Small Town to the World Stage with Vanessa Oake Hogan

On this episode of the Real Estate: Real Success podcast, Chiyoko Kakino has an in-depth conversation with Vanessa Oake Hogan, CENTURY 21 United Realty Inc. Brokerage in Peterborough, ON, who shares how she took her small-town brokerage to the world stage. Watch to learn strategies and tips you can implement to help grow your own brokerage to international success.

Interested in opening your own brokerage? Learn more here: century21franchise.ca

Transcript

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here you are if you you are it 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 manages to find new ways to grow their business. I'm geococcino. And in this episode we're going to talk about all the initiatives that a small town brokerage is putting in place in order to get them to the world stage. So I'm super lucky and excited to be joined by Vanessa coven. She is the broker and owner of Century 21 United Realty in Peterborough, Ontario. So Vanessa, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you. Thanks for having me happy to be here. Excellent. So let's start off Vanessa, like tell everyone your background and your journey into real estate and really running your own broker. So what if you give us a little bit of a history Okay, so I grew up in real estate. My father was in real estate ever since before I was born. So I was always surrounded by it. And for the longest time, I think I thought I was going to get into the business but then something tweaked my interest in high school. I thought no I want to see what it's like to live in the big city. work for a big company, so after University, my plan was to travel and then come home come home and get a job and So I said to myself if when I get back from traveling if I don't get a job I'm going to sell real estate. So for my travels after University, I got my real estate license. So that was a long time ago. Has a backup plan and turned out after my travels. I got lucky and I did get a job in Toronto working for National Grocers in Human Resources. I was actually hiring Az Truck Drivers and it was really cool job, so I couldn't pass that up. So I did that was what that company for a little over eight years and then I got into a few sales jobs. And living in Toronto all this time and fast forward a few years and meet my husband we get married and we have two of our kids in Toronto and then my husband Ainsley gets the opportunity to move back to Peterborough. He's from Toronto, but I'm from here of course and we jumped at the chance because it's a great city to raise a family. So we moved back here have our third child and I'm just stayed home. Mom full-time loving it. Not even thinking about a career at this point and then as the kids got older and headed into school. I thought I need to get out of the house now. So I decided to get my license again and so started in 2013 without the plans of of taking over dad's business at all. I couldn't have envisioned that with three small kids and Ainsley running his own business, but over time it just made sense. So here we are today. It's been almost six years. I've been in the ownership role. wow, and you know it's it's interesting because your background in sales and recruiting and HR probably give you a lot of great experience to really run your own brokerage and we're going to talk a little bit about some of the great things that you're doing, but first of all, I just want to take congratulations because You're just recently inducted into the Junior Achievement Hall of Fame for Northern and Eastern Ontario business. So we're so proud of you that it's just excellent. I do also understand that your father was inducted back in 2018. And now the two of you together marked the first ever father daughter duel to receive this distinct distinction, so congratulations. Thank you. Feel like it must be emotional. I know I said you would text on the night and said, you know, this must be so emotional to get something like with your father right because yeah, we're gonna talk a little bit about carrying on, you know his legacy, but how did it feel Yeah, it was an emotional night for sure when I was first told that I was nominated. I couldn't believe it. I kind of fell over there were three agents here at the office that nominated me. And yeah, so just being nominated was really blew me away. In fact that Dad had received that award. So overall it was an emotional night. My parents were there and my kids were there my husband was there so, um, yeah, it was just really special especially to share that with Dad in the office here. They got behind me and a lot of them came to the event. So it was really special. Nothing. Congratulations again. Let's talk about your community Peterborough, Ontario. So can you give us a little bit of background on your brokerage and the market that it serves? Yes, so we actually my dad was I'm assuming one of the first Century 21 Canada franchise franchisees and he was 1977 1978 when he when he joined the brand so he had been operating his own brokerage of Boutique brokerage. If you'd call it that back in the day and it was looking for some support with training and you know that type of Direction so Century 21 was the perfect fit the perfect timing but at the time I think over the first few years Century 21 was growing there were four different Century 21 offices in our small town, which was probably I don't know. I'm guessing 65,000 people back then we're up to about 80,000 now, but Anyway over time we've become the only Century 21 office and the city and we service Peterborough on the courtes. So it's a really amazing area. It has two post-secondary schools. So we have Trent University and Sir Samford Fleming plus we now have a Seneca flight College. We have a really strong Arts culture here. We are surrounded by lakes lots of parks and trails