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Welcome to Action Solves Everything, the show for those who want to stop overthinking and start producing. I'm your host, Alex Montagu, broker leader and founder of Lockstep Realty. Around here, we believe movement creates momentum. Clarity comes from doing, and the agents who take action are the ones who win. Every episode is built to help you grow your skills, your confidence, and your career. Now let's get to work. Thanks for tuning in. Today we've got Lindsey Smalling, a really super special guest today. She is with Smalling Group. They just made a massive move from F.C. tucker to Highgarden. Some of my favorite people in the industry over at Highgarden, so they're super fortunate to have an acquisition like this. Lindsey and her team did just shy of 425 transactions for over $119 million in production. I have not talked to a team leader in the Indianapolis market that's done anything like that. Lindsey, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. I think this is probably a little bit more special for me today. As somebody that's built like a growing team in our marketplace. You have been a North Star for us, monitoring your growth alongside ours. And it's been a target that we've been after. So I would just love to dive in. 424 deals last year, $119 million. Why don't you start just diving in on that? So our team is very diverse. We have obviously male, female. We're very dominant when it comes to sellers. So that's like a big ticket when obviously you work with sellers, you have a little bit more time to work on your business or whatever versus working with buyers. So that mindset, I think, has helped our team grow as far as, like, working with sellers more. But I do think after looking at the numbers, actually this past year, we actually have a lot of like 50, 50, actually as far as the newer agents bring on those buyers. But I would say, like the top agents are working with sellers mostly. We have a lot of lead sources coming in and a lot of past client referrals. Yeah. Share some of that lead generation because. And then actually before we do that, why don't you hit on how big is your team, talk about the size of your and then how long you guys have been in. Been in place. So currently we have 10 team members. We have scaled back a little bit and then we grew again. So added a couple. Two. Two to three team members for this year of 2026, but 10 total. Now we have one transaction coordinator and one marketing gal. That helps us with social media and whatnot. But I mean really we're full time, full service team that obviously loves to serve and help people buy and sell. So where are you guys getting the leads? Why don't we start there? Okay, so I actually have been tracking like the last three years. Where are we getting like all of our leads? Google's probably one of our biggest ones, believe it or not, not paying for it either. So that is your like billboard for your business, Tom Ferry. Actually we went and did coaching and that is the one thing that when we started that years ago, it actually busted out of the scene. We got tons of leads and that's going through like chat GPT too. So the last two leads I got were through chat. That's unbelievable. So are you guys just boosting the. Like just have a killer Google business profile? Yes. So I've been to like three classes and we're not paying a dime for Google. So this is all just organic. Doing stuff on our Google business page, trying to max it out at its highest potential. That is amazing. I will call you after this to learn more about that. Unbelievable. So obviously past business referrals, Google, have you heard of UPNest, realtor.com, op City, Homelight, all of those. We max out on any of those lead sources that we can do too. Are those pay up front or pay on the back? Pay on the back. Got it. Awesome. That's amazing. Pay up front with Zillow. I was paying tons, thousands upon thousands of money on Zillow. Probably more than $60,000 a year. And I had been doing that in the past and we just switched over to Zillow Flex. When did you make that transition? About six months ago. Awesome. Yeah, we were in the process. Our transition date was at the end of February. And they do this thing where they like run your card at the end and then they reimburse you. I don't know what the heck that's about, but I just saw my last Zillow bill. It was almost$19,000 for one month's worth of spend. And it's maddening. And it is a disruptor of business cash flow for sure. So it'll be. It's nice to get that off the books. Yes. So tons of inbound leads. I mean, gosh, I'm doing the math on this. 42 deals per agent. That is unheard of. So, like, talk about leadership accountability. What are some like pillars and frameworks for you guys at Smalling Group? So I think my biggest thing as far as the team lead goes like, I want to be available for my people, I want to be able to mentor them. If I see somebody spending too much time on something that I've tried before, I will try to say, hey, by the way, I've done that. You can try it. But I hate to see especially our newer agents wanting to do billboards and paying all this money on farming and all these things when they can actually focus on something else. That because I've tried it all. So I try to steer them towards, hey, try this, focus on these 1, 2, 3 things and master