Brian Buckley grew his team from just a few agents to 35 and positioned himself to focus solely on building the business.
From his background in construction and development to leading one of the top teams at his brokerage, Brian has made systems, culture, and accountability non-negotiables. He put platforms like Sisu, Follow Up Boss, and Battr in place early, not after growth happened, but to drive it. “If I can control mortgage, title, and everything that can blow up a deal, I’ve got a much higher chance of getting it to the finish line,” says Brian.
In this episode, Brian Charlesworth talks with Brian about building a team that can scale without the leader in production, why controlling the client experience matters, and how data-driven coaching can turn weaknesses into wins.
Culture plays a big role in how his team runs. He calls out toxic behavior quickly, encourages daily “win of the day” updates, and makes sure agents back each other up without ego. Performance data is visible in the office for everyone to see, creating a natural level of ownership. “My job is technology and leads. Your job is closing deals and building our brand forward-facing,” he explains.
That clarity has fueled growth, along with smart recruiting. Brian openly shares what works in the brokerage community, believing that value given comes back in results. Moving into Zillow Flex and integrating Battr for automated follow-ups has helped keep leads from slipping away while freeing him from daily chasing.
Top Takeaways:
(1:27) Sisu as a growth driver from day one
(4:22) Why experienced agents return to teams
(6:45) Cutting toxicity and building real teamwork
(8:34) Recruiting by sharing what works
(11:35) Controlling the process to close more deals
(16:26) Treating agents like partners
(17:34) Coaching agents into ownership
(19:36) Using automation to boost follow-up
(23:50) Lower costs, higher ROI with the right tools
(27:08) Turning “bad” leads into closings
(30:05) Winning deals with smart concessions
(31:51) Skiing adventures beyond real estate
Listen in to learn how to scale a real estate business with systems, protect culture as you grow, and free yourself from the day-to-day without losing momentum.
About Brian Buckley
Brian M. Buckley is with LoKation Real Estate in Pompano Beach, FL, and has worked in real estate for over 25 years across Georgia and South Florida. He studied Communications and Advertising at the University of Georgia before moving into residential home building and commercial real estate.
Today, he focuses on helping clients with their home buying needs and draws on decades of industry experience. Outside of work, Brian enjoys snow skiing, scuba diving, and spending time in Lake Tahoe with his fiancée Terra and their dog Jennifur.
Connect with Brian:
Episode Transcript:
Brian Charlesworth 00:34
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the grit Podcast. I'm Brian Charlesworth. I'm the founder of Sisu and your host of the show, and super excited to be here today. I'm here with one of our Sisu customers, who my team consistently tells me how amazing you are. So anyway, super grateful to be here with you today. It's fun for me to watch. I'm here today with everyone, just so you know who it is. It's Brian Buckley with the location. Real Estate out of Florida. I think Brian, when you started with us a couple years ago, you had maybe eight to 10 agents, and I think you're approaching 30, is that right?
Brian Buckley 01:13
Yes, we did. We onboarded like two years ago, and I would say I probably had three to five, and we just on board at number 35
Brian Charlesworth 01:23
Okay, three. So you had three to five, and now you're at 35 so you know, one of the things I hear most, and it it's super frustrating as a business owner, is when I get bigger, I'll get Sisu. And it's hard to say, as this founder of Sisu, it's like, you're not going to get bigger if you don't get Sisu. Now it's all about having a system in place that gets you there. So maybe we could talk about your journey there, and just since you've gotten Sisu, what kind of impact did that have on your business? And congratulations to you, because I know that in the last few months, you have done what every team leader's goal is, which is stepped out of production to work on your business instead of in your business. So I'm excited to dive into that as well. But let's go back in time to when you had three to five agents and what business looked like.
Brian Buckley 02:15
Yeah. So at that time, I was was funny kind of year one, my wife and I did fairly well. Year two. I was like, Hey, how do I run with the big dogs? And like, my COO at location, Jonathan lickstein was like, You need to start buying leads. So I did Zillow Premier, buying zip codes, and just kind of grinding away and slowly building up. We had onboarded with Sisu at the time. I was,
Brian Charlesworth 02:42
wait a minute, I need to back up. How long have you been in this business now? Four years, five, four years in the business. You have 35 agents. You're out of production. That's amazing. Congratulations.
Brian Buckley 02:53
Thank you. Thank you. So how? That's why I got gray hair.
