How to Train, Retain, and WIN as a Real Estate Team

What This Episode Delivers:

If you lead a real estate team, are a producing broker, or want to scale with systems that actually work, this episode is a must-listen. Jon and Nick pull back the curtain on how their team is up 67% year-over-year in a market that’s barely up 3%. Spoiler alert: it’s not one silver bullet. It’s a culture of consistency, accountability, skill-building, and systems that make growth repeatable.

We dive into:

• Their 2-week agent bootcamp + LMS on Skool
• How they built a role-play culture that agents want to show up for
• Why they recertified their entire team on scripts, tech, and training
• The Buyer’s Toolkit that's boosting conversion at open houses
• How they evaluate tech and eliminate shiny object syndrome
• What makes their team culture magnetic, fun, and retention-proof

Whether you're scaling your first team or looking to reinvigorate an existing one, this episode is your playbook.

Top Takeaways:

• Growth doesn’t happen by accident. Accountability + training + implementation are the trifecta.
• Recertification isn’t just for new agents. Veteran agents gained major value from revisiting fundamentals.
• The Buyer’s Toolkit closes gaps. It positions the agent as a guide—not just a door opener.
• Plug into the system. The most successful agents are living in the CRM, attending role plays, and using the tools.
• Tech doesn’t matter without adoption. They cut anything agents don’t use. Ego-free.
• Culture is king. From fantasy football to food trucks, they create community on and off the field.

⬇️ Downloadables:

• Full Q&A Breakdown from today's episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSiZ8yXAVcKvnSwSCLLyUbOhmLZxHiSB2wWwMATy6A7T9CgUYPSmRRdlpJDBEz2rPP74rXLbgLGbFEu/pub
• The Slocum Buyer Toolkit: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UqqTgOW8jInBCkMHDvdOQ2Uc92_FsQWK?usp=sharing

Want More?

Get free resources, templates, and updates from the Slocum Home Team:

• Instagram: @nickslocum and @jontetrault
• Email: nick@slocumhometeam.com and jt@slocumhometeam.com

🎯 Got value from this episode? Share it with another agent or team leader who needs it.

Then go:
📩 Subscribe to the newsletter: https://kristijencks.myflodesk.com/subscribe
🎥 Watch & subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@coachkristijencks
📱 Follow @kristijencks on Instagram

Take what you learned today… and run with it!

If this episode gave you an idea you can implement in your business, don’t just listen — take it and run.

🎤 Book me to speak at your event/team meeting: 
kristijencks.com

📩 Subscribe to the newsletter for more strategies:
https://kristijencks.myflodesk.com/subscribe

🎥 More content on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@coachkristijencks

📱 Follow along on Instagram:
@kristijencks

🎙️ About the Podcast

Take It and Run is the podcast for ambitious professionals—especially real estate agents—who want practical strategies they can implement immediately. Each episode delivers mindset shifts, frameworks, and real-world insights to help you move from thinking about it… to doing it.

Transcript

Kristi Jencks (00:01.55)
Welcome back to the Take It and Run podcast. Today we are joined by some incredible powerhouse agents and leaders from the Slocum Home Team, Jon Tetrault and Nick Slocum. So, you know, I did say Jon's name wrong in my head for like a year and a half. I slaughtered it. I practiced all morning.

Jon Tetrault (00:20.69)
You nailed it right there though.

Kelcie Dowd (00:24.563)
Ha

Kristi Jencks (00:26.316)
legitimately practice. That's why I interrupted myself. Yeah, I've been known to say things wrong in my head. But anyways, these guys, they are not just running the team from the sidelines. Both of them are in production in the trenches, and it's driving big results in terms of strategy innovation. They're having an incredible year. We're going to dive more into that.

Jon Tetrault (00:28.665)
I heard you say it, I was like, ooh.

Kristi Jencks (00:51.352)
But the reason that I wanted to bring them on is because they've built a culture of growth and accountability, skill development, and they're really all in on their agents growth. And it's showing in a lot of ways. So Nick, I want you to start us off. For our listeners, anyone who's joining us, tell us who's the Slocum Home team, right? Give us a quick snapshot of the team, where you're based, everything that we should know.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (01:19.319)
Absolutely. Well, first of all, thanks for having us on, Kristi This is an honor and I'm super excited to be here today. my name is Nick Slocum. I am a team leader of the Slocum Home team based out of Warwick, Rhode Island. We sell real estate in Rhode Island, Southeastern Massachusetts and Connecticut. So I'm a third generation broker. I got my license my junior year at college back in 2006. But my grandparents actually started the company back in 1949. So 76 years now of history.

