The One Thing Holding Most Self-Employed Agents Back (and How to Fix It)

This week on The Elite Agent Masterclass, Jack sits down again with James Humphries-Stone to explore what agents really need in the first 90 days of starting their self-employed estate agency business.

Together, they unpack the business planning process new agents go through when joining The Avenue — from defining their personal ‘why’ and planning for income, to building daily routines that drive results.

You’ll hear:

• Why transitioning into self-employment isn’t just about changing job titles — it’s about becoming a true business owner
• What most new agents misunderstand about metrics and how to measure success
• The 4 essential lead generation pillars: direct mail, door knocking, social media and networking
• How to map out a 12-month income goal and the exact MAs you need to hit it
• Why accountability and daily discipline are more powerful than talent
• And how DISC profiling changes the way we coach every agent for better results

Whether you’re already in the self-employed space or considering the move, this episode will give you the frameworks and motivation to build a scalable, sustainable, and successful business.

📲 Listen, take notes, and don’t forget to subscribe — new episodes drop every week.

Engage With Us
Have questions or topics you'd like us to cover in future episodes? Send us your thoughts and stay engaged with the Elite Agent Masterclass for more expert insights on transforming your career.

Connect with James on Socials:

Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn


Connect with Jack on Socials:

Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn


Connect with TEAM on Socials:

Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn

Transcript

Welcome to the Elite Agent Masterclass. We're back with another episode. I've got James Humphries-Stone with me, of course, this week again. And we're going to go through a little bit about what agents need when they first start their business, what the business journey looks like for self-employed estate agents, and what we believe they need to support them with their journey. So James, how are you? yeah very good anyone that's watching the video of this will really see that me and jack were both chuckling just as I hit record on this uh call because you were literally about to remind yourself what am I saying and then I hit record too soon so we're both like oh go I'm very well thanks mate how are you good yeah good you usually do the uh intro so it throws me up a little bit when um when it's my turn to do to do the intro so um yeah and good night I'm very good um I wanted to I suppose I wanted to dive in a little bit and talk about the sort of things you go through with new agents when they're onboarding, what you believe agents need when they're either stepping into self-employed estate agency for the first time, or if they've come from other models where they maybe haven't got the support that certain brokerages provide. And one of your roles and responsibilities with new agents stepping into the Avenue brokerage um is to help them through that becoming a business owner rather than just either an employee or um or an agent sometimes as well I think a lot of self-employed agents are still still just doing the valuing and the day-to-day process but don't have a complete picture on what the actual business shape looks like so um yeah do you want to share a little bit about what what you believe is important for an agent as they start to step into self-employed estate agency Yeah, so I think it's a really good topic, especially not only for people considering moving into the self-employed space, but also those that are already in the space. And whether that's from the perspective of them, I suppose, raising the question mark of whether they've got the right support and mentoring behind them, or simply that they could take some of what we're going to share on this episode and implement it into their own businesses. Because I do think that a lot of people that transition into self-employment, all they do is replace an employed job with a self-employed job. They don't transition from being employed to a business owner. And so one of my big things is helping the agents when we do that process, helping them understand how to run their business. So focusing on how the finance is going to look. how to measure their businesses so they can understand how and when and what changes they might need to make in their business as their a their business grows but b we have it within the avenue we have the scorecard that me you holly ben and michelle review on a weekly basis and that scorecard gives us an indicator as to where there may well be bottlenecks in the business and so we then focus on those bottlenecks release them so that then the business can move more freely and as time goes on there will always then be a new bottleneck there always is that's the nature of growing a business and so what we then coach or what I then coach the partners on when they first join us is what to look for how to measure some to be quite honest with you I say it because I do day one of the onboard and it's very much about business planning And so I say, look, today I'm going to give you what you need. This is the day where you're going to get what you need, but it's probably not necessarily what you wanted. And then tomorrow, Jack's going to get the sexy bit because we do our days. I do the day before you. I do business planning. You then do the sexy sales and marketing and value stack and the stuff that people probably go, I really want to do. So I'm the need. You're the one. I would have said ben's is a sexy part when it comes to the marketing but I'll take it yeah but in fairness mate but in fence how many agents do we on board that say I'm really looking forward to being in front of camera very few yeah yeah we've we've had it we've had a couple recently they're very confident on camera but nine times out of ten Yeah, a lot of them are dreading that initial day. But it's great because... What I mean, sorry, just quickly, what I mean about your part being more sexy is that a lot of people don't kind of go immediately like, I really want to do the business planning section and I really want to know how to measure my business. They just want to go, give me the tools so I can go out there and just do loads of business, which is fine. But at the same time, The structure that we aim to implement initially then means that they can move faster rather than getting to a point where they get stuck. And then it's like, oh, bugger. Now what do I do? I can definitely, I suppose, resonate. The planning and the preparation is so important. I'm someone that... I hate sitting down to do the planning and preparation, but I know how important it is to actually do it. So with the planning and preparation, how far do you look into the future with the agents' businesses or how far into the future do you suggest they look? So initially, my initial aim is because these people are going from, in many cases, zero to one. What I mean there is they're coming from an environment where their KPIs have been set. They've been in corporate world. So it's like these are the targets we've got to hit. They've not self-managed those. They've been told what they've got to do, realistic or otherwise, they've been told. So it's a case of... They're begrudgingly filling in spreadsheets every week. And so I look at it and go, OK, let's not go too far into the future with the plan here. Let's look at year one. Let's look at what we want to