SWOT Analysis

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. All right, thank you guys for tuning in. Today we're going to talk about a SWOT analysis and really about leadership and asking questions to get a pulse on your, your team and your company to make sure that not only are you going in the right direction for your company and business, but your, your team and your agents are going in the right direction too, and holding them accountable, which I think is everybody's favorite thing, and for people to hold them accountable. So, Ashley, tell me, what is a SWOT for those who don't know? Let's, let's break it down. Yes, a lot of people are not aware, but it's basically four areas that you can break down yourself or break down the company, others. And what those entail are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. And so, you know, I like to put them on a four quadrant, if you will, and kind of write down each chunk of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. And I think you can look at it as far as, like, know, inside threats, outside threats, market threats. Same thing with, like, weaknesses. There's somebody in your local market that's doing something better than you are. But also in the same aspect, are there opportunities that you have to outshine competition, other realtors, you know, other offices. What is it that your office or you as an agent are doing that's, you know, killing it? So your, your strengths. I think it's really nice for people if you really. 1 I think you can do on yourself. Right. But it's also a really good idea to have other people maybe give you some ideas as to what they think your strengths and weaknesses are. I think that could be good. Right? Like, you think you're good. Maybe you don't realize you're really good at something, or maybe you don't realize that you need a little bit of help in one area. And I, and I think that's probably a great point right there, is that a lot of times people are so apt to be able to go quickly to their weaknesses because they can identify their weaknesses so quickly, but then they have a very difficult time to be able to identify their strengths. So I think it is important to have other people there and make it kind of a group effort. One of my favorite things when doing this activity, like with a group and being able to look at it from, you know, let's say we're going to Do a SWOT analysis on our company. I would have four different tables and have paper on it. And I would do the S for strengths, W for weaknesses, O for opportunities, T for threats, and then divide out the group amongst those four different tables. What I do with my people is the rules are you're not allowed to talk, like, whatsoever. So we'll spend five minutes at each of the different tables and we're going to rotate through. You can write on there, you can draw on there. You can, you know, put explanation marks next to the things that you really agree with. Star it. You can cross out something or put sad face or, you know, whatever and still react to other people's, you know, answers onto each of those different quadrants. And I think it's really cool to be able to see how once you a move so many people through there that since we're not talking aloud with it, you know, I think people are more apt to be open and honest with what is really going on and then they don't feel that judgment for other people. But, but, you know, from a company perspective, we need everybody's opinion and you need that feedback and honesty so that we can make the shifts and alterations as we see fit and to make sure that we're going in the direction that we want to go. So once we get done and everybody goes through all of those different tables to fill out their respective area, we then collectively do one as a group. And then what I love to be able to do from our weaknesses is being able to find solutions. So still break up the four different, you know, groups. And now let's find solutions to each of these different opportunities that are in here to better the company. And again, I mean, more brains together, the more powerful it's going to be. But I just think this is so important. The first time somebody ever said, like, we're going to do a SWOT analysis, I'm thinking like, bringing in the SWAT team. Like what? But no, it's so good. I do one every single year and then I do one from a company perspective and then each department and each, you know, director of our, you know, staff that we have that handles an apartment so that they can see, like, what needs to happen from a high level and then what do I need to do as well, and then see how we can marry those different things together to make sure that we're in a cohesive plan. I really like that idea of having it, like, done at the office and without. Without talking. So actually we have a, we have a meeting next week So I think I might steal some of that. And I tried to get everybody. Like, the first time I did it, everybody had their own color. And I was like, well, that was kind of stupid because, like, now they're going to be able to say, like, oh, green was Steven. This is what he said. You know, judgment. So what I really do is everybody gets the same color. So everybody gets black first, and then they can grab a colorful color to be able to then draw on there afterwards, just to be able to keep the playing field easy. So. Yeah, yeah. So what do you, like? How often do you do a SWOT analysis? And then how do you, like, do you make your agents do it? Do you