Some try to solve this by chasing more leads or working longer hours, but that often leads to burnout instead of growth. What if there was a way to build a predictable business no matter what the market does?
That is what Zoocasa has been doing. Starting as a small brokerage in Ontario, Zoocasa built its own lead generation platform before joining eXp Realty in 2022. Today, they run one of the largest virtual real estate teams in North America with over 230 agents in their Agent Accelerator program. Their model provides the systems, coaching, and accountability that agents need to get into production and stay there.
Carrie Linton Lysenko, CEO of Zoocasa, shares how they built a platform that now powers lead flow and technology for thousands of agents. Brittany Kostov, the company’s first agent and now Director of Sales, talks about what it takes to lead a fully remote team at this scale. “It’s all about creating an environment where agents feel supported and challenged,” says Brittany.
In this conversation, Brian Charlesworth digs into how their team improved conversion rates from 2 percent to nearly 7 percent in just three quarters by using data and consistent coaching. Carrie explains how they hold leads longer and only pass them to agents when they are ready to take action. “Do the hard things until they aren’t hard anymore,” she says.
Top Takeaways:
(0:55) From local brokerage to joining eXp
(4:32) Zoocasa’s surprising tech origins
(8:32) Why real estate success is always local
(14:55) From 2% to 7% conversion growth
(19:43) Daily huddles that keep agents aligned
(21:16) Monday focus on objections and wins
(24:08) Doing the hard things every day
(30:36) Staying connected during tough times
(33:39) Comparing the US and Canadian markets
(35:29) Creating a culture of accountability
You will also hear how their daily huddles keep agents connected across different markets, how they build accountability without micromanaging, and why their approach works even when transactions are down nationally.
If you are trying to build a business that grows steadily instead of depending on market ups and downs, this episode is for you. Tune in now!
About Carrie Linton Lysenko
Carrie Linton Lysenko is the CEO of Zoocasa, leading its growth across Canada and the US. She has over 20 years of experience in marketing and digital business strategy. Carrie guided Zoocasa through its acquisition by eXp Realty and expansion into new markets. She oversees teams across product, sales, and operations to deliver scalable real estate solutions.
Connect with Carrie:
About Brittany Kostov
Brittany Kostov is the Sales Director at Zoocasa, managing agent recruitment and training. She supports agents with tools and processes to maintain high performance across the team. Brittany started as one of Zoocasa’s top agents, helping clients navigate buying and selling. She now focuses on building and developing the brokerage’s growing agent network.
Connect with Brittany:
Episode Transcript:
Brian Charlesworth 00:35
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the GRIT Podcast. I'm Brian Charlesworth. I'm the founder of the Sisu, and I'm the host of the show, and today I'm here with two amazing ladies who have built an incredible business. This business is Zoocasa, and it's a really interesting story, because they actually run this business just like a team. And I get it actually is a team, but it's a team in a different sense than most of us think of real estate teams. So I think this is a great option for solo agents across the country, and what these guys have done is amazing, because they're getting results. And so I want to introduce Brittany and Carrie from Zoocasa. I'm just going to let you guys take a few minutes and introduce yourselves, and then we'll go from there.
Carrie Linton Lysenko 01:25
Yeah, sounds great. Brian, thanks for having us. Obviously, we're excited to talk to you. We're excited to talk about what's happening here at Zoocasa. And so for those who don't know, you know, we started as kind of a brokerage in southern Ontario about 10 years ago. We kind of grew our platform and our agents, but wanted to expand more, and started looking about three years ago for a partner, and that partner came in the form of EXP Realty. So we had, you know, kind of lead generation and lead flow really kind of far outside of our boundaries in Ontario. And wanted to kind of really extend the opportunity we could get, not only to grow our business, but to reach agents, kind of more coast to coast and exp, you know, kind of was a great fit. And so we sold to exp, and in 2022 and, you know, one of the things that I think we're most proud of is, is the way that we've been able to integrate and work and kind of maintain some of the momentum and growth that we've had it at Zoocasa, really, even as being kind of a wholly owned subsidiary. And Brittany here has the honorary title of being our very first agent at Zoocasa, and then so she's since grown to be our director of sales. So Brittany, take it away. Awesome.
