FRED SED

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Fred Sed Executive Agent of the Month

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Fred Sed

Succeeding Through Others

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Written by Haley Freeman - Ian Wiant Photographer

red Sed has the unusual distinction of calling himself a third generation Realtor®. When he was still a teenager, he went to real estate school, and by the age of 20, he was a licensed agent who quickly excelled in the business.

Eleven years later, Fred is a broker associate leading a powerhouse Keller Williams team, Fred Sed & Associates.

This dynamic team of six includes his mother, Tami, and in only a year and a half, this synergistic group has pro-

pelled themselves into the top 5% of Keller Williams agents nationally.

Winning teams do not happen by accident. Fred was already a top-producing agent with another major brand when he decided to challenge himself to achieve something greater. He found resonance in Keller Williams’ mission statement: To build careers worth having, busi-

nesses worth owning, and lives worth living. “That’s what I want. I came here to learn how to model their systems for building a real business. Now that the market is rebounding, we are truly in a skill-based market.

Anyone with a license can sell a few houses to friends and family. But to be a true real estate agent at a high level, a person has to operate like a business.”

Fred had big shoes to fill, coming from a family of prominent agents and developers in Iran. Then, when he

graduated from high school, he quickly entered the job market to help support his mother and brother after the departure of his father. “It was a rough time. I more or less had to grow up into an adult overnight. I started out working in the same office with my mother. In my journey, I made a lot of mistakes early, but those have molded me into the business owner, leader, husband and father I am today.”

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Fred Sed & Associates: Saundra Butz, Rheannon Cooper, Fred Sed, Jahana Sed, Shawn Kirch, Tami Pourtabib Today, Fred is not only an inspiring leader for his own team, but for many others in the industry. He is a member of the Associate Leadership Council (ALC), a decisionmaking board of top producers, and oversees its Growth Committee. “I regularly facilitate our Success Night, where I speak to people who are thinking of getting into real estate, and to some who are already in the business but are new or struggling. I do a presentation about what it takes to build and run a successful real estate business.

I made a lot of money very young, back when the market was artificially inflated. Anyone could be successful then.

But I had no foundation and therefore no real business.

This is a company that provides the tools to build a business on a solid foundation.”

This is a topic Fred knows well, as he has followed the KW formula and is proof of its success. “I spent a few years trying to build a team with another company. I had more business than I could handle from my online marketing and referrals, but I didn’t bring on the right people.

Keller Williams teaches you to bring on the right people by using their RSTLM method: recruit, select, train, lead and motivate. This was the first course I took within weeks

of joining Keller Williams. I learned how to interview and hire the right people for the job by imitating the hiring methods of major corporations. This is something the industry generally lacks, but it is essential to building a business worth owning.”

Consistent with his belief that to service the client at the highest level, one must have the right individuals in the right roles, Fred has carefully crafted a team with the skills, values and behavioral styles that match their individual functions. “Saundra is our TC, my right hand and a rock star with 10+ years in the business. She is great with customers. Rheannon is one of our buyer specialists, and she is enthusiastic and totally dedicated to helping our clients find what they are looking for. My mom, Tami, is also a buyer specialist. Our higher net worth clients love her because they can always count on her to tell them how it is. She is really the mom for our whole team. Shawn, our marketing coordinator, does a phenomenal job managing our social media, multiple websites, online and offline marketing. My wife, Jahana, is our client servies coordinator.”

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“Create Something You Enjoy Doing And That Is A Vehicle To Fund The Life That Everyone Wants.”

One of the reasons that Fred chooses to work with a team rather than as a solo agent is his belief that by working Together, Everyone Achieves More. “I meet with my staff every Monday, and we do an individual recap of everyone’s personal and professional goals. The culture of our team is super important to me. I want to make sure these individuals who come to work every day are happy and fulfilled

by what they do here. The highlight of 2014 for me was seeing each person achieve a goal they had. It is incredible to see the business you created working at a high level to produce the income necessary to support everyone in lives that make them happy – to create something you enjoy doing and that is a vehicle to fund the life that everyone wants.”

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Fred also places great emphasis on the value of coaching. “I think it’s about accountability more than anything.

But you must be coachable. If somebody who has what I want tells me what to do, I’ll do it. I can’t see myself ever being without it. Here and at my previous company, I built relationships with leaders in the company. Chris Heller is one of my mentors and is now the CEO of Keller Williams. He is also the operating principal of our office in Irvine, and as busy as he is, he still makes time to answer my questions.”

For 2015, Fred’s focus is on succeeding through others. “Giving our customers an amazing experience is so important. It’s what we’ve been hired to do. But I am also so passionate about having that same mindset toward my relationships with my peers. A true leader attracts people and inspires others by helping them to achieve their goals. That’s the kind of leader I aspire to be.”

is amazing, and our kids are amazing. When we found out we were pregnant with our first daughter, we agreed that it was a priority for her to be a stay at home mom.

She resigned from her job, and we made sacrifices to keep our kids out of daycare. This is why I push myself, and I keep pictures of my family everywhere – my office, my phone, my computer desktop – so that I never lose focus.”

Fred and his team emphasize positive thinking and work together to find and implement solutions. “I know two things about myself: I come from a place of contribution, and I am solution-oriented. I try always to be authentic in what I say and do, and I want to inspire others in a positive direction, whether they are my family, my team members or my clients.”

Fred gives his all to build a business worth owning, in order to have a life worth living with the people most important to him, his wife, Jahana, and their three young children. “The first time I saw Jahana, it was a God moment in my opinion – she had halos around her. My wife

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Fred Sed

Fred Sed & Associates Keller Williams Realty 4010 Barranca Pkwy., Ste. 100 Irvine, CA, 92604 Tel: 949-272-0125 Info@BestOCProperties.com www.BestOCProperties.com CalBRE # 01423187

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