Jon Tetrault (01:26.107)
Okay.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (01:47.287)
I guess I started full-time right out of college. I was a solo agent for many years and then Jon and I actually started a team within our brokerage together back in 2016. That grew quite a bit to the point where it was probably an unhealthy number, an unhealthy percentage of the overall business of the company. At which point we kind of transitioned into a teamerage type model a couple years back.

Jon Tetrault (01:55.227)
So,

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (02:11.401)
I've grown quite a bit. When I first got into this company and this business, we probably had four or five agents. It was kind of your typical mom and pop type shop. They'd had periods of higher numbers of agents in the past, but that's where they were when I joined. And we've obviously taken it with the help of great mentorship and mentors in the company, coaches, shout out to Kristi and some lovely people that we've had the opportunity to learn from really helped catapult this thing to the next level.

Kristi Jencks (02:39.438)
I love it.

Kelcie Dowd (02:41.363)
So this question, I guess, is for Jon But since you guys are both still in production, how do you balance being in the trenches but also driving the bigger strategic vision of your guys' group?

Jon Tetrault (02:55.304)
It's a great question. Time management, which is not always the easiest thing to do. I guess knowing we're both all in. So there's plenty of days where you're focused on production for most of the day, but you know that the big picture things have to get done. So you go home and you have to roll up your sleeves and keep doing that. And other days you can

focus more of the day on those big picture things. But I think it's just being all in and knowing that it has to get done no matter what. And then for us, we're firm believers that being in production is part of the bigger picture because it really keeps us plugged into what's happening, what our agents need to know, what they should be looking out for. And it helps us with role playing with them of what's going on out there.

what clients are saying, what the market's doing, and it keeps us plugged in to help them grow and stay focused on things as well.

Kristi Jencks (03:54.094)
How do you guys not step on each other's toes? Because I actually didn't set you up in like, know, what Jon does, what Nick does. And I know you guys work so well together, but how do you stay in your own lanes and what are those lanes?

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (04:06.102)
I think it's years of trial and error, I guess, but I think more or less we both have different strong suits and I tend to be a little bit more behind the scenes, systems oriented, tech based and Jon wholeheartedly I think is a little bit better with people from a patient's perspective. So it definitely plays well together and he is fantastic at what he does.

Jon Tetrault (04:29.125)
I think.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (04:31.03)
I think we work really, really well together. consider him like a brother and we just communicate. We're talking nonstop and if he needs to jump in, he can do anything I do and if I need to jump in, I can do anything that he does. We fully trust each other 100 % and I think that's key to our relationship for sure.

Kristi Jencks (04:50.626)
I love that. So go ahead, Jon.

Jon Tetrault (04:53.563)
I was gonna say knowing each other at this point too. Like I know when I start a project sometimes, like this is mine, I have it, I'm running with it and what I come up with is what we're gonna have. And there's other times where I know going into it, no matter what I do here, Nick's gonna rip it apart and redo it anyway, so I'm really not sure why I'm starting this, but let's give it a whirl. And you can usually tell at the beginning which one it's gonna be.

Kristi Jencks (05:18.862)
I know exactly what you're talking about because we experienced that ourselves. So actually, I have a question for you, Jon. You do oversee a lot of the team development, right? Accountability, the role play sessions. You know, I'm curious for you to share with the listeners, how do you keep agents both motivated and accountable without micromanagement? Because I think that's one thing that you do really well.

Jon Tetrault (05:20.087)
Hahaha

Jon Tetrault (05:44.869)
Thank you. I would have said sometimes I worry that I am micromanaging a bit. I like to start with wins. We start our team meetings with wins. We start role play or our flex meetings. I always like to start with wins, kind of get people in a good mood, let them share, vocalize good things that have been happening, talk about what's going on out there. You touched on role play. Role play can be tough to get people to buy into because

It's so hard for people to role play in front of their teammates because they're doing it in front of a bunch of people who know, or they feel like know what the answer should be. So it's intimidating. But we talk a lot about openly, like if you can do it here, you'll crush it. You know, when you're when you're on the phone with a consumer or prospect or at a listing appointment. So that keeps people focused. And then trying to take the time to get to know everyone in their situation.

knowing why they're doing this, what are their personal goals, what are their financial goals, and trying to keep each one of those individually in mind. We have agents that will just be absolutely rolling and trying to learn, okay, what more do you wanna do? Do you wanna keep doubling down on what you're doing? Do you wanna try to balance more online leads with sphere? Do you wanna shift from more buyers to sellers and how can we help you accomplish that? But finding out what they want more of.

is always helpful because then they're buying into that journey. So it's really just trying to listen and get to know them and tap into it and then being here for them. You know, we have plenty of people who've gone through rough patches and understanding that and take the foot off the gas and just kind of let them do their thing and let them know we're here to support them in those times. And then they tell us when they're back and they're ready to go and okay, now what are we doing next? How do we get back on the horse?

