On this episode of the Real Estate: Real Success podcast, Chiyoko Kakino has an in-depth discussion with Eryn Richardson and Peter Holgate from CENTURY 21 Heritage Group Ltd. Brokerage on what it takes to set Realtors up for success, not only for the new year but also for the lifetime of their careers.
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 discussion with Eryn Richardson and Peter Holgate from CENTURY 21 Heritage Group Ltd. Brokerage on what it takes to set Realtors up for success, not only for the new year but also for the lifetime of their careers.
Interested in opening your own brokerage? Learn more here
Welcome to the Real State. 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 chioggia keen on this episode. We're going to talk about what it takes to set agents up for Success. Not only for the new year, but also for the lifetime of their career, we're also going to discuss what it takes to set up a brokerage for success in 2022. So I'm Excited to be joined by Aaron Richardson. He is the managing partner of one of our biggest Century 21 brokerages in the greater Toronto area. It is c21 Heritage group and we are also joined by his managing broker from their new Hamilton office. Peter Holgate. So, thank you so much gentlemen for joining me today and happy New Year and uh happen here awesome. So let's start by getting to know you both a little bit better. So are let's start with you first. First, why don't you give us a quick snapshot of your career? Yeah, I started back 2005, so I don't about 17 years now. Going on 17 years partnered, up early in the in my career in the first year and we started a team or the top-selling team for the continuing ten years. And we were in, or we were part of the century on Honor Society. I became a broker and general manager in 2015, so I came on into a management. The team still selling, but I decided to take a management role in potential ownership in a company. So I wanted to go down that route and I partnered with Pam last year and now managing partner at Century 21 Heritage and we're so excited that you're partners with them. So and I'll give everyone a little bit of background on Pam, who's the founder Century 21 Heritage. But before that, Peter wanted to give us a quick overview of your background, I was going to say, I was selling real estate when Aaron was in diapers, but I guess we don't. Want to go there? Hi, I got my license in 1989. Although I had started in the business in 1983, doing some building and developing and it's sort of been a passion of mine throughout for the last 15 years. I've been specifically in the management of brokerages, building offices across Ontario everywhere from the GTA right up to Collinwood and Beyond. And so yeah, 30, 30 plus years. I guess they tell me. Wow, and I know Peter because I know you, I know you probably helped like hundred you've hired and recruited hundreds of agents to various brokerages. You've opened a number of different brokerages and got them set up for Success. So I have to ask I know that you've worked for other real estate brands in the past. So in your opinion, how does c21 differentiate itself from other brands that you've had experience with a great question shoko, and I have a very easy answer for you. I decided as much as it'll sound biased, it's not, it's quite sincere. I was awestruck at the way that Century 21 tends to and looks after its Realtors, you know, from the top down the brand, the recognition in the community, the tools, and all of the systems that they've got in place, making selling real estate a lot easier than I've ever seen in my entire career. So I'm really, really happy that That I'm here. I think the only regret I have is that it was in the last four or five years of my career. So, there you have it. Well, Peter, we're glad to have you part of the Century 21 family now, so I want to start off by talking a little bit about the overall growth of your brokerage, and then I want to specifically Focus the conversation in three areas. So, first thing I wanted to talk about how you're setting up realtors for success for the new year. The second thing I want to talk. Out is what you're doing. What? When Realtors join your brokerage to ensure that they're successful from day one. And the third thing is, we're going to talk about how you're going to ensure your Hamilton office, which, of course, is an expansion office for c21. Heritage group is perfectly positioned for growth. So, I hope that sounds good to the two of you. Perfect. Excellent. So Aaron, let's start off by talking about the overall growth journey of your brokerage, c21 Heritage group. So, again, to give everyone a little bit of background, I know. Oh, Erin mentioned, pans name, but Pamela Prescott is original, founder, c21 Heritage group. She if we're going to give a quick summary of her background. So she was actually real Remax agent that wanted to open her own brokerage. So she actually opened her own brokerage with home life. She had two agents have that time Groove that brokerage up to about 100 agents and then joined Century 21 with a hundred agents back in 1994. So since then she's grown The Brokerage with of course. Aaron's help and now Peters help to over 700 agents in eight offices. Of course, the newest newest office being in the Hamilton Ontario area. And as of Q3, 2021, c21 Heritage group is the 14th. Biggest company by production in the Century, 21 Global Network. So for those of you I'm always, you know, rambling off these numbers, but Century, 21 globally has 155,000 system. Burrs in fourteen thousand. Two hundred fifty offices in 86 countries. So the two of you and of course, to Pamela who hopefully is listening to us today, you know, congratulations for amazing accomplishment. So what do you think? Yes, thanks. So what do you think Aaron? Has been some of the key ingredients to your growth, over the recent years, to the growth of the company. The I mean, when I came on It was already a very sound Foundation. There was about 450 agents at the time when I came on as a management team member, I should say back in 2000 any was 14 and what we did was we just wanted to hear what I wanted to do is really to get the word out there that we were a choice in the marketplace and one thing Pam always said, we provide such an amazing support and technology and tools but we really didn't get the word out there as much as you know, we were the kind of the hidden secrets. Secret it. So, over the last five, six years. That's what we've really focused it on. Is just getting that word out there through the agents through organic growth. But also, you know, doing things like video and podcasts and using YouTube and pay-per-click AD campaign. So we really wanted to grow the knowledge base of what we provide here. And I think we've done that pretty successful over the last five six years. And that's why we're now over 700. Well, you know, Aaron and as you say You're trying to get the word out there of all the great things, you know, the one of the special things I find about c21 Heritage group is that you actually have realtors in your brokerage that are brand ambassadors for your company. You know, you've got a, you know, young, I'm going to say passionate entrepreneur liamail. She is so great at, you know, about talking about Century, 21, and she just lives and breathes the brand. So, when you have your own Realtors, you know, out there being so loud and proud about the brand, you know, you're