How Joe Mendoza recruited 50 agents in under a year with the help of a VA

Joe Mendoza00:04

You should write this down. You should always ask yourself, what are the four income-producing activities, right? And if you don’t know, write these down. Prospecting, lead generation, right? You should be using Vulcan7. Buyer appointments, seller appointments, writing and negotiating contracts. Those are the four income-producing activities.

00:25As an agent, you should be delegating everything else.

Loida Velasquez00:42

Welcome to a brand new episode of Vulcan7 Coaches and Mentors where we bring you some of the best in the industry that share with us their tips and strategies that you can implement in your business immediately. So today I have another great guest. His name is Joe Mendoza. So Joe, welcome to the show.

Joe Mendoza01:01

Hey, Loida. Thanks for having me.

Loida Velasquez01:04

Yes. So for everyone that’s watching that may not be familiar with you, go ahead and share with us a little bit about yourself.

Joe Mendoza01:10

Sure. I’ve been a real estate broker for over 24 years here in sunny San Diego. I’ve written a few books. One’s Flex With a Plex. You can find it on Amazon.

01:20As an agent, I’ve sold up to 113 homes. I am a coach for Tom Ferry currently, and I love, love real estate. I’ve been investing in real estate as well. Done some fix and flip. Transitioning more into commercial buy and holds right now.

Loida Velasquez01:37

Okay. Awesome, awesome. So it sounds like you have a lot of experience in a lot of different places.

01:42So I know that for everyone that’s watching, hopefully you have your pen and your paper ready because you’re probably gonna be taking a lot of notes. So I know that a question that we always get from agents, especially as they’re growing their business, is virtual assistants, so VAs. So can you share with us maybe some tips, or maybe how you got started, how to start and things like that?

Joe Mendoza02:04

Absolutely. So I’m one of the old school, as I mentioned, 24 years licensed broker, so my first visit with a VA was in 2008. In 2008, there was a lot of short sales, REOs, and I heard of some of my colleagues getting involved, so I decided to give it a go, and I went with this company, MyOutDesk. And I tapped into that source because I just wanted to grow like everybody else out there, and I was able to make my money back pretty quickly.

02:37It was, let’s just say for easy math, I invested about $2,000. In less than two months, I got it back ’cause I got a listing. I double-ended it, made more than $20,000, and that was a no-brainer ROI. The second time I wanted to try it out for a different reason. As a broker owner, I wanted to grow, and I hired MyOutDesk again, and I wanted to scale, get agents.

03:05And within less than a year, I was able to recruit 50 agents with the help of a VA. And then fast-forward, since then I decided to cut out the middleman, so to speak, and so I go to VAs, freelancers direct. I know how to onboard them, interview them, how to pay them, all of the above, and so I currently have three that’s been with me over four years.

Loida Velasquez03:32

That’s awesome. So when you were an agent, and for any agents that are watching this, and maybe they have a couple listings, but they’re growing that, what ways can they incorporate a VA to make their life easier if they’re not using one, if maybe they’re just doing everything on their own?

Joe Mendoza03:49

Yeah. Great question.

03:51So guys, you probably heard this before, maybe, maybe not, but I’m gonna let you know you should write this down. You should always ask yourself, “What are the four income-producing activities?” Right? And if you don’t know, write these down. Prospecting, lead generation, right? You should be using Vulcan7. Buyer appointments, seller appointments, writing and negotiating contracts.

04:14Those are the four income-producing activities. As an agent, you should be delegating everything else. What I found most common for a lot of agents is social media. We’re told to do it, but we’re not supposed to be trying to be an editor, a professional graphics designer. VAs could do that. You know, that’s fairly basic, but I’ll tell you what, you could teach a VA anything.

04:41A lot of them overseas, they’re college graduates. I notice a lot of people have limiting beliefs around VAs. “Oh, they’re in the Philippines.” I’m Filipino, I get it. But I’ll tell you what, a lot of them speak better English than some of the folks here. So get over the limiting belief, give it a go.