achieve year one, what our aims and our aspirations are year one. We may look at what that looks like going into year two and what changes the business needs to make. But the primary focus of that initial meeting is what's year one going to shape up like? It ties in with what their personal aspirations are, what their own goals are, so that we can understand a more ingrained understanding of their why. Why are we doing this? There's very few people, certainly none that we've met with or onboarded that go, I just simply want to earn that much money that I could be sat in this room right now and be surrounded by fifties. That's just not what people do it for, right? They don't. Whether it's exploration or material. Yeah, the whole reason for owning the money is to be able to pay for the luxuries that they want to have, isn't it? So it's understanding what those luxuries are, which will mean there's more motivation and drive and determination to earn the money they need to get there. Sorry, say that again. I was going to say, you mentioned understanding their why as well. And I suppose that's a bit of a mindset thing, isn't it? Why is that so important? Why is the why important? Well, I was going to say, for some people, it might be material things. It might be they've got an aspiration to buy a new car that year, or it might be that they want to move house. it may be something that's more material. For others, it may be that they want to earn an amount of money, but offset against that against the amount of time they have to invest in day to day business. And so being able to spend more quality time with their loved ones is the trade. It's the that's the goal. By the end of year one, I want to have built something That enables me not to have to work past seven o'clock of an evening or not have to work Sundays. Or to be honest, I can pick and choose when I work a Saturday, for example. And so understanding the why helps us then better tailor what they're aiming for. Because it's not a one size fits all. And I would argue that with anyone in the space, that if they think that it's just a one size fits all from a leadership perspective, where it's like, okay, we just rinse and repeat the same process for absolutely everyone and that's going to work. I'm sorry, I disagree. Yeah, it's got to be suited, hasn't it? One size fits all. yeah your your day that you go through with me is very focused from what I've seen um around what's most important to them and then kind of working backwards from that isn't it as opposed to trying to just put something in place and it being the same for everyone we've got agents in the business that have you know completely different lifestyles to one another so with their wants and needs and also the way that they run their businesses are all going to be very different Totally, totally. And so starting with their why, there are systems and processes that we will recommend and the way in which they grow and build their business. We will recommend certain ways of delivering it, but connecting back to what's important to them is going to always be more important than saying, oh, you told us at the beginning of the year you want to earn a hundred K, which look, that number gets banded around so much in the space. But why do you want to earn that money? What's the attached result to that? Is it that you wanna go on your tenth wedding anniversary with your wife and you wanna spoil her and take her somewhere really special? Is it that you wanna take, one of mine, taking the kids and the wife on a safari, for example? Or is it that one of our agents this year, when I helped him do his business planning for this coming year, it was very much about they've expanded their family. They're now a family of four and they need to move house. So this year is very much focused on building his pot so that they can move house in twenty twenty six. But that's a much greater why than just simply saying, I want to bank hundred grand. Yeah, definitely. The hundred grand is going to be different for everyone, isn't it? I suppose that's where we start in terms of understanding their why and what's their aspiration and what they're driving towards, why they're doing it. What about in terms of the metrics? Is it just the level of instructions that you go through with them? What's really important for them to look at in their business and important for them to understand about their business metrics? Good question. So initially, we go for a very simple template. I have a very busy mind. So I like to try and simplify as many things as I possibly can. Otherwise, it gets complicated. And so the simple metrics we go through initially is okay, cool. We understand the North Star, we understand our why, we understand where we're going, we understand the monetary value attached to that why. and how we're going to get there then we break it backwards so then it's understanding okay so where do we want our average fee in our business to sit not in percentages but in pounds and pence and so working hours so for example reason my maths if it was a hundred grand was the target and their average fee that they wanted to achieve was five grand. Just for context, in the Avenue business, the average fee across the entire brokerage is higher than that, but I'm using this for ease of my maths. That would mean twenty completions across the course of that calendar year. And then we break it backwards. Okay, cool. We need to complete on twenty. So how many realistically do we need to sell, allowing for some to fall? Because that will always happen. It's the nature of the beast. And so we work backwards. OK, so seventy five percent may well go through to completion. Again, I'm doing this for the ease of my maths and we just work backwards. So what's our instruction sale ratio? What's our valuation to instruction ratio? And therefore, how many leads do we need to