make your leadership do it? Like, what does that look like in your company? Yeah, I would say that we don't do them frequently enough. Definitely something, I think, to work on and I think maybe more so even just like specifically stating it as a SWOT analysis, because in our quarterly reviews, like, we'll ask questions like, what have you done? Well, what do you need help with? So it's probably not necessarily the quote unquote, SWOT analysis. It's a different way around it. I like to do it, at least at this point in time, annually, like you talked about. So I think sitting down with the group this next week will be beneficial. Myself, I think I like to try to do it like twice a year, and I try to do it more. So, like, for me as an agent, but then also for me as the broker in our company, just trying to be aware of what's going on, what's changing? I mean, real estate, I feel like it changes every single day. So, like, where we're going, what we're doing, what's the next best thing, which we both know that the next best thing isn't always the next best thing. So, you know, is it worth it to chase that new shiny thing, which we've talked about? Not always the case if we're are already doing something really well. So I would say that I think quarterly is a realistic goal for us to start doing, which we're at our. At our one year or our one first quarter review right now. So I think it's a great thing to implement moving forward, but I just think it's also a really good idea to keep in tune with your agents to just, you know, if maybe a threat or weakness is exposed, you know, then you have the time to figure out what that looks like as far as a solution. And, you know, it's a good measurement when you do the next one to see if that still shows up, if it gets addressed. I think it'd be kind of nice to keep those papers for the next time and see like, what did we do that in that interim that made that happen. And you know, it's a good way for retention because we're addressing people's concerns and maybe they weren't comfortable enough to say it wide out, you know, in the wide out open, but they were comfortable enough to write it down in a silent phase. So I think that, that that's a fantastic idea of quarterly. What about you? Yeah, so honestly we probably don't do it enough. You know, on an agent level. Our director of member relations, she does a 30, 60, 90 with our agents. And so, you know, I think that this is something that, just talking out loud is that I think sometimes these different type of activities, if you will, you know, if it's a 30, 60, 90, if it's a SWOT analysis, if it's just a quarterly review, like I think people like go into them like, ugh, here we go again. Here's the same old thing, same questions every single time. So I think it's kind of would be great to be able to mix this up a bit. You're still asking those same type of questions, engaging where you're at. So it's not just the redundancy and you're, you're not just getting the same old bullshit answers from everybody. You're, you're really trying to deep dive and discover with them and have them do self discovery. So I'm going to have her maybe shake it up a little bit with different agents so that we, we can get more buy in from them because it's difficult. Like I have one agent right now that I just learned yesterday that she's been, she's canceled the last six meetings with our director of member relations for 30, 60 90s. Like, what are you running away from, homie? Like, let's get down to this. So to me, even though that, you know, like she's not doing the, the one on one with her, like that shows me that there is a red flag. And now it's my, my job to jump in there and see what's going on and try to find that, you know, do a discovery with them and maybe something's going on in their personal life, something's going on in their business, I don't know. But you know, we don't need to be wasting everybody else's time and, and we're here for business and so let's, let's get down to business and get down to the reality check. One of my favorite things to do, and I actually got this from Valerie Garcia, like absolutely freaking love it, is, I call it a struggle sheet. And so basically, if you want to use the same concept of your weaknesses but asking, you know, your, your agents, your team, give me a list of everything that you're struggling with. You know, be as specific as possible. So these are not vague type of things. I went bullet point actionable things that you're struggling with. And then from there, what I have them do is rank them in the priority, what is the number one thing that you're struggling with? And give me your top five out of this full list of how many ever that they put on their sheet. Then from there, what I like to do is take that number one and that whatever the thing is that you're struggling, that number one thing and the question is, why are you struggling? Or I'm struggling with this because. And you have them answer it and you then continue to drive down and continuously ask, why is that answer true? Why is the one above that you just said, why is that true? And you do that a total of five times, right? So there's five different answers. So it's what am I struggling with? Why is that true? Why is that true? Why is that true? Why is that true? Why is that true? And what I love about this is the first time that I did it, I was like, this is bullshit, right? Like, this is stupid. But what it made me do is really get down to the nitty gritty of the truth of