those before you go and spend tons and thousands of upon thousands of money on things that may or may not work. So I mean, one of the things is your database. A lot of agents just don't even focus on your own database. Yeah, we, I think it's so fascinating, right? Like an agent would rather pay for a lead to be put in their lap than mine their database to find one that's essentially free. Who already knows, likes and trusts you. We have spent the greater part of the last 12 months like overhauling our follow up boss and our processes within and data sourcing within just to have a better understanding of everything. And look, I'm guilty of this. I ran fast, bought leads, took everything from everywhere, thousand miles an hour. And a lot of it is like, hey, I'm, I'm grateful I did that because it helped us get to where we are today. But boy, oh boy for anybody that's listening. And you can share this too because you raised your hand. If you could do it over again in the very beginning, what advice would you have for newer agents? Start a CRM. I just started mine this year. Okay. And I think about that. When did you get in the business? 2009. So sad. So 15 years in the business, never had a CRM while. When did you start your team? 2011. So your team was running for a dozen years without a CRM. So me personally, now you know, these companies, they give you these CRMs you don't want to like, you don't want to pay for CRM, you know, so we use the one that the company provides. Some of them are good, some of them are bad. A couple years ago I tried one that FC Tucker did have. It was called close, had all the bells and whistles, but it was way over my head again. I told you before, I'm not tech savvy. Give me something easy, plug and chug and go. But I feel like if you start that when you first start in the Business, to build your foundation. You will be good to go. My problem is now is I want to start that to help with the process and the flow of things because I started in real estate and just jump and went and never had time to work on my business. So when we're not busy, those are things that I'm now telling my team. Okay guys, when, when you're complaining that you don't have any business right now, work on your business, set up that CRM, your database, send out campaigns, whatever you need to do to help with that for your pipeline in the future. Those are the things like I tell my team all the time, you get what you put into it. You need to be working on your business. This is a full time job for me. I don't work at Amazon or FedEx or you know, have another job. This is all I do. And I love the vacation, I love to do those things. But we also have to put in the work. It just doesn't fall into our lap. Can you talk a little bit about like, cause you said when we're not busy, but you're busy all the time with 425 deals of family, everything that you're involved in. So I want to talk about like as a team leader because I think this is really good to connect like team leader to team leader here. Like what is working in the business versus working on the business look like for you in a given week? Okay. When I say I'm not busy, I'm meaning I don't have appointments that day. Sure. So I'm an in office girly every day, Monday through Friday. If I'm not at appointments, I'm in the office. So that's where I'm like literally trying to build my CRM. Now I'm going over past clients, leads, database, everything that I can possibly do. I mean, I literally just sent out postcards this week. So on a day that I had leftover postcards, I was like, I'm just gonna send those out. I'm sitting here listening to podcast literally on YouTube, listening to Tom Ferry while I am literally working on my postcards. My husband thinks I'm crazy and he's like, you need to hire that out. And I'm like, I'm just sitting here, I'm going to do, I'm going to work on my business. I want to do those things. I actually thrive and I love it. I think it's interesting. I. I struggle with stuff where it's like the white space on the calendar like makes me uncomfortable. It Makes me like, I. I have a hard time getting in motion when I don't have that stuff on the calendar that's, like, fixed and forced, whether it's appointments or meetings or calls or like, even like this today. But I think when you can, like, get started, it's a muscle that needs trained and practice that you need to do, like, anything else, whether it's like a sport or a craft that you're trying to get better at. So it's like, understanding of how to challenge your mind and, like, work in different areas. But I think as team leaders and business owners, it's important to understand how to manage that portion of the job so you can help others say, hey, look like white space on your calendar. Get into Claude or get into Gemini and start building something that it can be a bit of, like, a resource for you so you can continue to move faster within your business or with other resources to help, you know, whether it's like, critically solved problems or help keep your business in motion. Right. No, I agree with that. I have literally team members that say, do you ever stop, like, thinking about, like, real estate? You know, as far as that? Because I'm always, I have something going on, or again, I'm following up. If I don't have anything, I'm following up. And I will tell you, the only time I really do shut