31: Mark Willis
Chris Suarez: [00:00:00] [00:00:00]
Welcome back to the experience growth podcast. Today's episode is a special one that I'm excited to share with our community. For those of you who have been by our side, since we launched this podcast, do you know that the very first guest we had on our show was the Mark Willis. Obviously ran one of the largest real estate company.
He was president and CEO of Keller Williams from about 2005 to 2014. Grew it to become the number one franchise in north America with over 140,000 agents. And actually it was one of the first people I ever met within that company. In 2015, mark founded the mark bullous leader. Academy, it's a global company that, that really engages in leadership education and consulting and development.
He founded the Willis family foundation really , in honor of his late wife, Cindy who passed away of cancer in May, 2019. And the purpose of that foundation is to work within the medical community around bringing canine early detection of cancer to the forefront. Just a brilliant businessman.
A great human and I had the opportunity to sit down and actually be a guest on his podcast and in his platform, which was an honor for me his podcast, his role models in real estate where he dives into to what has led to any level of success on a wide range of conversation topics.
And I'll tell you this conversation is free flowing. We cover some ground. We talk about. My personal journey in real estate, as well as his, we talk about delayed gratification and how that works in business, as well as how we should raise our children with that quality.
We talk about some keys to understanding human beings and behavior. We go to Maslow's hierarchy of needs and getting on that path of self-actualization it's a conversation that I just enjoyed and probably could have kept going for hours. But I know I couldn't keep your interest out long so we're sharing it with you today.
Please check out his show as well, role models in real estate and as much as anything just wanted to share this awesome conversation that I found valuable. With one of my early mentors, Mark Willis.
Mark Willis: [00:02:19] welcome to role models in real estate. Today, we are talking with Chris Suarez, an amazing role model. Who's built an amazing career on all different levels in the real estate industry. And so, Chris, uh, I remember when you and I met back in 2008, when I was the CEO of Keller Williams, and I think Bruce Hardy, the regional director of the Northwest region brought you in at that time.
He said, Chris is one of the most talented people in our region and you and I spent some time getting to know each other. I'd like to start with your bio. Okay. So we have, Chris Suarez is the co-founder of place. A full service, real estate and technology platform that partners with the top 1% of agents in teams by helping expand their profitability value proposition to the consumer and grow their local brand all without having to leave the brokerage where they are currently affiliated place launched in February, uh, 20, 20 interesting timing to launch, right?
Uh, with 41 of the top producing teams across the U S and Canada from a variety of brokerage brands in 2020 place closed over $2 billion in sales volume help more than 5,400 homeowners resulting in 54 million of residential real estate. Right. Wow. In addition to place, Kress also leads the experience brokerage network.
That includes five Keller Williams market centers that in 2020 closed, more than 3 billion in volume, approximately 84 million in revenue and over 8,200 units. Transacted. Chris is passionate about coaching and speaking and leads a number of coaching and consulting programs through experienced growth coaching.
You will also find Chris speaking at industry events across the globe prior to place Chris founded and served as CEO of experience real estate, Keller Williams. Number three expansion organization. Chris has been [00:05:00] recognized as an Inman innovator in the Riz media real estate newsmaker list. It maintains a presence on the real trends, the thousand and many other lists and lots of other recognition.
Industry-wide in addition to his real estate team, Chris owns and operates six Keller Williams franchises in the us and is the owner and the director of Keller Williams of Costa Rica. I have that, right? Yeah. And Chris, his personal mission is to build experiential lives through real estate. Chris Liz's mission through travel and by creating lifetime experiences with his wife and his two daughters.
So welcome Chris.
Chris Suarez: [00:05:47] Thank you, my friend,
Mark Willis: [00:05:48] really happy to have you on this, on this podcast. And can't wait to hear what you share with us. Um, one of the, where I like to start these conversations, I like to go straight at, um, kinda talking about when you launched your career and with all the podcasts that we've done.
We've asked our, our, our podcast subjects, the people that we're talking to to talk about when they got in real estate, why they got in real estate, um, what, what their first year. Or their real estate careers, how that turned out, what it looked like. And, um, just to give us full context on how you got into this industry.
Chris Suarez: [00:06:35] Yeah. It's interesting for me to, for me to go there as well. Right. And, and in my head and think about the beginning. Um, so I, I got into real estate. Uh, it was, um, well, I was 20, 20 years old. Uh, so about two decades ago. Uh, if we do the math. And why? Interestingly enough, I was a pre-law major. Um, I, uh, was going to school.
I thought that, uh, the, an attorney was, was, was going to be the, sort of the path, um, and, uh, at the school that I was at, um, they set me up with an internship, which was, uh, which was a great program. And, and so you, you looked at the sort of areas of law, uh, that you were interested in and you said, gosh, I would like an internship in, in, in this area or this area or this area or this area.
And I was highly interested in intellectual property. And so that was, that was first on my list. I was, uh, I was passionate about, um, happy and healthy family. So family law was second on my list. I won't go through the rest but way at the bottom of my list was real estate law. Like clearly the most boring part of, of law.
And sure enough, when it was my turn, um, the only internship available was with some real estate attorneys. So, uh, I interned with some real estate attorneys, right. And that was my introduction to real estate as a career. I wasn't a kid that grew up loving real estate or looking at real estate. I grew up with very little, I was happy to have a roof over my head to be quite honest.
Um, but as I got into that field, um, I realized one thing jumped out at me. Uh, that, that my role in my internship was I was, it was, this was back in New York. Uh, it was an attorney state. And so at the closing table, which I was sent to at the closing table was the attorney, uh, the bank attorney, the title attorney, the buyer, the buyer's agent, the seller, the seller's agent, the buyer's attorney, the seller's attorney, like it was just a different world right along boardroom table.
