She Turns Down $50M Agents — Here's Why It Works | Leah Wolfe-Kraemer

Summary

Stay Paid Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: She Turns Down $50M Agents — Here's Why It Works | Leah Wolfe-Kraemer
Podcast: Stay Paid Podcast by ReminderMedia
Hosts: Luke Acree (President) & Josh Stike (CMO)
Guest: Leah Wolfe-Kraemer, Branch Owner at Realty One Group, Goodyear, Arizona
Release Date: July 20, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode features Leah Wolfe-Kraemer, an industry-leading real estate branch owner who has built a record-setting, highly engaged team by fearlessly leaning into her unique personality and unorthodox approach. Leah shares candid insights into why she turns down even top-earning agents who don’t align with her values, discusses the importance of authenticity, outlines her recruiting and retention philosophies, and offers tactical advice for agents and team leaders. The conversation is packed with actionable tips on leadership, social media, training, and navigating industry shifts—all delivered with Leah’s signature humor and candor.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Power of Authentic Leadership

• Leah’s Unique Approach: Leah has built a culture that encourages bold authenticity and individuality, steering clear of the one-size-fits-all mentality. Her openness about everything—from real estate to “perimenopause symptoms” and “favorite toilet paper”—attracts agents who value transparency and fun.

• Quote:

  “My weirdness attracts other weirdness. And there’s a lot of weirdos in real estate, so just put it out there and be whoever you are.”
  — Leah (01:13)

• Authenticity as a Strategic Magnet: Leah’s social content is unpredictable and personal, embracing topics that others might shy away from, resulting in a fiercely loyal following.

• Quote:

  “Your vibe attracts your tribe. I'm not looking to bring on everybody. I want people who are similarly minded.”
  — Leah (03:17)

2. Recruiting, Standards, and Turning Down Top Agents

• Selective Recruiting: Leah intentionally avoids chasing agents. Instead, she aims to attract those who fit her culture. She stands firm on her standards and values—even turning down agents doing $30M–$50M if their reputation or style doesn’t align.

• Quote:

  “I'm amazing. It's a privilege to work with me. So you're going to pursue me, not the other way around.”
  — Leah (05:36)

• Clear Expectations and Fit: Every interview is about mutual fit; Leah is up-front about her approach and what she expects, willingly referring agents elsewhere if they’re not a fit.

• Turning Down High Producers:

  “I've turned down really high performing agents… But reputationally had already blown it in certain communities. If I know that… you're just not somebody I want.”
  — Leah (09:38)

3. Key Factors for Agent Success

• Competence & Consistency: Especially post-COVID and following major industry regulatory changes, Leah sees the agents who combine competence (true expertise) and consistent effort as those who survive and thrive.

• Quote:

  “The ones who are truly competent… and consistent… that's where you're worth your weight in gold.”
  — Leah (10:18)

• Back-to-Basics Approach: In a tougher market, agents need to double down on networking, open houses, geographic farming, and genuine community investment.

4. Industry Shifts & Training Focus

• Commitment to Education: Leah, raised by teachers, is passionate about training. She hosts public contract classes (“WTF – What’s That Form?”) and sees education as essential for agent confidence, compliance, and differentiation.
• Quote:

  “There’s nothing that brings me more pride than an agent who is only six months in… knowing that contract better than somebody who’s been doing this 20 years.”
  — Leah (12:33)

5. Social Media: Authentic Content & Tactical Tips

• Know Your Audience: Leah targets agents for her social presence, mixing 70% personal with 30% business posts. She recommends using business content on the business page and then sharing to personal pages for organic growth.
• Quote:

  “People want to get to know you as a human. Your vibe attracts your tribe.”
  — Leah (14:19)

6. Compensation, Retention & Value Communication

• Proactive Conversations: Leah advocates setting expectations upfront regarding splits/compensation, suggesting tiered structures and regular, transparent communication to avoid churn.

