Think Bigger Real Estate: Recent Episodes
Justin Stoddart
The road to success is well-marked. The road to significance is not. Here, we help you to Think Bigger than just your business. We inspire you to seek success AND significance, income AND impact. We do that by interviewing the biggest thinkers and highest achievers in the real estate industry, extracting from them the secrets to having it all.
After nine years and nearly 500 episodes, Justin Stoddart reflects on the decision to end the Think Bigger Real Estate podcast—and shares lessons on growth, alignment, and the evolving role of trust. Tune in to gain almost a decade of insights in a fifteen minutes, and get a sneak peek at what comes next.
In this episode, Andrea Gordon shares her insights on how to maintain individualized attention while being a top-producing real estate agent.
In this episode, we sit down with Boise real estate powerhouse Christina Ward to unpack how she built a thriving business with an astonishing 86% referral rate. Christina shares the systems, mindset, and generosity-driven strategies behind her “ultimate referral system,” including her 52-touch plan, community events, home makeovers, and the art of teaching clients how to truly refer.
In this episode, I sit down with Manhattan broker and bestselling author Scott Harris to explore why emotional intelligence—not market knowledge—is the real superpower in modern real estate.
In this episode we break down what top agents are doing right now to set up a powerful 2026. From strategic holiday touchpoints and early pipeline building to Stephanie's “Costco strategy” and a 12-week planning rhythm, we share the relationship-driven actions that create real momentum long before January.
What is a brand: "A brand is the identity and story of a provider that makes it stand out from competitors that offer similar services. Branding aims to earn space in the target audience's minds and become their preferred option for doing business."
My question to you, and the questions that we're going to answer on today's podcast include:
-Is your brand attracting the type of clientele that you would consider ideal?
-If YES, how do you get your brand in front of more potential teammates and clients so that your business and life are filled with your ideal clients?
-If NO, what needs to change?
In this episode, we welcome Tia Lilly, the Founder/Broker Owner of Property Cape Cod Real Estate to discuss this important topic.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download The Ultimate Guide to 10X Your Referrals: guide.thinkbiggerRE.com/10xReferrals
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: YouTube.com/c/@ThinkBiggerRE
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
When we capture the power of introspection, even the power of inspiration, we gain perspective that allows us to rise above the clouds of our own limitations and the competition of the marketplace.
Here I walk through the why, the what, the how and the what now of journaling.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download The Ultimate Guide to 10X Your Referrals: guide.thinkbiggerRE.com/10xReferrals
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: YouTube.com/c/@ThinkBiggerRE
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
While nobody has a perfect crystal ball about where the real estate market is headed, we'd all benefit by hearing the grounded perspective of an agent whose team closes 35 transactions each month.
This episode highlights the knowledge of Rhode Island agent, Kyle Seyboth who has the fastest-growing C21 brokerage franchise in the country.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download The Ultimate Guide to 10X Your Referrals: guide.thinkbiggerRE.com/10xReferrals
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: YouTube.com/c/@ThinkBiggerRE
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
What does it take for a woman to win in real estate? What about a woman winning in real estate investing. That's what we explore with Lisa Copeland who is:
- Top 1% Luxury Agent
- Founder of Women WIRE Inc - Women winning in real estate
- Founder of Women WIRE Inc Syndicate
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download The Ultimate Guide to 10X Your Referrals: guide.thinkbiggerRE.com/10xReferrals
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: YouTube.com/c/@ThinkBiggerRE
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
With fewer real estate transactions closing than in previous years, we don't have the luxury of missing any of them that otherwise should be ours. We must be sure that we capitalize on every real estate transaction within our reach.
The first place we must start is within our own database. The way to do that is to be sure that our database is hearing from us and seeing us as, hands-down, the best choice.
Here I interview Dan Demott, an esteemed real estate coach and the owner of the Home Source Team.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download The Ultimate Guide to 10X Your Referrals: guide.thinkbiggerRE.com/10xReferrals
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: YouTube.com/c/@ThinkBiggerRE
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
Receiving referrals from other professionals has always been a bit of a Herculean effort... until now.
As the CEO of ProInsight, my business partner and I have identified that referrals should actually NOT be the end goal.
Instead, the goal should be business integration.
Join me for a special podcast presentation in which I will walk you through what we are doing at ProInsight to help you rise above the slow-going and inconsistent professional referral game to an entirely new way of getting business from other professionals.
This new method is easier and more simple than you can imagine.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download The Ultimate Guide to 10X Your Referrals: guide.thinkbiggerRE.com/10xReferrals
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: YouTube.com/c/@ThinkBiggerRE
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
Loida Velasquez is a real estate influencer out of Hollywood, Florida.
Loida built my business through cold calling and door-knocking FSBOs and Expireds. Since 2015, she started creating content on YouTube and has 88K subscribers and over 5M views.
Today we learn how she went from prospector to influencer.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download The Ultimate Guide to 10X Your Referrals: guide.thinkbiggerRE.com/10xReferrals
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: YouTube.com/c/@ThinkBiggerRE
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
Most professionals (real estate, lending, financial advisors) don't stand out from their peers because they've learned everything they know "from their peers." Do you see the dilemma? It's hard to differentiate when everyone pulls ideas from the same pool.
One way to stand out from your peers is to not see nor describe yourself as a "real estate agent" or a "lender" but to see yourself as a wealth advisor of real estate portfolios. One way to do that is to learn from those in the financial services industry.
In this interview, I introduce you to Vince Shorb, one of the nation's leading advocates for financial wellness. Vince creates partnerships with financial service providers that enhance their brand, increase awareness, highlight their expertise, and deepen relationships with prospects and clients.
Here we discuss:
-how financial service professionals can differentiate themselves from their competitors and incorporate financial wellness programming into their business.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download The Ultimate Guide to 10X Your Referrals: guide.thinkbiggerRE.com/10xReferrals
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: YouTube.com/c/@ThinkBiggerRE
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
There are several ways to grow your real estate business.
One is to prospect 10 hours a week (2 hours a day, 5 days a week).
Another is to buy leads. On average an agent can get a closing with about $2k ad spend (yet statistically speaking it may cost you up to about $12k to get your first).
Another way is to build a Wealth Advisory Team of professionals in neighboring industries.
Join me and mortgage industry influencer Geoff Zimpfer as we discuss this third option and one simple paradigm shift that will make this click for you.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download The Ultimate Guide to 10X Your Referrals: guide.thinkbiggerRE.com/10xReferrals
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: YouTube.com/c/@ThinkBiggerRE
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
Here I give you three tips for ensuring that you can overcome any adversity.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
One pager for Upstream Partner Meetings (for private clients only): https://bit.ly/upstreampartnermeetings
Listen is as Justin Stoddart interviews Darryl and Sonia Jenkins of Orange Vacation Homes to hear how they started their real Estate and property management company in Orlando just 4 years ago, which now has over 150 homes.
Their sales business is in the top 5% of MLS for sales while also building additional income streams.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
Stories are the most effective way to capture attention, convey information and turn an audience into clients. Join to learn how to tell compelling stories that will transform your listeners and your business.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
One pager for Upstream Partner Meetings (for private clients only): https://bit.ly/upstreampartnermeetings
Sometimes, these relationships do NOT develop because of a lack of awareness about the potential. Other times these relationships do not develop simply because of scarcity thinking. Many real estate agents see property managers as competition instead of what could be one of their key Upstream Partners.
In this episode, we talk with Steve Rice, licensed and managing broker and owner of a very innovative property management company, about the power this partnership can create.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
Your fear of the phone is costing you millions. Get unstuck with Coach Wally Bressler
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
One pager for Upstream Partner Meetings (for private clients only): https://bit.ly/upstreampartnermeetings
Why?
Because it is no longer just them in a storm. They are surrounded by aligned and committed individuals and organizations who will offer synergies to thrive despite any outside circumstances.
Today on Think Bigger Real Estate, I introduce you to Brittany Rose, who:
-Grew a kick-butt community of over 70,000 men and women that support Women In Real Estate
-Created a fund that invests in women and global majority real estate developers and multifamily acquisitions
-Currently working on her first development deal in Houston, TX
Join us to learn how you, too, can build community, both online and offline.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
Your fear of the phone is costing you millions. Get unstuck with Coach Wally Bressler
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
One pager for Upstream Partner Meetings (for private clients only): https://bit.ly/upstreampartnermeetings
Not only is the overall distance of an Iron Man Triathlon intimidating to almost everyone (140.6 miles made up of a 2.4-mile open water swim, a 112-mile bike ride, followed by an entire marathon run of 26.2 miles)...
.
But the actual headwinds that Aaron experienced DURING HIS RACE made it even more challenging for him and all of the athletes.
Join Aaron and me as we extract lessons that directly apply to smiling AND thriving amidst the current headwinds in the real estate market.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
While this may sound exhausting, it is quite the opposite for the guest of this episode, Brad Eaton of Eaton Realty Group.
Why and how, you ask? It's because this weekly event aligns with his life's passion. It's fun for him and his team.
And as a result of these events, they've added nearly 800 unique people to their database in just a few months, all of whom receive TWO EMAILS A WEEK with almost zero unsubscribes.
Additionally, referrals are flowing in consistently and more frequently all of the time.
Whether or not you could ever keep up with this pace, tune in to hear the magic behind client events and what you can do to start to THINK BIGGER about the value you bring to your community and the value this could return to your business.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
Our vision must also recognize that at times like right now, when markets are shifting, those with a millionaire mindset create massive separation between themselves and the average agent.
Right now is when the table is set for real wealth to be built in the years to come.
In this episode, I interview Traci Gagnon, a real estate coach with one of the largest organizations under the umbrella of her organization. She specializes in helping other agents have a millionaire mindset.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
If NOT done correctly, the relationship in life that you cherish the most can fall prey to changing economic times.
If done correctly, a strong marriage can give you the confidence and assurance you need to reach your goals and to thrive during changing economic times.
If you're not familiar with the mission of Think Bigger Real Estate, it is to help those we serve to have success AND significance, income AND impact.
We believe that one's pursuit of both success and significance begins in the home.
This episode highlights Amir Fathizedah, a Relationship and Couples Coach who shares what it takes to strengthen your marriage.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
What if that group could guarantee a certain number of appointments?
While I'm not a fan of paid advertising for buying and selling opportunities UNTIL you've maximized what you can do from your sphere and upstream strategic partners, I am a fan of what Cody May of Sheridan Street is doing.
It's something that I want you to hear about, and that's why I've invited him to open up his playbook and share how he does what he does and the results that his clients are getting.
And for any that tune in, you'll get access to Cody's free real estate course.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
3 principles and 3 tactics for real estate agents to stay on top during challenging times.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
One pager for Upstream Partner Meetings (for private clients only): https://bit.ly/upstreampartnermeetings
Are you doing the right activities?
Are you doing enough of them?
How much time and money are you spending on those activities?
Are there ways to do the necessary quantity of activities at a lower cost (in both time and money)?
This interview with Greg Brooks of Rocket Station, a Virtual Assistant company based out of Dallas, TX, will help you work through these questions while looking at how VAs can help you grow your business.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
3 principles and 3 tactics for real estate agents to stay on top during challenging times.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
One pager for Upstream Partner Meetings (for private clients only): https://bit.ly/upstreampartnermeetings
Here, we talk about what it takes to make it and to make it great... no matter the circumstances.
Ben Andrews has been a top producing real estate agent for several decades. Before that he was a legendary runner at the University of Oregon, breaking the once impossible, 4-minute mile barrier.
Recently, Ben authored his compelling life and business story, The Long Run.
Ben will be sharing the principles he's learned from his incredible journey that apply to succeeding in today's market so that you can enjoy both success and significance now and in the long run.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
You'll walk away with three tactics that you can apply to grow and improve your business IMMEDIATELY.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
One pager for Upstream Partner Meetings (for private clients only): https://bit.ly/upstreampartnermeetings
Those who can effectively communicate during these uncertain times will win the clients and win for their clients.
Brenden Kumarasamy is a public speaking and communication coach. He joins us on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show to help us to improve our ability to communicate and effectively lead our prospective and current clients.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
One pager for Upstream Partner Meetings (for private clients only): https://bit.ly/upstreampartnermeetings
Today, we talk about two things:
1) How to Convert More Leads
2) Sales management for team leaders. Specifically, how to maximize your agent's productivity through expert training and firm management
We'll also be offering a free script to all who attend of what to say when you hear: "I have an agent."
It's a value-packed episode so come ready to take notes.
Dale is a moderator in Lab Coat Agents and also has his own podcast called Cash Calls which they stream live inside of the Lab Coat Agents Facebook group, on YouTube and all podcast platforms.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
👉 In this short, 30-minute Livestream, I will teach you:
--A simple acronym for creating more time and space
--How to get more done without always wishing you had more time
--How to teach this to your teammates, prospective teammates, and upstream referral partners
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
Facebook: facebook.com/justincstoddart
YouTube: youtube.com/c/justinstoddart
RateThisPodcast.com/thinkbigger
One pager for Upstream Partner Meetings (for private clients only): https://bit.ly/upstreampartnermeetings
They trade out their 8-5 to work 24 hours a day.
Can you relate?
And why do so many feel that way?
And more importantly, how do we correct it?
Here's the reality... we aren't taught how to grow and scale a business when we get our real estate license.
We either learn the hard way through much trial and error over decades of difficult experiences....
Or we learn from others that have gone before us and who have marked the path to financial and lifestyle freedom.
Join me Wednesday, August 31st at 3:30 pm PT where I'll be teaching you Think Bigger Real Estate's 5-Pillars of Freedom™.
While all five of these pillars need some of your attention now, ONLY ONE demands to be your priority.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
—
Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
Instagram: instagram.com/justinstoddart
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Seven-Figure Freedom. I'll be interviewing Jess Lenouvel, creator of The Listings Lab and as featured in Forbes® and Entrepreneur®.
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Professionals that experience the success that others only dream of, understand the habits that align with these patterns.
Join me as I share the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Real Estate Professionals.
These seven things will act as a filter for what goes into your calendar and what stays off of your calendar.
No need to overthink anything… just do more of these things and less of everything else.
SHOW LESS
Links:
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It's the reputation of you and your business. It's how others think of you, talk about you, and introduce you to others.
It is critical and SO VALUABLE when properly established.
But how many real estate agents really know how to build a personal brand?
All too often we hide our personal brand behind that of a national brokerage or behind an inatimate object (like a house), when in actuality it is so much more than that.
Join me and Josh Pitts to discuss:
--What is a personal brand
--What should be included and omitted from your personal brand
--How to build an impactful brand
--Some things you can do to get started right away
Josh is the Owner of Shred Media, the only attention and impact agency for the mortgage industry. His insight is rich and deep.
Links:
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They recognize that a house is not their brand, that "views" are not the measure of success, and that people want to connect with a REAL human that can teach them, lead them and even entertain them.
Join me together with my special guest--a social media coach, guru and national influencer Chelsea Peitz
Links:
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I've been evaluating responses to a unique diagnostic tool that we created called, The Referral Score, which tells you how much money you're leaving on the table and creates a clear directive on how to improve.
You can find the 2-minute survey here: https://bit.ly/referralscore.
Of the referral scores that I've been evaluating, it is amazing to me how much money is being left on the table by even really strong agents.
In this LIVESTREAM event I will break down 7-simple steps that you can begin to implement RIGHT AWAY that will help you to close the gap between the business you have and the business you could have.
Links:
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There are so many things we COULD and SHOULD be doing to ensure that our clients remember us, use us again and refer us in the meantime.
But there are:
-2 outcomes
-2 intermediate goals
-2 must-dos
Links:
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Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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Learn to effortlessly send six emails a month that your clients will love and that will ensure that they never forget you.
Links:
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Coliving is a community living concept for like-minded people to live, work, and play together. Coliving spaces are well-designed, and fully furnished, with utensils and utilities covered by one bill. Catering to various living styles and tastes, the main value of the coliving experience is access to the community.
Links:
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Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
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The reason why you may struggle to generate new opportunities consistently is that you struggle to do the right activities consistently.
The reason you struggle doing the right activities consistently is that the activities you have chosen are out of alignment with your strengths and interests.
Links:
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Explore past episodes: thinkbiggerre.com/podcast/
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Here I interview Matthew Hansen of Sharp Retention to learn fundamental principles of increasing the number of referrals we receive.
Matthew will share how he's applied these principles in his closing gift strategy to produce some phenomenal personal production numbers including:
-Being a Hall of Fame Sales Leader for over 15 years.
-Working with 100s of Realtors & loan officers.
-Having grown the business by 20%+ compounding yearly for the last 5+ years.
Links:
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The future of real estate will be in the blockchain...
What does that mean and how will it impact you?
This episode will give you what you need to know as we talk with Teresa Grobecker.
Teresa put American real estate, (the world’s largest asset class) on her private, patent-pending blockchain.
Links:
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Today Lars Hedenborg and I look at what are those "right things" that real estate agents must do if they are going to GROW in any period.
Lars is the Founder of Real Estate B-School, a Jesus follower, a best-selling author and a business builder.
Links:
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These lessons will give you the ability to offer your existing clients, celebrity or not, the highest degree of fiduciary and customer service.
Links:
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
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This past weekend, I completed the Goggins Challenge, which was running 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 straight hours. It was both physically and mentally grueling.
From that experience, I distilled some lessons about mental toughness that will benefit your ability to thrive in the market that is upon us.
Links:
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For over 30 years Bill Cates has been writing, speaking, and consulting on business growth through referrals and introductions.
He's written four books on the topic, spoken to hundreds of thousands of professionals and business owners around the world, and consulted for companies of all sizes.
He's done this with the intention of helping professionals to increase their revenue without adding to their marketing budgets.
Links:
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If you ever wondered if the effort that you are putting into your social media marketing is actually paying off, tune in to this episode to tune-up your organic marketing efforts.
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Matias and I discuss:
Entering the luxury real estate market
*Reimagining the use of disappearing space by simply helping clients create new space
*Designing the perfect space when it isn't available through, BRG Studio, the sister company and full-service Architecture office
*The wide range of properties available and how investing in Miami is a great bet for their future
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In an era of improving technology and increasing technology adoption, we as professionals have a choice.
We can:
1) Be minimized and leveraged by technology
2) Be empowered, productive and effective by LEVERAGING technology.
Learn the difference between the two and how to be sure you are leveraging, not being leveraged.
Our next guest on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show is Khaled Yatim who:
1) Became an agent right out of high school
2) Was the youngest broker of record in CA at age 20
3) Sold over $500M of real estate
Links:
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
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Sustainable real estate businesses will be those that take advantage of the opportunities in front of them today, while keeping an eye on the trends that are coming forward.
While the McMansions of eras past were once popular, they may not be what the majority of a rising generation truly wants today and into the future.
Being able to identify the needs and wants of a growing demographic of buyers and sellers, while also aligning with your own core values, is a path to a great business and a great life.
Links:
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
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This episode will feature a HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT about how Think Bigger Real Estate has made an amazing addition to their coaching lineup, helping you to BE FEARLESS, GROW YOUR CONFIDENCE and unlock the potential inside of you.
Today's guest is Salena Griffith, an 18-year industry veteran, 2020 Mrs. Oregon, a supporter of 35 charities, a wife, mother, farm girl and coach with a passion to help women succeed big in business and life.
Together we discuss:
*what it is costing you to not be fearless
*secrets to being more confident and ultimately seize the business and life that is just on the other side of being more confident.
Links:
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Many are finding that real estate transactions have been harder to come by this year than in previous years.
It becomes essential in times like these to maximize the low-hanging fruit, specifically those who already know you, like you and trust you.
Today I interview Michael Hellickson to get his best practices on how to do exactly that.
Michael ran the #1 Real Estate team in the country, personally closed 120-180 transactions/year for 20+ years
Links:
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
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Coltyn Simmons, an Inman News and Forbes Featured Top Agent and Agency Owner out of the Las Vegas, Nevada market to learn what he does to create lasting connections with clients.
We'll also be discussing how to navigate your agency during turbulent times and how to help your clients decide on their home investment for greater profit.
Links:
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Ken Pozek is the founder/CEO of The Pozek Group, a real estate firm based in Orlando, Florida. An industry veteran with more than 15 years of experience, Ken and his team help Orlando natives and out-of-towners alike settle on their dream home. Due to Ken’s leadership and expertise, The Pozek Group is on track to generate $300 million in sales in 2022. A Disney enthusiast, Ken believes Orlando is the real estate hot spot that everyone is missing. In order to keep clients up to date on recent news happening throughout the area, Ken created The Orlando Real, a newsletter that provides insights into all things theme parks, real estate, and daily life in Orlando. Since launching in November 2021, The Orlando Real has grown to more than 14,000 subscribers (organically). Ken also has more than 23,000 followers on YouTube, where he shares tips and tricks regarding the current real estate trends, developments in Orlando, and more.
Links:
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Today we talk about the one thing that is a key ingredient to ANYONE that has succeeded consistently over time... WORK!
Maria has a passion to help women and minorities to create generational wealth. This clear vision has fueled the creation of an enviable real estate empire.
We'll look specifically at what her work schedule looks like, the team that she's built to get it all done and how she inspires others to also put in the work. Along with her hand-picked team of veteran professionals, Maria strives to provide quality service that operates similar to the private banking model.
With that approach and the understanding that it takes an expert marketer and negotiator, Maria and her team create multiple avenues of communication based on not only netting sellers the highest value for their properties but also providing buyers a life-changing experience they’ve only dreamed of. Drawing upon decades of experience and knowledge, their operating paradigm is powered by market-specific information, cutting-edge innovation, and an unrivaled client database.
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With hundreds of episodes under their belt, co-host of the Elite Agent Secrets podcast, Peter Michael shares with us some of the untold secrets of top agents including a look at the "Modern Real Estate Agent"
We're going to give agents really the ability to unlock and uncover what makes some agents elite, while others are not. We're also going to talk about the modern agents where Peter Michael sees this industry going, and how to position yourself out ahead of it to where you are able to ride the wave as opposed to being crushed by the weight.
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Today we talk about what's really happening in the Southern California Market.
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Today, again, we're going to talk deep on communication and negotiation.
"Just because you're confronting something doesn't mean that it has to be combative. It doesn't mean that it has to be a conflict, it just means that you're standing up in the jury addressing it."
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Real estate agents like helping people. And if given a model to help even more people, they would gladly do it.
What if you were able to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to charitable causes that are important to your community.
Links:
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It's no mystery that Instagram is a powerful tool for real estate agents. Yet, you and I both know that we don't use it to its full capacity.
That's exactly why I'm bringing Michelle to the table to explain her Instagram Power Method, a way to upgrade and streamline your IG game.
Links:
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As a Forbes 30 under 30 who led marketing teams at AirBnB and is now Head of Growth for HomeRoom--a room sharing app--, Mike Tich knows a thing or two about marketing places to live.
Here we discuss how to better advertise your listings so that the homes you list have more exposure, higher sales price, thereby giving your prospective clients more reasons to choose you over the competition.
We'll also be curious to learn more about room sharing and what this will do for property values and investor opportunities
Links:
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Today we talk about Inbound Marketing (The Flywheel vs Funnel), Digital Marketing, Content Marketing, Video Marketing, Marketing/Adverting Strategy - specifically around Remarketing.
You're not going to want to miss this.
Tyler is a Real Estate Marketing Coach, and Public Speaker with an extensive background in Digital Marketing, Branding & Advertising, He has either worked directly with or consulted over 5,000 real estate agents, brokers, and team leaders all across the world in these areas.
He is the Co-Founder/Owner at Dippidi; a done-for-you digital marketing agency for real estate professionals that creates custom, highly-targeted, ads and strategies on social media, Google, YouTube, etc. to increase brand awareness, develop trust from prospects, and entice more people to work with you.
Links:
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
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Today we talk with real estate industry leader Chad Hyams about his new book, Achieve Your Apex. We cover key topics including:
-Strengths/Weaknesses
-Askformations
-Calendaring for Success
-Mindset
-Focusing on Priorities
Links:
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Best opportunities are with you?
Do you have a regular system of kind of a cadence if you will, every week, this is our weekly meeting. Here's what we're going to cover. Here are the KPIs, the key performance indicators. And here's what we're going to watch.
Once you start to organize properly, then you begin to receive the benefit of what business was designed for the right was which is should be designed for which is to create a great life.
Links:
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Be inspired by this story of zero to hero using the power of real estate.
From a young immigrant with no financial literacy to a celebrated real estate investor, Joe is a true testament to hard work and discipline.
As an investor, he has made it his mission to help others achieve financial freedom while enjoying living a life of passion, fulfillment, and empowerment.
Links:
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
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"We are spending more time than ever in virtual environments. That will only increase, as well the amount of noise we encounter there..."
"As individuals and businesses, we not only spend time and energy managing this digital pollution, we often create it. At-risk are relationships and revenue..."
"The only viable way forward is to be more thoughtful, intentional, and personal."
Join me today as I interview Bombomb's Chief Evangelist and two-time author Ethan Beute as we discuss how his book, Human-Centered Communication, and mine, The Upstream Model, go hand in hand.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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Too many agents are living below their potential because their billboard isn't big enough. Podcast guesting becomes a great way for you to enhance your reach, grow your credibility, and have a meaningful impact and legacy.
Here, Justin gives his top 5 Be's of being a sought-after podcast guest, which includes:
-Be proactive
-Be clear
-Be engaging
-Be succinct
-Be curious and respectful
Links:
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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Your Network determines your Net Worth... we've all heard that said before. Today I talk with the owner of TTM Development and Co-Host of the Portland Real Estate Podcast.
A few of the questions that I ask Tucker include:
-What is the most profitable work you do? What is the most rewarding work you do? Are they the same thing?
-What role has your network played in doing this great work?
-What do you do to intentionally grow your network?
-What do you do to continue to add value to your network?
-How do you best leverage the power of the network you've built?
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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The holidays are a great time to be together with those we love the most. They are also a great time for us to become a better version of ourselves, prepared to create a better year than previous years.
Here I share Waze you can utilize the holiday trifecta in order to set yourself up for deep growth in December.
Don't miss this episode!
Links:
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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All too often real estate agents feel like they need to choose between a great business or a great quality of life.
Today's episode with real estate leader, owner, and influencer will break this paradigm and walk us through how he's helped hundreds of agents to create both a great business and a great life.
We will also be discussing:
- The benefits of a referral-based business
- Why the pinnacle of all sales is leadership and how to be a better leader to your clients and teammates
Don't miss this episode!
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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The Think Bigger Real Estate Show has surpassed a few noteworthy milestones recently including over 50k downloads and being ranked #4 on Feedspot's top 20 real estate marketing podcasts.
Tune in to hear valuable lessons that he's learned along this journey that will help you to Think Bigger and better scale your referral business.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
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If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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Not long after we get proficient at sales do we run into that proverbial wall where selling and fulfilling on our sales takes all of our time.
We feel stuck and unable to continue to grow.
It doesn't have to be that way.
With the right mindset, skillset, systems and processes, we can create an ever-growing business that begins to scale.
Additionally, when done right, we create not only a great business, but freedom from that business to where we can focus on things that matter even more than the business.
Today's guest is Raquel Quinet who has an incredible track record of growth, scale, and building teams. Her accomplishment includes having:
-scaled 6 businesses
-one of her first real estate teams grew to 8 figures and expanded to 23 markets
-coached some of the best in their industry
I'll be asking Raquel some of the following questions:
-what stops most real estate agents from growth and scale
-how do they get past that
-what were you once afraid of that kept you from doing growing and scaling
-what's your best advice for someone that feels that way
-what does Raquel Quinet do to continue to be a BIG THINKER, to continue to expand your possibilities
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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When you look at Connie Alexander Jacks, one might think that she's always been successful.
That hasn't always been the case.
The reality is she's struggled with some tough circumstances as well as a lot of getting in her own way.
In this conversation, we cover how Connie overcame an abusive marriage to find herself with only a real estate license to work with.
How she sold only three houses her first year back, 33 the next, and then opened a brokerage and started a team.
Through the end of October 2021, Connie has closed 87 transactions for $30M. She has also grown from 4 agents 14 agents and four support staff.
All because she learned how to get out of her own way.
We will also touch on her focus of helping brand new agents achieve six-figure success in their first year in real estate by:
elevating the experience for the agent
elevating the experience for the client
*giving back to our communities
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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I was in college when my mom shared this invaluable piece of wisdom with me that, to this day, changes the way I look at business and life.
My mom was quite the business lady, building a marketing company that had netted her seven figures a year.
She said to me: It's about the people. It's always about the people.
Today's guest is the CEO and Founder of BombBomb, Darin Dawson and we are going to talk about how, amidst endless automation options, to build a human-centered business.
Links:
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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Our industry is filled with gurus, all teaching tried and true practices of how to become successful in the real estate industry.
So how do you know to whom you should listen?
Today I interview Shelley Zavitz, best-selling and award-winning author of Your First 365 Days in Real Estate about her revolutionary system, OnTrack, which gives you the ability to choose from a menu of trainers and find the right one for you.
We'll also be highlighting her newest book, Marketing that Moves People--How Real Estate Agents can Build a Brand, Find Fans, Land Leads & Communicate Convincingly.
These are a few of the questions we ask Shelley:
-What inspired you to want to help others succeed in real estate
-Tell us about the success of your first book, Your First 365 Days
-Tell us about your new book on real estate marketing
-Tell us about OnTrack
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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Social media influencer and top agent out of the Los Angeles South Bay market, Taya DiCarlo has grown her business by over 253% in just 2 years.
What does she credit for that?
Video.
Tune in to hear Taya's 2-Cents, which is also the name of her video segments, on how you can pattern after her and experience video growth by embracing video marketing.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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For many, Glennda Baker Atlanta Realtor has become a household name. With close to 500k followers on TikTok, 51.7M views and 6.5M likes, she is sought out on social media platforms and some of the industry's biggest stages.
I know what you're thinking, she must be a great dancer to be such a star on TikTok. Nope! She's done all of this with no dancing!
But how?
That's what we're going to uncover in this episode including the following questions:
- What does it mean to be true to yourself?
- What does authenticity mean to you?
- What advice would you give yourself if your younger self were getting into the business today?
- Does social media present an opportunity? If so, what is that? What about it also presenting a responsibility?
- What are you afraid of?
- What do you dream about?
- What helps you to continue to Think Bigger?... to ever be expanding your possibilities?
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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As a licensed real estate agent and Certified Probate Expert, Bill can be found at the Stanley Mosk courthouse daily working with attorneys, petitioners, clients, investors, and other real estate professionals to help them solve their real estate problems.
Bill can be contacted at: bill@thelaprobateexpert.com
Links:
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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Today we talk with Jess Lenouval, founder of the Listings Lab as she walks us through what it takes to scale up from 6 to 7 figures.
Building a seven-figure real estate business used to be a pipe-dream for most. With the increased access that ambitious agents have to better models and mentors, this is more easily attainable than ever before.
Any seven-figure real estate business owner will tell you that in order to make this happen, leads, listings and leverage are key.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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Rudy is the Managing Director of TEAM NUVISION, 2011 COLDWELL BANKER® International Diamond Society Team. He is and the Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty team have sold over 5,000 homes totaling over $1B in real estate transactions, and Rudy is the CEO of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty in California.
Today he talks about his model for helping real estate agents scale up their real estate business quickly.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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Jeff Stephens is a real estate entrepreneur who specializes in off-market acquisitions and seller financing and is the host of the popular podcast: Racking Up Rentals. Jeff has also been featured on Bigger Pockets.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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I'm excited to share my interview Laurie Derickson and Kalen Zaabadick have tripled their business since February 2021 (and this is only their second year in the real estate business)!!
They generate leads daily with their YouTube and video marketing. They have automated their marketing using virtual systems and to date have generated over $300,000 in gross commission since January.
They specialize in helping agents get into real estate as their second career.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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I'm excited to share my interview with Kaajal Shahani.
She is an award-winning realtor and Intero’s top 1% agent serving the Silicon Valley for 17+ years and has also been featured on HGTV, talk radio shows, and TV.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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I'm excited to share my interview with Bruce Hardie and Chase Williams in which we talk about the climate of the current real estate industry and what you can be doing right now to build a business that succeeds now and far into the future.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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I'm excited to share my interview with Eric Rodriguez. Wouldn't it be great if someone were to create a totally free, online CE portal, kind of like a Netflix for your real estate CE credits? I think so... and for that reason, I had to interview Eric who runs the nation's first, totally free CE portal at thriverealestateeducation.com.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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I'm excited to share my interview with Eric Seropyan. He specializes in driving traffic to websites using Google Adwords Certified, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, and Email Marketing
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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I'm excited to share my interview with Coni Meyers. When agents bring real value, they win and Coni has a great tool to help you to do that. Here's the premise: With natural disasters happening all around us, you need to take steps before that event to ensure that your business is protected from the next disaster. You can also be valuable to your community by taking that information to your Upstream Partners and community. Coni is the owner of Kick Butt Consulting, and the author of 5 books, the last of which may hit the NY Times Best-Seller list.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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I'm excited to share my interview with McCall is the founder of Charisma Hacking, a set of business systems built from Hollywood tactics that solve two main problems that many small business owners have: 1. “People don’t watch my videos” and 2. “People watch my videos… but don’t use my services”.
McCall started performing professionally when she was 8 as a singer, performing for audiences of tens of thousands of people, and as an actress in several feature films including Disney’s High School Musical 2. Throughout the years McCall obsessively cataloged the secrets actors and directors use to keep people glued to their screens.
The secret to how Charisma Hacking has helped different entrepreneurs increase their YouTube watch time by 242%, 20x their Facebook ad CTR, and triple their revenue, is that the Charisma Hacking system adapts to the entrepreneur’s personality. We’ve cracked the code on how any entrepreneur can amplify the best parts of themselves to build a rabid fan base, regardless of whether they are as intense as Gary Vee, nurturing as Brene Brown, or energetic as Russell Brunson.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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I'm excited to share my interview with Jeff Pfitzer. He is a Mortgage Leader of a 500mil+ mortgage team, BombBomb Top 30 Video Influencer (US/Canada), Lab Coat Agents & Drunk on Social podcast host, Co-founder Biz Video School, Real Estate Mastery Pros, & Social Coach app.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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I'm excited to share my interview with Ari Meisel, widely known as the most efficient man in the world. Here, Ari and I talk about the four steps needed to give tasks to other teammates so that you can get out of production and focus on growing your business.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
Follow Justin:
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I'm excited to share my interview with Michelle Bailey, leader of the highest producing team in Boise, ID. Here, Michelle and I talk about how her growth strategy of serving other real estate agents through civic service has been the secret to her success.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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I'm excited to share my interview with Steven Ross, Author of "Doors Open When You Knock." Here, Steven and I talk about the uncertainties in real estate and it how it doesn't have to be that way for you.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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I'm excited to share my interview with Scott Miller, Host of "On Leadership," the most circulated leadership podcast in the world. Scott is a WSJ best-selling author, a speaker, trainer, and thought leader. Here, Scott goes in-depth on what it takes to win as a real estate agent in today's marketing based on his personal experience of buying 7 homes in 10 years.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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I'm excited to share my interview with David Lykken on "What it Takes to Win" from a guy who is a 47-year Industry Veteran & Coach & Consultant, Business Owner/Operator of three national mortgage companies, Podcast Host/Owner of the longest-running podcast in the industry, “Lykken On Lending” as well as another podcast “Lykken on Leadership” and has been a regular guest on FOX Business as well as made guest appearances on CNBC, CBS Evening News, Bloomberg, NPR.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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I'm excited to share my interview with Sean Adams of Leveraged Life Management helps high-paid professionals protect and grow their earnings. He shares how you can create the Triple Play by leveraging the Infinite Banking model and why most professionals are not only wasting and risking their earnings but missing out on massive opportunities that are right in front of them.
Links:
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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I'm excited to share my interview with Steven David Elliott, Founder and Chief Visionary of Rockstar Connect, which helps real estate agents and other professionals put on masterful, large, monthly networking events with nearly no effort from the branded host of the event.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
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If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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I'm excited to share my interview with Jessica Peterson. Jessica keynotes on some of the biggest stages in our industry, is a super-connector, and successful real estate agent that teaches others how to lux their lifestyle by choosing a niche.
Links:
Full episode with video, audio, timestamps and full transcription
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Explore past episodes: justinstoddart.com/podcast
Download my international best-selling book, The Upstream Model, here: justinstoddart.com/freebook
If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a short review on Apple Podcasts. I love reading reviews and engaging with our community.
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Excited to share my interview with Christine Beckwith. Christine has been a leader in the lending industry for decades. She founded what is now an $8B company, all while not forgetting that which is most important to her outside of business.
She shares her mindset and her tactics on being a woman who dominates.
Links:
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Justin Stoddart
So the big question is this: How do those of us in the real estate industry, with crazy amounts of ambition, how do we Think Bigger than the building of our own empires? How do we simultaneously seek success AND significance, income AND impact? My name is Justin Stoddart, and this is the Think Bigger Real Estate Show.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Today, my friends, we are going to get into the mind of a Navy Seal. I can't wait to introduce this gentleman to you and talk about what he brings to the marketplace, and what he's going to bring to you in helping you to live your best life. Before I go there. Let me remind you that inside of the Think Bigger Real Estate Group on Facebook we go deeper. We're gonna introduce William, and even give you access to him to where you can understand again, what he brings to the marketplace. That's where learning happens, when you engage not when you just listen. So we're glad you're here, but again, go over to the Think Bigger Real Estate Group on Facebook, where you will be able to become and implement the things that we talked about today.
Justin Stoddart
Today's guest His name is William Branum. He and I became fast friends as we have a shared mentor. He's doing some really cool things. But before we get to what he's doing to help people deal with stress in a more healthy, sustainable way, we're going to get into his mind the mind of a Navy SEAL. William Branum, thanks for coming on to the show today.
William Branum
Thank you for having me. I'm pretty stoked to be here.
Justin Stoddart
It's a total pleasure. I have to laugh, you're wearing a shirt that says "Get Naked" and you're sitting in a hotel room. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a family show. No worries about what's going to happen here. Before I go too much into that let me just state that William owns a company called Naked Warrior Recovery. It's It's It's a CBD company. He's on a mission to help veterans to reduce the suicide rate. And veterans can believe that people who who served our country at the highest level is 22 of them a day commit suicide, he's on a mission to reduce that even eliminate that entirely. So please stay tuned to the end of this out of respect to him, and what he's done for our country already and what he's doing, I want you to hear what he's got that again, can help people in a big way. So, William, let's talk a little bit about your background. Right. I think Navy SEALs is internationally known as some of the baddest dudes on the planet, right? You just don't mess with a Navy Seal. At what point did you decide I want to be I want to be one of those guys, I want to be a navy seal?
William Branum
So I always knew as a kid that I wanted to be a some sort of a commando, and also a ninja. I'm still working on the ninja piece. You know, some of my role models growing up where we're in not just talk about my age too much here but John Wayne, he was a Green Beret in Vietnam, at least in the movies. He was there was John Rambo, I think he was an Army Ranger. Chuck Norris was part of Delta Force and they rode dirt bikes, and they shot rockets off the front of those, I'm still trying to get some one of those. But I was you know, I was heavily heavy in the Boy Scouts. I always knew I wanted to be a commando. And, and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted, I didn't want to be part of like the big army, like a big movement of a lot of people. I wanted to be part of a more specialized force. And so I was looking at like maybe Green Berets or Army Rangers or Marines because, you know, the commercials of Marines. When I was growing up, they were fighting dragons with swords and things like that. And I was like, those guys are cool. And they have pretty cool uniforms as well. Like, the one organization that I would never join is the Navy, because they have ugly uniforms. You know, there's a Navy base in the town I grew up in all those kids act like a bunch of idiots. And, you know, of course, when I joined the Navy, I was one of those kids that acted like an idiot so I, whatever, however, that worked out, but someone told me the you know, hey, I was at a on a Boy Scout adventure and from Meridian, Mississippi, and going to the national Jamboree, and I met a kid and he's like, I want to be a navy seal and I also want to fly F-14 Tomcats because the movie Top Gun had come out and and we also won like the first Gulf War really with airpower, you know, dropping bombs and pilots are really were really the heroes there. And so the my the summer between the 11th and 12th grade of high school, the Navy recruiter called me, and I had finally decided, yeah, I want to be a Navy Seal. I didn't really know what that meant. I didn't because there were no books. There were no movies, there was nothing like that when I was a kid. And there was no internet when I was a kid.
William Branum
And, you know, we he said, Hey, have you ever thought about joining the Navy? I was like, Well, actually, I was thinking about becoming a navy seal and fly f 14 tomcats. And he was like, Well, why don't you come down here and we'll talk about it. So I came down to the recruiting office, he showed me this super cheesy video of like, you know, these guys jumping out of a helicopter and getting it a little rubber boat and going to the beach and then you know, looking through binoculars at a building and then the next thing you see them like running out of the building and it like this really terrible GCI explosion behind them. And I'm like, Yes, that's what I want to be. I want to be the best of the best and so, and that was really all I knew about it, I knew that they were the best they because they jumped out of airplanes. They scuba dove, they, you know, ran around in the woods, they shot guns, they blew stuff up. And they were like an elite small unit. And so that's what I wanted to be, I wanted to be a part of something like that. So I joined the Navy to become a seal. I made some tactical errors, and it almost cost me becoming a CEO making those it was just really about like, choices that I made as far as like maybe jobs because there when I joined, you couldn't like join and say, I'm gonna be a seal and being a seal was your job, you had to become a gunner's mate or a bonus mate or a Quartermaster, whatever, those Navy jobs in order to advance in the Navy, and so that those jobs took me down a rabbit hole that put me on a ship for two years before I was able to, and that was actually almost didn't get to go, I had to ask the Chief of Naval Operations, who is the most senior guy in the Navy, there's only two people in the military more senior to him, which is the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States. So this, this super senior guy, the guy that's in charge of the Navy, came to my ship in Yucosco, Japan, after everyone told me no, you can't go be a seal. And I raised my hand and I said, Hey, I joined the Navy to be a seal. I think I deserve a chance to go. And my you know, all these people won't let me go and he's like, you're right. You do deserve a chance to go, you'll be in the first class after your PRD which is planned rotational date. And so I went to BUDS and it took me a short 13 months to complete a six month block of training. So I don't remember the question, but I just started talking and here we are. Now I have graduated SEAL training.
Justin Stoddart
So I've read the book can't hurt me by David Goggins. I'm in the middle of Leif babban. And Jocko willings book, Extreme Ownership, they paint a pretty gnarly picture of Navy SEAL training. Is it that bad?
William Branum
Um, it's very difficult. It's very difficult. I got hurt several times, and almost got kicked out. Because, you know, I only made it a few weeks in and then you know, broke a bone, made it a few weeks in and like stuff broke again. And so they were like, Alright, you got to go. And I'm like, wait, I wait, I I need I can't leave. Like it took a while it took the CNO to get to get me here. Can I please stay? am I crying and there's a whole mess. And so they said, okay, you can stay, you've got one chance left. And so when I finally class back up for class 207 I wasn't healed. I was just hobbling along. And so I went, what I learned is that you can push your body so much further than you actually think that you can. And this was really something I learned throughout SEAL training. And there's a week that's it's, it used to be week five, now, I think it's week four, or three or something called hell week. And you you only sleep in five and a half days, you only get about two and a half hours of sleep. And actually, I wish that they wouldn't have let us sleep at the time. But they just I mean, part of it is there's safety involved and all this other stuff. But um, what I learned I saw one boat crew in in hell week that kept winning races. And then we this was very, very early on. Like Sunday night, it starts Sunday night. And you have this sort of breakout where they put you in a tent, and you have all these explosions, and they pull you out in the spring with fire hoses and run back here and go back there. And they're shooting gun blanks, shooting guns, and everything is super chaotic. And like, go get wet, go over there and do this. And at some point, I like stopped and I stepped back because another guy that had already been through hell week who was injured and he was waiting for the other class to another class so that he could hop in post Hell Week. He was like so when you go through hell week during breakout, what you should do is you should like, stop. Because there's a lot of people out there running around. It's just total chaos. And you just step to the side and then look around and see how much stuff is going on. And what what all is happening. And when I did that I stopped. I like stepped off to the side, I saw a moment where no one was paying attention to me stepped off to the side. And I looked and I just saw chaos, explosions, gunfire, kids running around, I saw all these looky loos these people on the second floor of this balcony overlooking the BUDS compound. And they're like, and I was like, I never would have seen those people had I not like stopped and like step back and taking a look at like what's what's actually going on in this super chaotic event.
William Branum
And so as we kind of go down this road, that'll be a little bit of a theme of, you know, we all get sucked into this chaos of life. And sometimes we just need to like step back. It's still gonna happen in front of you, but step back, detach a little bit and look around and see what's actually going on because a lot of times what's actually going on, you'll see details that you wouldn't see if you just stayed stayed sort of focused in on it. So buds, it's very hard. But one of the things that I learned is I, you know, I've told you I saw this boat crew that was like winning races, like Sunday night and Monday morning, I was like, I want to be in that boat crew, those guys are about my height, because we boat crews are all you know, every, like, you're carrying a boat on your head, the boats about 250 pounds. And you know, which doesn't sound like a lot if it's divided amongst seven people. But it actually is kind of a lot after you're like running, and it's bouncing up and down. And it's running, running back and forth. And you will make you bald, and and it's like jamming your neck. And you know, maybe the instructors are throwing sand in the boat. And, and I saw these guys winning, and I was like, I want to be in that boat crew. Because the guys that I'm with right now, some of them are quitting, I don't want to be around them, I don't want to be around quitters. I've been here for like six months already, I'm ready to like get through hell week. And I want to do it as quickly and as effectively as possible.
William Branum
And so I eventually got into they they re re lined us up, I got into boat crew three, and we run almost every race throughout the rest of Hell Week. And what I learned is that hell week sucks, buds sucks. But it's always better. If you can suffer in the front than suffer in the back, you're going to suffer no matter what, let's put out one to 5% more effort to get to the front of everyone else. And you might get a 20 minute break instead of like suffering the whole time. Like it was just like morale building to get to the front of the line than to be in the back of the line. And so that was just sort of a lesson that I've learned. And I've started to like, incorporate more into my in my personal life and my professional life as well.
Justin Stoddart
So real quick, a couple a couple lessons stood out for me that apply directly directly, I think to real estate agents. Number one is this concept of stop and reflect. Right? Again, we live in, especially right now the market, right I just got off a call with a client of mine. And she was just she was describing how fast moving the market is right now that there is no time perceivably to stop and reflect. It's just it's a complete race because there's so few homes, so many buyers. It's just highly competitive. And I think regardless of what it may seem on the outside to everybody else, just like your scenario, right, where they're shooting you with fire hoses, and you know, explosions going all over the place. That's a little bit what kind of the whirlwind of real estate can feel like to some degree. And I think making sure that you take time to reflect right? It might not be during business hours, it might not be when you're supposed to be meeting with a client, it might be you need to get up a little bit earlier and stop and reflect and see what's going on. How do I position myself on a winning team to be able to get ahead like what's working, what's not working? Sometimes the best answers come and we just stop and ask ourselves questions is what I'm doing working, is what I'm doing producing the result that I wanted to, is there a better path? Can I observe anybody else around me that's doing it better than I am, to which I might be able to adopt some of their practices.
William Branum
Exactly. And oftentimes, you it is best to stop during those working hours during that like, you're like, Oh my god, I have so much to do. And I have to like, you haven't even prioritized what it is that you need to do, you're just reacting to the things that are in front of you. And if you can, like stop, it takes discipline. And I fail at this a lot. But if you can stop and step back just for a second, I know it takes you away from the task that you're doing right this second. But and then turn and focus and like what are we what are we actually doing? What is the actual objective? Is it like to get this award? Is it to get the highest dollar amount for the property? You know, figure out what it is? Is that team just like you said, is that team doing better than the team that I'm on? How do I get on that team? And how do I stack the cards in my favor? Not necessarily. I'm just grinding, like we all grind. And a lot of times the grind, we focus on the wrong things when we're just grinding instead of like, figuring out the things that actually matter. And most of the time, those are the things that we don't want to do. And so and it is for me at least. Yeah. And, and so I think that's, you know, a lot of it like, sometimes we just have to stop in the middle of all of it and like focus on focus on on, step back, detach from what it is and then figure out where we actually need to go not just grind to grind.
Justin Stoddart
I had a client actually that was meeting yesterday and talking about the importance of like him at some time with his family, right? Like I'm trying to take a weekend trip and I can't get the time because I'm working weekends I'm working evenings, it's just non stop. And I think at some point like when there's problems in my household where things aren't going quite as I would have wanted, let's say kids have way too much screentime let's say that they're just constantly thinking of each other, ultimately, I've got to look at myself and say, What am I doing wrong is that as the leader of this household that's allowing these things to happen. And I think those of us that that, again, the owner of businesses, if they're not going just how we want, whether they be in the quantity of business, or in the quality of life that we're getting out of, we have to stop and look at ourselves and say, we can't always point outward to the market, we can't always say something else's fault. We have to be able to look inward to say, what can I do differently? I must, I must stop the tail from wagging the dog. I'm in charge here. I'm going to tell my clients when I'm available, I might lose some clients. But it's better than losing your family, it's better than than losing your mindset, right. And I think when you start to do that you show up different like differently for your clients, you have actually given yourself space to reflect time to grow yourself. You show up refresh, excited to be there not resentful that you're with them instead of with your family when they interrupted your your weekend. Again, I think it involves taking complete accountability, complete ownership, to say, No, I'm in charge here. And it's not where it's, I'm not where I want to be. And it's completely my fault, which then empowers you to say, and I can, and I can get me, I can get myself somewhere else, right, which is a lot of lessons I hear you saying.
Justin Stoddart
Let's talk really quickly about how you're helping veterans, obviously, you served our country, faithfully. Again, my hat goes off to you. I know we're right between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. And that's why I wanted to book you during this time. Because I wanted, honestly, on behalf of me and my audience, for the depths of our heart, we thank you for your service for the sacrifice that you were willing to make. So that we can be free, in my opinion, so the world can be free. So thank you for that. That's a don't take that lightly.
William Branum
Thank you.
Justin Stoddart
Are there any other lessons before we get into what you're doing to help veterans? Is there anything else that you would say this is an important principle for having self discipline? Obviously, before this show, you and I talked about how there's a pretty simple recipe for being successful in life and in business in in real estate, it's the same thing. And I think it's important to recognize that it's oftentimes not the recipe that's failed, it's the person that's doing the recipe, right, they aren't actually building the database, they are actually making the contacts, right, like adding value to their client base, they're actually having a superior client experience. So if we know the recipe, the problem is we're not following the recipe because of our lack of self discipline. Is there any advice you can give to people on how to improve their self discipline, how to improve, empowering themselves to take control of their own life in their own business?
William Branum
So I would so let me let's back up just a second, going back to budds. Because, you know, you asked a question that I didn't actually finish answering it. Um, so BUDS, BUDS hard, and I made a mistake. And I think we all make this mistake, all of us. I don't think there's one person that hasn't made this mistake. You know, when I, when I graduated BUDS, I thought the hard work was done. I thought, it's all good, we're good to go. Now. Now the easy stuff and I'm getting, you know, I'm getting a, you know, I'm gonna go show up to the team and life is going to be great. What I failed to recognize or realize, and I've learned this over and over many times, is that every time you get to a peak, you're going to have to go back down and there's another peak that you need to go climb, like there will never be a peak in your life where you have to stop climbing, you're always going to get to another peak, you know, I remember going out and doing cold weather, some cold weather training and actually testing out some cold weather equipment that we were developing for the seal teams. And what we did is we went out and we climbed these mountains and you just got super sweaty and then you put on these puffy pants and jacket to warm back up and basically dry yourself out from the inside out. And and as I'm climbing these mountains I'm just sucking wind and the guys that are up there in Alaska, they're like okay, all right. You see that? You see that peak right there? That's not the top you have to keep going that's a false peak. So in life we always have these false peaks and what I think what happens oftentimes is we we think that we're we've done good enough like in your in your industry you sold a house Okay, I got a big fat commission check what guess what I got to sell another house and I gotta sell another house and I got to get more clients and I can't find a house to sell. I can't find a house you know, clients to buy. So you're always having to grind but you're always like, what makes the grind worth it? What is your actual end goal and there should never be like once you hit that goal, there should be a new goal and the new goal you should never ever, like find yourself at the top because when you're at the top, you're only going to fall. You should always continue to climb and get better throughout your entire life. And whatever the the businesses that you're in, you've probably asked me a question, and I didn't even answer it. But yeah,
Justin Stoddart
Well, I think the, I mean, the the lesson is the second that we stopped climate is the second we stopped growing. The second we stopped growing, is the second that we stopped really having your
William Branum
level back down the mountain, you just started you're gonna become mediocre at that point.
Justin Stoddart
Well, and and the second you stop growing is the second you stop having a fulfilled joyful life, right, that there's right. Like there's a there's a relationship between adversity, and the climb, and the grind that all of us oftentimes want to avoid, that is actually the recipe for fulfillment for success, for significance for growth, for all the things that we actually want 100% on the other side of the stuff we don't want, right?
William Branum
Yes. And I mean, it's, that's a hard lesson to like to get through, like, you know, it's like, in that boat crew that I was in, I we, no one in that boat crew was exceptional in any way. But somehow, it was an unspoken truth, we all want it to be at the front of the line, we didn't want to be kind of bouncing back and forth. At the back, we always wanted to be at the front. And I was so grateful to be surrounded by those men.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. And, and you subjected yourself in order to, to carry the distinguish title of being a navy seal, right, and be able to serve our country and that, at that elevated level, you were willing to go through hell literally like how we create, to get there. And I think everybody wants like, the happy ending. Everybody wants the big successful business and the happy family and the healthy six pack, abs body and the on and on and on. Right. But it's the Yeah, yeah, I want that. But it's the actually being willing to subject yourself to the adversity, the trials, the challenges, the difficulty to get yourself there where the wheels come off for most people, right? Yeah.
William Branum
And, and they don't, they don't maintain that discipline that, you know, but oftentimes, I think they don't go in with the plan. They don't... and I've been guilty of this, I have gone in many times, like I didn't have a plan, and like, I haven't made it through buds. And now I'm gonna be a navy seal. Well, guess what, once I got to the SEAL team, I was still not a Navy Seal, I was still on probation, I still had to prove myself every single day, I still had to go before a board and they evaluated, you know, my knowledge, my experience, how I performed, you know, with the platoon, and they could have said no, you know, they're guys now that show up to the seal teams, and they fail in their performance. And we kicked them out of the teams, because they don't, just because you make it through BUDS doesn't make you a seal. Just because you show you got that pin, you can show up to the team and you can not perform to the level that we expect you to perform, and you will no longer be a Navy Seal. So I loved being in around that because I had guys that were senior to me, that pushed me I had guys that were junior to me, and they pushed me like everyone, we're all I expect more out of them than they expect out of themselves, they expect the same out of me, they expect more out of me than I expect out of myself. So I have to always raise the bar to become better, a better person a better Seal a better whatever it is. And if we can do that, in our in our own lives, you know, I'm not in the Seal teams anymore. And that was a very hard transition to to being a civilian and not having that mission, or a team or anything else. And now I have to like figure it out for myself. You know, if you are you can surround you know, who is it.... Five, the people you surround yourself with--Jim Rohn is, you know, right, I mean, and that was the epitome of the Seal Teams like you're surrounded by awesome people, elite individuals who push you and they push themselves, and then you push them and so everyone is just getting better every day. And now once I got out, I didn't have that push. So now I had to surround myself with people who are going to push me people like you who pushed me. And you know, I had to join, you know, coaching groups and things like that, so that I could become better and figure out what the hell I'm gonna do with now that I'm a grown up or when I do grow up, who knows?
Justin Stoddart
You know, I think you're less than that you're kind of teaching us through a number different experiences. You have to ask yourself, Am I on the best team? Am I am I positioned around the people that are going to actually help me to get the successful and the significant life that I actually want? Right? And I think we have to ask ourselves that sometimes people will get caught in a real estate brokerage, where it's like, well, they've been really good to me. I've been here for a long time. They're nice. That's great, right? But I would ask you, are you in the best spot to take care of your family, your future your clients? If the answer is no, you might need to make some hard decisions, right? Very similar to you. When you're carrying that boat. You're looking over at the team. It's like man, those guys are flying. Those guys are those guys are winning. Those guys are winners, and my team and
William Branum
I was surrounded by guys that were whining and didn't want to be there and many of them quit. And so I was like, awesome. Get out. Like when I first started was interesting when I first started I was like, No, don't quit stay here. We This is a good place to be. And then after I'd been there for several months, and I just wanted to keep going and be there, and I'm surrounded by those people. I was like, Yeah, get out beat it. I don't have time for you. You're in my way now. Yeah. So and, and being your account to your to your point of like being in those brokerages where they're like, they're comfortable. They're not being pushed. They're living a life of mediocrity. And we'll talk about mediocrity in a minute.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, no, I love it, man. Such great lessons. I'm super grateful for what you shared right there. Because again, that was one of the key principles that I wanted to get into your mind to say, what is the mind of a Navy SEAL? Like what how do you see the world differently, right? And you don't see adversity as uncomfortable. You see it as the path to become the person that you need to become. Right. And so I think hopefully right now, where there's some adversity in the real estate market, either agents are working like crazy doing well working like crazy. And or they're working like crazy, not getting paid at all right? There's a lot of that well, is that you have to look at that, through a longer perspective of who is this helping me to become, because I'm somebody stronger and better through this, now I can. Now now as soon as the market tips just a little bit, I'm going to be able to really have a lot of opportunity, because it will have weeded out people that didn't belong here. Right? I mean, that's happening. Real estate is right now very similar to your Seal Teams, you know, or the people that were wanting to be seals, stuff
Justin Stoddart
I want to get into now your mission, again, which I think is is super, just inspiring, right, which is you've got to get 22 veterans a day are committing suicide. Obviously, some of those are our physical breakdowns, right, a lot of its mental views of what veterans have gone through to protect our country. Tell us about your company and kind of help me.
William Branum
So my company is naked warrior recovery. And the Naked Warrior is the predecessor to today's navy seal. So just a really quick history lesson here. If you've seen the movie Saving Private Ryan, the first battle scene there at Normandy, where the you know, the the assault force is going across across the beach. Prior to that assault force, the Navy went out and got a bunch of volunteers who were good with demo, who took little rubber boats from the big Navy ships out here into the beach, or just off the beach, a few 100 yards off the beach, got in the water, swam to the beach, did reconnaissance on the beach, figured out where all the obstacles were where the like the best lanes of assault would be, what obstacles were in that in the way there and then they would scroll back into the water and they're being shot out from machine gun nest on the beach, and crawl back into the water. And they would take a rock with a string on it with knots every six feet. And they would measure the depth of the water and they had a slate around their neck and they would take notes on the slate like the depth of the water, any obstacles, and then they would do you know, they would, you know line up and they would be in the water 25 yards apart, measure mark and then they would dive underwater, look for obstacles underwater, and then come up. If there was an obstacle, they would mark it. And then they would do it again. And they would measure three to 5000 yards of beach a night. And then they would go back to the ship and they would build a chart and the chart that they built was the chart used to assault the beach, like the Intel that they brought back was the was what was used to you know, basically for the day. And hours before the assault. These guys would go back in they put demo charges on the beach, they cleared lanes and cleared off schools that were in the water because you know the landing crafts were coming in on the water. And like as their the landing craft is launching, that's when they like blew the demo and like clear the lanes and then you know Saving Private Ryan came across the beach. And so that was the predecessor of today's US Navy SEAL. So that first day decommissioned that team after they did that mission, then you know, there the island campaign in the Pacific against the Japanese picked up and the Marines were like going across the beach, or they would hit a barrier reef and they would run off thinking they're in like three feet of water and then fall off on the other side. And they would you know, drowned in 30 feet of water when they thought they were in three feet of water. And so they recommission these underwater demolition teams, these naked warriors, and they would go in and they would you know, do more reconnaissance clear lanes of assault. And that was you know, again, that was the predecessor of today's navy seal. So it's that making worry recovery is is a hat tip to sort of my heritage as a seal. But also, you know, we're all warriors in our own life. We all have some sort of combat some sort of battles that we that we find ourselves in, whether it's something from work, whether it's a toxic relationship, a bad client, a bad deal, and we just feel like we get attacked all the time. And you know, what we'll do is we'll put armor on so when the seal teams, we put our armor on our body armor on and we go into into harm's way. And sometimes it comes in handy and then we come back, we take our armor off, and we hit the showers, we get naked, we recover and we get ready to do again. But in real life in regular old life, that doesn't happen. If we get attacked enough times we end up never taking our armor off, we get too much stress, too much anxiety, too much stuff going on. And we just feel like we're always under attack. And you know, after 26 years of service, I felt that way, I've got some toxic relationships, I have a bad marriage. And I have a lot of I have a lot of baggage that I carry around, I always have my armor on. And you know, the way that I dealt with the baggage that I have, I don't call it PTSD, I call it baggage because I could argue that I probably have more more baggage from my other toxic relationships than I do from seven deployments of combat. So I just call it baggage because other people put crap in your bag, and you end up carrying that around. So part of what get naked is is about taking that armor off, take that baggage off and putting it in the corner so that you can also find so you can you find a place that you're vulnerable so that you can sort of expose yourself and be fine healing because if you're carrying crap around and you're always armored up, you're never ever going to going to find any sort of healing in your life, any sort of mental stability or anything else. I mean, I used to use alcohol like glasses and glasses of alcohol at night vodka rocks, was my drink of choice, and some other pharmaceuticals just to turn the noise off in my head. And so I heard about CBD. And I tried it. And I didn't notice anything right away. It wasn't there was no like spectacular magic pill or anything. Magic elixir didn't see rainbows and unicorns, the world wasn't great. But what I noticed is, I like to say that water boils at 212 degrees, I was living at 210 degrees, like it didn't take much for me to like, blow that top for that steam to start shooting out. But when I started taking CBD, I noticed that, you know, maybe I went from like 210 to 208 to 205 to 200. And eventually, like maybe down to like 190 or 180 for like the, you know, the first 30 days of CBD that I had. And I also noticed that some pains, I mean, I'm 26 years of running around and jumping out of airplanes and and beating myself up.
William Branum
The pains weren't gone, the migraines weren't gone, they were just less severe. They were just not as sharp. And so I you know, I finished that bottle of CBD. And, you know, I noticed things start coming back, I started creeping back up into that like 190 200 range, I'm like, Well, let me try this, again, a different brand. And, and so things started getting better, like the noodle started moving away from that 200 Mark again, now maybe this time, I was like to say 170 or so. And, and so what CBD did is I realized later that it helped me have better self talk, it helped me drink less alcohol, because I was just using alcohol to mask the noise so that I could just close my eyes and go to sleep. Like when it's late at night. And you know, I've got all this stress and anxiety that's just rattling my body in my brain like I don't, I can't sleep, I can't close my eyes, I can't be still. But CBD over time helped me to like, quiet those thoughts, quiet that noise and then have better self talk. And that's what it helped me to do. And so the other thing that... and so how this has helped veterans and I'm speaking veterans, first responders, but we're all warriors is you know, you know, you mentioned earlier that 22 a day. So right now, the number is 22 a day. But actually, as of November of 2020, the VA the Veterans Affairs did another survey and they estimate that it's closer to 26 a day that take their own lives. And so we've lost more veterans in in from from suicide than we have in 20 years of sustained combat and yes, we've been in sustained combat for 20 years. This is the 20th anniversary of 911.
William Branum
And actually, this is a fine time to throw this out. I'm doing a swim and I'll send you a link. This will be the second year of three that I've done it. Where we start in New Jersey we run down to a from one part to another it's about a two mile run. Then we get in the water and it's all former seals veterans first responders and patriots we get in the water we swim out to across the Hudson River to in front of the Statue of Liberty on a barge and we do 100 pushups and 22 pull ups to to represent the 22 veterans a day. Then we get back in the water we swim out to in front of Ellis Island on a barge, we do another 122. And then we swim to lower Manhattan. And we do another one 122. So it's a fundraiser for the GI Go Fund. And and I'll share that, that link with you. And I think right now there's about 125 people signed up to do to swim this year. So I'll be doing that. That as well. But, but the and I'm not a good swimmer, like that's a huge misconception that people make about Navy Seals that we're all good swimmers, I'm a I have a don't quit--never quit attitude, I will just grind through stuff, which is sometimes a downfall. But it is what it is, I can go forever. I'm just not fast. I mean, we have some Olympic medalists that are doing the swim with us. They did the swim last year. And so and we've got some women doing the swim as well, I won't be in the front, but I've definitely not be in the back.
Justin Stoddart
So let me pull in some relevance here. I see the stress that real estate agents go through, especially in a in a difficult market. And I do believe that alcohol becomes kind of an elixir of choice, right? It becomes a medicine of choice to be able to quiet the mind to be able to relax, be able to turn it off. And what I hear you saying is there's a healthier option than that, right? There's something out there, your CBD products that allow people without concern of addiction, right? without concern of, you know, the the adverse effects of alcohol, that give people a similar response in their ability to decompress. Is that what I'm hearing you say?
William Branum
Yeah, so it doesn't, it doesn't affect the body or the brain the same way that alcohol does, you don't get high, you don't get a buzz, you don't get anything like that. It's just a you can take CBD during the day. You know, if you feel a little bit of stress, you can take a little extra and I use it to help quiet my steam my steam engine, like it just puts a little bit of a little cool this on it. When when my stressors kick in. So in different products do different things. And we could do a whole a whole show about that. But, um, you know, but at the end of the day, the you know, what we have to do is we have to take that ego off that ego that we carry around like armor, that bag is we have to take it off and put it in the corner and set it aside so that we can actually find that healing so we can like quiet our mind, you can't quiet your mind, if you're all you're thinking about is like the crap that's going on around it. You can't change your mentality or how you're thinking or how you're going to, you know what your next role or your next your next mission is or what how you're going to like, you know, conquer the day, you can't even think about that, because I can't even go to sleep. I'm too busy thinking about stuff that doesn't even really matter.
Justin Stoddart
And going back to what you had said before, which is the importance of stepping back, observing, reflecting, it's hard to do when you can't quiet the mind, right? It's hard to do that when you just get locked in it and you're in that chaos of Hell Week, you're in that chaos of explosions in gut, you're like just you get stuck and you're not able to detach so CBD really was sort of that ability to like stand up and step aside and detach and look around and actually observe what was kind of going on in my own life. Let's talk about how people find your products. William I love the mission that you're on of helping give veterans a better alternative and keeping them alive right so that we can honor them How do people get access to your store and your products What does that look like?
William Branum
So my store is at is NW-recovery.com it or you can write in nakedwarriorrecovery.com I changed it to NW because I didn't know if everyone wanted to write naked into their search engine afraid of whatever might come up but really quickly just to kind of talk about you know, you see me wear the shirt and get naked and get naked there's a there's a message there and the message is about mindset and I'll go over really quickly because I think we don't have a lot of time left but so basically the end the get is just means to take action get is an action word naked and it's a really easy thing to remember get naked we all want to get naked we want to look good naked we want to be naked naked is how we started this world naked is really our leave the world but make it is about taking off that armor but also the end or is that and stands for never quit and I don't mean like never quit smoking or drinking your bad habits or porn or whatever. never quit if you have something that you want to do and you want to achieve in your life and it seems unattainable like becoming a navy seal. you chop that up into little bitty bite sized pieces and you know if you're in SEAL training, you chop it up into like, I'm not going to quit until after this evolution is over. I'm not going to quit until after chow was over. I'm not going to quit until like you just go from like one evolution to the other. Oh, I made it through that I must be good to go. I made it through that I lived I were good to go so I'm not gonna quit so just never quit. If it's something that you want to do and you put your mind to do it and your body to do it. never quit make that part of your mission.
William Branum
The A is accepted. Failure is the foundation of success. You know, we get wrapped up around failing, and I didn't do that, well, I lost this deal or whatever, you learn something from that. So accept the failure, make it your foundation, and make that part of your success. Because if you accept failure, you create this foundation, you will become more successful. The key is kill mediocrity. We like just kind of what you talked about earlier, I'm in a brokerage, we're not really performing, but I'm happy, the people are nice, you're in a mediocre relationship, you're in a mediocre state of mind. So what you have to do is you have to kill that mediocrity and go find an organization, a brokerage shop, that is crushing it, and go surround yourself by awesome people, that he is expose your failures, part of getting stuck in that brokerage shop getting stuck in that, you know, getting rid of a client that is really not a good client for you, you're afraid of losing something, you have this fear stuck in the back of your mind. And you you you get stuck on that. And that fear that you don't even want to expose is back there, and it's actually controlling you. So what you have to do is you have to control the fear. So what you have to do, in order to do that, you have to expose it, and what a friend and a business coach of mine, and you may know the guy you may have heard of him, his name is Sharon Srivatsa. He has coined the phrase fear does not exist on paper. So take that fear that thing that's like eating at you and write it down with a pencil or a pen, not on a keyboard, write it down, physically write it down. Once you have you can read it, you can see it, you can look at it, you can share it with someone, now you've exposed that fear. And now you control the fear, the fear no longer controls you and the D is to do the work. Because all of this requires action. All of it requires work. There's nothing that is free in life, everything has a cost. So you have to do the work to get the results that you're looking for. And that is what get naked is all about. It's that simple. But it's not simple. It's complicated. You just have to get naked.
Justin Stoddart
That's, that's you answered the signature question of the show, which is what do you do to continue to be a big thinker you just answered? It's getting naked. So get for those that haven't that feel like that there's some some untapped potential inside of you. PS, that's all of us. And for those of you that maybe you're dealing with some of the stress in unhealthy ways, this is a great guy to follow. Be sure to go to his his his store, NW hyphen, recovery, calm, I put it in the show notes here, and and go find out a better way maybe to help veterans in your life and or yourself. Additionally, there's some amazing mindset stuff you share with all of us. Well, it's been a total pleasure. Again, I thank you for your service, not just to our country, but to all of us today.
Justin Stoddart
And my final request of everybody listening here today are these three simple words and they are go think bigger. Appreciate you.
Justin Stoddart
I want to thank you for tuning into this episode of The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. If you found value here, I asked three things. Number one, give us a review. Number two, go to Facebook and in groups search, Think Bigger Real Estate and apply to join. Here you will find a community of big thinking professionals that will help you grow your income, your independence and your impact.
Justin Stoddart
And my third request is Go Think Bigger!
Justin Stoddart
So the big question is this: How do those of us in the real estate industry, with crazy amounts of ambition, how do we Think Bigger than the building of our own empires? How do we simultaneously see success and significance, income and impact? My name is Justin Stoddart, and this is the Think Bigger Real Estate Show.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart and I'm excited about today's episode. We're going to do a couple of things that are going to be really valuable for you. Number one, we're going to help you understand how to differentiate by understanding how to renovate and rehabilitate a home. Your clients are going to be better advised and better taken care of than they will with another Realtor by learning what you learn today.
Justin Stoddart
Secondly, we're going to talk about how this knowledge can help you see properties that you may have looked past, and be able to see them as an investment opportunity, taking you off the sideline of being an investor into the game of being an investor.
Justin Stoddart
I'm excited to introduce today's guest. Before I do that, let me remind you that inside of the Think Bigger Real Estate Group on Facebook, is where we go deeper on these topics, we introduce the guest of the show, and we allow you to ask additional questions, get to know them and get to know what they can do to help you go deeper on these topics.
Justin Stoddart
Today's guest is somebody that you want to know his name: Van Sturgeon, currently coming to us out of Canada. And he has let me give you a quick kind of background on his situation. He owns over 1000 units across North America. He's has rehabilitated over 1000 units as well, and is someone who now coaches and helps other people to understand that process. Van, It's a total pleasure to have you on the show today.
Van Sturgeon
I really do appreciate the opportunity to spend some time with you. Thank you, I've been admirer of yours. I've listened a number of your podcast. So you got a lot of great content. And hopefully I can help folks out there with you know, giving us some secrets, tips, insights about the whole renovation rehab process.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. If it's time of day, we'll probably have a few people that you know that will tune in live if you are watching live. And you have a question on your mind that you've always wanted to ask about renovations rehabilitations of homes, please do put it in the comments. We'll get to those as we go through the episode. If you're listening to this afterwards, be sure and again, check into the group as well as vansturgeon.com. You'll see the name here at the bottom you'll be able to get some additional resources this man is mentally done at visa. He's also written three books that teach people how to do exactly that. So Van, talk to us about how you got your start as a real estate investor, seeing the opportunity really of rehabilitating renovating homes.
Van Sturgeon
Just quickly, like I'm a product of the late 60s and I grew up in, in Chicago, my parents and I along with my little brother lived in a one bedroom apartment and in Chicago, and my parents wanted to live the American dream, save up their money to buy their first their first house. And in the midst of doing that, they discovered that the building that we were living in, had gone up for sale. And instead of buying that actual house, they decided to put a down payment and purchase the apartment building a real living. So we instead of being property owners, my parents became landlords. And that was that happened during the late 70s. Where it was a it was a really tumultuous time, Justin, the year two, I think you're too young to remember the gas lines and having to wait in line to get gas for your car and interest rates at 18-20 some odd percent, it was just a really miserable time in America. And it during the midst of that, that's our building that was fully occupied, it's all of a sudden started to suffer a lot of vacancies, a lot of the good neighborhood turned into a bad neighborhood. So as good folks leaving, you know, the gangs and drug dealers and all that kind of stuff started to come into our neighborhood. And as a result of that, we started to see vacancies rates skyrocket. And as a family, we had to do everything ourselves in order to be able to make ends meet. So part of the whole thing was as a, you know, part of that was learning how to paint and plaster and do roof work and replace windows and carpeting and all that kind of stuff. So we walked through that period of time and then eventually graduated from university, I could have gone and become a lawyer but decided I wanted to get into this real estate construction renovation thing. And that's when I opened up my jaw contracting firm in Chicago, and started to grow and develop that. And as years went by in the early 90s are they're pretty good terms of real estate, or in terms of construction renovation. And I kept running into the same people over and over again that I would quote work on these real estate investors who would buy properties and and then would flip them and and there were other guys who would buy their properties would do some work to them and mentally hold on to them as rentals and to add to their portfolio. And it was through those individuals and seeing what they're doing got me involved and I slowly over a period of time progressed to where I own over 1000 units right now. They're spread over four areas in Michigan, Ohio, New Brunswick and Florida. And I still have a number of successful businesses that are in real estate, whether it's a property management, renovation. I also build homes, subdivision builders as well. And I got really a lot of great people involved, whether they're employees or partners that look after my businesses and, and some sort of like, in that semi retirement stage in my life where I've kind of downshifted, they, you know, this whole, this whole trek has taken a lot out of me, including, especially my family. So I'm sort of in that stage where I just enjoying life, and I just want to contribute and help people out because I know that there's a lot of, there's a lot of fear out there with regards to rehabilitation renovation of properties. And I know that there's a real need out there for folks that want to really grab complete control over the renovations who want to avoid dealing with or having to deal with bad contractors and tradespeople and really just be able to increase the value of their properties and, and and all those three things I'm an expert on because I literally have anything you can think of that walks and crawls in real estate I've done in terms of renovating from apartments all the way to house single family homes, commercial properties, things that sort.
Justin Stoddart
It's interesting how many people will kind of hang their hat on I want to get you know, it's kind of small handful of rental properties, create some mailbox money, write some passive income. for retirement, I can't imagine sitting on 1000 units like good for you. That's impressive. Kudos to you for all the sacrifices that you've made to make that happen. Let's Let's start with kind of the first topic. And I appreciate that background, it creates such context for all of us to really appreciate and value who we're talking to. When we get into this concept of right now we're in a very low inventory situation, right? Not enough homes for sale, compared to the amount of buyer demand. And it's very competitive as a real estate agent, you're working very hard to try and differentiate and separate yourself from the competition. Obviously, we live in not the industrial era anymore. We live in the knowledge economy where the more you know, right, the more valuable you are. And I hope real estate agents really internalize that concept. Because when you can start to have your knowledge reflect the needs in the marketplace. Now you become highly valued, and you start to stand out from your competition and price is less than less if not a complete non issue. And so having this ability as a real estate agent, to be able to understand, right, not just HGTV understand, like to say, Van, you were like rehabilitating homes before it was cool, right? Like before, it was like all over HGTV you were the guy doing it. And so you know, to those out there that are like, you know, if I could have a deep understanding what that looks like, not just the HGTV service level, but like, coach by or under, you know, have deep understanding from Van Sturgeon type, you know, be able to have that kind of conversation with people about, hey, if we, if we bought this home at this price, here's what I think we could do with it. Right?
Justin Stoddart
How would a real estate agent, what what are some of the key factors do you think that real estate agents should know? And maybe where should they start if they wanted to kind of go to that path of really understanding how to be a great advisor to their clients, on homes that can use a little bit of work?
Van Sturgeon
Justin, you nailed it on the head. We live in a different time than 30 years ago lay I when I got started in this in this business. I was doing burb before there was a birth strategy. And right now we live in a world where information is at the fingertips of everyone. And the differentiator that real estate agents salespeople need to have is the ability to be able to go beyond the access to information but really provides some insight on properties that might be potentially up for sale, or currently are for sale. So I part of that service offering that I think that might be a differentiator, that able to distinguish yourself from others is the ability to be able to walk into a property and be able to provide some sort of assessment as to the physical condition of the property. And what are they requires in order to be able to be raised to a certain level that can actually result in profit for that real estate investor who's that that might be your client, or for even for that residential family who's just looking to purchase their first home. There's some real value there that goes over and past what you can find on the internet. If you can provide that in a clear and concise way that is easily digestible by the by the clients or individuals that you are that you're working with. There's a real need out there in the marketplace because right now as you touched on, suppliers is incredibly ridiculously low. You only have a limited amount of time literally hours to make a decision for whether you want to move forward on a property or not.
Van Sturgeon
And, you know, if you had the time, you might be able to call up your contractor friend to take a look at it and kick the tires to see what really needs to be done on a property, or perhaps even go further and pay to a home inspector or property inspector to come out and look at it and give you a laundry list of things that need to be done on the property. But right now, we don't live in those. We don't live in that condition. Right now. It is crazy. And so if you want to move, you need to be able to act quickly determine what the value of that property is today and what it could be tomorrow. And what is the you know, we're all buying, we're all looking for the ugly duckling the diamond in a rough, but what is it that's going to be what kind of capital infusion or injection, what needs to be done at that property to raise the value to make sense of this investment? If we're looking at it as investment, obviously, Rogen as a residential property? It doesn't, you know, if you're living in it, that really that's a different animal all to itself.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, great point. A you, right? I mean, that skill set to be able to go in and do that and not have to rely upon like you said, an inspector, or a contractor. Right? So let's just give people a little bit of sampling. Well, let me let me back up maybe even more important than giving them kind of the nuts and bolts of what to look for, right? Because we could spend all day doing that kind of that's a whole different conversation.
Justin Stoddart
What kind of financial opportunity, I mean, why, let's go back to the why if someone would do this, obviously, we've talked about how it's going to differentiate, differentiate them from other agents, right? That they're going to be able to have conversations their clients, to allow them to pursue homes, that the typical agent would be like, I wouldn't do that if I were you, right. Whereas when you have an understanding of that, now, all of a sudden, there's more inventory on the market, because you can actually do more and and get the home to be how your clients want it to be without it having to be that way now, right. But you had mentioned about understanding this process, you can help people to save between 30 to 50% on a renovation, talk to us about that a little bit.
Van Sturgeon
Sure. The, the whole notion behind saving that dramatic amount of money is is comes from the ability to be able to sort of pushed the general contractor off to the side, put them actually to the curb, and you acting as your own general contractor in these renovation rehab projects. If you look at a renovation that costs $50,000, and I am a general contractor, by the way, that's how I got my started, I still am. If I were to price out a job and just charge you or gave an estimate of $50,000, Justin, my net cost on that would be somewhere around 30 to 35,000. So I would be making a profit of 15 to $20,000 on that project. And I have to in order for me to babysit look after it use my knowledge and experience over the course of two, three months to look after that project, I need to have that kind of money. And so by virtue of you eliminating that, or pushing that kazon contract offer off to the side, and taking over that opposition and planning and managing that renovation rehab, by virtue of that you are already in a product in that, you know, you've saved that 15,000 $20,000. The next step forward is that by virtue of you taking over that actually being that that that person looks after the planning and managing you have much better control, complete control over your renovation rehab, and you're able to really dive down and identify the good trades people and contractors you want to do business with, and the ones you don't. And then the next step, of course is you're just able to pick and identify the items, you really truly need to be able to raise the value of the property. So that's where the whole ocean idea of being able to walk in and be able to save that kind of money is to act as your own GC. And in most municipalities all across North America, that opportunity exists. If you're the principal, if you're the owner of the property. Some areas very few won't even allow you to do that you have to be licensed. But in many, many parts, you know, you have property rights, you're allowed to be able to do whatever you want to do within reason, of course within building law bylaws, being able to do whatever you want in your property. So we
Justin Stoddart
Think about that. If you could go in and know exactly what you are, like you need to upgrade, like most people will look at a property be like that, like that doesn't pencil, right? That doesn't make sense. But when you can go in and spend the right amount of money on the right things to get the right amount of rental return, right, kind of the right price for your tenants, all of a sudden now a whole new, again, you're increasing inventory by not just creating inventory for your clients, but also creating inventory for your investment portfolio. Things that didn't pencil before all of a sudden do because you put the right money into the right things which demand a higher price point in the rental market. Is that right hearing you say?
Van Sturgeon
Yeah, look, if I can add to that is that oftentimes I find that there's a lack of information or lack of research that are done by by agents, salespeople and principals. The actual homeowners and or investors and what they wanted to what types of upgrades and repairs or renovations re rehabs that they want to do that are a property that gives the highest ROI. And so one of the things I stress in individuals that want to engage in that process is that you really thoroughly guys do your due diligence in that area where your property's located and identify what it is that you're actually looking to do, if you're looking to do a house flip is different than if you're looking to hold on to a property as a rental. And even then those are the both those scenarios. What is it that what's the ultimate end game, if it's a flip, how much money do you want to make, if it's a rental, how much money do you want to rent it out. And once you have those goals identified and written down, and they're staring right at you, then you got to go out there in the marketplace and validate, that's where the critical, critical role of a real estate agent salesperson is that they can help that their client to be able to say, hey, if you bought this property, and if you did this, this, this because I saw this, this, this and that property down the street, two blocks down. And if you did that this is what they're doing. This is how much you sold it for and made profit wise, this is how much you're renting it for these are greater This is the kind of information that I or you know, as a client of yours would be very appreciative of because you save me a lot of legwork and you eliminate any, any, you provide more clarity, you provide more clarity by going to your client and saying, hey, these are things you can do to raise the value, and you get the highest return on your investment.
Justin Stoddart
Boy that was a powerful script, that everybody that's listening to this kind of takes that to heart that that conversation that you can have with a client, by understanding this process is wildly valuable to be able to say, this is what your home would sell for now is what it's worth now, if you made these improvements, which would cost roughly this amount, the home would then sell for this amount. And you can actually walk people through an you know, scenario of a return, right? Like that's powerful. If I'm an investor, or even just a homeowner, a buyer looking to buy, having somebody with that expertise.
Justin Stoddart
And again, I go back to the fact that we are moving out of a real estate economy where people are just going to choose you because they like you and they know you, right, they need to have more value than that because there's lower price options out there. And one of the ways you can differentiate, differentiate yourself, one of the key ways to differentiate yourself is to be able to have the knowledge that actually moves the needle for people that actually helps them to get a return. And or make a smart purchasing decision, especially when purchasing decisions are are rushed today, right where you have to move very quickly. And people are waiving inspections and appraisals and all kinds of stuff that could really come back to bite them to be able to go in and be able to give some confidence that and still compete in that crazy market, right still be able to compete with an offer that's going to get accepted. But to be able to have some more knowledge than the typical agent and just being there to open a door and say, Do you like it? Do you want to write an offer? Right, those days are are going those are not going to be well paid agents, if I don't think those are well paid agents anymore. I think those those agents to get that kind of business are after the discount significantly. But you don't have to go there by earning by by gaining increased knowledge in this space, you make yourself invaluable to your clients.
Van Sturgeon
Absolutely, like I live for again, we're dealing with individuals that are new homeowners or new real estate investors, the added confidence that you can provide as a as a bonafide expert, as a real estate agent who understands the market. And you're able to provide these tips, these little tidbits of information with regards to this particular property you're looking at and why it's a it's an ugly duckling that should be purchased. Because you can do this, this this to do you know, to get X amount of dollars, or ROI, ROI return is huge, because a lot of folks are looking for that we're not talking about the seasoned real estate investor. I'm not talking about that. We're talking about the individuals that have come in in the marketplace, or new real estate investors who need that guidance, they need that support. And that's where i is i think is a missing or a critical component to a successful real estate agent to be able to really make some headway is by being able to provide that that little extra in confidence. How do you get that confidence being understated being fully appreciative and understand the process of rehabilitating renovating a property and being able to give that kind of information to your clients that they can then seize on? And and and you know, and everything's good, solid? It's a win win situation.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, it's great stuff. And let's go to the second point here of now, in fact, I think was Gary Keller that said, you should sell every house that you don't buy yourself. I think when you step into the real estate industry as a real estate agent, you know, one of the things that that agents oftentimes don't realize when they walk away from maybe corporate America or some of the thing is that there's no built in retirement plan. Now some companies have established some profit, share some revenue, share stuff, that's wildly helpful, but for the most part, you're on your own to create your own retirement, right. And obviously even in those scenarios, you're able to create your own retirement. And so many agents over overlook the opportunity that you're on the very front lines of seeing what investment opportunities are out there. And that really is the inside track that really is the insider trading information that allows you to build a far better retirement that then corporate America, you know, could ever provide for you. However, most agents don't start thinking that way until later in their career. In fact, I've heard agent after agent, oftentimes ask them, what's the what's the one bit of advice you tell yourself, if you were to go back and talk to yourself, just getting started in the business, and one of the common threads is I tell myself to buy a property every year, right? Like dude, like, make whatever sacrifices, increase my goals, right, instead of just having my goals be like, Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take care of my earnings this year, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go on a vacation, I would raise that goal, another X amount, so that I could afford a rental property every year, you do that, and all of a sudden, 10 years in, now, all of a sudden, you're dependent upon, you know, making a commission check every month, right, it starts to offset that. And then you get to the point where you're like, then where, you know, life's you're sitting pretty, you know, you're sitting pretty. So again, but again, many agents don't see that opportunity because again, they're intimidated by the fact of the renovation and rehabilitation space.
Justin Stoddart
And that I didn't mention this to you. But I was a high end home builder, for a number of years nearly to kind of starting in early 2000. And so I know a thing or two about contracts, subcontracts. how, you know, though, like the right subcontractors can make or break you. Talk to us a little bit about now this investment opportunity, right? Obviously, we've talked about it as being an advisor to your clients and offering significant value to them. So that you get chosen every time so that you win every deal, right? Because you can help them to see inventory that that other agents would would steer you away from. Now, let's take the perspective of now you're the agent or the investor slash agent. And I'll put it in that order on purpose, right? Is it like what kinds of opportunities does this knowledge allow you to take advantage of having an understanding of the things that you teach?
Van Sturgeon
I couldn't agree with you more about real estate agents, they are they're their own little companies, it's, and they need to look after themselves, and moving forward in the future. And I've also, in the early days, debated about moving towards getting my real estate license because agents license because there were an our opportunities that folks like you are able to see, then then we out there in the public. There are definitely opportunities every single day, in every single market, those opportunities exist. And those are, you need to be in a position in a right proper mindset, and also have the tools available and the heart and the passion to be able to go out there and seize them. There are opportunities every single day, other investors are looking for individuals to be able to partner up with where folks like yours truly has money that's looking for partners to be able to identify those deals, whether it's on the residential commercial side, and be able to do partner up and move the ball forward so that it's a win win situation. These are the types of opportunities that real estate agents can afford themselves. If they strategically start to think about, you know that the spending more spending some time not spending some time on trying to identify who they are and how they can move the ball forward, being able to create that real estate portfolio, that passive income, that venture over a period of time, all of a sudden, can be their sole source of income. And it's not all that difficult, Justin to create that it's just a matter of sort of taking yourself out of that box and looking, you know, looking at looking at yourself and seeing where it is, where are you today and where you want to be tomorrow. But the opportunities definitely exists more so for real estate agents, because it's the things that you see, and the relationships that you have, and the networking opportunities to be able to not only reach out to fellow real estate agents who might come across an opportunity, but also to reach out to investors who might have the capital to be able to go in on a on a partnership basis to be able to, you know, get out there and create some opportunities for yourself.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I love how you said that. And again, you see opportunities that others would pass over right? You'd see see things that others the others won't see. And it really, really can create quite a compelling future for you if you get started early enough. And if you aren't intimidated by stuff that you don't need to be intimidated by, right having having to get built homes or invaded homes myself, I know that to the discerning eye you can get yourself in trouble. Right. But to the discerning eye, you can you can create you know you can create wealth for yourself. So, so much
Van Sturgeon
So Justin, you again, real estate agents have an incredible opportunity because they they are, if they're active in their marketplace, they understand in another in a much more elaborate level of what the what the market dynamics are in these particular niche or sub markets. And being able to position yourself as that as having that information and being able to act on it is, is huge. And that's the reason why you find a lot of real estate investors actually have migrated from that, were there real estate agents, there's a lot of very, very big real estate investors that came out of that field were their real estate agents first, and they might still continue to be and accumulate huge portfolios of properties, and is finding those in real estate agents understand that, you know, things like curb appeal are important, understand the needs of certain things that are, you know, that are in the property. And it also can create certain differentiators within that property that separates you from what the masses are. Now, because of the market that we're in, that kind of is not as necessary, but things will change this, what we're going through is not going to continue it there will be hopefully there won't be a crash or something that'll hopefully, it'll be a slow letdown. But there will be a letdown, I think we're already starting to see glimpses of that it's not as robust. The real estate market is not as robust as it was maybe three months ago, and things will sort of subside, and then really the opera, more opportunities will present themselves. It's just you got to be in a proper mindset, to be able to say, hey, I want to be proactive, and I want to be able to do all of this stuff. You have the information, you have the tools, you have the knowledge, it's a matter of putting getting out of that comfort zone, there's a lot of fear that's involved in taking that next step for saying, Hey, I'm going to buy that investment property, or finding that relationship with somebody to be able to go on a partnership basis to purchase I bought some property, there's a lot of fear. And it's normal, everybody has fears. So it's like walking or walking into that, you know, when you're 16 years old walking to that car, and you're getting in the driver's seat for the first time, the apprehension, that tension to all that, you know, all that stuff. And then several years later, it's like no big deal, you just hop in there, and you just drive off. But think about all the things that you have to go through the process in order to be able to drive the vehicle successfully from point A to point B. But yes, it's second nature to us, it's a matter of getting out of that comfort zone and get out, get out, you know, get the fear out, go in,
Justin Stoddart
I would say, you know, it's always important to dig your well before you're thirsty, right to gain the knowledge. Even if you're like, I don't see any properties I need to renovate right now. Once you gain the knowledge, your paradigm shifts, you start to see through a different lens, you start to see things you wouldn't see otherwise, I think it's important for people understand that once. Once you gain new knowledge, the world looks different. And you start to see things and focus on things that you wouldn't have seen before.
Van Sturgeon
That's what I have seen time and time again, with clients that I've worked closely with in going through the process new real estate investors when they're going through the process of their first renovation, rehab, where I walk them through the whole planning and management of it. And it's it's a beautiful process to watch because it's a it's a everybody is they have complete control over the renovation, they don't have to deal with these bad contractors in situations, we strategically do things so that you have a beautiful streamlined process where you complete the project and you save 10s of 1000s of dollars. And at the end of the day, you learn a skill set, you've got the confidence because you already did one, you already got a notch on your belt, you've done it, you've done it before, to be able to move on to your next project where it's going to you've got the confidence in being able to just be able to move the process forward. So it's, I strongly encourage people and folks that if you really want to differentiate yourself in the marketplace, to be able to offer that to your clients is is I think in many cases is a game changer because it attracts people to you. Bet other people other agents are not doing.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, that's a great point. Then my final question is going to be this you're a big thinker, obviously you've done some incredible things in the real estate investing space and now guiding and teaching other people to do the same. What does Van Sturgeon do to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand his possibilities?
Van Sturgeon
You know, I by interaction with folks on a daily basis that are getting out there and starting their their real estate investment careers and being successful at it really fills my fills my soul I really enjoyed I don't I do this because I'm passionate about it. I have all this experience with over 30 years. I like to well I love being able to share by virtue of that exchange of information keeps me up to date keeps me an understanding of what's happening in the marketplace. And so on one hand I do it because the sheer pleasure of seeing people be so successful but also the same time it gives it keeps the finger on the pulse of what's happening out there across North America. And and I'm thoroughly blessed by the opportunity and I continue to enjoy every single day waking up and dealing with folks and helping them out and starting their new year started in real estate investment career where they get to the point where they have passive income and being able to create financial freedom is tremendous. And then some of them might even just be able to carry a portfolio and pass it on to their, you know, to their children. And that's that's beautiful stuff.
Justin Stoddart
Something just came to mind, you know, if you want to be successful learn, and apply if you want to be significant teach, and coach and I think that's kind of what you embody, right? Someone who's done both success and significance, which is the absolute mission of this show has helped people to marry the two is that they're not exclusive to each other to help people to think bigger than real estate, to pursue success and significance, income and impact. vana spent a total pleasure, appreciate everything that you've shared today. And the value offering you bring the marketplace for those that are interested in gaining this knowledge. So you can really separate yourself from the average agent and separate yourself from the average investor, go to vansturgeon.com, you can learn more about his books, the things that he has there for free, as well as some ways that he can actually coach you through your your rehabilitation and renovation projects. So, Van, total pleasure. Thank you again. And to everybody. My final request is this. Go Think Bigger than we appreciate you.
Justin Stoddart
I want to thank you for tuning in to this episode of the thick bigger real estate show. If you found value here, I asked three things. Number one, give us a review. Number two, go to Facebook and in groups search, think bigger real estate and apply to join. Here you will find a community of big thinking professionals that will help you grow your income, your independence and your impact. And my third request is go think bigger
Justin Stoddart
So the big question is this: How do those of us in the real estate industry, with crazy amounts of ambition, how do we Think Bigger than the building of our own empires? How do we simultaneously seek success and significance, income AND impact? My name is Justin Stoddart, and this is the Think Bigger Real Estate Show.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart, where we help you not just pursue success, but significance. Today's guest is all about significance. He's someone who I admire deeply. I can't wait to introduce you to him. Before we go there. I want to remind you that inside of the Think Bigger Real Estate Group on Facebook, we go deeper on these topics. Listening gets you to one level of understanding, but when you start engaging with it, that's when it really becomes knowledge and even onto wisdom.
Justin Stoddart
Super excited to have again, today's guest His name is Josh Kalinowski He is a former professional baseball pitcher, turned real estate agent, now investor. His story is fantastic. Before I go deeper on your story, Josh, thanks for coming on the show today, man.
Josh Kalinowski
I just Oh man, this is a pleasure. Super excited to be talking with you and your audience.
Justin Stoddart
Talk about a big thinker and you your early days of baseball. Now let me let me bring in some context here for everybody that's, that's listening that saying, Okay, I'm not a baseball player, does this relate to me right? Today, what we're going to be talking about is how to overcome disappointment. Okay, so whether your first career didn't quite work out now you find yourself in the real estate industry, and or even in the real estate industry right now you're finding yourself, like a little frustrated not getting the wins that you expect yourself to be having, this episode is for you. So Josh, let's go back, you from a very young age knew that you had some talent. throwing the ball, right?
Josh Kalinowski
Yeah, yeah, I grew up with knowing my purpose. And that was to be a professional athlete in some form or another, right. So either a quarterback in the NFL, or left handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. In fact, I really kind of wanted to be both man, Bo Jackson was my hero. And coming from a very small town, I was a pretty big fish. And so success came very easy for me at the very early stages of my life. And so that was everything. To me sports, was it and I felt like that's exactly what I was created to do. And I felt like God already had that plan. And I was etched in stone to be a very successful Hall of Fame, professional athlete.
Justin Stoddart
Did you have the shirt made? Josh knows kinda like Bo Knows?
Josh Kalinowski
Yeah, right. Basically, it was pretty much that already did there's no, I had my, I had my number picked. I knew where my stadium was going to be. And I knew exactly it was gonna be called Cal's corner, and that was gonna be my pressbox area. Like, dude, it was already there. You know, those vision boards had a vision board before they even knew what a vision board was. Yeah, this is, you got it? Yeah. Yeah. Right.
Justin Stoddart
So it's super interesting, because you hear you talk to any of the success gurus, right. And they say, if you want to accomplish something, get laser clear on what you want to accomplish. And it's just a matter of time. And that's what you had been taught. It sounds like and you were like, crystal clear on this is exactly where I'm going. This is one way to have. And, and like you said, I knew my life's purpose, it was to be a professional athlete. Right. And with that, you're gonna do a lot of good along the way. But that was the climax. That was where you were headed.
Josh Kalinowski
That's exactly right. And yeah, my father had he always, you know, my dad was a great he was an athlete as well, too. He was an all American Basketball Player. And so he understood the competitiveness, I was literally like, I was a miniature Dave Kalinowski. And he always set goals for us, he always helped us set goals for ourselves. And so at every level, no matter where I was at whether I was in, you know, t ball, or in high school, or in college, I had a list of goals that I want to wanted to accomplish. And they all revolved around sports, right, if I was going to get A's in school is because it allowed me to play baseball, not because I really wanted to be a great student, was because that's what allowed me to play the game that I absolutely loved.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Well, just to put some context to this to how good you were, and you probably wouldn't say this, but you pitch the no hitter. Right now. It's extremely rare, right? For anybody that that knows baseball, knowing that pitching a full game and having zero, like on base is a phenomenal accomplishment, right, which just fed the fuel right, we just fed up to be like that. I'm absolutely on this path. Right.
Josh Kalinowski
Exactly.
Justin Stoddart
That and then being strikeout King right in your league, being drafted in the minor leagues by the Rockies, right. Just all these things are just lining up just the way they're supposed to. Then some things kind of started to not go your way. Right. Talk to us a little bit about the disappointment because again, whether people have experienced disappointment in the past and they're still hanging on to it, or they're experiencing it right now in this crazy market and or just in their personal life. Yeah, a little bit about yours so we can kind of relate to a guy like you.
Josh Kalinowski
You bet. Well, let me make it very relatable if you were in the market, selling real estate prior to 2006 and you were having success, and you were doing everything right, right. And then the market gets crazy. And you're like, Oh my gosh, like, I'm like, I am the best agent out there. I cannot believe how much money I'm making. I can't believe how many clients I'm serving. I can't believe how easy this is right? Well, that's what baseball was for me. In a sense. I was throwing a no hitter. I, I had a 20 game strikeout I was MVP of the league. I was an all star candidate. For three years of those years, I led the minor leagues and strikeouts, a little Colorado Rockies in strikeouts, you know, so everything was saying, you are going to be a Hall of Fame pitcher, it's just a matter of time for you to get there. Right. So 2006, you're in real estate, this is going to be awesome. I'm going to retire by the time I'm in 2010. Or I'm going to take over the world in 2010. And then 2008 hits and you're going What just happened? Like I wasn't ready for this. I wasn't prepared for this. This was so so go on forever, right? Well, that's what happened to me. in my baseball career at the age of 26. Too many surgeries and baseball really shut its doors on me and and I had to retire as I like to say, but it was more of a I had to really walk away from the game that I absolutely love because it was moving on without me. And I could not keep up with it.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Well, yeah, we've all felt that I love the context you brought in because you're right. I was a homebuilder up intil 2009. For a while, I felt like I could do nothing wrong. Maybe real estate agents here over the past little while have felt that way, right? had a pretty hot market for the past number of years, almost in the past year and a half or so it's been like, wait a minute, this isn't quite as fun. All of a sudden, I've got eager buyers, I just can't find the sellers, right. I've got sellers, and how do I possibly go through all these offers? Like it's just a lot, right? It's just a lot more than what people are used to going through a lot of potential disappointment. Okay, so walk us through kind of your story, like what came next, you started to have some, like your body started did not quite work like you wanted it to? Right?
Josh Kalinowski
Yeah, you know, at the age of 26, I'd already had three surgeries. Three on my shoulder, my shoulder, one of my elbow. So I was really broken. And I really was unable to perform like I used to I my mind was there, but my body was basically broken. And you know, I remember, you know, at the age of 26, as a professional athlete, you also gotta remember to is that I'm like four years away from retirement, like, you know, 26 years old at the age of 30. That's when most guys are thinking of retiring. So in my mind, I was an old man, I was getting to that point in my life that it's like, I got to really start thinking about the rest of my life. And so as I continue that journey, and really trying to figure out who I was, what my greater purpose was, and that's when I walked away from the game. And you know, that, you know, I've got a book called strike three that I and I talked about the 13 years it took for me to really overcome that failure. Right. And, you know, as you talked about it, you know, it's it's such a common theme with real estate agents, one of the things I love about our industry is that I feel it's so relatable because most of us did not come into it as our first option, just like we've talked about, and you you have said many times, you know, we come in and because it's like, what other options do I have left, right? And then, of course, sometimes we come into this with this guise of like, well, gosh, if I, if I only sell one house a month, like that's 12 a year, that's going to be an $8,000 Commission, like, then I'm gonna, I'm like, $100,000, that's pretty easy. That's I can do this part time. And we all know that the industry will absolutely Eat up. It's a super tough industry, and it really will consume you, if you do not make sure that you're using it as a entrepreneur, as you're acting as an entrepreneur in this industry. So. So that's a little bit of just once again, I think the reason why I transitioned into real estate is because I found a lot of similarities of the competitiveness, and the fact that there is absolutely no ceiling in either one of those realms. And I was able to find a greater passion in this industry.
Justin Stoddart
Great for really, again, kind of bringing some context to the kind of the correlation, right is that you went from having these big dreams, big aspirations, and maybe others that will listen to this for like, yeah, yeah, I was supposed to be XYZ, no, by myself in the real estate industry, right? Yeah. But for some could could be a disappointment. And once you get in, you're like, wait a minute, why wasn't this planet right? This was actually pretty good. Right? If you do it, right, absolutely. can be pretty good. Walk us through again, because the the promise to the audience today is how do we overcome disappointment? So as you started to realize, like, I'm not going to be Cal Ripken, Jr. as much as I thought I was going to be or Nolan Ryan, right. Like, I'm not going to have that kind of major league baseball career, you went into a little bit of a spiral I know you talked about in your book, which again, for those that are looking for a great read, strike three, just call an auskey. It's a great read. You can get it again, if you don't listen to the whole episode, at strikethreebook.com, so get yourself a copy of that. But you talk about in the book about how there's this this point where you kind of went dark for a little while, like you had a really tough time realizing like wait a minute, what happened? What happened talk to us about that turning point. In fact, I just read it through the day where you had this turning point where where it became very clear that disappointment doesn't mean failure, right?
Josh Kalinowski
Absolutely, like, well, let's see. I'll give you the short version. Thirteen years of my therapy that I had to go through in order to do this, you know, one of it, I think that is a big theme in my life was that I had to learn to move my finish line. You know, I felt like my life was over. Like the purpose was I kind of said that earlier that in this in this podcast that I knew from a very early stage of my life, that my purpose was baseball. Right, I was baseball, I thought that like I knew that distinctively. But then I had to realize that it was not my purpose that I was not baseball, baseball happened to be the platform that allowed me to go and have success and find out who I was. But it was really only a chapter in my life. And so for years, I really looked in the rearview mirror, and saw my successes back there and never felt like I could have success in the future. And so until I got to that point, where First of all, I started to tell myself the truth, right? A lot of us tell ourselves these stories, and there are a lot of them are lies. Let's just let's face it, right? I started so myself to find the truth in the story. Why was I created? Why was I given this opportunity to chase this amazing dream? Why was it taken away? Right. And in the book, I talk about that experience that I had that really that come to Jesus moment, where was literally point blank to me, and I heard that voice where it said, Dude, like, I did not create you for baseball, I created you for so much greater. And it's like, Okay, all right. Now I've got purpose. And now I've got something even greater, I got a bigger chapter in my life that I can pursue. And I've got to move that finish line. And so that was that process. And there's a lot of things that continue to develop in me. And there's a lot of things that I can talk about even more so. But if you're going to just have one theme, moving your finish line will help you achieve greater things in your life.
Justin Stoddart
But it's so powerful. so powerful. And remember the analogy you use in the book, which is this was a chapter, this wasn't the book, right? And you can even add on to say like, this is your first book, right? Like, yeah, there's so much more. And I think we oftentimes get so myopic, looking at the here and now and we forget the fact that Eternity is a really long time, right? Even our lives go really long time. Yeah, it's hard to put that into context. And it's like, you know what, it's okay. These disappointments are exactly that they're simply a disappointment. And they don't have to sink me they can if I'm not careful, but they don't have to, you know, I, I work with people and kind of a big theme of of my life, Josh is helping, you know, there's endless gurus that are teaching success. There's countless paths, like in their great paths to get there. I feel like there's too little too little emphasis on, on building significance. Yeah. Which I believe success fits within that, but of actually taking care of the other areas of life because you can have a very successful business a very successful career. Meanwhile, everything from marriage to even finances, to your health is crumbling in the background, mental health, right, all that stuff. And so what I like the lessons that you're teaching here fit so well under kind of the value that I want to bring to the marketplace, which is helping people to think bigger than real estate, to think bigger than your business think bigger than your career and realize it's a component of it. And even within that career, there's chapters and there's multiple books, there's lots of story to be left.
Justin Stoddart
Remember Barbara Corcoran who's kind of the queen of New York real estate right Shark Tank for those that are returning place that name she said I would take something somebody like to me the most successful people are the people that can get up the fastest they're like we're all gonna get knocked down. How fast can you get up? You know, that's the difference in someone who I want working with me as opposed to somebody that's Uber talented, but when they suffered up with disappointment they can't pull themselves up for for you know, for far too long. You know, what a great lesson that you just taught us there which is bumped the finish line out like things aren't as bad when you zoom out and be like, Oh, this is a speck in the scheme of things right spec This is an everything like we have once expected so very similar to you I had ambitions to be like about your hex right to be you know, I want to play college let you know college football at the highest levels ended up playing small college football and you know, it's kinda like a Rudy character as opposed to like a character, right. And so I can I can feel your pain there a little bit. I wasn't nearly as talented as you were. But remember that disappointed of like, Oh, crap, that's not quite how I planned it to be. Yeah. So anyway, I love the lessons you're teaching. What else would you say to somebody that's like, Man, this is resonating with me. I want to think bigger than just my real estate career. I want to get over these disappointments, whether they be kind of the direction my career's gone. And or like the direction that my business is going right now in this tough market. Is there anything else anything else that you want to kind of point out here that you pulled from that time that would help people to to overcome more quickly, right, be that person that bounces back quickly?
Josh Kalinowski
Absolutely, buddy. Well, I think I want to highlight a couple things. One is, you know, you're talking about these other areas in your life and in the book I really talked about why do we really believe in five foundational pieces, right? We, we've got to create a very strong foundation in our life, and five foundations or faith, family, fitness, finance and future. And specifically in that order, you know, in faith is really the faith and belief in a higher being, I know that you're a man of God, I'm a man of God, but also that faith within ourselves, you know, we, when we experience brokenness, we lose faith in ourselves, we lose faith in the abilities and the talents and the uniqueness that we have. And we, we often build up these walls in our lives that we think that there to protect us. But in actuality, what it does is it actually holds us back, it holds us back from what I call being three dimensional, right? It holds us back from being the dad that we want to be in the husband that we want to be or the mommy wants to be. And the entrepreneur wants to be like all of these features. And so as I was going through my evolution of a man, I was man i was i was really, I was watching and looking at other men be successful. And just like you said, I was really getting tired of watching men be very successful and one attribute and their life and a complete train wreck. And the other ones that I'm like, gosh, there's got to be more like, why can't I be exceptional in all of the areas of my life? Why can't I be a great man of faith, a great family man, a great entrepreneur, and businessman. And so I really started to chase that down. And what I found is that when I started building integrity moments in my life, I started having the confidence that I could go out there and be the man that I wanted to become, right.
Josh Kalinowski
And so one of the things that I do on a daily basis, this is just a great hack that if you're looking for like, Okay, well, what does that mean? How do I build integrity moments, it's called The Pill. So every day I take the daily pill, now it is not a pill that's gone. This isn't like a physical pill by any means. But this is a pill that you can take every single day. And so the P stands for painful, alright, so every single day, I'm going to do something painful, I'm going to do something that embraces the heart, or if you've heard it before, like do something that embrace the suck, right? I'm gonna do something every single day in one of those areas. That's hard for me to do. Now, the easiest way to do that is typically when somebody does it in the physical part of their role, right? The fitness part like so it's really easy to do the painful thing, go do the Murph, go run a 5k, go do the 45 minute workout, I know you're on 75 hard, you could do the painful thing every single day twice with those 45 minute workouts, right? Go take a cold shower, right? Like those types of things.
Josh Kalinowski
And then the I stands for intentional. So every single day I identify something intentional, that I need to do in one of those areas doesn't have to be all of them, but just one of them. And then so as I mark that out, and I do that, of course, obviously, I'm starting to complete this pill.
Josh Kalinowski
The next thing is lazy. You know, we are all lazy at something in our life, right? I don't know about you. But like, every time I walked by the trash, I'm like, I'll get it on the next trip, right? Like, I don't want to do this. Now wait for it to get a little bit fuller, right, or, I hate doing the dishes like that is like my nemesis, that's not going to happen, right? So every single day, I identify something that I'm lazy at. And so when I start to do the things that I avoid the things that I really don't want to do, it's amazing how much integrity I started building within myself confidence and discipline. And all of these things are these attributes that help you have a strong foundation and belief in yourself.
Josh Kalinowski
And then the last thing, which is really the most important to be honest with you is because this is one area that we neglect so much in ourselves is that you have to identify something that you love to do every single day. Something that you love to do for you is even more important, because we as leaders, as you know, we give of ourselves and this industry, it is so easy to get burned out because you are emptying your cup on everybody, right? Your clients, your friends, your family, everybody that needs you, right, you have the responsibility to help other people in every aspect of their life. Well, the problem is that we often don't fill our own cups, and we don't give ourselves the attention. We do not give ourselves the permission to do the things that we love that lightest on fire, right. And so when you can identify just one thing, one simple thing, right? Go on a 10 minute walk, do an interview that you love to do a podcast, right, listen to a podcast, something that fills your cup. It's amazing how much more power you have to pour out to other people's lives. And so that in itself, right, there has been one of the key factors that has really helped me overcome the failures in my life and understand there's a greater purpose and I have a roadmap that I can be doing every single night, every single day to continue to keep building myself.
Justin Stoddart
Was that an acronym? Can you say it again? So people like the way that they can remember that because it was brilliant content, like what a way to really prepare yourself to be of greater service.
Josh Kalinowski
Yeah, so it's called the pill. So you got to take the pill every single day. So it's painful. And attentional lazy and loving.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. And that's in the book. Am I gonna get to that here at some point?
Josh Kalinowski
Yeah, no, that's not in the book. That's actually a part of our Kingsmen Group which I know that you've got a little bit of that as well to get you a little swag. Yeah, yeah, we were but yeah, that's part of we, we have a group of, of men that we love to pour into, and they pour into us. And it really just helps us attack life. So that's one of the things that we do is help them with that the idea of what a pill is so.
Justin Stoddart
So cool. Can't wait to learn more about that. Yeah, I do. I am sporting some, some pretty cool gear these days. Thanks. Thanks to you. I love it. Awesome stuff. Josh. Can't can't thank you enough for number one being the kind of leader, right, that looks at life and says, Okay, what can I learn from this and then share it with other people, right? It takes an added amount of courage to say, look, this was a real failure, I'm going to share it with the world, because the lessons are so important. Because it's so important for me to help lift other people, I'm going to be super transparent and say, Look, this is where I spiral. This is where I failed. This is where I sucked it up. And, and it's just it's a great tribute. Because really, we can't relate to people who haven't gone through difficult times. Yeah, when someone's vulnerable enough, brave enough to say, look, I really blew it. Here's what I learned from it. Man, we you know, you get an army, you know, coming around you saying, you know, you're a leader, like, let's, let's go. So, again, for any that, that want to learn more about Josh's story and feel like, there's still some some unmet opportunities in your life that just because you failed in the past, whether it's been in business, whether it's been in marriage, whether it's been at health, whether it's been at, like your mindset, whatever it is where you're like, "Man, that's really holding me back." Know that Josh has created a powerful story for you to dig into and realize that like not all dreams are fulfilled, even if you do everything that the Guru's tell you to do. Right? Have a clear vision and move forward, work towards it every day. Sometimes things still don't work out. But your perspective Josh and helping us to see that that is a powerful chapter to help us go fulfill what we were actually designed to do is where all of us need to go now. So again, if you're looking to get your hands on that story, you can get it at either Joshkalinowski.com. So get your hands on, I'm totally enjoying the read. Super fun to get to know a guy who I really admire level he's doing. So final question. You're a big thinker, right? That's what you are doing have done. I want to hear from you. What if What do you do to continue to be a big thinker and expand your own personal possibilities to continue to grow day in and day out? What does that look like for you?
Josh Kalinowski
Yeah, great question. Man. I love that we're ending on this. You know, I tell you what, there's no doubt that my development that my maturity and where I'm at today is, has not been because of the fact that I've put myself in front of people that have been my mentors, the amount of podcasts that I've listened to the books that I've read, and here's the thing is that you know, all of that free content is amazing, free content is awesome. And you can soak that up, but I will tell you some of the most impactful most life changing opportunities that I've had is when I've paid to play, when I've actually searched out and actually paid for somebody's mentorship, or I have paid for an event. Like when I started investing in myself financially, we can invest in ourselves with all of the things that we can do and content, we can get YouTube, once again, podcast books, that's awesome. That is so good. But when you start evaluating how much you are worth, and your success is worth, and you start putting a ton of money price on it, I tell you what, man that has grown in me so much over the years, and I I pay, I'll give you a maybe you should, this isn't the best thing to do. I pay more in my personal investments than the salary that I take a year. It's powerful is it well in Listen, when you want to make impact when you want to have when you when you want to take everything you possibly can out of life. It's worth it. It's awesome. The people I get to meet, I mean, getting the opportunity to meet you Justin like those wouldn't have happened if I wouldn't have put myself in those positions in those situations. And so I just want to encourage people when if you're listening to this free content is amazing. But you will truly have significant content, you'll have truly significant relationships, when you're willing to invest in yourself financially and help yourself get to that next level.
Justin Stoddart
I could not agree more you right our paths would not had had not had one of us not chosen to invest in a shared mentor, we wouldn't have made that connection. Right. But wouldn't it and there's so many belly Yeah, not only is it so much knowledge, but so much such a great network of people. When you're around people that get it that those that pay, pay attention, those that invest are invested right. Put yourself in a unique class of people that want it really, really bad when you see people who are willing to part with the almighty dollar in order to get the help get the knowledge get the you know, get the network that they need to move their, their life and their impact to the next level. So great stuff Josh, thank you so much man for being again the person who you are and for sharing so much with us here today. Again, if you're looking to follow this guy, go find them joshkalinowski.com you'll learn all about what he has to offer so and to everybody listening today. My final request is this, they are three simple words, you know what they are, Go Think Bigger! , Josh. Thanks, Rob. I want to thank you for tuning in to this episode of The think bigger real estate show. If you found value here, I asked three things. Number one, give us a review. Number two, go to Facebook groups search, think bigger real estate and apply to join. Here you will find a community of big thinking professionals that will help you grow your income, your independence and your impact. And my third request is go think bigger
Justin Stoddart
So the big question is this: how do we those of us in the real estate industry, with crazy amounts of ambition, how do we think bigger than the building of our own empires? How do we simultaneously seek success AND significance, income AND impact? My name is Justin Stoddart, and this is the Think Bigger Real Estate Show.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I am your host, Justin Stoddart. Today we are talking about differentiation. It's a very competitive market out there right now. There are fewer sellers than what real estate agents and consumers would like. So how do you stand out in a crowded market? How do you stay top of mind and in a way that the consumer believes that you're actually going to be able to deliver a better result than the next guy? That's today's topic?
Justin Stoddart
Before I introduce today's guests, that's an expert on this. I want to remind you that inside of the think bigger Real Estate Group on Facebook, we go deeper on this conversation, you only learn so much by listening, you learn best when you start to engage. And that is where we go to allow you to begin to apply these topics and go deeper on how you can implement them into your business.
Justin Stoddart
Today's guest His name is Jason Shulick, he is a returning guest on the show I had him back because I feel like now more than ever, agents need to know how to differentiate. Jason, thanks for coming on the show today, my friend. I appreciate it.
Jason Shulick
Justin. Thanks.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Let's talk a little bit, Jason about, first of all, maybe your background, and then we'll get into a little bit about what you do and how you help agents. So obviously, in the past, I know you spent a number of years really going in and taking financially distressed companies and fixing them, right, putting them back out into the market. I would imagine that in that process, you had to really understand what was happening, not just at the micro level, like their economics, but also the macro level, what's happening at a global scale that affects this particular company, how we position it, to where it has the best chance of succeeding and succeeding big Is that true?
Jason Shulick
That is correct, you know, we would look at stuff from you know, what's happening with the economy to some maybe stock market, depending on what's going on there. Because you do have different fluctuations in both the economy and the stock market, that may affect what's going on with the business. Because you're going to look at your supply chain and see how that's affecting you, and how you're going to manage your business, especially in a distressed business, because you're dealing with very little money, and you're having to fix it and then sell it off, because you want to see how much money you generate from the company to get the lenders and all the equity people their money back in order to go ahead and get good returns.
Justin Stoddart
Interesting. So you obviously study the markets at a very deep level, right? You know, what's, what's happening locally? What's happening, happening nationally, globally? And how all those things interact, to set up an environment that's either conducive for success or not conducive for success for a business. Right?
Jason Shulick
Correct. Well,
Unknown Speaker
going, No, no, please. So as you say, as you know, when we're looking at all those factors, I mean, you're looking at political, you're looking at geopolitical you're looking at, you know, as I said, financial here, you're just looking at a whole different factors in order for companies to survive in something that we can get into is that, you know, while you're at these companies, we always noticed that they were always data rich, but information for and you know, you may have the data inside the companies, but you need to be able to understand what that information says, and then pair it with the economic realities of where you're at. Just for instance, like last year, when COVID hit, I mean, you had to look at a totally different perspective of life, for the company that we were running it as a as an aerospace company and say, okay, what's going to happen? I mean, we're building parts for airplanes, clearly, you're not going to do air travel during COVID? And how's that going to affect the outcome of this company? That was the stress? And what kind of return can you get if you go ahead and sell it at that point?
Justin Stoddart
Interesting. So that skill set again, I think, although real estate agents might be saying to themselves, like, thankfully, I don't have to do that kind of work. However, I want to, I want to, I want to pose this possibility for you that Imagine if, when you speak the agent next to you, all they do is they put out recipes. Now nothing against the recipes. I know some of the agents out there that are listening to this might take offense to that. But here's my point. If you're all about cooking, and you're like masterful at that, then you should be the recipe person, right? But if you're not, and you simply took a template from the person down the hall, because they did recipes, and you could care less about cooking recipes, or football schedules, right? We think about all the ways that real estate agents stay in contact with their people. And they may say like, I care less about football, but my clients like it. I think we're moving past that era in real estate where agents that are succeeding at a high level can't just use template information that they can't that doesn't actually move the needle for the client when it comes to things financial. Now, I still think you need to be very relevant when it comes to helping them live a good life and have a good lifestyle. But if everything you're putting out there is unrelated to their money unrelated to this being the potentially the largest buying and selling decision and transaction of their life, I think you're becoming disconnected with the value that people actually care about, right, or the value that really moves the needle form in such a big way that you'll be referred to people. And you'll people always come back for you. Any thoughts on that? Jason,
Jason Shulick
I totally agree with that. And that's kind of something why I designed what I did with this weekend money is that, you know, not only from transitioning from companies, but transition, just people in general, most people I've noticed, over time, have a hard time understanding money. Unfortunately, they don't teach you anything about the stuff in school, you know, what's happening, what it means and how it can affect your money. So I had a bunch of real estate people actually come to me say, this is a great tool for us to use here in Phoenix, because we actually get a lot smarter from the information you provide us. And if we're smarter, that means we can educate our buyers a lot better. And we're looking out for the best interest in the long haul, and everything that's going to affect their transaction, such as now. I mean, obviously, there's no supply. So people are paying for the nose right now. And everybody's just trying to find a house. Well, that may not be the best thing is just to go buy any house just because you can afford a house. I mean, there's a lot of panic buying going on right now. And if you don't do your due diligence on a house and understand what's what all entails in the house, and you know, doing inspections, everything, you could really screw your client, because you say buy this house, and it's got a whole lot of problems and your clients like I need to buy it right now, because we're at the top bid. And that's, that's the wrong way to look at it. And so if you're financially smart, you can go ahead and advise your client saying, here's this. And this and also lends to down the road is if your client is happy with their buying experience and understanding of your knowledge of financial aspects that help them, they're probably more than willing to go ahead and refer you to friends and family that want to buy a house in the future or actually want to sell a house, which is the key thing right now is who can get their hands on a house to sell because there's so little inventory out there.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, we really are at an interesting time where right job report last week was was a quarter of what they expected it to be concerns about inflation, people, like you said are paying crazy amounts of money for homes, you know, far beyond even what they're appraising for, and they're doing it without contingencies. And I think it's important that people bring some rationality, right into this equation, that maybe this is not a bubble, maybe you are getting the best deal you're going to have at some point. But wouldn't it be nice for you as an agent to be able to speak intelligently now, you're not going to be able to foresee the future, nor is anybody, but at least if you can digest several key talking points, right, key kind of indicators as to here's what's happening economically. And I think you could, you could paraphrase it, like if I were a client of an agent that's listening to this today. And they were to say, look, nobody knows exactly what's around the corner financially. However, here's what we do know. And you were to say, point A, point B, and point C, and all of these things affect your purchase. I mean, just that alone, all of a sudden, I went from like, oh, you're not a part time realtor, you're not a hobby realtor, you're not even just a good realtor, like you're a great realtor, you just separated yourself from everybody else. Because you actually understand the numbers behind the economy and how that affects my purchase. Right? Then they take in all that information, bringing it back to, and here's where I think this applies to your situation buying in this neighborhood, in this community in this city in this area at this time, like, blown away, right. And again, it doesn't take that much. That's the point that I want to own help people to understand that you don't need to have an MBA or a doctorate in some sort of financial, you know, degree in order to be able to speak this way, right. But you do need to leverage the network of somebody who does somebody who has actually can go look at the markets at a macro level like that and and simplify it down and teach you on a regular basis. And I think that's a lot of what you've done, Jason.
Justin Stoddart
Well, we'll get to that for anybody that's wondering, like, what's the takeaway from the show, we're going to give you a very key takeaway, that's going to allow you to actually have a very simple tool that will allow you to become that professional that I just described, allows you to convert look your clients in the eye and say, Look, nobody knows exactly what's gonna happen. But here's what we do know. And that's something really powerful you've created. But anyway, any thoughts, Jason, more about kind of this, this evolution of the agent of not being just, oh, we're gonna use this agent because like, we were friends in high school, right? Or, because they, you know, they pop by cute things by my house, like this. Like we're moving to a level now where where people are expecting in order to pay you what real estate agents have traditionally been paid. People aren't expecting that they get a little bit more for their money than just a friend. Would you agree with that?
Jason Shulick
Correct. You know, things that I look at it from a real estate agent. Now. They're like, they're they're professional. They're just like a lawyer or CPA or something like that. They're very specialized and what they do and you need the people that need to understand the most information out there because you want the person that can go ahead and lead you down the right direction is you're just not going to pick somebody off the street and say, Hey, you know what, I'm going to go ahead and use you. If you go ahead and interview somebody, as a lawyer or CPA, you want to know that they understand exactly what they're talking about, and how it applies to your situation. Because you just don't want any CPA for any specific reason, you have a specific need that you need for a CPA, such as tax breaks, or where to live, however, you want to go get that specialized person. So if you're a real estate agent, you want to be able to separate yourself from the rest of the pack saying, Hey, I have all this information that I'm fully aware of now, I can go ahead and tell you how this is potentially going to affect you down the road. And this is the best option that you're gonna have based upon the information and you need to go ahead and make the decision. But I'm gonna guide you down that route with all the information that I'm now aware of.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I totally agree with that. You know, I think the reason why the red fins of the world that choose any agent off of Zillow why the discount brokerages have have, even I buyers have risen in in in market share, right and in my marketplace. You know, they took I think $38 million in GCI just this past year, like that was one eye buyer in our market. So it's like, it's not really affected me it is, and they're just getting started. And it's like, we should not be fearful that that you know that all agents are going to be obsolete, only the ones that only open doors, right? Only the ones that are not bringing real value, like the days are gone, in my opinion of well paid real estate agents that don't provide superior value, where your people are just choosing you because they like you, right or because they know you people are expecting more value, there's just too much money at stake for people to choose somebody because simply it's like the realtor that you know, yet we run into this same problem of like, you can be better. But if nobody knows it, because you're not Top of Mind, that's a problem too, right? I know, you know, you're aware of that we've discussed that you've built a tool around that tell us a little bit about how much of it does go into that being valuable number one, and number two, being able to stay top of mind with that value.
Jason Shulick
So if you're valuable, you can kind of drive more and more insured yourself in a higher price. People are willing to pay for value, you know, most people are going to go out, you know, don't have like three or four options. It's not saying you're always gonna go with the cheapest option, because the cheapest option may not be the best option, you may want to pay a little more because you're going to get a lot more out of it the end. So you doing something like that brings a whole different, you know, talking points to your client saying, hey, I've done this, I know my my clients, I know my area, this is why I can bring you to both sides. And so if you bring them an extra $100,000, they may be willing to pay you an extra $10,000, because you just brought them an extra 90 grand net. So looking at that, having that knowledge and everything going forward, only helps the professional get more market share. And you're right about the stuff with you know, you got all the technology and stuff that's going to start weeding some people out. But the people that really know what their know their information, they're not going to be overtaken by technology, because technology can only do so much and knowledge is not going to go ahead and negotiate your deals and stuff to get the biggest bang for the buck. When you when you go to sell your house, especially in this day and age. I mean, this is a seller's paradise. I mean, they can pretty much write whatever the number they want them to contract and get what they need.
Justin Stoddart
So, you know, one of my clients when approached by anybody who says, will you do it for less? Like, will you will you shave a half or 1%? off your fee? You know their responses? I think you're asking the wrong question. The question you should be asking isn't can I save a little bit of money on the fee, but it's Can I hire somebody that will help me to either save or make 10s if not $100,000 by being an expert in their craft, and really understanding the numbers. That's where all of a sudden, competition becomes irrelevant when you can not only say that, but back it up with results because you understand the numbers and perform at a high level. Now, like there is no competition, you are rare air, and people will line up to want to work with you. Because you have a value proposition that's not comparable to the typical agent is as an agent. You don't want to take every sales transaction on because sometimes it's not worth your time and stuff like that if you know your value. You know what you bring in, you're going to attract those type of buyers and those types of sellers that you want to manage. I mean, people here but the area that I live in, you know, there's certain ones that are dealing with $4 million homes and more. They're not flashing the ones are 200,000 because they know they can get the demand for the four lane because they're the experts. So they're like I'm not for everybody. That's how you will kind of want to differentiate yourself and being able to do that is being intellectually loaded with the right information, and being able to speak about your thoughts. That's Well said. Now, on all this topic, again, I promised that at the end, people would have a concept of like, Okay, what do with this, like, I agree that I need to be better. And I agree that I need to communicate that value better. I love what you've created. Jason. That's why you're back on the show, if I'm gonna put a link here in the comments.
Jason Shulick
It's called fiscalnewsletters.com, talk a little bit about what it is, and how it helps us to achieve this differentiation. And Top of Mind-ness that we've been talking about so far. So I've created this news weekly newsletter, it's called this weekend money, the good, the bad, the ugly. And basically, what I do is I go ahead and summarize the top stories from the finance industry every single week, and gives the overview of saying, This is what happened. This is what it means. And this is a potentially could affect your money. So pay attention to this point down the road, and kind of like the buffer or the the person that goes ahead and sorts through all the news to say, okay, what's really important? What do people really need to see? How do they need to understand it? As I say, go back to one of my friends, they don't they don't understand money, because nobody would talk about it. So it's kind of looking at, okay, what does this information mean, to me in the real world. So I go ahead and do that every week, picking out stories that are good, bad, and ugly. And I go ahead and I've created this letter where as an individual, you can go ahead and subscribe to it. And what I'll do is it's got the top section, which is the good bad, the ugly. And then starting then around the first of June, I'm adding a section where I'm going to go ahead and deep dive and do a big analysis on one, two stocks. Because my current readers like we would love to have this information so that we can understand what the stock market if we want to do some long term investing. There's also a version of this for the professionals that want to go ahead and get more visibility. So the clients not only gain intellectual knowledge, they can go ahead and sign up for it based upon the number of emails, they want to send out a different price level. But they also have the option of excluding the stock part. And the thing that I did with this is in order for these people to gain more visibility, because real estate is a relationship driven business, and you need as much visibility as much publicity can never get enough of it. And I've had a couple of real estate agents come in and say, you know, I missed out on one to three deals a year, because I'm out of sight out of mind, this tool allows you to go ahead and send this out to all your clients. It allows you to branded as your so you put your photo on there, your logo for your company, your contact information in the sketch your social media accounts, which you can upload Twitter, your LinkedIn, Facebook, in your Instagram accounts, and people can go ahead and click on this every week and read this stuff. And it's just a good tutorial. And so when they see your name in your picture every week, it just gives you brand brand new visibility that you didn't have maybe clients, you hadn't asked him in the news for months, and allows you to go ahead and reach out to him very easily say, hey, so you're reading this, by the way, are you in the market for selling or buying your house, because I'd love to really help you out. And you know, it's the same thing with mortgage brokers, they have an opportunity to go ahead and reach out the past clients say, I can help you out now because they know who's been reading these newsletters and say, Hey, we loved you with this, we can get you a new loan with this, we can save you $500 a month, it was a call. So it's really about the visibility and the intellectual issue that people can gain knowledge and stuff. And they can go ahead and speak intellectually and then grow their brain.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, it's great. So again, two options, right, you receive the newsletter yourself, you have the talking points, copy and paste bits and pieces, or what Jason's saying is that there's another option that allows them to do it for you, here's my list, send this to them every week. Now, people might be saying an email every week, that sounds like a lot. I'm gonna tell you the people that I follow in business, I get daily emails from them. And you might be saying like, holy cow, I couldn't handle that. I only handle it from people that who are who bring me value. Like when I see that name, I jumped to it, I want to read it. Why? Because it's valuable. So for you to send out an email once a week, I'm just telling you in this day and age where it's it's noisy, right? And when you say I don't wanna be part of the noise, okay, then you're gonna get left behind, people aren't gonna remember you. Okay, and this is just one way in which you can up your game without saying like, I don't have time and capacity to draft one email a week to my client base, you don't have to. This is a way for you to do it. And differentiate yourself as being a true financial professional. Understanding the fact and relaying and conveying the fact that you understand that you're dealing with people's most important potential purchase transaction of their life. Like when you start to send other information, you start to brand yourself as somebody who really understands money, and that that's one of your value propositions is being different in the sense that you're not just the friendly realtor that drops by cute gifts once in a while, right? Now you couple that if that's your thing, you couple that with this financial strategy, I think it's really powerful. I'm not down anything that's working for anybody. I'm just saying, if that's all that you're doing, and you have, really you're not branding yourself as being a financial expert, I think you're going to start to lose business to those that are. This has been super insightful. Jason, any final comments, as we wrap up here, thoughts that you have, that you really want people to kind of understand about either what you've created, and or how they can apply it? Or any closing thoughts?
Jason Shulick
Well, the thing that I just want to say is I wrote this letter for people that just don't understand why standards make their lives better to make. So they can go ahead and make wiser decisions personally with their own money, not only instructing people that they may have clients and help them out. And that this letter also helps professionals provide value to their clients, because everybody that I've talked to know people that read the letter now, load the information that's there. So it's providing a diet to because they're all like, I didn't understand this, I didn't know this before, and you know what you're sending to them. It's very cost effective, it helps differentiate yourself, it just creates more visibility for you not only bringing more information and knowledge to yourself. So it's really about helping everybody out. And just trying to make sure that everybody has time. It's only about a 10 to 15 minute reading morning, on a Monday morning or so like that. So it doesn't really consume a lot of your time supposed to be quick at that point. That's why
Justin Stoddart
I love it. It's great stuff. Jason, that's what you're a big thinker, is you're helping elevate the value proposition of real estate agents, especially at a time when the economy has a lot of question marks, people have a lot of question marks about the economy. And yet at the same time, real estate agents are wanting to differentiate like what a perfect combination, people have questions about financial items, like financial matters. And the also, the real estate agents need to differentiate you couple those two together. That's what Jason's packaged up for you here and allowed you to differentiate through stuff that people care about that that matters a lot when people are paying over asking price as much as they are. It matters a lot. This is important stuff, people. And I'm grateful that Jason, you've spent the time created the expertise, taken your years and years of history and brought it into our industry. It's awesome. Thank you so much.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, my final request of every listener here today is it's time folks. It's time to go think bigger. I want to thank you for tuning in to this episode of the thick bigger real estate show. If you found value here, I asked three things. Number one, give us a review. Number two, go to Facebook and in groups search, Think Bigger Real Estate and apply to join. Here you will find a community of big thinking professionals that will help you grow your income, your independence and your impact.
Justin Stoddart
And my third request is Go Think Bigger!
Justin Stoddart
So the big question is this. How do those of us in the real estate industry, with crazy amounts of ambition, how do we Think Bigger than the building of our own empires? How do we simultaneously seek success AND significance, income AND impact? My name is Justin Stoddart. And this is the Think Bigger Real Estate Show.
Justin Stoddart
Think bigger real estate show. I know what you're going through, I hear it all the time, the agents that I work with, I'm just running out of time, I'm running out of time, and I need more leverage, I need more help. Today, I have a solution for you, gentlemen, that has created something for the marketplace to allow you busy agents to have some help. Stay tuned for that. I also want to remind you that inside of the think bigger Real Estate Group on Facebook, we continue the conversation, we allow you to engage in it more so than in the typical podcast, to where you can then deepen the learning inside of you. So be sure and sign up inside of the think bigger Real Estate Group on Facebook. Back to today's guests. His name is Matt Kuchar. He is out of Colorado was a Top Producing agent, one of the top agents in all in all of Colorado for a number of years, realized that there was a problem, founded a company called Showami. I'm really excited to dig into that today. Whatever you leave with, be sure and go to showami.com. There's an opportunity for you today to get a discount on having your first buyers or sorry, showing agent on demand. We're gonna learn more about that.
Justin Stoddart
Matt, thank you so much for coming on the show today, my friend.
Matt Kuchar
Thanks for having me, Justin. honor and pleasure that.
Justin Stoddart
Go back to the point at which you were like, somebody's got to solve this problem. Like go back to like, there was, I would imagine when you were like pre pre inception, right pre act of you saying like, Okay, I gotta figure this out. Like there was some pain that you were experiencing in your business. I know you were a top agent, probably spread so thin. Right? Maybe that point in time?
Matt Kuchar
Yeah. So actually tried to take a day off. Me and my friend dad decided to go skiing course being in Colorado, it's perfect day, I finally get up to the slopes, and we're about to get on the lift. And I get a call from a past clients like, hey, this home in this neighborhood just came available, we've got to go see it. This is it. It's on the street, we want you know, and I'm like, I'm an hour and a half away. I've just paid 100 bucks to get on this lift. And you know, there's what am I going to do? So I did what any other agent would do, I pick up the phone and started calling and texting agents in my in my office. And the one of the problems that also was it was Friday, the guy worked until four, which meant he couldn't see the home till five o'clock on Friday. And it was in downtown Denver. If you could say traffic, you know, probably not the best time to go. So I'm asking all these agents in Highlands Ranch, which is, you know, 30 minutes, 35 minutes away on a good day to go down there. But I'm calling I'm texting. And you know, after about a half hour, 45 minutes, somebody finally was like, Yeah, I can do it. And then we had to have this awkward conversation. am I paying you? Are we just trading off? Are we sharing the client, you know, and all I wanted, I mean, they were already clients in mind, all I wanted was them to get inside the home, I'd come take a look at it the next morning or whatever I needed to do. But I couldn't yet I just needed them inside the house. So I said, Look, I'll pay you $100 go show the house. They did, we sold the home.
Matt Kuchar
And sure enough, I was having a beer with my friend Ed later. And I'm like, there's got to be a better way. And so, you know, you always hear the people like we were at a bar and had a napkin, we literally were at a bar having a beer and add a napkin and we drew this thing out. And it's like Uber for real estate. We're brilliant, you know, and we started celebrating because we thought we'd make millions.
Justin Stoddart
Now I want everybody that's listening to this, whether you're listening to the audio afterwards, right? I want you to turn to the person next to you and say I've been there. If you're listening to this live, I want you to like type in the comments be like I've been there, where I love my, you know, my career as a real estate agent. But this point in time, I was so inconvenienced, like I just couldn't do it anymore, right? Just say like I've been there if you put that in the comments, so we know that, like we feel your pain, right. Okay, so So now take us back to the napkin. What exactly did you write on that napkin that really started to transform the way that agents could not only create great income, but great time freedom, right? What is like, what's the use of money if you can't enjoy it, right? What's the use of having the ability to go up skiing? And if you're going to be worried about who's calling and who's going to be calling you back home, right, like your doctor?
Matt Kuchar
Yep, absolutely. Well, and I came to realize it, it's something that we do all the time in the real estate business, right. We always need help, whether it's for an inspection, whether it's for coverage when we're not available to show a home. I mean, this is something that's going on all the time. I just sold my house last weekend. I had four calls from real estate agents who are slow who were like I'm out of town, can you show my buyer your home?
Matt Kuchar
Or is that not? You know, they're asking me who I'm the seller, and I'm the agent to show their buyer the home conflict, maybe, you know, they tell me Oh, they love it, you know, it. This is happening all the time, and especially in today's market, because the buyers are the challenge. And so when I looked at it, I'm like, they're there. This is something that's always going on. Why don't we have an automated way to do this? What Why is this so complicated, and it takes so much work. So we created the fastest, easiest and most reliable way to get help with showings when you need it.
Justin Stoddart
Fascinating, right? Because I think you're right, if you do have the ability to do everything your business requires. Your business is not meeting its potential. Real Estate Agents are when, when at their highest and best use, right are like an attorney like they're, they're a well paid professional, a consultant and advisor, somebody who gives very important advice. And that very important advice has an impact upon their clients net worth upon, you know, their future, like these are big decisions. And that's why real estate agents have the potential to get paid very well. However, if they're trying to do everything, or if they are doing everything, it tells us that they are not truly stepping into the role of being the well paid advisor that they could be, right. So if you're running into that was like now I got it all covered. It's like you can be doing a lot more in your business, like you could really be doing a lot more. But most agents that listen to this agents that are very followers have to think bigger real estate show, they're thinking bigger, they want to get to that next level, there may be hitting a ceiling, this might be an answer, right for you to do exactly that to have a very simple automated system that takes all the awkwardness out of it. Right. I've had those conversations with agents, you know, before as well matter of where it's like, you know, well, like, Is it like, are we trading? Is it like, how much do you pay? Is it where's the property at? And this? Yeah, this whole uncomfortable conversation, right, that oftentimes, apparently doesn't need to happen. So talk to us about how show me works? And how do agents really get access to it?
Matt Kuchar
Yeah, so basically, it's a platform where a buyer's agent, and you've really got two sides of the transaction, you've got the buyer's agent side who needs help. And you've got the showing agent side, the agent who's willing to help in some people are both sometimes they help others, sometimes they need help. That's where most of the agents are at, right? Not everybody just always needs or always shows. So the buyer's agent goes in, create, everybody asked to create a profile, we're all licensed agents, we verify that your that your license, and then you go in and you put in the date, time location, and we find an agent in there in that area that's willing to show the home. So how much does it cost? Typically 39 to $44 per home shown. So sometimes it's more if you're like, Hey, I gotta be there in an hour to get somebody to drop what they're doing, you might have to pay 50 or $60. Or if it's out in the mountains, right? We get this all the time in Denver, where it takes a half an hour to 45 minutes to drive. Well, no one's gonna do that, you know, for a small amount of money. So then show ami finds an agent in that area, they pick it up, they show the home, you keep your client, you keep your money, your commission, you keep your client happy, keep your schedule, you know, it works out beautifully.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, you know that the thing that I love about this, right, it's like match.com, right? where you're like supply and demand, you're simply connecting the dots with with, you know, a simple technology takes all the hassle out of it takes like the running around and the calling and the who do I trust out of it, right? You've got agents on there that are in in need of experience, they're in need of a little bit of cash flow, right in this market. I know there's a lot of buyer's agents that are struggling, right, frankly, right, because they're submitting 1012 offers before they're getting accepted or used to be one or two. Now, that definitely dilutes down their dollar priority if they know that I'm going to get paid when I show this home, I know I'm going to get paid when I sell this home. Right? Right. That's encouraging, right? It's not the kind of money they want to make. But hey, what a great opportunity to learn with experience to go practice your trade practice your craft gets us to a home like is not as a real estate agent. And the most important things you can do is go evaluate the inventory like someone's paying you to go do that that's a pretty cool concept right? Not just for the agent needing help but for the agent they can step up and help
Matt Kuchar
Oh, there's so many benefits for the showing agent beyond just getting paid. Right? And a lot of newer agents that's why did they fall out of the business so why do so many people get started? And then you know, a year from now, they're not in the business? Well, they didn't have a tool to get them out doing business. So first of all, you do get paid not a lot. It's not like you're gonna make a living doing this. But you know, you do get paid. You get the showing experience like he's
Matt Kuchar
So now you're out meeting clients, you get the market knowledge. But you also a lot of agents have learned to start taking pictures of themselves while they're out showing posted on Instagram posted on Facebook, hey out showing homes today in you know, conifer or wherever, you know, imagine yourself living in this house, I could show it to you, you know, they're out there, and they're posting it on their feeds. Now, everybody, it may not be their client, they're showing, but everybody's like, wow, I forgot that you were in real estate. But now that I see you out showing homes, my friend was just talking at lunch that he's going to sell his let me connect you, you know, if you're, if you have enough activity, you it's going to help you. So a lot of them are starting to do that. Also you build relationships. I mean, how much is real estate, a relationship business? Now you're showing homes that that agent who might not have known you before, now it goes, Oh, okay, I now know that this person is in my market showing homes. Same thing with that buyer's agent, they build relationships, they also we have the preferred agent, if you do a good job, oftentimes, they'll ask for you over and over and over again, and you get repeat business. So there's a lot for the showing agent beyond just getting paid for it.
Justin Stoddart
But I love it man, I was actually having a conversation with a with a client yesterday, and that we were actually evaluating her Instagram profile. And she just got married. So there was some, you know, beautiful pictures of the wedding, her profile picture was hurting her dog like lovely things. But I said, this doesn't scream to me that you're in real estate. And I said, I love you. These are beautiful pictures. Absolutely gorgeous. My question is, our people starting to see you synonymous with real estate, right doesn't mean that every post needs to be a picture of a house. I think that's actually not the right thing to do. But I do think that at least every three on Instagram, right one of the three, sometimes more, sometimes a little bit less needs to be like you in your craft, because let's let's be honest, like a third of your day, is doing real estate at least right? Of course, an eight of your 24 hours is real estate. So if you really want to be an authentic human being and tell people, this is my story, then you better not be excluding real estate. And what a great way to do it. As opposed to maybe what the typical day would look like is like, not like in your office a little bit boring. Like now you're able to go out like you said, and go. And I'm on tour of homes and actually show yourself out in the field doing your craft. It's a great idea. What a great idea to go great. Get some great social media content, right?
Matt Kuchar
Absolutely. Absolutely. And then when you think of the buyer's agent side, most of us automatically think to when I'm unavailable, right? That's, that was how it got started with me. But there, there are so many more things that you could do, especially in this market, you can handle more buyers without getting burned out. You know, I know what it's like to be out there. I did it this weekend, you know, this, the The house has 10 offers, and I'm out showing a bunch of homes knowing that, you know, we don't have a chance I could be doing something else. But you can handle more buyers without getting burned out. Also, one of the things that some of the agents really taught me is you can handle buyers in other areas. So when I was in Highlands Ranch, and one of the things I didn't want to do is go to Arvada because I had to drive through downtown Denver. But it had I when I created show ami, I could get another agent up there to show it. And I didn't have that hour drive one way hour drive back in instead of an oftentimes I would refer it I'm like, I don't want to work that area too far for me. Now I'm not referring it. Now I'm handling it, but I'm having somebody else show the home. And when it's time, you know, they're like, Hey, this is the one absolutely I'm going to drive up there and see it. I'm going to be professional, I'm going to do that the job that I need to do.
Matt Kuchar
But you can handle more buyers, you can handle buyers in different areas. Also, I had a guy during COVID, whose wife was very high risk, so he couldn't go out and show homes. He's sherwani to sell five homes over the last summer kept his business afloat, when to go out. And if he had gotten it, it would have killed her. You know, so it saved his business. I mean, he's a raving fan. And, you know, there's so many ways that it does benefit the buyer's agent as well.
Justin Stoddart
You know, if there's one thing that I think we've all learned and experienced over the past year is the world's got a lot smaller. Yeah, we're a lot more open to the fact of doing business via zoom. Right. It's it became a necessity for a period of time. Yeah. And I think once the world kind of settled into that, they're like, hey, there's a lot of driving around. It was unnecessary before, right? Yep. And I think when you can embrace that, you're right. You don't need to have like to live in the area where you're selling homes necessarily, right. You can. You can have a high level like practitioner business and leverage the help of some other agents. Right. That's very, very cool. What a what great insight, I think in this market, anybody who's dealing with buyers, everybody that I talked to, it's like it's a frenzy. I just don't have enough time. But one client he told me suggested I was I drove I put 300 miles on my car over the weekend. And I it was it, it was within like a five to 10 mile radius. Like it was just here and there. And he said he's put 30,000 miles on his car in the past year, year and a half. And that's because of what we're talking about, right? Is that this concept that you have to show every home yourself? And it's it's not the case, right? I think you can, you can still serve people and serve them well, and not be the one that says still there opening the doors, that's not a high paid, well paid activity. Maybe offering? Like, if they want to see it again, right, then having your expert advice and input, right, you might decide at that point. But yeah, just the fact, both in inconvenient times, and just for the fact of, of, you know, getting leverage. You know, one other point I want to point out here, Matt, is it, you know, there's this concept of the only way to scale a business is to grow a team.
Justin Stoddart
And I see so many agents who embrace that. And then they struggle, they don't like the hiring, they don't like the management, they don't like the firing. Like it's just not their thing, they get into real estate, because they love real estate, not because they want to have it be the HR department. And what I'm hearing you say here is you have the ability to extend yourself as if you had a team without taking on all of the hassle of your own HR department.
Matt Kuchar
Absolutely. And that was one of the things I was that agent, I was at a kW and Highlands Ranch, top performing team. But I felt responsible for those people's livelihoods. You know, if they didn't sell a home that was on me, you know, so I felt this incredible pressure to produce leads to keep them busy year round, you know, and obviously, during season, it was easy, everybody's making money, it's great. But once it starts to slow down, if we ever very seasonal in the Denver market, you know, then you're like, oh, my goodness, this person hasn't had a commission in two months. And yet, are they going to be able to make their payment, and I'm giving them leads that I would have basically sold myself? Yeah, it just it was offered and the profit, it actually almost ran me into the ground. Because I spent a lot of money on advertising a lot of money on the team, the admin, you name it, but I was making very little money, that, and that was one of the aha moments as well like this, this is a solution. If I can get you into the home. And it's a conversation you have with the buyer, the buyers feel it like I was talking with a friend at church who was buying a home through one of my agents. And he was like, I always felt guilty, calling Carlos out all the time to go look at these homes and taking them away from his family. That buyer felt that like, do I really want to I want to go see this home. But do I really want to bother Carlos, if if Carlos had been using the tool and said, Look, when I'm not available, I have a whole team of showing agents to get you into the home. And and that's all they're doing. They're not trying to sell it. They're not trying to they're not writing comp, all they're doing is getting you inside the home. If you fall in love with that home, and that's the one, then I'll drop everything I've got and come and see you. But it takes the pressure off the buyer to go oh, I don't want to bother him. I've we've already looked at 15 homes, you know?
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. You know, you talk to people that have built teams. And of course, you're a great example of one. And they're not always as profitable as as you think. Right? You see big gross commission income numbers, right, Pat? Pat Hiban calls them ego commission income numbers, right? And that's not conducive to someone taking home a lot of money. Sometimes it is right. There's certainly people that built great teams. They're kind of very disciplined and kind of managing the bottom line. But there's a lot that aren't right. It's it's very much focused on top line. And this I can see for those agents that don't want to go down that path. This could be a really, really valuable option for Matt, so so much insight here. Absolutely love it. I want to ask you our final question, which is the signature question of the show.
Justin Stoddart
In fact, let me let me ask this question. Let me just kind of reinforce here really quick. So for agents to get started, they simply go to showami.com.
Matt Kuchar
Yep. Yes. Create a profile. Yeah, man. And then what is there some other like anything else that they need to do just like turn on the notifications. So though, we have to verify that they're actively licensed, okay. And we do have some training to make sure they have to be a member of the MLS, they have to be able to get into electronic lock boxes. So there's some basic things and we do some training on you know what to expect. We expect you to be on time, we expect you to dress nice, you know, normal things like that. We expect you to communicate well with the between the agents, both the buyer's agent and the showing agent. Good communication is is huge. But yeah, you would just go to showami.com. And for the I know you're gonna put it in the show notes, but there's a $20 off coupon in the link that if you sign up through that on your first showing you get an extra $20 off and you know, because we want people to try it. I think once you try it, you go Oh, okay, this is like where have you been my whole life? Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
Love it. Alright, let's go back to the signature question of the show, Matt, which is this, you're a big thinker, you've created something really, really cool here, that's going to help a lot of people. What does Matt do to continue to be a big thinker? What do you do to continue to grow yourself to expand your possibilities?
Matt Kuchar
I asked lots of questions of people around me that are smarter than I am. You know, I think I've got a coach. That's, that's huge. And you and I know the same person who's coaching me. And they stretched me, they helped me to think in ways that I didn't think before, and they hold me accountable to do the things that I wouldn't do on my own. You were mentioning, what's this challenge? You're doing the 75 day? Tell me a little bit about that.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, 75Hard. So 75 days straight. You got to do two separate workouts. Both 45 minutes each one outdoors. a gallon of water, take a progress picture. Be on be on a diet, read 10 pages, a day of a book, and then no alcohol or cheat meals.
Matt Kuchar
Awesome. Wow. You got to be dedicated to do that, man. Are you even telling me like, Oh, this is hard. It's a mental it's mental toughness? program. It's a mental toughness. Yeah. And in my coach helps me to be mentally tough. You know, so I think it to think differently, to grow, grow myself. I think that's one of the biggest things.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, man, I love it. Great stuff. Thank you so much for coming in contributing not just to this show, but really looking for what's a problem that's keeping real estate agents back from living their best life, right? What a great career, if it were not interrupted by those pesky phone calls, when you're getting ready, get on a ski lift, right, it'd be the perfect career. And what you're doing is helping to make it a little bit more so. So appreciate you all. You're doing such a pleasure to be connected to you. And to all those listening here today, be sure and go sign up. It show me calm and get that discount.
Justin Stoddart
And my final request of everybody listening today, just like Matt has showed us how to do three simple words and they are Go Think Bigger! Thanks, Matt.
Justin Stoddart
I want to thank you for tuning in to this episode of the thick bigger real estate show. If you found value here, I asked three things. Number one, give us a review. Number two, go to Facebook groups search think bigger real estate and apply to join. Here you will find a community of big thinking professionals that will help you grow your income, your independence and your impact. And my third request is Go Think Bigger!
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Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Today we're talking about momentum. How do you get into momentum? How do you maintain momentum and trust me, momentum is everything when you're trying to succeed at high levels. Today's guest is going to tell us all about that. We'll be right back with a full introduction to her.
Justin Stoddart
Today's guest, Jenny Wolek, she's out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ladies and gentlemen, this gal brings the energy. She's a leader, she's leading other leaders. She's someone who is an expert really on this topic of helping people maintain momentum. But before we can maintain momentum, we have to get into momentum. Jenny Wallach, thank you for being here today and helping us get into this amazing topic that everybody needs to hear right now.
Jennie Wolek
Oh, my gosh, thank you so much, Justin, I am so honored to spend time with you. I always love our time together. And I know others do as well. You know this is such an interesting topic. It's such a great word I actually named this new membership group that I've created, maintain your momentum because it's so important. We can talk about it. And yet, sometimes it's hard to get going in it. And really, it just starts with baby steps and getting into action and getting into action on the right things about that.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I love it. It's a great premise for the show. I want to tell a story. You've heard this story before. I had a basketball coach right now it's like for those that are watching it live right in the middle of March Madness, right. We're seeing some teams succeed go on and defy all odds. Other teams, we're seeing the struggle, my head basketball coach who was actually voted at one point to be the top high school basketball coach in the country. So this guy's really good. He would always tell us he would say, we have to get big mo on our team. He said if you can get big mo on your team, we win. And Big Mo was momentum. He knew that it was like having another player off the bench. When you start to get the crowd into it, you start to get your own belief into it, your own energy into it and all of a sudden, like things, get a lot easier. It's like the court all of a suddenly tipped downhill. And the other team is struggling.
Justin Stoddart
And so I love this topic of momentum. Because the real estate industry can be a tough one. Right? You can really have. This seems like a lot of stuff is trying to stop your momentum. Right. I know we're in a tight market right now. I don't know exactly what Tulsa looks like. I know Portland's pretty tight, right. Talk to us a little bit about how you're teaching people in a tight market how to get momentum, you said it's doing the right things, doing them consistently, maybe even not even expecting to see the exact result right away, like what else should people be trying to do in order to get big mo on their team?
Jennie Wolek
Oh, my gosh, you know, as you were just talking through that story, it reminded me of so many great examples that I've seen in my life. I've been in this business for 20 years, Justin plenty. And I don't know if you saw the news report yesterday that there are more real estate agents than there are active listings on the market in the United States. And so that's a topic that real estate's freakout real estate agents freak out about, they're like, Oh, oh, my gosh, so much competition with the other agents. And I'm so old and have done this business for so long that I just know, I need to focus on what is most important for me, my team, my community, and stay on purpose and can't get distracted by others around me.
Jennie Wolek
But first real estate agents, I think, make a big mistake of getting into this business. And they don't know why they're in this business. They don't have a purpose or a mission or a plan for their lives, let alone their business. And so momentum can be picked up over time by doing the right activities. The number one job description of a real estate agent, whether you like it or not, is lead generating. And that means talking to people connecting with people. And if you're not doing that every day, then you might as well quit, because that is your job. And so you have to get into action.
Jennie Wolek
Now today's conversations may not lead to a piece of business tomorrow. And yet it can build a relationship that produces future opportunities and connections and relationships for a real estate career. That's how over all these years, 20 years in the business I'm you know, grown a team that last year, we got to about 173 families and half of those come from our local database and 30% come from agent relationships. And all those relationships are based on consistency. And predictability comes whenever you stay consistent on what matters most. So we got to practice every day, you got to do what you're supposed to do. You got to have the skills to perform at the highest level. And you got to have systems and checklists to have a systematic approach to your business so that you don't forget when you get really busy and you get distracted by all the things going on in today's world, you got to follow your schedule. So there you go.
Justin Stoddart
So something that stood out to me that you said there. We love sound bites, right? As a society, it's like, let's go to the news. And let's see what the soundbite is. The reality is most sound bites aren't good, right? There are very few times you go and you're like, oh, my goodness, that's amazing, sometimes, depending upon the news source, but I would say, in general, the News's job is to inform us their business is to keep our eyeballs on their content. And the reality is that eyeballs stay on their content if there's something alarming. And so whether it be real estate news, whether it be national news, you identify this component of the fast way to get out of momentum and stay out of momentum is to constantly be watching the news bites, because you think, okay, there's fewer listings, than there are agents, oh, my goodness, the sky is falling. That means every potential listing that I have in my Hopper, I've got how many other agents competing, like you just start to bring all the world's problems into your lap, and you're like, please, problems hang out right here inside my brain, right? And I think you can't like so much of this is mindset. And of course, I'm a mindset guy, right?
Think Bigger Real Estate exists for a reason is that most of the problems that we face, begin in our heads. And I think having the ability to weed out the stuff that doesn't serve us, and actually being able to identify what is serving me. And I would just encourage everybody to take Jennie's advice there and be very careful about the things that you hear that were designed to keep your eyeballs on that right on those things are not designed to help you get into momentum. If you want momentum. Be very leery of consuming, internalize, and worrying about national news, right?
Jennie Wolek
Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm a, I'm also a mindset person. And I'm also a systems freak. I love systems. And I also know that we have to build them based on our goals, whether they're our personal goals or our professional goals. And I think a lot of agents are just willy nilly with their day like, well, let's see what happens.
Jennie Wolek
Well, you know, when you build a perfect calendar of the perfect life of a real estate agent, that should already be a time block, Justin, I know you get up early, I start my day at 445. I go, I go and the same time. I exercise, I think I plan, I prepare for my day, I am proactive, I am already prepared for anything that can come my way.
Jennie Wolek
And I take care of those most important things in the morning that are my business activities that are the most dollar productive, purposeful activities. And so you know, as a team, we created a bit you know, we have a big goal for this year, we're going to help 221 families, regardless of the market, that's our goal. You know, the market got a little wonky and weird at the beginning of this year with the lowest inventory we've ever seen in Tulsa, Oklahoma 1.5, a month's supply of inventory. And I've never seen that before. And that doesn't matter. So what does that mean? Well, we got to go find more sellers than ever before. And so we created a contest for the team, we're going to focus on taking 90 listings, in 90 days, and that's buyer listings or that seller listing and that means we've had a consultation with them, they've agreed to work with us, and they're going to buy or sell in next couple months. And so we just were at our 30-day check-in how are we doing and the team got to 31. So that's a celebration. And here's the thing is if you set such a big goal, I don't know if you've heard of the 12 week year and you love practice any of those beliefs. Well, I love it in theory about checking in every quarter, we got to know where we are along the way. And so we that is building our momentum, because now how does my team feel about hitting that 30-day goal. They've got their stride, they know what it takes, and they can do it again. So that's the momentum to keep us going to get to the 90 days to have taken 90 listings, which has us on track for our big goal at the end of the year.
Justin Stoddart
So first and foremost, congratulations on having an incredible start to the year--- big goals and you're already on track. Like Ladies and gentlemen, please. Like if we could all be in the same room, we'd give her a round of applause. I see one like there. If you're listening to this, give some love to Jenny Wolek.
Jennie Wolek
And hey, team team team
Justin Stoddart
for having an amazing team, right? Here's what I would add to what you just described there as another kind of real nugget. Right. Number one is to be very leery of national news. bringing that into your reality doesn't have to be your reality unless you accept it as such. The second thing is an empty mind is a devil's workshop. We all know that that like if you have if you actually don't time block your day, if you don't create an intentional plan for your day, that this is what I'm going to go do, what ends up happening is you fill it with nonsense either with unproductive activities or unproductive thinking right?
Justin Stoddart
All of these concerns that may that don't have to be your concerns, there's somebody's concerns, there are agents out there that are absolutely going to struggling to get out of the business. The only way that's going to be you is if you do what those agents do, which is not time blocked, not set goals, not check-in, not get up and do the work all day, every day going out to serve people that need you, like, we get so we get paid to solve problems, right? That's what we do as, as business leaders, and are we saying that there are no problems in real estate right now? No, the fact that there's a shortage of inventory, there's a bunch of buyers that need your help, and they're wanting your help more than ever, there are sellers that actually want to move, they're just scared of like, actually become a buyer now. So more than ever, you're needed. It's not that there's no need for you, there's more of a need for you. Right. And I think it almost lays the foundation like lays the case out the fact that we need professional agents, not customer service agents that are simply working for a big tech company, right
Jennie Wolek
100%, it is our job to care for our clients and to consult them and today might not be the right day for them to hop into this market. And that's why we are fiduciary that that word is so key to how we show up for our clients. And so that means we are focused more on them and their goals than our own bank accounts. And I think so many we say commission breath, right, so many agents are so desperate because they haven't lead generated, they haven't followed a system or checklist. So they then become desperate to pay their own bills that they may encourage people to make choices or decisions that they shouldn't be making. And that's just not how we operate. The other thing that's key to all of this Justin, like the number one thing that a real estate agent must do lead generate, and they also must have a database that has a purposeful plan behind it.
Jennie Wolek
And as you can see, over the years, as my production has increased, it's always increasing by my sphere of influence my local repeat referral business growing year after year. That's because of consistency and momentum. That is how you get it you have a plan, you have a purpose. And you systematically apply the touches the emails, and he recently I just sent out an email that was off our normal system because I'm very systemized, right? Well, I sent just a random email with a snapshot of the local market stats showing the absorption rate and what it meant. And I just put a, wow, just wow, this market is crazy. And we haven't heard from me in that voice where I was being me. And I said, Here is a great opportunity. Look at the percentage of how homes have increased in value you sitting in your house over the last year, your home has increased over 20% by doing nothing, buyers interest rates still so low, this could be a win-win now call us and we'll talk I got two calls and emails right afterward from past clients who I'd helped five or six years ago, who said they trusted me and said, Well, maybe it is the time I said, well, you might have to rent for a while and they said, Okay. I mean, that's our job is to guide them and to be that that, you know, educator to our people to help them make the best decision.
Justin Stoddart
So we talked about time blocking, you just throw out some awesome insight as to what should be time blocked, right? It needs to be like lead generating, like out in, in real estate conversations. I don't know how many top agents I've interviewed and they said at the end of the day, the thing that matters most is how many real estate conversations are you in, day in and day out? Like that will be the biggest determinant as to how many appointments you get and how much business you get. And I think I hear you say that. And I think another component of momentum is that you're not starting over every day, right? There's this concept of like lead generating 100%. But if you can actually be not having to re-establish trust and with people because they already know you how much faster did that move? There's a great book called The Speed of Trust. And how much faster did that business move when you weren't saying "Hi, I'm Jenny Wolek. I'm a real estate agent here in the area," where they're like, No, no, we already know all that. Like you're already a person. Here's our problem, right?
Justin Stoddart
So if you don't have a good database, you're essentially you're not building on top of anything you're starting over each and every day. And the biggest challenge you have to face is this concept of who is this person calling me and should I trust them right when you already have that in place all of a sudden it moves so much faster and you're not starting from ground zero every day. So I love the fact that you have in your time block Jenny you have right lead generating and you've got database work I've actually been stealing contact with people that already trust you.
Jennie Wolek
I mean that's the thing is I realized earlier in my younger years in the business that I'm not that prospector I'm not that outbound calling caller a for sale by owners and expired so I had to find a way to fit my behavioral style and my comfort level. I know Yeah, get uncomfortable to be successful. I hear you and I know it. And so how can I get uncomfortable? Well, that would be maybe calling people and saying Happy birthday and not asking for the business happy home anniversary. Oh my gosh, how's the year been going? are you guys doing okay?
Jennie Wolek
You know, last year we talked about getting in our care calls. That is a very simple script, Justin, it is. "Hey, Justin, it's Jenny. I'm just thinking about you guys. How are you doing?" Now, we did that all through 2020 and 2021 turns and now it's time for them to maybe make a move, needing some real estate help. They call us. They reply to our emails, they raise a hand because we've done the work to get to that point to receive the opportunity.
Jennie Wolek
You've built the foundation already. Can you talk to us a little bit about no time blocking is one of these ideas that a lot of people would like to have become a reality like a unicorn, right? You only find it when it's injured... haha. I heard that yesterday. What do you do to time block? Like, how do you actually make that happen when it's such a great concept, but so many people struggle with it? Can you talk us through what time blocking for Jenny Wolek and your team looks like
Jennie Wolek
it is so crazy that it is so hard for so many. And I get it. I've been there. And it really started for me. You know, there's a class called BOLD. Justin, I know you know this, this class that was years ago, I took it so many times. And that really got my mindset around the importance of having a time blocked calendar. There's also a great book called The one thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. And that is really a foundational piece for me when it comes to establishing great habits around what's most important, and those being on your calendar and taken care of
Jennie Wolek
First, well, first, you got to identify, what do you even care about? Like, what are your goals personally, and professionally, inside of that book, the one thing on page 114, there are seven circles, areas of your life. And these are personal, whether it's spiritual or physical goals, or you've got business professional goals, financial needs, and desires. And so you have to think really big about your life.
Jennie Wolek
You're a mindset guy, you've totally got this. And you know, like, if I don't know where I want to be in five years, or 10 years, how am I going to know what I need to be doing today to get me there, there is no path if you don't know where you're going. And so that's really, really helped me now when I if I go really, really to like the surface level for my team, that's I built we build out our calendar based on our productivity.
Jennie Wolek
So we already know that we're a lead generating 9 to 11, 11 to 12. As a follow-up, handle any business that's going on the afternoons or for appointments, inspections, that should be the ideal calendar. Now, before you get into lead gen as a team, we have an 830, the agents hop on practice, and roleplay zoom together. And they do that for 15 minutes, then the rest of the team joins, and then we have a huddle. And that is where we share our gratitude for the day. And also our goals for the day.
Jennie Wolek
So we have accountability, even though we're not physically in the same space. Over this whole last year. We're still connected as a team. And so we talk about our gratitude and our goals. And then through the day, we have check-ins, we use a tool called slack. That's where we can communicate so that when people take a listing, they post it in there and we cheer for them. And then we have an end-of-the-day wins channel. So at the end of the day, although again, we're not physically together, we're still staying connected as a team.
Jennie Wolek
So we have, you know, quarterly team fun days, and weekly team meetings, and I read a great book called by Patrick Lencioni, called Death by Meeting, I highly encourage you to read it, it's really great plan for building out so you don't have meetings just to have meetings, right? We are very purposeful, and we're efficient and more effective. And so we want to set up our calendar, and our business, you know, for our business goals and our personal goals. And we also really support each other in our physical goals. I mean, we've got to be healthy. If we're not here, mentally and physically taking care of ourselves. That has to be on your calendar, too. We got to take care of ourselves in order to be the best real estate agent, the best spouse and mom, and all that too.
Justin Stoddart
So you've got the big rocks, right? The things that matter the most. You've got in the calendar, and it's not like okay, what are we going to do today? You haven't pre-determined, yeah, right. These hours on the wallet team. Like, this is what we do during these hours. Like there's no question of like, Hey, are you going to be available this time? What what what No, we're this is this is when we do this. This is when we lead generate, right? Probably takes a lot of the question out of it. And I think the more that you get in the momentum of having these time blocks in place, it gets easier the fact that if you told somebody who'd never gotten up before six, hey, 445 they'd be like, that is gonna kill me. Right? But now you and I both know that 4:45, it's like my body actually wakes up about 4:40 every morning. It's like that i oversleep. It's about time to get out. Right.
Jennie Wolek
Well, I think timing the time part. I think a lot of people are staying up too late. And that's the other part. So like, once you realize that getting up earlier makes me more productive with my day and I'm on purpose, then you are tired and eyes closed by 10. Right.
Justin Stoddart
100% I know I, I oftentimes will hear people asking about, Man. I'm like, I'm looking for a new Netflix series. And I'm like, how do you have time to do? Like, how do you have time to do that? And this is no judgment. I'm just saying, if your business is not where you need it to be, my guess is that you're putting a lot of entertainment before productivity. And I think that adjusting your schedule, to where you force yourself to get up really early right earlier than what you're used to. And by the time the end of the day is like Jennie, saying you actually won't have well, you won't be looking for something to do to fill space because that's only 10 o'clock, but I do, like Jennie is sleeping.
Justin Stoddart
I'm sleeping. Like there's no question about what's happening. And it's not because I'm choosing that, like, my body is saying, like, lights out, man, you got just six hours before you got to get up again, like, keep going, right?
Jennie Wolek
There's so much beauty and in a great night's sleep and waking up early. And I just think that some people just haven't opened up their minds to that belief or that idea.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I would agree that momentum comes. So here are some principles that I've discovered, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this yet Is it one way to kill momentum is to get up and be all up in your inbox all day, right? Literally, email can consume your entire day. And you are simply at that point responding to everybody else's requests for you, you're on everyone else's agenda. It's like you're the courier, hey, I'm here to deliver packages, you're a bit of a package.
Justin Stoddart
Like, in fact, I had a client who said that, like, back in the olden days, you would have never asked a CEO to go work in the mailroom. And the reality is right now, as CEOs of our businesses, we're constantly working in the mailroom because we spent all day in our inbox. Now, it doesn't mean necessarily that we shouldn't ever check our email. But I think the second that you start your day with that, it's really hard to get out of that. I think I would imagine that your morning routine has as you said, some mindset, some spirituality, it has some, some you know, physical care, all of these things, if you want to, like what do I do at 4:45 in the morning, and that may not be the right time for you. But get up.
Justin Stoddart
If you're lacking some momentum, get up earlier than you're accustomed to, you'll naturally want to go to bed earlier than you're accustomed to. And you'll be cutting out a lot of fat, right? And you'll be able to take control of your day before everybody needs you. Like the reality is if you get up and get started, people aren't awake, and the world isn't needing you at that point there. Okay, if you get back to him, you know, before nine o'clock or maybe before noon, depending upon the topic. So I think that's something he pointed out to me, I think is so critical for anybody that wants to get in momentum. As you have to get out ahead of it. You have to get up earlier than what the world expects you to be responsive, right?
Jennie Wolek
Yeah, I really really truly found I was that respond to everything. As soon as it came in, like so much so that it was dangerous. It was what you know, replying to a text or an email on my phone while driving. And then once you have children, you realize you're risking your child's life you find and the kids are yelling at you put the phone down, you're like, Okay, that's stupid. So you realize you get in the habit, okay, so if I can go drive my car for 15 minutes and not respond, I can go maybe go a little bit longer. And so that's what I think the hardest thing for real estate agents is is that they haven't already timeblocked their day, or set the goal of how many contacts they need to need to get or know their big rocks for the day or the week. And so, therefore, they allow themselves to be distracted, because it makes them feel important, and makes them feel like they have a job, and that they are doing something and then they get to the end of the day, and they didn't accomplish the most important thing.
Jennie Wolek
So I even have, I use a tool called the 411. And it's based on my really big goals. And chunked down by the month and by the week. And in each week, I only have five things that are on my list of my must dues this week. I already know that I'm supposed to make contacts through lead generation and all of my job description because that's already built on my calendar. So that doesn't need to be on my 411. What needs to be on my 411 are the big projects that move the business forward. And so for, for me, I think getting that clarity around, I don't have to solve all of my business problems this week. I can put them into the calendar next week, in the afternoon on Wednesday, from one to three to time block thinking about that project because that's not urgent. It's not needed till next quarter. If that makes sense. That's a hack that I learned when things pop in my brain. I just have little notepads beside me and I write it down and then I go put it on the calendar into the future so that I have a placeholder for it.
Justin Stoddart
And you've just cleared up your mind to be able to focus on what you're supposed to be focused on on time, right? I didn't client who told me she said, I'm feeling totally overwhelmed. And she said I was totally overwhelmed. And I went, I took everything that I did a total brain dump doo doo doo doo doo. And then I actually lined up similar to what you just said, and put it like where it actually belongs in my year. She said there was stuff I was worried about today, that doesn't need to happen until the third quarter. Why in the world? Am I concerned about that right now?
Justin Stoddart
And she all of a sudden, she, let's see, spread it all out. She was like, Oh, I got this, right. I got this. I don't feel overwhelmed. And it's like, No, no, no, no, no. What is right now? important, and what's not another thing you put it out here today.
Justin Stoddart
Then I really want to talk about another client who was just telling me she said, this weekend, I want to thank you because I took the day off. She said you helped me do it. I'm like, What do you mean? She said, Well, you made me commit to how many days a week I am taking off and she said, in this crazy market, I've absorbed this concept that everybody needs me all day every day. And so if they have a demand, I've got to give it.
Justin Stoddart
As she said, I told three clients "I'm taking today off. I'll get back with you first thing on Monday." One was a super cranky client, she said. She said It was amazing how I got up on Monday morning and said it is going to be a little bit crazy, I knew that already but even my cranky client, I felt like he even respected me a little bit more.
Justin Stoddart
And I think if our value proposition is that we are going to be the person that picks up the phone in five seconds and goes and runs that appointment. We've just turned ourselves into a Redfin agent, we've just turned ourselves into a Zillow agent, where they actually don't respect the person, they're there for the technology. Period. Like you're interchangeable. If you want to be paid and respected as an attorney, like a doctor, guess what, you have business hours. And these days, I'm off. And I look forward to talking to you, you know, at this time on this day. And I get it that that doesn't always work that way, right. There are certain situations and deadlines where you have to step up. But the more that you can do what you just talked about Jennie, which identifies what's actually urgent right now, and what's not, schedule out into the future, including client demands. Now, all of a sudden, you have space to create momentum. Because if you're on everybody else's errand, all the time, it's really hard to ever create any momentum in your business because you're, you're simply their courier, right, you're doing what they want you to do, which isn't always what you need to be doing for you and your business and your team,
Jennie Wolek
Being an on-call agent will lead to immediate burnout. And I can speak from experience, I live that life. And so I think that what you touched on is so important for most agents to work on is setting expectations, whether it's with their family: Hey, family, this is when I'm going to be available for you. So let Mommy do some work during this time to this time, and then I'm all yours after that." And you've got to actually uphold what you say to be true.
Jennie Wolek
And then also with your clients. And I wrote, you know, I haven't worked so much with buyers and sellers over the last year. And that's the other thing I want to bring up with everyone is to think about its leverage, leverage is life, when you have people in your world who can help you and you may not have to grow a team, you could just grow some other agents in your office who are available to run out show houses for you. There are so many beautiful ways in our business to leverage our business, whether it's through technology systems, checklists, you know, what we then have, you know, virtual assistants these days who are happy to be behind the computer all day long.
Jennie Wolek
So how can you make sure you don't burn out by utilizing different forms of leverage, even leveraging at home? You know, whether that's a house cleaner, or it is food being delivered to your home so that you don't have to go up to the grocery store? What are ways that you can get your time? Because you are you do have an hourly rate? Do you know what that is? And if it's less than that hourly rate, then you should leverage it somehow or don't do it at all? Is it really important or time block it
Justin Stoddart
So powerful, Jennie. I think you and I are so so like it kind of in the way that we help agents, one of the things that I talk about is calculating your dollar per hour take 250 days a year, like take how much money you want to make, divide it by 250 days a year and eight or 10 hours a day. And you'll be amazed at like, oh, wow, I'm worth $200/hour based on that goal becomes a really easy filter for you then to then say, should I be doing that? Or should another person's system or tool be performing that function?
Justin Stoddart
All of a sudden you get clarity of like, oh, no wonder it looks like my real estate business. I'm making $20 an hour because my whole day is filled with $20 an hour activities. It makes total sense, right? All of a sudden the mystery is gone. It's like okay, so what are the activities that are worth $200 plus an hour? There are a handful, not a lot, but there is a handful. What you focus on that the more you're able to take care of a team take care of your family and actually be excited about what you're doing right.
Jennie Wolek
Yeah, and something you just were reminding me about is just understanding that sometimes in our business, you will be busier than other times. And today in this wild west of the market, it may be that way, it may be that you don't get in all of the lead gen every single day consistently. So maybe for right now, you can come up with a life hack that is okay. On Thursday morning, I'm going to lead gen from this time, this time, and on Friday, all day long. You know, whatever you have to do. I mean, as you know, we've used this term, if you must erase it, you must replace it. So if you don't get in that time that you're supposed to be doing put it somewhere else. I mean, I've made phone calls on Saturdays and Sundays, because I didn't get in the numbers that I should have during the week, or I had to be more purposeful when I went to the grocery store, to run into people and have conversations because I hadn't done it during the week. So you have to make sure that you understand what the goals are, and how you achieve those goals.
Jennie Wolek
And then lastly, just let's talk about this real quick. This is the other reason agents burnout. They don't I said this at the beginning, they don't know why they are doing this business, they don't know what it is funding. And when you realize that you have the awesome opportunity to make an unlimited amount of income in this industry. Now, what are you going to do with it, and when that income has a home or a place to go, that then helps you get back to something you care about or your community or other local small businesses or nonprofits. Then your heart is attached to your business to your purpose to communicating with your clients to being a resource for them, and they feel it and they see it and they do reach out to you when it is time. Oh,
Justin Stoddart
Yes, let's it's hard to make a phone call for phone calls sake, right? Because I want to call people like most people, only get a phone call a bunch of people. But if you can tie it to like you said, I'm doing this because I want to impact these people and impact my family in this way. All of a sudden, as you said, Bring your heart into it. You said it so well. Awesome stuff Jennie, let's move.
Justin Stoddart
In fact, before I move to the signature question of the show, just going to tap into how you continue to be a big thinker. I want to ask you, where do people go to get more Jennie Wolek, where do they go to get this concept of maintaining momentum? I know you've built some things to really help agents, please please kind of share with us where we go to get that?
Jennie Wolek
Yeah, yes, years ago, I discovered that my big why and my path, my passion, and my purpose was to empower real estate agents and help them realize that it doesn't take 20 years to become an overnight success as it did for me. So I want to give them and share all the time, my systems and tips and tricks and mindset and all the things right. And I started doing that about four or five years ago, I created a Facebook group called Your Journey with Jennie. And so people can just ask to join the group. And I've got lots and lots of great real estate agents from across the country across the world, really, who have opted in to this closed Facebook group. And I just do my best every day to share some motivation, inspiration, systems or tools that are adding some value back. Because I love it. And I love seeing them grow. And so then I realized over last year COVID, I didn't get to travel and train and be in front of agents because that's when I'm most on fire. And that's what I love the most. So I just created some online versions of classes. So I created a three-hour workshop called mirror my business. That's where three hours, I just throw all of our systems and tools at you just hardcore non stop, you get links to my Google Drive with all of our checklists and everything. And then I was like real estate agents. I love that we're all big thinkers, and we're all learners, we love to learn. And yet sometimes then the phone rings and we get distracted and we don't actually implement what we've learned. And so I created a six-week follow-up called implement my business. So we go deeper, we've got some accountability, a closed Facebook group. And then I'm like, hey, I've got these amazing agents that are all in we've created a great community together. So let's maintain this momentum and keep it going together. And so that actually launches tomorrow. I've got a membership group that is starting we're gonna have 30-minute webinars each week, and lots of other fun and accountability and coaching.
Justin Stoddart
Love it, Jennie. How amazing that people have the opportunity to go deep and then to maintain the momentum. What a perfect segue from today's topic. And how do we go get that I guess probably just start off with the group Your Journey with Jennie. Is that the best way to get there?
Jennie Wolek
Yeah, absolutely. Your Journey with Jennie and also yourjourneywithjennie.com and that's where you can find all the events and classes and stuff.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. I love it. Go there. If you're looking to get and stay in momentum. All right now to our last question, Jennie, which is this, you are a big thinker. You've proven that for the past 20 years, and even in the past few minutes that you've spent with all of us, what does Jennie Wolek do to continue to grow to continue to be a big thinker with all the demands you have? Everything you have going on? What does Jennie do to continue to expand her possibilities?
Jennie Wolek
Well, first off, I don't think that I'm naturally a big thinker. I think that I've grown to appreciate and understand that when I put myself in uncomfortable places, meaning with really productive big thinking people are hiring and paying for a coach to help me dream bigger. And that pushed me to what's next. That's when I become the biggest thinker of all. And so I think that we so often forget to dream. And we tell our kids, they can be whatever they want to be, and you do you and then we don't even take that same advice for ourselves. So I've had to just really like I mean, even for example, I'll just admit my vulnerability on this, this membership group I'm creating, I'm building the boat as I'm settling it across the ocean, I'm not an expert on how to have a membership group, I didn't even do that much research, I said, Hey, who wants to hang out with me more? And they said I do. I'm like, Alright, let's go. You know. So like, that's the other way that you think bigger is you add value to others, and they help push you along. And or others are pulling you along. So I think to think bigger, the key just to get uncomfortable, and put yourself in really interesting new places, as long as they are in alignment with who you are, and what your ultimate goals for life should be.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, comfort really can be the enemy, that growth getting the good stuff. I know, James Clear in his book, Atomic Habits, talks a lot about how important environment is upon growth, and upon adopting new habits. And I hear you saying that when it comes to being willing to grow, you've got to put yourself in an environment that cultivates that, that causes you to have to step up and be your best self. Great stuff.
Justin Stoddart
Jennie, always enjoy our time together. Thank you so much for pouring into us. It's been fantastic. And you've definitely taught us about momentum. And I'm grateful for that. And grateful for all of the big thinking that you put out into the world and the journey that you're on bringing people on with you so very much my friend. Always such a pleasure.
Justin Stoddart
And if anybody here who's listening to this if has found value in this, do Jennie and I a favor. Don't keep this a secret, right? Tag people in the comments. People need to hear this, like it, share it, do everything that you can do to help more people learn about Jennie and the amazing path that she's on helping inspire people to be in momentum and to be a bigger thinker, Jennie, I appreciate you, have a wonderful day. And to everybody listening. Go Think Bigger!
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I am fired up about today's episode. We're going to tell you everything you're doing wrong with YouTube, which may be the fact that you don't see how big the opportunity is. Today's guest is phenomenal. I can't wait to introduce him to you hold tight. He's coming right up.
Justin Stoddart
Today's guest Jackson Wilkie. He's been in real estate for two years. He's already out of production. Yet you heard me say that right? Two years. And he's already out of production. How in the world did he do that? I'll tell you this. It wasn't by buying leads from Zillow. It was by creating his own lead source from YouTube. Jackson Wilkie, thanks for coming on the show today.
Jackson Wilkey
Thanks, man. pumped to do this again. You know, when I first started, it was just getting going on this now. It's it's a full revolution of things working for me.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, yeah. I can't wait to hear. Let's let's dive right in. Right. I think first and foremost, I want to help agents to see the opportunity. I've been, you know, working with agents and I, they tell me that that Zillow used to be a really great opportunity. Like the leads were were were strong, they were good, the conversion rate was pretty high. I haven't met anybody, in all my conversations that says that they're as good as it used to be. And there continues to be a kind of a downward trend of the quality of leads and how much Zillow is charging, and even the demands that they're putting on you. In certain environments that require you to call back even before these leads are vetted. It's a total waste of time, in a lot of respects, definitely not a place where you can go to really build a long term career with strong margins, it's going to allow you to serve your clients at the highest level. You're a big proponent Jackson of the fact that people can own their own lead source, as EMI right, the upstream model was was really designed around this concept of getting to the customer before big tech portals. You guys are doing that through a beautiful way through YouTube. Talk to us about how you stumbled upon this idea or how you really uncovered the fact that you could create your own Zillow, right? You could cut out all of the big boys, you could become your own Big Boy, I talked to us about that.
Jackson Wilkey
When we talk about you know, funnel systems. When you think about the Zillow, the Redfins of the world, these people are already shopping at home. And so what what YouTube and the way that we've uncovered, you know, lead generation for us is, first of all, it's 100% conversion rate these people are calling us but secondly, we're so far above Zillow and Redfin because before anybody searches for a home, they're searching for where to live. And so we've unearthed that where to live. And so they are going through and watching these videos, and I'm talking, you know, I don't shoot videos under 20 minutes anymore 20-30 minute videos, and they will just go through all of my videos and they'll watch it and then they reach out and call so what happened was, it's all pain points.
Jackson Wilkey
When I got in I was brand new, I was your job right title rep for escrow. And I came from North Idaho as a, just a just blue blue collar worker, journeyman lineman, and then I'm thrown into escrow sales. So now I really don't know anything about real estate or escrow sales, but I just had a knack to get in front of people and then within 1011 months, I'm like, I'm going to jump into real estate. So here I am in a brand new market, brand new job. I don't know anybody except for realtors. And so I start doing what every real estate agent and what every Digital Marketer like Gary Vee says, hey, go do it via digital mayor because I knew I was going to do video right? Go be a digital mayor and shoot all these restaurant shop interviews because you'll just dominate the market. So I did I'm gonna go get her so me and my business partner Jesse doubt we started shooting these videos. I couldn't cold call I couldn't do I even landed one appointment. Justin cold calling. And for listing like I actually with the scripts, which sucks, landed and I didn't get the listing because I was that bad. So I started doing these videos like crazy because I was like, this is going to be the way I'm going to get business and man, I have the Beaverton Police Department. I had this schools, I was shooting videos for schools. I mean, I would walk around people like oh my gosh, you the video guy thought it was working to this day, basically two years, I still haven't received one deal from that. So I
Justin Stoddart
Here real quick, because I think that's where a lot of agents make the mistake. They say, Okay, I need to put out content. And I need to go highlight all the business owners in my community. And what you're saying is, Hey, guys, heads up. We tried that. It didn't work. It doesn't produce leads. It might make you like locally famous you might be the digital mayor, but it's not actually putting you in contact with people that are buying and selling. Is that accurate?
Unknown Speaker
So it's 100% accurate and it's painful because I hear it every day like in the Clubhouse and all these all these agents talking. Yeah, you need to go shoot these and then I go look and they don't even they don't do it. Or be they don't even have a real estate YouTube channel and I'm like, why is everybody teaching this when It's not the truth. And I've done the pain. So I like telling people right up when they start doing it, don't because honestly, here's the thing, and this is not rude to say, but what happened during COVID like the service industries got hammered restaurant owners. I mean, basically they're shutting their doors. So helping them I and that's the thing you hand out your cards all the time and it feels good and they Thank you up and down and I love the feelers you know the feeler so it felt good, but you don't get business from it. Maybe you get a onesie twosie but is that like we're building teams, massive teams is that scalable and global, you know, if you can only get one or two reach out. I didn't get any and I was doing it at a high level and I put it to YouTubes and Facebook's and Instagrams and everywhere. And it just was not something but that's what turned me into I actually found this gal over on the East Coast Karen Carr. She's a boss I call her the OG she she was doing this YouTube stuff, but also the pain point was she wasn't doing it the way I would, you know, escrow process and inspections. But she she unearthed the SEO aspects. So I started getting crazy and SEO and then started going to YouTube and doing these videos. But you know, the thing that happened was all the videos we were told to do restaurant interviews escrow, you think about it just if I do an inspection video or an escrow video, that person's already in escrow, or already closing on a home, so their realtor, it didn't make sense to me. So I started doing this keyword research basically using tools like TubeBuddy, you know, and I realized and in your market, obviously I moved from there. I live wherever I want now because of this. Beaverton, Oregon was searched 31,000 times a month in Google, it was search 375,000 times a month and YouTube and I'm like, Oh my God. I started looking at Milwaukee, Oregon Tualatin, Oregon, Hillsboro, they're just 10 times 15 times more a month in YouTube than Google. And that's where nobody in the world was teaching actual YouTube for real estate wasn't being done. So I called up Jesse, my business part. I'm like, dude, I got it, man. It's this vlog, we got to go out into the cities. People want to see this. They don't want to read about it anymore. So he and I, again, I'm in a new market. So I don't know anything. They I'm like, Jesse, why is this Northwest and that Southwest? You know, he's like, Are you serious? Burnside separates everything. You didn't know that. And I'm like, No, dude, I'm new here.
Jackson Wilkey
But that's a hit me everybody's new here. Like they need to know what it's like to work, eat, sleep, live play in Portland. So I just kind of started hitting them. I could do the videos, but I'm like, Jessie, who lives here? Why do they live here? And that unearth everything that he's not good on video, to where if I put a camera in his face, he can go like you are like me. But if I ask him these questions, dude, you'll see a little wheels turn in his head. And he's like, Oh, actually just helped the client. XYZ.
Jackson Wilkey
So I'm going really fast forward. But that's the what happened in and I want your audience to know, you know, especially upstream and helping in referral business. I mean, these people trust nobody else on planet earth besides us. I mean, we get their listings in their home state, we, you know, buy their house here, if their mom's father in law's daughter in law, you know, whatever, whoever moves here, or they buy multiple homes, we're getting 100% of that business to
Justin Stoddart
Let's talk about that, Jackson. Because I think the reality is, people don't realize how powerful of a position you're in when you are thir Chip and JoJo, when you're their Property Brothers, right? You think about that. And I've oftentimes share this, that if if the Property Brothers were to come to your neighborhood, and you were to compete against them, they would slaughter you. And it's like, why they don't know they don't think about the area. No, but it's that people know something about them. Like they've built authority. And they they position themselves to be someone who people look up to right, who is the go to? And what I hear you saying is that YouTube has the ability to create this effect upon people where you you have authority with them, right?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. And at the end of the day, if you go back to the beginning of this, now we're looking at me, you know, we're gonna do 150 million probably in sales across the country for free, just this year alone and continue to double, if not triple. I'm brand new in the real estate. I always hear well, I've been doing real estate for 20 years. I'm like, sorry, Dude, why? I've been doing it for two and I'm out.
Jackson Wilkey
The thing is it all I'm doing is just giving people exactly what they search.
Jackson Wilkey
And so I started doing a bunch of research on this lately. And maybe it'll help you to your business, but it's like content marketing, you know, we always hear this in marketing, you have to understand what content marketing truly is. And the first aspect of it, answering your consumers questions. And that is it. People are searching this stuff, hundreds of millions of times all over the search engines. And if you're not answering that right away, they're gonna leave and it also gives you the the opportunity to no matter how long you've been in real estate, 20 years or two days. You have an opinion you you have this voice and so I was brand new.
Jackson Wilkey
And so what happened was I started shooting these videos about Portland about real estate, and trying to trying to be the realtor, the local and I wasn't and but I thought Like, oh my god if I, if I tell people I'm not from here, they're not going to work with me. But I finally did a video of moving to Portland, Oregon, my store and I opened it up said, Look, you're moving to Portland, Oregon. I get it. I just did it a year ago. I'm gonna tell you all the things that drive me crazy here. I'm gonna tell you things that threw me off guard. But I'm also gonna tell you some crazy some incredible things that you know me and my family love doing right there. I am like every single person who searched that right? And that's really when it started taking off. And so yeah, people always asked me Jackson How the hell you shoot all these videos especially in new markets, dude, I fly in we partner with agents cross country, it's all fly in two days, I'll shoot 20 videos that are all 20 to 35 minutes long. And, you know, within within a couple months we'll be doing 10s of millions of production.
Jackson Wilkey
All walking around and seeing things and telling you what it's like and, and more importantly, I'm telling you things I don't like I would never live here. If you like the tight loss. All the coffee shops, restaurants, Bart like Hawthorne Boulevard and bolo in Portland like if you want to get off of work go around the corner hit the brewery hit the coffee shops. This is your jam. It ain't for me. I got three kids dude, we got we got basketball going on bike in you know, I gotta I gotta be honest cyber Pro. But I'm telling you right now you like this. So we fear. We fear so bad to tell the truth. And so that's where everybody goes wrong. Everything's perfect. I love this. It's a cute home. Now if you're like, tell me honest. And so the reach outs are? Dude, I love your honesty. Like I just love how honest you are and who you are moving there got a budget of a million bucks. Can you help me like that's, that's the reach out?
Justin Stoddart
So this concept of the consumer, like in order for you to gain the lead, you have to be answering the right questions, right? You have to answer the consumers questions. And what you're telling us is that YouTube using some tools like TubeBuddy, YouTube, Google are like, it's available for you to identify what are 10s of 1000s of people asking every single month, and then you can go create videos that are supplying that demand that are giving them exactly what they want.
Jackson Wilkey
Yep. And that's it. And I again, it kind of drives me crazy, because I go to this clubhouse a lot speak and everybody's rushing to the new thing, right? And so you got to be on Tick Tock. And guess what they all lead with views, subscribers, and followers. None of them are in fact, the top Tick Tock real estate agent on clubhouse. He has like 1.6 million followers. And I mean, everybody worships. He's a cool dude. But there are one guy asked him, Well, how much business are you getting from that? He goes, Well, actually, it's not really I don't get much business from but I drive them all to my Instagram, right? And so here's this dude. And then he's, you know, out of one breath. He's all Tick Tock and views. And the other one. He's like paying for Facebook leads and doing all and I'm like, wait, why? Why are we skipping past? Everything that's wide open, like YouTube. When I started YouTube, there was nobody like in the country in the world really doing YouTube for real estate. They were putting their listings out there. Does that answer the consumers question? No, because nobody searches 1879 West songbird lane. They were doing open house videos. Does that search? Does that help anybody? No, nobody cares about an open house on YouTube. We were just trying. But when I started looking, and here's this girl in Portland, Oregon, who is not a real estate agent. She's like 24, and she shoots this 25 minute video about what it's like to live in Portland. And she has 80,000 views. And I'm like, Oh, my God, like, this is all it is. It's like, I just got to tell you what it's like. But the problem was to as I started getting better videos, and you followed me along this whole thing. I mean, I remember meeting with you before I even did YouTube last time, and I started getting better at the videos and the vlogs were killer. But I was my problem, Justin was I never could ask for the business, right. And I just always relied on on my personality and people just kind of like working with me. But it doesn't work in the real estate sales. So I don't care what your lead gen platform is you have to learn how to ask for the business. And so I started shooting all these videos. And I'm getting more views more subscribers took like six to eight months to crack the code of YouTube too. So like I make it very easy for people nowadays. There's people who put videos up within, you know, two hours, they'll get a phone call. But it took me almost a year to figure this stuff out. And I saw blade the knockout but the one thing was as I got better and more views, more subscribers, that's to lead with right. I will get in the business and so I installed these CTAs these calls to action. But I have to hook for So hey, you want to learn how to bypass Zillow, you want to learn how to never pay for a lead again. In this video, I'm going to teach you exactly how to do that. And I've got a special guest today, right so now I'm like, okay, someone's pain point is they don't want to pay any more. They don't like Zillow, they don't want right and they want to learn so now you've hooked them. B
Jackson Wilkey
ut the call to action now I was like you know, hey, if you're thinking about moving to Portland, Oregon, you know we get hundreds of phone calls, emails, texts every day from people moving and relocating here. We have salutely love it. So if you're thinking about moving to Portland, you know, make sure you give us a call, shoot us a text, send us an email, send the pigeon carrier, however you want to get ahold of us, we got your back moving to Portland.
Jackson Wilkey
So I set it up with that hook content marketing, you hook them. And then that allows me to get a little bit of branding in there. And then my call to action next day, 14 phone calls. The rest is history. You know, it's it's pretty cool how that works. But you don't need expertise. You don't need 20 years in the business, you don't even need to be brand new in your city. In fact, if you're not new, in your city, you have a leg up the people who were born and raised in their areas. They don't even know what to say they take everything for granted. Every background, every everything, you know,
Justin Stoddart
You're not looking at it through the eyes of somebody just moving there. Right? You're looking at it through the eyes of someone who is you mentioned everything for granted. It really takes all the excuses off the table. I haven't been in the business very long. I'm not very good on video. I don't know, like business owners very well, today. Like it doesn't matter people. Yeah, all you have to do is identify what are the questions being asked, and then create content that offers that and then give a call to action? Call me and we'll help you find your place. Right?
Jackson Wilkey
That structure is dude moving to Portland, Oregon stuff. There's northeast, southeast, north, Southwest, South, you know, Northwest, there's all these different areas and lifestyles. I'm you know, that's what I love. You reach out, I helped you find these areas, all you got to do is worry about getting here. That's the trust right now they call we do a zoom call with them. They're like, Oh my gosh, it's actually you. And I don't do any of them anymore. You know, I've eight channels and eight states and growing. I don't answer any of these calls. You know, sometimes we get up to 20 a day for per channel. And yeah, they're just, they are so engulfed in this content and moving there. If you've never moved, you don't truly understand that, you know, I've moved a couple times, and I got three kids, you put in ample amounts of research. But that's it, you've completely the trust is 100%. I mean, we gave out $14 million in listing referrals to these people. And that was something I unearthed a guy who couldn't ask for business. Here I am telling him, you know what, you got to sell your house to move here. They're like, Well, yeah, we do. I'm like, cool. You got a realtor. They're like, Yeah, actually, you know, my friend's friend is a realtor, they're gonna come over and give us an estimation perfect. Sounds good. We just got to make sure that you know, that agent knows the relocation process and communication, we actually work with one of the top agents in your area. And the thing about it is, if there's no communication, I'm sorry, we've had we've had clients move here, and they've had to stay in a hotel for a week because their agent didn't communicate with us. So you know, the closing got backed up. So just make sure whoever you use, they communicate with us because we got to have escrow guy, I have time you know, everything so we can close same day as we close on your house. So by the end of it, they're just like, Oh, my God, just call your agent, please. 6% listings? Because I'm hitting the pain points. Right. All I say is, look, if we can bring them in, they'll close that will close here. All you got to do is focus on getting here. That's that's the trust. So there's no, there's no calls, there's no follow up where I got to earn their trust, they are begging to work. There's sometimes we drop a call, or miss one and vague. Just keep hitting us. Oh my gosh, I've reached out three times. Oh, I'm so sorry. Like we're busy, like they are begging to work with us.
Justin Stoddart
But isn't that just the absolute opposite of what happens when you buy leads, where people could go right back to the same website and click a button and get another agent, like you're totally expendable. There's no need to wait around. If you aren't willing to open the door now and fight I don't even necessarily need to be nice to you. Because the reality is, I can replace you like that. Whereas in this situation, you can't replace somebody who's taught you everything you know about the city and you're kind of waiting on the next video that Josh because it's so helpful because it's answering again, their questions like really it takes the mystery not just out of YouTube, but out of business in general, like, what are our customers biggest questions, biggest challenges? Are we answering that? Are we helping them solve that problem? Yeah, folks, if you can do that repeatedly, you will have an amazing career. Right? You really will. And now apply to YouTube. You can have an amazing channel with amazing people coming at you.
Justin Stoddart
Here's my next question in Jackson is you talked a little bit about listings. Obviously in this market listings are kind of the golden goose what strategies do you have in place for agents obviously the stuff you've been teaching us to some degree is people moving into a city are there are strategies around similarly helping people move within a city right to where you're, you're finding listing opportunities and it's really tight inventory market.
Jackson Wilkey
Yeah, this is something and I like to be brutally honest about this. This is where a lot of the marketers will just start Yeah, go ahead and go do this video do that video but they are doing it right. I'm not currently doing it. I shot I just shot a video I'm going to get into this for listings. My wide Justin and this is what you have to understand. When you shoot videos you have to know You're why I couldn't be a listing agent, everybody loves listings. Give me the buyers Dude, I love people and helping people. I don't want to negotiate a commission. I don't like want to tell them bad news that, you know, a couple offers came in, I just want to work with buyers and my why was I know what it's like to move, relocate. But I get asked 1000s of times, Jackson, how do I get listings? I'm like, are you even getting business? First of all, why are you worried about this? But secondly, how do you get listings? And in my mind, I'm so engulfed in and I'm gonna go deep on some stuff that will really help you with your business too. But I understand this YouTube thing, right? And it's, it's the more honest you are, the better, right? And so I'm starting to think about the listings, and I'm like, every realtor guess they do. top five things to get your home ready. declutter, you know, paint a bathroom. And I'm like, That's such bullshit, like, sorry, for the worst. But like, it's just so cheesy, right? I want to answer the consumers question. And guess what that is? Hey, I'd love to sell my house like a $250,000 equity. But where the hell do I live? Where do I go? So that's what I start talking about. And so I actually shot this video where I've ripped for like, 25 minutes straight. And I opened the video say, look, I understand right now, in this market, there's less than a month of inventory, you're probably thinking, I got a lot of inventory, I kind of want to get a new home, where the hell do I move to? Where do I live? You know? And why the hell do I even need a real estate agent right now, I could list this thing and sell it in five minutes, I'm going to discuss all of that. And I'm going to give you the exact recipe on how to sell your house by yourself. So I went through and you might be going, Justin, that's crazy. Now you're gonna teach everybody how to sell their house.
Jackson Wilkey
Here's what I did. It's just like how I teach everybody how to do YouTube for real estate, I've had about 12 people take my free stuff and dominate. I've had about 5000 people buy my courses or come up because it's too much info, right? So the 12 that actually use my free content, they're my biggest advocates, they blow me up the other 5000. So I go through and I'm like, Alright, you want to sell your house, this is exactly how you do it. First and foremost, you're gonna get you're gonna need a new phone number, get a new phone, you're gonna get 10,000 calls the first day. And what's gonna happen is, it's all going to be real estate agents, they're all going to want your listing, a lot of them are cheesy, I apologize. Right now, we're not all that bad, a lot of us work really hard. But you're going to get a bunch of them begging for your business. So what that's going to do is going to make you turn off your phone, well, then the real offers are going to start coming in, and you're not going to filter that out. And now, hey, you've got all these offers, you've got all these real estate, you're getting 10s of 1000s of calls. And it's not going to stop because guess what, 12 months from now, there's programs out there that can tell people that your house didn't sell. And they're going to circle prospect back and call you again and say Why did your house sell. So get a new number first and foremost, probably cost you 4050 bucks. Secondly, you're going to need to market this thing. And I'm telling you right now I have clients and I have dozens of clients. And if they see a property online with crappy pictures, they don't even want to go see it. And I know the house, I know that area and it's exactly what they want. But if that picture is bad, they can come in. So it's about five to $800. And not only should you do pictures, you need to get a video of the property. So hire professional videographer, five to 800 bucks, and you need to get all that Secondly, you need to order a signpost, okay, signpost people walk all the time they see the signs, you got to get the flyers in the box. And even though we almost don't really need that right now, as real estate agents, I want to paint the picture that it's frickin hard of what we do. So I don't want to keep going on this, but you hear what I'm saying, Justin? Now you're like, Oh my god, this is awesome. I can do this myself for holy crap. That is a lot of frickin work. I just want them to come do it. Right.
Jackson Wilkey
Like, is it gonna work? I don't know. I just shot the video. I'm gonna try it but everybody's asking me this but but yet, they either don't do the work. Everybody asked what do I do for this? What I do, go try it go shoot videos like you have to you have to figure it out the hard way I shot 500 videos, you know, before I even struck one that worked. I just never gave up but at the same time, I understand content marketing. And so for you, I kind of want to talk with you a little bit. You know, our good buddy Addy net. net, the goat when it comes to lenders and marketing in me and him have all these side conversations all the time, and he wants to. And this will help everybody in the audience with their videos, right? Because what we're going to do is you're going to see Jackson with these videos, you're gonna try and emulate it. I get people who go Jackson, watch my video, and it's my scripts, and here they are reading it. It's so authentic. And we try and be somebody right? And we're in at the other day when you're not yourself. You'll never get business and so and he's like, dude, I just, I love you know, taxes i do. Seven years ago, I was living in a van in a garage and now like, I'm making money and I got to learn how to do that because my family didn't save money. So investing. You know, he's like, what's the bald headed dude that the investor guy that put the cash in the envelope dude? Dave Ramsey? Yes. He's like Dave Ramsey. I just can't relate with that guy. Like, I want to be the new agent, Dave Ramsey. So there's your There's your call to action right there. I don't relate with a 67 year old putting money in an envelope guy, like, it's not me. But I have to learn. I used to live in a van in a garage. And now I'm making some money, I can learn how to pay, I don't want to work till 65 and put money in an envelope. Like, I want to build assets, right? This world is changing, I can work from home, I can work from everywhere I got to learn. And he doesn't relate with me. So I have actually learned how to prepare credit. myself. I've learned how to invest in properties myself. Okay, so now I look at it and I'm like, shit, he's my that relates to me. Dave Ramsey does it right. Tom Ferry doesn't relate with me. You know, Stoddard. You're my, you're my deer in my market, right? So you have to understand what you're shooting any video on the world. Now I'm kind of getting off topic, you have to be yourself. And the reason why I give Karen car credit was she opened the door to me. But at the same time, she did everything I didn't want to do. I hated the real estate process. So I didn't want to talk about it when I tried her stuff. It was so an any business
Justin Stoddart
It was lacking energy, right? Like you couldn't bring Jackson Wilkey energy around, something you don't care about. And I totally agree with that. Like, be yourself like the truest loudest version of yourself, right? And people will be attracted to you, the people who you actually like the people you actually want to work with. Right? Because they like you for who you really are. So they're probably like you, right?
Jackson Wilkey
And that's the thing, like I talk brutally honest about things all the time. And it only brings me more business. And it brings people who are identical. I mean, there's people who think I am loud, obnoxious, tall net or whatever, I don't care. I don't want them. But I get people who frickin go oh my gosh, I can't believe it's you. You know, I know your kids names like you. You're the most honest, truthful, right? I've on earth video, and I don't care the platform anymore. I don't care what platform you're on. You Be yourself because we're always trying to be somebody right that we see and emulate. And it's not us. That's why we'll never differentiate, I get dozens of agents who take my course and two months later, they're the YouTube guru. And yet they teach all the same shit as me but they don't have the why the up behind it.
Jackson Wilkey
All my videos are predicated on I was doing this and it didn't work until I did this. Right. That's why people gravitate towards me, is I just, you know, I'm not the Gary Vee. I'm not the any. In fact, I say I'm not I tried being Gary Vee. It sucks. It doesn't work. Like he says he would crush real estate I'm telling right now he wouldn't, it would be tough. So you got to just be yourself. And you got to when you're when you're trying to you see like a predecessor, someone above you in marketing, you know? Why aren't you doing what they do? That's what separates you. And when once you can own that, hey, I saw this model, you know, or I saw this, and it doesn't work. This is why I do it this way. Right? It worked for me. Now you relate with everybody that's like you.
Justin Stoddart
I think you've highlighted a couple of things that are fantastic. I want to hit on one of them. So there's like that original question, which was like, how do you get seller leads? The reality is your strategy Jackson is super simple. Again, it goes back to number one be your most true, authentic version of yourself. Right? Number one. I know what the consumer wants, like, what their challenges are, what their problems are, and then talk speak to those things. And, and, and do sellers right now have any challenges? Like the only reason this strategy wouldn't work is if, if there were no problems to solve. But do sellers have challenges right now? Yeah, they totally do challenges. Once I sell my house, where am I gonna go? Right? So shoot a video on that. And you'll start getting sellers attracted, because there's a whole bunch of people right now that would love to move, they'd love to upgrade, they would love to do something different. But the reality is like they don't, they don't want to be on the other side of the coin. And all of a sudden now I'm the buyer right? At home. So that problem,
Unknown Speaker
I don't even do real estate. But here's a bunch of real estate agents probably watching this. And they will claim up so bad. They won't give the info. They've probably helped somebody in their market, sell their house and move into one. I want that story. That story right there will get you so much business. Look, I just had somebody they wanted to sell and buy a house. I'm going to tell you right now we tried getting them into the house they wanted it didn't work out. But what I'm going to tell you, you know, everything happens for a reason, we did end up getting them into a house they were never homeless. And we were able to do it in a market with less than a month inventory. If you want to learn how we did that. Stay tuned. Yeah, everybody's gonna be like, holy shit that just spoke right to me. That's my story what I want But anyway, step back and go here's five tips on selling and hey, it's a great market to sell. We'll get you I'll get you this much money. I'll get you this much money. Pete like why are we always leaving with how much money we'll get? Maybe I don't want money like okay, I could sell my house I can make top dollar but I need to move into somewhere else or I actually don't want the you know, I know my roofs bad and I don't want the inspection to come back and hammer me. So every every seller has a pain point. Right? And so that's, you know, when prospecting leads, I guess you need to ask them more. You need to be like a doctor right and you know You go if you walked into my doctor's office, and then I said, All right, Justin, here we go, I'm going to put a bandaid on your eyeball. And I'm going to put a knee brace on your elbow, and we're going to tape up that ankle. And then I'm going to split your fingers. And you're like, well, dude, I actually tore my knee up, you know.
Unknown Speaker
So like, we always just say, we're going to do this, this, this, this, you got to step back and answer the question, you got to sell like a doctor, you know, and find what the pain point is. For some people, it's just getting into a new home. For some people, it's avoiding an inspection because they know they got some shit wrong that you know, it's like, what really speaks to somebody. And so that's what works on video.
Justin Stoddart
I love it, man. So many tips here. At the end of the day, folks, there's no way for you to go out necessarily trying to apply all this, in my opinion, without continuing to find somebody to model if you're not yet connected to Jackson Wilkey... Jackson what is the best place people can find you... on Channel Junkies.
Unknown Speaker
I'm on YouTube channel junkie junkies. If you just type that in, or my name, YouTube, I'm a search topic. Now. That's all the free videos, we got a cool environment on Facebook free Facebook group, you know, the channel junkies, YouTube for real estate. And that's where a lot of agents are growing. You know, there's a couple 1000 in there and they're all growing channels, everybody's helping each other. Let's go on, you can find me anywhere.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Search this guy. Learn from him. And watch what happens when you get to fire Zillow, because now you own your own leads. That's such a pleasure. Last question. Jackson, you're a big thinker. Did you did you guys hit $150 million last year and you're out of production in year two? What do you do to continue to to be a big thinker to continue to expand Jackson Wilkey's possibilities?
Jackson Wilkey
Yeah, my my thing now is like to like joining up and coaching agents. And what happened was you always coach and help but there's no real vested interest other than maybe a course sale or something. Now we actually partner with agents. And that's why when we made the movie, it was like the best thing in the world for us. Again, it was a pain point, everybody leads with the revenue share, and they were jamming that down my throat forever and they wanted to get on production. But it's this environment where you get to actually work and helps now we have over 100 agents who've joined us and I get to directly coach and help them the more I help them, the more they they grow and blow up the more it helps me so that's when it all made sense. So how I think big now I mean, me and my business partner Jesse we're on daily calls with our team, we're, we're getting them out of production, we've helped three teams go from like, brand new to scaled up so big, they're already out of production themselves and building courses and stuff. So that's what we love doing is helping everybody kind of take the path that we've done so painfully for two years. And do it real quick, you know, so, you know if anybody ever wants to learn more about partnering or whatever, you know, just email me reach out to me anyway. But that's that's what we're doing now is helping teams not only in the country, but out of this country now scale and grow their business.
Justin Stoddart
Killer man. Big thinking right there folks. Follow this guy you'll learn a ton and Jackson appreciate the friendship and the inspiration to go do big things. So it's everybody listening out there today. Thanks, man. Every listen to my final request are these three simple words and they are Go Think Bigger... Jackson, thanks for helping us do that today. My friend,
Jackson Wilkey
My man, anytime.
Justin Stoddart
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, and welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart and I'm thrilled today to bring someone to you who's going to help you create a real estate legacy. He's done it himself, he's helping others do it, he can help you do it as well. He's gonna lay out the blueprint of what that looks like.
Justin Stoddart
Before I fully introduce him, let me remind you that inside of the Think Bigger Real Estate Group on Facebook, we take these topics that you're hearing, and we invite you into the learning, we learn best when we engage in it. And that's what the group is for is to take the topics of this podcast this show, and drive them deep into your life so that you become the future self that you want to become.
Justin Stoddart
Back to today's guest, his name is Pat Hiban. Many of you know him as the founder of the very popular podcast that was one of the very first things I listened to when I got into the industry, Real Estate Rockstars. He's also the author of Six Steps to Seven Figures, this book that I absolutely loved a more recent book, which is called Tribe of Millionaires where he talks about his path to surround himself with amazing people. He's done that through building the group Gobundance, many of you have heard about that.
Justin Stoddart
There's also an opportunity to talk about a new group that he's created Gobundance Emerge, which is for the up-and-coming millionaires.
Justin Stoddart
Today's guests with no further ado, his name is Pat Hiban. Pat, thanks for coming on the show today, my friend.
Pat Hiban
Thanks, Justin, good to be here, buddy. Hopefully, it'll come through clear, I'm on my way to Charlotte, North Carolina in the car, so but I'm looking forward to digging deep with it.
Justin Stoddart
I'm excited to have you here. And I know from someone who's pretty close to you, who'd said, Hey, Pat takes whatever he's doing at the moment, he takes it very seriously. And he's currently in a bit of a retirement mode, he's taken a kind of some time to really focus on that. And, you know, maybe you can speak to that a little bit, but I would imagine that part of your success, Pat, has been just this ability to focus on whatever it is that you're doing at that particular phase of life. Is that true?
Pat Hiban
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, my goals, Justin was always to be able to work from anywhere, and it's cut the guy that checks his emails and, and counts his money, so to speak, know how to, like, look at different spreadsheets and talk to a player, property manager or an accountant, you're there, you know, that was kind of always my vision. And that's kind of my reality now on that, and of course, you know, go find it, some of their abundance with three other partners. And, you know, that's fastly growing up to 380 members suddenly COVID, just because to a whole new level, as for membership, and so, you know, that's, that's always fun to do and then meeting new people through that. So 10 to 20 hours a week nowadays of my time. So that's kind of where I'm at.
Justin Stoddart
So you've really taken I mean, after selling over a billion dollars in real estate, you've kind of taken and maybe retirement, is that the right term? It's more it's kind of a different phase, maybe more of a legacy phase of your career. Is that maybe a better way to put it?
Pat Hiban
Yeah, absolutely.
Justin Stoddart
So what I really want to get from you today, Pat, and again, I'm so appreciative of you being here, is if you were talking to an agent that had aspirations to not just build a great income, and a great business in this industry, but to really create a legacy to really create something that that, you know, stood the test of time that really impacted people in a much bigger way than just some zeros in their bank account. What's the blueprint that you would give to people? Like what are some of the key things that maybe people don't know about you? Or that maybe even those that are close to you know, that like, what, like what guidance? What advice would you give to those that really want to create that?
Pat Hiban
Yeah, that's a great question. I think that you know, if you ever want to create a legacy, I mean, here's the thing. There are millions of real estate agents, and unfortunately, most of them are the same. Right? Unfortunately, most of them are, you know, their career consists of a sphere of influence referrals. And working with clients and giving them the best possible service and, and having integrity, honesty, and knowledge of some cliches like that. And if you really want to have a legacy. I think you need to do something different. You have to do something for your markets. That's the fascinating thing that their agents are doing but you got to think outside the box.
Justin Stoddart
Okay, very good. Yep, it's Yep, I think it just got a little bit better. So what I'm hearing you say is is don't just be a carbon copy of the agent down the hall, right? Don't just say, Oh, hey, they had success, or this is what all real estate agents do that I should do it too, but start to put some sort of thought into both your value proposition as well as kind of the unique life that you want to have that that said,
Pat Hiban
Absolutely.
Justin Stoddart
Now, again, you produce at a very high level for a long time, right. And then you get into some ownership, how important is that you think for for agents to really take a look at it kind of starting to build equity, whether it be through real estate investments, whether it be through the franchise model, stock options, like what, how important is it you think, for people to really kind of take a look and say, like, I need to own not just rent, right? But own assets?
Pat Hiban
Very important. Very important, like, your false prophet if you don't, if you sell real estate, but you don't invest in real estate yourself.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, yeah, no, that's great. False Prophet. If you don't, if you just sell and don't invest in real estate, it's awesome.
Pat Hiban
Yeah, so you know, I remember when I first got a visit, it was an agent in, in my office who fizbo their house and they and broker buyer, and totally, so I'm like, Really? So I mean, he had agents running or, you know, you should always be an owner, if you're gonna do anything yourself should use yourself, right. So, so yeah, and of course, it's, the majority of the really wealthy people in the world are real estate owners. They got rich through real estate. So. So that's something that I recommend to everybody. And that's something that I did, I always bought houses. And then it just did the monopoly model where you sell your little green houses and turn them into a big red hotel.
Justin Stoddart
I think there's massive credibility in someone's book when the foreword is written by Gary Keller. And there's a testimonial by Barbara Corcoran, looking here at your book. And, you know, one thing that Gary teaches is to only sell the homes you don't buy, right. And I think that's kind of what you're saying is like, it's really hard to be a great broker yourself of stuff that you don't actually believe in, or that you haven't situated your life, and prioritized your life in such a way that you're an owner as well. It's good stuff, Pat.
Justin Stoddart
Talk to us a little bit about your group, Gobundance, and Gobundance Emerge. How much of a part have these masterminds, these groups, benefited your ongoing rise, right? Where you weren't just one of those agents who had a successful career and then kind of rode off into the sunset? Like, I feel like you're in a very robust chapter of your life. Now. 300 people are a part of, again, a paid mastermind, right? That's a serious business, in and of itself. How much do you how much stock do you put into that group forming your significant chapter, right? You've got your successful chapter where you wrote these impressive books, you produce at a high level, now you're into the significant chapter, right? Where it's really about, about building a legacy. How important is it for people to kind of be around those kinds of people?
Unknown Speaker
Well, no, it's everything. It's everything. Like if you read Napoleon Hill's Think & Grow Rich, I remember an interview that he did one time where they asked him, he said, This book is awesome and everything you have in this book Think & Grow Rich exists. But if you had to pick one thing that boiled down to why people succeed, where others don't, what would that one thing be and Napoleon Hill said, I'm not going to give you the one I'm going to give you two. And he said, the first one is they quit too early, right, their feet from gold or whatever, and they stopped digging.
Unknown Speaker
And the second thing is, they fail to create an effective mastermind. And what he meant by that is the first to surround themselves with people that are smarter than themselves better than themselves, or people that can offer them advice and that they take advice from. Napoleon Hill itself had a mastermind with Henry Firestone You know, Henry Ford, some, some of the biggest, smartest people in the world. And so that's, that's what happens. And that's what abundance is. It's a huge mastermind. We have 308 guys that mastermind together and learn from each other and Gobundance Emerge, which is basically the up and comers and people that want to go from zero to hero, people that want to become millionaires, we give tactical advice on specific things they need to do step by step to become a millionaire, so they can become a member of Gobundance. So we've had close to 10 people from Gobundance Emerge, which is on us, gobundanceemerge.com, who have become members of Gobundance, which means they became a millionaire, so they pass the litmus test to become a member of Gobundance.
Justin Stoddart
I love it, you almost have this succession plan, right? Start off at go abundancy merge become a millionaire. And then at that point, you graduate up into the major leagues, up with the big boys.
Pat Hiban
Yes.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. I want to talk about one other topic here. That's what's been on my mind recently, Pat. I would imagine that at some point during your career, you had had a coach. Right. And I separate this from the concept, of masterminds. Right. I do believe that those are kind of two separate purposes, even kind of two separate potential functions. Do you believe in coaching? And if so, like, what do you think is broken with the current coaching models that are out there? Not that I'm going to speak ill of it. But like, if you were to improve upon the current coaching models that are out there, what would you do differently?
Unknown Speaker
Well, you know, there's a couple of aspects, coaching, some coaching things are simply accountability. Right? Did you make the number of calls? Did you do this many pop-bys? Did you, you know, did you do these things? And I think that that's great for people that need accountability. Certainly, there are people in life that don't, that are self-accountable, right? I mean, anybody that goes to the gym three days a week is accountable to himself, right? So I don't think everybody needs a coach, I think coaching is good when you want to take yourself to another level, I think it's important that you get advice from someone.
Unknown Speaker
Again, I'll use the word tactical, not strategy, like a cliche and thinking or reading a book that you buy on Amazon. But like, specifically, tell me what to do every day, that's going to take me and specifically tell me what to stop doing in a real estate agent, or CEO's job, what to stop doing and have someone else do that I get to that next level. I think coaches help with that. I think some agents are addicted to coaching, where they feel like they need a coach and they always have a coach. And that's fine. It's not right and wrong. It didn't mean to look bad, because it does become a large portion of your budget, the more expensive the coach has become. And certainly, masterminds can help take away from its need for coaching, right? If you go to, I don't care if you're with Keller, Williams, or REMAX or you just go to the NAR convention, you're going to meet other agents and other agents that happen to sell twice as many houses. And those other agents are going to be able to teach you and help you grow and get better and sell more houses. And they should latch on it.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. It's good stuff. Yeah. No matter where you're at, be seeking out learn and be seeking people that can teach you something that can help take you to another level. Pat, I want to end with this question. It's our final question of the show, which is you are a big thinker. You've proven that over a masterful career. And now kind of phase two, chapter two, which is a significant portion of your career. What would you say would be kind of your secret to continuing to be a big thinker to continuing to expand Pat Hiban's possibilities.
Unknown Speaker
What would I recommend to people? I think that here's the thing, most people, most people don't believe. They don't believe that they can be. I'm going to just use the world of real estate. So you have so many agents that sell, you know, 10 to 20 houses a year, right, and that they think that that's all they want to sell, and that's all they really can sell. Or maybe it's the opposite, it's all they believe that they can sell. So it's all that they actually do sell or will sell. And I think if you expand your mind by if you read my book Six Steps to Seven Figures that show how I explained, how basically, you can expand your mind, and you and you could see things bigger by surrounding yourself with people who are selling more houses and doing better than you. And also through affirmations and through goal setting and wanting to actually sell more. You got to want, then you believe that can do it. And then it's just a matter of the technical stuff of how to do it and just implementing that, it's really those are the three major types of wanted, you know, if you want to go bigger than you already are.
Justin Stoddart
man, I love it, Pat, you've really simplified it. Number one, you've got to want to actually do more, to think bigger, you've got to believe that you can and then from there, it gets easier, it's just a matter of finding the people that have done it finding the knowledge of the network to help you do it.
Justin Stoddart
And I'll just put another plug in for GobundanceEmerge.com if anybody here that is an aspiring millionaire that wants to be in that group. That is the Gobundance group where you're in a tribe of millionaires, people who are thinking bigger at a really high level and continue to help you not build just success, but significance. So I'd encourage you to go take a look at that.
Justin Stoddart
Pat, it's been a total pleasure want to thank you for taking time out of your trip today, to pour into us here Think Bigger Real Estate Movement, appreciative of you and all that you've given for free into the industry. It's been phenomenal to learn from you over the years. I'm grateful for you grateful to be associated with you. And I appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you, Justin, thanks for having me on. Thank you all despite the internet I appreciate you being flexible with that and yeah, it's gonna help, and anything you need just feel free to reach me out if you guys will find me. I sold all my stuff here a lot of my social media when I sold my podcast but you know I'm still around you could still it you go to goabundance.com website tribeofmillionaires.com if you want a free book we're giving the book tribe of millionaires away for free all you got to do is pay the shipping on that just go to tribeofbillionaires.com and through those organizations then you get to have more access to me and hopefully come to one of our events in the future and, and meet me and we can break some bread together.
Justin Stoddart
Sounds great, my friend. All right, thank you, everybody. My final request of everybody listening here today, three simple words and they are Go Think Bigger. Thank you, Pat, for helping us do that today. My friend.
Pat Hiban
Justin, it's been a blast.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart, very excited about today's guest. This man has some accomplishments, I'll tell you about some things that he's going to pour into us. Just in my little bit of time that I've known him. He's somebody who loves to pour into people. Today, we're going to be covering objection handling, and mindset for real estate agents. He's also going to share how he earned just last year alone $250,000 just through zoom with first time homebuyer classes. So if you're trying to get creative on ways that you can be very effective, regardless of the market, regardless of whatever situation we're in, this is your man.
Justin Stoddart
I'm excited to have him here before I fully introduce him. Let me remind you that inside of the think bigger Real Estate Group on Facebook, we go deeper on these topics. The reality is you listening to us talk is going to help you a little bit you come in and engaging in the conversation and being part of the conversation is going to help you a lot a bit. So come join us there and Think Bigger Real Estate Group on Facebook.
Justin Stoddart
Today's guests back to him. His name is Brad Van De Walle. He's out of Calgary, Alberta. He runs the largest REMAX office in the world. The man knows a few things about success. As I mentioned, his passion is coaching. But he's a high producer as well, Brad, thanks for coming on the show today.
Brad Van De Walle
Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate it. Looking forward to this.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, my pleasure. All right, let's dive right in. Because I know people that are big thinkers, they don't have a lot of time to mess around. They're here to get some information and apply it and start thinking big start creating some achievements in their world. So let's talk a little bit about first of all right away, talk to us about this first-time homebuyer strategy via zoom, how many people to attend? What was your strategy, give us some kind of nuts and bolts that we can apply today.
Brad Van De Walle
This is literally my favorite thing that I've ever come across. You know, I'll tell you, if you don't mind. I'll tell you the backstory and kind of how we got to there. So I was doing first-time homebuyer seminars in brick and mortar at the end of 2019. And my mortgage broker came to me, he's like, we got to start doing these. I'm like, man, like, it's Canada, like, there are 10 feet of snow, like, nobody's ever gonna show up to these things, right? So people actually started showing up and we didn't know what we were doing. We just kind of posted something on Facebook. For those of you that know me, technology is my least skill, like next to running marathons and stuff like that. So like, I was just not my jam. But, you know, we found a company that that advertised. And we had people that actually showed up, and we're like, Okay, this is actually pretty cool. Can people maybe 15, but then, you know, was weather dependent. We had not the best part, like for parking, but then people have to drive across the city sometimes. So then COVID head, and then he looked at me and like Canada was locked down. Like I mean, 30 days, like you're not, you're really not going anywhere. It's a little bit different states. And he's like, let's start doing them via zoom. And I'm like, what, zoom? And I'm like, it sounds like it's never gonna work. He's like, No, seriously, he's like, I didn't know what it was like, zoom, you come on to do this. I'm like, Man, I'm not going anywhere. For 30 days, I'm willing to try anything to not go crazy. So we actually did the first one, we actually had about 15 or 20 people on, and we're like, really like, okay, so we kind of fumbled our way through that one. I ended up losing a couple of deals from it. And I'm like, there's definitely something here. Since we learned from that. We adjusted a couple of different companies. At one point we were getting between 20 to 25 people on and about 10 people would sign up for my mortgage broker. So I have it is we do our presentation. They all sign up with the mortgage broker at the end, the mortgage broker does the pre-approval, and then his team ships them off to me. It's beautiful. They do all the follow-up. Thank you, Josh. So you know, we were getting that many, and then now it's evolved. And then and then what's the production started going down? Or the sorry, the attendees started going down, and then our attendance rates, so that I started with this marketing company in Canada. And I'm like, Guys, I need more leads. I need more people there. Well, the first one that they did for me, I couldn't even believe it. We had 100 people registered and 80 people showed up. And I was like, I'm like, Alright, like now we're talking like now this is some severe stuff. And, and they actually for anybody that's interested. You can you know, get-go I'll pass the number off to you. It's a company that does it in Canada, they have secure spots, so they don't over-saturate anyways, it's the best thing you've come across.
Justin Stoddart
Now. It's read. So it's Facebook ads, I'm assuming that's how they're driving it or that
Brad Van De Walle
yeah. So and I and I don't know anything about how they set it up. It's, it's super cool. And they do it at an extremely high level so that I know that they get them via Facebook, via Instagram, but it's their follow up system with high-level CRM, that really helps the attendance because our attendance rates were not great, but now we're at about a 75% attend tenants rate, but we're also at about a 90 to 95% retention rate. So our one of our bigger ones that we had, we had 125 people sign up 100 people showed up right on the dot and 94 people stayed to the end 33 people booked an appointment with my mortgage broker to get pre-approved. It's a brilliant strategy, isn't it?
Justin Stoddart
I mean, you look at whatever situation is out there. There's always a silver lining. I hope if that's one thing that you take away from this is I don't care if it's a tight seller's market. I don't care if there are national lockdowns, the reality is somebody somewhere is figuring out some way to take advantage of that, get a competitive advantage and start winning. And you're like living proof that you had 80 people show up for a first-time homebuyer class. Right when the rest of the world was like, scratching their head thinking like crap, like, how am I gonna? You know,
Brad Van De Walle
yeah. And then we took it to the next level to as zoom is going to be something people like realtors get hurt, like, Don't fight it. I don't understand it like this stream yard stuff. I don't get it. Whenever I do mine, I have my team. Like, if you don't know it, find somebody that does, because it's super important. Tech is not my thing. It literally gives me anxiety makes me shut down. That's just who I am. But sales amazing ideas. Amazing. I'm just not great with this. But you know, we're even at the point now, where a lot of people don't understand zoom is the way and it's super-efficient is what I love about it. Now what we're doing with our buyer's agreements and meeting buyers, we're doing it via zoom, we go over a buyers presentation over zoom. And then after that, we send them literally our buyers or buyers, our BRS or buyer's rep agreements, we have buyer exclusive via DocuSign. And we get them to sign in right there. So we do a zoom, they sign up with us move on, I don't have to drive half an hour to my office in case they don't show up. If somebody doesn't show up to a buyer's agreement, which is going to happen. Guess what I'm either at my house, or I'm whatever, I haven't wasted much time and I can get back on the phone and do something else. So you zoom as much as you can, or whatever platform you want, and do it to get buyer's agreements. It's It's amazing. It's absolutely incredible.
Justin Stoddart
Let's talk about that. Because I believe that's something that a lot of agents are curious about right now. Right? We have a tight, tight market, a lot of competition for very few houses. Yeah, agents would love to be able to lock people into an agreement to where if they submit two or three offers, the client doesn't say, you know, we're going somewhere else, right? They want to have a commitment from somebody. And I think that's what it takes is to be completely committed to making it work. Right. So talk us through some of the objections that you get when you approach people wanting to have them sign a buyer broker agreement.
Brad Van De Walle
You know what? Because great question. Now we don't get too many before we've refined it. I've been a realtor for 12 years, we've been getting buyer's agreements out of the gates, like pretty much, pretty much mandatory, like, you know what I mean, it's something that we do, and it's something we believe in, if I'm going to go in, and I'm going to put this much time, I want to make sure that you're going to, I'm going to be compensated for it just like them. So, you know, I don't really have too many. Some of them, it's like, I want to think about its benefits, say I want to think about it's like, Look, let's just do a 30-day trial, trust me. And then so it like because normally I do a year, but if I can't get them there, I asked him for a simple 30-day trial make if you're not happy, at the end of the 30 days, there's a chance I'm not happy either. And I just tell him, I'm like I've only had two people ever asked to be out of this. And one is because we just weren't a fit, full disclosure. And the other one was the fact that their uncle went and became a realtor. So it's not like people are getting out. But if they want to get out, people want to have the ability or feel that they can get out. But if you're just if you're good enough of a realtor, and you show them value, and you and you and you market some areas, or you flyer some areas for them and take that extra step that another realtor won't do, they're gonna be like, Oh, this realtor is actually doing something for me. So you have 30 days to prove your worth. That's how I look at it. And if you can't, ultimately, it's on you, in my opinion.
Justin Stoddart
I think at any time in any agreement, you're constantly winning people over like, you have to be continually putting your best foot forward if you're the type of agent that just wants to get people to lock you in a contract. So you can do a lousy job, then I agree as your client, I would not want to be in that contract. But to be at a contract with somebody like Brad, that's like constantly proving himself and say, Look, if we agreed that this isn't the right fit, I'll let you out, right, this is this. But this, this lets me know, you're serious, right? I mean, is that kind of like part of the objection that you're overcoming is the fact that, hey, me, as a realtor, I have to, there aren't as many homes as there are buyers, I have to be selective in who I work with. I want people that are committed, not people that are kind of window shopping, kicking the tires. This shows me that you're serious that you actually want to house and I'm gonna invest in helping you get what you want. Is that right?
Brad Van De Walle
Yeah, it's that you hit the nail on the head. And the other thing too, that super important that I found is an exclusivity piece to it, we found it's like, Look, I only take on three, or I only take on five, whatever that number is, I only take on a certain amount. And then be honest, I just found somebody's house last week. So I'm able to come in and now I have an extra spot. I'll be honest, whether that's true or not is irrelevant. You pick your number, but I found that it's creating an exclusivity also helps.
Brad Van De Walle
Because if you're like I can take on 100 buyers and I'm just gonna do this people like man what makes you special, but I also have my Platinum Plus purchase program that I created that if anybody wants I'll send to them. So if you want that, Justin let me know. But it's something that's helped me and it's and you literally so you see this guarantee that I have and I go through it all And I don't have in front of me, but I go through about 15 different things that I do for them. And I go over. So whenever I'm asking them to pull in the meeting, like, have you ever heard of a platinum purchase program? And they're like, No, no, no other realtor has I talked about we get a foreclosures door knock off-market, and I kind of describe it a little bit.
Brad Van De Walle
And they're like, Oh, well, the other realtor just sent me up on MLS or you hear all these different things. I'm like, No, I'm like, we actually go and do this stuff for you. They're like, yeah, sure, I'd love to meet. And now zoom, my show-up rates are higher, because it's easier. And then my conversion rates are even higher because I'm literally going over absolutely everything I do. And the best advice I can give somebody make somebody feel special and make somebody feel heard. So we literally have a two-page questionnaire with probably 25 questions that we ask, it's like, great, what do you expect in your home? Do you do a lot of entertaining, and I'm keeping notes, and I'm writing all this down. So it's a long process, but they feel heard because I'm asking them almost every question you can think of. So they feel like this person is actually listening to what I want. And that's been a major part of our successes by incorporating these things.
Justin Stoddart
You know, one of the things I talked about in my book, the upstream model is that it's not just about getting creative ways to get to the customer earlier, you actually have to be better. Like at the end of the day, algorithms and technology are getting better. And they're starting to take away some of the responsibilities that an agent used to do. And agents get really upset about that. They're like, Hey, shut that company down. ban them from the MLS. That's not that's never gonna work. That's a quick way for you to lose the rest of your cheese. Right? Like, yeah, the goal is you actually have to get better. And you actually have to get better at communicating that to your clients. I love the fact that this already has somebody asking for this Platinum purchase program. So we definitely want that we'll give it to everybody that's listening to the show. If you're not yet in the group. I'll post it in the group think bigger real estate. Awesome stuff. Brad excited to get our hands on that. I think that will really help us again, be better because that's, that's step one. We can't just trick people and tell them that we're better than Redfin. Or some of these other companies, we actually have to be better.
Brad Van De Walle
Correct. Like I've never been, I remember. So something and I'm going to give some advice and take it for what it is one of the guys I first started working with, I remember, he came in He's like, never watched the news, because in 2009, in Alberta, it was just terrible. Like, there were $30,000 bonuses on houses, and they still wouldn't sell. So I mean, like it was gross, like absolutely gross when I came in, but I didn't know the difference. So I just put my blinders on. And I just worked because that's what I'm great at doing. And then I ended up being at 5500 realtors, I started April 1, I ended up being in the top 200. And the worst market beat seen. So the advice that he gave me though was like, don't watch the news. Don't watch this. So the challenge is like the mindset part of it is I don't watch the news. I don't do that. And I remember, I didn't listen to when I went on, it's like the next. This was like 10 years ago. It's like, the next job to be extinct. I'm like, haha, who's the sucker is not gonna have a job. And it's like, real terror. I'm like, Oh, my God. I'm like, okay, I can't I just, I just started like, I can't have a job. And that's 10 years later, the big article on Yahoo at the time said how we're going to be, you know, useless. Basically, in the next few years, it's been 10 years and turnovers off. So just be careful with what you're doing mindsets, a big part of real estate.
Justin Stoddart
Let's I think that's a perfect segue. I do think there are agents that probably deserve to be replaced, right? Who are actually interested in serving people at a high level, I do believe that there will be an exodus out for those that don't innovate, that don't get better. People that learn from people like you, Brad Van De Walle, people who get a coach who learned the right mindset, they'll be fine, right? There will be a profitable niche in this industry, it's too big of a purchase, it has too much of an impact upon people's net worth for people to turn it all over to technology. I think it was actually Jason Abrams, who said at a big event here recently, he said, anytime people swipe right to get a house, people are going to get hurt. Yeah, you actually, if you have expert consultants who can actually see the big picture and ask the questions that you're asking in your you know, in your consultations, people are going to be served at a higher level, and there will be a return on whatever fee you pay to a realtor. It will make sense financially. That's because it's always been done that way historically, that's what we do know it'll actually it'll make you more money to be able to have an expert consultant in your corner. So let's talk we'll get to the mindset here in a little bit, or a coach Brad Pitt about kind of what coaching with Brad looks like and I also want to hear, where do you sell? What are some coaching programs that fall short of? And what makes a great coach?
Brad Van De Walle
Wow, okay, that's pretty loaded. Where do coaching programs fall short? I find coaching programs fall short of full disclosure being too expensive and not providing enough value. I'm not going to mention names because they have helped me get to where I am. But I'm looking at him like I'm spending two grand a month for 30-minute calls. I'm like, Man, I'm like, Okay, I'm like that's it And but then the problem is you get to be friends with your coach. And then for the first 15 minutes of it, you just talk about numbers, which is pretty useless, in my opinion at times every single week, like once a month, maybe. But then now you have 15 minutes left to really cut to it. So I think for the coaches out there, it's just literally amped up value. Like, I want to provide everything for free. Like I'm an open book, I literally get a load of this. I literally teach every single Thursday, every single Thursday for anybody who wants to come how I do my first-time homebuyer seminars, absolutely free every single Thursday, right? Even in my own backyard. Guess how many people have reached out to me in the last eight weeks to ask me actually how to accomplish that. Not as many as you think.
Brad Van De Walle
One. Keep in your own backyard, because most people aren't going to do it anyway. So that's the thing is, I think it's somebody if you're looking for coaching, the first rule that I have, is somebody Have a look in the mirror? Are you willing to do the hard work? Are you willing to do what it takes, just because you get a coach doesn't mean that you're going to excel, you have to want to do what they say, you still have to put in the work? And that's what I tell my guys and girls, I'm like, Look, I'm gonna teach you everything. I'm not here to babysit you because that's not how I do it. We're all adults here. I think my youngest person 19. He's a rock star out of Texas, but like, most people are in their 20s 30s. Do you what I mean? Like you've had life experiences, we're all going to go through peaks and valleys but want to do the work. And I think that's the most frustrating thing is that people are like, Oh, this doesn't work. Okay. Let me ask you this, on a scale of one to 10 looking your wife, your kid in the face? And they're asking you, Daddy, How hard did you do this out of 10. If your answers a four, tell your kid a four. But that's something that you have to look in the mirror and decide for yourself is and that's the biggest, the hardest thing that people don't understand is that it still takes work. You know, you can't be a top agent, you can't be a top athlete, you can't be tough, anything without the work, can't just read a book and be like, I've read it. I'm not going to now implement anything, but I'm a genius. It doesn't work like that. So I think that if you have any coaching in any program, I think the first step is looking at yourself and make sure that you're coachable and you're willing to be coached.
Justin Stoddart
I love that man, powerful stuff. Let's jump into the mindset portion. Obviously, the think bigger real estate show has an underlying theme of sharing things. And everything begins in your own mind. Like you actually have to create it in your mind spiritually before you can go create it in real life. And I believe that a lot of people have an amazing skill set amazing talents, amazing work ethic, yet they get caught up in their own brain, they get caught up, they get in their own way because they overthink stuff, right? Or they don't have enough confidence in themselves. What are some of the best tactics strategies that you use Brad to help unlock people's mindset when it comes to really be in pursuit of their potential of recognizing who they are and what they can actually do in this industry?
Brad Van De Walle
I think it's finding out who they are and where they're at. That's kind of the first phase when I go there. And I'm pretty vulnerable. Like I can talk. I think a great attribute I have is vulnerability like I suffer from depression, I suffer from anxiety. It's something that is just been a part of me since I've been a kid. And so for me, my mindset at times can be difficult because sometimes I don't want to get out of bed sometimes. I don't want to shower. So having been there and a lot of people have been there before too. I tend to get people to open up to truly Tell me where they're at and what that takes and what they're looking to do so I think that you don't know man like it's really really tough.
Brad Van De Walle
Like I get emotional with people because I'm an I do I'm emotional like I wear my like you can see my eyes are almost watering up right now when I talk about this like I live my life with a passion I live my life with dedicating myself and helping people see like can't even control it. Like it's just something that I do. So I want to help every single person that I can and that's why I believe that I'm here so I just whenever I meet somebody just want to find out what their journey is, what their struggles are, and then if I can help in any way, if I can take anything out of this that's huge and mindset for me is it's okay not to be okay. Because there are days that you're not going to be okay. But just try not to be there very long, like last week, not two weeks ago. For three days I was useless well my version of useless and I know I'm going to snap out of it but just got to have the mindset and keep doing it. You know, I see a therapist every week to help with my mindset. I call her my life coach and she hates it because she's actually a therapist or hate so so I'm like oh the life coach that I've been in school for enough to not be a life coach but find something that's going to help you do that. Whether it's you know, listening to books, find an author find something that keeps you motivated because there's going to be as realtors we get beat down pretty much on the daily let's call it a spade. So find somebody that motivates you to find somebody what it is and keep, keep doing that and make sure that if you stay down, don't stay down too long. And if you need help, it's okay to ask for help. It doesn't make you weak. If you ask Ask for help makes you strong because you have the courage to ask for help.
Justin Stoddart
And there's a powerful principle there. I think. At the outset, people would have looked at you and said, this guy's freaking invincible, like his energy, his posture, his tactics, his strategies, his production are the largest REMAX office in the world. Like he can do no wrong. so powerful to hear you say you're just like the rest of us. You've got down days you had days. Where you question yourself, you doubt yourself? I think you nailed something that really quickly is just don't stay there very long, right? Yeah. What do you do to pull yourself out of that? Let's say you're in that spot. Sounds like you've got some professional help. I love that.
Brad Van De Walle
I do. Absolutely. I'll actually show you if you want me to be completely honest. What I do this, I don't have an hour and a day that I don't have something. Do you know what I mean? Like I do this. And if I get up in a fine if you're down because a lot of people don't do things for themselves in life, right? Like, it's hard to do something for somebody else. I'm part of the spar challenge. Or I go on the peloton. I have to do it five times a week and one of my boys Kyle whistle out of San Diego, one of the top realtors out there. So he challenged me to do this right. I wouldn't like I went played ball hockey last night but I have to go to the peloton every day. So I still came home after ball hockey. I'm so sore today. I can't move but I made a commitment to him. And my group that I'm going to go on the peloton. So after playing ball hockey, I still came on and do the peloton. So if you're having a hard time, committing to yourself with a lot of individuals have because you don't have the motivation, find somebody to make a commitment to finding somebody makes a commitment to because most people do more for others than they will for themselves. And that's such a true statement. So tell your wife, you're going to do something, tell your kids you're going to do something, have them be on board, and have them be goal-oriented. And I tell a lot of my people like hey, look, have somebody that's in your family or in your close circle that when you hit your goal. What do you guys want to do, whether it's Disney, whether it's you're not really right now, but you know what I mean, find something? So that way the kids are like, you know, put money in a jar or put marbles in a jar every time you sell a house and the jar has to be full to go get your family on board. So they're motivating you because you're going to find times you don't want to do it. But if you look at your kids in the face, or your wife, or if you're single, look at yourself, you look yourself in the mirror every day have something literally on the mirror, I've stuffed in my mirror, I've stuffed on my back door to remind me every day of my goals every day I walk out in and out of my house and I have my goal in the back of my door of how much money I want to make every single day I see that. And I shit you not the very first year that I put that up, I hit it. And it's not a coincidence, because every day I'd see it. So there are different things you can do to help yourself out. If you're not going to do it for yourself, find somebody you know you would do it for red, there are so many powerful principles embedded in everything you said there.
Justin Stoddart
There's a quote by James clear, he's the author of atomic habits that I highlighted this past week. It's an amazing book, your it talks about culture, and about your environment, how those have a larger impact upon your habits than anything else. And he said if you really desire to have better habits, find culture or an environment where your desired behavior is the standard behavior there, right. And what I heard you just say is to start to actually create the environment. Yes, it's with people around you, you bring in new players into your life, right? I just brought you into my life right now. I'm, uh, I'm operating today and will forward at a higher level, because I now know Brad Van De Walle, right. Like, you start to bring intentionally people into your life, who are operating at these very high levels, you start to put quotes, you start to put things around like you build the environment, that's actually going to turn you into the person you want to be, right. We're not like this inanimate object, like a rock, and we just have to stay there. And unfortunately, we're under a tree we don't like we can freaking get up and walk and go, like, put ourselves in some other part of the garden. Like, I hope you realize that the power of the principles that you're teaching us here is that if you don't like the life that you have right now, guess what? You are the author, you hold the pen, you get to write the story.
Justin Stoddart
So start putting yourself around other people that can inspire you a different environment that wants to inspire you to have that better life, that better environment that will inspire all of that. Great stuff, man.
Justin Stoddart
My final question, Brad, we've kind of already hit on this. You're on the think bigger real estate show because you are a big thinker. What do you do to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your possibilities? Right, you've already created some, some big freakin stuff. Yeah. And you're not slowing down my guess is starting to scratch the surface of like, what Brad can do, and the impact that Brad can have. So what do you do to continue to grow?
Brad Van De Walle
Well, one thing we're doing, we're launching a coaching program, and the next little bit, it's called double your income coaching. It's gonna be the first free coaching program for anybody for any realtor. As of right now, it's gonna have 15 different live coaches. So it's something different. It's something unique. We have 15 coaches now these 15 coaches will teach 15 different topics every single week. So for example, Steve coaches how to get listings from retirement communities, which I'm telling you is a goldmine. A lot of people don't think about it but guess what the elderly come in, they have to sell their home. Most people in their 70s or 80s haven't had a real turn forever. So they're going to trust wherever they're going into an absolute goldmine. We have Shane, who literally goes in and he calls people that places for rent. And that's what a lot of people don't do is you're assuming that because somebody has a place for rent like an investor, that Oh, they just want to rent it, start calling them and see if they want to sell maybe they don't know how high the market is. They have no idea you're going to catch somebody that literally just had a crappy tenant that's like yeah, I want to sell and the best part about this and everybody's market is they don't have to go buy a place so it's like oh, I don't want to sell because I have nowhere to go. They just want to sell it's an absolute hidden goldmine. Maddy teaches how to how to protect your income via zoom. So he does zoom seminars on the first time on getting buyers' agreements done so there are all sorts of things like that and you know that Think Bigger and you can say whatever you want about Grant Cardone love them or hate them. And I take everything he says with a grain of salt. But he said something to me that resonated massively. And he said to create your own economy. And I was like our economy has been terrible for we're like, literally the only place pretty much in North America that that was going down for seven straight years. everybody else's on the sky, we're going down and I'm setting record numbers. And he said to create your own economy. And I'm like, all right, and my business partner Mark, big shout out to mark for sale the billion-dollar man as we call him, because he sold over a billion dollars worth of real estate. He came in, and we came up with this concept. And we actually ended up selling outbuildings in Calgary because, in Toronto, they have so much money in Toronto, their markets gone absolutely bonkers the most in Canada, we flew out to Toronto, we have this building Calgary that was going to shut down. They're like, Hey, we're not getting enough sales, we're done. came up with this concept flew to Toronto, we literally sold 150 units only to people in Toronto that have never even seen this building. And we came up with an investor package and crushed the whole building.
