He Built a $4B Real Estate Company by Doing ONE Thing Better Than Everyone Else | Anthony Lamacchia

Summary

Stay Paid Podcast: Episode Summary

Episode: He Built a $4B Real Estate Company by Doing ONE Thing Better Than Everyone Else | Anthony Lamacchia
Release Date: February 23, 2026
Host: ReminderMedia (Luke Acree & Josh Stike)
Guest: Anthony Lamacchia, Broker/Owner, Lamacchia Companies

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Episode Overview

This episode features Anthony Lamacchia—a renowned broker, owner, and CEO—who has built one of the fastest-growing real estate organizations in the U.S., with over $4 billion in planned annual sales. Through candid conversation, Anthony details the operational and cultural strategies behind his company’s explosive growth, focusing heavily on company acquisitions, recruiting agents, and the importance of hands-on leadership and authentic communication. The discussion is loaded with tangible advice for agency and brokerage leaders seeking sustainable, competitive growth and meaningful agent relationships.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Anthony’s Acquisition Strategy

• Criteria for Acquisitions
  • Location and size are critical factors. Typically considers companies with $50M–$100M+ in annual sales volume.
  • Leadership in the acquired company is crucial; new team must respect and follow leadership through transitions.
  • Most acquisition deals lead to previous owners earning more through structured payouts (earn-outs).
  • [02:44] — “Location plays a part, size of company plays a part… Most of the deals that we've done, the owners are making much more money by selling to us.”
• Post-Acquisition Challenges
  • Bumps generally occur if agents don’t give the new ownership a chance or if incumbent leaders lack authority or rapport.
  • Period immediately following acquisition is a “dicey period” with potential for agent turnover due to industry competitiveness and agent poaching.
  • [03:51] — “The breakdown is when people don't give it a chance…with a leader that isn’t quite able to get the agents in line.”

2. Industry Dynamics: Integrity and Market Competition

• Escrow Account Issues
  • Criticizes some competitors for unethical practices (using escrow funds), citing a real case where an owner was jailed.
  • [05:15] — “Some of these companies…are dipping in escrow like it’s their money. It drives me nuts. I wish every state would audit the escrow accounts of real estate brokerages because I think I'd have a quarter less competitors.”
• Recruiting is the Core Game
  • The main brokerage business is about attracting and retaining agents.
  • [07:38] — “The brokerage game is recruiting. That's it. That's the number one thing you have to focus on.”

3. Lead Generation & Business Model Differentiation

• Generating Company Leads
  • Lamacchia’s company generates about 20% of its own business (ex: TV ads, “sell in 70 days or I’ll buy it” offers), giving them leverage with new and struggling agents.
  • Most competitors depend entirely on agent-generated business.
  • [08:17] — “About 80, 82% of the business last year was agent produced, and about 20% was ours. 20% of 6,000 sales, that's a lot...on those, you can be tougher on the split.”
• Lead Sources and Strategy
  • Buys leads from Zillow and Realtor.com but avoids Zillow Flex for control reasons.
  • Uses PPC and Facebook leads (with Ylopo for nurturing) but notes agents often lack patience for long-term leads.
  • [09:16] — “We decided against Zillow Flex...Some of their expectations were a bit much. Our agents work at La Macchia. They don’t work for Zillow.”

4. Agent Training, Coaching, and Consistency

• Origin of Training Program
  • Lamacchia’s high conversion rates on Zillow leads led to demand for training from other companies, starting with informal Skype sessions and evolving into a scalable online training center.
  • [12:00] — “You can influence agents to do the right steps with the leads once they have the leads. But getting them to take action before they have leads...is where I've always had the difficulty.”
• Challenges in Getting Agents to Take Consistent Action
  • Recognizes that even with training, cultivating consistent follow-up and proactive engagement requires ongoing coaching.
  • Hired Jason Posnick as a dedicated coach with a gift for motivating agents.
  • Emphasizes building authority and thought leadership among agents—not just working a sphere, but influencing it.
  • [12:53] — “The coaching really helps with that. Now, I don’t coach...I have no patience for people with coaching...Jason has been growing our coaching arm.”

5. Innovations: Certified Real Estate Consultant Program

• Elevating the Agent’s Role
  • Launching a certification and training program—“Certified Real Estate Consultant”—to elevate industry standards and agent reputation.
  • Encourages agents to perform annual “equity checkups” with clients, echoing financial advisor models.
  • Intends for the certification to eventually justify agents charging annual fees for service.
  • [15:59] — “Look at life insurance agents. They became financial advisors...now we're teaching agents...do an equity checkup with them...and down the line, I’m going to teach agents to charge an annual fee for it.”

6. Combatting Negative Industry Perceptions

• Differentiating the Profession
  • Addresses the public’s negative perception of agents.
  • Certification program aims to create real differentiation for agents in the eyes of consumers.
  • [16:53] — “Society and consumers as a whole look up to consultants...There's no way in hell to your way through obtaining our certification. It's not possible.”