• Quote:

  “You already know these conversations are going to take place… why wouldn’t you address them at the forefront?”
  — Leah (16:22)

• Demonstrate Ongoing Value: Leaders and agents alike should frequently communicate what they're doing for others to avoid misunderstandings and reinforce their worth.

7. Systematizing Client Value & Relationship-building

• Automated & Human Touchpoints: Use a CRM for transaction updates, but also check in on a personal level—ask about their move, if they need boxes, etc. Most people need emotional reassurance during a sale.
• Quote:

  “Buying and selling is emotional for so many people… sometimes they just need a little moral support.”
  — Leah (18:32)

8. AI’s Emerging Role

• Exploring AI Tools: Agents should experiment with AI systems (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude) for marketing and efficiency—but Leah cautions not to rely on AI for crucial contract work.
• Prompt Literacy:

  “It will tell you what it needs to do—you just have to know the right prompts to get there.”
  — Leah (19:53)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Candid Leadership:

  “I'm not Willy Wonka. I'm not going to sugarcoat this.”
  — Leah (06:03)

• Leah’s Interview Question:

  “One of the questions that I ask (agents) is, on a scale from 1 to 10, how easily offended are you? Because if you really rank low, we’re not a good fit.”
  — Leah (03:02)

• On Controlling the Narrative:

  “Silence—there is still a narrative… and it’s the worst type of narrative.”
  — Luke (21:01)

• Book Recommendation:

  “Shift… even though it was designed for a slightly different market, those tenants stay true. I would absolutely be looking at Shift and focus on creative financing.”
  — Leah (25:50)

• Best Prospecting Activity (in Phoenix):

  “Open houses… about 44% of new business comes from open houses. A lot of that is because we have so many active adult communities… they still like that face to face.”
  — Leah (25:16)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:00] – Leah Introduced: Leadership & Manifesto
• [03:02] – Recruiting for culture & “How easily offended are you?”
• [05:35] – Attracting vs. Pursuing agents; organic recruitment
• [07:59] – Importance of standards & saying no to misaligned agents
• [10:18] – Competence & consistency: The key to surviving as an agent
• [12:33] – Commitment to education & public agent training
• [14:19] – Social media strategy for agent leaders
• [16:22] – Having tough compensation and value conversations
• [18:11] – Systematizing how agents demonstrate value to clients
• [19:53] – AI’s role (and caveats!) in real estate
• [23:02] – Overcoming adversity, adapting to market downturns
• [25:16] – Phoenix’s top prospecting method: open houses
• [25:50] – Book recommendation: “Shift”
• [26:22] – Advice for younger self: Action & caring less about others’ opinions

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Leah’s Final Advice

• Start sooner, act fast, be yourself:

  “Figure out what you want and start taking action… don’t worry about what people think of you.” (26:22)

• Live Out Loud:

  “Get out of the box. The box is out of the box.” (27:03)

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Actionable Takeaways

• Team Leaders: Be ruthlessly authentic in leadership; attract rather than chase talent; communicate standards and value early and often.
• Agents: Prioritize competence and consistency; double down on basics like open houses; systematize value communication.
• Everyone: Leverage your personality on social media, experiment thoughtfully with AI, control the narrative with clients, and don’t compromise your standards for easy wins.

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Connect with Leah Wolfe-Kraemer:

• All socials: @LeahKramer or @AdventuresWithLeahKramer (for travel)
• Public training via YouTube and Facebook

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Host’s Parting Challenge:
Live by your values; “your vibe attracts your tribe”—and take action to share your authentic self for real business growth. (28:37)

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This summary contains the core learnings and spirit of the episode for agents, team leaders, and entrepreneurs looking for authentic, high-value growth in real estate and beyond.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign. Page, your number one sales and marketing podcast on a mission to help you close more deals, keep more clients, and build the life of freedom you're working towards. But that can only happen if you are willing to take action today. My name is Josh Steich, Chief Marketing Officer at Reminder Media, joined as always by Luke Acre, President of Reminder Media. And our guest today is Leah Kramer. Leia is the owner of a Realty One Group branch and a 21 year old veteran of the real estate industry based in Goodyear, Arizona. Since launching her branch in 2014, she has led her team to break every production record in the Southwest Valley while cultivating a dedicated following of agents through her leadership, which I believe wear shirts to say I love Leia. I had to include this part. Leia lives by the personal manifesto. I love this. Live a life of outrageous adventure. Do all the things, eat all the food and nose boop. All the wild animals. Welcome to stay. Thanks for being here.