Unknown Speaker
So without something thinking bigger and the 10x rule or whatever you believe in, literally, we created our own economy. It's like I could have made excuses like, oh, the Calgary market, and it's not selling and just shut down. And like I'm selling this building, we have to figure out how to do this. We've literally sold the whole building to a different city of investors, all via zoom and different stuff, and they never get into Calgary. So just don't sell yourself short. Surround yourself with people that are just going to literally open your mind up to possibilities that you thought maybe never existed. But just because you never thought of them doesn't mean they don't exist.
Justin Stoddart
And the same person can walk by a piece of dirt and look at the garbage right? And be like man, someone needs to clean up that lot. The next person comes by and says I could build a house there next person appliances I could build in an apartment complex there. The next person says I could build a skyscraper. They're like it's literally the same piece of dirt, right? But it's just your vision. It's the lens through which you're looking at what I hear you saying is surround yourself with people that are big thinkers, and all of a sudden you start to see the world differently. Brad, thank you for helping us do that today. Help it thank you for helping us see the world differently today. How do people obviously you're going to give us this Platinum purchase program? Yeah. Get involved in this 15 part coaching that you're talking about? like where do they go?
Brad Van De Walle
coachingwithbrad.com I'm so bad with technology. I'm seriously Dude, I think it's coachingwithbrad.com I'm gonna double-check, make sure it's there with coaching with brad.com. When you actually go there, you actually register automatically for my live webinar that we talked about earlier. For that how I'm going to show everybody how I do my first-time homebuyer seminars via zoom. So all that stuff is there come in ask questions ask about the program. You know, it's super exciting to launch, and hopefully, in a few weeks, I'm relying on realtors right now. So, unfortunately, it's taken a little longer than I wanted to because they have to give me the scripts to do the video but we're slowly getting to the finish line here.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. If this has been helpful to anybody listening here today, please give Brad some love. Give us some likes, give us some shares. This will help get his message out his message of impact. have such again such an effect upon other people. Brad, thank you for everything you've contributed to us today. Absolutely poured into us. It's fired us up. And my final request for every listing here today are three simple words and they are GO THINK BIGGER.
Brad Van De Walle
Brad, thanks for helping us do that, my friend. It's such a pleasure. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for having me. You bet.
Justin Stoddart
Hey, and welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddard, excited today to teach you specifically what you need to do in order to be successful in your first real in your first year of real estate, whether you're brand new, or whether you want to start over, like hit the reset button, let's do this again. I want my next year to be fantastic. I have the ultimate guest to help you do just that today.
Justin Stoddart
Before we go there. Before I tease you anymore with who this is. I'm going to remind you that inside of the Think Bigger Real Estate Group on Facebook, we go deep with these topics. The conversation continues after the interview to where you can engage and get your questions answered. So join us over there if you're not there yet.
Justin Stoddart
Back to today's guest, Her name is Shelly Zavitz. Not only is she an amazing real estate agent, best selling author. She's an amazing human being obviously adore love this lady. She's fantastic. And I'm honored to have her on the show today. Shelley, thanks for coming on. Again, the Think Bigger Real Estate Show.
Shelley Zavitz
Thanks for having me. That is so nice.
Justin Stoddart
You know I mean, you know, I mean that that that's not just... So you know, that's how I actually feel about you.
Shelley Zavitz
So yeah, back atcha.
Justin Stoddart
So for those who don't know, Shelley, again, I kind of give a quick bio here, shall he tell us a little bit about maybe how you got into the real estate industry cuz I think this will give some context to where you're coming from, and maybe why people should listen to you, which I think they have all the reason the word listening.
Shelley Zavitz
The jury's out on that, by the way. All right. I was in Canada in broadcasting for 15 years, I got married, I came down to Portland, Oregon. And one of the things that I decided when I got here was that I wasn't gonna stay in radio. And what was the thing that I really liked doing outside of that, and I used to remodel condos in Vancouver, BC with a partner. I was like, I really like real estate. I'm going to do that. And I went down the exact same road every single person does, and all the real estate agents watching this like, Huh, right. And I knew for people when I moved to Portland, and I was like, Okay, I'm gonna start a referral business. It's gonna be gigantic, I'm going to be amazing. And then I really I mean, to buy for across the face the reality of what it is to build a business, a startup business, in real estate, right?
Shelley Zavitz
So I did all the hurdles that you do in the first year and second year, and I really decided that I was like, I was gonna go big. So I wanted to be Rookie of the Year for my company. At the time, I worked for the Hasson Company, they were amazing to me. And of course, I mean, why couldn't I do that? Until I realized that you actually have to have a database to do anything. So I made it to the end of that rookie race and learned so much about myself about business, but mostly about myself and who I am in the world.
Shelley Zavitz
And I wrote a book about it. And it's a bunch of stories. So what I used to do was write for radio. So please, no, it's not. I'm not a serious person. I just, I don't know how to do that. So it's a bunch of stories to staple some points about the principles of building a business in real estate. And I launched that in 2019. I got a publisher of his Herrmann house that took me on it was great. And we sold out the first 1000 copies in two weeks. Remarkable, right? I thought, like me, and my mother would read it, and then I would like to send it to you. So thanks for reading.
Justin Stoddart
I did and I loved it, by the way. No, the book is new agent 365, like your first three to 65 days in real estate, how to be successful. It's actually not only super informational, and helpful, but it's really entertaining. You're a great writer. Thank you. Actually, I found myself oftentimes just totally laughing because it's you bring some of the funniest stories. It's like I oftentimes hear agents will say, I wish I would have written a book about my time in real estate because the stories are unbelievable and like you actually did and it's so good to hear the things that you're learning all interwoven into this internal dialogue versus like all these like hit your head against the wall here and learn this lesson here. Like it's really a great read so do that hasn't read it hasn't that doesn't have their copy of it. Please go find it. It's a fantastic book.
Shelley Zavitz
Thanks, Justin.
Justin Stoddart
And, and no, like, I used to write parody songs and stuff. Like it's not. I can't be serious. I do. I am serious in some parts. But I mean, we're, I think that we lose track of the fact we deal with a lot of money as real estate agents, but we lose sight that, you know, we're not doing brain surgery here. No one is going to die. You know, and we take it away. A little bit serious. So I thought we'd lighten it up a little bit. The response to the book was incredible. We just passed 10,000 copies sold since June 2019. And I started to get feedback from new agents. And they first were thanking me just for writing it because it gave them a sense of actually what they were feeling was acknowledged, you know, it's a rite of passage, the first year is terrible the end. Like that's just true. So you don't need to read the book there. We did, it.
Shelley Zavitz
So I started to pay attention to what they were asking me. And it was like, it was letters to my office, it was posted on Instagram, private messages to Facebook, just. And they were asking for more information not about transacting real estate, but it was about how do I build my business? And how do I be successful and I'm super scared, and all the things that we all feel when we start something new.
Shelley Zavitz
And I got thinking about it, and then I dive into some statistics. And I learned from NAR that 84% of agents start their business without any business, retail finance experience. So here we are, we're licensing people. And then what about the business part? Right. So then that led me to the program that I was talking to you about? I went to Stephanie Chamblee first and I said, Hey, you know, this is really weird that this is happening. This is the feedback that I'm getting. What do you think? Because I am not a trainer, right? That's not what I do. I sell real estate. But what do you think about finding all of the right people to teach? And I had, I had an idea of what 12 topics I felt should be taught to start up a business. And we went together to these people. And we said This is what we want to do. We want to make it super affordable for everyone. Because new agents, you know, you're starting a business. Anytime you launch anything, it's expensive. So how could we do it in an affordable way? Because we all know, training? I mean, come on. It's expensive, right? So we went to these trainers. And we said we want to do this great thing. We want to do 12 weeks of training for new agents to help them build a business like a blueprint of it. And then whatever brokerage they're with, they can build up on top of that, but how do we get the foundation there first, right? Because we can make a solid impact on the industry. If we just gave more information off the top? I think it's not a secret. Why are we keeping it a secret? So we went to those 12 people, every single one of them said yes, and its New Agent 365 Missions was launched in September like we did our first round, it was awesome. There's kind of a gaming component to it, which is nice. And, and I'm excited because I have to say that this is I get a lot of recognition about this. But this is about all the people that were involved. All the people said yes. And all the people that took their time to create these videos and, and, and be live with me on Facebook, like with the new agents.
Justin Stoddart
So good. So again, if you've read the book, if you've not read the book, job number one is to go get the book new agent. Next is to be aware that there is a course it's a training platform training session like series of 12 sessions, right? Yes, yeah, you plug it in, you're gonna learn the basics of again, not just like how to be in real estate they taught you to like how to stay out of real estate jail, right, which is kinda what they teach you to get your license. Yeah. But it's how to grow a business, right. And I love the fact that you emphasize that again, that the turnover rate in our industry is way too high. And like you said, oftentimes those lessons only come by, by like, the school of hard knocks, and it doesn't need to be that way or we should be standing on the shoulders of others who have gone before us that I love how you gave away so many great tactics to help people really succeed at growing a real estate business, because it's so needed, right? It's so needed to be how do you be a successful agent? That's what people need to hear. And I absolutely love that you've done that and you give it away so freely.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I think that's,
Shelley Zavitz
Well, I'm the beneficiary of all of the mentors ahead of me. Right? They gave it to me, I'm only great at my job because someone taught me how to do it. Yeah. So why if we look at it, and we look at it, say even boutique brokerages, do they have the ability to train new agents in a way that is meaningful to the entire industry, and that's sort of what I was coming to when I saw the gap. The gap to me was it's not affordable to get training. If You're a new agent because the average new agent makes 80 $400 annually. They can't afford training right unless they get it from their brokerage. So if we have these boutique brokerages, I'm not saying that we shouldn't. How do we still provide just the basics of business? If we know that 84% of us don't have that? Right? It's in the numbers.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, no wonder right no wonder, when there's really two things. It's not just real estate as well, like, I have, you know, friends that are their doctors and dentists. They're like, boy, we took one business class in dental school one. I was like, they trained us how to be technicians. They don't teach us how to be business people. And the reality is, most of the businesses out there most of the professions out there require a dual school skillsets.
Justin Stoddart
And I love how you're bringing it to the table. The other side of it is that yes, you know, how to do a transaction, but you know how to build a business. Let's dig in a little bit. What will people learn, you got 12 sessions, the biggest things that people need to know that they're not getting that they're going to get from this from the 365 learning program that's upcoming.
Shelley Zavitz
First of all, you're going to have access to different voices, we all learn differently. And that was one other thing that I wanted to make sure that we put into this is that I learned differently than you do, probably and one person's message is gonna resonate a little bit different with me than someone else. Right.
Shelley Zavitz
So the 12 topics that we design, where we start out with Mike Rohrig, he does the psychology of success, you can't possibly know or define or celebrate your success if you haven't actually decided what that is for you. And it's all different for everybody. Right? We have our businesses are like snowflakes. That's what I've been saying lately. What I'm going to build and what the person down the street is going to build are totally different. We serve different people. That's perfect. It should be that way. Right? Yeah. So let's decide what success is.
Shelley Zavitz
Then we go into CRM and database. A Lenny from wise agent teaches that and it's, again, this program is about relationship sales. We're not teaching you to buy leads. So it's about finding and embracing the people that are already in your life and being of service for them, you know? So Alinea second
Shelley Zavitz
The third is Debra Trepan. In Seattle, she teaches niche marketing. defining who your Nisha is, is actually really important. So that you can you can really hone in your resources, right. So I can't be everything to everyone, there are certain people that I shouldn't serve, that's just true. So if I can define who they are, then I can better show up for them and make their experience even better, so that they want to turn to someone else and say, that was awesome, usually, and that's the only thing that I care about. So that's what this program teaches
Shelley Zavitz
Four is surrounding yourself with the people that are gonna help you. So building your mentor group, your managing broker, you got managing brokers are awesome, you work really hard, but you can't be everything to everyone. So how we break it out into four different people that you can kind of hire and you don't hire but you bring into those positions.
Shelley Zavitz
Week Five is working with buyers. Once you get the buyer, how do you do the intake? How do you become the authority, even his new agents? I mean, we don't have a lot of confidence, right? Because there's a lot we don't know. So how do you embrace the fact that you need to be the guide there so that you don't get run over? You know, john Blom teaches that
Shelley Zavitz
Week six is Val Thorpe she does working with sellers. Once you get the listing appointment, which to do, what should you prep for? What should you show up with what should you say in the house? What should you do after you leave the house? What should your comps look like? How do you follow up? Right? It's awesome training.
Shelley Zavitz
Week seven is Tammy Wittren. She teaches, Where's my money? And I think that one of the things that we forget, and I am fortunate because I worked in radio for so long. And I helped build other people's businesses and startup businesses that I understood right away. But a lot of people forget that when you get your check. It's a flow of money into a business. It's not yours. You can't just take it and go buy the car. It's a flow of money through a business. So how do you set that up? So we teach that Tammy has a wicked story about how she recovered from $650,000 worth of debt. It's great training.
Unknown Speaker
Week eight is Dale Chamblee and we do revving the referral engine. So how do you get in flow with your people so that you don't have to buy these leads all the time? Like how do you make it so that they want to support your business, he does a great job at explaining how we can do that on social media, taking social media online and taking it offline. How do you get belly to belly, especially during COVID? It's great training. We also talk about digital footprints, and what do people see when they search for you. So we do a lot of training about that because it's really important right now, especially
Shelley Zavitz
Week nine is just that makes he's in St. Louis, he built a monster business, on business to business. He went to all of the places that, like he talks about antique shops and coffee shops and restaurants, and he became an ambassador for their brand. First, he gave first, and they give back to him is a really neat story. And he trains pretty awesome.
Shelley Zavitz
And then in week 10, we go to Marguerite Martin, she teaches the basics of business. So a lot of new agents don't understand, okay, I want my take home to be this, but then they don't add the cap and the taxes, and then decide how many homes they need to sell in their area to do that like it's just, we don't teach that enough. So we go to the basis of their numbers, they understand we do budgeting, all of that super boring, but we still do it.
Shelley Zavitz
Week 11 is Bill Risser in Florida. He teaches about your business as an extension. So if we know that for a client experience to be amazing, it is the extension of you and everyone you refer. So how do we get to like vetting those people early to make sure that we have everyone in place because they're just an extension of you. So when you get referred, how the experience was with the plumber, how the experience was with escrow all of that matters.
Shelley Zavitz
Last but not least, we end with Tracy Hicks, which we both know, you know her right? She owns All Things Real Estate store. And we teach at the end the art of giving, how do you give of yourself first to have people embrace your business and we go through a marketing playbook. We're not aggressive about how you market because every brokerage has its own way of doing that. We just kind of say, if you don't have a plan, you're not gonna do it. And we give just examples of things that you can do.
Unknown Speaker
Every single week is a mission. So when the student comes in, they, you know, have to complete a task by Friday. And then we remove the training. So every single you don't have access to the entire course you it's not self-guided, you have to be with us. And you have to do and we say that boot camp a little bit. But yeah,
Justin Stoddart
Do you have a whistle, does Coach Shelley have a whistle? Like, get out of bed? Good. Job and give me 20? I really do hear.
Shelley Zavitz
I mean, not really. One of the great things is that all the trainers also agreed to donate their time to come on to our closed Facebook group. And on their week, the student has access to ask them questions. And I think that's really valuable just because, again, as we all learn differently, and sometimes it doesn't click right. And, you know, so
Justin Stoddart
You've really put together a dream team lineup of people that really help agents have the success that first year, again, I want everybody that's hearing this, whether or not you're brand new, it may be just the fact that like my business is not where I want it to be. And I would like a restart, I want my next 365 days to be fantastic.
Justin Stoddart
Right now, some of the stuff working with buyers on that stuff may not be as relevant to a more senior agent. But I do know that there's a lot of value in here for people that again, want to just have a little bit of a restart. So be thinking about this for all the new agents that you know, let them know about this upcoming program. Tell us the date, Shelley.
Shelley Zavitz
They have to be entered by next Sunday, March 14, because we are shipping out all the boxes, you get a workbook and stuff. We're shipping out all the boxes the next day. So you have to be in by the 14th or February, you'll have to probably do it again in September, who has a long time to wait,
Justin Stoddart
That's a long time to wait. Well, I appreciate you not only putting it together but with sharing, I didn't know that you'd be able to rattle off 12 off just like that. I don't know if you have cue cards over there. You just it's so deeply ingrained inside of us. So as to what value this brings is pretty awesome. So thanks for sharing that. I want to dig into kind of a mindset question here. This is kind of the final segment of the show. Shelley, which is, you know, what do you do to continue to be a big thinker, right? Can you do to expand your possibilities? And I want to go back to something you said earlier in the show, is it your first year in real estate you learn a lot about yourself? So I want to kind of almost frame this question around this concept of what did you learn about yourself that first year and if you could go back and talk to your first time yourself again, and give yourself advice that would be customized to you. What would it be? What would you say to tell yourself back then to think bigger? Just tell yourself that first year. In your path.
Justin Stoddart
You didn't think to pat me on this question.
Justin Stoddart
No, I didn't, I knew that you are pretty good on the fly. So
Shelley Zavitz
I think that where I was coming from when I first launched my business, was a place of like, I worked in corporate radio, and I was a team member. I didn't think that I had the confidence or the skill to be a leader at that time. So I think that what I would say to myself is, it's okay to fail, everyone does. Make sure you write down the lessons, I didn't write down enough lessons, like as I was going through things, and it hurt really bad, you know, how I, I lost a lot of time, I guess I want to say, in beating myself up about it. And what I wish I told myself was, you know, that kick to the chops was actually you just learning what you need to learn so that you can be better later. And that absolutely happened. And so if you're out there, and you're in the middle of some really bad self-talk, telling you just write down what the lesson is, and, and move forward. I've had a lot of great coaches and people around me to keep pushing me forward, you know, so
Justin Stoddart
Well, that's a great lesson, I was actually shooting some video earlier today talking about self-talk, and just how powerful it is to be able to influence the story that you're telling yourself when you don't realize you're telling yourself a story. Right? Yeah, like you're like, the exact same thing, that we're seeing something totally different. Because the narratives that we have about ourselves, and that thing that we're looking at, are totally different based on our experience.
Justin Stoddart
And what I hear you saying is that you would have gone back to tell that self of like, Don't be so hard on yourself, like, embrace the loss, embrace the struggle, that's what's going to help you grow, get up and keep going, you're gonna be fine, right now, looking back at the success that you've had, and building an amazing real estate business, writing an incredible book that's received tremendous awards, selling over 10,000 copies, like, you probably wouldn't have believed that right?
Shelley Zavitz
No.
Justin Stoddart
And I mean, if you would have gone back at this point said, Hey, Shelley, keep your chin up, you're gonna build a great business, you're gonna write the best selling book, and you're gonna create this movement. Like, you'd be like, whatever. Right? And, and I share this with everybody here is that each and every one of us has a bigger future than we can grasp. If we believe that if we start to walk towards that, I think you've given us some inspiration here, Shelley to really be able to, to start to talk to ourselves differently, because it really will, like decide our outcome, right? Well, what the future looks like, based on how we're talking to ourselves today,
Shelley Zavitz
right
Justin Stoddart
Thank you for sharing that.
Shelley Zavitz
I'm kind of a firm believer now that and I say this to myself. Now, if you don't show up, you're robbing the world. And everybody, in their own way has a version of that. So if you don't push past, I mean, think of what you're taking from somebody else who can do it for you do it for everyone that's around you.
Justin Stoddart
Boy, I want to say that again. If you don't show up, you're robbing the world. I got goosebumps over that with my friend.
Shelley Zavitz
I'm a writer. What are you gonna do?
Justin Stoddart
Well, I want to thank you again, for tuning in. For those that have listened to this or listening to it later. Thank you for listening, and do yourselves a favor. To find this book and the program, Shelley what's the easiest way for people to go sign up for the program?
Unknown Speaker
It is that newagent365.com. And I promise you it's I'm not gonna extend the deadline past March 14. If you're not in, we're done.
Justin Stoddart
Better get moving. Moving. All right. Thank you, Shelly. I appreciate you more than you know. And that's all those listening. My final request is this and Shelley's taught us how to do this, which is Go Think Bigger.
Justin Stoddart
Thank you, Shelly. Appreciate you.
Shelley Zavitz
Thank you.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show, I am your host Stoddart, here to talk all about the Portland commercial real estate market. Eyeballs have been on our commercial market for some time because, in 2020, it seems like we got hit from all sides. Both the pandemic well as social unrest has caused there to be some question marks as to what are the risks? And what are the opportunities with commercial real estate I have with me today, an expert in that field who's going to share with us some great details that will be very helpful for you, and someone who you will want to know before I introduce him.
Justin Stoddart
Let me remind you that inside of that Think Bigger Real Estate Group on Facebook, you're gonna have the opportunity to go deeper on this topic and others, I believe that the best way to learn is to be engaged in the learning. in that group, you get engaged in the learning you will have the opportunity, to grow yourself, which is my passion. So again, about today's guests, his name is Joe Kappler. He is the vice president of Macadam Forbes excited to have him here. He's become a good friend of mine, someone who I really respect admire, both in things business as well as in things personal. And we're gonna jump right in here. Joe, give us an update.
Justin Stoddart
In fact, let me do this. Because this show is all about thinking bigger. I know you're a family man, also a man of faith. Talk to me, Joe, what's your favorite part about being a dad?
Joe Kappler
A favorite part about paying dad he does have all evolved days actually today I got my oldest is now at a new school West Hills Christian, they had a deal in which you come in and talk about what you do. And it was neat to see you know, my kid at a school where he's you know, you said blocks in positions and goals in life, your kids to be successful and easy only at second grade but seeing him in school loving where he's at thriving.
Joe Kappler
You know, we got sports coming up, there's been no see them failed to be able to have the mindset that picks themselves back up in a COVID world that they have a good attitude, being stuck at home and just seeing the positive signs alive. So saying, watch our kids as they grow up right now from babies to little people right now it's fun to see them react to challenges or react to even just be trying to instill the humbleness and inside of things when they go really well.
Joe Kappler
Because obviously things cannot go Well, you've been through this pandemic, I'll probably be mixed reviews on this by took my kids downtown, walk the streets during Christmas time. And with my little girl, she's four older sons eight. And walking in seeing this is life on the other side if you will. And obviously, you know, it's the social unrest is one thing, but also just the homelessness and seeing that this is a stark difference to where we're out in the suburbs, we don't really see much of that and seeing them interact and reaching out their hand not being afraid to go talk to these people and hand out a blanket or some clothes. And I think for kids to see that. For our kids at early ages, see them thrive in those situations where it's uncomfortable, but they can become comfortable with making sure that there are It doesn't matter what the person looks like, smells like anything else. They're human, they're a child of God, and they deserve to be loved. So been through this challenging time to see them be excited about those sorts of opportunities.
Justin Stoddart
So I love that Joe. That's one of the reasons why I admire you again and the way in which you would still great values in those with whom you work as well as with those with whom you live and get the raises as children. So great job on you.
Justin Stoddart
Let's talk about let's get into the commercial real estate market. And that's why people are here. That was a little added. You're welcome to all the guests. I want to hear really quickly. Just kind of a state of the market. Right. Obviously, there, there have been a lot of changes, you know, the past 12 months, right? A lot of obviously, people are now working remotely. Maybe let's just start with this question of Is there any sort of statistics are let's just talk about the impact so far. What's happened to the maybe downtown market as a result of the pandemic? Maybe it's hard to separate between the pandemic and the other things that have been going on downtown. But what has been the result of everything that's happened in the past 12 months?
Joe Kappler
Yeah, I mean, certainly a good question. A lot of people have seen it in the news. I mean, the Portland Business Journal does a pretty good job of staying on top of the commercial real estate market. And you saw there are some rumors about midsummer that there's gonna be about a million and a half square feet of either new inventory of tents, walking away from leases, or sublease spaces coming online. And we did see that happen. Some massive shifts from you know, it's been a mixed bag of for focusing just on the downtown core Obviously you have COVID people working from home, the social unrest, they have had the city's new tax policies and you kind of have a three-way punch there that now here we are in March of 2021. And we're seeing a push of people moving out of downtown, the suburbs have largely missed the run-up, you know, going back to 2010, we bottomed out in the commercial real estate world. And then we've been on a tear since then. And COVID kind of knocked downtown off of that pedestal because you saw office lease rates, you know, crews weigh, you know, they are upwards of 3836 35 to $36, a square foot full service in 2009. Right now, they're at $39 a square foot where you go downtown, and you've seen these Class C buildings undergo massive renovations lease rates downtown, over $40 a square foot. But what you're seeing now are companies realizing what can we do space-wise to have employees work remotely? You know, Google has been really the only major tech company saying I want you back in the office come September, but most of the others were kind of allowing folks to work remotely.
Joe Kappler
What we're seeing for downtown, you know, vacancy rate wise in the general office market is over 15 to 17% vacant, you know, the Portland metro area. In some cases, it's showing 10.6 it's a mixed bag downtown 17.6 right now according to costar, which is kind of our main bread and butter we go to for stats. But you've had a lot of these small companies, the mom and pops of the Portland area, that one's kind of keeping the lights on that one to 5000 Square feets kind of your staple lease rate range, but the company's I one company that was down on macadam Avenue, we looked at doing a renewal they actually grew through this, we moved him over to Lincoln Center.
Joe Kappler
And so that was a good deal for them went from seven to like 9000 square feet, getting out of the city of Portland, which wasn't primarily a big push for him and his company. But now with these professional service firms like CPAs, and attorneys looking at the increased taxes by doing business in the city of Portland, and they live in the southwest, there's this kind of migration out of their pockets and brokers.
Joe Kappler
We all look if you're an office broker, you kind of looked at crews way it's kind of your epitome of the nicest office space and what is going on there to kind of direct activity lease rates there at the top end at 35 to $39 a square foot full service through COVID. They got hit pretty hard, they crept up, I think they're about 20 just about 21% vacant right now. You drive these buildings right now you're probably telling me, Joe, why isn't it 50% because I see like six cars in there.
Joe Kappler
But people are still paying on their leases that you know, it's tough to get employees back in the office right now. But they're seeing their biggest push Kruse Way of office interest now then going that this is the most since pre COVID right now. So it's a healthy, healthy barometer for the suburbs to be doing well, they're now just trying to go push office rents. I mean, I had a listing of 217 2005. Their rate was like $22 a square foot COVID hit right before then they're at $24 per square foot. So they've been pushing rents up now they're at $26.50.
Joe Kappler
And I had clients call me last week saying how our office rates going up through COVID. When people are working remotely, they're not going into the offices, and Shorenstein and other landlords not that I mean they're great landlords, great product, but they've through this they've been able to push rents.
Joe Kappler
And it's largely because you've had a little appreciation and plus, if you're going to come in as a tenant, you do landlord work and tenant work and if you're a tenant and you're moving out of downtown and moving across town, you don't want to go pay for your new offices, the 10 improvement side of things you want the landlord to go pay for that well, with a cost of construction through the roof plywood sheets used to be like eight bucks a sheet now it's like 25 bucks of the sheet I mean, just crazy increase in prices.
Joe Kappler
You've said landlords are saying look, I can't pay what a normal carpet and paint was six or $7 a square foot, not eight to 10 half my allowance is just going towards carpet and paint. I gotta get this lease rate up higher to cover your additional wall movement electrical HVAC. So are you Am I saying that lease rates are artificially high to cover that cost and maybe in some circumstances, but for a new activity for deal volume downtown, net absorption is down big time by the tune of over 2 million square feet. The suburbs are clawing their way back. You know what are we see going forward
Joe Kappler
Obviously, the vaccine is good news folks kind of re-entry back into the office. I expect downtown to be a long crawl out of this. Just up drive downtown and just see the damage. And you see the folks that are out there. It's gonna be A Tale of Two Worlds for those local companies who want to still be there.
Joe Kappler
And, you know, from a philosophical standpoint, but back when we came out of this recession, there's this push to be downtown employee recruitment. All those articles are saying these young employees want to be near the bars to go have happy hour and not leave work at three to get through traffic. Will those same millennials still want to go have a family have kids and have a house? Well, you're going to have that out in the suburbs. And so are we going to start seeing a resurgence in the suburbs? I think we are I started talking about 17 and 18. We can get great office lease rates compared to paying crazy high prices downtown cruise village, right on the corner of cruise lay and in Boone's ferry, and they got that Chef's Table coming.
Joe Kappler
So you're not just having your Applebee's restaurants out in the suburbs anymore. You're having real attention to great quality restaurants to attract people new apartment units are being built out in the suburbs right now to which for the longest time, all the units are being built in the downtown core area because you can get over a $3 square foot rents and now they're pushing those numbers for new stuff in Lake Oswego and other parts of Portland, right?
Justin Stoddart
You know, it reminds me of Joe a little bit is it there's obviously been an exodus of people that have you know, left Portland, Portland was increasing at rapid rates for a period of time, on the residential side, down low during the pandemic is some people decided that you didn't you know, they didn't need to live in the city or they want to live somewhere else. And then all of a sudden, excuse me, our demand got crazy high and it's, I always compare Californians, right. Leaving California to come to Oregon, as maybe a reason why even in a pandemic, even like with what's happening in Oregon real estate residential is still absolutely hoppy. It almost seems like a similar comparison to what's happening even though, like you're saying in a pandemic, lease rates are going up in the suburbs, because people are leaving the city. Right. And there, they're looking for potential new lease space. So yes, you have some people leaving, you know, like commercial real estate, at least the square footage that they've had in the past. But there, there are enough people coming out of the city, that it feels that demand. And there's still a shortage of supply. Is that fair to say? Yeah,
Joe Kappler
I mean, yeah, I mean, we'll see me right, we'll see how much of that supply that was downtown. The downtown was clipping, you know, five to 8% vacant at times, pre Koba, and all of a sudden, now it's jumped up two-fold. And so is that going to be a company just not taking on more square footage. I mean, there were some notes saying that you know, sublease. Vic sublease inventory nationally went from like 15%, or 30%, which doesn't seem like a huge Blip. But you know, those are your biggest deals that you can find. I mean, if you want your office landlord to take a haircut on his lease rate or her lease rate, it's going to be finding a sublease. But deals downtown, you're getting more softening of that.
Joe Kappler
But I think it's still there are still companies growing through all this. I mean, people in you look at retail, these home improvement stores, and you're looking at, you know, real. Obviously, there are some that are out there, looking to go add square footage, construction companies, many industrial markets, that bright shining spot of the whole COVID world.
Justin Stoddart
Let's talk about that. What do you see in the market?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I mean, right now, I mean, the biggest, in some degrees, it kind of goes hot and cold out there on that kind of east side of town out there along airport way. You've had these brand new 100 300,000 square foot industrial buildings being built in, in some cases, they're being sold vacant to these investment companies. They're just looking at a push, they got cash capital they've raised, they got to go and deploy. And so they're buying these warehouse buildings, assuming they're leased up, I mean, a cap rate basically, for lack of a better word, your return on your investment, and they're usually a goal upon borrowing costs and lease terms and quality of these tenants. And they're being sold vacant, assuming a fully leased building it like a four and a half percent cap rate. And these things are trading for 135 $150 a square foot and in some cases, I sold a 30,000-foot office building for $135 a square foot two weeks ago.
Joe Kappler
So you've seen prices for industrial properties. Increasing there are comments that as we look north to Seattle, to our big brother and sister in San Francisco to our south and north of Seattle, the south of San Francisco, and their industrial markets and their land prices are staggering. Almost More than what our office pricing is there, there are thoughts that there is still a lot of room to go with industrial rates were industrial lease rates for some industrial property in Tualatin shell rates, you know, going back to 2008 2009 were like 35 cents on the shell, they're upward they're trying to push new product at 70 cents a square foot office surcharge used to be whatever 70 cents a square foot, they're getting $1 square foot on that you're 5% vacant in parts of town, you're 2% vacant. So it's, it's this clamors, not a gold rush mentality. But people feel pretty confident to go build these 30 to 150 or 200,000 square foot blocks of space. I mean, there's a statistic that Amazon last year, new leases signed 100 million square feet of new leases across the country last year because of this demand and I think one broker quoted some statistic very 1% of brick and mortar sales that shift from brick and mortar to online you need basically 37 million square feet of industrial space to accommodate that shift from you know patio packaging from wholesaling all that and so that so you die.
Joe Kappler
So people ask commercial real estate brokers, how's your world or general read or general residential, you're all busy but for commercial, if you're doing retail industrial office, if you're doing dentistry right now, this is you're having a garden office is 1011 years in the business had his best year ever last year at COVID world where most were expecting commercial to be kicked in the teeth. So it's, there's a fervor for just general companies, end-users, you know, owner-user sales are off the charts. And that's the one thing even for the office world, as much as people their businesses are doing well, these PPP loans.
Joe Kappler
Part of it is helping the owner user what gets in your world where someone wants to go buy a building, I go get an escrow company, PPP SBA, they waive their guarantee fees on these SBA loans for 5047. a deal right now and a deal I did last year, a couple of them that the SBA will pay your first six months of your mortgage payment. And so you've had record low-interest rates and some commercial deals. Yeah, I've gotten financing as low as like high twos, which is just almost as cheap as a residential loan. And so pricing police, small little owner-user buildings are holding if not going up in value through this whole thing.
Joe Kappler
So again, the overall sentiment is COVID happens, the news of pushing people are working from home, commercial, Real Estate's dead in the office world. And yet, unless you're downtown, the suburbs have had increased lease rates sustained if not appreciated office building prices. So it's, in some cases, we're selling office buildings for numbers we haven't seen ever before. So it's just a head-scratcher for most folks who just see who's leasing office space, but it's, um, tell my wife, I'm never home for me, I'm here working from home remotely now. But at times, I can barely get off the computer just because of what's going on out there. People are still doing deals. It just really depends on what part of the market you're focused on right now.
Justin Stoddart
Fascinating to hear that I know that a lot of people had been kinda like, a little nervous about their commercial real estate broker friends, for some that were highly niched, into, you know, an area that, you know, it's been heavily impacted. But it sounds like the demand has been high enough in other parts of commercial that I'm sure kind of a savvy broker has learned how to adapt and step up into those new in-demand areas where their previous niche may have, you know, may have struggled.
Unknown Speaker
Having again, a shift could suffer, some brokers may be talking to some the commercial world is probably your top two or 300 agents, and we all seem to know each other, which is good. But for those who focused on downtown and had a huge listing Rolodex, we've had to kind of start to change up the chase tenant requirements. Because as we came into the recession, it was all about blending extends. So if you are an official company and a broker calls you up, let me help you with your office lease, you could get paid just to help renew their lease, and you don't just have to sell a building or find them a new spot. And there's this sense, there's this sentiment now that hey, we gotta go control the tenants right now because there's plenty of vacant office space out there. So let's just control the tenant side of things.
Unknown Speaker
And so for tenants, are they going to finally have their day in the sun because from about 2015 16 till early parts of 2020 it's been a landlord's market driving rents up driving concessions somewhat down and so now you know your best time to have made a real estate deal was right when the COVID world hit from March till about June the suburbs. Then after that mean, we were negotiating and our new office, which is why I'm working from home now. The new office we get to go in there, first of April and you as a real estate broker, your broker and your broker and we Is this the right time to be signing a lease and we all thought, look, I wish our lease was up instead of January of 2021.
Unknown Speaker
We wish it was basically January of 22 to kind of have time season past us and into the right for for now it's like that was actually a good time because even our building we moved into bumped rates while we were negotiating. Thankfully, they honored our current deal. But yeah, it's a, it's a wild world where there's still enough most of the suburb office deals are kind of one to 5000 square feet, we're in the industrial world, it seemed to go in times where all sudden, they're just there are not enough big blocks of space, you got these big requirements coming through where you can go place 100,000 square feet, so you haven't used lamp some landlords are figuring out I've got to go build big blocks and wait for them to come you and in the listings in quality and where they were slow through COVID. In the last month, month, and a half, they've had a resurgence of two or three deals to literally fill up a 200,000 square foot complex. So it kind of comes in waves at times or at times your brokers felt towards the end of last year was a flurry of activity, but through the summertime, it slowed down. But in the commercial world, we don't have seasons like residential where all of a sudden, springtime gets home out there.
Joe Kappler
Commercially, if you signed a lease five years ago, it comes up now you got to be planning six to 12 months in advance. And so you might have the summertime if an executive or two are out vacationing, it might slow down but it's all timing on their leases or their needs versus you know, hey, it's let's go move Johnny or bill before the school year starts up to get out that's gonna change with COVID with your world, but that certainly for ours, it's not really a barometer.
Justin Stoddart
Great perspective, Joe, probably one that a lot of us didn't, didn't recognize. I'll invite anybody that's listening. If you have questions for Joe, feel free to put them in the comments, we'll be sure to put his contact information down as well. So that should you have comments after the fact you can reach out to him, I would like to ask you this show is that? What do you see as being the missed opportunity between residential commercial brokers working together potentially as referral partners? Being kind of eyes open for one another? Are there certain opportunities that you would say that a real estate agent that a residential agent should be looking for? For example, I'll throw this out here, you helped me validate this, that every time a real estate agent is meeting with a client, they asked, Where do you work? Where's your office at? And there grows an opportunity to really identify if there's also a commercial need at some point in their future, right? Could that be a valuable referral to make outward to you?
Justin Stoddart
Should a real estate agent start to gather that kind of data that that type of insights, to be able to serve them across more than just residential by teaming them up with someone like yourself? For example, do you see that as being a valid opportunity? Or is there something else that real estate agents should be looking for, in order to really add value to a commercial broker and also be open to receive value in return?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I mean, certainly me I've over the years I've partner with a handful of residential real estate agents, I just as much as I'd never go list a residential house, it just completely different worlds. And so I've always been paying referral fees, I think, think about it from like a lead group thing, where we're the ones everyone wants to talk to because before a company goes and buys furniture or goes and looks to get office equipment or phones they needed to go were reading or move to Wi-Fi six or 12 months in advance. And so for brokered, residential brokers ever talk to their clients, and they may as early get in there and say, Look, I have someone in the case through COVID, use one Bend nearby broker I know who can kind of speak to you what they're seeing in the marketplace, because a lot of it for us, I always see us we're not really salespeople, mean salespeople where I was in college, I'm trying to go sell bill in Iowa who owns a true value to go buy a truckload of laminate flooring, you don't have an ad, but you need it.
Unknown Speaker
I think for brokers, we're more advisors. And so we're trying to, you know, knowledge is power in this whole world. And so I think for us to come along with no, no obligation is to use this But hey, go talk to Joe about the office world if you're in or industrial and we do a little bit of retail but then the earlier we can get in the door to talk the better. I also think for real estate agents, we've had a couple that we've seen lists and properties for sale and grossly underpriced them in a way where the client mean in the residential world there's some you know way to price it low on a Thursday, have all your showings and you get like 50 offers or something and then the price eventually kind of comes up to market well.
Unknown Speaker
The commercial world may not be as translucent with that because I almost personally had a property under contract where there was a residential broker credit tied up and I had and or had it listed I was able to go get it tied up for well below market. But in the end, it didn't work out for other reasons. But there's a point of saying, I gotta go call someone who knows his world before I go price it because the comps, it's tough to get comps our information is different than hopping on Zillow and seeing what your neighbor sold his house for our information is not as readily available to people who don't have access to the websites we do. So I'm always a willing person to go talk with somebody if they want to go bounce ideas off of me, and with no obligation to use me if a broker wants to go and list it themselves and make a go of it.
Unknown Speaker
But even with a real estate agent who has a client who wants to go, maybe their dentist wants to go buy a building, they want to go help them through the process, you know, we end up doing more work than expected through that. And I think if it's as long as a broker on the other side is willing to kind of say, like, Help Help me through this process. Help me know what I don't know, there's a lot to learn from them. The next time it goes around, I think some kind of get bullheaded, and they run their client into a wall and it doesn't end up working out because they got wrong counsel, because in our world you go sell a building residential, you're not gonna have your attorney look over anything you're going to have an environmental consultant come through, they're not going to have a contract or per sale a time or, or a surveyor. So we used to have so many more cooks in the kitchen that kind of clouded the vision of, or we all move in, or we all roll in the same way. And I think aging, that process is something that really separates an excellent broker from one who just tries to dabble in as many fields as possible because they just gotta get every deal done. And I think when you run it an inch, an inch deep, and a mile wide, it can run you into problems sometimes.
Justin Stoddart
That's great, great insight, I think it's one of the things I talked about, in my book here, the upstream model is the power of bringing in other professionals to increase your own value proposition, no business opportunities that come as a result of that, I appreciate you sharing what you said because it really lends itself for people to realize that, that you know, there might be a great condition on the other side of that. But that doesn't mean that that's the best thing to do for your clients or for that matter, right? That what can end up coming around is you elevate your value proposition by having other experts come in, which will likely produce more long-term value than you probably expect. So love that.
Justin Stoddart
Joe, the final question here, as we're coming to the end of our show here together is that you're a big thinker, you've done some great things have created a great reputation for yourself in the firm that you help lead. What do you what is your capital? need to be a big thinker to continue to expand your possibilities? What does that look like for you?
Unknown Speaker
Well, good bear and different I always envision myself on this hamster wheel. And if you ever let off the throttle, it's just gonna throw you for a ride. And so you know that that typical, consistent pursuit to work as hard as you can into the Lord. And I think for me, it's it is an aspect of why I don't know things, being able to delegate responsibilities off to certain listings, or certain business I just know I'm not gonna do great. And I think what you can focus on in creating a niche, and just stay on top of that, that relentless pursuit to just consistently call back stay in touch with clients, I think it's, you know, as long as you're providing value and communicating to clients and being diligent, I mean, that's, that's 8% for any business, and I marvel at times in our world, how many times I get calls from folks who just say brokers aren't calling me back and I just want to go work certain hours are what it is, I probably am unhealthy a lot of regards to what I need it probably check on that.
Unknown Speaker
But I just think it's what people define success differently. And obviously, as you said before, as long as my clients being serviced and your reputation as far worth more than a commission you can have I think if you can build a reputation around that and being diligent that's always been my focus and goal and sorting through COVID sich changed up a lot of ways that how we market properties and how we're gonna continue to change and adapt because it's been fascinating to see even clients who have you know, furniture companies, office furniture just getting whacked and all of a sudden they're adopting to now or adapting to go change and selling face shield and screens and all that and there and they're staying afloat. It's like I don't have I don't sell widgets. I don't sell those types of things. I sell a service I sell myself and so how does that change in a world where people are now at home? And how does it change where people are maybe struggling in their business and are those are doing well and so it's like always being there to help him out. And even in my case, I've had a client that we don't really know each other that well but through COVID we've been able to really become really good friends through all this and you see even seeing him having some neat times with him is worth all the commissions in the world. So I just think being a friend and not having always get to the last buck in a way on certain deals as, as I've kind of matured in my whole life is realizing it's your reputation, how you treat other people and just being relative. Listen those things and the money will come.
Justin Stoddart
Love it--Joe great insight for an industry that has it has it has a tendency from some players to be short-sighted, very transactional I love your take on long reputations long relationships that are based on adding value to people--fantastic stuff. I appreciate also your expertise to the Portland real estate market office of the Portland real estate market helping us to understand what's going on there and see that there's a lot more opportunity than maybe some thoughts that's been very insightful and what's the best way to for people to get in contact with you should they have questions?
Joe Kappler
Yeah, certainly in the comments but this is probably my cell phone number or email address which you can provide to people. I always try and protect some of the hours but I'm very consistent with getting back to people that day. You know cell phone 503-708-9063 or emails Joek@macadamforbes.com. And any questions no questions a dumb question even just you got a business or you're a residential broker and you got someone looking around and here's what they're looking at what your two cents on that. I mean, that's the beauty of a lease for the commercial world is I have properties that will be sold. If we get a talk to the appraisers, they call us up weekly and being able to kind of have that added value of communicating Hey, this property seems low or seems high or what am I missing here? Joe? There's a lot of that just freedom of information that happens there for people that we can be a resource for.
Justin Stoddart
Okay. All right, my friend. Thank you again for your time and to everybody listening here today. My final request. Are these three simple words. You know what they are Go Think Bigger. Joe, thanks for helping us do that today.
Joe Kappler
Thanks, Justin.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Today I have a treat for you. We're gonna be talking about creating revenue streams through real estate. I have with me today, someone who owns nine businesses in the real estate industry.
Justin Stoddart
Now you don't need to do that to create revenue streams in real estate. He's overly ambitious, he's a big thinker. I'm gonna get to the full introduction on him here in just a second. But leaving this show, you will have more tools in your tool chest on how to create revenue from real estate.
Justin Stoddart
Before I go there, again, I want to remind you that inside of the Think Bigger Real Estate Group on Facebook, we take this this audio learning that you're getting right now and we go deep with it. We invite you to engage with us so that you actually internalize it and you become something more.
Justin Stoddart
Remember, you don't get what you want. You get what you are.
Justin Stoddart
And inside that Group, we help you to become something more. Today's guest His name is Chris Craddock. Chris, I'm so grateful to have you here. Did I say your name right? Chris?
Chris Craddock
Chris Craddock, you did it.
Justin Stoddart
I'm second guessing myself after the fact when we've had conversations before. Let's talk a little bit about you and how you got into the real estate industry. Obviously, you were a residential real estate agent started realized that there was all kinds of missed opportunity that were like that you were almost kind of blind to right. And all of a sudden you started uncover this. Talk to us a little bit about kind of how that came about?
Chris Craddock
Well, it started, you know, I was I was on staff at the ministry in the early 2000s. Right after I got married, and I made $20,000 a year in the DC area, which if you know anything about the DC area, you can't live on $20,000 a year. And we always had a goal that my wife would stay home with the kids when we had had kids.
Chris Craddock
And so yeah, when when she got pregnant 2003 I just was like, how do I make money to, you know, to survive, and also do what I love doing in ministry. And so we started, we, I just went the library, checked out every book on on real estate investing, and started knocking on doors of distressed properties, you know, and I literally knew nothing about what I was doing.
Chris Craddock
And one of my catchphrases in life is imperfect action trumps perfect inaction any day of the week.
Chris Craddock
And so I just went out and started doing it. And I didn't know what I was doing. But somehow I made money. And, and so, you know, I made 12 times what I made in a year and about in about four months. And so I was able to kind of step back and, you know, continue doing ministry, but then, you know,.
Chris Craddock
We have six kids, and anybody knows, I mean, I know you've got six kids too. So you know, it's like literally throwing your your money in a bathtub and somebody drains the plug, right? Like that's, that's basically what we did. And so I had to go back and figure out how was I, you know, how is it going to continue to make money. And so while I was doing ministry stuff, and so I started flipping houses again. But this was after the crash. So.
Chris Craddock
So what I was looking for before the way I was getting deals before, we're all short sales. So I got a ton of short sales. And I realized the bank was paying a commission to real estate agents. So I'm like, why wouldn't I just get get licensed and make the commission myself.
Chris Craddock
So I got licensed. And then, you know, during that time in ministry, I'd always I'd always loved leading people, I'd always, you know, Zig Ziglar says you can have everything you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want in life. And so I always have big teams and I came across Gary Keller's millionaire real estate agent book. And it just made sense to me.
Chris Craddock
And so I guess it was like 2014, we started building our retail team, December 2014. And then last year, in 2020, we finished up with 501 transactions, both on and off market. And 167 million in volume. And yeah, just grew really, really fast. And a big piece of that was learning how to cross and bridge the gap between agents and investors, which should be a very good get, like a very good relationship. But for whatever reason, investors live in one world and agents live in another and you know, they leave a lot of money on the table because of it.
Justin Stoddart
So I gotta highlight a few things here. Number one, you close 501 transactions, your team's 501 transactions last year, 167 million, as you said,
Chris Craddock
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Justin Stoddart
And you have six children. Like, I'm just like not doing anything over here. Let's let's talk about this concept of success and significance. I think people think that I can either have a successful business, or I can have a family at all, or it's especially a big family, right? And I love how you're kind of breaking that, like the stereotypes here of like, No, you can actually have it all, you can actually have success and significance. That's what this show is all about, is to help people to think bigger, to realize you don't have to choose you can actually have a great family life, a great spiritual life, be involved in ministry or whatever is important to you. And you can have a robust business that absolutely slays it like it's killer, Chris, I love your story for all kinds of reasons.
Justin Stoddart
You're my kind of guy. You're the kind of guy that thinks bigger than real estate. Right. And I think that's one of the things that sometimes we get caught up in is like, like, we feel like we have to just build an empire, right? In the in the real estate world. Whereas you've built multiple empires, right? And sometimes you probably feel like that, as you look across six heads at the dinner table seven heads with your wife like, Wow, I've got an empire here.
Chris Craddock
Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And, and it's really, it's really incredible. I mean, if you are the bottleneck on on each of the businesses, it's not a business. It's a job, right? Like, let's just be honest. And so to build something where you can step back, and it still runs when you're not there, I've got a good friend of mine. He's actually based out of Salt Lake City. And, you know, he took a year off from his business, he was just working like crazy. And so his coach, we both have a similar but at the same business coach, challenged me just said, Hey, why don't you go away for a year?
Chris Craddock
He's like, I mean, imagine that like, like, literally, if I were to say, Hey, go away for a year, I mean, think about what happens, your heart just starts beating, saying, I can't do that for all the different reasons. But then you start having to ask yourself, what would I have to do to get away from a business or to get away from a job and into a business? And so that was, that was the question there.
Chris Craddock
And honestly, you just can't, you can, you can have a high paying job forever, but you got to get out of it. Because nobody wants to be 82 years old, still showing showing houses. At that point. Like, if you haven't built yourself and parlayed all of the money you make into wealth, which gives you better options, then, you know, then you're in trouble. So that that's the whole thing, whether it's building a business in real estate, or building a business through buying assets.
Chris Craddock
I think Grant Cardone says the biggest problem with real estate agents is they don't buy their own product. And so like that's that whole idea is, how do you build enough assets so that you have income coming in, so that your money works harder than you do? And you know, if your whole goal is just to make a lot of money? Because you're grinding? Then, you know, I think you're missing it? Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
But it's so many powerful principles here, Chris, I'm absolutely loving this. Let's talk, you mentioned something about kind of this interesting relationship between investors and real estate agents. And I know you've built an empire kind of on this concept of like, those two ought to work very closely together. Let's talk a little bit about kind of the paradigm of a typical traditional real estate agent. And maybe how that hat that they're wearing that paradigm that they're, you know, that they have, is maybe causing them to miss maybe right under their nose opportunities to build wealth to close deals. kind of walk us through that.
Chris Craddock
Yeah, well, I mean, think about the the average real estate agent, right? One, they're not making a ton of money, um, you know, to their, they're just doing their their transactions, right? Like, like, something comes in. They're not I mean, I would say this, I do a lot of coaching and helping, and I hope nobody feels like I'm crapping on you, because that's not my intention. My my intention is that like, like the show said, that think bigger, right? And so the average real estate agent wait plays defense their whole life, they wait for the phone to ring, they're not out there making things happen. Right. And so the difference is, I think that if you want to be average, then then just do that. But if you don't want to be average, if you want to think bigger than what you've got to do is say, How am I going to one work towards an end goal, right?
Chris Craddock
What is the end goal, you know, the end goal is to build enough assets so that my money will support my life, right? So that I don't have to be the the key driver, I can make myself step out. It's called leverage. And that's the the biggest key in life is that to have other things working harder than you're working. And so that's really the key. And if you begin with the end in mind, like Stephen Covey says, then you can say, Okay, my goal is to build a net worth built assets that will bring in and you got to figure out how much you need to bring in maybe it's 100,000 a year, maybe it's 50,000 a year, maybe it's a million a year, but then just just back that up. So for me in my area, if I have $13 million worth of paid off real estate assets, then that will net me after paying management fees that paying vacancies and paying for maintenance fees that'll net me over a million dollars a year. And and that will grow you know, there's there's a number of pieces that will happen to that. But right there I can I can have a million dollars a year coming in that I am no longer the linchpin, the key driver on and so I think that that's really the key is, if you're a real estate agent, just know that if you're only looking at your next transaction, then you're gonna always be only looking at your next transaction
Justin Stoddart
And another Gary Keller ism right? Or at least from his organization, what you focus on expands. And it's interesting, I was actually shooting a video yesterday and I was talking about how, if what you're like if what you want is leads, you'll get leads if what you want is transactions to get transactions like if you actually want wealth right? or sales or wealth or passive income.
Justin Stoddart
It's amazing how the world tends to present itself with whatever we're looking for, right? Whatever is in our brain, I love how you're, you're opening up this reality of like, hey, it's as simple as starting to look for different things. And then you'll start to find different solutions to to kind of fill this void fill this gap of what you might be missing to actually create wealth, right.
Justin Stoddart
And I think a lot of agents is I talk with them as I do business planning with them. There's no space for them to you know, both in time and in money to be able to think about investing. It's always like, yeah, next year, yeah, five years from now, I'm gonna start investing in real estate. And meanwhile, I think simply by having that paradigm, that's, that's it. It's a self fulfilling prophecy, right? Yes, it'll always be five years. The challenge is, it's always five years, right? You talk to five years from now, and it's Yeah, and five years now I'm gonna start investing real estate. And a lot of what I hear you say that kind of what you even brought to the table are some tools, different conversations, different even courses, and that really give real estate agents a new perspective on how actually today, you could start becoming an investor right in working with investors Talk to us a little bit about that.
Chris Craddock
Well, the first thing I would I don't know if you guys have if you've read tools of the Titans, the Tim Ferriss book, it's, it's so hard. I haven't read all of it. Okay, so there's, there's this interview with Peter teal, who also wrote a great book, zero to one. But Peter Thiel was basically the founder of PayPal. And then you look at all the people that came out of PayPal, I mean, that's one of my favorite case studies ever. You know, you got Elon Musk, you got, you know, the founders of YouTube, the founders of LinkedIn, like all these, like just giants, in the, in the, in this industry and in the world right now. All came from this, like this mastermind group together that built PayPal.
Chris Craddock
But one of the things Peter Thiel said is, I asked you, what do you want to do in the next six years, you know, and you come up with your plan? And he's like, why not? Six months? You know, and that that's a powerful question, right? Why not six months? And you look at it, you're like, because because because because because, well, you know what, there's always gonna be a reason. There's always there's always, you know, I'm a Christian guy. You know, there's a proverb in the Bible talks about the lazy man who says, there's a lion in the street, right? There's always a lion in the street, there's always something out there something crazy, that that gives us a reason. And let's be honest, we're all in sales. And we're really good at selling ourselves on our own BS.
Justin Stoddart
That's the first sales job we do each and every day. Right?
Chris Craddock
Exactly. Exactly. And that's, that's the whole thing you can wake up and, and sell yourself on the fact that you're going to win and it's going to be a good day, you know, and that you've won, or you can sell yourself on the fact that it's too hard. And, you know, oh, well, you know, you know, I'm a victim today life's too hard on me, you know, but bottom line is, you know, you look at everybody talking about all the different ways that people succeed. And I'll tell you you know, in America you see you know, everybody succeed you know, the rich the poor the fat the skinny the, you know, women the men the black the white the Asians that, you know, whatever, throw out any any, any race, creed, you know, sex has succeeded. And yes, sometimes it can be harder for some, but I'll tell you what, man, it is so awesome. When you look around and see that anybody can succeed if they just run hard in this country.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, boy, that's funny. Last night, I actually tuned into the Undercover Billionaire. I have been hearing about it, I've actually had Grant Cardone as a guest on the show. And so I've been super interested in him to hearing and he's been promoting it a lot. And I started actually the episode of the guide. I'm not a big TV guy. So I actually had to like purchase a subscription to a new service on kind of like a whatever. But as I got into it, it was fascinating. This guy Stearns, right, you Stearns mortgage company, that was this whole belief, the guy went from zero to nothing like fathered a child at age 14, was like dyslexic, like bottom 10% of his entire class, like I was a bit of a train wreck at an early age, right? He ended up you know, he's a billionaire now. And I mean, it showed him on his yacht off of Miami, a helicopter took him there and, and from there, the helicopter took him to his private jet. And he went off to some place where was Erie, Pennsylvania. And he's dropped off given 100 bucks and an old pickup truck. And in 90 days, he has to rebuild a million dollar business. And so you hear these principles that he said, I'm doing this, because I want people to believe that the American Dream is still alive, that you can actually have nothing, right. And with some ingenuity, you can create something fast.
Justin Stoddart
Well talk about condensing timelines. It's actually interesting. This week, I was on a training I talked about how money loves fast action. Like it just does like you like the weight like everybody, not everybody, but everybody that's working is going to make a million dollars in their lifetime, right? And it comes down to how fast you're gonna make that million dollar some people make it an hour. Some people make it takes it their whole lifetime. You just can't condense down the timelines. And that's what I hear you saying, Chris here is that we get in our own way. Like there's actually ways to pursue and live in accordance with the American Dream by simply not continuing to kick the can out the road, five years, whatever. But now start to take massive action now on that six year plan, 10 year plan, etc.
Chris Craddock
Yeah. Well, I mean, that's it, you know, imperfect action Trumps perfect inaction. You know, you know, what is the movie in the book, The Ender's Game? You know, they say we go, she's one of the moms says, Is he ready? And in the movie, Harrison Ford's character says, we go and we're ready enough. Right. And the reality is, we're all ready enough. Just go do it. Right. I mean, just go do it. And and yeah, I love I love money. What was that? What was the quote? The love what you just said?
Justin Stoddart
I can like condensing money. That one. Oh, he follows action is action. Yep. Money loves fast action.
Chris Craddock
Money loves fast action. Yeah. I mean, you look at Facebook, right, move fast and break things. Right. That's their, their catchphrase. So yeah, he loves fast action that's as powerful as powerful. And here's the other thing. I mean, just as we're talking here, obviously, you can tell like success leaves clues. You know, I can tell you study read you you are in in, you know, learning. And that's that whole thing. You know, your business grows, the extent you grow, right. You're, if you learn if you're not reading books, if you're not leveling up, if you're not listening to books, if you're not listening to podcasts, how are you going to level up, you're just going to learn on your own and well, that's just there's a book called The Road Less stupid by Keith Cunningham, who are Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, that was his rich dad, right, Keith Cunningham. And so, you know, the whole idea in the road less stupid is don't pay the stupid tax, somebody else has already paid it. You know, don't pay that stupid tax, learn from others, and then just go.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, it's interesting how there is, especially in our day and age, access to so much, right, so much information, so much knowledge, books, the internet, for heaven's sake. Like, there's no reason like, they're like, we can know about everything in a in a matter of seconds. Right? Now, a deeper knowledge comes to reading. So maybe it's a matter of days or weeks. But really, what do you think about it that way, Chris, really the only thing that's holding us back, because knowledge doesn't hold us back anymore. We can tap into somebody else's knowledge, right, we can pay for coaches, we can pay, for course, we can pay for help. It really comes down to simply us not believing and taking the necessary action to move in that direction. Is that is that oversimplified?
Unknown Speaker
No, I mean, I think the best in the world make the complex, simple, right. And so what we've boiled it down to in our team is activity and skill, right? activity and skill, talk to enough people, and then get good at what you're saying when you talk to them. That's it. And so. So literally, you can take almost anybody in any group.
Unknown Speaker
So why don't you suggest and give me give me a number of transactions an agent is doing. And you can break it down to how they would double their business. Give me Give me a number and
Justin Stoddart
Let's say 50 transactions a year solid business? Here do transactions, okay?
Unknown Speaker
So at 50 transactions, they probably need to hire an assistant, if they don't have an assistant, they hire an assistant because think about 80/20 rule. So at 50 transactions, you're already good, right? You're already good at what you're doing. Because you're you know that you can close you know that your skill is good, you know, your activity is good, because you're bringing in 50. So at that point, what you need to do is learn to leverage, right, so you need to get get stuff off your plate. So let's talk about the 8020 rule. We've all heard of it the Pareto principle where 80% of your results come from 20% of your action. So let's say we work five days a week, right? So 20% means that one of those five days brought in brought in 80% of your income.
Unknown Speaker
So if you can figure out what are you doing in those other four days, and there's a book called clockwork that Mike Michalowiz who wrote Profit First wrote, he said, basically take everything you do in a day you write it on a post it note, and every time you do something, put it on a post it note, put it on your wall. And then you start looking at these things that are low dollar activities. And you create a job description, right. And at 50 transactions, you're doing enough business, that your business has earned the right to build out that org chart. So get an assistant there. The next thing is get somebody to help you with showings and buyers because you just can't show like you can't show 100 buyers, you can't double your business and show 100 buyers so get somebody to help you with that.
Unknown Speaker
But make sure the the split is good, where it's helping them win and it's helping you win and don't have a limiting belief on that because a lot of times you think, oh if I give a low split, they're not going to make money. But what I've learned is, business begets business winning begets winning, so if they're doing a lot of business with you, they're gonna start doing a whole 100 Have a lot more business on their own as well as you hand that off, so their their net income is going to crush anybody's net income that's doing lesser business.
Unknown Speaker
So if you want to double your business and you're at 50 transactions, one, you got to you got to mark down what you're doing every day, figure out what that 80% is, get it all in there, create a job description, most likely at 50 transactions, you need to hire a full time assistant, not a transaction coordinator, a full time assistant. And then you get that job description most things onto their plate. And then you bring on a buyer's agent showing assistant that is going to help you with all your showings. And right there, I promise you if you continue doing what you're doing with all your freed up time from your assistant, and from those showings, you'll double your business as long as you don't just sit on your couch and play Xbox.
Justin Stoddart
But it's a simple recipe, isn't it? It's your one hire away. Maybe two hires away, right showing assistant and an assistant right buyer's agent assisted from doubling your business and impacting to other people's lives and pretty significant ways. It's pretty awesome. Absolutely. Chris talked a little bit about some of the things that you do. So I've got a couple of questions left. The last one is going to be about what you do to continue to be a big thinker to expand your possibilities. Before we go there. Talk to us a little bit about some of the stuff that you have to offer to really be of help to agents.
Chris Craddock
Sure, yeah. So I've got a class, it's mainly towards investors finding agents, because these investors have, they paid 10s of 1000s of dollars every month for leads. And if they can't flip them, or wholesale them, they just die. But the reality is most of these investors have tried to find agents and they haven't done it well. And so we've really cracked the code there. So if you are friends with any wholesalers or flick fixin flip agents are like investors in your area, then definitely go to my, my website, Chris kradic, calm and, you know, sign in, check it out there. The second thing is go to my Instagram, crab rock, and you can reach out to me, you know, I'll respond almost every dm, I try to help people and you know, help any way I can. So those are two of the ways that I yeah, that I'm reaching out and trying to help other people in the community.
Justin Stoddart
I love it, man, that's powerful stuff. Because you're right, there are so many leads that people think are dead. And what I hear you saying is, these are people who actually reached out and wanted to actually talk to, like, they call the real estate agent for a reason, right? So it looks like a dead lead to the train die. But with the skills that you give, it allows you to take leads that otherwise would have been dead, and turn them into a different kind of opportunity, which I think is super powerful. Right?
Chris Craddock
Yeah, I mean, I talked to a an agent that I was I was kind of coaching in this, you know, like I it's an agent investor partnership that I teach and train in this art revive class. And I was just talking to an agent the other day where, like, literally, last year, their investment group made 50 grand and the agent group made less than that. And in the last two and a half months since we started working on this, the agent herself just brought in 90 grand GCI in two and a half months. It's crazy that they've they basically matched their whole year in two and a half months. And if you're just getting started, like they're, they're going so that's, that's one of the big keys there. Also, I've got a Facebook group as well uncovering real estate in a podcast, the uncommon real estate Podcast, where we talk through all of this stuff, too. So those are other ways to find us and a lot of great stuff.
Justin Stoddart
All right, let's move now to the last question. Actually, I got one more, I gotta sneak one in here. You're a dad of six kids. beautiful wife. How do you man like just day to day? Like how do you not neglect them when you've got nine businesses? One of which sold 501 transactions last year? Talk to us about that.
Chris Craddock
Yeah, I mean, it's always a struggle, right? I mean, you know, you're you're always, always being pulled in 1000 different directions. And anybody that says that they're not is lying, right? So it's always a struggle, and you just have to, you know, continue to look and say, Hey, where, where am I focusing? You know, and I'll give one example. I mean, just for, you know, for my boys, you know, we were, we were playing, you know, down in Florida on vacation, we were playing down there and I realized, like, man, I need to spend some more more time doing this. So I started, you know, Sunday afternoons, we just went out and started playing Ultimate Frisbee with a couple other dads and their sons and, you know, like, just just trying to make sure that you're putting stuff, stuff on the calendar.
Justin Stoddart
I love it, man. Great stuff. All right, final question. You're a big thinker. No doubt. That's why you're here on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. What does Chris Craddock do to continue to be a big thinker to to continue to grow to continue to expand your possibilities?
Chris Craddock
Yeah, I mean, there's three things to grow your mindset, right. Your intake, your associations and your affirmations right intake. I am always there's not a day that goes by where I don't have at least an hour of intake where I'm, I'm learning from other people books, podcasts, seminars, webinars, you know, whatever, you know, just always there, associations, Jim Rohn, you're gonna be the average of the five people you spend time with. You know, I'm always trying to hang out with people that think bigger than me, and they're gonna push me and also call me on my own Bs, because, you know, I'm a good salesperson to myself as well. And then the third one is affirmations. You know, we all talk to ourselves, and, you know, let's be honest, we're all a little crazy. And so how do we talk to ourselves? And, you know, so you we work on, on not letting ourselves talk. I mean, literally, if I, if I heard somebody talk to me, the way I talk to myself, sometimes, I probably punch him in the throat, right? Like, but I'll accept it for myself. And that's just not okay. So, always working on, on being a hype squad for yourself to kind of help you, you know, level up.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I love that, Chris, because often we think of affirmations as something we read with enthusiasm in the morning. What I hear you saying is an affirmation is constantly going on inside of our own mind, that there's a narrative, not about the outside world, but about our world about how we show up in the world about what we deserve what we don't deserve. That's a real affirmation. That's the tape that's continuously playing. We correct that. And we have seriously unlocked a key that most people never unlock, right.
Justin Stoddart
Fantastic man been such a pleasure to spend some time with you. If any of you have the interest to get in, you should follow this guy, find him on Instagram. We'll put all of this in the show notes. And then take a look at his course I think there's a lot of dead leads that you that we're all stepping over, that really could turn into something for for you and or for other people on your team. So Chris been such a pleasure. Thank you for helping us to think bigger today for expanding our possibilities, both in the pursuit of success and significance. You're the kind of guy that's doing both. Appreciate that. And my final request of everybody listening here today are three simple words and they are Go Think Bigger. Thank you, Chris, for inspiring us to do that today, my friend.
Chris Craddock
Hey, thanks for having me, brother.
Justin Stoddart
My pleasure.
Create a value proposition in real estate is more important than ever before. As competition from a tight market, Big Tech encroachment, and traditional agent competitors, understanding how to create a value proposition in real estate is essential to your ability to survive and thrive in the real estate industry.
Chris and I go in-depth on opportunity costs in creating and evaluating value propositions for brokerages and for agents trying to stand out in a tight market. We discuss a myriad of topics including what we can learn from Amazon and Facebook, reducing cost and complexity in the lives of our customers and the role that opportunity cost plays in all of this.
The mindset of a successful real estate agent includes having a growth vs a fixed mindset. It includes being able to ask the tough question of: Am I who I want to be? It then includes taking the next steps to change who you are while holding onto the reason why you're making those steps so that the steps become fun and invigorating.
All of this insight comes from my conversation with Patrick Vernon Lilly whose accomplishments in real estate include selling over 1,200 properties worth more than $1.35 billion worth of property in his 34-year career.
This strong sales success has resulted in many national honors, most notably the Keller Williams Pinnacle Award which is presented to just 20 exceptional agents across all North American firms. Additional distinctions include being named one of The Wall Street Journal’s Top 250 Agents in the nation and Inman’s 101 Most Influential Agents in North America. He was also featured in “The Billion Dollar Agent” by Steve Kantor.
Patrick is the founder of Real Estate Vision (REV), an educational and networking group for top producing agents. Through REV he also hosts an annual conference and a weekly podcast for agents. Patrick is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars throughout the world.
If your only value happens during the transaction, then I have a news flash for you: You're not that valuable... AND you're not that difficult to duplicate through an algorithm and a trained customer service representative/functionary agent.
Value Before and After the Real Estate Sale is essential in order for you to stand out in this competitive market.
Jeff Lobb spoke recently at Inman's big event and shared concepts around building an ecosystem outside of which your clients never have to go looking for anything.
He brings that conversation and how he helps agents as one of the industry's most influential leaders.
The biggest reason why real estate agents aren't living in pursuit of their potential is because they fail to take enough action.
It really is that simple. Yet you and I both know that when it us that is not taking action, it feels a lot more complicated than that. We must learn to get out of our own way.
Top agent, team leader and coach, Melissa Machat out of Las Vegas is an NLP Master Practitioner, a top-producing real estate agent and team leader. We discuss what keeps real estate agents from taking action and four key questions that will change your neuro-linguistic programming in a way that will move you into taking the action that will get you the success and the significance you want in business and in life.
e a giving real estate agent. Some of the best and most fulfilled real estate agents in the business don't "wait until I'm uber-successful until I give back." Instead, they find a way to give what they can while they grow into their success.
That is the essence of Think Bigger Real Estate.
It's to be in constant pursuit of success AND significance, income AND impact.
Today's guest, Jeff Wiren, is well known for being this kind of agent and person. His credentials include: President & Managing Principal Broker for Premiere Property Group, LLC, 2021 President Elect for Oregon Realtors®, 2016 PMAR Realtor® of the Year, Past Chair for OREF Forms Committee & RMLS Board of Directors.
Jeff is going to share specifics of how he has become a giving real estate agent.
How do you stand out as a real estate agent when competition for listings and sales is at an all-time high? One way to not do this is to accept the big-box branding that your company handed you and expect people to remember you.
Instead, there are some very simple steps to be sure that your brand tells YOUR story and the unique value that YOU bring to your clients.
This episode shares some very tactical takeaways for agents and offers a soon-to-be-paid-for, but currently free offering of getting a brand score by going to brandfacescore.com.
Krista knows what she's talking about when she says she can help you sell 100 homes a year.... she has done it for over 20 years!!
- top 1% of realtors for 20 years
- 4 time best selling author
-
1 digital Marketer to watch in 2021 according to Yahoo Finance
- 0 to 8 figures in 35 months
- sells 100 homes a year on average, 2,200 homes personally
Get her book: Sell 100 Homes text "book" to (925) 854-4022 to get a copy Attend her event: Kristamashore.com/2dayslive
One of the activities that will you pay you the most in business and in life is learning how to attract top talent.
Yet so many people struggle to master this, while many more shutter at the thought and never really get started.
Adam Roach has had a hand in helping to recruit 70k real estate agents and is on a mission to be a part of the recruitment of 100M people worldwide.
He is the creator of Recruiting Bridge, Xceed and the I Love Recruiting brand. He's the foremost expert on recruiting and if you tune in, he's someone who will change your paradigm, your results, and your future by having you look at and go about recruiting in a whole new way.
Join us to learn the secrets of this master recruiter.
Michael MacKelvie is building a business, a brand, and a following through his social media video marketing. If you're not yet following him, at Vivid Wealth, you're missing out.
We go deep on the need for critical thinking.
Tune in to hear how he does what he does.
Best Selling Author of The Golden Handoff, Nick Krautter, will review his revolutionary model that helps real estate agents grow their business while simultaneously helping other agents rapidly grow their real estate business.
Two top producing real estate agents share their secrets to building a real estate business, team, and wealth.
With inventory tighter than its ever been in 40 years of tracking, your communication and sales skills to get your unfair share of the shrinking pie is more important than ever before.
Learn from Communication and Sales Coach Bill Kurzeja on what you can be doing right now to separate yourself from your competition.
Bill's military background gave him a unique perspective of the power of following a process.
Real estate agents can build long-term wealth through long-term rentals by starting with short-term rentals. Avery Carl shares some of the loopholes that investors can utilize in order to start for far less down payment than most believe they need.
This and more are golden nuggets that Avery Carl shares with us on this episode.
The day that you want to create a valuable business is the day that you should consider business succession planning.
In this episode I talk with Steve Goodman, an expert on this topic, to see where most people go wrong and what to do about it.
Your productivity is standing between you and your biggest goals. On this episode Jay Papasan, co-author of the world-changing book, The ONE Thing, and co-owner of Keller Ink and Produktive.com go deep on what stops us from being productive and how we navigate through that in order to make 2021 our best year yet.
Mortgage marketing expert that also gives advice to real estate agents such as how to strengthen relationships with loan officers and how to benefit from them.
Luke on focusing on helping people through impact over income, contributing to his community, and offering valuable experiences on how to be an effective leader to grow your company.
At the end of the episode Nick shares a free photography shoot for real estate agents in the Portland area.
Additionally, Nick and I go deep on what really separates the average provider from those that build superior offerings, margins and companies. Tune in to hear very specific things that you can do to raise your game in 2021 and beyond.
Nick also shares some great insight at the end about the power of dreaming. Don't miss that.
As the author of The Upstream Model, which is the alternative to traditional lead generation efforts, I find it interesting to hear the actual numbers of those that find success using cold market methods. In today's episode, Shayne Hillier and Matt Cramer share their expertise in helping people to convert cold leads. Additionally, they disclose the truth about how the consistency, effort, and true conversion rate of those leads that are sourced online.
Real estate agents must raise their value proposition. Yes, the only path forward for real estate agents to remain well-paid and at the center of the transaction is to get better and offer more value. Period.
One important area in which every real estate must be doing this is by being informed and knowledgeable when it comes to money. Today's guest, Jason Shulick, Andorro.com, allows agents to learn how they can be money smart in a few minutes a week and in turn, offer more value to their clients.
In a rapidly changing and innovating economy and industry, the only way to continue to thrive is to get better. Yes, we are going to have to change. That's the bad news. The good news is, when we learn from very successful people, there are some shortcuts to change. Today's guests, Erik Van Alstine and Kevin Holtzman talk about Perceptual Intelligence--a faster way to change.
Real estate agents and mortgage loan officers alike go into business for themselves to get more income and more time freedom.
The latter, time freedom, is often more difficult than prior, the income.
Roland has worked with hundreds of successful business owners from all around the globe, and this is what he knows: "You can work hard in your Mortgage business and make money... but creating freedom? That must be designed."
Well-paid professionals become that way by focusing on revenue-generating activities. However, if systems and processes aren't quickly created and implemented, inconsistency, missed details, and redundant and repetitive work will sabotage your success.
Listen in as business coach Adi Klevit, a former engineer by trade, walks through the processes you must have in place to have sustainable success and where to begin.
As we come through one of the most divided times in the history of our nation, strong leaders are needed to stand up and bring us together. Real estate agents are well-situated to play an integral part in this effort. It is essential that we focus in on building community. There's nobody better in the real estate industry to teach us how to do this than Tristan Ahumada, Founder of Lab Coat Agents, the largest online community of real estate agents in the world with over almost 140k members.
Tune in to hear Tristan's keys to building community in a way that grows your business and your impact.
How to transition from transactions to investments. As CEO of a billion-dollar brokerage, Joe Bell realized that not enough were building wealth. At that time he took it upon himself to help agents begin to make that transition. He wrote the book called: Assets, Acquisition & Abundance. legacybeyondlistings.com
Having success AND significance includes building more than just your own business but seeing how else you can contribute to the industry and community in which you serve and live. Drew Coleman, former Young Professionals and PMAR President and incoming Oregon Realtors President speaks of the benefits of getting involved.
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Sharran Srivatsaa- succeeding in real estate. Sharran grew the luxury brand Teles from $350M to $3.5B, a 10X growth in just 5 years. He shares secrets about what buyers and sellers really care about, how to rise above industry disruption, the importance of paying for coaching, and the value for your life now and for your future life of spending time creating a vivid vision of your bigger, better future.
After growing up, dumpster diving for food as an impoverished citizen of India, Sharran’s father sacrificed everything to get his son to the US. Here, Sharran has taken advantage of the opportunities, graduating with honors, working for the investment firm Goldman Sachs, and now acting as a venture capital investor and private mentor to top CEOs.
In this episode, Sharran gives the following insight:
· Buyers are looking for a home and sellers are looking for buyers.
· The most important thing that you can offer to your clients is the feeling of safety.
· Talk less about yourself and more about your clients journey. You are the sherpa, the guide, not the climber. It’s not about your story, it’s about theirs.
· You are selling insight and advice. That is what makes you valuable and focusing on this will set you apart from your competitors, including Big Tech disruptors.
· Transformations don’t happen in isolation. You need mentors and coaching and you need to pay for it. Asking to “pick someone’s brain” is a poor strategy and will keep you from getting the help you actually need.
· When you consider your bigger and better future, you rise above all of the problems of today. Go as far as creating a 25-year plan, dividing each year into four quarters for a total of 100 quarters. It then becomes your job to get 1% closer to that bigger future each quarter. That’s it.
Success leaves clues, and Sharran hand-delivered so many of them that will inspire us to think bigger and achieve higher.
Additional Resources:
Get the 4-Week MBA for free! https://sharran.com/
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Create your own real estate reality TV show. Your ability to build the business that funds the life you really want is contingent upon your ability to get and keep the attention of those you wish to serve. HGTV has created a powerful model of merging entertainment with education. Today’s guest, Brent Silberbauer discusses how he has created his own HGTV-like following in Chico, CA and you should do the same.
Four years ago, Brent was selling cell phones to businesses to take care of his family because the church where he had served as a youth pastor and media director had blown up. This job put him in front of an investor group that had hired him to do new business acquisition. Eventually, Brent left to start his own commercial firm. Excited about his new opportunity, he didn’t realize the commercial real estate cliff that his industry would go over as the pandemic and subsequent shut-down took effect.
Brent knew he had to do something fast. Despite his reluctance, Brent pivoted into residential real estate and his vision for what he could do for his community began to take hold. Troubled by the number of people leaving California for a number of reasons, Brent began to see that following in the footsteps of what Chip and Jojo did for Waco, TX, would allow him to impact the city of Chico in important ways.
Fast forward to today, Brent has a booming residential real estate business, some of the best listing videos you’ll find and is about ready to release his version of Fixer Upper in Chico.
Some of the things you’ll learn from this episode:
● the mindset of moving forward when difficulty strikes
● the vision to want to do something bigger than just build your own real estate business
● how to negotiate deals with labor and material providers as a form of investment into a local TV show of which you become the producer
● the importance of attention and how to get it
● the importance of the Hook, Story, Offer framework for building business
● how to use people you’ve never met as your mentors, boosting the sum average of the 5 people you spend the most time with
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brentsellschico/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brent-silberbauer-20a0a1129/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/BrentSilberbauer
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd6PX4PdpDhsNyl7TNWj9eg
Instagram Reels for Real Estate Agents. That was the topic that I asked Steve Penate, a social media darling who sells over 50 homes a year through simple Instagram marketing, to talk about. What I learned a few minutes into the show blew me away! What he’s overcome to be who he is today will not only inspire you, but it will make you want to throw out every one of your excuses. It is seriously, so inspiring!
The topics that we discussed included:
- How Steve has overcome, and continues every day to work to overcome, a severe stuttering problem as he has put himself not only in a public facing profession, but also by putting himself all over the Internet.
- The power of facing our fears and overcoming our excuses
- Why Reels is such an important, and timely, opportunity NOW
- The three E’s of social media success, which include:
- Educate
- Entertain
- Execute
Steve went on to share what he does to continue to be a Big Thinker and expand his possibilities. You’re going to love this episode and you’re going to love Steve even more.
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevepenate/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stevepenate
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevepenate/
Website: https://www.stevepenate.com/?fbclid=IwAR3o3toJaMRWGWHvz9N5jvovrUZU4tGCNQfW5jnsoqiC-KtFTQxL5vaWFLs
Real Estate Market Predictions with Justin Harnish offered way more than just market predictions. The topics covered included:
- work-life balance-
- Justin has a habit of proactively communicating with his clients to try and protect his time with his family
- He purposely commits himself to coaching soccer teams, boating, and skiing with his family so that he can focus on them.
- market predictions-
- Portland has lost more generational wealth in the past few months than in any other time that he remembers. He attributes that to Oregon’s politics. However, what has replaced that money has been even more money with people fleeing California and the heavy tax situation, coupled with the potential of more tax increases under a new Administration.
- This has created additional demand, which continues to drive up the price of our real estate in certain segments.
- Overall, the Portland market has an optimistic outlook for the coming year.
- The segment to watch would be the lower segments that are most closely tied to service professions more deeply impacted by the pandemic.
- In other words, not all market segments are going to have the same outlook moving forward, so watch your market segment as it may be impacted differently.
- the numbers of real estate
- Justin taught to go into the RMLS system and try and break the system, meaning, go in and pull reports and numbers that no else is pulling in order to identify trends, forecasts and insights that wil help your clients.
- As you do this, you’ll find that you stand out from Tech Giants competitors and the average Joe Realtor.
Justin also spoke about his mentors, the people that have shaped him into the broker that he is today. Being the agent that has sold more real estate than any other agent for the past 10-years, he spoke about what it takes to build sustainable success, and what he does to continue to be a big thinker and expand his possibilities.
You’re going to love this interview with Justin. He has tons to offer all of us.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harnishproperties/?fbclid=IwAR1ydDFT1TFQlTBgdU-cImiHj-kcWfLgTosbJ5iLHuTebhpOOJ9oyl18dRo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justin.harnish
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-harnish-79a4484/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/harnishproperties
Website: https://www.harnishproperties.com/?fbclid=IwAR07hTThnys3atZXLckrp9LHEBycxEP9VrvrzKUEs3X-7m34jOElyMtwAZs
The mindset of a successful real estate agent with Jacqueline Smith helps us to know that we don’t have to be born positive and always be positive in order to be successful. Jacqueline shares how this is something that she once struggled with. Here, in this episode, she shares what she does in order to get have the right mindset for big success.
Jacqueline shares her rise from selling 52 homes her first year as a solo agent, wanting to build a team, and then making the decision to partner with Place, Inc., which is a platform for real estate agents to be able to access the leverage that they need to reach their biggest goals, both in business and in life. Jacqueline discussed how Place has taken the traditional team model and turned it on its head.
We discussed several key topics including:
The need to have the right mindset and how it didn’t come naturally to her
- The downsides of being a big thinker and high-achiever, including always focusing on the gap between where we are and where we want to be.
- The need instead to focus on your strengths rather than your weaknesses, what you’re doing well instead of what you aren’t doing well.
- The practice of writing down your true feelings each morning and then auditing them to see if those feelings are 1.) grounded in truth, and 2.) aligned with the outcome that we actually want to get.
In answer to the Signature Question, Jacqueline shared that she continues to be a Big Thinker through big thinking and BETTER THINKING. As she has learned to improve her thinking, her possibilities expand.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @jaxpdx
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jacqueline.smith.127201
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kwjsmith/
Why real estate agents should be on YouTube. Javier Vidana struggled in his real estate business for years. Once he pivoted to digital strategies, his life got better and his business got bigger. A lot bigger.
Javier, through the power of YouTube and Twitch, to do four videos each week that created leads sufficient to help him sell close to 50 homes this past year as a solo agent and be generating multiple streams of income from these social media platforms. He is on track to have the revenue coming directly from YouTube and Twitch to double his real estate income in the next year and a half.
Think about that.
Javier shoots four videos each week (two produced videos and two livestream videos) and in the process of this one activity, create leads for his real estate business and direct revenue from these platforms.
It’s another way to think about creating additional revenue streams in your business.
Javier also gives insight as to how one can begin growing their YouTube channel, whether or not you should try and take friends and followers from one social media platform and get them on another (the answer is “NO!” and he shares why), as well as some insight into the YouTube algorithm.
He also shares an important component of being a Big Thinker and expanding his possibilities, which is to always recognize that you don’t know it all and to always be seeking to learn from others.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @thejaviervidana
Youtube: JavierVidanaRE
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/javier-vidana-0b195050/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/JavierVidanaRE
Website: JavierVidanaRE.com
A salaried real estate team? That’s not a common thing to hear in a commissioned-based industry. According to Danny Brown, Founder and CEO of Myriad out of Arizona, there are few cons and mostly pros to this unique model. In this episode Danny talks about why all real estate team leaders should consider a salary-based model.
Some of the benefits that Danny shares include:
- Happier teammates as they’re not worried about their next check
- His ability to offer 401k, health insurance, and a supportive rather than competitive culture
- A client experience that is not clouded with an agent’s need to get a certain outcome to ensure that the agent gets paid.
- A bonus system in the form of a referral fee commission when the lead is sourced by the salaried agent
Some additional insight that has made this model work:
- Recruiting people from outside the real estate industry (like the currently hard-hit real food and hospitality industries)
- Helping his employees see what the average income is for agents in the AZ market ($28k/yr before taxes)
- Offering roles more like people see on HGTV that don’t require some of the business owner heavy-lifting that cause many agents to fail.
- Staying a part of each transaction so that he retains the client connection should the agents end up leaving the team at some point.
Unknowingly, Danny also put in a plug for my upcoming book, the Upstream Model in which he talked about the opportunity to become a financial advisor for their clients’ real estate portfolio. His model allows him to do more for his clients not less.
You’re going to love this episode. Whether you adopt all or just some of what he shared, it will undoubtedly help you to Go Think Bigger!
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @dannybrownaz
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielbrownrealtor/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/MyriadRealEstate
Website: https://www.myriadaz.com/
I want to talk about leadership. The principles that I'm want to talk about have wide application, they're not just into the real estate industry, they're not just in your career. They're in your family, your community, they're in all different areas. They are things that I've been thinking about a lot recently. Considering our national state, considering a lot of things that are happening in our communities, a lot of things that are happening within our families and companies during these challenging times. So I want to take what I've learned over the past 20 plus years of leadership and distill it down to a few key things that I think will be really beneficial for all of us.
I've studied this recently, because I realized that there are some voids in my own personal leadership. In no way am I coming to you, as someone who has leadership figured out, I'm a lifelong student of leadership. This is why; I realized that I can't get to my potential, without me, helping and leading other people. My mission and my passion, as you know, is to help you to wake up to the potential inside of you and then to help you live in pursuit of that potential. So that you can live, give and serve abundantly. That's what I'm about. That's my personal life mission. That's what drives me and fuels me every day. Obviously, my show the Think Bigger Real Estate Show fits right in with that. But today, I want to speak to a wider audience.
A couple things that I've learned about leadership. One was from John Maxwell, he said, the definition of leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less, the ability to influence other people. I think that's important for us to remember that leadership is influence. The next thing I want to talk about are some general truths about humans. The reality is each and every one of us are living below our potential, we have the ability to live a bigger life, to serve more people to reach more people. I want to keep that in your mind, I also want to share that each and every one of us have a sense of wanting to belong somewhere to something and if we ever feel like we don't belong somewhere, then we will find somewhere where we do belong. So it's important, I think, as leaders, for us to recognize that. If you're really going to influence people, if you're really going to move people forward, reaching your potential and helping unlock their potential, people have to feel like they belong.
The purpose of leadership then becomes to help get more out of people. Again, if we're all living below our potential, then leadership, [the definition is influence], the purpose of it is to help unlock within people the idea that there's more inside of them. That they can live a bigger life, that they can give more and serve more. I would also add that the purpose of leadership is to convert people to a united way of thinking around a certain cause. Whether that's in your family, your company, your community, or in your nation. To actually convert people to to a common cause that you're all working towards. That word convert is interesting, because to convert something is actually to change it. I think anytime we're leading people, we actually want to change their hearts and their minds, to get them to believe something, maybe better, maybe different than they believed before, that is united with that core group of people. So within my family to convert people to the cause that we can create a great family that we can create this great life together, that we can help make each other better and have peace within our home or within your company, within your community, within whatever cause or movement you're leading. We're converting people to this new way of thinking so that we can do more together, so we're more united, and we're doing more together.
Some key principles of leadership that I've learned:
- Number one is to know your people. It's very difficult to get people to want to follow you. Maybe you think you know who your people are, what they want, what they need, but the real way to really get to know your people is to spend time with them. If there's something that you don't understand about them, rather than just making assumptions, I think it's more important to ask; "Hey, I don't understand where you're coming from, will you share with me?" I think the great wisdom and principles of Stephen R. Covey, who taught, seek first to understand, then to be understood. People really could care less to understand you, if you don't first seek to understand them. When we are in any sort of leadership role, it behooves us to really find out what our people are about, who are they, what drives them, what they want most in life. In my family maybe there's fighting amongst my children, and I'm trying to convert them to be nice to each other, if I just start slinging arrows of words, of accusation or blame, it's amazing when I end up learning the whole story I recognize that actually wasn't the scenario I assumed. That's not who these people are. All of a sudden they don't want to follow me anymore. They're like, I'm not following you, Dad, I'm not going to do what you say, because you didn't understand where I'm coming from. In addition, you didn't even try and ask why this ruckus was going on. When I learn what really was happening at the core, I have more compassion for my children and I'm more inclined to go and help them. Okay, so know your people, you have to understand them before you can expect to be understood.
- The second principle is to love your people. The reality is, each and every one of my children, using the example of my family, each and each and every one of my children are different, they're very different from each other. I'm not trying to make them all the same. Obviously, I want all of them to be the best version of themselves. If I tried to make them all think exactly alike they wouldn't like that. They come from the same parents but there's different experiences that they've had, they've got different strengths and different weaknesses. So I have to love them where they're at. If I ever expect to influence them, if I ever expect to actually help them, I actually have to love them where they're at. To come at them with compassion.
- The third principle that I think is really important when it comes to leadership is to serve your people. I think I often find that it's way easier to love my people when I serve my people. That kind of goes without saying, we look at Gandhi, all the kind of the great leaders of the world that really influenced people that really changed hearts and minds. They served all those around them. They did all of those things. They knew their people, they loved their people, and they served their people. So if you have any desire to lead people, to influence them to unite them around a common cause I think these are some principles that we should all embody. I'm pointing at myself right now too. In my family, in my career, in my Think Bigger movement, everything, I'm seeing deficiencies in the way that I'm showing up in the world. I want always to strive to be better.
Hopefully there's been some value here for you. I'll reiterate that none of us are able to reach our full potential without leading people. There's always true principles about leading people, some of which, hopefully, you've found some value in what I've shared here today. I share this out of my love and respect for anybody that's listening to this and your desire to unlock your potential and unlock the potential of other people through being a genuine, great leader.
Thank you so much for listening and remember, GO THINK BIGGER!
Jesse Dau, the YouTube Agent currently has 59 deals in escrow in different parts of the country. In three short years of being a licensed agent has broken these three major paradigms that keep real estate agents from thinking bigger and living their biggest lives. These, now debunked paradigms include:
- Real estate agents cannot just create content for social media and watch their phone ring with hot leads.
- Leveraging the power of YouTube, Jesse and Jackson have done this not only for themselves but for agents in 9 other locations around the country.
- Real estate agents cannot just pick up and move to another state because their business is their database and their database is in one geographical location.
- Leveraging the power of YouTube, Jesse and Jackson have both personally relocated to different states and now help other real estate agents generate new business in a brand new city in a matter of weeks.
- Real estate agents cannot actually retire out of the business.
- In three short years, Jesse has removed himself entirely from being in production and is now fully focused on expanding his YouTube footprint through agents in new markets across the country, earning an override on what he helps them to do.
If you’ve ever wanted to Think Bigger about what’s possible in the real estate industry, then this episode is for you. Jesse shared this when asked about how he continues to be a Big Thinker and expand his own possibilities:
If you believe it is possible, then you can find a way. The platforms, the ideas, the opportunities are out there. You just have to believe and then find the models and people that can help you to do it.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: JesseDau_realtor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jesse.dau.71
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%E2%9C%94%EF%B8%8Fjesse-dau-b01b5a32/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/706193826784792
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaL1DGiCW-HVgqeaLuHUfJA
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVALMF99nztSJEJ7lehzEOQ
This episode will give you insight around:
- The signs of the impending housing crisis
- The number of people not paying their rent/mortgage
- There are 22M people unemployed in our country
- What’s driving the crisis
- Global pandemic
- Social unrest
- Nesting- the need for people’s homes to accommodate more than just a place to sleep
- Housing shortage
- Low interest rates causing everyone who can buy a home to buy a home
- Who will win and who will lose
- Those that will win are those that live in coveted suburban areas outside of major cities, those that are knowledge workers whose jobs have not been affected and can live somewhere else while still performing their work
- Those who will lose are those in the food and hospitality industries who are not able to escape big cities
- Those who are able to offer lower-cost housing options to those looking to buy
… and so much more including:
- How to position your mindset amidst these changes
- How to position your business amidst these changes
- Key skillsets of a successful entrepreneur
- Two key principles to continuing to expand your possibilities.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-birkett-82243610/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/automationfinance/
Website: https://www.automationfinance.com/
Gus Munoz Castro of Power ISA teaches how to convert Internet leads. While many say that investing in Internet leads is a waste of time and money, there are others that have tremendous success from this method. What is the difference? Gus and his team of over 65 inside sales agents set over 100 appointments every day. Learn the three keys to better conversions in this episode.
Those keys include:
- Speed. Waiting hours or days to reply to Internet leads will greatly diminish your ability to convert these leads. If you can't do that, leverage automation.
- Long-term follow-up plan. Realize that on average it takes 14 attempts to get someone to respond. Continue following up until they reply or tell you that they’re not interested.
- Once in contact, come with undeniable value. Don’t come transactionally, come with them in mind. What do they need?
Gus also shared what you do to get the consumer to start to open up and share more with you that allows you to add value. Think about the FORD acronym- Family, Occupation, Recreation, Dreams or Goals. By asking open-ended questions, and get to the reason why they want to move, you will be able to build trust and be more open to sharing things that will be more of a pleasant conversation. Now you can add value towards whatever need they have.
Gus also shared some interesting insight around how he continues to be a Big Thinker and expand his possibilities. He shared how in our professions, the tool that we use to serve people is actually our mind. Therefore, it becomes necessary for us to take time every day to sharpen and improve our mind.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gustavo.munoz.castro
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/PowerISAMastermind
Website: https://www.powerisa.com/?fbclid=IwAR3wp00A8JReK1mOojTkMdfBJpWC1b2epezVmiL31wEqkvdnRWApFPUYoww
Communication with Vija Williams was even better than I expected it to be. Two years ago, Vija was given the opportunity to manage 8 Keller Williams market centers, working directly under Ben Kinney. Within her first few months, Ben gave Vija six books on communication. Principles and lessons from within those books have changed Vija’s life and what she shares will do the same for you.
The five principles that Via shared were:
Know your people.
- Be a great listener.
- Don’t fear the pause.
- Less is more.
- Communicate through stories.
Vija goes deep on each of these points, helping each of us to be a better communicator.
Lastly, Vija shared what she does to continue to be a Big Thinker and expand her possibilities. She spoke of the the principle that you are the sum total of the five people with whom you spend the most amount of time. She shared how her net worth has climbed to all new levels because over the past 12-18 months, she’s been around bigger thinkers and higher achievers.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @viavija
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vijawilliams
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijawilliams/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/VijaTeam
Podcast: The Empire Building Podcast
Website: placeinc.com
Getting Results from Instagram is what every real estate agent wants. Yet, all too often, agents waste lots of time and get lackluster results. In this episode Shelby offers principles, strategies and tactics to help you get results.
Here are some of the gems that she shared:
1. People are on Instagram; therefore, you need to be there as well.
2. Real estate is a relationship business. Therefore, Instagram must be about building relationships. If your strategies and tactics are not building relationships and getting you appointments, then you are not doing it right.
3. You must be intentional. Having a business plan and knowing how Instagram plays into that will guide your actions.
4. At minimum you need an Instagram Business page, not a personal page. What’s even preferred above the business account is the Instagram Creator Suite, which gives you more analytics and tools.
5. More important than what you can learn about Instagram algorithms is what you can learn about your clients and target audience.
6. The best way to get engagement is to engage with those that you follow. Be engaging and get engagement.
7. When it comes to Reels, use it if it fits within your overall business plan and strategy but don’t let it throw you off your plan.
8. If you feel overwhelmed, don’t be. There’s no requirement of how often you should be posting on your feed. Weekly works just fine. Prioritizing engaging with others and creating Stories that invite engagement matters more.
Many more nuggets were offered up in this episode. Above all, I would encourage you to follow Shelby on IG, @marketingforrealtors.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @marketingforrealtors
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Shelby13
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelbylehman/
Three Keys to Massive Transformation with Anthony Lolli. Whether it was building the largest rental focused real estate brokerage franchise in the country, Rapid Realty, whether it was building a fanatical-family culture in which over 100 of his agents tattooed the Rapid Realty logo on their body, or whether it was his recent accomplishment of a total body transformation of losing 125 lbs in 9 months, (as featured in the Amazon Prime Documentary Fat Lolli to Six Pack Lolli) Anthony Lolli knows a thing or two about massive transformations. In this episode, he outlines the three things that everyone must do to experience one themselves in any area of their lives.
Anthony’s three keys are:
- Have a purpose for the transformation that is bigger than yourself.
- Have a clear vision about where you’re headed.
- Change your associations so that they support where you’re headed.
As you tune into this short and powerful episode, you’ll hear more details of Anthony’s impressive, massive transformations, both in his real estate business as well as with his health.
I also cannot encourage you enough to go to Amazon Prime Video and search out Anthony’s video documentary: Fat Lolli to Six Pack Lolli. His incredible journey will deeply inspire you in your own massive transformations.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @anthonylolli
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anthonylolli
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonylolli/
Website: https://rbtshow.com/?fbclid=IwAR2O13QcDoaCoCFBlq4AYox77yWI9CDgk7M6EpNALYs68Rw_OHpJ6ps79YA
Amazon video: https://www.amazon.com/Lolli-Pack-Ultimate-Transformation-Story/dp/B08C4QMNVK/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=FAT+LOLLI&qid=1600215432&sr=8-1
As a loyal listener to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show you spend countless resources to grow yourself and your company. You are all about growth because you know that is what you are designed to do and it is what gives you fulfillment.
Just like cancer is often a silent and sneaky cancer that kills our body, gossip is that to our growth and the growth of our company. In this episode, Amir and I discuss highlights from his book including:
- How deadly gossip is to our personal growth and to the growth of our company
- Why we do it anyway
- Why we often don’t recognize that we are doing it.
- What to do about it.
Some additional highlights from our conversation include:
- Gossip is actually a form of communication.
- When we gossip, we build a cocoon around ourselves in which we talk about others without giving them the opportunity to participate.
- Gossiping is cowardly. Rather than confront the person with whom we have an issue, we find it gratifying and easier to talk about them to someone else.
- Those with whom we gossip become infected with our unfair and one-sided perspective of others.
- If we are interested in growth and progress, then we will root out gossip in our lives and in our organizations.
I can’t recommend Amir’s book enough. I would encourage you to go find it, read it, and share it within your organization.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amir.fathizadeh
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amir-fathizadeh/
Amazon for the book: The Road to Ruin by Amir Fathizadeh
Thinking Bigger with Real Estate Investor Mike Nuss. Ten short years ago, Mike Nuss was filing for bankruptcy. Fast forward today and he has a business run by great people and a $20M real estate portfolio. Tune in to hear step-by-step, what he did to turn around his thinking, his credit, his business, his portfolio, his network and his health.
How did he do it?
He started by starting. That is the most important thing. Regardless of where you’re at, you’re only sunk if you stop moving. Mike refused to stop moving. He got tenacious, he got creative, and he got committed to building back far beyond what he lost.
Mike talked about three core values that act as a foundation for what he’s built:
Listen
- Educate
- Give
Mike also talked about the power of:
- Vulnerable leadership
- The value of wide perspective
- The value of an infinite mindset
- The power of investing in yourself and in the ability to gain access to people that are more successful than you
Mike’s story and the wisdom that he shares has the ability to help you accelerate your journey from where you are to where you want to be.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @rarebirdmike
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mike.nuss.3
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-nuss-03098b8/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/pdxinvestorlab
Great leadership is needed, not only in the workplace but also in the home. This episode with Dan Foster, VP of Sales and Executive Coach of Building Champions, gives us insight as to why some organizations attract and retain great talent, while others struggle.
Dan shared that his favorite part about being a father is observing and helping his children to figure out their own paths, talents, and voice.
We then went into the four conversations that a great coaching leader must have:
- Care for and connect with the individual- when our people genuinely feel that we care for them outside of what we do for a living, our life is enhanced and so is theirs. Those that we lead like us and trust us and want to give us their all.
- Vision- when those that we lead understand our vision for the company and for them, and we understand their vision for themselves, a powerful connection is made.
- Execution- those that we lead need to feel that our job as a leader is to remove obstacles that are keeping them from reaching their potential.
- Productivity- as we help our people to be productive in the workplace, we help them to produce at higher levels and feel the satisfaction of success.
To gain access to a pdf that walks you through the content, go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thinkbiggerrealestate/
As a gift to those that tuned in, Dan offered a 20% discount to their course that teaches you how to have these four conversations called: Becoming a Coaching Leader. That link is here: https://bacl-course.mykajabi.com, 20% Off Coupon: BC20OFF.
How Dan continues to Think Bigger: Dan shared that the way that he continues to be a big thinker and expand his own possibilities is through humility. When we get our pride and our ego out of the way, thinking that we already have it figured out, we open ourselves to learning, growth and expanded possibilities.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @coachDanFoster
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoachDanFoster
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachdanfoster/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/buildingchampions
The thoughts that you think are directly connected to the results you get. Period. Knowing this, it becomes extremely important to be very intentional about what impacts our thinking.
In this episode, 27-year veteran Nathan Jones shares his stories of his father telling him that he shouldn’t be a real estate agent and so many more after him. Early in his career another person close to him called him the Scam-Man. He has overcome the fact that as a result of the color of his skin, some people will not let him in their home. He has also overcome the often insidious and subtle voice that in our head that can plague all of us that says that we can’t reach our biggest goals.
He has learned, and we discuss here, how overcoming naysayers is an essential component to achieving your biggest goals. Those around you will say things that will hold you back. When they do this, it is actually a reflection on them, not you. Listen to their input accordingly. They say this for one of two reasons:
- They love you and want to protect you from getting hurt.
- They are jealous and don’t want your successes to make them look less successful.
Throughout his career, one-by-one, he has overcome naysayers and is now able to do that more quickly and effectively than ever before. Listen in to hear the many take-aways that will undoubtedly help you to avoid those that shrink your thinking and move towards those that grow your thinking.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: nathan_jones_realtor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/homejones
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanjonesgroup/
Dealing with overwhelm is something that real estate agents must get good at. There’s no shortage of pressure from both your business world and your personal world when you are an ambitious professional in our industry.
Wendy shared how this past year, she sat on the couch and cried and told her husband Jay, “I don’t want a big life. This is too hard. I just want a small life.” Maybe you have felt that way before as well. If you are at all like Wendy, those shrinking don’t last long and you realize that you are meant to do something bigger.
So, if we can’t hide from these yearnings to live a big life, how do we deal with the, sometimes messy and difficult, pressures that are sure to come? Wendy shared her insight on how to do exactly that:
- Go to bed and wake up the next day with a renewed commitment to focus on that which matters most.
- Start your day at 5:30 and focus on gratitude, prayer, and meditation
- Workout at 6:30 together with your significant other with extreme accountability
- Hug, kiss, and love on your family while having breakfast together
- Have a team meeting at 9 to practice your scripts and role play for your lead generation efforts
- Lead generate for 90 minutes starting at 9:30 am.
- By 11 am, you’ve already had an amazing day.
In addition to this, Wendy shared the importance of calculating and scoring your net worth, so that your focus isn’t on gross commissions or fancy expenditures, but instead on building true wealth. This will cause you to get clear on that which actually brings you joy and that which is unnecessary.
This and so many more nuggets of wisdom were shared by Wendy on how to overcome overwhelm and live a big, wonderful, successful and significant life.
Finally, she shared her secret to being a big thinker and forever expanding her possibilities. The fastest way to do this, she said, is to surround yourself with other people that think bigger than you.
Additional Resources:
Empire Building Podcast
Follow me on:
Instagram: @wendypapasan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wendypapasan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/papasan/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/papasanteam
Leverage for real estate agents include people, systems, and tools. One tool that most agents might not consider to add leverage and to differentiate in the marketplace so that you can grow your business is a micro-book. While the process of writing a traditional book typically takes several years, a micro-book can be completed in just a few weeks. Today’s guest, Ben Allen who owns a publishing house and has helped hundreds of professionals grow their business through writing a book gives us great insight.
Ben and I discussed several additional reasons why a professional would write a book, chich included:
- Generating leads
- Building brand in advance of people actually meeting you
- Insulating your margins as you are recognized as the expert
- Being able to be in more places at more times
- Helping you rise above the threats of artificial intelligence (BTW- they are currently writing algorithms that would allow artificial intelligence to take the place of a traditional CEO. If they can do that with a CEO, the likelihood of them doing the same for our jobs is high)
Beyond just the time commitment, Ben also highlighted some of the reasons why it doesn’t make sense to write a long book, which include:
- Research shows that most people only read the first 20 pages of books
- No other industry spends that much time creating a product without market-testing it
Ben closed out by sharing his secrets to being a big thinker, which included a charge to follow the energy in your life. If you feel energetic about a particular cause, it’s because that’s what the world needs from you and you should run towards that, even if that entails spending a few minutes each day discovering how you can dedicate yourself to that.
Additional Resources: (please add these)
tonicbooks.online
https://bcallenpublishing.lpages.co/microbookcourse
Follow me on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tonicbooks/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/microbookmovement/
Alisha Simpkins has overcome all odds. She overcame life as a homeless, teenage mom with custody of her siblings. She overcame thinking that nice vacations and things could offset her not being present with her husband and children. She overcame alcoholism, which numbed herself from her inadequacies and her woes. She now has thriving relationships and has one of the most successful real estate businesses in Northern California. Her story will undoubtedly inspire you, your children, and any others that want to change their lives.
Some of the key lessons that you’ll hear:
- Your destiny is not set. You get to choose how your life turns out.
- You can take whatever disadvantage you’ve been given and improve upon it for the next generation.
- I am a product of my mom having stepped up to also, overcome all odds as a teenage mom
- Humility is not weakness. Humility is strength.
- Humility allows God and others to offer their help.
- Buying nice vacations and things for our family don’t take the place of us being present in the lives of our children.
- Just as a coach helps us in our business counselor can act as a marriage and parenting coach to help us see and overcome our blindspots
- If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.
- Fill your life with podcasts, books and courses that help you to Think Bigger
Be sure and sign up for the class on September 2nd at 12 noon here: https://bit.ly/empiremom
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @alishasimpkins
https://www.facebook.com/alisha.simpkins.1
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisha-simpkins-3173278/
Website: https://www.alishasimpkins.com/
Mindset lessons from Randy Sebastian, President of Renaissance Homes is jam-packed with lessons to help you think bigger.
There’s a theme through Randy’s life, extending back to the day that he decided to become a homebuilder to when he decided on the shores of Lake Coeur d'alene that he would do an Iron-Man Triathlon. When you see something that you want to do, when you see something that you want to have, don’t hesitate. Just commit, get started, seek out good coaches and help while you put in the work day after day.
In this episode Randy also shares:
- His background story of how he got started as a homebuilder
- His philosophy that has given them the reputation of building the best homes
- The lesson for all of us with his ability to decide, commit, and then go to to work
- His predictions for the Portland housing market and why
- The day he decided to do an Iron-Man triathlon
- The day he decided to get back into bodybuilding
- The fuel behind successfully doing both bodybuilding and triathlons
- The program for real estate agents that Renaissance continues to get the best lots
- What he does to continue to be a big thinker and expand his possibilities
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @renaissancehomes
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/randy.sebastian.77
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaissancehomes/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/RenaissanceHomesPDX/
“Alexa, tell me about this home.” “Tell me about the schools.” “Tell me about the local restaurants.” “Why are the owner selling this home.” Imagine having that conversation happening inside of one of your listings with Alexa strategically placed in the most beautiful room of that home. Imagine being able to get instant feedback for your sellers as to what questions were asked, thereby giving you additional data to market and sell this listing and others in the neighborhood. Pretty cool, huh?
On today’s show I interviewed Justin Cullifer the founder of Glass House Guide. Tune in to hear how this will help you get more listings, sell more homes, as well as offer a stark warning to agents on the need to rise above the value that artificial intelligence can offer.
Here are the key takeaways from my exploration of this tremendous software:
- Currently, there are over 100M Alexa powered devices just in the U.S.
- Alexa and similar voice powered artificial intelligence is not going away. It’s only going to get better and penetrate more homes and our lives in more ways. People are going to become more and more comfortable with this technology and will rely on it more heavily.
- Consumers are relying more and more heavily on real estate technology
- Embracing this technology will set you apart as a leader in innovation and help you to get more listings as you share its capabilities as value adds to the homeowner
- You’ll have additional content ideas, both by sharing that you use the service, and by sharing results and data that you get from using the service
- It will give you added leverage to be in more places at once
- Gives you another talking point with neighbors as you look to get additional listings around your existing listings
- It will act as a constant reminder that there are technologies being built that are taking what you used to get paid to do. It may sound gruesome, but if you don’t innovate, your margins and then your career will die.
I look forward to hearing your feedback as you use the service.
The promo code “ThinkBigger” will provide our audience with 1-month free service.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @theglasshouseguide
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/glasshouseguide/?__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARCZLq9vyIU8TDixc_1h_Fn4HpTM75UDx1RaUdYqyFtfuGm7xwnzv-YqapFhyRiDwIKZs_S27h4-T15m
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justincullifer/
Website: https://www.glasshouseguide.com/
Episode 200! Oh, my goodness, this is a milestone. You know, it's one very small milestone along a very long road. I had to stop for just a minute and say thank you to some people, and also revisit the purpose of why I do this. So that's what we're gonna talk about today.
Number one, I want to thank you, the audience for listening, I wouldn't be nearly as inspired to get up and do this day in and day out if I wasn't getting feedback, if I wasn't getting lots and lots of downloads, if I wasn't seeing response in people, that it was actually moving the needle for people. I would be less inclined to continue to commit myself so deeply to this cause. So thank you for listening. I take your attention very seriously, I realize that there are so many pulls on it. I want to be sure that there's always an extreme ROI on every minute, every second you spend with me, listening to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I want there to be a return to where you walk away thinking bigger, living bigger.
Number two, I want to thank Old Republic Title. And Steve Yeager, who runs the Oregon operation and who have in essence, been a sponsor to the show. They have inspired and empowered me to take this show to another level, and I'm grateful for them and always will be grateful for them. So thank you. What an amazing brand and company I'm just so fortunate to be affiliated with them. They've provided me with the most amazing support.
And next step I want to talk about why I do this. It's very important to me that when I wake up day in and day out, that I am energetic, about what I'm doing that I'm not oh TGIF I can't wait til the week's over, cause I'm so glad to be done working. No, I actually want to be excited to get up and work on Saturday because I love what I do. And this has allowed me to do that. And here's why; it's because my mission and this show are completely aligned, that is to wake you up to the potential inside of you. You've heard me say this before, the greatest untapped natural resource in the world that has the ability to do more good for mankind than any other is untapped human potential, period. Each and every one of us live in bondage to small thinking, that small thinking creates small actions. And those small actions create small impact. When we start to recognize the potential inside of us, we start to wake up, we start to realize, wow, I could actually think a lot bigger, act a lot bigger, do a lot bigger things. And impact a lot bigger. My mission again is to wake you up day in and day out when I do these episodes is to help wake you up to that.
Number two, my objective is to inspire you to live in pursuit of that potential. So once you recognize the potential, it's to help you get up every day and and to be inspired to want to live in pursuit of that. But I realize that we're not going to reach that this life that we're not actually going to reach our potential, but to be living with a forward lean, to be living leaning forward, towards that, day in and day out. Aggressively pursuing that which is inside of us.
Number three, it's to help you. So first, it's to help wake you up. Number two is to inspire you to where you want to live in pursuit of that. And number three, is to actually help you, to give you the tools to give you the conversations, the models, the strategies the tactics to where you actually can unlock these log jams that you have, these traffic jams that you have in your mind and in your business. That is a key passion of what I'm working to bring to the table primarily to the real estate industry although I know our audience is spreading far beyond that, and that there's a lot so much applicable stuff that we're sharing this industry that parlays so well into other industries. So those three things again, wake you up number one, two inspiring you to make you want to live in pursuit of that. Number three, help you live in pursuit of that.
Then this is the grand finale. So that you can live, give and serve abundantly. Now what I mean by that is living abundantly. I know you and I both have certain things that we would love to do, but we are always having to run everything through a money filter, I would love to do that but I can't afford it. I would love to take my family there. No, not for me. It's not gonna happen. Now I don't want you to go into debt to do those things, but I want you to begin to say, not yet. Not yet, but I'm on the path to where we start to live abundantly, we can see it in our mind. We're creating it in our mind and then we're going to create it in real life. So live and give abundantly, you and I both have causes we're deeply passionate about. For me it's ending human trafficking, and there are so many amazing causes out there. It pains me when I see fundraisers, and I can only give a tiny bit. It pains me when there are people in this world that are living without clean water, for example and I can't contribute very much to that cause or as much as I would like. I want to be able to give abundantly I want you to be able to give abundantly.
Thirdly, to serve abundantly, live, give and serve abundantly. To where if you get asked to go on a mission trip overseas you get the opportunity to go. If you get asked to spend the day at the food bank, you don't have to think, well, I can't do it because I have to work because I need the money. No, I want you to be able to serve abundantly. My vision is that millions of people across the globe are living, giving and serving abundantly, because of the ability that I had to wake them up. Because of the ability that I had to inspire them and help them to live in pursuit of their great potential. That's what this is all about. Yes, we share tips and tactics around the real estate industry, but at the core, at the foundational level of everything that I'm doing, my aim is to see you living, giving and serving abundantly, thinking bigger, recognizing and living in pursuit of your greatest potential.
That's what I'm about. That's what this is about. And if you can get on board with that, then I would encourage you to keep listening and share this with other people. Because we are creating a movement of people who see it that way and want to be a part of that. Thank you for listening. I love you. I'm all in on you. I'm all in on you. And I'm excited to continue to help you to think bigger.
Unlock your potential through coaching with Pat Mancuso. Do you realize that you’re your own worst enemy? In order to protect you, your subconscious mind is wired to keep you away from uncomfortable things. So, even though you set goals and make plans, as soon as you start to move in the direction of achieving those goals, your subconscious mind begins to work against you.
So, how do you overcome yourself?
You have to get help from outside of yourself. You need someone that can help give you clarity and then provide accountability. You need a coach.
Pat and I discuss:
- What led Pat into coaching
- Some of what he’s learned in coaching thousands of people
- How to unlock our potential as individuals including:
- The importance of clarity
- The importance of accountability
- The importance of having goals be more than just numbers but connect with people on an emotional level
- How to unlock your potential as an organization including:
- Having the right people in the right spots
- Continuing to offer them training
- Offering them clarity and accountability so that they can be moving in the direction of their potential while helping the team to be doing the same
- What Pat does to continue to be a Big Thinker and expand his possibilities
In short, this episode will not only change your paradigm about the coaching model, but it also has the potential to change the way that you look at and pursue your own personal and professional growth.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patjmancuso
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patmancuso/
Subtle Words that Sell With Paul Ross will change your career and your life. As one who passionately serves the real estate industry, I regularly see people who are living far below their potential because they are letting the topic of “sales” get in their way. To them, the fear of being “salesy” is enough to keep them on the sidelines and off track from living in pursuit of their professional and personal potential.
In this episode, Paul and I discuss:
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How to use 4 subtle words to establish unbreakable trust in 60 seconds.
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How to smash objections through the power of pattern interrupts.
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The most effective and easiest way to maintain a masterful mindset.
For those that are single, Paul throws in a touch of insight into his work as a dating coach in which he used this same knowledge of the human brain to help others to get unstuck in that area of their life as well.
Finally, Paul answered the signature question of the show, which revolved around how to be ever-curious, always asking questions and then seeking the answers.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/speakerpaulross
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/speakerpaulross/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/569806836993226/
Do real estate agents actually get business from Instagram or is it just a distraction from real work? If you’ve ever sputtered in your Instagram efforts, or not seen any direct results, you’ve likely had that thought.
The reality is that anything that we do inconsistently or without using proper methods will offer us lackluster results. Enter top Instagram coach, Michelle Berman, offering an easy to understand philosophy and framework and it now becomes much easier to show up on Instagram consistently and effectively.
Michelle and I discussed:
- The Power Instagram Method has now replaced traditional grassroots marketing and Zillow leads
- How to create a niche, identify your target audience and CRUSH the 4 types of content you need to make
- A close friends list and why it is the secret to staying top of mind
- Using Instagram to get leads that are on FIRE for you!
- How to sell in your Dm’s without being salesey
Within the Think Bigger Real Estate Facebook Group, we have posted Michelle’s Instagram Power Method which will give you a framework from which you can begin to get real benefits from Instagram.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @bermanmediasocial
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bermanmediapd/
Website: https://www.bermanmediapd.com/InstagramPowerMethodRoadMap
Sharon Drew Morgen is the author of NY Times Best-Selling book Selling with Integrity. She has trained major corporations around the world on a different paradigm and approach to sales, one that is truly servant-based.
Within the Think Bigger Real Estate Facebook Group, I will be sharing an essay that Sharon Drew Morgen wrote that will continue to help you to take your ability to gain trust to an all new level.
Her approach, Buying Facilitation® is quite a bit different than 'sales' and I know leaders and coaches use it as much as sales folks do. The difference is that we focus on helping them make the decisions that are right for their situation as opposed to trying to get them to do something. It takes all manipulation out of the picture. You’re gaining their trust by helping them to trust their own ability to make the right decision.
When most sales people work to give them compelling information that would help them understand why they should choose us, we start to identify the problem. Sales has always been based on US uncovering the need for US based on who we are, our reputation, and what we can do for them.
Instead, this approach causes the prospect to give the following feedback:
- I really trusted you
- I never felt pushed, you proactively approached me but were not aggressive in selling at all.
- You really got me to think about how I'd choose you and I found myself trusting you because you put it all back to me.
You can learn more at www.sharondrewmorgen.com.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharondrewmorgen/
Website: www.sharondrewmorgen.com
In 2008, Darin Dawson, now the Co-Founder and CEO of BombBomb, had no idea how relevant and timely and important his service would be amidst a global pandemic. Across the world, relationship-based businesses were told that being face to face with their clients would no longer be safe and advisable. Thank goodness for BombBomb, which allows professionals to rehumanize their brand and keep their most valuable asset, their face, in front of their clients.
On this episode, Darin and I discuss
- How BombBomb came to be--the startup story
- The difference between a product and an offer and why you must have offers to win
- The perils of automation
- What to do to blend in and have a mediocre business
- The definition of marketing
- What to do to stand out and be remembered
- A great way to start your BombBomb video of an unsolicited CMA
- The importance of the Google Chrome Extension
- Ideas for the screen recording function
- What Darin does to continue to be a big thinker
Learning from someone like Darin will not only make you smarter, but will help you to better appreciate the timeliness and relevance of the problem that they are positioned to solve as well as any product on the market.
Additionally, Darin sent some valuable PDFs that will help you to get the most out of your BombBomb service.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @BombBomb
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darindawson
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/darin-dawson-6a62351/
Website: https://bombbomb.com/c/
Oftentimes we think that we've been cheated or we've been robbed, because it's hard, because we have to go through difficult things, and that somebody has wronged us because we don't have a totally easy paved path in front of us. And I'm here to tell you that if that's the way that you look at life, then you're going to have a lot of very disappointing days. The trick is to realize that occasionally there's going to be really easy times, but also to realize that with difficulty and adversity, there are rays of sunshine and wonderful stress free times. Then in the stressful times, we find tremendous growth. And in growth, we find happiness.
The reality is we are designed to grow. We are designed to progress we are designed to get better. And the way that we do that is through adversity and challenges and overcoming those we strengthen our physical as well as our spiritual and our mindset muscles. I want each of you just to internalize that lesson, the same lesson I taught my kids and I'm teaching myself as I share this with you is that if it if it were easy, it wouldn't actually be good for us. We have to not only recognize that there are going to be adverse experiences coming to us, but we have to learn to embrace them, to actually be excited about difficulty. I don't know if you'll ever be excited about it, but you need to at least be excited about the results.
The hope is that, this is actually good for me. I'm going to be a stronger person, I'm going to have a story to tell, I'm going to be able to lift myself beyond this and gain strength and doing so and I'm going to be able to be a strength to other people. When we come out the other side, we recognize the fact that we have overcome and are the better for it.
The reality is when we start to go through difficulties and challenges our level of gratitude for even the simple good things in our life goes way up, we become less entitled, we become less angry at the success of other people, we become more grateful for the successes that we've had. We become happier, more productive people who are better able to serve those around them.
In a tight inventory and high demand housing market, agents that struggle getting listings are finding it a struggle to close business. With multiple offer situations abounding, the only agent in the transaction that is sure to get paid is the one listing the home.
So, the obvious question becomes, how do you position yourself to get more listings? Although that’s always the question, it may be more critical now than ever before.
Enter Kevin Owens, a top 1% real estate agent out of Phoenix, Arizona who has closed over 60 transactions from his geographical farm. What are his secrets? What does he do to create all of that? This episode is rich with his template for what it takes to be successful with your geographic farm.
His secrets include:
- Choosing a farm that is big enough
- How to be consistent with your farm
- Why your marketing is critical
- Why you must be IN your marketing
- Why direct marketing is critical
- Why digital marketing is also marketing
Within the Think Bigger Real Estate Facebook Group, Kevin will be sharing a marketing piece that he claims, “Will make your phone ring.”
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @kevinownesrealtor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/azrealtorkevin/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/owenskevin/
Website: https://www.fineazliving.com/
There’s no question that we are living in uncertain times. COVID-19, political and social unrest, uncertainty in this upcoming school year, all added on to an extremely busy and competitive real estate market is causing many in the real estate industry to be experiencing high levels of stress. Dealing with stress for real estate agents is critical for long-term as well as short term reasons. Dr. Kryzia Olsen, a naturopathic physician and acupuncturist shares how to identify signs that you are stressed and then tips to deal with it.
Signs that you’re stressed include:
- Gaining losing weight
- Not sleeping well
- Digestive problems
Tips for dealing with stress:
- Schedule time to play, guilt free
- Engage in deep belly breathing
- Avoid snacking, which doesn’t allow your internal digestive system to properly clean your system
- Go to bed around 10 pm
- Exercise
- And many others…
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @drkryzia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kryzia
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kryziaolsen/
Website: https://kwanyinhealingarts.com/providers/dr-kryzia-olsen-nd-lac/
Here are some things that I want you to understand about learning, growing and pursuing happiness.
You know, for the longest time, I believed that I was learning thoroughly, deeply by listening to audiobooks by listening to podcasts. This type of learning stimulates the brain to entertainment, and to spark some new ideas. But it's not enough to change you to the level that you need to change.
Just upon beginning to work from home as a result of the COVID-19 I found that I had less time in the car and more time to focus on sitting and reading, I now read 10 pages a day. That was given to me by a mentor of mine, Jeff Olson, who said, if you'll just read 10 pages a day, every day, you'll be amazed at how quickly you learn and how quickly you get ahead and the compound the effect that this will have upon your life. So I took up the challenge, and I now read 10 pages a day every day. In a book, I have finished multiple books since I heard that.
It's had a really interesting impact upon me. My surface learning has been replaced with deep learning. Deep Learning has allowed me not just to flirt with the information, but to date it, to marry it, to build a relationship with the information that I'm getting from these books. Here's why; in order for you to change you've got to actually create When we create something when we speak, when we teach, when we draw, when we write, it takesdeeper levels of our cognitive capacity to create than it does to consume.
When we are listening to audiobooks, for example, or podcasts, it's more difficult to create with it unless we have the discipline of stopping pausing, writing down what we're learning, if we just simply consume, again, it's a surface level communication. But if we stop and actually underline and write in the margins, And teach that to somebody else. Now all of a sudden, we've gone from being a consumer to being a creator. The moment that we turn into a creator, we gain power. We are given the ability to change ourselves and to change other people.
I would encourage you to consider your own morning routine. My guess is that for many of my listeners, you, like me, have less time in the car. If this is true, if you're spending less time in the car, whether it be getting to or from work or two are from appointments, then I want you to find the time create the time to actually read.
You will start to see the world differently. So that's what education really does. It's not just that you're taking information from someone else's book and putting it into your brain. You start to recognize the world around you at a deeper level, because you're a deeper person. Things that we've put into our brain, create a filter or a lens through which we see the world around us.
So the takeaway from this is, you need to read and create. Now you might say, I don't read. Okay, listen and create, write and share what you have learned. Because in a knowledge economy, surface level thinking is not going to get you what you want.
Is the year 2020 going to be the year that you decide to be a better spouse, partner, parent, worker, business owner, athlete - the list goes on and on. We have a unique opportunity to hit reset on all of it and rebuild or improve upon where we are now.
Ask yourself these three things:
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Am I living the life I want to live in the following areas:
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Family/Relationships
- Spiritually
- Your mindset
- Your body, health and fitness
- Work
-
Finances
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Of those areas which is the one that could benefit my life the most dramatically if I improved it?
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What is the one thing I can do to have the greatest impact on that area of my life?
Now go do it!
It becomes a bit of a badge of honor saying I haven't had a vacation in 20 years. I hear real estate agents say that. And I never am impressed by that. Or they say I work through any vacation. Another one is I've never taken the day off. I really think that your body and your mind, your business, your relationships, your health and your everything will be better if you take vacations.
Let me explain why. Your body is designed, not be running a marathon from when you are born to when you die. Your body is designed to run a series of sprints. We do not go days on end with no sleep, right? We get up. We are awake anywhere from what 16 to 18 hours a day, right? And then we sleep and our body is out cold for a period of time. Okay, and then with meals as well, we eat right, we fill our bodies with food. And then we go for a time without food. We're designed to be sprinters, not marathoners. It's cliche to say life's a marathon, not a sprint, right. Life is not designed for us to never take a break our bodies are designed to turn off and turn on.
So if you're not taking vacations, you're actually sabotaging your own success and your own happiness. Now, what do we mean by a vacation? I mean, you actually have systems in place to where you can turn it off. I know that's really hard for some of you, I know it's hard for me. Yet, I would encourage you to go somewhere where you don't have cell service at least once a year. Maybe that's on a cruise ship. Maybe it's way up in the mountains. Right now I'm headed right now over to Central Oregon, where my oldest four children I will be hiking, we're definitely going off the grid.There will be no cell service and I'm going to turn off my phone. I'll have autoresponders on and people in place to catch urgent matters that come up. I know that when I come back, I'm going to be better, I'm going to be stronger, I'm going to be invigorated.
There's no shortage of people who give their all literally their all to their career. Under the guise of I'm doing this for my family but if they lose their family in the process then they're left to be alone. Or those people that do it all to get the life that they want. What if then they don't have the health to actually enjoy it?
I want you to take a vacation, even if it's vacation at night. Ricky Carruth one of my mentors talks about how he turns it off five o'clock every night. The only reason he doesn't is if he has a very important listing or showing appointment, but his office work all the other stuff, he turns off. Find a way to take time off so you don't give up those things in life that matter more than business like health, your relationships, your spirituality, your purpose in life. It could even be having your evenings be free from work, or a weekend now and again free from work. These practices will make you better and your business will be stronger. Of course there are urgent times where you have to be on and you have to take care of clients who may be coming in from out of town.
The takeaway that I want you to have from this is for you to schedule your next vacation right now, if it's not already on the books, then you need to schedule it. You need to schedule your vacation so that you become your best self, so you don't miss out on those things in life, that you work so hard for.
Day One Dollar Zero Podcasts hosts Eli Schmidt and Will Grimes brought tremendous value to anyone that wants to build a great business without having to buy leads or constantly ask their sphere for referrals. They do this through the way in which they market. Their marketing includes attraction-based principles of documenting their life in things both personal and business. By being on and sharing our own improvement journey, not only do we help people in more things than just real estate, we also keep top of mind outside of the real estate transaction and end up attracting more people like us.
Follow us on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dayonedollarzero/
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/day-one-dollar-zero/id1471479022
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcB4JJm3ArJwqhrnmvIkJ-Q
The luxury home market update for Portland, Oregon that Emile Bonfiglio gave to us wasn’t even the main topic of the show, but it was deeply insightful. What was even more valuable for your business was Emile’s perspective on the definition of good marketing, a case for print, a case for telling powerful stories in your marketing, and how he’s really gotten ahead in life and business.
As the Publisher and Owner of Luxury Home Magazine for Oregon and SW Washington he’s got a lot to offer on all of these topics. Some of the most valuable takeaways from my conversation with Emile were:
- His favorite part about being a dad
- Is print marketing dead
- Luxury home market update for Portland, Oregon
- Where people are moving and why
- What he does to think bigger and expand his possibilities: put in the work even when it’s not fun and others want to quit. You have to have the staying power to stay with it and you will get ahead.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @LuxuryHomeMagPDX
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LHMOregon/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilebonfiglio/
In her own words, here is Gogo’s story:
“I came to the US in 2003 to build my American Dream. By process of elimination; after trying to work in data entry in a warehouse, a sales rep in a jewelry store, restaurant food safety auditor to stay at home mom, to waitress; my neighbor recommended I’ll be a Realtor. She referred me to a local brokerage. They offered me a job if I pass my test. I did and I was so excited to be a Realtor! Reality kicked me in the a** very quickly. Realized over 80% of the Realtors give up in the 1st year. I was not about to be a statistic. But I was also broke, no SOI, no experience, barely speaking english with $6 to my name. So that left me with nothing else but Facebook at the time. That’s where I started. I created Gogo’s Real Estate and my real estate career started! It took me a few years to get the rhythm of things but I’m proud to say with the power of social media I’ve sold over $56M in residential real estate transactions.
I share the good, the bad, and the ugly side of real estate, and my honest snippets into my every day got me tens of thousands of followers and in the real estate community I earned the nickname “the social media Queen”. More and more I got asked to talk at different real estate events teaching Realtors how to build a brand and become their own lead generating magnet. I also built a social media bootcamp for Realtors so I can help thousands of agents at the same time. You can find it at www.gogosbootcamp.com.
Throughout my career I’ve been with 3 brokerages. Real Estate One was my 1st one and stayed with them for 6.5 years. I got recruited all the time but I had it so good at REO, I really had no reason to switch. Then because my Instagram and Facebook following took off, most followers being agents, Keller Williams got to me with their “profit share” model. So February 2018 I switched to KW. But profit share opened my eyes to “revenue share” and in Nov 2018, I switched to Exp Realty. It was a great business decision, maybe the best in my career. Today I have a team of 160+ agents and are growing nationwide.
My goal is to help as many agents as I possibly can to make a name for themselves in this cut-throat industry. If I can do it, this girl from Transylvania, Romania with no US education, no SOI, no money, no experience, and an accent then THEY can definitely do it.”
Some of the most valuable takeaways from my conversation with Gogo were:
- How she has her Instagram and Facebook accounts set up and why
- How she has her team structured and why she chose eXp
- How often she posts and for what purpose only does she use paid advertising
- What she does to think bigger and expand her possibilities: daily visualization of her biggest goals as a current reality
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @gogosrealestate
Facebook: facebook.com/gogosrealestate
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gogobethke/
Bootcamp: Www.gogosbootcamp.com
When you hear the word branding, what comes to mind? Do you think of logos and colors? If that’s true for you, then you’re in for a real treat by hearing all about branding from a brand specialist, Brandon Gaston. Not only is this guy the best dressed man in the PNW, he understands and teaches branding at a deep and fundamental level, including ensuring that it aligns with your legacy and deeper purpose. Some of the most valuable takeaways from my conversation with Brandon were:
- Branding is less about the external and more about the internal, about how you show up and your confidence level
- People are buying your confidence to solve their problems.
- As a real estate agent, having people be able to affirm that ‘yes, you look like you could buy the house that you’re selling’
- The differentiation that wardrobe offers you, especially in the PNW
- Clarify your avatar and everything else gets easier
- And so much more...
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @thelifestylist
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.gaston.547
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandongaston/
Website: theconnectorsway.com
Many of the best real estate agents and mortgage loan officers in the industry have built their business by being face to face in coffee meetings, lunches, business mixers, client events and through in-person pop-bys. So, in times of a global pandemic, when it may not be as welcomed or safe to be face to face with others, should an agent develop a new gameplan in getting business?
Best-selling author of The Connector’s Way shares very important do’s and don’ts when it comes to times such as these. He teaches the art of empathy as well as the need to show up to give, not to get. Additionally he shared three very simple R’s of making an impact now:
- Reviews- give online reviews of those businesses that need your support.
- Recommendations- connect with all of your clients and referral partners on LinkedIn and go give recommendations to
- Referrals- give referrals and introduce two people within your network to each other that would find benefit from knowing each other.
Additional Resources: (please add these)
Follow me on:
Instagram: @patrickgalvin
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patrick.s.galvin
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickgalvin/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/thegalvanizingroup/
Website: theconnectorsway.com
Eric Sachs of Breakthrough Broker not only created one of the most valuable resources known to the real estate industry, but on this episode goes into teaching how to implement, how to get rid of the “I should do xyz” that we all live with.
Some of the topics that we discuss include:
- How self-determination and will power is like a reservoir
- 461,000 real estate agents are on the service
- It is a free to use service, monetized by others that advertise on the platform
- Eric shares a productivity hack for overcoming the ineffective task lists
- Justin shares an analogy of the last 100 meters of a race being amazing for the fans in the stands, but difficult for the person on the track and how that applies to getting things done
- Eric shares what he does to continue to be a big thinker and expand his possibilities
Additional Resources: (please add these)
Follow me on:
Instagram: @eric.sachs
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eric.sachs.96
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esachs/
Website: https://www.breakthroughbroker.com/
Relaunch Your Business with Wayne Salmans. Whether COVID-19 or some other challenging situation has dealt your business a setback, understanding the principles of relaunching your business is one of the most important skills that a business owner must face. Author, Coach, and Founder of Hero Nation, Wayne Salmans goes into detail as to how to relaunch your business.
Coach Wayne has created a company and a movement helping others to become the hero of their own lives. In our interview, he not only shares valuable mindset training, but he also shares the four principles that allow business owners to recover from any setback they experience in their business.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @waynesalmans
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waynes.salmans/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waynesalmans/
Unlock your potential with Design Hacker Kathryn Jones. In one of my all-time favorite episodes, Kathryn shares hers and my shared passion for helping people to wake up to recognize the potential within them. In fact, when I heard her say this on another podcast, it resonated deep within me and I knew that those were the words that I was looking for to describe the impact that I wanted to make in the world. You can only imagine how excited I was to interview her on this very topic.
Kathryn has created a movement of fellow design-hackers which exists to help her people create messages that convert. Far beyond teaching people to fix their ugly funnels and websites, her greatest impact has been in helping people to awaken to the potential within them.
Three key areas that Kathryn calls “doctrines of her movement” include: We exist to have joy, and lots of it. If you’re not pursuing a course that is giving you great joy, then you need to rethink your course.
- We must awaken to our own potential.
- The significance of the acronym ‘awaken’ and how to go about pursuing significance in all areas of life.
- Changing your story so that your life path aligns with the outcome you really want.
I mean this when I say it, internalizing what Kathryn teaches will change your life.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @mskathrynjones
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mskathrynjones
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mskathrynjones/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/designhackersofficial/
All too often, we as business professionals don’t answer the question in advance, “What is the life I’m actually trying to build?” Instead, we put our heads down and go to work. When you have a strong and smart leader, one like Katie Hardman, you are asked to answer questions like:
- Fast forward to the end of 2020 and imagine that this year has been a total success. What has to happen in order for you to say that in the form of quality of life and income generated?
- How much time off did I take? Why was that important to me and how did that make me feel?
- What vacations did I go on? Why was that important to me and how did that make me feel?
- How much money did I save, or debt did I pay down? Why was that important to me and how did that make me feel?
- With this in mind, how much business do I need to close and how much time off do I need to take?
- What is the best business structure in order for me to accomplish this?
- To build that business, who are the best people for me to follow and learn from in order to accomplish this?
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @katiehardman_
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katiedahlheim
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-hardman-2a68a470/
Great Real Estate Marketers. With buyer demand spiking and seller inventory approaching all-time lows, the ability for a real estate agent to get listings is critical in order for an agent to be able to thrive both in business and in their quality of life. To accomplish that, it’s no longer good enough for an agent to just be good at real estate. They must also be great at marketing. Chris Smith and Jimmy Mackin, co-founders of Curaytor are some of the greatest marketers of our time. Together, we talk through philosophies, frameworks, strategies, tactics and hacks that top agents are employing now in order to get more listings in 2020.
In this episode, we discuss:
- The peril of not outsourcing your marketing to people that specialize in it
- The real cost of marketing is the opportunity cost of not doing it right and/or trying to do it yourself
- Marketing not just for cold market but for your sphere
- The definition of LTV, lifetime value of a customer and how much that is for the average real estate customer (11:30)
- Omni-channel approach to staying in touch with your clients
- When was the last time you sat down and created content for your sphere?
- Our monthly marketing plan for a month includes:
- Sellers, sellers, buyers, and past clients and sphere
- Why Zillow being better at following up with your is better at following up with your past clients right now
- What sellers are concerned with now and how to get their attention
Additional Resources: (please add these)
Follow me on:
Instagram: @chrissmth @jimmymackin
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CuraytorDotCom/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmymackin/ & https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissmithcuraytor/
Website: https://curaytor.com/demo
Summer 2020 Real Estate Market. Twenty-twenty may go down as the year we never would have expected. Amidst all of the uncertainty, the real estate market has continued it’s run with more home sales and higher prices than ever before.
Mike Simonsen, CEO and Founder of Altos Research goes into a number of different topics including:
- What the data is telling us now and the story behind why that is the case.
- What we can expect for the remaining months of 2020
- Why data is so important to separate and differentiate yourself as a real estate agent
- How to establish yourself as the local expert and how to differentiate yourself through the use of data
- What data you should be keeping your eye on
- Tips and tricks that agents are doing, using Altos Reports, to fill the top of their funnel with new opportunities and secured client relationships
- Tips and tricks to close more listing appointments from the data that is the Altos Reports.
- A sneak preview of Mike’s upcoming book, Hacking Happiness and how Thinking Bigger is scientifically proven to help make you happier.
Additional Resources: (please add these)
Follow me on:
Instagram: @mikesimonsen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michaelsimonsen
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonsen/
Website: https://altosresearch.com
The biggest problem that most entrepreneurs have isn't creating an amazing product or service; it's getting their future customers to discover that they even exist. Every year, tens of thousands of businesses start and fail because the entrepreneurs don't understand this one essential skill: the art and science of getting traffic (or people) to find you.
And that is a tragedy.
Traffic Secrets was written to help you get your message out to the world about your products and services. I strongly believe that entrepreneurs are the only people on earth who can actually change the world. It won't happen in government, and I don't think it will happen in schools.
It'll happen because of entrepreneurs like you, who are crazy enough to build products and services that will actually change the world. It'll happen because we are crazy enough to risk everything to try and make that dream become a reality.
To all the entrepreneurs who fail in their first year of business, what a tragedy it is when the one thing they risked everything for never fully gets to see the light of day.
Waiting for people to come to you is not a strategy.
Understanding exactly WHO your dream customer is, discovering where they're congregating, and throwing out the hooks that will grab their attention to pull them into your funnels (where you can tell them a story and make them an offer) is the strategy. That's the big secret.
Traffic is just people. This book will help you find YOUR people, so you can focus on changing their world with the products and services that you sell.
The biggest problem that most entrepreneurs have isn't creating an amazing product or service; it's getting their future customers to discover that they even exist. Every year, tens of thousands of businesses start and fail because the entrepreneurs don't understand this one essential skill: the art and science of getting traffic (or people) to find you.
And that is a tragedy.
Traffic Secrets was written to help you get your message out to the world about your products and services. I strongly believe that entrepreneurs are the only people on earth who can actually change the world. It won't happen in government, and I don't think it will happen in schools.
It'll happen because of entrepreneurs like you, who are crazy enough to build products and services that will actually change the world. It'll happen because we are crazy enough to risk everything to try and make that dream become a reality.
To all the entrepreneurs who fail in their first year of business, what a tragedy it is when the one thing they risked everything for never fully gets to see the light of day.
Waiting for people to come to you is not a strategy.
Understanding exactly WHO your dream customer is, discovering where they're congregating, and throwing out the hooks that will grab their attention to pull them into your funnels (where you can tell them a story and make them an offer) is the strategy. That's the big secret.
Traffic is just people. This book will help you find YOUR people, so you can focus on changing their world with the products and services that you sell.
Overcoming adversity as a real estate agent can be challenging. Terry Lajoie, a real estate agent out of New Hampshire was plugging along in her business, selling $3M/yr when everything changed. While sitting stopped at an intersection, she was rear-ended by a car going 45 miles per hour. The impact causes her head to separate from her spine, leaving her skull resting on top of C3 as opposed to aligned with it. Not knowing that this misaligned skull was the problem for over 9 months she suffered through the inability to hold a water bottle, walking with one leg dragging behind her, not being able to turn her head, and suffering severe migraines every day.
Fast forward to now, she closed over $10M this past year and is set to double that in our current year, even amidst a global pandemic and social unrest. How does one do this?
Terry gives specific examples that teach these three principles that she now fully embraces:
1) I never give up, even when the odds are stacked against me
2) I focus on finding solutions rather than dwelling on the problem
3) I'm learning based and focused on implementing what I learn
From an unfortunate comment that she overheard her mom say about her, Terry and I discussed how one person’s opinion of us is more a reflection of themselves than it our own reality and how to get to that conclusion.
We also discussed how one mistake or tragic or unfortunate event does not have to define us and our future. We are the captains of our own ships and we get to choose our own destiny.
Additional Resources:
Article Highlighting Terry’s Story: https://outfront.kw.com/agents/from-broken-to-bold-a-story-that-proves-anything-is-possible/
Follow me on:
Instagram: @lajoiehometeam
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LajoieHomeTeam
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lajoiehometeam/
Website: https://www.lajoiehometeam.com/
Think Bigger Real Estate. When you have a deeper purpose, something bigger than you, something that lights you up, you start to see real estate through a different lens. Rather than just seeing it as a way to provide an income and your basic necessities of life, you start to see it as a vehicle that can fund this deeper purpose.
In today’s episode I interview Darren Jacklin who at the young age of 47 has done the following:
- rang the closing bell at Nasdaq in New York City 2 times.
- served on the Board of Directors of a company that I helped to take from a private start up to a Billion Dollar Company and is now publicly traded on Nasdaq.
- created his own Private Family Foundation called LYNK Foundation where his vision is a capital target of a $100 Million Dollar Pledge for Global Philanthropy Projects.
- has personally trained and developed over 1 million people in 50 countries on 4 continents including 157 Fortune 500 Companies in the past 25 years.
On this episode, Darren goes through some of the fundamental principles of thinking bigger that have helped him to amass the success that he has. Specifically, we discussed:
- His habit of spending time every day thinking
- The two questions that will change everything in your life:
- In what area of my life am I not making enough of or the right requests?
- What would happen to my life if I started to make the right requests?
- How without integrity, nothing works
- His definition of integrity and how it encapsulates everything from being on time to every appointment
- How we are just a network of conversations and how to leverage that understanding to begin having different conversations with different people that bring you into an entirely new stratosphere of opportunities and success
- In life you don't get what you want, you get what you make requests for
- Networking is all about building Relationship Equity with others
- Never Assume You Aren't Being Observed
- And so much more….
I can’t wait for you to to tune in and listen to this episode. There’s so much value here, I think you’ll want to listen to it again and again. I know that’s how I feel.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @darrenjacklin1
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darrenleejacklin
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenleejacklin/
Website: https://darrenjacklin.com
Instagram Real Estate Agent. Shannon Gillette, a top 1% real estate agent out of Arizona closed 70 deals last year as a solo agent. Her only leverage is her videographer and her transaction coordinator. “How does she do that?” you ask. She works hard, and she leverages the power of Instagram.
When I asked Shannon how many of those 70 deals would not have come without her presence on Instagram, she said, “I think all of them were influenced by my IG presence. My own friends wouldn’t even know that I’m a real estate agent if I wasn’t consistently showing up there.
One of the key things that Shannon says real estate agents do wrong when it comes to their Instagram presence is that they treat it like a commercial rather than a TV show. She recommended rarely talking about your closings and listings and all of the stuff that you would say or do to advertise your business. She even recommended that you not put photos of homes with the words “Sold” or “Just Listed” over the top.
The key instead, is to just give the play-by-play of your life both inside and outside of work. She recommended at least 10 story segments each day and then to use the posted pictures, or tiles for more highlight pictures. .
She said one of the biggest things that holds people up is that they don’t feel comfortable right away doing video or speaking on Instagram to a small audience. As a result, they don’t ever start. She recommended that with anything in life, we have anxiety about starting something new and that in order to stay relevant in the world in which we live, we must overcome these anxieties and get comfortable doing it.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shannon_gillette/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shannon.gillette.7/timeline?lst=558898596%3A1422960549%3A1591729201
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-gillette-75260b9/
Website: https://www.gillettegroupaz.com/
Think Bigger in Real Estate. When we get around people that are doing significantly more business than we ever dreamed of doing, something inside of us changes. Our perspective on what’s possible for us also changes. The goals that once seemed like a stretch at the beginning of the year, those same goals that now seemed impossible with our current global pandemic and social unrest, all of a sudden seem much more possible.
Here are some of the topics that we discussed:
- What if you spent 90% of your time on these three primary activities: lead generation, lead follow-up and lead conversion? What different results would you be able to accomplish. What people, systems and tools would you need to have in place in order to make that happen?
- How to spot and capitalize on a short-sale market
- What the primary role of a leader should be
- Why a coach should do more business than the one being coached
Additional Resources:
Text the words clubwealth to: 727-287-5993 and you’ll get 17 lead generation tactics
Follow me on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.hellickson
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhellickson/
Website: https://clubwealth.com
Optimism and real estate. Emerging from a global pandemic while right in the throes of social unrest, we are living in unique times. Like maybe never before are we in need of optimistic leaders who will step up and help us to see the good in the world and the opportunities that continue to abound. Terry Sprague is one of those leaders who will inspire you to be want to be one as well.
Some of the topics that we discussed were:
- Terry’s story of going from financial advisor professional to a sailor and artist in the Caribbean to starting a real estate company with a different culture and focus.
- Why he chose to align with the Christie’s brand.
- The conversations he’s having with active buyers and sellers, including helping even those on the other side of the transaction to think outside of the box to seize opportunities like a spread in stock market trading vs projected future values
- How he sees the co-op agent and that relationship and ways he improves that relationship
- What he’s doing to insulate himself against industry disruption.
- Why he’s optimistic and specific things he does to remain that way
- What he does to continue to think bigger and expand his own possibilities.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Luxe.ChristiesInternationalRealty/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terryspraguebrokerowner/
Website: https://luxecir.com
Fit real estate agent. That’s what every professional in the industry aspires to be. Yet, with urgent timelines, non-traditional working hours and a myriad of client and family demands, finding time to be fit can be challenging. I was honored today to bring on to the show, a friend and the owner and founder of Muscles in Motion, Diana Del Garbino, to teach us how to proceed.
For those that don’t know Diana, she worked as a police officer on the SWAT team in Southern California prior to founding Muscles in Motion and so she understands the need to be healthy and strong more than most. Additionally, Diana recently had a major surgery that didn’t go well and doctors said that had she not been as strong and healthy as she is, she would not have survived. Along those same lines, with COVID-19 wreaking havoc on the health of millions of people around the world, being healthy or unhealthy is no longer just something that may catch up to us at some point down the road. It may very well be a life or death situation for any one of us at any time.
Some of the topics that we discussed were:
- Why being healthy is so important.
- The things that we are missing out on by not having the strength and energy to engage in them.
- Just how great life can be when we are healthy and fit.
- A change of paradigm around exercise. We can workout at a more intense pace fewer days and for less time than we think. If done right, moving every day and then focused workouts for 2 days a week for just 30 minutes can help us progress towards being healthy and fit.
- Nutrition- eat healthy food that you like, but don’t go back for seconds.
- Sleep- go to bed without electronics at the same time. You can’t underestimate the value of sleep on your ability to think, have good judgment, reason, process, and eat in proper proportions.
The late Jim Rohn once said: “If you don’t take care of our body, where are you going to live? To which I would add, if you don’t take care of your body, how are you ever going to live the life that you actually want to live?
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Facebook:
LinkedIn:
Website: mymusclesinmotion.com
Real estate agent closing gift ideas. Mark Lukes and his company Silent Marketing Solution solve at least three problems for agents when it comes to closing gifts. The first, what do I get my clients that they actually want. Second, how do I do it in a way that is memorable and keeps reminding them of me. Third, how do I do it affordably and in a way that is easy for an agent to get prior to closing.
Some of the topics that we discussed were:
- A metaphor for gaining “mindshare”
- Why closing gifts are the perfect opportunity
- Where agents often go wrong in getting closing gifts
- The customer retention rate of most real estate agents
- How closing gifts can be a solution for real estate agents to retain their customers
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-lukes/
Website: https://www.silentmarketingsolution.com/
Stacy Bahrenfuss, the Limitless Agent. At the young age of 19 Stacy entered the real estate industry. Since then she’s purchased a development where she built 11 custom homes, been a solo agent, built a team, built a brokerage, and now inspires agents in her brokerage and through her Limitless Realtor Circle coaching group. In this episode we dig into what a limitless mindset is and how you get it. We discuss what to do when we’re not feeling confident and what we can do to inspire others to be more confident.
Some of the topics that we discussed were:
- Mindset is the foundation. Many know the tactics and strategies but don’t use them. Why? Because they’re missing the mindset piece. They’re missing the confidence.
- There are people listening today that have a time but are finding their teammates uninspired. There are two things to which you should pay attention:
- Your own mood and how you show up around them. Are you inspiring them?
- Your direct conversations with them. Are you telling them how you really feel about their potential and their performance?
- What to do when you’ve outgrown your leadership and the agents around you and still want to keep thinking bigger.
Find Stacy on:
https://limitlessrealtorcircle.com/
https://www.catalystidaho.com/
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CatalystGroupID
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacybahrenfuss/
Instagram: @stacybahrenfuss
Consistent and Predictable Income for Real Estate Agents. Dan Rochon, author of Real Estate Evolution - The 10 Step Guide to C.P.I (Consistent and Predictable Income) shares how to reprogram your subconscious mind so that you actually believe that you can and deserve to be very successful, simple hacks that he utilizes to keep his calendar full of listing appointments, and how lead generation for your next client is one of the critical ways that you take care of your existing clients.
Some of the topics that we discussed were:
- The difference between your vision and affirmations
- The thing that sabotages your affirmations
- How to actually believe that your affirmations will work and what to do when you don’t believe. Hint, you actually have to do them and then you have to actually believe them once you do them.
- What your calendar should look like in order to have 3 listing appointments each week. Three hours of lead generation *with the intent of filling at least 3 of your 5 listing appointments.
- What are things that get in the way of you consistently generating new leads and what to do about it. Hint- you own the business so you get to control your own schedule.
- The worst thing you can do for your current clients is to not have any additional clients in the pipeline. You end up making decisions that benefit you instead of them.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dfrochon
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danrochon/
Website: https://therealestateevolution.com
Book:
Real Estate Evolution - The 10 Step Guide to C.P.I (Consistent and Predictable Income)
Mike Michalowicz and real estate agents are a match made in heaven. With so many balls in the air, it becomes difficult for real estate agents to also track and best manage their finances. Traditional accounting says that Revenue - Expenses = Profit. What Mike Michalowicz teaches in his book, Profit First, turns that equation on its head. He teaches Revenue - Profit = Expenses. In this episode, Mike walks through some of the psychological magic that happens when we do this, the processes that support it and then the end result, which is true and lasting success.
Some of the topics that we discussed were:
- 83% of small businesses are not profitable
- Business owners get in business for themselves for time freedom and financial freedom while most never achieve either
- What traditional accounting teaches and how that is not the best way to ensure your own financial success
- The book ‘Profit First’ teaches you to change the accounting equation of Revenue - Expenses = Profit to instead, Revenue - Profit = Expenses
- What must happen at your bank to accommodate this new flow of income
- What happens to the way that you look at your expenses when you do this
- The correlation between those in a Poker game that bluff and those that don’t track their expenses
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Twitter: @mikemichalowicz
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemichalowicz/
Website: https://mikemichalowicz.com/
Books:
The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
Surge
Profit First
The Pumpkin Plan
Clock Work
Fix This Next
Culture for real estate agents. Everything starts in our homes. If we want great culture on our teams and in our offices, then it behooves us to be intentional about creating great culture at home. It’s been said that readers are leaders and if we truly believe that then now is the time for us to create the kind of culture at home that inspires and helps us to be learners as well as our children.
It is common for real estate professional/parents, now heavily laden by their new role of being homeschool teachers as well, to want to grit their teeth and get through the rest of this school year. Before we do that, I’d encourage you to think carefully about the opportunity we have to really shape within ourselves and within our children these two principles:
- The skill of knowing how to learn
- A love of learning
When our kids are equipped with these two things, then they are inspired and empowered to see education not as a means to an end but as a journey in and of itself. Today’s episode gives some great strategies and tactics of how to do this as well as how to manage kids’ expectations of allowing you some freedom and space to get your work done.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @jessica_poepoe
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jes.poe
Recent article: Working from Home with Kids--Staying Sane and Productive
Let's Take a Deep Breath and Help Kids Cope with COVID-19 Restrictions
Diana McCredie has been a top-producing real estate agent for 34 years. In that time she has developed the ability to lead her clients in a way that few others have and can. The secret to her success includes some of the following:
- Self-leadership- Diana talk about the power of her morning journaling routine and how that grounds her physically and emotionally. This routine also causes her to ask the question of what is going to be her primary focus that day and why. She also shares that she avoids the traditional news because of the political nature of those sources and focuses more on medical and financial data that she can then run through her own filters.
- Real estate leadership- “Real estate happens at the corner of life and change.” With change now being commonplace, Diana shared how her monthly emails have now become weekly emails. Additionally, these emails include much more than they used to include. Specifically, she includes in the past 7 days, how many homes went pending vs listed. This paints a picture as to what’s happening in the market.
- Client leadership- Beyond just real estate data, Diana is sharing lifestyles tools and tips that are giving her client base help on everything from homeschooling tips to health and wellness tips.
- Network leadership- Diana set the intention two years ago to build a network of influential women in the financial and professional sectors. This is not only good for her own business, but it allows her to add value to her clients far beyond what one would expect from their real estate agent.
Diana is leading by example what it looks like to lead through a crisis.
What you’ll get by tuning in:
- A specific journal that has brought great strength and grounding to Diana
- Key elements that should be a part of your morning routine
- The one real estate market stat Diana believes tells the tale of the market
- How often to communicate with clients now
- Ways to build your outside network
Additional Resources:
Link to Diana’s journal: https://5secondjournal.com/
How to be a better homeschool mom is in a question that is on the minds of many of my clients. That feeling is the same for dads. While the work-life balance equation of a real estate agent can often be challenging, unexpectedly adding in being a homeschool teacher only adds to the challenge. While many are struggling with these new responsibilities, my conversation today with the president of the board of the home school association for the state of Oregon will not only give you tremendous hope that you’re probably doing better than you think, but it will also give you some great ideas as to how to better mesh what you’re already doing with helping to give your children a great education.
How many times have we said to ourselves or to others: “I wish they would have taught me those things when I was in school.” Or, “Kids grow up so fast. I’d love to just capture more of those moments while they’re young. Or, “I’m tired of running around like a taxi-cab driver and wish that we’d just have more time together as a family.” Or, “I wish the school system would focus more on _________.”
As we recognize that the goal and vision of our kids’ education is to turn them into functional, productive and good adults, then we can start to think differently about education. While school systems and online resources offer a number of resources to lend help to parents, now is the chance for us to say: “What are the things that I want my children to be able to do and what would be fun for me and fun for them to teach them that thing?”
What you’ll get by tuning in:
- Realign your priorities of homeschooling your kids with a bigger vision of what education is all about.
- Recognizing that your children need as much perspective and emotional support as they do learning math and science.
- Recognizing that you don’t have to have a book open or be working on assigned work in order to be educating your children.
Additional Resources:
Facebook group - Homeschooling in Oregon : Talk with OHEN
Free instructional videos, all ages, all subjects - khanacademy.org
Free downloadable curriculum by grade level - coreknowledge.org
Free online classes, all grade levels, many subjects - delphian.org
Real estate update in Portland Oregon. As we move through the weathering phase of COVID-19 and into the recovery and accelerate phases of the economic recovery, speaking with Matthew Gardner, Chief Economist of Windermere was enlightening. Matthew is recognized across the country as one the foremost experts on the economy and how it impacts the housing industry.
Some of the topics that we discussed were:
- With 30,000 businesses across our country currently closed we’re all asking the question as to how this will impact the real estate market.
- The major industries that will be impacted are bars and restaurants and then retail. Many of these employees have been furloughed or let go and many will not be brought back. It is expected that 30% of these industries will not be coming back to work.
- The impact on commercial real estate, that there will be a definite impact on everything from, again, bars, restaurants and retail. Matthew has predicted that 50% of our malls would be gone in 10 years and now maybe that means they’ll be gone in just a few years.
- How this downturn is far different than the previous in the sense that the housing industry was a large part of the previous. This time, the housing industry is likely to be the industry that pulls us through.
- The reason for that is just how important the home has become to everyone. We all want to get it right because we’re spending so much time there now.
- Millennials are house shopping at levels never seen before.
- Those that want to adapt to these times will continue learning, stay deeply connected to their sphere, and get good at working with Millennials.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @matthewgardnerecon
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MJDGardner
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjdgardner/
Podcast: Sound Conversations https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/matthew-gardner-chief-economist-at-windermere-real-estate/id1347518770?i=1000418304757
Real estate agent nutrition. It’s such an often overlooked element of the fast-paced and busy life of a real estate agent. We’ve all been given the gift of a reset on many areas of our lives, to see what’s serving us and what is not serving us. This episode with Frankie Leigh, who overcame two cancer diagnosis’ at the age of 27 and has gone on to be a nutritionist, offers so much value and wisdom for those who want to look, feel, and live better than they do now.
In this episode we discuss sleep. Specifically, the common myths about sleep, about how much sleep we need, about how to get our bodies ready for sleep, and why hours of sleep before midnight matter more than anything else. We also talk about what keeps us from sleeping well.
We also discuss nutrition. We talk about how soon you should eat after you wake up, what you should be eating and how much of it you should be eating. Frankie also shares some great insight about the way in which you drink your water, that warm water opens your digestive system while cold water closes it.
We also discuss caffeine and what the implications of over-indulging in it may mean for what our body is actually needing.
Additional Resources:
Follow me on:
Instagram: @radiateyourwellness
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/radiateyourwellness
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/radiateyourwellness
Right now, Radiate Wellness is giving away the 5 Step Guidebook Mapping Overwhelm into Action as a little taster for our online course, The Pivot Project. There are still a few open client seats as well. Curious? Book a Q&A session with Frankie Leigh! All sessions are 100% virtual and open to anyone living in the USA.
Take Better Care of Your Clients. Kim Gellatly, who closed over 180 transactions in just 2 years has redefined what it means to take care of your clients. Some may think that if I’m going to do a lot of volume, then I couldn’t possibly take care of people at a high level. It’s got to be quality or quantity. Kim proves the fact that you can do both.
In this interview we discuss three categories of care:
- Taking care of your clients during the transaction- Kim has the practice of reaching out to all of her active buyers and sellers 6 days a week. Although to some it may seem like overkill, she’s realized that it really is her job to tell her clients what is going to happen next, not for the next week, but in the next day. Her clients have concerns and questions and curiosities now and by her having such open and regular dialog, it empowers them to ask the questions as opposed to thinking that they are too small of a concern.
I learned this firsthand as a high-end homebuilder. If I wasn’t in contact with my clients, then, they were in contact with me and by that point they were assuming that they needed to do my job because without the communication, they assumed that I wasn’t doing my job. By me being in regular contact with my clients, it freed them up to know that they didn’t need to manage the project. I was already doing it.
- Taking care of your clients outside of the transaction- A key to Kim’s success is the fact that she recognizes that she doesn’t have past clients. Instead, she just has clients. Some need her now and others will need her later. By looking at it this way she can really pour into her clients and solve problems that they have related to real estate and problems they have that are not related to real estate.
Kim shared that one of her favorite resources is Keeping Matters Current, which has recently given some insight as to the fact that not all recessions result in a housing crisis. This is one example of her taking on the role of advisor and leader as opposed to just someone in sales.
- Taking care of your clients during a global pandemic- Of course extra care is being taken now to keep people physically safe from the effects of COVID-19, she is also having free dinner for pickup to her friends and clients to get some relief of cooking at home. She also just set up a Zoom call with each of her sellers so that she could have a more face-to-face that would allow them to get their questions answered.
Be Well Amid Covid-19. How do you stay well mentally, emotionally and physically when we are in a stay at home situation? We ask Sarita Dua who has a passion for wellness and adding genuine concern to her community while being a top producing real estate agent, MIT prospective MBA 2020 graduate, and a devoted wife and mother.
Sarita Dua, one of the top producing real estate agents in the Portland Metro area for the past 14 years is here to help us answer that question.
Mental Wellness- Be careful of the news, which are more politically motivated than anything else. Take this time to decide what is going to stay in your life and what is not.
Emotional Wellness- Go serve other people. Reach out to those that are in need. Enjoy the time with your loved ones while leaning into reaching out via phone with those that may need support.
Physical Wellness- accountability is critical. Find people with whom you can be really authentic and really accountable.
In 2019, not including some builder business with which she has some additional help, Marie sold 51 homes in 2019 and has a lot of business in the pipeline and still moving forward.
Now, enter COVID-19 and in addition to her already heavy demands she is also a homeschool teacher of three young boys.
The big question I posed to Marie is, “How are you managing?”
Schedule- I used to be up at 4:30 to be at Orange Theory Fitness by 5 am. Now I’m up to get in 2-3 hours of work before everyone wakes up. Then I have breakfast with the family. My workout has shifted to the evening hours.
Mindset- I find myself at times feeling guilty about all of the things I’d like to be improving upon during this special time and I’m not finding that I actually have extra time. From this, I have to find mentors that help me to fix my mindset and stay positive. For Marie, this is Rachael and Dave Hollis.
Health- I go crazy if I don’t workout and so again, I’ve shifted my workouts to the evening.
Homeschool teacher- My oldest two have curriculum from school but I’m finding my oldest gets his done earlier. Both he and I need him to be busy for longer than a couple of hours and so I’ve asked his teacher for more work for him. My second oldest has to be supervised more because he loses focus quickly. My three year-old, on the other hand, is very active and I’ve got to keep my eme on him.
Business- Things have slowed a little bit, but not enough to really feel it. I’m taking additional precautions for my clients and have found that my sphere really appreciates pop-bys in the form of things for their kids during this time.
Marriage and relationships- I don’t see my husband a lot right now because it’s tax season. Now that this has been extended, it’s as if more miles were just added to the end of our marathon. I’m having to be intentional to spend time with him. Additionally, I’m having to be intentional with my kids that I’m not just their teacher but that I also have good experiences with them.
From all of these categories we recognize the need for intentionality, the need for self-awareness when we really are doing all that we can do and to not let guilt step in and rob us of our limited resource of time and energy.
Referrals without asking. That is exactly what author and coach Stacey Brown Randall teaches her followers and clients how to do. With real estate agents facing what may be the largest challenge of their career, Stacey’s advice on how to fill your pipeline in a comfortable and genuine way is needed now more than ever.
Stacey defines referrals in two parts. The first is that when someone personally recommends you and trust in you is transferred from the referral source to the referral. The second part is that the person being referred has an actual need that your business can fulfill.
Stacey shared that within all of the different types of business inflow, none are wrong, but some are more valuable than others. Referrals, as defined above, are the most valuable form of business in flow into your business.
This then begs the question of how do you go about getting more referrals? Stacey outlines a 5-step process for doing this:
- Go back 2-3 years, if possible, and look at your sources of business. Identify who those sources of business actually are.
- Every time you get a referral, send them a handwritten thank you card.
- Give those people real value roughly six times per year… not value for you disguised as value for them.
- Language differently what they mean to you. They are not a means to your end.
- Systematize staying in contact with them while remaining genuine.
Towards the end of the episode, Stacey shares that right now, she recommends that agents go to step one to start to identify who these people are. Then, start reaching out to them asking how you can help them with some idea in advance of how you might help them.
At this time, people need leadership more than ever. The reality is that real estate agents know their customers on a more intimate level than most all other professions. You know where they live, where they work, everything about their home, roughly how much money they make, how many kids they have, what are their short, mid, and long term goals, what networks they’re a part of or would like to be a part of. Attimes like these you can use this information in order to provide real value to them to help them in whatever way they might be needing help.
To help all agents get a better understanding of where they’re at along the getting referrals without asking continuum, Stacey has put together a simple quiz at: https://referralquiz.com.
You can also find her book: Generating Referrals Without Asking on all of the major publishing platforms.
Right now the world is being forced to slow down and stay home. Most activities that used to occupy our time have been canceled. Most of our business activities have had to adapt and change to this new reality. In addition to the inconveniences of this new reality, we are also finding some silver linings. We are finding more time to be with those we love. We’re finding more time to do activities together for which before we’d all been too busy.
The same is true in our businesses. We now have the time and added need to reach out and connect with people to genuinely see if they are okay, if they need anything, and what it is that we can do to help me.
The questions that Ben and I answer are: What is happening in our lives, in our homes, in our businesses, and in our communities that we love because of all of these new changes? What can we do now to start to re-engineer our lives so that once this is behind us, we keep the good changes that we’ve made?
During these unprecedented times that we are experiencing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, not only has the health of many experienced trauma and even death, our economy has suffered some traumatic blows as well.
Fortunately, we have a government and an economy that is strong enough to help businesses and individuals for a period of time. However, the only goes to those that qualify for the help. While many of these programs are forgivable, meaning that they require no repayment, many are passing because they don’t think they need it or because some other reason tells them they shouldn’t access it.
Another big question mark that everyone has right now is the difference between mortgage forbearance and mortgage deferral. While forbearance means that it all comes due as soon as the forbearance period has passed, deferral technically means that the life of the loan is extended out the same amount of time as the deferral and there is no lump sum payment due at the end of the deferral period. Keep in mind that different mortgage lenders have different definitions and interpretations for these distinctions and so it behooves each person who is interested in qualifying for one of these programs to call their lender to get clarity on what that means to their specific lender.
We also discussed the general sentiment amongst buyers and sellers at this time. While many buyers and sellers are still moving forward, there’s no doubt that our economy has been wounded. While 10M in the US applied for unemployment in the past few weeks, we must recognize the trouble that this signifies trouble for both the employee and the employer. It behooves real estate agents to bulletproof their transactions by ensuring that those with whom they are working are employed and that there is a high probability that they will stay that way.
Tony shared that the silver lining in all of this is the return to humanity in our business. He sees this as being a real shock to the iBuyer movement because people will realize that they appreciate and need the human side of the business. He recommended reaching out to all of your clients to check in and see how you might serve them in their time of need.
Tony’s answer to the Signature Question of how he continues to think bigger and expand his own possibilities is to get outside himself and be concerned about the needs of others. He finds that as he does this, he immediately finds space and opportunity to grow.
Justin Bosak is out of Wall Township, New Jersey, which is considered a suburb of New York City. NYC, as many know, is considered the US epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. New York City has banned all real estate showings and new listings, causing the real estate market to slam on its brakes. With the NYC and NJ economies being deeply connected, there is no doubt that Justin Bosak finds himself and his family in a difficult situation.
In challenging times, we have to manage our mind and do what the great leaders and success stories have always done. We have to maintain a strong mindset and do everything that does lie within our powers now.
That is exactly what Justin Bosak is doing and it's giving him the confidence to realize that once this storm passes, he is going to be positioned for massive success. While many are using this time to hibernate or spend endless hours following the tragic news stories of our world today, others like Justin are going out and doing everything they can now to prepare for brighter days ahead.
Some of the things that Justin is doing now include:
- Embracing and leading with technology. He recognizes that the more visibility he can give his listings now, the higher the likelihood that they’ll sell and the more people will see him as the right resource when it comes time for them to sell. While others are avoiding this new world or slowly dipping their toe in the water, Justin is sprinting forward.
- He’s up, dressed, and in the office working. He’s respecting social distancing of course, but also putting in the work now that his teammates, clients, and community need.
- He’s getting essential information out to his clients, including details of the government stimulus package.
- He’s cutting expenses and renegotiating contracts. Zillow is offering leads for half price and so he’s looking at all of his expenditures to see what needs to go, what needs to be renegotiated and what should stay.
How Justin continues to Think Bigger and expand his possibilities, even amidst perceived shrinking possibilities, Justin is looking to other leaders to see what they are doing. He is listening to podcasts and finding others that are winning in this environment and immediately implementing their activities.
The first main point is why being in front of and in contact with your database right now is so important. John Maxwell teaches that leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. To which I would add, sales is leadership nothing more nothing less. Those that are good at sales are good at leading others. Period.
During times of crisis, leadership is needed more than ever. At the time of this recording, we are right in the middle of the COVID-19 global pandemic that is wreaking havoc on the health, wealth and overall well-being of people, communities and nations.
The second main point is why agents don’t do this. At a time such as this many are concerned about reaching out to their database for fear that it is bad-timing to be making sales calls. Here are a couple of things to realize: Cody and I outline three questions that would be well received by any of your clients, especially now:
- How are you?
- How is your family?
- Is there anything I can do to help you right now?
These questions will be easy for you to ask and well-received by your clients. Additionally, if you’re genuine, patient, and curious in your approach, you’ll be able to peel the onion to find out ways that you can serve them that may or may not have anything to do with real estate.
I shared the story of a client, Kip Craglow who, out of genuine concern for his hair stylist reached out to see how she was doing. He got a call a few days later from the hair stylist's brother who needed to sell a townhome. That won’t happen every time, but it will happen. Even when it doesn’t happen, you’ll still be adding value to yourself and to others by reaching out in care and concern.
The other part of why agents don’t reach out isn’t just because they don’t know what to say. It’s also because many don’t have a database. Or, it may be because many don’t have an organized database or a systematic way to communicate regularly.
The third main point is how to overcome what keeps us from staying in front of our people. Stay in your area of brilliance. You get paid as a real estate agent to build relationships of trust, to know the market well, and then to interpret the market for your clients in a way that is customized to their specific situations and goals. You do not get paid well when you try to be the web developer and the one turning all of the gears and levers. Yes, during this time you should absolutely get your systems in place. And when I say you should get them in place, that doesn’t mean that it should actually be YOU that does it for you.You should also find someone else who is expert at that to do it for you as opposed to you taking this time to learn a skill that isn’t as valuable as is the time you could be spending with your clients.
For a great solution to this, be sure and go to luminaryagent.com or contact Cody directly at cody@luminary agent.com.
The COVID-19 pandemic is the lead generation opportunity of a lifetime. You may think that whoever said that in this environment must be a total shark. I assure you that today’s guest is the total opposite of a shark. He is one of the most genuine human beings I’ve ever met and for this reason he is a nationally known and recognized lead conversion coach. He teaches people to convert leads through the mindset and skill set of actually caring about them enough to get them talking.
There are so many nuggets of wisdom shared by Robby T on exactly how to take advantage of this opportunity by serving people at a time that they need more leadership than possibly they’ve ever needed before.
Productive Real Estate Agent from home. This is exactly what you’re going to become by listening and applying lessons from today’s episode. This episode was unique because I had the good fortune of interviewing my personal productivity coach, Jay Puppo, to learn what he’s doing and teaching his big thinking, high achieving clients in order to keep them highly productive during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Just because there’s a recession doesn’t mean that you need to participate in it. Real estate agents that use the technology available and implement the principles of productivity, will empower their business to rise above what’s happening in our current world. You’ll be able to step up into being the leader that your clients need you to be now.
Justin Stoddart
When Aaron Heard agreed to come on the show, I knew it was going to be good. I had no idea just how good it was going to be. The topic that we discuss here is all about critical choices that you need to make during uncertain times. This gentleman, again, has done some phenomenal things, including helping sell over 1000 homes across the country in one single year. He's a coach to some of the best and top agents in the entire country. He is truly a leader's leader. And the wisdom that he shares today is going to help you do really kind of three key things. Number one, it's going to help you grow your business during uncertain times. It's going to help you grow your relationships during these uncertain times. And it's really going to help you grow your mindset. Those three things are absolutely critical for anybody wanting to be a big thinker, high achiever. And Aaron Heard absolutely delivers I can't wait for you to hear it. It's a phenomenal episode. And it's really going to change the way you see this time right now. It's going to be the opportunity of a lifetime. Can't wait for you to hear it. Enjoy.
Justin Stoddart
All right, and I believe my friend. We are live. We'll see how many people join in this time. We're going to see the hunger of the real estate industry to get amazing content because this is when Aaron Heard is going to deliver it. Welcome everybody to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Bright and early. You can tell that there's not a whole lot of natural sunlight coming in. Nevertheless, ballers like Aaron Heard are up and add it and making things happen. So, Aaron Heard for those that don't know him, and kind of what maybe more importantly, we're going to get from this episode are critical choices that you need to make right now, as a business owner coming into a downturn coming into some really uncertain times, there are some things that you can be certain about, despite the uncertainty, there's some things that you can absolutely choose to do that will, that will guarantee that you're going to have a better outcome than if you don't do them. And that's the guarantee that we can have even in uncertain times. So Aaron Heard this gentleman is a MAPS coach, coaches, literally some of the top real estate professionals in the country. He's phenomenal. In addition to that, he has his own very successful team here in Portland, Oregon. And this is really cool. He was a big part of helping sell 1000 homes in less than a year, so expanded across the country. Just very much a visionary, very much somebody who understands business. I mean to do that you have to really understand business and so I'm thrilled Today, Aaron Heard, thank you for coming on to the think bigger real estate show and sharing with us some key wisdom we all need right now.
Aaron Heard
The pleasure is absolutely mine, Justin, and you are a brave man, when you invited me to come on the show and you said, Hey, can we come on board? I said, Sure. 6am You didn't blink an eye. You got six little ones upstairs sleeping. Causing disruption in your household? Hmm.
Justin Stoddart
You know, absolutely. There's a, you know, there's absolutely some a little bit of risk of going live during the day. There's also a little bit of risk in going live early in the morning, right? Because it's a little less certain. Yep. And you know, and obviously, this whole topic is all about how do we gain certainty in an uncertain time and so probably actually going live at 6am is probably more certain than not. It was everyone's quiet around here.
Aaron Heard
All my East Coast friends are going to be joining us. What's up everybody?
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Very funny, man. What Um Let's let's jump into this again for you know for for those that are again maybe just tuning in now, let me just say this what you're going to get from this episode is that you are going to walk away with some absolute certain things that you can do in uncertain times coming from a guy who again has hold sold over 1000 homes in less than a year across the country. And coaches some of the brightest of the bright so excited again to have you here, Aaron, let's go ahead jump in what are you know, what's maybe the first thing that comes to mind that you can do to make a critical choice in an uncertain time?
Aaron Heard
Justin, I think the first thing is just simply face reality. Right? We got to identify what is really happening in our in our worlds in our businesses in our in our economies locally, nationally and understand what impact is being made for what we have to control like there's things that you just can't control. Get over it. Yesterday is yesterday. Yeah, a year ago was a year ago, you ain't getting it back. It's gone. Right? So understand. Here's your reality today and ask yourself, who do I choose to be tomorrow? Based on what I know is to be true right now, who do I choose to be and have show up in my world tomorrow or the next day, based on the decisions that I make today? You see, so many people right now are stuck in, in a quarantine mindset. You know, the reality is we are quarantined across the country, in many cities in many states, many counties, right. And we are right now we're at home. This is okay. Just pivot. Change your expectations for the day. You'll see one of the things that we're doing Justin right now is there's some key performance indicators that you can measure across any business that by hitting those numbers, you'll be able to place a bet on if that business is going to win or lose. Would you agree?
Justin Stoddart
Totally.
Aaron Heard
Almost every business breaks down to a math formula. Right? So when we look at it, we have to understand what's the math behind your, your goals. So your goal isn't just to have abundance. What does that mean? Your goal isn't to have success Well, what's your definition of success? So we have to change the reality of our identify what those numbers are. So we can change the activities that we're choosing to do to be in alignment with having those goals show up or not show up, no matter where we're at, no matter how we feel. So we're living these quarantine mindsets. When we have these. I get the luxury of coaching some of the best agents like you said, and, and some of the agents on my team are world class. And I had the opportunity to talk to them every day and sometimes it's talking them off the ledge. Like right now. It's tough man, mentally, physically, you're out of you're out of your routine. There's no clear order of chaos in our world, right Right now, everybody is adjusting and getting uncomfortable, which I'm so excited for. I mean, right now the shift, let's get really freaking uncomfortable because people get afraid. And when people are fearful people run, right? Fear is, is an amazing thing. It keeps people alive. Like, embrace the fear, though understand what changes must be met so you don't die. That's the reality here. Don't be afraid of it. So I get the luxury of coaching these people and talking to them and sometimes off the ledge, because they're faced with things that they'd never thought that they'd be faced with their spouses losing their employment, shutting down their, their stores that they've had for 15 years. I mean, these hit these things hit true, like hard, really, really fast. And so understand, like, what is it that you wanted out of your business and based on where you're at today, what are the key performance measurements or indicators that you need to be in alignment with to hit those goals based on your circumstances today? And, you know, push comes to shove Justin, in the real estate industry, which we live and breathe personally, you know, we know that it's a person to person, eyeball to eyeball business. We focus our energy right now on creating an engaging relationships with people that we either know or don't know, that have an interest in buying, selling or choosing to invest in the real estate space. Right? It's just the the performance measurements used to be a certain amount of conversations would lead to a certain amount of results. Well, today we're seeing that those numbers are drastically changing. Right? So we have to look at it and say, if those numbers are changing your activities got to change for the better in that area, which means we need to be more focused on our time management. That's really the second thing, we're going to face reality, learn what the new performance measurements are, what are the new numbers? And then we're going to face reality or identify a new time management schedule.
Justin Stoddart
Let me let me go back, let me unpack a little bit because you've shared so much wisdom, there's such a short period of time, I want to slow it down to make sure everybody heard it. So this quarantine mindset, right, I want everyone to think about that. I've had this thought, Aaron that you know, oftentimes, especially newer agents, they'll come into an industry and they're like, I can never catch up with all these people that are selling, you know, 50,60, 70, 100 plus homes a year. And I think right now is a gift. It's a gift for anybody that recognizes that they were in a it wasn't a race, right. It's always been a like a one man race. It's always you against you, right. However, I do think that when it comes To market share when it comes to really establishing yourself as a real player, there's a lot of people even that are established players that are live in a quarantine lifestyle, like they're posting non stop, but all the things they're watching on Netflix, I'm not saying Netflix is bad. But what I am saying is that if you're not, like increasing the amount of people that you're contacting right now, and if you're not increasing the amount of good that you're putting into your brain, and it's pure entertainment, you're going to slip behind those that are seeing this as a huge opportunity that you were in, you know, in competition with with with agents, and even a competition for for mindshare. And all of a sudden, most people like during the middle of the race have sat down in the middle of the track. And are you going to sit down and also be with them? Right? Are you also going to be in this quarantine mindset? Are you going to keep running? Like you're telling us to do right? Because the second thing that I heard you say is like all of us have certain metrics for our business that we need to hit right as far as you know, whether it be transactions, whether it be revenue, like whatever it may be, and the reality is what we were going to do may not get us there but I hear you saying is that We actually probably need to double down and be sure that we still hit those same metrics, which might mean we need to have more conversations. Is that what I heard you say?
Aaron Heard
That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And that's why I was gonna just lean into is, look, what used to get you where you wanted to go ain't gonna happen, for the most part for most people, right. So in the law of averages, you're going to have to have more conversations to find the motivated people that are interested in doing the business, the new way that you're choosing to do business today. My mentor and a friend of yours I believe, Gary Keller has spent some time pouring into the MAPS coach community. And one of the things he said when we first entered into this new time with a quarantine, he said, you know, people will tolerate doing things different in times that are different. People will tolerate doing different things differently when times are different. Well, times are very different right now, my friend. And so when you tell me that Oh, Nobody would, nobody would list their home without me coming out and sitting at their kitchen table. And you know, not getting to know them face to face well, phooey. They will accept it. They will tolerate it. It's different times right now, as long as you have a, a service and you believe that is the right thing that's going to move them forward and achieving their goals. And they believe it. Why wouldn't they not? Same with buyers right? Just three weeks ago, even or this time last year, the odds of somebody buying something sight on physically seen in the real estate space is almost absurd. Right? You wouldn't go and buy your home one of your biggest investments without physically touring the space. Well, I'll tell you, my friend this week, I'm living proof that more than one people have purchased real estate without physically seeing it and negotiating and writing multiple offers and competing and having bidding wars, and we're helping sellers sell their properties well over the listed price without having any physical tours to the property. Are you hearing me? times are different? Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
You know, it's a great point, Aaron, is that, you know, all of us who thought that we needed an office to work and figured out the technology to be able to work remotely we have escrow officers that are now working from home. Yeah. And it's like, who would ever ever thought that that was like at scale right, not just on a one off basis because you know, they're taking care of you know, some some some personal circumstances like, like even as a title and escrow industry we've stretched limits of what we thought was possible, right? There are very few people coming into our offices closed to the public and and you realize like that would never work well, it's working. Right, it's absolutely working. And you know, we had a record month last month as far as opens, which means that we'll probably have a record month as far as closes like, I think all of us have to realize that just because there's like the sky is falling when it comes to you know, health in certain parts of the world doesn't mean that your situation has to follow suit. Right? I mean, I think that's, you know, a key thing that I hear kind of you point out to all of us is that change doesn't mean that it's like the world is over. Right? Change just means it's change.
Aaron Heard
Yeah. Better change. Get on the bandwagon.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, it's a, it's a powerful thing to see. You say that right? That people are buying homes sight unseen. I attended a virtual open house never never attended one of those I've seen people walk through with their phone, but actually to have somebody sit and walk through a home with a link that I could then go to a virtual tour and listen to what they were saying. It was phenomenal. Like there's so many adaptations that are happening right now. You know, that I was actually listening to a kind of spiritual discourse this morning about the three major things we need physically, are shelter, food and clothing, right? And it's like shelter is one of those three things if you're in the real estate industry, like good, good decision, right. That's one of the like one of the three things that people absolutely have to have. You know, people are not going to stop needing it. It's not like it's going to go out of fashion to have shelter.
Aaron Heard
Let me talk about shelter for a second. In our world, in the real estate space, we're all accustomed to going to an office space and setting up an environment that we can do our work within. And so I want to urge everybody to do the same thing in your own personal homes, right? There's many people that don't have the luxury of having great office spaces in their own living space. And that's okay, there's no judgement. But one thing you might choose to do is can consider taking a coat closet, pulling all of the stuff out of it, setting up a little picnic table and make a makeshift little office space where you choose to perform at your highest level, or go into your garage. If you have, if you have a garage make it slightly uncomfortable for you, because it's different. It's going to force you out of a habit in your habit. You look around you Where are you sitting right now? Are you where are you doing work your kitchen table your your recliner in front of the TV like change your space right just because it's it's different. So get in this this cubicle or your your closet space consider it like Superman's phone booth and you're gonna walk in with a clear goal and you're going to pick up the phone you're going to have 40 conversations when you would have had maybe eight or 10 in a normal day, you're going to just do this one thing so you can get out of the closet and and stay out of there for the rest of the day feeling really accomplished change your space and set some goals the environment needs to be supportive of it
Justin Stoddart
You know it's interesting and people have talked about for years I never since I've been in business about the need to time block yet with the immediate follow up is I'm really bad at. I think it's interesting how how those those go together. I mean people say that like oh I know I need to time block but I'm really bad at that like what you just shared right there was a total nugget of wisdom is that if you're not loving your work situation because the office was perfect this is a great opportunity right to be like good let's get in and get out. I don't want to hang out here it's not very comfortable in here. Like let's let's get it done and those you know I would even add those that are working from home you've got kids around right I've got six right it's not the most conducive work environment but I thought that when they told me like, okay, all people in my position need to be working from home. I thought like, you realize I've got six kids and they're all home right now. Like, yep, probably okay, this is gonna be interesting. It was it was it was fascinating to me. How we like we have the conversation as a family. We drew the line in the sand and said okay, this is dad's workspace. We need to respect that right yet we still are a family that you know we have to live here that like how I know that when people are upstairs it's go time like I got to get my work done. Because As you know, once the chaos comes downstairs like it's going to be much more challenging to get that done. So, again, what do you find yourself in the not ideal work situation, it might be exactly what you needed to really focus and really get things done. Again, work expands to fill the time that we give it. And if you give yourself an hour, as opposed to where you used to give yourself four hours, you might get more done in an hour than you ever would have dreamed of getting in four because you have to now.
Aaron Heard
Yeah. And that's I think, that's how we're facing challenges is you you've you forecast, what do I want out of out of this day, this week, this month, and with with an abundant change that we have no control over, right? Woohoo, we can't change this. What do you want to get out of it? You want to end what happens if in the next 30 days, everything is relieved? You know, there's a cure and everything's perfect and everything's business as usual. If you focus whole heartedly and on lead generation and filling up the front end of your business pipeline right now, one you'll find motivated that want to do business right now, though, even if you didn't, you filled up your funnel, and then we get released and opened up back to normal here on the back end. The good thing is you're going to have an abundance here. Okay? So the worst thing that happens right now is that you fill up and you create abundance in the future. If you choose to do nothing, then you're you're saying I want nothing then, in our world, if we can only control what we bring into the front end, everything else on the back end is out of our control. Right. So focus everything on, create new relationships. Finally, find the motivated, you know, continue to consult with them and come from a fiduciary responsibility of helping them achieve their goals and finding the best home values are netting them the most amount of money so that they can hit their goals. Just come from contribution and work your butt off, you know, get in front of everybody you can and ask, How can I help you right now? How can I serve you? I mean, I'm a great real estate specialist. This is what I do. What are your needs, man?
Justin Stoddart
And I think, again, in due time this will pass, right? These aren't permanent circumstances. And I think at some point I was gonna look back and be like, Man, that coven 19 situation that was a real opportunity to either get systems in place that I didn't either maybe spend time with family, maybe you're again, a mom at home being like, I can't give you the extra done You told me to get extra stuff done. Like I'm having a hard time I saw the funniest meme it was, hey, let's play a game. Or let's play a drinking game. Every time somebody says mom, take a drink and I said no, don't do that, you'll die.Like this concept of of of getting more done. Some people are like, Are you kidding me? Right? But maybe this is time for you to like really like dig down and enjoy being a mom. Write enjoy being a parent during this time, like whatever it is that your situation is. And I think you can probably have both. I believe that you can probably get work done even amidst the chaos. If you set boundaries and give kids once I get done with this, then we'll go do this right.
Aaron Heard
Thank you for saying that one of my great coaching clients that I love her to death. She's amazing. She has two little his four year old twins running under and running between her feet every day. And so she's looking at me going, how is it? You're expecting me to double down on activities right now when I have this chaos in my world, it's like, great, this is gonna be a really fun challenge to hit head on. Right? And we know that we need to meet or have this many conversations. It's just the fundamental exercise that we need to exhaust to be successful for the day. So if we choose to succeed in our days, we're gonna have these numbers of activities being done right. So we have two little children. This is great. Where can we time block for 30 minute chunks, we're going to run into intervals here, and you're going to put on a schedule where it's mom time and 30 minutes on 10 minutes off 30 minutes on 10 minutes off and every 10 minutes, you're going to go be supermom, you're going to go do what you need to do to, you know, create control and you feed them cookies or whatever we got to do. And then you're going to get back on the phone, you're going to get back into your routine, and you're going to create a new calendar that has clear expectations and boundaries of this is what I'm on. This is when I'm off and you're going to do everything you can to meet that schedule.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, well, that's powerful. Aaron. You know, I think there's, again, so much opportunity right now, and I hope people see it that way. You know, another opportunity that I see that I've heard you alluding to here is that of building relationships, and I think most of us are too busy to really stop oftentimes to really kind of take care of people and most people are pretty good. Like we live in a pretty prosperous society. Most people kind of have what they need. Keep in mind that there's there's a lot of people that are disadvantaged. Don't be wrong. I'm not glossing over that fact. But the people that are kind of our immediate friendships, our immediate relationships, most people are pretty good. Like when we get together, we get together to, to see each other to catch up and to be entertained, right? We don't really, we don't really have a need, in most cases to go check on people, right? barring some, you know, life altering, you know, disease or illness, for the most part, like people don't need a lot in our society. And right now, people need a lot. And I'm not saying that, like, not everyone has a virus, but but some do. Right. But like, the reality is that like, everybody has some some emotional needs right now. There's some stuff going on in everyone's head right now. Yeah, just having a voice show up to say, Hey, I was just thinking about you. How are you? I know, there's a lot going on out there. Just that alone will not only lift your own soul, right, but it will, but it will also lift their soul and I would encourage you like put business aside. This is just a great exercise in life. And right now, leadership is needed, leaders are needed, and what an opportunity for you to actually go care for people that absolutely We'll come back on the business side of things. Like just fold. It's gonna come back.
Aaron Heard
You nailed it. That's the that's the script, essentially, that we're sharing with our team to pick up the phones to have more conversations is I don't want you calling say, Hey, thanks for taking my call. I promise I'll be brief. I saw you on my website. I want to see how soon you want to buy a home. Like, no, no, that's not what we're doing right now. Right now. It's Hi. Is this Justin? Yeah. Hey, Justin. This is Aaron over here at Realtor Property Group. And I just wanted to call and see how you're doing. I saw you on our website looking at homes. Were you just browsing out of boredom being locked up in quarantine? Or is there another reason that you're looking at homes online?
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, no, I mean, we're, we're kind of in our you know, we don't love what we're quarantined in. Let's be honest.
Aaron Heard
I get it. Man. Do you have the luxury of working from home? I do. Congratulations. So good to hear that. Is there anything I can do to help you?
Justin Stoddart
You know, I don't know. There's a lot of uncertainty right now. Right? We do want to buy I don't know if now's The right time to buy. But you know, we're definitely interested in getting getting into a different place. Being home as often as we have been, you know, kind of just reminds us that we don't want to be here for forever.
Aaron Heard
Yeah, you don't want to be there forever. I get that. I get that. So talk to me for a second. I mean, I'm a real estate specialist. I don't know anything a lot. What's going to happen with the whole coronavirus thing though? What is your dream home look like? Right? And then obviously, we're not going to roleplay it for the whole thing though. That's what we're going to get into it starts with a sense of like, empathy versus, you know, I'm a prospect I'm, you're a prospect and I'm going to convert you. This is just we're just two dudes to human beings having a conversation now about what are you doing? Like you're locked in your home having a conversation with me about buying or selling? Okay, Is it urgent? Is it important than I'm not gonna pressure you to take action right now?
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. The part that I loved about that is that you brought up the reality of like, Hey, hey, you're in quarantine like it was very unscripted, it was very, very natural and timely, right? kind of very relevant to the situation that we're in. Hey, like, you know, you probably locked up in quarantine like everybody else. Yeah, what's up?
Aaron Heard
You know? Yeah, help you, sir. So many of you have the luxury of working man. That's, that's amazing. What a blessing. Great stuff.
Justin Stoddart
What have we missed Aaron, if people were to say critical choices, right now? Do you have any? Is there something that we've missed reflect? we've pretty much covered it.
Aaron Heard
I mean, there's a world of things that we continue to do, though, I believe wholeheartedly. Just kind of want to recap that if you face the reality, if you look at the numbers in your business, if you understand, you know, clearly what's happening in your market, what are those key performance indicators that you need to adjust and what is adjusting, and you can speak intelligently to it, it's going to, it's going to uplift your confidence level to know what needs to be done for you to be in alignment with still achieving your goals. And then you focus and you manage your time and you just you just lock down, you do everything you can to engage with the consumer, or with people for that matter, and you just come from contribution, you're gonna, you're gonna be wildly successful, just got to do more today than you have in the past. That's all.
Justin Stoddart
I love it, I think, a script that I want to be sure that people know also, your script was beautiful for people that are actively buying and selling right on your website. There's a whole group of people that you've either served before that or just friends, family, neighbors, you know, and I think for me, and I'd love to hear you add anything to this Aaron, which is, you know, how are you? How's your family? Is there anything I can do for you? Right? Yeah. If you didn't like being let go pick up medication, like anything like what do you need? And I think those those three questions are ones that have given me You know, a lot of courage just to pick up and just check in on people and it's got nothing to do with with my business. Yet they know at the same time that like what I do for a living, you know, and it might very well be that they do need something that I do for a living or it might be something that I don't do for a living either way, my intent and my absolute commitment to help them is the same.
Aaron Heard
Yep. How are you mentally, physically and emotionally?
Justin Stoddart
I like that.
Aaron Heard
Fundamentals
Justin Stoddart
I like that almost like identifying like, Hey, you might have all the food that you need, but how you doing? like really? How you doing? Doing okay? You know I think that really kind of peeling the onion a little bit and just getting to the heart of like this is this is the farthest thing from a sales call you can ever imagine like I'm genuinely here human to human check it in on you. There's a lot going on out there right now. You're doing okay? I think that speaks volumes. powerful man. I love it buddy. This has been a remarkable episode. I'm so excited to have other people share this and find this and and really kind of digest all of this because it's it's super powerful, what you've shared with us. I want to remind everybody that they can get the full episode on YouTube and on their favorite podcast app. So please go find that listen to this, again, the stuff that Aaron has shared with us today, again, with his experience in coaching some of the top agents in the country from his experience and selling over 1000 homes across the country in less than a year. Like there's just some phenomenal wisdom in this guy. That I hope that you recognize that the stuff that you're have heard here today come from some some absolute wealth of experience. So Aaron, thank you for being not only a business, Yoda, but also being a great man. I know you're a man of faith, I know that husband and your your role as a father of two beautiful children is is essential in your life. And you You are the kind of person that you know that we want to learn from the want to follow. So thank you for being a big thinker. Let me ask just this final question as we wrap up. Now you are a big thinker. You you work with other big thinkers, high achievers, what does a guy like you do to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your possibilities, teach us.
Aaron Heard
I continue to talk and think with big thinkers, surround yourself with people that are growing and are where you want to be. If you don't know who they are, pick up some books read other people that are big thinkers that came before you. Right? There's some amazing wisdom that you can unpack from some amazing books lean into it.
Justin Stoddart
So powerful man. And now what a great time right to re establish new habits. So we're gonna say like, Oh, I'd love to read, I don't have time to read. Or, you know, I don't have time to have, you know, coffee with people. You can have a zoom call right now with pretty powerful people
Aaron Heard
Anywhere across the country who are home,
right? They're home, and they're available. So I would encourage you to take the center, establish habits do what Aaron just taught us, which is be around big thinkers, even if it's reading their words. So Aaron, thank you so much for helping us really fulfill the mission of this show. Right, which is help people think bigger. It's to help people wake up and recognize the potential inside of them, and then do inspire and help them to live in pursuit of that. You've absolutely done that today. I want to thank you for that. I want thank you For all those that were up at six o'clock in the morning and tuning into this, thank you so much. We're so glad that you've been with us and would encourage you if this has been helpful to you tag somebody in the comments. Share this with somebody. Again, the wisdom Aaron shared has been tremendous. So thank you again, my friend and my final request of everybody. listening in today are three simple words and they are GO THINK BIGGER!
Justin Stoddart
At a time when the industry and the world is really going through uncharted territory, there has never been a better time for those of us that are in sales roles and or in leadership roles to truly do just that, which is to step up and lead. However, we can't lead other people unless we're properly leading ourselves. Today's episode with Bev Blume goes into exactly that. What do we need to be doing right now on a mindset level and on a tactical level that will allow us to be the leaders that we need to be that our clients that our fellow teammates that our brokerages that our industry, that our community leaders need us to be enjoy this episode. You're gonna get a lot from it. And we're live.
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddard. So excited to be here today with Bev Blume. Let me get back really quick about introducing her more fully because those that know her love her, see her has a highly respected leader. In our industry, so let me give you a full bio on on her here just a minute, here's what you're gonna get by listening to this episode. We are in unprecedented times economically, and our industry and industry wide. And it's now's the time for leaders to step up. Now's the time for and I'll add this that anyone and all of us are leaders. Even if you just lead your clients, you are still a leader. So I would encourage you to think through the through the kind of those years as you listen to this episode that you are a leader and we need you to step up. And that's exactly why we've had a true leaders leader step up today. Her name is Bev Blume. She actually got into the business in 2007. What an ideal time to get into the real estate industry, learn to work hard and experience success despite what was happening in the industry. She now has a very successful real estate team and also leads a brokerage of Keller Williams office out of Clackamas Oregon. So Bev, thank you so much for coming on The Think Bigger Real Estate Show I am thrilled to have you on today.
Bev Blume
Good morning, Justin, I am thrilled to be here this morning. And I always enjoy my conversations with you. And, you know, we are in really crazy times right now. And, you know, I'm just kind of hoping to come to people on their level. And, you know, just try to give them some hope and, you know, some, you know, go to work, and you know, just how we're gonna, you know, get through this together. So that's kind of the goal for today.
Justin Stoddart
You know, it's, all of us are now being forced to really work from home, aren't we? Like, we're being forced to do things very differently than what we, you know, then maybe what we're used to doing. Let's talk a little bit about keeping some normalcy, some very kind of initial tips at the beginning of this episode. How do we get it to where our life feels somewhat normal to where we can still be productive and be in the right mindset. What tips would you have for us?
Bev Blume
Sure, well, I feel like you know, a lot of people need to go to the office to have that need to go to work and so this is a really abrupt change to their habit, which, you know, people that are realtors, anybody, anybody in our industry, you know, gets up every day has the same routine and they've worked years on, you know, creating that schedule and perfecting it. They get up in the morning at 5 or 5:30. They go to the gym, they come home, they eat breakfast, they shower, they get ready to go to work, and they drive to the office and they arrive at eight o'clock and they go to work. Well, now that we can't go to work, and we can't, we have to go to work inside of our house. So one of the things that I hear and, you know, over the course of this week, I've just talked to a lot of people, a lot of agents a ot of leaders. I've attended a lot of live training in streaming. And what I hear a lot is that people they've lost that vibe, they've watched that habit abruptly got broken and they just can't find it inside themselves to create a new normal. And we hear that we hear that phrase a lot creating a new normal. So my biggest tip, you know for that is keep your same schedule. Get up at 5:30. Yes, you can't go to the gym. But there's plenty of, you know, apps. I see plenty of people doing short workout videos, friends that own cascade Athletic Clubs, they have livestream videos for short workouts. One of my PT friends has a short workout on her Facebook page. So you know, get your gym workout in, go take a shower, get dressed, do your hair, put your lipstick on and go to your desk and go to work. You might actually be a little more productive, but it's creating that new habit that a lot of people struggle with. But if you you know, if you set your mind to it, you know, you're kind of unstoppable.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I love that Bev. Just because you're working at home doesn't mean you need to treat it like a Lazy Sunday. Morning, right? That you can get up early, you can get dressed work out. In fact, all of that should change and real estate agents for the most part are, are probably better than most at working from home because your job doesn't necessarily stay contained within the eight to five hours. Right. In fact, it rarely does. And so having, I would even say even if you've been accustomed to working from home in your pajamas, I might encourage you to get up and get showered. Right now we need you to be a leader, we need you to be stronger than you've ever been before. We need you to take this more seriously than probably you ever have before because more people are needing your help. And those that I believe that stand up as leaders in this environment, this economy are not only going to survive, they're going to thrive people are going to be are going to flock to you because they need your confidence to help them solve their problems and navigate these waters. And if you can show up like a professional and that may mean even doing more of a morning routine than what you've ever done before. So I really appreciate you saying that
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a really important piece. I mean, we're, they're trusted, you know, people, our clients already trust us and look up to us. And if we falter or, you know, kind of get in our own way, you know, that's gonna, that's gonna come through when you call them and talk to them that insecurity or, you know, telling them, Hey, I'm just, you know, I'm just hanging out sitting in my jammies and you know, being unproductive or whatever. That's that's not what they I don't think that's the message you want to give and the message they want to hear. It is it is a time of definite servant leadership. For you know, it's, it's the epitome, not the epitome, but it is the true time where coming from contribution is a perfect example of how we're, you know, we're gonna come out on the other side of this thriving
Justin Stoddart
it's a great point. And I mean, part of what you've recommended Bev is we've discussed, you know, today's show in advance, is to be sure what's going in your mind is positive. Right? We've even talked about some of the sacrifices I know, we, we tend to think at times we get in our own our own little islands and think that, you know, we're the only like, we're the only only individuals suffering from this and of course, widespread pandemic around the world causes us to think differently about things but you look at even some of the smaller sacrifices, you know, even beyond our health care workers, etc. of people you mentioned, you know, the story of the Oregon duck, basketball women, right? kind of share that and how that ties in here.
Unknown Speaker
Well, I like to anytime I am trying to kind of work through an issue or a strategy. It a lot of my strategies tie back to sports because I live in a very athletic family and, you know, I hear a lot of people, you know, even the high school that my kids went to, you know, that that basketball team was slated to go to state which is a huge endeavor for them. But, you know, the big on a bigger scale, the big battle cry and the big thing that people are sad about is, you know, the duck women were slated to take it all and then all of a sudden, there's just all this Whoa, they don't they don't get to do this. And they don't get to do that. And, you know, I think, I don't know if the actual players are actually making that kind of, you know, sadness around that or if it's the parents or the fans or whatever. But if you look at other tragedy, and yeah, I think canceling the big NCAA Tournament I was I was in Vegas to go see it and it canceled all right in front of my eyes. It is a big deal is a big deal for a lot of people. But if you look back and some of the extremes that I kind of outlined, there, they are extremes. You look at war veterans that you know, gave up their lives. You look at the last recession where people actually lost their homes, you know, we, we rallied, and we didn't die. We survived from that. And there's just there's sacrifice and with every kind of sacrifice, if you don't let the doom and gloom consume you and eat you, you, you can actually get stronger from it. I mean, the recession, you know, kicked my butt in my previous career, you know, I had to reinvent, I joined real estate at the, at the depths of the recession. And, you know, I close 20 transactions in my first six months, I had great help, I was on a great team, but we took over the short sale industry and we helped we were helping people. So if you know you, you can be sad in the moment, but don't let it don't let it define you and don't let it consume you.
Justin Stoddart
That's such a great mindset. You know, Bev, you know, it's interesting. I was a homebuilder as were you, you know, in 2008 2009, hit and I look back And I'm really grateful that I'm not a homebuilder. I don't know how you feel about it. But that wasn't my calling in life,
Bev Blume
I would never go back and I won't go back.
Justin Stoddart
And it was interesting for me is that when you're in a profession that's paying you well, and there's tons of opportunity, you get in the middle of a series of projects, it's like, I don't know how I could ever unweave this thing and get out, you got 2 year warranties after that, like how do you ever get out of a builder, I get some joy. And and for me, it was, it really solidified a quote that I heard several years later, which is sometimes life's greatest disappointments, turn into God's greatest appointments, that we actually the stuff that seems like it's awful end up being, like our pathway to what we were supposed to do. And I would say that that I think highly likely and should not be a real estate agents path to say, oh, maybe I shouldn't be a real estate agent. No, it should be the fact that you need to be a leader within the real estate industry, that it's actually your call to step up and produce at a level you haven't take care of your clients at a level you haven't, and really even lead other agents in the industry like maybe you haven't maybe just been going along and taking care of a few clients here and there, and it's time not necessarily need to be this some massive producer, right, that may or may not be your calling, but it may be the fact that you just take care of people better than you ever have. I don't know what that looks like. But I would encourage you that during these times, it's a great opportunity to do some soul searching to find out like, maybe this is an opportunity for me to step up my game and even be something more than I have been in the past.
Bev Blume
Right? I think a lot of it too, is has a lot to do with who you surround yourself with. And who you who you collaborate with, not who you commiserate with, who you collaborate, you know, in in these deep dark times, or if you find yourself in a, you know, a deep, deep, dark place, like you know, coming out of construction. That was a very deep, dark place. I surrounded myself voluntarily and involuntarily because actually my good friends actually came to me. But it's a lot of it's about who you surround yourself with and who you collaborate with on what are you doing? Hey, what are you doing? Hey, what are you doing? To keep my head up. I was talking to an agent the other day and I just said, you know, put your put your power words in your favorite shade of lipstick on your mirror, and walk up to that thing every day and read it to yourself. And you have to shout it at yourself because this will pass. We're very resilient. Everybody, you know, by and large people are behaving. But if you take if you take the time to do what you need to do now, when the gate opens, we could actually potentially have the best third and fourth quarter we've ever had.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, it's a great perspective. I love that and you may find yourself resituated better and differently than you ever had before. Let's talk about point number two that you had mentioned, in addition to having a great morning routine and really looking around around the people around you. Let's talk about reading. Obviously, that's something that most of us typically say I don't have enough time to read. I'd love to read more. I've got a I've got a reading list this big. Let's talk about maybe this It's been a great time to realign maybe some of those priorities and find time to read and you agree with that?
Bev Blume
Absolutely. It's a great time to read. You know, and if you don't like to read, get an audiobook. I mean, there's so many books that are going to be that are offered for free. And, you know, in your industry, there's, you know, whether you're, you know, a KWer or you know, and you're reading shift or you like Brian Buffini or, you know, Tom Ferry or any of those great leaders, you know, now's the time to actually get back in it and read it and get your highlighter out because the messages that you read, if you read those books many years ago, you highlighted them, you highlighted them, then go highlight those books, get your Bible out, do do read what you need to read, read whatever, you know, you have time now, read it, highlight it. Take notes, internalize it. You No, it's just a great time to, you know, put good food in your brain.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I know for me if I don't do that stuff before my tribe wakes up around here, it doesn't happen very well, right? I would encourage you that if you have good aspirations to read, but you haven't been reading, you might need to get up an extra 15 or 30 minutes earlier and dedicate that time to reading. Because if it's not happening, and now you've got more distractions at home, right, most of us do, I happen to have six little distractions. Seven if you count my beautiful wife, it's not an easy thing to find quiet time to read. And so I would encourage you to it's time to get up a little bit earlier. This isn't to brag by any means, but my alarm went off at 415 today, and then Friday, this, actually my first call really was at eight o'clock, but I needed time for myself. I'm working on final edits of a book, there's just so much it can be done first thing in the morning, and I would encourage you to not let this turn into a late Netflix until midnight or one and then you get up and roll out of bed at eight or nine, I think you're really missing a huge opportunity for doing that. Right, right. Let's talk about dumb reinventing your business. Right. There's some things tactically, that we're having to do differently as a result of not being able to be face to face with people. What does it look like for you, Bev what tips can you give to people when it comes to reinventing their business and it's the circumstances?
Bev Blume
Well, now is the time to actually grasp technology. I know a lot of people are fearful because they're afraid they might break it or do something wrong and there's always a way to get back out but I'll bet zoom has had more paid subscriptions in the last week or two than ever, ever before. You know, I finally migrated over to an iPhone. And it was the best thing I ever did because I have, you know, FaceTime appointments with my clients. Use the technology you know, before we had to run to their house and sit down and have an appointment and you ran to their house because you had to have a face to face with them. Well, now we have tools, we have great tools and technology to use. If you want to use a zoom call, you can have your own free account. And if you want to record it, and you need to have long meetings or whatever, then obviously you have to pay but it's still super affordable. If you don't have an iPhone, get one and learn how to teach the other person how to have a FaceTime video with you. But it's the same as being there and just think of how many more people or appointments, you can go on leveraging technology. I thoroughly believe that how we've, for example, I was on a call yesterday with about 120 people across the country with a great trainer that we didn't actually have to fly out here to talk to us about the market of the moment. We actually just got on a zoom call. We all broke out little breakout rooms with 10 people and you know had to open conversation. You know, technology is fabulous right now. And if you embrace it today, just think about how how much easier your life is going to be. When we do get to the other side of this, it might become your new norm, I might actually stay here in my office and have, you know, a zoom call or a FaceTime call every 15 minutes, whereas, so, so every 15 minutes is four calls per hour. If I did that for two hours, that's eight calls, three hours, that's 12 calls, can I in 12, appointments in three hours driving around. So if you feel like they still need to see you, you need to see their facial expression on how they're receiving the information that they're given. You can email them documents, you can go through all that stuff together, it could actually really streamline our business when we get to the other side.
Justin Stoddart
You know, think about that Bev. I think what you've said there's more more profound that I think most people recognize is that you If at the end of the day you get paid on, on on how well you serve people, and then how many people you can serve, I think this technology thing i think i think i really think you're onto something is that there's going to be a group of agents that say, No way, Jose, I'm not doing it. Face to face matters, right. And I think they're gonna, like really lose out during this technology time because they're not going to be face to face with anybody for the next, you know, several weeks, who knows how long. Meanwhile, other agents are saying I'm gonna pivot in my business. And right now, I'm going to see how many people I can get face to face. I mean, I feel the same way. I'm in my home office, I leave here I go out, I hug my little squishy two year olds cheeks, and I come right back in and I made another appointment. And it's like, that's a phenomenal opportunity. My I'm happier, right, my quality, life's better. And I'm actually serving more people. And so again, I think that they're going to be agents that are actually in the business because they hibernate during this time. whereas others that are going to say, this is the new norm. I'm gonna go on one listing appointment, get face to face, and then I'm going to be able to have face to facetime with those clients, you know, once a week or you know, however, you know, often you think is most appropriate. But what much more deep and meaningful and rich client experience that is when you're face to face with people. In fact, I know one of my favorite people, Morgan Davis said me at one point, he said, you know, the challenge that we have with this DocuSign world is we just don't have a lot of face tme with people anymore. And so it's hard to create such an impact that they would would then want to refer us afterwards. And his business is built entirely upon referrals. And so it's, it's interesting when you think of that challenge, and now we have this technology, you can actually be face to face with people and people are happy to learn how to use it, even your clients, to where it really is going to open up all kinds of opportunity for us to kind of rehumanize if you will, our brand in our business and bring people back together even if it is electronically.
Bev Blume
Right, right. I mean, it's a huge opportunity. And you know, it's it's not the rule you can you can do this business any way you want. I guess my main goal is that I feel like a lot of people are suffering, and they don't know what to do. So just, you know, coming to them from a place of contribution on their playing field. Because, you know, we listen to a lot of training I was I was listening to thing yesterday and it was so far over my head, it didn't apply to me. So I was kind of upset that I was spending the time listening to it. But you know, so that's kind of why, you know, I poked you and I said, let's do this, because let's talk to people where they're at, because that, you know, the big high level conversations might not appeal to them. If we just bring it back down to the ground and give them a few tips and things and just some, you know, outlooks and positive outlook on you know, what you can be doing today and feed your brain and, you know, choose what you put in it. I do want to talk a little bit about the news and you know, things that you put in into your brain and some self talk, but I mean, there's just You know, just just some tips just you know, to help, you know, pull others along. I've always kind of described my, my quest in life as if you're familiar with a wakeboarding boat. If you've ever wake surfed you there's a there's a time and a place in that week where you can throw the rope back into the boat. And you can actually be on that surfboard and you're actually following the boat just from the propulsion of the way the wave spins itself. And that's the vacuum that you know that's my battle cries to create that back that vacuum so people can throw the rope back in the boat and ride that surfboard by themselves.
Justin Stoddart
That's a powerful analogy. I actually tried to wake surfing for the first time. This past summer with my family. And it was it was a thrill. I'll say this my my 10 year old. I guess he was 11 at the time, or he was 10 at a time he's 11. Now he was way better than that. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I was just an off like how good he was. I was like, that is unbelievable.
But yeah, what what a way to live your life right where you have you create this force moving forward that others can can draft off you. That's awesome. I love that. Thanks. Let's talk about that that final point. You said this self talk this What are you saying to yourself? When no one else is talking to you, right? what's actually going on inside your brain? How do you control that? And how important is it to control it?
Unknown Speaker
It's very important to control it, and it takes a certain amount of focus. And so it also stems from what you put in your brain and what time of day you put it in your brain. I actually have two coaches and my one, coach coaches more about brain activity and you know, how you speak to people and how you show up and things like that. And we talked a lot about what you put in your brain and when and so you know, if you liked the news, You can stay in the news. But the biggest thing is so here's the analogy. You watch a horror movie at night, you likely will have nightmares, right? You watch war movies, violent movies, things like that at night, it's going to affect how you sleep and the quality of your sleep. And when you wake up in the morning, you might not be rested because your brain was having this combat during the night, right? So that just kind of stems back to the things that you're going to put in your brain during the day. So if you're a huge news, huge news watcher, you might want to limit how much news you're putting in your head because it's sensationalism. It's, you know, a much bigger view and it sticks in your brain it can cause you to, you know, have negative outward appearances and you can also slow down or stop or prevent The good things are coming into your brain like that we're talking about. So, which leads to self talk, it's so if your brain is so busy processing all this negative stuff that you've just put in through your eyes and your ears, from watching the news or horror movies or shoot 'em ups or whatever, I love shoot 'em ups, but I don't have that. That's a different story. Find out the things that you say to yourself and whatever career you're in, if you're listening to the voices in your head and the voices in your head, say, go ahead and sleep into eight or nine. I'll get around to it when I get around to it or whatever. Stop it. Fill your brain with positive affirmations. If you don't know what affirmations are or what they sound like, you can Google it, there's a million of them online. And just like I told my friend the other day, put your favorite affirmations in your favorite shade of lipstick on your mirror. And when you walk by that mirror, you look in the mirror and tell yourself I am a great real estate agent. I'm worthy Do this wake up anything that you need to tell yourself, when you shout it yourself or you chant it yourself or you talk to yourself like that, those are the things that fill your soul with positivity and the energy to actually be able to move forward. And right now we have to find a way to move forward.
Justin Stoddart
super powerful, Bev. You know, it's interesting when you look at the role of a real estate agent, and those obviously that that know me know that I'm not one, but I serve, you know, this this community. I think if if you were looking at the typical person that works, you know, for wages, having months or even weeks without income would be devastating. In the end, the chance of them catching up and ever getting back to where they were and their goals gets gets more and more difficult. And I think the beauty of being a real estate agent, is the ability that that you can catch up and catch up quickly if you're on your game, right? Is that just because it's a slow down doesn't mean it's permanent, you know, if anything, it's, you know, there's going to be a catapult effect, because there's going to be this pent up demand. And so again, I would encourage especially if you're a real estate agent and have the you know, influence over your, your career like real estate agents do that the only thing that's going to keep you from having what you want is your mindset. And I agree with you hundred percent about the news. You know, I put something out a little controversial this week, I got some feedback that not everybody appreciated it, but my intentions were really good. And the and the comment was this is that like, first of all, the news is a business right? And its job is to get our attention number one, it's Its job is to, is to inform us. But it's business is to keep our attention. And the best way to keep attention is through drama. And there's plenty of drama in the world right now. But that doesn't mean all of that drama is happening in your household. Like they're telling the people in this the epicenter of Italy in New York to do the same things that they're telling us right now. Stay inside, wash, your hands only come out of it's absolutely necessary. Like there's really nothing more that you need to be doing like my guess is if you're listening to this and Heaven forbid if there's somebody that you love that suffering this is meant in no way to diminish that genuinely my heart my prayers go out to those people that are suffering yet if that's not you please don't take that upon you as if it were you We need you to lead we need you to stand up and if you're having the mentality as if you're on the ventilator in Italy then how can you help people that really are how can you help people that are that are just you know have have poor mindset. So again, I might get some some pushback from that but again, my intentions are good is to say no wake up, like we need you to lead right it's kind of like being in war. And you're over there acting as if you got shot and it's like, No, no, you will get shot if you stay down. Like get up like we need you to lead. We need your confidence at this time right now. And we can't have that if you're watching the news 24 seven and parlaying everything that's happening in the worst parts of the world right now. into your life. Right?
Bev Blume
Right. Right. Totally agree.
Justin Stoddart
Final question here, Bev, always learn so much from you. And I love the fact that you're leading, you know, you've always been a leader in the fact to see that transpire now in the form of not just your own extremely successful team, but also, you know, your own market center, where other agents are looking to you to lead. I think those agents are in such a good place to have such a strong leader as you. I'd love to hear from you. And have you teach me and those that are listening. What is it that Bev Blume does, to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your own possibilities, even amidst uncertainty?
Bev Blume
That's a great question. I, you know, that's a great question. I spend a lot of time listening to I spent a lot of time listening. We have one mouth in two years. We should use them in that order. I can't remember who told me that because they just said that last week and it just came out my mouth but spend a lot of time listening payinng attention staying in positive thought. I, I truly believe that our industry is going to lead us out of this and lead us into the recovery. As long as we're there to seize the moment, we have to put things in place now to stay busy. Stay positive, stay prospecting, lead generating, lead follow up, you know, read, be careful what you put in your head. And if you know if you still find yourself so suffering, find somebody that you admire to talk to you. And that's that's been the focus of some people that I've been reaching out to today of people that are equal or, you know, that I admire, what are you doing and and the conversations are actually kind of short and slightly shallow, and then it quickly turns around to say, Well, what are you doing and that is a huge opportunity for me to open up my heart and my mind to them about what I'm doing. So I'm going to continue that I'm going to continue to you know, talk to other people and listen to what they're talking about what they're doing or not doing, and just collaborate. And you know, the biggest thing is, is keeping calm in in all of this, if we freak out, everybody around us is going to freak out if we get it. You know what I'm not saying, don't freak out, because we all will, you know, the shortage of toilet paper is getting really real, but just stay calm, collaborate and calm. And, you know, we've been in this inventory short market for a long time. I think we've been in two months or less two and a half months or less of inventory for at least two years, maybe even longer. And so by practicing now, in staying in the right mindset, grabbing a hold of technology and leveraging that. Staying in the touch with your people and truly listening to them finding out, you know the source of their stress, empathizing with them just being there for them. They already know where realtor they already know. You know, our general prospecting call is, you know, who do you know that's going to buy, sell or invest in real estate this year, but now it's coming from a place of contribution that we care. So I feel like if you practice those things, we're going to be like the thoroughbreds. And this is a big analogy. We're going to be like the thoroughbreds behind the gate waiting for a race, right? So what are those? What are those thoroughbreds generally do, they're standing back there and they're super anxious. They're pushing on that gate. They want it to open they're ready to run. That when this if we're if we're setting ourselves up properly, right now to move ahead. We're in the we're in the gate. Soon we'll be in the gate we'll be able to push the gate and help it open help it open, that when the gate finally does open, we can go seize that moment and seize the opportunity help our buyers and sellers get where they need to go. And like I said before, we could have the third or fourth quarter of our entire career. But you know, it's it's getting, it's getting ready now it's getting your mind right. Get your soul right, getting your business set up right. And get ready to go. Yeah, we'll come back.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, there's no doubt there's no doubt that it will buying and selling homes is not going out of style. Right? We obviously have a temporary pause here or slow down. But that doesn't mean that you have to participate in that you've heard me say that before is that there's, there's so much you can be doing right now from the comfort of your own home to serve people and that you right, those people that do that and take advantage of that opportunity are going to be in such a great position. Because they'll have the trust of people. You know, those that they genuinely reached out to and care and concern How are you? How is your family? It's been like the only thing I've been telling people. How are you? How's your family like genuinely? Okay about your title and escrow right now. Sure. That's how we're funded. Yeah, yes, we need that. Yes, we want that. But I'm more concerned. How's your family? You guys, okay, you go and you need anything. And it just feels so good to just have that conversation all day long. And I know it's gonna come back, right? I know it is. Both the economy as well as that's gonna come back in the form of, of, you know, having an escrow and I'm sure it's the same for agents, if you genuinely reach out to people and say, Look, how are you? How's your family? Like, I'm here to serve you a small percentage of that maybe in real estate, it might be you need some toilet paper, look, we got some extra drop on your doorstep.
Bev Blume
Just talk to somebody you know, get on a FaceTime call and just, you know, we're isolated right now just you know, get on a some type of face to face method to communicate with people. And I also feel like you know, we've been hearing for the last year don't look at the market in the moment. Don't look at the market as of today. And me and my analogies, so when you're driving down the freeway, Look at the look at the market where it's going to be, or where it's going to go look at the market in the future. We didn't see this coming. But we still you know, we call it building out our pipeline or whatever. But you know, when you're driving on the freeway, and you're going 55 or 65 miles an hour or 70 or 80, however fast you drive, do you only look down the road at the car in front of you know, you're actually looking as far down the road as you possibly can because when you're traveling at such a high rate of speed, you can't react if the traffic a mile down the road suddenly stops and you're suddenly come upon it, you're gonna bash into the rear of it. So if we actually look at our businesses, or whatever line of business that you're in, and we actually prepare for what is down the road, that's why doing all this work up front, so we filled up our gas tank before we jumped on the freeway. We put our seatbelt on we were on the road for an hour. We got our bottle of water, we got our snacks and all that just like go into work at home in your office. Look down the road and just you know, now is the time to prepare. Because when the gate opens, we're going to be doing 70 or 80 mile an hour down the road to pick up for what we've missed out on during this time.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, such a good analogy. I love it. And that perspective again, will carry people through as opposed to hibernating, they'll be reaching out. And you truly are a wonderful leader Bev. And you've really helped all of us to think bigger today. Thank you for your time. always enjoy spending time with you. It was a pleasure. And
Bev Blume
Thanks Justin, I really appreciate that.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. And my final request of everybody I want if this has been valuable, please tag somebody that needs to hear this. Bev's words and her wisdom is are profound. So please just tag an agent in the comments to this. That would be helpful to get this out. And then if this has been valuable, so encourage you to go subscribe, whether it be on YouTube or your favorite podcast apps and subscribe, leave a review would be some love language for me. And and final request is simply this it's go think bigger. Absolutely. We have so much for helping us do that today. All right everybody. Let's go get a lot. Thanks friends bye bye
Justin Stoddart
Anytime there is uncertainty, leadership is needed more than ever. Right now with the Cova 19 pandemic, running its course through our nation through our economy and throughout the world, there is a need for leaders to step up. The reality is, however, is that you as a leader won't be able to fulfill your potential and offer the help that you otherwise could. If you don't have a strong mindset, this episode is going to give you three key principles that you're going to need to embody and improve upon. In order to be that leader that we need you to be. I can't wait for you to hear this episode. It's going to be a great one for you to listen to and for you to share with others.
All right, welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddard. Very excited about today's episode of a very good friend of mine on and we're going to give you three tips to having a strong mindset amidst a volatile market. Let me just remind you, my mission and my passion are to do the following are to help you to wake up and recognize the potential inside of you and then to inspire you and help you to live a life in pursuit of that potential. And I can't think of anybody better today to help me inspire you and help you to live in pursuit of your potential than Trevor Hammond. Trevor, before I give a full intro of you, thanks for coming on the show today, man.
Trevor Hammond
Good morning. Happy to be here.
Justin Stoddart
As always, as always, I love our conversations. You know, they probably started five years ago, Trevor and I scheduled a 30 minute sit down coffee meeting, oh, two and a half hours later, and we're like, Man, this is one of my buddies, like this guy thinks like, I think we've just had a great time ever since helping build each other's businesses. It's been awesome. So thanks for all you do. For those that don't know, Trevor. He is a branch manager of the top Sierra Pacific mortgage loan officer branch in the country. Currently, they are absolutely killing it. And a lot of that I believe, is under Trevor's leadership, both in attracting great talent, and then helping that great talent really, really thrive. So he's also a mortgage coach, so he should say a coach to mortgage loan officers and IT consultant to the end consumer. So anyway, and all of that even more importantly, is the way that he dotes on his family, which I absolutely love. Yeah, that's what it's all about, right? Is it we have a quality of life. And I know you and i right now are having more time at home, much like our audience than ever before, because of the Covid19 outbreak, which, of course, is causing some of the volatility of volatility. So, to really quick, again, thank you for coming on. And I want to begin with this question. You're a dad and a husband, somebody who thrives and having a great work life balance. Give all of us a quick tip, before we get into the three tips for having a strong mindset of being productive at home. What does that look like for you?
Trevor Hammond
You know, I think I was already fairly groomed for this. It's a great question. Everybody's trying to figure that out right now. Right? And it was forced upon a lot of us. I was one of those people that I was already more productive at home than I was at the office. You know, I think the perspective there is, and some people maybe don't have the freedom to figure that out. Right? Because You do need to be at the office. But at the office, there's a lot of, Hey, you got a minutes right at home, you don't have that or you can at least shield yourself from it more, you know, you can choose to, you know, turn turn the phone over right or silence it. And I have a home office here, you know, I just set it up the same way my office at work was months ago, and I'm upstairs and we turned the movie room into my, my home office so that I could so I could read feed this bad boy here. Just have my quiet space, you know, and then when, when the kiddos do come up now like they do because it's spring break, right. Sometimes it's a welcome interruption just to just to be here with them.
Justin Stoddart
And I totally agree. Like in the background, I heard a little chirping from my two year old so yeah, given strong orders to not come down during the broadcast but you never know we might have a little more fun than people expect.
Unknown Speaker
So I was working yesterday and my my nine year old 10 year old in a few days was vacuuming around my feet. Like, last time you vacuum buddy. Like this is awesome. House has never been so clean and organized ever.
Justin Stoddart
You know, it really is. It's interesting. I thought this would be like the least productive place in the world. I'll tell you what, just the joy and satisfaction of being around family more often. I think it's making me like, really productive. Actually, I have kind of rethinking my setup kind of moving forward after this all passes. So let's get into these three points Trevor, obviously, right now, we have a very volatile market, right? mortgage rates are in the low threes. They're close to five, like within a day. I mean, there's just some crazy stuff going on. And I know we could get into the weeds and you'd be probably more qualified anybody to kind of talk about the ins and outs of the numbers. But this episode really dedicated to helping people to have a strong mindset despite all of that. Walk us through. I think we've identified three points really you have three points, three principles by Which we can live that will help us to have that strong mindset. Would you mind going into the first for us?
Trevor Hammond
Yeah, I loved when you pose that to me, it forced me to really stop and think about how am I keeping such a positive mindset? You know? You know, you and I are very similar in that we understand we've got to be that voice of calm when there is when there is panic everywhere, whether it's you as a parent, you as a friend, you as a leader of a team, your clients to your your business partners, everybody is responding very differently. And, and that kind of ties into the second one we'll talk about today. I know that I that I threw your way but number one is gratitude. Just being grateful, which scientifically, you know, we've studied this for a long time and it's out there but the simplest way I've always put gratitude as at the very moment you're grateful for something you cannot be fearful of something at that moment. It's impossible, right? Our brains can only think of one thing at a time. So, you know, if we think of our brains as kind of a storage shelf, there's only so much room on that shelf, right? Just like my bookshelf behind me, there's only so much room. So if I'm on the news a lot, right, which, which obviously makes money by feeding us negative news, and there's truth and there, we got to dig a little bit, I won't get into that series got their own opinions of it. We could pay whatever, you know, why not?
Unknown Speaker
We've got to put a lot of positive stuff on there. So, you know, I think about starting my day with gratitude and amidst a really what could be considered scary times? Definitely uncertain times. Right. And that's probably the biggest problem right now is it's nobody knows right? how long this might last and what the real impacts going to be. I'm grateful that I even have a really nice home to to be stuck in. You know, I'm grateful. My family is healthy. I'm grateful for the extra time. So some people are already kind of they're like, Oh my gosh, give me out of this house. You know, we've had to turn that around. And so I'm grateful for the time with my kids. I'm grateful that we're playing games, board games we haven't played in forever. My son almost beat me in chess yesterday, you know, sitting by the fire. I'm grateful for those times, right. You know, my wife and daughter created a dance studio and an exercise studio in our garage. I think that was Monday. I was up here kind of work in and plugged in and they said, Come down, we have a surprise. I could not believe what they did. So I'm grateful that all those are happening. I'm grateful. We're having a lot of people are having tough economic times. But I've got to remind myself and my team, of course, that there's a lot of stress and uncertainty, as I said, but we're, we're having record revenue record year. We're able to help so many families right now in the mortgage side of things, say Have a lot of money. And ironically, now come at a very good time for a lot of people, you know, the fear has driven mortgage rates down. And yes, volatility is off the charts like I've never seen in my 21 years. But we're still saving a lot of money for a lot of people right with from a mortgage planning standpoint. So I can go on and on. But I think the key is, you and I and everybody start your day with gratitude, take a break for two minutes and just go What are the things I'm grateful for? What is the good in all this? You know, as I said, I don't know I did a video a few weeks ago, but what if this is all happening for us, right? Instead of to us that's the mindset. You know, cuz it's creating a lot of good we're taking we're taking a lot of family walks. I've been out running outside whenever usually I'm stuck on a treadmill at the gym and nobody even realizes I'm around. Now I'm running through the neighborhood and you're waving from distance, you know, to people you see like that's, that's all happening because of this. So that that is gratitude.
Justin Stoddart
Man I think you're point Trevor that this is happening for us, not to us if you look at the silver linings of what's happening and again, my heart genuinely goes out to those that are suffering I know there's some even in our local real estate community that have suffered with this already and I'm sure there's going to be more right and some may not have a happy ending right and it's my heart hurts for them and for other parts of the world where it's you know, there's there's total devastation happening. I don't think in any way our gratitude overshadows or lessens the compassion we can feel for other people. But I do think that it keeps our mindset right and straight so that we can help other people right if we're living in a in a, in a state of panic. And in a state of fear and scarcity. It gets really hard to help other people similar to the oxygen mask on an airplane. Right? I see your point there about gratitude, being so profound. I know I actually had once written the affirmation of fill my life with so many good things that I don't have space for the battles I don't have space for temptation. I don't have space for, you know the things that are gonna get in the way of where I'm headed. And I heard you say that with regards to gratitude. You're right. If you feel your heart in your life with gratitude, it's hard to dwell on, let alone have any room at all. Yeah, for those things that are going to be a deterrent, and you know, the things that are truly not as great right now, you know, so I love that it's such a profound statement.
Trevor Hammond
To I think a key point that you're reminding me of is, it's a muscle you have to develop. There could be people watching this either now or at some point in the future. And there's gonna be a lot of Yeah, buts. You know, and they're gonna say, Yeah, but this is what's happening to me. And yeah, but I'm dealing with this and you're not. We all have those. We all have them. Nobody knows everybody's else's stories. You have to find it as little as it can be. It's a habit you form. You know, you can be grateful for the fact that the sun's peeking through the clouds for two minutes here in Portland, right? You can be grateful that you've got a stocked refrigerator, you might have just lost your job. Right? You might have a sick family member, you might be missing out on somebody who you loves birthday, you know you can't get together. But you've got to find three to five things to get your mindset straight. People will be attracted to you when you're that that calm, positive person, even in the midst of a lot of negativity, I don't want to come around you if you're gonna be negative all the time I can I can open up my own newsfeed and get all that I will be plenty to depressed in about two minutes seeing what's going on in the world. It's real. Right and we all have our perspective on it but doesn't mean I have to play that game. I got to keep my positive to show for you right and you got to do it for your family and and and that's what people need around us. Our family needs that so people will flock to that that lower frequency person right I'm just you know,
Justin Stoddart
Taking a quote out of one of my mentors books, where he says success is your duty. It's your obligation. You know, I think even gratitude is your duty gratitude is your obligation. Like, yes, there's things that are in your life right now in our lives right now that aren't perfect that we would want to be better. But if you were to compare yourself to people, you know, living in Italy right now living in China right now, you know, whether or not Corona virusis here or not. They would look at your life and be like, Oh, my goodness, I would love to have that life. Oh, if only I could be in that spot. If only I could be in the US. If only I could be in that industry, if only I could, if only if only. So I think that hopefully gives us some perspective to realize how much you really do have grateful for and I agree with you is that the more that you express gratitude, the more people like that are going to be attracted to you, right like attracts like, if you're a dramatic person and always looking for what's wrong. You're naturally going to be in conversations with and having people come to you who want to be in that same mode because it's comfortable. And so start changing it for me that the tactical application of that is I get up first thing in the morning. And the very first thing I do is write at least three gratitudes. I'm sure your practice is similar, but it just gets my mind right. And I go through a series of other activities that are part of my morning routine that's like behind prayer, which is full of gratitude. It's literally like the very first thing I write down is what am i grateful for forces that
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, you can bookend in your day that way. I think if anybody had to do start your day with that, like you just said, three things I'm grateful for end your day, the same time you're going to bed go to bed with a grateful mind. And I'm I'm not doing that every night, right? You know, might be a family movie night and I forget to do it or something right when I go to bed, but if you could start creating that habit of what was I grateful for today, now that it ended looking back because a lot of times they go to bed thinking about things that we didn't get done or that didn't happen and that's the opposite of what were you and I are talking about it's what good did come from the day and finish your day with that and then start your next day with the same thing.
Justin Stoddart
I had a basketball coach that would always teach that the team that gets Big Mo on their team wins. He actually ended up being voted the he got an award as the top high school basketball coach in the country. And I and to this day that lesson stands out is that Big Mo is momentum. And I think when you look at like you said whoever the wins you end up recruiting Big Mo you end up realizing like man I got it going on like I'm it's happening. It's like I'm doing some stuff. And you're recruiting Big Mo. let's move on to point number two. Trevor was a humility. Is that the one that you that we did? Okay. Yeah, about humility.
Trevor Hammond
Humility. Actually have the book here. So I read this book A long time ago called a spire actually named my team, the Aspire group. Okay. 13 right when we started it, and what this, the author, if anybody is interested is Kevin Hall is the author. And I'd seen him speak and he goes through and breaks down key words. Humility was one that really stuck out to me because I'd always kind of confused humble with humility. And they're totally different humility is being teachable and coachable. Right? It's being open minded. It's, it's carrying yourself every day and understanding that we can learn from everybody around us. Right? I don't come into like this, you know, conversation with you, thinking I'm just going to teach you I'm going to learn from you. Right, and there are people that watch this that I can learn from so humility is the reason that's so profound to me right now in the in the marketplace that we're dealing with. And in the health crisis, we're dealing with food, you know, recession talk, we're dealing with is you see people polarizing, right? We see in politics all the time, right? Which drives me crazy around politics. But really, there's, there's people who believe this and there's people who believe that and you don't see a lot of humility. These people don't feel like they can learn from these people. And these people don't feel like right, it's confirmation bias. We've heard these terms and humility is listening to both sides and saying that side believes they're right just as much as that side believes they're right. And everyone coming to this conversation has a different background of information and data and, and experiences leading to their belief system. And that's just the reality of it is so we can sit there and argue over things but nobody's trying to understand the other side. Nobody's trying to learn often if you really step back and watch it happening. You know, some people like like nuts and they're, you know, chocolate and some people don't Right some, some people like peanut butter and the chocolate and some don't right? It's okay. I was like, let me try that peanut butter in the chocolate. That's pretty good, right? Like, it doesn't have to be this big global political thing. It can be little things, you know, from democrat versus republican to just what I believe is going on right now. You know, you see this huge divide with we've got to get people back to work, right or the income economy is going to implode and fall apart. Right. And we just had, I believe over 3 million people file for unemployment that the unemployment came out today. That's horrible, right? And so there's one side so we've got to get back to work if this were overreacting to this whole, you know, coronavirus, Covid 19. There's other people saying that's ridiculous. You're going to kill millions of people. If you do that. Everyone has their beliefs around that. And so humility is just saying, Let me learn from everybody. I don't have to take a side don't have to just be, this is the only right answer. So that's my thoughts around humility and not just right now in this crazy time, it's a year round way of living. You know, when I come in and I run a mastermind with my team, like we did virtually Tuesday night happy hour, you know, virtually through zoom with my team. They're my board of advisors. Yeah, I'm the leader and I have the title, but but I learn from them. And a lot of maturity is realizing Yeah, I've got a lot of answers, but I don't have them all. They have a lot of answers as well. And and they can teach me a lot of things. And that's humility. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
I mean, I love what you said, Trevor, I think the people that I admire most most almost the leaders that I want to follow the most are those that that I feel like are still learning as well. I think that they're there. I mean, all of us want to follow someone who has everything figured out, but the reality is, nobody does. And I think if you can position yourself as I'm constantly recreating myself, I'm constantly evolving into something bigger and better. It gives people the assurance that that, hey, I'm, I want to follow you because you've got the best information that I can see now. And I'm convinced with the way that you're open to learning that you're, if you don't have it, now, you're going to have it in the future, and you're going to stay on top, and you're gonna stay ahead of it. I think it's a key leadership principle, as well as even just the life principle of looking at these circumstances, to say, what could I have done different? Could I have been better prepared for this downturn? Could I have better prepared my customers for this downturn? Could I have better prepared my family from a health standpoint, like, every time, maybe it looks like there's a failure around you? If we were to look at that instead? And say, that's just simply feedback. Failure isn't a failure. Failure is feedback. You take that feedback and you say, what can I learn from this, as opposed to being bitter as opposed to being upset or pointing the finger at somebody didn't prepare me somebody owes me something. It's like, you know, what, what could I have done here to be better prepared for this? What's the feedback that I'm getting from life from natural consequences of my decisions? And how can I reposition myself next time to be better suited to be in a better spot as well as to help other people. And I love that. I think humility is such a powerful way to keep your mindset stable to say like, Hey, you know what, you're right. I wasn't totally prepared for this. And that's okay. I'm gonna learn from this. And I think it just takes the pressure off. I think all of us are really good at where we, we feel like we have to do everything perfect. Like we can't mess up. Whereas what I hear you teaching us is the humility gives us almost permission to be human permission to be ourselves which gives other people permission to be themselves and takes the pressure off and all of this, this pent up, you know, stress that people are feeling. They can just let go of a lot of it to say, you know what, I'm starting where I am now. Want to get better?
Trevor Hammond
I'll give you a great example. You, I just thought while you're while you're sharing that. So I coach a lot of mortgage professionals. I've coached a lot of real estate professionals. I've coached financial professional financial advisor professionals. I love coaching, right? I love I love. I learn it, right? I mean, I've got this is about two thirds of my book supply behind me. I learn it, I go apply it that I like to teach other people. It's just how I'm wired. A lot of people have been frozen lately, and without calling the either their clients, right, their homeowners, their business partners, because they don't really believe they have the answers for whatever that person's dealing with or struggling with. And my advice has been, just call them and just be there for them. That's all you got to do. You don't have to have any answers. Google has all your answers by the way. Just go talk to them. Just say a lot of A lot of my advice right now whether it's a mortgage professional just calling their real estate partner, just say how you doing. I've been sending some texts out to various people just how are you doing? That's all I want to know. people I care about I don't have to have any answers. I could have zero the answers of whatever they're struggling with sometimes I have an answer a thought sometimes I don't that's not the point. And so that all ties back to humility. You know, if you're in the mortgage business watching this because I know you have a lot of mortgage folks that might watch this as well. Just be on the phone. I know a lot of people are looking to refinance a home but there's a lot of people that don't need that they just need you to call and be empathetic, which was almost one of the words I brought to this was empathetic, you know, empathy just put yourself in other people's shoes right? But humility means I just gonna call clients I helped a year or two ago or five years ago just see how you're doing as your family are you guys healthy. Are you okay? Being stuck at home every night? Have you figured out the whole life you know, are you getting Some exercise, that's all you have to do. And that is having massive humility about who you are and what you can bring to others.
Justin Stoddart
powerful stuff, man. Let's move to point number three. optimism,
Trevor Hammond
Optimism!
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, about what optimism means to you and more specifically, how it helps us have a strong mindset amidst a volatile market.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I think it's a good capper on if you have to pick three mindsets, right? We've got gratitude, humility, and optimism. I live by a belief that we always have to be creating a bigger, better future for ourselves than anything we've ever done in the past. That is a mindset. I live by all the time, and I teach it to other people. We've all met people that talk about their glory days, all too often right? And and they don't, they've stopped thinking what's ahead of them is better than anything behind them. And I don't subscribe to that at all. So optimism then is about how will we come out of this? What's the good coming from this? How will of this create new opportunities in the face of adversity? Right? Because these are the times that you have an opportunity to rise to new levels might not be what you predict. We don't always know how this will happen. But I know if you bury your head and wait for this to go away, you will lose ground on people like myself, my team, you the people that are jumping on this to be that voice of calm, and I think I'm very optimistic about that. I'm optimistic right now about how fast technology will become the norm for a lot of the folks you and I know if they didn't know how to use Zoom before. They were not prepared, but guess what they probably know how to use Zoom really well by now and it's only been a few weeks of this stuff. I'm optimistic about it because now you'll be so much more efficient in your day in working with clients that aren't near you, right? That's, that's an optimism way of looking at things. I think stuff that's happening right now. And you guys, you know, you may have read this as well, but I agree with what's happening right now is going to possibly most likely reshape an entire generation of how we approach things much like the Great Depression, reshaped the mindsets of people back then. And you and I just maybe could always understand that. And it's not a negative way. It's, I think healthcare will be reformed from this. You know, I learned this week. back I was learning all the time, that I couldn't understand how restaurants could close their doors so fast. It just boggled my mind. Like, they announce it right and they're doing takeout and then two days later, they're out of business. If I couldn't understand that, I learned that restaurants on average, carry two to three days of cash. That's it. And and the most financially astute ones about a week of cash. To me, that doesn't sound like a good business model that if one little thing comes along like I mean, no, not even as catastrophic as what we're dealing with. So I see industries like that going, hmm. You know, maybe we should have more cash on hand, you know, for all the for the what ifs. It's the same as with families right back in 08/09. Being in the mortgage industry. I followed the life lesson, right, we have to have six months of reserves socked away in our bank account. I learned really quickly six months was not nearly enough depending on what industry you're in. And I'll tell you I've talked a lot more than six months away now. Not just in the last three months figuring this over the last years and years putting way more money away, because it reshaped my thinking of how to protect myself and my family. So I'm optimistic that once it gets to be a good reminder to people to not live on the edge Too much financially right? I'm optimistic about how much toilet paper people will have on hand all the time from here on out. I'm gonna have a whole shelf in my garage right for the for the toilet paper someday the need.
Justin Stoddart
So hey, just a side note there my buddy hose shows up today that's probably way too much. I don't need toilet paper. I'm I'm competing at a whole new level baby.
Unknown Speaker
I love it. I love it. So I optimism again, it kind of goes back to gratitude. I think they're very closely tied. When you're grateful for things even in the midst of a lot of negative environment, a lot of fear when you're grateful for even the smallest things. It ties right into your you're optimistic about things but optimism and in my case is how will we come out of this three months from now six months from now? 18 months from now? Right? Who are we becoming as a result of this? What are our children learning? I don't know all the answers to this, but we'll find out what are our What are our children learned? How, how fast are our schools, learning to embrace technology to be able to educate our children? virtually Some were prepared somewhat, some were not prepared at all for this. Coming out of this, they're going to be better at that in all ways. So a lot of cool things are happening from this. Small businesses, I think it's like it's like us and our personal savings habits, small businesses will probably start being more astute with their money. Right. And not and not as fearful as they probably are right now they have enough socked away to cover their business and cover their staff for enough time. Well, very optimistic always.
Justin Stoddart
You know, it goes back to what you said, Trevor, is that this is happening for us, not to us, right? And if you can realize that the future is brighter than the past. I've heard you say that, that then we can look at this and say, all right, like, how about My life going to be different, right? Not just the humility that we described earlier of what can I learn from this is if it's as if there was some sort of failure, but no, like, what's next, like, of course, it's going to be better, of course, we're going to make it better, of course, things are going to get better. And I'm just curious as to what that's gonna look like. And I think as we can go into our weeks and our months and the upcoming years like that, of like, it's only going to get more exciting, it's going to get better. I think about this amount of time that I have now to influence my children, right? Normally I would, I was out of the house by seven, and I was home by six. And by that point, you know, from 6pm to eight, it's kind of like get people fed, get them bathed, get their teeth brushed, say prayers, get them to bed like and there wasn't a whole lot of time to really interact with them during the day I'd really turned over so much of the education and the and the formation of my kids to people who I don't really know and I, I trust that they're wonderful people, but they're not me, right? And they're not. They get the joy of seeing that growth. I don't even cause me to think like, how could this look differently? Right? And I'm optimistic that, you know, the future workplace is gonna look different, because we're all going to realize we only have so much time with our kids before they're no longer kids and then forever they're adults. And how is this going to shape my interaction with them and the way that I set up my day to where I can be more a part of their life than ever before? Right? That's something I'm optimistic about. I'm excited about it. I didn't realize this was possible. And I'm realizing that I'm maybe just as if not more productive than I've ever been. I do miss my work family. Right. I would like to spend more time with them. But I think you know, you can have both and I think, again, having that kind of optimistic flair on looking at this moving forward of like, boy, this is gonna get good, this is gonna get exciting. And things are only gonna get better. How are they going to get better? It just becomes like a curiosity, right? Like, how is this going to get better,
Unknown Speaker
Like well and even drill it down to that little piece, like I said about gratitude right at the very moment you're being grateful for something you can't be feeling For something, it happens the same way when I am optimistic at that moment, my mind is focused on being optimistic. It cannot at that very same time be pessimistic. It just doesn't work that way. I can't be both at the same time I can. I can flip back and forth really, really fast and I realize I'm doing it. But so I want to suffocate all the pessimism, with optimism as much as I can. I want to be real. Absolutely. You're not going to live in La La Land. But we're going to be optimistic because again, that's what people be attracted to. That's what our family needs from us to to look at what the good is that will come from all of this. And the opportunities like with our family, with our kids. There is a lot to be optimistic about in all of this. Yes, there's a lot of bad and fear, and there's some real stuff going on right now. So it's up to us to dig in and really find things to be optimistic about to be grateful for, learn from right have that humility, we have to find it. It's, I don't have a rainbow sitting over my house that you don't have at your house, right? It's I'm not just living in some different world, I've got to find it. And that's a decision you and I have to make every day to live this way and think this way and lead others this way. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
100% agree. You've got to create this, right? You've got to be proactive at going in getting these things. They're not going to just come to your show out there. Like the news isn't going to give it to you. You've got to go create it yourself. And you know, the beautiful thing is I believe that there's a power inside of each of us to actually do that. I want to point out a comment here in the in the comments, Cheryl Draney, who I get the great privilege of working with day in and day out. Her comment is optimism is contagious and it creates its own energy. Isn't that interesting creates its own it's almost as if optimism is another it's like synergy, right it creates this another this other being almost right that this new like force moving forward for sharing that Cheryl, great stuff. So anyway, I want to thank everybody who tuned in and shared your comments. Trevor, one last question that becomes the signature question of the show, which is you're a big thinker. There's people both at home as well as many, many in the workforce, your branch, your company, all those that you coach and inspire that see you as a big thinker. So thank you for being that way. Can you teach us what Trevor Hammond does, to continue to expand your possibilities to continue to be a big thinker?