doing a great job. Well, Exactly. I think if you set the bar and you set the example and getting into the, some of these technology and stuff, you know, and provide them with the tools of joke. You've done such a great job with the brand, bringing in those, whether it be social bricks or the different videos and that the technology order to get it in the hands of the realtor so they can not just say it. But I mean that brand just it was a great Rebrand as well and you've done a great job, providing us with those tools. So thank you for that to thank you. So Aaron, you know, you talked a little bit about the tools. Technology in the resources. What attracts agents to your company? Wow, the attracting to the company because I guess when you're at the company you see the you implement the tools to attract is a totally, you know, it's like a culture, right? You got to build the culture and you got to get it and like you said, the Liam ills of the world. We've got a lot of those that when they seek good things when other agency, good things happen at a brand, then they want to be a part of it. So building that culture I think is really important and every year. I mean, we talk You mentioned it earlier. But what are you doing this year to set these things up? Really have to re-evaluate yourself all the time. See what's new, What new technologies out there. But also what what can we do in order to focus on this year? Getting not just us saying good things but get our realtor saying, good things about us. Great. Well, that's you know, and I know that you do so much for your Realtors, you know, not only providing them the tools and the technology, and the resources and everything, but you know, your support is always there for them, and we're going to talk about that. A little bit later, and I know that, you know, we've had conversations here and you and I are always touching base. But you know and you you know, you're the management team has gone through some times in the last few weeks and you know creating that business plan for the new year. So I didn't want to talk about 20 22. We're going into the new year and I want to learn more about what c21 heritage group is doing to help their Realtors achieve their New Year's business goals, so you can eat. Tell us what your brokerage is doing to help Realtors be successful in 2022. Sure. Yeah, so we're, it's a perfect timing because we are going through a full strategic plan, with the company, and our management team. And I will say before, before we get to the next part about, let's say, talking about the business plan because I will is, if we don't have good managers, if we don't have good support, we, you know, we can have all the business planning but all we want in terms of, you know, getting on video and the support and all the rest of it. But if I just have to say, One of the things that sets us aside is having people like Peter and our other management team members. I can't do it all myself. Pam, couldn't do it all her. Like she she surrounds herself with people. I surround myself with good people and that's the first step going into 2822. First of all, having a company strategic plans to all the managers are on board. They all know what we want to get out there and do. Secondly, what we did was we did do one video this year and we had to kind of pivot with covid-19 rest of it. So we did one business plan video, so anytime As anytime somebody is saying Hey, listen, what about a business plan? And so what you missed our session last week, however, there's still a video on our YouTube channel. Go check out the video. And then, attend, our, we call it our coaching sessions on Monday. Now throat 2022. We
are going to have specific Monday, morning 10:00 coaching sessions, and put the agents through that, but hold them accountable. Because as we know, having a plan is one thing. But following up and consistently focusing on that plan every week. I think was going to be our biggest Um, challenge, but also how we've pivoted and sort of put something in place different for 2022, right? So so you talked about, so you have this, I'm going to call it on demand training video, that helps agents create their own business plan for the years. That what it is. Yes. Yeah exactly. They goes through the overview of, you know, what is it? What's what do you and what is involved in a good business plan? And we do have a resource. It's a PDF file. It's three pages, focuses on The the business that, you know, the people, you know, and then the next two are the people that you don't know and 85 percent of our business is foundational. So we focus on the people, you know, and we go through that in a video provide. The PDF YouTube is a great resource because it allows you to put clickable links. So you clickable link to the drive share on there for Century. 21 agents. They click on there that they get the business plan. They fill it in, and it into their managers, managers follow-up. And of course, attend the coaching sessions on Mondays great. So an agent goes through the process of You know, when they're setting themselves up for that for the year, they watched the on-demand training video, how to create a business plan. They got the PDF, they fill that in, as they're going through the video and then they attend the coaching section, seven session. Every Monday to make sure that they stay on track during that process, though. If I may, we have course, we try to instill in the agent, the fundamental issue and that is that they are the CEO of their own company. They are independent contractors. Yes, and the fundamental purpose of the business plan is to create a successful series of events that are going to take place in order to maximize their goals, being a money, you know, lifestyle, what have you? And at the end of the business planning session, we want to ensure that we're helping them to create that life work balance because you know, this business can get very hectic very quickly and a lot of Agents burn out because they're not We equipped to manage their personal life and augmented into their business life and it there's a not good. So we really purposefully, you know, put these elements into the business planning, starting from about the middle of December of the of the year, to about the end of January, to gear them up, and get them ready for the oncoming season, which around here really starts to tip up around the beginning of February. Great. Thanks for for adding that because I think, you know, I'm a big one too. I'm a planner. So I think business plans at the beginning of year are super, super important and Peter. I'm sure, you know, you just as you said, you know, so important for realtors to have that plan to be organized as they, you know, get into the new year. So they do have that work-life balance, right? Because you're not chaotic in your mind. You're actually planned because you have something in paper. So Peter as a managing broker, how you keeping your Realtors? For themselves over the year, you know, we all start new things, come January, 2020, to sometimes people go. I'm going to eat healthier. I'm going to go to the gym, you know, we were excited. We've got so much momentum and then, you know, a month to month into it. We kind of lose our momentum. So what are you doing to support them in their plan and how you ensuring that they stay motivated and focused, you know, I treat I treat the realtors. In this organization. We're one big happy family