On this episode of the Real Estate: Real Success podcast, Chiyoko Kakino has an in-depth conversation with Michael La Prairie, CENTURY 21 In Town Realty, about the value of mentorship & support in attracting and retaining agents.
Interested in opening your own brokerage? Learn more here
On this episode of the Real Estate: Real Success podcast, Chiyoko Kakino has an in-depth conversation with Michael La Prairie, CENTURY 21 In Town Realty, about the value of mentorship & support in attracting and retaining agents.
Interested in opening your own brokerage? Learn more here
Welcome to the Real Estate. Real success podcast, where we talk about key business, successes, and Lessons Learned along the way in the hopes of inspiring brokerage owners. And managers to find new ways to grow their business. I'm choked Aquino. And in this episode, we're going to talk about the value of mentorship and support in attracting and retaining new agents. I am super lucky to be joined by Michael of prairie. He is the owner of Century 21 in town, in beautiful, sunny. Eddie Vancouver, British Columbia today. So Michael. Thank you so much for being with us. You're very welcome. Thanks for having me. I'm, uh, specifically excited to talk to you because about mentorship specifically because a lot of our c21 brokerage owners consider you a mentor. So why don't we start off by you telling us a little bit about your background and your journey in owning your own real estate brokerage? Wow. I'm an old might be a long story. I actually started working for Street 21 in 93, Brian Russian. Hired me when I was living in Calgary at the time in the insurance business, General Insurance business, and I moved back to Vancouver where I'm from and started my journey. There. I started selling franchises and then I started selling more franchises with the child would group that own unigov travel and sent them financial, and then 13 years of doing that decided to buy my own. Own company and Heather and I who's my partner in this and this robot brokerage and all our businesses. We looked at starting our own office on the North Shore and West Vancouver. That's where we live and this office that we originally converted to the Century 21. Came up for sale. I helped with all the re-broke urging of the sales and I bought it. So that's how the journey started. We bought it in April of 05. 05 2005. Thanks. Michael. And I know that you were very successful selling franchises. So so, nice to see that you believed so much in the product that you actually purchased your own brokerage, just for the listeners out there, just to tell you a little bit about the childhood Pacific group, since Michael brought it up. So the Char would Pacific group owns the rights to Century 21 here. In Canada. We are 11,000 plus strong from coast to coast. They also own Uniqlo travel International, which is in 60 countries worldwide. Also, sent and financial, which is about over 200 brokerages from coast to coast mortgage. Sorry. Mortgage brokerage is from coast to coast and Real Property Management that specializes in residential property management. So I just want to give everyone since you brought it up everyone a little bit of background on that. So I really want to talk to you to talk about you, your growth of your brokerage and some of the tactics that you're using to recruit new agents. But before that, I want to spend some time talking about the support that you provide agents when they Joining. So more specifically, I want to talk about something that I think is extremely important in, maintaining the sustainability of the industry and that's helping new agents that come into the industry be successful in their careers with the current housing. Boom. Of course, you know, a lot of more people are exploring a career in real estate. Either. They've lost their job and the pandemic or the pandemic has pushed them to try something new. But more people are choosing real estate as a career. Also, I think that they know that the housing prices continue to increase. I think they might know the what a potential agent commission might be on a property sale and then they look at the equation and thank, you know, what? I can do that. But we all know that being a real estate agent, takes a lot of hard work and some of the new people coming into this industry, might not realize just how hard it is. In fact, some of the real estate agents don't even make it to their second year. So, I know Michael you're very involved in the association and the board. Did you have any statistics? Around the success of new agents coming into this industry. Yeah, well from my notes and everybody has a something a little bit different for the Vancouver or lower mainland area, where we are half the people that sign up for the course though, completed half the people that pass their exam, won't make it a year and those that make it a year half won't make it five years. So there is, there is a slow chisel down. But you know, no one goes into the business wanting to fail. That's, that's exactly. That's exactly it. It's the only reason why somebody fails and this business is lack of effort on their side and their brokerage aside and I do my best not to have those fingers pointed at us. So it's important when you hire someone to pick the right person. Yeah, that's great. And I know that your brokerage provides a lot of support to new agents and part of the support that you provide, we are going to get And to a lot of the details of the support that you provide but some of the support you provide is a mentorship program. And it's funny because someone last week said to me, mentorship is the new training. So why do you think a mentorship program is so important when helping new agents be successful? Because as you just said, the stats aren't looking good, I guess it, because that's how I was brought up. I had some great mentors over the years and different in different careers. Ears from a kid to out of school to here. And I think it's really important that when someone steps in this business, for the first time that you show them that you've got a plan for. So, since we bought the company, we started with designing a mentorship program because there was one, but it wasn't, it wasn't tangible. You can see. It was just all over their heads. And so every year we start building out stronger plans because every year something changes in this profession, We're going to talk about some of the lessons learned and as you say, you're continuously, improving this mentorship program, so we'll talk about that. But before we do that, can you talk a little bit about how your mentorship Works? Can you give us an overview? Yeah, it's simple because that's what I'm a simple guy. It's a three-prong approach. There's three departments that are directly involved in the mentorship program. First apartment is managing Brokers Department, contracts, wordings, Clauses Paragon, which is our back-end. System role. The data is for the real estate managing. Broker is responsible for the company license and the Agents license and the managing broker wants to make sure that the customers protected that