Unknown Speaker
Number one I read every day, read. If it's 15 minutes, all you have to do with reading that's what I do. You see all these books I've read, I, I look forward every morning to getting up. I get my cup of coffee. And I read and that expands my mind that gives me things to talk about with people throughout the day, it It opens my mind to other big thinkers. So reading every day is what I do as a conscious habit of thinking bigger. That'd be my number one thing is invested, invest in yourself. I spend, I don't mind sharing this, I spend, I spend a lot of money on being coached. I spend close, I think I've added up sometimes it's crazy, but I spend 50 grand a year on being coached. So you consider me a coach to a lot of other people. But what people have to remember is I invest more than that on my own self being coached to get better to expand my mind to not let me get into these mental prisons I could get myself into. So we have to take a percentage of what we make to, to grow ourselves to into, to invest in our own growth because our kids need that. Our spouses need that Our teams need that our clients need that. They pay us for our ideas and our advice and understanding at a higher level. So reading and investing in yourself to to learn from other people that maybe are where you hope to be.
Justin Stoddart
of them in so powerful every conversation I have with you, I leave a better person, I want to thank youfor that. The thousands that would have tested the same thing. So I want to thank you for friggin helping us to have a strong mindset amidst a volatile market. It's been fantastic. Those that are listening, I would encourage you to go subscribe to the podcast. If you're Apple or Android you can find Think Bigger Real Estate. Any one of those. Also on YouTube, search my name Justin Stoddart, you'll find the past episodes that would be huge. Also, my final request of everybody listening here today. There's three simple words and they are a charge and an invitation to go forward. Apply what Trevor has taught us to do which are to GO THINK BIGGER. Trevor, thank you so much for helping us do that today. For Being the kind of person that we can follow and look to, you're the man appreciate you, buddy.
Trevor Hammond
Keep up the amazing work Justin. This is such a good platform you have and keep bringing the wisdom to everybody. We love it. Thanks, man. Appreciate you. Alright Take care. Bye bye
Justin Stoddart
Super excited. Welcome back everybody to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I am your host Justin Stoddard. And I am thrilled and honored to have a conversation today at a time where there's a lot of uncertainty, where people are wanting more than ever to know how they can help how they can serve. I think that humanity's heart is on full display today. And you know, at this time, people wanting to give back in new and bigger, better ways. So just in case you're wondering why I'm recording this in March, I'm wearing a red tie. My company Old Republic title is celebrating social distancing spirit week. And so today is Christmas in March and I didn't have the ugly sweater that my friends had. So this is what I have to show for it. So anyway, excited to be here with you and more excited even to discuss today's topic. Bring today's guest who has actually created a template in the format to which real estate agents can live the five laws of the book, The Go Giver, written by Bob Berg, which is I know, it's a classic and a favorite from almost everybody that I talked to. So, anyway, that's we're going to get into today as we get by listening today, and very excited to be here with Brian Weiss. Brian, thanks for coming on the show today.
Brian Weiss
I appreciate you having me, Justin. Thanks a lot to privileged to be here.
Justin Stoddart
For those who don't know, Brian, excuse me, Brian is he has actually done some really cool things. He is the VP of Sales with view, blurred design group and partner with the faces of so what that specifically is we're going to get into more detail, but it really gives a good real estate effect. Why don't I do this? Brian, tell us just in a quick nutshell, what is the Faces Of, we'll then dive into the five principles of the go give her and maybe circle back on how this all ties together.
Brian Weiss
It was started, thank you. It was started by a real estate agent. His name Brad Abernathy back in 2015. It was inspired by the book, The Go Giver and the five laws of stratospheric success that are laid out in the book. And the reality is, as a real estate agent that depends on their local community for their livelihood, right? What can I do practically to serve my community in a meaningful way and garner the intention of an entire community as a way of creating a positive brand and building influence within the community. and so we've spent the last two years as a result of this project modeling out how to help coach, partner with a real estate agent and communities all over the country and show them how to do their very own faces of project and tell their community story and celebrate the people that live there and grow their sphere of influence in their community influence in the meantime, it's it's pretty special. It's a fun thing to be a part of for sure.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. If you're curious and can't watch the entire episode. Be sure to go to the Faces Of.com Is that right? Is it TheFacesOf.com
Unknown Speaker
TheFacesOf.com Yeah, that the is very important. If you go to just faces of, you'll find lots of different stuff.
Justin Stoddart
So be sure and go take a look at that. Now let's get into again, we're gonna circle back and give you more details on that again, but it's a systematic way for real estate agents to live the five laws of the go giver. So let's talk about what are those laws of the go giver? I think anybody who's read that book, loved it, it resonated with him. In fact, especially I think real estate agents, you know, the real estate agents with whom I get the good pleasure of working and serving really have a big heart if you ask them why did you get into this business? It most often is because I really like helping people I love helping people with the biggest buying decision of their life like I get a thrill I get this gratification out of helping people make real estate moves that have a big impact upon their, upon their wealth situation like it, they have the heart to want to go give it so I think this book probably resonated more with this industry that maybe with any other and I think you know these laws, you'll see why here if you haven't read the book or haven't read it in a while. So let's talk about law number one, Brian, the lot of value. The law of value says your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment. I love that. What are your thoughts on that?
Brian Weiss
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. You know, prior to leading the charge of Veugeler I did a lot of sales consulting for years. And this was the riddle that every sales leader was trying to solve for his team is how do we go out and understand what I think's fascinating about value Justin is we don't get to decide what's valuable for the person we're talking to. The value is determined by the person we're trying to help and serve. And so we've got to understand and ask questions and get to know and, and have a disposition to want to learn and serve to really understand how value can be delivered, right. But if we're able to deliver value in the recipient seemingly is getting more than what they're paying that exchange for that individual is it's a super positive experience, right? It, it leaves them wanting to refer and endorse that experience without which enables us to blossom as salespeople, right. And so you hear a lot of people in a lot of Facebook groups talk about they, they offer the best level of service. And I just always wonder, like, Who decides that? And so I would encourage everybody to explore, be curious and really understand what the value that's necessary and whatever environment you're in and whoever you're serving, how do they determine what value is and make sure that we're meeting and exceeding those expectations, not not our own, you know, our own expectations of what we think value is for them. But if we consistently deliver on that, that value proposition that value expectation, then we'll find opportunities to grow and flourish as a salesperson are everywhere.
Justin Stoddart
What a great way to put that right. We oftentimes have our own scoreboard but if we were to look at our customer scoreboard, how would we be rating, right? How would like how would we measure up based on on their metrics, not our made up metrics, right and hopefully the two are in alignment, you know that this lie to me again, is is powerful, because it's not. It's it's how much you give, right minus how much you take in payment. So in other words, it's the Delta that we're looking at, right? It's the it's the difference between what you give, and what you take in payment, that that determines your value. I just think there's so much power in that, that we all have to think because many times it's how much could I charge right or, and again, wise, long term thinking real estate agents don't think that way. But, but I would encourage you to consider, again, the amount that you take in commissions, how much more value are you providing to the client every time you close escrow? Right. And again, I think one thing that we got to keep in mind is that your value should not be only contained within the parameters of a transaction, right, that value is going to continue to extend for years and decades, and you'll likely get payment on future transactions. But again, I would encourage you as an agent, To think about the value that you bring long to be continuing to pour in long after the transaction is closed. And that will allow your value to go up, right, because you're not taking payment anymore, but you're only adding value. And as you implement systems that give value, it allows that to to, you know, to continue to happen. So let's go to point number two, the law of compensation, which says your income is determined by how many people you serve, and how well you serve them. I love that thought. Your thoughts, right?
Brian Weiss
Yeah. So right if if we were if we gave maximum value, and we had a single individual ecstatic about the service we provided, but we only gave it to one person. There are limitations as to how much money we can make for real estate perspective serving one individual right? So the real key is to figure out how to how to provide value to the masses, and how can I engage a large group of people and the larger that group of people is that I'm able to serve in a meaningful way and valuable way, then the larger the total revenue potential is for my business. Yeah. And so when you talk about processes and systems, and how do we manage and continually deliver, those things become very important because they enable us to have a sphere of influence that's bigger than 100, or 200, but potentially engaged thousands if we understand how to approach doing that. And if we can meaningfully engage thousands of people that see us and associate with our brand in a really positive way, then we have people talking about us and potentially helping us get more business. And so again, a really key aspect of the servant, kind of the Go Giver way is, how do I scale my value giving? And again, I would argue, you don't get to decide what value is you got to spend some work figuring out what people need from you and what they determined to be valuable. And then go give lots of that. But another critical point to the whole, the whole framework.
Justin Stoddart
No, I love that you brought up the term scale, because sometimes people think that if in order for them to serve people at a high level, you can't actually serve a lot of people like it's one to the other, and I've had an interesting experiences I've been mentored by Grant Cardone, and I look at the global reach his organization has, and that the value that he brings to an individual is is great. I would say that it's, it's greater than anybody else on planet Earth can provide, right? It's very good, super strong, don't get me wrong. Just the fact that he's found a way to scale and teach salespeople, entrepreneurs, how to be great at business. Again, I think there are other people out there that may do it just as good or even better than Grant right and no offense to Grant but the point is, he's just mastered scale, he just helps a lot more people than most of us can fathom. And I think anytime you're considering what your personal goal should be, right, and I love what you guys have done with the faces out because you've leveraged in the power of digital media. But I think if you're not utilizing this tool, during this time of, of social distancing, you're going to figure it out or you're going to be out of business right? With this opportunity that we have this, it's free other than our time and our effort and our courage is to is to take the value that we have and broadcast it to a larger audience. And, again, you guys have system I systematize. That in a fabulous way. I'm excited to talk more about that here in a minute.
Brian Weiss
So a big fan of Grant, I've read all his books, like you said, there are other people that maybe articulate the message in a more resonant way. He's he's kind of he's very much in your face, and the way he talks about things. But I when I was doing sales, consulting and sales training, I would go lead workshops 20 or 30 people, right. So I had to sell a ton of workshops to make money. Grant created this online platform, and he's he's speaking to everybody everywhere all across the world, and they're spending this monthly fee to have access. And that's a great example of scaling his value. And I think about musicians. And if you if through your music, you add value and you touch someone emotionally, and then you go and you obviously go play at Wembley Stadium and you're in front of 100,000 people like you figured out how to sell your value to Much larger audience. And so that was part of the premise behind the faces of is, if I'm so dependent on my 40,000 person community to have a meaningful life in real estate, how do I possibly engage all 40,000 of them in a way that I'm serving them and I'm adding them value. And that's the reason that this has been so profound and it's had such an impact on on marketing.
Justin Stoddart
Let's go to point number three, the law of influence your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interests first. You know, Brian, this is an exodus experience for me because I forgotten how much I love this book. Let me read that again. The law of influence: your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interests first, talk to us about that.
Brian Weiss
Well, for me, influence is about becoming a magnet, right? Like drawing people into your energy, your selfless behavior, like through your actions, right. I believe people observe other people's actions and behavior and Less than a bit to the words they use, but they really want to see behaviorally. How do you how do you, you know, how do you live. And so if we wind up with a high level of frequency, we can demonstrate that we're a servant that's interested in helping others. We don't have any expectation of anything in return, our desire is to go serve the population. And that doesn't have to be for us in real estate. It's a community but it could be an industry. I love the idea of starting groups on LinkedIn that are industry, focused and being a thought leader and providing content and serving that industry with great ideas and, and becoming an influencer in that way. And again, it's through the quality of your behavior of your actions, that people make the decision to want to learn and be a part of what you're doing. And that is it. For me personally, that's influence, right? If I have a large group of people that think of me in a positive way, and perhaps as an advisor or someone that they look to for information or guidance, then I think I'm doing things well, and I can only do that by demonstrating my desire to help without any want for anything in return, right? And so how do we ramp up our frequency to serve others and serve others in massive scale? And it can get to be overwhelming when you think about it that way.
Justin Stoddart
Now, it's interesting this concept of influencer being an influencer. And I would say a lot of it like the social media influencers. I don't know that I would define them the same way that Bob Berg defines influence here. Right. He says your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interests first. And you look at a lot of the influences, if you will, it's very self serving, right? It's very vain. It's very Look at me, look at me. There are others out there that I think that do it set like, very, very well. Right. And they really have grown a massive amount of influence because of how much they serve other people.
Brian Weiss
with Gary Vaynerchuk.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, Gary Vee.
Brian Weiss
Yeah, totally. He's the guy that comes to mind that tells you to your face, like I want to help. I want to serve everything I say is to give you advice based on what I've learned, please listen and take this advice. Like, that's the example of, I mean he's got this tribe, this massive tribe of people of largely millennials that are that are just wanting life advice from a guy that they believe is sincere in his effort to help and I mean for me that's it. That's that's the definition of how to go out and do this scale.
Justin Stoddart
Gary Vee gives away a lot of free content as any. I don't know that I've ever purchased anything from Gary Vee other than a couple of his books. Yeah, but I've gotten a ton of value. Right? So he's been, you know, when it comes to law of compensation, and the law of influence Yeah, he's somebody you know, at the top of my list as well. Great. Great example and you know, your, your point on sincerity is a perfect segue into our next point, which is number four, the law of authenticity, which is: the most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself. What are your thoughts on the law of authenticity?
Brian Weiss
Well, I think I think personally, I'm 45 now Justin, like just being comfortable with who we are like we were born good enough. If we're going to truly be successful, we don't have to try to pretend to be someone else when we're in our sales environment, or we're with our customers. Like, just go be you and serve, and listen and be interested in other people's success. And that equation is enough. People, people, you'll find things that you align with, and there's a value exchange to have with virtually everybody. And you don't have to be Gary Vee to be meaningful and to do really great things. And so I think this is something that has resonated really strong with me, the last 4, 5, 6, 8 years is I've had kids and like, there's just be humble, understand, we all make mistakes, we all fail, and just just act move forward and try to serve and life becomes a pretty fun place to be. When when we can be comfortable, an authentic self and we're comfortable sharing that authentic self with others.
Justin Stoddart
So powerful. Brian, I love your words. I absolutely do. I think there's there's much wisdom in that. When you can get comfortable in your own skin and you can realize that I don't need to be somebody else like everyone else has already taken we've ever heard that line before. I'm the only one that's not taken and I'm just gonna be the very best version of myself. And when we stop trying to impress other people and start trying to serve other people, when we stop trying to get something from other people even if it's attention and adoration and start trying to see how can I give to have to add value to them? It does it it changes changes everything and I think it's interesting too because the talking about social media, digital media, the posts that people seem to like the most aren't the highly scripted you know, they aren't the like the highlight reel, it's oftentimes somebody to kind of mess it up. Somebody's just being super authentic of like, man, I really screwed up here. And here's, here's, here's how I'm going to, you know, work to be better. People are like, Oh my goodness, you're human, and oh my goodness. It gives everyone else permission to be themselves as well, right. And to make a mistake once in a while,
Brian Weiss
I think vulnerability is super powerful. Yeah, you can get comfortable accepting yourself for who you are admitting your mistakes. And just just with the idea, like continuous improvements, a big personal vibe of mine, I just want to wake up today and aspire to be a little bit better of the version that I was yesterday. And that could happen a lot of different areas and there a lot of different things that I think about. But then along the way, I just want to ask questions and get perspective and learn from others. And, and, you know, if we can just live that way, and it's kind of a judgment free way and just understand we're all trying to be this. And we can be authentic in the way that we do that. Like I said, For me personally, life is just so much easier live that way. It's been, it's been refreshing and yeah, it's an important part of the concept that I think people you know, have a tendency to struggle with at times.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, for sure. Alright, let's go to law number 5: the law of receptivity. The key to effective giving is to stay in open to receiving your thoughts on that.
Brian Weiss
This is really important. Justin. I talked to people I've talked to probably close to 1000 real estate agents now as we spread this platform across the country and I have conversations all the time with people that are givers. And they talk about how sometimes that giving spirit has, you know, allowed them to be taken advantage of and they don't feel comfortable asking for help. For some for one person to give, somebody else has to receive, right so if we if we believe that giving and helping and serving others is the right way to do things, we also have to be open to people reciprocating that and giving to us and helping us and serving us and some people feel weird when when we get help from others. And, you know, I'm a giver, right? I don't I don't want someone to help me. I don't know. It's kind of I don't feel like I'm articulating the way I want to. But the reality is, for the act of giving to happen, somebody has to receive an as a giver, we have to realize that one of the outcomes of serving a ton of people is the law of reciprocity, which suggests they're going to want to repay the favor. It's a human condition. If somebody does something for me, I feel compelled to do something for them in return. It's just natural. And so when the community that you serve and you give to now wants to open its arms and open its doors and return the favor, we have to have our antennas up and be open to receive, like, that's a key part of the equation, which allows the world of abundance to happen. Abundance begins to create itself through the natural back and forth of giving and receiving. And so while we're giving, and we have this, this mindset that I gotta go serve, I don't expect anything. We have to be paying attention to opportunities to receive and grow as well. And again, it's kind of the bow around this whole package that becomes really important.
Justin Stoddart
It's interesting, the way you've put that in that if we don't receive, we prohibit somebody else from actually giving, right that's right. We're doing a service by by not getting help, right or and sometimes it's ego related like I don't need the help I got it. But even beyond that sometimes we think we're being selfless by declining by No, no, no, like I don't want to help it's right actually declining someone else the privilege and the opportunity of giving
Brian Weiss
Very well said super important point when somebody feels obligated to want to help. Part of our responsibility is to enable them to help because that's part of the world we want to create, right? We want to, we want to we want to give we want to reciprocate, giving and giving and getting obviously with our inherent desire to serve others but if we want them to live that same lifestyle we've got to be open to allowing them to give as well and again, so another personal philosophy rising tides raise all ships right if if we can help each other and raise the tide water then all of our boats are floating at a higher level. We're all more successful with So, yeah, it's fun in my little core group here in Atlanta, I've got some really cool guys that I that I really close to me and you know, we live this lifestyle every day we spend, we spend our time trying to figure out how we can help each other and we're all open to the idea of, of finding each other wins and it's it's just super fun. And again, that's how influence is created and the strength of the connection you have with other individuals is allowing them to to help.
Justin Stoddart
So if you have not yet read the book, The Go Giver, I would encourage you to think bigger real estate audience needs to read the book, The Go Giver, we've obviously done a little bit of justice in presenting the five laws. But I believe that this is the key to unlocking so many things for you both when it comes to business, not just quality of business, but quantity of business. We've talked about principles on both sides, right of the how well you serve people as well as how many people you serve. It really is a recipe for tremendous growth and I would I would also encourage that it's it's also a book for tremendous happiness, right? When you are a go getter, it's the whole world is like, who can I take something from whereas when it's a go giver? It changes and it's who can I go help? Right, who needs my help? And when we help we know that we receive. Talk to us a little bit more, Brian about The Faces Of, how does it work? I know I've been to websites, because it put together it's, it really marries together digital media, together with community growth and involvement. Give us kind of a little bit better description as to what people should be looking for, as they look into and go look at the faces of calm.
Brian Weiss
Well, as we've talked about, the whole premise was how do I engage my my local community, right? If you're in a major Metro like Atlanta, where I live, I live outside Atlanta. You couldn't you couldn't engage all of Atlanta you couldn't engage five or 6 million people. Not not in the way that we're trying to do it because we really want to create a real connection with an entire community? So we defined community is probably bigger than 20,000 people, but not bigger than 100,000 people. And there are lots of pockets around metro Atlanta that fit that mold. I live in Buford, Georgia. Right. Scott 37,000 people where this started Brad Abernathy is in Gainesville, Georgia. It's it's 40,000 people, right? So he said, as a real estate agent, who's more appropriate to tell the story of our community and highlight the story of our community through the people that live here than a real estate agent? We you know, we work with virtually everybody. And a community is so much more than a collection of school systems and town centers and parks and roads. It's it's really a collection of people and stories of people that make a community a special place. So he set out to tell the story of Gainesville, one smiling face at a time, built a website where he would go interview members of the community interesting stories that happened amongst the community, people that have contributed to the community in a positive way. He would sit down with them for a half an hour. He would take the results of that interview, put it on the website with a really nice smiling high rez picture of that person. And then he would leverage social media and he would share the story with everybody in Gainesville. You can boost a post today for $4 or $5. And make sure every single Facebook page in your local market season when he would promote the story of that individual, he would tag that person in it. And their entire network would see them being highlighted as part of a community project that's celebrating the positive things and the positive people that are part of that community. And when he started this project in October 2015, he was getting 500 people a month on his website, he had 100 social media followers, like his digital presence was relatively weak. And literally within a couple months, he was up to 4000 people a month on his site. He was adding 100 to 150 followers every month on social media just by sharing two stories a week to the local market. Right. So hey, I'm Brad Abernathy. I'm here with Justin today. Justin's been on our show. communities. He's run the local bakery for 17 years. He's contributed to a lot of nonprofits. He's heavily involved in the school systems, Justin's got an amazing story. And he's a really important part of what makes Gainesville Gainesville, and I want to share his story with you. Here's a picture of Justin on social media, click the link below and it takes you back to the website. And on the websites, like a blog site. It's just a collection of people and stories that are amongst us. And as Brad starts sharing these two a week, people started paying attention and lots of engagement happened on social media like Oh, I know, Justin, he's so well deserved. Remember that time Justin did this. And so you're sharing with an entire community right off, you know, not necessarily all 40,000 people, but a huge percentage of the population locally seeing this on Facebook, and they're seeing your network celebrate you for the good, you've done. And they're like, wow, this is really cool. This is a great project. What a great idea. I'm gonna like Brad's Facebook page, so I can see the next post that comes out this week. Right? And so fast forward four years now. He's done over 400 interviews. They're all on his website. He shared two a week, the website gets about 8000 monthly visitors. He's got almost 3000 Facebook followers on his business Facebook page. And his business has grown from 26 million a year in 2015, which had him as, he was the top producer in Gainesville with that number. He now has more than 43 million a year. And has done for the last four years. And this has become the only way he markets his projects. He's got high school interns involved in the project. He's been invited on multiple boards. Again, if we can serve a large group, we can do that at scale, and we're open to receiving the world the Law of Reciprocity suggests abundance will be created as a result. And that's exactly what's happened to Brad he's he's got an amazing real estate business. He spends all his time engaging the community. He's become the unofficial mayor of Gainesville. And so we have taken this project and basically packaged it up where for a couple hundred bucks a month, we can show a real estate agent how to do exactly what Brad did. We'll build a website will give you all of the resources, you need all of the back office support, you need to spend a couple hours a week out doing this in your community, and enable you to serve your community in a selfless way, which for us, impacts your community through our partner, but then enables our partner to become the unofficial mayor of their town and create a significant business for themselves. And so, and in our world, everybody wins. We're serving at scale community wide. Um, and it's meant to be in my position and to hear the stories that are coming out of markets all across, you know, your town USA is, it's pretty special. It's pretty crazy to think about what's possible through something like this.
Justin Stoddart
You know, Brian Buffini said that the realtor is the straw that stirs the drink. And I've always thought about that about just how influential a real estate agent can be. And I love how you guys have positioned it as it who else could could do a better job of telling the story of a community of someone that helps people get in and out of properties and connects those people afterwards to value for years and years, it's they really are a perfect almost going to journalist and historian right of, of that particular community. And what a way that you guys have gone in and really made that a systematic opportunity for people to implement that into their business. Absolutely love what you've done, I would encourage everybody here. If you haven't yet gone to the website, TheFacesOf.com go take a look at it. It is exclusive like you there will not be multiple real estate agents in one community doing this right they'll choose one and that person will moving forward be kind of the journalist or the historian or the you know, the person that gets to document like you said, the unofficial mayor of that particular community. Like this is such a powerful offering to the real estate community. Such a powerful offering to communities in general at a time when we're seeking for ways to connect. seeking for ways to add value and to live the laws of the go giver. This is this is a bar none probably the best idea I've seen and I absolutely love it and love what you guys have done. You know, my, my final question to you, Brian is gonna be this, you're a big thinker, right? You really are, you've done you've created something really, really special here. And I want to thank you for that. And I also want to kind of get into your mind a little bit of you being a big thinker. What is somebody like you do to continue to be a big thinker? To continue to expand your own possibilities? What does that look like for you?
Brian Weiss
I, for me, it's just seeking out like, again, I think curiosity is such an important part of, of the human condition. And so I allow my curiosity to take me down rabbit holes at times and, and just go see and experience things that maybe I didn't perceive to be valuable, or I just didn't know much about. And the more we are humble and curious and unwilling to fail, right, like I think a big part of this, and the reason that we're having success is it's pretty simple executing this with us. But a lot of people get an idea. And they start down the path of trying to validate that idea. And they have a setback or two and they quit. And so quitting oftentimes is detrimental to their their perception of themselves, right. And so I just, failure is not a word that really is a part of my vocabulary. Failure only happens when you stop trying. And so, man, I connect with people like you, learn, be curious, try to add value to others, serve. And through the growth of my network and my connections and my conversations with others, new ideas are inspired. And so when we get an idea like this one, we try to we try to flesh it out and try to maximize the benefit we can create across the community of people. And so I'm not sure that answered your question in in the best way. But, you know, Justin, I'm not going to stop trying, right. We're, that's just the way life is going to play out for me. I'm going to continue to get into things. I'm going to continue to as individual and every new experience expands the way I see the world and the filter with which I process information, and so I'm not going to predetermine those things, I'm just going to go continue to live the way I live without any expectation or anticipation of what's around the next corner.
Justin Stoddart
Awesome, man, I love it. Just the fact of what you guys have built live in these five laws, speaks speaks volumes, right that you have created something fantastic. And now you're scaling across the country, it really is a Thnk Bigger idea. One that is truly expanding the possibilities, not just for yourself, but for for countless other people, people that are consuming the content, people that are being interviewed in these communities and being highlighted to the agent who gets the opportunity to show up at his community, be top of mind in a very valuable way to his community. So kudos to you guys. Again, I love what you're doing. Keep up the great work, and if there's anything I can do to help you. Please let me know. And I'll just add this to the audience. Everybody that's listening in today. Be inspired by what Brian's doing here, right to take a look at what he's doing, but be inspired by it. And I would and that I would encourage you to get in, to move forward with this simple charge, which is GO THINK BIGGER. Brian, thank you so much for your contribution today. I look forward to staying in touch my friend,
Brian Weiss
I enjoyed meeting you and I appreciate the opportunity to be here and spend some time as well. Have a great rest of your day, man.
Justin Stoddart
Thanks, buddy. Stay safe out there. Alright, everybody take care. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I am your host Justin Stoddart, here during uncertain times to give you some certainty, I have with me a very good friend who's going to talk about what you should be seen as a real estate agent right now. Let me just begin, before I introduce this amazing friend, gentlemen, let me describe to you something very important about the purpose why I do this show. And it's really even, especially in uncertain times is to help you recognize your own potential to wake you up to that potential, and then to inspire you and help you to live in pursuit of that potential. That is my mission. That's why this show exists. And I'm thrilled to have with me today, someone who's not only a friend, but someone who's who's a very trusted mortgage advisor, this industry, David Chandler, David, you've been in business for 15 years. You've owned businesses, you've been a business consultant, you've owned marketing companies, you understand business as good as any, thank you so much for coming on the show today to share your wisdom.
David Chandler
I appreciate it. Thanks for having me, man. And I appreciate you. You know, I don't I don't watch the show every single time you're doing it, but you know, I think every guest should should give a shout out and a pat on the back to you for what you're doing in our industry, for realtors for title companies for mortgage lenders, you are a valued voice in the Portland market for sure. And I think soon to be probably nationally. So anyway, I appreciate you my friend.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, you bet. You bet. I appreciate that as well. All right. Let's get into this. First of all, right now, you know, there's plenty of news telling us what's not going well, right? You can turn any time of day and we hear more illnesses. We see more economic halts, we hear more deaths. Like we're not gonna talk about that today. Because the reality is billions of people right now. Billions are not infected with Covid. You know, like most people are going about their life probably actually having a better quality of life than maybe they've had in a long time. Right. So there's tons going well, and I'm a firm believer, as I know you are as well, that what you focus on expands. And yes. If you look around at all the opportunities, if you look around about everything that's going well, you'll start to realize, hey, the sky is not falling. Yes, we need to adapt. Yes, there are some people going through some hard times. However, a lot of that is because people are buying into the media and causing this herd like frenzy. Yes, we need to take precautions. Yes, yes, yes. And yes, we need to be safe. And yes, we need to pray for those that are that are that are suffering. But I'm a firm believer that a lot of the suffering that's going on is unnecessary. Would you agree with that?
David Chandler
Ah, I think unnecessary, necessary. I think it really comes down to a matter of perspective. And do we appreciate the fact that we still live in the greatest country on earth? Do we appreciate that the inconveniences that have been thrust upon us to a certain extent, not have our own doing, still present us with some opportunities, whether it's time to reconnect with family, whether it's time to get some yard work done, be out in nature? You know, there's, it really just comes down to, again, like you said, what you focus on is what expands. We didn't ask for this. But can we find things to take out of it that we can appreciate and learn from and grow from? I know that in our industry, I can tell you that this will force innovation, it will force change. There were already I think, at the end of this quarter, you know, Finance of America. You know, we're going to push the button on E-signing for everything except the things that have to be wet signed. So that when you come into the closing, the majority of everything's already been signed with the exception of the things that probably have to be recorded with the county and, and a few other things. So will this industry or business interruption accelerate those things? Will that force realtors to look at innovation in technology, doing Facebook live videos or video presentations, or things that maybe people have resisted that now go, you know, I think that's gonna have to be a part of my business moving forward. And the thing I was afraid of doing now is not as intimidating as it was maybe a month ago. So I think if we look at this as an opportunity to grow and expand and push ourselves out of our comfort zones, even though we're probably all sitting at home in our pajamas right now. You know, it's a good opportunity.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Great stuff, man. It's a great perspective. So let's talk about right now, when it comes to the real estate industry. Let's start off by, before we get into and I know this is why a lot of people are tuning in, is to hear like what you should be saying to buyers, what you should be saying to sellers. Before we go there, I want you to talk to us a little bit about what's going well, right now I know we talked about rates and the vericut, verification of employment to appraisals. Talk to us a little bit about kind of what you're seeing out there that's actually going really well.
Unknown Speaker
Let me talk to you again, I'm going to cover touch on the bad stuff and get to the good stuff really quickly. So obviously, this month has been a huge disruption. And a month ago, you know, you couldn't open up Facebook without seeing a realtor or a mortgage lender, just screaming about now's the time to buy the rates to the best that they've ever been and and all that was kind of it was was really true. And then what you saw is lenders who are just we don't have the capacity. You know, in America, there's 11 trillion dollars worth of mortgages, any given year, about 2 trillion of those. We the industry does about $2 trillion in mortgages, about a million in purchase million and refi. In the month of February, there is about $2 trillion in applications, you're trying to shove a year's worth of a business into a month. So you saw rates go up, and people thought, Oh, it's a capacity issue. And then, two weeks ago, the stock market kind of craters, and that forced people who had bought stocks, institutional investors, not individuals, like you and I, that when the stock market craters, all these institutional investors who have bought stock on margin, meaning they've borrowed half the money to buy the stock, have to meet a margin call, which means they have to raise capital. So they dump all these mortgage backed securities onto the market to raise cash to pay their margin call because they don't want to sell the stock at not a 50% loss, a 75% loss if they bought it on margin. So now all of a sudden, there's excess supply of not enough demand and rates go way up. And so this thing that we experienced a couple weeks before now it doesn't exist. Well, the Fed comes in a week ago and says, Hey, we're going to backstop this and we're gonna or the stimulus package. But for a stimulus package to work, you have to raise money. Well, how do you raise money? You know, you have to sell treasury bills and mortgage backed securities. And now all of a sudden there's excess more excess supply, the market didn't react well. Interest rates last week are the most volatile I've ever seen it in 15 years. I mean, day swings of 100 to 200 basis points. So that brings us to today. So this is a two week period of time and on Sunday, so here's the good. The Fed comes out and says, kind of unlimited QE, qualitative, quantitative easing, and basically says we're just going to not be a seller of mortgage backed securities now. We're going to buy them and so instead selling them and letting them come off of our balance sheet, the ones that we've bought in the past, we're going to keep them and we're going to keep buying. And so mortgage rates yesterday and even this morning were up pretty significantly have gotten really, really good again, not to where they were maybe a month ago because again, I think lenders are holding on to some pricing holding on to some where they probably could lower their rate a bit based on what the real rate is. But they're still trying to shove all that business from February through the pipeline. I think once they get through that pipeline, we're going to see rates come down here in the next week, two weeks even more than they have but just so you know, we're back down in the mid threes again. I think we're going to hit the low threes for sure. So that's the good and that's good news for your buyers if you're a realtor, because when rates Josh, you don't have to for a couple weeks ago or last week, buyers were like tapping the brakes. Yeah, wait a second. Oh, no, no, no. I got pre approved or pre qualified at three and a quarter, three and a half. I'm not even approved at now four and a half or four and a quarter, much less, do I really want to buy something even if I am approved? I think I'll just wait. So I would tell your buyers Hey, now is the time to get off the sidelines and look so. So that's, you know, some good that the Fed has jumped in and given a lot of confidence to investors that we're going to buy mortgage backed securities rates are down and I think rates are going to continue to go down. The other thing Fannie came out yesterday with their lender letter and they do a lender letter, you know, periodically. And this lender letter basically said, Hey, we kind of get it we understand that if everybody's working from home. You can't do a verbal verification of employment over it. Like nobody said to me, there's nobody answering the phone at these offices. So they said, Hey, you know what, we'll take a written VOE. You know, so as long as it's coming from a work email address, You know, we're good with that. And so that's a huge deal. I think a bigger deal in this particular as it relates to as it relates to appraisals is, right now, Fannie has said, Hey, you know what, in this period of time, you can do a desktop appraisal. And what all that means is that the appraiser doesn't have to walk through the house, the appraiser doesn't have to go in. He can use
David Chandler
public record MLS data, verify this information through third parties. basically take photographs. So what I would say, you know, we've all been on Redfin and seen that picture and went, man, that house looks gorgeous, or those rooms look huge, and you show up and it's like, and that's a really tiny room. It was a really good photo. It's a great photographer. So I would encourage realtors keep taking phenomenal photography, you know, invest in the photography for right now for sure. and invest invest in, in, in video because the appraiser is going to rely on that to be able to go Okay, what's this house? Wait, what's this house appraised for?
Justin Stoddart
You know, it's super interesting, David, because people are going to be looking at how do I cut costs right now, right? I'm gonna go to tog refer that might actually cause to where your property does not appraise. Who would have ever thought that that your photography could actually influence appraisal?
Unknown Speaker
Well, and I think it could, because when you're just relying on public data, and you're just relying on pictures, because again, an appraiser goes in and goes, you know, is it average? Is it above average, below average? You know, I mean, you look at a house, it's a three bedroom, two bath, 1700 square feet, and the appraiser doesn't know if there's granite countertops yet. He doesn't know if there's, you know, hardwood floors, or the quality of, you know, trim work. So I would even invest And taking pictures of the things that are going to set your property apart and really highlight the difference between your property and another property to say, I would like zoom in on that crown molding, I would zoom in on the granite and if there are certain high end appliances or high end you know again like the the knobs and the fixtures and things like that. I would even put the brand names in the description in the listing as you're as you're building out your listing, because those are the things that if the appraiser is doing a desktop appraisal, he's going to rely on what's in that house. And again, to the degree that your house doesn't have those things, I would probably not focus still take great pictures make maybe the house look bigger than it is or better than it is. But you know, focus on accentuate the positives. Make your houses look as great as they can. And again, I and things in them quoted in the description.
Justin Stoddart
Alright, let's get into. So awesome, right? That's what you shouldn't have to ever say about what's going well right now and some great advice as well about about appraisal. So let's let's talk a little bit about point number two is going to be telling what what real estate agent should be telling buyers right now point number three is what? What you can be telling sellers right now, I know this is from your perspective, I'm sure there's all kinds of things that I would even encourage those that are chiming in. If you have other ideas that you are as an agent, if you're listening to this and you have a recommendation, put it in the notes like I think this is a fantastic place for people to go look to get this information. David's also going to be sharing from a lender perspective and what he's gleaned from his 15 years in the business is great business sense. Even the realtors he's working with if you if you have things in here that's working. Let's Let's open sources. Let's share this. I encourage anybody that's listening to be sure put those put that in, put in that information so that we can all be helped. So, David, tell us what should we tell the buyers right now?
David Chandler
Well, and again, I love the feedback in the comments and you're it's just my opinion. It's not Finance of America's opinion. And, you know, you're welcome to tell me I'm crazy. And and first and foremost, like you indicated in the in the opening of the show or even before it's the number one thing the paramount thing is just being diligent being village village agent, I guess. And being safe, protect yourself. So what I would tell a buyer right now is, is you know rates have they've come back down, they've settled. I think while we're looking here over the next few weeks for home rates are going to continue to settle because of what the Fed has done. Now's a great time time to look. I'm going to tell you why isn't now's a great time to look because a lot of people are sitting on the sidelines, a lot of people have withdrawn. And so you have to keep in mind that if a seller is selling their home right now, okay? If they're willing to let someone come through and touch all the doorknobs, you know, and I'm not saying you should, I'm saying you should I'm saying you should glove up, you should sanitize and like crazy. And I wouldn't go into somebody's home right now without having a glove on. But I'm saying the psychology if somebody's willing to allow you to do that. They are not a casual seller. They're very serious seller, they want to sell their home. Because if they didn't need to, they pull it off the market right now and just sit tight and wait. So as a buyer, you I think you have a unique opportunity to take advantage of this particular moment. And from a seller's perspective, I think you have a little bit of leverage. I think you know what, because there's not as many buyers out there Right now, there's not as many people willing to write offers. And so if a seller gets an offer, I think that you're in a position to ask for a greater discount or ask for closing cost credit. I think sellers are also probably leery and I don't think this is founded in any way, shape or form. Well, I take that back. It may be a little bit founded, but I don't see a real estate crash coming like the 2008/2009. I see maybe a slowing down. But the real estate market is not going to crater the way it did then when it was really the underlying fundamentals related to failures in the real estate valuation piece and the lending piece of giving loans to anybody and everybody who could state their income state perhaps agree. It doesn't exist.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. funded, worse, worse. Strong wiser now.
David Chandler
Yeah. And the economy will it may take a while to rebound but at the same time The underlying fundamentals in the economy are strong as well. This is virus related not, man, we got a real problem in our economy related, you know, so, but at the same time, that seller may fear that okay, if I hold on to this house for another three months, four months, five months, six months, man, it could go down the economy could really crater. And I'm not saying it's going to I'm just saying that psychologically I think that's what a seller may be thinking. So I need to sell now. So even if you present them with a reasonable discount or a reasonable reduction in price, as a buyer, you're saying, Hey, I know you've got it listed for 400 I'm gonna give you 375 and I want you to pay my closing costs. I'm a big believer that you don't get what you don't ask for. So I think you just put that out there and allow the seller to say yes or no. And but I think there are opportunities for buyers who are willing to again, get out and look at some properties and with interest rates where they are. I think it's a great time.
Justin Stoddart
Well, you brought up a good point prior David is that, you know, the greatest investor probably of all time, Warren Buffett. The reason and why he has had been so successful is because he recognizes the herd mentality. He recognized that when there's fear in the market, everybody acts irrationally prices drop beyond what they should. Yes, he's able to step in and with a voice of reason and calm, be able to make wise decisions, despite the turmoil. And I think that a buyer in this market that can come in and have that mentality of like, I'm not going to overpay for something, right? I'm not going to make a and I'm not going to panic and stay on the sideline. But I'm going to see that there's there's Pete there sellers right now that are that are going to buy into that the world is ending. I gotta unload my property today now. Yeah. And so I think again, not not taking advantage of people but there's people that literally want out and I think you've been a wise and aware and seen that now can be a great tend to buy I think is awesome advice I appreciate you sharing that.
David Chandler
Well, I think again, getting back to Warren Buffett, you know, you know, he's rarely a seller. I mean, he is a long he is the definition of a long term buy and hold investor. And he looks for opportunities to buy when others are selling. And I think if, as a buyer, you take that same tack, that same approach, and go, you know what, this is my opportunity, this is my time to dip my toe in the water and move forward. Right now, when people are fearful. And, again, you're still gonna buy a home in the neighborhood that you want to live in or in the school district that your kids want to go to school in or things like that, but within that boundary of where you're going to buy a home, I just believe that there are opportunities if you're a buyer right now, because like you said, people behave irrationally and I think you just don't know if, again, if the seller has their home on the market right now. There are serious seller who wants to buy? Just don't know who's gonna make an irrational decision and sell their home for less money than they probably should. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
Great advice. All right, let's talk about sellers right now, David, that's the kind of other side of the coin here. You're working with sellers. You know, what, what can a real estate agent be telling the seller right now?
David Chandler
Well, kind of the exact opposite. So it feels like you're we're working two sides of the same coin or one side of two coins. Because, you know, on the one hand, I'm telling a buyer, hey, if you're willing, now's the time, there's fear in the marketplace, go buy a home. Get out there. The flip side of that, if you're a listing agent, is tell your seller to just take a deep breath, calm themselves and recognize that now is an excellent opportunity because there's a lot of people who have a pulled their home off the market, because they don't want people walking through their house who could potentially be in They don't want people touching the doorknobs walking through, you know, things like that they want to stay healthy. And in their mind, that's the way to do it. So we're not going to sell right now. It's like, Okay, so, or you have the, you know, the, the seller who is, I don't know, somewhere in between. But I think just tell the sellers to just, again, you know what, this is a great opportunity right now. And it's a great opportunity right now because there are less homes on the market. So we're not competing with, you know, let's say you're normally competing with 50 homes, in that school district price range, whatever. Now we might be competing with 20. So we have a great opportunity because again, there are still way more buyers than there are sellers. And if we just took a chunk of those sellers out of the marketplace, that means we have access to more buyers. And if there's buyers in the marketplace right now, I'd say the same thing to the seller. There are buyers in the marketplace. Right now willing to go out and walk through homes, they are a serious buyer they want to buy, okay? So then it's just a function of getting your seller to go, you know what, we're not desperate. We don't need to sell, we'd like to sell we want to sell. But it doesn't mean we're going to take any offer that comes through, you still want to make sure it's a good offer, it's not going to destroy the value in the neighborhood. You're not going to make all your neighbors angry because your house is worth 400. And you took 320. So it's about defending the value based on comps based on recent sales and understanding and in reiterating to your seller, as well as to the buyer's agent that hey, you know what, this is a temporary Blip. I mean, it's gonna be maybe a month or two or three until we're back up on our feet and people are back to work. But this isn't the underlying challenges in the housing market that existed, you know, in a way to notice We don't think we're going to see a deterioration of value. So we're willing to give a little bit of a discount or willing to come off that price a little bit. But we're not, we're not gonna, we're not, we're not going to behave irrationally. So, again, it's, I feel like I'm, I'm sending competing messages. But again, it just depends on who you're representing, and who your fiduciary responsibilities to.
Justin Stoddart
Sorry. I mean, I'm a big proponent David, that sales is leadership. And yet, like never before that's coming, you know, that's being put on display is that people are being led by their fears, by their anxieties by what's happening in the news. And keep in mind, I shared this yesterday that the news is their job is to inform us, it's also a business, their job is to take the most dramatic scenes in society and bring them to us so that we stay glued to their network so they can sell advertising, like it's a very simple, you know, business model and we have to realize that most people are spending A lot of time right now on listening to the news and buying into that. And so as a result, you have people making decisions based on a very small sample in our society, as opposed to what's really happening in their specific marketplace. And so you being a real estate agent, how important is it? You know how important it becomes, in order to have a situation where you're speaking, calm and reasoned into the lives of both your buyers and your sellers and helping them make grounded decisions based on real data based on real rates as opposed to what they're seeing on CNN or Fox News. Like it's, it's just, it's an opportunity for you to lead and get your clients into a situation based on reality as opposed to, you know, what they're thinking or feeling or worst case scenario that they're bringing into their life right now.
David Chandler
And I think that that's just I don't want to say sales one on one because I don't think everybody does it. It's not the thing that they do. teach you and you know, features, benefits, things like that. But I do think the role of a good mortgage lender as well, and as well as a realtor is to sit down with your client and just say, Well, you know, what scares you about this? Or what's, you know, what are you most afraid of about buying a home? What are you most afraid of about selling your home? What, what, what keeps you up at night? And, and I think a lot of our job, and probably more so right now than in other times, is alleviating fear to addressing concerns. It's addressing real things not glossing over it or pretending like they don't exist, and then providing a solution to it. And so if the solution is hand sanitizer, and gloves and masks, and then that's the solution for right now. Yeah, and, but that doesn't mean that business doesn't, can't go on it just, it's going to go on and it's going to go on a little bit differently. But how do we adapt? Because you know what, I just got transferred here. I still need To buy a home, or Hey, I got transferred, I gotta sell my home, or, hey, our kids are going into high school next year, we want to be in a different school district. And it's time to sell. I mean, so I think just addressing people's legitimate concerns and fears is just part of being a good salesperson. And making sure that you do all that you can to alleviate.
Justin Stoddart
And I love that, David, that you write that there's a lot of times if you can just get people to talk to speak it out loud. Like what Tell me. Tell me what you're concerned about. they'll realize they'll open up the closet door and realize that there's not really a monster in there. Yeah, there's something you need to be worried about, or there's some things that you need to be concerned about or navigate around. But it doesn't necessarily well get once they verbalize it. They're going to realize that okay, we can deal with this right this thing that's been causing me absolute paralysis. Yeah, I can deal with it. There's, like you said there's ways around this. There's ways to work through This, but oftentimes there's not if people don't vocalize. And I love what you said is that as a leader, our job is to get people to, to talk right and to and to listen and really, you know, help manage their real concerns, versus ones that aren't real and shouldn't be a concern.
David Chandler
Well, it's interesting. I mean, I've got people who, you know, have 700 plus credit scores, and they're putting down, you know, more than enough money, they qualify fine. And if you ask them, you know, hey, what's Tell me what you're most scared about? Or, you know, what's your fear on this transaction? Or they'll tell you, and I really hope I can close like, I don't want to like, and it's like, they should have zero fear, they should have zero, you no worries whatsoever. But again, people get into the middle of a real estate transaction and it's emotional, I mean, it's very emotional, whether you're a seller or a buyer, and people have legitimate fears. And I think just such Dressing them being open about it not making a bigger deal of them than they need to be. But just saying, Okay, well, you know, this is an issue for you. Let me throw out an idea that might help deal with that. And but if you have something better you think there's a way that we can alleviate that or work around that. Just let me know, we'll incorporate that. And we'll do that. So that, you know, you make sure that we make sure that your needs are being Yeah. And I think when you do it in a really calm, relational way, so that people feel heard, and people feel like, Oh, yeah, this guy's cool. Or this woman's cool. Like, she heard me, and she didn't ignore me. She's actually, you know, doing the things that I asked in order to make me feel comfortable, then. You know, I think it gives people the courage or the confidence is a better word with the confidence to move forward.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. I agree. I think just you being calm as a real estate agent is probably the most important thing is for you to in a calm voice. Yeah, have that conversation with people. David this has been amazing, my friend, even even better than I expected not to say that I wasn't expecting it to be great, but you've really added much more value than even what we've promised.
David Chandler
Thanks for lowering the bar, my friend.
Justin Stoddart
Let's say we just went into more topics than I expected. So let's, let's discuss this final question, David, which is you're a big thinker. What does a guy like you do to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your own possibilities? Teach us.
David Chandler
You know, I don't know. It's interesting. I've been pretty upfront with you about my depression and with things that I really struggled with for a long time and, and I turned the corner, I don't know on my depression probably about three years ago, and we're talking depression or suicidal type depression. And a lot of that was just, it's, it's genetics. It's biochemistry from from my dad who was bipolar and manic and some of it's situational, you make bad choices in life and went through a divorce a few years ago that that really crushed me and but at the same time I made a decision and to kind of stay crushed for a whole lot longer than I probably stood, it should have stayed crushed. And, and you start to see yourself in a certain way. And this year, you know, my production has ramped up and, and, you know, just crushed 2017 crush 2018 on pace for my, probably maybe one of my best years ever and, and I and my boss asked me a couple weeks ago, he said, Hey, David, what, what's changed? Are you doing this are you doing that are you doing? And I said, You know what, Joe? Not really. I said Honestly, I said it's just about mindset. And I said I just woke up late last year and decided you know what, I'm tired of being crushed. I'm tired of like living in a space not depressed anymore. But living in a space where maybe viewed myself as less than or it wasn't deserving of x. And and we've talked about 10 x Grant Cardone and I read that book last year and and I continue to reread it to just go Okay, where do I have to set my goals to push myself further and further out of my comfort zone? How many calls do I need to make? How many prospects Do I need to talk to? What do I need to do in order to change and shift my mindset? So might be more than you bargained for and that answer but you know, it's just again, I think mindset is so critical, really examining how you see yourself how you view yourself, what you believe about yourself, and, and then asking yourself, is any of this true? Or it's just what I've chosen to believe, but none of it's really true, and, and then just choosing to have a different belief system. So for me, I mean, that's, that's what I would offer up today, man,
Justin Stoddart
You know, David, I appreciate you sharing that. You know what, what an authentic even vulnerable thing you just did there. And I think it gives hope to a lot of people because people look at you and be like, man, that guy has it figured out like he's dialed, he's confident he's smart. And I wouldn't say he's got some, some Sean Connery looks to him. And, but but to say like, Look, I've struggled with, you know, with depression or in a deep way, and he's, here's how I, you know, here's how I've come out of it, I think, you know, it endears a lot of people to you, and you're gonna inspire a lot of people by doing that sort of thank you for that. And I agree. I mean, that's, that's, again, kind of the the purpose behind this is that it all begins with what's going on in our own heads, and that then transpires into the world in which we live. And so 100% agree with you. I want to thank you for everything that you've contributed today to help us think bigger and to help us really see what we should be saying how we should be seeing the marketplace, both the opportunities, things we should be telling buyers and sellers it's been it's been truly awesome. I knew that it would be let me just emphasize that point. I knew that it would. I want to just remind everybody, this charge that now more than ever you are needed to lead you are needed to step up. And we need you to do these three simple words to live them. And they are to GO THINK BIGGER. Thank you so much, David, I appreciate you helping us think bigger than Cova 19 helping us to see beyond the challenges we're currently in and create the world today. That's that's possible for so appreciate you verymuch friend.
David Chandler
And you as well my friend. Take care
Justin Stoddart
Right, very good. Addison Nett. Welcome to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Super excited to have you here, man.
Addison Nett
Yeah, thank you, Justin. Good morning to you.
Justin Stoddart
Good morning, my friend. Again, this is Justin Stoddart, host of the Think Bigger Real Estate Show my mission and my passion is to do the following to wake you up to the potential that's inside of you, and then to inspire you and help you to live in pursuit of that potential. So, Addison, I'm grateful to have you here. Folks, today, we're going to be talking about three things we're talking about, first and foremost, being good outside of the value that you typically bring, okay? Secondly, we're going to be talking about technology, how it's created more time and what that means for you and your partnerships. And number three, partnership, redefined, some examples of what you can and should be doing in order to maximize your partnerships. So with that being said, Addison net, he is a Top Producing lender with Finance of America here out of Portland, Oregon, and the guy does some really fantastic things. You'll notice that his his background here, just a minute is, is pretty fantastic. It looks like he's sitting like on a canoe right now in downtown Portland. And he's a video master to take some of his partnerships the next level. So Addison want to thank you for coming on to think bigger real estate show. Super excited to have you here.
Addison Nett
I'm excited to be here as well. Thanks so much for having me.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, my pleasure, man. So, um, let's get into effect. Let me ask this question. Addison since we are on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show, right over my shoulder here you see the TV. Let's talk a little bit about life outside of real estate. Right. Obviously, we do this one because we love it. But secondly, we do it because it's to fund even more important things. Talk to us a little bit about what what's super important to Addison, you've got a beautiful bride. Tell me what's your kind of favorite part about life outside of the real estate industry?
Addison Nett
Yeah, appreciate you asking and definitely enjoy Central Oregon, all of my in laws live in Bend. One we're able we love visiting out there and just spending time in Central Oregon and that's one of my favorite parts over the last few years. When work isn't super demanding I enjoy getting out on the golf course and teeing it up. So I grew up just as a local caddy here. Oswego Lake Country Club right in Lake Oswego. So when I can tee it up. That's what I prefer doing.
Justin Stoddart
And you're known as a guy who likes to have a lot of fun at work, and you've shared a number of videos with the world about even though you're in maybe what might consider a little bit of a steel industry, especially not this week, right? But one that's, you know, very number crunching, you seem to have a lot of fun with it. Talk a little bit about how you again, we're going off track here, but that's the beauty of being in the house. To do it. I want to talk to me a little bit about how you keep the workplace fun, and maybe even the benefit that is for you.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, you know, I'd say probably a year and a half ago, when we were last together meeting, I was really pushing to try to create just a culture of positive energy, which then, you know, distilled down to the customer service factor of it. At the time, we were getting really aggressive with some fun videos around the office. And that really escalated into a new skill set that was able to really help some of my agent partners develop and leverage for their own marketing and business development.
Justin Stoddart
Awesome, man. I love that it's been inspiring to see that again that you know, even though you're in the workplace, in a number crunching industry, you can have a lot of fun so awesome stuff. Let me let me let's dive into today's topic again about partnership redefined, right. So obviously, you and I are both a proponent of maybe some of the downfalls of our industry, right? We have people in our industry who have grown a business simply by, in my industry anyway dropping off tchotchkes, right thinking that simply by having a chummy relationship with your lender, or with your realtor that, you know, showing up chopping off some notepads and some pens, some calendars, and maybe taking people to lunch, that that's going to be enough in order to secure a long term relationship and maybe in days past, that absolutely was true, right. But that's all you needed to do. I'm a strong proponent that especially with the way the industry is going and how technology is getting better and better all the time. But it's actually keeping people I should say technology starting to to advance on what people get and get paid. And it behooves I believe, people to not just have somebody who can be chummy with them and drop off tchotchkes but something that can really come in and drive real value. Just a little bit about that from your perspective about again, it's not just about being chummy. It's not even just about being good at loans. Right. I mean, you've you've taken that to the next level. But tell us a little bit about, about kind of how you believe that that being good outside of the value you're supposed to bring, is it has been important to your practice?
Addison Nett
Yeah, you know, and that's definitely a big topic of conversation. Just to back up a little bit, I've had the opportunity to work with quite a few loan officers and build up teams together. And one of the things I like to do is sit down and analyze some strengths and weaknesses and really decide what route is going to be best for building their business and try to get people on that route. And that experience has folded over to the agents I work with as well. So when we're sitting down, like, I want to work with people that are relationship driven for the long run, and then we talk about value add. Now every single agent every single team needs a different And sort of value add. And as a business partner, and the lender, it's our job to figure out how that tailors to the direction that they want and need to go. So it can be a different on a lot of different platforms. But right back to you, it's like, yeah, dropping off stuff all the time. It's just like anyone can do that. I want to have business relationships to where like, Hey, we're talking about the great times, and the good times, we're building out long term strategies, and we're sticking to those. And yeah, it's a different world. And then additionally, adding value right now, like, man, these are it's a really volatile market. And it's our jobs as loan officers to be there for our agents and get through these choppy waters. So you've got kind of like a business development side, but then right now at any other point, this is when the lender and the agents need to be on their best communication. They got to have the best amount of trust in each other and in my opinion, that's built through long term reallationships.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I love that man. Your your perspective, I think is super profound. And I hope everybody hears that sometimes people show up into a relationship and they want to talk about, here's what we can do for you. And I think it behooves professionals to really step back and say, Tell me, like, what, where's it you're at? And where is it that you're headed? Right? Because if you can get clear, with each customer, what they're actually building and what they want to create, it changes everything, your your approach totally changes, the value you can bring them totally changes. In fact, part of that might be the fact that like, I don't think we're a fit, we're not headed in the same direction. Whereas if you if you get clear on knowing where people are at and where they're like, what ultimately they're building, you naturally start to attract people that that you know, that are like you that are headed in the same direction. I know. You know, Jackson, Jesse, you guys like, like we're on a similar path, right? We understand the power of digital media, we understand that there's, there's deep value in that. So it becomes natural to be in these conversations with people that with whom you can add value and to bring value to you. Right. So I think that what you said there is more profound than what people think it's not just a tactic to get more business, it's actually a bigger strategy to be in business with the people that you're, you know, that you're aligned with.
Addison Nett
I couldn't agree more. I mean, one of the best things I did probably about two years ago, I was made a commitment to myself that I'm not going to work with people that I don't enjoy working with. Because I was starting to realize a few years into the business that my partners dictated my mental state as well as my lifestyle, whether it's, you know, respective communication, respective mistakes. Also, just celebrating wins appropriately and as a team and not I owe you You owe me, and aligning people with similar aligning yourself with people on a similar mindset and all actively working toward a bigger picture goal. Because if we're so micro, and it's probably couldn't be a better example. In the state of where the nation is right now, when we're so micro focused on what's in front of us, whether it's health, a business relationship, you're not going to enjoy the day, the hour, the week, the month, it's going to be transaction after transaction agent partner revolving door versus zoom out a little bit here and the scope of five to 10 years. Are we contributing toward that agreed upon long term goal?
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, no, it's a great point. You know, I think that there's, as you mentioned, you know, for those that may be watching this at a later time, we are right in the thick of the Covid 19 crisis really, right. California yesterday, the governor ordered 400 million people to stay at home like that's pretty significant, right? these these are totally uncharted waters. And I agree like times like this. You can't also then be working with people who you don't like right, like, but when you can hunker down, meaning like, get to work and certain add value to people who you care about. It changes everything. thing you know, I know for me, my strategy over here over the past, you know, couple of days has been reaching out to my people send them, you know, calls text me like, Hey, how are you? Checking in? And if I don't like the person that becomes super inauthentic, whereas if it's people that I like I, like, genuinely want to know, like, how are you? How's your family, been thinking about you? Do you have everything you need? Like all of a sudden, it becomes this natural outpouring of a genuine feeling as opposed to Oh, yeah, I probably should do that, because it's the right thing to do, even though I could care less about these. Right, right.
Addison Nett
Oh, it's a good point. And I think to add on to it, too, is like when you commit to driving your business and aligning yourself with a people that you match with that you like, and are on the same page and a goal, big picture timeline. I've noticed over the years that you start attracting in the business that's also energetically attracted to that. So in term, your work style and your lifestyle all improves. And I mean, it's not a bulletproof plan, but I know for anm fact, in the last year the clients that I'm working with from a variety of different agents are all more people that I get along with and it's a personality match. versus if you're doing a revolving door, I need 30 new partnerships every month to hit my goal I need 500 leads pulling in because my percentage of pull through is this and that you you start losing some of the humanity of of developing a business and in the entrepreneur world that's the most beautiful thing is you can create it how you want
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, no, that's a that's a brilliant point is that you get to go deep with people as opposed to just you know, there's there's certain coaching programs, you know, one of my several of my good friends have been a part of them and have now left but where it's like okay, on Monday you need to call 50 people right, whatever. And like realtors get to where they like, I can't stand Monday because my phones blowing up from people who really don't know my business. I'm not saying that prospecting is a bad idea, but it Do you think when you can find your tribe and go deep with them and add significant value and grow together? Like what a better life? What a better business? What a better use of time and talent, right? Yeah. Like going deep with people and helping them develop something, you know, the smaller group of people, but you just you can do the same amount of transactions. And like you said, you actually end up enjoying life a lot better because you're actually working on something meaningful as opposed to just spending your time out hunting.
Addison Nett
Yeah, I completely agree. For sure.
Justin Stoddart
I mean, let's go to point number two, which is, we have this technology which has created more time, right. You have some strong feelings about this, that that may seem controversial to some numbers, a little bit about how you think technology should be changing our businesses and changing the way we show up in the marketplace.
Addison Nett
Yeah, I'd say from a loan officer standpoint, like it is incredible how much technology we have, especially to originate loans. I mean, so much of It's done on a computer with software and interfaces. A lot of us, especially if we have teams, we have tons of support people, quite frankly, unless you're getting 20-30 applications a day, it really doesn't take too long to put together a loan application. You know, one thing is that there are your one offs and you're more challenging products and things that take some hand holding. But my main point with technology is I believe that lenders have a lot more time in their weeks. So my perspective is, Hey, you know, the agents are putting a lot of time, money and effort into showing the clients face to face out in the field at open houses. Escrow officers are a little more tied to a traditional work period. And then what about the lender? What about the lender that's rolling in at 12 o'clock and is out by three? What about the lender that plays golf and just attends happy hours? What what are you doing to take that time that technology has granted you and reinvested it into the people that have helped you get to where you're at. And I'm not saying like, you know, I'm a victim of overworking and I get reminded all the time for my family to have more work life balance. But I just think if you truly are invested in growing, the definition of growth is there really is a balance isn't in there. Oh. So taking advantage of the technology, and the time that it gives you and giving it back to your partners, and not everyone wants, you know, a business development strategy or whatnot. But if you're aligning yourself with people, put that time into the marketing, sit down and critically think join pipeline reviews with teams go in with teams that have new agents, and like I was with a team a couple weeks ago, and they had a brand new agent and I just shared. When I first got in the business, the best thing I did was start the wedding list and I had an instant spear base lead list and after one year looked at it and I had funded 50% of those people. I'm just different value adds and using time Sorry, I went on a run there, but it is something that I'm, I get a little hopped up about.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I've oftentimes use the analogy, Addison that it's like the real, like the real estate agent who I think does, you know, a lot of the really heavy lifting in our industry. It's like we're there to spot right and we're like, counting their reps, one, two, I mean, I see people in my industry title in escrow, that are like, oh, they're so grateful. They kind of like sit on the sidelines and they're just like to cheer them on. Thank you so much for bringing us another deal. I mean, and again, I picture that to like realtors, like underneath the bar right there trying to benchpress this thing and the person's over there just spot and I'm like, Hey, come on, you can do it, you know, and it's like, come on, man. Grab the freakin bar like grab one yourself. Like there's a heavy load here. As these large technology portals move in, more and more on an agent's job and an agent's commission. Meanwhile, you've got these partners per se that are standing around counting reps, get in the freakin game, bring some value, stop trying to buy me out, you know buy my love with with with happy hours. Yeah, like some real knowledge and some real network to the table to actually move the needle.
Addison Nett
Yep, exactly and like to one of the biggest things that I've changed in my business in the last few months is adopting and I offer this to all of my real estate agents is doing an initial call with the client with them on video Zoom conference. I know lenders are freaking out if that set the bar that lenders needed to be on the first call with every single one of their agents. I've done over 120 Zoom calls with clients in the last three and a half months. That is sacrifice that is being with your team and your partner, whether I get the loan or not, hey, I am here to answer any of your lender questions. And listen, what other value adds? Oh, hey, I grew up in West Linn. I lived in Lake Oswego. I live in North Portland. I could I could add Little bit of value on the inside of that neighborhood. What's going on with interest rates right now? What's the real this rather than like the agent coming like, Hey, I got a lead for you, I need you to call and they throw this Frisbee. And then the agents comes in every single day on the team and just calls the lender. Hey, did you connect with that lead I sent you, Hey, did you connect with that lead that I sent you over and over. It's just not efficient. And if the lender would step board and take advantage of technology, add value right off the bat with Zoom calls. It's a it's been a game changer for me. And I believe that that's the way everything's going. Will other one officers participate in that movement of then double or tripling the time it takes to do their job? I don't know. But I'm all in right now.
Justin Stoddart
Well, I think you've, you've shared a lot here about redefining what partnership looks like and I hope not just for the real estate community thinking like, oh, wow, my lender doesn't do that. Oh, wow. I hadn't. I hadn't really thought about that. I didn't really think that was in their job description. I thought their job was just to like, be sure that loan funds and you know, but for you to actually be able to step up and say like, let me get on the very front end with your customers and add value to be sure that you get the business. I think that hopefully helps to start to open some eyes, both within your customers industry, right real estate, but also within like the lending industry of like lenders, it's time to step up, right? I'm like clarion call to the, you know, to like the title and escrow industry, like it's time to step up, like we can't continue to add the inferior value that we have in the past. Meanwhile, there's additional threats and opportunities I'll add in our industries that are either that are either threats are coming at us or opportunities are passing us by because you're matched and linked with an inferior lender or with an inferior, you know, title Rep. Like there's, like you like all of us have to kind of rethink what that means and what value really means. I think that's, again, kind of our final point that we've probably already hit on right which is partnership redefined, maybe give us in closing here. Like what is you've shared some amazing examples already. Was there anything else that stands out to you as far as what partnership redefined means to you?
Addison Nett
Yeah. I mean, redefine means taking all the crap that lenders have, like, here's my products here, everything that I do my fires this, everyone can do that. Everyone has that stuff for the most part. The internet and technology has created a pretty bottleneck margin. With interest rates and fees. We're all pretty much there unless you want to go internet which those offers don't get accepted these days. What else are you doing truly sit down with your agents and figure out Hey, what are their strengths, help them align into their strengths with their business plan and figure out a way to add some value whether you're you're jumping on zoom calls and you're participating in the lead you're, you're helping or orchestrate trainings for new agents if if a people He's trying to grow out a team and bring on new people. If it's video, if you really like video and you're super good at video, go all in on video and be the video guy, teach someone how to edit, teach someone how to post this, there's people out there don't even know how to export their database, like, figure out a way to customize some skill set, you know, outside of your desk job, and tailor it to how it could help one of your partners grow. I'm not getting heated up here, because this is like the stuff that I talk about to my team all the time, and I call people out on it. And I don't make a lot of fans about it internally.
Justin Stoddart
you'd be both man I, I get heated when I hear. You know, I'll talk to people in my industry and they're like, man, like, here's what title rep sit like they still come in and they try to get the dang app on my phone. And that's all that's their value is like, hey, my Corporation created an app and it's gonna change your life. And it's like, I've got three apps on my phone. I'll use any of them. It's like Come on people like parties fired up excited about that, that that's still a leading value proposition in my industry. There's a part of is like crap guys come on, we can do better, right we can do better. So I agree partnership needs to be redefined, Addison I want to thank you for taking the time not only to pour into us but just for being the person who's out there kind of Blazing some new trails, right? Someone who's out there really kind of redefining what partnership can and should look like. I want to end with this final question. You're a big thinker. That's why you're making some serious waves in the industry, both from a production standpoint, as well as just having your presence out there use technology to high level, what does a guy like you do to continue to think bigger to continue to extend and expand your own possibilities? What does that look like for you?
Addison Nett
I think there's a couple things I try to be I try to be first to market in my industry on most approaches. So like the Zoom call is a great thing. And I contribute that to other agent partners and group ideas. But no other lender's doing. So if there's something from a customer standpoint, and let me back up when I first got into the industry, I decided to be one, obviously, because my loan officer was horrible when we bought our first house and I was like, I could do that job way better. So if I take the mentality or experience something in my own business, or the industry that it should be done this way, like, I think this should be done this way. Go out and do it and figure it out. You're gonna fall on your face, you're probably gonna blow some money figuring it out on but once you do your first to the market, you're changing things and you're leveling up the way things should be done. So it's a natural thing for me. And I think it stems back to some like Restaurant Management stuff where you're always looking at like, customer service. Like, I think that could be better. I think this system could be improved. I think this experience should be this way. And the real question is, why aren't you just doing it naturally?
Justin Stoddart
It's powerful stuff, man. I love that having that critical eye to just to always be looking at what can be better, what needs to be better, what do our customers need and want. It's a great way to look at life and business. Man, I want to thank you so much for coming on, I think bigger real estate show today. This has been a total pleasure. And I'm impressed with you and only can only imagine what what you know what your future holds anymore. I think the future of your partners is you continue to delve in and redefine what partnership means. So my final request of everybody listening in today is take these lessons, go apply them, share them. And then my final requests are these three simple words and they are GO THINK BIGGER! So Addison thank you so much, man for helping us do that today. And I look forward to staying in touch my friend.
Addison Nett
Yeah. Likewise, Justin. Thank you.
Justin Stoddart
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddard. Today's episode, we're gonna cover three points. Why did rates go down? Why did they spike back up? And now what can we expect with the recent fed changes of moving the rates from zero to 0.25? I have with me today an amazing individual that's going to help us with that. Here's what I want you to know is that the purpose of this show, again, is to help you to think bigger. My personal mission is to inspire you actually to wake you up to the potential that's inside of you, and then to inspire you and help you to live in pursuit of that potential. Today's guest again, his name is Mark Aalto. He's been a loan officer for over 27 years, been in the industry for over 29 years. And during that timeframe, he's done between 4,500 & 5,000 loans. Needless to say, he's been a student of the market he's been a student of patterns and what causes rates to go up what causes rates to go down, and we are happened to be in very uncertain times right now and that we are trying To figure out what the Fed is going on with rates, Mark, you, thank you for coming on. Mark, thank you for coming on the show today.
Mark Aalto
It's my pleasure, man. It's always nice to well, you always inspire me, man. So it's good to be part of this. And I hope that I can shed some light and help a little bit with what's going on and why and all that other good stuff. You
Justin Stoddart
know, I appreciate you mark, because you really hand selected to kind of be the spokesperson today because you're very much a kind of a giving soul. You know, you're constantly reaching out educating the marketplace, helping people to really understand, hey, here's the changes, here's what you can expect. So because of your kind of outward reach constantly educating all of us, I thought, you know, you're the, you're a perfect person to bring on to really help us understand kind of first question, which is, you know, rates dropped all the way down to 3.29%. Can you give us just an understanding as maybe what caused that and and kind of what causes rates to go down like that?
Mark Aalto
Well, and just to kind of start this off, so uncertainty is nothing new, right. And the bond market is ultimately, what rates are tied to. So I don't know that I'm necessarily the most technical loan officer out there in terms of explaining all this stuff. But hopefully this will be in a way that folks will understand. So if you want to rewind a little bit, so we rewind back to November of 2016. So the night before, it was, a lot of people thought that Hillary was going to be elected. And this is not political on my part, I want to make sure that everybody knows that you saw the stock futures, which is how people are looking to see what the stock market's gonna do. The next day was literally way down. And so a lot of us as loan officers thought, Hey, you know, rates are going to go from three and a quarter, which is around where they were, at the time, even lower. And what ended up happening instead is that Trump got elected, which is something that the market didn't expect. That's the important piece is not so much that a person got elected. Instead, it was a person that people didn't expect to get elected. And so over the course of just three days, we had rates go up about three quarters of a percent. In other words, volatility is nothing new to this industry. And basically from that point, In November of 2016, until about November 8 2018, rates were on a gradual climb. And so as loan officers, we would just basically take an application and lock it as soon as we could, because we knew that rates were going to get worse. And so what's happened basically, since November of 2018, is rates have been gradually going down. And the reason why that's important is because it has been gradual, it's not been sudden, it's been something where, when it comes to the markets in general, they don't like a lot of volatility. And so so here's something that I think everybody should know, that can help you out. So when there are periods of times when there's volatility, people that invest in the stock market, we're talking about people that have a lot of money or even might be mutual funds, hedge funds, all that other good stuff. What they end up doing is they were looking for a safer place to put their money. They're worried that basically by investing in the stock market, it's not the right place to put their money. They're looking for something safer. The safest thing is treasuries, right. So if you're looking for something that's a guaranteed investment, treasuries are the most safe thing that there Is the next the next rung up, something that's going to pay you a little bit higher rate of return, but still is considered safe are mortgage backed securities. So that's just a very broad background and a way of saying, okay, when when the markets are crazy when there's a lot of tumultuous stuff going on, people have a flight to safety and traditionally mortgage backed securities or a flight to safety. So what you saw from November of 2018, until, you know, about two weeks ago, was that mortgage backed securities were attractive because whether it was trade chalk talks with China and all the different stuff that was going on with that, whether it was a Coronavirus, all these different things, people were looking for a safe place to put their money because they were worried about the stock market. Now, if you talk to a loan officer last Monday versus today, it would have been totally different conversation because we just had a day after day after day after day of rates improving and the mortgage backed securities doing better. So in other words, we're we track what goes on in the bond market. The bond market is what actually makes rates do what they do so. So last Monday, we actually had a situation where rates were with a lot of lenders were right around 3%, three 3% to three and a quarter percent since last Monday, we've just had so much volatility, the mortgage backed securities, the bond market has been going absolutely the opposite direction. I know this was a way more long winded answer to what your original question was, which is just basically what caused them to go down, right. So what caused them to go down was it was something gradual, there was uncertainty, people were looking for a safer place to put their money.
Justin Stoddart
So In short, if I could simplify that, and again, I think part of what we're doing here is that probably most real estate agents understand this, you know, to a large degree, but really what we're doing is giving them very simple language that they can then take and give to their clients, right? Because even if it makes sense in their brain, they've got clients that are totally confused as to what's going on. They're trying to give them some sort of assurance, they feel confidence to continue forward and and make the proper move for they and their family. So I'm going to simplify this you correct anything that I say? So if I were speaking to my clients, let's say that I'm a real estate agent, I'm speaking to my clients, I would say that typically the mortgage rate has an inverse relationship to the stock market, the stock market goes down, then rates tend to go down as well. Right?
Mark Aalto
Correct. Yes.
Justin Stoddart
Because people are concerned about the stock market, they're moving their money to mortgages, right? to bonds, right? Which is in causing those rates to drop, right?
Mark Aalto
That's correct.
Justin Stoddart
Okay. So then, again, if the stock market starts to go back up, then people have more confidence they started start to put their money in the stock market. Money leaves mortgage backed securities, causing rates to go higher. Right. So it's not inverse. It's actually like direct correlation, stock market goes down, you can expect rates to go down stock market goes up, you can expect rates to go up. Is that is that a totally simplified version? And if not, please correct anything I've said there.
Mark Aalto
I think it's absolutely fine. And one thing to remember is that I mean, the inverse relationship was is the bond market. So when the bond market goes up, and the stock market goes down, that's usually what you've got. What happened last week, though, is that the stock market went down and the bond market went down. And that's not normal. And on top of that, like the 10 year Treasury, which is what a lot of people look at, when it comes to where they think that rates are going to go, was at all time lows. So normally, normally, normally, normally, the bond market rates, there are long term investment, long term investments hate inflation. That's why when the stock market does well, typically rates get higher, because basically, when the stock market is doing better, it's normally going to put pressure on inflation, if that makes sense. So what happened last week And what's happening in general in our industry right now is we we are having huge capacity issues. And this is just, you know, I mean, we don't necessarily want to talk about, hey, this channel is better than that channel. In other words, I'm a broker. Some people might be a retail lender, some people might work for credit unions, some people might work for a bank, every single outfit that's out there that does mortgages, is having capacity issues. And part of that is just because, you know, maybe it's social media, maybe it's the great job that realtors are doing to alert their customer base that rates have dropped. The whole thing is just that, like, our industry is just completely flooded. So today, the bond markets improving right, the bond market improved by at one point it was up by 150 basis points, which is a ton. So just put it this way, that's a very, very, very large climb in one day. The problem is, though, is that one of the reasons why rates are higher than they shouldn't be. It's just because we have huge capacity issues. We can't deal with the volume.
Justin Stoddart
So that's what caused and again, this is really moving on to question number two, right, which is race We're at 3.29 people are starting to lick their chops like, hey, it's refinance time. And all of a sudden it's like at five, right? I mean, it took like a huge jump. And what you're saying is, it didn't really have anything to do necessarily with the bond market, it was just that lenders in general were like, at capacity like, we don't have enough supply of qualified people to do any more refinances. The only way you're gonna be able to do this is if you pay more points is that is that kind of a safe way to put that?
Mark Aalto
Well, I think it's a little bit more drastic than that, to be honest. So like, if you were normally if you go into bankrate.com you're like, there's no way people can get those rates, right. I mean, you have a lot of people that are like, you know, three and a quarters on their advertising to 25 you know, the things are crazy when you go to bank rate right now and they're advertising 6% or 5%. That's basically them just saying, you know, look, we can't handle anymore business right,
Justin Stoddart
Stop, stop. No more. I can't do it go away.
Mark Aalto
Right. Exactly. And you know, even as loan officers are working long days, you know, You know, and I know, they're really good people in our industry that are literally getting up at like four in the morning working until 10 at night and just doing this as helping as many people as they possibly can. That kind of came to a screeching halt at various times last week. So maybe, maybe the lenders I worked with on Monday, were some of the first ones to raise their rates maybe on point, you know, maybe a little bit later in the week. But the challenge now is that there are lenders out there that are the outliers that are giving the lower rates, they're going to get absolutely swamped with applications, and then at some point, they'll have to raise their rates just because they can't keep up. Yeah. It's it's really crazy,
Justin Stoddart
Somebody that you still have to have qualified, trained people to do that work. And now people are working overtime, right? There's a certain cost that's incurred upon an industry, when like you said, it's flooded with that much demand. But at some point, costs are going to increase simply to support the amount of demand that's coming in. So that's what that's what caused the spike, correct?
Mark Aalto
Well, yes, but it's all the spike is also it's not just artificially higher so that people are trying to make more money. It's artificially higher because people are just basically saying they can't, they can't take on anymore. Another thing people need to realize is that one of the things that we deal with in the lending industry is basically what's called an EPO. And EPO is an early payoff. So basically, you've got people that did financing, say in November 2019, let's say that they're coming back to do a refinance right now, whoever did that original loan right now is going to lose a ton of money. So what's going on with some of these lenders is they're probably looking at the fact that if they don't raise their rates, and they don't discourage the refinancing, they're gonna have a ton of early payoffs. And what a lot of people don't realize is that refinance markets aren't necessarily something that make everyone a lot of money. Yes, loan officers do really well in refinance markets, because we're commission based, but if you look at the lenders that are making money by holding on to those loans, when they don't hold on to those loans, like for two years, you know, it's let's say it's six months. I mean, I don't know if our realtor friends know this, but as loan officers in a lot of cases, we actually have to pay back our commission. If a loan is paid off in six months, so that's how it impacts us. But the whole reason it impacts us is because the industry itself loses money when people pay off their loans too quickly. So it's capacity. It's also early payoffs. But another thing to take a look at those, like, let's take an example of a local lender, and I'm not picking on these guys, okay, so I work for Pack Res, or Pacific Residential is a great lender, so I'm not seeing anything negative. The way that they do loans is as a correspondent, which basically means like, Justin, if you wanted to flip houses and you had a line of credit, you would use your line of credit to buy the house. And then once you renovated it, you would sell it, it would basically be something where you would repay your line of credit, then you could do it more. That's the way that mortgages work with the correspondent, they have a large line of credit, they they borrow against it, they fund their loans, and then they sell those loans. What happens when that line of credit is not enough? Or what happens when they can't pay it back fast enough? Those are some of the capacity issues too. So it's, you know, it's just, it's a whole myriad of stuff all happening at the same time.
Justin Stoddart
That's it. All right. So yesterday, the Fed comes in and makes a big announcement. They're lowering rates from zero to 0.25%. Right now, that's not mortgages help us understand the difference quickly. And also, what what we might be able to expect with rates like do we expect rates to now go below three because of this change?
Mark Aalto
Well, technically, they should. But the challenge, though, is, like you said, the federal funds rate is the rate that banks are borrowing from one another. And in order for the US to do this, they also had to have agreements from other nations all over the place. So this is, again, this isn't just a United States thing. This is a global thing right now. And you get to some of those other underlying causes coming up here as well. But what happens is when there are times when the federal funds rate or the prime rate dropping can influence rates, it's when it's unexpected. So again, it's all about the volatility so we were expecting half a percent, let's say it's 1%, one and a quarter percent, whatever it was, the fact that it's so much higher than what we expected, should be enough to give us better rates. The challenge, though, is that we already have low enough rates, right? The challenge is capacity. And if it's a matter of liquidity, which is something altogether different than some of the changes that were made, were things that should help rates and I actually thought individually as a person that we would see lower rates from lenders because of liquidity issues.
But I promised you, I try not to get too technical here. I'm getting technical. So one of the things that the Fed also did, let's let's look at it just as supply and demand. So when you have issues with liquidity, it's typically something where you don't you don't have enough supply or you don't have enough demand one of those two, right. And so what the Fed also did is they they delegated $200 billion to purchase mortgage backed securities. In other words, they're becoming a big buyer of mortgages. Right that should increase the liquidity And so today when you look at like the the bond market, the bond market is way higher. So I mean, the liquidity is there, the demand's there, the challenges now those it's still capacity. So as long as capacity is the issue, you won't see lower rates. That's and so we get through all these refinances that we already have, and once we're through those ones, I would anticipate that we will see rates get lower when we're getting on to our next round. So in other what 30 to 45 to 60 days, depends on how long the lenders take to close the loans. But yes, I would say that and you know, again, one of the things that I would definitely urge for all of us is to think about what sorts of timeframes may be increasing, you know, are we going to have our friends in escrow be strained? You know, are we going to have appraisers have longer teurn times, I would anticipate that the refinances in particular will take longer to get through the system. And obviously, the main thing is we want to make sure that purchases aren't impacted and most lenders are going to do something to make sure that that doesn't happen.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, yeah, well, it's it is interesting, right, as you are currently working from home, which is not your typical, work place, right? To, again, simply to adhere to the CDC recommendations of, you know, and I, I commend you for that, you know, we, as a company have a continuity plan in place to ensure that business continues, even if, you know, the majority of our workforce is working from home, and there's been some scrambles and some conversations behind the scenes of ensuring that our workforce is able to be completely competent, and with all the tools that they need, during, you know, during any type of, you know, situation where, you know, we're asked to be quarantined and separated from all co workers, you know, business goes on, so I know that they're, you know, kind of the, the, the underlying thread of all of that is that we don't know exactly, despite company's best efforts and interests and ensuring that work goes on at a normal pace just to keep up with, you know, the current demand. There's also this component of How is our working situations going to change to accommodate the passing and kind of dealing with this pandemic?
Mark Aalto
And that's the whole thing is that the situation is very fluid. And I mean, you can read a lot about what's going on. My concern, you know, if we learn anything at all from the past, it's a, of course, that there are certain elements of it that we don't really want to repeat. My biggest concern right now is is, you know, basically wages, employment, I really hope that we do not have I really hope that we do not experience the same sort of layoffs and job loss that we did the last time around, because that's truly what In my opinion, will lead to some economic issues in our particular industries. This is not at all to downplay the fact that there are people out there that are absolutely going to be suffering, whether it's people that work on a hourly basis, whether it's people that are in the restaurant industry, there are a lot of industries They don't have time off, but don't have the ability to take time off. And when you're forced to take time off, that is one of those things that can be really difficult on folks. So the challenge on something like this is that it's really easy for any of us, me included to to look back and see what happened and just say, Well, I understand why rates went up already, but it's a lot harder to forecast what's going to happen next.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I think, tons of uncertainty, I was privy to a investor call from or highlights I should say, from an investor call with Goldman Sachs. And the end all be all is this feels a lot more like 2001 than 2008. Right. The the underpinnings of the of the economy are very strong. Obviously, there's tons of uncertainty with everything that's happening here. And yet, because in 2008, again, the the underpinnings of our economy were weak, right? It was built upon sand and I feel like If we can look back and use anything from our history to try and predict what this might look like, still tons of uncertainty, nobody knows for sure. But I think we could probably look more at 2001 than 2008. Would you agree with that?
Mark Aalto
Well, I would and I think the the thing that the thing that I'm thinking of here is just that, what I hope is that our efforts and again, I don't want to get down too much the rabbit hole on the on the, you know, Covid situation, but I hope that our efforts are far enough in front of what's coming down the path to help us out. So, you know, is this, you know, I would say that the second quarter of this year is going to be it's going to be bad for the economy. What I hope for is that the third you know, third quarter and moving forward will be good and again, I'm way outside of my lane at this point. Ultimately, I'm here to help realtors, I'm here to help, you know, consumers. My job is to help people get into houses. So you know, as to what the economy is doing itself. It will impact all of us, I just hope that we're taking action soon enough to where we get through this period more quickly.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, yeah, no, I think we're all in agreement on that. Mark. I know you're also just from the decorations behind you, we know that your family may have had family is important to you. And I would just love to ask this question. What's your favorite part about being a dad since that's near and dear to my heart? And the reason why we do all this stuff, right is to support families and causes we care about what's your favorite part about being a dad Mark?
Mark Aalto
Well, you know, it's funny because a lot of times I've had family members or other people that I know talk about parenting. Sometimes I hear people say, Hey, man, you think this is bad. We'll wait until this and wait until that and wait until the other thing and quite frankly, I have enjoyed the whole process. It's been a really great journey. So I think as much as anything, it's just the self discovery aspect of it. I didn't ever know that I would enjoy being a dad as much as I do. So, I mean, you have that experience like six times over. So sorry, I'm not making fun of you, but I don't know how you do it, man. I don't
Justin Stoddart
No, I just married a superhero. That's the only way. It's whatever possible. So let me ask this final question mark, you're a big thinker. That's how you've been asked to come on to think bigger real estate show today. Now, what does a guy like you do to continue to be a big thinker to to continue to expand your own possibilities? Teach us.
Mark Aalto
Ah, wow. Well, to be honest with you at this point, I'm much more focused on mentoring and helping the people that are around me. I have a couple people that I'm working with on my team right now, that just mean the world to me. And I just want to do what I can to make their journey in this process a little bit less chaotic than mine was and if I can help them, get ready for some of those next big, big pushes, that's the thing for me. So my time horizon of doing this is maybe another five to 10 years although who knows the stock market but you know, those are Amy and Mike, the people that work for me, I want to set them up for success and I'm very focused on making sure that they have those tools to do this in the future.
Justin Stoddart
That's powerful mark. Again, Mark. Also with advantage mortgage, thank you so much for taking the time to come on and share your expertise in between 40 505,000 loans, you've learned a thing or two, obviously, all of us are in in uncertain waters now, but just your understanding of the principles of what causes mortgage rates to do what has been very helpful for all of us, hopefully, there's some key points that people could take away, both for their own financial situation as well as for, you know, if you're a real estate agent, there's some things here that will help you to advise your clients to lead your clients. And I believe that sales at its highest form is leadership. And there's probably never been a time where your clients need your leadership and need your advice and your counsel more than ever. So Mark, thank you for giving us the tools and the you know, the language and the understanding to be able to you know, to do that better than we have ever before. So appreciate you very much my friend. Thank you for always being such a great contributor and supporter, and I want to remind and give everyone this final charge which are three simple words and they GO THINK BIGGER! Mark, thanks so much for helping us do that today. And we will be in touch my friend.
Mark Aalto
Thanks. I really appreciate it.
Justin Stoddart
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart and I'm thrilled about today's episode, we're going to break down some barriers that are keeping you from getting to where you want to go. We're gonna be talking all about recruiting, how, regardless of what you do for a living, regardless of what you do in your personal life, you're always recruiting whether you know it or not. And today's episode is going to help you get better at that. I'm excited to introduce to you today's guest, but let me just remind you, that my personal mission is to wake you up, and help you realize the potential that's inside of you. So that then you can go on and I can help inspire and help you to be live in pursuit of that potential. That's my goal. That's the aim of this show. And I'm able to associate as a result of the show with amazing people like Adam Roach, so it's little bit about him. He is a master recruiter, he has recruited over 70,000 people to a specific real estate company. He's now going into other industries and is taking his expertise in recruiting to the world because the reality is the world deeply misunderstands the need for recruiting and what it really is all about. Adam, I'm thrilled to have you here on the show today. your accomplishments are huge. You're a big thinker. And I'm excited to have this conversation with you.
Adam Roach
Thanks, Justin. Super excited to be here. I love that intro, man, waking people up, that's super strong.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I really believe Adam that the greatest untapped natural resource in the world is human potential. And that's my mission is to wake people up to help them to see that, that they can be more, do more, have more impact more, and then to inspire and help them to live in pursuit of that. So you're an extension of that what you're going to teach us today is going to help wake people up. So thanks again for coming on. excited to have you.
Adam Roach
let's let's let's no more snooze button. Let's get up and go.
Justin Stoddart
Let's roll. I love it. Man. Tell us a bit about your story. You became a recruiter. When you were in kindergarten. Did you say I want to recruit people for a living? I will teach people how to recruit. How did this all begin?
Adam Roach
That's a funny question. No, when I was in kindergarten, I want to be the fastest kid in the class. Right? Right. No, we'll catch up with where I stopped playing professional tennis, right? So I was a tennis pro in Beverly Hills, California. I played collegiate tennis and then found out real quick on the tour that I was an American, not a European was getting my butt kicked all the time. And so I got into the tennis business, and the tennis business was myself and two other guys. We owned what was called the concession rights from the city of Beverly Hills to all their public tennis courts. And so you asked it I recruit in kindergarten? No, but I will say that I watched my coaches throughout my tennis career recruit, and I loved it. I love being around certain people that they were building their teams around. And when I started running that tennis club, I realized that the fastest way for us to grow and the fastest way for us to gain new members was to have incredible tennis pros. So I went went out in the city of Los Angeles and just recruited as many tennis pros as I could. And when I left that company, we had nearly 32 tennis pros. And I think when we started we had like, five,
Justin Stoddart
Did you have an aha at that point of like any organization out there can get a lot better by recruiting the right talent to that organization?
Adam Roach
Yeah, that's a great question. I think at the end of the day what I realized was recruiting solves everything, right? So if you want to get more if you want to get more tennis clients, right, we had to go get more tennis pros, because again, we only have a finite amount of time. However, if you leverage yourself and there's more than one of you, if there's two of you, there's three of you, you can go get more clients that way. So I knew we had to expand that expansion was through tennis pros, to recruit I recruited from other places, it's kind of fun.
Justin Stoddart
You know, you and I had this conversation before that not everybody has a warm fuzzy when they hear the word recruit, I was similar to you, I was an athlete growing up. And so the greatest compliment that I could have is that, like a college team was recruiting me. And it was brought to my attention by a business coach that I had if like, hey, not everybody wants to be recruited, like sometimes that like people have these sentiments of being like recruited into the military. It's somewhere where you don't want to go and it's your conversation that you don't want to have. Talk to me about maybe that paradigm shift that people need to have when it comes to not having a negative connotation when it comes to the word recruit or for recruiting.
Adam Roach
Well, here's what a coach taught me a long time ago. And this is actually a recruiting coach. He said, not everyone wakes up and wants to be recruited by Justin, not everyone wakes up and wants to be recruited by Adam. However, what everyone does wake up and realize is that where they are isn't truly where they want to be. Right? So it's our job as question facilitators are people that come from curiosity all the time, say, Justin, I kinda think I need to be in business with you. And I just really need to know where you want to grow to, right. Not go to but grow to. And so when you listen, when you ask enough questions, when you really engage with people, in my opinion, you're going to find out that they have gaps, right? They have gaps from truly where they want to be to truly where they want to grow to. And it's our job as gap fillers or recruiters to fill that gap and then ultimately at the individual cross from you sees the value in them getting to where they ultimately want to grow to faster in you, guess what, you'll recruit them. So in my opinion, it's a question asking this question, and you better come from curiosity and you better be open honest and truthful. Right? Don't b.s. them.
Justin Stoddart
You know, powerful distinction you just gave us there, Adam, which is recruiters are simply gap fillers and right everybody has the gap. And I would argue that if they don't have a gap, then they're probably not someone you would want your organization anyway, like they think they've got it made their comfortable. Life's good. Like, just don't touch it, leave it alone. Number one, we probably can't help it. Number two, they actually aren't growing, right. And I think you know, something else I want to point out you said there is like, like helping people not go help them, help them to grow. And that's I would imagine when you're recruiting, you're looking for people that are growth centered, you're looking for people that are that, that realize that they're never going to reach their potential in this life. But man, they're going to live trying, right, they're going to absolutely live trying.
Adam Roach
Well, I think I think you also want to surround I think who you surround yourself with really does matter. And so again, as a recruiter, if you're building a company, it's okay to be selective in who you're recruiting number one, number two, coachable people are sure a lot more fun to be around the people who are not coachable. And there's a big distinction there. Because here's what here's what life this is, again, all my opinion here. egos are massive in every space, right? And if you can sit someone down and truly come from curiosity and ask them questions, and they can answer authentically, you can tell that their egos are either low or they're an open authentic person, but man when you're in an appointment, and someone's given you the I don't know is or I don't care about that question. They've got massive egos and in my opinion, those are probably people I'm not going to surround myself with.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, yeah, you know, you you bring up a really good point is that in order to be even a good recruiter and or if you've got gaps in life right now that are not filled, you don't have people knocking on your door to help you fill them, then you're probably not coachable. Right? You're probably not very recruitable. And I sense that to you know, obviously being in the real estate industry. You see a lot of people moving from mortgage company to mortgage company in my industry, which is title and escrow, you see people moving from, you know, from company to company, you see agents move from company to company. And you see some that are in spots that they've been for decades and decades. And they will be the first to admit that they don't have the business they want, right? They're working until like the deep years of their life, not necessarily because they love to is because they have to, and yet they were never recruitable. Right. They were never opened to somebody saying, Hey, why don't you take a look at a different approach here, right?
Adam Roach
Yeah, I had a business coach A long time ago said that regardless, even if you're happy where you are, a good business person always keeps his or her business options open. And so as you are sitting there recruiting as you're setting, maybe appointments to go recruit. That was always a script that I use, hey, listen, great. What I've always been told is good business. People always keep their options open. Let me ask you a question. curiosity. Are you a good business person? And then just wait, right and see what they have to say?
Justin Stoddart
That's a great question, a really great question. You know, I've been on both sides of the, you know, recruiting table And it is it is interesting how important it is for people to be good at asking questions and good listening, right? Sometimes, when you're being recruited, you feel like there's a canned set of answers that they're going to take you down. And as opposed to being almost on the recruiting side, like like when you are the recruiter of having questions without necessarily backfilling it with your immediate answer, but listening, talk to us a little bit about that, because I'm sure getting the appointment finding an open person. And then at that point, your expert, your expertise and help you to fill that gap. It's really, it's not a one size fits, all right, it's it's customizable to that person's need. there's anything that you can share with us about how to really stand out when people start to open up and you realize this person is growth centered. They want to learn they've got gaps, any things that you've learned about really listening to identify how you really help them solve that problem.
Adam Roach
Well, couple things. So I've got a list of 26 questions and I ask and 26 questions literally is just the starting point. So I would in my appointments when I was recruiting people, I would actually make hash marks little tally marks on my sheets of paper because I want to see how many questions I could actually ask without either engaging in a story or telling. I wanted to stay in curiosity for as long as I could my appointments would last anywhere between 45 minutes to to an hour, maybe an hour and 10 minutes and I had one appointment where I got up to 109 questions I asked and and but and they were all centered around that individual. And here's one thing that I hope your listeners will wake up in here if you are recruiting and or if you are out there attracting people and you're asking questions that are to the recruitee that feel as if you're hiding behind the bush and waiting for them to say, Aha, I got you. You'll lose all day long, because it doesn't work. So when you listen, you need to learn the acronym Wait, Why am I Talking and ask questions and let the silence do the heavy lifting, and get comfortable with asking questions that maybe make them a little uncomfortable, because that's your job is to move them from A to B. And if you don't ask the uncomfortable question, and sometimes they're gonna fake it right? Their ego is going to stay high, and they're probably not going to engage in the right questions with the right answers.
Justin Stoddart
You know, again, having been recruited before, right? I'll give to like situations where I felt like every answer that I gave, again, it was a, like, you said, like, I gotcha, like, ooh, then this solution will work for you. And I wasn't convinced that it was whereas a different conversation. The person that was in conversation with me was very just exploratory, of like, tell me what it is that you want to do and, and what's your path to get there? You know, and I do this from a title and escrow role, right? And which I'm sitting down with, with agents, I'm telling, like, ultimately, how would you describe your ideal business 10, five, one year from now like describing what that looks like, and tell me about your path to get there. And I'm really curious to see if they actually have thought through that. Rarely they have, right? But then it's like it additionally, talking about that plan, I start to, like, just uncover it and start to realize that there's a lot of fuzziness in there that they don't know a lot of its, you know, hope and we all know hopes not a great strategy. And so again, having been on that side, it's it's very endearing. When you have somebody who is curious and not trying, like you said, to just say, I told you, so this is this, I told you, this is going to work, but it's like, I don't know if it does work. And I'm totally okay, if it doesn't like I'm just here to help, like you said, fill a gap. And just a different experience that somebody who's who's trying to fit you in in a specific hole, whether or not you're the right size for that hole.
Adam Roach
While Justin I'll give your listeners this. This was something that again, this is all taught to me, right. I've been in this space of recruiting for the last 20 years. And all all of what I'm sharing right now literally just stuff that has been taught to me And number one, people love to talk about themselves, right? So let's get them to talk about themselves. And then you just stay in a space of curiosity and go deeper. And here's how here's the easiest way that I have found that was coached to me a long time ago to go deeper is three simple questions. So you ask them a question, pause, wait for the answer, and then say, what else? Just wait, and let them keep talking. And then the next question you ask them to go even deeper is what else? And then you pause, and you let them keep talking. The last question you ask them is, is there anything else? And you just pause, and you just listen? Because what you're going to find there, that's even a good closing technique. The other a lot of the people that I coach right now, we will practice that ad nauseum to get them to wait and to let the silence do the heavy lifting. Because when you ask a good question, they'll be excited. Right, they will be quiet. And when they're quiet, they're gone inward and they're thinking, and as soon as you interrupt that because you are uncomfortable, you've broken that train of thought to let them talk, and then let them get it all out, and then ask them, what else and be quiet and see what they say.
Justin Stoddart
The part that I hear you saying that I think is really interesting for everybody to know is that when you get to that point, when you ask what else, what else, you're taking them somewhere that they've never even gotten themselves, right. That's why they're quiet is like, I don't know the answer. Let's figure this out together.
Adam Roach
Yeah, it's powerful. It's super duper powerful. And here's the other strategies I used to always use when I was in the recruiting space for real estate. I mean, it may be even in your world. Many people don't know their numbers, right? They don't they don't know their numbers as it relates to their business. And sometimes they don't run their business like a business. They run like a sales agent. And so I had in my office, and I still do to this day, a huge massive wall that was a whiteboard. And I would engage them in questions and then we would get to their numbers and I would hand them a marker and I make them go walk up to the wall
and start to write the answers
out now. And here's why I did that. Because we all know that when you write an answer out to a question, you're actually learning faster than if you're just saying it. And so I would get them to see their answer as they were writing it. And then they had to actually internalize that answer. And they think, holy cow, that's not where I want to be. But I would just pause and just wait and let them keep writing. And if they didn't know their numbers, I just have them write big old fat zero, because again, they didn't know their numbers. And it always worked. It was fun, but a lot of fun with it.
Justin Stoddart
I would imagine through this process, Adam, you've you've not only helped people fill gaps, but you've created some really deep friendships when when somebody takes you to where you've never been before, and on a journey upward to being a pursuit of their own potential. I would imagine it's deeply gratifying for you, but I would imagine that you've got thousands of people who are endeared to you because you help them see blind spots that They didn't know were there.
Adam Roach
Yeah. And so with our company, I love recruiting com. We have three different verticals in there. One is called recruiting bridge and recruiting bridge was the platform that helped bring in over 70,000 agents into a real estate company. And and the cool part about that was we use simple systems that allowed recruiters all across this country to to, to use the same approach. And what's been so powerful. We have a goal now to impact we have a goal to recruit 100 million people now. And in a space will help whoever needs to recruit whether that's again, real estate, we have a company called chamber Scout, which helps people in the chamber of commerce world, we're going into the mortgage world, we want to go into the multi level marketing world. We want to go in anywhere that needs to be recruited. So the impact that we have and that we can have on people is is huge. And as a recruiter I've impacted I mean, it Here's that here's what that is. And this is kind of a little awkward for me to say, I don't recruit for the satisfaction of myself, right? I recruit for you. Because Justin, I know what your potential is, and I know where we can grow that potential. So when you come into my organization, the environment that I've already created is going to be conducive for you to have that growth, and have all my offices that I've ever had in the real estate space. And we've grown exponentially every single year because we're constantly adding to that environment. And sure, we've taken people from $5 million to 100 million dollars. I got a guy who's a great friend of mine, who is doing well over 100 million dollars that were four years ago, he might end up doing 12. I've got a guy that I recruited love him dearly. He's like a brother now and he called it the lunch, right? And it was the lunch where he finally took my call. And he said, All I want to do is go to lunch and steer all steal all your ideas. And I said I'll give you every day. I have We did. And now we're like best of friends. And it's really, really cool.
Justin Stoddart
What a powerful spot to be in right? Where you can really come from contribution. Like, this is not about me. This is about you, and I'm confident enough in what I'm recruiting you to. Whether that be a sports team. I love the analogy you said even before we started, which is all of us that are in relationships, like recruited a significant other, right recruited us. I was wise enough to recruit a spouse that gave me six children like that was not an easy recruit. Now, I didn't open with that. I didn't lead with that. Right. But and she's been a willing participant the whole way. But yeah, I mean, there's it I think, if anybody has the connotation, kind of go back to where we started, of like, like recruiting is it for me, like what I don't want to be recruited into I'm not a recruiter that you essentially what you're saying is I'm not interested in growing and I'm not interested in growing other people. Right?
Adam Roach
Yeah, totally. You recruited every single day. you recruit every which way. Your kids you got six kids, they got to brush your teeth, they might have to make their bed. They probably have to put the clothes on, you're recruiting them to do that, right? spouses, our spouses, we recruited them to engage in us in the beginning to, to, to, to live there live with us, right? In our workspace. If, if we're a boss or an employee, whatever we're recruiting all day long, I bet you just recruited someone to go have lunch with you today. Right? That's recruiting, that's recruiting.
Justin Stoddart
You know, and I think really, at the core, and I'm a big proponent of this, which is sales at the highest level is leadership. My friend and mentor Steve Yeager taught me that, and what I hear you saying is like recruiting is actually leadership as well. You're simply leading people to a better spot, you help them identify that there's a gap, and and I'm gonna, I'm gonna, like we're gonna find out together, if what I built or if whatever if what I'm building can help you fill that gap better and faster than the environment that you're currently in.
Adam Roach
Right? And my dear dear friend, john Maxwell, we were just in London together his definition of Leadership is influence, right? Nothing more, nothing less. And what is recruiting, recruiting is influencing it is. So you are in a leadership space. So if you don't like to recruit, that's okay. Just choose, just understand that you're choosing not to be a leader.
Justin Stoddart
So one more question for you, you've done a great job of helping us really understand what happens when you actually get knee to knee with people. And you begin to ask questions, right? And then and ask them, you know, and then what actually, what was the question you said?
Adam Roach
Yeah, so ask them a question and then say, what else?
Justin Stoddart
What else? That's what was.
Adam Roach
What else? And is there anything else?
Justin Stoddart
I love that. What about when you're trying to get an appointment to recruit somebody? Right? Like that, that first day, right? In business where you're actually getting the opportunity to sit down and ask the what else questions right. What's, what's some lines that you've used to really kind of wake people up to be like, you know, maybe I should sit down with this person.
Adam Roach
Right. So number one is I was always taught a long time ago. You only stay following up with someone when they die right, so be as persistent as possible. Go back to my friend who called it the lunch. I bet I called him for a year and a half. And even to this day, he will tell you because I have a 310 area code. He said, Every time I saw 310 pop up on my phone, I would I would for fun hang up on you. Right it goes, I got pleasure out of doing that. So when you're setting that first appointment, yeah, you've got to come right out of the gate. And you've got to pique their interest in the very, very beginning. And here's what I used to always do. So I'd call you up and I'd say, hey, Justin, this is Adam Roach, I'm giving you a call because quite frankly, I just wanted to call and say congratulations. And pause. They say congratulations for what, and then you're good to go into because again, this is the real estate space. And I would say hey, listen, I was just running through the numbers because I realized that numbers are the language of business, and I don't know if you know this, but your close productions of 25% Did you know that You would say no, because you don't track your numbers. Right? And so that that would be the opening, I would go right into talking about you. And then I can go into a massively long script there if you want to. How was that? That was it. And so I would just start talking about you so so Justin, let me ask you a question being up 25%. Looks like you're tracking for $10 million in sales. Would you say $10 million is your potential? And you would say no, I said, Great. What's your potential? You say? 20 million. Great. We got a gap.
$10 million in sales is $300,000 in GCI Justin would it be worth your time to sit down and talk about how to close that gap to put an extra $300,000 in your pocket for 45 minutes. And you'd say No, I'd say great. What's your wife's number? Cuz I want to call her until you just passed up on $300,000. Right, and you would laugh and that would be the only thing so I was always big into getting people to laugh or just having fun on the phone but also peaking their interest.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. I would imagine somebody that comes at you wanting to talk about you. Right? And in that kind of fun tone, it'd be hard time after time after time to shut that down. Right.
Adam Roach
Right. Always. And he was one of my favorite scripts. So Justin, you'd say, Well, I'm happy where I am. And I would say great. I love meeting happy people. Right? And that would be it. That's great. Or I don't want to move. Okay, great. I don't want you to move you there because I don't even know who you are yet. Why don't you just move to Starbucks and meet me for 25 minutes? 45 minutes, right. Yeah, but like that, and like my favorite one was, I'm not interested. And so I said, Well, great. Let me ask you just out of curiosity, what are you not interested in making more money or having coffee for 45 minutes? Well, having coffee 45 minutes great gonna have lunch. Me, but maybe just not for coffee. So it's just having fun with it, right? It's just having fun and peaking people's interest. And here's one thing that I'll share with your listeners real quick. Remember this phrase, some will Someone some wait. So what, who's next? Right? If you were your feelings on your sleeve and you're recruiter, you're an influencer, you're a leader. And you get upset when someone hangs up on you or you get upset when someone says no, and you can't handle their objection, you better get some thicker skin.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, there's yet they're saying no to the potential of their better life, right, and kind of go back to what you said, anybody who's a wise business person is always evaluating like, what are the like, what's, what's the best option today? Right? And then I don't think this goes against being loyal. This is just a growth mindset. And the stuff that you and I learn about me and my life, during that meeting, will for sure make me better wherever I decide to go. Maybe I decide to go I'm going to go work with Adam right? Because I believe he can get me there faster. Worst case scenario, I'm better because of that conversation we had I go back to the space where I was at, and I continue forward with a new perspective of paradigm. But I think if there's one thing I want people to get out of this is you need to always be recruitable right? Always be recruitable Because essentially what that saying is, you're always growable right? You're always open to growth as opposed to thinking that that you always have everything figured out and that you can't learn anything from anybody. Right? There's no risk in that be recruitable and on the recruiting side, you know, what you've shared is just absolute gold right? Have fun with people and have it be all about them. Just the stuff. Adam, how do people go to learn more about you to really plug in become better recruiters obviously, I love coaching set up real quick show everybody your shirt. Sure it is I love recruiting right there.
And on a shirt, it's pretty clear this man loves recruiting.
Adam Roach
Yeah, they can go to I love recruiting.com. They can fill out the form right there. If they want to have a conversation around coaching, they can do that if they want to have a conversation around using any one of our platforms. That's fantastic. Here's one thing we do in the real estate space that we're actually standing outside of the real estate space is we want to be Come the Zillow of recruiting leads, right? So it's our intention we generate between two to 300 leads right now in the real estate space, all across the nation of people raising their hand saying either tell me more about real estate or, hey, I'm in real estate school or, hey, listen, I'm a unicorn, I'm doing $5 million in sales in my where I am, I don't like it. So they can they can go to I live recruiting.com, we'll be happy to have just a simple consultation with them, we'll be happy to have a coaching call with them. We'll be happy to help them any way we can. We'll be happy to connect them with people that maybe they're looking to get into business with, who knows how they can reach them reach out to us, they're
Justin Stoddart
powerful stuff, powerful stuff I know you had actually offered, which is a super generous offer to the listeners of this show, which is like a 15 minute coaching call right to sit down and kind of really evaluate how your platforms might benefit them. And obviously tapping into your deep network deep experience in the fact that you're good friends with john Maxwell, she would say a lot to everybody listening here. Right then you know that you're a big thinker. So is the best way to access that value is it's just go to the website on the recruiter. dot com?
Adam Roach
Yep, go the website right there. And you'll see your name when you put your first name, last name and email address, and we'll reach up, either myself or someone from the team will reach out to you. And we'll do probably within 24 hours.
Justin Stoddart
Powerful stuff, man. All right, final final question, Adam. I feel like there's so much more value that I hope that the audience goes and seeks out from you because again, everybody needs to be recruiting, right? That's the only way you're going to grow. So now that we've kind of established that that you're an expert there, we also know that you are a big thinker, right? Your goal of recruiting 100 million people that hear that, right 100 million people have been recruited, as a result of the efforts that you and your team put out into the world. What does a guy like you do to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your possibilities? Again, this is the Think Bigger Real Estate Show here we expand people's possibilities. Do us a favor, teach us something that you do on a regular basis to be sure that your possibilities are always expanding?
Adam Roach
Sure. Yeah. That's a great, great question. So I love again, well, let's go back to the beginning. It's time to wake up right? If you were the smartest person in the room. room, we've heard this a gazillion different ways. If you're the smartest person in the room, get the hell out of that room, excuse the language, because that's not really going to impact you the right way. My father, my late father, now, he was an Olympic swim coach. And this is what he taught me. He said, you go up to who you feel is the smartest or the fastest swimmer or the best tennis player and you go up to them and ask them, if they'll hit tennis balls with you, you go up to them and ask them if they will swim in the pool with you in the business space I took that to heart. And I've seen many people up on stage. And after the show, if I can figure out a way to go up and introduce myself, I'll go do it. John Maxwell. John Maxwell now is a near dear friend of mine. And it was only because I walked up to an event and just introduce myself and my left. He was just with us in Aspen, Colorado, and walked right up to him and said, Hey, listen, what's it going to take? What can I do to earn an hour opportunity to be coached by you. And I love asking that question over and over and over. So how do I think bigger I surround myself with people that are massively bigger than I am in any different space, whether that's financial health, spiritual, fitness, whatever it is, I'm just always looking to be the dumbest guy in the room.
Justin Stoddart
And powerful stuff. I'll tell you that strategie has worked. worked for me. I mean, even just this conversation, right, you're a bigger thing than I am. And it's exciting to have you rub off on me a little bit. I've had conversations recently with Grant Cardone and Gary Keller, and awesome big thinkers that I feel very, very small in their presence, however, you quickly, like learn to realize that these people are just humans like you and I, they just have been thinking bigger, right? They've just been helping more people at higher levels. And that that's not that's not unattainable, right? I mean, what that does, I'm sure being around John like John's, like quasi superhuman, right with the values peace poured into the world, but you realize there's a path to being superhuman, right? But there's a path
Adam Roach
Yeah, and there is and again, this is something I posted on my Instagram the other day. So Instagram is Adam R Roach on Instagram is, are you prepared with questions to ask someone when you meet them, right? If someone thinks massively bigger than you, and they're in front of the room, and you get the courage to go talk to them, and you might have five seconds, what question are you going to ask them? Right? Other than just introducing yourself and then taking the stupid little selfie with them? Grow yourself in that moment, right? Be prepared for the questions that you want to ask them. And I posted that on Instagram a couple days ago. My three questions and the last question I always ask someone when I if I get a quick second with him, and it's someone that I want to either be mentored by or learn from, is what can I do to earn the right to have another conversation with you?
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, powerful stuff. Man. I hope everybody's taking this stuff to heart. Adam Roche, you are the man and you're a big thinker, and I want to thank you for all the value poured into me. And it's the think bigger real estate audience that a total
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, very excited about today for any of you that have aspired to be a real estate investor, and or you've aspired even to work with real estate investors. I know a lot of this audience is residential real estate agents wanting to serve people and help them not just buy and sell homes, but to really build wealth through real estate. Today's episode is going to be ideal for you because you're going to learn more about the commercial lending space from someonr that truly is an expert. Before I get into introducing him, I want to remind you that my mission is to wake you up to help you recognize the potential that's within you, and then to inspire and help you to live a life in pursuit of that potential. And I'm grateful for the guests that come on because they are hand selected because people that can help us think bigger. So again, I want to welcome today's guest Robert Barthelmess with BGI Capital. Truly an inspirational story, as well as now hehas built a small little company and brand that is helping a lot of people be real estate investors or better real estate investor. So Robert, I want to thank you for coming on to the show today. Very, very happy to have you here with us.
Robert Barthelmess
Justin, thank you for having me on your show. I'm a huge fan of your show. And I want to start by thanking you work for everything that you do for the industry, or the material that you put out there. It's phenomenal.
Justin Stoddart
Awesome. Thank you, Robert. Really appreciate that. You know, Robert, I found that we have some things in common that we both have a love of family. I think that's probably true of most people, but we probably take it to the next level. Robert has five children. I have six. Robert tell us really quickly. What is your favorite part about being a dad?
Robert Barthelmess
You know, jumping into the whole experience, right? It's a very family oriented person, otherwise I wouldn't have five kids. So it's a really the whole the whole pie. Yes. Being able to give to them to be with them to guide them to form part of their lives.
Justin Stoddart
Powerful. You know, I'm a fan again, part of the thing, that the mission I have on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show it's not just all about business. It's about actually having business, either to an ideal life to a better life. And I think you probably feel that way as well as your career is a vehicle to help you with and serve the people that you love the most. So, you know, always fun being around people like you that all love family.
That's kind of your core value. Let's get into your story a little bit, right? You came here from Peru, and have had phenomenal success. I oftentimes, envy and please don't take this wrong, because I know that there's many, many benefits of being actually born here in the US, but it's so I'm always so impressed by people who migrate here. And they come and they have amazing success as you have had. And I think there's something about leaving a country that maybe doesn't have the same fertile soil for
a business standpoint as the US does and you come here with a different perspective. And you maybe you don't take it for granted like, you know, like maybe someone that they like myself would because I've always been that's all I've ever known right? Would you say that moving here from somewhere else puts you in a in a unique position to be able to recognize how much opportunity there is here in the US?
Robert Barthelmess
Definitely, Justin, I am the biggest us fan that you will find. I am I consider myself an American. I moved to this country in 1982. So I am all I am everything USA one of the things that you find when when you come into this country is that it really is the greatest country in the world. Right, by different by different measures. It is the greatest country in the world for entrepreneurs. It really provides you with the with a full open platform where limitations really does exist. When you come from a country that is phenomenal. I love my I love my country as well. But when you come into the US, it's like a blank canvas. Right? Being able to start a company, you log into the internet, you open an LLC in less than 10 minutes. You know, there's there's very little regulation, there's very little limitations that keep you from being able to do what you want to do. If you're looking for financial structure, if this is the capital center or across the world, so really, you know,
when you're coming from outside from another country and you come into the US, you find that there's such an incentive to explore and do, you know, do whatever it is that you want to get done. Again, I always say that I'm the biggest fan of this country, I think that it is the land of opportunity. If you're in the US and you think of it you can create it.
Justin Stoddart
Boy that's inspiring, Robert, just that in, in and of itself, you know, is worth, you know, having you on the show, I know, we're just getting into the value, but you have some like you come in and say someone who's who you know, who's who's lived somewhere else to, again, recognize is something as simple as opening up an LLC, something as simple as getting financing for you know, for property or for an idea. That's just not it's not the same in another country. And so I want to thank you for sharing that. Let's talk a little bit about BGI capital. Tell us a little bit about what you do. And maybe the problem that you guys solve that maybe isn't solved by some of the more traditional forms of funding.
Robert Barthelmess
So BGI capital is a full service commercial, real estate lending. One of the greatest advantages that our company has is we manage our own funding. Right. So we're direct lender, our funds are discretionary. So decisions are made in house. So when we're dealing with a lot of investors and you know, we work with a lot of seasoned investors, as well as with first time investors, one of the greatest advantages is that we can really sit down with our clients understand what their what their business plan is, guide them into their process, and make the tailor make a product specifically for them which works phenomenal for first time investors, right, we take the time to sit down with at work working through this whole process and put something that really helps them be successful.
One of the things that we do offer Justin aside from having our own private fund, we also full service commercial mortgage brokerage operation. So for the larger transactions for the more seasoned investors we can put together cans tructure deal integration with institutional national investors as well.
Justin Stoddart
That's really, you know, what I see as some of the value right as you guys have the ability with your own funding, as well as the ability to go get it at a larger scale when necessary when needed. Would you say that not having what you just described keeps people from either starting or succeeding at a higher level because they don't have someone who's really kind of tailor making, and really even asking the questions of like, where is it you're ultimately trying to go with this, right, I think sometimes banks just come in and say, I mean, they look at it on a project by project basis, without actually getting to know who are the people and what are the people's goals. Right. And I think there's a lesson in that for all of us that are in well paid sales profession, right, whether it be title, you know, whether it be real estate, whether it be lending. Moving into that more advisory roll, I think it's critical for us remaining at this average transaction. But again, tell me, you see that that's pretty unique in your industry. And am I right that a lot of banks and lending institutions look only at the project and not really like the people behind it?
Robert Barthelmess
Well, you know, first of all, I'm an ex banker. I always say that I'm a recovering banker. I was in banking for 20 something years. And I decided to, to venture out on my own a few years ago, and that's how BTI capital comes comes about. But I found a great business partner, we've been able to do very interesting things together. But our relationships, are relationship driven, but regulation is hampering their ability to move as efficiently as they have to in a lot of cases. So that opens up opportunities for lenders, alternative lenders like us who are willing to look at transactions wit h a little more creativity. And to look at recessions a little bit outside of the box.
I think that's one of the and we've seen this in a few cases where we have actually taken a client that comes into our fund, because they're not ready to go the banking route. And we've been able to advise them to their first transaction. And by the time they're in their second or third transaction, they're able to go to a financial institution for more traditional financing structures. So I think when we thrive, where we do the best is when we can actually sit down with a client and look at what they're doing now and what their, what their goals are in the future. And we can walk in and hold hands with that and go with it through the whole process. I think I think, you know, that's one of the that's one of the greatest values that we add to the relationship is with advisory, that advisory board that we serve?
Justin Stoddart
I love that. Again. I think that's there's probably no shortage of capital out there capitals, resources, right. But I think a lot of us sit on the sidelines. Because we don't know how to get started. We don't know that first step. Right. You guys obviously give advice to, you know, investors, one because you are an investor yourself and you've been on that side of the table somewhere to get a lot of our audience serve people at a really high level when it comes to, you know, helping them with their real estate transactions that they sit on the sideline as an investor for not knowing how to get started. What advice would you have for somebody who's maybe ultimate goal is to own an apartment buildings, right? Yet, realizing can't necessarily just start with a big apartment building. Like what like what blueprint would you lay out for somebody that was maybe in that squat because that's the spot that I find my clients and his old school, they'd love to have multifamily apartment type situations Yeah, getting started this, you know can be fairly intimidating. What advice would you have?
Robert Barthelmess
I think that the biggest piece of advice that you can give a first time investor is do your homework. Right? I mean, if you're looking to buy a multifamily are you it's important that you are very clear on what that entails, what market are you going to be you want to be in? What kind of expenses? Are you going to incur? What are the expenses related to running up to running of the time? Right? So you really have to do your homework, you have to understand your market very well. You have to understand, you know, what the cost implications of the investment that you're going to make and what kind of financing structure What do you need to do to be able to be approved for for finance. So homework in real estate as with any other ventures, it's critical. Do your research.
Justin Stoddart
Do you feel like there are when people get started, they sometimes overlook some expense or they overlook something. Or they underestimate something is there kind of a typical pitfall that people run into? When they're doing their homework that they don't, don't see something or they kind of glaze over something. I mean, there's something kind of you see as a trend of people that, that maybe come in and don't do their homework, like, what are they missing? Like one of the key components that they typically miss?
Robert Barthelmess
We find that sometimes, but I gotta tell you, another people that we that we end up interviewing that come and be with us for financing, they come pretty, pretty well prepared. Right? You know, sometimes you sometimes you miss a few of expenses. I mean, if we're talking about a multi family, you know, one error, that we see the calculation of taxes and insurance expenses.
Right, you haven't adjusted the tax expense for for the for the value of the purchase of the property that you're doing and you're working off of historical numbers. And maybe you're not getting enough enough funds for your insurance expense in the market that we're in in South Florida you know, we have to deal with Hurricane with wind insurance and that can get very costly. So, sometimes sometimes we find that they are under estimating what the expenses of the property are going to be. Sometimes we see that there are not putting enough of a contingency for vacancies, the market the market vacancy rate in South Florida right now, depending on where you are on a residential projects around, you know, three and a half to 5%. But it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be hitting those numbers consistently, right? You have turnover, you have different factors that influence your actual vacancy. So we always ask, you know, we always ask our investors to just be a little conservative. To put a little cushion in there for the, for the unforeseen things that always that always come up, right, you might have to do an additional reasonable repair to the property that you weren't thinking about. So that you have enough research in place. So that when something breaks that it's not covered by insurance it doesn't put you in a bad situation. So we do see some of those oversights. And we try to guide our investors through that process to make sure that they're making their decisions based on factual information.
Justin Stoddart
That's probably part of the great reason of working with a firm like yours that is very personal, right? You're not a large institution. But you can actually get really personal and get into the weeds with people as far as things that they might be missing. You have great value in having a partnership with a firm like yours because again, you get that personal touch yet access to the big money necessary.
Robert Barthelmess
I'm sorry, I didn't hear the last part of the question.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, no, I see, it was more a statement that I can see the value of having a partner like capital, because it really gives you the ability to have someone who can very, very personal with you and even identify areas that you might have missed specially when you're getting started. Yet also, you've got access to the banks have access to the biggest money, yet a very, very personal touch. I think that's a pretty powerful combo in today's world where a lot of offers are being commoditized because they all look the same, right? Very personal touch, personal concern. Even mentorship seems to be something really different.
Robert Barthelmess
And I think our business is a business of relationships, right? So if you're in the real estate, business, whether you're a lender or you're an investor or you're a realtor, you have to have a network of mentors or friends and you can run an idea by. But if you are an investor in real estate, you have to have very close relationships with with good realtors that can yhey give you the the right opportunity. And you always have to have a lender lined up.
Our business is a business of opportunity, right? We do find that if you find the right property, the person or the investor that it's going to get that property is the investor that has the funding lined up already. So you know, that's another piece of advice that the seasoned investors already use, you know, when they go and make an offer on a property, they know exactly how they're going to fund that deal. And that gives them a much bigger shadow of actually getting the property. So kind of having those relationships are very important.
Justin Stoddart
Robert, this has been really helpful. Is there any kind of before I go to the final signature question of the show? Is there anything else that you want people to know about, about, again, the kind of the private lending and or even about your firm
Robert Barthelmess
Listen, I think that it's important for everybody to know that there are great, great funds in America especially the real estate side, and we can have a north side, North American models, right. So it's, it's important that us as investors get into the business that they create, create their network. So we pride ourselves on providing our clients with with that personal personal service. I mean, and I don't say that as lip service. In our organization we have a concept, if you call us you will get a call or you will be contacted by by by one of us before the sun goes down. They will all of us live by. So definitely putting our putting our stamp of great service on for BGI is important.
Justin Stoddart
Robert let me end with this this question, which is the signature question of the show, you're obviously a big thinker. You've got a great firm yourself, you have an amazing story of coming here to the US and creating success. And now you have a firm that helps people create success through real estate. What is it that helps you to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your own possibilities, there's something that you can teach us and share with us that would help us walk away be better big thinkers.
Robert Barthelmess
Well, let us circle back to how we started. First of all, we are all starting in, in a country in a place that provides incredible opportunities where where there are no limits. So if you're in this industry that we have chosen to, to participate in, you're always going to figure out where where you're adding value. You know, if you're on the sales side of the business. Where do you add value?
You have competition coming from everywhere, right? You're selling real estate, you have competition coming in from other realtors from other technology platforms that are competing and taking some of your some of your money away. So you got to figure out where you add value. How do you how do you come up to a combination of service and technology? Because you cannot, you know, you cannot survive in this business without technology. Now, right we've had, we've had to adapt. So we invested, we invested resources into developing a platform that allows our brokers and allows our clients to be able to log into our into our website, follow the transaction, follow the loan, and see the status. Get a good idea of where they're coming to the close. So we're adding technology with with service. So if you're in this industry, find your find your value proposition find your value proposition and put it out there.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. It's stuff. Robert, I want to thank you again for coming on and sharing value. Be willing to, number one, create a great company, right that serves a lot of people. And secondly then be willing to come on and educate us and help us to be bigger speakers. So, again, thank you for coming on. And again my final request, everybody listening today are three simple words. And they are GO THINK BIGGER! Robert, thank you so much for coming on today and I wish you nothing but success look forward to staying in contact.
Robert Barthelmess
Justin, thank you very much for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity.
Justin Stoddart
Hey, welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart, and I'm excited about today's episode because it's going to help you as a real estate agent. And even you, as a lender, put more deals together deals that you were missing opportunities missed that maybe you didn't even realize that you could capitalize on. Before we get into that, let me just remind you that the purpose of this show is to help you to think bigger. My mission personally, is to help you like wake up and realize the potential that's inside of you, and then to live a life in pursuit of that potential. So I have with me today, two good friends of mine, people who are experts really in the lending space, and the alternative lending space. Again, we're going to talk more about what that is. But let me first thank and introduce Kody Wilde and Morgan Smith with direct portfolio lending.
Kody Wilde
Thanks, Justin.
Morgan Smith
Pleasure to be here.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, thanks for being here. Thanks for coming on the show. You know, it's interesting. We were having a conversation prior to the show here, that in the early 2000s, obviously banks had more options, right. They had more lending options than they do today. Some of that's beneficial However, we've realized that there are, there's also a challenge with that right in that in that as credit tightened as options went off the table, there were good people that were in unique situations that needed lending, that all of a sudden the traditional banking institutions cannot help. Is that true?
Morgan Smtih
Absolutely true. So, you know, Justin, prior to the crash, a majority of the real estate lending for home builders, private contractors, small time inv estors was handled by, you know, the local thrips your community savings banks, institutions like that, where's the big boys, you know, pretty much dealt with large banks and Wall Street. When the financial collapse happened, those banks basically got out of that business and have never really emerged. And so that's really what's opened up the space of of alternative lending. Some people would call like the shadow banking industry, but its investors trying to fill that demand that was basically lost.
Justin Stoddart
Those who know my story well know that I was a home builder. Right. So I obviously had experienced the downturn of 2007,8,9. Yeah, wasn't a very fun time. Those of us that were in the industry, you know, had some hair on our chest at that point. And, you know, I was actually listening to Gary Keller recently speak about how there was a, because of that period, there were over a million homes that weren't built. And we were having that conversation about how there's just this, this shortage of inventory that will never really catch up to least in the foreseeable future, in part because that those lending options to smaller builders went away. Right?
Morgan Smtih
Absolutely. Right. You're absolutely right. So again, large publicly traded home builders have bonded debt and the largest institutional financing. Everybody else has basically been relegated to private or, you know, portfolio type of financing which is just which is what we do.
Justin Stoddart
Let's talk a little bit about one of the maybe options or maybe some of the opportunities missed. Right, the real estate agents have in front of them, they say, you can't get financing and they walk away from it. Yeah. What would you say? Maybe nice and loud, you're you're kind of a quiet spoken guy, although got amazing things to say. So we're gonna tell us like, what are some those opportunities you see agents missing, that they don't necessarily need to be passing on?
Morgan Smtih
Good question, Justin. You know, I would kind of frame it like this, the way we the way we do the lending opportunities, that direct portfolio is really an that of a partnership. So I'll give you a quick example if you went out and found a piece of real estate In Lake Oswego. Let's say you had a you got a really good deal on it. You called me up. You said hey, Morgan, I want to buy this piece of real estate I want to buy it for 300 grand, put 50 grand into I think we can sell for 500 grand. That sounds great. Just that's that's that's fantastic. And so you want me to put up all the money and you're going to do the work. It's your deal this, okay, so it will be reasonable for me to say I'll take half the profits, that would seem like a reasonable transaction. Today, what we do in the lending space is we partner with investors, home builders, folks that are looking to acquire those types of property. And we just do it a little differently. We do it in a what we call it portfolio loan. So instead of paying the 50% of your profits, you're going to pay a percentage of your loan.
Justin Stoddart
Okay? More like a traditional financing option, right?
Morgan Smtih
More like a traditional financing option. So the rates and fees will be higher than your bank transaction, but they're not going to be that of like equity. So it's really kind of a middle ground, where you can find the financing that you need. You know, on the thing, big concept, I always I always kind of want to put this this point out, there are more deals out there then there are more capital available than there are deals. So if you have the ability to bring a deal to the table, relative to an investor, if it's truly a good deal, there will be capital to fund it . And that's, I think that's part of your think big concept .
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Yeah, the people. That's really interesting, because sometimes people think like, there's, like, if I had the money, I could do the deals. That's right. Right. And what you're saying is that you don't have to say that anymore. There's always the money, especially now, right? Bringing direct portfolio lending, bringing great partners like this that will help you see opportunities that that maybe you couldn't see before, right?
Morgan Smtih
It's absolutely right. So we manage about 25 million bucks of private capital, Justin. And we are always looking for transactions to finance always looking for deals. And so I just, I harp on that point, because most young investors don't understand it. If you can get out there, you could beat the streets. If you can find a transaction. If you can find a rate of return that's going to work. There will be capital that will come in and partner with you to just that transaction. And I think that's really powerful to see for you. Younger investors. Yeah, and different folks. Yeah. The other concept that I would bring out, kind of pertinent to your question is there is always a little Under willing to make a transaction that the risk component is fine. So, lower loan to value bigger down payment. There are situations where maybe you have a borrower roller has a borrower's got some, possibly some, you know, difficult credit, or had some trouble in the past, with the right down payment, we can make a deal like that happen. So, you know, ultimately we're in the business of doing deals that make sense for our investors. Does that make sense for our realtors and our owners,
Justin Stoddart
and really the only the biggest opportunity cost is sitting on the sidelines, right?
Morgan Smtih
That's right,
Justin Stoddart
like you might give up a little more of the margin in order to make it happen. But the opportunity cost is there's zero margin because you're sitting on the sidelines thinking that there is no option.
Morgan Smtih
That's right. And you know, maybe the first deal you're not going to get as great of terms as you would get on a second and the third deal when you build up a track record direct portfolio. We have borrowers that have done 1520 transactions with us. They're getting pretty good terms. I'm going to 15 through 20 and transacts got a track with We will also go out on a limb for first time investors and try to help them do that. That's how we build a relationship. That's how we build attraction.
Justin Stoddart
Cool. I love it. I love it. So obviously, we've talked a little bit about the opportunity cost of not seeing the fact or recognize the fact that there's always money available. If you have a good deal, right? That's right. Do you see by chance, like, what's a common deal that a realtor would pass on or not even see, because they aren't thinking outside the box of this alternative financing? Like, like, what should they be looking for? That's oftentimes missed because that they don't know about you?
Morgan Smtih
That's an excellent question. So in traditional mortgage, this is no real estate. We've been condition for the past, you know, two decades, based on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA guidelines, and that's a majority of what we do. And those large investors those those entities that buy mortgages have certain standards and in particular, are relates to properties. So where do I find opportunity that could be missing transactions like that? Often, if there's a piece of property that has some deferred maintenance, maybe it has an issue, maybe maybe maybe it's got mold in the basement, maybe it's got broken windows, you know, but at direct portfolio, we can look at that transaction and say that transaction has value. If I have value minus a repair cost, we have to add back into it but we can look intrinsically into the value of that transaction. So I don't really care if it's rough around the edges if the collateral is right, she was ideal typically would get denied and FHA denied and conventional denied and other types of bank financing so we're really taking a holistic reports to looking at the asset assets bag,
Justin Stoddart
I love it. So as an agent, right, you're looking at deals, anything that a traditional lender would maybe balk at at that point is say, let's take a look at right whether seller loans standalone bridge, builders spec development loans, right investor and commercial bridge loans, like there's another options here, investor fix and flip owner occupied relationship loans, bridge loans, like I'm reading through some of the things you guys do, and ought to open up an entire new awareness of a whole new reality that they weren't aware existed before. That's right.
Morgan Smtih
So fix and flip loans are a great example. And hard for you not to have seen some type of home with great TV if you watch HGTV or you've seen the fix and basically revolution that's going on in the country. But, you know, to your earlier point, there's a lack of housing inventory. There's a ton of dilapidated old housing throughout this nation that needs to get renovated needs to come out. There's there's a demand for that. And so investor fix and flip financing is probably our most popular financing vehicle ball. And that's a situation where we will help an investor buy an asset, buy house, also loan the money that they need to repair it, and guide them through the process. And that type of product just didn't really exist in the traditional financing. Yeah,
Kody Wilde
yeah. And I just read recently came across the gentleman here locally that he's been doing this but just using his own money. And then he's he's to Morgan's point, there's more opportunity than what he has money for. And so he feels like on one deal he brought in an investor who, you know, really just came in took the project from him, but he could have done more. And if he had his own wasn't so you know, straight at his personal capital stretched so thin. And so we're going to be helping him out with some of the upcoming deals so he can do more and not miss out on those
Justin Stoddart
opportunities. Let's talk a little bit about from a lender standpoint, right? There's these traditional lenders. The goal, right as I speak with some of my great lender friends, is to always be the first call when somebody has a financing option. However, sometimes you got people that make a call to you and you don't have a product for them, right? That's right, or do you right? I mean, keep here's, here's the thing that I want you guys to see is that having a group like this, if you're a lender, a traditional lender, mortgage loan officer and you You now have the ability to have these guys in your back pocket for their one phone call away. It's still like the phone call still comes from you to them. And now you remain at the center of the transaction for your clients, because reality is that client, if there's an option out there and they're tenacious enough, they're going to find a solution. And if it's not, because it came through you, you just become disenfranchised from that lending conversation. Right? Whereas now when they've got you guys, it creates a great opportunity for them to be more valuable to their existing clients. Right?
Morgan Smtih
That's right. And while I'd like to be your first call, always make sure that we're your last call. More importantly, you know, we we pride ourselves on being the last us that you need to go to, if we can't get the deal done, I'm kind of probably telling you If you really want to look at that.
Justin Stoddart
That's actually a great way to do you have any deals, run it by them. If they say no way. You should also be saying no way.
Morgan Smtih
Yeah, because we're partners and I go back to my partnership conversation. Yeah, we want you to be successful in each transaction, if you're not successful and you're not profitable, we're not going to do another transaction with you. And our goal is to do multiple transactions.
Kody Wilde
Well, Justin, you bring up a great point. I mean, most of the deals that we have in the pipeline right now have come from other mortgage loan officers where they ran into a hiccup with their traditional financing like Morgan was talking about. And so we'll take a look at it. But the deal together, a lot of our stuff is short term, if they can overcome whatever the issue was from their traditional mortgage piece, six months a year down the road, they can come back and be out.
Morgan Smtih
Cody's exactly right. So over 60% of our businesses also comes directly from other mortgage professionals. We're there to help you get that first deal done. We're not in competition for your long term financing. That's your job. Typically, if you can come to us that our transactions going to lead to a secondary transaction, whether that's a refinance into a long term rental, whether that's they're selling their property to somebody else, and that loan officer can get in front of them for another transaction. We're here to assist the mortgage professionals.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. here to assist the mortgage professional not could be one. That's great, right? Love that.
Morgan Smtih
And then realtors love that too, right? Yes more business closed. Gotta have financing to do it. Yeah,
Kody Wilde
yeah, and I think you know for realtors and mortgage professionals because we all have, we all have the daily challenge of being relevant. For the most part a lot of us sell somewhat of a homogeneous product, I mean a 30 year mortgage 30 year mortgage, a listing agent as a listing agent, they need to differentiate themselves. So what I like about these products for both the realtor and a mortgage lender, it's like another set of tools in your toolbox that you can bring out for a specialty situation or it's a great conversation starter when you go into a new office or your client Hey, by the way, I can do all that other stuff that everybody else does.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I've also got these options. Good stuff guys. How would somebody best get in contact with you guys? We can even put it up here on the screen afterwards but but like if somebody here in the really is it Oregon or Portland metro kind of what are the areas that you guys serve, is it Nationwide?
Morgan Smtih
we serve a nationwide footprint but our primary focuses on the five or six neighboring states so strong in Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, okay, we do most of our business there. We're direct portfolio lending calm, very simple to get a get a hold of us online application. Anybody wants to fill one out? Pretty straightforward.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Direct portfolio lending calm is how you run these guys. Getting in your back pocket again. Of the five closest states in and around Oregon here the Northwest, even down in the California kind of California. You see Nevada,
Unknown Speaker
Idaho would loan to Nevada, Colorado. You know, we're looking for markets that are commerce for trenders I mean, we don't before that we go to hipsters markets. It's kind of true because we're going to markets in which housing is changing right in Virginia, great marketplace for a Seattle's been great Portland's been great. Lots of California. Different parts of Texas have begun so we're looking for for market that are
Justin Stoddart
that are improving. I love it. Yeah, that's where the opportunities that equity is going up and so often make sense to partner on those deals. Right? That's right. makes total sense. All right. A couple last things. These guys happen to also be family, men, fathers. And those that know me, well know that the reason why I do all of this right is to make an impact first and foremost at home. Secondly, in the lives of other people. So let me just each of you just quickly share to the microphone, if you would, your favorite part about being a dad.
Kody Wilde
Favorite part about being a dad. Well, first of all, just in pure isolation, so yeah, that upcoming book and a good trip down to meet with the Keller Williams group. So yeah, that's, you know, you can read your book to the kids at night. Right. The best part about being a dad, I think it's just being able to see right the kids grow and I have six children, five boys, one girl, three are already out of high school. And so, you know, it's like everybody says the time goes way too fast, but it's just great. You know, being able to see them improve and accomplish their goals and dreams and being part of that is, you know, it's great. Nice partnership. Yeah.
Morgan Smtih
I thought I thought I had it tough with three boys Kody. Yeah, I would echo that sentiment. I mean watching them develop watching them grow. You know that's saying it's such conditional love and watch them at various parts of the development. It's just fantastic. Love it. Great thing we do.
Justin Stoddart
So okay, final question. This is a signature question of the show you guys are big thinkers, you've provided a big solution to the marketplace. What do each of you do? Just Just to kind of have a few sentences, to be sure that you continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your own possibilities and live a bigger life with bigger impact. What's something consistently that you do against it to continue to think big?
Morgan Smtih
It's a good question. Continually. I continue to look for ways to be more relevant and to be more relevant to this industry and to my partner. And it's been an evolution in the mortgage business, the real estate businesses, continual evolution, and if you're not changing and progressing, you're dying. And so I just think constantly be looking for change and looking for the for the next opportunity. But staying relevant and paying attention to the markets is what I do.
Kody Wilde
I think a lot of it has to do with this business as far as being a relationship based. And so always expanding, trying to make new connections, figuring out who knows who I think that's going to help, you know, Dr. Morgan's point home is you got to be relevant as far as knowing what's going on, and what are some of the challenges and being a, you know, a solution provider for those. And that's, you know, that's one of the things that I really like about going in and working with a client, especially if they don't fully understand or this isn't their bailiwick, you know, and we can come in and say, here's a solution and really help them helping the guy right now down in Eugene out of a pretty tough spot. Consolidating some debt. He's got a lot of equity in this property. But you know, it's just, unfortunately had a lot of side sales so we're able to put that all together it's going to save him a lot of money month to month and getting some back where it can be you know doing the dad thing and
Morgan Smtih
you got to create value. I mean, anyone can bring a coffee cup and some post it notes to your office and tell you how great they are
Justin Stoddart
You're speaking to the title industry. Hear that title reps? That's why I'm here man. I mean, it's
Morgan Smtih
Provide somebody's ability to make money, right? Somebody the ability to close a transaction, provide somebody education, provide some some, something that's can change their lives. I think that's what makes us wrong. I love
Justin Stoddart
it. I love it. Great stuff, guys. I want to thank you both for coming into the studio today. fun to have you here to the bigger studio where we're helping expand your possibilities. My final request of everybody listening in today, three simple words in there, GO THINK BIGGER. Thank you to for helping make that possible today. Have a great day, everybody.
Justin Stoddart
Hey welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I am your host Justin Stoddart and absolutely thrilled to be back together with a good friend of mine. I had the privilege a few weeks ago to be in his office in Flower Mound, Texas and see behind the scenes of how he puts his clients first. For those that are curious to know who this man is. That's got a got a smile and a southern hospitality that makes everybody smile. His name's Jay marks Jay, thank you for coming on the show today. Super excited to spend more time with you today. You bet but where's the barbecue? It's in Texas. That's what I learned. It's not in Oregon or you know, we're gonna have no even though we invented the Traeger. We have no idea how to barbecue compared to your friends that you took me to go see that was incredible.
Jay Marks
That was fun, wasn't it?
Justin Stoddart
We had such a fun evening together. I was down for a big convention in Dallas, Texas had some time to spend with Jay in the evening and he he took me to the best barbecue place in Texas. It was it was truly amazing. I've still got thinking about how good that tasted?
Jay Marks
No, seriously. I'm a friend of mine owns a restaurant and as you know, because I do a lot of work with local and restaurants part of my business, and I went and told him, I said that this guy is from Oregon, I need to show him what's going on. And he put together a plate literally three and a half pounds of meat of ribs, pork, chicken, turkey, brisket, it was just yeah,
Justin Stoddart
It was it was perfect for a guy who spends time around a lot of vegans right here in Oregon. We get vegetarians vegans. Not that nice. It compensated for all of that. Yeah. It's so much fun. Let me just remind everybody that's that's tuning in. If this may be your first time listening to Think Bigger Real Estate Show, let me tell you what my mission is, which then tells you what the purpose of this show is my mission is to help is to wake people up to help them recognize the potential that's inside of them. And then my mission is to inspire them and help them to live in pursuit of that mission. The show is an extension of that and I reach out purposefully to big thinkers, people who are doing amazing things in business and in real estate to help all of us think a little bit bigger and have a better chance of fulfilling our potential. So, Jay has been again, hand picked for that. Jay, you've been in the business for several decades now. 26 years ago, I had the opportunity to go behind the scenes at Jay's office as I mentioned, he has an in house videographer tell us Jay, why is that important for you and for your customers?
Jay Marks
Well, first of all, marketing is a video first marketing concept. Now that is exactly what everyone expects. People want to be able to get on their smartphones or their iPads or their home computer and take a tour of a home. They want to be able to see and experience the the instrument sorry about a scene experience of property before they go look at it. And photographs will do it but video really does it. They say a picture's worth 1000 words. I say a video is worth a novel.
Justin Stoddart
I love that.
Jay Marks
It's so having our team videographer is a very important part of the staff. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
And you guys have done something very cool as well, that really gives back to the community which is Foodie Friday. Right. Tell us a little bit about foodie Friday for those that might not know about it. And again, how does that help really your customers probably a nucleus of a lot of people, you actually drove me around the area and showed me how many companies had moved there specifically from California and other places, because Texas is very business friendly. And you've got all these people moving to Flower Mound, Texas to Dallas area, you know, Dallas Fort Worth, and you've put together an episode a weekly episode called Foodie Friday, that really helps people get familiar with the area. Right. Talk to us a little bit about that and maybe how that helps your customers.
Jay Marks
Well, first of all, we did as a part of our overall outreach, you know, every Monday morning we'll do a Monday morning Monday market update. Tuesday's we talked about something to do with the real estate market or what's happening with man, I'm sorry, my nose is there. Hey, man. It's your nose a live podcast before it met Wednesdays we talked about the community and, and and Friday we're looking for a topic. Well, we're at a restaurant six years ago and we want foodie Friday. So we look at local owned restaurants, we don't go to your Chili's and Applebee's and Outback Steakhouse we don't do any of the national chains whatsoever. We go to local owned businesses, and we do two things with that. Number one, we tell the story of the local owned restaurant and what they serve and what they're about and what their concept is. And then we find out about the owner, tell us about your sacrifice. Tell us about what brought you here to inspire people to shop local, eat local and be a part of the community and you and I both know when you go out to eat, there's nothing better than a local dive. You know throw the food's really good or someone's in the back kitchen has got their whole financial life on the line cooking like it matters. And those meals are phenomenal. You know, just to we do something else to we also talk about local charities. So how it helps our clients is this.
We want people to come to J marks real estate calm and click on our blog or go to our Facebook page, and we want them to be able to have the full experience. Here's where you can learn about your community. Here's where you can find great restaurants, here's local charities that are sponsoring things in the area and where you may be can volunteer your time or donate money. And you can see great real estate homes you can see houses and tours and find out what's going on in the market.
Justin Stoddart
You know, really what I hear you saying Jay is it which I'm a strong proponent of is that oftentimes I think marketing in real estate is all about these little boxes that we all live in called houses. And at the end of the day, the box doesn't matter as much as the lifestyle the life that you get to live by living inside that box and your your website and your approach seems to be a lot more about lifestyle about giving back about you know, the local food scene or you know, food scene. Again, I think you guys get it that for the customer. Again, it's not about the box, the city you live in, but what how's my life going to be better by living in that particular area?
Jay Marks
Yeah, exactly. And we also want to be known as local experts to I mean, if you call on us, we will say, hey tell you what? Justin, come visit me. And let me take you to a couple wonderful restaurants at the same time. Let me show you the area. And that's why I did even though you and I are friends and I know you and I wanted to host you. What I did, honestly, was I took you on a first time buyer visit tour of the area, just like we do, all of our clients actually picked out a few houses. And if you remember, and then Jay told me those homes go for seven or 8 million I was like he not Yes, million.
Oh, that neighborhood yeah. Yeah, sorry. Yeah. Texas a little bit more affordable in other parts of the country. Yeah. There are a couple you had your eye on. It was we're cruising through Highland Park. That part is like yeah, you can have one of those that was perfect.
Justin Stoddart
But no, that's interesting. Jake's I didn't realize that but that's really how you do real estate, isn't it that it's, again, it's not about let's go house to house, the house, the house. It's let me really get you to fall in love with the area.
Let me know what your life would be like here and even introduce human I felt like a part of your network. Right, right. Everything from your spiritual network everything to your, you know, your Food Network, like I just got to know people, even your title company network we went in and we met friends and I think we were having this conversation offline that I believe that the future of well paid professionals in real estate, and there will be some, right, I think there's this push that like I-buyers are gonna take over the world, I think they're going to come in and take over the bad agents, the ones that don't put their customers first, I think there's going to rise up a very profitable niche of people who get real estate at a deeper level, they get the client at a deeper level, and that really come to serve them at a high level, not just about buying and selling a house or marketing a house like yes, that can be done by a lot of people, but by really being already integrated into the community. Right. And then being able to help integrate people, other people into the community. That's where it starts to get powerful. Would you agree with that?
Jay Marks
Absolutely. You know, and, and how you know, the topic that you chose his make your clients a priority. We want every client to feel welcome, appreciated and cared for. And we do that through education through personal service, and then finding out what it is they need and then going and getting that need met.
Justin Stoddart
That's powerful Jay.
Jay Marks
And if I do that, like you mentioned, I'll always have a paycheck, you know, no matter the economy, no matter the economy, if I go and deliver, I will always have a paycheck, no matter what's going on. I've been around through a couple of recessions. And I did that during the recession, and I do that during the good times. I deliver that that will make people see value in you and they'll choose you. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
You know, when you say make clients priority, you've talked about some of these things already. But let's let's even make a list of the things that that you found that your clients really want. We've talked about education, right, you've got, it sounds like a systematic routine in which you're educating people on the market. You're educating people on local charities, you're educating people on, like local restaurants. Is there other other other forms of education that you're offering? Or should we move on to the next thing that clients really care about?
Jay Marks
No, I that's the three things we want them to know. Here's your area. Here's the real estate market. Here's things you can do participate in. You know, I'll tell you what, you know, we also have the greatest football team in America, the Dallas Cowboys, and the Dallas Mavericks, and all these great sports teams here. But no, just kidding. We also want to tell people where they can go for fun. And so we just want people to call us and here's the cool part. Last night, I got a phone call from a client named Jeff. And Jeff had bought a house through agent x, and was not really inspired by his approach stumbled across one of our Facebook videos called us and just asked to interview I went over to interview him and agent x's moving truck was in his driveway that he was using to move as a part of you buy a house for me, you could borrow my moving truck. But then he hired us to sell his house. And we've done three more deals since. And then last night, he called and said, You know, I'm going to refinance. Tell me the name of that lender, again, that you recommend to your buyers, I want to refinance my home. Three years later, he's still calling us and asking us for referrals. And he's referred us customers, all because of that very approach I was telling you about.
Justin Stoddart
Because you are again, putting the clients first.
Jay Marks
You're not a number to me, you're an actual living breathing human being, you have a family, you have needs, you have a community you're looking to accomplish or whatever it is, you matter as my client.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, you can feel that can't ya?. So we talked about education. Let's talk about like the relationship side of it because again, I experienced that firsthand, that it's not a matter of just being finding people their box right finding people, they're perfectly sized house. For you, it's about really integrating them into these relationships, talk to maybe how that has come about for you. I mean, is that was that just natural for you? Did you have to learn to do that? I mean, it was it was an impressive experience for me. And now I'm just learning that this is what you do with your clients, right? Especially people that are moved from the area that don't already have that network. You're taking them around for me, you introduced me to, you know, to your title company professionals, which that's my industry. And so it was very relevant to me, I'm assuming that you're doing the same thing with people that are relevant to them. Is that true?
Jay Marks
Exactly. So once we find out what's important to you that we key in on that, and then we make sure that we deliver along those lines, like I knew that you're a top shelf marketing professional for a title company. So I said, Okay, great. And as we're going around town, I was pointing out different title companies, and I introduced you to some of the people in that industry. And the cool part was, turns out you and I had mutual friends in the industry. But the reason why I did that is because
I wanted you to be inspired and to be, oh, no, I was like, Wow, he really, he really does know me, I wanted you to believe in your heart that I know you and then I'm trying to deliver something that would interest you.
Justin Stoddart
You know, it's interesting. I was talking to a group yesterday talking to them about my unique value proposition. I said, you know, there's a lot of tools, a lot of stuff that that large title company corporations pass down and say, Hey, this will be good for your clients. And I say, those are appropriate when you discover that they're appropriate and helpful, not just it's not a one size fits all. And I said, I think the most valuable thing that I can do for you, as my client is number one, bring you knowledge that helps you close more escrows and number two, bring you a network that does the same I think well, when I'm here you hear you describe here is there's really two components, at least right that you're offering, which is you're offering people knowledge and you're offering them a network, right? People and knowledge those are the things that really differentiate your value proposition and mine and allow you to put your clients first
Jay Marks
Right. So and I had big plans on Sunday. I'm traveling today to go out to go out of town. And I really needed my weekend. And I just want to tell you a story about this. It's very important illustration. And we had a client who was in the weeds when it's coming to her move, single lady just absolutely struggling period, the end. And we got up Sunday morning, my wife and I, we went, rented a moving truck from Penske, we drove her house I called some other friends. We went over there and helped her move out because she had to be out of her house Sunday night. That completely took away my day of what I had to have done in order for me to get things done so I can travel today. But I'm gonna tell you something. The cool part was when we finished that night, we're sweeping the last part of the floor. She gave us all a hug. There was lots of tears, and then she called me again yesterday and said, I could not have done that without you. I will always refer you business. The thing is, you're not just a realtor. I really believe you care about me. You really are my friend and we are
54% of our business last year Justin came from people just like her And just like that, that are the customers talking about. And the reason why is because I know that in order to be competitive in order to be have a value proposition, I want people to really believe it. But But here's the thing, and I want to be really clear, if you don't mind. I'm sorry if I'm talking too long.
Justin Stoddart
It's awesome, man. Keep going.
Jay Marks
It's real. It's not fake. And yes, sometimes customers are more high maintenance than others. And sometimes we have that, okay, this customer is gonna be a challenge. But even our challenges, feel welcome, appreciated and cared for, because we do care about them. The Texas real estate commission is quite clear in the law, that we are to put the needs of the client ahead of our own. And that's also good Christian principles. You know, to love your neighbor and serve your neighbor. That's what you're supposed to do.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, boy, that's that's on full display right and I know you have, like commitments on Sunday, right Sunday. Is it just a day for you to kick up and put your feet up? Right? I mean, you have like, church commitments, you've got spiritual commitments you like, you probably had assignments and stuff. And you, even though that's like a serious renewal day for you, you put that on the altar, if you will, and said, Look, somebody needs my help, which is, again, probably a truer form of Christianity than anything else. And Texas hospitality the new house, right?
Jay Marks
Yeah. So another friend of mine who brought his family over to, we were working together, we believe we believe that we were in church that day, we felt like it was a great Sabbath activity. Now, keep in mind, I'm not trying to be a minister here, because believe me, I'm not a minister. But the point I'm trying to make is that you have to absolutely do it. And now I recommend a book, by the way, please. It's got kind of a crazy title. It's called Mr. schmooze. It's by a man named Richard Abraham. And it's a business story but about demonstrate that you care about the client. And what I got out of that book was how he found out different things that mattered to the client and what he did to meet their needs. It says schmooze as a title. Because I guess in a way, it is schmoozing, if you will. But to me schmoozing is also not authentic. So I've taken it leveled it up and made it real.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, it really I mean, if you can put those principles with a real heart that cares behind it, right. Let me ask this question, Jay. If if you're somebody who wants to be that way, but you, you have, I would say most real estate agents, the good ones, really generally care about their clients and that's why they do what they do, right.
Otherwise, you would you would probably go crazy or one into another profession because you deal with so much. Is there some advice you would have if you start to feel like people are becoming a deep inconvenience in your business as opposed to the best part about business? Have you ever had that? And how did you get through that?
Jay Marks
Take the day off. Go do something for yourself. And I'm and by the way, and those are on my team that are watching this video, they're all probably laughing right now because they know I don't like to take the day off. But I'm discovering as of late, how important it is to take a break and to recenter or go do something for yourself, and then come back. Because no matter what, whether you have a headache, or you're feeling wonderful, your clients deserve your best, period. And if you can't deliver your best, take the day off and come back when you can, because your clients should not have to deal with a half hearted approach.
Justin Stoddart
Powerful man. I want you to share one more story one that you shared with me and if you're if it's too early, you can pass but I know that you went kind of head to head with a head to head but you're you've got a really unique opportunity to market a really big piece of land. And you told me the story of how of what maybe another agent had done and what what you're now doing to get that piece of property sold. You remember the story? And can you share that? Because that really exemplifies to me, like putting your clients first. And being the kind of realtor that again, deserves to be at the center of the transaction, deserves to be referred to deserves to be well paid to the point to where people would say, I need him in my transaction, and I need to pay him well, so that I get the best of him, you know, during this time that he's serving me.
Jay Marks
So I have a client who we've done business with, who was asking me to refer them an agent, another part of the state for a large tract of land a very expensive tract of land. And I was putting that together, gave him some names, and they just weren't impressed. And not only were they not impressed, but if the agent was telling them what they knew versus finding out what the client needed. Wanted. And sadly, one of the agents started presenting buyer opportunities, but were approaching it as if they're representing the buyer versus representing the seller. Anyways, they came and talked to me and first of all in Texas, it's illegal to give legal advice. It's also illegal to comment on a contract. And so I told him, I said, You know what, I cannot really comment on this if you're listed with him because we never listed. We've just been interviewing and interviewing. And I said, Really? You haven't signed a listing agreement yet? And he goes, nope. Because I can't find anybody like you.
And he goes, What's it gonna take to have you be my agent? I said, that's gonna require me flying down. There he goes, give airplane money. I said, Yeah, let's go. So today, I'm flying to South Texas, and I'm going to help sell 2200 acres of Texas, Texas land.
Justin Stoddart
I love it man. Powerful and you would you share with me additionally, that how you were going to go about like you were going to tour the property have drone land on the property. I believe this might be what you're up to today.
Jay Marks
Yep. That's our marketing plan on if you could see that, but yeah, we have, we're going to do aerial photography, we'll do drones, we've already got a signed contractor down there, it's going to be incredible. We're also meeting with surveyors and people from the county we're going to be getting, we're putting together actual packages. So I believe this land can be broken up easily. So we're going to offer the whole package we're going to offer sub packages, and we're going to market it and already know who I'm going to target for buyers and the realtors that I was networking with asking them to help my client I've reached out to them again, and I've asked them to partner with me with their buyers. So they still get an opportunity to sell the land so there's that that's the cool part was I preserved all those relationships? Because ready? Guess who else your customer is real estate agents out there in America? You ready? No. Here number one client should be other realtors. You want the other realtors to show your properties. You want the other realtors to get excited. When you bring them an offer on one of theirs, Oh good. I love working with this guy. Let's see if we can't make this deal work.
Justin Stoddart
I love a man as opposed to going head to head and trying to step on other people and make yourself look making other people look bad.
Jay Marks
So years ago, I was at a basketball game one of my kids. And by the way, it's so hard for me to watch my kids compete in sports because I get a little into it. And I was yelling something and a lady a couple rows down, looked at me goes, Jay, don't you have a real estate company in town? Why would you yell like that if you want people to respect you in the business?
Yep. She hired me in the way to sell her house about a year later. But that taught me a lesson.
Justin Stoddart
Lesson learned. Yeah, yeah, put your clients first right kind of back to the same topic and same theme. Something else I was just reminded of, you had mentioned that once you have that property listed this the efforts you're going to go and all the surrounding areas in order to target prospective buyers. Trying to really find out who might be buying this. And and and have a presentation not just put it on the MLS, right? But really go hand to hand combat to who are the likely parties? And how do I get this, this information in front of them and ever essentially make them an offer of what this land could be for them. Right. So also I have a list of all the landowners within 50 miles. And so we're also approaching every one of those guys. So it's going to be a pretty big piece of land. It's pretty expensive. I don't want to talk about the price, if you don't mind. But I am going to put a full throated effort. It's going to be a pretty expensive marketing approach, but I believe it'll be sold within 12 months.
Powerful stuff, Javed. All of this, again alludes itself back to the original thought, which is the customer, the client has to be first Right, right. If it didn't point it's they're not, then why would they want you in the center of their transaction? Right, right does not make sense. If I'm a client and here's interesting thing about my position because I'm not a licensed real estate agent myself. People will come to me and asked me questions about is hiring a real estate agent still a good idea? Or is it old fashion? And I think what's happening there? What's penetrating into their minds are these major tech portals that are trying to control the conversation to to cause the consumer to think that regardless of what agent you use, as long as the technology sound, that you'll be fine. Right? And I think that's counter to the reality is that the agent actually matters a great deal if you get a great agent that actually puts the client first period.
Jay Marks
You know what, there's all these. There's a company called Car Max, I don't know if you have that on the west coast, or Max, or max. That's a discount car dealership that buys a car and sells you a used car. And they thought that was going to destroy the car industry. Guess what it didn't it just became a part of it. The I-buyers and institutional buyers and the investors are just a part of my industry now. And there's one company here that buys 150 homes a month. It's a local company. It's not a national firm at all. And I've dealt with them a couple of times, I've had properties that you know what this will be great for them, I'll contact one of their buyers. It's just a part of the business. But one thing that I'd like if I were to say, I know what I'm gonna say, dear realtors of America, unless your competition is in your training meetings with you going over your plan for the day? Don't worry about your competition. Yeah, unless your competition is at your dining table at night in your house, or tucking you into bed at night. Don't worry about your competition, because they're not really a part of your life. Just follow your plan and do your part be the greatest you can be. That's what I say.
Justin Stoddart
And focus on the client, right? I mean, at the end of the day, if if if you're focused on your competition, then that's taking space in your brain that you could be focused on your client, right?
Jay Marks
If Walmart was so awesome, then why is there still a Nordstrom? You know, what I'm saying if all these discount stores were so amazing the Why are there Neiman Marcus? So why are there Why is there a high end shopping mall 15 miles from here, where I could buy a pair of shoes for $800, which I would never do. But my point is, why are they why do they exist? Because there's a market for it. And people want to do that. Well guess what they also want to be cared for. They want to absolutely know that this agent knows his stuff. Absolutely cares is willing to go to the bat for me all the way.
Justin Stoddart
And the thing that I love about great agents is that it becomes less about just a higher fee, but it's a higher rate of return. Right? It's a higher, yes, they make a greater investment into a full service agent. Yet there's a return on that investment right in the in the form of some of the things we've discussed, the knowledge, the network, even just an overall better net margin. Once the you know, once the transaction is complete, and I think that's what sometimes people miss is that they focus on the future.
As opposed to really focusing on like what's what's the ROI of this right what's right what's the value that I'm going to get by working with this person over just going through you know one of these big volume shops right?
Jay Marks
Well you know what Justin, they're always going to be big volume shops but you just need to wake up and decide to be your best and you need to know the contract. I taught a class once when I belong to a larger firm now I have my own company and I remember telling this group of new agents said is your absolute chops know your contract cold, you should be reading it once a week for your first six months in the business you should read it cover to cover at least two or three times a year for the rest of your career. You need to know the contract and you also need to know the market but people always walk up to a realtor "Hey, how's the market" you need to build a say you know that neighborhood around the corner Bridalwood, let me tell you about a property coming on the markets can be really cool and no, you need to build say, yeah, this dude development coming in by Highland Homes is offering the following. You need to be able to say that and then lastly, you need about a show. them by asking questions about them. So tell me, what is it important about moving right now? What's important about moving right now for you? How can you see yourself in a new home versus an older home? Do you mind sharing that with me, please? And let them talk.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, that I think the difference that maybe is kind of the final point that I want to make here is that in order for you to put the client first you have to know your client. Right? Again, just the experience that I had with you. Let me believe that you were really learning to know who I am, right? Even though I'm not a client moving to Flower Mound, I got the feel that you genuinely cared about getting know me. And it's hard to give people a customized experience if you don't know who they are. Right,
Jay Marks
Right. Well, I remember asking you, how much time do we have those first thing I asked you because we were going to get together. Well, I have time to go to dinner. I'd like to go to the temple. I'd like to see a little bit about your market. We made all three happen. You know, we made all three And it was so it was a great experience. I'd like to tell everyone who's listening, Justin's incredible. And you said something to me. It wasn't just about coming to my title company and doing escrows is trying to get the escrow experience. You're trying to help them build their business so they can have more escrow experiences. And I think your approach to real estate agents, your area is awesome. I almost wish I was a real estate agent in your area, just so I be able to be surrounded by people of your caliber, you're doing a good job, and you're a blessing to this industry. So I just wanted to tell you, I think you're doing great.
Justin Stoddart
Thanks, Jay. Really appreciate that man coming from you. That means a lot to you. Let's end with our signature question of the show. Which is that you're a big thinker, right? That's why you're on the think bigger real estate show. Tell us what do you do on a regular basis to continue to think even bigger, to continue to expand your own possibilities. Teach us
Jay Marks
I want to be a legacy to my grandchildren. I want my grandchildren constantly talking about their granddad, they call me grandpa dude, by the way, that's my name to them. I want to inspire them and lift them up. And I want people at my funeral to say, he helped me I want. I want people to line up to talk to my kids, and tell stories to them on how I bless their life, or I help them. I want people to walk up to my wife and tell them that, you know, hey, this guy mattered. He did this for me. That's what I want. I want there to be a line of people telling my children that I help them because I want them to go and do the same thing behind me you'll see a painting of my mother. She died when I was eight years old. And I've told you the story before. She was in the top 10 Tupperware sales, sales people in America and 1976 our garage was stacked to the ceiling with Tupperware but she was also my Cub Scout den mother. And she sings solos in church and she was an artist.
And she was amazing. But at night, she would always tell me that I could do anything I wanted to Dream, Dream Dream, and I will never forget that advice. And her painting is right behind me next to my, my Darth Vader helmet, but that's somewhere else. But that's that's how I live.
Justin Stoddart
That's powerful. Man. I had goosebumps when you were saying that because I was once asked a similar question, I think I'd forgotten my answer. And you've rekindled and re inspired it within me that what a greater I can't think of a better life than to have, again, when the life's over to have countless people come up and tell your children of how you are blessing to them. So what I want, Jay, I'll be one of those people.
Jay Marks
So I hope I don't die soon but if so thenso come on down. They'll be barbecue at the funeral, I promise.
Justin Stoddart
in 40 years from now. I'll be one of those people. I like that. Very good. Jay, thank you so much for everything that you're doing to be a benefit to the industry. Thank you for coming out and contributing to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show, always such a pleasure to spend time with you. And I want to finish with this final charge to everybody listening today that Jay has helped us to do with additional ease, which is to GO THINK BIGGER! Thank you, Jay. Appreciate your buddy. Thanks, everybody for tuning in today, and that will catch you on the next episode. Thank you, Justin.
Justin Stoddart
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, very excited to be back with a very good friend of mine, somebody who has proven to be not only a very productive high producing real estate agent for years and years, but also somebody who's now become an influencer on a topic around database. And that's gonna be our topic today is how to when a recession, or a downturn or even an adjustment is on the horizon? How you recession proof your business. So before we get into that, and be fully introduce today's guest, let me remind you the purpose of this show, and really, my mission is to wake you up to the potential that's inside of you and help you then live and help you to live in pursuit of that potential. That's what the mission of the bigger real estate show is all about. And Nick Krautter, very good friend of mine, Nick, thanks for coming on the show today. excited to have you here.
Nick Krautter
Thanks, man. Always great talking with you.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, likewise. So for those that don't know, Nick, Nick, you started your real estate career when?
Nick Krautter
I started in 2006. Right before the big crash. I started actually April 2006. I was 27 years old, and, you know, just kind of jumped in and learned to work with buyers when it was multiple offers on everything. And as soon as I started getting listings, that's when the market started going down. So in a way, I feel grateful that I kind of cut my teeth in hard times, and, and at a time to when I had the bandwidth to work 14 hour days and didn't have a ton of overhead. That definitely set me up for the success I've had since then.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, love it, man. And then fast forward from that point, built a team built a brokerage and wrote a best selling book, The Golden Handoff, which for those that don't know, it teaches real estate agents, how to buy and sell another real estate agents, business or their own business. So that's been quite the journey as well. I know you're getting ready to release a workbook that not only teaches agents, what to do, but very specifically how to do it a hands on manual. I've been through it. I love it. I think that's what agents need. I think there is a whole group of agents that probably would have retired sometime after 2008 that have not yet because they experienced a significant downturn in their net worth. And now they're looking at potentially some sort of even pause in the market, you know, even some some hesitation, they're gonna be like, Mamba out, right. I'm out. Like, I don't want to go through this again. And they're going to essentially, kind of just walk away from their database, correct?
Nick Krautter
Yeah, I mean, 99% of realtors when they retire, they just ride off into the sunset. And what we're going to talk about today is just when you are in real estate, you build relationships and you build trust with just a ton of people and the best realtors with the biggest businesses typically, if you're repeating referral base, is because you know, a lot of people you stay engaged and they when they have a question or need that they trust you to help them more than anyone else. I mean, in Portland, Oregon, where we are, there's 8500 realtors, in any market, a small portion of those do most of the business. And what we're going to talk about today is how to be one of those people and how to build a database so that you can get through that recession. And the book, The Golden handoff never would have been written if there wasn't the Great Recession, because that happened because people were getting out of the real estate business when it crashed last time, so a lot of realtors decided to exit the business because it got so much harder to do the work. And it wasn't like, it wasn't fun conversations, you had to have hard conversations every single day. And for a lot of people, it was just the emotional toll of that was too much. And the book, The Golden handoff happened because of people that were exiting the business. And I approached them and said, Hey, you have you have a database, you have all these people that know and trust you. And basically I would love to help them since you're not going to anymore. And I would love for you to endorse them to work with me. And that's the basically that's the seat of that book. The book goes into a lot more depth and then the workbook you mentioned I'm really excited to be doing this now. A couple years after the books come out. It's really meant to like step by step with checklist worksheets, interview questions help the retirement agent and the adopted native through the whole process.
Justin Stoddart
Powerful man, I think that's really where people are needing to have leadership, it's not just the information anymore, it's really a how to here, let me take you by the hand and walk you through how to do this, I love the fact that you've taken a concept that is so highly relevant that's so highly needed in the real estate space. And now you're adding additional layers of help to offer to people to again, help those that want to exit the business and get something for other years of work actually be able to do that. And then have these these agents that are maybe newer in the business that would be the like, not even new or just maybe experienced in the business to be able to say, I'm going to adopt that book of business, I'm going to take on that database and treat them like you have treated them and, you know, therefore projecting, you know, putting their career on a on a path that they never would have been able to recreate in such a short period of time. You know, it's it's, it's a powerful concept. So thank you for spending the time to do that. I know that's kind of a labor of love. If you will, for the industry and the agents that you see wanting to retire, and those that want to grow quickly, so kudos to you for doing that. It's awesome stuff. And obviously, in that process you became proficient at or highly proficient at helping, like really identifying what matters in a database, right? Like what matters in relationships, because, again, you've purchased a number of books of business yourself, you've helped other people purchase books of business and you know, like, what matters when it comes down, when you sit down at the table to evaluate somebody's business, you know, what information matters and, and, and the stuff that when it's not there, it's really detrimental to being able to not only have a relationship with that direct agent, but especially with when you're passing that when you're handing off that book of business, somebody else. What are a few of those things, Nick, that you would say, absolutely need to be in somebody's, not just their database, but in a relationship for a client to be able to really have a strong business.
Nick Krautter
I think the core most important thing is how many people know you and trust you and and so there's two components to that. The first one is, you know, what is your competence? And what is your character? And I would say your character just is what it is. Do you do the right thing do you do what you say you're going to do? A competence is understanding the market, understanding the process and being able to help advise clients in a good market, you know, and obviously, good or bad, I'd say like a market is going up a market that's going down or a market that's flat, how to succeed in that market, whether you're buying or selling. And that's our job. I think a lot of realtors internalize. They take credit when the market goes up, and they take responsibility when it goes do wn. And both of those are wrong. We don't affect the market. In a macro sense. We certainly can affect the transaction, we can affect each client's success. So I'd say again, your character in your competence is going to determine how many people know you that trust you. And then the other component that's so critical is are you maintaining the relationships you have so are you transactional? Do you do a good job helping people buy and sell. Then you are focused on the next deal the next deal the next deal, or do you take time? Just stay connected with the people that you work with in the past people that have had a question, you know, the people that call about buying that decided to rent for a year or two until they got a promotion or until they finished, you know, their college degrees or whatever it was. Orpington neighbor, the lights. And did you stay in touch with those people when there wasn't an immediate need? And it's not easy. There's no secret to it. It just is one of those things that the investment of time and that I think is worth so much more than people give it credit for in the in the short term and the long term. We're currently calling through our database and all of our past clients, and someone I hadn't stayed in touch with very well. You know, they haven't need to sell a large apartment building. And he said, Oh, it's really fortuitous that you call it because we're actually we're ready to sell it. And since you're calling us we want to hire you to do that and I'm doing that presentation right after this podcast.
Justin Stoddart
If you had not been in contact with them, they might have gone to another agent, right? I think that's sometimes the benefit and can be the curse. If you're depending upon what side of the equation you fit on. If you're regularly in contact with your people, just because they use you last time doesn't mean they're gonna use you again, I think sometimes I see agents taking that for granted. I'm like, well, all these people, they're gonna, like, they're going to be my next clients, if you stay in contact with them, right, if you know, if you're the best person to properly advise them.
Nick Krautter
Yeah, I mean, even if you did a amazing job, I mean, every client has a different perspective on what our value proposition is. And I would argue that when the markets really, really good clients believe that the houses sell themselves, the buyers believe that they're just you're just there to open doors and and show them properties. And you have to prove to people that your value of what you your experience and your competence in the character separates you from just an average experience or an average agent. And the only way to do that is to do great work with a client when you work with them. But every day, there's someone else that they know, that knows a realtor that they think is great that they want to refer. And, you know, we had it happened to us at the beginning of the year where a client i'd helped buy their house, reached out about selling and buying. And they ended up, you know, getting referrals from all their friends at work to another agent who I know and I very much respects, and they decided to go with the other agent, and we lost the deal. And, you know, we weren't being casual about it, we were trying to do a great job. But even then, you know, you have to understand that people have networks and they are going to, most people are going to ask for a couple referrals. And so I always like to treat it as if every client regardless of how strong a relationship is, regardless of how many deals we've done. They have other options and I don't want to take it for granted that they work with us. I want to treat it like I'm trying to win their business every time and I think that if you take that approach, you're going to have just a significantly higher success rate and the chance of someone going with someone else will be lower. I would say outside of like the highest highest highest trust situations, which I would say five to 10 people in your database will be at that level, maybe. You have to treat it like every time you have an opportunity, you still need to work to win the deal. And and I think you'll end up with much better results than if you don't do that.
Justin Stoddart
You know, Nikki mentioned this, this concept of being more of an advisor, I totally agree with you that real estate agents that are simply seen as and again, whether they only do this or whether it's just perceived that they only do this, like you said of market and sell a home open doors. Unless they move into the role of being a highly valued advisor. I think your future is in trouble. And you talk about this right? That it's really being that advisor to the clients via consultant being somebody who can get them a better return than with any other agent. What are some of the questions that you ask your clients to get some of that data that would allow you to best serve them as an advisor?
Nick Krautter
I think the really critical thing is to have communication and, and talk to your clients when they don't need you for a transaction. So one of the highest compliments I've been paid by some of our best clients is, they really appreciate that I call them and give them an update on the market and ask if they need anything, even when we're not doing a deal, and they don't need something immediately. And you always have the opportunity to get a referral at that point for something more immediate, but understand your clients life plan with real estate and how real estate fits in that. I think is really critical and like your show about thinking bigger, right? You know, a lot of people look at real estate and they go, oh, you know, I have my house and I love it. We're we're going to raise our family here. We were in a great school district. We love our neighbors. We don't want to move and that's awesome. That means you did a great job. You help that person find a really great place for them and their family. Now, when when people talk about investing and right now, this is a huge topic because we're going through a big downturn in the stock market coronavirus is a big deal right now. And it is affecting the world economy. And we don't really know what's going to happen. But what are they talking about? They're talking about stocks and bonds. And that's it. And real estate is one of the best investment vehicles for people long term because not only do you own an asset that over time is proven to go up. It's not a guarantee. But chances are, there's more people being born every day than we're building houses and apartments for, which means that it's likely going to continue to go up in value. And as it goes up in value, you can rent it and create income and positive cash flow. So it's something where for a lot of stocks, there's no dividend. So unless the stock goes up, you don't make any money. Where as real estate, you could literally buy an apartment building tomorrow for a million dollars and sell it 20 years from now for, you know, a million dollars. and you still have a positive return, because you've collected rent the whole time, what's likely going to happen is that it's going to double in value in 20 years. So your asset will double in value, and you've also had the appreciation. So your rate of return is really, really strong. The other thing I really like about real estate as an investment vehicle is that when the market goes down, and when those assets do lose value, because that does happen during cycles, as long as your cash flow positive, and you're taking to account all your expenses, you can weather any storm, you're never put in a position where you have to sell. And typically what happens during a downturn, guess what interest rates go down interest rates right now are crashing. So all these people that have these huge real estate portfolios, or even just a couple like your house and maybe a duplex or a rental house, even if it's a very small portfolio and you're just getting started. Everyone is going to have this amazing opportunity right now and I believe for the next couple of months to refinance lower their cost to hold, which increases your cash flow increases your return. And there aren't a lot of other asset classes where you get to do that. And so I think asking your clients that real estate is a part of their investment strategy is really critical because most people I know that are very wealthy, whether they are real estate investors or developers, stockbrokers or financial planners, you know, whatever industry they're in, a lot of the people I know that have built, really large wealth, have done it through real estate, because you can leverage it to get in, you can weather storms if you buy it correctly. And then you can take advantage of different cycles to either buy more properties or refinance the ones you have, and then take advantage about markets and sell and trade and other things. So there really aren't a lot of asset classes like that, that that have the unique benefits and there's we could go on for an hour about the other benefits, like the tax benefits. The leverage benefits, you know, there's so many other things with real estate That you don't get in stocks and bonds, and you have so much more control over it because you can be active in managing it, you can be active in the maintenance and care of it. And so it's just it's an incredible vehicle. So if you're not having conversations with your clients that they bought their family home, their forever home, they're very happy. They don't need to buy or sell anything. Maybe they don't really refer people that's just not in their DNA.
Those people should and probably will be thinking about investing in real estate and if you don't understand how to work in investment, real estate, you're missing a huge opportunity. I would encourage every agent, even if you came into this business thinking that you're going to be just a residential owner, user agent to learn about investment real estate, learn about the basics. We have a great investing guide on our website, city and state armory.com forward slash invest for people to download for you to learn about the basics of investing,
Justin Stoddart
I love your answer to my question, right, which is like, what's the information you need to be gathering from your clients and you talked about it like a life plan. And then obviously, you inserted into that of like, and everybody's life plan, if Real Estate's not a part of it, then it's your duty as a real estate professional, to be able to help them see how much faster they could get to where they want to go by investing in real estate, right? I mean, it really, I think sometimes it's, it's assumed that there's only so much business out there, and that everybody's competing for it. What I hear you saying, Nick, is that there's a lot of business that you can create, because there's misinformation about where the best places to put your money, and a lot of times people don't see real estate as maybe the best place to put their money. But again, having the insider information that that you as agents have, and being able to properly put people inside of long term investment vehicles and
will produce wealth produce tax benefits, all kinds of benefits, right? Is that by understanding that knowledge, and I love the fact that you you have a resource for agents to go look at, because that's the stuff when you ask them about their life plan. You can say, Look, I've got some ideas for it. Can we, you know, can we grab lunch or have coffee, let's talk about some ways that I believe I can help you get there faster, and it really changes. And an agent comes in and has that conversation with somebody. It's no longer like, Hey, can I come look at listing your home? Can I come look at, like, let's talk about like helping you buy your next home. Like that conversation is becoming commoditize. There's a highly competitive, it's very common. And when when you're in that environment, the only way that people can can compete is to start to lower their commissions. And I don't think that's the way that the industry should go although there are a number of big tech portals and there's a number of just your typical standard real estate agents that think that that's the way they have to play what I hear you saying is it rather than lowering your price
Increase your value, become more of a wealth, a wealth advisor for somebody's real estate portfolio, help them grow wealth through real estate. And all of a sudden, you're not just an agent that's like everybody else, you're actually helping them get to where they want to go faster and better.
Nick Krautter
Yeah, I mean, the way I look at it is, you know, if if your only job is help someone buy or sell something, and the clients belief is that the realtor doesn't provide an enormous amount of value. And unfortunately, on average, a lot of realtors don't provide a lot of value and the public perception is that we don't provide a lot of value. Now the best of the best provide a ton of value and create life changingresults for their clients.
And, but imagine it like this. So if you believe that real estate's important, and you have questions about you know where to invest or where to buy a home or different neighborhoods and the nuances of real estate where you need an experienced professional someone can call me and my team and say, you know, they can ask a million questions. We could talk about market market trends. We can talk about neighborhoods, we can talk about different developments, down to the level of restaurants and apartment buildings and commercial development and trends with employment.There's no one I don't think you could call a Zillow agent and say, Hey, I'm curious about movie. Do you think I should do it now? Or should I wait? But those are conversations you want to be prepared to have?
And it isn'talways the same for everyone. Again, it's, you can't buying or selling it. It's based on an individual's situation. So, you know, are you building a portfolio? Are you retired, you know, the responses, like what to do and how to invest at those stages is going to be different.
You know, is now a good time to buy is now a good time to sell. Well, it depends. You know, if you've just moved to town and you might get a job transfer next year, I probably wouldn't tell you to buy a house. It doesn't make sense. You're better off renting until you know, you're going to be somewhere for a couple years. At least.
Because even in the best of times, real estate doesn't move that fast in terms of its changing value, I think the stock market's lost 12% of its value this week so far, you know, that doesn't happen with housing. And on the flip side, it also doesn't go up that fast. And so you have to have a longer term perspective. You know, unless you're a house flipper, in which case you're trying to get in and out as fast as possible. Most people in real estate are looking at it as a long term hold as a cash flow hold as as, again, a part of their portfolio. I think that there's definitely a place for insurance vehicles, stocks, equities, bonds, all those other different ways you can invest. I'm not saying it should be all real estate, I think that you want to be diversified, to take advantage of different markets.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, it's, it's it really is, as you mentioned, a different conversation a different value proposition. It moves you to an entirely different level. In the clients eyes. I see big tech firms and portals really controlling the conversation right now. Right? And giving the impression that it doesn't so much matter who the agent is, it's more about is the technology that you're using superior. And if it is then great inserted agent, ABCD, or Z, that part the person doesn't matter as much. I think that's the recipe. That's the path forward to becoming a low paid, you know, worker of technology in this industry. Whereas what you're saying is actually, it doesn't need to be that way that actually the value in what you know about the local market, your ability to advise people when it comes to long term real estate investments. All of that becomes a highly valuable conversation to the client because it can move the net worth of that client, hundreds of thousands, if not more dollars in their lifetime. Yeah. And all of a sudden like what you what you charge it
irrelevant because you're offering something else. And I think anybody who's right now that's a real estate agent that has experienced margin compression, right? Whether you're paying more dollars to get leads, like I sat with an agent just yesterday. And she explained to me how she gets a lot of real business. And I said, like, what do you pay for real businesses? She said, I said, Is it like about 35%? Because that's what I've been accustomed to hearing. She said, No, I take all about 25%. And I was like, you pay like 75% when all is said and done to capture a lead? And she was like, yep. And I was like, wow, I mean, it's just it baffled me that that that people are working so hard for such little margin, because they aren't able to. I mean, the only reason she's doing that is because she's not able to go get the lead herself. And so my whole conversation with her what around like how do we go get the lead yourself, and you will need to sell like, you know, 75% less homes and earn the same amount of money like it's crazy to me. And so I think what you're teaching Nick, and what every agent that I hope is hearing this is that simply by implementing the kind of conversations that you're having with your clients, your value goes up and you don't have to either a pay so much for the leads, or be lower your commission. When you're in front of a client. In order to get that business, you can simply say, Yes, I can market and sell your home. And after we do that, I want to have a conversation of what we do with that money or how we help you buy your next property to where you can start building long term wealth. Just simply that conversation coupled with some of the data that you have in your report is going to help people be like, man, we really want our house sold we thought we wanted it sold for less. But what I really want is this agent teaching me how to build wealth through real estate all of a sudden now you've separated yourself and they're not they can't look at the price tag anymore because it's not the same thing people are people are upset and not happy paying more for the same thing, but they're okay paying for more for like somebody that's better and superior and a totally different
Nick Krautter
What I say this you know, this is we're not yet in a another correction cycle in real estate and I honestly don't. Despite everything in the stock market, I just don't see that happening in real estate. This year, I kind of thought this year would flatten out, but we still have an inventory problem and now interest rates are so low. And I think they're going lower I'm I would call 3%. No points on a 30 year fixed this year, maybe the next couple of months, I just, I can't see that not happening with what's going on in the global markets. And that creates an insane opportunity to be a buyer in real estate. And I would say this to kind of boil down everything we're talking about to just two ideas. Your value is directly related to the value of the conversations and the questions you're asking. So number one, you have to be in the conversation, which means you have to either have a network of people that you meet with regularly or you have to be intentional about calling the people database once, twice, three times a year, I would say that depends on how many people you have. Our database has 18,000 people in it, I can't call them once a month, you know. And so, we have to be intentional about how many people we talk to and who we are how we prioritize that.
So one is you need to be in conversation with your people and you need to be in conversation in in the market with people in general. So start with your own clients, and then expand your network to add people to it. But you have to be in conversation every day. The second part is if you are doing that, if you are in conversation with people every day, in your database and in the market. The next step that determines how successful you are from those conversations is the value of your questions determines your value to the client, period, and it determines the value of like your life experience. The questions you ask yourself the questions you ask your peers. This questions you ask your partners in business and in life and husbands wives, questions you ask your children
I can't overstate how important that is, in terms of affecting the quality of your today and your future. And asking those questions and trying to understand someone's core motivation, and what their real dreams and goals are. Now, when they say they are like, I want to retire one day, what does that mean? You know, it doesn't mean retire, it means they want to play golf, it means they want to be involved in philanthropy, it means that they want to travel the world. So how do we do that sooner? Like, why do we need to wait to get to that? Is there a way to get to that sooner? Is there a way to get to that right now? You know, I asked my clients that all the time, you know, what is your real goal on this property? What's your real goal in buying this property? And as ever to own real estate, it's never to build a portfolio. It's for something else. It's I want to have a way to put my kids through school when they're ready, and I have no idea how much college is going to cost in 2030. You know, or 2040. But I know if I buy this duplex, it's going to be worth more in 2014. I'll have this income from it for this whole time. We have so many clients that made that decision 20 years ago, and now the income from these properties is paying for their kids, as opposed to their kids going 100, 200 $300,000 into debt. Imagine what that changes. So it isn't about building a portfolio. It's about, it's about building support. It's about building security. It's about building a better life and having more freedom. And we can absolutely affect that. But again, are you in the conversation? Are you asking great questions, those two things alone? It doesn't matter what the market does. If you were there for your people in that way. At that level, you will always be.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I think that the days of being able to secure your client base by dropping off a homemade jam, this is no dig on anybody or any specific tactics. But that becomes very expensive jam, if that's the only offering that you have. No, don't get me wrong. People want to work with people that they like. They want to work with people that are thoughtful, they want to work with people who with whom they have a relationship. And I think if jam is your jam, then then keep doing the jam. But I'm not digging on that. But I'm also saying that
You need to adopt what Nick is talking about here is it, it's got to be more than just the Philly stuff, right? It's got to be more than just the relationship stuff. It's got to be something that actually moves the needle for them when it comes to their wealth. Otherwise, I think people are not going to continue to overpay just because of relationships. Because again, the conversation is being controlled at a high level, that the agent doesn't matter. Like it used to matter. And you need to, you need to defy that by bringing such value and proof and then communicating and broadcasting that value to all your clients know that no, I go with, for example, Nick, because this is the value that I get. And it's not just the jam, right?
Nick Krautter
Yeah, it's not. And I mean, again, the jam is a good way to stay in the conversation. I have a friend who they're working with a realtor they use because their realtor, she does pop bys, you know, a couple times a year so she's deep in relationship with people. Doesn't matter a lot. Again, being in the conversation. I don't care how good you are at your job. If you're not in conversation with people, they're going to forget you, they have other options holding you want, they won't know your value, they'll forget it or they will never ever known it. So again, any way to stay in conversation that works for you, I think is great. Adding to that, knowing your market, asking great questions, being a part of someone's life plan, not just their transaction will provide a ton of value and help you weather the storm.
Justin Stoddart
That's the next level, right? being relevant might be through the pop bys being valuable. That's where you've got to take it to the next level. Nick, will you tell us again really quick, and I'm actually gonna put up here on the screen? What's the website where people can go get that investor report and be in contact even with you on on how to add that additional value?
Nick Krautter
Yeah, so our website is it's we I'm the CEO in Oregon and Washington of city and state real estate. Our website is city and state r e.com. And if you go to city and state are a.com forward slash invest, you'll be able to download a PDF copy of our investing guide. And in Portland we host, probably every other month an investing class that goes over current market conditions in our market in different asset classes. And it goes over the basics of investing. So if you see that there might still we just finished a class just a couple days ago, we might still have the invite for that out, but you can just download the PDF. And we'll update that as we have new classes scheduled if you happen to be in the Oregon and Southwest Washington market.
Justin Stoddart
Awesome. Good stuff, man. And then we've got an audience an audience outside of here. So maybe there's, at some point, some broadcasts you can bring people in to teach and train them how to do this when they're outside of the Oriental Washington market. I know you're expanding your reach both with the golden handoff as well as just with the impact that your brokerage is having to how others should be structuring their brokerage in the value proposition proposition they should be bringing to the marketplace. So anyway, stay tuned. Just stay close to Nick. He's, again, an authority figure an influencer in our industry and for the good is somebody who you want to follow and imitate. If you want to maintain being a well paid real estate professional, being valuable to your clients are happy to have you to be a well paid professional because of the value that you bring. I think that's the key. So Nick, I wanna thank you for your time today. I'm always so good to spend time with you. Let me let me finish with this question. You're a big thinker. That's why you're on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Tell me what's something that you do on a consistent basis to continue to expand your own possibilities.
Nick Krautter
I would just say stay curious. Like, always be curious about everything. Like, if you drive by a house, it's vacant. Ask the owner what's going on with it? If you see a plot of land that seems like it should be developed by the everyone's at what their plans are. Be curious about what your clients life plan is. Be curious about what your team and your employees and your friends are doing in the business. If you see trends, like go into it, you know, there's opportunity in every market, and it's there for the people that are curious that don't just go Oh, that's interesting that these brand new homes aren't selling, you know, call the builder, maybe they they've been trying to sell them themselves. Maybe they need an agent. There's an opportunity again, every market and every place in every city. If you're just curious and you take it one step further and take action on that, so that would be my advice.
Justin Stoddart
Love it, man. Stay curious. All right, buddy. Thanks again so much. I want to remind everybody that my final request of you listening to this show three simple words and they are GO THINK BIGGER. Thank you, Nick, so much for helping us do that today. And I'm sure we'll talk soon, my friend. Always a pleasure. Thanks, man. You bet.
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I am your host, Justin Stoddart, and really honored to have these two back. If you had been watching my show for any period of time, you realize last year, Tonya Eberhart and Michael Carr, and I'm gonna explain to you who they are and why that matters to you here in just a minute, but they were on and they were loved by me and by anybody that watched the show. So let me just remind you before I, again, make this great introduction of these amazing two people that are really going to delve into branding, the things that you need to know about branding, that, that my personal mission is to is to wake you up to help you recognize the potential that's inside of you, and then inspire and help you live a life in pursuit of that. That's what I'm all about. This show is a function of that. And I go out and find amazing people like Tanya and Michael, to bring to you to, again to help you be in pursuit of that life. So that's what this is all about. And again, I want to thank Tonya & Michael, let me before I do a full intro. Let me just thank you two for coming on the show today. That's such a pleasure, actually. I love spending time with you guys. Let me do a kind of a brief intro here. Tonya is the founder of Brand Face and branding agent to the business stars. She's authored four books on personal branding if that doesn't say enough, her start wasn't maybe in like with the stars, right? It was actually out selling vacuum cleaners right? She hustles and then she's had jobs in radio kind of all the way top to bottom. How do you go from prospecting like door to door sales all the way to where people are coming at you because of your brand. I think that's an amazing transition that everybody that I work with, wants to know How do I stop having to go to people and have them start coming to me? Next to her and handsome gentlemen on the right there is Michael Carr. He's America's top selling real estate auctioneer, and the abundant life broker. I think anybody that's been in real estate auction knows Michael Carr's name. Michael, you've done, been involved in over 74,000 transactions. You know, it as many as 27 states that's a pretty impressive resume and pretty cool and your story, right is that you sought out Tonya's help for branding and realized what a magician she was, and at that point, you're like, why don't we partner up? I think you can do I can even help you scale this further and became testimonial number one and now a key partner in helping to expand this branding movement across the country. Is that true?
That is true. Yes, it but when I had met her I had done around 65,000 transactions and we've done another we've added another 10 - 11 on those. Since we came on board, we moved from auctions to arm's length transactions with just regular brokerage and, and now we're working on a third location for Michael Carr and associates all using the brand base principles.
I'm thrilled to have you guys on here. Thank you for taking the time. I know I've I've had the privilege to do this once. So excited to do it again. Let's jump into kind of what the audience is here for, which is to really get clear on branding. We've promised them kind of six critical categories for the becoming like a branding expert. And so let's just jump right into that. Tonya, I'm going to have you kind of lead us point number one is differentiation. Would you talk to us about why differentiation is important and what people need to do to differentiate
You got it. So we developed a program called Brand Face score. So if you don't really know whether you've got a super strong well defined or developed personal brand, you'll go to Band Face score.com and that'll take you through a certain system so you can find out whether your brand is strong. When we look at whether a brand is well developed and defined, so that it can help you stand out we look at six different major categories and differentiation is the first one of those and that means is it immediately apparent what sets you apart you know what makes you different. As we might have talked about the last time we were on your show, Justin, it's better is subjective, different is inarguable, and so you never really want to say I'm better at this time. I'm better at that, because that's all subjective, right? You want to express how you're different from everybody else in your arena. And that is exactly what that differentiation means. What sets you apart?
That's powerful. You right? I don't know if it was you guys that coined this, but but the sea of sameness was that you that
It was actually yeah, it was in that and that is that was something that just kept coming up. And we came up with the term one day, but it just kept coming up to us because all the agents that were coming to us and were telling us, everybody starts to look the same. The business cars, the websites, everything looks the same is like oh, well yeah, because that's now we've created this sea of sameness and now we've got to break out of that sea of sameness.
And hey I gotta add this and I can't help but add it in. There's there's major brokerages national worldwide brokerages that are making that sea of sameness worse, they're they're touting their brand, and now the individual agents are going away. So there's been been a shift in the disruptors to even make the sea of sameness worse.
That's a great point, Michael. You know, it's interesting. I see kind of the best brokerages out there ones that are more platforms, you see some that really try and dominate the brand and be all over the like be the brand. I think there's there's value for the brokers. But my question is, is there value for the agent? Right? Maybe it's a question. Because to the consumer, it's, I can't tell why you're different than that that person pretty soon you start to wonder what the differences between thatagent and some of these discount brokers and tech platforms that are coming in offering to do with a lower cost. So I think it's pretty powerful to have that viewpoint number one, so let's go ahead and move on, man. So point number two.
Yeah. Number two is your message, right? So you want to be sure that your message is more than just on the surface, right? You want your message and how you are different to that particular ideal client to be equal across all of your platforms, right and it needs to dig a little bit deeper. They need to know why you're better for them in all of your messaging. So number two is very important once you differentiate now you got to get that message out there clearly and deeper than just, you know, a picture on a sign.
I can see why two follows one right in this scenario is that they'll never care that you're better unless they really identify that you're different, right? Different almost makes them say, Okay, I need to listen then, this is this is apples to oranges. What makes an orange and orange right what point you can really delve into what's the value proposition? what's what's, why is being different better for them am I understandin g that right?
That's exactly right. Because that message will tell what stand for what your niche is, what your expertise is. And we all have it. Even if you've just started in real estate, you got a point of differentiation and you've got a message of your entire experience and life experiences led you to that point. And there were people out there seeking to work with that particular message and in that's where you start. You stop going out there and screaming and you start attracting.
That's great stuff you guys. Let's move on to ideal customers. I think this is a key one right? Everyone tries to be kind of to serve everybody right to not want to lose any money right? You don't want to say no to people you don't want to turn people down for fear that that might be a great a great commission opportunity or a great you know, even niche that they want to pursue at one point, how does somebody Let me start off with why is it important to identify an ideal customer and then how you do you do that?
Okay, so there is a formula that we created called the H.E.AP. formula and we break it down and help clients or help agents figure out okay, who are those ideal customers that I'm best suited to help every day? So that H.E.AP. formula is number one, the H stands for help, who can you truly and genuinely help? E is who do you enjoy working with A who appreciates what you bring to the table and P who is profitable for you? So when you pull all those things together, you determine that ideal customer. And if you think about it like this, Justin, how on earth does anybody know what to put in their marketing to attract a certain person unless first of all, they know who it is they're trying to attract. So you got to know that first. So we're not necessarily doing these things in the order in which we build brands. We're just going through to tell you these are the six criteria. We look at the ideal customers, one of the first things we look at, who are you trying to attract? Because that thing that's different about you that will be used to attract exactly the kind of people you're looking to attract.
We want to be clear, Justin, like, we tell people all the time, we're not telling people not to work with anybody that knocks on the door and says, hey, can you help me with real estate? But you just want to confine them because we all know like, you know, you can get the phone ringing off the hook for people looking for rentals. But are you a rental agent and do you want to deal with rentals and if you don't, you don't need to advertise to those people, you need to advertise to your ideal customer.
And one of the best examples I heard of this there's a great podcast but the with John Lee Dumas he came up with the podcast Entrepreneur on Fire. And he talked about he knew that his ideal listener was a 32 year old married man with two kids who was frustrated with his job and come home at night and turn on XYZ TV show and he was like, I knew that anytime I was struggling as to where I was going to go with my show, I'd go back and I would say, How do I serve that person and it was like, so crystal clear and the avatar, the person he was serving, then all of a sudden all the message and all the differentiation started to kind of fit around like this person that I'm trying to help so I love you said like, once you identify that ideal customer, I hundred percent agree that everything else gets a lot easier, right?
Because you know who you're talking to. Otherwise you if you're talking to a stadium full of people that all are so very different. What's your message going to be? What's the message you're going to be this going to resonate with all of them. There isn't one yeah resonate with all of them
So powerful. Awesome alright let's move on to point number four
Image image is so important and we're not just talking about a picture right you know thank goodness the glamour shots days are over like we're past it we survived it just like the disco era, right? You know, something to look back on now and enjoy that we may move in a different direction. But we're not talking just in imagery. We're not just talking about your how you look right. That is very important. Once you have a message once you have a point of differentiation, once you find that ideal customer, you do want your particular likeness, right it is Brand Face, it is a face forward business. You do want that to portray your message and that's super important, right? And we want that but it's also the background imagery. You want your background imagery to also be speaking to those customers. I tell the story all the time that I we hosted in my brokerage hosted an event for movie night at a local town and they did it at a park. It was great. It was actually hosted by a church. But it was not touted as being hosted by the church. It was literally advertised as movie night free movie night just come out. But when they printed what was being played, who was in it, all that kind of stuff, they printed it on the background image that I happened to be the same image that they use for their church bulletin on Sunday morning, and I'm standing by the concession stand, when a person comes up and says, Hey, to the pastor, I'm standing beside him. Are y'all the same people that are within your community? And it dawned on me at that point, that the imagery that you put forward, even your background images that you're picking to go on your social media sites and on your website, on your card, and on your thank you cards and on, you know, on your shout outs, they are just as important as your face, facial recognition. So imagery is important. It's gotta support everything else you're saying.
But that's a great example. Michael. I think we In this world where there's so much information coming in everybody being able to actually create a file in someone's brain where your message is considered to be received and called upon when they need you that there's got to be some it's all gotta kind of look alike right is what I'm hearing you saying is everything from the from the coloring I'm assuming to are the images in the background like everything needs to have a consistent theme for end up you know, sometimes I'll see real estate agents are on their website they have very modern looking homes and their business card has gables have a very traditional style home and even that right says it's very similar, but it's subliminal.
Yeah, very subliminal. here's, here's how I can relate it. How many people in your listeners and all of us, the three of us here, have bought a new car, and then all of a sudden everywhere you look you see somebody with that same car. It's it's all you didn't realize those cars were there before you bought your car, but you had not your brain and not filtered it so that it was resonating to you. And your imagery has to do the same thing, right? We know that you have to be remembered five to seven times before people really have you in their memory bank. And imagery is a powerful one that people stumble on a lot of times not meaning to. It's not there's not something that is just an honest mistake. But it's very important.
And what I hear you saying is if it's five or six times for it to really make an impact, and people do business with you, but they can't tell that one and two and three and four are actually related because they're all so different. You almost don't get credit for it except to keep starting over at one right because your marketing and social and, and print all looks so different that they don't actually combine to create the the non diluted potent force of your brand.
Yes.
And that's a beautiful segue into number five. It is consistency, because it's what we used to call it in the old days of media which is my stomping ground. T.O.M.A. Top of Mind Awareness when you capture a certain Top of Mind awareness in your market, then that means people are going to instantly think of you first they used to do the old T.O.M.A. surveys and a lot of different markets they were called perceptuals. And they used to do those in a lot of different markets. And you could say okay, and when it comes to car dealers, what's the first car dealer that comes to mind and in evidently, every single time, that car dealer or or Home Improvement contractor or whoever was that was the most well known, well recognized is somebody who had a consistent brand and presence and put it out there on a consistent basis. You can't just create these beautiful invitations and all this wonderful stuff and not send out invitations to your party nobody's going to show but if you consistently put out invitations Put them out in a consistent manner. And everywhere you look, you see and feel the same thing. That's what you're looking for.
How do you how do you do that? I mean, the consistency thing, I feel like that's one of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs real estate agents face is being consistent, right? Even putting stuff out there is would you recommend that somebody just get started and start putting this stuff out and and tweak it as they go? Or is it really a better plan to kind of regroup, be sure that your brand is consistent so that then you can be consistent in the delivery of frequent enough content? frequent enough marketing and advertising that people see?
Yes to the latter.
Yeah, that's a great question. We wrote an article that was in a realtor magazine, Active Rain and so we're Tonya used to be famous for around real estate for say, you know it like if you don't have your brand named if you don't have these elements in place it's like leaving home without your clothes, right? Because you got to do that first. Like, if you do anything you have to get dressed before you go out to get really before you leave the house, right? You can't want it. And so if you're not dressed for that, and if that dress is not authentic, like if you're not wearing authentic brand, because that's very important. People are not ignorant, they they know and we know things instinctually also. So your number one, your brand and your message all have to be authentic to who you are. You can't act like you're somebody else. But you have to do that first. If you don't you have wasted your time and your marketing dollars everywhere that you've put it.
And you asked a question about how do you how are you? How can you be consistent? And the answer to that is create those things first, that's you know, when we help people create their brand, we create all the parts and pieces, the branding elements, then we put them all together to display their brand correctly and consistently across all their everyday marketing platforms. And each time you add on and you advertise or market yourself somewhere you've got that core group of all your branding elements. You can't go wrong if you take these branding elements and plug and play plug and play. And so that's where creating these things one time gives you everything you're going to need to market yourself from this day forward.
Powerful. I think, you know, all too often people don't because they don't want to stop and regroup whereas the value, right it's like the whole analogy from Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People like the final habit is sharpen the saw, you know, and he sees this guy out here like, He's like, you know, cuttting down a tree. He's like, you know, you should stop checking your saw like I don't have time to stop. I don't find that I don't have time to put gas in my car. I'm like, I'm too late. Like, at some point that's going to catch up. It sure is. The ineffectiveness of not having your you know you're you're kind of ducks in a row are going to are going to actually cause you to more waste a lot of time, but otherwise would have been a lot more productive time had you had your stuff ready,
It can take you in an entirely wrong direction. If you don't know, if you don't chart that path first and realize this is where I need to end up reverse engineer it, this is how I'm going to get there. What I want to be known for a while and getting there, and all the steps in between, then you can end up going in entirely wrong direction. And we get that all the time people on the phone with us saying, you know, I'm getting leads, I get lots of leads. They're all the wrong people. It's like, well, what are you projecting? What are you putting out there to create to draw these people from the universe to you?
That's a great analogy. Because you do you have people who are or who are busy with business they don't really want. It's like, you could make that right. It's not magic, but they're showing up. It's something you're actually doing to attract that lead that business that person and do something different and get a different turnout, right?
That's exactly right. Yeah. And that leads to number six is retention and that's the whole reason that you want to do it. Right? The whole reason you build the brand. Yeah, we were talking about it the other day on a, on one of our podcasts, we were like, you can't you're never going to grow exponentially, deal by deal by deal. You, you grow exponentially when your deals make deals, right. And so bringing your brand does that and if you do it correctly, then it's a soldier that is out there working for you 24, seven, and so many different directions that you can't even fathom, right? The the ripple effect, you don't know where it ends up when you put it out there. But if it is all consistent, it does not matter where it lands, it's going to bring back the same result. And so retention is super important and you got to build the steps in to be sure that you do get that retention,
you know, and and then that customer in your T shirt, Michael, I think coming from a guy who's that's been involved in 74,000 real estate transactions. I just want to like pause and be sure everybody heard what what you said there sure was coached and guided to you, you know, through Tonya's expertise as well as your own, and I almost compare it to investing money, right? It's some point, all of us have to realize that there's not enough hours in the day to maybe have the life that we want. We have to set aside money and let that money start to work for us, right basic investing principles. And what I hear you saying is the same principle with our brand that if we do it properly, we stop, we pause, we take a quick timeout, we realign our brand and be sure it's it's the message and the image and everything that we've talked about today. And then we put that up to work for us while we're working for trading time for dollars right at some point, that brand, those soldiers as you call them, I love that they start to grow and and and and there's more and more of them out doing the work that pretty soon starts to come to you and now you can start to scale. Powerful.
Yes, we have a favorite phone call in our office. When people call and say I looked you up online, I want to do business with you. And every time we do that, we all it goes out there. Everybody in the organization and we all cheer, because that's what we're shooting for constantly, right? Well, that's the message. That's what resonates with and we know that it is resonating. And that's what everybody is looking for. And really, no matter what your business is, it doesn't matter if that goes to all entrepreneurs. And it goes, if you want to be a one person shop, or if you want to grow multiple brokerages, it doesn't matter. It's the same principle.
You know, the powerful thing that I hear you saying here, all here, agents that are oftentimes with earlier their career or typically kind of mid to late in their career, and they just say, I'm just tired, like, when is this going to stop when? When am I going to have to stop being in the hunt, and it just depends on how big you want to grow their business. But I think if if agents are feeling like, I feel like I'm on this endless hamster wheel of never being able to, like stop hunting and feel like I'm always hunting people, and I'd rather have people hunted me, I'd rather be the hunted than the hunter. Right, the expertise that you guys have provided. Here, and and even more importantly, the kind of free offerings that you're offering to the audience today are going to really move them in the right direction. Let's talk a little bit about this brand score of sort of brand face score, what it is and how agents can take advantage of that, to where again, they can move from the hunter to being the hunted,
you bet, just go to Brand Face Score.com. And there'll be a little short video that will kind of explain what the program is. And then there will be the ability to, to apply to get your free Brand Face score report. And that will let you know how well defined or developed your brand is. Whether it's really doing well for you or where it could use improvement. And it'll tell you hey, this is exactly where your brand could use some improvement. In one of these six areas one or more of these six areas.
So this service again goes out and evaluates across social mediums across different areas are people uploading their logos and brands what does that look like?
Yeah, so the application includes we want the link to your, your real estate website, we want the front and back image of your current business card and we want to link to your Facebook business page or for real estate. And if you don't have them on those three places, those happen to be the three places that exchange hands and eyes most often in the marketing and what we call the everyday marketing materials. Because most of the time they're going to see you on your website, they're definitely going to see you on Facebook, you're going to hand somebody a business card. If your brand isn't rock solid on all three of those the none of the rest of it matters.
Love it. Awesome. You guys Brand Face score.com I've got it up there on the screen. If anybody's interested in going there. I think you all should I think we all show it. I'm excited to go look at it myself. It has tons of value and just the fact the success that you guys have had is remarkable. And it speaks to why people should be listening. Right this you guys aren't just marketing people you are business people who have now applied this and proven that this stuff works. Now you're dealing with a bunch of other people and extremely grateful for for you and the value that you bring. We know we have just a couple of minutes, I want to I want to end with this question that I asked all of my guests and either one of you can answer it. I'll let you guys decide who wants to answer. But again, my passion and help people think bigger, again, to wake them up to the potential inside of them. What do you guys do to continue to be big thinkers? Obviously, you are big thinkers. That's why you're here. That's why you're on the show today. What advice would you have to somebody who wants to expand their own possibilities and continue to think bigger than maybe they have in the past?
That's good one. That's a good one. You know, it's hard for me to quantify it because I can't think big enough, you know what I mean, like I'm thinking at some point we're gonna be selling condos on the moon, you know what I mean? I want Michael Carr and associates to be there, so I don't know exactly how to answer that. I know that I would have been bolder about My brand and my business earlier in life. So you can't start too soon, that's the first thing. And then align yourself with people much bigger than you that know what they're talking about. That is the most important thing that you can do. Listen to podcasts like yours, and people that are opening that opportunity. Because I do know that it is somewhat visual, right? I grew up in a very small town I graduated with 100 kids in high school, right? So I took thought process that I would grow to a broker that has sold more residential real estate than anybody in the United States is not something I fathom out of my own dreams. Yes, I dreamed of being an entrepreneur. I've always been an entrepreneur, and hope to always be an entrepreneur. But I was brought along by other people bigger me that showed me a bigger vision. And then when I saw what those possibilities were, then I begin to dream bigger. So I would say align yourself with people just like Justin and others that are bigger than you that can show you a bigger world.
Fantastic answer you guys know that was non scripted because you didn't know I was gonna ask that and what an absolute answer from two who have done some incredible things again, I would encourage everybody here go to Brand Face score.com. Take a look at like how how's your brand showing up and let these two take a look at give you some feedback you guys I want to thank you so much for being on the show today. And for always pouring so much value into the Think Bigger real estate audience. It's a total pleasure having you in my network having you as friends, and excited to see the difference you continue to make. And for all those listening today, my final request of everybody are three simple words. And they are GO THINK BIGGER. Thank you, Tonya and Michael, for helping us do that today. And we look forward to connecting again soon.
Thank you, Justin
Justin. It's been an honor
Justin Stoddart
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart, excited to bring you today a couple of what I like to call icons. Somebody would say legends, guys who've done some amazing things in the digital media space when it comes to lending when it comes to real estate agents, really acting as a lighthouse, lighthouse to those of us in this industry saying what's coming? And where should we be going? Where should we be moving our business so that all of us can continue to create profitable niches within our industry. So before I get into introducing who these characters are, who you're going to love, it just really, really almost household names when it comes to this space. The purpose of my show, again, is to help you think bigger, most of the problems we face in life or because we're not thinking big enough, as we think bigger as as we start to do that our activities change, our results follow and our impact follows that part of thinking bigger is surrounding yourself with people that are thinking bigger than we are. And the purpose of this show is to put you in contact with people that are doing exactly that. That can help you think bigger. So I want to welcome onto the think bigger real estate show, Ryan Hills and RC of the art of resource show. Is that right guys did I butcher that, or, I'm sorry,
Ryan Hills
We are called the resource, the RE Source, just Whatever, man. I'm Ryan. And that's RC. So thanks for having us on Justin.
Justin Stoddart
I love it the resource, you can find them at the RE Source. So the resource.tv that's where their show is hosted. They've been putting out again content for a decade. Yeah, they could see this thing coming. I mean, if that's not an indicator in and of itself, as to how far ahead of the curve these guys are. 10 years ago, nobody was doing this stuff. Righ? Now there's a lot more people that are doing it. It's still not enough. And we're going to talk about that today. 10 years ago, you guys saw you where this industry needed to go and you started leading the way so kudos to you guys for being pioneers. For for really teaching all of us the importance of standing out and really being a thought leader, right, which is, I think part of the future of being of remaining well paid to this industry. Would you guys agree?
Ryan Hills
I appreciate that man. And I love I love your mission and what you're doing in your space as well. So it's awesome to see that, as you said earlier, you know, I'd love and I think you would, too, for more people to kind of follow that model in real estate lending and title. appraisers, like even small business owners is crazy to me that 10 years later, I remember telling rc 10 years ago, like, Hey, we got to be quick, we got to be fast, because people are going to catch on. And a decade later, it's still not being leveraged as much as it should. So that's part of our mission is to continue to go out there and challenge realtors, lenders, entrepreneurs to leverage social, leverage video, because it's such an awesome platform and you never been able to reach so many people so quick, and it's actually relatively inexpensive now, versus kind of the old method. So, love what you're doing, man. Thanks. Thanks for having us on again. Absolutely. Yes.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, no, it's my pleasure again I am. If there's anything I do well, it's because I'm standing on the shoulders of giants like you guys that saw this coming a long time ago. And you know, and probably similar to what you guys just described. At first, I was like, I gotta hurry like, I gotta get this out. Everyone's got a copy of the reality is most people don't and most people should right? Let's talk about that, like why having an interesting that everybody needs to do their own show, right? But having a very strong presence in digital media, why do you think that matters now more than ever before?
Ryan Hills
Well, I mean, presence and brand to me like kind of same thing. And we're going to talk about that at the OMBA coming up. And I don't want to give away too much of what we're going to talk about because I'd love to see you guys there. There's only 75 spots, it's going to fill up really, really quick. I told Justin before the before we started shooting, like I'd love to fill that up with realtors at a mortgage event. I just think that would be funny. So if you're like listening, realtors make sure you you sign up real quick. I'm sure we'll throw something in the comment section as far as the link to sign up, but we're gonna we're going to address that. Why is it important to have a brand? For us? Our origin story 10 years ago was just that like, great recession hit, we were young in the business, you know, we didn't have gigantic databases or referral partners. How do we become relevant? How do we build a brand? That's where we started 10 years ago. So we're going to give 10 years of our lessons on building that brand becoming relevant. We're just not going to give it today because I want to build desire. So I can see you guys in Oregon in a few weeks.
RC
Something that stops a lot of people, which is why I'm interested in coming on the show, is it's a mental thing, right? And so fear plays a really big role in building a brand. Why me? Why does someone want to pay attention to me? There's so many other people just killing it. So it starts, you know, starts in your head as far as answering like, Oh, I am good enough to do video. It doesn't matter. I look what I look like I sound way sound like and I do have things inside of me that I need to share with people to make an impact positively. And that leverage of always adding value is where the influence begins. And so I think it's a mind shift, not caring about yourself but realizing you have an obligation to serve your customers and your talk to your customers.
Ryan Hills
How did you say before we started? Because I think you, you got to the answer, and we'll get to all of the How to stuff at our talk. But how did you say what was your phrase about having real estate in their head?
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, no, I appreciate asking. So I'm a firm believer that that you need to own a piece of real estate and people's brain, which can also be described as mindshare, right? You like to read that concept but it's definitely what it is. It's it's you own real estate someone's brain. If you own zero real estate, in someone's brain, there's zero percent chance they will use you on the real estate transaction because they've forgotten about you. mean Case in point the first home My wife and I went to sell. I had a very good friend who would help me in my general contracting business, we'd moved out of state that turned our primary residence into a rental. We're now moving back to Oregon. We're from and we decided to sell the rental Wish I wouldn't have looked at it what that homes worth nevertheless, My wife looks at me and says, Justin, Who should we use for real estate? I was like, like no names came to mind. I'd been out of the state for six months. Nobody really stayed in contact with me. But you know, I was a builder, right? I worked with agents. And so finally a name came to mind. It was a gentleman named John, John had put me on some really, in my opinion, terrible drip campaigns, but he's the only guy communicated with me now owned, terrible real estate, my brain, but he was the only one that owned real estate in my brain, so I gave the listing to John. Within probably a few hours, my heart just sank. And I thought, what about my friend Craig? Oh, crap. I would have loved to have given this listing to Craig. Craig again, had added value to me as a builder. He was a friend of mine from college. Nevertheless, I had to make that uncomfortable call to Craig to say, Craig, I'm selling my house without you. I'm so sorry. I forgot. Shame on me. But then afterwards, I realized, you know, it's not my responsibility to remember people. It's their responsibility to remind me and so, you know, from that point on, I've always wanted to be the person who was proactively gobbling up real estate? people's brain, right? And you have to do that in a way that's not totally obnoxious in a way that adds value just like you guys have done, right? You're in people's brain because you're consistently adding value and was a similar inspiration to what I'm doing here is how do you add value to people to where you're the source of that so naturally, you own a piece when you know title and escrow comes up, I want to grow my business, not just have escrows but have more escrows I wanted to think of me, right.
Ryan Hills
Love that and we're going to learn from our past mistakes. So when we've traveled in the past, we again, we're just trying to come and bring as much valuable content as possible. For me, if we go away and people are, that was interesting, that's a fail like I want to give, we want to give something that's practical that you can take away and build their business with that's really our sole goal. So in the past, trying to do that we pack in so much content and do an hour or two and it becomes sometimes lost. I can see it can look out people are getting kind of glassy eyed, and and we're talking maybe two or three, four point O strategies that may just be over their head. And they're starting to click out, especially for, you know, the veteran in the business. So we're going to try to learn from our mistakes. And we're actually going to start with what we call and we're building a new piece of content just for this talk, building a brand 1.0 the blueprint.
RC
Yep.
Ryan Hills
And so if you don't know what that even means, or where to start, we're going to start with one point out now we'll leave time for questions to get into 2.0. Yep. 3.0 4.0 for those realtors and lenders, entrepreneurs that have an established brand, and maybe are struggling with distribution, because that's a big one. But we're going to start with 1.0. So if you're, if you've been in the business a while and you're not really sure what we're talking about right now, come to this event. And we'll start with one point and we'll go from there. I'm excited about that.
Justin Stoddart
You know, it's interesting when you look at some of the greatest coaches in the world, and really, I see you guys, as that, obviously, you you've got some prominence in the lending space, but you're really coaching and teaching and guiding an industry on what's the pathway. Kind of like the lighthouse analogy that we use, right? And you look at some of the greatest coaches in the world, everything from Vince Lombardi on day one was, here's a football gentleman right? or, or, you know, john wooden, let's teach you how to put your socks on. You know, I mean, like, the greatest coaches in the world, I think they don't overlook the fundamentals. Now they move on, like you said, 2.0 3.0 4.0. But, you know, I think even people who already have an established brand wouldn't be, I'm eager, I've established a brand. But I'm super eager to go back and look at the fundamentals of like, Where's my foundation maybe cracked, right? Where did I jumped at 2.0 and I should have like, four to five 1.0. So I think this is going to be super relevant for all of us that, that realize that the future of, of, again, having been well paid in our industry, like I'm confident that our industries will always need people. I'm also confident that that automation is going to take away the job of some people and it's gonna it's working to try and lower the pay of a lot of people know, so I think the future of our industry of people who want to remain well paid are those that have a voice and those that have a brand so that people recognize that voice and trust it and listen to it, and are willing to pay more because frankly, there's more value there, and the fee that they're charging.
Ryan Hills
And we're going to talk about that too, hopefully, hopefully not too much, again, trying to learn from my past mistakes. And I'm not going to cram too much content in there. But big tech equals Consumer Direct. We all know that if you've watched our show, we've talked about it for years, warned about the Zillow challenge all that stuff. So Consumer Direct deserves to be respected. However, traditional realtors and lenders can leverage what we've been calling community direct, and the strategies of actually going deep community direct to combat that big tech company that's going Consumer Direct
RC
and then kind of breaking that down on a daily, weekly monthly basis. What does that look like in your schedule? How are you time blocking for that hard activities, focus to get you the results you're looking at, and not going too far down the path but just making sure that you execute your plan to thrive.
Justin Stoddart
So for those that don't know, kind of the breakdown here between Ryan and RC, RC really kind of gets into the weeds of the distribution, the technical side of it. So it's gonna be really fun to have both of you guys there, I'm assuming Is that right? Because there's going to be a vision right of like, this is what branding does, the future of our industry looks like, and those that are going to thrive, not just survive, but thrive, their businesses are going to look like this. And then it sounds like from you RC. And from both you there's going to be some very tactical, because sometimes you walk away and you got all these ideas, get a whole notebook, and you do this, this and this, but know how to, there's no real blueprint and what it sounds like, you're gonna get into the weeds a little bit as far as like, here's how you actually put this in your schedule. Here's what this here's how this fits into an already busy schedule. Here's why it fits, right. That's Ryan, you sharing that, here's, here's why this is so important. If you don't do this, your future is gonna look like this. And then RC is going to be falling right behind you to say it. here's here's how to actually implement this stuff.
RC
Correct. We're all busy, right? And we're all peak performers. We've coached and mentored and interviewed some of the most elite people on our space. You can learn a lot from that and I think it was needs needs a coach and needs to be a coach. Right? So this is just a way that we can share what we've learned and really, hopefully impact people in a very positive way. You know, we're all going through the same motions, we have 24 hours in the day, what can we focus on really to, at the end of the day, say, did I did I matter today? Did I add value today? Those are big questions. I think that Ryan's taught me over the years of just how to itemize your calendar to make sure you're adding value and really making an impact.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. One of the analogies that I love to use I help agents create kind of a detailed business plan is one of my value offerings. And one of the things that we talked about as I help them actually calculate their dollar per hour by getting to the money that they need to make and how much time they're going to commit to it and then from that dollar per hour a I enjoy asking and effect I've got one sitting here in front of me. I pull up the dollar per hour so this particular agent, newer agent just get started. He's got a good network is dollar per hour is close to $100 an hour that's probably low for most agents, right wants to make over $200,000 and Work. Let's see, he wants to work 270 days out of the year. Okay, so that equates to about $100 an hour. And I told him, I said, there are certain activities during the day that I would, I would challenge you to then take that list of activities and say what I'd be willing right now, to go over to my computer and type into Craigslist, or indeed calm and posted ads, and I'm looking for administrative support. And I'm willing to pay $100 an hour to do these activities. And if you like, if your jaw drops, you say I would never pay anybody $100 an hour to do those things. And that's a stark reminder to you of like you should then if you really want to make hundred dollars an hour, right? You can't be doing those things. So what I hear you saying is that there are certain activities in this building a brand space that are high value, and some of them that are not right, like aimlessly perusing your Facebook newsfeed doing nothing but just liking stuff and being one of many that are liking people's comments. That like not a very good use of time. You're not going to get well paid for that.
Ryan Hills
What's the return on your investment? I mean, it's such a great I'm, we're right there with you. And it's so funny. realtors and lenders struggle with this both like they forget that they make good money for some reason. And then they forget to divide it by 2080 hours work hours a year. And if you most of that, like you said, that number is usually pretty big for both realtors and lenders. Yeah. And having that be top of mind is very important. Because if you're spending time, maybe it's 100 200 300 $400 an hour, whatever the number is, whatever your number is, on a failed strategy, like do you do you just like letting money on fire? Is that fun for you? Because that's what you're doing? And if you think, okay, I'm dedicating two hours to this, my number is four bucks an hour or whatever it is. Okay, I got $800 already invested into this. Am I gonna make 1600 from this? Am I gonna you know what I mean? That's the just the quick conversation you can have in your head. But you got to do that that math equation like you said it and it's got to be top of mind every day and ago. Is this worth my time? You know, am I going to get a return on my investment on my time and, and realtors and lenders just struggle with that concept.
RC
Yeah, I think it ties in right back to thinking bigger right? I mean literally Top of Mind understanding what you're worth, and respecting yourself enough to to organize your day in that fashion
Ryan Hills
Respecting yourself like that's a big one respect the fact that you make 100 bucks an hour 200 bucks an hour that's, you know, those are big numbers. I don't care you know if it gets bigger than that, but guys, that's a lot of money that lenders or realtors make respect your own time. enough not to throw it away. Anyways, we're getting sidetracked, but I love what you said and I'm very passionate about that.
Justin Stoddart
I love it, man. You know, we're about at the end of our of our episode here. Are there any anything you guys want to share that would really further entice people to be there on February 13 here in the Portland Oregon market to come to the OMBA luncheon and hear you guys speak.
RC
Yeah, I think I think a lot of people just don't know where to start right in. And so even if you do think you know where you're going. There's a big difference between like storytelling and story selling, right. And that really comes back to how you communicate. So if you respect yourself and you have big goals, but you need to know what to do, and how to position yourself with poise and authority, I think that's something that we're going to really, really knock out of the park with you, and help you build that brand faster, and become something you're proud of.
Ryan Hills
Yeah, we're guys, we're going to get an hour with you. And it's not a lot. And this isn't, it is a shameful plug. But I would love for you guys to join our community of era source.tv because you get, you know, time with us every week, we can only talk and communicate so much in this hour in Oregon. Yep. But the biggest compliment we get frequently which just I love is people say, Hey, I watched the show. We take it into our office with 100 realtors or, you know, 20 loan officers. We play it, it starts a conversation of Hey, what should I do? What should I be doing and every every week is different. And so really, that's that's how everybody can be edified. The hour is going be great and we look forward to meeting everybody and getting new relationships through that. But joining the community is is really the next level thing for our viewers and for you know, the realtors and lenders that appreciate what we're talking about and just want to address shortcomings and get better and look ahead.
Justin Stoddart
Love it man. So excited. I was I was excited about this event before we got on the show. And I came up with the intent to get people to come and fired up even more about being there. So thank you guys for that.
Ryan Hills
Bringing the heat and that's what we that's what we do. We are bringing it.
Justin Stoddart
Okay, my final question, the signature question of the show that I asked every one of my guests, you guys can look at each other decide which one's gonna do a coin toss, or both. You wanna contribute to it, which is you're both big thinkers you have been for over a decade now you've proven that. What do you do to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your own possibilities? Teach us.
Ryan Hills
I love that question. And I wasn't prepared for that. I didn't know that you throw that out there. But you said it earlier and again, like minded people you said I try to think big and helping me do that as think hang out with people that think bigger. I just spent three days and it's cost me $5,000 to spend three days with the brightest minds in the entire industry from across the nation. It was a private event with 10 people. And those guys broke me down and push me like no other. These are guys that are doing 500 million in production by themselves or have national and international brands that you and I think alike like I'm thinking I want to think bigger. I want to continue to think big bigger 10 years later, how do I do that? There's always another level baby and so I just spent a lot of time being refined by peers and and people that I look up to and and it's no harder than that. You are You are the company you keep. Yep.
RC
And I would say I'm on there's two answers for your waking quick. I'm on a different spectrum. When I was very young, I had a big surgery and it basically I ended up dying on the table and getting revived so I approach every day. So I corrective lenses. So whenever my glasses on, I feel like there's a little ticker in the corner. And you don't know when your time is obviously, you know with Coby and, and all of the situations and like horrific accident like you don't know when your time is. So that's one way to really understand you value the time that you do have and be very intentional to create a life worth living. And, you know, thankfully I've gone through that it's one of the best lessons I've ever learned. And fortunately, Ryan and I mesh very well and very different ends of that spectrum. I think that's where a lot of our drive comes by just respecting that you don't know when your time is.
Justin Stoddart
Man you guys are giving me goosebumps. Again, super, super grateful. Number one for you guys taking the time to come on the show today. short notice. Secondly, for being willing to come down to teach us at the OMBA events and set up at the RE Source.TV and be a larger contributor to your community. And just want to thank you guys my final request of everybody listening here today are three simple words.I said every time and they are GO THINK BIGGER. So Ryan and RC thank you both so much for helping us today. Look forward to continue to build our friendship. And then we'll see you soon.
Ryan Hills
Thanks so much, Jason.
RC
Thank you. Yeah.
Mike Ciorrocco
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart I'm fired up excited today about our guest, Mike Ciorrocco. He's also known as Mikey, see, he's a big time player in the lending space out of South Florida does some incredible things. You're going to love what this man does not only in the mortgage space, but in helping helping people see and pursue their own potential. There's a lot in common between me and Mike. So let me just remind you the Pat, that purpose and passion of this show is to help you think bigger as you do your activities change and as your activities change, and your results start to follow. And then you could have a bigger impact on the world. My My passion is on helping people tap into that untapped potential. I believe that the greatest untapped natural resource out there is human potential. And Mike and I today are going to help you tap into that, which you're missing out on that untapped human potential inside of you. Let me give you a little background on Mike "C-Roc" as he's known, he's a motivator of facilitator, dynamic public speaker to fierce friend and coach at his core. He's a grinder that gets after it. I hear him on mentoring calls. He and I both have been mentored by Grant Cardone, and I hear him light a fire, not only in his own business, but also on the mentoring calls it's really fun to see. He that actually has led him to inspire others to see the greatness inside of themselves and the sound totally similar to like what I'm all about. I love it. Mike is a manager at Nations Lending and residential mortgage company, he and his three best friends have built one of the most profitable divisions within Nations Lending from the ground up helping their clients find the ability from a financial standpoint to purchase their dream homes. Now, in addition to that, he speaks to, you know, thousands of real estate agents. He's a thought leader, as you can see from the studio behind him and on his hat you're at he's asking the question, What are you made of? So Mike C I want to welcome you to the think bigger real estate show today. appreciate you taking the time. I'm really excited about we're going to talk about today.
Let's go Justin. Let's make it happen. Man, good. Glad to be here. Glad you invited me on your show. And et's blow this thing up, man. Let's provide some great content.
Justin Stoddart
Let's do it. I'm excited. So let's, let's start off by talking about the mentorship with Grant Cardone was not inexpensive, right? Tell me why you decided to invest in yourself and your own business, specifically in the 10 X Mentor Program.
Mike Ciorrocco
Well, first of all, let me let me we got I got to correct you, but and that's part of us having one on one like each of us accountability hold each other accountable. It's not a lot of money. It was that I think it was a 997 right. It's not a lot of money, dude. Because Listen, the thing is, is that when people see $997 1000 bucks, they're thinking small, right? So that's one of the biggest things that since I've been following grant for about two years now. One of the biggest things that he's taught me is that I'm thinking too small, he thought too small, and that's why he shared it with everyone else. And so I started thinking of myself, okay, that 997 like, for example, with this Mentor Program 997, right? What does it get in me? If I don't do it? What does it cost to me? And what I found out, by the way, the mentor, there's a lot of stuff that goes along with it that we found out once we got in there. But prior to knowing what it was all involved in the network, and all the benefits from it, I thought to myself, what does it cost me not to be in this? And so I switched my thinking. Right? And, yeah, so so but the thing is, is that one of the lessons that we learned is that when you go to a mentoring program, you spend money on something or if you have a big goal, you go share it with someone, and then you see the reaction. Right? Remember, I'm going over that, and Hey, listen, I have mentoring by Grant Cardone, it's 997. And I'm learning a lot this night Just shut up. And then you see, yeah, you see the response. And then you can figure out where people's heads really are and whether you want to be around those people that much. Because the people that say, Wow, man, really tell me more about it or hope you do. With those are the people you want to be around. But the people that said what you did what thousand bucks for what I meant, come on, man, get them out. Remove that. That's what I always talk about removing all obstacles. I have goals in mind for myself that are big. And if I shared it with you guys, you might you might think I'm crazy might laugh because a lot of people do laugh at my goals. And those are the people that aren't going to ride on my plane when I get a plane. That's what I always say to myself. So sharing your goals with people is one of the things we learned and then removing the obstacles because people are obstacles most of the time. It's the people that are closest to you that are obstacles. So these are some of the things that I learned in it. But uh, yeah, I mean, I was in it and and the thing is, we get to network in before the call and after the call, and that's how we met.
Justin Stoddart
It's true. You know, I want to I want to capital, I put up an explanation point, what you just said there is that you're right, everybody looks at like how much does it cost you to do something where as you said, we're It cost me not to do it. I've a coach, you said, What's the cost of the cost? actually had somebody at one point point this out? He said, How much did you make last year? And then he said, Take a million dollars a year and subtract that from what you made, subtract what you made last year from a million dollars. And he said, Okay, let's say just for, you know, easy routing purposes, let's say it was $200,000. He said, it costs you $800,000 last year to not know how to make a million dollars. Not a great way to look at it. It's absolutely man, like that thousand dollar mentoring program all of a sudden, is that expensive when you start to realize like, what, like, how, how much is it costing me to not know how to make more money? And I think for you know, real estate agents, which are our common audience, right? There's sometimes a lack of wanting to invest in in themselves, right? Is that I can't like it's, it's, it's like hyper focus on the bottom line, as opposed to what grant teaches which is like, look at the top line. I'm focused on the top line.
How do I drive the revenue. And then you start looking at investments as opposed to savings, you start looking at, you know, spending money, not saving money, but spending money, that's going to get a great return. That's something that's really showing you this.
Mike Ciorrocco
Well, you hear the same back in the day, it takes money to make money, right? So when you don't know something, and Grant says this one too, when you have no of something you don't know something. So when you have no of something, you don't k n o w something. And it's so true. If you don't have any money, you don't know something about money. So you need to figure out how to get money and you need to learn and figure it out. And the Mentor Program, what it does is it speeds things up. So the way I looked at this, Justin is I can do things on my own, which I have in the past. You know, I started a mortgage branch in a division and I did it on my own without hardly any mentoring, which I didn't, I didn't k n o w, right, I didn't know better. So what happened is, is that it took me a lot of time and money to get us to where we are today. Way, way, way, way more than 997 so you're going to spend money on a mentoring program or being with a mentor or learning or classes or knowledge, you're going to spend a certain amount of money, but I guarantee you guarantee you that you're going to spend more time which is money, and a lot more money, not getting a mentor or not investing in yourself, and you have no idea what that's going to cost. And I can guarantee that it's probably 100 times more than you spend on a mentor or education. As far as you know, money.
Justin Stoddart
100 percent, you know, it's interesting, I think about that with different like websites and funnels that I've tried to build myself, and I get to the Edit, I still don't like it, I still don't use it. And it's the opportunity cost, right? I mean, the scarcity side of me is like I'll just build this and save a couple thousand dollars to not pay someone or not hire someone to do this. But the opportunity cost of not spending time where I'm great spending time where I'm I can generate revenue. Instead I'm doing things that other people are proficient at and great at. Yeah, I'm watering down and diluting down my own value to the marketplace by trying Save money, right? By trying to not invest in things that are going to propel me to the next level. Again, I see it all the time with with clients of like who I can't, I can't afford a transaction coordinator, I've got to do my own paperwork. I can't afford that. You know, agent, I can't afford to have this and that and it's like, you can't afford to not have one. Right long as you're reallocating that time that you're now saving towards generating towards revenue generating activities. If you did that, you'd be like, oh, wow, I haven't realized how expensive it has been for me to not have these great people around me these great systems around me these outsourced options around me.
Mike Ciorrocco
Yeah, let's let's take a step back for a minute. Because one thing I I know for a fact that when we do a podcast or we do anything, in order to connect with people, we got to tell them where we're from a little bit, right. And we gave a little bit of intro with where I'm from, but I need to share this with your listeners and with you because I want to make sure people understand where I'm coming from what drives me. That's great. When I was 11 years old, and I shouldn't do this up front, I apologize. But when I was 11 years old, I was living with my dad for three years. point I came from a broken home. I didn't know my parents together ever. And it was always a every other weekend type thing when I was with one of the parents, right? When I was eight, I decided to live with my dad. And I went through three years of basically hell, physical, not physical, psychological and emotional abuse. And I wasn't physically abused, thank God. But there was a bad environment. And when I was 11 years old, I decided to move back with my mom. And you know, this is common to a lot of people. It's not an ordinary, I mean, a unique story. It's more ordinary than unique. However, that's why it's so powerful because people can connect to it because they can relate to it. And when I told my dad, I wanted to move back with my mom, my dad being my hero, okay, had a masonry business. That's why I have the bricks on the logo back here, had laid masonry versus business laid bricks, laid block poured concrete, he always had $100 wad of cash in his pocket, right. He did well for himself and I always looked up to him for that water cash he always would show it and and when I decided to move back with my mom
My dad basically gave up on me. He said he sure you're gonna live with your mom who's who's not that well off, you know, I'll tell you what, and he pulled this wad of cash out and put the hundred dollar bill off and crumpled it up and threw it at me and said, you're going to need this when you're living on the streets with your mother one day. And now mind you, I'm 11 years old, right? And feeling like I'm the one that did something wrong. When I'm trying to make something better for myself and get out of a bad culture environment. I didn't know the word culture back then. And at that moment, besides being destroyed and just rejected, you know, by my hero, I'm stubborn to a fault, Justin. So at that moment, I decided, you know what, you're not going to be right pal. I'm going to be a better father than you. I'm going to be a better husband and you I'm going to be a better businessman than you. At 11 years old. I made that commitment to myself. I didn't know how I was going to do it. I just decided that moment he is not going to win. So every part of my life since then, I've been trying to prove that point and hit that commitment. And number two, I wanted to help people that have been through that same struggle.
They've been given up on by their father someone. And so every time I go through a tough time, a setback, things aren't going my way. I always refer back to that and saying, Hey, man, you got to push through, you got to overcome, you're not letting that sucker sucker win. And now I love them to death. I don't talk to them now, not not by my means. And if I sold them, I give them a big hug. But I'm not letting them win. And so I drive back on that. And that's where that's where you made up movement came from. And I want to try to encourage every single person to look back at your life and find something, something just like that, that you can drive off of, and you can think about when things get tough for you. Because if you don't have that, man, it's really difficult life can get difficult, you know. And so I wanted to I wanted to share that with your listeners because I want them to understand where my drive comes from the the stuff that I'm sharing and the stuff that I learned in the text mentor and the stuff that you learn. It really doesn't matter if you're not going to apply it and you don't have some kind of driving force behind it. So I just wanted to share that with you before we start.
Justin Stoddart
Man, I mean, I'm sorry to hear that you and your dad aren't in communication. I think that's his loss, right? I think I actually once heard a story of a father who was kind of in a similar spot, and his son really couldn't understand. Like, like, How could my dad do this to me? And like, he was a spiritual guy, he just thought about it prayed about like, like, Why would my dad like walk out and be like that? Like, why would he not have contact with me? And he said, like, I feel like the answer did come like it just like, I couldn't get it until I had a child. And then once I had a child, they had a place to receive that, like, I could get it. And the answer came is that it was it was his loss. Like he was the one that was missing out. And I at that point, I got it because I was a dad and I was seeing that, you know, sure, I would have benefited by having my dad around, no doubt. But really, the the one who missed out the most, you know, was the father who wasn't able to be a part of his Yep. So it's it's inspiring to hear that you despite not having that, that you've actually used his influence and his impact, to inspire you to go on to do great things. I think that's that's an interesting way to look at life as if you know, depending upon how you want to go about life, you can look around and find good or bad things and use them as a crutch as an excuse as to why you didn't do something or like you just did. You say, look, I had a bad thing happened. And that's actually what's inspired me to go on to find the greatness within me. Like what a bit of, you know, if you go about life that way, no matter what happens, whether it's a great thing or whether it's a tragedy, you turn into good and you use it as fuel, right?
Mike Ciorrocco
Yeah, yeah, yeah. As you're saying that, you know what, I just got an idea. It just got a I got an idea, man. And I didn't ever thought about this this this way before and the way this aligns with our business. You hear when we're on the mentor call and somebody will call, ask a question. This past call. They said this, hey, I've tried to get this this agent. Let's just say, I'm trying to get this prospect. And I've tried everything. I've done this. I've done that phone call visit. I didn't send them pizza, but nothing's working. Right and what the answer was, what was the answer? Do you remember? Remember, they said your word everything's working. And number two, your funnels not big enough. You got one person that you're worried about grow your grow your prospects, right so here's I just hit this this hit me when you're talking about that. My I was so fortunate when I was 11 and I left my dad's house went to my mom said I had to step that his name was George he died about a year ago. And I'm not his blood kid, right but he took me in like a father. Like the best father you could possibly have. Okay, but what happens is my dad gave up on me right? And that's like a customer if you think about this, this might be totally screwed up, but I'm just telling you like, I feel it right. If he gave up on me and that was like a customer that gave up on me and I didn't want to focus and just sit there and worry and drive this guess what I went out found a new one. You know what I mean? So it's it's a little warped I'm sure but it just hit me like, you know what? Hit the you said his loss, right? That's the prospects loss. You do everything you possibly can to get a prospect and then don't stress and worry go get some war. Too many people get hung up on one prospect and if they do everything they possibly can and make that prospect still doesn't come around, they sit there and mope and they let it affect that the next transaction the next prospect the next relationship that they can have and that's one thing that I didn't do so I noticed that that I really took hold to my step that George and we got like this he was hard on me by the way, I was 11 years old, he was busting my ass man. He would he would drive me and I hated it he was hard on me but we were tight and that's similar situation to find going out finding new relationships go out find a new it happens in girlfriend a boyfriend situations and husband and wife situations as well. somebody loses a relationship with someone then they get all down in the dumps and this and that instead of focusing on the next relationship that they need to have. So I'm glad you said that because that that all that's
Justin Stoddart
I do remember that answered it was like a total paradigm shift because like, what the you know, what the the questioner was asking is like, what else can I do? And they just what about a different way is like you're solving the wrong problem. You've got one prospect. That's the problem. The problem is you need 100 of them. And you need to be delivering big value to 100 of them and over 100 of them, you'll find the one that resident that who's with whom your value resonates. And you know, that kind of down that thread. That's been a really a big aha for me. And I think grant touched on this, you know, in our last call, which was, everything works. And you mentioned it earlier, right? Everything works, even the three non calls it and here's a prime example of this one of my best clients right now. We showed up down in San Diego, right? I'm in Portland, Oregon, down in San Diego at a real estate coaching event. I'm sitting by the turnstile waiting for my luggage, I look over and there's Brad, I'm like, hey, Brad, how are you? And he like looks at me and like sheepishly, he's like, oh, man, Hey, how are you? Good to see unexpect to see you here. And he says, I think I owe you a call, like maybe four or five calls. And, you know, I honestly didn't think that he was even noticing that he was making the connection. at that event. He and I spent some time together, I got him as a client. He's been a great client ever since those four or five calls that I thought were falling on deaf ears, maybe even irritating him, or in his brain working on him, he knew that he was gonna get back to me, he just didn't know when. And I think, again, we tend to discount activity. And we put too short of a timeframe on it is that if somebody doesn't respond immediately, then it must not work. And we must move on, right? Yes, we ought to have, like you said, have a white funnel. But we also want to have a wide funnel of activities that we're utilizing on people because the reality is, all of us, all of our lives are already busy. And to make time for somebody else, a new relationship to make time for a new partnership. It takes time it takes capacity and you have to be persistent in adding real value consistently in order for someone to be like, okay, like, I can't say yes yet, but I've got to make space here because this person is persistent. They must have real value. I've got to make space to be able to evaluate and then make space to actually go into business with them. Look, I think we discount that. And that's, I think, at the essence of the 10 X rule, that's the essence of what Grants teaching is that you can have everything you want, if you're willing to do enough activities, most people aren't. But if you catch that vision, and you really double down a certain activity, you'll start to see that it's, it's not a very crowded environment when you start to do that, because most people will desist a long time ago.
Mike Ciorrocco
Here's the thing, man and Jared said this, and I use this all the time we plant seeds, and we water them. And you just water that seed until it starts to grow. And the thing is, is that if you have one of something grant said this to you have one is something you'll start to hate it, you'll start to resent it. You have. So anything that's good in life, you want to have multiples, right? But when you start to hate that person, because you're not focusing on the relationships, then you come off the wrong way when you still try to follow up. If you do follow up at all, you come off the wrong way to them. They sense that of course they're not going to work with you. So what you need to do is you need to reach out to the prospect, be creative, do all different things. Stay great attitude friendly, happy understanding of why they haven't done business with you yet. Maybe it's because they have a lot of other things on their mind. It's not the right time, they have another partnership already. Timing is a big issue too, because it might not be the right time. But if you stay with it, and you keep watering to see what and see, when that timing comes up, you're there. They're not all going to turn it into transactions or relationships. So that's why you need a lot of them. And you got to think big on the prospecting side of things. Bunch of seeds. You want to plant a bunch of seeds to farmers don't plant one corn seed in the field. Yeah, right. Can we even count how many seeds they actually plant when they plant a field of corn?
If you think of your business that way, man, I'm gonna tell you something that made a difference for me. But a year ago, I decided to get known because grant said, Hey, money follows attention. I was sitting at the 10 X growth conference in Miami. And he put up a graph on the screen and he showed his Google I guess it was like his Google activity or trend would go on a graph that was going up, and then it showed his money, it was going up and it match that trend, and that hit me and I'm like, you know what, I I've been trying to get known locally in my local market. By the way, I'm in Maryland, I go to Miami because I have a branch there as well. Okay, South Florida, I go to I go to Miami once a month, and I'm in Maryland most of the time than the Mid Atlantic region. But I try to get known in Maryland, like not even in Maryland, just in my town or my county, right. And that's what I did for years. And all my people, everybody around everybody does that every single person in your business, my business, real estate, they just do it in their own little town. I started to think bigger. And I started waking up every morning being obsessed getting known worldwide. And I said, you know, what, if I get worldwide known or known worldwide, locally is not going to be a problem, brother, locally, everybody find out because if I get known throughout South Africa, which by the way, all of a sudden this started happening, and when I started thinking this way, get the podcast, writing a blog, all these different activities that I'm doing. All of a sudden, I'm getting reached people reaching out from Germany, South Africa, Australia. I was on a podcast in Australia yesterday. Australia is on the other side of the globe.
So, if you're known globally, you don't have to worry about local, you don't have to worry about that it takes care of itself. So that big, big, big thing that I've come to realize over the last year is one, whatever you want to do be obsessed about it. And number two, get known globally focus on a bigger, bigger, bigger target. And all the little targets will take care of themselves, man,
Justin Stoddart
I agree, you know, think bigger is very similar strategy, you know, to what I had, and this can maybe kind of parlay into, like what our unique value propositions are for for agents. I found that in my industry title and escrow In fact, you guys are probably not an escrow state right you guys probably use attorneys is that your Yep. Oh, here we use that like escrow officer, right. So title and escrow are combined under the Maryland Maryland escrow and Delaware, we're in Delaware to that to that attorney state. Okay, got it. So you see both sides. So in my industry, it's very common for someone who's in a business development role for the title company to be a friendly customer service representative, right. How can I help you today I've got some company tools I'm going to share with you. I'm going to put you on our company email blast. And it's it's very, it's very common, right. And what I realized is that if I was going to be in conversations with an add value to the biggest producers, that I needed to not only be a helpful vendor, I needed to be appear someone who they could look at say, Look, you're a top producer in your industry. I'm a top producer in mine, I think we can learn from each other. And I said, What if I could actually get really good at some things that they would want to know about? To where I could mentor them to where they were coming to me saying, teach me how you do that. And so my push in my aim is how do I become a mentor to my biggest clients and prospective clients to where they want me to be in their business because of what they're seeing me do. I'm not I'm not the liaison to value I am the value and the to get to me, right? Or to get to that value. They come to me not through me as a pass off to someone in my network that's helpful to write. But what can I demonstrate in my business? What can I do that shows that?