generate? Then we break it back and then we work out, OK, so technically we need how many MAs, how many market appraisals per week in order to get that figure that's on North Star and therefore achieve our Y. And typically, based on the way it's structured, one to two MAs a week. always lands up being the number. And the reason I do it like that is to help people understand, especially people that have come from traditional estate agency, where the mantra is normally high volume, market share driven, So it's really hard to recondition to the idea that I just need to complete on twenty houses this year. I just need to see one to two MAs a week and I can earn in many cases double, if not a bit more than what I was earning before. But I'll be doing a fraction of the workload, a real fraction. So it's also the reason I do it the way I do it is it's also a bit of a penny drop moment for people as well. It's interesting, isn't it? One to two valuations a week. That'll be a quiet day back at the high street. One to two a day would be quiet, like you say, whereas we're talking about one to two a week. Now, of course, you want to front load that as much as possible. In the first three or four months, you want to be looking at three or four a week, four or five, five or six, whatever. But as an average over time, one to two a week will then lead you to the result. And so we go through that, A, because it's really eye-opening. Because then we start to tweak some of the metrics. Quite a lot of the response I get when we go through this process is, OK, I reckon we'll sell a seventy five percent of what we list. We'll list fifty percent of what value and we'll complete on seventy five percent of what we sell. OK, cool. What if we tweaked the completion ratio? And we made that eighty five to ninety percent. And then the question I get is, but how cool. And we're going to move on to that. And so what if we could tweak your conversion ratio from fifty to sixty percent? Keep asking me how, because that's what's going to happen over the course of this week. We're going to fill in a lot of those blanks. And so then it goes to one MA a week max. So with that then, obviously the data they'll be collecting over time, how often do you recommend that they review the data in their current business to look for those one percent changes, one percent dollars that they can turn to improve the conversions? That's a really great question. So we call it the income ladder. So that basic structure that I went through there, how many completions, average fee, et cetera, et cetera. Then what we need to look at is, OK, so if we need to generate one MA a week, what inputs do we need to deliver in order to achieve that one MA a week? And there are the core four lead generation strategies, right, that we look at. Everything falls under the one of four categories. So it's whether it's door knocking, direct mail, social media, whether it be organic or paid, and then networking. So whether that be organized groups or whether it be community-based, whether it be supporting local charities, football clubs, schools, whatever. And so it's looking at those and going, okay, well, you and I both know, that if a direct mail campaign is going to be the thing they lean into most, you and I are both quite comfortable in the concept that they should, as an average to good result, expect one lead, one inquiry for every hundred letters that they send. There are some campaigns that perform significantly better than that. There are some campaigns that don't perform quite so well. But as an average, it should be one in every hundred will leave. Cold start as well. You've got to expect the results to be a little bit low for a cold start business, haven't you? Completely. So we're then measuring, we're kind of going then going the other way. So okay, cool. We've looked at what the result is, what we're aiming for, what do we now have to do to get to that? So let's say direct mail was it? Okay, cool. So if I go and hand deliver a hundred letters a day over the course of this week, by rights, I should get five inquiries. And all I've got to do is turn one of those five into an MA. So that's step one. But like, okay, well, don't just do that in isolation, social media has to be in today's society, the foundational layer of growing your business to build your own brand, as well as your partnership brand, if you're alongside the avenue, for example. And so we then layer that on top of it, okay, if you do this amount of content daily, and you post this many videos, and you put this much content on your story, and you interact this many times into the local groups. Oh, and by the way, we, as The Avenue, are going to invest in meta ads to spread your brand and your awareness even further in the first few weeks of your launch. We're making that investment. All of a sudden, you're like, one MA a week actually now starts to feel a lot more straightforward than it might have done beforehand. So everything has a reason, a rationale to lead to that point. So it's what's the result? What are the inputs that we now need to work towards? Which then leads to your answering your question. Sorry, I felt like I need the chronological order to the process. It then leads to how often should they be reviewing it? Well, they should be reviewing their inputs weekly, minimum. In the early stages, I'd be suggesting measure your inputs daily. Have a simple checklist in the back of your mind. Have a simple checklist written down. As we all know, those who write goals down are exponentially more likely to achieve said goals than those that just have them in their heads. So refer to it daily. Have I put out the required number of social media posts? Have I put out the required number of letters? Have I knocked that number of doors that I said I was going to commit to? Have I organized to get involved in a local event that I was going to