Nathan Daniel: 0:03
We are live. Welcome back to the Broker-to-Broker Real Estate podcast, for episode number 23. In this episode today, I reached out to somebody on Facebook because I've been following her a little bit. And I saw something on our website that really struck me, and it was talking about an uncompromised personalized level of service that she takes not only to buyers and sellers in her community, but also to each and every single one of her agents. So I'm excited to jump in today, if you're looking how to add another level of service to your business, this is the episode for you. So tune in, buckle up, here we go. Welcome to the Broker-to-Broker Real Estate podcast, where we have real raw conversations with industry leaders finding out how to connect, support, lead, and ultimately make an impact and drive results in the lives of your agents. I'm your host, Nathan Daniel, and welcome to the show. All right, so today, I have a very special guest all the way from Longview, Texas. Please welcome to the show, Heather Kelley with Texas Realty Executives. Hey, Heather.

Heather Kelly: 1:17
I'm great. Thank you so much for having me, it's nice to see you!

Nathan Daniel: 1:20
Yeah! you as well. And thank you so much for coming on the show. Like I said, I saw you actually joined the lab coat broker agent page, and I saw you on there we connected. And I started seeing some things I was like, we absolutely have to have you as a guest on the show. So thank you for coming on.

Heather Kelly: 1:38
Oh, absolutely. I love it, I love connecting with other brokers. It's wonderful.

Nathan Daniel: 1:43
Well, tell me a little bit about Texas. I totally butchered that a second ago, but Texas real estate executives? Tell us about that. And then tell us about yourself.

Heather Kelly: 1:54
Sure, okay. Well, we do have a long name I know, lots of word salad here. But there's actually a purpose behind it, but I'll give you a little history about it. So, I've been in business for a long time and I was a Top Producing agent. And wherever I was, I kind of developed over the years what I thought a company should look like, or my perfect company would look like, right? So three years ago, the company was started and we throw it in the doors. And we've treated everybody with the same approach that I wish I'd been treated with all those years ago not to bash anybody or how our house treated with past brokers just formulating my own plan. But now we're really awesome brokerage, we're several locations about 60 agents strong now, with hopes to get up to 100 before the end of the year. I think I answered your question, I think a strange, just a little bit. Forgive me.

Nathan Daniel: 2:48
That's okay. It's all good. So, let's go back to the beginning. So you were a Top Producing agent, and you wanted to create a company that was very specific to what you were looking for. Right?

Heather Kelly: 3:01
Correct.

Nathan Daniel: 3:02
Okay. And one thing I saw on your website was that you like to live and play where you live. So one thing I saw was like going out to eat, you're always looking for exceptional level of service.

Heather Kelly: 3:15
Correct.

Nathan Daniel: 3:17
And so opening your brokerage, what I heard you say is that you wanted to take that into your brokerage, and you wanted to buy something like that. Okay.

Heather Kelly: 3:25
Well, I have a philosophy that, you know, in this profession, we only work as hard as our paychecks reflect or like, I was guilty of that before I got into real estate. So if I felt like I was appreciated with my compensation and my support, I feel like I would be more available and more willing to push the limits and offer better service to my clients. And what I found is that when we offer or what I offer here at TRE, has enabled my agents to go out there and take those extra steps be with their commission dollars, their advertising budget, their charitable contributions, things like that. And it just kind of support to perpetuate that level of service. And I think that our agents do provide that to their customers. And hopefully they feel that way about this brokerage, we try to provide a superior level of service with transparency to our agents. And I think so far it's working out.

Nathan Daniel: 4:20
Well, good. Well, clearly, because you said you open three years ago, and you're 60 agents strong right now.

Heather Kelly: 4:28
Yes, we are.

Nathan Daniel: 4:28
With the goal, by the way, you said by the end of this year to get to a 100?

Heather Kelly: 4:32
Yes, we have some big things in the works, so yeah, I'm really excited. We started with about seven agents, and so there was a lot of growth and change. But once we started really implementing or I started implementing the policies that we have here and the ways that I've wanted things to kind of break out of the way traditional brokerages are handled in my area, we just saw explosive growth. So with that growth has come crazy brainstorming session, and so we have some pretty cool things in the works and hopefully, they'll have information and we'll hit that 100 very soon.

