel where I had just like a really trashed out listing that it was really hard to see past the grossness of the house.And so I used AI Remodel to help the investor, who I knew the buyer would be an investor, to help the investors see the potential of the home through all of the clutter.

Mike Mills00:56:51

Right.

Lauren Kerschen00:56:51

So there's a lot of ways to use it. A couple girls on my team have used it to. To stage a house through video.Like, it's like all the furniture in the photo goes inside this box, and then the box explodes, and all the furniture goes and is staged in the house. It looks super cool. And that's all made with A.I.

Mike Mills00:57:12

Yeah. Yeah. Well, the. The deep research thing, I don't think enough people actually use it for that. And. And especially these days, it's.I think it is incredibly effective in the sense that if you're getting a listing right and it's getting a little better, but I think generally speaking, it's still pretty difficult when you go sit down with a seller and, you know, they paid whatever for their house, and they know that their neighbors sold their house three years ago for X amount of dollars. So you walk in and you're like, these people thinking their house is worth $650,000.And you're checking the comps and you're realizing where things, you know, have been in the market for the last two years. You're like, man, we might be lucky to get 575 out of this. You know, based on where it is.That's a very hard conversation to have with somebody because, you know, as you know, this is their home. This is where they put all their money into. This is how. What do you mean? It's not worth what I think it's worth. That's a hard conversation.And I think most agents, or a lot of agents will shy away from that, and they'll go with the whole, okay, we'll just list it at what you think, and then.And then we can come down, which we all know is a horrible trap, because when you do actually get down to what the house is maybe worth, then you end up taking less because the house has been reduced in price five times, and, you know, nobody's seeing it and all this other stuff. So if you do some of this deep research and you can actually put together a coherent. Which. Which they'll chat, will help you with Plexi. A very clear.Hey, look, here's the target price we. We got to. Right? And here's why. Here's. Here are these comps. Here's this neighborhood. Here's where this area's been selling.Here's the type of people that are buying in this area and where they able to spend and what they're allowed to do. And, you know, all those things.And you can put together a really good, logical Clear, you know, explanation, not just, well, this is what I think because I've been doing the business for 20 years. You know, this is, I have reasons why it's here now. You know, you may still lose 50 of the time as far as you know what they, what they want.But the, the easier and more clear.You can give someone the reasoning behind where you're coming up with these values with this deep research and then take that information and say, all right, now put this into a way I could explain it to, you know, a 12 year old. You know, it's just all of that stuff leads to giving much better seller presentations when you're going in on these listings.And be much more prepared because if, if sellers are doing what they should do and talking to multiple people to see who's going to be best to list their home, the more prepared and the more data that you have walking in the door is going to set you apart from everybody else in most cases.

Lauren Kerschen00:59:38

Yeah. And that's what it really gives you leverage for.Like, I know everything about the history of the home, you know, all the way down to like the likely builder. Even if it's like a 1985 home and the builder's not been listed in MLS for the last seven listings, you don't really know.For some reason the Internet knows and AI can mine it for you. But since we've been using, we call them property dossiers, but it's just sounds.

Mike Mills01:00:09

Very, very high scale. Yes.

Lauren Kerschen01:00:12

The full report.

Mike Mills01:00:13

Yes.

Lauren Kerschen01:00:14

And ever since we've been using them, we have our conversion on listing appointments and like winning the listing appointment has just shot through the roof. They're so, the sellers are so impressed.You have so much more information to explain, like you said, the pricing and the differences between the properties and, and what really, like tell the story what really happened with your neighbor's house that you think sold for 450,000?You can't see the close price because Texas is a non disclosure state and it was really 375 and they paid the buyer $15,000 of closing and you can't see that either. So. Yeah, no, it helps with all of those conversations, but it also really positions you as the knowledge broker and the neighborhood specialist.Right. If you know nothing about the neighborhood going into that appointment and they know everything, they're gonna be like, why would we hire this woman?We, we know more about our neighborhood than she does.

Mike Mills01:01:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It gives you a big leg up.All right, before I let you go, one, one other thing I want to Ask you, because you had said it earlier on, you'd mentioned something about. You didn't say this word, but that's the word, like vibes of the team, right? And there's a. There's. There's a certain amount of.If you like what, you know, why do people go to church, right? People go to church for many reasons, but they're there for the community, right? They're there for the.The everybody else in their community that's there with the same goal, with the same purpose, you know, feeling in the same way. And a lot of times when you're by yourself, it's very difficult. You know, humans are. We're social creatures. You know, the. The worst.The worst thing you can do to a human being is not kill them, is. Is to lock them in solitary confinement for the rest of their life where they're still alive, but they're around no other people. People, right? It's.It makes people go crazy. So. So being around people that are pushing towards the same goal, that are.Are trying to accomplish the same things, that are keeping a positive attitude about where things are headed, all of that stuff, believe it or not, is very beneficial.Because if your mind is in the right place, where you feel like you're going to have success, you got people around you that are going to tell you that you're going to have success, you're seeing other people have successful, and y' all are all doing that together. That is a great way to get to where you want to get versus traveling on your own.So just to kind of wrap us up, tell me a little bit about, you know, how you feel about that idea behind being in an environment with other people all pushing in the same direction. What impact that ultimately has on your job.

