Next Level Agents: The Kevin & Fred Show - Interviews with the best and brightest minds in the real estate industry

Talent is overrated. There. We said it. In this episode of Next Level Truths, Kevin Kauffman breaks down one of the most misunderstood dynamics in real estate: why consistency will always outperform natural ability, and why most agents are chasing the wrong thing when they wait for motivation to show up before they take action. This is a short, focused episode, but don't let that fool you. The shi...

Most agents have goals. Most agents have intentions. But intentions don't close deals — your calendar does. In this episode of the Next Level Truths series, Kevin Kauffman breaks down one of the most uncomfortable realities in real estate: your calendar is your actual business plan, whether you like what it says or not. If your days are filled with reactive tasks, random coffees, and administrativ...

Most real estate agents think leverage means hiring a team. Dave Zajdzinski built something different: a fully leveraged solo business that runs 8am to 8pm, seven days a week, across multiple time zones, while he's in Italy, France, or Maine. And real estate is his fifth priority. In this episode, Kevin Kauffman sits down with Dave to pull back the curtain on exactly how that system works, from th...

Most agents spend their careers chasing leads — buying them, testing new platforms, trying to crack the code. But the truth is, the highest-converting business in real estate isn't coming from strangers. It's already sitting in your phone. In this episode, Kevin Kauffman breaks down Next Level Truth #2: your database is your business. Not your CRM. Not your marketing plan. Not your brand. Your rel...

Most agents think they need more leads. Kevin Kauffman is here to tell you that's almost never the real problem. In the first episode of the new Next Level Truths series, Kevin breaks down one of the most recurring patterns he sees across agents at every level — and why fixing it doesn't require a new CRM, a new lead source, or a new strategy. This is a short, focused episode built around a single...

Andrew Ricks walked away from a doctorate-level career in physical therapy, sold his clinics, let his license lapse, and went all in on real estate — with a newborn at home and zero safety net. Less than two years later, he's closing four to five deals a month, landing $4 million listings, and building the kind of client relationships that generate referrals for years. This episode is for every ag...

In today’s special episode of Next Level Agents, we’re putting our very own podcast producer, Sarah Heeter in the hot seat! As podcasting continues to explode, you’ve probably wondered if you need to start your own, what you would make your podcast about, and if you need to be a super tech nerd to launch. Sarah is here to answer these questions, and more, and provide a roadmap for turning your pod...

Most real estate agents are told the same lie: sell more, do more, hustle harder — and eventually, freedom will follow. But what if scaling your production is actually just scaling your stress? Kevin Kauffman gets real about the trap that catches even the top producers in the industry, and why the question you're asking about your business might be the very thing keeping you stuck. This episode is...

You're working hard. Your calendar is packed, your phone doesn't stop, and by Friday you're completely wiped out — but your business doesn't feel like it moved an inch. That's not a hustle problem. That's a clarity problem. In this solo episode, Kevin Kauffman breaks down a framework — inspired by his friend and business partner Brian Gubernick — that separates agents who grind forever from agents...

The market doesn't care about your excuses — and honestly, neither do the agents who are winning right now. In this episode, Kevin Kauffman and Erik Kelly get real about what's actually separating the agents who are thriving from the ones who are barely surviving, and it has nothing to do with interest rates or inventory. This one's a no-fluff, straight-talk conversation about consistency, mastery...

Most real estate training tells agents what to do. Bryon Ellington, Chief Learning Officer of eXp Realty, is building something different — training that actually gets agents into action, backed by real data from real producers who are crushing it right now. In this episode, Kevin Kauffman sits down with Bryon to go deep on eXp University's FastCap program, the Elite Solo Agent Mastermind, and a b...

You're busy. You're closing deals. You might even be making great money. But are you actually building toward freedom — or just building a faster treadmill? Kevin Kauffman sits down with returning guest and real estate veteran Chris Bowers for a raw, no-fluff conversation about what it really takes to get to the next level in both production and building residual income through recruiting at eXp R...