the customer has the best wording that represents them in the purchase of a property or the sale of their property. The next apartment is the mentor. We have 20 mentors in this office out of 100. I think if we have a boat, 140 licenses today 16 of them started their career here with us. So that's pretty cool. Our mentors are making anywhere from 250 thousand to over a million dollars a year selling real estate. So to me, that's somebody that's full-time in the business, but more importantly they're good. My front desk tells me and my conveyance tells me that they're very good at their at their contracts and the documents managing broker doesn't have any issues in regards to Them being beside somebody new. And for me, it's it's for that new person to see that they're not supposed to be copying their Mentor, but to absorb that in order to have success in this business. You got to have a goal. You got to have a structure. You got to have a routine and a plan and all the mentors do. They're not flying from the seat of the pants. And, the more important part is the mentors there to help that new agent on their first three. Actions, whether it's three buyers, three sellers, but to stand beside the agent, when they're in a negotiation to help to help with that, with that process, because it is a difficult business. It's not rocket science, but it is difficult. And when you have somebody at your side, that's done, it, hundreds and hundreds of time. It gives you more assurance that you're doing it, right. Your customer loves the idea because they probably have a good relationship with the the new Agent. But they know the new agent is being treated, extremely well by The Brokerage, and then The Brokerage cares about the transaction is about to happen. And then, the third department is, is the marketing. It's, you know, it's it's your business plan. It's your focus at your goal. It's your website. It's your CRM. It's there. It's the marketing Center that the system has its the resource center to show you how to drive a car. And so when you have three departments that specialize in there, I call them super powers. Then that agent is being serviced a great way. Most other brokerages. It's one person doing everything and they were in that person's good at doing everything but they weren't amazing. So let's, let's have you being taught by someone. So amazing at contracts, amazing at my boots to the ground, being a professional realtor in the business and amazing at marketing business plan, strategy. Follow up. And that's what we design. Well, that sounds great. And it sounds like, as you said, you know, you've covered all the areas to help a new agent, be knowledgeable and really be confident in taking that step in their career. So, let's talk a little bit more about. I think you called it Department to, which is the actual mentors. You said, you had about 20 mentors. So, what exactly is the role of a mentor? So, if I was going to be a mentor for your brokerage, Michael, what would you say? My commitments needed to be? Be well, your your commitment is to be there for the new professional but not be spoon-feeding. The new professional the new professional has to stand up on their own and understand that you the mentor or busy doing your own business. So get caught up and catch up and stay beside the mentor. And the mentor is responsibility is to show the new professional what to do when that Next comes up. We're not here to teach you how to paint the wall blue. If you don't have any blue paint, that's kind of how I say it. It's it's follow. What they do. Mentor is going to let them Shadow them on doing open houses on doing showings ongoing it on a listing presentation. I'm submitting an offer or doing a buyers offer in person. As long as the mentor is customer allows it type of thing. So at the end of the day, the mentors there. Because most of the transactions are happening after hours, but in my opinion, from 5 p.m. To 10 p.m. And managing broker and office or nine to five people. So the mentor can step in after hours to give the managing broker and me for an example, a little bit more free time on our own because the mentor can handle all those questions or 97 percent of the questions. And if they can't then they come to us in the evening and then And help them. So it's part of a sharing of a workload, but the mentor gets compensated for, you know, and I think that, you know, as if I was a new agent, what I'd really appreciate about that relationship would be, you know, I can give, you know, you practice giving a listing presentation. You've got it all together. You can practice doing that. But you sometimes you can't foresee some of the obstacles you might run into. So being able to as you say, go on a listing presentation, if the customer allows that or just bouncing ideas off of someone, what if They say, you know, a customer said this, what would you say and really learning off of that person before you actually get to those obstacles? You're actually able to kind of forecast, what some of those obstacles are and have at least some information that you can that you can use to provide that great experience for potential clients. Yeah, it's, you know, they they help them answer the questions. If they get stuck, you know, everybody gets a little nervous, you know, and the other side of it, the mentor is going to tell the new professional. They're dealing with a real customer or, or not, you know, and most new people in this business. They hang on to the first five people that ever showed them an interest in real estate. And sometimes those five people could be the worst people to hang out with. And I'd rather, my my agents. What are their established or new be marketing for customers that they want? Rather than ones that have just Fallen their locker going to waste all their time and frustrate the whole process, right? So you talked a little a bit about you know, the qualifications and Mentor might have you know, someone that's in the real estate business full-time. Think you said anywhere between 250 to a million, you know that has good standings that you know provides a great level service to clients and I'm sure that they're collaborative to and they're great people. How do you choose that person? Do you just kind of look have a checklist and say okay this person maybe can be a mentor. Do they volunteer themselves? What what does that process look like? Both we reach out to a couple times a year to see if anybody wants to be a mentor. And then what we do is we tell them what that position is and describe it to them in detail, you know, we need when you hang out with a realtor for four years you understand who you think would be a good Mentor. And, you know, I have a couple of my office that I keep saying every year you'd be amazing at this and they just don't want to do it, so it's, you know, and but a lot of The ones that we have. Like I like I said, you know, 16 of them were in that position as a new person and maybe it's a little bit more competitive. They can do it a little bit better or they appreciated what they have and they want to they want to pay it