Luke Christmas: Time Blocking, CRM and Tracking to Success

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Tracy Hayes: [00:00:00] Hey, welcome back to the real estate excellence podcast. Today's guest is the top producing agent who started his career with one of the top producing real estate teams in Northeast Florida. Before he going out on his own first quarter of 24, he had 27 closed or pending units, a huge start to this turbulent year.

His claim. Is his unwavering commitment to integrity transparency and personalized service is the cornerstone of his success It's christmas in july with christmas homes jacks. Let's welcome luke christmas to the show. 

Luke Christmas: I appreciate it, man So 

Tracy Hayes: playing on the christmas theme that we were just talking about there a little bit, but uh, luke, uh, great to have you on Um, so I don't know how somehow you've You've flown below my radar, um, because I've had a lot of Keller Williams and Lank partners, people on at one time or another, maybe it's cause you were under the Rocco team umbrella there for a long time.

Um, but I do, I do, uh, troll social media. And generally when I see people, Oh, [00:01:00] yo, Hey, you know, I did a million dollars or I think you had March, you did three point something, right. Uh, you had a great March. Um, then all of a sudden I go, Ooh, Maybe I need to have that person on, you know, where, and then I start researching you and see, you know, what production, but, um, having lunch with you yesterday, I am really excited about the show today because I really want to, I think, uh, you being a, uh, a young person that we have a lot of great, Young people in the industry.

We have a lot of great young people starting but are they on the right path, right? You know, and I think you you were fortunate enough to land Under yonder Sarah Rocco's tutelage there And I think it's made all the difference. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, she really set the Kind of the tone for my career, you know, so I started in the right place.

Tracy Hayes: Yep 100%. So, um, I kick off the show. Always. It's good to see a little background on you. Where you from? 

Luke Christmas: So from Tallahassee, Florida, originally born and raised, uh, grew up there for 18 years. And then, like we talked about a little bit, moved to California for about three years as a [00:02:00] college athlete, moved back to Florida, lived in the Tallahassee region for like My brother moved to Jacksonville, so 

Tracy Hayes: let me get this.

So you went to California, um, because they were, they were, they were looking at you to play football. Even though you're six foot six, six, seven, six, seven. Okay. I get, I was close. Yeah. Yeah. 

Luke Christmas: They always put like six, nine on, you know, on the, uh, foster, right. It looked a little scary. The basketball 

Tracy Hayes: team wasn't looking for you.

Luke Christmas: They looked at me too, you know, but I loved football. I loved the physicality. I loved the, um, I don't know, just like getting in the dirt and being, being a physical was, I loved it. I loved hitting. I love the, the sport, the strategy. So yeah, I, uh, came out of high school when I was six, seven, 18 year old. So I couldn't, it was really hard for me to gain weight and I didn't totally fill out my frame and I wasn't fully developed and I wanted to play big time.

Do you want football? So I, I. Picked Butte in Northern California because I [00:03:00] was a tight end. The offense fit me, everything fit me, and they were junior college. So the plan was to go there, play for two or three years and then scholarship out, you know, to a bigger school. 

Tracy Hayes: So you didn't sell out to Florida state is really what I would map.

Luke Christmas: Ironically, I'm a massive Gator fan. So I didn't even call them, you know, both my parents and the university of Florida, but, but yeah, it's kind of the route I went. 

Tracy Hayes: Um, well, so as a young person, uh, obviously you majored, I didn't even see whichever major was, I might've glanced over that on LinkedIn. What were you thinking about?

possible career things that you want to do. 

Luke Christmas: Oh, like any young man, I really had no idea. I was like, well, I'm going to play football and that's going to pay for it. And then we'll figure it out from there. Um, so really, I mean, I was in business administration, super broad, um, you know, degree, I figured I would end up in some sales of some sort.

Right. You know, I knew I liked working with people. I knew I liked. learning people's stories. And I was good with people. I always had been from a young [00:04:00] age, so I had no idea what that looked like, um, at all, uh, in college. Um, so it was kind of up in the air. Real estate was not even a part in my mind at this time.

So, 

Tracy Hayes: right. So now you're linked in, you go from graduating college to basically on the calendar. Two years later, you joined Sarah Rocco's team at Keller Williams. Correct. Just kind of fumbling around for 24 months. What'd you do? 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, it's a good question. I had a lot of fun. Um, so I, I, uh, suffered, um, a couple of injuries in football, which ultimately took me out concussion, spinal things going on.

So that's what took me out of that. Uh, that path I moved home and, um, you know, it was really just trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Still continuing to, uh, with my degree and then me and my brother were like, where do we want to move? We didn't, we live, we're living on a family farm at this time, um, in a very, very small town on the Panhandle floor.

I was like, okay, I can't do this [00:05:00] forever. Where do we want to go? So we kind of threw out Orlando, Jacksonville, whatever. I was like, hey, Jacksonville has a beach. A bunch of my friends are in grad school there. It looks fun. Let's go there. Right. Sheerly the motivation moved to Jacksonville. Um, and I'm in the service industry, uh, bartending weddings.

I worked for beachside buggies down at the beach, you know, just having a great time surfing. Um, and then life changes occurred. Figured I was going to be a dad, and I was like, okay. Oh, wow. I was like, okay, all right. I can't bartend, uh, and you know, raise a child anymore. So something has to change now. So at the time I was getting my real estate license, not for Just to have it really just for the knowledge.

I didn't, I had no anticipation of getting into real estate full time. I didn't even know people did real estate full time. I thought it was just like something that kind of a 

Tracy Hayes: friend, uh, through you in that direction. Where did, where did the actual thought though come up? 

Luke Christmas: Not really. Oh, actually, I guess.

Yeah. A friend at work, uh, when I was bartending, I knew it for no work and she did real estate on the side and she would do like, you know, [00:06:00] one deal a month maybe. And I was like, wow, like she's making like 50 K a year off one deal a month. I can do that. And you know, that's some extra income, right? Right.

And then, um, through Beachside Buggies, I met Russell Nicholson. He's now the team leader down in St. Augustine. And Russell's like, hey, come talk to me. I was like, okay. So I met Russell, and Russell kind of showed me what he was doing in the world of real estate. He was a buyer's agent for Sarah at the time.

And I looked at, you know, how much money he made. I was like, okay. That sounds good. Let's do real estate. So really, I mean, it was just, at this time, it was just, hey, this will provide for my family. It's a good amount of money. This will work. And he introduced me to Sarah at that time. 

Tracy Hayes: I'm going to pause just for a second.

For some reason, your camera is freezing up. So I'm just going to disconnect it and reconnect it real quick here. Um, let me just do, all right. And if I do everything right, share camera there, reloaded here. Mine's coming in five for some reason, this one, um,[00:07:00] 

Oh, sorry, everyone. All right. We'll get there now. It's not, uh,

Luke Christmas: Still freezing. 

Tracy Hayes: Well, it's, now it's, mine's still there, but yours is gone. Oh, there it goes. Okay. Alright, now let's put us back, both back on A, B. Alright, there we go. Alright, we're back. And since we took a little break there, I am going to actually just mention our sponsor, and we'll get back in here. Uh, one of my, um, Remi Graphics, which they will make one off Christmas gifts for you with these lasers engravings.

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Luke Christmas: I love it. Yeah. I 

Tracy Hayes: love it. Um, but yeah, I would, um, We were talking about little gifts and stuff the more you obviously you personalize it, too They're never going to throw that away.

If you put their name on it, that'll hang on their tree for the next 25 years Yeah, yeah, 

Luke Christmas: don't feel so bad at that point exactly 

Tracy Hayes: exactly Um, all right, so, uh, so we're 2019 We've got a uh father to be yes, I saw on your facebook, uh, obviously you get engaged There all this You know, uh, in between the, the, uh, baby and engaged, you are getting licensed, 

Luke Christmas: getting licensed.

Yeah. Pretty stressed out at this time. I have a certain amount of money in the bank and I'm not, I mean, I'm, I'm making bartender money, you know, which isn't going to support a family. Um, so getting licensed really, uh, just hitting the [00:09:00] ground running at that point and I'm a terrible test taker. So believe it or not, I had to take the real estate exam three times, the state exam.

So take it the first time, totally confident. I was like, I passed that. Fail it by like whatever, two questions. Take it a second time. I was like, yeah, I failed that. Fail it. Take it a third time. I was like, I definitely failed that. Pass it. Ended up getting licensed. I think in like August of 2019. 

Tracy Hayes: Cause there's, there's, you have to wait, like, um, It was a 30 days I think was 30 days Yeah, you have to take and then after so many times you have to wait like a year or something Don't you if you feel like I was you're you're stressed on the year waiting part.

So, um, how do you run into? Sarah rock or do you actually talk to anyone else? How does this actually happen? You know get linked up with her 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, so working at my job beachside buggies, which is a blast, you know Literally just a taxi service down on the beach is a great way to You Meet people, which is how I met Russell Nicholson.

He was part owner of that company at the time and I knew he was in real estate. So I asked him, I was like, Hey, I heard you're in real estate. You know, love to talk to you about [00:10:00] it. And he's like, yeah, talk to me. So me and him, uh, had lunch at the South side office and he kind of showed me what he was doing, you know, um, from a production standpoint to a, um, financial standpoint, most of that was like, okay, this could, this could work.

I can do this full time and this can support my family. So that was really enticing for me. So he. Ultimately introduced me from Sarah to Sarah at that point, because he was, uh, Sarah's only buyer agent, I think at the time. Um, so that's how I got linked up with her. 

Tracy Hayes: Okay. So he was already, he was already with Sarah himself.

Okay. All right. Um, one of the things I think is, and we talk about a lot on the show is the importance of finding that right place. Um, obviously, you know, looking back and where you're at now, You know, the stars lined up for you. Yes, absolutely. Obviously that doesn't happen to a lot of agents. And I think that's why a lot of agents are never renewed and why 80 percent are out within the first two years, if not the first [00:11:00] couple of months, uh, cause we just know when they don't renew is when that statistic comes out, uh, the importance of finding, uh, Uh, that place and obviously that place worked for you, not saying that others wouldn't have worked and you may have been able to match up with any other broker.