my brain off is when I'm, you know, family time or when I'm running. So the rest of the time it's real estate. So you got it in 09, you started the team in 11. Like, what brought you to real estate? And what, like, what is the driving force behind that right there? Which is, like, maybe a healthy addiction. Yes. So I actually wanted to go, um, I wanted to be in the medical field. So that's what I was actually going to school for. And at the same time, when I was in college, we end up listing our house. So this was in 2007, and the broker who listed our house was like, hey, you guys don't have kids. Obviously, you're a hustler. Like, would you like to, you know, come and help me at our real estate office? So I started doing, like, assistant admin transaction coordination things, and then I had a baby. So then I was like, okay. In the meantime, like, before I end up pregnant, I had, while I was at iupui, basically a shoulder problem that I end up having to have a shoulder replacement. And so the program chair ended up telling me, hey, listen, you're not going to be able to do this because you have a weight restriction. So I was already landing like, as far as, like in the real estate game. I was there. I never interviewed anybody else because I was already there. So it literally just kind of all fell into my lap and I was the tc, but then I ended up getting my license. So I was a buyer's agent. Then I had the baby. Prior to, I was working at a bank. So obviously still working with money. But the transaction thing, like, I loved doing that side of things, but then I also loved working with the people, which is why I wanted to do the medical field thing to begin with, which obviously I wasn't able to do. So I think that everything that had happened to me in the past was a God thing that put me to where I'm at today. I was on a team, started on a team. That's why I always recommend, like newer agents. Start on a team, like, see what happens, grow. And then you could start a team or go independent. Like, I know not everyone's going to stay with me, but the team thing I started is because I had the baby and then got so busy I was like, oh, crap, what am I going to do? I can't manage my people. Like I want to and give 110%. So you have to get help, you have to start delegating. And that's where I was at. Gosh, it's. There's some similarities in story there. Mine's a little bit different than yours. But getting into the team thing, it was like I had started building a team in like 2020ish, just because of a bandwidth and a capacity thing. But Maureen and I had twins in 2022. And I remember sitting in the living room with a client calling. We had just brought the twins home and so like they were on like three hour, you know, sleep, wake, feed schedules. And I had a client that was like buying a big house and he needed help and he was like, Daniel's like, dude, he needs to talk to you. And I was like, maureen's going to kill me. And I remember standing on the porch, like helping through an inspection conversation and just understanding at that given moment that like the old days of like bootstrapping everything, it. They're long gone and it will forever be impossible to go back to that. So, you know, understanding that like the team is the point of leverage. I also love, and I want to touch more on this, I love that you reference, hey, I started on a team. It helped, you know, get your feet underneath. You talk about that and like, what are some of the most valuable things that you think an agent should be looking for when they're, when they're, whether it's like selecting a team or starting on a team, things like, like go that route. So I, obviously I'm an agent, I still actively work plus a team lead, plus a mom. So obviously when I started in real estate, I knew I couldn't do it all. I knew I needed the mentorship. The mentorship I would say would be the biggest thing. And the training. If you start on a team that is a decent like producing team, obviously that's what I would do. I wouldn't go to a team that's not really doing anything. But as far as, if I was a newbie, I would say find a, like a top performing team and see what they're doing, watch them, shadow them, do all those things. Because that's what I did. I mean, I remember I didn't even tell anybody I was getting my license or taking the test. I was going to open houses and just like browsing, not even putting my name down, like seeing how that agent worked before I even got my license. Wow. Just little things. I'm very like, I try to think ahead on some things, like the market right now. Like I'm trying to think ahead of time, like what everybody else is doing. What can I do different? So, but that's what new agents need to be doing too. It's not just coming to the office. I hope someone gives me something to do. But listening, coming into the office is a big thing. I tell every new agent, be in the office when you can so you can listen, hear, see what everybody's doing, especially the top producers. I think it's so fascinating. Like I've had a handful of team leaders on here that run very successful teams and it all goes back like that is such a basic thing. Like get your butt in the seat. Early on we have an agent at lockstep and a couple months ago she was in my office. She's like, I'm having a hard time, I'm really stressed. And I was like, your butt should be in that seat

