← The Millionaire Real Estate Agent | The MREA Podcast
The Millionaire Real Estate Agent | The MREA Podcast
136. How to Build a Business That Doesn’t Trap You With Jeannette Spinelli
00:41:31
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- [00:00]
A
My fiance was killed in a car accident.
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B
Oh my gosh.
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A
Five weeks before our wedding. And we had just purchased the worst house. So I was in well over six figures debt within 60 days. And I sat down and I did the math and I said, okay, I need to sell $700,000 homes.
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B
You had to pick yourself up and start doing really hard things really fast.
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A
Within a few years, I was the top 5% agents in the state.
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B
And.
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A
And you're just kind of handcuffed to those acrylic awards and those lists that you want your name to be on. And I thought, what is missing? If you look at your business, think to yourself, well, if I stop doing this, what income will I be left with in 5 years? If it's none or low, you need to pay attention. That is not a business.
- [00:51]
B
Do I just pretty much have a job that I happen to own? What happens when you want to be done? Better yet, what happens when you want to just simply have more time? What happens when you want to spend six months of the year living somewhere else? What happens when you don't want to run as hard as you're running? Friends, Historically, it just means you do less business and then one day do no business. That's kind of been what the real estate industry has done for real estate agents. There's very few discussions around how to exit the time that you spend in your business. And that was actually the genius of the mrea. It laid out seven levels by which in the last one, you could be somewhere else doing anything else and the business would still be running. Jeanette Spinelli is an agent who sold almost $3 billion worth of real estate in Austin, Texas. She spent almost four years of her life interviewing entrepreneurs that had exited their business to write a book called the Real Estate Exit Blueprint. It's fantastic. Today we are going to talk about the models and systems that in order to maximize the value of your company and exit the business on your time and at your comfort level with clarity. Sit back and buckle up. This is Jeanette Spinelli and I am joined live in studio by Jeanette Spinelli. Jeanette, how are you?
- [02:15]
A
I'm great. Thank you for having me.
- [02:17]
B
It's an honor to have you. I mentioned when I introed the show you've sold over $3 billion in real estate.
- [02:23]
A
Just under 3 billion. We'll be over it soon.
- [02:26]
B
It's stag a huge amount. And so I ask everyone the same question. How did you end up in the greatest industry in the world?
- [02:34]
A
It is the greatest industry in the world. And I'm so grateful that my story started. I got my real estate license. I wasn't very serious. I had a lot of great things going on at that time.
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B
When was this?
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A
24 years ago.
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B
Oh, my gosh. Okay.
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A
But I was getting married. I had a teenage daughter, so life was. I didn't take it very seriously. I sold a few homes. My average house. This was a long time ago. Was $99,000. I remember being very frustrated that I didn't hit 100,000, but I wasn't full time. And then, unfortunately, we had a tragedy in our family, and my fiance was killed in a car accident.
- [03:17]
B
Oh, my gosh.
- [03:18]
A
Five weeks before our wedding. And we had just purchased. You're familiar with Austin real estate. So in Westlake, very expensive area. We purchased the worst house in the area, and we were in the process. It was partially gutted when he passed away, and he was in charge of all of the rehab. So I was left with this unfinished house.
- [03:43]
B
I got. I got to stop you, because that's such a unique story. Did you get a phone call? Is that how you found out?
- [03:49]
A
It's interesting. That morning, I turned my phone off. It was a beautiful morning, and I turned the phone off. It was November 19th, one of those beautiful, sunny, crisp, cool mornings. And I kept my phone off as I was driving into the real estate company that I was at so no one could reach me. And when I walked in the door, it was the beautiful lady who kind of managed the office, sat me down
- [04:20]
B
and told me, I'm going to stay on this topic for a second. And I know it's a sensitive one, but it's an incredibly unique story, and it's an incredibly difficult life experience. How do you even go about processing something like that? Because you didn't really have a choice. You had to pick yourself up and start doing really hard things really fast.
- [04:37]
A
Very fast. I had a child. So we know what that means. You've got to put them first. But I honestly don't know how I got through it. I don't. I'm not sure I could do it now. But I do remember I would get up in the morning to get her off to school, and I would get dressed and pretend like I was leaving. And then I would get undressed and crawl back in bed and make sure that I would get back up again before she would come home from school so that she would not know that I was really not functioning.
- [05:09]
B
You were not okay?