Nathan Daniel: 5:07
Oh, okay, well it sounds like a secret. So we'll wait to see what happens with all that. But yeah, you hit on policies. That's something that we don't talk about very often, and I'm glad you brought that up. So, do you mind sharing with a little bit about your policies that you you bring to your agents?

Heather Kelly: 5:25
Okay, so I have a "No-snowflake Policy", I have no special snowflakes. So while I love and care for every single agent that's with this office, I do not feel that within my company, it's appropriate or conducive to a healthy environment, to have my agents concerned if one is getting a better deal than the other, if one is getting special treatment more than the other. So you know, at the beginning, when everyone is on boarded, I set them down and each and every agent I tell them, "I will have no special snowflakes", so you'd understand that when you're in this office, there is no confidentiality as far as commission slips go, not to go into it. But just, I don't make things a secret, because I found that in a real estate environment, we are so competitive and we're trying to get a piece of the market. The last place you need to be looking for conspiracies or mistreatment or unfair deals is where your home bases, that's your support. That's who's supposed to be pushing you to go out there, you need to be comfortable. So, the no snowflake thing is a really big deal, and I have a fair exit policy. And, you know, some companies interpret it different ways. But when an agent decides to leave the company, or I decide that an agent needs to leave the company, because it's in their best interest. That policy is clearly set out from the beginning, and I never stray from it. I haven't in three years, I have zero plans to now, I haven't had anyone out in the public or heard any rumors, if anyone said, "Well, Heather is unfair." That's what I don't want. I don't want to hear "Heather is unfair", my broker took advantage. And so I think that those two policies really help support that image here and make my agents feel like they are safe. You know, just like children, you give them boundaries.

Nathan Daniel: 7:19
That's such a great thing. I love that you've done that. And the fact that you do it in the very beginning. I mean, I think it truly helps set the expectation that, "Hey, we're gonna go on, and if you ever decide to leave, here's the policy, and if you ever get asked to leave, here's what it looks like." So it's laid out for them, so if they ever do come back, and I think what it would also protect to is, if everyone in your company knows those expectations, and I know you said no one's bad mouthing you, right. But if that ever did happen, then who would have your back?

Heather Kelly: 7:53
Exactly. And that's the point. You know, as sales people something else I tell my agents, as you know, we're all sales people, and the brokers, we're all sales people by nature. So when you go somewhere, that's not real estate related, and someone tries to sell you something, and they give you a sales pitch, do you not have a switch in your brain because I do, like immediately, I'm looking for that gotcha moments, I'm looking for the red tape, I'm looking for it. And even so much is like the tone of their voice in their body language can set me off and not like to be rude, but it definitely sets triggers off within me to honor to be careful. I tell everyone, and I am very serious about this. Your broker is not supposed to give you a sales pitch. I'm not trying to sell you something to get you to come here. I give them the honest truth, and I'm like, if you like it, that's great. If you don't, then that's great, and then we'll see what happens from there. And that's proven, at least for us to be very, very beneficial.

Nathan Daniel: 8:54
Okay, so no sales pitches, honest truth recruiting. That's what I heard. Honest, truth recruiting. And that so now you're at 60 agents. And you know, that no snowflake policy, I love that and the term that you've put with that, especially since you're living in Texas.

Heather Kelly: 9:11
Yes, Texas? Yeah, absolutely.

Nathan Daniel: 9:15
So let's talk a little bit like once you've onboarded somebody, you've gotten somebody into your organization, like you're gonna do grow into 100 now. What's that process? Like what's that customer service look like, from you to your agents?

Heather Kelly: 9:31
Well, we have an initial conversation. So some of the recruitment efforts and initial questions are answered by me. But once the agent makes the decision to officially join the company, I then connect them with my office manager. She's near and dear with me. But she takes care of the software systems, the log-ins the license requirements, you know, all the paperwork, independent contractor agreement, everything we have, is handled by the office manager. Now once that happens, then she gets passed onto whoever the agent is gets passed on to the administrative assistant. My administrative assistant will then handle physical things point of injury, alarm codes, things like that. And depending upon the agent from there and what they need, and we assign them a mentor, or we basically let them go and do their thing. We have several seasoned agents here, we have some agents here that have been in the business longer than I've been alive. So, it just depends on on what they need. But they do have a two step process. So it's office manager for the major staff, administrative assistant for the small step.

