Beth saw something missing in the Buffalo, New York, real estate market: a strong focus on excellence and customer service. Growing up, she learned the value of hard work and dedication. She wanted to bring these values into her business.
Beth decided to put her clients first and offer top-notch service. This approach helped her make a name for herself in the real estate world. It's impressive how she moved from pharmaceutical sales back to real estate, matching her previous income in just 15 months.
Now, Beth Matthews is the owner of Envision Real Estate. With four offices and a team of over 40 agents, they provide complete transaction support. They even have their own in-house marketing team.
Throughout her journey, Beth has always emphasized the significance of integrated systems. She particularly highlights the role of Sisu in her success, showcasing its impact on her operations and growth.
Top Takeaways:
(5:34) Manually inputting the number vs using automation
(7:02) Freedom, family, and flexibility in sales
(9:09) Is networking the key to perfect hiring?
(10:08) Why choose sales-driven agents?
(12:27) Difference between an agent and a salesperson
(18:03) Finding alignment with Sisu
(20:15) Is growing a business always profitable?
(21:51) Is hiring more the answer to burnout?
(27:50) How do leaders cope with growth pains?
(31:41) Is streamlining tech the key to scaling?
Embark on this journey with Beth Matthews and discover the highs and lows of the real estate industry. Listen today for a deep dive into success, challenges, and growth!
About Beth
Beth Matthews, a top-tier REALTOR® from Buffalo, New York, heads Envision Real Estate with her unwavering dedication to excellence and client service. Her expertise spans residential resales, commercial sectors, and new home developments. At Envision, Beth not only offers premium realty services but also mentors and invigorates her team of agents and staff.
Connect with Beth Today!
Transcript
Brian Charlesworth 00:34
Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Grit podcasts. I'm Brian Charlesworth. I'm the founder of Sisu and your host of the show, and today I am here excited to be here with Beth Matthews. Beth has been a Sisu customer for a while but has been in real estate since 2009. She's from Buffalo, New York. And I'm excited to dive in and learn about her business. I think a lot of team owners today have faced a lot of challenges around running profitable businesses being frustrated with different software platforms being frustrated with how do I grow and scale a profitable company. So we're just gonna dive into some of that with Beth today. Beth, welcome to the show. Thanks, Brian.
Beth Matthews 01:15
Thanks for having me.
Brian Charlesworth 01:16
Yeah. So give me some background. I know you just started to say this to me offline. But give me some background. How long have you been in real estate? Just kind of how'd you get into real estate? And what led up to where you are today?
Beth Matthews 01:27
Yeah. So I shared with you that I've been licensed in New York state since September of 2009 actually signed my paperwork 9909. So it will forever be ingrained in my memory. But I did actually sell briefly in the state of Texas, I was down there, my ex husband was active duty Army. And I worked on a really large and productive team as a buyer's agent. And so I had the experience of a team there and saw how well the team lead ran everything, but I was young and finishing their degree. So when I moved back to Western New York, I actually pursued a sales career with pharmaceutical sales. And about five years into that really was longing to get back into real estate. So found my way back. And I say I learned a lot in terms of how to effectively build a business from my team lead in Texas. And truly, I don't think anybody in the Western New York area was really working the team model at that point. Buffalo is a great area, but kind of slow to adapt and compare it to other parts of the country.
Brian Charlesworth 02:29
Okay, so you were in college and selling real estate at the same time?
Beth Matthews 02:33
Yes, yeah, I had taken a non traditional path, started school, stopped school to get married, then started school again and had my first daughter. So we talked before you hit record about the college experience in mind was a long and winding experience, not because I was taking advantage of the social aspects, but because I kept taking detours in life.