back. So hard. Question to answer, we reach out, they reach out and it's a collaboration of best practices going forward, right? And what kind of qualities does a good Mentor have, you know? Sure, you've seen because you've run been running this program. I'm sure you've seen, like, just amazing mentors. What are some of the similarities that those amazing mentors have patience. They're, they're good. They're good listeners. They catch in between the lines that the scenarios they've been in a lot of different positions. In the real estate career, from dealing with tough, customers to simple deals. To cooperating Realtors on the other side. And maybe not so cooperating, but it's it's it's they treat it like a business. It's there in it full time. They know what their responsibilities are. And to me they I would want to be trained by a person or supported by a person that I choose in my company to be a mentor to. So it says a well-rounded professional and it's not, you know, how much money they make or how many transactions they do it. It's the process in which they go through it and how it comes into the office. All means a lot to my staff and management as well. Right? So what is let's look at the mentees side. Now, what, like, what does a process? What does that process look like it? Like, if I'm new agent to your office. How do I get matched with the perfect Mentor for me? Well, first you got to get hired, right? And so, we interview quite a few people on a weekly. Ali basis and the method to the madness. There there today is I do the first two three interviews, I do the I do a personality test. When they come in I walk them through a Coles notes version of what the mentorship program is and show them the effort that we put out if we like those two Hoops that will go in and do a formal presentation and I'll walk them through the whole platform of what the Century 21 system. Looks like from a from a World of you to Canada to local and then all the tools that the mentorship program has. So they see that we have a plan for them and to tell them that, in order for them to be here. They got to want, they got to ask to be here because they understand that they have to match the effort that we put in as well. And you know, I even hire some people that might have at the wear another hat to pay their bills, too. Because I was in that position as well. So I'm not saying you have to be Be, you have to be full time to start here. But at some point in your career, that's where I want you to be. So there's, there's, they have to ask to be here. And if they ask to be here, then I understand that I get it and they get it. They have to put a lot of effort in because there's no, I'm not saying anything. That's not going to happen. So as a mentee do I get to choose my mentor or what happens if you match me with someone and it's just not the right fish. Yeah, we used to do that. We used to say, Bob meet Sally, Sally Meet Bob, but we let the meant that the new professional meet a couple mentors that we feel are a match, not all 20 of my guys will want to Mentor them. They may be too busy, not busy going away or whatever. You have to search out some of our mentors, take more than one. I mean, I've got mentors have taken, you know, four or five at a time, and I'm starting to like that concept more work because you got two new professional sitting beside themselves. So they're not alone. Right? Even though we've got three departments. They still feel kind of alone. At least. That's how I'm seeing it over the years and years of doing this. So putting them in a collaboration with somebody else being trained by the same people as great. And it doesn't always stick, you know, sometimes sometimes it's the match isn't working. But you know, you got to make, you got to get these people to try harder and and, you know, there's always two sides to the story but I'm always the side of the mentor is. I ask them a lot of serious questions. What do you think? Why is it not working? What are you saying that they're not doing and we try to make it work and if it doesn't, there's Options in the office too, but we just we just don't let them hop from one to the other because that waste everybody's time, right? That's a good point. How long does this mentorship relationship last probably for the rest of their lives at least. Well, that's, you know, it's in. But on the books it's three Deals, but it's a relationship that you have forever. You know, I you know, I've got relationships with my first Door when I was a kid and I still see Jerry and I still golf with Jerry and it's, you know, these, you know, he's there. He needed to make a phone call. So it's, it's just and the different departments will have different times when they come in. So the new persons getting exposed to more faces and bodies in the office because everybody has different schedules, but it's the rationale is your building relationships for the rest of your life in this profession. Yes, and I think that that's, you know, like, any mentors that you have. Your career is that usually you do have them for the rest of your life. Right? Good one. Yeah. Yeah, if you if you're open to sharing this with the people that are listening today. How does a mentor get compensated for their time? Let's talk about what, you know, I'm sure they feel that they're giving back to the industry and they're helping coach and Mentor, you know, people new people into this industry. I'm sure there's a bunch of satisfaction with, you know, in that. But are they getting compensated financially to being a mentor? Oh, absolutely, because I don't know anybody that's worth their salt. That would do it for free. There's companies out there that say they will or charge you nothing but it's you know, you got to have a value proposition. So we put the the new professional on a split with the company and whatever the company split is. We share that with with the mentor so they get a majority of that. And then after their first three, transactions, the We can go to the, to the, the new mint. The mint tea or the new professional and say, congratulations. Now, you can pick from the menu that we have in the office at everybody. Chooses from, or do you want to stay in a mentorship program and and carry on or if the mentor is also a team leader. Do you want the opportunity of joining that team? Because now they both have have been usually 36 months together. They kind of know if it's going. To be a fit or not, to me. I don't care if they join a team of, they stand on their own two feet because we've got somebody really good within our firm. So, I forgot how long you said that, you were been running this mentorship program since the first day I bought the company. Okay. So, since 2000 and I think he said yeah 2005. So what are some of the I think you referance this at the very beginning of this episode is what are some of the Lessons Learned like you continue to Improve this mentorship program. What have been some of your key Lessons Learned. So, where did we screw up? Is that what you're asking about leave, you know, we made it. We made lots of mistakes in the process. Most