Hello and welcome to the Sun Leaders Podcast. My name is Whitney Smith. I am the owner and attorney of your rental property Attorney pllc, which is a real estate law firm that focuses primarily on landlords.

Due to my firm’s unique niche, I spend the majority of my time and energy thinking about the real estate industry, landlord tenant relationships and affordable housing communities. I find both positive and negative factors that affect the real estate industry are interrelated with and co affect the housing community and likewise trickle down to affect our landlord tenant relationships. I. I believe through effective leadership we can make more positive changes in these industries.

And therefore, I wanted to focus my episodes for the Sun Leaders podcast on female leaders in either the real estate industry or the affordable housing communities that are specifically leading a team or community to betterment. And so I am very excited to introduce my next guest, Luce Colon, a powerhouse in the real estate industry. As A mother of four and a watcher of her little niece, realtor and CEO of the HiveEx group, Luz champions a collaborative hive work mentality, leading her team to
unparalleled success.

Her dynamic leadership style and commitment to fostering a supportive environment makes her a trailblazer in both real estate and team empowerment. So join us as we delve into Luz’s insights on leaderships and achieving triumph in the real estate realm. Luz, I am so excited to have you here.

I’m excited to be here. Thank you. So I am really interested in Hivik’s group and your collaborative style and how you’ve gotten there.

But to begin, why don’t you share a bit about your journey in real estate and then how you became the owner of Hyvek’s group? Uh, yeah, so actually my. I got into real estate. My father is an appraiser and he had tried to talk to me about it a year prior.

And I was a stay at home mom. I was actually teaching and tutoring and I was on a homeschool group and I was doing all of that. I actually was a teacher before that.

And then I got. I was in banking for 15 years. So people are like, oh, you must have been doing houses.

I said, I worked for HSBC in the bankruptcy department, I think for a year, but that was it. Everything else was banking, personal checking, small business, things like that. Then I became a teacher and then I got into a really, a car accident and I just stayed home with the kiddos, got my degree to be a teacher.

And then right before COVID which is funny because I entered the industry where teaching with COVID became so popular, from home. I actually became a realtor. Right.

But yeah, so he tried to talk me into it a year prior, and I’m like, no. And he’s like, you know, you’re not making enough. And, you know, just.

I just want to pass on a future for you. I’m an appraiser. I’m a small business owner, and I just think you’d be great at it.

He’s like, I’ve met a lot of realtors that are just not great. And I’m like, no. I was really scared, actually.

I remember enrolling for the course, and then I started reading through it, and I was like, this is not. This is, like, hard. And then a year later, he had, like, an intervention, and he’s like, I’ll pay for your classes and everything.

And so I finally said yes. Passed the test after the second time. The first time, my photo looks so bad.

I actually use it as an example because it was so bad. It was like hours lost sleep. I overstudied and.

And then I passed it in August of 2019. So I started the course in July, ran through it, passed it in August of 2019. And then I interviewed with firms, and I started at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, Florida Properties Group.

And I was there for. Until just January of 2023. And now I’m with Keller Williams, Suburban Tampa.

I didn’t realize how early it has been. So it hasn’t been that much time. No, I’m still a baby.

They say when you’re five years and under. I believe they still call me a rookie, but I don’t look at it like that. I. One of the reasons actually why I went to Keller Williams is because there’s a lot of people that are.

There’s no glass ceiling. I fell at Berkshire. I was.

Reached my glass ceiling. I was a top producer. I was always number three or number five of our office or the company total.

And I just felt like I wasn’t, like, pushing or growing or learning anything new. And now it’s like I. In January, I’ve just. I go in the family reunion and meeting these, like, top dog agents that are collaborating, that are in the same thing as me.

Like, I’m not. I’m not competitive. I’m very, like, relational.

I feel like there’s enough business to go around for everyone, whether it’s lending, whether it’s real estate. And I really think that we should. Babes support babes.

Women should empower women. And I really feel like we should all collaborate. And when I sat in this Room at family reunion.

And I was getting educated from like these people that make that have done so much for themselves and not only that, their morals. In Keller Williams, it’s God, family business. Like we don’t want you to kill yourself trying to sell houses and a lot of realtors and mortgage lenders and stuff.

Guess what, they’re alcoholics, divorced there. Some of them are not financially stable. So this is really.

