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A
The unique thing about your team is people don't ever leave it. How do you build a real estate team that agents don't leave through intentional hiring?
B
We would ask them one question, and the question is, do you return your grocery cart?
C
Would I trust this person if we're at our team summit and Jenny needs to be walked to the hotel? Between those two questions, you could sell a million dollars a year in GCI in real estate, and you're not getting hired.
A
I want a way to attract real estate agents to my team, gang. I hear that all the time. You know what I don't hear nearly as much of? I want to build a team that real estate agents never want to leave. And that is an incredible way to look at the world. And today we are going to unpack that concept in detail. We're going to hear from two business partners. Now. They run a big business. They do over $150 million year in and year out. They have an expansion team. Their hub is in Tucson, Arizona. They represent people all through Southern Arizona, Kansas City, Las Vegas and Phoenix. And they have one of the lowest agent attrition rates that this host of the people's podcast has ever seen. You see, simply put, when a real estate agent joins their team, they don't leave gang. It is incredible. They credit that to a very specific model that they run and they don't leave anything to chance. I'm talking about Chase Delperdang and Jenny Adams. They are going to unpack in great detail and tell us exactly how to build a real estate team that agents will never leave. Sit back and buckle up. And I am joined with two dear friends. But I'm not going to tell you who the second one is yet. I'm going to start with Chase Delperdang. Chase, how are you, sir?
C
I'm doing great. How you doing, Jason?
A
Fantastic. One of the most interesting last names to ever be on the MREA podcast, my friend. I start the show the same every time. I ask everybody. How did you end up in the greatest industry in the world?
C
Long story short is I'm third generation in the industry. My grandpa owned a brokerage in San Diego. My dad ran title companies.
A
Okay, hang on. Stop the tape. I didn't know that, dude. You and I have been friends a long time. You're third generation?
C
Yeah, my grandpa was a. Had like four jobs. Started a brokerage. Natural entrepreneur. He was Ray Kroc from McDonald's. He was his realtor.
A
So when you were a little guy, are you running to closings? Are you like holding escrow at seven years old.
C
So my first job ever was filing microfilm, like microfiche in the basement of a title company when I was 14 years old.
A
That's the best. That explains it all.
C
I knew I wanted to have nothing to do with title or real estate after that.
A
So what'd you go to school to learn how to do?
C
I have a bachelor's degree in religion. I was a pastor for 15 years. And one of the things you know about nonprofits is they are not profitable.
A
Well, hang on a second. I want to ask you number one, and color me ignorant. I didn't know there's a degree in religion. Is that an actual thing?
C
Yeah, I got a four year degree in religion, bachelor's degree from Liberty University, and it only took me 10 years.
A
That's the new four years, by the way. So then you come out 15 years, and if I get it wrong, tell me. But in ministry of some sort, then what is that? Like, what do you learn from that that you bring forward to today?
C
Yeah, so I was a pastor and my kids were blessed with my bad teeth genetics. And I literally got my real estate license because I knew I could not afford braces for my kids. And I knew if I sold a home a year, I could put braces on and within two years became the CEO for Keller Williams Southern Arizona.
A
All right, I'm not letting you off the hook. I want to go back to when you're a pastor to me. Look, I've made no bones about it. I believe that helping people is the highest calling. And I believe that real estate professionals serve a higher calling because we live in service of our clients. When you're a pastor, you're living in service of your flock. What's that like? And what did you learn doing that that you've brought forward to this career? Because 15 years is a long time, man.
C
Yeah. I think one of the biggest things I learned was everybody has a need of connection and they want to feel loved, they want to feel heard. Real estate's not the most difficult thing in the world. And the biggest thing that translated over was just love people. Like, if you love on people and find out more about them and actually care about them beyond profit and a P and L, they'll stay in your world for a very long time, dude.
A
I love that. Now for our friends that are not watching on the new YouTube channel, if you're listening, then you don't know this, dude. I have a vision in my head of what a 15 year pastor looks like. And it's not tatted from head to toe on both arms with sleeves. And the edgy look. Did you have that look while you were the pastor or is that comes with real estate?
C
Yeah, I didn't say I was a great pastor. Yeah, yeah. I actually, I worked in established churches and went and started a church through our denomination group. And I knew there was a niche of people that kind of looked like me in the same stage of life, and that's who we attracted. Like we had the people that typically didn't fit in any other church.
A
I love that. You know, I don't remember who said it on this show, but they said it was Rory Vaden. And he said the people you're going to help are often at the cross section of who you were and who you're becoming. And I think about the way you just said it. You're more elegant than he is, but same idea. Absolutely.
C
Absolutely.
A
Well, this business is an interesting one because this one doesn't run alone. You run a very unique partnership. And from the very beginning, you told me you couldn't do it without your business partner. What is her name?
C
Not only couldn't do it, wouldn't want to. So my business partner, greatest business partner on the face of this planet. Her name is Jenny Adams.
A
Now, gang, if you know Jenny, then you know her favorite thing in the world to do is public speaking. I'm kidding. She leaves that to chase. So dragging her onto this show was not easy. Jenny, thank you for joining us.
B
Thank you for having me.
A
So everyone has a different path into the greatest industry in the world in a few minutes. How did you end up here?
B
Yeah, So a family friend called me one day and said, I want to hire a TC and I want it to be you. And I said, okay. And immediately he said, all right, can you schedule me a home inspection?
A
Okay. Wait a second. Did you know what a TC was?