Brian Charlesworth 02:56
Yeah. Okay. So when you came back into real estate, and 9909 Yeah, it's even ingrained in me now. Tell me like, did you start a team instantly? Or did you go just start selling as a solo agent? How did you get back into real estate,
Beth Matthews 03:11
I started as a solo agent, I was met with some resistance from people close to me, because obviously, we're coming off of 2007 2008, which was a pivotal time in the real estate industry. And I'm leaving a corporate job with a fortune 50 company that was paying me a great salary and benefits, but I just didn't love it. And it felt like golden handcuffs. And I knew at that point that I'd be working for a long time, and I needed to find something that I was really passionate about. So I found my way back to real estate, and I worked both jobs. I told my husband at the time, please just give me two years to pursue this dream. And if I can't replace my income in two years, without affecting our lifestyle, I will give up that dream. But 15 months later, I was able to leave my corporate job and pursue real estate full time. And then when I dove in full time is when I started to build a team because I really wanted to be able to leverage people that were better at doing things than I was I really enjoy the selling part, but not necessarily other paperwork.
Brian Charlesworth 04:12
No, wait a minute. So you got back into real estate. You told your ex husband Hey, this is what I want to do. Give me two years. You were still selling pharmaceuticals while you were selling real estate and tell 15 months? Yeah. And in that 15 months, you were able to replace that income part time thing.
Beth Matthews 04:31
Yes, that's impressive. I would
Brian Charlesworth 04:35
I don't know many people who can go part time into this and succeed so
Beth Matthews 04:40
I think a lot of people would argue that it wasn't really part time I essentially had two full time jobs that I was putting into my week which was obviously a big ask of my family to sacrifice that time with me but I I made the commitment that you know, there would be a light at the end of the tunnel if if we all dove into this together.
Brian Charlesworth 04:59
I I would love to have you share with us your schedule during that time.
Beth Matthews 05:03
Oh, geez. So I would I'm an early riser. So I would start my day and review my calendar. And then I was fortunate that I had a fairly condensed territory in pharmaceutical sales. So I could get a bulk of my calls done in the morning. And then I would usually host a lunch in a physician's office. And typically, I wrapped up my day, around four o'clock as far as pharmaceutical sales. And then my evenings and my weekends were dedicated to prospecting and showing and listing houses. So I was really diligent about the numbers back then I didn't have great platforms like Sisu, everything was pen and paper. But I committed to making 100 calls a week and back then for sale by owners and expired listings still existed. So is I was going through my territory, again today, that maybe I were starting to see him more in our market now. But we haven't seen a ton of expired listings in the western New York market in the last several years. So through being in the car all the time in between doctor's offices, if I saw a for sale by owner sign, I was already dressed appropriately, I'd stop and knock on the door and introduce myself. So I was definitely intertwining the two worlds for a while.
Brian Charlesworth 06:17
Well, I'm super impressed with the fact that you were able to more than replace your pharmaceutical income with real estate income, doing it nights and weekends. So that says a lot about your character. Because I know so many people that get in this world, and they can't, they can't survive, not doing anything else. And it's called commitment and dedication. And I think like you had a much bigger why than most people that get into real estate. Tell me what that was for you. Like, I know, it was you wanted to get out of pharmaceuticals. But why were you so passionate about like, making sure this was a success?
Beth Matthews 06:53
Yeah, it's interesting, I would say I was a pretty compliant kid, you know, my fit, my family was pretty strict. And I was never the one to really ruffle anybody's feathers. But as I got older and out of the house, I realized that freedom was really important to me. And as I continue to get older, I really struggle with having to like ask permission of how I use my time. So having two young children, the concept that I would have to like ask approval of somebody to go read to their classroom in the middle of the day, just really didn't sit well with me, I knew I would always get the job done. And I would always do whatever the not even the minimum requirement was that's not in my nature. But I truly wanted to be able to use the sales skills that I had in an industry that I loved that was also going to provide me some flexibility, which, you know, early on that flexibility was a lot of extra hours. But it was a short term sacrifice for a long term game.
Brian Charlesworth 07:51
Yeah. Okay. So how long did you sell in that world before you decide to start a team?
Beth Matthews 07:58
It was right around year two that I brought on an assistant and so you're
Brian Charlesworth 08:03
talking year two being 24 months? Because 15 You stopped pharmaceuticals 24 and nine months later, you're saying I'm gonna bring in an assistant?
