Breaking and Building Leaders

How a 26-Year Old Beats Realtors Double Her Age ($30M/Year)

I've spent 200+ hours interviewing over 100 top agents. I pulled out the 7 lessons that actually matter: https://a-impact-media.kit.com/aab7c512ae [https://a-impact-media.kit.com/aab7c512ae] Get 10 free YouTube video ideas every week: https://www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/subscribe [https://www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/subscribe] Selene closed over $30M in sales before turning 30, competing against the top agents in the nation, in Newport Beach. She breaks down exactly how she built her brand, landed a $6M listing by walking the beach for two years, why she's both a real estate agent AND a licensed mortgage officer, and the morning habits that she says are actually responsible for her success. She explains: - Why she hired a professional videographer instead of using her iPhone, and what it actually cost to start - The exact content system she uses to film 10 reels a month without burning out - How she got a $6M listing with zero social media, just consistency and a walk on the boardwalk - Why being a mortgage officer AND an agent gives her an edge most agents ignore We cover: (00:00) Intro (01:00) Why She Did Mortgage Payments Instead of House Tours (01:30) Competing Against the Best Agents in the Nation Under 30 (04:30) How Much She Actually Paid to Start With a Videographer (05:30) Why Hiring a Videographer Is Like Paying a Gym Trainer (06:00) Was She the First Agent to Do Payment Breakdowns on Camera? (08:30) Does Posting More Actually Convert More Clients? (10:30) Why YouTube Might Be a Better Lead Source Than Instagram (17:00) The "Conforming Style" Trap Most Agents Fall Into (19:00) The Notion System She Uses to Script and Batch Film (25:00) Is High-Quality Video Starting to Look Like AI? (26:42) Ad (34:30) How She Got a $6M Listing by Walking the Same Beach for Two Years (38:30) Why She Flew to Spain After Selling This Client's House (41:30) Should Agents Do Mortgage Too, or Is It a Distraction? (44:30) The Real Truth About Working With Your Family in Real Estate (49:30) Why She Calls 60 People on a Walk and You Should Too (53:00) The Immigrant Family Story Behind Her Work Ethic Resources: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/selene_hanna/ [https://www.instagram.com/selene_hanna/] My Links: 📧 Newsletter: www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/ [https://www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/] 🎙 Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh... [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...] 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakingandBuildingLeaders/featured [https://www.youtube.com/@BreakingandBuildingLeaders/featured] 🐣 X: https://x.com/andrewbayon [https://x.com/andrewbayon] 📸 Instagram: www.instagram.com/andrew_bayon/ [https://www.instagram.com/andrew_bayon/] 🕺 TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@andrewbayon [https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewbayon] A little about us: - 10 years ago I made thousands of sales calls - I was unfulfilled on the rollercoast of referral based sales - I was overweight - 7 years ago I spoke on stage at Curaytor about marketing - I was the marketer for 5 top teams in the US spending several million on paid ads - We were posting content on social but a little aimlessly - Now we've generated well over $10 million in GCI directly from YouTube for agents - Run many of the top YouTube channels from 0 to 50k in real estate - Scaled the only hyper local newsletters across 50+ markets - We grew our team at Knwn Local to 45 people - We believe building a media brand is the new way to grow your business and own your market now. Instead of renting your business with expensive leads, you can own it with an audience. - Brand is one of the highest leverage things in business that scales your impact beyond you. - Big visions often don't make sense to small-minded people. If you want to have a greater impact, you'll have to make greater sacrifices. My message: Don’t be well known, be Knwn well. I'm pumped to help you grow & scale your business with this content. DISCLAIMER: Information shared here is for educational purposes only. Individuals and business owners should evaluate their own business strategies, and identify any potentials risks. The information shared here is not a guarantee of success. Your results may vary. Copyright © Knwn Local 2025