We want to educate. And, and so that’s where like I said, although I’m a rookie, this is where now I don’t feel like that because now I’m around people and I’m. I’m always going to be a rookie.

Look at it like that. I’m always wanting to learn. So whether I’m in this business, 10, 15 years from now, guess what, I’m still going to want have that hunger to learn more because there is no glass ceiling.

And me growing up poor and I always felt like I’m not going to let that glass ceiling get to me. And my dad actually always reminds me of this paper that I wrote about it. He helped me with it and he explained to me where the glass ceiling was because I never understood it because I always said I’m going to get, I’m going to make it, I’m going to do it.

And he goes, well, you can, but you need to know that there is something there that might stop you and you need to break through it. Right. A paper that you wrote in school.

Yeah, yeah, I love writing and reading. So what was. Can you explain what it was? Yeah, so I had to talk about society.

And so my bachelor’s degrees in sociology and stuff like that. I saw that in your biography, like when I was doing a little research on you, and I was wondering also if that has played a role in your spirit for collaboration. Because it was sociology, correct? That your degree, your degree or that you were going for.

Okay, yeah, for teaching. So in order to help the bank pay for it, I couldn’t put teaching, so I had to do sociology and then test for my, for my teaching. But yeah, I have always actually had an interest.

I wanted to go into the Peace Corps, into anthropology and cultures. I always had a love for people. When I went to middle school, I went to a international studies school.

And then of course I do love performing arts, so that is my first love. So I ended up switching. But I always loved people.

In the study of people and growing up in the environment that I grew up in. We were poor, I was abused, I was in foster care, I Wanted to understand kids and people and just understand how society worked, because I didn’t have the right view of society. Right.

And then going to church and learning that, and I was the only family member that went to church, and it was just very different. It was very hard because I really couldn’t relate to anyone. I really didn’t have any friends.

I. So I honestly taught myself in books and leaned into cultures and leaned into how I can be a better person and an ethical person. And of course, I use my faith and my values as that. And then it wasn’t until my father, who’s the appraiser, he actually adopted me at 14.

Oh, wow. Yeah. So he adopted me and took me in and he taught me a lot, and I wouldn’t.

If it wasn’t for him. I honestly, he, like, he bought me a car, he would have me clean the house, and he would pay me and be responsible, and I had to go do groceries and he’d give me a budget and, you know, because I’ve been doing things alone for a very long time and taking care of myself, but he was trying to show me how I can be independent. Yeah.

So than what I already was. But, like, smart and, you know, coming from where he was, where he was providing for me, it was. It was really cool.

And so that’s how I was able to learn and adapt with. But, yeah, I wrote. He would help me because I loved.

Like, I had to write a paper about Ernest Hemingway, and we were very honest about him. And my teacher gave me a D because my dad, like, he. He studied him like he had family that knew him.

And so the teacher did not like my. My version of describing Hemingway. But I. I would write papers about stuff like that.

Interesting. About society and just how we shouldn’t have a glass ceiling, how we shouldn’t. My color, the color of my skin, my culture.

I should not use the excuse that I was in foster care, that I grew up poor. There’s no reason for that. I think I have.

I can fight and I can burst through. Yes. Do I have to fight harder? Absolutely.

But I’m going to. I’m going to give myself a presence in that room. So that’s how I see it.

Well, thank goodness for your dad. Yeah, for sure. I tell him that every day.

So you started around 2019 or 2020? Oh, yeah. How did you come to create the HiveEx group? So, yeah, so I actually had a team at Berkshire called the Starlight Group. Sure.

There’s an Instagram lingering out there somewhere. It did not go well. The collaboration.

I was still new. I started the team not expecting or having. I had goals, but I just wanted to just share my knowledge.

But I didn’t have a platform, I didn’t have tools, I didn’t have just a mission statement. And it didn’t end well. Let’s just say I still talk to a few of the people on the team, but it just.

I fell flat on my face. And that failure, though, taught me so much about what I now want to do in a team. And first and foremost is now involving my husband as director of operations, because I can’t do things alone.

And we did a mission statement which is eat everyone. We want everyone to be able to eat real estate, educate, acquire and transform. We want to educate you in the real estate market.

Buying, selling, property management, commercial, whatever you’re doing. We want you to acquire wealth, right? And then we want to transform your life and transform others and so that everyone eats with. I love that.

So we created. So we just. We’re praying about it and we took our time.

