Justin Stoddart
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show I am your host, Justin Stoddart and fired up about today’s episode as it’s one that I know is very pertinent to top agents and aspiring top agents. And it’s how to recruit, listening to this show, you’re going to learn principles from a master recruiter, they’re going to help you attract the talent that you need to get your business to the next level. Let me just remind you that the purpose of this show is to help you think bigger. I know that as you do, as you start to think bigger, your actions start to change, and your outcome starts to change. And ultimately, you’re able to go on to live a life of great impact, which is what my mission and passion are all about. So I’m excited to put you in front of people who are big thinkers. Just like today’s guest, his name is Connor Schwab. So first and foremost, Connor, thank you for coming on the show today. excited to have you here.
Connor Schwab
Appreciate it, Justin. It’s a it’s an absolute pleasure.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, good stuff, man. So Connor and I have not known each other very long, but I learned really quickly. He’s a master recruiter his back and let me tell you a little bit about his background. He worked for years. recruiting scientists into the biotech space. He lived in a Silicon Valley area at the time, and that we all know how competitive it is to for computer engineers, right? You’ve got Google, you’ve got Facebook, you’ve got all these massive companies like Apple, etc, that are trying to recruit talent. Well, the, the biotech space is similarly extremely competitive. And so he worked for a recruiting company, not only worked for them, but he was actually the top 20 out of 2500 recruiters. So the guy did this all day long and was masterful at it. In addition to that, he’s since got his MBA from a university that maybe some of you are familiar with. If not, it’s you’ll want to be familiar with it. It’s called actin a CT when he walked me through what the curriculum look like. And it was honestly probably the answer to all of the things that I thought were wrong with a university education like it was very much in action, doing work, working with real companies, helping them get to the next level. So his education and his work experiences is super legit. So I’m excited. to have you here, Connor on the show today to teach all of us how to be better recruiters.
Connor Schwab
Absolutely can’t wait.
Justin Stoddart
Let’s get into it, man, let’s get into it. So let’s talk a little bit about maybe give us three principles, three principles that you feel like if people did these things. They would be better recruiters. Now, keep in mind that some of the people are listening to this, and they’re a solo real estate agent. And they are saying to themselves, I’m ready to hire my first assistant, I can’t do it all myself, right. I’ve got a transaction coordinator, but it’s still I need more help. Right? And they’re at that spot in their business. There are others that already have a very full team, right? And they’re trying to attract talented real estate producing agents to their team, or maybe they want a brokerage and they looking to attract talented teammates to their brokerage, right. So I would imagine that these principles would be applicable to all three of those scenarios. Would you agree?
Connor Schwab
Absolutely. That’s Yeah, and so the three principles would be the first is, you know, start today, and that is start to build your talent bench right away. The second is more getting into kind of the interviewing and the vetting process. And that is different ways of interviewing. It’s called behavioral versus hypothetical. And the last one is kind of doing your background check. So you know, who you hire on your team. And once they’re hired, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re in a committed relationship. So you want to make absolutely sure that the person is going to be type person you need before you kind of pull the trigger and bring them on board.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Three great points. Let’s get into the first kind of building your bench, right Talk to us a little bit about what that is, and then what it looks like on the ground for a real estate agent.
Connor Schwab
Absolutely. So this can be used for solo agents, but it’s also extremely applicable to someone who’s building a team on a large scale. That is you. Anytime you come into contact with someone who you think kind of has the right stuff to be on your team or shares qualities that you share or you admire, that you could see on your team, you want to have some sort of lists going and you have, you know, you start with the number one, the perfect person that would be perfect on your team, and just kind of build it from there. And these can be people that you’re meeting out of dinner friends at an open house, you know, maybe you see a listing that they have that you think’s excellent. Anything like that, and you start to build it. And the reason why this is important is because sometimes a recruiting effort for a top agent can take three years. And you know, you want to start having those conversations early and being warm and being inviting and building that relationship so that when the timing is just like selling a house, so when the timing on their side is good, maybe maybe their kids graduate and go to college and they’re looking for something new or they You know, have a disagreement with their boss or their company changes, then all of a sudden, you know, your your invite to come onto their team as a Top Producing agent is all of a sudden very realistic.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I love this point, Connor for a couple of reasons. One, I think is that relationships take time when people are going to make a commitment to go to work for somebody, they’re simply putting their entire entire family and livelihood in the hands of that person with whom they’re going to work. And that doesn’t happen overnight. Right? It takes time to develop those relationships. And maybe like a simplified version of what I hear you saying is you need to dig your well before you’re thirsty. Like if you’re, if you’re going to find somebody at the moment you need them, it’s too late because it’s going to take time to build that trust and get them to really believe the fact that they can, that they can come work with you and that their situation in life is going to get better. That Is that a fair way to put it?
