Struggling to Recruit, Burned Out, and Losing Listings | Your Questions Answered

Summary

Stay Paid Podcast: Episode Summary

Episode Title: Struggling to Recruit, Burned Out, and Losing Listings | Your Questions Answered
Release Date: June 23, 2025
Hosts: Luke Acrey and Josh Dyke
Featuring: Stephen Acrey and Cody Smith from the Acre Brothers Realty Team

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Introduction

In this insightful episode of the Stay Paid Podcast, hosts Luke Acrey and Josh Dyke, alongside Stephen Acrey and Cody Smith from the Acre Brothers Realty Team, engage with listeners by addressing their pressing questions related to real estate, business growth, marketing strategies, and personal challenges. The episode emphasizes practical advice, motivational insights, and actionable steps to help agents and entrepreneurs elevate their businesses.

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Caller 1: Aaliyah from Colorado – Recruiting Challenges

Timestamp: [00:29 - 04:35]

Background:
Aaliyah, a director of operations for a large real estate team in Colorado, has been in the industry for five years and holds a real estate license for two years. She faces significant challenges in recruiting agents to her team.

Key Points Discussed:

1. Current Recruitment Strategy:

   • Aaliyah: "Begging and bleeding." (01:49)
   • Operating in a small town with approximately 500 real estate agents in the MLS, Aaliyah finds it challenging to stand out and attract new recruits despite having a strong market presence and team culture.

2. Team Performance and Goals:

   • The team handles around $80 million in volume and closes approximately 300 transactions annually.
   • Aaliyah aims to expand her team to 20 agents and achieve 500 units within the next two to five years.

3. Strategies for Effective Recruiting:

   • Stephen Acrey: Emphasizes the importance of maintaining high standards to naturally filter out unsuitable candidates. He states, "We have a deep dive into making sure we got our standards together to make sure that looked good, because it's an easy sales pitch from there." (03:07)
   • Cody Smith: Shares his experience of scaling back the number of recruits to focus on quality over quantity, resulting in a more profitable team.

4. Building Relationships and Leveraging Partnerships:

   • Establishing strong relationships with brokerage partners, such as their affiliation with Keller Williams, proved crucial. Stephen notes, "Building that relationship is super important." (03:35)

5. Cultural Consistency:

   • Maintaining a consistent team culture and clear accountability standards helps in recruiting agents who align with the team’s values and goals.

Notable Quote:

“You have to hold to those standards. One of the things that we focused on this year is getting each agent's net profit up... everybody on the team right now is making over six figures.” – Stephen Acrey (03:07)

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Caller 2: Bobby from Tennessee – Lead Generation Strategies

Timestamp: [07:51 - 21:04]

Background:
Bobby, a real estate agent based in Middle Tennessee, specializes in residential and vacation lake properties. Despite strong relationship-driven marketing, he struggles with generating and converting new leads.

Key Points Discussed:

1. Current Marketing Tools and Challenges:

   • Utilizes ReminderMedia’s “Good to Be Home” magazine, branded social media posts, email campaigns, and landing pages.
   • Bobby: "Consistency and authenticity are just keys for me personally." (08:48)
   • Despite these efforts, converting leads into actual sales remains a hurdle.

2. Performance Metrics:

   • Last year was slow with only five closings, totaling approximately $1.2 million.
   • Bobby's Goal: Double the previous year's performance in the current year.

3. Effective Lead Follow-Up:

   • Hosts emphasize the importance of immediate and strategic follow-up post-open houses.
   • Stephen Acrey: "First off, when at the open house, you have to set up expectations that you're going to follow up and you have to go for the close at the open house." (16:00)
   • Cody Smith: Highlights the necessity of a robust follow-up system, mentioning their own open house playbook with specific scripting.

4. Balancing Passive and Proactive Marketing:

   • Luke Acrey: Advises investing in long-term brand building while simultaneously engaging in proactive lead generation. He states, "To be rich, you do direct response. To be wealthy, you build a brand." (14:17)

5. Increasing Daily Engagement:

   • Encourages maintaining a high volume of daily real estate conversations to boost lead conversion rates.
   • Luke Acrey: "If you're having 25 conversations a day, just keep doing that and you will be successful." (18:27)

Notable Quote:

“Consumers are educated enough to know, no, you want to be my real estate agent. No, you want to sell me this product. You’ve got to be straightforward in your communication and give the education and give the value.” – Luke Acrey (18:04)

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Caller 3: Christina from Kansas – Balancing Business Growth and Personal Challenges

Timestamp: [21:04 - 35:25]

Background:
Christina has been in the financial advisory business for 17 years, navigating significant personal challenges, including supporting her sons who have been diagnosed with mental health and medical issues. She seeks advice on scaling her business efficiently while managing her personal responsibilities.