Nathan Daniel: 10:41
Okay. All right. And so when when an agent comes on board, they go through that whole process. You know, we were actually going back and forth and you answered one of the questions like, over the last six months, what's the greatest lesson that you've learned? Do you mind talking about that a little bit as it relates to customer service?

Heather Kelly: 10:59
With the transparency and everything? Yeah, I mean, it's really, I just love to watch brokers and I love to watch how different brokers all over the country recruit agents. And honestly, I'm a bit of a nerd and I love to watch how my agents interact with their clients. So everybody has a sale style, and it's just really interesting to me. But over the past six months with COVID, and with everything in the boom in our industry, I've just noticed that transparency, honest, no hobart holds barred truth, no gimmicks, no red tape has been what my agents have been like. I want to say yearning for that may be the wrong word, but I feel, that sense of security and safety is only brought on by the transparency. And so I feel like I in my everyday efforts, in my everyday activities. I'm pretty transparent, so I know who I am, what I am, I'm pricy five to southern woman. So I embrace that with all my heart. And the people who are with me, they know that, like I'm never going to pretend to be the agent that's going to run out and jump on a horse and sell you 50 acres of land. But I'm strange, a little bit but the reason I say that, is within the past six months, our agents have drawn closer because of everything going on in the world. And, and they'll bring me their real issues or there real objections they're trying to overcome to help themselves reach your goals?

Nathan Daniel: 12:36
Okay. Well, thank you for sharing that. If you're just tuning in right now, we're talking to Heather Kelly with Texas real estate executives out of Longview, Texas. So jumping in a little bit more to that, like I know what you said is they're pulling closer, the more transparent you are, the closer that you're coming. And one thing that you'd mentioned before was that, you know, agents are very unique individuals, right? So how do you take the approach, you know, especially with 60, agents and growing, you know, what's your plan to keep that to where the customer service is, say individualized, but they're very unique individuals, and you support that?

Heather Kelly: 13:16
Well, of course, that's going to have to be expansion of support staff. While I would love I would love to be able to connect individually on a daily basis with all of my agents, that's just not physically possible. And I'm very fortunate that I have some people on staff now that have that same caretaking personality, the integrand test and the disc test, are great disc tests are great ways to see if you can identify that in a potential new hire. But I like to give people test runs. So hopefully, as we grow, we'll have our staff expand and we'll try out a few different people. And if they possess the same qualities are able to connect with the agents the way they ID with the other staff do, I think that we'll be able to continue that.

Nathan Daniel: 14:01
Okay. Awesome. Well, so expanding your support staff, and you mentioned that you're actually in three locations. Is that right?

Heather Kelly: 14:07
Well, actually, I'm about in five. So I have a couple of satellite offices, I have three brick and mortars and then two satellite offices.

Nathan Daniel: 14:15
Okay, so where are those out of those, scattered around Longview Tyler area or...?

Heather Kelly: 14:21
So we're in Longview, Tyler, Dallas, Austin in Wichita Falls, Burkburnett

Nathan Daniel: 14:29
Okay. All right. Shout out to my sister Annie, that she'll see this. That's where my sister lives. So anyways,

Heather Kelly: 14:35
Okay.

Nathan Daniel: 14:36
Yeah, so that's very cool. Okay, I know where Burkburnett at. So anyways, so diving in, you're going to be growing your staff to support your agents as you grow to 100 we'll wait to see what those special things are as you as you announce those in the upcoming future. But anything else like, if you were to go back and say, as a broker, we wear so many hats, right? We have so many hats that we have to wear: from compliance, to hiring, to recruiting, to training and all the things, if you're talking to somebody who's brand new, because this show is for brokers by brokers. If you were to talk to a broker today, and you could give them three things that you would go back and focus on, what would those three things be?