Kristi Jencks (07:36.792)
So I hear a couple of things. It's not a one size fits all, right? So it's customized to the agents in terms of accountability. That means that you and Nick and I know the leadership team in general is tied into the agent, their goals, their why, and why they chose Slocum, why they're there, and what kind of life they wanna build. You mentioned three types of meetings. And I know that a lot of people out there, whether you're a small Navy SEAL team or you're running a large operation like you guys are,

Jon Tetrault (07:40.603)
I'm not.

Kristi Jencks (08:05.4)
they struggle with attendance. You mentioned feeling uncomfortable, but there were three meetings. You said Role Play, Flex meeting, and I know you guys have a team meeting. How do you make, are these mandatory? Are they optional? And how do you make them valuable? Because I know the worst thing, like if you guys know my husband and Nick and Merrill are so alike, it's not even funny, but like Merrill hates meetings. We, we better, you better start on time. You end on time. Like don't get off track, you know? So how do you, how do you get such,

Jon Tetrault (08:29.418)
So.

Jon Tetrault (08:34.203)
Okay. you

Kristi Jencks (08:35.022)
engagement with your guys's meetings and did I miss any different type of meeting between those three?

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (08:40.951)
I think those are the big ones. So we do a weekly sales meeting and then on the same time slot once a month, we make it a longer monthly meeting. So I think it comes back to providing value, talking points. We're always sharing local market stats broken down at a state level. We're so small, we look at state levels. State levels, county levels, city levels. And we wanna not only share those stats, but kind of help correlate what does that mean? How do they talk to clients about it? How do you frame the positioning of, frame this conversation with a client regarding these stats?

We often give marketing strategies. going to be hammering home with enough value that I think most agents want to be plugged in to know what's going on. I wish I knew the easy answer to say this is why we get decent attendance and why people want to come. But I think from the team perspective, they see other people on the team being plugged in and it's very quickly going to be apparent whether or not they're a fit for our team or they're not. And I think those that are tend to be in the office. I we just bought a brand new building.

Jon Tetrault (09:30.907)
Okay.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (09:40.286)
and people are downsizing or eliminating offices and our agents were chomping at the bit to get back here. So think they thrive off of each other. They thrive off of the conversations, the camaraderie. And I think that's a huge aspect of our culture actually is just having people here willing to help. I've often seen agents sitting down working through a difficult CMA or a difficult negotiation strategy and they really roll up their sleeves and they work all in altogether. So we've been very fortunate that that has kind of naturally evolved over the years.

But I would say it comes back more than anything just providing value, providing help, providing support, and being there to help them grow their business and push it forward.

Jon Tetrault (10:17.167)
No coincidence either, I think that the agents who are most successful are the ones that are here, that are at the meetings, that are at the role plays, just immersing themselves into the team and making it.

Kristi Jencks (10:24.643)
Yeah.

Jon Tetrault (10:29.028)
It's a lifestyle.

Kelcie Dowd (10:31.731)
Mm-hmm. So what I hear too is that you guys are implementing a lot of new, you're not afraid to implement new strategies and maybe some new tech and try things out. So how do you decide which tools are worth adopting versus which ones are just shiny objects that you're like, okay, that'll die away.

Jon Tetrault (10:44.667)
No.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (10:55.511)
I think I might be a little bit too addicted to change and looking for the best possible to implement. you know, we've been around. Yes. So we've been around a while, you know, about 20 years now in the industry. And again, solo agent, team leader, broker, Jonah, whatever it might be. And we've demoed or at least, you know, had meetings on almost every system out there. You know, we're constantly looking to see, is this something that's going to, you know,

Kelcie Dowd (10:59.271)
Yeah

Kelcie Dowd (11:03.173)
And you are like Merrill.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (11:23.585)
drive more business for our agents, is it gonna push the needle, is it gonna change the life for them, make it easier, more efficient, put more revenue in their pockets, whatever it might be. So we've certainly gone through a lot of different changes on systems and tech, and I don't think that'll ever change. We're always looking to optimize our tech stack and provide the best possible suite of products for our clients, our agents that we can. So I think this comes back to constantly pushing growth and evolving to hopefully create a more seamless process for both our agents.

which in turn correlates to our clients. That's always been our driving forces. That's why we started the team is what can we do to create a better client experience? And it's not just a bunch of agents coming together to put their numbers together. We have specialists in each aspect of the transaction and tech helps them do their jobs better. We have an in-house photographer, multimedia specialist, marketing, transaction coordination. We've got a bunch of different people helping create that.

seamless client experience that I truly believe that one agent on their own can't provide.

