#825: The CEO Shift Every Team Leader Needs with Stacie Peterson

Listings are sitting for 30 days. Two price reductions later, there still aren't any showings. In Matt Durbin's Pittsburgh market, days on market are at 54, and there are 60% more sellers than buyers. If a home is in great condition, in a desirable area, and priced right, it still sells. If it isn't, it's crickets. Matt calls it a throwback to 2018, except there are even fewer buyers this time.In this episode of Expert Mentors Live, John Kitchens sits down with Matt Durbin, who leads the #1 eXp Realty team in Pennsylvania, to talk about how to win as the market flattens and AI changes what's possible. John shares a forecast that the next 12 to 15 months could bring the fewest home sales NAR has reported in decades. Matt's view is more of a flattening than a fall-off, but he is clear that sold comps are no longer for pricing support. What matters now is the active competition.Until 30 or 60 days ago, Matt says, he was using AI like Google. Now a price-per-square-foot analysis that used to take three hours takes a minute. He has Grok Bot pulling a 6:00 AM dashboard of five follow-up metrics across 29 agent databases, triggering listing marketing the moment a home goes live, and building Monday seller reports so sellers can see the work behind the scenes. The human conversations still matter. AI, he says, should take the other 80% off your plate.John and Matt also talk about why "start high and chase the market down" is some of the worst advice a seller can get right now, why expired listings are back in play, and the question Matt would ask first: if you had five employees working for free for the next 30 days, what would you have them work on? Because somebody is going to keep closing homes. The last five years' tactics may not be what works for the next three.Key Topics Covered* Pittsburgh's flattening market: 54 days on market and 60% more sellers than buyers* Why sold comps are for appraisal support, not pricing support* Setting expectations with sellers, and why expired listings are in play again* Controlling the narrative instead of letting the headlines do it* Using AI so market analysis takes a minute, not three hours* Grok Bot for follow-up metrics, listing marketing, and Monday seller reports* The five-employees-for-30-days question, and finding where the opportunity is now* Staying human: let AI take the other 80% so you can have the conversations that close“Somebody's gonna continue to close homes, and maybe the things that I've been doing over the last five years aren't gonna be the things that work over the next three years.” – Matt DurbinIf you know you need AI in your business but don't know where to start, this one's for you.Connect With UsBook your Clarity call now at 7figurecall.comDownload the AI & Leverage Toolkit now and uncover your biggest leverage opportunities at audit.7FigureBP.comInstagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook: @johnkitchenscoach This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

What happens when your password becomes your business plan? Back in the late '90s, Bruce Stevens set his MLS password to "sell100M," figuring he'd never actually get there. It became the Wi-Fi password too. Then they crushed it. Today Lindsay and Bruce are closing in on the $200 million mark with 50-plus agents in the Hudson Valley, and the new password is "sell300M."In this episode of Expert Mentors Live, John Kitchens sits down with two of his favorite human beings on the planet to talk about what it really takes to scale a team without losing your culture. Lindsay and Bruce are honest about what broke along the way (their answer: everything), why Lindsay gets the urge to burn it all down and rebuild every couple of years, and how they stretch their systems like a rubber band without letting it snap.They dig into standards and accountability, and why the standard is what you allow, not what's in your contract. Bruce shares how they now use AI to pull metrics from SISU, Follow Up Boss and SkySlope, build coaching tracks for every agent in minutes, and run a proprietary portal with one-click reverse prospecting. Lindsay pushes back on the hype: in a world that's becoming so artificial, she says, be a real person. So many leaders are scaling away from their people, and she believes the move right now is to scale back in.John, Lindsay and Bruce also talk about what prospecting actually looks like heading into 2027, why recruiting insulates a team in a down market, the one-page commitment every agent on their team signed, and the question every leader needs to answer: are you interested, committed, or obsessed? As Lindsay reminds John, the speed of the leader determines the speed of the pack, and right now the teams that win will be the ones whose leaders are back in the trenches.Connect With Us:Book your Clarity call now at 7figurecall.comDownload the AI & Leverage Toolkit and uncover your biggest leverage opportunities at audit.7FigureBP.comInstagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook: @johnkitchenscoach This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

