Welcome to another episode of The Raquel Show podcast! In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Vlad Kats, a real estate entrepreneur and business leader with an impressive track record. Vlad has been instrumental in turning around one of the largest expansion teams to profitability and growing a brokerage from 59 agents to over 400. His unique perspective on leadership and talent recruitment makes him one of the best thought leaders in the industry.
In our conversation, Vlad dives deep into the importance of recruiting the right talent and how it impacts the growth and success of a business. He shares his insights on defining and identifying talent, transitioning from a producer to a leader, and strategies for retaining top talent. This episode is packed with valuable lessons for entrepreneurs and leaders looking to scale their businesses.
Connect with Vlad Kats:
Instagram: @askvladkats
Business Name: Bild Advisory
Website: vladkats.com
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Thank you for joining me on this episode of The Raquel Show, and remember, keep pushing your limits to achieve your goals.
Welcome to another episode of The Raquel Show podcast! In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Vlad Kats, a real estate entrepreneur and business leader with an impressive track record. Vlad has been instrumental in turning around one of the largest expansion teams to profitability and growing a brokerage from 59 agents to over 400. His unique perspective on leadership and talent recruitment makes him one of the best thought leaders in the industry.
In our conversation, Vlad dives deep into the importance of recruiting the right talent and how it impacts the growth and success of a business. He shares his insights on defining and identifying talent, transitioning from a producer to a leader, and strategies for retaining top talent. This episode is packed with valuable lessons for entrepreneurs and leaders looking to scale their businesses.
Connect with Vlad Kats:
Instagram: @askvladkats
Business Name: Bild Advisory
Website: vladkats.com
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Thank you for joining me on this episode of The Raquel Show, and remember, keep pushing your limits to achieve your goals.
sometimes organizations are too focused on leadership and forget that. Management is often just as important, sometimes more, right? There's a big difference between we're storming the hill, we're storming the hill, and people are like, how? And the leader is like, no, we're storming the hill. But how? Right?? No, we're storming the hill. We're storming the hill. You guys will figure it out. I know you will. Well, no. Management is a crucial component because not everybody can figure out the most effective ways of getting up the hill.
Raquel Quinet:
Welcome to the Raquel show. This show is for entrepreneurs who want to play bigger in business and in life. And today I have a special guest. special guests that I have known for a long time. We got connected because we worked for the same CEO, but at different companies. And he's one of the best thought leaders in the industry that I know. The way he thinks about things is so different and it's no wonder he's accomplished a lot in his business. He's a real estate entrepreneur and a business leader. He's been a CEO of one of the largest, Expansion teams, and he turned that around to profitability. He's grown a brokerage from 59 agents to over 400 agents, and he's been a top producer. In this landscape of things constantly changing, I think it's important to talk about recruiting talent. Whether you're an agent that's looking to build a team or an agent that is at a company that has agent attraction or recruiting people to build businesses together. And I can't think of a better person to talk about this with than my guest Vlad Katz. So welcome to the show.
Vlad Kats:
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Honored to be here, Raquel. I
Raquel Quinet:
I am so honored and this is a guy that was in my corner when I was running an expansion and asking him all the things. So I'm excited to dive into it. As someone that has built incredible things in our industry, how important is it finding the right talent to work with?
Vlad Kats:
mean, on a scale of zero to 10, it's probably 12 or 13.
Raquel Quinet:
Okay,
Vlad Kats:
Look, when we're, many of us will consider ourselves to be in, let's say, a leadership business, if you will. And the. The number one question is, who are you leading? And oftentimes, and I know you have a lot of experience with this. When you talk to leaders or managers, what you realize quickly is that they're actually not leading anybody. They are pushing somebody up the hill. And that's not, to me, that's not leadership. Okay. And so I think that the difference between, Pushing somebody up the hill and somebody else pushing you up the hill, if you will, or the company, or helping you push the company up the hill is the degree of talent that is around you and, and look, this conversation about talent can be like, a two week type of a conversation. So I'll stop there and let you ask, any subsequent questions on that. A few
Raquel Quinet:
you've recruited a lot of people. How do you define or how do you find somebody that is an A player that you want to bring into your world?