Brittany Kostov 02:39
Thanks, Brian for having us. And yeah, thanks, Carrie. So a little bit about myself, yeah, Sales Director at SIU casa, and really excited to be in this role. I've held this position since, I believe it's now, 2017 2018 so I'm a licensed broker as well. I'm still an active agent, which I feel really helps me keep a pulse on exactly what's happening in our market. Started out solo, though, right, tried a few different teams in the beginning and realized the team environment was really, actually where I thrived. It can be a lonely business and a lonely industry, so kind of, being around other like minded individuals and and leaders and top producers was where I found my space. So door knocking wasn't my thing. It wasn't my strength, but I did like connecting with with leads and with clients who wanted that real estate conversation. So my turning point, personally, for me in my career, was when I had hired and trained, actually, my first showing specialist, when I was an agent, and I discovered how much I really enjoyed coaching and training her from beginning to end. She had just gotten her license, no bad habits, and just I kind of really fell in love with that process. So that's again, that that new spark for helping agents succeed was similar to that excitement of the spark that I felt when I was first licensed and started working with first time homebuyers. So that was really exciting for me. And now today, fast forward a few years, and I'm leading, helping lead the good team of over 230 agents in the accelerator program, and I'm my main focus. In my main role, is creating an environment where the agents really feel supported and challenged and equipped to thrive. So a little
Brian Charlesworth 04:09
bit about me. Awesome. So you guys, you said 230 agents. There aren't many teams in the in the in North America, let's say with 230 agents. I want to dive into that more in a minute, but I would like to go back in time to how you guys actually got started. You guys are based in Toronto,
Carrie Linton Lysenko 04:27
right? We are, yeah, both based in the GTA.
Brian Charlesworth 04:30
Okay, so obviously Zillow does not exist there. I think, if I'm not mistaken, you guys actually started as a leads platform or a brokerage that provides leads to your agents. Let's talk about how you guys got started.
Carrie Linton Lysenko 04:45
Yeah, for sure. So we have a bit of a unique origin story. So zoocastle.com was actually a portal developed by one of our large telco corporations here in Canada called Rogers. They had developed it, you know, kind of as. A misguided way to understand when people were interested in moving as a way to sell them cable and phone packages. So that business, obviously, is fraught for many reasons. And ultimately, they had paid a lot of money to set up this portal. It had listings. And again, they were trying to do some lead capture to sell cable and phone packages. And they were like, we can't make this business work. So they kind of sold it in a fire sale. Fast forward 2015 my kind of partner and the founder originally, Lauren ha. She picked up with a small group of investors, picked up the platform, and then over the course of 2015 2016 really started to build it out as a brokerage. So recognizing that you know that digital asset and that lead generation engine actually really had a lot of value, but not for telcos, but more for a brokerage. So as a real estate agent, as a brokerage, built it up. And that's kind of that was where our origin start, story started. So we have been a licensed brokerage for 10 years, and celebrating our 10 year anniversary this year. So that, yeah, that kind of from some volley came this greatness. So that's, that's kind of a, you know, a kind of a fun way to begin.
Brian Charlesworth 06:14
So that being said, how many leads do you guys generate per month today? Yeah.
Carrie Linton Lysenko 06:20
So we generate leads not only from our owned and operated properties. So So in 2022 when we were acquired from exp, we were acquired in part because of our lead gen lead qualification systems and our coaching systems, but also from our engineering capabilities. So we, Since being acquired, also run exp realty.com now, and also run exp, realty.ca, and we've got a couple of new sites in the pipeline to also launch. So we've really tried to bring kind of that engineering and digital product, kind of technology, first focus in terms of lead gen, but also our, you know, our mid funnel lead qualification, and then to agent coaching that handoff and that baton handoff. We also discovered once joining exp was just really, actually quite unique. All of our inside sales are our inside sales team are onshore. They are fully versed in North American real estate. We kind of nurture our calls and our leads probably much longer in the cycle than I think a lot of other either brokerages or teams do, so we kind of hold on to that relationship until they're really ready to meet with an agent. And that whole kind of system, that patented system that we've developed over the last decade, has really led us to much higher conversion rates and much higher conversion rates, so that we've also partnered with external lead flow portals, real estate portals, real estate companies, mortgage companies, both in Canada and the US, to bring some of that lead flow in and actually make it available exclusively to exp agents, which is pretty cool.