Key Points Discussed:

1. Personal Struggles and Resilience:

   • Christina shares her journey of overcoming a job loss and managing her sons' health issues, which have impacted her ability to focus entirely on her business.

2. Business Efficiency and Ideal Client Acquisition:

   • Aims to streamline her operations to attract more ideal clients without overextending herself.
   • Christina: "I want to be working more on it than in it sometimes." (27:09)

3. Strategies for Work-Life Balance:

   • Cody Smith: Emphasizes the importance of time blocking and tracking to maintain focus and efficiency.
   • Luke Acrey: Highlights leveraging community support and building a strong personal support system to alleviate business pressures. He advises, "There are only really two ways you get leverage in business. It's through people and through systems." (32:37)

4. Leveraging Community and Support Networks:

   • Encourages Christina to build a local support network, possibly through community groups or churches, to gain both personal and professional support.
   • Luke Acrey: "We can talk about people and systems, but I would also first want to start with the more personal aspect because personal ultimately drives the business." (31:58)

5. Utilizing Systems for Business Growth:

   • Focus on implementing systems that allow Christina to delegate tasks and manage her time more effectively, thereby reducing burnout.

Notable Quote:

“If you are coming into your day and you're time blocking and your day is just totally packed, the only thing you can do is either hire somebody else to actually give you some of your time back.” – Luke Acrey (28:57)

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Hosts' Final Advice and Encouragement

As the episode concludes, the hosts reiterate the importance of taking actionable steps based on the insights shared. They emphasize perseverance, strategic planning, and the continuous pursuit of growth despite challenges.

Closing Quote:

“The difference between top producers and mediocre producers in every business is top producers take action. Take action on that today.” – Luke Acrey (35:25)

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Key Takeaways

1. Recruitment: Focus on maintaining high standards and leveraging strong team culture to attract quality agents.
2. Lead Generation: Balance passive brand-building efforts with proactive lead generation strategies, and ensure immediate and strategic follow-up with leads.
3. Work-Life Balance: Implement effective time management systems and build a supportive community to manage personal and professional responsibilities.
4. Action Over Knowledge: Success hinges on the ability to take decisive action based on learned strategies and insights.

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Engage with Stay Paid Podcast

• Follow on Instagram: @StaypaidPodcast
• Website: remindermedia.com
• YouTube: YouTube.com/remindermedia
• Email Submissions: Visit remindermedia.com/ask

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Thank you for tuning into the Stay Paid Podcast. Remember, taking actionable steps today can transform your business and life tomorrow.

Transcript

[Aaliyah]

Foreign.

[Josh Dyke]

Today, we are answering your burning questions in real estate, business, marketing, and more. On these episodes, we take live calls from our listeners of Stay Paid. And if you want to have your question answered live on the show, make sure to follow us on Instagram. We are at Staypay podcast. Send us a message saying you'd like to come on the show or you can visit us remindermedia.com Ask and submit your questions there. My name is Josh Dyke, joined always by Luke Acrey, president of Reminder Media.

[Luke Acrey]

What's up, everybody?

[Josh Dyke]

As well as Stephen Acrey and Cody Smith from the Acre Brothers realty team. We have our first caller here, Aaliyah. Hello, Aaliyah from Colorado. Hi, Aaliyah.

[Aaliyah]

Hi. Nice to see you guys.

[Luke Acrey]

Great to see you, too. Welcome to Stay Paid. Aaliyah, really happy to have you on. Would love to hear you're in real estate. We'd love to hear how long you've been in the business. And then what is your biggest struggle right now or question we can help answer for you.

[Aaliyah]

Okay, so I've been in real estate for five years. I'm a director of operations for a large team in Colorado. I've been licensed for two years. But even though I love people, I prefer my computer. So in our biggest struggle right now, and it could be just our geographic place that we're at, but it's recruiting. Like, how do you incentivize agents to join a team?

[Stephen Acrey]

Okay, well, Leah, can you give us, like, a little snapshot, like, of your revenue year to date, your team's revenue, and then your net profits?

[Aaliyah]

We do about 80 million in volume. We close 300 years. Two years ago, we're doing 300. Now we're in the 200s. But again, it's agents fluctuating. And we're a million dollar team. We have seven licensed agents and four admin staff.

[Luke Acrey]

Okay.

[Stephen Acrey]

I love it. And what are you doing right now for recruiting? Like, what's your engine?

[Aaliyah]

Begging and bleeding.

[Luke Acrey]

I love the honesty.

[Aaliyah]

Small town, so that's hard. There's probably only 500 agents in our entire MLS. So in a town like that, they either know you and love you or know you and don't want to work with you. But we, I mean, we. We have great culture. We dominate the market. So, yeah, we've been getting a lot of recruits because we own so much of the market share. But as soon as we tell them our accountability and our standards, we.

[Stephen Acrey]

Right, yeah.

[Cody Smith]

Yep.