[B]

Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.

[C]

Yeah, thanks for coming on the show. We also had in your bio that you are boldly authentic. You are a boldly authentic firecracker. And so, yes, I'm curious. You know, you've broken every record right, at your branch, but yet you feel. I feel like you're doing it your own way versus maybe fitting into the mold. And I'm just curious of like, what you would tell other team leaders, branch managers, of what has led to being able to have such a successful branch.

[B]

Yeah, man, My. My poor boss, right? Like the president of the company, he just doesn't even know what to do with me anymore. So I think it's just let her run wild. It seems to be working. No restraints.

[C]

Clean up the pieces afterwards. Clean up.

[B]

I mean, she, she hasn't been arrested yet, so I think we're safe. No, in all seriousness, and I. That's what anybody would say. I just, I do my own thing, even through my social media posts. I mean, it might be about my perimenopause symptoms this morning. Might be about my favorite toilet paper. It might be about a squirrel. You just never know what you're gonna get. But ultimately I think that my weirdness attracts other weirdness. And there's a lot of weirdos in real estate, so I think just putting it out there and being whoever you are, you're just naturally gonna attract others.

[C]

There are a lot of weirdos in real estate, that is for sure. And I'm curious. It's like, where do you get that confidence from, though? Because I think most of us, myself included, I would love to be so much more. More authentic than I am. But it's the fear of, I think two fears. Fear of reputational loss. Like, oh, what are people going to think? And, you know, that affects your reputation. Right. Type idea. And then also the fear of offense. Like, I have a lot of fear of, like, what if I say a certain thing or do a certain thing that offends somebody? How do you overcome that? Like, what's your coaching you would give?

[B]

So when I am interviewing prospective agents, one of the questions that I ask them is, on a scale from 1 to 10, how easily offended are you? Because if you really rank low, we're not a good fit. And that's okay. Like, I'm not a one size fits all. I totally get that. I'm. I'm a lot to swallow. But if you're cool with a swear word every now and then, if you don't, you don't mind somebody walking on stage in their underwear, I'm probably going to jive with you. And your vibe attracts your tribe. Right. So I'm not looking to bring on everybody. I want people who are similarly minded. And I don't have a magic response or like a magic pill for how to be just authentically you. I think, honestly, some of it has just come with age and time. I just don't give it f anymore. Um, but realistically, I've probably. Since I was 13 or 14, I've always just kind of had that take me or leave me. That's. That's your problem.

[C]

Yep. Well, there's a. There is a. I would call it like truth in marketing. We call it golden nuggets here on the show. But it is a great marketing campaign or great branding. And marketing in general is like a magnet. Right. It repels and it attracts. Because if you think about it in the human psychological sense, it creates emotion. The last thing you want in marketing is for your marketing to create no emotion. Because if you create no emotion, you will create no memorability. You will create no action. And so the reason why you're. You want to have an emotion triggered, whether it's, you know, hey, I don't like this person or I like this person, is because you want them to act. You want them to do something. It's like a phone call. When I'm calling somebody. The worst thing is them ghosting me. I would at least want them to pick up and hang up on me or tell me, you know, f myself or tell me I'm interested, but just ignoring me is like the worst in it. So there is a golden principle there of just you've got to be willing. I think it was Grant Cardone. His favorite or famous quote that I've said often is like, 50% of the world hates me. 50% of the world loves me. Both days I get paid and you're just like, yeah, I love that. You know, in like politics are one by having half the nation not like you and half the nation love you. We've seen that year after year now. I hate that part of the politics, but it's just the truth. Talk to us about how you think about recruiting and how you like, are you a hardcore recruiter going out there? Are you waiting for people to come to you? Think about how you've built this team. Any advice you would give on people who are looking to try to, to grow their branch, grow their team? Maybe they're a team leader. Any advice in recruiting you would give?