05:00And I’ll tell you what, check out this website, vajobsonline.com, vajobsonline.com. You’ll learn a few things. But if you’re very, very new, I wouldn’t suggest going to a freelancer direct. I suggest that you hire… There’s multiple out there. I mentioned MyOutDesk. There’s a few other out there. I love Summit VA.

05:21I send them a lot of business as well. There’s a few other, but start with one of those companies first. Focus on your four income-producing activities, and then delegate the rest.

Loida Velasquez05:31

Awesome. So there you go. So I quickly wanna shift to the four income-producing activities, and I wanna take it back to when you were maybe starting out or once you started to get some momentum.

05:42What were those income activities, especially the prospecting? What did that look like for you?

Joe Mendoza05:48

Absolutely. So guys, at the minimum, right, there’s people you know, people you don’t know. People you know, people you don’t know. You should be incorporating Vulcan7 for the people you don’t know because that list is enormous, right?

06:03If you’re just starting out, I was talking to one of my coaching clients earlier. She has a 20-something-year-old. His database isn’t that big, so Vulcan7 would be perfect. What I would be doing every single morning is what we call your hour of power. Before you do anything, between the hours of 8:00 and 10:00, you should be focused, laser focused on prospecting.

06:28And if you have a small database, I would recommend you do five people you know. Call the new expireds, the old expireds, for sale by owners, then the just listed, just sold, circle dialing, lead follow-up. Right there, I mean, between eight and 10, that should cover plenty of contacts. Hour of power minimum, and every single day.

06:49And veterans, if you haven’t been doing this in a long time, it’s time. Pick up the phone, call your database, because I guarantee you, if you’re not, your competition is.

Loida Velasquez07:01

Yeah. And I’m glad that you’re bringing up the database because I feel that sometimes as agents, it’s like you’re shy to call, you know, that person that you know, or maybe that past client.

07:10But I say, you know, it would be much worse when you see that person that you know hired another agent to buy or sell a house when that could have been your deal. And you’re like, “Oh, no. That could’ve been me.”

Joe Mendoza07:23

Exactly. Yeah, it’s gonna happen to the best of us. You know, when you’re in the business a long time, and you’re starting to really get in the thick of things, sometimes you will drop the ball.

07:35And make sure you create this habit, at least one hour of power, no matter how long you’ve been in the business.

Loida Velasquez07:42

Exactly. So as you are doing transactions, I assume you start to grow a team, how do you start to scale, and how do you delegate to… I don’t know, do you have a buyer’s agent, showing agent?

07:55What does that look like?

Joe Mendoza07:57

I love that question. I get that a lot from some of my coaching clients and some of the people that are just getting in real estate that I onboard and what have you, as a mentor. One of the things, guys, the first person you should hire when you’re looking to scale, remember, if you don’t have an assistant, you are the assistant.

08:17So I would start with the admin side first. And you could start one of two ways. When I first started, even before VAs, I didn’t even know about VAs. They weren’t in existence, ’cause I got my license in 1998, okay? Probably some of you were born that year. But I’ll tell you what, I hired a part-time assistant, and I just put the word out in the office, “Hey, you know what?

08:42Who do you know that wants to maybe earn some extra money? I can’t pay them a lot. I might even do part-time.” So I would recommend maybe 10 to 20 hours a week, and put aside something that you could afford. And believe it or not, now you’ll have this sense of obligation to work harder than ever to make sure this person is well taken care of, and vice versa.

09:05It’ll be reciprocal. So start with the assistant first. And if that’s kind of something that you’re a little bit challenged with, or budget wise, go the VA. A virtual assistant, by all means, it’s the other alternative. The other alternative, in lieu of that, if you’ve been in the business a while: there’s a lot of movement going on right now, okay?

09:28There’s probably some licensed agents thinking about leaving the business. Well, save them, okay? Because some of them realize, you know what? Sales isn’t for them. Reach out to them and say, “Hey, you know what? Could you spare, like, 5 to 10 or 10 to 20 hours a week? I’ll be willing to pay you X amount of dollars or $1,000 a month,” something like that to keep them on retainer, and a licensed assistant who will help you with paperwork, writing offers, maybe once in a while showing property.