And, and here's what I realized very quickly, the most miserable people in the room. And, and I, and I'm, I know I'm making a generality here, but the most miserable people in the room. They were the attorneys and the happiest people in the room like that, that were engaging. And they were glad to be there was, was the seller and their agent and the buyer and their agent, like typically that was a good moment.
Like they were getting keys or they were moving on to a different phase of their life. And, and interestingly enough, like the checks were going in the wrong direction, too. Right. I was the guy that would cut the checks. And so I would send the check to the buyer's agent and send the check to the listing agent.
And then I'd take the check back to the attorney's office. I'm like, this is not the big check either. So from a, from a financial perspective, I thought I was on the wrong side of the table. And from just a life perspective, I realized I was on the wrong side of the table. And so I got my real estate license and, and I had plenty of people that said, gosh, I think you'd be good in real estate.
I think you'd be good in real estate once I ended up in, in that industry. Uh, but my first year. I got my license. I was going to school. I was still working for the attorney, uh, down in the city. Um, and, and so I, I showed up and, and, and honestly, like my first year was okay, right. I was, I was 20 years old. I looked like I was about 13.
Uh, it was hard [00:10:00] for me to imagine anyone would, would hire me. Um, but I put my head down. I made calls. I did the work, um, in, in my first year I wound up being the rookie of the year for that office, but it didn't mean a whole lot. Right. I was probably the only rookie. Um, but, but the one thing I remember doing mark was there was a team in that office.
This was in Westchester county, New York. And it was a, it was a. Uh, a team of two women and I just looked at them and they owned Westchester. Like they were everywhere, their signs were everywhere. And I remember coming into that office, first one in the office, always last to leave the office always. And I would sit as close as I could to, to, to those two women.
And I would listen to them and how they talk to their client and how they were on the phone and how they talk to each other. And I, and I just listened and I listened and I listened and I, and I, and I don't think that's ever changed for me. Um, my, my growth within the industry is my, my being willing to listen and learn from other people that are ahead of me.
And each, each time I got to a certain level, I said, okay, well, who should I be listening to? Who should I be listening to? Who should I be listening to? So that, that takes you all the way back, um, to that, to the beginning. Um, what I'll share is, uh, one year into it, nine 11 happened. And I was in New York at the time.
And I was, uh, I was working two jobs, right. Real estate. And I was still working for attorneys at the time and finishing up some school. And, um, and that morning changed a lot for me. Uh, the, the office that I worked at, it was in, in the American express building, which was the third building that fell that morning.
I was house sitting. Um, I was house sitting, so I wasn't in the city. I was in up in Westchester and I thought to myself, well, man, in a, in a moment, your, your life, our world can change. And, um, it was two months later that I had packed up my car and, and decided that, um, I wasn't going to put down roots in, in a city that I felt was going to, um, I just didn't see myself there forever.
And so I, I traveled across the country and I ended up in Oregon and to this day I live, um, most of the time full-time in, in, in Portland, Oregon, but that was my transition from the east coast to the west coast, um, at a, at a really interesting time in, in, in world history and, and country history, for sure.
Incredibly
Mark Willis: [00:12:31] I, two things. Number one, I love your reference to listening. You know, I always thought about who do I want to be, and then learn from that person, everything that she can. And so I, I love that. Um, and yet also I think there are just no coincidences. You were house sitting in Westchester, not in the city and, uh, what, what, you know, you, you have to pay attention to those things in life.
So you, you, you got in your car, you went to Portland, That was 2001, obviously launched a real estate group in Portland. Yep. And can, can you talk about that journey moving from New York, Portland?
Chris Suarez: [00:13:20] Yeah. So, um, so I wound up in Eugene, Oregon, interestingly first, uh, which is if you can get, um, further from, right, like in terms of culture shock, being born and raised in New York, right school in the city work in the city.
I mean, to this day, I love the city. Right. I love the energy of cities. I'm just to some degree, I'm definitely an in my soul, a city person and I, and I, and I drive and I end up in Eugene, which is the farthest, the farthest place from, from home. Right. But what I realized there that, that probably was a really good spot for me at the time.
It allowed me to, to some, some time to reflect on what was, what was important in life. Right. And, and it was a competitive advantage as well, mark, right. How I was raised, um, how I learned the industry, how I was sort of grown up in the industry. Um, you don't, you don't so houses, unless you're, you're, you're on it in New York.
Right? Like, I, I never changed my schedule. And yet when I, when I came to Eugene a completely different pace of life than
Mark Willis: [00:14:32] right.
Chris Suarez: [00:14:33] Yes. Yep. Yeah. Right. Like smaller college town definitely laid back. But see, I was different then than the environment that I was in. And I looked at those differences as a competitive advantage.
And I, and I brought the energy that I felt like I was raised with over to a marketplace. And really like, that was a lesson too, because I think that you can, you can bring [00:15:00] new approaches and, and new value propositions and new conversations to old industries and completely change the direction of an industry or change the directorate direction of the business.
And so that was, um, I was there for about five years, um, built up a real estate business there, and really it wasn't anything to speak of mark. Um, but, but I think, I think the importance there was, I learned the value of relationships. Um, I met someone, uh, in Eugene, within the industry that, uh, a couple years later, um, would become a business partner.
Uh, her name is Katie Benson, you know, Katie, and she actually introduced me to two Keller Williams. Um, interestingly enough, remember that you and I are in business for 12 years now. And it was that the transition from New York to Eugene, um, setting up a business there, like these relationships in business, uh, if you're, if you value that.
