Episode originally aired: April 28, 2026
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In this episode of the DASHcast Podcast, the DASH Carolina team dives into Many real estate agents believe a full pipeline means success. But activity and production are not the same thing.In this episode of the DASHcast Podcast, Zac Campbell and Courtney LaMotte break down …
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Episode Overview
Many real estate agents believe a full pipeline means success. But activity and production are not the same thing.In this episode of the DASHcast Podcast, Zac Campbell and Courtney LaMotte break down the pipeline illusion in real estate — the dangerous belief that being busy automatically leads to closings.From endless follow-ups and showings that go nowhere to buyers who never truly commit, they explore how agents can mistake motion for momentum. Zac brings a market perspective, while Courtney dives into client behavior and real estate trends that influence why deals stall.They discuss how real estate agents can evaluate the health of their sales pipeline, recognize when leads aren’t real opportunities, and shift their focus toward conversations and strategies that actually convert.If you’re a Realtor looking for real estate business tips, pipeline management strategies, and honest insight into what drives closings in today’s housing market, this episode delivers practical perspective
Full Episode Transcript
The following is a lightly edited transcript of this DASHcast episode. Some portions may be condensed for readability.
Hi, my name is Zac. Hi, my name is Courtney, and this is the DASHcast podcast. The DASHcast podcast. It’s a tongue twister, right, Courtney? It is. It is. I give up every time. I don’t even know why I try. So tell me a little bit about what we’re going to talk about today. So today we’re going to chat a little bit about overall, how to manage leads that we have, how to manage our pipeline, where
we see agents fail, where we see agents succeed, and then kind of just give me some tips and tricks on how to always keep that pipeline flowing. Right. I think a lot of times getting leads isn’t difficult for agents. Right. There’s tons of different ways to get leads. Lead management, you know, door knocking, Zillow leads, cold calling, all those fun things. Yeah. Open houses. But I think a lot of times we just mismanage those leads. Right.
So I guess what is something that you do specifically to coach agents? I know you work with a lot of agents. I do as well. What’s something that you do to help coach agents to manage their leads properly? I think that we always kind of let them know, like, don’t bite off more than you can chew. If you have two leads, take very, very, very, very good care of those two leads. Go above and beyond. Because
once you start getting 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and you’re trying to juggle too many things at once, things slip through the cracks. You’re not reaching out to them as much as you’re supposed to be. You’re not following up with them as much as you’re supposed to be. You can’t show them as many houses because you’re, like, literally running around with too many people trying to do too many things at once. So I think trying to
get them to say, hey, the ones that you already have are more important than the leads that you haven’t gotten yet. So I think that’s where we kind of make sure that agents understand. Do what you can with what you have. Don’t be greedy. There’s always going to be more to come. Just focus on what you have right now and don’t always be searching for more. Make sure that the people that you do have right now
are taken very well care of. Yeah. And I think at the end of the day, there’s always fruit in something. Right. I remember the first time I went to Cuba, there was this tall tree, and they were going up to the guy, said, do you want a mango? And we said, sure, yeah. Climbed the tree, and he Chopped off a mango off of this 40 foot tree and then he came down and gave it to us.