and so it's like Hidden Gem I at least I thought it was hidden jump for a while over the last few years people found us out, but big trading area great place to live and we're about an hour and 15 minutes from Toronto. We have a tool Highway the 407 was put into place a few years ago a few years ago now maybe and it really sped up the commute into Toronto. So that's really allowed for us to grow as well. Vanessa, how many do you know how many agents are in your market area? Well, technically, you know, as as agents are trying to trade more outside of their own cities. There are more and more agents that have joined our board for access to data, but maybe their home board is drawer or Toronto area. I'm guessing maybe around 500 or so from our area. But on our board, I think we're around 800 on our real estate board pcar. Great. So as you said Vanessa, you know, your brokerage has a long history with Century 21, as you said your dad started the brokerage with Century 21. Well he converted to brokerage into Century 21 back in 1977 78 and of course you who is the second generation has continued to build on the success. So what made you I know that you said you got into real estate. You got your real estate license twice and then you started selling real estate and you didn't even think about owning your own, you know, or taking over the legacy of your father's business. What made you make that change what made you make that decision? Well, I think it was all timing. I mean when I first started selling our kids were just that much younger and it was all new to me and to be actually selling in the business and I think as the kids Grew Older they became more independent and Dad's a very good salesman and he didn't stop asking me right so he had been asking me for quite a few years and I had to tell him no a few times just because I didn't think it was the right decision for our family, but it was something I deep down wanted to do for a long time, but just didn't think it was going to fit into the family plan. But over time the timing became right and thank goodness. He hadn't sold it to somebody else because then I wouldn't have had this opportunity. So yeah something I always wanted to do. Price, you know, I'm sure that there's pros and cons to working with family. I you know, I think of myself I've ever work with work with my dad. You know, how how would that work it but you know, what advice would you give someone if they want to start a brokerage with a family member whether it's their father or their sister or their spouse? Is there any tips of advice that you would give them? I think that communication is key. I mean you can't. For one you have to communicate if something's bothering you can't let that Fester but also it's really important. If you can get on the same page with what your goals are for the organization lucky for us my dad and I think a lot of alike and it's funny. I'm sitting in the office that he sat in for so long and still some of his things are in these drawers and as I clean out, you know over time I come across some of his journals or you know School setting and it's like it's like we share a brain so I'm very lucky that way. It's not much of a stretch for us to get along and share the same direction and goals. So we're lucky. But yeah, I think communication would be very key. You're gonna work with family. Great communication has always key with everything isn't it? So we've just seen in the real estate industry in the last couple. That you're seeing in the industry and how are you adapting to them? So I think Tech is is key. Right? It's continually changing. We you can't get used to the tech you're using because it's gonna be different, you know, next year next month. Who knows so as painful as it is for the team. We're trying to just embrace all of the technology that's available to us because it doesn't prove efficiencies here and I feel a responsibility to our team to keep them up to speed. I mean sure we have lots of young agents that are very tech savvy but we have agents that have been here 40 years plus and they are so much tech savvy in certain areas. They do great but I think we always need to be pushing them to get comfortable because they need to keep up with the Way businesses is going I think the way people use our office has changed especially since covid we have a lot less people that are holding their own private office more and more working from home and needing to come into the office to meet with clients or just work for a few hours. So we have now free meeting areas for agents to use for their clients for their client meetings. Plus we have drop-in workspaces that are getting used and we're really happy to see that. So those are a couple of the major things I've seen. The of course you just renovated your brokerage. It looks fantastic it, you know, of course the represents the you know, what today's country 21 brand stands for which is contemporary modern and it's nice that you've been able to at the same time because you're going through that renovation stage your lab you're able to align kind of the layout right the physical environment to match the change that is taking place over the last couple years. Yeah. Yeah. So this all came about because of a flood right? So last March 2021 was when the flood happened and So it became an opportunity and so yeah, we've definitely redone the space in our using it differently and it's much more efficient. So we're happy about that. Let's talk about your growth for a few minutes because you're doing some amazing things. I know that you said you joined to head up your Brokerage in November 2016. You went from 70 agents. I think around that time to you have now 114. Yeah. Yeah agent so that is I did the calculation and that's the 63% increase in the number agents that you've had just over five years. So I also understand that your brokerage enjoys the