Nick made thousands of cold calls in eight months and got almost nothing. Here's what actually changed his business.
Nick Kenbrandt left a decade in mechanical engineering to go all in on real estate in early 2024. He did what a lot of new agents are told to do: studying up, joining a coaching program built around cold calling, and committing fully to the grind. Two hundred dials a day got him roughly 20 conversations, which turned into one or two appointments a week, and he held that pace for about eight months without the results ever catching up to the effort.
The grind that went nowhere. On paper, those numbers should have produced deals, and that’s what makes his story worth hearing. By the end of that stretch, Nick had run something like 20 listing presentations without converting a single one, which told him the problem wasn’t how hard he was working. He was operating alone out of an office with exactly one lead generation pillar running, no open houses, no farming, no door knocking. As he puts it, he was lonely, and it’s hard to keep your confidence up when you’re by yourself, and nothing is landing. Confidence turns out to matter more than most new agents expect, because you can set the appointment and still lose it if the skills and the belief aren’t there yet.
The advice that sent him sideways. Part of what got him there was the guidance he took too literally. Someone told him early on that most brokers won’t help you, that they’re there to collect a desk fee and little else, so don’t depend on your broker at all. Nick read that as brokers being useless and concluded he could do the whole thing himself, and he’s the first to say that reading is what pushed him toward going it alone instead of looking for real support.
What actually changed the trajectory? The turnaround came from changing his environment rather than adding more hustle. Nick joined a team, got mentored by someone who knew how to run a listing presentation, and roleplayed it until it was sharp. He added open houses, roughly 40 of them last year, which produced two deals, and started partnering with other agents on their business. He also stopped avoiding the database he already had, letting real estate come up naturally with his sphere instead of forcing it, and some of his best deals since have come out of those conversations.
Where the numbers stand now. A year and a half later, the results speak for themselves. Nick did zero deals his first year and six last year, and at the halfway point this year, he’s already had four closings, has five listings and three buyer clients, and is on track for 15 deals, all while making dramatically fewer calls than he did during his eight-month grind.
You can watch our full conversation above, or feel free to skip to the topics that interest you most using the timestamps below:
00:00 — Meet Nick Kenbrandt
00:38 — Leaving Engineering Behind
02:16 — Choosing His Path
03:16 — Bad Broker Advice
03:47 — The Cold Call Program
04:34 — Eight Months Grinding
05:34 — The Numbers Game
06:36 — Twenty Appointments, No Listings
06:50 — What Was Missing
08:21 — Aiming Higher
10:06 — What Changed Everything
11:37 — Open Houses Working
13:06 — Rediscovering His Sphere
15:33 — The Numbers Today
16:41 — A Different Agent Now
19:10 — Advice for Struggling Agents
If you’re an agent putting in the work and not seeing the return, I’d like to hear where you’re stuck. Sometimes the fix isn’t more activity, it’s a different environment, better mentorship, and a couple of lead sources you aren’t running yet. If you want to talk through what that could look like for your business, or you’re curious why agents are making the move to our team, reach out. Call or text me at 408-317-0506, email me at Brett@TheRealExperts.com, or visit therealexperts.com. I’d be glad to have an honest conversation about where your business goes from here.
