Reaching Success with a Team - Tony Cusano

What does Success equal for you?

How would you fill in the blank?

Our agents are from diverse backgrounds and each of them has their own goals, dreams, and ideals. We support that. In fact, that is our primary goal. We don’t make agents meet our goals as a company, we’ve created a company that helps those agents achieve their own personal and professional vision of success.

We’re chatting with Tony Cusano about how his definition of success has changed over the years, and why he chose the Chamberlain Group to help him reach it.

Let’s start with the obvious question. What does success mean to you?

If I’m thinking of the whole outlook on life, it’d be work-life balance. I know it sounds pretty cliché, but having a family, when I did make the change, I was really big on going, okay, where do I go where I can get some support?

I’m not spending as much time finding the new clients that I need to continue the business, and that’s one of the big things that helped me make the choice, you know, being able to have that balance and spend time with the family and still being able to run a successful business as well.

How has moving your real estate business to Chamberlain Real Estate Group impacted your business and home life?

Definitely, for the business side, it’s been busier, which is great, and I have that extra support. Previously I was on my own, and my brokerage, like most, was there, but they don’t really do anything for you. Here, we meet every morning, Monday to Friday and chat about what’s going on.

We do a lot of goal setting and accountability toward monthly goals in those sessions. Of course, there is also that team atmosphere, where I can go into the office and see everyone and discuss anything, so if I have any problems that I’m dealing with I can chat with people and figure out how to fix them.

I’m always being fed leads too, so I can jump in anytime I want to onboard new clients. Or, I can say you know, for the next month or two I don’t really want to take on any more and I’m going to spend a ton of time with the family if I want, especially since the kids are still young. So, I still have that individual business sense that I want, along with the group in the background that I can utilize anytime I like as well.

What did you learn from the Chamberlain Group that you didn’t know or hadn’t implemented before?

It’s not really that I didn’t know it before, but one big piece that I hadn’t put as much importance on as a solo agent was how I scheduled things. Like planning out my schedule for the week with a specific time for prospecting and things like that.

You hear about the benefits of that type of blocking all the time from coaches, to make sure you take time to work on your business as well as in it and to fit all the different pieces in but so many agents don’t make it a priority.

Again, that group element almost forces you to – I mean obviously it is still your decision, but when the group decides in the morning meeting that we are all going to make a point to sit down and call x amount of people, it makes gives you that incentive and that drive to do it because everyone else is doing it. It makes you feel accountable to the group.

What is the biggest challenge in your business that the Chamberlain Group has helped you overcome?

Oh, definitely the lead generation and prospecting. As an individual, in order to get a decent amount of leads on a regular basis, you have to spend a lot of money. There’s also a lot of trial and error, you know this didn’t work so I guess I’ll try this, and when I came to the Chamberlain Group there is none of that because they have an effective system already figured out. You know that the system you are investing your money into is ready to go for you.

They have it all set up, so why try to figure it out on my own again versus just dipping into it and getting started on where I really want to spend my time, which is working with clients and helping them find a place or sell a place. That was a huge thing for me.

For a new agent trying to decide whether being a solo agent, partnership, or a team would be best, what advice would you give them?

Really consider where you are now, and where you want to be. If you’re happy where you are and you’re doing well, cool. Here’s one way to look at it. The industry average for real estate agents is like three or four deals a year, so if that’s what you’re doing and you’re happy at that, then don’t make the change.

If you want to be more successful, you want to do more deals and help more people and you’ve looked at your options, then I’d really say talk to people on the team and see what they say. On our team, we have people who have been agents for a long time as well as brand new agents.

In most of the industry, you don’t typically see new agents doing any deals right away, but all the new agents in our team are doing two or three deals a month by their second or third month which is just something you don’t normally see.

The other piece is looking at your personal work style. I was hesitant at first because I’d previously experienced a more typical team, but the setup here is very different.

The way we work gives you the best of both worlds because you are on a team, yet you still have the individual aspect. You can still work on your own but you have that support where you need it. That was huge for me. I’m still running my business the way I think is best, and then I also have that group behind me with ideas, advice, and tools to execute my goals.

The Chamberlain Real Estate Group specializes in working with both new agents who are looking to get a head start on developing their business, as well as agents who have an existing business and want to add leverage to what they are doing to help more families transition in Calgary.
Learn more and find out how you can be a part of our team!