B
No.
A
No. That's so good. So did this human. Must have just known that you're incredible with operations and systems.
B
So I was his nanny for a couple years and he had known me since I was a little kid, so there was a lot of history there. And at the time, I was a stay at home mom with two little kids. And yeah, just jumped right in.
A
It's so good.
B
So I started out as a TC and the team that I was on ended up going in two different directions. And so I followed one person to team integrity as the tc and than the rest is history.
A
Am I correct in assuming that you both set a vision Together. I'm sure Chase wakes up with an idea a minute, and then you're responsible for actually making these things happen. Is that fair, Jenny?
B
Making them happen and reeling them in a little bit.
A
Okay. So in my world, the person that does that for me is named Joy. And if you follow me on Instagram @therealjason Abrams, I don't even make an Instagram reel without her because she does and has a magic to make everything I do a little bit better. And I would tell you it falls into two buckets, helping me do less and reining it in a little bit and then making sure that the things actually work. Similar relationship with you and Chase?
B
I would say so.
A
Excellent. The unique thing about your team is people don't ever leave it, because I've studied teams all over, and they all build in relatively large numbers for attrition. And they say we're always in attraction because every day we wake up and we have people leaving. And so we have to keep renewing the cycle. You and your people seem to have the longest running tenure, at least up into the top five of any team I've looked at. And I want to dig into this. I want the two of you to tell me exactly how do you build a real estate team that agents don't leave?
C
Yeah. First, Jason, it starts off with following the process. We're very intentional about hiring, and I've taken CV probably seven or eight times, and now I'm a CV instructor crew visioning. Jenny and I have taken it together several times. One of the ways we talk about it is we don't just. Just let anybody come into the house and sit at our table. Right. And we take that with our team. I mean, I think it was last year, held, I don't know, 40 recruiting appointments. And we hired Jenny, what, maybe three people. And we've got high standards because we want to protect the culture we have. Because what we know is that whenever you bring somebody into your organization, the culture is going to change. It just will. It's a human coming into an ecosystem. However, you get to decide if it's going to change for the better, for the worse. And we make sure that we're bringing in the right people through intentional hiring.
A
So I want to back up and I want to talk about this CV process a little bit. But before I do, I just want to remind everybody, you don't have to take notes, gang. I'm taking the notes. If you don't get them, they come out every Thursday. Head over to MrEanotes.com, sign up and they'll get there. Chase, let me stay with you on this. When you say follow a hiring process, we have listeners from every real estate brand across the planet. What is CV in a nutshell and why does it work?
C
Yeah. So career visioning is a process that's going to take people that are interested in your organization or join your organization. It's going to take them through beyond just a skill set conversation you're going to go into what is your motivation? What is your life story? Tell me about how do I win with you and how do I lose with you? You're building a full HR packet throughout several meetings. And the greatest part is we don't take everybody through the whole process. Sometimes they make it through a 15 minute meeting and it's like it's not going to be a good fit.
A
Gary Keller, who, by the way, he wrote the book, the millionaire real estate agent, along with Jay Papasan, his writing partner, and Dave Jenks, may he rest in peace, that's the namesake for our show. He is fond of saying that until you get the book on someone, you can't be in business with them. This process is how you get the book with them. Chase, why is it so important to do a life story? Because if you go to corporations all over these fruited plains and go through an interview process, they never ask you about your childhood, they never map your life story, they look at your resume, they look at your last two work products and then they ask you what you want about the future. Why do you spend so much time looking at the past?
C
Well, there's a couple reasons. One is you're going to pick up cues and clues in regards to who they are as a person. Jenny and I, I think, are more concerned about what are you doing when you're off the clock than on the clock because that's going to permeate into your business and how you show up. And two is that allows us to coach and love on them at a much deeper level. Right. Because we don't bring anybody into organization just for unit counts. We have no desire to do that. It is, we're bringing in a human with a past, with a family, with a story. And we want to make sure that it aligns with us and where we're going so that they want to stay for a long time.
A
You said understanding how someone wins with you and how someone loses with you is a key part of this. But a second piece of it is making sure that they know how they win and lose with you chase, how does someone win with you?
C
Do what you're going to say you're going to do. At the end of the day, that's it. Right. If you say you're going to go do four open houses a month, just go do it. Or say you're going to do three. Do what you're saying you're going to do and commit to. And it doesn't have to be some grandiose number. It's whatever is going to help you hit your goals and your needs for the year. Just do what you're going to say you're going to do. That's it. It's simple.
A
Is that also how someone loses with you? Is they say they're going to do something and don't do it, or is there a different way?
C
I would say the biggest way somebody loses with me is laziness. Like I said before, real estate's not the hardest thing in the world. We can teach people how to sell houses. We can't teach you how to get out of bed in the morning. That's how he loses. Is complaining about their own actions due to lack of laziness.
A
Yeah. Gary told me you don't want to own a tire store. And I said, well, what do you mean? And he said, well, you don't want to be running around with an air hose trying to pump everybody up every day. You want to only attract the people or attract enough people to weed through to find the people that want to make a meaningful change in their life and then support them, not hire a bunch of people you have to convince to change their lives.
C
Absolutely. It's spot on.
A
Love that. Okay, so number one is follow a hiring process and stick to it. What's number two?
B
So number two is really about showing up consistently every single day. Chase and I try and show up the same. That's with our actions, that is with our systems, our standards, and I think more importantly our emotions and how we show up every single day. No one likes to come to work and not know who's going to be there.