7. Tactical Advice for Struggling Agents

• Immediate Actions for Tough Markets
  • Winter and slow periods lead to increased agent anxiety; reminds agents to reach out to their past clients—phone calls and home visits—to check in, not just to solicit sales.
  • Scripts don’t need to be complex: “Hi, how are you?”
  • Consistent, authentic, relationship-driven outreach yields dividends where most agents fail to act.
  • [19:12] — “The number one thing I'm doing right now is I am getting in touch with every single past buyer that I sold the home to, unless I despised them.”

8. Leadership Principles

• Communication and Authenticity
  • Treats people how he’d want to be treated; open, repetitive communication is vital, especially as a company grows.
  • Emphasizes the need to over-communicate—even the same policy or update multiple times in multiple venues.
  • [23:17] — “Communication...very clear, open, and repetitive communication. That's something that most leaders fail.”
  • [24:54] — “Don't ever tell me you told a staff member or an agent something. When you really told them something once in passing. That's not telling.”
• Meeting Routines
  • Outlines a regular monthly cadence of executive meetings, staff meetings, and all-company updates for information sharing and clarity.
  • [25:51] — “We have an executive team meeting on a Friday…then Tuesday afternoon we have an all staff meeting…and then Wednesday. This is once a month, this cycle, Wednesday. We talk to the whole company…We call it monthly company updates, 12 times a year.”

9. Media, Messaging, and Attention

• Bold Messaging Gets Attention
  • Discusses parallels between company/internal communication and effective political messaging—headline statements, “billboard” messages, and deliberate clarification afterward.
  • [27:56] — “You have to get attention. It’s the first rule of marketing.”
• Handling Criticism
  • Willingness to push boundaries and withstand criticism in order to achieve wider reach and industry leadership.
  • [28:49] — “If I went on camera and said, I do not agree with these cases, I believe they are unfair... who would tune in? Nobody.”

10. Reflecting on Growth: What Would Anthony Do Differently?

• Start Sooner
  • Focus on recruiting earlier in the company’s life—saw exponential growth when it became a daily focus (92 to 500+ agents in four years).
  • Convert to a brokerage model and scale up acquisitions sooner.
  • Accept not every agent will be a top performer.
  • [29:37] — “Recruiting sooner is definitely a big one. Converting from a team model to a brokerage model…I wish I started everything sooner.”

11. The Power of Acquisitions and Looking Ahead

• Future Focus
  • Foresees acquisitions as the main driver for future growth, inspired by models from other industries (Microsoft, Facebook, Compass).
  • [33:18] — “The more time I put into focusing on acquisitions and dialing the phone, the more that we grow. And that's where most of my focus is going to be in the years to come.”

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Notable Quotes

• On acquisitions:
  “Location plays a part, size of company plays a part… Most of the deals that we've done, the owners are making much more money by selling to us.” — Anthony Lamacchia [02:44]
• On post-acquisition pitfalls:
  “The breakdown is when people don't give it a chance…with a leader that isn’t quite able to get the agents in line.” — Anthony [03:51]
• On lead generation model:
  “With us, about 80, 82% of the business last year was agent produced, and about 20% was ours…on those, you can be tougher on the split.” — Anthony [08:17]
• On training consistency:
  “You can influence agents to do the right steps with the leads once they have the leads. But getting them to take action…is where I've always had the difficulty.” — Anthony [12:00]
• On elevating agents:
  “Now we're teaching agents…do an equity checkup with them...and down the line, I’m going to teach agents to charge an annual fee for it.” — Anthony [15:59]
• On outreach to sphere:
  “The number one thing I'm doing right now is I am getting in touch with every single past buyer that I sold the home to, unless I despised them.” — Anthony [19:12]
• On leadership:
  “Communication...very clear, open, and repetitive communication. That's something that most leaders fail.” — Anthony [23:17]
• On communication standards:
  “Don't ever tell me you told a staff member or an agent something. When you really told them something once in passing. That's not telling.” — Anthony [24:54]
• On marketing and attention:
  “You have to get attention. It's the first rule of marketing.” — Luke Acree [28:51]
• On business growth:
  “Recruiting sooner is definitely a big one...I wish I started everything sooner.” — Anthony [29:37]

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Essential Timestamps

• [02:44] - Acquisition criteria and approach
• [05:15] - Escrow fraud and industry integrity
• [07:38] - Recruiting as the brokerage core
• [08:17] - Lead generation model specifics
• [12:00] - Training and coaching differences
• [15:59] - Certified Real Estate Consultant program
• [19:12] - Tactics for struggling agents
• [23:17] - Leadership: communication essentials
• [25:51] - Monthly meeting cadence and communication
• [28:49] - The role of attention in marketing
• [29:37] - What Anthony would do differently
• [33:18] - Future growth: focus on acquisitions

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Final Actionable Takeaway

Call Your Sphere:
“The number one thing they should be doing right now to change their business in the next 30 days: Call your sphere. If you're a broker, owner, team leader, you should be calling the recruits that you're trying to recruit in. Make the phone calls. It's the difference between top producers and mediocre producers.” — Luke Acree [34:29]

