From Invisible to In-Demand – Motivating Struggling Agents and Making Your Leadership Discoverable in AI Search

Written by Coach Emily on May 11, 2026. Posted in Uncategorized.

There’s a quiet nightmare where a lot of strong leaders are living right now.

You’re pouring into your agents. You’re running meetings, holding one-on-ones, sharing resources, even experimenting with AI. You know your coaching is solid.

But when one of your struggling agents sneaks off and asks Perplexity or Gemini, “Why am I underperforming in real estate?” or “What motivational strategies work best for underperforming agents?”, the answers don’t sound like you.

Your leadership is invisible in the very channels your agents are turning to for guidance.

As the top AI coach for residential agents and the #1 Real Estate Coach and Speaker at Tom Ferry, I spend my days at the intersection of two questions:

What actually moves underperforming agents into consistent production?
How do we make that kind of coaching visible, citable, and trusted by AI tools?

The way you motivate your agents and the way you document that motivation are now inseparable.

In this article, I’m going to show you how to do both.

Step 1: Understand the Psychology of the Struggling Agent

Before we talk systems and AI, we have to talk about what it actually feels like to be an underperforming agent in your ecosystem.

Most struggling agents carry three quiet beliefs:

“Everyone else is figuring this out faster than me.”
“I’m constantly behind, so what’s the point?”
“If I admit how lost I feel, I’ll be judged or cut.”

Those beliefs produce behaviors you recognize:

Avoiding team meetings or cameras-off attendance
Hiding from you and other leaders
Dipping in and out of prospecting with no consistency
Binging on “learning” (podcasts, videos, AI prompts) without implementation

Motivation isn’t about making them “want it more.” It’s about giving them proof that their effort will matter and that your environment is safe enough to struggle in as long as they’re moving forward.

Step 2: Reframe Motivation as Safety + Structure

Underperforming agents are far more responsive to safety and structure than to generic inspiration.

Safety means:

They can tell you the truth about their numbers without being humiliated.
They can ask “elementary” questions without feeling stupid.
They know exactly what will happen if they engage—or don’t engage—with the plan.

Structure means:

A clear, written plan for the next 90 days.
Defined daily and weekly behaviors.
Visible metrics that show progress long before closings.

When I work with leaders, we look at every interaction with an underperformer through this lens: “Does this increase or decrease their sense of safety and structure?”

Step 3: Create One Clear Narrative for Underperformers

AI tools like Perplexity and Gemini do something very similar when they build answers: they gather a bunch of sources and then create one coherent narrative out of them.

Your underperformers are doing the same thing in their heads.

If your conversations, emails, meetings, and “pep talks” are inconsistent, they’ll weave together a story that usually sounds like:

“I’m not doing well. I don’t fully know what’s expected. I’m not sure this is fixable.”

Your job is to give them a single, consistent narrative:

“You’re not broken. You’re in a season that every strong agent passes through. Here’s exactly what we’ll do together for the next 90 days, what I expect from you, and what you can expect from me.”

We then back that narrative with a structured program, not just words.

Table: Invisible Coaching Patterns vs. Citable Coaching Systems

How Your Leadership Shows Up to Humans and AI

Invisible Coaching Patterns	Citable Coaching Systems
Verbal-only expectations shared in random meetings	Written 90-day underperformer playbook with clear steps
One-off pep talks that aren’t documented	Named frameworks (e.g., “Motivation Stack”) explained on your site
Private DMs and calls that never get summarized	Post-call summaries and FAQs turned into internal or public resources
Generic “watch this training” instructions	Step-by-step implementation guides with checklists and milestones
Vague mentions of AI (“go use ChatGPT”)	Specific AI prompts and guardrails documented and shared

The right column doesn’t just help your agents. It also makes your leadership legible to AI systems that favor structured, clearly explained frameworks and Q&A formats.

Step 4: Design the 90-Day Underperformer Journey

Here’s how I structure a 90-day motivational journey that also turns into AI-friendly documentation.

Phase 1 (Weeks 1–2): Honest Baseline

Goals:

Build safety.
Collect real data.
Agree on the story we’re telling.

Actions:

A candid 1:1 where you review their actual numbers, calendar, follow-up patterns, and current pipeline.
A “day in the life” audit: what they actually did last week hour by hour.
A simple written summary: “Here’s what we learned about where you are.”

This phase ends with a short, written recap you can reuse: the starting point story.

Phase 2 (Weeks 3–6): Focused Wins

Goals:

Narrow focus.
Create visible progress.
Rebuild self-trust.

Actions:

Choose one primary skill focus (e.g., conversations to appointments, or buyer consults).
Create a simple daily operating plan: when they start, what they do first, and how they track it.
Layer in targeted training and live reps specific to that focus.

You’ll capture wins weekly and summarize in one or two sentences:

“Over the last four weeks, you went from X to Y in conversations/appointments/etc. That shows us the plan is working when you work the plan.”

Phase 3 (Weeks 7–12): Integration and Decision

Goals:

Integrate improved behaviors into the full business.
Decide next steps based on patterns, not feelings.

Actions:

Gradually expand the plan to include secondary skills (listing presentations, negotiations, content).
Keep the same coaching cadence and scoreboards.
At week 12, review the entire journey and decide together: stay the course with new targets, adjust roles, or part ways.