Right. So I joined in January. The goal was, you know, maybe mid year September, October, maybe we start like for the following year.

But a couple of the ladies that I know from Berkshire, just in real estate, they were like, she, one of them, Tiffany, she was like, can you adopt me, please? And so I told her, I was like, we’re still working on this stuff. This was like April. But it ended up where she just needed my help and I wanted to help her and I felt bad.

She felt alone. And I said, you know what, let’s go for it. If God is opening this door, we’re going to do it.

And he sure did. And I signed my second agent, Vicki, in June on Juneteenth, actually there was a holiday. And then I have Evie now, so it’s actually five of us, including my husband.

And so when you’re looking for these agents for your. For your hive, because essentially you’re building a hive. We are.

What qualities do you look for when you’re building your team? Like, how do you ensure. Do you try to ensure diversity and have an inclusive work environment? Oh, for sure. Yeah.

It just ends up being like my husband is. They call him Bishop, but my husband is like the. The way.

He’s the wisdom. He’s, you know, but. And he does our marketing and our photography.

He actually does listings for other agents, not just our team. But we like, if a guy came and wanted to be a part of the hive, we totally would do that too. It just happens That I had prayed.

I said if I’m going to start this team because I feel so badly last time and I made mistakes and I mean even things in me that I had to work on and losing my mom in August, actually even more so. Those girls were there. Like, I, I don’t.

It was so funny because I didn’t want to start the team till the end of the year. But I guess God had other plans because he knew I was going to need them as a, as a pillar. And that’s what I want.

I just want people to be pillars for each other. We are not competitive with each other at all. If they’re going through something, I call them.

They pray for me. I. If like I just found out one of my listings gonna be on hgtv. They were like, oh my God, we wanna be there and support you.

There’s no jealousy, you know, as long as there’s no jealousy that everyone is, is on the same page. We’re, we’re okay. We are faith based.

So we will pray for one another. You don’t have to be, but we will pray for you. We, you know, we just want to show you that we want to show the ethics in real estate.

And that’s why we say that we’re faith based. Because we want to show that we believe in something rather than, than ourselves. And we can’t do it just by ourselves.

I will also say too that to be in the hive for me, I, and I’ve said it. I’ve. I’ve started read.

I read this book, the Deborah Anointing. I’m reading the Esther Anointing. But I remember going to this conference after my mom passed in September and they were like, it’s time to be a Deborah and Esther in, in our world.

We need to change the world from the inside out. We are the salt and we are light and there are people out there hurting that. And just with real estate, like for me, my, I’m the only person in my family that owns a home.

Like we were taught as minorities that to live in that poverty mindset, rent, get on section 8 and all of this stuff. So for us, we want to be able to transform people and show them just because you’re a minority or just because you’re a female or just because you’re this, just because you can own real estate or you can build wealth. And I just.

So as long as you have that mentality that you want to be a leader, that you want to change, because that’s what Deborah Nestor did, they changed their world when there were wars and there were so much going on, they made a difference and they were female in doing it. And back then in the culture, you really didn’t have a voice. But yeah, you can also be a David if you come on the team.

So it brings up because I find, you know, I’ve led quite a few teams and I found that a lot of times there’s a challenge, especially when you are so close and so collaborative, to kind of find that sweet spot between friend and leader, like being able to call somebody out or, you know, set boundaries for the rest of your team. So have you found challenges in that and like maybe that. I don’t know if that was one of the challenges you found in your prior experience of trying to lead a team.

As to now, that’s actually very. A very good point because that was one of the mistakes that I made is that I was trying to collaborate with them and be their friend and they wanted a leader, they wanted me to tell them what to do. And there were times that I did tell them what to do, but it didn’t also get done and then I wouldn’t follow through or be consistent.

So this time around, I wanted to be able to be open and say, if you’re going to join the Hyvix group, this is what Will and I. This is our vision. And you’re either there or, or you’re not, right? You set that boundary at the beginning. I set that boundary at the beginning.

I will say, Evie has been able to come to me and say, I need this from you. I’m not getting it. And I have told them, when you guys want to have a one on one, you, we’re all adults, we all feed ourselves, we cook, right? So if you need a one on one from me, I tell them, I put it in your corner.

I am here every day available. You want to have a one on one weekly, we set it on the calendar. I am here, but you have to come to me and say, hey, I need a one on one with you.

