Episode #37: Growing Confident Agents with Elizabeth Convery

[00:00:00] I leaned really hard in some mindset, really hard. And it became one of those things where

[00:00:07] I think it was the differentiator that my team needed to keep going. At a time that was fully uncertain

[00:00:15] and people were starting to leave the industry. And so by leaning into mindset, it allowed me

[00:00:22] to feel better about things I could in control because I knew I could control was going on

[00:00:28] my head. How did you? You know, it's what is your attitude? If you're attitude,

[00:00:33] you're all this thing, so I can't do anything like you're not going to accomplish anything.

[00:00:38] If you're a mindset is, you know, I'm going to win this day. I'm going to commit to this. I'm

[00:00:44] going to, you know, move forward and win. It was a good chance that'll happen. I believe great.

[00:00:56] Welcome to the podcast dedicated to real estate insurance and everything in between. Join us as we

[00:01:02] take you along our own brokerage building journeys with additional wisdom from our network of business

[00:01:08] experts. Welcome to Bricks and Risk.

[00:01:17] Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Bricks and Risk. I'm Tim Gardy.

[00:01:23] And I'm Sean Mooney. Today, Sean, we have an incredible guest friend of mine real estate superstar,

[00:01:32] Elizabeth Convary. How you doing, Liz? Good hour. Yeah.

[00:01:35] I'm going to come to the show. Doing great. Thank you for being on today.

[00:01:40] Thanks for having me. Of course. So, little background on Liz, associate broker and team lead

[00:01:45] for very real estate, which is powered by compass. She's also a real estate coach at the confidence

[00:01:51] agent, which is focused on helping women in real estate, which we're going to get into a little bit today.

[00:01:56] So Elizabeth is a coach, speaker, mentor, navy wife, mom of two small children, super impressive

[00:02:03] and an associate broker and team lead as we mentioned. She consistently ranks as a top producer

[00:02:08] year after year but her passion is coaching women in real estate. In October 2023, she launched the

[00:02:14] confident agent, a system for growth and success for women in real estate to help more women

[00:02:20] design the life of their dreams using real estate sales to fuel it. So she's currently living in

[00:02:25] Washington, DC on assignment with your husband in the Navy. You'd army only for a couple years

[00:02:32] and you come back to Philly, right? I will be back. All right. That's awesome. She built a boot

[00:02:40] teak real estate brokerage from scratch, looking into some of that as well. She was an associate

[00:02:45] prior to that in commercial real estate at J.L. L. in New York City. She went to St. Joe's for undergrad.

[00:02:51] Go Hawks. Cornell for grad. What's our mask? Hawkel never die and she's a great

[00:02:57] now worker and just a genuinely nice person. So all right, first question. So before 2013,

[00:03:05] you had a background commercial real estate, namely hotels. You also hold a master's degree

[00:03:10] in hospitality from Cornell. Did your hospitality background have anything to do with why

[00:03:17] you pivoted into residential real estate? Yeah, really good question. So I had been in commercial

[00:03:23] my entire career since graduating from St. Joe's. I started in commercial presol and I don't know if

[00:03:30] you know that starting commercial. Yeah, that's cool. Traveled all over the country,

[00:03:34] appraising everything from gas stations was where I started. They gave all of that a sign up. Talk about

[00:03:45] country gas station that I moved up to fast food restaurants and then before I left there,

[00:03:52] I was appraising luxury resorts which is kind of how I led into hospitality. So it's like a very

[00:03:58] linear move there. Gas stations fast food, luxury hotels. No, no, no, no, no. Let me do

[00:04:06] it. Yeah, but you know, it's interesting. So I wanted to go back and get a master's degree

[00:04:12] because I ultimately wanted to teach, which is ironic that now I'm a coach and I have an online course.

[00:04:19] I sort of knew I wanted to do something in this realm in my 20s and to be an adjunct professor,

[00:04:24] I learned you have to have a master's degree. And so my undergrad was in finance and economics.

[00:04:28] I went back to school. I didn't want to do more another kind of finance MBA track, but I love

[00:04:35] hospitality because my background was I was traveling all the time. I was on the road living in hotels.

[00:04:41] And so when I went back to school, I married kind of real estate hospitality and was working at JLL,

[00:04:47] selling hotels. But the pivot really came because I found that I was not connecting with my work.

[00:04:55] I'm an old millennial in that 41. So that's kind of the early stages of the millennial generation.

[00:05:01] We're a little bit of a gen X right? I don't know. We are a gen X 1880. 1980 is the world. We're 79

[00:05:07] boys. So really about the month apart. So there you go. So these kind of older millennials,

[00:05:13] the millennial generation I read and I found this to really resonate with me that the

[00:05:18] millennials like to connect with their work. And I wasn't connecting with my work selling hotels.

[00:05:22] I was really just kind of making everybody rich and that's fine but for me it wasn't where I wanted

[00:05:27] to be. So that's why I made the pivot into residential real estate and I layered in the hospitality

[00:05:33] with that when I started my brokerage because in 2013 experiential sales were not a thing right?

[00:05:41] As they are now. Everybody's about the experience of doing anything but in talking about that.

[00:05:47] That's that's new me. I'm not familiar with that yeah. Yeah. So experiential sales is really how do

[00:05:53] people walk away from that, it was applied to real estate? How do they walk away from buying or selling

[00:05:59] house feeling? What does it look like? You know everybody knows the process to sell a house steps.

[00:06:05] But really layering in that chair, you think about you go to a hotel. What do people do?

[00:06:12] The entire staff there is here. It's on pillow. That's a nice touch.

[00:06:17] They're there to make you happy. They're going to make you feel welcome. Yeah, the one that's in a rose.

[00:06:24] So that's what that's how my hospitality background played into my brokerage. That's cool.

[00:06:29] I love that you mentioned that because think about the different places we've all stayed in hotels.

[00:06:36] Now, you get what you pay for. So you're paying 100 a night. You're not going to get very much in today's world.

