Kathleen Black proves that hard work brings success on every stage of your business journey. From working her way to the top 1% of realtors recognized by the Toronto Real Estate Board, to now running her own real estate coaching and consulting agency, Kathleen has made a name for herself through never-ending effort and focus.
Over the years, Kathleen Black has become the most sought-after real estate coach and trainer in North America, overseeing the success of several firms in the United States and Canada. She has also founded the Kathleen Black Coaching and Consulting (KBCC) firm, which continues her work of helping out real estate firms that want to break out in the industry.
Throughout her long career, Kathleen Black had designed an internal process or program that she followed as she perfected her craft as an agent for more than 10 years. This program became the foundation of KBCC, which she formed in 2015. At KBCC, Kathleen sharpened her programs and developed her systems further, so that she may pass them on to her clients. She has also designed and crafted coaching systems and methods to give her clients everything they need to succeed professionally or personally.
Aside from running her own firm as CEO, Kathleen Black is also a successful business coach, a highly in-demand resource speaker, and educator. REP Magazine named her as one of the Top 100 Elite Women Driving the Future of Real Estate. In 2018, T3 Sixty also listed her as one of the Top 20 Emerging Leaders.
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Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Kathleen Black: Beginning my career as a RE/MAX Real Estate Agent and working my way to being recognized within the top 1% of Realtors in both the Durham Region and on the Toronto Real Estate Board, many would agree that this level of success is the pinnacle achievement amongst their peers; but for me it was only the beginning.
Identifying the need, I set out to work on further developing the systems and platform of educational programs and coaching methods to which I attributed her own professional and personal success.
With the launch of KBCC in 2015 and building upon my 10+ years of Team and Agent development and guidance, hundreds of teams (80% of which are top 1% producers) have attributed their growth and success to my integrity, honesty and results driven leadership directly or through one of my coaching programs.
I was selling real estate as a busy single mom of two children and I had done a lot of content and systems development with a look to creating better work life balance.
The team I worked with was creating a coaching company and I had a background in psychology, so it just seemed like a natural fit to try to become involved.
That coaching company found itself in some challenging territory in its early days and there were differing opinions within the ownership as to how it should be resolved.
This ultimately resulted in the departure of the director of coaching and I was given the opportunity to step into that role within 18 months of the company going live. I had been a coach for just under one year at that point.
It was really a chain of complicated events that led to a great opportunity for me.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?
Kathleen Black: I moved on from Director of Coaching to Director of Operations in a relatively short time and became half owner of the company with access and full decision-making authority. At that time the books were opened to me and it was instantly evident that the company was in quite a bit of financial difficulty. I played a significant role in turning the company around. I led the clearing of about $180k in debt and revamped the majority of the content which led to considerably stronger client retention.
As things were turning around, my (largely silent) partner decided they wanted to go in a different direction professionally. I was presented with some difficult questions; ‘Is this who I am, can I look at my children in the face with integrity if I don’t stand up and defend what I have built, what will I do if I don’t do this’. I remember fear. I remember the reality of having bills to pay. I also remembered some great advice I had been given; ‘If you really believe in it, bet your house on it’.
Ultimately, I went all in. I stood up for myself. The result of that pivotal moment saw my shares bought out, half of the client base following me to the new company based on the content I owned, and within a month and a half my client roster was full. Within three months, head down and determined, I had a client roster that occupied a second coach as well. Necessity and focus were the defining factors in my early success.
When I get tired or frustrated, I’m a typical entrepreneur. Instead of thinking ‘take a day off’ or ‘take a week off’ i think ‘okay maybe I’m done’ or ‘maybe I’m not meant to do this business’. But the reality of it is, I get a good night sleep and I know that this business for me, is not about money, it isn’t about a business, it’s about a purpose in my life and I believe that I’m destined to be doing what I’m doing.
This mentality has dragged me to the future, even when I feel exhausted and burnt out. To build this business, I had to run and jump off of a cliff. There was no ability to hesitate or play it safe, I think for me I had to believe it was my destiny to do it, or I wouldn’t have been able to take the risks that I did.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
Kathleen Black: An example that I give often is I used to mentor, coach and train while I was relatively new to selling, so I often had someone shadowing me.
I ended up realizing a couple of years into it when I left a buyer presentation, which I would sign 98 per cent of, with one of my mentees, when she told me that she had seen me present my buyer consultations many times, and that she had learned so much, but the logo on the powerpoint said ‘Your Team Name Here”.
I didn’t even realize that for two years I had been using my coaching company’s version of my buyer consultation and it didn’t even have our team logo on it, and yet I was still signing 98 per cent of all consultations I sat down in front of and attended.
When building a business it’s really easy to say you need the perfect brand, but in reality what you need are the clients.
Jerome Knyszewski: Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to lead a company from Good to Great? Please share a story or an example for each.
Kathleen Black:
- Leadership
Leadership isn’t a title or position that is held to one person when you’re a part of a team or a company. In these businesses, you have many moving parts, and each one of those parts are their own leaders.
I’m grateful for our team, I have an amazing group of people who support me and there’s no way I would be able to do what I do without them.
We have a collaborative leadership team who are very entrepreneurial, and who take ownership over what needs to happen. It’s very collaborative without a director style delegation, everyone owns their portion of the business. That is how we thrive.