Brian Charlesworth 07:55
That's awesome. So nurturing leads, yeah, that that's pretty important these days. In 2020 2020, 2021, 22 not so much, right? You could get a phone call and you could have someone under contract in 24 hours. Now, what is the average time now? And I know you guys know your data. You guys know your stats. So I want to dive into that. You guys have been Sisu customers. And I know you guys have your systems dialed in, but how long is the average person, average lead taking now, from coming in to the funnel to actually closing?
Carrie Linton Lysenko 08:36
Well, I mean, the one thing I would say is it's a tale of many cities, so you know, where a if, you know, there's a team or an agent listening, who's like, Hey, I'm in, I'm in Salt Lake City. You know, the the market I'm finding is maybe a bit muted this year, you know, how long do I have to nurture what is my average, right? Well, I can tell you, if you're, say, in Alberta, or if you're in the Maritimes in Canada, you'll have a much different outcome in terms of the the time, you know, they're still getting bidding wars out there. Things are, you know, signs are going on the lawn. Things are selling within a couple of days, versus, say, also Southern Ontario, for example, this year has been extremely muted. We've had double digit declines in sales. You know, kind of quarter over quarter, year over year. So, you know, the one thing I would say is, as we operate in every province, in every state, it really is kind of, so, I mean, not, not surprisingly, real estate is local, okay, so I would say, you know, the the thing about nurturing, if I come bring it back to nurturing, is that, you know, expect that you are going to have to do the fundamentals to build a relationship and trust with every single individual that you speak with or that you meet with to become their trusted partner in real estate. And if you go in with that mindset, then you may be pleasantly surprised when somebody turns around and converts in the next 30 days. Yes, but I think every real estate agent has to go in, and every salesperson has to go in thinking, Okay, I'm trying to build actually a relationship with this individual and kind of show up as as, how do I bring value to this relationship? How do I show up as my authentic self? And if I continue to do that in every way that I nurture my pipeline, then you're going to end up with success. And so I think, you know, real estate ebbs and flows. I've been in this business for over six years, and I can't, I'm still waiting for the typical real estate year. You know, I started a few months before the pandemic, and then,
10:33
you know, I don't
Brian Charlesworth 10:34
know. I don't know what a typical real estate year means
Carrie Linton Lysenko 10:36
exactly, exactly everybody, you know, every, every, every year it's like, this is going to be the one I think 25 was supposed to be the one
Brian Charlesworth 10:44
I think you've had typical real estate years. Because typical real estate years are just the ups and downs, right?
Carrie Linton Lysenko 10:50
Yeah, exactly, exactly. So, you know, I think that again, if you, if you go back to, what are the kind of fundamentals of thinking about building your business, right? You know, any again, any sales pipeline, it's not unique to real estate. Is if I think about, how do I actually want to build relationships with my clients, you know? And that having that success, I think then you'll, you're able to weather any ups and downs of any market.
Brian Charlesworth 11:19
I think you guys have such a cool model my belief, and I've shared this publicly many times, but I don't think a new agent could come into real estate today and be successful on their own. And you know, there are a lot of great teams across the US and Canada, and I work with 1000s of them, but they're not everywhere, and so I love that you guys basically my understanding, and I'll let you guys share more about this. But my understanding is that you guys are basically a team that's all across North America. Not everyone has to be in the same location, and you provide the technology, the systems, the leads, all the stuff that an agent needs, so the agent can focus on selling. So is, is that correct first, and then I'll ask my question,
Carrie Linton Lysenko 12:04
yeah. So you are, in fact, correct.
Brittany Kostov 12:08
We do, we do focus a lot on newer agents, but we, you know, we have a wide range, you know, sometimes it's agents coming back to the industry that they've been a lot away for a while, and, you know, kind of, they maybe let their sphere of influence, or, you know, kind of their, their personal sphere lacks a little bit. Maybe it's, they've relocated, so they've built a really great local business, you know, in Toronto, but then they're relocating to New York City, so, like, there's a, there's, there's kind of a real, you know, what, maybe a mixed bag. And, you know, I'll hand it over to Brittany, because I think she'll, she'll be able to talk a little bit more about kind of the types of agents that we see. Well, that's absolutely accurate, right? Our avatar that we've really been able to continue to refine and define over the last year, two years, has been exactly that we maybe thought originally. Is it the brand new agent, or is it the agent that's kind of trying to get back into production? And I think that the one common theme is that their business just needs a jump start. They need someone to hold them accountable. They need the systems in place, because they might not have the time, the energy or the knowledge at this point to understand which platforms are worth investing in, which ones are truly going to move the needle in my business. So when we look at what we offer within our agent accelerator program, it truly does tick all of those boxes. It is. It is a no brainer for someone that just says, Listen, I need someone to hold me accountable, and I need to get into business and into into production and to be able to develop a predictable income in the next two years. That's our avatar.