And just because your, your personality, your go goodness, your entrepreneur, whatever, you know, characteristics you wanted, how you describe yourself, you may have been successful anywhere. Cause there are agents that are like that. 

Luke Christmas: Right. 

Tracy Hayes: But I think, uh, as we know, 80%, it's not right. You know, in matching up and finding, you know, When you look back now, going back to 2019 and the years that you spent with Sarah there, I mean, uh, how that's changed your business.

Do you think you would be even anywhere near as successful if it wasn't for that matchup and that, uh, atmosphere, that culture that Sarah created? 

Luke Christmas: No, not at all. Not at all. And one of her biggest things was like, hey, don't reinvent the wheel. That's a huge Keller [00:12:00] Williams thing. So, literally, it's like, She gave me the foundation of this, this business.

You know, I don't know how long that would have taken to learn everything I learned under her. Um, five, 10, 15 years. I have no idea. So she gave me, she gave me everything on a silver platter and how everything works from us, from the systems, from the, how to talk to different personalities, how to analyze different personalities, um, everything.

So no, I mean, it was, it was to me a total God thing that I got linked up with her. 

Tracy Hayes: It almost. You know, uh, what little I, I have known, obviously, Sarah was on the show a couple, you know, a couple years ago, um, the, her very regimented, Then we talked about a little bit you said, you know, she had some people crying You know 

Luke Christmas: myself 

Tracy Hayes: Why am I doing this right everyone goes through that stage but everyone who sticks with so it was almost like a uh, just a real focused classroom, you know, or you know, or [00:13:00] Uh boot camp or whatever you how you want to describe it if you just got up every day and stuck with it She was teaching you but also I think we all uh, just in human nature You You wouldn't have, uh, been so disciplined upon ourselves, 

Luke Christmas: not at all, not even close.

I mean, it's just like having a, just like football, right? If I didn't have those people with those coaches in my face every day, day in and out, day in and day out to push me, take 

Tracy Hayes: another rep, 

Luke Christmas: right? Take another rep, do another sprint, whatever. It takes the same thing, right? If I didn't have That backing behind me.

There's no way I would have made it through year one No way without her and samantha cox for sure both pushing me every single day, 

Tracy Hayes: right? There's no way Um teams is a big subject. I was at a mastermind last month. Uh, it's a Fairly consistent subject that I talk about because when you talk about a team There's many different ways to describe it.

You know, we were talking a little bit about yesterday, you know, whether it's Melissa Ricks at Keller Williams We know [00:14:00] Christina Welch Sarah Sarah's the late Sarah Rocco's team. I was team is still active today In CC Underwood just named four teams right there that are all Keller Williams Atlantic partners are all done differently, 

Luke Christmas: right?

Tracy Hayes: Um, you know, uh, and I, and I, I think they take on somewhat of the personality of the, obviously the leader as obviously they're doing it the way they want to, but, but Sarah's team was just so unique in my mind, in, in my eyes. Mm-Hmm. . Um, when you look at the other, you know, you've been out there long enough now you've seen, whether they're with Keller Williams or Coldwell Banker or wherever.

Mm-Hmm. , how these teams are run. You really start to probably appreciate what she was doing. Oh 

Luke Christmas: yeah, absolutely. Compared to what I've seen, yeah, every team is run differently. Every team gives different value and gives different opportunities. But she ran such a tight ship. Most teams that I see are pretty much like, Hey, we're just here together [00:15:00] have fun.

You know, it's like, well, you can have fun all you want, but if you're not producing, it's not very fun. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: The fun ends at some point. The sun comes up the next day and you're like, um, I have no money in my pocket and I, yeah, where am I? 

Luke Christmas: I mean, I appreciated the regimen. I appreciated the structure, you know, obviously sometimes it got on my nerves and we butted heads and things like that.

But no, I mean, like I said, I mean, it really set up. You know, the expectations I needed to set for myself for the future, uh, after the team even. So 

Tracy Hayes: let's, um, let's talk about some of those foundational things that obviously you still do today. Uh, you know, Samantha said, you know, talk about your time blocking.

I imagine that something's Sarah, you know, everybody was on some sort of, uh, schedule that they were, uh, creating. Um, but. Go through like the, like the core things that you were doing today that you took right. You know, from, from being on the team. I mean, day one, when [00:16:00] you went out on your own, you were already, this is what I'm doing.

Luke Christmas: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's a few things in time blocking is one of the biggest things, right? So when I was on the team every Sunday before, like, I forgot what time it was, 6 PM, you know, we had to send our full calendar for the next week to Sarah, right? So she could analyze it and make sure we're doing everything.

It's not on the calendar. It doesn't exist. Yeah. Right. So I kept that, uh, moving into as a solo agent. And when I was a productivity coach for a little bit, it was every Sunday or Saturday prior to the week, time blocking every single thing that I had to do the next week, starting with the things that are most important to me, which is time with my family, uh, church and my quiet time and my, my health.

Right. And then next would come business and things like that. So, um, something I'm passionate about and still do today. And you know, when a new agent approaches me and they say, Hey, how do I, How do I close 10 million a year? Whatever. I'm like, let me check your calendar and they're like, okay I'm like does this look like someone I closed 10 million a year and they're like no and i'm like, all right 

Tracy Hayes: So you're she's literally had you from the time you wake up?

Luke Christmas: Yeah, 

Tracy Hayes: you know, uh, [00:17:00] whether it's you know, uh, 30 minutes to get ready shower or whatever that's on your calendar every single thing every single thing. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, i'm not perfect Sometimes it gets sloppy. Yeah things get busy life gets to you, but Well, that's really 

Tracy Hayes: not the, I mean, the point of it is not, uh, the point of it is, is that you, you have, you're consciously thinking or being reminded you need to be doing this now.

Right. Yeah. Um, and I think people, when they, if they got a, you know, did, The schedule, the first thing is like, Oh, well, what if I go over it? That's not the point, right? The point is you are focused on these things. Cause you know, you got to get something done by the end of the day or end of the week, whatever it is.

And you guys spend so much time on it. Exactly. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, exactly. And understanding like, you know, I used to tell her all the time, Hey, I'm so busy. I can't get anything done. I'm so busy. And she, again, she would say, let me look at your calendar. And I'm like, she's like, what is all this white space? What's going on here?

I'm like, I honestly don't even know. She's like, all right, here's what I want you to do. Take all the hours of a week. And then tell me what you're doing with each, you know, set of hours. [00:18:00] So you literally maybe take every hour in the week, like sleep, you know, eight hours a night, eat an hour a day, whatever it might be.

And then always I would have like 40 leftover hours. She's like, where are these 40 hours going? I'm I have no idea. She's like, all right, time a lot better. And I'm like, okay. Sounds good. . 

Tracy Hayes: Wow. . I, I would imagine I have, you know, I know, you know, some of these teams have some turnover. Yeah. Um, you know, in, in your, uh, experience there.

I mean, a lot of people don't want that. Mm-Hmm. , whether they're. 23 just out of college or they're 53. They don't want that kind of Uh regimen, 

Luke Christmas: yeah, 

Tracy Hayes: you know and especially someone Well, you know, we like to say, you know, she was your boss, but I mean you were 10 99, right? Is that not mean you could go out on your own?

You didn't have to be on her team but you Found out, you know, obviously There must have been something you said you [00:19:00] had a tough first year there was something there You're like I got to keep I need to keep going. I'm going to take on this challenge of the sarah rocko team 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, well, it was mostly just becoming a father, you know, and like that was that's all that was the only option There was no I didn't have a plan b.

plan c which was not a good thing We should have had a plan b and plan c but that I was willing to To feel the burn, you know because of that, you know, there was it was life or death it was you know You You didn't have the 

Tracy Hayes: time to change jobs. 

Luke Christmas: No, I didn't have time to change jobs, or teams, or start a new process.

So, again, like, young guys ask me, like, How did you, like, do this and this in two years? I'm like, Well, you just gotta get your girlfriend pregnant. I'm like, You will be successful, man. I'll tell you why. But seriously, it put a fire in me like I've never felt before. And I didn't have an option to quit. Um, so that was, you know, a very painful time in my life and very stressful and hard, but it pushed me to be Do you know who I am today?

Tracy Hayes: Well, I mean if I recall correctly [00:20:00] if I'm wrong, uh, if I recall You know sarah was out kind of in that same position herself when she got started Um, and there's been a lot of agents. Uh, jordan ferreira is another one. She can go back to the story Yeah, I mean she said she literally was paycheck to paycheck and probably wrote some bad checks.

Yeah, you know, um When she got started and having three boys at the same, you know, very You Pretty much one right after another, you know at I think I don't know if she might have been even younger than you are right now Yeah, when she got started and and sometimes it takes that I mean, I think a lot of people tell great stories when they Feel they've been or you'll hit the bottom.

Luke Christmas: Yeah 

Tracy Hayes: Of the barrel so to speak. Alright, so time blocking was one of them 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, time blocking, after that, um, it's probably, and I don't want to say systems, but I mean it really probably is, um, so for example, [00:21:00] CRM, right, I use command, we, we're at follow up on Sarah's team, but having my CRM, Um, and then having every, you know, every contact in my CRM, I think I have 700, 800 people in there.

Every single person either has a task to follow up or they're on some sort of smart plan to follow up. Every single one, right? So every day, I go in from 9 to 11 and I do those tasks. Every single day, day in and day out. 

Tracy Hayes: Let's take, uh, the, um, to me, the CRM. Whoever has a CRM, obviously here where I work at Towne Bank, we have a CRM.

Every real estate company that's part of their, their thing. Um, and I think you, you may agree, although you probably may not have any plans to leave Keller Williams, but you may also want to have some way to download or you can regularly downloading your update, your CRM to your own personal drive. Cause should you close the door at that?

You don't want to lose us. Just put that out there. [00:22:00] But the CRM. Is like our phones are like the computers that we have are like our brain. We are only using a Very small percentage of what the capabilities of these of these things are and they're getting and they're getting stronger and stronger every day exactly how How did you?

the regimen of Understanding I mean, you know something Sarah did or maybe a killer wins where? You The focus being on the CRM, you're, you're in it every day, right? Correct. And then everyone you're talking to the, the discipline to put that name in there and put it on some sort of follow. I mean, how important is it?