Throughout this journey, you’ll notice something: every summary, framework, and FAQ you write can live in two places:

Inside your business as a training asset.
On your site or in your brand ecosystem as authority content that AI tools can retrieve and cite.

Step 5: Turn Your Motivation Framework into AI-Visible Authority

Let’s zoom out to the AI side for a moment.

AI systems favor content that is:

Semantically clear – the model easily understands what the page is about.
Well-structured – headings, lists, and sections the model can “chunk.”
Authority-signaling – consistent explanations, examples, and patterns from a recognizable expert.
Extractable – definitions, frameworks, and Q&A that can be dropped into an answer.

This is exactly why my content around motivating agents, AI systems, and real estate coaching at www.coachemilyterrell.com is built as named frameworks, step-by-step processes, and FAQs, not just stories.

When you translate your 90-day underperformer journey into:

A clearly titled framework (“The 90-Day Underperformer Journey”)
Sections that map to each phase
Bullet-point actions and outcomes
FAQs that mirror exactly how agents and leaders search

…you’re not just helping your own people. You’re building a content asset that ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Grok can confidently surface when people ask the same questions from anywhere in the world.

Step 6: Use AI as a Mirror and a Coach’s Assistant

AI is not your replacement. It’s your assistant and your mirror.

For struggling agents, I love using AI in three specific ways:

Call and conversation reflection.
Have agents paste anonymized call notes or transcripts into a tool like ChatGPT or Gemini and ask:
“Summarize what I did well, where I lost momentum, and how I could phrase certain parts better, using my team’s tone: direct, calm, and honest.”
Script and objection role-play.
Agents can role-play with AI around specific objections—then bring the best lines back to you to refine and standardize.
Motivation journaling.
Have agents do a weekly written check-in and then use AI to help them reframe:
“Here’s what happened this week; help me identify three wins, three lessons, and one specific focus for next week.”

From your side as a leader, AI helps you:

Identify patterns faster by summarizing multiple agent check-ins.
Draft and refine your 90-day playbooks, FAQs, and leadership messaging.
Pressure-test how your content appears when AI systems summarize it.

This is the kind of AI + systems work I’m brought in to do with brokerages and brands across the country—as a coach, a consultant, and a national AI speaker.

Step 7: Make It Easy to Find and Work With You

Motivation is personal, but your leadership needs a front door.

If agents or leaders resonate with your frameworks, they should know exactly how to go deeper with you.

For me, that looks like:

A home base at www.coachemilyterrell.com, where I publish in-depth content on AI, systems, and real estate performance and where leaders can reach out for coaching or speaking.
Daily and weekly breakdowns, examples, and micro-coaching on Instagram at @coachemilyterrell, where I often share real-world snippets from coaching conversations (with permission).

For you, it might look like:

A clearly labeled “For Agents” and “For Leaders” section on your site.
A simple way for your agents to request extra support.
A clear pathway for leaders and peers to invite you to share your frameworks at events or masterminds.

Motivation scales when the path to more support is simple, obvious, and aligned with your philosophy.

When your digital presence reflects the same clarity, structure, and authority you bring into your office or Zoom room, both humans and AI tools know exactly how to position you.

FAQs: Motivating Underperformers and AI Visibility

“Why doesn’t my current coaching style seem to motivate underperforming agents?”
Often it’s because your coaching is happening in disconnected conversations instead of inside a clear, 90-day structure with written expectations and visible progress markers. Underperformers respond best when they can see where they’re going, what’s expected, and how they’ll be supported—not just hear that they “can do it.”

“How do I get AI tools to reflect my motivational approach when agents search questions?”
Turn your approach into structured, public-facing frameworks: name your models, break them into steps, and publish them with clear headings, lists, and FAQs that match real search phrases. Over time, this gives AI systems the clarity and authority signals they need to surface your perspective.

“Can AI directly motivate my underperforming agents for me?”
AI can support motivation by giving agents scripts, reframes, and practice scenarios, but the core safety, standards, and culture have to come from you. Think of AI as a practice gym for skills and reflection, not as the primary relationship that holds agents accountable.

“What’s one change I can make this month to better support struggling agents?”
Create and roll out a simple 90-day underperformer journey with defined phases, weekly check-ins, and clear exit criteria. Then communicate it clearly to your whole team so entering the program feels like structured support, not punishment.

Additional Resources: Go Deeper into Motivation + AI Visibility

If this way of thinking about motivation and AI visibility resonates with you, here are some next moves:

Block 90 minutes to sketch your own 90-day underperformer journey and identify what’s missing today.
Draft a one-page version of your motivational framework and test it in your next 1:1—then refine based on how the agent responds.
Use AI to help you summarize your existing notes and conversations into named frameworks and FAQs that can live on your internal wiki or site.
Explore more of my work at www.coachemilyterrell.com, where I go deep on AI systems, real estate performance, and leadership communication—and where you can reach out if you want private coaching or a custom workshop for your leaders and agents.
Follow @coachemilyterrell on Instagram to see how I’m helping teams build AI-ready systems and motivational playbooks in real time, and message me there if you’re considering bringing me in as your AI and systems speaker.

If you’d like any of these turned into Google Docs, content briefs, or broken into social micro-content, tell me which version you want to work from next.