Kristi Jencks (12:22.954)
You know, I am curious because one thing that I appreciate about you so since I've been coaching the you know the brokerage we've implemented some different tech pieces and I love the fact that you guys are come you guys are are all in let's try it right you do your due diligence but then Like I'm not gonna name any names, but we've been through some products that were like, okay We thought this was gonna work and you know it did for a minute and then it didn't anymore and we cut

What is the system that you guys could share with like, how do you evaluate where we just need to stick with this because it's a learning curve or no, we tried this, it didn't do what we thought, it's time to cut and move on.

Jon Tetrault (12:57.947)
Okay.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (13:03.541)
I think it comes back to ego. We've put a lot of products in a place that I've loved, but our agents didn't, for whatever reason. they're not adopting it they don't see the value, we're not going to keep paying for it. So I think some people might get caught up in like, no, this is something that I spearheaded. This is my project. I'm going to keep this going. That's not at all how we operate. We'll try it. If it works, we're going to double down and we're going to use it. If it doesn't, then we're going to scrap it and try to come up with a better system.

I wish it didn't happen as often as it does, but we're constantly trying to evolve in test and tweak and see what works for us to optimize that whole process.

Kristi Jencks (13:41.998)
So that's actually exactly why I wanted to have you guys on the podcast. And I'm going to tee Jon up for this one, because he and I worked on this one together. But I remember us having this conversation early in the year. I think it was either the end of quarter one, beginning of quarter two. We saw that our agents were struggling with some things. And this is where, again, just because we've always done it this way. I love what you said, Nick, no ego. Just because we've always done it this way, and it's worked for us in the past.

Jon Tetrault (13:55.227)
Okay.

Kristi Jencks (14:09.794)
we saw we were having an issue. So Jon and the whole leadership team went and started, there were two parts. There was the recertification. So Jon, I want you to touch on two things. We started 2025 with this idea of let's recertify everybody on every system, every tech, every script. And then that parlayed into creating this buyer's toolkit to help conversion. But let's start with the recertification.

Has that had an impact on both, I would call the legacy agents that have been with you a long time and the new? What did that certification process look like? How has it evolved and what impact is it making on the team and the brokerage?

Jon Tetrault (14:49.427)
Yeah.

I really enjoyed it. So it timed up with us redoing again, just tearing, ripping apart something that we had in place and, trying again. We've always tried to improve and improve and improve our training and above others in the area. I think we've always stood out, but still not quite good enough for us and what we would expect and hope for giving new agents coming through the door. So we decided, I, again, I think your timeline is right. Q1.

to redo our training and condense it. It was two months, then we got it down to one month. And we still had people coming on who they weren't through our training, but they needed to write an offer or they needed to work with a buyer. So we're like, all right, let's just put it all into two weeks. We'll have agents come in and essentially full time for their first two weeks is gonna be a two week bootcamp. And we had about 20 courses that we put into place for that. And then we started looking at it and talking to you.

It was okay, let's have all of our current agents go through it as well, because I'm sure there's plenty of nuggets in there for them. And what I really enjoyed, we gave them three months. So the first three months we ran the bootcamp, all of our current agents had the opportunity to join those courses at some point in those first three months. So they had three tries at each course. And what I really enjoyed is those were so much more interactive.

because normally they were brand new agents who were just kind of sitting there taking notes with the occasional question. But having the agents who have been there and done it for some of them for years or a decade, they had the opportunity to also chime in and help because we did have some new agents in those as well. And they could offer their insights or they could tell their stories about each part of it. So I really enjoyed that. And I think that it did.

Jon Tetrault (16:45.179)
add some nuggets and add some incentives to our current agents that they were picking up things from our listing presentation that they hadn't heard before. It was the way they hadn't heard it presented. Or we had new classes, you know, a class on handling inspection negotiations or composing a competitive offer and going through ways to make an offer stand out if it's a competitive situation. So I think they picked up different things from those courses as well and it helped the whole team going forward.

Kristi Jencks (17:13.176)
Sounds like an organizational nightmare. So go ahead, Kelsey. I know you got a question for Nick.

Kelcie Dowd (17:23.775)
Yeah, so you built your own LMS on school. Can you tell us about that? Like what's inside, how do agents use it, what makes it different from just sending people to YouTube or a training binder?

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (17:37.494)
Yeah, so we've tried again various different training modules. We were used Trainual at one point, Google Classroom, and I actually was just on BAM's school website and I'm like, this could be pretty cool for an internal use of this product. So we kind of rolled it out. We put all of our training courses up into school. You can mark them off as done as they're completed. It does have kind of like a little bit of a social feed as well on the front. You can also schedule like company-wide meetings, trainings, things along those lines right into it.