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30 in the morning every morning. And I looked up recently and she's got five houses under contract. She's having success. Her confidence is different. Her, her just posture in meetings and it's like, it's just part like there was nothing different. That was like I worked more hours but it was like I'm around success. I think success, breeding success and people like aligning with people is so important. So share A little bit about your office culture. So I always say show up, show up. I don't care what you have going on. If you're in a bad mood, leave it at the door. I love my team. I actually love to collaborate with other people not on my team. I do that outside of the brokerage. But our culture, I would say is more like just fun learning together. How can we help? I mean we have group chats. That is one thing. Actually joining highgarden that I have, you know, I'm starting to see is everybody's wanting to collaborate, help just, I mean getting texts from Steve, Chris, Lindsey Smith, how are you doing? How, how are things? How can we help? I mean I love getting those from the top people obviously at the brokerage that we're at, just, just checking in, talk like, let's hit on this like monster year last year. Moving brokerages, like moving is really hard. It's. It is a stressful thing. There's a lot of people that are impacted. Buy stuff like that and then also like leaving somewhere like very. Look, it's real easy to leave something that you're. Something negative happens or pointing a finger, whatever. But when you have great relationship and you're walking away from that for greater opportunity, there's like a pit in the stomach. It's like makes you want to throw up. So share a little bit about like what sparked the move and what led you to where you are today with highgarden. So I'll tell you, I'm still grieving and I've told three people this this week, like it was not an easy task. I don't ever recommend doing it again. Like pull my hair out. I think I had ulcers and I'm not joking, like sick. When you said pit in your stomach. I was very sick. I don't like confrontation. I love FC Tucker. They've been so good to me. But it was more of a business decision, a life change for me. My word this year is simplicity. Having an office in my backyard is like going to be amazing. I think. I mean I'm an in office girly. So yes, it's going to save some time. Just overall I think the move will help me for growth for our team is going to be a big deal branding like as far as like being able to brand our team a little bit different than what we have structured. I've had in the past. I would say that that's going to be. That was probably one of the biggest things for all my team members to come with was the Branding, just the team growth and the change. We just needed a fresh start. Awesome. So by the time this episode comes out, you'll be six weeks into your move, roughly, give or take. How are things so far out of the gate and what has your experience been early on? So when you're a. I'm not trying to like brag, but a top performing team like we are, we haven't stopped. Like it's literally, it's been frustrating because we're in new systems and so we're trying to do that and navigate all those things while trying to continue to work and keep our pipeline full and continue to obviously list, sell, buy all, all the things. I don't think that we're going to change that mindset as far as like slowing down. We have literally, I would say picked up the pace. You know, when you switch brokerages, you get to put in your listings again and they're all fresh on the market. I know five of them that we listed within a week have all pended. So I, again, it's the, the fresh, the start, the. I mean, and that's kind of one of those things I spun with the sellers that their listings when they were stale, I was like, you're going to be a brand new listing on the market. Fresh, hot. And it worked. Yeah, I, I moved brokerages in 2018 when I joined EXP and I had a handful of listings. I was a solo agent with a, with an administrator and I was out running around. I, I remember trying like I ordered a bunch of real estate signs. The day they came in is the day I moved. And I ran from listing to listing to hang new signs. The signs were damaged. They were all screwed up. They took too long to get in. You know, that was funny is like as a solo agent in 2018, I moved seven listings and was, you know, in the process of getting to write an offer. And so, you know, it was chaos. But it was, it was opportunity. And look, chaos breeds opportunity. So often people shy and run away from it. But it was a great way to just. There was never, there's never a right time to do it. The conversations, the conversations always suck. I mean, I remember the times I've left, it's like you have to like hype yourself up and tell yourself it's going to be okay. And the reality is, I love that you said this. It's like it's a business decision. Like when I left ReMax, it was all these people I was great friends with, still friends with them, still appreciate everything that you Know, like, I get these reminders of awards I've won and things I did and accomplished when I was at ReMax. And so today's like, I'm here because of what I did there, but also I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't move. And so like