plan to do? By the way, you don't have to do all four. pick two and go in really, really, really hard on those. But make sure social media is at least one of the two. So creating that omnipresence for the local businesses. A hundred percent. Doing all four is almost a surefire way to success. And so I would always recommend that people look at blending all four. But for those out there that maybe haven't, and I mean this with the greatest respect to anyone and everyone, but it is about work ethic. What you put in will immediately impact what you get back. And for those that haven't got a stronger work ethic, they're going to need to just lean on two. But in my view, three is for those that want to be successful, four is for those that want to be elite. Simples. that's really important isn't it around focusing on the output that they that they make I think we've spoken to a lot of people um I'm sure you'll probably agree that a lot of people focus on the result and not necessarily the the input that goes into it but surely the input is what drives the results if they focus there then the results should follow what's some of the challenges that you've found uh with especially with new agents coming in or agents that you've spoken to um what's the biggest challenge around getting started and that the first the first few months within their business. Biggest challenges faced. I think a lot of people will relate to this next point, even me and you possibly. Fear of rejection, worried about putting their face on camera and their friends and family taking the mic. Fear of, the rejection one's probably the big one. So, you know, when you are doing something from scratch, A lot of agents we talk to, it's like, okay, I'm putting everything on the line now. So I'm willing to do whatever it takes. As long as it's ethical and it stays the right side of the line from a morals perspective, I'm willing to do whatever it takes. Actions speak louder than words. So don't tell us that you're willing to do whatever it takes and then say that you don't wanna go door knocking. Because you were willing to do whatever it takes and it's not immoral and it's not unethical. So get it done. I will help support and build a plan around the individual. But don't tell me you're willing to do whatever it takes, and then start renegotiating the terms of whatever it takes. And so I feel that people, you made a very valid point, they focus too heavily on what it is they're trying to achieve, and not enough on what it is they need to do in order to create the achievement. And so momentum is all they need. Initially, what they do doesn't actually have to be that good. And that sounds really bad considering one of our core values is that we hold the highest standards. But being present and showing up and delivering is more important than being invisible and hoping that someone, someone stumbles across you. And it's the consistency as well, isn't it, about that delivery repetitively? We've had conversations. I think that what I've also seen across the industry and the conversation we have quite often It's the getting it done is one thing, but when people aren't seeing quick enough results, they start to get deflated. And we touched on it earlier, it's the input that's really, really important. If you just focus on the input and not put so much attention on the results and just keep peddling, the results will follow. But it can, as we both know, when we launched the business, It can be frustrating and a little bit deflating when you're not seeing those results happen sometimes as quickly as we would like. We've got a lot of agents in the business that come in and they expect to see results really quickly. And when they're coming into a completely different environment, it's something they're not used to. They're not seeing those and those evaluations every day. How do people maintain the mindset of just getting up and getting the stuff done that they need to do every single day when Yeah, the deflating or disappointing part is they're not seeing results as quickly as they would like. Do you know, it's a really good point, and I want to share something as an aside to it. So first thing, the mindset piece. People really need to get used to the idea of celebrating the smallest win, the smallest win. The smallest win in my mind might be simply leaving your house, getting in your car and delivering a hundred letters that day. That's a win because a hundred more people that day when they get home from work or pick the kids up from school or whatever, they pick a letter up on their doorstep with your face on. And all of a sudden, a hundred more people know who you are. Another win might be that you've interacted in a local community Facebook group and fifteen hundred people have seen that post and in some way engaged or interacted. That's a win. Fifteen hundred more people in your community know who you are. And so celebrate those wins. Then if you're out and about in the community wearing your branded merch, because we give all of our new partners branded merch and someone says, oh, you're an estate agent. That's a win because someone else has shown curiosity in what you're doing. And so I think if people can get more used to celebrating the small wins rather than hanging their hat on, my phone hasn't rung today and no one booked valuation. you will be teeing yourself up for massive disappointment if that's how you go into it, if that's the attitude you're fronting it up with. And so I would say, I can't remember who or where I heard this from. It was on a podcast or a YouTube video. I watch and consume a lot, so I can't remember who it was. And it's the rule of one hundred. And the rule of one hundred is that you should perform actions for a hundred minutes every single day that would lead eventually to a result. So in our instance, let's say it was social media. People should spend