and I do What do you know joke, I have five children. Oh, I didn't know that. It's not that I treat them like children. I'm not saying that but I use the same principles of encouragement and nurturing. And, and, you know, following through with them. So I hold weekly meetings. They're automatically invited every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. And we talked about pertinent things, we talked about what's going on in the marketplace and I try to attract them with interesting new things each. Wait, I keep up-to-date with them on current affairs. It's Not Unusual for me, to pick up the phone and calls. Hey, how's it going? How are things doing? How did you do with your offer last night? We that engagement. I develop a relationship with them and not only did become better Realtors, but it helps to retain them in the, in the, in the group. If I notice and I do from time to time that somebody's not showing up on meetings. I haven't heard from them and say a week or two and I don't know what's going on. I'll say to Alison you. Have you heard from sewing sewing? As I say, no, I'll pick up the phone. I'll call what's going on. What can I do to help you? And at the end of every session, I tell them, look, if you need some help with something. I'm just a phone call away and they do, they sometimes call me at odd hours. But but they do and, you know, it helps to create that momentum within the office building environment. Well, you know, Peter, I love that Personal Touch because you know, we can get so used to sending emails. In tax Getty, no messaging over Facebook like you're picking up the phone, you know, you're talking to them. And, you know, I think that's what super, super important. So good job. That's awesome. So Aaron, let's come back to you. Now, as you're very familiar, with Century 21 believes in recognizing success. And so to see, 21 Heritage group, of course, we really have the Oscar of the real estate industry. You know, we have, of course, as you know, an award called the Centurion award and we have many other Awards. To and as an organisation, we recognize 2200 Award winners. In our Network, every single year. It's been fabulous. I think 2021 was probably the most Award winners we've ever had in our history. So, we have a very robust Awards program because recognizing success, is really at the heart of what we do at Century 21, and of course, it's award season. Right now. We're, you know, we're getting all the numbers together. So, can you tell me? I know, c21 Heritage group has had two. You know, during the pandemic and I know you're always looking at innovative ways to recognize your agent. So can you tell me some of the things that you're doing to recognize your agent success? Yeah. Sure. First of all, yeah, it has been difficult and it recognized recognitions so big and real estate and it makes people feel really like we care and how special is so you know, that is it's a very big part of our business plan to to continuously, I guess. Pivot because we like to, you know, congratulate in person. So, in the past, we've always had our, you know, we'd have an event that would kick off, either the year at the beginning of the year or event at the end of the year and we'd have the awards and Golden Heart Awards. And of course, the synturion is so likes ensuring a, such an like an amazing, a compliment accomplishment. It really is your to sort of top producer status. So over the last two years because we couldn't do that in in person. We wanted to make sure all the and synturion's Last year, we had to actually mail out because it was covid-19 a little more confined as to go face-to-face. We had to mail out individual Award winners gifts and thanking them as part of the system. And and that was with Aller since you're in Award winners. So we did the same thing this year, but we wanted to do more like a Brian defeating pop by. So we came out with engraved knives. We met a great lady revani fast. It does Cutco knives. And so each one. I got a phone call and either either a pop-by to their actual house or they drop by and give it in person. It was the award for either, you know, since you're doing double century in Grand and Century on, so we did that and then we will have an event. We do digital events in the last two years were having a digital event February 2nd. It was a great success last year. I mean again couldn't be in face-to-face but it really gave us an opportunity to get out there on social media. The award winners in Ashley. I think we have more engagement. That than anything we've ever done. So even you know, cut up certain videos and put those out there. So individual videos could be shared amongst the different Award winners as well. So we'll do all that again this year and I hear that maybe Century 21 and we'll get back to Something in person very shortly. We'll see how everything turns out in the spring but that's my goal. Is that not only with, you know, the Popeyes and the virtual but also, you know, getting back to face to face in the not too distant future will Be a hopefully. Something will happen in the spring. Well, yes, we hope to see our c21 family. Again. Of course, all of us are just dying to see each other again. But anyways, you know, congratulations on thinking outside the box, you know, and continue to be Innovative, no matter what's thrown in your way. So let's let's talk now about agents that join your brokerage. So whether they're experienced agents or whether their new agent. Sarin, what is the company doing to set Realtors up for Success? When they join your brokerage? Onboarding. It's a, it's this has been a 34 year every year re-tweak relook at. Just look at the best way to bring somebody into the system. Because I think that that is probably the hardest part of all of little state is getting that engine that train out of the station, you know, and getting all the right things in place and I think if, if I was to go back, you know, and start over. What would I do first? Second, third and fourth, put it into a package and deliver that to the agent. So that the Years of knowledge and all the management and all the different agents is provided feedback in the in the past is to put that into a program when we call it quick start and we've been doing quick starts for many many years, but it's evolved every single year even this year. Last year. We went on to the Google Classroom, you know, utilize that Google account and started utilizing and putting all our videos on there. And we have a we have a session of six individual sessions one-on-one with the agents that bring them through a business plan, getting up and going on. The Century 21 systems by the end of the sticks sessions. They will have all the Integrations with the technology. They'll have a business plan, double listing presentation of buying presentation and they'll know how to complete an offer and they'll know how to list their property. And if you have that as a components in the first six months of your real estate career all set up and going your first year, you'll be able to do, you know some great things great. So that's our program. So, there's again, just to summarize. So there's six sessions, one-on-one kind of coaching training mentoring for that person, you know, very specific outcomes for each session. How long did the sessions run? I'd say average an hour, Peter about an hour and Chicago, excuse me, Pardon Me. In addition to that the, the sessions all come