- [05:10]
A
I was not okay. But I had this unfinished house, and I Had this child to take care of. And I paid all my bills with credit cards, including finishing the home. So I was in well over six figures debt within 60 days and paid everything on credit cards until I was completely out of money. And I sat down and I did the math and I said, okay, at $99,000 average price point, it's going to take me about 20 years to get. I would just now be getting out of debt. It's like, okay, redo the math. I need to sell $700,000 homes.
- [05:46]
B
Easier said than done.
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A
Well, I never set foot in a 700,000. That was luxury. I think the highest homes at the time, there might have been a million dollar here or there, but 800,000 and I decided I have to sell that.
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B
What'd you do?
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A
Well, I didn't know anything about wealthy people.
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B
Sure, what do you all even eat, you rich folks?
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A
I didn't know. I had zero idea. So. So I went to Borders bookstore for all of you old folks. You know what that is? They were actually bookstores. You went in, you bought your books and they had a little cafe there. So I went in, brought my daughter, she did her homework. I bought like each of us one glass of something and I went to all the bookshelves and I pulled off everything that I thought a wealthy person would know about.
- [06:31]
B
What were some of these things?
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A
Oh, yachts, cars, cigars, wine, travel. I remember the first time seeing HNWI in a book and thought, what the heck is that? I mean, I was so out of it, but that's what I thought I needed to do. So at least when I had the opportunity to visit with somebody of that caliber, I'd at least have some talking notes. Maybe we could find some common ground. I really was the epitome of faking it until you made it. But I had to make it happen.
- [07:06]
B
What about the real estate? You said you had never been in a home like that. Did you start looking at them?
- [07:11]
A
I recall the first house that I went into. I still drive past it occasionally and kind of reflect. But I remember walking into it. I chose it because it was vacant and it was on lockbox. And I was scared to death to call a luxury agent. I mean, I knew they'd take one look at me and say, you don't belong here. So I had to go to a vacant house. And I walked in and I looked around. I remember it had this spiral staircase and I thought, wow, okay, so this is it, this is what I need to do. And I just started asking other agents to host their house. But really what happened for me, because to be honest, the other agents weren't that helpful. Shocking, they were. I tried to do exactly the opposite because I. I had that experience. But truly, it was the grace of God, this wonderful man. Well, let me take a step back for a second. The last weekend that Rod and I were together, he had a Harley, and we loved driving through the hills of Westlake. And we drove into this subdivision that was abandoned. Seemingly. The weeds were as high as the developer signs. They were like developer signs in the lots. And he said, you should call. And I said, oh, sure, I'll just call. But no, I thought to myself, I don't need to do that. I'm getting married. I've got, you know, this great life. I'll sell a few things to make some extra money. But I don't. I mean, this was. It was a development. So I didn't call. But come a few months after his passing, when I was clearly out of money, clearly in trouble, and I would have never asked my family to help me. I just wouldn't have ever done that. I hear this voice in my head, call that sign. Call that number. And I thought, where the heck was it? If anyone's familiar with Westlake, it's very complicated. Twists and turns, and nothing's built on a grid. I had no idea what the development was or the street name. I got in the car and I drove around, and by the grace of God, I stumbled back upon this development and got the phone number. It still took me a few days to call. And I thought to myself, what's the worst that can happen? The worst has already happened to me. Why not? So I dialed the number. He answered the first time, and he said, you have the most impeccable timing. I was just about to start interviewing agents tomorrow. Let's go to lunch.
- [09:59]
B
That's unbelievable.
- [10:01]
A
Yes. And it gets better. So I did not know at the time, but this was a hot ticket. All the top agents were vying for this listing. It was 27 one acre lots in the most affluent area. At the time, those lots were four and five hundred thousand, which would be two and a half million today. But all of the lots. I don't remember the lunch. He told me. Mr. Weber told me this later, Lee. He said, I'm going to give you this development. And I said, really? Like, why? Why are you giving me. I've never had a listing. I had never had a listing. He said, I believe in you. I thought, hmm, okay, full circle. Years later, we worked Together a lot, sold other developments for him. When he got out of the development business in Austin, he moved to a lake bedroom community, Horseshoe Bay, which you probably know. And in his retirement, him and his wife got their real estate license. And he called me, asked me for advice, and he's a Keller Williams agent in that area.
- [11:13]
B
That's so good.