I’m not understanding how to put this into command or how to set up this smart plan or how am I going to target this address, this location that I’m looking for, so on and so forth. I give classes, we have weekly meetings. But I tell them I put it also in their court.

Like if you need me, you have to tell me. But we have been able to have difficult conversations and that’s where I feel like this time I know that it’s right and it’s been different because I’ve been able to go to them and say, hey, you forgot to contact so and so what’s going on? Like, And I’ve told them if I give you leads, I cannot be behind you. I’ve got.

I’ve given them like over 500 leads. You guys have to be on tight. I tell them, and then the friend hat will come on later.

Like Friday, we’re going to a resort day and we’re just going to take that day to decompress, to bond with one another. And I think that that’s important if you give time to bond where you guys have friendship time, like, you and I hang out, we might be, we’re know, professional. Like we hang out professionally and we do things professionally together.

But if we’re also friends outside of it, I think that if we do things outside as friends, it gives time for when we go into that professional box that we don’t have to worry about. Right. Insults or anything like that.

Because I can be real with you and you can be real with me because you know that out here, you know my heart. So I think that’s where I. I’ve learned and that’s what we’ve done differently this time. And for sure it’s been a lot better.

I think that’s a really good method because it also gives you a larger frame of the person. Sometimes when we’re stuck in just knowing one person as this role, you can’t see the big picture of why they might be acting like, you know, grumpy one day as opposed to nothing. But if you know the bigger picture, you’re like, well, she’s dealing with this on the side.

And that will be able to give you grace inside the workplace as well. Exactly. And I think that that’s very important.

You’ve got to have grace, even for me. And I tell them, look, I’m not perfect. And I even told them coming in, I said, I’m new to this.

You know, we actually made mistakes. And then we had a conversation and we said, okay, these are the things that we need to do as team lead, as is him as director of operations starting for the new year. We didn’t even change the team photo.

We didn’t do anything because we said, you know what? While Hivik’s group might have started in April, we’re really, we had some bumpy roads, but now in January, this is where we’re going. We’re going to just now hit it running. So.

Is your website as effective as it could be? Are you using it for more than just marketing and do you give it constant attention? If not, you’re missing out. Your website should assist with your business operations from processes and procedures to client onboarding and tasks. Your website should work for you.

It should be your best salesperson. Here at Naming Creative we work with all of our clients strategically from the start. Don’t miss out on all the opportunity that an effective website can provide.

Schedule a free consultation with us today and discover how we can get you on the right track. Yeah. So what are some of those long term goals that do you have for your team? Have you thought where approach were entered? 2024.

So do we have Lord? Well, yes. So I’ve always had this dream and I like I said there’s enough for everyone to eat. Right.

I actually would like to have a mega office or my own office with a lot of agents that collaborate like a workplace. I don’t know the number. I’m like God, I asked God, bring people that are supposed to be on my team that are supposed that we’re supposed to change each other’s lives.

I learned not to recruit hard. I don’t want to hire fast and what is it? Hire you? I don’t want to hire who I can’t fire and then I don’t want to. So I want it to be perfect.

But I want us to have an office. I want us to have actually to have an in house lender, in house title, in house attorney, in house property management because we do property management commercial. I want us to have just little niches in real estate.

We all work together, we all rent the space together, we all collaborate together and we all support each other’s businesses so that we can all eat. And I feel like a relational environment is so important rather than being transactional with our customers. And I think that at that point when all of these realtors that were leaving like 60,000, over 60,000 realtors left last year, I think I heard 50% of lenders left because the market did shift and change.

You’ve got to go on with that shift. Gary Keller has that of the book called Shift. You have to have that mindset where you shift with the market.

If you’re collaborating with other business owners, I’m going to refer you business. You’re going to refer me business. And we’re not doing it because we’re just doing it for the money.

I’m referring you business because I know you’re going to take care of my people and they’re going to refer you Business. And therefore, they’re going to be happy with me, and they’re also going to refer business. And people sometimes forget that referral basis.

That literally, that is how you build an empire is by relationships, not by being cutthroat, not by being transactional, not by not caring for what you’re doing. And there are some agents in the business that are like that, and some of them have been in business 10 years, but there may come a time in their life that if they continue that way, being cut through, being they. It’s.

It may not be where I’m building me. Like, my. Can pass this to my children.

They might not be able to sell their book of business because they’re so transactional. Me, I’ll be able to. Right.