Connor Schwab
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
Justin Stoddart
Great stuff. Okay, so would you say then that somebody should even if they don’t have the need right now, let’s say that they’re new agent, they’re like, I have no need for an assistant yet or my team’s perfect. I’ve got all the right players, all the right producers, I don’t need to recruit. You probably see better than I do the mistake in that thought, right? Is it like I’m not in recruiting mode right now.
Connor Schwab
Life happens, you know, you might have the perfect team setup. And then life happens, you know, someone might move their spouse they might have to move or some something less fortunate happens in their lives with all sudden they can’t work anymore. They have to make an arrangement or or they get headhunted to another opportunity themselves. So that’s why having that bench is so important. So that if all of a sudden you find yourself kind of up the creek without a paddle, you you have a plan, you have a place that you can go right away to your bench to your list, and you can start calling people right away.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. That’s that’s super profound. And I think there’s probably some people that are saying like, I don’t ever want to have an employee, I don’t ever want to have a teammate. I just want it to be me. And I think that there’s probably a whole nother episode that we could do as to maybe that why that’s flawed and All thinking, if you’re looking at the burden of having somebody work with you, I think you’re missing the opportunity of one you spending more time in your area of brilliance as well as empowering someone else’s life to be in there. Right. So I would encourage you if you’ve totally discounted this conversation, because you’ll say it, I’ll never have that need. I think you’re thinking too small, and maybe selfishly as well. Right. I think, oftentimes, when we, when we think that way, it’s all about us, as opposed to who who else is life can I help? I know that the best producing agents and teams that I see out there, it’s it’s an abundant mentality. It’s like, Look, I’ve got something great, and I want to share it, and I want to help more people improve their lives and their situations. So good stuff, man. Actually, let’s go to point number to walk us through what that was again, and then again, kind of the details of that.
Connor Schwab
Yeah, it’s, it’s very simple, and it’s, it’s pretty profound. And I think every agent, anyone who’s ever interviewed can use this right away. It’s very simple. seen as it’s just a car About a week after New Year’s, I’ll kind of use a New Year’s example. If you had a sample size of 10 people, and they were all trying to convince you that they were going to do their new year’s resolution this year, all 10 of them could probably tell you about their plan, how they’re going to wake up at 630, go to the gym at seven, you know, have that healthy breakfast, and they’re going to continue that, you know, diligently for the rest of the year. But as we all know, out of those 10 people who knows, maybe only two will do it. But if you speak with all of them, you know, Jan, one, hypothetically, they can all tell you about their plan, and it’s probably a brilliant plan. But when the rubber meets the road, very few people actually act on that. And so the easiest way that I was talking with 10 people and I wanted to bet and know who was going to hit their new year’s resolutions this year, I’d say, can you tell me about your New Year’s resolution last year? What What was your plan? Did you hit it? And how about the year before that and The best predictor of future performance is is is their past behavior. And so that’s essentially what behavioral interviewing is. And you’re using people’s evidence from their past, to predict their future and how they will perform. So instead of saying, Hey, you know, when you get into this position on your first day, what are you going to do? You would say, hey, in your last position on your first day, how did you approach it? What was your plan? What were the numbers that you set to hit? And did you hit those? And if you didn’t hit those, what did you end up hitting?
Justin Stoddart
That’s powerful Connor, like there’s nuggets of gold and what you’re saying right there because again, yeah, all of us are absolutely brilliant in the in the upcoming year, right, but, but how are we in the year that just passed? Tons of wisdom. So when you’ve asked those questions, do you you get a feel for who people are based on if they get score me or if they get excited? Like Let me tell you about last year or so. God, that this year’s gonna be better?
Connor Schwab
Absolutely that and that’s when the subtleties make a large difference and and when you can be sitting in front of someone, because if someone can dive right into specific details about the plan, then you know, like the more detail that have and more character, they can tell the story with this, obviously an indicator of how true it is. But if they’re brief, or they stumble over details, or they really don’t have much to say at all, or they kind of answer a different question, that’s a pretty big red flag.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Man powerful interview skills right there. Because you’re at you’re trying to identify in a short period of time, is this the right person for the, you know, to get us to where we want to go and can I help them get to where they want to go? Ultimately, when you’re when you’re assessing if somebody you know, the right fit for a team for a position? It’s, are they going to, are they the kind of person that accepts the help and does the work right or is this Someone that I’m going to have to constantly be prodding along. That’s, that’s brilliant man. And I think every real estate agent that’s listening to this is going to thank you for that. You know what, you just shared it there. Let’s jump to the third point Connor. Kind of this vetting of references. Tell us a little bit about how you go about doing that. And maybe why that’s important.
