Speaker 1 (00:00):
As a brand new real estate agent, Adrian Keano sold 15 homes, then he doubled it to 30 the next year. Then he doubled it again to nearly 60 and he's pacing to double it again, making him the number one agent on the number one team in the market in a top 1% realtor in San Diego. How did he do it? By following the blueprint by, in the words of Kyle Whistle, running the play that's called by joining a team plugging in and running the play. That's called Why he became a Real Estate Agent. Despite finding success as a sales professional in IT and cybersecurity, how and why he chose Whistle Realty Group as the place to plug in and start growing his business, who he looked to for learning and growth early on, how he structures his day around IPAs or income producing activities, how scaling up his own business meant bringing other people around him in addition to all the leverage that the team provides, the three main sources of his continued learning and growth. All that and much more right now with the number one agent on the team, Adrian Keano as we conclude our journey inside Whistle Realty right now on Real Estate Team os,

Speaker 2 (01:09):
No matter where your business is today or where you want to take it, you'll get there faster and more profitably with an operating system. Welcome to Team Os, your guide to starting, growing and optimizing real estate team. Here's your host, Ethan Butte.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Adrian, I'm really excited to learn how you wound up in Whistle Realty Group and how you've achieved so much success over the past few years, so welcome to Real Estate team os. Yeah,

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Thank you so much for having me, Ethan.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Cool. I'm going to make you brag up some of your successes by the way. I'm just going to let you know that now, but we're going to start where we always do, which is what's a must have characteristic of a high performing team?

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Yeah, that's a really good question. In my opinion, I think accountability is one of them systems and just having a blueprint for agents to follow that works. I think providing a lot of resources for the agents, the systems, the blueprints, and sometimes I think providing leads to new agents that are coming in to the team that's really important to get their business up and running, especially for new agents and agents that are not producing. I think that could help them out in my opinion. I think those are some of the qualities for a successful team.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Cool. I love that answer in part because I want to go into all four of the zones you covered there. I want to talk to you about some of the systems and processes that have been really helpful to you. I want to talk about accountability because you seem just from my light background research that you probably have a lot of self-accountability, but I'm sure the team environment helps with that a lot too. Talk a little bit about leads and kind of how your mix of opportunities has probably shifted, maybe a little bit more to self gen, but how important leads were in the beginning, so we're going to get into all that, but I would love for you just to kind of give us an intro to what were you doing 2, 3, 4 years before becoming a real estate agent and why did real estate make sense for you?

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Yeah, so I did inside sales at a tech company here in San Diego. My job was to acquire new accounts and new clients to the company. I sold cybersecurity and technology IT solutions software as a service to businesses and that's what I did. I was on the phone, so day in and day out Monday through Friday, eight hours a day and then eventually I started my own department and created that department. I was hiring other ISAs, SDRs, BDR, whatever you want, call them.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
That was job. I was much more familiar with the S-D-R-B-D-R language than ISA, but is SA is functionally the same thing?

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, absolutely. So it was B2B sales and a lot of the skills and experience that I acquired doing that for a couple years related to real estate and it really paved the way for me going into real estate.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Cool, and what was the shift about for you? I mean, cybersecurity isn't a shrinking industry, it's growing. I don't need to get into the company or any of the dynamics in particular, but for you, what made you say to yourself, I've acquired a great deal of sales skills and I can apply them in a different place? Why real estate to apply it? Everyone needs good salespeople.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah, that's a very interesting question, Ethan. To me personally, I wanted to be my own boss. I remember more than 10 years ago, I read Rich Dad, poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and a lot of you guys probably read it and it absolutely changed my mind and the way wanted to take the way I thought about things, right? So one day I wanted to be in real estate, but at that time I was still young and still I wasn't ready. So eventually a couple years later I had the opportunity to get into real estate. When Covid hit, we were locked down, we were working from home.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
It's not a bad time to get started.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Exactly. I had plenty of time to work on my online courses and get my license was I had some savings in the bank. I was pretty successful in cybersecurity. I had my own team. I was working for the vice president of sales and then his boss was the CEO of the company.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
So I was pretty high up there in the corporate ladder. However, it was like that burning desire to help people but also get into real estate. I was so interested in real estate investing in what way to join, what way to be in real estate, better way to do it by joining as a realtor. So in B2B sales there's a lot of politics and it wasn't very fulfilling to me and that's one of the reasons why I got into real estate, not only to be my own boss, but to help people like me, veterans, active dream military and just helping someone, something about helping someone get their first house, their dream home or their forever home is very fulfilling to me.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Cool. So you certainly had a lot of options on the table. You had the idea of doing it for a while. You built up the skills, you had some savings, you had the opportunity at the onset of covid and you could have joined any of a variety of organizations. That's kind of what I'd love to hear from you on before. What was your process of vetting different teams or brokerages? Did you have a preference for either of those models? How many companies did you look at informally checking out their websites and social? How many people did you actually formally interview with? What was the process that led you into Whistle Realty Group? First