- [11:14]
A
Isn't that amazing?
- [11:14]
B
Divine intervention.
- [11:15]
A
And he said that. He said, God told me to help you. He did not know my situation. I told him years later and he said, now it all makes sense.
- [11:26]
B
Unbelievable. Well, you've had an incredibly storied career and you sat down, which I'm assuming took a lot of time because you did thousands of interviews in order to write a book. And you've written an incredible book. It's called Real Estate Exit Blueprint. And in that book you say, I love this industry and I love realtors, the hardest working and at times most undervalued heroes of the industry. I love how you describe them. Why did you write the book?
- [11:53]
A
Well, as you said, I had a great career. It happened very quickly. But I realized I built myself a gorgeous cage.
- [12:01]
B
How so?
- [12:03]
A
It's intoxicating to go from making no. Well, to be broke, making money and making a lot of money. Within a few years, I was the top 25 luxury agents in the city. A year or two after that, top 5% agents in the state. And you're just kind of handcuffed to those acrylic awards and those lists that you want your name to be on. And I thought, why am I not fulfilled? What is missing? I went back to Keller Williams because I started my career at the Northwest Market Center. Steve Schlieder was my team leader. I love him. So that's where I started. I left to do luxury and then I came back, best decision. And in listening to Gary, I said, I, I'm going to build a business. That's what I'm going to do. Did that. That went well. Income's coming in. But then I said, I'm still attached. I'm still too connected. I loved to travel. I'd always taken two to three months off a year to travel. I've been to 98 countries. It was always my thing. I swore I would never go back to the same place. But then about a dozen years ago, my amazing hunky partner, Kevin, he's hunky and brilliant. So I really hit the jackpot.
- [13:18]
B
There you go.
- [13:19]
A
He introduced me to Nantucket Island. Fell in love the first day. I said, I'm gonna live here. So I had this great solo business, I had this great business. Now I wanted to separate and live someplace else for what started out a few months out of the year and then turned it to more. How can I do this?
- [13:42]
B
And this feels like a trend because I'm talking to more and more people who in their life are making choices in order to spend more time someplace their business might not be operating and
- [13:54]
A
not even a place, but just other things. I mean this is it. Like this is all we get for some people. They want to work all the way up to the end and other people might have other interests. Just to spend time with family, even in your same location is not a bad aspiration. So that's what I wanted and I thought, you know what I'm going to do? I'm just going to pick up the phone, I'm going to call a few people and I'm going to figure out how they did it. I thought it was going to be easy. It turned into a four year full fledged in the field hyper focused, fully immersion project because I couldn't find the answers. Now this was about six years ago and after I got to about Agent 400, I realized that only 1% of the at four people out of roughly 400 agents who actually were doing it and had any advice. So I made the decision then I need to study secession systems outside of the real estate industry. And that's how I ended up getting to the thousand and four interviews I did over a four year period.
- [15:14]
B
I wish we had a ten hour podcast to honor all those interviews because you've probably learned so many things on such a range of topics. But walk me through as I think about building this business blueprint with this end goal of having choice because it sounds like I'm better building it in such a way that I have the choice later on in my life of what I want to do with my time and where I want to do it. How should I think about it? Walk me through the model.
- [15:41]
A
The first step is awareness and always to be leading with what do I want this to look like down the road.
- [15:50]
B
What does that mean, awareness in this context?
- [15:52]
A
Well, I believe that I still talk to a lot of agents. Of course, I love agents, love this industry. So I'm always in conversation and typically they're caught in a messy middle or the weeds. They're dealing with the most urgent situation that is in front of them. And certainly the past few years have been a lot of challenges and people are really looking, they're growing and then they're Reducing, and they're building, and then people leave, and it's just this constant carousel of immediate needs. But I do believe that if you look at your business and you think to yourself, well, if I stop doing this, what income will I be left with in 5 years? If it's none or low, you need to pay attention, because that is not a business. What I learned from talking to these other industries is it's not optional, a succession plan. It's more operational. It is something that's discussed at the very beginning. And we're not talking about retirement. We're talking about recalibration, a rhythm, a change in rhythm to your role. And what does that look like? So I think the first part is you really have to analyze that for yourself. It can look very different for everyone. For me, I started with, I had 16,000 people that I marketed to. I was like most agents, 24. 7. And I gradually reduced that down to 104 of 104 people that I will fly across the world back if they actually needed me.