Beth Matthews 08:13
Yes. Okay. brought in an assistant, I got her licensed. We shared such a tiny office that if I had to vacate the office to use the restroom, she had to stand up and move so that I could get around her. And that really showed me the value of leveraging my time she did everything from right, the contracts, and that the offers, schedule my appointments so that I could truly be field based. And then I got to a point that my business continued to grow. It was probably only about six months after that, that I realized that I was back to working two full time jobs again, at least in terms of hours, and that if I was going to still be able to build my business provide the level of service that I wanted to provide my clients, I was going to need to figure out a way to clone myself, which was essentially bring in some team members. So that started very shortly after I brought on an assistant.
Brian Charlesworth 09:07
Okay, so you bring an assistant, how did you find this assistant? Like, I think finding the right people is such an important part. Yes,
Beth Matthews 09:16
it is huge. So it really started I posted a job. But truly my best people have almost always come from my network. So while I'd post the job, and I'd share it on social media, it would always be a friend of a friend that would reach out and say, Hey, I think this person could be a good fit. So my assistant at the time was working a full time position. She had three young children and wanted an opportunity to go part time, which I was a little hesitant about I thought that felt like a contraction but when I kind of shifted my mindset that truly she was working towards her goal. We had a candid conversation that you know will start this part time but it may lead to full time hours and overtime it did but we were able to work out a schedule that was flexible for her to Meet her goals and for the team to continue to grow.
Brian Charlesworth 10:03
Okay, so then you start, did you decide to call on yourself? Yeah, what does that mean?
Beth Matthews 10:08
I wanted people to be their authentic self, of course, but I really wanted them to have an excitement about excellence. Somebody said to me very early on, and I hear it often now, like, real estate agents may struggle, but salespeople don't. And so I wanted real estate professionals that were going to treat it like a sales career. And so as I interviewed prospective people, I'd meet somebody who worked in the service industry and say, Hey, I think you'd be great at this, my first buyer's agent I brought in and got licensed. And then over time, people started to take notice of the fact that I had grown this business in a fairly short period. And I'd have agents approaching me asking me if I would coach or train them, and that they would pay me and they would do all these things. And it got to a point I did that briefly for an office that I was in. And it was a traditional model. So it was, you know, I didn't really have any leverage to decide who should stay in the training and who shouldn't. And it felt like a waste of time during different periods brokerage
Brian Charlesworth 11:11
were you in at that time,
Beth Matthews 11:13
it's hunt real estate, which is an era affiliate in the Western New York area. So they had asked me to do some office training, and I did that, but I'd have, you know, half the people wouldn't show up, half of them would be unprepared around their phones the whole time. And it was just frustrating for me, like, I'm here to help you and you don't seem interested. So I did one round of that, and then resigned from that position. So when people would approach me and say, will you train me? Will you mentor me, I kind of vetted them and said, I will. But you show up. When I say to show up how I say to show up, you need to do the things I asked you to do in between our meetings. And if you don't, then I'm done. And the only I'm not asking for anything in return. So the two additions that are my second and third addition to the team had both approached me about coaching and mentorship. And we formed a really tight bond. And we had a lot of fun through that. And the only thing they had to do is when they first close their first deal, they we all had to go out to dinner together. And that's the only thing I asked for in return. But I think because we became such a cohesive group through those weeks of training, it felt natural to move them into the team.
Brian Charlesworth 12:23
Okay, that's a great story. So going back a little bit, I have a question, what is the difference between a realtor and a salesperson?
Beth Matthews 12:30
I think a salesperson can be a realtor, but not every realtor is a salesperson. And what that means to me is somebody who really takes their craft seriously and is constantly trying to learn and grow. My approach is very consultative, I love to learn. So by nature, I feel like I like to teach. And when I can demonstrate, you know, to a client, why this experience is going to be a higher level experience for them with me and my team. It resonates with the right people. So you know, those that are just looking for the discount broker, that's not us, and I'm okay with that. But those that truly appreciate value, and then I'm an I'm an analytical person. So I know all of my numbers in terms of listed sale price ratios and things of that nature that I can back it up with some stats.