why I'm truly struggling with it. And I bet you 99% of the time the reason why you're struggling with whatever it is, whatever their number one struggle is, it drills back down to them. They're struggling because they're not taking the time, they're not prioritizing it. You know, they don't know how to do it or, or lost, you know, whatever it may be. But when you do that over, you know, five different times with your top five different struggles and you take those bottom answers of the reasons why you now have your game plan, your action plan to then throw it into your 30, 60, 90 or whatever your, you know how you're going to be able to, to get from where you are now to where you're wanting to go and accomplish and overcome those different struggles. So I think like, as a leader, you really have to be able to your peeling back those layers of the onion for them to be able to discover. Because a lot of times we don't want to have that our own reality, truth looking right at us in the mirror. And we need those different type of activities to be able to drill down to the real hard truth. And sometimes those are the chin checks that we don't like, but we definitely need if we're going to be looking at growth. I think that that's true. Right. Of not just real estate, but any industry. I think that if managers and were in tune with their employees or saw that somebody was struggling, I think taking the time to just sit down with them and, you know, those questions are really always thrown back to that person. Right. So you're just asking why you're not necessarily giving a solution. I mean, you might be able to give a solution during that timeframe, but while you're peeling that back, I think that, you know, again, it shows that you're vested in noticing that something's off or that they might need some help on something. But I don't think that maybe probably do that enough. And I think that people shy away from talking about struggles because then it, you know, people think that they look weak when I guess I look at it differently. Like, and obviously we've talked about on podcasts, like, if we can talk about our weaknesses, we also realize that it's probably more of a shared situation and that 100 other people are feeling the same exact way we're feeling, but people just don't like to talk about it. You know, I had a post on Facebook yesterday just about, you know, like, I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was from the On F Yourself book. But, you know, more or less, like, if you want to win, like, people are going to be mean, they're going to talk about you, those types of things. And I was actually shocked. The amount of people that, like, sent me a private message was, you know, I was like, I really needed that today. And like, I said, like, I needed it today, too, so I posted it. And I think that's what we forget, is that we're all struggling with something somewhere along the lines if we can be open about it or have someone to help peel those layers back, then I think it helps everyone move on. Well, it's the vulnerability. I mean, we've talked about it before that, you know, I think as a leader in your. In your group or even just in your own for your own self, like, you have to be able to be vulnerable with others that are around you so that they know that you're struggling with certain things too. And you never know that that person, like you may be able to help the other person with their struggles, but they also may be able to help you with yours as well. And so down together, you're lifting each other up versus both of you bottling everything up and not having that open discussion. And you know, it's kind of funny. Before we started this, we were talking about another webinar that I'm going to be on and it was asked of me, like, well, it's kind of said to me, like, you're always on stage receiving an award and I want to be up there. Like, what do you do? Well, first off, just have an open conversation with your people. Like, I think that people try to find that, that easy button in trying to grow their company, grow their business, grow themselves. This is the only thing you have to do to go sell more real estate and sell more transactions or grow your company. But in reality, it's having a human to human conversation, peeling back those layers, drilling down and being able to lift those people up from their strengths and then continue to push them towards, excuse me, from their weaknesses and then push them forward with their strengths as well. So that you're trying to close that gap and making them feel that they're not having all of these weaknesses, but in reality they have all of these strengths and they're not focusing on it. So I, I think that's what drives people. Right? Like it's, it's having somebody that truly believes in you and understands where you're coming from without judgment. And that is what leadership is about. Not just a title. Truly wants the best for you. Absolutely. Um, and you know what? The, the great part of all of this too, when you're going through these SWOT analysis or struggle sheets or whatever it is, your quarterly reviews, if your people are honest, you are going to be able to identify if they're going to be a good fit for your company for the long haul or not. And there is nothing wrong with being able to discover that, you know what, they're just not a part of your company anymore. And you can help them onto their next step. Like, you don't just have to cut the ties and kick into the curb, but you can