Hiring Your First Employee

Welcome to the Leading Lane podcast for Real Estate Pros by Real Estate Pros, with your hosts, Ashley Frederick and Steven Burch. If you're looking for an honest, authentic and raw perspective, you found it. So today I want to talk about your very first hire. That transition of when you had to make the decision to hire your first admin or one of the very first positions. Position for your company was. You want to walk us through that? Yeah. And I think, you know, even a caveat of that is like, what happens after you realize you need more than the first hire as well. But I think, you know, when you open an office, there's just so many things that you're trying to do all at once, right? And we try to take it on. You know, it's all about saving money and making sure the lights are on, you know. But very quickly we found out that that was just not going to be realistic. We're super lucky that we had like an office mom. She's a retired agent. Shout out to my office mom. An office mom. So she stops at the office on a regular basis. She brings us treats all the time. She comes to every single party. She wears her our office logo gear everywhere she goes. She's 70, so she's a legit. The office mom. So she came in and like, just answered phones for us for a good month. I think we paid her in lunch. Lucky to have that. But, you know, at that point we just understood that if we were gonna kill it, like we wanted to, we had to make that sacrifice to find someone. So for our first hire, it was our admin, which were a brick and mortar office. We firmly believe in that. You know, small town usa people still really find importance of coming in, you know, meeting with people being found. So interviewing is always fun and interesting. You know, obviously we still do the old school posts as far as, like, indeed. We've had a ton of luck with indeed as far as posting our openings, um, and had to go through the interview process. I think we got through maybe like ten people. Um, it is slightly exhausting. Um, and at that time it was just Steven and I. And one big thing for me is a handshake. Um, I can't do like the super, like, delicate handshake. Like, I just, I don't know what it is, but it's like nails on a chalkboard for me. So people do the strong handshake. I promise you. Like, I've been complimented before on a strong handshake. So there's definitely some self confidence and whatnot. That goes behind that. So a couple of those, the handshakes almost like put it out of my mind immediately. So then it goes into, you know, what that looks like, trying to find that right person. And let's be honest, it's not always going to be that first hire that's the right person. I think that also when you're growing a company and going through dramatic changes, some people can hop onto that very quickly. Some people are stuck in their ways. So we stuck with that person, I believe, for a year, and then went through another admin, and then our third admin, which is Jessica, seemed to be the perfect fit. And I think that that's what people need to understand again, is that it's okay if the hires don't work out. You have to kind of do trial by error. And I think that too, throughout that, you get to get a better idea of what were or weren't looking for. Like, once that role is actually established and what they're doing and maybe the qualifications that you thought you wanted or needed, you actually want something different. And, you know, we can talk about how Jessica's transaction or transitioned into other roles and what that's looked like, but for us, it was definitely a scary thing. But once you realized that we weren't spending our time and effort where it needed to be, that's when we were like, yep, we have to do the hire. Yeah. So, like, what was going through your mind, like, when. I mean, in that transition life, like, yeah, we need somebody, but I don't really necessarily. Not that you don't want to pay them, but you're not having to take on this financial responsibility to ensure that, you know, they get a paycheck and it's consistent for them and our check is not consistent. How are those feelings? It's tough. Especially when we opened, I think I mentioned last time it was March of 2020. So we were going through this interview type process. Right. Right in the midst of all this Covid craziness. And I think that that also made things. I'll be honest, looking back, that was just a super strange time to open an office. And then, you know, you meet someone and you have to wear masks at work and you can't. You can't go anywhere or do anything. So I think that that was part of why that person didn't necessarily work out is because it wasn't like, I know it was real life, but it didn't feel like real life to me because you couldn't interact the same. Like, you couldn't have get togethers. But I think the fact of, you know, again, we didn't know what it was going to look like, so it was super scary. And. But in the same sense, right, like it makes you really have to hone down. Like we are going to be responsible for somebody else's income for somebody else putting food on their table. So that really means that we have to get on the ball as far as our own real estate and what we're doing. So I think it was a little bit of overwhelm too