[00:06:41] Pay 4500 a night. I mean, it should be experiential. It should be top notch. They should know you by name.

[00:06:49] They should ask what you need. They say have a great day is there anything you we can do to help you.

[00:06:54] It's so cool you mentioned that because I feel like we've known each other for a while now.

[00:06:59] I'm just through networking events, friends of friends and we were always on the same page.

[00:07:05] We both started independent brokerages. Probably because of this kind of stuff. When we got in,

[00:07:11] no one was like this. It was about deals. It was about volume. Who's number one? Who's the biggest

[00:07:19] mega team? And I know it still exists today. But it's funny. I saw this post-Celidian Instagram.

[00:07:26] I think it was from Sharan, who's the president of real and he said,

[00:07:31] bragging is not marketing. And I was like, I just like clapped because I'm like,

[00:07:39] now again, we want to tell people were credible. We want to tell people were good at what we do.

[00:07:44] Like this is part of your track record. It's part of the reason why people will want to work with you.

[00:07:50] But again, if someone meets Liz and she has this experience as different than everyone else.

[00:07:57] Back then, treating people right, introducing the people early on, hey, you need this, you need that.

[00:08:04] Amazing closing gift, great communication. A lot of stuff. When we first got in this business,

[00:08:10] it was about deals. Well, let me say something too because when you to take it back to the hotel and

[00:08:17] experience, what my first thought was is that nobody leaves that resort hotel saying,

[00:08:26] oh, that that dinner last night was really good. It wasn't about the food, the things that they

[00:08:32] remember, the things that they take away from that stay are all of the non tangible things.

[00:08:40] It's like, how are they welcomed at the front desk? How are they treated?

[00:08:47] Right. I'll easy with checkout. Yeah. Like simple things. The things that you can't really put in place

[00:08:55] or quantify. Those are the lasting effects that you have with a client. And I think probably,

[00:09:03] so as me not understanding what you're talking about as this experiential is like,

[00:09:08] that's kind of what I would kind of tie it to. That's exactly right. And if you think about

[00:09:13] building a referral based book of business, which is what people in real estate sales,

[00:09:19] usually that's what they want to do because a referral based book of business grows like a tree.

[00:09:24] So if your client has a phenomenal experience that is all those things, it's memorable, it's

[00:09:31] lasting. It's all the little pieces that when they get to the closing table,

[00:09:35] they don't just say, bye to you. You are still that partner for them throughout the lifestyle

[00:09:41] of living wherever they are. They've been tell so many people. And your business grows like a tree.

[00:09:48] And it really the corner that comes down to making people feel worthy and making them feel special.

[00:09:58] And really, that I think is the difference. It's not the transaction.

[00:10:03] Everybody's going to get to the closing table. But how is that client going to look at that

[00:10:08] overall experience? And that's when an experiential shell does. I love that. Well, the other thing too,

[00:10:14] is remember that the book that I gave you about like, what are boiling one degree? What was it called?

[00:10:21] I don't know forget the name. Look at a game that I don't even remember the name of that I supposedly

[00:10:25] read. That's fantastic. But the point of the book is that it doesn't take much to be

[00:10:36] that much different, but that little bit of difference makes a huge little thing up.

[00:10:43] Yep. For better words. For better words. For better words. For better words.

[00:10:48] Better, better work. I love it. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, great point. All right. So let's jump into

[00:10:55] the confident agent. So you chose to kind of take yourself out of production. You know, I'm

[00:11:02] not sure if you're fully out, but obviously building a coaching business, having it being very

[00:11:08] niche like it is helping women in real estate. I mean, it takes a ton of your time. Being a wife

[00:11:14] of someone in the Navy and the mother of two takes a ton of your time. So what was it about,

[00:11:21] you know, that next step you would set at Cornell, you know, you're learning and you're

[00:11:24] upping your game. You might want to teach like what made you do the confident agent at like the

[00:11:30] stage in your career? Yeah. So I pulled myself out of the day-to-day sales. We'll back up. I pulled

[00:11:37] myself out of the day-to-day sales probably in 22-ish timeframe. It took a couple years to lay the

[00:11:49] five houses in 2023. Just because I think it makes me a better coach, to be able to still be

[00:11:54] in the market and understand sort of what I'm doing. I turned 40 last year and my business also

[00:12:03] turned 10 years old last year. So I had a baby last year. So 20-23 is really cool. All three? Thank you.

[00:12:09] Yeah. Something's going on. I started thinking like, what do I want to do for the next stage

[00:12:14] my career? Not this similar to what I did when I started very in 2013. I kind of went- I was

[00:12:20] turning 30 that year. Like what do I want to be for the next 10 years? I don't think I can ever think

[00:12:24] longer than five to 10 years out because too many things change. But so I started thinking like,

[00:12:30] what do I love? What am I really good at and how can I devote this next decade to something bigger

[00:12:36] than me? Right? I've been very fortunate to build a business that has given me so much flexibility

[00:12:42] in my life. Like I live in Washington, D.C., my business is in Philadelphia. I have a team that

[00:12:47] helps me run it. You know, I designed all of that and put in the work to do it. So when I thought about

[00:12:53] it, I thought, can I show more women that they can do the same thing? That they can design the

[00:12:59] life that they want to be anything that they want. And so the word that kept coming to me was impact.

[00:13:07] Impact was the theme of the decade. So I thought, how can I impact more women without growing

[00:13:12] my team? I didn't want to grow my team. I had done this to help the people on my team design their

[00:13:17] lives. And so that's what sort of led me to do a lot of exploring and I hired a coach to help

[00:13:23] me because I have no, I mean, I think coaches, I am a coach, I have two coaches. I think it's so

[00:13:28] important to have advisors to help you along your path. And I realized in order to impact on a larger

[00:13:35] scale, I had to create something that was bigger than me. Right? And it wasn't just based in

[00:13:40] and so I got the idea to do an online course with a coaching component and a community.