And pass it on to my daughter or my kids or whoever if they want to do it. Or I can sell the book of business if they decide not to do real estate. Right.

And also just lay your head down at night in peace. Yeah. Oh, that.

You did the. Did the best you could, you know, you. You did, right.

I can’t sleep if I’m in quarrels or conflict with anybody. I can’t imagine if I stole, like, if I was conniving or transactional or anything like that. Like, you know, I’m sure I. And I’ve told people, like, you know, if I haven’t done my best, I apologize to them.

Like, when I lost my mom, I actually did have some contracts, and I told them, hey, guys, like, I’m taking a break from my phone. I have my transaction coordinator. And a lot of my customers actually understood because they know and I have a relationship with them.

But if I was transactional, I told my mom died, and they’re like, yeah, but are you going to take care of me? Some people are like that. And so that’s why I’m like, okay, if I’m actually working with the people that I’m so supposed to be working with, it’ll all work out and we’ll understand each other, because there might be. I mean, I’m sure there’s going to be other major things that go on in my life and, you know, and I’m gonna have to be able to navigate through that, and I’m gonna have to be
able to navigate through those customers and those relationships.

So, yeah, I can’t imagine. Just like I said, we’re ethical, we’re very relational, and that’s what we pride ourselves on. And just to backtrack, I mean, it sounds like this concept of a hive you want the vision is to bring it to a physical space and have like a physical hive of like buzzing relationships that help one another.

Yes. The referral in that scenario would be not only because you know, you know what they can do, but like, you literally see them every day. You have this very strong relationship and you, you know, you can trust, you can, you can honestly refer because you can trust.

That’s really interesting. Yeah. And as cliche as it may be, I told you, like, I’ve always, you know, reading and stuff.

I know you. It takes a village, right? You hear this saying. That’s actually one of my favorite sayings.

When I was a stay at home mom, when I was tutoring and I was with other homeschool moms, we always would say it would take. It takes a village. And I used to say that as a kid myself, because I would not be where I am if I didn’t have the right village.

If God didn’t bring those people in my life, like my dad, like pastors and just friends, and I wouldn’t have met my husband. Just things like that. It takes a village.

And it not necessarily mom, dad, but it takes people. So in this hive, we are a village. We are collaborating, we’re working together.

If you’re having a rough day, I want to be able to come and make or give you a hug or be there for you. And so it’s not just necessarily work, but we’re, we’re getting to know each other on that and that level. And I do have.

My husband and I started before we started the team. We started Hivix LLC and I have an office in Ybor and that was for. If my clients needed me to help them with contractor work or anything like that, or cleaning, we could help with that because my husband does do that as well.

But we also are flipping. We want to be able to flip and do rentals. So we were like, we’ll do it under Hybex llc.

That’ll be our, our company separate from real estate. And so we have an office in Ybor that the girls go and we do our huddles and stuff there. It’s a shared workspace with other offices, just one room or whatever.

And we decorated it, but it’s. It’s not considered office. Our office in Valrico for real estate is just this room and it’s decorated.

I have like empowerment sayings. Everyone loves how we decorated our office, but it’s a room I want to have where everyone has their workspace also. Eventually that’s Where I see us.

And in regards to the hive, my husband. So the ox comes from. Oxes are very like, they’re a foundation.

So it’s not just having a hive. We want to have a strong foundation, strong ground, firm ground that we stand on, on our ethics, on our values, on our business. And so the oxygen in the Bible, or just in general, has helped society build farming.

Plowing the ground. So it has a lot to do. Like, it’s like that song Bad Dirt.

Right? So. Right. But we’re literally.

We’re plowing the ground, and we’re setting a strong foundation for this hive, and we’re collaborating together. They, like, they. They say, my husband’s the ox and I’m the queen bee.

Yeah. Because he is. He’s a gentle giant.

But when he speaks, he’s very. Oh, he’s quiet when he speaks. It’s typically full of wisdom.

So they say, he’s the ox. He’s the one that’s standing us. We’re standing on him and his strong foundations and the values.

And then we’re just. We just collaborate and we. With bees.

I don’t know if you know, but Einstein once said, if bees disappeared from the earth. And I’m sure you’ve seen the bee movie. Yeah.

And somebody actually brought this up to me. We were at this retreat, and I bought this little hive purse, and I was just seeing bees, like, in certain little markets. So now that’s our thing.

