Million Dollar Team Principle #57
Splits don’t matter.
What matters to an agent is this:
How will your team raise the standards of overall quality and service in the industry?
Be different by building something better.
There is one aspect of agent psychology that most team leaders completely miss, and it’s costing them and their agents millions in production, retention, and recruiting.
You think agents care most about money.
You think they want high splits and low effort.
You think they want maximum support and minimum accountability.
You think they want to “do everything” and “keep everything.”
You are dead wrong.
Most agents want one thing more than anything else:
To not look stupid.
They’re not lazy, they’re scared.
They’re scared of calling their sphere and sounding like an amateur.
They’re scared of going to an appointment and being asked something they don’t know.
They’re scared of being exposed in front of their peers, clients, and even family as someone who doesn’t truly know what they’re doing.
This isn’t about money.
It’s about confidence, credibility, and identity.
Dr. Michael Gervais, sports psychologist to Olympians and elite athletes, calls it:
FOPO – Fear of Other People’s Opinions
It’s a performance killer, and your agents feel it every day.
They don’t want to be doctors or lawyers…
They want to be respected like doctors and lawyers.
They want to stand tall at the dinner table with their spouse’s friends and say, “I’m a professional real estate agent,” and believe it.
They want to walk into a listing presentation with a surgeon or a CEO and feel equal in stature, confidence, and professionalism.
So What Do You Do as a Team Leader?
You create the environment where that transformation happens.
You train them to be experts.
- You raise the standard.
- You create awards, certifications, designations, and levels of mastery.
- You give them confidence through competence.
The Realtor Association figured this out decades ago.
Designations like CRS, ABR, and GRI weren’t just about education — they were about status.
Your brokerage probably does something similar: Silver, Gold, Platinum awards.
But you can go further.
Don’t just reward production.
Reward professionalism.
Celebrate exceptional service.
Honor executional excellence.
Build a culture that promotes mastery, not mediocrity.
The team that agents want to join is the team that’s known for greatness.
Not splits.
Not gimmicks.
Standards.
And when you build that culture — a culture of pride, recognition, development, and high performance — agents won’t ask about your splits.
They’ll ask how they can qualify to be on your team.
– Nick McLean