How These Realtors Rebuilt From Zero to $420M in 2 Years

Download the playbook here: https://a-impact-media.kit.com/aab7c512ae [https://a-impact-media.kit.com/aab7c512ae] Get 10 free YouTube video ideas every week: https://www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/subscribe [https://www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/subscribe] Afroditi and Dean Aguilar built an $11M real estate business from nothing, then deliberately burned their own systems to the ground and rebuilt them. Dean Aguilar is the Founder and CEO of Dean Aguilar Group, one of California's top tech-forward real estate teams with 120 agents. Afroditi Aguilar is the COO and Team Leader who built the operational engine that took the company past $11M in revenue. They explain: * Why they deleted their entire onboarding process mid-growth and what that unlocked * How they discovered 4 of their 7 pod leaders didn't actually want the job they were being paid for * The one question they ask every team member that restructured their entire operation * How a Founder/CEO and COO split roles without letting it wreck the marriage We cover: (00:00) Intro (00:00) Why delete everything at $11M? (00:02:30) What forced DAG 3.0? (00:03:30) 7 pod leaders, only 3 wanted the job? (00:08:00) She knew nothing about real estate. How did that not end the marriage? (00:10:30) What is "three beers deep" and why does it matter? (00:14:30) Why will only hiring high-D personalities backfire? (00:17:00) What did they have to lose to learn leadership? (00:23:30) How does the visionary-integrator split work when it is your spouse? (00:27:30) Why does leading from emotion destroy businesses? (00:41:14) Ad (00:52:00) Nine times out of ten it is not a hire. What is it? (00:55:00) Why is every business problem the founders' fault? (01:00:00) An ops manager left after 6 years and nearly took everything. What happened? (01:04:30) They rebuilt the entire business in 48 hours. How? (01:25:00) Homeless at 14. How did that shape a $11M business? (01:37:00) No ceiling, but there is a floor. What does that mean? Resources: Afroditi's links: Website: https://deanaguilargroup.com/ [https://deanaguilargroup.com/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afroditiaguilar/ [https://www.instagram.com/afroditiaguilar/] Dean's links: Website: https://deanaguilargroup.com/ [https://deanaguilargroup.com/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deanaguilargroup/ [https://www.instagram.com/deanaguilargroup/] My Links: 📧 Newsletter: www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/ [https://www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/] 🎙 Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh... [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...] 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakingandBuildingLeaders/featured [https://www.youtube.com/@BreakingandBuildingLeaders/featured] 🐣 X: https://x.com/andrewbayon [https://x.com/andrewbayon] 📸 Instagram: www.instagram.com/andrew_bayon/ [https://www.instagram.com/andrew_bayon/] 🕺 TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@andrewbayon [https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewbayon] A little about us: - 10 years ago I made thousands of sales calls - I was unfulfilled on the rollercoast of referral based sales - I was overweight - 7 years ago I spoke on stage at Curaytor about marketing - I was the marketer for 5 top teams in the US spending several million on paid ads - We were posting content on social but a little aimlessly - Now we've generated well over $10 million in GCI directly from YouTube for agents - Run many of the top YouTube channels from 0 to 50k in real estate - Scaled the only hyper local newsletters across 50+ markets - We grew our team at Knwn Local to 45 people - We believe building a media brand is the new way to grow your business and own your market now. Instead of renting your business with expensive leads, you can own it with an audience. If you want to have a greater impact, you'll have to make greater sacrifices. My message: Don’t be well known, be Knwn well. I'm pumped to help you grow & scale your business with this content. DISCLAIMER: Information shared here is for educational purposes only. Individuals and business owners should evaluate their own business strategies, and identify any potentials risks. The information shared here is not a guarantee of success. Your results may vary. Copyright © Knwn Local 2025

$5B Broker: “I worked at Zillow. This is what most agents do wrong”