Speaker 3 (07:06):
Of all, you have to figure out what do you want, what your core values are and what are you looking for in a team. And then for me, I was looking for a company that's moving forward, has a lot of technology and it all came down to a couple brokerage firms like Keller Williams and exp, so those are the last two. Then I knew that I wanted to be in a team because the team environment, the resources, the systems that it's already been in place. I wanted a team in exp that provided leads to their new agents and for being from Guam and I never grew up here, I don't have a huge sphere here in San Diego and I needed to get my business up and running and by getting leads from the team, so I leveraged the team's resources, the training and the leads that they were providing, and then eventually my business took off.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Awesome. One quick question before we get into what it means to have your business take off because I'm just really excited for you. What I hear from a lot of agents is splits what you just listed was all of the specific benefits that couldn't be provided unless the split allowed that to happen. So you looked at this is what the team is offering. I think so many people stop short of committing to join a team when it might be better for them from a lifestyle perspective, from a production perspective, from a support perspective. They'd be happier and more successful on a team, but they just get hung up on their face at the cost without really weighing the benefits. Did the cost come into mind at all or how do you advise an agent that is thinking that way about the team model in general?

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yeah, I think if you are thinking about the splits, that's really the wrong mentality. Yeah, you can go on your own, be it independent agent or create your own brokerage firm, but one thing that a lot of agents don't realize, there's a lot of costs in the business, right? Marketing costs lead chain, you have to hire people, right? Employees,

Speaker 1 (09:30):
A good tech stack that's fully integrated already,

Speaker 3 (09:32):
100% software systems. You have to literally create the whole system and that's going to cost a lot of money and I think people don't realize that it's a lot of headache and a lot of money. So to me, having that split with the team was worth it, right? Because I didn't have to worry about a lot of things. Not only I didn't have to have a big overhead, but also I had that training, that resources and I thought it was worth joining a team because of that. Cool.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Tell me about the past couple years of production. I think you doubled back to back, which is a nice feat, but run it down. Just talk about production a little bit just for context for people. I'm not asking him to brag himself

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Up. It always makes me feel uncomfortable when I talk about my numbers,

Speaker 1 (10:26):
That's why I wanted to qualify it, but it's important because it's a testament to everything you just said.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yeah, so first year, so I joined 2021 in June. In that last six months of the year of 2021, I get 15 transactions and the following year, 20, 22 I did 30. And then last year, 2023 I did almost 60. So year after year I doubled, and then this year probably going to double that as well. So

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Nice. Good for you. Now come back into what you needed. You use the language plugin, which is language I like a lot. I've heard it from a lot of agents and team leaders is like exactly what you just said. I could invent all this stuff myself and make some mistakes and figure it out long, slow, expensive,

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Or

Speaker 1 (11:18):
I could just plug in. So you plugged in. What was it about? You mentioned leads before, feel free to go into any detail there, but also onboarding. I know there's a mentorship program. Just go into what do you think when you reflect back, what allowed you to be so productive? You joined mid-year in that first year. I think a lot of people, especially in the market like this with the average price point that you all have, that production that you did in those six months would be very satisfying to a lot of people. What was it about the system, the structure? Just describe in detail what you plugged into that allowed you to just get running.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
So it's like joining a team is when you said the word plug in, it's kind like a light bulb. If you don't plug it in, the light doesn't turn on. So that's like being part of a team. When you plug into a team that has the systems, the blueprint, and the resources and tools and the leads, you're going to light up. For me, one of the things that I look for an agent when I want to recruit them to with roti or them two was royalty or exp is the three things that I look for is positive attitude, strong work ethic and coachability or student mentality. So coming into real estate, I wanted to learn and being part of a team, yes, the splits are not as good as if you wanted to go on your own in exp you wanted to be an independent agent.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
However, the currency is the learning, right? You're going to learn and grow and the more you learn, the more you earn, right? That's famous quote and just to me it was just delayed gratification in my opinion. So yes, I'm going to make less money in the beginning, however, I'm learning a lot and the more I learn the more my income is going to grow. My business is going to grow. So training is one of them. You asked me the specifics like, okay, I needed training. So we had a two week bootcamp of learning how to do the business, how to do an open house, how to use follow-up boss, your CRM. That's really important. Putting all your clients in the CRM, how to write a contract, all that good stuff, all the basics that you need to learn as a new agent and as long as you're showing up.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
For here, it's all about accountability and you showing up. Kyle always says how you show up to anything is how you show up to everything and you showing up to the office to the meetings. We have expectations. So if you meet those expectations, all the things that you need to do anyways to be a successful agent, you're going to start getting leads from the team. As long as you're showing up, you're going to get leads, and as long as you convert those leads, your business is going to just take off. And it's funny because I think of real estate. When you're starting in real estate, you're brand new or maybe you've been in the industry for a long time and you haven't been producing and you want to change and you want to join a team. It's kind of like a plane taking off. It's going to require a lot of fuel for the plane to take off.