with homework. And this is our accountability Factor. So, you know, they'll listen to the session, they'll do the work? They'll hand in their homework. It'll be evaluated and then we move on to the next session from there. So we find that to be very effective. Active the other, the other thing to along the way, you know, I always like to review their level of skill sets. How competent are they in doing a listing presentation and that's part of the Quick Start program, but I take it a step further. I'll do some role playing with them. I'll get them to be more comfortable in the environment that they're walking into, you know, multiple offers in Hamilton has been incredible. The last even two years and, you know, I'm constantly getting calls. Al's, you know, what's the best way to deal with this? What's the best way to deal with that? So we try to add that into the sessions as we go through. So that at the end of that, six weeks, like Aaron is saying we've got a very complete set of skills in place that have been rehearsed. And we've got the technology that we've adapted to. And now, we're a lean mean selling machine. If you will to coin a phrase. We you know what, I love the idea of role-playing because, you know, it's easy to go through the motions, you know, even to Script ready, but to actually be ready to, you know, answer and you know, overcome barriers in a conversation. I think that's what's critical and that's really what comes out in role-playing, right? Practice makes perfect. What are the things that? Sorry? Go ahead. Go ahead. Aaron. I was going to say that one of the things that really helped us and I found that you know, we have the six sessions and two years ago when Century 21 implemented, it was a two year as more than that, but they gave us the Google, the whole Google Suite of Tools and the drive was such a was such an important part of it, but the even the Google Sheets that we use, so we develop sheets. We have a great person is really good with excel in Google, Sheets and stuff. And she was able to develop a really nice system that puts all your agents and one call and say, when did they join? Where do they join from? One? Was their orientation QuickStart one through six checkmarks. How many times did they not show up? We know that. Like we know that agent sometimes, you know, and I can't make it or whatever. Is and they will dock them a point and if he gets three points where they didn't show up to a meeting then we'll have a conversation. Is this really a you know, is this really the right industry for you and have a serious conversation? Because if they're not going to complete those goals and they want you to do it like, in the end, the agents like, no. No, I love the accountability. Get mad at me because they're used to having a boss, right? And when they get into an industry, that doesn't have somebody was all over looking at. This is the kind of, you know, that kind of still want that. So at least with the first six months for saying, we'll give you that. And and then, as soon as they get in that habit, and get those systems in place, they find that it's all set up for them. So well, you know, and I love that you're using the G sweet account and you're promoting that, of course, you know, any agent that join Century 21 gets a free Google workplace account and I'm so glad that you're really leveraging it with your realtors in order to get them set up from day one. So we talked about your Quick Start program. Okay, so an agent That experience or new to the industry. They join your brokerage. You put them through the QuickStart program. They got you know, the basics are up and running. They're excited. You know, how do you continue to coach and educate your Realtors on an ongoing basis? Aaron coaching and education coaching mentorship. It's always it's the to Bud. Word, Buzz words, coming out of, you know, The Humper courses is, you know, look for a brokerage of provides that right? And and that's, you know, it in with the style. I mean, it helps with the size of us because we have so many managers non-selling, right? So we have 13 non-selling management team members that are there to support them. We even have, we have an inside sales person that I'm going to say, inside sales because she started off with inside as you're taking the leads coming in and qualifying. So she's now moved herself into a support role. So she's inside support for agents and she follows up to make sure, you know, how is your onboarding going, right? And against accountability factor and what Peter was saying earlier about, you know, Just touching base with them. Every now and them. Again if you're organized as the manager, you know, and you're going through your list and you've noticed certain person's production, as you know dropped and you know, haven't seen them in a while having making that phone call. Really, really helps all the technology in the world aside. It's it's making that phone call any one kind of going back to the days of so you had mentioned earlier about emails. God emails are worse crutch and if there is a problem that Happens in any organization, any person's business. It's usually either caused by improper communication, right? And can only be solved by proper communication. And if you go back and forth trying to solve an issue through email, you got a 20 percent chance of getting it resolved. So picking up that phone, it's so critical. Yeah, and you know, I know that's Century 21, Heritage group has a robust training program, a lot times. You share it on your social media. A channel. So anyone that wants to learn more, just go to the Century 21, Heritage Group by social media channels, but just before we move over to Peter, I just want to ask you one question. What are some tips that you would give someone, you know, a brokerage owner if they want to start a training program for the year. So everyone's, of course, you know, setting new goals. If someone wanted to create a training program, what are some pieces of advice? You'd give them. Well, you sit down, definitely look at the foundational stuff. The most important things first. Write them down. Right? And then, what are the other accomplish with you need to provide as as an additional support mechanisms, we break it down to foundational. Then we get into business building, which is, you know, how to business, build your business. There's compliance, whether things are doing wrong in the industry is causing issues, lead generation technology. So break it down, write it down, and then plug it in for the Year. You too. Eyes other, you know, depending on this again, I keep going back to the size of our companies. We are allowed to were able to do certain things allows us that that ability, but if you're a smaller company, you can utilize there's some great trainers out there. Right? We've the Fini, the Chris leaders, the Richard Robbins, you know, and there's there's some opportunities that we can run those courses. We still run those courses. While one in the spring. One in the fall. We do our own course and then the ongoing supports, but there's really good. Trinity's to bring in those courses. We then when we do the training, one of the things we've been able to sort of pivot during covid, is put it online. So just record it. There's your videos right record the video. Put it on YouTube. If you're really tacky, can start chopping up those videos and putting small 15-second segments out there on different channels. It's