[00:13:47] And that's how the Confident Agent started. I actually interviewed over 50 women last summer

[00:13:53] to ask about their experience in real estate. You know, early stage career, what kind of training

[00:14:00] are you going through? Well podcast or listening to? Well books or you're reading?

[00:14:04] Brickson risk. What else would I listen to? Hey, I'm up so many times. Yeah, I'm sure.

[00:14:10] And from all that data and all that research, I saw where the holes were in coaching.

[00:14:17] And I saw a pattern of why I think the stat is something crazy, like 87% of real

[00:14:24] tours leave the business in the first two years. And I started to see why that was, right?

[00:14:29] The things that people need in a women I think have a particularly different way of approaching

[00:14:34] building a business. They don't always look at it like building a business. They look at it

[00:14:39] as something that they do in addition to everything. I work for such and such company and not

[00:14:45] a realtor and I show up and I get training and it's not, it's not like that at all. It's not

[00:14:52] it's not like that at all. Like you are an entrepreneur, your businesswoman, you've got the

[00:14:56] lay the foundation that way. And so that's how the Confident Agent came about. Very cool. So when

[00:15:02] we were talking to everyone, so you did a ton of due diligence, which I think is awesome. It's

[00:15:06] really good advice for anyone. Before just jumping right in and starting a business, you are

[00:15:12] seasoned. You have a master's degree. You started your own brokerage. But yet, you still took the time

[00:15:18] to talk to a lot of different people about what you were doing, your target audience, women.

[00:15:23] So how'd you come up with the name? Did it come through conversations with the women or did you

[00:15:27] say, hey, I just want people to feel more confident like how the name come to be? Yeah. So

[00:15:31] we'll say before we dive into that Tim, I'm so glad I did that research. I'm so glad because what I

[00:15:38] thought I was going to build was something totally different than what I actually built. Right? And

[00:15:44] I think that's where you can get into a lot of trouble. Like you can hand people what you think they

[00:15:48] need or you can ask them what they really need. So that was one, the name came about because the

[00:15:54] common theme that I heard, two things that I heard from everyone, almost everyone in these 50 plus

[00:16:01] conversations was I just don't feel confident when I stand up and talk about the market. I just don't feel

[00:16:08] confident when I go on a listing presentation. I'm really insecure about this, right? So that

[00:16:14] played into it. And really was one of the main themes of the confident agent, the second thing

[00:16:22] that I heard consistently, which plays also into confidence, I feel like I'm the only one who's going

[00:16:28] to go into the office and I see all these agents and they're so successful and I feel like

[00:16:33] I'm the only one who has an issue. And I'm like, no, it's 49 other people I've talked to,

[00:16:38] both the same as you too. And so that's all how those feelings. Yeah. Yeah. Wow, that's awesome.

[00:16:44] Did anyone did someone encourage you? Well, as you were building a specific,

[00:16:48] did you have a mentor, did you have a guide? Did you have a coach that was saying like, hey,

[00:16:51] I think you should maybe consider this as a way before starting it, like go out,

[00:16:57] ask for some feedback, ask questions, figure out what people want.

[00:17:01] Yeah. Did anyone encourage you to that? Or was that just hey, you're like, I think this is a good thing

[00:17:04] to do? No, so someone did encourage me. So I have a business coach who I've had for years. She's

[00:17:11] fabulous. She really was the one who helped me step out of the day to day sales of my business

[00:17:17] and her name is Sherry. And so I was talking to Sherry and I said, I want to build an online course

[00:17:22] but I really have no idea how to do that. And she said, I'm guessing that there's somebody who

[00:17:27] can help you. Why don't you do some searching and see if there is somebody you can hire who can

[00:17:32] teach you how to do this? And it was great advice because I think so often I did this a lot when I

[00:17:38] started my brokerage and to maybe you can relate to this. I bootstraps so much of it because I was in

[00:17:43] the early days and didn't have money like I just kind of figured it out along the way. And so I think

[00:17:49] my growth took longer because I was figuring out as I was going. I was fortunate that I was in a

[00:17:55] different position 10 years into being a business owner that I found a coach who I hired,

[00:18:02] who specializes in putting thought leaders on a national stage. And so through the process

[00:18:11] that I went through, I had to niche down my experience right to that dot of who I can help and how

[00:18:18] can help them and where I can help them when they're on their journey. And that's where the

[00:18:23] niche happened but then the research was the next step of it. Well, I think too, you could have gone

[00:18:30] into it saying this is what people need. This is where I'm going to coach people right and that

[00:18:36] could have been one way you went about in and you could have done that and may or may not have been

[00:18:41] successful. Well, you kind of went at it in a different almost the exact opposite way is to say

[00:18:50] what do Realtors need help with? What do women in business need help with and where can I position

[00:18:57] myself to help them because you've done it before you built teams, you built business. And so I think that

[00:19:05] that's amazing but what also too is if you're finding people that are saying the same things,

[00:19:11] that's another way to build community, right? How can I tie all of these women together that are

[00:19:21] going through the same struggles? That are finding the same problems. That you know, I can have these

[00:19:29] people talk about that scenario and oh and these women over here that have done it and been successful

[00:19:36] with these issues, can kind of engage with these other ones and so I think it's an amazing idea

[00:19:43] and kudos to you for building that out and having this success you've had. It has been remarkable.

[00:19:50] I have to share to watch the women in the program support one another in a way that they not only

[00:20:00] feel like they're not alone but they rely on each other for that feedback, for that experience share,

[00:20:07] or that I've got your back and that's what helps to build the confidence right? That you know

[00:20:13] that not standing alone in your struggles. And just did I know I can do it, right? She's been going

[00:20:21] through the same things and she was able to overcome it. She was able to do this. Why can't I?