Speaker 3 (14:59):
I would say 75% of its fuel is being used and not take off. Then after you take off, it's just gliding. It's not using a lot of fuel. It's kind of like that. The business is like that, so you have to be all in, right? There's a saying when the student is ready, the teachers appear. So joining a team, you have to have that student mentality. You have to soak in and learn. You have to come in here not to transact, but to learn and just sharpen your skill. When you come in with that right mentality, I think everything else will come because the more you grow, the more your business will grow.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Awesome. I feel like the two things you said there among a variety of things you said there, but learning and accountability, and I feel like some of that is structural. It's by design within the team,

Speaker 2 (15:52):
But

Speaker 1 (15:53):
I also feel like just spending this a day and a half in this office and seeing who's coming and going, and there was a live training in here, a role play yesterday. I feel like some of it is just part of being part of the organization. So some of it is by design training. We do this every Tuesday, we do this every Thursday, whatever the case may be. We have this two week onboarding. We have a mentorship program, but some of it's informal. Has that been your experience just being around other people, building relationships with the other team members and kind of the camaraderie and collaboration that happens just in unstructured, informal conversations in addition to all of the formal training?

Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah, I think there's a saying, success leaves clues and you're the average of your five closest colleagues or friends. So when you're surrounded by top producers and you talk to them, you build those relationships, you start to act like them, you start to do the things that they're doing. As long as you're coachable and you're building relationship and surrounding yourself with other agents that are producing, you're going to start producing like them at least 20% of their production. When I first started, I remember looked up the top four in the company, I called them the core four,

Speaker 3 (17:20):
And they're always consistently at the top, so I wanted to be at the top. So the best way to do that is be around them and ask them a lot of questions, learn from them, and that's one of the things that I really love about whistle royalties because we have, one of the core values that we have is come from contribution and we love to share tips and tricks and we share everything to each other. For me, I share a lot of the things that I'm doing in the team and vice versa, and that's how I was able to learn and grow in the business is because by association. By association, definitely to answer your question, being surrounded by like-minded people that are hungry, that are producing, that have a positive attitude about the market real estate, you're going to start to grow with them as well.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
Cool. I'd love to hear how your mix of opportunities or leads has maybe shifted over the three years or so that you've been here. I assume in the beginning it was a lot of company provided online leads, and I know that you all are very intentional about open houses and building real relationships in person. I assume that was probably a lot of your initial opportunity pool, but obviously you've helped a lot of families and that probably has led to a lot of probably more referral business than repeat business just because of how tight this time window is, but talk about how that's shifted for you over time and maybe how company training has supported

Speaker 3 (18:58):
That. In the beginning, I started in the team gen right team leads. That's how I was able to do business is by getting the leads from the team heavy on the team leads. I did a lot of open house as well. I did about two to three open house every weekend. I was doing door knocking, I was circle dialing. I was calling it a pond. It's a list of leads that we have in the company. It's another nice team benefit. Yeah, 100% because we have that 30 plus thousand. I don't know how much leads that we have right now because it's been a while since I called in the pond. So in the beginning I relied on the team, generated leads, and then eventually I started getting referrals from my past clients. I was working the open house leads that I have, and eventually my business took off with self gen leads, like clients that are reaching out to me and my social media online present, and my sphere started to contact me. In the beginning, nobody wanted to work with me. My family members, friends,

Speaker 1 (20:13):
He's the new guy.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
I mean, they know who I am. All my flaws. Don't get me wrong, I made a lot of mistakes when I first started, however, people were just watching me from farther. They're like, Hey, congrats on your new journey, but I'll go to family events and they'll tell me, yeah, you're doing something new again. You're jumping into a new industry. What are you doing? You're quitting your job full time. I mean, hey, they had good intentions, but they didn't realize that I felt like they didn't believe in me. Internally, I can feel it, and that's how it is. Family wants you to be,