A
That's a really big idea. So you had me until you got to emotions, because those are hard to control. And you're going to have really good days and really bad days. You're going to regret business deals you did in the past and you're going to have stresses of the future and life is going to happen while at work. Jenny, how do you regulate that? How do you show up for your people each day on the days when you don't want to I think for
B
me, it's more about remembering that I want them to show up that way as well. Right. Like when they're having a tough day with their spouse or their kids were frustrating them that morning, I want them to show up consistently at the office as well. So I have to lead that by example. I don't follow the model of do as I say, not as I do. It doesn't work for me. And so we live that at work. Right. It's showing them. It's okay to say I had a rough morning. I need just a minute to collect myself. It's okay to say, you know, I'm frustrated about X, Y and Z and then talk about it and keep going with your day. But I don't think anyone wants to come to work and not know. Am I getting someone who is annoyed about something I had no control over, is someone upset about numbers or a system that wasn't followed? And I think for me, when I find that I'm getting frustrated, most of the time I'm frustrated at myself because I didn't do something, I didn't follow through on something. And so I have to take a step back and look and see, like, where is my DNA on this? Because most of the time it's everywhere.
A
Yeah, I get it. You know, I had this workout program, P90X, if you remember this, and Tony, the guy who taught it, used to always say, consistency is key, meaning you can do everything else, but if you don't do this thing every day, you're not going to have the results. I'm wondering, and I bet you probably become the most consistent point in a lot of people's lives, meaning the world might be spinning out of control, but the two of you are going to show up the same way each day, so there's some place of calm for them.
B
I would hope so. Right. One of the things, and I'm kind of jumping to the third one, is Chase and I, we say this a lot and we truly live by it. And that is we want to lead like we parent.
A
What does that mean?
B
If you're having a bad day with your kids, like, you don't kick them out of your family. Right. Like they're your kids. And so that's the same with our team members. For me, it's showing up with love every day. It's being that safe place for them. And so back to that consistency conversation and trying to be a safe place for them is. That's what, like, I tell my kids, right. I'm your safe Place. If you need to vent about your friends or a coach or a teacher, I'm your safe place. Place. And so we also want to be that for our agents. We're your safe place. And one of the things that I say a lot to the agents is, and I got this from my kids, is I'll ask them, do you need to vent or do you need advice? That's good because it helps me show up, right? I have two teenage girls. I was once a teenage girl. And sometimes you just want to get it off your chest, and you don't want your mom fixing it. And so I'll ask my kids, do you need advice or do you need to vent? And they'll say, sometimes it's both, and sometimes it's one or the other. And so it's the same for the agents. Like, I'll ask them, do you need me to fix this, or do you just need to get it off your chest?
A
I know I'm gonna say to my teenage son, do you need to vent, or do you want advice? And he's gonna say, gosh, dad, you're so lame. And he's gonna walk away. I'm not even gonna get an answer to the question, Jenny. He's literally just gonna make fun of me and then leave the room. Chase, double down on this. Talk about it. Lead like a parent.
C
So I've got a teenage daughter, and I've got two teenage boys, right? So, Jason, I feel your pain. And we lead like we parent. And Jenny said it elegantly, is like, if. If one of the kids fails a class, which my boys do sometimes, you don't be like, hey, pack your stuff. You're gone.
A
It's.
C
How do we. How do we go forward with this? And Gary said it in a leadership academy, I think, a year or two ago. He said, be the reason somebody shows up to the office.
A
Good one.
C
And we're there. Like, we're consistent. We're there every day. And, you know, just little stuff. Like, Jenny's extremely great at this, is she'll ask agents, like, what's your favorite soda? What's your favorite snack? Or whatever. And inside, we have, like, a hangout type room, and it has all their favorite stuff in there, and they didn't know about it. There's no better feeling than having an agent come to the office and say, I don't really have anything to do right now. I just needed to get away. And this is the place you chose to come. And we have a coffee shop down the road. So we'll walk down the road with them, go grab a cup of coffee. And again, it's coaching to the person, not just their numbers. It's serving leadership. Right.
A
That's so good, Jenny. I'm going through a sour patch kid watermelon thing right now. Just in case you need to note that for any reason, this makes sense to me. I can see it being very rewarding to walk into the office and see somebody who didn't need to be there but chose to be there because that is the calm spot in their life.
C
Yeah. And when you create that within them, again, that's a retention aspect. Right. They don't want to leave. Like when you have created such a culture and in some essences, a second family and home for them, when something breaks or something doesn't get delivered on time or X, Y, Z happens, it's not, well, I'm going to leave the team. Right. You create so many sticking points with them because you actually care about them in their family, like Jenny. And I can tell you every agent, spouse's name, their kid's name, relative age, what they like to do. It's because we care. Like, this is beyond just transactional real estate for us is what it is.
A
Well, yeah. In order to lead like a parent, you really have to know your people.
B
And one of the things we really try and do as well is, you know, again, we want people to fail forward. We've done it so many times. We want people to take accountability. We want people to show up. And so we have to do that. Right. And there are times that we have a team meeting and we have to say in front of everyone, we made a mistake. We're sorry, we have to change something because we thought this was the right path, but it's not the right path. And we only learned that from you guys and from feedback. And so I think that's the biggest thing, is we have to model what we want from them. Right. And it's not lead generating eight hours a day because our day looks very different than theirs, but it's in the morals, the ethics, the how we show up. Like, that's what's important. We can teach them real estate, but we want to make sure that they have that side of it as well.