largest market share in your area Plus in 2021. Your office was the number 20 is the largest office by production in the Century 21 world and that sort of 14,250 offices in 86 countries. So again, congratulations, just some amazing things. I know you've gone through some challenges like I'm sure the flood was a challenge, but you really your brokerage is really come up on top. So congratulations. Thank you. What do you think some of your key ingredients to that growth has been? Well, I think primarily our focuses are team our current team and how can we service them and meet their needs and there are varied needs, you know, when you have over 100 agents, they are all at different stages in their career different levels of experience different personalities. So I think by focusing on our team retentions always the number one priority. We we do our best to look after them. And I know our effort is is for sure our best and hopefully they feel we're delivering as well. But if you're looking after your team, it kind of looks after itself as far as that's something we can showcase that if you are part of this brokerage, this is the type of service you're going to expect so that's definitely number one. And then of course take it to social media and tell the story about what it is you do how you do it. So that's really worked. Well for us, I love social media for that because it's a very quick and easy way of explaining what it is you're working on and it's funny because we try to communicate in many different ways to our team of Agents about what's coming up what's happening, but and you can send emails with lists of of here's what's coming up in the next couple of weeks. But if you also then put a story on your social media, they see that that stands out to them more so it's really effective. And as far as recruiting goes, this is the first year. I've actually started measuring my and tracking what I'm doing. I was always making a big effort I thought but I really noticed a difference this year by just setting a simple goal of five calls a day and plus two times a week or I try to speak to two people a week that I haven't met that have joined our board and that discipline and tracking it and then my managers holding me accountable to that has made a huge difference. So so the and I I just love that, you know, I love having you know a goal every day and like being disciplined to actually do that. So five calls a day, you know, making sure that that's the one thing you need to treat before the end of the day because you know, especially when you know, if you're doing warm calls orally cold calls ready to keep putting up. Yeah, and you know so having that goal every day, then it doesn't seem such like such a big task, you know on the last day of the the week right? It's like now I got to call 25 people. Yeah, and it created some bite size chunks that are easy more easily digestible for someone. Yeah for sure. So King greens to growth we got retention. We have social media and we have recruiting when we when you were talking about retention. What does attract agents to your broker? She said, you know the level support but what what does attract if you were to ask any agent that recently joined you, you know, what attracted you to our brokerage? What would their answer be? I think it does come down to support we have a really large admin and management team. My dad always believed that manager shouldn't be selling so we have two managers that don't sell plus. I'm here full-time. So to have those people to call on. If you have questions, if you're in a situation you need help. If you need direction. There's that plus the admin team we're open seven days a week. So we have, you know, heard a live person answering the phones. We have an in-house marketing manager who does graphic design. She does marketing for us as a brokerage and she does marketing for the agents as well. Um, plus we have programs running all the time. So they're seeing that you know, there's certain coach coming in to talk to the group or Or we're bringing an experts up to our sales meetings all the different types of training and coaching that we provide seem to be what's differentiating differentiating us in our area right now. We've got a great value proposition to offer agents, you know, you talked a little bit about recruiting. So making sure that you're disciplined to making calls every single day. What else are you doing to recruit agents to your brokerage? Um, yeah, I think that socialist has been a big differentiator for us and whether it's holding a career Cafe and putting that out on social or we actually just shot some video that's going to showcase the different features of our office and what it's like to work here and what the space is like to be is we have an office here. We have an office in Lakefield that is a shared space. And so we've we're showcasing those two spaces in our video. So we're we're just constantly trying to tell our story and I think I think that's been the differentiator for sure. On as you said a little bit earlier. You also send out an email right that kind of talks about things your brokerage is doing then you hit them up on social media again. So you sometimes you need that frequency of messaging to actually get through, you know, all the Clutter out there. Yeah, so I have been that has made a big difference so that started because we've realized that when you I don't think it even matters how big your team as you're trying to communicate what's coming up what's happening. I need you to do this. It's hard people get bombarded with emails. They don't always read their emails. So we're trying to communicate them. I think communicate to them and maybe seven different ways, but one thing that's really worked is a newsletter. That's done at the end of every month that summarizes. This is what happened last month. This is what's coming up next