you recognizing that and taking a leap as a leader for your team, one, like, the fact that your team's behind you and supportive of that is very special and indicative of the team that you have grown. So congratulations to that. But also like, it's just like it's hard. Like you don't want to. There's so many dominoes behind your move. Like your agents first and also like all of your clients. Like when I talk to you, you had a, you said, hey, we've moved a ton of listings. It's like everyone's impacted and you want to make sure that the white glove service that you provide every day doesn't miss a beat. Right? While being a mom, while being a wife, while it's like Jimmy Christmas. So congrats to you. Like, it's, it's amazing to do it and it's just, it's a humongous accomplishment. I also set those expectations like, hey, if we're going to do this, we're going to do it. It's going to be messy. But I tried to be positive throughout the whole, the shift too because of course, high stress, you know, we don't know how to use this system or whatever. We're going to get there, I promise. Like, I had to be like baby steps. And our transaction coordinator has been awesome. Amazing. I know she's been stressed too, because whole new system for her as well. But it's, it's, let's see the light at the end of the tunnel. Let's see what happens at the end of this year. And that's how we're gearing that. That's awesome. I love that. And look, I've become really good friends with Steve Robbins over the last count. You know, it's, it's a little over a year at this point. I think it's probably 18 months. But when I caugh that you were making a move and going there, I'm like, look, there's not a better group to join. My perception and appreciation for their accomplish accomplishments and what they built over the last, you know, especially the last couple years, their growth has been awesome. So to hear like there was a combining of forces with you guys, it's like, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I've seen the vision, like after speaking with them too, that I think there's room to grow there. So. And that's. I didn't want to, you know, I didn't want big box, I didn't want small mom and pop. I wanted somewhere in between that's community driven like myself. And then also to help me grow, which I do think the mentorship there too also just in a different light than where I was at before. Just to continue forward with the market shift and things that are going on right now. Yeah. So let's hit on market shift. I think it's a great transition. You said like you're forward looking in terms of what you believe is like held in the marketplace today. So why don't you share and talk a little bit about that. So last year was one of our best years ever. In 2025, which I've talked to multiple agents. According to the market, it wasn't the best year. But we again, positive mindset, just kept moving, kept hustling. As far as like this year goes, I would say we're going to continue to do what we're doing, but also implement any new tools, systems and stuff that highgarden has in place for us and just keep moving. And I'm going to hopefully potentially grow with more agents on the team as well to help towards the market and obviously our numbers and whatnot. Do you have some target metrics that you're shooting for this year? Whether it's like agent counter, production count or anything like that? You know, I literally have always said if we beat our goal of 100 million, which I never thought we'd be able to, I'm like, I'm just gonna retire. Like I literally have. I've always said that I would never retire, but I personally, I'm gonna scale back. I did not set goals for this year and I think for my stress levels that's going to be the best for me. Obviously we have team goals. I don't ever want to go backwards, but obviously last year was something crazy of a miracle. I don't know how we did what we did, but I think obviously we can continue to obviously move forward and do better than 100 million again. I don't know. We'll see. That's awesome. I used to set goals, like production goals, whether it's like transaction count or volume. And the same thing happened like all the time for me. And I don't know if you can relate to this, but like I would start out the year, I'd sell a ton of real estate in the first half of the year, I'd be like 80 to 90% a goal and I would, I would be like totally gassed, but also like really proud and accomplished and like continue to grow and grow and grow. But the goal was never the target. Like, you just lose sight of it. It's like, I don't really care about that number anymore because I've accomplished more than I ever dreamed I could. And I had a coach that always taught me, he was like, alex, losers have goals, winners have systems. And you know, that's like a great cliche line until like, I love that. Well, it's like you're, you could have the, the greatest goals in the world, but without the right systems to support them, they're completely unattainable. But you had also said, like, it's good for your mental health and good for your stress and things like that. Share with the listeners a little bit more about like, who Lindsey is outside of just being like a total dominant force in the real estate market. So I love people, I love my family, I love my church. So I'm very involved obviously with them. And that's