just get the word out there. We've had over 10,000 views on one of our videos that I've gotten phone calls from Beastie saying. I really love this. Tell a listing service you guys provide, can I join in your brokerage? It will not if you're from BC, but I can get you in touch with my area. I'm sure he does something out that way and so we don't referrals across the country. But yeah, sit down and make sure the Implement those least training sessions. I really am a big believer in our own training. It does help with the retention, the Agents come to us for the answers, obviously. Yeah, so I don't know what. Peter, you have anything to add or if you want to move on, think the topic. But the thing that I think is distinguish has it us from the other broker at the other companies is that like Aaron is saying, we record the live sessions that we do, but that's the pivotal issue, is that we do the live sessions. This is not a company where we hand. You a video say, go watch it and call me if you have any questions. No. No, we hold your hand all along the way. Make sure you understand. We've recorded the session so that you can Go back and review from time to time, and I always make that a point. And, you know, to that end, we've got great resources, Great Library of support, but we've got that Personal Touch initially and that's very important. So I think that's a great Point. Peter as you know, you have the training sessions recorded. So people can either watch them again because sometimes in training session, it's too much when you're watching it. First time you let him watch it. You two or three times. How do you? You know, we can you can Put on these training sessions. You can have the videos available for to watch on-demand. How are you encouraging as a managing broker? How are you? Encouraging your Realtors to invest in themselves by attending these training sessions. Well, as I said earlier, you know, I try to make the point that they're the CEO of their own business and it behooves them to, to invest the time and set the time aside to do the important things. And so, you know, if we These weekly sessions, we have the training programs in place. And if I find that they're not engaging, I'll engage them, you know, and you know to me it's the best way of creating that accountability factor and if you know, somebody's gone out on a listing presentation. I had a fellow called me last night and he was looking for pointers on, he's going into a difficult, multiple offer situation. So, we walked, we talked about Emma. I followed up with him this morning to see how it went. We went over some points, we can have another Oh, kick at it. So you have to have that constant interaction with, you know, with with your Realtors. It's a simple as that, that's one of the things, one of the things we implemented a few years back, which really helps was the 15-minute. Reminder before the session starts with the zoom alaikum, right? It was kind of a situation where we found we were having our Zoom meetings. Were giving the link out like a date a week before. We actually put it into the monthly. Of the zoom link. And if we found Zoom wasn't as, I mean, they had the tighten down on the security. We had a couple instances where we were hijacked and it wasn't it wasn't fun. And so what we did was he said we'll send it out, 15 minutes early as a security measure, but it ended up being a blessing because people started coming in more off because what happens with a real estate agent and it will see all this great training and forget about it, they'll forget and then but when they see it and then it pops up on their own once in 15 minutes. All clicking on that one. So that made a big difference. Well, you know, Aaron that's a perfect point because one of the reasons why we stream this podcast live on Facebook is because the notifications go out. So people, forgot they missed all the graphics. We've sent out over the last past week, you know, it's like, it's that instant reminder. So I think that's a really good tip for anyone out there. That's when, you know, wants to get more engagement in their training sessions. So I just want to move over and I want to Pivot a bit, but it's not really pivoting because it's staying on topic, but I want to talk about the importance of automation. Because I believe that automation helps realtors that be more effective at not only generating leads building their referral Network and taking care of their clients, of course, because now they have more time if they're, they've automated some things and some tasks that they do, but I also gives them time to invest into themselves, right? Go to these training sessions, you know, and learn more and make sure that their skills are sharp. And so Aaron, can you tell me what you think some of the benefits of automation are and what century one Heritage group is doing to you know, to offer their agents, you know, technology. Automated technology to be much more effective. Absolutely. I'm a big brand of Feeney fan. Everybody knows that I focused a lot of my energy and a business plan on the 85% of the foundational stuff in your business. And the number one thing on the business plan, in terms of the actions that you would want to incorporate into. The business plan is just a simple newsletter, and I'm not by email, I'm talking. Physical mailed out, newsletters. We provide that service. But you can, we can't do it without organizing the list of contacts with their names, addresses and phone numbers. So but it's an automated system. I've been sending a newsletter now going on, 17 years, and if there isn't somebody on that list, those people that know me that hasn't thought about me as real estate, you know, they'll be crazy. Right? I mean, you're staying in contact now, of course, you're going to make your calls. You can make your Popeyes, your note. Guards and all the great things, but if you don't have the automation, you're not going to catch the person consistently in the right time that they're either looking to give out a referral moving, buying investing, etc. Etc. So, if you're not organized your, you're definitely, I mean that is the number one thing that Pam Prescott when I started as a as a mentor, she got me doing year one, send out that newsletter. I've never looked back. Even though I'm in management. I would never stop using that newsletter ever and it. Only be done through a good CRM system that in, and you've got the emails in the automation, that go out as well. And I always will say 30 percent effective emails or 30% effect of the paper, is the higher percentage, but you're still going to New 30 percent, right? And having that CRM do that for you is as is really important and it catches you when you're just didn't hit them at the right time or even contact them. We got too busy and all the rest of it. So, automations number one, even a pie. Got to even above. Well, you have to have the relationship. So relationships are number one, automations number two, and then, of course, all the good stuff after. So, but automation, really helps you build those relationships, right? So because it takes care of, you know, always staying top of Mind. Whether it's, you know, because I know c21 Heritage goop, you know, offers a robust CRM with, you know, campaigns keep in touch campaigns and helps Realtors, you know, stay top of mind with their sphere of influence, but I know we also have, you know, platform social media platform back at