Brian Charlesworth 13:21
Okay. Well, I know you're a numbers person, because when you got into the business, and you were tracking on a piece of paper, yeah, your 100 conversations a week.
Beth Matthews 13:31
100 calls 100 calls, or conversations, or 100 conversations
Brian Charlesworth 13:36
100 calls a week. Okay, that's when you were part time. How were you tracking that back then?
Beth Matthews 13:42
Pen and paper?
Brian Charlesworth 13:43
I had a did you do the four lines down one across?
Beth Matthews 13:47
I had a 10 line? Yep. 10 square grid 10 by 10 grid, and I would do the a hash for every dial x for every person that I spoke to, and then I circle it if I
Brian Charlesworth 13:57
got the appointment. Okay, cool. And it actually worked, right? It did. Yeah, I
Beth Matthews 14:03
needed the visual. Yeah, yeah,
Brian Charlesworth 14:05
I actually did the same thing when I jumped into real estate to help spring build her business about 10 years ago now. Well, I guess it was more like eight or nine years ago now. But I was shocked that there wasn't a better way to do it. But if you need to do it like that, we'll do it for you. Right. So now, fast forward from there. You have two agents, the What year was this at this point,
Beth Matthews 14:28
this is at that point, we probably would have been around 2011 2012.
Brian Charlesworth 14:34
Okay. So now, today, tell us where your business is at today. You have your own brokerage.
Beth Matthews 14:41
Is that right? Yeah. So I operate an independent brokerage in Western New York. And that truly happened as a means to an end as my team grew. I was meeting a lot of resistance from my broker at the time and I think largely because it was not a really well known cause. except in the area. And now being on the broker level, I understand bringing in brand new people that you're aspiring to get a 5050 split or whatever it is, and then you put them under a top producer. And that minimizes the split, I now understand why my broker was resistant. But it got to a point where I said, I'm doing this, the only question is, am I doing this here? Or do I have to go elsewhere. And the begrudgingly allowed me to start a team but still weren't very supportive. So I had been buying up some different options for a while. And I came across a brokerage that was based out of Rochester, New York, which is about 60 miles east of here, and they were moving into the buffalo market. And I really liked their culture and what they stood for. So I did make a move to them. And their movement was called Nathanael realtor's. And a couple years after I made the move to Napa Nagel, they were acquired by a much larger organization, they were acquired by Howard Hanna. And that just started to feel like corporate America, which was exactly what I was trying to get away from when I left pharmaceutical sales. So I was felt a little stuck at that point in time, because I didn't see where there was anybody in the area that was offering what I was looking for. So the light bulb went off. And I said, Well, I'm just going to create my own version of NOC Nagle. And I sat down with my team members and said, This is what I plan to do. And I think I had six people at that point in time. And I was going to be thrilled if half of them said, okay, because you know, it was a big scary leap. And they all went well. Well, yeah. What else would we do? We're going with? Yeah, so that was January of 2018, we launched envision real estate.
