Episode 3 - Erik Hatch's Success Unplugged

Grew up in a trailer, awkward and desperately wanted to fit in as a kid... and now owner of a $127M real estate business!

Erik was born in Fargo, North Dakota and was single-handedly raised by his mother whom he looked up to and greatly admired. He and his sister grew up in a trailer and then lived in a two-bedroom apartment where they shared a room with their mother.

As a kid, Erik was a brown-noser and always wanted to prove himself as a way to compensate for the lost love he never had from his father. He had a tough middle school life and desperately wanted to fit in but became "topular" in high school. He started working at the age of 14 and his first job was at a bowling alley where he kept track of players' scores and ordered drinks for customers. He then got a job as a dishwasher at a restaurant and worked his way to becoming a host, server, then a shift manager. He kept his job at the restaurant throughout his entire college years while also maintaining his VP role for his university student body.

At the age of 21, his mom lost the battle to cancer after fighting it for 5 years. Losing his mother gave him the strength and perspective he never thought he wanted but the experience taught him perseverance and optimism, and built his character.

Fast forward to his real estate beginnings, he began his real estate career in 2011 and on his first year, sold homes valued at $9M. In his second 2nd year, he grew his team, which consisted of his friends, opened an expansion market, and went into commercial real estate all at once. Aside from the fact that he hired his friends to work for him, he spread himself so thin, juggling between production and his expansion and commercial businesses, that he became a hot mess and was no good to anyone. At this point, he butted heads with leadership at his brokerage and eventually got fired. In 2013, he went to a "rebound" brokerage where he was given a second chance but he knew he wasn't going to stay at that brokerage long term. For 9 months, he rebuilt his reputation, started hiring and training right, while still managing to sell 154 transactions out of the team's 246 total transactions. In 2014, he opened his own real estate business, Hatch Realty, where he closed 149 of 411 of the team's transactions. By this time, Erik was getting even better at hiring and training people and at the end of 2014 when their first daughter was born, Erik decided to move out of production.  As he got better at hiring and training, he started stepping away and entrusting tasks to team members. In 2015, his team sold 516 homes and only 36 of those transactions were sold by Erik. This year, Erik's team will close over 600 transactions and almost all of these deals were handled by team members that he has empowered.

So what are Erik's top practices that helped him get to where he is at today?

Empower versus Delegate

Erik believes that when you delegate, you're simply handing over tasks you don't like doing to someone else; whereas, when you empower, you're giving the person the power to own it and be accountable for it.

Mastered Inside Service Agents

It's important to Erik that his ISAs are nurtured instead of treated as transactions. This then pays forward to how his ISAs nurture their clients.

Deeper versus Wider

Erik trains his team to become specialists instead of generalists. He provides people with leverage and makes sure they love what they do and do what they love.

The Road Less Travelled

While most people are scared of setting high expectations because of the risk of disappointment, Erik always sets his bar high for his team members. He wants his team to know how great they are and the possibilities that can be theirs  in the future.

On Hiring

Erik's advice: "Protect your pool.  One drop of turd in your bottle of refreshing, purified water and all you have is just crappy water."

Erik never goes with the status-quo. To him, there are always ways to re-imagine, re-align, and take better care of his team. And he's proud to say that nobody works for him; he works for his people.

How you can help Erik!

Erik's wish is to grow the resources available to him and to help make the lives of others sustainable. You can help him achieve this through the Sell a Home, Save a Child movement. Sell a Home, Save a Child partners with generous real estate professionals in sharing supplies and support to materially poor children around the world.

To see Erik's Ted Talk, Click Here.