On this episode of rokrbox TV, Josh meets with Derek Wagner, owner of The Artisan Group in Colorado Springs.
Rewinding to the start of his career, Derek reflects on his first day selling real estate back in 2001. After two decades in the real estate business, Derek admits that getting started on September 11th—an unforgettable day to jump into any new career—was “obviously terrifying. We were worried about the direction of the country, where we were gonna go, if homes were gonna sell.”
[1:15] Derek expands on how different the real estate industry was back in 2001, specifically in terms of technological impact and online lead generation, a time “back when we didn’t have internet. Well, we had the internet, obviously, but we didn’t have the internet as we know it today.”
He goes on to explain the marketing plan he developed at that time, a strategy that utilized “old-school” techniques—real estate books, newspaper ads, and various forms of print marketing—and emphasized the value of building relationships in person, rather than internet-generated leads and virtual interactions.
[2:20] He tells Josh that his sales didn’t start climbing until April 2002, when the market picked up, allowing him to close 36 transactions in a 6-month span. Within 3 years, he hit 48 transactions, and Derek’s team quickly skyrocketed to become the #1 agency in Colorado. Eventually, Derek came to the conclusion that being a bigger team wasn’t for him, motivating him to downsize the agency into a smaller “ninja” team.
[3:25] By 2007, without the future impact of websites like Zillow, Realtor.com, and the like, Derek’s agency was the #1 website in Colorado. “If you’re not on the first page of that home search,” Derek says, “you might as well just not be on the internet.”
[4:15] However, following the rise of the internet, Derek tells Josh that they were “drowning in leads” by mid-2007. This prompted them to rely on an ISA service for a couple years. Although this offered his team more time and freedom, Derek explains, “Our conversion went down significantly. We weren’t converting at the same level that we were, so we switched to someone [local] to help us out with conversion.”
[5:10] The decision to invest in a local ISA solution led to an inverse effect: the team’s conversion rate went back up, but the agents’ time and freedom were jeopardized as a result. “The life was sucked out of me,” Derek says. “It was almost a full-time job, managing an ISA. I essentially was just done with that by 2015.”
[7:00] The effort to find a balance between business and freedom was a difficult endeavor, and ultimately led Derek to partner with Josh and his team at rokrbox. “We kept coming up with the same thing,” he tells Josh. “You’re either having great success with conversion, or [having] the life sucked out of you by training these ISAs. Now, we have you guys [at rokrbox], who stepped in with this fantastic system.”
[7:35] Expressing his appreciation for his agency’s easy and anxiety-free onboarding process with Josh’s team, Derek exclaims, “I felt like we just plugged, and played. Instantly, we were getting call transfers. And I don’t have to train anybody,” he adds, laughing. “You guys train us.”
[8:00] Josh commends Derek’s success, telling him, “This isn’t your first rodeo. You’ve been around this whole internet lead-conversion game before it even got popular.” He proceeds to touch on an interesting statistic in the real estate industry: the quantity of lead registrations versus closings.
[8:20] Acknowledging lower internet traffic back in the early 2000s, Josh says, “We’ve seen this crazy evolution over the last decade and a half, of all these wonderful companies—Boomtown, Commissions Inc.—to create more traffic for people. [Agents] are just buying traffic. You’re not actually acquiring clients. There’s some work involved.”
[10:00] Derek proceeds to tell Josh about the annual retreat he plans every year for his team, a 3-day trip that allows them the time to reconnect with one another, discuss goals for the upcoming year, and formulate a game plan for success. “We’re small and mighty, and just a very, very productive team,” Derek says.
[11:20] He also mentions that many of his agents can now go on multiple vacations each year, and have the freedom to spend more time with their families, thanks to the service that rokrbox provides. “We wanted freedom [in our lives],” Derek explains. “We really wanted more time. rokrbox really helps us get there. You can take your time, [and] be present in the moment.”
[12:45] After years of intently concentrating on their team’s GCI alone, Derek expands on his team’s efforts to focus less on the numbers, and instead distribute their focus more evenly across other aspects of their business, including their personal health, prosperity, and freedom. The result? Derek’s team ended up hitting a whopping $1.1M in GCI by September this year, and—as Josh points out—they “still have the fourth quarter to play.”
[13:10] Josh agrees with Derek on the importance of creating time and freedom in our lives, and the necessity of “finding that ‘why’, that meaning, that purpose…We [at rokrbox] like to say that our purpose is to move people forward. Whatever that ‘why’ is for you, that’s what you need to be following, every day. We get into business to earn freedom in our lives.”
[19:10] When asked how rokrbox has impacted his team, Derek makes it very clear right off the bat how much he appreciates the rokrbox onboarding process. “I’ve always had the worst onboarding experience[s],” Derek tells Josh. “Onboarding is my great anxiety, and it will make or break my relationship with that company.”
Luckily, in Derek’s opinion, rokrbox certainly delivers on their promises—and that includes more than the “next level” onboarding process.
[19:30] “You guys are phenomenal,” Derek admits. “Everything you guys said you were gonna do, is what you’ve done…if you want time, freedom, and leverage, [rokrbox] is a very inexpensive way to get some leverage in your life, very quickly.”
[21:35] Thanking Derek for his feedback, Josh explains, “We put a lot of time and energy into under-promising, and over-delivering, because we know that you never get another chance at that first impression. That’s why we’re a completely transparent organization. All of our work is done inside your [team’s] CRM. You can see all the calls, all the texts, all the emails.”
Derek also has nothing but praise for his rokrbox Client Care Manager and rAMP-UP Coach, Kelsey, who makes herself available to address any questions or concerns from Derek and his team around-the-clock.
[22:15] “She’s a rockstar,” Derek gushes. “That girl is amazing.” Laughing, he goes on to explain how his team always scurries to “clean up” leads in their CRM before their meetings with Kelsey, so “it doesn’t look bad for her.”
Smiling, Josh adds, “It’s kinda like having a personal fitness coach—that outside influence holding you accountable—to [help you] reach your goals and dreams.”
Thanking Derek for taking the time to be part of this latest rokrbox TV episode, Josh concludes their time by expressing his excitement for the upcoming year, and is looking forward to rokrbox’s continued partnership and shared success with The Artisan Group!
