Hi,
My name is Lori Ballen. When I say that, I feel like standing up in front of my chair with my hands clentched tightly and my head dropped slightly with just a light whisper that breathes my name. You know the meetings I'm talking about.
But no, I'm Lori Ballen, a Realtor. Actually, I'm a Mega Agent. What is a Mega Agent you ask? Not really sure what the actual definition is as it has been recently debated. Some say - it's an Agent who does over Seven Million dollars in production. Other say it is those on the path to the 7th level.
What is the 7th level? So glad you asked actually. The 7th level, as described in The Millionaire Real Estate Agent (by Gary Keller and Dave Jenks with Jay Papasan) is when you have administrative staff, sales staff, and a CEO that basically provide you residual income. You no longer work "IN" the business. This does not always mean absentee owner, but you have options to explore other income earning opportunities or pursue other activities.
I, Lori Ballen, Mega Agent of Ballen Group International with corporate offices in Las Vegas, Nevada am on that path - to the 7th level. I want it so bad I can taste it. WHY? Because I did it once before. My husband and I built what winded up being the number one event planning company in Las Vegas. We had 4 warehouses, a restaurant, a banquet hall and bridal facility, a catering side, and entertainment side (complete with hundreds of inflatable games, carnival booths, dunk tanks etc) and had 35 regular employees with many more on call. We had everything from dishwashers to catering managers and from wedding coordinators to chefs.
When we started our event planning company, I was 21 years old. I knew NOTHING about people, hiring, training, motivating, selecting, - nothing. I did not set out to build that to a saleable business or a 7th level business. It happened by accident. Everytime we would hit a ceiling of achievment, (what we then called "MAXED OUT") we would get help. At first it was rental companies to provide us linens, games, additional catering supplies etc. and then we sought out temporary employment services. When we realized we were spending way too much money on the rentals and temps, we started buying out the rental companies and hiring our own staff.
It was pathetic how I managed. Remember, I was this young, bouncy 21 year old. Yes, I had passion, I had fire in my belly, I had dreams and desires, but I had no experience and no training. So My husband and I basically ran our people part of our business like a casino - Yep - It was a Craps Shoot. Rarely we won, but most of the time - we lost it all.
We did interviews the way we thought we should. We bought a stack of applications from the local office supply story and asked them a few questions. 30 minutes later they were hired - DISASTER.
But by some miracle, we not only survived it, we found some key hires and built that company to the 7th level. In our final 3 years, we traveled, spent a lot of time vacationing and spending lots of time (and money) together and then had our 4th daughter. We were enjoying life. Someone, quite out of the blue, offered us a deal to purchase our business and we decided to sell. We thought we were retired - forever. - We were wrong.
Right about when the economy tanked, we received a letter from the buyers attorney explaining how the buyers were no longer going to make us the $10,000 a month payments to finish buying out our business. This was the money we were retiring on. Uh OH - We hired a lawyer - but their original contracts gave them loop holes that we never paid attention to and they won.
What Now?? After taking a couple of years off, and dabbling in this and that, my husband decided Real Estate would be the perfect career for us. I laughed at him - LOUDLY! "People don't like Real Estate Agents, I exclaimed - and I won't be one - Ever" - HA! 7 months later, I got my license and joined my husband. In our first year we won awards like Rookie of the Year, and top sales agents in our company (2nd only to the top REO agent in town).
We KNEW without a doubt that we wanted to succeed through leverage. We started to build our team, but the brokerage we were at did not have models that supported teams. In september 2010, we joined Keller Williams Realty Las Vegas.
I had read the MREA book when I was in Real Estate School and remembered it still. I knew Keller Williams Understood leverage in a very big way and that we could build there with guidance. We were right.
I personally have grabbed every single resource I could get my hands on about Team Building. I started masterminding on social media groups (especially Facebook) with other MEGAS who were building their teams. I built an award winning team in 18 months. We actually went from 3 members to 14 members in 7 months and completed 101 sides our first year.
- The quote I used in the beginning of this blog post was said in one of those groups the other night. "Real Estate Should Not Be This Hard". This was said by a $30 million dollar producer who has done that with just he, his wife, and a buyers agent. $30 million is great, I don't know how many sides that is for his market.
Why does he believe it should not be this hard? He has not yet reached a ceiling of achievment that he desires to push through. For me, it's not about the money. I've had the money, plenty of it. For me, it's about the challenge and the success of reaching the 7th level - twice. I know what the 7th level feels like. I have tasted it. I know the freedom it gives you, the choices it gives you, the opportunities of how to live your life and I want that again.
Yes, it's hard. The learning process. When you decide to pursue the 7th level - when it's an actual soul felt, heartfelt, bunring desire that is exclaimed from the mountain tops - you have stepped OUT of the real estate business and into the people business. Buckle down and get ready for a ride.
We owe it to the people who's lives we are changing, for better or for worse, to learn what we are doing. They count on US now to succeed. They count on US to have enough business that they can feed their families. They count on us for guidance to help them push through THEIR ceilings of achievements and we better get it right.
Yes, it's hard. But those that take the biggest risks receive the highest achievments.
- Lori Ballen
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