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Connect with Anthony Lamacchia

• Instagram: @ajlamacchia
• Website: lamacchiarealty.com

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This episode delivers a masterclass in agency growth, integrating practical tactics, leadership wisdom, and high-level industry perspective—perfect for brokers, team leaders, or any agent aiming to scale their real estate business through relationships, training, and strategic vision.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign welcome to Stay Paid, your number one sales and marketing podcast, on a mission to help you close more deals, keep more clients, and build a life of freedom you're working towards. But only if you're willing to take action today. My name is Josh Dyke, Chief Marketing officer here at Reminder Media, joined as always by Luke Acrey, president of Reminder Media. And our guest today is Anthony lamacchia. Anthony is the broker, owner, founder and CEO of, of Lakhia Companies, which include Lakhi Realty, Crush it in Real Estate, and the Lakia Referral Network. Anthony has built one of the fastest growing real estate organizations in the country, acquiring multiple companies while continuing to train and coach agents nationwide. He's a nationally recognized industry expert, speaker, and outspoken advocate for real estate professionals, frequently featured in outlets like the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and Barons. Anthony, welcome to the podcast.

[B]

Hey, welcome, welcome. Thank you for start over.

[A]

No, no, we don't. We don't edit here.

[C]

No, it's just. This is live right in, baby.

[B]

You know what's funny? You know what's funny? I'm like known with all the camera people around here because I do so much video, so much television. I never stumble. I1 take. I1 take everything. So we need to literally take this snippet and put it all over the Internet. Hey, look, this guy screws up too.

[C]

All right.

[B]

What I was trying to say was thank you for the warm welcome. I'm happy to be here with you. And I have to say, Josh fooled me because when we were doing a little, you know, get to know each other before, Josh seemed like kind of a quiet guy as soon as the light went on. It's just, he reminded me that, remember Micro Machines when we were kids and there was a guy that was a TV ad. That's what he reminded me of. He was going so fast and so animated.

[A]

Josh, listen, on 2x, we're a real life 2x speed here.

[C]

Yeah, we are paid. He's been known for the best intro in the biz. Hey, man, I am so excited to have you on. I mean, you are just absolutely crushing it in the space, not only with your coaching company, which is crushing it in real estate, but also your brokerage and everything you're doing there. You have acquired a ton of companies and we haven't talked to a lot of people on the show about, you know, acquisition. And I would love to hear from you, like, what are the things that you look at before deciding whether or not to buy a company or walk away? Because I think you've done like what, 10 in the last 17 months? Is that.

[A]

I think that was as of last year.

[C]

Last year? Yeah.

[B]

We're at 11. We did 11 in about 26 months. As of right now, if you measured, it'd be 11.

[C]

And these are real estate companies you've bought? Yeah. Geez Louise, man. Yeah. So what do you look at? Like, what are the top things, maybe top three or so things that you look at? And what makes you walk away from a deal versus being excited about one?

[B]

Well, location plays a part, size of company plays a part. I mean, unless I'm determined to get into a specific geographical market, I want to make sure that the company has. Depends on the market, but somewhere between at least 50 and $100 million a year in annual sales volume in order for us to be able to afford the branch and have enough meat on the bone that we can do the deal and pay the owner and all that. Most of the deals that we've done, the owners are making much more money by selling to us and getting paid in an earn out. But location, size of company, and also the leadership of the existing company, I mean, we pay attention to. Okay, what's the leadership of this existing company like? Are they on top of the agents? Do the agents respect them? You know, will the agents follow them to sell to us? Or the agents gonna kick and scream and cause trouble kind of thing? And those are some of the things that we look at.

[A]

What's. What tends to be the things that break down after an acquisition. Like, is it the culture? Is it the agents sticking with you? Is it the leadership? How do you, how do you kind of approach that?

[B]

Well, fortunately, we haven't had much of that. We've had two acquisitions out of 11. I mean, we've done probably 15 in the last 10 years, but we had a lot in the last few years. Two of them got a little bit bumpy. And the breakdown is when people don't give it a chance, you know, if the agents don't give it a chance. And it usually happens with spoiled agents and with a leader that doesn't quite. Isn't quite able to get the agents in line, you know, isn't quite able to say to the agents, hey, guys, cut it out. I decided this is the right company for us. I decided Anthony was the best leader for us. Please give them a chance. Well, when most owners say that, the agents go, okay, all right, I trusted you. So I trust I'll give it a couple of months and see how it goes. Once they're with Us a couple of months, they're fine. But that first few weeks is a dicey period where people can be flight risks. You know, we're in a very unordinary business where people are constantly getting called and getting offered more money, higher, more, there's more that. And we went through a period of time from 2019 till about 2022 that we entered what I refer to as fairytale land. Right. We entered this place that some of these large companies were just, they were offering things that they don't make numerical sense.

[C]

Yeah. And insane.