help them come up with a plan. Like I have one. And it's so funny that we're going into this. Katie Mortimer, she was an agent of mine and I'm throwing out her name here because I am so proud of what she is doing. She, her son passed away. I Believe it was brain cancer. This has been a long time, so I'm not refreshed on the story, but her son passed away early on. His name is Brady. And she is so passionate to be able to help other people. And it was Saint. Saint Jude, right? Yeah. And, you know, in real estate, she did. She did well, but she had an opportunity to be able to go and start working with St. Jude on being able to help other families in this. In this realm. Right? And so I told her, I said, you know, Kitty, like, I love you as a person. Real estate's not you. You need to go out there and share your story and touch other. Other hearts and other lives to be able to lift those families up that are going through what you went through or, you know, struggling through these different times that you know what it feels like, and you're so passionate about it and you want to be able to help people. I ran into her last week. She was back in town, and she came up and gave me the biggest hug. And, you know, she was like, that was the. The most pivotal moment in my life that somebody like you, you were willing to tell me that I need to go pursue something different and go pursue my passion. And I was like you. I mean, she would been successful with anything that she would been doing, but in reality, like, she was not living her passion, and so therefore, she was not living her fullest potential. And I think that it's. A good leader is able to tell people that, hey, this might not be your best thing, but let's find something else, because I see this in you, and let me help you get there. Let it be just straight up, you know, telling them, and they need to hear that chin check, or maybe it even is, you know, you have connections because you're in this, you know, industry of relationships, that you can put them in place and with somebody else, there should not be any sort of hard feelings or anything. Like, I like to think that I help impact her life and her family's life now to then help many, many, many other families that are out there suffering through the same things that she went through. So, you know, we started with SWOT analysis, and we go into leadership, but here we are. That leadership sometimes is scary to have those frank conversations. The very first thing you have to do is have the conversations and understand where your people are, right? And I think, you know, that's the thing. Like, leadership is funny, right? It doesn't happen overnight. I mean, you can be made a leader, a leader overnight. You can be put in charge of a company overnight. But that true, like, leadership happens over time. You know, I don't think, again, there's. There's no manual for how to, you know, lead teams or how to have those conversations. And I think it comes with trial and error sometimes, you know, thought that conversation is going to go a little bit different than what it did. Um, you know, but had a couple of those, you know, and it's gone the other way, like walking in, like, oh, this is going to be a horrible conversation, you know, and it turns out to be fantastic. And I think that it's just, again, people saying it's actually like, same with this, this book that I was reading. Like, you put this story in your head ahead of time, right? So maybe there is something that's slightly bothering you or you've scheduled a meeting and you, you build up this story in your head that then just eats up time and energy and then you get to it and it wasn't that bad at all. So it kind of goes back to eating the frog, right? Like, just get it over with. And then, I mean, there was a seller that I didn't want to call because I thought that something was going to come up that I had heard through the grapevine and, you know, like, sat on it for a day, it wasn't good for my energy or anything, and then called and it was no big deal, and here we are. And so, you know, it's things like that that you learn or, you know, you start to see an agent that just isn't right instead of like posting, putting that off until a quarterly meeting. I mean, there's no reason why you can't have a meeting tomorrow. Sometimes you've had to do that too. Like, hey, you have time later today, which then you, like, you'll see the stark look on their eyes. Like, why? You know, and I'll be honest, like, there was one a couple years ago on the same thing. It was just something I heard through the grapevine. And I think, I think you and I are very much that. That person today. Like, I could. I could sit and stew on that for a really long time, or I could be super upset about it right away and make a big deal out of nothing. Which again, comes over time. And instead it was just a matter like, hey, I heard this. We're going to talk about this today because I'm not letting it fester for me or for you. And we're putting all rumors to squash today. And I think that that just makes life in the workplace way easier for Everyone. That actually happened, like when we went to conference and when we got back, I was told that Heidi. And I can say this because we've had an open conversation about it, right? Heidi, one of my high producers, absolutely freaking love her. She's somebody that, you know, I think maybe that's a topic that we should talk about. How, how I took me so long to freaking recruit her and Robin and, and