In this episode of Agent to CEO, John Kitchens sits down with Nick Krem to unpack why he pivoted his business, how he chooses which AI tools and partners to bet on, and why the agents who win won’t be the ones who master the tech fastest. They will be the ones who use it to get more face time with the people they serve.Nick explains the difference between AI “wrappers” and true harnesses, why the AI-powered consumer will soon run more agents than the AI-powered agent, and how getting found and recommended by AI is becoming the modern referral. John and Nick also dig into humans as the accountability layer, the question every expert must answer (”what can you tell me that AI cannot?”), and why the real shift is “who, not how.”Key Topics Covered* Why Nick pivoted his business and how he picks the partners and tools he goes all-in on* Wrappers vs. harnesses, and what that means for the AI tools agents buy* Less screen time, more face time: using AI to free up human connection* Wearables, texting your software, and the AI-powered consumer* Why being recommended by AI is the new referral, and how to show up in those answers* Humans as the accountability layer and the value AI can’t replace* Who not how: the question every leader should be asking“So think who not how. That’s the question you should be asking yourself.” – Nick KremConnect With Us* Book your Clarity call now at 7figurecall.com* Download the AI & Leverage Toolkit now and uncover your biggest leverage opportunities at audit.7FigureBP.com* Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook: @johnkitchenscoach This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

Here’s the hard truth: most team leaders are the business. They don’t own a company, they own a job with a payroll. As we get ready for ‘27, I want you to ask yourself which one you’ve built. So I brought on my friend Stacie Peterson, one of the OGs out of Kinder Reese Coaching, to talk about what it really takes to go from agent to CEO.Stacie grew her team to 10 agents and two admins, got herself and her partner out of production, ran it at over 30% profit, and then sold it. Today she gets to help hundreds and hundreds of agents. But it started with a simple test. If she went and lived on a beach for six months, or even 30 days, could things still run without her? For her the answer came down to systems. As she puts it, she’s not that important and she’s not that smart. That was the moment she realized this was a business.We get into what a buyer actually pays for when you sell a team, why the business can’t be built around your personality, and what it looks like to step out of production without losing who you are. We also talk about AI and leverage, and why the right tools should make you more human, not less, by taking the stuff that doesn’t really matter off your plate. And we cover the identity piece that nobody talks about: who are you after production?Key Topics Covered* Owning a company vs. owning a job with a payroll* The beach test: could your business run without you for 30 days?* Building systems so you and your partner can get out of production* Running a team at over 30% profit* What a buyer actually pays for when you sell a team* Using AI and leverage to be more human, not less* Who you are after production* Keeping the people who matter most at the centerWe’re much farther along than we think, and our job here is to have true human connections so that we can be the best person we can be to each other and to the people that matter most. – Stacie PetersonThis one’s for you if your team still runs through you and you want a business that can run, or sell, without you.Connect With Us* Book your Clarity call now at 7figurecall.com* Download the AI & Leverage Toolkit now and uncover your biggest leverage opportunities at audit.7FigureBP.com* Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook: @johnkitchenscoach This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

As we head into Q4 and start preparing for ‘27, a lot of us are rethinking everything, and one question keeps coming up with the agents I coach: should I have a team? People usually have a strong belief one way or the other. So I brought my friend Joel Perso back on the show to unpack it, because I take notes every time I talk to him.Joel has been in real estate since 2012, and he reminded me how short the history of teams really is. The idea of a real estate team is only about 15 years old, and the big push to build teams was about retention, not wealth building. A lot of agents who got into the business in the last 10 years have only heard that the goal is to have a team. “Why wouldn’t you do that?” But for a lot of people it’s not the right answer.We get into the questions to ask before you build anything: Am I maxed out on what I can do by myself right now? Why do I actually want a team? What kind of agents do I want to attract? Will I enjoy my day-to-day life as a team leader? Then we cover the different team models, how to run the math without getting drunk on the spreadsheet, and what it means for team leaders who are realizing they don’t have to keep running a team at all.Key Topics Covered:* Why fewer home sales put more pressure on the system* The short history of real estate teams, and why retention drove the boom* Decision-making and the ripple effect of saying yes or no* The first question: are you maxed out on your own?* Why you want a team, and using assessments like Working Genius* True teams, teamerages, and hybrid models* Deciding what kind of agents you want to attract* Doing the math on leads, splits, and your own time* The responsibility that comes with leading peopleIf you ask yourself, ‘Do I have to have a team?’ And the answer is, ‘No, I don’t have to,’ then it needs to be a hell yes. – Joel PersoThis one’s for you if you’re deciding whether to build, grow, or step back from a team.Connect With Us* Book your Clarity call now at 7figurecall.com* Download the AI & Leverage Toolkit now and uncover your biggest leverage opportunities at audit.7FigureBP.com* Discover How Agents Are Using Funnels, Content & AI to Predictably Close 4+ Deals a Month. Save your seat for the webinar: 7FigureBP.com* Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook: @johnkitchenscoach This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

