During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer interviews a billion-dollar agent and million-dollar agent maker, Keri Shull. Keri’s team is on pace to do over 800 units worth over $500M in volume, and next year is projected to do over $1.2B! Episode Highlights:  Keri’s team is projected to do over $1.2B in volume in 2021. Entering the workforce out of Penn State in 2003, Keri chose real estate over being the Oscar-Meyer Weiner girl. Marketing was not a strong suit of Keri’s back in the beginning and she had to learn fast when she moved from Oregon to Arlington, a place where she knew no one. While Keri was able to close 19 contracts her first year, her husband Dan was able to do over $21M in his first year. Keri is aiming for 100% growth every year, even at the massive volume level that they move right now. Being a team leader allowed Keri to hold herself accountable for the environment that she created and the people that she surrounded herself with. Keri focused on who, not how, when building her team which led to massive growth. Realtors have trouble building teams and letting go of the day-to-day because they do not trust others enough to delegate those tasks. If you have trouble delegating tasks, put yourself in a room with people that have already done it successfully. Offering minimum wage to your team will bring in minimum wage talent. There is no one-size-fits-all method to grow a real estate business, so don’t listen to any coach that tells you so. Make a list of all your weekly tasks and circle the things that you aren’t good at or don’t like; create the job responsibilities off of those tasks. When you’re small, you’re forced to blend jobs together as opposed to hiring for one specific job. Comp plans being set up wrong from the beginning for the buyer’s agent or seller’s agent is one of the most common problems. In order to hit her goal of $1.2B, Keri needs to close 1,751 contracts. Use your average and history with 1st-year agent success, and hire based on those numbers. A large part of being successful hinges on answering the phone the first time that a prospect calls. Make sure to account for all the time it takes for your ISAs to both call new prospects and perform follow-ups. Keri is already hiring to reach her goals for next year, sitting at 60 agents now and looking to be at 75 by next year. Adjust your language to treat agents as partners or no one will take them seriously and they will never grow into what you need them to be. Keri has set up her lead agent to NET over $1M this year and that motivates people to join her team for the long-run. People are shocked to hear how large the marketing department is for Keri’s team. Recruiting and training are huge areas of emphasis to make sure their agents are problem-solvers instantly. Keri’s reality check approach trains agents to prepare clients for the market using real numbers. Many successful agents have a poor work-life balance. 3 Key Points: Everything changed for Keri when she attended a junk-email event and began to network with top performers. The reality of the market is this: you can either delegate tasks to partners or you can have no time outside of your job for your family. In the real estate industry, it’s safe to have a hiring plan with a projected 50/50 success rate. Resources Mentioned: Lab Coat Agents (website), (Facebook), (Facebook Group), (Twitter), (Instagram) Keri Shull (Website Coaching Instagram) 5 Tips for Work-Life Balance (website) Followup Boss (sponsor) Chime (sponsor)