Decades later, um, create incredible partnerships. And really like, as I look back now, my, my business career or trajectory has really just been a, a compilation of phenomenal partnerships, partnerships in brokerage partnerships, in teams, partnerships in platforms, partnerships in businesses. So, so there's nothing that I do truly, as I look, as I look across the landscape of the businesses, I have partners in everything.
And I think that, you know, we'll get there, um, sort of bringing us to the future. But, but my perspective is, is to build a business, not, not on my own, but truly to build massive businesses with, with solid partnerships. Yeah.
Mark Willis: [00:16:50] Right. Um, relationships are. Yeah. And yet finding the right partners is not always easy.
Do you have a special gift or a process or a system that you follow to find the right
Chris Suarez: [00:17:06] partnerships? Um, uh, one word patients. I mean that, I think that oftentimes we want to create things. We want to build things quickly. And I, and I was raised that like, that's my personality, let's get this done. Let's go to work.
Let's put our head down. But I think, I think partnerships and real value is built over time. And so unless we're able to cultivate patience, which is not a natural quality that, that I, that I have, unless we're willing to cultivate patients in those partnerships. Um, like I, I have people in my world right now that I'm not partnered with.
But I'm patient. And I see a future where we could be partnered in businesses or opportunities. So I think, I think partnerships come from patients, I think too often when they failed, they were forced.
Mark Willis: [00:17:55] Let's give some context about patience patients. In what way is it for people to prove themselves to you?
Is it observing how they behave over time? Is that a combination of things? How, how do you get to the point where you go, okay. I've had patients and now I believe that this is a potential
Chris Suarez: [00:18:18] partner. Yeah. Um, that's an awesome question. And I think that that two, um, the two potential answers stand out very different to me.
Um, I, I'm not a person that comes to the table believing that people need to prove them. Um, I actually approach, uh, relationships and people assuming that they already have like, uh, assuming that they, they don't have to prove themselves to me, but over time, um, I see how they show up in different situations.
And actually, I think it's almost the opposite. They disprove themselves to me. Like I want to keep my belief in people. And I think it's sometimes hard to do the more people that are in your world. And you've experienced that as well, right through, through just, um, being surprised at times of how people react or how people respond.
My, my belief in, in, in humans and people is strong. And so, uh, the patients for me allows me to see people show up in, in, in wildly different situations. Like I want to go through situations and struggles and, and difficult times in good times. I want all kinds of situations for us to experience it together.
I want them to see me at my best. I want them to see me at my worst. I want to do the same. We all have those moments. And it's how people respond that I'm able to. To look at and say, Hey, um, do they respond how I would respond? If not, why? What can I learn from that? And, and really who are, who are they at the core of, of, of, [00:20:00] of their being, because I've always said that.
I might be a much, much, might be a much slower path to growth. And in my history is some people would say, you've been at this for 20 years and this is what you've built. Like I sometimes I feel, yeah,
Mark Willis: [00:20:15] I don't think so. I don't think so. I mean, you're, you're being humble.
Chris Suarez: [00:20:22] Well, I look at that, but there are people that have built things massively bigger, much faster, but for me, I can look around and mark and I mean, this, I can look around and have a hundred percent confidence that we built with good human beings.
Now, not everyone that started is still here. But as I look today, that that patience has, has ensured, um, good people being the foundation of the business. And it allows me to wake up every day, excited to go to bed everyday content. And that to me is sort of a foundational pillar of our business business.
Mark Willis: [00:21:00] Well, I love the context of looking at people and assuming the best about them because when you see the best in others, they'll see the best in themselves. And then just letting time be what defines whether or not someone is worthy of a partnership and opportunity. I think that no time is what over time everything is revealed.
Um, I know that personally, and I'll just speak from my own experience. I know I'm a low three on the Ava, which is a behavioral profile. That factor three is the vector of patients. Right? I think
Chris Suarez: [00:21:45] you're a low three. We matched identically.
Mark Willis: [00:21:48] I remember that. I remember that. And so this is intellectual patience.
It's in spite of what you feel inside. Intellectually Stang patients. Uh, would you agree with it?
Chris Suarez: [00:22:03] Yeah, I would. I think, you know, I've had a conversation in the past about, um, my fascination with, with delayed gratification, which is not again for low vector threes. That's not easy, right. Delayed gratification.
And, uh, it was interesting because I began, uh, on the journey of understanding that through, through looking at the work of, of Walter Michelle out of Stanford university. And he did that wildly popular marshmallow test and, and, uh, we all kind of watch those videos and think it's a cool little experiment.
And we see kids that got to eat the marshmallow right away. And those other kids that were able to delay their gratification for eating the marshmallow, the chocolate chip cookie or the M and M's. But, but what. What I was fascinated by was not that experiment, but that they followed those kids later on in life.
And they found out that the children that were willing to delay gratification around a marshmallow at age five or age six, reach seven later on, they had higher sat scores. They had lower levels of substance abuse. They had lower likelihood of obesity. They had better responses to stress. They had, they had stronger social interactions.
And so they realized that, Hey, there's this, there's this quality of delayed gratification that, that led to success. And then you go. Where did that really come from and you, and you start dialing it back. And, and Walter, Michelle was a, a student of the Stoics and the Stoics was a student of Aristotle and Aristotle and 300 BC wrote in his work ethics.
He wrote about the difference between between happiness and pleasure and pleasure, right? As instant gratification like this tastes good. This feels good this right, this, that like, it's, it's just, it's, it's immediate gratification, but happiness actually came from separating delayed gratification with working towards being good at something with, with accomplishing something with.
So I, I look at that and say, delayed gratification has, has shown up, um, Almost everywhere in, in, in, in my life. And I thank my parents for that. It didn't feel good at the Mo at the time, but we grew up with very little, like there was nothing immediately gratifying about my childhood. Like there were no vacations or wasn't like, everything was maybe one day, maybe one day, maybe one day.