Brian Charlesworth 13:36
I love the word predictable income. That's as the CEO of Sisu, I talk about that all the time. It's like, do you want to go the predictable income? I can show you how. You can tell me how much you want to make, and I can help you. I can show you how to get there, right? And I can hold you accountable to that. So I love that you guys are I'd love to dive into the results you guys are getting, because, yeah, my understanding. And carrier Brittany, I'm not sure. Brittany, I'm not sure, Brittany, with you being oversells, maybe you want to address this. But what, what is the average agent doing with leads, and what are your agents doing with leads? Can we talk about that for a minute, as far as success with leads? So I think, I think we had a conversation a few weeks back that your typical agent converts two out of every 100 leads they get. Is that correct?
Carrie Linton Lysenko 14:24
So I think that that's the interesting part. So I'll jump in. And then I'm going to hand off to Brittany, because I really wanted her to talk about some of the systems and how, you know, we've used Sisu Premiere to actually start to set some of those goals. So the first thing we do is to start to set goals with our agents in terms of where do they want to be. And then, you know that idea of backwards engineering into, okay, what are the activities that you need to do? But, you know, since we have introduced Sisu premier in q1 we introduced it late into q1 you know, you're, you're right on point, Brian, our agents were being, we're, we're converting about, you know, 2% of every leads that we gave them, those were converting into a. Deal. Fast forward to q2 that went to just under 4% and I'm pleased to report that q3 year to date, we're looking at just under 7% conversion rate. So the fact that we have really kind of stayed, you know, we, we're, we're doing a big recruiting push now into our agent accelerator program, which is what our team is called, but, you know, for for the most part, for q1 q2 and, you know, the first half of q3 we kind of kept it around that 230 to 250 agent count, because we really wanted to kind of introduce some of these new tools and methods and processes on how we were going to kind of roll out our coaching. Because it is unique. Like you said, our our team is unique in the sense that we're 100% remote. We're across two countries, you know, hopefully, you know, soon to be in every province and every state, and so that there is some complexity around that for sure, and and especially being able to scale that kind of coaching and training across so many different agents at one time.
Brian Charlesworth 16:02
So, Carrie, something that you said that I think is critical. First thing you do is you set goals with your agents, yeah, and then you reverse engineer. Here's what it takes. So talking about building a predictable income, right? I think a piece that a lot of people forget on that is, and I'm sure you guys are doing this, but when you're setting goals with your agents, make sure that you know why those goals are important to them. Like, what is their Why is it because their families, because they want to invest? Is it because they want lifestyle? What is it because, if you can't figure that out, it's hard to keep them motivated, right? It's hard to actually, when you hold them accountable, have them actually appreciate it and get the results. So I think it's also important that we as leaders get their permission to help them achieve those goals when they set those goals, right?
Brittany Kostov 16:52
Yeah, and to your point, Brian, it's not us setting the goals for them. We know that every agent is going to have their own different big why not every agent that comes into the program, or any agent out there necessarily wants to be the top producer. Some of them want maybe a little bit more harmony in their life. I mean, the work life balance is funny, because that's I feel like, non existent for maybe people that have children, people that are caregivers to old, to their parents, people that have other businesses, right? Not everyone will have the same goal. So it's not us telling you, coming into this program, you should want to make x because, to Carrie's point as well, we're across multiple different markets. We could have an average price point of north of a million in the GTA, while we have a significant difference across provinces and different states, right? So it's to your point. It's extremely important to understand why is this important to you? And there's no judgment. But what we are going to do is we're going to hold you accountable. And I think that that's a really big piece. When you kind of started this next section of asking us, what is the agent accelerator do that might be different than your average agent. It is really looking at those daily activities, right? And Sisu helps us with that for setting those goals of maybe they just want to do a deal a month. That might be one of the most common responses I sometimes hear, I just want to do a deal a month. And they might just be starting out in their business. And then others might come in and say, You know what? I need to I need to 10x what I did last year. How can I get there within this program? And that's that's an exciting plan that we lay out for them. And if you like, we can kind of go into, sort of what is a day in the life look like for an agent accelerator, and sort of, how that, how that's,
Brian Charlesworth 18:24
let's do that, because I love that. You're like, and I, I agree with this so much every team owner should do this. It's like, in some people are like, I want someone to close at least x if they're going to be on my team. But for, I mean, most people have different goals, right? And so you said someone might want to do one a month, someone may want to 10x their business. They want to may want to do five or six a month, right?