A
I love that Gary always said to me the greatest line, and it's true, which is, don't judge me by the mistake. Judge me on how I showed up after I realized I made it. Because mistakes are going to happen. They just are. All right. I love that number three, lead like a Paler. What's number four?
C
Coaching to the person. Not the units, not the production. What does that mean most all the time? When an agent is in a rough spot business wise, the systems haven't changed, the lead flow hasn't changed. The market might have shifted a little bit, but other agents are still adapting to it. Is there's usually something in the personal, right. So one is the only way you can coach to a person is to have credible buy in with them over time. And that unspoken permission to coach to the person. Right. So coaching to the person and finding out what's really going on, it's not just you're not making enough calls why? And it's asking great questions and being quiet and providing that place to where they feel they're able to have that conversation. And when you're able to coach to the person, you got to actually know the person. Right. You got to know their wants or their desires or dreams. Again, goes back to a motivational interview in Life Story. This all plays a part of it. So coaching to the person is massive for us.
A
You know, when we finish these, I want to back up and actually go through their day and talk about the way that you structured, structured this because I think that that's important too. But I want to ask how often are you coaching these agents in a formal setting?
C
Yeah. So we do on Mondays check ins with our agents and then for expansion, we meet with them every other week. And the other part too is we do daily numbers Monday through Thursday without fail. So we see them every single day, meetings on Wednesdays. And we're also doing life together. Right? Jenny and I, before this conversation, before you got on, I had asked her, hey, are you going to the boys football game this afternoon? The two of our agents that are their boys are on it. So there's a good chance Jenny and I will be at a park in a couple hours watching their kids play ball. That's how you get to know them, dude.
A
That's the intangible. 100% the difference.
B
It's the little stuff. It's when you're talking to them, are you hearing them or are you just on your phone and on your computer when they're talking to you about their rough day, are you, are you present? Right? Like Gary talks so much about, we don't need more time, we need more present time. It's the exact same with our agents, right? We don't need more time with our agents. We need to be present when we are with them, when we are talking to them. Are we hearing what they're saying and taking it in. And I think when Chase talks about coaching to the person and not the numbers, it's the other side of that is whatever that number is for them, it's their number. It's not a number that Chase and I said, hey, this is your goal for the year. Because all of our agents are in wildly different stages of life, and who are we to say your goal should be this?
A
Wow.
B
We don't have that authority. It's their goal. That fits into our goal.
A
That's fantastic. All right, coach to the person. So, friends, if you're playing along at home, which I know you're on a treadmill right now, so let me help you. You need to start by having an actual process to make sure that you get the right people in. Then you got to show up consistently. This has to be a beacon of calm. Then you have to lead like a parent. We don't throw out a kid when they make a mistake. We don't do that with our agents either. Then we're coaching to the person, not to the units. Chase, what's next?
C
Yeah, we had cover a little bit. The willingness to say we were wrong. Like, that's a huge part of it. The next one that we do is. It's very big for us, is we serve together. So every Friday, some people from our team, we go to a place called Caring Ministries here in town, and we make food boxes. We'll make 244 food boxes every Friday for the community. That's every Friday.
A
Wait a minute. Walk me through. Hang on a second. Walk me through. Making one food box, let alone 244. What's in a food box?
C
Everything the grocery stores get rid of.
A
Is that right?
C
There's not a food shortage. Jenny and I learned real quickly in Tucson the amount of stuff that that gets donated by all the grocery stores and everything else will make. Sometimes the job changes on a Friday, but two full rows twice will go about 244 food boxes that we'll make on Fridays.
A
How long does that take?
B
Two hours.
C
Two hours.
A
We've done a lot of interviews. This is the first, and I don't want to offend anybody. So if you're like, no, no, no, I do it. I just didn't tell you, Jason. Okay, you're absolved. But this is the first time that somebody has put a weekly service as part of the. It's the magic sauce. And so I'm fascinated about this. Why does this matter? And why every week? What if you Just did it twice a year or once a month. Chase, I could save you all the time.
C
Yeah, I think. And this is not a knock on anybody. Service is great, regardless. I think twice a year makes a great Instagram reel. But doing it every week, weekend, like, week out. The relationship we built with the other helpers that go there is phenomenal. They're, like, by proxy, like, a part of the team now. We love them. That's who we are. We're not a selfish team. We give back, and that translates to our team helping each other out. I'm out of town. Can you help with clients? I'm on the other side of town. Can you take a lockbox off those type of things? And then we also have gone several times down to Mexico and we build homes for families living in poverty. So I've built, I think, 16 homes in Mexico over the years. And, Jenny, you built a handful as well. We've taken team members down. We've built houses with just our team. And to give keys to somebody that this is their first home and they're 60 years old. It's the core of who we are.
A
As a general rule, because I know there's exceptions to every rule, but as a general rule, if some agent says to you, hey, man, I love everything y' all do, I'm in to do the lead gen. I'm in to do all this stuff. I don't do service. I'm not coming on Fridays. Does that make that person not a good fit for your world?
B
Well, we would ask them one question, and the question is, do you return your grocery cart?
C
Okay, let me give you an example, Jason.
A
This is going to be very damning for me in a minute.
C
We've got two questions that we ask people. One question Jenny asked them, and then I have one personal one. So before someone comes to our organization, Jenny asks them that question. Do you return your grocery cart? And if it's a no, Jenny does says, nope, they cannot join the team. They're a horrible person.