Like, I mean, as a young, you, you obviously on Sarah's team, you did that from day one. Yeah. And then, you know, look where you're at now. So the tip to someone out there listening right now, if you are not, you know, if you're not putting that person in your CRM right now, every [00:23:00] day, and then how many different lunch and learns trainings.

I mean, how regularly were you guys talking about, Hey, okay, here's a CRM. Here's something else we can do. Right. 

Luke Christmas: Here's one. Here's one more way to to, to reach out to this person. Here's one more way to stay top of mind. Mm-Hmm. 

Tracy Hayes: using the tool you have right here. Right. 

Luke Christmas: All it is is building relationships.

That's all. It's, yeah. Being strategic in the way you follow up, the way you, uh, reach out to these people and, and stay top of mind. Um, but that was, yeah. Again, day one we had a. You know a wig session with her while Widely important goal session with her every week and we would go through Every single lead that we had in our crm and say where this person at why aren't there notes in here?

You know, 

Tracy Hayes: so you were getting up to several hundred and have to go through every single one 

Luke Christmas: No, no, once you get to several hundred and we were at the point we're closing four to six deals a month We wouldn't go through she eased 

Tracy Hayes: off on you pulled off the pedal of it 

Luke Christmas: Had to have some hard conversations before that.

But yeah, right. I was This meetings can't take three hours, you know, no, but again, [00:24:00] just kind of instilled those, uh, those little monotonous things. My mind, I'm like, Hey, this is, this is how you, you become successful is doing this little boring things every single, 

Tracy Hayes: I know I would hate that right away. And immediately my immediate thought, when you said, Oh, we're having this sessions, we got to go through every, every person I'm thinking, okay, I'm creating a spreadsheet and, um, I've got these, you know, 10 or 20 that are hot right now that I'm regularly like.

You know, either working actively list and then I've got this couple hundred here that are just on, you know, some campaign I'm touching. So I would just hand her the spreadsheet and, and say, okay, one through 20, here's what's going on. Yeah. The the other, uh, they're all in the CRM on a follow up. 

Luke Christmas: Right, right.

Period. That probably would've been an easier way to do it. Yeah, but she was on it though. Yeah. She's like, how are you following up with these people? You know, how are you talking to 'em? But 

Tracy Hayes: how did that, I mean. I think anyone listening to it can immediately visualize themselves sitting down with their boss and then we've all been on these calls or salesman calls Everyone goes they go through hey, who are you working with [00:25:00] this week?

And you know, they it's just it's a monotonous thing It's a monotonous thing. But I mean, where is it? I mean, I think you'd have to, you, you would solely agree that, I mean, it's changed your entire trajectory. It's changed the entire trajectory of your trajectory of your life. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, absolutely. It's changed my life, my children's lives, my wife's life.

I mean, it's changed everything. Right. Um, yeah. So I can't imagine where I'd be without that discipline up front. Right. And I totally get it now. Cause that was, it was also a piece of it was like, Hey, this is my business. And I'm letting you in on it and I'm giving you the opportunity to be a part of my business.

So you're going to do it the right way, right? So now that I have my own business, I'm growing Christmas homes. I, I totally understand that. And I'm like, Hey, this is. This is a business that I brought from the ground up. It's my baby and we're gonna do it the right way. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, 

Tracy Hayes: yeah Um, so again tip out if you're a new agent and I I visit some new agent, um classes, uh[00:26:00] 

Internet issue here today Sorry about that But you're a new agent and you're that first day I mean you like you said you had a rough first year well, don't want to talk about that because I think You everyone has to you'll fight through that and say learn the business but in this case You partnered up you got into a culture where you know I imagine the team was larger and smaller at different times because people roll out they just you know, don't stick with it but you became Sarah was your mentor.

Sarah was your coach and and she was on it and to find I don't know if you can find another sarah rocco in town. I I don't know if there there is one there might be um But you need to, you know, new agents out there, find someone like that, that's one, I mean, huge accountability, 

Luke Christmas: right? 

Tracy Hayes: An uncomfortable accountability.

Yeah. But again, you know, people ask you all the time, was, was, [00:27:00] what do I need to do to get where you're at now? Right. And you kind of tell them, they're like, do I want to do that or not? Yeah, exactly. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, I mean, I mean, you really put the, I mean, is this something you really want to be in, right? Mm hmm. And again, I mean, people's like, what did you do, what did you do?

I'm like, you have to find someone. That is wildly successful and it's going to pour into your life and hold you to the fire every single day. Cause even as that person, cause I have a couple guys that I'm accountable for, I don't like doing that. You know, I want to be their friend, but no, I have to.

That's my job is to hold them accountable to their goals and what they want to do. Um, cause I want them to see them as successful as well. 

Tracy Hayes: Alright, so time blocking. CRM, religiously updating it, making sure everyone's on some sort of, uh, scheduled campaign or you're actively working with them right now.

What else? 

Luke Christmas: Uh, I would say tracking. Tracking your numbers, tracking your conversions, what's working, what's not working. This is kind of where OpsWeek comes into. They do a lot of this for me. Give us an 

Tracy Hayes: [00:28:00] example of that. What would be something that you would want to track to 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, so, that's a good question.

So, let's say I'm, um, for example, I'm sending out, you know, I send out my Christmas in July, um, little 

Tracy Hayes: Just, Hey, I'm here. Yeah, Christmas 

Luke Christmas: in July. Little ornament, you know, thanks for being my referral partner. How many people respond to that? And then, you know, where did those conversations go? Did this lead to any referrals?

So tracking everything that I do, you know, if it's just picking, if it's quarterly calls with my sphere, you know, how many calls did I make? How many conversations did I lead to? How many referrals did I lead to? Right? So tracking everything down to the number so that we can take those numbers next year and say, Hey, Luke.

you know, you're whatever your sphere touches this year were, uh, gave you four referrals, which is X percent of your business. Right. And then breaking down each source of lead generation to, Hey, agent referrals was right now it's like 90 percent of my business. [00:29:00] Uh, sphere referrals is 10 percent military was 5 percent whatever it might be and seeing what's working and not working and then whatever's working pour into that.

Um, and then also tracking. you know, who's pouring into me, right? From like my sphere of influence to agent to agent referrals. Another thing Sarah taught me a lot about was, um, there's a book called the pumpkin plan by Mike. I forgot his last name. 

Tracy Hayes: Pumpkin plan. 

Luke Christmas: Pumpkin plan. Read it. It's excellent. But the basis of the story is pour into the people that are going to pour into you.

Right. So I'm tracking, um, each one of my referral partners, like how many referrals they've given me. How many times are advocating for me on Facebook? Who's really pouring into my life, right? And then those people that Your fans. Yeah. I'm raving basically your fans, you raving fans. Yeah. I'm, I'm giving them like the VIP experience.

Right. And then you have like the top 20% and the rest of the 80%. Right. 

Tracy Hayes: So, and, and now VIP experience maybe, hey, they referred me one person and all of a sudden and you know, now they referred me [00:30:00] second. Maybe I need take 'em to lunch. Yeah. Send them a gift card, something of that nature, um, uh, in the sense of pouring back into them, uh, get, it could be simply giving them some attention by taking them to lunch or coffee or, or just stopping by their office and, and, uh, telling them how much you appreciate them because that's really, I mean, would you agree most referrals?

People who are referring you, um, just like they just want, they want the feedback to want the feedback from the person that they referred you to say, Oh man, thank you for referring me, uh, to Luke. He's awesome. That's a high for them. And then obviously you just simply. Giving them some attention in one way, shape, or form.

Luke Christmas: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And like Sam's helped me create this system to where we're constantly doing that all the time. You know, every time I receive a referral, you know, a handwritten note goes out to that person. Hey, thanks for the full, even if they're not closed yet or anything like that, you know, once they close a little gifts gets sent to them.

Um, and of course, [00:31:00] the more referrals they give me, you know, the better that stuff gets, the more frequent the follow ups come. 

Tracy Hayes: And just for the listeners, um, yeah. Luke is referring to Samantha Cox with Op Suite. Um, she ran, uh, operations for the Rocco team and then Atlantic Partners in general. Now she's got her own gig where she is giving you a complete operation staff.

Uh, behind the scenes, um, whether it's just a pay for play transaction coordinator or she's doing a lot more for you, she's doing marketing and other things for you. She'll even interview people for you, put 'em in your pipeline if, if, you know, you're trying to build an organization, whatever that's looking to hire, transaction coordinators, whatever.

Yeah. Um, Sam is out there if you need information, uh, it's my op suite.com. Uh, but feel free to reach out to Luke or I, uh, to put you in contact with Sam. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah. That's that was a killer part of my business as well. Just finding that that leverage, you know, so, 

Tracy Hayes: um, i'm [00:32:00] gonna i want to yeah I want to get we're going to talk about the leverage.

I want to finish. Um, so Tracking you gave an example tracking where leads are coming from, you know, put the energy put your focus on giving those guys, uh You know the attention because they're feeding but you're not giving up on that person because you know You might go a few years before someone ever refers you right?

Um, but you got to keep touching them 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, 

Tracy Hayes: so of the you said you got maybe 7 800 people in your crm right now How often or what is your goal on for the average person who may not even sent you a referral yet? That you might be reaching out through them through the course of the year one way shape or form How many times you want to touch them 

Luke Christmas: typically 36?

You 36. Yeah. So, um, that could be, you know, it's a quarterly call. That's a pop by, that's a monthly email or a by two times a month, email newsletter and things. 

Tracy Hayes: You're not popping by everybody. 

Luke Christmas: No, I'm not popping by everybody. This might be like. a potential person that might give me a [00:33:00] referral at some 

Tracy Hayes: point.

Luke Christmas: But yeah, I'm trying to touch every single person in my database 36 times in some way, 

Tracy Hayes: shape, or form. And you're doing that different ways. Obviously, I assume email is one. Right. That's the easiest way. Um, yeah. Um, What do you, what do you think, you know, when you look back at the tracking, um, whenever you do any of these activities, like you said, you just did a Christmas in July and sent everybody some tchotchke there, that's kind of like, tracking what comes, you know, the attention you get immediately after that goes out.