Missy and Alex, like, how to get all of them to come over. But anyways, the, what I was told through the grapevine was that Heidi and Robin were going to leave my company and go open their own. And when I was told that, I was like, I don't think so. They got it pretty damn good. And these gals, like, I, I, I'm confident that they would old me would have been like, holy, like, what's going on? Like, oh my God, like, I can't have that happen. Like, what does that look like to the, you know, the public? And you know, then I got to, you know, where I am now. I'm like, you know, and if they do, they do. That's part of the game, right? Like, that's part of it. I don't want them to leave. And so I would have in the past came up with this whole scenario. I would have came up with every comeback that I could have thought that they would ever said. Like, I'm already doing an argument in my brain, like, I can't do that anymore. I, once I start, you know, if I even get an inkling of me started going this rabbit hole, like, I shut myself down. I can't do that. So when we got back, I said, hey, Heidi, let's have a, a chit chat real quick. And I said, I, I was told this, that you were planning on leaving your company. She looked at me and she was like, hell no. And she started laughing and she was like, there is no way I would ever leave. She was like, I didn't want to leave the last time that I came here. Like, or when I came here. And she called Robin over and she told Robin the same thing of what I heard. And Robin laughed and she was like, hell no. Like, that gives me anxiety just thinking about it. And I was like, well, I just wanted to just clear the air, like, you know, I think so. I mean, if you are, then let's figure out how we're going to do this. Like, but I think you have it pretty damn good here that you're not going to want to go open up your own company. And, you know, Then we had all this conversation, and really, that conversation, like something that could have been bad, like, really turned into a really positive conversation about, you know, how happy they are, you know, the things that they have learned by being with us and, you know, the support that they have that they're not going to be able to get anywhere else. But really, in all of that, too, when we were talking, it was. It was almost like they. They were like, well, who. Who said this? I mean, it's a small town America, right? Like I said, at the end of the day, it doesn't. It doesn't matter. But Heidi called me back in probably a week later, and she was like, I've been really thinking about that. That really bothered me. And I was like, well, like, we have to kind of look at this from an outside perspective. She had other obligations, and so she didn't go to conference this year. And so therefore, like, she's been to conference year over year with us. And I was like, maybe they thought that because you weren't there that maybe you were looking at something different. Who knows? It doesn't matter. She goes, but what they're doing, whoever told you this is trying to get under your skin, not mine. Under your skin. I said, oh, I know that, and I'm very, very confident in that. But again, you know, where I am today? I'm confident in where I stand. Where I was five, seven years ago, like, I would have been shitting brick, like, thinking, like, I can't have these girls leave me. Like, I don't want that to happen because of the Persona that it has. So don't let things fester. Have the conversation. Sometimes they're hard conversations, but those hard conversations turn into some really glorious ones. And Heidi and Robin are two of my biggest fans, always, you know, coaching me on and cheering me on and, you know, always giving me the. The pep talk that I need, and always also giving me the reassurance. Sometimes business is hard and they can recognize that. They, you know, believe it or not, I have this face that you can read pretty well, but they then are able to. To see that and step in and say, hey, get your head out of your ass. Let's go. You're doing something great here. So kind of funny looking back at some of these things that. How I probably would have reacted to where I am now. So. Because there's nothing we can't come back from, right? Like the. If there's a shitty situation, like, yeah, it's gonna happen. We're gonna run into them constantly. But we'll get through this just like we do with everything else. And I think each of those scenarios and situations is a time to be able to grow. And it's self growth and that uncomfortable feeling. It's just a nice little package balled up with the growth inside of it. And sometimes it takes a little bit further to discover that packaging inside of it. Yeah, I mean, I think you talk about too, like, and lots of things you, you know, you do better in person. Like, you know, I say like in person is your jam. And I think that that's true too. With that. I know you asked earlier about, you know, what my week had looked like and I said it was doing quarterly reviews. I think that that's also something like. That didn't happen at my last brokerage. We got an end of the year and it was filled with strange questions, questions that didn't necessarily have to do with real estate or that I wasn't always comfortable asking or answering. And so when I, you know, started the brokerage and started, you know, we started off with yearly reviews. And then last year I started after we started coaching, we kind of talked about being more in tune a little bit more frequently