John Kitchens Coach Podcast Experience

Hosted by John Kitchens Coach Podcast

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804

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Aug 2026

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About the show

The John Kitchens Podcast Experience is your essential guide to unlocking 7-figure success in your real estate journey. Hosted by one of the most sought-after real estate coaches, John Kitchens. He brings over 20+ years of experience and insights to help you create significant breakthroughs in the real estate market. With a blend of inspiring personal stories and enlightening interviews with industry leaders, this podcast aims to spark your ambition and equip you with the knowledge to elevate your real estate business. Each episode is packed with clarity, confidence, and the tools to turn your real estate business into a thriving empire. johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

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August 20, 2026Episode 80741 min

807: How Sam Basel Rebuilt His Business (and Himself) After 10 Years in the Grind | Coffee and Coaching

What do you do when ten years of building your own brokerage leaves you completely burned out? On this episode, I sit down with Sam Basel, a real estate agent in Estes Park, Colorado, since 2002 who spent a decade running his own boutique brokerage, Alpine Legacy, before hitting a wall. Sam walks me through how he pulled himself out of it with a 365-day streak of pushups, situps, and treadmill miles, then took his family on a three-month RV trip through 48 states to reset. We get into why he shut down the brokerage and moved to eXp, how a fifteen-year-old monthly newsletter still drives business in his small mountain market, and the framework he now uses to decide whether he’s chasing revenue, profit, or freedom in any part of his business. If you’ve ever felt like your business owns your time instead of the other way around, this conversation is for you. Key Topics Covered: * Sam Basel’s path from solo agent in 2002 to running his own boutique brokerage, Alpine Legacy, for ten years * The burnout that came from building and running his own brokerage, and the 365-day pushup, situp, and treadmill streak that helped pull him out of it * Taking a three-month RV sabbatical across 48 states with his family before restarting his business * Why he closed Alpine Legacy, moved to eXp, and started coaching with John Kitchens * The fifteen-year-old monthly newsletter (about a 40 percent open rate) that still drives business in his small mountain market, built around five property price tiers plus “best buys” and “eye candy” content * Running a lean, solo-agent model supported by three assistants instead of building out a big team * The real bottleneck most agents face: trading time for dollars * The “Revenue, Profit, or Freedom” framework — the only three things a business ever actually builds toward * His one-to-many approach to attracting other agents * The “Plus, Minus, Equal” mentorship framework, borrowed from Frank Shamrock’s MMA studio “You’re either building toward revenue, profit, or freedom. If you don’t know which one you’re actually building toward, you’ll optimize for the wrong thing.” — Sam Basel Connect With Us: Ready to build a business that runs without you? Save your seat for our next training at 7FigureBP.com , or book your 7 Figure Audit at 7figurecall.com . Follow us on Instagram @johnkitchenscoach , LinkedIn @johnkitchenscoach , and Facebook @johnkitchenscoach . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

August 18, 2026Episode 80655 min

806: From the Cage to Icon: Building a Real Estate Business With a Fighter's Mindset with Sarah Howell

What happens when you take twenty years of fight-camp discipline and point it at real estate? On this episode, I sit down with Sarah Howell, a former professional MMA fighter who spent two decades in the fitness industry before walking into real estate and hitting Icon status at eXp in her very first year, then landing in the top 1% nationwide with Veterans United in 2025. Sarah didn’t leave her old life behind. She brought all of it with her: the training, the discipline, the ability to perform under pressure. We talk about the identity crisis she didn’t see coming when she shut down her own gym, how a “one house a month” goal turned into $16.3 million in year one, and the mindset shift from fighting to win to negotiating to a middle ground. If you lead a team and want a masterclass in discipline, consistency, and finding a deeper reason to do the work, this one is for you. Key Topics Covered: * Why the jump from professional fighting to real estate wasn’t as extreme as it sounds * The identity crisis Sarah didn’t expect when she closed her MMA gym after eight-plus years * Turning a modest “one house a month” goal into $16.3 million in her first year * The daily discipline and time-blocking system behind her 80 percent consistency rule * Her “80 percent everywhere beats 100 percent at one thing” philosophy, borrowed straight from the cage * The shift from a win-lose fighter mentality to win-win negotiation * Outcome over ego: getting it right versus being right * How a chance encounter led to her Veterans United origin story and a shift from dollar goals to a “families served” goal * A lesson from her late father on never burning bridges * What agents get wrong about serving veteran and VA loan clients “ I don’t think anybody really gets into real estate and succeeds. They might get into real estate for money, but they’re not gonna make it, in my opinion. You get in for a deeper reason, and then you do well, and money comes with that.” — Sarah Howell Connect With Us: Ready to build a business that runs without you? Save your seat for our next free training at 7FigureBP.com , or book your 7 Figure Audit at 7figurecall.com . Follow us on Instagram @johnkitchenscoach and Facebook @johnkitchenscoach . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