just because there's so much going on as far as opening doors and you know, getting all the things in order to open an office. But scary, I think, and overwhelmed is how it felt. But you know, it even transitions to into like, you know, your first hires if you do something personally. So sure, we have an office, you know, admin, but then I, you know, hired my own admin as well, you know, so that's another, you know, first hire that you have to think about. Again, where's your time being well spent? And it's kind of, you know, money per hour and is it being spent where it should be or are those admin type duties that you're now doing versus, you know, staying in touch with your clients, getting the contracts, those types of things? Sure. You know, for, for me it was definitely eye opening. I mean, a lot like you, like I could do everything myself. I can do everything myself. And then once we came to this position of like, all right, I, if we're going to grow, like if I want any sort of personal time or to do anything at all, I truly need somebody. And so being able to delegate that out was truly eye opening for me because then that each time that we hired somebody and they were a great fit, like our business scaled tremendously. So I really think that each step of our growth and business, like we can almost identify the right person and position. You know, our first hire and I think Kim is my true first hire. I had a lot of trial by errors previous to her, which are good. Like, I mean learned like I don't like this. I learned my pet peeves. I learned exactly what I wanted. And, and I definitely knew like when we were hiring for a true position, like we, Ryan and I had that conversation, like we've been paying part time, we've been paying in my opinion, less than par salary because that's what, you know, my grandmother was doing. That's the way that it was, has always been done. So we knew that if we had to make that investment to get the time and the people that we really want. Um, you know, like, we have to be able to invest into them. And yes, it's scary that we're spending even more money on them, but that's the quality that we were looking for. Right? So with Kim, she was the one that we really took a risk. I'm calling it a risk. It was even scarier than the first hire because we were jumping up pay tremendously. Um, but I've known Kim for pretty much my entire life. She actually was the one that helped us out. I was friends with her, her brother in high school, and there may have been a party, and she may have to be the one to come and get us and get the alcohol and everything. So, you know, we definitely have a little bit of a history there. So in the. Even in the interview, I was like, all right, like, we know each other, but we don't know each other like that. Um, are you sure this is something you really want to do? And when we were having that conversation, you know, she told me what she was making. And still, even with where we were stepping up to, we were still not even to the number that she was at. So I was like, why? Like, why would you want to come and step down, you know, position pay wise? I think it was like three or four dollars decreased of where she was at the time. And, you know, her mom was going through breast cancer. Her. Her boys were in. You know, she was doing all of these things. And at her previous job, like, she couldn't even have her freaking cell phone. So if her mom had a medical issue or the boys kind of caught a school or whatever else, like, she couldn't even answer her phone or go to their ball games or anything else. So she was like, it's so important to me to be able to have the flexibility if I need to be able to jump out and I need to be able to go. And I think family is first, right? Like you, you have to be able to provide that to them. So even though that she was taking less hourly, she gained way more in the freedom and flexibility, and that was more valuable to her. And so I think that another thing is to make sure when you're speaking to people, you are truly understanding what their motivating factors are and what the value is for them so you can match them. It's not always the monetary per hour salary rate. It very well could be other incentives or anything else that you're providing on there. So my favorite story about Kim in our interview, we were chatting and whatnot. And I was like, you know, I really need somebody that I can trust. Like, I need to make sure that, you know, it doesn't matter what comes in the mail, like if it's a huge bill or you see our credit card bill or whatever else. Like you're not judging us. Like, we don't need that. We need somebody that's there, be able to look at it, understand where we're at with the company and be able to move. And she's like, got you. And then I was like, well, do you have any other questions? Like, I feel like this is a good fit. And she goes, you need to, you need to trim your nails. I was like, what? She was like, you need to trim your fingernails. And I was like, what are you talking about? She's like, they're too long. And I was like, all right, you're definitely going to be a good fit. Yeah. As much as it irritated me, the fact that like you're telling me what to do, but I need somebody to be able to tell me that my fingernails