Vlad Kats:
things. Before I answer the question, I have to preface it with like how I think about talent in general. Okay. So I think that the word talent. is being watered down and or overused a lot. This is just my impression of not just the real estate industry. I think it's, I think it's a caveat in many different industries. And, I learned English when I was a teenager. So words really like matter to me, the definition of words. And again, like the over usage or watering down of a concept of a word, like kind of nails on the chalkboard for me. Does that make sense? So, a few things about talent and I saw this when I was going around Mid Atlantic teaching, recruiting slash hiring course for, the company that we were previously with. And, here's one of the things I realized is that the only way to use the word talent properly for me is to look backwards. So talent is known in historically rather than. saying Oh, this person is going to be talent, which is most of the time what is actually meant. when meet a person that kind of knows what to say and has the look, tall enough, let's say, polished enough. We're like, Oh man, that's talent. But what we actually mean is he or she talks like a talent, right? And we believe that they may be talent. Moving forward,
Raquel Quinet:
potential talent.
Vlad Kats:
right. it's kind of like, if we take you know, Tom Brady, right? You can say whatever you want about the guy, but clearly he's talent. Yes. However, he Was not considered talent coming out of college like NFL talent Obviously picked last. Right? So, we know now that he's talented. We probably knew halfway through his career that he was talented. But it's only looking backward. So that's one thing. Any questions on that? Anything we need to unpack there?
Raquel Quinet:
No, no need to unpack. So I want to know how do you find your key players or how have you identified a players after building so many different things?
Vlad Kats:
Yeah, so it starts with knowing the role. Okay, so it's one of the things that's not mentioned about talent is talent for what? So it has to be talent for the role, if you will, right? So Tom Brady is talent for a quarterback, but he sucks as a running back. Same sport, same side, offense, defense, even five feet away, but he would be terrible as a running back. Yes, you first have to be crystal clear on what is the role that you want this individual to play. Okay. And by the way, I know you can relate to this. Most people don't have clarity in the role.
Raquel Quinet:
that's where a lot of people fall, right? They just think this person's a top producer I'm gonna go stick them into being a rainmaker or I'm gonna stick them into being a recruiter and then you watch them going How come they can't perform at the same level that they were when they were a salesperson managing than just themselves
Vlad Kats:
Yeah. They don't realize that what they just did is they put a quarterback into a running back position
Raquel Quinet:
Mm-Hmm.
Vlad Kats:
a receiver into a tight end position. Like, I mean, so closely related. But yet there is such a big difference to professionals on the field. And I would say that's number one reason why people fail in roles is that the roles are not clearly defined. And so then it kind of happens like, Oh, run there, run there, run there, run there, and then people usually don't go anywhere. So that's where I started is the very clear definition of the role. And look, you and me go way back enough where it's we used to split hairs, about what does the person have to do or not have to do.
Raquel Quinet:
correct?
Vlad Kats:
And, oftentimes that actually helped. Would you agree?
Raquel Quinet:
of course. And my question to you is someone that's been a top producer and then went into the leadership side, what did you have to learn to be from like a receiver to a quarterback? it's a totally different ballgame.