Connor Schwab
Absolutely, you know, if you’re working in a, in a local market, you know, everyone knows everyone through basically one degree of separation. And someone can, they can even have a great past or, you know, they might even be able to interview extremely well, even behaviorally, and bring up some great evidence from the past and paint a really pretty picture for who they are as a candidate. I’m an optimist in general. And so that when interviewing that can really get you into trouble. So you have to kind of curb your optimism and really think almost you almost guilty until proven innocent in a way because it’s You’re going to be investing so much in this person, that they really need to earn your trust and your confidence in order for them to come on board if you invest so much time and resources in them as an employee. And the way these references references are, are so important, and one of them, you know, when people give you references to take, that can be helpful. If you ask really pointed questions, you know, would you hire this person again? If you had to rank this person amongst your team, how would they stand. But at the end of the day, they’re listing people that they chose, so they could choose people that they’re in good favor with. So they might have had some sort of falling out or butt heads with someone or not necessarily had a great reputation with the majority of people around them, but they could select one or two people to be the references. So you want to make sure you’re you’re speaking with former managers, if it’s a reference that they list, and then what I actually prefer to any of them is more like Blind references is what I call them. And that’s when you just start to call people around their sphere. And ask about their reputation. I mean, super, if you’re highly hiring a real estate agent, the easiest way would be to call into the office and just say, Hey, you know, I’m interested in buying your listing house, I was thinking about working with this agent, like, what do you think? Or you could walk in and, and you could make a relationship with another agent and ask them, you know, like, hey, how, how is this agent? Like, what have you heard about him? A friend recommended but I’m just I kind of wanted to do my own research. So you’re using your network to do some background and check in on people to make sure they weren’t, you know, butting heads or kind of a bull in a china shop wherever they were last.
Justin Stoddart
I love that. You’re right. It’s it’s really interesting how people tend to kind of almost like socially engineer their references, right? They’re curated and it’s like they’re almost scripted as to what they’re going to say. Whereas When you start kind of extending beyond that you start to find maybe a different perspective.
Connor Schwab
It takes some diligence.
Justin Stoddart
One of the things that that I’ve learned, actually from a Keller Williams recruiting class was that every reference you ask, Is there anyone else that I should talk to you because nobody really wants to bash anybody are destroyed their career, right? But if you can say, Is there someone else that I should talk to you that might have even a different perspective? It’s easier to say, yeah, you should probably call this person, right. Who had maybe like a really terrible experience with them. And it allows you to get insight without somebody feeling like they’re, you know, being a villain to that person’s future.
Connor Schwab
That’s absolutely right. And I’m so happy you brought that up, because it slipped my mind. That’s a great point.
Justin Stoddart
And this has been so insightful. I really appreciate you coming and pouring in the time. If anybody here in the Portland market is interested in getting to know Connor Schwab, he’s here in this market and I’m sure you can be accessible. if people have questions outside of this. I feel like your expertise You know, would, you know would benefit a lot of people? Is there some way that people could get in contact with you Connor if they had a few more questions for you?
Connor Schwab
Yeah, absolutely. The the email that I’m using right now is careers. kW pp@gmail.com. Cool. And that’s the the email that I’m using for recruiting right now.
Justin Stoddart
It’s good stuff. Okay, great careers. Kadim e pp@gmail.com. I love it. Now, Connor, you’re a big thinker, obviously at it at a young age, you’ve done some impressive things, graduated from some impressive institutions, and done some some incredible work for not having, you know, had a 30 year career, right? You’ve kind of condensed that down into a shorter period of time. And I know your future is very, very bright. I’m very confident of that. You’re obviously a big thinker. You come from a family of big thinkers. What does a guy like you do to continue to expand your own possibilities to continue to to to think bigger yourself.
Connor Schwab
Yeah, absolutely You know, I’m glad you brought that up and I was thinking about it for the past 2030 minutes or so and I saw this, this is a it’s called the best self journal and, and it’s also goes into the theme with new year’s resolutions. But I’m a huge huge goal setter and basically breaking down large goals into into small daily habits and this journal basically as a platform to incorporate almost any best any like self help book you’ve ever read. You know, whether it’s like the one thing or Habits of Highly Effective People and it’s, it breaks down large goals into daily habits and your and planning for your daily routine. So coming into the new year, I’m huge at goal setting. And starting my day with this and ending my day with this instead of my cell phone has been kind of the small thing that is allowing me to think bigger.
Justin Stoddart
That’s great. I would agree. Or just second that that I’ve started this year kind of my big a habit that I’m focused on first this year that I started probably fourth quarter of this past year, which is daily journal, night, and morning. And it’s amazing how much of an impact it has when you can get clear on paper where you’re headed, right, remind yourself where you’re headed, as opposed to just all the reactive stuff that we get hit with. So I love that it doesn’t surprise me at all that that’s your thing. And it kind of is insight into how all of us can think bigger. So I appreciate you sharing that. And I’ve been really fun. Number one to get to know you and number two to have you on the show and have you poured in such value. And I would encourage anybody really to reach out, get to know Connor, he’s a great guy. That will be a great person to have in your network and someone from whom you can continue to learn from and have have again in your network. So thank you, Connor for coming on today and sharing what you shared and again want to thank everybody for tuning in. And my final request, three simple words, which is a charge and an invitation all of us which are going Think bigger. Thank you Connor for helping us do that today and thanks everybody for tuning in.
Connor Schwab
I really appreciate it.