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July 19, 2024

Top Realtor Productivity Tools for 2024: Insights from Nikki Miller

Unlock realtor productivity tools and secrets with Nikki Miller, VP of Lever by Movoto. Learn to use cutting-edge tools and systems to transform your business. Join Mike Mills as he and Nikki explore top Realtor productivity tools for 2024, discussing robust real estate systems, technology for lead management, and effective mentorship. Nikki shares her favorite tools that have helped her and other realtors excel. Don't miss this episode to enhance your productivity and close more deals!

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The Texas Real Estate & Finance Podcast with Mike Mills
Top Realtor Productivity Tools for 2024: Insights from Nikki Miller
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Business Marketing Coaching

Discover the secrets behind skyrocketing real estate productivity with insights from Nikki Miller, the powerhouse VP of Lever by Movoto. Learn how to leverage cutting-edge tools and systems to transform your real estate business. Tune in to find out how you can boost your efficiency and close more deals in 2024!

Join Mike Mills as he sits down with Nikki Miller, the VP of Lever by Movoto, to uncover the top Realtor productivity tools for 2024. This episode is packed with actionable insights on how real estate agents can streamline their workflows and boost their productivity. Nikki discusses the significance of building robust real estate systems, leveraging technology for better lead management, and the role of effective mentorship in achieving business growth. She also shares her personal favorite tools that have helped her and many other realtors excel in their careers. Don't miss this episode if you're looking to enhance your productivity and close more deals!

Key Takeaways

Integrating Technology with Personal Touch

Nikki Miller emphasizes the importance of blending advanced technology with personal client interactions. Realtors can leverage tools like Lever by Movoto to automate and streamline tasks, freeing up time to build stronger, more personal relationships with clients. This balance helps maintain a high level of service while increasing efficiency and productivity.

Building Effective Real Estate Systems

Creating robust real estate systems is crucial for productivity. Nikki highlights that having a structured approach to daily tasks and lead management can significantly enhance a realtor's ability to handle multiple clients and transactions. Effective systems ensure that important tasks are completed consistently, even when unexpected challenges arise.

Mentorship and Continuous Learning

Mentorship plays a vital role in a realtor's success. Nikki shares her experiences and the benefits of learning from industry leaders. Continuous education through mentorship and training programs can help realtors stay updated with market trends and innovative practices, fostering professional growth and adaptability.

Top Realtor Productivity Tools

Nikki reveals her top productivity tools that have proven to be game-changers in the real estate industry. Tools like CRM systems, automated marketing platforms, and lead generation software can help realtors manage their workload more effectively, close more deals, and improve overall business performance.

Strategic Time Management

Effective time management is a cornerstone of realtor productivity. Nikki discusses strategies for planning and organizing daily activities to maximize efficiency. By prioritizing tasks and using productivity tools, realtors can ensure they focus on high-impact activities that drive business growth.

 

Time Stamped Summary

[00:00 - 02:00] Introduction and Welcoming Nikki Miller

  • Host Mike Mills introduces the episode and guest Nikki Miller.
  • Brief overview of Nikki’s background and the focus of the episode on Realtor productivity tools.

 

[02:01 - 08:00] Life Happens and Building Systems

  • Nikki discusses the reality of life’s unpredictability and the importance of having systems to manage productivity.
  • Importance of having a plan to ensure the most important tasks are completed.

 

[08:01 - 12:00] Ideal Week Concept

  • Discussion on the concept of an "ideal week" and how it helps prioritize tasks.
  • Balancing personal and professional responsibilities through structured planning.

 

[12:01 - 17:00] Consistent Productivity

  • Nikki emphasizes that success comes from stringing together consistent, productive weeks.
  • The significance of focusing on incremental progress rather than perfection.

 

[17:01 - 22:00] Transition from Realtor to Business Owner

  • Nikki shares her journey from being a real estate agent to starting The LEAD Syndicate.
  • Challenges faced and how she addressed her personal frustrations with the industry.

 

[22:01 - 28:00] Building The LEAD Syndicate

  • Nikki talks about the creation and evolution of The LEAD Syndicate.
  • How the platform provides comprehensive support for individual agents.

 

[28:01 - 34:00] Importance of Mentorship

  • The value of mentorship in real estate and personal development.
  • Nikki’s experience with mentors and the reciprocal benefits of being a mentor.

 

[34:01 - 40:00] Integrating Technology with Real Estate

  • Strategies for balancing technology and personal touch in client interactions.
  • Tools and technologies that enhance realtor productivity without losing the personal element.

 

[40:01 - 45:00] Top Productivity Tools

  • Nikki reveals her top productivity tools and how they help realtors manage their workload.
  • Specific tools mentioned include CRM systems, automated marketing platforms, and lead generation software.

 

[45:01 - 50:00] Overcoming Industry Challenges

  • Common challenges faced by real estate agents and how to overcome them.
  • Real-life examples and practical solutions for maintaining productivity.

 

[50:01 - 55:00] Strategic Time Management

  • Tips for effective time management and planning daily activities.
  • Importance of prioritizing tasks and using productivity tools to focus on high-impact activities.

 

[55:01 - 60:00] Final Thoughts and Call to Action

  • Nikki’s final advice for realtors aiming to enhance their productivity.
  • Encouragement to visit Ojo.com and Lever by Movoto for additional resources.
  • Closing remarks by Mike Mills.



Guest Bio

Nikki Miller

Nikki Miller is the VP of Lever and Agent Programs at Ojo, bringing over a decade of diverse experience in real estate. As a former practicing realtor, Nikki has a deep understanding of the challenges and needs of real estate agents. She founded The LEAD Syndicate, an innovative leverage platform designed to support individual agents across the country. Nikki’s expertise lies in creating high-level systems and processes that enhance productivity and efficiency. She is also a passionate mentor and educator, co-hosting The ONE Thing Podcast, which has garnered over 11 million downloads. Outside of real estate, Nikki is dedicated to empowering young adults through her role as chairman of the board at KWKC, a nonprofit organization focused on personal development and coaching for the next generation.

 

Resources

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Lever by Movoto

  • Website: Lever by Movoto
  • Description: A comprehensive platform providing productivity tools and support systems for individual real estate agents.

 

Ojo

  • Website: Ojo
  • Description: A technology company focused on providing innovative solutions for real estate agents, including lead generation and management tools.

 

The ONE Thing Podcast

  • Website: The ONE Thing Podcast - https://the1thing.com/podcast/
  • Description: Co-hosted by Nikki Miller, this podcast offers insights into productivity, personal development, and success strategies.

 

KWKC (Keller Williams Kids Can)

  • Website: KWKC
  • Description: A nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering young adults through self-development events, coaching, and scholarships.

 

Recommended Books on Productivity and Real Estate:

  • "The Millionaire Real Estate Agent" by Gary Keller
  • Description: A foundational book for real estate agents focusing on building successful careers through proven systems and models.
  • "The ONE Thing" by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
  • Description: Explores the concept of focusing on the most important task to achieve extraordinary results.

 

CRM Systems for Realtors:

  • Examples: Top Producer, Salesforce, HubSpot CRM
  • Description: Tools to manage client relationships, track leads, and streamline communication.

 

Automated Marketing Platforms:

  • Examples: Mailchimp, Constant Contact, BombBomb
  • Description: Platforms to automate email marketing campaigns, manage contacts, and analyze marketing performance.



 

Transcript
Nikki Miller
(0:00) Life happens. (0:02) As one of my agents always says, it's like become my favorite stage phrase. (0:06) She says, life is liking today, Nikki.
 
(0:08) And I'm like, yeah, life, life, life's every day. (0:11) We're never going to avoid that. (0:13) You get sick, kid gets sick, a catastrophe happens, house is on fire, like world's on fire, whatever it is, right?
Mike Mills
(0:19) Life is life. (0:19) There's a lot of life going on these days, for sure.
Nikki Miller
(0:21) Yeah, there's a lot of life going on these days, for sure. (0:24) And so the question becomes, what system or process do you have in order to get the most important things done, knowing that life is always going to life, right? (0:32) I always laugh when someone's like, oh, well, when life calms down a little bit, I'll do this thing.
 
(0:36) I'm like, great, let me know when that happens, because I would like to sign up too, right? (0:40) It's just, that's never going to happen. (0:43) And so you have to figure out how you build productivity around you, knowing that life is going to life.
 
(0:49) How do you do the most important things, knowing that the day will happen? (0:53) You will have the deal fall out, you will have the client who loses their mind, you will have the other agent who doesn't do their job, like whatever it is. (0:59) And so when I talk about systems, I think people get stuck in like, it's got to go to the same way every time.
 
(1:04) And I say, no, no, no, no. (1:05) A great system is such that the most important things happen no matter what happens, right? (1:10) And that's when you build a really good productivity system, especially, I think.
Mike Mills
(1:21) ♪♪♪ Well, what's up to all you real estate rebels out there? (1:24) So you know that with everything going on in the world right now, it seems like the only thing that we can be certain of is that change is the only constant. (1:34) So things go up, things go down, things go sideways quite a bit.
 
(1:38) And you have to constantly adapt. (1:40) And that's the only way that you're going to keep your sanity and survive with everything that's happening right now. (1:45) And this is the reality for your day-to-day life, but also for your business.
 
(1:50) Anyone in the real estate game over the last two years has experienced this full force. (1:53) But we might be in a place where there could be a light at the end of this long tunnel that we've been traveling down. (1:59) So rates are looking like they're starting to come down.
 