Jon Tetrault (17:53.787)
Okay. you

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (18:07.511)
It makes it little bit easier from constantly updating calendar invitations, things along those lines. It just gets blasted out to whoever our school members are, which is our entire team. So we use it mainly for calendar management, all of the online training. They can access these courses at any time. Very easy to go in there, search for certain topics, whatever it might be, like Jon mentioned, inspections, offers, purchase and sales agreements, whatever it might be. Very easily find out what they're for, have the training built right in. We try to embed video as well as text space for a quick, you know,

quick access for being a resource. And it's been a nice tool for us. You they have an online app or a phone app, I should say, as well as access online on any web browser. So they can get anywhere they need to in a really easy to digest format. It's pretty inexpensive. I thought it was a great platform and an option for our agents to hopefully have that training at their fingertips at all times.

Kelcie Dowd (18:58.301)
Peace.

Kristi Jencks (18:58.658)
love what you guys have built in school. Having been familiar with Trainwheel, Trainwheel is a fantastic product. Can get very pricey when you start building it out for a brokerage, right? Same thing with Kajabi. There's Google Classroom. We even internally at the Big Helper Group had an intranet where we ran a Google site. We've tried it all. And so I love that you guys have organized all of this.

Jon Tetrault (18:59.035)
Okay.

Kristi Jencks (19:26.594)
I wanna switch gears to, I was able to highlight you guys at the Tom Ferry Success Summit this year. And by the way, Kelsey can attest this, cause she's helping me manage the DMs and the emails and they're overwhelming. Overwhelmingly, people want to know what's in the buyer's toolkit. They wanna know, they wanna get a copy of their resume, all of these different things, but I wanna back it up a little bit. So we start at the beginning of the year with this recertification, right? Like getting a...

Kelcie Dowd (19:39.783)
Yes.

Kristi Jencks (19:54.774)
a ground base for everybody, inexperienced and new on the team to have a certain level of understanding. Now, Jon, what was the issue that the agents were, you what was the objection or the issue that we were encountering that led you to develop the buyer's toolkit?

Jon Tetrault (19:55.259)
So we launched with Zillow Flex. We've been market-based pricing for years, but we launched with Zillow Flex at the end of February and our agents are doing very well.

But our biggest objection for getting appointments came from properties that had an open house. And consumers were just saying, I see they have an open house. I'll just go there. You know, don't worry about it. And it was in those situations, how do we get in front of them? And it was a conversation with you. was what kind of value can we add to incentivize the consumer to want to meet with us and not just casually go to the open house?

So how can we create a conversation of it's in your best interest, let's meet there together. I can go through the property with you and I'll bring, you know, we were trying to come up with the name of the time, but we'll bring our buyer's toolkit that has X, Y, and Z and how many things of value can we put in there to really incentivize the consumer to want to show up and have what we could bring and offer there with that buyer's toolkit.

Kelcie Dowd (21:19.443)
Do you guys have any success stories you can share? How has the toolkit helped your buyers or your agents win that loyalty and stand out against competition?

Jon Tetrault (21:31.193)
We've had several of them comment on how great it's been and how helpful it's been where they are offering that to consumers and it gives them more things to bring and offer the consumer. It reminds me of when we revamped our listing presentation. I lost a in COVID. We always had these books and we bring them on listing appointments. And after COVID, we converted it to ebooks and just use an iPad. And I remember when we ended that is I lost

like an $800,000 listing because I thought I nailed the appointment, hit it off with the sellers. And then they called me later and told me that they went with someone else because someone else left such a nice presentation. And I walked into Nick's office and he could just tell, he's like, what? And it was like that, that's it. And we revamped our listing presentation to have a book in all these different inserts. And the buyer's toolkit is the buyer's version of that. You know, if we bring them a folder with all of these different

Kelcie Dowd (22:13.651)
you

Jon Tetrault (22:29.435)
things all providing value, it shows the consumer that we're not just a door opener. We're a guide. We're guiding you through this process and helping you through oftentimes your largest investment in life. And that's what we're here for is to help you and guide you through that.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (22:47.647)
I was actually going bring up that story too. And I can remember like it was yesterday how, and I would have been the same way, but how devastated you were over that. And essentially at the time it was like, let's figure out how to provide so much value and not overwhelm them with just like a bunch of useless information, but how can we provide so much value that A, answers every question they have. They know what next steps are. They know really what the price of their home should be or whatever it might be, or on the buyer's side, how much they should be offering. But if we provide all of that information in a way that's easy to understand and making the complex simple,

then it almost creates a situation where like this is a no brainer. I understand what I have to do. I understand what comes next and it's easy to take those next steps down that pipeline or down that road to a successful closing, whether it's on the listing side or the buying side. So I know that my favorite thing is when we get through a buyer presentation or a listing presentation, like what questions do you have for me? And they're like, my God, you answered every question that I had and then some already. Like don't have any questions. Like what's next? Like where do we go? what's, know, where do we sign and how do we get this process started?