2. Have a Clear but Adaptable Vision
Know where you’re going, but allow yourself to be agile and update your plan as needed. Always let your team know in advance.
Don’t lose your power. Realize that you can’t change everything, but you can change some things. Spending this time, whether it’s two weeks or twelve months, waiting around for the market to get back to normal, for our lives to get back to normal, is not ideal.
You can’t fight what is, the world has changed, our circumstances have changed. The sooner that we accept that, the sooner we can make adjustments.
People are pivoting fast, using their adaptability skills. If you sit around and wait for change, you’re losing the momentum you can build now, and you won’t be prepared for the potential market change once this is all over.
Right now, it feels like it’s never going to end but it will, and it’s important to focus on the small things you can do to put your future self in the best position.
We all have the ability to change and develop right now. After this storm has blown through, we can have a better quality of life, we can have better client services, we can absorb this tension to persevere, but only if we choose to.
3. Have a Strategy
We need to have clarity on our key sources of business, how we can become more efficient, and cut through to the best use of our time and our investments, while focusing on our skillset.
During a tough market is when our skills will be forged in the fire. You will find that you’ll have people who accelerate and are much stronger in sales or service during a turbulent market because we have less opportunities and are more open to sharpening the axe.
The best leaders are not scared to set clear and straightforward expectations, even in difficult situations. They know their team is stronger when everyone is on board, and they’re not willing to have a weaker link take them out.
4. Efficiency
We believe in having an approach that works before we invest a ton of money into lead generation or marketing. If an agent were to join your team, and they were converting at the same percentages you were for a step in the client process, would you recruit them?
Would it be enough for you to invest money into that agent, if they were performing the same as you are.
This is an important awareness to have, because when you have team members come on, you want them to have the exact same eyes. These are our minimum standards and the guidelines to how you’ll be efficient.
5. Leverage
Do I know what I’m great at, and do I know the right profiles and the right expertise that I need in the other areas of my business?
Am I always aware of the next steps for my business, and how I’m going to get there?
Who’s the next hire you’ll have and are you adjusting your systems and processes to include them in it?
Leverage is very important because if you can take some things off of your plate, it is very valuable to the business overall.
Jerome Knyszewski: Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. Can you help articulate for our readers a few reasons why a business should consider becoming a purpose driven business, or consider having a social impact angle?
Kathleen Black: When our company started, our vision was to help busy entrepreneurs, who were largely in the sales industry, carve out a business that had the structure necessary to give them the freedom they wanted.
We found that a lot of entrepreneurs feel structure is restrictive, when in fact it gives them the path they need to give them the ability to leverage and scale so that they can have a successful business and life.
At the end of the day, what we found, was that we had to empower people in order for them to take empowered action, which is vital to create a structured business.
The purpose of our company is to power up people so they can build the businesses and lives that they are capable of leading, that they don’t choose to build until they approach it with a higher level of consciousness and confidence.
Jerome Knyszewski: As you know, “conversion” means to convert a visit into a sale. In your experience what are the best strategies a business should use to increase conversion rates?
Kathleen Black:
Team Synergy
After coaching hundreds of Real Estate teams full-time for over a decade, I have seen the power that a team can achieve within their environment by utilizing properly structured collaboration and synergy.
Through my experience coaching teams, I have learned that the power of team synergy can increase conversion, driving your team into the top 1%!
Teams thrive in the unique synergy that a hyper-focused, unified approach with a shared desired outcome or bullseye can deliver. On the other hand, inclusivity is important to grow and allow other people to penetrate the nucleus that is the in-crowd on your team. Everyone should be included in the in-crowd.
If new members cannot merge with existing members, you will cap your growth, whereas a recruit that just does not believe what you do and, even with training, does not seem to fit in will be worked out of the team with hundreds of small reminders a day of how they do not belong. You want a culture exclusive enough to give you an edge and inclusive enough to attract great people, grow, and thrive together.
Unique Client Process
Your clients cannot see what the purchase or the steps leading to the purchase look like — if they did they wouldn’t need us. Many top producers confuse personally delivering value, with the value our clients hire us to provide. Your clients are hiring you for a unique experience and results.
You are the master of sourcing the playbook to create your unique client process for your business, set to your standards, regardless of who is face to face for delivery. This unique client process is not optional to expand your business, it is a necessity we work with you to achieve.
This also happens to be one of the vital systems that safe guarded and later expanded production this year, during lockdowns, and restrictions as we entered the virtual world.
Jerome Knyszewski: Of course, the main way to increase conversion rates is to create a trusted and beloved brand. Can you share a few ways that a business can earn a reputation as a trusted and beloved brand?
Kathleen Black: In order to create a trusted and beloved brand, you need to begin with transparency. If you want trust, you have to be honest. Transparency will show your customers your honesty. By showing your audience this honesty, they will put more trust in your business to create a trusted reputation for your brand.
Take the humanistic approach. We’re all looking to relate to people, especially when we’re looking to a brand that we all love and trust. Instead of thinking of your business as a faceless entity, think of the humans who work there and those who interact with the brand.
Relationship build. Your audience, and your clients are some of the most important people when it comes to building your brand and getting people to entrust your brand. If you build a personal relationship with your clients, they’re going to consider your brand a friend.
Loyal customers stay for the way a company creates and delivers a product, not the product itself.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Kathleen Black: You can find me on social media at:
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