And it made me think, in the work we do, you know, there’s sometimes low hanging fruit where someone wants to see a house go under contract right away. Doesn’t happen often. But then there’s. It takes time to nurture a lead and to nurture that person. That’s really about people over property at the end of the day, 100%. And I also think like a lot of people don’t understand that this is a long game business. I think
that always ties back to low hanging fruit. People get into real estate thinking that there’s gonna just be, you know, a million people buying a house all day every day. You’re just gonna be so busy making gajillions of dollars. But you really have to take your time with the leads you have and then also nurture them and meet them on their timeline. It’s not always just gonna happen like this. Right. And I think that’s the industry
kind of does the opposite of that and how they articulate that to new agents. Yep, right. The, you have the selling Sunset, the one in Manhattan. All these different ones that are just like, oh, this real estate is just us drinking champagne and. Yeah, yeah, but that’s, that’s not what it is. You’re really in the trenches sometimes. Really like being the least a therapist for your clients. Really like trying to help coach them and just get
through the whole process. And it’s, it’s difficult. But I think a lot of times especially like where we’re at, we try and coach our agents to have a conveyor belt of leads. Right. So like have leads that you know, we’re actively reaching out to, but also people that we are actively showing properties to, getting in front of, getting them to like us, getting them to trust us. Right. So like how do you help agents to understand
what a healthy, I guess we could call it a pipeline, what a healthy pipeline looks like. I think it’s going to be important for everybody to know that it’s different for each person. So like when I’m working with a ton of folks, like my Sweet spot is 4 to 5 ish active buyers, depending on where all we’re looking and how many homes we’re seeing on a daily basis or weekly basis. Once I get a couple of
those under contract, I like to take a breather, make sure that everything while I’m under contract is going smoothly before I go try and find more leads or you know, pick back up Taking leads consistently. So I think it’s finding your sweet spot and realizing everyone’s capacity is different. I have found that some people can take more leads and keep up with it. Some people have more personal things going on in their lives and they can’t
take as many while juggling also contracts and life. So I think that for me, my sweet spot’s around 4 ish 5. And then after that, I like to kind of just take a breather, make sure all my people are good before I take more. But I know it’s different for everyone. Are you kind of in the same wavelength? Like, how do you. Yeah, I guess so. For me, I feel like I can manage a lot at
once. But as you know, Jack of all trades over here. Well, I don’t know about that. But I will say that a lot of times there’s a lot that goes involved. There’s a lot involved in a transaction. Right. So much. And finding the right house for someone at the right price is always difficult. Sometimes it takes someone three to four years to do it. And then you might have four or five under contract at the same
time. And then you know what, one wants to back out for a reason that you didn’t think would happen. Yep. Some things are not in our control. Yeah, absolutely. And so I think at the end of the day, a healthy pipeline, it’s kind of like you said, like actively showing three to five clients and then maybe submitting offers for one or two at the. any given time. But at the same time, it’s not that way for
everyone. Right. Like some people, it’s just easier to manage when you have less clients that you’re working with at any given point in time because there’s so much stuff that goes on in a transaction. I think a lot of times that if you’re working with two to three buyers actively, and then you’ve got two or three under contract, there’s too much stuff going on. You might forget something and you might drop the ball somewhere. That’s scary.
Absolutely. And you know, the worst, I think the worst nightmare for agent is to drop the ball when their client is trying to buy the biggest purchase of their life. Right. So I feel like we kind of touched a little bit on how to navigate pipelines, figuring out your capacity, what’s going to work best for you. Now we want to talk a little bit about, let’s say we have a bunch of clients, we’re under contract, and
we, we start to get super, super attached. I mean, we love our clients, we’re doing everything that we can for them. We get so emotionally invested into these deals and like into our clients happiness because we genuinely care so much. So I guess my question is, is like, how do sometimes we remove our emotions a little bit and kind of just focus on the big picture, like focus on the facts and not let it, you know,
break our hearts if something happens. Sure. Yeah. I think at the end of the day we kind of mentioned this before, but it’s, it’s always people over property. Right. And if we focus on, you know, where we work at, we get a lot of Zillow leads. Right. And you might get a lead that comes in that’s you know, 700,000. You’re like, oh sweet, that’s a, that’s a great lead. And then another one comes in for like
200,000. And so then you might be, you know, kind of almost discriminatory towards those different types. But I, I think at the end of the day, if you focus more on people than property, you’re going to be emotionally invested. Yeah, right. For sure. And as an agent, we have to be that rational person at the end of the day because if our clients are, you know, let’s say we’re going through negotiations and you know, we’ve, we’ve
educated our clients on the whole process. You know, if we live in a buyer beware state, homes are sold as is. How is, where is. If we get $1 from the seller, then we’ve won, but then we send that request in for like $10,000, they come back with one K. You know, our buyers could freak out over that. Yeah. And so our job is to be the rational person to make sure we’re sharing our pros and
cons. But also if we get hot over a situation or we get too emotionally invested in a situation during the transaction, then that’s when the deal could fall apart. Right. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve had times where I’ve had butterflies in my stomach about a situation. I’m like, I, I need to step back or maybe I should call another agent, talk to them about this, see how they’re, how they would respond, how I
