Episode 151 Transcript: Danielle Hayden
On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Danielle Hayden from Keller Williams Realty!
To watch the full episode, check it out on YouTube below. To listen, head over to Apple Podcasts. In the meantime, check out the transcript of the conversation below…
Taylor
Hey Danielle, how’s it going?
Danielle
Hi guys! It’s going really well, thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited about this.
Brad
Awesome, that’s exciting! Well, let’s get this show started. Tell us a little bit about you, like what do you actually do?
Danielle
I am a team leader. I’m one of those elusive team leaders of Keller Williams. So it’s basically my job to make sure that our market center is profitable and that our agents are happy and that we’re growing and growing. Finding new talent out there that want to see the win-win and they want to jump on board and make their dreams happen.
Brad
I like it, I like it. So when you were younger, is this what you had planned for the future?
Danielle
Not at all
Brad
Oh, man!
[Laughter]
Danielle
No, not one bit. You know, it’s really funny. I don’t think any kids go to school and just say like, “I really want to be a realtor when I grow up!”
No, that doesn’t happen.
Taylor
No, most kids don’t even know what that is.
Danielle
My kids do, it’s unfortunate. Sometimes, I’ll walk in the house and they’ll be like, “Oh did you have Gary Keller on the phone?”
They correct those real estate jokes you know. It’s a great industry to be in when you’re raising kids, such a wealth builder and a natural progression into a family business. It’s awesome!
Brad
Yeah, that’s cool!
Taylor
So what did you want to be when you were growing up? You didn’t know real estate then, so what did you want to do?
Danielle
I had to laugh I was thinking about this because there could not be a more apt description of my personality than the two jobs I wanted to do when I was in second grade.
The first one was, I wanted to be an astronomer. I loved the stars. Growing up in the valley north of LA, right past the mountains, the stars were really bright out there. I remember walking with my uncle, looking up at the stars and he’d point out all the constellations.
So, the first thing I did when I went home was put up those glow-in-the-dark stars in my room. My favorites were the ones that I put on the ceiling fan and they’d create like comets! I would say that’s the dreamer in me.
There’s also the archaeologist in me. I wanted to go out into the desert and dig for dinosaur bones.
The big dreamer inside of me chose two extremes, constantly battling each other. Now, it’s really fitting that I became a realtor with Keller Williams because that’s pretty much the job description: You got a dream, and you got to dig.
Taylor
That’s perfect! It comes first full circle. Maybe not what you have planned on, but it does come full circle.
Danielle
It sure does.
Taylor
When you first started out in real estate, did you join a team, or were you by yourself?
Danielle
Actually, I had grown up building businesses. That’s sort of what fell in my lap, I couldn’t help it. I’d walk into a business and I’d be like, I think we should do things this way. The next thing I know, I’d become the right-hand person of the business owner. That’s pretty much like how the story went, even though that’s not what I went to college for.
I remember I was kind of in-between jobs and I was trying to think, “Do I want to go back to school? What is it that I want to do?”
Then a neighbor of mine came by and said they’ve got a great position open at their brokerage and that I’d be great at it.
Basically, you’re there as a concierge to the agents, to find out what they need, find resources, plug them in, and send them on their way. That’s actually how I started in real estate.
At the time, we were between team leaders, which were the leader of the brokerage and the director of sales and growth. We didn’t have a productivity coach either, which is the person who launches new agents and teaches them how to get their business started.
So, I rolled my sleeves up, and I started talking to all the unlicensed folks out there who were getting their real estate license. I started doing career nights and I started teaching them. The company is insane with the amount of information they give you to build businesses so I learned so much.
Taking everything I learned, I started training these people to make double what I was making and I was like, I don’t think this is a long-term fit. I had two little boys, two beautiful little boys, at the time and I was on my own so I was like you know what, this is a big internal dilemma for me because I just started here and I really really love it.
So, I had an open and honest conversation with the owner of the market center and I sat her down and I asked, “What do I have to do to become a team leader?” And she said that I needed to get a real estate license. Okay done.
So, I got my real estate license and I joined a team.
I got my feet wet there, my business took off. Quickly, I outgrew the team. I loved the team but I was doing more production than everybody on the team and so I decided to take a bet on myself and I went out on my own. Within about six months, I was building the Hayden Group real estate services. I had a director of operations and a handful of interns. I started showing agent models and it really took off. It was beautiful and I forgot about being a team leader.
So, when Covid happened, we had no team leader. The operating officer of the market center was like, “Hey, remember that conversation we had three years ago?” and here I am today.
Taylor
That kind of worked out then, you wanted to do that.
Danielle
Full circle right? Yeah, I think this is a theme in my life. It works out though.
Taylor
So, when you are looking to build your team, I know you’ve been talking about looking to get those new agents and recruiting them. How do you go and what do you look for in someone new? Also, how do you motivate them to not give up in the very beginning?