B
No, no, I don't say that.
A
By the way, I'm so guilty. Go ahead, Chase.
C
Yeah, so. And then the next one that. That I have and I told Jenny about this years ago is whenever I meet somebody, I think, like, would I trust this person if we're at our team summit and Jenny needs to be walked to the hotel, Would I trust that person to do that? And that's. That's a personal thing, you know? And between those two questions, like, you could sell a million dollars a year in GCI in Real estate, and you're not getting hired.
A
I love that. I feel obligated on behalf of the large community that doesn't return the grocery cart. Just to give you something to think about there, guys. The reason that some of us choose not to return them is out of sheer convenience for the next person, because here's the reality. Someone's going to park in the space I was in, and they can simply grab that cartoon. This means they don't have to go and try to separate it in that line, because you know as well as I do, half the time they're stuck together. Chase, I know you know what I'm talking about. And the second piece of this is by leaving it there and letting another consumer just grab it, I save the time of the person who has to collect them, as long as it's used quickly. Just to give you an idea, I'm
C
just gonna be a fly on the wall for the rest of this conversation.
B
So we ask one of two questions, depending on the person. The second question would be, if you are leaving, like Target, and you realize there's something in your cart, you didn't, and it's small like a pack of gum, do you go back inside and pay for it, or do you leave?
A
Yeah, I've been to Target twice, by the way, and I can't fathom each time I spent $100. I don't think I bought anything. That said I would always go back in. My father told me, you never steal anything you can pay for. Now I get it. That advice probably isn't the greatest way. Having said it as a parent, I say it differently. But, yes, that one I can check. Yes, I can join the team. Jenny. I'm in.
B
You're hired.
A
Yes.
B
But to answer your original question, if someone said, you know, they. They didn't want to come on Fridays again, same with the units. Like, who are we to say that this is your unit? Also, who are we to say that this service project speaks to you? I have two teenage daughters, and they're both very different. One would spend all day caring for animals. The other one would spend all day caring for people. Neither of them are wrong. Neither of them are bad. Right. So if someone said, hey, this doesn't speak to me, okay, that's all right. Right. I hope that we can set the example that I hope you do something that does speak to you.
A
I love this idea of weekly service. I think it is so, so smart.
B
And it's not a mandatory thing, just to clarify as well, but it's brilliant.
A
And I promise you that you're attracting a certain type of person and retaining a certain type of person because of that. It's very smart.
B
Well, and selfishly, it scratches our itch. Right. We like to help. We like to give back. So if we can turn it into something where we also get to spend time with some of our best friends, it's a win, win.
A
Love it. All right, Chase, what's next?
C
Yeah, so a big one that. That we really love to do is that surprise and delight. We heard it from Brady years ago, and we do that with our agents as well, is we have a full spreadsheet of everything an agent likes. Hot, cold drinks, gum type to drink to everything. And some of those. Those things, like, we do a workiversary gift, right? And we'll look at, like, their vision board and go, hey, what's a really cool gift that we can get them to say thank you for being a part of the team? And it's not like a notebook with their name on it. Like, it's something special, Right. Doing stuff like texting Starbucks gift cards. Jenny showed me how to do that, like, a year and a half ago, and I had to stop myself because I was sending everybody Starbucks gift cards via text. One of the phrases Gary told me a long time ago and 15 other
A
thousand people in the room. You do remember you sent me a Starbucks gift card. I have to ask you 100%. You said it like that. And I don't even know if you know how manic you were with the gift card. You sent me one to thank me for everything I was doing.
C
100%.
A
No, I did, and I remember you sending it to me.
C
Yeah. I mean, there's a fringe benefit because I get the points afterwards. But regardless, I appreciate you. So Gary said it's disingenuous to show up in people's lives only during real estate transactions. And the team side is how do we show up in their lives between transactions, Right? So, you know, how do we bless them? Is it. Is it Starbucks? Jenny does great things for people all the time on the team. And it might be maternity leave. I can't tell you how many awesome people have dropped off food for different people on the team that they had a baby. And what's really cool that's happened, Jason, is we find out that other team members are doing that for other team members without us initiating or even knowing that it happened.
A
It's a big deal, man. That's a big deal. I think surprise and delight so often, and I can go Back. We have so many episodes where we've listed out all the surprise and delight for our clients. Rarely do we talk about it in regards to our team members.
B
Well, for us, our team members, those are our clients.
A
Right. You kind of wake up in the morning and run a B2B business. You think of it as, we're a business, and we're in business to help another business that just happens to be a real estate agent. And they are the ones that are business to client. They're B2C.
B
And our hope is that they take some of what makes them feel good from us and then they pass that down to their clients.
A
Brilliant. Is there another one or is that. Was that the last one?
C
No, we've got one more around structure. Jenny, you want to take that one?