of it. I would say is communication and follow up on a brokerage side. I think that's, that's key and and making sure that you're meeting with the mentors. Separately and your meeting with the new professionals separately and then you have to meet with your staff to make sure that the people that you're bringing in, aren't upsetting the workflow. I mean, you some, you know, sometimes you get somebody that just takes up so much time of staff and clerical and management that other people are waiting in line because this person either isn't getting it or to needy or what, and, you know, we've had that in the office in the past. I can't see it without we have that in the office today. So those are the things just, you know, your warning signs and and the biggest mistake. I made probably was not being as thorough as hiring as I am. Today. We're pretty good. I think we're really good at a process at the interview stage at an overview stage at a presentation stage, at then management. And I get the Together and we discuss are we happy? And then and then we go on. So our communication today is the best it's ever been. Great. I love that collaboration approach to make sure that you're getting the right person, right, because that is so important. It fun. You have a very robust mentorship program. So if someone wanted to, if a brokerage wanted to start their own mentorship program, what are some of the tips that you would give them? Call me all the other Brokers call, the Brokers that you're not going to compete with in your Marketplace that you have designed a or having design have formed a relationship with and talk it over. No, because every markets a little bit, is a little bit different, but at the end of the day, you want, you want to create an environment that you're, you have raving fans. Your office talks about the experiences that they have. They witness it online because you're, you're not only just putting pretty pictures up, but you're actually showing interaction with the office and the value that that they're getting. You. Don't be afraid of picking up the phone and calling an established. I'll do that, you know, is a good person just to see if you can talk to them about their business. It's it takes time to recruit. That's that's the biggest thing. It takes time to recruit established one and it takes time to recruit a new one. Some of the new guys that we meet that, I would love for them to have come work in the company. But if they go choose somebody else they make a decision. That's that's it. I always say, put your head down work, really, really hard for 6-12 months, but if I'm going to call you because I like you and I'm going to follow up on you and I got someone back that way but it's you got to get into a system. You got to get into a habit. This is your business, right? It's easier to do this when you're not trying to sell real estate on your own which, which I don't. So I don't want to compete with my agents. I don't think they want to compete with me either. So so let's get out there and work together nothing. But yeah, it's it all depends on what your structure is where you are, what your goal is for your Student. And sometimes that changes on this mentorship program really becomes a tool to recruit new agents. Because as you said and I love the term that you used is raving fans, right? You create a great experience for your agents and they love it. They're, you know, they're loving the culture. They're loving the support that you provide, then they just refer other agents to your brokerage. So it does become, you know, an important growth tool and in a perfect world. That's that's your ultimate goal. Great. So we talked about some details of your men. The ship program. Let's talk about some of the other support that you provide new and experienced agents in your brokerage when they join you. So, let's talk a little bit about when an agent's joins your brokerage. How do you ensure that? They're set up for Success from day one? Well, we have a process. Anybody that joins us whether they're do or established. There's there's there's communication from from the office of again, Who We Are. Management, contact information. Conveyance front desk, accounting, me what our roles are. What are, what are our emails and their cell numbers and stuff. Here are all the social media sites that you should be joining. So you can see, here's our our WhatsApp chat room, whatever it's going to be called. So Realtors can talk to each other to get ideas, you know from something simple. Who's a good painter? To something. Probably a little bit more complicated like we had one today. Is a special special this in coops. And I will oversee all that and most of the time I don't have to get in there. But for the agents that have Specialties I jump in and connect them that way. What was your question again? I kind of forgot. No, I was just I was just wondering about when an agent joins your brokerage. How do you ensure that? They're set up for Success from day one? And we're going to talk a little bit to about the structure of your management administrative teams, because I know that you have a very strong team and I know that over the time. That you've, you know, joint, you know, you started your brokerage, you've really restructured. Things to work very efficiently and really in the best interest of an agent. So I just want to understand a little bit about how that I'm going to call it onboarding works and how you provide support and what kind of support that you provide new agents when they join you. Yeah, and I guess, you know, over the years, you know, there's fingers pointing at at the company's to we we hired some people that we shouldn't have. Fire. We let them run a little bit longer than they should have as an employee. So and you find that out as well. But you know, now the way our structure is, is my managing broker Doug. He's our general manager. Everybody reports to Doug of all the staff. If Doug has an issue, he comes and sees me and Doug. And I collaborate about if we have to shake somebody's hand to say, goodbye or how do we work this out to make it be better for the The office, whether it's dealing with a staff member or one of the professionals, but it's again, it's communication. It's having regular meetings. I mean, when I started this, I wasn't having regular meetings. I was you know, I was always told if there was an issue but not when there's a good thing. So, you know, if you have a regular meeting and you ask the questions, everything's going well and you catch it before. It becomes an issue. Then you've got a really good system and having And having a good general manager, that understands the method to The Madness of running a business. Not only licensing rules and regulations but trust funds accounts software is important. And as an owner, it's equally as important that you're drinking the same Kool-Aid that they are. So you can actually go into the systems and see it yourself, not just rely on somebody else's fingers, pushing the button. Right. So we have you as the owner, we have dug as the general manager. I also know that you