[B]

Yeah, I'm definitely not a go out there and pursue people. Like, I'm amazing. It's a privilege to work with me. So you're going to pursue me, not the other way around. But in all honesty, a lot of my recruiting does come organically through social media. And again, I think it's, it's a little bit vulnerable. It's 100% authentic. You either attract people to you or like you said, you're a magnet. Then you repel them and that's okay. I've built a major collective of raving fans throughout my career, especially when I opened my branch in 2014. And they really, my current agents are the ones who are constantly referring other people to me. And the biggest reason for that is they know I will go to bat. So I might seem kind of crazy. I'm utterly ridiculous in most ways. But when it comes time to like, hey, I need help, I know my shit. I'm going to make sure that you know it. We're going to go to back together and I will 100% support you. And if you're wrong, I'm going to tell you you're wrong. Like, I'm not Willy Wonka. I'm not going to sugarcoat this. I want to make sure that you understand what we need to do to course correct or how we need to find a solution. And I think just that willingness to really do whatever it takes to support your people, that just shines through in everything. My availability. I mean, I work somewhere between 12 and 14 hours a day, seven days a week, not the Easiest schedule. But I love what I do. I. And ultimately that's why I got into this.

[C]

I'm writing a book on teams right now and trying to study like the most successful teams or I shouldn't say most successful, but very successful teams. Some of them like, you know, top of the top and some of them more just good teams. And one thing that I've seen consistently of all the interviews I've done is that the leader, the teams that tend to be crushing it both in profit and in quality of life, meaning they like the business and the people they work with, they do not bend on their standards, they do not have any flex on their values and their standards. And they all speak of stories in. They weren't, they didn't just come out of the womb that way. They lived flexing on their standards and realized that was the wrong route to go and they, they just hold to their standards. Have you found that to be true in running your branch that you're pretty much, you have to do these things, you have to show up these times. Do like, how have your standards played into your branch? I'm just wondering if that's been consistent.

[B]

Yeah. And it's. I think that that's such a wise thing to even consider sometimes. I would say a lot of people, there's a lot of churn and burn on teams because they're joining a team primarily because they have this notion that they're going to make all of this money through all of these leads that are coming in from some sort of third party lead source. But at the end of the day, the teams that actually mentor and take care of their agents and bring them into those value values, like you said, that's going to be the ultimate difference. And I think that that makes it easier for understanding the metrics and monitoring those metrics because you know exactly what those expectations are. So anytime I'm interviewing with an agent, it is getting a sense of what are they looking for because I'll be the first one to tell them we're just not a fit for you. If you're looking for X, Y or Z, this isn't the place for you. But I've got some recommendations for where you should go or who you should look for. But on the flip side, let me tell you what I expect and let's see if we jive.

[C]

Yeah, that's such a great sales nugget too. It's the takeaway sale. It's literally. I don't know if this is right for you. I don't Know if this, you actually should do this. Actually you might need to consider going somewhere else. It's the, in sales, it's the great tactic in a good way because you're not for everybody. And that makes the person think long and hard and actually makes them want to be with you more. And now you're not promising them the world where you're promising splits, commissions, technology or something like that. You're actually making them have to go, yeah, I want to be here. I want. It's not like you promise to take care of me and grow my business. It's like, no, no, no, you might not be a fit for us because people who are fit for us, they do xyz is that you. And that naturally makes people want to actually do that.