[00:20:26] You know, yeah. Oh that's that's so good. All right let's shift a little bit because I'd love to

[00:20:33] talk about before the confident agent you know you started your own brokerage from scratch

[00:20:39] asked it out. So like when you and I met like we were fresh like we were like oh my gosh Tim we were

[00:20:45] bootstrapping. We had these brands or like screw everyone like we're gonna do whatever that how we want

[00:20:53] to do and we're gonna treat people right and it's customer service and it's referrals and like

[00:21:00] now you wake up you know 2024 a lot of the market is like that now. So I don't want to say we were

[00:21:07] like the pioneers because again people were doing it before us but I will tell you because I recently

[00:21:13] had a shift in my business as you know, had a partnership, copperhill for almost 10 years,

[00:21:18] the partnership ended so we had the sunset the brand. Really allowed me to step back and be like

[00:21:25] what are the things that I love about what I've been doing like the last 10 years. One was practicing

[00:21:31] I've never stopped so again mostly by referral. A little bit of lead gent through my networking

[00:21:37] and stuff like that but overall it's mostly referral and it also allowed me to step back and say

[00:21:45] I don't necessarily need that company or that brand to keep moving forward down my path you know

[00:21:50] you had this so you started your independent brokerage very real estate and then you decided to

[00:21:57] partner talk about that a little bit with compass because compass allows you to keep your company

[00:22:02] keep your brand keep your processes like the way you want to run it like talk about that experience

[00:22:09] yeah so probably similar to you right when you're an independent and you're successful

[00:22:15] you're being recruited all the time all the time and I took every meeting because why not

[00:22:23] I think it's important to have relationships with people and develop them and here what they have to

[00:22:28] say and all of those things but nothing was the right fit for me or where I was at that stage

[00:22:34] of my business and then compass came to the Philadelphia market and I was referred to their

[00:22:40] recruited team by an agent who I respect very much and so of course I took the meeting

[00:22:45] and I was skeptical I really was because it was it was so new at that time right I was

[00:22:52] agent 300 at Compass and Philadelphia I think they're up to 4,500 now I was the first independent

[00:22:59] brokerage to partner with them in the region and how many how many how many interviews maybe

[00:23:05] or how many of those conversations did you have prior to that it took them for I think it was a

[00:23:14] four month process to bring me on board and I know now I mean I'm not other broke yeah I'm talking about

[00:23:20] brokerage coming in right like 10 by at least five I mean at least five you know you think

[00:23:26] how many brokerages are in filly at least five maybe more I got very close with another large

[00:23:34] independent brokerage and really was was thinking of going that path and ultimately pull back

[00:23:40] from it so they're there have been so many conversations I heard many pitches yeah and I

[00:23:45] respect and I'm still really you know close with all of the leads you know like Tim and I know each other

[00:23:49] right like all the leads of these other companies I think it's so important that you have

[00:23:54] relationships across the board but the compass I I choose my recruiter at Compass and like was

[00:24:01] either hardest one you ever recruited you like kicking is screaming no he literally was like Elizabeth

[00:24:08] I'm gonna tell you story he said I was in the car with my wife and you and your team like a

[00:24:14] hadn't signed everything yet but my team was like set to onboard that Monday and it was like a

[00:24:23] email from you while I was in the car with my wife and I just went like oh my god this is all over

[00:24:29] she's not Joanne from now on you're like you know I stumbled it and the game's over we lost

[00:24:38] but I sure that with you because you know as a business owner when you create something that is

[00:24:44] truly an independent and a business that you're creating is yours like you take it on and you love

[00:24:51] it and it's like a child in this way and you always from impency it's hard to kind of give up

[00:24:57] that control but ultimately when I aligned myself with Compass the idea of doing it the idea behind

[00:25:05] doing it was I had taken I felt at the time and I stole this to be true years later

[00:25:10] that I had taken my independent as far as I could meaning there's only so much to put it in the

[00:25:18] customer service realm and that experience will stay out you have to then layer on the technology

[00:25:24] which I know you guys build a copper hill I didn't want to build that right more so I didn't

[00:25:29] want to maintain it you know make the investment but then you have to hire somebody to keep it going

[00:25:33] and so by aligning with Compass it really opened me up and my brokerage up to so many new lives

[00:25:41] yeah it's like a whole new world and really what you were just talking about I've I've used that same

[00:25:47] analogy that like the business when you you you have a business when you start a business it's your

[00:25:52] baby and your job is to make sure just like with children we're all parents at the baby's

[00:25:57] healthy that the baby has what it needs and that is round the clock it never stops it's night time

[00:26:05] it's morning time it's afternoon where you can't like take a month or two off well I mean you have

[00:26:09] three so I have one and she's got two so we're nice little good I still spread here you know we

[00:26:14] got different perspectives right but you saying that really hit home with me because I think what

[00:26:19] goes through our minds like Sean still running an independent insurance brokerage I think what

[00:26:25] goes through your mind when you have a conversation with a compass you know mine mine just happened

[00:26:30] more through something happening in my partnership do I had to make a different move or just where

[00:26:36] I was but having a conversation with Compass I've had many conversations it almost feels like

[00:26:42] I don't want to sell out like I don't want to give up like I've been doing this I work at it

[00:26:49] like I slave for this company just like you do with your children not going to give up on your

[00:26:53] kids so soon as someone comes around and says watch it come over here because we can do this

[00:27:02] it's very hard to wrap your mind around that now I will say I've only been running my own team at a

[00:27:12] and I'm glad thank you and I run one month and I ran a brokerage for almost 10 years

[00:27:19] I would agree you know you having your coaching business probably many doors get opened because

[00:27:26] you have your such a good networker you're a very good real estate agent you're a very smart woman

[00:27:31] you're successful so you meet someone they're like I want you to talk to Sally or I want you

[00:27:36] to talk to Beth or I want you to talk to Jen and I think they could benefit from what you're doing

[00:27:42] and guess what you both work at Compass or like you doesn't matter if your Compass is not it

[00:27:46] it probably has opened doors and what I have seen in about a month is that even this podcast