That's always our goal and think Jon and Chrissy together did a great job developing that buyer's toolkit as well.

Kristi Jencks (23:53.582)
So you know what, this reminds me, I know, because we talk about this on coaching calls, but many of the agents are having banner years, right? Like you guys are up 63%, 64%, what is it?

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (24:06.935)
think a little bit more than that at this point. looked this morning, I think it was like 68 or 69.

Jon Tetrault (24:08.794)
67 left. Yeah.

Kristi Jencks (24:12.046)
Okay, so we'll call it 67, 68 % in a market that's up less than 3%. So I would argue that it's working, what can, you what do you think is contributing most to the success of the agents on the team?

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (24:18.038)
Yes.

Jon Tetrault (24:29.275)
say the ones that are truly plugging in, like we talked about before, they're here, they're plugged into the team, call our community here as the team in the systems and what's provided. There's a lot that's provided, but if you don't plug into it and take advantage of it, it's not going to work for you. So plugging into the role-play, plugging into our online leads like our Zillowflex and our ISA appointments that we set.

but also leveraging things like the buyer's toolkit and the listing presentation. A lot of time and thought and trial and error has gone into these things over the years. So having things that are proven and tried time and time again is a great tool. So our agents that are really killing it are the ones that are plugging into that and taking advantage of what we have to offer there.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (25:20.095)
I agree. really think, you know, the recertification process and how we put all of our agents back through the 101 training, as simple as it may have sounded, really made a big difference along with, I think we're in a spot where the agents that are on the team right now, most of them understand the leverage that the team provides. You know, we had a lot of agents who wanted to be on a team for whatever reason, leads, whatever it might be, and they still were a bit of a control freak. They didn't want to fully let go.

you know, to our transaction coordinators, to our marketing team, whatever it might be. And I think the ones that do understand that, they've built a pretty cool structure here. And if I can just let go of these aspects of the transaction, my career is going to take off, you know? So it's true. mean, like Kelsey on the team, you know, she closed, I think, two transactions before she came to us and she's closed 22, I think, to date so far. So.

Jon Tetrault (25:58.655)
Okay. .

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (26:11.031)
She's absolutely killing it and she's plugging in, she's following up, she's using the CRM, she's using the toolkits, she's using the presentations and she is absolutely skyrocketing right now. It's been awesome to see and I think the agents that get that understand leverage can truly 10x their business if they really plug in.

Jon Tetrault (26:31.74)
And to their credit too, they're working awfully hard. They're working hard and they're dialed. She, for example, says all the time, said, I live in FU. The system's there, I live in it and it keeps me focused. So those things as well.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (26:35.024)
yeah.

Kelcie Dowd (26:42.131)
Mm.

Kelcie Dowd (26:47.507)
So for the maybe the team leader or the broker owner that's listening to this and they're like, wow, I want to be like Nick and Jon when I grow up. How can you tell them what's if they were a new agent joining their team? What would their first 90 days on your team under your leadership look like and how can they replicate that in their team?

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (27:10.679)
I think this is one thing Kristi's helped us out with so much is really dialing in our systems. So whether those are SOPs, playbooks, online training, repository, whatever it might be, I think you've got to have that dialed in. And you start with one and you just build from there. But I think if a new agent were to join our team, we're going to put them through our two-week boot camp. They're going to go through that orientation, understand what Slocum's all about, what we stand for, our core values.

and then the basics of the industry and actually how to get a transaction on the contract. you know, certainly the first two weeks is going to be heavy, a heavy load of that bootcamp training. And then from there, it's just encouragement to, plug into the meetings, plug into the team chat, plug into the role play. You have questions, you know, we're here for you, but it's, you know, it's on us to really help them get off the ground from that point forward. And I think through our ISA department, through our Zillow Flex opportunities are out there.

Jon Tetrault (27:53.883)
Okay.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (28:08.981)
And through the training that we have, we've had agents come out and have contracts within 30 days. You know, that's our goal is so it's hard to get it off the ground in this business and be successful. know 87 % of agents fail and you know, we want that number to be, you know, much, much lower on the Slocum Home team. So I think that comes down to how can we get them under contract in transacting as fast as possible. So I think that's the key. And then obviously Jon does a great job where there's one-on-ones and know, accountability with these agents and helping them get to whatever level they want to be at.

Kristi Jencks (28:39.234)
You didn't mention this, like, I love how humble these guys are being. So I'll throw this one to Jon, know, beyond production numbers, right? Because production matters. At the end of the day, these agents have to feed their families. They have to support their families themselves. You know, but beyond the production numbers, how are you measuring the agent's growth and success? I mean, I didn't hear anything about the shuckologist. I didn't hear about, right? Like,

Jon Tetrault (28:47.515)
Okay.