- [17:31]
B
Now, this doesn't mean you threw out the other 16,000. This just became your VIPs that you were willing to spend your time and your focus on.
- [17:41]
A
Correct. And it was a graduation. Again, this is my answer. But I think you have to start with what you want to do, because we can move from there into very tactical analysis where we start talking about the valuation of your current business. You know, a real analysis of where you are right now. And you probably know this, what I find is most people have never really looked at the valuation of your business. And not just realtors. I mean, biz journal says 98% of entrepreneurs have no idea what their true value is. So we start looking at that, because what we're trying to do is uncover opportunities.
- [18:27]
B
So let's do this. So number one was awareness. And I sort of, as I read your book, broke it into these two parts, which is, I have to be aware about what I value and what I want in my life.
- [18:38]
A
Correct.
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B
And I have to start thinking about what brings me joy and how I actually experience the world to my highest level of fulfillment. Then I have to be aware of the reality of my business.
- [18:50]
A
Correct.
- [18:51]
B
And your focusing question is, great. If five years from now I'm out, does this thing produce any income? Or do I just pretty much have a job that I happen to own?
- [19:00]
A
And that might be okay, because particularly if you're learning mrea and you've gotten to seventh level, you might have multiple streams of income. I know we certainly were Able to create that. Really, everything that I learned from building businesses outside of the industry, I learned from Gary and Mrea. And again, back to my hunky, smart partner. We started building businesses outside of real estate. Building them, scaling them, selling them, building them, scaling them, selling them. And so we had multiple streams of income. But I looked at this business and I said, hang on a second. Why can we not scale and sell this business? What is it about this business that makes it so much harder? And that was part of the research and the end result, which is the book in the courses to help people also start thinking about it, but how to do it.
- [19:53]
B
It is such a good point because I say all the time, real estate agents, especially if you're an educationally based one, you don't realize that this is very unique to our industry. In almost any other industry, they don't get together at events, they don't mastermind, they don't have all these classes. They just sort of figure it as it goes. But when you become an expert on database, on lead generation, on customer experience, you can take transferable skills to any business and you're going to make that business better.
- [20:23]
A
And that really is what it's about, is transferable. Because we know that there's four kind of categories. You have your active income, which we're going to go out and do something, in this instance, sell a house. You can create reoccurring income. But reoccurring income by definition in any industry still requires involvement. And that might be fine. Some people move from sales to operations, some people move from operations to coaching, but there's still some involvement. You can also move into residual income. And there are agents who are able to do that where they really are detached and money is still coming in. But it's that reassignment, that transfer of the business that seemed to be the hardest. And even that third category, it was very thin air there. There was not a lot of people when I started this journey. There wasn't a lot of people to talk to.
- [21:23]
B
No. And that shows up because it took you years and years to find them and then do it. All right, so we start with awareness. And I get clear on my life and I get clear on the reality of my business. Then we go into valuation. And you say in the book that if you're preparing your company to maximize its value, you want it to be attractive, transferable and low risk. Walk me through that thinking. And then how do I start to evaluate the value of my company?
- [21:47]
A
Attractive is always, is it neat, tidy, do you have systems, processes. I mean we, we kind of know that. And are you profitable? Of course, most people don't even run a P and L or if they do, they're doing it incorrectly. So we're going to look at that. But what we're really trying to do throughout the entire process again is looking for opportunities. So we're going to take people through what we call the acronym step, which stands for systems, talent, economics and processes. And we're going to break those down. Those are kind of the bird's eye view of it.
- [22:23]
B
Let's go one by one. So systems, what does that mean?
- [22:27]
A
Do you have a repeatable way to execute talent? Do you have talent? Do you know how to hire talent? Do you know how to retain talent? Economics, Profit, profit, profit.
- [22:39]
B
You know, on that one it's so interesting because I'll meet with agents who say I run a real profitable business and then I always say, well, let's take you out of it and assign a cost of sale to what you'd be doing. Is it still profitable?
- [22:50]
A
Right. Because if you're not doing it, you have to pay someone to do it. And that can really tipped the scale.
- [22:55]
B
And then what's process? Because I think people mistake systems and process all the time.
- [23:00]
A
In my book, systems is more of an overlay and the processes really get into the nitty gritty details like what is happening day to day.