[00:27:51] like when I'm selling shawn about me having to change my business I was like I think this is going

[00:27:57] to be really good for the podcast because now I have a platform of 20,000 agents you know

[00:28:03] Janet on the US and like it's collaborative and like people always want to learn like in real estate

[00:28:09] just like insurance we're always learning we're always absorbing information podcasts and shows

[00:28:15] and books and blogs and news to get better at what we do and I think you're just going through

[00:28:23] all that like you have you got to a point where you're just like I feel like this is going to

[00:28:27] make very real estate much more successful and it has I've watched it how long ago was that

[00:28:34] you know I'm going to you're sorry I'm going to you're going to go with that yeah so yeah so

[00:28:39] you had that whole run with your broker should be doing this for five years and look at you

[00:28:43] look at what you're doing it's great well you know I think a lot of I hear what you're saying

[00:28:48] like you know you feel like oh I'm giving it up I'm doing all these things and when I stepped back

[00:28:53] as I had all those same thoughts when I stepped back and thought about it I was like check your ego

[00:28:58] at the door great advice the reality is like I can still service my clients at a high level I

[00:29:06] can still be a mentor and a coach to my team I now have all these opportunities that will

[00:29:11] open to me so that I can help in that spirit and that vein of helping others I went to

[00:29:17] compass and then I joined the agent advisory council so I was able to lead in other ways right

[00:29:24] now been doing presentations at compass in other ways I can show up and I'm glad that I

[00:29:31] was able to kind of see that bigger picture because I think a lot of those earlier recruiting meetings

[00:29:37] I didn't see it yeah that's such wonderful advice I love that hey everyone this is Tim your favorite

[00:29:44] bricks and risk co-host but don't tell Sean I hope you're enjoying this episode and I'll get right

[00:29:50] back to it in a moment our audience grows to word of mouth so if you would please take a moment of

[00:29:56] your time and give us a review on the platform you're on that would be fantastic please also help

[00:30:02] spread the B&R word by sharing your favorite episode with a friend we greatly appreciate your time

[00:30:08] and trust now back to the show so let's down the topic of real estate so we manage and coach

[00:30:20] a team around 10 people or so the last time we spoke you focus most your time on like the

[00:30:27] business development the client service the coaching so you used to sell technically full time right

[00:30:33] you were full time real estate agent while you were building your brokerage same deal talk about the

[00:30:39] team today like what's what's the structure like you know again you're you're in Washington DC

[00:30:45] your teams in Philadelphia but be done I know you're across the world running teams

[00:30:51] in Philadelphia people live in Europe and it's it's hard to believe but talk about that a little bit

[00:30:55] how's that to work it out yeah so I think COVID has a lot of a lot of play into how this

[00:31:02] worked right my team and I always met in person on Mondays okay in our office we had a pipeline meeting

[00:31:10] every Monday at 10 o'clock when COVID hit we took that meeting to zoom and from there we actually

[00:31:17] added a Friday meeting because you remember nobody was doing anything there was nothing that was

[00:31:22] going on we weren't allowed to legally work so we added a Friday meeting where we would check in with

[00:31:29] one another on Fridays and we would all ask everybody to come with a quote a quote that wasn't

[00:31:36] firing to them at that moment and I could see who was feeling really down right and then we would

[00:31:43] just talk we would talk through challenges and this is where like my coaching my group coaching

[00:31:48] model probably started to play out for what eventually became the confident agent four years ago

[00:31:53] or four years later so we got really good at meeting virtually because we had two yeah one

[00:32:01] was awkward in the beginning wasn't it yes I mean we were we're not getting a zoom account

[00:32:07] at the end of 2019 like we never what did you need zoom for like thankfully we had it when things

[00:32:13] went down and you know in March of 20 but I share this with you because if you have in your business

[00:32:22] a culture culture transcends sitting at the same table culture and our culture is so rooted in

[00:32:31] care for one another that it has been made all the difference in letting this teamwork I mean before

[00:32:39] I moved to Washington DC my husband was in Norfolk Virginia so we were there too though we have

[00:32:45] been living in other places for you know quite a few years now so that was the first thing the second

[00:32:51] thing was as my team grew we were based in center city Philadelphia our geographical expanse now

[00:32:57] is from South Jersey to pay only so people don't want to come to the center city office and park

[00:33:02] but they don't even want to be in person so we get together in person maybe once a quarter just

[00:33:06] because it's nice to have that so that has really really helped but also I'm still in Philadelphia

[00:33:13] I'm an anthrac ride away so I'm in Philly okay every other week at a minimum sometimes at least once a week

[00:33:20] girl go up see if I do whatever you need to do and come back awesome and that's the beauty of

[00:33:25] you know being on these coast makes it very easy well I think it's culture right soldier culture drives

[00:33:31] everything and it really doesn't matter you know there's no set and stone like if you want

[00:33:39] good culture you're going to need a meeting person you know that's been natural authentic

[00:33:44] to speak but what it's what fits for your team right like you've talked about it before

[00:33:50] it's like you've said that you've pulled your agents and we've served them every year

[00:33:55] right like four years we were in business we sent a survey every year what do we want what are we

[00:33:59] like how do we you know meet them where they are where they want to be and I think that just

[00:34:05] speaks to what you have going on Liz is you're building great culture and the other stuff

[00:34:11] doesn't matter you know where or how you do it's like you have a team that's close knit

[00:34:19] that works together and it just happens to be a virtual you know community that way

[00:34:27] yeah I mean I've never had somebody say to me I need to meet more yeah I'm leaving the team because

[00:34:34] you live somewhere else like this where the hell are you I need to drink some coffee can you just

[00:34:39] meet me like what's going on like this soon stuff not that fly yeah it doesn't happen it doesn't

[00:34:48] no and it's uh it's been talked to you too remember I mentioned Teresa who's down in Texas

[00:34:53] and she has an insurance office and she went completely virtual even after COVID after COVID