B
Yeah, I would say the last one that's just really important to us is remembering that they are people first. Right. And with that comes, you know, I mentioned it earlier, they're all at different stages of their life. And we can have an idea of what an ideal agent looks like, but we have to have flexibility around that. We had four people on the team. They had babies last year, right. So their world is changing. We have people who are. This is their second career. And we have people who have adult children that are out of the house. So talking to them again about, what do you want this to look like? What do you want your life to look like? And giving them, oftentimes it's just permission to say, hey, this isn't serving you, but this could. Right. We had an agent who came to us and she said she had her second child. And she said, I really want this to look differently than the last time. And we just said, what does that look like to you? And we asked very specific questions. When can we call you? Do you want us to send you any emails after you give birth? You know, so that we can make sure we're asking her what she wants and then we're respecting it. And then when she came back from maternity leave and she had said, I. My mornings are a little rough, and we said, okay, don't get on our morning call. That's not important to you right now. What is important to you is spending time with your infant child. The agents can wait, take another three months, six months, nine months, whatever it is. There's so many lessons around her taking that time to spend with her kid that she can then tell an agent, yeah, I miss daily numbers for a whole year. But here's what I gained from it. I spent time with my kid that I can't ever get back. I still hit my numbers every single day, so on and so forth.
A
Well, that's where I want to go next. Because these seven things are brilliant. And if you don't know any better, you would say, wow, this is just a place where everyone can come hang out. And this isn't a productivity specific environment. And if they win, they win, and if they lose, they lose. But I happen to know you both and you are highly competitive people. Your business is generating over $4 million in GCI every year. You've built a giant business. So where does accountability and production come into this? Because all of this makes me feel great, but how do you actually help me sell real estate?
C
The accountability becomes easy when you're holding people accountable to their goals. It's a lot harder to hold somebody accountable to a goal that you imposed upon them.
A
So what's your process? You sit down with me. I'm an agent. I make it through the gauntlet. I'm one of the four of the 40 that get an invite to play. What are you telling me? Once I'm there?
C
Yeah, they're going to come in and we are going to do. We're not the team and we're constantly revamping this. We are right now of here's 97 videos to watch. Come see us in three weeks. But rather they're getting that personal touch, Right. We're going to have them be shadowed, for example, as they got to present the. To get any type of leads turned on for us. You have to present the listing consultation to our listing manager. You've got to present the buyer consultation to me. You have to sit in front of the broker and present the full purchase contract to them. The broker's going to give you the nod of approval. They're going to do all this training before they get any of that stuff.
A
Okay, so I go through all the training, then what?
B
Well, Jason, I think it really starts with hiring the right person.
A
I got that I'm one of the four. I'm the right person.
B
But if you hire the right person, the rest is really easy. Right? So that I can tell someone or, you know, this person can tell me, hey, I want to spend time with my infant child. Because that's really important to me right now. And getting on daily numbers interferes with that time. Right.
A
What if they said something different? What if I joined your team and I said, jenny, I want to be rich, I want to make a lot of money. What would you tell me to do? How does your team support agents as they move towards selling real estate agents?
B
I think it's what Chase mentioned earlier with like their goals is number one. What is that number? Okay, right. What is that number? What is being rich mean to you? Right? Because to some people on our team it's 50,000 and to some people it's hundreds of thousands. So what does that mean to you? And from there the question really goes into what do you want your day to look like? What are you willing to sacrifice?
A
I love that.
B
Right. Because like Chase mentioned earlier, real estate isn't. It's not the hardest job. Right. It can be relatively easy. But that doesn't mean that every agent on our team isn't making sacrifices in one way or another. It's what are the sacrifices that you're willing to say yes to?
A
Chase?
C
Yeah. And having a clear path to what they need to do. Right. Any new person into the industry is going to be a filling out period of what lead generation lever they love and they're passionate about. Also for those that have already been in the industry, they're going to have ebb and flows. Right. So accountability, you're able to hold them accountable when you have credible buy in, you know their goals. I know everybody does vision boards, but we're big on it. To give you an example, I've used this story several times when I teach is we have an agent on our team I've known for years, I mean like before having driver's licenses years, and he was not doing what he needed to do. And they had a big trip to Disneyland on their vision board and I won't give their names, but I met with him and I said, hey, you're not doing what you need to do. So there's no way you're going to be able to achieve this goal for your family. Right? You're not going to be able to go to Disneyland. So do you want me to call your wife or do you want to let her know that you're not doing what you need to do? So you're not going to be able to go. Which, how do you want this to play out? Guess who ended up going to Disneyland that year?
A
I tell you what, man, I've only been once or I've been twice. Gary took me and I started crying on the first ride, literally. Real cheers. It was my first time. I was 39.
B
But go ahead, Jason. I would also say too that, you know, one of the you had asked about if they're a new agent and they want to be Rich, we also have numbers for every lead source. So we can tell you if you're taking Internet leads, our team specifically, not Tucson or industry, you know, wide. For our team, on average from this lead source, they will go under contract within X amount of days. And the average closing is X amount of days and here's the average commission to go along with it. So if you want to focus on Internet leads, you should get someone under contract this quickly. If you're going to focus on open houses, it's going to take this many days for our team. So we have the numbers broken down for every lead source so that when an agent is talking to Chase about I want to be wildly rich and this is what that number means and I need to close this many homes, they can look at that and make a decision. Okay, I don't think I love open houses but I'm willing to do this because I enjoy, you know, whatever this lead gen lever is. And we have the metrics behind what that would look like for them and
C
we have a spreadsheet for them. I met with a great agent yesterday and emailed her over the spreadsheet and it's got the lead sources and the split broken down and all they got to do is pop in what they want to make and it'll tell you how many closings you need from each lead source. If you want to do 50 self generated or 50 team paid leads, whatever you want, however you want that balance look like now we can coach to that, right? You said you wanted to do six sphere transactions this year and 20 team paid leads. Great. Here's the activities that are going to have to happen to get there.