[Stephen Acrey]

And that's not a bad thing. I think it is good to weed people out with your Standards. You have to hold to those standards. One of the things that we focused on this year is getting each agent's net profit up and so that we can show to individuals coming in. We get a lot of younger people, and I'm sure you do on your team as well, that want to make over six figures. And pretty much everybody on the team right now is making over six figures. So we did a deep dive into making sure we got our standards together to make sure that looked good, because it's an easy sales pitch from there. The second thing would be just culturally. Right. So we. We're really pouring into our top producers, and they're actually the ones that are recruiting the most for us at the moment. Like, Tim just brought in an agent to the team. We also. Who are you partnered with brokerage wise?

[Aaliyah]

Keller Williams.

[Stephen Acrey]

Keller Williams. Same here. Yeah. So we. We have a great relationship with our team lead, and we really honed in on that because he's coming back to us going, what can we do for you guys? Because your brand means something for people to come into Keller Williams. And one of our number one things for him was we need you to also send us agents that wouldn't be a good fit independent wise, but. But would be a great fit on a team. And so just building that relationship is super important. I'd say those are the two. Two most important things.

[Cody Smith]

Yeah. And what's. What's Yalls goal? Like, how many recruits do you guys want to get?

[Aaliyah]

I'd like to see. I'm trying to get my rainmaker out of production, trying to get her out of the business. I'd like to see 20 agents. We'd like to expand, but yeah, 20 agents and 500 units would be my goal in the next two to five years.

[Cody Smith]

13 more agents. Yep. Because at one point we were going, like, just to add as many as possible. We got up to 22 agents on the team. But our issue, and a problem there, which doesn't sound like an issue for you, is having the right standards in place that those that aren't actually in it are going to be out really quick from our team. And those that are in it and that hit the standards, they're going to do well because they're following the system and we can go from there. So we went from 22 agents to. And now we have six agents. But we are just as profitable, if not more than we were with 22 agents.

[Aaliyah]

We're the same. We close a ton with a small team. But we've heard it both ways. I mean, we have coaches from all over the country. Some tell us to keep our standards and some tell us we're sealed.

[Stephen Acrey]

You have a bunch of views on that. I think the big thing is you just can't kill your culture. And part of that comes down to you have to have the standards. And like when people come into our team, we tell them you have 90 days, right, to get on track to our 24 transaction goal. Super important to because it's announced to the team as well. And so when we're in our team meetings, when we do fire them, it does not look as bad. Right. If you don't have your standards in place and you're not sharing it like, hey, you're coming to me for help instead of positioning yourself like, you know we're coming to you. We need you as a recruit, they need you as the recruit. Right. To come onto your team to be profitable. And so we've really shifted that dynamic. And you know, right now we have about two other individuals joining the team that will be top producers. Just because we're, we're holding to that.

[Cody Smith]

Yeah. And also like the long play, like my goal this year is for our team just to add 2 or 324 unit producers. So instead of like looking to add a ton, I'm just looking for two or three, which right now we're on track for at least two really solid recruits needing just one more to really hit my year goal of adding three more because then that would add, what's that, around 90 units to our base. And our goal this year we're on track for 300 units. So if we do that over two years, you know, we would hit the 500 unit you're going after. So I would just have like an attack in that way of like goals that you want. And then the biggest thing that we do that helps is we do like a level up system. So I don't know if you're familiar with that. I know Glover does it as well that you might be familiar with. But we have a certain, we have stages and levels of which the more transactions you do, the more we're going to pour back into you with marketing, with leverage, like showing assistance, TC and things like that. Oh yeah, that's.

[Aaliyah]

We give them everything right at the get go and then.

[Cody Smith]

Yeah, we did too because like the more that you do, you know, they love that too. It gives them a reward for doing more than just the standard. So you have, if you get to your top level, I mean, you're getting everything that's a lot of stuff. So Luke, go ahead.

[Luke Acrey]

No, I was going to say such good advice but want to share with you. Also think about your, you know, marketing for your business, transaction wise is the same as it should be for marketing for your recruits. So I would look at your funnel and go, how many ads are you running? Or what's your referral sources? Like Steven said, the team lead, stuff like that. How many leads are you getting a month? What are you doing to those leads? The lead is the candidate. Right. And so you've got to have a funnel for your recruits just like you have a funnel for your marketing. But phenomenal because you know, this is a problem that we all have, which is what do I commit to? And the temptation is when you're not getting success to flip flop and go, well, maybe I need all the recruits or maybe I just need the Navy SEAL team. And the truth is the best system is the one you use. It's the same with your values and growing in vision. It's like set the vision, set the values and just stick to it. But really appreciate you coming on the show. This was phenomenal. And please connect with us on Instagram because I think Cody and Steven could jump on a zoom call, separate with you and walk you through their whole system.