[B]

And in some cases it was some of the large companies, some of my best biggest competitors that just made financial decisions to say, screw it, we're going to gain market share. We don't care if we lose money. That's capitalism. They're able to do that. But there's also something else. There were a couple of companies, I can think of one here in my market who, you know, they were dipping in escrow and cheating the system. And that's how they were giving agents insanely high splits. And we all looked for years and said, how are they doing this? This doesn't, this doesn't mathematically math. And now that person is in jail. So, you know, like. No, literally in jail.

[C]

That's crazy.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, It's. I have not taken. I remember one time our accounting team made a mistake. They did a monthly reconciliation. We got millions of dollars in escrow and they realized that they accidentally moved like $1,000 out of escrow, like 27 minutes before it should have been moved out. And it was like a five alarm fire. We were like, oh my God, what happened? We documented what happened in case we get audited. The person that made the error, you know, wrote. Yeah, made the error. Total error. We corrected it on this date. We made a federal case out of it. Nothing ever came of it. Nothing. But these other, some of these companies, they're, they're. I'm not saying a lot, but it happens where they're dipping in escrow like it's their money. And it drives me nuts. It drives me nuts. I wish every state would audit the escrow accounts of real estate brokerages because I think I'd have a quarter less competitors if they did that.

[C]

That's crazy, man. I've never heard that before.

[B]

Like Google it right now. Success. Real estate, Massachusetts. Google it.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, I Google that. Josh, that is absolutely insane. How do you like the big struggle for all brands out there and really the industry as a whole? At least the way I see it, is the product has become the real estate agent. Like you mentioned, recruiting them, offering them more money. You're making money off of the real estate agent as the brokerage. And so what is hard is that it becomes a recruiting business. How do you strive to keep culture and build a company where people stay? Or is the name of the game just roster stacking? Like, meaning like that is the game like, you see it in insurance too, from an industry standpoint, like, what's your feeling on that?

[B]

The game, the brokerage game is recruiting. That's it. That's the number one thing you have to focus on. But I will tell you, I built this company from a team model. I was originally a singular agent. In 2004, I came into the business with a business partner, but I was, for all intents and purposes, working, you know, on my own. By 0506, we hired someone. She's still here today. And then we just built a small team, then a larger team. But I founded the company and got it off the ground from producing my own leads. And I was doing it from television. I was running television ads saying, if I don't sell your home in 70 days, I'll buy it.

[C]

Oh, wow.

[B]

And we were doing that in 0708 09, when homes weren't selling and inventory was eight times higher than it is now. Okay. So that kind of taught me the art of producing business as a company. So now we still do that. And most brokerages, they just hire agents, and all the sales come from the agents. With us, about 80, 82% of the business last year was agent produced, and about 20% was ours. But that 20%, I mean, 20% of 6000 sales, that's a lot of business is 1200 sales. And on those, you can be tougher on the split because you're the one providing the business. And, you know, it provides more opportunity for the agents. And that's really the springboard where we help a lot of our newer agents or agents that are struggling kind of get their mojo back, get sales going, and then eventually those people become their past clients.

[C]

Yeah, that's so smart. Are you doing that through like a Zillow Flex type model? Or is it realtor.com is it like, how are you?

[B]

So we do. We decided not to do Zillow Flex. We do business with Zillow. We use their showcase product. Okay, we buy leads from Zillow. We buy lots of leads from realtor.com, but we decided against Zillow Flex because I simply felt that some of their expectations were a bit much. You know, our agents work at La Macchia. They don't work for Zillow.

[C]

Yeah, Gotcha.

[B]

When I get up in the morning, I report to me. And of course, there's some accountability with my assistant who's on the other side of the wall and the COO and the woman I started the company with and my fellow executives. You know, even though I'm the owner and my name's on the door, you know, there's a level of accountability. You have one another. But I don't report to Zillow. And Zillow wants you to do handstands. They want you to pay 99% of the referral fee. I mean, I'm making up numbers, but they just. They overdo it a bit with flexibility. And that's why I said, hey, we'll pass on that. And I passed on it three times. And it sounds like I might have been right. There's a little bit of.

[C]

Well, now, yeah, that whole lawsuit thing of them pushing too hard on the mortgage side and some other ancillaries is interesting, but that's another one of my.

[B]

That was one of my concerns. And I will say I don't think that Rich and Lloyd and Jeremy, I know those guys. They're not intentionally trying to rip anyone off. These are not. These are not dishonest characters. You know, the lawsuits in the bullshit that they come up with to go after companies just like Catch Mark did to the real estate industry. They're doing it to Zillow now, so.

[C]

Absolutely, man.

[B]

Where I think they might be pushing the envelope a little. I don't think that they're dishonest bad people or anything like that.

[C]

No. I would tend to agree. So you're doing a lot of leads then? Through realtor.com through, like you said, Zillow. You're buying leads from Zillow. Are you doing any pay per click or Facebook ads to generate leads to.