the whole reason for this shift for 2026 because I want to focus on that more, hit that goal for 2025. Now I kind of want to, you know, love on my family. My kids get more involved in our church and everything just because I have been busy obviously with real estate. But now I feel like we have really good team members and the systems and the obviously the brokerage in place, one in my backyard that's close to home, that will save on, you know, time and everything. But my kids are like growing so quick and I'm an emotional being too. So like I, my kids are both in middle school. I have two in middle school. I have a four year old that's obsessed with me. So like if I go running, he's on a scooter or I take them to school, pick them up, travel ball, travel cheer. So like, I am a busy, busy mom and I love every minute of it. I try not to miss their things. And that was also another goal that I have made in the last couple years to try not to miss anything of my kids because I can't get them that time back. So delegation the team. That's why I have it. So. And I explained to my, my people, like, hey, I can't be there right now, but I do have an awesome rockstar buyer's agent that can help. And that's kind of how I shift Them to obviously a buyer's agent on our team where it still, you know, stays within the team. But, I mean, I run for my stress, not to lose weight. I eat a lot of drunk food, so I have a sweet tooth. I love Dr. Pepper. Oh, man. That's my stress drink. I don't drink or smoke or anything. But if I'm like, stressed, people know, they're like, okay, go get a Dr. Pepper. Or if they see me drinking a Dr. Pepper, they know it's because I'm stressed. But my family, like my nieces, my nephews, obviously my kids are taught, but I do try to go to all my nieces and nephews sports things because I want to be. I want to be the best aunt, the best mom, the best daughter, the best anything that I can be. My kids will tell you every single day when they get out of school or get out of the car to get to school, I say to them, love you guys. Do your best every day. So just do your best. Show up. You know, I think an old coaching line that I got when negotiating deals, it might have been Brian Buffini. Something I learned, like, very early on in the. In the process. And he was talking about negotiating deals, and he always said there was, like, some magic in the phrase, like, while negotiating a deal, like, I'll do the best I can. And then telling the other side, do the best you can. And the reality is, is, like, we often don't control the outcomes or how a seller or buyer reacts to a particular situation. So, like, hearing that downward through to your kids, like, do the best you can. It's so, like, this industry, this world we live in today, it's such a challenge. Like, every. Everything around you is harder than it should be if you allow it to be. And so if you just measure every day on did I do my best? And look like there will be days that no matter how hard you try all the time, when you put your head on your pillow, you may be like, man, I did not do my best. It just wasn't a good day for me. And it's okay. But it's important to recognize and say, hey, I'm going to have more good days than bad. When it comes to the effort I put in and the people around me that count on me. Yep. I agree. Positive mindset, though. Yeah. This is like, I love that. I mean, you keep going back to that, and I can tell by your energy that it's probably incredibly infectious through your office, that it's like, hey, it's okay to Be down for a second, but not long. Like, keep going. Keep. Stay up. I used to take it to heart and, like, be down for days. Now I'm like, I do get my feelings hurt, obviously, but moving on. I mean, I can't please everybody. But I did tell a seller just recently because she's like, can you please guarantee that you can get this price? And I said, said, I can't guarantee it, but I will do my best. You know, I. I can say that. What. What changed for you to get you there? You know, I think it was more because I kept focusing on the negative. I'm like, why am I, like, a mutual release? Like, if I. If I knew I did my best and fought to the death that there was nothing else I could do, I could not change anything else. I did everything I possibly could do. Guess what? Moving on. If I didn't get a list that I was competing against, I wanted. I do ask why, Because I want to know what can I do better? But if used to it just, like, was a dagger. And I'm like, now I'm just like, moving on. I'm going to focus on someone else that believed in me that, you know, wants to use me. It's the concept of, like, what you focus on compounds. I saw something recently, and I'm probably going to struggle through this, but it's the concept. It's called the black coffee theory. And it's about a guy who walks into a coffee shop and he's like, I don't want a black coffee. And she's like, well, the barista's like, what do you want? He's like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't want this, I don't want that. And so, like, he goes back to his table and he sits down and she brings back a black coffee because that's all she remembered him saying. And so it's like when you sit here and say, like, I don't want this in my life, and I don't want this in my life, and I don't want this in my life. Like, you keep reiterating things to your brain