should respond. And that, that really helps me to stay grounded because if we are too, too attached in that capacity, then when things go wrong, poof. Yeah, it upsets us. And that, that kind of what goes back to why I mentioned people over property. Because if I focus on that check I’m going to get at the end of this transaction instead of that person, then I’m going to be emotionally upset in the event that it doesn’t
work out. Right. Because then I might start thinking, oh, I’m gonna buy this new pair of shoes or I’m gonna go buy this. Yeah. When that might not happen. Right. So if we focus on people instead of that, the property and the commission and all those different things, that’s for me, that’s how I help get through it. I don’t even think about that until everyone signs everything on the last day. Yeah. I’m like, that’s not necessarily
my last thought, but it’s more important to me that at that closing table, that client is like, you did everything to make my new life better. You helped me get to this finish line if I so happen to get paid for. That’s awesome. But it’s not our service. Yeah. It’s all about you doing that five star service, getting that five star review. Because those are going to be the people that tell all their friends and family
that, you know, she never once went out of her for her way to do something that wasn’t in my best interest. She showed me from start to finish that she was only looking out for me and getting me to the finish line in the best light. But it is definitely hard sometimes to not get super emotionally invested. I’m like, I love my clients so much, but I’m like, sometimes I just have to, like you said, get
off the phone, take a breather, call someone else, vent before we dive too deep and I get too invested and maybe, you know, say the wrong thing to the wrong person. Absolutely. I had an agent on my team call me the other day actually, and I won’t go into the specifics of the situation, but they basically call and said, this listing agent just said this to me and I’m calling you to vent about it because I
know if I don’t, I’m going to say it to my client and they’re going to get heated about it and then the whole thing is going to fall apart. And so that, I mean, that’s super important. Right. Like if we, if we vent to the wrong person, it could go wrong. Yeah. Keep it to yourself and, or a friend or a colleague. Vent at home. Don’t, don’t run into the, the other side and complicate things. I’ve
literally had the same, like, same situation happen with me. Listing agent said something nasty and I just in the moment saw red because I, like, care so much for my clients. I’m like, I could not believe that the words had Transcribed and I just, I had to take a step back. I literally went sit outside on our front porch and I was like, let me breathe before I respond to these messages just to make everyone happy.
Because we don’t want to do anything that ever, ever makes our client more stressed out than they already are. They’re buying a house. There’s already so much going into it. It’s try to keep those feelings at bay. Yeah. And I think one thing that we can just reiterate too, for us is that we’re brokers, right. We’re supposed to broker a deal, work together with the other side. Not even the other side. It’s like we are working
together. Here’s our offer. Let’s hold hands and make this happen for everyone. So everyone’s happy at the end of the day. Right. And so if we get to the point where we’re just in a boxing match, you know, Mike Tyson, Jake Paul situation, that was rigged by the way, then how are we supposed to broker and complete a deal? Right. And it just turns into a boxing match and it gets crazy. So I want to murk
the waters. Yeah, you never want to burn a bridge. You want to do the right thing for your client every time, no matter the cost. Right. So. So Courtney, you work with a lot of agents that potentially deal with burnout. Yes. Right. And you’ve probably dealt with that yourself with your leads. And I don’t think if you’re in real estate, you have, everyone has been burnt out. Yeah. I mean, our CEO says when you can, when
real estate gives you a break, take it. Right, but how do you specifically deal with burnout and making sure that you’re not taking too many leads on at one, any given point in time? At. How do you coach other agents through that? Like what, what are your steps for that? I think for me, when I feel, I feel like because we’re in real estate and we basically live off of our phones and emails in a box,
and when I feel like those numbers are continuously growing, like my text message, my phone calls, my emails, and I’m like, kind of like losing, I don’t want to say losing control, but when I’m overwhelmed by how many follow ups and reach outs and stuff that I have to do that I, that I’m not excited to do them, that’s when I know that I’m like, oh my gosh, I have a lot going on and I need
to take a moment to pause something, maybe pass something along or like take a walk outside and like really hone in on what’s important in that moment. So I feel like avoiding burnout, you will literally run yourself ragged. If all you do every day is real estate, you just will. You have to take a moment, whether it’s like a quick little vacation on the weekend, whether it is just a morning walk before you dive into your
laptop to like, avoid you crashing out and burning because of, like, all the things that are coming your way. So I think for me, making sure that I stay grounded and that for me that means like, literally going outside, having a moment, taking fresh air into my lungs, and then going back to like, what I have going on and trying to prioritize what’s important versus what can maybe be answered in an hour or two and not
in that moment. And I also think it’s super important for agents to realize that you do not have to have all of these things going on and on the verge of burning out to be successful. People think that, oh my gosh, just because I’m busy all the time, that I’m going to be successful. It’s not necessarily always the truth. You could honestly dabble in real estate for a little bit and take a break, and you could
still be a very successful agent. It just managing your time well, which is super hard. Yeah. And I think a lot of agents also, they think that just because they’re driving all over the place and showing houses that, like you said, just being busy to be busy, that doesn’t necessarily mean that something’s going to happen. I mean, yeah, the law of probability. Yeah, there’s probably a higher chance that something could happen if you’re out showing houses.
