LaShawn Peterson on Scaling to 70+ Agents with Systems and AI

0:00Hey, I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres and if you'd like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to MissionMatters.com and click on be our guest to apply. All right, so today I'm in downtown Los Angeles and I'm we're at the We Connect LA event that Justin James are putting on and let me tell you, it's been quite an event. They've had some amazing, amazing speakers up there and we have one of the speakers that's going to be talking next, LaShawn Peterson on the line. LaShawn, welcome. Thank you for having me, I'm happy to be here. All right, so first off, we connect LA, like, how'd you connect it to the organization, the event like, like, talk to me, some of the backstreet, you're a speaker, how'd you get roped in all this? So, I met James, doing COVID on Clubhouse. Stop. Clubhouse story, I love this. Yes, we met on Clubhouse and, you know, I would listen to him every day while we were all, you know, locked in the house. And when it came time for Tuan and I to need a coach for our team, I was like, where is

1:01James? Where is his little killer? So, I went and found him and I asked him to be our coach. And that was in 2023. In Jessica, I met at events, so it was just like this, even though we're both at ESXP, we hadn't ran into each other yet, but she was manning the ESP booth at an LGBTQ alliance event. So, I met her there and we've been locked in ever since. Oh my gosh. So, I know you're going to be speaking today to give us a little bit of insight, like what kind of things are you going to be talking about? We're going to be talking about how we engineered systems to scale our team. We went from a team of two and 2022 to a team of ten, wow, to a team of ten, and later of 2022 to a team of like 20 and 2023, and we kept growing and growing and growing, and we're going to talk about the pains that we endured and the systems that we had to develop

2:01in order to scale. Now we are a team of 70 agents in Detroit. Amazing. And we have 12 and growing in the city of Houston. So, we're going to talk about how we use systems and AI to engineer us to be able to do that. Thanks. So, you're getting it done in my hometown. That's what I like to hear. What's your hometown? Born and raised Detroit, Michigan. Okay. That's what I'm talking about. So, that's amazing. There you go. Come on. Detroiters are everywhere. I'm sure we are everywhere. Yes, we are. That's awesome. So, 70-some in Detroit, like talking to you about the Detroit market. What's going on there? I haven't been home in a bit. Oh, the Detroit market is just doing amazing. I mean, we don't have any problems getting clients and, you know, doing business. The average sales price in Detroit and the city itself continues to move upward every year. That's great to hear that. It's a double-edged sword, of course, for the affordability of the long-term residents. But it's also great for the people who have helped property there for years and watched

3:05their values just flatten or decline. So, it's an exciting time. And like I said, it's a really good and emerging market. Talk about this. Of course, on the consumer side, talking about the opportunity side. Like, you've got a team out there. Like, you've got people working. Like, talk about that and what that looks like. So, my team right now, we're the number one team in the city of Detroit. Come on. Nobody moves more real estate than Team Peterson Jackson in Detroit. Oh, come on. So, we sell a lot of real estate there. And we work with a lot of first-time home buyers, a lot of investors, and a lot of move-up buyers. Because Detroit was a city where when you buy a home, you lived in that house until you died. Tell my parents, I know. You stay there until you die. But now, this new generation is like, you know, I don't want to stand a little three-bedroom bungalow. I want a big house. I want to build a house. So, we're seeing that happen a lot in Detroit, and that's something new for us. So, I'm really excited about that in our community.

4:06I'm guessing with the team that size, you're covering all of probably that metro area and everything else. For those that don't know, give it a little bit of layout. Because there's Detroit, Detroit, there's bunch of suburbs, like there's a lot. So, we consider it as city of Detroit as its own market. Then you have Wayne County, which Detroit sits inside. And then you have Oakland County, which is where our office is located, and we live. So, our offices in Southfield, we live in Farmington Hills. And then you have Macon County to the east. So, that's the metro Detroit area. We also have agents now. We acquired agents in Genesee County, which is Grand Blanc and Florida area. So, we cover all of those areas. So, probably a lot of Southeast and Michigan. Do the hand for everybody at home. They don't know about the hand. So, this is a quick lesson. If you're driving in your car, you don't know what's happening. But, I'll just let you know, Michiganders. Yes, that's the thing that we hold up our hand like a big old mitt. Because it's a mitt and, and then we point to where we're from on the mitt and that's how you know.