Brian Charlesworth 16:40
Okay, great. So not really that long ago. Not that long ago, though, you're there. Let's call it five years ago with six agents, who trusted you as their team leader, you start a brokerage, not a massive change for somebody on the team, as long as they have confidence in you being able to execute on the broker level. But I think the team is really where they're getting their value anyway. So let's talk about where that business is today, which is called Envision real estate, right? Yes. So
Beth Matthews 17:09
envision real estate today, we have four offices, just over 40 agents. And honestly, we're contracting slightly by design, I shared with you offline that, you know, we started in 2018, things were gaining momentum, obviously the world shut down early 2020. And that was a little bit of a Oh, my gosh, what are we going to do now, but it was short lived. And then, I mean, I say it's been like Mardi Gras for the last four or five years, but things selling and not needing to be prospecting at the level that we had been when we were operating as a team. And, and frankly, we just we just let things go, meaning, you know, organically, the volume was coming in, the transactions were coming in, people would call and say, Hey, you guys, like you have something that I might be interested in. And we'd bring any agent in. And then the party ended. And I had to take a hard look at things and say, Oh, my gosh, I don't even know how we got away from our core. You know, there were certain things that were always in place. But I like leading, and I like coaching and mentoring. And I didn't feel like I was doing enough of that. And it's interesting how it was such a mindset shift that even as a team lead I was, I have high expectations and kind of a tough love team lead. But I lost that when I took on the title of broker, which felt very counterintuitive. So we took some time to reflect and say, Alright, it's time to become a lot more intentional about who we are, why we started this company, and how do we get back to our center. And so part of that was being able to track everything, and not be looking at a profit. And last, that was a lagging indicator, you know, I couldn't do anything about the money once it was already out. So that's how we came across Sisu. And we've gone through several changes over the last six months, and we have lost people but we've also gained people. And I feel like we're very much aligned with where we started out.
Brian Charlesworth 19:13
Do you actually run your brokerage like a team?
Beth Matthews 19:17
I do? Yeah. So the team rich concept was presented to me by a friend. And I was like, oh, yeah, that makes sense. That's that's how we are. So we have full time transaction support. We have a full time marketing team, we're actually building a micro marketing agency within the company to support our agents in anything that they need. And so our agents are really set up to be great salespeople where they can focus on delivering value and a high level of service to their clients.
Brian Charlesworth 19:47
Cool. So to remind me how many agents four locations,
Beth Matthews 19:49
how many patients and we have just over 40 agents, right.
Brian Charlesworth 19:53
So four locations, 40 agents, which Congratulations, you've built a great business over the last five years. That's exciting. And so like what have been some of your biggest challenges in growing this business.
Beth Matthews 20:15
I think the biggest challenge is that while I was growing the business, I wasn't scaling the business. And when I say that, it seems like a foreign concept to certain people, but he said, you know, we bring more people in and we'd sell more houses, but the bottom line wasn't changing. And that's when I had to really take a step back and say, something's got to give here, you know, are we overpaid agents. And that's kind of a double edged sword. You know, I have some fantastic agents that have started with me from the day they have their license that are now growing their own teams, and they deserve to be recognized and compensated accordingly. But I really wasn't putting any emphasis on the recruiting piece. So while their splits are going up, and they're having more success, our expenses are staying the same or growing. So our margins were thinning. And that's when I had the epiphany that in order to continue this momentum and not lose people that, you know, we want to keep around because they're great assets to the company, we have to constantly be filling our pipeline of agents that we can, you know, will collect a better split on when they're starting out so that those margins line up better for long term scalability.
Brian Charlesworth 21:26
So how did you recognize that? I mean, it's great, I love that you say, oh, yeah, well, you know, these people, which is congratulations, you've built an environment that creates the ability for these agents to go create a team within your business, which I think says a lot about you as a leader, because if you don't give them an opportunity to actually grow within your business, they're going to leave you Right. So. So obviously, you've been growing as they're growing. But what is it that, like, let you be aware that your profits are down? Like how do you recognize that a lot of people don't look at their business close enough to know that?
Beth Matthews 22:00
Yeah, yeah. So it got to a point where I was getting burnt out, not too long ago, and I realized that I was wearing too many hats. So I was still in production. And I am a little bit now, but not nearly as much. You know, two years ago, I was the top producing individual agent, and I was putting all of my personal sales revenue right back into the company. And so as things were evolving, and growing, I'm selling, I'm handling the bookkeeping, I'm running the organization, I'm coaching, I'm training, and it got to a point where I was like, something's gotta give, and I was ready to start moving out of production. But when I looked at the numbers, I'm sick, that's not even fiscally feasible right now. So how do we correct that? And that's really, when I have the aha moment that, you know, I can't do it all. So if I'm going to stay in production, if that's my zone of genius, and that's where I want to be, it's okay. But then I need to hire people that can do these other pieces for me, which is scary, you know, as a small business, it's scary to bring on more people and have them reliant on you for their livelihood. But as I've adjusted my mindset, and started to bring on new people, and put them in places that they're doing things that yes, I could do it. But I was doing it at an average level, because I was stretched so thin, and they're doing it at a very high level. And I'm seeing the benefits of that.