[B]

And it's always interesting because I've, I've turned down really high performing agents. I mean we're in the 30, 40, $50 million range, which at an average sales price at those times between 250 and 400. I mean that, that's a decent chunk, but reputationally had already blown it in certain communities. And if I know that and I'm not even that close to the field anymore. Yeah, if you're just not somebody I want.

[A]

We just interviewed Lance Billingsley and talked about like the difference between the agents that make it and fail. Right. And it was like 13% actually survive. What's the, what do you see leading so many agents? The difference between the ones that survive in this industry and the ones that don't make it.

[B]

Yeah, two things, competence and consistency. I think the ones who are truly competent. And that's not to say that you shouldn't have that competence no matter what, but a lot of agents were getting away with not knowing really what to do, how to handle situations, how to fill out a contract correctly. In the COVID era, because it didn't take much to sell a house. And now I think we're moving back into. You really have to know what you're doing and how to hold the deal together. Because going under contract is just a small part of that. Being able to hold that together and successfully close, that's where you're worth your weight in gold. With all of the changes. And not only did we go through all of the changes with NAR and everything with the settlement, the Department of Real Estate in Arizona, they refreshed, touched, changed every single code in December of last year. So we are operating on an entirely different wavelength now. I mean, trying to keep up with all those changes and implement those changes. And make sure you're compliant. And that's just one phase. Then the consistent aspect is you can't do four open houses. Say nobody showed up. Well, I mean of course nobody showed up. It's 106 degrees outside by 8 o' clock in the morning. Right now you really have to get more strategic. You have to figure out what's working and then you have to do more of it. Because we're definitely in a back to basics market. Which doesn't mean that hey, teams paying for leads through third parties aren't getting business. But where I'm seeing agents can capture more is definitely through the nose to nose prospecting. So you are doing networking events, you're doing open houses, your geographic farming where you're invested in specific communities. That's really where they are making it.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

You do a lot, a lot of training. Like more than I have seen, I think. Or maybe you're. Because you're putting it on YouTube. Maybe it's just more recognizable.

[B]

Who wouldn't want to see this on YouTube? Yes.

[A]

You really do a lot of like the educational part that I think a lot of people maybe don't get as much as did that come from kind of recognizing that from other. Other brokerages or like what sort of made you start kind of going down that route and then putting it out there for your agents and being very like collaborative but informational.

[B]

I think a lot of that. I'm an educator at heart. I was raised by teachers and principals. I think that that's just ingrained in my fiber of my being. But with that, that is where I feel so many things are lacking. That's where things fall apart. That's where lawsuits happen. And I want my agents. There's nothing that brings me more pride than an agent who is only six months in the business knowing that contract better than somebody who's been doing this 20 years. And it's very evident very quickly into a transaction. So even. And I do this not just for my agents. I mean my YouTube channel is public. My I will invite friends through Facebook to attend. I have numerous agents from other brokers who will sit in my WTF classes. The what's that form that's probably one of the most highly watched because it is, it's just line by line comprehensive overview of our different documents. And if you don't have that down, I mean you're, you're failing in your fiduciary duty right out the gate.

[C]

Did you want to be a lawyer at one point in time?

[B]

Funny. Why would you ask that? That's actually what I was going to school for originally. And then I saw, you know, I could really be invested in contracts and training without the typical 9 to 5 job and a lot more flexibility with pay.

[C]

Yeah, yep. I saw that in your bio and in your history. I was like, oh, wow, she chose the real estate world versus the legal world. I think you chose wisely. No offense to all the attorneys out there, but I think you chose wisely.

[A]

Now you coming

[C]

talk to us a little bit more tactically about your social. Right. Because you're very good at it and you're putting out content. Like any coaching you will give other team leaders or branch managers of like what they should be doing on social and how they could think about it to tactically execute.