Brittany Kostov 18:48
So, so overall, our goal is to get them into production. And again, they're approaching us for that, right? They're saying, How do I get into production? How do I build a repeatable business, a predictable business, right? Whether it is just that one deal a month or once every couple months, or a deal, you know, throughout throughout the year, as as they see fit. So one of the things that carried, suggested and mentioned at the beginning is goal setting is important. From from day one, we we talk about it, and from day two, they're opening up their Sisu, they're setting their goals. They're putting in their numbers. And I think one really important thing too to mention is that it's it's great for the coaches to be able to say and revisit each month, Hey, are you still is this goal still important to you? Is this still a driving force in your business? And I think one of the areas that we're able to really focus on that is our daily huddles. So I think that this is potentially unique based on how I communicate with other teams and other brokerages across the board, but daily huddles were introduced covid times where communication was not very It wasn't the driving.
Brittany Kostov 20:03
It wasn't the driving piece in the team. It was, you know, we're going to get together quarterly in person. We're going to be able to do those kinds of meetups. But during covid, it really became extremely important to be really strong in our communication. So that's when it all started, and it's been continuing on since then. So a day in the life of an average agent accelerator. They are showing up cameras on ready to engage Monday through Thursday for 15 minutes because we want to hold true to the form, to the purpose of a huddle. We're not here to waste time. They're extremely purposeful. And there's a reason for each and a theme to each day, each week and each month. So if I look at sort of how Sisu is included with that. You know, we start off with a monthly challenge, whether it's appointment, set appointments met number of conversations, we focus on that, and then we're able to break it down. So what that looks like on a daily basis is, on Mondays, we focus on objection handling. So every we all know that there's only a set number of objections. There's never going to be a new objection that myself or my colleague, Anthony tomassoni, hasn't heard before. They're pretty common across North America, I would say. And we bring those front and center every Monday, we say, What have you heard in the last week, either directly or more importantly, what are the objections that are living rent free in your mind? What are the ones that you feel you're going to receive that you actually haven't received, but you're almost nervous to pick up the phone, because that's what you think a lead is going to say. We handle that on Mondays by starting the week. And the other thing that we couple with that, because it can get a little bit, you know, people are a little bit anxious to kind of say, this is what I'm hearing. We start off by sharing wins, and that really sets the positivity off and the right mindset for the week. Because, as I mentioned, this can be a challenging industry. It can be a lonely business, but when we get together and there's 240 cameras on Brian, and that's how we're starting the week and starting the day, sharing wins and objection handling together, it just really sets the tone.
