Rudy Kusama: 10 Years To 10M A Year

Guests: Rudy Kusama, Daniel Ramsey
Recorded: October 10, 2019

Excerpt

Rudy Kusama got into real estate back in 2007 – and within a decade, he’d made it to a whopping $10 million a year in Gross Commission Income (GCI). Does that sound like the kind of growth outcome you might want in your business?  If so, then it means you have to take action with an outcome in mind because if you’re not working towards a goal, you can’t expect to achieve results.

Rudy says, “MyOutDesk adds so much value – they don’t just provide the people, they train them! When you add a MyOutDesk virtual assistant to your sales team, that’s how people like me grow from being a nobody back in 2007 to making over $10 million in CGI last year.” In Rudy’s case, the results came from building a team consisting of 9 Real Estate ISAs, 45 Outside Sales Agents, and 20 Admin staff and in one of the largest real estate companies in Los Angeles.

Transcript

00:00:03:22 – 00:00:29:24
Daniel Ramsey
Hey, everyone. Daniel Ramsey here with MyOutDesk in Seattle. You’ve got a special guest. His name is Rudy Consumer. And this is crazy because this guy owns a company called Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty. He’s in L.A. He’s got a huge team. Here’s what’s interesting. He’s got nine inside salespeople, 45 outside salespeople, and over 28 administrative staff members.

00:00:30:09 – 00:00:36:06
Daniel Ramsey
The coolest part is that he has my outsourced virtual assistant. And Rudy, thanks for joining us today, man.

00:00:36:14 – 00:00:47:14
Rudy Kusama
Daniel, it’s a pleasure to be here. And Danielle, your home. So guaranteed reality is the only real asset company that has a consumer’s benefit as part of our company’s name.

00:00:48:09 – 00:00:59:23
Daniel Ramsey
The consumer. Yeah, actually, it’s a great thing. When I when I said it, I was like, oh, you’re home, guaranteed. So I’m like, okay, that’s. That’s good. If I wanted to sell, I would start with your company.

00:00:59:23 – 00:01:09:14
Rudy Kusama
Absolutely. So we are we specialize in helping related agents to grow and develop their own. We like that seven figures. We like that sales team.

00:01:10:02 – 00:01:29:12
Daniel Ramsey
I love it, man. Okay, so let’s go back to when I mean, what’s your growth story? Who’s Rudy? What have you done? I mean, you haven’t always been this successful. So take us back to when you first started in real estate. What did you do and how have you gone from, you know, having more than 50 salespeople on your team?

00:01:30:14 – 00:01:50:07
Rudy Kusama
Got my license, 2000, seven graduate school, 2001 Dannielle first sales job I did I saw reach that poor that book door to door I was selling a book door to door and then I was selling promotional products. And my first clients was that we like the brokers. And he asked me to get my license, got my license in 2007.

00:01:50:11 – 00:02:12:13
Rudy Kusama
Then I realized there’s a broken system and realize that as the whole industry and when I see that I mance, when I first get my license in 2007, my broker asked me, Hey, Rudy, first thing, congratulations on your license. You’ll do well. And then I asked my brokers, Do what? And the first thing he asked me to do is to call off and to.

00:02:12:13 – 00:02:30:05
Rudy Kusama
And then I was like, I was failing miserably. I told the broker guy after he gave me literally almost like a yellow page. It might as well be a yellow page. And then so I go back. I went back to him and says, Hey, I don’t think I’m cut out for this couponing. And you asked me to do door knocking.

00:02:31:02 – 00:02:41:20
Rudy Kusama
I or two or three weeks and then I go back. I went back to the broker. I say the difference between call calling and door knocking. Now the client was cursing me in person.

00:02:41:20 – 00:02:42:09
Daniel Ramsey
Oh.

00:02:43:02 – 00:03:04:11
Rudy Kusama
So that’s when our so back in 2007, I was thinking about, okay, how can we build a team like a normal business where each individual person has a specific role he in that in that transaction. So what I mean by a team a Devaney because right now Daniel as you know the work team has been abused so much.

00:03:04:11 – 00:03:26:03
Rudy Kusama
When we talk about a team, I’m not talking about two or three people get together. That’s a crowd, not a definition of a true real asset sales team. Up through seven figure 2 million and related sales team is where each individual has a specific role in that transaction. So for example, we have our marketing department just focus on generating leads.

00:03:26:07 – 00:03:48:18
Rudy Kusama
We have an administrative staff team. That main job is to input that inquiry into our database and blast CRM system. And then we have the inside sales team. This is where the admin and the in fact sales team, if they do it properly, is to leverage. There’s three things we leverage. We leverage technology, we leverage system and we leverage people.