Brian Charlesworth 23:26
So that moment you describe it describe, I think it's very common for team owners, where you get to where you're not making any more money, you're growing your business, you're still making the same amount of money, you're working three times harder, you're still in production, and you're going is that even worth growing this business? Yes. So you hired a couple of people that sounds like that took on some of that responsibility. You thought in your mind at that time, you were going to still sell real estate. But yet now here we are five years later, and you're really working on your business instead of in your business, you're not really selling real estate, right? You're really growing a business. So how did that transition happen? What allowed
Beth Matthews 24:12
flow and then it was really fast, which is generally how I operate like once the light bulb goes off. So I had to make some internal changes, which is never easy. You know, I think it's lost and people that, you know, hard decisions are hard for everybody. You know, sometimes as the broker owner or the leader, it's lost on people that you know, you have sleepless nights as well. So once I got past that in the emotional side of it and said, you know, for the business, my obligation is to the people in the organization. I removed some people from their roles I brought in new people, and I honestly I stopped compensating myself. I said My responsibility is to this organization and getting it to a level that I earn the right to have a compensation as the president and CEO So it's been stripping a lot of things back and looking in the mirror and being really honest with myself about where I thrive. And what I want to see the second half of my life and my career look like, which is I love coaching and training and helping other people succeed. And it's the old adage that you can't pour from an empty cup. So I had to bring some people in, that could give me space to fill my cup so that I can continue to grow the people in the organization.
Brian Charlesworth 25:32
So how hard is that to bring in a couple of people mean, what were those salaries for those few people.
Beth Matthews 25:40
So we are structured, but each salary is between 50 and $60,000 a year. So I have a sales manager and a director of operations. And then they have some different incentives for recruiting and hitting sales targets, and then overall profitability at the end of the year. So you know, I ultimately want to get everybody to a point where they're making six figures or more. And I've been very candid with people, you know, I can't offer you the biggest salary. And I can't necessarily offer you all of the you know, benefits that would come along with working for a corporate job. But what I can offer you is I can offer you some flexibility. And I can offer you a culture where you're going to grow. So we work for day work weeks, my Director of Operations had some struggles with end of summer childcare. So we worked out a plan to create a hybrid setup for her so that she can still care for her children and meet the needs of the business. And it's just learning that, you know, whatever you think it's gonna look like, you have to be open to some variation of that.
Brian Charlesworth 26:45
Okay, so you went to stop taking a salary stopped paying yourself, you're in production, you now hired a team leader and an ops leader that you now manage and hold accountable they 50 to $60,000, salary plus upside, I'm guessing based on performance, based on helping you grow the business. So they have the same interests in line as you. So how is it you get all this done? Now you have an ops leader, you have a team leader, you're recruiting more agents, you have four offices, how do you manage all this?
Beth Matthews 27:19
I have a great coach. Truly, it was a really an epiphany, when I realized how much I enjoyed coaching. And I, you know, I don't want to put words in their mouth, but I felt that my agents really enjoy the coaching that they get from me that, you know, when we were a smaller group, there was a lot of blurred lines, right? We were like a family. So, you know, if I had a bad day, I could talk about my bad day with them. And, and nobody really considered it out of the ordinary. But as you grow in scale, and maybe it's just my own mental block, I started to think, who do I talk to about my bad day. My agents don't want to hear it. They don't want to know what the struggles are with growing but not scaling. Like, it's really not their concern. They want to know that they're with an organization that's growing, scaling and thriving, and it's going to support their growth and scalability. So I was like, I need to find people that I can have real honest conversations with about what my struggles are, that aren't going to come from a place of judgment that have walked before me. And when I aligned with the Sisu leadership coaching, the first session I watched, I don't think spring was there. It was Justin and I was like, wow, he's a dynamo. I was immediately like, this guy speaking my language. And then I met spring and my director of ops and Sarah do some coaching together. And Justine, as my director of ops will say all the time, oh, my gosh, you and spring sounds so similar. So it's kind of funny how it worked out. We've never met in person. We're on opposite coasts and different time zones yet. There's a lot of alignment. And I appreciate the honesty and transparency that the whole Sisu leadership coaching team provides about, yeah, we've made these mistakes, too. And here's how we've corrected them.