(2:02) The market is expecting a rate cut sometime pretty soon. (2:05) And inventory is really starting to build up, which is going to ultimately help the price of homes come down a little bit. (2:11) The question is when the market does change again the next time, because it will, will you and your business be ready for the flood of buyers and sellers coming your way?
 
(2:19) Because if you've survived the game through most of the recent changes thus far, then you will be the beneficiary, the beneficiary of the next big real estate boom. (2:28) So are you ready for that? (2:30) Well, you are in luck.
 
(2:31) You've stumbled upon the Texas Real Estate and Finance Podcast, and I'm your host, Mike Mills, a North Texas mortgage banker with Geneva Financial. (2:38) And every week we bring you experts from in and around the world of real estate to equip your business and your brain for what's ahead so you can be prepared. (2:47) And today's episode is absolutely no different.
 
(2:49) So my guest today has been selling real estate for over a decade, but her real superpower is her ability to leverage high-level processes and systemization because not only just using technology, but also in the fundamental personal and business practices in everything that she does. (3:08) She is so good at it, in fact, that she teaches and trains on this very topic all over the country. (3:14) She's built an entire company around it and hosts a podcast with millions of listeners centered around this high level of productivity.
 
(3:20) And she's here today to share all of her secrets. (3:23) So please welcome to the podcast, VP of Lever and Agent Programs at Ojo, Nikki Miller. (3:28) Nikki, how are you today?
 
(3:29) Let me get you up there on the screen. (3:31) There we go. (3:32) How are we doing?
Nikki Miller
(3:32) I'm great. (3:33) Thank you so much for having me. (3:34) Ooh, I got applause, too.
Mike Mills
(3:36) You get applause, yes, I know.
Nikki Miller
(3:37) It's a fact.
Mike Mills
(3:37) You got high-level production value here with me sitting in the attic.
Nikki Miller
(3:40) I love it. (3:42) Well, you said all my secrets, and you can already tell I'm getting a little red because I was like, uh-oh, all my secrets. (3:47) This podcast might go a different direction, Mike.
 
(3:50) This might be a podcast you didn't know you were paying for.
Mike Mills
(3:53) Well, hey, whatever gets everybody to tune in, right? (3:55) So yes, I was gonna ask you if you're ready to share everything that you got there, but I'm sure there's gonna be some limitations on this. (4:03) But I really appreciate you sitting down with me.
 
(4:05) I know you're a busy gal. (4:06) You got a lot of stuff on your plate right now. (4:08) You are in beautiful Southern California, is that correct?
Nikki Miller
(4:12) Yeah, I was born and raised in LA, and that is where I continue to reside.
Mike Mills
(4:17) All right, so I'm in Texas, obviously.
Nikki Miller
(4:18) I consider myself a part-time Texan, though. (4:22) Everyone thinks that I'm from Texas because I have such strong associations and affiliations there, and I'm there at least once a month, but I am actually a Californian.
Mike Mills
(4:32) Oh, I got you. (4:32) Why are you here once a month, out of curiosity?
Nikki Miller
(4:36) So historically, I'm with Keller Williams. (4:39) I run the One Thing podcast, all out of Austin. (4:42) And then Ojo and Mavodo are out of Austin as well.
 
(4:46) So amongst everything I do in real estate, and I own investment property there, I'm just constantly there, I feel like. (4:52) I consider myself, like I said, I'm a part-time Texan. (4:55) You're a Texan, but- And I'm married to a Texan.
Mike Mills
(4:57) Okay, well, see, there you go. (4:58) So you've been welcomed in. (5:00) So when everything goes sideways, we'll bring you on over.
Nikki Miller
(5:03) Yeah, exactly. (5:04) Although, from what I hear from all of you, you don't want any more Californians in your mess.
Mike Mills
(5:08) Ah, it's okay. (5:09) It's just about the person. (5:11) It's not necessarily where you're from.
 
(5:12) We're just mostly concerned about the person. (5:15) Hey, you know what? (5:16) And the thing is, is Texas is awesome because, look, Austin is its own little thing, obviously, like compared to the rest of the state.
 
(5:24) But I think having a place like Austin that is, let's call it purple. (5:29) I don't even know if I'd call it blue necessarily. (5:31) Let's call it purple.
 
(5:33) That gives a lot of balance to the state. (5:35) And I think you have to have a little bit of, because in Texas, really all anybody cares about is personal freedom. (5:41) That's really it.
 
(5:42) When it boils down to all of it, just let us do what we wanna do. (5:45) And if you wanna do what you wanna do, go for it. (5:48) And I can do what I wanna do.
 
(5:49) And everybody's okay with a few little rules in place to keep everybody- And we're all good. (5:53) Everybody's happy. (5:54) So that's generally what it's all about.
 
(5:56) But there are certainly some folks out there in the sticks that don't want them dirty Californians coming out, but I'm not one of those.
Nikki Miller
(6:04) Okay, good, good.
Mike Mills
(6:05) Yes, all right. (6:06) Well, I appreciate you being here, obviously. (6:08) Now, I wanted to start off, well, obviously we're gonna get into Lever and Ojo and all the things that you guys do.
 
(6:15) And obviously a little bit of your background so we know how you got to this place. (6:19) But I always kind of like to start things off with something that's a little more impactful. (6:24) So if you had in your mind, because you're out there talking about this on a regular basis.
 
(6:28) So when it comes to productivity, when it comes to systemizing your day, all those kind of things, if you had one thing that you just couldn't, if you were starting this or you couldn't live without, like what is the one trait, habit, quality, whatever you wanna call it that is most impactful to you when it comes to being incredibly productive with what you do in life?
Nikki Miller
(6:50) Ooh, that's a great question to start us out with. (6:57) I think if I had to choose one, well, behaviorally, it would be this idea that I've predicated in my whole life and career, which is the ability to build a system. (7:09) And what I mean by that is I tell everyone, the way that I know if something really matters to you is you will have built a system around it.
 
(7:17) And whether it be intentionally or unintentionally, if something matters to you, like look at your own life, you have built a system around it. (7:25) And anything that matters to me, productivity included, I've built a system around it. (7:31) And so my life is very boring.
 
(7:33) It's very systematized. (7:35) And anything that matters to me has a system to it. (7:39) And so if we're specifically talking about productivity, then I would say the number one thing that I do is I just will not enter a day without a plan.
 
(7:47) And I even mean if it's a weekend and I don't have a plan, I will plan to not have a plan. (7:53) Because someone who is an achiever like me, like you, and a lot of people listening to this podcast, it's gonna be hard for you to just sit around and do nothing. (8:03) And sometimes your mind needs that.
 
(8:05) And sometimes your brain needs that. (8:07) And your body needs that. (8:09) You need to have a day to give yourself permission to vegetate, whether you can do it for 30 minutes, an hour, whatever your time limit is, or you can do it for a whole day.
 
(8:17) My life is systematized such that if I'm going to do that, there's a plan for me to do that. (8:23) Otherwise, I will sit on the couch for five minutes and then start thinking about all the things that I could be doing or should be doing. (8:29) And I'll get up and I'll stop doing that.
 
(8:30) And I'll literally work myself to death. (8:33) And so everything I do, every time I walk into a day, it's never on accident. (8:38) Every day is purposeful.
Mike Mills
(8:40) And I'm sure if you're like me to a certain extent too, do you get that feeling of, I guess the best word I can use is what I would call guilt, where if you're doing something here, then you have this feeling like you're not doing these other things over here. (8:57) There's this, I'm doing this, (9:00) but where I'm referencing this is, (9:02) if you didn't go into the day with a plan, (9:05) if you didn't go into the day with like, (9:06) I'm gonna accomplish these things, (9:09) then, and you're just kind of letting the day (9:11) determine what you're gonna do, which most people do, (9:14) then there's this, if you're a high level of, (9:16) like if you, I don't sit around the couch, (9:18) I gotta get moving and do stuff all the time, (9:19) but I will let things dictate to me what I'm doing that day.
 
(9:22) And then the whole time I'm doing that, I'm thinking, man, I should have been doing this or I should have been doing that. (9:26) If you don't have the plan, is that fair to say?
Nikki Miller
(9:29) Yeah, exactly. (9:30) I mean, that's why I have the plan because exactly at first I thought you were gonna say, you feel like that anyway. (9:35) And I said, no, that's the purpose of the plan, right?
 
(9:37) And yet we're totally on the same page because if I don't have the plan, then the day is just happening to me. (9:44) And I referenced this in so many scenarios, to the point that if I tell people often, if you don't have goals and you don't have beliefs and you don't have values and you don't have a mission for your life, then one will be given to you and you might not like the results, right? (9:59) So, and the day is the same way.
 
(10:00) If you don't have a plan for how to move about the day, if you don't have a plan for how you're gonna happen to the day, as I say it, the day is gonna happen to you and you might not like the results. (10:08) And so the way that I don't have that guilt to your point is to just walk about the day with a plan. (10:14) And so that I know if I'm here, if something else matters, I will make time for it.
 
(10:18) I'm just not doing that right now.
Mike Mills
(10:21) Yeah, well, and that's a hard thing to do, I think for a lot of people, if you don't put the emphasis on it. (10:25) And I think a great example of this, when you understand the importance of it is when people look at retirement. (10:32) So if people say it all the time, like, oh, I can't wait to retire, I'm gonna play golf every day, I'm gonna sit on the beach or I'm gonna do whatever.
 