August 12, 2026Episode 80539 min

#805: Working Harder Was the Ceiling: Robyn Rhein's Live Coaching Breakthrough on Leverage and Time

We’re bringing back Coffee and Coaching — the live, no-script coaching format that built this show’s foundation before it hit 800+ episodes. In this episode, John Kitchens sits down with Robyn Rhein, a solo agent who’s been in real estate since 2004 and produced 76 transactions in a single year, live in the hot seat. Robyn breaks down exactly how she broke through her production ceiling — from bringing on a buyer’s agent to reallocate her time, to the compensation structure that makes that leverage actually work, to the real bottleneck she’s facing now: time itself. Key Topics Covered: * Why Robyn’s growth from 30-35 to 76 transactions came down to leverage, not just harder work * How she structures pay for her buyer’s agent (per-door compensation with a cap, deal-based bonuses) * The non-negotiable traits she looks for in anyone she works with: organization, consistency, and work ethic * Why motivated sellers give the greatest return on your time in any market * The three business objectives — revenue, profit, and freedom — and why each needs a different play * Why real estate businesses rarely sell for real money, and how to build ancillary income that does * Robyn’s next move: hiring a VA to take social media off her plate * What it actually takes to build confidence: commitment, courage, and staying tuned into your wins “She got there and then found out working harder was the ceiling. The breakthrough was leverage.” - John Kitchens, on Robyn’s growth Connect With Us: Ready to buy back 15+ hours a week without guessing between AI and hiring? Save your seat at our live Thursday training 👉 https://www.7FigureBP.com Want a plan built around your business? Book your 7 Figure Audit 👉 https://www.7figurecall.com Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook 👉 johnkitchenscoach This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

August 7, 202638 min

#804: Real Estate Is a Contact Sport: Brandon Town's Playbook for Winning the Toughest Market in Decades

This is, on record, the toughest real estate market in at least two decades, and most agents are still operating on habits built during the easy years. In this episode, John Kitchens sits down with Brandon Town, who has built one of the largest Canadian organizations within eXp Realty over the past decade, mentoring hundreds of agents while leading a high-performing team across Ontario. Brandon Town shares exactly what it looks like to take market share while everyone else pulls back. He breaks down why real estate is a contact sport, how many touches it actually takes today to move a prospect, why in-person events are the single best way to stay top of mind with a database, and why the marketing meeting is the one meeting that heads of every real estate business can never skip. Key Topics Covered: Why real estate is a contact sport, and what that means for how you spend your day The habits that formed during the easy years of 2020 and 2021, and why they're killing business today How many touches it actually takes to convert a prospect in this market Using texting, video, email, and AI together in a follow-up system Why in-person events are the number one way to stay top of mind with your database The law of reciprocity and how giving real value drives referrals Why environment and community matter more than ever in a tough market Why the marketing meeting is the most non-negotiable meeting for any agent or team leader Becoming a marketer who happens to sell real estate Notable Quote: "You have to become world-class at inviting." - Brandon Town, quoting Vincent Koo Connect With Us: Ready to buy back 15-plus hours a week without guessing between AI and hiring? Save your seat at 7FigureBP.com for our live Thursday training. Want a plan built around your business? Book your 7 Figure Audit at 7figurecall.com . Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook @johnkitchenscoach. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