month. All of the recordings from our sales meetings are in that newsletter any training we've done all the links that they may need. But then we've also created a version that we can share to our recruit our recruit list. So of all the agents on our board, there are about 120 that we think would be a great fit that we know. You know, I don't know everyone on a personal basis, but we are trading in an area where it's much different than Toronto where we do know most of the agents and so that specific targeted list is getting that information and I have as I make my phone calls they comment and and they would you know, even though we are on social for years telling people what we do until they saw that newsletter. They didn't realize how much we do. So it's a good summary so I do recommend that for sure. And I like the fact that you're taking like a newsletter you're already doing for, you know your agents and then you're tweaking it right you're using you're using all the work that you put into doing the newsletter and you're using that to you know, of course attract new agents your brokerage. So I think that that's great social media and newsletter and of course your discipline to calling what out of all that what's working best. Calls for sure. Yeah. Yeah. This goes back Basics. Yeah, and it's what, you know any coach would tell the agents to do you need to cross that you need to call your spear. You need to talk to them a certain number of times a year and There are days where you know you I don't know I would think a lot of other owners or whoever's recruiting feel this way. You feel like you're being a bit of a past and I often, you know, I hesitate don't like to bother people but you push yourself and and you go through that roster and you just make the calls, so it's definitely a differentiator. Great, and it's basic. I know and it's you know goes back to just the foundation of real estate. Right? It's a belly to belly business. It's like a phone call and call someone and that, you know, no matter what you're doing in real estate. That seems to be like the golden ticket to just you know, I know that we talked a little bit about what you're doing on social media, but I still want to talk a little bit more because you really upped your game in this area. So tell us what your overall social media strategy is. Um, honestly, it's it's not that structured it probably should be maybe that'll be what I try to tackle next year, but it's first having a Target as far as how much I'm posting. I don't watch a ton of TV. So my entertainment is sometimes tiktok and reels and I think watching you get ideas and you get inspired and you see how people are telling their story and then I try to translate it over to what we're doing here. I mean every almost every day every week There's they're exciting things happening here and I try to document that so um and reels are just such an easy way where you're keeping somebody's attention where you can quickly explain what's happening this week what's happening at this training session. So I do my best. I think I could even be better I could do better for sure. But yeah, so that's been working for sure. You know, it's interesting that you say that because I don't watch a lot of TV either and I do the same thing as you I go through social media and I look like I'm hooked up to like all the big Brands, you know in the world and I look at all the stuff things, you know that they're doing and I screenshot and I get inspired. Yeah and the songs like picking the fun songs and I do exactly what you do. Um, but I've been following you for a while on your social on your social channels, and I'm so proud of you like really you've come so far because I remember when I first met you you're more conservative you didn't want put yourself out there. You didn't want to do a lot of video and now you feel so comfortable and confident and it looks so fun like you make business look and real estate look fun, which it should be. So what tips would you give someone who felt the same way you did at the beginning? What tips would you give them to get them over that kind of nervous hump and be more visible and out there on social media. Well you guys as a brand really pushed us, you know the bomb bomb. Training sessions at conference and and that line people don't like how they look on video. Well, guess what? That's actually how you look so get over yourself and just keep doing it the more you do it the more comfortable you get and I think for me it becomes about the success of this company. It means more to me than my fear of getting on video. So I just was willing to do whatever it was going to take. So yeah, I think just keep keep doing it. Just put yourself out there. Well, I do fine because you know, I've been like you I you know, I do a lot of video and it's you know, our technology our social media channels are making it much more easier to do it fast because if you put too much thought into it if you have to do big Up and you have to like, you know, I used to the beginning. I used to take my video off my phone upload into YouTube run my caption fix all my captions download it again. Yes, so easy now right now. It's like, you know, you can edit on your iPhone. You can upload it your social media channels. Now, you can add all the captions super easy. It just generates Auto captions. Yeah good. Like it's just really easy now and I think that if I could give a tip to anybody like, you know, don't overthink. It just do something, you know easy and don't spend a lot of time doing it. Like just do it edit it add some captions and call it a day. Exactly. And as I was talking I was thinking I should give a shout out. There's a local guy here Neil Morton and Beyond the basically a marketing company right when I was getting into the business and the ownership role. He his company was growing and we connected we know each other