have, I think it's Angel and Natalya, my note, Natalia's, probably part of this concierge program that Century 21 provides. And so, can you tell me a little bit about the concierge program and the experience and agent. So if I was to come on board, you know, you you met with me, you liked me your management team like me. I'm starting day one. Whoa, what does that look like? And how do you Help me, leverage all of the tools and technology and support the Century 21 provides in order for me to be successful. Wow. Okay, we're gonna have to get in detail. Just, you know, an overview. Well, first off, I have Ariel and Allie d. As Aerials are conveyance amazingly knees, conveyance and property management and my CPA bookkeeper. So there. There instrumental as well. The onboarding process is a Angel at the front desk. She's the one from, when we say that, we want to hire someone, she sends all the contracts that paperwork stuff that's pre filled out. So it's easier for them to bring their licensing licensing. Whether it's a transfer or applying for a new one, then Natalia who yes, is are conveyed as our concierge. She's asking for bios headshots languages. She showing them all the social medias to join, if they're not. Good at that. She'll help them register for that. So it all depends we buddies different. So it's not cookie cutter it. You find out what you really have is after you hire the person. And so, but our job is to communicate and if that person isn't jumping through the hoops and submitting the information that we need, it comes back to me because I was the one that initiated it and we Chase. And if the person all of a sudden got somebody that it's seems like, it's too much an effort. We don't chase it anymore. And we'll, Just say, maybe this is the wrong place for you because we're working harder to get you to do something. That's so simple. But yeah, Natalia is the concierge and I think that's probably the best thing that I've done in a long time. Hated the idea when it came from corporate. I've told I've told that at the beginning, but you know, when I really started seeing the benefits, because you do get benefits because this person is promoting not only your company, not only myself but my Agents and adding extra support. Any time. Someone gets a listing gets a sold. Does something great in a charitable for matter for family stuff. She's there too. To help them promote it, you know, you get an award. The system has, I'm teen award levels. She helps package up the how the award is presented from corporate and and promotes that ourselves and gives it to everybody else. So it's, it's sometimes it's it's a job. That doesn't get as much. Rishi ation of respect as you think for the effort that goes in. But yeah, she doesn't. She does a great job and we're happy to have her, but we've had some great ones before that too. But yeah, it just keeps getting better. We just keep trying to get better. Yes. Well, we're we appreciate Italia's efforts here at Century 21 head office because she is a great brand ambassador. So it's really nice that she's there as almost like a safety net, you know, for new agents when they join you. If I you know need, you know some information or need guidance on how How to customize my website. She's there to help. So I think that, that's really absolutely terrific. Yeah. She does. Yeah, and Angel does it as well, like, we're all Angel Natalia and I are we know how to, you know, how to operate and drive the vehicle. So, you know, we're all their different times to help out, but it's, yeah, it's a good collaboration from not only the staff to each other, but for the staff to the agents as well, you talk a little bit about the WhatsApp chat. That you have going on with your, you know, your Realtors and, you know, someone has a question, specifically, a new agent has a question, you know, everyone's kind of chiming in to help that person. What else are you doing? To support your agents on an ongoing basis? Well, it's you know, it's it's a proactive reactive business. The WhatsApp group was really good, one of my agents who we hired introduced me to the concept because that takes a lot of time off your staff when someone instead of quoting Angel at the front desk and who are the good painters, you ask your group, your group of peers because everybody's got different Professionals in Their tool boat and it all depends on what part of the city that they're in Vancouver, is a big place, right? So, so there's photographers for Burnaby than there is for West fan. And same thing with painters and plumbers and stuff. So it's the support thing is, you know, whatever the agent needs, our job is to help them get it done. More of a point of training, the agent so then they can do it on their own. But there's some agents that we all know might not be the best at social media. So I'll Out my staff on the shoulder and and say hope this person out. Okay, and then but at the end of the day if we know that you can do it, but you're just getting lazy. Then we're going to scroll School, stand you up and say you got to stand up on your own two feet or you and and get this done because we're here to help you and train you to do that. And, you know, I follow Century 21 in town. And for those of you that are listening follows inch 21 in town or c21 careers, but I do follow you on social media. And I also know that you have weekly office meetings, and I know that you cover a wide variety of topics. So what are some of the topics that you talked about at your office meetings, and I know that you do a really good job promoting them too because a lot of times you get you'll get your guests to is, you know coming to your office meeting or you know streaming in through Zoom to do a little promo. To talk about the content that's coming up in your office meeting. Can you talk to me a little bit about that? Yeah, those that's probably one of our biggest challenges and it has always been from from day, one of having this company, is the topics that you talked about, or just listed, just sold mistakes that somebody in the office made in a contract, without putting them on a mat changes to regulations bringing in a well-respected. And lawyer to talk about the legal things, or an accountant or to talk about personal real estate corporations that you can, you can grow into, we used to do it outside the office when I bought the company into a older Hotel, then we brought it inside the office when we did the Renault to doing it since covid, on a weekly basis to try to find topic and sometimes you sit there and it's five o'clock on a Friday. And you go, what the hell are we talking about? Next week, then. We don't know. But it's, and then I go into my Century 21, Brokers managers, chat room and ask them for topics. So it's sometimes, you know, sometimes you'll get 18 people in our office and sometimes you'll get 55. It all depends on the flavor of the day or what we're talking about, but it's important that we continue to do it because people are showing up because they see a value and whether it's 18 people or 60 people, your supply, you're doing some sort of service for those