A
Now it makes all sense to me. I got one more question and then I will let you go. Y' all are running a big business and you sit in the hub in Tucson, Arizona, but you have an office in Phoenix and you have one in Las Vegas and you have one in Kansas City and you represent all of Southern Arizona. I mean, you guys are running a big business within Keller Williams. Here's my question. If I'm sitting out there right now and I'm in one location and I'm making the decision of whether to move to multiple locations, we call that expansion. What would you tell me, Chase, I want to come to you first. What's the first thing that you would tell me to do before I go do that? To avoid as many headaches and catastrophes as I can.
C
Gosh, I've taken ESO so many times. And you got to have your hub Dialed in. If you do not have your hub dialed in, you will fail and fail and fail. You have to have your hub dialed in. There's. There's no. You will not run a profitable expansion business without that. Second is, you gotta find the who. And do not rush finding the who. If you have your systems dialed in and you have the backend support and you can replicate and duplicate the systems and models and the culture by which you have into another location, that's great. Make sure you do it with the right person. And I would say hiring an expansion person is 10 times harder than bringing in someone into the hub because there is so much more trust involved with that. So if you think it's. It takes a longer time to go through the CV process to hire someone at your hub, it's going to be 10 times as long for the expansion. Right. You're gonna put the work into hiring. You get to decide if you put the work in on the front end, making sure it's a good fit, or put the work in on the back end, cleaning up the mess they left.
A
Brilliant, Jenny. One thing that you would give to advice for someone thinking about expanding, I
B
think I agree with everything Chase said. And I would also say you need to define what success looks like, because expansion is a. It's a different ballgame. And so you really need to know what is winning and how do you measure that, because it will look a little different than your hub. And I would also say reach to any of the teams that have expansion teams and ask them for help, because we've done it a couple times. We've all failed multiple times, and we want to save someone from that pain.
A
I love it. Gang, I got to tell you, I'm listening to you. This whole podcast feels like a giant hug to me because I've interviewed a lot of teams and have owned a lot of teams, and the amount of time and the amount of purposefulness and the amount of thought that you've given into how you support the people you're in business with, with so they can go support the people that they're serving is so inspiring to me. There's a gravity about what you're saying that's defying the way that I think a lot of folks think about the business, because in this industry, it's easy to get jaded. Your best people leave you, and all of a sudden you feel like you've given everything and you're left with the crumbs and they go off, and it's easy to then turn it into A numbers game. But you have kept people, real estate agents, at the center of your thoughts and your business. And I commend you both. I think what you've built is absolutely astonishing. So congratulations. Jenny, thanks for joining us. Chase, thank you for joining us. I'm going to give you each the final word. Chase, coming to you first.
C
Yeah. I would say if you're looking to build an organization or you have one and you want to increase your retention and retain talent, don't go at it alone. Right. I'm blessed to have an amazing business partner. But if you are the sole owner of a team, that doesn't mean you can't invite other people into that process. People that you know like and trust. Right. Keller Williams has changed my life because of the community by which it's provided. I will help with that process. Somebody in your market center will like, you don't need to go at this alone. I would have made a thousand bad hires if Jenny didn't say no. Right. And doing this together with somebody is a beautiful thing. So if you are alone, you own a team or organization by yourself, invite other people into the conversation. It'll save you so much heartache.
A
Good. Jenny, take us home.
B
I would just say when you lead with love and you truly listen to people, oftentimes it can feel very heavy, especially if you have a decent amount of empathy. And so I would just say it's also important to make sure that you're taking care of yourself. However that looks, whether it is exercise, reading, hanging out with your own friends and family, we have to make sure that we are our best version so that we can show up for our people.
A
Gang, don't you all just wish you had your own Jenny? I know you do, because she makes me feel better about my life just listening to her. Gang, thanks so much for joining us. I'm grateful.
B
Thanks for having us, Jason.
C
Thanks, Jason.
A
I really do believe you don't have to return the carton at the grocery store. And I just. I'm just saying I don't think you need to. That said, gang, everything else that they said, that's pure gold. Did you hear it in their voices? Did you hear the deference that they have for real estate agents? That's the thing. They wake up in service of the real estate agents on their team. That's what they're hyper focused on. Whether it's knowing all of the names of the children or you heard them, they're actually going to a little league football game today. Guess what? Their kids aren't playing in it. But two agents of their teams, their kids are. That sort of thing makes sense, all of the difference. And it isn't come hang out something for nothing. They're very clear about the goals that they set, the company goals that they set, and they're achieving an incredibly high level. They help people find their path, commit to their path, and then care so much about them that they end up walking on the path. And can we just focus in on this idea of service every single week? You know, Gary Keller told me that in life, you need to to build rituals. You see, he said that rituals are the things that give ideas which might feel amorphous. They give them shape, they give them form, they give them substance. This is why, by the way, if you celebrate a birthday, that's a ritual. Set up that ritual in order to remember just how valuable the gift of life is and that we should slow down and mark the time as it passes. If you get together with family and friends on high holidays, those are rituals. So what rituals are you running in your life? What rituals are you running in your business? Because here's the deal. When they talk about service on Fridays, the same way that they talk about reporting your numbers every day, the same way that they talk about making the vision boards, the same way that they talk about showing up consistently, the same way that they talk about following the process, the real genius of Chase and Jenny, they're running a business of rituals. And I got news for you. You think about the way they give deference to it. They treat it like a holy calling, which, by the way, is no accident when you hear Chase's background. These humans live in service of others. And because of what they're doing, there's a whole group of real estate agents and their families whose lives are better off in the end, when they look up, they will have made a difference. The question will you have? And how big of a difference do you want to make? Go forth and do likewise. If you're enjoying this podcast, I want you to click the subscribe button anywhere that you get your podcasts. We want to be the voice in your head every single week. And every week, we're dropping new content. We also send out a newsletter at the conclusion of every show to make sure that you get the highest points in the models and systems that were discussed. So if you want to sign up, I need your name and your email address. Head over to themillionaire agent podcast.com millionaireagentpodcast.com Enter your name and your email address, and every week, that newsletter will be in your box. Friends, you just went on a journey. I hope that what happens between now and the next time we meet is absolutely wonderful for you. Thanks for listening. I'll see you next week.