I’m turning 50 in March, and like I did before 40, I’ve been asking what I’d tell my younger self. Something I read earlier this year really stuck with me: the only two people you need respect from are the eight-year-old you and the 80-year-old you. When I look back, what I remember most isn’t the milestones. It’s the moments we were laughing.That’s why this conversation with my friend Michael “Disney Mike” Collier hit home. Mike spent 12 years at Disney, went from college program student to Disney Ambassador, became a top salesperson, then jumped into flipping, wholesaling, lending and eventually real estate, where he’s now a three-time Icon at eXp. And he’s honest about something most of us won’t admit: hitting the goal and then feeling empty a couple of days later. “Okay, so now what?”Jesse Itzler says one of the worst things we can do is accomplish a major milestone and not immediately reset the goal. Mike and I dug into the other side of that: making sure the goal you’re chasing is actually yours, and not somebody else’s goal that just looked cool from the back of the room. We talk about what you see on stage versus the rest of the story, your 168 hours, deciding what “enough” is, and choosing the right lever so you’re not climbing the ladder faster on the wrong wall.Key Topics Covered:* Why the peaks are great, but you learn the most about yourself in the valleys* Chasing shiny objects vs. keeping the main thing the main thing* Mike’s Disney journey and the empty feeling after hitting Icon* Resetting the goal and building sub-goals toward a bigger goal* Seeing both sides of success before you decide what you want* Your 168 hours, and why “enough” has to be defined* Moving to higher price points: more of the right clients, not more volume* The Speakers Alliance, and the one thing AI can’t replace* Identity, pigeonholing, and trading toxic fuel for purposeWhen you’re building that larger goal and those sub goals on your way to it, you have to make sure that the goal is actually the goal. – Michael CollierThis one’s for you if you’ve ever hit the number and wondered, “Now what?”Connect With Us* Book your Clarity call now at 7figurecall.com* Download the AI & Leverage Toolkit now and uncover your biggest leverage opportunities at audit.7FigureBP.com* Discover How Agents Are Using Funnels, Content & AI to Predictably Close 4+ Deals a Month. Save your seat for the webinar: 7FigureBP.com* Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook: @johnkitchenscoach This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

Blake Berfelz is one of the five owners behind the Benson Crew, an Ontario team formed just over a year ago when three businesses merged into one. In this Coffee and Coaching hot seat, Blake joins me to unpack what it really takes to lead a merged real estate team through a market nobody in Ontario has seen before.Blake came into real estate from the restaurant industry 14 years ago and helped build the residential side of his original team from the ground up. Today he helps run one of the most advanced AI-powered agent infrastructures we have seen on this show. Even with the tech dialed in, the hot seat comes down to something no system can fully solve on its own: the people behind it.Connect With Us* Ready to get clear on where your business is going? Book your Clarity call now at 7figurecall.com* Download the AI & Leverage Toolkit now and uncover your biggest leverage opportunities at audit.7FigureBP.com* Discover How Agents Are Using Funnels, Content & AI to Predictably Close 4+ Deals a Month. Save your seat for the webinar: 7FigureBP.com* Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook: @johnkitchenscoach This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