You know and offspring of that it's exactly why I started this is I had to learn this digital media space because I knew that real estate agents are losing business because the massive portals of Redfin and Zillow and Trulia are gaining attention before real estate agents. They're poaching those clients and they're, they're reselling them in the form of leads to clients. So, real estate agent, very similar to what you're talking about, needs to actually gain the attention of their clients, more so than even what Zillow is doing. Because if you're in the brain, if you own real estate in your clients and prospective clients brain, there's no doubt they're going to use you to buy and sell their own physical real estate. And so how do I gain mindshare? That's, that's what I've been all about. So that I can teach it right so they can teach you the agents. So that's one part of my value proposition sounds like it's, you know, very similar to yours as well.
Mike Ciorrocco
Yeah, thing is man, the problem is not Redfin, or Trulia or any of this that's all distractions, man. I don't worry about any other mortgage company. I don't I don't mean man. Listen, my job is to get known I want to learn real estate which I was a real estate agent before I was in the mortgage business, but I want to learn marketing and real estate better than real estate agents that we serve. And if I could do that, like you said, then they come to you. And so the problem with real estate agents and not just real estate agents, mortgage people to title people sales in general, is people don't do enough activity.
Let's face it, they don't think big enough. And they don't get known. Those are the three things reasons. It's not Trulia it's not Redfin, it's not anything else. It's those three things. And if they would focus on those three things, bottom line, there's a lot of problem in the real estate industry, because there's a lot of realtors associations that people belong to, and they go for continuing education. And they go for these workshops, and this net, not one of them, talks about the things that we learned in the 10 X mentor group, not one of them, and that's a problem and we're in the business to make money and they're real estate agents are in the business to make money. So I don't know why realtor organizations don't talk more about making money in it show agents how to make money. Obviously, ethicsis important. Don't get me wrong. Obviously, you really shouldn't have to teach someone ethics. They should know. Right is right and wrong is wrong, do good things, good things happen do bad things, bad things happen. Don't poach costs. I mean, it's it. That's common sense. But they spend too much time on that stuff. And they should spend more time we'll make it money.
Justin Stoddart
Which creates the opportunity for you and i right. I mean, if that stuff were common, yours at my value propositions that have to be different, the fact that those associations only teach people how to stay out of jail, right and not get sued, which is good, it's important things to know. But I agree, I think they overemphasize that and under emphasize the fact of why are most real estate agents broke it's it's the exact reason that you just described is it because and what Branden Dawson talked about on the last call, which is most people don't prospect because they don't do it enough. So they never get good at it get confident enough to really have the conversations, because again, they're they're afraid, but it's a self perpetuating cycle. If you don't do it enough, then it's always going to be scared you're never going to do it. Whereas if you just start doing it, you move through that fear and start doing it. You'll get good enough to a pretty soon it's like I can really help people I can get in front of people, I get them, I can get conversations with people and be in business with them. And for a couple of reasons, one because of that, that skill set actually works. But to that realtors say, Man, I need to know sales skills like this guy. Like I need to know sales skills like that gap, right? There's your again, demoing what they need to be doing their own.
Mike Ciorrocco
It's attractive. Yeah, you know, mindset, positive mindset. Success and attention are attractive And so if we can get that like, okay, so I know this and I'm sure you know this because haven't we been there before? Where we were like, man, how so? And so getting all this business, I'm here struggling. I've been there before. So I thought that I'm just preaching to people. I preach to myself with this all the time. And I sit there, man, they're doing so good. What How the heck are they doing that? And he Meanwhile, sit in my office talking to myself for talking to my partners about this. Instead of going out and doing the things you're supposed to be doing that the other people that are successful are doing. Get known activities, massive amounts of activities, big goals. And you know that that's something that I know like I said, because I've been there before. A lot of people hear me preaching and talking about this stuff. And they're like, oh, man, you know, How's it? I've been there, bro. I've been broke before have been, I've been mediocre before. I ain't never going back. I'll tell you that right now. Because once you get a taste of it, and you understand it, you want to do it yourself and you want to help other people do it because you want people around you that are successful in massive action. Nobody's holding you back. Everybody's lifting each other up.
Justin Stoddart
powerful stuff, man. I want to share quickly kind of my aha from my roleplay with Grant Cardone, I actually mentioned you in there. When I was starting, I was trying out grant see that that my business was convincing real estate agents to do business with me as opposed to doing business with somebody else. And, you know, at first I got pretty obliterated. I was hanging around and grabbed was like done, calls fail, but see his face? Did everybody see the competence drop out of his face calls over? Right? And then he kind of wanted this rant at like studying other salespeople. And I was like, okay, you just lit my fire. Give me another shot. Let's go again. And I think I held my own.
You know, the aha that I had coming from? That is what got Grant's attention is when I said, Great congratulations on your 30 deals this past year, you seem like a guy that want to do 50 deals, the people that I work with, go from 30 to 50. He was like, wait a minute, stop. Did you just tell me you give me 20 more deals? I said, Yes, I can. He said, Great. When can we meet when we talk about that? And although at first I was like, I don't know how to get somebody 20 more deals that has been occupying my thoughts incessantly since that call of like, the big players that want to be in business with it all other value propositions melt away regardless of of loyalties with their existing providers of what somebody either legally or illegally paying for under the table, all that stuff, it becomes irrelevant. If I put another $200,000 in someone's pocket because of the value that I'm bringing. And so that has become my whole focus my whole value proposition which is not about being friendly or even helping them refine a system so that they have a little bit better, you know, life balance, like share all that stuff, great. But the end of the day, all that stuff figures itself out if I am I contributing in such a way that 20 more deals right my or that top line, the top line, right, exactly back to the top line solves all the other problems that they're facing, right? They get higher up the stuff that's keeping them away from their family, etc, etc.
Mike Ciorrocco
Here's a big lesson here. Okay. Branden Dawson tells the story about how he got in touch with grant and how he started partner up with grant powerful, okay, I would love to partner up with grant Matter of fact, I'm going to but I learned from Brandon how to do this and then you could take it down and do it on your level and your local level. You know, he went to the tenex growth conference with intention. I wanted to see what was going on there. He wanted to see what people had to say. And then once he bought into it. And he understood the 10 X movement understood Grant is legit, he actually filled a stadium with 34 35,000 people. What happened from that point is, is that he went back and he paid for diamond access, he paid for access to grant. First of all, we talked about that in the mentor group a lot. The cheapest way to do things is to pay for access. And he paid for access. And when he was going to take a picture with him, right selfie picture behind that they had the 10 X backdrop of whatever he said and whispered in his ear, hey, listen, what would I have to do? Or will the process be to go through and explain to you how we can make billions together? I got an idea, something to that effect. Change the ballgame. Change the ballgame. So if that's how they think those guys that make hundreds of millions of dollars, right? Why wouldn't we do it on our local small scale at our local level? quick call, by the way, we're doing real estate agent calls. We always do and we try to set coffee we try to make make relationships, build relationships, the game changer for us, okay. We used to call and say hey, listen, we'd love to help you grow your business help you make your transactions smooth. yada, yada, yada, none of that you have time work. Game changer right here. I text an agent or call an agent say, Hey, listen, do you handle home buyers, or you just the listing agent because a lot of times that would be their objection to us. I'm just the listing agent, I just can't have cash buyers come still I only do listings. And they're so full of crap because all of them if they had a buyer come across their desk that was ready to buy, they would take them out, show them the house and take that commission. So I text her call to Hey, listen, do you handle home buyers? Because I have some buyers in your market?
Oh, yeah, I do. Yeah. Okay, great. I gotta go over the program that we have, I need to set up a call with you. Bang, bang never had to know it's 100% close rate. never had anything like this before in my life. It goes to that right there that principle of finding out how to grow somebody's top line. And when we do that we have a proprietary process where we're doing this at our company at nations London, it's it's like nothing I've ever seen before. And now what we do, and I'm not going to release all of it right now. But what we do is we get them in our ecosystem. Just like the TEDx Grant cardones got us all in this ecosystem, once you buy a book, or once you do anything, you're in their ecosystem, emails, internet, you know, you got they got the pixels, like laser focused on you, right? So what I thought and I got from that is okay, how can I get referral partners, not just agents, but referral partners and our past customers, which we call our power base, into our ecosystem, so that they're only thinking about nation's lending. They're only thinking about see rock and his team, they're only thinking about us. That's the idea that we've come up with it nation's lending my marketing department, the best in the business, without a doubt. We have some geniuses in there, Howard Lee and his team. And we talked about ecosystems a lot. And I got it from him. And then I also noticed that grant and Jared were talking about it. And so that's what you want to focus on is getting that top line growth for people and then bring them into your ecosystem so that they only have another option that they want to work with you. They want more, they crave more from you, whether it's leads to make their business grow or knowledge where they can make more money or any of that kind of stuff. That's what's needed in the industry. And in order to do that, Justin, you got to get up to snuff on your knowledge and know more about it than they do.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. I love it, man. Such good stuff. love hearing about your value proposition, what you're doing. No doubt, we have a very bright future implementing the stuff that we've learned from grant from each other. I'm gonna ask you our final question here. As we wrap up, Mike, this has been fun. I'd love to do this all day. But let's let's, let's finish with this question. You're a big thinker. No doubt. What does a guy like you do to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your possibilities? Teach us.
Mike Ciorrocco
Well, first of all, I I'm human, just like everyone else. So I'll have some times where things are working for me. And something I was talking about the two two little voices in your head. Something creeps in and says you don't deserve that. Like what do you that? You just got lucky there. That's not from work that you did or your abilities. That's it. You have this little voice and I crushed that son of a. I don't know if I'm a lot of custom here, man, but I crushed that son of a gun, man, I'll step on it because soon as it starts to creep in, you gotta stop it right away because it manifests itself. So when you have two voices, and again, everybody's got voices in their head. You have to be crazy voices. You talk to yourself a lot. Look, this has quotes around it. I don't know if you can see it, but it has quotes around it. What do you made of because I say that to myself all the time. What do you made up man? What do you made of I'm built for this. I talked to myself all the time. But the voice that you need to listen to in your head is very important. You need to stop the negative voice we all have it. And what happens is as long as I do that, and as long as I'm focused on that I continue to think big I feel like I'm I'm capable of anything. Now I can't run a four minute probably can't run under four minute mile like a three minute mile. But physically i can i can get towards it. But anything else that can like that can happen. I always think to myself, I can accomplish that. So and so did it. I know I can do it.
Justin Stoddart
They're human too.
Mike Ciorrocco
That's what goes through me. It's all about self talk, reinforcing constantly writing my goals down, and then sharing them with people to see who's going to be on my side and who to get out of my life. Because that's very important. People are so scared to do that it's harsh. But if your wife or husband or brother or mother or father does not support you and your dreams, like grant says they're robbing you, they're stealing from you. And if anybody stole from you would you want them in your life?
Justin Stoddart
Powerful and powerful? Yeah, I am. I love hearing big thinkers like you. What are you made of? That's powerful. And I think what you're made up has to do with the people around you as well like you're saying is that we can we could be choosy and who we spend our time with and those people that expand our possibilities. You've done that for all of us today, Michael and thank you for your time coming on that you think that your real estate show, helping expand our possibilities and I;m going to encourage this audience if you're not yet following this guy, how do they find you Mike, where do the find you?
Mike Ciorrocco
Well on IG, Instagram, it's mikeycroc and also I have a private Facebook group called What do you made up with Mike ciroc just like that. And if you any of your listeners want to jump in there I'll go ahead and prove them. Join them in there. We share our stories for inspiring other people. We lift people up. It's all about just building people and finding out what we're made of.
Justin Stoddart
Love it man super powerful. Thank you again for coming on the show today. My final request of everybody beyond just sharing this out going to join in Mike's group are three simple words and they are GO THINK BIGGER! Thank you today Mike for helping us do that. Been a total pleasure I'm and look forward to our next conversation.
Mike Ciorrocco
Thank you, Justin. Appreciate you, man.
Justin Stoddart
You bet you too.
Justin Stoddart
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, excited to be here today and have an absolute superstar, both in business and in life, who has become a very good friend of mine, here in the Think Bigger Studio. Haris, total pleasure, we're thinking big today aren't we?
Haris Hadziselimovic
We're thinking big. I'm right here.
Justin Stoddart
For those of you who don't know who Haris is, he's a top resale agent in Southwest Washington has an enormous brand presence and that today we're going to debunk some myths. But before... In fact, here's the here's the myths that we're going to debunk which are this, which is, is it possible to have a really big business that sells a lot of homes, and at the same time, have very personal relationships with your clients. Many think that the two are exclusive, you can't you can't have one or the other. And Haris is here today to debunk that myth because that's exactly how he's built a big business. So, before we get into further introducing Haris, let me just say that remind you that the purpose of this show is to help you to think bigger. I know that when you start thinking bigger your activity starts to follow, you start to believe that there's something new and possible for you and as you do the different activities, you get different results, which then enables you to have a life of tremendous impact. And that's what we're all about here. And so again, thank you, Haris. I'm going to have the courage to pronounce Haris's name... which sounds so smooth when it comes out of your mouth. I'll practice it. But the next time we do this episode, I'm going to nail that sucker. So um, Haris, tell us a little bit about you. You're out of Vancouver, Washington. Last year you guys sold how many homes?
Haris Hadziselimovic
Yeah, out of Vancouver, Washington. Last year, we sold 172 homes, which is pretty awesome. That was great. Killer year. Yeah, that comes down to selling a home but every 2.1 days, which is incredible, something I really wasn't sure how be possible or achievable. And then we went for it and we did it.
Justin Stoddart
Man, that's impressive feat. Let's even touch on maybe before we go delve into how in the world did you do that? Something that you're even, you've prioritized much higher than business, take care of your clients is taking care of your beautiful bride, and beautiful little girl. Tell us about kind of what that's done for you in life and just kind of the pride of being a dad.
Haris Hadziselimovic
Yeah, it's incredible. So a little Eva, now's one years old. It's awesome. And it's so crazy to think how much energy and love you just want to give, give, give, give, give, and what you get really good at is being prioritize doing stuff that matters. And and it just transformed really the life and business you get great at saying yes and great at saying no. And it actually in the funnest part of the journey has also been to share even with the world, you know, have her be present on social media, how people see her. I can't even tell you how many clients reached out event friends and said, Hey, we love that you had or tell us more or Let's reschedule that appointment. You're a new dad and spend your time with her. So it's been really cool just to see that support and I think part of that is just being being a business that being human, and then actually seeing people see you for who you are. So it just opened up a whole new world and we're just tickled. We're just thrilled. He's such a good dad. It's It's It's fun to watch him. I know, having your you and your wife having a child didn't come easy for you guys. Right? There was some challenge there. Yeah, absolutely. It was it was a long road, a year trial, a trial run, and then successfully without an embryo and ended up being surrogacy situation and everything worked out. And now we have a beautiful little girl and life is amazing.
Justin Stoddart
So cool. And I would say probably anything really good at life rarely comes really easily. And I think that's probably true both in in personal things, right. Having a great marriage, being a great dad and building a great business. It's not like you just were born to do this stuff. You had to become this right?
Haris Hadziselimovic
Sure. You know, I think part of it is some learned behaviors, some of is your environment. Others is just, you know, maybe who you are a little bit starts to creep up into the business world and it keeps expanding. And then that turns into just having a large business and being connected to a lot of people. So but definitely a lot of learned behaviors that summer, I would say natural and others are more learned talents. Now, I know. I think the last time we spoke we went deep into this. We will go deep in it today. But your background, you come from Bosnia, yes. And your childhood looked a lot different than probably most of us that are listening to this today. And that remember the story of you guys playing outside with football helmets on not because you're afraid of getting tackled, but because of why? Oh, yeah. So there was definitely times where we had we had helmets on and then we were friends with like the UN people to that were there and there's a time I had like the bulletproof vest on. It just life is different life is different here than it is someplace else. And there's certainly other countries that go through something similar I think us is a little bit of unrealized potential and opportunity. And I think it's somewhat normal that people wake up and they just wake up, they brush their teeth, they got water, they got just see they go to work, everything's normal. And maybe we just don't often realize that not everybody has that. And in their situation, so it's cool to realize that we're really great country with a lot of opportunity.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, yeah. That's you've really helped me to see that even more clearly Harris is the fact just hearing your story. I spent a couple years in Brazil and know firsthand, not as well as you do. But But we live in it in a country in a time in an era of unlimited opportunity. Very much so. And if we're, if we don't yet have the life that we want, either we're furiously working on it, or we just maybe are missing the fact of how, how ripe success is for the picking here. Right? Not that it's easy, but it's available.
Haris Hadziselimovic
Yeah, it's available. It's up to you to decide if you want to take it so and and I have a lot of friends in the business and out of the business that have always asked for advice on what to do next. And sometimes you have to step back and realize that somebody may want to ask for it but not willing to do it. Yeah. And others will just doing it, but then maybe don't ask him for help yet. So you offer healthy, but it's definitely a place for everything's possible. There's just are you going to do the work? Yeah, yeah, we actually had this conversation a day or so ago, about when people reach out to be mentored, like a filter, sometimes you have to use is, is this person going to do anything with it, because last thing you want to do is, is be that escape for them that they're looking for, which is to continue learning instead of actually doing? It's a very natural, I think it's a good feel for them to say, Hey, I talked to so and so I got some advice. And then they can kind of say I did this today, and they move on with their day, but not really get productive. So you have to be careful of, I would say enabling that. Yes. Sometimes you tell people, let's talk about let's do this. They feel good about the phone call, but they don't actually have any action plans afterwards.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, yeah. I love that. So let's go back again to the topic of going big like actually building a big business selling, right 172 homes? Yeah, you guys touched a lot of families, you guys served a lot of families. And there's this myth, I think that's perpetuated, maybe by those that don't produce or maybe those that just haven't seen that it's possible, you can actually touch that many lives, and not just touch them in a transactional way. Right? You get very personal with your clients, you have a big business and I watch you interact with them, I watch them interact with you. And it's phenomenal to see how personal you are with so many people talk to us about how you do that. Like is that number one, you're you're validating What I'm saying is true that it is possible. Yes. And and and give us some some tips, maybe for those that have a mindset block of like, you know what, I don't want to build a big business because I would rather have a personal business right, which is probably some of the thinking that people have.
Haris Hadziselimovic
Yeah, I hear that all the time. So people say I will only sell X amount of homes or service X amount of clients because they simply don't want to. I don't want anybody else helping. I want to know everything I do best and it's really it's getting interesting when you start figuring out jobs that you're doing, and for example, in this case, real estate, what it takes to complete a transaction from A to Z. And what you find along the way is that you simply find people to do it better. So you start getting some help. And then that starts to give you more time. So you can actually spend time having a lunch meeting and having a conversation with somebody, and really getting more personal with them. Because your may no longer be buried in paperwork. And then as the business grows or changes, you start adding a little bit more people to kind of help that. And it can really transform to a bigger thing. Now even if you're not necessarily a team or your solo agent, that's totally fine, too. I think just spend time talking to your clients as friends. And and I think, you know, important point to make is you may not like every client, just like you may not like every friend. I think that's okay. Yeah, I think we're sometimes we're trying so hard to be accepted and loved that we want them to accept us and love us and that's not the case every time and that's okay. But the ones that you do can with him enjoy, go deep into that relationship and treat him like a friend because they do become friends. I love the fact that I know stuff about my clients. I know their kids names that I babysat some kids in the minivan while people were looking at the house. And I think that's cool, right? So I think that with technology and changes if we just keep being humans, and being who we are, and just using technology as a compliment, that this can get this can get pretty big and get pretty cool. You know, that now the growth from selling 20 homes or 30 homes or 50 homes to 150 or hundred 70 or more, has taken time, solid energy, solid effort, and then really good people. You know, I mean, huge kudos as to who I surround myself with as far as my team, where the awesome group, they are, they're well respected. They're well taken care of. They love their job. They enjoy what they're doing. They're there. They're treated in a high regard. They're empowered. So I think it starts with, you know, if somebody is looking to say, I would like to do more, whatever it is sell more cars or sell more coffees, you've got to start with who's in your circle that's actually going to help you get there. So how you treat those individuals and respect those relationships, I think is going to make even a bigger impact on the trajectory of how high you go or how fast you crash. So I mean, I'm proud to say that our team is really synced up, they love what they do, they're on the right seat on the bus, you know, when they're actually the job they're doing and then that really empowers them to go and help our clients when they're put in that position in that role, and that really took us from, you know, selling 50 or so home stability and being well in the hundreds. It's so so what I hear you saying is that in order to get to that point, obviously no one person can do everything that a real estate agent is required to do, and reach that level of success without some teammates.
Justin Stoddart
Right. All right. And some other great points that I heard you make is it your your clients, maybe you haven't said this yet, but I've heard you say before is that by having a team, it doesn't diminish the relationship that you have with your clients, if any, if anything, it enhances it. Because all the back behind the scenes stuff that that would take you away from your client is now being done by somebody else is probably more proficient than you and no offense. Right? So which allows you to be able to be fully invested in that relationship? Well, you're face to face with somebody, you can be there knowing that you don't have to worry about that agenda or that whatever it is somebody competent is handling it.
Haris Hadziselimovic
Yeah, that's huge, because it allows you to be present in the conversation. And what I mean by that is sometimes you know, real estate agents, every transaction takes hundred 50 things to do. And there's always some new fire that's popping up that needs to be taken care of. But there's another agent calling you that is creating something urgent that needs to be done. And as most agents were just jumping from one to the other one to the other and just like keep putting out these fires, if you have helpers to do that, that I can really let you stay in the conversation and be present actually listened to understand Yeah, not just listen and go right. And that makes really a huge difference. So it's nice I've, I love having a little visits with clients, past clients that are friends and coffees and texts and funny jokes and memes and all this fun stuff. And then again, the biggest joy has been having Haven and to be able to share her and have a lot of people just plug into that and tell me their story of having a kids are not being able to have kids. And that's something I just personally connected quite a bit with. So it was just it was it was, for me, it was a very honorable thing to be that year to live for them to tell me their story and what they're going through.
Justin Stoddart
Just to kind of support a couple things that you're saying here I recently hired, I should say we Old Republic title hired an assistant that will get to work with me full time gets to work with me, I get to work with her full time, it's more more like it, but it's more deeply enhanced. The relationships that I get to have both with with clients as well as great interview guests like Haris, because I can be totally present not thinking about I gotta end this because I gotta get back and do XYZ things. I've got somebody who's way more talented than I am in these areas and I'm just bad at that can really kind of take the reins, I totally get what you're what you're saying there totally agree with it. I'm firsthand, I'm experiencing that, and having the right person on the right bus and is everything.
Haris Hadziselimovic
So yeah. And I think, you know, and I think where people sometimes fail is two things. They think success is easy and smooth. I think it's, it's, it can be easy. It's hard work, but it's easy and direct. Yeah. And it's not Smith. It's not smooth at all. Like, maybe you know, two things go right that week. But rest of it is just like a line like this. You're just like you're trying to figure it out and getting to the next level. And I think some people tend to kind of bail quickly from their plan, like don't make a hire like you guys just did. And if something goes wrong, day two or day seven, they go What's wrong decision should have done it instead of maybe coaching and training a little bit more, making it better. So I think agents tend to have a tendency to do that. So then it kind of go back to their to their really they're old ways. And then to as you grow, you need to still remember everybody that you help with and keep doing what you did when you sold one house or sold 20 years old 30. So I think selling hundred and 70 or 200 250 shouldn't have any impact on the actual relationships and time spent with those people or level of care. It should just be better and stronger. I mean, I stopped by the other day and visited Ray little one of my very first clients, I'm talking 16 years ago. Wow. And it was great. I was going to another appointment. I was early. I was driving by his house and I just drove by and saw there's a truck there in the driveway. Just call him up said Ray you home buddy. And he's like, Yeah, what do you do? And anyways, why did then and I went shy with a 15-20 minutes and I was on my way. But that was still because I care has always been an awesome guy. We text we talk I see him on Facebook and he got to, you know, talk to me about his life and what's taking place there and it was awesome. So where some people say no, I gotta gotta go run after the next sale. They're forgetting what actually gotten there, which is the personal relationship and those touches that you want to see.
Justin Stoddart
I had a conversation with an agent yesterday, I'm going to be sure that he sees this video. I won't call him up out by name. But his concern is that people don't, I don't think they want to hear from me afterwards, I've done the job that I've meant to do, they didn't hire me to be a friend that hired me to be a real estate agent that works done. I feel awkward calling them back. And I told him, I said, you know, my wife and I absolutely love our home like it's the perfect fit for us. And I said, it's hard for me to separate every time I have those feelings with even just the thought of I'm grateful for my real estate agent, right? Oh Felicity just recognize that but when somebody does a good job and helps you either buy or sell, and puts you in a good spot, that if you do a decent job of staying present in their life, that the good feelings that they have about what transpired there actually gets credited in part to you and for you to not call in fact, it was interesting, this agent had texted one past client and it was really uncomfortable for him. But he said at one client was like, I didn't know you were still in the business. I've sold three homes since then. And I would love to have use you. In fact, I might even use you again. But I just I didn't, I didn't know you're in the business, right?
Haris Hadziselimovic
Yeah, that's tough, you know, because I think we're always balancing the act of being overbearing, and being in front of them. But at the end of the game, if we believe we did a great job, and we want to do it again, we need to be present, and we need to be in front of them. And I think the customer deserves to know hey, I'm still here. And I like you and I want to work with you. And you also never know when that opportunities have changed. And someday, somebody's gonna say, Hey, I do want to move and I really didn't plan on it, but I know I can count on you for a resource. And even if they don't want to move that here, a co worker, a neighbor, a friend, that's even a tough spot or something's going on, they just need to devise Yeah, maybe a year out maybe a six months out, maybe you know, maybe they just need somebody like a soundboard to talk to. It's great to be that person say hey, I think you could help me with this. Let's invest 10 minutes on the phone just like you know, bounce ideas.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, so powerful to stay in contact with people going back to this concept of what you're doing sharing your daughter on social media, right? And people, some people have some kind of privacy concerns around that. I get joy out of seeing in a little Avyn and she just a doll and seeing how you dote on her is one of my favorite parts, because it reminds me of my role as being a father and how much I adore my children. And I think, you know, Facebook, we had this conversation prior about how it is extracting a massive amount of data from people. And most people don't leverage that right? That rather, they're being leveraged by Facebook to have ads served to them. Sure. And a better way to think about that is leverage the fact that Facebook's putting all of this content in front of you and what you do with it can massively transform the way that you get personal with your clients. Talk to us a little bit about kind of how you see that and and and how you use the data that you get on Facebook, to be very personal with clients and serve them at a higher level.
Haris Hadziselimovic
Yeah, absolutely. I think that everybody has gotten on Facebook or a lot of people have chose to be there because they want to share they want to connect they they're putting content out there and you know, like me putting out a post about Avyn, I clearly want people to see, look how cute she is, or look at this funny thing that just happened or look at me doing this and that with her. So I want to response back to that. I think sometimes we forget that. Well, sometimes there's posts out there that people are sharing that really deserves a better response or more interaction. So really, Facebook, to me is like an online content. And then I take lavos conversations offline, and reach out to them separately. So if somebody's looking for somebody who's looking for a job, somebody looking for traveled advice, somebody needs help with x, there may be a story that may be posted, it just inspires me that I'm like, that is really, really cool. I want to somehow get involved in this, I may reach out separately, and then just be able to use that to connect with people and again, be human. Because I think some of this we have to consider back that. If we were just sitting in a coffee shop, and you said hey, I just did this. I would probably say oh my gosh, tell me more what happened. How did you get to that point where I think Facebook is really each one of those posts is another coffee shop meeting. We're just not maybe seeing it that way because we're so fast on the scroll that the likes scrolling and like, rather actually taking the content into it. And we need to stop for a minute and again, be present and just take a little bit more personal into what that looks like. So it could be solving somebody's problem or giving somebody advice. One of the funnest things I like to do just to have fun with it is when somebody buys a new car, and they post it, and we're friends on there, I mail them a Starbucks card. And I just say congrats on your car, because obviously excited when I buy a new car. It's fun. But I mail out a card and I say congrats on your car. Yeah, and I say only thing better than a brand new cars, a free cup of coffee. And I just send that out. And I get nothing from that. I didn't get a ride in a car. Yeah, but I think it's just fun to be like, hey, you did something cool. And I just want to celebrate it. And so here's a free cup of coffee.
Justin Stoddart
You know, it's interesting. The concept of marketing is to stand out to be memorable, right to add value in ways that that you own used to begin to own a piece of real estate people's brain. So that right as real estate agents, you can then serve them when it comes to real estate, right? That's the purpose of marketing your business. And so many people, when they see something that they like on Facebook, they do what the other 53 people did, which is they push the like button now you're one of 53, in my opinion, that's not standing out, right, in my opinion, what you just did, which is you took the fact that they bought a new car and didn't just like it. But you actually did something offline, I think that's where it gets really powerful is that you that you now begin to leverage the social networks that are amazing at leveraging all of us, right, by getting us to tell our whole life story and learn everything about us. So we were super concerned about that. And what we're saying is, sure, do that. But in addition, grab that data and go do something unique with it. It's going to make you stand out and and enrich your own life. The fact that you get to send that Starbucks card and say Congrats, totally, like, it makes your life Amazing, right? And it's fun, and you send it out and then generally people you know, they'll call back or text back and here's my cup of coffee or what a cool surprise or whatever, that that single act of kindness. Yeah, you know, that took four minutes.
Haris Hadziselimovic
It has just made their day to go to the mailbox and go wow, I had no idea. I didn't expect this. And it's not a brand new car if they bought the car and said, Hey, here's a cup of coffee to put in a cup.
Justin Stoddart
Oh, man, and then your your willingness to share, right? The fact that you're sharing life stories, again, gets people to where it's not just one sided. It's like they know you, right? They know even they know the struggle that that came to get there. And and how excited they are now, like you're letting them in on your life. I think that's part of the personal. Is that right?
Haris Hadziselimovic
Yeah. And that plays a huge role. I think we're agents and salespeople in general, especially were meeting new public, you know, we're not so quick to share and open I think we're trying to always, you know, meet a certain parameter of professional on time, knowledgeable that we forget to say like, yes, I'm all of these things, but hey, I'm also a human. And then you'd be surprised how many times you get into those conversations. And then people go, man, I can't believe that this will happen to me. And then they tell their story. So kind of comes down a level. So I my advice is to not just look at names on a paper as names on a paper, or leads or buyers or sellers, but actually to look at it as people, people with stories. And once you connect with those people, and you really figure out who they are, what they're about what's important to them, you have a whole new level of relationship that doesn't have to do anything with real estate. But for me, it's very cool to walk into Fred Meyers or Starbucks and know somebody there and go, Hey, how are you? And I know that I'm, I know who they are, they know about me, and it's just a friendly, genuine meeting that may be one minute or five minutes or 10. But it was like that was a cool personal touch in a relationship. Rather than just going that's the guy that sold me a house and we move on. So I think it's, you can take it to a level that that you want. But it's certainly fun to be, you know, invited to birthdays or marriages like weddings and things like that or it's how much you want to connect this really how deep of a life connection you have with others.
Justin Stoddart
On the tactical side, I want to get to this because some people would see your activity on Facebook. And they might ask like Harrison, like, when you go show homes because you're on Facebook a lot, it appears right. Talk to us about kind of the time blocking or whatever strategy you use to make that happen. Sure, I think it's about not being hostage to it. So there are people that are on there all day long. Sometimes it's surprising people that I know that work nine to five, but then I see their comments and likes at 3am. So I'm like, hey, whoa. And actually, sometimes I'll reach out and say, Hey, okay, I saw you like what I posted 3am like everything, okay?
Haris Hadziselimovic
Yeah, why aren't you sleeping? So I think it's just sharing and finding what you think people would like to see and want to engage in, and then just putting it on there. Now one thing I do like to do is listen to responses and actually engage with them. I feel like if I write something to somebody, and they reply back, I should be replying back to that. Yeah, and I've had friends even kind of poke out of like, should you just like all the comments and reply to them. Yeah, it's not a computer writing it's a person on the other side.
Unknown Speaker
funny.
Justin Stoddart
That's amazing.
Haris Hadziselimovic
So look at what my daughter did or something like that, or look what my dog did they end up so if they're sharing their story, and if I don't reply to it, they probably feel I didn't even read it or acknowledge it. So actually take the time to reply it put that back. Yeah, now timing, I think it's just about connecting things. So if I'm having lunch, and I'm eating by myself, it's cool. It's fun to see what people are doing and what they're up to. And I'll scroll through that. And I'll just do some replies and see what they're up to. If there's something more meaningful, reach out separately to send him a text or do instant message and then start talking to him that way as well. So I don't think it takes as much time unless you choose it to. So if you allow 15-20 minutes in the morning, 15-20 minutes in the afternoon, in the evening, then you can really get diligent about it and be able to respond to people to whatever you want.
Justin Stoddart
So do you just let Facebook decide what shows up or do you go intentionally searching for certain people or have them put into categories three and say, Okay, these are my A plus clients, everything like that now.
Haris Hadziselimovic
So I don't do groups, it's all it's all organic. And if people interact with me and I interact with them, they show up a little bit more. Every so often I'll get curious, just like, oh, gosh, I haven't heard or seen so and so for a while. So sure enough, I'll go to their page and take a peek and just see what they're up to. And I might reach out in separately to be like, Hey, I haven't heard from you. But I saw you went to Disneyland. How was it? Yeah. And I think this all comes down to getting data but actually caring about it. You know, and it's somebody that you didn't connect with, don't force the relationship. You don't need to call somebody seven times or messaged him seven times. If they're not responding. Like you're just not in sync and you don't want to be in a connection. That's totally okay. Again, you're not mental like everybody, not everybody's mental like YouTube. That's normal.
Justin Stoddart
I love that man. What, what wisdom you've shared with us here, again, busting the myth that you don't, it's not one or the other. It's not. I'm going to have a big business or I'm going to have personal issues with my clients. You can have both and I would even argue based what I'm hearing from you is that one of the key ways that you have a big business is the fact that you are personal.
Haris Hadziselimovic
Yeah, I think it's I like the people that I work with. Period. I like my team. I like our clients. I love hearing from them. I love doing annual winterhawks event there are a lot of people come to for me, it's joy to see these people running them into a Costco or Fred Meyers. It's awesome. I think it's cool. We get to connect and we get to talk. And we get to like refresh of refresh of what's happened in our lives. And to me it it's almost like I'm a relationship manager that happens to manage home sales. You know, yeah, in a weird way. Yeah. Where I have all these core relationships. And if you do a good job, and you've proven to be trustworthy and good results, people come back to you and you have to redo the process many times over your lifetime.
Justin Stoddart
So cool. What a great perspective to put it in. Alright Harris, let's move to the to the signature question of our show. Which is you're obviously a big thinker, right? That's why you are on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. What does a guy like you do to continue to expand your own possibilities to continue to think bigger?
Haris Hadziselimovic
Yeah, a lot of times it starts with what's possible. So I mean, now again, being honest, it was tough to imagine helping more than 50 people a year. When you start thinking about numbers and time and what it takes and all the steps that go into it. It was really tough, and then starting to think, okay, one day, I'll do 100. Well, that starts to become almost unimaginable, right? But then you start tracing back. It's scary, right? But then you start tracing back some of the steps of what you could be doing and how could it get done. And then you find a ways to do it. And then you enter doubt. So once you sell hundred once, well, then was it a lucky year, that those last four closings just kind of happened to show up in December rather than January and you barely made it? Right. So you start having some self doubt. And then afterwards, you end up making a plan again, and you do it again, and then you show you can actually do it. So for me, it's always just been thinking bigger thinking of the possibilities, and sometimes coming up with crazy numbers like, hey, what if we did sell X amount of homes? What if we did meet this many people? What if we didn't get this many reviews? And my team will sometimes go, Okay, here we go. But it's like, hey, let's just try it. Let's just talk about it. What's cool is that as my conversations have gotten higher level, now they're thinking higher level sometimes even than me. So when we tell when we meet in our planning meetings, and we're talking about life and goals, there's sometimes bringing up bigger numbers than I think should be done or could be done. But it's like okay, let's make a plan for it. So it's been it's been great to influence and surround myself with those people that actually thinking higher which helps me elevate bigger as well.
Justin Stoddart
Love it man. Always a good answer from this guy. No wonder he's got big success and has amazing people around him. Been a total pleasure. Thank you for coming onto the show today. And coming down to the studio. This is this is fun.
Haris Hadziselimovic
I want to see it live.
Justin Stoddart
I know. Right? Instead, we don't quite have a studio audience yet but super grateful to have the privilege to be in conversations like with people like Haris, they make you think bigger, no doubt. And so re listen to this one share with other people. If this has been beneficial for you encourage you to send this out. Let other people know that they don't have to be small thinking they don't have to choose one or the other. They can have both. They can have it all so and not only a great business and great personally shifts in business but great personal life altogether, which again, you've defied that myth force as well. So anyway, want to thank everybody for tuning in today and Haris, always, always a pleasure and we'll look forward to connecting on the next one and my final request of everybody here. Three simple words GO THINK BIGGER. Thanks Haris!
Joe Fustolo, Founder of the uber popular Facebook Group, Masters in Real Estate, knows a thing or two about creating community in real estate. Tune in to hear his most important tips.
Justin Stoddart
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show I am your host, Justin Stoddart and fired up about today's episode as it's one that I know is very pertinent to top agents and aspiring top agents. And it's how to recruit, listening to this show, you're going to learn principles from a master recruiter, they're going to help you attract the talent that you need to get your business to the next level. Let me just remind you that the purpose of this show is to help you think bigger. I know that as you do, as you start to think bigger, your actions start to change, and your outcome starts to change. And ultimately, you're able to go on to live a life of great impact, which is what my mission and passion are all about. So I'm excited to put you in front of people who are big thinkers. Just like today's guest, his name is Connor Schwab. So first and foremost, Connor, thank you for coming on the show today. excited to have you here.
Connor Schwab
Appreciate it, Justin. It's a it's an absolute pleasure.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, good stuff, man. So Connor and I have not known each other very long, but I learned really quickly. He's a master recruiter his back and let me tell you a little bit about his background. He worked for years. recruiting scientists into the biotech space. He lived in a Silicon Valley area at the time, and that we all know how competitive it is to for computer engineers, right? You've got Google, you've got Facebook, you've got all these massive companies like Apple, etc, that are trying to recruit talent. Well, the, the biotech space is similarly extremely competitive. And so he worked for a recruiting company, not only worked for them, but he was actually the top 20 out of 2500 recruiters. So the guy did this all day long and was masterful at it. In addition to that, he's since got his MBA from a university that maybe some of you are familiar with. If not, it's you'll want to be familiar with it. It's called actin a CT when he walked me through what the curriculum look like. And it was honestly probably the answer to all of the things that I thought were wrong with a university education like it was very much in action, doing work, working with real companies, helping them get to the next level. So his education and his work experiences is super legit. So I'm excited. to have you here, Connor on the show today to teach all of us how to be better recruiters.
Connor Schwab
Absolutely can't wait.
Justin Stoddart
Let's get into it, man, let's get into it. So let's talk a little bit about maybe give us three principles, three principles that you feel like if people did these things. They would be better recruiters. Now, keep in mind that some of the people are listening to this, and they're a solo real estate agent. And they are saying to themselves, I'm ready to hire my first assistant, I can't do it all myself, right. I've got a transaction coordinator, but it's still I need more help. Right? And they're at that spot in their business. There are others that already have a very full team, right? And they're trying to attract talented real estate producing agents to their team, or maybe they want a brokerage and they looking to attract talented teammates to their brokerage, right. So I would imagine that these principles would be applicable to all three of those scenarios. Would you agree?
Connor Schwab
Absolutely. That's Yeah, and so the three principles would be the first is, you know, start today, and that is start to build your talent bench right away. The second is more getting into kind of the interviewing and the vetting process. And that is different ways of interviewing. It's called behavioral versus hypothetical. And the last one is kind of doing your background check. So you know, who you hire on your team. And once they're hired, you know, you're, you're, you're in a committed relationship. So you want to make absolutely sure that the person is going to be type person you need before you kind of pull the trigger and bring them on board.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Three great points. Let's get into the first kind of building your bench, right Talk to us a little bit about what that is, and then what it looks like on the ground for a real estate agent.
Connor Schwab
Absolutely. So this can be used for solo agents, but it's also extremely applicable to someone who's building a team on a large scale. That is you. Anytime you come into contact with someone who you think kind of has the right stuff to be on your team or shares qualities that you share or you admire, that you could see on your team, you want to have some sort of lists going and you have, you know, you start with the number one, the perfect person that would be perfect on your team, and just kind of build it from there. And these can be people that you're meeting out of dinner friends at an open house, you know, maybe you see a listing that they have that you think's excellent. Anything like that, and you start to build it. And the reason why this is important is because sometimes a recruiting effort for a top agent can take three years. And you know, you want to start having those conversations early and being warm and being inviting and building that relationship so that when the timing is just like selling a house, so when the timing on their side is good, maybe maybe their kids graduate and go to college and they're looking for something new or they You know, have a disagreement with their boss or their company changes, then all of a sudden, you know, your your invite to come onto their team as a Top Producing agent is all of a sudden very realistic.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I love this point, Connor for a couple of reasons. One, I think is that relationships take time when people are going to make a commitment to go to work for somebody, they're simply putting their entire entire family and livelihood in the hands of that person with whom they're going to work. And that doesn't happen overnight. Right? It takes time to develop those relationships. And maybe like a simplified version of what I hear you saying is you need to dig your well before you're thirsty. Like if you're, if you're going to find somebody at the moment you need them, it's too late because it's going to take time to build that trust and get them to really believe the fact that they can, that they can come work with you and that their situation in life is going to get better. That Is that a fair way to put it?
Connor Schwab
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
Justin Stoddart
Great stuff. Okay, so would you say then that somebody should even if they don't have the need right now, let's say that they're new agent, they're like, I have no need for an assistant yet or my team's perfect. I've got all the right players, all the right producers, I don't need to recruit. You probably see better than I do the mistake in that thought, right? Is it like I'm not in recruiting mode right now.
Connor Schwab
Life happens, you know, you might have the perfect team setup. And then life happens, you know, someone might move their spouse they might have to move or some something less fortunate happens in their lives with all sudden they can't work anymore. They have to make an arrangement or or they get headhunted to another opportunity themselves. So that's why having that bench is so important. So that if all of a sudden you find yourself kind of up the creek without a paddle, you you have a plan, you have a place that you can go right away to your bench to your list, and you can start calling people right away.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. That's that's super profound. And I think there's probably some people that are saying like, I don't ever want to have an employee, I don't ever want to have a teammate. I just want it to be me. And I think that there's probably a whole nother episode that we could do as to maybe that why that's flawed and All thinking, if you're looking at the burden of having somebody work with you, I think you're missing the opportunity of one you spending more time in your area of brilliance as well as empowering someone else's life to be in there. Right. So I would encourage you if you've totally discounted this conversation, because you'll say it, I'll never have that need. I think you're thinking too small, and maybe selfishly as well. Right. I think, oftentimes, when we, when we think that way, it's all about us, as opposed to who who else is life can I help? I know that the best producing agents and teams that I see out there, it's it's an abundant mentality. It's like, Look, I've got something great, and I want to share it, and I want to help more people improve their lives and their situations. So good stuff, man. Actually, let's go to point number to walk us through what that was again, and then again, kind of the details of that.
Connor Schwab
Yeah, it's, it's very simple, and it's, it's pretty profound. And I think every agent, anyone who's ever interviewed can use this right away. It's very simple. seen as it's just a car About a week after New Year's, I'll kind of use a New Year's example. If you had a sample size of 10 people, and they were all trying to convince you that they were going to do their new year's resolution this year, all 10 of them could probably tell you about their plan, how they're going to wake up at 630, go to the gym at seven, you know, have that healthy breakfast, and they're going to continue that, you know, diligently for the rest of the year. But as we all know, out of those 10 people who knows, maybe only two will do it. But if you speak with all of them, you know, Jan, one, hypothetically, they can all tell you about their plan, and it's probably a brilliant plan. But when the rubber meets the road, very few people actually act on that. And so the easiest way that I was talking with 10 people and I wanted to bet and know who was going to hit their new year's resolutions this year, I'd say, can you tell me about your New Year's resolution last year? What What was your plan? Did you hit it? And how about the year before that and The best predictor of future performance is is is their past behavior. And so that's essentially what behavioral interviewing is. And you're using people's evidence from their past, to predict their future and how they will perform. So instead of saying, Hey, you know, when you get into this position on your first day, what are you going to do? You would say, hey, in your last position on your first day, how did you approach it? What was your plan? What were the numbers that you set to hit? And did you hit those? And if you didn't hit those, what did you end up hitting?
Justin Stoddart
That's powerful Connor, like there's nuggets of gold and what you're saying right there because again, yeah, all of us are absolutely brilliant in the in the upcoming year, right, but, but how are we in the year that just passed? Tons of wisdom. So when you've asked those questions, do you you get a feel for who people are based on if they get score me or if they get excited? Like Let me tell you about last year or so. God, that this year's gonna be better?
Connor Schwab
Absolutely that and that's when the subtleties make a large difference and and when you can be sitting in front of someone, because if someone can dive right into specific details about the plan, then you know, like the more detail that have and more character, they can tell the story with this, obviously an indicator of how true it is. But if they're brief, or they stumble over details, or they really don't have much to say at all, or they kind of answer a different question, that's a pretty big red flag.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Man powerful interview skills right there. Because you're at you're trying to identify in a short period of time, is this the right person for the, you know, to get us to where we want to go and can I help them get to where they want to go? Ultimately, when you're when you're assessing if somebody you know, the right fit for a team for a position? It's, are they going to, are they the kind of person that accepts the help and does the work right or is this Someone that I'm going to have to constantly be prodding along. That's, that's brilliant man. And I think every real estate agent that's listening to this is going to thank you for that. You know what, you just shared it there. Let's jump to the third point Connor. Kind of this vetting of references. Tell us a little bit about how you go about doing that. And maybe why that's important.
Connor Schwab
Absolutely, you know, if you're working in a, in a local market, you know, everyone knows everyone through basically one degree of separation. And someone can, they can even have a great past or, you know, they might even be able to interview extremely well, even behaviorally, and bring up some great evidence from the past and paint a really pretty picture for who they are as a candidate. I'm an optimist in general. And so that when interviewing that can really get you into trouble. So you have to kind of curb your optimism and really think almost you almost guilty until proven innocent in a way because it's You're going to be investing so much in this person, that they really need to earn your trust and your confidence in order for them to come on board if you invest so much time and resources in them as an employee. And the way these references references are, are so important, and one of them, you know, when people give you references to take, that can be helpful. If you ask really pointed questions, you know, would you hire this person again? If you had to rank this person amongst your team, how would they stand. But at the end of the day, they're listing people that they chose, so they could choose people that they're in good favor with. So they might have had some sort of falling out or butt heads with someone or not necessarily had a great reputation with the majority of people around them, but they could select one or two people to be the references. So you want to make sure you're you're speaking with former managers, if it's a reference that they list, and then what I actually prefer to any of them is more like Blind references is what I call them. And that's when you just start to call people around their sphere. And ask about their reputation. I mean, super, if you're highly hiring a real estate agent, the easiest way would be to call into the office and just say, Hey, you know, I'm interested in buying your listing house, I was thinking about working with this agent, like, what do you think? Or you could walk in and, and you could make a relationship with another agent and ask them, you know, like, hey, how, how is this agent? Like, what have you heard about him? A friend recommended but I'm just I kind of wanted to do my own research. So you're using your network to do some background and check in on people to make sure they weren't, you know, butting heads or kind of a bull in a china shop wherever they were last.
Justin Stoddart
I love that. You're right. It's it's really interesting how people tend to kind of almost like socially engineer their references, right? They're curated and it's like they're almost scripted as to what they're going to say. Whereas When you start kind of extending beyond that you start to find maybe a different perspective.
Connor Schwab
It takes some diligence.
Justin Stoddart
One of the things that that I've learned, actually from a Keller Williams recruiting class was that every reference you ask, Is there anyone else that I should talk to you because nobody really wants to bash anybody are destroyed their career, right? But if you can say, Is there someone else that I should talk to you that might have even a different perspective? It's easier to say, yeah, you should probably call this person, right. Who had maybe like a really terrible experience with them. And it allows you to get insight without somebody feeling like they're, you know, being a villain to that person's future.
Connor Schwab
That's absolutely right. And I'm so happy you brought that up, because it slipped my mind. That's a great point.
Justin Stoddart
And this has been so insightful. I really appreciate you coming and pouring in the time. If anybody here in the Portland market is interested in getting to know Connor Schwab, he's here in this market and I'm sure you can be accessible. if people have questions outside of this. I feel like your expertise You know, would, you know would benefit a lot of people? Is there some way that people could get in contact with you Connor if they had a few more questions for you?
Connor Schwab
Yeah, absolutely. The the email that I'm using right now is careers. kW pp@gmail.com. Cool. And that's the the email that I'm using for recruiting right now.
Justin Stoddart
It's good stuff. Okay, great careers. Kadim e pp@gmail.com. I love it. Now, Connor, you're a big thinker, obviously at it at a young age, you've done some impressive things, graduated from some impressive institutions, and done some some incredible work for not having, you know, had a 30 year career, right? You've kind of condensed that down into a shorter period of time. And I know your future is very, very bright. I'm very confident of that. You're obviously a big thinker. You come from a family of big thinkers. What does a guy like you do to continue to expand your own possibilities to continue to to to think bigger yourself.
Connor Schwab
Yeah, absolutely You know, I'm glad you brought that up and I was thinking about it for the past 2030 minutes or so and I saw this, this is a it's called the best self journal and, and it's also goes into the theme with new year's resolutions. But I'm a huge huge goal setter and basically breaking down large goals into into small daily habits and this journal basically as a platform to incorporate almost any best any like self help book you've ever read. You know, whether it's like the one thing or Habits of Highly Effective People and it's, it breaks down large goals into daily habits and your and planning for your daily routine. So coming into the new year, I'm huge at goal setting. And starting my day with this and ending my day with this instead of my cell phone has been kind of the small thing that is allowing me to think bigger.
Justin Stoddart
That's great. I would agree. Or just second that that I've started this year kind of my big a habit that I'm focused on first this year that I started probably fourth quarter of this past year, which is daily journal, night, and morning. And it's amazing how much of an impact it has when you can get clear on paper where you're headed, right, remind yourself where you're headed, as opposed to just all the reactive stuff that we get hit with. So I love that it doesn't surprise me at all that that's your thing. And it kind of is insight into how all of us can think bigger. So I appreciate you sharing that. And I've been really fun. Number one to get to know you and number two to have you on the show and have you poured in such value. And I would encourage anybody really to reach out, get to know Connor, he's a great guy. That will be a great person to have in your network and someone from whom you can continue to learn from and have have again in your network. So thank you, Connor for coming on today and sharing what you shared and again want to thank everybody for tuning in. And my final request, three simple words, which is a charge and an invitation all of us which are going Think bigger. Thank you Connor for helping us do that today and thanks everybody for tuning in.
Connor Schwab
I really appreciate it.
Justin Stoddart
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart fired up to be back with you after a big business planning workshop yesterday. And we're following up with some amazing value today that is going to help you maximize the amount of money that you're putting out in sponsorships, and as real estate agents, you're oftentimes getting hit up like, hey, put your money here, put your money here and how do you maximize that? How do you get the best use of that money? I have with me an expert, a dear friend and an expert on this topic. He's been doing it for for a long, long time, we're going to get into that. But before I do, I want to remind you the mission of this show, which is very similar to mine, which is to help you think bigger. I know that as you begin to think bigger, your possibilities start to expand, you start to take different actions, you start to see things that have always been there, you just didn't see them before. And I know that one of the best ways to help you think bigger is to put you around other big thinkers, people that are doing great things that will inspire you to again expand your possibilities. So with that being said I'm a estatic today to have with me one of my longest term friends somebody who was actually a college roommate, since that time, he's done some very impressive things--built an amazing family. In addition to that, he has a really impressive background all about sponsorships and he's been on the... Jason let me welcome to the show first and foremost you come on to Think Bigger Real Estate Show.
Jason Smith
Hey, I've got crazy stories about you being roomates and we'll keep it will keep it clean here.
Justin Stoddart
Sounds like a little bit blackmail folks. Listen. Yeah, we'll keep it we'll keep it will keep it clean. Keep in mind we went to BYU, right? So the stories aren't that crazy, but they probably at least caused me to blush. But Jason, tell us a little bit about your background, what you what you're doing now and kind of what led to that so we can kind of get a get a picture of kind of where you're speaking from when it comes to helping real estate agents be really good at maximizing their money when it comes to sponsorships.
Jason Smith
Yeah, so as you mentioned, went to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and had the pleasure of being your roommate,
Justin Stoddart
Is that on your resume, you put that?
Jason Smith
Right at the top. No, went to BYU and got my, my degree in advertising communications there and after that, well during my time at at BYU, I was I was interning with the Utah Jazz and helping with some game operation promotional type of experience there and and work and from there, build some relationships and and had a little quick stint in Denver where I was working for the Denver newspaper agency for a little bit. But always my love was if I could combine sports and advertising You know, it was that's what I wanted to do right and, and so kept in touch with the jazz and there's a full time position that came up and after a year of being in Denver came back and sold. corporate sponsorship sponsorships for For mountain America, or excuse me for the Utah Jazz, and then after, after a few years of that there I went down to back to BYU in the athletic department. They had a third party rights holder that was managing their sponsorships for them for the athletic department. And it called IMG college and worked for them for about seven years or so and then went from the sponsorship sell side and selling sponsorships and helping brands activate their sponsorships and these different venues and, and I came on the brand side and the corporate side with mountain America, as I mentioned before, and and so I've been doing that for about six years now where we're, I now go to the BYU us or the Utah Jazz or the Real Salt Lake so the Boise State's and and work with them on maximizing the value And the exposure for mountain America credit union, which is a regional credit union based in Utah.
Justin Stoddart
Awesome stuff. So again, you've worked with some of the biggest brands in the Intermountain West, I should say some of the biggest teams, those that have loyal followings, right? Yeah, I know. IMG for those that aren't familiar with with that group. They run advertising and promotions. They are an outsourced kind of arm to help sell promotions and advertising for hundreds of universities, including the University of Oregon, and countless others, right? They really just have a great system. And your job there, Jason, as I as you stated, but just to kind of reiterate how this is going to tie into today's conversation, is that you would go out and meet knee to knee businesses and say, How much money do you have to advertise? Let's maximize that. Right let's get the most amount of exposure, the most amount of reach, the most amount of results for this amount of money that you said you have advertise. Is that true?
Jason Smith
Yes, absolutely.
Justin Stoddart
No. So now you find yourself on the other side of the table. You're part of a regional credit union that is looking to maximize its money whether you're putting it at Boise State, whether you're putting it, you tie it BYU at the Utah Jazz, these other places where there are sports marketing happening, you're trying to say, okay, where can we get the best bang for our buck with all of these different audiences? Right?
Jason Smith
Yeah, yeah. And it's it's tricky because there's a lot of there's a lot of noise that can happen in a lot of these venues. You've been to, you know, Portland Trail Blazers, games, or Oregon games or Oregon State games, you know, there and in Portland, that there's a there's a lot of noise that can take place there. So you got to be really strategic on how you separate yourself.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. And I think, you know, for the real estate agents that are watching this again, I know I've got an audience that extends beyond residential real estate agents. Let me bring us back here. So for them, it's probably more like their local high school right? They're high school is coming to them. And they're saying, Hey, you know, we're selling advertising at games, you can put up a banner in the outfield, you can put a banner up in the gym, you can put a banner out along the fence at the football games, you can put advertising inside of the, you know, inside of the roster, right? There's all these different places where you can put money. A lot of us see posters around town and have a picture of like the baseball team, and there's different sponsors around the edges, right? Lots of demands on people's money again, going back to the business planning workshop that I taught yesterday, according to the millionaire real estate agent, book, which is a great textbook on how to build a really successful business. Again, not just be a successful salesperson, but to actually build a sales business. They talk about having 10% of your marketing or 10% of your of your gross commission. Go back towards marketing and you might think like, that's a lot of money like fun. Let's say it's $300,000 gross commission. It's $30,000 a year and again, me being a guy that's That's very referral based. I think a lot of people spend a lot of money in areas where they maybe shouldn't, where they could take that money and actually pour it back in to the biggest advocates of their business actually getting a chance to go have meals with them, maybe intimate client client events, I think, if you're looking at, okay, if I'm going to really dedicate 10% of my gross commission this year, I'm going to first and foremost, I'm gonna put on the list of like, I'm going to take care of the people that are taking care of my business, but then you get to a point where it's like, okay, I can't like it doesn't make any sense to put more money into those people not gonna get any more results and they don't need it right. We're good. So now it really becomes more of a marketing game right? You've essentially taken care of your Salesforce right which your your key advocates, but now it's how do you expand that and and I shared this with you earlier, Jason and a lot of my audience has heard me say this is it in order for people to consider you to help them buy or sell real estate, you have to own a piece of real estate in the rain. You also know mindshare. You have to you have to show up. There's this zero percent chance that they will use you if they have forgotten you like it's virtually impossible, they will never use you. If you're actually not in their brain and they can't remember you, right? They will not I share a story. When Chris and I, my wife, we were selling our first home in Utah, actually, I was very good friends with the agent who I probably should have used. But I simply forgot about him, signed up with another agent didn't do the greatest of jobs. And but it was only because he was in my brain that I used him. I wouldn't prefer to use my friend, Craig, who ended up you know, it wasn't great for the relationship, the fact that I didn't use him and I should have shame on me for forgetting that forgetting him shame on him for not owning a piece of real estate in my brain, right? I forgot at the time of needing a real estate agent. I forgot him and I think that's what most real estate agents are trying to avoid is the fact that they've got friends and family peers, past clients that have that that would naturally use you if you if they didn't forget about you, right. And this ongoing quest of how do I actually expand my reach get more brand awareness so that when I get an opportunity, people like oh, I've seen you, I've heard you, you're familiar, you must have been doing this your experience I could because your name is not unfamiliar to me. So with that amount of money right after you, I think you've, you've really poured money into taking care of your sphere. Now it comes to this, this reach of marketing, right, which is, you can put money out that that money's not working for you. The first step is we have people that are taking care of looking out for you. Now, with Jason's expertise, we're going to go into what are the best practices to actually get that money, those dollars working for you and bringing back clients for you. So Jason, I'm gonna turn it over to you here a little bit, you again worked on the side of helping you helped real estate teams, individual real estate agents, as well as insurance teams. That came to you to said we have this amount of money that we want to spend, how can we best use it share with us both the good and the bad of what you've seen of what people have have done that was maybe not a good use of money or that was a good use of
Jason Smith
You know and those are those are all amazing. points. And I think the key is, is when you talk about real estate of mind, you, you have to make sure that what is the message in that mind to what kind of real estate is it? You know, is it a real is it really good real estate or is a bad real estate? You know, so so you have to you have to make sure that that your messages right, you could be super annoying in your advertising. Right? And that could be for better or for worse, right? I mean, they might always remember you because of something that you've done that that maybe wasn't wasn't, you know, could have a negative impact on their mind. But but you want to you want to look at it from a positive standpoint. So I am I'm big on, on making sure that you're that you're giving back to the community and helping the people in which you serve. And so when, with real estate agents specifically, I feel like there is a big focus on the face of a real estate agent and we Everyone's smiling right now, as I as I, as I said, it's like, I gotta have my face on there. Right? So people know who I am. I some sometimes that's, that's that that can leave a negative impact. And I'll show, you know, a case in point. So I had a, a real estate company and I'll leave them I'll leave them nameless, you know, I'm here with a regional real estate agency that will actually this was an insurance agency, actually, that that was, you know, along the same lines, they wanted to make sure the faces were out there. Well, at football games, this this agency wanted to sponsor a kind of a repetitive type of promotion where every time the football team converted on third down and got a first down each agent and there were probably 40 agents in this in this in this district. That was that was In sponsoring this team, they, they wanted to put their face and have it rotate through every time there was a first down, but third down, and so their faces were going up, you know, like, like, like crazy. And it was hard to hard to manage that, you know, from internally with that. But it became to have a negative impact where we were actually starting to receive calls on the negativity of that impact. And now Now I'm going to now I'm going to take I'm going to take a different approach to that, you know, I recommend to them that they do something different, but that's what they wanted to do. They were all equally paying for the sponsorship. So they wanted to make sure that their faces were seen on this big video board. But take a little bit of a twist on that. So with mountain America, we have a similar type of promotion where at the Utah Jazz we, every time the Utah Jazz make a three pointer. They'll be brand new That goes up, but it's all branding. And it's it's mountain America branding. But what we do is we we take a little bit more of a different approach than then, hey, this is who you call and this is who you are. This is the email address, or this is the phone number, or it's, it's more for every three pointer that the Utah Jazz make during the season, we donate $50 to the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Wow. And so what what happens that that adds up at the end of the jazz season. Now I get with real estate agents, this probably wouldn't be totally doable, and I'll take it down to scale to like high schools. But But you know, at the end of the season, you know, we're looking at a $50,000 check, you know, with how many three pointers the NBA is jacking up right now, but, but that's what
Justin Stoddart
I want to make an association right here is that you're associating your brand Yes. With you know, people are already celebrating, right? It's like a three pointer. Yeah, right. Like the three and everyone's like, Yeah, yes. And then it's like this you start to associate these these feelings of like excitement with Mountain America Credit Union. Brilliant, right?
Jason Smith
It's in, it's in it becomes instead of having my, our logo flashed up all the time it is flashed up, it's there. But there were now top of mind. And its associated with something positive now, not only within the game, but also that we're giving back to the community that we serve. And so it becomes it becomes this. And we did a survey through throughout the entire state of Utah on what was the number one thing that that associated us and it was the three pointers and giving back to the community. And it's tied through our radio through our TV through our end game experienced social media, you name it, it's all tied through it. So anytime a jazz fan is consuming that that information, and there's a three pointer, it's going to be associated there and it can be associated to giving back so let's associate that to like a high school right? So instead of throwing a banner up at a baseball with your face and the phone number and things like that. What about what about just your logo? And maybe who you are, like as far as your name. But then, but but try and find a way and I'm not going to tell you what to do. But like, try and find a way that's giving back to the community? How are you recognizing five high school students from that high school, on being kind of other kids at school that are excelling in and getting good grades? And how are you recognizing people in the community that are doing good. And as people start to associate that when they come to a football game, and they see you on the field recognizing five kids for how amazing they've done in their grades or treating people with kindness or whatever it may be? Like, that's going to have a positive real estate in the mind, right of what goes on there. And so, I share with you kind of a big scale with the jazz but you can do the same thing on a lower scale and really show you're serving because people want to do business with those that they trust and they feel that you're giving back to the community, in your advertising and sponsorship efforts like that is going to go a long way.
Justin Stoddart
I would imagine that if, as these promotional opportunities go out to a real estate agent, or they hear about them, that the other side would be totally cool with somebody being creative to say, hey, look, I'd love to sponsor here's what I'd like to do. I'd like to give back to the community. I'd love to highlight stuff that's good. I'd have I can't other than just the logistical challenge of managing that I can't see of any downside of why an organization why a school why a team would not want to have somebody sponsor and give back or highlight stuff you know, maybe it's not even more monetary compensation maybe like you said, it's just, you know, we're going to highlight people that are doing good, like, rewarding good behavior, you know. I want to point back to your your point about the this insurance cover company that had 40 agents that were bringing a new agent up every time there was a first down. We are already so inundated in our society with information streams. So you think about it used to be just a phone call, right? The only thing that would really, and maybe like letters in the mail were the things that that took our attention and maybe TV. Now you add in the fact that we've got text messaging, and now we've got Facebook, we've got Facebook Messenger, we've got Instagram, Instagram messenger, we've got LinkedIn, we've got LinkedIn messenger
Unknown Speaker
It's a lot of noise.
Justin Stoddart
We've got Twitter feeds, we've got like, it's just, it's insane how many inputs of information we have coming at us. And I think what ends up happening is that brands get diluted really quickly. And the only ones that stand out are the ones that A) spend enormous amounts of effort and, or money, or they get really creative, right? And I think that's what I would encourage this audience to go is it. You don't have the budget to spend over 10% of your gross commission on marketing you shouldn't. It's going to It's not, it doesn't pencil, and even getting to that number might cause you to feel uncomfortable, right? $30,000 if your GCI 300,000. $30,000 is a lot of money. Now, the thing that I would encourage you to do is be creative, like some of these things that you're sharing here, Jason, let's talk about somebody approaches you to say, should I hang... Or would you be willing to sponsor a banner in the outfield at a baseball game? I've got thoughts on that. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Like, should you shouldn't you? What are your thoughts?
Jason Smith
It really depends on what your strategy is. Right? So it's so I mean, you really have to you have to look at that. That's the whole point is you have to have a marketing strategy. You can't just start shotgun and things everywhere. You can't. You can't just go just because a kid rocked up and said, Hey, will you give me $300 for this for this alpha wall banner that you do it? I mean, it may be strategic, that might be a big client of yours, right? That that kid, you know, he might be he might be the ticket to a $2 million home, right you know, so You're like, actually, that's $300 very well spent in that case, right? You know that to help so, but but you have to be strategic about it go Where, where, where are my, where are my potential clients? Where are my potential customers? Where, where are they? And, and if you don't know that you really have to sit down and look at it. And there's, there's people who can help you with that too. Right? But, but I think you have to really have a marketing strategy before you start throwing money in places or else it won't do you any good at that point.
Justin Stoddart
It's a quick way to go, you know, to go broke and get really frustrated really quickly and and give yourself you know, pink slip. You know, I tell people like, and it's exactly to your point, Jason, I was smiling when you said that because I totally agree, it's like, Where are my people at where's the highest likelihood that what like, where I'm going to get business? And if it's from the baseball team, because I have a son on the baseball team, and I'm gonna be sitting in the stands at baseball games all year long and all the parents who are the most like You could refer me are staring at my face in the outfield, then that's a really good use of money. But if, for example, your kid doesn't play sports, and you're never going to go to a baseball game, and you're just some random face out in the audience, the chances of that creating any sort of return is, is is slim to none. Right? So I think, I love that question that you asked, like, who are our people? Where's our business going to come from? And, like, what's the message that we put out? Like, what's the message that they care about? Which I hear you saying is you've kind of been the architect behind this Mountain America three point. deal, right is like who are our people? What do they care about? They care about the Jazz winning and making three pointers. They care about, you know, the Huntsman Cancer Institute and all the good that they're doing. Everyone's lives been touched by cancer. And so it's this like, like, you've really nailed it there. Right?
Jason Smith
But let me add to that too, is we're not just doing that at the Jazz. Like it at BYU games, when when when BYU is getting first downs, we're doing the same thing but we're donating to the American Red Cross, right or up at Boise State in Idaho. You know, we're when we get first downs or 3-pointers, we're donating $50 to the Bronco Life Foundation or the St. Luke's Children's Hospital. Right. So it's what matters to some of these different areas. And that's always not, it's not always one thing, you know, in one region of the area, right? We look at what is important in some of these other these other areas. But the case in point you have to there's this consistency now, right? So when people associate themselves with Mountain America, it's giving back to the community. We're people helping other people, we're helping members achieve their financial dreams. We want to to be that that real estate in the mind when they're thinking, who can I trust to help us with an auto loan or if we want a home equity line of credit or if we want to do our mortgage, or if we want to look at investment portfolios, or if we just want to get our kids youth accounts, or checking accounts or savings accounts, right? We want them to go, we can trust Mountain America. They, they they give back and I want to I want to associate and work with, with those that that care about the community that I live in.
Justin Stoddart
And again, back to not being diluted. And I think it gets really important. In fact, we did a panel, I was part of a TEDx growth summit here in Portland. And I had one of my favorite people in agents, Heather Robbins, who does a really good job and her comment was, you first need to find out like, identify like Who are you? How do you want to show up? Like, why are you doing this business? What impact do you want to have not just, I want to, I want to create some income for me and my family. Like that's not enough. You got to get more clear on how do you want to impact your community? And once you have that, then you can start to say, Okay, how do I want impact my community? Well, I'm really passionate about animals right rescue animals, I'm really passionate about the environment. I'm really passionate about children and or, you know, solutions for cancer, like whatever it is. That's already like in your heart that's already like, yeah, that's important to me. That's really important to me. Once you identify what that is, now, you can start to build what I hear you saying, Jason is a is okay. If that's who I am. Who else is my like, who else is my tribe? Who else cares about that?
Jason Smith
And it doesn't always it always doesn't mean that you have to give money either to somebody right for or like donation to a to a charity or or a cause. That's right. I mean, it you know, it can be human capital, it could be you, you and your your agency going and serving in the community somewhere. You know, there's so many different ways that you can do it because I can I can just hear people go Jason, we don't have that kind of money. Just throw $50 for that. Well, you don't have to do that. Like, the point is, is to be creative in your community that you serve. Decide how how you can how you can make an impact. And by doing that, and associating your name and your agency name, with with the community, and that that does include having your logo on things that does include advertising and some of those things. But it also means that you have to be a little bit creative and how you're showing that you care, as well.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Yeah. Great stuff. Man. I quick action steps for anybody that's listening today. Let's kind of walk through this. First of all, again, kind of what we've identified, what is What do you care about? Right? Like, what really is it your heart that you really want to have your brand associated with? Once you've identified that? that's step number one. Step number two is Who else cares about that? Who's my audience, right? Step three is where do these people hang out? Where Where is my tribe at? And then next step after that would be how do I craft a message that communicates what we care about, and how I'm contributing and a part of that, would you say that's a that's a fair, tactical list for everybody?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. And I think you just you have to really know, know your audience, you got to know your demographic, right? You got to know exactly who you're targeting. And you got to know who you want to be, as well, too, right? Like, what is your brand? What would it What is your brand? What do you want that to be? And then from there, outline a marketing plan. That is creative. That's not just reactive, but actually strategic. And then craft that plan that, that and this is key that separates you from the competition, right, you have to be separated. So that's we've talked about a lot of creative stuff that you can't just go by on the radio waves or the TV, right? We've talked about really creative things. And so that's, that's actually the really fun part of marketing is sitting in a room with your team and going, Hey, how do we be a little bit more strategic in our marketing efforts? And how can we, instead of just doing the traditional advertising which is super noisy, right now how can we how can we Carve that out. And I think that probably would be a great step is to if you have a team or even if it's just you and bouncing it off friends or another professional in the, in the marketing industry, you know, sitting down and saying, hey, how can we how can we? How can we think a little bit bigger? Right? Yeah. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
A great question here from Stephanie Peck, great, great friend of mine, great agent here in the Portland area. She asked this question, what's a good script to respectfully decline? When I'm asked to sponsor but choose not to. That's a good question Stephanie.
Jason Smith
Yeah, in a lot of times with that, when when we need to, when we need to respectfully decline things, I usually it's going to be something along the lines of Hey, we actually have a market a marketing strategy, and we have certain dollars allocated to this strategy, though this is an amazing opportunity. You know, I'm we're, we're not able to do that right now. I'm not saying, I'm not saying no, forever. But for right now in our strategy, we're going we're going this direction. But thank you. Thanks for thanks for thank you for give, be grateful that they're giving you that opportunity. And but but just let them know that you're that you're your strategy and your marketing strategy is, is in a different direction. And it doesn't mean that what you're bringing is not worth anything, but it's not the direction that you're going right now.
Justin Stoddart
Stephanie, let us know if you have a follow up question to that. I think that was great, Jason. And I think part of what I hear you teaching us, Jason as well as that if you're really intentional, then these opportunities, like you're going to be able to rather than saying, like girls come to you and say Hey, would you be on our poster for our volleyball team, and you blend in you're one of 14 different companies around the edge, or you're one of 13 companies on the back of a T shirt that nobody is ever going to recognize not gonna move the needle. Ask yourself Again, like what's How do I want to be seen in the community? Like, what are the causes I care about? What are the causes my customers care about? Those should be very similar. And then how can I creatively go and create some marketing campaigns again, for those that work in the Portland market that that are real estate agents, I would love to work with you on that. Jason, I both kind of geek out on marketing stuff, and that we could probably come up with something creative to help you produce some solutions here, and maybe even tap into Jason and say, Hey, man, what do you think of this? I'm sure. We'd love to help you help. So again, please utilize us for that. But again, I think if you can be proactive, and have an advertising budget in place actually know how much you're going to spend, then it gets easier to say, you know, our marketing dollars already committed for this year. Appreciate asking, and I think, you know, the way you stated it, Jason was was awesome. Thanks for that question, Stephanie. All right, Jason, anything else that we may have missed before we wrap up?
Unknown Speaker
No, I think we're good. Yeah. It's been a pleasure being on and and I was just telling Justin earlier before we hopped on I need to get back to Oregon. I grew up in Tigard. So
Justin Stoddart
Tigard High. Yep. We it's funny, Jason. I actually met we were college roommates at BYU. Prior to that, we were a college football teammates. We first met at, at fall camp. He was an offensive lineman, I was running back and so we had a good relationship there and friendship that's that's blossomed over multiple decades now. He's one of my favorite people. I get more excited when Jason Smith comes across my phone than just about anybody else. So we have a good time. There's all kinds of inside jokes that maybe will tell you at some future time.
Jason Smith
We'll do a whole interview just off of that one day,
Justin Stoddart
Oh, that would be fun, just like a throwback, making fun of ourselves. So Jason, the final question, the signature question of the show that I ask everybody that comes on, which is you're a big thinker, I mean, you've done some amazing things you're entrusted with, I don't know how many millions of dollars of advertising money from your regional credit union to maximize that a lot. Obviously, you've you've, you know, built an amazing career and brand and reputation for yourself as well as helped other companies do that... you're a big thinker. Is my point. I'd love to have you teach us what you do to continually expand your own possibilities to continue to be a big thinker and continue to think big. I know, you also have some other business interests anyway, you're just got some big things going. Teach us what you do to continue to think bigger?
Unknown Speaker
Well, I think the first thing is you can never be complacent ever, and there never be a time that we ever just arrive. Right? You always have to be thinking, you know, with my team here about America, you know, I'm, I'm looking at my 2020 year and going and we're going to have a team get together and and the whole the whole thing is going to be based around, what's next, how do we become a little bit better. Even with the current part internships that we have, how can we how can we make those even better? Or how we how can we provide even more value? And I think the more that you have those types of dialogue, and I think the key is, is we get super busy in our lives, that whether it's in work and in our personal lives that but with work specifically. And we can do the same thing with with our families as well. But, but making time for strategic thinking making time to really think outside the box because that is when you get people in a room and you start throwing ideas up on the wall. That is that creative juice that flows is so important, because it's so easy to be reactionary. Just be like, Okay, I have all the tasks that need to be done, I need to get those done, which are important and we need to get those done. But we need to schedule out time to really think and think bigger, and that's the that's the key is really just Just setting aside time to actually do the thinking. And, and, and also, I just, I was laying in bed last night I couldn't sleep. And I started having some big ideas come to my head. And I reached for my phone and I just, you know, my wife sleep everyone sleep in the house and I just start typing them down and writing down the ideas and the big ideas that come into your mind. Write them down immediately. Because if I want to written those down, and I woke up the next morning, I probably would have forgotten, forgotten. So. So it's it's taking it's again, taking time when big ideas calm even throughout while you're driving. Obviously don't write while you're driving, but just make sure make sure that you capture those moments that you have ideas come to your mind. Otherwise, they're really fleeting and they could they could just go and you can lose it.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I mean one one tactic for while you're driving, just grab the voice notes, right? Yeah. Just do a quick recording. So awesome stuff Jason. No doubt, you can see why having a practice like that has encouraged you to continue to be a big thinker. I want to thank everybody for tuning in. And thank you, Jason, for your time, its been super fun and I knew it would be, and I'm thrilled to have this information out there helping agents as they plan their 2020 and decide where are my marketing dollars going to go, how much am I going to commit to this? Now you now have a framework and some really good principles through which you can be able to maximize your dollar. So thank you Jason, for the awesome conversation and for all that you have contributed to the Think Bigger Real Estate audience. And I want to...
Jason Smith
Yeah, my pleasure, man.
Justin Stoddart
And I want to end with this request of everybody, which is three simple words and they are GO THINK BIGGER. Thank you, Jason. Appreciate you being a part of the show and we'll talk soon, everybody!
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, and I'm very excited to have a guest back with us today who's done some amazing things. Before I introduce him, I want to remind you the purpose of this show is to knock over the lead domino, which is to increase your thinking. As you start to think bigger.. the last domino is that you have a life of amazing impact and it all starts through thinking bigger and so I've got the great privilege of hanging around people like today's guest to help you think bigger. As I put you around big thinkers and build this tribe of fellow big thinkers, your life will be impacted. That's my goal. I'm excited to have Jim Remley back he is out of Southern Oregon. He's a 30 year veteran of the industry, actually started his first year in real estate at 19. At 23, he was already opening up his first office, built that to 17 offices, and now runs a top of 500 Real Trends business. He and his agents will sell almost a billion dollars this year in sales. They've done that for the past number of years. I'm thrilled to have Jim Remley back on the show. Jim, thanks for joining us again and pouring back into the Think Bigger Real Estate audience.
Jim Remley
Always excited, Justin, you're an amazing guy. And I love the I love listening to the podcast and the live broadcast myself. So it's a pleasure to be here.
Justin Stoddart
Thank you, Jim. that's a that's a great honor having someone like you say that. For those that aren't aware, I'm going to I'm going to kind of bring this up now. Jim, in every regard, in every right is a coach, again, he's done it himself and he helps countless agents do it. And so before I make you all wait to the end, I want to point people right now to his website, which is erealestatecoach.com, and I'm on there for $97 a month you get online, you get live training, tons of videos, and he gives all the listeners of the Think Bigger Real Estate Show a 14 day free trial. So if you don't quite make it to the end of this episode, please go take a visit. If you're interested in upping your game in 2020 now's the time and Jim's a great guy to learn from so thanks for that generous offer. By the way, Jim, I really appreciate you offering that.
Jim Remley
You bet.
Justin Stoddart
So today's show is going to go into the, obviously, we are experiencing a bit of a market shift and how do we shift with it? How do we prepare ourselves to move more into a buyers market? Jim, explain to us a little bit what you see economically. And we talked a little bit before, would you kind of share with the audience what you're seeing, you've been at this for 30 years, right? This is this is not new to you to realize that markets inhale and exhale,describe to us kind of what you're seeing right now and maybe what we can be prepared for.
Jim Remley
So we're I was telling agents, I was at a convention up in Bellevue, Washington last week, we had this conversation. You know, we're, we're 10 years into a seven year cycle. And so we've had this great run and spent a tremendous upswing in the market for a long, long time. But we have to expect that the market is going to shift at some point and you can't expect just that to continue on and on and on and on. But the shift won't be as dramatic as a great recession, we can predict that it's not that situation. People forget in the Great Recession when we entered that we had 11 months of inventory going into that. Right now we have four months of inventory nationwide. So it's a completely different market environment. We had much higher interest rates than we do now. So what what will drive the shift is inventory really. And as inventory increases, that's when you go for it's all supply versus demand, right. But last year, I just was we were having this conversation just about what changed, you know, kind of the feeling every kind of kind of feel it in the market. There's kind of a feeling in the market right now about a little bit of a shift. But last year, at this time, in November, December, we were sitting at a much, much higher interest rate back interest rates that it hit a peak in December. And in most markets, it was like a wet blanket hit the market. In my market. We ourselves were off 50% last December. And the same time we would still had double digit appreciation on many markets. And so by our resistance to prices, combined with higher interest rates caused everybody to kind of step back and say, wait a second, I'm not gonna lie for a minute. And the Fed at that point in December last year said, we're going to raise interest rates three more times in 2019. So I was preparing my agents were a major market shift. What happened is the Fed reverse course completely and actually decrease rates three times, maybe even four times. Coming in, we got another one coming, actually, they just announced. So what happened is we had this increase of inventory steadily all the way through July. And price appreciation went from double digits to single digits. And in some markets across the country. We actually had price reductions. And then in August, and now in September, we've seen the market kind of will come back. And the reason is, interest rates hit a seven year low in August. And so my in my market in September, we had a 40% year over year, increasing sales 40% more than we did in 2018. So people would say, oh, we're past it. We're not going to have any kind of correction. But that kind of thinking is what everyone wants to think, cycles. And you can't think that way, you got to just assume that at some point, there is going to be a correction. And if I prepare for it now, I'm gonna be way ahead of my competition. So that's, you know, that's a message, I'm telling all my agents, let's start thinking about how we're going to position ourselves coming into a buyers market. And, Justin, as you and I talked about before the session, it's really a tale of two markets. Right. And I don't know about it, where you're living and working. But for most of the country, the the luxury market is a completely different market than the starter or move up market. And so is that true for you?
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, we're absolutely seeing that we're seeing, you know, price reductions, we're seeing increases of inventory, you know, in all the luxury markets. So yeah, it's absolutely and that's it tends to be as you have identified tends to be kind of the, you know, the lead indicator that we're coming into some softening of the market is when the high end starts to be affected.
Jim Remley
Absolutely. And I just study last week. quarters has been an increase in the number of luxury listings across the country last quarter, it was up 19% but that's a nationwide but in the West, when you break it down by the West, there's a lot higher numbers on that. I was looking at the numbers recently for my market, we're up 114% on the number of listings that are active in our market compared to a year ago in the luxury category, then is up 19 92% I think though he was up 35%. So you look at these numbers in your market and you can see it's really a tale of two markets below in in my market, it's below 750 your market might be a little below million dollars, but at some status or substrata I should say the market is different, right? And that will start to flow downward and you'll start to see that creep into other lower price tiers. So we talked about how do you deal with this stuff right? What do I do if I'm listing a luxury house or in my market it's already Creek down and I'm starting to see it. You know a lot of agents are prepared for this because if they got in the market, and 2010 or 2011, or 2012, they've been living through this huge expansion of the market. They've never lived through a buyers market. And so they don't like panic that their listing doesn't sell in the first three weeks. They don't get multiple offers on your list. So what we're training our agents to do is really to rethink Merchandising, and it's a lost art merchandising another name for that's marketing another name for that sales, right? And so when you talking about merchandising listing, it all starts with price, you know, how are you pricing the property. And a couple of techniques that I'm training agents on right now is what I call the market straddle. So you kind of go and you think about the market from a buyer's perspective, right? And if you are a buyer and we should all do this because we don't do this very often. We shall pretend to be a buyer for a day and hop on the major search engines which is going to be Zillow, and realtor.com was the first to also do your brokerage also do your personal website but hop on and pretend you're a buyer and use the system as a buyer. What happens today you have on Zillow realtor.com You're going to be directed the algorithm is going to direct you to use a drop down menu for your price. And you might say, Well, yeah, that's simple. Of course, 90% of consumers will use that drop down menu, they won't type in a price, right? You might say, well, how has that, but cares? Why is that relevant? I'm going to tell you why that's relevant. And it's so important to you understand this logic, is let's assume that you are a buyer and you click on the drop down menu 500,000. The next thing that's going to happen is Zillow, or realtor.com is going to say, okay, what's your top price? That's your bottom price. What's your top price? It's going to naturally take you up by $100,000, increment, not 25,000, not 50,000, not 75,000. Exactly 100. It's going to take you to 600,000. You can test it and see if I'm telling you the truth right now if you want to. If you go to 700,000, it'll go to 800,000. When you hit a million dollars, it goes up by $250,000 increments and a million to 15 million to 15,000,005. So how does this relate to pricing? Here's how it relates to pricing. Imagine that you're going to list a property and Cops tell you it's worth 400,000 just isn't round number. Every agent has this tendency and so does every seller to price the property at 399 nine, because they think I'm going to do like grocery store, I'm going to be like the dollar store, I'm going to be like the Walmart ammo price at 399 nine. So here's what happens because of the ways algorithms work and we live in a search engine pricing world and that's a great term to use with your clients search engine pricing. What happens is a buyer will see that if they're searching between 300 and 400,000, but what happens is every buyer that starts their search $100 higher will miss your listing, they will never see your listing. So this is where we get to merchandising. I can actually straddle two price points if I go up $100 and I never ever, ever, ever use a nine again when I price nines do not exist for real estate search engines. So that's your first kind of lesson point. When you're thinking about how do I start positioning listings to sell in my marketplace I merchandise listings better. Never use a nine by listing at 400,000. Exactly I'm gonna catch everywhere between 300 and 400,000. And everybody between 400 and 500,000. I straddle two price points, I've doubled my buyer activity instantaneously. So that's one strategy that we're using.
Justin Stoddart
Jim, I love that. Let me tell you, let me take you back in time. My mom owned a very successful marketing company that actually service the grocery industry. She would she would provide staffing for both in store food demonstrations as well as merchandising. So when you say merchandising, it reminded me of she waking me up at random hours, early mornings because somebody had not fulfilled on their responsibility to go help do a daily reset, which means that they were changing everything in the store, like where it sit, and we had to go read this little schematic and find out where the hot dogs are now and where the cat is. She's at now. Like it sounded terrible at the time, but there's some really interesting marketing lessons that are coming out of that, like why in the world would have Store do that when their customers come in, they know where everything's at, why would they go and change everything around number one, they probably have some new products. Maybe they've got more products they want to fit on. But changing things up like that got people out of the rut of I'm going to the store to get cottage cheese, they had to look for it. All of a sudden they see products that they hadn't seen before. And what's getting what's standing out to me for you know, and all of us have experienced that where we go into our favorite store. And they're like, why did they change things around just when I knew where everything was that they moved it around? It's because we're creatures of habit, we go and we get the milk, we get the eggs, get the bread, and we're out of there. And we miss all the stuff that have higher margins that got us into the store with those items. But what they really wanted us to see where their specialty items and the items where there's better margins. And so they move stuff around purposefully in order to get people to see things that they hadn't seen before. And what just stood out for me is it that if you're a wise marketer and use this principle of merchandising, it's kinda like doing a little bit of a daily reset, right? It's where you're taking these same principles to get people to see things that they wouldn't have seen before. Really, really interesting. Really
Jim Remley
So interesting about that story is that one of my first jobs was at Safeway and I was a courtesy clerk, going around the store stocking the shelves and everything, similar principle, I had a guy, my manager was a guy named David Sheers, super, you know, straight laced guys, straight as an arrow. He come in every day and he say, okay, if the courtesy clerk looks good. You're going to face the store. That means bring everything forward, turn the label, so they're facing inward. And one day I said, Dave, I didn't call Davis and Mr. shears. Why did we do that? Because the customers come right behind us and they move everything around and ruins it instantly. And he said, merchandising, boy, merchandising. And he said, How many products do you think are in this store? And this is right to your point to about resetting the store. So I don't know. You know, 1000, 1500 he said there's 7252 products. I remember those days. He said, because he knew the numbers. I was so impressed. And he said, How many products do you think the average person that comes into our store buys a month the average family? I don't know. 200. He said no. 142 comes into the Safeway store buys 100 bucks. merchandising helps us reach these people. So they see things on in caps so they see them in places they may not have seen them before, because we're doing a good job of merchandising them is if we don't do that if we don't help these other products sell those businesses go out of business, we have less the stock on ourselves, we make less profit and I have to start firing courtesy clerks.
Justin Stoddart
Bring it all home.
Jim Remley
Okay, I think I better start learning some merchandising he said exactly.
Justin Stoddart
Interesting principles, isn't it that all the way down to the commodity items that we put on our grocery cards, that there's lessons that we can learn on selling even luxury property, you know, you think about facing even right, it's getting the very best side of that product to where it's facing out. It's right out where people are going to see it. It's in places that are convenient. So for example, and I actually told you about my my new resolution of like drinking like a ton of water, because I would go to get milk and these dang merchandisers would have put a table of cookies. Right next to the milk and it's like, like brilliant right? But not because I would walk out my wife would send me the store to get get to get milk and I'd come back with milk and cookies. So like again these these marketing principles run through our society I love that you shared that so what else can agents do Jim it sounds like I'm sure so many tactics this this strategy in the market this merchandising concepts, absolutely brilliant. Is there something else that you can share with us that you're coaching your your agents to do to be prepared for the market shift that that's that's here,
Jim Remley
so another on the price then I'll give you some other ideas other than price, but one more on price because it's so important, is when you sometimes you'll get the price right? Right. You'll list it and you'll go Hey, man, I nailed this. The sellers took my advice. We based it will price the price on the comps in the area. And you put on the market you're expecting like what's going to sell overnight, and you just hear crickets, right. We've all had this experience. Like, what's going on? Is this property? Exactly right. And what happened is, it's kind of like a fisherman, when they get the get best gear, they got the best rod the best pulled the best line, the best bait, they're going to the river, they know where the fish are, they put their line in the water and nothing happens. And you say What happened? Well, what happened is the fish moves, they're not the same spot. Nobody's biting on the line. And we use an example of this, when we do we do something called our price ban, we'll call it a Market Snapshot in our market. So we do is every month at my company, we break the market down by price band, I've got a great broker that I work with Barbara brown wells, all of our team do this. And so we go zero to 151 52 to 5250 to 350, all the way up the market all the way up to a million million five, every price plan is mapped out. And then we say how many active listings are there at the first of the month, how many pending sales were there at the first of the month, and then we do the days on market? The month of supply should say and each of those categories. Now why is that relevant? I'll give an example of why that's wrong. Imagine you have a listing that you listed at 779 just as a round number, because that's what a comp that you got, you think that's the right price. But when you study the market band report, you see that and this is I'll give you the actual numbers for my market. And because I just looked at these as I just taught this class, the market between 750 and a million dollars in my market last month, there were four pending sales. Terrible, right? Terrible, but you go to 500 to 750. When we look at that price, man in my market, there was 32 sales 32 pending sales. So when I'm sitting with the seller, I can say mister mister seller, I want to show you something. This is called my Market Snapshot record. Your house totally comes out at 779 and you're in charge. You know, we can price your property where you want based on the comps. And it does cop out at 779. But I want you to look at something based on just strategy. There's been four transactions in that 750 million dollar range. But there's been eight times the activity in One category down from 750 to 500. It's your call, you're in charge. But what I found is some of my seller said, Hey, I want to be in a more active price range. And by putting your property at that active price range, sometimes we can create a feeding frenzy, because people recognize it's a great value. And sometimes it'll generate multiple shravana multiple offers. Not always, but a lot of times it does. So your call, would you rather have eight times the activity one step down? Or would you rather stay right where we're at with companies pricing your call, and you can see people's eyes will light up and they'll be like, Oh, yeah, I want to be where all the fish are. So this is just, it's like an education. They don't have to do it. But by just having this conversations, people recognize you as an absolute expert in the market. No one else will be coming in and talk about activity, marketing, versus companies marketing. In fact, that's a great thing to talk about. You can say, Hey, if you're talking to other people, no one's gonna talk to you about this. But I feel like it's important for my clients to recognize. So that's a whole nother conversation related to pricing.
Justin Stoddart
You know, it's powerful Jim. I think he In a time in an era when there are large internet portals that are trying to make the job of a real estate agent look synonymous, right? meaning all agents are the same. Therefore our app is as good or better than your agent. I think these actually acting strategically being a true expert is essential if agents want to continue to rise above that in the industry disruption and be, you know, insulated and continue to be well paid and deserve to be well paid. I you know, I love this strategy, because again, it doesn't it's it's not how much you charge. It's, it's how much the client nets and if you can actually through strategy, get them more than an algorithm, right, coupled with an untrained worker could produce for them, then you win. And I think it times like this is where real estate agents can really have the opportunity and sales professionals in general across all industries. So I know my audience spreads beyond just real estate, but there's for any of us that want to remain well paid. that there needs to be a certain element of strategy that we bring in. And I love the strategy that you just shared, actually showing up, not just as a customer service representative, right of your brand or your brokerage, and I'm here to help you market and sell. I'm a strategist and I help my clients get more and have been examples of here's what I did for Joe and Susie, here's what I did for Tom and Delores, here's what I did for, and you start to build this resume of people who you've helped do to that strategy. That's an impressive listing presentation, you know, to have that thing.
Jim Remley
It's really positioning yourself as
Jim Remley
a trusted advisor, and really being somebody that's an educator. And people will recognize that and people will also recognize when you're not bringing that to the table. And when you do that, I think that's where you get commoditization, where people look at it as just another commodity. One of them I mark, we have 1700 agents now. And so for us to stand out from 1700 agents, what's going to be the differentiation differentiation point is your expertise and you really knowing your numbers. I always say it's not just showing up It's not just telling it's also showing. So it's show and tell. But a lot of agents are just in that mode of Tell, tell, tell, if I can bring out real data like the Market Snapshot report, people will look at it, they'll study it. They love that kind of stuff.
Justin Stoddart
And how many agents will go purchase? And or take someone else's listing presentation and I don't think that's a bad idea when you're getting started. But how much more powerful Is it like you said that to just have a flashy presentation, but to have that plus all the data points and then have like true life examples and or testimonials of people with whom you've put those strategies are for home, you put those strategies to work. That is a walking, leaving, walking living testament to the fact that you are superior and can provide better results than the status quo.
Jim Remley
Absolutely. Another kind of turn on this idea of merchandising is how you're marketing the property. So pricing is one thing but the actual marketing of the property. One thing that I talk a lot about is the difference between logic based ad writing, and emotion based ad writing. And so I teach a whole class to my coaching students and I teach it live, when I'm invited to come and do speaking events, where we talk about what, how buyers actually read advertising. And we might assume that a buyer reads marketing and advertising to look for properties to accept, in other words, properties to go out and look at or investigate. But they actually don't, that it's actually totally contrary, they read a real estate advertising to eliminate properties from consideration. They're like Terminator. They just sit there with a red pencil in their hand, you think your Tivoli and they go, this doesn't work, that doesn't work, that doesn't work, that doesn't work, that doesn't work, that doesn't work, that doesn't work. That doesn't work that works, as well. They know intuitively or subconsciously, that in every market, there's probably 1000 properties they could choose from or more. And so there's no way they can look at all those properties. So they're just eliminating properties as fast as humanly possible. And so When we're a marketer, we have to think, how can we make sure that we grab more of these clients? What can I do to write better ad copy ad copy is such an art. And it's a it's a lost art. We often think it's all visual, and it is definitely pictures matter for sure. But once people see the picture that I like it, the next step for them history that copy, and you've got to get better ad copy when we when we're turning into a different market cycle. So let me give you some examples of that really quickly. There's a when people are eliminating homes from consideration how are they doing that? They're doing that based on logic based points. So people eliminate homes based on logic. This is something if anybody's taking a note this the note to take. People eliminate homes based on logic, they buy homes based on emotion. So here's an example. I list a property and it's a three bedroom, two bath property on a half acre and a great school district was called Hidden Valley School District. That's a fake name. So don't think I'm targeting some rural school district. two levels, you know, on on granite counters, you know, nice kitchen, and natural kind of default for agents would be just a list that those amenities just listed out perfect home in the country, three bedrooms, two baths, 3200 square feet and the hidden guy school district with the chef's kitchen and granite countertops. Totally standard ad, right. We've seen those types of what have I done, I've given every single buyer about 10 reasons or seven or eight reasons to reject that out based on logic based points. For example, if I'm a buyer reading that I'll go, I need a horbet or not a three. It's an hinda School District, we got to be in the Lone Pine School District. It's on a half acre too much for me to take care of two levels, I only want one level. So they're using all these logic based points to eliminate the home from consideration. So you might say, Well, Jim, how do I write it? That's all I base my ads on. You have to rewrite your ads based on telling the story of what people would enjoy If they were living in the house, so what you're selling here, and the whole new way to think about AD reading is focused on the lifestyle someone would enjoy. If they were living in this house as a whole different thought process, you know, cozy up to the fire on a cold winter morning, stand on your deck and look at the beautiful views from this property, right? Enjoy this amazing kitchen with your friends and family at your next holiday events. Those are the kinds of descriptive language that will engage people and in build a picture in someone's mind. Right? Because they're going to buy based on emotion. Now, when you this is a whole class, we're going to do a few minutes here. But when you're doing that, what you're doing is you're engaging curiosity. And every time you write an ad, and your merchandising listing, you gotta ask yourself, does this create curiosity enough for them to click or call? If you give everybody every piece of data, there's no reason for them to call you and as every reason for them to reject you. You're not getting a lot of calls, it's because the way you're writing your hands, your ad writing skills need to be improved. So when we think about that, from a big picture, remember the goal of advertising isn't to sell the house, which is contrary in as well. Only 1% of the time, statistically, Will someone buy the house, they call it a clicked on 99% of the time, they will not. So you gotta let go that I'm trying to sell this house, what you're trying to do is lead generate lead generation is what it's all about. I'm getting them to call or click to ask the question to get to engage with me, right? And so that's a whole part of marketing as well. And remember, you can't sell that house, even the one person all the time, if they don't call her or talk to you. Right. So that's a few things that think about when you're doing out running.
Justin Stoddart
You know, Jim, I love what you've said they're actually teach a class called the marketing through storytelling. And it has so many of the same principles that I was reading when you were saying that because again, as a consumer because I'm not a licensed real estate agent, I think I maybe look at things a little bit differently and When I read the typical real estate flyer, I see exactly what you described, which is three bedroom, two bath house, quiet cul de sac, they're telling the story of a house. And houses don't sell, right? what sells, as you described and put so eloquently, is how is my life going to be better by living inside that home and start to paint a picture and tell a story as you did very well cozy up next to the fireplace, you know, open up the doors and enjoy this beautiful view. Like you're, you're you're you're telling a story. And your story is what people want to buy. They they want those feelings. And we say that there's, there's you describe what somebody is doing and then how they feel about it. And that's where it really starts to lock in emotionally. And I agree. I think there's a lot of room for improvement when it comes to the way real estate agents do ad copy. And I think what you shared here are absolute golden nuggets and because Come now more than ever, in a time when we are having a shifting market, that those that do it are going to really stand out. Those that don't are going to really struggle, you know, I'm sorry to say, but you're really going to struggle blending in in a really hot market gives you a mediocre business. blending in, in a in a shifting market gives you know business, right, a very core business, right. I'm grateful for what you've shared, because the audience and things like a real estate show is going to benefit I'm fine. I'm thinking right now a lot of people I'm going to be sending this to and getting them in front of more of your content because you have so much to offer. So, Jim, this final question that I'd like to ask. I feel like there's so many things we could go into but I'm just going to remind everybody of your E real estate coach calm that, that this has been a sample of the kind of stuff you get when you get approached by Jim right. And so I'm grateful for that and would would point people to that. So Jim, in closing here, I'd like to ask the signature question of the show, which is this. You're a big thinker and That's why you're here. This audience, again, big, big thinkers, high achievers. What does a guy like you do to continue to be a big thinker to continue to stretch your possibilities?
Jim Remley
Teach us, you know what I think the biggest thing a missed opportunity is you need to be attending events, live coaching, and you need to be going to conventions. So we just went through convention season, you know, with real estate and the big NAR conventions coming up in a week or so. And it you know, everybody will have an excuse not to attend these things. But when I go as a 30 year veteran to these events, I take pages of notes, because I'm learning from the best of the best. And I always pull ideas out because the thing about real estate is it's never static. It's changing its dynamic. I was very fortunate and very honored that I spoke on the same stage with Tom period last week, and I sat and took tons and tons of notes from the from the message I and I listened to Tom Ferry quite a bit. I mean, I think it's great coach. So But also in other breakout sessions, you know, just taking notes and listening to what people are doing strategically wise, or strategy wise. Here's the thing. We always want to think we know it all. At some point when you're in the business 20 years you go, you know what I've heard it, I've seen it, I've done it. But here's a classic example this I just had a top agent come to my office. Last week, he lost two listing appointments. This is a guy that does $50 million a year and he lost back to back listing appointments. He comes in and says, Jim, I just lost two appointments. I said, Here's you lose him to first year agents, millennial agents. And I said, How long has it been since you updated your listing presentation? Five years, five years. And I said, there's your problem. They walked in. And they had a flipbook presentation or a tablet presentation and they just power through it. They visually stunning the client. They talked about social media. They talked about you know the power of their pay per click advertising or whatever they're doing, but they wow the client and that's a great example of what Got to get you continually learning.
Justin Stoddart
I remember an example of a local office here at agent had sold, you know, probably close to a billion dollars. And they pulled up his reviews next to an agent had been in the business for a year. And based on the reviews, it looked like the agent that had been in the business for a year was a far experiencing better agent say documented that online.
Jim Remley
They're exactly perfect point.
Justin Stoddart
So great point, James. You always have to be learning when I interviewed Grant Cardone know you watch that that interview, he mentioned that, you know, you can never be too big to fail, like the biggest names and even personal development. They have. They have faltered as soon as they stop learning and thought that they had it all figured out. So I think your wisdom there is resonating with other great leaders and I put you in that category. So thank you again so much for everything that you've contributed, continue to contribute. Again, I would just encourage the audience to really go follow. Follow Jim learn from him. He's an expert in every sense The word and a great a great guy as well. And I'll end with this invitation in charge to all of us, which Jim you've helped facilitate that which are three simple words which they are go, think bigger. Thank you so much, Jim. Really appreciate you and thank you, everybody for tuning in. Thank you.
Justin Stoddart
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm very excited about today's episode. It's going to teach you how you are competing with Netflix and how you can actually win. You might be thinking I'm crazy right now. We'll we'll get back to that and even introduce today's guest that is going to help us with this exact topic. But I want to remind you the purpose of this show is to knock over the first domino before you leave. Sorry, before you live a life of great impact. You have to think bigger. This episode, this show is all about helping you think bigger so that that process starts again. I'm thrilled today to have with me actually somebody I've known for a long time. Jason, I was a high school together years ago, and I won't I won't totally date us as far as how long ago that was, but he was a good guy back then. And he's a great guy now. And so let me introduce him Jason Mendell, three years in the business $28 million in your second year in the business all by yourself impressive. recently partnered with Veronica Park. They are luxury agents and they do some really Really cool things when it comes to marketing going to talk all about that today. But before I get into that, Jason, thank you for coming on the real estate show.
Jason Mendell
Thanks. It's good to be here. And it's funny how things all come full circle so years ago, we're buddies and we still are so good to
Justin Stoddart
see, you know, yeah, likewise, man. Yeah, way back when wilsonville high school I was the first graduating class and I think you were right behind me.
Jason Mendell
First full graduating class.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, that's right. That's right. We were not very big class back then. Now wilsonville is kind of a perennial powerhouse back then we just kind of a limp along school. Anyway, fun to see what you've done with your career. I know you've had built grown businesses have a beautiful family. Just so everyone knows. About a week ago, we were scheduled and Jason Texas said I'm not gonna be able to do this. And we were texting back and forth and I was joking about how he's a better dad than I am. It's which is quite possibly true. But some Jason before we get into kind of your expertise in marketing You being a great dad, I want to I want to, I want to, like remind people that the like, another purpose of this show is for people to think bigger than real estate. What is your favorite part about being a dad?
Unknown Speaker
Well, you know, I think it's having someone that always looks up to you and loves you. unconventional. So, you know, real estate is a hard job or within the home a lot or, you know, it's got to be a balanced you need a good team. So whether it's a team at home or the right team in the office, or the right brand behind you, having the right people, you know, around you, but yeah, being a dad is a big thing. I've got a little six and eight year old, very proud of them. And I'm good. That's all I can handle. I know that you've got a few more than me, but it's definitely a you know, big heart moment. Yeah. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
It's awesome. I can tell that that's a kind of at the core of who you are, which is awesome. Congrats to you and your wife. Now. Now you did 28 million your second year in the business yet you decided to partner Tell me why this concept of partnering? Why did you?
Unknown Speaker
So one of the real impactful presentations that I saw last year was Barbara Corcoran, it was through the P Mark group. And there were two big takeaways that I got from her. One is that this is a tough business. And it's not your success, but it's how you get back up after you get beat down. So every day and this is a tough business, so you want to have someone who cares cares about you, and you care about them. And you can have that open communication list. So it's tough. I had a bad day yesterday, but you know what, I got back up today, and it's about moving forward. So that was a big takeaway. And then the second one was, you know, have the right balance. So a lot of people know me I'm kind of out there. I like being the captain of fun but getting things done, and I need the right balance. So that's why I was lucky enough to find Veronica Park this last year to team up with her. She really helps us and you know, we're the perfect couple to move forward business couple
Justin Stoddart
What a powerful combo. You know, I remember Barbara Corcoran saying the same thing is that she would take someone with grit over someone with talent all day long, because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how talented you are, if when you get knocked down, you stay there, your talent is dormant, it's not actually doing anything. Whereas you get somebody with with some grit that maybe isn't as talented and they can pop back up and keep doing the work. Eventually that person is going to win. And so I think that that gave me encouragement. I don't see myself as overly talented, but I do have some grit. And so it was it was exciting to have her say that I think there's a lot of truth to that. And I think for those maybe that don't feel like they don't have grit that it can be developed. And in your case you said, you know, another way to develop that grit is to partner with someone so I'm not lonely. You know, I've built businesses, as you know, had a high end home building company for a number of years. And it can be lonely when you're in business for yourself. And so I think you know, part of what I hear you saying is that there's there's power in partnership. There's synergy, right? One plus one doesn't equal to n equals more than that equals three and beyond, right? Correct,
Unknown Speaker
you don't and having the right partnership, but it's also activities. So you know, whether it's a activity leads to results, whether it's a discussion or a door hanger that we're doing or a red carpet reveal, or, you know, whatever it may be. You got to be at active in this market. So Veronica and I, we do two open houses every Saturday to open houses every Sunday. We're out there, we're getting stuff done. And that's really important. So someone along this journey is is really key for us to be successful.
Justin Stoddart
That's awesome, man. I love it. I was listening to a gentleman today, Ricky Carruth who's going to be on the show on Friday. And he was saying anything works as long as it involves you out talking to people, anything like everything works as long as it involves you talking to more people about real estate you like it will work. And I love how you guys are getting after it like four open houses a weekend between the two of you that's another Your customers love that. And I'm sure it's it's just great for business.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, well the end result is that you know, we're selling more houses, the days on market are shorter, and we've got more inventory and we're picking up new buyers and sellers because of that big chunk of our businesses come from that. Just getting out.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, must be present to win right it's hard to actually win when you're not out in front of people. So love it you guys are getting after got a few comments here. We got said Nate Kraus erotical Park. Speaking of them are chiming in here. So thanks, guys, for your comments. Let's get into kind of this topic of you know, it's kind of how I see it is that we are competing against Netflix, it's not good enough anymore, for one to just get on camera or on a blog and share relevant real estate news, right? I think about the newsletters of old that are just very factual, with no entertainment value, or the videos that get up in there. Just Simply like kind of a rambling of rates and, you know, inventory and like that's, in my opinion, people are not or such a small percentage of people are going to watch that. And then they're only the people that have interest in that particular neighborhood. And they're buying or selling right now. Now, of course, you want to capture those people. But don't you want to capture like everybody and I? Again, the fact that we compete against Netflix is that, you know, we're in the attention economy now where, where attention is so scarce because there's so many demands, there's so many poles on it. And what you and Veronica have done is created some entertainment value that tells the story of a home, but it does it in such a captivating way. Tell me more about that mean, a few of the videos that I've seen have just been absolutely. Like phenomenal. Tell me like how did you come up with this concept? I love it.
Unknown Speaker
So I'm a big believer that eyeballs on property ultimately sells that property and no matter what They are. So what we've been able to do is really just be different. And, and there's a lot of well, quick side note, there's a lot of people doing video that are doing very well jesse jackson will keep up the business on YouTube. There's a few folks that are just market updates. Here's my video, you know, and they're, they're getting those eyeballs. Veronica and I have chosen to tell stories through video and keep people captivated. And it really leads to these wonderful fun things that we're putting together and that we're very proud about, but we're also using them to help us grow our business. So you know, recently we did one in the Portland Plaza building, it's 1,000,005 one of a kind property and the owners of the property are just great, beautiful people. And we put together a cool James Bond video so we are five minutes in length. I mean, this is way longer than than any video I've seen. But the wanted to be in the video it was a production we ordered outfits we brought into the cars and we did everything and just made a great production and the end of the day we had 5000 views on this video before it even hit the market. So you know we there's a couple things one we'd like to tell a story to we like to get people and pull them in emotionally and then just that I'm all on property and getting things done. So a lot of fun.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, and then just the other day I saw you some scene I don't I don't know if this video has been released yet but you in the pool has that one come out yet. I'm like what is this? None of the pool?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, so we just recently had a listing and Happy Valley million eight spectacular home and car and you know we were able to bring my kids in and walk through it and through the end. You know, we ended up a little wet and all of our clubs, like six days on the market. We received multiple offers. And that was likely to be the second highest price Happy Valley ceiling
Justin Stoddart
in history. You know, another one of my favorites is the back of the future one, right? You took kind of this mid century modern, actually went back in time you were playing the part of Michael J. Fox. Yeah, like you own a DeLorean. Like I've seen this thing around Santa this you?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. So here's the DeLorean story is century Robert Romer calm, which is ultra cool. mid century, there's followers around that. And someone promised me a DeLorean for the photos. A couple days before the listing, that person kind of just disappear. So I went on eBay found a DeLorean happened to be in Vancouver, Washington went up and picked it up. And now I'm the proud owner of the Lauren.
Justin Stoddart
All for the all for the sake of business.
Unknown Speaker
Right? But you know, it's just fun. So if we can be different and and just like you say, think bigger. We're all moving forward. So when a lot of people are doing these traditional painting videos, I see that again, I just me throw out. So I want to do things that are fun and cool and different, and just continue to keep those eyeballs on the property.
Justin Stoddart
And it's so great. It really does make it enjoyable for all of us. Right. You know, I think, to your point, I think any marketing effort, like is is is good, right, I think. But I think we're living in a time and an age where agents have to get better. There's been a certain kind of sentiment of like, we need to fight all the disruptors, we need to tell everybody and like dig in our heels, build a moat and say no, like, whether it be these big tech portals or tech firms and and kind of lay a case for why they're bad and why we're good. And I just don't think that is in the best interests of consumers is to try and pit yourselves against against these portals, I think a better approach is just to outdo them is to do things that they can't or wouldn't do, and actually raised the value proposition on your marketing raise the value proposition on what you're offering to your customers. And and you guys are doing that. And I absolutely love I think that is the future of well paid real estate agents. It's not those that have a better argument against others. It's just those that absolutely Dorf, the value of the existing value proposition. And I think whether it be in marketing, whether it be in just the overall value that you bring in, in, in a consultative type conversation, it can look differently. You guys are really standing out to me, though, you know, across the marketplace as far as people that are marketing properties in a way that's not boring and not not common and I love it.
Unknown Speaker
Well, you know, a lot of it comes from us as being and having ronica but you know, trying to be an exceptional agent, a big part of it comes from the brand that we were able to align ourselves with, you know, we have a value proposition to things right from the beginning. So going slow, we've got one opportunity to make a first impression. It's got to be the best one, we have tools and resources that are available. virtual tours are a big part of what we're doing. We've got so many people that are moving here and allowing folks to look up and look down upon the rooms and doing having the absolute best photos and having the best video, the best. You know, just doing everything the best from the beginning. And really going back to the, you know, the basics of being an agent, but again, doing it better than anyone else.
Justin Stoddart
here's, here's what, you know, I see a lot of agents make a mistake. And again, this isn't meant to be critical of anybody, but it is an invitation for everybody to raise our value proposition. And again, I'm highlighting these two because they're doing a great job. But But I you know, one of the things that I see people doing often when it comes to marketing a property and again, I think I've got an interesting perspective, because I'm not a real estate agent. I kind of have a little different view of perspective I'm, I'm not so close, that I'm biased by my own stuff. And so as almost like as a, from a consumers perspective, the way I see a lot of people marketing is they're not telling a story. It's simply here's a house, right? Here's three bedroom two bath and it's always a picture of the front elevation of the home now going video it's some some variation of that. I think where marketing becomes powerful is it's telling a story people get emotionally invested when they can not just see a house but they can start to see what life would look like inside that house. Yeah, be entertained to the point of I would I have always wanted to be James Bond who has it right. And the fact that me watching that video is like, man, I guess that's where James Bond would live if he lived in Portland, like, you know, and even if I don't actually, if I don't buy the house, the fact that my eyeballs are on him, and it's creating an additional awareness and me then you guys win.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. And that's what we Part of it and when we do our remarks for our properties, it's not this three bedroom, two bath 3200 square foot condo, it's live life to the fullest Prepare to be dazzled by this experience. And you worked hard enjoy it, whatever it may be, because we can look and see, you know, how many bedrooms and square footage it is. It's all in the listing. So pulling people to their emotions. And then also when we're selling, you know, selling to people's emotions and listen, is really big aspect of being successful in this. Yeah,
Justin Stoddart
yeah, yeah, you start to, again, help people to see someone else's story living in that house, and then they can start to see their own story living in that house, and how their overall life story just got a lot better, because now they're living inside that story that you guys have put out in front of them. And I think it's, again the future of marketing and the future of what well paid real estate agents are going to need to do in order to rise above industry disruption and become insulated with All the noise of, you know, discount brokers etc.
Unknown Speaker
So So previous to my real estate career, I owned a wine software business that dealt with a lot of wineries. And one big takeaway that I took from that as the Oregon wine industry is very much about collaboration versus competition. And we can all collaborate together, whether it's as luxury agents, or agents or people and just work together, everyone is going to raise the bar, and we're all going to be successful. This is about successful transactions, doing things better. You know, I don't play with the whole live fire sort of thing. It's just it doesn't suck in our market, from our price point. But you know, regardless of price point, it's about doing things together. You know, us your peers, we're surrounded by really successful people that take risks and the cats out of the box. We should all listen to each other a little bit more to
Justin Stoddart
love that. And I think that's maybe a kind of a key takeaway for everybody. Here is is not to feel insecure or threatened that your videos aren't as cool as Jason and Veronica's. There's plenty of people that do like way better things than I do. And I think if we start to feel that way, then then this has not been of service to you. The point of this is to say like, Hey, here's a guy and a gal who are raising the bar. Let's follow suit, hey, industry over here. This is what it needs to look like, right? Let's don't like dig in our heels and say that, again, we're worth our fee, yet we keep offering the same value proposition for decades. Like we actually need to raise the bar consumers expect more. And so yeah, this is an invitation to everybody of like, in fact, in the show notes, both on YouTube as well as in the comments and Facebook, we're going to link to some of their videos. And again, this isn't for you to go feel insecure about the stuff that you've done. Whatever you done is fine. It's great. But we're inviting you to take a look at this to see what inspiration you can generate by what nice See if you can increase the value of your marketing material. Now, some of you are at a price point where it doesn't make sense to invest the kind of money that it does when you're doing a luxury property, we get that we understand that. But there's still some ideas, even some some things around the topic of again, telling the story of what it would look like to live in that home. That's maybe a key takeaway that anybody could apply. If not just let's, let's not just highlight that this is a three bedroom, two bath house on a quiet cul de sac. But like what would life feel like and look like and feel like living in that house? How would their life be better by living in that house? Even if it's just that in some of the wording and some of your texts, then it's a win. And I think that's, that's what we're hoping that this does for everybody. That's that you know, this watching this. So
Unknown Speaker
yeah. And we are not the most creative people out there. And again, it's that collaboration piece. I'm picking ideas from people in Texas or Tennessee, or San Diego, and I'm just executing them here in Portland. So listen to and see what Yours are doing and you know, execute. That's a big thing with us.
Justin Stoddart
That's a great a great point very humbly, you know of you to say that is that you know, all of us that are doing stuff that may be admirable, it's likely we're learning it from somebody else. So you can do right for anyone that's watching this you can do, you don't have to be the original, you know, thought creator of this, but like, learn and go apply. So, great stuff. Jason, I really appreciate you taking the time to come on and share your expertise, and really be abundant minded and be like, hey, look, look what we're doing. Know, let us know how we can collaborate with you. It's, it's really an awesome approach that you take and there's no, you know, no doubt why you're winning. Let's talk really quickly. The last question which you've heard me ask before the signature question of the show, which is, you're obviously a big thinker. That's why we've invited you to come on. What does a guy like you do in order to continue to expand your own horizons, expand your own possibilities continue to be a big thinker this year.
Jason Mendell
Well, I think it's always about doing things differently. And but at the same time, it we're doing things differently in this market. But I'm also using all this collaboration from other markets and just implementing and taking the approach and putting it into play. So continue to Yeah, when people go laughs go a little right, but just do it and activity leads to results. That's a big part of why we're moving the needle. It's been a lot of fun.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. You guys are studying other people that are winning feature you're not blending in with everybody else. And then implementing implement, implement implement. It's awesome stuff, man. The recipe for success. Want to thank again, those that are commenting got some comments here from Jesse Tao. Hopefully you heard us give a shout out to you Jesse the great things that you and Jackson are doing. He said best real estate videos we need colorful smoke. I'm not sure what that means. But Jesse thanks for for tuning in. always appreciate your contribution to the show. He's a good man. So anyway, for everybody listening, thank you for tuning in. Again be watching in the show notes here for links to the videos. fact there's going to be a link to a Vimeo kind of profile that's going to show you a lot of what these guys have done and encourage you to go learn from it. See how you could up your marketing game. And again, my final request of everybody listening, three simple words go think bigger. Jason, thank you so much for helping us do that today. Really appreciate being on the show. Thanks, everybody for tuning in.
Justin Stoddart
I'm your host Justin Stoddart and I'm fortunate today to have with me someone who I admire in business in life, he's become a very dear friend of mine. Before I introduce him, let me just remind you the purpose of this show, is to help you think bigger. As you do everything else follows suit. If you look at any of the great masterminds, any of the great leaders of all time, they say, it always begins with your thoughts. Thoughts are things. The purpose of this show is to is to hit that first domino so that you end up having a life of great, great impact. Today's show is going to be a really special one, as I mentioned that this is an individual who inspires me both in business and he's become a very dear friend of mine. His name is Patrick Woods. Patrick, before I give you the full before I give people the full bio on you, I want to thank you for taking time out of your very busy schedule to come be with us today.
Patrick Woods
Yes, we've been trying to do this for a little while now.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, yeah, you're, you know, you're doing some really impressive things. For those that don't know you. And I know there's a big part of my audience that does and loves you as well. But you're your owner of the Patrick Woods Real Estate Group, out of Sacramento area, for those that aren't familiar with the kind of small areas outside of Sacramento. He's a KW maps coach and coaches about 20 people at any given time. Really over the course of your career, we discovered that you've logged between 5000 and 6000 coaching calls, which is amazing. Yeah, yeah. You're owner of a KW franchise. Is it Elk Grove that you own? Is that right?
Patrick Woods
Yes, it's the Elk Grove market center. We have about 170 Associates, and I've owned it for a little over two years now.
Justin Stoddart
Awesome, man. So, so cool. And then you travel, speak, teach and train all around the country. And most importantly, which should have been at the top of the list, you're an amazing husband and father and proud dog owner I should say.
Patrick Woods
Well ask my wife is she says amazing, but yes, I am a husband.
Justin Stoddart
Depends on the day, right? Sometimes we get the amazing vote. Sometimes it's
Patrick Woods
...the opposite. You just never know. I definitely do my best. So
Justin Stoddart
Well, I'm really excited to get into this topic because how long ago was it that you decided that you were going to run the Boston Marathon?
Unknown Speaker
It's actually the Boston Marathon.
Justin Stoddart
Oh, it's Boston. I've been I've been calling it New York. Okay, so Boston Marathon.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. Boston Marathon. Yeah. Jenny Wolek, who you had on last week? Right? Yeah, yeah, she's doing the New York Marathon, I believe.
Justin Stoddart
Okay, that's where I got it in my head.
Patrick Woods
Absolutely. So sorry. No, so it's funny. I went on this vacation a little over a year ago. And it was one of those kind of bucket list vacations and we were sounds It sounds so pretentious when I say it. We were literally on a yacht in the Mediterranean, and it was somebody else's birthday and they said, Hey, you pay for the airfare will take care of the rest. And we're like, yeah, we're in Italy. And I was like, This is amazing. And then I started seeing pictures of myself while I was on this trip. Out on the top of a yacht in the hot tub, all this kind of stuff and I see pictures myself. I go, I look like that. That was kind of the moment where I said something needs to change. And I'm like you, I think a lot of us had moments like that where it's like, okay, it's, it's gotten to a point where drastic measures are needed. And so actually, while I was on the yacht, I text message Chris Voght, who's actually now our team leader in Elk Grove Market Center, and he's done the Boston Marathon, probably somewhere between 12 and 13 times. He's done Ironman competitions, all this kind of stuff and he coaches a lot of people. So I text him on on the boat and I said, Man, I need help with you, coach. And so essentially, that's what's happening is he's coaching me, and we go out and grab lunch. You go, so what's the game plan? What's the game plan with this whole running thing? I said, Well, I need to get in better shape. So So okay, what if there was a bucket list type thing? Well, if there was a bucket list type thing it would be to run the Boston Marathon, which is just insane because I know you have to qualify and all this kind of stuff. And that's kind of how it happened. And so there's way more to it. But that's kind of long. The short it was it was purely just how do I get in better shape. And if I were to really dive into this running thing, what would be kind of bucket list piece and that was where Boston came in.
Justin Stoddart
And it's interesting that you guys had that aha, probably a week ago. And I think it's interesting when we get the outside perspective, whether it be through the help of a camera, whether the help of a loved one I realized like, I thought it looked very different than when I look in the mirror, I see something very different. Then you see pictures. It's like that's, that's not me. And I think you've done a lot of training with Tony Robbins and realize that our standards are what we're willing to put up with. Right? And when you see yourself either via camera or you just have some situation in life that makes you realize like, hey, that's, I'm not living in accordance with my standards. That's not how I see myself and I'm aware that now, I look different, or I feel different, or I'm acting different. Then, then the person who I know I'm meant to be who I am in my best self. So just recently, I actually gave up two days ago, three days ago, all sugar and all bread, which are my two favorite things. So I can, like relate a little bit of having this experience of like, that's not me, and I need to make a drastic change here. So let's continue on here with your story. So you decided you're gonna run it, you've got a coach, which is also very telling, because even coaches need coaches, right?
Patrick Woods
Yeah. So I got him as a coach, and I got a nutritional coach that helps me my diet and all that fun stuff. And there's so many things that you learned during this process. So originally, when I signed up for this, the goal was to run a half marathon, my second half marathon. And kind of the the whole thought process was I'd love to get to a place where I could run a half marathon, the way that most people would approach a five or 10 k versus a Hey, it's tomorrow. Let's go do it. And so that was kind of where I wanted to get from a fitness standpoint. And yes, you literally I was on that, that trip along with... Wow, you're looking pretty thick. And I thought he was talking about my guns and he was more talking about my tummy. So I realized that after the fact.
Justin Stoddart
So, you have this coach now and you're moving towards your goal, keep going.
Patrick Woods
So, I started running and then we start out with, okay, just jog, walk two miles. I was like, come on, I can do better than that. And of course, I go out and I start running and like, maybe I do need to jog, walk two miles just to get going. And next thing you know, he's got me trained up or I'm running eight miles just as one of my long runs and all this kind of stuff. And in that process actually end up getting shin splints really bad and to the point where I got stress fractures and I had to take six weeks off right before the half marathon. And so the doctor said, you gotta take six weeks off, you know, running maybe three weeks into you can start doing elliptical, which of course I did not do. And so I just enjoyed not running for a little while. And then a week before I get cleared to run, and I text my coach, I said, Hey, do you think I could still do this half marathon? And my goal was to do the half marathon less than two hours. I'd done one before. And it was two and a half hours. And so I texted me, hey, do you think I could do this? Question is, if you can, it's if you should. So why don't I go run and see if I can run a miles if I could run eight miles without any pain or anything like that, then I'll do the half marathon. Long story short, I ran eight miles, no pain, I did half marathon. My goal was to get less than two hours. And I finished with two hours in two minutes after taking six weeks off. Right. So and I left that one going. This is really fun. This is really cool. Of course, the endorphin high and all that fun stuff. And I just go Okay, what else? What else? What else can I sign up for? So I signed up for California international marathon. And with that came a discount to the urban cow which is in Sacramento, which is a half marathon. So I started mapping this whole thing out for me to do see I am a December And the half marathon last month would have been just kind of like a little stop along the way. And the goal for the half marathon was to do it an hour 45 and then went to Austin, and I was one of the lucky ones that hopped on with those scooters. And I wasn't even an evil Knievel. I say it was Duke Kaboom. I don't know if you seen Toy Story Four. He's the Canadian version of Evil Knievel that doesn't make it any of his jumps. Yeah, so I went over the handlebars.
Patrick Woods
I was literally going from a meeting to go facilitate a mastermind. And I was riding on the scooters. And this is so funny. I bumped into a guy buddy of mine named Tony Brody. I bumped into him on the corner and he goes, man, be careful on those things, everybody's getting hurt. Like I'm fine. Kid, you not, a half block later, I hit something in the sidewalk, went over the handlebars, landed on my arms like this, and then my chin hit. And actually now I'm coming to there's somebody standing next to me that's called an ambulance. The whole deal, I get up. Of course, the first thing I'm worried about is turning off my scooter so I don't get charged anymore. And everyone else is freaking out and like there's an ambulance on the way a little thing. I talked the ambulance out of coming. I checked my arms. I go, they're sore, but I think I'm fine. Just a little kind of out of it. I go and teach a mastermind to about 30 people. I have later I find out how to broken arms and a concussion. So yeah, we went to dinner that night. I was like you know what, it's sore, it's fine, if it still hurts like this tomorrow, I'll go to the hospital no big deal. At dinner, my arms are locking up to the point where I have to have my friend actually cut my food for me. Because I couldn't get both my fork and a knife up there At that point I said yeah, maybe I should go the hospital. So long story short, broken arms concussion. And I had to take about six seven weeks off of running again, essentially right before the half marathon
Justin Stoddart
Hold on here for a sec. Total plot twist, right. Not only was it going to be a stretch to...
Patrick Woods
One of my finer moments, by the way.
Justin Stoddart
I mean, not only was it going to be a stretch to do like the marathon and hit the times that you wanted, and then to qualify for Boston, which is a bucket list, but now you find yourself broken arms, and six to seven weeks off. Anybody that's trained for a marathon knows like, every week is critical, right? There's this build up, and you take a six or seven week window out of there and in your head, you must have thought I keep like, I'm changing the goal, right?
Patrick Woods
Well, yes and no. So I was supposed to do a Spartan in Tahoe, right after that. It was a Spartan beast, and that was 13.1 miles, of course. And always I deferred that till next year because with have broken arms. Spartans are just running. It's a lot of course working so that'd be the only one there. I said, Okay. We're going to push that one out. And the half marathon, I just said, you know what, I gotta take some time off. And I'm still going to run it. Where I shifted a little bit was, can I hit the hour and 45 minute mark. So that's probably the only thing I changed. I did nothing as far as the half marathon of actually doing it, or the California International Marathon in December changed. So that was always that was going to stay. And so, about two weeks before the half marathon, I started training again and went out and we did the did that marathon. I didn't get an hour 45 I got an hour and 58 so I essentially got my goal from last year or the beginning of March this year of what I wanted sub 2-hour I got that on this one. So we're doing some training. Yeah, well and more and more leading up to that and the hard part was is just you work so hard on some of these things like the diet and exercise all that and then you have something like that, that set you back. And then next you know you're not exercising. I still can't do a lot of stuff with my arms, I can't do all the only thing I really can't do is running or elliptical or cycling or stuff like that. I can't do anything with my upper body really. But you start making choices. Really, you know what I'm kind of in a funk, I think I might have a cheeseburger for lunch. And so you gradually start watching all that work go away. And then you hit that same point where it's like, Good grief, I've worked for about a year now, to get to where I was right before I broke my arm. So I'm not going to give it up that fast. And say, jump right back on the horse pretty quickly.
Justin Stoddart
So winners do, right? I think, you know, the human tendency is to if there's an easier way, if there's a way out, by default, we tend to be like, you know, you're right, this has been really hard and I really tried, but now I've got broken arms, right. So let's compare this to business. How have you seen the show up the business, Patrick, you've got people who set big goals, they're moving along towards their goal, they're even that like surprising themselves and all of a sudden adversity hits, what is the tendency that most people do that maybe relates to what you could have done.
Patrick Woods
Oh, yeah. And what most people do, including myself, right. And that's, that's kind of in the most interesting thing. I'm still sitting here going do I even really like running? I don't know. sounds kind of weird as I'm doing all this. What I love about it is the mental aspect of it. Because there's so many lessons to be learned from this journey that I can apply to so many other things. And I think we're a lot of people that hit with adversity is they don't have something, they don't have a finish line. And that's the thing that I've noticed with this running is if I was if I didn't have the half marathon or the full marathon as my finish line. I would have every excuse in the morning to say, you know what, it's cold outside. I waited now it's too hot. You know what, I worked really hard yesterday deserve a break. When you have that finish line, I've got a half marathon to run. I've got a full marathon. I've gotta run I started playing this devil's advocate my head going, you know what, if I don't train, I'm going to be a fool. On that run, I'm not going to look very good, I'm not gonna feel very good. I'm gonna wish I'd never signed up for it. So that's kind of the negative self talk that I used to empower myself to get up when I don't feel like it can go running anyways. And so that's where I look at it. There's a couple things one, progress, not perfection, and then trust the process. And my coach will tell me, run slower, run slower, run slower, which seems counterintuitive. And lo and behold, when I'm running slower, and he take me further distances he throws and other training programs in there, and actually, you know, I'm running a faster mile pace. So he's got a method to his madness. I have to trust the process, even though it seems counterintuitive. The other thing is, most people when they get hit with adversity, they don't have a finish line that they're shooting for. They have a thought or an idea or a dream, but they haven't actually, like with a marathon, you put pen to paper, you put your credit card down, you tell your friends, I'm running marathon on December eight, and the world knows you're kind of stuck in making sure you do that. And so that's where I think a lot of people will fail is they just don't have that that finish line in their business and their, in their relationships, whatever it is that they're shooting for. They've got a goal, a dream, a wish, they don't have a finish line.
Justin Stoddart
That stood out for me, I was out on a morning run, and I like one of the workouts that I do is I'll run a mile and a half, and pretty good clip, and then I'll try and beat my time back. So obviously more tired. For me, it's a little bit of an incline coming back, like, and I'll try and beat that coming back. Remember, at one point, one morning, I was like, I'm not gonna make it, .like I just need to stop and walk. I'm behind pace, I'm not gonna make it and the tendency was like, I have to beat this or I stop. I'm done. Like, I'm not gonna do it at all. I had to tell myself what you're telling yourself there is just trust the process. Just keep going. Just keep going. Keep going and when that happens, I did end up beating my time back. And, again, that negative self talk oftentimes steps in is it's it's perfection or nothing. Like, if you can't do it perfectly, then you shouldn't do it at all. And the reality is none of us can do it perfectly. Right, especially at first. And so it's this, it's this lie that tells us that keeps us from actually doing the work that will eventually lead us to perfection.
Patrick Woods
Absolutely. When as you're saying that I think about just some of the little things that happen on this journey where you start running, cash, my knees a little tight, my ankles a little tight, and then you keep going, and it all loosens up, right? And so that's the same thing in business. And in life, you're going to have instances where it's things are going to start to work against you and cause your brain to go, maybe I should stop. However, if you just keep pushing through, it will start to loosen up, you'll hit your stride. And what's funny, one of the worst runs that I've had in all this training is two weeks ago, I ran 14 miles and it was miserable. It was the only thing I can say that I'm happy about is that I finished 14 miles on my feet. And what's funny as last weekend I ran 16 and my 14th mile was my fastest mile out of the whole run. And then yesterday I ran 17 miles, my 17th mile was my fastest mile out of the whole run. And it's funny not funny is in Sacramento and Northern California, we had the wind which is why all the power outages and all that stuff. I kid you not I ran 17 miles into the wind the whole way, no matter which way it turned, the wind would change and I was running into a headwind the whole way. It was it was an interesting day. So you start looking at you go, okay, where can I really power through like you're on your return? Where can I power through and once I have loosen up and hit my stride, all of a sudden you're going to be in the zone. And then what's your motivation when everything in your body saying Okay, I gotta quit, I gotta stop, I gotta walk. What's your motivation is going to cause you to keep from walking. Same thing in business, anything anything else in life is the games that we play. I'm sure you've done it when you're going out on a run a lot of people have where they're going on a run. It's like, okay, just need to make it to that stop sign. You make it to the stop sign. Hey, what if I can make it that fire hydrant? Make it to the fire hydrant. Okay, what have you the next stop sign? And it's no different with anything else because our brains telling us we want to quit. And you know, we get to the stopsign and it's like, wow I still have a little bit left in the tank. I remember this when I ran this last half marathon, my son's old soccer coach, my wife was there and she was like, Oh my gosh, Kelly Sebarus beat you by like 20 seconds it was so crazy. It was her name then your name. So like, man, if I knew she was there, I would have tried a little bit harder. My coach got mad at me. He's like, Oh, you had extra in the tank, huh. Yeah, you're probably right. So what's our, what's our motivation? I'm competitive, I like to win. And so, I mean, this is when we're kind of going all over the place. The thing that's happened now is the goal is to run the bucket list was run the Boston Marathon and because of some of these injuries, and frankly just starting out and running, there's I didn't have enough runway to get to where I could be at a pace for qualifying time to run in 2020. And so my coach connected me with the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, and they get out of thousands of people that run the Boston Marathon. I mean, my age group qualifying time is I think it was three hours and five minutes. So you're talking like a seven minute mile for 26.2 miles. And I'm going wow, some of my faster times are like eight minutes and 30 seconds, so I've got quite a bit of room to improve. So I didn't have a runway so I connected with him. I coach connected me with them. And out of all those bibs that they have Leukemia, Lymphoma Society gets 35 bibs, and probably 15-20 go to Boston chapters of LLS and I was able to get one of those out here in Sacramento. So that's how I'm running the Boston Marathon. And so even yesterday as I was running, you know, like, man, this is really tough. I started thinking about my wife's grandmother Jackie, who our sons named after and she passed away from Leukemia. And so you start, you start looking at ways that you can motivate yourself, just to push through even when things are a little tough. And then you know what, I got home and were my leg sore, yeah, and we still hang out in carved pumpkins, and that kind of stuff. I didn't leave it all out on the field. I wasn't dead when I got home. Right? There was more to give, I just had to come up with something that gets some sort of mantra or thought or belief to power through even when my mind was saying, you know what, you made it 16 you could walk a little bit right now.
Justin Stoddart
If all of a sudden, someone that we loved were in jeopardy, we'd find a, like an entirely new tank of gas that we would tap into. You and I have both read the book Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins and which he talks about when people think that they're done, they're actually at 40%. I was thinking about that, and I'm like, I can't do any more. I got more than half still left my tank, it's my mindset that stopping me. Again, back to the whole purpose of the show think bigger is that once you start to be around people like you, Patrick, and your experience and you're around other people that inspire you, is that we start to realize, like, oh, what I thought were my limits aren't actually my limits and we start to actually expand that thinking a little bit around, possibilities start to expand, we start to realize, like, you know, I can do more, I don't have to settle for saying this goal was was too lofty, or I can't do this, or this isn't for me, or it's not working for me, or, you know, nobody knew that these extenuating circumstances were going to happen. But instead, we can find another way around it as you have.
Patrick Woods
As you're saying that also thinking about is, there was a moment in time when I used to say, Gosh, running 26.2 miles, that's impossible. And what's funny is now them doing these runs, I go out and I go, Okay, I gotta run 17 miles a day, this next weekend after 18, or I get to run 18 right and you start going, huh, 26.2 is actually possible, and it feels like I could actually do it. So you go from that's impossible, I could never do it and you start working the system and and all of a sudden your mindset starts changing where it goes, it's not impossible, it might actually be possible to where, then you go, Wow, I definitely could do this. I don't know what my time will be but I can definitely do this. Then you get to a point where I say, I finished one, what can I do to get better? So I'm sure there's people out there that do Ironman and all that and they laugh at my 17 miles and then there's people like me a year ago that were are you kidding me? You're going to go run 17 miles, I call it fun.
Justin Stoddart
I am even inspired by our friend. I can't member his name right now, but he just broke the two hour marathon barrier, right? Like, I think about that when I'm out running and I'm like, this hurts and I'm like, you know, I'll be fine. I'll be just fine. Let's talk really quick. Patrick, you have a class that you teach and speak around the country, it's called You Fueled. Give us a couple highlights of that, Just so people here within my audience are aware of what you're teaching and can get access to it, hopefully in the very near future.
Patrick Woods
Yeah, absolutely, so I teach a handful I travel around the country and I've been to places I don't think I ever would have gone to had it not been for the opportunity to teach this class. So I teach you if you have another class, One Secret Skill Every Billionaire Masters and also teach other Keller Williams courses. So You Fueled, what that is, is essentially what I what I see happen in business and in real estate, in particular, because that's the world that I live in, is people will go to a class, "Here's how you take 10 listings a month for life." Right? And they go to that and they leave all excited about how to take 10 listings a month for life. And then how many of those people you think that attend that class actually take 10 listings a month for life?
Justin Stoddart
Maybe one, maybe two
Unknown Speaker
Not even that right? And so there's a there's a problem there and they went and they got inspired and they got entertained. They got some education. They got some some processes and models. However, there is something missing here that will cause them to take action. And so my class the You Fueled class actually addresses: Tell me why you got into real estate and begin with what were your goals, dreams and aspirations. Because people don't shift into real estate with hope they can make money. I want to be my own boss, I want the unlimited income opportunity, I want to create wealth and want to be in control of my schedule. They come in with some pretty big and specific goals and then somewhere along the way, they lose sight of that and they get caught up in the task of doing the business. Right. And then also, what was your exit strategy? What was your end game for? Because I don't think anybody in real estate wants to be 87 years old or 102 still writing contracts. Right? There's this other piece of it where they watch the shows like Fixer Upper, Flip or Flop and they go, hey, I can make all this money and I have all this time and all this knowledge so I can actually create wealth. In fact when I got it was Carlton Sheets, How to Buy Real Estate with No Money Down. I had his audio cassette tape program,
Justin Stoddart
I bought them to Yep.
Unknown Speaker
So that that kind of thing, and so I want to get people back in line with why they got into real estate and what's the end goal on their exit strategy. When we can connect those two pieces, that's where I think those classes like, which are great classes, Here's How You Take 10 Listings a Month, it gives a why behind it. Right to align to their goals not just because it'd be cool to do it. So that that's essentially what You Fueled is about is about getting back connected to here, what caused you to take a leap of faith on yourself to get into something like real estate, which can be pretty scary a pretty intense and quite a big risk was you hadn't specific goals and you had an exit strategy to dream for your future, so let's get back in line with that.
Justin Stoddart
And this really ties in nicely with with your story, right is that you had a bucket item list, to run the Boston Marathon, and you'll learn different tactics and different things on how to run faster obviously adversity hit but in addition to that, it doesn't matter, even though you know in your head how to run even though you know, you're even like committed in your heart to the tactics, if you don't remember Oh that's right. I'm doing this because I didn't like the way I was showing up in the world I was out of shape. I set this bucket item list to run the Boston Marathon unless you keep that present your mind, at any point during those 17 miles when you're training and the 26.2 miles you'd be like why am I doing this?
Unknown Speaker
It's pretty fascinating when you start looking at it. What's interesting is when I first partnered with LLS I'm going to be completely honest, it was a path to get a bid to run in Boston in 2020. Right and my wife was like, do you feel like that's okay all as we had this whole conversation and what's been interesting because here's here's the deal is LLS is happy to do it, if I can raise the funds for LLS, it's a win win, right? And what it shifted from was here's a path for me to run Boston Marathon to over the last handful of weeks and say it accepted me. It's quite a humbling experience to have somebody say, we believe in your influence and your ability to connect with people to help us raise money for such a worthy cause. And by the way, you get to run Boston as part of that. And it's shifted to Wow, what an honor to be able to do something for such a great charity and running the Boston Marathon is secondary. That's a vehicle to raise the money, not LLS is a vehicle to run Boston, because it may sound
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, yeah, you're WHY gotta let deeper rather than just I want to be in shape. I want to look better when I'm on my next yacht in the Mediterranean.
Patrick Woods
I don't know that that's going to happen. that might have been a one and done thing...
Justin Stoddart
Hey, you'd be invited to my birthday. Let's just that's where I'll have my 50th it'll be about 10 years from now, give me some time, maybe 45th. But anyway, that Yeah, you you you deepen your why along the way, right. It wasn't just about you some of these superficial so I can take a look super good. Not to say that's superficial, it's about being healthy, healthy for your family, but at the same time it's like this is a cause that even someone that we're related to passed away from... I love that I think there's there's deep lessons in that is that if our why is not sustaining us through the difficult times maybe our why isn't deep enough? Maybe it's not something that really moves us and moves the world.
Unknown Speaker
Well how cool is it to have something that is affecting change here, you know physically, spiritually all that kind of stuff that's making an impact out here. Yeah, it's really cool as you start when I was I remember I'm going to do just kind of a little plug for LLS, when I when I remember when I was filling out the application, and this you put in your plan on how you're going to raise money and all that kind of stuff and you need to tell a little bit a story about how cancer is impacted your family or your world. I start going through my my wife's grandmother Jackie, my grandfather's all passed away from cancer. My father in law passed away from cancer, my dad is currently fighting cancer he has carcinoma cancer, which is more or less incurable, just time ne ne be testicular cancer. And then you that's just right in that little bubble and then you start going further out when you start including friends and co workers. Like, that list gets really long, really fast when you start thinking of everybody who's been impacted by cancer. And so that was where it really hit home with me. And so that's that's what started that journey to be like, Oh, my gosh, this is much bigger than just running the Boston Marathon. This is much bigger than just getting in shape. And yeah, getting in shape around the Boston Marathon are pretty awesome byproducts of doing something really incredible. So
Justin Stoddart
that's super powerful. Thank you for sharing that. It would you do us a favor? Would you send me Patrick, the link to donate, we'll put it in the show notes. So invite anybody that's watching this. If you've been affected by cancer, then we would encourage you to step up and donate and I think it'd be good opportunity for all of us to put our money where our heart is.
Patrick Woods
The websites just PWruns.com. He's we're hitting close to the end of the year so it's a tax deductible donation to so love all the excuses you need to make a good, good impact.
Justin Stoddart
Awesome and I love it I'm going to ask. I'm going to now jump to the signature question of the show. It's the final one. We love that all of our guests because you're a big thinker, hence the TB here behind me Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I want to tap into your brain a little bit. You are a guy that continues to expand your own possibilities. You're a guy that continues to find ways to think bigger. Will you teach us, what are some things, or a thing that you do to continue to encourage that process to continue to not get stuck where you're at but to continue to expand your own thinking, expand your own thinking?
Patrick Woods
Oh, gosh, I mean, yeah, the basics, which is you got to make sure that you're surrounding yourself with people that are thinking bigger than you are. I mean, a lot of things you've probably heard before. It's it's really easy for, for us to say that there's a lot of really smart people out there that will tell you got to go change the circle that you hang with, and they are still hanging around the same circle, or you need to do this. Here's what I have observed, in all the classes I teach and all the things that we got going on, we have business planning clinic going on in our office right now, so teaching agents how to set up their 2020 goals and map it out and do the math and all that kind of stuff, I guarantee you there's gonna be some people in that class are playing all out. And when there's exercises doing the class, they're actually doing the exercises, there's going to be another group of people that were assigned to do exercises, they're going to get on their phone, or they're going to step out and use the bathroom, but they're just avoiding doing exercises. And so the thing that I would say would cause you to think bigger is when you actually take pen to paper when you're in a class like that, that time, because you've already blocked out the time, odds are if you don't do it in that class, you're going to leave and you're never going to do it. So take the time to put pen to paper. And then here's the other thing that I love, we did this in one of the classes I was in, was you essentially map out your vision for your future. And then you hand it to somebody that you really respect and admire and have them challenge you on are you playing big enough or not? What about this, what about this and you you have to fight for your limitations. So we did that, it was like man, we should do that once a quarter. So for me, I've got a whole vision map of all the businesses and all that stuff on a business level, that's why I'm always looking at and so not to be too long winded here.
Patrick Woods
I remember, do you have two seconds for me to share a story,... we have. So I made this vision map. So I have my my Woods Management which is my kind of holding company for all these for my market center of my real estate team and all this stuff. And on there, I have my Maps Coaching and I had some other lace up business, ancillary businesses for the market center and up here I have Keller Williams ownership. And so I put on there, the market centers that I would like to own or that I already had ownership in. And then on there I said, well, what's bigger than owning a market center? Well having ownership in a region and I'm in this class and it was bigger than having ownership in a region. If the whole class is about thinking bigger, where am I scared to go on here? And so I wrote in own a country, own a franchise country for Keller Williams. Now here's the crazy part of it every time I've done something really crazy and scary like that and I could give you example, after example, after example, when a pen to paper or something like that. I kid you not two weeks later, I had a friend of mine reach out to me and said, Hey, we're going to launch a country for Keller Williams, would you like to invest? I don't know how it all came to be. It was just weird that I was freaked out that I was putting and on this, and then it came to fruition, I didn't end up investing in it, it was just wasn't the right timing for me. However, the opportunity was there. So maybe just putting the pen to paper caused me to be aware of the opportunity to engage in conversation that wouldn't have had otherwise. Don't know. So those are some of the things I do. And hopefully that helps
Justin Stoddart
Dude, I love it as super, super powerful. I think something some things that we can all take away today. Actually, there's there's countless things, everything from overcoming adversity, deepening our why, and how to think bigger. So Patrick, I want to thank you so much for being such a valuable contributor to the think bigger real estate mission, again, is to assemble a tribe of big thinkers, people who want to continue to expand their possibilities and live lives of great, great impact. I'm going to finish with these final three words that the audience is used to hearing me say which is a charge and an invitation all of us which are GO THINK BIGGER. Thank you, Patrick, for your time today it's been a total pleasure, man as always appreciate that.
Patrick Woods
All right, my friend, talk to you soon. Thank you
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I am thrilled to bring back a fan favorite guest Jennie Wolek out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. I specifically had people request "Can you get her back on she was amazing?" So I'm super excited to have her here. Jennie, thank you for coming on the show today. I love what you have to share.
Jennie Wolek
I am so excited. And thank you I need to know who my my fans are. So I can thank them personally because that's really cool.
Justin Stoddart
Yes, you have a following in Portland, Oregon. I want to remind those of you that are maybe tuning into the Think Bigger Real Estate Show for the first time or maybe haven't been here for a little bit. The purpose behind this is I know that when you are around people like Jenni, people that are big thinkers that are doing great things, your thinking starts to expand as well. As your thinking expands, you start to do different things that you hadn't done before. And as you do things you haven't done before you start to get different results. And pretty soon the impact starts to follow. My passion is to help you live a life of great impact. Therefore we have the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. So Jennie, let's let's get into this. Jennie and I were having this conversation and we're so much aligned about how we like to do business. Obviously, in similar, not similar industries, but my industry serves your industry, right? I come out of the title and escrow industry, I'm trying to do things very differently, hence the show, but add value to my, you know, to my customers and prospective customers and to a bigger audience, with the intent of helping them to think bigger, but going deep with them, is critical to me. This is kind of like top of the funnel stuff, right? But for me, really, the value in my business is how much can I get to know about about them and about their challenges in particular, so that I could help them go to work on solving those challenges. And I know your business is very, very similar. Would you agree?
Jennie Wolek
Yeah, absolutely. Being in the real estate industry for 18 years now. If you don't think bigger and have coaching and accountability and a positive mindset if this business could really eat you up and so you have to be very purposeful about knowing why you were doing this business and having a mission around that having a culture as part of your your team and what you do every day and really a database business is the best way to do that. Repeat and referral clients are the easiest to work with the nicest, and then it just becomes fun. That's what it's about for me.
Justin Stoddart
Well, I think you know, I was in one of my early mentors in this industry back when I was a home builder, you know, kind of referenced it as the good life you know, the good life is a is a life that's really built via relationships, it's not transactional, it's relational and I think when you can have work, be in fact I remember this like you and I were talking before about the the incredible business that that my mom built. She said, it doesn't feel like work. I just to go I get to go have lunch with my friends. I get to go hang out with my friends. To her it was very relational and therefore she was able to, again, scale a business with over, you know, 1000 employees, and I don't say that boastly, I say it like, remarkably like, how did she do that. And then it goes back to the same principles that you're teaching Jennie, which is, it really comes down to the people it comes down to having, at your very core, a business that's centered on deepening relationships with other people.
Unknown Speaker
100% 100% there were years when I had my breakdown, and I didn't like people and in this real estate business, we're a people business, we're a relationship business, and that's not good. I had to figure out pretty quickly how to adjust this. In order. This is all I got. This is my one shot like this is my backup plan. So I didn't have somewhere else to go or something else to do. And so just by getting clear on my personal mission statement, I do an exercise and I teach a class on how to come up with that. And then really on having systems around, loving on your database because once I was once I realized that I didn't need to be all things to all people. And that's specifically for me my behavioral style did not love calling the for sale by owners and expired that wasn't my gig, I was more of a relationship person. And so when I was set free of that and told, well don't do that, do what you're good at. Just be better at it. Oh, okay, thank you. And that's where really everything is changed. And then finding team members to come into my world that buy into that as well that deliver on that customer experience is really what it's about.
Justin Stoddart
You know, for those, I realized that I skipped over letting people know who you are, there's a group of people who absolutely know who you are. But Jennie actually runs a small team out of Tulsa, Oklahoma 80% referral based, and then she has actually the she's been asked to actually speak like go travel around the country and speak some of these principles we're going to be talking about today. So we're very, very fortunate to have her on here. And and again, for those that don't Don't know Jennie, there's actually a way that you can get closer to Jennie, which is Journey with Jennie. Right? Tell us a little bit about that. In case people don't catch this all the way to the end, they can at least stay connected with you.
Jennie Wolek
Yeah. So a few years back, I realized that my my passion and purpose is to empower and get back to my agent, friends and community because at my age and my life in this industry, I still see agents not succeeding. And that makes me sad because this industry is full of opportunity. No matter your behavioral style, no matter your background, no matter of anything that has ever happened in your life. We all have the same opportunity. And so when I was so blessed to receive lots of agent referrals that would come my way I started figuring out that there's just no way I could repay all these people that are so generous and sharing their clients with us. So what can I do that I love to do anyway, and that is to train to coach to teach to share. The systems that we use in our business, I mean, at least at my company, Keller Williams Realty, we are an open book company, we share all of our systems and tools and everything that we use in our business anyway. So why wouldn't I just open that up and allow people to have that. So that's where you get me a lot, and you get me the most is inside of my closed Facebook group. It's called Your Journey with Jennie and then also if you don't want to get too intimate and come into the closed group, you can even just go to your keeping, I'm sorry, let me start over because I just changed the name. It is real estate in the real world.com and that's my agent blog so you can see all the videos and all the tools there as well.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. You know you and I are kind of very similar mind that I had somebody at some point come to me and say you give away too much information you to put this on lockdown and not let people have access to start charging it charging for it. And I said you know i'm not against making money. I'm not against monetizing but this is isn't about that, right? This is about giving. One thing happens for me. And I'm sure this happens for you as well Jennie is it? Like, the more you give, the more you grow? Right? Like every time I get to do an interview and share this with my audience, like, even if like that could have been paid for material, the fact that I get to spend some time with you and have you pour into into me and then share that with other people it just it makes me a lot better person so that when I go sit down with my clients, they've got somebody way better, right? And my kids at home have somebody way better because I've been around big thinkers.
Jennie Wolek
You know, that reminds me to couple two things recently that have that I've realized is that I was talking with an agent in our market, she's in a different company, and I was just giving her a gratitude call because she has been a top agent in our area and always so nice. She shared with me she's been in the real estate business for 43 years. I am 46 years old, and it blew my mind that she's created a life in this business for that long and she still was optimistic, happy, pleasant and a giving caring person. I said, let me just ask you, what do you think is your you know your secret for success in longevity in this business? And she said, You know, I've had so many people not so many friends come and go in this business. And for me anytime I get in a rut or get down or cranky, whatever it is, I go take a class, I sit in a training class, and I hear and learn one thing new that I could put into my business. And that was like, Wow, that is amazing wisdom and the gear and Gary Keller of Keller Williams Realty recently shared that in a small group that I was in. He said the answer to all things is training. All things and I just that is why I love training and sharing and empowering other agents is because today they may just hear one little thing that transforms their life. Their business in a positive way. And that is what sets my soul on fire when I can see their eyeballs just light up and get so excited or have tears because they've had a breakthrough. That is what does it for me.
Justin Stoddart
I love that that's so powerful. Let's get into kind of our next topic kind of the planned one, that first one was just kind of came in just because you and I are passionate about speaking, teaching and giving and educating and growing. The second one really is is about being more relational. And we kind of started off that way. But let's go deep into this. I know there's a concept, you know, that I've learned before that ever like your next transaction is embedded in your current transaction. I know you believe that strongly. Talk to us a little bit about some of the training that you gave recently down in Florida. That really went into depth on this topic.
Jennie Wolek
Yeah, so there you know, nothing that I ever share or say is my original thought, by the way. I always I always like to give credit where it's due and you years ago at one of our big Keller Williams events, it's called family reunion. There was this guy on stage, his name is Mike Hicks, and he's from Idaho Falls, which you shared is your birthplace. How weird is that small? Well, he is in a very, very small town, as you know. And Gary, he was in Gary Keller's top 100. mastermind. And in Gary's, it is realizing how are you getting all this repeat referral business like 75% of his business comes from his local repeat and referral people? And and he just says, well, quite simply, I, you know, I share our promise with them. And he said, Tell me more. And so you can actually find this online if you just want to Google it. Or if you want to, you know, ask to join my group and know that I have shared the script in there as well. And it's called the promise you could Google Mike Hicks, or Gary Keller, YouTube, and there's a video and all it is here's the gist of it and of course, there's a script and there's words and it's just quite simply sharing that with your clients as the time of listing appointment or buyer consultation, after you've gone over everything, you just say:
Jennie Wolek
Here's the deal. It is our promise, our team has this promise that we're going to deliver an amazing client experience for you. And our hope is that through our time together, you're going to hear of some friends who may need some real estate help, they may have real estate questions, or they just want to know about refinancing. When you have any of this, when they share these things, reach out to me...." You know, here's how you do that. And he goes through the details of it.
Jennie Wolek
He says, "Because it's our goal, that by the time we get to the closing table, that you will have shared a name with us and if you haven't, then that tells me that we didn't do our job, that we did not deliver this amazing experience and that is our goal."
Jennie Wolek
And what's cool about this is that if you just think about it, Justin, if you have 50 families that you get to help in a year, how cool is that? And if you got one referral, even out of half of those, how much more fun and big could your business be from that referral business? And here's the deal, you got to believe that you're going to give a great experience right? So let's back it up. You need to have a successful business and a plan of how you're going to stay in touch with your people you're going to have, you know, set expectations and and keep them updated along the way and in the end, you're going to really work to achieve a referral if not a great review, an online review. And so along with this you said you were taking BOLD 2.0 which has just launched and I your words, your think bigger TB my friend Tony Baroni is actually now I'm gonna give I'm giving him a plug because I was teaching this with him and him and his team are doing this at a really big level. He had already been operating at this with reviews, and they just thought wow, okay, let me think bigger instead of just reviews what if we also got referrals as well? So he's a great role model for it as well. He'll be featured in that BOLD class.
Justin Stoddart
So funny story, my my kids have been wanting to dog for a while my wife and I like we have way too many living organisms in this house to keep alive to keep and so we like we set the standard out there we said, okay, two things. Maisey is our baby will be two, she needs to be potty trained by her second birthday and you guys have to make our life really easy. Like you need to get really helpful around the house because mom and I do too much work compared to how many people there are compared to how many workers there in the house. We do too much work. It was amazing as we started to set the expectation like Maisey is like this close to being potty trained before the age of two. And like the point I want to make with that and now they're getting really clear on dad like what do I need to do? Like we really want this dog like the dog they wants not a cheap dog. I'm like gulp. I think they might actually pull this off, which I'm kind of excited about but the point is like oftentimes people don't do what you want them to do until you either A incentivize them and or just create a clear expectation of me just like, you know what Mike Hicks said is that like, you know, "This is our expectation. And here's here's the incentive that we're just going to pour into you during the entire transaction. And here's what we expect from you." And just by this by leading people and to me, I don't know if you knew this, but I'm in the process of writing a book that's really... it's called The Upstream Model. And the concept behind it is helping sales people become more advisors and more leaders, than customer service representatives. And I think the future of well-paid salespeople is that we are leaders. And as I hear what you just described there, you're leading and teaching and training people, going back to what Gary Keller said, right, everything's about training, training people how to reciprocate. It's not just enough to be friendly, and thank you. Like, that's nice, we appreciate that, but our expectation is that it's sometime during this process, you're going to find somebody and you're going to pass that referral to us. That just gets really clear and people know what you expect of them. It's super powerful.
Jennie Wolek
Well, and if it's a team, if you have a team like us a small team, we, you know, the agents are presenting the promise that the listing or the buyer consultation, then the the administrative person, whether it's a transaction coordinator, or the listing manager is calling introducing themselves and say, "Hey, I'm certain that Nate shared our promise with you, that we have this goal of delivering..." and then it's carried on that way and then it gets to where you know, closing happens and I call and I thank them again for allowing us. So how much accountability and checks and balances are inside of that, to ensure that we're sharing with them our promise of some of the other things that I have written down that we talked about is surpassing expectations. So inside of a transaction, whether it's a buyer or seller, there are lots of little opportunities for surprising and delighting them. Right? We know the goal is to get them the closing table. Can there be challenges inside of a transaction? Can there be stresses? Yes, yes and yes. And so why not surprise and delight them so something we just rolled out, which is super fun, is now we have an under contract gift. So whether you are a buyer that's now under contract to purchase or seller who's now got your home under contract and moved to closing, we take out five moving boxes and a little thing of some bubbly champagne to celebrate and we say: "Start packin. It's time to start packing." And so think of little ways inside of your current systems to add some fun and to surprise and delight.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, just do little things, right, that just absolutely. People are not expecting. I'd say it's expected that you're going to deliver the keys, right, it's expected that you're going to someone's going to call the schedule closing but one of the things that they've never experienced before and they probably wouldn't if they're working with you and sometimes like you said, it's not overly difficult things to wow people. Some of our best customer service experiences, somebody just went a little bit further. They didn't go crazy. They just went a little bit further.
Jennie Wolek
Yeah, and I think something that comes up a lot are people's concerns about a closing gift at the closing table and we do have some systemized gifts to grab and go. I really am a systems person. So I want it to be you know, easy and duplicatable. And of course, we can always plus that if needed when the client, you know, is needing of that. And then what we know though is that our life after closing goes on and on forever with them. We really focus on having database events, exclusive events for our top referring people. We know that we're going to be paying them forever because we're so grateful that they allowed us to help them so whether it's you know, in then another thing that we do is we give back. I created a nonprofit that goes back to the community. So after closing, Justin, I call and say thanks so much for allowing us to help you sell your house. Something that really matters to us is giving back to our community. So who's your favorite nonprofit that we may donate to on your behalf? And this surprises them and and of course, we'd mentioned it on the front end. They probably forgot. And so it's just another way to be different from the average agent. How can you stand out and show that you care because it's more than just a commission check to us. Whenever we help you buy and sell. We also get to give back to our community to give back to who you care about, and that makes us feel good and we appreciate you.
Justin Stoddart
You know, in the research that I've done, as I'm as I'm writing this book, I have been interviewing financial advisors, and others that have a more advisor type relationship with their clients. And I was actually interviewing a lender of friend of mine, who does a lot of work with financial advisors, and I said, What do you think the breakdown is between financial advisors being willing to refer real estate agents? And he uncovered something I think was was really interesting. He said, one thing that I found is that to a financial advisor, he said, he says this about real estate agents is that they have past clients. I don't have past clients, you think about like the role of an advisor, they work with that client for for their entire life. Whereas in the eyes of a financial advisor, and as I interviewed over a dozen financial advisors, now, I found the same thing as like, yeah, like, real estate agents have a relationship with someone for three to six months when they need them. But afterwards, they put them on a past client list, think about the terminology, and they hope to stay in contact and add just enough value to where they use them again, as opposed to what you're saying, which is you actually build a relationship with these people for life. These are my clients, right? Yeah like they use me once, they're going to use me again. I'm their, like Ben Kinney said, I think it was last year's Family Reunion where he said, we should be Wealth Advisors for people's real estate portfolios. That's not a transactional deal. That's an ongoing relationship of helping people preserve and grow wealth through real estate. It's a relationship.
Jennie Wolek
Wow. Yeah. And another piece that I'll add is that, you know, how can we continue to add value to them. So you're right. So if they were just a past client, we were transactional, and now we're done. They stay in our database, and we're still sending a market updates on what's happening in real estate. Well, they don't care about that anymore. So we've just really switched our videos, I send out two videos a month I use Vyral Marketing is the company that helps me with that and these videos are strategic and knowing what people care about. So I'll interview local nonprofits and share how they're giving back to the community and what they're doing all interview local business owners I just didn't want with the holistic finance planner here just recently that went out. And it was great because he thinks like we do, and we love giving back as well. We'll Oh, the fun ones videos that I'll do is I'll interview a restaurant owner and or a chef, and people love food. So they're gonna watch and care about that kind of stuff. And of course, every now and then we'll do videos about real estate. And again, I'm with you, it's like, if it has to be relevant and something that they care about, because otherwise they're just going to tune us out.
Justin Stoddart
I was listening to a great interview earlier this morning between Tim Sanders who wrote the book, Love Is the Killer App, great book, by the way. And Todd Duncan, who's kind of a famous mortgage trainer, who owns a company called High Trust Sales. Tim Sanders said, you know, as I ask real estate agents, what's their biggest fear right now? He said, their biggest fear is everything is going automated, everything's going technology. And they said, my follow up question to them is, well, how are you communicating with your clients. "Well, everything's automated." And he's like, "Do you see the problem here? Is that the like what you most fear you're actually competing at their level.
Jennie Wolek
You won't win that!
Justin Stoddart
Right! Like you have the perfect home court advantage in that you are a human yet, all of your systems are designed to eliminate that from your system. Don't do that, and you will win.
Jennie Wolek
Right? I mean, that's when it comes to even implementing events. We just really started doing purposeful focused events over the past few years. And we've just grown them because we've kind of tested them with small groups and then grown and grown them and they have to be diversified. We have a family event at a local baseball field where that one's really easy to talk with people and it's family friendly. We've had more adult type happy hour events where you're going to get a different crowd because your database and your people aren't one size fits all. You've got families, you've got young families, you've got older, you've got all the different diverse groups inside of that so you need to be moving to fit their lifestyle and welcoming them and inviting them as well.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, really showing up as a human one of my agent friends here in Portland, he says, "While the world is doubling down on artificial intelligence, I'm doubling down on human intelligence." You know, I like...
Jennie Wolek
Yeah, yeah...
Justin Stoddart
I love like how technology when it first, like 1.0 was like, let's automate everything so that we can set it and forget it. That's a great way to be forgotten but now I feel like, and in part because of the leadership of your company, it's how do we create technology that takes care of the minutia, so that our people can go be people. I think it's so powerful what's happening with Command and I'm sure many more going to follow the lead. No, the goal is not to eliminate the people from the contact, it's to get the people back into the contact. So we'll use technology to get people out more, not in more.
Jennie Wolek
Yeah, data is key and we want to be collectors of that data. So if you're a real estate agent watching right now I have a simple Facebook exercise that you can use as a way to collect data from your people that you're already friends with. And so I just think that we think that we need to get creative or crazy or wild or weird and we know from The Millionaire Real Estate Agent that we just need to have a foundation for success and then we can sprinkle in some creativity along the way. And at the end of the day, people are like I don't have anybody to call. Well, you've got 5000 Facebook friends, but somehow you need to find a way to connect with them on a more personal level and take your online relationship offline and that's very simple, very simple to do.
Justin Stoddart
It's interesting on on our birthdays, right, we all get like 100, 200 like how many ever birthday wishes. How many people call and sing Happy Birthday like I can count on one hand, and which ones do I remember? And I'm grateful, don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for every one of you that wishes me happy birthday and I'm sure you are as well, Jennie. It's just a marketing principle if your goal is to stand out, if you push a little 'Like' on someone's Happy birthday, you're one of 50, of 100. Right? The goal marketing is to standout, what's something you could do again, by doing just a little bit more, like sending a text message or a quick video? It doesn't take a lot to enhance relationships?
Jennie Wolek
Oh, yeah, that Facebook birthdays are the best opportunity to connect with people and you call them they're shocked, that I mean, when they answer the phone and you say, "Hey, it's Jennie with the Wolek Group. I'm just calling to tell you Happy Birthday. I hope you have the most amazing day ever." They're like "Huh, what? Wow. Okay." But here's the deal, you don't ask for business. Right? You don't ask for a referral.
Justin Stoddart
That cheapens it right.
Jennie Wolek
Oh, yeah. You are just telling them happy birthday. Same with your home anniversaries for your clients that you've worked with in the past. Call them on their home anniversary. They have maybe had just been thinking about making a move you never know.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. I've heard it said that, like, make those phone calls. And you can't talk about real estate unless they bring it up. Once they bring it up, absolutely if they have that need, but you're calling to actually genuinely build a relationship with these people, like how are they doing? Interview them, like what's going on your life? How are you? Or I'm calling to congratulate you. That's it.
Jennie Wolek
Right? Well, I love it that you bring that up. And it's so important because a lot of people get caught up on that. I don't want to call people I know I feel weird. When you just call to say, "Hey, I was thinking about you and I'm checking in," and now you're going to learn in BOLD and there's the thing called the FORD sandwich. That's what FORD stands for. Family, occupation, recreation and dreams. All you have to do is go review their Facebook profile, see what they've been up to lately, and say, "Oh my gosh, that looks like so much fun when you guys went to the beach this summer," you know, "How was that?"
Jennie Wolek
That's it. That's all it's about. You're about taking, you know, time to let them know that you care because you do care. This isn't fake and cheap. You do care.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Yeah. And if you if you don't, then maybe a different style of business would suit you better. But for those of you who care, actually love having deep relationships, and I would encourage anybody who's been all in on the Internet lead gen, if you started doing these principles that Jennie's teaching here, number one, I know your ROI would be a lot better and number two, I think your quality of life would would be better. You'd actually enjoy the work you'd be calling people who want to talk to you as opposed to those who don't. That's, that's my take. So, Jennie, this has been so valuable. You are just such a wealth of information. I love the conversations that we have and and what you're willing to share with people. It's just phenomenal. I want to end with this question, which is the signature question of the show, which is, what does someone like you do, who is a big thinker, who spends their time helping other people think bigge, what do you do to continue to be a big thinker? What do you do to continue to grow and expand your own possibilities? Please teach us!
Jennie Wolek
I think it always goes back to that training, right, the training piece. So yesterday here in our local market, there was a Keller Williams, the all city event and I really hadn't heard much about it maybe because I wasn't paying attention. And so last minute, I chose to go and there were five different tables, six different tables of different topics on real estate, whether it was wealth building, or whether it was building a team or For Sale by Owners, farming neighborhoods. And I went as a student and I just went around and I learned new things and new ideas and I was fired up. And now I've got so many good new ideas to implement into my business. I just think that continuing to learn and grow is always key, and then have some kind of accountability around it. So now that I have these new ideas, I'm going to share them with my business coach, so that he can help me actually achieve them because sometimes as Realtors and our behavior style, we get excited and then we don't follow through and have accountability.
Jennie Wolek
What a great idea because how many of us have and you look at my bookshelf pioneer like countless binders of notes, of good intentions. What a great idea though to say "Hey Coach..." have that accountability partner whether you have a formal coach or not. If you don't I highly recommend one obviously you do as well Jennie. Or a mentor or a mastermind group, whatever that looks like for you say "Hey, here's what I'm implementing. Here's what I want some accountability on. Please follow up with me on this. Help me implement this." It's key.
Justin Stoddart
So good, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Again I want to thank everybody for tuning in today. If you found value in this please do Jenny and I the favor of sharing this out. Let's not keep this secret. Let's not keep Jennie and her amazing gift to train and teach and share openly a secret so please, please help me join her group and share the stuff that she shares because it is it is gold. And then if you want show notes on this, you can go to my website, thinkbigger.realestate, where you can get a weekly update. summary of the shows that I've done and the amazing nuggets there, including amazing ones like Jennie's. So Jennie, thank you again so much for your time and my final request of everybody listening today are three simple words and they are GO THINK BIGGER. Thank you so much, Jennie. It's always so much fun to talk with you.
Jennie Wolek
Thank you so much, Justin. It was fun. Bye.
Justin Stoddart
Today's episode will help you think bigger. Today's guest is going to teach all about mentorship. He's currently living in Thailand, because he's a real estate investor, which affords him the ability to do that. I'm just going to I'm going to start with that. So before I fully introduce him, let me just remind you that a full show notes and a weekly summary can be found if you go to thinkbigger.real estate and encourage you to go there and get signed up. Just this past week, my episode with Grant Cardone went out and if you weren't signed up, you missed it. But if you message me, I can be sure to send that to you or you'll find it on the website thinkbigger.realestate. I'm so very excited about today's episode. As you know, my passion is to help you think bigger. There's no doubt that when I start to put you around individuals that are doing amazing things like today's guest, it has an impact on you. And you start to think differently. You start to see the world differently. You start to see opportunities that have always been there, but now you're recognizing them, your actions start to change, your results start to follow that and then pretty soon your impact follows and my passion is to help you live a life of tremendous impact. So let's get into introducing today's guest. His name is Matthew Baltzell. He's a real estate analyst with Boardwalk Wealth and he currently has a portfolio of 100 plus units valued at over $14 million. You look awfully young looking gentlemen for such an impressive portfolio. And something that he's even probably more proud of is that he and his beautiful wife, who are living in Thailand right now, building a home in Thailand, are expecting their first child in January. So Matthew, thank you for coming on the show today. And congratulations for the amazing life that you're building.
Matthew Baltzell
Thank you very much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Justin Stoddart
Yes, now it's about 10pm is that right? 10pm.
Matthew Baltzell
Yeah. 10:23pm what we are recording this on whatever, Tuesday so it's Tuesday night, my time Tuesday morning, your time?
Justin Stoddart
That's right. What's it like in the future man?
Matthew Baltzell
Thanks pretty good. You know, it's funny that you said that. I was speaking to one of my mentors. Two days ago and she was like, hey, do you have a stock picks? For me? I was like, No, I don't like the Asian markets are close. But like, I never really nobody's ever asked me that, like you're the second person. So maybe maybe I do know the future.
Justin Stoddart
That's really funny. All right, let's look, let's get into really quickly something that is a passion of mine, which is family. I didn't share this with you. Maybe you saw from my facebook profile, but my wife and I are blessed with six children. And being a father is is a legitimate part of my life, like legitimate part of my life. Whether I want it to be or not, no, I totally want it to be. But this show, again, is about helping people think bigger than really, it's about helping people be have a life of impact because of real estate, right? We're not all about like the nuts and bolts and this and that. Sure we'll have some of that, but really to inspire people about what you know, an amazing career in the real estate industry. can do for them. So let's, let's talk a little bit about about family for you your your soon to be a dad, you met your beautiful bride in Thailand. You guys are now expecting a baby in January. What are you most nervous about? What are you most excited about being a new Dad?
Matthew Baltzell
I'm most nervous. I would say that I'm not gonna be a good dad. You know? Like, I think like, what if I'm not a good dad? You know, like, there's, I don't even know how many fathers are out there. Right? It's like, you know, there are bad fathers. Like you've probably had a friend or an uncle. Right? And just like not not a good dad. And I don't think people plan on being like, not a good dad, which I don't think I will be but I'm like, What if I'm not like, what if one of these like things happen? Like, that's like one of my fears? Right? Um, so yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. What was the other part? What am I most excited about?
Justin Stoddart
That's right. What are you most excited about being a dad?
Matthew Baltzell
I'm excited to see what my kid looks like. So my wife is Thai and so they call Westerners like white people, right? They call them for long. So I'm a full on. And in Asia, if you're a half mixed baby, right, like you're, if you're half Thai and your half along, you are like, Oh, you can have such great skin. All the celebrities are like half English, half Thai. And so my wife has concocted our child as like a robot, like, I want him to have your eyes blue eyes. I want him to have my my hair. But I want them to have my cheeks and I want them to have your long legs. And like, I have no clue because every single time I see kids, right, they're like, they're like little monsters. I was born with black hair. Now I have like Sandy blond hair, right? It's like, You're like a fat marshmallow. Then you're like a cute kid. And then you're like, teenager, you're like a rap star. So I have no clue. So I'm really good. excited to see what my kid's gonna look like
Justin Stoddart
I'm sure he's gonna be, is it he or a she, do you know yet?
Matthew Baltzell
It's a he and he's gonna be Maximus Baltzell. Maximus the Great.
Justin Stoddart
That is a solid name my friend a solid name and I'm sure he's gonna be a handsome handsome little guy.
Matthew Baltzell
Yeah hopefully
Justin Stoddart
so so here's a little bit of word of wisdom of what I've learned about being a dad is that love like love is spelled TIME just given time the fact that you're concerned about not being a good dad tells me that you're going to be a good dad right? And and just time and attention right? Sometimes we can be given them time, but we're looking at our phone or whatever just given them attention. Not only makes you a great dad, but it makes you enjoy fatherhood. Like when you get to play with them when you get down and like really like look at life through their eyes. There's there's nothing better you're gonna love it and I can't wait to keep in touch and hear about the journey for you. So
Matthew Baltzell
I love that advice.
Justin Stoddart
Let's let's get into this concept of mentorship right kind of ties into that as well. But obviously My passion, again is helping real estate agents. Number one, recognize that the world is changing very quickly, people didn't used to have an option when it came to real estate agents like you just you just chose an agent. Now they have different options. They have different tech options, they have different low discounted options more than they've ever had before. And people I think I realized that they don't necessarily have to use a real estate agent. Now, in my opinion, to get the best result you have to. But you have to prove that each and every real estate agent has to prove that to their clients, that, that it's it's not enough just to market and sell a home but you actually have to be connecting those clients to a better life connecting them to power. And I think this concept of mentorship plays in very well. Excuse me when it comes to you, being a mentor to your clients, which means you probably need to be mentors. So you've got you've got data and and and value to be able to extend to them. Talk to us about like what are your thoughts on mentoring people on this topic that you've become expert at which is really testing?
Matthew Baltzell
Yeah, yeah. So um, yeah, you know, I would say, to give you a little bit of background, so about me. So when I was living over in Thailand, right, I wanted to get involved. My prior experience, I had been involved with single family homes back in 2008. And my family, we had to basically liquidate our properties, because we were over leveraged. So when I left the United States, and I was living abroad, and I was thinking about coming back to United States and I'm thinking, Okay, like, what do I want to get involved with? Right, and I wanted to get involved with commercial real estate multifamily. And I basically, you know, had to quote on quote, think bigger, right? And so I'm living halfway around the world. I joined Bigger Pockets, which a lot of people are familiar with probably on your show, arm, and I basically created a digital meetup. And I, that was like my, like, think think big strategy at the time, right. And so I did that. And I had about six or eight people throughout the United States. And we went back and forth and we talked about, you know, just real estate goals can Stuff like that. And one thing led to another, and it connected me to where I'm currently at right now working at boardwalk wealth, and we specialize in taking down larger multifamily unit properties. But the thing is, if I wasn't thinking big, right, I would have never got my foot in the door. And my, one of the ladies that reached out to me saw what I was doing and said, Hey, like, let me know, update me on your progress, right? update on your progress, and you know what you're doing. So after I've had this meetup going for about three to four months, she put me in contact with Omar, which is the CEO. And one thing is led to another. And if I wasn't thinking big, right, I never would have attracted my first real estate mentor. So I think it's like, it's ironic, right? That I'm on your show, talking about thinking big and like the concept of like, what I was trying to do at the time. So I think you know, when you're thinking big, you're in your wanting to be an agent and you're wanting to, you know, go to the next level, and you're wanting to seek mentorship, or, you know, you got to really think about these things as far as like adding value, right? Like, I was, like, I want to add value or create a thought leadership platform, like everybody has value. So if you're a real estate agent, and you're listening to this, like, you definitely have some value, maybe you know, your, your local market better than somebody else, and maybe you have more connections, or maybe you have access to more capital, you know, you got to really think what you want and kind of lead with value because if you're able to do that, it's going to set you apart from a lot of other people.
Justin Stoddart
That's awesome stuff. And I want I want to unpack a couple of things that what you said there is that before the mentor shows up, you have to start thinking bigger like there's probably mentors all around us. lead us to a better business a better life, though you don't like until we start thinking bigger the almost it's almost as if they're not there. Right. Yeah.
Matthew Baltzell
I don't want to cut you off, but like, so people want to be around people that think big, right. And if you're trying to get a mentor, they're probably a person will say that's elevated above you in some part of your profession or whatever you're trying to seek that mentor for. Right? So in order to have access to them, you're going to probably have to add value to get initially seen by them. Because if you say, hey, I want to buy you a cup of cup cup of coffee, what about your time? If you're the mentor, you're gonna be like, Listen, like I'm really busy. But if you can add value initially, right? You're going to open that up. So thinking big of like, hey, how can I add value to this person, right to this to this mentor? Like how can I do this and really, you know, opening up your mind and thinking big and when you present your, your offer, you know, whether that's, you know, hunting for deals or connecting people, right, like that guy on automatic or that that female whatever Right, they're going to basically see like, Okay, this guy's a big thinker. This is someone I could possibly work with. And you're more likely susceptible to be started working relationship with that person and have them be a mentor for you. Yeah,
Justin Stoddart
I think that's a really great point is that you, oftentimes people will reach out, I'm sure they've done it with you in a video with me, which is, Hey, can I can I spend some time with you, which I'm always willing to do? Like, there's nothing more fun than being a little bit down the journey and somebody saying, Hey, will you teach me how you got to that point? And I think, however, it's more compelling when somebody said, like, thanks, in advance of like, Hey, here's how I think I might be able to help you. Again, I'm willing to help as many people as I can fit, you know, within our schedule. I think people that want to live like lives have impact and not looking for anything in return. Although it does pique your interest and grab your attention more when somebody is thoughtful enough to say, Hey, I have an idea that might be a benefit to you. It causes you to look at them differently, that this isn't just a taker, this is a, this is a this is also a giver, you know? Yeah. And I think as we think about how we how we would want to be approached and how we would want our time respected, it gets easier to approach. mentors, right? Yeah.
Matthew Baltzell
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And you know, you're going to want to, you know, like, if you think about it, like, if you're doing like reverse engineering, right, like, let's say, you are the one looking for a mentor, right. And, you know, your clients are looking to you, uh, you're going to want to present yourself in the most professional, professional manner to a mentor. Because if you're not, you're, you know, in the real estate industry, like your reputation is everything. So, if you don't have a good website, if you don't have a good business card, or if you don't have, you know, all the other things, you're Instagram's like looking like mom and pop and things are not looking good, right? When you present yourself, you want to have all your ducks aligned in a row. So if you have a good website, if you have a good president What you're pitching the guy or what, what you're pitching the person on, as far as, hey, maybe I can source deals for you. Or maybe I can link you up with my friend who's looking in this market, or you're wanting to be in contact with another broker who knows bit more about this market. And then once you kind of do that, then you're even taken more seriously. And that elevates you. astronomical amounts above a person who's saying, hey, I want to borrow a cup of your time, like, I can buy my own coffee. I mean, I would love to hang out with you. If but if 10 people are asking me for 30 minutes of my time, you know, I gotta drive 20 minutes with me. Okay, we have a 30 minute coffee. Okay, so had that up out of the week. I mean, that's five, seven hours and time is money, right? So you gotta kind of like, place value and always add value to people that you're trying to get into their circle and have them mentor you.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, for sure. It really becomes apparent when you put it in those terms. How we should be approaching mentors and it's it gets really clear when you you start to realize that Yeah, 30 minutes, I'm asking if someone else's time. But you realize if if there's a mentor and demand that a lot of people are going to be asking that and the cumulative effect of that is they just can't say yes to everybody. They can't give that attention, everybody without sacrificing something that already like their schedule is already full. Right? Yeah. Like for you, I think, you know, you are already in a really enviable spot, you've leveraged the power of real estate investing to live in Thailand. And, and really can live anywhere in the world. And there are many people that would want to learn that from you. And, and, and probably there's going to be some some people from this show said, I'd like to connect with you, Matthew. And, you know, I would encourage all of us that as we seek mentors to think really clearly about what value can I give what like, how can I possibly give people value in exchange me part of the reason why this show was created is because I wanted to be in contact with the biggest thinkers in the world. And I realized he just sitting with them for 30 minutes or 15 minutes or whatever, is a little bit selfish. But if I could build a platform and have this be value to them in the sense that I'm giving them exposure, and at the same time, it's it's satisfying, you know what I'm hoping to do, which is pay it forward to those that are listening as well as grow myself, then that's value exchange, I think, you know, I'm not saying everybody should start their own show or start their own podcast. It's it's more work than you think. But I do think that if you think intentionally about, how can I give something here getting men to show up even quicker or stay around longer? Maybe?
Matthew Baltzell
Yeah. And I mean, let's Okay, take it back. So let's say you're not going to have a podcast, right? I mean, there's plenty of other platforms. You can you can write blogs on your website. I mean, you could put out one one, let's say you put out one blog every two weeks, right? At the end of the year, you're going to have 24 blogs, and how we're saying Think Big right? Things are moving away from like you're saying the old school like now its algorithms and outsourcing and all this crazy stuff. You cannot fake your digital footprint. And what I mean by that is if you, let's say you've done the 24 blog posts or you've had a podcast that has been going for 24 months, right? And you approach somebody, it's so easy to say to them, hey, go online, like I have 200 episodes talking about, you know, realtors, like that cannot be made up over a day. 24 blog posts dated back on your website for one year cannot be made, be made up in one day. So when you're presenting yourself, that's your new resume, your podcast, you're leveraging it. And that's what real estate is, is is leverage. So if you're sitting there thinking that you don't have anything to offer, put something down on paper. Grab your phone, record yourself, like listen, this is day one, I have nothing to offer but like and then you know what people are going to say they're going to resonate with your story and they're going to Say, I thought I had enough nothing after I connect with this guy. Okay? Now you have something to offer because now you have like minded stories, and then you can build on that are like me and you were linking up because we are podcast, right? Like it's leverage and that's what it is. And when you learn, and you get Grant Cardone on your show, kudos, by the way, good job. So, you know, like, it's leverage, like, that's what it is. And when you learn leverage, it becomes that much easier and your job, finding mentorship and finding a mentor is becomes that much easier. It's just a matter of getting in the game and realizing how it works.
Justin Stoddart
You know, you really bring up an interesting point, you know, when you think about real estate. Right now, there's a battle that many that few people know about, which is the real estate space on the internet. Right that that, like you said, having content that is evergreen, right that people can go back and look to over and over again. You can't fake that right. You can't when it is your personal journey, your experience in your area that's very specific to the needs and wants of your customers. And you can begin to catalog that and have that available for people. That really is an enviable piece of real estate on the web to own. You know, there's all kinds of services and companies out there that will like a do it for you done for you. But if it's not in your voice, why would they just Google it, but if it's your voice, then you get credit for that and you become the person behind it, you become the brand behind that you become the expert that people want to work with. because number one, you can go and point people to that. But number two, you become something in that process. I think about, you know, since I really dug in January 2 of this year and turn this into a daily show, it's amazing how much I've grown. You know, speaking about the episode of grant people, like Were you nervous, and I was like, Yeah, I won't. I absolutely won't say that. I wasn't nervous. But I would have been way more nervous. Had I done a show a month, the fact that I've been doing them with great consistency. gave me the ability to feel actually pretty comfortable with grant, you know. And I think that there's a lesson for me and for all of us that you've got to dig your well before you're thirsty, that you've got to like, put in the, like pay the price of practice and boot camps or whatever you want to call it long before game time. Because once game time comes, and people want to see if you're either somebody that can mentor them, or if your mentor trouble, right, meaning people can, like you're worth point into. If you're just starting your journey, then you're at a great disadvantage over somebody who started a year ago with no plan in sight to actually do anything with that. It's just I want to, I want to, I want to committed to be mentored. I'm committed to mentor. Therefore, I'm going to start documenting my journey and what I'm learning and sharing with other people at some point that's going to become way more valuable than you think. When you have it, you know,
Matthew Baltzell
And I think a lot of things like what you're saying, you know, piggyback off that a lot of people are afraid to get started. You know, they don't want to look stupid, right? I mean, go listen to my earlier podcast episodes go listen to like three weeks ago. I mean, I still say I'm make mistakes, right? Like, I can't even tell you but the thing is, your your victories outweigh your mistakes, right? And little battles win the war, and you're not going to win every battle. So you got to just keep fighting and then you'll next thing you know, how long is your Shogun running, by the way?
Justin Stoddart
So I started the podcast about three years ago, okay. And then this year, I pivoted to really hone in on on it went from being called a think bigger mastermind to being the think bigger real estate show. So really, January 2 of this year is when when kind of chapter two, right or Season Two started with it with a with a very specific focus in mind.
Matthew Baltzell
Yeah, yeah, that's beautiful. You know, it's like it took you three years. doing reps to find your niche or what your you know, your alley, your Avenue, your lane, whatever you want to call it, but people don't understand is you're not going to develop an investing strategy. You're not going to develop skills to speak with other brokers or investors or other clients or people selling homes, but you got to realize you are going to fumble, you are going to stumble. But unless you do that, you're never going to develop your oratorical skills, or you're never going to be able to feel more comfortable in front of Grant Cardone. But until you start, you know, you'll never really know. And if you look at it, like I was telling my wife the other day, if two people are on the same path, right, two parallel lines, one person's, you know, one degree or two degrees separate, right? At the end of five years. They're going to be you know, in Canada, and you're going to be on a straight path towards like Tennessee, right? Like it's going to separate so you got to think long term game as opposed to the short term game.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, and I think there's one thing that we've discussed, I guess we've hit both these. But just to reiterate, there's what you're creating when it comes to, whether it be blog, whether it be podcasts, whether it be your news, like like, whatever that looks like put it someplace where you own it, right? Put it, put it on your own website, where you can catalog it, and share with other people later. But I think that's only half of I think the future belongs to leaders, people that can lead. Sales is leadership. And I think just by you going through that process of doing that, you're going to become a leader, right? You're speaking out, you're having a voice, you're sharing that voice with other people. I think that's where the people that are unafraid to do that even when they suck at it, right. I listened some way and initial videos even listen to some of our frequents and I'm like, what was I going with that? You know, and it's, that's okay, the reality is, we're on a journey to get better. Yeah. And until we stick our neck out there, then we're not going to get better, right? If we're always comfortable, we're not going to get any better.
Matthew Baltzell
Yeah, I mean, there's the old saying like calm seas never made for a good sailor. And you want to be going into battle with somebody or you want to go out to sea with somebody who's had 50 podcast episodes, who has closed on 2000 plus homes in a year who has been through a recession who has had some bad ones, like, that's my guy. That's my guy. That's my podcaster that's Justin. That's my real estate agent. You know, like, I trust this guy. And that's how you become quote unquote, a thought leader or how you can leverage yourself to basically have access to greater mentors, real tours, investors, team members, family members, you know, like us, it's all about leverage and basically elevating yourself and holding yourself accountable and goals and everything added going off on a tangent right now.
Justin Stoddart
I love your tangents there. They're great. Let's let's talk let's kind of pivot a little bit now towards becoming a real estate investor. Obviously you are mentor work The meaning you have you've paid the price to build a portfolio that's freed you up to live where you want to live work when you want to work. What would you What advice would you give to a residential real estate agent who either wants to do that or either wants to help their clients do that? How would one get started? Like what's what's a kind of a foundation that they need to build in order to kind of go down that path to have that kind of freedom?
Matthew Baltzell
I would say be clear on what you want. Because if you're not clear on what you want, it's going to muddle the waters with everything else. So example being let's say, you want to have more freedom, right? But if you're trying to tie yourself down to bigger deals or you know, jobs and bigger projects, right, you're probably not going to have more freedom. So when you are clear on what you want, as far as with your career path, and your own personal lifestyle, you know, that basically allows Clarity for your goals which should be in alignment with your lifestyle. And then when you approach a person, they can basically say like, Okay, this guy's I'm just making this up, but this guy's about freedom. I'm about nose to the grind 70 hours a week like we don't really match up. So when you know when you're clear about what you want, as far as goals, clarity, lifestyle, that will basically be your North Star. And people will align with that and that should attract the right people, or people will veer away from that, but at least you know who you are and what you're about what you represent. And you can change people so that's what I kind of recommend having clarity, have a vision, know what you're about, and go from there.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. So once you've got clarity, I would say probably not everybody. Like for me living in Thailand, although I did live in Brazil for two years but not with six kids. Like I love life in the US. I love to travel to Thailand. My wife is nudging me saying when you go to Bora Bora that's that's going to be always up. But, you know, I think not everybody wants to live in Thailand, I think some of the show like I would live in Thailand, right. Once you've got clarity, then what's the next step?
Matthew Baltzell
So I would say, once you have clarity, you know, so if you're, if you're asking as far as having clarity as far as like a broker wanting to, to was to help investors.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, yeah. either help investors or become an investor.
Matthew Baltzell
Hmm. So I think we've maybe touched on this a little bit, but there's, there's millions of ways to work out right. So there's millions of ways you can do p90x, you can run marathons, you can run on the treadmill, you can run outside. You know, I don't know, there's millions of different ways to work out. Yeah. But you're not going to develop your own strategy until you get in the game. And you Justin could be like, I love fixing and flipping homes. And you know, like, I see It's great. It's on YouTube, like that's for me. I know it is. But until you actually fix and flip your first home, you might be like, actually don't really like that. Okay, check, you know, now you're moving on. But if it goes back to your waiting to get started, you'll never get started. There never is a right time. So once you kind of already and have clarity, there's nothing wrong with having your vision or your goals change because you don't know until you get into the game. So, you know, if you're like, I want to approach this person and you know, you have like high hopes as far as this mentor, and maybe join their mastermind or their programming like listen. I thought this guy was cool, but he works 80 hours a week and I didn't realize this and like I don't want that lifestyle. Okay, like I don't want I don't want to be the number one broker at the southeastern branch of REMAX or whatever right? So once you have clarity, you know basically being able to Being able to pivot and change your goals is not a bad thing.
Justin Stoddart
And so what I hear you saying is, number one, get clarity. Yeah. Number two, look for a mentor kind of back to our original topic of somebody who has what you want. And it's okay. If in the process, you realize, like, this actually isn't what I want. I didn't realize that to get what he had, I had to sacrifice my family. And I'm not willing to do that. So let me pick a different mentor, or even slightly adjust my end goal. And then find the mentor. Right. Yeah. And then at that point, like, Is it just dig in and do whatever they tell you to do?
Matthew Baltzell
No, I would say that you have to basically take what they're saying. And does it align with what you're basically about right? And you will formulate your own strategy. So I could say to you, Justin, you should record every every every other day and you're going to knock it out of the park. Blah, blah, blah, blah. You don't like I appreciate the advice, but I'm gonna try every day. And then now works for you, right? So somebody could say like, Hey, you know, you should really like, for example, people say that you should start with single family homes, start with single family homes right and maybe work from one Institute as a triplex to duplex, then go to 10 units, 20 years like that there's not really any rules, it's think big, right? So if you want to think as big as possible, and your mentor, or somebody else in your family is saying, like, you should do this path, like, they're basically just putting their ideals and their views on to you, that doesn't mean it's necessarily possible. So even though you know, your mother might have your best interest, doesn't mean she's right. And if you, you know, want to listen to your mentor, you could take 90% of what they say. And you could apply that to maybe a different market that they aren't familiar with, or, you know, you could basically go different out Avenue so I would say yes, yes, dig in, but at the same time I would also recommend, you know, having a brain and thinking for yourself and doing what's right for yourself.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Interesting. I was listening to actually Cardone last night. And he was talking about same thing of like choose a mentor. But it doesn't mean you need to do everything with the mentor, like one of his mentors is Buffett, but Cardone isn't like investing in the market. So he said, I take the principles that I love from Buffett, but I apply them to real estate as opposed to businesses and or as opposed to the market like Buffett does. And I thought, that's good advice. Sometimes people say pick a mentor are following blindly. But if it's, I think you having some wisdom about not we're actually probably more intelligent than we give ourselves as long as we're not giving ourselves away out. But we're adapting it to our passions and what we do love which again, goes back to something that I heard you you allude to earlier, which is get very clear on what you love to do. If it's if it's flipping homes, great if it's multifamily great, like what actually fires you up, and I I think there's a deep lesson in that for all of us is that, like, we're all creatures of comfort and of habit, you know, find something that gets us to where we want to go that we actually really enjoy. It's not going to be such a struggle, it's not gonna be such an energy energy expenditure to do that thing. If it's like, man, I love to go look at multifamily properties, right, I would imagine that you, as an analyst actually love looking at the numbers. Well, that sounds terrible. I mean, honestly, if you said to get where I am at, you've got to become an analyst. Like shoot me now. Like I'm just like, that's not the way I'm wired. I would love to be partnered with someone that is an analyst right? And and I bring other strengths to the table. But I think it's it's good for kind of what you're saying is is custom tailor their mentorship to actually finding what you love to do what you'll get up and do every single day, in fact, oftentimes give us advice real estate agents. They're like, Well, you know, what do you recommend I should do in order to generate leads for my business. I'll say, really what are like, as you said, there's there's 100 different ways fit. It's what will you actually get up and do every day of the week? Because they'll all work as long as you work right? As long as you are consistent enough to put them to work and do the work. They will. And so I think part of being a good mentee, as well as as well as good at mentoring others has a lot to do with finding something that you'll actually get up and do every day and not complain about it and be excited about it. For sure.
Matthew Baltzell
Yeah, I mean, there's a million different ways to do everything right. Like you can have a baseball coach tell you this is how you throw fastball, right? But at the end of the day, like everybody's fibers are different in their arms. Everybody throws it, you might throw 98 I might throw 75 like this how you throw football like okay, like I'm three quarters you're over the top I'm throw more sidearm like your lefty I'm ready. There's no and I guess that's where the beauty that lies, right like there's not like I can never duplicate your podcast. I can never duplicate your investment strategy. I can never duplicate your kids, I can never duplicate you. And you as an individual, you know, that's what makes you beautiful. And that's what makes you as an investor. And I think a lot of people are afraid to stand out from the pack. Because when you stand up, stand apart from the pack, right? There's too many Indians, not enough chiefs. And when you become a chief, then you become a thought leader. And when you become a thought leader, you become a person of action. And awesome people like how did you be? How did you do that? It's like, I liked it myself. It was like, really? Oh, wow. Awesome. Great. will follow you.
Justin Stoddart
Right? Back to leadership, right? I mean, that someone's having the courage to go, go pursue it and stand up. And yeah, take good advice from good mentors. But But go out and make it your own. And I think, you know, one of my quests in life is this pursuit of human potential. I think all of us have more potential than we can even fathom that I think all people do. It's there's so much so much untapped potential there, that when we start to actually have confidence in ourself to do things, And to and to seek out mentors we realize how powerful we really are and how much good we can actually do. And I think everybody can be a leader you don't have to have like you can like I so I work for a large company right now and I'm you know the title and escrow industry and people say like, What's your plan? Are you like, do you want to be sales manager? Do you want to be regional? And I'm like, No, I actually love where I'm at. Right and I got the freedom to lead where I'm at I don't need a title like I'm super comfortable. I say comfortable like super happy building big impact and audience and and reach and impact from from where I sit. And I think it it's, it's healthy for all of us realize we don't have to pursue the path that other people pursue. It can be our own our own although we ought to again, have great mentors guiding us along the way.
Matthew Baltzell
For sure. Couldn't agree 100%
Justin Stoddart
Man, I'm super. I'm super grateful for you. poured into us teaching us about mentorship. Again, you're you're in a really enviable spot, essentially You've created a great portfolio that gives you a lot of freedom. I want to put up here on the screen. how people can can follow you and track you. Matthew ballz elle.com that's where you're putting your journey, right, your messages, the things that you're learning. Again, all is a part of boardwalk wealth. Is that is that correct? boardwalk wealth calm is the website. We encourage people to go look at and see what this amazing, amazing team of investors are doing. And I also got to give a shout out to our friend, Dr. Ray, who I Rayleigh, a huge fan of this guy. He's given you a shout out to raise the man. Anyway, we're both big fans of you now, apparently. So I want to ask this, which is the signature question of the show. Matthew. You're a big thinker, right? That's why you've been invited to come on. You're doing some great things. What is a guy like you who is a big thinker, what do you do to continue to be a big thinker continue to expand your own possibilities.
Matthew Baltzell
I am really excited about the future. I mean as far as like on a, on a business world economic kind of front. And I think when you I don't know, I think maybe for myself since I have traveled a lot, and I've lived abroad, I think that like it's allowed me to, like think more broad and more open. And I think that, you know, as far as like the business aspect is concerned, like, like blockchain is really exciting. And, you know, the economics, the world economics and learning about geopolitics, that stuff's really excited me right now.
Justin Stoddart
Very cool. So you expand your thinking, one, you have a general optimism about the future, and you're learning things that aren't necessarily just real estate specific. It sounds like
Matthew Baltzell
Yeah, and I think when I think when you think like bigger picture, right, like bigger Picture like if you're like, Okay, not just like my market or the US, or where does the US tie into the global economy? Okay, well, why Why? What's up with GDP here? What's up with this? Like? How do the yields work? Okay, well, you realize like, the world is more of a connected place and once you kind of start learning about investments in world politics, I don't know for me, it's very fascinating. And I'm really enjoying diving in and just learning as much as possible right now.
Justin Stoddart
That's cool that I love it. Always educating, always being curious, that's the sign of a true big thinker. So I thank you for your time. And and what you've poured into me and the Think Bigger Real Estate audience. Again, I want, encourage everybody to, like become a mentor. That's what your clients need. That's what they're going to expect if they're going to choose you. And the best way to become a mentor is to become a great mentee, to seek out great people lead with value. And hopefully that's some of the takeaways from today's episode, I know they are for me. And my final request of everybody listening today are three simple words that have deep deep meaning for me and hopefully they do for you as well which are GO THINK BIGGER. Thank you so much again, Matthew. It's been a total pleasure having you on the show, and I look forward to staying in touch.
Matthew Baltzell
Thank you very much.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show, I'm your host Justin Stoddart. Today we're going to talk about swimming with sharks. You're probably thinking, what in the world does this have to do with real estate. Right now in our industry, in our economy, it has everything to do with real estate. So before we get too much into swimming with sharks, what that means for you, I want to remind you that we have show notes, you can get summary and everything that you've missing that you've been missing on this show if you go to thinkbigger.realestate and sign up to get that weekly review. I've got people praising me thanking me for that summary that comes to them that allows them to choose what episodes are most relevant to them. So be sure to go sign up thinkbigger.real estate. I also want to remind you that my mission and my purpose is to help you to think bigger. My overall passion is to help you have a life of impact, but you have to do more and get better results in order to have that happen and the only way for that to happen is to put you around big thinkers that help expand your thinking, expand your possibilities. I'm excited to bring to you today, another big thinker, somebody who not only has done it in her own life but continues to do it the lives of other people. So, Amy Donaldson who is a real estate agent here in the Portland metropolitan area. She's also an author of get off the cashflow roller coaster, which is a great book. I've read it. It's wonderful. And she's also a coach. So I want to thank, and welcome, all at the same time. Amy Donaldson, thanks for joining us today on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show.
Amy Donaldson
Thank you, Justin. Thank you. What a fun introduction.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. So talk to us about swimming with sharks. You literally had an experience recently that like this could have been a very, very real possibility. Please explain what happened.
Amy Donaldson
Yes. So um, last Friday, I was down in Southern California. And you know, I love to go in the water with my nephew. So I'm surfing with my 13 year old nephew in Manhattan Beach and I see something out of the corner of my eye but I don't really I don't register and I don't ask. Kayden looks at me he was Aunt Lulu, which is that's what he calls me. Aunt Lulu, I just saw a fin, like a shark fin. Um, and I'm like, really? And I'm thinking like, I saw something, you know, it's kind of like a gray, black. You know, like, Are you sure? And he goes, yes. I'm 100% sure I saw a fin and then it went under. It that far away from us, either. So of course, we're heading back into shore. Um, and I'm just going to leave the story. There was a point out all of us have maybe seen these images of helicopters, or from helicopters flying along the California coast, which was surfers out in the water and you see sharks like, not that far away from them and it's like, "Do people have any idea like what's in the water? Like, maybe that's a whale. Maybe that's a dolphin? I don't know, right? But it looks a lot like a shark from the images.
Justin Stoddart
Just like in here you are out there with your nephew.
Amy Donaldson
That is where sharks live. We are in the ocean.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, you're in their home, right? This isn't you sitting at your home. You went into their home.
Amy Donaldson
Yes.
Justin Stoddart
Okay, well, let's circle back on that story. We're gonna let everybody that's watching this. Hang on just a little bit to hear what happened. It looks like you have your limbs. It looks like you're you made it I don't know about your nephew yet.
Amy Donaldson
We went back in the water that day. So I'm gonna let everyone sit on that and think why on earth? What not? Why did my sister let me bring her kid back in the water? Right?
Justin Stoddart
So So talk to us about this. What in the world does this have to do with real estate right now?
Amy Donaldson
So here's the thing. There is so much going on in our industry and there's a lot of stuff in the waters of real estate. So that's the parallel that I saw. People we see things and there's a lot of chatter, is this thing a threat, is that a threat, is this friendly but but nobody's swimming to shore to assess this. Not nobody a lot of people are but a lot of people aren't a lot of people are just kind of like hanging out and and debating whether things are a threat or not.
Justin Stoddart
And are, I'll interject, and or just doing what they've always done assuming that they're going to get the results that they've always gotten, right I mean, I, I have kind of an interesting perspective, being in the title and escrow industry, we see all the listings that go live, and we see that in a very short period of time right OpenDoor, who is an ibuyer, who has become probably the biggest listing agent in Portland in no time, which is really, really interesting. These guys were a no name a year ago and new to our market in a very short period of time, through a mass mailing effort and they just came up in my Facebook Timeline the other day. Last night, actually it said "OpenDoor, see how much, or if we will make an offer on your house." Right? People are seeing these, your best clients, the people who have used you and referred you are at least getting these letters, they're at least getting this stuff in their newsfeed and yet people are in my opinion, there's a little bit of complacency. Now again, I think that there is some concern, no doubt, but many are doing what they've always done and they're expecting to get the same results and I I just don't think you're going to get the same results. So go ahead.
Amy Donaldson
That's right. No, that's right. That's exactly that's exactly right. There's people who are pretending it doesn't matter are people who are saying that's, that doesn't affect me. It affects us. Now, I personally don't believe the iBuyers are a threat, but to be clear, they affect us. It's a major, major part of our of our market and you know, and I see agents post these things all the time of, you know, list with an agent versus iBuyer and it's a financial breakdown and let me tell you, this is absolutely the wrong way to go because it's the exact same thing that iBuyers are showing the consumer. This isn't new information. So the people who are selling their home to OpenDoor, to them the bottom line, the finances is not their motivation. Like think about that for a minute that they are the largest they are that they're listing more homes than anyone else, which means they're buying more homes than anyone else and there's there's a reason for that and real estate agents or not, as a group, really paying attention. So I had an interesting experience a couple years ago, that made me that really made me take notice that there was a moment... it's something someone said to me that I thought you know what this, this is a powerful statement and it could be easy to miss.
Amy Donaldson
So I was having, you know, just a networking meeting have a one on one with somebody in the in a networking group that I was with and he texted me and said, "Do you want a cup of coffee?" Pretty normal, you know, so I told him what I want, you know, gave him my order. When he showed up to my office with both of our coffees, he was super excited. So this was right when Starbucks was rolling out their app that you can order it ahead of time. So the first time he had used that app, or he had pre loaded some money on to his, basically on to his card on his phone. So anyway, he gets to my office he's so excited telling me about and I hadn't heard of this new feature yet, but so he says, I was in my driveway when I texted you and I placed the order. So when I texted him back, he placed the order from his driveway, he pulls up to the same Starbucks that he always go to where he normally waits in line. He walked in both of our drinks were on the counter right with his name on them. So he was he was like, this was amazing. I walked in, I got to walk right up to where the mobile orders are because I picked them up. And this is what he said that was powerful. And he was grinning ear to ear because "I didn't have to talk to anybody."
Amy Donaldson
Right, and I just I thought, that's a that's a powerful statement. Because in our industry, I hear so many real estate agents say, "Well, I'm relational, and I can't be replaced by a computer. While I agree with that statement, the problem with it is people aren't understanding that sometimes the consumer just wants the convenience. Like in that moment on that morning, Alex did not want to spend five minutes waiting in line and another two or three minutes talking to the barista. "How's your morning going? Good. How's it... "right? You wanted to grab the coffee and get to our appointment. That's what he wanted. He wanted to walk in and have the coffee waiting for him, which is what Starbucks was able to deliver and it's one of the reasons why they're so so popular is that they continue to deliver what the consumer wants. And frankly, it's not great coffee. Like I feel like many, many places offer better coffee than Starbucks. But nobody offers a better, more consistent, predictable experience.
Justin Stoddart
So how do we apply this to real estate? Here's some thoughts that I have and then I'd love to have you add to them. At the end of the day people are coming to a real estate agent because they need to either buy or sell a home, right? That's at least initially why they're coming to you. Maybe some people want a relationship in that process. Maybe some just want to get the job done. I believe that if you are trying to make more of something than what it is, consumers don't want that. For example small chat with a barista is not what I want. That's not a relationship to me. Right? And it's friendliness. I'm not against I'm not opposed to it, but that doesn't make or break my day as to whether or not I get that now.
Amy Donaldson
He wanted to hurry wanted to get to our appointment talk to me, right, right.
Justin Stoddart
Now if that barista tells me that, hey, were you aware that if you, and I'm pulling this out of my head, so this probably isn't a good example, if you buy five cups of coffee, you're going to get the sixth and seventh for free. Stuff that I didn't know that actually makes my life better. Right? Or maybe that's not a very good example because the app could have told me that as well. Right? But let's say I'm standing in the line getting my drink. And she says, "Hey, Justin, do you know John? John comes in here all the time. I think John's in your same industry. You guys should totally meet." Now all of a sudden, she stepped outside of the silo of being just a barista and now she's a connector. She's connected me to John who happens to be an attorney who happens to need some of the services that I offered. Now all of a sudden, that was a delight because the baristas again added more value than what I expected, not trade them tried to make more out of something that she did for a living, if that makes sense.
Amy Donaldson
Yeah, yeah. Well, I think the way I think the way that it that it really translates into our industry is to think about what, like when I hear real estate agents, and I feel like they all say this, "Well, I'm relational." Which, if everyone says that, that's not a differentiator.
Justin Stoddart
And so's the barista, right? Sure.
Amy Donaldson
Sure, sure. And so is the barista. So, um, but to think about what does that mean like when a real estate agent when I'm coaching someone, and they're like, oh, but I focus on the relationship. I'm like, okay, so are you throwing client appreciation parties, most of them aren't. Are you throwing housewarming parties? Most of them aren't. What system do you have in place to foster this relationship? Are you sending them birthday cards? I always sent my clients you know, handwritten birthday cards. It's pretty easy to get their birthday. And then I always would, you know, look a week out so I can set and then I send them a text. And now I send video texts on I sent you a video text on your birthday.
Amy Donaldson
I remember, you were in a van full of other athletic sweaty people
Justin Stoddart
I was in a van full of sweaty women.
Amy Donaldson
Was it Hood to Coast? Oh yeah. Yeah. So males and females. I was thinking, which van was I in? Those are things those are systems that I have in place to foster relationships with people, right? I every day I look through Facebook see birthday it is and the people in my inner circle. I seen them happy birthday on a video. That's actually I know now, you know, but it's a system I have in place.
Justin Stoddart
I thought I was the only one. I thought I was the only one. It's okay. Go ahead.
Amy Donaldson
That doesn't take away. Well, I mean, does it still make you feel special?
Justin Stoddart
Totally. You know how many birthday videos I got that day? Um, 1. Lots of birthday wishes one birthday video.
Amy Donaldson
Right. So, so that's like my thing that I do. And for my buyers, I always got a big red bow that I put on their front door and those are systems that I have in place that foster the relationship. So when I ask people "What are you doing? They're just like, "Well, I really care about my clients." You have to put systems in place that you do the same thing every time and that's what a part of the relationship with Starbucks, it's not that they're going to like suddenly become your network and start introducing you to other people in your field right or even know that about you. But part of that relationship is when you're wanting to... a lot of times people meet their when you're wanting to meet there you go through the whole process, you know, you wait in line to get the thing you know and you have these nice comfortable chairs for you to sit in and have your meeting. And when you don't want to meet there, they have a system in place where you can walk up your order is already ready, you grab it and go. They are delivering both and they're delivering what you want and what you need when you need it.
Justin Stoddart
Right, some people want the relationship. Some people want the small chat with the barista while others are all about convenience. Now, I want to add something to your point there, Amy about the birthday video. The fact that you did that and you showed up as somebody who genuinely cares about me in my life. Something that that then opened me up for us to have additional conversations, right. We had a lunch couple weeks ago and we strategized on each other's businesses. You gave me feedback on mine, even asked you know about my feedback on yours. Like that, that was the foundation of value in my opinion, right? The like the value didn't stop with the fact that you sent me a birthday video. I think that's where a lot of agents get hung up. And they're like, why didn't they choose me? "I sent them a dang birthday video, just like Amy said." The reality is that's valuable on a personal level, but to really go above and beyond and stand out in a crowded marketplace, that's the foundation that you then get to build a house on. And the house has to be something really, really valuable. So for example, for me, I launched a website, you said, Justin, this looks great. Have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? Here's some feedback on that, now all of a sudden, you've stepped into my life as not just a friend, great, I value the friendship, but now you're an advisor, you're a mentor, you're, you know, a partner like that. That's the again, apart from other relationships, and I know that I'm sharing that as an example because I know you do that with your clients. And that's maybe the point that I hope people are taking away from this is that it's not enough just to be relational, that's necessary and not the relational like you're talking about me hat people typically do like "Oh yeah, I'm friendly to them," right? I'm barista relational. No, we're talking about the kind of relationship that you are where you say, "Let's go to lunch. I want to get knee to knee with you and I want to learn what your concerns are and then I'm going to follow up with those concerns with key introductions, key insights that are going to help you actually reach your goals. To me, you have you become an integral part of someone's life and business.
Amy Donaldson
When I'm when I'm working with real estate agents and helping them grow their business and and I asked them what that means to them to be relational, the overwhelming majority start telling me how much they care about their clients, which is this is this is a this is like the perfect foundation, but that's the foundation, it's not the building. They think it's the building, right? You need to care but where the where the return on is on letting them know that you care and how much you care. That's the value of having systems in place and birthday is great. That means you're going to hit everybody at least once a year. Right? Like you've got that for sure, but having having systems in place and things that you do, religiously and to everybody because here's the thing, the fact that I care about other people and send videos to other people on their birthdays, doesn't diminish how much I care about you and what our relationship is.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. tells you your systematic.
Amy Donaldson
Yeah, I'm very systematic and intentional and that comes back to me. The other thing is when you have a system, it becomes a numbers game because I sent videos to people who literally don't even send a thank you text in reply. Okay, now had that been the only video I ever sent. I'd feel rejected. Because every single day I'm sending these videos. If someone doesn't respond, it doesn't even register on my radar. And honestly, I'm assuming if they don't respond to that, they're probably busy. Like they probably got it enjoyed it and was like, Oh, you know, I'll respond later or because they wanted to respond with a video, but aren't in a place where they can record a video and then they, right, and then they do it. Oh, yeah, I'll do it. And it's like, and it's no big deal because I've also gotten like, it'll be weeks later, "Oh my gosh, I never responded to that," but it's like, it's fine. If you only send one, whatever the thing is, whether it's a card or a video, but if you only do it once, that's too small of a sample size to, you need to be doing things systematically to see what kind of results like overwhelmingly the birthday videos get fabulous, fabulous results.
Justin Stoddart
So taking us back here into the water, right? Yeah, we're, you saw this fin. And you guys start moving very quickly, you realize like, we have to get out here. I don't know what that fin was, but we have to get out of here. Talk to us a little bit me about something that you're launching and don't know if you want to tell the end of the story yet or not, but we can talk about that. You're launching something to help agents like get moving fast. Talk to us about why like December 1st, is what I understand, you're launching a 30 day challenge.
Amy Donaldson
I'm doing a 30 day challenge. So finish strong because this is not just the end of the year, this is the end of an entire decade. So it's based on my book, Get off the Cash Flow Roller Coaster. It's the 30 day finish strong challenge. So every day we're going to have different assignments to get moving fast, hit the ground running in 2020. Real estate agents are notorious for taking December off whether they literally take it off or they just like essentially... December can be a fabulous, fabulous month in real estate. I should finish that story because obviously I did not get eaten by any sharks. So we get back on shore and my sister and my cousin and the rest of my family is sitting there going, Oh my gosh, did you guys see all the dolphins there's a whole pod and they were like, did you know how close you were to them? It was a which I told her "Funny thing is we saw a fin and thought it was a shark." And it was it was it was hilarious to them because they had been watching this like so just over the crest of the way there were these dolphins that we're swimming and so of course Kaden and I were like let's get back out there because who doesn't want to surf with dolphins which, by the way, was a major thing. Ahh-mazing. I mean to see huge pods of them. I mean, there was probably 50 of them. So I believe that one was the first that we had seen, but I mean to see dolphins out in the wild like that, and up close was pretty incredible and like one of the most exciting things I've experienced and so the parallels to our real estate thing is I think a lot of these things that we're seeing in in our industry really are to our benefit if we understand them and if we know how to approach them. So a huge key for us and feeling safe and having a good experience was knowing that they were dolphins. While you can actually get pretty close to dolphins, and they're not going to bother you and they're just going to play around the when you see a fin in the water, the thing to do is not let's go approach it and see if this is a dolphin or a shark.
Amy Donaldson
So this coaching program, it's a way to get yourself on shore where you have a lens, you can look at the entire landscape, see what's out there, what's safe, what's friendly. Most things are friendly.
Justin Stoddart
You know how to interact with them, right. Like you've described, given us a great parallel with iBuyers, that there's a segment of the market that they're like Alex getting his coffee, "Get out of my way, just get my house sold. I don't even care so much about the numbers, I just want to get rid of this thing," right? And there's a group of people that we all have to be okay with that that's actually in their best interest. And there's a whole group of people that actually want top dollar for their house and they actually want a great experience and they actually want to be connected to your powerful network in the process. Those are the people where you need to spend your time, right. Most most people want top dollar for their house. Yeah. Okay. So that's an easy conversation and you're going to win that one every time. The people that want the convenience that an iBuyer offers, you're not going to win by showing them that they're getting more money by listing with you, that's not what's important to them. The way for some of those people selling to an iBuyer is the best option but for some of those people, if they could list it with an agent and have a slightly better experience, still have that convenience, that might be better. So having a pool of cash buyers to say, "Hey, if I could get you a better offer than the iBuyer, but also without putting it on the market and bringing a bunch of people through, would that be of value to you. So the people who want the convenience, you have to meet the convenience for them. You can't ignore that that's what's important to them and the overwhelming majority, yes, want top dollar and so we don't have to, we don't have to have these graphs and these charts and they're already going, they're going to figure it out to list with an agent.
Amy Donaldson
What needs to be addressed as these people who want the convenience. Is there a way that we can offer the convenience and still work with them? Yeah and not looking at if they sell their house to an iBuyer, what are they doing? Are they buying something else? Can I represent them on their purchase? Right? Just embrace this don't don't try to fight this to the point where you're now alienated but okay, great. You sold your house what do you, what are we doing with that money? Are we purchasing something else? Are you moving out of the area? Do you need a referral to another real estate agent? You know, like when you just don't fight, don't fight the current? Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
It's awesome stuff, Amy. Yes, get moving right and get the help and the coaching and the mentorship that you do to get moving. I don't know that I've heard of somebody being bold enough to go through the month to do a 30 day challenge in December, right. I think it's absolutely brilliant of you. There's a lot of stuff that goes up until December, but people just kind of expect that, this is a month you take off. Whereas I've seen that when you do it right, you can actually have it's actually a great time to be connecting with people. We don't have time to go into exactly what's all going to be in your challenge. That's for people to determine, we're going to put in the show notes, there will be a link to it.
Amy Donaldson
Let me say one thing. So it's $49. And I'm offering a double money back guarantee. So if somebody takes the challenge if they do all the things that that I recommend and do not see immediate results in their business, I'm going to refund their money plus another $49. Wow. So money back guarantee. They're definitely going to see immediate results in their business.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Any signature question the show you got 30 seconds. Okay, what is what does a big thinker like you continue to do to be a big thinker and expand your own possibilities teach us?
Amy Donaldson
Yeah, um, I spend as much time as possible with people on both ends of the spectrum. So youngest growing up, yeah, the little kids and the old folks, there's so much wisdom on the fringes and those of us in the middle I think, is when we get it all screwed up. Sometimes.
Justin Stoddart
Interesting. Amy, would you do everybody a favor? Go follow Amy. She's going to tell you later today a story she told me yesterday as you can tell it via live. This is my request of you, Amy, the story of your dad at 80 years old. He's like, in other words, flying through the air being caught by hands and feet at eight years old. Like you guys are gonna love this story because it ties in perfectly with what you just shared, the things that we can learn from both the young and the wise. So yeah, maybe I'll tell the full story on a live.
Unknown Speaker
I can't wait to hear it again. So folks, I want to thank you again for tuning in today. Amy, thank you for what you've poured into us. I would encourage everybody to make your December differen. Get moving. Are there sharks in the water, that there could be right and the best way to get the life that you want regardless of what's happening is to get moving and December is a great way to end off this decade in action. It's you taking control of your business in life as opposed to letting it happen. So I want to make the final request everybody that's listening, three very simple words you hear me say all the time which are go, think bigger. Thank you, Amy for helping us do that today. And thanks, everybody for tuning in.
Amy Donaldson
Thank you, Justin.
Justin Stoddart
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, very excited today to introduce you a gentleman who's done some really really impressive things. He lives in a city that I'm very fond of Houston, Texas. I'm going to introduce him here in just a minute. Let me just remind you the purpose of this show, it's to help you think bigger. That's the purpose of the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I know that when I think bigger when you think bigger, something amazing happens is that our actions start to change, our results follow and then bada boom bada bing, what ends up happening is our impact, also follow suit and I'm thrilled and committed deeply to help anybody who listens to this have a life of deep impact. Today's episode is going to be a special one because we have somebody with us today, is name is Daray Olaleye. He is out of Houston, Texas and his background is he's actually a real estate entrepreneur and business coach. He helps people through the power of real estate investing, build their ultimate ideal life. So I want to thank Daray for being on the show. How did I do with you last name Daray? Did I do okay?
Daray Olaleye
Man, you hit that out of the park.
Justin Stoddart
I'll give it an 8 out of 10, but thank you, but I defininately thank you for being here. For those that are curious about the Daray to see how how intelligent, articulate, and just generous this man is. His website is beforethemillions.com. If that doesn't tell you enough about what a genius marketer he is. I love the name beforethemillions.com he helps people move in the direction of having the millions so he meets them before the millions. So impressive, my friend. Now you are also the host of a podcast. Let's let's talk about that a little bit. What's the name your podcast?
Daray Olaleye
Yeah, it is actually called Before the Millions. So it's all branded Before the Millions, so it's really easy and simple to get to.
Justin Stoddart
Fantastic. So be watching for that. In fact, I would encourage you to go subscribe to that. Because the problem that we're really going to solve today is that you as a real estate agent have a number of people that are in your sphere. Let's say the average agent has anywhere between 250 and they 500 people in their sphere, and those people tend to sell a home every, let's say, five to 10 years, and maybe they refer you if they're really good maybe once a year, okay? Imagine this, those same people who use you fairly infrequently, are maybe very disgruntled in their job, they don't love what they do. They're tied to a big income, so they can't necessarily get out of it. Right? They can't necessarily just go do anything else, I'm going to move my microphone up here a little bit, that is gonna be better audio now. They can't actually get out of their job, presumably, right, they feel a little bit stuck and what Daray has the ability to do is to teach these people to do something that is going to help them get the ideal life that they want number one, and to become a very frequent customer of yours, you're going to help convert much of your database into investors. So anyway, before I go into any further, let me just thank Daray for being on the show today. I'm really excited to have you here and to delve deeper into this topic.
Daray Olaleye
I'm excited as well. And thank you for having me on this. And I cannot wait to hopefully add some value to your listeners. And I think that you bring up a very, very prominent subject matter. And I don't think that most most agents kind of think about think about their business in terms of kind of how you laid it out. Now, let me ask you a question or the practice and when it comes to you, you you work with quite a few agents, whether you're interviewing them, are you actively working with them in the business, but what would you say is the number one lead gen source for for agents these days,
Justin Stoddart
... their personal sphere.. you know, people add in all kinds of other methods, whether it be internet leads, not know, again, it's different for each agent. But if you go to the businesses that have been here the longest, that are sustainable businesses, they'll say that the majority or even their easiest business comes from their friends family past points.
Daray Olaleye
Yeah, and that angle, you're 100% correct. I mean, that is that is that you hit it right on the head. I, I've spoken to many of agents, right and some of them really, really just now starting out in big faith. You know, you have this and it's kind of a mindset thing. I'm glad I'm on the bigger podcast, because when you when most people enter an industry of answer a business, their first mindset is well, I don't I don't want to bother my family. I don't want to tell my friends. Let me let me make it. Right. Let me let me get let me get a couple of deals at first and you kind of know family friends are kind of the last people that you may want to turn to. But as an agent, I think that um, you said it best, nice and most some of the most successful agents work their sphere like no man's business. I work with an agent today and he literally gets 90% of his business off of referrals. So your sphere is a very, very, very key ingredient to making sure that that your your first mind when somebody wants to buy or sell their home. Now as for the investors, it's definitely important for you to have an agent to work with. So you positioning yourself as an agent who does work with investors, they're super invaluable. You know, I always tell investors like, I want to go find I want, I want you to find an agent to work with that works with investors, because they're going to have certain courts and certain nuances in their system and how they go about doing things that a normal agent wouldn't right there also also look out for agents who have investment property, because those guys for sure are going to be able to help you through that journey for just now starting out. So those are two quick tips that I want to give off to the listeners real quick before we kind of get into the meat.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, no, I love that. Because, again, if you can start to look at your sphere differently, right? Oftentimes, people look at them as if, like, what are their real estate needs for their personal residence. And then the next step is, I want to be the person that they think of when they you know when, like when real estate comes up around them. And I think the invitation that both the ray and I are making to you is to look at everybody in your database as an as a potential investor and maybe someone who who does doesn't like their career to the point where that's all they want to do. You know, I had the, in my preparation for interviewing Grant Cardone I was listening to one of his other interviews. And he was talking to a gentleman who's probably created the largest Airbnb training platform in the world, Brian page. And, you know, Brian, over the past couple of years has made $7 million on his Airbnb education tools. And I was like, That's impressive. He said, You know, I'm obviously in the education business as well. But he said, you know, what's, what's far surpassed my education, businesses, my investing business. And I thought about that I was like, you know, the end of the day. You know, we all exchange time for money until we become an investor and our money starts to work for us. And I think when real estate agents who naturally get that right, they live that they, like many of them are investors, when you start to really take a strong stance of educating your personal sphere, about the power of being an investor. Now it may be an investor on the side of what they do or it may be them starting to position themselves as being an investor as the only thing that they do. I think number one it differentiates you from the rest of the real estate agents out there is that you're not just here to market and sell the home that someone's asked you to market and sell. But you're educating people on a new and better way to live, which let's go into them. You know, let's talk a little bit about that journey. As far as your passion your coaching, is taking people from, like disgruntled employees of jobs or businesses that they don't love, and moving them into an ideal life. And I want you to share this and as, as you share this, I want to invite my audience, right, many of whom are real estate agents to be thinking about what you can be learning from the ray in order to be teaching your sphere, similar principles. So Dre, please tell us why is it that you teach people what you teach them?
Daray Olaleye
Yeah, I think that that's a beautiful question. A lot of it and I think this is something that stems from a lot of entrepreneurial journeys. A lot of it started because of my discontent. Right, I used to be a big for accounting. And I work about 70-80 hours a week for an accounting, firm auditing, auditing the financial segments of some of the biggest real estate companies in the world. So I wore a suit and tie to work every day, I would travel at the drop of a dime, that to me be in San Francisco for the next month, pack your bags on a Sunday, you'll be there on Monday. It was crazy. They would be me. Again, some of this is going to sound good. A lot of this to me sounds bad. They I mean, they bribe you with food. Right? If you've ever been in the corporate side, and you get bribed with a lot of food, a lot of like fine dining and things of that nature. They want to step your face so that you continue to work. Right so I'm working from under that San Francisco trip I was working for maybe like 8am till about two 3am every single night so it wasn't I didn't even feel as I was in San Francisco and and you would think that you have the weekends off but you have to you have to meet deadlines. So Saturday and Sundays. Yes, we're working both of those days as well. So Again, I was locked in a cubicle pretty much. If I was awake, I needed to be in that cubicle. And I've predicated myself on lifestyle design. Like I love to travel I love. I love trying new cuisines. I love being in different countries. I love going off sabbaticals, right. That's kind of the vision I always had for my life. So when I entered corporate America, I was like, man, there's so many restrictions. This this is this is this is this is not this is not what I thought this would be. Right? I had a life plan. Like I was told in college that I needed to go work for the biggest, baddest accounting firm in the world. I was told in college that by working 15 years I've become a partner, I'd stopped making half a million dollars a year. I was told in college that once I did this, I would be amongst the 1% of people. I'd be super successful and I'd enjoy my life. But a year into that process, I realized that they were totally wrong. This is the worst thing ever. I didn't want to be here. I hated everything about my life. So naturally, as started to find a way out. But it wasn't till one day a woman on a caller calling my guardian angel. But she had no idea what I was going to share no idea of the mental torment and the demons that I was facing on a day to day basis going into work. And we don't have enough time to get into some of the things that transpired just but just not on a very bad situation. And my whole adult life I hadn't read a single book, Justin not a single book, I tried to read them. What was that book I tried to read 48 Laws of Power. I just couldn't stick to what I would read a chapter one at 18 at 1920. I just keep reading chapter one. I could never get through it. Like it's so hard to read a book, right? But she handed me a rich dad poor dad for very first book that I picked up as an adult. And it was like the unspoken language that had been trying to speak for so many years. It was like it was like the manuscript to the life I wanted to live and just like you just handed me my entire life on a platter. Since then, I read about a book We covered over 100 books and I'm a book free and I think we just talked about some of the books in your book collection. I love books, right? But it all stemmed from that book. And it all stems from that discontentment and reading that book and kind of put myself in the mind and like a gave me a blueprint again it tell me exactly what school Rich Dad Poor Dad doesn't do that. But it gave me the idea gave me the concepts to start looking for. Right. So when I started learning those concepts, I started trying different businesses start testing the market, I started figuring out how can I create my ultimate lifestyle design? How can I get back to traveling? Right? So while I was in corporate America, I did a little travel. I did a ton of travel for the company, but I wasn't able to go abroad for a month, right? I wasn't able to do the things that I want to do for the rest of my life. I was like, how can I get to do this? While I was mean, in this day and age, we have the internet. We have a ton of we have a ton of ways to operate our businesses solely from a laptop like we're doing that today. Right? I have an educational platform, a six figure educational platform, and I do all the Gentleman, I could do that. I could do that from anywhere in the world and I don't need to be stationary. But it didn't start like that. Right? It started by creating six to eight businesses. Justin literally, I read Rich Dad Poor Dad. In April, I closed on my first property the very next month less than 30 days later, no real estate experience whatsoever. That's how hungry I was. The next month I opened my first business was a drop shipping company the next month ultimate Kindle publishing company open the lead gen company like I started business after business, because I it's like, I now had something to ankle. And I knew that one of these businesses and this is kind of a trap iPhone. So I knew that one of these businesses would hit.
Daray Olaleye
I knew that if I just stuck it out long enough, right? Because I was abandoned business on the head. Nothing about business and nothing about real estate. I mean, you would think and this is a common misconception with accountants, oh, you're an accountant do my taxes. Till this day, I couldn't do my own taxes. Like that's not that's not That's not something that you're equipped with as an accountant. So even as a, as a, as an auditor, auditing the financial statements of some of the biggest real estate companies in the world, I was still very great. So I opened up a ton of businesses. And I didn't know that business is costly. There's large marketing costs involved. So I have about eight businesses running, they are making literally zero dollars. And I'm spending thousands of dollars on marketing every single month. So I went from a disruptive employee to a disgruntled entrepreneur slash employee because I still had my full time job. So this is kind of the early stages of my progression. I started trying to figure things out. And I started trying to figure out how am I going to create the ultimate lifestyle design where I can be on any country, I can do anything I want. I can operate my business from a laptop and cell phone, and I can be fulfilled because I tell you what, Justin, when I was working at my big four accounting firm, I was working half of the year for the government. I was working the second half of the year for the bank. And the entire year I was working for a company and I wasn't seeing the fruits of my labor. I was It seemed that direct impact that I was having on people, I wasn't seeing the direct impact I was having on the companies that are auditing, right. So I'm just adding up numbers to make sure that they that they that they pan out, right. So I don't really see the end goal, I don't see the bigger picture. So again, I say I'm working half the year for the government because literally, almost half of our money goes to taxes as just solely unemployed, when you're not a business owner, half of your money go to taxes. The second half of the year, I'm fresh out of college. So everything else is going to the bank in the form of student loans, car notes, if you have a mortgage or if you pay rent, I mean that all credit card bills, right? So the whole year, I'm just like, dude, like I'm working for somebody else. And then to top it off, I'm not even building a legacy for myself. And I was just like, this is the worst type of situation I could ever be in. I can't I can't see myself doing this for the next 30 4050 years. There's no way I can I can see myself doing this for the next year. So I needed to figure out a way to get out of that conundrum. And that's that's why I turned to real estate. That's why real estate, I believe in, people always say it's the dumb man's way the world. And I believe that because I'm not, I'm not the smartest in the bunch, but I figured out certain key concepts that really, really work. And that's what I'm, that's what we're sharing today. And that's what hopefully your audiences picked up over the course of time. And that's what they're continuing to hone in on as they kind of pursue the ultimate lifestyle design. Because at the end of the day, what's the point? If it's not for you to be happy for you to be able to provide for your family, for you to do the things that you want? What's the point? Right, so that's why my biggest premise is lifestyle design. And I'm glad that you asked me that garage that you touched on that because lifestyle design is super important for every single one.
Justin Stoddart
So friends, hopefully you've you've you've picked up on their people that you know, around you that are in the situation that the Ray was in, right life looks rosy from the outside, they've got a fancy job, working for a fancy company, get to travel for work, yet inside, they're miserable, right? They're not living like the ideal life that they want to be living and you can help them, right, you're on the front lines of real estate. We talked about this before today that is that, you know, real estate agents, one of the key advantages that they have is that they're literally like first to know about properties, right? Their first to know about good deals and and they they live and breathe the numbers of real estate so they can see good deals better than the rest of us can. And I think as you start to educate people, about real estate investing about the power of having your money work for you, as opposed to you always working for your money, you're going to start to get some people that are going to come to you and they're going to ask for mentorship, they're going to ask for the help. And, you know, let's talk a little bit about maybe a key step or two first thing that somebody could do to and I'm sure your coaching programs go, you know much more in depth on training people on how to be lifestyle entrepreneurs using real estate, but is there is there one or two quick lessons that you can share with people Either a mistake or an opportunity that a lot of people miss when it comes to getting started in being a real estate investor.
Daray Olaleye
Um, yes. So let me let me let me share an opportunity and this opportunity, maybe we're going to go to a mistake as well, because I just thought up a few. But this opportunity lies where, where opportunity lies with most internet businesses. As a real estate agent, you may not think that you have an internet business, you may not believe that it's an online business, but I beg to differ. I believe that you have an online business, or you can you can formulate it to be an online business, the backbone of most online businesses, the ones that are really profitable. Your backbone is not a Facebook group. It's not Instagram, it's not Google ads. Right? Their backbone is their emails. Okay. Most real estate agents, they may or may not have an email list but I guarantee you most real estate agents do not have a It's a great follow up process, right? So I'm on big on systems, I'm less on like, hey, let's see if this works. And let's kind of like fly by the seat. What's the I don't even know the phrase. But you know, I'm big on having a predictable system month after month. So one of the things that I would definitely employ your audience to build is to create some type of system. And going back to an email list. When you have a, you know, it's that typical, hey, I'm on the beach. I don't have a whole lot of business going on this month, or you can be wherever, right? Maybe your goal is to close on two deals a month. Well, there's a month that you're falling short. But if over the past few months, over the past two years, you've been collecting emails, you've been interacting, you've been adding value to your potential clients. That month, you send out a one second email, right? They can literally these words have made me thousands and have made my clients thousands of dollars and tell you exactly what the email should say. Let's hear it. DNB is called this called the seven word email. I don't know if I'm going to get exactly seven words, but in the subject, and the subject would be something like, hey, or it could be like something like quick question. And then in the end the actual body, which is going to be like, hey, do you still need help with real estate? Right? So this is just a simple question. So your entire email list the list that you've been building, you're like, what do I how do I build an email list? We're collecting business cards at meetups, right? You're hopefully you're adding value on social media, people want to learn a little bit more value, there should be some way for people to find out more about you not just visit your website, there should be some type of intake process to where you're collecting data. Right? Because again, you can create a Facebook group you can you can, you can do a lot of these things on other platforms. But ultimately, you don't you don't own those, but you do on your email list. So there is a value there's thousands, if not millions of dollars and create a new email list and making sure that you're following up with these people on least a month to month basis at least. Hey, how's it going? Just checking up on things, make sure everything's okay. Or, hey, I saw this white paper I wanted to send this to you. I thought this was interesting about your market, or hey, here's a here's a question. Do what do you what do you What's your opinion again, sparking some type of interaction sparking some type of authority? And I love commercial questions like what should you live in your home that should be listed at market should do a slightly below market so that people can have a bidding work? Or should you listed above market so that maybe you get top dollar? Right and a ton of agents But no, don't listed above market a ton of bonuses like listed at more. I mean, there's no one right answer. But having having sparking that conversation. Again. You're the authority, you're creating that platform, you're adding value to a ton of people and I would easily just simply get all those people to my email list and grow my email list from there. How have a client he's actually in the process. He's been growing as he knows from past six months, and he gets at least one or two additional clients per month. Just by having an email. So I think that that is one super secret, but also super relevant and everybody shouldn't be doing that already super relevant opportunity, but that you guys can take advantage.
Justin Stoddart
You know, it's interesting how much agents how much time and effort agents put on having these fancy HTML, beautiful newsletters that go out every month. And I think sometimes they're red. I think a lot of times, they're probably not. And I love the simplicity. It's almost taking the methodology of a text message of like seven words, I do you need help, do you still need help with real estate? How many words that is, but that concept of just super quick and you could actually blast that out to everybody. And it feels very personal. Because it's not this generic thing. You're simply asking the question, you need help with real estate and it and my guess is your response rates going to blow you away compared to the typical stuff that you're setting out.
Daray Olaleye
Exactly, exactly. Because it's personal. It's personal. You know, it's one of those things to where even If I didn't need help, I may respond anyways right as opposed to your your month your month I'm at and I don't do those hey I there's there's a monthly newsletter there's a monthly this like the way we talked about this before the call I had I had a call with somebody yesterday and he's a he's an agent quit his job prematurely which again, this happened to me so I can't fault him. But he quit his job prematurely and he's going about a deal a quarter. And not enough at whatsoever. I asked him about how he's how he's promoting how he's how he's how he's getting out there how he's spreading, you know, spreading his name. He's like, yeah, I'm just, you know, contacting people. I'm going in groups and I'm telling them that I'm that I'm that I'm an agent that I'd love to work with in the fair, but thought about buying or selling and he's consistent with that consistent, but yet and still, Justin, he has gotten zero deals from that he's gotten zero clients from that,
Justin Stoddart
Which is about the equivalent of one quarter right and it's not the cool enough, zero. Right?
Daray Olaleye
Right?! How about you turn it on its head? How about how about you take a different approach? You know, how about you take a value based approach? You know, how about you, you start going into groups, and you start actually helping people that that may or may not ever become client. So you go out and you go, and you go and create posts that are actually beneficial to the audience that you're looking to serve. Right? Because it's all about serving. Like, the only way you can get to where you want in your business is by finding ways to serve these people. So how can you serve your target demographic? If you're going after sellers? How do you how do you serve a seller in the right way? What what are the sellers top 10 biggest concerns? Right? Um, how long? How much am I going to get? You know, what's your fee? Right? I mean, that's, that's super, but it's a secret, right? But if you can break down like, maybe like fee structure or how to how to how to get lower fees as a seller, like that's something like ask yourself this question as an agent. What is something that I can give away that most other agents Would frown upon what is something that I can give away that most other agents would frown upon. And if you can give that away, if you can give that value to your audience, I guarantee you, you start trickling in some good business, right? Because it's like, it's not, it's no longer Hey, I'm an agent, I can help. You're not adding any value devices and authority. Nobody even knows if you're reputable. And if you're going to do a good job, but if you're consistently adding value, and we're certainly talking about the internet, right now, social media, but if you're consistently adding value, it's almost like a no brainer. Right? I think we talked about it before the call, like there should only be three outcomes. When somebody runs into your posts and somebody gets added to your email list, right? It's either, hey, I want to sell my home, I want to buy a home. I want to work with you. Now. It's D. I know, I know, somebody would be a great fit to work with now. Or it's see, they're going to think of you 346 months down the line when they're in a coffee shop. And they're talking to somebody who says, Hey, sell my home on your Fire Nation. You're like, Huh, I know just the person. Right? That's how much of a laugh The impact it should have on somebody, if you're adding that much value, you will have that impact you really want around handing out your business card saying I'm an agent, we get those everyday, you're not going to stand out from the crowd. And I think the best way to go about your business, especially online is to add value.
Justin Stoddart
And I could not agree more. I had a conversation with an agent yesterday, who's newer, and I was like, how's it going? And he said, I don't see a lot of fruit yet. And I said, Look, you're not going to Don't be looking for it yet. You're putting the roots right, we've all heard the story of the Chinese bamboo that spends years and years going roots underneath and all of a sudden, it goes up right? was interesting. I had somebody reached out to me and they said you are given away way too much information you need to like, charge for this you need to do and I told my said No way. You know, and, you know, thousands of thousands of downloads. I don't know who's getting my content. I don't know who's using it for free and like never contributing back. I don't really care, right. I don't really care. I hope that's the case. I hope that everybody that listens gets value and their business improves. The reality is every time I do one of these interviews, every time I talked to a big thinker like you, Dre, I am a more, I'm a better leader. I'm a better consultant when I sit down my agents, I'm a smarter person to be able to help them with and it's interesting just over the past couple of weeks, I've had agents reach out of the blue, to say, hey, I want to be in business with you. I don't know who these people are, right? But they know me through the show. And for a long, long time, there's been there's been, you know, little fruit as far as what I do for a day to day job. But it's working, it's working before you can see that it's working. And I think that becomes a critical component for all of us to realize is that you need to just be really comfortable giving away more value, then you're seeing that you're ever going to receive and just be totally comfortable that have zero expectation of getting anything in return. And once you start to do that, what will happen is it will surprise you as down the road and if you're patient, that the value will start to return you'll start to see the fruit of your labors, but it's not gonna be right away.
Daray Olaleye
And I think you've touched on a great point when it comes to seeing that value seeing the fruit of your labor I work with a property property manager who manages people's Airbnb units. And last week, he approached me just like the way I'm thinking about the way one of his one of his strategies is leaving Legion strategies. So let's just say 70% of his Legion strategy is cold calling. And then 30% of his leads in strategy, our meetups. So just like the way like, I'm thinking about stopping the meetups, it's a ton of value. And it's really good. But I'm thinking about I'm trying to find ways to cut costs. Right. And let's just say the meetup is about $200 to put the room into all this stuff. Yeah. And he's like, I'm trying to find a way to cut costs. Well, okay, cool. So you're considering canceling this meetup, whose idea to write because I think I beg to be able to save that extra $200 like put that time and effort into something else. That's a great thought wave to have. But if you're not tracking your metrics, which week he almost went ahead and cancel the meetups. And I'm going to explain this to you if you're not tracking your metrics. He would if he was tracking this metrics, and I didn't walk through this process with him, he would have easily cancelled for me to one of his most profitable lead generation sources today. Okay, so let's just say he has 30 people go to his meetups, right 30 people turn into, let's just say to clients, so ask them, what's the lifetime value of a client? He's like about 1600 dollars. Okay, cool. So if every time you have a meetup, and you're getting 30 $200 worth of value, how do you now feel about the $200 you're spending to make sure that these meetups happen because I never thought of it that way. I said, Hold on really quick. And so what about your cold calling, because I want to make about 400 calls during the lunch break throughout throughout the week, and then we add it up his his, his the cost that it took that it takes for him to get to those 400 calls and to get clients and we ultimately long story short, ultimately we find out that it was more powerful. Right for him to keep hosting these meetups, in fact, maybe even host an extra one a month, because he knows his metrics, because he's tracking with numbers, right? So it's just like do like, no, like, don't stop this actually double down on this if you can do one a week, right, because this is more profitable than anything else that you're doing. But he wasn't thinking of it that way. He was thinking about man after Dr. There was going about all the costs of taxi ran out the place, he was thinking about the hassle, right? And at the same time, we added, we added up when we follow his metrics, and his metrics told us exactly what to do. So as much as it's like, hey, like, I totally support Hey, working until it works, but all through that time needs to be tracking what's going on. Going back to the corporate media, like social media, we think of it me personally, Justin, I've thought of social media as an afterthought in my business for a long time. It was just like, yeah, I mean, social media is a game like that time for social media, like really have more important things to do. Right? That's how it's how it's always how it's Then. And then, as of late, maybe like the end of 2018 to 2019. I'm like, dude, like, most of my revenue comes from social media, I need to start treating it like this The stepchild, like social media is the business. So let me start tracking it, how I track everything else. So yes, a social media post an Instagram story of what I'm doing, like it sounds like frivolous, but it's really not. And if you start tracking social media, like you track everything else in your business, you're going to be able to start creating results in your business how you want, because again, if this, this mastermind member knows that, hey, if he spent $600, he's going to make 3,200 every single time he spent those $200, just like clockwork, because he knows that right now. Now he's looking at his goal to escape the rat race. He's looking at us go to quit his job not as a pie in the sky goal. Like once I get to 30 clients, I'm going to do that. Now. It's more about once I hit 10 months, because I know in 10 months, I'll have 30 clients. It's much more visceral, like it's tangible. It's like I know like this is these metrics rather than, well, we'll just see what happened looks like it's a 30 can take three years, right. But if we know the metrics, we can really start to create our destiny. I think tracking your metrics, even in the early stages, even when you're just now putting out a whole lot of value in the year, I haven't seen anything hit yet. And you feel like it's a waste of time to have these Excel spreadsheets, even in those stages is super, super important. So that's, that's one valuable tip I can give to your audience.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I think you're the perfect guy to be teaching this to having come out of a big four accounting firm, a guy who loves the numbers, and I'm sure it was very systematic what they did, right, it was very intentional, what your company did, and there's no doubt that that skill set and that mindset that some of which you brought to the table and others of which you were taught at the table. Now you bring into teaching and coaching, you know, lifestyle entrepreneurs, people that are want to live the life that they want to live as a result of real estate. I love what you've shared. I think there's tons of value there. And being really clear reminds me of a business planning session I went through with an agent and again kind of mapped out where Is your business coming from and she was putting a lot of attention a lot of resources into stuff that wasn't like these open houses that weren't, were producing through, went back to her sphere and specifically the business lunches she was having sort of her business coming from and just by having that conversation, she was like, I'm able to reallocate my time get back in my own living room on the weekend as opposed to someone else's living room, hoping that people are going to come by and and spend business, business day lunches with people that I already like and appreciate from my previous profession. And those are producing all my business it was this, this slight pivot in this conversation that allowed her it really opened up big opportunity for her to reallocate her resources. So I'm 100% in agree with what you're saying, once you know the numbers start to treat it like a real business. Amazing things start to happen. Great. I would love to spend more time with you. The problem is we're running out of time and I'm going to I'm going to extend right now an invitation for you to come back at some near future date because I just think you've got a ton of things to offer. And I'm so appreciative that you were willing to come on to the think bigger real estate show important to all of us. I want to I want to end with a signature question. You're obviously a big thinker. You've created lifestyle freedom for yourself, and now you're doing it for other people. What does a guy like you do can do to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your own possibilities?What does that look like for you?