from high school, but he was another person so that was pushing me to do video. So it was Century 21 Canada push and then he was pushing so listen to The Experts just good advice. I think excellent. Let's talk a little bit. You did give us a summary about some of the support. To provide your Realtors, but what are you doing if you can you know, what are you doing to help your realtor succeed and be more productive? So as a management team, we meet all the time. We try to plan out the year in advance. This is what we want to do. We're recognizing the different segments of our agent group. And so for new agents, we have an extensive new agent training program. They get a full binder with As are one of our managers Doug called Soup To Nuts training like everything from how to file how to work your file system to how to prospect how to the tech around the job and all that training. So there's new agent training there is coaching and accountability for individuals if they want it or we'll bring in different coaches through the year. We try the Ryan Serhant program this year. We that was delivered. We just everyone got access to his program watched at home and then we would get together once a week and discuss the takeaways. That's a really good program. We've used Rob Vivian for years to covid that. He stopped coming in because of covid but we've used him over the years. He's amazing Richard Robbins, and we have our own in-house program as well that we developed. Plus our sales meetings were always trying to bring an experts. You know, we've had political Representatives land planners lawyers that kind of thing trying to get the agents, but they need to do their job the Tactical things so Trying to do as much as we can. So you mentioned a little bit about your frame program that year and I think you call it the Elevate program. Yeah, so it's evolved. We've done a similar type of program for the last few years. And the main goal is to help agents that want accountability that wants some structure that one of business plan. So it's a full year commitment. We start typically we'll start at the end of the year planning for the following year. Help them identify their goals. How many transactions do you want to do next year? And how are you going to do that? You know are you're gonna call your Sphere for sure. But what are a couple other pillars you're gonna build for success and we help them work out the details of the plan. And then we meet once a month and check in and how they're doing with with their goal setting or with their goals, or are they meeting their targets? Like for me is that are you doing your five calls a day? Are you doing the things you said you're going to do and we also with this group try to do a bit of role play. We do scripts. We we talk about, you know challenges or objections. You're going to be coming up against in a listing presentation. There's a full agenda. We've planned for the year and it falls a typical flow of the business and we also generate leads for this team. So Um with the purpose of like internet leads, I'm not a huge fan of but it's a good training ground to teach them how to respond to leads. How many times should you be responding to that lead? Like just keeping them. It's something that we can train them on if they don't have anything else going on so I think the combinations been really good. We have marketing materials for them and tools they can use checklist systems. It's a pretty extensive program that we're really pleased with. It was a lot of work putting it together for sure. It I like the idea of you know, having that lead so you can actually walk through a real life situation. You can coach them along the way so I think that's a great idea. So this let's just say I wanted to I'm one of your agents Vanessa. I would love to be yeah, and I want to be part of this Elevate program because you know, I would like that. You know, how how does it cost something like how do I get involved? There's no cost and we would just sign you up. You would have a commitment to come to the meetings in a commitment to ensure you're following up with our lead. So we do track. Um, we use a lead generation company and it has a portal we can see how how long it's taking for agents to get back to the lead. So there's an expectation as far as how soon they should be getting back to these leads. So just meeting the expectations of the group if you're willing to do that. We're definitely gonna have you join our group and you said that you meet once a month is that group meeting once a month? Yeah. It's a group meeting. Yeah. Thank goodness. It's in person again. So yeah meeting together. That's now talk about your new agent onboarding program because you did say, you know new agents that come on board, especially new agents industry. They get a binder like tell us a little bit more detail around that is that is that like your program is that three months? Is it six months? Do you have a timeline or do you just you know customize that program to meet the needs of that particular agent or give me a little bit about that then on that. Yeah, we do customize it because everybody has different availability different schedules. So, um Doug and Andrew do most of the training with our new agents and they'll meet with the new agency with their schedules like and they'll set up a recurring schedule. It can take anywhere from two weeks to maybe two months depending on how busy that person is. It's best when there are a few agents starting together because they build those relationships they feed up each other as far as the questions go that kind of thing. So we we flow through the binder the topics and Yeah, they meet regularly Doug will often take them out to they can house and show them how to measure a house. They go through scenarios with how to do a you know, a fake listing list your own house you're doing offer on your