Danielle
That’s a big question. First, I want to clarify that when you’re running your own sales team, the positions are similar. But when I was running the Hayden Group, which I’ve now put in a lovely little shoebox and put it under the bed at our market center, the team leader doesn’t compete with their agents right.
I now lead the brokerage which is essentially a sales team of 200 different business owners that are in sales for themselves and the brokerage is there to support them.
When I was running my team (The Hayden Group), we cast a wide net, I was really privileged to have the ability to get coached by a few different Maps coaches. Maps is the largest real estate coaching organization in the world, they’re fantastic and my second coach was Monica Reynolds. Have you guys ever heard of Monica Reynolds?
Taylor
I have not, no.
Danielle
She is amazing and is currently the director of Maps coaching with Keller Williams. She built a great career as a single mother and she built up a few businesses. I know she worked up in the ferry organization at some point.
By the way, she’s the author of the Perfect Real Estate Assistant course, which is an amazing course for anyone who is looking to go and hire. She said, “You better be looking at 100 resumes, if you’re not looking at 100 resumes you didn’t get to cast a wide enough net.” That was the best advice she could have ever given me. I followed a really strategic and proven model which was career visioning.
Basically, they have you go through 100 resumes, narrow it down to 25, and you make some phone calls. At that point, what you’re looking for is that phone voice energy, the professionalism. If they make it through that first 30 seconds, then you go deeper with them and you start to have conversations.
Eventually, we got to about 10 people and I brought them in for in-person interviews and the purpose was to really see who has a track record of success, who has come up against obstacles or adversities in their life and career, and what did they choose to do and how do they look back on it now.
Do they accept accountability for it?Oown their part in it? Do they shirk off responsibility and play the victim? You just start to look for those trends throughout their life and we go really deep with people in the hiring process and it’s really about finding out their thought process. What makes them feel like they’re successful? What natural strengths do they bring? And you never hire yourself, you don’t need two of me in a room, believe me.
So you find out where do you really suck and if you find that person with superhuman powers in that department. They have to be a cultural fit, you have to know what you stand for and what’s at the core. When people think of you, what do you want them to associate you with? They’ve got to be fully committed because if they’re not, it’s not going to work out.
Taylor
Absolutely! As you’re going through all this, I’m thinking about our own hiring process that we do here, what can we do differently.
Danielle
We could talk offline about that anytime you guys want. I firmly believe that any organization is only going to go so far as the team that’s behind it. You can grow as big as the team you have but they’ve got to be talented people. They have to be vision and growth-oriented, they have to be a cultural fit, and there is no greater decision that you will make in the growth of a company than who you decide to bring on to your team.
Taylor
Awesome! To go back to the second part of the question, how do you keep somebody motivated in the beginning? because the success rate is not good.
Danielle
Yeah, and it’s going to get worse. I hate to say that but we have more realtors now in the national association of realtors than we’ve ever had in the history of the national association of realtors which makes a lot of sense because we’re in a 10-year expanding market like things are great right now for realtors, of course. You can jump in as it only takes 40 hours to get your license in Michigan, folks!
It takes one week and it’s super cheap so we have a lot of realtors right now and the statistics are showing that fewer realtors are making more money meaning you’ve got these people that are just building this massive momentum and gathering a ton of market share. Frankly, the number of people who are making decent money is shrinking by the day and it’s going to be that way until we hit a shift and we lose a lot of realtors out of the industry.
Back to motivation, I always go back to this accountability program put on by Maps called Bold which I love and I live by it. Have you guys ever heard of Bold? I love Bold. Okay, I hated it at first, but everyone HATES accountability at first.
I live by it and there’s a bold law that says, “Logic makes you think, emotion makes you act.”
If anyone is struggling with motivation, you think your way out of it, think about the vision that you want for your life and you have to ask yourself, what will it actually do? What will it do for me, my kids, my spouse, my finances, my spiritual well-being, and my physical health?
If you can really sit in that feeling, which is uncomfortable, who likes to sit right and just feel? But that’s where the motivation comes in and you can know what you’ve got to do. But doing, it’s a whole other thing and that’s the right mindset.
Taylor
Yeah absolutely. Kind of switching the questions a little bit here, what is the worst property you’ve been to? What’s the one that sticks out?
Danielle
There are two. They both involve unexpected occupants. There was one where I walked in and I knocked on the door and it was an investment property in a college town. There was like a hotel, you could just tell there were like 50 million students sleeping there from the night before.
We open the door and there’s all this like hair sticking out from under all the blankets, there’s like a bunch of girls in there sleeping. I felt a little uncomfortable and unsafe because I thought they maybe didn’t know there was a showing going on.
The second unexpected occupant: we walked in and right there in the middle of the living room floor was just like a stone-cold dead bird.
Taylor
That’s a good sign.
Danielle
Yeah no, there are no pest problems in this house. That was a little strange, so, I took a picture. You have to document these things in life. They’re what you look back on later.
Taylor
Most of the time, I’m sure if you were telling the story someone’s like, that didn’t happen. And you’ll be like, oh no I have proof.