Most agents and team leaders are chasing tactics, tools, and the latest shiny object. In this Expert Mentors Live conversation, I sit down with DJ Fairley, who closed $93 million in production last year, finished number one in Pennsylvania for eXp Realty, and is on pace to top it this year, to break down the four fundamentals that decide who wins in this market: clarity, consistency, relationships, and accountability.We are in the final stretch of Q4, and the momentum you build now carries straight into Q1. We talk about who you have to become for the outcomes you are chasing to become true, and how to build a plan you will actually follow.Key Topics Covered* Why Q4 sets up Q1, and how today’s hybrid market changes your plan* Clarity: are you doubling revenue, profit, or freedom? Why a vague goal produces a vague version of you* SMART U: if someone else can’t read your goal and explain it back, it is not understandable yet* Consistency: health, priorities, and learning to say no as non-negotiables* Relationships: starting with the one you have with yourself, then building your “blue marlin” relationships* Accountability: why coaches, partners, and public commitments make you do more than you would alone* Inevitability thinking: reverse engineering the path so success feels like a walk in the park* The December 30th exercise: what didn’t you do, and what will you make a priority now?One line I keep coming back to: “Nothing changes if nothing changes, and the thing that has to change is you.”Connect With Us* Ready to get clear on where your business is going? Book your Clarity call now at 7figurecall.com* Download the AI & Leverage Toolkit now and uncover your biggest leverage opportunities at audit.7FigureBP.com* Discover How Agents Are Using Funnels, Content & AI to Predictably Close 4+ Deals a Month. Save your seat for the webinar: 7FigureBP.com* Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook: @johnkitchenscoach This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

Your background is not a liability. In this episode, I sit down with Jerry Van Leeuwen, a former paramedic turned real estate team leader out of Waterloo, Canada, who took every skill he built on the hardest days of other people’s lives and turned it into a serious competitive advantage in this business.We get into Jerry’s origin story, from growing up on a farm to running EMS calls to walking into his very first closing and having to run full conflict resolution between a buyer and a seller. We talk about why the best marketer wins, why learning to write ads may be the fastest way to become a world-class marketer, and how Jerry is using AI to become more human, not to replace the human side of the business.Connect With Us* Ready to get clear on where your business is going? Book your Clarity call now at 7figurecall.com* Download the AI & Leverage Toolkit now and uncover your biggest leverage opportunities at audit.7FigureBP.com* Discover How Agents Are Using Funnels, Content & AI to Predictably Close 4+ Deals a Month. Save your seat for the webinar: 7FigureBP.com* Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook: @johnkitchenscoach This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

Laura Justice has done just about every job real estate has to offer. She has spent over 30 years in this business, 17 of them in leadership and coaching. Today she leads the Incorvaia Team, 69 agents on pace to close over 600 units this year, with a goal of 100 agents by the end of next year.But this hot seat isn’t about the growth. It’s about what that growth is costing her. Laura’s constraint is time. She’s still the source instead of the resource, saying yes to everything and no to nothing. In this episode of Coffee and Coaching, we unpack how she’s using systems, leverage, and leadership to buy that time back. That includes systems that duplicate, tools like Sisu, and handing training to the rising leaders already on her team. We also cover a breakthrough moment mid-conversation: using AI to clone yourself.Key Topics Covered* Why Laura runs a 60/40 split between coaching and personal production, and why staying in production keeps her sharp* The Monday through Wednesday training cadence, including “Technique Tuesday,” that powers the team’s onboarding and agent development* What a system really is: anything you’ll do more than once, documented so someone else can run it without you* How tracking takes the “hallucination” out of real estate leadership* Why so many agents are frozen in today’s market, and why new agents can be the path of least resistance* Asking “Is it a system, a tool, a model, or a person?” before defaulting to a new hire* How plugging top performers into training creates a win-win, using a teammate who converts 23 to 40% of Zillow leads as an example* The “clone yourself” moment: building an AI coach that coaches you the way you coach others* Visionaries vs. get-it-done leaders, and which ones stay on a team for the long run* Why the fear of building people up so much that they leave is usually backwards“I can’t be more bought in than they are.” - Laura JusticeConnect With Us* Ready to get clear on where your business is going? Book a call with me at 7figurecall.com* Download the AI & Leverage Toolkit now and uncover your biggest leverage opportunities at audit.7FigureBP.com* Discover How Agents Are Using Funnels, Content & AI to Predictably Close 4+ Deals a Month. Save your seat for the webinar: 7FigureBP.com* Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook: @johnkitchenscoach This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com