- [23:10]
B
Would you tell me as a business owner to sit down and literally take pen to paper and ask myself, system, scale of 1 to 10, where do I think I'm at and then justify it?
- [23:19]
A
Sure. But I think without a coach or disinterested party set of eyes, the rose colored glasses are there and those are kind of big buckets, that the next step after that is we take people through an 18 faceted audit and that becomes extremely detailed. And that's where a lot of the people we've coached so far, they get a bit overwhelmed. So it's not for the faint of heart.
- [23:47]
B
Walk me through that. Because imagine you're driving in your Range Rover right now at 100 miles an hour and you're a real estate agent. You're rushing to an open house, normal. And you want to. 100%. That's what we're all doing. I want to understand why it's overwhelming. But moreover, I want to understand what I should be thinking about as I'm trying to value my company. What are the keys to this?
- [24:05]
A
When you're operating any business, it really does get down to the day to day. So Every action that you're taking or paying someone to take, is it efficient? Does the economics make sense? Do you have to do it, or can you delegate or dump it? Where can we find extra revenue? Maybe an additional income stream? Maybe you do have cul de sac talent and you might have to replace somebody. Perhaps you have roles that don't need to be fulfilled anymore. Because businesses are constantly, as we know, evolving. So we're really looking at not just all the systems that it takes to run the business, but to hire, to train, to motivate, to retain talent. We know that's a huge expense for most businesses. And when you have to stop, pause, rehire, that's a cost. And a lot of people ignore that portion. They think that, well, someone's there, someone's in the seat. I'm not having to do it when
- [25:08]
B
it's a big deal. Because Gary Keller, and if you're new to the show, he wrote the book the Millionaire Real Estate Agent, along with Jay Papasan and Dave Jenks, may he rest in peace. And Gary always says that when he's looking to buy a business, what he's really buying is the predictable revenue that that business will continue to generate. And so if you can't convince me that it's predictable and that it's going to continue to generate after you sell it, I can't buy it. And if I do buy it, I have to get a huge discount.
- [25:35]
A
Yeah, that's a perfect word, is predictable. And that's what systems and processes should produce for you. What we typically find is there's always opportunity. I think any business can be looked at with. With the microscope, and you're going to find opportunities. So if you determine in your awareness that you want to sell your business or you want to promote someone from within or whatever the prescription is, it's always better for that transfer to happen at the height of your greatest value and your operational efficiency at a successful time. You don't want to be one of those, you know, those athletes who. They keep going and they keep going to the next team and they're. And they just keep deteriorating. And unfortunately, that's what happens with a lot of agents. They have these big businesses, and then when they do want to slow down or step away, it's this gradual decline of their database, and they may be fine with the result of it. They only want to do a few deals. There's nothing wrong with that, Jason. But the balance of their database that they aren't wanting to touch, they just want to slow down. You can Monetize that. Like why not 100%?
- [26:56]
B
I always like to think of it is your business is worth the least amount it will ever be today if you do the right things tomorrow. And you kind of go into that in the next chapter. Because after you value the company, you then set about helping companies raise their value. And you say in it, and you quote Warren Buffett that complacency kills. It's important to always be growing and evolving to improve your business. So building and transitioning successful real estate business requires a focus and I love this on long term value creation.
- [27:24]
A
Correct.
- [27:25]
B
Talk to me about that idea again.
- [27:26]
A
I think people are just involved in the immediate. They're reacting instead of being proactive. And that's why I think this conversation deserves to be honored at the beginning of people's careers and not thought about at the sunset of their career. But if you haven't done that, don't panic. I mean, do it now at least. Even if you're thinking it's five, 10 years before I want to recalibrate and reassign roles. What you're doing now will make or break that transition to be a shorter term or need you longer term with the highest value possible. Everything you're doing is going to add or detract value.
- [28:09]
B
And then you sort of get into this idea then of choosing the right successor. And Gary always says no one succeeds alone. And he's 100% right about that. Even the person who says, well, I'm completely self made, you kind of tend to negate this fact that someone paved the road all the way to the school and someone was there when you got there. And it does take a lot of people to create a success. But choosing the wrong successor can negate the future success, of course.
- [28:35]
A
And I did that. I made that mistake.
- [28:37]
B
Why don't you walk me through if I'm out there, how do I think about the right successor?