00:03:49:00 – 00:04:11:03
Rudy Kusama
And this is where I think companies like yours, Daniel, I’ve been I’ve been working with my desk for I don’t know you have the numbers, but there’s like almost more than five years and this is where we leverage companies like, like yours to, to build this seven figures sales team. So going back to the team, the team by definition is each individual person has a specific role.

00:04:11:08 – 00:04:37:17
Rudy Kusama
My marketing department focus on lead generation. My team focus on inputting to our database, our impact sales team, focus on calling back those leads, checking the timing and the motivation to see if the buyers and sellers are ready to make a move now within the next six months. And then our outside sales team, the related agents, focus only on one thing surfacing, the clients negotiating deals being about it.

00:04:37:17 – 00:04:58:06
Rudy Kusama
That is, nor we like that agents. When I first got my license in 2007, I never knew I’ll be a professional performing like. I never knew that I’d be a pest. But at the end of the day, every related agent’s, when they first get the license that this idea that they’ll be negotiating contract, they’ll be putting together a deal, they’ll be doing real estate.

00:04:58:06 – 00:05:23:00
Rudy Kusama
But the moment they get into real realize that a broker asked them to become a professional door out, become a professional copilot. What I’m saying here is that they don’t have to be like that, especially with my out desk, with a company like yours, you, you, you at so much value. If we put it together properly into a real sales team system, this is how people like me can grow from a nobody.

00:05:23:00 – 00:05:49:14
Rudy Kusama
Back in 2007 to selling over $10 million in gross commission income in the past year. So the inside sales team and then our tactical so going back to our sales team from the in fact sales in my DC transaction coordinators and our marketing our media team. And you can see now as I’m doing this video with you, Daniel, our video, our media team and I, the team is right on.

00:05:49:23 – 00:06:04:22
Rudy Kusama
We have over we have over a thousand videos on YouTube just about our client satisfaction, about the the testimonials, the endorsements from each the members. Those are happening constantly every day.

00:06:05:15 – 00:06:06:00
Daniel Ramsey
I love it.

00:06:06:06 – 00:06:07:13
Rudy Kusama
After completing.

00:06:07:13 – 00:06:24:01
Daniel Ramsey
So is your secret sauce to go from being brand new agent to having a huge team and selling a lot of stuff is putting things into a system, creating a process, and then getting people to help you grow your team. Is that your secret sauce?

00:06:24:15 – 00:06:49:11
Rudy Kusama
Yes. So there are three things we leverage system in place. I kind of went through quickly about the each department, right. The second one is we leverage technology when we talk about technology, we are talking about the CRM. We are talking about the we are talking about the home selling. We are talking about the system to we leveraging technology to make it more efficient.

00:06:49:15 – 00:07:14:10
Rudy Kusama
So for example, our CRM, now we leverage artificial intelligence to do so. In my database, I have 45,000 buyers who are looking to buy a homes in the area. Right. So if you Danielle, you’re thinking of selling your home. What I’m doing with my system automatically do a search and match analysis to my 45,000 buyers that I have and see out of this 45,000, how many match your home?

00:07:14:24 – 00:07:41:13
Rudy Kusama
So when you hired me to sell your home, you are not hiring me for me to put up for sale sign in front of your house and hoping somebody is going to come. Yeah, that’s a very passive marketing. That’s what happened in real estate industry today. When when I talk about leveraging technology, there’s there’s already enough technology. Now, when we built this system, we should be able we already have we already have a database of over 45,000 buyers.

00:07:41:13 – 00:07:56:05
Rudy Kusama
I know what kind of homes they are looking for, what price range you are looking for, which criteria they’re looking for. So when you ask the homeowner how you’re going to sell your home, we do a search and match with my database. So that’s the second thing. So first, we left a system. We need to have a system.

00:07:56:05 – 00:08:10:07
Rudy Kusama
It’s not people depend on, it’s system dependent. It’s kind of like when you go to McDonald’s, right? When you go to McDonald’s in Los Angeles, you go to McDonald’s in San Francisco, you go to McDonald’s in New York, you order hamburgers. It come out the same.

00:08:10:22 – 00:08:11:05
Daniel Ramsey
Right?

00:08:11:19 – 00:08:19:23
Rudy Kusama
Do you know of any other multibillion dollar restaurant run by high school kids?

00:08:19:23 – 00:08:20:22
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah. Yeah, totally.