people at that time for an hour, an hour and a half, at that time spot. And we just got to keep trying. We just got to keep trying to find the topics that interest people and that we can get your Realtors to dialogue with you. That is, that is probably the, the, the, the best advice I can give is, don't talk to them. Listen to them, talk and ask. Questions. Well, I like that. You use the Century 21 owners and managers Facebook group to to ask other Century 21. Brokerage owners, Uncle other Century 21, brokerage owners. What what are some of the topics that are resonating with their agents, right? Because, you know that will, you know, if you don't do the exact same topic, it might inspire you to think of something else and I'm leaving sir. So, let's now talk about you a little bit more your brokerage. And some of the growth that it's experience. So I know that twenty Twenty-One was a very strong year for you. I did some research on your brokerage based on my research. You've increased your agent count by 30% in a two-year time frame. So that's incredible. In addition in 2021. You are a grand Centurion office, which is the highest level of award that you can get and you're the 20th, largest office by production in Canada, and we have what four hundred offices in Canada from coast to coast and Is up seven spots since 2020. So congratulations. You've done a really good job in 2021. Yeah, it's well, we've been a grants and cheering office since the first year. So we were proud of that because I don't think a lot of offices in the world can say they're at the top one percent for. I think 16 years in a row and and growing and retaining is is the is the heartbeat of your brokerage and we we've had some we've had Some great successes. And we've had people leave, we've had other offices. Offering, you know, it's a race to the bottom when it comes to, you know, we're not going to charge you fees. If you come here and then you get the agent that will that will try to get you to match it. And I've been pretty damn good at not doing that. It's because then you got eyes on you, right? And I'm not here to work for free and there's if there's a cost there's a cost to do it. But but we over the last couple years. We really, really Focused on the process, and the systems that you're asking about, is the follow-up, the, the orientation, the implementation, because we put a lot of effort into the into everybody that we bring on and we're in this niche of hiring brand new Professionals in this office. And I think it's just because of the what we're saying out there to the world is come here and we'll help you will train you. You will support, you will give you a great opportunity to succeed and we're not hiring everybody with the pulse. I mean, I laugh when you see when you have Realtors come in, I go, how many Brokers have tried to hire you on the first day and they all put up their hands and it's not my style. It's you got. You've got to see what it is that we do. If you're brand-new to tell me that you're going to put the effort in and not waste my staff's time management time and my mentors time because that's more important to me. I I have 140 today. I'd love to have 141 and I'll get there but I'm going to get there with the right person for our gut feeling it that we have that we're going to bring on the right person. Yeah. Well, it's always so important to make sure that you bring the right person into a culture. That is exactly how you want it to be. What attracts we you know, you talked about, you've been focusing on your systems and your processes, what attracts agents to your brokerage. So you've had a 30% increase in the last two years. What are bringing In those people to your brokerage, specifically, will ownerships pretty cool. It is, this, it's, it's, I think it's a collaboration of what everybody's doing. You know, it were, what attracts people to come? And I have a sign outside. That says, that we're hiring. I have, in my opinion, the highest visible real estate office in the Lower. Mainland. We have a ton of walk-in business. We promote that Realtors are getting web leads, and floor leads and stuff like that. And we're training the person that's on floor to be the best. Because you even if if it's if it's three pieces brand location and you have an idiot that sits on floor. It's not going to work. So the brands working the locations working but strain the right person and have the right. Feel when they walk in the office, that they're being the respected. I've got great front desk, you know, that meets and greets and then the training of the right person, whether they're a newer person that sits on floor. A 20-year vet, they know what to do and they show up and they show up to work every day. So yeah, that's kind of, that's kind of it. You know, Michael, we've known each other for almost seven years coming up. In April, time goes by quickly and really since I've known you, you've always been focused on recruiting and I even know that some of the other brokerages out of The c21 Brokerage owners are coming to you for recruitment advice. So, what are you? In to recruit agents to your brokerage. And it's there any tips that you could give because I know that people are always trying to Rack your brains to say, you know, how can I better my recruitment process? And I know you have a lots of great ideas. It's more of a collaboration that one of the reasons why I'm in this system is because of the brokers in the system, right? It's, I can phone anybody and they'll either take the phone call right away or phone me back right away and the same way with with me. So, It's not all about recruiting. It's it's, you know, changes in the marketplace, different different rules and regulations that are coming in but it's you know, if mean speak so I have a new team concept. So people want to know what that is and I got that team concept from Paul Baran couple years ago more than a couple of years ago at a chairman Circle. So they were sharing, we give good ideas. We give best practices. Will tell you if we're, you think you're on the right track or you're not On the right track type of thing. So yeah, it's a good group of Brokers that will share whether either establish Brokers or newer, to the system. There's there's something that, that they're doing that, I like that. I'm going to reach out to as well and that helps all at the end game of recruiting and retaining is having good ideas shared by the many, right? And we have, you know, as you said you've got solid systems and processes and Place. We've got to revitalize Brown. We've got tons of technology and tools and everything agents need to be successful. How are you sharing that message? Like so what are some of your recruiting tactics? And you know, are they different these days than they were? Let's say five years ago, like have you shifted some of the things that you've been doing to get the message out there, to track agents to pick up the phone and call you? Yeah, it's the some of the tactics haven't changed. The the phone is the best tool that any broker could use. You have to be patient. You have to have a CRM