[B]

Okay, we are. The Facebook leads tend to be much more top of funnel and the agents don't always have the patience for that. So we do do business with a company called Y Lopo. I don't know if you've heard of them, but Howard, Taggart and G, great guys. And they've got a great product where they sort of help us nurture the leads.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

You ask an agent to nurture a lead that's going to sell or buy in three or four years. Agents.

[C]

Yeah, they just don't have the consistency or the systems to do it. I would Agree with you there. Don't you think that's where most agents are failing, though, is in that lack of consistency? Like, obviously, you have a coaching company with Crush it. You know, in real estate. Like, how are you trying to actually influence the mindset and the activity of the agent? Have you made any breakthroughs getting agents to work?

[B]

So that's a very good question. And, you know, there's two distinct things with our training and with our coaching. So with training and, you know, I started the training company as Real Training and systems just to give you some history. You said you wanted some history in 2015. And the way I started this company. Josh, you're gonna love this. I'm fishing in Northern Virginia with a Realtor friend of mine. We're pulling largemouth bass out of the. Out of the water. And he says, wait a second. This 2015, you guys are converting? What? I said, oh, about 11% of our Zillow leads. Anthony, that's crazy. How are you doing that? I said, well, I put training on every single week. We talk specifically step by step. You get a lead, what do you do? What do you say? What do you text? Blah, blah, blah. He goes, I want to get that training from my agents. What would that cost? Well, you want them to tune in every week? Yeah. Can't they zoom in by Skype? Right.

[A]

This is.

[B]

This is. Or tune in by Skype?

[A]

I said, yeah.

[B]

I said, you want my materials, my scripts? Because, yeah. I said, I'm literally like this. I said, Ah, 3,000amonth. He goes, deal. Deal. That's how my training company start companies. It was literally born. I said, well, if I can do it with him. Then I got another customer in New York, Then I got one in Illinois, then California, then Florida. Before you know it, I had 15, 20 companies a week watching us over Skype.

[C]

Wow.

[B]

And then it got to be too much. By 2018, they were interrupting our company training. Our agents were complaining about it. So I filmed everything and put it all in an online training center. And I was able to bring the cost down dramatically once I did that. So to answer your initial question, you can influence agents to do the right steps with the leads once they have the leads. But getting them to take action before they have leads and to continuously follow up and be the authority is where I've always had the difficulty. And I have found that the coaching really helps with that. Now, I don't coach. I've never been like. I just. I have no patience for people with. With coaching. So I. I do a little Coaching within our company. If I know an agent's in a slump, I'll give them a call. But we brought on a guy a year and a half ago in the summer of 24. He's phenomenal. His name is Jason Posnick and he's, he speaks, he can, he's got the magic, he can put on a show, he can coach. So Jason has been growing our coaching arm and so far we've been mainly doing it to the realtors at lamacchia Realty. But recently we started to bring on a couple other customers, agents that are other companies like my friend in New York, Willie Miranda. So that's helping. But I do think what I'm coming out with, well really I announced it in my event a couple weeks ago, but what I'm coming out with in the middle of March, Alan Dalton and I I believe is going to be the best thing that we've ever come out with as far as helping agents become the authority, teaching them to. Alan Dalton says you don't just worry about your sphere of influence in building it, you worry about influencing your sphere. So doing that, coming out with a, or now that we came out with a certified, a real estate consultant certification and teaching agents to get into homes annually. Get into homes before they're on the market, right? Look at life insurance agents. They became financial advisors. Financial advisors have annual meetings with people, they talk to them about what's going on. So now we're teaching agents, hey, get in that home, do an equity checkup with them, go over, make sure their homeowner's insurance policy is good, talk to them, give them an updated value of their home, take a walk through the home, help them prioritize any fix ups, anything they're going to do, doing that on an annual basis. And right now we're teaching agents to just, hey, just do it with your client base down the line. I'm going to teach agents to charge an annual fee for it. But that's later and I think that's

[C]

going to tell me like a little. I love the idea because the problem is the stigma around real estate agents because of just how easy I think it has been to get into the industry. There's been a lot of bad real estate agents. And so out there in kind of the surveys of, you know, what people think are the slimiest professions. You know, real estate is on there just like car dealers just like, or car sales people just like insurance because there's that sales aspect to it. And this would essentially elevate the real Estate person. How do you make sure though, that the consumer understands the value of the certified real estate consultant? Like, how do you make sure that the. Because to be a real estate consultant is awesome, but how do you translate that to the consumer to make sure they understand the value that you bring different than just a normal real estate agent?

[B]

Well, that's a good question and I'll have a better answer for you in a year to see how good of a job we do as a company and teaching the agents to do that with their buyers and sellers. I believe that society and consumers as a whole look up to consultants and the fact that we're going to have a certificate, that we have a certification for it so that people have to get certified and go through extensive training. We have video training, we've got a workbook, we have a book. There's a lot of training on step by step how to do this. We also. I insisted on this. We also have a whole section that teaches them how to work with the clients. Right. How to, how to land the client and then how to navigate, get the home listed, get the home sold, watching out for pitfalls. Because I said I'm not doing this unless I can also teach them to be a good practitioner. And Alan agreed immediately because there's a lot of agents out there, like you just said, that they don't really know what they're doing. And when the market gets hot, it gets easier to just your way through things. Well, let me tell you, there's no way in hell to your way through obtaining our, our certification. It's not possible.