And, and, and I don't, I don't necessarily live that way today with my family, but I do recognize that if I, if I go back to childhood, it was, it was the last. Interestingly enough that probably put me on this path of being okay with delayed gratification. And then as you say, intellectually than I understood later, that this is actually a really important quality that I believe society is losing or it's slipping through our fingers and our kids today, everything is instant [00:25:00] gratification.
We will end up with some problems later if we don't bring that back into at least the conversation.
Mark Willis: [00:25:06] There's no question about it. Uh, we do, we live in a world that is today. It's about, I want what I want when I want it. And yet when you get it the minute you want it and you haven't strive for it, you haven't worked for it.
There's no satisfaction when you get it. And so there's this ongoing hamster wheel of like remorse. Like I don't have enough. I want to get more and more and more. And having that, that emotional control. Control your emotional need to get it immediately. Yeah. In exchange for worthwhile work that in the end is a reward through what you get from that worthwhile work.
That's far more gratifying. Long-term right. I think that when we're striving for something, uh, we're doing what we're meant to do in this world. And yet that's, that's not what all the stimuli around us suggest on a daily basis. So that, that emotional control is a big deal. And, and I don't think it's well powered.
Like, I, I don't think it's necessary willpower. I think it is understanding the reward of good work and valuing that effort. Yeah. Yeah, we could, we could have a whole conversation about this for hours. It'd be such a blast. I'd love it. I know, I know you and I have to have fun, but I also want you to share, um, you know, I went through where you are today in the bio and, uh, you, you you've had some amazing success, but let's break it down.
So you have the experience team, how many locations,
Chris Suarez: [00:27:01] uh, but today, um, today that that team became place. Um, and we're in about 50, 50, 1 52 locations right now,
Mark Willis: [00:27:12] 52 locations. Now how many different cities?
Chris Suarez: [00:27:16] 50. Well, that's a great question. We have, we have multiple, uh, organizations in a few cities. So I would say out of those 52, there's probably 45, 46.
Mark Willis: [00:27:29] And you're talking about the north, the south, the west, the rural
Chris Suarez: [00:27:33] America. Yeah. From New York city back home to Westchester, down to Miami big in Austin, Texas.
Mark Willis: [00:27:41] Yeah. All over the place. And how many agents?
Chris Suarez: [00:27:46] Uh, roughly 550 560.
Mark Willis: [00:27:51] And those 550 agents do how much volume?
Chris Suarez: [00:27:56] Um, last year, uh, they closed 2 billion, um, in, in real estate.
Um, did about, uh, I think the end number was 58 million actually in revenue. Wow. So a high, I, you know, I think I appreciate you asking the question around the numbers, not for the accomplishment, but when you look at, um, our focus has always been, um, building experiential lives through real estate, right?
And the only way you do that is if our real estate agents are productive and, and there's a difference, um, our, our philosophy and, and I appreciate this about you and what you brought to the industry as well. Mark always is, um, agents are here not to be a number, but, but to be productive and, and, and to build awesome lives through this industry.
So we've always focused on per agent productivity. You will see much massively, bigger or larger organizations, um, doing much less volume than us. And we're okay with that being smaller and agent count and larger and volume because in lieu of. A a thousand people doing that same production. I look across our organization and say, the only way we build big experiential lives is to have big production for each one of those people.
And that's what allows them to build that experiential life. So, you know, parades and productivity for us is a really, really big sort of, um, purpose in, in building a platform like we're building
Mark Willis: [00:29:27] well, what's your, you're focusing more on the people you lead, then you as the leader, right. Leaders should always be more about the lead in the later.
That's one of my core beliefs should never be more about the leader than the lead. You're a Meg ensure that your agents that are a part of place have great careers worth having. And then there are, you're taking responsibility for their productivity, which is not, not typical. [00:30:00] And I think that that's one of the reasons you're, you've been able to expand.
Across the entire United States when you look at, and by the way, I say that because, you know, I know Alex Frank, I've known him his whole life. Alex works on your team, in the metropolitan markets that are unused. And I know how hard he works on lead generation and how responsible he is about the activities that he needs to do to generate the income he wants to generate.
And I questioned would he do it if he didn't have the inspiration and the nudge and the model to keep pushing. And I applaud you on that. And I'm like, if you could talk about that for a second, like, how do you, how do you nurture and support. These agents having careers that continue to grow every year.
And we're, we're, they're on a cycle of growth where they give you credit for that growth. That's a big deal, Chris. Congratulations, by the way. I mean really big deal.
Chris Suarez: [00:31:18] Um, I think it starts by. You know it and I'll get to the tactical. But I, my, the definition of leadership that I subscribed to is is, is bringing people down a path to their preferred future, right?
Like my, my role in the company is to, is to make sure that the path that we're creating, the platform that we're creating, the vehicle that we use is this path that allows people to walk down into their preferred future. The, where we get, where that gets messy is if we try to just bring people on some path that isn't their preferred future.
So when you say, well, how do you do that? First is I know Alex really well. Like I know our partners really well, and I asked them what their preferred future looks like. And as I listened to that I'll know whether or not our path leads them there or, or it doesn't right. There are certain things that we look for, um, around who is going to partner with us well down this path to their preferred future.
Now I think, again, I think most. Humans have good intentions. They get into a business and they get into that business to, to succeed, not to fail. The challenge for us is it's really hard to change behavior. Behavioral change is wildly difficult. And so truly we, we, we do a lot of study and research and then implementation around like what, what does change behavior for instance is one thing is social context, social context changes human behavior.
And so the environments that we're in around lead generation or around doing what we say we're going to do or around, um, acknowledgement or around like all these things that matter to humans and actually contribute to behavioral change. We're executing strategically because, because they wouldn't, they don't need us.