Brian Charlesworth 02:56
Did you have the gray hair before
Brian Buckley 02:59
I did? So I my background was residential. I was a residential construction builder developer for for many years, and probably 2008 is what gave me the gray hair. But we moved down to Florida and got back into into the real estate side of things, and I just knew I wanted to build the team. I was very fortunate, the owner of location real estate to a friend of mine, Nathan. And I was very fortunate that I had people to help me kind of get going. So I was like, we should start a team with all the knowledge we've learned help newer agents kind of grow. I i honestly, I kind of prefer newer agents to just kind of guide them along the way that we do things. Yeah. So yeah, but yeah, we've five years. It's been five years I've been living in
Brian Charlesworth 03:45
Florida now. Well, speaking about the way you do things, so I know you're very systematized and systematic in the way you do things. Since you have Sisu, I see it all the time, though, where sometimes it can be difficult to bring in an experienced agent and to try to get them to work the way you expect them to work, whereas a new agent, you can train them to do everything through using your systems, your way. And sometimes that's easier. So that's not an uncommon thing. Brian, I hear that kind of stuff all the time. In fact, spring was that way for the last five years. As of the last year, she's been bringing in more experienced agents. I think just because of where the market is, and experienced agents are wanting more than ever a team that they can go to, where they can thrive and build a predictable income. I think that's a big part of a team is having a predictable income, and a lot of experienced agents no longer have that right now without a team. So what if I'm an experienced agent and I come to you, are you going to pass on me? Are you going to take me? No, I'm
Brian Buckley 04:48
definitely going to take you. I always refer to myself as unique. I'm pretty blunt and straight up about how things kind of run and go, but I outline expert. Expectations. And I think with the experienced agents, yeah, I'd love to have them. It's welcome, because most seasoned agents are a little more structured, like they get what they need to do. I'm not sure why all agents don't apply. They already know what they need to do to be successful, so it's just like, wake up and do what you got to do to provide for yourself and your family and to be successful. But I also understand that that's not for everyone, and life is different. Journeys and stages. My kids are all grown. It's just my wife and I at the house. So real estate is kind of our new baby, if you will. So I spend a lot of time working on it and making sure that our team and our culture, I'm big on culture like everybody's got to blend here around the office. You have to be at the same mindset to help each other support each other. We have, you know, text message win of the day. So, yeah, it's all kind of building culture. But I welcome experience agents, because they've kind of traveled the journey. They've seen the ups and downs of what real estate is and how to make it. But
Brian Charlesworth 06:13
let's, let's talk about culture for a minute. My think culture is a crucial part of any business, and there are a lot of our customers that come in and they'll maybe they have five or six agents. They're like, I'd let all my agents go. They just weren't a fit for this new culture, meaning, maybe the culture of accountability, right? Culture of production. What is the culture and how do you how do you drive that culture forward? How do you make sure that culture is consistent in your business?
Brian Buckley 06:41
Yeah. So I think, you know, one is pick. It's picking the right people. I tell people all the time that, hey, I might not be the fit for you. I won't allow a disease in my house. I'll throw you out, you know, kind of quickly, because the end of the day, all we gotta do is wake up, be kind, and get the job done. So if we support each other as a collective unit, we're much more likely to succeed. We should pat each other on the back, on the wins. If you get rid of the ego just because Susie Q, you know, sold a 5 million, you shouldn't be upset and, you know, ego maniac, you should support her that. Hey. So our team is like that. Several agents have, you know, small children, so there's soccer games and stuff. I'm like, you should back that person up. I don't play that game of well, I'll show it for you for 50 bucks. That's not culture. That's a disease. So for us, we all kind of pitch in and help. On the same note, I don't want anybody taking advantage of anybody. You know, if you can't handle that lead, then you need to pass it on to somebody that can fit that that needs, the needs of that client. So it's a super supportive thing. We have a large text group that phone is always dinging because somebody's, you know, posting something the win of the day, or, you know, somebody has a problem, I'm like, if I'm not available, put in the group, somebody will answer your question for you. So we're very fortunate that we have a really supportive team. And then that team, it's not all localized. I stretch from the keys up to West Palm Beach and the keys up the Sarasota area. So it's a it's a three or four hour drive one way or the other. So the teams kind of spread out, but, but, yeah, they all mesh well together.