Vlad Kats:
Yeah. it's, it, for me, thank you for putting me in that. Position to think back a decade, for me, it started with being crystal clear what the role was. Second is, okay, what skills are transferable from that quarterback to running back position? So for example, it was prospecting skills, right? And I, I was a prospector in my real estate sales business in my short sale processing company, short sale sales team business. So then. Those skills transfer fairly well to, to leadership slash recruiter business. Another is, I'm blessed with a high level of logic. So like I can actually look back and figure out, okay, what, not only does what transfer, what doesn't transfer. So the big difference between, top producer and the top recruiter is that the top producer is a very transactional role. job there is to convert, let's say a client, buy or sell it, right? And then work with him or her for the next 30, 40, whatever, 60 days, right? And then move on to the next one. Whereas in leadership and recruiting, what they used to say is your job starts when they move their license. Your job starts when they join your team. Whereas Top Producer, by the time I was getting to that point, like the job was pretty much over, right? Because we signed the listing agreement and the decent market is gonna sell, boom, you're done. Okay, so I knew that going in that I was going from a transactional business to a business relationship business. which I think helped me a lot. And then I would say the third thing is, I was able to take my business skills from previous, endeavors, if you will, previous businesses and industries and take them into sales and then into leadership and recruiting. I'm a. I'm a consultant challenger, if you will, at heart. So I like to figure out how to make things work better. And so it's a highly transferable skill, I think, when it comes to recruiting because, or leadership, because what people are looking for is a problem solver. All of us are walking around with problems. The only question is whether we know whether we have them or not. And it was my job to figure out what those potential problems may be and solve them sometimes ahead of time.
Raquel Quinet:
Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I think one of the. Things that you get to do when you get into leadership is grow talent. Once you recruit them into when you said your job starts there, how do you retain talent? So sometimes what you'll see is you grow talent and everybody wants them just like an elite athlete, right? It's like everybody, once they hit the Tom Brady status, like who, who wouldn't want to recruit them for their team? how have you retained talent
Vlad Kats:
Um,
Raquel Quinet:
In the past.
Vlad Kats:
I was just reflecting on it with a friend, and what we realized is that when we came to our brokerage or top people, nobody left. And I it forced me to think about it. So I was literally thinking about earlier this week. Okay, what is, what caused the people to stay? And by the way, to to add to your previous question is I think talent, I think that great people are everywhere. The only question whether their talent for role and most people look, especially in real estate, look too long for buyers and sellers and not enough for great people. That can fit roles that they have. So what causes talent to stay? So look, I would say, the normal stuff, the big vision, the big opportunity, but look, typically those are words. Here's what I realized. One is the approach that I took with great people in my life. is I always assumed what you just said is that people are calling them all the time and trying to recruit them to their ventures, okay, or to themselves. And even though it's a safe assumption, it's actually inaccurate because very few people actually call top people,
Raquel Quinet:
Oh, yeah. I was a
Vlad Kats:
it's weird.
Raquel Quinet:
Yeah.
Vlad Kats:
like people like you, for example, should be getting a hundred times more calls. I don't know, it's weird for me, right? But it's there's this allure, Oh, I wish I had, Raquel's level of expertise, blah, blah, blah. My team results, blah, blah, blah. But nobody calls. very few people call. I remember this from recruiting. I'm building the first brokerages, oh, no, and I started from the top. So I took the production report and I went to the top because those are the most fun people, most fun conversations to begin with, right? And I just, and they're like, you'd be surprised. Nobody's calling me. Nobody's calling me. It's only when you get to middle of the pack or bottom, that They start complaining, everybody's calling. my assumption was that everybody's calling and I know that was inaccurate because I know in my head it wasn't but I just still assumed that everybody's calling Tina. Everybody's calling Raquel. Everybody's calling Teal. Everybody's calling Alana. Everybody's calling Phil in the black. Okay, everybody's calling my top people if they're mega agents. I knew very few people did, but that was just the same assumption. And then I was able to actually communicate with them with that expectation, look, if somebody calls you, go take the meeting because it's your job to make sure that you're in the biggest opportunity for yourself possible. The last, everybody runs away from a person that tries to hog people, right? I don't know
Raquel Quinet:
So true. So true.
Vlad Kats:
That was one, and then the second, I challenge people. One of the things I realized, the high potential people want to be challenged,
Raquel Quinet:
Thousand percent.
Vlad Kats:
right? if I'm trying to be their friend, if I'm trying to be their, cool guy, I'm not cool, and I, I'm a decent, I'm a pretty good friend, but, It's not my priority. And it was just challenged them to get better. Not at what I wanted them to get better at, but what they wanted to get better at. So I remember conversations with you, like they were, two weeks ago, it was like, you were always trying to get better and getting better. Not just trying, getting better at like, how do I get into higher level conversations with more people? How do I get to the closing? How do I get the, that move? And it's intricate, but you were always trying to get there. And top people always want that extra inch, extra two. And I would challenge, like you can probably ask anybody who is on my leadership teams, it's like, did Vlad challenge you? And I think the answer is going to be yes. I think that those are the two main components that caused me to retain folks.
