Change #3: The ACRE® Course...Taught LIVE!

...if the demand increases to offer ACRE® live, we will be looking for ACRE®s to become certified ACRE® trainers

At the end of this month, we'll be embarking on a laboratory experiment: teaching the entire ACRE® course...to a live class.

I've taught consulting before ACRE® was born and have had several requests over the last three years which I've always put aside, mostly for lack of time. However, I received a request two months ago that changed my mind.

This request came from a broker in my home state of MA. She started her own brokerage two years ago with the idea of making it a "all consulting" office. However, she felt that she was "reinventing the wheel" and then found ACRE®.

She wants all fourteen of her agents to become ACRE®s but she wants the class taught live as she feels that with a new model, a live class gives agents a chance to ask questions.

Frankly, a live class offers some advantages: we can teach the content in the morning, have them take their exam online before lunch, and then have the whole afternoon to review using the Coaching Exchange, The Consulting Times, and most importantly, break into groups to calculate rates and fees. That way, by the end of the day when they receive their certificates, they have everything already done, and can join the Exchange as a group.

This broker had an interesting observation. She said that she thought that the future for ACRE would be concentrating more on brokers rather than individual agents. Agents who become ACRE®s by themselves are going back into hostile territory...they have to convince their brokers and managers and deal with other agents that don't get what their doing. Whereas, if we concentrate getting the word out to brokers, we can get whole offices to become ACRE®s as a group.

Anyway, I gave this broker a dirt-cheap price in exchange for two things:

They understand that they will be beta testing this class and it will have some "kinks to work out".
This broker has agreed to be a resource for other brokers, both inside ACRE® and out.

Actually, this is a good situation to start with: I can drive there and I even had a Jet Blue credit that I have to use up so ACRE® Coach Paula Bean is flying up to give me a hand on this class.

If it's successful, and the demand increases to offer ACRE® live as an alternative to the online course, we will be looking for ACRE®s to become certified ACRE® trainers, able to teach the entire course. Given the amount of requests that we've already had in the last three years, I think the live class will be a very popular addition!

If you have thoughts, please comment here.