a hundred minutes every single day, if social media is part of their lead gen strategy, interacting in some way on social media. So first off, creating content. Secondly, getting involved in the local groups. And by being in the local groups, Think about it like networking. You wouldn't walk into a room full of people and immediately turn up and say, I'm here and start talking about yourself. You just wouldn't do it. You'd walk in and you'd show interest in other people. You'd start a conversation. You would interact in other conversations and offer input. So if someone is in a Facebook group, full context, and you see that they're looking for a recommendation or referral for their wife's fortieth birthday and they want a referral for a good local restaurant to take their wife to, get involved. If they're looking for a plumber, an electrician, a solicitor, an accountant, get involved. If someone shares that they've just had a success in their own personal business, they're a hairdressing salon and they've just opened the doors, get involved. That small gesture of helping someone else, it always gets returned, doesn't it? They're the first person that you're going to call, sorry, they're going to call when they think about selling their house because you've helped them in just, even if it is just a small recommendation, you've just helped them along their journey and I'm sure in return. It happens all the time. It happens all the time. I've seen it. So I posted in a Facebook group the other day looking for some advice on something. And the people that responded, the ones that gave the What would I classify as, in my humble opinion, the best response or the most insightful response? Curiosity kills the cat. I immediately want to know who they are. I check out their profile. And so you've got to think about this. People will start connecting dots. People will look at your profile. If you put an insightful, helpful, endearing, encouraging response to content that's in those groups, people are going to check you out and they're going to connect dots. Then a few days later, they're then going to see a piece of content that gets shared by you into those groups. And they go, huh, there's that same person again. And so the rule of one hundred is a hundred percent. The rule of one hundred, a hundred minutes action minimum for a hundred days. Do that and then come back and tell me you haven't built something special. I'd love to hear. It's impossible not to win. Yeah. It's that, like you said, the hundred days, the consistency, the repetition and the snowball effect. You mentioned earlier having one to two value ranges a week at the start. You want to put as much input as you can, but then it's all about maintenance after that, isn't it? So that kind of covers a lot of the... measuring the metrics, the planning, the preparation, what about when they actually launch their business? And what should they do in those first, say, the first three months when they launch their business? What's the plan? What sort of support should people expect or would most agents need when they first get started in those first three months? Yeah, great, great question. And I think just to step back, so one of the other parts that we go through when I do my day one is so we do the business financial planning, connecting everything we're then going to build back to the why we're doing it, we then understand the inputs that are required. We then, which ties into your question around expectations how do they stay on track I go through the emotional cycle of change with them and so I'm not going to go into lots of detail on this recording because we have done a youtube video so if anyone wants to watch that listen to it then you can hop over onto the elite agent masterclass on youtube and it talks through the emotional cycle of change And so for anyone that is either considering self-employment or is in self-employment right now and thinking, I'm feeling a bit flat and I don't know what to do, watch that video because that video will give you a little bit of context around why you're feeling that way. And we go through that again because we know people are going to hit certain milestones that will be negative in the early days more often than positive. And so I just want them to be conditioned to the idea that it's coming. I can't tell you exactly when it's going to land, but it's going to come. And so you're going to hit this low point. And we just need you to know that we're there to support you through that because we've also been through it ourselves. So we know how to get you out the other side. You need to dig deep and we're here shoulder to shoulder. And so what should they expect from their first ninety days? They should expect to feel like crap for a fairly long part of that first ninety days. especially if they've come from a high volume environment where they've been valuing four and five houses a day, they're gonna feel like crap no matter how much conditioning we try to do in that first week, they're gonna feel a bit flat, that the opportunities aren't coming, that I feel like I'm throwing so much out there, so much, I'm shouting into an empty room almost on social media, I'm getting nothing back. For some, with the right launch plan, they come out of the traps hot, and they get really good levels of opportunity really quickly. Promise the lull will still come at some point. There is an agent within the avenue that that exact scenario happened. They flew out of the traps. And then a few weeks ago, we had a conversation and that person said, I thought I'd built a bridge over the emotional cycle of change. I thought I'd bypassed the lull. It's got me. I'm like, great, great. Because it had to happen at some point and you're acknowledging it. And now we're having a conversation on how to fix it. Had to come out the other side as well, I suppose. Exactly that. Okay. And