If you think social media is optional for real estate agents in 2025, this episode is going to challenge that assumption — hard. Guest host Carly Pederson sits down with Kaitlin Ward, a top-producing lender with Summit Funding on the West Coast, who has built the majority of her business through organic social media. No ad spend, no fancy production equipment — just a consistent strategy, a clear...

Your social media isn't underperforming because you're not posting enough — it's underperforming because most agents are missing the single strategy that makes social media actually convert into listings. Retargeting, hyperlocal brand-building, and ads that don't look like ads are what separates the agents who are recognized everywhere in their community from the ones who are still grinding for ev...

Nick Kibby didn't build a billion-dollar team in Phoenix by doing something flashy. He built it by doing the right things — the same things — every single day for years. In this episode, Erik Kelly sits down with Nick to unpack the mindset, daily rhythms, and leadership philosophy that took him from corporate CFO to one of the most consistently productive agents and team owners in Arizona. If you'...

Most real estate agents think joining a team means sacrificing who they are. They imagine becoming a lead-conversion machine, hitting someone else's quotas, and losing their personality in the process. But what if the best teams actually help you become more of yourself—not less? Jason Nelson, Jenna Barnes, and Kristin Mazzei from the Rutledge Property Group in Medford, Oregon just proved that the...

What do you do when success itself becomes the ceiling? Alan Kushmakov didn't leave his independent brokerage because it was failing. He left because after six years of building Best Homes Real Estate to over 100 agents and ranking in the top 30 out of 2,400 brokerages in Phoenix, he realized something most entrepreneurs never want to admit: there had to be a better way. In this raw, unfiltered co...

What if everything you thought you needed to succeed in real estate was wrong? No massive sphere. No warm leads. No perfect market conditions. In this episode, Katie DeWitt sits down with Houston-based powerhouse Shelley Cooley, who sold 72 homes her first year as a licensed agent—and not a single one came from her personal network. Shelley's story will dismantle every excuse you've been holding o...

What if the role you're playing is the only thing standing between you and your next level? DeAnna Lee didn't start with money. She started as a single mom bartender who bought a duplex and house-hacked before it was even trending. She entered real estate in 2009—right after the crash—and worked transactions like most agents do. But she refused to let "realtor" define the limits of what was possib...

What happens when you move to a brand new city, know absolutely no one, and decide to build a massive real estate business from scratch? Mark and Kelli Brewer found out when they relocated from Houston to Tennessee two years ago with zero connections, zero sphere of influence, and zero local credibility. Last year, they closed over $40 million in production. This episode challenges everything you...

You know how to close deals and generate leads. But do you know how to keep the money you're making? Brandon Green walked across stages collecting top producer awards while secretly drowning in half a million dollars of IRS debt. He's not alone in this story. After founding Alchemy, an accounting firm exclusively for real estate professionals, Brandon and his team reviewed hundreds of tax returns...

What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't lack of knowledge—it's knowing too much? In this episode, guest host Carly Pederson interviews Katie DeWitt, who went from managing 65 agents before ever selling a house to opening a full-service salon from scratch in nine months—all while doubling her real estate production during the slowest market in 30 years. Katie breaks down her "big balls" ap...

When someone asks "How's the market?" do you give them the same generic answer as every other agent, or do you demonstrate expertise that converts casual conversations into signed agreements? Katie DeWitt and Carly Pederson break down exactly how to read your local market data, where to find the intelligence that actually matters, and how to use market trends to create genuine urgency with buyers...

Starting a brokerage in a market where desk fees run $25K-30K and the average home sells for $300K? That's exactly what Josh Ries is doing in South Dakota—and he's using lead generation systems that cut costs by 78% to do it. Josh didn't set out to become a managing broker. He was consulting on lead generation for teams and brokerages when opportunity knocked. Now he's building a cloud-based broke...

When we look at someone making and posting great content, we tend to overlook one thing. They all had that first crappy post or clumsy video. It doesn’t become polished overnight - it goes through a ton of iterations until it looks amazing. You don’t see the 100 steps the content creator had to go through - the period of being bad at it first, figuring it out, learning new things and applying them...