- [28:41]
A
Well, from that analysis is going to be the best prescription to know what it is that you need. It has to address your result. So options are that you might hire someone within if you have that talent, if you're fortunate enough to have that talent. That's typically not the case because they weren't hired for that. You weren't looking for that when you brought them on. Doesn't mean you can't do that with the end in mind now. So as you're hiring people, I think that's one of those components.
- [29:13]
B
We have so many teams listening from every single company in the whole real estate multiverse. Am I looking at one of my agents or am I looking at my operations people? Where am I looking?
- [29:23]
A
It could be any of those people. I mean, we know that we can identify leadership in agents sometimes very quickly. So that could be a possibility. It could be an operational person. It could be no one that you have in your world right now. The other option is hiring from outside. And that talent pool is vast.
- [29:43]
B
Walk me through that. So I think I understand hiring from the outside, but it seems like today there are these third options, which is companies like Places, which is I'm going to go to what extensively is a real estate operations company to help me manage the business. How do you think about that?
- [29:58]
A
Well, that's what I did. It was the best business decision I ever made. It's not for everyone. I think it definitely deserves a look and an analysis. In my opinion, it serves teams very well because there's so much support that it takes people like myself that were hitting a ceiling and enables them, through all of the support and the talented people that function in that world to really get you past and get you where you want to be. But not everybody is a team. There are a lot of solo agents, in fact, who I've worked with mostly personally have been solo agents who have said, like, we have someone right now, they don't want to do listings anymore. They only want to work with buyers. And they've been in business for decades.
- [30:48]
B
I've heard that the other way a million times. I don't know if ever heard it that way.
- [30:53]
A
Me, I know I'm right there with you. In fact, when it was presented to me, I thought, I'm going to have to think about this for a minute. I'm not, how do I do this? But that's a perfect example is there's so many ways to skin this cat. There are different exit strategies. It usually ends up being a hybrid of two or more of those. But for the solo agent, if they only want to do buyers and not listings, sometimes you match up with a team in your area or a solo agent who just says, I'm pulling back on everything but the balance of my database that you've sacrificed for, you've worked for and that you care about. If you really care about your clients, you care about them past your path, where are those people going to go? And so you should have some responsibility to that. So a solo agent might look around in their area and say, I admire this team. I'm going to join that team and work my exit or my slow release from the day to day grind through the talent in that team and do similar like I did, take a portion of your database and keep working that and the balance goes to the team and they work it. And we've had many instances where the agent who's referring the balance of their database is making more money off of that database as a referral fee than they ever made taking their commission because they weren't working it.
- [32:28]
B
That's so interesting to me. And in a situation like that, who's running the touch program is the team that you're offboarding it to? They're doing that. They're just doing it in your name.
- [32:37]
A
Correct.
- [32:37]
B
And you're working with the 100 or 200 or pick your number of key clients that you want to work with that you might like and that fulfill you.
- [32:44]
A
Absolutely.
- [32:45]
B
It sounds way too reasonable to me to be in the real estate business. I do believe when you think about the options that you have, spending the time to find that one right hire is the most profitable from a percentage and long term standpoint that you can do. But it's a painful one because you may go through 5, 6, 7. I talk to people all the time who say, you know, I tried that, I tried hiring and I couldn't do it. And I said, well gosh, how many people did you go through? And they go three and I'm done with that. I'm just joining so and so you might go through 4, 5, 6, set. You might have to play the game in order to find the right one. But that might be the best use of your time from a return standpoint ever.
- [33:25]
A
Of course. I mean it's illogical to think that you're going to get it right maybe the first or second time. I mean have, you know, do you remember dating?
- [33:32]
B
Well, I can tell you that same thing. 56% of first marriages end in divorce, 63% of seconds and 72% of thirds. I think it's a lead gen issue. But besides that, it would be naive to think that if you got it wrong twice, that means you're out. That just means you get up to bat a third time or the fourth
- [33:53]
A
or the fifth time or you do. Look, merging with another equally kind of yoked team in your area or agent solo to solo, that might be a solution to you. You can get great market share instantly. It's great continuity for your clients. It might be the solution. But that's the whole point. And that's kind of where real estate exit blueprint lives is in the analysis of the awareness of what you want. This is where you're at. Here are offerings, here are solutions, and let's work you towards that.