you media. That again, hooking up some of the social media channels. Just make sure that you're there, that as a realtor, your presence is there. And then again, you could be picking up the phone going back to Peter, making that personal, you know, a phone call to your clients and creating that relationships building that trust and doing all the things that really Realtors just love doing. So I got you back at you was. I mean, I coached a really new newer realtor. She was about a year in this year. She over doubled her income this year and one of the things that we really helped her she called me. She's Erin. I got all my systems up when going and she she should have really, really well this year. She called me. She said I just got a lead from back at you. It was the home evaluation. It's such a simple automation. It's like down the list of things that in terms of this most. Important but that caught her it just got happened to gotten the getting the right persons computer at the right time and it popped up and she got the listing and then she sold it and obviously it contributed to her success in 2022. So well, that's a great testimonial. So, Peter, I know that we've been having a conversation, but I want to go back to you. So, you know, we've talked about, you know, training programs and how they can be effective at helping Realtors be successful. We've talked about we've talked about the importance of Technology automation at making, Realtors much more efficient and effective. What else is important in helping Realtors succeed, but they, you know, basically, making sure that they've got all the things that, you know, that they need the support of the office is a key feature here. In Hamilton. We have an excellent front desk girl. That is very responsive the agents, find it to be very, you know, well, Educated as are. And I picked up right at the beginning of this session. You know, it's important to have somebody go to person that can kind of filter all the things that, you know, don't need to come to us necessarily. And then from there, it gives us the opportunity to kind of fine tune, the other things that they're, that they're needing. I think the Realtors what, you know what I have found in this, may fly in the face of a lot of people right now. There seems to be this, you know, Buzz around that, you know, no, the cyber world is taken over. A, you can work from home. You can work from a Timmy's or what have you. I'm noticing a real Trend to moving back to a bricks-and-mortar full service brokerage. And I think that here in Hamilton is becoming very prevalent to me. That it's an attractive feature to Century, 21, Heritage group. So we're building on that. We've you know, we've taken steps to make sure that we've got a nice environment. Armament, you know, we've got a friendly office, you know, open concept, you know, it's bright and, and, you know, we've got boardrooms and closing rooms and even inside offices, which have been unheard of for the last couple of years, but I can see in the next few months, as things start to open back up, Hamilton office is going to be very attractive to a lot of the realtors that are in this community. Well, you know, I've seen pictures of your Hamilton office Peter and it looks so contemporary, of course. A new brand looks fantastic, but you've really taken the new design package around the new brand of really implemented it so well in the Hamilton office, so it looks absolutely fantastic that kudos to Aaron Richardson because it's brilliant when he comes to that stuff and the technology and the automation. He is impressed the hell out of me over the last couple of years. So hopefully, we can keep this going as we as we build the numbers here, but so far so good. Well, he impresses all of us in the At work here at c21 sure does so Peter, what else? What do you do to provide support and Leadership to your Realtors on an ongoing basis? I know you're big on support, you've talked about it already during this podcast, you know, tell us tell us, you know, is it a system that you use? Is it did you just go by your heart? Yeah, you know, what a lot of it is is experience. You know, I'm 30 odd years, you know, the quite frankly Joe goes in my opinion. The business hasn't changed in the last 30 or Odd years, if I was going to walk into a listing Presentation tomorrow, the way I'd handle, it's pretty much the same. Now the Prelude to that, you know, with the technology and the emails and the presentation and all that stuff, PDFs, and all that great. But when the you know, when Boots meet the the floor, I think the presentation is pretty much the same. So I think it's important that the Realtors be able to distinguish that this is a belly-to-belly. Business. It always has been and if you're going to try and sell something over the telephone, good luck, you know, can you sell something over the zoom? While you have covid has proven that we can do that? It's not the greatest environment. But you know, you can do it if you have to, but it's still a very personable business. And I think, you know, in attracting the agents to this office, I think will be well accomplished by, you know, creating that atmosphere. And I think the other thing too that I've, you know, that, I have found in Years Gone by and it's still true today is that if you build a good office with a compliment of good agents and you can, you know, you can sort of anoint them into being your ambassadors and they go out, they will attract like-minded agents which makes our job really easy because, you know, if you got a team that's working well together and there's no friction inside and so on and so forth, you know, those numbers will build exponentially and that's Really? What we set our minds to hear. You know, I opened this office just before covid with the 17 agents and we're 45 today, even though it was covid that I can tell you, make no bones, you know, that the end of this year. I think you'll be surprised at our numbers. We've set our goal for 100 and it might be, it might sound aggressive, but I think it's completely attainable and jobs. That's, that's really great. And I agree with you 121 percent. So, you know, let's continue talking about the Hamilton office. It's a new office. As you said opened, just before covid has a great environment. You're building an already great culture because, you know, it's kind of like minded individuals that are all working there, but it's a newer market for, you know, Century 21. So what do you think is important for realtors or to realtors in joining a brokerage? Like what are they looking for? You work with the number of different brands before? What are they looking for? Century 21, Heritage groups. Business for 30 some odd years, or at least Pamela, Prescott been in business for 34 years. So have I we're not going anywhere tomorrow. We're a well-established brokerage for financially sound, and we've now stretched our arms out into the Hamilton Market. With really nice digs here, you know, promoting the Century 21 brand, we've got, you know, electronic Billboards out on the highways that are pointed Direction into the location. We've got flags up in the park with Great parking lot here. We're next door to a major credit union. So we get traffic coming in all the time. So I think, you know, as we continue to expand our presence and acknowledgement in the community. I think this filters down to the realtors in the community and they get the, come believe