that you can record your notes, and your conversations and because sometimes it takes a long time to fought to get that person to come over, especially if they're established realtor, and they're happy, where they are, where they are, and you and, and you can't compete with happy, right? You're the only way you can compete with Happy's, is you give it to them for free and that's not what this company does and record your notes because One day that person's going to phone you back and you can read your nose to see where you left off and carry it going forward. Instead of recapping everything. Having a presentation is probably one of the best things that I've done and I share that with with everybody when I any time I do a major update to the presentation. I use prezi.com. My nine-year-old. Son, showed me that back in the day and that was better than anything else that I've ever seen. So I still do that and you can share it. I post that on our broker managers Facebook. What do you think? And they catch a spelling mistake or something? They'll tell me or they'll join Prezi and will copy it and they'll they'll put their faces on email campaigns. I love bomb bomb, bomb bomb is huge as it pertains for me to reiterate, what I just presented. So after I do a presentation with somebody and there's numbers flying this and that I have it all templated. I get my fat face. Us on the screen. And I tell you again. What it is that we talked about to further, explain it, it set stone, it gets them to always ask them to reply in a video. It's, you know, your it's a, it's a little bit of a game in there, too. But it's, it's the follow-up CRM. If you have a good CRM and I don't care if you used the system CRM or any or another one, but you have to have a CRM that works. That's that's probably The biggest that in the phone of the best tools to have and having a presentation now is great and the challenge of the presentation is, you hear it all the time yourself. You just gotta change your mindset. That you remember, these guys have never seen this before and don't skip something. Say it like you would like you've said it a thousand times, because that's how you get good. Well, you know, we really, I'm sure on behalf of all the Brokers and the Century 21 family. We, you know, we really appreciate your generosity and and sharing, you know, your update your presentations because I know that a lot of people really appreciate that. So let's just stay on that for a second, you know in saying that because you are so, you know, free with you or you know, some of this great stuff that you're doing many of our c21 owners. Consider you a mentor. So, we've been talking about mentors. Well, they, you know, I had a gentleman on one of our c21 Brokers on in December and he said, you know what? Ask the question. Do you know what do knew what do Brokers need? When they, you know, when they start a new brokerage and he said someone like Michael a prairie. So you are, you are a mentor to others. So, just so there, you know, always wanted to pick up the phone and call you. So I'm just curious when they call you for advice. What are some of the questions they ask you? Well that one guy that you mentioned, he owes me money. So that's why you said that there was so low cam questions of the ask. It's like I think I kind of touched on it. Can you share your presentation? What are the new changes happening with you at Council? I see, I see that you've added. Some people. How are you? How are you doing that? It's, you know, it's all sorts of different things. I had the Good Ol Miller. Him ask me about high-end home selling and a specific status. Something that came out. It's there are such a big range of questions, but it's being able to answer them and and being available for them when they do have a question. So yeah, it's you know, the mentorship is dear to my heart. I've had some great mentors, I had, you know, as a kid Jerry shally when I worked at a golf course, he's, you know, one of my closest friends, I had run. Had Bob Bickerstaff president of an insurance company that brought me on put me in the mail room to start and I work for them for nine years. I've had a lot of mentors had Rushton a head office, right? And then, and so I had some really good at some phenomenal mentors, who turn into friends, who are confidence and stuff like that, and I just want to do that in this office and if someone wants to ask me what my team concept is absolutely, if someone wants to ask me what my fee. Sure is absolutely, as long as you're not in my immediate backyard, right? It's it's it's, you know, it's just being able to have a question or give an opinion. I'm pretty damn blunt when, when it comes to certain things. So I think people appreciate that, too. I don't sugarcoat too much and I'm there to help because I get, I get a lot of help from the system because I can call anybody and they'll help me out even phone. Some of our us guys. Manhattan. When the world was crumbling and covid iPhone, the biggest Century, 21, office downtown, New York and ask them what their life was like and what they're doing. I did that to Seattle. I did that the San Francisco. There's good people everywhere, as long as you try to connect with them. Well, that's actually a really good idea. Didn't know you did that. That's the value of the Century 21 system globally, right? Yeah, what are some tips that you would give? So you started your own brokerage c21 Brokers 2005. What are some tips? Give someone if they want to start their own brokerage. Okay, why bought an established one? It was about 30 people at a time. So it wasn't just the startup. I guess, you know, depends figure out your model of where you want to be. Do you want to be a retail location or an office on the 40th floor? Build out a budget of what you want to earn? In every year and then do your numbers and work backwards. It's, you've got it. You've got to be the, they won't come until the doors are open. That's always been that cliche that I've always heard in it. And it's so true. Build relationships have a great relationships with realtors that you'll probably never do business with but they'll share a lot of information on markets Intel and stuff like that. It's almost like how we say to our all our Realtors is Your biggest customers probably going to be someone that will never do business with you, but they'll tell you everything and refer you to everybody. I've get I got realtors that refer me to somebody that's brand-new because they know their office sucks at mentorship. That's that's phenomenal. I love those. Those are easy introductions. So it's build relationships deliver deliver, what you promised and be honest with it. That's great. We have two more questions before we wrap up and I really appreciate your time. So what are some of the you know, this could be a big question, but let's drill it down a little bit. In your opinion. What has been some of the major changes in the real estate industry lately. And what is your brokerage done to adapt to some of those changes? We are God, we still got changes going on. I think some of the major changes in our