Wealthy Agents Think About Net, Not Split

If you’ve ever felt stuck at a certain income level, the number you’re fixated on might be the very thing keeping you there. For a lot of agents, that number is their split, and years ago, a mentor helped Chris see why that focus quietly caps what you earn. It’s a lesson we come back to constantly with the agents we coach.

Chris had bought an insurance company and was weighing his options, whether to start from scratch, buy a franchise, or come in under a model where he kept a smaller split, but the company handled much of the backend and service. When he asked his mentor for advice and started talking through the splits, the mentor cut him off.

Wealthy people think about net. His mentor put it bluntly: if you’re focused on the split, you’re thinking about it wrong, because wealthy people think about net, and poor people think about the split. The split itself is almost immaterial. You could keep just 3% of a business and hand 97% to the company, and if that business is doing hundreds of millions or more, you’d be far happier with your slice than someone clinging to a big percentage of something small.

A $2 million objection that said it all. That idea reminded Chris of one of the first people to join his team early on. The agent had made decent money on his own, just over six figures in his best year, but he felt stuck. When Chris asked what he wanted, the agent hesitated because a team meant splits. So Chris walked him through a thought experiment. Imagine next year you work the same hours, but with the parts you hate handled for you, and you bring in $10 million in gross commission income on a 20% split. You’d keep $2 million, twenty times your best year ever. The agent’s response was that he’d be upset the team made $8 million while he made $2 million.

The number that should have thrilled him. Chris pointed out the obvious: making twenty times more than he’d ever earned would leave him frustrated instead of grateful. When the agent confirmed that, yes, it genuinely would, Chris knew it wasn’t the right fit, because a team can help you earn far more, but only if you stop measuring success by what the other side keeps.

Own a smaller piece of more. This is the way Jeff Bezos thinks. He owns less than 10% of Amazon, yet owning that slice of something enormous has served him extraordinarily well. The real question is whether you’d rather have 90% of a grape or 10% of a watermelon. Chris lived this himself in one of his own businesses, where he once owned 50% and chose to bring in partners and own less, because a smaller percentage of a much bigger pie meant close to double what he’d made before.

You become a different operator. When your pie grows, you don’t just make– more money. You start thinking differently, and you become a sharper version of yourself, one who keeps building for the long run. That growth compounds, and nobody can ever take it away from you, which is why the shift matters as much for who you become as for what you deposit. This is the heart of what actually grows a real estate business, and it starts with the willingness to let go of doing everything yourself.

Get around bigger thinkers. So if you’re stuck and you want to earn more, drop the obsession with split and start thinking about net. Chris did it himself with the insurance company, taking a smaller split so he could keep a bigger net, and he eats his own cooking. When you surround yourself with people who make you think bigger, you grow into someone capable of holding more, and one of the fastest ways to free your time for that growth is bringing on the right help. It’s about what you keep, not just what you make.

If we can help you rethink your business and figure out how to actually earn more of what you’re worth, we’d love to have that conversation and walk through what’s possible for you. Book a Call with our team, or email Chris directly at ChrisCraddock@ChrisCraddockLeadership.com. You can also visitchriscraddockleadership.com to learn more. Let’s figure out how much bigger your pie can get.