[Aaliyah]

I love that. I appreciate it.

[Cody Smith]

Cody, underscore Smith, if you want to follow me and then we connect.

[Aaliyah]

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Have a good time.

[Luke Acrey]

Awesome. Thanks Ali. I appreciate you joining.

[Josh Dyke]

Next up we have Bobby. Bobby is calling from Tennessee. Bobby, welcome to Stay Paid.

[Luke Acrey]

Bobby, welcome to Stay Paid. It is great to have you. Can you share kind of how long you've been in the business and then what is your biggest struggle right now with growing your business or pain point? That question we can answer for you.

[Bobby]

Yeah. So I have been in the business for five years now and I work, I'm based out here in middle Tennessee. I specialize in residential and vacation lake properties mostly especially in sought after areas around Thames Ford Lake, if you're familiar with that area. It's gorgeous.

[Luke Acrey]

It's a, it sounds like I need to be familiar with that area.

[Bobby]

Very nice. Yes. Lots of bass fishing. It's incredible. It's, it's a growing market for second homes, a lot of short term rentals and just lakefront living. It's gorgeous. And yeah, I guess I've been using reminder reminder media for years now.

[Luke Acrey]

Thank you.

[Bobby]

And my Good to Be Home magazine goes out to my top clients, you know, and I rely on the whole package, branded social media, Post email campaigns, landing pages just to stay on top of mine with my audience. And so because my relationship, my business is very relationship driven. So consistency and authenticity are just keys for me personally. And I value, you know, what reminder media kind of brings to the table for me to help me maintain a professional presence across all the platforms.

[Luke Acrey]

Well, Bobby, thank you so much because no matter what you say from here on out, that's the reason we needed you on the show, just to encourage us today. That's right. All joking aside, what's the biggest pain point? Like, what's the thing that you're finding for this year is holding you back or that you're trying to overcome?

[Bobby]

Well, I guess, you know, it's nice to have repeat customers, but, you know, I would like to be able to lead, generate, I guess, better. And it would be, I guess my question would be is how can I turn all of the great tools that reminder media in general has, like the magazine, social media content, emails, landing pages, all that, into more like a cohesive lead generation strategy that actually drives conversions?

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Acrey]

What is, just out of curiosity, Bobby, like, what's your 2024 numbers look like? And then what does this year numbers look like for you?

[Bobby]

It 2024 was, was really slow for me, but it's, it's picking up. I have, you know, a few listings going right now, so it is picking up, but it 2024 was not a good year for me.

[Cody Smith]

Okay, so what's the goal this year?

[Bobby]

I would like to have. I'd like to double what I had last year.

[Luke Acrey]

So what was the volume last year?

[Bobby]

Last year I had only five closings.

[Luke Acrey]

Five closings?

[Bobby]

Yeah.

[Luke Acrey]

Do you like, volume wise, is that a million five or is that like, what's the price range? Stuff like that. What's the.

[Bobby]

Yeah, I probably was at about 1.2 last year.

[Luke Acrey]

1.2 million. Okay. Volume. Okay, awesome. And have you closed any deals this year so far?

[Bobby]

Nope, just have some listings and haven't had any closings yet.

[Luke Acrey]

So how are you feeling right now?

[Bobby]

I am hopeful. I'm seeing more closings. I'm getting a lot of calls on the listings I have. But you know, it's in, I see activity and it is picking up. So that's why, you know, I would like to be able to capture, you know, use all of the, the things that are offered with reminder media to kind of capture more, you know, just lead generation, the people out there.

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah, this is such a good question. Go ahead.

[Stephen Acrey]

What.

[Cody Smith]

So what's your current lead generation Strategy. I know you said you base primarily on sphere and repeat, which is great. What is your. Yeah. What's the action base plan that you have currently that you do?

[Bobby]

Well, I, I've actually used, actually send like I've, I've gotten also downloaded from, you know, just the addresses that are most likely to buy. Yes, I've used some of the postcards and some of the, the hot ones. I feel like I send some magazines out and some of the email and things like that to them.

[Stephen Acrey]

So yeah, yeah, I mean I would.

[Luke Acrey]

Say you're primarily, you, you're primarily focused. You have magazines going, you have our content going, you have emails going. So primarily focused on sphere in your kind of actions from a marketing standpoint. But in a market like this, and I think Stephen, you guys can attest to this too. It's like we're in an interesting market because if you look at it, majority of the nation is sitting on less than a 4% interest rate. Interest rates, depending on what time you're listening to this is going to be around 6% or so. Actually a little higher right now. So there is a lack of people moving which is translating to. Your sphere doesn't produce as much right now from just passive marketing because they don't have this urgency to move because of where the numbers are at. What I tell people all the time is you have passive brand building marketing and then you have proactive legion like capturing. And so your passive brand building is where you really want to focus for the long term is what you need to be investing in. Because look, to be rich, you do direct response. To be wealthy, you build a brand. All the Fortune 500 companies out there, they have a brand that they've built. They're not necessarily cold calling all day long. You're coming to them now, right, because they've built this brand. So you're doing all the right things to do that with your sphere. But what can you do today to go get a lead? And that would be the proactive outreach. So that would be the things like what does your calendar look like every single day in your proactive conversations around real estate? So if you had to tell us how many combos are you having a day about real estate, how many would that be, would you say? Just your best guess?