[B]

Yeah. So for me, I know who my target audience is and those are other real estate agents. So obviously I'm looking, friending, growing accordingly. If this were not my position, if I were an agent, obviously other real estate agents are the last people that I would friend because that's not the group that I'm trying to grow and solicit to for all intents and purposes. I think the other thing that so many people fail at with their social media is definitely have a business page and have a personal page. Your personal page is going to take off much faster than a business page. So really maintain that 70, 30 post control. So 70% honestly should be personal. I mean, people want to get to know you as a human again. Your vibe attracts your tribe, like, attracts like they want to work with you because they like you for who you are. And then 30% should be business. And one of the easiest ways to do that and grow your business page is post business first. You can schedule it out that way and then just have it shared to your personal page. And I think that's just the easiest, most organic growth without paying for ads or other systems to post for you.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, agree. You know, one of the struggles that I think a lot of brokerages and teams face is that you grow the agent, they start having some success and then they feel they're not getting paid enough and they feel like, you know, they forget all that you've done for them. It's like, what have you done for them lately? Type idea and they leave. Right. How have you, if you have figured out any creative ways to have those conversations, conversations around splits, conversations around how you present your value prop of why they should be at your brokerage and not because it's just. Or on your team or not. Because that seems to be a common theme I'm seeing is you recruit these agents, you build them up, they become producers, then they go, hey, I don't like this. 70, 30, or I don't like this. 50, you know, 50 or 60, 40, whatever your split is for the team. And now they have to have that combo and try to keep that agent or not keep that agent. What has been your experience?

[B]

So I think I would treat this, and I do treat this exactly the same way I would with a client. So first step is you have to set expectations. That is an upfront conversation. Like, you already know that these conversations are going to take place in the future. You know what those pain points are, so why wouldn't you address them at the forefront? And to be totally honest, one of the things that you as a team leader might want to consider is some sort of tiered compensation structure because they're not going to need the same level of assistance from you. Eight transactions into this as they did on transaction one. So really considering what your formula is and how to modify that to keep good talent would be number one. The second component to this is again, something that agents really are not great at. You're not showing your value. And what I mean is you're doing all of these things in the background, but then you're not communicating what you're doing to your client or in this case, to your team member. Why. Why aren't you having weekly team meetings where you're discussing, hey, here's what we've done this week, here's what we're going to implement. Here are the tools and the resour. And you heard the wins that we've taken as a team. And you get to participate in these things because you are with us. And so really, it's just, this is a team leader failure, 100% on both accounts. They have no one to blame but their self again for that churn and burn, because they're not taking the necessary actions up front. They think, hey, if I just set it and forget it, and they're getting leads and they're making the calls, but they're not actually checking in. I think that's where things fall apart.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

How does an agent effectively show their value, like, communicate that value to their client? And I say effective in the sense of like, can it be systematized? How. How have you seen the best agents, like, communicating that value to their clients?

[B]

Yeah, it can absolutely be systematized. I think just looping them into different things that you're doing and AI Obviously I'm old enough that AI wasn't a thing. You know, back in my day when I had to walk uphill both ways to school in the snow in Arizon, Arizona. But yeah, that ultimately there are systems that you can put in place. And a really good place for that is probably your CRM. If your CRM isn't doing more for you by actually having routine, hey, this is what's happening next in the transaction. Here's where we are, where you could just script all of that out and know, okay, on this date, this date and this date, these are the things that need to be sent out. On this date, my calendar needs to send me a reminder to text my client about this. Where a lot of agents also fall short in this though, is that's all based on transactions. You still have to be kind of their friend, their priest, their mother. Because buying and selling is emotional for so many people. Not all. If you're a high C client, you don't need any of this garbage. You just want to know the facts. But the majority of people are on the INS spectrum for a disc profile. And so with that I need to know, okay, sometimes they just need a little moral support. And that may literally just be calling them and saying, hey, I know we're at this stage, nothing's really happening, but I just wanted to check in. How are things going with this? How is the moving coming along? Do you need any extra boxes? Those types of things? That's what sets you apart.