Speaker 1 (20:59):
They want you to be safe and protected. This, you're taking a risk here, going out

Speaker 3 (21:03):
On your own 100% because I can, because being in real estate, it is a very hard industry. There's a lot of turnovers, and to answer your question, the shift is when probably my second year, that's when I started to get more referrals from my past clients because when you're helping a lot of people like that, and you do them, you take care of them, you have their best interests, they're going to remember that. So you take care of your clients, they're going to take care of you. I get a lot of referrals from my past clients, my military members, because it's such a tight group. So eventually a lot of my business right now is self-generated leads and just referral based business.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
Cool. I feel like you have a lot of natural bias of action toward income producing activities. I feel like you're probably very self-aware of that. How do you structure your day?

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah. Funny thing that you said, that income producing activity, I call them IPAs. Yeah, IPAs, right? Not the beer, it's IPAs.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Although San Diego is famous for those two.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
Yeah, 100%. I used to drink a lot of beer, but not anymore, especially when I was in the Marines. You like beer too?

Speaker 1 (22:35):
I did. Yeah,

Speaker 3 (22:36):
You did. And

Speaker 1 (22:36):
Then I was like, I'm done with that.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah, no, me too. Yeah, so IPAs, 80% of my activity is our IPAs every single day. Till this day, even the amount of business that I'm doing right now, I always have that 80 20 rule. 80% of my activity are IPAs, so that's talking to clients, being in front of them, code calling, following ups. Those are the activities that I'm doing right now. And then 20% are admin work, but again, my business is a little bit different from it was, or a lot more different now. I have four assistants. Everything is being delegated right now. Admin work, my circle dialing and I have a co-listing agent and I have a showing agent, also personal assistance. So all my listings, my job is to go out there and find the new clients being in front of them, get the listing agreement signed, get their offer accepted for my buyers.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
Everything else has been delegated, managing the listings, going to the house and making sure the lockbox is working. If I can't be in two places at once for showings and have multiple buyers are looking, I have a showing agent can show property multiple properties in Murrieta, and then I could be here in San Diego showing properties. It is just leveraging my time and my resources as well. So just scaling the business. I wouldn't be able to do five to 10 transaction a month if I didn't scale my business and bring in the right people in my business. I almost have a small little mini whistle royalty group within Whistle royalty

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Group, a team within a team,

Speaker 3 (24:33):
100%, and Kyle allows me to do that.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Cool. And that's where I wanted to go. As soon as you open that door up is how much of what you have structured today, let's just call it your team. How much of that was intuitive to you? How much of that did you learn just by talking with other high performing agents within the organization and how much of it is directly supported or even provided by the team itself? I would assume that you maybe this occurred to you at some point or it was recommended to you either by a peer or by Kyle or someone else. How did this structure that you have now come to be?

Speaker 3 (25:06):
It's a combination of a lot of things. Kyle, Kyle's advice, he's my direct mentor now, and just duplicating what Kyle has done for West Royalty in a smaller scale,

Speaker 3 (25:22):
And then also past experience that I have because I have that experience in cybersecurity and building a smaller team there and my tech background and marine background. So a combination of my experience with Kyle and what I see in West royalty. West royalty provides a lot of things, a lot of resources and tools and systems, the things that they don't provide. For someone like me, I had to almost create something because no one's doing it like me, because my business took off super fast. It took a lot of hard work. Don't get me wrong, I have no confusion about that. Sacrifices and trials and tribulations, a lot of hours and nos and rejections failing forward. But where my business is right now, I had to learn how to scale it with Kyle, with W Royalty and with other agents outside of Whistle Roti that are top producers that's been in the business for a long time and that are consistently top producers from other brokerage firm.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
I look at the list like, oh, wow. I look up to them like, okay, when you get to the top, so 2022, I did the most transaction in my second year, and then last year I was most transaction, also most gross commission income in volume. And eventually I was like, okay, well, when I'm trying to take it to the next level, who do I go to? I go to Kyle and then other producing agents that are outside of West Rotty because there's no one above me. So I have to look for other resources and tools. Okay, what are they doing differently? How can I get my business? Because since I'm at the top, how can I get my business to the next level like these guys? And so learning from them and okay, this person is doing it this way, this other agent is doing this way. She has an assistant, she got two assistants, she got three. Okay, what are those assistants doing? What type of systems they've created in their business? So to answer your question is a combination of a lot of things. Kyle was royalty and other agents that are outside of my sphere. Awesome.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
I love this active pursuit of how other people are doing it. You have this natural curiosity toward, okay, I know I can do more. How can I do that? Let me go find, tell me if this is about how it went. I have these people that are immediately available to me and I'm learning from them all the time, and we're actively in conversation. So some of these seeds or ideas are being planted, but I'm also actively going out to other top producers to learn how they're doing it. And you're not saying, oh, okay, that's how she does it. That's how I'm going to do it. You're taking all this input and making it your own. There's no single playbook for success. You can literally do this however you want.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
Yeah, as long as you have that student mentality. For me, my biggest fear was hitting a ceiling, but part of it too is being at the top is lonely. And sometimes when you're at the top and you hit that milestone, you lose a lot of that motivation. In fact, motivation is great, but for me, I prioritize consistency in my business. I didn't want to be at the top and then eventually go back to second or third or fourth and fifth because losing motivation. So I had to find another type of motivation, another person to chase almost, and that was the graces have