Download the playbook here: https://a-impact-media.kit.com/aab7c5... [https://a-impact-media.kit.com/aab7c5...] Suzanne Seini went from living out of her car at 15, to building one of the most successful brokerages in California. Over $5.4 billion in sales, 8 offices, and agents that refuse to leave. She began her career at Zillow Group, where she trained thousands of agents and played a pivotal role in their success. As CEO and partner at Active Realty, she propelled the brokerage to become the #1 Mega Team in California and #3 nationwide in 2021 (RealTrends & Tom Ferry). Today, Suzanne serves as the founder and CEO of Innovate Realty, Honest Escrow, Mentoracle, and the Real(ty) Talk Podcast.  In this episode she breaks down exactly how she did it, and what most agents and team leads are doing wrong. We cover: (00:00) Intro (01:00) What working at Zillow taught her that most agents never figure out on their own (02:30) She left and nearly 200 agents followed her. Why? (06:30) Are you accidentally making your agents helpless with too many leads? (09:00) What happens to your business when Zillow pulls your Flex? (10:00) How having escrow, lending, and construction in-house changes everything for your clients (15:30) Why getting your real estate license barely prepares you for a real transaction (18:00) The broken cycle of agents joining teams just to leave (22:00) Should team leads even be doing the training? (27:00) When is starting a team actually the wrong move? (33:00) Most agents don't treat their business like a business. What changes when you do? (38:00) Wake up with no buyers, no sellers? Here's the daily system that fixes that (42:30) How she structures her time across 8 offices without burning out (47:00) Why Innovate uses personality tests before hiring any agent (53:00) The listing marketing program that generates leads for the agent, seller, and brand all at once (59:30) Creating a listing video on the spot during a seller presentation with just 5 photos (1:03:30) The commission split philosophy that actually keeps agents from leaving (1:08:00) "When an agent tells me they're not on social media, I think: oh boy." (1:12:00) How ChatGPT cut her follow-up email time from 90 minutes to 15 Resources: Suzanne’s links: Website: https://innovaterealty.com/ [https://innovaterealty.com/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suzanneseini/ [https://www.instagram.com/suzanneseini/] My Links: 📧 Newsletter: www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/ [https://www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/] 🎙 Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh... [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...] 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakingandBuildingLeaders/featured [https://www.youtube.com/@BreakingandBuildingLeaders/featured] 🐣 X: https://x.com/andrewbayon [https://x.com/andrewbayon] 📸 Instagram: www.instagram.com/andrew_bayon/ [https://www.instagram.com/andrew_bayon/] 🕺 TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@andrewbayon [https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewbayon] A little about us: - 10 years ago I made thousands of sales calls - I was unfulfilled on the rollercoast of referral based sales - I was overweight - 7 years ago I spoke on stage at Curaytor about marketing - I was the marketer for 5 top teams in the US spending several million on paid ads - We were posting content on social but a little aimlessly - Now we've generated well over $10 million in GCI directly from YouTube for agents - Run many of the top YouTube channels from 0 to 50k in real estate - Scaled the only hyper local newsletters across 50+ markets - We grew our team at Knwn Local to 45 people - We believe building a media brand is the new way to grow your business and own your market now. Instead of renting your business with expensive leads, you can own it with an audience. - Brand is one of the highest leverage things in business that scales your impact beyond you. - Big visions often don't make sense to small-minded people. If you want to have a greater impact, you'll have to make greater sacrifices. My message: Don’t be well known, be Knwn well. I'm pumped to help you grow & scale your business with this content. DISCLAIMER: Information shared here is for educational purposes only. Individuals and business owners should evaluate their own business strategies, and identify any potentials risks. The information shared here is not a guarantee of success. Your results may vary. Copyright © Knwn Local 2025 We make these videos to help build the leaders of tomorrow, but also there are a lot of “coaches” and “claims” on social media and hard to cut through the clutter. I post these to build trust with real estate professionals through value and real experience. And if they’re awesome and see the value and need help - we work together.

Why Most Realtors Get ZERO Leads From Social Media (How to Fix it FAST)

Download the playbook here: https://a-impact-media.kit.com/aab7c512ae [https://a-impact-media.kit.com/aab7c512ae] Loan officer and social media strategist Minh Nguyen breaks down how he closes $9–15M a year as a mortgage broker, 100% from social, why he cut his leads from 20 a day down to 3, and the exact content system realtors and lenders are getting completely wrong right now. Minh Nguyen is a California-based mortgage broker and loan officer at West Capital Lending, known online as @whatsamortgage with 366K followers. He built his entire book of business through organic social media and paid ads, developing a three-funnel content system used by top producers across the country. He explains: ◼️ Why cutting your leads from 20 a day to 3 actually makes you more money ◼️ The "boomerang vs. football" content rule that determines if your posts ever bring business back ◼️ Why realtors chasing views and virality are building someone else's business, not their own ◼️ How becoming a "local legend" unlocks realtor partnerships that social alone never could ◼️ The content era we're in NOW, and why the teaching era is completely dead We cover: (00:00) Intro. Closing $9–15M a year 100% from social media (00:47) Why cutting from 20 leads a day to 3 actually grew his business (02:00) The "local legend" strategy every realtor should be using right now (03:30) How a living trust video turned into a $2.5M buyer referral with no loan involved (05:00) Boomerang vs. football. Is your content actually coming back to you? (07:00) How to build groupies instead of followers who never convert (08:00) Buying a home is now a luxury. How that changes everything about your content (10:00) The 3-funnel system. How to ask for business without sounding desperate (10:30) How a CalPERS post attracted W2 government workers as qualified mortgage leads (13:00) What era of social are we in, and why "5 steps to buy a home" content is already dead (16:00) Getting 2 million views and zero leads. The virality trap killing realtor brands (17:00) How to know if a content style is actually duplicatable before you copy it (21:00) Why likable agents should be running ads, and who converts best in cold audiences (25:30) Why he picks inconvenient seminar locations on purpose to filter serious buyers (29:00) Why building courses is costing realtors their real goldmine (29:43) Ad (30:48) Why content has to come first, not get squeezed into your day (37:35) 12 hours a week on content vs. door knocking. Same time, completely different ROI (39:05) The only relationship in real estate you can actually count on long term (53:05) He rebuilt his business 4 times. What losing everything taught him about staying on top (1:00:05) What leadership really means, and why most people won't actually do i Resources: Minh’s links: Website:https://westcapitallending.com [https://westcapitallending.com] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatsamortgage?igsh=MWg5YXg3dXJ6NmJ2ag== [https://www.instagram.com/whatsamortgage?igsh=MWg5YXg3dXJ6NmJ2ag==] My Links: 📧 Newsletter: www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/ [https://www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/] 🎙 Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh... [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...] 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakingandBuildingLeaders/featured [https://www.youtube.com/@BreakingandBuildingLeaders/featured] 🐣 X: https://x.com/andrewbayon [https://x.com/andrewbayon] 📸 Instagram: www.instagram.com/andrew_bayon/ [https://www.instagram.com/andrew_bayon/] 🕺 TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@andrewbayon [https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewbayon] A little about us: - 10 years ago I made thousands of sales calls - I was unfulfilled on the rollercoast of referral based sales - I was overweight - 7 years ago I spoke on stage at Curaytor about marketing - I was the marketer for 5 top teams in the US spending several million on paid ads - We were posting content on social but a little aimlessly - Now we've generated well over $10 million in GCI directly from YouTube for agents - Run many of the top YouTube channels from 0 to 50k in real estate - Scaled the only hyper local newsletters across 50+ markets - We grew our team at Knwn Local to 45 people - We believe building a media brand is the new way to grow your business and own your market now. Instead of renting your business with expensive leads, you can own it with an audience. - Brand is one of the highest leverage things in business that scales your impact beyond you. - Big visions often don't make sense to small-minded people. If you want to have a greater impact, you'll have to make greater sacrifices. My message: Don’t be well known, be Knwn well. I'm pumped to help you grow & scale your business with this content. DISCLAIMER: Information shared here is for educational purposes only. Individuals and business owners should evaluate their own business strategies, and identify any potentials risks. The information shared here is not a guarantee of success. Your results may vary. Copyright © Knwn Local 2025