are too long or what if I have something in my nose. Like I want somebody to feel like to tell me what's up and I need to trust this person. And in an interview you're telling me that my fingernails are too long. I feel like you're going to be somebody that's going to be very blunt and understand my work, you know, my direction. And so I just thought it was really funny. And it's been what, five, six years now that she's been with us. And she has grown from admin, like receptionist, very simplistic position. That's all I ever knew. And then she has grown with us and she wanted to be a part of the journey. And that was in that conversation that we're going to grow and we need somebody to grow with us. But understand there's going to be some shitty ass times and there's going to be great times. So, you know, being able to grow with somebody that understands the vision and wants to be a part of that vision and is huge. And I mean, now Kim is really, I mean, she's the director of operations for our company and she's the one that writes our checks for the company. Like, I honestly, like, let's not tell her this. I don't even know how to write a check out of our own company account. I don't even know where our checks are at. So, you know, I'm sure I can find them. But like, that's how much we lean on her and really need her. And so each time that we've leveled up now she is now in charge of the next person and it just really has created this nice hierarchy of flow of leadership and we all are learning together and she's the person that has our back no matter, no matter what. So yeah, yeah. I mean, I think it's really great to be able to see people really, you know, get into a role and stay with the company. So the funny thing with like my interview type situations or with admins that we've dealt with is as we know, it's an ongoing joke that I have a RBF and it is what it is. I think that's a criteria like for all of us. Yeah, I just don't want as many like wrinkles. Right. So if you just don't smile as much, don't have many wrinkles. But what kept on happening was that these admins almost were like, I guess either intimidated or scared or like always thought that I was mad. And this has been like an ongoing thing that drives me up the wall just because in my mind I don't think that I look that I'm mad or anything. Like I'm just focused, right? So like run, run, run, run, run. I come in the office, do 20 things fast and then I leave. And it just came back again and again that I was mad at them or whatnot. So then I was like, you know what, I'm gonna have to make this a part of the interview process because if someone can't see past my face, to be honest, we're not going to make it. Right. So I remember in Jessica's interview I brought that up and I was like, you know, if you're going to be a part of the team here, you have to understand I have this rbf. Supposedly it is what it is. Either you can deal with it and know that if there is a problem, you will know that there is a problem. But if there is not, everything is status quo and she took it and she ran with it. And you know, if you were to, you know, ever talk to her, she'll always be like, oh my gosh, she doesn't have one. She's the best person ever. She's great. So I think for us, right, it was a matter of finding someone that could balance the self confidence, if you will and know that we're busy, we're working and we're more or less just a kick ass attitude and not take that personally. That was a huge step forward for us. So I think it's funny when you talk about like levels of your company. She did great in her same thing, like receptionist type role. We realized that she was very attention to detail. And as things transitioned again, myself personally, I was looking for a transaction coordinator because I was overwhelmed. And talking to my coach, Rebecca about a transaction coordinator, the idea kind of dawned and why not offer it to our whole entire office now? Everyone could not be bogged down in the day to day paperwork. So then we hired a transaction coordinator. So brand new thing, but also same thing like now we're adding a second employee to payroll and same thing like that's more wages that we're paying out. But again like we always have to step back and be like we have, you have to write, you have to spend money to make money. So if we're willing to invest in our agents to offer this role, the hope would be that in turn they do that much more business, they're that much more organized. So I think it was maybe a year and a half ago we hired a transaction coordinator, Rachel, and she really helped to get that role established, kind of get all the ins and outs. And she had an opportunity to move across the country with her husband. So she did. But same thing, like things happen for a reason. There was other things going on in the office. Same thing going back to things I could take off my plate. I didn't want to do payroll, I didn't want to do accounting, I didn't want to do the floor schedule. And that came actually in consulting with you, we talked about why doesn't Jessica's role morph into something else? And so was that July ish of this last year we promoted Jessica to our office manager, which was more or less what she was currently doing. Some roles and then