[Bobby]

Oh gosh, I'd probably say, you know, 25 at least per day. I mean I, I do open houses and I'm out there like actually I just try to meet people and, and just get out there every day in my day to day Life.

[Stephen Acrey]

If you're doing 25 a day, I mean, that's really, really good. So you have a problem with follow up is what you have a problem with. And following up with a value proposition. And so what does that look like for you? So you're saying you're holding open houses. You know, how many open houses do you hold? And then how many leads are you getting from each open house? Would you say.

[Luke Acrey]

So?

[Bobby]

And it's. It's funny because I do partner with another agent that does new construction, and I do a lot of open houses for them. I do capture a lot of leads from that. And it's just I have trouble getting the people to, you know, they. They're interested at the time and they're willing to give me their information. Just can't get them to, you know, respond back or. Yeah, it's just next market. I've never been in such a predicament.

[Josh Dyke]

Yeah.

[Stephen Acrey]

Yeah. That's so funny because you're. You're it. We talked to a new agent the other day, and I'm like, you're doing everything right, Carson. You're doing everything right. It's always the small nuances in business that matter so much. So what he was alluding to, you know, with the last question is like, what's your next follow up look like? You definitely have to go back. We just did a webinar on this, Luke. I don't know if you can send it to her, but on open houses, what the follow up needs to look like. So first off, when at the open house, you have to set up expectations that you're going to follow up and you have to go for the close at the open house. Because when you go for the close, and you know this, I mean, you're a veteran in the business, right? When you go for the close, people are going to give you their true objection. So right now you're getting all the information. People are being, you know, happy Dory. They're like, yeah, this is a beautiful house. This is great. And I'm like, okay, well, if it's beautiful house, are you ready to go? You know what I mean? You're ready to make an offer? Oh, no, no, I'm not ready to make an offer. It's like, well, you know, tell me what you guys didn't like about the house, because what's important to me is you guys, his goals. This is not about me. Right? What do you guys want? And then when they dial into, you know, well, we have a house to sell, you know, we're buying this as a vacation rental. But you know, are you looking for income producing? Are you looking to, you know, come here once, twice a year, what are you looking for? And then once you get the data it's we need to meet, we need to meet. What does your schedule look like after this open house? Right. So I think back to Luke's point about like taking action based steps. You're just going to have to be an animal about going for the close and going for it sooner and you'll filter out all the bad ones like we talked about. It's like not every open house lead is going to be good. But I'd rather know it there at the open house than if waiting and trying to follow up and not knowing if they're real and having to give them 25 calls, you know, a day. Right. To find out they're not real. I'm going to pick out the one or two that are real and go and get them signed, get them to the office. So one point for you, try to get an appointment right after the open house and if you can't get it, it don't matter. You set up expectations. Well, I'm going to follow up with you. Then you follow up right after the open house because it's the same thing. Speed lead is so important and you need to just have that speed to follow up in your business that you.

[Bobby]

Say that because I used to sell cars for a living years and years ago, Volkswagens and such. But you know, it was easy for me to do that then and I guess I never really think about translating that to, to real estate.

[Stephen Acrey]

We were in an easy market. 20, 20, 20 21% interest rates, low.

[Luke Acrey]

Inventory, anybody could be good in those markets.

[Stephen Acrey]

You just got to get back to the basics, you know, and that's our, that's our message for people right now is get back to the basis basics and it's action based. You know, you get got to get back to action.

[Luke Acrey]

Whatever you're doing, you need to do 10x of it because you're barely scratching the surface. And whether in your dials and amount of follow up and the amount of emails you send and like to your point Steve, the aggressiveness of how you go for the close, there's too much fluff out there and there's too much lack of activity and like where are you guys at? Cody? Closed and pending to date right now with Acre brothers.

[Stephen Acrey]

109 I believe, right? Yep.

[Cody Smith]

109, yep.