of like, your brain doesn't hear the. Don't they hear the thing that you keep talking about? So it's like, more important to focus on the things that you do want and the things that you do want to accomplish, opposed to the things that you don't want or you don't want to experience every day for sure. So where are you headed? Like, you know, growth, fun, new Agents, positive mindset, like, how are you measuring success? Today I'm along for the ride. I mean, to me, again, if everyone shows up, if my agents show up and they're successful, I'm successful. We're all happy. I really, God's just blessed me. I really just am going to continue doing what we're doing. So. And again, if I could do anything to perfect or better our team, myself as a person, as a team leader, as your listing agent or your buyer's agent, I'm going to try to do that. I think a fun challenge for you. I think as somebody like that's out of production, talking to a team leader that's in production. I think the impact you'll see within your team is like, you scale back. Like, not only will you be able to be a more present mom because you'll be able to be everywhere all the time that you want to do, but the impact that you get to make within the walls of your company by being outside of the trees. Like whether it's like 10,000 foot overview in everybody's business, that to me is probably the most fun thing. As somebody that's out of production, it's like the problems are simpler to solve because you're in the weeds less your look. Transactions can be emotionally draining. Whether it's like if you're in them and they're great or if you're in them and they're bad, like they're just a lot. And being outside of those things, when people come to you, it's like, I found so much success in just spending time with people. I know you had said, like, hey, I know people won't be with me forever, but the relationships that you get to build and that you'll continue to build, I think will be. Will far exceed any volume count or anything like that. For sure. Yeah. Actually, at the roundtable that I did with you, I left and I told my husband, I go, I think I'm doing it all wrong. I go, alex, literally, like, is not in the business. Grinding 24 7. I'm like, that's where I want to be. That would be eventually. That's where. But I love my job. I love what I do so much. Look, seasons of life and seasons of business. Honestly, I remember and I tell this story, when I got in the industry, I had three goals, like build a recession proof business. And by golly, we did that. And then it was like, I want to have business that allows me to be a present husband when that time comes. And then, you know, I Want to be a present dad. And look, I really struggled with the present husband thing early on when Maureen and I were dating. We were. I was doing a deal, and she was just like, hey, like, if you're home for dinner, can you just be home for dinner? We can have our 20 minutes together. I just want to say hi to you. And then you could get back to work. And, you know, the special thing about Maureen is, like, when she talks, it carries a ton of weight because she doesn't always have the most to say about stuff. So it's like, okay, so, like, I started hiring at that point, but when the kids came home, I always had a fear, like, I don't know how I'm going to unwind everything that I've done. And a team was not something that I often wanted. Then all of a sudden, it was like, well, this is the only way out. I think I'm going to build it. To which I just built more problems. Like, I built a bigger monster full of more problems. And when it's been the last 12 months, like, slowly over time, like, you look at the revenue, you look at the impact you make with your clients, you look at the amount of money, and you're like, I don't know how I'm going to do this, but the reality is clarity and what's most important at home and then continue to grow and evolve on the practices and the systems. It sort of takes care of itself. So it wasn't always meant to be this way, but to be a present dad and to be a present husband and to lead a room of 25 agents, it's like, I don't know how else I couldn't do it. So it's like, well, my hand's been forced. This is the life I live now. Yeah, but you were deliberate. You delegated. I mean, that's where I eventually want to coast to. It will. But surely. Yeah. And look like everybody's appetite for it is different. I have good buddies that run teams that are like, man, I love the deal, and I love chasing stuff down. It's like there was a time for me when it was like, I remember, hey, Maureen, can I go to this appointment in the evening? And, like, kids are screaming when you're walking out the door, and you're like, oh, my gosh, like, this is not. I don't want that. And I love my clients, and I love all the friends I've made because of the business, but nothing's more important than what's at home. And so it's like, the deliberation, it was like, fast and aggressive and it was like, you don't have a choice, brother. Like, make it work. So for you, I think I'm different because I was like, you're very. Like, after when I first met you, I was like, oh, he's like, by the book, Barry. I was like, I. I literally told my husband. I was like, I want to be like him. Like, because I sugarcoat things or I just can't really. Like, yeah, I really need to. I pacify things or whatever, but I need to. That's one thing that I need to learn to do. Well, you're well on your way. I mean, goodness gracious. 