(10:39) And that sounds great, right? (10:40) But then you go, okay, so then what do you do on the 10th day? (10:44) Like, what do you do after you've sat on the beach for 10 days or after you've played golf for 10 days?
 
(10:47) And there might be people that wanna play golf every day for the rest of life, I'm sure those people exist. (10:51) But for the vast majority of people, at some point you go, okay, well, then what? (10:55) Like, then what, right?
 
(10:57) And that's why you see so many folks that, especially if they've worked in the same job for 30 years and they were working at Lockheed or GM or whatever and doing the daily grind every day, getting up at 5 a.m., coming home at four o'clock, eating dinner, going to bed, cycle, repeat, cycle, repeat over and over again. (11:13) And then that retirement day comes, they're so excited and they don't have that thing anymore. (11:19) And then they look up, you see people all the time that look up in three years and literally they're dead because there's nothing that's driving them every day to get up and accomplish something.
 
(11:31) And if you don't have that thing, and if you don't have something there, whether it be your spouse or your family or your job or your passion or whatever, then you're, as a human, you kind of lose that direction on what you wanna do. (11:42) And then your body's like, all right, well, then what are we doing here? (11:44) Why am I here?
Nikki Miller
(11:46) Well, if you do, I read a stupid amount. (11:51) And one of the things that I'm very interested in is longevity. (11:54) And if you were to systematize any longevity books, studies that have been done, I could really break them up into three categories, community, diet, and purpose.
 
(12:09) And so to your point, they find that when someone retires or when someone ages and does not have a purpose, and by the way, I'm not saying they get to get paid for that purpose. (12:19) Your purpose could be volunteer work or your grandkids or whatever it is, right? (12:24) But if you don't have a purpose, it's a direct correlation downward line to swift death.
 
(12:31) And I think that that's so important to pay attention to. (12:35) And to me is such a reminder that we have to have something that we live for. (12:41) What that is for you doesn't matter.
 
(12:44) Like there's no direct correlation to whether your purpose is your business or charity work or gardening. (12:49) Like there's no right way. (12:52) There's no correlation that I've found at least into what the purpose is, but you have to have one.
Mike Mills
(12:56) Yeah, yeah, well, everybody's different. (12:58) We're all different human beings. (12:59) We all have different interests.
 
(13:00) We all have different passions. (13:00) We all have different things we're interested in. (13:02) There's no one size fits all.
 
(13:03) Just like there's no one size fits all for nutrition. (13:05) There's no one size fits all for creating your day and your process or whatever it may be. (13:09) There's no one size fits all for passions.
 
(13:11) It's always different. (13:12) You have to find your lane and find the thing that you like to do and then go all the way into that. (13:18) I mean, switching over to real estate and in our industry a little bit, whenever I talk with agents about, I've been doing this podcast for about two years and this is kind of my marketing avenue, whatever you wanna call it, but I thoroughly enjoy it.
 
(13:33) I love talking to people like you because I'm a nerd when it comes to productivity and longevity and stuff, same thing. (13:39) The David Sinclairs and Andrew Hubermans and Rhonda Patricks of the world, I love all that stuff. (13:44) So when I get to talk to somebody who is passionate about that too, it's an incredibly engaging conversation for me.
 
(13:50) So I really, really like it. (13:51) So I'm persistent and I do it every week and I do it consistently because I enjoy it. (13:56) So if you find, when it comes to your business in real estate, for example, you have to find something that you are passionate about and that you enjoy doing when it comes to, especially marketing yourself, because you'll have new agents that come into the business and I want you to speak to this a little bit too.
 
(14:12) When you got into it, that'll go into say lead, they buy online leads from Zillow or whatever platform that has leads available to it. (14:20) And if there's a system in place that gives you that, which I'm sure you guys have put together as well, then you can be a person that follows that system, then you're gonna have success in that. (14:30) But if you don't have a system and you're not passionate about dialing for dollars and responding to text messages and emails and have built something around it, then it's not gonna work for you no matter how much you think you should.
 
(14:40) Because if you don't enjoy it and you don't want to do it and you don't get up every day, even just a little bit excited, you don't have to be like thrilled, it's still a job, but just a little bit of like, I enjoy doing this and you're not going to. (14:51) So then you have to find something else, whether it be getting involved in your community or your church or your kids' schools or your PTA or whatever that you really like in order to build your business around that. (15:00) So speak a little bit to kind of how you got into it, where you found your passion that kind of helped you sell and then how that led you to getting into and starting a company at whatever young age that you did that.
Nikki Miller
(15:12) Well, I think that Mike, you just said it really well, which is so many people look at the system and say, I don't want to follow that or I'm gonna resist that or whatever, or I don't want to do it that way. (15:24) And I tell people all the time, sometimes people get twisted, so to speak, when I speak about what we do, because it's an ideation around something that everybody said wasn't possible or that we couldn't do. (15:37) So which I've always just believe I'm not bound by the way it's always been done and neither are you and neither should any of us be.
Mike Mills
(15:42) My least favorite phrase. (15:43) Well, so it's always been done. (15:45) Okay, I'm turning.
Nikki Miller
(15:46) Yeah, I'm like, yeah, who cares? (15:48) Yeah, and historically, yes, you're right. (15:51) Like, doesn't mean that's the way it always has to be.
 
(15:55) And I always tell people like, we're all making this up as we go. (15:58) The challenge is, and I think that what I always articulate to people, and they're like, well, you said that you can break the rules. (16:04) I'm like, I did.
 
(16:06) But what I also said is that the systematic process of success doesn't change. (16:11) And the reason I love the real estate business is because to me, it's such a totem pole for the rest of business. (16:16) Like it's just such a mathematical equation when it comes to business is business is business, right?
 
(16:22) And the process by which you grow a business and a business is successful and you serve a consumer in whatever that may be, in like whatever widget you sell or product you sell or whatever it is, that really doesn't change. (16:35) And the math of real estate, if we take out the word that everybody hates, like we take out lead generation or we hate leads or whatever it is, like when you're growing a business, you have to talk to people about the business. (16:47) You have to get in front of consumers and you have to assume that a percentage of those consumers that you get in front of are not going to want to buy your product, right?
 
(16:55) And then you have to have a systematic way to continue to get in front of new people who might wanna buy your product and to continue to follow up with the people who were like kind of interested but didn't wanna buy it yet. (17:06) By the way, I don't care whether you're selling Tupperware or whether you're selling real estate or whether you're selling your new app. (17:12) Like it doesn't matter what you're selling.
 
(17:14) The math of success is the same. (17:17) And so I look up in my own real estate business and there was like, okay, here's a list of all the ways that you can lead generate. (17:24) And so the question I asked myself as a brand new agent is like, okay, what am I willing to do?
 
(17:28) Because I think the first mistake that a lot of agents make is they say, well, I'm gonna do all these different types of lead generation. (17:35) I'm like, are you really, are any of those something that you've historically done or something that you are willing to do when it gets hard or that you're gonna keep doing? (17:42) And so I looked up and said, okay, well, I can't do that.
 
(17:45) I don't wanna do that. (17:46) I'm definitely not gonna do that, but here's what I will do. (17:49) And that's what I started with.
 
(17:51) And then I just built a plan to do that consistently over time and it worked.
Mike Mills
(17:55) Yeah, well, there's a quote that I love and I need to get in my brain where it comes from. (18:01) I can't remember if it came from the art of war by Sun Tzu (18:03) or if it came from, it's like an old Japanese proverb, (18:06) but it says essentially that when you know the way generally (18:09) you see it in all things, (18:10) which essentially means that when you know how to do a thing, (18:14) a process, a system, a whatever, (18:16) how to create something in your life, (18:18) whether it be exercising rarely (18:20) or discipline on your nutrition (18:21) or spending time with your family (18:23) and making a point to do that, (18:24) whatever it is, right, business, whatever, (18:27) that it translates to every other part of your life. (18:30) You can use those same skills you've developed in everything that you do.
 
(18:34) And so if you've refined and understand the importance of building these processes and systems throughout your day, because people say, well, I'm not a computer. (18:42) I don't wanna be programmed. (18:42) I'm like, you are a computer and you are being programmed.
 
(18:46) Whether you realize it or not, it's happening. (18:49) So who controls your programming, you or everything that you consume and that's around you and the people that you interact with? (18:55) Which one is it?
 
(18:56) Because it's happening whether you like it or you don't. (18:59) So I don't, there is no like, you just get to shut that off and just float through life because it's gonna happen. (19:04) So the more you can, and that's the thing too, I think a lot of people miss is that when you systemize your day, just the simple, I get up at this time, I do this thing first and I do this thing next and so on and so forth.
 
(19:16) Your time is so freed up and you have so much more ability to do all the things that you think that you couldn't if you programmed yourself this way. (19:23) And so like, if you can put your business together and say, okay, I'm gonna do these things because I enjoy doing them and I built this system and I built this process to get from point A to point Z from whatever you say, eight o'clock in the morning to five o'clock at night. (19:36) Well, then when you've accomplished those things, you don't have what I was talking about earlier, which is that sense of guilt when you're done to say, oh man, I should have been doing this or I didn't do that today.
 
(19:45) No, you did everything that you intended to accomplish today. (19:48) And now you get to enjoy the time with your family or the time with your spouse or whatever it is. (19:52) But if you don't do that thing, you're always constantly behind trying to catch up and you feel like you're never getting to where you wanna go.
 
