So we know that 80% of agents aren’t wired like the top performers.
And since coaches, team leaders and broker owners come from the ranks of top performers, there’s a major disconnect between how leaders are wired, and how agents are wired.
But once we understand the psychology, what does real support look like? Here are the…
Non-Obvious Insights from our Conversation:
Help Agents Craft a Lead Gen Strategy Rooted in Their Identity
Angela’s experience as an agent and mother, joining a local homeschool moms group, changed how she looked at traditional lead gen advice.
AKT: “They [moms] were using me themselves and referring me to everybody that they knew. I didn’t have to pick up the phone and make another cold call…I just stumbled into this lead generation gold mine… by being more of who I am and less of who I’m not, and now business just falls in my lap.”
That experience also shaped her leadership and coaching:
AKT: “When I started coaching, I would tell that story, and I would help agents start to figure out what is their thing. Guess what? It worked!”
“That’s where I start with my agents. It’s helping them with identity work. Who am I? Who are my people? What do I love to do? Because right in there is your business. Right in there. Now, I call that your Heartprint.”
Help Agents Reverse the ‘Normal’ Emotional Flow of Their Day
Angela points out that most agents start out with an emotion when they wake up in the morning, and then the day ‘kind of drizzles off from there.’
The industry hands every agent the same set of tools; make a vision board, replace negative thoughts with positive, be more disciplined. And for top performers, that can work (for a while).
But that approach doesn’t match how the 80% of agents are wired. So it fails.
Angela contends that leaders and coaches could take a different approach: Give agents a different set of tools to handle the uncomfortable feelings and nervous system triggers that come up in an average day.
AKT: “…we’re addressing the emotions that come up for them as triggers…their nervous system responses. So now, we’re actually addressing all of it, and reversing their natural flow. We start with the Heartprint, and then we go backwards.”
When agents get handed the same set of tools, simply because they work for top performers, they feel unsupported. And when 80% of your agents feel unsupported, retention becomes a major issue.
This Will Make or Break Your Agent Retention
Angela makes a strong case that brokerages and teams are consistently bleeding agents by tailoring their support to the very people who need it least.
AKT: “If you’re focused on the top 20%…they’re gonna do it regardless. They’re the high Ds, the high Is. Those are the people that are the top producers. They consistently produce. They’re like machines.”
“The reason the majority of agents leave, they say is support. Well, guess what? They go to the next brokerage and the [brokerage] does the same thing. And they don’t feel the support there either. So they keep hopping from brokerage to brokerage until they find somewhere where they do feel supported…leave the industry completely…Or they just stay at the last brokerage…produce inconsistently, and shame themselves as they’re doing it. They continue to believe that they are the problem, and they’re just not good enough, and they never will be…”
This changes everything I love about real estate…turning an amazing opportunity for freedom and unlimited income, into an impersonal machine that shames people for who they are, shames them for not producing, and then shames them if they leave.
And I know you…the leaders and coaches of this industry. That is absolutely NOT your heart or intention.
So I hope if you’re reading (or listening), you’ll take this episode in the spirit in which it’s intended: As an opportunity to reframe how you see the ‘average agent.’
Instead of seeing 80% of agents as perennial under-performers who take more time and energy than they give back in profit…see them as people who need a different set of tools to unlock their potential.
Want to go deeper? Click on the audio file for the full chat, or search Real Estate Thought Leaders on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Or Hit Reply and tell me what you’re seeing…who’s doing a great job retaining that 80% of agents who are wired differently from the top performers?
Ask This:
Does any of my coaching, training or leadership approach start with an understanding of the agent’s identity? If not, take it as an opportunity.
Create different tools, classes and internal training. Find that agent who does 20-30 deals a year off referrals from their kids playing sports, give them a platform to teach agents who are wired the same way.
For the ‘other 80%’ of agents, that has a much bigger impact than hearing from the listing agent who hits the phones 3 hours every morning.
Quick Links & Resources
Rooted Agent Method - Angela’s online, courses and resources
Once again, massive thanks to Angela for sharing and I hope the message resonates with leaders and coaches. I could just as easily have been one of those bouncing around, shaming myself and thinking I’m the problem.
Instead, I was one of the fortunate ones. The right mentors and the right books shifted my perspective. I was able to overcome a bunch of head trash and nervous system triggers from childhood, and build a successful business around how I’m wired.
If you can help agents do the same, you’ll change a lot of lives.
Talk soon,
Matt
Agency Founder & Author of MicroFamous
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