00:08:21:05 – 00:08:42:05
Rudy Kusama
Because McDonald’s is system dependent. So. So in order for us to be successful in real estate today, we got to be we got to learn how to leverage system. We got to learn how to leverage technology, and we got to learn how to leverage people. And when I say leverage people, I’m talking about how to make sure each individual person in your team has a specific role.

00:08:42:09 – 00:09:04:10
Rudy Kusama
Right now, as you know, most related agent, they try to build a team, but they’re not only fail, I think it’s even worse than a solo agent because if the definition of a team is me and somebody else here and the two of us doing the same thing, it’s even worse when I was a solo agent, right? Because if two people are doing the same thing, there’s like there’s a lot of inefficiency.

00:09:04:10 – 00:09:21:15
Rudy Kusama
That’s not the team, right? A definition of a team is just like a normal company. Before I got my license, I used to sell ten door to door. When I used to sell and door to door. The company has their own marketing department. They have their own administra RF department, they have their own. In fact, sales teams have their own sales.

00:09:21:15 – 00:10:00:03
Rudy Kusama
I was I was part of the outside sales team when selling plan and my job is only one staff with that clients. Yeah. So that’s all we are doing in real estate industry today. And your company, the reason I love my desk is because you are not just providing the people. Danielle You guys actually train the people, these people, you know, because how can we leverage and I think most common mistakes people make when they hire people in general, but they blame it on particular system, have nothing to do with particular system because I get feedback from the agencies saying, oh, for sure, the systems, they don’t know what they’re talking about.

00:10:00:09 – 00:10:25:19
Rudy Kusama
Well, and then I ask them when when you hire somebody, was there a job description? And guess what? Most of them, they say, no, it’s not virtual assistant issue, even if you hired locally. But because we are so busy working in our business instead of working on their business, they are so busy on the day to day taking a picture, putting up for sale sign.

00:10:25:23 – 00:10:39:01
Rudy Kusama
They never put together a system, a job description. So when they hire somebody, whether it’s somebody locally or virtual assistant and basically the job description is figuring it out.

00:10:39:18 – 00:10:40:03
Daniel Ramsey
Right?

00:10:40:06 – 00:10:40:17
Rudy Kusama
I do it.

00:10:42:01 – 00:11:01:12
Daniel Ramsey
So when you hire a virtual assistant from us, we give them a couple of weeks of training and then you put them in your team. How do you get them from knowing nothing about helping Rudy and the your home sold Guaranteed Realty? They know nothing about your your company. How do you get them up to speed like and how long does it take?

00:11:01:12 – 00:11:06:06
Daniel Ramsey
And what are some of the what are some of the learnings that you’ve had from doing all this?

00:11:06:06 – 00:11:32:07
Rudy Kusama
When I interview your people, Danielle, when I interviewed people from my out as the job applicant, I look at what I like, what you guys, you guys already did the D I as the analysis so I look at the IAC, I look at so for example, let’s use let’s use in fact sales team as an example. I’m looking for somebody who’s polite on the phone, who sounds friendly on the phone, and yet they’re about to close.

00:11:32:13 – 00:12:13:16
Rudy Kusama
So they’ve got to be a D in that individual. So first I use the DSC to screen once I use that. Now when we do a face to face telephone conversation with your with the my out as people, then basically I’m looking for somebody who are coachable. I, I check somebody who are coachable. I ask basically, what was I ask them open ended question like, for example, describe your past, your past work experience because I know you guys already trained the basic as far as I’m not I don’t have to worry about that Internet is always cut out, for example, or I don’t need to worry about the checklist in the background, for example, because

00:12:13:17 – 00:12:30:24
Rudy Kusama
you guys have quality control. I think correct me if I’m wrong, Danielle, but I think your company have some sort of superficial supervisor or somebody who oversees each each one of these each one of the virtual assistants. So things like that would have been caught at the beginning already.

00:12:31:11 – 00:12:49:05
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, we have an account manager. So when somebody hires us, we kind of, you know, just partner them up with an account manager and make sure that everything goes smooth. And you’re right, we we check their Internet, we check their computer, we make sure they have a quiet place to work. Their English is perfect. I mean, we just kind of do the basics.

00:12:49:12 – 00:13:12:09
Daniel Ramsey
And if you’re listening right now and if you wanted to hear more or ask any Rudeineh questions, because you know, what’s interesting, and one of the reasons that I wanted to have you on is because you’re in L.A. and you’ve built a big team and L.A. is like, man, it’s like swimming with sharks over there. You guys are some of the most aggressive and, you know, well-trained and really good agents.