Brian Charlesworth 08:29
Let's talk about recruiting for a minute. You came into this business less than five years ago. You already are at 35 agents. I know people who've been in the business for decades that don't have 35 agents. What do you do to attract and recruit and retain those agents?
Brian Buckley 08:45
A lot of has been, probably the last two years, we've been one of the top teams that are brokerage month after month. I'm also super involved in in our brokerages Facebook group. I'm always the first one to kind of help out, or at least try to be the one to help out and give information. You know, I hear people. Why do you tell everybody everything you do? And I'm like, because I just don't think you outwork me. And if I could add some value to make our brokerage as a whole look better, why not? I've gotten to where I'm at right now because of people that I've met, you know, either through Battr or Sisu or, you know, follow up boss, or some that you just collaborate with. And I don't, I mean, some of the stuff's the secret sauce, but why not just help somebody? You know, I think this
Brian Charlesworth 09:36
industry is really good that way. In fact, the first time I met you was at a Sisu behind the scenes event, behind the scenes of a real estate machine. You came out, got to see behind the scenes of springs business. And I think, without a doubt, when we give, it comes back tenfold, right? So why not give and like, like you said, are they going to outwork you usually not. Right?
Brian Buckley 10:00
They're not, or they won't implement, you know, yeah, we've all been to that convention or that seminar, gone, oh, I'm going to do that. And then you get home, and they're like, What was that, that I was going to do? And I just, I see that a lot in real estate, an
Brian Charlesworth 10:17
that is exactly why we take the entire last afternoon of Sisu behind the scenes and and it's all about implementation. We bring apply our whole team into to help you implement what you what you've learned in that business before you leave, because you're right, once you leave, you usually don't implement
Brian Buckley 10:37
right, correct, correct.
Brian Charlesworth 10:40
Cool. Congratulations on something else. Well, before I get to Well, let's talk about this. You recently became a Zillow flex team, yes, and simultaneously, recently stepped out of production, two things that I think a lot of Aspire a lot of team leaders aspire to, but I think all team leaders aspire to actually stepping out of production. Now, you've done a lot of things that I think many haven't. One of the things I've seen, which has helped a lot of our teams tremendously, we actually formed a separate company around this, is simply mortgage to help our teams have their own mortgage business. Now, you already saw that you have your own mortgage business. You have your own title business, I believe. So let's talk about just, I think from the beginning, you coming in as a business owner, you've, even though you've been in production, you seem to have worked on your business much more than most. Really like putting the systems in place, putting the sister companies in place, all the stuff. How did that all come about?
Brian Buckley 11:46
So I think it boils down to like user experience, like, what is the buyer or seller? How do they benefit? So for me, I'm, you know, all the steps. So we have the in house transaction coordinators who make the introduction to the insurance company that we use make the introduction to the moving company we use. We use the the concierge utility service through, you know, Sisu integration. So it's like the easier I can make it for somebody going through one of the most stressful experiences of life buying a home, if I can make that seamless and fun, then, then we're winning. And also, if I can control mortgage, I can control title, I can control all the outside things that make a deal blow up, I probably I got a lot higher chances of getting that thing across the finish line. And,
Brian Charlesworth 12:42
yeah, it's such a great perspective. I think most people think of, if I'm going to build a mortgage your title company, I'm thinking about the money. But the right approach is, if you think about, I want to provide a better end to end experience and control that experience all the way through for the consumer, now you can guarantee a great experience versus relying on somebody else that you hope will provide a great experience, is that, is that more your mindset 100%
Brian Buckley 13:11
because kind of goes back to that commission breath quote too, that if you get rid of commission breath and you just focus on The relationship that around my office, I refer to everything, like dating. So it's like, act to the customer in the same way you would act as if you were going out on your first date. You're not gonna. So tell me about this, tell me about that, tell me that you know, just relax, get to know the person, understand the wants and the needs and make that thing seamless for them. It's not rocket science. All too often I see these agents say, Well, what am I getting paid? I'm like, well, first of all, you've lost just for the fact that you asked, What are you getting paid? You know, I think one of the nice things that with Sisu is I can see our average GCI is like 2.93 I think I saw today. So you know, we're making, we're making a nice commission on the value that we give the client. And I think if you'll focus on what value you can give anybody and anything you do that, the money just comes back, I won't say easily, but it comes back the appropriate way, versus, if you're grinding just to make a buff, then you're just like everybody else. You're nothing unique. You're nothing special, yeah,
Brian Charlesworth 14:33
for sure. So controlling that experience, I think, is key. You talked about you started out. You started buying leads back in the day. You've now gotten to a point where Zillow has said, Hey, come be a flex team. What's let's, let's talk about that. And what's that? What that has done for your business?