(19:59) And just by the way, I say all this and do all this, this is something that I struggle with every single day.
Nikki Miller
(20:06) And you don't get- Yeah, it's always a work in progress because here's the deal. (20:14) Life happens. (20:15) As one of my agents always says, it's like become my favorite stage phrase.
 
(20:19) She says, life is lifing today, Nikki. (20:21) And I'm like, yeah, life's every day. (20:24) We're never going to avoid that.
 
(20:26) You get sick, kid gets sick, a catastrophe happens, house is on fire, like world's on fire, whatever it is, right?
Mike Mills
(20:32) Life is lifing. (20:32) There's a lot of life going on these days for sure.
Nikki Miller
(20:34) Yeah, there's a lot of life going on these days for sure. (20:37) And so the question becomes what system or process do you have in order to get the most important things done knowing that life is always going to life, right? (20:46) I always laugh when someone's like, oh, well, when life calms down a little bit, I'll do this thing.
 
(20:49) I'm like, great, let me know when that happens because I would like to sign up too, right? (20:54) It's just that's never going to happen. (20:56) And so you have to figure out how you build productivity around you knowing that life is going to life.
 
(21:02) How do you do the most important things knowing that the day will happen? (21:06) You will have the deal fall out. (21:07) You will have the client who loses their mind.
 
(21:09) You will have the other agent who doesn't do their job, like whatever it is. (21:13) And so when I talk about systems, I think people get stuck and like it's got to go to the same way every time. (21:17) And I say, no, no, no.
 
(21:18) A great system is such that the most important things happen no matter what happens, right? (21:24) And that's when you build a really good productivity system especially, I think.
Mike Mills
(21:28) Yeah, there's a, and again, I need to write these people's names down and give them credit for this stuff. (21:33) But there's a guy on YouTube that I just love and he talks, he's from the UK, but he's got a lot of books on productivity and whatnot. (21:40) And one of the things that I've adopted and have told other people about that I think is great is he's created what he's called his ideal week, right?
 
(21:46) Where it's Monday through Sunday. (21:49) These are the, and it's big bucket items, right? (21:51) It's here's work time, here's, and it may be within work.
 
(21:53) It's like, here's where I market to my client database. (21:56) Here's where I call past clients. (21:58) Here's where I go do my open houses, whatever, right?
 
(22:00) And then also here's when I wake up. (22:02) Here's when I work out. (22:03) Here's when I spend time with my kids.
 
(22:05) Here's when I do date night with my wife, all those things, right? (22:07) So it's all built into the week, okay? (22:10) But the idea behind it is this is the ideal week.
 
(22:12) This is not what happens every single week, right? (22:15) Most of the time, and actually the vast majority of the time, you're not gonna accomplish 80% or 70% of what's on there, right? (22:23) But it's always a priority.
 
(22:25) It's always something that's there. (22:27) Every time you look at your calendar, you are reminded of the fact that these things are important to you and these are the things that you're trying to accomplish every day. (22:34) And so therefore, it's just a constant reminder of what you do.
 
(22:37) It's always gonna shift. (22:38) It's always gonna change. (22:39) It's never gonna be the same.
 
(22:40) That's why it's ideal. (22:41) It's not what happens. (22:43) But I think it's an incredibly effective tool for anybody to kind of go through and just say, okay, today's Monday and these are the things I always wanna try to get done on Monday.
 
(22:51) I'm not gonna get them all done. (22:53) That's okay though. (22:54) I'll keep trying.
 
(22:55) You never achieve perfection, but you have to constantly strive for it.
Nikki Miller
(22:59) Yeah, I mean, I think my life is a stringing together of a bunch of pretty good weeks. (23:05) Yeah. (23:06) Like I'm a summation of the world's most okay-est days.
 
(23:14) But like that's it. (23:15) I think sometimes people are looking for the, like on the perfect day I'll do this or I'm always searching for like this crazy, amazing things to happen. (23:25) And the truth is that doesn't happen all that often in life.
 
(23:28) Like those are singular episodes and they're great because then you can look back on them and say like, wow, this was a really cool day. (23:35) Or this was a really cool week. (23:37) Like this was a really spectacular week.
 
(23:40) But the rest of life is fairly average. (23:44) And so it's what you do in those averages that summates the whole. (23:48) And leads you usually to those really amazing instances or amazing weeks.
 
(23:53) So you have to get really good at operating in that sort of average ordinary week. (23:57) And just string together a bunch of okay days and pretty good weeks.
Mike Mills
(24:02) Okay. (24:02) So with your okay-est weeks and how you've been stringing these together, how did you go from selling real estate in California and just being your standard realtor agent out there to starting the lead syndicate and getting actually that business up and going? (24:18) What was kind of the impetus for that?
 
(24:21) What do you guys do? (24:23) Where did that all kind of come from?
Nikki Miller
(24:25) Yeah. (24:26) I mean, I think it really came from, as I think all great businesses do, it really just came from my own personal frustrations with the industry and with my own business. (24:34) I mean, I tell people often, like I get the young comment a lot, but I also just got lucky that I found what I loved early.
 
(24:41) I started in real estate sales when I was 22.
Mike Mills
(24:43) You can tell everybody. (24:44) You're like 55, right? (24:45) You just look really young.
Nikki Miller
(24:46) Yeah, exactly. (24:47) I'm from California. (24:48) You don't actually know how old we are.
Mike Mills
(24:50) That's right.
Nikki Miller
(24:50) We've got great doctors out here. (24:51) Yeah, that's right. (24:54) And I tell people often, I'm like, I'm probably older than you think and younger potentially, or I'm probably younger than you think, but older than I look.
 
(25:04) And I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible. (25:08) So anyway, so I started really early and I remember I just sort of hit like my ceiling of achievement as an individual agent. (25:17) That's what I was.
 
(25:18) And I remember at the time, this is when teams were starting to become popular and like teams were starting to get popularized. (25:25) They were starting to get some traction. (25:27) And I looked up and didn't want any part of that.
 
(25:31) And I was also in the KW ecosystem where like we quite literally wrote the book on it, right? (25:37) Jerry wrote the millionaire real estate agent. (25:40) And that entire book is predicated on having a great business model, but very predicated on building a team to what they call seventh level, right?
 
(25:48) And I remember reading that book cover to cover. (25:50) I probably read it, I don't even know, dozens of times at this point and closing it and being like, nope, don't want to do that. (25:58) Definitely don't want to do that.
 
(26:01) And it's ironic, but I don't, I couldn't even really give you a big reason why I think there was a laundry list, but like I just knew in my gut that is not what I wanted to do. (26:09) Well, the challenge with that was then when I hit my ceiling of achievement, I went into my manager at the time and said, hey, like I've hit my ceiling. (26:16) I literally can't do any more business with the time and tools that I have.
 
(26:20) And she said, okay, well, now we're going to get you, now is the time where you start hiring people and you're going to take on overhead. (26:25) And then we're going to teach you to be HR and we're going to teach you to build systems. (26:28) We're going to teach you to manage the people.
 
(26:29) And then you're going to bring on buyer's agents. (26:31) And she sort of laid out my future for me. (26:34) And Mike, I looked at her and I said, no.
 
(26:36) Is that a little overwhelming?
Mike Mills
(26:38) Like you have to put it all up front.
Nikki Miller
(26:40) In my head, I think the process, like the thought process was at this time, I'm probably 23 years old. (26:45) And I'm like, I'm not even responsible for myself. (26:49) Like I'm clear that I'm very driven, but I should not be managing anybody at the time.
 
(26:54) And I was like, I didn't even have a goldfish I was responsible for. (26:59) Like it was me and my significant other who was responsible for himself as well. (27:03) So I was like, I'm just not, I don't want to, I don't want anyone's family or lives depending on me.
 
(27:09) Like I wasn't mentally at a phase where I was ready for that. (27:12) And I was pretty honest with myself about it. (27:14) Like I was like, I don't want that complexity.
 
(27:16) I am a great real estate agent. (27:18) I'm really, really good at this. (27:20) I don't want to start diving into all of that because the writing I also saw on the wall was all this complexity being added to these agents' businesses, all this extra admin, all this extra overhead.
 
(27:31) And they were making the same or less than they were as an individual. (27:36) Substantially less in a lot of cases. (27:37) And I was like, well, that math isn't mapping for me.
 
(27:40) That doesn't make sense. (27:42) Yeah, exactly. (27:43) Why would I work harder with more complexity and make less money?
 
(27:46) Like I just didn't, I didn't want to sign up for that. (27:48) So I said, okay, I don't want to do it by myself. (27:49) And I said, so what's my other option?
 
(27:50) And she said, well, then you would join a team. (27:53) And in order to join a team, I would have to put my brand under them, put my production under them. (27:58) And it was a financial model I wasn't excited about.
 
(28:00) So I said, no, that's not working for me either. (28:02) I don't want to do that. (28:03) And I said, okay, so if I don't want to build it out myself and I don't want to join a team, what do I do?
 
(28:07) And she smiled at me and she said, I guess you just stay where you are. (28:10) And we sort of had this moment where I was like, okay, so my literal options are build it yourself, take on all the overhead and complexity therein, join a team or stay where you are and suffer the consequences, right? (28:24) Which is you don't grow, you make the same amount and you just perpetually are in the washing machine of real estate frustration, right?
 