the transaction coordinator, but then taking on my, some of my roles that we needed to get off of my plate. And watching her in that role is something to me that has been amazing to watch. She was such a quiet little timid person when she came in and it's so fun. Like her mother in law will stop me and be like, oh my gosh, she's so happy. She's such a different person. She's way more outspoken. No, I get what she got back from. But you know, to be able to really like impact someone's life like that. And last week she posted on our Facebook, which I thought was really cool. And you know, we just, we try to help people. You know, we, we can do our, we do 90 day plans with all of our staff, all Together. And one of hers that we did probably like 5 months ago was to be debt free, you know, so she says this in front of everyone and then she posted, I think, you know, for the new year, that they were indeed debt free. And thank you, you know, to Ashley, for making us write our goals down and being accountable and like, to have that type of impact on someone, it's pretty amazing. And for someone in the same sense that's willing to scoop up all that knowledge that we're trying to give them, it's really a full circle type of, you know, situation. And now we've hired a new admin, oddly enough, another Rachel and same thing, you know, but we were very more aware of, like, what we needed, what we wanted, what we were looking for. And same thing. I think as long as you're clear with people, I mean, clear is kind. So if your expectations are set from the beginning as to what you're looking for, people. And granted it's changed dramatically, but I'm lucky that everyone has been, you know, kind of sees the bigger picture of Steven and I, what we're trying to do and what we're trying to accomplish. And I think once you have that buy in from your staff again, like, you get to see everyone level up. I mean, now we're going to be up to, I think, 10 agents here in the next, you know, two weeks. So it's just, it's great when you do find those right hires. And then really going back to what you said about, you know, pay, it's. It's not all about pay. I think we used to think that when we first started we would look at other, you know, indeed offers and try to match what the pay was. And through some of these transitions with admins, I really realized that we're pretty awesome to work for, in my opinion. You know, there's lots of things we do to the community. We're super flexible that people can leave for appointments, they can take calls, you know, people can make up hours, those types of things. And that flexibility, I don't think is found in a lot of places. Right. So I think both of our employees have seen that that flexibility to, you know, pick up their kid after school or go to doctor's appointments was well worth a couple dollars less. Plus, just coming to work in a healthy environment is definitely worth a little bit less. I think all of them would agree to that. Yeah, absolutely. Do you, do you think it's like, you know, when, when you invest into these people and you find the, the right fit if you want to call it that. I mean, really, those are the ones that are there from, you know, your 8 to 5 type of time frame when your agents are there. And so if you're out showing and doing everything else that you are doing, they're really the ones that are holding down the fort and the ones that are truly in control of over that culture. Right. We, we talked about culture constantly in this industry. And, and, and I think you have to be able to empower your employees and your staff so that they can turn around and empower the agents and support the agents, which then equals that culture. And I think that's where a lot of people miss that. You know, yes, it's scary as shit to go ahead and hire your first person, but there's so much more than, than them just doing tasks for you and offloading and delegating to them. Like they're handling and controlling the environment of your culture and making sure that they are truly the face of the company since you're no longer. They're doing everything. So it's. If you don't invest in them and you're just letting things, you know, slide by, you know, underneath the carpet or whatever, like you're, you're never going to grow. You have to be able to constantly push them. And you're right. They have to be able to be invested into that overall big picture that you are trying to accomplish. But that starts with the open, honest conversations and that vulnerability at the very beginning of the good, bad and ugly, what to expect. And we're going to figure all this out together because I don't know everything. This is the first time I've hired an employee. Right. Like, so, like, we, we don't know how this is going to look, but let's do it together. And as long as we have each other, we're going to be able to grow, which then grows the entire company and culture and benefits the agents too. Yeah. I mean, I think it really goes back to like the empowering. Right. I think once you give people a little bit more, you know, of the rope and they start getting a little bit more responsibilities, but then also reminding them how grateful you are for them. You know, I think it's just important that, you know, it's sometimes just small