Eight Mega Takeaways from Family Reunion 2022’s Mega Breakout Sessions

After two long years, Family Reunion returned to its in-person glory, but with some twists. For starters, 2022 marks FR’s first-ever hybrid event, allowing real estate professionals to absorb the most beneficial industry wisdom, whether they travel to Orlando or tune in across the world. Regardless of the viewing method, every attendee got to experience the other most notable change to this year’s event: Mega Breakouts.

Mega Breakout is, as kwx Head of Industry Jason Abrams describes, “Five hours chocked-full of the greatest information, taught by the people who are achieving at the highest level, within the core disciplines that you need most.” What he really should’ve said was 25 hours of powerful content – five core disciplines broken down into five tracks (Solo Agent, Individual Agent with an Admin, Teams, Expansion, and Leadership), each with five hours of unmissable value.

Fortunately, recordings from each track will be available in the Video Library of the digital platform until April 25, so in-person and virtual attendees can catch anything they missed and revisit their favorites. No time to relive each track? Here are eight crucial takeaways from four of the mega blocks.

Solo Agent Mega Block

1. Your network is your net worth. If there was one sentence to sum up the intimate and invaluable discussion between KW founder and executive chairman Gary Keller and VP of strategic content Jay Papasan that kicked off the Solo Agent Mega Block, this was it. For 30 captivating minutes, Keller explained how crucial building your database is to creating a successful business. When Keller was starting in real estate, he realized if you have a big enough database the sales and listings will come naturally, but your database won’t build itself. “You can’t control outcomes but you can control activities that control the outcomes,” Keller claimed, and the one thing all solo agents have control over is how much time they dedicate to building relationships.  

2. Five ‘be’s of social media. Just about everyone looking to buy or sell a home uses some form of social media these days. To grab their attention, solo agents must be sure to follow the five “be”s of social media: Be Prepared, Be Professional, Be Focused, Be Intentional, Be Consistent. Fortunately for KW agents, Command makes it easier to follow these five golden rules while building a bigger following. 

Individual with an Admin Mega Block

3. Know who does what. Sometimes the line between agent and admin responsibilities can get a little blurry. Attendees who chose the Individual with an Admin track left with a clear understanding of who does what on their team. Agents, for example, need to focus on tasks like prospecting for seller leads, providing high-level fiduciary advice, effectively overseeing negotiations for sellers, and monitoring real estate transactions from initial contact to close. Admins are crucial for building and managing systems for client information, financial assets, business operations, customer service, and the hiring of additional administrative team members.

4. Build your financial dream team. An agent’s financial dream team consists of four kinds of admins: bookkeepers, CPAs, estate attorneys, and financial planners. However, agents don’t always start with all four. The key is knowing the right time to expand your financial team. To decide when it’s time to bring a new admin into the fold, agents must ask themselves which responsibilities they can handle on their own, and how often they need each admin’s services.

Teams Mega Block

5. Put the personal first. When business gets busy, the personal side of a team member’s 411s (a productivity tool that reflects their top upcoming priorities) can sometimes fall to the wayside. It’s the team leader’s responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen. KW VP of segments Sajag Patel recommends starting each 411 with the agent’s or admin’s personal items to make sure it doesn’t get neglected. “If they’re not winning on the personal side, they’re not going to show up on the professional side,” Patel said.   

6. Bet on tech. People and tech go hand in hand, and as KW chief technology and digital officer Chris Cox announced, Keller Williams is tripling their tech budget to “teamify” Command. To the audible delight of the audience, Cox explained how KW will be improving Command by shifting to a mobile-first ideology, integrating popular third-party software, streamlining the transaction process, and experimenting with other innovations that make life easier for team leaders, agents, and admins.

Expansion Mega Block

7. The era of the business agent. When people used to talk about starting a real estate business, they usually pictured helping individual clients buy and sell houses. In this era, the goals are getting bigger. Agents don’t want to open a single business – they want to launch businesses, and the Keller Williams Expansion Network (KWEN) created a playbook for doing just that. From lead generation to business processes, KWEN helps aspiring business agents scale their operations and establish multi-state, multi-country footprints.

8. The three KW constants. Although there are some differences between market centers and the KW Expansion Network, three things remain the same: the agent experience, recruiting, and growth. New agents are always welcome at Keller Williams, and when they arrive, they will be greeted with a smooth onboarding experience, industry-leading training, cutting-edge tech, and a culture unlike any other in the business. Case in point: Family Reunion. 

And to think those are just the takeaways from the first day of programming. Considering the breadth of knowledge on display, and all the praise from the virtual and in-person audiences, it looks like Mega Breakouts are destined to become an FR mainstay.