I Listened to 21 Hours of Gary Keller to Find Out How He Wins at Real Estate

Get 10 free YouTube video ideas every week: https://www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/subscribe [https://www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/subscribe] Gary Keller built the largest real estate brokerage in the world, wrote 4 bestselling books, and coached hundreds of thousands of agents to profitable businesses. After going through 21 hours of his interviews and writing over 89 pages of notes, here are the 33 ideas behind exactly how Gary thinks and wins. Gary Keller is the co-founder of Keller Williams, a training company that also happens to be in real estate, and the bestselling author of The ONE Thing and The Millionaire Real Estate Agent. He has spent over four decades teaching agents not just how to sell houses, but how to run a profitable business. In this episode: ◼️ Why agents who can sell houses still fail, and the one thing Keller Williams actually sells ◼️ The question Gary asked out of frustration that became the most important question in real estate ◼️ Why doing more is the exact reason most agents never build a real business ◼️ How Gary survived the 2008 crash while other brokerages collapsed ◼️ Why the single greatest skill for any agent has nothing to do with closing deals My Links: 📧 Newsletter: www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/ [https://www.breakingandbuildingleaders.com/] 🎙 Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh... [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...] 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakingandBuildingLeaders/featured [https://www.youtube.com/@BreakingandBuildingLeaders/featured] 🐣 X: https://x.com/andrewbayon [https://x.com/andrewbayon] 📸 Instagram: www.instagram.com/andrew_bayon/ [https://www.instagram.com/andrew_bayon/] 🕺 TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@andrewbayon [https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewbayon] A little about us: - 10 years ago I made thousands of sales calls - I was unfulfilled on the rollercoast of referral based sales - I was overweight - 7 years ago I spoke on stage at Curaytor about marketing - I was the marketer for 5 top teams in the US spending several million on paid ads - We were posting content on social but a little aimlessly - Now we've generated well over $10 million in GCI directly from YouTube for agents - Run many of the top YouTube channels from 0 to 50k in real estate - Scaled the only hyper local newsletters across 50+ markets - We grew our team at Knwn Local to 45 people - We believe building a media brand is the new way to grow your business and own your market now. Instead of renting your business with expensive leads, you can own it with an audience. - Brand is one of the highest leverage things in business that scales your impact beyond you. - Big visions often don't make sense to small-minded people. If you want to have a greater impact, you'll have to make greater sacrifices. My message: Don’t be well known, be Knwn well. I'm pumped to help you grow & scale your business with this content. DISCLAIMER: Information shared here is for educational purposes only. Individuals and business owners should evaluate their own business strategies, and identify any potentials risks. The information shared here is not a guarantee of success. Your results may vary. Copyright © Knwn Local 2025 We make these videos to help build the leaders of tomorrow, but also there are a lot of “coaches” and “claims” on social media and hard to cut through the clutter. I post these to build trust with real estate professionals through value and real experience. And if they’re awesome and see the value and need help - we work together.