Raquel Quinet:
Yeah. So if you were, I love this conversation around talent and retaining talent and, you obviously led a brokerage and many brokerages where you've had tremendous growth. that's not a walk in the park. And I know that you're very familiar with the landscape today. If you had to start all over knowing what you know today. And you had to build a team or you were given keys to a brokerage, let alone like a failing brokerage or turnaround brokerage or whatever. What three strategies would you do today to grow it? Knowing your competitors.
Vlad Kats:
yeah, I would cut any expense that, so strategy number one is cut Any and all expenses that are not required to maintain a brokerage. That's one. Number two is I would focus on top producers, mega agents, because I believe that the future of real estate industry belongs to not just like cappers or three and five million dollar producers, the top 1 percent of 1%, especially with the NAR settlement where the brokers go. And I think that there's going to be a lot of. influence and money that those individuals gather. So I would figure out how to position whatever brokerage platform I have specifically for those people's needs. And third, I would say, is I would make sure that, ancillaries were firing on all cylinders, since I got into brokerage space, margins have been compressed drastically by competition and just, The space itself, because there, it's a competition for a limited number of transactions, right? And nobody can actually grow transactions. That's more of the economy, people, et cetera. So the, that increased competition have actually shrunk opportunities on the margin side. So I would figure, so ancillary support, create a padding. Those would be the three things that are off top of my head.
Raquel Quinet:
How would you get agents to your company?
Vlad Kats:
so I think that there is, three reasons why. We, why people get real estate licenses. Let's just keep it inside the real estate space. A reasonable one is to build a business slash career that support their lifestyle. Okay. Believe it or not, very few people actually get that right. Get there. So it's in today's environment, probably a hundred Cane commissions is the minimum for that. Probably a lot long, a lot more, and very few people get to that level. Unfortunately so far. I have some solutions for that if needed. and the second re, once that box is checked off, then we start focusing on building wealth that supports our freedom. And once that box is checked off, even fewer people get to how, to the question of how do we build a legacy that maximizes our impact on this ball of fire. And I see people go through, through those. Sometimes they jump, sometimes they go back. I like the progression. to answer your question, I think that, you figure out who your target audience is. So I call it ideal agent profile. For me, it would be people who are transitioning from the building, building a career to building wealth, okay, and creating a platform. you're in one, I'm in one that actually straddles that space where, I'll call it automatic wealth building, where agents can do both. So I think that five years from now, Raquel, It's going to be like, it's going to be weird to be in a brokerage that doesn't help you build wealth right away.
Raquel Quinet:
Yeah, so good. you are one that always is looking ahead. Where, what do you think team owners and brokerage owners today have to watch out for as they continue to grow? Speaking of that, it
Vlad Kats:
that it's actually both have to watch out for each other. Cause I think that there is what's starting to happen is There's potential friction that is starting to get bigger and bigger between the brokerage owners and the mega agent teams I think that mega agent teams again, you know The future of real estate industry belongs there and I think the The profit potential in brokerage space is in brokerage platform that spans the United States. Like local brokerages, it's going to be harder and harder to make money. It's already hard to make money. most,
Raquel Quinet:
hard a few years ago.
Vlad Kats:
exactly. And it's only going downhill from there. So like where you're going to see is, in my opinion, I'm already starting to see that is like the bigger the team in a, let's say in a local player, those the interests are totally misaligned already. Now a bigger team on a platform like Reel or EXP or maybe LPT, The national company that has wealth building opportunities, et cetera, more aligned, but not a hundred percent aligned. So I think that there needs to be a higher level of alignment between those two players as we move forward.