Brian Buckley 14:53
So that, that was an interesting joke. We onboarded in December. I wasn't using follow up boss. So of course, I had to learn follow up boss, integrate Sisu, integrate all these new things, and then become super proficient at them.
Brian Charlesworth 15:10
But you had to move in order to become a flex team, you had to move follow up. Boss, thankfully, Sisu has a great integration with Bob. Made it easier, but so you're now on follow up. Boss, so that's been a transition for you as of late,
Brian Buckley 15:23
correct? And then just, you know, and it's funny, you've heard this as well before. It's, it's the metrics, the accountability that you are to Zillow, for which I like, at least I know the rules of the game. It's kind of like your buddy's going and going, Hey, man, let's play a game on media in the field tomorrow at two. Yeah, you show up with a baseball bat and they have a helmet and pads on, at least with Flex. I know the rules. I can dial it in and set those parameters with Sisu. The best thing I ever did was put the TVs on, like, behind you all throughout my office. So people walk in and it's kind of a friendly competition. It's like I said to one, well, look, you make zero phone calls. All you gotta do is make one this week and you're you. You're winning. You beat last week. You just gotta make one phone going and you've improved.
Brian Charlesworth 16:13
How embarrassing is that for an agent? I mean, but, but yet, you being able to say that with a smile on your face is like, hey, it's up to you, right? It's up to you.
Brian Buckley 16:22
That's what I tell them. I was like, hey, look, we're all adults here. We're all the entrepreneurial mindset. We wanted to be a realtor. We wanted to work for ourselves. We wanted to do our things. I also view, you know, getting back to teams. I don't view everybody as my team member. I tell them all, we're partners. My job is technology and leads. Your job is closing deals and building our brand forward facing. So we do, you know, the weekly accountability. What's your numbers look like? What you know? What's your P and L? If you will, look like, I do a kind of a low P and L with my partners. So I think it also creates a different type of ownership. So when I do have to have those challenging conversations, it's like, Hey, man, we're partners. Brian, I'm doing my part right? I've delivered you leads flex. You've got X got Why is it taking you 15 minutes to make a phone call after I live transfer you, but you're failing our partnership, man? Because I, I just think it helps everybody own what they do better. And it is true.
Brian Charlesworth 17:27
It's a great approach. I love it, because they really are business partners, right? I mean, they are, I've, I've trained a lot of team leaders to just help them get to that next level. And it's, I always tell them the same thing. It's you're teaching these people how to be business owners, and that's how Sisu helps you. You're helping them become a business owner, because they can now manage their own business. They can hold themselves accountable this if you have them report one on ones out to you. Now you're a coach, they're a business owner, instead of the other way around. So you've been working with Zach on Battr. So Battr Sisu, new product, Battr, is all around lead conversion. And you know, you talked about Zillow, and you said, at least I know the parameters. One of the reasons we started Battr is we've been watching this industry for years, and what I've seen is over and over and over again, people say they get better conversion on Flex. And I was like, Well, that's it. It's obvious. Do you know why it's like, yeah, because you're holding those agents accountable to those leads, the other leads you're getting, giving them you're never you don't have any standards in place. You don't have any follow up. Now with Battr, you can have those standards in place. You can have make sure they have the follow up and what that is going to do. I already know it's already doing. It is driving better conversion on all your lead sources that you're managing in that fashion. So how long have you been on Battr now, Brad,
Brian Buckley 19:09
So, I mean, I guess I've been through the whole development three or four months, but I guess what? When did we go live? But month ago?
Brian Charlesworth 19:18
Okay, so about a month. So yeah, yeah. Let's, let's talk about what, what kind of impact that is having on your business, or you see that having on your business?