[00:35:02] that this is how she operates today which is for an insurance office is like what are you doing

[00:35:08] can't do that and Teresa's like no this is this is how we do it and we are going to ensure

[00:35:13] that our culture kind of drives our office and what they've done is they open up like an open

[00:35:21] zoom all day around the clock so like I want to just knock and then say hey I need you yeah

[00:35:29] hey hey Tim yeah I have a question do you have two seconds and then you're both on screen you're like

[00:35:33] what do you need and that's the one thing that she's implemented to kind of like

[00:35:38] make the virtual work for her and the culture of her office yeah that's that's super interesting

[00:35:47] all right so we have a question there that we send out prior to doing the interview

[00:35:51] and one of the questions is like what do you love most about business so one thing you shared

[00:35:57] has said entrepreneurs have the unique ability to affect change every day if they're brave enough

[00:36:03] to do it and you said I love that my business exists to help others so talk about that a little bit

[00:36:10] like why why did that stand out when we asked you that question yeah I mean I've always approached

[00:36:19] what I do in the vein of service to others how can I be of service to you and lend you my expertise

[00:36:30] and my experiences and by leading with that helping others it has opened so many doors to me

[00:36:40] and I think that that is not part of our industry all the time I don't know if you're pretty

[00:36:46] no I agree yes not it's not like that yeah and when I say like be brave enough to do it

[00:36:52] be brave enough to stand up for something that you believe in and it might be against the grain

[00:36:58] of what is typical but you will track the people to you that will be the lasting relationships

[00:37:07] and then I think is is the difference I think so you know I teach confidence right I think

[00:37:11] so many people are like well I can't do that because that's not how it's done and it's like

[00:37:15] well really why can't you just do it a little differently because you believe in you fill a line

[00:37:21] yeah it's interesting that you say that because again I'm going to go back until when we got

[00:37:26] started and we're starting our brokerages and the culture was not like that at all very deal focused

[00:37:33] and I don't ever want to like categorize while you're you're a deal transactional agent or

[00:37:38] like a relationship agent like you can be both but I will say that most of what I learned on the

[00:37:45] street which again most of the deals we do nine at ten ninety five out of a hundred maybe more

[00:37:50] are you're going to cooperate with another agent and there's many times I'm sure you've experienced

[00:37:55] where again we're cut from the same cloth we're taking care of people smooth ride given

[00:38:00] everything they need setting their expectations answering their questions saying I don't know

[00:38:06] when we don't know because that's perfectly okay and then we go to we go to closing like an

[00:38:11] in person closing which we did prior to COVID and we'll do as much but you go the in person

[00:38:17] closing and everyone be there title company the mortgage person the buy side the sell side all

[00:38:21] the people sometimes couple family members and I've been well bunch of closings where they are

[00:38:28] arguing on the other side like they're like going through the paperwork like what's this

[00:38:34] what does this mean you didn't tell me about that I've had there's just one closing and

[00:38:38] obviously I'm not gonna mention any names but I remember being at the closing and we get there

[00:38:43] and they were like so pissed off from like the final walk through which they already they already

[00:38:48] negotiated that they already had a report like it is what it said it's done it was like I didn't tell

[00:38:53] about that's like not my problem you know I have my client on protecting them your job as to

[00:39:04] or five times close the door to go into another conference room and all you heard was yelling

[00:39:09] and I'm like wow and and do you know what was interesting that agent wasn't new

[00:39:16] and unfortunately like you'll even see paintings from like back in the day and it's called

[00:39:20] like the business meeting or the real estate deal and there's like people like yelling like a cross

[00:39:24] to table I didn't know you didn't know you didn't know you didn't know you didn't know you didn't know

[00:39:27] yeah the closing and there's like and that's that's the way it was it was a very like litigious

[00:39:33] aggressive competitive sport real estate and what's happened over the years is like if you do

[00:39:41] it the opposite like you said if you look at this is like you know what we can put out most fires

[00:39:48] before they happen like we can fireproof anything I can introduce you to anyone you want to be

[00:39:53] introduce you to learn more about the home, about the mortgage, about the legalities and then it's

[00:40:03] and someone will come thus be like hey you know this client's like coming to me and they're like

[00:40:09] we don't we don't like this we need to talk to an attorney what do we say we're like okay

[00:40:12] here's here's a couple attorneys you know I think they should talk to an attorney like

[00:40:18] we can talk about the agreement all day or the experience all day the process but when they're at

[00:40:23] a certain point you have to be like I really you're gonna have to go spend a couple hundred dollars

[00:40:28] depending on the attorney in the conversation you go figure out what is best for you

[00:40:33] and and we do that but like back when we first started it was like people would like

[00:40:39] curse and yell and on professionalism and still happens today people thrive on that

[00:40:44] it's for you with you that you still I use a lot in my coaching um so when I came from New York

[00:40:53] I came back to Philadelphia in 2013 which is my hometown of Robinson, Jersey and I was brand new

[00:40:59] to selling residential real estate I had bought and sold commercial buildings but I had never

[00:41:03] sold a house when I started my business and I had a client who was a buyer coming down from New York

[00:41:09] and they were planning to look at condos that weekend so on Thursday or so they were coming

[00:41:15] down on Saturday on Thursday or so I requested a bunch of broker tours of the properties I thought

[00:41:21] I was going to see you know to show to them yeah because in my mind in order to sell something

[00:41:28] well I needed to know the property before I showed it to my client made sense to me at the time

[00:41:34] like an agent preview they would call it agent preview so I remember I got a very

[00:41:40] I rate call from a listing agent who was very experienced and I wasn't I mean I was experiencing

[00:41:46] commercial real estate but I really had never sold a house and he said to me I saw this request

[00:41:52] come through for an agent preview why are you doing that and I said oh well I'm showing you know

[00:41:57] I think it's going to work for my client to show them on Saturday but I'm not really sure so I'd