(28:30) Which every individual agent is, they just keep batting their head up against the same stupid ceiling.
Mike Mills
(28:34) Which by the way, this is in all things, right? (28:37) I mean, it's not a very unusual parallel of things. (28:39) It's like you either grow and do the hard work, you either join up with somebody else and let them do all the hard work and you benefit, but not to the same degree, or you just stay where you're at and hope that things won't fall apart, you know?
Nikki Miller
(28:54) It became one of my favorite coaching models where I simply, when somebody comes to me and says they've hit their ceiling, I simply ask them, how do you want to pay, right? (29:01) How do you want to pay for it? (29:02) How do you want to pay for the growth?
 
(29:03) Option number one is that you do it, right? (29:05) And you pay in your time and you pay in your overhead. (29:07) And what that looks like is the rollercoaster that a lot of people experience.
 
(29:11) And you're going to have to stick with it long enough. (29:12) That's the slow path to growth. (29:14) But the upside is you get to own the knowledge forever.
 
(29:16) Option number two is you find somebody else to do it. (29:19) You leverage, right? (29:20) And that might look like hiring someone who's more expensive because their experience or joining a team or a leverage platform, whatever that looks like.
 
(29:27) And the upside to that is you get to go faster, much less complex, but you have to hold yourself accountable for the spend. (29:32) You've got to use the time that you get back wisely. (29:34) And then option number three is you do nothing at all and you stay exactly where you are.
 
(29:38) And the upside to staying exactly where you are is that nothing has to change, right? (29:41) It's a very comfortable place to live. (29:43) But the downside is, yeah, but the downside is the question is how you want to pay.
 
(29:48) And the challenge with this one is that we often don't do this one consciously and we don't pay for this one today and we don't pay for it tomorrow, but we will pay the compound interest of not solving these problems later, right? (29:59) And I always give people the equivalent of staying exactly where you are is the equivalent of just putting your money in a bank account, right? (30:05) The market will surpass you.
 
(30:07) Inflation will surpass you. (30:08) So five years from now, you could be exactly where you are, be saving the same amount of money and you're actually behind because inflation is ahead of you. (30:15) And so I looked up in my own business and was like, option number two, I want option number two.
 
(30:19) I don't want to do it. (30:20) No ego. (30:21) I don't want to figure it out.
 
(30:21) I had no ego around getting credit for it. (30:23) Like none of that. (30:25) I was like, I want to sell real estate.
 
(30:26) That's what I'm good at. (30:27) And I want to do it in a way that's scalable and it's easier, but there just wasn't anything available in the market. (30:32) It just didn't exist.
 
(30:33) And then to sort of by force, I ended up building it out myself. (30:37) And as life goes, I found out because of that, through that force that I'm actually very skilled at building out systems, especially systems at scale. (30:48) And so I ended up building a very successful expansion team through California and then took the CEO position of what at the time was the largest brokerage in Southern California.
 
(30:57) And it was there that I realized, like I had an aha. (31:01) And I tell people often, neither I nor what I do is very special, right? (31:07) But what I am really good at is paying attention.
 
(31:11) And I tell people often, like you would have to be an absolute fool. (31:13) You have a complete idiot to talk to as many agents as I talk to, to coach as many people as I have coached in my career and not see trends. (31:20) You'd have to literally not pay attention.
 
(31:23) And so I pay attention and I realized that that problem that I had had wasn't unique to me. (31:30) The biggest problem that I had as a CEO over brokerage was the same problem that I was experiencing as an individual agent. (31:37) They would come into my office and they would say, they've hit my ceiling.
 
(31:40) And by the way, individual agents make up the majority of the real estate world, right? (31:44) And they would come into my office and they would say, they've hit my ceiling and I don't wanna build it myself and I don't wanna join a team and I don't wanna stay where I am. (31:53) What are my options?
 
(31:54) To which I would be like, nothing. (31:56) Like there's nothing we can do for you, right? (31:58) I'd say it in a way that probably sounded a lot better, but in my head, I'm like nothing.
 
(32:03) Just like there was for me. (32:05) And then in the brokerage world, the problem with that was that that meant, guess what? (32:08) They would go and join a different brokerage who would make them an empty promise.
 
(32:11) And that's why agents move around, right? (32:13) And so eventually I looked up and said, there's gotta be, like somebody has to figure this out. (32:18) And I remember seeing it so clearly, Mike, this is like so stupid.
 
(32:21) I'm like embarrassed to say it out loud sometimes, but it's the true story. (32:25) It's literally framed in my office where I wrote out the idea for the lead syndicate and was like, somebody should do this. (32:33) This is a really, this would solve the brokerage's problem.
 
(32:36) This would solve the agent's problem. (32:38) This would solve everybody's problem. (32:40) And by the way, it could solve even bigger problems in real estate.
 
(32:43) Like this is such a good idea. (32:46) And somebody is out there. (32:50) There is a leader out there who will build this.
 
(32:53) And then I was sitting in my chair and it's like COVID and I'm dealing with, and I'm pregnant and I'm dealing with all these, like this complexity and challenges. (33:00) And I just have this sort of moment of silence and I'm looking at this list that I built, this business model that I wrote out. (33:06) And I wrote at the bottom, why don't I just go become the leader that I've been waiting for?
 
(33:11) And that I think the industry was waiting for too. (33:15) And that became the day I decided to go and build the lead syndicate. (33:18) So what it is or what it was and has turned into through Lever, the lead syndicate was very much a first and only of its kind platform, exclusively and specifically designed for the individual real estate agent.
 
(33:30) And when I say platform, this is an all encompassing comprehensive support system for the entirety of the individual's business. (33:36) Because what I'm very clear on now and was then, even more so now, having operated this for as long as I have, is that the industry was not, is not, and likely never will be in need of any more tools. (33:48) And I would tell people like, take that for the dual meaning that it is.
 
(33:51) Like we are in need of no more tools. (33:53) And we've hit our capacity for the number of tools. (33:56) And agents, that's the language that we give them.
 
(33:58) So they'll often look up and try to find a better tool, right? (34:02) But they don't need a better tool because it still requires the agent to operate it. (34:05) And what agents are actually out of is time, energy, and money.
 
(34:09) And so what they wanted was a full comprehensive model that gave them all the economies of scale, all the support, all the benefits, all the infrastructure of having a team around them. (34:18) But they wanted to protect their downside, protect them from having to have a huge amount of monthly overhead. (34:22) And they wanted to protect their upside.
 
(34:23) In other words, they didn't want to be on a 50-50 split. (34:25) They wanted to have a model that actually scaled with them. (34:28) And I said, I can do that.
 
(34:30) And so that's what we built in the Lead Sim Kit, a comprehensive support system that supports agents in all the areas of coaching and training, database management, marketing, transaction management, and lead generation.
Mike Mills
(34:41) Well, you did something there that, there's a lot of things that you said there that I want to touch on, but the idea that early on you said, once you go through this, now you own that knowledge forever, right? (34:53) Once you've done these things, now how to do it and what to do is there. (34:57) So you've established that.
Nikki Miller
(34:59) And what not to do.
Mike Mills
(35:00) Yeah, oh, of course, yeah. (35:01) Well, that's learning anything is making the mistakes. (35:03) That's how you figure out, you know, I was in the restaurant business before I got into mortgages for like eight years.
 
(35:09) And I was young, I was very young when I got into it. (35:12) And I always joke with my wife, which she doesn't find humorous, that I got my MBA from my restaurant experience, running those restaurants for seven years. (35:21) And I didn't go to SMU and get my MBA and it cost about the same.
 
(35:26) So yeah, you definitely, you go through stuff and you learn what to do, what not to do. (35:31) But then one other thing that you did that I think you know, obviously, but people may not realize is when you were sitting there thinking about this and you were trying to solve this problem, okay? (35:42) You took your pen and you wrote down this thing that you had in your brain, all right?
 
(35:47) And this is something, again, that I talk with realtors that I work with and people in my life all the time is that, you know, I heard, I can't remember where I heard this, but your brain is for having ideas, it's not for holding ideas. (35:58) And so when you go through your day all the time, all these things come up, oh, I should do this, I should try this, I should try this, da-da-da-da-da. (36:04) You took that moment, stopped, wrote it all out, right?
 
(36:07) Put it there on paper. (36:09) So it's almost, you know, I don't wanna get woo on people, but it's like, you're putting this out there in the world. (36:15) Like, this idea is now a thing.
 
(36:18) It wasn't just an image or a thought that popped into your head. (36:20) Now you've created this very first step of just, I just wrote it out, that's it, I just wrote it out. (36:25) And then that triggered, well, who should do this?
 
(36:28) Well, I should do this, and this is how I built, that step just in itself is such an important piece because people have thoughts of things they wanna do all the time, but it's like that person that's sitting in that one spot where I don't want anything to change. (36:41) Or they may say, well, I wanna do this or I wanna do that, but I'll do that tomorrow. (36:45) I don't have time.
 
(36:46) Life is happening to me today. (36:47) I don't have time to do it, so I'll do it tomorrow. (36:50) So whether they realize it or not, they've stayed in that mode of, I'm not changing my life, I'm gonna stay status quo, even though their brain is like, well, I wanna change.
 
(36:59) I wanna do something different, but I haven't planned my day. (37:01) I don't have a system. (37:02) My day dictates what I do, right?
 