acts of kindness. Right. Like picking up a coffee in the morning, lunch, those types of things that I think keep people motivated, if you will. But it also is having your support as the owner broker at the end of the day. Right. So when you have office managers, I'm Sure. And with Kim, you know, as director of operations, sometimes there might be things that, you know, come up with an agent or whatnot. And they have really learned, in my opinion at least like to stand their ground with the agents because they know that this is what Ashley expects of me. This is what's supposed to be done. If it doesn't work, then here you go, Ashley. So I think being able to have that, I think that also shows the agents and the staff too, like, yep, they are in charge when brokers aren't here. They do know what they're doing. They are fully aware of expectations. So it's just nice when you have a well oiled machine. And I think, you know, it's the other thing about that is if it's not a well oiled machine, it's super scary to make changes. Right. And the thought of like training someone again or what that means, but man, when you do remove bad apples, it's amazing, you know, what happens to the health of the environment. And I think that, you know, we just have to remember that if you're not sure of those, like, right, we're here for that. I'm sure your other, you know, brokers are. But sometimes it's just easier to talk through that with someone not even in your office. Right. To be like, okay, this is what I'm dealing with. What do you think? And then when you hear someone else like, yeah, no, no, no, no, not worth it. And then you have to be willing to do that again for the health of the office. It's definitely, you know, the phrase of higher, slow fire fast. It took me a long time to realize that. Yeah. And it's hard because like you want to believe. I mean a lot of times we believe more in them than they believe in themselves and they don't see it. And, and so yeah, we're, we want to give them, you know, opportunities and chances, but all we're doing is enabling the behavior, you know, and, and we can't do that like if they're not going to correct it and they're not going to put the, the you know, energy and anything front. Like I don't want you a part of my company. Like I don't need you to be perfect, but I need you to at least throw that, that effort into it to see the growth and continue your, your personal and professional development. Um, and some people just don't have it or at least not, not to my expectation. I don't know if that's bad or not. But actually no it's not bad. Um, it's o. High standards and high expectations. Right. It's making sure that you articulate them clearly up front. And so that there's no question, you know, when you're talking about, you know, going through and the agents making sure or they know that this is the way that Ashley wants it. We went through a huge challenge with Kim on enabling our agents. And because we're there, we're here to support our agents. We want to help them grow. We want to help them do all this stuff. And maybe Kim took it a little bit to the max. And, you know, there's still times that we all struggle with it. I get it, and I'm not trying to be an asshole or anything, but if you enable your agents or, you know, your staff is enabling your agents and you don't know about it, like, you're creating this toxic environment that the agents are not even able to, you know, do their own work and carry their own workload. They're throwing everything on your staff, admin, whatever, and then that's bogging them down. And so, like, the task that I was throwing over to Kim, I was like, what in the world is going on here? Why is it taking so long? Well, it's because she was bombarded doing other people's work, and that is not within her lane. So we have a thing in our office now. We call it stay in your own lane, and we say it constantly. I think I say it at least two or three times a day for myself. That. That's not my lane. Somebody else can handle that. Right. Um, but, you know, we had to really break that mold for Kim, and I had to put it in a perspective and use an analogy. And she was a para before. And I said, you know, Kim, when you were working for the school district and you were in a classroom full of elementary kids and you're there to help them, did you do their work for them? And she's like, well, no. So what is the difference between what you're. You're doing the work for agents here, but you didn't do the work for the students there. What is the difference? And she's like, okay, I get it. Like, I never thought of it that way. Yeah. So I think it's like, it's understanding and recognizing their history and their past so you can pull those experiences that you know from them and be able to correlate that to your business and give them an analogy to understand and make sure they. They truly make that connection versus just barking orders did it irritate me? Absolutely. Did I say it multiple times? Absolutely. But until I brought that into, you know, realization for her, you know, like, Right. Once we did that, she was golden. And it was a totally different change in environment in our. In our culture. So, yeah, I think that goes back to the open communication. Right. So same thing we