Leap of Faith

For Mike*,  making the switch to Momentum was all about confidence. As primary lead generator on a small, highly successful big-box team, he had never tried handling the gritty “back-end” of transactions. In fact, being told repeatedly that the back-end was difficult, he began to have doubts that he could handle all aspects of his business on his own. But after eye-opening and motivating conversations with Momentum leadership, and hands-on help from Momentum’s broker-owner Brittany Brooks, Mike is now a front-to-back solo agent -- and finally in control of his own future. 

“Even though I had always produced top results, I had always been on teams, and I lacked confidence in doing everything on my own,” Mike says. “But I also really wanted to live my own dream life, and I knew that if I kept working for someone else, I was not going to get where I wanted to be. I needed to do my own business.”

Betting on Himself. Mike contacted Jon and Brittany, and discussed his goals and his numbers. “I saw I was only getting 30% after all the splits; it makes me sick thinking about it.  I was tired of living month-to-month.  But Jon had the confidence in me that I lacked in myself. He told me, ‘You just need to jump.’ It was like everyone else knew that I would be successful, and I just needed to believe in taking a bet on myself.”

Mike had to face his fear of failure. “But I said to myself, ‘I’m gonna try it.  Let’s go make some mistakes. Let’s fall forward and see what I can do.’ So, I ripped the Band-Aid off, and said this is for me and my family. I’ve got to be a little bit selfish now, and build my own future.”

Mike’s list of what he wanted from a brokerage was long: mentoring, systems for automation, more commission money, more training on how to become a top-producing agent, and accountability. And he decided Momentum offered it all. He quit his high-producing team, joined Momentum as a solo agent, and learned everything from start-to-finish himself.

Mike used Momentum’s portal video series, and then sat down with Brittany to go over specifics. “Brittany went through the documents line-by-line with me — I’d never done this before. I’d also never used Dotloop before, and Brittany is an expert on that. I’ve been with Momentum for 8 weeks, and I’ve learned so much already.”

Mike isn’t using a transaction coordinator for now, because he wants to learn all aspects of the process himself. “I want to learn to schedule inspections, use automated templates for emails for next steps, and negotiate. I know that 50% of the business is getting the lead, and the other 50% is to negotiate after the repair request.”

“I’m a front-to-back agent now, and I like it,” he says. “I don’t think I will do that forever; I can see my future as having a small sub-team with Momentum, where I have a showing assistant and transaction coordinator. Then I can concentrate on my ‘one thing,’ which is sales, and look into buying some investment properties.”

“The biggest thing I got from the move was to stop doubting myself, to realize that I am very capable,” Mike adds. “Momentum Realty helped me realize that.”

Not Easy Leaving a Team. Before moving to Momentum, Mike had made a list of pros and cons, and came up with only two negatives: He could ruin a friendship by leaving the team. And he could fail. Happily, neither happened. 

“It wasn’t easy making the break,” Mike admits. “And [my team partner] was a little salty for a while. But I think they respect my choice and they have no resentment that I want to do better for myself.”

Financially, Mike’s sales volume at Momentum is about the same as at his prior brokerage:  4 transactions totaling nearly $1 million in sales within his first month. The difference is that now he doesn’t lose 70% of his commission.

He also finds that being in close company with other people who work for themselves and make better money, is motivating. “That’s a better place to be than just with others who make the same income as you.”

Mike has also found that his hours are shorter because of increased efficiency.  “Someone else may take 80 hours to do what we can do in 40. That doesn’t make us lazy, it means we’re smart.”

Mike offers some advice: “When top producers are on a team, they need to make a pros and cons list and see what is the worst thing that could happen from a switch,” Mike says. “From there, it’s just taking a chance on yourself.”

Next-Level Training at Momentum. Mike says his big-box brokerage offered great training, “but couldn’t teach me how to produce more than what they were producing. There was limited direction, and most people just told us to buy more leads if we wanted to grow our business. It’s like you’re in high school and you make all As, and then you graduate to college and learn all you can, until they can’t teach you any more. Basically, you’ve outgrown them.”

“Brittany and Jon know different people in different industries, and they bring them in to train us,” Mike continues. “These are top-level people who explain the market, who know how to better serve clients. They are plugged into the market.”

The Power of Positive Attitude at Momentum. Mike immediately noticed Momentum has a very different vibe from his prior brokerage.  “Every time we went into that office, there was so much negative conversation, and it wasn’t conducive to success,” he says. “Moving to Momentum is a life-changer for those who never had the benefit of the positive mindset, and the confidence in themselves to change. Here, the leadership says we are going to help you succeed, you just have to be the other 50%; you have to put the work in.”

“No one at Momentum is required to come into the office; there’s no micro-managing,” Mike adds. “Momentum is efficient and less political. We are all self-sufficient and top-producing agents. We know that if we want to be successful, we just need to plug into the model.”

“I believe that at another brokerage you’re gonna have another 5-10 years ahead of you to get to where you could get in one year with Momentum,” Mike says. “If you follow their model, listen and participate, you will succeed.”

Working and Learning Together.

“Momentum gladly welcomes all good ideas,” Mike says, citing his work on revising Momentum’s Buyer Loyalty Agreement.

“I hadn’t used a Buyer Loyalty Agreement before. But I took Momentum’s 3-page agreement, tried to find ways to make it better, and made it into one page. Other agents were interested, and Momentum leadership encouraged me to share it. I uploaded it onto the Momentum inside Facebook page, and now most people use it. I also suggested that everyone else upload something that had made them successful, their wins, their best scripts or best practices. Momentum encourages us to learn from each other.”

“It’s so different from being on a team where you have to follow someone else’s guidelines,” Mike adds. “If Momentum’s leadership was secretive about everything they did, none of us would be here at this brokerage. When you try to keep things secret, you are in a scarcity mindset, and that’s the opposite of what Momentum is about.”

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*Out of consideration for his previous brokerage, we aren’t using our agent’s real name. But if you have questions or would like more information about “Mike’s” experience, contact us.