Heather Kelly: 15:21
The first thing would be your vision. So, as a broker, when you open a company, you do receive opposition from people because we're in a competitive market, and everyone's going to spend a lot of time telling you, you're doing it wrong, or that's not how to do it, or that's not how I do it. The first thing, I would tell anyone that decides to become a broker and open an agency or anything, forget what they say, it doesn't matter. This is your vision, this is not their vision, and their dream looks, whatever it looks like to them. But yours needs to look totally different, you will not be happy, creating a company that's inauthentic to who you really are. That's probably the most important thing, I mean, you can make yourself turn yourself into a pretzel, trying to make everybody else happy. And at the end of the day, your agents may be somewhat happy, but everyone's gonna feel that you're unhappy. And next step is great software system. We struggled a little bit at the beginning trying to find the correct software system, so we tried out a few different ones for the paperless things for the office, and with multiple locations. And we finally did found a system that works for us the agents enjoy, they find that it's user friendly and I wish that I would have done a little bit more research on that and not introduced a program and had to switch, that was a bit of a pain. And I really think third is community, so don't neglect your community involvement and I'm not real estate. So we do a lot of things in the community that has nothing to do the housing market. And I think that that probably has been a cornerstone for us in a way that we've gotten in front of other agents in the public and the agents have benefited from it. I see a lot of brokerages that just focus or brokers that focus on marketing just to the agents and what they offer the agents, they need to also focus on their good works within the community. However that looks for them, whatever the passionate their heart is, be it kids or the arts or whatever. That's that's key.

Nathan Daniel: 17:27
Okay. So give us an example. Do you mind give us an example of something that you do in your community?

Heather Kelly: 17:32
Oh, sure. Well, so obviously, we sponsor every kids ball team, that we can, I want TRE on the back of every kid. Sure, you want to be honest, there's nothing wrong with that. But we also do like secret lunches, so we just dropped lunches off at schools, fire departments, different things like that. And part of that is we don't post about everything. Seems a little bit counterintuitive, but I really feel like if the community sees you out there, our community small enough to that we all know each other, but if the community sees you out there doing good, and not having to blast a trumpet every time you do it, not having to pat yourself on the back, that creates a more real connection with the community. And I feel like that, our agents when they're out in that capacity, and they connect with people, and they come back to them to think "Hey, you know, you're Joe Smith, you work for TRE, you brought us lunch the other day and they didn't see, you know 50 million posts about it on Facebook." I think that leads itself to being a lot more genuine.

Nathan Daniel: 18:37
Love that just the undercover agent, the secret agent, I love that because you know, a lot of times you will see that you'll see people post about it and then they'll "Hey, I just dropped off at the fire station or whatever it is. Look at me I did good." but those that do it without any recourse or whatever. Yeah, like I think that's even better. Because where does it come from? I think it comes from the heart.

Heather Kelly: 19:09
I'll feel it. So like if, you're out doing good for somebody now, don't get me wrong, we do postings that we do. We do promote them. But if you're out somewhere and you're you're helping somebody and your intention is to get that get that pat on the back or your intention is to get the Thank you. Like, that's about it comes off of you. People pick up on that and it turns them off. And so I've got a lot of interest to just do good for other people in silence.

Nathan Daniel: 19:37
That's good. Well, alright, so looking at this, like I'm gonna ask another question, and this is unscripted. So what's the most expensive lesson that you've learned the hard way as a real estate broker?

Heather Kelly: 19:52
Sign panels, I could tell you why this sign panels. Okay. So when we opened the company, we had a design plan for our signs. And I was so excited, just chomping at the bit, clicking through all the approvals of the logos and the swag and the different things we were getting. I ordered our first batch, which signs are cheap, you guys all know that I mean powder coated frames and reflective all this stuff. First batch of signs come in, I swear to you, our logo was about six inches by six inches in the center of the sign, that's 24 by 24. Wasted the money. I mean, and you know how it is you try to get refunded and you get a partial refund, it was just a huge mess. So in the future, I have learned to always get a life size proof. Whenever I order anything. That's an expensive lesson.

Nathan Daniel: 20:49
All right, well, how many signs did you order? If you don't mind me asking?

Heather Kelly: 20:54
200

Nathan Daniel: 20:55
Oh, okay. Yeah, that was an expensive lesson to learn.