400 and some deals in a brokerage change back to back. And I think what you'll notice too, the rooms that you spend time in empower those changes and those decisions that you seek. So, like, I didn't get here without spending time with guys like Steve. And in some of the conferences I've been to with other team leads that are doing. Doing what you want to do. So I'm excited to watch your journey with your transformation. And obviously, if I could ever be a resource, like, if you tell me you're going to do something, I'm going to hold you accountable to it. But if I can be a resource for you, I'm. I'd love to do that. I'm watching you guys, too, all over social and whatnot. Yeah, we, we. Look, we're. We're having fun. It feels like the last, like two or three weeks, the markets opened up for at least our agents quite a bit and our future super bright, too. I mean, I. But I think what's really fun and the thing that I enjoy most about our market and, you know, the show and relationships like this, it's like I've talked to some of the best team leaders in central Indiana and it isn't about competition anymore. And look, you've done this since 2009. You had when you had mentioned that. And it used to be like competition was the king. It was weird. And I remember, you know, it was like I was with Century 21 and nobody liked anybody at ReMax and they had weird things to say about every brokerage. And looking back, what's hilarious is, like, all the brokerage was they were all the same. They were all just big box brokerage doing some version of the same thing with similar fee models and leadership models, and nobody was really any different whether they thought they were or they weren't today. Maybe so. But I Think what's really changed is the appreciation for a high quality agent in the market. And look like what's cool is high quality agents defend each other, whether it's like, to their clients or to the marketplace. So it's like, you know, hey, I have an agent putting a listing on the south side. I'm like, hey, Lindsey, we have stuff coming. If you need it, let me know. Because that creates better experience for the seller. It's not about how do I make commission faster. It's like, what makes things better for our clients. And there's nothing worse than getting trapped in deals with agents that are selfish. And it hog ties a deal and creates a negative experience for everybody. I've won listings because relationships that I've had and. Or on the buy side, like multiple offers, they, oh, we know that you close deals. Like, yes, we want to all get to the closing table. We all have an end goal and, you know, let's be fair and let's play nice. I was at a. We had our. A lockstep party this past week, and an agent of mine was writing a deal with an agent who's a good friend of mine. And I just texted her and I said, we will get this deal done. And she's like, if you say you'll get the deal done, I know you'll get the deal done. She's like, if I see a lockstep contract, I always feel good about it. And it's like, that's something I'm very proud of. A lot around our team, we get deals done the right way. It really. That's something to be proud of. I hear that all the time too. And it should be something to be proud of, especially business. Especially. Yeah. I mean, goodness gracious. The standards that exist for some agents. It's like, I am grateful for so many folks that are pushing to raise the bar around what it means to be an agent. Yep. Well, this is. Yeah, this is. This has been awesome. Where can folks find you online? I mean, we're on Instagram and social media, obviously, Google, you know, all the things. Very cool. One last question I always have, and I want to hit on that, is what does taking action mean to you when it comes down to, like, getting things done and taking action? Like, what are your. What. What does that mean to you? Write it down. So I'm a old school soul over here too. I do have a paper calendar still notebook. Literally with everything I brain dump and say, okay, this is what I got to get done for today, for this week, for the month and just really, you know, writing it down and actually doing it. I mean, there's some things that you can put on the back runner, but there's some things that you cannot do that. But my biggest thing is keeping my pipeline full, like if I have a slow month, holidays, whatever, just continuing to follow up with those people. So obviously we know what's going to happen in the next quarter if we're still doing what we're supposed to be doing. So. Awesome. Lindsey Smalling, this was killer. Thank you so much. Congrats on your success and we'll talk to you soon. Thanks for having me. Thanks for listening to Action solves everything. If today's episode pushed you, challenge you, or help you even take one step forward, send it to someone else who needs that same nudge. We all get better when we grow together. And if you're looking for a partnership that actually believes in coaching, collaboration, accountability, and actually becoming the best version of yourself, shoot me a message online at All Social handles at Alex Montagono. That's a L e x M o n T a G a n o. Remember, success rewards the ones who move. Take action and I'll see you on the next episode. Sam.