Kristi Jencks (29:06.722)
I want you to share a little bit more because it's not just like you're grinding on them about production. There's a lot of other things culturally that happen behind the store, the Slocum storefront that you get your, I've got some Slocum home team stuff, right? When I came to visit, but Jon, talk to us about that. How are you helping these agents more than just hit their production goals? And what does that look like culturally on the team?

Jon Tetrault (29:13.659)
Culture is huge. We have a good group here, Nick mentioned all in all together and people will, they'll sit down and they'll

they'll role play together. They'll help each other go back and forth on the listing presentation, the buyer presentation, doing CMAs. And one of the big things to helping new agents get off the ground is we have plenty of seasoned agents who when they see someone new, they'll say, hey, I'm going here. Do you want to come with me? Do you want to come to this listing appointment? Do you want to come to these showings? I'm doing open houses this weekend. Do you want to come shadow them? And that helps get people going. But part of that culture is just getting everyone to hang out.

you know, and get to know each other on another level. And we try to get out there and do things together. We have team events, we get people out there. You mentioned the shuckologist, we have them in the office when you came to visit, they're always at our annual Slocum shootout. So we have a golf tournament every year where the whole team is pretty much there either volunteering or golfing. So the shuckologist will be there. We have food trucks to celebrate closing milestones. We're gonna have to change this but historically has been.

Anytime someone has a million dollar closing, we have a food truck and just have a good time as a team having some lunch. So trying to consistently get the team together in a more relaxed environment for those sorts of things. So we can just get to know each other too. And then we have like a wins channel and always try to celebrate each other. So it's really, it's not a bunch of me, me, me, or people on an island. It's we're here, we work together, we push each other and we celebrate each other.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (31:07.991)
It's even simple stuff too. mean, Jon mentioned our golf tournament. We started a 501c3 nonprofit called Slocum Cares. We've created, instead of giving out set of steak knives or something silly at a closing a bottle of wine, we make a donation on their behalf to one of our five local charities that we select each year. And then it's just kind of like hanging out. We had a fantasy football draft last week with 12 people in the office. Even just now, we just bought a new office, has a beautiful front porch, and there were eight or nine of us literally an hour ago.

sitting on the front porch and just having a good time, busting each other's chops and talking about a golf round we recently had with Eric and random stuff, but we're all out there laughing together, having a good time. We try to keep it light, but do it right. That's actually one of our core values is we're all about having fun. At the end of the day, we are here to do a job. There's plenty of times to have some laughs and a good time, but it's not like militaristic, thumb down, this is what you have to do nonstop. We like to enjoy each other's company.

We're here all the time and I want to work around people that I like hanging out with and being around and you know it's certainly a great group of people that we're with.

Kristi Jencks (32:06.648)
Fair enough.

Kelcie Dowd (32:09.447)
Yeah. That's so funny, Jon, you said shoot out and this is the difference between growing up in Arizona versus Rhode Island. I was like, like a Western, like a, like a, guys all line up and shoot cans. Cause that's what we do for fun. I we did that. We literally did that. I was like, golf, right. Golf. Yeah. Yeah.

Jon Tetrault (32:17.928)
You

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (32:18.016)
Yeah.

Kristi Jencks (32:21.102)
Cause we did that. We've done that numerous times as a team.

Jon Tetrault (32:25.311)
that's awesome. Now it's the name of our golf zone.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (32:29.398)
You

A lot of people ask though, is this like a shooting thing? No, it's just a golf tournament.

Kelcie Dowd (32:37.799)
That's great. Okay, so one of my last questions is for for john. What's one habit that or system that you believe every realtor should adopt right now to set themselves apart in today's market? You know, Kristi is what she said at summit in a sea of sameness, stand out. What's what's what's something that they can do to do that?

Jon Tetrault (33:04.033)
I'm gonna steal a term that I heard a few years ago at Elite and CRM hygiene. But the key to it is consistency. Our agents who are really thriving and having banner years beyond anything they would have imagined for themselves a year ago now, they're living in our CRM and they're doing it consistently day after day.

They're the ones that are having career years. They're the ones that are killing it with Zillowflex and other sources. There's fear as well. They're living in the CRM consistently day after day and that drives their business for them.

Kristi Jencks (33:46.574)
You are speaking our language.

Kelcie Dowd (33:46.824)
I love that it, no offense, but I love that it was, yeah, I like that it, I'm honestly surprised and I shouldn't be. I don't know you guys as well, but I'm glad it wasn't like, you know, we say this affirmation every day and that's what sets us apart. It was, it's the down and dirty that people, you know, avoid and don't want to do and I love that.