Lauren Kerschen01:02:44

One thing that I say sometimes is the only bad question is the one that you ask alone, by yourself, in the silence, right?So all the questions that you're trying to figure out on your own, the answer's right around the corner or right next door or in the group chat on text or whatever it. That. That part of it alone, just having access to people who can help you and answer questions. Huge. Just huge.But the mindset side of it, also extremely important because. Because if you've been watching this agent long enough, like I'm going to use Ashley, for example, because she's been on the team for a long time.When she joined the team, she had had two total transactions in her career, and she has had 16 since she joined the team now. And it's just been Amazing to watch like when implemented and when consistently done, success can come to you.And so that's been such a great thing for the other agents on the team that are newer to see like it works. It does work.It's not just Lauren because you know, sometimes when it's the team leader, like, yeah, but she's the team lead so of course she does good or whatever. But, but you get to see everybody having the same woes, the same challenges, the same excitement, the same dreams, the same goals.Actually doing it, it motivates you so much to actually show up and do it.

Mike Mills01:04:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It, it.I, I don't think, think, I think it's understated, you know, these days and I've more and more get in this direction just as far as how much being around people that, that think like you and, and, or maybe not even think like you, but think in a way that you wish you thought, you know, like that where you're trying to go is so incredibly important to ultimate success in anything that you do.Because if you're by yourself dealing with that negative talk in your brain or you're around people that are constantly telling you how their life sucks and they're miserable and this industry is terrible and all these things, then you're going to get there real fast and, but the same is to be said where if you put yourself out of that situation and go somewhere where everyone is, feels positive about how things are happening. We're not nobody's, you know, living in doodle land thinking that everything's just perfect and going to work out if I don't do anything.But they all have the similar goals, they're all pushing in the same direction, they're all trying to accomplish the same things and then you find yourself, you know, kind of falling into those same patterns. And that's ultimately, you know, I tell my kids all the time, you know, this has been tried and true for forever.It's like you're an amalgamation of the five people that you spend the most amount of time with, right? So whoever you spend your time with and who they are, that's who you're going to be.Ultimately you have your own little ways, but that's, that's how this stuff works. So, so find people that push yourself or push you to be the best you, you can be and not the other way.And so, you know, joining the team that's full of bunch of negative Nancy's as you might call, that's not where.

Lauren Kerschen01:05:41

You want to be, but momentum in the Wrong direction.

Mike Mills01:05:44

Right going in the wrong way, but finding a team or a group that is going to challenge you and inspire you to be the best version of you that you can. Not getting all woo and wa wa. But that's just. It's just how it works. Like, that's just how things go. So.So, yeah, Lauren, I really appreciate your time. I know that you're a busy gal and thank you for hopping on with me for a little bit and chatting about all this stuff. Before we go, is there.If you had one thing that you could tell an agent that, hey, look, if you want to, you know, be who you're trying to be for the rest of this year, focus on this thing, what would that be?

Lauren Kerschen01:06:24

I would try and figure out if there's things that aren't working. Like if. If you're sitting there going, what happened this year? Like, looking, I'm like, man, this year was really bad.I felt like I was working, but it's not working out. I'd spend time looking at what was missing because it might be something that was missing, not something that you did wrong.And I think in a lot of cases, the thing that's missing is that motivation. These tougher markets, the word really is momentum. You are isolated. You have unpredictable income because you have unpredictable pipeline and.And it's very, very scary. The momentum comes from when you start pushing the rock up the hill and sometimes you need help doing that.

Mike Mills01:07:12

Yeah.

Lauren Kerschen01:07:14

So keep paddling, keep trying, don't give up.

Mike Mills01:07:17

Just keep swimming as dory.

Lauren Kerschen01:07:18

Get help where you can.

Mike Mills01:07:20

Yes, absolutely. Well, thank you, Lauren. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thanks for buying this. Stuck around and watched our live version of this.We'll have the full audio out out early next week along with the YouTube video. So go and check that out if you can. Otherwise, thanks, everybody for sticking around with us.Lauren, thank you so much for your time and we'll be back again next week.