If they were going to do the behavioral change on their own. But what we have found is our environment or our platform allows an easier path, a simpler path for behavioral change. And those changes, uh, bring them a different result. Uh, Alex is a different and a more focused human being within the organization than he was outside of the organization.
And, and some said, oh, I don't know, like, is that going to work? And I said, well, I know what his preferred future is. And actually I have a very clear path, tactically, right? A schedule path, an operational path, a financial path, a lead generation path, the marketing path, right. And opportunity path. Like I have those models for him.
If he's willing to change behavior and I can work with him on changing behavior, we're going to be just fine. And so at different levels of our business, we're looking for, um, for, for help with behavioral change,
Mark Willis: [00:34:08] that's. That's terrific on so many levels. And I'll say this, that, that context, uh, bringing in the social element is brilliant because, you know, we, we all know behavioral profiles and most, there are a lot of agents out there that have the perfect behavioral profile for job compatibility in real estate, and yet their own personal behavior, the way they behave on a day to day basis may not.
And so bringing in the social element to help shape their behavior day to day in a way where they're doing what they need to do in the responsible about it is, is, is a brilliant strategy. And, and [00:35:00] I know it's worked well for many people on your, on your team, in, in those 55 different locations. So
Chris Suarez: [00:35:07] I think it's.
As businesses grow and evolve, we need different things, right? The business needs to become something different. I would say, um, for, for our organizations, right? That top 1% they're looking for something different mark. Like they, they, they typically, when we partner with someone, the average, uh, business owner has, has generated about a million dollars in revenue for in the previous year or, or consistently.
And, and they may be stuck there, but, but those problems are different than a launching agent's problem. Right. Those problems involve operational, right? Streamlining operations. It involves understanding P and L and budget and having some financial models. It involves value proposition because now they're moving from being purely consumer focused.
And how do I find a buyer and a seller to really be. Um, people focused in the sense of how do I find talent, attract talent, keep talent. How do I, how do I provide leverage for that talent? So they can build organizations within our organization? How do we create an opportunity model? Because I think everybody loves opportunity.
It's, it's moving towards that, that path of growth. And if anyone feels in an organization that they're beginning to hit a ceiling, like that's when we start looking outside and saying, well, there may be, I don't even know, but there might be a ceiling here. I'm sensing there's a ceiling. So maybe I should look at other opportunities and, and for anybody with a dress distracted personality, which is 95% of real estate.
That's why we see so much movement in our industry, because we're always looking for the next or best or next opportunity we have to provide that path for them within our organizations. And so we have put together this, this platform where we say you have an opportunity model as well for your people.
And that's where our retention has not been an issue for us. We've not had one team leave us after partnering with us. Right. And we've been doing this for for years. And, and that's because there's a, there's a path for the leader. There's a path for their people. There's a path I'm on the operations side of things, but, but that's, that's some heavy lifting behind the scenes of making sure that we're creating that world.
And we're willing to let that world get, get bigger and bigger, um, to, to invite those people in. How
Mark Willis: [00:37:25] are, does your support staff for those 550 agents?
Chris Suarez: [00:37:32] Uh, last I checked in, in terms of what our payroll looked like. I think there was 200. Somewhat people. Um, and that goes from financial and design technology, right?
Like, right. We run technology companies as well to support them, um, administrative operational, it involves all things to run. We don't really look at ourselves as a real estate team. Mark. We look at ourselves as a business and a platform. And so when you look at that, we, we, we, we have to change how we think about that.
Chris Suarez, the real estate agent, Chris Suarez, running a real estate team, Chris Suarez, jumping into expansion like it's, it's not Chris Suarez. It's now it is truly now a business platform that supports, um, businesses that, that are, that, that actually could be as big as a brokerage or, or, or, or national international company.
Mark Willis: [00:38:29] That's terrific. So how do you communicate across these 55? Different locations. What, what are the communication tools that you use on a day to day basis to stay in relationship with your partners? Keep them inspired, keep them doing what they need to do. What, what are some of your, your different systems, how you stay in that relationship solidly?
Chris Suarez: [00:39:02] What, what we realized early on is is that we looked at companies that got big and as they got big things began to break down. And, and why was that? And largely that comes from not allowing or creating a space for, for people to, um, build tribes within a trial. It was very important early on for us to culturally create tribes around roles, right?
Regardless of what role you have in a real estate business or a real estate team, like you need your space and tribe to have conversations about what you're doing today. So we have these tribes where operational people will get together weekly and talk about what they're doing and the struggles they're having and the wins that they're having and what they've created.
Like, it can't be a monitor channel, right? It couldn't, it cannot be just me or just, right. My partner, Ben, Kenny speaking to the entire organization, we actually needed to create. [00:40:00] The, the internal tribes, uh, as a rhythm for communication. Um, I got some good advice early on and said, if you're going to be, we, we look at our, our platform as a coaching platform, a consulting platform, a collaboration platform, a platform of commitment.
Well, if that is what you're doing, then that has to happen every single day. So there's an opportunity every single day for people to plug into something Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, anybody and everybody in the organization can show up to something. And that has to do with mostly real estate, right?
We have a rhythm week, one week, two week, three week four. We talk about lead generation. We want a lead conversion a week to presentation, week three, learning to use leverage week four. We have a leadership track on Fridays where we look at the future leaders of our organization and say, Hey, we need to be developing down.
And, and even if they never will be leaders in the organization, Like they, they are leading themselves or leading like parts of teams. And so we have a track for, for who we're, we're, you're marking as potential leaders. Every Monday we have a, we have a one hour every Monday, like a Monday does not go by where we bring the leaders of the actual organizations that the 52 partners together and actually have a conversation with them.