August 4, 202632 min

#803: Straight Line Coaching: How to Stop Living in the Circular World

Most people live in a circular world, running the same Groundhog Day over and over instead of moving in a known direction. In this solo episode, John Kitchens breaks down straight line coaching, a framework for getting yourself and the people you lead out of that cycle and moving from point A, where you are, to point B, where you want to go, as fast as possible. John unpacks why a coach or leader is the guide in someone else's story, not the hero, and why the fastest path forward comes down to operating with both wisdom and power. He walks through the maze exercise he uses with clients, Mel Robbins' five-second rule for breaking through paralysis, and why real commitment only happens once you have reverse engineered exactly what it will take to get there. The throughline: it is not more information that moves people forward. It is transformation. Key Topics Covered: The difference between living in the circular world and moving in a straight line Why a coach or leader is the guide, not the hero, in someone else's story Wisdom versus power: awareness and accountability versus the choice to shift Using clear distinctions to build awareness and make better choices Why transformation, not more information, is what actually moves people forward The maze exercise: finding the fastest path from where you are to where you want to go Mel Robbins' five-second rule for breaking through paralysis Real commitment: reverse engineering the required actions before you commit Wanting versus creating, and why wanting drains the energy you need to get there Notable Quote: "Wanting robs us of the energy that's going to allow us to ever get it." — John Kitchens Connect With Us: Ready to buy back 15-plus hours a week without guessing between AI and hiring? Save your seat at 7FigureBP.com for our live Thursday training. Want a plan built around your business? Book your 7 Figure Audit at 7figurecall.com . Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook @johnkitchenscoach. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

July 31, 202651 min

#802: From Sales to Real Estate: Paul Durbin's Blueprint for a Six-Figure Month

Episode Overview What happens when 25 years of retail sales leadership collides with real estate? Paul Durbin, team leader of the Durbin Home Team out of Newark, Ohio, found out firsthand. In just two years in the business, he's closed more than 70 transactions and over 20 million dollars in sales volume, including a six-figure month in real estate before finishing his third full year. In this episode, Paul Durbin joins John Kitchens to unpack his 25-year retail career, from unloading trucks to running a district of 10 stores, two states, and 1,200 employees, and how that trial by fire built the exact skill set real estate rewarded him for. Paul shares the mentors who shaped him, why adaptability and consistent communication matter more than any script, how he thinks about team compensation and incentives, and why articulating value beats negotiating splits every time. Key Topics Covered Paul Durbin's 25-year retail sales and leadership career, and why he says "sales chose me" The mentors who saw potential in him before he saw it in himself Why adaptability, consistency, and communication are the top attributes of a great leader Accountability as the defining attribute of a great team member How Paul thinks about compensation, incentives, and team splits Why joining an experienced team leader accelerated his path versus going solo The behaviors behind his first six-figure month Notable Quote "Value articulated is value appreciated." — Paul Durbin Connect With Us Ready to buy back 15-plus hours a week without guessing between AI and hiring? Save your seat at 7FigureBP.com for our live Thursday training. Want a plan built around your business? Book your 7 Figure Audit at 7figurecall.com . Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook @johnkitchenscoach. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

July 28, 202649 min

#801: Why the Best Marketer Wins, Not the Best Agent with Alex Piech

A Fan-Favorite Rebroadcast: This episode is a rebroadcast of one of our fan-favorite conversations — originally released as Episode 661. We're bringing it back because the strategies Alex Piech shares are just as relevant today as they were then. In this episode, John Kitchens sits down with Alex Piech, a top-producing agent with EXP Realty in the highly competitive Dallas-Fort Worth market, for a wide-ranging conversation on what it actually takes to build consistent, predictable business in real estate right now. Alex breaks down his four core lead sources, why "the best marketer wins, not the best real estate agent," and the two metrics every agent should be tracking to turn their year around. Key Topics Covered: Mindset & Consistency — Why real estate rewards delayed gratification, and how to stay the course through 100 conversations before judging a lead source. - What's Working Now — Alex's top four lead sources: YouTube content, geographic farming, expireds, and Google PPC — and why doubling down beats chasing shiny objects. - Dominating a Geographic Farm — The multi-touch system behind Alex's neighborhood dominance: email opt-ins, quarterly market updates, postcards, and genuine community presence. - The Fake Agent Study — A real marketing experiment where a fictitious agent captured 82% top-of-mind market share in a neighborhood using nothing but consistent postcards. - Adapting to the Market — Why agents pricing off old comps are getting burned by rate swings, and how the agents thriving right now are the ones who've adjusted their approach. - The Two Metrics That Matter — Why conversations and appointments are the only numbers that really move the needle, and how to reverse-engineer your year from them. - Targeting Motivated Sellers — How to work expireds, relocation buyers, and absentee owners using the Frank Kern hook formula and a "have to move" mindset. - Creative Open House Strategy — The $700 taco truck play that turns one listing into a neighborhood-wide buzz event. "The best marketer wins, not the best real estate agent." — Alex Piech Connect With Us: Want to build a 7-figure real estate business? Join John Kitchens every Thursday at 11:00 AM Eastern for a live training on how to make the right hire and free up 15+ hours a week — save your seat at 7FigureBP.com . Ready for a deeper look at your business? Book a 7 Figure Audit at 7figurecall.com . Follow us: Instagram @johnkitchenscoach · LinkedIn @johnkitchenscoach · Facebook @johnkitchenscoach This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