Like, I have literally, like, one of the girls. I have a bee. There’s my little bee keychain that Evie gave me.

So anytime we see bees, we try to, like, buy the stuff, but. And the girl told me. She’s like, that’s so awesome that you have the hivex crib.

And I said, well, yeah, bees are essential. They create honey without honey. And she goes, well, actually, Einstein said that.

That the civilization. If we lost honey, and I think they said it in the bee movie, we would not survive as a people in the world. And I was like, oh, my God.

So we want to be able to show that, you know what? We’re providing you something to help you survive and from generations to come, for generations to come. So we want to build generational wealth as well. So in this hive, you and your husband have this goal, this ultimate finish, maybe, or the ultimate next step.

Who knows when we’re finishing? Right. That’s. And the girls are excited.

You know, your team is excited. They also have their own goals. Right.

So how do you keep them incentivized to work towards the bigger picture. That’s a very good question also. So I remember Evie telling me, as a team lead, we have to provide value.

And I actually learned this also in Keller Williams family reunion. And she brought it up the other day, and she goes, you know, for us to have people that want to stay on the team, I have to. I, as a team lead, my husband, we have to be able to continue to provide value.

And which is why I said, I’m never just going to be a rookie. I’m always going to want to continue learning so that I can provide value to my team and be there for them. I think that for us, our commission structure, it’s not just about money, but I’ve learned that I’ve got to have value.

So training, I got to have a knowledge that they may not possibly have commission structure. KW has their model, and I looked at it, it was wonderful. But I felt like you may not have people stay with you if you’re taking a lot out of it.

So I do like that I’m able to pick a KW to follow my model. And the way that my husband said is like, yeah, you have an agent that you take 50%, and yeah, they’re making $300,000 a year while you’re taking that 50%. But he goes, they have a family, and I just don’t feel right taking an extra.

If I could just charge them, let’s say, you know, 30%. They’re still now bringing. Now they’re bringing an extra 20%.

I think we don’t want to speak about money, but let’s be real. Yeah, like, we need money. And so that’s exactly what my husband was saying.

He’s like, while they may be okay with paying such and such team that amount, and I’m not speaking against any teams. I’ve actually was talking to another team lead, and she told me, she’s like, let me see how that works out for you. And I was like, it’s okay.

And not everybody’s gonna agree with me, but my husband does not feel right taking from another person if they could be bringing that home and we’re profitable still, if I’m profitable, why am I going to take more money? So that’s how he sees it. So we’re trying to create it to where we’re all profitable. We’re all happy, we’re all collaborating, we’re all providing value.

I, myself and my husband. My husband, like, I have. I work with vendors.

I have title companies that cover the girls photos or that they will Cover their open houses. These, they’re not paying for anything out of pocket. I’m covering their marketing, I’m giving them leads.

So that’s where I’m also adding value. Whereas maybe where they were at is not. And like I said, if they get it, they get it.

If they don’t, they don’t. I always said, if someone starts with you for money, they will leave for you for money. They’ve got to get you.

And so bees, they’re worker bees, right? Do you have to be everyone? And they get with each other and they back each other up. And so that’s what I want. I don’t want.

I, like I said, if they, if they get me, they’ll get us. They’ll get us on the team. We do do a 90 day trial period.

I let them try us out. If for some reason I don’t know them, I let them try it out. They hang out with us, they collaborate with us.

I mean, they’ve. I’ve had agents come and do activities with me. They want to come to an open house, Hey, I have a listing appointment.

You want to come with me to a listing appointment? And they ride with me and we do the listing appointment, you know, and I have no problem. And a couple of them have left to other brokerages and I’m like wishing I’m rooting them on and I’m like, you’ve got this, you can do this. Just because the team didn’t work out doesn’t mean I can’t root them on.

Right? So, yeah, well, I think, and that is something that I think you touched on in the beginning too, which kind of sounds like, for instance, you have your 90 days. It kind of seems in your past experience in teams and I have, I think as a leader, that is how you learn, right? You learn by team to team. You know what goes wrong.

I messed up there. Or especially if you can take accountability for it, some people can’t. And then I, to me, I don’t consider them leaders.

So you have like a 90 day period. But I feel like maybe in your past, and I’ve experienced this too, I didn’t have a system in place and I also didn’t know what systems to put in place. And do you think that now going forward, like, what systems have you put in place to ensure that these goals are being met? Yeah, you’re right.