it or not. Just before this segment. I had an agent from a competing brand, a big competing brand called me and asked me if I would talk to this agent that he Thought would really benefit by being at Century 21. Now, if that isn't, you know, accolades for what we're doing here. I don't know. What is. Well, that's great. And when you can, you've grown The Brokerage already 245 agents when you're talking about them, what has drawn them to, you know, your brokerage like what are they? Are they looking for our Realtors these days looking for technology? Because again, we're, you know, we're doing this hybrid remote working. Are they looking for it, you know, one-on-one support and and and coaching and Leadership. What are what are people looking what our Realtors looking for these days? The biggest complaint that I've fielded over the last say, six months is that I can never get, hold of my manager or, you know, there's nobody at the office that can help me. I can't tell you. The number of times I've had that call. As Aaron said earlier. We have a staff of 13 management that are non selling, you know, we're here, you know, Monday to Friday, Monday to Sunday. Whatever the hours are we spell each? Off. But you can get hold of us. We're here to help you. I think that's a Paramount importance to the realtor. The technology is great. But the implementation of the technology to, I think I think Brian buffini said it better than anybody, when the technology replaces, your principles, your lost. So if you don't have the foundation, if you don't have those skill sets, if you don't have that ability to use technology to advance your business, you need help. And And we're the ones that can help you. Well, I know PR. You always talk support support support. As you say you're available 24/7. You're always there. You're always carrying about your Realtors. You're picking up that phone, you're doing whatever you can. And so I think that's such a special part about you. And I think that's, you know, really differentiates your office in your Market is going to make you very successful there. So I'm looking forward to seeing that hundred agent count at the end of the year. Thank you. What are you doing? You know, we talked a little bit about billboard. Just kind of increasing the awareness. What are you doing to recruit new agents to your brokerage? Because again, you've had a significant growth, you know in the last two years coming up two years probably and you've got some aggressive goals. What are you doing to recruit agents to your brokerage? What are some tips? You can give people out there. You know what, one of the best tips is right in our system. It's that joins Century 21 PDF. What we did was, you know, when covid hit. I took that little PDF and I would, I would phone the prospect. T', you know, I call them suspects until they turn into prospects and I would set up a zoom meeting with them and I would go through that high level, what c21 heritage group all about. And at the end of that session, I'd say that I would take 15 20 minutes. Are you interested in learning more? And if the answer was yes, then we set up a time and and we bring them on board and it worked like that. So that to me was a very effective tool for dealing with Colvin. I was saying this The other day, I you know, I'm going to have to rethink this because even when covid is gone, I'm not so sure. That I won't keep using that that program because it works really well. In a zoom environment, like me talking to you 3,000 miles away. It's like we could reach out and touch each other. So it is really good from that perspective. The other thing we use for recruiting here is is basically, you know, calling the agents and seeing if they're happy, where they are and a lot of them, you know, will you will Complain, about certain things is always something and you always grab a recruit at the time when something has gone terribly wrong in their current environment. So it's a matter of keeping in touch with them. So that's ERM. Is it just for the Realtors? I use it daily. I have my task manager up there. I have the calls. I have to make, but more importantly, I've got 13 accountability partners and and, you know, Deb errands mentioned Debbie errands mentioned, you did you follow up with soda? And we do this back and forth. You know, I might have a lead for Thornhill or I might have a lead for Isabel up in Bradford and you'll did you get hold of someone so yeah, okay, and and we work back and forth. So recruiting is always at the top of mind. It's the first thing to do. Every day, when I come into the office, I have my five calls are my ten calls, and I make them, I make them religiously and I think that's one of the reasons that we've been successful at growing. The, The Brokerage. And I love the idea of having that accountability partner, right? You've got as you said, 13 partners that you're holding each other accountable. That's not important. Right? Like it's always in the back of your mind that, you know, someone's going to follow up or someone's going to make sure that you're doing what you need to do in order to take the business to the next level 1 and on, you know, Monday afternoons
at 2:00. We have a manager's meeting. Guess what's at the bottom of the manager's meeting? Well, how many did you recruit this week? Well, what happened? Well, how come that didn't go together or whatever and it's great. I think we all look forward to it. It's it helps keep us sharp and and it keeps us focused on on the real priority. That's great. I heard a rumor that Pamela wants a thousand by the end of three year period so great. It's always good. It's always good to have that rallying cry. I do believe in rallying cry. Keeps us all like focused before. I ask both of you one. Final question. Peter. Is there anything else we haven't discussed? That's really important. And making like a good broker or a good brokerage. Is there anything else? I think you have to be, you know, invested in what you're doing. I think being an absentee broker is just not a viable thing to do. I think if you're if you are the broker, I think it behooves you to be the broker and to, you know, put in whatever is necessary to create, you know, an environment where people feel that they can grow. And, you know, we're all human beings at the end of of the day, is to so much more than a computer. I think you have to give praise, where praise is due and I think you have to do it, you know, nurture people that that need nurturing. And I think from their successful arrive, you know, having said that I've seen a lot of top sales people become Brokers and we joke about it, but it's not a joke. They get just get broker and broker and broker. And it's because they just don't have that skill set to run a Edge in not only inefficient but a productive manner. So, you know, I joke I could go on and go on and go on. It's not a simple question to answer right now. We're giving you some ideas as to what I think about it. Yeah, and I like what I like with Peter just said there and Peter does such a great job as a focus on what you're good at and what you're not just good at what you enjoy doing, Peter loves helping other agents and that's what Peter's focused on doing. You have so many people out there, especially from a more. Management perspective, whatever that are also doing sales and focusing on their family, their sales there. This is so many things that you, you know, you can't do one