(37:04) So you had built in your mind being a successful realtor of these processes and systems. (37:09) So then when this thought came in your head and you wrote it out and you said, okay, here's what somebody should do, right? (37:15) That was the first step that took you down this path that has now led you to where you are today in having not only just a successful real estate career, but being involved in two, three very successful companies that are kind of bridging the gap for this stuff.
 
(37:28) But it's all those little steps along the way that people miss. (37:32) Like, oh, she just jumped. (37:33) No, no, no, no, that's not at all how it happened.
 
(37:36) There was a lot of things that triggered along the way and it's those little bitty steps that gets you to where you wanna get to. (37:41) It's just when you decide to start doing that. (37:43) And a lot of people just never take that first step.
 
(37:46) And I think that's where a lot of people fall behind and look up at 50 or 70 years old and go, man, what did I do? (37:51) I just let everything kind of lead my life along. (37:55) So now you've grown this successful business and have put it into play and you've got people around you.
 
(38:01) And then what everybody's dream is when you own a successful company is someone comes along and says, hey, we would like to give you some, a little bit of green stuff for that business and come on over with us and we'll put everybody's brains together and figure out how to grow this thing and blow it up. (38:17) So how did that come about? (38:19) How did you get contacted originally and what drove you to wanna join Ojo and get involved with them?
Nikki Miller
(38:26) Yeah, I've known Chris Heller, who's the president of Ojo. (38:29) I met him when I was 22 or 23 when he was the president or CEO of Keller Williams. (38:37) And I met him in a small mass, right?
 
(38:39) So I had known of Chris for a long time. (38:42) And we sort of like lost touch as we both went on our respective journeys. (38:47) And then I saw Chris at industry events.
 
(38:49) We'd always stayed connected. (38:50) And I remember when he started with Ojo and was part of the founding group of Ojo. (38:58) And I remember realizing at that time how smart it was for them to bring somebody in who was so in touch with real estate agent behavior.
 
(39:09) Because I think that's a real big gap for technology companies, that they try to build technology for a group of people that they literally don't understand.
Mike Mills
(39:16) And so- You have tech people trying to build stuff for real estate when they've never had any experience in real estate at all.
Nikki Miller
(39:23) Exactly. (39:24) People ask me often like why we do what we do work so well. (39:27) Like, because I am them.
 
(39:29) I built something for me, a problem that I had. (39:33) And I understand it really well. (39:36) Therefore, I can understand how to build the systems around it really well.
 
(39:40) And not to say you can't build systems around something you don't understand, but it's much harder, right? (39:45) And yeah, it's much harder. (39:46) You gotta be very skilled at that.
 
(39:48) And so, by the way, I always, I have to tell a story, I'll never name them. (39:54) But like, I remember early days of the lead syndicate, how many people just told me, it's Nikki, this is never gonna work. (40:01) First of all, nobody builds things for individual agents.
 
(40:04) They're literally the orphans of the real estate industry. (40:08) And so, you thinking that you can do this, everybody was just patting me on the head and saying like, that's adorable. (40:15) You're never gonna work.
 
(40:16) You're never gonna be able to do this. (40:17) This is a crazy idea. (40:19) And people I respected, by the way, like big names in the real estate industry telling me I should not do this.
 
(40:25) And it really was a gut check for me, because I was like, maybe I'm crazy. (40:28) Like, maybe I am crazy. (40:29) Maybe I'm missing something.
 
(40:30) Because to me, this makes all the sense in the world, but everybody is telling me this isn't going to work. (40:36) And I remember in particular, it's funny you said that everybody's big dream is that they sell the company. (40:41) That actually wasn't mine.
 
(40:42) I actually really love what I do. (40:44) And I intended to just run it. (40:46) I built it because I enjoy it.
 
(40:48) And I enjoy providing the service to the people that we provide it to. (40:51) And I'm very passionate about it. (40:52) And so, I had no intention of selling it.
 
(40:56) And had I, I would have probably done things differently. (40:59) But I had no intention of going that route. (41:01) It was self-funded, self-founded, and self-built.
 
(41:04) Not self, right? (41:05) Like nobody self-made that. (41:06) I had a big team around me, but this was not like a venture cap endeavor.
 
(41:12) And so, I remember when I built it out, and somebody in the early days, he looked at me and he said, well, what are you going to do with this anyway? (41:19) Like, you actually think you're going to sell something like this? (41:21) And I was like, well, maybe.
 
(41:23) Like, I think I could. (41:24) And he said, if anyone offers you more than $100 for this company, please send me the press release first. (41:32) And I was like, okay.
 
(41:33) And by the way, if I said this person's name, anybody in the real estate industry would recognize them.
Mike Mills
(41:38) That's some serious hate being thrown down there. (41:40) But sometimes that's how you know you have something good. (41:43) When someone's really, you know, wanting to cut your legs out from underneath you a little bit, you want to sit back and go, wait a minute, like, why are you, like, why are you so anti this?
 
(41:52) Why would you not be supportive? (41:53) Even if I do fall, like, who cares? (41:55) Like, what does it matter to you?
Nikki Miller
(41:55) Yeah, who cares? (41:57) And by the way, Mike, like this person and anybody else, like, I live for a worthy opponent. (42:02) My number one strength on StrikeFinders is competitive, like, competitiveness.
 
(42:07) You tell me I can't do something and by dammit, I don't know if I'm allowed to curse on this podcast, but I will go figure that thing out. (42:14) Like, I will go and figure it out. (42:16) You just tell me it's not possible and I will be like, watch me.
Mike Mills
(42:19) I don't know if you can call by dammit a curse word. (42:23) I don't think I've ever heard that before.
Nikki Miller
(42:28) But anyway, so yeah, so I was building and then I happened to be in town and Chris said, I always like message Chris when I'm in Austin and see if he's free of, you know, he's been an incredible mentor and teacher of mine for a long time. (42:44) One of the most brilliant minds in the industry and I think in people too. (42:50) Like, I've learned so much from him.
 
(42:51) He's very reserved, but people often don't realize how incredible he is at understanding things. (42:56) People and behavior and leadership and I've learned so much from him over the years.
Mike Mills
(43:00) And every time I'm out there, I- I don't wanna kick you off there, but I do want you to talk a little bit more about that piece cause I've heard you talk about this on other things that you've done and you mentioned it briefly a minute ago about the mentorship piece. (43:11) And I think that a lot of times, whenever you are in any profession that people, because of, you've got these two things. (43:19) You've got competitiveness, right?
 
(43:21) Which is great, you need that to fight. (43:23) But then you also have the need for help, right? (43:26) When you're a competitive person and you need help cause everybody needs help.
 
(43:31) Those are two things that are kind of tough to balance. (43:33) But the importance of surrounding yourself and making relationships with people that know more than you, that have been through things that you haven't been through that you can pick their brain and call them and say, hey, what would you do in this situation? (43:47) Or how would you look at this?
 
(43:48) That's not weakness, that's education. (43:51) Like for me personally, the thing that I just realized about myself over time and it's good and bad is that I love learning new shit. (44:01) So you know you can cuss.
 
(44:01) I love learning new stuff. (44:03) I just absolutely love it. (44:05) It's great because I'm always like, I wanna find out more about this and I wanna try to do that and I wanna try to do this.
 
(44:11) It's bad because focus becomes an issue because when you wanna learn about a hundred things, finding that one thing and diving into that, which is the importance of growth becomes difficult and that's personal challenges I've had. (44:23) But finding people like Chris and like others in your life that you can lean on, contact, that you don't have to be best friends with them every single day, but you can pick up the phone, shoot them an email, shoot them a message, go see them at a conference and just pick their brain for a couple hours and take in so much stuff that you haven't. (44:39) That stuff is, I don't know that there's a value that can be placed on it that's appropriate.
Nikki Miller
(44:43) There's not and I think that you all need each other, right? (44:47) I would hope that Chris could say he's certainly learned some things from me too and every mentor I have, like that's why we mentor. (44:54) We need people who've done it before and we also need people with fresh ideas and who are ambitious and have energy and both are equally as valuable.
 
(45:05) And I think it's so important to become a mentor and to continuously be mentored for that exact reason. (45:12) And Mike, I don't think you're alone for people who are really growth oriented that we can sometimes be, my husband always says that I am obnoxiously curious. (45:20) Like I just wanna know how everything works.
 
(45:24) And sometimes you can get lost in that but for anybody else who struggles with that, if you're someone who's growth oriented and therefore that can lead you to be interested in sort of everything, like I just wanna know how everything works, which can end up just putting you on a growth journey where you're like always learning and not doing. (45:40) I always ask myself, yeah, I always ask myself what problem am I going to rectify this year? (45:47) So everything I read, everything I learn, everything I go after is how to solve the problem that needs solving that would make the biggest impact this year.
 
(45:54) So like every book that I'm reading, every article I'm reading, every conference I'm going to is a problem I need to solve this year. (46:02) And I've always done it that way. (46:04) And I have, you can't see it, but it's to my side of my home office, I've got a library of, I probably own upwards of 4,000 to 5,000 books.
 
(46:13) Like I've got a ton of books. (46:15) I will likely never get through all of them, but I've gotten through a lot of them. (46:19) And it's all the years that I'm spending on problems.
 
(46:23) And so at this phase, when I met, when I knew Chris, but I was in town, I called Chris and said, hey, I'm in town, you wanna go to dinner? (46:32) He said, I'm actually gonna go to dinner with John, who's the founder of Ojo, the CEO of Ojo. (46:36) And said, like, is it okay if he comes?
 