July 24, 202651 min

#800: The Power of AI with Phil Stringer

In this episode of the John Kitchens Coach Podcast Experience, John sits down with Phil Stringer, former COO of one of North Carolina's top real estate teams and now a full-time AI educator reaching an audience of over five million people. Phil built a six-figure business as a teenager, became a top worldwide sales agent at eighteen, and has been featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, Fox, CBS, and NBC. In this conversation, Phil breaks down why the agents winning with AI right now aren't chasing the flashiest tools, they're building foundations AI can't take away from them. From learning how to learn, to cutting through AI hype, to building a "second brain" that makes any AI tool replaceable, this episode is a practical guide for team leaders trying to separate what actually moves the needle from what just looks cool online. Key Topics Covered Learning to Learn — How Phil taught himself to study, take notes, and comprehend information after struggling in an unconventional early education, and why that self-taught process became the foundation for how he now teaches AI to thousands of agents. Verify Then Trust: AI in a Trust Recession — Why deepfakes and AI avatars have made trust the scarcest resource in business today, and why Phil refuses to use an AI avatar of himself no matter how tempting the shortcut looks. Building an AI-Powered Business — How Phil automated his KPIs, his FAQ bank, and his weekly reporting so his entire operation updates itself daily, without him ever touching a spreadsheet. Cutting Through the AI Hype — The difference between content engineered to go viral and content engineered to build a real business, and why the sexiest AI hack in the room is usually the least useful one. Authentic Content Creation Strategy — Why copying what works for someone else will never outperform being yourself, and how a small, engaged audience beats a viral video that reaches the wrong people. The Second Brain: Own Your AI Context Forever — Phil's system for capturing every call, text, email, and conversation into files he owns on his own computer, so no single AI tool (Claude, ChatGPT, or whatever comes next) ever holds his business hostage. Where AI Actually Matters for Real Estate Agents — Phil's filter for deciding whether a new AI tool or trend is worth an agent's time, or just a distraction dressed up as innovation. "Stop asking AI how to do something, and stop telling AI how to do something. Just tell it the result that you want." — Phil Stringer Connect With Us Ready to buy back 15+ hours a week without guessing between AI and hiring? Join us live every Thursday at 11:00 AM Eastern. Save your seat at 7FigureBP.com . Ready to find out what's really holding your business back? Schedule your 7 Figure Audit at 7figurecall.com . Follow us: Instagram @johnkitchenscoach | LinkedIn @johnkitchenscoach | Facebook @johnkitchenscoach This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

July 21, 202646 min

#799: How to Hire the Right People: Building a Real Estate Team That Runs Itself with Georgia Tusch