[Luke Acrey]

So 109. And so that's in this market and it's a tough market. Like you guys would say, I know one of your top producers on the team I talk to every week. And he was saying that this is harder than last year and last year was really hard. I mean, the guy closed 13 in April and he's saying it's hard, but it is the religiousness of the follow up. And every single day, like I would challenge that. If you're having 25 conversations a day, just keep doing that and you will be successful. But if you're not having 25 productive conversations, maybe you can hone into that. But anybody who tells me they're actually having 25 conversations a day, well, you're just not doing it long enough. Just keep going the way you're going and you will win. Because I'm talking to agents all day long and there is no way the majority agents are having 25 combos a day. And so just try to be way more direct and transparent about what you're looking for from both your sphere and the leads that you're working with. Because I see this across the board in industries. From a marketing and sales standpoint, consumers no longer want fluff. Consumers no longer want to feel like you're trying to educate them or give them value with nothing in return. Because consumers are educated enough to know, no, you want to be my real estate agent. No, you want to sell me this product. No, you've got to be straightforward in your communication and give the education and give the value. But they used to be all you had to do is give value and people would funnel in. Consumers have been educated. Now they know what you're doing when you're funneling them that way. So you're better off stating exactly what you're going after and still give. And that's what brings it to success. So I. E. Steven's example of the open house, it let's make an offer on this house if you love it. Oh, no, no, no. I don't really love it. Okay, perfect. Then we need to definitely meet and it's like being very direct to what you want. Bobby, this has been fantastic. You should definitely hook up with us on social because one, we appreciate you being a user of Reminder media. We want to make sure you are successful and then also like if we can help you in other ways and get a little bit more detailed or nuanced on this, we can set up calls afterwards and stuff like that. But really appreciate you coming on Stay paid and sharing your thoughts.

[Bobby]

Thank you so much. That was really eye opening. What you said about going in for the close because, you know, I've done it in the past. I just never translate to.

[Cody Smith]

Yeah. And we have a, an open house playbook too that has scripting that we use like with specific verbiage and everything to get that follow up. So definitely get a hold of that too.

[Luke Acrey]

Yep. So we'll give you that if you can connect with us. We want to hook you up with a bunch of stuff for coming on and really appreciate you. And let's go Crush it in 2025. Let's make it happen.

[Bobby]

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, guys.

[Luke Acrey]

See you, Bobby.

[Josh Dyke]

Next we have Christina from Kansas. Christina, thanks for joining us. Welcome to Stay Paid.

[Aaliyah]

Thank you. Thank you guys. I appreciate it.

[Luke Acrey]

Christina, man, we're happy to have you on the show. I would love to learn how long have you been doing your business and then if you could share with us, like what's the biggest pain point right now for you in growing your business that you're frustrated with or struggling with? Just want some help or some thoughts on?

[Aaliyah]

Sure, sure. I've been doing this business just about 17 years. I came into it through a job loss and did not plan on it, but it was, I was led to this direction and, and it's been a blessing. It really has.

[Luke Acrey]

It's awesome.

[Aaliyah]

And the biggest pain point that I've had more recently or the last few years, we all know we had covet, of course. But before that I had. My oldest son was diagnosed with schizophrenia. So I was studying for my Series 7 and 66, which I did luckily pass. And then since then my youngest son is also went on disability, started on Medicare in February, which blessing is I've been able to help them both with Medicare, which is one of the things that I do. But I've been really trying to get super, super, super efficient trying to figure out. I don't feel like I can do everything every anymore and been very blessed a lot of clients. But how to hone that in to get more specific and become more efficient in my business and get an more of an ideal client. And so I've been kind of torn on which direction to go in those capacities. And I've reached out to several directions and I'm just kind of searching on the right one.

[Luke Acrey]

Right.

[Cody Smith]

So your insurance, right?

[Aaliyah]

Yeah, insurance. Life insurance, which I wholeheartedly believe in. My oldest son's father was the one that has schizophrenia. His dad was tragically killed when he was three. My. Yeah. My two youngest sons. Sounds like a crazy story, but it is. My two Youngest son's father. I'm separated from him, but he was, he was an alcoholic, so we're separated. And so, yeah, the, so there's been a lot of dynamics that have been. But I've been just staying resilient and staying strong through and just a strong mama bear trying to, even though they're in their 20s, it's like they're, you know, they can't do anything but, but still, it does definitely try to change your path. And I've been telling everybody if it can happen to a financial advisor, it can happen to anybody. And, you know, ways to stay strong and just maybe take a different. I'm looking at a different way to go with my business, I guess, more of an impact. I'm actually going to be on another podcast later today. My first, this is my first actually, but it'll be my second one, I guess, later today.

[Luke Acrey]

I love it.

[Aaliyah]

And so I'm just, I want to write a book and get out there on mental illness and start helping more and more people. And if I can inspire somebody, that's where I guess I'm at.

[Luke Acrey]

I love it. Well, you're already inspiring me. Props to you. Single mom, two kids on disability, if I heard correctly, and entrepreneur, doing your own business. So I mean, it already sounds like, I mean, you have resilience just beyond belief, which is awesome. If I'm understanding your question right, you're basically asking how do I grow and scale the business without basically burning the candle at both ends to basically time management life, you know, and work balance and how do you do it in an effective way because you have all this going on. Am I understanding the question right?