(46:38) I was like, yeah, I've never met him. (46:39) I had never met him before. (46:41) And I was already like in relationship with Ojo, just doing masterclasses and coaching and stuff like that.
 
(46:46) So yeah, it'd be great to meet him. (46:48) And the problem that I wanted to solve, which I thought this dinner would be perfect for, at that phase of my business, was I wanted to learn how to connect even more pieces inside real estate. (46:58) Like, I think that there's gonna be a race to whomever is able to do that the most effectively.
 
(47:03) And that requires a marriage of understanding the real estate business at a really high level, and also understanding technology. (47:09) And the challenge is that both those companies, separately, typically, that do either of those things, have so much frickin' ego that they can't listen to the other side and build something together. (47:19) And so I got no ego, so I don't know much about- That's not an unusual male problem.
Mike Mills
(47:27) We tend to suffer from that more than the fairer sexes yourself, where we tend to think we have all the answers, we don't need anybody's help. (47:35) So yeah, having a reasonable person come into the room and go, hey guys, if you just talk to each other, y'all can figure this out.
Nikki Miller
(47:42) Yeah, like if you just learn from each other, relax. (47:45) Actually, I just have to tell you, this is one of my favorite things I've ever learned. (47:49) There was a guy I was interviewing on the One Thing podcast, and he's a behavioral scientist.
 
(47:55) And there was a study that they did on males specifically. (47:58) And by the way, most of my, I would say 80% of my strongest mentors, friends, coaches are males. (48:05) There's no tea, no shade here.
 
(48:08) And I love you guys.
Mike Mills
(48:09) It's okay, you don't have to couch any of that or preface it. (48:12) We're mostly morons. (48:13) I mean- I do though.
Nikki Miller
(48:15) I do. (48:16) I'm on so many women's empowerment conferences. (48:20) I'm like, let's all just be clear.
 
(48:21) This is very important, but we need the guys too. (48:24) We need both of us. (48:24) We gotta listen to each other.
 
(48:25) Gotta have balance. (48:26) Anyway, but there's a study that was done about they interviewed a group of several thousand men. (48:34) And asked if you were on a plane and like something happened to the pilot, could you land it?
 
(48:43) And you said it, Mike, like literally 94%, 94%. (48:50) So 940 of those dudes were like, no problem. (48:54) I got this.
 
(48:56) Well, guess how many, by the way, all inexperienced pilots, like doesn't- Of course.
Mike Mills
(48:59) Yeah, I've never flown a plane in my life.
Nikki Miller
(49:01) Mike, you know there's a dude who's listening to this, who's like, I've got it, I'm a pilot. (49:06) Like, no, like none of these are experienced pilots. (49:08) And 94% of them said, yes, I could land the plane.
 
(49:11) No problem. (49:12) Well, then they put them into a simulation and guess how many actually were able to land the plane?
Mike Mills
(49:16) Like one.
Nikki Miller
(49:17) Goose eggs, zero, none of them.
Mike Mills
(49:20) I thought somebody might've gotten lucky, you know, maybe somebody figured it out and knew it.
Nikki Miller
(49:26) And the women's study was much different, but it's just like anecdotal, very funny. (49:30) And it made me laugh because, by the way, you need that confidence in some things, right? (49:35) And in some things it can be very dangerous.
 
(49:37) Anyway, so I'm at dinner with Chris and John and they asked me, and we were just talking, like I was talking about ODO learning more about what they do and how it connects and the intricacies of that. (49:47) And they asked, John asked me a question that not a lot of people had asked me because everybody was so busy telling me it wasn't possible. (49:53) He asked like, what do you actually want to do with this thing?
 
(49:55) And I said, you know, John, at first I was hesitant to tell him, but he's very much, you know, a can-do thinker. (50:03) And so is Chris, like Chris knew this already. (50:06) But I said, I think someone is gonna be able to put all these pieces together.
 
(50:09) And I think that we solve the problems that need solving in real estate by putting these pieces together, by solving the agent's problem, which solves your problems from the technology side, which also solves the consumer problem, which we're really seeing unfold right now, which is that there is no consistency amongst the consumer experience. (50:27) And the way you create consistency amongst the consumer experience is to create consistency amongst the agent experience. (50:33) The way you create consistency on the agent experience is to control the agent experience, the things that need to be controlled, right?
 
(50:39) And not to say that you don't want the agent to still be the agent, you do, but you want to control the systemization of ensuring that all of these things happen. (50:47) And so I said, I think I can do that. (50:49) Like, I think I see that really clearly, but I think it will require a group of people come together and believe in that so much that they're willing to stake their company on it.
 
(51:00) And he was like, I agree. (51:03) First time anybody had said something of the nature. (51:06) And Chris was like, well, I wonder what that would look like if we did it together?
 
(51:09) And that really started the conversation and then started turning them acquiring us and us becoming lover.
Mike Mills
(51:16) Yeah. (51:17) Well, getting in a room with people that are like-minded and also people that value your opinion and want to hear what you want to do leads to amazing things. (51:28) It really does.
 
(51:29) And when you have, you know, look, I'm sure, I'm not a woman, I've never been a woman in my life, obviously, but when you're sitting in a room or with, you know, a table of men, and then it's rare, I would think, especially with high performing males, that they're going to go, hey, young lady, what do you think? (51:48) Right? (51:48) That doesn't happen.
 
(51:50) I mean, it's just the reality of the situation. (51:51) Like, it just doesn't happen. (51:53) You have to be a special type of guy to be able to recognize that everybody brings something to the situation and we want the opinion.
 
(52:00) But then for you to be there and then for them to go, hey, what are you trying to accomplish? (52:05) And what are you wanting to do? (52:06) And then for you to be able to share like, here, here's what I've already done and here's where I think all this could go.
 
(52:11) And then to have them go, that's exactly right. (52:14) That's where we're all trying. (52:15) And to find that synergy there, that's when great things like this occur.
 
(52:19) And, you know, again, it goes back to the, what we've been talking about this whole time is that you've all of these little steps, all of these little things. (52:26) And I didn't want to turn this into a, hey, look how awesome Nikki is. (52:30) I really want to talk more about what all you guys do.
 
(52:32) But I did, we got into a lot of things. (52:34) I've had Chris on the show. (52:35) You know, we talked to him previously.
 
(52:36) But for my agent audience, (52:39) what I'm really trying to, you know, (52:41) drive the point home of is (52:43) when you take these little bitty steps (52:45) and you just move your piece across the chessboard (52:48) and one piece at a time (52:50) and surround yourself with good, intelligent people, (52:53) always strive to be the dumbest person in the room, (52:56) not the smartest person in the room, (52:57) because you're in the wrong spot if you are, (52:59) then that is going to lead (53:01) to things that you can't even consider, right?
 
(53:04) You don't even know, you haven't thought. (53:05) Like you said, you weren't thinking about selling your company. (53:07) You weren't thinking about joining force.
 
(53:09) None of that was even on the table. (53:11) It wasn't there. (53:12) But everything that you had done up to that point puts you in a position to where that opportunity presented itself and you were ready to take advantage of it.
 
(53:19) And I think that that's what everybody can do (53:22) when it comes to building, you know, (53:24) on the, like we've talked about on the real estate level, (53:26) on the local realtor levels, (53:27) when you get up and you, you know, (53:31) get your walk in or your exercise in, (53:33) get your blood flow going, (53:34) you get dressed, you go to the office, (53:36) you start making calls, (53:38) you start following up with leads, (53:39) you start looking when you're going to do, (53:41) when you start doing all these activities (53:42) that are around, in and around real estate, (53:45) things just seem to happen. (53:47) You just, your phone seems to ring.
 
(53:48) People seem to call you. (53:49) And then when you can really drill down and start focusing your activities on things that you know that you like that are going to give you success when it comes to marketing yourself and your business, however you want to define that, and you can build processes around that, then it just takes everything to exponentially go from there. (54:05) The problem with all of this that people struggle with is that this isn't a, we got a magic pill, wave your magic wand, and your problems are solved.
 
(54:13) This takes time. (54:14) It takes effort. (54:15) It takes diligence.
 
(54:16) It takes consistency. (54:18) But it can happen. (54:19) You can be a 23-year-old in California selling real estate, and within a short amount of time, running your own company and joining forces with two others and starting something on a massive scale, if you've built all this stuff that you've created for yourself around you, so that way you're in the best position you can be and when those opportunities come up.
Nikki Miller
(54:39) Yeah, I mean, I think it goes back to like, your job's just to string together a bunch of pretty good weeks. (54:43) That's it. (54:45) That's all the lead syndicate was.
 
(54:49) And now that we've turned into Lumber, that's all it is, is making incremental progress every single week and not losing sight that that is what we are there to do. (54:58) And the platform that we have today is so different from originally what I launched in the sense that the intent is the same, who we serve is the same, the goals were the same, but we have evolved so much through that incremental progress. (55:19) And to those that are listening, I would say you have to string together the weeks, you have to have a vision for what you wanna do and then you have to also give space for that to evolve, but above all, you need to believe in what you see.
 
(55:36) And I hope that anyone who sees this journey just takes that as their takeaway. (55:42) If you see a gap or you see something that would be beneficial, or it's a problem that you need to solve for yourself, it's unlikely that that's happening in a vacuum. (55:53) And that industry giant I mentioned, who was like, this is never gonna work, send me the press release of somebody, if somebody actually takes you seriously.
 