[00:42:01] like to see it myself any ripped me apart ripped me apart and said who do you think you are

[00:42:08] looking at this property in convencing my seller so that you can just come through yourself

[00:42:14] and I got in my head about it here a group of let me do it so I want to ask him if you want to

[00:42:20] sell the property I mean like seriously well in the world I didn't say to him to that point I said

[00:42:28] well listen if I don't know where the washer dryer is and I can't show that to my client so you

[00:42:33] think that's going to affect their opinion of the property and he was like okay I guess that makes sense

[00:42:37] right so we finally like kind of came around approved the preview yeah but I got in my head

[00:42:43] about it and this is the confidence right I got in my head about it and I was like oh my god

[00:42:48] like maybe I am not doing this right maybe shouldn't be selling residential like who am I to actually

[00:42:53] do this I don't know what the process isn't really and and I just spiraled right as we can do you know

[00:43:00] you're spying on seeds of doubt like this guys this is the experience guy no I'm doing

[00:43:10] this maybe I shouldn't be doing this yeah that's like yeah I totally see that that's it and

[00:43:15] I remember after I went to the preview which was in Old City I went to the Starbucks in Old City

[00:43:21] on third and third and arch and I sat down I had a cup of coffee and I pulled out my notebook

[00:43:27] and I was so in my head I made a note that said what you can do that nobody else can

[00:43:32] and I wrote all the things that I thought were going to make me successful in real estate right

[00:43:38] I found this and I read it every day every day that I had doubt I read this awesome

[00:43:44] I found that notebook about a year ago when I started doing this coaching and I was like oh my gosh

[00:43:52] wow that's all the women in your community that's the new the new agents this is all the

[00:43:58] stuff that they're dealing with this is phenomenal I love that that's a great start as I do

[00:44:03] my coaching and when I do speaking engagements I ask the women it's usually women in the group

[00:44:09] to take I give a note card out and I say all right I'm going to time you for two minutes

[00:44:13] I want you to write down what makes you unique in this business nobody other than you is going

[00:44:19] to see this so don't be afraid to put all of the things on it and then after that we do the exercise

[00:44:24] of like that no card needs to sit in your handbag and on the days that you have self-doubt I

[00:44:33] prefer personal brand yeah don't be whatever buddy else is on Instagram because you know this is

[00:44:41] what we do in the industry be who you are and what brings you that unique ability to serve your

[00:44:48] clients and then elevate that and put that in everything that you go awesome yeah I remember

[00:44:55] just you know training agents over the years I'd used the word like a mentoring agents like

[00:45:01] mentoring them and someone had put it to me one way was when you mentor someone you kind of like

[00:45:07] telling them what you think they should do or what you think is best for them which can be helpful

[00:45:13] but a good coach will ask enough questions without saying a word about what they should do until

[00:45:22] the person being coached comes up with the answer that they're looking for and I when the person

[00:45:30] told me that I was like wow that's really impactful because again you know when we run teams

[00:45:36] you know we had decent sized brokerages it's like people around around like chickens with their

[00:45:40] heads cut off you're like I think you should do this just go do that I think you should say that

[00:45:44] and we a lot of times because we're so busy ourselves we would never take like we're running a

[00:45:49] business and we just we never would sometimes we wouldn't take the time to be like why do you want to

[00:46:00] hear that and then even when they say something it's like I'm jumped down there throw just said just

[00:46:05] ask another question to like and the good coaches of the world will always find a way to drag

[00:46:12] the information out of you that you're searching for but you're either too new or too busy or just

[00:46:18] too inexperienced they really understand what you even need to know so they're also probably

[00:46:23] one little aspect of that too is probably also finding the motivation like what's going to

[00:46:28] motivate this person you know how how can we get the most out of this agent yeah I call it

[00:46:36] approaching everything with a curious mind right so asking questions because you're curious

[00:46:42] and really drilling down to a question with another question to get to really what's the cross

[00:46:48] of the issue and that's coaching but I also coach the women to coach their clients

[00:46:54] yeah and then so you can go into a listing presentation you can tell them 25 reasons that you're the

[00:47:01] best for this list right or you can go into a listing presentation and you can approach it with

[00:47:05] a curious mind and really get to the crux of why they're selling what are you looking for in

[00:47:11] why are you selling like why right why am I here like what do you want like what's your timeline like

[00:47:16] what's important to you what's a win look what's not always about dollars yeah um oh that's awesome

[00:47:22] you ultimately have more clients and more dollars right if you approach it from this experience

[00:47:28] I think that's the my experience hello um so another question we asked it's like you know

[00:47:36] chair share tip with our listeners and watchers one thing you would said is mind says everything

[00:47:43] is a business owner becoming a mental warrior is the maker break of long-term success talk about

[00:47:50] mindset oh yeah um so we're in a unique position as entrepreneur right yep where we have to show

[00:47:59] up every day just show up every day I remember when I was at W2 employee in my 20s I'd go out

[00:48:05] sometimes you know on a Thursday night and then I go into the office on Friday and that was like

[00:48:10] yeah you don't feel great right so you're not like you know because you're tired or you're not

[00:48:14] well you're madling it in you're checking the box you're still getting that paycheck or two week right

[00:48:20] it doesn't matter if you're feeling great or you're not whereas an entrepreneur and that's fine

[00:48:24] if that's the career path that you're on but when you're an entrepreneur the way that you you have to

[00:48:29] show up every day and how do you show up your best by feeling good about yourself by having that

[00:48:37] feeling of like I can do anything so working on your mindset to me is mission critical in

[00:48:46] everything that we do I'll share a story when interest rates started spiking what 20 somebody

[00:48:54] or lender renders 22 or lender told me recently and I was like shock she said you know we're

[00:49:00] 29 of interest rates rising 29 my god okay but if you were going to take you back to like June of

[00:49:07] 22 that's when they really two years ago when they really went and it was wild because if you remember

[00:49:16] there was probably a six month period where nobody really knew what to do yeah there was because