had. Right. I think everyone tries to help everyone so that we can, quote, unquote, keep the peace and whatnot. So I was finding that admins were doing things that weren't their job, and then I would be like, hey, like, that's not your responsibility. Why are you doing that? Well, it's just, you know, easier instead of going back and asking them to do it again. And then I was like, okay, but if you multiply that. So if you do that, 30 minutes a day times five days a week, times a month, like, how many hours now have you done? That wasn't what you were hired to do? And I think that it was, again, just empowering them to be like, nope, I need to have this done before we continue. Right. So we had to make some. We had to set some policies and procedures too that, you know, if this isn't done, your listing doesn't go in until it's done. If this isn't done, the file doesn't close and you don't get paid until it's done. And I think that, you know, again, it's making the agents more responsible for their. Their files and making sure that, you know, we're all. They're all the same. Right. So I don't want. You don't want one agent getting a help from someone, but. But not the other one. So then, you know, you just try to keep it a level playing field with everyone. And then that's, I think, where even agents, then if they all have the same expectations, I think that that's where they get treated better with one another even too. Right, right. Absolutely. You know, and it's so funny, like, looking back at some of the stuff that we experienced with our agents and with Kim and other staff as well, them. I mean, we all are constantly learning together. And sometimes it's easier for people to point fingers at other individuals versus pointing the, you know, the fingers to their three fingers back at you, that you need to look into the mirror first. And so, you know, working through that and again, them having the. The freedom and the confidence to be able to have that vulnerable conversations with agents. I mean, it's. It's all back to leadership. Like, I had to have that open Vulnerability conversation with Kim. And I had to show her to be able to have that same type of communication with their agents. And so, so that you can have that mutual respect of growth together versus let me just do your work for you. So it's a lot of learning. There is no, in my opinion, there is no easy, like, way of handling managing leading people. And there is not a blanket, one size fits all. Like, never. Like, you have to have it on an individual basis every single time. It has to be fair across the board. But you have to really, as a leader, drill it all the way down to that individual or correlate it to them so that they understand and then be able to articulate that to the rest of the team. So everybody now is truly on the same page. Cool. So employees are huge. I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing now if I did not have the employees that we have set in place. And each time that we hire somebody, it's scary as shit. I constantly think that if I don't make the payroll, then they're not going to be able to feed their kids and, you know, pay their mortgage and all of this. So it really lit a fire underneath my ass to push me to make sure that that payroll is always paid for, no matter what, even in the bad times. And, you know, we make sure that our employees are taken care of to. To the T. So. And again, it's not all about the money, but we made sure that paycheck was able to be cashed every freaking two weeks. Some. Yeah. So definitely first hires are, you know, stressful, but at the end of the day, right, we're all looking to level up and get things in order. So as scary as it might be, just do it. There are your forced multipliers. And I have a rule of thumb. I'll leave you with this. My rule of thumb when I hire an employee is I want to make four times, or they should be making me four times the amount of their payroll. So I should get a four times return of investment per hour that I'm paying them. And I'm very clear with them when I hire them that you're getting paid X. So X multiplied by four, that's what you need to be producing for the company every hour. And we really get down to the metrics. And I'm open with them about profits and everything too. So they know that they're there to be force multipliers, to be able to multiply the business to push me where I need to go. So I can continue to grow the company. And it's, I don't want to call it a well oiled machine, but it's very nice, very smooth. I think maybe our our next podcast, what we need to talk about, since we're kind of on the employee side of things, is the marketing coordinator, director of marketing that we hired and going into photography and expectations. So talking about that additional support. Good with that. Cool. All right, thank you everybody for listening. Please like share, comment. Let's get as many people that we can to listen to what we have to say. So we appreciate you listening and talk to you soon. Bye. Toodaloo. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please like subscribe and share with others. Stay connected for more genuine insights and strategies to boost your real estate career on Facebook or check out our website. We'll see you next time.