[C]

Does it count towards continuing education?

[B]

It does not. It does not. But that's in the back of my head, maybe for the future, but yeah,

[C]

because I could see that as how you could get adoption of agents is they have to do this continuing education. Right. To keep their license. So if you.

[B]

Yeah, I think, I think we're going to get pretty good adoption. One of the, one of the maybe problems I would say with selling my previous training products with the different courses we had is there was a little bit of, well, what do I get for it? Right? And it's like, well, you going to learn and you're going to get better. Now they're getting an actual certification they can use in their email signature, their business cards and everywhere else. And I, I think it'll have an impact. But ask me in a year and I'll tell you how accurate I was.

[A]

How would you like, what do you tell an agent who's struck like we have this call in show, every week we have people call in and ask a question. Probably the number one question right now is the market is hard. And we had a guy that called in and was literally just trying to survive till the end of December. Like, what would you tell an agent in a market like this? What should they do over the next 30 days? If someone's listening to this saying, hey, if you're struggling, here is what you need to focus on over the next 30 days in. In today's market.

[B]

So at this time of year, there's a lot more agents that feel like they're struggling. And I think some of them, particularly those in the northern states of the country, have a tendency to forget that it's winter. There's dramatically less transactions in the winter. Many people are waiting for their flowers and everything, and they shouldn't, but they are, and that is normal. Okay? But if I'm an agent that's been in the business five or eight years, the number one thing I'm doing right now is I am getting in touch with every single past buyer that I sold the home to, unless I despised them. Okay? I said that to an agent this morning. I said, listen, even the ones you didn't like that much, remember, it was an emotional time for them. Then give them a call, check in, send a handwritten note, call them on the phone, get in that home. Even if they tell you they're not selling. Well, I didn't think you were selling. I just wanted to check in and see how you're doing. I wanted to see how the house is. I remember you guys were very worried about the boiler. Did you end up replacing it? You were thinking about replacing the driveway. Did you get a new one? You know, checking in on those things? And then I'm going to be in your neighborhood in a week or two. Why don't I come by for 20 minutes and say hello? You need to be in touch with those people. And the good news is the good news, most agents at my competitor companies, they won't do that. My agents do. Right. We teach our agents to get in touch with people. We teach them to follow up with people. It makes a world of difference. And not, not to say they all do it, but those that do do more business.

[C]

Yeah, it's so. It's so true. It's like the calling your sphere, checking in on your sphere, being top of mind with your sphere. It's where the majority of the business comes from. All the stats say it, everybody knows it. I think the blocker is they feel awkward calling somebody or reaching out to somebody they haven't talked to in three years or two years. How do you try to help agents overcome that? Is there any tactics that you guys use or just. Is it get over it?

[B]

So let me tell you something. About eight years ago, I rolled out our own working by referral course through Crushing in real estate. And I'll never forget, I did a whole class and one of my best agents in my company, she walked up to me after and she said, anthony, I just have, like, anxiety. Like, what am I going to say when I call? I said, well, ready? Ready? Hi, how are you? She goes, I said, this is very simple. You're checking. How are you? How's the house? How have you been? How's little Johnny? He must be in middle school by now. How's little Susie? Right? I mean, it ain't that hard. And this is part of what I teach. Listen, I put on an event in the fall where I had 14 broker owners from around the country fly out. We charged 10,000 ahead, and I went over my acquisition playbook with them, okay? And they were so, Anthony, what. What scripts do you use? What do you say? What do you mail? Do you. Do you do emails? I go, guys, guys, ready, ready? Hi, how are you? I thought I'd call and introduce myself. I know that our agents do a lot of business together, and I thought I'd say hello. Bill, your agent. Bill Brady, your agent does a great job. What's going on? Hey, the Patriots are headed to the playoffs. Number one is get to know them, you know, and that helps a lot with recruiting. It helps a lot with existing clients. Now you get a live lead from Zillow and you start doing, hey, the Patriots, how are you? How. How's life? They're gonna be like, I don't need you as a friend. But when there's a preexisting relationship from a client, it's easy. And when it's getting to know other broker owners, it's easy. The calls are easier.

[C]

Yeah, it's so authentic, too. And that's the key. It's like entering in with, like, no expectations, even though obviously you're hoping you can build a relationship. But just being a normal guy, checking in, getting to know people, that is the power. I'm curious, just switching gears a little bit. Cause I wanna selfishly pick your brain on this. You've built a massive company, incredible entrepr, tons of people that report up to you. From a leadership standpoint, what do you believe makes a great Leader.