backyard. Probably government intervention. They keep trying to step in and and and, and change the rules and they haven't really done anything other than confuse the population. The web is probably the biggest one as it pertains to as a tool to get your message out there. So there's so much now on the web that a lot of it isn't even Current. And so the web social media is is by far. Another huge one is is getting your your image and your message out having a call to action. There's no point trying to recruit somebody without asking for a meeting opportunity or asking what their program is with their office or what they like, or what they don't like, but just being consistent being available big. Biggest changes. There's just been so many huge change covid. Jesus covid-19, big changes, scared everybody. But you know, after you talk to people that have been around for a while, like my dad and his friends and stuff. They had it worse than what we did. You know, it's that makes you feel a little bit better, but it, but it sure freaked you out. It made us be more report bases technology brought in a lot of stuff that we can all work in our pajamas, in our, in our homes, type of Thing. I got 5,000 feet here and I don't need it. But I love the space. So I want people to come back but it's it's creating that opportunity when you see a crisis coming and being able to have people that are better at certain things that you can go and talk to like my bank. My lawyer all those guys. I have good relationships with, you know, like like I said, I can call anybody George Paul, we do. Daddy, The Fulton girls cam. Patrick. These are all everybody has their own little superpowers, right? So I can reach out. I just talked to Chris Markham and Victoria about a couple things, you know, you know, everybody has something that they can share because you know Vancouver's a big place. We have lots of stuff that comes up and I know other people have gone through it. So biggest changes our understanding where the changes are coming from and not being surprised, you know, lots of reading on the regulations that are changing what your boards are doing. So what your we have a Real Estate Council that's controlled Now by our by our government, what are their intense and stuff, is being able to understand where your markets going? So, when you get the phone call from somebody that you don't say, I didn't know that was coming because that's the wrong person to be phoning. I hope that's how you answer that question, that, that is absolutely great. And I like it that, you know, keeping, you know, your pulse on what's Happening and being proactive and being knowledgeable, right? Not letting anything. You know, catch you off guard. And speaking of that, you know, in your career and it could be your complete lifetime. This does not have to be about the real estate industry. But what has been the biggest challenge that you've ever faced that ended up being a blessing in disguise. Biggest challenge that ever faced? Oh, I have a lot of challenges both personal and business. It's that's hard. It's you know, you're running your own business. You wake up unemployed every day. You gotta know. You gotta know what you're supposed to do. Heather says to me all the time. So what are you doing today? And, you know, I was in a spot a few years back or you know, I my systems weren't working. In databases crms are all kind of all over the place that I couldn't answer the question. But today, I can look on my computer my my device and I know where I'm going. I know what I have to do. I have I have support teams that can help me get there that I'm that I'm reporting to. I hired a coach to help us even get better at organizing Chris leaders guy Harry's. Static. I call him Doug's in my marriage counselor. You know those, I'm dealing with the challenges that we can see coming and I'm organized and I'm ready. Save your money, you know, there's all sorts of challenges. I don't have anything. That's that's keeping me up at night anymore. I used to, I used to have, you know, used to have some, some people that were working for you. That shouldn't be type of thing and And, you know, make sure that you understand that, Rick who used to be the president of Century. 21 International, I could get his last name. You told me one day. If there's anybody in your office that you don't want your picture taken with, don't have them in your office. So I got rid of those two. So it's, it's just surrounding yourself with the right people. So the challenges I guess were not surrounding myself with the right people. I think I've combated that and I think that's that's Paying off tenfold. And hopefully I'm smart enough to keep on that path, and push ahead. And if somebody wants to talk to you about what it is that you do, you can do it. Mentorship is huge. Friendship is even stronger. That's what you get from from from a good Mentor because that's somebody that you can go to for with a lot of stuff and it's not all about your business. It could be anything and having great friends. I'm so lucky. I got friends. That I grew up with is kids in the sandbox, like, the child would brothers and, you know, and I don't even name them all but they all know who they are and it's and that's important, right? And hiring people that you see that have that kind of secure behind them, because if you see someone that doesn't have it, that there's something wrong, right? It's the, you got to have a good social on the outside as you do on the inside to build a culture will make Michael. Thank you so much for sharing your superpowers. That's to be my new word superpowers with us. It's been really great to understand, you know in detail about your mentorship program, the support that you provide your agents and some of the things that you're doing to attract new agents to the business. So if anybody wants to reach out to you, how would they get ahold of you, Google me, Google, Michael abrash, 21 Vancouver.com or 6046 19. 22 23 is my cell or 6046 8559. One is my office. You can find me on social media or anything like that. Just reach out and I promise I'll get back to you. Well, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it. So nice for you to share your cell number. Thanks. So you're either listening to this podcast live or you're listening to this recording on Apple podcast Spotify or Google podcast, or of course, you went to the Century 21 franchise .c a website for those of you that might be interested Centre. E1 is one of the world's largest residential real estate company in the world, with a presence in 86 countries. And here in Canada. We are 11,000 plus strong. And we're looking to align ourselves with like-minded individuals who share the same vision for what the future of brokerages look like. So if you are interested in and growth opportunities, please feel free to reach out to me or my colleague Gary xalapa. You can reach us both through the Century, 21 franchise dot c a website or you can connect with me directly on LinkedIn. Or Facebook and we can set up a chat. So again, thank you so much for joining us and we hope to see you soon.