Brian Buckley 19:26
Yeah. So we've noticed a big shift. I
Brian Charlesworth 19:29
want to hear that's a big smile, like there's something going on there with the agents. Let's talk about that. We,
Brian Buckley 19:35
you know, we keep increasing our sales every single month, and we went live with the nudges. So I also preference Battr is not like a babysitter, tool or something to be negative, which sometimes agents will do. They'll spin things. I don't like all these text meds, but I'm like, listen, as a high producing partner, I'm giving you all the tools to help you make. Sure that we don't miss that opportunity to get a sale. So instead of me calling you and texting you, we have an automated system through Battr that these are the goals, the parameters from our smart list that are just going to send you a notification to let you know. Hey, Brian, in case you forgot, this is what happened. It doesn't look like you've taken action. So for me, I I come in early in the morning, one of my isas gives me a report that says, hey, this is what's going on. And I had a call with Zach on Monday, and he was like, Wow, your numbers have changed significantly. And I it's truly helped, because even though you have smart lists and yeah, the reports and fob and all that, you still have to manually look at all those well with the matter, you don't have to do that. It's there. And one of the TVs has our health report up in there, and we've seen it go from red to red. And I'm like, All right, right. On Guys, we should we support this win. This is a big win for us, because, you know, and I think one of the things is coming from production and understanding. It wasn't too long ago. I remember writing a contract on a Friday night, and I forgot to submit it to the to the seller, to the listing agent. I just forgot, I make no but, and I even told the team, hey, I made no bones about it. I screwed up last time I wrote an offer, signed off and I forgot to send to the listing agent. So at least now we have all these tools in place and stuff to make your job more efficient, because you get 1012, people looking for a home, you'll forget quickly. You know, you'll lie to yourself and tell you, I won't forget. You will. Yeah,
Brian Charlesworth 21:47
it's none of us are. None of us are great at multitasking, as much as we may say we want to be, but it's a it's a difficult thing to do, which is really why a team exists, so that agents can focus on selling and you can do the rest for them. So it sounds like that's really doing a job of a, I'll call it a leads manager for you, or it sounds like you were doing that job before. So now you have more time to do other stuff, and it's doing a more effective job than you, probably, because it's focused on it automated, real time, all the time, right, correct? And,
Brian Buckley 22:20
you know, I made the joke that I felt like this last month, July, I got my life back, that I felt like what I've been grinding at for the last 40 years, Sisu, you know, trying to get flex, all those things dialed in and twisted in, that I was actually like, I think I'm going to the beach today on a Saturday, which is not something that has happened over the last four years. And, you know, if you want to get to that level, unfortunately, you you got to pay the dues. You're going to pay the dues one way or the other. And to kind of, you know, go back about you made the comment, somebody else told me that Audrey team will. You don't need Sisu right now, yeah. And I said, Well, I may not need it right now, but where I'm heading, I definitely need it, so I might as well implement it now, you know, so just get it done. Same thing. I was using another platform, a CRM. Ah, that's too expensive. You shouldn't be using that. And I'm like, but I don't want to be two agents. I want to be 20, 3040, and that's what this CRM will allow me to do. So I think that's one of those things. I think it's great to listen to others and hear the journey that they've traveled. But if you're an entrepreneur, you should be listening to that gut and figuring out, you know, hey, sometimes you gotta be uncomfortable to get comfortable, and both financially, sleep deprivation, all those things. You just got to figure out what the threshold is for you and where you're trying to go. Yeah.
Brian Charlesworth 23:48
I mean, even with Sisu, I think people look at expenses, whether it's Sisu Battr, follow up, boss, whatever, people look at expenses, and their mindset is pretty small. And what I've learned is, I think the best example is spring had three transaction coordinators when she was doing 150 transactions a year. Now, because I built Sisu, and because she has that, she is doing 750 plus transactions a year with one transaction coordinator and a couple of vas, which is more expensive, our biggest cost as entrepreneurs, and I know this, is salaries. Yep, that's our biggest expense. So if you can eliminate some of those expenses by having software and get better results, why would you not do that? Right? And I think what you just explained with Battr, it's the exact same thing. It's you're getting better results, fewer expenses, saving you time, and you're on the beach now, which is beautiful. Congratulations.