(56:03) Oh, I sent it to him, first day. (56:05) I said, hey, I haven't talked to you in five years. (56:08) Heads up, I just wanted you to know, I really appreciate your advice when I first started and took it to heart and just thought you would like to see this.
 
(56:19) And by the way, that person is still a friend of mine, still a mentor of mine, and I still go to them for advice. (56:24) And what I would tell everyone is, you gotta put your mentors in buckets as well. (56:31) And there's things that you have mentors that are really good at, like I'll give everybody a great example.
 
(56:35) I got a business mentor in my life who's one of the smartest business people I've ever met and comes up with things that have blown my mind, solutions to problems I would have never arrived at by myself. (56:47) But he also constantly gives me relationship advice and he's now going on his sixth marriage. (56:52) And to which I always remind him, Mike, I'm like, buddy, my goal is to stay married.
 
(56:58) If you ever become an expert at that, please give me your advice. (57:01) But right now, all you're really good at is getting remarried and unmarried, right? (57:06) And so like that, but that doesn't make him bad.
 
(57:10) And there's certainly ideas I've had that he said, that's not gonna work. (57:14) And I did it.
Mike Mills
(57:16) And by the way- Tiger Woods was the greatest golfer on the planet and he was a terrible husband and spouse. (57:21) So I mean, you can be great at certain things and not be so great at others. (57:24) It's very normal.
Nikki Miller
(57:25) But it also doesn't make them all knowing. (57:28) Tiger Woods has also had a bad day at golf too. (57:31) And he might have given somebody advice, like that same mentor, the mentor who said the thing about that it wouldn't work, like they could have been right.
 
(57:40) And the only way to find out for sure is to go and do it and try it. (57:45) Like if you feel something strongly, that's their truth. (57:50) And it doesn't make your instincts or your inner knowing any less valuable.
 
(57:53) So I just encourage people to follow through with that because literally the worst thing that happens is you fail. (57:58) Like that's the worst consequence. (58:01) And if there's anything that you take away from smart people it's like that their ideas are just hypothesis.
 
(58:06) Like I'm willing for it to be proven wrong, but I'm gonna go figure it out for sure.
Mike Mills
(58:09) Well, you said it earlier, every person more or less that you come in contact with, whether they're smarter than you or you think they are, they've had more experience or less or whatever the case may be, you're gonna learn something from them, something. (58:24) You may learn what not to do. (58:25) You may learn what to do.
 
(58:27) You may learn what, but every person is going to bring some value to you, every relationship you have. (58:33) And again, it could be, I don't wanna be like that or I don't wanna have that mentality or whatever the case may be, but you're going to gain knowledge. (58:39) So the more people you interact with, the more people you create relationships with, the more you're gonna gain information and knowledge and aggregate data essentially to determine who you are as a person, right?
 
(58:49) Because every little piece, right? (58:52) There's another saying, it's like, you are an amalgamation of the five people that you spend the most amount of time with or whatever it is. (58:59) Like you're gonna be the person that you are going to be ultimately.
 
(59:03) It's just a matter of where you leverage yourself and find relationships to build that. (59:07) You wanna surround yourself with miserable people that are unhappy in their life and live quiet desperation, lives of quiet desperation or because you'll probably end up that way if you do. (59:19) Or do you wanna surround yourself with positive, optimistic folks that work hard, that have ideas, that wanna try things.
 
(59:25) They're not perfect. (59:25) They're not gonna be all encompassing. (59:27) Nobody's got all the answers, but you're gonna be able to learn stuff from them.
 
(59:30) And the more time you spend and the more time you really make those connections, the more growth that you're gonna have. (59:36) And that can only lead to good things, especially if you're pointing in that direction. (59:41) I wanna be very respectful of your time.
 
(59:44) I told you it'd be about an hour. (59:45) So we're almost at the end of that. (59:46) But before we wrap up, because we've only touched on your company just a little bit, I feel like we should at least do the bare minimum of explaining Ojo's platform, what you guys do, what you bring to agents specifically and why if you're an individual agent or even a part of a team that you should consider checking into it.
Nikki Miller
(1:00:07) Yeah. (1:00:07) So you can always go to Ojo.com to learn more at Ojo.com. (1:00:13) Specifically what we do, I always say we can sort of discern our products between the products that we have for teams and the product that we have for individuals.
 
(1:00:20) Specifically for teams, there are opportunities. (1:00:23) Ojo is a very large lead aggregator. (1:00:26) Moboto, which is their consumer site, is a site that brings in consumers who raise their hand if they're interested in buying or selling, right?
 
(1:00:34) So the opportunity for teams across the country is to connect to those consumers and Ojo is very unique in that they take very seriously the teams they partner with and the experience that the consumer has. (1:00:45) And tangentially, again, part of what's led to our partnership is providing that same experience for individual agents, which historically have been disjointed, don't convert at the same level. (1:00:55) And they brought in Lever by Moboto.
 
(1:00:57) You can just go to Lever by Moboto.com to learn more if you're an individual real estate agent. (1:01:03) Our platform is not just lead generation. (1:01:05) It is a comprehensive support system, exclusively and specifically designed to grow individual agents' businesses.
 
(1:01:12) So we have a track record, you can check us on Instagram too, of growing individual agents' businesses, double, triple, quadruple digit percentages year over year in closed units by having this unique support around them, as well as creating a more direct connection to the consumer in a way that's meaningful for both the agent as well as the consumer. (1:01:30) And everyone can also find me on Instagram at the Nikki Miller. (1:01:33) I'm happy to always direct you to the right place or the right connection.
 
(1:01:37) There's tons of free resources inside Ojo too. (1:01:39) We do monthly masterclasses that we provide for free with some industry giants. (1:01:45) And it's just a great world to be a part of as an agent to be able to learn.
 
(1:01:49) And even if any of those doesn't sound like it's the right fit for you, then you can just come and learn alongside of us. (1:01:55) We just want to help you.
Mike Mills
(1:01:56) Yeah. (1:01:57) If anything, check it out, grow your knowledge base, find out more, and never know where things go from that. (1:02:02) Well, Nikki, I could literally sit here and we could talk for four and a half hours and it wouldn't bother me at all because there's a ton of things.
 
(1:02:09) You're my mentor for the day. (1:02:12) So I very much appreciate that. (1:02:15) I think that your company has a ton to offer.
 
(1:02:18) It's an innovative platform that isn't some of the bigger guys out there that we all get annoyed by from time to time. (1:02:26) Y'all are very agent focused where some of the bigger guys aren't. (1:02:29) And I think that especially in the real estate world, these days, the more we can help build up realtors and not tear them down as they've been done in the media lately.
 
(1:02:40) And especially where some of these bigger platforms are trying to push things too. (1:02:43) I think that's always going to be a benefit and you guys are certainly leading the charge for that. (1:02:48) So I appreciate that.
 
(1:02:49) And I think that anybody listening to this is going to appreciate that as well. (1:02:54) Love to have you back sometime because I think there's a whole bunch of rabbit holes we could go down. (1:03:00) I just don't have it all.
 
(1:03:01) In 60 minutes to get it all there. (1:03:04) But I'd love to have you back (1:03:05) and chat some more about this (1:03:07) because I think whether it be real estate, (1:03:09) mortgage, anything in life, (1:03:11) if you can figure out how to build systems (1:03:16) and processes inside your just day-to-day life, (1:03:19) it will have such an impactful effect (1:03:23) on everything that you do (1:03:25) that you don't realize it (1:03:26) until you've done it for a little while (1:03:28) and then you fall off the wagon (1:03:30) and you go, (1:03:30) oh, crap, man, I really need to get back to this (1:03:32) because everything's going off the rails (1:03:35) and I need to get my programming back online. (1:03:38) So, and I think that you're a perfect example of that and should be, I don't like to use the word inspiration because I'm not that woo, but it is very impressive and I've had a great time chatting with you. (1:03:51) So thank you very much for coming on.
 
(1:03:53) Thank you, everybody that stuck around listening to us. (1:03:56) Next week on Thursday, I will have Dan Habib on from MBS Highway. (1:04:00) We'll be talking about the market and rates and where they're going and the Fed and all these wonderful numbers that we've been fed, no pun intended, over the last eight months that aren't quite adding up and now we're starting to see a shift.
 
(1:04:13) So tune in for that. (1:04:15) Nikki, thank you so much for joining us. (1:04:17) I greatly appreciate it.
 
(1:04:19) And if you have anything to say before we go, we'll wrap it up.
Nikki Miller
(1:04:23) Thank you so much for having me. (1:04:24) I love to be back. (1:04:25) This was a great conversation.
Mike Mills
(1:04:26) Awesome. (1:04:27) All right, guys, y'all have a great weekend and we will see you again soon.
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Nikki Miller

CEO

Nikki Miller is the Founder and CEO of formerly The LEAD Syndicate and now Lever by Movoto, a first of its kind leverage platform exclusively optimized for individual real estate agents supporting partners in hundreds of locations across the US. Nikki built The LEAD Syndicate using over a decade of her unique experience in real estate, coaching, training and high level systemization and integration. Nikki's passion for real estate agent's success is evident in everything she touches from the ideation of this innovative platfrom to the countless free resources she provides, to the many real estate events you can see her training at throughout the year. Nikki is also the Host of The ONE Thing Podcast that has reached over 11 million listeners