5:09Yes. So, that's our language, right there. That's our language, exactly. That's awesome. So, when it comes to either technology or otherwise, and obviously any of these markets that you're working in real estate, you have multiple like, what excites you right now? I mean, obviously you've been able to scale. But even when you're talking about how many years ago you started that journey. I think you said roughly 2022-ish. Yes. You started kind of scaling. So, now to where you're at now. When nobody was talking about, yeah, I like the hour right now. At least I wasn't as mainstream, I would argue that many years ago. But, what excites you right now? So, what excites me right now is my, I have an IT background. And when I got into real estate, I wanted to get away from IT. So, I was kind of a little bit resistant to using a lot of AI because I'm like, I've done that for 30 years in my life. I'm done. Leave me alone. Oh, and then God blessed you with this talent. And you're like, oh, I got this. This is easy. So, I started trying to hire people to do things. And then I'm doing it anyway because I'm like, no, that's not right.

6:09Let me show you how to do this. Right, right. And so, I had to get away from that. And I had to just accept the fact that there is just some things I can just do better and quicker. So, what I'm into right now is like micro apps. We have a problem on the team. I'll create a micro app to fix it. Oh, I love that. Yes, quick micro apps. Quick, quick, quick. Apps to just do one thing and one thing only. So, that's my thing right now. I like it. I like it. This is fun. And so, we're talking to you about the vision. The vision going forward for the team. What's the vision? We're all entrepreneurs. So, we envision our team being all over the country. And right now, we are packaging that model up. And even if someone else has a team out there, they'll be able to come to me and be like, I want to call it team in a box like LaShine. I want to start a team and just say Phoenix. Yeah. Can you help me? Yeah. And I pretty much push my button to my box open and we can get your team rocking and rolling.

7:09So, that's my vision for my, for the business side of the team. But for the team, our team itself, we definitely want to hit other markets. So, like I say, Houston is doing fabulous. Tell me about the Houston market, by the way. I make it out there at least once a year for the Texas FFA. They many times have their big convention out there. And I do what I'm doing right here. I go out there and I've been going out there for about four or five years and covering their convention. So, just like we're doing for a week, we connect LA. So, tell me about the Houston market, yeah. The Houston market is kind of stagnant right now. But I just believe that's just, they're in a temporary spot. Like listings are on the market for probably, it's probably taking them about four months, 46 months to sell. No, that's okay. It's slow right now. But I think as the economy picks back up, you know, I think Houston will be ahead of the curve on that. But it's still a place where you can get a lot of house at a reasonable price. And they still have a lot of people that are migrating the Houston for the weather, the homes.

8:15And for just the overall aesthetics of the neighborhoods. I know you've been drove around. It's beautiful there. It's beautiful. They have good food, good entertainment. I mean, it's just a lively and vibrant city. So, like I said, a lot of people are moving to Houston. And that's what we specialize in. Relocations. So, we haven't had too big of a problem. But we have noticed with some listings that they aren't on the market. A little, a little longer. So, we are concentrating on buyers in, you know, in the relocations. Amazing. Well, I know that they're going to be calling you up here shortly to go on stage and share more of what you shared with us today. But that being said, last thing I want you to do, looking at the camera. How do people connect? How do they follow you on social? How do they learn more about your team? Okay. So, you can follow me on Facebook. I'm LaShine Peterson, Jackson. Or Team Peterson, Jackson on Facebook, on Instagram, at Team Peterson, Jackson. And the same thing on TikTok.

9:15Fantastic. And for everybody at home watching, just so you know, we'll definitely put some links in the show notes. So, you can just click on the links and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven't done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show. Yes, you heard me right each and every day we're bringing you new content, new ideas. And hopefully, new inspiration to help you along the way on your journey as well. So, hit that subscribe or follow button. And LaShine again, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. I appreciate you. The Toyota Tundra and Tacoma are built to keep going. Blending rugged muscle with precision engineering all supported by Toyota's time-tested legacy of dependability. Step into a Tundra and feel the unyielding capability with the available I Force Max engine. Tundra puts out impressive power, torque and towing performance and the roomy high-tech cabin. Keeps you connected on the go. Or take a look at Tacoma made for drivers who push past the path. Agile, tough and relentless with available features like crawl control, portable JBL speaker, a power lift gate, so gear goes in fast and the adventure keeps moving.

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