Following the KW Growth Mannequin, EZ Referral Community founders Mike Zinicola and Greg Erlanger mixed their strengths to construct a number of high-performing groups throughout Ohio.
There was a time in Mike Zinicola’s profession when he had $2.78 to his identify. A profitable lawyer in Columbus, Ohio, Mike had left his observe to pursue a promising funding alternative in Tampa, Florida. The deal didn’t work out.
Thirty years previous and broke, Mike discovered himself scrounging for unfastened change to name his dad and mom again residence. Over on the nearest pay cellphone, a passing stranger seen his misery. She stopped to supply Mike a hug — together with a $5 successful lottery ticket, telling him to money it in to get one thing to eat. It was an act of kindness Mike says he’ll always remember — one which gave him a way of hope that every thing can be okay.
Immediately, Mike Zinicola is co-founder, with Greg Erlanger, of probably the most highly effective actual property companies in Ohio. Based mostly in Cleveland, the 2 constructed the EZ Gross sales Workforce and EZ Referral Community with an emphasis on servant management, pushed by the wants of their brokers. Their strategy has helped them retain prime expertise and create a community of actual property groups throughout Ohio, with gross sales of greater than $3.4 billion since 2008.
The Want for Function Fashions
Mike grew up in a modest family in Cleveland, with an abundance of affection and a robust sense of group, however few examples of financial success. “If Fortune had been to guage households not on how a lot cash they’ve to offer and spend and obtain, however fairly the quantity of affection that they provide and obtain, we’d have been on the Fortune 500 record,” Mike mirrored. Although he didn’t have monetary function fashions to comply with, Mike says he was motivated to excel professionally.
He pursued his regulation diploma with the intention of working his means into politics. However when he got here out as homosexual in 1982, simply as AIDS deaths had been on the rise, Mike says Columbus wasn’t prepared for a homosexual politician. Although he felt regulation wasn’t his true calling, he dedicated himself to his profession and received concerned in AIDS prevention, founding the Columbus AIDS Process Pressure and serving on the Ohio Division of Well being advisory committee on AIDS.
Included amongst Mike’s authorized purchasers had been actual property buyers, and he quickly realized his curiosity in actual property exceeded his curiosity in regulation. “I appeared within the mirror sooner or later and I mentioned, ‘You already know what, Mike? You’re a ample lawyer. Do you need to be a “ample” something?’ However that’s all I used to be going to be, as a result of I didn’t have the fervour for it,” Mike recalled. He received his actual property license and instantly knew he’d made the fitting selection. In his first 12 months within the business, Mike bought 13 houses, setting a file in his regional brokerage. It took 4 years for one more agent to interrupt Mike’s file. That agent was Greg Erlanger.
Alternatives Past Limits
Over time, Mike and Greg held robust as top-performing brokers at their regional brokerage. However as they grew their respective groups, they felt hemmed in by their atmosphere. “There was nobody there serving to us get to the subsequent degree,” Mike recalled. The 2 began exploring different choices and sharing their findings. After a gathering with a Keller Williams® affiliate in 2008, Mike and Greg agreed they may each obtain their targets at KW.
Although not but enterprise companions, they each made the bounce to Keller Williams, the place they had been supplied the chance to attend Household Reunion. It was an expertise that will change the trajectory of their careers – and their lives.
Whereas attending a breakout session at FR, they listened to a KW® Mega Agent speak about having reached $150 million in gross sales the prior 12 months, Mike recalled. That’s when he and Greg checked out one another and shared an aha second. “We had been hoping to do $40 million, in order that we might beat a number of the greater brokers within the space,” he mentioned. “We weren’t enthusiastic about a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.”Mike and Greg realized they’d been considering means too small. The speaker went on to speak about constructing a crew with a companion who enhances your strengths, and utilizing leverage to fill in different roles.
Strolling again from that breakout, the pair understood that they had a successful mixture. Each had been centered on rising their groups, they usually shared the identical imaginative and prescient: to change into primary within the state of Ohio. By combining Greg’s know-how in advertising and know-how and Mike’s experience in actual property negotiations, they’d have an unfair benefit within the market. Their partnership was underway.
A Deal with Innovation
Like so many actual property professionals, Greg Erlanger began his profession in a distinct business. Greg labored in company America for a decade, promoting information networking to Fortune 500 firms. He loved gross sales and the tech business, however after making his first actual property investments, he knew he’d discovered his area of interest.
Greg received his actual property license and set to work utilizing his background in tech to create hyperlocal, area of interest web sites that drove enterprise to his small crew. On the time, it was a cutting-edge strategy that resulted in additional than $8 million in gross sales in his first 12 months.
But after becoming a member of a KW® market middle and partnering with Mike to create the EZ Gross sales Workforce, Greg says they didn’t see the rapid uptick in manufacturing and quantity that they had anticipated.
“After we took a step again, we realized there have been a whole lot of issues we had been failing ahead on,” Greg mentioned. “We had been working collectively on too many issues,” he recalled, they usually had been duplicating their efforts. They determined to divide and conquer, with every specializing in their respective areas of experience.
Working with a coach was a game-changer. Mike remembered how “For the primary three or 4 years, we had been hovering within the $30 to $50 million vary, and we weren’t breaking via.” Greg mentioned their coach helped them establish their blind spots and improve their enterprise by nearly 100%. They continued to develop 12 months over 12 months, promoting greater than $320 million in actual property in 2023.
An Agent-First Strategy
Following the KW Growth Mannequin, Mike and Greg replicated the success of their first Cleveland crew to create a community of actual property groups throughout the state. Their course of begins with figuring out an amazing crew chief, then giving them the instruments and help they should develop. Mike defined, “After they construct their crew, they construct it on the identical values and ideas on which our Cleveland workplace was primarily based.”
Along with offering coaching on Keller Williams fashions and techniques, the companions supply a novel worth proposition that helps brokers on a person degree. Via EZ Media Productions, brokers are empowered to construct their very own manufacturers and broaden their attain. Associates have entry to an in-house video and podcast studio, skilled media employees, plus coaching on the best way to create compelling social media content material that sells houses, attracts leads, and strengthens model recognition.
As brokers themselves, Greg says he and Mike are continually enthusiastic about what an agent must succeed – and keep. “One of many issues I like about Keller Williams is the idea of agent focus,” Greg says. “We work for them; they don’t work for us. We all know that if we don’t present them with the agent providers that they’re in search of, they’ll fireplace us and go to a distinct crew.”
This strategy is what has allowed the EZ Referral Community to develop to greater than 135 brokers, and Greg says they’re particularly pleased with their skill to retain nice expertise. “We’re giant as a result of we don’t have a gap in our bucket. There will probably be no cause for them to go away if we proceed to attempt to service their wants and assist them carry out at a excessive degree for his or her purchasers.”
Mike and Greg attribute their success to sharing the identical imaginative and prescient and targets, and most significantly, to adopting a limitless mindset. Mike mentioned, “Keller Williams taught me the idea of limitless thought. I didn’t need to cease at 40 million. We might construct issues greater. That’s the only smartest thing Keller Williams did for me.”
Watch the complete KW Actual Property Function Fashions EZ Referral Community profile @kellerwiliams on YouTube.