and started the quarterlies. And I do think it's, it's just a really, for me, I think it's just a really nice check in. It's also people, I think, appreciate us making time for them as well. I mean, they know that I'm busy, they're busy, that they know that every three months at the very minimum, they're gonna have to sit down with me for an hour. And you know, it's questions like we talked about, like the SWOT analysis of what have you done in the last three months that have helped your real estate career? What frustrations have you had in the last, you know, three months? Like, what do you need help with, you know, what are you unsure of, you know, those types of things. And I've had some really great conversations with people as to things they just, you know, weren't sure of or maybe needed a little bit more help on or especially when you get these brand new agents too. And they're still trying to figure out this, you know, how to get transactions and you know, that with one agent and gave him a whole slew of ideas of where to go and where to be seen and, you know, just. He was just right in a way. And it's kind of fun to watch that, you know, too and watch people kind of see that through. But also, you know, you gave us a Numbers check form last year, and this was the first time that I had everyone, like, truly fill them out because it does a little bit of work. And so the know your numbers. And I think that was a really eye opener for some people as to like, you know, what is in the pipeline, what has closed, what's coming? And again, if. If they had goals set, like, where are we that. That actually falls in tune with that? Or what is my income for the next three months looking like, you know, and I think it was a reality check for some people, like, okay, like, I need to make some other plans or need to really, like, hone in on some of these active, you know, clients in order to make that better. Or some people that are doing really well and they're like, wow, like, we're only like into April. And I'm like, way past where I was going to go. So I think that being able to have those open conversations, you know, I just think back to even, like jobs outside of real estate. And like, nobody. We've talked about this before, but like, nobody had those, like, discussions about finances. And what does the next six months look like, even if you were a, you know, biweekly paycheck, like, do you have the means to continue what you're doing? You know, and one of the new agents too, like, making sure that she has a tax account set up, right? Like, you've got income coming in now. Like, you need to make sure that when tax time comes, you have money set aside. And I didn't have that discussion when I started in real estate and paid for it, you know, so setting these agents up, again, I think it just, I think it, to them, it just shows that we're like, truly vested in them as humans to make sure that they can make ends meet and have a plan in place if they can't, or what can they do to make those numbers fit better with what they're looking for? It's all so important. I mean, like, you made a great point on, you know, you're busy and the agents are busy, but being able to be there and have that moment and, you know, you're able to make sure that they know that you are listening to them. Right? Like, I also think, and when I look at some of these leaders, they. They want to dictate, for lack of better term, of what's going on. But you have one mouth in two ears for a reason. Listen twice as hard or twice as much than what you're talking. And so when you really are able to ask these questions, and get them to open up, you will identify so much more than just the numbers or so much more than just the production. There are other driving factors. Let it be family, let it be kids or you know, goals and aspirations in life. But those are the ones that you then now can coach to and pull them through on those. Um, but people, I think people a lot of times when they go into these types of meetings, they're just an order taker. They're just writing down the answer and they're not really truly getting into the feels of it all. Because at the end of the day, my agent success is my success and I, I truly believe that. And look at that, um, that if I can help impact their life and coach them up, then the more successful that they are going to be means the more successful that I am going to be as well. And then that means it's like, attracts like more people that are looking for that success are going to be coming and following and wanting to be a part of it as well. Um, but if you have people that are, you're not having the conversations with, maybe not a good fit for your company, you don't know what in the world their goals and aspirations are. Like. You're. You may have a toxic environment in your company and you don't even know it because you don't even have a pulse on what you're, what your people are looking to do. So, so important leadership just talks or gets down to having open conversations, having heart to hearts. Not in a bad way. Could be in a bad way, but not always in a bad way. Lift each other up and at the end of the day, everybody's going to win. Yeah, cool. Well, thanks for tuning in today. We're on time, so tune in next time. Please like and share. Subscribe. Trying to get this out there to as many people that we possibly can. Thank you everybody that have continued to listen to us. We'll see you next time. 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.