then to be fair, I think with a lot of the conversations we've had, it's very different, isn't it? We've had conversations with people that aren't seeing enough results or quick enough results. We've got others that feel those first ninety days, they've gone from having loads to do, being very reactive, and they've now got to change and become very, very proactive instead. and they felt as though that they're not busy enough within their business and felt a little bit of guilt because of that and how do how do you recommend agents flip the switch from being reactive to proactive and how do you stay motivated to do that and how do you plan for that and how do you structure yourself so that you can be really proactive and make make yourself busiest essentially if you haven't got anyone calling in or picking up the phone Yeah, a lot of people struggle with this. And I feel like it can end up going one of two ways people can end up just creating busy work that makes it feel like it's justifying their time. And then you've got the other end of the spectrum where people don't put enough work in. And so Netflix becomes a little bit too attractive. And so the only solution And there's two options. So it's not the only solution, but you have to execute one of them. So it's the only options to execute. First off, diary structure. Having a diary structure so that you know what you're doing, when you're doing it, and it's locked in. That includes personal stuff. The one thing I will say, depending on personality profile, people like me and you, we are quite obsessive people and we are relentless people. And the impact that has on me personally is because I'll go all in, other things then get sacrificed. So from personal experience, I would say make sure your big rocks are in there first, whether it be health related, whether it be family time, whatever those big rocks are, make sure you've got them in your calendar locked in as appointments with yourself. then have all of the other bits, which we help the agents build in, but have all of the other components locked in. So I could show people my diary structure, my Monday is structured in a very specific way, as is my Tuesday, my Wednesday, my Thursday. It's very structured around what I do with my time and when. And occasionally I need to pivot, but on the main, that structure remains firm, and I get more done because of it. Second part to that, though, is me and you are very, very good examples of you're very good at being accountable to yourself. You don't really need, in many scenarios, people to keep you accountable to what it is you're wanting to achieve. Me, on the other hand, I'm much more accountable to others. I'm not very good at being accountable to myself. So those commitments in my diary, for example, going to the gym, because that's a commitment to myself, I have my other half, Hayley, keep me accountable to that. She knows when I'm due to go to the gym. And she then tells me, get yourself to the gym. But I mean this from the point of view of people understanding context. Because for example, if we've had a bad morning with our kids, they've been fighting or whatever, whatever, I then feel bad that I'm going to go and do something for myself when I'm then going to leave Hayley to have to deal with that. But she practically kicks me out of the house. because I do the same for her in return. And so I'm better at being accountable to others. So if you are more like me, you need that relationship, whether it be, so I am the accountability buddy for half a dozen of our agents. Some do it with other agents within the business, some do it with their loved ones, but if you're more built like me, you need that. I think having the accountability for anyone, although I can be quite self-motivated, Having someone that holds me accountable, something that I know is important, it just drives me on even further. If we move away from the business for a minute, and when it comes to running, for example, I don't particularly enjoy running, but I do it for health and mindset, for more my mental state as well. But I've got a friend who I run with, and he messaged me, We run about three times a week. I get a message from him at quarter five saying I'm on my way. As soon as I see that message come through, there's no way I'm snoozing my alarm. But if I didn't get that message from him, that alarm would be snooze until probably seven o'clock. So having someone told you accountable and having someone that believes and is on board and supports you with your goals and what you want to achieve. It's just, I believe, so, so important. So being part of a brokerage or being part of a business where you've got someone in that business that can support you through that, I think will just massively have a Tenex improvement on your business. I think something else we haven't touched on as well, and you make a really good point, because inadvertently, from a business point of view, we are a partnership, but we don't necessarily hold each other accountable on some things we might. But I'm subconsciously accountable to you just because you're my business partner. I don't want to let you down. And I believe that the same is probably true for you. So actually, we probably are subconsciously doing it. But I would also say that there was a point I was going to make about the shared... accountability piece, we also disk profile every partner. So personality profile assess every partner. And I also go through that with them on day one. I need to help them understand the profile assessment, which for a lot of people is like, they always say, that is so me. So it helps them better understand their own style of communication, how they receive a message. It helps us understand how best to coach and support them so we can tailor according to their style. Because if I was delivering coaching and mentoring and support to you, it'd