Brian Charlesworth 21:59
Yeah, yeah, totally agree. I have a remote team myself. And you know, all 50 of us get on the phone, get on a zoom every Monday morning, we started with wins and gratitude, right? So I love that you guys are doing this. It's it's fun for me. I had somebody message me this morning, actually on Facebook Messenger, and she had met with one of my sales people, and she said he told me that I would double my business this year, guaranteed. And I said, Well, it is true, if you go all in on Sisu, most of our customers will double their business year over year by going all in, you know? But it's not guaranteed. You have to put in the work, right? So, but you guys are essentially doing that. You've gone from by changing the way, and you really only got Sisu in q1 is that? Right? Q1, yeah,
Brittany Kostov 23:03
to the agents, yep,
Brian Charlesworth 23:04
you've gone from two per agent, 2% conversion to 4% 7%
Carrie Linton Lysenko 23:12
Yeah, that's right, in such a short period of time, in three quarters,
Brian Charlesworth 23:15
which is unbelievable. So unbelievable. Can you speak to to why? Like, what is, what is the the real thing, making that, that difference, and maybe you've already spoken to it with
Carrie Linton Lysenko 23:27
what you just shared. Well, I think, you know, if I can grab that first, you know, one of the things that Brittany and the coaches are so good about doing is, what are those repeatable habits? You know, Brittany talked about it already. What are those objections that, you know, you might not even hear, but you've, you've kind of made up as an excuse in your mind as to why this person isn't going to meet with you, or why this person doesn't want to work with you. And so, you know, I was just on a conversation this morning that it was like, do the hard things until they don't become hard anymore. And those are the type of repeatable things that we are trying to hold them accountable to every single day. And it's the consistency if we show up for our agents consistently, and we show up with the same guidance and the same reinforcing messages, that consistency that we're showing to them, we're hoping, is going to then reflect back into to us, as well as their business. So coming in, reinforcing the messages coming in every day, you know, holding their hands, using these tools, giving them the best in class, coaching as well as guidance and training. You know, the amount of volume that we do. So we have, you know, we're while we have 240 agents in our agent accelerator program, we have given leads to over 4000 agents at exp this past year, and so from current year to date, we've had about 145,000 leads come into our platform. We convert that at about a 43% to agent appointments. So that's over 62,000 appointments that we. Given to exp agents. And so when you're talking about that volume, like Brittany said, there is no objection we have not heard. There is no conversation we have not had. And so you know that vast amount of experience we just, we just want to pour into the agents that are working with us and saying, like, Hey, we've been there. We've heard it. We know what you're saying to yourself, but it doesn't have to be that way. We know you can grow your business in in any market condition. If you follow these patterns, as you follow the give use these tools, you are going to be successful. And to your point, you are going to double your business if you do the work, do the hard things, until they are not hard anymore.
Brian Charlesworth 25:39
I met with somebody yesterday that has doubled their business the last three years. And these are three that you know your your average person thinks, Oh, these are the three worst years in real estate ever, right? So, so it's just a matter of doing the work, putting in the focus, running your business like a business, right? Brittany, you were going to add something to that, yeah,
Brittany Kostov 26:01
I was just going to say that it does sound simple, but part of you know, real estate is simple. It's not easy, but one of the things that I feel makes a big difference is where agents are just showing up. Because again, the way that they show up here every morning is how they show up out there. And it is not a surprise that the agents that we see that are consistently showing up every day to these huddles, committed to staying close to the program and to the platforms that we offer them are going to see the most success, right? So on, you know, on any given Tuesday, we have a coach sharing a specific piece of coaching wisdom throughout the group, because, as we had kind of talked about, we've got for our 240 agents, for coaches, right? So while you're paired up with one coach, we want to make sure that we can maximize the knowledge and the wisdom and the expertise that they have to the entire team. So why would we just keep that for one agent? And agents learn in different ways, too, from different personalities, they have different connections. So that's why we've decided to open that up. Another piece on Wednesdays is we feature our own agents from the agent accelerators, and that really allows them to form collaborations in a smaller community within our, you know, our ecosystem. So we find new relationships budding. And again, that's another piece that keeps them close in the program. And finally, on Thursdays, one big piece that we found is probably one of the agents favorite huddle dates, is we review tape with them. So we are going through our system, we are seeing who is having successful calls, and we actually track it back, sometimes from finding a successful deal, okay, what did that first phone call sound like? And my favorite ones are where we find a deal that was recently closed, and they received that lead two years ago or one year ago, because the ones that they received one month ago. Anybody can take a layup, anybody can sort of like, check those easy boxes, but it's the ones where the agents really drove down and doubled down on the daily activities. That's not giving up. That's just because someone didn't answer you the first day that you received that lead, that you just said, Oh, three tries, and we'll see if they reach out back to me. It's all about that, not so exciting, not so glamorous, daily activity of showing up, making your calls and just Yeah, doing the work.
Brian Charlesworth 28:09
Yeah, it goes back to how we started this conversation with nurturing, right? I mean, in many cases, it takes nine to 12 months, or maybe sometimes two years. But if you keep doing the nurturing, you will ultimately be the agent.