Brian Charlesworth 29:13
Yeah, that's awesome. So I'm not sure how you discovered that. But,
Beth Matthews 29:17
you know, honestly, if I look back, I'm like, I don't even know I ended up down the rabbit hole of Google and a sleepless night because I was like, something's gotta give and Sisu was one of the options we were looking at. And I talked to Barry Jenkins is a friend of mine. So I spoke to Barry said you have some familiarity, and I ended up getting on demo calls with anybody I could find. And Sisu just really felt right.
Brian Charlesworth 29:44
So that's how you found Sisu and from there you found Justin spring. Yep, you should really come to a cesium mastery event. We have them every quarter.
Beth Matthews 29:54
We have the October event on our calendar, but I was just I was just told that the dates updated to November so We're gonna be there.
Brian Charlesworth 30:01
Yes. Awesome. Good. I'm looking forward to meeting you in person. So just congratulations on going like I watch what you've done. And, you know, being a mom with kids, and growing all these businesses and sacrificing and the hours and everything, like if you were going to give advice and now you run I know I've seen your business is a you run an effective business, you have systems in place. Yeah, I know you actually utilize in Salesforce, we have something where we can actually have a scorecard of our customers, and how well they utilize our platform. I know you utilize the platform, I know you use the transaction management. I know you have tags and and not just statuses, but stages and all this stuff. How did you go from, like, just discovering us? How long ago was that? You discovered us?
Beth Matthews 30:52
I think it was February March timeframe? Oh, it's here this year? Yeah. This year. Wow.
Brian Charlesworth 31:00
So all of a sudden, this year, you've gone to where you have all these systems in place. How did you get there? And then how has that changed your life as a leader?
Beth Matthews 31:10
Yeah, great question. So New York State is an attorney state, which there's a lot of extra steps in our closings. And well, I'm more of the visionary mindset, I definitely have a degree of the the integrator role where I love the problem solving, my brain is constantly going. So to put together the transaction stages and have those trigger the task list for my transaction management team was like my Super Bowl, I was so excited on how that functionality worked. And one of the things that somebody said to me is, you know, it's easy to get caught up in the the shiny new object, which I am totally guilty of that I love the new tech and integrations and everything. But however, when you are scaling, you need simplicity. And you need to be able to centralize things. So it was really important to me that we could find a system that would essentially be our hub. And then we wouldn't need to have six different logins for all of these different things. And so the integration that we have with Sisu, and we use follow up boss has been incredible. And I know that there's still so much more that we have to learn and that we can use in Sisu. Like we're just starting to build out the recruiting platform in more detail. But to basically be able to log into one place and get a bad even a bird's eye view of pretty granular view of my business. It has helped to those sleepless nights with like, did I make sure I checked this do I need to double check that and just to see how everything's flowing through the system is truly incredible. And it's a little bit of a running joke in my house. I tell the story to my fiancee now, I said that you had helped spring in her business and you identified this need and then created Sisu. And my love language is acts of service. So I'm teasing Ethan all the time. Like if you really loved me, you would have developed a system to help me run.
Brian Charlesworth 33:05
Well, that's what I love to do. I mean, i i My background is I've been in software for a number of years back when I was in my 20s I actually created the first voice internet company. Oh very which you think voice internet, you think is that voice over IP he's talking about? But it's actually the Siri Alexa and Google stuff like, Hey, Siri,
Beth Matthews 33:25
needed to graduate early because you had things to do.