Brian Buckley 24:48
Thank you. You know, because you know the cost of x, it has a return, you just have to figure out what that return is and is it exponentially you know going to help you grow your. Your business. And for me, the answers has been Yes, you know, with with flex and hearing all the other people, I'm like, All right, we got to dial this in on every single direction. We can't let anything fall through the rack of their cracks. And I know I think I have four agents, their close rate is over 12% and you know, the only way I would know that is from some of the stats I get from from the platforms, yeah,
Brian Charlesworth 25:28
and those who aren't, you can coach so that you can, because, you know, it's possible you can get them to that because you know where their breakdowns are, right,
Brian Buckley 25:36
correct. And without that, you know, there was one I went last week, and I did some showings with her, and I was like, your numbers are way off compared to everybody else. And I said, Come on, I'm gonna go with you. I wanna see what's happening. I said, you should look at this as a good thing. It's not a bad thing. You're not in trouble. What I wanna help you fix whatever it was. And we got the cars, man, you need to learn how to be quiet. My God, you just vomited questions all over everybody. Nobody could breathe in that room because, you know, you were talking so much, and guess what? The very next day, she was like, I tried your way it worked. It's awesome. They told me everything well, but that's what happens when you allow people to answer you. This is
Brian Charlesworth 26:17
the thing I've seen. I've seen this with team owners that don't have Sisu don't have software to run this way. You can have an agent that goes on showings every day, and they might be working their ass off honestly, right? But if you don't know that they're having all these showings and they're not getting any anything under contract, you don't know there's a breakdown. You might think they're lazy, but they're really not lazy. You just haven't trained them how to do that. And that's exactly what you just did, is you train them how to they have this thing from showings to under contract or or showings to offers, whatever it is, right? There's a massive breakdown there, right? And the reason that you were able to get through that is because you saw the data. You actually said, let me just go. Let me just go with you so I can show you how this is done, right? No,
Brian Buckley 27:07
and that's it. Because I was like, I looked at the numbers like, yeah, there's something off here. And, you know, you hear it all the time. Oh, the leads are no good. No, are they no good? Are you just not asking the right questions? I'm going to put money on that. You're not asking the right questions, or you're not listening. It's one, one of the two. You know, are there leads that aren't as of high quality? Yeah, of course there are. But, you know, I showed all the time. I closed a million dollar deal. I said me, my wife, closed a million dollar deal. For three years, I've been touching this guy. Hey, how you doing every time I see him, and that's it. And I tell people, when you forget about that guy that says, Yeah, I'm not buying right now. And you just go, okay, set them aside. You're screwing yourself for down the pipeline. I mean, we're in this business for growth, so I'm not stopping next month or next week or next Louis Vuitton or next car. This car that it's a long funnel. So guess what? Oh, this one, I'm gonna put him over here. He's Mr. Two years. But when two years comes, you're gonna laugh and go, I'm glad I held on to Mr. Two year, because it was a paycheck. And you have to do that with your entire database. You know, we segment our database if it's a credit issue. Guess what? Stop sending them homes and send them things of value about credit or repair that. Or if they don't understand mortgage, stop sending homes. Send them information on mortgages. Or how they do this. How do we get them into a home? Stop vomiting the home to them. Is what I think, you know, sometimes the mindset needs to be so we actually
Brian Charlesworth 28:44
need to understand people's needs, is what you're saying, instead of, I think, I think most people treat everyone the same, right? You can't treat everyone the same. They're different. They're in different situations, different scenarios, different places in life. They want different things, so know their needs and serve those needs, right, right?
Brian Buckley 29:04
You're not trying to sell hamburgers to a vegetarian, yeah?
Brian Charlesworth 29:08
Well, again, Brian, I wanted to do this with you today because it's super impressive that in less than five years, you've done what you've done with your business, you now have a team of 35 agents. How many to homes you're gonna sell this year? Do you know?
Brian Buckley 29:23
I don't know. So we keep ramping up. You know, we're only doing roughly 20 a month right now. I think we'll do 25 this month. And I say only listen, I'm super humbled by the number. I'm super humbled about everything that we have going around us. You know my my goal, ideally, I would like to do 5060 homes a month in 2026
Brian Charlesworth 29:48
Okay, so the goal is 50 to 60 a month in 2026 which is a great goal. I have no doubt you'll hit it. So I'd love to get your thoughts just last, last question before I actually. We go into a personal thing with you. Okay, love to get your thoughts on, just like, What is something in the market we're in today? I know so many people blame things on the market, like in the market we're in today, like, what is the one piece of advice that you would give to other team leaders to just help them have that consistent growth, like you've had,
Brian Buckley 30:22
yeah. So I think there's two things. One is like, real estate is no longer Oh, this is the new norm. Here it is. I've perfected it. Now. Let me grab my pillow and go to sleep. It's like, what is it? How do I optimize it? What's on the horizon, what's coming next, and then I think you need to understand how to beat out other agents or things in the market. For us, we're heavy on leveraging concessions these days from the mortgage, we're leveraging the concession to buy down the rate or help keep that cash in the buyer's pocket, but also showing them that, hey, it's okay to offer full price and ask for concessions, because in the dip, you're actually buying down your raid or, like I said, you don't want to put that cash out to close. So I think you have to find ways that others aren't doing and I think that's what we've done, is we do a really good job of maximizing concessions for the win.