Daray Olaleye
That is a great, great question. Um, and I will say that the power of you know, they always they always talk about the your sphere of influence. And you've touched on that a few times on this episode. But the power of the five people around you, I mean, it's it's cliche, but it's so true. I remember reading a thinking of a rich for the first time a few years ago, I read it like, probably twice a year these days. But I remember thinking, reading that book A few years ago, and there was a concept in that book. I don't know if a lot of people remember it. But there's a concept in that book where Napoleon Hill talks about like an invisible mastermind, like it's not even like a real mastermind, like we talked about today. Like we're in masterminds and things like that, but it's like a mastermind in your head. I found that concept really intriguing. And I actually follow through on that. And that there are certain people that you look up to, in the industry that you're in, or people that you want to model them, you want to, you want to take one or two or three things from their business or from their lifestyle and implement that in yours. Right? And as you go through your journey as you start to make some of these business decisions, you're not alone. So first and foremost, if you don't have a coach or a mentor, if you're not in a mastermind, get both of those things done ASAP, right. But at the same time, not everybody that you look up to not everybody that you you you would you would glean knowledge from is going to be somebody who you're going to be able to hire is going to be somebody that's going to be able to work. So I do this to this day, even though I have a ton of paid, paid and paid coaches that coach me I have a ton of people who coach me and have no idea who I am. Right so I've created like a mastermind of six people in my head in my head Justin of six people who whenever I have a whenever I'm in the middle of a fork in the road, I have a business question. I'm just like Like, what would what would How would a quick react to this right? Or what would Grant Cardone do in this situation? Right and I don't know Grant Cardone, I've never spoken to him. But I've listened to his content so much. I've read all of his books to the point where it's like, I know exactly how Grant Cardone respond in this situation. And I get grants feedback, and I get this other person's feedback and I get this other person's feedback and ultimately, I be able to make a decision from there without consulting any real people. It may sound like fluff but is a very, very powerful concept. Right, the power of masterminding in itself with actual people, which I do on a daily basis is phenomenal. But we are able to create that mental mastermind it really helps you think through your business decisions. Um, and I totally totally lost where we where we started, but I got so passionate about that question. That's why that's,
Justin Stoddart
That's honestly an answer. I've never heard and I appreciate you saying that because I forgot about that part of the book, but you're right. He goes through exactly what you articulated, which is you can have a group of people who are you've never met before. But you study them to the point to where when you have a question you go and say what would grant do right? What would Gary do what would you know? What would these people do and and allow their advice that you've gleaned through reading their books, listen to their content, advise you and guide you. And what a powerful What a powerful thing you've shared with us today. Right and and so many other things and I'm, I'm very very appreciative of your time the expertise that you bring, happy to consider you a friend I was telling Dre before I lived in Houston for six months one of the things I love I didn't necessarily have the climate but I absolutely loved it the people and the right you fit right in with my you know, with my memory of just the caliber of people in that in that city. So so thank you for reinforcing that to me and for for pouring into the thing for your real estate show today. Now the best way for people to find you today is just on your website beforethemillions.com
Unknown Speaker
Perfect, perfect. I love I love social media as you can tell so you can also find me on Instagram. My Instagram handle is @darayolaleye or if it makes it makes it easier for you: beforethemillions.com/Instagram.
Justin Stoddart
Okay, I love it man. Thank you so much. Good here I want to point out to Justin Bosak who's a buddy of mine out of New Jersey making some comments here "Big things from big thinkers"... "Great accountability." Also a good points appreciate a Justin for your comments today. Appreciate you, man and all you do for the show and we're gonna end with these three simple words that is a charge and an invitation to each and every one of us, which are Go Think Bigger. Thank you for your time that a total pleasure look forward to having you back at some point in the future.
Daray Olaleye
Thank you, Justin. It's been a pleasure. I mean, it'd be an honor to come back on your show. I love the work that you're doing. I told you this before the show that a lot of a lot of people are in business to make money to provide for their family but it's the people like you and I it's people like you Justin who have this giveback component, like you said mentioned so well on the show you have this giveback component. It's those people who really drive and it's those people who really help the masses. So thank you for what you do as well. Just It's truly inspirational.
Justin Stoddart
My pleasure, man. My pleasure. Thank you.
Justin Stoddart
Hello and welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, very excited about today's episode I have with me an individual who's going to unlock for you why maybe you're 2019 isn't quite what you've wanted it to be, maybe some of you are in that category, and how to be sure that 2020 is the year that you want it to be. There are some amazing parallels with 2020 meaning perfect clarity, perfect vision. It's a great year. It's a brand new decade. It's a great time for all of us to hit our stride and become the people that we know we can become. Today's guest is going to do exactly that. I want to invite everybody who's listening if you are not yet signed up to get the weekly summary emails you're totally missing out. This week is going to even feature Grant Cardone. Many of you saw that interview, and several other amazing people, including today's guest. So, please do yourself a favor, go to thinkbigger.realestate, sign up to get the weekly summary emails, they'll make your life a lot easier and will be sure that you don't miss out on some of the amazing people that I'm bringing on to the show like today's guest.
Justin Stoddart
Her name is Dr. Amanda Barrientez, her PhD is in sociology and she specializes in human behavior and performance. What a perfect topic and what it's perfect guest for us to be delving into this time of the year when we know that that's things that we're doing right now in October are going to pay in 2020. So welcome to the show, Amanda. I'm really, really excited to have you here.
Amanda Barrientez
Hey, thanks for having me.
Justin Stoddart
Yes, my pleasure. And out of Boulder, Colorado, where there are four inches of snow on the ground, folks.
Amanda Barrientez
Yeah, that's quite a surprise. Really.
Justin Stoddart
My wife is from North Dakota and she jokes about how all of her Halloween costumes always had to be made to fit over her snow suit.
Amanda Barrientez
Exactly. You pretty much decided your Halloween costume based on the weather and and yes, always always. It was like I have this great one year. I remember I was a cat and I had this amazing outfit that you and I had a one piece snowsuit. You can't see any of it.
Justin Stoddart
I'll bet it was cute before though and all of a sudden you look like the State Puffed Marshmallow Man.
Justin Stoddart
Let's get into this. Amanda I'm excited about this topic because again, now is the time for people to act not to think about acting, not to be planning for 2020 because the reality is the things that we're doing right now, again, are not going to pay until 202. Give us this help with mindset effect, if you wouldn't mind tell us the name of your company, and maybe how the branding and name of that company helps you on this very topic or helps your clients and your audiences on this very topic.
Amanda Barrientez
Yeah, yeah, so my the name of my company is NFA coaching which stands for No Fucking Around and you know, I love it because it captures a wide variety of mindset behaviors performance, but also the self care, you know. So I think about the way that we run our businesses from a very holistic perspective and it really starts with mindset, you know. Do you have a no fucking around approach to taking care of yourself, to building your business to treating it like a business, to your relationships to the way that you create your personal power, your sense of self confidence, how you set your goals, all of those things, I really, you know, I talked about it as the NFA attitude or the NFA mindset and it's really a radical responsibility approach to knowing that your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. And if you don't like what's going on in your outer world, you got to change yourself. And so it's this radical responsibility where you go. Okay, I'm going to step into a new game, I'm going to step into a new version of myself and become what I want to become because anything's possible.
Justin Stoddart
Isn't it interesting Amanda of how the tendency for all of us and I'm not pointing fingers at all, I mean, most of the fingers are pointing back at me is that when something doesn't quite go right, we are quick to look to our circumstances to other people. Why do we do that?
Amanda Barrientez
Because it's so much easier. You know? Um, well, there's multiple reasons. I mean, one reason is whenever we're blaming other people, it keeps us in a disempowered position, which in some ways, we think, Oh, awesome. If I blame them, then I don't really have to do anything. But the challenging part of that is if you blame them, you can't you don't have any power to change your reality. So the moment you start to shift the perspective and go, Okay, how can I learn lessons from this? How can I see my responsibility responsibility in it, then I have the power to choose. I have the power to get conscious and change my circumstances. So for me, I was on food stamps three years ago, and I shifted, you know, broken relationships on food stamps on the floor crying and I had this really epiphany moment where I was sitting there going, I'm the center of my reality, and I'm the one that needs to change and so I started doing everything I possibly could to change myself. And I really, I mean, people will talk to me all the time about how serious I am about about personal development. And I'm like, well, here's the deal. If you are empowered in yourself, you can create anything you want in your life or business. And I really started to see that happen for myself. And so it just, you know, NFA fits me so well.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I love how you said that because it is interesting that it feels good for the moment, right? We're comfortable in the moment to say what market was really off this year, right? Or my teammates really let me down my company let me down like for a moment where it is in fact, I was sitting in a class yesterday and we actually discussed this topic about how it's comfortable in the moment boy that ends up happening as it transpires into discomfort down the road because we stay in that same spot. Yeah. If we can say get really uncomfortable and say, my, my circumstances are 100% a result of my actions and my choices. then guess what? It's very uncomfortable. Not very moment. Yeah, we can then empower ourselves, like you said, to make the changes to where we can get comfortable later on. Yeah, you know what you're highlighting. So we're animals basically. And we live by the pleasure pain principle. And it's based on survival. We want to avoid threat in the current moment. And and we're always tracking for threat and we're tracking for survival. And the interesting thing is, we don't have to do that when we step into our executive functioning, we can go okay, I can, I can tolerate pain in the moment so that I can have pleasure in the long run. But most of us are very short sighted. And if we don't train our brain that way, we actually will then want to blame other people not take responsibility, be comfortable in the moment. But you'll notice all great leaders, all great thinkers, all great business owners, people who are really balanced in their life, they're able to offset pleasure in the moment and go, Okay, I can, I can struggle through this. I can do the work right now. Because I see in the future, I'm going to have a better outcome. Voice brilliant and I'm again, I'm reminding you what
Justin Stoddart
You're saying is resonating with some of the greats that I've actually listened to this week. I mean, obviously, Grant Cardone 10X is all about that, right? Like the 10X Rule, like you own it, buddy. Yesterday, I sat through a class here locally that he taught. And the concept was, you've got, let's say you make $100,000 $150,000. Like, like, whatever the number is, that's the level you that's your thinking, is that right? And it's it's not good, bad, evil, but it's like you're operating at that level. And sometimes we tend to point at everything else. We're like, we we have the power to step that up. If we can, again, think bigger, right, as we start to think bigger, our actions start to follow.
Amanda Barrientez
Yeah, and it's really cool. I love that the ideology of thinking bigger, right? It's How big can you allow yourself to think and you start to stretch as you think bigger it allows you to then keep thinking bigger. So it's this really cool self perpetuating cycle where you just stretch your edge a little bit and then you notice different opportunities and you meet different people, and then you stretch a little bit more and then it keeps expanding and expanding. So you know, I like to ask people the question, what are the possibilities? How big can you think? How big can you go? How big can you expand your vision? And step into that version of yourself? How far can this thing go? Right? Wow. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
Really, really cool. Talk to us a little bit about this concept of genius juice. I know you, you would kind of alluded to it with me earlier and it's almost like when sports stars and all kind of compared to this, like, when people get in the zone, right? It's almost like they can't go wrong, right? And if you if you felt maybe like you're 2019 wasn't quite what you'd hoped it would be. And you really deeply aspire to where your 2020 is, like, I know what it feels like to be in the zone or feel like everything can go right. But a little bit about this, this this concept and how we get into that more often.
Amanda Barrientez
Yeah, so so I love this. So if you anyone listening, I do offer resources for people. So this one book is awesome. And this guy Gay Hendricks, who wrote the Big Leap, coined the term genius zone, which a lot of people have heard about or talked about, and I really linked it to I go, Okay, well, how does an individualized step into my genius juice because I often feel like when I'm in the flow, like you're talking about, and I'm doing exactly what I was put here to do, which evolves over time and and as your vision expands, and as you think bigger, you start to actually shift some of your values. So genius, tapping into your genius juice has to do with the study of x theology, and it's how we we come up with our value and worth and then this is combined with the Greek study of teleology, which is really your chief aim. It's your Telos. It's your chief aim. It's your Why. It's how you orient your actions every day. So when you tap into your genius juice and you do exactly what you want to do, instead of all the "shoulding" of yourself, like you "should do this", "you should do that" or what your parents think you should do, or your church told you should do what society tells you you should do. And even your partner, your kids, we have all these outside expectations. And when we try to live up to everybody else's outside expectations, we get bogged down. And when we can let that go and really just step into our greatest potential, we tap into our genius juice, we have more clarity, we're more focused, we don't procrastinate. We have less fear, we're able to take on challenges, we really step into that powerful leadership role of, of brilliance and and focus and profitability is what happens and when I say profitability, I mean genuine wealth when you're actually holistically living your life. You feel fulfilled in your mind, your body, your spirit, your money in relationships, and you're more inclined to take on challenges that will help you get where you want to go and you don't get up in the morning and go like oh, I have to do this. You get up in the morning you go I can't wait to do this.
Justin Stoddart
I get to. I get to go do this today.
Amanda Barrientez
Yeah, yeah.
Justin Stoddart
It is a powerful... I think, for me, what I found is that there are certain activities that are a grind. Right? And I'm not saying that we need to avoid the grind that you know, there's, there's this kind of popular theme out there of like, like the grind the hustle all this stuff. Yeah. And I think that there's some truth to that like that it's it's not always glamorous, it's not always fun. You can't always just do things you absolutely enjoy. Yeah, I do think as you mentioned, Amanda, that there are certain areas where we feel like we were made to do this right that this is our contribution to the world that we were specifically set out to have this kind of impact. And the reality is most of us because of the many responsibilities and tasks and this and that that we that we put upon ourselves whenever we end up spending a very little amount of time in that zone. Yeah, I think the more that we can really take a good hard look at our business at our WHY and again, kind of the things that we value as you've described, that really put us in flow in that zone and spend is, you know, 80% of the time doing those 20% activities, it's amazing how much energy comes into us, right? It's not just the productivity. Yeah, we get we leave those activities feeling more energized, then came into them as opposed to being like, this is such a drag, right?
Amanda Barrientez
Yes, you get to be joined lead instead of drain, you know, constantly constantly drain you. One thing I want to say for listeners that I think is really powerful is that what you'll know when you're stepping into that because even those parts that you're like, I've got to do these parts for my business because of course, when you're building a business, there are a lot of things that you've got to do, I'm sure in real estate world you know, I work with real estate investors and real estate agents and coaching them and and there's all these activities that people don't like to do, right, of course, and that's in my business as well. So until you can delegate some of those activities, you want to start linking it in your mind to your greatest mission and vision. So clarity is really important here. So I tell people getting clarity first about your vision is really important, daydreaming about it, visualizing it, meditating on it. And then you go when, in this morning, I'm going to make 10 new, you know, I don't know how everyone here builds their business, it's going to be different for everyone. But let's say you know, I have people that will do cold calls, and they don't love doing cold calls. And but they link it to their big biggest vision and they go, Okay, how does making this phone call? benefit me in my vision? How does it get me there faster, and you start to actually link it and then you get into more spontaneous inspired action instead of this outside extrinsic motivation. So I always think about the difference between inspiration and motivation where inspiration is internally inspired. External is motivation or someone else has to get you to do it. And it's more drudgery, and it's more of that hard, kind of, I think when we think most people talk about the hustle, people are kind of like it's the grind and it can be really challenging. I like to think about the NFA hustle is like, this is my joy, this is my genius juice. This is what I love to do. This is what I want to do. This is what I'm inspired to do. It's what I'm committed to doing. And that helps you shift in new directions instead of getting up and being like, oh crap. And it's why we don't meet our goals in 2019, right? Because we put it off, put it off, put it off, and then all of a sudden, its fourth quarter and we're like, oh crap, I didn't take all the actions I needed to take at the beginning of the year. And now here I am. And it's now going to be into 2024 certain businesses. And so if you want to prevent that next year, you know, I really love 90 day plans. I don't know how you do your goal planning but 90 day plans are really great because of that idea of Parkinson's Law, collapsing time because work expands to fill the time allotted. So if you decide okay, I'm going to do a 90 day plan. I actually was listening on your podcast. I don't know the woman's name but she was talking about she does hers and 30 day doses and 90 days is a really great way to go as well instead of the year long because will tend to put it off and then all of a sudden, we're at crunch time. So if you a 90 day because we're such short sighted humans, then you have more likelihood to achieve it. And if you're tapping into your genius juice in that combination with that, you're much more likely to meet your goals. It's really great stuff.
Justin Stoddart
Thank you for sharing all of that, you know, I'm, I want to pivot our conversation here a little bit because I know you have expertise in this. We've obviously discussed kind of the mindset, getting into the flow into kind of what, where our energy ups, and I would say even what we discussed right now will cause people to stop saying so passionately, "Thank goodness, it's the weekend." Now I know real estate agents, like their weekends look a little bit different. Right? When, when people's like their whole goal in life is just to get to the hump day and to get to the end of the week, I think we're doing something wrong, I know Gary, Vaynerchuk talks a lot about that, but to get more like "I can't wait till Monday. I get to go do my thing. This is my thing." Like Yes, absolutely. I love family. I love spending time with them but I'm also fired up to get to what I was made to do every week and I think that even if your profession as a whole, you're just like, I don't know if it does that, for me, there's parts of it that do, right, there's parts of it that have to fire you up and I think focusing on those things, you know, it's kind of a big takeaway that I'm taking from what you've said here. Let's, let's pivot a little bit to this concept of being a leader and advisor. As I mentioned to you before, my audience knows that I'm writing a book on this called The Upstream Model, which is really helping sales professionals to pivot from being customer service representatives and sales people to being really advisors and leaders. And I'd love to hear kind of your thoughts around this of how people kind of make that transition of just there to service people versus people that are there to really lead them.
Amanda Barrientez
Yeah, you know, I think it with it comes to mind first is this thought of really creating win-wins. How can you turn other people into leaders is a win win versus how can I get something from you or how can I tell you what do or how can I it's not it's almost even beyond the teacher role or the coaching role, right? Like I really coach from a leadership Win Win perspective where I go, let's be in this together, let's learn together, you bring all your gifts to the table, I'll bring all my gifts to the table and we're going to, we're going to work together to achieve an end result that we both want. Right? So in my business, I'm always looking for win wins. And it's you know, in that advising, it's more about the quality of asking a lot of questions and drawing out from within, from the people that you're working with. Because we all have a genius inside of us. We all have the leader inside of us. It's just it gets covered and sometimes people have a lot of self doubts and limiting beliefs and they don't see the leader within so when you can draw a leader within within someone else. That's when you're a real leader. And that's the power of team and and community and thriving in your company, in your relationships in you know, even in customer service. You know, if you can awaken something in someone else that helps them feel alive, that's you being a leader, from my perspective.
Justin Stoddart
That's some really, really powerful concepts. I hope if it for those that are listening, if you didn't hear that you need to go back and listen to that. Because it really takes on a whole new level of leadership that leadership isn't isn't just leading people, it's it's helping to develop them, you know, oftentimes think of like a true consultative conversation is you're, you're asking questions to it's such a such a level that people are answering and saying things that they didn't know were inside of them. Yeah, yeah. And to then take that to another level to say and help them to develop into being leaders themselves. You become a extremely valuable value proposition and lives of your customers if you can help them to those experiences and then become that person. Yeah, I love that idea. It's it's an unfolding and a discovery process.
Amanda Barrientez
Right, the the Latin root of the word education is a judo which means to draw out from within. So you're drawing out from within these qualities of the other person that everyone wants, right? Everyone wants to be seen and known and, and appreciated for who they really are, instead of being told how to be some being shown how to be they want to go, oh, here's me, now help me show up the most powerfully that I possibly can.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, and the person that helps them to discover that and help to identify who they are at the core and again, what they were designed to do, what their what their genius juices, like, what an affinity that brings, and what a what a loyalty that brings, when you can help people have that. Absolutely. Yeah. Is there anything else within because I think you look at things deeper than most of us because of your PhD your background and got a human performance and human behavior that is happening during that process, when you're helping to consult people when you're helping to lead people. What else can you teach us that you've learned through your studies, both as a as a as a student, as well as a doctor and like an actual performance coach that would help people develop into a leader themselves as well as helping to develop other people in the leader. So I'm just super curious to learn from you right now.
Amanda Barrientez
Yeah, you know, I it's something that has been absolutely fascinating to me, Justin is seeing that we're all the same. Like we're just humans. And so for me, I had a ton of money blocks and I had a lot of blocks around rich people. Because I grew up in you know, I have a long history of challenges with money and I was on food stamps, like I said, and I hung out with I was always this outlier in a lot of different scenarios, like I had kids really young and in Boulder that is just unheard of. And then I went to grad school as a 35 year old and then you know, I just always was kind of on the fringe outside looking in and thinking Oh, these people are better than me better than me better than me. And something that I have come to recognize and working with a wide variety of people. Now some, you know, I did life history interviews with incarcerated men all the way to working with people who make millions of dollars a year, building successful companies. And it's like, wow, we're all the same. The self doubts are the same fears are the same. The limiting beliefs are the same. And it was a really huge gift for me to recognize that so for everyone listening, I think there's something that's really powerful and recognizing you're not alone. In your fears. You're not alone in your struggles. You're not alone and doubting yourself. You're not alone in imposter syndrome. You're not alone and thinking that everyone's better than you. We tend as humans to put other people on pedestals and put ourselves in the pit with especially when we're learning something new. So for you know, your listeners, if if they're in the real estate industry, if they're just starting out, you feel like a baby, you know, you kind of like you're just learning the first steps until you get to the next level and there's always going to be somebody ahead of you and there's always going to be someone behind you. So how do you get to develop the leader within and work on the work on realizing that you have the same traits as everybody else, you know, you've got the trait of leadership within you, you just might not be seeing it, you've got the trait of powerful multi million business owner, you just might not see it yet. And so really realizing, I think that working on yourself is the most important thing you can possibly do to help to be empowered in yourself and help other people to create a thriving business, to have an incredible relationship to create a powerful family, on and on and on. When you work on yourself and your belief system. You're really your mindset, you really then have a magic one power to create anything you want in your life.
Justin Stoddart
Man, I couldn't have asked you to do a better plug for the Think Bigger philosophy and what we're trying to do here. Really, really powerful I I appreciate what you have said on multiple levels. I think part of the challenges that we face in our society today is that our insecurities are magnified as we look on social media and everyone shows their highlight reel, right? You don't show your dirty laundry there. Yeah. You know, and and, you know, even pictures are are filtered and, you know, to where we're looking and we're looking at that verses are kind of behind the scenes kind of snuggled mess. Yeah. Maybe everyone else has it figured out and I agree that that, that that those insecurities have a similar kind of downward spiral just as the finding your flow and getting into what you were made to do has a has a positive kind of snowball effect and spiral upward, yeah, or insecure. We are the like, the less we show up. And this again, self kind of perpetuating cycle that causes us to not be who we are meant to be and have the impact we're meant to have.
Amanda Barrientez
Yeah, absolutely. I love that you said that's exactly how I phrase it is the upward spiral of growth. I look at it like a spiral because you know, the inside is hidden by the next layer and until you get to the next layer, you can't see it right? You're it's hidden and then you start and growth is hard. That's the other thing. I think people want growth to be easy. I talk to people all the time, you want to be financially free, everyone would raise their hand, do you want to do the work? Are you willing to show up every day and stay in the game consistently for years and years and years, not the same outcome. And that's why not everybody's financially free. So it's this idea of, I'm going to continually be on the path to upward growth to understanding new parts of myself and willing to do the work. I'm willing to fall in my face and I'm willing to get back up. I'm willing to see failure as opportunity to grow even bigger. And then just question How far can I expand? It's really up to you, you know, you are your greatest limiter or your greatest cheerleader, and it's up to you. So it's Yeah, I love that idea. That concept of, of the upward trajectory of growth and dispelling some of the myths of like, it should be easier than this, or I should be better faster or don't look like they do on social media, they've got a million followers and I've only got 1000, you know, or 100, or whatever number you're starting at zero. You know, it's like, I think just working on not comparing yourself to other people is probably one of the most powerful tools that there is. And it is hard, you know, that inner critic voice is really challenging. And you can train yourself out of it, I've done it, it doesn't mean it won't come up. But you learn tools to shift really quickly instead of getting stuck in that, you know, some people will get stuck for years and comparing themselves negatively and that inner critic voice beating them up and then they don't, they don't succeed in their business because it's not easy to build a business. You know, it's just not I don't like to set people up with the unrealistic expectation of like, oh, come in and build a business with you know, it's really easy to make a million not the case. Yeah, it's fun. I think it's fun. But it's it's challenging. You know, you you will be getting along the way the greatest version of yourself?
Justin Stoddart
Well, I think when people get committed to the process that I'm going to go, I'm going to, I'm going to live a big life. I don't mean that you need to necessarily have fancy this fancy that but like, I'm going to be the best version of myself. And I'm gonna continue to develop that best person into, you know, as far as I can, I can think once people are committed to I'm just going to get better every day, right? I mean, it was another example that was shared yesterday in the class I attended. Just like what's next? What's next? What's next? You again, you you start to experience the momentum of growth, you start to experience like love that I can be something more than I was. It doesn't matter what other people are up to. Right. Of course, I would encourage and inspire and impact them. But my journey is my journey. And I'm committed to things even when they're not necessarily easy.
Amanda Barrientez
So yeah, yeah. I love that. It's just stop worrying about everyone else and do you?
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I want to. As we wrap up here, I want to end with the signature question of the show, which I love asking people because it's it can be so insightful. And I feel like you've you've asked this through every answer you've already given because you are a big thinker. And you help other people unlock and become big thinkers as well. So to all of us in the in the think bigger audience, all of us that our big thinkers aspired to be big thinkers teach us what does somebody like you do? To continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your own possibilities? Teach us.
Amanda Barrientez
You know, I always go to habits because I my habits and mindset coach mostly, and I really think about our habits are repeated patterns of thoughts, decisions and actions that become automatic, right. So if you're setting yourself up for success in a certain way, your habits are awesome, and your autopilot habits are going to be set to success. If you're a big thinker. If you're someone who's stuck in that victim mindset and blames everyone else, your habits are going to be really stuck in this autopilot way that aren't helping you. So you guy, you gotta get strategic. And so I think in order to think bigger, you've got to strategically be conscious. We we run 95% of our lives through our subconscious behaviors and thoughts, right? 95%. So if you can raise that just a little and you can start to get conscious, you can start to think bigger and the ways the strategies I use for that as the habit of journaling, the habit of meditation, daily exercise, like I do really specific things to get aligned and connected with myself to make sure that my, my mindset is on and geared toward growth. Like I'm really, I, to me, one of the greatest goals in life is to be the most conscious person I can be to help other people see consciousness and step into the most incredible version of themselves, that for them, whatever that means to them, because that's where people really feel a sense of personal like, it's a funny thing to say it sounds kind of weird, but like self love, really, you know, when you love yourself you know what you want to know who you are. You can help other people because you're not stuck in that mode of Judge self judgment and other judgment. And so thinking bigger really has to do you know with with consciousness from my perspective being conscious of your daily thoughts, decisions and actions your habits present.
Justin Stoddart
I love that journaling meditation for me prayer these things really center me ground me back and reminding me who I am right and what the journey that I'm on and the impact that I need to make in the world. It's powerful. Great stuff. Well, I want to thank you for being on the show. My audience is used to hearing me give kind of three last a charge of three simple words. Would you mind doing that for us Amanda?
Amanda Barrientez
Go Think Bigger.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Amanda, thank you so much. Thanks, everybody, for tuning in today. And do, Amanda and I a favor and share this out. Get this into the ears of people who will be inspired by it. I know there's a lot of people out there who would benefit greatly by getting in Amanda's world, being aware of her who she is and the difference she's making. Do us a favor, share this out get this out to more people, we we would appreciate it. So thank you again, Amanda, and talk soon, everybody
Justin Stoddart
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart. I'm fired up excited about this opportunity. It's one that I've anticipated for a long, long time.
Justin Stoddart
That torso that you're seeing right there, that is the torso of THE Grant Cardone, I'm going to jump in here to introducing him here in just a minute. But this gentleman,
Justin Stoddart
let me just start by saying this--the passion and purpose of this show the Think Bigger Real Estate Show is to help you think bigger. It's help you to have a life of significance.
Justin Stoddart
Everyday Grant shows up in my newsfeed telling me that most people live a life that's just okay.
Justin Stoddart
It's just average. And you know, the recipe for changing your life, the recipe for changing who you are,
Justin Stoddart
what your family tree looks like, and the impact that you have in this world isn't that complicated.
Justin Stoddart
You know, it starts off this bookshelf behind me, which has a number of Grant's books on it,
Justin Stoddart
is a reflection of how it all begins. We have access to the best ideas. We live in the most amazing time in
Justin Stoddart
the history of the world where we can find people that are achieving at the highest levels and we can
Justin Stoddart
have conversations with them. We can have them in our car by listening to their podcasts.
Justin Stoddart
Now, in addition to that, you can take a next step further and you can start to get closer to these people.
Justin Stoddart
I had the great privilege of being a part of having Grant come and speak to a big audience.
Justin Stoddart
It's been about a year and a half ago, Old Republic Title, and he wowed the crowd.
Justin Stoddart
We're still talking about the impact that he's had upon us.
Grant Cardone
I don't know why you guys haven't had me back. That's the sad part of that deal.
Grant Cardone
I don't know why a group that successful would do something, they know it worked, and then not repeat it again.
Justin Stoddart
Well, this is a probably a great segue into that. I'm sure that the people that I work for Grant, they're going to be seeing this and this will be a great commercial.
Grant Cardone
I loved being there. I love that audience. I love the way the think was. That company has proven itself
Grant Cardone
for so long and has continued to transform itself. I thought we were going to do some big stuff together.
Justin Stoddart
Well, let's get that started. Let's kick that back off. So the impact that Grant's had upon me has been massive.
Justin Stoddart
This TB behind me here stands for Think Bigger, in part because I read Grant's book, you know, the 10X Rule.
Justin Stoddart
I read that three or four times and its impacted me in incredible ways.
Justin Stoddart
And now I've got the great privilege of having Grant come on to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show
Justin Stoddart
and inspire all of us to think bigger. Here's the thing that is really inspiring...
Justin Stoddart
Grant looks like you're in a hotel room, right? You see, Grant streams from all over the world and you can
Justin Stoddart
kind of tell like, when he's at his home. He's got his family around him and when he's not you can tell and
Justin Stoddart
this environment here didn't look like his home. Grant where you at?
Justin Stoddart
So Grant, tell us where you're at right now, which is gonna inspire each and every one of us.
Grant Cardone
Yes, so I'm at my church right now. I spent the last five days doing services here working on me and my
Grant Cardone
you know, my blind spots. Like what don't I know? What can I learn? Like, I've seen so many people
Grant Cardone
reach or get to where I'm at particularly in the self, the self help the self improvement space where guys
Grant Cardone
are doing educational stuff. I mean I'm literally thinking about their names in my mind right now
Grant Cardone
guys that are living guys that aren't living. I mean BIG giant individuals that have had tremendous success
Grant Cardone
and legend kind of lifestyles, right? And some of these guys most of these guys actually quit learning.
Grant Cardone
They quit being a student.... and, and so there's one of my little girls right there and and, you know,
Grant Cardone
studying people that I've, either been able to read their books or like when I read somebody's book.
Grant Cardone
The other thing I do is I study their life, like what's really going on not just at the bank or on the bookshelf.
Grant Cardone
But you know, in their life, okay. And and their whole life. What was it? Like? I mean, did they just catch up?
Grant Cardone
You know, one guy gets a TV, you know somebody does a TV show about a book he writes and people
Grant Cardone
know about him. But if you look, if you look any deeper than that you just going to see a criminal, he
Grant Cardone
couldn't pay people, he back stole from people. I don't want that. That's not what I want in my life.
Grant Cardone
Yeah. So you got to be careful. You know, I got to be careful to I need to when I look find somebody that
Grant Cardone
is attractive to me to learn from. Even back to Biblical days, like study, who were they really, you know,
Grant Cardone
years ago in college, I was studying a guy that later I found out committed suicide. And I'm like, wait a
Grant Cardone
minute, man. I was collecting data from this cat thinking he was he was the mac-daddy. Yeah. And so
Grant Cardone
something must have been missing. So anyway. I'm here. I'm a student here, like I come here, I'm not
Grant Cardone
leading, I'm not educating I'm not doing, you know, seminar. I'm just here to learn.
Justin Stoddart
You're learning. It's interesting. I am in the process of reading a book called, "How Will You Measure Your Life"
Justin Stoddart
and it reminds me a lot of what you're saying. Clayton Christensen, the author, he talks about, he
Justin Stoddart
graduated from Harvard with some of the brightest minds in the world, came back 10 years later, and like,
Justin Stoddart
some of the most intelligent ones were in jail, like one of them was the CEO of Enron. Sometimes guys
Justin Stoddart
have success at the highest levels, but they give it all up and I love the fact that you're continuing to be a
Justin Stoddart
student and looking for your blind spots. And, you know, nourishing your soul, not just your mind.
Justin Stoddart
It's powerful for all of us to to keep our moral compass at the same time that we're going 10X with our business, right?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. Because it's easy. It's easy, you know, it's easy like you get, you know, you're hustling, you're working.
Grant Cardone
If you get a little you get a deal. You close the deal. Then you close the second deal and then next thing
Grant Cardone
you know, you know, you started exaggerate things a little bit or you're getting a little sloppy or, or you know,
Grant Cardone
or you're not working as hard. Right? All those for me all those are interruptions in my ethical and moral
Grant Cardone
agreements to myself. You know, the fact that somebody gets financially successful would not be a
Grant Cardone
reason, at least for me to let off the gas. You know, because I'd be thinking about it. Okay, I got mine.
Grant Cardone
Now, I'm going to kick back and because I got mine, that for me was like a huge like, mind boggling... Oh, wow.
Grant Cardone
That's why, that's why when I once I had I was in my mid maybe late late 30s. And I had, you know,
Grant Cardone
$2M or $3M or $4 million dollars put away and I quit working and and then I went into depression.
Unknown Speaker
And I thought it was like, money doesn't make me happy. And the truth was, I was not making a contribution anymore.
Grant Cardone
It had nothing to do with money had nothing to do with success. I quit contributing. And the moment I think that is the most important thing a human being can do is contribute. Whether you're paid for it or not paid for it, to contribute, to give back, to help. And I had quit contributing. It was it was a violation of my moral code.
Justin Stoddart
I had to go ahead.
Grant Cardone
Yeah, yeah, just my personal code, right. What's true for me? It was a violation, and it caused me a lot of problems. So that's what I call the blind spots. You know, you get blind you just can't see everything. Unless you stop the second. Get get another person may be asking you the right questions. taking some time, I'm not talking about meditation here. I'm talking about taking some time to actually inventory what's going on in life.
Justin Stoddart
I had one of my professors in college he sold, had a massive company that was acquired. He said, I decided I'm done. He said, I, I got a membership to the country club, told my wife, I said, "Look, my job has been to provide for the family. Your job has been to like, bring up the kids. I'm kind of done early. So, I'm going to spend some time on a golf course." He's jokingly saying this, right? But he said it was honestly the most miserable two years of my life. He said, I went back to this to the University where I studied and he said, Can I come work for free? Because he said, I don't need the money. But he said, I'm like, I'm dying because I'm not contributing, like you said, like,
Grant Cardone
yeah, yeah,
Justin Stoddart
I think I really appreciate this conversation grant. Because you know, someone could look at somebody like you, right? You've got the jet, you've got like, what else could you want it at the end of the day, even if all of your material needs are taken care of. You'd be miserable if you stopped not because you need another jet. Not because you need a bigger jet. But because you you need to contribute you actually have to think bigger than just business, but actually contribute to the world in bigger ways. Otherwise you're miserable. You're miserable on that jet right? You're the guy that's on that jet thinking about this life sucks.
Grant Cardone
Yeah, but, but I agree with what you're saying is like, you know, it's because some people gonna think like, oh, you're just not happy, like, like, there's this whole psychiatric field out there that says, I'm trying to fill some empty hole in me because I can't be content with what I've achieved already. Yeah, that they think I should be happy. But look, nobody else knows what my moral agreement is. And and that's just a personal thing. It's not it's not a religious thing. It's a personal thing.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah.
Grant Cardone
It's probably more spiritual than even a religion could be. It's my personal agreement. Not my mom telling me or my dad or society but my agreement with me--what's okay. Not my wife, not what she thinks are the kids. This is me. And you know in life no matter how many people you're surrounded by in life, there are certain things where you're just alone. And like those kind of agreements, what makes you happy what I don't like what makes me content is contributing. And, and so whether that was coming to to the Old Republic meeting, and having people say, wow, what am I thinking? Why, why? Why was I thinking to be satisfied? That's what the 10X, that book was for me. One of the best contributions I've made was writing that book even better than that was putting on audio, where I got to actually rif on like I'm doing with you right now on what it what it means to me to 10X and the problems and the situations and handling all that that comes with when you try to expand like that.
Grant Cardone
Yeah, those are the products in the books and the audio programs and the webinars and the speeches and all that stuff that I do. They're really they're really ways for me to contribute and hope that people are using that material. Later in life, also I sell those things, just to be completely honest and fair with everybody. Like, I don't give that stuff away. There are certain countries where we give stuff away because there's no money in that country. You know, to sell a program for $14 in America, a $14 program's 10 hours long. We sell you know, I've sold millions of those that product, but when I go to Nigeria, I can't sell that for $14 I need to I need to sell that for like a quarter. Not a quarter of $14, like 25 cents. In their, in their, their money, or I could just give it away. But here's the problem with just giving somebody something somebody's problem with giving something away for free is and it's not the old adage about it, well, if I don't pay for it, then I'm not going to appreciate it. The issue is when somebody gets something for free, you have put the person in a position where they weren't able to exchange back with you. So when if I just give you $20, right, the flow went one way. It's much more powerful if you give me $20. The Giver that's why they say "Hey, man, it it's better to give than receive." And the truth is, it's better to give than to receive right? You want the flow to be going between two individuals, because it empowers both parties. And so like we go to parts of the world man, there's no way I go to Mexico, I can't sell my programs for my coaching is 100 Grand, $100,000, and like, you know, most people in Mexico, some people can buy at the very, very elite of the elite.
Justin Stoddart
What a powerful way for you to change the mindset of an entire nation. I don't know that you'll live to recognize, I don't know that any of us will, but you know, fast forward 500 years from now, and you go back and look at the ripple effect of you helping somebody in some small developing nation to think bigger.
Grant Cardone
Crazy, right? I see Bill Gates doing that. look, look Bill was selling. Bill was I mean, that guy was a grinder, right? He was working. He was either coding or sleeping.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, he got after it.
Grant Cardone
You know, he builds Microsoft. China's ripping him off. He goes on TV, if they're going to steal Microsoft, if they're going to steal software. I want to make sure they're stealing Microsoft. That guy was an animal. Okay, when he was building that company, that's a trillion dollar company today. I think they're worth $1,049,000,000,000 to some, some ridiculous number, right. But the point of that story is they scaled that product all around the world. He's not interested in software today. He's interested in putting plumbing into Africa. And, and that's what he will be... He'll be he'll be remembered for Microsoft. He'll be remembered for one of the richest people in the world, but he's also going to be, he's going to change the planet because of because of how he used his success. And everybody here watching right now has the ability to do that, but you can't do it, you can't... I mean, I hate to say this, but you just can't do it if you don't have success.
Justin Stoddart
Yes, success leaves that opportunity for greater significance. When it's you know, a lot of people might criticize someone who's ever successful to say, "Man, enough is enough." Whereas for you, so what if Bill Gates would have said that what if, you know, he would have got his millions and got his and stopped and said, "You know what, I don't want to be greedy enough's enough." Look at the look at the countless nations right now and people all over the world that would not be benefiting from his humanitarian efforts because he decided to take his foot off the throttle, listen to the common person that said, "Hey, money is bad, greed is bad, you need to knock it off. You just stop. You've got enough stop."
Grant Cardone
Yeah. His dad was rich. You know, his dad was a doctor and his dad, he grew up a wealthy kid. But I mean, his dad can't change the planet the way he can. Yeah. And maybe his dad changed the planet by having Bill. You know, I don't know. I don't know what's going on for everybody else. I just got to figure out I gotta look at other people. I like the way Bill leads his life. I like what Bill and Melinda do, right. I like, you know, I like the transformation that guy's had in his life. I like Warren Buffett. I like the way he He makes his moves.
Grant Cardone
So that's what I study, people that have had success for long periods of time. It's really easy with Instagram and Facebook today to be to be, you know, a little bit delusional about, "Oh, wow, he's got a Lambo, and this guy's got a jet," you know? Sometimes I worry that the jet actually puts people off. And they're like, "I can't trust that guy because he's got stuff." You know, my wife wouldn't go out with me because I was wealthy. And she didn't want, she didn't, she didn't want other people to think, you know, she's a gold digger and she also didn't want people... She thought, okay, "He gets whatever he wants. I'm not going to be one of those women." So, you know, all that glitters is not is not good for the perception of the audience either,
Justin Stoddart
Right. But when the success leads to significance, right when, when you can take the success and keep your foot on the gas, not to build another statue to yourself, but to build, to help somebody rise up to help some to contribute back to your original theme of "I'm here growing not because I need more but because I need to contribute more." And the second that you stop with the foot down, then there are how many millions of people that aren't going to be impacted because you decided to limit your reach?
Grant Cardone
Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
That's a powerful live.
Grant Cardone
You know, it's still learning about yourself still, you know, getting educated, not just telling people they should invest in themselves, but continuing to invest in myself. My whole family, like, we just want to be better, man. I want... and I can't be better if I don't know what I don't know. Yeah, so you got to know what you don't know and the other the only way to do that many times is to get a coach or a mentor to get somebody to help you and sit down and say, "Okay, what's going on here? What's going on there?" Like, spend a second getting another person's look at and even programming. How can I get programmed to undo some of this stuff that I've been doing for years. Once you get into a rut of doing something like you need some help unwinding that and for me many times that takes it another set of eyes.
Justin Stoddart
I actually had a guest on recently that talked about these ruts that we create in our brains through habits, you know, we often times think of it like people that are addicted to drugs, people that are addicted to alcohol, that's that problem magnified, but all of us are very similar, that our brains are wired, I think, as an effort to expend the least amount of energy, to just do things habitually. And sometimes, those habitual activities are actually not beneficial to us. And they actually cause us to end up somewhere we don't want to end up.
Grant Cardone
Yeah, they worked at one time, right? Yeah, there can be things that are good for you that were good for you at one point in time but at some point you got to elevate the game and the moment you do, you need a new coach, a new mentor. You need somebody else to look at "Hey, what is it I'm missing out on?" You know, for me to make a couple million dollars is one thing. I mean, just if you just think about stacking money.
Justin Stoddart
Sure.
Grant Cardone
It could be bricks, it could be money it could be houses, apartments, it could be closings could be whatever, manufacturing. You can do a couple million sets but when you start thinking okay now I'm going to go to to 2 billion. You know, I wear, I got the shirt billionaire in the making right? It's not really about money? It could be but when you start thinking about creating, like adding zeros, oh man, everything changes. What you know, your limitations, your resources, how you lead people. You can't manage everybody anymore. The whole game changes
Justin Stoddart
Yeah I've heard people that have been have achieved massive amounts of success, maybe you can validate this for us, you get to a point where you've got enough. You can't spend the money as fast as it's coming in, with what you've got going on. How much can you really spend on lifestyle? But, the man that you're becoming. To become a billionaire, like what you're saying, the billions don't matter, but who do I have to become, how many people do I need to be leading how many people do I need to be contributing to in order for me to be a billionaire. That's what people miss, right? I think where people get off track being like, "A billionaire, you greedy SOB!"
Grant Cardone
It doesn't have to be about a billion dollars either. Drop the money thing and start thinking about scale and orders of magnitude. What would it take for somebody to meet to have your name known with a billion people, one seventh of the planet. Okay, forget the money, like drop the money gold watches, cars, jets drop all that. You don't need that. Now, you'll actually need all that to actually get to a billion people, but Mother Teresa didn't need all that, but somebody, somebody funded that project.
Justin Stoddart
Getting her name out, yes.
Grant Cardone
And so you know, if you have a product let's say you have a dress, I don't know new a stretch pant or whatever, right? A hat that is going to transform the world. You need a lot of people using that product. I don't know how many cups of Starbucks are sold every day. I imagine it's in the hundreds of millions. And that kind of impact, you're talking about global impact. You're talking about literally permeating society with either a really, really good idea, or really, really bad that's not good for people.
Justin Stoddart
So to take one that causes people to think bigger, and I think, you know, for me the quest of a lifetime is helping people to see the potential this within them, you know, I mean, that's in part what I want to thank you for. What a pleasure it is to be able to do this in this format to say "Grant," like look you in the eye and say, "Grant, thank you. The words that you wrote in a book that probably weren't very fun to write at the time," I mean, writing the book is difficult, you know, "the things that you've said on social media over and over have started to permeate me to help me to see myself differently, to realize like, you know what, I can really have a big impact."
Justin Stoddart
And I think, for me, it's to start to recognize that potential, which for me at the core is spiritual, right? That like, I'm literally offspring of Divinity. like that's a big deal.
Grant Cardone
That's right.
Justin Stoddart
That an acorn can become a tree, like there's big vision there. But even then taking it back to this business world in which we which we live, is that, you know, you can have a big impact. And people start to realize, again, it's not about the money. It's about "How many people can I serve? How many people can I lead?"
Justin Stoddart
People need leadership right now. And again, I want to thank you, for being somebody who was willing to sacrifice. I'm sure your family's felt massive amounts of sacrifice, of times when you weren't there, when you would rather have been there, that you were off speaking at an event, or you're working on a book or you were working on a new product, and because you were willing to do that, so many of us are better people, we see ourselves differently. We now show up in the world differently. You know, we now have the ability, this ripple effect, to be able to impact the world in a different way. So, I want to thank you for that. Like, genuinely.
Grant Cardone
You're welcome. And there's a lot of people saying 10X right now.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah.
Grant Cardone
Like we just finished. We I think we went to 17 countries. 10X, people all over the world know about 10X. So we landed in Malta. I didn't even know about Malta. Malta is a little island south of Sicily. We landed it 1230 at night with no plans. We were in London getting ready to come home, go home, to Miami and we diverted the flight to to a place called Malta. I literally took out a map and said boom, wherever I land my finger, we're gonna go. The nearest place. I was in my finger landed in the middle of the ocean. And I'm like, okay, we can't land there, because you can only do that once. So what's the next nearest thing and like an inch away was a place called Malta?
Justin Stoddart
Ha, an inch.
Grant Cardone
We landed there 1230 at night, I put one thing up on Instagram. Hey, we're going to go to Malta. There was five people showed up at the airport. Well, 12:30 am.
Justin Stoddart
That's amazing. In Malta.
Grant Cardone
Yeah, so you know people need mentorship and people need guidance. People need coaches. I'm getting ready to launch a coaching program in two Saturdays, not not this one, but the following and I think the website GrantCardone.com/mentor you can register for free and I'm gonna talk about when you get a mentor or coach, what do you need to ask that person? How do you take advantage of them? You know, how can you, the things you don't want to do when you're with them, because that's really, me and Damon John were talking about that last week. He's like, most people want help from me, they don't even know what to ask me. And that's what got me thinking about doing this. Because look, it's like going to the range of the golf course. You still got to know what you're trying to accomplish. Otherwise, you're just going to groove in bad habits.
Justin Stoddart
Right
Grant Cardone
And and so I'm going to be sharing what I learned from: what do I ask, what do I want to know, how do I tap in, how do I not waste their time? How do I maximize and how do I show that coach that mentor that I'm being successful, because here's a little trick, if you get around somebody that's actually willing to share their time with you, not they're just their money. Because they're not going to give you money, it's just not going to happen. What they want, is they want to see their influence on you, made a difference. And this is what I didn't know, when somebody sees when a coach, teacher and educator when they see a kid, or whatever age person respond to the therapy, as opposed to three people that didn't do it did they're so interested in this guy because this guy becomes a product of their coaching. And that is the ultimate way to get more attention from a coach or mentor is to show them hey, you did just what you're saying right now like you you inspired me so much to do more of what I do because you said, "Hey, Grant, you have a ripple effect going on." And when that happens, I want to give more attention to the people that... it's like a quarterback. Tom Brady, Tom... I thought TB stood for Tom Brady... but Tom Brady is going to go to the guy he trusts to catch that ball
Justin Stoddart
Yeah.
Grant Cardone
And a coach, a good coach, does not mind helping somebody that is going to say "Hey, I'm going to show you that I'm gonna make this successful."
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, the greatest payment that that any coach could receive is what I hear you saying, which is "Do something with it!" Right?
Grant Cardone
Yeah, yeah...
Justin Stoddart
Pay your coaching bill, sure, but do something with it. Right?
Grant Cardone
Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
Go be somebody! Go impact!
Grant Cardone
Be an example of the lesson.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah.
Grant Cardone
That's the product. The product is for me is when I help people. I mean, okay, "Yeah, I got some money out of the big deal. Like, what I want, my ultimate payday is that somebody would say something that I somehow contributed. This goes back to what I was saying earlier, contribution is the ultimate, the Holy Grail of all payment programs.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah.
Grant Cardone
And it doesn't happen at Amazon. It doesn't happen in a job. It's, I make a contribution, made a difference, it's a good contribution, not a bad negative contribution and the world's better for it. Maybe the world, maybe the one person, maybe if one person benefited, that's good enough. But man, if one person could benefit, then you feel an obligation to say, "Hey, how can I help millions of people?"
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Which is really what you've done with all of us, right? It's helped us to see like, "Hey, your impact doesn't have to be in that small little quadrant in which you live." I mean, it's really the inspiration for the Think Bigger Real Estate Show, right? Is that there's a lot of really great people in the world and if at minimum, if I just get them to pour into me every day, I'm going to show up at home, I'm going to show up at work, I'm gonna show up with my customers a lot better. But then you also start to realize what if I were to broadcast these conversations and hopefully impact even more people. Which, why not? Let's go LIVE every day. Let's Share what I am learning with other people, so thank you for that. You're making this possible.
Grant Cardone
You're welcome.
Justin Stoddart
Good stuff, man. Hey, so anybody that's listening here, Grant Cardone.com/mentor. I want you to pay close attention to what Grant is saying here. Again, he's reached massive levels of success, yet he's got his foot on the pedal because now it's about contribution. That's what he's about. And it's really fun to hear about the people that you're studying from. Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett... these people that have continued to have great success yet at the same time, have massive lives of contribution and you've been doing that all along. It's fun to hear that that's the big picture for you as well.
Grant Cardone
Yeah, tomorrow I'm gonna go spend time with Tim Draper tomorrow. I don't know if you know Tim is but he's a billionaire and I'm so I'm gonna spend three hours with him and see, you know, what can we do with each other? I mean, the beautiful thing about once you get a little bit of success, and particularly recognition. It's not just financial success, it's like okay, what's he doing? On Friday I'm interviewing Sylvester Stallone in front of 1000 people.
Justin Stoddart
So cool.
Grant Cardone
So before before Stallone accepts that he goes, and somebody in his group is going to be like "Who is the dude?"
Justin Stoddart
Yeah.
Grant Cardone
Because they don't want it to go bad on Rocky, man. So you know, he gets some intel and some research on me man, "I like this dude." So it's not just what you've done it's "Hey, do I feel good when I'm with this guy?" It's the same thing with Tim Draper. Well I mean success does allow you to start getting access. So, it's not just about the money and the cars and your family and the vacation and all that's great, all that's really important. But you know, it's what else can you do? What else can you learn? So, yeah, man, I really appreciate what you're doing. You doing this... do you go live every night?
Justin Stoddart
I do. I actually go 8:30 in the morning, but just happened to catch you at this time.
Grant Cardone
So yeah, yeah, well done on what you're doing and the contribution you're making. Thank you for holding me accountable to come on and spend some time with you. When do you guys all get back together again.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I don't think there's anything on the on the schedule right now, but you better believe I'll be having conversations with people. Let's make that happen.
Grant Cardone
Good. Well, I love the company. I love the group I love just the people that were there were phenomenal. And, brother, keep on keep on keepin on man.
Justin Stoddart
Hey, I'm going to ask one, one last favor, the signature question of the show you've already answered, which is what does a guy like you do to continue to think bigger? The whole episodes been about that. You're surrounding yourself with great people is anything else that you would add to that, things that you do to continue to expand your own possibilities? I feel like you've answered that but if there's any last words that you have for that, I'd love to have you...
Grant Cardone
Look, you know, the people around you're gonna... everybody wants to do better.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah.
Grant Cardone
Like, there's nobody, I've never met anybody that didn't want to do better. Now, when they go home and they get around the other people around them, then something changes. The people that you're surrounded by, even loved ones, people are confused today. People are... your wife, your husband, your kids, your mom, your dad, uncles and aunts, there's a lot of people suffering out there with the wrong information.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah.
Grant Cardone
If you have the right information you'd be doing well. So I am extremely selective about where I get my information today. I want to know, if I, look, I will be in a room with a crook, I just need to know he is. Like, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna count anybody out. I'll always give somebody a second chance, but you need to keep both eyes open and know you know when your uncle's giving you advice about debt. "Don't go into debt, don't go into debt, don't borrow money." "Really why? Why are you telling me that man?" "Oh well..." and then the story comes out... "I borrowed money on a business and on my house and for a boat and I busted out and all debt is bad debt now."
Grant Cardone
Okay, well good. So now you know that that guy is giving you the information... by the way he could end up with a TV show, he could be your uncle... he could end up with a TV show and educate millions and millions of people not to borrow money. You got people on TV right now giving advice on marriages that have never been married man. People that are given advice on weight loss that have been overweight their whole life, like not part of their life, their entire life. People, you got psychologists that have written books that committed suicide and the some of this stuff is in the colleges like we're reading this is the truth and the reality is it did not produce great products. So when I hear a guy talking to me about sales that I know stole hundreds of millions of dollars, I don't even want to have a conversation.
Grant Cardone
I'm like "Dude that ain't sales." Like let's get off this topic. That is trickery. That's conning people. I'm not, that's not my game. So if my deal is, so you know, you know what I'm saying? Like you got to know where the data is coming from and do enough research on people to find out okay, "Who is this? Why is this person telling me this?" Like not buying a house. I tell people do not buy a house. You could sell a house, but there's no reason for you to own one. And some people want to buy a house, okay? I like that they want to own a home, they want to settle down. Good, let those people buy homes. Buy real estate that pays you. Sell real estate that pays you and buy and take the money and buy real estate where people rent because it's just a better deal than one single family house. Yeah, so why do I, you know people should should say, "Why is he telling me that?"
Grant Cardone
Well, because I made a lot of money doing that. I know, it's good for people. It's the only reason I'm telling people that
Justin Stoddart
That's a good distinction that you made, you should buy real estate, but just be sure that that real estate pays you.
Grant Cardone
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody should own real estate. People should... real estate should be their their biggest asset, but it's an asset when it pays you. The deal is to have cash flow. So that's why... the reason I'm saying all that is to say find out why someone's so passionate about what they're talking about because their passion can be perverted. It could be a stuck weird, weird deal, right? Like, trying to solve this old problem that never got this guy done. And so that's why it's really really important for people to study who their studying.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Grant this has been amazing, my friend I really appreciate you doing this. It's meant a lot to me to my audience. This won't be the last time and I'm looking for to bring a big value to you in return for years to come because you've done that for me. So my final request...
Grant Cardone
If your audience wants to hook up with that mentoring program its GrantCardone.com/mentor
Justin Stoddart
Mentor.
Justin Stoddart
My final request for everybody listening, which Grant has made this really easy for all of us, are three simple words, you hear me say it every time. GO THINK BIGGER. Thank you Grant. It's been a total pleasure brother.
Grant Cardone
You got it. Be great man. Thank you.
Justin Stoddart
Thank you. Thanks, everybody.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Today's episode is going to help you build your network and build your knowledge base so that your value proposition increases and so that people see you differently than the typical real estate agent. Now before I get into introducing today's guest, and going into today's topic, I want to remind anybody that may be listening from outside of the Portland Oregon market that I've got a network of amazing real estate agents that are big thinkers that treat their clients amazingly well. If you're looking for one of those agents, I can be a great introduction for you to somebody who can help serve your clients here in this area. So, please keep that in mind.
Justin Stoddart
Also, I want to remind you that if you want to get regular show updates, I know we put out a lot of content on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show, there's a great way for you to consume what matters to you. The format of this is not designed to confuse you or distract you from what is important to you, but to give you the best knowledge and the best network out there. But with that, if you go to thinkbigger.realestate, you can sign up for a weekly review of all the shows that happened this week so that you can handpick the ones that are most relevant to you. So with that being said, I think today is going to be one of those. Especially, I'm privileged to have somebody here from the Portland, Oregon market. He's actually an attorney. And anybody that knows me knows that I believe that the future of well paid real estate agents is to act more like a high paid professional, like an attorney like a CPA, like a financial advisor, working at the highest level. Today's guest again isn't attorneys and asset protection lawyer, his name is Brian T. Bradley. He lives in Wilsonville. His website is BTB Brian t Bradley btblegal.com case you weren't able to catch the whole episode. Today, we're gonna be talking about asset protection protection for yourself and for your clients. Keep in mind that the concept of this is is number one, we're helping you build something great. And secondly, that's going to be expedited, the more you help your clients build something great. You are marketing, not just yourself, but your network, as Brian has shared with me before and so let's let's go ahead and welcome Brian on to the show. Thanks for taking a few minutes to share some really valuable insights about asset protection today with us, Brian.
Brian Bradley
Yeah, no problem. Thanks, Justin for having me on and putting this whole podcast together. And, you know, it really is a confusing topic and I hope I can add some value to your listeners and like you just mentioned, we were talking behind, you know, before we started recording is is not just a matter of what we can do for their clients, it's also a matter that they're trying to think big and grow their themselves professionally, asset protection is something they need to do for themselves also. So I think we're going to cover a lot of the material and it's something they can take for themselves. And also, you know, talk to your clients about.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. I love it. Let's let's start here again for to provide some context for those that need to understand kind of Brian's breadth of knowledge. He was selected to be to the Lawyers of Distinction list and 2019 Super Lawyers Rising Star listen 2015 nominated to America's top 100 hundred high stakes litigators list as well as the 2017 Law Firm, 500 Awards. You're doing some great things. I know, Brian, like me, all of that pales in comparison to the work that you're doing at home. You shared with me, you've got two young children one and three. Congratulations, you're awake?
Brian Bradley
It's tiring to two girls, two little princesses. And you know, it's great.
Justin Stoddart
So part of the bigger real estate show is to help people think bigger than real estate, and realize where to you know, the true treasure in life is that. So I'd love to start with this question of what is your favorite part about being the dad of two little princesses?
Brian Bradley
Well, my favorite part is I am really actively involved in my girls lives. And so my wife works nights at a hospital. And so we missed the daycare ride, we didn't realize we ever had a three year waiting list up here in Oregon. And so I just created my business structure of my day to where I can spend most of my time with my girls that have taken the dance gymnastics. So I get to spend a lot of time with the girls. And if you combine that with like an Uber dad basically just they're obsessed with me and all the hugs and kisses and nail painting I can't get enough of.
Justin Stoddart
It's so funny. At this point, I've heard that it's sometime at some point it stops. But as soon as my like the garage door opens, there's like a full on sprint from my house to my car with little like blonde girls, Ryan to see who can give dad the first hug of the first kiss. And they say it first first kiss. And that there's something about being a superhero to your own little girls. That's that's pretty magical. So that I can totally relate. Yeah. Let's get into today's topic, asset protection, what is a key point that you think real estate agents need to know to for their own business as well as advising their clients stepping in as a true advisor to their clients?
Brian Bradley
Yeah, so I think the key point at the end of the day is just what is asset protection. And the overall goal is just lifestyle preservation, creating peace of mind. And that comes down to just how to take risk off the table. So if you're a real estate agent, and you're going out on your own, you have a business, so you need to protect that business and that business interest and so that what you need to do is create asset protection asset protection system through your business entities, or as you grow as different types of asset protection, trust or jurisdictions, exemptions, and make sure that if something were to happen, whether it be professionally or in your personal life, that you can sleep well at night, knowing that you personally in your finances are protected. And so I think you know, what we're going to talk about today is how to incorporate that into their business going forward, their life going forward, and their clients lives.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. So what are some key things that real estate agents need to be doing and are looking for in the lives of their clients?
Brian Bradley
Yeah, so I would say for themselves? No, I think that the conversation would be good for either, you know, they can use the same principle no matter what. And so I would say, the first thing is, as you're building your empire or your business, is get on the phone with the lawyer and talk about and your CPA and say what business structure, what it does, and then he should I be using to protect myself and maximize my taxes on that would be number one, start building your network. And if you can start taking more hats off of your head, you're going to free up more time and you're going to start working more efficiently and effectively. On so the idea is just you know, if you want to go kind of like Robert Kiyosaki it, you know, Rich Dad, Poor Dad is you don't want to be spending all your time doing everything yourself. So if you can start taking little pieces of the pie, you know, and giving them up the free up your time and using experts, do it, go get a good attorney, go get a good real estate attorney, go get a good asset protection attorney, go get good, you know, agents to work with, and then start freeing up your time, you know, to do what you're good at. And the world. Yeah, if you want to break are some of these specific? You know, some of the tools in the toolbox we have we can go into that or
Justin Stoddart
Let's do it. Let's go, look, let's go granular teach us some more tools in the toolbox.
Brian Bradley
Yeah, so I would say, you know, the first thing is, especially as you know, owning a business is maximizing exemptions. And so this is kind of where we start. And you can look at it as exemption planning is the main staple, because it's illegal, right. And so if you own a business, or you're owning real estate, you're investing whatever it is, we first started maximize both state and federal exemptions. And the reason is, is because like I said, these are rights under the law, they're automatically protected if they qualify. And so exemptions are going to vary state by state. I think a good place to start with this understanding would be like Florida homestead exemptions, just because I think everybody kind of understands what homestead exemptions are, especially in the real estate world. And so for example, in Florida, your home regardless of its value is going to be absolutely protected from creditors so long as it's contained within one fourth of an acre. So that's the basic concept of a homestead. And then different exemptions are going to vary state by state. For example, California has horrible exemption laws, Oregon, we have horrible exemption laws. But one of thing I really want to break down is a specific California exemption. And the reason I want to go into this is because California is just like a litigation hellhole. It's rated the number one, you know, litigious state and helpful, I think, like five years in a row. And no one knows about this exemption, because it's not taught much. And I think that all California residents should understand what they have in their own state to protect themselves. And so they have what's called a private retirement plan. And this was codifies under CCP, Section seven a 4.115, way back to the 70s, as always been around for a long time over 40 years with 40 years of case law that's really favorable for it. And what this does is all assets that qualified to be placed into this protection trust is then going to be deemed exempt. So when you're talking about adding value for your listeners, with just exemption planning, for the last 24 months, by working with the trust administrators that we have been able to protect over 600 million in assets and save over 45 million in taxes. And so this is partly where the add value and return on investment of this comes from. And we can also protect business interests. So that was kind of like, you know, a good way to relate to your listeners of all right, you know, maybe I don't have all these, you know, real estate investments myself, but you do have a business and that business has equity and is growing. And so we can actually even protect that future value of the business or future value of real estate investments that you have, these plans are tax neutral, so you can invest in whatever you want. If you have to live up cash flow, we can make these players and structure them for distributions that actually meet your current lifestyle. So they're really flexible and how to use and they actually have a return value on.
Justin Stoddart
You know, it's interesting you say that, I think all real estate agents would would be wise to take the advice that Gary Keller once shared, which was he sells the homes that he can't buy himself. And I think when you come into any sort of real estate type business, you realize that I'm on the front lines of identifying where great opportunities are at. And I think when you when you realize that I'm I'm not here long term just to facilitate the buy and sell of other people's properties. But I'm actually here to build long term passive income for myself, you start to think a little bit bigger, you start to think a little bit differently. And then you start to say, Okay, what is the infrastructure that I'm going to need in order to be able to be acquiring properties to the point to where at some point, I don't have to work, I may continue to want to work, and they may continue to do that, but don't have to work. And I appreciate what you're saying. Because I think sometimes when people think small, right, they they never see themselves have actually been on the on the other side of the transaction repeatedly, they see them all, they see themselves only ever getting enough deals to get by or to build a business themselves not actually step into the quadrant of being an investor. And I think when you start to have conversations, like the one that you're having to say, I'm going to be educated on what the exemptions are, what the best business structures are, and whether or not you want to build a massive real estate team, right, some do, some don't, I think building a portfolio of real estate investment ought to be a priority of all of us, regardless of industry, and regardless of our station in life, that that being close to the real estate industry, as we all are, that's one of the fringe benefits that we can, that we can not take advantage of if it if we're if we're not careful, right, that will miss if we're not careful.
Brian Bradley
And the great thing about you know, investing in real estate is, you know, it's always, you know, one of the safest investments even in economic time doubt, you're going to have your ups and downs with it. But land is limited. So at the other day, there's only so much of it. So that's why it's always I personally like, you know, real estate as investments. But you know, as we're talking about quadrants, I think, whether you want to be small real estate agent or firm, or you want to grow and big and transition, and, you know, so you know, efficiency and self reliance, you got it, then, you know, if you're switching quadrants, you got to then build a team of the network around you and stop just thinking about the next deal the next deal. And like you said, think larger, think bigger. But as you're thinking larger and thinking bigger, you then also have to think, Oh, I'm opening up myself from liability and different angles of risk, I have to start managing my risk better, I have to start managing liability better. So, yeah, you want to transition, you know, quadrants from being an employee or self employed to a business owner, you know, an investor. And so as you're doing that, you also need more. And so that's comes into play on just how to build a business, and also how to manage clients and recognizing client, even before those clients know what those are.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, Think Big, Act Small. Think Big in the sense that you're putting these things in place, educating yourself on the different exemptions on the different business structures, getting those the infrastructure in place that you need now yet, realizing that you can build and need to be prepared to build a bigger Empire. On top of that, I think what happens when agents start to think that way and start to associate with people like you and get educated on these things, even get their own business setup and, you know, properly as well as be aware of the you know, the exemptions, and all the different opportunities and risks that are out there is that the conversation when you sit down at a listing appointment is very, very different, rather than just saying, let's look at your house, let's look at comps, let's look at your neighborhood, the conversation starts to go to tell me about your business. Tell me what you do for a living. And naturally, you're going to be have more to offer that conversation. I think some people shy away from those conversation because they don't know where it's going to go. That's nice, but that's a nice place to work. And that's where it ends. We're as if they've been, you know, tuning into the think bigger real estate show, if they've been around people like you, Brian, some of the things that they can learn from someone like you will start to show up, as you know, you, you know, they might be able to say, you know, it's interesting, I was I was listening just yesterday to an attorney, and it was his name's Brian t Bradley. And he he helps people, you know, pursue their business and avoid risks and take advantage of the best exemptions. One that stood out to me is this inserting what you just shared with us. And all of a sudden that client said he said, the listing appointment and or even just the newsletters that you're sending out, have a flair of being more than just a customer service representative or a salesperson there and help market sell your home, whichever.
Brian Bradley
Yeah, and what we like to do is the biggest thing for us is educating clients, but I'd look at it differently. And I forget where I read it from but if you look at it as a pie, you want to educate yourself one of the things you don't know, I mean, everybody has not you don't know what you don't know, don't know, but you know, know, I, you can go get that answer. And like I know, I don't know x, y, z. So I can go ask that question. But what we try to do is educate clients on what they don't know that they don't even know yet. And because most people have the largest amount of their pie in that category, we don't know what we don't even know. So we try to shrink that part of the pie down and then limit the risk on that. And it's amazing, like we said, like on exemptions, or, you know, we can go into, you know, false securities that people have, like everyone should have insurance, but you can't just solely rely on insurance. And there's reasons why, you know, and then how to pick jurisdictions to protect their trust. And you know, which would be other good tidbits on for listeners. But little things like that on I didn't even know about that. And I didn't even think about that. And so as we can shrink that part of the pie down, you can start making better decisions as you grow.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, love it. Talk to us. Let's just take maybe a couple more tips, like you just said, Can offered up one of those one of those categories. And then we'll we'll wrap up and be sure people know how to get ahold of us so that they can continue to educate themselves.
Brian Bradley
Yeah, so I would say one of the biggest misconceptions is about insurance. And so it's a very big hot topic. And I think insurance is a great place to start, you know, business insurance, real estate, insurance, rental insurance, all of it. But it's not the end, you can't stop there. And I see a lot of clients that have this false sense of security thinking, Oh, if I get sued, I can just magically rely on my insurance to cover everything and all the damages. And this is not the case. But I do recommend, like I said, Every single person to get insurance, have it get as much as you can, maybe even an umbrella policy. But read your insurance policy, read the fine print. And I always ask everybody, like if I'm in a group of conference like in person, everybody raise your hand who read the fine print of your insurance policy, no one's going to raise their hand. And so no one's ever going to understand what's not covered and what the actual claim limit is. And so a good place to start is to actually just first understand that, you know, real estate law is the most heavily litigated area of law that there is other there's so many different ways to get CM as well as owning a business. And so it's not a matter of when but it's a matter of what condition you're going to be in to defend yourself when a lawsuit comes your way. And that's really what we're talking about with asset protection. And business in general is being proactive and being prepared before anything comes your way. So just keep in mind that insurance companies, they're not going to cover you for fraud or punitive damages or intentional wrongdoings, and they don't pay claims that are going to be the direct results of unlawful acts. And so what really your listeners on this topic need to walk away with is just what insurance defense actually is on. And it's that you can be sued if your business or likely going to happen. Or if you're owning real estate and renting is probably going to happen. And from the very first statement or communication that you ever made or email that you sent at any point in time. Those are not going to be deemed as intentional acts because their statements. And so the courts are going to say that email that statement, even though it had nothing to do with you know, a pending litigation or lawsuit is now going to be an intentional act. And the way this plays out with insurance is that they're going to say, Okay, well now, we're not going to cover you for a potential wrongdoings effort from intentional acts. And if you think we're wrong, go ahead and sue us. And so that's how that game is played, and how they have built in wiggle rooms and ways out of payment, large claims. And so just understand insurance helps, but it's just not going to be good enough. So the next thing you need to do is create protection systems. You know, if the money's tight, start with an LLC, as you grow, you're going to need more start maximizing exemptions. As you start growing even more than you're going to get into what we're you know, like to quickly cover is picking a jurisdiction to set up asset protection trust, if you want to jump into that. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, so that's the next big topic is nor the next big step is all right. started out small, I had my LLC, I outgrew that I have too much for I'm growing really fast. I don't want to accelerating multiple LLC, because it's just going to become, you know, a management nightmare.
Justin Stoddart
At what point would somebody outgrow an LLC? Is there dollar figure, or....?
Justin Stoddart
Great Yes, a great question. And I would say um, it's really state dependent. Like if you're in California, for example, I always say about $1 million, because then you need to divvy up and spread out the risk into another LLC. In California, that would never work, though, because it's so expensive. I mean, most of properties are more than $1 million. So you can't, you know, just say I'm going to put it one property into one LLC, one or one business in one business, it's just going to be too expensive. But the rule of thumb, generally I go with is 1 million, we need to start having the conversation, when you get $3M to $3.5 million, you're at that level to where one lawsuit can completely wipe you out. And it's going to be really hard to recover from it, it took you a very long time to get to that point. So we need to start talking about what I do is, you know, offer a higher level of protection, strategic planning and start maximizing exemptions, creating new bubble, you know, buckets and re characterizing assets into different buckets.
Justin Stoddart
And then from there, once you get to about that, you know, 5 million beyond mark or there's something that can't be exempt called access planning. That's when we start going into picking jurisdictions. So from the reason also is because once you get to about $5 million, you're not going to most likely be in an accredited investor, you're going to have more, you're going to be a larger mark, you're going to be investing in, you know probably some syndications or deals that other people just don't get access to, right. And so now you're going to accelerate your wealth a lot faster and at a higher rate. So you actually need a system that can actually grow with you, and not just be passive. And so that's the other reason why I wanted. Yeah. And so after maxing out executive, like I was saying, picking a jurisdiction to set your protection system up in is going to be the next big issue, no matter you know what state you live in, or no matter what, you know, if you're a business owner or a real estate investor, or both on and what jurisdiction means is that the laws and the rules that govern you and trust, and business entities are going to be different from one jurisdiction to another, from one state to another one country to another. And so you really have two options, when you when you were looking at picking a jurisdiction to create asset protection trust, and you can create them domestically in the US, for example, like in Nevada, or you can set them up offshore. Another point for like the Cook Islands, I personally prefer the power of just going offshore, if there was ever needed. And it's simply because it's the best home court advantage that you can have. It makes losses go away very fast or quickly, it gets cases of settle for pennies on the dollar. And even against what we call super predators, like the government, the IRS, the SEC, the man who ever implement money, when they try to go after you in the Cook Islands, they are going to come to negotiating table really fast. And that's because of the power of going offshore. And so the power of the Cook Islands is they have what's called statutory non recognition of another jurisdictional for borders. So they're just going to go tell any you know, court order here in the US that you're trying to enforce them to put violence or just gonna say we don't care go down Sam. And they're going to have to retry that whole case and the Cook Islands, which is exceptionally hard to do, like they'd have to prove a case by the murder standard beyond a reasonable doubt it at the front, all the court costs and fly in and judge from New Zealand, if you know, whoever loses pays. And so trying to prove that civil case beyond a reasonable doubt, no good luck. So they're going to angle legal fees. And there's a statute of limitations of only one year. And so the top before they even realize they had to sue you in the Cook Islands is most likely already ran and they missed their chance to swing the ball. And, you know, there's pros and cons to this, though, the pros is definitely non recognition, I mean, five out of five stars, you can't get better than that. But there's other three factors that you have to take into consideration, cost control and compliance. And so when you go offshore, those you know, the control, you're going to give up to a third party trust administrator in the Cook Islands on the costs are going to be a lot higher to be purely for and the compliance, you're going to have to file additional disclosures with the IRS, we only do have about 5% of our clients that actually need to go this extreme. For most people, it's just going to be overkill. And if we walk it back and compare this domestically, you know, domestic asset protection trust, they're going to be cheaper, all costs are going to be easier to maintain. So they'll be less expensive, but they fail on effectiveness. And they fail because of what the foundation of asset protection really is. It's really about not recognizing another jurisdictional court orders. But the hallmark of the US legal system is the Constitution, we have the full faith and credit clause. So this means like in the US, you just can't hide from judgments. And you shouldn't have to run and hide from fair judgments. But a lot of lawsuits are predatory, or just completely excess, damaged, damaged judgments. And so when you're weighing this out, you know, okay, what do I pick which way do I go the weakness of domestic power and strength and expensive offshore, I say for the you know, 95% of you who don't have to go purely offshore, you pick neither, we use what's called a bridge trust. And it's really a hybrid of a domestic and foreign asset protection trust. And we're just combining combining the best of both worlds. It was created 30 years ago. So it's not something that's new. We just use the word bridge to demonstrate how we're using a foreign trust, and then connecting two countries together with a bridge. And then we just crossed the bridge the safety of the Cook Islands in one you're ever under attack. And then when the attack is over, we move the assets back. So probably your high level, you know, like real estate investors, people like to know a little bit of the detail about it, the British trust is a brand for trust. And so this means that you the person creating it to create or have a settler, you know, you retain some of the power. And then like all asset protection, trust or self settled spendthrift trusts, meaning they're so settled by you for you as your own beneficiary. And then the Win Win or value add for using this system. For the purpose of the IRS reporting and disclosures, your bridge trust is actually going to be considered domestic and not for it. And that's because we drafted to meet a specific requirement under USC section 7071, the court test and control test. And we care about this because of IRS tax purposes and violence, you don't have to file those foreign disclosures. But then for protection purposes, now you have the strength of the Cook Islands in your back pocket. So you get the benefit of both the ease and simplicity domestic with the power strength of the islands at a more affordable cost.
Justin Stoddart
It's powerful stuff, Brian, I'm sure you could go on for days. And we probably all be super impressed by by how much you know, and how well you're able to help your clients protect themselves. It's, I would encourage anybody who's listening to this to either a go back and listen again, or maybe even forward this to an effect all about you to do this, after this show. On on my website, think bigger real estate, on the video section, there will be a transcription of everything that Brian's saying here. And this stuff is going to I would, I would encourage you to review some of the things that he's talking about here. Because again, as you move from sales representative, or, you know, sales person, customer representative to advisor, having somebody like Brian in your network is powerful, but it's difficult to even know how and when to introduce someone like Brian, unless you can have a few talking points about how people can purchase protect themselves. And so having, again, a few of these talking points, you can copy and paste from my website, and memorize yourself, and to where you know what to look for when you're working with high net worth individuals. Even if they already have these things in place, you being able to kind of run in that race is going to elevate your status in their eyes, it's going to elevate the value proposition that you can bring to them.
Unknown Speaker
Question for them on that point is if they already have this in place, do you have a trusted administrator. That's another good question for them to ask. And we can talk about that.
Justin Stoddart
I love that. I love that. That's a great lead in. Do you have a trust administrator? If they say yes or no, what's a great way to get them back to you, Brian? Is there some way that if they say yes, then what is the real estate agent say?
Brian Bradley
Well, that's great. If they don't need it, I just want to make sure that if you have an asset protection trust, some people just think that they can manage it themselves. Don't manage it themselves. Trust administrators do the annual compliance, they make sure that you you're finding missing dollars mixing Miss tax benefits Miss tax returns. So that's how you get to add value back into the system, they pay for themselves.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. I love it. And that's how the wealthy continue to get wealthy is by knowing by having superior knowledge to be able to properly protect themselves, and take advantage of the legal. You know the ins and outs of our loss. So I appreciate you sharing and helping all of us elevate our conversation help us to think bigger. Final question of the show, Brian, which is obviously your big thing here you help some people solve some pretty important problems and prevent important problems from even ever showing their face. What does a guy like you continue to do to be a big thinker continue to do to expand your own possibilities.
Unknown Speaker
I am a nerd. I love reading. And I try to create coming from the courtroom, I'm always busy. So I really got you know, once I had my girls like I need to free up time. So I realized I have to be a business owner, senior managing partner, my practice, I can't just be I'm pounding nails, you know, I have to give up some of the ego I guess, of having to always be the one doing everything and I created a system. And I think that's one of the biggest takeaways I would say, as you're growing as you're thinking big, you're used to doing it all yourself. Don't you're going to collapse. If you're going to do it all yourself, you'll fail early bad, you're going to make bad decisions. Create a team get a system going systemized your business, you know, go pick up Rich Dad Poor Dad and Cashflow Quadrant, you know, pretty good read on how to do that. Just principles-wise, create a system manager system, spend more time with your family and still make money.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Yeah, one of my favorite parts of that book, that's really been a driver to me helping real estate agents improve their value proposition is a text readings that have a team around them, they need to have a real estate professional, they need to have a CPA, they need to have a tax advisor, they need to have an attorney, multiple attorneys. And so I think what you're saying there is is an absolute way for somebody to elevate their own game I saying every one of my clients that comes to me, I'm gonna evaluate to see who's missing on their team. And I've got my team in place to help fill those gaps when needed.
Unknown Speaker
And so you know we do the same thing. You know, that's where it comes in, you're missing this, you're not maximizing value, and you're not maximizing your time to do what you're good at.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I love it. Great stuff, man. I want to thank you, Brian, for pouring into our show today and end with this final charge to everybody listening, which Brian has helped us to do through his superior knowledge and generosity and really sharing so freely. But hold on, before I do that, Brian, I want to put up your website here on the show. It is btblegal.com and I want to put that up on the screen for any that are watching.
Unknown Speaker
We have a free diagnostic on there takes about five minutes to fill out. And I do free consultations with that diagnostic because I'd rather have people just have access to the information and do what you want with it. I love it.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Truly a generous man, which is a great sign of truly being a big thinker. So with that again, I want to give this final charge to everybody, they are three simple words: Go Think Bigger. Thank you, Brian, so much for joining us today and for being so valuable to all of us.
Brian Bradley
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart and I'm fired up about today's episode, it's going to teach you as a real estate agent, how you can gain leverage by getting on the other side of the transaction to where you become not only a marketer of properties of servicing buyers and sellers, but you becoming an investor as well without having the typical means that you think you need to have in order to become an investor.
Justin Stoddart
So before I get into that, let me remind you that if you go to thinkbigger.realestate, you can sign up for a weekly summary, that will give you all the episodes that happened that particular week, and links to the episodes that are most relevant for you and your business. Additionally, I want to remind any of the audience that may be listening from outside of the Portland market, that if you're looking for a good lender, or licensed real estate agent, I'm not one, but I'm happy to make a referral and introduction to one. So if you have anybody moving this way, please reach out to me, I'm happy to make an intro on your behalf. So with that being said, let me let me introduce today's guest, his name is Zachary beach. He is a phenomenal individual. He's He's the co author of a book called the new rules of real estate investing, actually had one of the other co authors on previously, maybe some of you got the book at that point I did I read the whole book, I can't say that about every book that I promote on the show. But this one caught my attention all the way to the end. Because it really opened up a whole new paradigm as to how one can be an investor before they think that they could have been an investor. So you're gonna want to get your hands on that, again, the new rules of real estate investing, I'll put links in the show notes. And then at the end, we're going to talk about a webinar that you can get on. If you're like me, and you're you're very mobile. And sometimes sitting down to read a book can be challenging actually actually read this on a vacation. That's how I made time for it. But oftentimes, I've listing the book. So if you're wanting to get information, there's going to be a webinar they're going to talk about at the end. So stay tuned to hear all about that webinar that will again teach you to get on the other side of the transaction, which can be the more lucrative side of the transaction. So with all that said, Zachary beach, today's guest, he is a coach, he is a partner, and he's an investor smart real estate coach, calm. And, Zach, you want to thank you for coming on to the think bigger real estate show today.
Zachary Beach
Hey, Justin, thanks for having me on. You made me sound terrific. Maybe a little better than I am. So I very much appreciate the introduction and I'm super grateful for being on your show.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I I love the branding that you guys have your your your shirt, I want to pay special attention fact up. I'm going to remove your name here for just a second so people can see it. Wicked smart, this is your tribe, right? A tribe of people that subscribe to your way of thinking that have become investors at a scale they didn't think they were able to invest at now these these people are wicked smart. Right? And that's kind of the conference that you guys host. This is this is your tribe. Is that is that correct?
Zachary Beach
Yep. The Wicked Smart Community and we are from New England, which makes it even better. So we should just remove the our it's wicked smart. Yeah, so these are the the associates that we partner with around the country. And we lock arms with and that we help complete these types of transactions by buying and selling on terms, which we can certainly dive into. And then we lock arms to help them scale a business as well.
Justin Stoddart
I love it, man. So exciting. Let's, let's get into this. Again, the purpose of this show is not just to help people build great empires, big income, have success, but it's to help them have success and significance, income and impact building not just statues of themselves, but really building great communities. And so I want to talk a little bit about your, your a dad, and you're expecting another child. Talk to us a little bit about how that becoming a father and a good father at that has helped kind of change your perspective on on why business and investing matters?
Zachary Beach
That's a fantastic question. It's actually the first time I've been asked that. Yes. And so thank you. I think we all get caught up in, you know, the monetary value of business. I think it's once you take a step back and you realize what you actually are doing it for is where the significance comes in. That's great that we can make a whole bunch of money, but what are we actually doing that for? What do we need the money for? So actually becoming a father has, I would say, like 10 times my growth, because I gotta learn faster, I have to produce more, and I have to produce it in a shorter period of time. So being a father has, has forced me to get really good at project management, time management, and just overall getting just better at my craft. But it also brings you back down to earth too. Because after you're, you know, you've been, you know, you're out there in the world. And you're you're buying properties, you're, you know, helping people build their businesses, and you're, and you're you're really out in that business world coming back home, brings it back down the earth and makes you realize exactly why you're doing it. And it also brings you back to being present. It's really hard as being an entrepreneur to not think about business when you're home. And I would say that was that's been one of my hardest things as being a father is, is really transitioning from leaving the office and being home. And it's something that I'm constantly trying to master. But it's it's been tough. I'll tell you that.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, yeah, I think when you're an ambitious professional as we are and as this audiences, there's that that does tend to be a challenge, right is how do we how do we turn it off? To end and and turn on great fatherhood? Right? So we're, we're not there, physically, but our mind is elsewhere? How do we how do we, both of us, right, both our body and our mind, be their present, I found that when I when I can do that, and I and similar to you, I struggle with it. It's something that I'm working on. It's a number of kind of big steps I've taken this past year to help improve that, but it's still a work in progress. But it's interesting how much more I enjoy life. When I do go on all in at home like I do go all in at work and it's there's so much more joy that's not available when your mind somewhere else.
Zachary Beach
Yeah, I was told by a mentor of mine. And he said that if you're really ambitious entrepreneur, you have to be present no matter where you are. So when you're if you're traveling for business, be there be all in there, like you just said, be all in, when you're at home be all in so that way, when you're on the road, you know, thinking about home, and when you're at at the office, or when you're you know, working, you know, thinking about home, so I may I messed that up, we're live, so we'll just keep rolling with it. So with that being said, it's just you have to be, you have to be really present when you're doing work. And you have to be really present when you're at home.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, it's great. It's great insight. You know, interestingly enough, I had the thought also, you know, we're talking today about helping real estate agents become not just, you know, sellers and buyers agents, but also becoming investors themselves. And I can't help but think of how important it is to, to exchange some of the trade time for money to earning passive income, right, so where you own things that are earning money for you, even when you're not working. And I know that's a lot of what we're talking about which going back again to this emphasis of being great parents, being great at home is great at home as we are at work. That's your the strategies and and and, and tactics that you teach, have to help agents gain that leverage so that they do have time freedom.
Zachary Beach
Yeah, I mean, obviously, you can be more present at home, if you're not necessarily worrying about your finances, I think they did a survey. And it's like 95% of Americans are either thinking about or worrying about their finances. So if you have investments that are producing, you know, income, well, you're not working, and then it makes it a little easier to be a better parent. Now, I'm not saying I definitely don't come from a position where I didn't come from much money, great loving family, but my mother was a cashier at Lowes. And she still is. So I didn't come from much money. So I can understand the struggles of financing. And I can understand how that brings a little bit, it brings a bit of an edge to when you're in your day to day life. So if you can produce income through these investments, it just makes life a little easier.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, great point. Alright, let's get into this. This buying real estate on terms, right? I mean, is that at the end of the day, if you were to give this what we're going to talk about today a label, because again, I think most people think I'll become an investor as soon as I have, you know, $100,000 saved, right. So in my market, the average sales price is north of $400,000. I know, in other parts of the country, it's different. But let's say, you know, take out traditional financing have to have 25% down, you know that, that becomes a really big inhibitor for a lot of people have stepping into the investing space. And and what I understand that you and the wicked, smart community, teach and embrace and live, is that you don't have to wait to that point in order to get into the investing space. Is that true?
Zachary Beach
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I think there's a lot of paradigms that come around investor, right, the word investor means that you're either raising a bunch of capital, so you have to know how to speak to other investors to raise capital, or you have to have a lot of capital yourself in order to buy property in order to produce, you know, these income producing assets. Because I've been a bunch of podcasts. And the question us at the end of them is, if you had $50,000, like, what would you do with it? And my response always is, or if there's a beginner out there, and they have $50,000, what would they do it my always my responses, I would keep that money in your own pocket. And what I would do is I would learn to buy and sell on terms because we don't use our own cash, we don't use our own credit. And we typically are not, you know, working with other investors to raise capital. And we do that by buying and selling on term. So what that means is you're buying on contracts, so either a lease option, or you're buying and letting the seller be the bank on seller financing.
Justin Stoddart
That's totally different paradigm, isn't it? And it definitely speeds up the pace at which a lot of people can become an investor, when rather than using your own personal money or investor money, you're tapping into the established capital, if you will, of the person that already owns the property.
Zachary Beach
Yeah, so a majority of our community, the wicked smart community are green investors, either they're coming from a background of being realtors, or they're coming from a background of the corporate world, or maybe they were self employed originally. But what the transition looks like is it's not that you got to raise a bunch of capital or have a bunch of capital in order to do it. It's let's teach you the skills on how to speak with sellers and buyers how to construct deals, in a way where you're using the different terms and in terms are are the two different pieces, really, it's an agreement terms, and there's the financial terms. But it's how to construct those where you're able to get the seller what they want, the buyer can potentially get what they want, as well, and you're able to be in the middle and control this deal and produce large profits.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Let's walk through. So let's say that I'm a real estate agent, right? For those that know me know that I'm not, let's say that I I am and I haven't yet invested in properties and or I do but my capital is tapped right. I've used my capital for other investments and now you're telling me that, that I I can still be an investor? What would be? What would be your advice to me that should be my very first step?
Zachary Beach
Yeah, absolutely. So let's say and I want to preface this as you know, you being a real estate agent, there's a certain box that you work within, typically it's you have a certain price range that you work within depends on the typical seller, so a seller that is looking to sell their property now, meaning they have to pull out all of their equity in order to move on. So things that fit outside the box, which are houses that are people are selling for what they owe on a property, we can create great profits on people that are selling exactly what they Oh, maybe functionality comes into play where a house sits on the market for like six, seven months. And it's not selling because of functionality or somebody who's not willing to work with a real estate agent. Because they don't want to pay commissions. So they sell it for sale by owner and they don't care, they don't want to deal with the commission. So there's many different facets out there. So what I suggest is now you get to become a one stop shop. So if you come across one of those things that don't fit inside your box, well, now you can speak with sellers, you can say hey, actually, I have some other options that I could actually buy your property instead of listing it for you. And I can buy it a couple of different ways. Either I can buy it on a lease purchase, which simply means that when you are agreeing upon a price, I'll then take over any and all responsibilities of that property. So if there's mortgage maintenance, taxes, insurance, any no future pairs ain't no responsibilities, and then honor before a specific date that we agree upon in the future, I will then cash you out, meaning I'll pay off the remaining balance your mortgage, and the equity that we locked in at the beginning with them to yours.
Justin Stoddart
And and what's it what's the benefit of the seller at this point is that they haven't been able to sell the property prior to this point. Or is there some other reason why somebody who could sell it to a traditional buyer would want this same setup?
Zachary Beach
Yeah, so there's a couple things that fall into place where, okay, they want to maximize their equity. Right. So being a real estate agent, you're taking on average, what roughly 5% commission from a seller's pocket. So as you can help them keep that and you could actually become an investor and benefit on larger profits and just 5% Commission, just something someone that the properties above to expire, maybe you have a listing, and the property is about to expire, well. Now you actually have other options. And majority of the time, we all know it's probably price, it's probably a zero to do with you being the the real estate agent, it's either the market is telling them one thing, such as price, and you know, it can't go. So instead, you now have the ability to buy the property as it's about to expire. And then other people such as people are looking for debt relief. So if you are going to if somebody is going to sell the property for roughly what they owe, then they are coming out of pocket for your commission in order to sell the house. So instead, you can buy it, what we call subject to the existing loan, which means you can take title, and the mortgage will still stay in their name. And now you've actually saved them 5%. So it's more likely that now you get to become a solution, instead of coming and save them coming out of pocket. So a large amounts of equity. So maximizing profit debt relief, functionality, there's a whole bunch of different reasons out there why people can't sell traditionally, or choose not to sell traditionally.
Justin Stoddart
So the first audience that a real estate agent, and keep in mind that I know that a lot more people than just real estate agents watch this. So you don't have to be a licensed real estate agent to employ the same tactics. But again, we're looking at through the eyes of a real estate agent for the purposes of today's conversation, but keep in mind that these conversations that we're having can be had by anybody have to have a license to have like to employ these similar tactics. Right? Correct. Yeah, if you if you are a real estate agent, the first audience you would look at is, what listings do you currently have that aren't selling? that are coming up on expired, that you could approach them and say, Look, I'll buy this property? I'll buy it from you on terms. Right. So that's the first one. The second one is other properties that maybe have gone expired? And, you know, I'm, I'm not a big fan, personally. And I know some are and I don't hold that against them no heart and you know, no, no judgment. But I'm not a big fan of of agents calling expires right now, I know that there's a whole case against it. I'm very relational I, to me, I don't believe that that's in the best interest of the consumer, when you have 30 people calling the same person and trying to get the same deal, right. And I think creates a bit of a bad like a bit of an ambulance chaser identity for the industry. And again, some agents do it very professionally, respectfully, and they do great, great business. So but there's a few bad apples that don't and it tends to tarnish it for for the others that are that are good. So but what I understood as I read your book is that you're, if you're now calling expires, you're not calling with the same offer as everybody else. You're not saying I'm a real estate agent, I'd like to list your home. But rather you're saying I'm an investor, I see your home did not sell. I'm an investor, I'd like to look at the possibility of buying your house. Is that true? Is that? Is that how you go about that?
Zachary Beach
Yeah, so there's two things I want to hit there too. Of course, there's, there's bad apples and every single industry in the investor world as well. So two things, though, so you can be the real estate agent that gets referrals from all the other real estate agents, because now you're the term specialist. So if they come across a property that they're having trouble with, now they have a person to refer to, which is super important. That's like, I would say one of the major benefits that comes to being licensed as an investor compared to not being license. And then yes, also, if you're going to be calling on these properties, now you're calling on to buy them not to list them. Of course, the runoff can be right you call them, they don't want to sell to an investor, of course, your spin off and can be well I can list your property. I mean, so you have, if you can become a one stop shop where if it doesn't fit into the investor hat, it can fit into the realtor hat and then vice versa.
Justin Stoddart
It just, it gives you more tools in your toolbox to be able to serve that client, right, I believe that sales is leadership. And that if you are leading people to a better, brighter future, you need a number of different tools to be able to help that person to be able to serve that person and leave that person. And what you're saying is this is just one more tool, the skill sets the knowledge, the expertise that people learn, right through your coaching program gives them the ability to step confidently into these situations to say, I'm calling on that, as an investor, I'm now approaching you as an investor, as an investor, with the possibility of purchasing your home and opening that conversation.
Zachary Beach
Yeah, it also bridges the gap to right, there's only some realtors that actually specializes working with investors. So now if you have the hat on that you're an investor working with investors is easier. Plus, you're also also able to buy property. So it always bridges that gap. Now, there should not be a real estate deal. If it's a good one that comes across your desk that you don't know where it goes, and you should be able to profit from it,
Justin Stoddart
You should be able to profit from all of them now, right? Because that seller has raised their hand and said, Look, I have a problem, I got to get like I want to get rid of this property. And before you had one tool, you had a hammer, right? I can help you sell it, I can help you sell and you've got a line of 30 people behind you that are saying I can help you sell it, I can help you sell it, I can help you sell it. Hence, the consumer gets a little aggravated because everybody's coming in trying to solve the problem the same way saying I can I can market it sell it better than that person, maybe you can. But when you hear that over and over, it starts to get a little bit tiring for the consumer. But if you come in and with an entirely different approach and say, Look, I have a saw this doesn't need to be hammered. This needs to be saw this season, right? This season me, you know, screwed, right? Or it was probably not the best. You know, arrange There we go. And I screwed over. I've got a wrench and this thing needs to be, you know, turn. So anyway, I think that's a really interesting approach. What other opportunities are there beyond that? What is maybe one more key takeaway that real estate agents need to identify as being. And maybe it's a script through which they approach people or another really important tactic that that you can help people with as far as taking advantage of this terms market?
Zachary Beach
Well, let's, let's look on the flip side, we've only talked about sellers, there's roughly 80% of depending on the area that you're in, but 80% of the buyers out there cannot qualify for a loan. So what we're doing is, and we're not talking about every single buyer out there is great that can't qualify for loan, we're talking about people that had a legitimate hiccup in their credit or someone who's self employed just needs time to show that's that's your we work with, we sell our property, so rent own program, with people that are just outside of finance ability. So think about as being a realtor, all of the buyers that you've had to turn away, because they're not able to qualify for a loan right now, you have a huge pool. So once you have a property under contract, you have a huge pool of buyers that you can sell to and by having a bigger pool means you're going to be able to work with, you're going to be able to get the best buyers out there, who those are the ones that are going to end up creating the major profit for you.
Justin Stoddart
Because now you're helping these buyers buy on terms, you don't have to go through the traditional financing route. You know, it's it's a really interesting way to look at this offer that you guys have when you could be the investor or you help other people step in and be that because you're right, I mean, the approach of the typical mortgage loan officer is you've got to meet these parameters. And if you don't, well, we'll work with you until you do meet these parameters. Right? Once you meet these parameters, then we can help you the good one say will accompany you know we've got a credit repair service. And here's the things you need to do. They're getting some coaching, knowing that once they get over that threshold, okay, now we can go by what I hear you saying is it for these people over here, we can actually help you by now like we can actually help you finance it now based on terms,
Unknown Speaker
Yes there are a couple different ways you can do it. So in a standard sandwich lease is or at least option you're in the middle. So you have a contract with the seller, you then sell the property to the buyer. And you're there collecting the the what we call the three paydays. So the non refundable deposit, the monthly spread, and then you get additional principal pay down on the back end and the additional premium actually transfers once it actually closes. So what you're doing is you're bridging the gap. So you have a buyer that needs 24 months before they can become mortgage, more qualified. In the meantime, they're able to tie up their own, they're able to tie up the property, live in the property and work towards becoming work towards becoming mortgage ready. So you're able to create this amazing opportunity for people that were going to have to rent or wait or did not know how to become a buyer. So you're able to help them change from being just a tenant to a buyer. And then the other way is if you buy if you are buying the property on seller financing, meaning you're getting title from the seller, you can actually you can actually go ahead and sell it seller financing, especially if you have really long terms, you know, say like 10 years, I mean somebody, somebody can then may not even have to go to a bank and eventually can just refer you out
Justin Stoddart
Interesting. All kinds of different strategies, right? I mean, the point I want to make here as we wrap up, number one is that this book is going to be really important to you the new rules of real estate investing. But beyond that, again, I want to send everybody that's listening to this, if you're a real estate agent, and you're like, I need to know these strategies, I need to understand these better, here's a great place to go smart real estate coach calm forward slash webinar, you can learn about the strategies and there's opportunities for at that point to further join the community and get familiar with how you can increase the tools in your tool belt. And I want to make this this point is it a big a big push for me any anytime I'm talking with an agent, is that you have to transition from being a marketing person, a salesperson, to being a consultant and a valued advisor. And the very best advisors out there have superior knowledge, but they also have superior network and a superior set of tools to be able to help people. And this fits right into their I think it would be a very powerful move for a real estate agent to learn these tactics, and be able to give people additional options when they need to move. And they don't fit within the typical parameters. And or as we described, as we started off the show of you benefiting from this by becoming the investor, right? Even if you're not helping other people do it, you're becoming the investor. And you're acquiring properties that before you were not able to acquire because you didn't understand how this works. So it's it's really really great stuff, mode, encourage everybody to go watch the webinar. I'm excited to do that having read the book, I think the webinar is going to be offer a lot of value, and help me to be more valuable to my real estate clients and audience as well. So let's do this is Zachary, I want to end with the final, this final question, but before I do that, you did mention that now that we're friends, I can call you, Zach. So now I can pivot to calling you, Zach.
Unknown Speaker
Well said it was it was like I mean, you you could I couldn't have said it any better than you just said when you're talking about bringing added value. I think as we all grow as individuals, the whole point is personal growth is adding more value, because you get paid for what you bring to the world and the value that you bring to the world. So I couldn't have said it better. That was that was fantastic.
Justin Stoddart
Awesome. Thank you for that. So this is our signature question. I'm excited to hear hear your answer. Is it Zachary, you're obviously a big thinker, right? You've chosen a path that not only create success, success, but also create significance. By having success through other people helping other people have success. I love to hear your thoughts on what you do to continue to be a big thinker. To continue your own quest to expand your own possibilities. What does that look like for you?
Zachary Beach
Yeah, um, the I would say the two major things is I'm constantly hungry for knowledge. If I'm not reading a book, then I'm usually watching a documentary. Right now I'm stuck on the inside Bill's brain on Netflix, which is about Bill Gates. I mean, that's fantastic. So I'm always looking for new things to acquire as far as knowledge and not necessarily like just anything but whatever I'm on right there to push the needle forward. And then constantly surrounding myself with people that are way ahead of me. I constantly want to be surrounded by mentors or friends that think bigger than me or, or way ahead of me, maybe by 510 years and that way, I know pretty much anything's possible. So I just continue to make the thinking big a reality in my life. So that way, there's no way I can think small.
Justin Stoddart
I love it such a powerful answer. And I appreciate you sharing some time with us and pouring your expertise into us. I'm again excited to have you a part of the think bigger community. And I want to end with this request to all of us which Zachary is made easier, which is to GO THINK BIGGER. Thank you, Zach again for your time today being on the show and look forward to our continued friendship.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart and I'm thrilled today to talk about leadership. Sales is leadership. Anything that we do in life in which we have impact, in which we grow anything, requires leadership. The challenge is many of us struggle with being a great leader. Today, we're going to talk all about that. Before we get into introducing today's guest and the rest of today's topic, I want to remind you that you can get a show summary, a weekly summary of every show that happens with show notes by going to thinkbigger.real estate, go sign up for that. I've got it looking really, really good. You're gonna be really proud of what you see, you'll be proud of me for what you see. And the other thing that I want to point out is that if you're watching this in another market, and you're interested in finding either a great loan officer and or a great real estate agent, I would encourage you to reach out to me, private message me, send me a message. I work with the best of the best, I'd be more than happy to make a recommendation. With that, let me introduce today's guest. His name is Chad Krober. Chad first and foremost, thank you for coming on the show today. I appreciate you being here.
Chad Krober
Thank you, Justin. It's good to be here. Thank you.
Justin Stoddart
Great to have you here. So Chad Chad's brand is The Purpose Driven Lender, and we're going to talk about that tech today's show is going to be a representation of Chad being that. Chad actually leads a team of 10 originators and support staff, out of the Portland market. He and his team have been for the past three years in the retail lending space, a top 250 producing team in the country. So Chad knows a thing or two about leadership, he knows a thing or two about being a top producer. And for those of you that are able to stay around for the whole episode, I want you to mark on your date, October 25, it's a Friday from 8:30 to 4:30, there's going to be a very special event happening here in Portland, that is going to be free to you, but it's going to be life changing when it comes to being a great leader. So stay tuned for that if you don't make it all the way to the end, look in the show notes and you'll see more information about that. So again, thank you for being here Chad. I'm going to ask I'm going to start with this question because I believe that the most important leadership that we'll ever do it starts off in the home, so I'm going to ask you a question about you probably aren't prepared for but a guy like you is always prepared for this kind of question. What's your favorite part about being a dad, Chad?
Chad Krober
You know, honestly, I think the favorite part of being a dad is having the opportunity to honestly learn from my mistakes, and then model that to my kids and show them that I am learning how to become the best version of myself. Even when I trip over myself. I don't handle the situation. Well, I can model to my kids and say, Hey, you know what, Dad, I did not do this thing. Well, or I did not handle this situation. Well, or I did not model this behavior to you well, but I'm working on it. And I need to tell you, I'm sorry. And I need to ask for your forgiveness.
Chad Krober
And it's amazing to me how my kids are so quick to say "It's okay Dad, I know you're doing you're trying to work you're trying to grow, I know you're trying to get better."
Chad Krober
Our kids just want to love us more than anything. And that's honestly probably the one of the most enjoyable parts of being a parent is being able to learn from my own errors, and then model and teach that to my kids.
Justin Stoddart
Powerful concepts. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. For those that are maybe new to the show, this is about thinking bigger than real estate, right? We're fortunate to be involved in a great industry from different angles, yet, this becomes a platform, Chad, you and I talked about that before the show about how for you it's really not about mortgages anymore. Maybe it never was but this whole concept of being a purpose driven lender, talk to me a little bit about kind of as a prelude into today's topic. Like what matters more to you than originating loans.
Chad Krober
Yeah. You know, I I'll admit, probably up till about maybe five, six years ago, I was way hung up, was hung up way more on the deal. I was I was focused on how do I close more loans? How do I increase my wallet? How do I increase my bank account? And I went through a few life situations that caused me to have to re examine to look in the mirror and say, why am I doing what I'm doing? You know it, you can jokingly say yeah, I'm 44 years old. Was it a midlife crisis? Maybe not. But just the timing, everything played out in my late 30s, early 40s. And I sat back one day and said, you know, what, if if I'm gone tomorrow, and I'm no longer writing loans, will the world even though that I existed? And I had to look in the mirror and say, No, probably not. Because another great loan officer will come along and replace me the day that I decided to hang it up and stop doing. And so I realized that I needed to change my attitude to say, Okay, I get the opportunity to interact with dozens and dozens and dozens and hundreds of people over a year's time. What if I use my platform instead? To say, How can I make a difference in someone's life? Instead of just writing alone? How can I bless them? How can I encourage them? How can I model to them? Things that will make them walk away from our conversation and say there's something different about that person, and I want to be I want to become a better version of myself. And so it just took me down this path of saying, All right, mortgages are a tool. And mortgages are a way to pay my bills. But ultimately, my attitude needs to be I'm here to serve people. And I think it comes back to the whole idea of servant leadership. We are here to serve others. And I think you actually just had a guest here recently who was talking about that, who leads a team that was and that, you know,
Justin Stoddart
Yes, Erik Hatch.
Chad Krober
I thought I caught that briefly. I didn't get to watch the whole thing, but I caught a snippet of and I went guys nailing it. He I think the quote that I saw was like, "Nobody works for me, I work for them."
Unknown Speaker
I mean, that's the whole concept of being a servant leader is you want to serve those around you. And when you come in with an attitude of humbleness, and of saying, you know what you all can teach me, because I really don't really know much, honestly. But I'm going to do my best to help all of us, I'm going to help our tribe get to the finish line in whatever it is that we're trying to accomplish. Then all of a sudden, you have a heart attitude where you can begin to grow and you can be you can expand your boundaries and begin to really, I think leave an impact on people's lives.
Justin Stoddart
I love it Chad. It was interesting, I'm actually reading the book by Ray Dalio called Principles. You know, probably one of the greatest hedge funds managers of all time. One of his key principles is actually humility. A guy has every reason to not be humble, he realized that he began to accelerate his own success and impact on the world when he stopped thinking that he knew everything and started to look around to realize like, I can learn from everybody here and create a what he called a meritocracy, which was the best ideas win. It doesn't matter if he's the, you know, the founder of the company, Bridgewater, that that isn't what matters, who who has the best ideas. That's what wins. And I think it takes a lot of humility to be a leader and say, Hey, your ideas better than mine, let's do yours.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I would I could not agree more. I've even noticed in my emails that I right, I seem to ask a lot more questions. Help me understand this, or I don't quite understand where you're coming from? Or can you help me find out the answer? Because I don't know the answer, to be frankly honest. And you know, the sign of a great leader is recognizing that when you ultimately realize you can't control anything around you, and then you find great people to come alongside you who do who actually do things better than you do, then all of a sudden, everything seems to go a lot better. For the most part, when you when you're moving in the same direction, you've got the right people on the bus. Yeah, humility is where it's at, for sure.
Justin Stoddart
So we have a short amount of time, let's say, five to 10 minutes to go through this concept of rare leadership. And this is going to be what's going to be taught at the event on October 24 25th 25th 25th. And it's going to be a really powerful event. Again, some of you may be watching this after October 25. So So if that's the case, there's a book called real leadership. But at this event, Dr. Warner, who wrote the book is going to be going through in depth how to apply these principles and know you and I see it Chad, where you were, we have either seen or even ourselves, had experiences where our team grows, and then our team shrinks, because we weren't enough times. And I believe that everything rises or falls on leadership, right. And I think if we want to continue to impact lives, and scale a business and serve more people, we have to get better at leadership. It's not always the people leaving, it's not always their fault. Oftentimes, the common synonym, the common denominator is us. And so I want to start off by going through this acronym of rare, and I'll put up here on the screen for everybody to see. And then if you'll just give a couple key points. Chad, as far as church what people can expect to hear about this particular topics. Let's start with number one remain relational.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, so REMAIN RELATIONAL. The first letter in that acronym of rare, the whole idea is that the typical component of we as humans is when something that we don't expect comes out us, or something to create stress or an emotional, you know, our tendency is we want to fight, or we want or fight or flight, you know, and so when something hard comes at us, or something creates stress, or an emotional response, the first dynamic of taking ourselves down this path of saying, you know, leadership demands emotional maturity is I've got to recognize, I have to remain relational, I've got to remain calm, I've got to remain in a position where my tribe around me goes, Oh, how's the boss gonna react to this? If I remain relational, the first thing I'm doing is I'm setting the tone, I'm setting the atmosphere to say, All right, we've had a big issue come up, we're going to we're going to handle this, and we're going to remain relational. And we're going to do this together.
Justin Stoddart
So it sounds like that the relationship always matters more than whatever the issue is, like, what distinguishing the fact that you're a human, I'm gonna treat you like a human, even if you totally screwed up. If I blow you up, guess what, you're not going to be around for very long, and maybe you were just made a mistake. what he was saying is that you always treat that person, like you'd want to be treated, right? Like always treat them like a human. And so and then it gives you the ability to solve the problem. Is that is that what I'm understanding?
Unknown Speaker
You are understanding that and think about this, if there are other people in the room who observe you blowing up someone? Yeah. How do you think they're going to act the next time you come in the room? Right, they're gonna say, I'm, they're going to be on pins and needles, because they're not sure how you're going to treat them when they make an error, or when they mess up. So remaining relational in all situations.
Justin Stoddart
Perfect. Let's go to number to talk to us about number Chad.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, so ACT LIKE YOURSELF. So we all can look in the mirror and say, I know the best version of myself when I'm acting this way, okay. And we probably all define that a little differently. But when we're acting like our true self, I would call it we're acting like our best self. And that's when we're in joy, we're in a state of joy, we're in a state of high relationship, we're in a state of recognizing the atmosphere around us is creating a wonderful environment that we want to be in. And by the dynamic of when you take the first one of Remaining Remaining relational, then you begin building to that next acronym, which is by remaining relational, and then building a habit of acting like my true self, even when something difficult has come at me. So that's kind of it in a nutshell.
Justin Stoddart
I was listening, one of my mentors, Ed Mylett, who's incredible. He was interviewing a gentleman on his show, who talked about you create this avatar of your ideal self, like the key characteristics and then you create an avatar of your worst self, like the person that shows up that you're not really proud of and what those characteristics are. And and then before you walk into a room, Ed called himself Superman, he said, "Superman's here today." And so you think of those attributes, and what that embodies actually like your true self, I think, I agree all of us have more potential than we can fathom to, and to do good. And as we start to see that in ourselves, we start to act that way, you know, you shared briefly we spend our time to go deep into it, but just how the human brain works, it's just kind of a 30 seconds to 60 seconds snapshot of how that works, and why maybe this principle of acting like yourself would tie into that?
Chad Krober
Yeah, well, so the dynamic is, is that the right side of our brain fires at six times a second, the left side of our brain fires at five times a second, the right side is kind of like our reaction, we're, we're sensing everything around us. The left side is our logic and our thinking side, our rational side. And ultimately, when our brain develops, we create neural connections between each side of our brain and those neural connections fire at 200 times a second. So when you develop a habit, where you're not acting like yourself, you effectively are then firing that neural path that's going at 200 times a second. And so that's why when we're in situations that we just don't know how to handle, it is difficult to act like your true self, because we default to whatever we've pre wired into our brain from past behaviors. And so rare leadership gives us the tools to first recognize, Hey, I got to catch myself here first by remaining relational. And then I can begin to start rewiring my brain to act like my true self to overcome those hard wiring connections that I've put into my brain over 30 plus years of bad behavior. Frankly,
Justin Stoddart
I've heard it said that it's like a like ruts in a road, right? It's difficult. The more you go down that path, the easier it is to go down that path, you have to go break out of that you can't do it, it's it's typical, but you need help. And that's what this whole conference is about. Right? This whole event that you're putting on chat is to help people step into being their true selves, get out of the ruts that are that are destructive, get out of the ruts that are keeping them from reaching their potential impacting the amount of people that they could be impacting, and step into that true self.
Chad Krober
So let me give you a quick story, an example on this, too. I mean, I just thought of this. So another individual that I know who brought this book to my attention. His name's Dr. St. Cyr and Dr. St. Cyr, I heard talk about this idea that our neural connections in our bodies, believe it or not, or one direction. So when our brain tells us to do something, when we launch into that activity, or that behavior, it's going from our brain, down the path, whether it's a physical action, or whether it's an emotional reaction. So I recently had a situation here, one of my weaknesses, I'll admit it here on live camera is that I, I am, I can snap and become, I used to be a very angry person, you wouldn't guess it to know to look at me, you wouldn't know it. But I was very angry inside and a lot of things. And I would snap at my children, and act in ways that were highly unlike myself. Okay. So just about three weeks ago, I had a situation with my oldest daughter, who really triggered me. And I started down the path of the old behaviors that I used to act in. And what's amazing is that I was two thirds of the way through this process. And I had this thought in the back of my mind of like, Oh, no, I've started down this path. I stopped myself. And when in and I finished acting in a very angry unrelational way with my oldest daughter, the current conversation finished, I went back to my bedroom, and my wife came into the bedroom. And she's like, Well, that didn't end well did it? What are you gonna do about it? I said, Yeah,
Unknown Speaker
I know, I said, I, I'm going to go to my daughter. But the other thing is, is I also realize, too, is that my other two children had witnessed all of this as well. And so I went to my daughter, I went to my son, and I went to my youngest daughter, and I apologize to all three of them. And I asked for forgiveness for all three of them. And I said, I recognize I was not acting like my true self. I was angry. And I lashed out. And I asked for forgiveness. And I said, I'm going to keep working on it. And they were all gracious and said, Hey, Dad, we love you. And we, we, we believe the best in you, obviously, so humbled myself asked for forgiveness growing.
Justin Stoddart
We've all had those experiences. I appreciate you sharing and it takes a lot of accountability to do that. Thank you. All right. Let's go to point number three. Yeah, to RETURN TO JOY teaches about that chat.
Chad Krober
Yeah, return to joy. So simply the, how we all know people who wallow in the pit, I mean, they are constantly grumbling about everything. Well, guess what they've wired their brains that way. They have built neural networks into their mind that everything that comes with them, they complain, great, blah, blah, blah. So I'm taking the split second to just say, I am not going to let this get me down. Okay. I had a client here a couple weeks ago, we put together two solid loans, I was like, Oh, this is great. We're going to refinance, he get into a great situation, this is going to be awesome. And the lady comes back five days later and says now I don't want to move forward, we're just going to shut the whole thing down. And part of her decision was because another person had kind of stepped in and interfered with our conversations. And I could just feel myself immediately just becoming irritated and emotionally angry and withdrawn, because of the fact that this other person interfered. And then I just had two transactions go down the tubes because of it. But as I was going through this feeling, mentally and emotionally, I said, You know what, I'm not gonna let this ruin my day, I'm not get a wall in the pit. And I'm not going to. I'm not going to dwell on this, I've got other stuff to do. And there's other great opportunities out there. And so I'm going to move forward, and I'm going to return to joy. And that's really what it boils down to, I'm mentally saying, and turn to joy. Moving on, there's more opportunities out there.
Justin Stoddart
And as soon as you do that, as soon as you make that choice, you open the space for good things to come in, right? Sometimes we hold on to the stuff that happened. And if you held on to that much for much longer, you would have missed out on the great things that were just around the corner, right? You have to create the space for the good things to come. Right?
Justin Stoddart
Correct. You got it. And so, but this is here, here's the other cool thing too. And I think this point is a great point to bring up this whole concept of why this acronym works is that what I have found with our team is that we each have a little canvas on our desks with these four phrases that we're going through. And our team uses them. It's a common tribal language, and when we're dealing with hard things. So we had a prime example where another I had another time where I was griping in my office about something that went down on a loan and one of my teammates, hollered through the office and said, sounds like somebody needs to return to joy. And they called me out on the carpet. And the great part of it is is everyone who heard that other team member yelled at it lighten the mood. And it immediately changed the trajectory of what we were doing. And I let go of it. And we moved on, you know.
Justin Stoddart
Perfect segue into our final point, Chad, take us home here ENDURE HARDSHIP WELL.
Chad Krober
Yes. So, our culture does not know how to do hard things well, plain and simple. You think about many of the people around you, when hard things come at them, they run away, it go the other direction they don't want to lean into when you think about it, how often in our industry Do you have to pick up the phone and make a hard phone call, or you have to send an email that is really not going to be the most positive message that somebody's going to want to hear. And our normal human tendency is we don't want to do those things. Because we don't want to feel the emotional weight that comes back at us. And so by training our brains How to say, I'm going to do a hard thing, we begin to endure it in a manner that is well. And by enduring it well we then do in the model that those around us and they go how we can we can do hard things, we can figure out a way to get through this challenge. And the amazing thing of it is is that the these four components all connect well with each other because when I endure hardship, well that means that I'm remaining relational, it means that I'm acting like my true self. And I'm continually returning to joy when I'm facing hardship in doing it in in a manner that is well. So that's probably it in a nutshell.
Justin Stoddart
I love it, man, this has been this has been really helpful, I think for all of us to get a little bit of a snapshot. Now imagine, imagine taking these principles. First and foremost, let me let me start with this, at some point during this conversation, yeah, everybody listening to this, like me has pictured in their mind breakdowns in their leadership, either in the home or in the workplace or in the community. We've realized, I could have been a lot better in those situations. Now, the reality is the stuff that Chad shared is a great teaser. But this is not enough to rewire your brain, right? This 30 minute episode has not been enough to rewire your brain. You actually need to intentionally spend time getting the tools needed in order to start that process of rewiring. And so again, I want to extend the invitation everybody once again, is that on October 25th, here in the Portland area, there's a free event that Chad is hosting called rare leadership, it goes into depth on these topics. If by chance you're tied up on Friday, there's another opportunity on Saturday. So keep that in mind as well.
Unknown Speaker
Yep, they just need you to go to rareleadership.net and find the events page and they'll find the info there.
Justin Stoddart
There you go readleadership.ne, sign up for it there. Chad, this has been amazing content. I'm super grateful for you. I want to end with with the signature question of the show. You're a big thinker, you've done some incredible things, both in the in the workplace, you you know, amongst your team and your customers, both in your home and raising a great family and in the community. I know you're a leader in the community, as well. What does a guy like you continue to do to be a big thinker to continue to expand your own possibilities? Teach us if you wouldn't mind?
Chad Krober
Yeah. You know, I think the number one thing for me in learning how to, I guess think bigger is setting aside time to evaluate and look at behaviors and actions and things that I'm doing and saying, "Okay, what are areas that I need to grow in emotional maturity?" Because if we don't stop and take the time, because I honestly, if you think about it, a lot of what our culture does, is our culture reacts. And we as humans, when we stop and look in the mirror, mostly the time we don't like what we see, that's that's the normal tendency. And the irony of it is, is that we have to stop and look in the mirror, because that's the only way we're going to grow and by learning how to stop and look in the mirror and go, alright, what's got to change what's got to grow, what's got to modify, that's ultimately going to set you up for those opportunities where you can begin to say, "Okay, this is where I can begin to think bigger, in whatever area of my life that I'm trying to make a difference."
Justin Stoddart
I love that create the space for introspection.
Chad Krober
You got to.
Justin Stoddart
This event on the 25th is going to be a prime opportunity for people to do that. Anybody that wants to, again, improve their leadership, even if that's just improve the quantity of your sales. Again, sales is leadership, you're leading your customers. Whether that be scaling a team, whether that be being a better parent, or a better community leader. This is going to be an amazing event. And I hope everybody takes this seriously and comes and joins us. So Chad, thank you again, for all that you've contributed to the audience today. I'm excited to be a part of this event. It's going to be fantastic. There's so many things I'm going to learn from it. And I also want to end with this charge everybody who's listening today. Chad has helped make this easier through what he shared today. But my my final request of all of us are three simple words which are GO THINK BIGGER. Thank you Chad, want to thank you again for your time and we will talk soon my friend
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. A quick reminder, if you have clients that are looking to move to Portland, Oregon, please reach out to me, I'm not a licensed real estate agent, but I do know the best here in town, and I would be happy to make an introduction for you. So let me begin by saying first and foremost, Erik hatch, thank you for coming on the show today.
Erik Hatch
Ah, Justin, my man, if I'm here for the second time, it means I wasn't terrible the first time. So glad to be back.
Justin Stoddart
It's a pleasure, man. I'll tell you what, for those that don't know, Eric, his team is the 49th highest producing real estate team in the country. They sold 664 homes in 2018 and are getting after it again in 2019. And amidst all of that, the you know, one of the my favorite things about you, Eric, is that a lot of really high producing teams, you walk into their office, and there's listings all over the place. There's goals and metrics. As you know, these thermometers have Are we almost there, describe to the audience what is on your wall, in kind of one of your conference rooms?
Erik Hatch
Well, our goal is to create champions with what we do. And so of course, we do have some things up there that that are tracking, we believe in scorecards comes from the four Disciplines of Execution, which has been a great book in our world. But what's the main thing in our training room is over the whiteboard that says we're in the business of helping people, we just happen to sell real estate. And then on our back wall, what I've done is I've taken a picture of every person's family or pets, whatever they deem most important to them. And we have that up in our training room as a reminder and as the constant watchers of what we do and how we do it. So we make sure that we're consistently serving instead of being selfish.
Justin Stoddart
And it's so consistent with what what this is all about, right is that even the think bigger real estate show, it's about thinking bigger than real estate, the real estate can be a vehicle through which you can bless the serve a lot of people I know you, Eric, you even had a passion, one point in your life, to be part of the ministry. But you felt like you're called to serve through real estate, also impacting people's lives and deep and meaningful ways. Talk to us a little bit about how that came about.
Erik Hatch
Well, I still feel like I'm in a service based ministry-esque kind of environment. Ministry, for me was what I did right out of college, it was the best job you could ever have. That doesn't pay you well at all. And I was in the ministry, I did youth ministry and lead worship for about eight years, built some nonprofit movements throughout the community as well and was just fired up about it. But I needed to take better care of my family. And what it came down to was and my wife and I desperately want to kids. In fact, my son Simon is in the room right now. He's three and just had his tonsils taken up this last week. So he may jump on camera and say what's up. But we wanted so desperately to have kids and we ran into major infertility. And the only way I could be a dad was if I was able to fund it. And the other way I could fund it was not by working at a nonprofit. But by working in real estate, I was selling real estate part time. And I needed that financial acumen in order to really be a dad. Now I have two kids, my daughter spent almost my daughter Finley is almost five, my son Simon just turned three. And I am just saying smiling from ear to ear with where we're going.
Justin Stoddart
You know, it's really fun to see somebody like you who's who has a heart like that, that was willing to at one point, you know, work for not much money, but just to impact but then you realize how much more impact can one have? When you take you know, you take that hard and put it into a you know, a business that can impact even more people. And I see your beautiful son right here on the candidate. Let's introduce him this is Simon
Erik Hatch
Simon Simon, Can you say hi? No, gotta be shy.
Justin Stoddart
Simon, it is a pleasure to have you on the think bigger real estate show my friend. You know what a lot of what we do Simon is is is for people like you it's to inspire the next generation inspire all of us to be a little bit more like you
Erik Hatch
He's not listening. But I am.
Justin Stoddart
Thanks for making a guest appearance, Simon. So let's jump into again, your book, right. So you have this heart to, to serve people to be a servant leader, you realize that real estate is the vehicle through which you can do that and provide you for your family in the way that you want to. Let's talk a little bit about how the book came to be.
Erik Hatch
You know, I'll hold it up here so people can see it's like, it's like a double twin with me right here, I'll just try to shade some of my face as well. So I'll just match it. It's called play for the person next to you a guide to servant leadership. And it had been on my heart to write a book for probably five or six years. There's this interesting thing that happens, Justin, when you decide to write a book, because what you're doing is you're saying, I'm an expert in something. And I actually don't think of myself as an expert, I think of myself as a student. And I have studied leadership. And what happened was, I got into real estate full time from the ministry in 2011. I built a team in 2012, and the beginning of 2013, everything crashed down on me, I failed. So tremendously, I got kicked out of the brokerage that I was at, I went from a team of 13 people down to a two team of three people, myself and to others. Overnight, I invited everybody on the team to come with and nobody said yes, except for two of them. And I realized that I was chasing transactions. And I was failing to think about transformation. It was all about me instead of all about we. And so I buckled down and I put my head down and I said, Eric, you are you are still that servant that you were made to be. And I had really lost that my first couple years of jumping into the for profit lifestyle. I was chasing things that were empty promises, and they really weren't life giving. I think things like this, I think of the idea of profit. And if you ask most people, what's the purpose of business people will say, profit. But I think that that's is maybe foundational is saying that the purpose of life is breathing. It's absolutely essential to what you're doing. But it's not the purpose, the purpose of businesses not profit, the purpose of business is to live out your purpose. And to make it difference, just like the purpose of your life is not breathing, but it's to serve. And in fact, that work has already been set aside for you to do. And so I've made the conscious decision from six years ago that I was going to restart. And at that time, I recognize what I'm saying is maybe a little bit different than what the main stream of business and real estate is saying. And so from that, God put it on my heart to write a book and I didn't know what it was going to look like. And I didn't know when I was going to write it. But I finally said enough is enough enough about talking about your dreams and said start actually acting on them. And so here I am now, six years later, and I have my first book in my hand.
Justin Stoddart
Talk to us about the process of writing a book. Was it as challenging as many people say?
Erik Hatch
It sucks. I don't know how else to spin it. It is not a sexy thing by any means. I worked with a publishing company out of Charleston, South Carolina called advantage. And so I went went out to I went up to Charleston for a couple of days. We laid out the book what we thought it would be like I met with all these advisors and learned about the process. From there. I spent about four months working with a ghostwriter. It wasn't me writing it, it was me telling the story. And then the ghostwriter would trim the fat of a certain bring back the chapters for me to edit. the editing process took so much time, but the actual speaking of the book boy, I probably I probably spewed out things for 20 or 25 hours and called it good.
Justin Stoddart
It's a powerful thing to have to go through that process. I say that because I'm in the process of writing a book right now.
Erik Hatch
Are you writing it yourself or working with a ghostwriter?
Justin Stoddart
It's not a ghostwriter. I have an editor that accompanies me every week. And we go through and review the work that I've done based on an outline that we created together. The only time I can do it to where I have complete blank space to focus this from four to six o'clock morning. And so yeah, it's been it's been a little tough. I'm a little more sleepy and the kind of late evenings that I'd like to be. But it's, it's it's an amazing process at the same time. And you can probably attest to this, because it causes you to really have to refine your thoughts and your stories to make them both entertaining, as well as you know, very advantageous. So I admire you for doing it, I haven't done it yet. I'm trying to do it. I'm attempting to do it, I intend to do it. But I admire you that you've done it. And it's it looks like an amazing, amazing rate. I'm so excited to actually get into more of it.
Erik Hatch
Thanks. Nobody's told me it stinks yet. So I think I'm onto a good track there. There's this interesting thing, and you're going to learn it is I'm a speaker. And that's what I do most naturally, I love having a microphone in my hand and one of those second people and that sort of way. You know, when I speak, I get instant feedback from people, you can see the whites of their eyes, the smiles on their faces, the energy that comes from my communication. So it's pretty great. And when you write a book, and you put it out there, all of a sudden, you wonder, okay, Justin has my book. He hasn't said anything yet. He hasn't read it. So why hasn't he read it? Why doesn't he think it's good enough? Read? Is it this book number 12? Do you just humor me in buying the book? No, he has read it. But he hasn't told me that what he thinks about it yet? Like, Oh, my gosh, why hasn't he give me any feedback, you must think it's terrible. And I'm just like, in my own head. Because I'm a super high I unapologetically. And I'm looking around being like, well, somebody, please tell me I'm pretty. That's all I want. And with the book, what I realized is, the goal was not to have everybody Tell me, you wrote a fantastic book, The goal was to dream big, and to take a step. And even if it's not a 10 out of 10, I'm very confident in the book I wrote, I feel like there's some huge nuggets, if you're in business, in general, there's going to be some big takeaways for you. But the actual success of it for me is not in the number sales I have, or the number of people that give me out of boys instead is figuring out what I'm dreaming and actually acting on it. Because that for me is the momentum I need to get to where I want to go.
Justin Stoddart
For you articulated that so well. That it really doesn't matter what the outcome is. It's the it's the growth that happens to you along the process, the clarity of your mission as to how you can best serve the world. And I'm I'm impressed by what you shared right there. What are some key takeaways, Eric, that people are going to love about the book that you want to kind of whet their appetite a little bit as far as what it's going to teach them? What are people going to get? How are they gonna become better by reading a book.
Erik Hatch
I think the the final chapter, the final notes, is the summation of the entire book, and I talked about the idea of crossing your arms. And I think most of us cross our arms like this. And we live so tightly wound that we don't really let anybody in. And my faith tells me to cross my arms like this, right. But the idea is, if we're going to cross our arms like this, these hands have to be doing something. One hand is for serving. And I think that most people can hear servant leadership. And if they're going to buy the book, they probably subscribe to that idea. Or they're one of my family members looking to humor. But I think that most people are like, yes, I'm buying a book because it already aligns with my level of thinking, servant leadership. But if you're going to be balanced, like if you if you're walking a tightrope, and if you're walking a tightrope, your arms are out like this, right? You can't walk a tightrope like this. And the higher you go, the more pressure that comes on you. More important it is in your life to have balance. And the balance is one of these arms is serving and taking care of other people. But the other one means you have to let other people take care of you. In our organization, we've claimed to be one of the top 50 Real Estate teams in the country, and exceedingly fast amounts of time. And we've done so because we've figured out that balance piece we have integrated into our system, and our organization checks and balances and ways in which we can make sure that we're creating champions out of people. And we've curated an environment where we're, we're talking about the tough stuff, and we're letting other people into our world into our lives, so that we can climb higher and higher and higher.
Justin Stoddart
And one of the things that I admire, I see a lot of people struggle at building a real estate team or any team in general. And I think especially in the world of real estate, you have a lot of entrepreneurial minded people who go into real estate in order to be in business for themselves. And then they're presented with the case of being a part of a team. And it's like, wait a minute I, I got into business, not to work for somebody, but to be part of a team. And I always admire those teams that succeed, because what it tells me is that those people that have built that team and built that platform for others to rise upon have done, done so in such a way that people realize that they're going to get farther in life by being on that team than being by themselves. And that their brand is improved upon by having their brand associated with hatch Realty, for example, than by just having their own brand. And it's a great testament to what you guys have built and what you are teaching in the book is that you've built something that's not about building a statue to Eric hatch, right? This isn't about building you. And I hear that everything that you say that you know, what you've written, and the team that you've built. That's, that's people like Robbie, that are that are deeply committed to this cause that it's much bigger than you this is a cause this is about making them champions not making us like champion, right?
Erik Hatch
Yeah, Ziglar says you can have everything in life, you want to be helping others get what they want. And for me, I live in abundance every day. Now there's this divine irony that happens in our world, and that is my name and my face or on everything. It's it's actually royalty, and it's my face on every sign and hatches my last name. And so I think of myself like Colonel Sanders, you know, I may be created the recipe, but I'm not in the kitchen anymore, and I don't deserve any other credit. And so my job as a leader is to shine a light on everybody else, the best leaders take all the blame and give all the credit. And my hope is to figure out what it is that people want in their world, what makes them come alive, and to create an environment that allows them to do that? You know, we have, we have a company, we're birthing here very soon. And it's a spin off, we have an agent who's climbing and climate and climate in our world for the last five years, and has hit a point that is usually the flight mentality for people. A lot of real estate teams exists. And like once people get to like right here, they abandon it, and they say this team won't serve me anymore. In our world, our folks have climbed all the way up to here and here and we have a guy named Kyle who's climbed up to here, he's doing 40 sphere deals a year, plus another 50 or 60, from the team. So closing 100 transactions and 40 of those from his sphere, annually. amazing success for this young man, he's 29 years old, and he should be leaving, according to what real estate team says he should be leaving. And instead, we're building another business together. And we're chasing down the dream, we're figuring out how he can not just have the abundance of money, but instead we want to create real wealth in his world. That's the right culture. That's the right time in his life. And that's an abundance of resources. And that includes money.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I find that the best leaders, like you said, live in abundance, and they realize, like, if I want to stay in business with top talent, I'm going to have to think a little bit different and have to think a little bit bigger, I'm gonna have to create a world big enough to where they can build their empire on my soil. Right? And it sounds like that's what you've done here. And it's not a one size fits all right? Sometimes you get a talented person that doesn't fit the mold. And you have to you have to you have to be a little bit creative to say how can how can I continue to be in business with this person as opposed to just being a part of their past? How can I continue to be a part of their present a part of their future, and and help them get to where they want to go even faster? Even better, because we're in partnership, as opposed to just saying, hey, it's been great. Thanks for all the lessons. Thanks for everything. Let's be friends. Yeah,
Erik Hatch
I hear my son pouring some water that has me freaked out here without a mess to clean up. And this is done.
Justin Stoddart
Well, we can about wrap it up here. So I want to thank you. For what shared how do people get their hands on the book, Erik.
Unknown Speaker
You know, if you go to hatchingleaders.com, again, I put my name on everything. So if you're going to hatchingleaders.com, you can pick up your own copy of Play for the Person Next to You. They're wonderful stocking stuffers for Christmas. We actually we have a lot of real estate teams buying this for other team members. There's 12 chapters. So they're doing book studies of it. And we're just excited to have it as a part of people's worlds
Justin Stoddart
Hatching leaders, I love it. We'll put that in the show notes and invite everybody to go get a copy, it's going to make you a better person, a better parent, a better business entrepreneur, a better leader. I'm, I'm excited for people to get their hands on it. I want to end with this this question. Eric, you've been asked a question before, I'm asked you again, which is, you know, you are a big thinker. You are constantly expanding your own possibilities, as well as the possibilities of other people. How do you continue to do that, what's advice you can give to this audience that will help all of us continue to be big thinkers to continue our own big thinking?
Erik Hatch
I just wrote out a 1-3-5 for my life, one objective three steps to get there and five sub-steps that will help me do it. And I revisit that every couple of months. And I cast a really big vision to figure out where I want to go. I think that we often overestimate where we can get in one year and underestimate where we can get in five or 10. And so if I'm thinking big enough and long enough, I'm going to make sure that I'm continuing to make sure that the steps today are going to get me wherever want to go tomorrow. And so I'm not thinking about tomorrow, I'm thinking about five years from now, and reverse engineering that back.
Justin Stoddart
And that's a powerful practices. I know it's that time of year, especially for those that are in real estate. And even for those that are not aware, October 1 is really January 1. Jay Papasan said that recently on a webinar that I listened to, yeah, and it's, although people think of business planning is something they do between Christmas and New Year's, the results that you're going to get in January, are because of activities you're going to do starting this week and so I think it's essential that all of us take heed to that and say, what is it that I want to be creating, not just for 2020, but for five years out. It's powerful man, super powerful. Anyway, for those of you again, who who have not had a chance to get their hands on Erik's book, and go to hatchingleaders.com, you can get a copy of it there. I'll be the first one I guarantee after the show to go get it. But I want to thank you, Erik, despite being at home, attending to those things that are most important, potentially having some water damage in the background while you've been on the show. I want to thank you for coming on the show today. I want to do one final charge to everybody listening with your three simple words. And they are Go Think Bigger. Eric, thank you so much for helping us do that today. It's a total honor to have you as a friend and I'm excited about what you're doing.
Erik Hatch
You the man Justin, thank you very much for the opportunity.
Justin Stoddart
My pleasure, man. Talk to you soon!
Justin Stoddart
Hello, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart, and I'm fired up about today's episode. It is so relevant in this era of iBuyers, this era of fast technology in service based industries and we're going to talk all about how to build and maintain relationships amidst the technological world in which we live. And before I introduce today's guest, who is amazing, by the way, let me start by reminding you the purpose of this show, which is to help you think bigger. By putting you in contact with people like today's guests, your thoughts, start to expand your actions, follow your results, follow that and even more importantly, your impact follows. And my passion is to help inspire you to live a life of greater impact. So if you're looking for show notes, including from today's episode, as well as this week's things that you may have missed and may not want to miss, go to thinkbigger.real estate and there you will find the ability to sign up for a weekly summary. It hits your inbox every Saturday morning, when you can be sitting in an open house, reviewing best practices and helping expand your own thinking. So with that, let me introduce today's guest, Greg Gale, he's out of Scottsdale, Arizona, he's with mobile home loans. He's also a core coach. For those of you that are familiar with the core, those guys don't screw around, they get after it. They help consumers in really big way. And they they build an amazing businesses. So Greg, thank you for coming on the show today. It's a total pleasure to have you here.
Greg Gale
Hey, thanks for having me. I love the title. First of all, just think bigger. It's just a great way to stay growth minded. But I appreciate your time and appreciate being invited on the show.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, for sure. So Greg and I are fortunate to have a common connection, Stacey dearth with whom I get to work. She was in Arizona did some great things down there. And now she's up here doing some great things. So thanks to you, Stacy, for making the introduction, Greg. And I didn't realize it at the time. But we were at an event in Dallas in early August, learning from a gentleman who's who's very intense. And he's intense about helping people build great businesses. And one of the things that stood out to me in that meeting is he said, If you as professionals are doing so everything through technology, then you deserve to be replaced by these online companies, that it requires you to be face to face and voice to voice with your customers. Otherwise, why do they need you? Greg, talk to us a little bit about how you've done that in your business. In this like leveraging technology as opposed to completely outsourcing these relationships to technology.
Unknown Speaker
I love how you put that you know a lot of people miss misconstrue that where technology is bad because if you outsource it, you disconnect yourself from the consumer. Yet if you embrace it and leverage it, you can actually make more connections with the consumer. So an outsourcing to me is you know, a here's a list and we're going to automate it and this company will take care of it. Or they're going to get calls from some of the text messages from a bot of some sort. Versus you picking up the phone you texting them, you engaging with a call to action to stay in front of your clientele your consumers. But yeah, so the event we did in Dallas the mega same, I was up on stage coaching the elbows wide open houses and going to open houses to visit the realtors. Because a lot of time realtors are virtual, they're not in offices anymore. So you got to get face to face and belly to belly with them. And just like Rick said, Man, to have an impact on people, you've got to be face to face with them. Now a way to leverage technology might be like this, like you shoot a, a webinar of some sort or a podcast or a video out to your database to stay connected with them, you pick up the phone and call them and you have a system to stay in touch with them very much a process driven, you know, you have to have it as a process where it's like a checklist. And it's I'm reaching out to them four times a year, here's how I'm doing it. Maybe you leverage a mail house to send out a mailer to have, but you're following up with a phone call to check in with them, invite them to some big client party.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, unless it gets personal, I think people are quick to dismiss it. I know I had a real kind of rude awakening here. You know, one of my very favorite clients told me she said, Look, we see you all the time digitally. But we don't see you as often as we'd like to see you in person. And it's caused me to make some adjustments. And I'm in the process of hiring an assistant to where all the post production work of this show can be done by somebody else. So that I have the ability to take the valuable network and connections that I have with people like you the knowledge that I'll get from this episode, and then go be super valuable to them in a one on one. Consult with them. And I think you know, the air that I had made is that thinking that that by simply broadcasting to people that that was enough, and it's not. There has to be a personal component. You have to, like connect with people in person or the stuff that you do digitally. People are quick to dismiss, have you found something similar to that great,
Unknown Speaker
Absolutely. And sometimes they feel that since they're not seeing you, they just assume you're so busy, because they'll see your podcast and they see your posts, and then they see you checking in somewhere and then you're traveling and like they're so busy in that they don't want to send your business, oh, they're, they're good enough. They're doing well, let me just give it to the new guy that keeps coming face to face and seeing me and offering me value. So you got to stay in touch. And to keep that loyal connection. The challenge that I find is that you have a lot of these relationships, you've got to leverage it a little bit too. So to have maybe a Hangout at your house really like guys, we're having Monday Night Football at my house who wants to come? Right? Or, hey, we're going to have cooking classes, and we're going to rotate through a chain of houses, we have a bunch of people that we just rotate houses. Or like when I do my client stuff, it's big client parties, we have November 22 is the frozen premiere. So we rent out a movie theater, it's 280 people, and I'll have my past clients invited to come and let's just hang out watch movie, we'll hang up before we'll hang out after. And then they'll appreciate it as we roll into these holiday season I giveaway. Last year, I think we were at a couple hundred pumpkin and apple pies the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. And they come to the office and they set a time to come in and the teams here we just hang out and just talk with them.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I think when you couple those kinds of touches both one on one small groups, as well as even large events like you've described, it just gives impacts, all of a sudden your email comes through or your video comes across their social media thread. If there has been no personal contact, they'll swipe right by it right, they'll delete the email, because because they don't feel that that they matter to you. Right, you're speaking to the masses, not to them. I know for me, I clean out my inbox very, very quickly doesn't matter how beautiful somebody drip campaign has been crafted how how beautiful the HTML features are in that drip campaign. If I haven't heard from that person, or or that email isn't laser specific to what I'm looking for that day, it gets deleted, sorry, friends, if you're in that grew, whereas if somebody if I've had a personal contact with somebody, their email doesn't even necessarily need to be that relevant, I still open it and at least keep it longer and interact with it. Because of the fact that now there's a personal relationship. So because I know that that person cares about me, and there's a personal relationship, I'm more inclined to hear what they have to say. And I think that's where, again, where a lot of us make a mistake, it sounds like you've you've taken steps to not only do that in your own business, but to coach other people to do the same. So that you keep from falling into that same trap where it's all digital, and it's no, it's no, you know, face to face,
Unknown Speaker
One hundred percent. And you know, look, there's a, there's a, there's a happy medium in there too. But you got to use the phone calls, like the number one leveraged activity is literally the phone because I can make way more phone calls than I can make face to faces. But you have to do both. And a very simple system that we teach at the core and it's in other coaching systems to it's called the letter of the week. So if there's 26 letters and how many weeks in a year, Justin 52 equals 26 times I can hit them twice. And I've had that question where someone's like, 50 and I'm like, okay, it's okay, it's it's 50. Right? So you have 26 letters, 52 weeks, so if I call all the eight clients the first week of January, pick a time block out an hour or to call everyone with the last name a the apple woods, right the Apache Hey, and then be Burberry Blackberry. Hey, Mister, mister Boston guy, right? And that's the day right. But by the end by June 30, you've called everyone in your database, and you've made a connection with them, whether it's voicemail, or you've actually got to talk with them. And it could be someone you you helped get a house three years ago? Hey, it's been like three years. So I haven't been in touch How you been? Yeah, me? How's the kids? Right? How's the job? What are you doing these days, I just make a connection with it. But if I do it, and then do it again, July 1, that whole week, you gotta block out two hours, hit all the A's again, how you been, it's been like six months. If you have a good CRM, or just an Excel spreadsheet, you keep really good notes. But that's two guaranteed touches. If you throw in their birthday, and you throw in the anniversary date that they closed on the house that you got them the house, that's four touches a year to your entire database, I guarantee you will increase your closings now, I'll give you a statistic because I tracked it. I went from 16 closings in one year 84 closings The next year, just by doing the letter of the week with the anniversary and the birthday call.
Justin Stoddart
And that's powerful. So let's talk about that mean, if if the only thing that people took away from this episode, were was that they're going to start doing this, let's talk about step number one is that they need to have some database where they can at least alphabetically sorted, right, even if it's an Excel spreadsheet, even if it's in your phone folks, like there's really no excuse to not be doing this. Your phone is the lowest common denominator of a database. I hope you have something a little more complex than that. But if you don't, you can still apply this right, open up your phone this week is going right call the A's and B's this week, right? I mean, is it that simple.
Greg Gale
It's that simple, I'll tell you, you know, you can plug in your phone and put it in Excel or just open up Excel and export the database in there. But somehow get it to excel because that's the easiest one. later on. We can talk CRM and that kind of stuff. But it was it's in there. It's sort by last name. And now I just start called the next step. So step one, get it somewhere, get it into Excel, or sort your database by last letter. Now, step number two is to block out one hour in your calendar, maybe to just to get going and have that as one day a week. At the core we pick Thursday is past client day. So on Thursday, you bought two hours. That way, every Thursday, you're coming and going, I'm going to call my past clients today. It's this letter of the Week today.
Justin Stoddart
Super simple, right? And I think a lot of times people think well, I'll start doing that as soon as I get my new CRM setup. And I'm not sure which CRM I'm going to use it I'm researching them is they're just excuses. Right? I mean, the I think if we recognize the opportunity cost of delaying, it would make us probably throw up. I mean, if we realized like by not making those calls, how many people you're not helping how many people are ending up in the hands of either a bad loan officer or a bad real estate agent and you're missing out on a sizable commission by not helping those people you'd probably like quickly be like I cannot afford to not start today.
Unknown Speaker
Well every one of those calls you make between now and the end of the year and when you get someone that says oh yeah, I do need to move between before the end of the year yeah, we do want to do something the beginning of 2020 that's someone that was going to call somebody else go online get grabbed by somebody else little pixels and get pounded with retargeting, and they were going to call them
Justin Stoddart
Whereas it could have been you could have been very relational could have been a great experience you could have been impacted their life in other ways beyond just the transaction. But we all put myself in that category we missed out because we were procrastinating the delay and that will will start that soon as we get this in place and guess what? This is like Anjana never comes yeah well
Unknown Speaker
Look if you're in real estate, you know a lot of people so when I'm making these calls, okay, Do you need anything around the house landscaper housekeeper roofer we just had a bunch of rain the other desert Hey, you need the roof guy. I was literally in my yard picking up nails and little pieces of tile because the rain like pounded on my roof. Hey, did you have anything like that happen? I'm good. Are you? Oh my god. Yeah. Do you have a good guy? No. Do you have a landscaper though? Because mine's a little flooded in the back? Yeah, sure. Like, you know, a handyman, you know, housekeeper you know house cleaner. Like you know, all those people offer it to them. Nothing in it for me, they know what I do. So if I'm just coming, like you said, there's a value void out there. I'm going to bring the value by being the connector.
Justin Stoddart
The way that we got on that topic for those that are wonder where that term came from. I said, you know, in my industry title and escrow industry feel like there's been a severe value void, is that my industry shows up as customer service representatives. least they're showing up, right? Which is a start, they're showing up saying let me get you labels. Let me get you postcards. Let me get you lyst. Like I spoke with an agent yesterday, she said, Justin, it's incessant still, even to this day, and I'm like still to this day. That's what they're talking about. Wow. Like that. There's a value void there. And so I'm speaking to my industry. And this isn't every rep buddy. Right? But But like, it's right now we're at a point in time when consumers are questioning the value of using a real estate agent. They're there. As a result of the massive amounts of money that's being spent by these tech behemoths. Right? consumers are having to ask themselves the question, is it a worthwhile investment to use a real estate agent? So in other words, real estate agents are having to raise the bar their own value? loan officers, the same thing? People are asking, should I just go online and do it? Right, ready, hit right mortgage more? Or is it worthwhile to go to a professional as those of us that support these industries, we have to raise the bar as well. We can't be just pushing postcards and lists and friendly pop buys. Like it's got to be more than that. We have to be knowledge workers. We all of us live in a knowledge economy right now. And if we're leading with just friendliness, yes, friendliness needs to be a part of that. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we all need to be jerks. But in addition to being friendly, we actually have to bring real value that moves the needle. And I know you feel that way very much, Greg. Hence, the reason why you built a great business is built on value.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And you make great points like and the thing is, is people are looking looking for the information. So they're going to go online, they're going to talk about it little Alexa is going to pick up on it and start retargeting again, that's that technology out there. But you need to be putting out the content to your past clients, those leads that are in the system that haven't connected, or maybe they're just kind of warm. And yeah, beginning of 2020 with 13 people reply to my last video on Wednesday saying, Yeah, we're going to wait till the beginning of the year. So great. So now I'm just giving them content like what to think about as you purchase in 2020. There's a video about a wealth workshop, how to save money until you do that, how to increase your credit score before you would apply for a loan, like push out information, top six thing you should do before you list the house. If I'm a realtor, I'm thinking what are the questions that the consumers thinking that I need to just push out on video content, YouTube and Facebook and IG TV and have out there on the web. So when they do go out for Information Technology, it gets them. And then there's a hard call that call for a complimentary consultation, I'll walk you through what this looks like, no obligation. That's what they want. They want convenience, they want no obligation, they want information.
Justin Stoddart
And again, circling back to where we started is that unless you've made a personal contact with these people, you likely won't even show up in their feeds. Or if you do, they'll score right on by it. So these phone calls that we're making, to make the personal connection, right, this a reminder for me, and all of us we need to get better at this is that once we make that personal connection, all of a sudden people care what we're talking about, right? Otherwise, if it's just that, you know, I've had to learn this lesson the hard way, if it's just that people don't listen, right, they're not gonna listen to talk forever, because they don't feel like you actually are invested in their success.
Unknown Speaker
Correct? Yeah. And that's through you listening to them. That's how they know that they feel cared for. And when you when they feel heard, and they deliver on whatever they needed. That's where that connection really goes even deeper. Yeah,
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Awesome stuff, man. Greg, it's no wonder why you're a coach, why you're not only a top producer, but inspiring other people to do the same thing. It's been a total pleasure having you here on the think bigger real estate show I want to end with, with this signature question that I asked everybody that comes on the show. And it's, it's frankly, it's probably with my favorite part of the day because it helps expand my own thinking. And that's this question, Greg. You're a big thinker. That's why you're here. What do you What does? What does Greg do to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your own possibilities? What do you do? Please teach us?
Greg Gale
That's a good one. So I hang out with bigger thinkers. So and I know it sounds like a really easy, yes, answer. But if I hang out with people that aren't thinking bigger, that are just in the redundancy of everything they do every day, and not thinking like that, they have a five year vision that not only drives them, but pulls them there, and then that they're planning towards that vision. And if they're not, it's not like I can't hang out with the person that doesn't have the big vision. But I purposely want to be around five to 10 people on a regular basis that have big visions, because that will fuel me to want to do even more like that guy's thinking even bigger than I am. That guy was doing big things, because she has a 10 year vision, I need to now do a 10 year vision.
Justin Stoddart
I love it, it really doesn't make an impact, doesn't it that that phrase of, you're the sum average of the five people you spend the most time with. It's amazing how when you when you're hanging around small thinkers, even just for a little bit, it impacts you. And, and you get around people me right now being around you is inspiring me to think bigger, and I'm sure I can speak on behalf of the audience. They feel the same way. So thank you been a great answer. Thanks for being on the show today. Thanks for doing what you're doing and making an impact in a lot of people's lives. I'm excited to have the think bigger real estate audience be introduced to you.
Greg Gale
Appreciate it. Thank you very much. You bet
Justin Stoddart
And everybody. My final request, which you're used to hearing are three simple words. And that they are Go Think Bigger. So appreciate it again, Greg, thanks for your time, and we'll be in touch.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart. Are real estate teams good for real estate or not? Today's episode is going to be all about that. I have with me today, somebody who is a proponent of teams and doing some amazing things. His name is Christopher Watters. He's been on the show before and I'm excited to have him back. Christopher, thanks for being here. I'm excited to delve into this topic with you.
Christopher Watters
Yeah, me too. Justin. Excited to be on your show again.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, thank you for coming back. For those that don't know, Christopher, his background, he's in eight locations across the US and Canada. His hub where his main business is based out of, is Austin, Texas. He's got a real estate brokerage there. He's author of Million Dollar Real Estate Team. So he has not only written about it, but he's done it, which is impressive. For those of you who are maybe tuning in to the show for the first time, or haven't been listening for a while, I want to restate the purpose of this entire show, is that when you are around big thinkers, guess what, your thoughts expand, your actions follow suit and pretty soon your impact also follow suit. My passion is to help people realize the divine potential within them and to begin to live up to their potential, impacting the world in great ways. So I'm excited to have Christopher on here today, because whether or not you agree with with his view on teams, the fact is, the guy's a big thinker, and he's going to influence you to make a bigger impact in your world. So again, thank you again for being here.
Christopher Watters
Yeah, so I mean, something I was telling you earlier you was when I got started building real estate team full time in 2010. And I went and paid and went through every coaching program imaginable. Like I've paid all the coaches, I've been through all the different coaching programs, and they were all amazing, like I learned so much. Going through all these coaching programs, I always say like one of the secrets or one of the shortcuts to like growing super fast is not trying to reinvent the wheel and go learn from somebody that's already done it. I was watching Shark Tank back in 2010. And Damon john on Shark Tank said pioneers get slaughtered and settlers prosper. And I was really frustrated with my growth. Like I wasn't, you know, selling as many homes as I wanted. And I heard him say that on Shark Tank. And I'm like, I'm like, Man, what, why am I trying to be innovative and all this stuff, like I don't have hundreds of millions of dollars, like, you know, these big tech companies, right? Like I'm bootstrapping and putting money on a credit card and just trying to you know, scrounge up enough money to pay for lead gen and all that kind of stuff. And so I was like, there has, there's obviously lots of people that have come before me super successful. So anyways, I got involved in coaching and like really radically changed my world, because I've learned from people that are already figured it out. And in 2013, I kind of hit a brick wall. Between January and June of 2013, I went on 267 listing appointments, my my title rep love to me, by the way. So I hit this brick wall, I was literally drinking so much Red Bull, and like Monster Energy and going from 6am till two o'clock in the morning. And when I you know, when I first got started in real estate, like, you know, I wanted all the fancy cars and fancy house and all that stuff. But the real reason I really wanted to make a lot of money was you know, I remember as a little kid, always feel like I needed to prove myself because, you know, I had a lot of like academically driven people in my family. And but none of them were entrepreneurs, like they were all like success successful in their own right. Never made a ton of money, though, but they're very academically driven. And my mom was a nurse, so I didn't have a lot of money grown up. And so I ever since I was a little kid, I always felt like I had something to prove. And so I had this big goal. By the time I hit 30, I wanted a million bucks, but it wasn't really about the money, it was just trying to, you know, gain the respect of my family and the people around me. And so and I made that happen in 2013. But I did it at the expense of realizing that what I was chasing the North Star I was chasing, like making all this money going on tons of appointments, which is like what everybody thinks they should be doing, right? Like I got there to the nth degree. And I was like, Man, this is not like, this is not what I thought it was like, have you ever have you ever had that happen? Where like the North Star didn't end up being a North Star?
Justin Stoddart
I have. Absolutely--I think all the way back to high school. You know, this is probably the first example. My wife actually hates this story, so if she's watching this, she's gonna probably chime in. She hates it when I share this story. But from a very early age, I realized that at outer or outside things couldn't make me happy because I had poured my entire heart and soul into football. We were state champions, you know, two of my three years at that particular high school, and I remember as a junior holding the championship trophy over my head and I'm like, I'm still not happy. Like, what? Why is this not more exciting to me right now. I had the whole town there, cheering me on and although, you know, I've had a number of experiences since then that have have kind of reinforced that lesson. That was the earliest that I remember that trophies don't make you happy, right? They don't, they don't fix what's what needs to be fixed inside. I think that's really everything from, you know, relationships to spirituality. There are some things that really do fix the inside and then once that foundations in place, then you can go create some great things and impact a lot of people but it's got to start at the foundation.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, man, I couldn't agree more. I I so the thing was, is like I realized in December 2013, I was on that transaction, treadmill, and I got the trophy, and it wasn't fulfilling. And I was like, man, there's gotta there's gotta be more, right. And so number one, like I didn't have a lot of time, you know, just like I couldn't, you know, even with the money I had made, I couldn't spend it because I'm working seven days a week. And it wasn't, you know, I was I remember reading a book by Robert Kiyosaki called Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And there was this quadrant, and he said, top left is an employee. Bottom left is the self employed, and the top rights and business owner. And in the bottom right quadrant was an investor. And he said, the difference between an employee and somebody self employed versus being on the right side, is if you're a business owner and investor, you don't trade time for money. And so after going through all these coaching programs, something I realized those and they're all amazing, like, I highly recommend all of them. But the thing that I realized is, there's very, you know, there's very few people that actually help you go from owning a job being self employed to actually owning a business. And very few people actually make that transition and legitimately have like a business that can operate without them. And so I spent the next two years trying to, you know, figure that out. And I remember in 2015, looking at my tax return, and I had broke a net income, like I literally paid taxes on a million dollars. And like, I felt like I had found the gold underneath the Rainbow Bridge, you know what I mean? Like I was, it was like one of these things where I was like, I felt like I had this, this moral obligation to like, share with the world how I did this. Because I didn't go on it, I didn't work with a single client from June of 2013, to 2015. and was able to make even more money in a single year than I had made my first three years. And so anyways, that's a little bit about my story. But I wrote a book about my journey. And I'll give this to people for free. I honestly, the reason I wrote this is I, I was I was going all these masterminds and I was like, quietly sharing with people, some of the things that I did, like, I kind of just did it by accident, and fell ass backwards into doing some things that kind of really helped me, you know, propel the growth curve. And I and I didn't want to tell anybody about it, because I was afraid if they started doing these things, too, and it didn't work, they'd be pissed off for some, but I kind of quietly started sharing some of the stuff I was doing back in, like 2014, in 2015 was some of the people I was in these mastermind groups with. And these guys, you know, that are sitting right next to, like, they were growing, you know, like, they'd been in the business a long time, 10 1520 years, and they were growing, you know, 20, 30 40% a year, but I was growing like, 300%. And so I started telling them what I was doing, and all of a sudden, like, their businesses took off, too. So, you know, I, the word started spreading, and I started getting hammered on Facebook, about how we, you know, did what we did. And, you know, my, my wife and I had a new, we had a baby, this was three years ago. And like, um, you know, my wife's like, trying to get my help. And I'm there like, trying to answer people's questions on my phone all day on Facebook and stuff. And I was like, man, I actually just document this in a book. So I spent a year writing the book. And yeah, I'm happy to give this to any of your your listeners, you guys can get a copy of free just, I just got to be patient be handling. Yeah. So
Justin Stoddart
I love it. So what I hear you saying Christopher is that the coaching programs that are out there in place, at least the ones that you went through? We're very centered on helping you be a very high performing self employed individual. Yeah. And they also simultaneously tend to create a problem, right? Because the more productive you are in that world, the more you're trading time for money, right? The more that you with more productivity comes more time commitment. And it isn't until you make that pivot to actually become a business owner. Right? You can become very productive at work. But you and I both know, at the end of the day, that there are some things that are lacking in life, I'm actually reading a book, I wish I have it right here. Hold on, just say. Bye, gentlemen, mentor of mine, the name of Clayton Christensen, how will you measure your life? Oh, my good, right, man.
Christopher Watters
Great idea.Yeah, right.
Justin Stoddart
So for those that haven't read it, it goes into, he was a Harvard grad, now a Harvard professor at his 10 year reunion, he was just so excited to come back and see the amazing accomplishments of his classmates. And he found out that many didn't have good personal relationships, lots of divorces. In fact, a couple of more in jail, one was a CEO of Enron, like some some guys got done a really bad path. And he said, these individuals that were now incarcerated weren't the people that he read that he remembered, like, they were actually really good human beings. But for some reason, they got a little bit off track, and they got chasing these big trophies, with peer pressure, whatever that was, and ended up you know, really kind of dive bombing life. And so the book, I'm not that deep into it yet, but one of the things that I hear kind of as an early theme is how important your moral compass is, and how important your personal relationships are. And I'm not saying that these coaching programs would encourage that. But I do think that there tends to be, as you mentioned, the treadmill, like the the transaction, treadmill of like, always trying to get ahead and win the trophy, that if it's always you doing it, some things are going to take a hit, right, maybe that moral compass, maybe those personal relationships, and at the end of the day, again, as Clayton Christensen, how will you measure your life? Are the trophies really going to matter? Or is it the relationships that people that are there, right to mourn your loss, or the people that you love the most?
Unknown Speaker
So it's interesting, you mentioned that book. So after I had something that had changed for me, back in 2013, was I gone through all these coaching programs, and I was kind of, you know, and they all helped me grow incrementally have lots of growth. But I was like, Man, I've got it, I need I need, I wanted to, I need to find somebody else outside of the industry, because I've tapped all the I've tapped on all the shoulders in the real estate industry. And so I got introduced to a leadership coach. And it's so funny, you just showed me that book, because it's one of the first books he recommended to me so that that author Clayton Christensen, he's written several books on leadership. But the key thing like I learned getting into leadership coaching, you know, is, like you, if you're going to create leverage for yourself and have this self sustaining organization, you need to create something bigger than yourself. And so you know, when when you can create an organization that kind of has like this sense of shared purpose around along around all the team members, like that, that is when people like get bought into something and are willing to show up to work to like, do something bigger than you the owner, or, or even then the, the agents, for example, there's a, I don't know if anybody remembers the encyclopedia industry, right. But like, Encyclopedia industry got wiped out by Wikipedia, and people submit content on Wikipedia for free. And it's because they feel like they can level up mankind by you know, pushing out really great content for people to read and just improve their, their being. And so one of the key ingredients, I learned, going through leadership coaching, and which was kind of interesting, because I remember in Business School, learning that you need to have a mission of vision and core values. But like, at that point in my life, I was I was like, 2028 2930. And those things, I thought, were just checkboxes, right? Like, I had a mission vision, core values, and like, I probably just stole them from some other people. You know, like collage collage of things that sounded good. But the thing I started learning about, like, leadership, for example, is like, if you wanted to make that transition from owning a job, basically to being a business owner, like you got to start thinking a lot bigger than yourself, and think about how you can get people to buy into something, you know, that makes them want to jump out of bed. And that, and that is where the foundational DNA of your business comes, comes into play, when what I mean by that is your vision, your mission and your core values. Because, you know, obviously, if you're going to build a business, you need to align with people that have similar values that yourself, like, if you're fiercely committed a resourceful type of person, etc. You know, and and then you got to figure out what's your, you know, what's your purpose in business like, and your, your purpose in business needs to not only affect the agents you hire, but it needs to also have an impact on your customers, and your community. And so if you can get those three things in alignment have an impact on all three of those people, that will get people to buy into something even bigger than you the owner, because if you try starting a team or business and people think like this is just about making you rich, has a bizarre, like people aren't going to buy into that. And so, you know, I think, man, it's, you hear so many people talk about, you know, once they have tons of like, tons of money, I was reading this cool thing Steve Jobs wrote right before he died. And he and he said, You know, he died with like, $7 billion.
Unknown Speaker
And he's sitting on his deathbed, saying, you know, he wished he wished, you know, parents and educators would teach people to focus on happiness, and having a positive impact on the world versus like trying to go out and make a bunch of money. And so there's like this huge mindset shift, you have to go through to transition from being a self employed agent, or being like, you know, one of these teams, it's also Rainmaker, into a business owner because like, you gotta, you gotta stop thinking about the money, and you got to start thinking about how can you have an impact on, on the on the people you surround yourself with, again, agents, customers, community, and like, it's hard to, it's hard for people to, like, quantify the value, like, you know, most high driving personalities want to attach, like an economic, you know, dollar amount to, like, whatever it is they're doing. And, and so it's hard to, like, think about the economic impact personally, from a cash perspective on, you know, create an organization that, that its purpose is built on helping customers, agents and community, like it, you know, just, it's just one of those hard things to quantify, like, you don't see like how there's going to be a direct impact by focusing on that. And I always something I think I realized, between 2013 and 2015 was, you know, when you first get into real estate, you think about how long the conversion cycle is, from being like, you know, a new agent, and like, you know, trying to find clients, which takes months and getting a deal under contract, and then actually closing as months and months. And like in your mind, you're maybe previously you were at a job getting a paycheck every two weeks, or whatever. But like the conversion cycles really long. And what's even longer is the conversion cycle of going from, you know, being a self employed agent, to a business owner, because as a business owner, you have to start like integrating into your language with your team, you know, why you guys are in business, the positive impact you're trying to have, and all these people, and you know, you're making decisions around hiring people and creating leverage for yourself by hiring people with similar values, and all those like tactical day to day things you're doing. Like, you don't reap the benefits of that for, like, you know, one to two years, but when you do, it's just like, you know, it's it's, it's like leap frog, you know, exponential growth. It's just, it just sucks. But,
Unknown Speaker
but literally, this is, these are some of the components that help you transition to being a legit business owner, not just somebody that owns a job.
Justin Stoddart
It's interesting, you say this, Donald Miller, who's the author of Story Brand, love that guy. He he shared, he said, You know, I've, his situation has been changed pretty rapidly as a result of the writing of that book. And he said, as I've been around wealthy people, he said, it's really quite simple is that people to get wealthy have businesses and investments that are working when they're not. And, you know, what I hear you saying is that the way wealth is built is obviously to have people doing that yet, if the purpose for you bringing them on is to do that, it actually doesn't work, you actually have to not bring them on for that purpose, you have to actually bring them on to empower them, to enrich their lives and to be able to affect more lives through the good work that you do, which keeps them like you said, bought into a bigger cause bought into not just your big life plan, but their big life plan, right? If they're just a pawn in your game, at some point, they're going to want to go play their own game, if they're if they're, they're talented at all. But if you can say, look, this is a platform through which you can build, you know, your great life, this isn't mine, this is ours, this is the stage is simply a sacrifice to build so that others can build their great lives on on top of it. Now all of a sudden, you have a recipe to actually attract a quality team, keep a quality team and get that true leverage, which actually doesn't turn then create well,
Unknown Speaker
I couldn't agree more, man, it's, it's, it's hard, because like, I know, when you're building, you know, like, you're just thinking about that next condition check. But if you're ever going to get out of that, you know, off that world, when or or get off that treadmill. You know, it's like your, your, your belief, like you were saying at the very intro of this, of this podcast, like your your mindset, your beliefs, like those drive your emotions, which drive your activities and your activities, drive your results. And so I think the first thing is you got to just believe that like, if you want to make that transition from being an agent to like a legitimate business owner, and like, Look, there's a lot of people in real estate, especially people who have teams, like they don't have a business, they want a job, like they're, you know, maybe their team is crushing it. But like they have to show up every single day. And if I really spent enough time with them, I'm willing to bet they're wearing a lot of different hats. So you have to get you know, you have to get your team to be pretty large from a transaction count in a commission perspective. And to get that many number of people bought in, you're going to have, it's going to have to be about more than just you trying to get rich. So I yeah, I reckon if, if there's, for those people watching this, definitely go check out Clayton Christensen, you also read another great book called The road to character. And what's created, you know, it's so we're going on a tangent here about leadership, but like, the thing is, is like all these books out about leadership, like, it just sounds like, you know, philosophical, you know, theory and all this stuff. And it's, I mean, I remember like, in the early days, like, it was so hard to quantify, like, Okay, if I follow the advice of assignments, and a Clayton Christensen, all these, you know, you know, there's another great one out, I'd recommend Justin called culture code, that one was amazing, by the way,
Justin Stoddart
I've had that recommended before, and I can't
Unknown Speaker
It was written by Daniel Coyle, okay, and what and what he says in the beginning of the book is that, so this guy, like studied every organization imaginable, you know, like went into like, all these elite organizations, and we're trying to figure out, like, what made like, high performing groups high performing, and something after, like decades of studying this, you discovered was that it had nothing to do with people's backgrounds, their skills, none of that it, it had to do with how did each person feel amongst their peers. And so in sales, I think everybody on here would agree that eight your mindset drives your results, like 80% of sales success driven by mindset. And so like, you know, when you when you're trying to build an organization, like one of the first dominoes you got to knock down is like helping improve your sales teams mindset. And so that's actually where core values come into play. So like, again, in college, I that core values was just a checkbox, but what I realized is if you can actually find people with similar core values, that shows up in their daily actions as people, so like, for example, if one of our core values is being fiercely committed, and, you know, you've probably all met, we've all probably met people that are like the type of people that will just wrestle a problem to the ground, and like, we'll just not quit, you know, like, they just have that grit that won't quit. And so like, imagine, you know, a room full of people like that, you know, they're going to like, their, their performance is going to be through the roof. Now, imagine, if you like, threw somebody in there that didn't have that same value. Like if you create some corruption, and it's like a weed grown in a garden, you know. And so, you know, your job as a leader is to help like with these be behavioral things like improving people's, you know, their mindset when they come into work. And so that's like, a huge shift from being a real estate agent, because as real estate agent, you're thinking about how to get deals closed. And as a leader, you're trying to help people level up and just be better human beings. And that and that a lot of that starts with just surrounding people with like minded people that have similar core values. So anyways, I could talk about this, are you talking about this?
Justin Stoddart
I mean, I think, you know, an interesting component, you know, guy that I work with here at Old Republic, Steve Yeager, just a great leader, he said, you know, the highest form of sales is leadership. And I think, to your point, that there's, we often have spent a lot of time kind of focusing on on the tactical scripts, and what to say and what not to say, which I think is important. But also at the core, every one of us that are in sales, and even in management, leadership type roles. Leadership is is, is foundational to all of that, like, we have to be able to lead people through a transaction, like you said, to get a deal closed, right, people have to be able to confide in us that we are the professional that they want to use. So you know, I think these leadership books that we've been discussing, and the and the people focusing on that is only going to help both their team business as well as their own transactional business, being a leader is, is in greater need now that I think it's ever been, that's pretty evident the world today and and the more that you can become a better leader, the more opportunity, the more people are going to want to follow you, whether it be in their transactions, right, or even as their team leader.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a great point. I think agents, agents are leaders, they, you know, are trying to lead people to the right, you know, home that's best for their family. And that's very much, you know, servant leadership, trying to put somebody else's interest before your own. And so we learned how to do that as agents, you know, like, there's all this stuff we've learned how to do to pull that off. And so again, that transition from being self employed to being a business owner, you guys start thinking, Well, what are the scripts? What are the tactical things? What are my daily activities to, you know, be a great leader to people that are not trying to buy a house, but are trying to have success in their own life?
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I love it. Let's, I'm kind of, on how people can get get in contact with you. You've created a course around this book is when I understand right?
Unknown Speaker
Yes, yeah. So um, you know, yeah, yeah. So I'm not I'm, you know, I'm not really in the coaching industry, but I do like to help people, you know, make that transition, because I do feel like there's a whole, you know, like, there's not, there's not a lot of people helping agents and people with these small teams, like, learn how to level up and, and make that transition from being self employed owning a job to having a business that doesn't actually need it. So I, you know, I didn't want to start some big coaching programs, so, but I did want to, I do feel a moral obligation to, like, share this with the world. And so I created a course called SEO masterclass. And it's, it's predicated specifically weekly, on helping real estate agents make the transition from being a salesperson to actually being a CEO, and a business owner. And we talked about all the different components of making that transition around, you know, scaling, recruiting, and and we talked about the selection process. And we talked about the vetting process, some of the tactics and strategies we use around recruiting and selection, we modeled after, you know, studying Harvard, the navy seals, like what they do to vet people out studying teachers for America and nonprofit organization, ranked number four by Forbes magazine is one of the one of the hardest companies get a job for, it's a nonprofit, by the way, you don't get paid a lot of money. But anyways, we modeled a lot of these other successful companies and organizations to you know, implement a funnel, if you will, from a recruiting and selection perspective around finding talent. So that's one of the things we talked about, we also talked about just the art of building culture. So something I something I had to learn the hard way, was the difference between the art of leadership and the science of leadership. And so every single person like has a natural tendency towards one or the other. So for example, the the art of leadership is really like being you know, cute in to how a team member makes somebody else feel like people that are really good at the art of leadership, like, you know, they, they do a great job creating, like a high energy environment. And like, when they see someone that's like a negative Nancy, like, they kick them out of the organization really fast. So they make it feel like that family type of environment. And then the science of leadership is understanding all the KPIs. So like to be able to coach an agent, you need to understand like, you know, standards around conversion metrics, like from, you know, number of calls made to number of contacts, appointment set, etc. And so we all come from either, you know, we were, our natural tendency is going to be one or the other. And so we talked about those two things and things you can do, tactically, you know, to improve on, you know, maybe perhaps it's your weakness, if it's one or the other. And then we also talk about leaving generation. You know, there's one of the one of the things that I realized, starting my real estate team, especially being a millennial, I was all about internet lead generation buying leads on Facebook, Google. And when I first got started, I started giving these leads to my agents, I realized that I was setting my agents up for success. For I'm sorry, I'm setting my my agents up for failure. When I gave agents internet, only internet leads from Facebook and Google, like I was literally setting them up to fail, because those lead sources had a very low conversion rate, and they had a really long Conversion Cycle. And so something I realized over time was like, my job as a team leader was to set agents up for success. And to do that, I needed to help them be efficient with their time and work higher quality leads, that would convert faster, especially because, you know, they, you know, they can't go six months in a paycheck. So I started identifying the lead sources that converted at substantially higher conversion rates up to you know, 30% or higher, like, literally, one out of every three leads closes, which is like, you know, with compared to internet leads, one out of 100 closes. So one out of three is pretty amazing. So anyway, start identifying all the lead sources that convert north and 30%. And you know, we'll close in less than 90 days. So we talked about that, how you got to make sure you set your agents up for success in the lead gen side. And then we also go into the technology a little bit around like accountability tools, that as a leader, you need transparency into what your agents are doing. So you can actually coach them to understand where the holes are. So anyways, that's kind of you know, it's
Justin Stoddart
Good stuff, man, how do people get their hands on your book, is there a link you can send us or I can put it in the show notes? If you don't have it on you?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, so let's see, um, let me see if I have a link here.
Justin Stoddart
While you're looking for that, we'll go ahead and prepare to kind of have you answer the signature question. You know, we The important thing I think for for people to realize is that anytime you can consume the content of people that not only talk a big game, but that do a big game, right? How many transactions did your collective teams close? Over the past year crisscross eight locations? Um, roughly, you know, our,
Unknown Speaker
I don't even know, I should know, this are our, our hub close, just shy of 600 transactions and shy about 200 million are, you know, all of our teams are pretty new, like they're all less than two years old. I guess just to give you some like trajectory history from the first couple teams, like most of the people I work with, they start off like their agents, right, doing 3040 deals in the first year, I've consistently gotten all of them to triple and go to 100 in the first year, second year, they've all gone from 100 to 250. So if I think about it, the guests like as a group, we're going to be, you know, somewhere around 2500 to 3000 transactions this year. And then we'll probably double that next year, probably go to 5000 transactions next year.
Justin Stoddart
Impressive stuff, I want to I want to highlight Chris Merz, who's a big fan of yours, I'm a big fan of Chris's. He's a great guy, great local agent here where I'm at. But he had some nice things to say about you. This is amazing, Chris waters is genius. I'd have to agree. Very smart guy, we have you on the episode with us today. So with that, Chris, first and foremost, thanks for chiming in. Chris, me ask the the signature question of the show, which is you're obviously a big thinker. Hence, you're on the think bigger real estate show what? What does a guy like you continue to do to continue to expand your own possibility to continue to be a big thinker. Teach us what you do.
Unknown Speaker
I think everybody's heard that saying you're the average of the five people you spend the most amount of time with. And so something I think if you're, you know, if you're a high driver personality, always trying to take things to the next level. You know, it's kind of interesting. That's a great question, because I have found myself in many times in life, where I found myself like catching up to the five people I surrounded myself with, and then kind of looking around like, Okay, what now? And so that's a really great question. And so what's what's kind of interesting is, I'm totally connecting and getting to know and like masterminding now with people that are at a much, much higher level, I'm actually, I'm having the opportunity to spend some time with Lee Lee Walker, next week, which probably most people watching this podcast, have no idea who Lee Walker is. Lee Walker, in the mid 1980s, he was hired by Michael Dell, Dell computers in the early 80s, was on the brink of bankruptcy. And Billy Walker was a physicist. And he happened and he got his MBA from Harvard. And just this like super brilliant guy. And he actually turned Michael Dell down the first time Michael tried to recruit him. And Michael is 21 years old at the time, and Lee Walker was in his mid 40s. And our you've done like some pretty cool stuff. And so Lee Lee Walker was the first president of Dell computers. And what is probably one of the key reasons why, you know, Dell computers became what it became. And so, you know, like, I'm, I'm spending some I could spend some time with Lee Walker next Monday. I'm actually, in preparation of our meeting. I'm Lee Walker, by the way, he's in his 70s now. So like, I don't, you know, like, it's super awesome. Like, it was, you know, like, getting connected to people like that super hard. You know, these people are like, super wealthy, like, time is a very sacred resource. But you know, like, I find myself spending a lot of time trying to connect with people like that. That's something that resonates with me all the time is that saying from I heard on Shark Tank, pioneers get slaughtered and settlers prosper. And you always hear the saying, like, you know, you need to take history class to learn from history, so we don't repeat history. It's like, Oh, you know, I've been trying really hard the last couple years to like, connect with people that are much older, wiser than me that I've walked that journey of like building a successful organization. So I'm actually reading Lee Walker's book right now. It's called the imagination house. And what's what's fascinating about this book is like, Lee Walker, I'm halfway through the book. And the Walker has, has said, like, like, 80% of what helps Dell be really successful, came as a result of all of the constraints that the business hat. So when Michael Dell was building, Dell computers, you know, he was putting some he was putting parts supplies in his dorm room, and would hide them from his parents and like, would assemble them somewhere else. And he had no way of like offering support, or like service to customers, right. And so Lee Walker helped him partner up with a company called tandem, which was a computer parts manufacturing company. And they it's like they laid out of all these constraints that there's so many limitations. I mean, this dude was building a damn college dorm room. It's funny my, so I, I underline this section of the book. And it says, In our case, constraint had bread imagination, and like, So anyways, long story short, they delegated so many, like massive things in their business, like supporting sales, manufacturing, they came up with this thing called Justin time, adjusting time order system, right? You go online, and you get your computer built online, versus going to the store and buying it, which was like revolutionary in the 80s. But they did all this out of necessity, because they didn't have any resources. So anyways, it's a, it's amazing when your backs up against the wall, how resourceful you can get.
Justin Stoddart
That was a great, I mean, a great answer, is it right? And I think these people that like, like Lee Walker, like you've described, they actually their legacy now is that they actually want to impact people who are serious people who also want to have a massive impact. And yes, they're hard to get to, but they're not impossible to get to. You've proven that. And I think we all would be, you know, wise to really identify who are our mentors, and try and actually reach out to them, you know, people like Mel Robbins and Grant Cardone people who I thought were untouchable, you know, I've had the privilege to interact with and it's been interesting to see that that the especially the social mediums today, you can they, it's amazing how many people actually don't try to reach out to these people. Right there. They're not they're still human beings. And they still care when people interact with their stuff. They still care when people reach out for help, not the city, you're going to get an answer from from everybody. But I think you're a great example to us CRISPR that there's, you can actually gain access if you try some people that can massively impact your thinking and your world and, and allow you to do something potentially similar to what they've done. So anyway, want to thank you for the great answer. Thank you again, for coming on the show today. For those that are watching. Please look in the show notes. Whether you're watching this on Facebook, on YouTube, or if you're listening to podcast, go find it in one of those two locations. And we'll have a link to the millionaire or sorry, the million dollar real estate team written by Christopher waters himself. He'll give you the book for free just pay for shipping, be a great way to look at his many life lessons and building the great organization that continues to expand and see how that impacts your life. So again, thank you again, Christopher. And thanks to all for tuning in and watching and i'll leave with these this final invitation and charts to all of us which are three simple words. And they are go think bigger. Thank you, Chris, for helping inspire us to want to do that today.
Christopher Watters
Thanks, Justin. Appreciate you man. You bet man.
Justin Stoddart
Hello and welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, and I have with me today in studio, Stephanie Peck. For those that are in the Portland area, she is a rising star and for good reason. She is a rising star in her business as well as at home, well maybe not a rising star at home, you've always been a star at home.
Stephanie Peck
I'm always improving.
Justin Stoddart
So if you remember, Stephanie joined me several months ago, it's probably been, I guess we kind of early summer to talk about this difficult balance between being a successful Realtor while still being a successful mom and that episode reached a lot of people and I got a lot of feedback that people really appreciate it. So I've invited Stephanie to come back to talk about, now that we are out of the summer months, and into the fall--how do you recoop? How do you get back on track after a busy summer? Yeah. So there's, there's lots to talk about on this topic, I will start with this reminding people the purpose of this show is to put you in contact with big thinkers like Stephanie, because what happens is when we get to surround ourselves with people that are doing great things, not just to create success, but also to create significance, it has an impact upon us, we start to think bigger, we start to think differently. Then we start to do differently, and then we start to have different results and then we can have a greater impact. You and I both share that that we have a big passion to be very impactful, both in our own homes, as well as in the world at large.
Stephanie Peck
Right. Yeah, yeah, there's so much that we can do with the gifts that we've been given. excited to share that always to
Justin Stoddart
Yes. So thank you for coming on. She's a natural at this actually. The last time I was like, "You need to like have like a news broadcast here." But, I think she heard her real estate business is doing just fine. I don't foresee that in the near future.
Stephanie Peck
So I guess I have the gift of talk. Wherever I can. That's helps in real estate as well.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. So let's dive into this, Stephanie. Obviously you're coming off a busy summer. You and I both have very active families. Right, right, that are going and doing things and having fun and enjoying the summer months. And now we're back to a a routine. We're back to a schedule.
Justin Stoddart
Thank you. It feels good, doesn't it? Yeah, it really does. I love summer. Enjoy it. I've been summer in the Pacific Northwest is amazing. But yeah, it's so nice to be back into the routine. We got the most of us out of our summer for sure. Which is also a big part of why it's time to regroup.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, we've run summer months out, right? Again, yeah. And now it's time to get back into it. For those that are in real estate, you are very aware that by the time these clients that you're working with or the prospects that you're working with close, you may very well not see some of this business until 2020. Right? And with 2020 being I think an amazing year, just because of the symbolism of 2020--perfect vision, clarity. It's a new year to really begin and do some amazing things. But that doesn't start January 1, right?
Stephanie Peck
Yeah, if you want a good 2020 now's the time to be putting in the effort.
Justin Stoddart
Now's the time to be getting back on track this fall. So that your Q1 through Q4 of next you're are dialed and rolling. So with that being said, I know you've prepared a few things Five Steps to help us. Stephanie, what would you say would be step number one for all of us to be able to get back on track this fall?
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. So step number one is I mean, no better way to say it, but forgive yourself. I mean, honestly, I'm pretty straightforward. Get over it. blunt way to say it. I know for me, because I mean, summer was a whirlwind, I was just focusing on having an awesome time with my kids and having an awesome time, outdoors and all the fun and still keeping up with business. But for me, what I had to do in order to do that was to say, these are the activities that I'm going to put to the side temporarily. And the temporarily important part, and just focus on the business activities that are most important right now. But once you whatever reason, you had to get derailed, whether it was just having too much fun over the summer, or maybe there was a baby in the family or a health issue or whatever. I mean, there are a million reasons that get us distracted. But when it's time to come back and to regroup, you've got to say, okay, maybe I had a couple of failures, maybe I had a couple of things that I was lacking in, I'm going to just get over that and move on, I'm not going to beat myself up over it. And I'm not going to keep dwelling on what was me or I wish I would have or any of that just time to move on.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I love that you said that, Stephanie, because again, we're talking about the topic of getting back on track this fall after a busy maybe distracted summer. But those aren't the only things that that keep us right that keep us from doing the activities we should be doing. Sometimes, like you said, it's it's a family illness, a family situation, a wedding, right? All kinds of things happen. So these principles are going to apply not just to this fall, but anytime you feel like you're off track in your business, right, I'm actually want to bring up a point that I shared with you earlier, Barbara Corcoran, whose Shark Tank like the queen of shark tank, right and and the queen of real estate in New York City said that she would take a somebody who's wildly consistent and persistent over somebody who's wildly talented. What she realizes that success comes down to those people that have time on task over time. That's actually Gary Keller, quote, time on task over time produces the best results. And if you're somebody that that falls off, the horse has a has a crazy summer. Yeah, and then can't get back on because you can't forgive yourself. Just the time delay and not doing the right activities is going to be detrimental to your business more so than maybe not having, you know, some some of the innate talents that maybe others have. So keep that in mind. I love that you said that it's it's spot on? Is it forgive yourself and move on get up, get going? It step number two, let's let's talk about that. What would you say? Well, you forgiving yourself. You're like, okay, what's done is done. It's time to move on? Well, you say step number two would be?
Justin Stoddart
Probably just revisiting what were my goals, here I've been, what were my goals for the year? What are my goals for my business? And what are my goals for my life and my family too, because that all still has to fit in? So revisit what's most important to you? What are the things that you set out to do this year or this season? And really write those down? And tell yourself again, what are my reasons why, you know, not only my goals, but why did I set these goals for myself? And why did I want to meet these goals? Maybe there's a financial goal that you have, or you're supporting a great charity, and you see the consequences of not meeting those goals is these these people I'm trying to help aren't going to get the help that they need? Or maybe my bills aren't going to be paid? I mean, that's a pretty good motivator, always just get off your butt and just do it. Yeah, just so revisit, what were the things that I wanted to accomplish? And why did I want to accomplish them?
Justin Stoddart
I love that. So right here in front of me on my computer that only Stephanie can see is a reminder of a cause that I'm deeply committed to right, which is Operation Underground Railroad, if you don't know what that is we can talk about later. But it's it's a cause knowing that if I'm not living up to my potential, there are other people, even me on my family, that are in a terrible spot that I could have the ability to influence. And so I love that that it's not just revisit the goal of "Oh, yeah, I wanted to close X number of transactions" or "...help this number of families", right? But even beyond that, and being able to say, "What's the cost of the cost?" Right? My coach talks about that with me of like, "Okay, so you don't reach the goal? What are the repercussions? What do you not get to do and who else suffers because you didn't hit those goals?" I think that's what I hear you say it is you've got to actually deeply emotionally connect with the goal, right? Yeah. I could just be like, "Oh, yeah, I decided to help that many families." But what happens if I don't?
Justin Stoddart
Right? Yeah, there's a consequence to every one of our actions or reactions. So I mean, negative or positive consequences. And that's always there's going to be something that happened because of something that I did or didn't do. And so what is the result that you are focusing on? I mean, you set those goals and beginning of the year, hopefully. And when you did, you had a reason to say that you didn't just say, because I wanted to, because I, I did this many last year. So I wanted to do right, five more this year. Well, why? Why did you want to do that? Because once you identify your purpose, then you're much more motivated again. Yeah,
Justin Stoddart
yeah. It's not deeply inspiring, just to not hit a number, right? What does that mean, to the families that you could have served that maybe ended up with a with a not so good real estate agent that doesn't care with care about their people, like you care about them? Yeah. It can even extend beyond beyond you to the people that you serve. So I'd encourage you to think about that. I think it's brilliant. So again, step number one is forgive yourself. Step number two is revisit your goals and why why those goals matter. What's the cost of the cost? So step number three, let's move along. Stephanie, would you say step number three would be in getting back on track this fall?
Stephanie Peck
So then at that point, you've said, Okay, these were the goals that I made? And how do I get back to that? Where did I lack? When, when I was distracted, or when I was busy, or when I was caring for a family member, whatever it was, where was I lacking? And I'm saying this, because this is the process that I'm going through right now. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm here to meet with Justin later today. Because I can say that, yeah, you know, I, I decided this is what was important to me this summer. And now it's time to regroup that so I can say, what did I not do that I should have been doing? Because I know what I should have been doing all the time. And what was I not doing? Maybe I wasn't contacting my database enough, or wasn't posting on social media as much as I thought that I should have, or whatever it is, I mean, everyone is going to have their own individual identification of that. Because we all set it up in the beginning of the year to say, these are the activities that I need to do. Now we need to reflect what did I not do. And you know, just really be honest with yourself about that.
Justin Stoddart
I love it goals or goals, but they don't actually turn into anything unless you do the activities that produce the results, right that don't that actually move you towards the goals. And what I hear you saying is identify what those activities are. And what are the ones that I I know I need to be doing. Yeah, that I didn't do Yeah, exactly. Okay, I love it. So that's point number three. Let's go to point number four, what would you say point number four is? Getting back on track.
Unknown Speaker
Okay, so you've written down that these were the holes that I needed to fill that I maybe didn't. So now it's time to make a plan for that. Okay, I didn't contact my database enough this summer, because I was just so focused on the day to day activities. And then when I wasn't doing the day to day activities, I was out having fun. All right. I mean, it is what it is. But now it's time to say, What am I going to do to make sure I do those things. And I mean, this is across the board. This isn't just real estate, this is business. This is life. This is everything I was using the example of eating healthy, I can say, well, all I need to do is go to the grocery store and buy more fruits and vegetables and actually eat them. That's how I'm going to eat healthy. But at the end of the day, I'm not doing that
Justin Stoddart
"Cookies taste so much better!"
Stephanie Peck
Right? Yeah. So you know, it's time to say, what's my plan going to be? How many people Am I going to call every day? Where Where did I lack? And what am I going to actually do to put the actions into place and do it?
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Because it point number three identified Okay, what are the activities? But oftentimes it's more it's like, what's my plan? How's my life going to change to where I start doing the activities? Yeah, right. And you point out some accountability, right? It's not just enough to like grit and willpower determination, I'm gonna do it right. Most of us are too weak to do that on a consistent basis, you know, different facets of our lives, right? We need some sort of accountability factor. Earlier this week, I interviewed somebody on the topic of health. And I was impressed with the accountability systems are in place, whatever that looks like for you. In business, right? And in things personal, right? Just everything in life. Yeah, having that accountability, that system, that plan in place, which includes those different facets of accountability, I appreciate you saying, kind of my role. The thing that I love to do and what fires me up every day is mean, what you guys see often is this broadcast, right? The part that you don't see is me sitting knee to knee with great agents like Stephanie to say, Where are you at? Where do you want to be? What's your plan? What are the breakdowns? And how can I either add new new people and new ideas, new systems to help you get that to be sure you get that and external yourself with, with people that can can help with that process? For all I think that's, that's a great Secretary Sam.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, I mean, we can talk all day about the, we all know the importance of time blocking. And, and you know, these are, these are simple steps. So maybe sometimes it's just as easy as going back to the babysitter, or going back to what we already know, but actually doing it, it's just like the eating healthy, I know that if I ate a salad instead of just I know that that's going to be the healthier choice for me, but it's actually doing it. And so you need to put those systems in place, you need to say, okay, you know, going back to the example of summer, I mean, summertime, if you have kids at home, the schedule is derailed. So you know, maybe you're waking up and you're planning some fun activities, instead of waking up and starting your day. So now that it's fall, and we're back into the routine, it's waking up and treating it like a work day, every day. I mean, you for me, if you're a mom, like me, you're dropping those kids off at school, and you're coming to your office, or you're coming to your home office, and you're clocking in to work, it's work time. I mean, as much as I wanted to drop the kids off at school and go to a kickboxing class and do some shopping and maybe catch up on some show. It's time to get back to work. So how are you going to do that? You need to be meeting with your team leader, your principal broker, your office manager, or favorite title rep, or whoever it is that's going to help you put those systems in place and actually stick to it.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, such profound wisdom there. I don't know that I can add anything else. So I'm not going to we're going to move on to step number five, which is, do it tell us about what that looks like?
Stephanie Peck
Just do it. What does it look like? I mean that well, that's the step that I'm in right now is, you know, I am to the point where, okay, I'm going to stop the analysis paralysis, I'm going to stop the excuses. I'm going to stop the I just want to meet time, I've been busy with the kids all summer. Now I just want to I just want to relax. It's time to put all of that aside and be looking at my goal on a regular basis. And my Why? Why did I set these goals, I've got some big things plan for my life and for my business. And I want those things and I'm not going to let these distractions stop me anymore. So just that mentality is setting in that mind, that this is what I want. And this is what I'm going to go after.
Justin Stoddart
You know, we I actually just showed Stephanie, prior to this, for those of you that haven't seen it, you can search on YouTube, in fact, I'll put a link to it in the comments, but it's it's art Williams, with his famous speech called "Just do it." And it's it's an amazing reminder that there's a lot of people and we're all guilty of it to some degree of talking about what we're going to do. I'm going to do this I'm going to go and I'm gonna gonna and as responses just do it, then do it. He doesn't have a great like Southern accent. That's hard for me to replicate. But it's, it's it's a classic.
Stephanie Peck
But it's, it's good. I like that your wife is on...
Justin Stoddart
I know. Hello, sweetheart. And she's, she said,
Unknown Speaker
"Me-time is a legit excuse." Every mom is relating to that, right? So you know what I'll admit, I gave myself a little bit of that first week, the kids back to school, it was a three day week for them. So I'm like, Okay, this is going to be the day that I'm going to catch up around the house, I'm going to get a few things done that I've been wanting to do. So that I can stop all the excuses. Yeah, next week, I gave myself no reason for any more excuses. The house is caught up, I went shopping, I got the clothes that I wanted well, but I just eliminated all of those excuses. And I'm done with them. And I'm ready to just Just do it.
Justin Stoddart
One kind of final final reminder on that is that you're our if our goals, don't make it to our calendars, then they're not really goals. And I would say looking at your calendar in reverse. If you were to go back and audit, what did I do last week, do the activities that I do actually tell myself and other people, that those things that these goals actually matter to me, because that's that's the only way it's actually going to happen. You can say that they are you can have vision boards and goals written everywhere. It'd be talking about it. But unless historically, you can go back and look and say no, actually did the activities this week, then then I don't believe you. I don't believe myself. I don't believe anybody whose actions don't actually follow that. So if I can look at the past week. So do I really want to get back on track? Or am I really still wanting to stay in summer mode through the fall? Because real estate slows down during the fall?
Justin Stoddart
I know normally, so it doesn't have to
Stephanie Peck
No, no, I'm not slow right now at all. And I don't plan to be for the rest of the year. And I've been just revisiting like we talked about what you do now is what setting yourself up for early next year. And what I do today is what's going to get me into place for when that spring season hits. So you know, the nice thing about the business that we're in is, they can all be fun activities, I'm not gonna deprive myself, because I'm just gonna lock myself in an office all day long. That's not what sells real estate. So if I want to say, Oh, I just wanted to still have some fun, I'm having a hard time transitioning back into work mode, having lunch with some friends, some past clients, I mean, that's all fun stuff that we can do that are activities that are going to put ourselves in a good position for next year, early next year. And, you know, I I personally have not been a fan of time blocking, I guess, because I have a real add mind, I don't focus, I just can't, I can't say I'm spending two hours doing this. I've just never been able to start it at that. But I also really, I have resonated with the concept of making an appointment with yourself, or making an appointment for yourself. So however you need to word it, and however you need to structure it, do it in a way that works for you time blocking just, it hasn't worked for me. And maybe I'm getting in my own way on that. But if I say if I have an appointment to do a listing appointment with someone, you bet, I'm going to be there and you bet I'm going to be prepared for it. So I need to make those same appointments for myself. And like you were saying put it in your calendar. It doesn't actually exist until it's in your calendar. I love it. So I'm going to I'm going to wrap this up with the with the signature question of the show. You've heard Stephanie say this before, but I'm interested to hear her answer. Now. She's a big thinker. In fact, it's fitting interesting, your head has been perfectly placed right in front of the TB, which stands for think bigger, you got to take a place because you are the big thinker in the group. I didn't say big head, I said big thinker. But what is somebody like you, Stephanie, who, who already does some great things, both at home, as well as in your business in the community? Just doing some great things. What do you do to continue to expand your own possibilities to continue to be a big thinker teach us?
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, so I think my answer has changed from last time. And right now, my biggest focus is to think bigger than I thought yesterday or think bigger than I thought last year, and not not comparing myself I want to think bigger than this person or this high producer that maybe you know, maybe that's too intimidating for me. And I guess this has been my own personal journey because I have realized that I don't want to think big then that person next to me, I want to think bigger than myself and what I did last time last this time last year or yesterday, even or whatever it was, because I can always grow one step farther than what I was the day before.
Justin Stoddart
I love that healthy metrics, like right, not looking at other people, which can oftentimes cause anxiety and depression, right, but inspired by other people, but really looking at am I progressing? My moving forward is what I hear you saying? Right?
Justin Stoddart
Right. Because I mean, comparison is the thief of joy. Yeah, so I'm not gonna let that comparison steal my, my pride and my accomplishments, I guess, yeah, how want to put it because I, I have accomplished some amazing things in the, in the space that I want to be in. So and I can always continue to grow in that.
Justin Stoddart
Awesome. That's why folks, she's a big thinker. That's why she's doing what she's doing and why she's gonna continue to be more and more successful as the years move on. So I'm very grateful to have you here for willing to come back for round two and then think bigger real estate show. But the total pleasure want to thank everybody for tuning in today. Please show Stephanie, your appreciation for her time, by liking, commenting, sharing this out. There's some great wisdom here for all of us that want to get back on track. Get up when we when we haven't been as good as we should have, and move forward to, you know, to the next level. And with that, it's a perfect segue to my final request of everybody listening in today, which are three very simple words that are very meaningful to me and hopefully they are to you as well, which are GO THINK BIGGER!! Thank you, everybody, for tuning in. Thank you again, Stephanie, for being a part of this.
Justin Stoddart
Hello, and welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart, and I'm excited today to have this conversation about health. Have you ever realized that you as a real estate agent, sometimes you'll focus on your health and maybe your business suffers just to touch, and then you go to focus on your business and your health suffers a little bit? Well, today we're going to talk about how really focusing on your health doesn't need to cause your business to dip. In fact, if anything, it ought to improve your business. Because the operator, the owner, the leader of that business is happier, healthier, stronger. I have with me today, a gentleman by the name of Tim James. Tim owns a company here in the Portland area called Chemical Free Body and we're going to hear briefly about his story, and about how he helps people to be high producing professionals, as well as very, very healthy people. He's a great role model for us to follow in that regard. So as a reminder, if you go to thinkbigger.realestate there will be show notes. And you can sign up to get weekly reports of who's been on the show, and get highlights and updates that way. So I encourage you to do that. If you're not then if you've not done that already. So back to today's guests, Tim, first and foremost, thank you for coming on the show today. I appreciate you coming on and pouring into the think bigger real estate audience.
Tim James
Yeah, Justin, thanks for having me on. I'm excited to share today.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, great. You know, one thing that I've realized, as it doesn't matter how many business tips tips as I tips, tactics, strategies that people give, right? There's shows and websites and YouTube videos that are filled with how to help a real estate agent have a successful business. Yet at the core, if the mechanism through which they can do all those tips and tactics, right, their body is not well, if their mind is not well, none of those things are going to work, right. That's all built upon a healthy lifestyle. That's all built upon a healthy mindset. And part of my passion with I think that your real estate show is to help get the foundation right? help get the thinking right, help get people well and happy and confident feeling good about themselves, so that they can go serve people at a higher level. And I'm thrilled to have you here today because I know that you're going to help us do that. Right? When you drive down the street. And there's endless opportunities for fast food and terrible food options. I walk through a grocery store, and finding things that are high in protein and low in carbs is difficult, right? And even if I do find those things, what I'm putting my buddy, I'm not even sure if it's good or not. So we want your help. Tim, tell us a little bit about your story, how you got to the point to where you founded the company that you did. And then I want you to teach us some principles, health principles that we could all Apply today. Okay, cool. Hold on time. Now, before I do that, I stop, start stop start. So here's what I want everybody to know, is it if you can't watch this whole episode, know that Tim has, has kindly given us access to some things for free to teach us really quick, Tim, what you've offered us, and then jump into the second part of the question that I asked you.
Tim James
Cool, cool. So um, again, thanks for having me on. So for those listening today that would like to optimize their health. Again, I'll teach them tactics today that you guys can take with you that will like totally transform your health. And they're so simple, but they're things that people aren't doing. I'm going to give away free coaching calls to anybody. It's a $97 value, 30 minutes with me, and you just complete a form. You get into my calendar, then you complete a form. And then also i'm going to give a copy of our gut detox Guide, which is the guide we use as our core foundation. To get people started on our coaching program. This is a $67 value. That's everybody's free. from you, Justin courtesy of Justin Stoddart. Think bigger real estate. And if you guys want to get your hands on that manual, which I highly suggest you do, or and on top of that, get a free coaching session, just send an email to info@chemicalfreebody.com, and just say, Hey, I was on Think Bigger Real Estate, I like to get the free manual and free coaching session, and I'll send you those links, and we can help them get started.
Justin Stoddart
Perfect. Alright, so appreciate that. And for anybody that can't listen to the whole episode, for whatever reason, I want to be sure that you knew that there's some take home some things that I've negotiated with Tim, for him to give away, again, free coaching session, as well as this guy that I looked through it and it's it's brilliant. He's really done a nice job with it. So anyway, thank you for that, Tim. So so going back, what led you to want to embark on this journey of really, both for yourself as well as other people and helping them have healthier lifestyles, which again, helps people to then on top of that, build successful businesses, etc.
Tim James
Absolutely. I think a little bit about my background would be important. I grew up over in Eastern Oregon on a cattle on a farm. I grew up on the standard American diet. I was in the mortgage industry for 10 years, actually part of the core training program, which a lot of people here listening will know about, at a high level coaching business for high level realtors and mortgage professionals. And I found myself at age 37, about 30 38 pounds overweight. I had skin issues I had like eczema on both elbows and I had a huge patch on my left knee. I had another skin issue on my shoulder. It was gross. So my belly was sticking out. I was embarrassed to take my shirt off. And I was an athlete. I mean, I played baseball at a high level. I mean, I played baseball for 30 years. And I always thought of myself as like an athlete, you know, take charge type of guy. And my energy was waning. I wasn't sleeping well. I had acid indigestion really, really bad. And I was I was eating like tons and Rolaids. Like all day long. Like I had a box in my car and then my truck and then I had some of my at my house. And it was just it was I was eating those things constantly. Doctor wanted me to go on a sec, but it just didn't sound right to me was I was trying to put it off. I was in denial. And eventually was my gut was jacked up. And I found out I had what was called leaky gut syndrome later, I actually had blood coming out of my stools, like half the time when I was going to the bathroom and I told no one I was just like, you know, I'm ashamed of it. And I thought I'll just go away something. I mean, I don't even know what I was thinking back then. And so this is going on. And then I finally got to a point where I went on a vacation and I had to have surgery and have an organ removed, destroyed the vacation for my family. And and me it was miserable being in hospital in Peru down there when I'm supposed to be vacationing. And, but I didn't know what to do with my health. I mean, you read all these books and stuff. There's all this information out there but it's just pieces of it work but I couldn't put it all together and, and then my friend on my baseball team Colima hoye got diagnosed with like a stomach cancer, and he was the most fit of all of us. And he ended up dying after chemo and radiation and surgery. It was a horrible deal. And he had three little boys that he left behind. With no insurance, we did a fundraiser. And it was just like, wow, that was somebody like my age that had passed away, you know, and it started freaking me out. I'm like, Dude, this guy was like in the best shape of all of us. If he gets cancer, we're screwed. Well, then right after that, my good friend Charles, who own town and country, home loans, Town and Country mortgage, those two entities.I had moved away from the doing loans, and now I was doing financial planning. And he called me into his office and he said, Hey, man, I got cancer, I want you to go with me to this institute, I'm going to try to heal naturally because I have this incurable cancer called chronic lymphocytic leukemia, to blood cancer. And I was just like, oh, shit, you know, Charles is dead. You know? It's like he's toast because my whole experience has been you get cancer and you die. And I'm I said, Yeah, man, I'll go with you. And what we learned at the Institute was about proper detoxing and cleansing and what real nutrition was and how the gut works and, and how and just how to love yourself and, and all this stuff that I never thought about before. And I had a complete transformation. In seven days, I had lost 11 pounds, my energy went through the roof. My acid indigestion was gone day one. Within 60 days, I'd lost the 38 pounds. I mean, the weight just flew off of me as I changed my diet, which was my lifestyle. I changed my whole lifestyle, I changed everything. And I did it for Charles, because I committed to him. I said, do I'm going to do this with you. And we went to a plant based lifestyle at that point. And remember, I'm from Eastern Oregon man, I was hunting and fishing and deer and elk and checkers and pheasants. And it was like, ingrained in my life. All my friends thought I was crazy to go plant based. But it worked. And within within eight months, that big, huge skin issue and my knee was gone as well. So my body had totally healed itself. Just like when you cut yourself, you heal, right. And I didn't know exactly how it all worked, but it worked. And now I've learned how it did work. And that's what I do. Now as I share this message with other people in our coaching program, I got out of the financial services business, started chemical free body calm, started the coaching program. And then a little while later, we started our own supplement business because we use supplements and detox products to get people off the ledge to transform their lives faster. And a lot of people don't have the time to go fly away for two weeks and go to some Institute, they got to work and they got they got bills, mortgages and and you know, things they got to do and kids in school and soccer and all these things. So we've developed a program that people can do it at home in less than five minutes a day to start. And it just flat works because it's based on principles that work on the human body.
Justin Stoddart
It was interesting, I was actually this morning listening to a renowned heart surgeon who's now kind of a spiritual leader he talked about when he was they were trying to create recreate the heart and lung machine so that they could stop the heart so that they could repair the heart right before and he stepped in and started doing. He realized that if you put a certain chemical in the blood that went through the heart, the heart would stop. It was potassium, some sort of potassium. And he said it didn't it didn't work only one time it worked every time. And he talked about that. Like there's true principles like gravity, right? That what an airplane and a pilot knows that gravity works a certain way. And you know, the laws of aerodynamics, allow for a plane to leverage, right these principles in order to defy gravity and so correct. It's interesting when you talk about principles, health principles, that oftentimes it takes an absolute tragedy, right, a family being hit by cancer, everyone to take a good hard look to see like, Who are we getting advice from? What's the truth about how we should be taking care of our bodies? And this stuff isn't widely published, right? It doesn't. It's It's It's not this isn't common knowledge, the stuff that you uncovered, that the best hospitals in the country held and and taught at a time of desperate need is stuff that we all ought to be learning. And what I'm hearing you say is that you've, you've taken those those kind of secrets of if you know, if you want to call them that, and you've brought them to the public to say, hey, look, this is how to avoids first of all some of these diseases, and just live a happy, healthy life.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, absolutely. And what I've realized is that it's all about detoxing, and we promote and teach daily detoxing over here. Here's the big problem that's facing us. And this is why everybody's got health problems, you know, we spend $3.3 trillion in this country, on health care, yet, we're ranked like 38, the 48th in the world and health. So the system's broken, the more money we continue to pour into the same system. It doesn't even make sense. It's really stupid point. So if you have to become your own doctor, and you have to learn how to take care of yourself, just like every other wild creature does out in nature. And we have a huge disconnect from nature. That's the big problem. So the major problems that people are facing today is number one is cellular dehydration, we're simply not drinking enough water. 95% of the people today are not drinking enough water, I've benchmarked over 600 people on my coach coaching program, less than 5% are doing that. Number two, less than 4% of people are chewing their food really, really, really well. That's a big problem. Number three, people are drinking liquids with meals. When you do this, you're diluting your digestive enzymes, and you're you're screwing yourself up and you're going to cause fermentation in the gut, which is gut rot, and you're destroying your gut on a micro level. So we have people avoid that. The other thing we have people do is we have them do breath work before a meal or anytime they're stressed. Because our lives are so frickin stressed out today. I mean, think about just going at jumping in the car and driving down I five, it's 70 miles an hour is a is a crazy event. If you look at human biology, go back thousands of years, grab somebody in a time machine, put them in a car going 70 miles an hour down I five. And they come to and they're probably going to have a heart attack, right. So we have so much stress today. And when you're in stress mode, that's called a fight or flight and your blood leaves the organ systems and it goes into your extremities to fight you know or run fight. And if it's out in the extremities, and it's not going to digest well. So just by doing a minute worth of breath work, you can take the blood, take it back into the organ systems and actually process your food. So those are the four tips today, drink lots of water. And again in the in the manual will tell you how much chew your food until liquefied avoid liquids with meals and do some breath work. And that doesn't cost anybody anything. It works. We have our clients program, those is recurring appointments in their phone, they get that habit down over 90 220 days and their life's going to change. And we haven't even changed their diet. And we haven't talked about exercise. So again, the big overview, the big problem is we're not drinking enough water. Our bodies are completely polluted, in the digestive tract and in the blood, the fat and the muscle tissue with toxins. And all you have to do is go online and type in umbilical cord and chemical. And you'll see the articles going back to 2005 showing that every single child that they've young mother that they tested the umbilical cord blood, they find well over 250 minutes chemicals in over 180 those cause cancer, over 212 of those calls a brain and developmental disorders. We're talking about major problems, the scientists and the doctors refer to this as a body burden. That's why children today are sicker than ever. The people that are 35, and younger are actually sicker than people 65 and older, hard to believe. But that's what's happening because of the lack of good clean purified water, chemical pollution. And then the last thing is the the nutrients have simply been farmed out of our soil 85% of the nutrients are gone, and they have to be replaced. These are the building blocks and the fuel that our cells need. And when you simply turn those things around, and you start hydrating yourself properly, and you clean out all the toxins and the garbage and the accumulated waste matter that's in our gut. And it's scary man, the average person's carrying around six to 12 pounds of impacted fecal material on Nucleic plaque lining the intestinal tract, we can show you how to get most of that out in 15 days, and you won't even know it's coming out, there's no diarrhea, and then, you know, and then then we need to, you know, get rid of the stress, and then put those good nutrients back in, if you do those three, four things, your life's going to turn around, you're going to have more energy, and then you're going to want to start looking for new food choices, your taste buds change, and you have the energy to want to exercise and then we promote that you do some movement that you like, not necessarily a gym, you might not like the gym, maybe you like walks or riding bicycles or something, do what you love to do for movement. And then when that starts going, then people start sleeping better, and it just starts tumbling in the right order. And again, this can be turned around very quickly coaching program, and people are completely transforming themselves in six months with these basic principles and you know, in the products and all the other stuff we share,
Justin Stoddart
Everything you're saying Tim is absolutely resonating with, with me, it's hard to fathom that of you know what it's like, Hi, um, when when economically, as a nation, we're doing probably better than we ever have before, we still have so many health problems, right? We still have such a disconnect from actually being happy. And being healthy. I think with abundance comes all kinds of options. And those options often come labeled with all kinds of, you know, beautiful designs and pitches. And I think having somebody like yourself, who again, went to the best medical doctors in the world on how to take care of the human body, and brought those, apply those principles in your own life, and then brought them out to all of us is a really, really powerful concept. I want to thank you for doing that. And for helping all of us think bigger, right? It's hard to have big ambitions and sustain those. If you're unhealthy, right, if you're unhappy if your body's not working correctly, everything else that you have planned for your life, whether it be dancing at your daughter's wedding did playing with your grand grandchildren, meeting your grandchildren, you know, having that quality of life that everybody works so hard to one day getting retirement is not going to be there if you were out your body getting there in the first place.
Tim James
Yeah, it's it's scary man. Because the statistics are really, you know, we work our whole lives, we leave our children, we leave our home, we go out there, we make this money, we pay taxes on that money. And you know, and a lot of real estate agents, the more they make, the bigger their tax burden gets, right. So we do all this hard work, and then we save up all this money. So now we have this big pile of money, we've got some rental properties, whatever, we got all this good stuff. And then boom, there's a major health event. And then you spend all your money trying to get just a little bit of health back. So we sacrifice our health the whole time, we have a lower quality of life, stacking up the cash. And then when the major event happens, we spend down all of our money trying to get a little bit of health back. You know, you ask somebody, what's it worth that has cancer, if they could, you know, not have it, they'll tell you it's blood giveaway everything, because they just want to live right? So we don't have to go into that cycle. 62% of bankruptcies in the United States are for medical bills, if that doesn't scare people, okay? 62%, that's over half of all men of all bankruptcies are required are related to medical expenses. So again, it's a broken system, people are falling apart, who doesn't know somebody that has cancer, who doesn't know somebody that's on medications, my clients, as after they get off their medications and stuff like that, if they get a new doctor, they the doctors come in, like, or their nurses are going to their chart and are like, you don't take any medications, you know, people in their 50s, they can't even believe it's like, wow, we don't have many people like this. And we can do so many pharmaceutical drugs over here. It's ridiculous. So I really wanted to talk to the realtors today about about performance to because what I noticed was in my coaching program, I started, you know, I get I told this one guy, he was actually he was he wasn't he was a salesperson. And he'd never made over $8,000. And I said, I said, I said, I go easy. His name was easy. I said, You watch you watch. Not only are you going to get healthy, but you're going to make more money. And he's like, really, I said, Yeah, let's set a money goal was kind of a fun thing. And I said, Let's set a money goal before the end of the coaching program that you have made $10,000 in a month. And he's like, okay, and we just kind of forgot about it, we focused on the basic focus on the basic principles. And two and a half months later, we're doing a coaching call, he's like, Tim, you're not gonna believe it. I'm like, what he goes, I just did 10,300 last month.
Tim James
I was like, Yeah, see, dude, I told you. Now, why is that, because when you take what you were talking about earlier, your body, your vehicle that's going to get you through life. And isn't it the most important thing that you should take care of, yet we take care of our cars better, we take care of our watch better, I mean, your body is sacred. And if you don't take care of where else you going to live, you know, the vehicle. So what happened was is as we detox his body, cleaned up the cells cleaned up the fat in the muscle tissue, cleaned up the digestive tract and started pumping his body full of purified water, and a bunch of green nutrition. He has more energy and his cells are literally vibrating at a higher frequency. And the combination of his hundred trillion cells vibrating 104, higher frequency is what he's vibrating at a higher frequency. So he became more attractive to people he's dealing with, because they want to work with him, he just like something about him. I mean, this is what people are saying, like your skin's glowing and, and he has the energy to make the extra calls. At the end of the day, he has the extra energy to go, you know, go out and see somebody and and write up an agreement to purchase the real estate or whatever, you just become more attractive and your brain becomes sharper. And then when you're done with work, you can go home and play baseball play catch with your kid in the backyard or play with your daughter, and you have the energy to do it. Rather the opposite, which is people are waking up. And they're trying to just stimulate themselves. So they drinking the coffee is drinking the five hour energy drinks all day long, just trying to get through the day. If you feel like you're just trying to get through the day, you don't have to do that anymore. These basic principles that we teach will totally transform your life. So you can have a higher quality of life. And that's and you're going to make a lot more money. And then when you do retire, once you understand how the human body works your body, you won't have to worry about getting cancer or heart disease, because they're just they're simple, basic reasons people are getting this stuff. And once you understand that you become bulletproof as far as your health goes. And then the best part of this whole thing, Justin, is that when you change, when you change yourself, and you start improving yourself, people around, you're going to be watching you. And as you transform yourself and as you start losing the weight. And as you have more energy. And as you're making more money, they're going to start following suit, not all of them. But some of them will when you change yourself, you're actually changing your world and you're affecting the people around you see your poor health doesn't just affect you, it affects everybody around you. Because if you're getting sick and your hospital, they got to pick you up, they got to drive you around, it's expensive. They have to leave work to take care of you. It's a major problem. And you can be a shining example to yourself, most importantly, loving yourself, your friends, your family, and your community. And that's what we help people do.
Justin Stoddart
And you have fit right into the theme so nicely of the show again, which is to help people think bigger, right? When I can put people around this audience around myself and around this audience of people like you that are that are big thinkers that can bring big thinking ideas, things that really changed the way that we think people's people's, their own actions start to follow suit, right, their their thoughts improve, their actions improve, and their ability to impact other people improves. And it's it's this is, you know, a topic that not a lot of people want to talk about. Right? It's, it's obvious to, to, to everybody, when people have a health concern, right, when someone's not well, again, the impact upon even co workers and then you know, in the workplace has a ripple effect upon your customers, your ability to lead people is deeply impacted and affected when you're not well, and I think it's time that we as a society put a real emphasis on our health. And I I don't think it has to be all consuming, right? People don't have to do what you do for a living Tim, in order to be fit like you right, in order to be healthy like you I think that's where a lot of people get get maybe bogged down a little bit, are they getting their own way as they think like, I'm too busy for that, right? I just I've got to hit a McDonald's and I've got to keep going. And they, they don't really understand how simple it is see everything in our society is is is is by design is made to be so dang complicated, that you have to go get some other professional to tell you what to do.
Justin Stoddart
I can't tell you how many times like somebody has a problem. And they find out they have, and they go meet with one doctor that they've never met. They've known him for 10 minutes. They're like, Okay, you've got cancer. And then you need to do chemo. And he raised you to do all this stuff. And they're like, Okay, I'm like, you've just met this person, you know, you don't even know them. I mean, are they healthy themselves, I teach all my clients like all your help, we help them set up their health professional team around them. And that health professional team needs to be healthy, they have to have fantastic skin, they have to have white eyes, they have to have lots of energy, they actually have to be living and breathing themselves. It's like going to a dietician that's overweight, that doesn't make any sense. Why would I take information from you, you can't even do it for yourself or going to a blind ophthalmologist to look at my eyes. You know, it doesn't make sense. You just have to go to people that have the results and maintain them in their own lifestyle. So the doctors that I work with, typically were, you know, 350 pounds, and they transform themselves. And they've been that way super healthy for 40 years, they had cancer and they transform themselves. They've been super healthy for 30 years, these guys and gals are in their 60s 70s and 80s. And they're healthier than me, because they understand these principles, and they worked on it longer. And you know, that's what I just want to be healthy. I want to be the grandfather that's running down the beach doing sprints with the grandkids and people like who is that guy? How does he do that? Well, it's because I understand the basic principles. I know how to drink frickin water. I chew my food really well, I flood my body with loose nutrients all the time. And I know how to detox myself on a daily basis because this polluted fishbowl we live in. It's just polluted, the air is polluted, the water is polluted, and you just have to be aware of it. But people don't know because it's the note what I call the no seems it's a stuff happening on a microscopic level that you can't see where the problem lies. So what I've learned is, is taking the complex and making it very simple. So people can take baby steps and start implementing these things in their life. And as they get results, we just slowly stack on more cards in the deck of health. And before they have a full deck, their health transformed. And now they know how to do this. And it's not like some big burden, right? Where they have to make these major shifts. And it has to last that's the thing. We want to teach people a lifestyle. It's not a diet. This isn't like, you know, any of that stuff. It's a complete lifestyle based on basic, simple principles that work with human physiology.
Justin Stoddart
That's it. I love it. Let's uh, let's make mention once again, of how people can get info from you if people aren't impressed with your knowledge and and kind of what you've brought to the table today I think they're crazy, but let's let me go ahead and and put up here on the screen where people can go to get two things, right one is a free coaching session with you yet Secondly is your ebook.
Tim James
Yeah, it's called the gut detox guide. Yeah. And we're passionate. Again, our main business over here is coaching and anybody out there that's struggling, hey, on the phone with me, you know, send an email and we'll get you that I'll send you the link. So you can get that free coaching session, love to help you. And also, like I said, as a gift will give them a free copy of that gut detox guide so they can get started on some of these basic principles at home, that that work, they just work.
Justin Stoddart
It's good stuff, man, total, total value that you've offered today, I want to I want to thank you for that. I want to thank you for helping us think bigger. So on that note, let's end with our signature question here, Tim, which is this you obviously a big thinker, you've you've you've changed not only your own health, but the health, the health of a lot of other people, and have a big ambition to continue to spread this mission, right? wider and further. Helping people have great lives so that they can have great businesses that fund more impact. Tell us what does a guy like you continue to do in order to continue to be a big thinker?
Tim James
Well, that's an easy question for me, because after I left the Hippocrates Health Institute, I realized that what I thought was true about a lot of things wasn't true at all the types of foods that I was supposed to eat and the you know, the whole protein, carb fat thing was completely jacked up, I learned the basics. And I felt so good. Then I realized that, wow, I my belief system was way off from reality. So I became very open minded. And and I kept pursuing things and things would come to me that I thought was whoo stuff. I'm like, well, I'll try it. And then I would it would work. I'm like, Okay, keep opening your mind opening your mind. And I could tell a story, but I know the podcast is a little bit shorter than most of them. So, but I would say, for me, it's about being open minded. And knowing that I've learned a lot, but I stay open minded. And I realized that I still have a lot to learn, and I want to learn, I want to keep finding things for myself for my health, and my family and my happiness, then be able to find these things and then share them with our clients, friends and family and people around me that are open minded. And you know, and ready to change, because people have to be ready. Otherwise, you know, you can't push a rope. Basically,
Justin Stoddart
I love it, open your mind and watch with the amazing things that can come into it. So thank you so much, Tim. It's been a total pleasure to thank you again for being a part of the value add that I like to bring to this audience. And I want to end with this charge to everybody listening today. Just three simple words there. Go think bigger. Thank you again, Tim, for helping us do that today and look forward to having more people hear about your mission.
Tim James
You're welcome. Thanks for having me on.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart. Today's episode is going to be one of the best, I'm promising you that because of today's guest, his name is Brian Page. He is the, in my opinion the world's foremost expert on creating passive income streams through Airbnb. We'll get into a little bit more about that I'm so excited to introduce him. Let me remind you that the purpose of this show is to help you think bigger when I can have people like Brian pouring into you pointing to all of us, our thoughts expand and as our thoughts as our thinking expands, our actions tend to follow suit as our actions follow suit our results follow and also our impact follows and that's my ultimate passion is to help each and every one of us lead a life of greater impact than we would otherwise. So if you're interested in getting more show notes updates on these shows go to think bigger dot real estate there you will find amazing content with people like Brian page. So let me first and foremost say Brian, I know you're a busy man and I'm so appreciative of you making time to be on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show.
Brian Page
No, thank you for having me here. I really appreciate it.
Justin Stoddart
For for those that don't know, Brian, let me give a kind of a brief background here. Brian, you became a millionaire while in your early 20s through residential real estate investing. 2008 hit and it was a little bit of a different scene for you wasn't it? Yes. And like many of us that were in the real estate industry, I was a builder at the time. High times turned to low times quickly. And I know for you personally, you probably like me, have a lot of ambition and we're okay just kind of settling with you know, like the market will come back it'll be okay, you began to look for other ways to get to your goal faster. For those that don't know Brian's story. He began teaching people and himself scaling an Airbnb business and I want to emphasize the word scaling because not many people have done that right they purchase a property they Airbnb it they save up some money they purchase another property they Airbnb it. That's a great way to get rich slowly. Brian has created a way where you can scale and actually have hotels all around the world without you necessarily owning the real estate underneath it. It's a fascinating model. You're going to love this episode. I just want to also make special mention here that Brian has worked with heavyweights like Tai Lopez, Grant Cardone, Kevin Harrington, Dean Graziosi, like some of the biggest and brightest names in real estate, Brian has been featured by those individuals, because of his expertise on this very topic, the the BNB Formula. So with all of that said, let me thank you again, Brian, for coming on the show. And let's dive into how do you make money on Airbnb without owning property? I'm sure people are like, "Now wait, what? You can you can make money through Airbnb without actually owning the property? Please tell us more!" Teach us how you do that?
Brian Page
Sure.Well, I kind of stumbled into it. After going through the whole real estate crash. Around 2008. I stumbled around for a few years trying to figure out something that I could do to make money. And I really wanted to create cash flow. That was the thing that was all about I was a rich dad poor dad fan, I believed in creating cash flow was the way to be financially free. But I didn't really have the ability or the desire to go buy property again. So I was making a little bit of money with my spare room in my apartment, I had a two bedroom apartment I was renting. And that was doing okay. But it wasn't until a fake encounter with a gentleman on a plane on a flight. I sat down next to this guy and very wealthy guy that started kind of giving me some advice. And he said, you know, if you could get a whole bunch of these properties on Airbnb, you can make a fortune. And I said, Well, duh, yeah. But I don't, I don't have 20% down, I don't want to go buy property again. I'm kind of double that. They said no, no, you can just control property. If you can control property, then you can do whatever you want. And so that kind of started the whole, the whole journey for me on Airbnb.
Justin Stoddart
Interesting. So this gentleman helped you to realize that you to control property, you don't necessarily have to own property.
Brian Page
Yeah, you don't have to own it. And Airbnb doesn't care if you own the property or not when you go to list it. So I found that I can control it two ways, I can either lease the property, get permission from the owners to then put it on Airbnb, or I could partner with the owners directly, where I can say to the owner, hey, look, you're going to make more money working with me than you would with a normal tenant. And I'll show you how to do it. It's no extra work for you. And we'll split the profits. So there's a couple different ways to do it. But ultimately, what allows you to do is go faster. So you can get properties very, very quickly. And it allowed me to do over six figures, my first six months on the site, and over 300,000 my first year, and I had many, many students have done the same thing. I have students that have earned way more than me on Airbnb now, which is pretty crazy.
Justin Stoddart
And you know, the interesting thing, I actually read the chapter of a book that you had written on this very topic. And the question that came into my mind is, why, if I'm a, if I'm a property owner, right? Why would I? And you answer the question in this book, but I'm gonna have you answer it for the audience. If I own a piece of property, and I could lease it out to long term tenants, versus you, who's going to simply sublease it through Airbnb through Airbnb, to short term tenants? Why would I choose you over a long term tenant?
Brian Page
Yeah, that's a good question. Everybody asked that question. And when I first started meeting with owners, that was the very question I had to solve in my head. Because most people were just saying no, to me, they didn't really understand the idea or get it. But they were actively looking for a tenant. So what I figured out after meeting with, you know, dozens, and now hundreds of people face to face, kind of pitching this idea, I realized that really, most owners are only concerned with two things. And I had a whole bunch of rental properties myself, I was a landlord for many years real estate investor. So I was only looking for two things. And that was somebody who's going to pay the rent on time, without any hassle. And somebody that's gonna respect and take care of the property, not cause any problems with the property. If somebody could show me they're going to do those two things, then I would generally be open to renting to them. So it's pretty easy to show people look, I'm going to pay the rent on time, here's my references, here's my previous landlords, I'm going to be responsible. But a lot of times people will be like, well, what's the advantage with going with you versus just anybody else? So I had to start thinking of that. And I started, I started realizing that with Airbnb, there's a big difference between guests and tenants. And all the problems that you think about with being a landlord are usually related to tenants. So for example, I always play this game with owners, I would say, I'm going to say a statement, and I want you to tell me if it's an owner, I'm sorry, I want you tell me if it's a tenant or guest that would cause this problem. And I would say, okay, somebody leaves their car in the driveway, and unblocked and takes, you know, starts doing oil changes, leaves car parts everywhere. Would that be a guest? Who's coming in for two nights that probably Uber to the property? Or would it be attended? Well, obviously, you know, it's a tenant, pets destroying the property or digging holes all over the yard, that's going to be a tenant or guest. Well, my guests don't have pets. So that's never an issue. Somebody who goes and modifies the property, they start installing things, or painting weird colors on the interior, all those kind of things that happened. Somebody having a, an ex, boyfriend, ex girlfriend, show up and kick the front door. And I mean, these kind of things happen all the time with tenants, but they don't happen with guests. And the main reason is that guests don't see the property is there, they don't look at it as like, this is my property, and I own this, they're just passing through. So there's a totally different mentality when you explain that to owners, they understand, Wow, my property actually might be taking better care of with these guests. And that is the case, you have a cleaning company coming in every couple days, every two or three days, I have a professional cleaning company coming in, so that the owner actually gets to see the property when if they want to see it. And that's not the case with tenants, you also don't have to deal with evictions, you never have to evict the gas because they don't have any rights to the property. a tenant does have rights to the property. So there's all these benefits when you start explaining it to an owner, then it's like they kind of get it. And they may, they may still say no, but you don't need a whole bunch properties to really earn big money on every day.
Justin Stoddart
You know, it's it's fascinating. I think about the last time I stayed in a hotel is about a month ago. And I barely I mean, I slept in the bed. That's it, right? My wife and I actually on the North Shore of Hawaii, chose an Airbnb over a hotel. And again, we did not want to be in that very BNB for very long, we wanted it to be nice, but as soon as the sun was up, we were headed the beach, right? We had other things to do. And so you're right, it's very different being a guest over being a tenant. And when landlords can get their head around that of like, wait a minute, you're telling me you, you're gonna have nothing but guess and no tenants, it's a very appealing offer to a landlord
Unknown Speaker
It's appealing. And then the thing that always speaks with anybody is money. So the last, the last thing that I always last card, I always play as money. And it's like if they say no, I say, Well, what if I can make you more money than what you're actually asking? You're asking $1,000 a month for this unit? What if I get to 1200 1300. And oftentimes, I'll pay I can pay more because I know that property on Airbnb can be worth $3,000, a month or more. So I know if I pay a little bit extra to sit since the deal. It's worth it to me. Now. That's one model. Now the other model is not doing leases at all, which is just where I'm approaching you as you're the owner. And I say Hey, why don't you let me list that property and Airbnb will try it for 30 days or 60 days, there's no long term commitment. And, and I'll split all the profits with you above and beyond what you're already asking. So you're already going to make $1,000 a month, and then we make another $2,000 a month, we're going to split that 5050. And you got to do nothing, nothing at all. And if you don't like me, you don't like the way it's going. Just tell me to take a hike. And we're done there. And so it allows me to get into the property without having a lease. Now I do make less money, yes. But it's a way to get in with virtually no risk. There's no risk no money out of pocket, I'm not gonna giving them a deposit up front. So there's really no downside for me as the as the Airbnb or, and there is an upside for the owner. So it's a win win.
Justin Stoddart
Love it. Now, let's talk about why why would somebody allow you to Airbnb? Why would they just do it themselves? Obviously, there's a certain landlord you're looking for that hasn't done this? Do you find that as soon as they sniff out? What's going on here that they want to end your lease and they want to take it over themselves? Or do they find a really kind of long term partnership? In working with you?
Brian Page
That's a good question. I met probably with hundreds and hundred people now face to face. And I've never had somebody yet look at me and say, Oh my gosh, that's a great idea. Why don't I go do that I'm going to take it off the market right now and do that. The reason being if an owner was, was savvy enough to understand that the potential most of most owners don't know how much you can actually make on Airbnb. And they also are willing to do it. But if they were, they would have already done that they wouldn't have put it on the market. And we're talking about only talking to owners who already have property for rent that's on Craigslist, or it's on Zillow, or it's on, you know, they've been assigned in the front yard, or it's in the local paper, we're already looking for people who are actively searching for tenants. So most owners that they're going to do it, they're going to do it anyways. And they usually think it's a lot of work. If you don't have a plan in place, you don't have a system, it can be a lot of work. So you got to put yourself in the mentality of the average investor. And a lot of people listening right now might be investors, you know, we have other things going on. If you're an investor, you probably don't own just one property, you probably have a career, you probably have other investments, a lot of things that you do, the last thing that you want to think about doing is starting a new venture with Airbnb. So if you can show the owner that the owners is looking for the rent, they're just looking like, Hey, I just got this unit empty, I gotta get it filled, I gotta get it filled. Now, that's kind of the best kind of what they're thinking that's what they need. So I don't really worry about even if an owner were to say to me, Hey, I'm going to do it myself, I'd be like, great, more power to you. I'll go on to the next property, because there's millions of properties every day being listed for read. I mean, there's all they're always out there, and they're always available.
Justin Stoddart
You know, and I think you bring up a really great point, Brian, and I want everybody listening this to recognize, like the definition of a business, right? It's it's a, it's a series of processes and systems, right, that produce money, I should say, processes, models, systems, and people that produce money without you necessarily having to be the one pulling the levers and turning the wheels. And for you to make that distinction of like, wait a minute, this is an investment property for you. It's a business for me. Do you want to start another business, you really want to manage all of that create your own processes, your own models, your own systems? hire more people to do this for you? Or do you just want to continue to be a passive investor and earn more money and have your property better taken care of, then I'm your solution. I'll run my business on top of your property, and it'll be a win win for both.
Brian Page
Yeah, I'm glad you said that. Because some people, they misunderstand what I teach because I if you're interested in starting Airbnb figured out how to do Airbnb for the first time, I can help you do that. That's not really what I teach. Anybody can do that. It's not that hard to go to go set up property or room on the site. What I help people do is build businesses, build a system, build a system that's scalable. So you get a whole bunch of these things on Airbnb, and that's where the money starts getting bigger and, and being able to, to remove yourself from situations you're not doing the day to day tasks. Because I don't want to create a job for myself. I was working 4050 hours a week in the beginning when I had a bunch of these listings, because I couldn't figure out how to how to systematized and I couldn't figure out how to automate it and get out of the day to day. So now what I teach people how to do is get the first property, then get their second thing, get their third and then start automating those properties, and then continually adding and adding and adding to the portfolio. So I just got an email today from a student mine, she's on her 12th property. She told me she netted $246,000 I think it was in the last 12 months. And she done it with no leases doesn't own any property. And she was a she was a bartender and a college student when she started she's 26 years old. So so just gives you an idea that it's it's huge numbers can be created, cash flow can be created, but it can be done very part time, she works very hard time doing this. So that's what I'm about. I'm passionate about making money, but not exchanging all my time for it. And helping people build businesses on top of other people's real estate investments. It's a win win for both. I love it. What's the risk? Obviously, as you think through this, you're essentially securing leases, right with landlords, and then you're building the business on top of that lease. Yeah. What's the downside? How do people insulate themselves against having a bunch of leases that right that they can't pay for? Yeah, well, there with any least there's going to be some risk because you're actually signing your name on legal obligation to pay that rent for the next 12 months. So I always tell people, look, if you're not comfortable doing that start the other way, start with partnering on a property, I started with a room, a second room in my apartment, and I knew how much that little room was making. So I knew if it's making this much money, then that little one bedroom apartment down the road is going to make at least that much, which is more than what they're charging me for rent. So I knew I felt comfortable moving to the next level. So So as far as risk, yeah, there could be some risk of signing a lease, but everything's negotiable. Everything's renegotiate, if I got into at least one time in two months in, I found out the property wasn't going to work. And I went and got another tenant for that owner brought that tenant to them. That was a perfect selection and said, I'm sorry, I just can't stay in this lease. But here's your guy, this is the guy that you need to let take over the lease, and they let me out. So everything's ready to go. And, but if you want to avoid any kind of risk leases, then you can look at partnering. And then as far as the other risk, I guess you'd call it a risk, I can see my poster behind me take the risk. Risk, definitely the most people because if you're going to put money into a business, it's always a risk. But this is something where you can put in a very small amount of money to get something going that could actually pay you daily cash flow. And I don't know many businesses like that. And it's also the kind of business where you can break even in the first 30 days. So if you if you, for example, have $1,000, rental $1,000 deposit, that's $2,000 let's say it's a furnished property, then even if you spend a little a few hundred dollars more on a few things you're going to put in that unit, let's say it's 20 $500, you could quite feasibly bring in 20 $500 on a on a $1,000 a month rental the first month. So you broke even maybe made a little bit money that first month, and then every month after that you're profitable. So it's such a small miniscule risk, I don't consider it a risk compared to say real estate flipping, which I've done many real estate flips and other real estate deals where if you make a mistake, you might actually come out of pocket, you know, you can make a bad mistake by property. That's, that's not a good selection Are you overpay for it. It's a low risk, side hustle, you can start but then you can also grow that into a real business.
Justin Stoddart
So on that note, I mean, what one other questions probably coming to mind, obviously in some of these, you know, different cities where people are at, or they're hearing about, like cities coming in and making changes to Airbnb policies, right short term rental policies, homeowners associations doing the same? I think you probably answer this to some degree when you said things are negotiable, right? Something changes, you go back to the owner say this isn't working anymore. Is there anything else people should know about? And of course, there's no way we'll get through all of your content in this interview. But but just kind of briefly touch on that of like, when? How do you navigate right when city like city ordinances etc.
Brian Page
Okay, so this is one of the things that, that I wasn't even sure how to answer because I only knew my local area. When I first got started, I started teaching people, I'm not taught thousands of people in 30 different countries how to do this. And as my number of students started growing, they were at all kinds of cities. So they were in cities, where it's not even really allowed, like San Francisco or New York city proper. There are places where what I call red cities, or red zones, where home sharing or short term rentals is really just not allowed. It's very difficult, if not possible to do. So I started doing some research, we hired a research firm over the course of six months that research the top 2000 cities in the US now that no 2000 cities is every city, every town over 30,000 people in the US, we put on a spreadsheet. And we basically classify them as his short term rentals allowed or not allowed. And we found that 92% of towns and cities in the US, for example, allow home share. So 8% dope. But what was interesting is even in those 8% of cities, I still have students there that were killing it, I got students in San Francisco that are killing it. In places like Denver, or New York City, they're still doing well. And I couldn't figure out how they were doing it like are they breaking the rules? Some people are, but are they doing it without breaking the rules? How are they doing this? So what we found is that they were just simply going around the red zone. So if you take a city, any city like Atlanta, Georgia for Atlanta is not very easy to do short term rentals in. But Atlanta is made up of 20 different metro areas. So if you live in downtown Atlanta, you can simply get your car and drive in any direction, 20 minutes, and you're in another town, nothing municipality. So you just go where the opportunity is, if you don't want to break the rules. Now, with that being said, half the cities that are read do not enforce the rules at all. So do what do with that what you like, but um, so it's quite frankly, just like any real estate, you got to go where the opportunity is you got to go where it's zone correctly. But thankfully, for nine out of 10 cities, it's going to be totally fine.
Justin Stoddart
Now as I was reading about you prior to us connecting, I thought to myself, I remember back to my days playing Monopoly as a youth. And I remembered it seems like the person that always want is the person that got hotels, right. And it was a, it was a painful process. To get to that point, right, you had to get the right property, then you had to have enough cash to put a house on it and then trade up to a hotel, right. And what I see you having done here is to shortcut the the means and methods by which you have hotels all over the place.
Brian Page
Yeah. Yeah. I look at it as a distributed hotel. Because the hotel mate, let's say has a 10 room hotel, where you can have 10 units, but they're all over the place. So these rooms, hotel rooms are distributed. So yeah, it's kind of like being a hotelier In fact, the Airbnb book, somewhere behind me on the shelf. It's an Airbnb story. They call it citizen hotel years. So it's the idea that any citizen now can can run their own little hotel. The downside of that it's it's a great thing. It's very lucrative. The downside is that when you run a hotel, you got to have a front desk, you have somebody to manage those guests and manage all the stuff that happens and all the requests, and I need more towels and all that kind of crap. So luckily, that can now be outsourced, you can actually set up your virtual front desk. And that's what I love to teach people how to do. So how to run your hotel, how to have a front desk and managing that hotel, where you're the owner, but you're not the operator. I don't want anybody to be the operator, I don't want somebody to be like I did. I did what you said right? Now, I haven't no time because I'm running all these Airbnb. I'm just specialize in teaching you how to do literally work the three, four or five hour workweek, and be able to make significant income doing it.
Justin Stoddart
And before we get to the signature question of the show, which I can't wait to hear your answer to, for those that have watched the show. Now what I'm talking about, and I'm going to ask you what you do to continue to think bigger. But before you answer that, I just want to put a plug in here on how you get more information on Brian Brian page again, Brian page book. com it's at. It's a it's a brief audio correct, Brian, tell us a little bit about the book.
Unknown Speaker
So brianpagebook.com is my audio book. And what I'll do in the audio book is walk you through, and I'll talk about every single one of my properties, what the numbers are specifically, so you know what the numbers are, I'll explain more about how I got the owners on board. And then how I started to scale it. It's basically my whole story. And it's $2 killer audio book, if you don't like it, let me know, refund your money, but you gotta listen to the whole audio book and, and then get more information on what I teach.
Justin Stoddart
Awesome stuff, please do yourself a favor, spend the $2. That's half of the cost of your latte, like this morning, maybe a third of the cost of your latte anyway, a great investment. And again, I want to kind of frame this in the sense that this, the audience that has attracted this show is oftentimes residential real estate agents, real estate professionals, you might be thinking like, this isn't a little bit in competition to what I do, here's what you need to know is it by surrounding yourself, again, with big thinking people with the best ideas on the planet, you are going to be able to show up to your clients more as an advisor, as an expert, as a knowledge worker, not just as a customer service representative here to market and sell their home. Yes, that's important. But that cannot be the baseline to what you do. You have to expand your knowledge, you have to expand your network. And people that do that, and recognize the abundance in doing so will position them selves at work with the best clients out there. so appreciative of what you've shared today, Brian, again, let's move to the signature question of the show, which is there's no doubt that you are a big thinker, right? That's why you're on the think bigger real estate show. And we're so proud to have you here. Obviously, you've surrounded yourself again, with some of the biggest names in real estate. You've been featured in ink, Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes, like some of the biggest magazines out there have highlighted you and your strategy. In addition to all of that, what does a guy like you continue to do to think bigger? What do you do to continue to expand your possibilities, please teach us.
Brian Page
try to get uncomfortable. I find that whenever I'm uncomfortable, I'm pushing my boundaries. And I'm doing something that's outside of my skill set and usually out some definitely out something outside of my my comfort zone. So I remember a mentor of mine said, make being uncomfortable your new comfort zone. So I'm always pushing myself, I'm doing things actually this month that I've never done before. I'm doing my first live event mastermind event. So I'm very excited about that. And and then always constantly looking for something that when I start feeling it's it's a little uncomfortable. For me, it's something that I essentially I have to do. And I just read this quote today I want to share this quote because it actually fits with what you said just I just read it earlier this morning. This is by Dan Penn, I don't even know if I know who Dan Penn is, but I love this quote, he says "When I get uncomfortable, I know that I'm making progress." So for me, that's kind of the thing that's that's that's the easiest way to tell where the edge is, for me, is as soon as its uncomfortable, I push into that. And I think that's the best way to start thinking bigger. And if the dreams that you have the vision you have for your life does not make you a little bit uncomfortable, those are probably too small of goals, that's just my personal opinion should probably increase those a little bit.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I found that human happiness is oftentimes very correlated to their growth, people that not growing or typically very unsatisfied, and very unhappy. Whereas people that are growing and stretching themselves, I believe that it's it's consistent with their even spiritual DNA, right, that were designed and made to grow. And when we don't grow, we feel it. And we're unhappy as a result. And I think what you've shared reminds me of a quote that "Everything you want in life is outside your comfort zone." And I really appreciate we've shared, this has been mind expanding, and I'm extremely grateful for you taking the time and the effort to come and pour into this audience. I hope that everybody listening today has at minimum had your own vision and your own possibilities expanded. I hope as well as you go find Brian, follow Him and seek out his content, if nothing more than to help you be a better real estate advisor and potentially unlock some passive income for you that may be right under your nose. So Brian, I want to thank you again for coming on. And it's been a total pleasure.
Unknown Speaker
I wanted to let everybody know if this is is Airbnb things not for you. I have a lot of great content on entrepreneurship, business inspiration, that kind of stuff. You can find me at at @bpagester on Instagram, Facebook anywhere, really. And you might want to see some of the content I put out because it's it's stuff that I've learned over the last few years. It's really helped a lot of people on their journey.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Yeah, just a big thinking guy like you will help all of us in whatever endeavors we're on and working towards. So my final request of everybody listening today, and you've made this a lot easier for us, Brian, which is three words, its "Go Think Bigger." Brian, it's been a total pleasure. Thank you again for joining us. Thanks, everybody for tuning in.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I am your host, Justin Stoddart, and I have a treat for all of you today, I can't wait to introduce you to an incredible lady in so many areas of her life. I'm going to make you wait to hear exactly who it is, even though I know you can see her already. Let me just restate the purpose of this show, which is to help you think bigger. Everything you want in life will come about as you do the right things and you will do the right things as you start to think about the right things. So, my purpose and my passion are to help you think bigger so that you can do the right things and then have the impact and life that you were designed to have. So with that, I would encourage you if you have not already signed up for the regular newsletter, which gives you updates and show notes of the amazing guests that I have, you can get to that at https://thinkbigger.real estate. That's my website and I encourage you to do that. I'm honored today to have with me Michelle Bosch. Let me tell you a little bit about Michelle. I'll just start with this, her businesses have been featured on INC, Fox, ABC and Forbes. She has really done some incredible things, let me tell you, about this as a real estate investor, entrepreneur and leader. She's the co founder and CFO at orbit investments and a full time real estate investor since 2002. They've got a really unique strategy, we're going to get into that, but she has bought and sold over 4000 pieces of real estate. Yes, you heard that right 4,000 with a comma, pieces of real estate and built the third largest land investment, investment and auction company, in the US. I told you this is impressive while bringing that company successfully into the eight figure revenues in a matter of 18 months. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm so excited to have with me today. Michelle Bosch. Michelle, thank you for coming on the show today.
Michelle Bosch
Oh my God, thank you so much for that wonderful introduction. It is an honor to be here, I'm excited to be with you know, with your audience today. And, and provide, you know, a little window into, you know, the world of of investing in real estate.
Justin Stoddart
I love that. And before we get into all of that, we're going to keep everybody hanging just a little bit about how in the world in 18 months, you created such an empire. I want people to know a little bit about your background. You are from Honduras, originally an immigrant and your husband is from Germany, also an immigrant.
Michelle Bosch
Yes.
Justin Stoddart
One of my mentors, as I mentioned to you previously is Brian Buffini, who wrote the book, The Emigrant Edge. When he grew up in Ireland, he loved, and still loves his homeland. But when he came to America, he saw and felt something different, which is the land of opportunity. It's the coveted place where the ambitious want to come, entrepreneurs wants to come, because they realized the soil here is so fertile. Talk to us about that Michelle, howbeing in America has really opened your eyes to opportunity.
Michelle Bosch
Yeah, you know, both my husband and I, like you mentioned are, immigrants into the US. So I came here in 1995. Jack came here in 1997. And we pretty much walked into the US with two suitcases to our name. You know, we both came to study here with a lot of hardship and sacrifice. My mom is a single mom, she raised me as a single mom, my father passed away when I was very young. But she you know, she invested in me, and, you know, send me to a bilingual school back home, which is what allowed me, you know, to come to the US to be able to talk to you even, you know, right now, during this interview, she, she, she was she had so much faith in me and, and for jack as well, you know, he came from perhaps, you know, Germany is a much more wealthy society, let's put that, you know, that way versus hundreds. But still, you know, he came from a background where his father was an elementary teacher, his mother a stay at home mom. So there was there was always money, you know, money, pinching counting money to make sure that you know, to make ends meet. And, and then you come into the US and, you know, we did what everyone did, which is to get a job, we work 60 or 80 hour weeks for, you know, for a big company as consultants traveling 100%. And, and, and we absolutely hated and then we realized, oh, my goodness, we are in a place where, you know, we we were following the traditional track, but we're in a place where you can get us an LLC set up for $180 here in the state of Arizona, you know, you file like a three page paperwork, and you can get it done. And hundreds you have to go through an attorney in Germany, it's like you have to have even financial backing, and so on to even start a corporation and so on and so forth. So there's so much red tape and and I think the emphasis though that I want to bring is the fact that when we came here, or when an immigrant comes into the US, you come hungry, you come driven, you come, you know, you come looking for something better than what you had in the past and where you came from. And there's opportunities everywhere. I think that because it's also new to us we see everywhere, and because it's it's common for a person living in the US and raised in the US, they don't see them anymore. You know what I mean? So I think it's, it's it's seeing opportunities that others don't see as a result of just coming from a completely different backgrounds, completely different context. So yeah. And now with my daughter, who's now born and raised here, I'm always like walking that fine edge of like, how can I still keep her hungry? How can I still keep her driven? While at the same time? You know, I don't want her to fall into poverty consciousness either, you know, so. So it's, it's a fine line.