10:00I think that’s a great blend, too. So you got three different options.

Loida Velasquez10:04

That’s awesome. And yeah, I’m glad that you’re bringing up having someone… I mean, that would be the best case scenario if they’re also licensed, because now you can coordinate whether you pay them a referral fee or however it is that you wanna work it out, and now you don’t have to be going out and driving, and you can focus on the income-producing activities, getting on the phone, setting appointments.

10:26So for anyone that’s watching that maybe wants to get involved with any of the coaching or the programs that you offer, can you share with us a little bit more about that?

Joe Mendoza10:35

Absolutely. So 619-246-4663 is my cell direct. I’ve been coaching over 11 years for Tom Ferry. If you want to get involved with the Tom Ferry ecosystem, tomferry.com is the way to go.

10:51I do coach outside of that some people that fit the criteria I’m looking for, that are qualified. So I do teach on investing and investing in real estate property and fixing and flipping. So if you’re doing one or the other… Usually if you’re licensed, Tom Ferry has a great ecosystem.

11:13Go to tomferry.com. If you want me as a coach, we could see if we fit the bill and we’re a perfect fit, go from there. What does it entail? Well, I look for people looking to… Wherever they’re at, I’ll coach them where they’re at, and if they’re looking to scale, that’s my sweet spot. So a lot of the people that I work with already have a smaller team, or they really want to scale, and they have a pipeline, reserves, the money to scale.

11:43Because it does take money to make money in this business if you really wanna scale. So I’m talking about payroll. I’m talking about hiring or building up more marketing strategies to bring you more leads. So I will ask you to invest in your business. And usually with Tom Ferry, week to week, we do 30 minutes at a time.

12:09And a lot of my clients, Loida, they stay with me from three to five years. I have a couple clients that have been with me nine years. So I think that says a little bit something about my coaching.

Loida Velasquez12:21

Yeah, just a little bit. I mean, nine years. That’s awesome.

Joe Mendoza12:26

Thank you.

Loida Velasquez12:27

So to leave… Right now, anyone that’s watching, last thoughts.

12:30Last question I’m gonna ask you is, let’s say that there’s an agent, they’re doing maybe one or two listings a month, but they wanna double that for the next two, three, four months. What would be maybe three things that you would have them do immediately?

Joe Mendoza12:47

Wow. So great question. 2004, I was selling about 50 homes a year.

12:52I was making about a half a million dollars, okay? I wanted to do a million, and I wanted to do 100 the very next year. Double. Exactly what you said. What did it take? Definitely a shift in mindset. And I had a great coach. Tom Ferry was my personal coach that year, ’cause I asked him, “Hey, Tom, I wanna do 100 homes.

13:15I wanna make a million.” I sold 113 homes. I made 1.1 million net, and it was because Tom and some other people were coaching me, helping me, pushing me, giving me the strategies. And guys, right now I could tell you, garbage in, garbage out. Garbage in, garbage out. If you’re not feeding yourself great things, some books, some audios, some YouTube, it’s garbage in, garbage out.

13:39You’re probably listening to CNN, constant negative news. You gotta flush that out, guys, because if you can’t believe it, you will never achieve it.

Loida Velasquez13:49

I love it. That was a great ending to this awesome interview. Everything that you mentioned, I’m like, yes, because I think that’s what we need to hear.

13:57I think who we surround ourselves with matters as well, and also not having that scarcity mindset and knowing that we can go for much bigger and accomplish whatever we set our mind and goals to. So Joe, it’s been awesome having you on here. Thank you so much for sharing all these little things.

14:14We’ll make sure to put all of your links in the description box below. And yeah, thank you so much for this interview.

Joe Mendoza14:21

Thank you, Loida. I really, really appreciate it.

Loida Velasquez14:23

Thank you.