house that kind of thing. So it's his Hands-On as possible. It does evolve because as we're talking about earlier it just the business continually evolves. So we try to change the program as needed but And we try to do our best as well to make sure that that everyone on our end as far as admin and management is doing their piece. So we use a sauna now, which is a project management software and we each have our own checklists in there tied to each new new recruit that's brought in to make sure that we're each doing our piece. Yeah. It's there a lot of moving Parts really and you don't want to drop the ball with when someone new joins the company, so we're doing our best to make sure it's smooth. I like that idea about having a sauna using that because then you can see everything at a glance. I've used Asana before and I think that's great for you all to stay organized and again accountable for doing your role right and helping that agent be successful. Mm-hmm. So with your sales meaning let's talk about your sales meetings for a minute. I know with your sales means you I think you just mentioned that you bring in Industry expert speakers. Tell us a little bit about the content and what you go over in your sales meetings and what that looks like. Yeah. So we had our sales

meeting this morning. It's Tuesdays at 9: 34:33

00. We do meet every week and every the second Tuesday of every month is a stats review. So Andrew one of our managers does a full a very detailed review of what happened the month prior what's happening here to date what's happening with showings and the presents it maybe in a different way each month and then there's a whole the backup slides and documents are available to the agents through I'm through Google storage. So that's a standing agenda item the second Tuesday of every month. And yeah, then we try to fill that in with sometimes our local real estate board will come in and do quick training on new tech. That's that's being brought into the agents. We had the mayor of one of the townships some join us a few weeks ago to talk about development that's happening in his Township. And that was really interesting. We had the Peterborough Economic Development Group come in and talk to us about you know, the different different types of companies that are trying to set up shop here in Peterborough and area and what they're looking for as far as land and and buildings warehouses that kind of thing. So just trying to connect our team with what's happening in the area at times lawyers come in they'll talk about estate planning or you know, what happens after the agreement of purchase and sale is complete. What's their part of the job? So we're just trying to give them tactical information. You know, what's happening in the city, whatever we can do that. They think is valuable is it weekly weekly sales meetings? It is weekly we've played around. I mean covid made us rethink everything. I know everyone's in that boat. You know it was soon for so long like everybody else and and we were always a weekly meeting and then we tried. Okay, let's just do once a month because as a zoom went on and on and on people started to lose a little interest in Zoom. So we thought okay, maybe if we meet once a month that's gonna work and started to work for a while and then it didn't so we've tried a few different things but some so right now it's zoom and in person we're getting maybe close to 30 that are coming out in person plus we have another group that's tuning in from home. We got a really new to a cool new tool called and it's an owl is the brand and it's a camera that sits in the meeting room where we're meeting and it will turn to whoever speaking so it can try maybe you guys have that too. That's new to us here. So that's been helpful for those that aren't comfortable coming in so Yeah. The you know, we actually don't have it, but I've heard of it. So that really that's a great way to create that kind of for the hybrid, you know, so yeah. in person and and also people that you know, because people have gotten into different behaviors too, right or maybe different childcare and so it's you know, it's nice that you've been able to be flexible for your agents but have that consistency So you talked a lot about training coaching. You got the training program Elevate you got new agent onboarding and training. What tips would you give someone if they want to start their own training program for their brokerage? So I think we've learned that it's not a one-size-fits-all like you're not going to find a program that everyone's going to come out to typically If someone knows how to do that. I'd love to hear what that looks like. But so I think it's about first start with your audience. Who are you trying to create this program for is it, you know agents that are doing five to ten deals a year and you want to help them get to you know, 15 to 20 deals a year or whatever that is. You got to understand who the audience is and then Build out the program one thing we do here is we've been lucky as I mentioned earlier to work with a lot of different coaches. I forgot to mention Chris leader. So all those coaches we take away different pieces and put together our program based on, you know, everything we've learned as a management team, so Yeah, it's it's extensive. You know, you got to do your lesson plans. You got a market it out. You got to make sure everyone in the brokerage is aware that this program is coming up and this is the commitment level so a lot of different layers, but I think it really comes down to understanding what you're trying to accomplish with the program. I like that kind of understanding like what the goal is and who am I talking to right is like really kind of segmenting your agent saying? Okay. This is a big opportunity for each my agents and my brokerage into growing both segments. So this is the segment that I'm going