Raquel Quinet:
So good. So good. There's a lot of deep thought and I'm sure a lot of our broker owners that are listening are team owners because we have a majority of that in our audience are probably going, wow, some knowledge to like really think about, on the flip side of that, you've ran multiple things all at once. You've done it really well. a team, brokerage, investment, business, expansion team, you name it. And you are still always up for more. What would you say some of the key tips are to managing it all? Even with a family.
Vlad Kats:
Look, looking back, I know that it wasn't as pretty as it could have been, right. But one of the things I learned early on is that. It's one thing at a time to a certain place. So I never started two businesses at the same time. So it's start one. So for example, start my real estate sales team. I was at, per MRE, I was at six, seventh level. Okay. And I went to my team and said, look, can you function without me? And they said, absolutely. In fact, we're getting tired of you. Why don't you go do something else? And that's when I went to the brokerage space. Okay, and the team was running on its own. It's still, like year, in fact, they did more transactions the year after I got out. So I was like, okay, I'm not going to take it personally, guys. It's, then it's build a brokerage to a certain level, find a leader. And by the way, there was a leader also in that or a manager, leader, whatever. I sometimes use those interchangeably because I think sometimes organizations are too focused on leadership and forget that. Management is often just as important, sometimes more, right? There's a big difference between we're storming the hill, we're storming the hill, and people are like, how? And the leader is like, no, we're storming the hill. We've been in, Raquel, in those situations, yes. But how? Right? Like, how? No, we're storming the hill. We're storming the hill. You guys will figure it out. I know you will. no. Management is a crucial component because not everybody can figure out the most effective ways of getting up the hill. Okay? It's okay. Then you build the next, you get it to a certain point, replace yourself as a leader, then go to the next. So it looks like it's multiple things, but it's rarely all things at once.
Raquel Quinet:
Or all the same priorities as number one, right? Impeding priorities. And you just know, I think at a certain level of what is actually first priority between the businesses.
Vlad Kats:
Yes. And you know which one requires 75 percent of your time. Yeah, it's, trying to be like Elon Musk is, sexy and romantic and, but it's, for most of us, that's not it. The one thing,
Raquel Quinet:
Yeah. So I think you bring up a really good point because there's a lot of people on social, especially with socials today that are building multiple things. And you may think that like it's fine dandy and gravy, but I'll tell you it's very unsexy inside. When you peek under the hood, right? It is not as easy as it looks like on social media, so I want to say thank you for being transparent and bringing that up because I think it's really important, especially nowadays where focus is really hard with all the distraction. It's oh, I could build this real estate team and build an organization and build an investment business and build ancillary services and maybe have a course online.
Vlad Kats:
just to be safe, right? Because that's what everybody's doing. It's a sure way to build absolutely nothing.
Raquel Quinet:
Nothing well. That's for sure. Yeah.
Vlad Kats:
I thought about this earlier when I realized, Tina, our mutual friend, challenged me to put, a bunch of, business lessons on, on, on Facebook for 30 days straight. And I'm like, I started putting some of those together, and I got a dozen. I'm like, hey, what else? And one of the things that hit me the other day, like after I started that list, was that most businesses, we, most businesses pretend that they are a well built house. When in fact, they're usually just tense
Raquel Quinet:
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. So true.
Vlad Kats:
and it's, it's easy on social, it's easy to be an optimist. It's easy, but man, you look under the hood and it's not only is it messy, but it's also weak. It's always messy. you go to Google, you go to, Apple, you go to, you certainly read, I mentioned Musk, you read his biography that just came out a few months ago. It's it's messy as hell.
Raquel Quinet:
Yeah.
Vlad Kats:
wrong. It's messy inside of a
Raquel Quinet:
Controlled.
Vlad Kats:
foundation, which is very different.
Raquel Quinet:
is what they say.
Vlad Kats:
Say it again.
Raquel Quinet:
They say it's controlled chaos.
Vlad Kats:
Yeah. And most businesses are just chaos. It's not even controlled. And so that's, for me, the distinction, There's a big difference between a foundation and a house on that foundation versus a tent, right?
Raquel Quinet:
speaking of books, what have been some of the books that you have read that has made an impact in your journey?