Jon Tetrault (33:49.507)
Hahaha.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (33:58.86)
Yeah.

Jon Tetrault (33:59.803)
Yeah.

Jon Tetrault (34:04.859)
It could be so simple, but people don't do enough.

Kelcie Dowd (34:07.015)
Yeah. Yeah.

Kristi Jencks (34:08.852)
Yeah. Okay, I've got one last question for Nick, and then we'll have you guys share with how people can get a hold of you and those kind of things. So Nick, what's next for the Slocum Home team? You mentioned 76 years, right? What kind of new initiatives or big goals are you excited about? What can people expect coming out of Rhode Island?

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (34:30.039)
Yeah, we've got some big things on the horizon. you know, early in my career, I realized that, you know, if I want to continue pushing my career forward, it's all about getting in the right rooms. And I know early on it was even digital rooms. You know, I'd hop on Twitter and watch the water cooler with Jimmy Macken and Chris Smith, you know, back in the day. And then we joined Curator at once we could afford it, which we never thought we'd be able to do back then, you know, as a solo agent. When we started the team, we quickly joined Curator. Then it was going to Curator.

Excellence events and conferences and starting to create a nationwide network with other agents and then it became Tom Ferry coaching You know with Kristi and going to a Lee and meeting people there and whether it's the Zillow agent advisory board and you know I am a firm believe that if you get in the right rooms with people who are doing more than you that it's going to help push you to the levels that you want to be at and We're super excited that we're actually going to be hooking up with exp realty here

Jon Tetrault (35:16.667)
you

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (35:25.687)
I'm be operating as a mega team with the EXP. We are doing that this week and we're super, super excited to take that step forward with them and be part of the fast forward movement. It was absolutely an incredible experience. Jon and I went out to San Diego to one of their masterminds recently. And I mean, it was an open playbook, whether it was at Kyle Whistle's office or some of these heavy, heavy hitters, just absolutely open books on what pushed their career forward, just willing to help in any way possible.

And it got to the point where we were leaving and I'm like, Jon, is everyone really this nice or is everyone just really good at this putting on a show, you know? So, but it's unbelievable the amount of collaboration and you know, I know they like to say it's where the pros go to grow and that's our focus and that's what we're going to be doing going forward. We're super excited to join that ecosystem and continue taking this local home team to the next level.

Kristi Jencks (35:58.798)
You

Kristi Jencks (36:16.76)
I can only imagine what's in store for you guys, for all of the agents and watch out Rhode Island, right? Like, it's gonna be huge. So for our listeners who wanna know more, cause this is one thing you have to know about this team, this brokerage is that they don't keep any secrets. They are an open book. If they have something that's working, they will share it with you. So what's the best way for someone out there who's listening that says, hey, I wanna know about this buyer's toolkit or I heard about this resume.

What's the best way for them to find you guys, reach out and maybe get some templates and things that they could implement in their business?

Jon Tetrault (36:49.147)
Yeah.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (36:52.971)
So we're pretty easy to find, but if you wanna reach out on Instagram, email, text, phone, we're an open book, whatever we can share, we're more than happy to do that. So I'm at Nick Slocum on Instagram or nick at slocumhometeam.com. I'm sure you can just Google my name and find my number. Feel free to give me a ring, happy to do whatever I can to help anytime.

Kristi Jencks (37:10.146)
Okay, I like it. Well, thank you so much, Jon and Nick. I really appreciate you guys sharing so openly today. I love how intentional both of you are, not just in your personal production, but also about building systems and culture where agents can thrive, right? So for everybody listening, let's just summarize a couple big takeaways from what we've heard. Growth doesn't happen by accident, right? We know that. It comes from consistent accountability, role play, and skill development.

Jon Tetrault (37:15.451)
Okay.

Kristi Jencks (37:39.79)
Tech is only as good as the habits and certifications behind it. So that idea of recertifying, recommitting to the tools ensures agents can use them at highly effective rates, right? And implementation and adoption. And then I would say finally, standing out with buyers and sellers requires more than hope and hustle. It takes strategy like the buyer's toolkit, like their seller guide.

And that takes practice and just a culture of implementation. So Kelsey, I'll let you take it from here.

Kelcie Dowd (38:15.431)
Yep. So anybody listening, if you got value from today's episode, just make sure that you share it with another agent who could use a push in the right direction. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss our next conversation. And again, a big thank you to Nick and Jon for joining us. until next time, just remember success isn't about what you know. It's about how consistently you apply it. And these guys are a testament to that. So take what you learned today and go run with it. Thanks.

Nick Slocum, Rhode Island (38:44.77)
Thank you.