to talk to this is you know, what they have in common. This is what the outcome means to be and then developing a training program. So I think that's super smart and and great. So I know that your brokerage also part of your culture. I'm gonna say part of the at your heart of your culture of your brokerage is being involved in the community. So what drives your passion to give back to the community? Honestly for me starting out as the owner taken over from Dad, I just was you know stepping into his footsteps and doing what he had always done happy to do it. Not really don't know if I was passionate about it right off the bat. I mean, it was definitely something I was gonna do but as you over time you go through the work and but you actually get to be more connected to the recipients of you know that are receiving the funds that you're raising and you're seeing what they're doing with those funds. That's when you really get tied to these organizations and wanting to help them more and more. So yeah, and I think we're very fortunate and it's our duty to give back for sure. So we're really happy to be doing that and the team gets on board. They love being a part of it. I know you have some some big initiatives. So why don't you talk because you're there's some amazing things that you're doing. So, why don't you talk about some of your key fundraising niches? Yeah, so Dad 36 years ago started the Carlo swimathon over the years. He brought rotary in. He was always a part of rotary as well. So it's now the car look rotary swimathon and it's an annual event that we hold usually in February and it's a one hour swim. My dad would usually swim the full hour. But in order to increase the fundraising he would invite other teams to join in and they would relay jump in the pool just swim for a bit and in their costumes and in order for them to be a part of the Carlo swimathon, they would have to raise a certain amount of money. So typically that fundraiser would raise anywhere between 40 and 60,000 a year and through our affiliation with Century 21 25% of the proceeds go to Easter Seals, and then the rest goes to Rotary and they are involved in so many things in our community from a breakfast for kids program. We're a group of them going they do breakfast for children that are coming to school without food and as you know all the way through to Camp growth, it's a local camp on clear. Take that. They do a lot of contributions to that camp. We have great rotary trails that run through the city that are on our Old Railway bed and better now walking trails that people love so lots and lots of different things that they do for the community and We sponsor where the major sponsor of the local lacrosse team. So that's been really big they've had a few challenges with covid. They weren't able to play and and then they were having a facility issue. So they're getting back to a regular season. Finally. They're home openers this week. So that's gonna be good. But it's a big Sports town and Lacrosse is a big part of that. So that's been great. People are very grateful to see that support from our company to the team. And also we do a toy drive at the end of every year so through the Salvation Army so our team gets behind that as well. I think we raised around 15,000 last year. So every year it's about that amount of money and and the fun part is we go out and shop and we actually spend that money at the local stores and drop it off to the Salvation Army. So has a really huge impact. So it's a really brings a team together as well. It's good. Thank you. Much on behalf of Century 21 Canada to you and your you know, a c21u naked family members your agents in supporting all the things that you do because you know, it really makes a difference as you say you've seen it yourself. I think getting involved and you know, the the look The Local across team is always good for any brokerage owners of small towns, you know, because they tend to really rally around the local sports teams. So I think that's always a great thing too. If they want to you know, I'm gonna say increase the awareness of The Brokerage or get more involved in the community. Hmm what what are some tips? We talked a lot about growth. We talked a lot about retention giving back to the community. What are some tips that you would give brokerage owners if they wanted to grow their business, so maybe their business that just, you know, been basically maintained but they're like, you know, what 2022 at the rest of the year and going into 23 and further like I want to grow my business. So what are some tips you'd give them as I go back to what I said earlier that with our main goal being retention and what we do for our team because that's the most important part without our team being happy. You know, I can't put effort into recruiting if I'm not looking after everyone here and they become Advocates they you know, just through conversation you it comes up about things that are going on here. And I think the word of mouth is really helpful. So if you look after your agents, I think it's gonna help you for sure. And yeah, so I would pour into programs and support and training and coaching making your agent successful and you know, if you can to tell it talk about it on social media, that's really helpful. That's great. That's a great tip. You've had a journey and we've talked a little bit about your journey into real estate and the journey that you've had since you kind of join real estate and took over your father's Legacy. What are some words of wisdom that you wear someone would have told you more coming a brokerage owner. I think you just have to listen to your gut your gut always knows I I and I know that but I you know, sometimes I like to weigh in get other people to weigh in. What do you think of this? What do you think of that but deep down, you know, and I probably wasted a few years with with