C
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Podcast: The Millionaire Real Estate Agent | The MREA Podcast
Host: Jason Abrams (Keller Podcast Network, Head of Industry & Learning at Keller Williams)
Episode: 129. Build a Team Agents Never Want to Leave With Chase Delperdang & Jenny Adams
Date: April 6, 2026
This episode dives deep into the intentionally crafted culture and systems behind one of the highest-retention real estate teams in the country. Host Jason Abrams interviews Chase Delperdang and Jenny Adams, business partners running a $150M+ expansion team with offices across Tucson, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Kansas City. Their team is notable for its extraordinarily low agent attrition rates—most agents simply never leave. The conversation unpacks the specific principles, hiring practices, rituals, and leadership approaches responsible for such deep loyalty and sustained performance.
[08:13]
"We don't just let anybody come into the house and sit at our table. ...We want to protect the culture we have." – Chase [08:36]
[09:28]
"We're bringing in a human with a past, with a family, with a story." – Chase [10:53]
[12:38]
"I don’t follow the model of 'do as I say, not as I do.' It doesn’t work for me." – Jenny [13:21]
[15:10]
"If one of the kids fails a class...you don’t be like, 'Pack your stuff, you’re gone.' ...We’re consistent. We’re there every day." – Chase [16:56]
[19:51]
"When you’re able to coach to the person, you gotta actually know the person." – Chase [20:49]
"We don’t tell them their goals; it’s their number, not ours." – Jenny [22:41]
[23:13]
"Twice a year makes a great Instagram reel. But doing it every week...the relationships we’ve built are phenomenal. ...We love them. That’s who we are." – Chase [24:27]
"We would ask them one question, and the question is, do you return your grocery cart?" – Jenny [25:41]
[29:07]
"It’s disingenuous to show up in people’s lives only during real estate transactions. How do we show up in their lives between transactions?" – Gary Keller (shared by Chase) [30:12]
[31:37]
"We have to have flexibility around what an ideal agent looks like." – Jenny [31:40]
[34:00]
"The accountability becomes easy when you’re holding people accountable to their goals. ...It’s a lot harder to hold somebody accountable to a goal that you imposed upon them." – Chase [34:00]
"We have the numbers broken down for every lead source." – Jenny [37:34]
[39:51]
"You get to decide if you put the work in on the front end...or put the work in on the back end cleaning up the mess they left." – Chase [40:54]
"You need to define what success looks like, because expansion is a different ballgame." – Jenny [40:59]
Jenny’s First Real Estate Role:
"A family friend called me one day and said, I want to hire a TC and I want it to be you." [06:08]
Cultural Fit Litmus Test: Grocery cart and "trust to walk you to the hotel" questions.
"Do you return your grocery cart?" – Jenny [25:41]
"Would I trust this person at our summit to walk Jenny to the hotel?" – Chase [26:13]
Parenting Mindset:
"If you’re having a bad day with your kids, you don’t kick them out of your family...same with our team members." – Jenny [15:11]
Bringing It All Together:
"If you don’t know any better, you would say, wow, this is just a place where everyone can come hang out. ...But you are highly competitive people... So where does accountability and production come into this? ...The accountability becomes easy when you’re holding people accountable to their goals." – Jason & Chase [33:25–34:00]
| Segment | Timestamp (MM:SS) | |---------------------------------------------|-------------------------| | Intro & Purpose of Episode | 00:00 | | Chase’s REALTOR background | 02:04–05:17 | | Jenny’s pathway to real estate | 06:08–07:01 | | Hiring for Culture, Career Visioning | 08:13–10:37 | | Life Story Interviews & Importance | 10:37–11:14 | | Leadership Consistency | 12:38–13:40 | | Leading like a Parent, Support & Safety | 15:10–18:40 | | Coaching to the Person | 19:51–22:46 | | Service as a Weekly Ritual | 23:13–28:47 | | Interview Questions for Cultural Fit | 25:41–27:37 | | Surprise & Delight (Agent Gifts) | 29:07–31:14 | | People First: Flexibility & Life Stages | 31:37–33:25 | | Accountability and Production | 34:00–39:12 | | Expansion Best Practices | 39:51–41:27 | | Final Words & Reflections | 42:25–43:40 |
"If you are the sole owner of a team, that doesn’t mean you can’t invite other people into that process... Invite other people into the conversation. It’ll save you so much heartache." [42:25]
"When you lead with love and you truly listen to people...also make sure you’re taking care of yourself, however that looks." [43:14]
For detailed notes and resources from this episode, visit: MrEanotes.com or MillionaireAgentPodcast.com