Vlad Kats:
I'll tell you, I'll give you the list of books that could have replaced my graduate program, okay? This is, and it was in entrepreneurship, okay? And I joke about it, it was a great, few years, I met a bunch of amazing friends and professors, so it's great, okay? But I joke that The following books could have replaced it. Book number one is, Leaders Eat Last, slash Start With Why. You can, combine those two, right? So Simon Sinek. Book number two is Lean Startup. Book number three is Predictable Success.
Raquel Quinet:
Yep. I
Vlad Kats:
Okay, and if I had to pick a fourth one only because of the execution component, because those first unpredictable success touches on it, to pick four, it would be either 4DX, four disciplines of execution, or traction, depending on what somebody goes in. you read those four, Three and a half?
Raquel Quinet:
Look at what's on my desk.
Vlad Kats:
Ah, there you go. Gino.
Raquel Quinet:
have a list of books, right on my floor.
Vlad Kats:
Here, and so here's what I will say. This, and this may be controversial, Raquel, so I want to get your opinion. Okay? First time I'm vocalizing this. This is one of my lessons. Is, there's so much pressure in the industry to read a shit ton of books. And so people plow through books. one book a week. look, I've tried that. How, I don't know how much you retain. Okay? Okay? So my idea. is one book 52 times.
Raquel Quinet:
I like it. Yeah. Yeah.
Vlad Kats:
I was, we used to go to Torah study for years, right? Old Testament. It was every week we talk about a section of the book and then after the new year it starts over again. Same with Bible study, right? It's one book entire life and then the people will tell you after, 50 years of studying they still don't know anything. And so we have all these amazing books, I think, but they all come down to like few ideas, right? Look, my summary of, of how to be a better partner in the relationship is, listen better. Communicate better. And then there will be a book on how to, there's 150, 000 books on that. Just find one and read it a hundred times. Read it 50 times. Like that book that you, that you lifted, right? The Attraction. Dude, that's a study. That's a process.
Raquel Quinet:
I've heard it so many times.
Vlad Kats:
Yeah, that's not a book you just read once.
Raquel Quinet:
Yeah. And there are different thoughts when you read it
Vlad Kats:
exactly, you pick up a new thing, right? So the books that I mentioned, every time I pick them up, like sometimes I'll just go to like middle of the book or something like, oh crap, like that's, I now read it differently. So if I want to start a movement, it's find a book and read it every week.
Raquel Quinet:
I like it. I like it. I do agree with you that a lot of people out there will say a book a week, how many books can you skim through or read through in a year? I think I've just gotten more purposeful and intentional. It's if I want to study, let's say this podcast and how to build a podcast. It's I'll get all the books on podcasts and then I'll. Pick my favorites of what's your favorite book? And then I'll go to the experts of who's actually doing it. Yeah.
Vlad Kats:
that's a much more. effective way of studying something, right? It's I've met so many people who are like, man, once I pick up the book, I have to finish it. I'm like, what if it sucks? You still finish it? if you start a movie on Netflix,
Raquel Quinet:
Yeah. Yeah.
Vlad Kats:
it sucks.
Raquel Quinet:
Yeah.
Vlad Kats:
It's weird, right? It's like, sometimes Kristen and I will start a movie and I'm like, Honey, does that suck? And she's yeah. I'm like, we're moving on. I'm not going to go another two hours or an hour and a half of a thing that I don't like. Now, Somebody else may love that movie, so they should watch it a hundred times. I don't like it. I'm moving on. So one of the people come to me, like usually the conversation centers are on money. It's what book should I read? I give them two things. I say, it doesn't matter what books you read as long as you read them. So go to Amazon with your Kindle, download a bunch of samples. Don't buy anything. Start reading 10 percent of it. If it calls you, buy it. If it doesn't call you, move on. We'll never read all of them.
Raquel Quinet:
Vladi, you've done a lot, I think, in your short time of, this industry and I know you will continue to do a lot. You talk about really maximizing the difference we make on earth and you said it a little bit earlier and maximizing your impact. next for VladCatz and what does that actually mean when you say you want to maximize your impact?