the what if so go with your gut pretty basic advice, but I think it's important. Yeah, I I agree with you and 21% because I'm like you sometimes if I get that input and you know, they've got a really strong, you know opinion or you know case on and I'm even though it's not feeling right with me. I'm kind of like, okay. Well try it because I want to be open and I should just listen to myself. So I agree with you it's basic but it's it's important. I think you can be too analytical. Sometimes I can be too analytical. Yeah, what what are some as you said, you know listen to your gun is kind of the key thing that you know, you could some advice you could you know, you wish someone would have set your you know to you when you're starting off being a brokerage owner what has been some of your key lessons learned over the years have there. Has there been things going? Oh, yeah. Okay, that's good. That's the lesson learned. I'm gonna make sure that I, you know learn from that and and move forward. That's a good question. I mean, I think things are going to happen and You just got to make the best of the situation I mean. We've had Agents come and go and and it's hurt but you have to just dig deep and say okay. Maybe you did. I play a role in that. What's my responsibility in that? What am I gonna do to make us better and move on and be kind and you know, never burn a bridge, right? You know, we've had agents leave and come back quite a few of them. So you never want to burn that bridge and some people just need to do what they need to do at times and you obviously need to let them do that and and just keep plugging away dig deeper work harder. Yeah. You know, I I really like that you said that because I think when you know even it's me, you know with you know, a team of people if someone leaves you, you know, it's so easy to go. Oh, well, you know you they didn't do this or anyhow, like it's always, you know, you could do excuses but instead and and I try to do exactly what you do is kind of reflect that point, you know, did I take part in that, you know, could I have done something differently, you know and it's always great to ask them. You know, it's you know, what do you like most? What did you not like, you know, what could I improve on as a leader? But I think it's always important to to reflect back. So I think that's a good point that you brought up. We are going to wrap up but I have one more question for you. What is the biggest challenge that you've ever faced in? Your life doesn't have to be real estate can be anything that ended up being a blessing in disguise. Well, I think there have been quite a few but one of them was this flood just the timing of it because we had just gone through covid. We're still in the middle of covid. It was March 2021. I mean, yes, our industry was one of the very lucky Industries through covid that thrived real estate was amazing, but it was also difficult because everyone was emotional and dealing with so much, you know, there were a lot of Personality things happening and so everyone was pretty tired and and then to to walk

into the office that night at 2: 48:34

30 in the morning and see the ceiling tiles falling and water just pouring through it was a plumbing flood. Um, I was like, okay, I just got it. I gotta make the best of this so and I think I don't know. We just we just dug deep and and we turned it around and and kept a smile on our faces and and this team here is amazing like We shuffled them around. We had them working at a small area and noise and like through the construction period and So, I don't know I think dig deep make lemons out of lemon or make lemonade of lemons and having a great team around you like I couldn't have done it without the team support. So That's one challenge you have you know, now you know, that was a major challenge that I could just imagine. I know actually I couldn't imagine doing walking and seeing that but now you have a fresh and contemporary newly branded, you know environment that is flexible to you know to today's realtor, right and what they want from a brokerage. So I'm just I'm so happy that you're able to just stay strong and working through that and and at the end of day, you know, you've got something great to to Showcase now. Yeah, we're really enjoying it. So Vanessa, someone wants you they're listening to this podcast or watching it live. How would they get a hold of you if they want to ask you a few more questions? Well, call me phone's dead,

right 7: 50:06

05. 743-444 Century 21 United Vanessa. O kogan on Facebook. So easy way to reach me too. So yeah, I'd love to talk to anybody. Excellent. Thank you Vanessa so much for joining us. I can't wait to see you in person. I know that we have our national conference September. So okay. I will see you there, but I really appreciate you joining us, and I really appreciate you sharing all the great things. Your brokerage is doing not only to support your agents, but also to give back to the community and and to grow your brokerage. So thank you so much for your time. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. You're either listening to this podcast live or you're listening to the recording on Apple podcast Spotify or Google podcasts or you went to the Century 21 franchise.ca website Century 21 is one of the world's largest residential real estate companies in the world with Presence at 86 countries in Canada. We are 11,000 plus strong and we're looking to our line our cells with like-minded individuals who share the same vision to what the future are broken just looks like so if you are interested in growth opportunities, please feel free to reach out to myself or my colleague Gary zalepa. You can find our contact information on Century 21 franchise.ca, or you can visit my Facebook page or my LinkedIn page and we can set up a chat. Anyways, thank you so much for being with us today.