Heather Kelly: 20:58
Yes, well we have repurposed frames, and I'm going to tell you, if anyone in my community needs a real estate sign frame, I've got you covered. There you go.

Nathan Daniel: 21:06
Well, alright, so wrapping up, what's something that I haven't asked today that you want to share with real estate brokers leaders out there?

Heather Kelly: 21:19
I think probably, and this kind of goes back to a little bit about what I've said, think about your agents like you would want to be treated, whenever you were just starting in the business, like don't model yourself after any other broker you had. Be yourself, but put yourself in the agent's position, and try to see their point of view more than you see your own. I think, we're coach, to say, to think that the broker position wears a crown within their company and I just don't think that works anymore. I don't think that works relating to human beings. I don't think that works relating to agents that you want to watch, grow and thrive. You can't sit up high and tell people to grow and change and be just like me, you need to be with them. You need to grow with them, but be yourself in the process and understand that none of you are perfect. I'm not perfect, your agents aren't perfect and if you maneuver yourself on the same level with honesty, grace and transparency, I think no matter how big your company is, no matter what it looks like, there'll be happiness inside that company for you. And that's the most important thing isn't it?

Nathan Daniel: 22:28
Absolutely. Well, I mean, you see the sign behind me? if you're just tuning in now the audio says "Be you and be real." Like, that's my whole tagline, slogan, whatever. But that's exactly right, so thank you for speaking to that. So before we go, I have kind of a fun question, are you okay with the fun question?

Heather Kelly: 22:45
Yeah! Hit me, come on.

Nathan Daniel: 22:46
Alright. So my wife and I, we're having a conversation, and she brought it up actually last night. And if you're tuning in right now in the future, and you're listening now, the Olympics are going on. So she brought up something because somebody posted on Facebook and said, "What if our Olympics were like something like the Hunger Games where it's a random draw", right? Instead of these elite athletes going out and competing? What if all of a sudden it was a randomization that says, "Hey, Heather, you have been selected to compete in the next Olympics, and you have been assigned a sport." What sport inside the Olympics Would you like to be assigned?

Heather Kelly: 23:29
I may have to make a sport up?

Nathan Daniel: 23:32
Go. I mean, they're doing it all the time now anyways.

Heather Kelly: 23:35
Okay. So, like, multitasking isn't a sport, it should be a sport. If you're a mom, if you're a broker, if you think multitasking and speed eating in the car, that should be one as well. But if I had to pick a legitimate sport, synchronized swimming, I guess.

Nathan Daniel: 23:53
Synchronized swimming. I would probably, I don't understand how they're upside down floating and, legs out. That's crazy. But you have 12 months to prepare for it, you know, so, right.

Heather Kelly: 24:06
It's based on teamwork. I'm good at teamwork. So, that's the reason I thought synchronized swimming.

Nathan Daniel: 24:10
I like it. Well, just, so the audience knows as well. Mine's probably beach volleyball, like I actually love volleyball. And I think I would enjoy doing that if I was randomly selected to represent the USA. So anyways, well, so wrapping everything up. Today, we've been talking to Heather Kelly with Texas real estate executives out of Longview, Texas. Also in Tyler, DFW, Austin, just kind of Burkburnett which softballs kind of all over. Now, how they can get in touch with you, if somebody wants to send a referral, wants more information about your company? What's the best place to do that?

Heather Kelly: 24:48
Facebook's great. Reach out to me on messenger, you can reach out to me if it's right there in front of us. So Facebook's wonderful. All of our contact information is on there as well. So feel free to call us email you know, anything that you need, you can reach us that way.

Nathan Daniel: 25:03
Okay, so Facebook, if you're listening, it's @TRElongview on Facebook. Also the website for your company is trelongview.com. Awesome. Well Heather, again, thank you so much for coming on the show today. We really appreciate your advice, your guidance, and thanks for having a real conversation with me today.

Heather Kelly: 25:29
Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

Nathan Daniel: 25:33
Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Broker-to-Broker Real Estate podcast. If you like what you heard, make sure you subscribe to the channel. For more information, tools and resources. Go to www.brokertobrokerpodcast.com and always remember, be you and be real. We'll see you on the next episode.