Speaker 1 (29:26):
Sometimes even manufactured someone to chase so necessary.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yeah, I had to, I'm like, okay, well, I'm here now. Okay, who am I supposed to chase now who I have to find that inspiration again? So when you're doing the amount of volume and transaction in this business here in San Diego, you run into the same people over and over again. And I built those relationship over time with top producers, and I look up to them. I get inspired by them. So in the beginning, I got inspired by the core fours, I call them the core fours, the top four.

Speaker 3 (30:06):
I always like, okay, well, I got to climb myself. I'm super competitive, but I also, I have so much respect for them in, and I am so grateful for those people that helped me when I first started. It's not the destination that I'm really excited about. It's the journey and the person that I become in the process. That's what I'm really excited about is that learning and that how can I be better every single day? And that's something that I'm very, very, very consciously aware of. Okay, well, my level of income in the business will never surpass my level of personal development, so I always want to ask a lot of questions and learn from other people or listen to podcasts or read books and how to become better.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
Awesome. Spoken like a lifelong learner, and you actually just answered my final question for you, which is what does it look like for you when you're investing time in resting, relaxing, and recharging? Or what does it look like for you when you're investing time in learning, growing and developing? To this day, I still work

Speaker 3 (31:14):
Anywhere between eight to 12 hours a day. I take not a day off, I take hours off or half a day off, and I have the freedom. I'm my own boss and I have the freedom. If I wanted to take one day off or two weeks off, one week off, I can't. But I choose to do what I do every single day is to help other people with their real estate journey. And that's one of the things that I'm very passionate about. I love what I do, and it sounds so cliche. I love what I do, but I truly mean that I really do love what I do, and because of that, I don't feel like I'm working. Part of my journey in real estate is helping other people, but also it helps me to be better as a person, as a better son, as a better brother.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
I see real estate as a personal development journey because the more you conquer those fears inside those demons inside, the more you're able to help other people with their fears, with their doubts, with their curiosity. You can help them with their journey in real estate. And that's what I'm passionate about, is building long-term wealth. And to answer your question, I go to church every Sunday. I'm a believer, and that's one of the things that I'm, that's important to me. It's my faith. It's believing in him, God, Jesus Christ, and just things are going to work out. Just trust in him. And that's how I run my business is Christian-based principles. And sometimes it doesn't work out, but I keep moving forward because I know, I believe that it's going to work out. And if I keep doing my business and running my business that way, everything else would fall into place because I have faith and I have belief that it's going to work out even though there's so many problems and issues and I'm not getting the results that I want, but because I'm faithful. We have a saying. We have our motto in Marines, in the Marine Corps, c Fidelis always faithful. And that's something that's embodied and that's something that I do in my free time to refresh. I work out. I spend time with family, friends, I spend time with my dogs, my partner, and just have those relationships ships.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
Yeah. So did I answer your question?

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, yeah. You gave me a lot there. It's a wonderful place to call this a conversation. I wish you continued success in the end of this year and in the start of 2025.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
Thank

Speaker 1 (34:25):
You so much for spending this time with me. I'm so glad you found a great place here at Whistle and you've achieved so much in this time. And just speaking to your mindset and your habits and your approach, it makes sense why some of the success has been generated by you.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
Yeah, thank

Speaker 3 (34:41):
You so much for having me. I'm super excited. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
Thanks for checking out this episode of T Os. Get quick insights all the time by checking out real estate team Os on Instagram and on TikTok.