00:13:12:09 – 00:13:28:20
Daniel Ramsey
So having built what you’ve done, it’s it’s pretty special and amazing. But what would your what would you say if somebody wanted to try hiring a virtual assistant? Like, what’s the you know, how do they win? If they want to give this a shot.

00:13:29:10 – 00:13:48:20
Rudy Kusama
Before you hire a virtual assistant, first, you got to have a job description. You got to know you’re going to start with the end in mind. You cannot just hire anybody. Never mind virtual assistant, but it’s very common. Danielle must realize that agents, they hired an assistant and they don’t even know. You know, you are even lacking personality to work.

00:13:48:21 – 00:14:09:19
Rudy Kusama
So now you have a body who’s sitting here just basically do nothing. Right? And it’s not their assistants fault. It’s your fault. You as the you as the team leader, you ask the leaders in your organization, you cannot hiring anybody before you begin to hire anybody for it. You are not. That’s what really matters. But you got to have a job description.

00:14:09:19 – 00:14:31:04
Rudy Kusama
So if you are not if you’re not, if you want to go from becoming a real estate agent to having a real business, then you got to really think about look at how much how much do you work? An hour, right? So look at your commission check. Look at the commission check. You divide it by the amount of hours you work.

00:14:31:04 – 00:14:56:14
Rudy Kusama
So now you have your hourly worth and then you’ll go through your daily activity, putting up a for sale sign, making up copies, designing a fliers, putting up a website, putting up a blog, posting on Facebook, posting on Instagram. All of these are important, but you’ve got to ask, is that worth that amount? Because anything worth less than that, then it should be delegated to a staff members.

00:14:57:03 – 00:15:21:02
Rudy Kusama
So that’s the beginning of creating a job description, right? So first you’ve got to know what you should be doing. You as the real estate agent, you let the real makers, you got to you should be doing stuff that change the outcome. So you, the related agent, you have to ask yourself, is this changing the outcome? For example, making up the client, does it is it does it change the outcome?

00:15:21:02 – 00:15:42:08
Rudy Kusama
Meaning if you do it, I do it. Danielle Do it. Bobby Here, do it. Once the fly is be done. Anyway, if it is then, then that’s the beginning that we have to have a virtual assistant do it. Yeah. Yeah. To making the fliers but I don’t know. So there’s no right and wrong. You have to look at yourself and you ask every task.

00:15:42:14 – 00:16:02:16
Rudy Kusama
Every task. You has to be like an agent. You got to instead of being busy. So starting now, starting today, everything you do, writing down on a piece of paper, writing down on a journal, writing down everything. You are watching this video, you are making a flier. You are showing homes, you are making a copy of the keys, you are putting a for sale sign.

00:16:02:16 – 00:16:39:21
Rudy Kusama
Write down everything you do and you ask yourself, are you changing the outcome? Because if you are thinking if if whoever doing that changed the outcome, then you should be doing it. For example, negotiating a contract, whether you do it or I do it is there a difference? Of course. Then you should do it because if it if it changed the outcome, then you should be doing stuff that change the outcome, negotiating contract that should be you write anything else going to at least thing appointments that you should be you going to a buyer’s appointment that should be you making a copies that could be anybody.

00:16:39:21 – 00:17:14:21
Rudy Kusama
It could be me. It will be Danielle. It will be Bobby. It really matters then that then then now. Once you have your day to day activity, you do that for a week. Danielle, you do that for a week and then you stop crossing out. Stop. Now you just come up with that job description. Once you have the job description, then you go to my house desk and then they will give a potential candidate that may fit that criteria because that difference, you know, somebody you need somebody who designed a fliers, somebody to make the phone call, somebody to do a customer service call or somebody just to type MLS description, for example.

00:17:15:11 – 00:17:36:13
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, I love it. If you’re listening right now and you want to hire some people just like Rudy has to help him grow his business, just go ahead and put hashtag my out desk on this video and then we’ll follow up and just say Hello, Rudy, you’re amazing. Thanks for going live. We weren’t going to do it, but then let’s just go live and see what happens.

00:17:37:16 – 00:17:59:17
Daniel Ramsey
And Sven says, Hello, what’s up, Sven? Ben Long time, man. I hope you’re doing good, Rudy. Hey, thanks for joining us today. Thanks for, like, breaking down how you’ve done and what you’ve done that’s different. I love your, like, only do the thing. They don’t change the outcome for your real estate business. I think that’s brilliant. You’ve been awesome.

00:18:00:06 – 00:18:01:07
Daniel Ramsey
Thanks for joining us today.

00:18:01:10 – 00:18:10:01
Rudy Kusama
Thanks, Daniel.