Justin Stoddart
So powerful. You said that, you know, I spent two years of my life on a church mission in Brazil, lived a among them, I didn't live as an American, I was really as a Brazilian, very humble circumstances, and it was amazing to me, the perspective that it gave. You know, many of my companions that I would team up with down there came out of extreme poverty and were returning to extreme poverty after their missions. And I was returning to a well known four year university, and it almost felt an unfair, right, and there were times that where I was, you know, felt like how can I do more to lift them. And I think if there's, there's one thing that we can all do, living in the land of the or whatever country you're in, I know I have friends actually in Brazil watching this, I got a comment here from one is that is to take advantage of the opportunities that you have, don't take them for granted. Don't, don't spend so much time recreating that you don't actually take the time to work. Again, I think sometimes people, they'll work just enough to where their needs are taken care of. Yet, someone like you who's gone on to create significant, success through other people, we begin to extend the hand and send the elevator back down, like my friend, Lou Radja says, send the elevator back down. So someone else can also rise up. And I think that's the responsibility of all of us to, you know, to that have great opportunities is that you know, where much is given, much is required.
Justin Stoddart
So thank you for sharing that perspective on kind of your background, and part of the reason I'm sure as to why you've done what you've done.
Michelle Bosch
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think also, that background was incredibly crucial for us, because like I was telling you earlier, we we went into an asset class within real estate, that is not common, but But for us, it was the simplification of real estate it was and for me, one of my commandments now is the key to prosperity is simplicity. That's like my Michelle Bosch commandment, because we started looking into houses and and, and trying to flip houses trying to flip try plexus. And because we weren't from here, we didn't know anything about construction. We didn't know anything about you know, contractors about mold, roofing issues, how to estimate repairs on a kitchen on a home, that was like, beyond our capabilities back then. And somehow we stumble into into this niche of land. And, and it was perfect, because for us, we're like, okay, we don't have to deal with tenants, we don't have to deal with toilets, we don't have to deal with termites with any of the complexities and moving pieces of off trying to, you know, flip our home, or even like us our credit, it's not that we had bad credit, we just had no credit because we we, you know, we didn't grow up here. And so and so that background, also of an immigrant, you know, really helped us see, okay, there's, there's something here simple, that, you know, I can flip for the same 510 15 $20,000 or more, you know, with higher priced properties. And, and I don't have to deal with any of the complexities of houses. So I think that immigrant background was also instrumental in us, you know, looking at this other opportunity, you know, within real estate that is completely overlooked. That, in my opinion, isn't it? It's like a blue ocean, because everyone's chasing after houses. And, and then and there, you have a piece of land, and people are like, Oh, my gosh, but what am I going to do with a piece of land? You know, it doesn't even cash flow, what, what can I do with it? And, and even even that, you know, we we've been able, over the, you know, over the course of our of our careers, you know, we've been able to have those 4000 deals, and you just mentioned, I would say a good half of them, you know, we're so in flipped using seller financing, where, where someone was paying us 300 400 $500, you know, every month on a note that we created, because we offered seller financing, so we became the bank. So even though I'm going to say, you know, land cash flows, so it does come to an end eventually. But it's it's a, you know, it's an asset class, that you can definitely create passive cash flow for a specific period of time,
Justin Stoddart
I want to put this, this vein that you're going down, into a kind of a more broad context, me, which I think was very powerful, which which are the four freedoms, right? You have, you've explained to me, there's money, freedom, there's freedom, there's relationship freedom, and there's purpose freedom, I want to I want to delve deeper into the money freedom, which you started to talk about, which is through, you know, real estate investing, specifically flipping land that then folds into, you know, multifamily, etc. Let's talk quickly to maybe help people understand that, obviously, real estate agents that watch this professionals that watches, understand that there are great opportunities to invest in real estate, but sometimes, again, we we need to have almost a context of of why we need to do that, of why it's important to produce more than just what your day job creates, right? Because Talk to us a little bit about time freedom, why that became important, and how real estate investing. kind of played into that?
Michelle Bosch
Yeah, absolutely. So so. So yeah, so there's these four freedoms, freedom of money, time, relationships, and purpose. When we had our corporate jobs, and we were exchanging hours for dollars, you know, we didn't have the time to go and visit our families in our respective countries. And we certainly didn't have the money because we were living paycheck to paycheck. I mean, we had payments. I remember in our first home, on our mortgage, of course, on our house, on our sofa, on her laundry machine, on our bed, I mean, you name it, we have payments on our car on everything. Yeah. So it was, it was like if, if if for some reason, you know, we would lose our jobs, you know, we we would be toast. So, so we're like, there's got to be a better way, you know, we're both we both came here, you know, to, to study, we're both, you know, majored in business, and we're like, we, there's, there's got to be something that gives us, you know, the ability to do this location free in case where, you know, outside of the US, that can give us ongoing cash flow, passive cash flow, ideally, and we're, we're Yes, to an extent exchanging dollars for hours, but higher point, I want to say, in a higher quality way, where I'm able to make say, with maybe three or four hours into purchasing a deal, and in putting together a deal and making, you know, 2030, grand, you know, Park profits. And so that that was our beginning, our beginning thoughts were, you know, it was money and time, that was our biggest, our biggest pain points in that moment. Yeah. And, and it wasn't until we were, you know, at some point two years into it, you know, flipping land, we're like, okay, we can't work much more than we're working, we're now finding ourselves working the same 80 hour, 80 hours a week, we're working in that other company. And, and it's time for us to start expanding, you know, beyond just my husband and myself. And so that's when we brought in a team, and we understood the freedom or relationships, you know, that we could, we had a choice to bring people that, that we liked, that we respected, that we admire that aligned with our core values, and, and help them grow as well within our company, while they helped us grow our company. And that's kind of how we went from maybe 100 to 120 deals, you know, in the second year, to 18 months after that second year started, us being able to bring our business to a an eight figure business by I flipped land in a in an auction format, where we, you know, all of a sudden, instead of selling, buying or buying and selling one at a time, we were having an option here at the Phoenix convention center with like, you know, 600 people, and we were able to sell 200 pieces of land, you know, in one day, and so we went from being able to sell 120 pieces and, and, you know, in the course of the year to 200 pieces in one day, and that's in there is when I think starts the freedom of purpose, when we decide, oh, wow, this is something that is incredibly transformational. We're not just being a win win, to the people that are selling to me the piece of land, there's an incredible win that I'm creating for the people that I'm you know, selling to now that is my buyer, you know, and I'm in. And eventually, that turned into how can we teach others to do what we do, which is land flipping in transform the lives just like this asset class has transformed ours, you know, we were able to retire my husband, I remember, within the first three years, my husband's father, who was had been teaching for like, almost 35 years in Germany and, and his health was deteriorating, we knew that if we didn't retire him quickly, that, you know, he would probably, you know, survive maybe a year after retirement and then die, you know what I mean? So, so, so So, so you start injecting you know, that that's the reasons for making money and for and for and for, for having freedom of money and time you start injecting you know, the purpose behind those as well. And and and i think it comes from first taking care of your needs, and then you can start looking outward you know, taking care of your then your, you know, your immediate family, then your community and then re circulating you know that that wealth, and that generosity and those blessings with others. And that's I think, the stage where where we find ourselves now, which is now teaching others you know how to flip land and do what we do.
Justin Stoddart
This is so fun to hear this, I tell you, my possibilities are expanding this listening to you. And I'm sure the same is true of others. I want to kind of make mention of a couple people here that I've said a few things. Good friend of mine, Diana McCready, is a fantastic real estate agent here in the area. She says, so true, make a living, selling real estate, build wealth, owning it, what a great point. And I think any real estate agent, this listening to this, or professional from any industry, is to realize the power of being an investor, right? I think we can, we can look at this through the eyes of us personally. But also taking the principles that Michelle's teaching us and becoming an educator becoming a consultant with them, so that the hundreds of people with whom you have direct contact on a regular basis, can start to have their possibilities expanded, right, you see this ripple effect, where someone like, Michelle speaks to us, our possibilities are expanded, we then take that information, begin educating other people, those that have ears to hear will hear it and do something with it. And then they can in turn impact. amazing people, maybe you're familiar with the book, The Butterfly Effect, how, you know, the wings of a butterfly, right can create a hurricane on the other side of the world, they've tracked, like how these little tiny molecule movements can have this massive repercussion in other places, right, and doesn't always have to be a destructive one, like a hurricane. But the point is, that oftentimes we we underestimate how powerful us just having a voice and being an educating and lifting and offering opportunity to other people. And, again, I you know, what, you shared powerful let's, let's talk a little bit about, you know, obviously the relationship quadrant, right, we've got the four freedoms, money, time, which you've spoken about relationships, how does this being a real estate investor, even to the scale of magnitude that you guys have, and or even smaller scale? How does that give you freedom of relationships?
Michelle Bosch
So So when when we had, you know, our jobs, and we were consulting, we had no, no choice. But to go to a client in a customer that was chosen for us, we had colleagues that were, you know, that we may or may not have liked to work with bosses that we may or may not have liked, and all of a sudden you find yourself as an investor in an entrepreneurial journey, really, you know, or as a, you know, as a real real estate agent, you are in an entrepreneurial journey, you know, and, and all of a sudden, you find yourself with the ability to choose, you know, what kind of who you want to be a hero to what kind of client Do you want to serve? Who, you know, what kind of sellers, do you want to list properties for, you know, what kind of buyers you want to help. And so you have so many more choices, you know, and so that's, I think, Where, where, for us, the freedom of relationships, you know, started in as we expand it, and as we grew, it meant also, you know, bringing people in our team, on if there is anything that I, I would say, something that I learned that I wish I would have focused on earlier, you know, because I was so busy on the freedom of money and time would have been on the who, you know, business has four pillars, it has the why, the WHO THE what in the house, if you think about it, and we were so busy in these two, and the one in the in the how, that into why, you know, we knew why we were doing this, but our whole, you know, investing in our who's even recognizing what do we stand for? What do we stand against? What are our core values? How can we bring people into our group, you know, and into our business, that are incredibly core values driven that take bold action, like we do that, you know, whose whose core values to be, you know, of everything that I do, that would be excellence, of integrity of being transformational, I wish my emphases on that would have been so much sooner would have saved me a lot of headaches when you know, with people bad Miss hires, you know, and just wasted money and time on on training that that, you know, where my team didn't fit those, you know, because we didn't we ourselves, were not clear on what those core values were for us. So that that freedom off of relationships has to come with some clarity on your end as to what you stand for know, and who do you want to be a hero to and what kind of values you know, you, you you embody and you want to surround yourself with, whenever you know you're doing business, whether it be with a seller or with a buyer.
Justin Stoddart
I love it both with your teammates, as well as with your customers. I love the concept. Jody Rettenhouse, a friend of mine from LinkedIn, although I've actually never met her before, but she shared this quote super powerful, she said "The customer's always right. Yet not everybody has to be your customer." Yeah, exactly. I think there's great power in that of being very clear on who it is that we serve and being okay with the fact that these people, they don't meet our standards doesn't make them bad people, but they just don't fit who we want to serve or who we can best serve. I think when you start to do that you start to actually fill your life, both your employees or teammates, and you and your customers, with people who who resonate with you. How much further are you able to go when you eliminate that friction of pulling in separate directions?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, and it's it's normal at the beginning, you have to say yes to everything, you know, when you're starting as an entrepreneur, as an investor, as a Realtor, but eventually, you know, it just as important as the Yes, as far as who do you say no to, you know, and what do you what things do you say no to in order to focus on the main thing, you know, and keeping the main thing, the main thing? And, and yeah, and so for us, you know, it's been, you know, this, this vision of what we call for our cash, which is passive cash flow. And now we are, you know, our our last freedom is bringing that same, you know, that same mindset, or that same vision and helping transform the lives of others. And
Justin Stoddart
that's, that that quadrant, if you want to call it that, is that fourth, freedom is the freedom of purpose, correct? Yeah.
Michelle Bosch
Yeah. And, and you know, what you it, it's almost like a natural progression, you know, I earlier I was telling you, you know, you you first started with kind of, like, you know, we were talking about the four C's, and we can talk about that later, we're talking about the four C's and, and you start by having first, you know, confidence in yourself, you know, and trust in yourself or faith in yourself. And then from that you extend that to having, you know, faith in the goodness of others. And then from that you extend that to having faith in the unknown. And, but it but it has to start with with yourself first, I think, yeah,
Justin Stoddart
yeah. Believe in yourself. You start to get a glimpse of, of how you can interact with other people, including the unknown, right? Yeah, exactly. Now, the universe, whatever you want to call it. Yeah.
Michelle Bosch
And something that I wanted to bring back a little bit, you mentioned a quote earlier about a lady that says, you know, real estate is great. And in the best part about it is owning to create wealth. And I so resonated when you said that I even I need to take notes on who said it, I think it was a gal that you mentioned, the
Justin Stoddart
common enemy, is actually watching the broadcast.
Michelle Bosch
Because, you know, we, you know, your audience is mainly realtors, we we have here in in, in a vehicle that produces both both cash flow in and wealth, you know, and it's just a matter of, of how can we transition from being, you know, just the exchange of hours for dollars and being income statement wealthy, to transitioning that into how can I own those assets, so that I can move from being income statement, wealthy, to being balanced, being wealthy, and having those assets start producing. I mean, you guys already everyone, you know, that has a real real estate license is already incredibly knowledgeable in the area of real estate, and it's just using that knowledge and all those gems that are everywhere anyways, you know, already in your path, you know, and start seeing them from a different perspective, start seeing them, you know, from the perspective of like, Well, yeah, I can, I can sell it and make a living, but if, you know, God forbid, that, you know, the truck run meal runs me over, I can no longer be doing that. But if I have, if I own a property, you know, I can, you know, that is something that can outlive me that can help support my family, even when, you know, once I'm gone. And that's, that's kind of like, you know, going back to the freedom of money and time, you know, that's, that's what we have, what we have focused on, and we now even try transition from using our cash profits from our land, and moving them though, into single families, moving them into apartment investing, you know, and, and, and the more I think, the more we kind of like step up that ladder of asset class or complexity within the asset class, I feel like the more people that I can bring towards that freedom or purpose, you know, I can create first in class communities, you know, with with C, you know, C class properties, and turn them into the best community in a neighborhood, you know, where kids that are, you know, have hard working parents blue collar, all of a sudden, I'm able to provide, you know, tutors within an apartment community where I can provide, you know, a mini library within them. So it's, it's all like, it's all like, beautifully tied together, you know,
Justin Stoddart
it's amazing, kind of what, what you can do when you start to think bigger, right? When you start to be around people like you, Michelle, excuse me, your possibilities truly expanded. There's so much you could teach us right about your strategies, kind of the finite stuff, I'm going to leave that to I know you guys have a very popular Facebook group. And and in there, people are sharing a lot of really great free information. Tell us how do people find that Facebook group?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, so the name of the Facebook is called the Land Profit Generator Real Estate Investing Group and it's a free Facebook group. And there's in we are, again, we take pride in having attracted an amazing community of over 5500 you know, land investors that are incredibly generous with their time and their knowledge in helping someone a beginner that wants to transition from just exchanging hours for dollars, you know, at you know, making a commission as a as an agent, to start investing in something that is incredibly simple. And in and just, I'm blown away every day, bye, bye, the success of people saying I have, you know, someone so many properties on their country, correct. I just close a deal and make $30,000, you know, in profits. And it's it's a daily, it's a daily thing, you know, so that would be a place where people can go and learn more about it. Yes, you have it correctly, their land propaganda real estate investing group on Facebook, or you can go to land profit generator calm. But by land profit generator, real estate investing is, is I think, a good place to start. If somebody is remotely interested in this, in my opinion, Real Estate's best kept secret when it comes to simplicity when investing in real estate.
Justin Stoddart
Another thing I love about this, that you had a conversation with prior, which is this group, even your course, right, the CO creator, you know, your co creative land profit generator program, but that's not your business, right? I mean, that's your path. That's your purpose, right? Yeah, your lead as a business because your time is very valuable, and you have to be compensated for your time. But you guys have created an eight figure business in real estate. And now that you've got money, freedom, you've got time freedom, you've got relationship freedom. Now it's about how do we create purpose freedom, in the sense that how do we give back to your people to create a similar situation for them. And so I want people to know that that I genuinely sense that that's kind of who you guys are that you know, your core values that this is about giving back and lifting other people, it's kind of sending the elevator back down, right? Yeah. And I'm appreciative of that you're the kind of person that I want to bring to this audience because that's who that's who we are. Right? That's, it's people that think bigger, not just for our own well being but because want to have a massive impact in the world. And so thank you for that. I want to end with this signature question, Michelle, which is, which is what does this somebody like you, right? Who is a big thinker? What do you do on a regular basis to continue to think big to not to not stop, but to continue to to expand your own possibilities? What does that look like for you?
Michelle Bosch
Uh, huh. Um, I think the very first thing that I that I do is, every morning, when I wake up, I have been doing now this since 2010, I have been practicing yoga meditation, and it's my way of feeling strong and powerful for the day, you know, if I have a choice to go and start my day, weak or powerful, let me start a powerful, and that's one way that I have found makes me start my day be powerful. You know, for some others, it could be a walk in the woods, or a hike or whatever. So that's one thing I do in private. And when it comes to, you know, to thinking about my, my inner world, when I think about my outer world, because we are also the product of our outer world is I always love to put myself in situations where I am actually the little fish in the big tank, you know what I mean? And, you know, I joined groups, you know, of, you know, where I, I invest in myself, and I, you know, big money to be part and surrounded of, you know, of a mastermind of entrepreneurial women here in town. And that really, you know, think bigger than me, I also am part of another group called a 10 x ambition program. And so surrounding yourself with others that are going to hold you up to a bigger standard, that have that already have a bigger mindset that think about bigger futures for themselves. Because what I have found is that when I put myself in this, you know, in the company of these people, people that have a bigger, bigger future, and also have a bigger income, you know, so it has they have a bigger income, because they're thinking not just a bigger futures for themselves, but they're thinking about bigger futures for others, you know what I mean? And so and how can they solve solutions for many more people, and it almost seems like the bigger income is just a byproduct of them having in mind for themselves a bigger future for themselves and a bigger future for others. So I think, yeah, so those are the two things that I do something that is an intimate and personal and it goes, you know, you know, add it from the inner world out and the other one is from the outside in, because you are the product of the people that you hang out with, and I want to hang out, you know, with people that also think big, and that also have my core values. I love it.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. That's so powerful. Michelle, I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed having you on the show today and sharing you with this audience want to thank those that have comments and actually have a friend out of Brazil. He said a good energy reporter Justin will say al Qaeda Now those of you that speak Portuguese will know what that means. But he's he's sharing a nice compliment to today's
Michelle Bosch
So did you learn to look to to speak Portuguese while you were there?
Justin Stoddart
I did. Yeah, I was. I was completely immersed in Brazil, so I speak Portuguese. Yeah. Anyway, I want to thank you, again, so much, Michelle. I wanna thank the audience for tuning in today. And I want to I want to end with the final charge, which are three very simple words, but with Michelle's leadership and help, they even get easier, which are these Go Think Bigger. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in today. Thank you again, Michelle. It's been a total pleasure.
Michelle Bosch
Thank you very much.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate. I'm your host Justin Stoddart. Today we're going to talk all about leverage. If there's one thing that I know about the life of a real estate agent is that there's never enough time to do everything that they want to do. for newer agents, they feel a little bit different, and they have lots of time, but they're short on funds. And I have with me today, some very bright gentlemen who have created in what I believe is a game changing tool to help real estate agents and brokerages thrive in this new economy. So before I get into that, I want to remind you that think bigger real estate, you can go there and get weekly updates as to what's happening on the show, get show notes, links, etc. So be sure to go sign up for that. Moving forward, let's talk to let's introduce the first guest, I'm gonna have two gentlemen, they're gonna come on to describe this amazing tool called broker hive. The first is Linden Hansen. he's a he's a top agent here in the Portland market, has a great business a great reputation. I've known him for years. And he's a he's a smart guy, Linda, thanks for coming on the show today.
Lyndon Hansen
Justin, thank you for having me. Thank you for putting me in front of this, this arena. I really, really appreciate it. And being part of the forward thinking community. Yeah,
Justin Stoddart
You bet, man. You're a big thinker. You've proved that to me over the years that the way you do real estate, and that you're proven it even even now more so with this, this solution that you've come up with? You know, it's interesting, as I've contemplated what you guys have created, I'm reminded of kind of the textbook of building a real estate business, right? The Millionaire real estate agent, doesn't matter what brokerage I go into everyone's quoting from this book. It's kind of like the Bible of real estate, if you want to have a business, not just sell homes, if you want to have a business, the millionaire real estate agent is the book that people reference to as and there's a whole section here about leverage right? Now the who, how and what of real estate and the authors of the book, say leverage answers three questions in your business? Who is going to do it people? How will they How will they DO IT systems? Or what will they do it with tools? And the thing that I want to point out from this book here, is that what broker hive what you guys have created Linden is a massive tool for people to use, in order to get more of their time back be able to serve their clients at a higher level? Tell me a little bit how you came up with this idea for a broker hive? Like what is it and tell us how you came up with it?
Lyndon Hansen
Yes, so it all started eight months ago, when my fiance and I were heading to the hospital to deliver our second son. And I had so many appointments to book out that day, and just so much to do that I was not able to get enough coverage, and bless my fiance's heart, I ended up having to go into where the same day. So what I found was a major problem that while we all have these busy careers, we also have a life. And it comes to a point where we just shouldn't have to put up with something like that, because we don't have the tools in place to be able to get the coverage, we need to fill the bandwidth when we need it. So that's when we add broker hi got together and really tried to to come up with the simplest form of a tool that we could come up with. So what we created is an agent only platform, which allows realtors to post and except work for each other, which allows us the ability to be in multiple places at once. So we do that by delegating tasks to those with the available bandwidth, which acts as a productivity and scalability tool, if you are a busier agent, which I happen to be a part of a productive team in the Portland area, and we do a large amount of business. And if you're a newer agent, it acts as a survival tool, right? If you come in and you don't know how you're going to pay your dues in your fees, than a tool like this, where money is available to gain experience and and earn a little bit of income while growing and sustaining your business. What a great thing. And then at the office level. It's a recruiting tool as well. Because as you know, when you're in the industry, people always asking what you're doing. So to be able to bring people in some of these companies such as Keller Williams happens profit sharing. So the more that we can recruit and bring into to our business, the better we can serve our own careers. Emily,
Justin Stoddart
you know, I'm really interested in some some of the solutions that you guys are touching on here. You said a productivity and a scalability scalability tool for the productive agents, right for experienced agents, not all real estate tasks that are essential to get done. Pay the same Would you agree?
Lyndon Hansen
Correct. And one of the big terms that I'm sure you've heard a lot recently is revenue generating activities, right? dollar generating activity. So what if your dollar per hour has reached a specific level, it makes sense to delegate specific tasks. And that's where the whole idea of teams come in, right? But I can tell you firsthand that I'm on a team and a tool that this would still serve me really more than a few times a week, because we just have so much to do, and we're trying to grow, right?
Justin Stoddart
What are some of the most common tasks that you can delegate to other people? You know, essentially, for those that haven't seen it, I've been privy, to see the software see it in action. And it's kind of it almost has like an Uber like interface, like, it's super impressive, these guys have done a fantastic job. And it like it shows kind of where the task like so if I'm, let's say, a newer agent, and I'm opening this app, and I'm looking, I can see other brokers in my brokerage and specific jobs that they need to have done with different ways to get paid, right, whether I'm bidding on I'll do it for this much. Like there's all kinds of different ways to structure that. I think it's I think, you know, that component of it is absolutely brilliant, what are some of the most frequent things that you see agents using this for some things that really productive agents shouldn't be doing?
Lyndon Hansen
Sure, um, I think open houses is the prime example. Right? I mean, sometimes these last two to three hours, you have preparation, potentially door knocking, scripting, going around setting up signs, and the follow up with that with that, right. So if you're a productive agent, you could be talking about a whole day spent on that one open house. So I think an open house would be an optimal way to use this, I think attending inspections, because those tend to be a long time. And as an agent, as long as we are thoroughly reviewing, we're in contact with the inspector, we get the full details, we can be good to go showing properties or touring, I think especially because being multiple places at once, just allows you to be that much more productive, right. So some of these are going to be emergencies. Some of these are going to be jobs that are scheduled out and really thought out, right. So showing houses I think is very, very important to well, if I'm on the east side, and I need to be on the west side with something else, then I quickly pop on their delegated and it's done, I don't need to worry about it, we have tracking in place to send notifications, the payments, we have partnered with square, so it's automated, and you don't have to worry about that at all.
Justin Stoddart
So it's so slick again, can everything that you've described, there is an eight, especially here in the Portland market, I know there's a lot of going a busy market places around the country that have a very similar experience where traffic is not good, right, getting from the west side of Portland to the east side of Portland used to be 30 minutes right? Now, depending on the time of day can be several hours. And like you said, It limits your ability to serve people right at like, not only from a quality standpoint, but a quantity standpoint, you can only do so many appointments in a day, when you've got to be navigating traffic when, whereas on the other side of town, there's other agents sitting over there wishing that they had a home to show. And you can delegate that and everybody wins.
Lyndon Hansen
Everybody wins, you're supporting agents, your office, you're getting retention aspects on the office level, you're creating productive agents. And if you want to target specific tasks gain specific experience. So first, I want to learn about inspections because I'm a new agent. So I'm going to hit as many inspections as I can, or I really want to target learning the lead generation avenue of open houses, I'm going to you as many of us that can, that's something you can do as well, I know that even from a productive agent standpoint, I want to use this tool to target work and specific neighborhood to try to learn more about those neighborhoods as much as I can, I think that would help my overall business.
Justin Stoddart
That's brilliant, I hadn't even thought about that Lyndon, is it, you think of it simply from the terms of a productive agent, like there's a whole bunch of things I should not be doing. And these other agents need money, therefore, I'm willing to delegate it. But what what you just opened up for me is that these newer agents, so they, they, they're gonna be a lot better served out doing for open houses in a weekend that they would not have been able to get had they tried to just walk you through their own office, right. Or for home inspections, you get up to speed really quickly, I always tell agents that one of the biggest challenges that I see agents face when they get in the industry, is that the biggest challenge is getting the customers. And because they have a hard time getting new customers when they're new, they don't ever get enough reps quick enough to actually become a good real estate agent, you don't get enough home inspections to get good at home inspection. You don't get enough open houses to get really good at open house, you don't get enough of whatever right you name it. Exactly, what I hear you saying is that you can really as a new agent, hone in on a specific geographical area, or a or a specific activity and say, I'm going to fill my day doing this thing until I've mastered it. And I'm going to move on. And I'm going to focus through broker hive, doing another one of these activities until I master it. And really quickly, you can take a crash course, with not just the book side of real estate, but the hands on experience side of real estate and get yourself up to speed really quickly,
Lyndon Hansen
very quickly. And when I first came into the industry, I can joke and laugh about it now. But my mentor on the real estate side, Bradley Wulf, who is just the most phenomenal agents in person, I know, he used to put up these these segments and these tasks, these jobs on the whiteboard, when we actually white walls, our whole room, we called it the war room, so you can remember it right on the wall. And he would make me do these things repetitious Lee until they were right. So I would have to get the nail in until I mastered it, and you would cross it off to the next one. So it's that same sort of aspect.
Justin Stoddart
It's like boot camp for real estate agents self imposed boot camp style, like you're gonna you're gonna do this until you get it right until you master it. And then you're going to be Daniel son, you're going to be a master, you're going to be a Jedi.
Lyndon Hansen
And one of the important things to bring up to is right now if I'm a new agent that's entering, who am I going to call if I want an open house right I may call my friends, my friends may not be under the same liability umbrella as be right they may not be under KW. They may be with Remax. So right now that is a big it's a concern, right? If you are somebody who's the compliance manager, the reviewing broker of the office, which you don't want to deal with this worst case scenario, somebody's having something happening, you dealing with the he said she said or whose liabilities going to deal with that. So what we've taken away is the concern about the liability being under different umbrellas. So we really, we need this tool to be implemented at the office level, we would like it to be implemented at the office level, and then encouraged usage to make the most productive agents that we can. So what we're just really love agents to, to request this with our office, if that's something they feel would be a benefit. Now,
Justin Stoddart
I think everybody that's listening to this, if you are a managing broker and have the ability to make the decision on this may be saying I need to meet with these guys and learn more about this. Because it sounds like it could be a great option for my productive agents for my newer agents, and even a small revenue stream for the brokerage like total, win, win win all the way around. If you're an agent listening to this, and you're not a managing broker, you don't make those decisions, it would behoove you to take this episode, share it with it, share it with your managing broker and say we please look at this broker hive.com and take a look at what this is going to do for our office. I think it's, it would absolutely make a ton of sense for anybody, regardless of where you're at. Right? You guys are not just limited to the Oregon market, you guys are national, correct.
Lyndon Hansen
That is the goal. And we currently have seeds planted in five or six states. We made a great trip to Vegas last about two weeks ago now and had some great discussions nationally with a brokerage. And and the reception thus far locally, has been more than incredible. So we really appreciate anybody who has reached out to us at this point and the feedback that they've given us because also something that it's important to mention is that we're looking for early adopters, we're looking for partnerships so that we can get some of that feedback and solve as many pain to pain or agent to agent communication pain points that we possibly can within our industry, because what we're finding out is that there are more than one. So we're going to need more solutions, we have an additional features that we'd like to roll out. But right now, keeping it simplified is is really the goal. You know,
Justin Stoddart
the one of the things that agents are probably thinking about is like, well, I don't know who's on the other end of this, right? Like, who's, who's going to take my job? I'm going to delegate it, how about someone's going to pick it up. They're gonna be at my open house. How do I know this person? Well, you guys have implemented a review system correct? Where you can you can agree to have that person do the job or not correct?
Lyndon Hansen
That is correct. And this is actually a perfect segue for me to introduce you to who is behind the technicalities of this platform. will have our CTO articulate how the peer to peer reviewsystem works.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Let's bring on Hey, thank you Lyndon. love what you guys are a big fan everybody listening and we look forward to hearing from you. Good stuff, man. All right. Now let's introduce Josh van Eiken. Josh, should I butcher your name? And I do. Okay.
Josh van Eiken
No, you did. Great. Nailed it. I love it. Welcome to take to the think bigger real estate show. Yeah, you're a big thinker. Just like Linden and UU and Gabe, are kind of the the masterminds behind writing all the code for this and kind of creating the user interface, making London's idea come to fruition. True.
Josh van Eiken
Yeah, absolutely. My brother and I have between us about about 40 years of experience, basically, solely in software startups. Back in the early 2000s, we created one of the first electronic laboratory notebooks for the pharmaceutical industry, that essentially replaced the paper notebooks that scientists were using the lab. And from there, this is about our fifth startup. And we have basically spent our career building building enterprise software that is scalable and stated.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. And I as I mentioned earlier, I've I've seen your app, I've played with it. And it looks as good as Uber. I mean, it's really well done and very user friendly. I was I was impressed. You know, sometimes when things are kind of early, early stage, they ship before they look too pretty. You guys have done a great job of making this thing. Have a great, you know, user interface user experience, I'm impressed.
Josh van Eiken
Thank very much. Yeah, we spent a lot of time trying to make it as as simple and user friendly as possible.
Justin Stoddart
Talk to us through any any else like any other parts of like the technicalities that, that agents need to know or maybe brokers need to understand. As far as the implementation, right, I think we probably have people's interest piqued if they're, if they're a new agent, right? And they don't have enough business or if they're an experienced agent, they've got more tasks than they can fill in a day. Or if you're a broker, I think that covers about everybody, we probably have their interest piqued. Tell us, what does it look like from an implementation standpoint,
Josh van Eiken
From a location standpoint, it's it's pretty straightforward. I mean, once once an organization decides to actually deploy a broker hive, we simply set up a new organization on our back end, and they appoint one or more administrators to essentially administer the onboarding process. The onboarding process is very straightforward. You simply provide a list of email addresses. And that's it. And then every every agent, who whose email address gets entered receives an email with a link to complete the registration. And it's pretty straightforward merchant registration, you essentially register with with square, so your name address, you put a credit card on file, square to be able to send money in a bank account also on Fiverr square to be able to
Justin Stoddart
Looks like Joshua dropped out for a sec. Oh, he's back. Here we go.
Josh van Eiken
Okay, here we go. Yeah, so the the Android version will be out. Hopefully next week, and then we will offer us some type of desktop solution. Next to us on Mac and Windows. By the by the end of October.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. I love it. Great stuff. I'm impressed. Maybe talk agents through really quickly, kind of as we wrap up here. What, what is kind of your favorite functionality? Like what like what piece of it do you think is really a game changer for agents? I know, you probably love all of it, because you built it. And if you didn't love it, you fixed it to where you do love it. But if there's one thing that you're super proud of, what's a component of this, you feel like is really kind of game changing
Josh van Eiken
Essentially, the current solutions that are in place with these companies are basically email lists. And so people are constantly being bombarded with with emails for jobs. And so I think that the part that we're most proud of broker hive is we've been able to change this metaphor to where people time can basically go search for jobs. Yeah, so they're able to just simply open up the the app goes search, and they get a listing of jobs ordered by distance. Or they can go directly to a map view, and see all the available jobs. And they're able to filter that on the basis of distance or price, or specific day,
Justin Stoddart
you know, it's true, the inbox has become a very cluttered place and not a very productive place. Right, we go there, because we have to go there. But if you had a very specific objective to either delegate work, or to, or to pick up work, what you know, obviously, the app is is perfect for that people can be very focused on what it is that they're trying to accomplish, and go in and get it done and get out right without having to feed through their inbox, get distracted, all kinds of other things. So awesome, awesome functionality. love what you guys have done. I'm going to ask, I'm gonna ask you this question. And if Linden wants to chime in as well, great, but it's the signature question of our show, which is this, you know, you guys are big thinkers, I believe that every agent in America is going to know about broker hype. I really do what you guys have built or some variation of it, you guys were first to market, I think that there's a lot to be said, for that I'm confident with your abilities, you guys are going to stay on top. But there's I think it's the future of helping agents continue to be to fiduciaries and to stay ahead of the curve of technology, leveraging technology, as opposed to being leveraged by technology. So again, I love what you're doing. So where I was going with that is that you're a big thinker. What does a guy like you do to continue to be a big thinker, teach us what it is, like how you continue to think big and expand your own possibilities?
Josh van Eiken
That's that's a fantastic question. I mean, I think throughout all of the startups that we've done in the past, it's we're always looking at underserved niche industries. So these these are our markets that that have money money to spend, but but RR are not being served by software. And so to be able to find that, that white space, where you have a very specialized need, and there's opportunity, I think that's that's really the key thought process to being able to see where solutions like like this are necessary.
Justin Stoddart
It's great stuff, being able to identify an underserved market, and then be able to have the skill set like you guys have, right the vision and the skill set to step in. And, and create a big problem like, like, there's a lot of people that sit around and be like, Oh, we should invent this, we should invent that. In fact, I know when talking to Linden, is the number of agents that have been like she was going to create that years ago, right. But the fact that you guys saw the problem, created the solution and moved on it. That's it. That's a great lesson that we can all learn from that is that when we see a problem, either be the right guy to fix the problem, or align with the right guys like Linda has done to get the problem solved. And you know, watch how your world gets big really quickly.
Josh van Eiken
Yeah, yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, it really does come down to execution, and being able to to manage all aspects of building a software solution and no business to be able to put put it all together.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Well, I will thank you, Josh, as well as Linden and Gabe has been in the background for what you guys have built. Again, I think it's a big solution for the real estate industry. I also want to thank you both for you all for coming on the show today. And contributing to the think bigger real estate audience has been my total pleasure to have you guys on here. And I look forward to seeing I'm excited for you like I'm actually kind of giddy to see what happens and where this goes. And it was some point the future. Maybe you'll come back on the show and tell me about all the huge successes you guys have had. That'd be awesome for all of us, as well.
Justin Stoddart
So good stuff into one final request of the audience and for all of us is to Go Think Bigger. Appreciate you guys and thanks, everybody for tuning in. And we look forward to catching on next episode.
Josh van Eiken
Yes, thank you very much. We appreciate it.
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I am your host, Justin Stoddart. There's no doubt that real estate investing is a very commonly well known strategy by the wealthy on how they became wealthy. One of the ways that people do that and one of the methods through which they invest in real estate that becomes a great avenue is through self storage. And I'm fortunate today to have on a gentleman who is the Chief Investment Officer of the 25th largest Self Storage operator company in the US and I'm excited to have him on. Before I introduce him, let me just remind you the purpose of this show is, that you know, you are the sum average of the top five people that you spend the most time with. My goal is to help you spend time with people that are going to stretch your thinking, that are going to raise that sum average, and help you to have not just bigger thoughts, but bigger actions and a bigger life and a bigger impact. That's what I'm passionate about this. That's what this show is about. If you want a regular summary, giving show highlights and action steps go to thinkbigger.realestate and you can sign up for that. So now getting back to our guest, his name is Kris Benson. Again, he's the Chief Investment Officer for Reliant Investments, a fantastic company out of just north of Atlanta, Georgia. Kris, I want to thank you for coming on the show today.
I appreciate the opportunity. Justin, how are you?
I'm doing fantastic. I love this topic was interesting in college, I was in the entrepreneurial school, I was actually a construction management major, business minor and one of the classes that I took was an entrepreneurial class, and they invited in a gentleman who was stood about five feet five inches tall. But he, despite his small stature, he was extremely wealthy. He had built a fortune off self-storage. And I always thought to myself, what a fantastic way you have real estate investments with no plumbing, with no tenants, and yet reliable. Tell me a little bit about your passion for real estate investing and maybe how you came to a similar conclusion about this particular form of real estate investing.
Yeah, for sure be happy, I would say for my passion of real estate came from probably a journey not too dissimilar than a lot of people, a lot of your listeners have. For me, it was trying to find passive income, right? I have the Rich Dad, Poor Dad, probably many of the people listening had, I distinctly remember waking up in my late 20s and saying, I had a corporate job that I was making a great living at was wildly successful. And I remember waking up thinking, I don't think I can do yours. And for me, it was how was I going to replace my income and stop trading time for money and real estate was that journey for me. We did a number of different real estate asset classes Justin, we worked with residential real estate, that was challenging, it was going to be difficult for us to scale wanted. And so we ended up divesting of that portfolio, primarily duplexes, quads, that kind of thing. And we got into commercial multifamily 64 unit apartment complex. And that was really when the light bulb went off for us in regards to understanding the value of scale in the real estate world. And so, you know, how I got to storage was we were investing in some multifamily projects across the primarily as passive investors. So we're taking capital and I had a group that kind of grew along with me as I went through my real estate journey investors who were interested in having passive income streams as well. And so we were investing in some big primary markets across the United States. And one of the operators that we had invested with essentially say cap rates have pressed to a place where we're not comfortable, we're going to stop buying. And for me, that was a wake up call, where I said, Maybe I should be looking at other asset classes. And that's what got me to storage started doing homework, I'm a data guy. So I love to look at historical data to try to predict what I think's going to happen in the future. In storage has, if you want me to walk through it, I'd be happy to but I there were really three kind of pillars that I that I based mom was self storage. And that's really what got us in the game, or got me particularly in the game of storage,
Tell us you know, I am I love that kind of your progression to this point of like, I need to be a real estate investor that's going to create the ultimate life that I want. And then even your progression to, you know, through that to finding the right asset class that really fit you talk to us a little bit about what those three pillars are, you've got a super curious about why, why you chose the asset class that you did?
Sure. So the three things that I looked at, or that I wanted to understand is one the history, right. So understanding in in the history of the asset class, how is it performed, there's a data set that I can certainly send you to the link of the link to and your listeners or subscribers can have access to it's called the National Association of data. And it's a public data, and it's on the publicly traded rates across the United States. So you can look up a read on basically any asset class you want. So residential housing, if there's a residential housing, read Self Storage office, reads agriculture, it doesn't really matter. But it's a really nice way to compare apples to apples, how an asset classes done. So in the last 25 years storage is performed just under 17% a year, which is a pretty incredible number. I my world was in multifamily investing. And multifamily had just done just about under 13%, which is still but I was surprised to see that it they've been outperformed and really any of the major asset classes with more than a track record of 20 years storage had done better than so that was the big one for me the returns. First first first pillar and look at is I'm a big believer, the market cyclical. So everything that's going to happen has probably happened in the past. So I wanted to see what happened in the last recession was storage. So went back and looked at that same data set on 2000 789, in stores last less than 4% of the market. And just to give you some perspective, apartments, what percent of its value, and then you know, to give you a baseline on the equities market, the s&p 500 was down just over 22%. So you know, you're not losing money and the money you are losing is you've done better than most of the other, you know, established asset classes are wanting to write returns, and I got some downside protection and the hypothesis on that downside protection really is around in America, we see people don't get rid of stuff. No, you catch people on the way up when things are going well, they buy things and they keep them in storage. And when people downsize. If they have to downsize from house to an apartment, they don't get rid of their things out. And so I think it's a view of there's going to be a better day, and I'm going to need this stuff. And some of its just I think our American materialism so that demand for storage really is a little bit elastic. So those are my two pillars. And then the third one for me, which is you know why I'm sitting in Roswell, Georgia is you know, storage, less than 25. The asset class is owned by six publicly traded companies. So there's five reads, that everybody probably has seen signs for cube, smart, public storage extra, those are the big reads. And then the six company, it's not a read, but it's public, that's u haul and everything knows them from the moving trucks, you've also has a pretty substantial storage portfolio as well. So those six companies own about 25% of the market and the rest org. So there are companies like us regional operators, right, we have 53 properties across the eight states where the 25th largest, right, so between us and number one, boys, and then below us, there are still a bunch of mom and pop operators, so people who own one or two facilities that offer tremendous opportunities just to run them like a business. And so I see that as kind of a consult, you know, a roll up strategy where we can build our portfolio and make ourselves a really interesting target for, you know, not just our investors now, but maybe institutional capital, or, you know, if we get from 50 to 100 properties, or we become a really interesting target as far as how we can divest of those properties, you know, carve out 25 properties or more, because the buyer sets and those properties are different buyers than just one z two cents. So that's where we are today.
That's fantastic and loved the comparison with what you guys are doing versus other industries, right, other investment opportunities, other investment vehicles, I think it's really valuable. And I would encourage everybody that's listening to this, whether you be a real estate agent, or even another professional is it, the more information that you can learn from people like Kris, right, that are experts at their craft, the more you step into the role of being a real estate advisor or an advisor of whatever industry you're in, right, having not only the knowledge but the network to be able to speak educated Lee about returns, some of the resources that Kris is offering, you don't have someone like Chris in your portfolio. So if you have somebody who wants to, let's say, in Portland, Oregon, get rid of some rental properties, because they're not happy with the landlord tenant laws, and put that money into a more passive vehicle that they aren't having to actively manage themselves, they could reach out to Kris and invest that way. So I would encourage you to kind of think beyond just what Kris is speaking here. And think about how the this could really benefit you and your clients, the value that you bring to the marketplace. This really has the potential to help you stand out. As you really this this is a strategy behind this entire show. Hopefully people are seeing that is it, the people that I'm bringing to the table are experts, right, Kris, again, being a foremost expert in his industry, and that really providing some some significant knowledge for us to really be able to understand how the Self Storage industry works, who the big players are, which is interesting, I know when I drive through my town now I'm I recognize some of those names that Kris mentioned, those, those bigger institutional players. So anyway, would encourage you to kind of listen through those ears again, as potential investment opportunity for yourself, as well as just a new narrative for you to bring to the marketplace to your customers that separates you moves you more to the role of being an advisor, as opposed to just a sales and customer service representative, as many agents and sales professionals are, which creates a very easy opportunity for tech companies to commoditize, you replace you with a lower cost offering. Now, Kris, let's talk...
about a point Justin, just real quickly to mean, you know, and my background is sales. That was my corporate role for a long time. And, and I think it's it, you know, sales doesn't become sales when you can bring value to the other party. Right. And so, you know, that and I think I'm selling those actually right now. And I can tell you my experience with the real estate broker, is that right there, there are sales, it's a transaction based relationship. And, you know, it's always as a salesperson hard to see it and say, Okay, if this is what you're going to do, I can go sell this better than you can. Yeah. So, you know, it's an interesting, it's an interesting piece. And I think for your listener, or for your subscribers watching, I think it's a huge point, right, the more value you can bring to other people, well, they're going to turn to you when they need things, you know, not just maybe a sell my house now or help me buy this property, it's a great point.
Well, I think it gives people another reason to want to be in business with you, right, you have to the baseline is you have to be able to market and sell a house, you have to be able to help people find the ideal home for them. But if that's where your value stops, guess what algorithms have already been written to replace that, and they're doing it for less than what you'd be willing to work for. And so this kind of value of the stuff that you're bringing to us, Kris, and again, not only just what you've shared with us, but having you in their network, so that you can come up in conversations and say, Look, I have someone in my network. His name is Kris Benson, he you know, owns the right, he's the Chief Investment Officer for the 25th largest Self Storage operator in the country. And I'd be happy to put you in contact with him. So you can learn more about self storage and potentially become an accredited investor with them, which would create a very passive sounds like secure investment opportunity for those that may be looking to do so. Love it? Let's talk kind of a couple questions here. As we we as we wrap up. What do you fear the most? And that's that's a question that probably not too many people ask themselves or, but but help us understand kind of what's what's the fear that you haven't you live in, in a pretty secure life now where you found an investment vehicle, you've gone deep on it? And and financially, it seems to me from the outset that you're you're, you're super secure? Is there something else that you know, that you fear?
Yeah, for sure. I mean, failure is probably always my, my default answer, right? I hate to say it's a driver, because I don't think it's a great one. But it is definitely a fear. And it's not necessarily like losing money. My money, it's it's more of a letting people down. You know, we have a lot of investors who trust them with their capital, and it's a significant amount of capital, and that capital represents time, right that they earned it over time, you know, however, they did that, whether it was jobs or liquidated business, whatever, you can't replace that, right. And it's a big responsibility that never goes away for me. So I would say failure is probably the big thing. And inherently, that fear of failure is what keeps you from moving forward. On the flip side, so it's always been something we've had arrived with the idea that if I want to grow, and if I want to continue to do on achieve the goals that we're setting out, we have to push through that. And and look, I you know, I don't want to come across things are always rosy two nights ago, I literally slept zero hours. And it, you know, it's hard to shut those things off in your brain. And it wasn't anything catastrophic. You think that I couldn't get my head around? And and those things still bother me. Right? And will always and hopefully, I hate to say this, but as an investor looking at us, you want us to be uncomfortable, always pushing to say, is this wrong? Because as soon as we get complacent, that's when the wheels fall off. Right? It's soon as you put stop pushing company like ours, you know, we have 160 we have 53 properties, like you said, we're the 25th operator, we're doing pretty well. But as soon as you stop pushing the getting better button, like hey, how do we continue to improve? One we're going to lose lose for us means you lose the trust of your investor base. And when you don't have that it stops basically the engine from running for us. So, you know, I but I think that's probably it. And, you know, if I could give anything to to the people who are watching this, you know, I would say that you have to manage the fear to a point where you're still willing to jump, right? Because anything unless you're in the middle of it, right. So for brokers who are willing to do something else, or maybe trying to go and start their own firm, or whatever the case may be, you can educate to a point, right? You can read books, to listen and watch podcasts. But you're never going to know everything. And if you wait until you know everything, you're never going to do anything. Yeah. And I think that's a part of it right is the ability to see the feet, right? I'm going to jump anyways. And you know, the knowledge you get out of that is incredible. And it's not easy, but it's defined at least my career along the way.
That's a great point. I love it. I'm gonna ask you one last question, which is the signature question of our show, which is you're obviously a big thinker, right? Not only are you creating big opportunities for yourself and your own financial freedom, but you're doing that for a lot of other people, both employees, as well as investors, right, as you have said, have invested their time, in the form of their capital in your company. You know, you doing some great things, you're a big thinker. That's why you're on the think bigger real estate show. Tell us, Kris, what, what does a guy like you continue to do on a regular basis to continue that to continue to be a big thinker? And you may have already answered this, I feel like part of your last answer kind of answered this already. But what is there something else that you can teach us? That that teaches us how you continue to expand your own possibilities?
I think you hit the nail right on. There's two. It's a great question. I think there's probably two things that stick out for me is one I read a lot. You know, I just finished the autobiography of the CEO of Coke, right? Or one of the CEOs? You know, it's interesting to see other people's process and, and paths. Because for me, and this is sort of an inherent arrogance about me, I think will fade. And that's, that's how I look at things. And so when I see ideas of how other people have done things, that gets me turning like up, you know, like, how do I scale what they've done for what I'm doing now? So I would say in and then there's a great quote, readers are leaders and leaders are earners, right? So, you know, I read a lot, all kinds of different stuff, not necessarily books. But I would say that that's a good one that that continues to open your mind to what's possible. And then the other thing I think is, is networking with people who are big thinkers. And that's what getting the show, right is, you know, you're the some parts of the five people you spend the most time with. And if you spend time with people who are small thinkers, then there's no real surprise of what's going to happen. If you spend time with people who expand and push you, well, then that's probably what's going to happen. And so we have a network here at Reliant my partner, Todd Allen is a big thinker. And so every day our businesses being pushed because way and are pushing each other. And that's why the partnership is so strong. But I think for for people in your group, that's a critical component is find people who will push you and not necessarily for a reason, you know, not for their benefit. Yeah, find people who will push you, because they want you to do the same back. And and I think when you find that network of people, helps a great deal.
Great answer, I really want to thank you very much, Kris, for what you've what you've done, right? Just the fact that you've gone out on a limb left the corporate job to create not just a great life for yourself, but for other people, shows a lot about who you are at the core, right? It's not just about success yourself. But it's about significance. It's about creating success through other people, which is significance and helping other people have a more secure, and better retirement, and legacy. So thank you for that. And also thank you for that you've contributed to this audience to think bigger real estate audience. And I will ask that what's the best way for people to get in contact with you, Chris? Should they want to learn more? Should they want to refer accredited investors? Should they just be curious, just wanting to have you in their network so that you can be a contributor to helping them continue to be a big thinker?
Yeah, sure. Appreciate that. So there's three things three places I think you connect with me one on LinkedIn, it's Kris Benson. It's Kris with a K. LinkedIn I'm pretty active and keep me updated on what reliance doing rely on investments.com to learn more about our platform on the investor side. And then we also have we build a website called KrisBenson.com, it's really more around education for real estate investors. There's a web series of videos it's free, you know, that basically walks investors from how they should be thinking of this and the reason we did it honestly, so that I'd have to answer the same questions millions of times. So it's it's enough to make people dance. You're certainly not an expert, but I think a good baseline so Chris Benson calm, rewind, investments. com or you can find me on LinkedIn.
Awesome, great stuff, Kris, again, want to thank you so much. And I would just end with this final charge to all of us, which is three simple words. Go, Think Bigger. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Kris. Again, for all that you've contributed.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart and I'm excited to bring you live from the from the Jersey Shore. Justin Bosak. Before we get into introducing today's guest, Mr. Bosak, we are going to I just want to reiterate the purpose of all of this, the reason why I get up every day, and I'm fired up to bring you the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. It's because when you start to think bigger, when you surround yourself with others, like today's guest, your mind starts to think differently, you start to think bigger. And as a result, your own possibilities start to expand, you start to see things that were right in front of you, but you didn't see them before. You start to hear things that were being spoken around you, but you didn't hear them before. The purpose of this show, again, is to expand that. Expand your mindset so that your possibilities in life start to get bigger and bigger. So as a reminder, if you go to the website, thinkbigger.realestate, you can get a weekly summary update of these shows with highlights, you're going to love that. So be sure and get signed up for that. about today's guest. Again, he is a gentleman who is growing very quickly, making a big impact along the Jersey Shore in New Jersey, his name is Justin Bosak. He owns REMAX Revolution, which is a 45 agent group. He runs the Oceans Six Group, which is the number two team in all of New Jersey, pretty fantastic for a young guy like you, Mr. Justin Bosak. He has a team of 14 that helps him create that kind of production, and several support staff as well. And today, we're going to talk a little bit about controlling your own economy. And how Justin has gone about doing that right now in the news. There's all kinds of talk about how we're overdue for a recession, how rates are low, but they won't stay low forever; how who knows what's going to happen with the trade wars. This message, the message that both Justin and I, Justin squared, both of us want to deliver to you today is that, the ultimate world, national local economy does not matter as much as your own economy. You have the biggest influence over your own economy, over everything else that's happening out there. And so we're going to dig into a little bit about how Justin has done, what he's done. So that we can all learn from that and have greater control over our own our own economy so that regardless of what happens, with rates, with China with whatever, that your economy will be strong. So Justin, I want to thank you for coming on the show today. excited to have you here and excited to share your energy and your passion for real estate with this audience.
Justin Bosak
Sure thing, brother. Thanks for having me.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, my pleasure. Good to have you here. So let's talk a little bit about kind of your kind of rolling in real estate. How long have you been in the business? Justin?
Justin Bosak
Oh, years... its 2019. So that's 16 years now.
Justin Stoddart
Perfect. 16 years? You look pretty young. I would imagine you're in your mid 30s. Is that accurate?
Justin Bosak
38
Justin Stoddart
So 38. Okay, very good. I was born just a couple years after you just celebrated my big four oh, here a couple weeks ago. So it's pretty awesome up here, you're gonna love it even more than the 30s. So you obviously expert in real estate have been long enough? At what point did you start your own brokerage.
Justin Bosak
We just started the brokerage last year. So you know, kind of grew from, you know, developing a team and then you know, having our own innovative ideas, and we kind of blocked on some things that we wanted to do with the team. So it just was a natural fit that just grow and just era? Well, you know, if you're not gonna allow us to grow within a brokerage and do the things that we need to do to become number one, you know, we're going to have to take it to the next level and start our own brokerage.
Justin Stoddart
Interesting. So you realize your ambitions were bigger than the arena you were playing in? And you realize, like, I can't slow down for where I'm at. I'm gonna have to go create my own arena, correct?
Justin Bosak
Yeah, I mean, you know, I came through, you know, '06, '07, '08, you know, so you saw the high highs, the highs and the lowest lows. So, you know, my thought back then was "Listen, nobody ever gonna take away from me," you know, when I know something's right, and I gotta do something, I'm still work hard and keep at it. And you can let other people limit you know, your innovation and your growth. It's very important to be able to do what you feel is right for you and your business. So, don't ever let something you know, somebody stop you, or tell you what you know is right.
Justin Stoddart
Interesting, we oftentimes create glass ceilings, one, right is the arena that we play in. Secondly, I think is the arena that we think within right is oftentimes we think, Oh, I can't do that I don't have I'm not as talented as Justin Bosak, right? Oh, I don't have the same skills. I haven't been in the industry, as long as he has. I'm not in New Jersey, right. I'm in a much smaller market. There's all kinds of things that we say and we play these continual tapesthat we run through our head every day, that create our own reality. And what I hear you saying is that, once you start to change those tapes, you start to think a little bit bigger, you start to realize that there's more possibilities, and that you kind of get restless and you realize, like, I have to, I have to do something more, I can't know what I know, and feel what I feel, and stay doing what I'm doing.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I mean, it really just comes down to just taking notice of what's happening, you know. In your market, and then maybe having the understanding that, hey, in four or five years, you know, the top players may not be the top players, you know, the top companies may not be the top companies, the way business is done, it's going to change, and it's going to happen at such a fast rate. Regardless of what happens in the market, I think the market, you know, a crash or some kind of recession is only going to accelerate it that much further. I think there's some things that are here in the real estate industry, that are going to remain, you know, I saw after the last recession, some things went away, took a while for them to come back. But with technology and innovation, and you got all these big players all this big money in real estate, you know, there's so much attention on this business, and everybody's trying to squeeze every dollar they can out of us as Realtors, you know. So we have to really proactively take our business look at it as a whole and say, you know, how can I protect it? You know, if commissions are cut and the new norm is a one and a half percent on the list side, or one and a half percent on the sales side? What are you going to do about it? Is your life set off financially, you know, that you could weather that storm, you know, and that's the thing is preparing for the future. And I think real estate is going to go through some major changes, I really do.
Justin Stoddart
Ya know, it's interesting to realize what happened during the recession to our economy as a whole, right is that major corporations were forced to do more with less and so they brought in a lot of automation, obviously, they cut their workforce pretty significantly. And everyone thought that as the economy recovered, that they would hire again, and a lot of companies did not because they replaced their workforce to some degree with automation, with computers. And I think because our society started to turn that way, and technology had caught up to the point to where that could happen. It was possible, people started to look around and say what other industries are people-heavy, and that start to rely more upon automation? And obviously, we we've seen that come into real estate, you know, with with reckless abandon here over the past few years with, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars being spent in the industry in which we live and work to minimize what real estate agents do, and get paid or eliminate the agent altogether. We're seeing that happen. And what I hear you saying is that, despite that, regardless of what's happening there, right, there's some realities, there's some areas in where we can add more value to where we don't play that price war. Yet, even as prices potentially do come down a bit. The answer is, what would you say? Is it just do more business. have more volume? Justin, is that your, your kind of bet moving forward?
Justin Bosak
Yes. I mean, it's just creating more solutions for your client and having more control over different things that happen in a transaction. So whether it's, you know, owning a mortgage company, owning a homeowner's insurance company, or even, you know, having a partnership with the title company, things like that, just to kind of, you know, know that if recession hits, you know, there's some other ways to generate income, you know, I look at it like this, I mean, if you, you know, and this is probably true in any market, you know, 80% of the agents really shouldn't be in business, you know, so how easy is it for the automation that you just talked about, to really just eliminate them, you know, so that, you know, if they're doing four or five deals, you know, they're only doing one, you know, and then, you know, hopefully, I mean, my hope is really, that this industry kind of goes through a process where becoming a realtor becomes that much harder, you know, that there's much more of an investment, there's much more education needed. Because I think, you know, realtors do get a bad rap, the top top agents are doing a ton of work, you know, there's ton of money spent to procure lead, and then what they take away, you know, and obviously, you know, you get a $20,000, commission check, you know, that $20,000 isn't going in your pocket. I mean, I think most realtors at the end of day, they're lucky to keep, you know, 5000 as actual income after you pay, you know, expenses, and taxes and investment and things like that. So, you know, the new companies coming in with the automation, they're trying to lower commissions, they're trying to eliminate us all together, by you know, literally buying the houses as it was doing, and then just reselling them to the to the public, but charging them outrageous fees, you know, so it's just coming up with solutions. So that way, you know, you have something that compete. So if Cisco saying, Hey, you know, we're, you know, we're making offers, we're buying homes, and that's not even where they're making their money, they're making their money, you know, they'll be making the money on mortgages, and then selling us, you know, leads back. So it's kind of taking your business and saying, Well, how can I become versatile, if things do change, you know, that shift can come, you know, pretty quickly. So, if you're not an attempt, you know, top 10% of your market, I'd say you're at risk, like you've got a fight right now, to kind of create, innovate and put yourself out there. Otherwise, in the next, you know, couple of years to hit, you know, any kind of recession, you know, you're gonna be out of business.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, yeah, we're absolutely seeing it, you know, there's some kind of the bigger companies are predicting that, you know, half of the agents are going to be out of the workforce here in the next couple of years. I don't know if that's economically driven, or if that's more just based on technology driven and innovation. And the fact that more and more people are going to rely upon kind of the I buyer situation was interesting that it was a case study down here in Portland, on an AI buyer company won't mention them. I don't want to receive a letter from their attorney necessarily, but the the company purchased a home. And agents here tracked what actually happened to that home. And they sold it for about $50,000 more than what they bought it for, and carried it for about four months. So to the homeowner, right that accepted one of these letters in the mail that said, Hey, this company is going to buy your you're home. Right? They they sold their home about four months faster, right? They they unloaded it four months faster. But it came at a premium, right like $12,000 a month is what they lost, or, or is is kind of what they paid for that convenience, that's a lot of money. And I think part of agents responsibility is to be aware of what these costs really are, like how the competitors are coming in, and tell and speak the truth to consumers that yes, there's a convenience, but there's a heavy convenience fee that you need to be aware of. And, you know, I agree with you that things are changing. But part of that change is that common agents, increasing their value proposition as well as increase their voice so that they can speak the truth about what's really happening in the industry, and who their competitors really are not in a a slandering kind of way. But just speaking the numbers like here's what's happened, here's this model. And here's how this model works. Is it good for you? Maybe? Possibly not, though?
Justin Bosak
Yeah, and I think it's educating yourself. So if you're in one of those markets, luckily, we are, you know, really the market where a big player has come in, you know, it's just having a solution. So I mean, there are people that do need to sell very quickly, so they will take that hit. And if you don't have a solution for them, and it's just oh, well, you know, I can put up a market, well, obviously, all the other agents can just do the same thing. You know, the solution is we need to close quickly, and we can't go through, you know, a deal falling through, because our home is at risk or whatever, you know, whatever the reason may be, I have investors that that do this, you know, for a living locally, and we're getting involved in that arena, we're actually going to be kind of joining, joining hands and kind of attacking it together. But it's going to be solution based. So you know, as a REMAX agent, you can offer, make an offer on a house and close in 30 days. And they can get paid a commission as a buyer's agent, though, so they're getting paid for the investor. But at the same time going to be given the market value, and probably expectations of what it takes to sell, you know, whether it's you have to repair, you know, A, B and C or we're going to just do a little staging, whatever it may be. So they have a full full knowledge of kind of what the reality of you know, selling quickly for less, you know, or taking the chance putting it on the market and getting market value. So if you don't have that solution, you know, you can't really compete. So if Zilla does come into your market, and you know, the client wants that, and you can offer it. I mean, what are you going to do? You know, you lost the client.
Justin Stoddart
That behooves agents to get start to think bigger and start to put preparations in place one in their own production. Also, like you said, to start to think creatively to think about, okay, if, we're for coming into the housing market right now is the generation that that thrives on convenience, right? They want like, not just prime delivered in two days, they want prime now delivered in two hours? How can I offer them that? And they'll be a part of it.
Justin Bosak
Yeah, so as an agent, you know, I know, it's not as easy as like, you can start your own company and do all these things, you know, but you can tie in with a local investor, you can tie in, I mean, there's hard money lenders now everywhere, you know, so finding out who the hard money lenders are in your area, find out who their investors are. And again, having that solution. So if you hear about somebody that needs to move quickly, you know, you have something you know, something that you can offer to them. So just creating those relationships, which is the key. Because again, you know, it's not, you don't want to necessarily, you're not going to be a business, Priscilla. I don't think they're here to be in the agent business. I think they're just technology driven. And it's going to be, we're just going to be almost minions, to Zillow to kind of it but a smaller, smaller rate. You're not going to be making a good commission, if you're in business with them. So
Justin Stoddart
it was interesting how, couple years ago, I had a conversation with an agent who was a big proponent of Zillow. And I said, I don't think Zillow is your friend and he said, Look, I have kind of boastfully, I have I have a text message right here from Spencer Raskin, who's the CEO of Zillow who said that, like agents will always be a part of it. And I kind of backed down because he's get pretty heated. And I was like, Okay, all right. And now guess what? Spencer asked us no longer the CEO. Our agent still involved? Yes. But I've been getting paid less. Yes. Like, I just don't think that I think their loyalty is to stockholders, not to agents, right?
Justin Stoddart
I mean, he, he conveniently is not in that chair anymore. And it's because, you know, how could you face the public and the agents that I mean, you're, you're making your, your bread from the agents. And, you know, you said one thing, and now, you know, you're going after something else. So there's no way he could be the face of Zillow, but just like that, so I said, Well, how could we help we make it we're going to shake it up, you know, when to put somebody else in the chair? He did say that. Yeah. I'm Rascoff's out.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Was able to keep his word and, and on the went, you know, taking care of stockholders, not necessarily taking care of agents. So again, I'm, I'm not necessarily anti Zillow, like, I gotta hand it to them, like they've got a powerful business model. But I do think that we need to be very aware of as far as who we're funding we're partners with and what their ultimate like where their ultimate loyalty is. If it's the agents, then I think you probably ought to double down. If their loyalty is to stockholders, I think you probably ought to be aware, right, unless you are a stockholder then buy more stock. So let's talk about the real quick here, Justin, the optimism that you have, obviously, there's some there's some dark clouds on the horizon, right for the traditional agent that's not well prepared for this, obviously, you are preparing yourself for what's coming and what's here and thriving as a result. As a result, because you're stepping out as a leader, you've got people attracted to you, right? You've grown a brokerage in a very short period of time a 45. agents, I'm sure that's just the beginning, you're going to keep on growing, talked a little bit about your focus on stepping outside of just the circles that are immediately around you to learn and to grow, and how that's maybe helped you in this optimism that you have.
Justin Bosak
Yeah, so number one is leveraging your time. So I mean, the key thing with my businesses actually do have two business partners. So I'm still in production, I have one guy that is running the team, as a team manager, and then the other guys are office broker. So he's running and dealing with the brokerage stuff. They're doing training, actually, right now, for boots, which is the do REMAX website and CRM. So it allows me to do more of the innovation. I'm very, I guess, creative. I'm very into the marketing and advertising and the business. It allows me to then expand to take some time to look at some some things and develop some things and not have to be bogged down with like day to day operational stuff. I'm not good with paperwork, I hate paperwork, I'm not good with, you know, just the whole brokers thing. I don't have my broker's license, I don't want it because I don't want to be put in a position where I'm actually like, you know, the guy that's being asked all these, you know, silly questions about about real estate, I'm worth it. Come to me with the marketing stuff, I'll teach you how to take your business to the next level. So doing that I really got a lot of my knowledge. from listening to podcasts, I spent a lot of time just evaluating different things and looking and researching. But I really found that listening to the show, Pat Ivan's real estate, rock stars, that was like the number one thing that I tuned into, where I learned a ton of information about agents that are just way beyond even the top agent in my market, and they're giving away all this information, and it doesn't cost you anything, you know, so you just really need to sit back and say, How can I apply maybe one, two or three things from that conversation? To my business? You know, so it's a lot of, you know, it was a lot of time, you know, research, but I mean, how are you going to get to the next level, you know, I mean, the number one agent in your market is going to sit you down and say, Hey, this is exactly what I do. And he may be doing things wrong till you know, so it's looking outside of your marketplace and saying, Well, what is going on, where, you know, across the country, maybe in some of these hotter markets, that's working, that's taking people to different levels, you know, I've had agents reach out to me, just from networking, and being part of, you know, different groups online. And, you know, there's some areas that just really aren't, they're not cutting edge at all, you know, so you got to look and see, like, well, what began what's outside my market, I have an agent that works in an area that's not very dense, and nobody was doing professional photography. Nobody was doing drone or video or anything, it was just basic real estate, just like it was back in the day. And she started last year, and one year in the business. She's a top agent in the market, and she's crushing it. She's absolutely killing it. I mean, it's just, it's crazy. So, you know, again, if she didn't, if I didn't have that relationship with her husband, who's a title, agent, very good title agent, where we can kind of I gave him a lot of information about what we're doing, how we're doing it, and he was able to just put it and implement it. And she was able to just run with it, which was, which is awesome. But she just dealt with, you know, well, this is just what the other agents in the market do. She wouldn't have that same success that she has now. So a lot of it was her. I mean, she's, you know, type A personality, but she got the playbook. So it helped her just accelerate where she's had her growth.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, there's a bit of a changing of the guard happening, we're seeing that with some agents coming in and becoming top producers in a hurry. And, you know, they're willing to embrace kind of the new media, they're willing to embrace kind of new methodology, and come in and gain mindshare, right? Only real estate and people's brains so that they can then gain market share. And, you know, we're seeing that, and it's it's kind of an exciting time, because there's some great leaders coming into the industry to spite these clouds on the horizon. Right? There's people out there, they're super ambitious, saying, actually, now's a great time, because the hobby agents aren't going to last, it's going to become a true industry of professionals. And I'm a professional, and I'm going to come in and I'm going to, I'm going to win. So anyway, it's exciting to see that love hearing that story. I'm going to end with our signature question, Justin, I feel like you and I could talk for a long time, and I'm sure will continue to. So appreciate your time. But the signature question of the show, which is this, you are a big thinker, hence the TB think big, think bigger real estate show here behind me. What does a guy like you do to continue to be a big thinker? To continue to expand your own possibilities? Teach us!
Justin Bosak
Yes. So just taking the time and for yourself to really sit down and study and analyze your business? And where am I getting my business from? And where am I going in the future? And what are other people doing to help grow their businesses and, and, and trying things and paying money and spending money? You know, and that's the thing is I could speak? You know, from up from a point of like, we've tried everything, we've wasted a ton of money doing a lot of different marketing and advertising things. That didn't work, you know, so I didn't really have a mentor. I didn't have somebody to really say "No, don't do that. You know, that's a waste of money." You know, but my agents, my agents, do you know, because they come to us and they say, "Well, what do you think about this?" We talk now don't do that?
Unknown Speaker
So yeah, I mean, it's just really finding maybe a mentor that is really, you know, maybe where you want to be, you know, or next step above you, and learning what you can, you know, and I find that just when you get to a certain level, like, like, I don't care, like I have agents in my own market that ask me questions that work for competitors, you know, Keller Williams, and I, if you're a good person, if you're a good dude, I'll share, you know, I'll let you know kind of what's going on. I'm going to give you everything, you know, but you know, if you ask me a, you know, a question, I'm going to give you my opinion. So it's really just using in your networking, you know, whether it be on Facebook and joining different groups, you know, but listening to the podcast has allowed me to find out like, I like how that guy talks. I like how he works. You know, there's a guy named Ricky Carruth down in Alabama killing a single agent million dollars, doing a bunch of training for agents. And I just liked the way he approached things because he was, he wasn't a hard seller. You know, he literally was just "Hey, whatever's best for the client, it's relationships over dollars." And that's how I've always been. So it's refreshing to just find other people above you that you know, "Hey, I want to get there. I want to do a million dollars in production." I'm at that level. You know, just watch what he's doing. See how he's doing just asking questions. He's more than available, he answers he responds. So it's just, you know, thinking bigger going outside of your sphere, get outside your bubble, get outside of your comfort zone. You can't just sit back and just think that everything is going to be all good moving forward, this business, this industry is always going to change. So if you're not changing, and if you're not really approaching it like a business, if you're just kind of just doing what your clients tell you to do, and not really investing in building it like a business, I think it's going to be an issue moving forward for a lot of agents. So, my hope is, you know, people, if you have any questions, feel, you know, feel free to reach out. I mean, I'm more than willing to help people out.
Justin Stoddart
I love it, man. Let's be sure and get everyone who's listening to this. Let's get you in their network. So if they ever have any real estate needs in New Jersey, they know who to contact. What's the best way to contact you?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, cell phone, I guess 732-644-6217 I'm on Facebook. I'm on Instagram. Justinbosak@gmail.com. If you want to check out what we got going on, look at the ocean six group on Facebook. And you know, see what a solid Facebook page looks like. See what some Facebook ads that are not just boosted posts that are you know, managed ads in the back end what they look like. So feel free to take a look at it, check it out, steal it. informations there for you.
Justin Stoddart
You know, people that are big thinkers like you that are abundant mind that are like, "Look, come learn from me, I'll learn from you. Let's learn together." Instead of like all the cards held in my chest, can't show you anything that I'm doing. I love you know, the fact that even in your own marketplace, you'll need to be that way, says a lot about you. And the reason why you're having such success is because people are attracted to that kind of leadership. They're attracted to people that that help them that serve them that lead them. And that's what leadership looks like. So I want to thank you for your time, Justin, it's been a total pleasure. You've added tons of value, to the think bigger real estate audience and it's been a total pleasure. I want to thank you again and encourage everybody here to find Justin, put them in your network. Should you have people moving this way or that way? Be sure and get in contact with him. And then my final request of everybody is three simple words that are a charge to all of us which are Go Think Bigger. Thanks again, Justin. Appreciate you being here and look forward to staying in contact my friend.
Hey welcome back to the think bigger real estate show. I am your host and I am fired up today about who I have with me here in studio to teach you all about Instagram. She's dynamic and has done some amazing things in the real estate industry and the body building industry. Do me a favor show us your guns real quick. Check this out. Anyway, so she has built a following both for her business as well as for her bodybuilding career. And so I'll get into introducing her here in just a second but I just want to remind you at thinkbigger.realestate you can sign up to get notified every time there's not only a new episode, but also at the end of the week, I send out a summary of all the key highlights and action steps. So be sure to go to thinkbigger.realestate to get signed up for that so you don't miss out on amazing stuff like we have today...Here...Miss Stacey Dearth. So, Stacy first and foremost, thank you for being on the show today.
Thank you so much.
I love Stacy. She's fantastic. We get the great privilege of working together here Old Republic Title and let me tell you a little bit about her: a former top real estate agent in Arizona, where she actually led a team of 13 agents, right?
Yeah, at one point we were 13 deep.
Goodness. So,Top Producing agent. In addition to that, with all of that going on, she's also a mom of two beautiful children. And she has her IFBB Pro card. If you don't know what that means it's the International Federation of Body Builders and she's a professional, actually training to be back on stage here pretty soon. Hence, I made her do the unsolicited or the solicited, I should say, bicep flex there. So you can actually follow her on Instagram at @thatsassytitlegirl for her title and escrow business and then also @themusclemommy. You'll see more about her bodybuilding career, so you'll be able to see that she knows what she's doing. She's a pro in many areas of life. And we're excited today to bring you tips and tricks that you need to be knowing all about Instagram.
So I'll just kind of preface it by saying this that more and more eyeballs are on Instagram, less and less eyeballs are on email, if you as a real estate agent are counting on the fact that people are reading your newsletter, either receiving it in the mail, or receiving it in their inbox, and that they're consuming it entirely. I think you're missing out. Would you agree?
I would absolutely agree.
That there is more and more attention being given to the social mediums in particular Instagram. And it's a place where you need to be not only do you need to be there, present, but you need to be there correctly. Let's talk about what are what is one of the biggest maybe pet peeves or mistakes that you see real estate agents making when it comes to their Instagram account.
You know, I think we as real estate agents, and I can say we, since I spent 13 years doing that, I think that we are so pushing to market the properties that we have. And so you know, it's like get the property, get the property out. And so we're trying to sell we're trying to sell our properties on Instagram and social media and really I think that what we should all be focusing on is making connections on Instagram. So, you know, instead of instead of putting out, you know, this is the latest and greatest property, which is great, and we need to do that. We also need to be making connections, we need to be letting people in to the real us who we really are because people want to buy from people that they know and they trust them they like, and if they don't know us, trust us like us, then they're not going to buy anything from us, right.
I love it. You know, I see people I've actually gone to Realtor, not news feeds, it's their tiles or their profile. Is this what you call it?
And yeah, so they're their profile. So the grid with the grid there. Yep.
And all you see is houses, houses, houses, houses, and I think maybe real estate agents feel like that they have a following and Instagram and so they're good at like you said sell houses through it. And that's going to end even their clients like great our houseThis feature there, but that house is one of so many. And there's no human connection. I know when I see that I'm not drawn to want to stare at it, right? I'm not drawn to want to, like scroll through it for very long. Whereas when there's people and there's, there's kind of unique circumstances in settings that gets interesting, right?
Absolutely. I think, you know, you absolutely still need to put your listings out there. I used to like to put my listings kind of on my story and highlight them. Anything that was jaw dropping would go in my in my feed as a permanent tile there but, you know, I think that more importantly,I've sold houses directly from Instagram. I posted a house one time and someone commented, Oh, do you have anything else in that area? Yes, as a matter of fact, you know, I can absolutely didn't know the person hasNever met the person I we connected via direct message, got him hooked up with the lender got him pre qualified sold him a house. Did I sell that house on Instagram to that person? No, I didn't. But what happened was I made a connection with him. He had been following me. He had been following along he felt that he could trust me by what I had put out there and therefore he reached out. I sold him a house. I didn't pay for that marketing was free marketing.
Yeah, you know, but the key was that your entire profile wasn't filled with houses, right? It was it was occasionally in there. Absolutely. But you were more selling the fact of who you are as a person. The and I think you said it best when you said the miss the biggest mistake that real estate agents make when it comes to Instagram is that they're trying to sell as opposed to connect correct you connect with people then you can you can help them which includes a sale right at times. Absolutely, without the connection, the people aren't drawn to you. And you'll have their attention for that long as opposed to an extended period of time, where you can actually then serve them and help them which is selling. Right. I love it. So, second tip, maybe, that you could give us. And it's something that I've seen a weakness in my Instagram game. Right, right. We just pointed this out, talk to us a little bit about engagement, why that's so important.
You know, I think so many of us were so busy, and we carve out, you know, 30 minutes of time to do our Instagram. But what's happening is we're posting and we're leaving, and we're not engaging with other people. And so many times, people will, you know, reach out and it's happened to me before I've made a comment on someone's page or about their story and they don't respond back. That doesn't feel very good, right. When you respond back to people, when you engage with them, then they feel like they're making a connection. Once again, we're back to that connection again. And now you have this friendship or whatever it is, but you need to engage with people you need to respond to them. You need to if they've written you a question or they've written a response, respond to them, engage with their posts say that's amazing. That's, you know, I saw a post yesterday that was a Portland realtor had put out a little tidbit about what you could have in the Portland city limits, you know, you can have three chickens. If you don't like chickens, you can have dubs or pigeons, or pygmy goats, or whatever it is. And I was like, Yes, I want chickens. And so I responded to that, um, you know, and made a comment on their page, but just trying to engage with them now, I would expect that they respond back, right, we'll see. Right? Not yet, but we'll see.
But, um, but yeah, that's, you know, those are things that you need to reach out to people and make them feel that connection with you. I think it's like I've made the analogy before that social media is like a party right? If you show up at the party, and all you do is talk, and don't ever listen, or people ask you a question, you turn around and walk the other way, you probably would not get invited back to that party. Right. Absolutely. And what I hear you saying, is it part of being a good party attendee and getting invited back and having that crowd of people around you that want to hear what you have to say. It's asking, listening, engaging all of that, which again, I think a concern that I haven't and others have, I'm sure is it how do you not let social media take over your entire day? There's agents that are social media rich, but money poor, right? Absolutely. So you've done both where you've been a social media influencer, and you've had a great business. So is there some tip that you can give Do you post time block I'm going to post at this time, and then I'm going to come back later on and engage to where it's not like filling every, every minute that you could probably be out face to face or voice to voice connecting with people.
You know, I think that's something that I'm a huge time blocker. So it's just like everything in life, right? You know, it's it's all about your daily schedule. And so for me, I do it all at the same time every day, like I work out at the same time every day. I post at a similar time every day. Now, I might add to my story throughout the day. But I'm always interacting with people, when I get up in the morning, and I'm having my coffee, that's when I'm scrolling, interacting with people doing a post if I can, you know, I might do it when I'm eating some lunch. And I do it a little later in the day. But if we can be consistent, and when we're doing that, it becomes our comes becomes a regular schedule. It's just like working out, you know, you make an appointment with yourself, like I'm going to work out at four o'clock today. And I'm going to get there no matter what, like that's an appointment with myself, right? So that's what you have to do with social media, but you need to, you need to keep it time blocked, don't get carried away. We don't need to, you know, read all 608 comments that somebody left on some conversations, they were having about some post, you know, become involved but not overly involved.
I love what you said it's it's this multitasking time that I would have already spent sitting and enjoying your coffee for example, you're using that time to school and I think one key thing is this has given me advice on how to grow a following is that I can't just be reactive Lee responding to the people that are reaching out to me, right? Correct. The people that I want to follow me actually to reach out to them and engage with them because everyone else is in their own little silos. I'm posting content and I'm responding to people that respond to me, the only way to grow that silo and one way to grow that is actually reach out to other people that you genuinely have interest in, in genuinely commenting on their stuff. Right?
Correct. So no ulterior motive, but like, I value what you're doing here. I like what you've said here goes back to these genuine relationships, that this is a way to connect with people, not a way to sell people. And I think you know, genuine that really hits it. I mean, you know, I see so many times people make comments on on my page or or others and it's just a this you know copy and paste. Yeah love your post yeah love your pup what do you what do you love about your post you didn't even look at my post you know what I mean? So feat genuine Let it be specific about what you're commenting on or what you're responding to, you know that's what's going to go far for you it's it's not the the canned responses or you know the heart, heart heart XOXO whatever it is easy to be genuine and I think you've really hit the nail on the head there.
I love what what Stacey shared here today and they really are compared to what she knows kind of very basic tips, right? We hope that this has been kind of at least a good starting point for those of you that are involved in Instagram or have an aspiration to be more so here in the Portland market. Anyway, we're going to be taking Stacey on tour she's gonna be doing Instagram classes in different locations. So stay tuned for that in the meantime and encourage you to follow her again her handles are @thatsassytitlegirl and @themusclemommy. So go find her there and you can learn some more advanced stuff just by following her, engaging with her and genuinely thanking her for the value that she's given. I'll put a little plug in for my own Instagram handles here since we're in that mode right, @justinstoddart and @thinkbiggerrealestate the two that I'm interested in engaging with people as well. So, if I'm doing anything right there, you like what I'm doing, just go ahead and thank her because it's her fault.
You're so you're doing a great job, Justin.
See, I'm coachable. So anyway, it's been a total pleasure having you here today. I'm going to ask you, Stacey, the signature question of the show,which you are a big thinker here right? This big TB back here does not stand for my initials. I'd love to maybe one day be synonymous with thinking big. But you're you're a big thinker, right? You're doing things not only are you doing great things in business, but in your personal life, right, leading up a beautiful family. You're a professional bodybuilder, like how does Stacey Dearth continue to not stay content, nor to not get into kind of small thinking? How do you continue to be a big thinker to expand your own possibilities. Teach us what you do.
You know, I think I'm a learner of life. Like I love learning, I love learning about anything and everything I like to read. There are so many people out there that are so much smarter than me that I love to learn from podcast, you know, reading blogs, whatever it is, but I feel like for me in life I if I can keep learning every day if I can learn something new every single day and share that with other people. That makes me bigger.
I love it. And what a great platform to do that on right where you can learn from people and then share it to your your people like Instagram becomes a great platform to do what you just said helps you be a big thinker. So I encourage you to go do what what Stacy's teaching us here, right is be a big thinker, even leverage Instagram to enact that great advice that she just gave. So thanks everybody again for tuning in to this episode. Big thanks to Stacie Dearth. Go follow her, give her some love, thank her for being pouring so generously into the think bigger audience today. And we are excited to hear your feedback on that. And my final request, what you're used to hearing, three simple words... Go Think Bigger!
I promise, today's announcement is going to have a massive impact upon me, upon my family and upon my ability to serve all of you. As you know, I'm a think bigger kind of guy. I've actually been entertaining texts and direct messages since yesterday "Hey, man, what's going on? What's going on?" So anyway, for those that have been trying to guess, you probably will not have guessed. I'm pretty confident of that. So as I prepared my thoughts today, typically I don't write things out, but I felt this was important enough that I did. So I have to apologize if it looks like I'm reading, because I am a little bit. The specifics of today's announcement may not directly or indirectly impact you. However, I would invite you to listen very carefully. Because I promise you that the themes and principles that I share today will absolutely affect you. And similarly have the potential to have a massive impact upon you upon your family and upon you your ability to serve other people as well.
So a little background before I make today's announcement, as a kid growing up, I played football in middle school, high school, and actually a year of college. In high school was fortunate to play on some really good teams. In fact, the the head coach of the Cal Bears was our quarterback. He was an All-American quarterback in high school, and we were fortunate to win a couple of state championships. Football was a big part of my childhood. I loved playing.
I'll say that at some point, however, when I decided to hang up the cleats, when I decided I wasn't going to make money on football, I realized that I still had a passion for the game. I would get up each Saturday and watch College Gameday. For those that are college football fans, you know what I'm talking about. For those that are not bear with me. But College Gameday, replaced my fascination with playing and I began to become an amazing professional spectator.
I would get previews and predictions of that day's games, I had no idea until I was actually preparing this announcement that that this show, College Gameday is 180 minutes. Think about that, 180 minutes of previews, not of games, but of previews--pretty phenomenal. So not to mention, as soon as that was over, then these games started. And there's big game after big game after big game. And then in the evening, of course, you have to watch all of the highlights of all of the big games and big games and big games. Again, that's quite a commitment. You college football fans what I'm talking about.
You know, of course, being married and having kids lessens that commitment, yet even with this added responsibility, we were off doing other things with my family family, I oftentimes felt myself longing to be back in front of the big game. And it's that's kind of sad to say, right? Because, again, I've got, you know, pretty good family and a pretty good life.
Well rewind to just this past week and I'm actually watching, and this is really what led up to this experience, is on Thursday night, my alma mater played the in state rival, and they got hammered. So I dedicated four hours to that. Now, keep in mind, we were preparing to go on a trip over Labor Day weekend and my wife's asking me to help pack and I'm not being very helpful. In fact, I resent a little bit of her continual requests to go do this, go do that, when the big game is on, right, another big game.
That night, she went and I think she probably put the kids to bed herself, she actually went to the grocery store, she was working the next day, 13 hours as a nurse and she said, here's the list of stuff I need you to pack in the car before you come. I didn't pay very close attention. Needless to say, we got to our destination in Central Oregon and I had mispacked some things. Now she wasn't thrilled about that.
Now move to Saturday night. This is this is Saturday night. We're spending our last weekend of the summer in Central Oregon. And I I had designed Saturday's activities so that we could be back in front of the game by 4:30pm, which is when the team that I grew up loving and watching and having season tickets to, the Oregon Ducks, were playing the Auburn Tigers. And so again, I've kind of planned our day around being back in front of that. No judgment, right if you did the same thing, but keep in mind that I'm mildly helpful with dinner, like pretending to kind of cut vegetables and stuff and my eyes are really on the game. As the game goes on, and any of you that watched the game realized that there were some pretty tense moments. It came down to the end. And with about 20 seconds left, my wife says, "Hey, I need some help." The baby is melting down and I was like, hold on, there's 20 seconds left. And she said, "It's 20 football seconds. There's time. I need your help."
At one point, she actually didn't see this, which is probably good, "I actually glared at her. I glared," Are you kidding me? Needless to say, my beloved Ducks lost and I felt myself get a pit in my stomach. Not only sick about the fact that I dedicated another four hours, had neglected my wife and family during that time, but additionally, I had left with another loss.
Now some of you might be saying, "Well you should just choose better football teams, right?" Maybe BYU and Oregon aren't the teams. I don't think that's the problem. Let me explain. So you think about that eight hours and $50, let's call it for a YouTube TV subscription. And what was I left with? Being a poor dad being a poor husband and eight hours gone. Eight hours!
So this is the announcement. Now whether or not this directly applies to you. It will apply to you so stay with me. But I've consulted with my family and after years and years of dedicated commitment I'm announcing my retirement, announcing my retirement from being an avid football spectator. My fanhood is retiring. Many are going to say "You're so young, you have so many years ahead of you, like Andrew Luck, how could you possibly retire? Your career as an avid football fan is so bright, there's literally decades and decades still in you know. Others are going to say, you know, you're quitting, you know, you're giving up on us."
I've consulted with my family and after much deliberation, it's time. It's time to give it up. So many of you may think this is a joke, right? A little bit funny, but pay close attention to what I'm going to say after this because keep in mind that this has nothing to do with with college football, like very little to do with college football and everything to do with you no longer being a spectator of someone else's life. But you being an active, active fan in your own life.
Now you could take college football and you could insert in Netflix, you could insert in video games, you could insert in The Bachelor, Instagram, Facebook, you name it, right? Doesn't matter what it is. But all of us spend too much time being a spectator of someone else's life. As opposed to being a player in our own life.
No offense to Justin Herbert. Right. I've been a fan of his for the past three years excited for him to hopefully win the Heisman Trophy. But I think I've been more interested in Justin Herbert, the star quarterback of the Oregon Ducks winning, then having this Justin win, right?
When opportunity abounds around me. That's a problem. When I'm saying that I'm not necessarily where I want to be physically, professionally, financially, maybe some of you can relate to this, right? There are things in our life where the only thing keeping me from being that is that I don't have enough time. Think about that, you don't have enough time. I don't have enough time to be where I want to be in all these other areas, yet I dedicate how many hours to observing and being a spectator of someone else's life?! Hopefully this is resonating with you. Because I had a big aha here.
Just yesterday, I walk in the door, coming home from work, and habitually, I reach for the remote control wondering what game is on and then I realized, "Wait a minute, I just made a commitment that I'm retiring, right? And so I then asked my family, I said, "Hey, anybody want to go on a bike ride?" Now everybody was game for a bike ride with dad. They were so excited and keep in mind that this is the first bike ride we've gone on all summer. That's... there's a problem there. Right?
In fact, I told my family I said, "Hey, I just posted on Facebook that I'm making a big announcement tomorrow morning." My son's like, "Dad, what are you gonna announce?" And I said that I'm retiring from being an avid football spectator. And he said, Dad, but I love watching football with you. And I said, "Corbin, you didn't use to." I said, "Is it that you love me? and spending time with me or do you actually love football?" He said, "Well, I love football." And I said, "Would you prefer if you and I went outside and played catch instead?" His eyes got big and he said, "Yeah, that'd be way better."
The reality is when I'm spending time with my family watching football, or whatever it is right insert in your habit of choice, am I really giving the people that I love the very most? I'm not. They're not getting my full attention. I'm distracted and saying to them, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah." "Dad, are you listening?" Yes, just give me a minute." Maybe this is just me, but maybe you can relate.
So last night after our bike ride I laid down beside my son. Now previously this might have been a time where I hurry and get the kids to bed and go check my Twitter feed to see what's happening with my favorite football teams. Instead, I laid down beside and we talked for 20 minutes about his first day of school yesterday... 20 minutes. He was laughing. I was laughing. We had a great time. That 20 minutes was absolutely golden. I got more joy and satisfaction out of that than hearing what the Ducks could have done better, what they should have done better and what they will do better this next week. It's such a different experience. You know, one of my greatest life's mentors who was actually a world renowned heart surgeon who actually helped bring about open heart surgery earlier in his career--amazing man. In fact, he's going to celebrate his 95th birthday, this coming Friday. Anyway, an amazing man who continues to like lap the globe doing service--Just an amazing human being. He said these words and it wasn't till after I made this commitment that I was reminded of this, but he said "Another way we can also do better and be better is how we honor the women in our lives. Beginning with our wives and daughters our mothers and sisters. Months ago I received a heartbreaking letter from a dear sister, she wrote: my daughters and I feel we're in fierce competition for our husband's and sons' undivided attention with 24/7 sports updates, video games, stock market updates, and endless analyzing and watching of games of every conceivable sport. It feels like we're losing our front row seats with our husbands and sons because of their permanent front row seats with sports and games."
Interesting, isn't it? Now, does this mean that I'm never going to watch a game again, like it's completely dead to me? No. Does it mean I'm never going to go to a live game? No. In fact, that might be the one way that I go about doing it, which is to take my son to an actual game. Or does it mean I'm going to judge any of you as you're posting all about college football? No, this has nothing to do with college football. This has nothing to do with you. This has everything to do with me and all of us evaluating what we really want in life. I've gone through and pretty diligently laid out my long term goals, what I want spiritually, what I want for my family, what I want financially, what I want professionally, what I want physically and none of those things are really accentuated or do I get there any faster through Autzen Stadium through the Lavell Edwards Stadium. Right? Those are diversions and distractions. Now, again, I'm not saying I'm not going to go to a game, but when I sit all day, watching college footballand I'm short with my family because I can't wait to get back to it, that's a problem. Maybe some of you can relate.
Here's the takeaway for anyone listening to this: I want you to take a look at the way you are spending your time and I want you to take special note of all the areas in which you are a spectator in something that you're not actually doing. You're watching somebody else do it. I want you to evaluate the ROI of that time. Are you getting the return that you want? Is that time that you're spending watching somebody else perform and do their life, is that helping you get the life that you want? Chances are you're like me, and in every important area of life, there's area for improvement, and there's things that you want to do and you want to improve, right? And the big excuse that we all have is "If I just had another day in the week... If I just had 25 hours a day... If I just had... if I just... If I just... If I just. The reality is, time is the great equalizer. All of us have the same amount of time. It's what we do with that time.
So if we're looking to improve any area of our life, if we're looking to have more joy, have deeper relationships, impact people, our own life and the world, in a bigger and better way, guess what, we must stop being spectators and we must start being players.
My final request of everybody is Go Think Bigger. Thank you for being in support of my retirement. I'm excited to be not just watching others throw the pigskin but throwing it myself. Have a great day everybody. Thanks again for tuning in and we will talk soon.
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart and I'm very excited about this episode today, because I think it solves a big problem not only for real estate agents, but for your customers and for America as a whole. There's no doubt that debt is a growing epidemic in our country, and that far too many people in general live off debt. And today we're going to be talking about how you as a real estate agent can start to get more control over your personal finances, so that you can act more as an advisor to your clients. Again, the goal been helping you be an expert and be able to command being a well paid professional. So before we get into that, before I introduce today's guests, I'm going to just reiterate the purpose of this show, which is to help you think bigger because when you think bigger, your actions start to follow suit, and your opportunities and life. Again, follow that and my aim and passion is to help you have a life of great impact, which all require you to start thinking bigger.So, let me begin by introducing a good friend of mine. His name is Rod Cummings, I've known Rod for years. He's an entrepreneur, a professional, someone who I greatly admire and respect that he reached out to me to said, "Hey, Justin, I have a solution for real estate agents that they need to know about." And so I said, hey, let's bring him on the show. I agree with you that that is something that would be a benefit to them for their own life, as well as for helping you be a real differentiator in the marketplace. So I want to introduce Rod Cummings. Thanks for coming on the show today, my friend.
Rod Cummings
Oh, you bet. Thank you for having me on today, Justin. And it's awesome. I, the show that you created, I've watched some of your previous episodes and the impact you're bringing to the real estate marketplace is incredible. So thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Justin Stoddart
Right. So let's get into this topic. Obviously, you kind of you brought it to my attention. Not that I wasn't aware of the problem, but but kind of a solution. Talk a little bit about what we're going to cover today. And who you've brought along with you to help kind of have some additional experts helping us get kind of to the bottom of one way to go about doing this?
Rod Cummings
Well, absolutely. Well, about a year or so ago, I got involved with the two gentlemen that are on the screen here. They are currently associate partners with a company called Symmetry Financial Group and they're also advisory board members and they're very much involved with the launch of a new initiative within Symmetry called Debt Free Life. And when I was exposed to the program, back in February, I got extremely excited about it. And over the course of the last several months, they have been involved in the implementation of it. And when I learned about your podcast, I thought and what's happening the Portland market with the explosion in the real estate, and of course, the associated debt that goes along with it. I thought, Wow, what a better way than to jump on the show with you and explode expose the Portland Realtors and the Portland market to this opportunity and see where it goes.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I appreciate rob you know, it's an interesting from my vantage pointin that I get the chance to work with a lot of different real estate agents. And I think from the outset, people think that if you're a real estate agent that you're rich, right, maybe you drive a nice vehicle, maybe you, you know, people see your signs and stuff around, they see you selling homes. And there's just an assumed this assumption that real estate agents, you know, don't have any concern with money. And I know firsthand because you know, I deal with some, even some great agents who, who struggle with this, and I think everybody struggles with what is the best option for your money. Debt can be a real killer. And so I really appreciate you bringing this to my attention.
Rod Cummings
You bet. You bet. Well, I'll just let you know that both Matt and Brad will be involved the rollout of this new initiative, Debt Free Life, but they've actually had some examples of working with clients that have already put this into practice. And so I can't wait for you to hear what they've been able to do in this short period of time since this initiative launched and the impact that they're having both with in their own businesses and helping other agents like me, you know, able to bring this to the marketplace around the United States. So I'm excited to be to have them on the show today.
Justin Stoddart
Awesome. Well, they look a little bit of like, I don't I don't think that they're related. Haha... I just want everyone to know that's actually not a mirror image, these are actually two separate human beings.
Rod Cummings
I was wondering. Yeah, so we've got Matt Smith and his brother Brad Smith, as you can tell identical twins.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. I love it. Very good. Welcome, gentlemen. Thanks for coming on the show today.
Matt & Brad Smith
Appreciate it, Justin.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, so let's let's, you know, let's kind of dive into this topic here. You guys probably have some specific stats on on debt. And again, I'm not just picking on real estate agents. This is you know, nationwide. Let's talk a little bit about this debt epidemic that really plagues our our country.
Matt & Brad Smith
Yeah, is an epidemic. I know that firsthand. Personally, I closed the business end of 2012 and I left that business with a lot of debt. And I know firsthand that it affects your stress level, your anxiety, your sleep, it affected my relationships with my family and my spouse, and you know, virtually every aspect of life. And so, you know, we're very passionate about helping people get out of debt, educating people. And we have very specific tools that help people accelerate their debt without spending anything more than they're currently spending. And I want I want to ask any listeners this question, and I want you to think about if you were to ask your clients this question, if I could show you a way to pay off all of your debt in less than your mortgage without spending anything more spend, is that something you'd be interested in seeing? I haven't yet met a person say no to that. And realtors are in a unique position that they're every client that they have versus unless they're paying cash is getting ready to go on debt and it is a thought it is a concern for a lot of people. And and other realtors are always looking for ways to add additional value to their clients to position themselves and differentiate themselves in the marketplace.So that's what we do when we work with realtors and mortgage brokers, with their clients and with themselves to help them pay off debt in an affordable way. Interesting.
Justin Stoddart
I love the topic. Let's Let's ask Matt, would you add anything to that? That that you would say that would kind of open people's eyes is maybe why this is such an important topic?
Matt & Brad Smith
Well, yeah. I'm getting some feedback. I don't know if you guys you're hearing that but maybe, sorry to pick on you. But I guess on your end, maybe you want to make sure everyone can hear what we're talking about. Is that better? A little bit. Okay, I've got my speakers as low as I can still be able to hear you guys.
Justin Stoddart
So, we'll take it, we'll take it. Yeah, I mean, we're in the insurance and finance, business. So we're always looking for ways to add additional value solve additional problems. Similar to you guys. I love I love how you intro the show and you know, having the advisor approach, not just a salesperson approach, but actually truly adding value. And to me if you can help focus on some of the biggest problems in people's lives that affect them more than just about any other problem in their life. I mean, and that's, that's the idea of being a slave to debt. And, you know, Brad had mentioned that we shut our business down in 2012. We were $250,000 in debt. And, you know, fortunately, we were able to get that paid off in about 18 months. And a lot of people look at that and say, how can you do that 18 months and when you have a strategy, where you can identify inefficient dollars and efficient tax dollars and efficient interest, just inefficient dollars, you can and you can put them into a financial vehicle that can accelerate their payoff. You can literally take people from a 30 year window to you know, nine years or less, we say nine years or less. We've got clients, seven years five years we had a client just last week, 2.3 years? What, what, what was going to take them 30 years? It's just amazing. Do you know how to do it effectively. And so that's really what what we've done with debt free life. It's an initiative. And, you know, it's not something that we think that we can just kind of keep within our company. We can show other people how to do it. Other people that are already meeting with people that are in debt are getting ready to go into debt, as a way to add more value become a more, more of an advisor like you're talking about, and solve these problems for your clients.
Justin Stoddart
That's great. I'm gonna I'm gonna mute your audio for just a minute. Matt, raise your hand if you want to talk again. Let's see if that fixes it. So one, one interesting comment. So I was at one point on the advisory board of a of a tech company that was a startup and it was centered around helping people make better decisions with their money and the concept is where employers could pay for this benefit for their employees because of absenteeism and presenteeism. But it was an idea. Because there's a real problem with people missing work, because of their money problems are causing them to not be present, because they're worried about money. Right? And so to your point, Matt, is that it's a bigger problem than people think that not only affects them at home, right? But it occupies their mind during the day, as a result, keeps them from being totally productive and keeps them from solving the problem. You know, helping them be productive so that we can solve the problem that's in front of them. So, again, I think anything that's helping people to make better decisions is a great concept. So, Rod, I'm going to see if it's you, I'm gonna, I'm gonna I'm going to pause Robin for a sec, we'll see if it's him. Okay, let's keep going here for a minute.
Justin Stoddart
Thank you, I think we found our culprit, gentlemen. You'll have to raise your hand if you want to say something right? Like this is back to third grade.
Matt & Brad Smith
So I just want to comment to you ask the question, how is it an epidemic? How does it affect, you know, everyday Americans and the average life, if you look at a lifetime income of the average Americans $2 million. So over the election, they bring in $2 million without their whole lifetime, yet at the age of 65, they're left with $60,000 in retirement. And I would say that that's not the American dream. That is not what they were going for when they work for 40 years of their life. And the reality is that if you look at a pie chart and what percentage of their money is going where 34% is going to interest? Think about that. So we're selling the American dream. People are buying a house, they're very excited about it, but 34% of their income is going to go to interest. 40% is taxes. That's including sales tax, gas, tax, income tax, state tax, all these are my taxes 40%. That's 74% of the average American income is going to interest in taxes. And so it's no wonder that people get so frustrated that they're not making enough money. The reason people can't retire in America is not an income problem. It's a debt problem. And when you can show somebody how to, you know, we don't learn these things in school, we're never taught in school, how to reduce taxes, how to reduce debt, these are actually very simple problems to fix, and it doesn't take extra income. You know, if you if you go talk to a financial advisor or CPA, the only solution they're going to have is give me more money. And then I'm going to help you get out of debt. And and, you know, you look at the Dave Ramsey approach or different financial approaches to paying off debt. They said live on rice and beans for the next 10 years and help pay off debt. We don't do that we hope actually increase the amount of money for lifestyle, just taking inefficient dollars and it's just a lack of knowledge out there on how to do it. So when you can connect somebody to experts who know how to do this have a track record with literally thousands of clients that we've helped get into debt over the past four years. We can do it for your client we can do for yourself. And so what we what we propose to clients is, let us not only educate you and show you how to do this, but put a custom plan together at no cost, where you can see the exact month of credit card number one disappearing the exact month in your critical number to the automobile first, a second, what month and year guaranteed and contracts we pay off the house and they'll know exactly when they're going to be a debt. And it gives somebody in my opinion, what I've been told is the greatest gift, which is hope and direction. And I've also been told you can't give hope without direction. You can't give direction without hope. But when somebody can see exactly when the chains are gone, when the shackles are gone. They're free from debt. It is a feeling like no other I've experienced myself and I've seen client after client experiences. And it's something that if you're looking for referrals, if you if you're looking for your clients to refer.You to other people, this is a great way to do it because it leaves that client. And I know that and you probably just know student with real estate, you work with a lot of realtors, that sometimes realtors just can't get somebody approved. They the client wants to buy a house, they just can't get approved for the loan. And so this is a great way to help that client start to pay off the debt and get in a position they can actually qualify for a loan.
Justin Stoddart
So lenders should perk up because they'll they would be able to help more people by helping them live a debt free life. I like it. Really, really interesting stuff. You know, I was just doing the math in my head. So you told me that the average American brings in $2 million in their lifetime. And 140 or 1.4 million of that goes to interest in taxes. I understand you correctly. 74%. So more than that, more than 1.4 million. Yeah. And oftentimes we criticize people for saying how do they only end up with 60,000 and you realize when you know it's a bit of a rigged system right, to where the IRS is going to get their piece the bank is going to get their piece and no wonder people aren't left with very much because they're, they're playing a game, it's really tough to win when you're at a severe disadvantage from a knowledge standpoint of the tax and interest component.
Matt & Brad Smith
That's exactly right. I mean, you think about the we all used to play probably the game of life, right? Roll the dice and you start, you start at the beginning and you go through life and you, you end up you know, buying a car, you go into debt, you take out credit cards, you go into debt, you buy a house, you'd go into that you're paying it off and you're getting ahead and all of a sudden, you buy another car, you go into more debt, you pay down, you sell the house, you buy a bigger house, you go into more debt, something happens, and it's just a cycle of constantly up and down, paying down debt going back more into debt. You know, I've heard that the average person buys a new home every five years and you're always resetting the the percentage that your of your payment, it's going to interest right they say it a four and a half 5% loan but in reality if you look at the percentage that you're paying in that first year we know that it's a it's a huge amount of interest and very little is going to principal so every time you do this you know the clients paying more and more interest so it adds up to 34% over their lifetime and so a lot of people just don't know how to do that and and you know, debt ends up not only becoming it goes from manageable to all of a sudden taking over and it starts to really consume people and they just don't it's very easy for us to get into debt but nobody knows how to get out of it.
Justin Stoddart
Well again, I oftentimes we know will it will encourage ages to listen to the think bigger real estate show through two ears, right, one ear is how can this help me in my own personal life and business? The second ear is how does this help me differentiate myself so that I'm not just another Realtor, you know, standing in line to get the chance to market and sell your home because knowledge matters. In fact, I was teaching a class this morning on similar differentiation topics. And I said, "Does anybody here have an example of you where you gave somebody really good advice that moved the needle when it came to wealth building for them?" A guy raises his hand and he said, "Yes, I told the client not to sell. And at the time, the home was worth $250,000, and today that home is worth $750,000. Now, so that one bit of advice, earn that client, half a million dollars. And I said, those are the kinds of things that not only you agents need to be doing but they also need to be broadcasting and sharing with people because all of a sudden your commission seems really, really small, when the kind of value that you're offering up can move the needle for people to that extent, right? And what I hear you guys saying is that this, of this $1.4+ million dollars, you could be influencing and getting some back into the pockets of people because of the principles of understanding taxes and interest and getting on the winning side of that as opposed the losing side.
Matt & Brad Smith
Absolutely, the impact is so big. It's okay I'll give you an example. We have a client 37 years old husband 37 wife 35, put a plan together that normally was going to be over 30 years, they're going to be out of debt, we're able to get them out of debt and 7.8 years without spending any additional dollars and they're already spending that not only helps save the client 144 $145,000 of interest, but because they were able to pay off all of their debt and 7.8 years. Now you think about all that debt service payment they're saving for the next 22 years after that can all go into retirement, we're able to put them in a position that with the same exact amount of spending and they're now going to have an additional $700,000 in retirement because of it. So the true difference is actually $845,000 benefit to that client just by simply educating them on how to shift their dollars in a more efficient way.
Justin Stoddart
Love it. This is powerful stuff, guys. really appreciative of you coming on today Matt's anything else that you want to add in before we kind of wrap things up and actually direct people to where they can go to learn more about this?
Matt & Brad Smith
Um, no, I mean, I guess I could spend a little bit of time talking about where they could learn more about this if the appropriate. Yeah. So we're going to be doing a webinar, more of an educational webinar this Thursday. It's going to be a little bit of an early morn, I guess you guys are used to getting up early out there in Oregon, on East Coast time. But it will be 8am pacific time on Thursday. And you can learn how this program works, and how you can I guess educate your clients on how they can get out of debt sooner. So that's debtfree.guide is going to be the website where you can go on there, there's a short little video on there if you guys want to watch that does kind of go through it a little bit. But then you can register there for the webinar on Thursday. Okay, awesome stuff and for
Justin Stoddart
Those that are listening to this after the fact right, obviously, there's an opportunity to be on the live webinar 8pm Pacific Daylight Time on Thursday, August the 29th, I believe.What if they want to learn about it afterwards? Well, that website is still help them?
Matt & Brad Smith
Yeah, we're going to hopefully we'll have the recorded webinar up there. I'm not sure if it'll be up there. You know how soon it will be up there. But we're going to try to maybe maybe do more of these webinars as well. So this is going to be the first one kind of for realtors. So we'd love to partner up with any realtors out there in the Oregon area. But yeah, there's a lot of interest and you guys are, get passionate about it like we do, then, you know, we can do more of them.
Justin Stoddart
Okay, very good. Well, I'm excited about, you know what you guys have shared today, Matt, since I've got you kind of front and center. I'm going to ask you the signature question of the show today. And that question is this what is a guy like us, obviously a big thinker, helping people in some really big ways. What do you do to continue to be a big thinker, to continue to expand your own possibilities. What does that look like, for Matt Smith teach us?
Matt & Brad Smith
Well, you know, it's it's interesting, both Brad and my lives have changed so much in the last six years, you know, we had a business that was shut down. And we started over. I mean, we had to redefine ourselves. And if you saw kind of our life today, it's so drastically different. It's not even recognizable. And I think a lot of that, you know, if you're somebody that's struggling right now, maybe you're not where do you want to be in life? I would say, appreciate where that's at. Because the hardest things in my life have actually been the best blessings in my life and the things that I appreciate the most, and if and if that hadn't, if those hard times weren't there that was really the fuel that kept me going and also allowed me to take advantage of opportunities that may be normally I may be a little bit fearful, but I said, you know, what do I have to lose? And so, you know, over the last six years, we've been fortunate enough to get to the top of our company out of, you know, 4000 different agents. on the advisory board. We've got actually several of the companies that were that were running as well soyou know, just everyone has fear but don't let that stop you from from moving forward.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. I love you said that almost appreciate what you know, what I heard you say is actually appreciate, you know, this place that you're in. I know, Rod, I have a mentor in common who, who once said that "Oftentimes, life's greatest disappointments turn into God's greatest appointments" and I think I've learned a lot from that. And I think that kind of correlates with with what you're teaching us as well. So, great stuff guys really appreciate what you've poured into this audience, the think bigger real estate audience. It's been a pleasure and me not knowing a lot about debt free life other than what you shared with us today, I'm excited to learn more about it myself and see how I can further help real estate agents improve their own situation as well as offer kind of a unique value in the marketplace. So appreciate you coming on again. And thank you to everybody for tuning in. And my final request of everybody here is three words GO THINK BIGGER! Thanks, everybody. Appreciate you being on!
Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart and I'm very excited about today's episode in which I have with me serial entrepreneur, and a financial professional that is actually host of the podcast Grandma's Wealth Wisdom and we're going to be talking about as a real estate agent, how you can show up more as an advisor than just as a customer service representative or salesperson. So, before I introduce today's guest, officially, let me just remind you that you can get show notes and highlights action steps by going to the website, think bigger real estate, sign up for our weekly update, as well as I've got a treat there for you when it comes to actually becoming more of an advisor. So today's topic fits in perfectly with that. And I want to thank Amanda Neely out of Chicago, Illinois, all the way from Chicago, coming on to the bigger real estate show. Amanda, thank you for coming on today.
Amanda Neely
Thank you for having me, Justin. I'm excited to be here.
Justin Stoddart
Yes. From one possible podcaster to another, it's a It's a pleasure to have you on so very cool. Now I know you are a business owner, you've started everything from coffee shops, to financial advisement businesses. And you're young, like I'm assuming you're young. You just got great cream or something. But I love the ambition. You know, I think sometimes people believe that they need to be in there, like in the late 50s before they can start getting after it. And you're kind of teaching the world otherwise, maybe kind of the millennial generation, I'm assuming.
Amanda Neely
Yep. Yep. So I hear a happy birthday is in order for you. Happy birthday? Yes. Then I'm an August baby. Myself, too. I just turned 35. So just a little bit behind you.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, thank you for that. And Happy birthday.
Amanda Neely
Thank you.
Justin Stoddart
Now you've had your birthday, or you're going to have it this month?
Amanda Neely
I had it. I had it.
Justin Stoddart
I hope it was wonderful. Mine certainly was had a lot of people make me feel real special. Good. Very good. So let's talk a little bit about your podcast, grandma's wealth, wisdom, just tell us kind of in a nutshell. What's that all about? What would people expect to hear if they want to find your show?
Amanda Neely
Yeah, so a lot of times when people are thinking about their money, they are looking for what's the hottest, latest, most awesome product out there. But we like to return back to time tested time honored strategies. And in particular, the greatest generation, you know, they came of age during the great recession or depression, you know, in the 30s and 40s, early 40s. And we found have found that there's a lot to learn from, how they structure their financial lives and this post 2008 kind of life that we live in now. And so there's a lot more that's transferable than I think like what our parents would have used in the 80s and 90s.
Justin Stoddart
It is really interesting. That with the internet, right with podcasting, like there's a bajillion ideas, yet there are tried and true principles that when implemented, and, and utilize over time, they, they they have proven results, right. And there's a bunch of newer ideas that maybe don't have that same track record. So I love that you're kind of a voice for the millennial generation. On to these tried and true principles. Right? These these got a North Stars of financial wealth. Yeah,
Amanda Neely
yeah. And real estate is a big component within their because hat owning your own property, whether it's something you live in or that you rent to others, is a great way to create wealth that's worked for thousands and thousands of years.
Justin Stoddart
Great point, you know, and I love hearing you say that I think sometimes financial professionals are seen as, you know, antagonists to owning real estate, right, because it takes away their investment opportunity. And what I hear you and your counterpart, Mark Willis, who's been on the show, as well mentioned is that real estate is actually a very critical component of every buddies, wealth portfolio who is wealthy? Yeah,
Amanda Neely
yep, absolutely.
Justin Stoddart
And good thing, you're speaking to an audience of real estate professionals today. So you're in good hands with a mentality and philosophy like that.
Amanda Neely
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, grandma would have different views of how to use your whole in terms of, you know, pay off your mortgage as quickly as you can, where you might say, use that as leverage more or something like that. But the US the home as a source of where life happens, and where life is stewarded. And push forward is a great way to think about what a home can mean, not just in the wealth that it can create, but in the value that it brings to the lives of the people that are purchasing that home or, and are living in it. And that I think ties in really well with what we're going to kind of talk about today.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I think I love that you said that, because I think, you know, the life of a real estate agent, I get the great privilege of being around them all day long. And it can be a bit of a grind at times, right. And I think when people can step back and say, wait a minute, I'm helping people find, like, their favorite place on Earth, they're safe place, the place where they have their, you know, their, you know, oftentimes some of their greatest moments. And I, you know, a believer that, you know, the greatest work that we do oftentimes is within the walls of our own home. And that's not my own quote, I borrowed that one from a mentor but, but I think that when real estate agents start to recognize just how powerful their role in the world is, maybe it helps them rise above kind of that, you know, that grind. Let's, let's let's talk a little bit about because one of the things that you help people with when it comes to their financial life is helping them start with the end in mind, right. And I want agents, I invite agents to listen to this through a couple different ears, right, this one over here is going to listen to it as for your own personal finances, the other is going to be listened to it as the questions that you can adopt that Amanda is going to share with us today that you can begin asking your clients again, in order to rise above industry disruption, in order to rise above tech platforms that are discount brokers to rise above I buyers, you can't just have a flashier listing presentation, you actually have to provide more value have to provide more leadership. And so asking questions that get people to move and be influenced to make more and better decisions is critical. So I want you to teach us, Amanda, some of the questions that you have. We're going to keep today's show a little bit brief. But I'd like to have you teach us a little bit about what are some of the questions that agents should be asking themselves that they then could adopt to begin asking some of their clients to really, again, rise above kind of the commodities level of where real estate agents value proposition has been?
Amanda Neely
Yeah. So it's really pretty simple. And yeah, I like to go on a timeline kind of fashion, where I start with, where are you at right now? Like, what are some of the things that are happening in your life that could have a major impact on your financial future? Or like, what is the home you're looking for right now, in the case of a real estate agent, you know, you get the, the, you know, this many bedrooms, this many bathrooms, whatever it might be. And then but then also like sharing, like, well, what, what are some of the biggest frustrations or concerns or things you think could go wrong, that we want to make sure we avoid too. So then you get you know, like, the bad school district or you know, that, that sort of thing? And then from there, I like to take one question about the past, like, what did you learn from the adults ever in your life as a kid about money, or you know, about what a home should be, and how a home should function in the case of a real estate agent? And then start thinking about the future. And I like to start with the short term future, what do you want to see over the next five years? But really end with the long term future? As I'm like, what are your What do you want to accomplish financially in life? What is when you are on your deathbed? What do you want to look back and have done? Or what do you want to be leaving? What you know, what do you want that to look like? And really, like, sometimes it's hard for people to get into that, you know, there's some people that love thinking long term and other people that are living the day to day just thinking, you know, the shorter term. And so I sometimes have to ask that question a few different ways to get them to, to think longer term like that. And, and even then, you know, the might say, well, I want to leave a legacy to my kids, or you know, something like that will any bucket list items for you, in the meantime, you know, things that you want to do? So I was thinking about this for myself, I'm about to purchase a property. And I was thinking, you know, I know what I where I want to live, but I was really I need to be thinking about like, what's beyond that? Do I plan to live there for 30 years? Do I plan to sell it, in fact, in five to 10 years, so I can be in a better school district for my son do I want to rent it out instead of selling it? And I was, again, I want to define some of those longer term goals for myself before I'd actually like meet with a real estate agent. But then if I was meeting with someone, I would, I'd want them to be asking those kind of questions. And if I want flexibility, like to be able to make those decisions later, I'd want them to, you know, know that too. So that kind of, that's not something you see in an app, you know, like, that's not something,
Justin Stoddart
Those aren't factors that can be factored in, with just technology. But to have have that kind of conversation, I think, could be really interesting. I know, it's works gangbusters for me. And the big thing, not just the data gathering, not just recording their goals, but types of questions, is what establishes the relationship and builds the trust, they know, I care more about the transaction than just getting the numbers and making the sale, you know, finding out what they want, and giving it to them in a in a lot in a that's what I do. Like I find out what they want. And I give it to them, but not just what they want now, what they want later, but and like balancing those things together. If that makes sense. That's it's a super powerful concept. Again, the tendency within you know, the real estate world is to become transactional. And I think that's very much what this new kind of breed of of technology offerings is, it's very much how fast can we get the client into the home and get the deal closed, and capture a you know, a margin or profit off that. And I think we're real estate agents really start to stand out is where they they take their time, and it doesn't take a lot of time in the questions you just asked, you know, a few minutes. But to simply ask the question of, what are your five year goals? What are your long term goals? And how does the purchase of this property help you get there? Like just asking that question, causing the client to think you don't you don't even have the answers for them? But asking those questions, like you said, shows a couple of things. Number one, I care about you, right. And the advice that I'm going to give you is going to be predicated predicated based on the response that you give me that that, you know, there's a couple different paths, depending upon where you want to end up. And, again, it moves the client to possibly even have conversations and ask themselves questions that no one's ever asked them before. Right? That's a powerful thing.
Amanda Neely
Yeah, absolutely.
Justin Stoddart
It not only helps them with the what you're trying to do, you know, sell them a home, or in my case, set them up with a financial strategy. But it helps them, especially if you're working with a couple, they might hear things from each other that they've never talked about before. Or they might continue that conversation later and get more in depth of that and make decisions that have nothing to do with the transaction that you're doing. Because they're starting to think bigger, they're starting to think more long term. It just opens their minds to all kinds of possibilities. Well, that's I mean, honestly, that's part of the theme of this show, right? Is that, as you saw properly coined there, is that when people start to realize that real estate can be very much a means to get to the end that they really want, right. And I think some people see it is in and of this. Like it's an end in and of itself. And I think that's short sighted. But to be able to see that real estate is such a powerful tool, both the business as well as the actual, the ownership of real estate, can help propel you to get to the goals and fund the things that you want and aspire to have in life. And I think it does, hopefully cause people to think bigger about real estate to have to realize just how powerful it can be an on the consumer to realize like, you know, what, if it really has the power to do that, I probably ought to be asking questions, and I probably ought to be hiring somebody that asked me those questions, as opposed to just going to an app and like a amazon shopping cart and choosing something out of there. But But really, what am I trying to accomplish both my home life, as well as in my investment, long term legacy life? And that really has the ability to and plays a critical part in both of those?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, and the caveat here is that when you ask these questions, if what you're what you would typically do doesn't fit with their goals, you have to be willing to sacrifice the sale and say the words, you that you shared with me, I don't think it's the right time to buy a home, or I think you need you want to want to buy a home, that's a lot less expensive than what you're thinking about, or something along those lines, I just had to do that this past weekend, I was talking with a real estate investor who's planning to buy a whole bunch of property over the next few years. And I just gave them the strategy that I would typically do this whole idea of becoming your own banker, if you want as much of your money available as possible to purchase properties at auction, or you know, different things. You shouldn't tie up any funds, you know, like, like, so I we're going to explore other things. But the thing you're interested in that you came to me with, I don't think we should do that. And they they were really grateful that I was willing to say, you know what, I'm not going to sell you this product, because it doesn't fit your goals?
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Well, that's where, you know, a real estate agent agrees to be a fiduciary, right, which is to act in the best interest of the client, I think sometimes agents see that through the limited perspective of to make the right buying decision. And I would argue that sometimes being a fiduciary entails telling them to make no decision, right? It's not time to sell, it's not time to buy based on what you told me, you want to accomplish. Here's my advice and having an abundant enough mentality, to be able to say, and I'm okay with that. Because there's other clients out there, if I treat people, as a fiduciary, putting their best interests in mind, there is going to be somebody out there that needs my services to buy yourself, and it may not be this person, but there's there's countless other people out there that are looking for someone that they can entirely trust, right.
Amanda Neely
And because you've taken it beyond the transaction, you actually have gotten to know their goals in a deeper level. That might happen more frequently. But at least in my experience, you get the sale more often, too. And so it counterbalances either way.
Justin Stoddart
Absolutely. You know, I really appreciate what you shared here and again, and helping us to be think a little bit more like advisors. Were unfortunate, we're out of time. So I'll have to, we'll have to circle back and do this again, because you've got tons of words. And I think you're really a great voice again, for the millennial generation, which again, is being pulled in a number of different directions as to if real estate should be in their portfolio. If so, what it should look like. And to go back to those trends, your principles is super valuable. And I'd like to end with this this question, which is a signature question of the show, Amanda, which is what does Amanda Neely do on a regular basis to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your own possibilities? If you teach us that we'd be grateful?
Amanda Neely
Yeah, so I'm in business with my husband. And we have a set block of time on Friday afternoons to just dream. We call it our powwow time. And we just get together and we think long term, what do we want to be doing? How are we getting there? Now let, let's just brainstorm, throw things into a Google Doc, you know, play around with things. And we do that on a consistent basis, almost every week, every once in a while we skip. But that's been really valuable for us to keep dreaming, keep thinking bigger, but also connect with in a different way than we connect throughout the week where we're thinking about the here and now all the time.
Justin Stoddart
So powerful Amanda, I've never heard that answer. And I love it, I'm gonna have a conversation with my wife today, we need to start implementing something similar. So that's, I love that fact we did. We were once at a Brian Buffini event, who's kind of a big real estate coach. And he taught us to dream cast was a very similar process. And my wife oftentimes uses that term. And she's like, I'm dream casting. So I think it's probably already that, you know, in our DNA a little bit to want to do that. So thank you for that great tip. And again, thank you for your contributions to the think bigger real estate show. As on kind of speaking on behalf of the audience, we're grateful for you and what you've shared. And my final request to everybody listening today is very simple. It's three short words you hear me say all the time which are which are go think bigger. Thank you so much, Amanda for your time and for all you contributed and we will talk again soon
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart. I'm very excited about today, you as real estate agents work very hard for your money, right? Most of you, some of you don't. Those that are high producers, those that love this show are very hard working. And wouldn't it be nice if you could keep more of the money you earn number one? And number two, wouldn't it be nice if you had a strategy to be able to differentiate yourself from the typical agent, differentiate yourself from technology disruptors, and give people a reason beyond just liking you as a human being, give them a real value proposition that makes them want to come to you because your commission becomes irrelevant, because you're that valuable. Today's topic is going to be all about that I have with me a true expert, national expert. His name is Toby Mathis. And let me get in his bio here in just a sec. But let me give everybody a reminder that we do a lot of content here on the think bigger real estate show, as you know, and I would encourage you if you've not yet signed up to get our weekly updates that go through and give you show notes and then also give you highlights and action steps. Go sign up for that at thinkbigger.realestate. Alright back to our guest today, Toby. Again, thank you for being on the show today. I'm super excited to introduce you. So let me to start by saying thank you for being here.
Hey, thanks for having me.
Yeah, this is good stuff, man. So for those that don't know, Toby, he is a teacher. First and foremost, he said, that's the thing that I want people to know, first and foremost about me as a he's a teacher. He's a writer. He's written over 1000 articles, a number of books. He's a tax lawyer out of Nevada. He and his firm serve on an ongoing basis, over 18,000 clients. And at any given time, they're servicing upwards of 50,000 clients, because of their tax strategies. They understand tax law. They understand the importance of real estate when it comes to tax law. And these guys have some stuff that are going to absolutely blow your mind today, Toby. Again, thank you for being on the show. I'm excited to share your knowledge at least not sure all of it because that would take forever but at least introduce you to the audience and let people know how they can get in contact with you. So appreciate being here.
Hey, it's again, it's fun to finally get to join him. Usually people don't bring a lawyer into the mix voluntarily. Usually it's got to be a beaten over the head. But if you learn how to use them appropriately, they can be quite an asset.
I love it. So you're in let's let's kind of get something out of the way here really quickly. This TB stands for think bigger. My goal is to help people think bigger and when they do their life gets better. What is Toby, you're obviously a big thinker, I mean to have the kind of impact that you're having, and servicing lot of people that you're servicing and something I didn't mention, you've got over 150 properties nationwide. So right you're in this real estate game, not just from the outside, but from the inside. What what what is the reason why you do all of that? I mean, what's behind you? is there is there family some sort of like big motivation that's like, you know, I have a driving force to make a big difference in the world because I want to what does that look like for you? Yeah, for me,
It's it all comes down to creating a legacy for my family. So when you first get involved in something, I always look and say what kind of what kind of impact in the world can I have? So I'm very much into the charities. From a tax lawyer standpoint, I can tell you there's nothing better than tax free, where you give, you can literally just give you one example, you could literally give a rental property that you've depreciated fully to a charity and write it off all over again. So for some of the high net worth people out there, they're going, what Yep, I can I can take 100% fair market value deduction tomorrow if I want to. So once you start realizing that there's laws built around that it gets, it gets to be a lot of fun. And so for me, my driving force is a you shouldn't be teaching something that you don't do. I believe that there's nuances to doing things. So if you're in real estate, for example, you better be talking to advisors that actually are in real estate, that you can't learn it out of a book he learned by doing. So I'm a big believer that I better be doing what my clients are doing, because there's what you can do, and there's what you should do. And I could I could get your taxes down to zero. I know that because I'm a tax lawyer, like there's so many different loopholes or incentives out there. But if I did, did I just hose your business? Like, how are you going to get alone? How are you going to grow? And so there's always this stuff where people will go to the accountant to the go to the lawyer, and they're teaching it from a philosophical idea or out of a book, but they're not thinking about real world impact. And as a result, I just say there's so much bad information out there that I really enjoy correcting it and I enjoy watching people just get huge results with very little effort. That's kind of that's rewarding. Awesome. So that's what that's what's driving these think bigger actions that you have. And this is the legacy and creating something great for your family as well as you seeing it. Kind of a big difference. It makes the lives of people I love that man. Let's let's look
Let's kind of go here. What's some of the biggest? And you've kind of already hinted at some of these. But what are some of the ways that a real estate agent not even including their own, like investment portfolio, right, that's a whole separate topic that maybe we'll go on in a different show. Maybe we'll have time today. We'll see. But let's say that I'm a real estate agent and I'm earning income. What are some of the biggest mistakes real estate agents make, then would make an immediate difference in the amount of taxes that they pay on their income?
Let's just increase your your take home pay by 10% on an average agent, so let's just say that the average agent is somewhere between 50 and $70,000 a year. The what we see is if you implement one small strategy, which is the tax designation for the at that actual business, you'll increase your take home pay by about 10%. So if you just want to increase your take home pay by a few thousand bucks, the easiest thing to do is make sure you're not operating on your schedule. See on a 1040 70% of the agents out there operate a silver that's what it's called. Because the accountants say, Oh, it's easy. It's one of the worst things you can do if I could, I'm going to approach this from a couple different angles, Justin. Number one.From an audit standpoint, if you are a sole proprietor making, let's say it's $100,000, but I'll just use that throughout hundred grand, you are 1200 percent more likely to be audited than your corporate counterpart. You are also going to lose that audit. And this is from the night 2018 IRS data book that they just published out a couple months ago. Like they'll tell you who they who they audit and how often they when they went about 94% of the time, the IRS, so you're 1200 percent more likely to be audited, you're going to lose 94% of the time. So why would an accountant put you in that situation plus, you're paying about $10,000 a year more in taxes as a sole proprietor and that's because 100% of your product are subject to something called Old Age death and survivors and Medicare commonly known as social security, you're getting hit on 100%. Whereas if you just designated yourself an escort, you would be able to eliminate about 70% of the money from that, that you make from that designation. You could literally buy a simple piece of paper change it. Now, here's what gets confusing to agents is they're told that their broker won't pay an S corp or something like that. There is a workaround from a tax standpoint. So that is partially true from a state standpoint, but from a federal tax standpoint, there's an easy workaround is two pieces of paper. Just knowing that can put on $100,000 a year it will put immediately about $10,000 more in your pocket. That's 10,000 like, like $10,000 cash almost $1,000 a month. And that's just the start. The second part. Is there something called an accountable plan for reimbursing all of your expenses as a sole proprietor project.
You're able to to deduct parts of expenses that are business related. If you become an employee of an organization, ie an S corp, you become the employee. Now you can reimburse 100% of your medical, not your medical device, you can you can, you can reimburse 100% of your expenses that are associated that benefit that building including your cell phones, the actual physical phones, the computers, even a portion of your home, that is not a home office that that goes on your schedule C and files a special form. This is actually just a tax free. Hey, here's a check to reimburse you that doesn't get reported on your 1040. So like there's some simple, easy ways to immediately increase your take home pay, which is what I do, I spend most of my time figuring out, it's not what you make, it's what you keep. And for real estate agents, my God, they leave a lot of money on the table, and that's because they're out there so busy, and they're not thinking about keeping it so it's almost like sandwich
Through their hand, they're making a ton, but it's going right through their fingers. And so a lot of what I do is saying, hey, let's, let's keep more of it.
You know, I think not all agents are like this right. And I believe that the audience is attracted to, to what we share here is not that group. But there is a group out there that's very ego driven, right? It's more about gross commission. It's more about, you know, the car that I drive and the lifestyle that I lead, as opposed to actually building wealth and no judgment, right, if that's what's important. That's what's important. Great, but I think, for me, and the group and the, you know, the tribe of people that that, you know, I want to be a part of, it's how much you keep, right? It's, it's, it's the impact you make, and how much you keep. And so what you're saying here, is really resonating, I think, with all of us, is that there are ways that you can go about keeping a lot more and it doesn't necessarily buy into maybe some of the common held beliefs of right being a top producer when you're asked about profitability, and you have no answer for it. Right? Because that that that's not your goal, you know. This audience this show profitability. And and and building wealth is the goal. Right? So, you know, you're speaking our language, is this fantastic? Okay, great. So so be sure and set your business up properly, as described, what else are agents missing? And in fact, let's take that concept. Now, you want to look at this or two angles. One is, as a real estate agent, the way you're set up can create some tax savings for you. What's a way for a real estate agent? To be able to then be sure and offer that similar advice to their clients right? To where it becomes not only a value add to them on their bottom line, their net worth but also an added value proposition? What's a way for them to bring that up, right as they're interacting with clients?
Oh, you could actually very easily for no cost, by the way as a service. Hey, let's take a look. Let's take a look at the tax impact of your sale. So for example, let's say that I, let's say that I'm that I'm talking to a client in San Francisco. Client bought their house for, let's say, half a million dollars. Now it's worth 2,000,000 10 years later. And the knee jerk reaction is Oh, you'll get to, yo, you don't have to pay tax on capital gains on the sale of your house. But wait, there's a limit to it. Yeah, it's, it's, it's $250,000 for an individual $500,000 for a married couple. So they bought a house for 500,000. They're selling it for 2 million. There's a half million dollars of capital gain exclusion. So they're going to have a million dollars again, and you go out capital gains, that's great. Not great. 20% for where they're at, and they're going to have net investment income, there's going to be a another tax a 3.8 Plus, there's the state tax, you're at about 37%. Which is a pretty significant sum on that million bucks. 370,000 What if you could avoid that 370,000 What if you had advice that you could give them that would actually say hey, if you want to avoid the 370,000? You could do it. What's what differentiating factors that can have over the agents that are just saying, hey, let's list this thing. If you just spoke that in their ear, by the way, you could avoid that. It's actually really easy. And the IRS tells us exactly how to do it. If you can combine what's called a 121 exclusion that two to five year, the $500,000, capital gains exclusion with a 1031 exchange, you just have to change the nature of the property, it doesn't take very long, like a few months, and you could literally avoid the entire tax hit, if you wanted to, if you're giving them that option, who they're going to start listening to, hey, this guy is actually looking out for my best interest. That's a huge amount of money by the way that they're leaving on the table. It's just knowing those little nuances and knowing enough to say, hey, maybe we should have a look at it. It could have a big impact.
You know, I love what you're saying here, Toby, and we probably want to share canal conversation you and I have had prior which is the reality that many agents right now we're in the are in the crosshairs of technology, I would say all agents are in the crosshairs of technology. And the reason why that is is because agents typically have come out of some sort of customer service industry, hospitality industry. And they're there they think, like salespeople, right, like customer service representatives, they're thinking like advisors. And technology has been looking at real estate agents saying, if all they do is market a house and sell a house, we can do that. We can write an algorithm for that or we can have low paid people help assist us with that. And think the way that people that agents are going to remain well paid is simply it's not because you're going to have a craft your message. It's not because you're going to be trickier in the way that you present at your listing presentation, right? It's you're going to actually have real value your commission will become irrelevant as you can have conversations like you just described, in which people are are actually allowing their clients to save 10s of thousands of dollars, right? Your fees become quickly irrelevant when you have people like Toby in your network, and that are pouring into you into your business and pouring into your your mind so that you can show up and deliver that kind of value. All of a sudden people, like your fee becomes irrelevant, right?
Because of the value that you're bringing to them. You're saying something that actually that I firmly believe, just because as a tax person, a lot of times we'll go I go to h&r block, okay, you can pay $500 to get a return done, that's going to cost you an extra $5,000 in taxes or you could spend $2,000 on a return that's going to save you $10,000 the net in your pocket in the latter is $8,000 of actual cash in my pocket, the net and the other is a minus 40 $500. And the wealthiest folks, the most successful people realize that there's a value, they get more money as a result, which is kind of the kicker, but their value proposition people, they're not price people, anybody could say, Hey, I'll list your house for 1%. That's To me, that's that that's crud. Like, I'm going to get what I paid for, I would much rather get the maximum for my house. And by the way, it's about what I get to keep. I give you a great example, Justin, there was a property, I think the purchase price and this is this is from about two years ago that just it sticks in my head because it was about a $1.3 million property was a four Plex that they ended up selling for 2.2. They're going through and somebody is recommending something called a cost segregation. And the the individual, the agent of all was like, why would you do that it's too late. You should have done that when you purchased and you're like, hold on for a second. let's actually look at the numbers of what happens when you do a cost segregation right before you sell. And for those who don't know what a cost segregation is, it's when you take a building and you break out the shorter lifespan company. From the actual structure itself, so typically in a residence, for example, that's 27 and a half year property, the IRS lets you write it off 120 7.5 every year, that's called depreciation. Well, you can accelerate that. I could take the carpet, for example, and write it off in five years, I could take the there's there's five, seven and 15 year property, I could write off the air conditioner, I could write off a bunch of the electric system and things like that things that are hooked up, that could that could be removed from the home in any way. So you're you're able to really rapidly depreciate though. So there's a huge incentive if you're an investor, but at the end of the life of it, when you're actually selling it, there's still an incentive. And so we did the numbers. It was the difference between paying $280,000 in tax versus 200,000. In taxes, that was literally the difference between doing the cut between not doing the cost segregation, doing the cost segregation. So let's just put this in perspective, you're selling a what was about to $2 million property? Your commission might be what 60,000, something like that. Depending on what I got to do the math in my head is but yeah, there's there's a pretty good chunk of money there that's going away. I guess it's just not 66,000 you could actually save them like a multiple of 10 in tax savings, just by knowing maybe we should have an analysis done. The cost of doing that cost segregation, by the way, and it's not something we do. It's something we work with other other engineers to do. The cost of that maybe around 20 $500 20 $500 saves them at your commission is a small fraction of that. Who are they going to use and refer all their friends to at this point, this agent saved me more than I had to pay them by about 10 times. They're coming back to you
It really is the future of well paid real estate agents, folks, I hope you're listening, number one for your own business, but I also hope that you're listening and how you need to start showing up in the marketplace, right is that having better photographers having even a, you know, a slightly better social media presence? This is all becoming a commodity, right? It's to the client that doesn't move the needle enough to pay somebody this amount when a tech companies offering this amount, right. But yet that delta is irrelevant when it comes to adding in the kind of value that you're, you know, that you're talking about here, Toby, it becomes irrelevant again, the the law of value as described by yesterday's guests, but that Kalin is the amount of value that you give minus your costs and that that delta right there as long as that is, is large, larger than the difference between you and the low cost competitors, your friends, right, as long as you can, can provide that, and then articulate it, communicate it to where people understand it, you're in good shape, right? The sky is not falling for agents that can think intelligently and move forward with knowledge, right? We're in the knowledge economy, and having superior knowledge wins, right? Yep, absolutely. I'm just going to reiterate what you're saying I work with agents that make strong seven figures all day long in the difference, like they're, they're providing essentially the same service as far as selling the house. It's all the added knowledge that they have that they bring to the table. I can tell you one thing, just my experience from doing this over for a couple of few decades now, gosh, it's going on three now.
The people that focus on price, tend to be the ones that set that limit themselves. The people that focus on value are the people that explode and just have huge growth and that goes for yourself. And it's hard because it's kind of like learning a golf swing. feels uncomfortable because like, I think I'm going to people that spend a lot of money on photography and things like that. I have clients that do that stuff too. And they're always tell me, staging and in photography on the right property obviously has to be a value proposition, it has to give you something back, but they're not worried about the price of it. What they're worried about is how much is it going to increase the value of the home and the sale price of the home and how quickly and how many offers they get, they're focused on that they're not looking at it, oh, my god, that was 1000 bucks that I could have kept in my pocket that that know they're looking at the long game, I'm going to have people that love me, they're going to tell me all their friends, I'm going to be top of the market, I'm going to be getting the most dollars per, you know, per foot out there. And these people are going to keep coming back to me and they're going to send everybody else if you ever get into a investor, where you're working with an investor, they will just keep using you because you are bringing them far more value than anybody else. Absolutely. Hundred percent. And I can tell you that from experience because I do the exact same thing. Well, and I think and I agree with you
I also agree that those things are becoming more and more common, right? having great photography, having drone photography used to be a real differentiator. And now it's the standard now you you need to have that you had to have to have that. And I think having the strategies in your mind and or the people in your network like you, right, where the knowledge that you bring, as an example, becomes a real differentiator because most agents are not having those conversations, right? They're there to market a house, they're there to offer great customer service. They're not there to say, let's look at this differently. Let me introduce one of my experts who can really see from a tax standpoint, the best way to go about this right answer expert exit, you know, significant difference in return tax savings, depreciation, whatever it might be. And all of a sudden, like you You look and sound very different than the typical agent. And in Justin, just a dovetail on that. It's so easy to say let's do a quick tax analysis will do it for free. That's all you I have to say, as a as part of my services, I'm going to look and see whether we can save you any money. It only takes one if you just walked up to one person and said, You know what? We did this one thing right before we sold it, and it saved him $40,000. That goes a long way as like, Hey, we're going to see if that's you, people just instinctual. You're like, yeah, I want to know that. What did you do? Sign first. And we'll share with you what we do. At the end of the day, we want you to have more money than what it costs to pay for us. And it's like you said that value Delta. Most agents, there's no value delta. So what I hear you saying is that agents ought to be including that into their presentation, right, is that if you signed with me, we do a free tax evaluation to make sure that the, you know, the proceeds of this property are maximized. It's really easy. So like, if you're just selling single family house, persons been living in it. The rule is two out of those five years, they had to have lived in it and owned it. So you know, if somebody gets married right before they sell it, they don't meet the test, right? They may own it at the time that they sell it, but they didn't live in it for two years, both both spouses. So you're going to have either 250 or 500,000. So if you're just dealing with houses in that range, you could learn that and you could be pretty potent. And most people actually know some of those things and they're looking for it. So they may know where it really becomes valuables when you're going into the million dollar plus houses. Now you have a huge differentiating factor. I don't know about you, but I think I'd rather be selling some of the higher end price, you know, properties. Some people really love the stuff that that's cheaper, fantastic. But where the real value Delta comes into play, is when you understand that there are ways to avoid the taxation, or to convert something into into a different category to where you're able to jump up the depreciation right? And perfect example is if you have a house and you're going to make it into a rental because you're moving out. Most people would just do that. But if it's appreciated, you should sell it, capture the 121 exclusion, but you could sell it to a related entity, you can actually sell it to your own business that then now has an increased depreciation. So now you're not paying tax on the rents in all you did was literally sell it to yourself and you know, or to an artificial person called an entity like an LLC, taxes an S corp or something like that. You're literally jumping up the depreciation level, the value of that house and you're grabbing your capital gains exclusion at the same time, perfectly legal, really smart. But most probably nine out of 10 people don't do it and if you look at as you've been living in the house for 20 years, it's worth a ton more than what you paid for it. You may as well get the benefit of that. Why wouldn't you harvest that there's most people just don't know, and financing from an entity that they don't look at the entity in another itself to see if the entity can purchase at home. They're still looking at the principles of that entity, correct? Yeah, what you look at whenever you're doing lending is cash collateral or credibility. So the credibility of an entity that hasn't been around, they're looking at the owner, unless it has a bunch of cash. Now, here's the beautiful part that that transaction I just described is where you take house, let's say you bought the house for 100,000. And now it's worth 400,000. If I just made that into a rental, because I'm going to buy a new house, you know, whatever, and I'm going to keep it I'm going to make it into a rental property, which is smart. My depreciation will be based on the hundred thousand dollar purchase price, the improve value would be what you'd appreciate. But if I sell it to my own escort at 400,000, and I carry back the note, I actually do an installment sale, I could literally pay myself out of the rents tax free because as that rent comes in, it's being offset by this new increased basis of 400,000. Now my improvement value might be three Hundred 30,000 I'm getting over $10,000 a year in deduction to offset any rents that I get, it's going to be, quite literally your quadrupling the amount of depreciation. And if that's not enough, we'll do a cost segregation on it, and we'll get an immediate get this on that house. It's about a $90,000 deduction in year one, because of bonus depreciation. And I'm not kidding you that 90,000 could offset their income, depending on whether they qualify as a real estate professional for a lot of the agents they are, you know, it's almost goes without saying they automatically qualify. But it's pretty potent stuff. And it doesn't take much to learn it. And now all of a sudden, you're like, Whoa, you say that you can sell it, you can sell it a property that let's say my wife and I own, I can sell it to my entity. And I carry the notes where there's actually not a traditional lender in place. Correct. You could actually you could actually do what's called an installment sale, you make an election on your tax return to treat it as an installment sale, so I sell it for let's say I sell it for 300,000. As an example, you would calculate out what the interest would be, you should use what we use as federal AFR rates, which is about 3%, a little bit less than 3%. Right now, you go and use the federal long term interest rate. So you know, its market value, and your entity pays you that interest. That's okay. It's deductible to the entity and it flows onto your return anyways, like you're not actually paying tax on it. What you're looking at is how much rent you're able to calculate and it's being offset by that increased depreciation. So you're literally getting cash and not paying tax on it at all. Otherwise, if it was the hundred thousand I'm depreciating such a small amount I'm having to pay tax every year on all that rent. What goes into my highest tax bracket? Right so for some people are like, they're giving away a third of it or more. Yeah, like I don't want it. You know, this, this stinks. Let's just sell a house. That's the mentality. They're like, ah,
I don't really want to, you know, let's just get it get rid of it. I don't want to have the headache. If I could get an extra 10 or $12,000 a year tax free, I would take it. Yeah, right.
Folks, I hope this is illustrative of a couple of things. Number one, that Toby's an expert. Right. I would I would venture to say that few of you were aware of this. I know I wasn't I've never heard this taught. Maybe some of the more savvy agents and investors are very aware of this. But needless to say, you need to be surrounded with this kind of knowledge for your own good. As well as again, think about the differentiator, just this by reiterating some of what Toby speaking here to your clients taking this snapshot going back and listening to it again and again, and going and restating that and your next listing appointment. How much different Are you right, and then tune in to Toby fine, Toby, he does. What's your ongoing sales talk? stuff, Toby? I gotta know.
Yes. So we teach for a lot of large organizations out there. I want get into him. But I love to teach. That's why I say the first thing I am as a teacher. An easy way to go is if you go to our website, every other Tuesday I do something called tax Tuesday's tax Tuesday's is a free for all you can ask any tax question you want, no cost, no obligation, you're not going to get hit, you're just going to go on. And we have, we have about 5000 people that that are registered on a bi weekly basis. And all we do is bunch of our accountants. So it's kind of fun. It's what every now and again, I get stumped. And I have a 30 year accountant that the CPA that that does it with me. So we're always sitting there and usually will know the answer. We've heard all these things before but everybody's going to get stumped. And what's fun is you'll have you know, 10 CPA is out there doing the research, shooting it over like saying, Hey, here's the answer. So, you know, I didn't realize that notary fees weren't, were exempt from social security taxes. I was like, Wow, so it was a notary as like a if you're a notary, I guess, hey, you don't have to pay the self employment tax. Make sure you're not that it saves you. It's a pretty big chunks. 12.4% old age and in survivors and 2.9, Medicare, that's going to save you a little bit of money. Yeah, it's a it's about 15%. So it's like, hey, let's let's save that. Just go on to it here. Usually you're pretty shocked. I you know, I do make it into a podcast too. I'm not going to compete with your podcast, but we do make it to where you can listen to him later if you feel like it. Tax knowledge is one of those things where you get a little bit of it and it goes a long ways.
Yeah. But this is, this is golden stuff, Toby again, we there's no way we have time to go through everything that you know, but hopefully we've at least pointed people to the source where they can go get more where they can follow you, and be taking these tips and bringing them into your everyday conversations, be sure that you're applying them in your own life in business. It's just a much better way to work. The further insulates you from everything that's happening out there. Toby, I want to ask you this question is as we wrap up here, first and foremost, is there any other tax strategies, that are Top of Mind you really wanted to share today that we missed or are you feeling pretty good?
So many words by asking that question. Well, here's a fun one if you know and just kind of, if you're socially conscious person and you want to put some solar on your, on your house, just know that you get a tax credit for the solar and you can still, you can still depreciate it if you put it into service on like a rental property. So you're getting your kind of double dipping there. The depreciation isn't quite 100%, it's 85%. But you're getting a tax credit, which is basically you're getting a huge chunk 30% that's a tax credit, not a deduction, a credit. It's like getting money back in your pocket. So you put a $20,000 solar right you're getting $6,000 off of it. So you're really spending 14 but now you're going to depreciate the $20,000 it's actually 85 $17,000 immediate depreciation. So for some people, it makes a huge difference. They obviously don't have to pay tax on the rents and they're like, Wait a second, I just wiped out all my, my tax hit, you know, and I'm going to have solar arrays on my on my rental property forever, you know, so like, there's little things like that. But there's so many of them, I can't even begin to, to start doing this. If you're an agent have your own solar for solo 401k, you can defer the first 19 five, directly into it. If you're over 50. It's 20. What is it 26,000. You can put a ton of money into these things and not pay tax on it as it goes in. And if you still want to invest in real estate, that 401k money, you could actually buy real estate in it, or you could borrow out 50% of it.Yep, you could. Absolutely. There's so many little nuances.
I can tell you, you've got your arms around what agents need to know. And this has been fantastic, Toby, let me let me ask this final question, which is the signature question of the show, which is you're obviously a big thinker. All right. You're doing some incredible things, not just with your immediate clients, but now spreading it to a wider, wider audience. What is Toby do to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your own possibilities? What does that look like for you to teach us?
All right, I'll make it really easy. I'm a big believer in a guy named Andrew Carnegie wrote something called the gospel of wealth in 1899. He was the richest man at the time. And he basically said that there's nothing wrong with being rich. Just make sure you're giving back and the way he put it is millionaires are trustees of the poor. You cannot fill up somebody's glass with water from an empty picture. So you owe it to yourself and to those around you that if you're good at something, do a lot of it. Don't stop. Like I could have retired A while ago. Don't stop. There's no such thing. Continue to create wealth because some people are really bad at it. The honest truth is some people just good at making money. So if you're really good at it, make it and then make sure you're giving back and there's so many ways that could take place. Do you know that low to moderate income housing is actually a nonprofit activity like, yeah, you could literally do this and not pay tax at all, not even property taxes. So there's just so many little nuances out there, once you start making it. There's so many cool ways that you can do just amazing things for society for other people. And frankly, it's so much fun to do it. It just gets really exciting. Once you no longer worried about putting food on the table, you're thinking about somebody else's putting food on their table, and it just changes your whole outlook on life.
I, I can see why. There's some people that get wealthy right, they've got a mentality like you do is that I'm going to do it not not to necessarily build another statue of myself, but because there's other people out there that are needful of my abundance, and I'm happy to create so that I can share. It's good stuff, man. You've been such a valuable contributor again, let's tell people where they should go back. We'll put it in the show notes. How you can get in contact with Toby and get access to more of his stuff. I know he's got some other resources that will be really valuable for you as agents as you move from salesperson to advisor and create a better return for yourself in keeping more of your money as well as differentiating yourself in the marketplace. So final request to all of us is to GO THINK BIGGER! Hey, I appreciate it, Toby. Total pleasure having you on. Thanks, everybody for tuning in today. It's been fantastic. tons of fun,
Justin. Thanks for having me, man.
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, very excited about this topic that seems to be like a unicorn work life balance. Is there such a thing in real estate? Can you actually have it all? I have with me today, Beth Kellan, she's a Top Producing agent has been for years. And we're going to get into this as soon at a point in her life, that her highest producing year, she had very strict parameters, five miles of inner house and had to be done by 5:30pm and had a GCI of $620,000. That year, we're going to talk about how she did that. Before we get into that, I want to thank you again, for tuning into this show. And let you know that if you go to think bigger got real estate, on that website, you can sign up to get in your inbox every week. The highlights of this week shows and specific action steps. So be sure to sign up for that. Lot of people reaching out to me very grateful that they because they can't catch every episode. But this really gives them the cliff notes, the ability to apply things in their life, which is how you become a big thinker. So, Beth, let's get into this. Let me kind of begin by maybe introducing you, Beth Carolyn, again, Top Producing Windermere agent here out of the Portland Oregon market. You are licensed since 2001. And really caught hold of ninja selling, which was highlighted a few episodes ago in 2007. You're now a ninja certified mastery coach. I'm excited and grateful to have you on the show today. Thanks for being here.
Absolutely. Thanks for having me. It's such an honor.
Well, it's an honor for all of us to hear how you have done what you've done, and how you're now again, of moving beyond success to significance, right? Where you're looking to pour how to find success through other people, by being a coach by helping other people to do what you did. So let me just kind of restate that in case people missed this, which is you were at a point in your life where you had your little babies at home. And you decided like I've got to be done by 530? Because why? Tell me why was that? Yeah.
Yeah, 530 was when the daycare shuts down. My for the first several years of our kiddos lives, my husband worked nights. So he and I were like ships in the night, he would keep the kiddos during the days except for the few days that he had to work. And then he would go on to work at four. So I had to be the one to pick them up at 530 when daycare was over. So I can have a choice, I had to shut my day down at five in order to get to them. I don't know if you guys if you know this, but they charge you about $1 $5 a minute beyond 530. So you can get costly if you're not on time. Because I didn't realize I had four nights a week I had to pick up the kiddos and have them with me. And then the other three nights I wanted to see my husband on those nights that he was home.
Yeah. powerful stuff. So you just simply drew a line in the sand and said, Okay, my day ends at this time. Therefore, I must get a lot done before 5pm. Beth is now you've coached people that the hours that they dedicate to real estate, let's say it's eight to five, right? If If someone were to really get in and get after it, do you believe that that's enough time to create a successful real estate business if you're highly focused and have a solid plan?
Absolutely. I think that that the focus pieces but absolutely the key. We go about our days, and we do so much throughout the day, and how much of it is actually productive work?
Yeah, I think we all fall victim to that and right, or choose that right on victims the right word for the bigger real estate show. But but but we all make choices, right? That dilute our productivity that dilute our effectiveness, and keep us from really being on task, those things that matter the most. Um, let's talk a little bit about this case. So the timeframe is clear. You've got to be done by 5pm. Now you made the decision also to work within a very specific geographical ring from your home. Was it five miles? Is that what I remember? You told me
it was actually closer to 10. And I was a little bit too I would be choosier if it was closer. And of course, they had lots of help and would refer out if it was a little beyond the location of where I needed to be my kiddos where I live in southwest Portland, my kiddos were in daycare and triggered. So if I'm showing a property out in outer northeast, at 430, it was not happening.
Yeah. So you then I mean, how did you You didn't turn business down, you just created strong referral partners in the ne se kind of any area that was outside of that ring? To where you said, You know, I don't service that area. And probably it's it, I would imagine some degree, it's a cert, it was a service to your clients, to find people that really specialize in that area.
Absolutely. And it's still always a work in progress. And something that I strive to continue to work on is making those relationships feel seamless. And it is challenging, but when you don't have any other choice and your kiddos become the priority, you it somehow makes it happen. And I looked back on that year and I thought wow, I really did not work evenings this whole
last year, it was pretty amazing.
It's it's truly phenomenal. Interesting to have you say no to stuff, right, I think know, is one of the most powerful words that anybody that's highly successful. gets really comfortable saying is like, No, I can't do that. No, that's not a good customer for me. No, I don't work well there. If I because if you say yes to it, then you're saying no to picking up your kids. Right? Yes. You know, we tend to be those of us that are in sales tend to be very kind of Yes. driven. Yes. Customer Service. Right. But I think one of the more powerful things is to realize that yes, the customer's always right, yes, we service the customer at a really high level. But no, not everybody needs to be our customer know, like there's a there's a certain standard that people have to have to have to fit into in order to to meet our customer criteria. Would you say benefit that by you making that choice to say I'm going to say no, to those, you know, far northeast properties from where you are? Did you start to fill that that void with properties that were closer in? that were actually closer to where you were at? Yeah, good
question. It's interesting how it all kind of works out my principal broker, john Gregory always said that, you know, when you stick your hand in a candy jar, you go in the jar, and in order to pull out some candy, you have to let go of a few to get your hand out of the jar. Right. So it became that quality over quantity. And I, I also learned that if I was honest about who I am, and let my folks know that look, I'd be happy to show you that house, you know, at 430. But I have to be on the road by five o'clock to get to my kiddos. They were the people that I really wanted to be working with. were super respectful about that. And I went through this whole period where I tried to not be a mom when I was at work and not work when I was being a mom. When in reality, when I combine the two and let everybody know who I was, it became more natural and it was more of a harmony versus a work life balance.
I think that's probably a great way to put it is that balance can be a true unicorn, right? But you found like counterbalance, like there's times where I'm going to bring my kids with me mana showing, right. And you probably like you shared that with me before that you knew certain clients where that would be totally permissible. And then they'd probably love it. There are other clients that maybe wouldn't appreciate that as much. But you had the emotional intelligence to be able to tell the difference between the two, right?
Yeah. And so those evenings that I wouldn't work, it was like, I'd be happy to if the only time we can get there is at six or 630. I'm happy to do that. You can have me but I'm also going to have my two little kiddos until
and do you feel like that last few business? Or do you feel like people were okay with that
question? For the most part, they were okay with it. And it's we do feel like we want to capture it. All right. I'm I fall victim to that as well. And I think that at the end of the day, if somebody really doesn't understand that I'm also a mom, and that I have I put my kids as a priority, or probably not somebody that I want to be working with. Yeah,
yeah, I think that's a powerful way to look at it right? To have an abundance mentality to say, there's enough clients out there that would totally respect the way that I work and the person that I am, and what's important to me, and if somebody doesn't, that's okay, they've self selected outside of my tribe, and I'm okay with that. I'll simply fill that with someone who will respect what's important to me, and the fact that I can serve them at a high level, even with the circumstances that I have, and the other things that are important to me.
Absolutely.
Tell us Beth, obviously, Ninja selling has been instrumental to you being able to have these parameters being able to have the kind of referral business that you have. Talk to us about some of the key components obviously, we highlighted kind of ninja selling last week, talk to us for for you, what are some key things that have really stood out and been real difference makers when it comes to implementing this this kind of methodology.
I you know, my I've, my business philosophy is goes back to the book, The go giver, I don't know if you've read it. It's a big NINJA book. It's one of the required readings, of course, for an engine installation. And as an instructor, of course, and I have always subscribed to the law of value, which is that your true worth is determined by how much more you give in payment, I how much more you given value than you've taken payment. And if I can repeat that mantra in my head, the money just shows up. Because I'm able to add value to people's lives through the relationships that I have with them for helping to solve their problems, or helping them find their dream, whether it be a house or a location or a job, or whatever is going on in their lives, maybe a marriage or you know, a new kiddo or empty nesters, whatever that might be.
I love what you said there. And I think the the value proposition of a real estate agent is being questioned right now. People are wondering, why would I pay a full commission when I can pay a technology company a partial commission, and according to the technology company get just as good or better service than if I went through a full service realtor. And I think what you're describing is what a lot of what one with the tech companies are stating, number one, and number two, like the reality that people have additional concerns beyond just real estate, yes, the way you're introduced to them. And what you're initially there to do is solve real estate problems. But if in the process, you have a very robust and powerful network, because you've poured into people for years and years, and you have the ability to make professional introductions to somebody that is going to get them a better job or get them a promotion or allow them to better serve their customers. Like that's, that's some of the stuff that's really difficult, if not impossible for an algorithm to solve. Would you agree?
Absolutely, wholeheartedly.
So that that's just become part of your mo then right is to serve people not just show up and say I'm a realtor, I'm gonna market your house, and I'm gonna do it better than anybody else. But talk to us about your mentality when you go into step into relationship. What does that look like tactically for you? Are you just asking specific questions and listening and then afterwards go in and, and and finding ways to deliver on that? Or was that look like?
Yeah, the question based selling is the and I hate even putting selling in there, because it doesn't feel like selling to me, but it's really listening to where their pain points are or where their excitement comes from. And seeing how we can parlay the real estate to either solve that problem, or increase their level of pleasure, fun, you know, excitement about dreams, and whatever they're, they're wanting to accomplish in their life.
Really interesting. So it's, it's not just about moving the wealth needle, although I would argue that a great agent like yourself, is going to actually have advice and consultative advice is going to move the needle for people when it comes to their net worth, right. But additionally, you're enhancing their lifestyle, you're looking for other ways to really serve them and become a part of their life, helping improve all areas.
That's where I feel like the value is priceless.
I love it. So great. Is there anything else that from kind of ninja selling that really stands out to you, beyond just that kind of go giver mentality of adding more value than what you take? Is there something else anything else that you would maybe point out that's been instrumental for you and kind of taking you to another level?
Yeah, when I think on the personal side of things, I learned very early on, I worked for an agent that I saw produce a ton of business, but I don't think she was very happy in her life. And I thought, well, if that's what it's going to take to be a top producer, and that I'm interested in that. And that was I learned that early on, and it actually took me a long time to kind of get out of that mindset, that No, you cannot be a high producer and have a very high quality of life and, and strong relationships with your spouse, your partner, your your kids, your parents, your friends. But you have to be careful not to sacrifice them, right. And we when you start to put work over the appointments that you have to be committed to your family, that's when you can get into a lot of hot water with quality of life and things go down. I mean, and then what's the point?
Yeah, it does, right? You, you mentioned this before is that there's there's only so much in an emotional bank account, even in a marriage or even especially with kids, right? That choosing choosing a listing appointment over family works a couple of times, right. But if it becomes a pattern, those those relationships, like you talked about are, that are the whole reason why you're doing this is to support and enhance those relationships. How, how do you train someone to kind of say no, and have an abundance mentality? Is there something you've learned when it's like, I can go on this listing appointment, and there's a good chance I'm going to get it? Or keep the commitment of going to my kids soccer game? And like, that's tough, right? How do you How have you learned to kind of navigate that, to where you can have both and it's not an either either I have a family? Or I have a good business? But how do I have both? How do I show up and be a great mom, like all in on the sideline on the soccer field? And also have a killer business? Yeah, that's a great
question.
Sometimes I think we just need to take a deep breath. And when we say hey, you know that time isn't going to work for me? Could we do this other time? removing the fear of actually asking the question, most of the time, if it's a reasonable request, people are totally fine with it. We feel like we need to say how high what our clients Hmm. But if we communicate to them, that we you have other commitments, if you had another listing appointment at that time, you wouldn't cancel that listing appointment to you wouldn't sacrifice that for the other listing appointments. So we shouldn't be doing the same things to our families.
For that's, that's great. And I think people respect somebody who's got other commitments, right? If you say one thing, my schedule is totally open, what's good for you, UPS? Man? I'm available, like, Am I the only person working with you? What am I missing? Why am I your only client? Why am I your only commitment? You know, we know that when we go see a specialist, that, you know, sometimes like specialists, it's like either a month out or two months out, right? Yeah, it's like, well, they're the best. So we're going to wait for them. Right. And and I'm not recommending that real estate agents make their clients wait a month or two months for listing appointment. But I think the principles of saying that people tend to respect somebody who has their life in order, right, and it has their business in order. And there's this there's a time and I've got, I've got a slot on Tuesday and Thursday night at at 5pm. You know, I work with are those evenings, which one of those would work if not, I can do Saturday at this time. And give them the options and let them choose right, as opposed to letting them dictate your schedule. And heaven forbid, they say that doesn't work, and you'll lose that client. Guess what, there are other people out there that that will it is that kinda what I hear, like I hear you saying,
Yeah, absolutely.
And I set the expectation early that I I tell my clients that I run my business, like a business and I really try to keep the business hours, there's going to be those times that are emergency timelines where we've got to get out to see this house because it's going to go multiple offers by tomorrow or the next day. And those are different situations. And I reserve those off our times for exactly those situations. And, you know, not to say that I don't feel the phone call at eight o'clock at night, because that happens a lot. But I'm not out running around or talking to every text message that comes in with every question. It's reserved for those real timely issues.
Those are the exceptions, not the rule. Right? Correct. Yeah. I love that. Can you state that phrase again, I I run my business, like a business, therefore, I work to keep business within business hours.
Yeah, exactly. And, you know, there's times things are going to come up in in those off hours. And when they're time sensitive, I'm there. And they're more emergent, but otherwise, I I'm with my family. And I'll tell people that and they they tend to respect that.
Yeah. Yeah. powerful stuff, Beth, if if anyone who's listening today is like me, and you're saying like, oh, my goodness, that's the life that I want. That's just described right there. Having number one the courage to say the things that she's saying. And to create the standards really, right, the standards that you've set for where you're going to work when you're going to work. I've heard Tony Robbins say before is that a standard is just simply what you're willing to put up with. Right? And and if people right now are seeing themselves, I want to have standards like that I want to have like, I want to have both, I want to have both end. You know, as I mentioned, Beth is a certified ninja coach, and she's got a group coaching program that's ridiculously inexpensive when it comes to coaching hundred $25 a month for the value that you get, what does that look like? Beth, what does what does ninja group coaching look like? and describe that to us?
Yeah, well, it's based on the ninja selling principles, which if anybody's familiar with that is the reason why I've been able to have the business that I have in the life that I have. The mastery program is a once a month, three hour in person group, seminar, if you will, here in Portland, and we have one in Seattle as well. An opportunity for people to get together and continue down the ninja path and really practice what the ninja selling talks about and break it down over a 12 month period. And you're in a room with other like minded ninjas, realtor, real estate professionals. There's not just realtors in there. We've got lenders and a con chapter and title, folks. And so that just is great for any real estate professional that's interested in kind of elevating the industry in general and being around other like minded professionals. I love it.
Later, September, is that right?
Yes. third week of September, we meet the third Wednesday of every month.
Okay. Very good. So So for people that want to look into this, right, and they're like, oh, my goodness, that I that sounds like that would work for me. I'm going to best maybe a special offer for the think bigger real estate audience. If you're in either Portland or Seattle, and or, and or, or, like if you can make it to these events on you know, on a monthly basis. what she's going to do kind of a special opportunity is that there's a class designated typically for those people that finish ninja selling, right. And it's it's a pricing strategies class, give us just a little taste of what that looks like. And I guess what I want to maybe finish here real quick, is it? If you sign up and mention, think bigger to Beth, she's going to invite you to this pricing strategies class, even before you go through ninja installation, so you're going to get some real meat. So talk to us, Beth about what that pricing strategy is like one thing that they'll walk away with having attended that? Absolutely.
I feel like my pricing
strategy is pretty unique. One of the Ninja philosophies is that we don't there's no such thing as my price. So the sellers price, the market dictates the price, right? So how do we get the focus off of us having to come up with the value of the property, and it matters? Who says it My goal is when I go into a listing appointment is to have the seller say the price that I'm hoping they're going to say that I want you know that I feel like is in the market value range. And I've got some pretty specific strategies that and tools that ninja selling offers and are available out there that I incorporate into the my CMS and my pricing conversations, and would be more than willing to share that with everybody in that seminar.
I love the date of that is to be determined, but it's going to be early September. Is that my understanding?
Yeah, probably. Yeah, probably right before we get started on our new group or maybe even the week after.
Yeah. Great. So again, if you want to get access to that, reach out to Beth. She's on Facebook. what's what's the best email to contact you at Beth, let's put that up on the screen.
Best email is team
at Beth Kellen ke Ll a n.com.
Okay. So if interested, either a you want to learn more, or be you're like, this is for me, I want to do this. Reach out to Beth, tell her that you heard about this through the thing bigger real estate show. And she will include you also in that pricing strategies. Opportunity coming up, which sounds golden to me, like just sounds super valuable. So, Beth, this has been amazing. Before we end I want to ask you the signature question of this show, which is you are a big thinker. That's why you're here today. What is it that Beth Kellen does to continue to be a big thinker so that you don't get kind of mired down in small thinking? Teach us what you do to to continue to expand your own possibilities? Yeah, absolutely.
I think being on the ninja path and really continuing to think about my my bucket list. Having things like vision boards, I have all the accountability that I could possibly have individual coaching, accountability partner, you know, groups within my mastery, hold me accountable. And we actually that think bigger is also dreaming bigger. And if you can dream it, it can happen. But you also have to write it down and put it into action. And it's pretty amazing that once you just start to think about it, the universe figures out a way to make it happen. I love it.
Good stuff. Beth. This has been a total pleasure. Thank you so much for for coming on and pouring into the think bigger real estate audience. And for those of you that have have enjoyed this and found value in this, do Beth and I a favor, comment, like and share this, maybe tag somebody in the show notes you think would benefit by hearing that there is in reality, a way for you to have it all right for you to have a great life outside of real estate while producing at a really high level Beth has has is modeling that for all of us. So again, thank you all for tuning in. And my last request of all of us is to GO THINK BIGGER. Thank you again, Beth been a total pleasure and appreciate all you've shared with us
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I am your host, Justin Stoddart and am very excited about today's episode. It's a topic that I'm passionate about. And you as a high performing real estate agent are, I'm sure passionate about solving the problem that we're going to lay out there, which is why is it oftentimes that we have such great intentions, and followed by good actions, that then at some point, they fall off, right, and we, we stopped doing those things that get us to where we want to go. That's what we're going to be talking about today. I have an expert with me today. Let me introduce her here in just a second. But before that, I just want to remind everybody that if you go to the website, think bigger real estate, you can sign up to get a weekly summary with highlights and action steps on how to implement the stuff that we're talking about here today. It's not good enough just to listen, you will improve your life by listening, but you'll improve it exponentially as you start to actually apply these things and get some accountability around it. We're going to talk about that as well. So let me introduce today's guest. Tanja, dealer attended dealer is a licensed broker here in state, Oregon. She's at Keller Williams, realty professionals and is a true professional. She's just got great energy just as a super person. She's been selling real estate for 12 years. And she really has become in that process, a student of personal development, as many of us are. And she started to learn some things about about her journey about her path, what was working what wasn't, and started to tweak some things. And as a result, people started to come to her and ask her how do you do that? And as a result, she now coaches other people, and helping them unlock kind of that same question that we have is why don't I always do the things that I know I should do to get the results that I want? So Tanya, thank you so much for being on the show today. I appreciate you being a big thinker. And just in case people are wondering, right this TV behind me here I have this specially made for today's episode that stands for tenure dealer.
Hi, I'm so excited to be here today. And I know last time I was at your office, I had to get a photo there because I love your message. And then obviously, it's my initials. So
here's that actually does not change every episode that actually stands for things. But since Danny is a big thinker, it it's very much coincides with the episode today. So So Tony, let's talk a little bit about this problem. I get a little bit maybe for you describe kind of what that looks like for you where you've got really good aspirations, intentions, even good habits. And sometimes they go away. Why is that? What, like, tell us more about your experience?
Yeah, no, totally. Um, what I noticed is that I was always coming up with big ideas and big goals. And I get super excited about it, when I sit down and write it all out and create this huge plan that I was going to do. And when I got started, I was super excited, I followed it did it all. And then I started to like, each day I wasn't following through, and then I just eventually just nothing, you know, happened. So what I decided to do was to shorten my time. So a lot of times people are like it takes, for instance, with Keller Williams takes 66 days to create a new habit, you're using all these different timeframes. And I learned that I could focus if I did something for 30 days, I could commit 100% go all in, if all I thought about was 30 days, and nothing else. And that's that's that was like, when I started accomplishing everything was just by doing 30 days at a time.
You know, it's interesting as I think about kind of my own path. And it's probably very similar to yours, in the sense that all have all create these beautiful plans. And I think planning can be fun, right? Because like we can create a perfect plan. And there's no mess ups to it. And it's like, this is exactly what life is going to look like. And we get going. And sometimes I think we get addicted to the planning phase, because it's easier. There's rejection, and we don't, right, it's just this kind of like we're in this dream casting mode of designing a perfect life, which I think is essential for anybody that wants to think big right? You actually have to do that. The next step though, is what's that good? You have to visualize? For sure, yeah, you have to write the challenges once you start to implement. If you always just go back to the planning phase without the action phase. And I would even say to the action phase, for a consistent enough period of time you actually get results. There involves the breakdown. And what I hear you saying Tanja, is that the challenge is that some of those time periods are too long for our attention span is what you found for you personally,
for me personally. And what I found is that, for me personally, by shortening it, and just having that narrow focus on that shorter time period, one, I actually get more done, because I think it'll take us as long to do something as we allow it. So if we allow ourselves only a shorter period of time, then we're going to find a way to accomplish that in a shorter period of time. And then also, you're starting to see results, which keeps you motivated. Because daily, every day you're accomplishing something new, even if it's just a baby step each day, by the end of that 30 days, you've created something super big, just by those baby steps every single day.
You know, it is interesting that, you know, you might say, Well, you can't certainly that the scientific reality is that it may take 66 days, on average, to create a habit, what I hear you saying is, okay, like we're not discounting that. Tony, focuses on 66 days, it gets easy to jump off the horse, right? Like how many milestone of being like I'm going to get to 3030 is I can do 30, I can only think for 30 days, hopefully, at that point that will carry you through to be like, let's do another 30. And let's do another six. And before you know you're there,
exactly, yeah. I learned on my program three separate times. So I'll do 30 days. And then I'll give myself basically like maybe a week off. And during that week, I'll kind of look at what I've accomplished, what I still need to accomplish. And then I'll set new tasks and new goals for the next 30 days. And so I kind of get a little bit of time off. So it's kind of like a refresher, you're like, Okay, I don't have to be so focused. And then you get to the planning stage, which everybody loves the planning stage, like you were talking about. It's the fun part. And then you start creating again, which is a exciting.
Awesome, so you do like these kind of 30 day sprints followed by a bit of kind of like a victory lap right? Like I did, yes.
Yeah, you know, I've heard it said that. Um, it's important when you're a high achiever that you need to let your test your chest hit the tape. Right yeah. And and and I think for those of us that study kind of energy and energy management, it's been said that you know, that life is a series of short Sprint's for high achievers, life is a series of short, Sprint's it's, it's not a marathon, maybe in length and duration it is, but those that achieve the highest levels actually break it down into the shorter sprints, like I hear you talking about, right? Yes, it's the tape. I did 30 days, walk a lap, you ready? Like getting the in the blocks for the next sprint?
Exactly. That's exactly. And I found it works amazing. Like it's, it's, I've accomplished so much in that short period of time, each time I've done it. And so I'm starting another 30 days, September 1 through September 30.
But now, you've gotten to the point. Now, in fact, let me ask this question. Now. Is this been both business as well as personal? I mean, this has been? Yeah. And I know the answer, because I know you've shared with you know, that your Facebook friends like your fitness journey, which is awesome, incredible. But business has been a business growth has been a byproduct of this same pattern that you've developed, is that true?
Yeah, absolutely. I so what I did was I came up with for my 30 Day Challenge 12 areas of your life. And so I'm not someone that believes in, everybody's different, but I don't necessarily believe in life balance that like you work this much, you have this much family time and this much, especially with real estate, because sometimes you'll have, you know, six new clients all at once, or you'll have none, or you'll be really focused on maybe your health, or another area. And that's okay. And so that's what's kind of nice about that 30 days is I kind of created a template where it shows that the different areas of your life, and so you can you kind of sit there, and it gives you the opportunity to review those areas of your life and where you're at and what changes you need to make. So like maybe you're working too late every day, and you're not coming home for dinner, and you're not spending time with your family, you could see that when you're evaluating where you're at. And you can make that change, you could say, Okay, well, I'm going to end my day at this time, every day. So I can have dinner, or maybe it's two days a week, I'm going to do this. But it's just getting you to think about all areas of your life so that you can kind of create at least a little more balance during that 30 days, and create new habits possibly as well.
I love it. Now you've gotten to the point, which I think is is the natural progression of anybody that kind of figure something out is that you start to move from success to significance, you move to not just success in your own life, but you want to share that success with other people. Right. And you've got to the point now where because you have people coming and saying oh my goodness, Tanya, you're super inspiring. But you know, whether it be your fitness journey, whether it be your, you know, your your your health, or, you know, these other pursuits that you have in which you're finding success, people have come to you and you said like, like, how did that come about where you were like, I think I need to, like create more structure and and maybe a model that other people can follow?
Yeah, no, that's great question. So once I did it for myself, and I saw some results, and I'm definitely a share on Facebook. So pretty much everybody knows my life. It's all over Facebook. And so people started seeing that, and then I start getting private messages. And what are you doing? How are you doing it. And one of the reasons I do real estate is because I'm definitely like a caretaker, like taking care of people like doing nice things. I like helping people get to that next level. And so this is just another one of those things where if I find something that's working, then I totally want to share it with someone if I think it's going to make a difference in their life as well. And so based on that, the first time I did it, I just offered it out to everybody. And I was only going to help 10 people. And then it just grew and grew and grew to where there was more more people that want to do it. And I ended up allowing like over 40 people to do it for 30 days, which is too crazy was too crazy. And but I thought I want to help everybody. So I didn't want I didn't want to like limit it. And then now that I'm going to be doing another 30 day challenge, I realized from the last challenge that people really needed that accountability, because during that process, I just shared my goals and what I was doing and kind of my action plan, but I didn't do any coaching. I didn't have any accountability. I wasn't following through with people to check on them. And I could see that they struggled because they didn't have that like I wasn't getting emails with results, or that I follow through or this happened, you know, few people that are self motivated, follow through and did it on their own. But majority didn't it. And so that made me realize that, hey, this is something that I could offer to other people. Keep it at the 10 people that I had originally wanted, and then lower it so that it's like a smaller, where I can coach them each week, you know, and keep them moving forward or give them advice along the way. And so that's what I'm starting for this next challenge.
And so the format looks like what people kind of raise their hand they private messaged you on Facebook 10 you Bieler? Like, I want to be a part of your challenge. They pay something Yes. Been for you to kind of orchestrate this and accompany them in the process? And then at that point, is there like a closed Facebook group? Or it's just kind of individual one on one, you're encouraging them via messenger? What does that look like?
Yeah, I actually keeping it pretty private, because I think sometimes people I want people to dream big and have all their goals be what they want them to be. And I don't want them to feel like they're having to share it with this random group of 10 people that I better joining. So I'm not doing like a big Facebook page or something where they can connect or talk to each other. I'm just keeping it where it's private, it's just between them and me and so that it's totally where they feel comfortable just being able to accomplish or do whatever it is they want to and not worry about other people's opinions about it. And so basically, what I'm doing is I've kind of created this whole program, I thought everything structured, so I'm going to send out an email to all the participants at the beginning, explaining the process because it takes Honestly, it takes a few hours to really sit down, especially if you've never done it before, to sit down and go through each area of your life, the 12 areas that I came up with. And really, you know, think about it marinate, kind of decide what you need to change or what's working or what's not working, especially if you really want to like do the program correctly, it takes time to figure all that out. And then once that's done, they'll create their goals for the 30 days. And part of the goals, it almost looks like a to do list because some of this stuff really is like you were talking about earlier taking action. And so sometimes when you're writing those goals, it could be like make that phone call, you know something simple, but something that you just keep having in the back your head like oh, you know, someday I'll make that phone call that I need to make. We're really it's like when it's written down to like, I guess I need to make that phone call is today, today's the day. So and then as you're going along the process, what I'm going to do is each I'm available anytime but generally Mondays, because Mondays are kind of the start of a beginning of a week, obviously sending out an email about like a focus or something going on. And then just having everybody check in Tell me like if they have a struggle, or if they you know how to something positive that happened to them. And then I'm going to reply to each of those people also individually, and then I'll do that weekly for that 30 days.
It's powerful stuff. Let's talk a little bit about kind of as we as we kind of draw a little bit closer to the close of the episode talk to us about the value of accountability. Obviously, that's something that anybody who's a high achiever has some sort of accountability, I actually was having conversation with a gentleman the other day, you know, and and I've got the good fortune of where I sit to kind of see, like, who produces and who does it right there. There was a gentleman saying like, I don't need a coach, I don't need accountability. And I'm thinking to myself, like I actually think you do, man. interesting how sometimes the highest achievers are like, please sign me up for a coach. In fact, I want one for every area of my life, right? Because they just realize that we all have blind spots. And having somebody to report to and like a mentor tour that can help see things that we can't see, will help get you through that glass ceiling that all of us have imposed upon us. So talk to us a little bit how accountability, obviously has helped you and turn helps this group that you're helping.
Yeah, absolutely. And I totally agree with you. So I listened to a lot of podcasts and read a lot in every single person. I mean, we're talking like the most successful people like who you listen to and talk to also, every they all have coaches, they all have coaches and they invest a lot of money to have that they realize the importance and the value in it. It's like, I'll give you an example like, because you mentioned fitness that like for instance, working out, in order to hold myself accountable, I hired a personal trainer, and I knew that I had to meet him three days a week. And I would drive all the way to Beaverton and be there at 730 in the morning and work out with him for an hour. And I knew he was waiting for me. So when I was laying in bed at like six in the morning, my alarm went off and I had to get up, I knew I had to be there. If I didn't have that accountability, I could change my mind, I can I'll go to a later class today, you know, I would change I could change things. But because I had that accountability, I knew that I had to follow through because someone was expecting me to be there. And it's it's just life changing. And then also to its people, when you interact with other people, you can maybe the way that you're looking at something, the other person sees it differently or has a different strategy or an idea to help you get through that hurdle that you're going through. And that's something to just because even when I have conversations with people, sometimes they'll say something, and I'm it's like the light bulb goes off. I'm like, Oh, I didn't think about it that way. Or I didn't know I should be doing it that way or what a great idea. And so accountability can also be kind of like what you're saying, having a mentor, somebody that has been on the same journey as you or has has a little bit more knowledge and another area that you're trying to strive to learn a little bit more about, and it kind of catapult you to the next level and helps you grow as a person faster than if you try to do everything on your own.
I think any of us that have tried to go at it kind of john wayne it right? That this I just need more discipline. Right? There's there's some reason why we're all where we're at, right? And we're all in different spots. But there's some reason why we're there. And it has to do like if we're not exactly where we want to be. And none of us should be exactly where we want to be right. That means we've stopped growing. And and I would say that the maybe not just the fastest way, but maybe the only way to get to where you ultimately want to go is through the help of somebody that's either been there or can add a valuable perspective from the outside that you wouldn't have been able to see yourself. So I couldn't agree more. This has been value packed Tanja, I love what you're doing. I love the contribution. I love to see your progress number one. Number two, I love to see you taking other people along with you on the journey. I think that's, again, kind of the recipe for a really, really great life. So I congratulate you on that. And so kind of our signature question of the show is this. What's this? Tanja Bieler? Right TV? What is 10? You know, to continue to think they can you to be a big thinker, and expand your own possibilities teach us
a wow. Um, I would say that it's just knowledge is power. So it's like, I get super excited, like, the more I learned something, the more I feel like oh my gosh, that just catapults me to the next level to the next level to the next level. And so I love reading books. I try to read like a business book success book is what I call it once a week. And I take business, I call them success notes. And then I review them like once a month and try to add new things into my daily schedule. And then because I have been driving so much going to see my personal trainer and looking at houses and things like that. I'm always listening to podcast. And so I learned so much just by driving, like I'll get an idea in the car because somebody said something. And it just happens to be what area I'm struggling with, or an area I want to focus on. And it's just amazing. Once you take that time to start reading, listening to podcasts, now networking, meeting with other people, surrounding yourself around people that are at another level, then you you just grow as a person and in turn, you can help other people, I think that's the biggest thing is once you become a learner, you just want to get out there and help other people too, because you're seeing how awesome it is for you. So you want other people to do it to
a book a week. That's powerful. Success notes really quick. What does that look like? I know for me, I read a lot trying to take notes, because sometimes I'll be listening to audible while I drive. What have you found to be an effective way to take notes? Did you take notes in the book? Do you have a separate, like, Notes app? And what you're taking this stuff? How do you get that? How do you get what you're learning into your calendar teach us that that's that's
so for me, I can't do audible because when I read books, I do take notes. And so that's why I only listen to podcast when I'm in the car. And I mean, sometimes I'll pull over if something's powerful, I'll pull over all look at the time and screenshot it, you know, like I'll take a picture of it like, go down. But as far as success notes goes, what I do is, as I'm reading if something just like those, like it's like that, I think we're some people probably would highlight it, where it's like, wow, that was powerful, I write it down. So I always write at the top of like on a notebook piece piece of paper. So I always write at the top of the page, the date, the name of the book, the author, and then I write whatever comes to mind. And so sometimes when I reread a book, there are certain books that I just absolutely love. So I'll reread them, my notes will look completely different. Because as we're going through different areas of our life where things are going, or we're focused on a different subject than other areas pop out to us over the current ones that we were going through, like say three months ago when we read the book before. And then so I just take notes. So whatever comes to my mind, whatever looks interesting, I'll write it down. And then I literally have like a three ring binder that I keep it in and I have it you know, in chronological order from when I when I read them, and then I'll spend like maybe on a Sunday, Sunday. So good days for me to kind of plan my week out, I might go through maybe the last because I read so many books have a lot of notes. And I might go through like 50 pages and review it. And then I'll start to see like as you're reading books, it'll kind of say the same kind of things over and over again, basically. But I'll see like areas that I need to focus on. So I'll just like as I'm reviewing those, I'll make another sheet of paper and make a list of that. And then as I'm doing my calendar for the week, I'll look back at that list and try to figure out how I can add those into what I'm doing that week.
So cool. I love your organization. I think that's super, super powerful. And just the the practice of doing weekly planning and and having in that weekly planning meeting, the habit of going back and look at what did I write what did I find that needs to be in my calendar, because if it's on your calendar, it doesn't exist. And you've been such a valuable guest, I know you you've really stepped up big in the lives of a lot of people. I want to thank you on behalf of the think bigger audience as well as all those people that follow you and love you. Keep doing what you're doing. It's inspiring. And I just you know, I thank you for being a big thinker. It's been been great. And thank you for being on the show today. It's been awesome. Well, thank
you for having me. This is so exciting. I was like, this is like one of those moments really. I'm on our podcast
for having me. I really appreciate it.
It's been my pleasure. And one last request to the audience. As you know, my final requests each each episode is to Go Think Bigger. Alright, thank you, Tanya for helping all of us do that and we will catch you on the next episode.
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart and my passion is helping you to think bigger, because I know that when you think bigger your life, your business, everything improves. And I do that by bringing on amazing guests and today I have another one. His name's Matt Bonelli. He is a certified ninja selling coach. And we're going to get into more of everything that he can bring to your business and to the table. excited to introduce him. First and foremost, let me say, Matt, thank you for coming on the show today.
Justin, thanks so much for having me. Man. I'm looking forward to chatting with you and just talking real estate with you today.
Yeah, it's gonna be awesome from one had a real estate coach slash podcaster to another, this is gonna be a fun episode. Yeah, absolutely. For those that are interested in the content that I create on a, on a regular basis, you can go to think bigger dot real estate. And there, you can actually sign up for a summary, to get this week's episodes with a couple highlights and a couple of action steps. So that you can be in the know, I know, there's a lot of content that comes from this site, this channel. So I'd love to have you go there so that you get in your ear inbox each week. And update of amazing things like we're going to hear today. So with that being said, you know, it was interesting. Several years ago, I was invited to attend and even help, kind of facilitate, facilitate, but but be present for a ninja selling class. A couple friends of mine said you'd really love this. I had been coach when I had my general contracting company, how to go about, like building a business by referral. So I said, Great, I'll go and I was absolutely blown away by ninja selling by what it is. And again, what a great solution. It is so excited to really go deep on that. Let me tell you little bit more about Matt Bonelli, and I'm going to have him describe what ninja selling is all about. So again, Matt is actually out of Charleston, South Carolina, like that just sounds dreamy, my friend.
It's a beautiful place for sure.
Oh, but I'm gonna visit we're gonna have lunch. I don't know when but we're going to
come on down, man.
So um, he's a certified coach, begin with ninja selling ninja coast to coast podcasts encourage you to go find that. Add that to your favorites list. He's also a business owner, entrepreneur, outside of having been a very successful real estate agent. And now coaches all the everyday real estate agents around the country on these on these amazing topics, but he also owns businesses outside of this business. So anyway, the pleasure to have you on again, Matt, thank you for coming here. Let me let me jump into again, this thing bigger back here stands for more than just thinking bigger with real estate. You tell me that you're a father now have a young daughter two and a half months old. Congratulations. Thank you to help my audience is really kind of paradigm and and vantage point, extend beyond just business and realize what like why we do business why we do all of this talk to us really quickly. What's your favorite part about being a new Dad?
Man? Well, thanks again, Justin, for having me on and really appreciate it. And I appreciate that question too. Because I think you're right, you know, thinking bigger win, it comes to business is more than just the business. It's all about what that allows us to do in life. And I will say the best part about being a dad is just, I mean, for the past two and a half months, holding my little girl and just watching her grow. It's so it's incredible, you know, having this little being in your world, it gives you a new sense of encouragement, you know, new things that you want to do and kind of makes you want to, you know, everybody's kind of says the cliche of, you know, you make me want to be a better person, well, she definitely want makes me want to be a better person better at so many different areas, because she's got a long life to live. And I want to be there for as, as long as I can. I mean, I'm a young guy. But when I think about what she's going to be doing, getting married, and all that other stuff, I'm going to be there for that. And I want to be at my my highest level when I'm there. So that's
good stuff. That's, that's great. I also am a dad. And I'd have to agree with everything you've said there is that just the miracle of watching children grow and realize how impressionable they are, and how much we can we can impact their life, right their life, which then can go on to impact other lives. So very, very cool. Thanks for sharing that. All right, let's jump into give us kind of a brief synopsis about what is ninja selling for those that maybe are unfamiliar with it. And or those who maybe have been away from it help just kind of catch us up to speed. What is ninja selling?
Absolutely. And I will say anybody who's interested in Ninja selling, maybe you've heard about it, go by and Larry candles book titled ninja selling, it has everything in there that you need to know about what ninja selling is. And basically ninja selling is a system. It's a philosophy to basically not sell, it's really interesting that the title of ninja selling is ninja selling. But the whole philosophy is about not selling but helping clients find solutions. So it's a relationship based approach to attracting customers. And then a solutions based approach to helping people find real estate to buy or to sell their real estate, the 10 step buyer process and the 16 step seller process are proven to work extremely well to help create clarity among customers so that they can actually get from point A to point B in the timeframe that they want to do it. You know, a lot of real estate agents, a lot of programs out there designed towards this is how you can just get more transactions. And then just selling is designed to create more relationships and help more people get to where they want to go on time. And that's kind of the foundation and the core philosophy around it.
super powerful. You know, I think a friend of mine yesterday, we did an episode a lot I buyers yesterday, I had a friend post something on there talking about this, the hundreds of billions of dollars that are being invested in real estate tech right now, the amount of tech that's been developed to, to cultivate the relationship after the transaction is is almost entirely No. That's not their focus, right? It's to simply sell, serve people during the transaction and then be done right, collect the commission be gone. And I think, to you know, to a degree agent falling into that trap, as well as like, it's very transactional. I've gotten in the habit of actually interviewing other financial professions that are advisors so that I can better help real estate agents step into that role of being advisors, I think that's where the future's at, is to be more of a consultant, more of an advisor. And it is interesting how their perspective of real estate agents is that they're transactional, they have past clients, right? They serve them for a while, and then they're done with them. And I don't mean that in any bad way, like they have any any any, you know, ill feelings toward people, or that they're, you know, are mistreating people. But the the focus, I think, is not relational always. And I think as a result, these tech companies are are thriving, because they don't have much to compete against. Whereas when you compete against someone who is is a ninja selling agent, for example, right, that is really focused on relationships. That's a whole different competition, and one that I think technology has a really hard time beating. Would you agree?
I agree, 100%. And you just stats prove everything that all the tech companies need to know about doing the whole lead generation stuff, right? I mean, the national home buyers and sellers report shows that an overwhelming majority 85% plus of buyers and sellers would use their agent again, but less than 25% actually do. And it's all and it's not because the agents didn't do a good job, or you know, they don't like the the client, it's that they just didn't stay in communication with them, or what we call flow. And so 710 years down the road, that person kind of forgets about them. And then they go on some website and click on a link, and they get connected with a different agent. And the what I always tell people about all the technology, I buyers, all this stuff, they're like, Oh, no, it's gonna, it's gonna take all of our clients and kill the industry is, you know, what comes first what's before somebody goes and clicks on a button to say I need to be connected with a with a real estate agent. That's a relationship, if all of those leads that are being generated by the big companies that are selling them, if those people had relationships with a real estate agent, first, they wouldn't become leads, because they would call their trusted advisor, I love the fact that you call it becoming an advisor, because that's what we teach people to do is become a trusted real estate advisor and get rid of that term past client, you just have clients that are actively in the business looking to buy and sell real estate, and you have clients that are currently holding their real estate. There's no past or present about it.
I love that it was interesting. A friend of mine, Trevor Hammond, who's kind of a very innovative lender here in the area, I had a conversation with him because he runs his business that way very much an advisor type role. And he said one of the key things that he's learned as he's spoken with financial advisors is their concern is that agents have past clients. And he said, they don't write you think of like an a financial advisor, if you're an advisor or consultant, there's not necessarily a start and an end, right, there's like we have a relationship until you don't need those services anymore. Maybe at the end of your life at the end of your career, right. I think real estate agents will be well advised to be similar. Like, I don't have past clients, I've had clients and I'm going to serve them, you know, four or five, six transactions along the way and take care of their friends and peers around them. And it's it's a different, it's a different paradigm, right, then going from one deal to the next deal.
It really is and, and there's simple ways to make sure that you don't end up with past clients. I mean, one thing that is in the ninja selling system is the annual real estate review, if you just meet with your clients, once per year, sit down and talk about what's happened in the market, how that could be impacting the value of their real estate. Because with financial advisors, the reason why they're not past clients is every year they're reviewing their holdings, like say they put all their money in a mutual fund, and they don't change the allocation for years, they're still every year or more often sitting down and checking out, Hey, what's going on with that? What's the progress is it you know, increasing in value as a decreasing in value. Same thing with your health, I mean, people go see a dentist or a physician on a regular basis to make sure their health is in good shape. As a real estate advisor agents should be meeting with their clients once you to advise them on the health of their real estate. Yeah, that's that's a very simple way to to show up as an advisor just once per year.
I love that I got a text actually just yesterday from my primary care physician saying hey, it's time for your physical. And like I didn't reach out to him, he reached out to me right to say, hey, our record show it's time that we've you know, for us to meet. Yeah. And it's preventative right? And it's going to take a look like how you feeling like let's check your heart rate. Let's check all these things. And I think that's why he gets paid like a doctor, right is because he's preventative Lee taking care of me, as opposed to running to the emergency room, right, which is a different issue. But having having, like a real estate advisor move into that type of role saying, hey, it's time for us to meet to evaluate your real estate portfolio, and act as a wealth advisor for their real estate portfolio, I think is a really powerful place to be let's, let's talk, Matt, about kind of how you got in, like in touch with, with ninja selling, and then even some of the key activities to stay in flow, right, for those that are familiar with this term and flow. That's like how you stay in contact and not lose track of people. Right? Maybe you can even kind of expound upon that. So number of different questions here. Everyone, how did you contact this? Let's start with that. And then and then let's jump to kind of what are some of the key activities that keep people in flow that people could could walk away from today, and put this into practice and get value just from our from our conversation today?
Absolutely. So I first discovered ninja. Actually, unfortunately, it was on the tail end of me being a solo listing and selling agent and in the transition of becoming an assistant sales manager was when I was introduced to ninja selling and it was through the brokers that I was with Turpin, real estate in New Jersey, great brokerage, small five office company. And they sent a few people out to Colorado to go to this ninja selling installation thing. And they sent all the managers so I gotta go, which was amazing. And it was just for me, the experience was more than just business changing. I was like, wow, this is giving me a different perspective on on kind of life. I mean, I hadn't been to trainings like that before. My background was finance. And so you know, coming out of working on Wall Street and stuff. I mean, there was no trainings like that. So it was a whole new experience. For me, I was like, this is amazing, we got to definitely implement this and back in our company. And so when I moved into becoming a full time non selling manager, my focus was trying to get people on the ninja path and get them because I can see this works. I implemented as an assistant sales manager when I was still selling and I saw great results from it, I saw a bigger impact and kind of how I was able to manage my time, which was incredible. And the best part about it was is it gave me the comfort in knowing that I could build a business around people I enjoy spending time with versus trying to hunt down leads. So the activities that anybody everybody can start with right now is one just getting in flow with at least 50 different people a week. That's kind of our baseline and call it the one point business plan if you could talk to 50 different people a week. And what we mean by that is communicating over the phone or face to face and ask people questions. We call them Ford questions, fo rd, family and friends, occupation, recreation, and dreams. Those are the four categories that we can really learn good things about people. So we want to talk to people, ask them questions, learn things, and then follow up about those things. The rule with these conversations is is we're not allowed to talk about real estate, unless they bring it up, a lot of systems will say a great, you're going to have conversations, make sure at the end of that conversation, you remind that person that you're in real estate, and you can help them out or anybody else out that they know and that you appreciate the referrals. There are systems that do that. And I'm not saying they don't work they do. There's a lot of people that have success with them. The Ninja way is to not talk talk about real estate unless they bring it up. So somebody says, you know, Hey, Justin, how's the market? You can go ahead and obviously talk about it. Don't be like, Oh, no, no, sorry, we're not going to talk about real estate, you know, don't block the flow. But that's the first thing is getting communication with 50 people a week, start with the people that are closest to you. And just do that regularly. The people who you see the most, you should be talking to them at least once a month, your friends, your family, people who are part of your situational relationships, meaning maybe the people you see at the gym every day, if you're a gym person, or if you're going to your rotary club meeting or Chamber of Commerce meeting, talk to people, get to know them, ask those questions that will build relationships, and eventually they're going to reciprocate and ask you questions, which is how you get started talking about real estate. Oh, man, what do you do? Oh, well, I sell real estate. Oh, interesting. How's the market? That leads into a whole nother path? So that's the first time activity to do you mentioned flow. And I want to kind of define that a little bit for people. Because it is communication. Basically, the frequency of interaction that we have with people and being in flow is different than being in touch because I think some people will set in their CRM. Okay, great. Justin, you're going to my database, I'm going to set a reminder to call you every 30 days. Well, if I'm just calling you Justin every 30 days and saying, Hey, Justin, it's Matt, how you doing? You're like, doing great, like, awesome. Well, hey, just calling to say hi. Like, that has some benefit. But that's just simply staying in touch. But if I call you learn something and say, you know, how's it going with your kids? And you tell me something interesting about them. And then the next time I call I follow up on that, you know, hey, I was that latest podcast interview that you did that was really interesting. I saw it was amazing. Like, how did you get connected with that person? That's going to be staying in flow, because my calls have purpose, they have purpose for you, and they bring value to the conversation. So we have a productive time together. I hope that make sense with the difference between flow and staying in touch?
Yeah, no, I think it's it's powerful. You know, at the end of the day, you've got to be in, in conversations with people, right? And I love there's a lot of agents who don't even do that, because they're afraid of the selling part. Like, how many calls have you made this week, or how many contacts you've made? Maybe five, tell me like what, what's unlocking, I just don't want to be salesy. And so I love how the fact that you guys say like you actually it's prohibited for you to bring it up, right, don't bring it up. Because I think that's the, that's the sticking point for a lot of people is that they don't want all of the relationships that have turned into transactions, where they're trying to sell to all their friends, and I get it, like none of us want to be treated that way either. But if you can take a different approach of like, I actually have a big opportunity now to just take care of a lot of people. And I'm going to bring up real estate unless the opportunity presents itself, right. And and they bring it up and they if that's part of taking care of them. Great. I think that's maybe the big disconnect that people have is that they've been don't want to call because they feel like it's self serving, right. Whereas what you're saying is, you call not to be self serving you call to take care of them, if part of taking care of them involves real estate, then of course, because this is about them, it's not about you. And I think that hopefully will unlock a lot of a lot of, of the of the reasons that are keeping people from having contact with people, right and being in flow with people.
Yeah, hundred percent, it is all about the person you're calling in. And I tell people, the intent has to be there to make it to make the call to help them to bring some value to the person on the other end. And I know that's hard to do. Especially if you just wake up and your CRM pops up five names, and you're like, Oh, I gotta call these five people today. Plan ahead, you know, think about these people in advance, you know, don't wait until the day of and just start, you know, I'll call Justin today, I don't really know what to call them about. But I'm supposed to, if you if you plan ahead, if you set up like every week, sit down and look through your data based on say, Who are the people that I can communicate with this week, who are the people that I know have important things going on, right those names down on a list, give yourself a day or two to think about those people then make the call now you're going to have great intent, you're gonna have a good reason to call, it's going to be a lot easier to have that conversation because you can pick up the phone with purpose versus just picking up the phone for me, if you're doing it for you. They're going to know people's bs meters are way, way up right now. And so they know if you're calling to try to sell them something. They're like, Oh, here's Matt again, trying to sell me real estate, like they know. So just prepare a little bit and the intent will be pure.
I always teach that you know that with social media, people always think about like, again, they don't engage with it, because they there they get caught up on what am I going to say? Well, don't say anything, just go listen, right? If you're if you're, if you just go on social media to start, right, and to see what other people are posting about, right? Is there some tragedy in their family? Is there some total victory in their family, like,
call and talk about that they've put it out there that this is meaningful to them? It's, I think it creates a great opportunity for people to be very relevant, and talk about them, meaning the other person as opposed to themselves, oh, Facebook is filled with pain and pleasure, people, they pretty much exclusively post about things that make them super happy, or things that make them really upset. There's almost no in between there on social media. So you could easily go there spend five minutes and say, Oh, this is what's lighting Justin up today. Oh, this is what's upsetting that today, you can instead of only just hitting like or the little angry face or putting a comment and pick up the phone and call the person and say, Hey, are you doing okay? Or Hey, Justin, I saw you had an amazing trip. Tell me more about it. Are there more pictures than you shared online? You know, how was it you know, watching your son fly fish for the first time? Or whatever it is? That I mean, the power of just picking up the phone and going offline with some of these things there. People are going to be lit up about it in a good way.
And how and how, what a profession, right, your job is to go take care of lots of people. Yeah, like go take care of lots of people. And when one of those things that they need help with happens to be real estate, then great. You're an expert at that right now. I love it rather than the alternative, which is let's, let's jam the phones for four hours a day chasing people who, frankly are mad at you for calling them out. And again, being harsh. Right. I think that there's a strategy for that. But I think there's also a lot of people that think that that that maybe that's the only way. And what you're here to say is that you can be a Top Producing agent. I've seen it I'm friends with those that are that that follow the ninja selling pattern. And they do great business, right? Because they just take care of a lot of people, they don't take care of five people who care of like you said 50 plus a week like they're getting after it out meeting people, but their emphasis is on them not themselves.
Right. Exactly. You're 100% right. And and yeah, all systems do work for sure. There's plenty of people out there who do the fizz bows, the expires, and they work. And I will even say that people who who are working those really well are most likely also taking care of the relationship end of things. Are there some people out there that just turned out transactions? And that's what they do? Sure. Yeah, they are definitely the exception, not the rule. I guarantee you that.
That's a really great point, Matt. And I'll stand corrected there that every method out there, you could take the ninja selling mindset into whether you're going and talking to family and friends, or whether you're calling people cold, that if your intent is how can I take care of this person today? Oh, they have a real estate need? Great. I can help you with that as well. But it really is it's a mindset and kind of like the way you feel your intent coming into this conversation. Am I here to get or am I here to give?
Yeah, exactly. You and every now you can put some structure around it too, because people say well, then how do I know when I'm talking to the right people who might need to buy and sell real estate. Because if we just have 50 conversations every week, and we have great friendships, like when does the business come? Because we do have to have those macro level goals. I mean, we are in business to make money so we can take care, we were talking about the beginning like being inspired by our kids, right? Like I want to be a better a better dad, which means I want to bring in more income, there's a lot of things that I want to do for myself too. When you get into the micro playing field, that's when the intent shifts to the other people and you look for bringing value to other folks. So when you're setting up your, your database, so to speak, we have an selling hotlist and a warm list. And hot list is basically all your active people, people who are buying and selling the warm list is really the powerful thing that a lot of people don't utilize. And what that is, is a list of people who are going through life change, because who are the people that are most likely to buy and sell real estate, people going through life change, you have a kid, you might need more space, you get married, you may want to buy a house together, you have unfortunate things going on, like you get divorced or lose your job, you may need to sell the house and get a different one. All those life changes create potential need for real estate. So when we're having conversations, and we learn about life change, let's put those people on our warm list and talk to them a little bit more frequently about them, not about real estate. And eventually they'll bring it up, they'll say, you know, Justin, how's the market doing? You know, we're having our third kid and you know, three bedrooms just doesn't work an hour, we're going to need more space. And that's when you have the opportunity to step in as their advisor and help them with that transaction. So you can have that focus on people who might be buying and selling. And by the way, those people are great sources for referrals, because people with life change tend to hang out with other people with life change. It's all part of the particular activating system, which we could spend probably an hour talking about. I've kind of stopped short of really diving into that. But the warm list just becomes this powerful list of people that you can focus on with great intent. And that's how you can then kind of merge this, I want to focus on other people first bring value to them. And also make sure that I'm in the space to do some business. I heard Garrett actually mentioned in our podcast, I forget where he said he heard this. But he said if you want things to fall into your lap, put your lap in the right place. Having a warm list created is putting your lap in the right place.
That's awesome. Awesome. And let's let's talk a little bit about how people can learn more about you. In fact, we've got a website here that we're going to put up here, Ninja coaching calm is that
that right? Your coaching com Yep, that's that's our website for for the coaching company. So you can go there and learn all about us and what we do, and you can click about us and see all of our different coaches, you can click on the podcast thing there. I mean, our podcast is also like on whatever podcast platform you like to listen to. So you're listening to Justin's podcast right now on your favorite platform, just go to the search ninja coaching coast to coast and you'll find us, Tim,
awesome. Good stuff, Matt, I'm really, really excited to have had you on the show, and get people in contact with you. Again, I think what we've discussed today, and the ninja selling way, ought to unlock a lot of agents to start number one acting more relational Lee, and number two actually start to have those conversations that maybe they've got something inside of them has been telling them that that, you know, they shouldn't write because it's selfish or whatever, you know, like whatever other reason that they've gotten their head. Lastly, last question, this is the signature question of the show, which is, what does matter what led you obviously a big thinker, right? Like not only have you created success in your own business, but now you're getting significance by coaching and teaching and training other people to do the same thing? What do you do on a regular basis to continue to be a big thinker to continue to expand your own possibilities teach us?
That is a that's a great question. I like that. And while I'm kind of pondering that, I do want to thank you for having me on the show to Justin, and I appreciate what you're doing with your mission and getting people to think bigger, particularly about real estate, because I think it's important. So what do I do on a regular basis, I mean, so for me, it's taking care of myself first, so that I can be at my best to serve others so that I can think in a clear way. So having a good morning routine with health, fitness, mindfulness, are the things that I do and experiment with every day to make sure that I can show up the best that I can I learned. Not long ago, I wish I learned it earlier. But if I'm not performing at my best, if I'm not feeling well enough, I'm not going to be able to show up the best that I can for others. There's exceptions and short term variances to that, of course, but over the long term, if we're not, we're not taking care of ourselves, we're not going to show up and be the best version of ourselves. So that's what I do. And I highly recommend everybody. If you're not taking care of yourself, start taking care of yourself every single day health, fitness, mindfulness, life and business and all the sudden you're going to see some great results come out of that in terms of where your creativity goes and where your service goes.
powerful stuff. Man, I were joking at the beginning of the show he was in I'm sharing with me that he's big into fitness. And we decided that next step he's gonna he's gonna be a American Ninja Warrior. Stay tuned for that. Like we're announcing that on this show. Is it his his commitment to become not only a ninja when it comes to business, but also a ninja when it comes to being a true like Ninja Warrior? So I'm excited for that. Please let me know when it airs. Oh, yeah,
absolutely. Absolutely. Stay tuned. We'll I'll let you know. Probably it probably go live on it. Right.
Man, it's been a total pleasure having on the show. Thank you for helping us think bigger. And thanks to the audience for tuning in. If this has been valuable, in any way, please give myself some love, by liking, sharing, subscribing, wherever, like whatever platform you listen to this on, give us some love that helps us get fuels us to want to keep pouring into you all. So again, thank you, man. Thanks everybody for tuning in and we will catch you next time.
OpenDoor and Zillow Offers are no longer a 'could be' in our market. They are here and they are gaining in market share. This will be the demise of some agents' business, but it does not have to be that way for your business.
I have with me today a colleague and business partner, who was once a top real estate agent in Phoenix where she competed, and won against these offers. She is here to share what you need to know.
Justin Stoddart
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart fired up about today's episode. We have an absolute superstar on the show with us today, who's going to help us navigate this question. Obviously, we know that the industry has a number of disruptors circling, we know that real estate agents have more of a need today to be on their A game serving the customer at the highest level possible. And today's guest, Jason Abrams, he's a Keller Williams agent out of Michigan, although he owns teams all over the place. He's been selling homes for 20 years, right out of high school stepped right into his real estate name badge. He's a broker-owner, a team owner, he was actually on HGTV, if some of you remember this show, it was HGTV, it was "Scoring the Deal" in which he would facilitate the purchase of beautiful homes by sports stars. Sounds like a cool show. I haven't seen it actually. But you've got me super interested to go back and find
Jason Abrams
the only people that want my mom watched it regularly.
Justin Stoddart
It was with three seasons. I don't buy that, Jason.
Jason Abrams
Just you and $13 million. Man. That's all.
Justin Stoddart
the truth. There's the truth. In addition, Jason is the partner in metrics coaching and training, which we're going to talk a little bit about as well. So with that, Jason, thank you for coming on the show today. It's a total pleasure to have you here.
Jason Abrams
It's an honor. Thanks for having me.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, this guy is a big thinker. He's actually spending a fair amount of time right now in Austin, helping to develop technology that serves the customer and agent at the highest level. So, Jason, let's get into this. We have, as we all know, a very changing, disrupting real estate landscape. What can we expect before I do that? Because we'll get into business and we won't stop. I know. Kind of that's my nature. So let's talk about stuff that matters a little bit more than business right now. I know you're a dad, I'm a dad. And that is probably the reason why we're deeply invested in the real estate industry is to provide a better life for people. Are people right that matter? Most? I mean, what's your favorite part about being a dad, Jason?
Jason Abrams
yes to... Everyone always asks about the technology and the real estate business off the bat, they very rarely go to What's your favorite part about being a parent? And I'll tell you, it's challenging, no question about it. But I think that it gives you this idea of this immersive experience, which I think is unique to our industry. And that residential real estate is really a contact sport. And it's an all-time game, meaning we don't start our day at nine and end our day at five and then go home and have the luxury most of us to just specifically that focused on the family. And I think what it does, we bring our customer lives into our own we bring our business lives into our personal lives, in our personal lives in your business life. This idea of immersion, I think, is one that as we move forward, you're going to see more education go to which just, I'm not just going to school from 7 am to 2:45 pm. To learn, I'm going to learn in every aspect of my life. And the most important thing to learn is how to learn, not whether I get the right answer. But what was the process that I took to get there? For me watching a six come to terms with how he's going to solve life's challenges, which to him see massive, like, how do I open this applesauce. And it's these constant reminders that the journey that we're all on... does it end? It simply changes form. And I think about that a lot.
Justin Stoddart
And that's powerful. It's almost as if like, we'd practice that question before. And folks, we did not tell people that I'm in a hurry. So I love what you said there. Jason reminds me of the university president where I first went to school, it was a two year school, he was a new president. He turned out to be a very influential person in the world as well as in my life. And he told a group of business students in their freshman year because like the question was asked, what should I focus on education, he said, here's the reality is that there are two things that you need to walk away from with your education. And neither one of those is a degree like that's, that's like, like second-third tier that doesn't matter as much. Here the things you need to learn is, like number one, you need to gain a passion and a love for learning. And secondly, you need to learn how to learn, he said those two things will carry you further than any degree ever will. In fact, newsflash, the stuff that you're learning here at school, a lot of it's going to be obsolete by the time you get into the workforce. So you better love to learn and you better know how to learn. Because without that, it's, you know, you're going to be behind really, really quickly. So I love what you said about that I happen to be a father as well. And I think bigger, I've got six kids, little crazy.
Jason Abrams
You do think big.
Justin Stoddart
I do, I do with all areas of life, we, I have a saint for a wife, st slash superhero. Fact, currently, she's on the road with six kids driving them all to North Dakota, and you know what it's like, up north, you're a northern guy. And so things a little quieter in my house, eerily quiet. But I love what you said about this, this passion for learning and watching kids learn that's really, really profound.
Jason Abrams
I just don't think they perceive it the way I think that we all sit around and try to force ourselves to do activities that we don't like, thinking that those activities are mandated stops along the path of success. I think kids are living this immersive experience differently than we are and that it's organic for them. And I'm kind of looking back at my life at different times and asking when I decided mentally to make that shift and why I did it. And trying to get back to the organic part of learning.
Justin Stoddart
Just that pure learning at its core, like just out of curiosity right now, because someone's telling you I have to.
Jason Abrams
curiosity and necessity, like a lot of us know, we need to learn new things. But we don't because the process to do it is one that we find challenging, and I and I get it we usually leave the challenging things for last or sometimes not at all. Yeah, I think the question is flawed, which is how do I force myself to do things I don't want to do whether that's going to the gym every day or read a book every we have these things? And we say, Well, how do I make that habit? I think a better question. You ask the wrong question. You always get the wrong answer. The question that I like is how do I love my life and accomplish blank. And when you start thinking in that framework, all of a sudden, you're forced to take activities you wouldn't want to do but then make it so you would enjoy it. Tell you what, if you enjoyed the things that you shouldn't be doing, you should do more of the wrong things. Find a way to enjoy the stuff that you want to bring into your life like kids, do. I tell you what, there's no way
Justin Stoddart
how to get the life you want. Or sorry, how to get what you want and love it. Those are the two.
Jason Abrams
How do I love my life and do blank?
Justin Stoddart
That's awesome stuff, man. Let's parlay into business as that kind of the path that I was headed down, obviously very changing real estate landscape. Consumers are gaining more and more. and rightfully so right? We live in an era when consumers are getting more power. They're having more choices. How does a real estate agent that wants to serve a customer knowing that serving a customer the highest level will ensure that they have work to do for the rest of their career? What advice would you give a real estate agent that's coming into this era that's living in this era? About that about how do I continue to serve the customer at the highest level?
Jason Abrams
The only thing I want to take a little bit of exception, I don't think the consumer is gaining more power than they've had. I think they're being empowered to use their power. Many we both know that it's always been 100% up to the consumer. How do I price my house? Which agent do I say to do business with? What marketing plan? Do I accept? How much am I willing to pay a commission? All of these things have always been up to the consumer. It's only now with these changes in technology that I think they're starting to feel more empowered to either wade into these conversations or be used different services that offer different value propositions. Yeah, I fundamentally believe that people do business with people they like. See, I think that there's a lot of things in life that you can automate that you choose not to because you enjoy the experience. So real estate agents, I need to fundamentally look at the way that consumer experience is being provided with their value, and then ask, do they like that and is the way they want it to continue? I was speaking the other day in front of a group. And I was relaying a story that in 2000 Rolling Stone did this article that said, the movie theater is dead. They said that you have plummeting ticket sales, you have the cost of flat screen TVs going down and the number of home theaters being put into new builds is going up. And this is all a perfect storm in the movie theater is dead. And somebody read that and said you know what? They're right. Somebody else read that and said, you know, it's not the movie theater. That's the consumer experience. Once they're there that is meaning what if instead of going there and fighting for a seat, they could go on to their phone and in two clicks pick the seat they want and not have the anxiety of worrying about it. And what if once they got there, instead of being an uncomfortable chair, it was a leather recliner. And what if once you got you were watching the movie, instead of hoping that your significant other leaves you some popcorn, which they don't but just pretend they did? What if you can get into the popcorn all together and have a full steak dinner? And what if instead of a diet coke served in like a garbage can size drink? You could get like a bottle of wine? And what if with all of that the cost really did not have to materialize change. And for everyone watching, I would say Raise your hand if you've been to a theater like that most of you would all Raise your hands because movie ticket sales are at an all-time high. So the question isn't was the theater dead? The question is, was the experience. And when we start thinking in that framework, real estate agents who are are so progressive in the way that they thinkable to move so quickly, and the way they run their businesses, I would challenge every one of them, wake up tomorrow and ask a childlike question of your business, which is, is this the right way to do it? And what could I make cooler and feel better? And there's no end to the innovation that they can have? The realtor today is in a better position than ever before. And I say that because right now, you get to reimagine almost every part of your business. It's those of us that don't do that, that choose to shirk from the innovators' dilemma of a reimagining of it that I think are going to be important. There was a CNBC article out with Jeff Bezos the other day. And they said to him, they said, Why do so few people innovate? He said, Well, it's hard. Number one, you first have to become an expert in the subject matter. So if you and I were going to innovate, I surgery he said, we will both have to become experts in the way I surgery is done today. And that might take 20 years. And then at that point, we would have to be willing to ask a childlike question, which is if we threw all that out, what would be a better way to do it? And most people at the 20 years that hit a point don't want to ask that question. They want to just be an achievement phase. And innovation gets stifled. I would submit to you that the challenge before all realtors is they finally have to ask that question. A childlike curiosity question? How can I reimagine showing a home tomorrow such that the buyer would be unwilling to not look at homes with me? How can I reimagine lead generation such that it woke up every day excited about doing it? How can I reimagine the selling process such the consumer would never think about taking a third party offer from a buyer, they would have to call a realtor because they would enjoy it that much. See, that's the free market at best. And we're at a time it's I think it's about the show.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I love that. I do feel like there's been a lot of heels digging in. A lot of let's sue them. So they can't do this. Let's build a moat around what we've built for decades like nobody can take this from us. Where I agree that's that that proposition will lose, right? Because you're it's a scarcity mindset, rather than how can I leverage the new technology out there and serve the customer at a higher level? How do I take my value proposition from here to here as a result of what's out there as opposed to feeling threatened by it? How do I embrace it to better serve the customer? And I love what you said, reimagine the customer experience be like what would make people so delighted to work with me? That, like these other options, like they get that? Yeah, there's a buyer program. Yeah, there's even kind of the part-time hobby agents. And then there's my agent, and it's apples to oranges. It's not the same thing, right? It's like,
Jason Abrams
yeah, and you know, you're exactly right. Keep in mind that one of the things that make our industry so unique is the way that the structure provides that all of us are running a ton of his businesses, even if we're at the same brokerage house, you know, and that allows every one of us to have a unique value proposition. And I believe the natural order of things that works best is when the real estate agent is at the center of the transaction, providing a value proposition that the consumer and the realtor both agree is worth blank. Now what blank is in regards to commission is open for every real estate agent to defend and every seller and buyers agent to get to the side. And when we operate under that framework, it should force us all to get better at what we do. And by the way, this idea that we're that one company is going to be at the forefront of it or two companies, you're going to be at the forefront of it. I'll tell you this, it works best with 1.3 million agents, regardless of affiliation, or at the forefront of it. That's what I'm hoping you see. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, and I, I do agree with you that there there's a group and I'm not necessarily tied to an age demographic, I mean, I see the same resistance and agents that just got started or have been in the business five years. But this unwillingness to innovate and to be excited about the future of real estate as opposed to the sky is falling. In real estate. I don't think that's the right approach. powerful stuff.
Jason Abrams
If everybody, if anybody out there thinks that the sky is falling, let's just a brief history lesson. This isn't the first time in our industry, when you've had people come in and try to disrupt it or change the way they're doing it. I would submit to you that the quote-unquote, business graveyards are full of people who thought they were going to come in and fundamentally changed the residential real estate business. And it's the ability of the real estate agent to stay likable with their consumer and stay at the center of the transaction that's confounded all of these different tech enterprises and third parties. And I'll tell you this, there are a lot of brokers out there that don't understand that either. But we need to be cognizant of the fact that she, we lose the human interaction with our consumers, then we've really ceded our superpowers to the competition. Meaning that I believe that everything that's out there now and I can only speak to, to, to what I've seen, the technologies that work the best are the ones that make the real estate agent more human more often and with more people. Never forget, this has always been a knuckle to knuckle belly to belly business and relationships are going to be made sitting at kitchens with people. The question is, is will those relationships be nurtured over the long term using different pieces of technology. And one of the things we need to be cognizant of is agreeing that the changes that are happening within our industry serve to move the industry forward, trying to fight the fact that the consumer mindset is changing is a losing battle. We need to look up and grab our arms around because I've been to conferences where I hear people talking about the future of the residential real estate business. And then it dawns me that the people I'm listening to have never sold a home a day in their life. And I just want every real estate agent to hear this. They don't get to decide what happens to the future of your real estate business. You and the consumer get to make that decision.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I want to put highlights friend of mine, Harris, out of Vancouver, maybe Joe Harris, the best way to be technology is to be more human. I also want to say, you know, Jason, just to clarify, and you've said this, but I want to clarify that it's not enough to just be likable, you actually have to be better as well. Or you actually have to have a strong value proposition. I think a lot of agents think that they're going to friend their way through industry disruption. I agree wholeheartedly with you that you absolutely have to be likable. But you've said this, but I just want to put it into one statement. Like you've got to be very likable. But you actually have to have a value proposition that's strong enough to where the consumer is, sees your feet as like that there's an ROI on that, that I'm getting value from that.
Jason Abrams
That Well said. That's exactly right. And here's the thing, if the value proposition was- here's the focusing question, what value would I have to provide so that I take all my listings at 12%? And, you know, that should be the conversation. And if you have that conversation long enough, there's no reason why our industry won't get to that point.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Good stuff. So if you were an agent today, how do you tactically start to implement this? What does this look like for agent boots on the ground? who's out there trying to implement be more likable? Give us a couple of tactics on how you be more likable, Jason, you're a pretty likable guy,
Jason Abrams
oh, thanks for saying, Yeah, well, I think number one, it starts with figuring out who you need to be likable to so every real estate agent out there, and I don't care whether you sell 10 homes a year or 10,000 homes a year, the base of your business begins and should have a foundation around your sphere of influence. those that know you, like you, friend, family, neighbor pass-fail to pass club, we need to reconnect with that group of people, mainly because doing one transaction is great. But being a real estate agent for life as a true advocate is far better. When I teach in rooms, and I always say raise your hand, if you have past customers that you haven't spoken to, in the last 90 days, 120 days, everyone raises their hand. And I would submit to you that that's an epidemic, we can only care about people when it comes time to do a transaction with them. Because I think that makes you are less likable. You see the people that are in your data bank. And I call it that because if you fail to make deposits of love and connection into it, you'll never make withdraws in the form of commission checks. People do business with people they like isn't that they smile when they see you. It's that they know that you care about them. And so here's the challenge that I would give every realtor if you were to go through your data bank right now and make your list and I was to ask you about that person's family, occupation, recreation, and life dreams? How many Could you tell me, and if you can't tell me I call that for right. And that was written by an amazing woman named Diana Kafka. You can't tell me, the Ford about those people. I don't know really how likable they think you are to them. And I'm not really sure that they're still your people. And in a day and age of technology, and artificial intelligence with third parties are literally trying to take your people from you. And they're using search. And they're using automated value. And using all of these other things to do that. This is your weapon to fight back. So step number one, aggregate your people and know who they are. Step number two is getting those people into some sort of a platform that allows you to keep in touch with them with not only consistently, but with passion, meaning that I'm going to send touches that people actually care about. And let me begin by just asking, How am I showing up for my people right now? Meaning Am I sending them one too many emails about like how to get your house ready for the fall? And is that connecting with them? Is that meaningful? This one too many ideas has to become more of a one to one idea. Yeah. And then the third thing is you're going to have to find a way to intersperse making these connections with people into your life in a way that you enjoy it. The fact that I say to a room, how many of you have touched base with your past clients, and so few of them can raise their hand? Well, if you actually enjoy doing that, I bet you would do it more often. And so I don't know, maybe counting the number of contacts you make tomorrow isn't the best pitch for you. But maybe talking about the number of people who you learn something about and enjoy the interaction with would be a good way to judge.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Very tactical tips. Awesome stuff. Jason, I like keeping these interviews short, I feel like I want to keep you on just because I'm learning so much from you. If people are feeling the same way, as I know, like Justin, don't end the interview, this guy is really, really bright. I'm going to end with our signature question. And then I want to direct people to where they can find more about your coaching company and how to how to continue to learn from you. Thanks, there's an important thing is to find mentors, people that you know, with whom you resonate. So here's the signature question of the show. Jason, what does a guy like you who is a big thinker? What is it that you do on a regular basis to stay that way to not get content to continue to think big and expand your own possibilities?
Jason Abrams
Again, I should have watched the show. So I knew the signature question before you asked it. So I'll make sure to keep watching from now on. I'll tell you, man, I do a lot of reading. And you probably hear that from everybody that comes in. But I spent so many years of my life trying to avoid reading before I finally started to enjoy it. Now I wish I would have spent so much more time doing it. I really think in today's day and age where information moves at the speed of now you have to have a regular cadence of how you're going to bring information into your life on a daily basis. So I wake up in the morning, my business partner Brian goober, Nick says he always says, what makes you weird. My morning cadence is probably a little bit weird. I'm not waking up at 430 and eating a vegetable, baby food and then running an Iron Man, I am waking up though naturally, probably around 630. And then I have five or six websites that I'm going to check every day, I'm going to look into the thought leaders within the industry, I have a couple of blogs that I follow. And then I'm going to be checking the news not just in the United States, but around the world so that it can better understand how the global economy is working. Then once I get into my day, in my calendar, I have these 15-minute slots to stop what I'm doing and just try to read if I try to read from within 15 minutes, I have a hard time I try to do that five or six times a day. What here's what I think you'll find, if you start bringing new ideas into your life for smaller increments throughout the day, it's going to elevate the way that you think during your entire day. If you try to read for two hours at the end of the day, you're going to find that it only permeates that small segment right before and right after.
Justin Stoddart
powerful stuff, man, I haven't heard that. But it's the same thing with diet, right? Those that are super fit. They say small meals, right? every two hours high in protein. And what you're teaching is the same thing for your mind really is is you know, every couple of hours, you're taking 15 minutes, kind of a small, high potent high energy value content, putting it in your mind so that you can move and act with it for the next two hours until you need a refresh.
Jason Abrams
Yeah, and I and I enjoy it in 15-minute increments, I don't enjoy it and 25-minute increments. And that goes back to what I said at the beginning. How do I love my life and blank in this case, it was how do I love my life and start reading more. And I started without, we're down to 15 minutes now. I don't think I can get it any shorter than that. I just have to do it now more often. But that's what I mean with that kind of thinking framework.
Justin Stoddart
Now, do you read? Or do you listen? What's your what's your
Jason Abrams
I actually read it
Justin Stoddart
paperback book or you have it like on your phone?
Jason Abrams
No, I like pages. I like turning them. I like writing. You know, I think that for everyone watching I always say whenever you listen to anybody, you either need to get a system or a model. And if you don't, it just becomes this wandering meander through their life and how they think about it. So when you say to me when I say the model here is how do I live my life and do blank. That's the structure. Then I asked myself, well, what's the overall strategy here? Well, I want to get smarter by reading. Well, what tactic Am I going to use, I'm going to read four times a day five times a day at the smaller increments. When you start to work in that framework, you can solve any problem.
Justin Stoddart
It's good stuff, man. so powerful. I want to make one more highlight of something you said during the show that hopefully people didn't miss, which is this whole concept of being likable, right is that people like real estate agents know far more than even their clients necessarily need to know a lot of times. But people don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care like that. That foundational step of what you said of actually knowing what's happening in their life not only allows you to customize your knowledge to get them to where they want to go. But it also opens their heart and their minds where they want to listen to you because they actually like you. So appreciate the wisdom you shared in all areas of life, everything from fatherhood, to growing yourself being a big thinker to thriving during this new generation and which were reimagining the customer experience. Jason, it's been a total pleasure want to thank you for pouring into the bigger real estate audience today. super happy and excited to have you in my network when it's a keras again for his comment, and so many others that are watching and I look forward to connecting with you in the future my friend.
Jason Abrams
Cool. Thanks for having me guys. Good luck, everybody.
Justin Stoddart
Right. Hey, and one last thing everybody go think bigger!
Jeff Cohn
Hey, what's up, you guys? This is Jeff Cohn with another episode of the team building podcast where we interview top team leaders, broker-owners, success managers and ops managers from across the country across brokerage brands to help teach you how to scale your business and stop working in your business today, we have a unique episode in that we're gonna be doing two podcasts and one I have an awesome guest today, Justin Stoddart, and I'm his guests as well. So Justin, take it away.
Justin Stoddart
Dude, I really appreciate the opportunity, Jeff, been following you for a while I know you're an influencer and big-time producer. So this is a total pleasure to be on your show and simultaneously on mine. So for those that are listening to the first time, I run the think bigger real estate show. Really, Jeff, as I've shared with you, my mission in my passion is to help real estate agents think bigger. We live in America for heaven's sake. And we live in a time in an era where there's endless amounts of opportunity. building that holds people back is the fact that they aren't thinking big enough. So if I can be an instigator and a catalyst and putting people like you in front of an audience, it helps them think bigger and amazing thing happens. And here's what it is their business starts to grow. And as their business starts to grow, their options in life, improve and increase, and then their impact increases. And I'm all about being a part of that. So fun to have you on the show today. For those that are meeting, Jeff for the first time. He's been in the business for 12 years. And in 2011, he started a team went from 70 to 700 sales in six years. So really scaled up quickly, and has built an incredible, not just real estate business. He's now the number one team in all of Berkshire Hathaway, Home Services just built really a monopoly. Since we're talking about real estate. Now he's also built, I was an insurance company, coaching company, virtual assistant, a company and an investment company. He's the guy, he's a leaders leader, he's the guy that the top teams and leaders in your market are seeking out Jeff to get training on how to take their business to the next level. So this is pretty fun for me to have a chance to have a few minutes here with Jeff, and thanks for being on the show today. Just
Jeff Cohn
Hey, Justin, my pleasure. You know, what I have already loved about you is how fast you talk. Most people can't keep up with me, I might have trouble keeping up with you. So we will warn all of our people listening, you might want to slow this down to a point five, I've been told people listen to podcasts at two x sometimes two and a half x people like me that are ADD. But I think on this one, they might be slowing it down. Also, I just want to give a heads up. We have this recorded on YouTube. So if you guys want to search this out, you can find it on my YouTube channel. If you go to elite real estate systems. com and click on podcasts. You'll see YouTube as one of the options if you want to see our beautiful faces there right here for you. Otherwise, I know I'm on Stitcher and iTunes. Where are you guys, Justin?
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, perfect. Same places, you can find us on Vimeo on Facebook, just search think bigger real estate on all these YouTube as well, as I mentioned, and then again, on all the major podcast platforms including stitcher and Apple podcast, you think, search think bigger real estate. So
Jeff Cohn
I love the think bigger mindset. I know, one of my war cries has always been that leaders serve their followers. And the best way to do that is to teach your followers to be just like you. And so I go on stages in front of thousands of agents. And my provocative challenge is that those agents today need to stop selling real estate, and everyone gasps
and start focusing on building a business that you can then exit that will continue to grow without you being there without you being relative to that business. And you can then focus your time and energy on the other things that you love. You can build more businesses, you can go golfing, you can lay by the pool, do whatever you want, but at least put yourself in a position where you have that freedom.
Justin Stoddart
You know, it's killer, Jeff, because I think every ship needs a captain. And all too often, ships only have crew, right, and you got nobody actually steering the ship. And what I hear you saying is that you're a guy that's teaching the crew to like, step up and be a captain because the rest of the crew and the people on board of your ship actually need somebody steering the thing?
Jeff Cohn
Absolutely. Everyone's looking for that. And I think leaders today are scared to make decisions I've been, I guess I won't throw anyone under the bus or ship in this analogy. But I've been in environments where the leadership lacked and people were scared to make decisions because they knew that the decision that they made was going to make somebody unhappy, and they didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Well, guess what? When people lack the ability to make decisions and the hard ones, it hurts my feelings. So when I see someone that it can't make a decision for the life of them, even if it's a bad decision on my part, I would be more happy to see that leader actually step up. And all of you that are listening know exactly what we're talking about. So be the leader steps up makes our decisions even when it's not popular.
Justin Stoddart
Actually just heard a quote, I think I shared this with you prior to us going on the show here today, Jeff that imagine just for a second, that whatever you're afraid of, you're not afraid of even it's just for a sec, what would be different? What would you be doing differently? And I think a lot of people like you're saying, maybe don't step into those roles, or don't seek out training like you guys provided the lead, you know, elite levels attended, because they're fearful of what of you know, of all these mice happens, right? And I think when we start to shed that and just say for a minute, my, In fact, this is what I'm kind of a process I'm going through right now, which is what if my 10-year plans had to become six-month plans, like what how am I deal with different? And I think I probably took that from Grant Cardone. But, you know, I think anytime you can start to shed some of those limiting beliefs or at least even just pretend that you're sending them for a minute, get your reality quickly changes and you realize that like your reality is actually up here, that we're in a set of circumstances that we've created for ourselves.
Jeff Cohn
And I believe our brains get programmed by social media, by TV on media in general, we set all of our own limitations. I'm totally with you on this that the Grant Cardone mindset is totally accurate. I mean, you can 10 x everything you really should strive to. And worst case scenario, you end up five x in what you thought was possible. I think you'll look at yourself as a success. I think too often we don't celebrate our successes, Justin, I think a lot of people are always had their head down and never good enough because comparing themselves to someone like for me, I did 630 sites last year and was disappointed because the year before I'd done 700 I wanted to hit 1630 sites. That's ridiculous. We need to always be grateful for what we have and strive for more greatness.
Justin Stoddart
I love that.
Yeah. Can like grateful but not content, right? Yep. Let's talk a little bit about, you know what, what you guys teach. Let me just start with this maybe provocative question that I'm sure a guy like you can defend easily. Do you believe that the real estate team model is good for the consumer, I think we live in a time in an era where the consumer is going to win. Right? Because reviews and there's just more options than ever before. defend a little bit about what some people might say to the contrary that teams aren't good for the real estate business. I don't believe that. But I want you to defend that. Tell me why your team is good for our it's a
Jeff Cohn
fun question. I've actually never gotten the question. From a consumer standpoint. It's always agents asking me how is this good for an agent? How's it good for the agent to make money? from a consumer standpoint? Oh, that's the that's in my opinion. That's an easy one. So if you're going to hire anyone to provide you with a service, would you want one individual or five individuals or 20 or 50? Or 100? sign them all up for me. So whatever service you want to say your massage therapy, a doctor, an attorney? Would you want to go see an attorney that is just a one-man show or one-woman show? Would you want the attorney that has nine other attorneys and paralegals and receptionist and admin, I want the one that has all of that because I would assume that when they have all of those additional pieces, they're going to bring more value to my experience. So part of our presentation we share with the consumer, we have a 30-minute buyer presentation and a 30-minute listing presentation. We're showing them the value we offer. The challenge has become Justin I think 95% of teams out there are running the Rainmaker model where the team leads doing over 50% of the team's business, they probably don't have the value necessary for the consumer to actually see why they should go with the team versus going with an individual. So if you're thinking business, and you have your business hat on, you need to be thinking as you serve your followers, how can you help put them in a position to be the most successful when talking engaging and signing their consumers?
Justin Stoddart
Well it's interesting that you say that that. Probably the team model breakdown breaks down like you're saying when a team leader doesn't actually learn how to let go of stuff and believe that customers come to them because of their standards, not because necessarily them right. You can actually teach and delegate and the customer will be well served. Is that what you mean by that?
Jeff Cohn
Absolutely. Yep. And you know it within our, I guess the way that our team was built in 2011, we launched in 2014. I exited. So I was there three months, three years, 36 months, working side by side running the Rainmaker model while trying to get into more of a CEO role where I could exit the day today. And my goal was to take everything I had ever learned I had done over 1000 deals and downloaded in the agents that were with me at that point. And then because of that we organically grew a training organization, within my real estate team, any success in the organization has to have a coaching and training and accountable component built within. And that is essentially what elite real estate systems became our coaching company, we said, this is great content, we have two hours of training a week, eight hours a month for $97 a month, of course, my agents get it for free. We're like let's broadcast this in group settings and make this available to the world. So if anyone wants more info on that, you can go out to elite real estate systems.com. And just click on learn more. And you can learn all about our coaching product,
Justin Stoddart
just kind of a side kind of testimonial from a very good friend of mine who produces at a very high level had the opportunity to go out, spend a couple of days with Jeff and his team shadowing them attending their workshop and came back and said it was absolutely game-changing. So
Jeff Cohn
cool. Appreciate that. Yeah, we've had, we've had thousands of people out. So we do the coaching, which is group coaching, we call modern coaching for the modern agent. And then we also offer events, it's usually every month we'll have a workshop, we do virtual workshops, we do regional workshops, we were in Miami last year, Charleston, South Carolina veg guess. And then we have a yearly event, which actually is going to happen, it's probably already happened once you watch this episode. It's the end of June every year in conjunction with the College World Series, we get about 100 plus people out, put that on your calendar for next year.
Justin Stoddart
Cool, man. Let's talk a little bit about this role of being a team member on a team, right? A lot of people get into real estate because they want to work for themselves, right? I want unlimited income and freedom of schedule, right? And they get the business to realize like, Okay, this is a lot, this is a lot harder than I thought. And I'm going to put a lot more work. So then they, at times either they decide that I'm either going to go join a team where they start from day one and say it makes sense for me to get the reps that I need in order to actually get good at this business. I'm going to join a team. How does a team like how do you guys teach to retain good talent long term to where you don't have this revolving door? I know, going back to maybe the some of the complaints that people have with the model is that you have new people coming in and out so fast that there are people never really learned the standards. So you have a lot of chefs in the kitchen and nobody's talking to each other. And as a result, it's not great, like, it's not a great experience for the consumer, those teams that I have seen that have performed at a really high-level year after year are those that retain good talent? What do you teach teams, be able to create such a compelling value proposition that the people on the team don't necessarily want to go start their own team?
Jeff Cohn
That's a great question. I'm excited to answer it. I tell people, the three pillars to any successful organization. Number one is recruiting. Number two is continual training and accountability. And number three is retaining by offering value. So the same way you're going to go recruit an agent, you're going to show them the value offer, it's the same pitch that you're going to give to the consumer, why should they work with your value value value is what it always comes back to the challenges. A lot of teams out there have learned from the broker and the traditional broker hasn't offered very much value. That's why there are so many brokers today, not even really keeping much of a commission split off the agent because they don't know how to retain those agents because they don't have the value that agent seeks. So you asked a question earlier about the consumer and why they should work with the team rather than going to the individual, I'm going to give you a very long roundabout answer on this question because it's a really good one. And I wanna make sure I hit it on every point. First, I want to draw the picture of an athlete. So if you knew you wanted to play professional level, and you were 18 years old, who would you want to train with? Would you train with middle school football players? Would you train with high school football players? Would you go to a D to college? Would you go to one college? Or would you want to go play with a pro team? And if you're going to play with the protein, would you want to play with the team that came in 12th? The season before? Would you want to come to the team that won the Super Bowl? I know for me, I want the trainer of the team that won the Super Bowl, the nutritionist super the coach of the Super Bowl, the gym of the Super Bowl, I want to go to the top. But unfortunately, most people aren't wired my way. why they're not wired that way is they don't want to lose in front of those people that perform at that level. And so they play in mediocrity. A lot of people listening to this are playing in mediocrity. If you want to be the best, I'd say join the best. Stay with them for 12 months and make the decision if by being with them, you'll make more money in less time with less energy. And if the answer is that that's not the case, then go build your own sandbox. And so back to your initial question of how do we retain, really retain and the reason that the consumer uses us over anyone else because we offer more than anyone else. So, on our team, you have Legion we have 50 leads a month per agent. We have accountability meetings with every agent every week for 20 minutes. We have dialers they get the plug in the Mojo dialer, Vulcan seven for expired physical cancel withdrawn data, we have a coaching company that they literally get for free, we have an investment company, they get to take advantage of for free and they can find us deals or fuel us deals and we'll pay them finders fees. But the list just goes on admin, we take everything from contract to close, they never touch paperwork, they don't generate leads, they get a CRM and Boomtown. They get their own personal website, they get their own review site for so people can leave reviews for them were the top rated on Zillow and every other website out there. We spend 10,000 a month and ads to generate leads. And we have speakers that come in every Monday we look at our team training and teaches them about different things pertinent to their business. So it's like, endless value. So when someone comes on board, I say to them, you know, I give it 12 months, if it doesn't work out, then we're not a fit to help you realize your dream. And that's okay. But if it doesn't work out and stay with us, as long as it makes sense. And to me, what makes sense is that our business can become the vehicle that allows them to live and lead the life of their dreams. So we flip everything upside down. When someone comes into our group, we say, what do you want to accomplish over the next five years? And then we say how much money do you think you'd need to accomplish that your one year, two years, three year, you know, all the way to your five, and then we can tell them if you know you need to make six figures to realize your dreams over the next five years. We know on our team you need to do about 36 sales. And we know it takes about 150 outbound calls to get one sale. So we take 150 outbound calls times 36 sales divided over 52 weeks, and now we've established how many calls they need to make each week. And these aren't literal calls. This could be an engagement in the opportunity you have with someone at a mastermind at a social event, an open house. So every week, every agent reports to a team meeting at 10am. In my office on Mondays, if you're ever in Omaha, anyone listening is welcome to come attend the meeting. I'm not gonna recruit you just come to check it out, be a fly on our wall, the event that you referenced one of your friends who had been out part of that event as you get to spend a whole day in my office with my team, and you can see how we operate. At that meeting. Justin, every single person in the room stands up. They say they're called 125 calls. They say how many calls they actually made, how many contacts they had, how many appointments, they went on, how many contracts they executed, how many listings they signed, how many hours they spent prospecting, if they don't hit their call goal, I don't get on their case, I simply asked one question. And this is the question that motivates all of us. And I asked them which item from their vision board do they want to remove since they didn't hit their callable. I'm going to hit all my vision. I'm in my house right now. I live in a beautiful, very nice home and I'm on a brassica. I've got a lot of land, I've all the toys, I want to have all the trips I want. I have three beautiful kids beautiful wife, I've got my goal. So I'm hitting my vision goal I'm going to with or without the agent, I want my organization to be a vehicle that someone can plug into to realize their dreams. If someone's struggling, I'm going to take responsibility. But a lot of times it's because they're not in the place they need to be and I'll invite them to leave and I'll let them know I don't think my company's the vehicle for you. I don't think it's going to help you get to where you need to be, you need to go find a different vehicle.
Justin Stoddart
Jeff, reminds me of a conversation I had with my coach recently. in which he asked me what is it costing me on a regular basis to not be fulfilling my biggest dreams? Which was $1 amount, right? And and then when I got to that dollar amount, as I said, Okay, let's take an amount for some arbitrary amount, like let's say an amount, let's say somebody $200,000 last year, and let's say their dreams make a million dollars a year, every year that they're not achieving that it's costing them $800,000 a year to not be living to that level. And then the question that followed was what's the cost of the cost? Like what is it actually like? What what are you having to say no, to every day, week, month year, because you are living that way and it taking that and applying it to what you've shared. It's almost interesting. Let's say somebody made 100 calls and said they're gonna make 125 calls like those 25 calls didn't happen for some reason that seemed either scary or inconvenient or whatever. Yeah, what's the opportunity cost them not making those is it I still live in an apartment or I still live in a small house or me, another kid because we can't afford it. Like all of a sudden calls. I
Jeff Cohn
get goosebumps on this conversation. I just got done. Every time I work out, I've been trying to lose 50 pounds is my weight loss goal this year. I did it last year, I needed to lose 100 total. So this year's another 50. By the end of this year, I will be under 220 by 2020 is my goal. So I put it out there in the universe. And it happens, right? So as I work out, I didn't listen to David Goggins book can't hurt me. I love that book, talks about he goes to the gym, right? He knocks out, I don't even know 997 pull-ups. But his goal was 1000. He goes home. Always like I gotta go back to the gym. He doesn't go back and do three more. He goes back and does 1000. And I don't remember the numbers on this particular workout. But as an example, he goes back does 1000 so I wonder if you're willing to not hit the 25 calls to hit your dream board? Which is your life goal? What other things are you falling short on? Is it the workout? Is it the conversation you knew you needed to have with your dad and you never did? Before conversation, you need to have with your kids? You never will the social group you wanted to join but you never did? Like, what other areas are you letting yourself fall short in? And so I think that's a great point. And like, what what's the cost of the cost? I'd never heard that before. I really like it. I do want to save money gets talked about a lot on this podcast just so everyone out there. As you get to know me. I am a high di if you're under if you know what the disk is an alpha. But I also love that fun. I only work for freedom. I did everything I've done up to this point so that I didn't have to do anything. I'm not one of those people that's going to work on 90 I want to be done in 10 years. And when I say done, I want to be in a position where I can be generating my dream income every single month. So everyone for themselves, ask yourself, What's your dream income, but then not have to stop working. So I just want have the option to stop. And so when I challenge people to stop selling focus on building a business, I'm not saying don't ever take a listing, I have listings right now I have a few luxury listings I took I'm just saying put yourself in a position where you could go to South Africa, which I just did for four weeks or an East Coast road trip for three weeks, which I just did literally three weeks ago, or Hawaii for Christmas for five weeks. I've been living this lifestyle. It's like unbelievable because I put myself in this position. But it's been a lot of work. 12 years later, right.
Justin Stoddart
First of all, I want to congratulate you on your weight loss goals. I was going to actually mentioned earlier as we're getting ready to start the interview, I felt like I was in the octagon and I was facing like a bad an MMA fighter. Because you were going back and forth. You got cut like that pretty
Jeff Cohn
tough. If people watch me on YouTube, like I am bouncing around, I like to keep it going I stand you're standing too, aren't you? Yeah, the energy is way better. But I appreciate you saying that I that's what I'm going for that intimidating.
Justin Stoddart
So Secondly, I love what you've talked about when it comes to you know that having the option, right when you dare to think bigger when you dare to like, push beyond where it's comfortable and actually reach your goals actually reach your commitments. incredible things start to happen because most people stop. Like, you know, our friend, David Goggins talks about like most people, like, if it's uncomfortable, like that's actually absolutely where you need to double down because most people at that point, opt out, just know that that like the hurt starts to fade really quickly at that point, and like, pain is like a really great indicator because it's like, that's awesome that I'm feeling pain because that means it's going to get slimmer and slimmer competition.