thing really, really well. And and Peter does such a great job with the agents that you can see that, you know, so exactly just said, focus on what you do well and that's what he does. Well, you know, this podcast to is all about successes right, brokerage successes and there's been a trend in the conversations that I've had, you know, during all these episodes about, you know, just about really kind of Really good, successful Brokers are brokers, who are engaged in the business or passionate they love what they're doing. They love helping and coaching their Realtors. They love seeing the Realtors be successful. Like that's what makes them, you know, happy and and and fulfilled in their careers. So, I think what you're doing is great. And if again, hats off to Century 21 Heritage group, So this is my final question. I asked everybody this what is your biggest challenge you've ever faced? So it doesn't have to be just in the real estate industry or your career in the real estate. It could be just in your whole lifetime. What's the biggest challenge you've ever faced? That ended up being a blessing. So Peter, let's start with you. Okay. Well, I was going to say the heart attack that I survived and here I am today, but I've got a better one than that. Few years ago. We had a team, a very profitable team in one of our other offices and she decided that she wanted to move to another brokerage. You know, that grass is greener on the other side of the fence and it would be a huge loss to us. We did everything possible to Urge her to stay. But despite that she chose to go and we wished her. Well, and we sort of looked our wounds as she walked out the door. Interestingly enough. That was the challenge, the blessing after not too long of a period. She realized that where she had gone was not all it was cracked up to be and it was over cell and under-delivered in her mind. So she came back to us gratefully. She came back to us. She can. Continues to be a top team in our organization. We love having her. As part of our team. She's become a very strong ambassador to Century, 21, Heritage group, and to that end. You know, the challenge and the blessing arrived. Oh, that's a great story. Aaron. Aaron. What about you? Why? I, you know, I think back to, you know, things through my life and everything and I've listen I am really privileged to live in Canada privilege to be healthy and and be with great people surround myself with a great environment. And so I can't say that I've been through really, really tough times. And I'm going to say like we all think that, you know, because we have our own expectation with a tough time. Really is I think from a business standpoint two years ago when I was buying in to century 21st buying and it wasn't a buying and it was a partnership that Pam and I came home came along to an agreement with and it was a great opportunity for me and I thought geez, you know, this is a next 20 years of my life and in the my future moving forward and in all seven covid hit. And everybody has their own code of the stories and all the rest of it. But from a business standpoint. I was like, are, you know, was this the right call, right, are broke. I mean, for two and a half months, we started bleeding money because there was no sales. There's very little sales for two and a half months. And I was just when I was, you know, partner with Pam. And I said, you know, but we really sat down and decided. What can we do in order to make sure that we're one, you know, financially sound. What can we do to make sure that we're implementing things moving forward that we would get to the get over this hump and stay within the business. And and that's what we did. And we implemented so much within the organization, from a training standpoint, Zoom, our YouTube channel, our CRM. We really engage, the agents with their websites and said, listen, we're going to be virtual. We got to be virtual, we came up with something called virtual offer dot C. A. So if you go to Virtual offer dot CA you just have To fill in the blanks and will type your offer for you, you know, things that we made sure that the agents got engaged with and salt. We saw ourselves through so you can see that that that graph now and it ended up being such a such a blessing because we were able to get not only through it, but come out stronger in the end. We put together such a, such a, such a great system. Now that has got us through the last two years and it excels us to the next and we're going to have to look at. You know, when we get back to face-to-face, inside the office meetings, how do we now make sure that we still have the amazing things that are happening over. Zoom, and virtual offers and back at you media and all the sort of, you know, different things that we've automated in still continue to do that because they're successful, but it ended up being, you know, and I think a lot of real estate agents should really, you know, feel good about being a realtor throughout this because it was tough at the beginning. But in the And as I think all of Canada, I'm going to save all the world knows real estate has been sort of a driving force in the economy. So it stayed strong or came and bounce back pretty quickly. So that was something, you know, when I look back that was a tough time and we really got through it and came out strong on the other side, and I'm so happy that that I am partnered with Century 21 as well as Heritage group and Pam and have a great management team with Peter and starting great things out and Hamilton, and we're having fun with it. And yeah, I just can't Till maybe, hopefully, we can get all together and the fall next year at our conference, and get to see a face to face Yoko. Yes. Absolutely. Can't wait. I know, it's been. It's been some time. And yes, you know, there are so many things to be thankful for. So thank you so much, Aaron and Peter for your time, you know, people want to get ahold of you Erin. You know, how would they get ahold of you Google me? I hope. OK, Google come up. Stay right? You'll find my they listen, you know, you can call my cell phone. I can even give it now even Thousands, we call me anytime, right? Email Kill. Ya. Google's the the easiest thing to obviously find out my name is spelt with a why there's nobody else really with it. So it's like my name is not Mike Smith. Aaron Richardson real estate agent not too hard. All right, and I'm Peter, what's the best way to get ahold of you? You can come into Hamilton. You wind your window down and yell, hear you. You want the Personal Touch first? Good, come on in for a coffee. Any? Anybody I could check out our website homes by Heritage .c. A I think that's the plug you're looking for. Yeah. Homes by Heritage, not see a we work on at quite a bit. We're revamping our social media this year and and you can, you can look up and all our channels and our YouTube channel is Century. 21 Heritage Group Training. We're pretty proud of that. Good. Well, thank you. Again, Aaron. And Peter, you know, it's been a great conversation today. You know, I just, I love how c21 Heritage group has their R Realtors back right Peter. You always say, we got your back and you've done so well in the global 21 ranking. So good luck again. All the numbers are being crunched, so I'm sure that you'll do well, and I hope you have a wonderful award season. So, thank you again, so much, and we look forward to seeing you soon. Thank you. Joe Cole. Thank you, Jim. Take care.