I did not have the systems. I was relying on systems provided for me. And so now I have systems.

Like for us, I do use the KW command, the Keller I love it actually. It’s very techie. So Keller Williams, their tech is.

Is really, really good. I like it a lot. I actually like that we use docusign instead of dot loop, that things integrate together.

But I also have my own things that I do. Like I have magazines that go out and I put. I actually have digital marketing that goes out.

So I put all of my people from the command or my closings into this system that I have. I have Buffini that I use to track my CRM and my earnings and things like that. Not just trusting kw but seeing, wow, I didn’t convert last year.

Oh my goodness. There was like $3 million in sales that I did not convert. But it’s a wake up call because it’s like, man, they ended up canceling or ended up not.

What can I learn from this? And it actually shows you in numerical value. So I use that and the referral maker process. So those are be pretty much.

I set a schedule. Time blocking. I wasn’t great in doing that.

If it’s not on my calendar, it doesn’t exist. Yes. So I had to crack down, girl, let me tell you.

I had to crack down on myself and the girls. I’m telling you, they had to be like, you’ve got to put this in your calendar and no more rescheduling. We said this year.

Because I would try to accommodate them or myself or. And they’re like, don’t reschedule. If they can’t make it, they can’t make it.

Even if it’s only three or four of us, we’ve got to stay consistent. So I told them I’m not canceling anything else. We have a resort day on Friday.

I It was rescheduled. The weather, granted. So we’re hoping it’s warmer because we’ve had to reschedule it.

So we’re moving. It’s warmer on Friday, but our team meetings now are Tuesdays. We’re not going to reschedule them or moving them around or anything.

You come to the team meeting or you don’t, you know, if you can’t make it. We do do zoom. We do.

You know, there’s been times where the girls, one of the girls couldn’t make it and we had a zoom. But, you know, so that’s the thing. We have to just.

We’re trying to stay consistent. And before I was not. I’m now I’ve taken leadership classes.

When I went to family reunion. Keller Williams. They were just so amazing in sending me to family reunion.

Because I told them, this is what I want, this is my dream. And they said, you’re going to go to family reunion, you’re going to sit down and you have these different classes. And my husband would go sit at class and I would go to sit at a class and we’d like divide and conquer so that we could learn.

And it was funny because I remember he would argue about us not needing an admin and stuff like that. And then they took classes and like, this is why you need an admin. And he was like, you know, I’m like, oh, so you’ll listen to, to them.

But, but so yeah, that’s one thing. That’s one of our goals this year, right, Right now we haven’t needed one because I have divided and conquered with the girls. Like, they’re like, I want to do it myself.

Like, I want to learn this. I don’t want, they don’t want someone to do it for them. So we did interview, we do have a few listing people that we want to help us with listings and admins.

But for now we’re just going to do it on a case by case basis. But we are hopefully by the mid year we do want to be so fully up and running that we do have an admin and the girls, while they already know everything, now we can have the admin do it for us. Right? So they wanted to learn it and then I told them, come mid year we’re going to get an admin.

I think that’s important. I think that’s actually important that they want to learn it too as well. Because I, I mean, I don’t do what you do, but like in my own experience, opening up my own firm, I didn’t know how to file things.

Like, I didn’t know what a paralegal would do, you know, And I’m like, well, I’m not going to hire a paralegal unless I know how to do her job, you know, so. Or his job could be a boy. Yeah.

So yeah, I taught myself how to file, which sounds ridiculous coming out of law school, but you do, you have to teach yourself how to file things. And now I’ve hired an assistant and now I can, I feel I can train her. Right? Like, otherwise I would just be hoping she could do her job.

And that’s the thing that we’re like, can you train me how to do it? And I’m like, yeah, I can show you. Because they’re like, you’re doing it for me. And so that was a hard pill that I had to swallow because I was just so.

Back then I wasn’t hands on. And now I’m like, trying to do it for them. And they’re like, no, like, I thought that they, I needed to provide that because I see other teams providing that.

And one of the things that my husband always, constantly reminds me, he’s like, you do he. Do you remember? You always say you want to stay in your lane. And he’s like, you’re not staying in your lane.

You’re looking again at other teams and what they’re doing. He goes, we’ll get there, but we have to build a strong foundation and we have to do it the way we want to because our dream is not their dream. Right? And there’s so many ways to do things correctly, right? So.