Um, it could be, could be initiatives. It could be production-based mostly it's, it's personal development. Self-actualization work leadership work every Friday. I speak to the entire organization and I mean, every Friday, so, um, like in a week, and I've been doing that for now six years. Six years. And on average, every year I might miss three Fridays.
So we're talking 49 to 50 times every Friday for an hour. Right earlier today I was on. Um, and, and I, and I speak to not necessarily real estate growth, but just personal growth. Like what, what can we, what can we share with our agents so that they feel like they're on a personal growth journey that this organization isn't just about how do they sell more real estate, but how do they become better partners and, and, and, and friends and people.
And so like, there's this constant rhythm of, of communication, um, from, from leaders, but also from, from their tribe, from their people. I think, I think if we look over the last year, mark, that we were in April 20, 21, um, there's been some challenges in our country and our world. But interestingly enough, the way that people have dealt with challenges sometimes good.
Sometimes not good, but, but the way that they deal with challenges is we all go and try to find tribes, right? And sometimes those tribes become polarizing and that, that presents a problem. But even in that polarization, if you look at what's going on, it's the human need to feel part of something or want to find people like them.
They want to connect with people. And I think that's just as important for whether we're a three person team, a five person team, a 20 person team, or hundreds of people, thousands of people, large organization. If we lose that importance, we will lose our people because they'll go find a tribe. You know,
Mark Willis: [00:43:22] you and I also had the conversation about the hierarchy of needs and Maslow and you know, our primary need is safety, food shelter.
And yet right above that is the need to belong to something. And so what I hear you're creating with place is you create a place where people can belong, even, not just as a whole, but even within their subtribes. Right?
Chris Suarez: [00:43:52] Yeah. Um, it's, it's in our language when we welcome people. Uh, we welcome people and we, that, that name is not just a random name.
Like we truly wanted to create a place, right. Uh, a place for, for, for these tribes. We, we welcome people. And when we, when we send them their welcome, like their welcome kit, it says welcome to our place, welcome to your place. And they identify, um, with their community. I think it's really important. Yeah.
It's, it's that, that it's that hierarchy of need ones, one safety, like you said, and what's, those physiological needs are met. Uh, love and belongingness will actually lead to that fourth need, which is esteem, right? Like feeling good about who we are, esteem for oneself. Um, the desire for respect to be respected and have a reputation within our community as well, critically important.
And it's hard for that to happen unless you have those.
Mark Willis: [00:44:52] I want to switch gears for a minute. And I want to ask you about lead generation. What are you finding with place [00:45:00] are the most effective lead generation strategies?
Chris Suarez: [00:45:04] Yeah, we, um, we have a model, um, and, and we call that our lead gen model and it it's a wheel and we believe that half of our businesses come and go are going to come from one half of the wheel.
And half of the business will come from, from the other half of the wheel on the one side of the wheel. It's, it's all activity based. It's all, it's all we have a phrase, like do the work, right? Like we use that hashtag in the organization, just do the work, do the work. And what does that look like? It's your sphere.
It's people that, you know, people that know you, it's making calls and connecting with your sphere, according to our plan, right. We have a plan that's that's built out for them. So those are people that we already know. Um, everybody does open, right? Like whether it's virtual or in person, but, but open houses are still a bit.
20 years later, guess what you meet people when they're, when they're engaging in shopping or engaging and looking at homes, buyers, and sellers. So we have a plan right. For opens. How do we execute that really, really well. And the third part of that wheel or activity-based wheel is what's called prospecting prospecting.
And, and that, that is ultimately going out and finding people that you don't know. And quite honestly, I don't care what you do for prospecting. However, We have a plan, we call them our levers. And so if you say, gosh, I really like getting on the phone and calling expireds. Awesome. Then execute our expired level.
No, not me. I really liked for sale by owners. Awesome. Execute our for sale by owner level. Oops. I don't like either of those too. I'm terrible. On the phone. I like to door knock and get face to face. Awesome. Execute our door. Knocking lever. I don't like any of those three. What about circle? Prospecting?
Awesome. Execute our circle prospecting level. I'm very good at events and training. I like coaching buyer seminars. Awesome. Execute our seminar lever. See my, my obligation to the organization is to give them a proven model such that they don't have to wonder, is this going to work? Is it not going to work?
That's what happens in our industry. We go out and get like 19 ideas and, and those haven't been tested mark, like this person says, oh, I did it once. And it worked. And so that sort of gains mainstream attention and everybody's jumping there. So we have our activity models. And then on the, on the right side is, is the obligation of the organization or their, their team that they're generating internet leads.
That's a big part of, of what we do and, and where we are. But that's the model. The lead comes in. There's a, there's a process that they go through. So it's internet it's. W, um, leads off of listings, right? Which is the company has generated leads to be able to hand to, uh, an agent on the team. Um, and then it's a bit, uh, business that is fear-based, that's owned by the business and right.
They, these businesses that we partner. Five years, 10 years, 20 years, some 30 years in the, in the business, they have this book of business and we actually applied plans to that book of business to drive leads back into the organization. So it's or the agents. So it's activity-based and then it's team-based leads.
And I actually think a really healthy model is a one time. For years, we actually track that we had this little barometer on a, on a, on a scorecard and it showed how many leads we, our goal was one-to-one. And, and if we, if we move too far to the agents generating their own leads, we looked at the organizations and why are we generating leads?
If we move too far from the organization, generating all the leads. We said, gosh, what are we not doing to train and coach and consult our people because we don't want them to just come here and eat. We actually want to build the best real estate agents in the industry, which means you have to go out and learn how to fish.