[00:49:23] it was sort of this thing of like the rates gonna come down I'm thinking about buying maybe I shouldn't

[00:49:28] buy I don't know and then sellers were sort of panicking like what was the value still there

[00:49:32] if the rates are higher and so it they were low for so long you know because they were low for so long

[00:49:38] that's yeah that June to like December people are like what's going to happen sure I just wait

[00:49:43] and I was in the office one day at compass I was in the office and I'm looking around I'm sitting

[00:49:48] in my office and if you've been in the compass offices they're all glass right so you can see what's

[00:49:52] going on all around you even when you're in your office so in my office and I'm observing

[00:49:57] it's really quiet on the floor and I'm observing that people are kind of walking a little down

[00:50:03] trouble right people are feeling this pressure and I thought about myself as a leader right

[00:50:11] and I thought what is the one thing that I can control right now because I cannot control what's

[00:50:16] gonna happen with these interest rates I cannot control you know what's gonna go on with people's

[00:50:21] decision making as a result of this but I can control the way I show up for myself I show up

[00:50:28] from my clients and I lead my team and I leaned really hard in some mindset really hard

[00:50:36] and it became one of those things where I think it was the differentiator that my team needed to keep going

[00:50:45] at a time that was fully uncertain and people were starting to leave the industry

[00:50:50] and so by leaning into mindset it allowed me to feel better about things I couldn't control

[00:50:58] because I knew I couldn't control was going on in my head. How did you know it's what is your attitude

[00:51:04] if you're attitude you're all this thing so I can't do anything like you're not gonna accomplish anything

[00:51:10] anything. If your if your mindset is you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna

[00:51:15] commit to this I'm gonna you know move forward and win is a good chance that'll happen.

[00:51:21] I have a phrase in my coaching business called celebrate the wins. Celebrate the wins.

[00:51:29] Yeah. And every time I meet for group coaching I have the women in in the cohorts

[00:51:36] share the wins. Well and it sometimes when you've a really bad week it's hard to find those wins.

[00:51:43] I'm forcing them to do that it takes them to a higher level. In my office we have we operate on

[00:51:49] teams so like all the communications teams of course you do we have a sub channel that's wins

[00:51:57] because insurance space insurance now stinks. It's rotten it's hard and so I'm like

[00:52:04] we gotta celebrate anything anything positive the little is bit of thing that is a win

[00:52:11] that's not negative you know and we post them out there and there's like jiff's on there and

[00:52:17] there's like almonds and follow ups and it's it's like it takes you out of that like downtrod

[00:52:24] and you know it's kind of like a micro escape out of this environment that's like hey yeah it's

[00:52:31] bad but like hey look what I did over here. That's right and really being able to recognize them

[00:52:36] even if they're super tiny they can go then too. Doesn't matter yeah now there's a difference

[00:52:42] between being a martyr and a warrior and you know sometimes it's okay to feel bad about certain

[00:52:47] things you know everyone's got to release emotions like you don't want to you don't want to you

[00:52:51] don't want to bottle things up but if you let it drive what you're trying to do it's not going

[00:52:57] to go the way you want it to and we also have a white board up at my office that is for F's

[00:53:03] so every time that an F comes out we sometimes put it on the board because at that point you

[00:53:09] need to release and it kind of makes a funny like okay what another one on there. All right

[00:53:15] so to make it we got chill out have fun with it sometimes we call it um sitting in your poopy

[00:53:20] diaper you know we all kids you can understand it. No yeah I mean you can sit in your poopy

[00:53:26] and complain and cry and all the stuff or you can change your situation right so it's okay

[00:53:32] you can bear for a minute but don't sit there for a long time. Yeah good. All right so the last one

[00:53:38] is that we also asked for a quote your quote was go confidently in the direction of your dreams

[00:53:44] live the life you've imagined by Henry Thorelle why was that the quote that you thought was a good fit

[00:53:52] because I truly believe because I've done it and I've coached people to do it that you can design

[00:53:58] your life in whatever way you want and you deserve to have the life that you want and the critical

[00:54:05] piece of that is the confidence and that little quote I had I bought when I lived in New York said

[00:54:12] you know like when you're checking out and they have those like little magnets and bad I think it's

[00:54:20] now that's kind of cool let me grab this and it's sat on my whiteboard for years also years

[00:54:27] and when I think about that I'm like wow I was laying a foundation 10 years ago I didn't even know

[00:54:31] that I would end up on that trajectory yeah oh thank you whole food thank you whole foods geez all the

[00:54:37] little gems that check out. Yeah right well hey can't thank you enough for your time today Liz

[00:54:42] thank you're having me this was fine we know you're a busy successful business woman business owner

[00:54:49] coach and a mother and a wife so all those take time maybe wife maybe wife um if you don't mind

[00:54:55] why don't you share with our listeners and viewers how they can learn more about you the

[00:54:59] confidence agent your team everything you got going on yeah so I live on Instagram at elisabeth dot

[00:55:08] convery um you can DM me to join a newsletter I write a newsletter twice a week it's weekly to you

[00:55:19] real estate called the toolkit for confident agent so joining my newsletter is a great way to

[00:55:24] stay connected not only to get the tips but also to learn more about the programs and do a lot of

[00:55:29] webinars do a lot of events and so that's a great way to stay connected. There's a girl that we grew up with

[00:55:36] that she was a mortgage broker she's in Colorado okay and she does kind of a similar group I think

[00:55:44] for women out there and it's uh I think it's pursuing freedom and like how to work with um

[00:55:51] my big good connection for Liz also I link that up. That's all we have for this one folks so

[00:55:58] thank you for tuning in again to another episode of bricks and risk the acid thank you for joining

[00:56:05] us on another episode of bricks and risk our goals that you walk away with one or two valuable

[00:56:12] nuggets and we greatly appreciate you sharing your time with us today. You can find all be in our

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[00:56:26] keep learning and keep growing.