[B]

I think one of the most important. There's a number of important things, but one of them is communication. Okay? I really work hard to treat people the way that I would want to be treated. And I work hard to make sure our executive team and management team does that. And as you grow, it's harder to do. But I'll say to them, hey, guys, hold on. How would you want to be? Let me tell you something. I talked to a guy this morning that I let go three weeks ago, standing right there with my hand on his shoulder. I said, I'm sorry, we just don't need your position anymore. And he looked right out at me and said, I know, buddy. I can tell it's been awful slow. And guess what? I talked to him this morning. I talked to him 10 days ago, and. And I'm trying to help him start a certain business, right? Giving him advice and treat people the way you would like to be treated. And also very clear, open, and repetitive communication. That's something that most leaders fail. When I hear a manager say to me, oh, I already told them, oh, really? You did? Because they don't remember and they're not clear. So in your head, you might have quickly in passing mentioned this, but they. Anthony, they don't listen. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're not listening because you told me you told them once, which means you didn't tell them. And they look at me, right? I tell managers that. I said, don't ever tell me you told a staff member or an agent something. When you. When you really told them something once in passing. That's not telling.

[C]

Yeah, that's so good. The burden of communications on the communicator

[B]

when you're a leader. Listen, every single month we have a meeting sequence, okay? We have an executive team meeting on a Friday. We have an all management meeting on a Monday or Tuesday. And then Monday. And then Tuesday afternoon we have an all staff meeting. And then Wednesday. This is once a month, this cycle, Wednesday. We talk to the whole company and we tell them about changes. We call it monthly company updates 12 times a year. And we talk to them about changes. We're making policy shifts. Sometimes things they don't want to hear. But we. I say it at the exec meeting. We go over it myself and our chief operating officer. We go over to the management meeting, we go over to the staff meeting, we go over to company updates. So if you're an executive or a manager, you're hearing it three times by Wednesday. If you're on staff you're hearing it at least twice by Wednesday. Right. And then we follow up in the weeks following. And that's important because you have to understand that human beings don't hear everything the first time.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

You guys know that, right? You guys are communicators. You have a great show, you have a great audience. You do a great job. Right. Josh, I thought was quiet until he started talking. Right. And then. But. But to get through to people is not easy. Imagine running for president. You're trying to get a message out on something you're working on. Yeah. It's. I mean, I say it's why Trump

[C]

is so good, because he. At communication is because he takes complex things and puts them into common man language, and he repeats it over and over and over and over.

[B]

There's another thing that he does. There's another thing that he does. And I said this to my cousin. My cousin I'm very close with, but we. We argue. Me, him and my dad were always debating politics and stuff. There's one other trick that Trump does that I do it in my company. When he first puts a subject out, he does it with one or two sentences and he says, like, something outrageous. And what does that do? It gets everyone talking and gets the media reporting on it. Then about four days later, he goes, oh, yeah, no, I mean that. But, you know, we're gonna do it like this, and we're doing like that. And then people go, oh, Trump backpedaled. He backpedaled on what he said. It's like, no, guys, it's a strategy. He says a high level. He pushes the envelope with what he wants. You know, I'm going to build a wall in Mexico. No, I'm gonna. We're gonna build a wall. Mexico is gonna pay for it, right?

[C]

Yep.

[B]

But think before Trump was Obama. I'm going to fundamentally change America. Right. And then Obama said, the fat cats on Wall street, they shouldn't be getting these bonuses. And the public. He's right.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

These guys, these guys are messaging geniuses.

[C]

Yeah, they are. They are. Yep.

[B]

Geniuses. So what I try to do is put something out, like in text. You know how, like, on Facebook, you can put something out and it's like, it looks like a billboard. I do that in the company group and I let it fester. And then people sometimes respond, oh, here he goes, what's he going to tell us? I wait two, three days, and then we do clarification. Right. When you put out boring statements.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

No one reads you expl. I mean, did you guys happen to see all the videos I did with the real estate cases when I was like going after the lawyer and all that? Okay. No, I don't think it's two years ago I started, I was doing videos, picking apart the real estate cases and I was pushing envelopes, saying some wild things. Well, because of that, every week I was in RAS media, Inman News, Real Estate News, Housing Wire, and I bumped into a few people, particularly in the NAR circle. Small percentage, but a few people. They're like, anthony, I know everybody thinks you're defending us, but I think you're coming off too much, you're too pushy. And I said, listen, if I went on camera and said, I do not agree with these cases, I believe they are unfair. Here's what realtors do, who would tune in?

[A]

Nobody.

[C]

Yep. It's so true, man. Yeah, you got to get attention. It's the first rule of marketing is get attention, right? It says sales. It's your bold claim. It's like, what is your attention grabbing headline? What is your attention grabbing piece that will get people to listen? Because there's so much noise. There's like the average human sees 10,000 ads a day, right? And so you're just like, there's so much noise. How do you cut through that noise? Yeah, great, great, great tip. I'm curious, you know. Yeah, I could talk to you all day. I feel like we're just getting started. But I'm curious knowing what you know now, having gone through building the company, right, and it's really, really successful. And I'm assuming you're just getting started, right? The amount of you're acquiring. But knowing what you know now, what would you go back and tell your younger self, that young entrepreneur, what advice would you give them?

