Before hiring a coach, Matt Dakoske already had 40 years of experience as a real estate agent and had many profitable years under his belt. So what was a successful agent like himself seeking from a real estate coach? And what has compelled him to stay on as a private coaching client for the last five years? 

For one thing — it’s the growth. Private coaching has helped Matt significantly increase his GCI. Before private coaching, Matt would hit a range from 250K to 500K a year — pretty good! However, what he did last year helped him achieve his personal goal of surpassing the top-producing agent in his town at a GCI of 1.4 million. That’s well over a hundred percent increase in profitability since he started coaching!

Private real estate coaching has also allowed Matt to create a successful team to help him run his business more efficiently. He says his priorities have shifted to become more team-centric.

“It’s fun. We’re having a great time. I’ve got good people working with me. I’m anxious to help them become successful.”

With five agents and two admins, Matt is learning that he has the power as the team leader to uplift his team members and help them reach their goals in both their professional personal lives, and that’s part of his own vision for success. He said, “The processes taught in coaching allow me and my team to take control of our lives.” 

Now that he has an effective real estate team, Matt no longer has to work 50-60 hours a week to be successful in the business.

“My business runs itself. I can leave on vacation. I had never taken a three-week vacation in my life!”

Not only can Matt leave for vacation, but he now has the freedom to cultivate other important areas of his life, like spending quality time with his grandchildren. 

Family is very important to Matt. In fact, Matt is highly motivated to continue private coaching so he can help his daughter, a buyer’s agent on his team, establish a successful business by paving the way for her. With the help of his coach, Matt is hoping to teach his daughter how to thrive in real estate. 

Before coaching, he saw his daughter as a new agent struggling with the same things he did, like understanding where her priorities should be in order to make money. He said, “Coaching offered the structure that I needed to help my daughter move forward in her career.” He hopes to be able to get her to a GCI of a quarter million in the next year. 

Matt thinks the tools and systems he has gained in private coaching align with his daughter’s life goals. She is a mother of three who wants to have an active lifestyle outside of work.

“I live to work, she works to live. She has a different philosophy in life.”

He wants her to have the work-life balance that he now has. 

Setting his daughter up for success is not just a personal goal of Matt’s, but a professional one as well. By teaching his daughter to follow the processes he has learned in coaching, Matt is actively readying himself for retirement. Private coaching offers a customized plan for his retirement to go as smoothly as possible. His coach is helping him set up a smooth transition for him to have fewer and fewer duties without sacrificing the success of his business or his team.   

It’s safe to say that Matt has benefited from private real estate coaching in many ways. Perhaps the most priceless benefit is the relationship he has developed with his coach, Jim Knowlton. Jim brought perspective to Matt’s business that has helped him create a vision of what he really wants. Matt said, “Jim has helped me to understand what I wanted to get out of my career and how to help my daughter achieve success. I never could have envisioned doing this without Jim.” 

In Matt’s final remarks about private coaching, he gave some advice to fellow agents looking to find success in their business.

“If I were to make a recommendation: get a coach, follow the process, and understand what you really want in life.”  


If you’d like to follow Matt’s advice about real estate coaching, set up a free consultation to talk about your business goals with one of our business analysts. If you need assistance with work-life balance, team structure, retirement planning, or anything else, our coaches are ready to help.

About the Author: 

Aiden is a professional writer, editor, and content creator for Workman Success Systems. After copyediting for the Daily Chronicle newspaper and the University of Utah Press, she graduated with a B.A. in English. Since graduating, she has focused on creating engaging content for the real estate industry and is now the managing editor for Workman Success Systems.