[A]

That's huge, man. That's why I will never be an agent, because I am definitely a high C. Yeah, you mentioned AI. How, where are you seeing AI play the biggest role in your agents lives? How are you seeing it, like for benefit or where you see people kind of getting lost and, and maybe wasting time in it? How are you seeing AI being implemented?

[B]

So I think that AI, even though it's been around for a hot minute, it's still relatively new as far as how do I make it do what I want it to do? And the most ironic part is it will tell you what it needs to do. You just have to know the right prompts to get there. And I think some of that, yes, it takes a little practice, but realistically, if you just talk to it like we're talking about, say, hey, here's what Gemini Chat, Claude, here's what I want you to do for me. It will start perfecting those processes. I think it's agents not knowing where to start. They don't know which AI system is best for what? Something they need to do, whether it's creating a market piece, it's creating systems, you know, it's reviewing a document for any inconsistencies and making sure that it's what they're looking for to best protect their client. Might, of course, from a broker perspective, please, please, please do not rely on AI to write your contracts for you or answer very specific contract questions, because that is job security for me. So if no other reason, please don't make me lose my job.

[C]

It is true that a lot of people don't realize that you can literally talk to your AI and then ask the AI to write the program prompt, the best prompt for you to get the result that you're after. And so a lot of us think, oh, we got to become great prompt writers. Really, we just have to ask the AI to write us the best prompt. And we have to give AI the context. We have to give AI the data dump. And, you know, Gary Vaynerchuk says this a lot. Just turn it on and just start talking to it and then have it literally. Take that. I also love one of the things going back to your whole, you know, communicating your value that I think is so powerful. And this is where team leaders fail within comes to comp and commission combos and value combos, and then the agent fails to their client. It's like the number one thing in PR is you have to control the narrative. And what people just don't realize is silence. There is still a narrative. And it's the worst type of narrative because you're giving the power of the narrative over to the consumer. You're giving the power of the narrative over to that person. So when you have silence and you're not sharing, it's kind of like your brand. Nobody realizes this, but everybody has a brand. Whether you brand or not, your brand is out there. It's just, are you controlling your brand? Are you allowing the consumer to control your brand? Messaging. And so the same with communication to your clients. It's like when you're not communicating the narratives now with them, they get it. Now make up the narrative of what is. What is Josh doing for me, how is he doing it? Versus when you're communicating, you now control the narrative. And it's like PR 101. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Because you want to be on the offensive, not the defensive. And so many agents just don't realize that because they're almost nervous. I don't have anything to update. Perfect. Tell them that. Because now you're actually controlling the Narrative versus them creating the narrative. Here's a question for you, right? You've been through a lot of probably ups and downs, a lot of, you know, different things that have happened. What has been one of the hardest adversities that you've faced faced, and how did you overcome that adversity? And what lessons did it teach you?

[B]

So market related wise, I mean, I think everybody just started to suffer a bit during the Great Recession. And I mean, it, it changed on a dime. Like, we can almost pinpoint the day that the market shifted and it shifted hard. And I think in some ways you, we could have been a little bit ahead of it, but I don't think we really anticipated the severity that we were going to suffer through during those stages. So it was, how fast can I adapt? And this is definitely an industry where you just cannot become complacent. You have to constantly be ready to flip and do what is necessary to continue to be successful. And we're definitely in a shift now, maybe not to that degree. This has been kind of, honestly, one of the wildest markets I've ever seen. At least in Phoenix, like, our pricing is still continuing to go up a little bit or at least stay relatively the same without really anything to benefit it. On the flip side, like, there's the interest rates are still high and worse than being high. They're just wildly volatile. And we, we just cannot seem to figure out how can we get something to merge from this, where, okay, I need to learn how to do this, because we don't necessarily need to start doing REOs and short sales. Are they picking up a little bit? Yes, but not tremendously so.