Right. Are you, do you, do you, is that something that a measure that you're looking at, uh, of what activity you did? And then all of a sudden you got a referral or a couple of referrals the following week because you just reached out and touched everybody. 

Luke Christmas: Absolutely. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah. Yeah. We're tracking that all the time.

Yeah. And it's kind of hard to say, and I try to find the information like. Let's say we send that out, you know, we get a bunch of responses. Someone reached out to me and say, Hey, by the way, I have a referral. I try to understand why like, Hey, like, you know, I haven't talked to in a year. Like, [00:34:00] where did this come from?

And they'll say, Oh, well, I got your card or whatever. I saw your newsletter and I thought of you. So I'm always trying to find like the source of why they actually reached. Right. So you can pour back into it. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Okay. This is working. Let's, let's hit this hard. Right. Yeah. And I'm, you know, year two as a, as a.

You know, I was with Sarah's team for three years, now I'm here too as a solo agent. So I'm still like, figuring it out, like what's working best. You know, I have a good idea from working with Sarah's team, but what's working for me, what are people reacting to, what are they liking, what are they not liking.

Right. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: Time blocking, CRM, tracking. Mm hmm. Anything else we're putting on this list. 

Luke Christmas: Oh, man. I Mean other than just having I mean, I guess more time I can but just having like a rigorous Structured morning routine. It's one of the best things. Well, 

Tracy Hayes: I think the one thing we really didn't work out is direct prospecting You know, we talked about CRM and doing your subtle Side touches if you want to call it that what are you doing?

Are [00:35:00] you doing a daily? Prospecting and then Howard, you know How are you doing that? Are you making calls? What's going on there? 

Luke Christmas: So like the right now lead generation, more or less? Or just, 

Tracy Hayes: yeah, trying to acquire a new 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, so not, I mean And then I'll, I'll get into a little story here. And when I started with Sarah, of course, you know, the facts tell story.

So that's right. Um, we had a 30, 60, 90 and you know, part of this was you got a cold call. So many, however many calls a week you have to Legion for however many hours you have to do this when you open houses, this one door knocks. And I did that for about a year, you know, and drilled it and drilled it and closed a lot of business from that, but got to the point like, man, like.

I really don't like doing this. You know, this isn't very fun. Um, and I came to Sarah and I told her that she said, well, this is how you get successful. And I was like, well, this sucks. So I don't want to do this anymore. And she's like, okay, what are you going to do? I'm like, I'm going to find a way. To be successful and never had to make another cold call again.

She's like, okay, show me how you do that. I'm like, okay, it sounds good. Which is [00:36:00] that's kind of sparked like my attention to agent or agent or referrals. And I just started cold calling agents, you know, which is still a cold call, but I'll cold call agents like New York, New Jersey, you know, these feeder States, right.

And I started building that pipeline. 

Tracy Hayes: Bullshit about real estate, right? Yeah. They can relate to me like you're not trying to sell them anything. No, 

Luke Christmas: not at all. I was like, Hey, I just want to be a resource to you. I just want to be your friend. You know, um, that kind of sparked that. Yeah. And that's what I've drilled for the past really four years.

And you know, some other big sources that like, you know, mega camp, um, uh, family reunion, I'll go to those and I'll have specific goals in mind. Like, Hey, I want to put a hundred people in the CRM. I want to have this many coffees, whatever it is. And I'll continue to follow up with those people. So most of my like daily lead generation is following up with people.

All right. 

Tracy Hayes: So now, so in your CRM, you have a separate category for real estate agents here around the country that you are also. Touching in some way on a regular basis, correct? 

Luke Christmas: So I'm like, uh, For example, I have an email like a monthly email that goes [00:37:00] out to my database just like the speared whoever else past clients Leads and then I have a monthly email specifically catered towards agents.

Like hey, this is what's working for me This is how i'm feeling in the market. How's your market and trying to give them some value in some way shape or form um, but yeah, so 

Tracy Hayes: how is um, uh You You know, you're not gonna that's not gonna be your primary source But I imagine it's given you A handful of deals in whatever last year a couple several years You know, you know all of a sudden you get this referral that hey, I wasn't even working for that Someone just called me say hey My sister's moving into your area.

Can you go take care of her? Yeah, that's what's happening That's what's 

Luke Christmas: going to happen. It's kind of like a it's just a snowball effect, right? It's like well, I know you know this person who knows this person and they said you're a great agent So I want to refer you my mom Okay, don't know how that connection happened, but that sounds good.

Yeah, it's it's 

Tracy Hayes: one out of the blue That you have not been [00:38:00] working on, you know, making a direct call or direct marketing to It's it's just all of a sudden. Hey, there's another deal next month Right Those are the best ones. Yeah, they're icing on the cake and the icing is always the best part. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, it is.

It is. So, no, that's been a cool, cool thing to watch grow and, you know, of course, but it's so important to understand, like you have to have the systems in place to continue to grow that and to continue to let that function like, well, every time a referral, I get an agent referral or even if I don't even receive the referral, that person's going in the database, they're going on a plan, ops suites.

putting together a little system to, to make sure that person feels like. 

Tracy Hayes: So just to kind of flip this, go back to the CRM part, your time and time blocking your time blocking every day to take 10 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever it is to update that CRM. Because if we procrastinate even like, Hey, I'll update it every Friday.

It doesn't. Well, all of a sudden something comes up. All of a sudden someone wants to go see a house [00:39:00] and you don't update it on Friday. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, typically from 8 a. m. to 9 a. m. It's like that. It's like, respond to the emails, put out the fires, update the CRM, and then 9 to 11's typically, follow up, get on the phone, do what you need to do, whatever.

Tracy Hayes: And it's these little things, again, anyone listening, and I know we've, You know, I'm old enough to read so many personal development books and, and still, you know, some of the things like, man, I've, you're, this guy saying it today, I've heard that for the last 30 years, Luke is telling us right now at his young age changes, total life trajectory from the, from the, I don't know what I'm doing bartender to, and a soon to be dad to, uh, really, you know, in this in the real estate business.

You can make good money. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: And, um, in. By just regimenting yourself, which you would do every day if you went into work for someone, uh, I [00:40:00] think Sarah, when kind of the vision from the outside looking in is Sarah kind of created that atmosphere that, hey, you're going to work because, yeah, a lot of the stuff that come out.

I see these memes all the time is obviously our education system is preparing. I think it was, I don't know if it's JD Rockefeller or something. You know, You know, uh, got with, you know, we need to have national education and so forth was to create more factory workers. So if you're already used to working on the assembly line, you've created the assembly line for yourself.

Sarah showed you the assembly line. You need these steps and you're carrying that through and just taking that time. Uh, I got to do the CRM. So I need to tighten this bolt. 

Luke Christmas: Exactly. 

Tracy Hayes: You know, and then, and then you move on to the next part. 

Luke Christmas: Right, right. It's doing the 20 percent every single day. Yeah. Right.

And then the 80 percent will come. 

Tracy Hayes: And. Yeah, it starts to snowball right now. You got 700 people in there. You're reaching out to them. You're getting better and you're tracking. I sent out this I get a reaction. I sent out that I don't get a reaction. Maybe I don't want to do that [00:41:00] again um in It's it's you're now just monitoring your business and I imagine I mean, maybe you could take on some more clients, but but I imagine you know, you're Running pretty busy On the real things that everyone sees a real estate agent doing.

Yeah. Because all these are under the surface, under the waterline. Right, right. The, the showing the houses, the negotiating, the deals and so forth. You're, you're, you have a full day. Yes. Yeah. 

Luke Christmas: For the most part. You know, it's not to the point where that is such a well oiled machine, the referral business, the sphere referral never is like that.

Never 

Tracy Hayes: Is that I don't, I don't know. Is there a utopia there? I don't know. ? 

Luke Christmas: Uh, maybe, maybe not. Uh, but now that I'm, I am to the point, I'm like, okay, like, what's the next thing? What's the next thing? Is it YouTube? Is it. Whatever it might be, we're kind of looking for that next thing, um, to add to the business to, to keep feeding the fire a little bit.

Um, because that's going to keep growing, the referrals are going to keep growing, that, that's tucked away, we got the system for that. Right. What else can we add to keep 

Tracy Hayes: feeding the fire? I think, you know, it's [00:42:00] funny you mentioned YouTube and we talked a little bit yesterday at lunch, um, You know, a lot of there's agents out there doing YouTube to attract clients.

Um, you were under the toolage of Sarah Rocco, who was creating a team and the knowledge and the actual credibility that you have, having gone through that boot camp, if you want to call it that, um, and that regiment, you know, is, would, would that be part of your focus? Do you, do you want to, you know, build a team and then put them under, you Luke's version of this regimen of his boot camp in creating, in creating, you know, um, uh, the training, I mean, that the training videos right now are a big thing.

I see it advertised all the time. They're always reaching out to podcasters to, you know, Hey, you should have some sort of course or whatever, you know, you could create a course and then, you know, get behind it. And then obviously. You've had credibility. People are going to want to work with you, whether it's your locally [00:43:00] or expand.

I don't know. I was just an idea that just came to my head when you said that. Yeah. Creating the videos. 

Luke Christmas: That's something I get asked a lot. And I have a lot of agents like, are you going to build a team? Are you going to build a team? If you want to build a team, I'll join. Okay. Um, I don't think I would ever want to run like a big Sarah or Christina Welch type team.

I don't think it's where my heart lies. You know, my heart lies with my family and that's where I want to put most of my time. Right. Yeah. Um, I do, you know, my big why is, you know, To impact lives, right? That's what I want to do. I want to impact lives, whatever, whatever that looks like. Right. So, I mean, the dream would be, uh, to, to bring on, you know, like I said, I think I told you, it's like maybe one, maybe two, three agents, um, have a big admin team 

Tracy Hayes: or You're very picky and you only hire certain, or you only bring on so many green agents at a time.