[B]

I mean, I would save myself millions and probably have more hair on my head. These receding lines wouldn't be as bad. There's a whole bunch of things, I mean, we're past just getting started, but I'm 44 years old, I plan to do this, I don't know, at least for the next 20, 30 years, probably more. Especially if my kids can take over. And that's an if. We'll see. But there's a number of things. Number one to November of 17 is when I really truly started focusing on recruiting as my main activity. And we had 92 agents in November of 17. We had 500 agents by, I don't know, 20, 21 or something like, get out of here.

[C]

Wow.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. So that. So recruiting Sooner is definitely a big one. Converting from a team model to a brokerage model. I did that from 2015-16. If I had to do it all over again, I would have did it in 2010. Okay, that. That's a big one. And accepting the fact. Now I gotta be careful how I say this. Accepting the fact that not every agent is gonna be a rock star, you know, not everybody's, you know, gonna work 20 hours a day. Had I accepted that fact years before, we'd have a much bigger company right now. And then I would say acquisitions as a whole, basically. I wish I started everything sooner.

[C]

Yeah. Isn't that the truth always? Yeah. So it's always what you want to do.

[B]

Yeah. There's a lot of things I've figured out that I wish we started Sooner. I mean, 2025, we closed 3.3 billion in real estate and 6,053 transactions. So.

[C]

Unbelievable, man.

[B]

This year in 26, we've got another acquisition coming up in about six weeks somewh. But this year, if. If we do two, three, four acquisitions, as long as nothing crazy happens, we'll probably get to 4 billion in about 7,000, 7,300 transactions. Unless I can land one of these big acquisitions I'm working on, then it'll be a lot more. But some of these companies are in franchises and.

[C]

Yeah, well, now you'll have a great opportunity with anywhere the deal. There's a lot of franchises out there that might be open to a phone call from you, man.

[B]

I think so, I hope. I mean, I did see a little of that back when it was originally announced. And listen, I got to give Robert credit, Guy.

[C]

Yeah. Unbelievable.

[B]

He is the biggest player in the real estate game. He is the ultimate king at raising money. I don't know anybody in the real estate space that's better at raising money than that guy.

[C]

The guts of him to the guts. Like. Like just the. I mean, backbone of steel. Yeah.

[B]

Craz 100%. I give them all the credit in the world. And, you know, and I was one of the people that said, oh, they won't make it. Years back then I started saying, all right, I think I'm wrong. Right. And he's proved it. And him and I have had a little bit of disagreement on policies, but I respect him. He's done a hell of a job. And what a bunch of great companies he is now leading.

[C]

Yeah, it's crazy. It's almost like the Microsoft model. Like, Microsoft just went out and bought, like, obviously they created an incredible product, but it's like the Bill Gates model was like they just bought their competition. They grew by acquisition in a way. And Instagram, or, sorry, Facebook, did the same thing with Instagram. And then obviously they tried to buy Snapchat and they bought WhatsApp. And it's like you almost see a similar play in the compass play of just like, oh, man, they're, they're growing by sheer gist force, like getting outrageous money to agents to come over to them buying these companies. It's pretty insane.

[A]

It's great.

[B]

Definitely is. And I'll tell you, that's what I'm going to focus on most in the years to come as acquisitions. That's my. That's my. I mean, you know, I run the company and all that, but the more time I put into focusing on acquisitions and dialing the phone, the more that we grow. And that's where most of my focus is going to be in the years to come. But he is definitely the leader at that and I give him credit.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Awesome. Anthony, this has been great. Before we close out, where do you want people to go to find you?

[B]

Instagram @aj lamacchia? I don't go by AJ, but my Instagram handle is AJ lamacchia. Or they could visit lamacchiarealty.com awesome.

[A]

We're going to include links to that in the show notes of this episode as well, which you can [e-mail] Anthony. Thanks again and thank you all so much for listening. If you enjoy this episode and want to show your Support, go to YouTube.com remindermedia Give this video a thumbs up. Make sure you are subscribed to the channel and go check out Anthony's YouTube channel.

[C]

It's really good.

[A]

Yeah. Crush it in real estate. If you want to get hold of me or Luke, you can email us@podcast remindermedia.com and of course you can follow us on Instagram as well. We are at Stay Paid podcast for this episode of Stay Paid. I'm Josh.

[C]

Guys. I'm Luke Acrey. Anthony. Amazing dude. I can't wait to have you back and get to know you more. Just crushing it. Seriously. Really appreciate you coming on Action item for everybody listening to this. We like to close out every podcast with an action item. I think you gave them the number one thing they should be doing right now to change their business in the next 30 days. Call your sphere. You see, Anthony, literally before I even said it, picked up the phone and started acting it out. That is what you need to do. Call your sphere. If you're a broker, owner, you know, team leader. Listening to this, you should be calling the recruits that you're trying to recruit in make the phone calls. It's the difference between top producers and mediocre producers. Take action on that today. Sa.