[C]

I mean, still very interesting. Yeah, it almost, it scares you. Almost like, is this the new normal? Is like this going to be the new normal of the market and then we're all just waiting for the consumer to adjust. Right. Because part of the reason why the market sucks is people are not, you know, selling and buying at the rate we need them to. And you go, well, they're not, because they're under the impression that the market sucks, that they were waiting for interest rates to come down, prices are too high. So you almost need it to be long enough to where consumers just go, no, this is the market. And I, if I'm going to move for my life, I have to move and deal with it. So it's a little bit of like, oh, man, I hope this is not the new normal. I hope interest rates go down, because that would be amazing. It opened up so much inventory. I Got a couple rapid fire questions for you here that would love your take. Number one prospecting activity right now that you're seeing is working for agents.

[B]

Where would you say so in Phoenix? It's definitely, it's always been open houses by like a significant margin. About 44% of new business comes from open houses. A lot of that, Yeah, I think a lot of that is because we have so many active adult communities and active adults, especially when they have the time to, they're out there during the week, not just on weekends, but three, they still like that face to face. Outside of that geographic, farming would be the number two.

[C]

Okay, great to hear. Second is book. What book recommendation would you give to an agent right now that they should read Shift?

[B]

I actually listed that for my book club a couple of days ago. Yeah, if even though it was designed for a slightly different market, those tenants stay true, like I would absolutely be looking at Shift and I would really focus on creative financing because, like, as we're discussing some of the issues, let's look at assumptions and seller financing and what other opportunities might be out there to move these people into homes.

[C]

Yeah, great, great point. Okay, third question. Knowing what you know now, what would you go back and tell your younger self? Maybe that 16 year old, 17 year old, what advice would you give them?

[B]

Start getting into real estate sooner, not later. Don't play this whole thing about law school because you don't need it. No, it, in all seriousness, I think it is just figure out what you want and start taking action to go for it. And don't worry about what people think of you because again, what you're putting out there is what you're going to attract and you'll attract the right people

[C]

and they're going to think it anyways. So that is one of the biggest struggles of people of life is just controlling the narrative in your mind. And most of the time the narrative in your mind is controlled by other people and what they think about you or the structures that you grew up in that, you know, you have to stop and reflect and go, why do I even think this? You know? You know, why do I actually, you know, think this way?

[B]

Yeah, get out of the box. The box is out of the box.

[C]

Everybody's in the box. You just got to figure out what box you're in.

[A]

There you go. Awesome. Leah, thank you so much for joining us today. Before we close out, let people know how they can connect with you, follow you on social, YouTube, whatever.

[B]

Yeah, all that good stuff. So it's just Leah, Kramer. Leah Wolf Kramer is the full name. So all my names under there. If you're more about my travel stuff than it's adventures with Leah Kramer. But yeah, it's all out there. All the same handle, all the same stuff on Facebook. I'd love to meet up with people awesomely.

[A]

Thank you again and thank you all so much for listening. You can dive deeper into this episode. Get all the links that Leah mentioned as well as the video of this episode [e-mail] and if you enjoyed this episode and want to show your support, head on over to YouTube. Make sure you subscribe to the channel and give this episode a thumbs up. You can get hold of near [e-mail] and of course, you can follow us on all the socials as well at staypaid Podcast for this episode of Stay Paid. I'm Josh Steich.

[C]

Guys, I'm Luke Acrey. Leah, thank you so much for coming on. You are amazing and congrats on all the success. Seriously, thank you so much. Guys, what you're doing, I hear such amazing things about you in the industry. You know, speaking at an event out there and everybody was raving about you. So my action item to everybody listening to this is that, you know, the, the more and more successful people I meet, the more and more, you know, I realize there's this core tenant and principle and it's they're living by their values. They're living by their authentic self. And that is so hard to do. And I challenge all of you if you, you know, right now are not sharing on social what you want to share authentically, or if you're not actually putting out there to the world what you truly want to put out there, you should stop and think about that because your vibe attracts your tribe, as Leah has told us. And it's probably one of the things that's actually holding you back. And remember, the difference between top producers and mediocre producers in every business is top producers take action. Take action on that today.

[B]

I don't.