Brian Charlesworth 33:29
Yeah. And now Sierra is talking to me over there. But the reality is, we built something that did that and all the wireless networks 20 years ago. And so like changing the world, changing an industry is my passion. And when I saw where real estate was, when I came into it nine years ago, I knew I could make a difference in the industry. And so that's that is how CC got started. And it was really to solve all the problems that I saw in springs business. And as you know, probably since you have come to know her it sounds like you know, she had a business of five agents doing around 120 transactions a year. And now this year, she's pacing to do 900 to 1000 transactions a year. So it's been really fun to see her progress over the last five years as Sisu was really just launched in January of 2019. So up together. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So So anyway, it's been it's been fun to hear your journey just quickly now that you are where you are and lead your people the way you lead them. You've talked about how you have no time in your life. I'm wondering do you have time for your fiance now? Now that you have these systems in place and the way you're running your business, leveraging Sisu to grow and scale your business in a different way?
Beth Matthews 34:44
I definitely do. It's been a huge improvement in my quality of life overall. My as I shared my daughter is now on the west coast in college and without hesitation I booked the flight for family we weekend and to have, you know, the details of my business at my fingertips at all times is incredible. There were a lot of years that I felt like I couldn't really go away and disconnect. I mean, I've traveled extensively. So I don't want it to seem like I've never left Western New York. But you know, I would be on a beach in Bali, and still answering calls and fielding questions and running payroll, and to have the systems, the coaching, and now all of the right people in place. It's like the weight of the world is off my shoulders. Yeah. And I'm excited to be in this industry again, like, I'm loving real estate again. And that makes me feel really good. Because, frankly, I'm unemployable at this point, you know, to go from running your own business back to work for somebody else, it's not likely. So I needed to find a way to fall back in love with the industry.
Brian Charlesworth 35:54
Well, congratulations on successfully doing that. To me, it's fun to see, one of the things I'm most passionate about is seeing people like you that go from working in the business and being in the grind and struggling and trying to, you know, figure out do I even want to be in this business? Do I need to keep selling? How do I get to that next level and see you get to that next level? And to be a part of that. That's what makes me super passionate about what we do so so now you're working on your business instead of in your business, which is every team leaders dream, or broker owners dream I, I think all brokerages need to run like teams. I'm very vocal about that. And you're doing that successfully. So congratulations to you on that front. But what would be your biggest one piece of advice before we wrap up here? How does somebody get from that frustration point to where you are today? Like what really took you over that hump? I think this is a critical thing that every team owner wants to know.
Beth Matthews 36:56
Yeah, I think I would love for nobody to ever get to that point. Again, I don't know that that's realistic. But I would say hire sooner than you need to. And that includes a coach, you know, starting a business. You're bootstrapping everything and trying to minimize costs. And frankly, I'd probably, you know, what's the saying I tripped over dollars to save pennies. Because if I had found the systems and invested in the systems and the coaching earlier on, I would have saved a lot of time aggravation and money through the mistakes that I've made, because honestly, I've made plenty of them. And we
Brian Charlesworth 37:32
all do right. So that thank you so much for being on the show today. Everybody Beth Matthews, she runs envision real estate. And Beth, can you just share before you leave what the best way to get a hold of you would be if somebody called and has questions and wants to reach out to you.
Beth Matthews 37:48
Yeah, absolutely. All of my contact information is on our website, seeingyouhome.com I'm active mostly on Instagram. So I'm Beth Matthews or beth.envision on Instagram. And I love to collaborate. So if anybody who has questions or wants to run anything by me or share all of the mistakes they've made in their business, I'm more than open to that.
Brian Charlesworth 38:08
Awesome. All right, Beth, thanks again for joining today. And for all of our listeners, thank you for joining today. And I think it's incredible to hear best story and to just see how she's come from, you know, where we all start to being a successful business owner that is now just working on the business. And congratulations again, Beth. It's been fun spending this hour with you. So thanks again for your time today. And we'll catch everybody else on next week's episode of the Grit podcast.