Cause I, I would think everyone would agree. They drain the most of you. So you get two up and running and they're doing their, they're mostly on their own. They're still under your tutelage. And then you can bring on two more versus just hiring every month. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, there's no way I would do that. Yeah, there's no way I would do that.

[00:44:00] Yeah. It would definitely be very, and that's something I also appreciate about Sarah's team. Like the interview process was rigorous. You know, even just that was, 7 steps. I mean, it was no joke and she did not take someone that wasn't going to be a good, even a chance that wasn't going to be a good fit.

So, yeah, I'd be extremely selective and, and I don't know. I'm a pretty laid back guy. So I don't think it'd be quite as intense as yeah, Sarah Rocco bootcamp, you know, she 

Tracy Hayes: had, she had the mind control over you anyway. Don't you 

Luke Christmas: want this? I'm like, yes, please. Um, but no, I think, uh, you know, I think I'll be a little more, uh, a little more loose.

I'm like, Hey, this is your business, run it how you will. But if you want to work with me, this is how you get from point A to point B. If you don't want to, if you can't do that, then this is not going to be a good fit. Right. 

Tracy Hayes: Team, uh, we talked to this different types of teams and everyone takes on the personnel, but for an agent out there again, who may, may not be doing where they want to, or maybe like you said, they got to the wrong brokerage, not [00:45:00] really giving the support or whatever.

Um, Keller Williams has a lot of teams. Um, a new agent can plug in, but because these teams are also run differently, If someone wants to, yeah, I think I really need a team because I, you know, I just really don't have my arms fully around the real estate business. I want to do more, but I need to, I need the confidence.

I need the support. I need more of a regular holding accountability, uh, type of thing. What kind of questions do you think they should be asking as they go out and, and they, they talk to these different team leaders or, you know, how important is for them to talk to the team leader? But then you also need to go and talk to somebody on the team 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, tell us some 

Tracy Hayes: of the things that they would want to ask and dig in to see what matches Their person, you know their work ethic personality.

Luke Christmas: Well, like you said, I mean it all depends on who this person is, right? That's what you get asked is, you know, what's expected to mean? Is there a 30 60 90 am I [00:46:00] expected to hit a certain amount of numbers per quarter or per month? What is the you know exiting contract to look like, you know? 

Tracy Hayes: And the worst thing is they just say, Hey, the team's not working out.

You need to go out on your own. You can go join another team. Right. Uh, so it's not like you're fired and now you're no different than where you're at. It's not like you're losing benefits or something. Not at all. Yeah. Not at 

Luke Christmas: all. So I mean, there's, it all depends on the person, but I mean, the main things you need to know are like, what is expected of you?

How much are you expected to be in the office? Are you, is there certain numbers you're supposed to hit? You know, Cause I mean, there's, like you said, there's so many different teams in the run. So a little more, a little more tightly and a little more loosely. Right. Um, so it all depends on who you are and what kind of business you're looking for.

Do you want a little more? I hate to say freedom. That's kind of what it feels like sometimes a little more freedom to do whatever you want, or are you looking for a high level of accountability and someone that's really going to push you to do what you need to do? 

Tracy Hayes: Um, and the accountability is like I said, you know, uh, DJ and Lindsay, I think they have, uh, a very structured [00:47:00] environment.

I think Luke, Luke newcomer has a version of that, but a little differently cause they're, they're big lead by, um, uh, people, um, you know, do you need that regimen that says, Hey. You're in here at nine o'clock with everybody else and you, you know, we're having a sales meeting and you need to be there and be attentive.

Right. Um, of course that does fall back a little bit on the leadership because I'd tell you there's some people in this town don't know how to have a sales meeting or they call a sales meeting to say they had a sales meeting. Please don't waste my time. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. 

Tracy Hayes: Um, you gotta have, um, Uh, the, the leadership part, which you're, we've talked a little bit about your considering going into it, you got a couple of guys working with you, but the, I mean, I'm sure you saw people roll in and out of Sarah's team and in other teams at, at, uh, Keller Williams Atlantic partners.

Um, because maybe they just didn't see the value there, or the value wasn't a match to them. What they were getting might've been value to you, but not necessarily value to [00:48:00] them. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, everybody, I was a real estate. You know, productivity coach for Kelly Williams for like 11 months, you know, and that was my biggest aha is like every single person takes different types of coaching.

It's just like a client, right? Every listing appointment is going to look different. Every buyer point will look different. Same thing with agents. Everybody's coached differently. Not every. Body and I had to kind of teach Sarah that in a way. It's like, Hey, you can't put everybody in a fire like you do to me, right?

Everybody. Some people need a little more compassion, need a little more empathy, things like that. Um, so it, man, it depends so much on who you are and what works best for you. That worked for me because I came from college athletics. I was used to getting screamed at every day. And, uh, Being forced to bear crawl a mile and things like this was nothing.

And you just, you did it. Yeah, exactly. I 

Tracy Hayes: always go back on the thing that I, you know, I'm all generation, uh, in front of you is when I grew up, if someone was in your face, it's because they cared. Exactly. Now there's a lot of young people. Someone's in your face. They think [00:49:00] you're trying to demean you know, trust me, they wouldn't bother getting in your face.

It's still actually there in your face because they do care. Right? Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. 

Luke Christmas: They love you and they want you to be successful. 

Tracy Hayes: Yeah, they see more in you than you see in yourself, which is very common. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, that was a hard, hard, hard thing about being a coach. It's like You know, if someone would tell me I want to make this much money in this year and they would just never fall through, I was like, well, you obviously don't want that because you're never here, you're never showing up, you're never doing what I need you to do, you know, 

Tracy Hayes: right?

Um, but, and so if you're listening out there and you are an agent who maybe, maybe you've been doing this two or three years and you're just kind of treading along and you just know you can do more to reach out. Do you reach out to Luke, um, you know, send him an email, text him, whatever, call him and say, Hey, yo, can I sit down as a team for me?

And because I, you've been in enough at Atlantic partners in, in, around town, you know, a lot of the teams, uh, is, [00:50:00] is that, is, could a team move you, even though you've been here two or three years and you think you've got a grasp of what's going on in real estate, you don't, um, and maybe that team and taking a little less.

Um, cut of the commission, call it that, uh, for a little bit to it, because it's basically investing in yourself a little bit to then branch out in a year or two. Now with a whole different mindset, whole different work ethic, uh, or, you know, we all talk about time blocking and everything else, but did you actually have someone like, like, Hey, uh, six o'clock on Sunday evening, you need to have that scheduled to me.

Luke Christmas: Yeah. I mean, it's, And I, there are people that if you're crazy disciplined and you just have this drive and you can do it, that's awesome. But I have only seen a handful of people that can do it themselves. I think it is a benefit to probably 95 percent of agents to join a team for at least a year and get hyper intensive training about what actually ticks and what makes this business.

Well, how 

Tracy Hayes: did, I mean, Did [00:51:00] Sarah not even just, I mean, we talk about the work ethic and those things like that, but also expanding your horizons on real estate in general. You know, it's not just single family homes and a plan urban development. There's a lot of other things. There's so many different areas of real estate that you can, you can get into and being around someone who has that experience five or 10 years out in front of you, um, and obviously Has a huge, uh, you know, obviously shows that they, they care, uh, and they see more in you to, that they want you to be as good as they are.

Cause that's the true test of that's John, you know, John Maxwell, but that's, that is the true test of a true leader is creating other leaders, right. Or creating other great salespeople. If you want to. 

Luke Christmas: And I'd always joke with her, I'm like, you know, Sarah, cause she, I mean, she didn't have a crazy high turnover rate, but all of her best agents would leave.

Me, Russell, Amanda Trahan was there for a while, you know, and I was like, you got a problem, Sarah. Would 

Tracy Hayes: you knock on Trahan's door? I was trying to have her on a year ago, and we, [00:52:00] I, I, I, well, she wanted to be on and then I had some things happen and I postponed the show. I went down for a couple of months and then when I got back in, I've been reaching back out to her to get her on and then she's, she has been, now she's giving me the Heisman.

So I don't know. Oh, is that right? Yeah. I did see, I did see some Facebook stuff on it. Yeah. When she gets back in town. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Luke Christmas: The plug. Um, but yeah, I would tell Sarah, I'm like, you know, your problem is like, you know, You just, you coach agents too well. They're all like leaders now. You know, Russell's a team leader.

You know, Amanda was a team leader. She's director of production now. I was the PC. And now I'm running sort of my own team. I was like, you know, you got a disease. You keep making too many leaders, you know. You got to cut it back. But, but that's truly, I mean, I mean, if I ever did start a team, that would be the dream is to, you know, build these people up, give them, you know, You know, one of the other important things is giving them that vision.

I never had the vision of where I am today. I wouldn't have that with her. I never thought I could do this. I never thought I could be in this position at this young of an age. And she was the one that was like, Hey, this is actually attainable. [00:53:00] So giving a person that vision. growing them to that point and letting them go do the thing.

That's, that's, do 

Tracy Hayes: you think a lot of agents, no matter what their age is, they really, I really believe they are only looking out 60, 90 days. You know, the things that you were doing in the CRM, you're building up a snowball. So, you know, you know, maybe the snowball starts to produce at six months, maybe it's 12, maybe it's three years.

We don't know what to wear. All of a sudden the snowball is just rolling and it's giving you off more referrals than you can handle in the course of a month and that sort of thing. Uh, that's long term vision. Like, Hey, I'm doing real estate and I'm going to be here 10 years from now. So I need to start doing my CRM.

So hopefully year five to 10 is real easy for me. 

Luke Christmas: Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And yeah, I think it's. I tell agents this a lot too. I'm like, it's really, really important to focus on the day to day. Mm-Hmm. and like making the decision every day to be successful. But you have to have that vision in mind. You have to have already be manifesting.

Like, I'm, I'm in it for the long run. I'm gonna be here in 10 years. Yeah. [00:54:00] I'll be damned if I'm not, you know? Right. So, yeah, 

Tracy Hayes: so having that, you know, mentor or so forth that has that forward looking vision because as a new agent you don't, you're just trying to make money. Yeah. You're trying to surprise.