Episode Overview: Learning to hire the right people is the difference between a business that depends on you forever and one that runs without you. In this episode, John Kitchens sits down with Georgia Tusch, a top-producing realtor and team leader at Twiss Real Estate Group in Ontario, to unpack her journey from solo agent to CEO. Georgia shares the hiring lessons that took her team from chaos to scale, why she is no longer allowed anywhere near her own onboarding process, and how storytelling through video became the engine behind her brand. If you are still doing everything yourself, this episode is your reminder that you do not have to. Topics Covered: From Part-Time Agent to Full-Time CEO Georgia started in real estate young, learned the business the hard way selling farms with no real social media to lean on, and eventually rebuilt her career after stepping away during a difficult personal season. The turning point came when she stopped treating real estate as a side hustle and started running it like a business. The Hiring Mistake Most Team Leaders Make Georgia's first hire, an admin, doubled her business almost overnight simply by taking paperwork off her plate. The advice that stuck: hire someone who is the opposite of you, someone you would not necessarily go have a drink with. That admin has been with her for four years. Georgia's take: you do not have to already know how to hire the right people, you just have to be willing to let go of the paperwork first. Building a Gold Standard Hiring Process Early on, Georgia hired whoever reached out and wanted to be on her team, with no real vetting against values or mission. It worked for a while, until toxicity crept in and those hires were not aligned with what she needed. Rebuilding around a real hiring process, one that actually screens for fit before anyone gets close to being onboarded, changed everything. Her biggest lesson: you cannot hire the right people by accident. It takes a real process, real vetting, and a willingness to say no. Why Georgia Is Banned From Her Own Onboarding Georgia is a chronic optimist who believes the best in everyone, which made her a liability in her own hiring process. John told her team directly that if Georgia is part of onboarding, it will not work. Today she is not involved until the final handshake, and her team runs the process from start to finish. Finding the Right People for the Right Seats One of Georgia's most valuable hires came from an unexpected place: the gym industry. Her head of ISA had spent years cold-calling for a local gym, and that phone-heavy background made her a natural fit for outbound sales. Within months she was not just hitting her own numbers, she was pulling the rest of the team up with her, eventually growing into a role overseeing accountability across the whole team. Georgia says the lesson applies past sales: you do not hire the right people by finding a perfect resume, you hire the right people by finding the strengths your team is missing and building the role around them. Storytelling as a Marketing Superpower From a half-burnt house to a four million dollar log cabin, Georgia believes every listing has a story worth telling. Her latest idea: filming her nephews exploring a cabin property like it is their clubhouse, instead of another standard walkthrough video. Buy Back Your Time: The 80% Rule Drawing on Dan Martell's Buy Back Your Time, John and Georgia talk about hiring to reclaim time, not just to grow, and why a team member getting something to 80% of your standard is still 100% awesome. Why Hiring the Right People Changes Everything Every part of Georgia's growth traces back to one decision: hiring the right people and getting out of their way. Once she stopped being the bottleneck, her team started running processes she never could have scaled alone, freeing her up to focus on brand, marketing, and the next builder relationship. Team leaders who take hiring the right people seriously are the ones who eventually get to stop trading their time for every dollar their business makes. "Every house has a story." — Georgia Tusch Connect With Us: Join us Live every Thursday: 7FigureBP.com 7 Figure Audit: 7figurecall.com Instagram: @johnkitchenscoach LinkedIn: @johnkitchenscoach Facebook: @johnkitchenscoach If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review. Stay tuned for more insights and strategies from the top minds. See you next time! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com

July 17, 202628 min

#798: The Coaching Principles That Build Bigger Leaders

Your business will never outgrow your leadership. In this episode, John Kitchens continues the coaching and leadership series with the five core principles and practices that separate coaches and leaders who create real transformation from those who don't. Building on the fundamentals, the coach-client relationship, the Coach Code results framework, and emotional intelligence covered in earlier episodes, John unpacks knowing your why (and the real difference between passion and purpose), designing your Perfect Day as a decision-making filter, understanding "the river" of nonlinear growth, applying the Theory of Constraints to find what's really holding you back, and why repetition, not a new message every week, is what actually moves people to act. Key Topics Covered: Principle #1: Your Why — the difference between passion (something you love doing) and purpose (something you love doing that helps other people) Principle #2: The Perfect Day — using it as a decision-making filter to move faster and with more clarity Principle #3: The River — why growth isn't linear, and the coach's job during the whitewater, the drought, and everything between Principle #4: Theory of Constraints — finding the one thing actually holding your business back, with book recommendations "The Goal" by Eli Goldratt and "Reset" by Dan Heath Principle #5: Repetition — why "the rule of 7" is really closer to 20+, and why leaders must repeat their message far more than feels comfortable "There are no business problems. There are only leadership problems. The size of your business is elastic to the size of your leadership capabilities." — John Kitchens Connect With Us: Save your seat for the training at 7FigureBP.com · Get your 7 Figure Audit at 7figurecall.com · Follow us on Instagram @johnkitchenscoach, LinkedIn @johnkitchenscoach, and Facebook @johnkitchenscoach This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnkitchenscoachpodcast.substack.com