be very different to say Holly, because you're very different people on the profile. And so I'm an I. So public opinion, whether I like to admit it or not, does mean something to me. And so when we launched this business, my accountability was making sure that every man, his dog, his wife and his kids knew what we were doing because then I'm publicly accountable and I have no choice now. This shit has to work. Yeah. Cannot fail. Cannot fail. And so you've got to choose what works best for you. I think it is always an indicator to me with people that are really going to come out the traps hot or not is to how publicly they promote what they're doing on their personal platforms that's a really big indicator when people come out and it's like bells whistles marching band they've got mariachi band going through their socials in terms of what they're doing that they want every man and his dog to know exactly what they're doing these people are going to win because they'll do whatever it takes They're exposing themselves, aren't they, to the whole of the public. And I suppose everyone's going to be watching. If they're promoting it to everyone, then everyone's going to be watching them. So it's so important that they make a success of it. And from not just the agents in our business, but the agents across multiple self-employed models, the ones that I see do really, really well are the ones that promote themselves really, really well. Yeah, totally agree. Totally agree. We live in a society where this might be conflicting for some, but I think we live in a world of estate agency now where someone who is really good at marketing both themselves, their business and their client's properties will always outperform in today's marketplace, will always outperform someone who is more talented as an estate agent that doesn't market themselves. I do genuinely believe we are in an era now where being the best marketeer is more important than being the best estate agent. Well, I suppose precisely, but if you can be both, my God, what a concoction, what an incredible mixture of ingredients, but those who market themselves better will outperform those who are better at doing the job but don't market themselves. agreed just coming back briefly to um you touched on the the dispro files that we do for people and um I found this really really interesting and we spoke about it on on some of the other podcasts before for anyone that's listening um it's a personality profile but it really helps you understand yourself but also understand others and how you communicate with with others and I think it was a big game changer for our business when we introduced it because it it just allowed us to be able to understand um how other store how people receive stuff or because the way that we receive them can be different for each person especially once you understand the disprofiling and we do this now as james said with each of our agents that come into the business so we know what support they need we know how they prefer to communicate and we know what they're going to be thinking at each stage of their business or have an idea so we can help coach them and support them better. For anyone that is listening who's interested or intrigued around disk profiling, drop us a message and we can actually set you up a disk profile. There's a small cost to it, but we can help set that up for you if it's something you're interested in or intrigued about, or even if you just want to know a little bit more information about it. Yeah, I would also say on that, I've made reference to the YouTube channel for the emotional cycle of change process. We've also done a video on the team, the Elite Agent Masterclass YouTube channel about disc profiling as well. So that will help maybe give you a better understanding. And there is a simple test. So we'll do the social test on here. So it'd be interesting if people want to message us through as to when they've done it, where they sit. This isn't the intricate detail this is literally two questions that can determine which side of the scale you sit on so for those listening um imagine that there's a cross on a bit of paper and so we've got four quadrants okay um and I'm gonna ask two questions so if you are more people focused then you would move towards the bottom of the sheet of paper. OK, so you're staying on the middle of the cross. Move towards the bottom. And if you are more task focused, then you're going to move towards the top. OK, so people, you'd rather deal with people. You only have to be fifty one percent sure because I'm a mix of both. I'm more people. Jack, you're more task. That's correct, right? So me and Jack at this moment in time would be at the opposite ends of the piece of paper. The next question is, If you are more likely to move towards risk, then you would move to the right of the paper you were looking at it and if you are more risk adverse you'd move to the left now me and jack are both on the same side we will run towards risk no problem at all as long as it's calculated right um whereas for example people in our business ben holly and michelle they sit on the other side they are more risk adverse and so that then is a very quick indicator I am in the bottom right quadrant jack is in the top right quadrant and so jack is a d profile he leads with d and I lead with I now the video will explain more about what that means but immediately it helps us understand how we interact how we deliver how we communicate it's very very interesting and I'd highly recommend anyone listening to go and check that video out um but james I think this was a really useful episode I'm hoping it's given some value to the people that are listening um there's going to be some really good upcoming episodes over the next few weeks as well so make sure you tune in um but thank you for listening and we'll catch you guys next week Until next time.