Yeah. You're a young guy, you got a baby on the way, you're just trying to. Get some, uh, houses closed. Hopefully you have a little bit of a savings account. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, you're just scraping and clawing. But I will say, once you change that, flip that mindset a little bit. It's like, okay, I have a little bit of income.

I'm paying the bills. I'm feeding my family. Like, let's flip this to, uh, not just like, How many checks I can make and paycheck to paycheck. Like what, how can I grow this thing and who's How can you put it into the next gear, 

Tracy Hayes: right? How can you, you go, you know, Exactly. 

Luke Christmas: Go to EDP, you know, you know, don't, don't just scrape and claw for everything that you can get.

Look for the long run, you know, 

Tracy Hayes: Um, which, How do I, um, where do I, I wanted to, uh, you, when you started to say, well, you didn't distract me, you were actually going, I'm like, oh, this is a perfect transition, uh, into my next, [00:55:00] uh, segment. It's one that I talk about all the time. Um, oh yes, here, um, going back to, uh, op suite.

All right. So you're, you're with the Rocco team. You've got this level of production. What, what makes you decide? Hmm. To form Christmas homes. 

Luke Christmas: So that's a good question. So there's a little bit of buffer in between Christmas homes and rocker group, right? So working with the rocker group, um, putting in a lot of hours, closing anywhere from 50 to 60 deals a year, which is a blessing.

It's huge, huge yet. But, um, you know, I, I, Like I said, my big wise, I want to impact people at a high, high level. And I didn't feel like I was doing that anymore. Um, with the rock group, I loved it. I love the team. I loved the business. I loved everything about it. But I saw a 

Tracy Hayes: impact your customers or what, what do you, when you say impact people, what, what, what is there an 

Luke Christmas: avatar?

I think it's general. I was like, how with my time that I have on this earth, how can I most impact [00:56:00] people? Positively and changed their lives. Truly. People 

Tracy Hayes: in gen in general. In general. Okay. Uh, I 

Luke Christmas: guess you keep it a real estate, right? Yeah. Let's keep it in the scope of real estate, um, because I don't want to get too vague.

Mm-Hmm. . Uh, so I saw a position open up for a productivity coach. Mm-Hmm. . And I was like, dang man, that's enticing. So I reached out to our op and I was like, what does this look like? And she's like, let's talk about it. And so we talk about it and everything and, um, you know. It looked perfect. I was like, man, I can coach agents.

I can give them the vision. I can, uh, give them a life. Cause you've got 

Tracy Hayes: all this stuff that you've been learning with Sarah, just building up in your brain. You want to share it, which a lot of top people do. That's why I always say, reach out to these top people. Cause they do want to pour into you. They want to tell you how they did it.

Luke Christmas: Absolutely. Absolutely. So I thought it was a perfect opportunity. So I, I reached out to my Opie. We have the conversations. And at that point, you know, I prayed about it, talk to my other mentors and things like that. Okay. This is the right option. So I leave the rocker group, which is really, really tough decision.

I still love them to have a great relationship with them [00:57:00] and start as a PC with Atlantic partners. And I was between Atlantic beach. And, uh, Kelly Williams outside, you know, at this point I am going to take a pay cut, but there's a potential to grow. You're 

Tracy Hayes: still producing yourself, 

Luke Christmas: still producing myself a little bit on the side.

Right. But I lost pretty much my entire database when I left the rock rocker group, except for my sphere of influence. So anybody past client that I got from them, anything like that is I can no longer market to them. Right. So I was ready to take that kind of sacrifice to, to start this journey. Um, so it started as a PC.

And I worked at for about 11 months and it was an awesome experience. Um, but working as a leadership in a real estate office is kind of like working for the U S government. It's really, really hard. There's not a lot of benefits. paid very much. So my own business on the side, the referral partnerships and things that started growing and growing and growing my PC program, productivity programs are growing and growing and growing.

So I really, it got to the point where I couldn't service. You were 

Tracy Hayes: starting to get [00:58:00] popular with the agents who wanted your help. I mean, cause when you, when you have a, you know, a large operation like Atlantic partners is, I don't know how many agents, all Atlantic partners. So is working with a productivity coach or like, um, so just available to them and they could call up on it or do you guys like to reach out to people who aren't doing anything and say, Hey, you need to, right.

Yeah. 

Luke Christmas: So it depends if it's a brand new green agent, never done production, never been in production, they're required to work with a productivity coach and go through what we call the ignite program and work with the PC for, especially if they're 

Tracy Hayes: not with the team. 

Luke Christmas: Correct. So yeah, it was. You had to, you know, cause we didn't want these people going out and messing things up for the 

Tracy Hayes: Williams.

Yeah, right. 

Luke Christmas: So they had to, and then yeah, people that weren't really producing there, they did like two deals a year. We'd reach out and I was like, Hey, come in, let's talk and try to get the fire in them. And if they, if they really just weren't producing, not doing anything like, Hey, I'm, I just want to go in referral status.

We would make that, you know, kind of push them along that way. Right. Um, so at [00:59:00] the height of it, I had like 72 agents that I was coaching at one time, which was insane. You know, it took a lot of my time and the contract questions that I would get every single day and day out. And I got to the point where I was kind of ruthless cause they would text me at 8 p.

m. on a Friday. Every time I'm like, Luke, I'm writing a contract, you know, what do I do? And I'm like, were you in class yesterday? No. I'm like, all right, I'll talk to you on Monday. You know, I kind of put them to the fire cause you know, they had to do it. Cause I 

Tracy Hayes: mean when you say that it made me a thought is, is that the best time usage of a productivity coach or You know, there's a broker involved here or I imagine at Keller Williams you have a resource number Right that has people that will I know some brokerages have that Number that they can call with all wide variety of of questions They're just stuck on some and someone's monitoring that phone at any given time 

Luke Christmas: typically.

Yeah, typically, um, And so yeah, we started to systemize that and make make that a lot better And also there it was It was too [01:00:00] much. Like one person, unless you have like junior coaches or something, you can't coach 75 agents at a high level. You just can't as one person. At least I couldn't. So, um, getting back to it.

So PC programs growing my own business. So that's when I started doing like two to three deals a month and it starts building and building and building. So at some point I had to sit just 

Tracy Hayes: through personal, your fear of influence, your, your own. Okay. 

Luke Christmas: And not really. Not legion, not sitting out monthly emails, just like, 

Tracy Hayes: you know, sitting there cold calling for two hours in the morning, maybe, 

Luke Christmas: I mean, doing legion, maybe twice a week and touching like my core group of agent referral partners that I held on to.

Right. Um, so start producing more and more and eventually just got to the point where I had to sit down with my wife came to me. She's like, you're working like a hundred hours a week and I can like see it in your eyes. Like you got to stop this. And I was like, okay. So sat down with her, you know, prayed about it, thought about it again, sought mentorship and things like that.

And then ultimately looking at my five to 10 year goals, like what makes sense for myself and my family. Right. That's what [01:01:00] comes first. You know, what does God want me to do? What, what makes sense? And ultimately my own business made more sense than, than sticking with the PC program. Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: Well, it helps you, uh, you got enough experience that if you are, you're going to grow a team, you know, some of the things that, yeah, that you're, you have to be involved in, you know, Uh, you're, you know, that Friday night call about the contract.

If you're the team leader, unfortunately, you're going to have to answer that question. 

Luke Christmas: I'm cool with it. If it's not a team, you know, I, I feel a little more comfortable with it, you know? Do you, do 

Tracy Hayes: you find, you know, an agent like that, is it because they're working part time or they're just not putting forth the effort to go and grab, like, obviously right now with the new contract and everything going on, you know, there's, there's, All sorts of education going on about the contract and you need to be going to more than one class.

Don't go Hey, I just went I went to landmark boom check No, I'd go to william lee's doing it over there. I know he's got one going on next month You need to be going to nefar. You need to be you know, whoever else is offering it. Um, You know taking it three or four times [01:02:00] I don't think there's, if there's any one thing that everyone says you need to get educated on, that's the contract and being able to take it, turn it around, flip it to the other person and read it upside down.

Luke Christmas: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It, it depends. It was, um, it was usually a motivation thing, right? Cause like I said earlier, people would have my initial meetings with them. Like, what do you, you know, what kind of production, what are your financial goals? And they would give me this financial goal. I want to make a hundred K 200 K my first year.

And then they just wouldn't show up. But These people that wouldn't show up. They had nothing pushing them. They're, you know, freshly grad is usually younger people. They don't even 

Tracy Hayes: know what a hundred or 200, 000 is. Yeah. 

Luke Christmas: Idea that freshly graduated, you know, kind of either like living off their parents dime or whatever, no reason they had to do something, you know, typically the people that were most successful that I coach were like, It was like the mom that had been a mom for 20 years and this was going to be her thing There's a lot of 

Tracy Hayes: great agents in town that i've had on this show that are just in that category And they would 

Luke Christmas: crush and they were so motivated and they're always there and they're always asking the right questions.

Those are my best ever. It was [01:03:00] like the people my age that didn't really, they're like bartending and they didn't have any kids. They had nothing pushing them. So that, and we started, I started to pick up on that, the motivation. And I would start to ask people hard questions. Our initial meetings, like, are you willing to do these items that I'm laying out in front of you?

That's like, is this something you're actually going to do? And a lot of times you're like, Probably not. I'm like, okay, this probably isn't a good fit. You know, there's a bunch of other brokerages. I think if 

Tracy Hayes: I was to start a real estate team and I could hand pick anybody I want, I'd be after like a Kelly Bello, the single mom with the kids.

Pass it. They're killers. Yeah. Has to do 

Luke Christmas: it. You have no other option. Yeah. Yeah. Most people don't have that. I think that's why most people don't make it. They don't have that. This is it and you don't have a plan but you don't have a plan so this is all you have, you know 

Tracy Hayes: I think also would you agree real estate is because everyone does it differently?

You know, we took five agents. They're all there. No one is doing it exactly the same and now you take two 12, 000. I mean, obviously we know so many are not actually producing, but you know, only what, what they, what was the [01:04:00] statistic? 50 percent last year sold more than two homes or something. I don't know whatever it was.