- [34:28]
B
I think it's brilliant. And I love the simple framework of when I look at my database, who are the hundred or so that I'm going to work with now? What can I do? And who wants to work the rest? Maybe they work for me, maybe they don't. And in that moment, you have a tremendous amount of freedom that enters your life.
- [34:45]
A
On the surface, it's that simple. Way more than that. But if you really want to monetize, it really is almost a two or three year path, because to do it properly, that transition must be gradual and you must still be showing up for your clients. So there are appointments that I still go on with my partner agent. Everyone on our team is a partner. We don't have buyer's agents or listing agents. We are all equal partners.
- [35:14]
B
Love that.
- [35:14]
A
And I still go with them for the initial consult if I'm in Nantucket, might do it over Zoom. I still check in. I'm still on a little bit of the communication in the beginning, but then no more. And the beautiful part that happens is when an existing client of 15, 20 years, you've introduced them to one of your agents, their next time that they need something, they call that agent. They're comfortable, they skip right past me. Yeah, that's the goal.
- [35:47]
B
That's the handoff, right? That's the handoff. At the end of the book, you quote T.S. eliot and you say, this is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper. And then you say, I don't want anyone's career to end with a whimper. My vision is for you each to exit with a bang, stepping into a future of freedom and opportunity. And I find that to be inspiring. It's such an abundant and positive outlook for every single person listening to this. So I want to thank you for writing this. I guarantee you you've captured the hearts and minds of everyone out there. How can they get ahold of you? How do they get more of you in their life? Because I guarantee you there's a ton of them that are like, I want to go through the process.
- [36:26]
A
If anyone wants to go to realestateexitblueprint.com, there's an information form in the comments. If you mention mrea, I will call you personally. I work with some people.
- [36:37]
B
Be careful.
- [36:38]
A
We have exit strategists that work with some people. I will.
- [36:41]
B
You got 100,000 downloads a month right now. Are you sure you want to say that live on the air?
- [36:45]
A
Yes. If you mention mrea, I will call you.
- [36:48]
B
I love what you're doing. On behalf of a very grateful industry, thank you. Thank you.
- [36:52]
A
Thank you. It's my pleasure.
- [36:54]
B
What a story. I can't even imagine five weeks before getting married, having just bought a home, and getting this phone call that your chosen has passed away in a car wreck. I'm speechless by that, but the hair on the back of my neck is standing up just talking about that. But survival is an incredible instinct. And being six figures in debt is an incredible instinct. Motivator. So what does she do? She picks herself up and she starts doing what needs to be done. The first part of her story that grabs me, of course, is that she lost her chosen. The second part is that had she not made that phone call to that developer, who knows if we'd be talking to Jeanette today? Here's my question for you. What phone call have you not been making that you know you should make? You see the world meets everybody halfway. I need you to take the first step. That's the first question. Then she gets into this idea of having awareness around what do I want in life? What brings me joy, what brings me purpose? And then what's the reality of my business? Far too often we imagine that our business is more frail than it is or more strong than it is. The truth is leadership is about holding yourself in reality long enough to appreciate your current circumstance and then taking steps to change that circumstance for the better. Which is exactly where she goes next. Which is in part of reality is understanding the value of my company. And then let's get into action, changing and elevating that value and then finally looking for the right person or the right people that are going to allow me to spend less time in the business. And we had the this discussion. There's a lot of ways to do it. You might partner with another agent. You might give a portion of your database to a team or another agent to operate. You might go find an operating company. But the best return is going to be spending the time in the difficulty of finding and hiring that person who can take this business and allow it to become their vehicle for success. And you simply move from the driver's seat to the passenger seat. But you're going to the same place. I believe that what Jeanette has laid out here could lead to 2, 3, 4, 5 generation businesses. There's no reason these companies ever have to end. Now someone out there is thinking, well, sure, Jason, one day it's going to end because AI is going to do it all for us and there won't even be real estate agents. I received an email from one of you the other day that said that gang Graveyard Guards are filled with the dead corpses of the tech companies who thought they were going to disintermediate the real estate industry from their clientele. That's not happened and frankly, I don't see it happen. Sure, real estate agents that use technology are going to be more efficient than those that don't. And sure, real estate agents that focus on relationships will always do more business than those who don't. Here's the question. Why would you have the relationship and the business die when you decide to spend less time time in it when it might live and thrive and find growth that it never experienced before? That's the question. 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 and 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 themillionaireagentpodcast.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.
- [40:50]
C
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