[Aaliyah]

Correct? Yes.

[Cody Smith]

Yeah. What was your like last year production and your goal this year?

[Aaliyah]

Last year? Well, it was honestly the, probably the worst year I've ever had in 17 years. But I've made around 60 or 70,000 last year. But in previous years it's been over a hundred. And so I like my goal. I work with a diversity coach. I met one last year on LinkedIn. He had a, has a wife with 25 years of chronic depression and he's a million, he was a million dollar roundtable agent. So we had, I felt kind of guilty. I was like, why, you know, why is he trying to help me? And then we got back together here recently I've been working with a lot of people on Alignable, which is like a business networking site. And I voted for him, recommended him, and we got back together in March. So he's, we're back working Together and that. And so we're. We're trying to get it more streamlined on, you know, a lot of things there.

[Luke Acrey]

What would work life balance mean to you? Like, what would. What would having more time mean to you right now? And what is the stress? Can you describe the stress that you're trying to move away from?

[Aaliyah]

Good question. I would like. My youngest is. He's been diagnosed with ptsd. He's had significant bleeding issues the last seven or eight years. No one can find out what's really going on with them. The doctors finally, they don't really say it, but they say it. And we're wanting to get to Mayo. A lot of the businesses I've reached out to on a lightable. A guy I met that used to work for John Hopkins, he mentioned John Hopkins, which is in Maryland. And. And then I've been listening to tons of people on natural things like, you know, melaleuca and stem cell, you know, type things and you know, everybody. I'm just trying to reach and grab and, you know, go, what am I?

[Luke Acrey]

So you really need the time to be able to care for your. Your son, both sons. Right. In your family. So it's. The stress is you gotta support them financially in yourself, but at the same time you need the time in your business to be able to take care of them. And that requires time to go to the clinics and to research the stuff. So.

[Aaliyah]

Right.

[Luke Acrey]

I feel for you. Tough situation. Yeah. Yeah.

[Cody Smith]

What did your main like source of leads and production come from last year?

[Aaliyah]

I would say a lot of my current clients and I need to working with my adversity coach. I'm working right now just to go back and just really hone in on my, you know, a clients. And I just talked to a guy this morning about a video. What's really interesting about a video card you can do now. So I'm thinking about that. Of course. You know, I work with Reminder Media, which does my financial magazine. So I'm currently working on getting sent my email list done so I can get some emails out more, more to my current clients and then people that I've talked to before that wanted to be put on a list. So I'm thinking if I can get some things running more without me having to be involved as much. I still want to be involved, of course, but I. I want to be working more on it than in it sometimes. And so that's kind of where I'm at. I need to get things to where I can move to more higher scale instead of just feeling like, it's. If I don't get up the next day to do. Which I always do, I cannot shut off. I sleep probably three or four hours a day.

[Luke Acrey]

Because you're a great entrepreneur. That's why.

[Aaliyah]

Yeah. So. Yeah.

[Cody Smith]

And then how do you keep track of your schedule? Do you time block or, you know, how do you get focused in on what you need to do?

[Aaliyah]

I've gotten a lot better about that. I was really good in the past. And then things kept kind of knocking me and knocking me, popping me around a few times. Got a few bruises anyway. But. Yeah, but I have just been oc. OCD about, you know, on my phone. I have my schedule. I schedule everything in, no matter what it is.

[Cody Smith]

Yep.

[Aaliyah]

And. And then work with my adversity coach. I'm going back to an actual tracker, you know, which is more for myself than, you know, thinking. It's not somebody micromanage me, but it's me getting back to. Okay. If I'm not tracking it and focusing on it, then it's going to be more super easy to get distracted just because of my world. So I've.

[Cody Smith]

Right.

[Aaliyah]

I'm just a very driven person and I. I feel like it's gotten off path and I need to get back on path. And those are the. Some. Some of the things I've been doing to try to get back there.

[Cody Smith]

Yeah. What great advice. Yep. Tracking is a huge portion. And so when I'd sit down with agents and I coach them and they don't have any trackability, like time blocking sounds like you're already doing. But if you're not keeping it strictly of what you should be doing, it's hard to coach on. Cause I can't tell you what, you know, what you should improve on. So, yeah, that was great advice to start tracking time blocking. So you know what you need to move around to make it work. Because if you don't know those numbers, then it's hard to, hey, this is exactly what you should do. So, yeah, time blocking and tracking would be like number one of my. My list loop.