Jeff Cohn
It anyone listening right now you are in the 1% you are a rarity just listening to this podcast. This is one of the things I've discovered it I saw a study once that said parents that read children's books, not children's like how to help your kid What is that? Something toddler? I don't even know what the name of the book is. But it's like the one everyone reads when they have a new kid what to expect when you have a toddler? Yeah. But there was some study that said like parents that read books like to help their children grow better and you know, be better at reading writing all the basic skills. Pair instant-read books like that obviously ended up raising better kids. So it the question, though is, Is it because of the content that they read? Or is it because of the very fact that they were the type of person to go out and see the information which created self-actualization around them to then be a better parent? And I believe it's not about the content as much as we want to think we're special. And people that write books are special. It's about the heart and the desire. And part of that is being willing to break through boundaries that no one else will Goggin says he wants to be rare, he end up getting into the seals and then realize he didn't think the navy seals were working out hard enough. And then he's like, I want to be rare amongst the seals. And then that wasn't good enough. He's like, I want to be a freak specimen across all the different branches. He tried out for Delta Force. He did a paratrooper rescue or whatever. The dude, the freak, and then he finds out he has a hole in his heart. Sorry to give that away. I think that's chapter eight. And then he's like, I'm afraid. And I think that's cool. So like, how many of us are sitting here listening going? Well, I'm a freak, too. I grew up my whole life thinking I was crazy. And then I was unique, and that I was special, and that I deserve everything I wanted. I had no idea how to get there. And a lot of people listening to us. I know it's Justin that listens to your podcast, they don't know how to get there. They love your energy. They love mine, they feed off of it. That's only going to last so long. You have to have your own winds that fuel you that feed you and you have to feel the pain. I started running again. We just got back from the East Coast road trip Sunday and I said I'm going to go four miles a day, six days, or sorry, five days a week until I hit under 220. Until then I go and I don't usually run that much. I usually do like one or two miles and then I'll lift for an hour. Now I'm flip-flopping on the lift for 15-20 minutes, then hit a little bit more cardio. And my feet hurt dude like I'm on day three. Day Three is nothing I like feel like I've been doing this for 30 days. I'm on day three. And so I think if you think about Goggins, this dude runs ultras, he's done over 200 miles in one race. He's done multiple races over 100 miles. But all the people listening they're trying to overcome the different things in their lives. You're going to feel pain don't think Justin and I haven't and don't think anyone that's successful didn't I used to tell myself Well, they're only successful because they were born into this family. And they have had this unique opportunity because they were in San Diego or whatever the thing was. The truth is they're the people that succeed at a high level, they've gone through more crap than anybody else. They failed more. And because of that, they ended up winning bigger than anybody well, and
Justin Stoddart
they seek out discomfort. So here's a great story. My stepdad just retired from a company that was sold, ended up like very well doesn't need to work another day in his life. His very first summer off, he decides to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, which is a five-month hike, like these like drinking water out of like swamps, filtered, right. So it's okay. But like, for five months, he's on a trail and I'm like, okay, you could like to afford about anything right now. And you're, you're choosing to do this. And I thought like, Is he crazy? Does he not like my mom, like, What's going on here? And it's like, no, the guy's just wired. He's always had this goal. And he realizes that now's a window of time and he's going to do it. It's like, you know, people that are high achievers, they don't necessarily seek out comfort. They don't do what always just feels good. David Goggins like no part of his book or his story looks sound uncomfortable at all.
Jeff Cohn
It sounds horrible. Paul talks about minds. He's like a student of the mind. He says that once you think you have to stop like that point where you have to stop, you still have 60% left. And I would say for me, I think I succeeded beyond most because I went an extra 5% I will not get on here and say I went the hundred percent I killed it. Everyone else is lazy. I think I just went a little bit further than everybody else. And that's the key is like, you don't have to go a ton further push beyond everyone else, like quit compare, I guess what they would say what I believe is don't compare to anyone else. When he said he would race to us to try to beat people, then he's like, I'm still being myself. push against yourself. So like when my agents have the hundred and 25 callable make hundred and 50 calls. If you have a goal to run for miles run four and a half, always push 5% harder, 10% harder and great things will happen.
Justin Stoddart
It typically the people around you are a good standard for success. I mean, part of the reason why I invented this show, think the real estate show is to be able to spend time with people like you they otherwise wouldn't be in my own market. Right? I wouldn't have access to. with that. I know you've got a kind of a hard stop. for time sake. This has been a blast, man, by the way. Thank you. It's been really fun. I want to ask you this question. You're the perfect guy to ask this question to, which is the signature question of the show, which is, you're a big thinker, right? This TV back here stands for think bigger. What is it that you do on a regular basis to ensure that you stay that way? So where you don't get content to where you're constantly... everyone
Jeff Cohn
I've thought about this, too.
Justin Stoddart
Expand your possibilities? What does it look like? So
Jeff Cohn
I read MRT so I read so how much time do I have? Let me take five minutes on this one and we'll wrap for those listening. By the way, if you've loved Justin's podcast, if you've loved my podcast, please go out and review us. I would prefer reviews on iTunes. give a shout out to Justin If you guys liked this podcast episode make sure to give us five stars. I'm trying to bust out of 100 reviews by the end of this year. What about you Justin? Where can I leave reviews for you know what? That'd be awesome for me as well. I've got some great reviews, but I need more of them. So I love that just while you're on iTunes go find me as well. Give me a review. I love it. It's just Think Bigger Real Estate. Perfect. Do that. Then for Justin as well, you guys if you wouldn't mind. So I started this practice in college. I was interning making pretty good money in a position where I could have made 60 grand here in Omaha back when I'm 22 recently married brand new baby. It's like the cliche story $50,000 in student loan and credit debt living in a studio apartment. Okay, this is where I started middle class. I had an undergrad degree in business. I speak several languages. I lived in Brazil for two years. So I have a pretty good solid foundation. That's
Justin Stoddart
for two years time to like the stereo
Jeff Cohn
male Jose Momo.
Justin Stoddart
No, it was so so good to go.
Jeff Cohn
We both missions in Brazil. Yeah. Small world. Good. So anyway, so you have your visionary. Where are you at real quick. Where are you as a Florianopolis?
Justin Stoddart
Dude, you want to know my brother? My brother was young at that time. Anyway,
Jeff Cohn
thousand one 2003. So anyway, so I get home, I have this like a strong foundation, right? And I have all these things I want to accomplish. And I'm like, I don't know everything. I was finally smart enough after spending time abroad to realize like, wow, I'm like, insignificant. So I decided before accepting a job after my internship with this company that would have made me miserable. I'd go interview 20 of the smartest people I knew at that time, with the 22-year-old Jeff Cohn Bry almost twice a life ago. And in that those meetings, those people knew me pretty well. They all said do not work for any of these companies, you will never have a boss that you'll listen to, you will never have a job that challenges you enough. Go and be on your own. They said go Do you know to start a business here to be an entrepreneur here but like don't have a ceiling. So that told me don't go into corporate America end up starting my own business. I still didn't know what to start. When I did decide to land on real estate. I did the same exercise went to 20 people in Omaha. Hey, if you were back in the game at 22, what would you do differently? None of them had to that great of advice from a lead gen Sam but I gotta talk to your sphere. But everyone said to invest in real estate. I was like, You sell real estate like what are you talking about? And that's really that was the solution. I needed money to pay off debt. And they're like, go buy houses. I'm like, I have nothing. How am I gonna buy houses? So flash forward? Now? I'm buying tons of houses. I have about 80 doors today? So to answer your very simple question, it's not a simple answer. I started surrounding people, I started surrounding myself with people that were achieving animation higher level than myself based on my perception. So somebody that I thought was a great athlete, I'd say Hey, can I chat with you once a week? Can I call you can you can we be accountability partners? Can I come visit you in San Diego, and spend two days learning about your workouts. I've done the same for my spirituality, I've done the same for my business, the jobs that I have within my businesses, pretty much in any area of my life that I wanted to become better. I just found someone that was better than me and asked him if I could be their friend. And if I could learn from them. Of course podcaster, there was a sentence I've heard read in the book once is that the difference between you and me are the podcasts we listened to the books that we read, and the people we meet. So I have gotten to gotten to this point where like, I can grab so much more when I go and visit with someone or have a call with someone because then I get to choose the questions rather than listening to someone else's question. If you listen to a podcast before we were like, I want to ask the next question I want to ask you,
Justin Stoddart
Of course, I'm here, man. That's why I'm here. Exactly. Right.
Jeff Cohn
So anyway, that's my long, long answer to a very simple short question. Do you want to succeed the high level surround yourself by high-level thinkers, high-level workers, people that have actually succeeded that don't talk about succeeding, I get so sick of this whole story of like, what you're gonna do, tell me what you did. And then we can talk about where you want to go. I love getting jacked up about it. But show me where you went first, you can learn a lot about a person and where they come from. Usually, there's a trajectory there. I also heard the sentence before if you take like your five closest friends, your network will typically be the average of your five closest friends, your three closest friends so maybe change up who your friends are, help them generate more wealth.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. Man, such a powerful answer from a guy who is an achiever. And it sounds like all areas of life everything from business to family to spiritual life to physical fitness, and I'm fired up for you. Just good stuff. This has been a total pleasure want to thank you for being a part of the bigger real estate show and allowed me to be a part of the team building podcast man,
Jeff Cohn
thank you for interviewing me too. And I think my listeners will get a lot out of this as I hope yours do as well. Justin and I am humbled for the opportunity. I came to the show with a lot of energy. Hope you guys enjoyed it. And we did talk super fast. So you might have to slow this one down.
Justin Stoddart
We're all about we got to we got too much to do until little time we can be talking slow. That's right.
Jeff Cohn
Yeah. For anyone else in your network. Justin, my head might people hear this all the time. But if you want more info on us our events and our upcoming, you know different things that we have going in addition to coaching and our podcast, just go out to the elite real estate systems. com You can also follow that on Facebook, you want to hit me up ever. You just go find Jeff Cohn online or elite real estate systems, you can message us and we'll respond right away.
Justin Stoddart
Good stuff, man. I'll let the audience know as well just get ready to release in an E-book that will soon to be a book on helping real estate agents transition from salesperson to consultants and drive a whole new referral stream from professional sources so excited to share that ebook will be out next week. So go to think bigger dot real estate. Let's have you hear this. And that will be available as well. So
Jeff Cohn
Awesome. Good stuff. Thanks again, Justin.
Justin Stoddart
Thanks, man. Great talking to catch up soon later, bro.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate show very excited about today's episode all about video. I think if you're in real estate today, you absolutely know that video is an essential part of getting mindshare, which allows you to gain more market share. And yet so many agents are afraid of it and or are afraid they aren't doing it well. So I've got with me, an expert, Michael Dyson, first and foremost, on the show today, man
Micah Dyson 0:20
Justin, thanks so much, man. Thank you
Justin Stoddart 0:22
Most handsome man in real estate right here.
Micah Dyson 0:23
Not even
Justin Stoddart 0:25
Brought him into teaching us some things about video. Actually, Michael works for fairway independent company by day, but he's also a video expert by night makes you sound like you like Batman or something. Wow.
So ours is right.
So Mike has studied film in college. And so he knows, like, for real, like how to do film. And actually, you've made that as part of your value proposition is how to help agents kind of up their game, right? Absolutely. Let's talk maybe first and foremost, why videos important? Obviously, we talked about the mindshare and market share. You know, what I see, Mike is you see these massive tech company, he's with seemingly endless amounts of money. And they're coming in and they're trying to educate consumers that their platform is this will provide the same results as a real estate agents, correct. Right. Right. Right. And so when you look at that, obviously, real estate agent, the typical real estate agent or brokerage does not have the financial backing to be able to compete and be on all the buses, billboards,
Micah Dyson 1:25
benches, everything
Justin Stoddart 1:26
everywhere, right, right, to be able to tell their side of the story, which is, it's not about necessarily the fee, it's about how much a client that's at the end, and then having a great real estate agent can actually determine and create a really positive ROI on those fees. Right?
Micah Dyson 1:41
Absolutely.
Justin Stoddart 1:41
But I think video is a critical way of doing that. Yet, so many agents are afraid of it. Let's talk maybe first, why do you think we as humans, I'll put myself in that category, Why have we been or why are people afraid of video? What are your thoughts? Right?
Micah Dyson 1:53
Well, first of all, I think it's very important that we tell our story. Okay. And that's a very personal and very intimate thing. And oftentimes that can be intimidating. You know, who am I? What, what, why would anyone want to listen to me? And I think that when a professional comes along, a very large corporate professional comes along and says I can tell your story. Look at me, I'm huge, I massive, let me do it for you. I can do it. You know, the burden of having to speak in front of other people, hundreds, even 10 people hundred thousand is lifted off our shoulders and given to someone else, all we have to do is smile, give a bio and then the professional does everything else for us. What's very important about our stories
Justin Stoddart 2:41
now Now, are you talking about if you hire an outside film person, or like in the sense of like people, hiring paid actors, will will
Micah Dyson 2:49
either really I mean whenever we introduce a third party to tell our story in any medium, we're, there are sometimes there's an advantage to that. But for the new, the fresh when if you will the new agent, the new loan officer, anyone that title agent, anyone getting out there? We, it's very intimidating.
Justin Stoddart 3:08
To compete with that.
Micah Dyson 3:09
Right, compete with that, exactly.
Justin Stoddart 3:10
Hollywood actors, it's like, well, that's not me. And that's what I've got to go up against.
Micah Dyson 3:13
Correct. And what we have to understand is that we are trying to grow our audience, our sphere, our market share locally, you know, let's take one step at a time. You know, let's, let's leave Hollywood to Hollywood for now. Right? So, um, absolutely. And if we think back of even when we were children, we were kids in grade school who want to get called up to the chalkboard. None of us.
Justin Stoddart 3:35
Yeah, right.
Micah Dyson 3:35
You know, that was a whiteboard. Sorry, I just dated myself.
Justin Stoddart 3:38
You're right with the attention was not necessarily something you wanted in front of a group of people. Right.
Micah Dyson 3:42
Exactly.
Justin Stoddart 3:42
Embarrassing. Exactly. That's somewhat like you know, the stuff that's keeping us from doing it is like, I don't want to call attention to myself. That's a bad thing.
Micah Dyson 3:50
Exactly. And what if I, What if I slip? What if I mess up? What if I stutter a huge part of my story and then I share with people is that as outgoing and as an extrovert, as I seem now, I had a massive stutter as a child. I
Justin Stoddart 4:05
So did I, seriously, you don't know this about me. But there you go.
Micah Dyson 4:08
Both of us. Two kids are with massive stutters I dreaded saying certain words because I knew that the second I was up in front of the classroom, I would stutter. And so that that's something that that can turn into a lifelong handicap that we have to overcome if we're going to make it in this in our industry. And so and you're probably gonna get to this but but social media with the introduction of social media, it has allowed a lot of us to enter that landscape without having to hire a film crew, hire channels, get broadcasting all of that, you know, advertising that all of that is sidestepped to a certain degree? Because of social media. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart 4:53
Really interesting. So to your point of stuttering, for me, it was any word that started with an M?
Yes, which created some, for me, difficulty
Micah Dyson 5:03
for me, it was t, s and a T sometimes m cause we get stuck on "mmm", our mouth was like Sasha Yeah, it was crazy. It was horrible, actually.
Justin Stoddart 5:12
So to this day, not many people know this about me. But to this day, I'll still in my mind, I'll go to say something. And it doesn't come out. Yes. And I've got to quickly work around it a different word for it. Do you still have that?
Micah Dyson 5:22
I do. I would tell friends that I got really good at being sort of a thesaurus. Because I would think of a word and I would feel myself. stammer, yeah, I go, okay. Go around that word. Think of another word that is just like that word, but doesn't start with an M or an S T, or whatever your word is. Whatever your letters are.
Justin Stoddart 5:41
Yeah, I didn't know that about you.
And yeah. And yet you had the audacity to go into film school knowing that right now that's, that's a pretty bold move. Interesting. So for anybody that's out there watching this. That is saying, like, you know, I thought that I had a problem speaking- you listen to a couple of guys. That was that kid that you felt terrible for? Because he went to talk. And it sounds like this. Like, we like we've all been around people like that. And our heart goes out to them. Like, it's awkward for everybody. It just hurts, right? I just want to help them or like, say it for them. That was us. That was us and how we are we've overcome that we're on video now. So if we can do it, you can do?
Micah Dyson 6:22
You can do it. Absolutely. And I think something else that I've seen this.
And having talked with many agents, you know, and getting them in front of the camera. Here's what I hear often. You don't know, Mike, do you see this? Do you see what I look like I can't be on camera, there's no way. And I have to tell them? Hands up. We all know what this looks like. We've been looking at you for four years, once everyone knows what you look like, everyone knows what you sound like, Oh, I can't sound what I sound like, we all know what this looks like, we all know what you sound like. So just get out there and shoot some video. Yeah. And I think that's once we get a few under our belt, we feel a little bit better. You know, you and I were talking about some of the pointers. And one of the things that I go with is that it's got to come from the heart. Part of that the heart is a part of that comes from having done it many times. So you and I have done this many times. And so part of this is we can do it off the cuff as we're doing now when people first get started at when I got started, I had to write everything down. What I found when I did that is that it actually became a stumbling block, because I was reading off of a script. And so I was reading and I had to say all these things, and it sounded very robotic. Whereas if we internalize the message, it becomes it's, it's from the heart, it's, we don't have to think about it, we feel passionate about it. So the more we internalize the message, whatever that message is, we can then convey it to our audience. And then the real us comes out, you know, I talked about my hands, you know. And that's just kind of how I am, you know, and so everybody's different. We're all going to find our niche, you know, our way in shooting our video, you know,
Justin Stoddart 8:05
to your point about helping people overcome the fact if I don't like how I look into like how I sound. I call people out on that. And I say, you know what, if you really felt that way, you wouldn't have chosen a profession like real estate, like if you really didn't want people to see your face, you would have chosen some back office role where nobody ever saw you. Reality is you chose a role where it's required to have your face on a lot of places, signs, business cards in front of clients like that, that excuse won't fly because you chose this public profession. And the reality is what public means now, is that you really need to start doing video. Absolutely, you actually reminded me of this point about memorizing, I'm gonna pull up an email that I I got today from Seth Godin. For some of you that follow Seth Godin. He's one of my favorite authors. And I hope I can find it because it was so appropriate with what you're saying, with regards to not memorizing stuff. And he actually compared it to a KFC, excuse me, I'm looking down here for a second while I find this email. But his point was that there are a lot more people now more than ever doing TED Talks. And he said, as a result of that, these TED Talks, you tend to have a lot of people do awkward memorization, here's what he said. So I'm going to credit Seth Godin. For this. He said the spread of TED Talks means that more and more people are being put on stage and told to memorize their talk. This almost always leads to failure. It's not because people memorize too much. It's because they don't memorize enough. Watch a great performance and you'll see no artifacts of memorization. Instead, you will see someone speaking from the heart, exactly what you're saying. Right? He says this is what it means to know something by heart. memorizing the words is half of it. And woefully insufficient. My suggestion, don't memorize your talk. memorize your stories case, this is a great tip. memorize your stories. 10 stories, make a talk. Write yourself a simple cue card do remember each stories name, then tell us 10 stories and it says to be you. We didn't come to hear your words. If that's all we wanted, we could have read that memo and save the ton of time to bring your heart. I love that. Like how a breath free absolutely true for your advice, which you're telling people. Stop, stop like reading lyst stop scripting it all out. Stop writing everything you need to say. Because it's it's terrible for the audience because it's not you.
Micah Dyson 10:24
Right. Exactly. And our and our audience, we're building our audience. We're building our tribe, our people, and you can't fake that. Yeah. You know, people that listen to me people that I work with, they work within because they like me. I mean, it's the famous quote, you know, my Angelo, and I'm horrible at quotes, but it is something you know, it's, I'll paraphrase of course, where it's like, they'll forget what you say, but how you made them feel right. And that it's about the feeling as much as we talked about numbers and then and, and the arithmetic of things. You know, it's really about the feeling. It's about developing that trust and trust. Access Point comes from stories. We love stories, the person who can tell a great story is a winner. I just got a haircut recently. I hope you guys it looks great, thank you. But I love anyone can cut hair. If I can get the same stylist again, I will she because she told a story. She just talked about where she was from where she had been her trips to Hawaii, her trips, swimming with the sea turtles, I didn't ask for any of this. Yeah, but it was amazing. I was on one of the best haircuts I've gotten, I get the same haircut, but it's because of the experience. It's the stories that she shared with me, that's really what it is people want to have a connection, we're all humans, we want a human connection. And that's where that's our ace up our sleeves as, as new as freshmen as people, even if you even if you're a veteran and you and you're trying to branch into a new audience, that's what we need to do is, is expose a little be a little vulnerable, like you and I just were we both stuttered when we were children. And sometimes even as adults, you know, but that's what people can connect with one cares about, XYZ they want to hear about, they want us to be vulnerable, you know, to a certain degree. And one thing as well, while it's on my mind, we don't want to memorize things. And this is a very informal interview that we're having here. It's fun, it's great. You do want to have bullet points, you do want to kind of touch on a few things. And and and just like Seth was saying, right on the flash card, the cue card, a couple of topics, a couple of bullet points until those stories hit those points up. So just so
Justin Stoddart 12:30
you know, I love it. And I think that's kind of getting into the more tactical, which is let's go there now. Right? And I think, you know, to kind of wrap up the first point is a lot of people don't go to Video, or they don't do video Well, because they get stuck on I don't know what I'm going to say right? So the end of the day, your point Micah and to Seth Golden's credit as well, is that tell a story right? Like what is the story that you go back and tell to co-workers what's the story you go back and tell a spouse or to a loved one something that was funny, somebody that was entertaining somebody was heartwarming, like started like those stories that that that you feel those the stories that you want to tell right now. And what I see a lot of our real estate agent partners and clients doing is talking about houses, right, three bedrooms, two baths listed 1000 square feet, granite counters, tile, okay, there's no emotion there. Right? Right. Rather, you know, you could talk about that. But you could say like, imagine having all of your favorite people around this kitchen island, right? Here you go. How would that make you feel? Do you imagine? Just that feeling the sensation of inviting people to your home for the first time. Like now it's like, oh, my goodness, I can feel myself there. Right. You did the same thing. You talked about the granite countertops. But you told a story, right?
Micah Dyson 13:43
Around it.
around it. Yeah, you paint a picture. A lot of something I was just something just popped my head here. In addition, doing film so I started out as an art major I love to draw film was my way of getting a degree actually out of it. One of the things that I loved to sketch my son thankfully, he's he's inherited that gene from both my wife and I. Yeah, totally. One thing I tell people what back when I was really drawing, and that was shown to me is you got to get out. And this applies to anything, this applies to film, this applies to anything you got to get in and you just gotta, you just got to rough it out. And you just got to get in there. So I would suggest one of my suggestions to Well, when I was an artist was Don't think about the nose. If you're drawing I love the human form. And I took tons of figure drawing loved all that. Don't think about the nose or just the eye, or the finger the thumb. It's the whole body. It's the energy. It's the space that occupies think of that. Just a rough it out really sketching, you know, it's called sketching for a reason. It's not called perfect. We're not we're not robots. Yeah, get in there and rough it out. So and then slowly. It's like, you know, clay or plaster, you start hacking away at it. And slowly the form reveals itself. And so this film is like that video is like that. Get out there and do a couple of shots, you know, and you're going to stumble, you're going to Oh, I forgot what I was saying. Fine. Do it again. Rough it out, take many practices, 10,000 shots, whatever, different, you know, just do it. Eventually, it becomes you.
Justin Stoddart 15:16
Yeah. Micah saw when I was getting ready for this the show today. There wasn't a lot of prep was there. I was like, Alright, man, let's get the lights on. Let's keep going. And I'll tell you that doesn't. I probably done closest I would say maybe close to 500 to 750 live videos. Yeah. So and I don't say that to brag, by any means. But it's just like riding a bike. It'll get comfortable. You know, one of my mentors told me this. He said, Your first hundred videos aren't for your audience anyway, forget about your audience. It's about you finding out what you want to talk about and what you're passionate about. Right? That's great. And so for me, like, this is why I'm passionate about is really poured into real estate agents, helping them think bigger, right, so that they can have a better business and have more impact and have more options. That's my passion. And so it comes really nice to me now because I've, I've found but it took a lot of time to find out what I really wanted to talk about. What lit me up? Yes, because that's what's helped me find my tribe, right is that it's gonna, like the right people are going to feel something and be like, hey, that's my guy.
Micah Dyson 16:13
Right? And they'll go towards you. That's right. Yes. attraction. Yes.
Justin Stoddart 16:18
So, back to a couple of the more kind of logistics tactical items. Okay. So let's talk about you recommend maybe having three bullet points? Correct. Okay, not having everything scripted out as ever you want to say, right, because that turns you like into this and your heads down? And you're and then you might shed no emotion? Exactly. Yeah,
Micah Dyson 16:36
I would say three, I was half joking. We have average intelligence, I'm writing about three threes. And number three is like a magic number for us. So you know, if it's the top three reasons you should buy now the top three ways to get clients to list their homes, the top three, you know, etc, etc. Think of three things bullet points, do all the writing you want to get on paper, internal and but know that when you're in front of that camera, it's going to be the bullet points that you're going to remember, unless you're some super intelligent person, three bullet points are going to be and that's about all we can store. And if you're having a camera pointed at you, there's only so much you Oh, there's only so much you can you're going to be able to remember.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart. I've got Robby T back today because the reality is the fortune is in the follow-up. And that is the reason why most real estate agents have not yet found their fortune. This is an important topic that I've got Robby T. back to announce an event that he's doing tomorrow, June 18. And Robby is going to tell us all about it. Robby, first and foremost, the man the myth, the legend. Sells over 650 homes a year. And then coaches, what, 20 some teams? Dozens?
Robby Trefethren 0:34
Yeah,
Justin Stoddart 0:35
You on average sell between three and 400 homes a year. This guy knows to follow up because he teaches it and does it all day long at a super high level. So good to have you back. Robby. Thanks for coming on.
Robby Trefethren 0:45
Absolutely, brother. It's funny because you asked me like how do I view myself and I'm just like this lead conversion nerd and I don't know if you guys can see this or not, but I'm wearing a Star Wars schematic shirt. So I'm just being authentic, man.
Justin Stoddart 0:59
I love it. This is a guy you want to learn from right? This isn't a playboy. This isn't someone looking for a show, this is a guy here to do work.
Robby Trefethren 1:05
Exactly. I'd be the guy hiding behind the curtain inside and really believe it and having these conversations.
Justin Stoddart 1:11
You know if the guy behind the curtain can help people sell that many homes, it is not a bad life. Speaking of not a bad life, Robby and me before we came live, he asked me how my father's day went. Because those that are watching this life will know that Father's Day was yesterday. And I told him, Robby, I got a nap. It was for two hours. Nobody bugged me. I got a few people to bug me, but it was still pretty dang good. So Robby then proceeded to tell me about a little life hack, little productivity pack. Yeah, I'm going to use to have the signature question that I usually make everybody wait till the end of the episode. Today, we're going to bring it right up front. And I'm going to make you wait for the details on the lead conversion event. So So Robby, tell us quickly what you've learned about brief naps to reset the brain.
Robby Trefethren 1:56
Yeah. So as I said, I'm a total nerd. And I was reading a book by Dan Pink. And Dan is one of my favorite authors. And he wrote a book called "When". And if you haven't read Dan Pink, and you work in any form of sales and business, go buy all his books to sell us human is great drive is great. And then "When" is really good. But one of the things he talks about in "When" is he talks about the ideal nap. And basically long story short, the hack is this is that the ideal nap that you can take to reset your brain is something between about 15 and 26 minutes long. And basically, the science behind it is this is if you nap for less than 15 minutes. First off, you're probably not going to nap. And it's not going to do anything for you. But I think that for longer than 26 minutes, what happened is your brain thinks it's going to sleep. And what happens is you actually come out of your nap feeling groggy, and I've done this right. And instead of feeling refreshed, like I just took a nap, why am I more tired? It's because their brain thought it was bedtime. So the 15 to 26 six minute nap is used by the military, he talks about it in "When". And it's a really great way, if you're feeling a little tired, go take 15-20 minutes. And what happens is for me, in my experience is everyone's number kind of changes, you'll come out of it feeling really fresh recharged, because your brain is feeling a little bit reset, and a little bit rested. And it's kind of like meditating for your brain except you're napping. But you're not going to come out of it groggy because you didn't sleep for longer than 26 minutes. And for some reason, it's 26 minutes I forget the exact science behind that. But military uses it and I was like if you're going to do it and those high stakes environments to refresh, refresh the brain. I want to do it in business.
Justin Stoddart 3:39
You know what that reminds me of, I'm a tech genius. And here's how I all tech problems I took turn the computer off, turn it back on. Works. Obviously. You know it's interesting what you just said, makes me think that like our brains oftentimes just have they've got so much going on or this is just tiring us we need to just like whew, power down. Hundred percent power backup, and amazing life hack, man. Thank you for sharing that.
Robby Trefethren 4:05
Yeah, hey, if you don't mind, I think one of the coolest things is if you're feeling exhausted, like there are so many times where I'm feeling that, and I go take that little 15-20 minute reset, and literally, the way I see the world and the way I see problems is no longer as a problem. Oftentimes, just by resetting my brain and taking a moment, I see the problem completely differently. And now's an opportunity. So if you're feeling that exhaustion, you're feeling down. I'm telling you, I'm the king of the 15-20 minute nap. I'll do it inside our office on the couch all the time is this kind of
Justin Stoddart 4:37
love it, you'll get grief from anybody because they know you're a beast. They're like dude living alone.
Robby Trefethren 4:43
Exactly.
Justin Stoddart 4:45
So, um, Robby and I are both very proud dads, we love fatherhood. And it's interesting how I can oftentimes see that in my kids that they're like, totally irrational, right? And I'm like, you just need to go to sleep. I promise this will not be a big deal tomorrow. I don't think us as adults have a hard time realizing what you just said, which is like men, problems become mountain size when our brains aren't properly rested. And that what you've just shared right there super valuable for any of us that are high achievers that want to be Uber productive, and have a lot going on at any given time. So super valuable, and really appreciate it.
Robby Trefethren 5:22
Yeah, sure.
Justin Stoddart 5:23
Let's get into helping real estate agents find their fortune through follow up.
Robby Trefethren 5:26
I like it
Justin Stoddart 5:27
you and I both know that there's you know, there's oftentimes an abundance of opportunities that people will you know, whether it be online, or whether it be in person, people will bring something up. And oftentimes the follow through is not there due to maybe some limiting belief in their head where they actually purposely don't reach out to people and or they're disorganized. Talk to us a little bit about this event that you're doing tomorrow, and how it's going to help people solve these major problems that are keeping real estate agent from having their fortune.
Robby Trefethren 5:52
Sure. So I'll first I'll talk some numbers because I know people like to know numbers. In our world, we've lived literally made hundreds of thousands of phone calls, collectively between me and my eyes says, By the way, I'm co-hosting this event with Jim who is the best I say in the country. For years straight. Now he consistently brings in 150 plus deals and even brought in 200, before he moved into a leadership role. And he's co-hosting it. So you're going to hear not just from me, but from Jim as well. And then Eric, the founder and owner g of hash realty is going to be on there as well. So we got a lot of good people. But realistically, what we're bringing to the table is this is we wanted to create an event that was low costs, that created some interaction, but honestly just allowed us to share our secrets on how we have conversations with leads. So we're very clever and hash Realty and hash coaching. So we call this lead conversion live master the conversation. So super great of the whole point is this, we're going to be sharing a lot of the insights that we've learned, not just through peeking out learning, reading, but also through a lot of failures. And we're going to share those. with you guys, we're going to talk about some of the biggest pitfalls to avoid on phone calls. I don't like the term scripts, but I'm going to manually use that we're going to be sharing some of the scripts that we use. And as I think I talked about last time I was on the best script in the book is just tell me more, and getting the other person to talk. But that's such an abstract idea for people, we're going to be sharing a lot of pieces like that on how do you get someone to tell more, telling you more. And we're going to be sharing up between Jim, myself and Eric.
Justin Stoddart 7:41
good stuff, man. So everything from like you said, the scripts and the mentality? What do you think it is Robby, that people actually hesitate in following up when they know there's an opportunity there. You know, if you kind of got into the psychology of why people would do that,
Robby Trefethren 7:58
I think there's nothing. People do two things wrong. I'm almost always saying two things. One is people don't follow up at all. That's one major problem. And then the second major problem is actually follow up too often. That sounds crazy, right? But here's what it is, is there's a phrase out there that buyers are liars. And honestly, if you're going to learn one thing, on our lead conversion live tomorrow, it's not that buyers are liars, it's that you aren't asking good questions. So just little things like this. Justin, if you say that you're thinking about buying a place in a year, what too many real estate agents do is they take that surface level answer and they run with it. And now what you're going to do is this, you're going to follow up every month because you're like you said a year or and a half if you ever heard of that rule to say you're cut it in half. All it is is that you didn't ask the question on the phone with them to get more clarity. And I always ask this, I'll say okay, Justin, maybe I'll ask why are you thinking a year? And that alone would be a lot of insight. But I think you'd even a step further. And we're going to go in depth in this tomorrow with something I called to challenge their thinking. So I'll say all right, Justin. So I know that you said you're thinking about potentially buying in a year, but let's say the ideal home came on the market in the next month or two? Is that something you'd consider purchasing? Or what do you pass on that opportunity? And oftentimes, right, just like that, there's a script, right? Just by asking a question like that, it brings a lot more clarity to the situation, and that person is going to do both? No, no chance. I'm not by no chance at all, or, you know, I would absolutely consider that. And now what's happened is that the person is no longer a one year buyer. They're a two month third now buyer, I'm just going to ask the question to unearth it. And here's the thing, these people don't trust you. You're a random person traditionally, even if they're your good friend. Everybody knows eight realtors, it seems like. And the reality is, is that you gotta ask questions that allow people to process information, that the simplest way I've described the rules and is a is you're almost like a counselor. And what happens is, is just because somebody was thinking of some information, in the beginning, it doesn't mean it's entirely accurate. And if you're doing your job, well, the story actually changes because their thought processes are changing throughout the conversation. So if you're an agent, or you know, if you're doing consultations with people, if you're working with any clients, that this isn't just for is, as-as I'm sure you can tell, this is for anyone that is having conversations with anybody in real estate, that way you help people make better decisions and get to the root of what they want to do. And you know, you can see things a little more clear
Justin Stoddart 10:43
Interesting. Now, when you see this concept of following up too much. Yeah. The talk was briefly about that. And then we're probably going to end the show that will actually go find this. What I don't want them to think is that all the answers are going to be here on the think bigger real estate show. This is your mentor really wet people's appetite. Because the stuff that you're gonna share isn't, it's going to be helpful, but what you're going to be sharing tomorrow is gonna be wildly health, like it's going to be career changing. Yeah. So let's, let's get to that question. And then we'll wrap up.
Robby Trefethren 11:11
Yeah.
Justin Stoddart 11:12
But when you say that people follow up too much, does it go back to the fact that, like, it's like, someone who you just met, and all of a sudden, they're all over you? I mean, think of it as a friend as you meet them once at a party, and all of a sudden, they want to do like everything with you. I mean, could you make like a similar comparison? You're like, wait a minute, I just met you. Right? I don't know. I don't know if we want to be best friends, because we met at a party and you were nice, doesn't mean we're gonna be best friends.
Robby Trefethren 11:35
Right?
Justin Stoddart 11:37
I mean, is it kind of that, like, people just need their space to be able to trust you? And how do you not be forgotten? Yeah, well, too much, right? There's got to be a balance their kind of happy medium.
Robby Trefethren 11:45
I think people follow up too much because they hear one year out. And in the past, they've been burned so many times when they follow up when you're out and they're like, already bought a house. So what we do is we go like this, I'm going to call every month who's going to reach out every month. And there are two problems with that one. If you have a really good conversation, you get clarity on that, on that follow-up. If you were to if you and I were to talk and I tell you I'm a year up not doing anything for a year to call me back in a month, and ask if you know something, basically call me and have this conversation again. I'm going to be sitting there thinking, what was the point of our last conversation? Did you not hear what I said? So I think it violates trust, and it makes the person feel like you don't trust them. But the biggest thing is you can't scale. If you're calling everyone in your database back once a month. If you can't scale it, the reality is you don't need to be calling every single lead back once a month. And what we've learned to do and of course, there are some opportunities that we miss on it's just that's the game right? sometimes happens. But we use text to reengage as basically our insurance policy, not just phone calls because of everyone's most valuable asset. I don't care if you're an ISA an agent Rainmaker, it's your time, and you have to basically make bets, I used to play a lot of Texas Hold'em, right. And you got to be placing bets every single day. And the reality is, is that if you're making a bet on a lead, that is actually a year to out, and you're making the call investing that energy, that's a loss of energy going to someone that could actually be calling in the next month. So it's just, you know, in my brain, I'm always thinking of scalability. And when we're playing the lead conversion game, we're not, you know, chasing 100 200 leads were chasing thousands upon thousands of leads, we have about 1400 to 1500 incoming leads per month that are coming in combination of organic, as well as paid leads, property inquiries. So it's a little bit of everything. But if you want to scale your follow up, you got to get a little more targeted. And I don't need to call them Justin back every month if he and I have a really good conversation. And now I get to the depth of why he's waiting here. Now I can call back in seven, eight months, you know, use your intuition. Use your judgment. Yeah, I don't need to call you back seven times. Because those seven calls could be going to someone that's actually a month out. So we're not saying following up too much. That's probably what I'm getting.
Justin Stoddart 14:20
What's super powerful, what you've said, Because going back to the example that you said, let's say for example, you know, the role play that you kind of we started where, you know, you say, you know, are you interested in moving, I say, you know, not for a year, we like great, I'll follow up in a year or every month to try and convince you otherwise. Whereas you ask a question, which is, tell me more Tell me why. Yeah, let's say you know, my last child is graduating high school. And so once graduation is done that at that point, I've really enjoyed, you know, her senior year, and we're really going to be able to start to look, right now you that look like there's a real reason why. But if you ask the question, where's the perfect home came along between now and the end? And I said, You know, I get it. Like, we have a pretty unique flavor of what we're looking for. and unique comment, the right thing came along, let's say, four months before we be interested. Now, sudden, right, your conversations with me can start to be around, like, what is that perfect? Like? What is that unique flavor? What is it that you're looking for? And when you interact with me, it's relevant. And I think what a lot of lead generation follow up systems do is that they're one size fits, all right, it's super vanilla. It's like, the buyer, as opposed to what you said, which is, the more data you can gather about this person, every time you connect with them, the more relevant you can be, I find that in my own role in my own world, that if I show up, like vanilla, people don't do that today. Whereas if I can pinpoint about them, and show up taking care of that thing that they're concerned about, or that opportunity they want to take advantage of. Now, they want me to be a part of their world because they believe that I can get them to where they want to go, as opposed to like, get this guy out of here. I already answered. I've seen it. Listen, why would I want somebody that doesn't listen. Right?
Robby Trefethren 16:04
Exactly. And I think that's the biggest fear I have for so many people in this ballgame. And it's why we created the event tomorrow is I firmly believe the best lead generators, lead converters are agents and if you don't have an is that you are the is a reality is simply this is that you're probably doing way too much talking and too little listening. And it for some reason, I just go by the 80-20 rule, and we should be doing 20% of the talking and 80% of the listening. And the funny part is is that that 20% of talking is almost all exclusively rephrasing reflecting and digging deeper their answers. And it's literally just taking is using Stephen Covey Stephen Covey's ideas and taking what somebody said, rephrasing it back. And so somebody says, You know, I think I want to get a bigger home, I'd say are Justin, so I know you're saying you want a bigger home, give me some more insight into that. And it's when I do that I remind you of you, and nobody likes anybody else more than themselves. And people will talk about all different personalities. I think one of the cool things we're going to start with tomorrow is mirroring and matching because I say the best we can burgers are chameleons. And what I've taught people to do is when you're talking to a Heidi, you've got to stand up and you know, take up more space. Yeah, because a lion will eat a sheep alive. But the other piece is this that sheep are scared to death of lions. And we're going to talk about that in depth, we're going to be talking about mirroring and matching that way people can see some easy, simple ways to better mirror match people. That way they don't scare people is really the big thing. So there's a lot of little insights will be three hours, I promise. I've been calling it the Robby T Guarantee. It kind of sounds cool. If you sign up for it, you participate. It's basically three hours of the right content. And then our q&a, as long as we have you know enough questions, which I think we will. I've been guaranteeing I guarantee we were $200 it's $200. And I would dare say it's probably best $200 that you spent for sure this this this quarter. But I think for the year, man.
Justin Stoddart 18:20
that's exciting stuff, man, totally affordable. Or, you know, the fact that people are gonna walk out with the ability to close not just one leads, but leads for the rest of their career. Obviously highly valuable in the real estate industry. So great stuff, man, I'm going to put up here on the screen where people can go to learn more about this leads the coaching company that Robby is a big part of hatchcoaching.com, and then in the links, we're going to put an actual link to go sign up for this. And again, if you feel like your follow up game needs some help. And I would say all of our follow up games need help. This would be a great, great event to tie into I've got huge confidence in Robby, his resume is unmatched in this industry as far as helping people follow up. He's got a great heart as well. He's really about helping agents succeed at really high levels and help them serve the customer at a high level. So he's the guy you want to learn from. So, Robby, thanks again for coming on the show today. But it's always enjoying our time together. And a guy that always delivers and brings great energy at the same time. So I appreciate you.
Robby Trefethren 19:17
Thanks, brother. Appreciate the opportunity to share some of this knowledge.
Justin Stoddart 19:21
Of course. Sorry, everybody. Thanks for tuning in to this episode one request. If this has been valuable, please let us know. Put a comment down and share it with somebody else. And my last request is go think bigger your life and impact will benefit as a result. Thanks, everybody. Talk to you next time.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart, where my mission and my passion are to help you think bigger, bring people in front of you that expand your thinking. Because when that happens, a marvelous thing also follows, which is your business starts to grow. as your business grows, your life gets more options, and you are able to create a greater impact in the world. And that is my, again, mission and passion. I'm very excited today to talk about the friction factor. We live in a digital world. And it's all too often. There are lots of connections. We've got lots of friends through all kinds of social networks, but not very much, not very many deep connections. And I've got truly an expert here with me today to talk about this. Let me introduce Jim Remley first before I kind of give a full bio on you, Jim, thanks for being on the show today.
Jim Remley 0:47
Hey, my pleasure. I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much.
Justin Stoddart 0:50
You bet you are a big thinker. And let me validate that to all those who are hearing about Jim for the first time. So Jim actually lives in a small town in Oregon called Medford, Oregon and you'd never believe
so much success that he's created would come out of a small town. He's a 30-year real estate veteran, he grew a company to 17 offices here in Oregon, sold that he now runs one of the largest brokerages in Oregon. He's got 160 agents doing about a billion dollars in volume. A pretty impressive little group of producers out of Medford, Oregon, I love it. His company is the top 500 company in America according to real trends. And he now runs a platform, a coaching platform in addition to his robust brokerage and business, erealestatecoach.com. We're going to get more into that here in a minute. But thank you again, Jim, for being on the show and a super excited about today's topic.
Jim Remley 1:42
I'm excited to be here. I got a reputation down in Southern Oregon, my friend.
Justin Stoddart 1:46
So hopefully it's a good one.
So let's get into this, Jim. You know, I grew up in an era where the internet was introduced to my high school. And I thought to myself, that's so weird, weirdest thing ever. Like this is odd, right? Whereas we have a generation that's coming up that like does not know what life would be like without the internet. Like when I tell my kids Hey, guess what kids dad's older than the internet. And they're like, dinosaur dad. And but now it's so common all of us are really reliance upon it, aren't we like entirely our lives revolve around internet connection.
Jim Remley 2:21
It's absolutely true. You know, I grew up I'm older than you. So I grew up when we had Apple to computers before the internet. You know, the lab school program on this little tiny apple. I just read an interesting article. It was by David Brian at MIT review. And he said this, that what's happening right now with technology is that we are being we're seeing less and less human interaction within all technology. So technology is being built with humans being less and less and less a part of the technology itself. Because human friction is where most systems break down. And it's very interesting when you look at it. I mean, if you look at all lot of the things that we're probably all using, I'm sure you're using and I'm using my wife and I just signed up for Blue Apron. Right. So that's a delivery service for meals. And the idea here is that we don't have to go to the restaurant with wants to talk to a waitress, we don't have to build the grocery store. It's literally just sent to us arrives on our doorstep, we go out we open it up, we make the meal, right. So yeah, like Uber and Lyft. Before you know I'm old enough to remember when you get in a cab. When you get the cab you have to tell the cab driver where you're going to have a conversation. You'd have to tip the cab driver at the end. But now you get into an Uber you literally don't have to have a conversation because the system is built to have no conversation interesting already have already put it in there you open the door get in open the door get out you don't even have to talk to the systems like that. Captain Marvel a few weeks ago at the movie theater, and they had this scene where the main characters in a blockbuster video and you like Oh, that's so cute. I remember going to Blockbuster Video. But now everything's streaming. So we don't have to go talk to people at the video store. We don't even have to go to the movies, we just remember our phones and our devices. So you're saying there are this natural and kind of insistent move towards less and less and less and less human interaction. This morning in bed my wife was doing. She was shopping, put her whole grocery cart and the instacart. And it's going to be delivered at six o'clock. We don't- it's all being delivered to us.
Justin Stoddart 4:27
It's crazy, isn't it?
Jim Remley 4:28
Interesting world, right?
Justin Stoddart 4:29
It is an interesting world. You know, and a lot of these things are very convenient. I mean, every one of those things you just described Uber to Blue Apron to like grocery delivery. I'm all like, that's awesome. Like that sounds like right. And that's I think we're really technology can benefit what's the double it? What's the other side of that sword? Like if this is a double edged sword, right? Like, what's the problem with this?
Jim Remley 4:54
People say to me, Well, that's all great. I love it, I use it but does it real estate and it absolutely applies to real estate, there are pieces of the real estate, what's called puzzle or supply chain or, or, or the way we work that are being webbed eyes, chunk by chunk we all watched as Zillow and realtor.com. And as the market now buyers can do all sorts of themselves. But now showings are starting to go that direction. in large cities systems like Tour, which is a lockbox, you can put it on the house and can be remotely accessed, so that there doesn't need to be an agent president at the showing. Think of it like when you go to do an Airbnb vacation rental, and they put a keyless entry in the virus when qualified. They hit a button, and that lets them into the house. Of course, the seller has to sign off on it. But this is us right now. So imagine now you have showings, you can go search and you can show yourself the house. Every time one of these little things is taken out of our plate and made frictionless, it takes a proposition away from us. So what happens is we become a commodity. And we become one of many I just saw a study about the number of agents in the business right now we're at another peak, we had a peak in 2005. with about a million for agents, we're back up to that number. And some people would say that's more like 2.4 because not everybody's a realtor. But transactions are showing it about 5 million transactions. So you think about 2 million realtors or 2 million agents in the country. And as 5 million transactions, the number of people Zoomer has to choose from is massive. So in any market like in Portland, I'm sure there's 10,000 agents or more,
Justin Stoddart 6:32
Let's do 8500
in the probably metro area, but that doesn't include Vancouver, right, which is a whole, which is kind of Portland area, and there's a whole you know,
Jim Remley 6:40
so that means the consumer can just have all these massive choices. And when we get to monetize, it becomes an issue for us, we have to find a value back in the transaction. And that's my focus with agents, you know,
Justin Stoddart 6:53
you're speaking my language, I see the writing on the wall, right with all the technology that's happening. Even the insurance industry, like the financial advising industry, these industries have kind of hit it before us. You can see everything from robot advisors, again, to flow and the lizard on, you know, TV selling insurance. It's I actually had a friend of mine talking to me like so. So if I, before I show the story, let me kind of share, there could be a bit of a doom and gloom about this could there be like, like, we are an endangered species, as you know, like in the real estate industry, extinction is coming, consumers will have no need for us. I believe that is true if your value proposition remains what it's always been.
Jim Remley 7:38
I agree 100% 100%.
And travel, if you look at the travel industry, where travel agents were completely discriminated, that was friction for us. 15 years ago, as I said, all is going to happen to real estate. The difference between us and travel is that we provide a high-level interpretation and consultation with our clients that can't be easily revised. All the pieces of it might be wise, wise, right up until we get consultation and interpretation and provide trusted guidance through the transaction. And that's the key is trust, and people trusting what we're giving them. And I think that's the difference. It's very similar to the medical profession, I think our parallel is more medical than it is travel, medical you and I bet you've done this, your wife's done this I've done this morning, we've all gone to Web MD. And we've all self diagnose ourselves. And we were all dying of cancer right or some huge ailment we thought we had really wrong because we self diagnoses herself. But that's the difference is that we are still going to be that doctor that's going to actually come in and interpret the real issue and real pain point and really provide real solutions. And I think what we have to sell.
Justin Stoddart 8:51
So let's unpack this a little bit. Because of in fact, the story that I was going to share, and I stopped myself was about the travel industry because people like that's an industry that gets picked on often and as actually having a conversation with a friend of mine who's in insurance. And he said, you know, we were booking a lifetime trip to Europe. And he said I got this right. There are tons of resources online, there are reviews everywhere. But he said it got to the point to be overwhelming. You know this is a like a once in a lifetime trip. But he said Finally, I was feeling overwhelmed. Because who do I trust? Who do I who do I know? You know, like who do I like know is going to actually give me the right advice. And so he said finally said, this is a big enough travel or trip that I'm going to hire a professional, I'm going to hire a travel agency who can just decide for me because they've been there before. And I think to your point, the booking a trip to San Jose, we don't need travel agents anymore, right? However, something that's going to actually be like, life-determining meaning, you know, in real estate, it's because it's such a wealth determiner. People need advisors, right? And I think exactly what you're saying is that the value proposition of a real estate agent has to move beyond the, you know, functionary tasks, and into the fiduciary tasks, and like you said, position themselves as a doctor, which means that there's a whole group of people that aren't willing to put in the work, or give it a coaching, or become an advisor to where they're not going to be in a spot to be able to advise people like a doctor would advise on health, right? And those people are going to be the ones that are going to be overtaken by technology, those that are going to rise, just like a well-paid travel agent. Now, yes, they do exist for people, just like I just described, right? agents are going to need to become that in order to be well paid, or I like to say they'll become, you know, technology operators, like a barista at running a cappuccino machine. And getting paid similarly. Right,
Jim Remley 10:54
exactly. The interesting thing about that, and I think you hit the nail on the head when you talk about life change, when you life-changing decisions, you want a trusted advisor. And so that's the differentiation point, I think, with realtors is we're at a life-changing moment. And people want a consultation, they want their handheld, that life-changing moment, they want advice, as well as the difference. I think what happens is happening right now is that we had this huge kind of shift in the industry of years ago. And it's been a shift towards transactional real estate, where you see people completely focused on, you know, the numbers, the numbers, the numbers, every transaction is just a number to them. And what happens is your business falls apart, eventually, because that's the same way that the client looks at you like a number as one of many people that could serve it, we've got to move away from that we got to move from transactional real estate to relational real estate. And that's the only way we can win in this business. But the good news is I don't think it's doom and gloom, I think it's an advantage, there's going to be new agents that are willing to go relational. They just don't want to invest the time, effort, you know, and the resources to go completely relational. But I just had an interview myself, a couple of days ago with one of the guys that I just bought in the company, Steve Thomas, he did $17 million in his second year in the business in the small record. That's awesome. I mean, I'm sure it's one of the number one agents in the country to in the second year in this business. I mean, and I interviewed him, I said, Steve, what was your secret? I said you must be doing social media, you must be doing Google ads, you must be doing all the things that all these agents are being told to do. No, I'm terrible at all that, here's what I do. I call 60 people a week that is in my 15. VIP, those are people that already have heard referred to me and like me, and trust me. And my goal is to set four to five networking meetings a week. That means I'm going to coffee or lunch or dinner or drinks with someone every single day. And that's it. That's his complete, you know, plan for success. And it's all relationship, relationship, just building relationships with
people,
Justin Stoddart 12:52
which is Yeah, becoming a lost art, like we started off, right. Talking about is that most agents spend that same amount of time trying to figure out how to automate a drip campaign so that they can stay in front of people. And it's at the end of the day, when people have that wealth determining decision to make like that, sifting through their email to see who dripped on them last is not going to even stand a chance against the person who sat down with them for 30 to 45 to 60 minutes to find out what like where they're at, where they're headed, what their plan is not even necessarily about real estate just about life. But in that of, course Real Estate's going to come up. I agree with you, I see agents that that are dominating, that are just willing to go sit and eat and eat with people. Because it's so uncommon in today's world.
Jim Remley 13:38
It's a different mindset. And what I tell my agents is your number one job, your number one job is real estate professional, from drip campaigns and mailings and all that we're doing videos and blog, website, your number one goal of all of that activity is to be sitting across the table from someone, it's an interaction, we get that and we just think it's about touch. It's not about touch. It's about the human physical conversation. I just saw a study that said that for every 30 conversations, live conversations, the agent has the average one close transaction. And that's a sort of based measurement of everything we do. We're always trying to move away from a conversation and find some technology that will replace that. But nothing, nothing replaces human interaction.
Justin Stoddart 14:25
So once people get into those conversations, kind of in our last few minutes here, Jim, let's talk a little bit about that consultative conversation. What do you think are the key points that an agent needs to be bringing up in addition to what's happening in that person's life? Right? Like, once they know what's happening with that person, where they're headed? What are key things you think that a real estate advisor should be asking, should be knowing to where they can really deliver value in today's world?
Jim Remley 14:52
So that's an interesting question. And I think what it boils down to is you we always lead with what we think they need a real need to lead with is what they actually need. And the way you do that by asking great questions, but also studying what the markets telling us so NAR does a study this every year, they do the home buyer and seller study. And it's a massive study, 10s of thousands of people are interviewed and they're asked what are the top three things you want from a buyer's agent? What are the top three things you want from a seller's agent? And the answers are pretty much universally the same. Every year, there are slight changes with the seller, we know that the number one thing they want is help in finding the right buyer for their home. I'll be purchasing the property correctly and helping with the terms negotiation. So two of those price in terms of investigations. Yeah, areas. And so speaking of that, are we talking about how I negotiate price, how I negotiate terms, how I market the house, in a way that's unique? And I think it all boils down to the answer your question, differentiation, and how we differentiate ourselves, as opposed to every other agent that's coming behind us. I'm Justin studying that was done recently, kind of to this point as well, was this idea of referrals, we always are training to referrals course. But you know, we've all heard nodes calls, pop Eyes, Nose calls, Popeyes, it's kind of been answered for years, right? Study out that shows when we should be engaging people for referrals, what's their highest point of sending us a referral, and people are four times more likely, more times more likely to send us the referral, in the experience itself. So within the let's just like us, if we're about to go to a restaurant, we're much more likely to be texting people, Instagram at Facebook, and yet talking to our friends about it talking to our families, or during the meal. If we're having a great experience, we're much more likely to be talking about it, you go out 30 days, 60 days, 90 days from that experience, highly unlikely going to be talking about it again. So that's the one I'm training agents. I'm talking about this magic kind of circle around every experience you're having with a buyer and seller are only leveraging in that having conversations about referrals within that moment.
Justin Stoddart 16:58
Yeah, it's brilliant. I love it. I would love to spend more time with you unfortunate. I've got a hard stop. But I do want to ask the last signature question, Jim. And I would I'm going to invite you to come back on the show again, because this has been a really great conversation. Before I go to that final question. Let me just put up here really quickly, a link to your really real estate coaching school I'll call it right the real estate coach calm. Now, Jim, tell us really quickly, what would agents get from there that they won't be able to get in other places.
Jim Remley 17:33
So one of the things that we provide, we provide mastery courses. So the mastery courses are me coaching people one on one, through live video, and through video. So in addition to that, they get what we call a paired download. So as I'm talking about for sale by owners, open houses, your business, the business prospecting, they can download the scripts, the texts, the emails, all the tools and systems we're talking about. So it's really one on one coaching, but at a super affordable level. In fact, I'm going to give your students your audience another discount off the price that's on there. So anything you can't bind us a webinar 25 coupon code, you get 25% off.
Justin Stoddart 18:14
Perfect. So five put into the coupon code.
Jim Remley 18:17
And you get that. So all of our classes are designed to be a rapid lot, a lot of classes take hours and hours and hours are focused nuts and bolts, right to get you out in the field work. I love it.
Justin Stoddart 18:28
I love it.
Yeah, instead of being a professional student, you want professional agents out in the field working. All right. So I appreciate that. Thank you again, for the kind offer to this audience. I would encourage anybody and everybody to go take a look at what Jim has created again with his bio that I read to you guys. There's no reason why you shouldn't be learning from this guy. So I appreciate that very much, Jim. So the signature question, you're a big thinker, no doubt. behind me here. I've got this logo to remind everybody what this show is about to think bigger. Tell me what something that you do on a regular basis to be sure that you continue to expand your own possibilities, right to be sure that you continue to be a big thinker, and don't get stuck in kind of small thinking described to us. Coaches teach us what that looks like for you.
Jim Remley 19:13
Then there are two things that I do consistently that I think helped me on that front one is I'm listening to books as I'm driving, the average person in the car spends 597 hours a year in their car. It's, you know, a university on wheels. So I'm listening to a bike every day, I'm probably going through two to three business books a week and from ideas all the time. If you want to be somebody that's sharpening your ax Stephen Covey's seven habits of highly successful people says, you gotta sharpen the ax. And that's not only learning but also rest and recharge. So you got to plan vacations, you gotta rest and recharge to stay on top of your game. You can't be working 24/7, you got to take some time yourself.
Justin Stoddart 19:53
I love it. Great stuff, Jim, really appreciate that. Want to encourage the audience to go think bigger as a result of what Jim shared with us today? You're truly learning from a master and feel honored to have you on the show, Jim. So if this has been valuable to those that are listening, whether you're watching this life or whether you're watching it in the future, do Jim and I a favor and comment that maybe even tag somebody or share it. There's just bed some great nuggets of wisdom that Jim is brought to us. So again, as an appreciation for his time, please. Let's get this out to more people. So Jim, thank you again for your time. And I would encourage again, the audience to go think bigger. All right, my friend. Talk to you soon.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show I'm Justin Stoddart. Oh my goodness, I am fired up thrilled, excited. There were a lot of adjectives right there about how I'm feeling about this episode, and really what this content has done for me in my life. And I'm thrilled to have today's guest. Before I introduce him, let me just reiterate, the purpose of this show is that when we start to think bigger, we begin to act differently. And as we act differently, our businesses grow. And as our businesses grow, the options in our life and the impact that we can have in the world also grow. And that's my passion is to help inspire people that want to impact the world, in greater ways. So I'm thrilled and want to thank today's guest, Geoff woods, Vice President of the one thing for being with us today, Geoff, thank you for being here.
Geoff Woods 0:47
It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Justin Stoddart 0:49
Yes. For those that don't know, Geoff, and your story, like let me back up by just saying the book "The One Thing" if you haven't read it, your heads probably been in the sand. It's been a best seller for a long, long time, on all the major path platforms, right, New York Times, USA Today, Amazon, on and on and on. It has has been a remarkable catalyst for a lot of people to change the way they look at things. Geoff, how did you find out about the one thing
Geoff Woods 1:15
I just and I was in medical device sales at the time, and I remember it was our national sales meeting, I walked into this big ballroom, we probably had 1500 people at the meeting. So lots of chairs, and on every single chair was a copy of the one thing, and I remember picking up the book and looking at and go, Oh, this is cool. And then out on stage was Jay Papasan, and who co-authored the one thing with Gary Keller, and for the next hour, he proceeded to just blow my mind. And I remember Justin, I was at this point in my life where I was ready to make a change. I, in medical device sales, had enjoyed a great living and great quality of life, but I was lacking fulfillment. And prior to this national sales meeting, two things happen that really forced me to make a change. The first was a colleague of mine had a stroke when he was 35. And I remember my wife and I had just bought a house in Orange County, we just had our first child and she made the decision to become a stay at home mom, and my colleague has a stroke. And I remember thinking, Justin, wow, if that happened to me, what happens to my family, and that really rocked me. And then A few weeks later, my company had to make a change to our commission structure to remain competitive in the marketplace. And as a result, I lost 40% of my income. And when you take those two things back to back, all of a sudden, I had a lot of pain in my life that made me realize I've actually got to take control of my future. And I heard this Jim Rome quote that you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And I remember looking at my five and feeling a lot of gratitude because they were great friends, but they weren't actually already where I wanted to be. And so I was hunting mentors, and here's Jay on stage blowing my mind and I'm going, Oh, I got to get into a relationship with this guy. But then all the limiting beliefs started to set in like, what could I say to him that would make him interested me Look, the give him that would make it worth his time. And when he came offstage, I just realized, now's the time, I gotta go, I got it. I got to talk to him. I basically sprinted down the side of the hall, I wanted to be the first guy to talk to him. And I basically tackled him and asked to interview him for a podcast I was hosting at the time called the mentee. And I just kept following up with him asking what he and Gary were focusing on. And every single time I asked, he had an answer, whether it was looking for more exposure for the book. He said that a bunch of times, and the third time, I followed up and asked, after having delivered each time he had a request, he said that he and Gary were looking for a CEO for a publishing company. And I remember thinking, well, I knew three people that were publishing CEOs that might be a great fit. And I offered to make an introduction, said, that'd be great. And I said, Well, before we before I do that, why don't we talk so you can tell me who you're looking for. So I make the right intro. And when we got on the phone, Justin, he really surprised me. Because the person he described was not anybody in my network. He described me through my name in the hat. And you fast forward, November 1, 2015, I moved my family from Southern California to Austin, Texas. And for the past three and a half years, I've been turning the book into a company that changes the way people do time.
Justin Stoddart 4:13
Really interesting. I don't think I've ever heard that story. I've heard bits and pieces of it, but not the whole story. And a couple of things that really stand out to me, Jeff, that I would hope that the audience would maybe get from this, at least that I'm getting from it right, is that, in fact, one of my mentors teaches that you don't have to be like, super courageous all the time. But there are points in your life where you have to be like 10 seconds of absolute courage. And for you, it sounds like it was that like, I need to go talk to this man like that, what he's speaking and impact he's having on the world. That's kind of what I like. That's, that's somebody who I need to know. And it was it probably took a lot of guts didn't it to like, say, I'm going to go introduce myself, right?
Geoff Woods 4:54
Absolutely, absolutely. I remember when I was going down the road to surrounding myself with people who are light years ahead of me, and all the limiting beliefs that pop up when you want to approach these people. But the truth is you gotta approach. And I remember I've asked several of my mentors. Why the heck are you even talking to me? And one guy who was on the founding team of priceline.com, I remember him saying to me because at one point in time I was in your shoes. And there was somebody who reached back, grabbed my hand and help pull me forward. And they didn't ask for money. They didn't ask me to wash their car. All they asked is one day I pay it forward. And this guy was now in a position where he was wealthier than he could ever imagine, had everything that he could possibly want. His life was now about impact. And he wanted to help the next generation of entrepreneurs. So it was in that moment that I realized that when it comes to the mentor-mentee relationship, the mentee actually has more power than the mentor. Because while the mentee thinks, Oh, I'm getting so much value from this person who's pouring into me, you're actually giving more value to them, because you're giving them a sense of purpose. Wow.
Justin Stoddart 6:05
Wow, super interesting. I am. I found that when you really want something and kind of going back to another point that you made earlier, is like you recognize at one point that I'm not exactly where I want to be. And this, this path that I'm on might not get me there, right. Like I have a brother in law, actually, who's in medical device sales. So I know very firsthand, kind of vicariously through him watching what happens that world right? As soon as you make a certain amount of money, which is like, yes, this is where I want to be. They're like, No, you can't make that much.
Geoff Woods 6:33
Yeah, they change your territory, they switch the comp plan up it just,
you know, always Yeah.
Justin Stoddart 6:40
And I think you know, the difference between, like, with, what you've done is you said, Look, this is not the path, I want to be on long term, I'm going to have to meet different people, I have to get to know other people for you at the time. That was your one thing, wasn't it? It was these five people, this path that I'm on is, is not the right one to get me ultimately, ultimately, to where I want to be. And I have to change like my five people have to change.
Geoff Woods 7:02
You nailed it. Justin, it was so clear to me that if I wanted to change my circumstances, I had to change my network. And my one thing was surrounding myself with people who were where I wanted to be.
Justin Stoddart 7:15
And it is interesting how oftentimes in our minds, we play it off that people because they've had great success, that they're completely unreachable. I found that not to be true, even though this show is that people successful like you, right, ultimately, people, they want to give back and contribute. As you said, they want to have a purpose because somebody at one point helps them get to that next level. Right? That's right. That's right. And, and I think you can sense in people when you're with somebody who's, who has a fire burning within them, that they want to contribute in bigger ways that they want to impact the world in bigger ways. Like you, you kind of are compelled to want to help that person. It's like, I can see I can second see you want it and the end that if I give you hope you're going to do something with it. That's right. And so allow me to open a door for you. Right? That's right. So let's talk about one topic that I typically bring up at the beginning, but I'm going to go back there. You've got a beautiful little family there demonstrated on Facebook. The one thing about being a dad, let me ask it this way. The one thing that you love most about being a family, man. And what's one thing that you found to really show up big in that space?
Geoff Woods 8:28
Sure. I think the thing I love most about being a parent is I mentioned this in the mentor-mentee relationship, every single one of us is at some point in time in our life, we're going to want to leave a legacy, we're going to be looking for a sense of purpose, and to have kids that you've played a part in creating, and to realize how much they are a reflection of you to see what they pick up to realize that you can shape and mold this person, like a piece of cake. Les is so cool. And I'll give you an example. My daughter, Daphne, you know, when she was four or five, I had her go on her suffer 66 Day Challenge, which for those of you who don't know what that is, it takes on average 66 days to form a habit. And then the one thing we have this model called a 66-day challenge where you isolate or identify the one thing you want to turn it into a habit. And you do it every day for on average 66 days. And for me to help her understand like to sit her down and to say, Daphne, people do not decide their futures. They decide their habits, and their habits decide their futures. For a five-year-old to grasp that concept. Holy crap. Yeah. And then to help her identify her one thing and to actually have her go through a process where she creates a habit around that, my gosh, what does that look like, over the course of a year, five years, 10 years, 20 years, I can't even comprehend it.
Justin Stoddart 9:58
I think I'm a firm believer that, regardless of what we do in the workplace, if we're parents, the greatest work they'll have the greatest impact will actually be the work that we do within the walls of our own home. Because we can, as you mentioned, we can have such an impact there. And I think, unfortunately, and I fall, you know, Victor, not victim to that I fall, you know, to this bad habit as well, is that sometimes we let it right media, even if it's good media, be a driving force that our kids live, as opposed to having the conversations that you just had, which is teaching them the principles that we're learning, right? If if they're people wired like you and like me, like we're surrounding ourselves with personal development with mentors, and what a great way at a very early age, just like we know that it's easy to teach a child a foreign language at a young age, it's easier to teach them these great practices at a young age. And rather than letting the easy kill or whatever, no offense, cuz I know you've got a background there.
That there's such a greater impact that we can have on our children's lives by just been intentional on teaching them principles from the one thing right another great source.
Geoff Woods 11:03
Well, here's another example, accountability know, when we when I look at what my standards are in business with the people who work with me, showing up as an accountable person is huge. If you show up and point the finger before you look in the mirror, we're not going to win together. And for me, my daughter, at age five, I taught her that accountability means that when something doesn't go your way, you ask, what can I do better. And I remember so vividly the first time when something happened and she was crying. And she came up to me because she did something that was let's just say we wish she had chosen different actions. And she's crying and instead of screaming at us, she goes Daddy,
what can I do better? And I just like I started I got out of my knees and I hugged her. It's like, Oh my gosh, if you can get this at this age, what happens over the course of a lifetime?
Justin Stoddart 11:53
Yeah, what a different mentality then than many rights, which is it's everyone else's problem. Right? Yep. Everyone else's
Geoff Woods 12:00
ask? Never you asked her. If you ask her until your number one priority is done. Daphne, what is everything else and she goes, a distraction, dad.
Justin Stoddart 12:10
I'd love to be a fly on the wall. And you've given me the opportunity to be a fly on the wall in the woods home. How awesome. Jumping back to kind of the business side of it. Obviously, for those that haven't read the one thing, go find the book, please. In fact, I'm going to give you a kind of a jumpstart on that, that if you go to the one thing calm forward slash training, if you have read the book, and you feel like which I know for, you know a lot of people, it's like, you know, I love the content of the book. But then I look at my emails, but then I look at my voicemails and it's like, it's hard to put this into practice, right? What Jeff, together with his partner, Gary Keller, and Jay Pappas and have done have really taken the principles of this book, and turned it into an ongoing curriculum like an ongoing, one must workshop, right? You're, you're living it, you're not perfect. You're not saying I've got it. I've even watched, you know, you know, numerous webinars where you're saying, look, and I'm, I'm, I didn't do my one thing here, and I'm not on track for this. And here's how I'm going to fix that. Right? I think what it's like it's, it's either I'm all in and I'm totally successful, and I got it, or, or I can't do it at all.
Geoff Woods 13:20
No, no. And that's one of the three commitments you make when you want to live a life of extraordinary results is following this path of mastery. And so many people, when we think of mastery, we view it as a destination we arrive at but in the book, they say the moment you start to view, mastery is a path you go down, rather than a destination you arrive at it starts to feel achievable and attainable. It's actually not about arriving, it's about who you become along the way. And every single one of us we manufacture this idea of what perfection or success looks like. And it's irrelevant. It's about how are you behaving today? Who's the person you can become today? And how do you become a better version tomorrow, and the next day and the next day and just get better over time?
Justin Stoddart 14:04
It really takes the mystery out of growth doesn't it is like sometimes we overcomplicate it. And we think that Oh, those people are successful because their DNA, they're wired differently. They're not like me, they don't have the same weaknesses I and we almost put like the path of mastery on a pedestal, not just the people but the path to being like, like we never even actually set foot on it. Because it's you know, it's too far out of reach. So I love what you said there that it's actually like those that are the most successful, right people you get to hang around, right? Are people who recognize the fact that look, I'm, I screw up every day, but I just stay on this path. And I know that being on the path is what's going to get me there.
Geoff Woods 14:45
That's right.
Justin Stoddart 14:47
I would love to have I've got some people watching live. If you have questions for Jeff, that you'd like to bring up here, please would so love to engage the audience in this. So So Jeff, talk to us a little bit about what you see. As if you're a real estate agent. Again, this is this audience is mostly real estate professionals. Sure. What do you see as the one thing that real estate agents need to be doing? In order to really give them the most amount of options and and and the most amount of power over their own schedule and life?
Geoff Woods 15:22
Yeah, great question. And Dennis, thank you very much. He just we've got some basics courses on that training page that he's choosing to take advantage of. So thanks, man, I appreciate it. Here's what's interesting about real estate, especially if you're in production, you're one thing is pretty well defined.
What is it?
Justin Stoddart 15:38
generate business, right?
Geoff Woods 15:40
Lead Generation, right?
If we walked downstairs and went into Gary Keller's office together, I would walk you over to a coffee table he has in front of his couch. And on it would be a sheet of paper that has been there for years. And it's just a blank sheet of paper with written in Sharpie. On until my number one priority is done. Everything else is a distraction.
The real estate business is actually very simple. Lead generate.
Everything else is everything else. And I think most what we see the agents who are most successful, make a habit out of lead generation, the challenges people think big, and they act big. What I mean by that is they think big about being the type of person who leads generates every day and has all these leads and builds this big business. And they tell themselves the story that they have to lead gen three, four hours a day and crush every distraction that pops up and threatens their focus. And when you set that as the bar of success, if you only lead generated for two hours, how do you feel like a failure? And if the next day you do two and a half hours, but the goal was three or four? How do you feel? Yeah, not good. Not good. And what we now know from your working with 10s of thousands of people is that people will only allow themselves to feel like a failure for so long before they rewrite the rules of the game or they quit. In the one thing, Gary and Jay talk about it's not about thinking big and acting big. It's about thinking big and going small, based on a vision of being the type of person who leads Jen's three, four hours a day as a habit and crushes every distraction. How do we whittle it all the way back down to the lead Domino, that two inches little Domino that with the flick of a finger effortlessly, it would fall? Yet it's so powerful. And because your dominoes are lined up, it truly makes everything else easier or unnecessary. So this is when we could put on our coaching hats and ask, well, what's the one thing I can do? Such that by doing it would make becoming that type of a person easier or unnecessary? Well, I have to lead gen more. Well, what's the one thing you can do to lead gen more? I'd have to make calls for at least an hour a day. Okay, well, what's the one thing you can do to make making an hour of phone calls a day easier or unnecessary? I'd have to make one phone call before I check my email. Boom, there it is. That's a lead Domino. Now what most people do is when they isolate their one thing, what you know, it's the lead Domino, when it's that easy, like that flick of a finger. It's that small. We discount it because it feels too small. It almost feels like it's cheating. Yet this is where we have to trust the domino effect. We have to trust that if we just knock that lead Domino down that over time, extraordinary results become possible. Now you watched me go from a really big idea and whittle it down to a lead Domino. Now I'm going to reverse engineer it. I'm going to flip it. Justin, if you become the type of person who every day made one phone call before you checked your email. Do you think you'd be more or less likely to make a second?
Justin Stoddart 19:03
Yeah. The first one is the hardest, isn't it? I mean that the first one. Because the first one comes with not just the conversation that comes with all the nonsense that we tell ourselves about what phone calls are about right
now. Like that first one is like weighs 5000 pounds, the next one weighs like five pounds.
Geoff Woods 19:22
So if you lifted that 5000 pounds first call, and you made that call, what do you what would you be more or less likely to do when you hung up?
Justin Stoddart 19:29
That was fun. Like that wasn't so bad, right? What would you do next? I'd make another one.
Geoff Woods 19:33
Do you make another one? And then what would you be more or less likely to do?
Justin Stoddart 19:37
Another one?
Geoff Woods 19:38
Right. So while the mark of success is one phone call, one phone call a day is probably not going to lead you building an extraordinary business. What it's about is that initial trigger, that if you make a habit out of making a call before you check your email, accomplishing your priority before you check everyone else's, which is exactly what your inbox is, your moral likely to make more calls, all of a sudden, your lead generating 15 minutes before you check your email, and then suddenly early, generating a half hour, suddenly, it's an hour, two hours, three hours over time you become the type of person who a meaningful portion of their day is spent generating leads for the business and treating everything else as a distraction.
Justin Stoddart 20:26
Think Big,
Geoff Woods 20:27
act small.
Justin Stoddart 20:31
It's interesting. You know it for real estate agents. I agree with you about every problem. If you if you whittled it down to there working with bad clients, or there are money challenges, or they don't have the right, even leverage your team. Oftentimes that's because they don't have the resources to do it. It all comes down to do I have enough business? Am I doing enough business to get myself options?
Geoff Woods 20:58
Yep, yep, that's right. I forget who said it, but they said revenue cures all problems. Yeah, right. If you don't have leverage, then you need to lead generate to earn the right to bring in leverage.
Justin Stoddart 21:11
And I think too often agents look at their commission checks as, as a paycheck, as I'm treating it like a business. So they think, you know, I've made $300,000 this year, as we can live pretty well. What they haven't taken into account is actually following something, you know, a proven model, like the millionaire real estate agent that says, okay, that's revenue, income from that is going to come out of that, right. And so this ability to be able to say, I actually need to, if this is what I want to live on, then I need to actually be generating revenue up here, which gives me the space to be able to market gives me the space to be able to higher leverage gives me the, you know, the ability to actually run a business, not just treat a business like a job, which doesn't work.
Geoff Woods 21:57
So I was in a mastermind with Gary Keller, and he was talking to the top agents in the world. And I remember he said that one of the biggest mistakes that agents have is they allow their lifestyle to rise is their income rises. And ultimately, they're unwilling to take a step back in lifestyle, to build the business that they want to build. And here's a perfect example of this. So my other partner, Jay Pappas, and his wife, Wendy, went out to lunch with another agent here locally in Austin. And he picked Wendy up and they were driving to the restaurant, and he was complaining about how he really needed to hire a great operations person for his business. And what Wendy said, Well, how much do you think that person would cost? And he said, How much? And he's like, I just can't, I don't have it in the budget. I can't afford it. And when he said, Sure you do. And he goes, What are you talking about? Like this is, this is what my profit is, and blah, blah, blah, she goes, No, you don't get it. You're actually driving your assistant right now. He was driving a brand new luxury vehicle. He just prioritizes having a nicer car than bringing leverage into his business. Yet, if I look, if we look at probably the wealthiest person that we know Gary Keller, home, he drove a Ford Taurus for a very long time, long after he was Gary Keller. And it got to the point that the board one day went to him and said, Gary, you can't show up to the airport and pick recruits up in this beat up tourists, you have to go buy a nicer car. And he said I refuse to.
And the company bought him a car.
Justin Stoddart 23:33
I was going to say it. Like we just have a company car. No carrier. We took your car to the car wash and it's never coming back.
Geoff Woods 23:41
Yeah. So I mean, if I look at, if I look at Jay and Wendy and like, I'm not going to dive into the details of their wealth or anything like that, but Jays driving a car that he's had for over 10 years. I mean, it's just when you start to surround yourself with people who truly are wealthy, you don't usually know it by the by what they're the way that they look.
Justin Stoddart 24:01
It's the classic you know, the Millionaire Next Door, classic books. Do you want wealth? Or do you want to have the appearance of wealth? Because
Geoff Woods 24:08
both right? Yep. When I moved to Austin, Jay told me, he goes, we're going to coach you to be a millionaire. I said, awesome. He said, so now I want you to, I needed to get a car. He said I want you to go and buy a 1500 dollar eater and call it your millionaire mobile.
pay cash and just save it up. I didn't go quite that bad. But you know,
Justin Stoddart 24:28
just be ready. I might need you to come to pick me off. I think it's right around. Such great stuff. Jeff, I again, I want to thank you for your time. You know, I always and this is a singature question. If I let me just before I get to that I've got one more comment here from Dennis. He said the book. Again, speaking of the one thing changed my life. I've actually lost my job non-real estate, but I'm using them to generate leads for job search. They won yesterday five awesome leads.
Geoff Woods 24:51
So, Dennis, I'm curious if you had to describe the two to three things you do exceptionally well, what would they be? put that in the comments. And there's a lesson in this for the people who are listening. Oftentimes when we as business owners are looking to bring somebody on and we create a job description, and we think of all the things this person has to do for their job. And we would flip that on its head, we asked the question, what are the two to three things somebody has to do exceptionally well. Otherwise, they're fired. So when Gary and Jay wrote the job description for my job, they said the two to three things, I had to be able to cast a vision because if Gary and Jay had to do the thinking for me, I'm fired, I had to be able to drive revenue, meaning I had to be able to show them I could create $100,000 out of thin air in 90 days or less, or I was fired. And I had to prove that I could recruit and retain talent. Otherwise, I was fired. Those were the three things they were hunting for. And then I had to demonstrate it in the first 30 60 90 days. So, Dennis, the reason I'm asking is when if you can get really clear on where your strengths are, think less about the position and think more about what are the things you do exceptionally well. So I'm saying time blocked and ignoring distractions, lead generate super interesting.
I don't know Dennis, we are hiring.
Justin Stoddart 26:13
Dennis, actually, a good friend of mine, really brilliant guy has worked for some of the largest software companies in the world. And it was kind of their key strategy sales guy. So anyway, his company actually just outsource sold their North America closer North American operations. So yeah, great guy.
Geoff Woods 26:34
She got his contact info, it will be happy to make it make an email address. Yeah,
Justin Stoddart 26:39
we'll do. So back to the signature question, Jeff,
Geoff Woods 26:43
you're on? I pause real quick. Can I cross this goes back to the mentor-mentee conversation? So often we're in a position in our life where we know that we want something, and we're not sure how to get it. And the lead Domino is just talking about it. Especially when people say like, how do I find a mentor? Well, can you describe in one sentence, the type of person you're looking to meet? Oh, I'm looking to meet somebody who has scaled a technology company. And instead of asking people, when people ask you what's new, what's going on? What's up and saying nothing. You say, you know, I've gotten a lot of clarity that I'm, I'm looking for my next opportunity right now. And I happen to love to lead generating and scaling businesses and zip your mouth and you would be shocked. Like Dennis is yesterday was day one of him looking for his new job, the fact that he just put it in the chat box, he didn't know that we're hiring. Yeah.
Interesting. Put it out there, baby. Put it out there.
Justin Stoddart 27:37
You know, one of the things that I've appreciated by being a part of the living your one thing community is that it's not just about that one question, right? Like before, that there's some work ahead of time to really be able to identify, like in gain clarity. And you know, what I hear you saying Jeff is like, like the one thing that it is foundational for a lot this, just like for you, when your co-worker had a stroke, and you lost 40% your income, there was clarity of like this is this no longer works for me. And it's clear that I need to be somewhere else. And it's interesting to the same question you posed the dentist like, or that you pointed out, right, the dentist, he's clear on what he's looking for. Because you can't speak it until it's clear in your head. And it's almost going through that exercise. Talk to me quickly about what the living the one thing community does to help people.
Geoff Woods 28:33
So ultimately, the book went out and is now one of the highest rated business books of all time. And the reason that I have a job and started this company is we wanted to turn the book into a movement that would help people live the surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results. And there were some things that when we engage with the people who were fans of the book and tried to figure out what their pain points were, they said they were lacking three things. And these are the three things that everybody is lacking. If they're not achieving extraordinary and versus clarity. Most people are lacking clarity on what their goals are, or the exact plan or how to behave appropriately in the moment. They're then lacking control. We feel like we lack control of our time. And finally, we are lacking a community. We're lacking a community that actually has a relationship with their goals, that has a culture of accountability that can support us when we're talking the language of the one thing. And so we asked what's the one thing we can do such that by doing it would make giving people clarity, control, and community easier or unnecessary? And the answer was what we call living your one thing. It's a community, we've got about thousand people that are high achievers that are committed to collaborating and having a true relationship with their goals, all based on the models of the one thing and so that link that you put up there the one thing comm slash training. At the top, you'll see two buttons like a read that says sign in. And there's a great one that says learn more, just click the learn more, or you go to the one thing comm slash learn more?
Justin Stoddart 30:03
Well, what you guys have done with the community is it's so reachable, right? And it's not like it's $1,000 a month, or 2000 or $5,000 a month product, right or one-time product, but it's really something that really is attainable for anybody and everybody that serious about this. And I love that about what you've done. It's really about creating a movement, you know, at scale.
Geoff Woods 30:28
Yep, yep. And you nailed it.
Justin Stoddart 30:32
Back to the signature question, we are having so much fun together, we're not quite getting the end, which is okay, this is there such a value. So I again, want to thank you for your time this is such a treat for all of us. So share with me, Jeff, you're obviously a big thinker. What is it that you do on a regular basis to continue to be that way to expand your own possibilities to where Geoff Woods his trajectory doesn't start to flat now but continues to your vision continues to expand? Because that's one thing that they hired you for. Right? Gary Keller? billionaire, right? I would say one of the foremost leader in the real estate industry right now. Right? report directly to him, your partner with him in this. You've got some really bright people around you, they hired you because you needed to create a vision. So you're you're obviously a big thinker. What do you do to continue to be that way?
Geoff Woods 31:25
So Episode 143, and 144 of The One Thing podcast is titled the habit that cost 100 million dollars to learn, and why it was worth it. Part One and two.
such a good book. I love it
And, and that I interviewed a guy named Keith Cunningham, who literally lost 100 million dollars. And out of that loss, he formed one habit. And that one habit, he said, gave him an incredible ROI. Because he made back way more than that. That habit is the habit of thinking time. I went on a 66-day challenge where every day I would sit down with a pen, a paper, and a great question. We call them productive questions. A question that is so big that the immediate answer it stopped you dead in your tracks? And you go, oh, great question. Like, here's an example. Justin, what's the one thing you're not currently doing that if you started doing it immediately, you'd a five-x business in the next 12 months?
Justin Stoddart 32:37
This is a question made this isn't just hypothetical? It's speaking in front of large audiences.
Geoff Woods 32:44
Okay. It's like see, like, that's a question. That's really, it's not, it's not?
What's on your plate today? What do you have to do today? What else do you have? Right? Right. If my business could talk, what would it say about me? What assumptions Am I currently making? That may not be true? Right. So I, I went on this 66-day challenge of doing this every day. And I don't do it every day anymore. But I have a regular rhythm of multiple times a week, I have a time block for thinking to sit down, my computer shut down, email is shut down the phone is on Do Not Disturb. I tell my team that for the next hour or however long that is that I'm going to be in a time block which that they inherently understand what that means is your team better get that? Yeah, there's a common language there, they understand the time block means don't mess with me. And I asked a great question, and I search for the answer. So often, we are so busy running and taking action in our business. But Keith would say there's nothing worse than running enthusiastically in the wrong direction. And if you are not the type of person who regularly has time blocked to reflect and plan, how do you know if you're running in the right direction? It's why when we design into the one thing, planner, after every single month after every quarter, we have reflecting plans. These are great coaching questions that force you to reflect back gain perspective. And based on this put a plan in place.
Justin Stoddart 34:29
I am you know, one of my mentors is Chris Suarez, who you probably saw took a course from Chris recently called the become the CEO and he talked about in the last session of his course, was about how the top CEOs have white space. Yeah, it's not how much can they pack in but like even Bill Gates would, would take weeks off at a time not to necessarily a vacation. I'm sure you probably did that as well. But where was just time where he would go and read and think that's pretty, right? Yeah.
Geoff Woods 35:01
Yeah, I mean, I just pulled up my calendar for my digital calendar for the week. I mean, even today, I've probably that's too. I've got three hours out of an eight hour a day, that is just mine. That's mine. That's when I get to show up. And if the one thing in that moment is thinking time, or if it's lead gen or if it's doesn't matter.
Justin Stoddart 35:25
Similar to how some people at how all of us, when there's silence, we get uncomfortable, especially those of us in sales type roles, right? When there's silence, we tend to want to fill it really quickly. And I feel like a similar philosophy happens or practice happens when it comes to white space on our calendar is we habitually go to email and we're checking that thing as if it's like, you know, I hit a crack or sound like it's, it's crazy how we have to fill that time we're really uncomfortable not doing anything. And we fill it with oftentimes. And I've liked when I've followed my time blocks, I can check my email and get through my emails in probably 30 minutes total of two sessions of maybe 15 to 30 minutes each. And I'm done. Or it can take me all day. And if I don't have my time block properly followed those same amounts of email, curiously enough, take the same amount of time. It's I don't understand how it happens. But it happens. Oh, yeah. And so not having that white space and protecting it and being okay with it being white space and being okay with it is thinking the time is such a powerful practice, Geoff.
Geoff Woods 36:36
So I tell a cool story about why we manage time, the way we manage time.
Justin Stoddart 36:40
I'd love to hear.
Geoff Woods 36:40
So when we were doing the getting ready to create the one thing planner, I had one of our researchers, her name's Madeline, I gave her a very small task. I said, Madeline, go research the entire history of time.
And she looked at me and said, Are you for real? And I said I said, Yeah,
I said, Go put a binder together. And she went and she did the research. And she came back and she presented me with something that was a great story. She goes when we look back to like an ancient ancient man. There was day and there was night. That was our concept of time, there was a day, there was night. That was it. And as we progressed as a species, we began to notice that in certain times a year, there were animals that showed up that could be hunted, and there were crops that we could grow. And we developed this idea of seasons. And that's all we had, we had a day, we had night, and we had seasons that we knew so little about who we were and what this world was. And we felt this desire to know more. So we went smaller. And we began to notice that every 30 days or so the moon would wax and wane. And we came up with this idea of months. So we had the day we had night, we had seasons, we had months. And yet we knew so little about ourselves in the world. So we felt the need to go smaller. And then you start going to ancient Babylonians, Greeks, Egyptians Romans, they started to use something called a sex a decimal system, which means units of 60. It's why there's 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. If you just keep seeing this progression of knowing so little about us in the world. And this needs to go smaller to the point where you fast forward to today. When we look at our time, we're looking like our digital calendar, we're looking at our time in 1531 hour increments. So here's the question. If we used the models and systems of ancient Babylonians, great Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, to map to manage our time today, what does how they live back then have to do with how we live our lives today? The answer is nothing. Yet we use their systems. And it's why we feel more out of control than ever before because it's a different world. And part of this was pressing reset and saying, how do we help people have a bigger view of time, Gary says if you want to achieve big things, you need a bigger view of time. And a digital calendar doesn't give it to you. I guarantee not a single person here. If we had you open up your digital calendar, switch to the monthly view and say, tell us the most important thing on your calendar for the month, not a single one of you could tell us Yeah. It's why the CEO of our tech company in Keller Williams, uses a paper planner.
That's why we created the one thing planner.
So the action that I would suggest is if you are not using a paper planner like I use my one thing planner, and I use the digital calendar. But your digital calendar was designed to capture meetings with other people. It was designed to capture everything. It's why people open up their calendars, they see all the stuff that's scheduled and they fill everything else in the time that remains. It's why we have no white space, versus starting with the blank slate like a paper planner, putting the handful of major priorities that matter most your time off your mate, you're one thing you're planning time. And everything else is a distraction. Place the big boulders in the stream, so that everything else that when the water hits it, what does it do? It goes around it, it goes around it, then you open up your digital calendar. And you clearly see hey, my one thing planner says I'm supposed to be a lead generating today. But I see that I've got all these appointments that are all these things that are scheduled. And all of a sudden you're getting to look at them for what they are distractions, and you act accordingly.
Justin Stoddart 40:39
Water needs to move around it.
Geoff Woods 40:41
Bingo.
Justin Stoddart 40:43
Good stuff, man. Again, want to encourage anybody who doesn't follow Geoff, or hasn't gone to, you know, the one thing community living your one thing, please do. So do yourself a favor, again for the value that he's perfect. This kind of value that he's been so generous to pour into this audience is readily available. And there's so much there. But it's in a format that allows you to be on the path of mastery. And I'll be kind of a personal witness to, you know, the value that's there. So, Geoff, thank you again, so much. This has been, again, such a treat for me and for my audience want to thank you for being a big thinker and someone who's encouraging and modeling how to act small, so we can actually apply the big visions that all of us want to live out. So
Geoff Woods 41:33
Awesome. Justin, thank you very much for the opportunity.
Justin Stoddart 41:36
My pleasure. Thanks, everybody. This has been valuable do me a favor and share this out. Tag somebody who needs to hear this message. Somebody who you feel like their greatness is held up because they're taking on too much and don't have a proper model in place to help them get to that next level. So thanks again, Jeff. And thanks, everybody. We'll catch you
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the think bigger real estate show. thrilled to have Karin Carr back with us today. She is the foremost national expert when it comes to YouTube for Real estate agents. And I am thrilled to have her here. She brings such value. I follow her. And she's awesome. So I want to start off by just saying, Karin, thank you for coming back. We didn't scare you away the first time.
Karin Carr 0:24
No, you're awesome. Thank you so much for having me. This you, I love to geek out on this stuff. And anyone who will listen to me wax poetic about YouTube, I'm happy to take that opportunity.
Justin Stoddart 0:35
I love it. Let's do, I'm really quick, let me revisit kind of the mission of all of this, why we're doing this, okay, to help agents think bigger. It's amazing what happens when you start to see other people that either is having great success or are helping other people have great success, that our own possibilities start to expand, we start to believe that this can work for me. And the whole purpose of the show is to absolutely do that as expand people's possibilities. Knowing that as they do, their business grows, and then their options in life and their impact grows, which is what I'm all about. So you fit the mold perfectly. You're a big thinker, thrilled to have you back on today. Tell us a little bit, Karin, really quickly. Just your what part of the country you're in. And I'm how you stumbled across this YouTube thing for those that didn't get the privilege of watching you the first time you came on the show?
Unknown Speaker 1:25
Absolutely. So I am in Savannah, Georgia. I had gotten my license in 2005 in Northern California. And I was that was during the crash. And so I was a big REO listing agent back then my parents live in Savannah. So about five years ago, we decided to relocate here. And when you move, you start over in a new market, you are literally a brand new agent all over again because you don't have any clients there and you don't have any market share. And you don't have any name recognition, you don't have any signs in the dirt. You got nothing you're starting over. So I was blogging and I started making YouTube videos. And then I started getting leads where they said, I found your YouTube channel, I've been watching all your videos, I feel like I know you already. And I thought well forget the blog, I'm just going to skip over the blog and go straight to video. And my business has completely exploded. And now instead of being a solo agent, I have a team and I get probably 70% of my clients and closings that say they found me on YouTube.
Justin Stoddart 2:23
You go from hunting to being the hunted, you know I know that there are people that have great success buying leads on the internet. But I'm telling you when you show up in that space, you're a means to an end, you've got no credibility, the only thing that you do if you've got the license, and the keys to open the door for them. However, when you come when somebody has a chance to observe you and receive value from you over a period of time, something amazing happens, right, which is what you're describing about it's like, I feel like they know you and it's like they trust you already right totally changes the entire conversation.
Karin Carr 3:01
It is the entire conversation. It goes it's the difference between buying a lead from Zillow, and they're interested in 123 Main Street, and you call them but for other people also got that same lead. And they're like, Oh, I already made an appointment with somebody else to see that house thanks. Or they don't answer the call at all, and they don't want to talk to you. It goes from that type of lead to me calling and saying, Hey, you know, I saw that you just downloaded my free relocation guide. Are you thinking about moving to Savannah, and they go, Oh, my God, I can't believe you're calling me your celebrity. You must be so busy. Thank you for calling me. What do I have to do to get you to take me on as a client?
It's like, Am I being pumped to this? the point, he said that to me, I laughed so hard. I was like, I'm sorry, can you just wait one minute. I am not famous at all. But that's their perception. They, they think of you like you've got a show on HGTV. And after you hear that over and over and over again, you're like, I guess I kind of fake This is awesome, you know, grateful that you picked up the phone and call them.
Justin Stoddart 4:05
I actually teach a class around storytelling of how to get in command HDTV like attention. Now I have to share that within the think bigger figure. At some point. It's exactly that. I mean, in the end, the example that I share is if chip and Jojo moved to a new market, let's say Savannah, Georgia, would they have any trouble getting clients? And the answer is no. Right? There probably be a lion out the door to work with those two, right? Or, or the Property Brothers or whoever. I don't know why it's because their value has been extended over time to people there's trust. There's this relationship that's built even though it's been one way they feel privileged to be in conversation with you. And they already know the value that you bring. It's no longer about. Get me to the house. It's about giving me to you, right.
Karin Carr 4:51
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And so it goes from just all real estate agents are the same. You're a means to an end, you're doing nothing but a door opener to like, what am I? How can I get this person to take me on as a client because I want to work with them specifically?
Justin Stoddart 5:09
So cool. We've actually had a couple of comments. I want to point out here really quick. Speaking of the devil, Jesse Dau,
Karin Carr 5:14
Yes, I know YouTube is your new favorite.
Justin Stoddart 5:18
Jesse's a disciple of this car here. So and then, Kyle Spencer, I got to put this one up here, right? love learning, marketing and best practices for me don't matter, because I've got great people like Karin Carr in my network. So super fun stuff. Thanks for commenting, guys. Let's get into the fact that you have this, this model this system that actually helps people, right. And you have people coming to you saying, Hey, will you teach me that? Will you teach me that? Yeah. And you kind of ran into a little bit of a wall? Like I got a lot of commitments already. Right?
Karin Carr 5:50
Right. Yeah. It was funny. I, probably a year ago, well, actually was more than a year ago, it was in about February of 2018, I guess. And I think I'd had the fifth conversation on the phone with an agent who was saying like, wow, does this really work? How are you doing it? How do you figure out what to talk about? And when I hung up the phone at 930, at night, my husband said, you need to be getting paid for this because you're spending all of your time teaching other people and I said well, they're all asking me for one on one coaching. But I don't have time. I have so many clients right now. I don't have time for one on one coaching. So I made a YouTube video and I said, Hey, listen, if I made a course, would anybody take it? And I had, like 150 people sign up on the interest list. So I said, I guess I'm making a course. Of course, what am I gonna do? So I started researching it. And I figured, okay, I'm going to make a digital course. So that when you sign up for it, you log in and you watch the video, you do what it says you watch the video, you do what it says. And it's basically my method from start to finish of what do I need for equipment? How do I figure out what my video is going to be about? How do I research it, how I film it? How do I edit it? How do I promote it, all the things? So it's basically my process that I do for myself every single week, and I make one video a week, it's not that much. But I have made one video a week for two years straight. And I've only missed one day. And that was because we had a hurricane, we had to evacuate. So I think that was a legitimate excuse. I committed to a video week and I publish it on the same day of the week, every single week. And that consistency has rewarded me a million times over. So now when you go on YouTube as a consumer and you look for Savannah, Georgia real estate realtor in Savannah, moving to Savannah, living in Savannah cost of living in Savannah, I dominate the search results, and all that is organic, I have not paid for leads. That is just the beauty of SEO.
Justin Stoddart 7:50
So cool. Let me put up here. One other comment that I'm going to then direct people to go find your day in course because what I hear you saying about your course, is this Karin is that everybody that says boy, I would like that, in fact, let me tell you what you would like. Okay, let me put up here another comment from Jesse dow. He has three $1 million plus appointments this Friday, all via zoom. This is because he delved into deeply into the strategies that you're talking about that you
Karin Carr 8:20
absolutely, so Jesse and his business partner, Jackson interviewed me on their podcast many months ago. And Jackson had said, I'm doing tons and tons of video, but it's all on Facebook. And I said, By the end of this podcast, I will convince you why YouTube is where you need to be. And they went all in after that podcast episode. And now just a couple months later, they're getting results like that, like, their phone is ringing off the hook of people who find them on the internet for free. And then they end up with appointments like that. And it's not just I got a lead, it's I got an appointment, who then signed an exclusive agreement with me, who then bought or sold a property and then I get paid. So they do not just lead, they are actual clients.
Justin Stoddart 9:03
So it sounds like the way your course is structured. All of us have a sticking point, right? Something that's keeping us from taking the next step. Whether it be I don't know what equipment to use, I don't know what to talk about. I don't know how to edit. Like, every one of those things is some reason why people are not taking action, right? This show is spreading beyond the Portland metro area. We've got agents all over the country where if you were to Google, your particular area and neighborhoods like there would be like very little or not very good. And it might take longer for you to step in, as Jackson and Jesse have done here in the Portland market and just start to dominate, right?
Karin Carr 9:42
Yeah. Now Jackson and Jesse are killer video videographers, they are a million times better than I would ever be. So they go out and they vlog and they use a drone and they're filming in the community look like what yours looks like right now it is literally, I'm usually filming on I don't know if you can see it, I've got it to tripod with a rim light back there. And I put my iPad in the middle and I feeling with my iPad or my iPhone. And when you turn this camera like right now I'm doing this on the webcam at my computer. But when you turn it around, you just see this pretty backdrop, which is much like what you have behind you right there. It's just, you know, it's mine is my backdrop, and a couple of pretty things on the wall to look at. So I'm not using fancy equipment, I'm not doing great editing, I'm not doing all of the great things, and I get a crap load of business. So I find that it's not about the equipment, it's not about how great your video editing skills are. All you have to do is be willing to be face to the camera because they can't connect with you if they can't see you. And they're not going to judge your appearance. I mean, if somebody did, and they said, I don't want to work with you, because you've got laugh lines, or you've got great routes, then great goodbye. Because I know you as a client, either I don't want to work with anybody that shallow. And they're not ever going to say, you know, I almost hired you to be my buyer's agent. But I felt that your video editing skills were lacking, they just that doesn't happen. They don't, they don't care. They just want to get to know you and your personality, I had to do a show-up and act like yourself on camera. That's literally it.
Justin Stoddart 11:16
It's interesting how often I'll have similar conversations about the video. Because obviously do a lot of videos and people think that you need to be like a gifted orator in order to do it. And, you know, if-if you perceive that somebody is better than you, it's simply because they started off where you're at, right? It's a reality.
Karin Carr 11:32
And I had an appointment this morning, I've got a buyer that's under a contract that's building a house. And we were talking about all of the travelings that I've been doing lately to talk about this because she found me on YouTube. And so she watches all my videos. And she said it's funny, I went night I sorted your videos, oldest to newest, and I watched some of your first and oh my god, they were so bad. And I said I knew they were so bad as far as the lighting and the sound quality. And I looked like a deer in the headlights. And she said it's amazing to see how far you've come in such a short period of time. And I said, right, it just comes from sheer repetition. It's simply practicing, you don't become a Heisman Trophy-winning athlete, the first day that you go play in a game, it's because you go out there and you do it over and over and over again. And you get better with this year practice of it. That's all
Justin Stoddart 12:24
one of my mentors, shared with me said the first hundred videos are not for your audience Anyway, there for you to figure out, like what you want to talk about. And that's
Karin Carr 12:33
what that's a really good point. I mean, I will argue that it's time for you to figure out what you want to talk about because that's what you can shorten that up quite a bit. But those first hundred videos are literally you just figuring out how to be yourself on camera and how to let your personality show through. And to decide who is your ideal client? Who are you trying to attract? And if you know that, then figuring out what's talk about becomes much easier.
Justin Stoddart 13:01
So I had an episode a few last weeks about the importance of, of niche marketing of, or whatever you are own it right as long as it's not super polarizing, own it, and allow like your tribe to find you. But the key is, you can be yourself all day long. But if you don't ever put your face out there, right, there's only to go out in the community and kind of the old school method of Chamber of Commerce and all these other ways, which I think are important. You know, they may play a part. But if you want to really ramp things up quickly, and have something that where your presence lasts forever, right last forever on the internet. What a great way to just go Be yourself and let your tribe come to you. Which is exactly what you're doing right? You've got people flocking to you, because they're like, Hey, I like her. She's like me. So what ends up happening is you end up like filling your day in your schedule with people who have self-selected like, Hey, I'm like you. I'm like you like what could be better than that. Right?
Karin Carr 13:57
I know. It's crazy when you act like yourself on camera. So you're not trying to be someone that or not. If you don't wear suits on a daily basis, don't wear a suit in your video, just be yourself. You attract people that have very similar personalities as you. So I've got a client right now that is moving here from Texas. And she was like, Girl, I'm going to buy a house of the pool and you're coming over and we're going to have like Margarita is in the hot tub on Friday night. And she was saying this stuff before we had ever met. It was we've talked on the phone, we had email, but we had not ever met yet because she lived in Texas. And it's funny how went not only are they self-selecting you, but they are people like you nine times out of 10. And so you have a great experience working with them. Because they're people that you would naturally gravitate toward anyway.
Justin Stoddart 14:47
Yeah. And there's this bit of you've been edified, right? You, you aren't just like any other agent, they've been watching you and senior value to where they respect you more.
Karin Carr 14:57
Yeah, they've totally vetted you so that the very first lead I ever got for my channel was a listing lead. It was a come to list me but I didn't know that. That's what it was. So when he said, Will you come over on Saturday and tell us what we need to do to get this house on the market? I'm going okay. I've only lived in Savannah for three months. I've never sold a house in this neighborhood before. These are the objections, I always get it. How many houses in my neighborhood? Have you sold? And my answer is going to be a big fat zero. So I've got to have all of my objection handlers, what am I going to say? And when I did my listing presentation, and I said, so who else are you interviewing? They said, Nobody we already picked you. So I said fabulous. Here's my listing agreement, this is what I charge. And they're like, awesome, give me a hand. Push back on the commission. They didn't say, well, I've got three other people I want to interview before we make a decision. Call me next Thursday. They've already decided.
Justin Stoddart 15:49
And then a question they have for you is, can I borrow a pen? That's great, that's a great listing appointment. The right is the only question is like, Where do I sign? Exactly. Okay, one last comment. And then we're going to direct people, your course. And this is Jesse Tao just every nose is not a plant, he had no idea you were coming on other than I promoted it yesterday. We did not ask him we're not paying him for this. This is his comments. Karin definitely got us rolling in this space, it opened our eyes to a whole new way to build long term brand. equity. Thank you, Karin. So
Karin Carr 16:17
I did and Jesse did not take my course I want to say that he just they just what I said when I was trying to when I was talking about this on their podcast, and they were so good with video already, they didn't really need the hand holding, they got it and they just went for it. But if you need the hand-holding, if you don't know how to do SEO, Search Engine Optimization, I would just like to say
Justin Stoddart 16:40
SEO is my
Karin Carr 16:45
I did a five-day challenge in my day. And I said that I would challenge I was like, I don't know why I just said that. I have no idea where that came from
this coffee mug.
Justin Stoddart 16:57
Love when I saw I saw that that has you said
Karin Carr 17:02
but it's true. Because you don't just make a video and call it you know, come with me as I tour this neighborhood like you have to give the title of your video something that people are actually searching for either in YouTube or in Google. And Google owns YouTube. So if you have a good video show up on the first page of Google, and I use this as an example the other day, I said open up an incognito window in Chrome and type in moving to Savannah, the number one organic spot was my blog post, there are three videos and two of the videos were mine. So of the top four things that showed up organically on the first page of Google, three of the four were me. So it's to be that is you people pay really a lot of money to have that happen. And I have paid zero dollars because of search engine optimization, SEO. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, that's fine, I will teach you headed to that in the score.
Justin Stoddart 18:02
Alright, let's cut to where people can go to actually get this training, we've got the testimonial in place. Thank you, Jesse. Now, let's put up here YouTube for agents calm, you're going to go to this site, and you're going to click enroll. And by doing that, you're going to like the value of what you are offering Karin, you had to think about restructuring this pricing to where you earn, like a finder's fee like a referral fee for all the business, comes in from that I think you probably retire in a year you'd be done. Because the results I mean, I'm seeing them firsthand from people that are you know, learning from you. And I think it's just such an important message in a time in an era when we have massive tech platforms that are working to make the agent irrelevant to make them the equivalent of a barista working a cappuccino machine, an agent working, you know, some technology piece, that's where they're headed, and the compensation is going to match it. The way for you to fight that and to only space and own your margins that own a business it's worth owning is to build as Jesse said, build brand equity. And Karin will help you do that in a place where you're where people are going and searching. So I'm excited to again, share with this audience again, you know the magic of what you teach. And I want to thank you for joining us today, Karin.
Karin Carr 19:19
Well, thank you so much. And I do also have a free Facebook group if anybody wants to join just to start learning this stuff at the beginning. If you just go to Facebook, and you look for YouTube for real estate agents, it's group cash, I think we've got 1500 people in there now, which is pretty awesome. And I do things like a free five day challenge to help you get started if you don't really know what you're doing just lots of stuff like that. So,
Justin Stoddart 19:44
so good. Alright, last question. Signature question of the show, Karin. What is it that somebody like you does, obviously a big thinker, hence, you're here, right? Yeah. The emblem in the background, think bigger people like you. What do you do to ensure that you continue to be a big thinker?
Karin Carr 20:03
Because I don't really consider myself to be a big thinker. I've never been super ambitious, like I was never the person that said, I want to become a real estate agent. So I can have a team of 70 people and be in 12 different markets and you know, make billions of dollars a year there was I was just happy, being comfortable, I was happy doing enough business to pay the bills and be comfortable. And then when this whole thing kind of snowballed. It's been it's happened accidentally like I made the course by accident. And now I'm loving it. And I'm doing a lot more teaching and speaking and training and stuff like that. And I've hired a team of agents that are now working with the clients. So I'm doing more coaching and training last speaking. And the more people implement what I'm telling them, and then come back to me and say, Oh, my God, I just got my first client. Oh, my gosh, I just had my first closing of like, Oh, my gosh, I have to hire an agent to help me. I need to hire a video editor to like, do this for me because I'm now so busy. And I have so much business that I can't do it all myself. Like seriously, that just makes my freakin day.
Justin Stoddart 21:08
So to be a big thinker, you almost accidentally stumbled into the fact that Oh, my goodness, I need to add people to like I need leverage.
Karin Carr 21:17
Yes. phrasing it so eloquently. That's what it what I tried to do it all myself for far too long. And now that I have help, I'm like, why didn't I do this so much earlier. So I have a virtual assistant in the Philippines who does my editing for me, and boy has freed up so much time. So in the beginning, we don't have any money coming in, you got lots of time, it's okay to do all of your own video editings. Because later when you outsource it, you know what to do, and you know how to do it. So you can explain to them what you want them to do. But then when you get that off of your plate, and now you've got several hours a week of free time back to work with clients or do something else. Yeah, I wish that I would have convinced myself, you gotta suck it up and hire somebody even though you don't feel ready, because they free up so much more time that when you're working with clients and you're making a lot more money, like the commission check that you make is a heck of a lot more than what you're paying the virtual assistant. So like you should have just done it way earlier.
Justin Stoddart 22:17
And you've just answered probably one of the biggest questions to this entire audience, when a great idea comes across someone's played and they're like, I love it. I just don't have time for it. My guess is you need to get something off your desk. A right opportunity like this comes around to build long term brand equity have become the hunted is instead of always hunting. It's time that you look at your desk and say, Okay, what is not a high dollar per hour activity? And how do I outsource offload that? I love it, Karin, what a great answer. And you're such a great guest, I thank you for being a friend of the show. And coming on again. It's always so fun to spend time with you. So I wouldn't get again, encourage everybody to go find Karin's Facebook group, YouTube for real estate agents. And then also for those that are like, it's time, it's time I'm paid. I'm tired of paying for dumb leads. I'm tired of hoping that my you know, like friends and family are going to produce, you know, enough referrals and they're not and everything I do isn't working. I need to find another stream of business coming in. Go take a look at what Karin's offering. It's working for people that I know and love firsthand. So anyway, thank you again, everybody, for tuning in to this episode, Karin. I appreciate you so much and everybody
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the real estate show. So excited about today's episode, because it's someone who's a very dear friend of mine, someone who I admire and have so much respect for. She's someone like a kind of a personal hero that I hope that when I'm hearing that I've got the ambition and the drive and the vision and the business sense, and the passive income that she has. And that's going to be today's topic. For those that know me know that my passion is to help you think bigger. Because when you think bigger, your business grows, and your options and impact grow, and the world gets a better place. So let me begin before we fully introduce her just saying thank you to Linda Quinn, for joining us on today's episode.
Linda Quinn 0:37
Thanks, Justin. I'm enjoying this.
Justin Stoddart 0:40
Good. So for those that don't know, Linda, she's been in the real estate industry for 43 years. And around her, you would guess that she's been in for five years, not because of her experience, but just because of the energy that she has. She is fired up and raring to go. And just such an inspiration to all of us. 25 years ago, Linda, you began collecting properties, as I like to call it. And I know you've taught a number of times, wealth building through real estate actually has a group on Facebook called wealth building through real estate would encourage any and all that are interested in learning from Linda, to go find that Facebook group. You know, let's talk a little bit about why you started to do that. Linda, why it was so important for you to start to create a passive income, you know, many, many years ago. So,
Linda Quinn 1:29
I had met with a financial planner in about 1990. And he began telling me that I had to save $1,000 a month, and then I could retire at 65. And my income would be 5000 a month, but that was prefaced on an 8% a year return. And I was single with four kids at home and I was thinking where the heck am I going to get 1100 dollars a month. So new real estate. And I began thinking, Okay, I've read enough books by Robert Allen and some of the other guys that were really gurus in the rental real estate. I'm going to do this. And that's how I got started.
Justin Stoddart 2:14
So you realize that as many real estate agents have recognized there's no pension, there's no 401k there's no built in retirement plan. And I joked as I was opening this, the posts that I put out there is that most agents don't want to be marketing properties when they're, you know when they're past a certain age, right? the thing for someone like you who like you could stop you absolutely could stop today and live a wonderful life. But you keep going tell us a little bit about that, that you choose to this because you have to be in the business because you choose to.
Linda Quinn 2:47
Yeah, I really get up every morning excited about what I do. And find out where the challenges are. I'm really excited about where it's going to go. I think for me, it's an opportunity to see how much can I achieve. And I feel like it's limitless. As far as passive income comes, I've got three streams of income coming in right now. And I, I want to see where it could go. I don't know what I would do. If I didn't do real estate. I said, My bond bonds, it just makes sense. You know,
Justin Stoddart 3:22
I think real estate and really any business is a great place to be when you are there because you want to be there. I think nothing is good if you're there because you have to be there. Right?
Linda Quinn 3:33
Right. Right. And, you know,
Justin Stoddart 3:35
the nice thing about your situation is you can say, hey, team, I'm done today, I'm going to go tour the world. For you. As you said, your passion is more about like, how much more can I get done? How many are more lives going to impact? How many more streams of wealth can I create, which is so inspiring, because there's a whole group of people that benefit because we choose to do that, right? Maybe there's some, you know, some beach vendors that would benefit by having Linda Quinn there with a, you know, my tie in her hand and purchasing some polka shells. But I think, you know, your talents and abilities are probably better served by driving this industry forward. And, and teaching and training your decades of wisdom. So I commend you for your commitment to the industry and to just thinking bigger, right? You're the classic, big thinker of like, I don't want to stop like that. How boring would that be?
Linda Quinn 4:25
Well, Warren Buffett didn't stop, you know. So we're both in the same boat. I feel like I would like to contribute to other agents to be able to give them the same benefits. I'm doing a little bit of mentoring and training right now, which is great. And it leads you into different things that you can get excited about.
Justin Stoddart 4:53
So fun. Now let's talk about these three income streams. What I would imagine is your real estate business to which you still have top producer back, we spoke yesterday folks in and she was like, Hey, I'm just doing my prospecting calls. Like, How fun is that? That? So so. So that's one again, you and your amazing daughter, and Stewart are top producers validated through and through you guys are legitimate. Big producers have a great team operationally as well as sales wise, just doing some great things and really doing well by the customer. Again, I've got the good fortune of you to know, is connected to you in business, and you guys really do some great work for the customer. So that's one correct,
Linda Quinn 5:33
right, right. Okay, yeah. And the second one is my income stream from rental income, real estate. And I own? Well, my husband and I totally, we own about 25 properties, I do the property management because I want to. And I do everything from turnover and remodeling, and whatever you can think about when you think run real estate, and that brings in a significant amount of money. I don't take any income off that because I am currently paying off my mortgages, and I have very few lefts. So I could retire just off rental real estate.
Justin Stoddart 6:13
So you've got 25 properties. And at some point in the near future, those of those will be free and clear. You'll just be collecting complete rent checks from that, like a great situation. Let's talk about that income stream before we move on to the third. What advice would you have a real estate agent who maybe is like, I know, I need to do that. But I haven't gotten there yet. Or I've only got one I know I need to get more like what's either the mindset shift, or the budgetary shift at home where they can start affording these is there's some point at which is clicked for you, and or what you've helped other people to be like, Okay, I got to make this a priority like?
Linda Quinn 6:50
Well, if you just look at what you need for retirement, Justin, I've done the math on this. When we teach classes, I asked the audience, you know, how much do you want to retire with per per year, and almost invariably, they say $100,000 a year, but the future value of $1 in 20 years, if that's the time that it takes to get to retirement is $180 $80,000, they need every single year to live 20 more years, not counting the 3% inflation rate that would probably exist. And so at $180,000 a year, for 20 years, you need $2.67 million in the bank, to be able to produce that kind of income to sustain $100,000 a year of what we're living right now. So I would think that that should drive a little bit of anxiety, in most real estate agents, guts. And to try this. It isn't that difficult to do. Back in the days, I've always saved since about 1990. I've always saved about half of my income into, you know, reserves for buying extra properties. But you know, they always say pay yourself first, you need to really think about paying yourself first now because 20 years from now you're going to be looking at something that's frightening, I think. So that's exactly why I started that program.
Justin Stoddart 8:29
So money comes in from your premier real estate business, you obviously a lot out to pay expenses, pay taxes, then of what's left you take 50% live off that.
Linda Quinn 8:39
I do I do. So I have very little you know, I'm not I'm no don't drag my visas up, you know, I'm pretty frugal. So yeah, I say 50% of whatever is left for whatever I want to do investing,
Justin Stoddart 8:55
which you know, I think is a great indicator for real estate agents that they should probably need to be producing at a higher level than they do. You know, I think there's you know, there's oftentimes, we tend to produce and work about as hard as we need to to survive yet, what we're not considering is that there's going to be some years ahead of us, where we're not going to want to work as hard as we are now unless you're Linda quaint, right? For most people, right, that they actually need to be accounting for those years that they're going to want to be out of the business. And so actually producing, if you're just kind of breaking even right now, they really need to double their production, don't they in order to create that space and to go invest here
Linda Quinn 9:39
or Justin, the other thing they need to do is not live and spend everything they make. I mean buying new cars, and you know, boats, those are all depreciate items, right? They need to consider what they can do in their life that makes them happy without expanding and doing all the kinds of things that can Sooners do. And you know, I still drive an 11-year-old car, I visit goodwill regularly. I love the treasure hunting. So the reality is, is you could have a fabulous life without it being extravagant, and then having nothing left at the end to show for it.
Justin Stoddart 10:17
You're right, there's either double production and or take a good hard look at what's going out the door. Right, right. I've heard it said before that if you want to get rich sell stuff to real estate agents, right. One thing is, like the expenditure within your business can be draining. But then also, I don't know about you, but it seems like real estate agents tend to have some of the nicest cars in the world. And with, you know, without the income to necessarily produce that there's an image that that that's trying to be portrayed without necessarily the financial backing. And you've obviously done very well, right. There's I think this myth that unless I drive a really nice car, people are going to hire me and your cars very nice, right? But it's 11 years old, and you've obviously gotten past this myth of like, I need to have a brand new car people gonna are gonna think I'm not successful. And I'm not a good real estate agent. Right? you've, you've worked around that maybe false narrative.
Linda Quinn 11:05
Right, exactly. Yeah, I don't need the fanciest house on the corner or whatever. But I do need that security. And that drove me to get that security tied up.
Justin Stoddart 11:15
Yeah. Great. Okay, so those are your two income streams. Let's talk about a third, which I think is as really interesting. You know, you see a number of companies, real estate companies who have adopted a similar similar strategy, which is kind of creating a retirement for agents if they take it seriously. Right. Yeah, exactly. profit share and or in your case revenue share, talk to us a little bit about that. And what that because for what you told me before, to get to the point where your second income stream, meaning your real estate portfolio, is producing at the level it is you've got $2 million tied up in that correct?
Linda Quinn 11:49
I do.
Yeah. And but they are worth about three times that now. Wow. That's, that's good. That's exciting. Yeah. Yes, very exciting. It is giving me this to build to be able to do what I want to do. Yeah,
Justin Stoddart 12:02
yeah, very cool. So this third one is one that I know you're fired up excited about. And maybe it's a solution for some who haven't, don't have the runway to be able to produce the passive income via rental properties that you have. Talk to us a little bit about that and how that's come about.
Linda Quinn 12:20
So last September, we took a hard look at this new brokerage that really hadn't had any notoriety in Oregon yet. And it ends up being that you've got the opportunity to be awarded stock that was on NASDAQ, and you have the opportunity of developing a revenue stream that can be gone into your retirement and then passed on to your family after you pass. And it was so amazing, the business model was so amazing that we had, we had to leave our last brokerage. And we did that in like two weeks, we were so excited. It has turned out to be everything we thought it was just in, you know, you get stock awards for selling your first property every year, you get stock awards if you attract agents if you sell the cap, which is about $3 million. And then 20 more homes after that, they give you your cap back in stock, which is amazing, you know, you're building a huge portfolio of retirement stock, I paid stock when we started was about $7 a share. And now it's 11 something a share. So it's growing as the company grows, we're onboarding 1500 agents per month, right now. And the other issue we get, we can buy the stock at a 20% discount from the company. There are just all kinds of ways to produce the stock. Now, some people don't care about stock, some people love the stock. So I was that wasn't my main reason for coming to this company. But it was the revenue stream. And that's pretty attractive about that is it's a three year vesting period. If you attract an agent to the company, you and they are capping, which means that they pay 16,000 a year to the brokerage, you get 20 $800 a year every year there at the company. The exciting part of that is that it's not it's not too hard to find agents that were are interested in looking at this company from a standpoint of what can it do for me as far as benefits. It's an incredible company that does have no brick and mortar. So we have no franchises, we're all operating our offices in the cloud. And it gives us your opportunity to be more collaborative more. There's the culture, I didn't think we'd have culture, my gosh, we have far more culture than I've had in any of my previous brokerages. I know it's hard to imagine, but we're very close. And the revenue stream if you're attracting an agent, and if they attract agents, then you also get revenue stream of 30 $200 for the agents that they attract every year. And it goes deep seven levels. So you can produce an incredible revenue stream that you can take into your retirement just off this and it is so much fun to talk to agents about this opportunity.
Justin Stoddart 15:45
So for fear that this sounds like a commercial for a particular brokerage, but you know, I can sense your excitement and your passion for what you're doing, which is fun about the numbers, because again, we're Switzerland here on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Our job is to find stuff that works and helps. And but I want to have you share some of the results. You you've obviously your passive income stream from your second stream, which is your real estate has is in the five figures, right? You've got Yes, yes, dozens of thousands of dollars coming every month. Just talk to us about in eight months, what's happened with your revenue stream in the third one? And then we'll wrap up with our final question.
Linda Quinn 16:27
Okay. Um, well, last month revenue stream was about 50 $600. And it's growing every month. And I expect that to triple or quadruple within a year. Because the agents are so excited about developing their own revenue streams, that they're building an organization underneath me. And at the present time, I have about 118 agents that we're working within our organization right now. And our leaders are in incredible. I mean, they actually fly out to do seminars with us or help us, you know, when we're talking to a larger agent that needs a little bit more hand... not hand holding, but you know, talking to some of the bigger agents.
Justin Stoddart 17:22
so just to kind of recap that revenue stream. You've got, again, dozens of thousands of dollars coming in from your second stream, your third one you believe will pass it here within the next year or so is what you're predicting Is that right? I mean, it's kind of based on the math that I'm doing in my head was about a fifth and you're guessing that that will quickly surpass what you've accumulated and really put in $2 million of your money tied up in order to create which is an interesting model. Right. And I'm, again, I'm not here to endorse any particular company or brand, but I know that multiple companies out there, they have revenue or profit sharing opportunities. I think, for real estate agents, really, the big opportunity is to really take a look at what am I doing to prepare myself for stormy seas ahead? Right? Obviously, in 2008 2009, was not fun times for real estate agents. And not having any passive income coming in was a trouble, it was really, really challenging, if not devastating to most. And the same can be true of you know, of the retirement years. And it's, it's, it's fun to hear innovation in real estate. It's fun to hear people like you at your why is wise years. So passionate and fired up about about about building, I just want to thank you for what you've shared. Linda, let's, let's end with this question. Just because we want this episode to remain kind of short and sweet and digestible. Tell us what is something that you do on a regular basis? I mean, if you could give advice to people to say, you know, I, you've been a big thinker for a long, long time, and have been expanding your own possibilities, even now, right, even into your golden years. What would you say? would be advised that you would have for the rest of us that would love to be like Linda Quinn that would love to be as fired up ambitious, passionate and a big thinker at your age. Teach us, please.
Linda Quinn 19:25
I would say don't be complacent. Don't be comfortable. You don't grow if you're comfortable, open to opportunity, you know, if explore a very wise man a few years ago said to me, every year he interviewed different brokerages here in town to find out what they had to offer. And I never thought about that, though, you know, Hawaii is is that to know, if you're getting the best that you can get out here and it serves you well, I would just say, once you get out of complacency, you can get fired up because the possibilities are endless. And that's what's so exciting and keeps me moving every morning is knowing, Gosh, this could you know, I could work into my 80s truthfully, with these particular income streams. And at some point to stop selling real estate and just do the other two, the rental and the revenue sharing.
Justin Stoddart 20:23
So fun to hear. You've inspired me to want to set my goals differently. And I think most people think about, like retirement years of like, there's this end date of when life begins and the people that I admire most in life, and you're right up there. They don't think that way, right? It's like how much life do I have? I want to wear it out right I want to go to the end I want to like a sprint to the finish line. I don't want to like walk the last lap For heaven's sake, I want to sprint to the end. And you know, it's it's really inspiring to have you share and just hearing your passion, obviously, you're passionate about your brokerage model, you know, model and you're other revenue streams. And I would say for anybody out there, find something that fires you up whether it's what Linda's excited about or whether it's some other portion of real estate. But if you're not fired up you're not doing something right. Maybe you're complacent like Linda saying maybe there's there's something missing a mentor missing. seek that out, but my goodness, life's too short to be walking laps when we could be sprinting into our 80s and beyond. So, Linda, want to thank you so much for pouring the value that you have into the thing bigger real estate show. We have some fun guests here, sharing all kinds of fun stuff. So encourage people to comments, and come take a look at the comments. And please reach out to Linda if you have any questions on her strategies. I know I've learned a lot from her investment strategy sat through her class multiple times. She's truly an expert when it comes to real estate investing and really lives what she teaches. So thank you, Linda. It's been a total pleasure as always. And thank you all for tuning in to this episode of The Think Bigger Real Estate Show.
Unknown Speaker 21:58
Thanks, Justin. Have a great day.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, as you know, my mission and my passion are to help you think bigger. When you think bigger, great things start to happen, your business grows, and the options and impact you can have in this world also grow. So I'm thrilled today to bring you somebody who's going to solve this problem. Do I keep my feet close to my chest? Or do I share them? I want to introduce to you Tony Ray Baker, he's out of Tucson, Arizona, and a top agent there. He's in his 25th year. And Tony Ray has been working by referral all that time. And the cool thing that I want to highlight about Tony RAM, sure, there are tons of things. But the thing I want to talk about is that he does a lot of teaching and instructing. And I think you and I are kindred spirits in that regard, Tony because I love giving away knowledge via teaching. It's one of my favorite things that's hence the birth of the think bigger real estate show is how can I find people that help me and others be able to share knowledge with the world? So first and foremost, before we get into specifically what due to teaching, I want to thank you for taking some time to pour into the thing for your real estate audience.
Tony Ray Baker 1:04
Yeah, man, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Justin Stoddart 1:06
Yeah, total pleasure, a total pleasure. Tony Ray and I have crossed paths and had a conversation, it's been probably what, 30 days or so ago, maybe a little less. And his energy is just fantastic. Just the kind of guy that I could see in front of a group of people that would just really excite them. So Tony, Ray, let's get into talking about what you do to teach. Obviously, you're a high producing real estate agent, you do that by referral. But in addition to that, you teach a marketing advertising to real estate agents, which is interest to referral partners, other business owners, and then of course, even, you're always teaching to your sphere as well. Talk to us a little bit about the class that you host, on a monthly basis. What does that look like? How many people come etc.
Tony Ray Baker 1:51
So we do two different classes. Actually, once a month, I do a trolley tour of Tucson, and we take out 40 agents, and we show them the and we show the city and development and what's going on. And then I do a class for usually about 90 to 100 agents show up at the Association of Realtors in Tucson and that class is dirty down like marketing, anything we can do to give them guerrilla marketing that is low cost, but really effective. To help them understand how to get more clients and how to do more business. That's a three-hour class.
Justin Stoddart 2:27
So and that happens every month as well.
Tony Ray Baker 2:29
No, so that I rotate, I alternate those. So I do probably one month and then I do the big class the next month. And then I, of course, inform both how to get to the classes to keep them on track.
Justin Stoddart 2:40
Tell us Tony Ray, how many? How many? How big of a city is Tucson? I know it's grown a lot. It's growing really rapidly. Yeah, tell us like how big of maybe how many real estate agents so we kind of get our arms around what you're doing here.
Tony Ray Baker 2:53
I don't know how many agents we have currently. I know at my office alone, which is the largest local office, we have probably about 900 agents. At our office, there are about a million people with Tucson in our little suburbs. Okay. And so there's probably a My guess is if they did account now there's probably about 600,000 and city proper. Okay, then two sons, one of the fastest growing cities, as usual, it always has been. And there are an estimated 200,000 people moving here in the next four or five years coming.
Justin Stoddart 3:28
So you're very similar in size to Portland, Oregon, where the show is based out of which is really, really interesting. So here, to put it in perspective, we have about 8500 agents. So my guess is your numbers are probably similar. So and 90 to 100 agents a month, you're instructing them and essentially giving away best practices that are working for you and your business.
Tony Ray Baker 3:52
Yes. Yep, absolutely.
Justin Stoddart 3:55
Has there ever been a time where you thought to yourself, I can't give my secrets? This is my competition. I can't teach them exactly what I'm doing. Or they'll beat me at it. My market share will go down as a result. Did those thoughts go through your head? And how did you overcome them? Or how have you overcome?
Tony Ray Baker 4:13
No, they don't go through my head, I have never believed in scarcity. But I've always believed that there's plenty for everybody. And I also truly know that if-if you and I go head to head for the same listing, and you get the listing, I didn't lose that they were just to connect for you. And it shouldn't have been a Connect for me, I truly believe that we're supposed to have the right connections, and I don't work with clients that we can't help and that we don't have a certain level with. So for me, teaching others to do what I do, it just means that maybe one of the people that come to my class might get a listing that I didn't, but they deserve that listing, they were the ones that connected with the client. So I don't have that I never have thought that way. I just believe we all the payoff for me is not altruistic, trust me it is very ego with when I get to teach the agents right when I get to be with them, my transactions are much nicer, we have a level of respect when they call and we're going through the process, we know each other, they have a level of respect for me, there's appreciation, it makes my life beautiful, much better than if I was disconnected from the agents.
Justin Stoddart 5:21
So the euro. So this isn't just like you being Mother Teresa like this is a very strategic business move on your part. And you've simply found that your business is actually bigger, better and stronger. By having that abundance, having that abundance mentality,
Tony Ray Baker 5:39
right, I get to be one closer to the other agents. But also stuff comes from that as well. by teaching I learned, and it's a beautiful thing for me in the room, watching people's eyes light up when I'm teaching a subject. And I feed off of that. And then I have more communication around that in my class. And then I learned from them as well. So we all learn together. And I don't ever have a script for what I'm going to teach. I know like my class this week is going to be on video and social media. But I have no idea where that's going to go. I have no laid out script for that I will teach for three straight hours on everything I know. And I don't know exactly what will happen by the end of that thing.
Justin Stoddart 6:20
It's incredible, man. You are a big thinker. Again, the purpose behind this show doesn't just have people build big empires, right? Although that tends to happen when people are big thinkers. But it's also to have like to teach people how to have an abundant life and I so much love. What you're doing here is that just the overall job satisfaction, right career satisfaction of having like 90 to 100 people that walk out of your class saying thank you like I'm a better agent as a result of that. It's just got to be deeply gratifying.
Tony Ray Baker 6:50
It that is awesome. I totally agree. It's a beautiful part of it. And understand to that we have that level of respect from those agents also allows me to work Monday through Friday, from seven eight in the morning till about five or six at night, I have my evenings free. I don't typically work up many weekends ever. And we take six vacations a year, and we typically are gone for 60 to 90 days. So I get to live that life because agents respect that we are out of town and that I'm trying to teach them how to do the same thing, which is to have a balance so that you, I mean, you can get such burnout in this industry. And there's such a rush to be number one. But really, for me, number one is having a great life and having real estate support that.
Justin Stoddart 7:36
So the first picture I saw you look like you're on some exotic beach holding like a giant Guana. And I was like, Who is this guy? Yeah, that's part of the message though, is what you're saying is it like to be a great real estate agent, you don't have to be a slave to your clients. Like you don't have to be like around the clock 24, seven 365 days a year in order to be successful.
Tony Ray Baker 7:57
Absolutely. When you live and this kind of life, what happens is the clients that you attract are respectful and appreciative. And they're adventurers and they understand travel, and they want to know where you're going. And they are happy to support you. And that's who we attract in and that a Gwan on my head, the photo that you see just those type of people, which I did not do by on purpose or intention. And I learned from that photo because it brought me some amazing people. And then I realized I needed to stop doing this picture, which I was doing a lot, you know, hi guy, and I start so I have a beautiful collection of ties, I stopped wearing my ties, I actually bought my shirt. And the iguana taught me, Hey, you need to be more you. And you'll attract more people like you. And so we put that picture out. And it's been a talking trigger at one for branding. But it's also attracted amazing people to us. So we're very fortunate to have this beautiful clientele. We just had 200 and 50 of them at our house about the end of March.
Justin Stoddart 9:03
Man what a good life.
Tony Ray Baker 9:04
What do you like to hang out with them in the party? So it's really cool.
Justin Stoddart 9:07
Yeah, you're finding your tribe, right? In fact, the episode I did on Friday was all about finding your niche and being really outspoken about who you are and the kind of people you want to be around. I think so often people have this tendency to believe that if I do that, there's not going to be enough like that if I narrow my focus. But what you're finding again, and validating just like my guests on Friday did is that know you, there are enough people out there if you can identify like the person that you really want to be and are and the kind of people you want to be around and be more of that you attended. Because everybody has either real estate needs or real estate aspirations or real estate goals. And by you putting out who you really are you attract those people want to real estate with you because they're like you. Right?
Tony Ray Baker 9:52
Right? Well, so think about. So Facebook did a beautiful job at teaching society about the power of 100, which is the fact that if I attract, Joe, Joe has probably about 100 friends that are very similar to Joe. So if I like working with Joe, I'm most likely like working with Joe's referrals. So every little tribe that you attract, with authenticity, those tribes are going to be more like you. So you're attracting the right tribes. And you can work a lot less than a lot more efficient, because you're not tap dancing, trying to prove yourself to somebody that's not a connector fit. And that's where we get in. I think New realtors and I did this myself, when I started, you take anybody just to get a transaction through Yeah. And as you get to grow your business, hopefully, your goal is to grow a referral type business, so that you don't have to do that for very long. And I was very dead set on that in my very first year I was hell bent on having that kind of practice. So it's planning now.
Justin Stoddart 10:56
Now part of the other group that you're teaching is not just real estate is but you're also teaching other business owners, right? Yeah. So of those 90 to 100 people that come to your class, a lot of them or a handful of them, at least are just local business owners unrelated to real estate. True, no, no.
Tony Ray Baker 11:13
Okay, so the realtors come to the association class, I actually teach a class, the city of Tucson gave me a conference room. So I teach the small business owners who want to join us in a class downtown, got it on. And what I do is they come in every other it's the first and third Wednesday of the month, I come in and we just get down on marketing. I mean, what we can do to help make money for them and help bring awareness and bring business to them.
Justin Stoddart 11:44
What a brilliant idea, right? I'm a I'm a big believer that the future of well paid real estate agents involves being more professional, not less professional, having deeper relationships, and being able to really create deep alliances with other business owners that can refer you and editor you at a high level so people know your value and recognize the value between you and a tech platform.
Tony Ray Baker 12:05
Correct. I agree.
Justin Stoddart 12:07
And I love your strategy of what you're doing of educating the business crowd. Because again, that creates credibility and relationships. And I would imagine you're getting referrals from that group. I have effects. I lost. I lose you, Tony Ray. Yeah, I'm back. Sorry about when I lost Tony, right here.
Tony Ray Baker 12:30
Back. Can you hear me back? He's back. Here you go. What happened? I tried to disconnect my phone, but it's trying to let people instill. So.
Justin Stoddart 12:38
You're good, right?
Tony Ray Baker 12:39
Yeah. So we were talking about
Justin Stoddart 12:43
business owners that you're teaching? Are you getting inbound referrals from those people?
Tony Ray Baker 12:47
Yes, inbound referrals, yes, and great relationships and connections to different things I do. Because I'm on the board of directors for a charity called pet partners. So I can connect people through pet partners and help that organization, also through events by knowing business owners that need to co-brand. So all kinds of great things come from being out there and helping others it just keeps coming back full circle. In so many ways. I can't even tell you, we had a big event yesterday on a million dollar listing. I had local artists that the events, we had pet partners and the therapy animals there, we had a wine group there. And we premiered the open house, we invited everybody we had invited 200 millionaires to come in and see the property and to meet the animals and buy art. And it was just a very fun wine event. And it was a five-hour thing and it went great.
So you
Justin Stoddart 13:42
know you. I mean, as I look at what you've done, Tony Ray, you've really become a master of events, right? Whether they, whether they be tour events, whether they be like house reveal events, like big open houses, you've really and a lot of those, it sounds like you're teaching and instructing. But you've really honed in on the power of getting people together, to learn together to celebrate and have fun together, right? I mean, there's a common thread here. That's what's powerful.
Tony Ray Baker 14:10
Yeah, absolutely. And it is events, but more every time I do something, I think, how can I help others? And who can I help in this, whatever I'm trying to do? If I was going to do and I don't do open houses. But if I was going to do an open house, my goal with every Open House would be I don't want to just sit there for three or four hours and hope somebody walks in that door. So how can I aggressively go out and make something better happen? And who can I help in the process? So who can be part of this? A lot of times people pair up a loan officer, for example, and have them there. But still, you have two people sitting there in open house. So what can we do to make that open house and actual mini events? What can we do to bring people in? How do we get help to therapy animals or another charity or something we raised money yesterday for and probably picked up a couple of volunteers for the pet company, the Pet Park. So that's a really cool thing that happened.
Justin Stoddart 15:02
Such a cool thing. Yeah, I'm such a fan of you and what you're doing. Tony, Ray, I want to end with this signature question that I asked everybody that comes on the show. You're a big thinker, clearly. What is it that you do? What's it What's an activity or practice that Tony Ray does on a regular basis to be sure that you continue to expand your possibilities to continue to be a big thinker? What does it look like for you, as somebody I'm the activity that I do just some either regular practice one thing that you say, in order to continue to think bigger and to expand your own possibilities? What's something that that you do on a regular basis, I practice, I practice mindfulness and me.
Tony Ray Baker 15:38
And I didn't realize it was doing that for a very long time until I just saw a little book called mind practicing mindfulness. And it was funny because I spoke to me and I started reading and I said, Oh, my gosh, that's the things I'm doing. And that is not being stressed out by the daily stuff, making sure I outsource that and have somebody else taking care of the paperwork and things I shouldn't be doing. So that I could be in the moment right now with you, and listening and paying attention. Because doors are opening all around you at all times. And if you're not in the moment, you'll miss them. And so practicing mindfulness is super important. Because then when you're in that zone, you can actually pick up on the things you can do to make things better for others. And it all comes back through amazing practice.
Justin Stoddart 16:20
It's really powerful. I think there's an underestimated cost of when people have too many commitments there in front of somebody, yet their mind is thinking about all the things that they have to do right the paperwork that needs to be done. Whereas like you said, you start to delegate other things, get things off your plate, and you can actually be present. Powerful. This is Tony right. I am so appreciative coming on the show here today. I want everybody who's absolutely loved what this man has shared, I want you to to take a look at a website that should be live by the end of this week. It's Tony Ray's marketing on a dime. So the stuff that he's teaching Tucson business owners Tucson, real estate agents are going to be available via broadcasted video or recorded video that he's going to be putting on there for people to listen to. Such a great way to give back to an even larger audience, larger community. So be watching for that. If you're by chance watching this episode, not live there's a good chance that you'll see it at a time when its websites up. And then tell us again, the website just if people are looking for a great agent in Tucson, Arizona, tell me the website of your actual listing and selling a business.
Tony Ray Baker 17:32
Okay, it's seeTucsonhomes.com which is se Tucson to UC so an HOA me s.com. And if they want to email me, I will absolutely put them on a list to let them know when we launched that video page. So they are watching my classes. Yeah, that's great.
Justin Stoddart 17:51
What's your email?
Tony Ray Baker 17:53
It's TonyRay@seeTucsonhomes.com
Justin Stoddart 17:57
perfect. Tony Ray, thank you again so much for all you've contributed today. I'm so excited to have you as part of my network. You've impacted me in a great way and I know this audience as well. So big thanks to you and I look forward to our next conversation
Tony Ray Baker 18:12
Thanks for having me. Have a great day.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, very, very excited about today's episode, somebody who I respect and admire, and he is just a wise man. And I'm learning more about him. And he's somebody who is being featured on some pretty big places around the country for the work that he's doing. He's a 25-year industry veteran out of the Dallas Fort Worth area recently featured on WaterCooler Is that right? Jay?
Jay Marks 0:27
Yeah, WaterCooler, right,
Justin Stoddart 0:28
With Chris Smith, and Jimmy Mackin. And Jay and I've met a couple of times, and been following each other on social media for the past while and just has a lot of really great things to share. And I thought, if I can convince this guy to come on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show, it's going to be great for everybody who listens. So, Jay, thank you good for your time for being here. On a post-Memorial Day episode of the Think Bigger Real Estate Show.
Jay Marks 0:52
I'm glad to be here. And you forgot to mention also that you and I are good buddies, so help a friend.
Justin Stoddart 0:58
Thank you. And that's true Jay, Jay's a man of faith, good man all the way through. And he and he has a great perspective on the real estate industry. And so let's dive into this, Jay, kind of the topic of today is Oh, my goodness, the sky is falling. Yet at the same time, everything's gonna be just fine.
Jay Marks 1:20
Everything's gonna be just fine. That's right.
Justin Stoddart 1:22
Let's talk about that. I think that's it, that's great, because there is a bit of a reality check is that like, for some real estate agents, I believe they're, they're at the brink of extinction. Now I say some real estate agents, because some, in my opinion, are not doing what's good for the consumer. And we're living in an era more and more where the consumer is going to win. So for those agents, I think there will actually be applause that like, thank you, right, that those agents aren't with us anymore. Now, will there always be a bad apple infiltrating into every industry, of course, but I do think that those agents that are not innovating, they're not truly adding real value that the consumer will be replaced by a robot. And yet, there are people like Jay marks who are doing some incredible things with their clients, with the community and adding real value to where there's nothing to fear. So Jay talks a little bit about more kind of your perspective on that, why you say, the sky is falling, yet at the same time, everything's gonna be just fine.
Jay Marks 2:23
Right? You know, first of all, it's been a statistic for years, that 87% of all real estate agents don't seem to get past the, to your first two years of their career. You know, as I walk into a room, I'm 25 years in the business, I can count on one hand, how many people been there, as long as me or between 17 and 25 years, there's not a lot of us up in the corner talking about the old days. But I will tell you this, that it doesn't really matter who takes over what and who buys who and what new technology if you are being authentic and being you, and most of all, staying in contact with your customers in your sphere of influence. You know, just this morning, we had our Monday morning meeting, and a part of our Monday morning meeting is to look at every closing. And at the end of every closing, we look at how the transaction goes how the client experience ago and is this person, someone that we would like to put in as a VIP, or someone that we want to make sure that? Yeah, let's include them in future marketing at a higher level. And someone really wants to in touch with you get referrals and things like that. And, you know, some closings are smoother than others. But we are we want to make sure we're adding value prior during and after the closing, we want to be the resource ever. Sorry, long answer.
Justin Stoddart 3:40
Well, I think it's interesting what you just said there, Jay, if you're actually asking your team, is this somebody that we want to add into our VIP list because I think there tends to be a bit of a feel of like, if the person is has a heartbeat, then, of course, we want their business. But there are people out there that recognize the value and those that don't. And all they want to do is Jeremy on price when they don't have eyes to see the fact that there's a value that you're offering. And so the fact that you guys are making a decision, is this somebody that we want to invest our time in, right? Is this somebody that we want to invest time and resources into, to add superior value because they're going to get it and they're going to receive it and they're going to want to continue to reciprocate in the form of future business as well as referrals.
Jay Marks 4:26
Right? You know, just recently Justin we had, we just put it under contract, we're going to close here in a couple of weeks. But I had a wonderful opportunity to put a house on the market of a friend of mine. And the friend of mine was very clear on the phone, we were talking he goes just so you know, I'm interviewing XYZ company and XYZ discount company. And he made it perfectly clear Matter of fact, when I wrote for my ride for my appointment, a road, that's a new word. When I arrived at the appointment, he'd already interviewed Company A and it was me then it was company see afterward, who was touting the I can do all of that for a really, really low price, like 1,500 dollars, something like that. And I was successful in convincing him of my value, and what we had to offer. And when we were putting the house under contract, I brought him here to my office and feel it behind me I've got a big TV on the screen there with the table, and I put all the offers on a spreadsheet on the screen. And that's what started going through him. He actually commented his wife, that company could not have done this. Because it was so no frills. And yes, there is a time and place for a discount and a quick transaction. Yeah, like whenever you're buying a book on Amazon. But whenever you're buying a house or selling a house, there's so much more to it. And it was neat to watch him realize the value without me having to say anything.
Justin Stoddart 5:51
You know, a friend of mine mentioned to me that he doesn't believe that, that robots will ever entirely replace real estate agents because real estate is such a large wealth determiner. And I thought about that. And I thought, if and I'll add this in, if a real estate agent is actually in the business of helping people determine wealth, or increase wealth through real estate, I totally agree with him. There's some that don't write that actually, the only thing they do is help somebody buy and sell as opposed to teaching them how to buy, how to sell, like, where to buy, where to sell, when to buy, when it's like the things that you described you put up on the screen was data and insight that actually allows people to make decisions that will increase their wealth to where your fee becomes irrelevant, right. Whereas people aren't offering that then I'm concerned about them. And they ought to be, as I mentioned before, replaced by a robot and or they just need to up their game, right.
Jay Marks 6:54
So I think
the thing that the most current thing you just said there is people need to up their game. You know, whenever you show up for a if you're going out on a date, you're you've got nice clothes, a clean car, you know, you have an evening planned, you're ready to go. The same thing when you go on an appointment, you know, you want to be ready, you want to be on time and have all your facts and data together. Well, you know, treat your business that way to every single day, you should either an up your game or takes the day off. Okay, because if you're halfway do everything, then you're going to get beat by someone who's committed. You know, they have Yelp, and all kinds of reviews online for restaurants and things like that. But although a, an online review can tell someone about a good restaurant and kind of describe their experience, they can't say a while you're there, do me a favor, tell the owner Sam and Michael. The Jay said, Hello. There are such great guys, you know, I've met their mother, and their restaurant is exactly what we needed this time in place right now. And you'll have a good time. But be sure you love another Jay said hello. That is real power. And it makes it really personal. Does that make sense?
Justin Stoddart 8:00
It does, I mean it goes back to this concept of artificial intelligence versus human intelligence, there is a warmth and humanity that can't be duplicated, right? Like pulling data from one place to another even creating insights around that is can, like artificial intelligence is doing that. But like that warmth of human connection cannot be replaced. And I think that's where when real estate agents try and over-automate. They're now putting themselves competing directly against the computers, right? Like, I agree that they ought to be like, agents ought to be automating a lot when you try. And when you forget about what your critical what your key advantages, right, your home court advantage is the fact that you're a human. And they don't do things like you just described, then it positions them out of their, their sweet spot, right?
Jay Marks 8:54
You know, it's, you're 100%, right. Also, there's real life emotion involved. You know, in real estate, sometimes we work with people that are moving because they want a bigger house is kind of funny. Whenever we're talking about going in real estate and selling a home, people always immediately imagine a dream home or an upgrade or something bigger. Well, people also move because they've been transferred or suddenly lost their job, or maybe their marriage ended. Or maybe there's been a death in the family, or you know what, or just can't afford it anymore, or vice versa. There are graduations downsizing, upsizing retirement, all manner of reasons that people are moving. And it's really nice that when you connect with them, for their motivation, their reason, and help them solve the problem and bring a real-life solution to them. That's where you're showing your value. And that right there is what I'm doing. You know, a friend of mine once said Justin that if he was and he's a retired real estate agent, national trainer, he said, If I already get back in real estate, today, I build a database of 5,000 people, I build a wall around it, protect it, and service the heck out of it, and make sure they constantly knew that I was their go-to source. And so we do, we're taught as real estate agents to do selling and closing and objection handling and knowing our scripts and things like that. But at the same time, you should be constantly serving and staying in touch with people that know like and trust you I'm done busy before, even if you're calling them on the phone and say: Hey Justin, Jay Marks. Just want to call in to say hello and just check on your how's your wife, how've your kids heard you went camping this weekend was a lot of fun? I bet it was crazy taking the 18-month-old camping. So that's kind of personal experience. And we'll talk about it, maybe I read about it on Facebook and call and say hello. And I got something from the computer and made that personal. You make sense.
Justin Stoddart 10:36
That's Yeah, like, just so the audience knows, I mentioned these things in passing. As Jay and I were starting our conversation prior to actually broadcasting this. And these are tips that he picked up and caught on. Like, these aren't artificial things he's he's referencing here, I actually did go camping this weekend, we actually did take our 18-month-old and our other five children. And it's like that was a memorable moment in the fact that you remembered that tells me that Jay, you have trained yourself to listen for things that people are saying, to be able to take care of them as human beings, right. And as a service provider,
Jay Marks 11:09
Right. And also,
I want people to constantly repeat what I teach them and what I say to them on the appointment. Like one of the things I like to say to people is like, Hey, I'm Jay Marks, I'm gonna make it happen. Because you know, I was taught by my father that your word is your bond, and you're only as good as your good name. So make sure you have a good name, you know, and we've all made mistakes, we've got a lot of things, right. We've got sometimes we've got a lot of things wrong, but you learn from it. But if people know that if I tell him, Hey, Jay Marks said this is going to happen, then it's going to happen. And if not, we're going to get in there, make sure it happens. We're going to team up recalibrate, try Plan B. And by the way, we talked about mistakes for a minute.
Justin Stoddart 11:48
Yes, but hold on. I like before I forget. So yes, but like mistakes are coming. But let me share this because you just reminded me of something. And I believe I've shared this before. But when it comes to being really real estate agent that adds superior value. Let me tell you a story. My family was moving. I was a junior in high school, moving from one city to another football was my life at the time, we just won the state championship and the town that I was moving from moving to a new school where the football program was a big question mark, it was a new school. And our real estate agent not only found a great house but she was connected through the fact she was married to the football coach. And she made a point to take my mom and introduce her to the coach and introduce you to other key people in the school. It wasn't a matter of just finding a house. But it was like, What is this mom really worried about? Like what is really behind the scenes here of that movie, like you said, Every real estate transaction oftentimes is accompanied by a life event. Something that sometimes is exciting. And sometimes it's not sometimes a divorce, sometimes you know a kid who's in high schools whose love is football, and it means everything to him. And now he's been uprooted to a new school where he doesn't even know if there if the team is in good. Like, these are real emotions that people are facing behind every one of these real estate transactions. And to be able to actually spend the time to double down on human intelligence and find out what's going on here in this family. And how can I not just help them find a house? But how do I help them connect to the community? How do I like who do I know that I can connect them with it will make their life better? Like that's where you become irreplaceable, right? Is it now you're a connection to solving not just help me find a house or help me sell a house. But help me solve other problems that I'm facing right now because of your vast network and the number of people that you know, and like you and trust you. And so I just had to share that example. Because what you said reminded me of an experience that my family had, who a real estate agent went above and beyond and made herself absolutely irreplaceable.
Jay Marks 13:50
Absolutely. You know, one time I had a lady moving here. And she made the point of telling me said I'm 40 years old, and I've lived in my hometown my entire life. I've never left my hometown before. And so they came here for a house on a trip. And then they came for another second trip. And I said, Hey, what are you doing this afternoon, I thought we'd have lunch and I took her over to a friend's house. I knew what church she went to. And I called some ladies to that church. And I brought in a catered lunch. And they had about eight or nine ladies there. And I said why don't you just bought your lunch and she's just some new friends. And she's still friends, the little ladies to this day, which is really kind of cool. But I want her to know that. Yeah, you can have friends here, too.
It's good.
Justin Stoddart 14:28
You know, we've got a few comments that I wanted to point out here. Sarah Malarkey Johnson commented here, let me see if I can get her comment up here on the screen. She said yes, the community is everything. Thanks for sharing that Sarah. Then also, Hollie Beeby said nothing to fear but fear itself. So great comments. Ladies, thank you so much for sharing that. Let's get into mistakes. Jay, kind of some stuff that you have learned from right opportunities for growth opportunities for learning.
Jay Marks 14:53
Yeah, well, I made a mistake. This weekend, I had a house with three car garage and MLS and the multiple listing service, I had two cars. Why I don't know I went to my sheet my notes everything said three car garage even had the measurements down. But two car garage, and we fixed it. A matter of fact, it was during the open house, we realized, hey, our sheets don't match the marketing, what happened here. And the number one thing I want to tell people about making mistakes is that it's okay. Apologize quickly fix it as fast as you can demonstrate that you learn from it. But the number one thing you need to do when you make a mistake, no matter how big it is, or how small it is, is to forgive yourself. If you walk around beating yourself up, and we've all done that, you're going to affect your entire day and your entire week and possibly people around you. And I want you also to know Justin, I am really good about beating myself up. And maybe making people around me uncomfortable sometimes. And that's something I've been working on is you know what, when mistakes happen? Just Okay, that happened. Let's fix it. One of the things we have written on our wall in our conference room is what victory we all celebrate together and when things are hard, we share the burden together as a team. And we've talked about processes and automating a minute ago about the robots. And one thing that we're processing and systemized on our processes systems, is who does what on the team, and who covers who on the team. Like right now I've got one of our teammates is on vacation, and we've all come together, we're covering her files and her clients. And the systems are still going and going in place even over a long holiday weekend. But the thing I want to talk about mistakes also, as I woke up one time, at the end of an open house, slept through the whole thing. And I wondered what the heck, you know, we've all had mistaken. I've opened up the wrong house before I've shown the wrong house. I remember I opened the door, it was supposed to be vacant. And there's a whole bunch of furniture in there and someone watching TV, can I help you? Yes, supposed to be across the street. You know?
Justin Stoddart 16:56
You know, I think going back to Hollie Beeby comment, like nothing to fear except Fear Itself. Oftentimes, out of people being paralyzed out of things that could go wrong, right, I might mess up. Like, I don't want to make this phone call reach out to a client because I don't want him to say that like there's this fear that becomes truly paralyzing. And what you've just given us, Jay is permission to be like, you know what, when you get when you stick your neck out there and you start doing things and start working, there's going to be mistaken, there's going to be mistaken. But if you can come in it through humility to say, hey, look, I'm human, sometimes I mess up. But I'm going to fix it, I'm gonna make it right. And then some, like, I think it gives all of us the ability to put fear aside and put fear away to be like, it's okay, everybody that I affect because of my mistakes, guess what has also made a mistake. And if they if they're not the type of person that's going to see that then they're probably not somebody that I want to have in my database long term. You know and have my life long term. And so I love that you share that cuz you kind of give even a top producer as you produce at the highest level, nationally recognized that you're saying, hey, look, there are some times where I totally blow it. I think it gives, it gives all of us the ability to say, you know what, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna try to do a few more things that are outside of my comfort zone, knowing that there's going to be mistakes, and it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay.
Jay Marks 18:19
And mistakes also can set you back and make you scared all over again. And then you just gotta kind of repeat the process like it's okay, it's gonna be all right. You know, we've all jumped off the high dive at the pool at summer camp, but how scared we were, you know, but after a couple of jumps, we're flying off at try and do a triple gainer or something, you know, but I'll share something with you. You said something to me that kind of sparked a book that I read once I'd like to share with everybody. And the name of the book is called Mr. Schmooze by Richard Abraham. And I hope everyone goes and buys it. It is a business story. But I've probably given away 30 copies of the book. And it talks about how a very in tune salesperson paid attention to his client and made them feel really welcome and really connected. And I was at a conference recently Justin and there was a speaker from Southwest Airlines. And her role was a director of hospitality. And that doesn't make sense that an airline has someone to charge hospitality, hotels, restaurants, right? And she says, No, we want every single passenger to feel welcome, appreciated and cared for. And that's something that is, and that's going to have people calling you back and they're not going to click by now, they're gonna instead call Jay.
Justin Stoddart 19:37
That's a powerful lesson to maybe even on your team, right to have somebody who's in charge of hospitality around here. Right, like, like the client experience, you know, I know that there's, you know, certain firms that have kind of adopted the director of first impressions, but like, Who's in charge of being sure that the way we show up to a customer the first time and the second time, the third time, it's where people are always like, wow, that was more than I expected. I,
Jay Marks 20:03
I showed houses in a pair of jeans one time. Not that that's bad. But this particular customer, I completely misread the client. And I showed up in a pair of jeans and tennis shoes, and I don't remember what shirt I had on. But he never saw me again went on and buy a house, but he didn't buy from me because he thought I didn't show up as if I cared. That was many years ago, but I still remember that guy, you know, show up as if you care.
Justin Stoddart 20:32
Interesting. And that, like means different things, different people. Right? Right. As a father, or as a team leader, right? You got like you said, You've got to know your audience, like what matters to these people, right for my kids and set my phones in my pocket and it doesn't come out. And when they're talking to me, I'm looking in their eyes and not looking at a screen like that's, that's what matters to them, you know, where as soon as a pretty good client, it was that you dress a certain way. And that you show showed up in that way is what matters to them. So it's great. Any kind of closing thoughts or wisdom, Jay, before I ask kind of the signature question of the show?
Jay Marks 21:12
Okay. Yeah, I have a small rant, I'm gonna do a nice rant. Okay, here's the deal. To you Justin and to anyone watching this show. It doesn't matter. Go be you and work your hardest and bring your A game like Justin said earlier today. And every day, wake up, show up, pay attention, tell the truth, and give it your all. And if you cannot do that, then stay home for the day, call yourself out. You know, we call it tapping out, hey, I'm off. I'm not in this round. But when you do show up, show up ready to play as if the curtain opens on a great performance or the kickoff just happened on the Super Bowl. Believe me, those guys came to play and your client. Here's the deal. I asked one time and agent Hey, what are you think your clients think you're doing right now? Well, my client thinks that right now I'm in here working in phones and making calls to get their home sold, or I'm negotiating repairs, or whatever it is I'm doing or finding them a house. They think that all day long, I'm finding them something, well then do it. Make your clients needs matter. And you'll always have a job.
Justin Stoddart 22:20
You know, that reminds me Jay, one of my very dear friends' person I get to work with every day, Steve Yeager, he taught me this. He said, If your very best client. So if you were to have a camera on you all day long, almost like as if you were the Kardashians, right? Like, like the reality TV show of what you actually do during a business day? Would your best clients still want you to represent them as their real estate agent? You know, it's like, you just put a sign in the yard and hope that it sells let someone else sell it. Are you actively out trying to solve those clients problems? Because if they really had full transparency and what you did, truth be told, maybe you get more clients? Maybe you'd have less. But it's a great question asked like, what am I doing with my time to actually serve my clients to deserve their ongoing loyalty? And the commission that comes at the end of this?
Jay Marks 23:10
Yeah, I agree. All right.
Justin Stoddart 23:13
Signature question. Are you ready for it?
Jay Marks 23:14
Yeah, I'm ready, go.
Justin Stoddart 23:15
What does Jay Marks do? You're a big thinker, right? You've done some some some great, great things and you're being recognized on larger, larger stages for what you're doing? What is it that you do to consistently expand your possibilities to think bigger, like, talk to us? Just a thing or two. It's like, Hey, this is critical for me to continue to think bigger.
Jay Marks 23:44
I'll tell you this, I lost my mother when I was eight years old. And my mother was an incredible force. She directed the choir, sang solos, directed plays, acted in plays. She's one of the top 10 Tupperware salespeople in 1976 in the entire country, pizza Hey, Mom, den leader from my Cub Scout troop, and saying to me every single night when I went to bed, and she left this earth at 35 years old, and in my opinion, she had this incredible, unused life, that the world did not get a chance to experience. And I have made a commitment to make sure that I don't have an unused life. When I leave this earth, I want to leave completely worn out with nothing left on the table. And I want people to say, Wow, at my funeral, I want my gravestone to say wow, you know, and then also have parentheses. Hey, sorry about that, you know, but no, seriously, I am. I want to go out with a bang. And I'm constantly trying to find ways that I can have more fun and laugh even louder and help people. Because I've been through so much Justin I want to say something else. I want to get in front of every widow I can, every widower where I can I want to help every kid I can find that last a mom and dad seemed to really shine this last year, we worked with four widows. And now I'm working with a brand new widower and to be able to sit at their kitchen table and cry with them and know what it feels like. But what makes me think bigger and go forward Justin is. I don't want to leave anything on the table. I want the mark of the man to be a worn out guy when it's over.
Justin Stoddart 25:20
Jay, you gave me goosebumps that were as powerful as an answer. As I've heard. I'm sorry to hear about your mom sounds like she was an incredible lady. And I'm sure from where she's at her perspective. I'm sure she's awfully proud of you to know, the man that you are the man that you're becoming and the impact you're having. So it looks like Jay Oh, look at that.
Jay Marks 25:39
Yeah. Got this off the wall. This is uh, this is her. This is Margaret K. Marks right there. Wow. Friend of mine painted her for me a couple of years ago.
Justin Stoddart 25:50
Well, thank you for sharing that. Jay. It's been a total pleasure to spend some time with you here in front of everybody that has had the privilege of meeting Jay Marks. So if you don't know who Jay is, now you do a little bit, go find them on social media. And if you have if you're a real estate agent and you have any sort of business in the Dallas, Fort Worth area, reach out to Jay he's a guy that you can absolutely trust will do right by your clients. So Jay wanna thank you, good buddy, for your time. This has been a total pleasure and excited to see you continue to grow and impact a lot of people, Justin
Jay Marks 26:26
thank you on behalf of the real estate industry for helping us think bigger. Thank you for developing this platform. You are doing a great job and I love seeing what you do.
Justin Stoddart 26:33
Thanks, my friend. That means a lot coming from you. And we will be in touch soon. Thanks, everybody, again for tuning into today's episode of the Think Big Real Estate Show if this has been valuable. A great way to thank me and Jay is to share this out. I appreciate the comments that have come in and we look forward to impacting more people. Thanks again, Jay.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart thrilled about the topic today. It's one that I'm passionate about. And I was so fortunate to be introduced to really an influencer in this space, somebody who helps with a personal brand, helping people find the greatness within them and share that with the world. So please help me welcome, Jennifer Powers. Jennifer is a master certified coach, top 3% of coaches worldwide. Pretty impressive. She's the best selling author of the book "Oh, Shift". In addition to that, she has actually been a keynote over 250,000 people. So needless to say, I feel humbled to have a big thinker. How appropriate for this show a big thinker isn't today to help us solve the problem of how do we help unlock people's potential and help the world know about these people so that they can make the impact that they're supposed to make? So Jennifer, thank you for coming on the show today. It's such a privilege such an honor to have you.
Jennifer Powers 0:58
I'm giddy, I'm giddy be here, thanks.
Justin Stoddart 1:02
We're gonna have a blast. I know that we've had conversations before. And I'm just thrilled that you agreed to come on the show today. And I'm thrilled that my audience, the think that your real estate audience gets a chance to know who you are, and getting some access to the resources. In fact, I'm going to ask a favor. At the end of this show, I know you have this best selling book, if there's even a part of it, that you could share maybe a digital portion that we could put in the Think Bigger Real Estate Group. So people can kind of get a taste for that. So can I put you on the spot and say, will you?
Jennifer Powers 1:34
Whatever, you need Justin, you've got it,
Justin Stoddart 1:36
you are the best. Okay, so here's something that I've noticed. And I'm really going to kind of present this as a challenge that all of us are facing in today's day and age. And then I want to really tap into your expertise to help us solve this. And the problem that I'm seeing is that because of information overload, because there are so many ways in which people are gaining information, that we are all happy to make split decision on the brands that we support the people the products, the services, we don't have a lot of time to evaluate. And so as a result, people who are not clear on their brand people who maybe aren't outspoken, and letting the world know who they are, are going to get passed up. Would you agree?
Jennifer Powers 2:20
Yeah, definitely. And I think it's becoming more and more so because the competition is becoming more and more. So it really is important to get really clear on that. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart 2:31
So so I'm excited to kind of dig into that with you. But I think that there's a lot of people, again, my this audience is probably very heavily saturated real estate agents and mortgage loan officers. And at a time when their competition isn't just the real estate agent down the street, right, or the mortgage loan officer down the hall, like their competition, is now Wall Street and venture-backed tech companies that are spending massive amounts of dollars to not only create technology platforms that minimize what a real estate agent doesn't get paid. But they're also spending billions of dollars to change the consumer mindset, that maybe the traditional path of hiring a real estate agent isn't as important or isn't necessary like it once was. And for any of us that have been on the backside of a real estate transaction to see kind of below the tip of the iceberg. Everything that a real estate agent does and the value that the good ones really bring that thought is not well grounded, right. And so real estate agents have to more than ever be good at speaking up and sharing who they are. In fact, I was teaching a video class yesterday. And one of the big challenges that that agents are facing is the courage to speak up. And I know you absolutely specialize in helping people step into that role. So So please take the mic for me and teach us what you do what you teach people what your book teaches people, how would you help us solve this problem?
Jennifer Powers 4:01
So here's the thing, I want to start by saying, yes, that is an incredible problem that is facing, I think, more than just the real estate, mortgage agents. But overall, there is a move toward, or I should say, away from the human interaction toward something that's their main storyline. But here's the thing. And we got to remember these humans, no matter how much AI can take over humans are always going to be humans and humans have a very special need. And that is a connection. So I think in order to stand out among all of those, we need to use what we bring each individual as humans. And that is the power, the richness, the intimacy, the service, the person ability of connection. And I know that sounds like so doll, right? But now more than ever, you're no longer competing with just someone else, you can also now you're competing with something that's going to just streamline the whole process and kick you out, right? So I think we all need to tap into that unique aspect of ourselves that people connect with. So maybe you need to take a poll and ask people that you know, or that know, love and trust you. What is it about me that makes it easy to connect with me, some people it might be a smile, some people might be their conversation skills, some people it might be that they always have a compliment, or, you know, positive words to say, some people might just be like, you are so intelligent and educated on your experience that just draws me in. So like find that one unique element that you bring and then exploit it, exploit it, exploit it. And I think that's where a lot of folks are missing Justin is they're trying to do all things and be all things all people and they're getting lost in the noise, right that everyone else is trying to do all things that all people are expecting. So I think we need to sort of rising to the occasion to bring our, the greatest asset of ourselves to the table fearlessly. without apology. You know what I mean, by that?
Justin Stoddart 6:16
How do you when somebody is searching for that? And I think probably most of us know the things that bring us energy, right? They know the things where it's like, man, if I could do that all day, like number one, my energy level goes up. And number two, like I light up other people like I'm really good at that. And maybe it's the paperwork side of the business. Maybe it's speaking maybe it's, it's been an in, you know, negotiations? Is there some other way that you found people to really identify what is their sweet spot?
Jennifer Powers 6:45
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's easy. You have to stop doing the things that you don't like doing and that you're not good at it's simple. spend the majority of your energy on the things that you excel at and enjoy joy, right? That doesn't necessarily mean the things you have experience? Because just because you have experienced something doesn't mean you should be doing it right. Do you like it? Because that's when you're going to shine. You know, that's when you are in your brightest, greatest state of being is when you're doing things that you are really enjoying. And I don't mean just the job. I mean, the things that you're more the way your marketing like so for example, people have said to me for years old, Jen, you should really do a blog, you should you know, you should write a blog. I'm like, you know what, I don't want to write a blog. I hate right here. What
you should be on Facebook is you know what, I don't like Facebook, no offense, Facebook, we're on Facebook. But if I do something that I don't like, how well is it going to come across? Yeah, right. Yeah. But I love speaking, I love networking. I love audio, right audio and video. So instead of writing doing a written blog, I've done an audio blog, because I like to talk I don't like to write. So do things that you really enjoy, so that you can excel and therefore stand out and get rid of all the other things or outsource it.
Justin Stoddart 8:03
Yeah. Did you say on our previous episode, we actually interviewed a guy who has a virtual assistant company, that was a big topic of like, people are spending way too much time doing stuff that they're mediocre at trying to get good at it. And it's like, and what I hear you saying is even taking that to the next level of like, if you don't like it, there's no reason why you should be doing it. And it kind of goes down the theme of like, how do you stand out in such a crowded marketplace. And it's the only way you stand out, really is to only do the things that you are great at right?
Jennifer Powers 8:34
That you love that, as you said, that fills you up that is so easy like this here, this is so easy for me, right? If you asked me to sit down and write a blog post today about this, I would yawn first and then I went to bed, and then I would have an all you know what I mean? Like why not? Why not be in flow? And do the things that come easily to you? Yeah,
Justin Stoddart 8:58
yeah, no, it's your there's, there's and I've shared this before that these interviews again, I do them on a daily basis. And people like, that's way too much like, I could never do that. And it's like, but you could do something every day. Like Yeah, because it's, it's, it's mine. And it actually gives me more energy to be in conversation with people like you that light me up and light up an audience. Like, that's, that's part of my legacy. That's what I want to do is connect, you know, this audience with people like you that will light them up. And that's, that's a joy for me, right? I'll do two or three of these a day. Right? But yeah, like asked me to, like, organize my database. And it's like, yes, it needs to happen. Yeah, might not need to happen. Like it might not need to be me that's doing it. Right.
Jennifer Powers 9:44
Right, right. So for the people listening for the folks out there, you know, maybe take stock and think about Okay, every time you approach a marketing effort, or something that is going to enhance your brand, or your sales ever think about it, how would you rate this on a scale of one to 10? Right? In terms of enjoyment? If you're anywhere below a six, maybe you need to think about outsourcing that to someone else, I think it's 789 or 10. So you're good to go. But it's like every element, it's not just the work that you do. It's not it's all the elements that make up your work that you need to give some reading too. And I'm telling you, when I stopped doing the things that I no longer enjoy, guess what happens to like, for example, I do a lot of things in my business, I speak I coach, I teach, I train and sometimes consult when I let drop off the things that weren't serving me or didn't fill my soul more of what came more of what I wanted came in right in terms of business. And that's true for clients, too, if you're holding on to clients serving people that like are stinky, you know, we're not allowing room for the good ideal clients to come in.
While likes energetic space.
Justin Stoddart 11:01
I think there's there's we oftentimes underway, this concept of opportunity costs, right when it's like this much time. Yeah, but it's but if you were to reallocate that time to something else. Yeah. Like, what are the possibilities? It's like, I know, but I can do it fast. And I know I'm not that good at it. But I don't really want to take on the expense of having somebody else do it. But the opportunity cost of taking that on both in time in resources and an energy and passion. Right that. Yeah, I think we underestimate the impact that that has upon our ability to serve people at a high level. stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Jennifer Powers 11:44
Yeah, I can totally relate to that Justin I'm, I'm actually guilty of that on several occasions. I love doing I love tweaking the website, for example. No one's paying me my hourly rate to tweak a website and do it is what I think happened as we do that low hanging fruit that sort of, you know, is fun, and doesn't necessarily have a great return on investment. But we do it because it's easy, or because we're trying to avoid doing most of the more important things. So I would question like, what's that about? Like, what am I trying to avoid? When I'm doing like nitty-gritty work, like
website updates? You know, I mean,
Justin Stoddart 12:20
it's interesting, I've got a similar set of bad habits that it's like, like just perusing social media, right or over and consuming. In fact, I was having this thought this morning. One of my dear clients, it's her birthday today. And I thought about how important it is for me to use social media as a way to connect with people. But perusing aimlessly, yeah. Right? And allow Mark Zuckerberg to decide what's going into my brain. Right? Not a good, it's not a good use of time. And so that's something that I'm working on is to be more intentional is not just be a content creator, but go connect people that matter to me, and then additionally, cut out the stuff that isn't serving anybody. Right? Which is that yeah, it's pleasing.
Jennifer Powers 13:05
Not easy to do. Because it's like, it's like a magnet to draws you in. So you have to be mindful, like you're saying intentional to say, Okay, what am I here to do? How is this tool going to serve me? Right? and support me rather than defeat me or suck my time away? Yeah, you gotta be really intentional, like most things, right?
Justin Stoddart 13:24
That's true. How? No, I would imagine that if people are stuck there saying, Yeah, yeah, I know what I should do. But I don't do it regularly. Talk to us a little bit about coaching. You've coached thousands of people. Right, and have impacted people on five continents. And I'm sure that's specifically direct speaking. But talk to us about the place how coaching fits into that when people are like, Yeah, I know, I should be doing that. But I'm having a hard time letting go with this. Or it's just, it becomes kind of an easy diversion of time. How do you help people unlock from that and really, really focus in on the areas where they're great.
Jennifer Powers 13:57
Yeah, yeah. Well, the first thing is, is to allow them space to stop the judgment, right. So I think when we find out we're doing something that is, you know, not the best use of time, or we'll start flogging ourselves, you know, like, Oh, I'm such an idiot. Why do I do that? If I could just stop? Right, right. And so when we're using that space, that energetic space to sort of flogging and criticize ourselves, we don't have the space to move forward or even the energy. So a lot of people just want to go from I'm doing this now today, I want to stop doing this tomorrow. I don't recommend that because there's a process in between that you need to sort of letting go of the judgment and start practicing acceptance and what so what I start to encourage people to do is to say, Hmm, look at that, very go perusing Facebook again, aimlessly, right. And just be with that, be with that truth without judgment, practice acceptance around how you're showing up. When you do that, and you can let go of the judgment, I promise you, there will come a time. When you stop, you get kind of get tired of watching yourself, do that very mean, because not judging yourself and you're accepting then and only then can you start to create change. So just watch, watch, observe, observe, be a student of yourself. Because I always say, and I say it in "Oh, Shift!", in order to fine-tune your clock, you need to know what makes it tick. So learn yourself, understand yourself, find compassion and acceptance for yourself, before you even try to make any change.
Justin Stoddart 15:35
It's almost like coming from a space of curiosity. Like, I wonder why you do that instead of like, I'm so stupid. Why do I do that? I just wasted like, 30 minutes. Like, I don't have time for this. I write something as you said flog yourself. Like, just be curious, like, How I wonder why I did that. Like what led to that? Now, because you're right, that self-awareness is so critical in any sort of change, right? To be able to say, Okay, I'm doing this, and I know that I need to be doing that this. Yeah, let's, let's try and discover what's you know, what's the breakdown here? And it's a really interesting approach. I haven't heard it said like that. I love it.
Jennifer Powers 16:06
Well, and that's what coaching does, right? So like, when someone comes to me and says Jen, I want to stop doing "A" and I want to start doing "B" I'm not going to be like, Wow, you are an idiot, why are you doing "A" right? I'm going to go, Huh?
What's that about? What do you think it's about that,
you know, leads you to want to do more of "A" than "B"? I mean, this is just the coach approach. And you can do it for yourself.
Justin Stoddart 16:27
That's interesting. Like, like, I love that question. And I've, I've maybe heard it before, but it's a powerful and like, like, what's that about? Like, let's, let's discover that together. I'm not going to tell you what it is. And you probably don't know what it is. Yep. So let's, let's put it under the table. Now let's examine it, right, let's walk around and look at it. Like, why is it that I don't do that, like, so a big challenge that real estate agents have even to their own personal sphere, right? know that if they contact those people regularly and add value to them from those conversations are going to come? opportunities to buy and sell real estate. Right? People buy real estate yet. So so often, it's like, yeah, yeah, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, they keep kicking that can down the road. And it's interesting to say, Gosh, I suck at lead generation, like, I'm just not good at it rather than me like, like your question, right? Which is really an interesting one is like, Huh, what's like, what about that? Like? Tell me, what was a question that you asked?
Jennifer Powers 17:19
Yeah. What is that about? Or was avoiding? or What am I afraid of? These are all great questions. Um, but I do want to share something with you. I was working with a financial advisor recently, who hated making the calls, the cold calls.
And it didn't take long through the coach approach for him to realize that I was on the wrong price. Right? Is I was on, like you said, lead generation. And when you realize he could shift away from that as being the objective, and toward servicing people, and helping people get what they need information, for example, in terms of their financial health, only then did we have a new perspective on picking up the phone. So in other words, he didn't want to pick up the phone to generate leads, but he loved picking up the phone to help people. So aside from just accepting yourself and understanding yourself, the other thing is, what is your intention? What is your goal? If you can create a goal that resonates more with you, then that activity will come more naturally?
And doesn't that make sense? Really what sense?
Justin Stoddart 18:27
You know, it's, it's interesting, it reminds me of a lesson that I had to remind myself of, so I'm not a big fancy speaker like you. But I got my first opportunity to speak at a, it was a commencement address for a small college here in Portland. Yeah, someone reached out to me and seen, you know, the videos that he did. And they said, Would you be willing to do this? And I was like, Yes, I will. I don't know what I'm doing. I will. And it was interesting, as I started to catch myself getting a little nervous like this is, this is a big day for these graduates. Like, I like I don't want to mess it up. And it was, I had to remind myself of a lesson again, that was taught to years ago is that anytime I'm like, feeling nervous, it's because I'm, I'm, I'm afraid of how this might reflect on me that I might mess up. Whereas if I come to that audience, say like, how can I serve you? Which is the same, like psychology, that you're teaching someone who's having a hard time making phone calls, which is like, I'm not calling? As for myself, I'm calling for you. I can help people. And I just want to check in on you. How can I serve you today? Right? Even if that's not what you say, that's what you intend? Yeah, that's what you intend. That's what you think it takes the pressure off? It's not about me. Who cares? Like if I'm nervous about making that call, I'm thinking about myself, like, forget myself go to work?
Jennifer Powers 19:38
Yeah, yeah, it changes the entire contents of the conversation, the energy of the conversation changes, and the person on the other end of the line feels it, they feel it, and they'll stay on the line longer with you, I promise, which is really what you need, because you're just trying to build relationships, it'll come, it will come, I was just in a speaking and Nashville to an amazing company called Q4 intelligence. And this guy, Kevin, he just his philosophy is, you don't go from A to B, right? You don't go from no sale to sale, you go from looking for a prospect of building a relationship and trust and service around that prospect. So that it's a no brainer, when that prospect needs your services, they come to you. So it's not a direct consumer or b2b sale. It is a building a relationship and a service-oriented mindset. It's amazing. And it's so simple. But that's what we need to do. circling back to what you were saying earlier about how do we set ourselves apart? Yeah, no computers can do that. Yeah,
now programs and platforms can do that.
Justin Stoddart 20:47
I've got a friend of mine, here that says, while the world is focusing on artificial intelligence, I'm doubling down on human intelligence. But I thought, Oh, that's brilliant. I love that is that great like, like, trying to be more like the computer by automating everything be like what they can never become, which is really, really human, really, really compassionate, really, really caring and service oriented to people. And people feel that Now granted, your service has to be, you know, an all-time high. But rather than try and compete in their space come to space where they can't compete, right? Which is being human.
Jennifer Powers 21:19
Brilliant, and we're really good at that.
Justin Stoddart 21:22
Yeah, no kidding. Tell me really quick here, as we wrap up your book, what would people like? Tell me the intent behind why you wrote it? Like, what problem does it solve? Or what can people expect? Why should they go find kind of that, you know, an E-version of it, and then even go to your website, which I'll put up here on the screen?
Jennifer Powers 21:42
Yeah, yeah. So "Oh, Shift!" is really about helping people recognize that they have a choice. So many people feel like they don't have any options. And it's the furthest thing from the truth. So "Oh, Shift" reminds people because everyone knows his stuff. It's just it needs a gentle reminder that you can choose your words, to create the reality, more of the reality to draw and more of what you want, you can create the role that you want to play, you can choose the role, whether you want to play the victim role or the victor role. And you get to choose how you react to things so that you can create more of the reality that you want. So it's all about the power of choice. I mean, its inherent in the title, you can say, oh, shift with the F versus without the F, you can share with your language, right? So, um, it really is a reminder that people can create more what they want by exercising your awesome power of choice.
It's a super funny and fun book.
Justin Stoddart 22:42
I'll bet it I with you as the author, I'm sure there's lots of energy and good times included. So thank you for sharing that. And I would encourage anybody who's listening to this, go to her website OhShift.com. And what a different perspective rather than like like yelling obscenities at life, right? Look at life to currently. Yeah, take control and and and an act upon life rather than letting life act upon us. Right?
Jennifer Powers 23:06
Or, or Justin I like to just remember that you have the choice to control you know, to you don't even if you don't do it, it doesn't matter. But ownership reminds you that you have that choice. Look, it's totally up to you whether you want to make it which choice you make, right? So I'm not shoving down a particular choice. And I just want you to remember that you have a choice you have. And that one place will get you one result in the other choice will get you another result, right.
Justin Stoddart 23:32
Yeah, powerful. I can't wait to read it. Jennifer, I'm actually really, really excited as you kind of describe what it's about. Last question, which is the signature question of this show, which is what Jennifer Powers somebody who's inspired people, really around the globe. What do you do on a regular basis that allows you to be a big thinker that constantly expands your possibilities, right, like some practice or something that you do where it's like because I do this, I'm constantly growing and expanding and, and
Jennifer Powers 24:07
You kind of threw a lefty at me there. But the first thing that comes to mind, and it's very simple as most things that I say, stop working, stop working when work is done. And I think I know real estate agents that can have a challenging time with this, but there's got to be an off button. Because just sleep, you know, when we sleep, we regenerate, right? I don't know, the technicality of it, but we regenerate stuff. without sleep, we can't function well, without downtime from work. We can't function and by function, I'm talking about the creativity that you're thinking about the dreaming the seeing the visioning, you've got to turn it off people, I don't care how you do it. But give yourself that gift because you need a break. And maybe you already are taking a break, but maybe you need to take more of a break.
Justin Stoddart 25:00
You know, it's it's interesting, because some of the most productive agents I know have business hours, right. And it's not 24/7. Yeah. And I think some people do it simply because I'm doing it because I like I want to stay married or actually want to be a decent parent. But what you pointed out is interesting that if you want to grow as a person, there's got to be which like we were designed, not for marathons but for like short Sprint's and there's got to be a time where we stop and recover before we can sprint again.
Jennifer Powers 25:28
Definitely, definitely. And that's where everything starts to regenerate. And that's where you have your most aha moments of what to do next, or who you really are. I'm hearing time and time again. I just heard from a girlfriend yesterday. She's like, Oh, my gosh, I got away. She went to Maine for like, three or four days. And she came back completely repurposed in terms of her career and how she wants to maneuver it. There wasn't it? She wasn't thinking about work and me about nature and lobster learning that
she had her A-ha. So yeah.
Justin Stoddart 25:59
Yeah. And she'll come back a better, more powerful person. Yeah. Right. better able to serve her clients at a higher level. And she may have lost one. But right, well, like, but I don't know that that would have been a good client that had the expectation that they work around the clock, right? Yeah.
Jennifer Powers 26:13
Yeah, exactly.
Justin Stoddart 26:14
Yeah. What are you building just a business or a business that is designed to fund an ideal life? And I think that's it. That's a big distinction. So awesome point, Jennifer. So fun to have you here. Again, I'm going to encourage the audience to go to OhShift.com. And then like, we're going to give a little sneak preview of the book in the think bigger Real Estate Group. So can't wait to get that from Jennifer and post that for everybody. So I want to thank you for your time. I'm a fan. And I'm super grateful for you contributing to this audience as you have. It's been a total pleasure. So thank you so much.
Jennifer Powers 26:48
Thank you. I appreciate it, Justin. Take care.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Justin Stoddart 0:01
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show, I am your host Justin Stoddart and absolutely thrilled today to bring to you someone who is a friend of mine and an absolute icon in the industry in the real estate industry. She acts as the Senior Vice President, national marketing manager for Old Republic title. And I get opportunities to learn from her. And I thought today how appropriate it would be to share some of that and allow those that that tune into this show, get a chance to meet Michelle, and hear her sharing some really awesome stuff that she's learned in how many years in the industry, Michelle?
Michelle Lenahan 0:36
Oh, my gosh, I think I'm 23 now, can you believe it?
Justin Stoddart 0:38
cool, coming up on a quarter century in this wonderful industry? And so first and foremost, thank you so much for taking the time and making the effort. I know, like many of my guests, video is not something that you love to do.
Michelle Lenahan 0:54
So my kryptonite, it's my kryptonite.
Justin Stoddart 0:57
You're, you're awesome at it. So I think everybody's gonna probably private message you in fact, if you have like, find value in what Michelle says today, will you please let her know do more video. Awesome. Let's dive into this. As as you know, Michelle is you've probably heard me say before, is it my mission and passion is really to help people think bigger and to help them as a result of that grow themselves so that their business can grow. You know, you and I both know that businesses don't grow, at least they don't grow sustainably unless there's the personal growth behind it. And I know for that reason alone, you've risen to the heights that you have. And the ability that you have the impact in a large degree because you're deeply committed to like developing yourself and constantly learning. And I love that about you that you like, every time I talk with you, you've got like, stories from your previous positions, stories that you're learning now. Like, there's always just something top of mine, that you're identifying a lesson, and then you're sharing it with other people? Did you have to grow into that and kind of learn that ability to, to identify, to start really picking out the lessons in life? Or have you kind of always been just a curious student like that, you know,
Michelle Lenahan 2:09
what it's, it's absolutely at a time totally curious about everything. And I have to tell you, really, my passion is people, I love to learn and grow. And if there's one thing that I say, every single day, please let me learn from others. So I don't have to fall into the same pits that they fall into. If I can avoid one pit by learning from someone else, then that to me, is worth a million dollars. And so studying people and learning from them and seeing what's working and what's not. And just being super curious, I think, you know, people, people are so amazing, at every level, and there's so much to learn. And I love it when I talk to someone, and they sort of hit me upside the head and make me think differently. And that those are the moments that I'm that I pull from to say, how does this affect my personal life today?
Justin Stoddart 3:00
I love that, you know, my, the signature question that I asked at the end of nearly every episode is, what do you do to intentionally think bigger? Like what like, how do you position yourself to where your possibilities are always expanding? And I think you might have already answered that question is, is it you're just a very curious student of what other people are doing?
Michelle Lenahan 3:20
Absolutely. That, you know, I had a professor in college who said, Never make up a story. Because what people will tell you, it's not possible for you to dream up. We were actually doing a project where, to go out and interview people. And she said, Don't try to skip over this interview part. Because I guarantee you, if you try to write this paper without having done the work, I'll know it because you are not you can't possibly dream up what people are really going to tell you.
Justin Stoddart 3:52
Isn't that interesting? And is that true in life to in business, that, you know, kind of fake and it only gets you so far, like you actually have to do the work. Now some people get lucky. And they, you know, lat like land a couple of big deals. But if you aren't doing the work behind the scenes, eventually it shows up in the business doesn't last like and you know, I don't even add to that if you're not growing into the person that can sustain that success. Pretty soon the tide goes out, and you're left without your shorts.
Michelle Lenahan 4:19
Absolutely. And I think Justin it's so important for you to learn it here. But you've got to learn it here. Because if you just learn it here, it won't translate when you learn it here in your heart. That's where the magic happens.
Justin Stoddart 4:33
What have you found on that note? Before we get into the kind of the content of today, I'm fascinated by this topic, what have you found Michelle to take it from head to heart? is there some have you identified, like, what lessons go from here to here and how you get it to do that, any thoughts on that?
Michelle Lenahan 4:50
You know,
you really have to apply things to your own personal life. And the most important piece to get it to translate from your head to your heart is his judgment. And don't pass judgment, because I guarantee you when you're learning things here in your head, and you're trying to translate them if you're passing judgment, because we all learn and it there are many different teachers out there, and you read books. And if you're passing judgment on the things that people are doing, you're never going to internalize it, the moment you stop to say, this person is smarter than me or wealthier than me or the converse is, they're not as smart as I am, or they don't have as much as I do. And you pass judgment, that's when you stop learning. Because when you look at all of these people, is there something to learn at every stage, that's when your heart is open to be able to internalize that so that you really can get the message
Justin Stoddart 5:44
that's cool, almost opening your heart to the people that you're learning the lessons from absolutely helps with that process. A lot of great stuff. And and and also, as you said, where you have to do it, right, like wisdom comes as you apply knowledge. And like you said, I think there's a there's a really practical component of everything that you learn unless you apply it, it's going to stay in your head and eventually go. But if you start to live it, then you as your soul starts to really buy into that, that this is my new identity this, right?
Michelle Lenahan 6:14
Absolutely. And it's like, it's kind of like riding a bike, people can watch videos about riding bikes, they can hang out with Lance Armstrong, they can, you know, have a bike and dust it off and read all about it and watch every YouTube video out there. But at some point, you got to get on the bike, and you got to pedal because you've got to translate that from your head to the physicality of it. And you're probably going to fall and you're going to be off balance. And but don't delay riding the bike thinking you're going to study it and become a student. And then, you know, before you ever get on the bike.
Justin Stoddart 6:49
Great points. I love it. And what a great segue into us having some really cool things kind of some cool conversations to talk about. So let's talk about for those that are going away for the weekend, right? For those that are listening to this life, or we're live, we're on the cusp of a memorial day weekend. So maybe if you're listening to this later, just know that this applies at all times, not just for this holiday. But you had some interesting advice about when you go visit a different city picking up real estate magazines talk a little bit about that. What's your methodology behind that?
Michelle Lenahan 7:15
Absolutely. Well, we all know in the towns and cities that we live in, we can tell you who the top producers are and probably the statistics on who is doing what type of business when you go away to another town and you don't know, who are the top producers? What What is the real estate market really like there, you pick up a real estate magazine, and this is where you're at your freshest. This is when you have the that that clear mind to be able to look at this objectively and see what resonates with me what where am I learning the most? Who in this magazine is inspiring me to call them and what am I learning about the market. And I think at those moments, that's when you have that clarity because it's not clouded by all of these other judgments that you have to really look at that market and see who is doing a great job. And and, and that's I think what you bring back, so when you're you're out there, and this is why I highly recommend taking lots of vacations, and learning and studying and doing because that's when you get a chance to cleanse your mind go out and look at things from a different perspective.
Justin Stoddart 8:19
Really interesting, because you're right, we are almost too close to our own market, right, we see someone's marketing, and maybe we know the backstory, or we have some judgment about the backstory and why they are the way they are. So we don't look at it through the eyes of a consumer, which is how really what matters, right? Because they're the customer, they're the ones are going to choose which realtor they're working with which property they're going to go see which probably they're gonna make an offer on or not. Yeah, I love what a great way to really learn from other people. Now, in addition to that, I would say of how important it is to build a network of real estate agents outside of your area, right, some of the best real estate agents I know have multiple streams of revenue, one of which is agents from outside of the area that is referred in them and how cool to say hey, just visit your town, I picked up a magazine was so impressed, or I saw an ad show up, you know, on Facebook when I was in your town, and I can tell that you do really great marketing. I'm also a student of marketing, I'm passionate about the marketing that I do, I'd love to have a conversation with you and see if we can set up a referral relationship to where if people ever moving to your town, or I've ever got people moving to your town that, you know, we can collaborate looks like we do business similarly at a high level.
Michelle Lenahan 9:26
Yep, absolutely. And that's this world is becoming so much smaller. And we're seeing that in my role working nationally, we see that happen all the time, people are moving from one area to another, or they have family members in those areas. And it is different, and it's a different market. And it's so fascinating how they're different. Even from our perspective Justin just on the closing process, you know, if someone's moving to Texas, they're sitting around a table, that's a lot like a party, you know, having some typically some food with both sides sitting there, signing the documents and handing over the keys. We don't see that in other states and other states. It's, they're signing separately. And there's a couple of days delay before they're actually handing the keys over. So even the processes on how these works are very different. So it's so fun to talk to different people and to understand that and, and just to see how what are they doing that we can do with that we can take advantage of Now obviously, the closing process is something different. But now if you're looking at the experience, you start to say, Oh, yeah, I don't know why we do it the way we do it. What are the opportunities for me to do it differently?
Justin Stoddart 10:38
Yeah, that's awesome. I love it. A great tip for those that are going out of town and what a great reason to get yourself out of town more often. Right? Let's talk about taking the high road right now, obviously, you and I are both a part of a lot of Facebook, real estate related groups. And sometimes those turned into a kind of vent sessions and complaint sessions. What are your thoughts on taking the high road when it comes to real estate?
Michelle Lenahan 11:03
So you know, and being part of several private groups, and I love it just to have a window into what's going on in the world. And hearing people really talk where it's not public, but talking privately between themselves. And I often see people who get bad news and in the case of real estate, you know, it's your, your best friend or a family member that's decided to use someone else other than you and it does hurt it's a shot right through your heart. And your immediate reaction is to, you know, cut them off, I'm never talking to that friend again, you know, they're not invited to my book club any longer. You know, that's it. And I feel like we have to be prepared in those moments where we're getting bad news and Justin You know, this from working in title and escrow, we have we walk very similar paths to our real estate agent friends, in that we do have, you know, we're out there trying to do the best possible work and enjoy educating and sharing so that we can, in turn, get escrow and title work. And it really is not so much either way that you experienced success or winning, if you will, you get that contract, you get that listing, you get that buyer, but it's how you respond when the news is not in your favor. And And honestly, when that's hitting you, if you don't have a go-to in your head that you can can quickly say, all right, how I have her two pads here, if you're not prepared, then you're probably going to go down the wrong path because it's very attractive, that path of bitterness and snarky Enos and all of that is, is lined with beautiful flowers to try to get you to go down that path. But you have to instinctively when you feel that moment happen, you have to instinctively go to your go to and I always say the high road is never the wrong road. Because I'm watching I watch people even Facebook say things and I want to go into that snarky road with them and be like, you know, you don't need those people. But you find out that people are really when they're going down that road there. There's something else and those even the braggadocio people on Facebook when you see them, you know, oh, and maybe it's maybe you're getting hit because you were up for that same listing. And now your friend is saying, I got this fabulous listing, you know, and immediately you start feeling bad. I would say you've got to say the high road, never the wrong road. What am I going to do here? How am I going to respond? Because every time and I have to tell you without fail every time I go down the wrong road, or I go down the Starkey road for a split second, it feels great to be like, boy did I tell them and then it's horrible. There is no payoff there, right. And nothing a good ever comes from going down that road even for a minute. So always say what's the high road here. And when you train your brain to do that, and I like that, and I know this is going to be kind of crazy. But you have to have a plan, right? And you have to have a plan and you have to train your brain where to go to very, very quickly. Otherwise, it's you spend too much time in that feeling of that shot in the heart, right? I know, I always think about if I'm ever at an ATM, and someone holds me up, you know, if you give them your money, or you don't give me your money of equal opportunity, an equal chance of being hurt, and worse being killed. So I've always thought, Man, if someone ever holds me up at an ATM, and I hope you know, please don't ever test me on this, I'm going to fall on the ground and just start flopping around like I'm having a seizure. And I thought that's going to take the element of surprise away from them. But here's the gig is that if I'm prepared at that moment, and I've got to go to and I'm not sitting there going, Oh my gosh, this person has just ambushed me. And I don't know what I'm going to do next. I know I've played that out in my head, it's good things to playing out. If you're going to win, or if good things are going to happen. How are you going to respond? But if those bad things happen, and this goes even to just seeing things on Facebook, things that are hurting your feelings, or people that say things, that moment, when you have that feeling of this, this doesn't make me happier, it makes me sad. If you automatically train your brain to say the high road is never the wrong road, you're going to be able to come up with something positive to say, and that's going to lift you up and keep you from this really dismal place of, of fear and sadness and anxiety and, and jealousy. Right. So the high roads, never the wrong road. And it literally every time yanks me out of whatever path I'm going down to and then I'm set free from all of this from any bad news. It's coming my way.
Justin Stoddart 15:52
You know,
one thing I don't cover in this show is politics, Michelle, but I've got to make a comparison here, whether you are a Trump fan, whether you are a Hillary fan, it's interesting to me. And occasionally I'll be on Twitter. And it's interesting to see how when, whether the President or Clinton or somebody tweets, how there are immediate trolls that are just waiting to pounce upon that, and I don't think any of them have had any impact on any of those people really. But like what a miserable life, I thought to myself, like it would suck to be that person like I am waiting for someone that I hate to say something so that I can try and counter it like and I think probably nobody on this episode on in this audience does that. But I love what you're saying. Because I think that stepping totally on the opposite end of the spectrum of that, to say I'm going to look for the good in the world. And I'm going to focus on that. And when something uncomfortable or unfortunate happens to me, here's my plan, here's how I'm going to respond to that. So that I can be always out of that negative. You know, I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday, who told me it just a few years ago want to say it was a CIA declassified a document that showed proof that there is a matter associated with thoughts. And I gotta look this up myself. So this isn't totally validated. But, but interesting, when you go back to the book, Think and Grow Rich thoughts are things right. And we might think for a moment, that by us having a negative thought or saying a negative thing isn't affecting us. It is if we play in the mud, we're going to get money period. And so to have a plan to get out of that, whether it be because we're trolling on somebody else, or because something you know, unfortunate happens to us. But I love what you said is that is to have a plan to get yourself out of that. Because every second that you've got a negative thought negative feeling inside of you. It's impacting your future, it's impacting the way you show up, there's an opportunity cost of that. And you're going backward, not forward. So awesome stuff. Michelle, thank you so much for sharing that. Love, love learning from you. Let's go this last topic, you've seen people who have gotten into the industry. And in a matter of three years, they went from newbie to top producer, talk to us a little bit about kind of your observation of this, because you've been in everything from, you know, kind of an entry level role within a title company to now you know, one of the highest roles in the company. And you've kind of seen people progress and grow. Talk to us about your perspective, and what agents can learn from that, as they may be a little too close to their own journey to appreciate the progress that's happening.
Michelle Lenahan 18:32
Absolutely. So three years ago, I picked up and moved from Northern California where I was born and raised six generations, and moved to Arizona. And I have to tell you, I'm so grateful for social media because it allows me to keep connected to people. So that's one of the reasons why it was so easy to make the transition. But working in Northern California for my entire career, I had an opportunity to get to know so many people in the industry and to meet new agents and to watch, you know, to watch them sit in that first new agent training and talk to them about riding that bicycle. And jumping out there. And I think as a new agent, you know, everyone has, they have that same, that same anxiety, I'm new, how am I ever going to, you know, go head to head with a top producer. And you know, they just don't see themselves because they haven't put the 10 or 15 years into the industry. And so it's always an issue. And I know I always told them, you know, if I'm interviewing a couple of agents, and a new agent says, Yeah, I'm new. But look, I No one's going to work harder for you than I am. You know, you feel that. And that's why even listening to some of those ads, there's that one guy who does a radio ad. And he says all of these great testimonials. And at the end, he says I'm not bragging, I'm applying for a job. And when you look at that, when you're applying for a job, when you really think about it, when you have someone who has x number of experience, and they're applying for the job, and they sort of come in the swagger. And you have that new young gun that saying man, I'm gonna work my tail off, you got to tell your best story. So here's what's fascinating. There are new agents and I love it when things hit me upside the head, I'm looking at installations and awards and things like that, as they pop up on Facebook. And people that are assuming leadership positions within their local realtor associations. And even you know, some of the NA rep and WCR, and I go, oh my gosh, little Sally, the brand new agent is now the president of that group. And I went back for a wedding in October. And an agent who was brand new in the business is now one of the top producers and she's actually speaking and training. And this is not unlike watching your kids grow. You know, I think for me now, and I don't have children. But for me now to see my friends who not only have children aren't now driving. And I remember when we were just rocking them, but also that are having children of their own. That's, that's the same in business, nothing stays the same. There's an evolution, it's never too late to start the people who are getting in the business now. And they say, if only I had done this five years ago, 10 years ago, and you look at the market. In 2008, the market crashed. And now I'm looking back at 2012. And thinking oh my gosh, that was the time to be buying up every piece of real estate you can possibly put your hands on. But it's always so clear in the rearview mirror. So the bottom line is, there's it's never too late to start. The people who are getting their licenses today are going to be our top producers of the future. And it's here's what I love about real estate. And I was thinking about this before I called you. In sports. It's all about age, right? You have to get at this age. I mean, people ask Tiger when he won that last year intimate, you know, at your age, and I think what is he, 42? At your age, can you believe that you can do this and he said, you know, it's all this nutrition? This is what I love about real estate has nothing to do with age, it doesn't matter if you're a new agent at 70, 60, 50, 90, I don't care pick a number. It's there is nothing going to prohibit you from being wildly successful at what you do because it's not kept by that one milestone of age. So it's never too late to start. If this is your passion, if this is what you want to do if this is where you're going to stake your claim, then go out there and do it. And I have to tell you, I wish I knew what it was what the secret sauce was for success. Because I have to tell you, I've seen people that got off to a slow start that absolutely knocked it out of the park and their top producer. I've seen people who got off to a fast start and then crashed and burned. It really is. And this is why I people like you Justin are so important. It really is what's going on here. And what's going on here that's going to allow you to achieve all your dreams in this industry.
Justin Stoddart 23:09
Yeah, no, I totally agree. It's interesting, I the regular opportunity of sitting with newer agents, and I can feel how fast they're going to get started in the industry, you just feel it. If there's a lot of hesitation and charity, I hope this works. Boy, I'm really hoping this works. You know, I hope it does for them too. But I'm not overly confident is going to happen quickly. But those that come in and say look, I'm going to make this work, I have to make this work, or I'm going to like there's a certain confidence that emanates from them. That as if I were a buyer or a seller, I would feel that and I would either want to entrust that person with, you know, one of the largest purchases I'll ever make or not right. And so I think having that and again, it's hard to fake that right you can for a little while. But ultimately it comes down to growing yourself because as you grow yourself as your thoughts, get more confident, get bigger, get stronger, your actions tend to follow, right and people can feel that about you that they're in good hands, because you're confident you can be able to take care of them.
Michelle Lenahan 24:11
Yep, absolutely.
Justin Stoddart 24:13
So much wisdom Michelle and and you already answered the signature question. So I think I think that's a wrap. I want to thank you so much for pouring so much value into me and into this audience that think the real estate audience I adore you and I'm so grateful that we get the chance to associate and work together.
Michelle Lenahan 24:31
Absolutely. Thank you, Justin, I'm a huge fan. Keep doing what you're doing. It makes a difference.
Justin Stoddart 24:35
Thank you, my friend. All right. Hey, for those of you that are tuning in today, and you're want to give some love back to Michelle for the value that she added please share this out. Give her some appreciation for what she's done in the show that happens because of people like her. So please give it a share and even tag people in it. You think this would be valuable for them to hear. So thanks again, Michelle. Appreciate it.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Think Bigger Real Estate Show, I'm your host Justin Stoddart thrilled about today's episode, I think it's going to give a lot of real estate agents a solution to a problem that they've always wanted to have solved, which is how do I get more time in my life? You know, there's endless coaching programs, endless ideas, even here on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. We're constantly giving you ideas of how to improve your business and how to improve your life. And the reality is, none of those are any good if you don't have any time or capacity to implement them. So I want to welcome today's guest, Bob Lachance. Let me give you a quick rundown on him. And then I'll let him talk a little bit because he's the guy that actually you know, I listen to, he spent eight years playing hockey at some of the highest levels. And he both here and in other countries, got into the industry in 2004. He's founded multiple real estate coaching businesses. And he now does a lot of investment properties. He's done over 1,000 In fact, investment properties, over 700 short sales. And I'm one thing that he's really excited about that we're going to talk more about today is the company he founded called Reva Global, which is a company that helps real estate agents outsource things that they should not be doing so that they can focus on doing things they should be doing. So Bob, apologize for the long intro, but man, it's your fault. You've got too many accomplishments. So thank you for being on the show, man. Super excited to have you here.
Robert Lachance 1:17
Absolutely. Well, I definitely appreciate you having me, you've had an incredible list of individuals on your show and I'm a huge fan so I really appreciate you having me.
Justin Stoddart 1:26
Yeah, man. I appreciate that. That's super fun to hear. Let me start by this so so for those of you that are just tuning in Bob and I found that we have something else that we're passionate about beyond just the real estate industry which is that of being dad's you should have heard Bob light up his he started telling there are we start telling stories about kids growing up and having them experience kind of athletics. So, Bob, you played sports at the highest level. We're going to get to that here in a second. Let's talk first and foremost about what is your favorite part about being a father?
Robert Lachance 2:01
I think it's probably teaching them and seeing them grow up. I know you have six kids, which is absolutely insane to me, I have three kids my oldest is 15. But I think it's teaching them the little things in lives and in their lives and also coaching them so I coach ice hockey for them all the youth sports grown up so it's really a pleasure to see them grow and teach them the little life lessons that you know I'm sure that you've you're teaching your kids as well. Yeah,
Justin Stoddart 2:28
yeah, that's awesome man. I'm part of the mission of this show, is to not just help people have better lives are better businesses as a result of what we talked about, but better lives. And I think you know, one of the greatest impacts that people can have is within the confines of their own home and the impact they can have on the next generation so super love the fact that you are a committed dad I think that that says a lot about you so super. Thanks so much for sharing that. Let's talk about your hockey career again. We're going to start with all the good stuff. Everybody gets into real estate stuff at the end but you played all the way up to NHL level right?
Robert Lachance 3:06
Yes, I got drafted by the St. Louis Blues who happens to now be in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Boston Bruins which is pretty cool. So it is my team I played in the-so the equivalent of the triple-A in baseball, I played triple-A and hockey for four years here I played one exhibition NHL game, proud to say point a game so that's pretty good. One is this one. And then I took that over to Europe. I played in Italy, Milan, Italy, Hamburg, Germany, Switzerland, core Geneva, Lugano, Switzerland, for the remainder of my career, and then I happened to jump in a real estate right after that.
Justin Stoddart 3:49
How does hockey compare over there in Europe to here is it more popular as popular that's popular?
Robert Lachance 3:57
It's in different countries. So I played on and obviously soccer as they call football over there and not our football but soccer is extremely, extremely popular. So hockey, not so much Germany a lot more. Switzerland, very, very popular.
Justin Stoddart 4:13
Very cool. Now, tell me what's the biggest lesson that you learned from hockey that's benefited your real estate career.
Robert Lachance 4:20
You know what I think the most important thing in any business is actually the work ethic, you have to have to be successful in anything. It's, you know, you put in hours an hour, it's kind of like, you know, if you're a Top Producing real estate agent, you just don't fall out of bed and be a Top Producing real estate agent. It takes the years of practice the years of creating systems, falling through those systems consistently and implementing those just like anything, right? You have all the training, but you also have to take the action and implement all of that training to be successful. So I think that is probably the biggest thing for me.
Justin Stoddart 4:54
And I just saw that you say that the ratio of practice time versus playtime was pretty one-sided right? You practice and you like you said, you follow systems and processes in order to get better not to say that you should spend all of your time planning and prep right we learned that on our previous episode Justin Okay, that that's a bad idea.
Robert Lachance 5:16
What a great episode too.
Justin Stoddart 5:19
But this this concept of, of actually having a process and I'm sure that to become a hockey player at the highest level, you had to be organized, you had to have, like, just put in massive amounts of time to get to that level, which is what you're saying is very similar to get to the point to where now you've done over 1000 investment properties, those same principles carry through.
Robert Lachance 5:42
Yeah, and here's one of the things I do want to say it takes patience to, you know, if you set a goal to sell, I don't know $10 million of real estate as an example, it's not going to happen in the first month. It's not going to happen the second month unless you live in I don't know San Diego or LA or something and you get that one deal that is lucky but to do it on a consistent basis. That is important for everyone to know that it takes the time it takes building and as you go along you have to build your team you build your partnerships, you know a lot of those the past episodes that I listened to from like Lars Hedenborg, I believe that's a say and Jim- yeah Hedenborg. So he talked a lot about for he's from the real estate B school, he talked about setting up systems in getting help in reference to implementing those systems and doing it consistently. I think that's, that was a really big takeaway took away from that. And he's 1,000%. Correct.
Justin Stoddart 6:37
Let's talk a little bit about your passion for helping agents outsource and which is kind of down the path, you know that you're headed right now. Interesting. mentor of mine, Chris Suarez mentioned how NAR did a study that identified that real estate agents 80% of their time is spent on functionary activities. So 14 out of 15 hours right now spent doing activities that aren't fiduciary activities that don't necessarily require you to have a real estate license, they don't actually bring huge value to the client. Now they're important, don't get me wrong, like they have to happen. But they don't necessarily have to happen by the agent. Correct?
Robert Lachance 7:16
Correct. And that's actually funny you say that, because, you know, every time he comes to me, they said, Bob, what? You know what, exactly? I know, I need help. But what can you guide me exactly what the help you need? And I always break it down into two categories. One category would be all right. Do you want to do you want help to get your time back? Or do you want to help you make more money? So it's really time in business, growth and money. On the time side, you can look at all of the tasks that exactly what you just said that should be outsourced, you shouldn't be doing those. And that's one of the things I'll share with you, I'll send you over as a contractor closed document that has 88 tasks that you should outsource it, you know, we all here the transaction coordinator, right, everyone knows what a transaction coordinator is, we have so I broke it down. And I'll show you this. So for those individuals, I'll send this out to you. So all of your listeners here, it's really, it's really broken down into four different sections. That's the pre-listing tasks. That's the listing tasks, you have the sale pending tasks and the post-closing tasks. And there's Ada within those that are when you start really breaking it down to learn in when everybody looks at those, they're going to be saying, Why do I Why am I doing this? Because it's just a waste. You know, my opinion is, if any real estate agents sitting on their butt like I'm doing right now, then you're not making money should be on your feet, building relationships, building your network, building your sphere of influence, etc. And that doesn't happen when you're sitting there, you know, talking to an attorney and putting stuff into a CRM, etc, etc. Interesting.
Justin Stoddart 8:52
Yeah, you're right, those things need to happen. But interesting, that distinction of sitting on your butt versus up on your feet, is it you're right, some of the deepest relations are made face to face right. Now, should you have a social media presence? Absolutely. Right. But a lot of that can happen. And best happens when it's out in the field like you documenting. I just went to a listing appointment, I just had an a, like a meeting with an attorney. And here's where I realized that I can be a value to my clients. I mean, just that kind of content is super rich, it's real time it's authentic. And it's awesome. Because it just happened, and you just help somebody with that. Right?
Robert Lachance 9:28
Yeah. And I let me add to that, sorry, I'm interrupting. Because that was an awesome point. Because, you know, if you just leave a closing, you talk to an attorney, that's way different than being in a listing appointment, and you already have another closing, that's going to happen, all of a sudden, something happens in the world blows up, right, and they get an attorney call an attorney saying, Hey, you got to get a hold of, you know that this, there's a potential lienholder here, you got to get ahold of this person, this person, now you're out of your flow and your listing appointment and end up losing that listing appointment, or whatever it just, it's there's always upon hours, just like you said, that is wasted from getting those calls and not having a transaction coordinator as an example, which is a perfect, perfect role for virtual assistant.
Justin Stoddart 10:12
You know, funny you say that, another one of my mentors, he mentioned that prior to going into a listing appointment, he would purposefully turn off his phone 30 minutes prior, like he didn't want to hear from anybody for fear that he would get one of those calls, right, like one of the calls Murphy's Law, right, where it comes right before and all of a sudden closings delayed, and like the moving truck is waiting, and now you've got to walk in a listing appointment, like your head's not in the right spot to step in, and for it to be game time. And so I think you know, what you said there is even taking it to another level, which is, how can I be sure that some of these activities are never me. So where that stuff doesn't know, granted, there are certain problems that you, as the CEO of your company, are going to need to solve, and you're going to need to be involved with it. But you don't necessarily need to be, you know, on the ground floor, catching all of it, hearing all of it sometimes, again, you've got good systems in place, a lot of that can be dealt with before it ever gets to your desk ever gets to you.
Robert Lachance 11:07
Yep, exactly. And, you know, you look at the top earners in real estate agents, right? Do you ever hear of a disc profiling, personality? personality, behavioral assessments, we do all of that. It's kind of interesting when you look at real estate agents, and the top producers are typically high DS and high highs, right? where, you know, they're true go-getters, they're just drivers, they're entrepreneurs, they just want to get, you know, either a listing or a buyer, buyer representation agreement, getting a buyer and seller under contract, that's what they want to do. And then as soon as they get it, they're on a high, right, then they go home. And then all of a sudden, it's you sit to take a balloon, it's like, now their energy is just SAP because they look at their computer. And they're like, oh, man, I just fill out this listening room and I've got to input it into the MLS, I got to input into the CRM, I got it, you know, I kind of go through all of these tasks, where they want to just be out and they don't make it money doing that exactly what you just said.
Justin Stoddart 12:02
Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about Reva Global, I'm going to put it up here on the screen, because I think people need to be aware of this, that there's an option for them, right? And I think sometimes people are like, Look, I'm not good at hiring people, every time I have it hasn't worked out, well. They don't do as good a job as I do. And now I've got this big salary. In order to get a good person I get like, I gotta pay them super well, maybe your businesses to a point where you should be hiring somebody. But maybe you're at a point where you could just start to outsource some things right. Talk to us a little bit about. So transaction coordination work is one of the key things you guys do. Right? It sounds like, correct. What are some other key things, Bob that you think people ought to be outsourcing, that you see them not outsourcing?
Robert Lachance 12:43
So when you break it down to the example I gave earlier, which is time and money, right, so time, you could actually put transaction coordinator under money as well. But we'll put that on our time. Because you get your time back and you should be out there, networking, building your sphere, we covered that. But the other side of money and helping you-you make money is working on all of the leads that you get in your business. So for example, many brokers, many agents, etc. They buy, whether they're Zillow leads, whether their realtor.com leads, red X leads wherever they get them in, right? So what happens is they buy those leads, and they are dialing all of those leads. And if they pick up the phone and the outbound dial one lead, they don't answer them, they never follow up with them again, they dial in alone down there. So they keep dialing, dialing down until somebody answers and the average Connect rate is not too high for someone to actually answer the phone. So what we do is actually, we have a whole process where we train our virtual assistants to follow up with those leads, right? So the first call you buy those leads because invest agents invest a lot of money on buying leads typically live. And this is not everybody, but many of them do. So when you're going to do that you gotta turn I always look at how are we going to monetize when we pay for something as a lead? How are we going to monetize those leads? Right, I think it's really, really important. And so the system that we have is, number one, you buy the lead number two, the first call should be done by the agent. And if they leave the message, they introduce the team, they introduce themselves, and then they pass it off to the virtual assistant. And you could break it up into three categories. You go warm, Luke, warm, or cold. Going however you want to categorize it, if it's in a neighborhood you really, really love, guess what? That's warm, right? different type of property, sellable property, location, etc, right? So what we do is you have your virtual assistant call every seven days. Right, so now you're calling every seven days until they tell you to stop calling them. right for me personally, if I'm going to do that, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to stop doing it because it's so much work on my plate, right? Imagine calling everyone every seven days, and you have 100 200 300 leads. So if it's a lukewarm you have your VA call every 21 days, if it's cold, you haven't called every 30 days, because could also add a text message in there in an email all done by a virtual assistant. Because what is it 70% of all properties, whether the listings or getting someone under a buyer representation agreement 70% it's all done through follow up.
Justin Stoddart 15:16
It's just a seven out of 10 of those clothes, we have followed up. You know I'm going to throw in another component here that's that came to mind as you're describing this is to have an agent doing that work. It's a little bit of an energy drain, right? My guess is that they're not dialers by trade or dialers at heart. Yes, they want to scale their business. Yes, they want more leads, but they don't necessarily want to be the ones that are always making those phone calls. And so in addition to protecting time and money, it's also protecting energy right at the end of the all of us have a certain limited amount of energy. And if you put an agent long enough doing an activity that drains their energy, doesn't matter how much more time of the day they have their not gonna have a desire to want to do anything else, they're going to screw around surfing Facebook, right. So I think what this can do also is have them ask the question of what's, what are the activities that I do that fire me up that actually put more energy into my tank? Right? There are certain things that we do. But although it's an expenditure of energy, it's so much aligned with who we are in our passion. For me, it's these interviews, right? I walk in these interviews with more energy than when I got onto the, you know, got onto the conversation. So I think finding out what is your sweet spot? What's the thing that you absolutely love to do? And then, like spend more time doing that and everything that doesn't fit within that not everything, right? I mean, the reality is there are some things that you might have to do that you don't love. But the more of those things that you don't love that you aren't great at that suck your energy as opposed to rebuilding your energy. Look at outsourcing those right, take a look at like Reva Global to say, Hey, can you guys take care of this? Do you guys have an option for getting this off my plate?
Robert Lachance 16:57
Yeah, and I think I think I could add to that, because, you know, the, you know, hundreds of agents that I've worked with for the last five years, right? I look at that, and it's the same pain points, it is that time right on one side of it. Because, you know, majority of age, I'm just using this. It's not I don't know the exact stat, but many agents have families just like us, right. And if you want to you and I gotta tell you a funny story to in a second. But if you want to have dinner with your family without the phone blowing up, and you having to answer all those calls, it's tough to do, right? Back in 2005, after I started in 2004, I got my real estate license 2005 I listed this property as a short sale property and Gilford, I do you mind if I go off on a little tangent here. So I'm sitting there in my family eating dinner. And, you know, for me, I'm more of I like going out and, and, you know, networking and building my businesses, etc, etc, right? So I kept getting a call my phone was sitting right here, it blew up and ranked 55 times for this one property, Guilford. I picked up the phone, I looked over my wife, I'm like, dude, I'm done, I'm out. I'm no longer going to be listing a property ever again. So now, I learned from that to build my team. And I built my sphere of agents around me to handle all of that information. And that is a perfect thing to do, as you know, as an agent, and I know everyone's building teams now. But a virtual assistant is, you know, they do a lot for me on the investor side is they do all call answering for me. So all my leads and all my marketing that I send out, they do live to answer as well. So that's one of the things that you could do as an assistant.
Justin Stoddart 18:34
I mean, Case in point, right? How in the world do you do the amount of business that you have? And the timeframe that you've done? There's only one answer, which is you figured out how to outsource some stuff? Yeah, I mean, Europe, you're a product of the product. I
Robert Lachance 18:47
I am and you know, it's funny, someone asked me the other day is why did you start this company? So through the years back in 2004, and I started investing in starting a couple of education programs. There was one thing that I noticed, and that was within agents and investors and all real estate professionals is that everybody needs a little more help, right? Everybody needs a way to get their time back. But everybody needs assistance and affordable assistance, right? Because I live in Connecticut. And if I had to hire somebody would cost me you know, 20 plus dollars per hour. Plus, I have to pay their insurance, I have to pay, you know, taxes, etc, etc. So before you know it, I'm paying this person net out of my pocket 50 something thousand dollars, right? So I'm like, What is it, there's got to be an answer. So it took me a long time. And in 2013, I got introduced to the virtual assistant world. And then obviously, with my education and training background, I had an idea within that 2013 before I launched this, how do I actually take what I've learned in training, but implement that in the virtual assistant world. Now for you know, those of you listening, if you've ever started a company in the Philippines or another country, it's obviously not easy, right? If you started here in the United States, it's easy, but you know, figured it out, you know, through a lot of a lot of wins a lot of losses, figured it out to where now we set up a whole recruiting company train our recruiting department, training department placements and operations and HR, etc over the Philippines. So it's pretty, it's pretty cool.
Justin Stoddart 20:19
So that obviously makes it affordable for for for people right to outsource they're not writing American wages, right and gives them the ability to really serve their clients at a really high level. And really be as, as I understand it, a great blessing to people in the Philippines, right that like the amount that you're able to pay them is a tremendous salary for them and their family. Right. It's a unity.
Robert Lachance 20:45
Yeah, and I just came from there, which is it's, I'll be honest with them, it's such a, such a great feeling inside, you know, we pay for all their health insurance. So it's just a very nice thing that we could be able to commit and get to them. And, you know, I met a lot of there, a lot of our teams, our support teams, family, their kids, etc. And it was just a great time. And it's, it's really nice to see how it really humbling and gratifying how you can help change people's lives and the best of the best. So I'm blessed.
Justin Stoddart 21:18
What do you think about that, you know, I know a lot of real estate agents, their true passion is to impact other people. And one day, once they get their business to a certain spot or they, you know, they're going to go you know, serve in a third world country. And what I hear you saying is that like, actually, by living a better life yourself and spending more time with your family and outsourcing some of this, you can actually be of great service to people living in the Philippines.
Robert Lachance 21:41
Hundred percent. And you know that if any of you on this call has ever worked with Filipino virtual assistants or anybody in the Philippines, incredibly loving, a family oriented just very, like servant leadership and just serving individuals. So if you have a chance to go there recommended. I do want to say there's a ton of traffic though. If you go there, you're going to be sitting in traffic for a long time. But um absolutely incredible.
Justin Stoddart 22:09
Great stuff man such so fun to have this conversation with you and hopefully open up some minds and paradigms about man Justin all this stuff that you share the things that your real estate, these guests that you bring, I want to apply it. But at the end of the day, I get off watching your episodes and I don't have time. Well, guess what? Bob is your answer. Right? He's going to send to me a copy of this report of stuff that you ought to be outsourcing, I'm going to put it in the Think Bigger Real Estate Group. So if you're not yet a member of that, go find the group on Facebook, I'm going to put it in there. And you're going to go through and going to start to identify things that you can be outsourcing so that you can have time to build the business you won't have the life that you want. Bob, I'm going to end with this question. It's kind of our signature question of the show. What is it that you do some intentional activity or practice that you do? That helps you to be a big thinker, obviously, with what you're doing? You've built companies in other parts of the world, you've done some amazing things. How do you do it? Like how do you consistently think bigger teaches,
Robert Lachance 23:05
you know, it's funny I listened in this is to do two different things. Number one, I listen to podcasts. I listen to your podcast I get so for every single podcast, if you get one thing, you take it and you implement it, you get an idea, you take an implement it, that's one of the things that I do. I also read books, and I implement those books. I'm reading a book called Traction right now. And really, it's transforming my business. It's It's amazing. So those are two of the things that I do and I highly recommend that book. It's really incredible. To say it's called EOS entrepreneurial operating system on what it's based on. So I highly recommend that. But those are the two of the things that I do.
Justin Stoddart 23:43
Killer, who's the author of that book? Do you remember? Because it's funny.
Robert Lachance 23:46
You know, Gina Wickman.
Justin Stoddart 23:48
Okay, perfect. Because I actually had a good friend and client of mine who recommended yesterday he's like you need to retraction with what you're doing with think bigger, you're going to love that book. And I want an audible today actually. And there are a few books called Traction I was like which one is I didn't have a chance to reach out to him yet. So I'm sure the same one.
Robert Lachance 24:03
I'd recommend too to buy it. So I bought it for all of my team, all my manager, team members. So everybody is following that now. Some really, really incredible if you have me on again in another six months, and you know, or just touch base, give me a call. I'd love to share what the results of that book are
Justin Stoddart 24:23
done. Done. We're booking it, man.
This has been so much fun. Thank you for contributing so much to the think bigger real estate audience. Really appreciate you and appreciate the guests that have tuned in to watch this live and of course a thank you to all of you that will watch this later on. If you do both Bob and I the favor. If this has been valuable at all, will you write it in the comments just put value valuable and even if you feel so inclined, share this out? Bob's impact will be further spread to more people and frankly, you got a message that I want to share with more people, Bob. So thanks again for tuning in and for being a part of this.
Robert Lachance 24:59
Awesome. Thank you for having me. Really appreciate
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart.
My passion and my mission are to help you think bigger so that you can have a life of more possibilities and more impact. And today I have with me, somebody who is going to personify and redefine for you what it means to think bigger. His name is Joseph McCabe. He's out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the owner of REMAX experts Philadelphia. He also owns home first mortgage owns a title company and an insurance company. In addition to that, in the past five years, he's picked up 112 investor- excuse me, units as an investor, and is raising money to do to pick up about 400 more. Needless to say, these past five years have been a pretty fruitful five years for Joseph McCabe and I don't see any signs of him slowing down. So let me first begin by saying thank you, Joseph, for being on the figure real estate show today.
Joseph McCabe 0:50
Yeah, no problem. Thanks for inviting me. excited to see what I can do to help everybody out.
Justin Stoddart 0:54
I love it, man. So again, 26 didn't finish college and I understand you correctly?
Joseph McCabe 1:01
No, I finished I just did it. Pretty accelerated way. Okay. See, I
Justin Stoddart 1:06
kind of seems like your style.
Joseph McCabe 1:08
Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah, they actually they were like, yeah, you need to talk to a counselor, you're going to take 24 credits. That's part of taking action everyone is so they think everybody's like a snowflake kind of week. And you know, they can't handle it. We better talk to them. So no, I did two years of Penn State. Then I enlisted in the Army, went to school became an MP. Military Police with the army, got out, started training people at GNC or started training people to LA Fitness, working at GNC while getting my real estate license while going to Cabrini. So for two semesters, I took I needed like 50 or 60 credits. So I took 24 credits each semester and graduated a year early. And while I was training people, I think in that first semester, maybe over the summer, when I got out of the army, this guy was like driving in a nice Mercedes, I found out that later, you know, I didn't know anything. So it wasn't the nicest Mercedes. So he could have done better. But I used to make fun of it. And he told me he was in real estate. And so I got my license, and I jumped at I started working out long and foster pull off you start
Justin Stoddart 2:15
and an end. And that's where it all began.
Joseph McCabe 2:17
That's where it all began.
Yeah. So then, uh, you know, because as I do it, my first two weeks, I had two deals right off the bat. And nobody there would help me. I was just kind of brought in and left to myself. So thank God for Google. I just went out there and started Googling what to do, ended up going to an independent and then eventually Keller Williams, open up my title company, Keller Williams, and then realized I didn't like the culture, I wanted to do something, start my own Colts or start my own company. And that's when I decided to buy a REMAX franchise. Although, when I did that I still wasn't sold on I'm going to be in real estate for the rest of my life. So I was still in the process to be a Philadelphia cop.
Justin Stoddart 3:01
So you're buying a franchise and you're still deciding as to whether or not it's
Joseph McCabe 3:07
I think my mind was made up but I couldn't tell myself that, you know,
made up but
but ya know, it was a good experience and my initial partner in REMAX was a Philadelphia cop. My whole family's filled up with police officers, my brother's a cop, and I was a cop in the army. So something that for some reason, I wouldn't let go out right away. But, you know, thankfully, now I did because the income potential was much better.
Justin Stoddart 3:32
Yeah, to say the least. Um, it's funny recently, I was listening to Tony Robbins talks about how we live in North America, where there are endless amounts of opportunity, yet most people don't make the kind of money that they want, they are the shape that they cut that that they want to be in. They don't have the relationships that they want to have. And he said the biggest reason for that is because they don't take enough action. And I want to get into that with you. Because I feel like that's the great Golden Nugget, I'm sure there's a ton of golden nuggets that we can extract for you today. But I feel like you pouring into this audience, what it means to take a step when you don't know what the outcome is going to look like. or even if that's even the right step. Talk to us there when you are present an opportunity to buy you know, purchase a title company or insurance company or a real estate company and you don't know how it's going to turn out you do it anyway and decide later. Talk to us through mine.
Joseph McCabe 4:29
Yeah, I mean, I think that, um, you know, people, people spend all day spreadsheets, and paralysis analysis on every single, every single real estate deal every single, you know, an opportunity that comes up to them, how are they going to get started being a realtor? How are they going to get into the mortgage industry, if you're going to be a loan officer? And it's like, dude, just, it's pretty freaking simple. You need to get out there and talk to people and get applications where the real estate business you need to get out there, talk to people get them to go look at houses, you know, it's not even that it's complex. You're overthinking. And maybe really, in your head, you're like, I don't know if I want to actually take that type of action. And I wish there was a magic bullet. And I think or Yeah, I guess a magic bullet. But when I first got into real estate, I, at some point found Grant Cardone. So you know, I don't agree with everything he says. But a lot of what he says it's true. It's like, you know, no one really cares where you came from, what happened to you, you know, why you're holding yourself back, but you need to get out there and take action because no, no one's going to do anything else for you. So whenever I heard him, say, you know, commit, first do the rest of the, you know, figure the rest out later, that's when I started. Just going out there finding awkward to opportunities would find me, to be honest. You know, whether it was jumping on Toby Salgado show or Pat Hiban show. And now your show, you know, if you put yourself out there enough, you take enough action, you can always take more action, you can create 24-hour action, you have a CRM talking to people three in the morning, and while you're asleep, I would encourage that. But the more action you can take, the more money you're gonna make. It's, it's a simple formula for success. That's it.
Justin Stoddart 6:07
So your take is rather than learn, learn, learn so that I can apply you say Do do do so that I will learn.
Joseph McCabe 6:13
Yeah, four years learned in college, and I use none of that. So I didn't learn that way. I learned a lot in the army, but the army is a lot of, you know, trial and error, get out there and figure it out. And it's a lot more aggressive in the army, but then it isn't college.
Justin Stoddart 6:31
So So obviously, that the reality of going out and getting an application for a loan, or getting a listing is probably far less scary, right? And busting through a door like a police officer, right? You know, on the front lines in the army. I would imagine some of that military training some of that cop training you to like be like guys, we should not be fearful of this. This is not this is this crap is not real. This is not anything to be afraid of. You're not going to shoot us in your head. You know,
Joseph McCabe 7:03
if you think about it too long to create all types of reasons why you can't do it. I mean, you'll come up with a million different things million different you can play the what if game all freakin day, right? And then it's like, well, all the country songs What if you don't you know, what if you don't do it, and you know, the best examples like I was gonna get on Pat hype. And when I got all that hype and show, and I talked about the mortgage company, and my genius self decided to say that no one calls me from the show. Well, now we're opening from Pat Ivan's call alone 13 branch offices of the mortgage company nationwide. With realtors Who do-you know our offices, we're still fairly new at five years old. So we do like five will do about five to 600 transactions this year as a brokerage. Not including the mortgage company, the real estate brokers, we're doing joint ventures with doing two 3000 deals a year. And I'm a baby to this industry. These people have been in the industry 2030 years, now they're going to be my partner is on a mortgage company. So people would also get caught up in Oh, I don't have enough experience really? Who the hell told you that? Because did you actually go out and try the chances are probably not.
Justin Stoddart 8:12
And what's showing up for me, Joseph is that the world in which we live, that just our industry is void of leadership, right? That it's simply looking for confidence for people who could confidently say, look, we're going to do this, we're going to figure it out, there's plenty of resources, the only thing is lacking is us being resourceful enough to figure it out. And like, we're going to go do it. And there's a whole herd of people that will say, I'm following that guy, I'll follow that guy because that guy's got the confidence and the resourcefulness to figure it out.
Joseph McCabe 8:41
Yeah, it's true. It's true. It's true. The, I just think like, no matter what it is you're doing, or no matter what it is you want to do. I mean, there's just, there's just so many people in every industry, every walk of life, every business, you know, hourly jobs, they want to get promoted to manager, but then they still, you know, they're on their iPhone the whole time working at the retail store, they're at, instead of busting their ass, you know, yeah, you're making $10 an hour now, but you could be making 30 or whatever score manager makes. But the point is people just get so caught up in all What are all these possibilities that could go wrong, and then they don't take the action to actually get the positive result. Yeah, that's another issue too
Justin Stoddart 9:21
you know, it actually reminds me when I was in college, I was a construction management student, a lot of my counterparts were like, nervous about having a job during, you know, during school for fear that they wouldn't have enough time to do well in their studies. And if they had a job, it was a very simple kind of like, I'm gonna go clean up a job site type job, and I have kind of a similar strategy as you Although yours is on absolute steroids. Like no like it like building a home is not rocket science, right? It's not brain surgery. Right? Me this out. So I will literally cram not even at school, it was like all the internet, right? Like, how does like what happens here, I quickly was promoted to oversee a division of the company and left and started my own company. And I remember like coming back in the classroom and being like, man, how did you get that job? And it's like, guys, like, you don't have to know everything to get started. You don't get started. If you're ever going to know everything right? Are you ever going to know anything? Yeah. But it's fun to hear you say that? Because you're inspiring me? to think bigger, right? It's to take a look at like, what am I holding back on? Because I feel like I don't have I don't know enough about yet. When you're right, we have the freaking internet at our fingertips, people there are, there are endless amounts of content, teaching you how to do anything, if you'll simply apply yourself and turn off Netflix, like candy crush, and go learn something in five years, you can change your stars entirely.
Joseph McCabe 10:51
Yeah, it's true. And, you know, I didn't know anything about anything and mortgage except for same thing you probably know is when the doing goes south threatened and ever send a loan officer deal again. Now I know the ins and outs of underwriting and guidelines and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a lot of things that I never wanted to know about the business that I know now. And you know, we started the mortgage company three years ago. And in three years, we're now going national, we're going to go from a mortgage company that makes a couple hundred thousand dollars a year to millions every year in one freaking podcast, one podcast that I knew this, I had a lot of followers and I was like, you know, shit, these people are rock stars compared to me, because I listened to them. And now you're working with me. So this is so so much fear people just get so caught up in the wrong things. What, um,
Justin Stoddart 11:43
talk to us through kind of this fear process when what when fear comes at you? Right? I'm sure prior that, let me let me back up really quick. I don't want to the point. Is it getting into the mortgage business for you? You realize you didn't know everything? Right? And that there was some liability, like you could find yourself in jail if things went really sour. Right? Right. But you did what you surround yourself with people that understood that side of the business, and you bars forward, I'm assuming that I miss something.
Joseph McCabe 12:07
Now, Google man, if it wasn't for Google, I mean, at the end of the day, you know, even with realtors, like oh, what can I do for advertising? Well, did you did you call the real estate commission? Because you've been talking about this advertising idea? For like 13 years? Why don't you call the real estate commission and find out if it's legal? You know, and it's just like, it's just it's common sense or google it? Hey, is this legal? The top right the hell up? And if there's a whole website in the mortgage world called MLS nationwide licensing something you go on there, it's actually the exact guidelines exactly what you need to do. I mean, all the guidelines are clearly spelled out. And in the broker world, the mortgage broker world, you know, used to be a dangerous world, it's not anymore, we're so regulated. So cap, there's nothing can hurt the consumer, you can try, but you can't, because there's so many wholesale wholesalers that kind of handle everything. And basically, with the mortgage, the mortgage world is becoming your large banks are just becoming services. And then you're going to have brokers at the bottom. And the brokers are going to make their percentage or 2.75%, similar to real estate, and run credit, take the application and the wholesaler, lenders are going to do the rest of the work. So it's a really safe place a good place for a consumer to be and allow, sir.
Justin Stoddart 13:23
So back to this concept of when fear comes at you. Yeah. What do you do? Like, what's the internal dialogue? What are the words that go through your head? Yeah. When all of a sudden, you've got this great idea. But fear comes up because I know you're not immune to it. Do you just move past it? through how you move past it.
Joseph McCabe 13:43
Yeah, you got to find life, you got to find the dark side. You got to find the dark side. And you know, Grant always says fear means your head in the right direction. And then, you know, you listen to other other guys like in the military will turn it into a joke. My new favorite line is, you know, Jocko willing, that is right. But he always says, you know, used to say to those guys stand by to get some, you know, and it's a joke, like, you know, we're totally screwed, like, but we're making a joke out of it right now. And I think if you take it that way, and you take everything a little more lightly, and, you know, there's really nothing you can't fix, or you can't reverse, you know, unless you're gonna take a life for do something criminal. There's nothing you can't do that you can't fix. And you're not going to get in trouble for it. Yeah. I mean, like, you turn around and say, Oh, you know, I didn't know Sorry, I'll correct that move, you know, fix it moving forward. You didn't do it to 300 consumers. But if you make one mistake, it's usually something that can be corrected. Or talk your way out, and we're all salespeople. So I just see, like, you know, a lot of the times people get so caught up in what can go wrong. What, what if this happens? What if I get sued? Okay? What if you get sued, you probably need to get sued to be successful. You know, I've been sued, you have to be soon to be successful. It's just how it is you get sued twice. And you're like, you know, thank God I listened. You know, Grant would say, if you don't get sued, you're not taking enough action. It's freakin true. It's 100% true, because you got to be pissing people off. And I can say right now that at 26, you know, there's some significant brokerages significant brokers in our area that have three 400 agents, you know, like the number one Keller Williams in the city, that the broker the owners there, they know my name.
Justin Stoddart 15:20
Of course they do.
Joseph McCabe 15:23
Yeah, because I'm in front of their face taking their agents, but will also go have coffee with me and find out why I'm such a lunatic.
Justin Stoddart 15:29
Yeah. Yeah, I think it probably comes a lot down to hunger. I mean, what I hear coming from you that that's, that's not being spoken, but it's being felt, is that you're just freaking hungry to succeed, like you want it worse than other people want it. And I, I sense that because, like, what I'm realizing is it and really kind of a clarion call to them to the audience, that if you don't have the life that you want, or your or if you're not on a fast path to get it. The only one that you can only perceive look at it yourself. Because we live in America, right? This is the most fertile soil to build a great career and build a great life that has ever been on the face of this planet, ever. Yeah. Frankly, if-if you're not like, again, on a fast track to get what you want or don't already have it, then it's entirely that you don't want it bad enough, correct?
Joseph McCabe 16:19
Yeah. No, it's true. And I mean, the one thing you know, is you're going to die. You know,
that's about all you know, so you're gonna die at some point. And people like, you know, I think Gary Vee says a lot of good stuff. But he also says some shit that he needs to not say. I don't think that you know, at 18 years old to 25 years old, while you're in college, I don't believe that that's the time that you should be out there. partying and taking dumb risk like that and traveling the world, I think you should be focused on building your like, I mean, me personally, I'd rather go to Italy when I have hundreds of thousands of dollars, and I really don't give a shit. You know, versus now where it's like, oh, man, you know, I've got a couple thousand we got Italy, let me budget for this on the plan. What do I want to do do that
Justin Stoddart 17:00
backpack, hostel.
Joseph McCabe 17:04
I can put in so much work right now. Because of my age, I don't need sleep, and I can still go to the gym for two hours a day work while I'm there. You know, my I'm the youngest person in my office. So I'm attracting the people that do all that bullshit when they were young. And now they regret it. Because they don't have their 401k is running out. So now they're selling real estate again, you know, whatever the issue is, but the point is like, oh, man, I hope they don't watch them. But the point is that, like those people who do take who kind of mess around while they're younger, I don't think that's the right message. I mean, if that's really what success is for you, that's fine. But I think that there's a lot more potential when you're under, under 40. You know, you this is the time you have the energy you can get out there and kill it.
Justin Stoddart 17:50
I agree. I think sometimes people, they they say no, I'm going to go play while I'm young. I'm you but like, I have as much fun working as I do on vacation like that go in like to step in and make an impact in someone's life. Business. Like, I get on vacation, and I like four days in and I'm like, all right, like,
Joseph McCabe 18:09
my
Justin Stoddart 18:11
feet in the sand is fun for minutes. But like I got people to help. I got things to do. I got this. This is the bill, you know,
Joseph McCabe 18:17
right? Yeah, my work is my vacation. I say that I'm stressed when I'm in when I'm on work, because people need me. We're still small. You know, I'm the broker and I am the CEO of home for mortgage. So I'm running both divisions. I'm running both sides. You know, there's no time for that.
Justin Stoddart 18:33
Yeah. This has been great stuff. Man, I really appreciate you coming in and changing some paradigms of what it means to think bigger. I'm going to ask kind of our signature question here as we wrap up, which is what do you do to keep this whole episode has been about this, which is funny, you know, but what did you do to position yourself to, to, to always be expanding your possibilities to be thinking bigger, right? Like, like, What's something that you're, you've grown accustomed to doing to where it's like, hey, it's because of that, that I'm a big thinker. It's because of this thing that I do, or these things that I do? Any come to mind?
Joseph McCabe 19:06
Yeah, stop listening to people that aren't where you want to be. You know, I mean, it's amazing how many people below me financially, that will give me advice. My mom still tells me it's really hard to run a real estate brokerage, but she's been a teacher her whole life. So it's interesting. And if, you know, talk to the people that are where you want to be, you know, I'll, this week last week, the week before that, now that we're opening nationally mortgage company, what am I doing? I'm calling every mortgage broker and every correspondent lending co that will pick up my phone and say, What am I missing? And guess what they'll tell you, they'll tell you exactly what you're missing, and they'll help you people want to help you. And people underestimate human nature. You know, one of the things I'll just say to everybody is like every realtor in the world will tell you what, ask your client for referrals. Okay, well, the studies show that like 80% of realtors never ask for referrals. What's funny is they'll give that advice to every other realtor, look, never asked for the referrals, not getting your clients would give them to you. Never underestimate the value of just the human being and what they'll do and how much they want to help you and reciprocate that.
Justin Stoddart 20:13
Great stuff, man. Yeah, I couldn't agree more that there's, again, people want it bad enough. They can be resourceful. You don't need all the resources. You need to be resourceful. Right? Once you've got that hunger once you realize that, hey, somebody's doing Joseph McCabe, right is doing it. I'm hopeful that a lot of my audience is going to light up today because of what you shared. They're gonna realize like, Man, I'm living far below my privileges. I'm living far below my means, far below my own possibilities. And if this big thinker can do it, I'm going to be a big thinker, too. I can do it as well. So that's been super fun. Man. I really appreciate the wisdom. You shared that fantastic. I'm going to definitely invite you back on the show because you're fired me on that.
Joseph McCabe 20:53
Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate it. For any of your listeners, as I said, I've been showing if there's anything I can do, you know, if you have any question, if you have a massive real estate team or your own real estate brokerage, and you think that, uh, you might want to open up a mortgage company, we can talk. So I'll help you with your income right there.
Justin Stoddart 21:11
Go ask the question, seek the help and you'll be amazed at what, like you said what people will do.
Joseph McCabe 21:17
Yeah, that's true.
Justin Stoddart 21:18
Alright man thanks again for being on the show
today. Thanks, everybody for tuning in to this episode of Think Bigger Real Estate Show. This has been fantastic one on Thank you, Joseph. And we'll talk again soon my friend
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the think bigger real estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart and I am really excited today to be here with a good friend of mine with James Adair, of Sierra Pacific mortgage to talk about this, how to differentiate in a crowded marketplace. James and I've had this conversation before that so many agents do what every other agent does. They show up the same way. They say the same things, and they all lead to generating the same way. And that today, I'm going to have James share with us some absolutely brilliant ideas that he helps, that he really mentors and has a process and a system to help real estate agents really stand out. And in again, accredit marketplace. So first and foremost, James, thanks for being on the show today.
James Adair 0:36
Sure, can we get some confirmation from anybody that's on online? Did they give up? So?
Justin Stoddart 0:44
Yeah, if you're watching this live, if you would type live, if by chance you're watching this, as a replay, please put replay once you see this that kind of help us know who's watching the show. So anyway, we'll kind of keep an eye on that. So, James, let's get this.
James Adair 1:00
Let's get into it here. Right,
Justin Stoddart 1:02
Yeah. Right, let's, let's bust this out. So how common is it for you to hear real estate agents say that all their businesses coming from cold market prospecting, open houses, online leads?
expired for sale by owners? Like, how common is that?
James Adair 1:19
Well, I know it's common in town for and I think it's more common for newer agents who are trying to build their book, you know, it's like, All right, let's call some expired. Let's call some fizz bows, let's do some open houses, let's just get in the mix. And fight it out for opportunities. Right. So and I, I don't think that's a bad idea. I think that's a, it's got to be a part of every new agent's business. But I do see a lot of teams that really just prospect focus, prospecting focused, and this is they just crank and crank and crank. And I think it can be exhausting. It can be demoralizing. And it's hard to get the right kind of momentum. If you don't, if you aren't connecting. And you aren't getting some easy wins every so often, right? And so when I say an easy win, I guess what I'm talking about is a referral. So someone saying, oh, man, you gotta call Justin he'll sell your house, he's the best. And then someone calls you like, hey, James told me to call you, I need to sell my house and then use get right to work. You don't have you're not. So there's a difference with prospecting. And there's a difference in selling. And we need to do both. But we really need to be focused on selling, selling is where the money is made. Right. And if you get a referral, you can really compress that timeline. The more referrals you get, the more often you're just selling and educating your clients on how this works, and how you can help them not trying to convince them to choose you and then go into selling, you know, yeah. So I wanted to do a little call back to an episode you did a while ago when you talked about the book Blue Ocean Strategy, which is such a cool concept. It's actually kind of a, it's kind of a classic now, right? I mean, it was that that came out in Oh, six, I think it's an older book. But it's basically about trying to find ways to make it operate in parts of the market, that not everyone else is operating in, operate in a place or in a way that you're not competing with as many people if you call it for sale by owner, it's like that person's just getting you to know, 20 phone calls a day until they list with an agent. And then in this just make it's like part of the value proposition of that for sale by owner is make my phone stopped ringing with other agents, please. But what we're going to talk about at our this Wednesday, we're sharing the stage again, on the third command performance of the exponential referrals workshop, you've got a great piece of content, Nick Crowder, has got a great piece of content about leveraging referrals from retiring agents, such a huge idea that he's got a great system built around. But I'm going to be talking about what I call the homebuyers playbook strategy, which is about leveraging your existing business relationships and turning those into referrals. There's, there's plenty of businesses that everyone uses every day for their own selves, their own families. And well, first of all, most of them, not most of them, but maybe more than you'd like to say, don't even know that your real estate agent. Don't even know that your lender. So make sure everyone knows what you do that if it's a business that you're frequenting, make sure that they know what you do.
And then you want to get into a conversation around. How does your business work? Right, you want to ask them that I'm getting into now this is sort of the, this is the formula for getting your existing business relationships to start referring business to you. Like if you go into a dry cleaner, or if you go into your I have a great story. But my optometrist, I'm not wearing my glasses right now. But I have them. I don't need them all the time. But I do wear glasses sometimes. And I have an optometrist up the street. And I got into this conversation with her, I was strapped into the machine. And I asked her how does this business work, she's actually kind of new. So she had just bought the practice a year before. And it was only the second time I'd seen her. And I'd seen her predecessor in months before. So I was asking her like how the transition was going and just ask her some business questions. And how he asked her how, how do you build your business? And is it a, you know, is it something that's automatic? Or do you something is that something you struggle with, and she just really, really lit up and said, It is something we struggle with, it is something I wish we could devote more energy to, you know, we have a good client list, we have a good location and a parking lot and all the things are in place. But there's definitely room to improve. And we just really started getting into that kind of conversation. And she's, I mean, she's a medical professional, and a highly, you know, specialized kind of service provider. But she's running a business, and it's a retail business. And you know, there's ups and downs, and she has to manage that part. And probably no one's taught her how to do that. And you know, you and I've talked about that all of these highly trained professional services are just winging it, you know, and as a lender, as a real estate agent, we've been able to probably get more training around marketing around client conversion, client retention, around scripts, you know, we can really bring a lot of value to these people. And so just asking, how do you build your business? And, you know, hey, would it be? Would it be okay? I mean, I really enjoy coming here, I have a book that I hand all my clients, it's just a home buyers playbook. And I feature all of my preferred business partners in town, and I'd say, you know, keep this book, it'll show you how to buy the house, and you know how to maintain the house, but in the back end has all kinds of pre-screened vetted local professionals for all kinds of services, not just Home Services. And would it be okay, if I featured this business in my book, I'm going to give out at least 100 of these books this year, maybe more? And she just stopped in her tracks and was like, that would be amazing. In fact, my husband, I am thinking about buying a house right now, it was like a $1.1 million purchase that she and her husband were looking to do. And I uncovered that. And then more referrals just by offering to be curious, having a system in place that I could actually drive business to her and, and showing up as a local business peer, not just a real estate guy or a mortgage guy trying to take something from her. I'm trying to give something to her. And then she gave something back to me just because so if you can do that, with all of the different services that you frequent as a real estate agent, not I mean, of course, there are all kinds of Home Services, contractors, landscapers, oil, tank people, floor, finishing windows, I mean, there's all the all of these things that you are that are in your Rolodex, and you're glad just to have someone take your call. But if you can show up and say, Hey, let me ask you about your business. How does it work? How do you-you know, and you might also find someone that you know, you've been referring business to for years. And you're just glad that they'll take your call, like a CPA or something. And it just says, hey, if you get into this conversation, how does your business work? And they say, you know, and it seems like there's an opportunity. This is a true story, the CPA, a friend of mine, who's doing the strategy on the East Coast, said that they uncovered someone they've been referring business to for years for like 10 years as an accountant. And they finally got up the courage and the focus to say, Hey, I, I want to see if you will be able to refer business back to me, I've been referred to it for you for years, and I love the way you operate. And I love the way you take care of my clients. And he said, Well, you know, my wife's a real estate agent. So I'm not in a position to refer you at all. Right. So this is an opportunity to have these formalized conversations with these business partners. And you may uncover something where you're like, man, maybe I could find a new accountant that could actually be a real business partner, for me, it's an opportunity for you to make sure everyone's pointing business back and forth, and that's reciprocal. But you have to be in a position to be, it doesn't work. If you're not the first person to give. And it has to be real, you have to really give of your mind you have to really give of your energy. And you have to be thinking about ways to engage your conversations, your clients, whenever you're in your day to day, how can I look for opportunities to be to refer? Right? That's the key.