Vlad Kats:
Raquel, I do not have an answer for that. That has been a, that has been a thorn in my side, to say the least. And here's what I mean by that. there's again, it's so much conversation about making a difference. But here's the thing. People like you and me can stand on the corner of Find the Busy Intersection and give out 5, 10 bills. Or We can go and volunteer for an hour and kind of make a difference, but I don't know for whom that difference is made. Usually people based on my experience, people do those things and it makes a bigger difference for them than impact out there. The question that I've been attempting to answer, and I ask all of my friends, I would love to hear your opinion on this, is first of all, are you about making an impact or maximizing the impact, right? And then how do you, actually, let me ask you, so which one is it? Making or maximizing? okay, so how does one do it?
Raquel Quinet:
for me, , and I'd love to hear your answer. For me, I think about all my different hats that I wear, starting with family first. How do I maximize the impact that I'm gonna make on my children? And if I was gone today, what is it that I would be proud when I look back, and visit them, I say like Spirit or whatever you wanna believe in that goes, you know what? I've made an impact in my life in the time that I was there on earth.
Vlad Kats:
Okay,
Raquel Quinet:
And then I would think about what are my roles that I have? My team, the people that, make an impact to our business, how could I actually not only make an impact for them every day, but how do I maximize that to the fullest? I'm like, and do I go back to bed at the end of my day and go, did I create impact and could I have done better?
Vlad Kats:
And if the answer is you could have done better, what is the, if
Raquel Quinet:
And you adjust, right? Cause then you think about how could I have done better and you adjust and you get 1 percent better every day.
Vlad Kats:
so you fall into that, take action, iterate, take action, iterate, take action, iterate, okay? I find myself in a philosophical inquiry. Okay, there's not right or wrong, right? I find myself like, okay, what does maximization mean for me? and then thinking through and then maybe have a few more conversations. So I like this is very helpful So i'm like What does that look like to maximize? I, that's the answer I don't have. Okay. In terms of what's next for me, it's going to be either a bigger role in the brokerage space because, two months ago, I think I shared this with you before, two months ago, my wife, Looked at me and said, Vlad, you look freaking bored because I've technically been out of operations for the last couple of two, three years. And so it's either going to be a deeper role in a brokerage space, or it's going to be a bigger role in a wealth creation space.
Raquel Quinet:
I love it.
Vlad Kats:
the
Raquel Quinet:
I love it. And as we wrap up, there's always a question that I ask every single guest on this show is what does Vlad cats do to play bigger in business or in life?
Vlad Kats:
It's put myself in conversations like these, I knew that you were like, when I said yes, that there was not going to be business as normal or business as usual. It's I'm serious. It's how do I put my, I put myself in the conversations with people I admire. Because the questions that get asked force me to think bigger.
Raquel Quinet:
Amazing. Any last minute advice for our audience who is listening or watching this on YouTube on how they could continue to maximize their impact or recruit talent or have and finish a great 2024 this year?
Vlad Kats:
I would say that it's in order to do all of those three is start by looking in the mirror.
Raquel Quinet:
And then people are like, and then?
Vlad Kats:
that's it. Look, but it's, I was in a leadership program years and years ago in one of the assignments, Raquel, I'm not kidding. One of the assignments was stare at yourself in the mirror. not like glance, make sure hair is fine, but just look at yourself in the mirror, look into your own eyes for five minutes and see what comes up.
Raquel Quinet:
Yeah, very powerful exercise for sure. Vlad, I want to say thank you so much for being on our show. I always appreciate you. I've appreciated you from the moment I met you. You've been a mentor, somebody that I know that I can go and ask questions and you will, Like I said in the beginning, you're a thought leader that I highly respect in this industry, and I can't wait to see what you do next. I know you're going to do something amazing, something big, and I can't wait to see, keep supporting you in playing bigger.
Vlad Kats:
Much appreciated, Raquel. The feeling is more than mutual. Thank you for everything that you're doing for the real estate and the business community. It means a lot.