So we looked at it as a coaching barometer. Is it a healthy organization? Are we generating as many leads as our agents, our agent generating as many leads as, as the business, but we're not a leads platform. Like the, the, the fallacy in that, in the industry or the businesses. Oh, he who controls the leads will, will control the industry.
And I just take a step back and say, leads are important, but if it's who controls the leads, well, gosh, there are. 50 million leads sold a year, but only 5 million homes transfer. So the lead isn't the most important thing we have to, we have to find that lead and then cultivate it and convert and be able to find who are our real, our real potential consumers.
And that's a, that's a coaching conversation, but that barometer allowed us to see are we coaching our agents? Well, that
Mark Willis: [00:49:26] is awesome. I mean, the data itself gives you all the answers you need. Right. Just got to try. Yep.
Chris Suarez: [00:49:37] Yeah. It was years of tracking. Like, you know, when you say like, tell me exactly what you do for those leads.
Like, so we took those levers, what we call them and we have, now we have hundreds of agents executing these levers and here's here's what if we can show that, but, but what we're able to do is any age that was willing to say, yes, I'm going to commit to, to jumping on that lever. I just said, Hey, I don't want you to get [00:50:00] confused.
I want you to do one thing. Just jump on this lever. I know a lever is a simplest machine built by man, right? It's it's only two parts. It's very simple. It has a fulcrum and the actual right. The pin. And so if I it's a Seesaw, if I sit on this, I need to be guaranteed to know that it's going to go up. And that's what our levers do for agents.
We say, we know that if you execute this 75% of the time, according to plan. Like, you're going to be a six-figure earner. We can prove that mark, because we have years of data, hundreds of agents. Now I said 75% of the time. And here's why, because nobody's perfect. Everybody has a bad day. Everybody has a bad week or we take a week off.
Like I didn't, we can't create systems around perfection. And I think oftentimes teams do that or businesses do that. And I'm like, wow, you didn't do this week. And so now everything's shot. We have to create something such that no, one's perfect. We don't want to expect perfection. If you, if you execute three out of four weeks properly, you're going to be okay.
Mark Willis: [00:51:01] Got it. That's terrific. Okay. So, um, one, one of the things that I want to just dive into, we can do this briefly and yet I think it's an important conversation. I think there are a lot of agents that have great local businesses that might think that it's time to expand to secondary markets. What wisdom would you share that you've learned experientially with any agent?
That's got a local business that's thriving is based on their personality and their, their reputation locally and the brand that they built locally. What advice would you give to them that says, okay, I want to take what I've done in Portland, and now I want to go do it in Spokane. Now we're talking about and have to cross the state line.
We're going to have to go hundreds of miles. Um, we're in a now totally new market. And yet I know that what I built in Portland can be duplicated, say in spoon Spokane, what advice? And I know you're going to say patients first build what you have locally. Um, but what, at what point do you do that?
Chris Suarez: [00:52:29] Yeah. Um, you said when, you know, uh, that you can expand, I think that's the danger because everybody that does it knows that they're ready to do it.
And, and very few typically are, um, I was late to that game. I watched a lot of, uh, a lot of businesses fall apart. A lot of, um, um, well, a lot of little profit disappear into no profit, right? Because they weren't wildly profitable at home. They sold a lot of real estate, but they weren't wildly profitable and they had a lot of problems.
And, and w my first response to that is, um, if you have little profit, it'll get littler. I know that's not good English, but, but it will. Um, and if you have, if you have small problems, they will get better. So you have to be prepared for that. And I don't think most people are, I think most people begin to expand because they just think expansion, um, means their businesses getting bigger and they want bigger by addition.
And I actually, when we expanded, we cut a lot of things like that was our, the, the, the, the premise of our lead generation lever came about, because I said half the things we do in Portland are not going to work somewhere else. Like you say, real estate is often personality, energy relationships, my personal, I don't have like, my personality doesn't transfer into a new city.
And so what it, what it made me realize is, um, our business is not a sales business. We're a systems tools and models business, but most of us have not built our hub teams on systems, tools,
Mark Willis: [00:54:11] models. Yeah. The only, the only thing I would add to that. And, you know,
Chris Suarez: [00:54:19] you need people to, to, to execute a system or a tool or a model.
And then you have
Mark Willis: [00:54:25] to know how to find those people. You know, that's, that's key. And some people do that with greater ways than others. And yet it's always complex. It's always imperfect. And it's always challenging to find the right person, because even if you find the right person, you could end up in a situation where that person's life changes because the spouse is transferred for.
It's just an imperfect science. You got to stay at it
Chris Suarez: [00:54:59] because [00:55:00] people are not. Right, right. We need a system to attract system to develop, but people's lives are not systems. And that's a challenge for those of us who have run even systematized business and peep someone's life changes, not even by choice at times.
So you're right. You're you're very much. Yeah. And that is probably one of the biggest challenges because how do you develop relationships over long periods of time, enough to partner with someone in a brand new city in which you do not live, seeing them react? Like think back to what I said was so important, that is a challenge.
And that is also why I say my growth has been slower because I didn't jump into business with people quickly. Many of the partners that we have today, I have, I have. It's been a decade of relationship or a decade of collaboration as, as collaborators with the industry or, or five or six years of, of communication around, around what their business looks like, or, or, or being willing to help for years without any intention of partnership.
And then, and then three years later, four years later, right. That snowball begins and, and, and, and they become future partners. Yeah.
Mark Willis: [00:56:14] It's just, you're bringing value to people's lives. It's it's at the end of the day, that's what you do. And every story that you share shows that you're focused on the people you're leading and bringing value to them in a meaningful way that helps them experience the life and the career they want.
And over time, if you keep giving, just give, give, give. You know, I think it's about contribution. You'll give back always every time. So just so much wisdom that you've shared. Chris, I want to ask you just kind of, as we begin to wrap up our conversation, what, what are your goals? What's next for Chris Suarez?