But if, if you got an investor that’s not very serious and you’re showing 30, 40 houses to them, when you could allocate that time to someone else, that could be. Or reaching out to people in your pipeline that could have some fruit there, that that could be a good way to balance that. So you talked about different ways that you kind of have margin in your life for burnout, different things that you do. What do you
think is too many leads to take at one point in time? I know we talked a little bit before about what a healthy pipeline looks like, but what is too much? I think that we say this all the time. Like, if you have had 100 leads in a perfect world, even at a top producer, you’re going to convert 10ish of those. And those are, I mean, that’s if you’re doing really, really, really great. So when I
think of, okay, if I’VE taken five leads. In a perfect world, I hopefully convert, you know, 0.5 of them. So what does that mean? Um, all five of them might end up in my nurture side. I might have to, like, continuously work on them. And then I think that that might open me up to take a couple more leads that might be actively ready right now. So I think it’s always making sure that you know where
your clients are at in terms of their journey, and then that kind of allocates how many leads I’m personally taking. So if I’ve taken five leads and all five of them we’ve shown, like, I’ve shown them homes, and then they let me know, hey, our lease is not up for 12 months, or mom’s not moving here until next year, and then that’s when we’re moving and I can put them in the right stage of our relationship,
then that will let me either take more leads or take less leads. Sure. So I don’t think it’s, like a perfect number. I think it’s just knowing what’s going on with your clients and making sure that you’re giving them the time they deserve based off of that. And then that will, like, that will let me then figure out how busy and. Or not busy I need to be in that moment, if that makes sense. Yeah, no,
it does. And I think I kind of was reminded by what you’re saying there about when I first started taking leads at DASH that the first couple weekends I was out showing 8, 9, 10 clients houses left and right. And I was like, here we go. You know, this is. This is like, just keep them coming. And three weeks after that, my pipeline was very full and. But also, it was just very stressful. Yeah, Right. Because
I want to spend time with my kids or just my wife or anything like that. Just do anything else other than real estate. And then all of a sudden, it’s just, you got 20 people looking, want to look for houses. Right. And so I got overloaded really quick, and that caused me to stress out and be burned out. But I know a lot of agents at our firm also will take three to five leads at a
time, really work them, see if there is going to be fruit there that is valuable for them, and then from there, be able to convert them or, you know what? These folks are going to probably buy in, you know, a year or two and kind of go that way. Yeah, for sure. But I think in general, like, you got to take breaks. You got to treat yourself. If you don’t treat Yourself. And I am treating myself.