Um, but everyone does it a little differently. Prospect differently to get their leads differently. You know, all this, this kind of thing. And you, you have to have that Entrepreneurial kind of curiosity. You got to be willing to walk into rooms that you don't know what's behind the door, so to speak, and not talking like literally in a house, but in your business, you know, to, to, to, to, because you can do it so many different ways that you, uh, you have to discover what is your way.

Uh, which has been a lot of agents have mentioned that recently. You got to do it your way, you know, um, yeah. 

Luke Christmas: What's the one thing that's going to, that you like to do and that you're good at, that's going to boost the business. You know, um, and it took me a long time to find that at least about a year.

What 

Tracy Hayes: is it? What do you feel is your. You know that, that why you wake up in the morning, like, oh, I get to go do this [01:05:00] because you, you're, you're passionate. I'm passionate about this podcast. Yeah. You, you, what is the, there's something that creates the passion in you to like, keep driving forward, like, I want the next deal.

What, what is it for you? 

Luke Christmas: Oh, man, that's a good question. Mm. I mean, getting outside of real estate, probably the big why is like. My family will have every opportunity that they can get. Right. And that kind of drives everything. Like my daughter's never going to hear. You can't, we can't afford that. We can't afford this opportunity.

We can't do this because You know, we do not have the money. Yeah. That's the main driver. That's the main driver. And of course, after that, 

Tracy Hayes: now you start to realize that in your success at the beginning, you really didn't think about that, but now you're going, you've got the, you know, I've got an 11 year old, 14 year old, they're both very active in, in doing the sports, my daughters in drama and everything has a cost to it.

Luke Christmas: Right. 

Tracy Hayes: It's like, do you want to do that? You can put forth the effort. Okay. It's not, can we afford it when I do, or you are, we're going to pay for it, but are you [01:06:00] going to, yeah, the cost is not an option, right? The, that's the, the high is that you get to, you get the right to check or, you know, give them the credit card and not worry about it.

And you're paying the bill off every month. Exactly. Yeah, 

Luke Christmas: exactly. So that's, that's the main driver. And of course, like. You know, my, my, my peers and family too. I want to give them opportunities that they wouldn't have ever dreamed of having. Um, and if that's like a, from a financial standpoint or just like a business coaching standpoint, whatever that looks like, that's what drives me every single day is, is giving people that sort of opportunity.

Um, and then just impacting my kids lives so they can go out and impact other people's lives. Right. 

Tracy Hayes: You mentioned a few minutes ago, one of the things that you, that, uh, you, well, you, you were doing the, uh, Coaching would you would you would you got productivity coach? You do it in but your business kept growing over here.

There was something you were doing What is it you think in it might come natural to you? Maybe you're just a popular guy and everybody wants to [01:07:00] hang out with I don't know. What is it that that you think? Is Kept that business growing even though you weren't focused on it as you as much as you are today And I'm just it's growing much faster because you're focused on it.

But even when you weren't focused on it was still growing Why 

Luke Christmas: yeah, I think And in any business, there's all sorts of people right and another thing, you know top I say my parents, you know And still this to me, you know be as authentic and genuine as you can be right at the end of the day Just be yourself, right?

So that's what I try to do every single day. I don't put on a face for anybody You Um, so when I'm going to like mega camp and family reunion, that's what I try to find. I try to find the people that are truly authentic, genuine people that I can jive with and that I want to pour into and they want to pour into me and our values and morals line up and things like that.

Cause you'll go to these things and you meet someone and you're like, you're a robot man, really trying to just come from like who I am and how I was [01:08:00] raised and being a real person. I, yeah. That's what I believe is the reason people kept following up with me. And I did keep following up with like that core group of agents that I had, that I wanted to pour into that were genuine people that I really loved and loved as friends.

Um, I continued to talk to them. 

Tracy Hayes: Cause that was the easy thing while you're doing the coaching because they're out there and they're, you're entering their sphere of influence. 

Luke Christmas: Correct. 

Tracy Hayes: And we're in Northeast Florida. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah. 

Tracy Hayes: People are moving here. Those New Yorkers, They don't have so much new coming in.

They have a lot of people going out, so maybe they're listing houses. Uh, they, they need to add value to that person leaving. Correct. Yeah. 

Luke Christmas: Correct. And they, I mean, they wanted a genuine person to do it, you know. Right. Right. And it's a terrible joke, but I have that core group of, of buddies at Femarinian, and, and, uh, I would talk to someone, I'm like, man, that person is just an NPC and there's like a computer game.

Yeah. You get that from some people and that's like the opposite that I'm going for. I just want to be me. Um, and I, 

Tracy Hayes: well, [01:09:00] one of the things I think is, I mean, you, whether it's, um, I, I mentioned Kim Perel all the time, business leader, um, uh, uh, we've heard it a thousand other places. Stop worrying about what other people think about you.

Absolutely. Yeah, and, and I, I, we battle that every day though. And the reason why people keep saying it and different people are saying it all the time, because we are constantly, everyone is worried about, you know, how they're being judged. 

Luke Christmas: Or trying to be someone else. Right. You know, I remember Sarah, on taking listings, you know, and we would rep listing appointments again and again and again.

And I've kind of, she went out of town or something. Sam's like, all right, we gotta, you gotta do a mock listing point with me. I'm like, okay, sounds good. So I get into it and I get like halfway and Sam's like, Luke, you gotta stop. I'm like, what's going on? She's like, you're being an a hole. What do you mean?

He's like, You're acting like Sarah, like, just, just act like people want to work with Luke cause they want to work with Luke. They don't want to work with, they don't want to work with Sarah, they want to work with you. And I was like, [01:10:00] alright, sounds good, I can do that. And you know, that was a huge a ha for me, it's like people want to work with me, they want to be my referral partner cause they want to work with me, not with, uh, uh, rendition of Sarah or whoever else that, uh, you know, mentored me.

Right, 

Tracy Hayes: Sarah impacted the people. Excuse me, her business came from people who saw her. Yeah. But you're not. Five foot eight blonde that, you know, yeah, six, 

Luke Christmas: seven guys last Christmas, exactly. 

Tracy Hayes: Um, that is a common theme with the top agents and, and everyone has said the authenticity of it. Which since you mentioned listing appointments, and we'll kind of, we'll kind of close with this last chapter here, kind of talking about, uh, for the agents that are out there, what are you, what are you actually doing now?

We got, you know, the buyer's agreement. I think that that's something you guys did Yes. Have been doing for a while. Yes. Um, so how do, let's talk about the buyer's agreement, since that's a subject to a lot of people going to these classes [01:11:00] and doing that. But this is something you've been doing for a while.

Yeah. Or is there really anything in your. Repertoire that you're changing because of this NAR settlement or anything that they're telling you guys have need to do or you pretty much Been doing it all 

Luke Christmas: Honestly people hate this whole north and I think I think there's going to be a lot of positivity comes through it.

I think it's going to put people in check. Right. You know, so for me alone, I mean it's like, wow, I have to start thinking again about every single little thing and how I'm presenting compensation for a buyer's broker and things like that. Um, and you know, I, I'd still continue to sign buyer agreements, but you know, revamping that conversation with people and getting it very, very in check.

Cause I mean, yes, I do it, but I'm not, point with it. Like I, like I'm under the gun, say a Rocco. Right. So, um, it's, it's going to be something that I'm used [01:12:00] to and it's the conversations that I was taught to have from the beginning of real estate. And that's kind of, it's a huge blessing for me. Cause you know, Sellers have always had the choice to pay whoever they want to pay, right?

I've always had that conversation with them. I've always made every single buyer that I work with sign a buyer broker agreement because why would I work with someone that's not committed to me? Right, right. So it's, nothing's really changed. It really just starts to fine tune everything and on it. Yeah.

And just puts me in check. I mean, it holds me accountable to what I'm telling people. Cause a lot of times you just get in the conversations, things are flowing and you say something like, Ooh, I probably shouldn't say that anymore. Yeah. So, honestly, I think Or how you say it. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's just going to make us more professional and make us do our job better.

Well, for those, 

Tracy Hayes: for those agents out there that are listening, it might be struggling a little bit on, um, you know, I think, I think if anyone's got a, uh, anxiety about it, it's the questions that may be asked. But I think the reality is you and I are in the business, so we're, we know what's going Somewhat know what's going on.

We see [01:13:00] articles. We pay attention to those things. The average person who's buying and selling a home Is not actually paying attention to those things until they're ready to buy or sell a home And then it's not like they are already got it on their Their Instagram feed to get real estate information It's not gonna come to them.

So easily they got it. They're gonna dig to find some of this stuff now somebody You Hey, my brother in law hurts, heard this, blah, blah, blah. You know, there's always that kind of kind of thing, but the anxiety comes from answering that question, right? Well, what about the commission? And, uh, What are you, what are you talking about?

You, I know you're mentoring people. People probably ask you, how are you, uh, how do you, how are in your mind, how are you going in and, um, uh, you know, do you have a prep dancer? Um, or I think the, I think the intelligent thing is obviously. have several different ways. Cause it's how it's [01:14:00] asked, right? We don't know the context by which is fast, right?

We don't know that in training is also in this client. Ask you whether it's a buyer or seller, ask you about the commission and it's how you answer that is going to either like, boom, you're over the other side of the fence and now you're on the run or you're going to run into the fence. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah. I think you got to break it down from personality type, right?

Are they D I S or C talking about the disperse now? That's right. Cause they're all, and they're going to ask it different ways. So yes, I do have a prepped answer for each personality and what I'm going to say, but essentially most of it comes back to, you know, or show your value in your listing appointment, show everything that you do.

And honestly, the question comes back to, have I shown you something today that makes you think you shouldn't, you know, provide 3 percent to us and 3 percent to a buyer broker, right? Have I showed you anything today that that takes away from that? And a lot of the times that I kind of put some, put some to the fire and like, well, no, you've shown me more than any agent has ever shown me in a listing appointment.

So I think, you know, um, share a cab and all, I went to one of her listing classes and something I say [01:15:00] all the time now, like, Hey, this is the price of excellence, right? Of course it's your, your choice at the day. We got to throw that in there, but this is the price of excellence, right? And this is the price of value.