I mean, what, when you look at what you've accomplished, how are you Chris? 43. 42. Okay. I was going to say, are you even 40 yet? Um,
Chris Suarez: [00:57:14] that kind of quick one, my friend,
Mark Willis: [00:57:16] well, you know, I turned 60 on Tuesday, so will I, it happens quicker than you can imagine. I say that as the near 60 year old, um, what, what's next for you?
What are your, your goals? If you look forward thinking eight, 10 years out, uh, What's next,
Chris Suarez: [00:57:41] you know, I get that question and I don't know, I really have a great answer to that oftentimes market and that's because I, I don't set tangible business goals, um, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 years out. Um, because I think then what happens is I get ultra focused on hitting.
If I'm going to set a goal, I'm going to hit it early on. I did that. And, um, and what happened was I was head down and missed, um, a lot of the journey or the experiences that I believe I was intended. Uh, I was, I was meant to create or have, um, because I was focused on getting to a hundred partners or 500 partners or a thousand partners.
Um, and. And, and I think, um, for me, life is about phases. Um, I'm in a, I'm in a great phase of my life. I have a 10 year old little girl and a 13 year old, little old little girl. And, you know, I said I was a, a city person before, but we, I believe life is meant to be experienced. And so we recently sold our city home and moved out to 40 acres and a small vineyard and, and have animals.
And people think Chris is this midlife. And I said, no, this is experiential living. And so as I look, as I look to the future, here's what I know. I know that our platform allows incredible. Business owners to build experiential lives and whether a hundred people that I meet want that experiential life, whether a thousand people want that experiential life, whether 5,000 business owners want that experiential life, my obligation.
And my mission is to make sure that business side can provide that to as many people as want it, our growth has been natural because I haven't forced it. Now there's some, there's some downside to that mark. Right? I, as someone that was, was sort of the director of growth, like there's definitely some downside.
Um, and, and I need some work on setting some very tangible, like growth goals, but my growth has been organic because my mission is what I care about. And, um, and, and, and maybe that's a future addition to our organization of someone that says, okay, great. You work on that mission, deliver that mission. I can help that growth happen.
[01:00:00] But I just, I wake up every day and say, Hey, am I, am I figuring out what complex problems are facing my business partners? And am I providing a simple solution that gets me up every single day and I love it, but the simple solution, the only reason for that is so that they actually, um, aren't stuck or, or spending all this time in the business problems, but they're spending time with their people and, and experientially living.
And, and for me, if I continue to do that from, from, uh, from now until the indefinite future, I'm a really happy person. Um, I I'll share one more thing, mark. Like I, I go back to the first conversation I ever had with you. And I know I've told you this, but this is, this is a really very impactful conversation.
You asked me a question, you said, Hey, W what type of car do you drive? And I, when you asked me that, I thought it was a very bizarre question. And at the time I said, well, I drive, I drive a Saab nine, five, and you said, okay, well, what kind of car do you want to drive? That was your second question. I said, Micah, I want to drive a Saab nine, five as a kid coming from where I was as a kid, I've always wanted to drive a Saab nine five.
And, um, and you had to den a conversation around, um, thermostat, right? Uh, like what you want versus what your people want. And will you need to change your thermostat even from a financial or, or, or number perspective in order to make sure that your people's thermostats are met as well? I've never forgotten that conversation.
I asked myself, uh, that to me was always this constant conversation of pushing on, on myself of, of whether or not. I was settling or whether or not I wasn't expanding my mind. My mind enough. So when people say, Hey, what's the five-year goal or 10 year goal. I do not believe that there's any limit on it.
And so that's why I don't put a number there, but what I do put a number on, or, or a tracker on is, you know, not every day is going to be experiential, but for the majority of my days, do I wake up and I go to bed and, and, and enjoy the experience that I had the day before. Yes. But I have conversations every week with my partners as well.
And I'm asking them questions to really get a gauge on whether or not they're living experientially. See if they are mission accomplished. If they're not. We have some problems to solve. And I don't believe that anybody doesn't deserve the right to have that experiential life. So I see every business owner as a potential place partner and it, then it's, then it's my obligation to, to, to, and I appreciate this platform right.
To share what that looks like. Um, and potentially it's their preferred for you. Sure.
Mark Willis: [01:02:58] Aside, I love because then mission focused as an organization where you're clear about who you are, what your values are, what matters to you and how you can help people live. The experience of their preferred futures is that those that's more meaningful in numerical goals.
And that's the substance that will support ongoing growth. I think that a lot of people. Bogged down in thinking that they have to set numbers. And I love the context of the unlimited, you know, potential, no ceiling, no glass ceiling. And so I just got to tell you that this has been seriously. One of the most stimulating conversations that I've had with a leader in the real estate industry in a long time.
And I, uh, I'm the biggest fan. I love what you're doing, love the way you're doing it. And I, I want to thank you for your massive contribution. Um, not just by sharing so openly in this podcast, but your massive contribution to the women and men in the real estate industry, who you were helping. Live their preferred lives and I'm inspired.
I'm uplifted. Thank you for lifting us all up and raising all of our ceilings today. Chris, I want to follow up, I could do a series of podcasts with you that that would go out on a weekly basis. If, if, um, if we could, we, we probably need to have a sick would have this because there's, there's a lot more curiosity that I have and a lot more, I'd like to learn that.
Thank you so much for sharing. This
Chris Suarez: [01:04:57] has been, I always enjoy our conversations [01:05:00] with a friend. Thanks for new to
Mark Willis: [01:05:02] have a terrific day. Thank
Chris Suarez: [01:05:04] you.