And so with that, when you are thinking about, I mean, we all do, right? You’ll kind of compare whatever to leaders, to other leaders, to other teams. But for you, if I were to cut, if somebody was come to you and say, I am about to lead this team of agents, what would be the critical qualities that you would tell them that they need to, to strive for, to have to build their strength in? Like, what qualities does a leader who runs a team like you need? Patience. I think grace.

Room for grace. Because if they’re, if you’ve got a new agent, they’re going to want to be at your side or they’re going to want to know, have classes. So you’ve gotta be able to provide, be able to be gracious with them and, and to give them room to grow.

But you also have to provide resources for them because that’s what they’re gonna wanna be learning, they’re gonna wanna be looking for. So I would say patience, grace, a kindness, like, you know, to be able to deal with different personalities. I actually have a patience to deal with people who are not like me a lot.

Like, people are like, how are you friends with that person? Or have you been friends so long with that person? I’m like, well, because I see the good in them. I have been burned. Don’t get me wrong.

I actually had to learn, like, okay, if you see them stealing or like, there’s no way to change stealing and lying, and you have to be careful with those. But I, while they may not have the same beliefs as me, we just don’t bring politics, we don’t bring religion. We just.

But we’re friends and I’m there for them and I’m bringing them on. So I would say that I would also say, so having the tools that they need to be their leader, like, they’re coming to you for a reason. You can’t leave them empty handed.

They’re going to be like, give me, give me, give me. I would say to have positivity. There are times that this business will get you down and you’re just like down in the dumps.

And our day, there’s a meme that it’s like this, it’ll go like this and it’s like really, really, really high and you’re having a really, really good day and then you get a phone call and go back and you’ll just fall. So I think having to stay positive and in that mindset of, of being positive or just gratitude and knowing that you have the ability, I look at it as a privilege that I have a team. I don’t look at like I’m a head honcho.

You have to have humbleness. And for me, I, it’s, I am so grateful for them. I’m so grateful that they see me as their leader.

Like, I’m so grateful to be in this position, to be able to do what I do, that I just, it just wants me to be a better person. And so I think that when you come from that mindset, rather than I’m head honcho and come follow me, I think you’ll see and do bigger and better things. And it sounds like a wonderful hive to work in.

Every word that you said was patience, kindness, grace, humbleness. Like, there is nothing to stern in that language. That’s wonderful.

I mean, this business, you’ve got to be stern. You should see me negotiating some contracts. But it doesn’t mean that we can’t be stern and we can’t be.

But as a leader, you just have to come from that mindset, that’s all. I mean, I am pretty a skilled negotiator, I’m sure, but I’m still nice. My baddie baddy at the fatty.

But let me tell you, listing agents are like, I love working with you, man. You were on it. Or buyer’s agents too.

And they’ll call me and be like, can I be on your team? And they’ll call me before and they’ll say, as a buyer’s agent, oh, you have a team, I would love to talk to you. And then by the end of the transaction, they’ll mention. I’m like, oh, we’re not looking for agents right now.

Because I saw how they worked and I was like, this is not going to be A good fit. Right? So Liz, tell if somebody wants to get a hold of you, work with you, how do they get a hold of you? So we have an Instagram at the Hybex group. My personal page is at Loose around the Bay.

So the girls have a slogan. Tiffany is you’re walking in sneakers. Realtor I’m loose around the Bay.

Vicky is Realtor V and then Evie is homes with Evie. But everybody has their slogan and their own personality. As a team lead, a lot of teams don’t let you do that.

I let them have their photos and their listing signs and their slogans so they could look us up on any one of those platforms. For the girls, you can. They have the Hybex group there.

But at Loose around the Bay I have it linked as well on Instagram, Facebook, I TikTok. We’re going to be doing YouTube. We’re heavily going to be starting to do YouTube as well because I love to make videos about just me going out to eat and that’s why it’s loose around the Bay.

So I’m going to be doing that and we’re going to be promoting that. So you’ll be able to reach out or if you want to reach out directly. 813-846-6379.

Send me a text. I’ve had agents reach out and I’ll sit and have coffee with you and tell you the business. Absolutely love this.

This is great. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you for having me and also thank you for that plant is still alive that you gave me for my mom.

Oh, good. Thank you. Welcome.