I wouldn’t even say treat yourself. I would just say take care of yourself. Right. Like, if you’re not taking care of yourself and just helping yourself to decompress from the day, really spend time doing something you enjoy a day, every day, then you get burned out. Yeah. And real estate is a roller coaster. Ups, down, sideways. It’s all the things. So whenever you do, which we always say, like when real estate gives you a moment, if
you’re not crazy busy, but you just had a crazy busy last four months, take that moment to breathe and go put your toes in the sand, bring your family, go sit somewhere by yourself, go treat yourself to a massage or something like that. Like, when real estate does give you the opportunity to, like, breathe, please, please do take it. Because you. You will regret it if you don’t. Yeah. So I know that we just chatted a
little bit about, you know, managing our pipeline, trying to make sure that we prevent agents from crashing out, burning out. Also some advice on how to really remove our emotions from some of the deals and just focus on the facts and helping our client in the best light. What are some tools or some techniques? I guess we could say that helps agents kind of stay. I don’t want to say stay in line, but continue to produce
and continue to be best for their clients. That kind of makes them a better agent in the end. Yeah. I think at the end of the day, if someone’s like an agent’s choosing a brokerage to be part of, it’s important for them to, one, be held accountable. Right. Look for a partner that’s gonna hold you accountable. Right. Cause at the end of the day, it’s always good to have a gym buddy. It’s always good to be
able to go to the gym and have a buddy that comes and works out with you and encourages you, like, hey, it’s 5:00am why aren’t you here? You know, and. And just someone that can hold you accountable, make sure that you hit those goals. And I think another one, too, is just. Real estate is like a lonely island. It really can be, you know, it can be isolating, and it’s difficult, it’s hard. And if you don’t
have someone that you can talk to about it, you’re not going to be successful. You won’t. You won’t get long in this industry. I think if you get past the first two years, they say that you can. You’re bulletproof in the sense that you aren’t going to quit. Yeah. But if you don’t have that success and that support and just someone to talk to about it. That’s doing, going through the same journey as you, then a
lot of times you just quit, you know. And I have like coming from personal experience, I was with a previous brokerage that didn’t offer me any camaraderie really. I was googling everything. I didn’t know what I was doing. I had no one to turn to for questions or advice. I was literally watching YouTube videos on like how to talk to your client about X, Y and Z. And I feel like finding a firm that allows you
to learn from others in a collaborative way and not in a very combative way. Because sometimes, like you said, real estate can be very lonely and it can also be very not collaborative. Like it’s me versus you. I’m trying to get the client before you get the client. I just feel like finding somewhere that lets you collaborate and let you learn together is going to be super, super important for your long term success and not trying
to like lone wolf this whole thing. Because it’s a lot. Absolutely. And support is the biggest factor, I think in real estate. It’s good to have someone that you can always count on, right. Someone that you can cough, you need help. And I know at some, some places that it just isn’t like that. It’s, you know, you figured out on your own, right? You got your license, you know, birdie flies, go fly from the nest, right?
Go jump in the pool and swim. And it’s, it’s important to have support so that you know that, you know, one, am I doing the right thing, but also am I coming up with the right solutions to these problems? And really, and I know that you do a great job at this, training agents to become problem solvers. And that’s something I strive to do as well. Just to make sure that they know how to solve a
problem. Like they can call me and say, hey, this is what I’m thinking here for this. What do you think? And I’m like, yeah, that was great. Yeah, go for it, you know, because you don’t know how to solve problems. You don’t even know if the problems exist. Like, right? There’s just so many different things that go on that if you don’t know what you’re doing, so many things can go sideways and new agents don’t even
know what those things are. So you have to prepare them and be there to help them because they could literally just miss problems. And then you’re at the closing table. And you’re like, just kidding. We’re actually not closing. So there’s just so many different things that I think that it’s really important, like you said, and over and over and over, support, support, support. Super important. Absolutely. So accountability, support, isolation, Anything else you think that an agent
should have when it comes to picking the right place to be at, I will just say just find somewhere that honestly, like, feels good to you. I walked into the brokerage that I’m at Now, and within 30 minutes, I was like, this is home. This is where I want to be. Whereas I interviewed other places and I didn’t get that feeling at all. So I feel like me, I go off my gut instinct, and you just
have to find that place that makes you feel like this is where I can succeed. So, guys, thank you so much for listening in. Today we talked a lot about how to best prepare agents for. For taking new leads, working the ones that they have, not being thirsty or greedy for a bunch more, and then also just avoiding crash out burnout, and then really just making sure we’re doing the right things for our client at all
times without getting too emotionally invested. But, yeah, thank you guys for listening in. Yeah, be sure to like this video. Comment, subscribe, share it, and if you’re listening on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, wherever, just make sure you share this with other people so they can hear about us too. Yeah. Hey, yo. Hey.
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