Hey {{first_name | there}}, ever wonder how someone ends up partnering with Ryan Serhant?
He was walking about 20 people from the Sell It conference hotel to his new Soho office.
Nobody was talking to him.
Alana noticed. She runs Evoke Group in San Antonio with her husband, David.
She said: “He’s by himself.”
So she sprinted to the front & asked: “Would you ever come to Texas?”
“Never say never. Right now, I have no plans.”
Ryan introduced them to his CEO. The answer on the call: no plans to expand.
Most people would stop there. David & Alana kept the line open. David got his broker’s license. They started Evoke Group. And they kept planning for a call that might never come.
2 years ago it came. Texas was on the radar. San Antonio wasn’t.
But if SERHANT. ever came to San Antonio, it would be “by way of Evoke & Evoke only.”
After 2 years of bi-weekly calls under strict NDAs, they launched. The day after the press release, a man emailed David:
“I want a SERHANT sign in my front yard.” On MLS by day 3.
Here’s what any agent can copy from how they work.
The 4 rules:
What they post (it’s not the listings)
What they do with every listing
How they hire
How they buy back their time
— Andrew
RULE 1: Your best lead source is you, talking about your day
“The biggest lead gen is none of the professional videos. It’s none of the graphics. It’s literally me on a story talking about my day.”
Alana isn’t even licensed. She still gets real estate business from Instagram. Coffee, workouts, the kids, family dinners, travel. People relate, & then they want to work with them.
Their favorite compliment: “You’re everywhere.”
The answer: “That’s what you think.”
What they do:
Stories never go blank. “Ever.”
Talk to the camera about a real moment from a deal
Document what already happens: team meetings, power hour, tennis
No separate business account. It “ends up being just a place for listings to go”
Do this today: post 1 story about something that happened in a deal today. 30 seconds. No editing.
RULE 2: Sell the story, not the photos
Before SERHANT., David’s listing marketing was, in his words, “me on Canva.”
Now, for listings above $3 or $4M, he can send them to SERHANT.’s ID Lab.
They build a pitch deck & a brand around the house.
But Alana comes from PR, & she’ll tell you the studio isn’t the point.
Her words: “Everybody’s doing videos. Not well, but everybody’s doing videos.”
Most listings go up as photos on the MLS, & then “hoping and praying.”
Do this today: ask your next seller that question. Write the frame in 1 sentence before the photographer shows up.
RULE 3: Hire character. Train production.
The day after they launched SERHANT. San Antonio, there was a line out the door.
Some people just wanted to meet Ryan. Some were hopping from one TV brokerage to another.
One candidate said he’d been licensed 6 years & did $10M a year. They checked MLS. 2 years.
So they got stricter.
Alana’s words: “I can make anybody go from a 3, $5 million producer to 10. That’s easy. I can’t make you not be a jerk.”
David’s rule: a $50M producer who’s a jerk doesn’t get hired.
Their filter:
Both founders in every recruiting meeting. They catch different things
Check MLS before you believe the numbers
No part-time agents
Check their social: comfortable on camera? What would a client find?
Skip the DISC & personality tests. Just talk. “If they can build rapport with us, they’re going to be good with their clients.”
Works for your first assistant or buyer’s agent too.
RULE 4: Buy back your time
Before SERHANT, David was running his own deals plus about 20 other agents’. Admin. Payroll. Cutting checks. First one at the office, answering everyone’s problems.
He calls it the messy middle. Not enough agents to hire more help. Not enough help to free up your time.
Now he asks the SERHANT. app for open house flyers on the way to his car.
His words: “I have like 15 assistants in my phone... I’m paying for my time back.”
2 lessons any agent can use:
Price your time. If a task isn’t worth your hourly rate, hand it off
“Time kills all.” When onboarding dragged, new agents lost their momentum. Now they get everything they need by the next day
Do this today: list everything you did last week that wasn’t selling or building. Hand off 1 thing this month.
THE CLOSE
Alana walked up to Ryan Serhant when nobody else was talking to him.
Everything after that was habits: posting every day, selling the story, being picky about who joins, protecting their time.
The one thing: you don’t need Ryan’s name on the sign to copy how they work.
Search “Serhant Founders: Inside Serhant’s Launch in Texas (Nobody Saw Coming)” on YouTube or your favorite podcast app to watch the complete episode now!
Andrew