[Luke Acrey]

I'll share with you, Christina, that, you know, I can only answer the questions the way I would, you know, think about my own life and reminder media and my family and stuff like that. And hearing your situation, you know, where my gut goes to. From a business aspect, there's only really two ways you get leverage in business. It's through people and through systems. And so we can talk about people and systems, but I would also first want to start with the more personal Aspect because personal ultimately drives the business. And I think you need people in your life, you need community. I don't know if you're involved in a local church or if you are a person of faith or not a person of faith. But you know, usually when I am coaching people and I'm trying to help them in their life and in their business, I always want to point people first to their purpose and first to their why. Because sometimes in a situation like yours, we can get confused and think, you know, I gotta grow my business to these revenue numbers. But revenue means nothing. It's. It's really happiness and quality of life which comes from your relationships and stuff like that. So what I don't want to do is you have this great or, you know, you have this great business, but you have this situation going on with your family and the situation that you have to provide for them. I would encourage you first and foremost to go, okay, do you have a community that's local to you? Family, a church that can rally around you and invest there so they can help and you can share your needs with them. And that's a hard thing to do. That's why I wanted to share it with you. Because it's hard to be vulnerable with people and it's hard to share with people, hey, can you step alongside me and support me? And then the reason why I wanted to share that is because it also translates to the business acumen side, which is people and leverage or people and systems to get leverage in your business. So if you are coming into your day and you're time blocking and your, your day is just totally packed, the only thing you can do is either hire somebody else to actually give you some of your time back. And that can be an actual hire into your business, like literally a W2 type or 1099 employee or an actual like contract person. Maybe you find them on an upwork or you find, you know, a reminder media to part with or systems in your business. But to me it sounds like, you know, from the income that you're making, you can't really afford to hire somebody. And so it really feels to me like you've got to go to your community and you've got to build a community around you that can help chip in to help you, whether it's take your son to the clinic with you or stuff like that. So then you can be all in on your business to get the income up so you can end up hiring this employee to help you get there. So I would first look at personally Just for you, I would be coaching you on, hey, how do I get you involved in a community in your local area? Maybe you have one, maybe you don't, I don't know. But I would get you involved there first. And then that I think could translate into your work.

[Aaliyah]

Thank you. I appreciate that. Yes, I went to, we started trying to check out a few churches and we have one locally here that we went to a couple times. And. And we're in a small town, you know, a kind of community. And I've got a lot of great clients. You don't want to tell every client your story, but the Light of All has been a really great network too. It's just a lot of business people. And so many people have told me so many times they're like, oh my gosh, Christina, you're so resilient. You've uplifted me, you've made me feel good. I'm like, I didn't know I was doing that.

[Luke Acrey]

And you'll be surprised, Christina, as you share your story and you share your needs, how much people want to rally around and help you, you know, because it's better to give than receive. And when you're not vulnerable and you don't share your needs, this is for me. I'm not preaching at you, I'm preaching to myself. When you don't share what your needs are, you don't give people the opportunity to give. But it's better to give than receive. And so I would just encourage you of like, hey, sounds like you're doing a lot of the right things business wise. And I think you're on the right path of going to some churches and getting involved with the community, whether it's the alignable business community or the church community that can help rally around you and share your needs. And just know from a business acumen side, double down on what Cody told you. The time blocking the systems of trackability because that's going to give you more freedom because it's going to show you where your time is being wasted or where your money's being wasted. But ultimately, hey, we can't go through this life alone. You need other people in your life right now and you've done a fantastic job. I'm super proud of you up to this point. It's pretty incredible just hearing your story. We want to help you. If you can friend us on social, just friend me at Luke Acre. Let's connect. I'd love to give you a free year of our digital marketing to help you out to see if we can grow and help you grow your business that way. But love your story. Proud of you. Keep taking care of your family like that and I appreciate you sharing that. Coming on Stay Paid.

[Aaliyah]

Oh, thanks so much. And thank you for doing that. I didn't expect that, but I appreciate it so much.

[Luke Acrey]

You're welcome.

[Josh Dyke]

Good luck on your next podcast.

[Aaliyah]

Okay.

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah, we're gonna be in touch.

[Aaliyah]

Thank you.

[Josh Dyke]

Speaking of support, we need your support.

[Luke Acrey]

Yeah, great. Great segue there, Josh.

[Josh Dyke]

Head on over to YouTube.com remindermedia. Give this episode a like, leave a comment, let us know what your question is. So comment on the video with your question. Follow us on social media at Stay Paid podcast. Shoot us your question or you can go to remindermedia.com ask to get your question submitted there as well. And we will bring you live here on the show. Hopefully, if you enjoy this episode, best thing we do is ask you to help. Just share this episode with somebody that you know. You can get all of the show notes or include those links and resources in the description of this episode wherever you're listening to it. You can also get those all in one place over@staypaid podcast.com for this episode of Stay Paid. I'm Joshua Styke.

[Luke Acrey]

Guys, I'm Luke Acrey. Get your questions in. We want to help you with them. And remember all the advice we gave today. I would tell you it's pointless if you don't take action on something that you learn. So remember, the difference between top producers and mediocre producers in every business is top producers take action. Take action on that today.