Carrie Linton Lysenko 28:23
Yeah, I think of how many amazing stories I've heard, you know, at Zoocasa, at exp broadly in this industry, about how, ultimately, the industry has changed their lives, right? I'm sure in some ways, it started out for you when you started your business. It certainly was for me. You know, Zoocasa was a startup. We scaled it, we, you know, we got acquired like that same, you know, habit building, showing up, doing the work. But so many of these amazing success stories and life changing success stories start out with, I made 100 calls a day. I was consistent. I did the work, I showed up like it was a job, and I and I took myself seriously, and I was like, I'm gonna do this, right? You know, setting those goals, breaking it down into those bite sized piece pieces, and then being consistent. It isn't magic, although sometimes it feels like it, as you start to get the see the success right? As you know, no over overnight. Success is overnight.
Brian Charlesworth 29:18
Yeah, exactly 99% of business owners go through challenges and struggles and the grind, and most, most people who are not business owners would have quit, which is why they're not business owners. And so everyone looks at the glamor and sees the wins, and sees that you sold your company and sees this, but what they don't see is the grit that you put in every day to get there, and the frustration and the, you know, the challenges and all the stuff that so many people would run from. But as entrepreneurs, we face those every single day, right?
Carrie Linton Lysenko 29:56
exactly. Well played. Brian, well played, you know, I. I remember joining Zoocasa, and then, not, you know, kind of few months later, being in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, having, you know, all of these faces stare back at me, of, you know, kind of terrified people. We all remember, we were all living in our houses, locked in, you know, transactions in in Ontario and certain Canada went down to zero, you know. And then just trying to, like, how do you keep people motivated, right? So, you know, as we see say, like, the market will always go up and down, right? But we showed up, that is where we got really good at daily communication. I did a detailed outreach to our team every single day for 190 days, didn't matter if it was the weekend, and said, like things are going to be okay. This is what's happening out there. This is what you can do to keep yourself, you know, mentally well, physically well. You know, we're all in this together. And did that kind of consistently, that consistent communication, you know, that's part of the reason that even since we've been acquired, our leadership team hasn't changed. We all still believe in this mission. We all are celebrating in the growth and the evolution of what Zoocasa has become. And I would say, even more so than ever. We are so excited and so all in, I mean, Brittany's been here since day one, and still here, still here, through all of the ebbs and flows, every single market condition, every single, you know, kind of crazy thing that we've thrown her way and and, you know, we're, we're aiming to have over 300 agents by the end of September.
Brian Charlesworth 31:29
That's awesome. So, Carrie, you said the market will always go up and down. And I agree with that. But if you're running your business in the way we just discussed, your market will not always go up and down, right? That's great. Yeah, 100%
Carrie Linton Lysenko 31:42
and one of the best parts about having some of these conversations is taking a moment. And as I said to you, when we first started talking, you know, we'd been so head down, focused on growing this business, we hadn't kind of put our eyes up to see, like, Oh, wow. You know, in context. You know, as you said off the top, we're running one of the biggest teams in the industry. You know, we're doing already, we've done close to 600 deals year to date, 400 million in sales volume. You know, these are some really great numbers. And and we're seeing, you know, kind of that consistent growth, that consistent success. And so it really did take a moment to pause. And because we have been so consistent, you know, the national average in Canada of overall transactions from q1 to q2 normally a spring market would go up. Transactions went down. Our deals went up 84%
Brian Charlesworth 32:37
Wow. 84 so congratulations, that I
Carrie Linton Lysenko 32:40
mean, and that that speaks to if you put in the work, if you are consistent, it doesn't matter if the market fluctuates, you'll always be able to bring your value.
Brian Charlesworth 32:50
Let's talk a little bit about the difference between the market and and we're gonna, for the sake of time. We're gonna wrap up soon. But what is the difference between the market and US and Canada today, you probably have a better taste for that than than anybody. Yeah.