So, 

Tracy Hayes: yeah, yeah. Um, you know, uh, I think it's something, uh, uh, that's very important right now that the. The collateral damage, if it wasn't the direct, uh, I think the DOJ, it's direct, but the, uh, the lawsuit was a money grab, uh, so the settlement and, uh, it's, it's, it's devalued the agent. You get people talking trash on, you know, and, and, uh, You know, I think obviously we know there's some people out there just on social media They want to be influencers.

So they're they yeah They're going to talk trash because then they get clicks and then hopefully, you know, instagram starts paying them or something, right? I mean, that's just uh, but unfortunately it has that collateral damage that people are actually hearing them Literally literally, uh on there and devalue the agent that how important it is for the agent to go in now uh [01:16:00] being knowledgeable So being ready to answer the question coming from a D I S C, right?

That's good. Whatever the personality and however they ask. And a lot of times I think you've been in sales long enough and I've been in sales for 30 years. Sometimes the question is just asked to see how you're going to answer. It's not a judgment of whether or not they're going to work with you. They just want to see how you answer the question.

And 

Luke Christmas: 90 percent of the time they don't even ask. Yeah. If you show them that you're so, You're so much. I mean, I hate to, I'm not trying to to my own heart, but you're so much better than any agent I've ever worked with. They're not even going to ask. Right. So if you are prepped yourself enough and you're knowledgeable enough and you know the market well enough.

And you're confident enough. They're usually not going to ask you. Yeah. Yeah. It's 

Tracy Hayes: a, it's the father, uh, Told him to ask you why it's a lot of times why they bring it up and they don't even know Really what the right answer is supposed to be but they told their father father in law, whatever Oh, yeah, we asked him about that and he he covered it.

Okay, but it is 

Luke Christmas: important to To script these things, you know, email me, text me, like I'll [01:17:00] script with you. Like you have to get used to having these conversations, how to, how to 

Tracy Hayes: answer it in several different ways, uh, sitting on the, on the context of it. Um, you mentioned briefly there, the listing appointment and how, cause I think the, really this comes down.

to the listing agents of whether or not, uh, they're going to make life easier for people. Or are you going to have these greedy listing agents that are just in there? So, Oh no, you just got to pay me two, 3 percent and not even mentioned the buyer's agent. And then it becomes a conflict during the process of who's paying, you know, that, that whole, that whole thing.

If the listing agent is solid, they're going to get. 

Luke Christmas: They will get that two and a 

Tracy Hayes: half, 3%, whatever it is for the buyer's agent. Because if they're professional, yes, yeah, 

Luke Christmas: absolutely. Yeah. And I, I personally, this is just me. I'm not going to take a listing if they're not going to pay a buyer broker agreement.

I don't care if it's 2 million. I don't care if it's 500 and a hundred thousand. I'm not going to take it. 

Tracy Hayes: And that's everyone should have that, that attitude because personally, I mean, if you have, if you're, if you're that [01:18:00] guy that's going out there getting these listing appointments, yeah. And not building it in people.

The other agents are going to start talking trash about you to the point. And they're going to see that, uh, Johnny doesn't negotiate a buyer's commission and on his listings, a, uh, agent, and no one will be going to your house. 

Luke Christmas: Average days on market just went up a hundred. Yeah. Yeah, seriously, I mean, you're gonna make a bad rep for yourself and, um, you just gotta have the right conversations.

And 

Tracy Hayes: it's not the, and it's not the greed of, oh, well, the buyer should be paying their buyer's agent. They are paying their buyer's agent. Just put it into the price and make, that's the way it's always been. Yeah, absolutely. Um, because if you were not asking to discount the price because you weren't represented as a buyer, that was your problem.

Right. You know. Exactly. Um, so as, as, as it comes clean. Um. Anything else you'd like to add? I think I'm good, man. I appreciate it. That was great. Um, you know, again, call out the [01:19:00] Samantha Dopp suite. Yes. Actually, that was the last time. Did we not So, how has it Whether they use op suite or not, I, I highly recommend Sam.

I just think what she's got going on there to be that, that one stop shop basically as your operations, whether you're a solo agent or you got a small team or you got, you know, she's working with larger teams too, uh, in providing that, that, uh, uh, operations. Behind the scenes professional operations and um, how important how does that change your business?

To allow you to keep doing the forward focusing because you have her doing She's doing marketing stuff for you. Um, you know, so tell us some of the stuff that she's doing for you. Yeah 

Luke Christmas: Yeah, and you know, I I got into that I left pc and went to a full time agent got to the point we're doing four To six transactions a month in my okay, like I at least need a tc for this, right?

So I went through a couple of tcs and on the rocker group. We had an amazing tc named [01:20:00] dominique and she was Best TC I've ever had. I was like, I couldn't find Dominique again. So Sam decides, Hey, I'm going to start this, uh, operations company. I'm like, yes, finally let's go. Um, so she starts off suite and I immediately met with her and pretty much what she took off my plate was my bookkeeping.

A lot of agents. I know this is for me. I'm a really good agent. I'm not very organized. You're a male.

She took that off my plate for me. Um, uh, TC work, um, database management, referral partnership management, um, you know, uh, business planning, five year plan, 10 year plan. Um, any new hires I want to make. And then, um, marketing as well. Uh, but we actually sub marketing, subcontract marketing kind of through, um, sailor and company with Emily Engel, who does like my monthly newsletter.

She's going to 

Tracy Hayes: be on Tuesday. Let's go. Yeah. Sam, Sam referred her over because that's another areas of, you know, having [01:21:00] someone solid behind the scenes that fits your budget to that, giving you that consistent marketing. Yeah. Yeah. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah. But once, once I picked that up and not only did it give me time to, okay, let's how it's not affected my business.

Give me time to like, okay, I get to spend an hour a day extra with my daughter and my wife. Like I get to do the things I really are important to me. I love this business, but I'll take my family over every day of the week, you know, so I get to pour into my family more. Um, but literally my business doubled after I brought them on.

You know, last year I closed around 13. 5 million this year. I'm on track to closed anywhere from 25 to 30 million, you know, so bringing them on gave me the time to pour into my family. Um, and you know, just continue to grow the business and honestly, like having a mind behind it all, like Sam, you know, it helps in so many ways.

You know, there's so many things that I would have never thought of. I'm not an operations person that she thought I was like, how about we just do this? I'm like, Well, dang, that was like the easiest thing in the world that gives me so much more time to pour back into my people. [01:22:00] Um, so completely, I mean, changed my life.

Literally, they've changed my life. So 

Tracy Hayes: I mean, the return on investment for you is obviously huge, literally doubling your business and giving you the peace of mind, which is, I mean, that's priceless. Yeah, 

Luke Christmas: absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, really just organize my business. It actually has structure now. It's systematic.

I mean, it's, it's a game changer, man. I advise it. If you're a new agent, at least hire them as a TC, you know, at least hire them as a TC. If you have a, if you have a team. systems that I've ever seen out of any team that I've talked to. So yeah, it's been great. 

Tracy Hayes: That's a huge endorsement. We're going to have to cut this last two and a half, three minutes right there.

Have you just endorsing my op suite? Um, but that is a big thing out there. I think, I think it's, there's so many agents that are, that are doing well because They're good and people, they have credibility, uh, influence all those things that you want as a real estate agent. But then there's this other stuff you got to do, you know, it's your homework.

Well, if you can have someone do your homework, you can be in the [01:23:00] classroom every day and, and, uh, you know, absorbing all the things that you need to do, which. My analogy is you could be forward facing and be spending more time with your customers, spending more time with your, your, your wife and that's in your kids and that sort of thing.

Luke Christmas: Yeah. I mean, I see so many agents that are like year 10 and they're still doing 30 transactions a year, 20 transaction a year. They've been doing that for five years. And that's great. And if you're fine, could they do 40? Yeah, exactly. Could they do 50? But do you want to grow? If you want to grow, then like, this is how you do it.

Yeah. This is how you scale, you know? 

Tracy Hayes: It's a hundred, a hundred percent. Uh, I don't think there's, uh, you know, that we know, uh, yeah, the, you know, that, that 20 to 30 transactions, which is somewhere between. You know, today in what area of towns you're working in price point could be five to 10 million. Yeah, and that's I mean In every agent i've talked to it's hit that lid.

That's like totally maxed out. That's doing themselves. It's in that nine ten million They are just being told every which way. 

Luke Christmas: Yeah. Yeah, I can't imagine doing 30 transactions a year and having to like Process every [01:24:00] transaction through it. There's no way. There's no way. Well, 

Tracy Hayes: I mean, I think you and I are, you know, you know, I think the same are We get our thrill and like I said working with the client helping you're doing those things And in case we go everything that everyone sees a real estate agent doing you do But then there's all the behinds you which you can do But there actually is people like samantha and her team that are actually better at it that make you even look better.

Exactly Yes, like 

Luke Christmas: find all the things you don't want to do You Yeah. Well, 

Tracy Hayes: hopefully they like doing it and you get to do more of what you like to do. Literally 

Luke Christmas: all my reviews that I get on like Google people are like, you know, Luke and Lydia were like the best team ever. And I'm like, let's go. So yeah, they're, they're awesome.

They're great. 

Tracy Hayes: Um, It makes you look bigger than, than you are. I mean, you, I mean, you probably could hire somebody full time to do that, but why, why do you've got someone being managed under someone who's really good and she, you know, she's hiring and has the [01:25:00] quality people. Like I said, you, I think the other complaint I heard, Oh, you know, so and so did it in a bad, bad transaction coordinators, which I think you mentioned you've had some not so good transaction.

Luke Christmas: Not bad. Just like, um, Not where I need to be, you know, not quite on the level that I need to be. There are great people, great experiences, but I, I knew what, let Sam take care of that for you. Let Sam 

Tracy Hayes: give you the best, um, transaction coordinator. And I imagine she probably takes the feedback from her agents on who's working with them.

Um, uh, just a great business, great resource for every agent in town. 

Luke Christmas: Absolutely. Absolutely. 

Tracy Hayes: Luke. Appreciate it. Yeah, man. Great show. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,