Danielle
Oh, 100%! I’ve taken pictures of like 10 point bucks on the wall behind me. These are the things that, as a realtor, you probably shouldn’t take pictures of in people’s houses. Guys, we’re not all perfect.
Taylor
Yep, if you could start over today with all the knowledge that you have today, is there anything that you would change? Anything you’d do differently?
Danielle
Oh yeah. I’d believe in myself a lot more. 100%. I don’t know if this is a girl thing or a guy thing I don’t really know. I’ve tried to think about this a little bit. I have two young boys and they grow up in sports and they’re like they’re so confident and they’re just living out loud.
I don’t have any little girls but I do know a few of my friends with little girls and I remember how I was when I was a kid. Girls are just so much timider and they’re a lot less likely to live out loud, to really be their biggest self.
I think there’s a lot of like, “I don’t want to come off as too much. What are people going to think?”
If I had learned that skill as a teenager before my teenage years, I would have gone into my 20s a little differently. I would believe in my own intrinsic value and I would know that whatever situation I go into and whoever I’m talking to, I’ve got something to contribute to their life. There’s no reason to sit down.
I watched Brene Brown last night. I think life is a matter of developing your own self-confidence and bringing everything you’ve got to the situation and being okay when you fail and being okay when the idea that you say in the room makes you blush immediately after you say it. That’s okay because that is the quickest way to learn. You naturally just give to others and improve their lives. That’s when you know you’ve made it when you can give, give, give and you watch everyone around you shine. That’s really rewarding.
Taylor
I love that you said that too because it’s so relatable for everybody. I’m sure everybody’s been in that spot or is still in that spot.
Danielle
Yeah, check out Brene Brown, it’s called The Arena. It’s the second time I’ve watched it but it was like eight years ago or so. It pumped me up just as much the second time around. She’s awesome!
Taylor
Isn’t it funny too how when you watch stuff or read something over and over again there are different pieces that you pick up that weren’t relevant at the time?
Danielle
Yeah, it’s this weird little thing where every day we’re a new person right? Little by little, your brain just starts reorganizing and you could have talked to me 10 years ago and I would have gotten something completely different out of the situation but perspective is everything and I think putting time in your schedule to reflect is really important.
We’re so busy all the time nowadays and we fill whatever time that we’re not busy. We’re like zombified and watching Netflix. I don’t watch Netflix. Just exhausted with everything on there but I think that putting some time in your schedule to reflect is really important because that’s where you really have a moment to decide proactively where you want to go.
If you take that minute to assess everything and point in a direction with purpose, that right there can really change your life.
Brad
Yeah, absolutely! I like it. What is one of your favorite books you’ve read?
Danielle
Alright. This one’s controversial. I was actually thinking about this because what you guys originally asked me was about a business book. It’s the same answer but let me give everyone a cautionary tale when they read this because it will probably turn you into an idealistic person at first. We don’t need any more of that in this world right now. It was Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Have you guys ever read that?
It’s like 1200 pages long, it’s ridiculous. There’s like a 200-page speech on money but it’s a fiction book. It was written by a gal who grew up in communist Russia and she came over here. As an artist and a writer, she wrote a book about what happens to society when you go from where you are today to the extreme of what could have happened in Russia. She does it in America and she paints that whole picture but she takes it from the viewpoint of a businesswoman.
I love the fact that the protagonist is a businesswoman who runs a railroad, she’s a railroad tycoon. The moral of the story on that one was that your life is not meant to go full circle, funny enough. Your life is not meant to wander and wander down a meaningless path where every way the wind blows you, you end up in that direction.
The purpose of your life is to be a straight line and to go with the motion. Go forward and go purposefully. Stay strong on your convictions and live on that path where every day you’re shooting, you’re shooting across the sky.
There’s a lot of taking responsibility in that book, there’s a lot of things he has done right and that’s what every evil person in the book does is they don’t accept any responsibility. There are the people in the book that say I’m in a situation, I want to be over there I’m over here. How do I get there? They just crank it out and that book, it really inspired me.
Brad
That’s awesome, I like it. So how can people get a hold of you?
Danielle
Well first off, why should people get ahold of me?
If y’all are interested at all in a career in real estate because it is a money maker. I’m willing to have a conversation with you. I’ll be really real with you about what it takes and when’s a good time and what you need to think about.
Likewise, if you’re already in real estate and you’re thinking about a career at Keller Williams, you’re more than welcome to reach out to me. I’m happy to explain to you what the pros and cons are and what the cost and benefits are.
My phone number, I’m actually just going to give you all my cell because I’m crazy like that. My cellphone number is 310-748-7442! You can reach out to me there or on social media, I am Danielle Hayden Team Leader.
Brad
Sweet, I like it. Hey, thanks for coming on sharing your story with us today.
Danielle
Absolutely, thanks! I appreciate you guys.
Check out Danielle Hayden:
Keller Williams
https://thehaydengroup.kw.com/
Facebook: @https://www.facebook.com/DanielleSellsWashtenawCounty/
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