Carrie Linton Lysenko 33:06
I mean, I'd say, obviously, there's some differences just based on, you know, kind of overall, like, as Brittany said off the top, you know, kind of price points and inventory days of market. But really, you know, people get married, people want to buy their first home. People have kids, people get divorced. Unfortunately, people die. Like homes have to be bought and sold. And actually, those fundamentals are the same everywhere. And you know, Canada and the US are inexplicably, you know, connected for a number of reasons. But, you know, we have MLS is up here in Canada, we have the MLS system in the US. You know, the the availability of data for home buyers and sellers and those searching online is so ubiquitous and available everywhere. You know, it's it is about, how do you stand out as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, as a as a real estate as a realtor, to say, you know, how am I going to come and show up every day and bring value, bring my expertise, bring my knowledge. How do I can continue to level up and bring that consistency and build those trust and relationships with my clients? And I think that's that's the same no matter what market you're in,
Brian Charlesworth 34:17
yeah, well said. Brittany, being a sales leader of over 200 agents, 300 agents as of next quarter. I'd love to hear some advice from you for for other team owners, and it could be around how you're recruiting, it could be around whatever. But what is the one thing? And it may be the way that you're running your your sales meetings every week, but what is the one thing that everyone has to do to get the consistency from their agents.
Brittany Kostov 34:45
We have to focus on what we can control, right? And I think it's fairly similar how we speak. You know, our clients are our agents, right? That's in terms of how our agents show up for their clients. Our agents are our clients. So how can we create the environment where they feel. Supported and encouraged and challenged to grow if that is what they're looking for, and we address those ideas upfront. But I think that my one piece of advice would absolutely be focus on what we can control, which is the environment. And again, when I refer to environment, we're 100% virtual. We don't physically meet up in person, so to create protected, consistent windows where you are showing up as the leader, and leading by example, I find has been a really big driving piece. So that is why we include our coaches in our daily huddles. Everyone is showing up. It's not just yep, that's for the agents. We're all showing up. We're all cameras on, contributing, sharing, not only wins, but the challenges as well. So I think that that's one piece where sometimes it's, it's, it's exciting. The pieces where, oh, this agent just closed their first, you know, two, $3 million deal, those are exciting. And I think it's just as important to focus on the brand new agent, or the agent that's just getting back into production, that maybe close their first mobile home sale, and that is a big deal for them, right? So I think that it's important to not only celebrate the wins, but to also share and create a culture around the challenges, so that everyone feels comfortable jumping in. Brian, I have never personally sat in on a mastermind where over 200 agents are present and we break it into two windows so to accommodate for different time zones, but where agents are comfortable to have cameras on, and we'll jump in and we'll say, raise a hand and say, This is what I think a lot of times in a lot of meetings that I might jump in on at different brokerages to kind of see what's happening is cameras are all off. You jump into a sea of black, and you don't really know who's invested in joining. So I would say we have to lead. We have to lead by example. So we don't care if you're in the middle of a workout, we don't care if you're in the middle of bringing your kids to school. It's a part of life, and it's interesting, because one piece of feedback that I had in the last quarter was from a new agent that joined, and they said, Oh, daily huddles like I don't that's when I take my kids to school. And I said, as long as you're able to safely focus on the road, or however you're getting your kids to school, we encourage you to show up. And her feedback was, you know, what my kids are actually asking now each morning, like, Oh, is it time for the daily huddle? And it becomes a part of a part of their life, right? And it has to be seen as I get to be a part of this. And the buy in comes from them setting their goals and us being excited for them to hit them too. So I'd say that would be my that would be my advice.
Brian Charlesworth 37:22
Yeah, super, super important, to create an environment that that helps people win and a systematized thing that builds a predictable income. So love that. Love that. For you guys, it's fun. It's been really fun for me to get to know you guys. For all our listeners out there, I'm sure this was fun for you to hear how these guys have built this. And if anybody needs to reach you guys, what's the best way?
Carrie Linton Lysenko 37:46
Yeah, they can go on to Zoocasa.com forward slash, Agent accelerator to find out more information. We're at Zoocasa. On Instagram, we are Zoocasa.com. Is the website. There's lots of ways to kind of get in touch with us, whatever platform you may be on, if you are out there and you're an exp agent, both Brittany and myself are on Slack. You can reach us that way. And yeah, we're Find us on LinkedIn. We're, yeah, we're everywhere. We're everywhere you need us to be. Okay.
Brian Charlesworth 38:13
Zoocasa, Z, O, O, C, A, S, A, zoocasa.com or.com that's right, all right, you guys. Thank you so much for joining us on the show today for all of our listeners, our listeners, thanks for listening to another episode of the GRIT podcast. Please like this episode and follow the show and we will see you next week on the GRIT podcast. Thanks everyone.