Brian Charlesworth 31:26
So essentially, leverage other people need to get the people the cash so they can close on a home without having to go out of pocket.
Brian Buckley 31:35
Yeah, or, you know, that six and a half, or whatever rate that you don't like it, would do a two, one buy down. And you know, in the next two years that that rate should drop, that's what you know. The mindset is, it'll drop, and then just rate on ads,
Brian Charlesworth 31:51
yeah, yeah. Love it. Okay. On a personal note, I understand you're a snow skier, yes. Let's talk about that. What are your other hobbies, but let's talk about snow skiing. How are you a snow skier when you live in Florida?
Brian Buckley 32:05
Yeah. So my my father lived in Lake Tahoe. My father passed away two years ago, but he had a home in Lake Tahoe, in England village, probably 35 years or so. So we pick somewhere, either to points north hell is skiing up in Cordova, Alaska, or the second, Japan's another hot spot you've skied in Japan. Yeah, Japan is a great you've never seen so much snow, all that snow coming off of Siberia. It's like, okay, does it ever stop snowing here? Wow, so yeah,
Brian Charlesworth 32:43
but that's a different time of year, right? That's actually summer here is winter there, right?
Brian Buckley 32:47
So South America is summer here, the winters are the same in Japan. In Japan, same, okay, same, yep, South America is summertime. So Chile is spot to be. You know skiing now, but yeah, I love skiing. My father took my brother and I skiing when we were kids. And it just never stopped. Never stopped. You ever skied the Utah mountains I have so I have a good friend in Ogden who you know,
Brian Charlesworth 33:16
so you've been up to Snow Basin,
Brian Buckley 33:18
yes, and I've been was Deer Park and so, yeah, there was a time period that I drove my jeep across country, what, three years in a row, and I just worked my way around. I'd go to from it. I lived in Atlanta at the time that I go Colorado, then I go to town, to New Mexico and shoot up to Utah. So, yeah,
Brian Charlesworth 33:41
very cool. But if you if you ever want to come to Utah and have a mountain guide, I'm your guy. I'm in. And if you're ever looking for someone to go hit a heli tour with you, I'm also your guy. So
Brian Buckley 33:53
I'm in. And like I said, I met a really good friend who he owns several bars up in Ogden. I met him in Alaska. So you made some interesting characters sell a scheme.
Brian Charlesworth 34:04
My next door neighbors here go to Alaska every year on a heli trip, and absolutely love it. In fact, they gave me all the details last year. Said you need to do this same people. We've done them all. This is the best. So,
Brian Buckley 34:19
I mean, it's something magical to be eating lunch on a glacier with nobody around for miles that helicopter come in and pick you up. It's
Brian Charlesworth 34:28
Yeah, amazing. It's good. Well, Brian, again, congrats on all of your success. Great getting to to know you here. We got to know you a little bit when you came to our previous event, and thank you for all the wonderful things you say about our team and you and the support you give to our team. I know they say wonderful things about you, so we're grateful to be able to work with you and let me know if you want to join us again. September 8 through 10th. Uh, reach out to me if you, if you decide you can make that, would love to have you, your wife, your daughter, out here. 100% okay,
Brian Buckley 35:07
down on that. We'll be there. Okay,
Brian Charlesworth 35:09
sounds good, everybody. Thank you for listening to another episode of the grit podcast. Again. One of the things you'll see is, why is this the grit podcast? I think it's all about grit. I mean, anybody can go in and be successful. But are you going to do the things you need to do to be successful? The people who are on this podcast do the things they need to do to be successful. They're fully committed. And if you look at Brian here, less than five years in the business, he's out of production, has 35 agents, and he's going to do 500 homes next year, five to 600 homes next year, 50 to 60 homes a month. So that's what we're talking about here. That's what it's about. It's all about your success. It's about grit and it's about having fun. So thanks everybody. We'll see you next week.