Justin Stoddart 10:33
Let me point out a couple of things here, James, one thing I love that you've kind of offered up is this concept that real estate agents, oftentimes, again, they're taught to be hunters, because they have to be right. So they go out into the marketplace. And they go to like the lowest hanging fruit for people that have already raised their hands for somebody owners expires, online leads. What they find, though, is that that's a crowded space, right? It's a bloody ocean, going back to your reference to the blue ocean strategy. And as a result, the only thing that they have to differentiate themselves is how many times can they follow up? Or how low will they go on their price? Right, we use it as a better strategy is to actually go into the community and look around and say there are other business owners that are struggling with the same problem as I am, which is, how do I get more business, and then take the training and tools that you've learned on being strategic and offer it to them. But here's what I hear. Heard you point out subtly, which is that sometimes people approach those relationships still as the hunter, right. Like they, they treat an optometrist, for example, from your perspective, but walks in and understands like, oh, you're an optometrist, I'll bet you could give me a lot of referrals. I'll bet you people that sit in this chair right here that need alone or that need to sell real estate, I'm going to leave brochures and business cards for you. So when people bring up real estate, you can refer me right? So it's the same hunter mentality, they just applied it to somebody else, which is going to go over well, but I hear you say have more come from contribution comes from a long term perspective, and actually coming clean, what can I give to you? I understand, like, how does your business work? That's an amazing question. Like, how do you get business? How do you grow a business? Like how big do you guys want to grow? Like those kinds of like conversation starters put you on a totally different plane, because most real estate agents don't care. They just care. We're like, we're going to get the next paycheck from Where's your come in saying, like, teach me about your business, teach me about your struggles, teach me about what's working well, and then you might be able to contribute some things that you've learned and even like you've said, which is seven and say, you know, I happen to be a lot of people that are moving in from out of the area, I happen to meet a lot of people that are moving from one neighborhood to another. And I'll My guess is that there's going to be a group of those people that need a new optometrist, would it be okay, if I took some of your cards, and strategically placed them with people who I thought it would be a value add for me in order to do that, like it's, it's totally different, not just a different group of people you're marketing to, but as a whole, totally different mindset instead of getting it gives book, right? But what ends up happening, the interesting thing that your story illustrates is that you went into giving, and in that same conversation you got, whereas had you gone into getting right and said, like, Hey, I have a lender, do you need to refinance? She probably would have been,
James Adair 13:09
right? That's not an appropriate conversation.
Justin Stoddart 13:11
Yeah, I'd be weird, right? But because you can't immediately, like or something to harvest there. Sometimes I think people go, Well, if I'm gonna be a farmer, I'm not gonna be able to eat till the fall, and I need to eat this month. Right? Like, just showing up differently. Like, you'll get actually, the benefit of almost being a hunter or business will start to come now. Because you're so different than the crowd of real estate agents that are doing the same thing that everyone else is doing.
James Adair 13:36
Yeah, that's that, well, I mean, you're always going to have that problem, you're never going to as a real estate agent or lender, you're never going to be so unique, is just, you know, I mean, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe, maybe I'm not thinking big enough, maybe there is a way to to be so unique, that it's just like, you have 100% conversion, and you never compete with anybody because what you do is so different. You know, that's a that would be a great thought in your mind. Like, what would that business even look like? Right? Yeah. Anyway, that's different that's a, for a different episode. But yeah, I think the idea of referrals, the idea of these transactions, I mean, there's real estate transactions happening all around us. And we're just not involved in most of them. Because they're, we're not being brought into them, we're not being pointed to them. And we talked to so many people, we interact with so many people and in a non-real estate way. But there are many more opportunities to formalize those basic days to day relationships that we all have, in a way that you will be I mean, if you can get 15 area business operators, to have a formal relationship with you, and you're already using their services, you're already either recommending them systematically, or you are using you're a client of them already. So you've already got your foot in the door, you have a relationship that's meaningful to them right away. Secondly, you come from contribution, you ask them how this work, how can I help? Is there what's your biggest problem? You know, maybe it's not even business related? Maybe it's something else? I don't know. But you can maybe connect them to some other kind of service that could help. I don't know that. You got to ask the questions. And then you present yourself as a solution to their business problems, hey, I'm, I'm a retail business operator, as well, I meet you know, I'm talking to, you know, on a good day, I talked to five new clients on you know, but I'm talking to five to 25 people a week, that are interested in relocating, making a big transition, they might need your services, they might need to connect with a new version of a service on one side of town, now they're on the other side of town or whatever. I'm putting your name and number in front of them, would that be valuable to you, I'm gonna have a system for referring my preferred business partners for you know, from here on out. So I want to do that for you. And all I ask in return is that whenever you have an opportunity, whenever you hear someone talking about mortgages, whenever you hear someone talking about buying a house that you have to call me, I have to be in that conversation. That's how that's, that's what that's the one thing I'm really focused on right now is formalizing my existing business relationships. And they get it and they want to be a part of it. So it's a, it's a great script. Easy.
Justin Stoddart 16:38
And they would love to have any time somebody has anything about eyeballs. Right. That's optometrists would love to have you say, oh, my goodness, right. And I think, yeah, you know, 111 formalizations of this whole methodology, right, it's like a kind of a traditional lead tip or being I grew, those get mixed reviews, right? Sometimes people go into the absolutely kill it, I would say that there's an opportunity cost. Let's see, there are 35 people in the room, and five of them are maintaining referral partners. There are 30 other people that want your time and attention. And there's an opportunity cost to that I think you can, depending upon where you're at, you may be in a highly established group, where you've already put in the time it makes sense to stay. But I think when you can create something like this through a process that you've kind of formalized, right, you've got a formal book, that you give people the ability to go in and put their business cards, and you can target people who you think would be any upstream from a real estate transaction. And you can target those people and formalize this without having to start your own, you know, networking group?
James Adair 17:37
Well, the in a way this, I mean, if, if done, right, this becomes a true networking group. I mean, if you get 20 people that you're in a one on one formalized conversation with, I mean, the next level is to do a mixer to introduce them to each other, because how much more powerful would that be, and it doesn't have to be as systematic as a BCI, where it's like, hey, meet me at every Tuesday at 645 in the morning is, you know, that gets really old, real fast. And like you said, that the group is not, you're not aligned with 100% of the group, this is your group, you're aligned with them. And they are, you know, all kind of pointed towards you as the real estate professional. And if you could point them to each other to I mean, that's you're bringing that much more value, even like a like a once or twice a year, you know, happy hour where we all meet up, and or mastermind group, but also create a Facebook marketing mastermind with these people, a closed group, that they can all share ideas with each other and share business with each other as well. But that way, you're not even, you're providing value to them without even doing any I mean, you're just like brokering the conversations and step away. That's, that can be amazing.
Justin Stoddart 18:56
Yeah, I think, again, if you can go in, look to add value to them. As a business owner, I get oftentimes, people see themselves, I'm a real estate agent, I've got absolutely nothing in common with an optometrist, and as I've shared before, is that I believe every business stands on the same three, three-legged stool, which is they've got to get and attract business, they've got a certain business, and they've got to account for that business, and rinse and repeat. And so you have a lot more in common with other businesses than you may think. And that if you were to take the principles that you're learning in your business, and offer them up to another business, and learn from that other business and offer and ask them to help teach you what they're doing, it creates an entirely different environment, you rise above the fray, you rise above, the typical agent coming in and saying, Hey, will you market me, here are 10 of my cards,
James Adair 19:44
we have so much to offer these other businesses. And I can't remember if I said this, or if it was just in my head, but there's a lot of these highly trained professional type people like the optometrist, as a dentist, as a many of these attorneys, and they have no clue on how to run a business, and they're just winging it. And we can really step in the shoulder to shoulder with them, ask good questions. And to be you'd be amazed at you'd be like, Oh, you never thought of this. So you should just, you know, use this system or just make a spreadsheet or you know, there are so many things that we've solved that seem really basic to us, that a lot of highly trained professional people haven't even considered they just aren't wired that way.
Justin Stoddart 20:31
You know, just because they have a doctorate in psychology or doctorate. optometry doesn't mean they have a doctorate in business. And I think sometimes we miss the fact that not all businesses have it all together, just like we don't have it all together. No. And offering some business help to a professional has spent their entire you know, postgrad career learning how to be a specialist in some field. Can bring a lot of value and, and in turn over, bring a lot of referrals your way. So, James, this has been fun, man, I can't wait until Wednesday, May 22. Coming up here real soon from 10. until noon, over in Clackamas, we're going to be both you me and Nick Crowder, are going to be going in-depth on really how to help have real estate agents implement a strategy, exponential referrals were really The sky is the limit, and a much better way to leverage their time to utilize their time. And I'm thrilled about the opportunity.
James Adair 21:27
So I wanted to correct you real quick. I have it on my calendar at nine, as a start at 930. Sometimes I do that to trick myself. So I get to places not late but on time. Is it start at 10 years it started 930
Justin Stoddart 21:37
At 10. Yep. You're there early, though.
James Adair 21:41
I'll be there at 930. All right.
Justin Stoddart 21:44
One last question. This is my signature question. What is James Adair do? You're a big thinker. Dude, every time we have a conversation?
I walk out thinking like that guy's smart. And I'm smarter now because of it teaches that no serious teach the thing bigger real estate audience- What do you do to intentionally think bigger like to position yourself to where you're constantly expanding your possibilities?
James Adair 22:10
I mean, I don't know if I have.
I don't know if I have like any secret sauce. It's really just curious and pays attention. You know, I think those are really two key things. I'm not. Yeah, I mean, I guess. Just listen to me and I try to take my own advice. You know, sometimes in some, I don't always, but try to try to just be valuable and be helpful. How can I help this person? How can I help this person when, like, you know, so many people who are really successful salespeople are not, are really just about closing the deal. And for me, I'm not about closing a deal. I'm just about how can I be helpful, I don't win everything. And I don't want to win everything. Sometimes I can be helpful by recommending a different bank or recommending a different solution that's not mortgage-related, you know? And that's fine. Like I just put myself in the position of the people that I'm engaged with, and try to imagine what they're going through. Try to imagine what would you know what's the best possible outcome for them and then just get side by side with them and map it out? Sometimes it includes doing a mortgage and sometimes it doesn't.
Justin Stoddart 23:37
That's awesome, man. I love it. Great stuff. Again, want to thank you for being on the show today. always enjoy our conversations. And this has been a good one. Actually, Chris Angel watching us so I know you guys.
James Adair 23:47
My man my man Chris.
Chris Angel.
Justin Stoddart 23:50
Hey, thanks for tuning in buddy. great having you here. Got Ryan Willer, actually, have a UK buddy of mine. Steve Yeager on.
James Adair 23:57
You've got some International.
Justin Stoddart 23:58
Yeah, yeah, I got international guest Steve Yeager here. Got some big thinkers to learn from the James Adair. So anyway, thanks.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart
partnerships. Are they a good idea, are they not? Today we're going to talk about how partnerships can leverage can be a powerful source of leverage to allow you to take your business to the next level. I want to, first of all, thank James Becker, owner and founder of fusion growth partners for being on the show today. James has spoken at Inman before. He's built Fusion Growth Partners and is a business incubator for emerging mega agents. You probably have not heard that before. So we're going to talk all about what partnership could look like. James, first and foremost, thank you for being on the show today.
James Becker 0:38
Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to it.
Justin Stoddart 0:40
Yeah, good stuff. So, James, we were talking here before, and I kind of wish we would have started the broadcast a few minutes ago because so the stuff that he was sharing was absolutely fantastic. So I'm hoping to be able to pull that out of him again.
But here's what I think of James, when I think of a partnership, or how most real estate agents think of a partnership is they think, boy, I'm getting busy. Susie over there in the office doesn't look as busy. Hey, Susie, why don't we team up and let's go list. I go on vacation, you can cover my stuff, you go on vacation off cover your stuff. That's about as complex of a partnership that you typically see in real estate. And really what you guys are doing is coming in creating partnerships, almost investing in real estate agent businesses to take them to the next level, like less of a mom and pop shop, and more into a really established business that offers big value to the clients. So I'm interested really interested in having you share kind of your story. How did Fusion Growth Partners come about?
James Becker 1:40
Well, I started selling real estate back in 1989, we had a great market in 1989. And then we had Desert Shield when we had the first Iraqi war. We had boots on the ground, the market literally went to a stop. I was newly married, I have a pregnant wife, and I needed to pay some bills. And so I sat down and I cold called until my fingers bled. And I did very well doing kind of the mike ferry process. Yeah. And. And back in 1990. Before there are mega-agents, my best year I did about 65 transactions with one TC. And those do all the prospecting myself, I was in 1% of the agents across the country as far as volume was concerned. And, and then after that last year, then 1997 year I was just completely burned out. And I hadn't leveraged it, everything in a was
the amount of business that I did was strictly correlated to the amount of energy that I had every day that I could put into prospecting, burnout being and so I started thinking about, okay, need to do something different. And I opened up another business, that business was kind of Fusion 1.0 was not successful. And I ran into a guy running a mortgage company who became a mentor of mine, I shut down my business went to work for him, learn some corporate structure and some additional business stuff for five to six years and then opened up future.
Justin Stoddart 3:27
So talk to us a little bit about what Fusion offers. Again, it's very different than just offering an agent or even offering an assistant, but when I went through the presentation really can understand your model, I was super impressed when I thought all the stuff that I try and recommend to real estate agents that they should do to grow their business. I mean, it was you know, it could be a menu of like, dozens of things to really get their business showing up in the right places, with the right touch with the right look. And like I think about every good idea that I had heard or ever promoted, you're saying, we do that, with companies invest in companies to help them on day one, be able to turn the switch and have this stuff rolling. Right?
James Becker 4:07
Right. Well, not day one, it takes 60 to 90 days to build out a factory. And that's one of the things that keeps agents from doing and there's a huge commitment to building up all the systems and the processes so that they can run on a regular basis and have consistency. We believe the number one reason why people don't have long term growing sustainable businesses is the lack of consistency in just the fundamentals, and the basic business development stuff. Because the works, they produce some business, they get busy, they stopped doing that. And so they're in business, and they're out of business, they're in business, and they're out of business. And so for us, we want to build up this particular factory. So it's not particularly day one. But when people ask us what we do, it's impossible to explain in five minutes, but the best way to explain it is most of these people have been to a family reunion or mega agent or Tom Ferry seminar. And they come out of those seminars just like if I set this system up, and this system up and this system up, man, I'm going to kill it because I see these other agents that have done that. And then what they find out is six months later, they're signing up for maybe the same seminar, or very similar seminar and they haven't executed anything on a consistent basis. That is the problem that we solve. We look around and I cannot see or find one business, it's one person that does everything themselves. That's a healthy long term business. And so but that's what we do, as agents, we tried to hoard all of the money ourselves, and we're going to do all the work ourselves, keep everything ourselves. And what ends up happening is you have a very unstable, unsustainable business model, that, you know, someone gets sick, or they're hired, or they're burned out the businesses
Justin Stoddart 6:05
that you know, grow. So, you know, I couldn't agree with you more again, I get the good privilege of day in and day out spending needed spending my days,
my days sitting next to agents helping them become more consistent with systems in place, and by night thinking about how I can help them improve that. And what I mentioned that I think is really interesting, is it that agents unwillingness, or at least lack of education on what it takes to actually scale a business that is sustainable, that it's, you can't look at the commission check as income, right, or as your paycheck rather.
Like its revenue.
James Becker 6:44
Revenue. It's not a paycheck. That's such a good, such a good way of looking at, I'm gonna have to borrow that from you. Please, paycheck, its revenue, you're absolutely correct.
Justin Stoddart 6:57
But yeah, they see it. And I think that's why many agents go right on kind of the further end of the spectrum, like forget about taxes, there's, they're used to coming out of a job where when someone gives you a check that you put it in the bank, and that's what you get to spend. But there's this education of what about the taxes. And then what you're saying is there's this other component, that if you were actually business savvy, or like any scalable business, you would take a percentage of that and gladly invest it back in the business and people systems tools in order to get you to where that service you just offered number one doesn't burn you out personally, and continues to allow for a consistent lead generation effort as well as customer service effort moving forward.
James Becker 7:37
Right. Now, I agree with that. So I did some research a few years ago, and I went into US government list of percentages, and you look at the margins that most businesses have the very top, the highest margin by industry was the banks, the banks may more money than anybody else. And it's about 25% margins that they have if they're having a good year. Besides that most businesses are below 15%, in margins, and a lot of them are below 5%. But they keep feeding this machine that gets bigger and bigger. And so the bottom number is,
grows on a significant basis. So I'm a big fan of Seth Godin. And I don't know if you've read Seth Godin probably knew I'm sure you're getting emails every day. Yeah, he's amazing. And he talks about the difference between the freelancer and an entrepreneur. If you only get paid when you're doing the work, you are a freelancer. And if you're building a business, and you're an entrepreneur where someone else can do the work with me or not, they're not in brokerage. But in being a real estate agent, the margins and the revenue is so significant, that if you can take 24, five to 35%, maybe even 50%, import that backs into the business, you can build huge, huge businesses, there's a REMAX organization that I work with the number one agent does about 1.5 million in revenue. And she spends about a half a million dollars in overhead. So half a million dollars in overhead scares the bejesus out of most people. But she's netting a million dollars in income as a significant income. And there are listings that are being taken without her. There are buyers who are writing offers without her, and she has a real business, she could fly off to Europe for six months and still do the same amount of business. So that's what we want to encourage. But it's a process to get there. It takes time to do that. And there's a mindset. And that mindset is is that, you know, in my speech that I gave the imminent, I said that real estate agents are hoarders. And if you watch the show Hoarders, you end up all alone with just a bunch of crap, right.
And what real estate agents hoard is they hoard their commission, they are not putting back into the not being more generous with their clients, they could give more gifts, they're not being more generous with the people that work with them, they're not being more generous with the business development. And if they do that, their pie grows, and their bottom line grows. And that's what creates a stable business, the more pillars that you have the better chance that that business is going to continue to grow. If you're relying on like I did initially, on strictly your energy, in your passion, those things wane. And then that's difficult, you putting yourself in a very precarious position as a business.
Justin Stoddart 10:57
And I was going to say, and you beat me to it that people think well, you know, I'm getting less money. But the pie gets significantly better, better or bigger. And, and quality of life improves as well, right? Because it's not all on your shoulders, and you're not having to stay up thinking about it.
James Becker 11:13
Yeah, I'll give you a good example. So we really believe in two main forms of marketing sphere of influence past clients. Number one, that's the easiest business to get. And then after that geographical farming, if you own a geographical farm, that's large enough, that will produce thousands and thousands of dollars of commission. But it takes a while to do that. And we have agents that we say, Okay, look, it's going to take a couple of years, probably going to be a $50,000 investment over two years. But this could produce 250,000 on an annual basis for you, once you get there. That's a huge ROI. If you talk to a financial advisor, they would love that. But one of the things that they struggle with this, I tell them, you have to get some signs in the yard. So if you have to work for free, for the first three, four or five listings, do it because once their signs in the yard, then the neighbors are going to see, hey, my friend down the street, use that person, I'm going to call them and that's the credibility and I think the numbers right now are 76% of people on the call one real estate agent. And then they use that real estate age. And I think those numbers are still the same. So we call those investment listings. And so yes, you are working for free on a transactional basis. But it's an investment back into the business. And it's an investment back into
that particular firm, that you have to work for free. But I mean, if it's a discount, whatever the case, people get stuck on that a discount broker, yes, you're not a discount broker, but you have to get a foothold in a particular marketplace before you can become the expert. And,
Justin Stoddart 13:00
and part of that, because I do know probably concerns that agents are having is if I discount for one, and it's in a neighborhood, people are going to talk, oh, my guy charged me this much. And now-now that's the precedent. But you know what, what maybe could even be said Is it, it might be doing it for free or for less, because you're investing so much of that first couple checks back into establishing yourself in that community. Right? It might not be in the sense that you're just kind of your feet, we were just taking so much that fee to gain more market share in that particular neighborhood.
James Becker 13:29
Yes, so almost never Is it a free listing. The point being though, is that when you're sitting at the table, you have to get a sign in the yard, if you don't get a sign in the yard, all the advertising that you're doing, unless you somebody else tries you first, the chances of you getting that businesses are in the future is very, very low.
One of the people that were top producer, when I first started, she took more price listings and than anybody ever and she was by far the best agent in all of the Sacramento Valley, and every other listing was hers. So as a buyer driving around, she has all the inventory. Yeah, as a seller, she's got more signs out there, that advertisement is critical. I don't want to focus too much on that. Because I think people go will like, like, Oh my gosh, I'm not going to do that. But the point being is that if you did a half price listing and a kitchen table, and you said I'm going to do this a special deal for you, I'm going to reduce the commission, they get this listing, and you get three or four deals in there. Now you can go back and say I just sold Tom's property, I just sold out this property, I just sold this person property, you have some evidence of success, success. But now when you're sitting at the kitchen table, you could charge a full price. Listen, you're not advertising for it, but you're doing whatever it takes to get that.
Justin Stoddart 14:59
Tell us, James, what are some of the other kind of things that you guys take care of without being able to do a fully comprehensive list. And maybe it's even better to direct somebody to have a conversation with you guys, but maybe if you can kind of wet people's appetite a little bit, as to a few of the systems you guys put in place. So they kind of get an idea, more of what you guys take off the plate of an agent that you're investing in and incubating their business to become a future mega-agent.
James Becker 15:24
Well, let's talk a little bit about the philosophies we have. So number one, if we have in our and now in our presentation, we show a picture of a guy by the name of Neil. And we'd say Neil's in the database. And at some point, statistically, in the next seven years, Neil is going to have a need to do some sort of real estate transaction. And so the question is, how do we stack the deck so that when Neil has a need, he calls us first. And if he calls us first, statistically, we're going to get 8% of that business. And so in marketing, what we believe is that there's a couple of elements that you have to have, number one, you must have a theme in your marketing that is consistent. It's not just I'm the greatest person, in the greatest realtor, it has to be something that is going to resonate. So we like to use progressive as an example. So we all know who flow is, right. And she's a little quirky, she's a little weird, but she got the pricing gun, she's trustworthy, she's gonna take care of us, we know all of those things. And so that's the thing that progressive has, the next element is you have to have a frequency, how often do we see the flow, we see flow every day, there is lots of frequency that happens. And then the third element that a lot of people don't realize is there has to be different modality. So with the flow, we see her in direct mail, we see her on the radio or hear her on the radio, you're on TV, we see you're on the internet, there's a lot of different channels that are coming to us. So we want to build out a marketing platform that has those three things. It has a consistent theme. It has a ton of frequency. And it has a lot of different modalities. And so one of the first things that we start with is a story letter, we tell the person's story, this is a critical piece, it's more to let someone know who you are and what you're about. Because people really want to know how much you potentially would care versus care about how much you know. And then we go into a resume piece. And then we do postcards, we do letters, we then do a video that we're advertising directly on digital, we have programs where we utilize home bought, there's about 11, or 12 different platforms that we go into, it all has the same theme, there's all consistency. And so people that are in a sphere,
Keller Williams that I think is a great organization, and they've got this 33 touch, it's kind of been a Bible. For them in most agents, if you go into these offices are not doing it consistently, maybe one per office is really, really consistent doing it. So difficult to do. But we have a touch program that somewhere between 50 and 100 touches people on a sphere of influence through social media, digital mail, brochures, events, whatever you can think of were in it. So we executed all we set it up, and then we run it and we executed.
Justin Stoddart 18:47
And then just to point out that's not 50 to 100 emails, right? That would probably be a quick unsubscribe for people. But you're still saying through all the different modalities, all the different touch points, whether it be direct mail, whether it be digital, whether it be social, you've got all these avenues, where you know, I like to say it this way is it. In order for you to sell someone's real estate, you have to own a piece of real estate in their brain. If you don't like
James Becker 19:08
you have to have mindshare. That's exactly right. And emails a very small part of what we do, we do have email because it's there. But one of the things that we believe is if you over use the free platforms, and you're going to be turning people off, and when you spend money, people recognize it, I think they see you as a professional when you're investing into your business, it's a very subtle thing. But you know, we have people's businesses really explode. Because when someone is spending money and they're investing in their business, they set them up, they set themselves apart from the rest of the bank.
Justin Stoddart 19:45
They do. You know, I'm a big proponent right now of helping agents become less salesman, less salesperson, and more advisor. And that I recognize that when you can take all of these functionary tasks off of someone's plate, all the marketing components, to all the stand in front of people to where you can go be in front of people face to face, your time instead of worrying about the system, or the lack of a system and running around with your hair on fire, you can actually have the time to study the market, you can have the time to study your clients, what they actually want, so that you can advise them, most people probably have the like, like the wherewithal to do it.
The issue because they've got so many balls in the air.
James Becker 20:31
Yeah, so one of the main things, when we bring somebody in, we tell them that one of the most important things this is the mindset is that you must become the agent you would hire. And so once you become the agent you would hire in and I'll explain it this way. Most agents, if they were interviewing five agents, and they were interviewing themselves, and they didn't know it was them, they wouldn't hire them, they would hire somebody else
have to develop a package that you're so proud of, you can't wait to share, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, when you're bringing value because agents themselves as consumers, they buy value, their consumers, their clients are also going to buy value, you get it through the front door, because they like you and they trust you. But then you have to bring something that is going to be significant. So Seth Godin would talk about this, a little bit of the purple cow, you provided more verses, but we believe that agents should do really two things, they should have their staff that's building and executing these administrative types of things. But then they need to go out and make friends and serve people. Those are the first two most important pieces. And the serving people doesn't necessarily just meaning serving clients, it means serving your community being out there being involved in charities and not pointing it out that looks I'm such a great person, because people are going to see it, people are gonna introduce themselves to you, those people can then go into the sphere of influence, and then you market to them on a regular basis. But they're bringing value to me, puts it to a point where the agent feels really good, and they're willing to put themselves out there. If I can just mention real quick, one of our biggest challenges with agents is that they're they don't want to put themselves out there. And I think partly it's because subconsciously, they know that they're really not providing the highest level of value that's out there. And if we can change that initial piece, me and their confidence to source and I think that's a big part of developing a successful business long term,
Justin Stoddart 22:49
James, where would you direct people to go if they wanted to learn more about fusion growth partners?
James Becker 22:55
Go to our website at fusiongrowthpartners.net
So again, there you go. We really focus on a small segment of the market. It's individuals that are over $100,000, in GCI, and typically under $300,000 in GCI, and that they really want to grow, they have a passion to grow, those are the people we want to invest in. And that's what we actually do, we invest and we partner, and we get paid, when they're closing transactions, a small part of the business that they're generating in each person that we meet with, we make a determination if we think they're a good investment. And then we try to work out a deal that's healthy for them, and healthy for us. And then we go to work and we grow businesses. That's what we do.
Justin Stoddart 23:54
Super cool. I love it. I'm a fan of grown businesses. I'm a fan of growing people as well. So I want to close with the signature question, James, what is something that you do? Obviously, you've created something pretty, pretty fantastic, pretty compelling offer for real estate agents. What is it that James does to position himself to it to intentionally think bigger? to kind of expand your own possibilities? Would you say would be a kind of a key to your recipe?
James Becker 24:21
Can you ask that another way?
Justin Stoddart 24:23
Yeah.
What is it like a practice or a tactic that you do to grow yourself?
James Becker 24:33
Okay, I put myself in, in groups of people, and around people who are willing to tell me the truth about where I can grow. And, and I have a group of friends and I have some really good employees that do not have any issue with telling me where my shortcomings are. Because if I don't know where those are, I cannot work on them. And, and so I think trying to have self-honesty, is and it's difficult for all of us. But to me, that's, that's the core because if we could really understand where we are, then we can make decisions.
Justin Stoddart 25:22
It's powerful stuff. I haven't heard that before. And it is super powerful. I appreciate sharing. So I want to, again, thank you for your time today. Sharing what points out you think bigger real estate audience, it's been a total pleasure. I look forward to staying in contact. And yeah, you know what, encourage anybody here that's, that's kind of at that stage where their revenue is between 100 to 300,000. And you're interested in really scaling up, you keep hitting the ceiling.
Like research, these guys reach out to them and see what you can do to potentially put your business on an entirely different growth trajectory. So thanks again, James. But it's all pleasure. Thanks for your time.
James Becker 25:57
Thank you, I super appreciate it and look forward to eventually meeting you sometime in person.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. So excited to be here today about a topic that is, I think so important to the industry, which is how do successful, loving, caring, thoughtful moms stay that way while still succeeding big in real estate? And I have with me today, Stephanie Peck.
Stephanie Peck 0:17
Yeah. Hi.
Justin Stoddart 0:18
Thank you so much for being here, Stephanie. Yeah, this is such a treat. Because, you know, guys consider around and pontificate and talk all day long about what we think the solution is for moms. But it really doesn't do it justice. What really needs to happen is for us to bring someone to the plate, who's for the past 10 years, is that right?
Stephanie Peck 0:36
Yeah. 12 years, actually,
Justin Stoddart 0:38
12 years in real estate, has managed and grown a very successful real estate practice and yet been a fantastic mom. So now I know that conversation kind of weighs heavy on a lot of moms, I was in a top agent mastermind I can reference this yesterday. And some producers, some of which sell 100 homes a year. And the kind of constant feeling of like, Am I doing enough? At home? Am I doing enough for my clients? Like, is that a real feeling? Do you feel that?
Stephanie Peck 1:05
Yeah, all the time, I'm always thinking, how am I going to be the best at everything, and also trying to remember that it's okay to not be the best at everything. Yeah, that's always my balance.
Justin Stoddart 1:17
You know,
it's been really interesting. I was raised in an entrepreneurial family, my mom was a very successful business owner. And I cannot think of something that she could have done better, in fact, because of what she did outside of the home and inspired me to similarly want to, you know, build a business. And so I'm grateful for the fact that not all moms are built a like some, like our dedicate like my wife, for example. She works one day a week as a nurse, and she thrives in that environment. Like my mom would have driven me and my siblings crazy. Had she been home? Right? Yeah, she's just wired to be like, very different. And so I don't know if you feel that way as well, like some moms like are better moms by both, like having some participation in the large participation, the workforce.
Stephanie Peck 2:04
Yeah, I definitely feel that way. Personally, I,
I went back and forth a lot about whether I wanted to be a stay at home mom or a working mom or part-time, I'm always trying to figure out where my place was in that. And I know for me when my kids were younger, and I was able to spend a lot of time at home with them. I'm so grateful for that time. And I love that I was able to do that. But now I personally am so much happier, doing what I'm doing and still being able to be the mom that I want it to be.
Justin Stoddart 2:41
Now that's some moms probably have that. That guilt, right, that feeling of like,
I'm giving up kids, let's talk a little bit about motherhood. For those that know me, some of you don't know me as well, others do know that at the core of who I am, I'm a family guy. And family is the most important thing to me. So and I honestly believe that there's no greater work than one will do than within the walls of their own home. Right? That's a quote that stuck with me ever since I was young. And I believe that, that a lot of realtor moms feel that same way to have even though they build a great business build a great empire, they realize that all shrinks in comparison to the work that they're doing. And raising up the next generation talk a little bit about kind of your feelings about motherhood and home just so that those things like, well, she doesn't like she doesn't get me because of she obviously family's kind of the second tier to her. And I know that's not true, right? Talk a little bit about like, your feelings towards motherhood and being a mom and all that.
Stephanie Peck 3:33
Yeah. So for me, I, I got into real estate because I wanted to do it for my family. And because I wanted to be the mom that I wanted to be knowing that I still wanted to be a working mom. But I didn't want to be a drop off at daycare, 10 hour a day kind of a mom. That was just my personal choice. And that's how I wanted to have my family structured. So that's when I got started in real estate was with that goal in mind. So for me, I'm always trying to think about why did I do this? Why did I decide to get into this business? And who am I serving because of it? So I focus on what I want to do for my family because of real estate and not the other
way around is
Justin Stoddart 4:21
interesting that we've talked about before. You've mentioned before about how important it is to to have a clear why right? Because I know that in real estate you get in any training, and it's like more and more and more bigger, bigger, bigger. Yeah. sell, sell, sell. Yeah. And unless you're reaching the highest small percentile in the industry, sometimes you feel like a loser, right? It's like, Oh, I didn't make the top 10%. Top 1%. I should strive for more. But what you mentioned is having a really clear why to know like, when enough is enough, right? How you kind of came to that conclusion, because I'm sure that is talented as you are, you could have a bigger business if you chose to. But you've probably chosen at times to throttle back to say no to this, this and this. So that you can still be the mom you want to be.
Stephanie Peck 5:01
Right. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm doing. And that's kind of that inner battle that I'm always fighting to because I'm I'm a driven person. I'm a think bigger kind of a person
Justin Stoddart 5:11
why she's here.
Yeah. Fellow big thinker.
Stephanie Peck 5:14
Yeah. So you know, I'm always thinking about what could I be doing next? What should I be doing more of? But always going back to that, why? Why did I want to be here in the first place? It's because I wanted to be the kind of mom that was able to go on the field trips, I wanted to be the kind of mom that is dropping my kids off at school and picking them up from school as much as possible. So I scheduled my time, but you know, at 230 usually is cut off time for a little while. And I spend time with my kids after school and then go back to it, you know, once the husband gets home, and I head out for evening showings. And so for me, I've always thought, who am I doing this for? And why am I doing it? And that means that I'm not going to be that, you know, big giant producer right now. And being okay with that, because I'm working for my family, and I'm working to give them a better life and give them more than I ever thought would be possible.
Justin Stoddart 6:16
Yeah. I think that, as you said, it's important to be able to say no, and have a Be confident by saying like, No, I don't want to go there yet. Maybe I don't want to build a big team, right? Or maybe I do need some team members, right? Yes, I do need some support. Because as you and I both know, not all activities in real estate are paid the same. Right? There are certain things that are of high value to the customer. There are other things that need to happen. But doesn't this still need to happen by you? Right? Have you found kind of getting into into the more tactical now, some tactical tips on things that you've decided like, okay, that needs to happen, but if I start doing that, it's either that or picking my kids up at school? And so, therefore, I'm going to, I'm going to hire or create a better system or tool for that. What are those things? Yeah,
Stephanie Peck 6:58
for me, the big game changer was getting a transaction coordinator, and not spending that time behind the computer so that my time is best spent in front of people and meeting people and in front of clients showing houses doing the things that I'm best at, because somebody else can be behind the computer and doing behind the scenes getting the paperwork and stuff. So that was a game changer for me, because it also freed me up to where I wasn't doing the after the kids go to bed, and then spending an hour or two doing paperwork, creating flyers, disclosures, all of that stuff that someone else can do for me. So that helps in the practical sense. A lot.
Justin Stoddart 7:39
Yeah, well, that's great. I think you mentioned paperwork. I also heard you say, flyers, have you found that there's some tactical stuff when it comes to creating flyers and creating so that basic marketing material that maybe you've got your fingerprint on, so that the wording of the ad copies, right, but it's not necessarily you in the design program, creating the fire? Is that true?
Stephanie Peck 7:59
Yeah. For me, I'm maybe I'm a little more hands-on than I need to be sometimes, you know, I like it this way. I like it. But for me, I just created a lot of templates. And I spent the time up front to make all of those things plug and play, okay, so that somebody else can come in and I say I want you to know, photo 47 and 56 on this marketing piece, and somebody else can just plug it right in, it's easier.
Justin Stoddart 8:25
You know, I'm taught that leverage comes in the form of people systems or tools, and it sounds like you've created you're leveraging a good tool and a good system a good template. So that doesn't take you a lot of time to have to recreate that.
Stephanie Peck 8:37
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Justin Stoddart 8:38
That was you were here inside one of your beautiful listings. Yeah, Wildflower Lane in Oregon City, which happened to be some good, very good close friends of mine. And obviously, the home has been, you know, beautifully marketed and displayed. So that's, that's not like it's falling on the wayside. It's happening. You've just got a system to be sure happens well,
Stephanie Peck 8:56
right, exactly. And spending the time here, which is most important being in front of my clients and being in the houses instead of spending my time behind the computer.
Justin Stoddart 9:06
Yeah, that's great. Let's talk about you branded yourself as the Real Life Realtor.
Stephanie Peck 9:10
Yeah.
Justin Stoddart 9:11
Perfect, right for this topic today. Because any of us who are parents, and any of you that are moms realize that real life doesn't always look like the perfect Instagram life. Right? Talk to us a little more about that brand, how you came to that and how that still fits today,
Stephanie Peck 9:27
right? I came up with the real-life realtor just popped in my head one day, because I really wanted to be giving the image and the impression out there that I'm just doing life, I'm a real-life person. And most of my clients are appreciating that and they're relating to that. So I am able to stay with them. Here's me doing the same things that you're doing. So I understand how you live in your home, I understand how life goes, you know, so then they're looking at me like that you're a relatable person, you're the kind of person that we want to be around. Instead of this figurehead type of person that we don't want to do business with.
Justin Stoddart 10:09
I love that there's some relate-ability, right? When people realize that, oh, you go home to a family as well. Oh, when you're taking my call at 10 pm that means you might not be you know, having a good conversation with your husband, or tucking your kids into bed. Right? Like, I think it probably helps. I would imagine setting the expectation of like, I'm gonna kill it for you during business hours.
Stephanie Peck 10:27
Yeah.
Justin Stoddart 10:28
But outside of that, I'm just like you that I've got, there's a reason why I'm doing real estate. And it's because of my family. Right?
Stephanie Peck 10:35
Yeah. And it's been pretty natural, because, for the most part, my business in the early stages of motherhood and business, a lot of my business came from moms groups preschool. So we were already on the same schedule and already doing the same thing. So I can be talking to my clients and saying, okay, we're both tucking our kids in the bed between 730 and eight. So we know we're not going to bug you too, during that time. Or they can send me a text or your kids in bed. Yeah, I have a question for you. So the expectation is there. And it's helped me a lot. Because I've been always telling people being the real-life realtor and being a mom and doing life alongside you. I understand how you live, and I've been able to say things to people, like, I don't know if this bedroom setup is going to work for you. Because when you have that Baby, you're not going to want to walk up and down the stairs every time the baby cries. And that young first-time buyer says, Oh, I didn't think about that. Or, you know, I know, I know what the schools are like, I know where the parks are, I know where the mom's groups are and things like that. So, it makes my clients think you understand our life more than just a home.
Justin Stoddart 11:48
That's interesting. When I was a general contractor, I competed against the gathering of Sandy and I can remember her last name. But she was a female general contractor, which was, you know, rarer than not. And she was some of my stiffest competition because she was very proficient at the building side. Yeah. But she had this one disability to I think, emotionally connect with her clients more so that we as men could do. Right. I think that's an innate, God-given gift that women are given. And for you, you're right. It's kind of what you've, you've caused me to think about here a little bit, is it? The value of a real estate agent is not just buying and selling a home? Right. But it's being an advisor? It's helping people get find the right home and community and schools? And who better to talk about that, then one who has lived in a community? Yeah, right, has taken their kids to school and know what real life looks like, inside of what their life is gonna look like. Right? And that's a really powerful way to be an advisor, right? Is it? I live it every day, I get it. Right at a different level. Right?
Stephanie Peck 12:46
Yeah. And I can say, you know, when my clients are coming from school or sports activities, then I know, I already know what their schedules like. And I know what it's like to be running that kid to soccer practice at 530. And trying to get in dinner and all of that stuff. So when we're looking at a home, I can say, Oh, this will be great for you, because school is just three minutes away, or this will be great for you because it's easy to get in and out or the kids are going to love playing ball in this backyard. And painting that picture of life in that whole
Justin Stoddart 13:20
Yeah, you know, I think back about some very dear friends of mine, when my family was moving to Joshua city, Oregon, to Wilson bill, it was a challenging time for my family. My parents had moved up there because both of them had been on the road a lot building their own businesses. And they needed to, to protect the marriage and get them together more often. And so my mom went looking in school district trying to find one that was fairly similar. She came across the Wilson mill School District, love it thumbs up. And I'm the real to she ended up choosing. And I hope she's watching that she's actually a big fan of the show.
She was a real estate agent and her husband happened to be the head coach of the football team, which I was a football player. And so this like worked out really well. And she could give advice as nobody else could, right? Like there was not anybody that could hold a candle to what she did. And I get that that's kind of a rare situation. But like the reality is she could give insight and and and connect my mom to people getting her husband and other staff members that nobody else could. Right, right. And I said I think that's a missing side of real estate. It's definitely a side that major tech companies are missing when they proclaim that they can do what real estate agents do or do it for less is that you're taking out the human element, which in my opinion, is one of the most valuable components that real estate agents bring is that their knowledge of the community and their connections within the community that are going to help you find a house, they're going to help you integrate into the community have a really good life inside that home.
Stephanie Peck 14:38
Yeah, yeah, I've been able to so many times get people connected with other people, you know, because they're buying into the school district where my kids are in, or I'm just integrating everything that we do. My husband works in the city too. So being able to say I would just the other day closed on a house where I sold a home with a big shop, we love cars, we're car people we go, where you know, in the car shows and everything. So when they bought the home, like, Oh, you love cars, so does this guy down the street, and they have kids that are the same age as all of our kids. You guys should be friends and just connecting them. So it's so much more of a service than just
here's this house.
Justin Stoddart 15:24
Well, there's a physical move, right? Like you actually have to pack up your boxes into a new house. But then there's this emotional move, right? Where you've got to actually move your friendships and your loyalties and your heart into this new community. What a powerful way for, you know, for moms to be able to do that. Yeah. Let's talk about some of how you integrate your business with being a mom. Right? kind of very tactical. Because obviously, your kids always haven't been in school. Right? There was a time when they were young. And with you. Yeah, what about lots a lot, you know, you know, to those moms that are out there that are saying, Yeah, that's nice. You get dropping kids out of school, but I don't. What advice would you give them because you've been there?
Stephanie Peck 15:59
Yeah. I'll admit, that's tough. It's a tough time. For me because I was choosing to scale my business in a way that allowed me to be home with them. You know, nap times were crucial times. But that was the times where I was able to make the phone calls and do some of that computer work at homework. So I use that time really wisely. I used weekends really wisely. You know, it was, it was hard, my husband walks in the door, and I walk out the door that happened a lot of times for evening showings, and we can showings but we always made it work, I made friends with some stay at home moms in the neighborhood. So that helped, you know, just for those click drop-offs of the In-Home daycare person that lived down the street, grandma's I mean, all of that, you just got to utilize your resources. And I think for me now being in a little bit of a later stage when my kids are an element preschool. So they're still very needy, but they're not all day long needy.
For me now looking back, I can just say that. That was a really important time. And it was a really short time. So for a mom, I know that I can say there's always going to house to sell. And if you're not selling all of them in this five-year chunk of time with your kids, it's okay. I had to tell myself that all the time, because then, you know, kids got a little bit older, time freed up, and I was able to do more. And I'm still always looking for that next goal.
Justin Stoddart 17:36
I love that I think you know, the classic analogy of big rocks first, is it like outline be very specific and intentional about what at what points of the day you want to be there for your kids. And work around that. And I don't think it's it's a bad thing to tell people. Is it? I can't be with me at that point. At that time. I have an appointment.
Stephanie Peck 17:55
Yes. All the time. I say that like, Yeah,
Justin Stoddart 17:57
that'll be the No, it's not with another client. It's right of the business. And I will say that in a bad way. But the fact is, you have other commitments, you're committed in other places, which frankly, makes you just as if not more valuable when you show up and meet with them face to face, right. And so use it like I can at that time, I've got a lot going I've got a recurring commitment at that time. I'd be very comfortable saying no, right. Yeah. And I can't read these hours. This is my availability and it. Oftentimes when real estate agents are positioned themselves as true professionals, we don't expect our doctor to be available every hour of every day, nor do we expect our attorney to be that way. In fact, we're a little concerned that they are it's like Do you not have any other patients and having commitments? There's a little bit of, I think, peace and comfort knowing that the professional that we want to use, we've got away for just a little bit, right. Yeah, it's like till the next day, I think it's okay, to not have to pick up your phone during dinner and respond within minutes. And I think that's a fallacy because people have access to you. It doesn't even mean on the other side that they expect you to respond that way. You know, I get guilty of that. It's like, um, I guess they asked me something. I need to respond right away. Right. You're training them to say that I'm when I'm called. Dr. Right. Yeah.
Yeah. I don't know if you have any thoughts around that of like, the day to day of like, being able to, like have barriers and boundaries because I feel like that's one of the biggest infiltrators to people's peace is their with their kids, but they're looking at their screen and said their kids face and they feel guilty for both, right?
Stephanie Peck 19:20
Yes, exactly. So you're doing a half good job at both things, right. And I'm guilty of it all the time. So I don't work. Perfect in that way. Because yes, there's, I get that that person that mentions me on Facebook, Stephanie pack is a great realtor, you should use her, I feel like I need to respond right away. Because if I don't 20 other realtors are going to be behind me responding. So you know, and, and my kids understand that to where I had those conversations. But there are times where I need you to be quiet for a few minutes so that I can respond to this message or get this thing done. And that, you know, have to be just as flexible as I do. But yeah, I learned right away that your clients don't need to know what you're doing everything. Oh, yeah. And they totally respect the fact that you have other clients or other business or other things to do. So when I need to say, I'm actually not available at four o'clock, but I would love to be able to meet you at five o'clock. Okay, great. They don't question that. They don't say, oh, why? Because you're stuck with your kids, and you're not doing a good enough job for me. Nobody's ever said that to me.
Justin Stoddart 20:33
If they did, I would recommend saying goodbye.
Awesome stuff. And I'll also add this event again, having come out of a home with a very entrepreneurial mom.
I felt like she was always there when it mattered. Yeah, and it's interesting, her biggest clients felt like she was always there when it mattered. And she had a great staff and team and support systems to where what it didn't need to be hurt, wasn't her. Yeah, she showed up. It was impactful. Right? That's so and I love also just to kind of highlight what you said in case any missed it, that there will always be homes to sell, like, Don't feel like you need to give up your kids childhood, because you've got to get to some award this year, like be okay with the fact of like, you know, maybe it's I'm going to sell a home a month, I'm gonna sell two homes a month, like whatever that looks like for you. Or one a quarter for having said, You know, I don't necessarily love kind of hobby realtors that don't do it enough to actually do their clients' good service. I think that if you can like you owe it to your clients to be a higher producer so that you can always have their best interests in mind. However, don't choose the scale of your business, based on some outside pressure. But more as you said, I kind of back to your kind of deep why,
Stephanie Peck 21:44
yeah, I'm always thinking about what-what is my goal is my goal to be number one on the list, maybe not as my goal to be a solid producer and feel really confident in the people that I am serving, and still be able to be there at the times where it matters for my family. So that's always what I'm thinking of is, you know, who am I trying to serve? Here? My trying to serve my ego? Or am I trying to serve my family? And sometimes I have to do a gut check on that, too. And always, you know, always thinking about the bigger goal for me, I've got a five-year plan, I've got a 10-year plan, I've got a 20-year plan in my business because I'm okay with it not all happening now. And I want it to happen someday, though. So that's where, you know, I'm keeping that think bigger mentality for me is saying, you know, if I wanted to increase my sales by 10 or 20 a year, I'm going to sit down and say, What What would it take to do that? What activities do I need to do for prospecting and advertising and getting myself out there? I'm going to list all of that out and look at what activities would be required to get myself to that next level. And then I'm going to ask myself, is that something that I'm willing to do now? Sometimes it's Yes, yeah, I can do that. I can integrate it into what I have going on. And sometimes it's not now. And I'm going to keep it on the list and save it for later. Because my kids aren't going to be this age forever. And they'll still be selling real estate 20 years from now, and I can do it then. So I'm, you know, always setting those goals and always keeping that in mind. But I'm okay with saying now's not the right time.
Justin Stoddart 23:32
Very powerful. In fact, you illustrated that very early on, when you were supposed to receive the Rookie the Year award. Yeah. And where were you? Actually?
Stephanie Peck 23:40
I was having a baby that day
Justin Stoddart 23:42
was a choice. Like force. You couldn't be there. But
Stephanie Peck 23:45
it was that wake-up moment? Okay. It's not It's not all about me anymore. It's not all about what's convenient for me. Yeah, that was I've been calling my principal broker that morning and saying that he can you received the award for me because I'm having a baby today and
yeah,
Justin Stoddart 24:03
You were receiving another trophy that's a little more valuable than the one you guys are gonna have.
Stephanie Peck 24:07
Yeah, exactly.
Justin Stoddart 24:09
Great stuff. You know, this has been so fun. I don't know if there are any questions that the audience has. I know, we've posted through masters in real estate. If you have a question, please let us know. I know that there were a few questions came out like kind of the tactical, I feel like we've covered a little bit of that. Is there anything else that we've missed that maybe you feel like it's been a real game changer for you in the way that you structure your day? Any just tried true, like tactics and practices that have been really helpful for you that would be helpful for a mom as a real kind of takeaway from today?
Stephanie Peck 24:38
Yeah, I did get the question about, it was somebody that was about to have another baby. And she was saying, Okay, I'm about to dive into this, how am I gonna do I think I talked about that a little bit, you know, we're just using the resources that you have, and not being afraid to call the neighbor and say, Hey, can you hold the baby for a couple of hours? I mean, most people are happy to do that. So we don't have to live in a world where we have to be so self-sufficient. You know, it's that takes a village mentality. I mean, I think it does. So don't be afraid to use the resources that you have, and find ways to make it work. And,
yeah, just don't, don't let yourself get in your own way. I think that's, that's when I learned and I felt confident saying, okay, I can still do this, I can be this person. And I can, I can show up at library time with my toddler and land a listing appointment. And I was able to do that pretty consistently. And I still have in the sporting events, I'm going to sponsor everyone that I can, and I'm going to get my name out and I'm going to sell the house to my kids' Taekwondo instructor, and then they're going to refer me to three other people at the school. And I can integrate everything that my kids are already doing with obtaining business. And I when I was in the teddy bear parade last weekend, and you know,
a small town community parade where you're going down Main Street, and you're throwing out candy, and my kids loved it. So that's something that I was already going to go to the parade minus will sponsor it, get my name on all the flyers and drive-thru, throw candy out the window, and the families love it. And half the people that I saw out on the streets are people that I already know, through other avenues of family life. So yeah, so you know, just that, that practical time of use the time that you have in front of people and use it wisely and put it real estate as a part of it. Because whether whatever you're doing, whether you're a mom, or you're at the chamber or something, you're in front of people, that's all it takes is just be in front of people and be intentional about the conversations that you're having with them.
Justin Stoddart 26:57
So but by being a great mom, it's gonna open up a lot of doors. You know, the places are everywhere you go with your kids serving your kids, those same people either own real estate, or they want to own real estate. Yeah. And I would, I would say, this is gonna be a little bit of a soapbox, but I think a lot of people use it as a crutch, saying, I can't because of my mom, yet they know every scene of what's happening in Game of Thrones. I'm gonna, you know, I mean, let's be honest here, like, what's really getting in the way? Is it? Is it the fact that like, I don't want to, or I really can't, and if it's because you're choosing, looking at your child's face, or looking at a customer's face, I applaud you. Yeah. But if it's because you're spending hours on Netflix, and you're saying I can't, because my mom, I'm going to call you, I'm going to call you out. And I'm going to say you can be successful and have significance, right. And this doesn't mean that this is for everybody. But if the inside of you feel like you are supposed to be doing real estate, and you could serve people and bless families lives by doing it, take a look at really what's taking up your time. Right. And if it's parental activities, keep them don't change them. But there's another fluff and stuff in there, right? You might be able to replace some of that was serving additional clients or even getting into the real estate industry.
Stephanie Peck 28:05
Yeah. And knowing that your kids are okay, if you do that, you know, your you'd like you're saying you're taking time away from your kids and your family one way or another, whether it's being on Facebook all day, or playing Candy Crush, or whatever it is that we've all been guilty of doing while we're ignoring our kids.
Justin Stoddart 28:27
Right?
Stephanie Peck 28:27
Yes. But you're, you're taking time away from them regardless. So why not, why not use those use that time for productive activity, instead of time-wasting activity,
Justin Stoddart 28:40
you know, more is caught than taught, I was taught that in at an early age. And again, I'm not promoting to anybody that is a great stay at home mom and believes that they should be there do that stay there. But for those of you that have made the decision that I also belong in the workforce, you know, then it becomes important, I think for you to recognize is that that you can bring a lot of value, not just in contributing to the family from a from a monetary standpoint, but also teaching your kids hard work focus time blocking side. So these principles that we all learn and know and will bless their lives. Like there's actually an opportunity for you to model some really important and valuable lessons that they'll take with them. Case in point, I've learned a lot from my entrepreneurial mom, and my entrepreneurial stepmom. Both, and if in fact, she was a real estate agent, and so I get how all-consuming this industry can be and how it behooves people to set boundaries. Yeah, and be able to really be grateful.
Stephanie Peck 29:36
Yeah, yeah. And I'm for Mother's Day, I thought this was just so fitting. You know, the kids bring home the questions that their teachers asked them. And so I got that on Mother's Day. And knowing that this was coming up, I thought, How perfect my daughter who's she's seven, and she'll say occasionally I wouldn't be a real estate agent or you know, I'm mini real life realtor was like that. But she filled out all of her questions. And it was what's the thing that I love doing with my mom, I love when she plays with me. I love when she snuggles me all of that. And I liked hearing that, like, Okay, good. I'm doing those things enough. Yeah, you're seeing that that's making an impact. But one of the questions was what something my mom was really good at. And she wrote, being a realtor. And I loved that both of my passions were reflected her and that she expressed that in school on her own and that she's proud of me, too. You know, my, my kids are proud of me. And my kids want to be like me when they grow up. And I mean, that's, that's what we're all striving for.
Justin Stoddart 30:42
one of the comments that came up in this top agent, the mastermind from a really high producing agent, she said, very few children of real estate agents want to become real estate agents. And I think, in part because it was bad, those it's tough to draw those boundaries, right. And they see mom and dad on the phone all the time. Another Top Producing agent said, in fourth grade, I came home and had a whole picture of the family and mom was kind of behind everybody on the phone. She's like, that was a real eye-opener for me. Yeah, like, how are they gonna see me? I had a similar experience. It's like my kids made these little Play-Doh things that were like, Okay, time to correct some things. So yeah, we're definitely not perfect at this. But we're definitely family first, and learning with all of you. So this has been probably, quite possibly my favorite episode of all time is kind of total blast. Hearing a real-life mom talk about a topic that's that, you know, means so much to me, which is family and not giving that up for also being great in the workforce. So want to thank you, Stephanie, for this opportunity.
Stephanie Peck 31:35
Yeah, I'm really grateful and honored to even be here with you, because I do I watch you every day. And I think, Wow, those are some big hitters. And I take pieces from it. But I also am guilty of saying, I'm just not there. And I'm okay with not being there. I'm not ready to be there yet. So for me to feel like I can be part of the thing. Yeah, yeah. It's awesome. And I, I just want to share that with everybody out there. I mean, anyone who's a mom that's thinking of getting into real estate or been a realtor and now has become a mom or just struggling with the same things that I'm struggling with. I'm just excited to share it with you guys.
Justin Stoddart 32:15
I think for me to not take the accomplishments of a mother and add them to whatever production and and not have that be considered a big thinker would be a gross error on my part, that does not say that the incredible work that mothers do is far more important, anybody that sells 1000 homes or 500 homes a year right? To me, it's the work that Stephanie's doing the home and many of you are doing is more important have more of an impact on society, and on your own happiness than anything else. So one last question before I forget my signature question, which is this? What do you do Stephanie to intentionally think bigger?
Stephanie Peck 32:52
Yeah, I, for me, I'm always thinking of what's my next step? What's my next goal. And even if it's not today's goal, it could be my three years from now goal or my five years from now goal. I have a list a mile long in my phone, I have great marketing ideas, great strategies that I want to implement. And some of them I'm ready to do right now. And some of them I need to table for later. So and I'm okay with that. And I'm happy to be able to say that's a great idea. I can't wait to do that when my kids are old enough to stay home by themselves and I have an extra couple of hours or you know when they ride the bus home or something. But I'm just I'm always thinking of how can I reach more people? How can I be having more intentional conversations? And that's how I keep the wheels going and keep that think bigger mindset.
Justin Stoddart 33:50
I love it. So awesome. Good. Thank you all for tuning in today. We've got a few viewers here. Just want to thank you for tuning in. Feel free to post any comments or questions you have afterward and probably a big thank you to Stephanie for you know, allowing us to do this and one of her beautiful listings. Yeah, if you guys can see the view out the back here. I should turn here just
Stephanie Peck 34:07
Darn Portland.
Justin Stoddart 34:10
check out this view at the back here. kind of see your lights anyway. Absolutely gorgeous view I had no idea was here. This is my good friends with their home. And they probably invited me and I just hadn't taken them up on the opportunity yet. So this has been really fun to see their beautiful home. Stephanie's actually been trying to tell me the KB homes for sale Justin and right
Stephanie Peck 34:28
yeah, you need a big house.
Justin Stoddart 34:30
I do have a big family.
Stephanie Peck 34:31
Yeah, I mean even on a cloudy day. It's still beautiful.
Justin Stoddart 34:34
says For sure. Anyway, thank you again, for tuning in. And please let Stephanie know how much you appreciate what she has contributed today by sharing this out and look forward to talking with you all again soon.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Welcome to Think Bigger Real Estate show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, very excited today to have with me two very close friends, guys, they look to as mentors, leaders, and bosses. These guys are fantastic.
Steve Yeager 0:13
I like the laugh.
Justin Stoddart 0:14
They are the leaders of Old Republic Title here in Oregon. And they have built an amazing company culture. And if you're a real estate agent and desire to scale your business, at some point, you're gonna add somebody, and you're gonna add somebody else, potentially add somebody else, and it's going to be requisite for you. If you want to keep good talent and attract good talent, then you're going to need to build the company culture, place where people want to work a place where people don't just get everything they want, but they get what they need. So we just had a great branch meeting, and I thought it'd be appropriate to have a lively conversation with you guys that make me laugh and inspire me about how to have a great company culture. So, Ryan, you mentioned something in the meeting, that gives people perspective, that it's not that their perspective isn't always right, would you share what that is?
Ryan Wood 0:58
Well, it's actually a line that you've used, so we'll steal it from him. But I basically, it's, when you're, and I can say this because I step up on my soapbox a lot, I get passionate about things. And I start, you know, putting my point of view out there and telling everybody, you know, what I feel is right. And, you know, Steve, made a really great point in the meeting, basically talking about the fact that all of us need to when we're in that position, also sit there and say, according to me, so basically do a little little bit of self reflection, which can go a long ways. And, you know, say, okay, am I right? Or am I doing the right thing? It's not all just about making you right, it's about making sure you're doing the right thing.
Justin Stoddart 1:41
Great stuff, Steve, any thoughts on that?
Steve Yeager 1:44
you know, Ryan, I have teased quite a bit, we have a mission statement on the wall, but taking the mission statement down and just putting the word communication, you know, seems like anything in life, whether we're going out or meeting with clients were handling internal issues when you're trying to grow anything, communications, the deal, right? People want to have to transparency and they want to have people that there's a level of respect that goes along with communicating with people. But I think it's, you know, if you take that a step further in it, it really is, you know, I might have this really strong opinion on something, but it's according to me, it's according to, you know, what my background is, what my thoughts are, what my reality is, what my perception is, it doesn't necessarily mean the people I'm talking with disagree with what I'm saying. But they've had an entire life where they have, they have been trained to think a different way doesn't mean the wrong way, just a different way. And being able to step back and actually think about that, when you're having a conversation with someone, it goes a long way with respecting them. And it goes back to another thing we're talking about today with ego. Right? I think, you know, sometimes as guys, we struggle a little bit because we like to lead with ego, you know that the puffed out chest. And I think it's super important, you know when we're having those conversations when we are trying to either coach train, teach, or just have a conversation with somebody that we are really listening, and we're really hearing it from their point of view.
Justin Stoddart 2:58
Great stuff. Iscrewed up a little bit, guys. And maybe the audio won't be as good.
Steve Yeager 3:01
A little concerned that I'm not standing on books next to Ryan, I'm concerned about that.
Justin Stoddart 3:05
And one thing that I actually had a thought this morning, that oftentimes building great company culture isn't always about just encouraging people. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's about telling them, Hey, I believe in you, you can do more. You've got untapped potential. You're amazing. I support you. Sometimes just having a fierce conversation with people, right? Sometimes it's telling them like, hey, what you did there was not the right thing to do for the group for the company for the whole? How have you guys come? Because you get to have both conversations, right? You get to see I believe in you, you're amazing doing a great job. And at times, it's like, Hey, don't do that, again, how have you kind of come to grips with being able to have those fierce conversations, without people taking it personally or without it being super heavy on you.
Ryan Wood 3:47
It's not easy. There's, there's no easy way about it, you're dealing with people, you're not interested in smashing people's opinions or, or making them feel bad about themselves. At the same time, you do have to think of the whole and you have to think and the whole doesn't just include your self that includes everybody else's in that environment. And I, you know, oftentimes will think of ego as everybody goes overboard. So you sit there and go, Oh, well, you know, everything about me is really what matters. And I think that it's hard not to it's I think there's a certain part of it. That's human nature. But I think that on the flip side of that it's really important to, again, do what's right, not necessarily be right. And so it's having that conversation to say this isn't about what you think of me or what I think of you. This isn't about, you know, what, you know, someone else might be involved with you, but it's more about what you're doing. Is it right, or is it wrong? And making that choice?
Justin Stoddart 4:43
Steve, any additional thoughts on that of how you have those tough conversations when they're not always fun? Right?
Steve Yeager 4:47
Yeah, you know, I think as a leader, a lot of times we ask questions that we already know the answer to or we think we know the answer to, we're looking to see how somebody responds. And I think it's going into each one of those conversations where it's a good conversation, a bad conversation, and we can be the good side to ham offering you a promotion, and here's, you know, your new your new salary to, hey, if we can't, you know, fix what this what's going on here. We might have to say goodbye to each other. You need to go in there with an outcome in mind or a goal in mind for the conversation. You know, a leader has thought more about it. They're not leaders aren't reactive, right? leaders are proactive, and leaders are, have already thought, hey, if I have this conversation that goes this direction, this may happen. If I have this conversation, it goes this direction. This may happen before and it helps you guide because you really are trying to help shape an outcome, whether it's a fierce conversation or not, you know,
Justin Stoddart 5:36
you obviously lead real estate offices for the better part of 10 years. So you saw real estate agents hire people, right? And they probably times struggled because they didn't, weren't willing to have to communicate well, with somebody, they just said, Hey, I'm gonna hire you. Your job is to be my assistant. Yeah. Follow me around and pick up this, like, pick up the details. Fix me, right. Yeah. What advice would you give to a real estate agent that's hiring somebody when it comes to communicating a lot of principles you've already talked about? But is there something else that you saw work really well with people that hired and kept and retained great talent to those that may be continued to kind of lose people?
Steve Yeager 6:11
Yeah, I think there are a couple of things. I think one, it goes back to what's the end goal? You know, leaders are a real estate agents, the teams, people have a very clear idea of the path where they're trying to go, it's a lot easier to pick up the people along the way to help you get there, right. But I think more than anything else, it is just natural for us to want to surround ourselves with people that are exactly like us. And we know there's only really needs to be one of us. We need people to complement. And we need people that do things that we don't know how to do or don't do well. And I think that the leaders that were able to kind of take ego out of it, right, be a little bit humble and say, you know, I don't know what I don't know, and able to surround themselves with people that might be experts more in something that I'm not very good at, or they're not very good at have the best. The best chance of success. But you see people fail forward all the time, right? It's a super common thing. You see some of the that's real estate agents you've had here in town, and you sat down with them, you could probably have a conversation all day long with people that have been on their teams that are no longer on their team's been. But they learned something along the way and didn't have to make that mistake twice.
Justin Stoddart 7:10
Ego is the enemy. I haven't read the book. I've heard great things about it. And I think kind of what I'm hearing you say is that that oftentimes gets in the way, right? people's inability to communicate or, like you were saying earlier, I like that, I've got to be right, it's got to be about me, right? You have to be in in the escrow world, right? Where it's always urgent, right? We have very short timelines, things are changing very quickly. And sometimes you have to step in and make something right. Like let's say, you know, something doesn't happen exactly how the client had expected. What advice would you give to a real estate agent? Who went to the transaction doesn't go perfect, right? Because 99% of the time, things go awesome, right? But occasionally, there's that one where it doesn't. I've seen you, I've got kind of my perspective on what you do in those situations. But I'd love to hear you say when, when something doesn't go, right, what's the opportunity? And what should a real estate agent do in those situations?
Ryan Wood 7:59
Well, called paraphrase, there's a TS Eliot, quote, basically, that you can't go back to the beginning and change what happened. But you can start from where you're at, and change the ending. And so I think that's probably the biggest step that anybody can take, whether it's on the escrow desk, whether it's the real estate agent, whether it's the consumer that's in the transaction, the problem is, is that in most cases, the consumer is going to have too much emotion in it. And we're all human. And escrow officers are naturally reactionary. So I think, you know because we were constantly reacting to everything and the first person to kind of step in. And what I always try to tell all of our staff is that you're the one to come in and calm it down, you're the one to come in and bring some level of sanity to it. So come in, take a deep breath, be the solution. Don't just be the one who's you know, adding to the frustration and the anger and the emotions that are involved in it. And I think, you know, coming from an outsider's perspective, anytime that real estate agent stepping in that, it's all the more helpful because it also comes to the client. We don't have as much contact with the client as a real estate agent does. And I get it. I mean, these are, these are important things, these are the biggest transaction someone's going to do in their life. This is their home, this is a very important thing. It's not trying to be dismissive of what the issue might be. It's just that nothing's going to get accomplished or at least nothing's going to get accomplished. Well, if the emotions are allowed to just kind of keep climbing up over everybody's head. So it's, it's it is just trying to bring it down a little bit.
Justin Stoddart 9:27
Steve, you've found to be very proficient at attracting
great talent, you look at like the escrow officer team that we have, you know, I'd put him up against anybody. If you're a real estate agent, and you again, part of having a great company culture is attracting people who are a good fit, right? Is there advice you'd give to a real estate agent on what that looks like to attract good talent to going to be a recruiter of people who will help build a culture?
Steve Yeager 9:53
Having someone like Ryan, that
helps a lot. You know what I think it's nice to say that about me, I think a lot of the reasons we have attracted great talent on the escrow side, especially is because of Ryan, Ryan is I would say player-coach is not the right word. But man, I even if a former company worked at comfortable enough, as I know, sorry, Ryan doesn't like compliments either. But Ryan would step in and sit on a desk as an assistant, a second or third assistant. If needed, he gets his hands dirty, rolled up his sleeves, he's he is the man of the people is what we call him around here. And that helps a lot. And I think as you're going out there, and you're trying to attract talent in any business, people want to see that they're going to go, they want to work for someone that would go to bat for them. They want to win, they want to work with somebody that can understand what they're going through what they're seeing. And we talked about those tough conversations, that's secondary. The first part is, hey, do you have my back? And I think leaders that are able to show that from the very beginning is working with me being on our team, not my team, not a lot of me and a lot of hours, right. And we, you know, I've got your back. And I think that's key. You know,
Justin Stoddart 10:57
I think you guys have both learned from someone who we all want bill Thomas, who was the former leader of Old Republic title here. And I remember he would correct me when I was introducing Bill to somebody, I'd say, you know, I worked for Bill and Bill say, No, no, no, we both work for Old Republic, Justin and I work together. And these two guys really personify that. And I think when you're the leader of an organization, people have to feel like, like, they matter that you're just not a pawn in their game, but that they put their game matters, right, and kind of where they're headed, you're going to help them get there faster than anywhere else. So I've learned that firsthand from these guys and really appreciate their leadership there. There's some of the best in the business, some of the best in the industry, it'd be a great leader. So any final words, guys, that kind of summing up?
Steve Yeager 11:38
Speaking about Bill, and I love saying that one of the things that I learned from Bill that I thought was just awesome. And I know we've talked about it quite a bit was bill says the definition of a leader is somebody that can remove obstacles for their so their people that they serve, right, turn that hierarchy upside down. At the top, they serve everybody removes obstacles for everybody else so they can do their job the best way possible.
Ryan Wood 11:59
Driving consumption. I mean, servant leadership has actually become much more of a thing you hear now. I mean, I see it all the time. People talk about it all the time. I mean, I think it's absolutely important. But for as long as I worked with Bill, that was his mantra, you know, for them, you know, 11 or 12 years that I worked with him. That was always what he said. So I guess before it was involved, he was there so
Justin Stoddart 12:22
he was living it. Very good, great stuff, guys, really appreciate you being on this episode of The Real Estate show. Let me ask just one more kind of question. In closing, to each of you kind of the signature question of the show, which is what do you do to intentionally think bigger? Like, what's a practice or an activity, or something that you do to where your possibilities are regularly expanded? If you don't get stuck inside this little box, this little paradigm? Thoughts?
Ryan Wood 12:48
Wow.
Something that is kind of natural to me. I question myself every damn day, every single day, I'm always saying, again, it is Is this right? Or am I just trying to be right? Am I is, you know, try to look at as many options as I can, recognizing that I don't have all the answers. And that, you know, trying to one incorporate as many other ideas as I can from other people, but also have their input on it. That's a fine line. That's tough because, on one hand, you don't want anyone to feel like they give their two cents, and then you've dismissed it because you've got another direction or you've gotten something. So you have to find a way to thank them. I mean, be grateful. And then at the same time, just keep questioning where that you know, where your perspectives coming from, and then all the other perspectives around it.
Justin Stoddart 13:41
Great stuff. Love it.
Steve Yeager 13:42
Yeah, I think it's, I think it's taking a step back and looking at all the different people that you associate with, and realize that you can learn something from everybody doesn't mean even if they're not involved in something that's very, you know, specific to what you do every day. There's something that they that has made them special, some unique gift that's been given to them, that they have grown. That is something that you can learn from him. I was on to a podcast one day and it wasn't Lance Armstrong's podcast, it actually. And he said The best part about being Lance Armstrong is that he can invite 10 or 11 different people over to break bread and drink wine that are experts in whatever they do. It could be art, could be an athlete could be someone on Wall Street, and they sit there and they all get better. Because they're they're telling each other stories and talking about what they do. And I think that's, that's how you get there. Make sure that you are very open to the conversations that are around you, like really open really listening to them. And you don't have to call the person a mentor to learn something from them.
Justin Stoddart 14:33
Great stuff.
I get the good fortune of being led by some giants. And I'm grateful for that.
Steve Yeager 14:38
One of us is more giants than the other.
Justin Stoddart 14:41
So anyway, I want to thank you again for tuning in to this episode of think bigger real estate show. This has been valuable. I would encourage you to go share it, share it with a friend and give us a review would mean the world to me so thanks, everybody.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Welcome back to The think bigger real estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, today's episode is going to be a really unique and valuable one, I hope you stay tuned for the entire thing. It's really helping real estate agents move from being salespeople to being advisors, which is where I think the industry needs to go in order to maintain the value to the customer that the customers happy to pay for your services. So excited to have with me a guy who does that naturally. He's always done that. And his name's Nick Krautter. And Nick, thanks for being on the show to them.
Nick Krautter 0:26
Yeah thanks for having me. This is great.
Justin Stoddart 0:27
Yeah, super fun. Nick, and I go back almost five years. And his kind of claim to fame nationally, is he wrote the book, The Golden handoff, which is how to help real estate agents buy and sell their business. And so in addition to that, maybe what he's less well known for, at least nationally, is he really has an economist type brain. And he really goes deep on helping people understand the numbers where they've been and where he believes they're heading, which gives consumers the ability to kind of have a little bit of a crystal ball to some degree, right? To be able to understand what will actually help them build their wealth, which I think is uncommon. And I'm excited to kind of delve into this topic. But before I do, Megan, I am going to be actually speaking at an event together with our friend James Adair called exponential referrals, if you're in the Portland market,
it is I should have had the date, I'm going to put the date in the comments below, you can be able to hear this guy go in depth on the golden handoff and really house the strategy, not just exit the business, but also to grow the business. And probably one of the things we hadn't mentioned, Nick is you're now under the umbrella of your own brokerage city and state.
Nick Krautter 1:35
Yeah, that's a big, that's the big change for us here. The Celtics team decided to start our own real estate brokerage. So we've had the team together for 13 years, we decided to go out and start our own brokerage. It's called the city and state real estate. And we are working in Oregon and Washington right now and looking to expand into new markets. And we can talk about some of why I decided to do that. And a big part of that was exactly what we're talking about today. Which is there's a difference between being a good real estate broker who executes a plan, helping someone better sell something, but are you asking your clients great questions? Are you understanding what they want? And why they're Why are they selling? Why are they buying? Yeah, I often find that people will be buying or selling real estate because they have a goal or a plan. And maybe that process that they're going through is really not the best way to do it. Or maybe they have a different asset, or there's a different way to go about doing it that in the big picture for them would be much better for their family or their future. And it is sometimes that costs us to sail right then as a broker. But I I believe that building those relationships and building trust is is significantly more valuable in the long run, and it's just doing the right thing. And so our brokerage is really set up for our clients to be working with agents who are there to advise them. And then for the brokers that are there to really understand who are their clients and have a plan of action to staying in touch with them. That's very tangible. And then is your business structured correctly as an agent, you know, are you are you saving taxes are you investing do having retirement plan, and then at the at the kind of the top level for our brokers, it's really about looking at investment property and understanding that because there's a lot of great real estate brokers who don't understand real estate investing. They're very good things. And that's fine. But we have great brokers on our company that understand the investment, and I do to inside out, and so we can basically help build folio to build wealth for those agents because we don't get retirement plans. You know, there's no pension in real estate. So it's all about what can you do for yourself and your family. And we're city and state is built specifically to help people know their clients build their business and build their future. But
Justin Stoddart 3:55
you know, what's interesting, that you said, Nick, is, you know, the tech companies, they're looking to really create algorithms that help people buy and sell, and or empower the customer to buy and sell themselves. What is not really accounted for is how will you know a client, right? It even better than the client knows themselves, right? And even start asking questions where the client is learning something about their future plans, because no one's ever asked him that question. Now you can custom tailor a real estate experience that fits really where they want to be. Right, right, which is maybe not even where they thought they could go. But because you understand real estate, you understand real estate investing, you can be guiding them advising them down a path that they didn't know was even there possible for them. I think that's where, again, kind of the low barriers to entry of real estate and all these tech companies even coming and trying to replace agents, all that becomes irrelevant when you offered that level of service.
Nick Krautter 4:49
Yeah, I believe that technology, we use a lot of technology. And I've always been focused on, you know, having the best tools and resources for my brokers and for our clients. I think that, to me, technology is there to supplement and make the relationship part of the business easier and better. Not to replace relationships totally agree. And there are people there's going to, there are always people that want to do things on their own, or who will want to use a new tool, people that are early adopters. The thing is like real estate is a very, very big asset for most people is their biggest asset. And even for people that are buying and selling all the time. It's interesting because they use brokers. And really smart real estate brokers will hire other brokers. So one of the things to me that's kind of one of our badges of honor is how many seasoned real estate professionals hire our team to think for their personal deals, because they know that we're going to be there to be kind of a sounding board and to to double check their plans and their logic. And so it's one of those things. It's crazy. But a lot of times people think, Oh, well that's properties on by a realtor, so they don't need an agent. Well, we work with a lot of those people because they understand that now they might have a blind spot, or they might not be able to negotiate as well for themselves or they might overprice it or underprice it and so to have someone else that you trust, to me, that's like the biggest sign of respect and appreciation. And I think that technology will continue to get better and better. But the problem is real estate is it's not so much about just the value. It's about how you negotiate. And to try to replace human negotiation, I think is exponentially more difficult and figuring out what is the right value for a home. I think technology will continue to help get us to that point where that's better and better. As there's more and more information because every time a home sells now there's more information out there about it, right. So anything that sold in the last 10 years, there's great data available to any of those companies and to us as realtors.
But if someone's you know, we work with a lot of the states, someone has owned a home. Right now we're working on a deal where the families on the property since 1935. It's now the third generation of ownership. Well, there's nothing on Zillow or anything about praying what that property is like. So what the story is, other than the square footage and the tax records, and so that unless you go in and actually look at it, it's a mystery.
Justin Stoddart 7:08
Yeah. Well, I think it's, you know, one point that I think is not, not without overlooking, is, again, how important it is for someone to be able to come from an experience of being an event an investor themselves. You know, the statistic is this is that 87% of people's wealth in the US is tied up in the real estate. You know, for only 13% of people's wealth, we have financial advisors and Wealth Advisors, which we should know, but 87% of people's wealth is tied up in the real estate. And So wouldn't it make sense to have somebody that understands the numbers, somebody who is a true wealth advisor, right working, acting thinking like that, to give people data and insight and counsel that only an advisor could because you're right, there's no algorithm that can create that.
Nick Krautter 7:55
I think the big problem in the real estate industry is exactly what you said,
advisors in the financial sector for like, Ira 401k is the stock market bonds.
They're not trying to get you to sell everything right now. And I think there's this big fear amongst consumers that if I call a realtor, because I want to know, give it everyone wants to know it to a better level of accuracy, what their real estate is worth, whether they own one home, or they have a portfolio, that's one of the main requests we get from clients is I'd love to know what Everything I have is worth. And we're using some technology and some of our manual brain power to create that for our clients right now. And wouldn't it be great if every year you could find out what your home's worth and how much equity you have? And what your investments are real estate investments are worth as well, because whether it's your home, or it's a true investment property, it is an asset that hopefully will go up in value. And even if it doesn't go up in value, you've got money tied up in it, that you could use for something else. And so the real question for me is,
I've done this with my own portfolio is what property do I own? That is worth basically too much money for how much cash flow it's making. So I had a home I sold two years ago, because we did a portfolio analysis and identified that I had a property that was worth at the time about $600,000, but only made $2,000 a month in rent. And that's because the land value now is worth way more than the house. Interesting. Yeah. And so that was a bad investment. Now when I bought it, it wasn't, and it's so cash flowed. So if you're just looking at cash flow, you might think, wow, that's my best investment. When in reality, that might be the worst use of your money. Because, yeah, maybe your cash flowing because you bought it for $200,000, 20
years ago or 10 years ago, and it's worth more. But if you could unlock that equity and invest that that $600,000 invested in another like say duplex or triplex might create $4,000 a month of income. Right. And that's the difference between, you know, buying, you're selling or understanding what the investment really is doing for you. I think the fear from consumers is if I call someone up, and they come to my house or my duplex, they're going to try to convince me to sell it right? Well,
Justin Stoddart 10:11
it's always a good time to sell, let's say you have a real estate agent.
Nick Krautter 10:13
That's, and that's there's something to be said, that's true for them. And in some ways, you know, we're there to serve our clients. You know, there's plenty of deals I've helped people do that were great for them, that wouldn't have been something I would have done for myself personally. And that's the difference between being a broker and being someone that's working on your own behalf me, I'm working on my client's behalf. And if they want, you know, a super huge mansion that's very expensive that I wouldn't personally want or they want to get a little micro-condo. Because they aren't in town that often that wouldn't work for me either personally, but helping that person get what they need. And negotiating the best we can is really what we're doing,
Justin Stoddart 10:50
knowing where they want to go and get there. And helping them see that. Is that the best option of where they went? Like in their mind, that might be the best place to go. But if one person with another alternative, have you could take that 600,000 and do this with it. Right? Right, it might be a different strategy to get the same good end result that they want. Yeah. What are their numbers? Nick, would you say? Or what are some of the numbers you think a good real estate advisor? The right should know, whether it be about the economy, whether it be about the real estate market? that really gives them a basis and grounding to advise their clients?
Nick Krautter 11:27
That's a great question. I think, at a minimum, every realtor should know what the market inventory is what the average sales prices, and the average days on market
Justin Stoddart 11:36
in how big area right? So if you're set is it by zip code by city by neighborhood, what's your
Nick Krautter 11:43
so I would say you want to know your market area, which would be your Metro, okay, that'll give you your kind of averages across the board. And then for each client, you want to understand their property in the context of where it is because real estate is a location business, right? So the location is super important.
And beyond that, if you're going to be working in investment, real estate, you need to understand zoning, you need to understand occupancy codes. And you need to understand the financial aspects of real estate. And that's not easy. It's something you can learn it takes time, right? And it takes an investment of elevating yourself to a different level. If you want to be above average, you're going to have to put in above average work. And that part of that is studying on your own time and learning that and going to classes and investing in your knowledge meeting with the city or cities. If you have clients, yes, well placed to understand what is allowed in that zone. Because a duplex with this much on a lot that zones for a high rise building versus a duplex over here that sound for just a duplex, those are worth different even though from a cash flow standpoint, they're worth the same. So it's about understanding, what is the value to a developer for the development? What is the value the property based on the cash flow. And then if the property was vacant, what's the value of that property to an owner user? So it's understanding all of those things. Because when we will look at any property, even if it doesn't seem obvious, we will always look at those three factors to make sure that we're marketing the property to the right buyer to get the most money for our client if they're selling. And if we're working with a buyer,
that they have an opportunity to buy a duplex with an extra lot that zone for high rise versus the duplex, three blocks away in the same city, same school district with the same cash flow. Yeah, that is over just a duplex, we obviously we want, we want our client to get the one that's zoned for the high rise because maybe that's not worth more than now. But in 20 or 30 years from now, maybe that's worth four times more than the other one. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart 13:43
Just an experience, right? Rather than great. You want me to sell your property, let's look at comps, here's what it's worth, right? It's all these different layers of what could be possible to identify what's the best possibility? And then how do we properly situate you to take advantage of the best possibility there?
Nick Krautter 13:58
Yeah, that's it. That's you that's about as succinctly as you can put it is really just so we understand everything about this and how it affects the value. And then I would say this like I really drill down on this, I did a white piano event for our local Realtor Association last week. And one of the things I really talked about in the big takeaway I think a lot of people had, from these different mastermind sessions we did was, you have to ask great questions. So if someone says I want to sell my duplex, okay, great. Why do you want to sell it? What are your goals? Where are you going to take the money? How are you gonna reinvest it? What's important about that? I met with an investor, we did a one on one meeting about their portfolio, and they have I think, 12 units right now. And they're like, yeah, I want to get to 50 units was like, Well, why do you want 50 units? And they didn't want 50 units, they wanted a certain amount of cash flow. Interesting. So I was like, Okay, well, based on how much money you have, and what your real goal is, maybe there's a way to do it. That would be quicker and easier than that. Yeah. Let's just get the other question. Was that okay? Well, they said that they wanted to eventually get 50 units. I said, What if we could take what you currently own plus the extra money you have saved for future investments? What if we could get close to 50 units right now? What if by the end of this year, you could have 50 units? What would that do for you? And just kind of challenging people's thinking about what's possible and what resources they have and the process we could go about? Because if someone's goal is to get 50 units, and we can do it this year, versus them doing it over 20 years? Yeah, I'd much rather have them in 50 units now and then having the cash flow for the next 20 years, as opposed to waiting for that 20th year to get their final unit. Because I know that the compounding effect of that will be massive for that.
Justin Stoddart 15:42
Yeah. Great stuff, Nick, as you can tell Nick's really a master of the numbers. Maybe just let's give one more tip, Nick, is there some number that you look at? So you said inventory, right? What's one other number that you think is critical for agents, who aspire to be advisors, what they should whether it be through again, economic data, whether it be through, you know, our RMLS data? There's something else that you always look at to say, Oh, that's interesting.
Nick Krautter 16:10
Hmm. Well, I think one of the things, it's kind of a no brainer when you're an investor is if you can buy a property below replacement value. Okay.
So someone basically said, here's a lot build the same thing if you would cost you more money to do that. And then by the one that's already done, that's usually a big one. Yeah. And again, I think, if you understand what the value of the land is, which a lot of people don't and because you have to understand zoning
it again, kind of that example, the two duplexes across the street, one zone for duplex one zone for high rise. If you know that, many times other realtors will not put the zoning in and they won't know what the value is. So there's sometimes a lot of money just left on the table from agents that don't know this information. And if you're the agent that does that research and understands those values. Sometimes someone could sell a fixer duplex, and they think it's the fixer duplex. Whereas I look at it and go, that could be a 50 unit apartment building. And we could sell it to a developer for double what they're asking. Yeah, I saw an example of that just the other day a property was listed for 500. It sold for 750 because the zoning was much more powerful than the listing agent thought. And the buyer probably got it for cheaper than they would have paid Yeah. For what they're going to be able to build there. And you see examples of that. I've certainly bought properties where it's a fixer house. But yeah,
it's on to lots of the worth of the extra lot what I'm paying for the property.
Justin Stoddart 17:31
Great stuff.
appreciate everything you've shared here, Nick, it's great insight, and really gives I think everyone listening to this, now have something to aspire towards of understanding the numbers so that again, you can be an advisor. I want to give one more, again, plug for the event that's coming up that I'll put in the notes called exponential referrals you'll be able to hear, Nick, he'll be the main dish both James and Aaron. I will be the side dish. But all of us have some really valuable content that's impacting some agents in a great way. We're excited to share that with people it's going to be in Clackamas, I believe is on the 20 seconds. And I believe it's at 11 o'clock starting to come back to me now. So watch for the details on that but would love to have you there if you're not already signed up. So please join us and again want to give a special thanks to Nick for giving us some great insight today. What agents can be doing to really up their game so great stuff.
Nick Krautter 18:18
Thank you.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, you know, oftentimes when I'm sitting down and meeting up with agents, I say the word system and they start to light up. And I think because real estate agents tend to be very excited about growth, very entrepreneurial consistency tends to be a weak spot of theirs. And so I'm more than excited today to have on a guest who is truly an expert, helping agents be consistent, put the systems in place to help them be able to have the life and business that they want. So I'm excited to welcome today, Lars Hedenborg. Lars first and foremost, before I give kind of a full bio on you, I appreciate you being on the show today.
Lars Hedenborg 0:37
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. This is the one thing you know, I almost see sometimes the opposite effect. When I mentioned systems to real estate agents, they, they feel a feeling of overwhelming almost like what's a system like I'm not a systems person, you know, like enlighten me as to what a system is. So I'm looking forward to the conversation today.
Justin Stoddart 0:56
Yeah, very good. So for those that don't know, Lars, let me just give a little background him large section in your first year of business, close 71 homes, yet that came to come at a price it came being away from his family realizing like I can't do this forever, I can hustle for a year and prove the fact that I can sell a lot of real estates. But at the end of the day, you were short on time. And you wanted the ability to have both right to have success and significance a great work life and great home life. Continuing on large scale his business to where now his team produces over 100 million dollars a year consistently. And he's found some tricks some systems, to say the least, that have propelled him and his business to the next level. As a result, he's actually developed a whole school around this real estate B school BB and just the single letter B. I'm going to put that up here on the screen now. So any that are curious about that. I'm gonna put that up here real estate B school. We'll talk a little bit more about that. But Lars, I want to thank you, again for being on the show today is on the think bigger real estate, is a big thinker yourself. And helping those of us in the audience think bigger. So thank you again, for coming on.
Lars Hedenborg 2:02
Yeah, for sure. And you, you nailed it in the intro in terms of 2002, 2007, 2008, you know,
I was married in October 2006. We had our first child in November 2007. And I realized early on that every part of a real estate agents job like 90% of it could be done via a system and a lower level person, not in an ugly kind of way lower level. But let's scale right? Yeah, systems were out of the gate, I was just like, well, if I want to make my number was $250 an hour, if I want to make $250 an hour, for a full 2000 hours a year, right, I wanted to make at least a half a million to me and the government, there was 90% of it, I had to build out a system and have someone else run it. And systems are everything in the business, like anything that you do more than once a month is a system. And a lot of times, agents don't like this, I think it's that simple. You know, if you're doing something personally, and you're the real estate agent, and you're doing it more than, you know, let's say let's start with the weekly stuff, you're doing it more than 234 times a week, you need to put that into a document and make it so someone else can do it. And that really, for me, that's been like 99% of everything we do. And I just have a consultant role in the business now.
Justin Stoddart 3:22
Interesting. There is definitely a lack of consistency. You know, and I think again, when you as I mentioned before when you work with entrepreneurial people, entrepreneurial people, I believe move the world has the ability to change the world. The downside is that they tend to be very easily distractible, and their high performers and can produce very significant results for short bursts of time and oftentimes lack the organizational skills to be able to do that consistently, which causes them to not have the long term impact that they want. Let's talk a little bit about the systems that you think real estate agents need to start with, or one of the few of the big missed systems that you feel like real estate agents could really implement and have the most amount of impact.
Lars Hedenborg 4:11
Yeah, so I'm going to give like a, probably more than 10 seconds, but real big the business is our ability to attract buyers and sellers convert those into face to face and clients deliver a differentiated service. And then there are a few things in scaling the business. You know, creating your future, knowing your numbers and growing your team. So it's a little bit more complicated in scale. But when it comes to attracting buyers and sellers, what got us here isn't going to get us there. So you know, you better make sure you have your database locked down, and you're actually doing something of value on a regular basis where, you know, we'll do 3.6 million this year and 1.4 1.5
from a database of about 1800 people will come from that part of it and we spend, you know, we'll probably only spend about $30,000 to generate that amount of GCI this year, and a phenomenal
and it's all because we just preloaded what we do for in terms of social in terms of content in terms of events and giveaways. And it's run by someone who makes about 20 bucks an hour. And it's only part of that person's job for the entire year. And so but it's all pre-loaded. So every little we have 93 social things that happen in a given year, we have 57 sorts of content pieces that go out, we do an E-newsletter, and she just pings me when she needs a video or a market update or a funny video for my family. She kind of gets some some some leeway in that. But that's a system that runs and then we feed the database. You know, we as team leaders, especially we forget that our databases are really valuable. You know, that's a million dollar year over year pillar in your business. And are you adding Do you have a system to add two new contacts a day to your inner circle database? super simple, but nobody actually does it. I've yet to meet a team leader that actually focuses on the database on a regular basis.
Justin Stoddart 6:12
I love how you simplified that Lars. And I think again, the brightest minds in the business have the ability to take the complex and turn it into something super simple. And what you said is attract the business, follow up with the business service, the business, right, those are three. And the fourth was just the kind of ancillary systems, you need to actually scale a business. As I mentioned, it was second to the fourth.
Lars Hedenborg 6:33
Yeah, so I mean, so when we start working with the new, a new, a new client in the coaching business, it is really making sure they have the attract, convert, deliver rock solid, but in a way where they're not in it. So we need to attract folks to the business, convert them, and then deliver an amazing service in a way where there's probably 12 to 18 core systems and just those three pillars. And once we do that, then the team leader can focus on scaling. And scaling is making sure you have a solid three-year plan, making sure you know your numbers, and making sure you know how to grow your team, the culture stuff, the attracting new talent and those sorts of things. A lot of folks want to scale their business, but the attract, convert deliver is a complete shit show. And it relies 100% on them to have that a CD, you know, AC DC, attract, convert, deliver, you know, and then get it to get a commission check. And you need to make sure that the core part is running systematically. And just ask yourself every day like what did I put my hands in today? That's a system I can create, do the systems work? Because that's worth $1,000 an hour and don't do the actual work?
Justin Stoddart 7:43
Interesting, because it's like working on the business as opposed to working in the business, right? I mean, first, that first book
Lars Hedenborg 7:47
I read when I, when I got introduced into real estate, was E-Myth. And that book, it doesn't teach you anything. Yeah, and it's but it has stuck with me the profound realization that you know if I'm working in business, it's, it's, it's never going to have a life of its own. So I need to make we as entrepreneurs, you know, the kiss of death is that we're really, we need to slow down to be managers, managers build systems, and have people run the systems until we can have other people manage for us, we need to be the manager, you know, and, and some of us, you know, just our comfort is in being the technician if I could just go out and take listings, you know, I'll sell 150 homes a year. And nobody really wants that seven-day life sort of existence. So
Justin Stoddart 8:31
what's interesting, that book, I agree with you, that book had a profound impact on me. And I see that showing up so much. And I'll come out of the general contracting world, I was a general contractor, high end, a luxury contractor for a number of years. And it was interesting how that was so common, right is you'd have people coming out of the trades, who were very good technicians. And they immediately thought because they were a good technician that they'd be a good business owner. And it's a totally different skill set. And like you said, there's a reluctance, oftentimes, when someone even has the opportunity to scale a business this is that they're there, they have a hard time letting go of the technician component, right? Like that. What I hear you saying is that in order to be a great leader, in order to be a great manager of the systems and designer-developer, the systems, you actually have to start to let go of the technician, you shouldn't have feet in both camps. Is that what you're saying?
Lars Hedenborg 9:19
Yeah, at the very least, if you want to have the semblance of a real business, in the world of real estate, it's something as simple as getting a showing agent, like there's no way any of us that want to scale a business should be working evenings and weekends, showing homes to buyers, there's like 100 agents in our market center. At worst case, we can hire our lead to do that, you know, will 3.6 million, but we're at a point this year where we have someone outside of our team helping us to show homes because we're a player short in that position. But we're so committed to our buyer agents and our lead agents not showing homes ever, that we're just going to, we're going to look to fill that position with anyone else. Because it's honestly a low-level task. It's not rocket science to open a door. And that's not really where the real value comes from. So yeah, it's just thinking about, like what you want for your business, if you want to make a half a million dollars, and you're gonna do all the production yourself, you know, you're never going to do it with life. And one more thing I want to mention. It's the real passion of these sorts of things and spreading, spreading the word is, as the measure of success to me and businesses time, money and stress. Where is your time your own? Do you have anything to show for your efforts financially? You know? And do you have a plan to create wealth around what you're doing? And then Are you stressed all the time? Or you're bringing that stress into other areas of your life? And, you know, just check yourself on that every 90 days time, money and stress? And is it getting better? Is it getting worse? You know, we've had guys in our industry think that suicide was a better option than then living the life that they had, you know, and how does that happen? Right, a guy at the top of his game, that thing, suicide is a better option than being in his life. You know, and so that that's the real passion is just make sure your time money, stress is in check. And if it's not, and you're growing, and it's out of control, just Stop the presses. just slow down. And it's usually a systems issue, that, you know, stuff's not happening, because you're doing everything because
you don't have systems.
Justin Stoddart 11:24
You know, and one thing that I think a lot of real estate agents come to the realization, or if they have it, hopefully, they will and hearing you speak about this, which is, it's different than having a high producing job than it is having a high producing business. And I think so many that they forget the fact that and some may want to high producing job, right, and that's the life they want, and, and you know, all power to you. But if you want a business, it looks different than a job. And I think what you're describing is the template and the mentality and mindset of producing a business that, especially in an industry that demands so much after hours, that if you want a business, you have to be able to work during business hours, and have other systems tools and people support the needs of the customers outside of those business hours.
Lars Hedenborg 12:10
Yeah, that's right. And don't overthink it. And don't overcomplicate it, you know, our theme this year, is to simplify to multiply. It's really basic, we want to meet with buyers and meet with sellers. And that's it like what are we doing every day to set those consultations and to actually get face to face and convert them into clients and then activate listings, there are only about four data points that we track in the business, to know that we're on track. And I think a lot of folks just complicated and they think it's something different than what it actually is. And it's not it's a really simple business. So but then, you know, I talked about attract, convert, deliver and deliver, you know, the game is changing, where you're not even going to be in the business, three to five years from now, or maybe even less, if you're not pushing real hard toward, in my opinion, high touch hi service, you know, look at a dozen other industries that have been this place with technology and changing business models. So what systems do you have in place to make sure your buyers and sellers when their clients, they get a world class experience. And those are checklists, it's simple.
Justin Stoddart 13:16
You know,
in the process right now, of finishing up an ebook on how to become more of an advisor than a salesman. And I totally agree with you 100%, as I've dug into the research of what profession, what people really respect and are willing to pay for when it comes to professional. And it's kind of what you discuss, there has to be a dedicated, intentional effort to produce higher value than what the standard is, and people will pay for that. And what we're seeing in the industry as a result of all these, this massive investment from venture capital and Wall Street to produce technology is that the general consumer base doesn't feel like real estate agents produce enough significant value, that it can only be done by human, therefore, they're trying to take it on or take it away from them. Yet, I strongly believe that there's going to be a very profitable space for those that push the envelope on creating new value for consumers and becoming more of an advisor than just someone who can open a door and sell people something.
Lars Hedenborg 14:14
Yeah, I've, I'm a big legal zoom.com consumer, I've set up a bunch of entities, and I've set up a nonprofit. But I've also paid $500 an hour for an attorney in the last two years. Yeah. So like, you know that there's just going to be a smaller pie available to true advisors. And the class action lawsuit right now against 20, the largest MLS in our country is proof that you know, that whole side is going away, if you can't sit down with a buyer and prove to them that you're worth $15,000 to represent them over the next 60 days, you're going to be out of the business. Yeah, or you're going to be irrelevant, or you're going to do whatever they'll pay you 15 bucks an hour to open doors, you know, so
Justin Stoddart 14:58
and you shouldn't be taking that kind of money if you can't prove the value, right? I mean, at the end of the day, the consumer is going to win, we live in an era where consumers have more power than ever before. And it's not just like a smoke and mirrors. Like if you actually don't provide more value than you charge, then like, there's a reckoning day,
Lars Hedenborg 15:15
right? And luckily, I mean, luckily we're in an industry where these little mini-monopolies these MLS is have protected us forever. And it's going to change. And I hope it doesn't, you know because I think there's just an awesome opportunity for folks that are really good at what we do. And you know, building I think the future, I think it is teamed either working for a really good team, then there's no shame in that all of our team members are world class. But I think there's a, I don't know, if you follow Matt Johnson, he had a podcast episode called the mushy middle. You know, there's going to be all the technology that is all the discount stuff. Yeah. And there's going to be the high-end service providers, and then there's going to be this middle, where it's going to be a lot of commission discounting and, you know, just not a lot of great stuff going on in there. So I don't want to be being there.
Justin Stoddart 16:03
It's going to be a bloody red ocean. Yeah. Let's final question, kind of signature question for the show Lars, which should be fairly easy for you to come up with, but that's something that you do on a regular basis, to intentionally think bigger, to expand your own possibilities and in the theme of what you're up to the possibilities of other people?
Lars Hedenborg 16:23
So something intentional, I mean, I've been really consistent with there are a few things come to mind. But my morning, what I do with my morning, you know, it's sort of a, an easy answer. But I get in, in the Bible, every day, I do a meditation on a scripture every day, I get my body moving every day.
That's the first thing that comes to mind. And then I'm constantly looking for, I'm constantly surrounding myself with people that are really helping me become the best version of myself. And that's, that's just something I'm really focused on. I think God has this awesome plan for me, and I just need to keep showing up as the best version of myself to help him realize his plan for me and not, you know, there's always turmoil, it feels like in business, and if there's not, you're probably not doing something right. And just to, to realize none of its related, like I have issues like eight different issues going on in two different businesses, and they're all not related to each other, you know, so just be the common the middle of it all. And then one last thing, just think Long, long game, you know, I'm 45 I'm probably going to be in business. Till 66 is my, my, my hope. And so there's 19, what, 21 years, at 21 years to be in this game. And the whole point of the game is to stay in the game. You know, it's not to grow next year for no reason whatsoever, like growth for growth's sake it's growing, grow to serve others, you know, so that's kind of some thoughts around that.
Justin Stoddart 17:59
It's powerful stuff, man, yours in my morning sound very similar, kind of bringing in a spiritual component, which gives me purpose and grounding and what this is all about. Right? So I could impact people for good. So I appreciate what you know what you share. I think it's super powerful. I'm gonna put you up on the screen, Lars, I know you're a busy guy and have to jump to your next commitment. So let me go and put up here. People wanna learn more about Lars I highly recommend you do he's got sold a real estate B school. He actually offers him a free business growth strategy session at REBSStrategySystem.com, I'll put that in the notes as well. Reach out to Lars he's a guy that if you're tired of your real estate job, and you'd rather have a business, you want to implement systems, whether it's the scale the level that he has, and or just simply to scale up so you get some evenings and weekends back. You start to think more like a business owner. This is a guy you ought to be following. He also has a podcast called the business freedom podcast. look him up. Obviously very bright guy with some big accomplishments. Lars wanna thank you for your time for being on the show and pouring into the think bigger real estate audience.
Lars Hedenborg 18:59
Yeah, awesome. Let me know if I can ever do anything for you, too.
Justin Stoddart
Okay, man. I really appreciate it. And we're going to sign off.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Real Estate photography today matters more than ever. My wife and I, for example, toured about 1000 homes virtually, toured one physically, that was the home we bought. So Case in point, real estate photography matters if you want to be a great listing agent, and I'm really excited today to have on the show gentleman by the name of Darryl Glade. Darryl is the founder and CEO of stilio.com, which is a marketplace to connect real estate agents, and great photographers, they do a full vetting process and training program to make sure that the photographers that they bring to the table, understand some very key principles of which we're going to be discussing today. So I want to, first of all, thank Darryl for being on the show today, Darryl, welcome.
Darryl Glade 0:43
Thanks for having me, Justin looking forward to it.
Justin Stoddart 0:45
Yeah, based on what you've built, you're, you're a big thinker, which I'm excited to have someone like you, who not only has been a top agent, right? for 10 years, you're a top agent in New Orleans, found your passion within kind of this niche of real estate. And now you're pouring into the industry in a different way. So very cool, excited to have you here to extend really my mission of my passion, which is to help agents think bigger. I know that when that happens, they themselves grow. And their business follows suit, which opens up options and impact that they've always wanted. So thank you again, for being here. Let's dive into this there'll, you know, one thought that I've had actually taught a class this week, as I was mentioning to you previously, called becoming a powerful marketer through storytelling. And I believe this that the great marketers, and great agents out there, don't just say, hey, let me show you a house. Right? They say, let me tell you about what your story what your life would look like living in this house, there's a much deeper emotional connection. And people really start to see their story transform and having that home be a part of it. How do you feel like photography plays a part in helping people see the story, their story being in that home,
Darryl Glade 1:57
it's got to be the easiest way to do it. You know, there's a great stat that says 90% of buyers say that the most important part of any real estate listing is the photos. And so it's not the flowery language. And if you're trying to tell a story and trying to get a certain message across, the easiest way to do it is by photos. And it's really the cheapest way to do it as well. I mean, it's not a very big investment. And the listing agent and homeowner can work with a photographer to really set the stage to tell that story to get your point across. So exactly like you were talking about in your presentation, the photos are a key part to accomplishing that goal.
Justin Stoddart 2:39
You know, so many people, again, I think maybe an indicator of where we're going as a society, right, Facebook was the big deal for a long, long time, they were wise enough for a small investment of a billion dollars, they bought Instagram, but what's Instagram, Instagram is image heavy, and text light right there. So Case in point of what you're saying here is that you can have great copy, and you need to have great copy. But if you don't have good photography, no one's ever going to get to your copy.
Darryl Glade 3:07
Now you're exactly right. And, you know, to expand that further, the Instagram generation and in Facebook still, all anybody cares about is content, all these agents are trying to create content to get their own personal brand across and to get that listing information across its photos. So if you commit to getting great photos, and all your listings, you've got all that content built in right there ready for you, ready for you to extend your brand and to get that listing messaging across. And it's just so easy. All you gotta do is get your listing photographed. And then right there, you got 20 or 30 pieces of content ready for you to post to extend your brand online.
Justin Stoddart 3:48
Well, how important it is, you're right, because you're not just listing at home, you're listing your business, if you will, right. You're demonstrating what kind of marketer you are. And I believe that when people evaluate a real estate agent, it used to be just on like, who have your friends us and who do you trust. And I believe that now people have more of a discerning eye. Yes, they want to know that. But they're also vetting you to see if you're also a professional marketer, not just a good real estate agent. But are you a professional marketer? Are you showing up in the video? Or do your images look like they were taken on your phone? Or do they actually look like it's amazing, Darryl, that how many agents and I say, well, you go through our MLS, and you can identify a much higher percentage than you would expect, are still doing photos on their own, oftentimes on a mobile device, right?
Darryl Glade 4:28
I always say our biggest competitor is not necessarily another professional photography company. It's the agent with their own cell phones. And yeah, technology is expanding every single day, and the cameras on the phones are just that much better. They're outstanding. But the fact is, you need to know the angles you need, which features you need to know the camera height. And then not only that a huge part of getting really good professional photography for real estate is the post-processing. It's the editing afterwords. And that's where still to other professional photographers really get the job done.
Justin Stoddart 5:05
Well, you say, I know you guys do, again, pretty, pretty deep vetting process when it comes to the photographers that are part of your kind of ecosystem, right? What are some key things that you look for when you're choosing photographers in an agent should be saying, you know, that's some criteria that I need to look at now, obviously, going through studio com, they're going to get this, but talk to us about kind of what criteria you look for.
Darryl Glade 5:28
Yeah. So, you know, it's important that we vet all the photographers that get access to our marketplace, and, you know, still is a lot different than the other professional photography companies out there we are the marketplace, we are not the photography company. So that means agents are going to go and find their local photographers. And then those photographers are the ones that are creating and giving the service to the agent. So if we want to make sure that that marketplace is only full of vetted important, really good photographers are all the agent will never come back again. Right? So when the photographers submit their application, they have to submit photos, so we have to see their existing work, they also have to create a profile. So if for example, the profile says, you know why hire me I because I love photography, something like that, well, they're not professionals, they need to have a professional profile, they need to submit their camera equipment. So if they don't have professional grade equipment, they're not in. And then not only that, they have to take a test, if they can't pass this professional, it's a test for real estate photography, not just general, professional photography, if they can't pass the test, they're not live. So these are some of the things that we want to make sure that of the 6000 applications that we got the last six months all around the country, we are a nationwide marketplace, that only those that are the best can get to the real estate agent. So that we're really taking our time making sure that the top photographers are on our platform.
Justin Stoddart 7:05
Darryl, when you look at real estate photography, like what's a pet peeve of yours, what's like, oh, my goodness, that's terrible. Like,
Darryl Glade 7:12
let me say, I guess to right off the bat, I can think of the easiest example is, you know, look at that window behind me, that's a great example is the windows of the real estate listing. So when you take a normal picture, one of two things is likely going to happen, you're either going to be able to see through the window, and have a beautiful shot of outside and the view but the inside is incredibly dark, you don't see the furniture, for example, or the exact opposite, which is what you're seeing in here, the window is completely blown out. And then but you can see the inside. So a good professional photographer knows how to blend those two extremes, those two light levels, you know, to keep it sort of basic and not too technical. And so you can see through the windows, and then also see inside that the house as well, that would be one. And then the other would be diverging lines, you want to make sure that the verticals, we can call it that the let says the corners of the walls, and the edges of the door frames don't sort of look away from the viewer and are not vertical when you're standing in a room, they go up and down. So the photos should be the same as well. So you want to make sure that the verticals aren't diverging lines, in a sense is sort of a technical term. And the way that that can be solved is the obviously correct placement of the camera, the right settings, but then also the post-processing the right editor, make sure that any sort of slight diverging lines are edited to make sure your verticals are up and down.
Justin Stoddart 8:48
You know, I remember being a high-end home builder. This is in a previous life. It was probably 2008 we were building a home that was preparing to go into the what was essentially the parade of homes is what they call it a street of dreams type feels. And it was a beautiful home. Don't get me wrong. 6000 square feet like high end finishes everywhere. And I was in love with the home. It was beautiful. I would have moved in I would have moved my family and I was building it not buying it though. If they weren't quite to that. That point life. Yeah, but the thing it was interesting is it like we had a good professional photographer come out and take pictures and it was like the Twilight photos. And I thought to myself like is that that same house like I really thought was beautiful. But then I was like, you've got to be kidding me like and in fact, I think I still have those photos somewhere else so proud of him. I was like yeah, I thought it was building a cool house until I saw the full really great house does.
Darryl Glade 9:39
And then even you talked about the Twilight photo. There are statistics that show that Twilight photos get more clicks than this same house, same exterior, but or a daytime photo. And if you think about it if you're looking on like an MLS or a Zillow, for example. And there's this big laundry list of photos of x terrier houses that darker shot of the beautiful Twilight with a nice sky is going to stand out more. So you're going to click on that more. So you know if you're looking for a photographer, you'd love to be able to make sure you get those. Those Twilight photos or even people are doing virtual Twilight's now editing daytime photos to make them look like night. Interesting. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart 10:20
Let's talk about this component of storytelling, we touched on it a little bit. But there are certain scenes that you found really good photographers take that actually don't just show the shell of the home, right? The kind of nuts and bolts of the home or like here's a bedroom, here's a kitchen, but show life in that right not necessarily bringing in like paid actors or anything. But is there some way to demonstrate that? And maybe it is you bring people into it? I haven't seen that. But is there some way to demonstrate life in a home as opposed to just house?
Darryl Glade 10:49
Yeah, you know it, that's a subtle way of taking the photos. And there is a couple of different schools of thought that the typical photographers, not a typical real estate photographer are not necessarily creating art, they're creating a marketing tool to sell the house. And then the other extreme is the Architectural Digest photography, where it's really beautiful photos that aren't necessarily giving the viewer, the buyer, all the information, they need to be able to make a decision on whether or not they want to see the house.
But Justin I think you're right in that, you have to encourage them to come to take a look at the house because like you and your wife, you're looking at a ton of houses online, and you're not going to go take a look at a bunch. So the storytelling via the photos has to be compelling enough to get them out of their chair out from behind their, their computer and go walk through the house. So there's a nice fine line between just the very basic real estate photography, the shell plus and then the Architectural Digest version. And that can really be done by having high-quality photography with really good at. And so you want to make sure that you're giving the viewer a taste of what they could get when they go see it. And what I like to recommend is you can give subtle cues in photography. And those subtle cues could be for example, if you have a photo of the entryway, let's say and in the corner on the right side of the entryway, you could see the doorway into the living room. And so you can position the camera to give a little more that doorway into the next room. And then the next photo should be of that room. So for example, if that room is purple, or they have a purple wall, let's say a highlight wall. on that second photo, you want to make sure that that camera is pointed at that wall. So it's a subtle cue to bring the viewer through the floor plan of the house. And the photographer, the homeowner, the real estate agent can create that story like we're talking about subconsciously, almost by having the photos in a certain order and picking it and having one blend off the other.
Justin Stoddart 13:10
You know, that's a really, really interesting, talk to us a little bit about what a photographer should do, or maybe even a real estate agent should do prior to the photographer coming. Yeah, I'll kind of set this up a little bit, I had a client of mine show me a like a listing that he took over. And he showed me the previous pictures of like, it was like the BBQ, not even it was just off the deck on the dirt. Like just the way they position the kind of the staging ahead of time, there was it looked like a desirable place of a barbecue was before it was like that's kind of an awkward deck. But he did like a maybe an aerial shot. And he did like just reposition the BBQ in the chairs and got some junk. And it would totally change the whole feel like I could feel myself like Oh man, I hope I would get invited to a barbecue at that house. Right? Like, that's kind of awkward. It was my first thought when I saw the previous one. So go ahead tell us kind of how somebody should walk through a house. With that in mind of like, how do we make this to where someone says, oh, man, I would love to either live there or visit that place or go see it?
Darryl Glade 14:07
Yeah, I would say that the primary responsibility for that setup should fall on the real estate listing agent, the listing agent's shoulders because they're the one that's going to make that decision. Most photographers are that they are really good at photography, they're not necessarily stagers. Now, there are the good real estate photographers have an eye for staging, and will assist with basic staging setup. So for example, they should make sure the toilet covers down, right, and the trash cans are out of you. But in terms of setting the stage, it's really on the agent beforehand, to getting that exactly like you said, making it compelling to want to go in and have a barbecue at that house. You know what I like to say that the easiest thing for an agent to do, the starting point would be you should have every room in the house feel like it's a room in a hotel is to a certain extent, they're there, that recommendation is because the things that are typically in a hotel room are there because they're being used for certain reason. They're not necessarily there, just to be there. They're there for a specific purpose. And so yeah, the homeowner needs to live in the house, obviously. So if it makes having that particular family photo, let's say if that's really important to them, then leave it that's the homeowner needs to be there. But do they really need 50 photos on the piano? they likely don't. So you want to make it it's clear out the ancillary quote unquote junk. Yeah, make it so that the things that are in the room, they are there on purpose, they have a purpose for being on the kitchen countertop, you know, does the coffee maker need to be out there in the showing in the photos of likely not. But you know, say there's a paper towel built into the underneath the shelf? Well, making it look, not taking up the paper towels probably don't look doesn't look very good. So included, it has a purpose. So there's a fine line and the agent can create that and create that feeling before the photographer gets there, and then use the photographer as a sounding board. These photographers are in hundreds, if not thousands of houses. So when the agent is there, and the photographer gets there, say hey, how does this look, look through the camera before the photo is taken or even after the photo is taken. And say this is the story we're trying to tell this is the brand we're trying to create. So maybe we need to move that autumn and a little to the right. And you know most photographers first should be able to tell you right off the bat that this is the staging we're looking for.
Justin Stoddart 17:05
Love man such great stuff. I actually interviewed somebody this week. Taz Weatherly, those of you that haven't seen that episode. In fact, it was even in the episode it was after the fact I posted a video within the Think Bigger Real Estate Group. And it was a video that she did with her phone while the photographers were doing their work. And I thought that was brilliant. And she said why she's doing it that her clients deserve to have top grade professional photography done. And it was the what and it was the why. And it set her apart. Right even though probably most real estate agents actually do that. The fact that she documented it and showed what was happening in the background, and had a narrative around that and a real reason as to what that did for the homeowners. I thought that was brilliant, I think I don't know if you've seen people do that before. But a great idea too, if you're doing something at a high level like photography, why not document that creates a story around that,
Darryl Glade 17:54
it is such a simple thing to do to increase that brand of the agent. So just getting on the phone and doing a Facebook Live, or whatever it may be, or Instagram story. It's just content, as we talked about before you the more content that you have that's relevant to what you're trying to get across the better. And again, making your brand set yourself apart from your competition as a real estate agent. It's such a simple, very cost effective way of doing it, you've already invested in the photos you're going to use, you're already going to use it for your listing, hopefully, you'll use it for some of your personal Facebook posts to set yourself apart. And now you've created a video which people love to learn about who you are your personality, how you present yourself, you're going to get more and more listings for a very simple 32-second free video that you're going to post.
Justin Stoddart 18:47
Well, it's interesting. I often I'm friends with a lot of real estate agents. So you can imagine that my newsfeed and probably are you like, are you as well. my newsfeed is filled with real estate agents organic and some paid but mostly organic. And it's, it's interesting to me how often I will see them do the front elevation of the home as the only thing that they demonstrate from the house. And maybe that's appropriate because that home has an amazing front elevation. But oftentimes, there's some component of that house that would actually appeal to people, even more, maybe it's a fireplace that they could then tell a story about their fight. Like there are many ways to engage people using that content, like you're saying, like if you're doing good photography, and you should be and if you're not, I'm going to direct you to stilio.com to go find a good photographer, Darryl has personally vetted himself. Absolutely. But that this concept of taking that content, I love that you said that Darryl take that content and reuse it, don't just use the front elevation and don't just copy the link out of RMLS like that, that interests about 2% of the people that are going to see it because only 2% of the people that you are in your friends based are shopping for home at any given time. But if you can give some components of that home that's really compelling, it's going to appeal to, you know, a much, much higher percentage and, and and just emphasizing what you said also, that if you have photographs from a phone, tell people about the way you market, right? Like, think of yourself as a photographer with a portfolio. And any photography that you do on one of your projects is going into that portfolio is that going to upgrade your portfolio or downgrading like even for the selfish reason of like, this is my brand. So I'm not going to let crappy photography, whether or not the like the listing needs it or not have some personal pride and what's attached to your brand. Is it? Is it phone photos? If so then you probably deserve to be replaced by technology. I'm sorry, but you're not helping our industry. Right?
Darryl Glade 20:36
You're exactly right. And then you know, the theme of the pot of this podcast, think bigger. If you're going to market that you're thinking yourself, Well, I already do professional photography, everybody does professional photography, well use it a little differently, or maybe step up, get a floor plan with it, get those drone photos or get a small video walkthrough, or simply use them differently. A very basic example and that you talked on you hit on is don't use the MLS size photos in your streams, they're poor quality, your professional photographer should be giving you at least two different sizes, the MLS size, so you can get them in your local MLS plus an original size and much larger size, that's a better quality. Put those photos online, put those photos on your website, most likely, you're an agent that you have a website through your broker. And that broker probably pulls the MLS photo feed in. And they also likely have a feature that lets you replace those photos. So if you're, you know, Stilio does have API setup to pull the better photos into certain companies.
But if your company is not
one of those, you likely have a way to manually override those photos. So take a couple of minutes, have your system take a couple of minutes and put the bigger photos into your personal website. Again, it'll make your brand look better when somebody is clicking on your photos at all make your listings look better than the competition because it's got a higher quality photo.
Justin Stoddart 22:05
Yeah, and we all know that increased demand causes the price to go up, you know, your clients are going to love that you can pull stats on, you know how your listing sell compared to other ones. And all of that stuff matters.
Darryl Glade 22:16
And we did studies and I've got those stats, of course off the top of my head, professional photographers, sorry, listings with professional photography, so 39% closer to the actual list price than those without it. And that is taken to account, natural prod natural price drops for those listings. So on a $300,000 house that can equate to about, I can't remember the exact number 10 or $20,000 more into the pocket of your client. I mean, you do the math there that commission on just that price increase alone covers your costs for photography, then not only that they sell 50% faster, but that's also half the time on the market that gives you money more time to get more listings coming through. And then what is it, it's 139%? Over 100% more eyeballs on your property. So you're getting more clicks with professional photography. So I mean, just those stats alone covers the very minimal cost of investment. And then combine that with all the other uses that you're going to do use it for like we've been talking about in this podcast, it's a no brainer to get professional photography.
Justin Stoddart 23:30
Would you do us a favor, Darryl, that when we get done with this episode? Would you find those stats and send them to me? And I'll be Sure, absolutely. Is that right there is should be included? I believe in a listing agents presentation that if the fee is a concern, let's talk about the numbers. What happens when you start looking for for a discount broker, they're going to be making discounts Guess what, on their end as well, because they're not making as much so guess what their photographer is going to be subpar. And their photographer might even be in their pocket, right like their own. And so if you really want to talk to the client about what they care about, which is how much they nets, right, and how much they pay, and people how much they net at the end of the day, there's some great, some great data to be able to show them. What happens when you use a professional Realtor that uses like high-end professional photography.
Darryl Glade 24:19
Great. So absolutely no, I mean, you're exactly right in the statistics to show that it's an absolute no brainer.
Justin Stoddart 24:25
I'm going to put up here on the screen for everybody that's super interested in learning more about what Darryl has created. Keep in mind, he was a top agent. So he gets this, right. But this is the site that he's put together stilio.com and you can come here and you can find a photographer in your market. Now I know our audience extends outside of where Darryl is at, which is New Orleans, outside of where I'm at Portland, Oregon, and in other parts of the country. To encourage you to go on here, I get vetted these guys, the stuff that he's been talking about is what they had to pass a test to make sure that they've got the right equipment, they've got the right mindset, the right skill set to be able to deliver this kind of awesome some high value. So go to stilio.com and and and upgrade your photographer, I would highly recommend it. So any kind of final words before my last signature question that you might not be prepared for. But
Darryl Glade 25:12
uh, yeah, I mean, a couple of quick notes, we are in every major market across the country, we're in 48, out of the 50 states were on every single Island and Hawaii. I mean, we've got a great photographer presence that has been vetted. And one thing that's interesting and unique about still Leo is that you are able to purchase certain products from each of these photographers, and you can purchase still do edit photography. So we have a centralized editing facility that gets you the photos back in less than 24 hours. So if you're worried that all right, maybe they are good photographer, but I don't know about their editing, you can always choose the products that are still co-edited, we guarantee the quick turnaround time we know we're doing in terms of the editing. If you have listings in multiple markets, perhaps and you want them all to look the same doesn't matter that you hire a photographer in Mississippi versus California. If it's all coming through our centralized editing, the photos are going to look exactly the same.
Justin Stoddart 26:10
What a killer offering I'd forgotten about that part of what you guys do, it's not just connecting photographers to agents. But you guys have a whole in house operation that assures that you have you know, the people get the results that they want.
Darryl Glade 26:24
Yeah, absolutely. It is there,
Justin Stoddart 26:25
because of all right signature question, Darryl, what is it that you intentionally do to think bigger,
Darryl Glade 26:33
I read, I'm a big reader.
I'm also big on education, I've got a number of degrees, but really the reading is where I'm learning the most, you're able to find tips and tricks from people working in different industries. And that you can apply to your own business and I'm running a couple of businesses. And so I'm constantly looking at ways for, you know, decision making from my clients in the photographers, you know, so I do a lot of reading of, you know, like people like Dan Ariely. I think that's how you pronounce it and Daniel Kahneman, those are psychologists that help with decision making that you can then say, Well, if you know for the real estate agents with a buyer is making decisions this way, perhaps I should be presenting my listings in a different manner. And then I have employees. So how do you work with employees and get their engagement and motivation up? I really liked biographies. Walter Isaacson, he actually lives in New Orleans, but he does a number of really cool biographies that can get into the nitty-gritty and maybe you could pick up things like what's Elon Musk doing or wouldn't Leonardo da Vinci do that could potentially help me with my personal business and then, you know, I also like fun books to to split it up, normal john Grisham style easy reading. And so just it just helps you think about the amount of time that agents spend in their country you know, get an audible subscription or even your local I the way I do it is my local library has a free subscription service that you can get books for free. So I just plug it in and listen, then the amount of books that you can read by simply listening to books all to and from listings is astonishing.
Justin Stoddart 28:20
I love that. I love that. It's I heard actually, Tony Robbins said this past week, he said, you know, on the idea of-of a seminar, right, and I would even add a book is you take someone's lifetime of lessons and you condense it down into a couple of hours. Like you can live a really good life and have a lot bigger impact in this world. If you would take that to heart and realize like how many lifetimes of lessons you can consume in a month, right? Like one person's lifetimes and at least one per month would be ambitious, but not overly ambitious, that you could consume that person's life lessons in a very condensed amount of time. Pretty powerful. Absolutely. Good stuff. My friend. This is such a value-packed episode again, I want to direct everybody go check out still do.com if you're by chance at Real Estate photographer, one of these markets might be interesting for you to go take a look at what they're doing as well. So I want to thank you again, Darryl, for your value poured into the think bigger real estate audience. And I want to thank everybody for tuning in and thanks a lot.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart. And as you know my mission and my passion are to help you think bigger, so that you can have the business that you want, which produces the options and the impact that you want. Super excited today to have kind of a real estate industry icon, possibly even celebrity depending upon what standpoint you're looking at it from
nationally known, at least His name's Kevin Kauffman. Let me start off by saying a big thank you to Kevin for being willing to come on to think bigger real estate show.
Kevin Kauffman 0:28
Yeah, my pleasure. I love to do it. You know, I think you and I connected over the fact that we both love to give back to the real estate community. And so I'm literally my pleasure to do this.
Justin Stoddart 0:38
That's awesome. Good stuff. Let me tell the audience here a little bit about Kevin Kauffman, again, he's a wants to be known as a realtor. I think that's pretty cool. Out of Tempe, Arizona, from another perspective, he looks at Real Estate a little bit differently. He goes about a different we're going to talk about what that's what that looks like for him. He has an expansion team and if you're familiar with expansion teams, where you have one hub
and one location, and you add other agents in different parts of the country, he's done. He's got five different locations about 50 agents, what he calls a small expansion group. Some might beg to differ that that's that small. He's also co-founder of the group next level agents, and the podcast, Kevin and Fred's Next Level podcast. And in talking with you, Kevin, prior to this, I love kind of your passion behind that, which is, you've been fortunate to be surrounded by some really great people. And why not give back? Why not record those conversations and let more people have access to them?
Kevin Kauffman 1:35
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like, you know, I, I realized a couple of years ago that something I've done naturally my whole life is to seek out mentorship. And sometimes it's a mentor for a season. Sometimes it's for like, one individual little thing, one topic, and sometimes it's for life, right and,
and so I love learning about the genius inside of people and being able to want to
My reasons for having the Facebook group I mean, the day I started that and then told Cody and Fred: "Hey guys, we now have a Facebook group, surprise!" And the reason I started the podcast was that I wanted to be able to do that on a bigger level as you can only teach live to so many people so often without being on an airplane 300 days a year, which I'm not willing to do. And so it's kind of like my ability to kind of deliver on that stuff that really lights me up.
Justin Stoddart 2:27
You know, I feel the same way. A very similar motive for the bigger real estate show is I'm I guess, gutsy enough and passionate enough advocate for the industry, that I want to get the brightest minds in real estate. Like I want to be around them, and I want to be learning from them. And why not offer that to a bigger audience? Why not? Like, let's like with technology these days, there's no reason why we can't be broadcasting great conversations all the time. So thank you again for being a part of that. Yeah. Let's get into kind of your definition, Kevin of what it means to be a next level agent.
You've obviously carried that through your kind of your branding, both in the Facebook group as well as the podcast, obviously, in your mind, you have some concept of what it means to be a next level agent help define that. For the rest of us.
Kevin Kauffman 3:14
You know, it's funny, Justin, that's a great question. No one's ever asked it to me that way.
But you just forced me to think about it differently. And one of the things I love is the fact that there's not this one size fits all recipe for success in real estate business. And so for me, when I think of like, what, like I say this to people who want to be coached, and I'm, I'm like, we go through an interview process to see if I'm gonna, if I'm going to coach them if I could be a good fit for them, but they'd be a good fit for me is, I don't care if you sold 10 houses this year, and your goal is to go to 25. Or if you sold 500 houses and your goal is to go to 1000 I really don't. But what I want to know is the desire to hit your personal next level there and Will you follow through on the actions that are required
So when you ask the question that way, you just reminded me, number one, it's about whatever that next level is for you. And number two, it's also about it doesn't not like you don't have to go the expansion team route. You don't have to go the team route. You could go the luxury route, you could go the investor, right, like there are so many ways to be massively successful in real estate. And so I guess at the end of the day, that's how I would answer it is like, it's the person who thinks like, what is my personal next level? What's the next level for my business? And for myself as a person in my personal development?
Justin Stoddart 4:35
That's a super, super compelling answer, I think, based on what you said earlier, which is about this concept of growing yourself right of growth. I found for me that that happiness includes growth. And I think, by design, we as human beings aren't happy unless we are growing like there's, there's this deeper underlying purpose as to why we're here which is just to grow and progress and become more and impact more
And I think probably guys like you and I get a little bit addicted to growth, like if we're not experiencing it, or if the people around us aren't experiencing it, like we get uncomfortable, like what? And I can sense that from you. And really super cool to hear that the purpose of this branding is that you want to be around people that are like that, that are like hungry to get to some next level, whatever that means for them. Right.
Kevin Kauffman 5:21
Yeah, you know, I would argue that true happiness isn't possible without growth like you have to be growing somewhere in your life. You know, one of the things I've learned from many of my mentors over the years is like, your business can never outgrow you as your personal development. It just can't, it's not allowed you. Now, some people will choose to let their personal development outgrow their business. And that's definitely possible, but it can't be the other way around. So you've got to have some growth somewhere, I believe to truly be happy and fulfilled, and to be a happy person. I mean, I'm just one of those airy-fairy believers, that as I believe as humans were like we are hard-wired.
To connect, and that if we're going to connect with people, we're going to have to grow in order to be able to truly be connected.
Justin Stoddart 6:07
Yeah. powerful stuff. And I agree, I think it's in our DNA, that growth is part of who we are. And when we negate that or when we avoid that it causes people to be really dissatisfied I do you see people interesting story. I had an economics, no, accounting teacher in college, and he hit it big had a big acquisition for a company he was a part of was like, like, done like did not need to work anymore. And his wife goes home to his wife. He's like my job's kind of done here. I'm going to, I'm going to get a golf club membership. And, like, your job's not quite done yet. kids haven't raised I he was joking about this, right. He wasn't actually that chauvinistic. But he said I golf for the next couple of years. He said I've never been so miserable in my entire life. So so they actually went back to the university that he was a graduate of, and he said, I want to work for you. And they said, Well, you can't because you don't have a Master's. doctor and he said I'll do it for free. And they said, Okay, we'll do that. He said all of a sudden he got happy again. Because he started growing again, he started helping other people grow around him. But he said literally, it was the most, even though he made it. He was financially done for life. He said it was the most unhappy couple of years of his entire life, which is, I think, resonate with what you're saying here, is it? It's really hard to be happy if you're not growing.
Kevin Kauffman 7:22
Yeah, it is. I mean, like Tony Robbins, talks about all the time, like some of the most depressed people are people who hit up the pinnacle in their career early on. So think about this is not a political statement. But think about how young Bill Clinton was when he became the president. Like there was a and I use that example because Tony Robbins coach them through a lot of that stuff, right? And there are some other like athletes and astronauts, but people who literally got like you there's, there's not a political job in the world. That's a higher level than becoming the President of the United States of America. Right. And so when you view yourself as say a politician and
You're 39 or whatever he was when he got the job. Like there's nowhere else to go but down until you can get connected to whatever your purpose is in life, etc. And it's the same thing with, with business people with athletes why you see people like, burn through their entire, like hundreds of millions of dollars. I guess that's a lot of the reasons why and you've got to have a bigger purpose and you so you've always got to be growing no matter how high you reach, you know how high of a rung you reach.
Justin Stoddart 8:29
Great stuff. Talk to us about this, this group next level agents, what do agents I would imagine that it has a lot to do with growth.
Tell me how does what does that look like? What can people expect to get when they join next level agents?
Kevin Kauffman 8:44
you know, myself
My thought is what they can expect as an online community to kind of come and share best practices ask questions in a kind of a judgment-free zone. It's not that we don't have jokes but it's not all fun and games and
It's not all business and it's not a pitch fest. It is a place where brand agnostic like I don't want to hear a brand's name unless it's about a discussion not my brand versus your brand.
It's about bettering the real estate agent because if there's one thing I believe, it's that we as realtors, like we have to stick together. And
to me that's, it's a safe place there for that. But it's also a place of growth. Like, you know, we just had our second annual next level live next la live next level agents live event in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, and we had just over 400 people actually show up in attendance for a two-day event. Some of the best speakers on the planet, a couple people from your hometown, like you know, Cody Gibson and obviously he was a co-founder with me and my business partner Fred and the group. Leanne Harris was a speaker there she rocked it like we like this group has the best of the best. Jason Abrams was there and he came in and spoke and john chap last
And my buddy Ronnie Das, he's not even a real estate is just a leadership guy came in and spoke and gave a keynote. And it's just people giving back so we can grow as humans, we can grow as business people, we can grow our skill sets, etc. Right? And so that's what it is. It's this online place. It's this virtual place, if you will, for us to go and just have a conversation.
Justin Stoddart 10:23
You know, this, the whole expansion model, I think ties into this. Well, I sat through a presentation about expansion, and I heard someone for the audience say, you know, I live in rural central us and I've outgrown my leadership like my you know, the head of my brokerage does nothing for me and I've I've far outgrown them, this is them speaking. And I've,
I've wondered like, do I need to switch brokerages all together? Do I need that like there was this real concern they were looking at expansion help solve that problem? And I think the similar problem you guys are trying to solve is it sometimes is
You need more leadership than what is right in your backyard, right that you have easy access to walking down the hall. And so part of what I'm hearing you say is that like the design of this group is to provide that sort of mastermind where people can go to get pushed to get stretched to where they don't have to have these artificial ceilings that are imposed by based on where we live and you know, who's down the hall?
Kevin Kauffman 11:25
Yeah, you know, that's a good thing Yeah. Ronnie Dos said something during his keynote session in LA live and he said
I'm going to probably totally butchered this but something to the effect of like, when are you going to stop waiting for a leader and just be it
and in there's the there are times when we were we need to hear that and there but and there are times we gotta You know what? The power of proximity is real. I need to make sure I'm around other people who can push me and help me to think bigger, right? I'm it's the whole premise of why we're here is about thinking bigger. And you know, it's the power, the power of proximity is Who were you spending your time with daily, weekly, monthly? And who are you giving your energy to? That's, that's pushing you.
Justin Stoddart 12:12
It's great stuff. You know, and I think more so than any other time in history. The real estate industry needs leadership, right? I mean, anytime you're potentially coming into new uncharted waters, which real estate industry is with, you know, technology shift that's happening, that they need leaders to stand up. And what I'm also hearing you say, and what I've seen from next level agents, is that you're, you're not just about giving resources to people, but you're about developing leaders, right, you're encouraging and developing leadership within people because the only way for the industry to move forward is to be able to offer more value to the consumer, which requires leadership right like consumers need to be led. Therefore, brokers need to be led brokerages need to be led like leadership is the key is the way for all of for the entire industry.
Kevin Kauffman 13:03
Yeah, Be careful man, you just like mentioned two of my current soapboxes and which is number one, like leadership to me is all about you as a person and you as a human being, it's not about like, Oh, can I have a team and all these most people fail in leadership or what we generally call leadership because they aren't aware of who they are as a person and what their behavior is. And so that makes it hard for them to place themselves with the right people. So they set themselves up for failure as a leader because they hire the wrong people for them. And so,
yes, leadership is like a very internal thing, and it's different for you and it's different for me, right? It's not going to be the same thing. So that's kind of one piece of something you just spark for me, but the other pieces so much of the education and the and the
the talking heads that I see out there right now, it's all about like,
Oh, we gotta you know, we got to save the agents and we got to protect our commission and I know that is the wrong frickin message like, this is about the country.
consumer and then tell real estate agent understands that the consumer is number one, like by a mile, like nothing else matters the reason why offer pad open doors Zillow fill in the blank with the other 20 companies are out there is because consumer behavior has driven that. And there we have for too long. I've sat back and said, Well, how do I protect my commission? How do I make money instead of being true fiduciaries, and as well as like, making the experience for the consumer easier? Like how do we give them the ease of I order on Amazon is delivered this afternoon? How do we do that for our buyers and sellers? And I think that that is truthful, that's the thing. We need to be focused on most as agents practicing agents because that's the deal right there that it's consumer behavior. We've got to meet them there and stop being so inward focused.
Justin Stoddart 14:57
Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more.
If more so than ever, consumers will win. And if there's we try and build a moat around the status quo of what's the way things have always been that the faster path to losing your place, right? Yeah, the faster path that like the only path forward long term sustainably, is to ask that question that you posted, like what is in the best interest of the consumer? What is the ideal overall experience for the consumer? And how do we help provide that those that are asking that question, I believe, will have a very bright future while those that are standing back trying to dig the moat a little bit deeper? So the tech companies can't get in. I think I don't think that's the right way forward.
Kevin Kauffman 15:39
Yeah, I'm in total agreement and this is about the consumer and their behavior and it's a call it's a challenge to us. It's why there are all these lawsuits that any ours having to respond to you right now around, you know, around commission and antitrust and etc because the consumers are going
Justin Stoddart
Hey, you're not catching up to my demand. And we got to do that. Like we got to do that. Like that's priority number one. Yeah. Yeah. Great stuff, man. Really, really enjoyed the conversation. Let me let's kind of ask our signature question here. What is it that Kevin Kauffman does on a regular basis to intentionally think bigger?
Kevin Kauffman
You know, I definitely like to read. And by read I mean, listen, on Audible. I like I picked my mentors I picked you to know, I've picked the people that I love to speak into my life. I, I attend learning and training events. There's no doubt about that. I'm addicted to learning. I suppose that that's for one thing, but I also purposely put myself around people who have achieved more when I say achieved more, it could be in business, but it could be personal. It could be health. It could be finance, it could be whatever, like fill in the blank, right? It's something bigger than where I'm currently at it. You know, like a great example, I joined a mastermind group, it's ridiculously expensive, and it's easiest $25,000 check I write every year, like, true and none of like there's almost nobody in real estate connected to real estate in the group. But there's like 300 entrepreneurs from probably 100 different industries, most of them, you know, who have made far more significant strides in their walk than I have. And you know, so just putting myself around people like that, to be reminded of like, there, there's absolutely a bigger Bullseye, there's a bigger, whatever's next for you, no matter
Justin Stoddart 17:43
the thrive is that those solutions aren't just going to come from inside the industry. Right. So I think it's super bright that he built a network outside of there that people have solved these very similar problems in other industries and found a path forward to making the consumer situation ideal, while at the same time have its leaders and other industries I think is, is brilliant because not all solutions will come from inside our industry.
Kevin Kauffman 18:15
Yeah, and I should add on to that. And I spend my time with around as many Top Producing top achieving real estate owners around you know that I mentioned a few of them. Ben Kenny, who was also an MLA live Leo Pereda, Cody Gibson and Leanne Harris, like people like yourself, people, like read more it So Patrick Woods we were talking about Patrick earlier, right. I've made sure I also spend ample time around people like that in my own industry, who are doing great things that may or may not be doing the same thing I'm doing. Hopefully, they're doing something at least a little bit different. So that way, I can learn from them as well. Because I need I believe I need to have the viewpoints like the thing is like there's a reality, and then there's our view of it. And so I want
Be able to catch other people's viewpoints. I was kind of I was having a conversation with an agent yesterday. And I was saying to her, you know, like, I really enjoy polarity. I really enjoy being around someone who has just an absolute opposite viewpoint of me, because I'm curious as to how what, how and why they see it that way.
Justin Stoddart 19:17
Yeah, I think it's healthy. And I think if you can come in, and listen and respect other people's opinions and learn from it, and you might disagree, but not be disagreeable. I agree, Kevin. I think that's a powerful place to be from that as soon as we stop listening to other perspectives, our world gets smaller. Right, and our possibilities get smaller.
Kevin Kauffman 19:38
Totally. Yeah, I mean, that's the beginning of the end of my opinion.
Justin Stoddart 19:41
Yeah. And this has been such a pleasure. I want to thank you again, for being such a great value add to the think bigger audience. Appreciate you very much. I'm, in fact, let me do this. For those of you that are not yet a part of Kevin's group, Next Level Agent. I would imagine a lot of you are, go find this group facebook.com forward slash groups for its foot forward slash next level agents. And I'm sure Kevin, I'll let you in. If you need to reference the show,
Kevin Kauffman 20:14
say Justin sent you, and, and we'll definitely get you in. Absolutely. We'd love to have more people. Yeah, but here's the deal. Don't come if you wanted, like, show off your open house, I don't I don't give a rip. If you want to talk about, you know, if you want to tell jokes, like I don't give good do that somewhere else. There are other groups for that stuff like this is about making ourselves and our lives better. So if you're in growth like, absolutely, come join us, we want to help you get to your next level.
Justin Stoddart 20:39
It's great stuff, man. Thanks again, Kevin. And wanna thank everybody for tuning in to this episode of The think bigger real estate show. And where again, our mission of passion is to help you think bigger. And Kevin, you've been a great contributor to that today. So appreciate you again.
Kevin Kauffman 20:50
Thanks a lot.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, very excited about today's episode before I introduce the topic, let me just restate my mission, which is to help you think bigger. And when you think bigger, you end up growing as a person. And as you grow as a person is so good. So grows your business, which opens up all kinds of opportunities, more options, as well as more impact. So I'm excited to have my good friend Josh Hackenjos with me here today. Let me just begin before I fully introduce you, Josh, thanks for being on the episode today.
Josh Hackenjos 0:30
Yeah. Good morning, Justin. It's an honor to be here. I really appreciate you letting me come on here to chat.
Justin Stoddart 0:35
Yeah, man, I appreciate you let me twist your arm to have you come in for value into this audience. I know. Every time you and I have conversations, I walk away a little bit smarter. And so I knew that you do that for this audience as well. So for those of you that don't know Josh, he got his start in the real estate industry back in '05. He was a guy that would show up at the front yards of homes were getting to be sold he would dig the hole and the sign in the yard. So little humble beginnings. But he was a talented guy. So he moved from that to actually being a team owner, kind of ran his own real estate team, then was promoted, and I should say, recruited into a role in which he was, had a very big leadership role within a very big Keller Williams office here in the Portland metro area. He's now a solo agent. He owns Hackenjos Property Group, as well as has built a coaching company called Community Empire, and which he helps agents with many of the things we're going to talk about today. So with all that being said, Josh, you and I both have a background in the construction industry. I had a contracting company, you've built homes yourself. And there are some common threads that you and I started to talk about, that that industry is well known for its craftsmanship, but not well known for its professionalism. Would you agree?
Josh Hackenjos 1:49
Yeah, absolutely.
Justin Stoddart 1:52
You know, for me, I didn't aspire to be in the, in the construction world, I really grew up in a very business oriented family. And in the early 2000s, that was just a great business opportunity. And so I hopped on as, as did many, and was able to benefit greatly from the construction industry. Until it will kind of wasn't a more but in that timeframe. It was interesting. As the construction market started to crash, I had asked myself, I was asking mentors around me, I was like, What do you think this is going to mean for the industry? And their comment was, you know, I think five years it'll be back. And for me, it had I really loved building homes. And I really loved working with contractors day in and day out, I probably would have said, I'll wait for it right, I'll do kitchen and bathroom models because I love this work. For me. I realized my passion was not building homes. It was building people and building businesses. And so the construction world actually at times was quite aggravating. Because of subcontractors again, they were they kind of fall into this typical concept of the E-Myth. Right? If anyone's read the book, E-Myth, I know, Josh, you have that people are very good craftsmen, very good technicians. So they assume that they're going to be good business owners, they just kind of like Well, I'm good at doing finished carpentry. So I'm going to be good at building a finished carpentry business. And that wasn't always the case. Josh, I would imagine you had some similar experiences in a Ha's and your time in the contracting world.
Josh Hackenjos 3:12
Yeah, absolutely. And it's and it's funny, as we've been riffing on this, you know, the similarities, real estate are going to start popping up as-as we talk through this, because, right, you've got these, I came out of the new construction, world framing and then doing finished carpentry and in the remodeling world. And you've got these guys who are amazing at their work, you know, as a tile setter, as a Finish Carpenter as an electrician. And while they are masterful in what they do there, they never went through the courses on how to run a business, how to hire, how to retain talent, how to run QuickBooks, and get billing out how to just show up as a business owner. Is this starting sound a lot like realtors, right? low barrier to entry, high level of skill and talent up here, and maybe not the business background to run it.
And this is something you know, we were talking about this in terms of these, these general contractors who are out there who are so good at what they do. And yet the customer experience the customer service and communication expectation setting is where things fall apart. Right? How often have you been in the middle of a remodel? And it turns out, well, that sink is out six weeks. And so because this thing's not here, then the guy can't do the counter. And because the counter is not here, the plumber can't come in, right? And then we say, Oh, my contractors had our place torn apart for six months. The frustration is due to a failure of setting expectations. Yeah, and all of this right, let's draw parallels right out the gate. You know, I wrote an offer. And then I never heard back whether we got it accepted, or we have no idea we were going to have to do these repairs as the seller, right? In the real estate world. There are all these correlations, in terms of a failure to set expectations leads to frustration with the experience, is it I mean, I think I'm drawing a parallel, it feels it feels right.
Justin Stoddart 4:57
Well, it's, it's interesting, because the people that again, come into the construction world, typically we're raised by a very craftsman, you know, artisans, in the woodworking space, or in the concrete space or whatever. without really a business background. And in real estate agents, they don't necessarily the industry doesn't necessarily attract. To start people who have kind of deep business backgrounds is typically people that are great salespeople, they're great customer service people. So very similar to a contractor, like you're saying that they've got a certain skill set that that lends itself very well to serving clients to getting a certain product complete a certain finished product. But the business and you know, to not pick on real estate, not pick on construction. The same thing happens in the dentist, you know, in the dental industry, and even doctors, right, they're fabulous doctors, but a lot of times they're not great business people. They're fabulous dentist, but they're not great at running a business. It's two separate hats. It's two separate businesses. And I know what Josh, what you and I have discussed, we believe that the future for well paid real estate agents now I believe that there will be a place for a lot of real estate agents, I think I buyers will take a chunk of the pie, I really do think that there will also be a place for low paid real estate agents, ones that are more like Uber drivers that are in a certain neighborhood and someone needs them to come to open up a door. And they'll get a little ding on their phone. Hey, you need to open a door over here. They'll get paid. Not well, but they'll get paid for that service. Right with, a functionary role?
Justin Stoddart 6:26
Yes.
Josh Hackenjos 6:28
Right. Yeah,
Justin Stoddart 6:29
exactly. And then there will be a group that you and I are really trying to cater to, and really help as many as we'll listen. Say, Hey, guys, there's a green pasture over here, right? There's, there's a better there's a bright future if you become a consultant, right or an advisor, and actually give people knowledge beyond just functionary task more fiduciary role. Talk to us about that Josh, kind of your understanding and belief in this, this world where we believe real city just need to go to maintain the margins, first of all, to maintain the value that the client so that they can demand the margins that they're going to want,
Josh Hackenjos 7:07
okay. And I'm going to try to draw a few threads and then tie them all together, cool? So I've been shouting from the mountaintops for a while now as-as have a lot of people in our industry, locally and nationally about the difference between a consultative approach and the sales approach, right, a consultant is going to be somebody who's sitting at the same time at the same side of the table as you look out at the problem. a salesperson is sitting on the other side of the table as you trying to get you to come into the middle. And in my opinion, with my limited experience, I believe that that consultative role is the future for financial real estate world what wealth a real estate brokerage, right. And so, the functionary role, no problem, we're always going to have that. And I guess I wanted to tie it through. If you haven't done this, I just encourage everyone to do this. Go take a stroll through a big shopping mall. Okay, like just go walk through. It's like a wasteland. No offense, anybody here who owns franchises in shopping malls, a lot of mom and pop businesses still in there. But you walk through and I mean, I'm walking through a big empty warehouse. And if I remember, oh, I need paperclips at home, I'm going to jump on to Amazon and buy it real quick. And yet I'm walking through because there's nowhere in that space where I need consultative services, right? Because if I need the functionary thing of just what I need to buy, I'm just going to get because the world has head is heading that direction. Now if I need specific help, and right let's use alike let's say I have a specific business meeting and I need a new shirt and tie thing to make sure I when I can walk into a Nordstrom and I know that I'm going to get approached by that person who's going to step in as a consultant. From the moment I walk in the door. And I'm going to say hey, this is what I need. And there you said no problem. We can get you there, we can help you through it. I'm in their hands. And I'm being taken care of through the entire experience. Because in that instance, I need consultation. Trust me from a fashion standpoint, I need consultation. And yet, when I just need functionary things like paperclips and staples, I can handle that. So there's the line of drawing between
concepts, consultation, and salesperson, I don't need somebody just selling me something across the counter. Now, whether it's real estate or in contracted services when we come in, and we are the expectation setter, we are the consultant of here's how the process is going to go. That is where our true value is. And I look at the people in my world that I pay top dollar to, they are the ones who are advising me and providing the consultative services to explain how I need to proceed in whatever aspect of my life. Cool. So the other thing that you know, I mean, we're, I'm both in the real estate broker world and then in the coaching world, and we talk a lot about consultant versus coach. And is it alright, if I kind of get my distinction there?
Justin Stoddart 10:06
Absolutely. Let me just let me just kind of agree with what you said there about salespeople, it is interesting how Amazon to large degree has taken the place of a lot of different sales people, I think, with the fact that today, people can do video tutorials that really explain the need, when you've got, you know, testimonials afterward and five stars, people can kind of get their questions answered on basic products on the basic selling process. And, you know, a common mentor that you and I have. Chris Suarez, who we were both able to hear from yesterday. You know, he said that, that he believes that the real estate professionals will never be totally replaced. Because wealth is such a large or sorry, real estate is such a large wealth determiner. And I and I agree with them when it comes to fiduciary tasks like you're saying of like advising people on whether they should buy or whether they should not on where they should put an offer to get the home and where they should not. And I think sometimes it's not even questions, my good friend and mentor James Adair, of Sierra Pacific mortgage mentioned, he said, you know, the, when he advises clients, it oftentimes clients will say, James, like, what am I not thinking about here? In other words, like what question Do I not even know to ask that you should be asking and then answering, I think it's really difficult for algorithms, and even low paid labor to perform that function, right? That's a truly fiduciary function, whereas all the sale stuff will be replaced at some point is kind of an Amazon type feature Uber type feature, but that that high level, person that functions at a high level in the knowledge economy, which we live, that's where there's going to be opportunity, that's where people need high-level help. That's where there's going to be a protected real estate advisor, margin, right, where people are going to need to move that they want to stay well paid in this industry.
Josh Hackenjos 11:56
Yeah, and that's
okay. So and there's so many good analysis is here, right? When I need medical counsel, I can go to Web MD, or I can go see my physician, right when we started and built and sold multiple businesses. And when you do that, you need an attorney involved at different points. And I can go Google, how to make sure I stay on the straight and narrow, or I'm going to call my attorney because I value that consultative service. Because there, I'm not going to write the contract, they're going to do it. That's consultation, that means they're going to do the work for me. Because I need that right. You can go on to your Ameritrade account, any kind of goof around a little bit. But if you're trying to fund college or your retirement, like you better have some good counsel to guide you through that. I can just keep on listening to these analogies. But can we agree that there are services in which we need masterful expertise to guide us through the process? And I certainly hope that an average price point above $400,000, we're seeking professional your counsel on these financial decisions in real estate? Yeah, I was just saying that we easily fall in that category, we better be careful not to slip down this path of we're just salespeople not gonna, like salespeople or, you know, we don't need that for these assets.
Justin Stoddart 13:17
I think that's why we see
more than ever clients talking about potential like fee negotiations with their agent because their agent is showing up as one of many, right? Someone who can do the same thing that other either tech companies and or other agents can do. Whereas when you start to position yourself as an advisor, or as a consultant and helping people,
those conversations tend to be less and or off the table. Yeah, you're leading with knowledge that you can't get from anyone else.
Josh Hackenjos 13:46
That's absolutely right.
Okay, can I All right, and this is cool. So can I tie this to the general contractor? All right. So if you've ever had your house remodel, right, you're going to it, it's a nightmare, right? You've got this all these worthy construction workers descending on your house, and we get a bunch of noise in the morning of the parent things off, and there are plywood and blue tarps and all this stuff, right? So the best I knew that I worked for this guy, he was just he was so good with his people. He's a referral based general contractor in the remodeling sector, right? We want to be referral based in real estate because it's just cheaper, like, let's be real. And you work with people who like he was so good. And here's what he would do.
Let's say we're rolling out at eight o'clock, right? You roll out your tools, you're getting everything going, he's going to show up at 745. And he's going to walk up the driveway, and he's going to scoop up the newspaper, and he's got coffee and donuts in the one hand, and he comes in, he knocks on the door and says here's morning paper, and he's got coffee and donuts, he lays down, he remembers the kids names. He remembers the dog's names. He remembers what they were talking about last week when they did this. And he's there just shooting the breeze with the family while they're trying to get up and get the kids school and everything. So that when eight o'clock hits and the swarthy construction workers, me and the other dudes, you know, we put out our cigarettes and we crank up the compressor and plug in the saws and start making all this noise that is disruptive. He has already softened the landing by being there in the kitchen, chatting through. How's everybody doing? Hey, just so you know, here's what's going to happen next. Right? So they never have to ask, it's a failure of your client has to ask you what's next. It's our job to have beat them to it. Right? You wouldn't make the rounds to multiple jobs. So that at least once a week, he was always hitting one of these to show up and do that touch right. We read the power moments recently. Yeah, okay. But ours was taken us through, right. And you and I would mention for as we've been talking about this book. And so this general contractor created this moment, in what would have otherwise been a horrible daily disruption to people's lives, right kick on an air compressor, you light up a saw, like, you know How noisy that isn't disruptive when you're trying to get the kids off to kindergarten. And yet, he would smooth that by setting expectations and creating moments, the only way he could do that was through good leverage. Because if he had to go sit in line at par lumber to pick up the materials for the day, that he couldn't be there, to walk in with the donuts and coffee. Cool. So when we get back to E-Myth, and we get back to real estate brokers, where the instances in which we're doing the equivalent of sitting in line at the lumber yard, instead of being there, setting expectations and smoothing the path for our clients. And this is where when I get into the coaching side of thing, the business this is what I'm focused on is you got to get that leverage on those functionary parts of your business. So you were just there for the golden moments of fiduciary and expectation setting. And at least for this general contractor I used to work for the phone would rent, big kitchen remodels, bathroom remodels, additions, the phone is ringing, he's not having to spend, he's not buying leads, right? This terminology that we use in our industry. I only know his phone just rang because he's loved on his people showed up he set expectations. So I did that parallel. And I'm excited about that parallel because I think there's so much to learn from that. And I mean, I'm working with a couple of general contractors as well talking about this, because, in their business, it's still an issue. And the same conversation can be having real estate. Okay, so there's my like, I've been kind of stewing on this all morning.
So I had to get it out.
Justin Stoddart 17:37
I love it. Gosh, there are so many comparisons. And they're so real to me because it seems I mean, it was just 10 probably short years ago, that I was in that same spot right where I had. Now I wasn't doing remodels, I towards the end, I was actually as a construction market. And I remember, and it wasn't even the construction process in general, wasn't an overall enjoyable one for the clients like it was kind of exciting when they're building a dream home. But there's a lot of uncertainty. And to just be able to assure people, right, I did this great at sometimes other times, I didn't and I learned the hard way. But to be able to like you said to tell people, hey, this is what's happened. This is what's happening. And this is what's going to happen. It just puts people at ease. I knew that when I was a general contractor, I was not doing a good job when the client would call me and say what's happening tomorrow. And you mentioned this, but I remember like specific clients and they would get a point where if a client did that too many times Pretty soon, they're out in the evenings having to run their own job or so they think. And now things are going fine. But because it wasn't communicated to them what was going, they feel like they've got to grab the wheel because no one else is grabbing. And so there's this whole component of, of actually being on it and having a good team on it. And then also communicating it to where people actually know what's happening. And they don't have to worry about it. Right. It's not taking up space in their head.
Josh Hackenjos 18:53
So let me jump on that real quick. The moment that the homeowner in a remodel has to take the rains. And maybe they have to figure out what's next or they have to do something. Suddenly, do you think there may be a question the fee that the general contract, right, because generally, here's the work and then here's their feet? Yeah. Because they're taking on some of the functionary role and some of the steering the ship a little bit, some of that just saying what am I paying this guy for? If I don't even know what's happening next? Can we please link this to the real estate conversation in which why if we are there setting expectations and smoothing the path for everything that's going to happen? Such we're consulting them through this process? If we're doing our job, I don't think the value comes into question. the brilliant guy in our office, I love him, Rick Saidel. And he threw this down years ago, he said cost is only an issue in the absence of value. Right? Cost is only an issue in the absence of a value, whether you're a general contractor tearing apart someone's kitchen, or you're a real estate broker, helping them sell their own. Like we're doing our job, that conversation doesn't come on.
Need systems and organization to make it look effortless, right? It takes wild orchestration and control on our part to make it look easy and make it look effortless.
Justin Stoddart 20:10
I mean, what are some key takeaways, Josh, that people could do? If they're saying like, I know, I need to increase the professionalism in my practice, right? I'm a good real estate agent, for example. But there are some breakdowns in my overall customer experience. As soon as things get busy, right. As soon as things get busy. These touch points kind of go out the window, at what point would you say? I mean, would you recommend At what point do you hire somebody? And this is a whole, like opening up numerous topics, right, which is kind of a subtle invitation for you to come back and pour more value to the audience again. But what advice like what's step one, even in evaluating as to if they need to add leverage?
Josh Hackenjos 20:48
Okay, so one of the fun exercises that I've been doing with some real estate agents, as I'm interviewing them for the position they hold in their current organization. Right, so we go through this process, and we've got some great proprietary
hiring, interviewing and retaining talent, products and curriculum over there, the kW world, and, and, and even some things like my coach comes out of the tech industry, right. So I'm not even coaching within the real estate sector. And so I'm pulling in things from other industries. But one of the really valuable exercises that I've gone through with people who will allow me to is to interview them for the role they currently hold in their own organization and see if they're a good fit for what they're doing. And this is fun. It's kind of terrifying. If you go here and say, Oh, well, it looks like you're doing some activities in your role that are not your area of peak performance, right, like Peter Drucker, like focus on the areas in which was superior performance, and your part will produce outstanding results. Well, we're going to focus on those areas and get rid of everything else. So that would be step one, is to put yourself through a rigorous.
Like, what do you call like a standards conversation for your own role in the organization? I don't care if you're the owner, or you're the listing broker, Cool, let's test you for the role. Are you good at that role? And what are you doing in there that you're not really good at? So that would be step one. And then by doing that, typically, we're going to identify those aspects of the business that could benefit from leverage, because we got to pull you out of that $15 an hour activity and put you into that $200 an hour activity, and then just do more of that, right. It's, I think that's a fun one.
For the people with whom I've worked to allow me to take them through that process, we have a good time doing it. And we usually learn a lot about their businesses. And we're just poking at the weak spots.
Justin Stoddart 22:45
Here's an example that of an exercise that will have agents do that, I think is I was actually reminded of this, when you said this, but have them identify what is their ideal dollar per hour? Like what are the x you want to be making per hour, and compare that versus what their daily task list looks to task list looks like? And then ask them, Okay, sounds like you're doing your own paperwork, would you go to Craigslist, and pay somebody $200 an hour to do your paper? They're like, $200 an hour? Are you kidding me? Well, it's like, well, you just answer the question that, that you probably don't belong in that role. If that's really what you want to get paid. You cannot be focusing on activities that don't pay $200 an hour, you only can be focused on activities, where you are doing $200 an hour activities if you actually want to make that much, right.
Josh Hackenjos 23:29
And I would say I would argue that I'm a slow money guy like I believe in that long, slow, you know, success is sequential, not simultaneous. And so there are some areas where we can get fuzzy on this, like, a lot of people say okay, well then I'm going to just pick a phone, dial dial dial, well, you caught me today, I'm in the middle of this morning of swapping out a couple of water heaters, houses here in my neighborhood. And I do a lot like the company's community Empire. My wife owns a business in the yoga world, I do a lot of community stuff, we do a lot of stuff together around music and health and wellness and things like that. And I would argue that there are instances where I'm just hanging out with my neighbors, and I'm doing that $200 an hour activity, because I'm investing in my community and long term return on investment there, that I get to work with cool people who I like working with, who are grateful for my level of service, and I don't have to go chase it off. You know, I don't buy leads, I just invest in my community. So I would say if I'm out helping my neighbor doing something, I may be doing my highest dollar per hour activity. So just be careful about what we categorize as our key activity. Because, you know, I don't do that with them, like, the ulterior motive of like, well, I'm gonna do this and then get it's just No, I believe that if we invest in our communities, we will be rewarded with trust. And if we have a business that requires flourish in that environment.
Yeah, like I'm I'm pulling weeds from my neighbor, I'm maybe doing $200 an hour.
Justin Stoddart 25:07
Interesting.
All right, Josh. Josh, last question. Here's our signature question that you're unprepared for. But I know a guy like you since you are a big thinker, you belong on the thing bigger real estate show, what's something that you do want to on a regular basis, to think bigger, to intentionally position yourself to be a big thinker to expand your own possibilities.
Josh Hackenjos 25:31
So this is so funny because here's what I should do every day. And then what I actually do
and, you know, I'll just I think my life has been changed through a couple of
health and wellness decisions. Both you can ask a couple of the other guys who you've had on the show as well about this. We've worked with a specific boxing trainer I'll give them a call out Ben Metts down in Portland city boxing if you want a mindset coach, go get punched in the face first thing in the morning. And everything else in your day is easy to do first thing in the morning curled up in a fetal position crying that's how I start my day.
Unknown Speaker 26:15
So call Ben Metts and set it up. But I would just say around some of those things getting the mindset of the limitations that we put in our way that is purely mental like you can do one more push up you can run one more lap The only thing stopping you is mindset. And when I learned that from this lovely dude down there, Ben mats that became applicable in my world and I feel like I've seen the biggest reward and return from that from anything else just from realizing that the boundaries in my way will primarily mental and so yeah, so a big thanks to that guy but I would say and I like I said I try to get there you know, I miss my yoga routine a lot of days because I just don't like a cheeseburger a milkshake, but
Josh Hackenjos 27:04
I'm trying to hit that routine.
Justin Stoddart 27:06
I love it man that's an answer I haven't heard before I love that. Start off by getting punched in the face every day and then everything else seems easier. That's awesome.
Josh Hackenjos 27:13
Everybody's got their think
Justin Stoddart 27:14
I love it. Well thank you want to thank you so much for for the value that you poured into the audience today and into me always do and for those of the audience that is interested in seeing content with Josh, you can find them on social media. You can also email them if you want to talk specifically about his group coaching. Josh, joshhackenjos.com. He's got some great stuff to offer people. I know he helps a lot of people. So I want to thank you again, Josh, for being such a valuable guest and such a good friend. Appreciate you, man, very much.
Josh Hackenjos 27:41
Yeah, it's my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me on here.
3 years ago, Tazz Weatherly wasn't even a real estate agent. Year one, she and her team sold $12M, year 2, $20M and this year, her 3rd year, she and her team are projected to sell over $30M in volume.
How did she go from 0 to hero so fast?!
Tune in to hear her secrets that include the oft-overlooked social platform of LinkedIn.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Justin Stoddart excited today to bring you a topic that I'm passionate about from someone who I don't know if I could seek out and find somebody more qualified to talk about how to get a lot of stuff done and be a high achiever in multiple areas. And we're going to talk about a morning routine, and maybe having a bit of a paradigm shift for you, and the number of things that you can be accomplishing by nailing the morning routine, and by hearing and being inspired by this gentleman's story. So first of all, I want to before I fully introduce him, I want to thank Eric, thanks for being on the show today, man.
Eric Post 0:30
You're welcome, brother. You know, I, here we are. So let's rock and roll this thing. I'm excited.
Justin Stoddart 0:34
I love it. For those that don't know, Eric. Some may know him is he was at one point, an equity partner in five Better Homes and Gardens offices. He's now sitting on the board of that organization, continues to be a real estate investor has projects all over the place owns a restaurant. Here are some cool things in addition to being actually a veteran served our country, the Marines. Thank you for that. Eric. He also is a father of two kids. And he's currently in the top 10% of the world for his age group for Iron Man triathlons. In addition to that, you've done all kinds of really cool races. Talk to us a little bit. Eric, before we get into kind of the morning routine, and even some of the business stuff. Talk to us a little bit about your, like, some of these races and stuff that that that you've done.
Eric Post 1:23
Sure, yeah, I mean, I, you know, I, I'm not a self-proclaimed like an adrenaline junkie or anything like that. But I do believe that that comfort is the enemy of progress. So I'm always looking for ways I can push myself out of my general comfort zone. And I mean, come on, we live in a great country, we live in a great place, you know, have a great home a great life. And so, you know, that can evoke complacency. And the best way I found to like get myself out of that financially or relationship or any other way business wise is to push my body and if I'm uncomfortable and kind of get familiar with pain and little stuff doesn't really matter. So yeah, I find crazy, the minimal amount back races or climb mountains are these triathlons, that kind of stuff just to literally push myself and remind myself that it's okay to be in pain. It's okay to suffer. And the gratitude and the feeling and the sense of pride you have afterward is irreplaceable. So
Justin Stoddart 2:12
that's why I do those. I love it, man. Good stuff talks about some of like you've done in addition to the triathlons. What else have you done? I know there's 100 hundred mile mountain bike ride. What else? Yeah.
Eric Post 2:24
Cascade, Lakeside, 100, you know, down in Central Oregon. It's amazing, right. But it is grueling. You know, it's one of those where you climb like 10,000 feet in a day. And it's 90 degrees. And it's pretty technical trails. You know, and so it's just one of those of you, I push me and there's a whole long story with that, but that one pushed me for sure. I've done some, you know, different adventure races and trail running races and, like, went to Africa and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and, and things like that. So it's just, it's just, I just kind of like, find what inspires me and, and when I wake up in the morning, and my eyes light up, and I want to have something done going towards. So that's why pics on those things.
Justin Stoddart 2:59
So cool. I'm so inspired by what you've done. So sometimes when people see people that are for example of triathletes that hike these mountains, I know, one common thing that people say as well, you know, I've, I've got a job, I've got a business, I can't do that stuff full time, I can't be in the gym full time. And that definitely hasn't been your situation. As I mentioned before, the number of things that you've accomplished from a business standpoint, I would imagine a lot of this stuff that you do, you've got to fit it in, in and around a very busy schedule. You've got to fit it in maybe first thing in the morning. Is that true?
Eric Post 3:31
Yes. Well, I did this morning. It does. It does vary based on my schedule because it needs to be a fluid schedule, I've kids, I gotta get up and all that kind of stuff. So you don't have to school sometimes. And so it's one of those things where we just we have time for everything that we make a priority for. So if it's a priority for me, magically, you find the time I mean, that's just how it works. And, and time literally is the only equalizer in the world. You know, opportunities in life are generally completely unfair with the exception of the distribution of time. And so that's true, then just have we spend our time as a result of what our life is like. And so yeah, I find the time I make I make the opportunity and make the time. And for me, there's a couple just nonnegotiable and health and fitness is one of them. Because if you don't have that, you don't have anything you know, and and if you're one of those guys that have the world and the private jets and the yachts and all that kind of stuff, and and you finally get cancer, you would change all of that literally for a clean bill of health. And so, you know, I try and I try and keep my mind and my body like like that is the most important thing because that is the foundation for every other positive thing in my life is how you look and feel.
Justin Stoddart 4:31
Yeah, that's interesting. I've heard a quote by Jim Rowan, where he said if you don't take care of your body where you're going to live?
Eric Post 4:37
Yeah, I mean, I love that man and so many things. So many little sound bites came from him that I integrate in my daily life for sure. I love it. Oh, good. Well,
Justin Stoddart 4:45
Let's talk about kind of going down kind of in more depth on the topic of a morning routine, like you said, if it's a priority, it fits in. Yeah, I know. For me, I've got a fact I just wrote a blog post, I'll have to put a link to that in the comments here. There really outlines like step by step, minute by minute what I do for my morning routine. So I won't spend a ton of time on I really want to delve into yours. But what is on a typical day outside of the days where you've got to be fluid because you know, your wife's out of town, or you've got some kind of unique situation. But what does it typically look like for you? What time does the alarm go off for you? Or doesn't even go off at all?
Eric Post 5:19
Yeah, not anymore. I actually kind of structure things. So generally, I know sleep is obviously hypercritical. I'm not the best sleeper because it was just a variety of reasons. But I focus on I try. But I generally wake up when I wake up. And you know, I like on a sensitive seasonal here, I leave the blinds up in the morning. So I wake up with the sun generally are trying to you know, hit it before. But the idea of waking up to alarm kind of buzzing and beeping isn't awesome. That happens at times. But you know, generally, wake up when I wake up and it's earlier than I need generally. And it's sort of perfect. But I go directly to the water. Like when I wake up, I literally go directly to my water and my vitamins because I gotta hydrate for the day. And that's how I start my day, then I go right from there, I listened to read or try and find a quote or something that inspires me or education or something like right away before I get the shower before I check my email before I say hi to anybody, like I'm trying to like find this water for my day. And this inspiration for the day that some spark some sort of interest in me and kind of gets my mind going the same time. So that's literally how I just fire up from the first five minutes. My days are those things those are, you know, those are not negotiable. Actually, it just happens.
Justin Stoddart 6:29
So this concept of sleeping until you wake up what time you go to bed because that's kind of how that's gonna play some part of it.
Eric Post 6:34
Yeah, yeah, but you know what your body's like, especially when you get into receiving any sort of routine, your body just naturally does that. So you know, if you go to bed later, you still wake up the same time. So you have to be good about it. You know, it's really hard. You know, once you have a routine of waking up a certain time, you know, this, if you wake up a certain time almost every single day, that's what you're waking up no matter when you go to bed. So you know, I gotta make sure I'm okay with that. But I don't go to bed until 11 or so. And I'm up Five-5:30, Six.
Justin Stoddart 7:02
Yeah, similar. Yeah.
Eric Post 7:03
Now that's not fun
or something like that. But yeah, that's how it works almost every single day.
Justin Stoddart 7:09
Nice. So talk about from there you go, you hit the gym is that kind of next step for you, you get water get inspired. So you've covered kind of like the body hydration, you've covered, kind of getting the mind right does the gym typically come in the morning for you is that come later in the day, most movement,
Eric Post 7:27
movement on some level has to happen right away. Because of our physiology, the way our body is wired is directly connected to our emotions, like you can't, you can't disconnect those two. So, you know, some workshops I've done or whatever, it's pretty fun, you know, if you ask me, like do jumping jacks, or like, raise their hands completely above their heads and put a big smile on their face until their head back and breathe deep. They can't get depressed or, you know, they can't stop themselves from being optimistic, you know, at that moment in time, so your body and your physiology really dictate your mood. So if you're, if you're starting your day, and you're at your phone, your shoulders are down and you're not breathing deeply and you haven't had a movement that of course, it's gonna be hard to be inspired and have all this energy. So you know, we have this boundless energy if we just tap into it, and it starts with moving your body. So I have to move my body on something, you know, not go to the gym or go for a run. You know, I just do set of jumping jacks or just something a little mini trampoline, a little rebounder that I just jumped off for a few minutes to get everything going and I start smiling. I certainly did.
Justin Stoddart 8:24
It was interesting, this concept of not checking your email right away, or even social media right away. I know for me, when I check email, I'm immediately putting my day on someone else's agenda. Right? It means it becomes I'm asking other people to dictate what they want for me that day, as opposed to me following my blueprint of the life that I want. And I'm not saying I don't check email, you know, even before business hours, I typically start, you know, checking email, you know, 730, at least. But I've found that the more that I can delay that the more that I get the things in that matter most to me. Whereas if I start checking it, all of a sudden, other people's priorities become maybe urgent for me when maybe they aren't even that urgent of a deal. But that's just the way I'm wired is like if somebody asks me, I want to get back to them. So either a respond and disrupt what, what would actually give me the better foundation, or I delay it, but then it gets in my subconscious of like, I'm slowing them down, right, which isn't good, either.
Eric Post 9:20
Yeah, and I think sales professionals and business owners and people, in general, have to make a decision, you either have to always be available, or you have to always be worth waiting for, you can choose between those two, right. And so there's more value in always being worth waiting for generally than always being available because anybody can say call me 24/7, respond 24/7, that doesn't mean they're going to get the energized, professional focus, knowledgeable, you know, research you, they want the best version of you. So I have found that always being worth waiting for, it's way more powerful than just always being available.
Justin Stoddart 9:50
Well, you know, I see the real estate industry moving in, as a contrary direction, right? You look at a lot of the way the lead generation platforms, they reward those that are on call Doctors without getting paid, like I'm called martyrs. And unfortunately, I think it reduces the professionalism and the overall perspective that people have about real estate agents, if you can get one as fast as you can get an Uber driver, I don't know that that lends itself to your brand, being something that people will wait for. So I agree, I think there's actually value in saying, you know, here, these are my business hours, I'll get back to you at that point before then I have things that are important that actually allow me to show up and be a powerful person when we do me.
Eric Post 10:27
Yeah, and you know, especially this business, it's just personal and professional, so intertwined. And, you know, you have to be on other people's schedules, and for showings, and so on and so forth. And that's, that's an important factor of the business, but the businesses in your life, and so making sure that it doesn't overpower one is this constant struggle that I've had at times for sure. And I know a lot of people also have to so you know, it's just one of those, you have to empower yourself to be okay that, you know, your agenda, your life has to come first, because then you're a more whole person that you can give to other people, including your clients.
Justin Stoddart 10:58
Yeah, you know, one of the things that I've implemented into mine is this concept of writing and creating. So I'll spend an hour in the morning, I'm actually working on an Ebook that will then become a book. And so I'm spending an hour from six to 7am. Purposely writing and I do a blog post at eight. And this allows me to be more valuable to my customers, when I show up with them, right, or when I'm trying to get new customers, I'm in a different spot because I had to organize thoughts and actually put something on paper. That's, that's, that's valuable. Have you found any sort of practice when it comes to rather than just responding to requests of other people, you yourself actually creating, or developing something or even planning, like what shows up for you when it comes to like being proactive about the value you bring to the marketplace?
Eric Post 11:42
Yeah, for sure. But in order to create, there's something that's often missed, there's a step one, and that's consumption, like I think, to consume interesting information and consume the energy of other people and in books and podcasts and webinars and conversations. And if consumption isn't there, then you don't have all of that creativity Mills inputs, and the stimulus is to be able to create. And so I think the first thing is creating the time to be able to consume the good, right of whatever vibe or content that you need, that you can then put your own spin in your expert, you know, look and view for your customers or whoever you're trying to track. But the consumption has to come first for me. So I'm a consumer, and then all of a sudden, these opportunities come up or something comes out of your mouth, like a webinar or podcasters. And like that you like, and that was perfect, you know, but it doesn't come from something, you got it from somewhere, you're influenced by somewhere. So intentionally choosing your influences comes first before that creative spark can get done. So a lot of people do want to have an Ebook like you are a book, but they don't have that spark. And then they find themselves trying to grind it out. And they're manufacturing it. And so being inspired by the vibes they've you know, consumed in their life.
Justin Stoddart 12:46
That's powerful, man. Talk to us about what is it that you consume other podcasts you sit and read? Do you listen? Do you... what does that look like for you?
Eric Post 12:55
Yeah, well, just as much as you know, people are pretty aware of diet, whether it's your paleo or keto or whole 30, or whatever. And then they know what happens to your body when you put bad stuff in your body. But not everyone's as mindful as what they're putting in their mind, you have to be just as conscious about what are you putting your mind as you put in your body. And so for me, I'm pretty intentional. So like, my social media feed is, is pretty well cleaned out of any of the negative ions and the backstabbing and the just dramatic things that happen. And I'm trying to fill it with human beings, like Jesse hustler, and people like that, that really aspire to and look for us as a leader and what they do and are proven powerhouses and experts in what they do. And, and so I just get inspired by that. And so I filled my feet with those things. And I actually go, so I might think of something like relationships, or I might think of something of the truth or fitness. And I'll just Google that I'm like, give me a fitness quote. And I was kind of follow it down that rabbit hole a little bit might find a webinar, they've never known before, or, or a saying or a song, even you know that that gets me going. And so I use music a lot, I love listening to music, but also, you know, watching the lyrics across the screen as I'm listening to it. So I can also understand what the musician was trying to, you know, deliver in terms of the content in the meeting. So I just kind of follow the little rabbit holes every single day. And yeah, there are podcasts that I generally try and stick to because I find them fascinating and inspirational and just full of good content. Because there's also a lot of posers out there, I'll just say that I just felt garbage. You know, so I try and make sure I'm, I'm getting credible information as much as I can. Yeah.
Justin Stoddart 14:29
Let's talk kind of last year about maybe, like relationships, whether that be a spiritual relationship and or with your family? Is there something you do you take the kids to school, you have breakfast with them, you at least give them a kiss, when they're sleeping? What does it look like for you to be able to, like, touch those, those people and things that matter most to you first thing,
Eric Post 14:46
you know,
the foundation, all those things, and the thing I'm just constantly trying to get better at, because it's something I think we all can so I'm not professing to be the expert, this but its presence, you know, and, and if you're gonna have FaceTime with somebody on the phone, or even a messaging or a text message, there isn't anything that people crave more, especially today in presence, and non distracted presence. And so if you're going to have any sort of relationship that you value, then you better make sure that you're being as distracted for you as you can be for those human being. So if it's my kids, or my customers, or whoever it might be, you know, presence is something I'm trying to get better at. And I think that people find a lot of value. For sure.
Justin Stoddart 15:29
You know,
it reminds me of another Jim Rohn quote since we're down that trail, he said, maybe this was Ziegler, but he said, only floss the teeth you want to keep. And I was reminded of that is you were talking about, like, the relationships that matter to you, like only give your full self only be present to the relationships you actually want to want to keep.
Eric Post 15:47
Yeah, you know, and it's unfortunate because generally, like salespeople, you know, they want to meet a lot of people and they're giving you know, with the time they're giving with their energy, that's why people you know, burn out and they're not inspired by that, because is just what they're receiving and what they're giving or are in alignment. And so, you know, we shoot people recharge their phones multiple times a day, or at least once a day without recharging themselves. And I get charged up by conversations and by the energy of others. So even No, that'd be one on one like this, it doesn't have to be even live it can be via a video that I watch, right or a podcast I listen to that's my time with that person. And you can get mentored by anybody in the world now. And that's like, if you want to know any information, you can have access to millionaires and billionaires like in their life, they'll don't log in and you can read and listen to their words and fall into the day. And I mean, how amazing is that, that you can have just access to mentors that you have? So seek those out, you know, go get those vibes that you're looking for.
Justin Stoddart 16:45
That's powerful, man. I would encourage everybody here this Listen to this. If you've been inspired by what Eric said, I know he's lived life again starting I'm sure from an early age and in the business and now to fitness and being you know, an investor. Me Justin fires people everywhere he goes if you are not yet following this guy, friends with this guy on Facebook, go find him. Eric post is his name. And he's a fantastic human being he's been inspiring me from afar, he probably didn't even know that I was observing. But I've always been inspired by the way he shows up in the world and in social media, and that it's positive. It's good stuff. It's powerful. And I want to thank you, Eric, for helping contribute to my mission and my passion, which is to help people think bigger because I know when they do, their business tends to follow suit. And they end up getting the options in life and the impact that they really want. So thank you for contributing to that today. And for being a part of helping me extend my passion mission to the people. So appreciate you, man, very much. It's been a blast.
Eric Post 17:40
Cheers, brother. Good luck.
Justin Stoddart 17:41
Thank you.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the think bigger real estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart where my mission and passion are to help you think bigger so that you can have the business that you want in the life that you want. And you know, I am more than excited today to introduce a good friend of mine, Josh Friberg, who is fabulous at helping people have it all. Can you have it all, right? That's kind of the big question we're going to solve today. I believe that you can be in a dedicated family man and a dedicated professional. Today's topic is very near and dear to my heart. So let me give an intro for those of you that don't know Josh Friberg. First of all, let me say, Josh, thanks for being on the show, man.
Josh Friberg 0:34
Yeah, my pleasure. Really happy to be here with you.
Justin Stoddart 0:39
Good stuff. So for those that don't know, Josh, his background, he has actually was just recently on the executive team of an organization. Five doors that we want Inc 5000 top fastest growing privately held companies number 113. On that played a very critical role in helping them grow to the level that they did Justin has been a real estate agent and is now the abundant agent, somebody who's helping agents again, have it all. So excited to delve into this topic. As I said, that's very near and dear to my heart of how do you not neglect your family and still build a great business? So Josh, thank you, my friend. Appreciate you being on here talking about this incredibly important topic.
Josh Friberg 1:18
Absolutely. Yeah. You know Justin it's so interesting. Like, as I travel around the country teaching in brokerages and, and at associations, like over and over again, I find that real estate agents got into this business to take care of their families. And then now that their businesses are doing great now that their businesses are growing, they find out that their families are suffering, right, they look back over at the family and go, Oh, something's broken. And what many people don't understand is it actually only takes about getting takes getting three things, right. And if you can nail those, you can have amazing results. It's really about figuring out like, where your biggest contribution is really mapping your priorities, and then having an execution plan that works and, and the results are, you know, it's honestly just amazing. You know, we've walked agents through like doubling and tripling their businesses and reporting back, oh, I have more time with my spouse, I have more time with my kids and better relationships than I've ever had. So that's really what we're doing with the abundant agent is helping people really tap into that part of their real estate, businesses, and lives.
Justin Stoddart 2:23
You know, at the core of who I am, I'm a family guy. And, but I don't necessarily want to have a lousy career because I have a big family because family is important to me. It's It's interesting. I meet with agents all the time. A lot of times, it's moms, they kind of raise their hand and they say, I'm torn inside. I don't know how to do this. Because some days I wake up in fact, this is a quote from a client. She said, You know, I wake up some days and I just want to kill it. And I'm just so excited, fired up to go build my business. She said other days, I just want to be a mom, I want to foreclose, I just want to. And so there's this like kind of schizo Franek, like, Who do I want to be. And, you know, me myself self was raised in a family, where I had a mom who was a very successful entrepreneur, and yet, she was the best mom I could have ever imagined. And I think she came to grips with the fact that she could be where she needed to be when she needed to be there by owning her own business. Right, actually gave her the freedom to kill it during certain work hours, and then step out and be at all of our games, travel around the state to watch our football games, etc. And so I think that you can't have it all. I've seen it I was raised in an environment of, of entrepreneurs and family members who pursued both and and and were great parents at the same time. So let's start with Josh, what advice would you give, whether it be a busy mother? And or a maybe even a busy father, but like, what are some of the tactics that you see some strategies that you teach, to help people to, you know, not neglect the family while still building their business?
Josh Friberg 3:56
Right? Well, first of all, I want to put huge Asterix on this, this is where talking if we are talking to moms, right like that, we don't know that you and I do not understand their world, right, and the responsibilities that are on them. And so anything that I say I say with like great caution, and great like, just, hey, apply this as you can. And I know that I don't fully understand your world. The first place, you know, you mentioned and I thought this was really good is to be where you are, is to actually like, it's really interesting. I was in a class in a yoga class actually once and they said, you know, your body can only be in the present, right. And we would all agree with that, like I can't have my body be in the past in my body can't be in the future, it can only be in the present, yet our minds can be in the past, our minds can be in the present, or our minds can be in the future. And so this person said it was really just an interesting thing is they said, just let your mind be where your body is right now.
And so, you know, even now, like you and I have the ability, while we're having this conversation to be thinking about what we're having for lunch today to think about that weird thing we said Yes, today, right? Like, there's all these things, but to just be present where you are. The other thing is, there's, there's this old, there's this old saying in comedy, which is leaving wanting more, right. And I started applying this in my business, because I'm like, your friend, your client that said, you know, some days, I just want to go into work, and I just want to kill it. For achievers, there's actually something really gratifying about the 14 hour work day not as a lifestyle, right. But as a like a day where man, you're just hitting on all cylinders, and you're able to give it your all, you're able to pull an all-nighter. And really like at the end of the day, say I did something.
And you can do that for a day or a week or maybe even a month. But that's not a lifestyle, right? One of the things that I do when I'm coaching achievers is put a limit on it. And it's like, on those days when everything's going right. Like, put in the three hours that you have in your schedule, do it are the five or whatever it is. And when you come to the end of it stop.
Because that energy will have you ramped up, I had the experience of that this weekend where I could not wait for Monday to start because I was so pumped about the activities I was going to do for work. And I committed to honoring my time with family on Sunday and helping my son with his science project, right. So like, set limits on when you're going to work and stick to those. Now there's another piece to that. Because then there are days when Hey, I just want to stay home, I just want to it's sunny out, I want to take the kids to the zoo, or Boy, you know, families having a rough day I will I didn't really need to do. Maybe Today's a day I need to call in sick and stay at home. And I literally just got a text this morning from one of my coaching clients that said that exact same thing. Hey, I didn't make my commitments that were because we really needed a family day.
And it might be okay once but boy, that becomes a habit that's really dangerous for your business. So what I say is, create a schedule and do it whether you feel like it or not. And do it whether you feel like it or not. Right. I'm sorry, I'm going a little long here. Justin, what are your thoughts on this? Because I know you?
Justin Stoddart 7:17
Well, you know, it's interesting you say that because I think it goes contrary to what maybe we've been taught. And I think that's probably a good thing. Because a lot of people are really struggling in this area. So what you're saying is that when you have, if you decide that I'm going to, I'm going to make 10 contacts within my database, for example, and I'm going to write no cards, and I'm gonna go to lunch with, you know, a client that I've served in the past. And that's your commitment for the day, even if you still have more gas in your tank, and you're like, man, let's keep going. What you're saying is no stop. And and and keep your commitment to then go spend time with your family. Even if you get those things done earlier, what I hear you saying is go reallocate that time to family life, like be okay with the fact that you didn't sign up for, for a nine to five job, you're paid based on activity based on results. And if you get those things in earlier, guilt-free, go spend time with family, yet on the days when you don't feel like doing anything, those are the days where champions are made, those are the days that you've got to do a gut check and say, You know what, I've got to do the work today so that on those other days, I can actually spend time with family that I've committed to is that what I hear you saying?
Josh Friberg 8:29
Absolutely. Yeah. Because it's and we could talk about both sides of this, right. I mean, as you said, that's where champions are made. I think it's really interesting.
You know, Usain Bolt shows up, and he does his intervals for the day. And then he turns to his coaching, it's like, Man, I'm on today, I'm on fire today. Like, could we do another? Can we do another hour? What's the coach gonna say, they're gonna be like, No, you can't do another hour, as your body needs to now recover from what you just did. And I, by the way, I've got a workout tomorrow, that's going to mean Holy cow, your eyelashes are gonna hurt at the end of that one. Like we're going to make you work. And so like, that's the thing is, is create a business plan and stick to it. Now you do want to stop and measure and make sure you're getting results along the way. And you need a business plan that's effective. We're talking to the thing, bigger real estate show, right? We're not talking to them, like think small real estate show. So I'm to already have big businesses, they already have effective business plans. But yeah, let's let's talk about those days, you don't feel like it, because I think that's super important. And here's where here's where people go wrong. They've been successful because maybe they got their backs against the wall at some point. And they were able to achieve or, by and large, most of the time they feel like doing it, right. And so typically, what they do is if they're kind of entrepreneurial, if they kind of do things off the cuff is well, when I feel like doing something, I do it. In general, that's led to success.
But that's going to wear out, and that's going to wear thin. And so if you're sitting around waiting to feel like it, you're just going to keep sitting, right? If you wait. But here's what's fascinating is every time I've had coaching client that's like, I just don't feel like it, I go, Well, they just go make one call to just go make one contact, and then call me back. Right? And then they do and they call me back and they're like that that didn't that went well. And I'm like Greg, make another one. And we literally will do this for like three hours until they go, Hey, I made my 10. And I wrote my notes. And now I've got my lunch appointment, right, as you described.
Justin Stoddart 10:41
That's actually I was having this conversation with a mentor of mine yesterday about this book that I read years ago called the Kaizen way. In fact, I just want it for him. Yeah. And actually, I'm going to be delivering to him tomorrow. But the concept is, there was actually a doctor and he was dealing with people who were obese that needed to get in shape, their health was suffering as a result. And they said, you know, I've tried gym memberships, I've tried all these different things, it doesn't work. And he said, Look, all I want you to do, like each day this week is put your shoes on? Yeah, that's it and like go for a run. No, just put your shoes on and sit on the couch and watch TV. You played it like whatever you normally do. I want you to have your, your running shoes on. Yeah, okay, kind of laughingly, like, I'll do that. And then the next step was okay, I want you to go stand on the treadmill, like Don't, don't you dare walk or run on it, you're just supposed to stand there for a few minutes. And like little by little, he got them to where they realize that whatever it is that was keeping them from doing the activities necessary, got rid of all those mental blocks, little, you know, one little tiny step at a time. And I think what I'm hearing you say is that that's a similar strategy is that if you don't feel like making the committed effort in your business that you once decided was necessary to help you reach your goals. Like start with something so simple, make it one contact, right? Thank one email, like something so simple, that gets you over the hump. So that then you can really unleash kind of get rid of that fear and the doubt that's keeping you from doing what you know, you should be doing.
Josh Friberg 12:11
Absolutely. And then where I go from here then is I say, you know, pick those three or four areas of your life that are super important, right? So your business, your physical health, your relationship spouse, relationship with your kids, like take those four areas, and I have in my life, I have a 15-minute rule. Every day, I spend 15 minutes in those four areas. Now you know the truth Justin I don't spend only 15 minutes on those areas. But every day, five days a week on with my business and seven days a week with those other areas, I spend, at a minimum 15 minutes on each one of those areas, making some sort of positive step, some sort of little positive step and each of those areas. And of course, what happens is for me is that it Prime's the pump, right? So as soon as I like lock into my daughter to my six-year-old daughter, and I go, this is her 15 minutes, I'm going to just freeze frame on that with her, I'm totally present to her. And we're talking about something I don't care about right talking about unicorns today, or hatch moles, or whatever it is like I lock into that. And before you know it, right, we're an hour later. So instead of, Hey, I'm just gonna, I'm just going to check my Facebook feed here, it'll just take a minute. And then two hours later, I'm still there. It's like, you know what, I'm just going to take 15 minutes with my wife. And then you Lo and behold, two hours later, I'm still there, I'm going to take 15 minutes to make this really important move in my business. And then two hours later, it's like, oh, and then I finally built that website I've been talking about for three months. That's what it looks like is little actions. And because, again, if we're waiting for the feeling to show up, before we act, we actually have it backward, we want to act. And then if crazy enough, the feeling shows that we act, we get a result. And the result either moves us toward our goal, or it doesn't, which gives us feedback. We're like, Oh, don't make phone calls like that. Right? Oh, don't, you know, don't do that marketing scheme, like, great, we got some feedback. We have a feeling that goes along with that, and we get back in action.
Justin Stoddart 14:20
I think that's brilliant.
Josh Friberg 14:20
When people try and get the feeling first act first,
just do something.
Justin Stoddart 14:23
All of us, right? I think that's why most people are mediocre at a lot of things, right? Is it like, I'll be a good dad, like, I'll go play catch with my kid when I feel like it. You know, and the reality is like, childhood goes really fast. And if you talk to grandpas, if they have one regret, it's you know, I wish I would have spent more time. Less time, you know, maybe in front of the TV and more time out playing catch with my kid, you know, the same thing in business, right? I think there are so many lives that are that what you taught right there, that's the only thing that's keeping them from mediocre, or from good to great is the ability to make a decision and act even when they don't feel like it, especially when they don't feel like it because that's what separates you. Right? That's why Yeah, that's the difference between most producers. And most parents, and great parents, that's the difference between most producers and great producers, is that they just do the activities consistently enough, you and I have probably both read the compound effect by Darren Hardy, right? You know, and compound interest is the same concept as you start early, and it's a consistent deposit. And if you take away the consistency, it kills it. And the same thing with lead generation. That's why I see so many real estate agents jumping from this tactic to this tactic to this tactic to this tactic, because they're assuming that that doesn't work for them. And they didn't like that one, or they didn't get the results. They never actually employed the power of the compound effect because they didn't do it consistently enough. Because they were relying upon when I feel like doing it, I'll do it, which is never consistently enough to actually get the results. So then they jumped to something now so the grass got to be greener, this has got to be it. This is going to be the tack that this is going to save my business.
Josh Friberg 16:05
And what people forget about the compound effect too is when you look at the compound effect from the outside, it looks like this.
It's just this like really
straight, really exciting line. The then suddenly takes off, right? This is why, like you'll consistently hear like musicians and artists say yeah, it only took me 20 years to become an overnight success. The harder part is that from the inside, you're looking at the competition, and the competition seems to be going up like this. And they may be they may be going up on this like straight trajectory. While you're going up, you're going like this, because you're building your building your building, and then surpass them at the finish line, right? It's just, it's the craziest thing. Because you have to just keep doing it every day, every day, every day. And I love like the business plan that you sketched out in 12 seconds a little bit ago, is a brilliantly simple business plan that agents done consistently, will, I mean will make an amazing lifestyle for people and amazing lifestyle for people done inconsistently you will go broke, you will lose your family, you will lose your health. Like it just won't work.
Justin Stoddart 17:20
Yeah. As with anything, right? I mean, even exercise and nutrition, all of those things. Anything great in life depends upon even talk to people like Steve Jobs that, you know, literally transforms like the world in which we live. And they talk about how it's not as sexy as an Apple keynote presentation. Right? That's our that's the unveiling. But there's, there's, you know, day hours and days and weeks and months and years of pretty monotonous, mundane work, you know, with an occasional super exciting thing. But that great success. If you look back and read biographies of the people that have had the great impact whether at home, or even, you know, in business, it comes down to very simple practices done consistently over time, repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly.
Josh Friberg 18:11
Yeah. Well, not to like, you know, to like kick down the fourth wall or anything but like to think bigger, our real estate show, right? You made that commitment at the beginning of this year, because you'd been doing it like, at a certain level last year. And then you said hey, you know what, I'm going to change the model this year. I'm going to do it every day, five days a week. 845 like, this is my interview. And holy cow like, here we are four months in fight, you know, starting on the fifth month in and people are going Justin man what's going on with think bigger real estate show. But I imagine in February, there were days where it was like, nobody's watching. But I'm doing it. It's Tuesday. And I'm doing it. And it's the next Tuesday and I'm doing it and nobody's right. And now people are like, people really talking about this already, you know, after months, and I can only imagine what this looks like after a couple years. Right? And you know, even the end of this year.
Justin Stoddart 19:04
Yeah.
Yeah, no, it's Yeah, there's absolutely and if you
Josh Friberg 19:10
don't mind share with folks. Lee.
Justin Stoddart 19:14
Yeah, that's a great point. Great example. And it's, it's, it does get easier over time, right. Like the first little while is where most people turn back where it's like, this is too hard. It's too much. I can't do this every day. Whether it be you know, what I'm doing or whether it be you know, what a real estate agent does the other day, if there's gotta be some consistency. And if you do, like the prizes, great, like, the reward is great, but you gotta pay the price. So any other tips? Josh, before we kind of wrap up for being a great parent, and a great agent, any kind of last things that we didn't cover that you want to hit on? Or do you feel like that's enough for today?
Josh Friberg 19:54
I think we hit on that the other thing, so we talked a lot of tactical, right, that's actually usually the second steps to talk tactical. The other piece to do is, is that I would say, to take time to really understand what your greatest contribution is, right? The reality is, is that the work that we do matters and the lives that we live matter. And when we take the time to really think about that, and say like, only you can be a parent to your kids, only you get to be a spouse to your spouse, only you get to be the owner operator of the body that you live in. Right? Right. And only you get to provide the unique value, the unique value that you provide to your real estate clients. So to take actually take a half an hour, this afternoon. And to, to start to write that out, like what why is the world a better place? Because I'm here? Why is it important for me to be a great parent? You know, I was talking to this one of our one of my clients in Tennessee, and I said, Why? You know, I'd be a mom, who cares, right? I was being sarcastic. She came in and she said, she said, Josh, I am raising the future citizens of this country. She's like, I am raising the people who are going to be running for office, or at least voting for the people that are in office. And they are going to be making contributions to their community. It is vital that I nailed this as a parent. And I was like, Yeah, I was struck by that.
And say, so why, like, tell me why it's important for you to be a parent and understanding that now all of a sudden, playing soccer in the backyard is about raising it is about the future of the nation, right. Like that's, that's amazing. And so then to be able to say, okay, you know, what, actually, this stuff matters, to say, hey, I need to make sure that I am in good enough physical shape to dance at my daughter's wedding. 20 years from now, all of a sudden changes whether or not I put on my tennis shoes today.
Justin Stoddart 21:55
Yeah, that's powerful. Right.
Josh Friberg 21:57
And that's the decision by the way that we're making. We're often stuck making the decision between, you know, nachos on the couch in front of the TV and the running shoes, when what we should be doing is, is Wayne nachos on the couch in front of the TV with dancing her daughter's wedding.
Justin Stoddart 22:17
But that's a different conversation.
Yeah, because it's not just some pretty good until you compare it against. This will prohibit me if compounded over time. This will be a pivot me from being active enough to dance at my daughter's wedding, nachos or dance his wedding? That's an easier decision.
Josh Friberg 22:36
Right?
Justin Stoddart 22:38
That's powerful, man. Great stuff. Last question here. As we wrap up, Josh, for do to expand your own possibilities to think bigger, give the audience today, a tip, something that they can do that that that you found, really helps you to think bigger on a consistent basis.
Josh Friberg 22:56
Wow, what something that I do? Make sure I think bigger on a consistent basis. I think
the two biggest things that I do in that space Justin First of all, is hanging out with people that think bigger than me. Like literally just hang out with people that think bigger than me. And the second is, is that I dream? Like it's sort of a hobby of mine is that I just like fantasize. So all that talk I did about being present, is that I spend at least some time in the future. What would and I've talked with you about this, what would it look like for my family to move and live in Belize? And then talk about what would it look like for us to buy an RV and live for a year in an RV or to become snowbirds in our four days? Right? Like why not? Is I dream on with zero? Like, yeah, but that couldn't happen or no, like, just No, no, that's off the table as to the how, and just go for it. And that's how I do the same in our business right? Is what would it look like to be a million dollar business? What would it look like to be a $10 million business? break open a spreadsheet and figure out what is the business plan be? Now I'll tell you that nine times out of 100 I get done and I go, Oh, I'm unwilling to commit to the activities to make that a possibility. But I did think bigger while I was doing it.
Justin Stoddart 24:27
And it probably made it so whatever activities you were you had committed for the day, it seemed a lot easier. Right see a lot more.
Josh Friberg 24:35
Right.
Here, here's how big I didn't use the activities I am willing to commit to I
along the way.
Justin Stoddart 24:45
Great stuff, man. Always great stuff when I get a chance to talk with you. Thank you again so much, Josh for pouring tons of value into the think bigger real estate audience I'm gonna put up here on the screen and where you can get a hold of Josh. Josh is a fantastic speaker. If you've enjoyed anything that he's said here today, you haven't seen anything yet. You put him in front of a crowd, he has this, this amazing ability to tell a story and we've principles in that keep your attention and get you really engaged in the topic at hand. So your real estate speaker calm, he's actually launching his brand, the abundant agent, so that site will be coming soon. But if you keep this website here, this will always be redirected to his actual site. Your real estate speaker calm. Go find Josh, if you're looking for a great keynote if you're looking for somebody who can be you know, a great coach when it comes to individual coaches or group coaching. He's a fantastic resource, I would highly recommend him to anybody. So thank you again, Josh, for all that you do for people for the industry that you and I both serve, and for the world for just being a great person.
Josh Friberg 25:46
All right, thank you, Justin, thanks so much for the time. Appreciate it.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart, fired up excited to be with you here today. As you know, my my passion and my mission is to help you think bigger, so that you can build the kind of business that will produce the kind of life that you want, giving you the options and the impact that you really want. I'm very excited to have returning guests with me today, someone who's locally famous and probably becoming nationally famous at this point. But the topic today is contribution. And so I have just the right person who spends his life contributing to the real estate industry, helping agents get better. So I want to thank first and foremost, Mr. Joe Fustolo, for being on the show today. Thanks, Joe.
Joe Fustolo 0:36
Thank you so much. I have to start every compliment with a compliment back from the place of contribution Justin you're doing an amazing job given great media, great content to people. It's a selfless act. And we all appreciate these videos and the knowledge and the people you interview. So thank you, the spirit of contribution. You're up there with a lot of people.
Justin Stoddart 1:02
Well, thank you. That's very kind of you, Joe, I appreciate that coming from a guy who, again gives so much so let's delve into some of these topics. And let me kind of build some like him a frame of reference for those who maybe need a little more background on on Joe. So Joe is the owner of Soldera Property Group, which I understand just turned 11 on St. Patrick's Day Happy Birthday to Soldera properties.
Joe Fustolo 1:24
Yes. Soldera turned 11 years old on St. Patrick's Day. And I own it with my business partner, Patrick Kraus. And we're having so much fun is just a ball.
Justin Stoddart 1:37
You know, it's funny, because today actually is my son's 11th birthday today. So after this, I've got a birthday date. With my 11 year old so 11 years ago was a very special year apparently. And it was fun, actually, I got a chance to see Patrick and Joe in action at their big Easter event. And it was a blast. And that's maybe kind of a lead in a fight. Let me get to that here in a second. Let me finish my bio on Joe. So for those that don't know, Joe, been in the business for 28 years, just been a great producer, and a great, great contributor. In addition to his his success within his own business and his own brokerage. He's served on about every board you can imagine. And that is the founder of the well known Real Estate Group called Masters in Real Estate. So if you by chance are an agent, whether you're inside the Portland metro area, or in the state of Oregon, or even nationally, I would really encourage you to search Masters in Real Estate. I'll put it up here on the screen here a little bit later in the episode. But search this out, Joe does such an amazing job of just helping real estate agents get very, very good at the business of real estate of being great real estate agents. So huge thanks to Joe. I know so many people are so appreciative of the work and sacrifice that you make to make that happen. Joe, it's just great stuff.
Joe Fustolo 2:50
Thank you.
Justin Stoddart 2:52
So let's talk a little about this great community event that you held. You know, I've been invited as you can imagine to a number of events. I'll tell you what, my wife and I and our little kids were amazed, we rounded the corner at the Soldera Properties Easter egg hunt, like there were oceans of people and I thought yeah, goodness, and you guys were prepared like you're like totally handling it with with cool calm. I think I'd be like choking like oh my goodness, what are they going to stop the Stoddarts are coming, they had six kids just in love themselves. And you guys handled it handled it so well. And the cool part that ties back into our theme today is this topic of contribution. Talk to us a little bit, Joe about the cause that you guys were supporting and kind of what came of from that event to this cause that you care deeply about?
Joe Fustolo 3:39
Well, so what a fun day, that was the mother nature shown down on us. We had room for about 600 people, we had about 1200 RSVP. So as comfortable and collected as we looked, there was a little freak out earlier in the day, but we're pretty passionate about contribution and giving back and this year was Embrace Oregon, which helps foster kids and foster families. And I can't think of anything better than you know, foster kids and their families out there. We did an Easter egg hunt. We had face painting, we had a guy doing balloons, we had, you know, temporary tattoos. People were playing cornhole, the adults were wine tasting. And then this massive Easter egg hunt where out of the 5000 easter eggs, there were a good couple hundred golden eggs that had extra special treats in there and we had two different photo booths and the Easter Bunny, and it was an absolute ball. everybody was appreciative and and we just filled up with, you know, they say when you give, you get back tenfold. And it was really great to see people having a good time. And I sent it out to friends and family and past clients and it was just a great day talking with people that I haven't seen in a long time. And I don't know the actual numbers, but we raised a heck of a lot of money for Embrace Oregon, and let me tell you a little bit about them. So it's for foster kids and foster parents. And they usually are pretty heavy on financial contributions. And then clothes, boots, school supplies, you name it. It's normally around Thanksgiving, Christmas, right? When everyone feels like giving. They're pretty heavy on donation. But come January through October, they're a little lean. And so we specifically wanted to make sure that they have all their needs met, if you get called. And you have to pick up foster kids overnight and bring him back. It's nice to have, you know, toiletries and clothes. And so that's what we did. It was a it was a huge success. So we plan on doing it again next year, I don't know if we're, if it's the same place or same charity, but we plan on doing for a quarter, or for a year, every quarter quarter.
Justin Stoddart 6:25
You know, it's interesting, Joe actually met a new agent yesterday. And she came out of the foster care program. And she said from a young age, she found herself grabbing like the free home magazines, in grocery stores. And she said for her it was a way to like fill that void that she didn't quite have the home that she wanted. And so later in life now here, she is a real estate agent, she said it brings me great joy to know they'll be able to help people have what I always wanted as a kid, and I thought was pretty touching. And so I think there's definitely this tie to those of us that have been blessed by the real estate industry to give back those who maybe don't have the ideal home setting.
Joe Fustolo 7:03
Absolutely, you know, it's interesting, it's like, the more you work in, the more money you you make, it allows you to do more things for other people and put on events and and donate. And you know, if you look at the balance of life, you know, your, what you have, socially, your family and inside your four walls, you know, spiritually, physically, charitably, all these other things. The stuff you do for others is one of those things that just sort of feeds you and keeps you going. So it's a you know, I'm not selflessly given to other people I'm getting a lot in return my cup is full, let me tell you.
Justin Stoddart 7:43
I think you know, that's how I feel is as selfless as some of this contribution may look, there's so much value that comes when you just give and I think that's, you know, one of those things that you don't really understand and get until you start to give. And I'm sure everybody here on the episode has has done that in some way, some form or fashion. But it's true, the more that you start to give and contribute like your life just gets a lot better opportunities start to open and no, that's not why you do it. But opportunities for example, this conversation that you and I are having, you know, wouldn't come about unless this this show existed. And similarly for you, I would imagine that part of the huge way in which you were able to contribute, Embrace Oregon was in part because of the contribution that you've given to so many brokers and so many agents and so many families, like it just compounds The more you look to contribute, the better life gets, the more opportunities you get to contribute back even more.
Joe Fustolo 8:32
Yeah, and you know, aside from giving financially, and donations and stuff, a lot of the path I've been going down has been trying to make people better and more knowledgeable and more ethical and more professional. And so I don't think I've spoke I think I've spoke more so far this year than I have and a lot of years combined. And and it just seems like every week there's a new panel or a new forum or a new mastermind or something like that. And I think it's important because I do have things to share with people. And look, I'm going to be in the trenches with everybody. I have real estate transactions, we hire brokers all the time, try and make them more knowledgeable and ethical and better and professional. And I mean, that comes around to because someone who's in masters in real estate or someone who goes to a forum, and they're a little bit better, we might be in a transaction together. And it'll be just a much easier transaction at that time.
Justin Stoddart 9:38
Yeah, yeah, there's no doubt, all kinds of benefits. Let's talk a little bit about an another event that you're on, which again, is an opportunity for you to contribute, which is Young Professionals Network. They've got a big event coming up. Is it tomorrow? Is that right?
Joe Fustolo 9:52
No, it's Thursday. May 2nd, and its Young Professional Network, real estate Roundtable, Mastermind event. It's from 4:30-7 PM at the lucky lab, down in northwest in the in the Pearl area. And I don't have the list of people in front of me. But they're just remarkable. People on this round table, and it's around table because each one of us kind of hangs out at a table. and then you have this group of people that just sort of bounces around to each person. And then we have our little theme of what we're talking about. So yeah, there's some great on that.
Justin Stoddart 10:38
And then, of course, we have coming up on May 9, for those that are listening to this before that date. It's the Masters in real estate forum from 10 until 1130 at the West Linn Music Project, again, in an effort to contribute to a great organization offer scholarships, and music lessons to two young people, which I know I'm passionate about out about the education and the mind expanding on the topic of thinking bigger, healthy. I know In fact, I was just learning the other day my wife was telling me the data on how much better kids are able to learn typical subjects when they're engaged in music, it opens up the mind to be able to help them to think more clearly. So what a cool project that you and I get to be a part of in on that panel, of course will be you, Joe Fustolo, we'll have Heather Robbins, we'll have Terry Sprague, Amy Savage, and Debi Laue so become star studded lineup there, I'll be leading that panel and trying in a very difficult challenge of in 90 minutes trying to extract enough enormous amounts of wisdom from those five people. So again, if you're not signed up for that, we'd encourage you to do so it's going to be an awesome event. I'm super, super excited about that one.
Joe Fustolo 11:48
I told a friend of mine that only reason I decided to go on the the panel is so I can sit next to Debi Laue and Heather Robbins who I just absolutely love. I mean, if you can learn anything you can learn from those people, Amy Savage is great, too. And I just, I looked at that panel, I thought oh my gosh, I need to go to this. So maybe I'll learn something. So it's gonna be fun. And the fact that you know, Heather is so sweet. She turned this into a fundraiser for the Youth Music Project. And it's right at the bottom of the hill and West Linn. And it's like, why wouldn't I do that? I'm absolutely doing it. I hope they raised lots of money. And I hope we share lots of knowledge to a sold out venue.
Justin Stoddart 12:30
Yeah, yeah, no, I agree. It's gonna be exciting. So kind of last last topic, or maybe illustration of contribution? Is this this group masters in real estate again, I know we have an audience that's extending outside of the Portland area. So let me put up here in case anybody isn't familiar with this, I would say most people in the area are familiar and are members of this group. But talk to us about about masters in real estate. Joe, obviously, there's an enormous amount of time and effort that you put into this to moderate it be sure everyone's getting along and, you know, offering pop positive comments. I mean, that's you are I mean, you're the guy behind that's kind of policing that whole thing.
Joe Fustolo 13:03
Well, I kind of have a team. Now it's a little bigger than me. There's about 5000 real tours and real estate related services, right. So I want to emphasize that people think it's only real tours, but we were not going to get any smarter, if we don't have you know, Real Estate Attorneys and title people and lenders and home warranties and vendors. So it's a mix of every thing that involves real estate, and it's primarily Oregon and Washington, but it's getting longer and longer arms. Andif you're in masters, you already know what I'm talking about. If you're not in masters, you will get a there's questions that you need to fill out and and answer. And then you get a little video of how and why masters was created, which sheds a little bit light on what we're all about.
Justin Stoddart 14:04
I love it. And again, best practices for people that are in there. Obviously, there's a search function you could go in, and and type in, as all Facebook groups have type in any particular topic that you have. And there may already be a deep discussion with tons of comments, right? You might not have to sit there and wait and hope people respond. There might already be answers there for that's probably the first golden tip. What else would you say Joby on that that would really help people get maximum value from this?
Joe Fustolo 14:31
Well, the search feature is great, because masters has been around for seven years. So if you want to refer a stage or whatever, those have all been posted a million times. So search First, if you don't find anything recent, then by all means, start a thread and ask your question. Another thing is devils in the details. If you're looking for particular vendor, for example, let's say a roofer maybe say where it's located, where the house is located, the size of the house, what it currently has, and what you need to go to, you know, it's 2400 feet and Beaverton it's a comp roof and we need a new comp roof. It helps us help you. And there's people that say, oh, who's your Best Roofer and, and then you find out Oh, they they're posting from Medford, you know, that really doesn't help us. So, as detailed as possible, and when people are looking for, hey, I have someone who wants to sell their place in San Diego, give me a good San San Diego real tour, instead of like just tagging someone's name, Brian Johnson, that doesn't really do much. If If this particular person that you tag has very restricted visibility of what other people's could can see, if they're not a friend, then it doesn't do anything, buddy any good. So tag someone put a little blurb about who they're with what they do their phone number, their email, make it a one stop shop, you see it and you don't have to go anywhere to find any more information. So over provide information to make it easy to get the person down that path.
Justin Stoddart 16:24
a great tip, I would even ask this of the audience that I know because I have a group myself big, big Real Estate Group. But if you go inside the group, you'll see an opportunity to add members. And if you see people that are suggested there that are good agents, great agents, whether they be here or in another area, help this community grow, the community only gets bigger and better based on the caliber of the people. I remember when I was a general contractor, I would always say I'm only as good as my subcontractors. And any group is only as good as the members in it. So if there's people that that you think should be in the group, do Joe and the other masters real estate community members a favor and add people like don't feel like that's that just falls upon Joe's shoulders like absolutely not, like start adding members again, be sure that they're you know, that there's some relevance to the real estate industry, of course, and that they're there. They're good, reputable people. But if they are, Joe, would you agree in?
Joe Fustolo 17:18
Absolutely. Make sure you tell them to fill out the mandatory questions. There's people that have submitted, hey, I want to be in the group. And then it hits them with two or three questions that quantifies that they are really are either in real estate or real estate related services, and they don't fill it out. And the first question is, you know, prove that you are a realtor or real estate related services by posting something that shows us. And if you don't fill out these questions, you are not getting in the group. And it's amazing to me the number of people who just don't feel anything out. And so they don't get in the group. It's a very protective group. That's why the atmosphere in there is so great is because we don't allow soliciting, we don't allow a lot of screwing around. So it's kind of tough to get into. And, you know, we're, we're slow to hire, quick to fire, I guess, we're going to vet you out to make sure that you belong in the group. And then if you break the rules, you're immediately out. So I would, I would say suggest people that you think are professional and fabulous, that will be an advantage to the group. Make sure you tell him to answer the questions. And hey, we're looking for more great people. Right.
Justin Stoddart 18:43
Yeah, good stuff. So last question here, Joe, one that you weren't prepared for. But I know you are prepared for it was just kind of my signature question. Kind of playing on the theme here behind me that the TV think bigger theme. What's something that that you would recommend that an agent, or even something that you do on a regular basis to help yourself like think bigger to expand your own possibilities? Obviously, you've done some great things and building a great community building a great brokerage, building a great business, like you're a big thinker. That's why you're on the show here today. Give us a tip on what you do to continue to think bigger yourself.
Joe Fustolo 19:15
Well, that's pretty easy. It's never stop learning. So where I got this head cold was I just spent a week in San Antonio, Texas. And I was in a windowless conference room getting pumped full of air conditioning. And it was absolutely amazing. And yes, this is my 28th year, but I am constantly looking for the new technology and and how to learn it. So learn it so well. So I can teach it. It's a little amazing to me that. So everyone's talking about a shift. And I don't want to add 20 minutes to this. But there is a shift happening, not necessarily so much market our markets pretty good. There's a shift in how real estate is being sold by buyers and open door and Zillow, and all the technology and how you do Instagram and Facebook ads and LinkedIn trolling and all this other stuff. And people who think, gosh, I've been doing this forever, I know it all. I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing, are quickly going to realize that it doesn't work as well. And it hasn't hit us full force, we're in the midst of a technology shift right now. But we still have a year or so before it lands on us. But if if you don't prepare yourself for the way real estate is conducted in the future, you're going to have a tough time. And it's not technology, that's going to phase out the realtor. It's other realtors using technology, that's going to phase out the real tour. So master your craft and learn new stuff. And there's there's no such thing as old dogs can't learn new tricks, because I'm still learning and I'm one of the oldest farts around.
Justin Stoddart 21:16
Joe, it's always such a pleasure to spend time with you. I want to thank you for your contribution to the industry and to this group. I think that your Real Estate Group our audience today is benefited greatly as a result of what you've shared what you continue to share and contribute every day. So thank you again, man. I really really appreciate you and our friendship.
Joe Fustolo 21:32
Thank you. I do too. And I want to say thank you for all you do. I'm a big fan big follower and and anytime I get 5-10 minutes in a waiting room or something I just look on my phone and and watch the videos. It's always fabulous content. And you're an outstanding moderator. So thank you for that.
Justin Stoddart 21:52
Thank you my friend. Appreciate it. Alright, thanks, everybody.
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the think bigger real estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart. And so excited to be here today with a friend of mine, someone who I admire and I think everyone in the Portland area, real estate industry admires this lady. And for those of you that are outside the industry, let me give a little background on Debi Laue and the treat that we have today. For me, first of all to have her here in studio. Thanks for being here, Debi. I know video is your favorite thing in the world. So this is this is really exciting for her to be able to impart her knowledge. And anyway, so background on her, been in the business Debi for 42 years, really that 42 years. And her team is still one of the very highest producers in the entire city. Just phenomenal, phenomenal amount of production that they do. And I think even more impressive than that isn't the numbers, but the people the way you guys go about doing business.
Debi Laue 0:47
Is that can I clarify, it's not my team anymore?
Justin Stoddart 0:49
Yes. Yes, please, please.
Debi Laue 0:52
Misunderstood proposition. Rick and Kiesha Brainard bought out on our team January 1, 2017. So what they've built from that point on is what we're doing now.
Justin Stoddart 1:00
Very cool, great distinction. So Debbie laid the groundwork for what Rick and Kiesha are now building, which is something phenomenal. And anyway, I'm excited to spend the time here with Debi and really try to extract from her, how she built what she built, it was really set the stage for what the team is doing now, which is really exciting. Super cool. So let's see any other bio points on Debi, I'm sure if anybody pops in here and wants to ask any questions that Debi, feel free to bring that up. But I know I've we've kind of pre-discussed a couple of different topics. So one of the things that I'd love to hear, Debi is if you were right now able to go back and talk to Debi Laue, it was just getting into the business. Now. Were you married to Bob at the time that you guys got in the business?
Debi Laue 1:43
No.
Justin Stoddart 1:43
Okay, so this was pre even pre-marriage you've been? You've been married to real estate long have you been married?
Debi Laue 1:50
That is true.
Justin Stoddart 1:53
if you were to go back and give advice to that person that's maybe a year in the business, like maybe they kind of give, What real estate is, but they haven't obviously built the career that you have. What advice would you give to yourself? So my first managing broker was lead Davies mother, Dorothy Davies mother, okay days.
Debi Laue 2:13
The best advice she gave me, she gave me a lot of advice. But the best advice was to surround yourself by positive people. And I understood very quickly why she told me that because in that era and continuing on, there's always office drama. And if you just avoid that, then you'll have a lot of time to spend with your family and your clients, which is what you should concentrate on. And going forward from that consistency has been the number one thing I would share with people. There's a quote out there by some entrepreneurial book writing Speaker I can't remember his name Darren Hardy, I think but he says because consistency is the one thing that achieves and continues the momentum. So in this is if you're not continuing the momentum, then you're stopped dead. It's called filling your pipeline, whatever you want to call it. consistencies, the number one target to achieve. And some of the ways almost that I'm hearing you say that people aren't consistent as they get caught up and stuff that doesn't matter. Right, right. You've got your clients to get the growth of your business, then you've got as you said, this office drama, stuff that's maybe not other stuff or other stuff, right Life Life drama, you can't avoid life. But if you can focus on the things that are productive, that that will help you be successful. So that consistency, I know that that is a big challenge for any of us that are entrepreneurial, right? We see shiny new ideas all the time.
Justin Stoddart 3:38
At what is that what is considered the consistency? How have you found to be most consistent? Is it certain by just having a calendar having a planning session? I mean, what's it look like for you or do you just have the discipline to be able to do it? Well, so this is this goes back to Bob. So Bob was a corporate guy, you know, he came out of the corporate world which most realtors didn't back in the day.
Debi Laue 4:00
He put systems together that kept us consistent. In other words, we had a CRM since 1983.
Justin Stoddart 4:08
Wow, that was pre-sales free CRM, wasn't it?
Debi Laue 4:11
I bought my first computer, which was this big and cost $5,000. But I had no idea how to use it until Bob came along. And he figured out a mail merge system where he put all of his clients into the system. And we started sending out these anniversary letters. Congratulations. This is the seventh year since you bought or sold a home with us, we hope you're doing well, etc. And always asking for business, of course, but that was our first attempt at being consistent. And then you move forward with client events. Yeah. And just staying in touch with pop buys, which our team now does because we have this lovely person named Melissa Nichols who said,
No, listen. So she's made it really easy for us to achieve that consistency on a whole new level.
Justin Stoddart 4:54
Like it's funny. I saw Melissa and Justin Nichols in the team picture and I was like, What did they do? Now I know the role very cool, good quality people, you guys have just done such a good job like everybody that joins the last one like, Oh my god, it's just another amazing person, you know? Well, that's you can have that direct indication they have built the business in the last two years. And I'm a very special way. So we have four producing agents, okay, and for support people, okay, which is a pretty, pretty amazing sort of ratio of support to producing brokers, you don't typically see that right? You see, very few support people or fewer support people and lots of agents. So what does that allow you guys to do by having almost like a one to one support to producing agent and allows you to do the stuff you're talking about? It allows us to spend our time with our clients, which is exactly where we need to be.
Wow, lots of profound wisdom there is whether it looks like people or what it looks like and or systems or tools. But whatever you can do to reinvest time back in your clients, right? is key, right. So we have gentlemen in our place.
Debi Laue 6:00
We go office that I don't know if he has a CRM now. But for years it didn't except he had his phone, which was his brand new form of Rolodex. And he said he would, you know, we had 10 minutes before a meeting, he would just go through and look at people's names, and you'd call somebody, it was that simple. Who Have I not talked to recently pick up the phone column. So in this era, when people are a phone at first, maybe go back to something as simple as picking up the phone and calling somebody you haven't talked to in a couple of weeks or a month or a year. But I do think that technologies take an interesting turn. And a lot of people use technology to be the contact with people. Right? It almost takes the place of contact with people. What I hear you saying is that that that technology should empower people, or it should empower us to spend more time with people, not less time with people, right, right. Our mantra is always been high tech, high touch. You have that both because you get left behind if you don't have the high tech piece, but people want to hear from you. Yeah.
They want to be personal.
Justin Stoddart 7:01
And again, the tech should allow you to be freed up to where you can spend more time with people. Right? As opposed to, I see a lot of people spending so much time on drip campaigns as if that's going to be the cure. All right. And it's like, I know, for me when I get to put on someone's drip campaign, it doesn't make me feel overly special, right? It helps me remember the person, right? And it makes me feel special when they reach out because now that trip has some sort of meaning behind it. But if it's just someone's email campaign, I don't know that anybody gets disappointed at the end of the day, because they didn't get enough emails that day. Like, maybe like letters in the mail in the mailbox, I feel.
But emails like man, I just, I only got 100 today, like it's kind of a bum day, right? We all get inundated with emails. And so I love what you guys are saying that although you embrace the high tech, you also have high touch and that becomes the sole focus, right? does good stuff. So kind of wrapping up. The advice you give yourself is the consistency piece consistency that that has and obviously, the systems you guys have put in place now has allowed you to be consistent. By having great people. So I love it. Let's talk about the next question, right one that we kind of
are that I suggested, right? And I'm actually there's actually kind of two questions less left you to want to cover but for maybe before I get into that, in case some of you don't make it all the way to the end, I want to, I want to put something up here on the screen, which is an event that Debbie is going to be speaking at. So if by chance, you are loving the advice that she's giving, and you'd love to be able to spend more time with her. You're saying like Debbie wanting to do more videos, you're so good at them. May 9, from 10 until 1130 there's going to be an event called it's the masters of real estate event. And she's gonna be on a panel with Heather Robbins, Amy Savage, Terry Sprague Joe Fustolo. I'm missing anybody?
I'll be moderating. I won't be on the panel. But yeah, just some amazing lineup of people. Give you great insight like Debi's given today. So if you're, if you're hungry for more, again, we've got a few more questions here that we're going to offer up to Debi. But I would encourage you to sign up for that event. You can find it on Eventbrite. If you're reading through the comments afterward, I'll put the link in there. It's gonna be an awesome event. Again, I feel honored to be able to, and a little overwhelmed to take only have 90 minutes with all of you. I'd like to have 90 minutes with each of you. But it's going to be a pretty exciting event for sure. It's a fundraiser for Youth Music Project. Yes. Which is a wonderful nonprofit in West Linn for anybody who has musical aspirations? Yeah. If for those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's an organization that gives kind of reduced price, music lessons, scholarships, to help the youth get musically inclined, which I know as I look at my own kids, and music does a lot for people really does a lot for people. So anyway, it'll be a great cause the ticket prices for Low, like $10 I believe so please come I think they're seating for 130. And we're moving towards every day getting closer and closer to sold out. So please register. Now it's going to be a fantastic event. So carry on now back to our regularly scheduled interview questions here I broadcast, you know that the in addition to this component of having, like the best advice you'd give to yourself, and I'm gonna have to apologize here, Debbie, I forgot my second question. You probably remember it better than I do. Give me a sec here. The second question was, Oh, yes. What is what are two things that an agent can do? to offer value to their customers, right? We're living in a time in an era when customers have more choice than ever before and more power than ever before, right? Whether it be through reviews, whether it be they're just socially connected as they've never been before. At the end of the day, the consumer having the best experience is what
Where the consumer is going to end up going? And so what are what is one or two items that you would recommend to agents that they should do to increase the value of their clients?
Debi Laue 11:10
Okay. So what works for me, I can speak to that is knowing the market I work and forwards and backward. So if you're doing an open house, let's say, and it's in a neighborhood, and there are five homes for sale, go see every one of those homes and then when that person comes through your open house and your home doesn't match that home, in particular to their needs, you've got five others you can talk about intelligently, you can say that one's really well priced, that one's got the floor plan you want, you're adding value to your client and all of a sudden, well, they're not in your client yet, but they want to be your client. So know your market and provide value on helping them do something they can't do by looking at raw data. Know the inventory. The second thing is, we have so many opportunities for education in this business, and the more you can attend things like Pat stones, economic update or just your staff meetings where you're learning something every week, and you can pass that information along to your client, you're adding value to them because they don't know the real estate market. They're trusting you to know it.
Justin Stoddart 12:11
Good stuff. So interesting with this, the open house concept, do you think that going on virtually doing similar that similar research does that? Does that provide the same value as you need to go walk through the house?
Debi Laue 12:24
It's like, Okay, this is a female thing. It's like trying on a dress might look great on the rap. So when you walk through a home, it has a feel it has an aura, you know, it's just different when you walk through it. And if you can share that with your customer, you can save them a lot of time of you know, rolling out the dogs and the good ones.
Justin Stoddart 12:45
So what is your practice look like? Do you take like Tuesday tour and go do that in your area? And or on the weekends? Do you spend some time just visiting open houses like what, or do you go visit bacon homes, they can home
Debi Laue 12:59
bacon homes are easy. So if you pop in and of course, call the agent first, but pop in and take a look, get a feel for it. But tours very valuable. I don't make it every week, you know, nobody does. But if you can get three or four homes, like even every other week, that just gives you more broad knowledge. If I'm working in a particular area that I'm not super familiar with, I will spend more time looking at homes and trying to get a feel for the market.
Justin Stoddart 13:23
And I can see the value for clients who again, are seeing very limited data based on what the agent put online. Right, right with a publicly recorded data. And what you're saying is to be able to go walk through a house and really see and feel and get a feel and be thinking through the eyes of your customers. Right, What do they want? That's probably the difference to some degree is you know your clients well enough and what really their lifestyles like and what they're looking to accomplish. You can do that. While looking through these homes. You can start making matches, right? You feel like I got a place for you or when you meet with someone you're like, you know, I just saw places past week that sounds like what you're looking for.
Debi Laue 14:00
Yeah, I had a client that was trying to force fit themselves into a house that they thought they really wanted. Fortunately, I knew about ones, I just knew it would be better for them. And I took them away that wasn't on the market yet. And they went, Oh, my goodness, how did you get into it almost bought that. Just friends of yours. It was a client admit two years ago, and then they put everything on hold. And so I thought about a bad house for these people. Oh, yeah, bring them over, not thinking that would be anything. It was a perfect match. So it just kind of that having that inventory in your head, that you can try and move people towards if they're making kind of a mistake over here.
Justin Stoddart 14:34
But that's again, looking at the where the industry is going. Obviously, there are billions of dollars in venture capital money being invested in real estate right now, to try and eliminate to reduce or eliminate what a real estate agent doesn't get paid. Right? We see it happening all around us. And the stuff that you're describing Debi would be very difficult for a computer to write an algorithm for right where you have, like, specific neighborhood data that isn't even on the market.
But just based on people that you know, homes, you've been to that were once on the market, like you really start to set yourself as a part as a specialist that somebody would aspire to work with. And you couldn't replace that, that you and your team are actively doing with pulling publicly recorded data or data from the MLS, right? Well, these technologies are all the more than the data. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. That's such a great insight on how to add more value for your clients. Now as we move on to the next question, okay. So obviously, we have kind of this theme of thinking bigger, pretty apparent means that's what that means. Think bigger. It's a constant reminder of how important it is to be to expand your possibilities. And obviously, Debi has done some pretty impressive things that are career and is now finding success through other people by continuing to mentor the team now that she's on, that she wants founded. So Debi, what does it look like? Or what has it looked like for you to help your self to continue to think bigger and think beyond maybe where you're at or the limitations that you want set.
Debi Laue 16:06
So I love to travel. If you're in a foreign culture, you start to see how different people think. And then you translate that into your own local tribes, so to speak, because there are tribes within your sphere of influence. I love our clientele. We have a fabulous clientele that knows a lot more than I do about things. And I just listened to what they have to say, I learned something new, nearly every day from our clients,
Justin Stoddart 16:36
because you're asking questions and listening questions. So this travel concept, I don't know if you have an example I'm trying to think so you go to like visit Europe for a set, for example, and you see something there. that inspires you to be able to bring value to your clients. Is that right? Just helps you to see the world just,
Debi Laue 16:53
it just opens your mind. And once your mind is open, then you can learn a lot more no matter what it is. You're interested Tokyo was where I was, okay. And Japanese people, they have such a different way of handling themselves. They're polite, they don't talk on the subway because it's so crowded, they don't eat on the subway, they're just polite to each other. And it's just it was a culture that if you have a chance, I strongly suggest you spend some time in Japan. It brought me back to America thinking, boy, if we implemented some of their behaviors, we'd be so far ahead of where we are now. That's probably not gonna happen. But you know, that sort of idea of opening your mind to new concepts, new cultures, new ways of doing things? I just think it translates to your business as well.
Justin Stoddart 17:41
Well, that's it's really interesting that it's almost kind of an indirect translation, right? It's like you learned something in Tokyo. Specifically, you go teach your clients right but by you seeing like, Boy, that's a big world out here. And people do things differently. You come back, and now you learn even from up from the same sources you learn differently, right, huh?
Debi Laue 18:00
changes your mind.
Justin Stoddart 18:01
Yeah. What a powerful practice. I would imagine. I would imagine everybody would love to accept Debbie's invitation to go visit Tokyo. Yeah. So maybe that's the takeaway for some of you, or to travel more, but whatever it looks like for you expanding your possibilities, or seeing other cultures and how other people do stuff. That's awesome.
Debi Laue 18:16
So on the local level, for example, the people we're going to be learning from at the event. Yeah, I learned things from Terry Sprague. Heather, I mean, everybody on that panel, I've learned something from so that's the collaborative effort of working with people locally and listening to them, and what can you learn from them? So there's a little plug for the event. But yeah, let me put it brings it down to reality.
Justin Stoddart 18:42
Let me put it up here again because I think, hopefully, we've convinced some of you to clear your schedule and, and, and make way for this event. The thing I love about the people that have been chosen is that they really do see other agents not as their competitors, but as their allies, but it's teammates. It's teamwork, and it takes the
And I think, again, the way the industry is going, it's more and more important that agents come together to see how we can collectively bring more value to the consumer. Right elaboration.
Debi Laue 19:12
Yeah, it's very important.
Justin Stoddart 19:13
It's going to be such a fun event. So we hope to see you there. And w thank you so much for spending some time. Just such a fan of this lady. She has just such a great reputation and has done so many great things. And again, her legacy continues on through Rick and Kesha and I'm excited to see their future super bright as an A Rick's a big thinker as well. So anyway, thank you again for being a big thinker being on the show today. Thanks, everybody for tuning in. And we'll look forward to seeing you on the next one.
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart, and man, I'm excited about today's episode. Before I get into introducing today's guest, let me talk about my mission, which is to help you grow so that your business can follow suit. I know that when your business grows an amazing thing happens you life gets more and better options and you have a greater impact in the lives of other people. So, today's topic is something that the sports world and really the world in general is still buzzing about, which is Damian Lillards last second, I should say his entire game, but his shot from 37 feet away to win the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, um, has again, blazer fans is still in absolute pandemonium and it has those of us that are students of high performance, trying to learn from that and be like Damien. So today I have with me, um, um, a good friend of mine, someone who I admire look up to and I really respect what he's doing. Um, Jesse Dow and today we're going to talk about how we can be like Damien in our businesses. So Jesse, thanks for being on the show man.
Yeah, absolutely. I'm a an honor to be on the show. I'll obviously, I always talk to you and admire what you're doing, so thank you. So for having me on.
Yeah, for sure. It had, for those that don't know, Jesse, you're going to love this story. Jessie's a top producer here in the Portland market and that probably many people think because he's becoming so well known, he's been in business for a long time. He's, he's coming up on two years in the business to use in the business and he's absolutely killing it. And for those of you who, who kind of want to get a little taste of what Jesse's up to, what he's working on it go look at a couple places. Number one, his his youtube channel, which is real agent now by Jackson Wilkie and Jesse Dow real agent. Now you're going to see some crazy quality and quantity of videos that are just creating a standard for agents in this area. And around the country. Um, well done man. And then also your Facebook group, um, digital mayor now, uh, which is a really cool term coined by, uh, the only, uh, or the, the fantastic Gary Vaynerchuk. So, um, anyway, Jesse, again, thanks for you on the show. Let's get into this topic of really a book that you and I, uh, read together. I guess we read separately and, and, and then I read again, uh, by Tim Grover. It's called relentless. It's going from good to great to unstoppable. And uh, let's talk a little bit about the game the other night cause it will tie in. What did you see in Damian Lillard that had you, uh, recognizing him as being unstoppable?
Yeah, I think the thing that I recognize and I think everyone else recognizes, you know, he, he had an ultimate goal and that goal is to obviously win and you stay focused on that. And it didn't matter what it took, he was set out to accomplish that goal and then he made it happen.
I was, uh, I was impressed, uh, at, at halftime I tweeted out, like, Dane's got 32 points. I like, I was amazing. Oftentimes when people have that kind of first half, the second half is lack luster, right? Like to put in the work, they just squeeze a lot of points into one half. But you're exactly right. Like his aim was not to have a big first half. He was not going to stop until he won. You know, I'd been a Jordan fan my entire life and it was actually after the game that I said, I think Damian Lillard just became my all time favorite basketball player because I've never seen somebody close a game out. Like that was such audacity and, uh, it, it, um, it was impressive nonetheless for sports fans as well as for guys like you and I who, um, who get after it in the, in the, in the business space as well.
Yeah. And I think, you know, he, uh, you know, he even talked about it and some of the, uh, of the game one, two and three in is basically, you know, I don't celebrate or I don't get excited until like we've won the series. It isn't about the single games. It's about my ultimate common goal and that's to keep moving forward in the progression of the playoffs. Ultimately with the championship.
You know, the uh, this book that you and I read called relentless, it's authored by Devin. They have Tim Grover and a heats. He, for those that aren't familiar with the book, Jesse and I are going to go into it a little bit today, but the concept behind it is there. This Guy Tim Grover was the coach or trainer, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, to name a few, like some of the all time best players and, and toughest, like those were the toughest mindset. Absolutely. Ice In their veins, assassins when it came to closing at a game. Like they're just unbelievable. And they all sought out this trainer to help give them, not just a physical edge, but I was, I was impressed as I reviewed the book again, how much emphasis he puts on the mindset that anybody can have great, uh, great physical set. But that's not what separates people, right?
There's a lot of people that could hit a 37 foot step away, three pointer, but it was dames mindset to be able to do it with time running out when he could have very easily probably penetrated in the lane and scored, you know, an easy to or a quick jumper. He chose to do it in a pretty, pretty audacious manner. And it, to me, he became absolutely relentless as of course, have the, the people like again, Jordan and Colby and Charles Barth and some of the other, um, what Tim Grover refers to as closer. So Jesse, we've helped define the difference as Tim Grover the author lays out, there's three different categories of performers. You remember what those are?
Yeah. So there's the cooler that someone that's just supposedly like fun, exciting, executes at a high level but would probably stab you in the back. Uh, given the opportunity. Then there's the closure that someone that's very respected always shows up in those clinch game time decisions. Someone I would probably relate to as like Lebron James and I never knew the differences until I really read this book. Um, and then there's the cleaner if someone that's uh, you know, feared and respected for doing what they say there is going to set out to do, you know, and then they don't really talk about it that much. They just keep moving forward with that same mindset to the very end. Someone that I can relate to as like Jordan Coby, a Dame, uh, in the list, Dwayne Wade and these people were like sometimes aren't even like the all stars that you see that they are, but what they can do is elevate the whole team.
Yeah. Yeah. There's a different mindset. It's interesting you say that, cause again, Lebron is probably known as probably number one or number two best basketball players of all time. But I read his mindset is not one of a cleaner, right? The cleaner is who's feared and goes into a totally separate zone when like when the game's on the line. And I think Dane put himself in that category of being a cleaner, more so than Lebron ever has. Absolutely. Yeah. What, let me, let me talk about this Jesse. When you, when you look for people to do business with, right? You chose, um, obviously somebody like you who's got the same hunger, um, how important it is it, you know, whether that person via via closer or not, how, how important is it to surround yourself with other, other people that are, um, that inspired you to do great things?
To me it's a 100% about alignment. I know I've talked to you about this, like my ultimate vision is to create a business model where I just, how the agents working around me that are all basically cleaners, right? We walk out of those rural players involved when the business gets so big that week and need those specific roles, right? But to surround myself with people now, it's extremely important. I have a business coach, um, that's real estate related. He's out of the Arizona, a fantastic guy. I mean he has his own group, 20,000 people plus in there. Um, and then I also have a personal coach. Um, that really helps me with my mind. And I do read a business book each week and a mind book because as it is consistently like growing your mind and like, you know, sometimes this business can be, um, you know, exhausting.
But yeah, to me it's 100% about finding the right people, aligning yourself with that. And at the end of the day it is about you making that happen. You can't wait for anyone else to make it happen. I love it. Which is a perfect segue, Jessie into, we're going to go through the five points that Tim Grover outlines in his book. Relentless point number one was take responsibility. Um, how, how does that show up for you in the real estate world for those that are listening to the real estate agents, most of the audiences, um, how does taking responsibility show up for you? Yeah. Taking responsibility to me is about being responsible for my production. My days. If an issue happens, it's never blaming anyone. You're the ultimate gatekeeper into, um, the re, uh, whatever's going on, say with the transaction and something might come about. Just knowing that you have the options to, you know, kind of guide your clients and the process through and just being the ultimate responsible person to know that you control those actions.
I love it. All too often people quickly look around to see who who was at fault wasn't me. Right. Um, whereas a cleaner, right? Kind of the, the upper echelon of performers, those that are unstoppable, they're looking to say, no, that's all me. It's all on me. It's my fault. And I'm sure if if Dan would have scored 47 points and miss the last shot, um, he would have taken on himself like that was, that was my bad. Or even if someone else would think last shot, he still would've said it like, that was me. I knew I should have done that. And I think you're right. There's, there's a correlation between those that are cleaners and those that say, nope, I'll take complete responsibility for that. So, awesome. Let's talk about excuses. Point number two that Tim brings up is drop your excuses. Is it easy to have excuses in real estate?
Yeah, it's very easy to do it. And I think he makes a really good point, that book where he says like, you know, everyone is granting the same opportunities. Some people do have a lot of, you know, say connections or other, um, say, um, you know, different people that can help them get there. But you know, everyone has these, the opportunities and if you are saying everything, but you know, Jessie's awesome but you know, it's because x, Y, andZ , it's because I'm going out and actually doing the hard work to get myself in that position. Yeah. So I think a lot of people are just scared or just don't want to put in the effort to make it happen.
You know, that's gonna be a great segue into a future point as well. But you're right. How many people have I spoken with to say, you know, the, the missing component is in my business is this. And I asked, well, when is, when is this going to happen? And it's like, well, I've been really busy, like busy with what? Like did you, did you sleep more than seven hours last night and just be more in six hours? Like if you really want to get something done to be unstoppable, you have to pay the price and there can't be excuses. You have to start to eliminate everything that you say is keeping you from success has to go away. Either you have to like stop talking about it and, or you have to like actually move it out of the way so that you can get the things done and get the life that you want.
Absolutely. Yeah. I know, I know we talked about this before, but there are sacrifices will, no matter what you do, am I, and I think when you talk about like these cleaners in the book and whatnot, like, you know, they might not have the greatest social life or social circles, uh, cuts down because you have to do cut some of those people out of your life as you go on. Even family members. I just listened to a podcast the other day and he was talking about that same thing and it's like, you know, there are going to be sacrifices that come along the way, but what sacrifices are you willing to make to create your greatest results of what you really want inside?
Yeah, well I think that if you look at some of the people have made the greatest impact on the world, um, you know, in the business world and I'm sure in other places, um, yeah, it wasn't a popularity contest for them. Like there was an inner hunger to inner drive that drove them to do some crazy stuff like putting some crazy hours, um, and, and, and like pay a price others weren't willing to pay. And I think if you're wired that way, and I know Jesse and I are like, don't be ashamed of it. And I'm not saying you should, you should put things above a family or the things. But there's, there's a whole bunch of stuff that maybe called game of Thrones, I don't know. Right. I'm going to give him through what he's saying on their social media feed of like, Hey, can you please give me a recommendation of what series I should watch on Netflix?
I'm like, I cannot relate to that. What's on my Netflix because I like it. It just, it was wasting too much time. I've got like some really ambitious goals. It was too compelling. I didn't want it. Right. So I do watch an occasional sports game and I'm not, I'm not downplaying anybody who watches Netflix cause that's, I put probably have nobody listening if that's actually what I'm trying to do. But there are some things in life that you need to be okay given up. And, and again, that shouldn't be family, but it should be maybe some recreation. If you don't like the situation that you're in, then get rid of some, some maybe some rec time or some downtime or some Netflix time and fix it. Right. Change it. You can change it. Yeah, absolutely. That's my soapbox point number three, stop looking for secrets, tricks, or shortcuts. Um, we live in a society of people looking for the magic bullet, don't we?
Oh, 100%. And you know, this is a actually funny because, uh, we were at the same event the other day that Don Hobbes event, which was fantastic. Um, and the one thing that he said that really stuck with me was that, uh, you know, anyone that's looking for all these quick fixes, like in real estate or like leads and things like that, he's like, all of these people are really saying is that they're looking for a job. And I was like, that made so much sense to me. I'm like, yeah, they are. They're not looking to create a business, they're just looking to plug and play. They probably left, you know, decently paying job to come into something else. Realize it's all this work and now they're like just looking for some quick income. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. That's really interesting. I actually didn't catch that he said that, but I love that you pointed that out. I think I missed that point. Um, yeah, cause you're right, there's if, if you want to build a brand, right? Which I think every real estate agent should be doing right now is highly focused on building a brand. It takes a lot of work, right? You're right. Yeah. It's the opposite of of buying needs where you're being spoon fed stuff from Zillow and some of these other partners, which it's, it's quick money, right? Maybe not, but maybe it's quick money, but guess what? You're always going to be on the Dole. Right? It's like being on welfare. Like at the end of the day, you're going to have to like be able to fend for yourself because as soon as that plug pulls in and potentially, right, Zillow becomes an agent. Now, what are you gonna do? Right? Kind of like when realtor.com so many people were totally tied to realtor.com. They changed their model to where they're not like selling leads anymore. And it was like some people were, were, were, were really hurting. Um, some of my clients were really hurting and again, I don't fault them, but hopefully we take that as a lesson to say, how about we build a brand where people come to you as opposed to you just standing at the red line, you know?
Yeah. One thing I can proudly say is I have never spent a dime on a lead and that is that. And like I've spent all my money on brand building and yeah, we have ran Facebook ads to like boost open houses and that type of things. Um, and, but we weren't actively like going out to do that, to build the, the do lead capturing. Um, but yeah, we've spent so much time and effort on creating our brand, which now we've really seen like engage and it's, it's, um, it's a lot of hard work. I mean don't get me wrong, like we spend up to 20 hours a day, but you know, a lot of that we can do like, you know, on our phones and whatnot. But yeah, there, there is no shortcuts and I building your brand is the absolute most important thing. Cause I talked about this before, is that so your brokerage sold out Timony didn't like the company or you weren't a good fit for them.
You need to be able to take your stuff to go to another brokerage and still have that brand unity across all platforms because if it's the brokerage that's being highlighted in everything, um, that's the only person that did the clients are getting to know. Yeah, that's a great point. And you're the person that they're hiring. It isn't, trust me, it isn't the brokerage. I agree. I agree wholeheartedly. People, twos, twos, people. Um, point number four is do the work and you've already talked about, but, um, I know for you putting out the quantity and quality of the videos you guys do, every time I see something come through, I'm like behind each one of those five minute video, five to 10 minute views, like you guys are putting out how much, how much real work is going in behind that. We have a pretty strict schedule now of the way that we do it.
So we were on shoot one day and probably it's about, we'll end up with about an hour of content if we do have a five city series and then we'll break that down into like a single video for each city or area. It doesn't matter. But Jackson probably spends, I don't know, man, a lot of time editing those videos. And I will say though, like this is like our ultimate vision, like why we are the greatest partnership on the planet. Like I couldn't be more thankful to like have somebody like him, uh, that came on board. And like that's his ultimate passion. My passion is really real estate. Um, but yeah, he spends endless hours creating that content. But it is, it is awesome. Like the results have been great. The scene doc has been fantastic. So, so what video, going back to my question, how many hours of of effort is that taking you?
I would say to do a five city series and filming and everything all in with his efforts in mind. We're probably looking at maybe 30 hours. So 30 hours for a series like that. Um, yeah. How do you fit that into a 40 hour workweek if you don't write it extends beyond that. And so I'm with are, like I said, we have a strict schedule of shooting, so we'll do like four hours on say like a Thursday and then Jackson edits it pretty much at night, like from say six o'clock at night till 11 o'clock at night. So he's spending a lot of time after hours. Um, doing the editing piece.
Hmm. Which is our last point. Great segway into this is push yourself. Right? In fact, the cool from the book every day you have to do something you don't want to do every day. Challenge yourself to be uncomfortable, push past the apathy and laziness and fear kind of said it better myself that uh, to get to uncommon levels you have to do uncommon things to be not just good but great and I'd just be great but be unstoppable. Yeah. That would be willing to pay a price and um, push yourself beyond what's comfortable.
Oh yeah. It's, I used to and I still get it and I finally figured this out with like my life coach is, um, I get this a little bit of anxiety and I was like, why? I couldn't figure out where it was coming from in La life figured out that it's actually like a piece of fear that I had. Um, and I was like, once I figured that out, it was, it's been like awesome because I can like really change my mindset or just to execute the thing. Got It. Like made me a little fearful. But yeah, I mean, every single day I, I'm pushing myself to like go out and do things I don't want to do, you know, I'm, I supposed to do the hustle work. I'm only one year, almost two years in. It's not like people are calling the throne in. You have to every day with like all this business I'm doing, like I'm sure getting the phones for sale by owner expire, um, you know, open houses, things like that. So yeah, there's a lot of housework that it's not like I'm loving that. I do love him to do it.
Yeah. Do you want the business on top of a very active prospecting plan and, and uh, I mean an awesome, awesome, his successful business, you're putting in all this extra work to build the brand.
Oh yeah. That's our ultimate goal. I mean, I can, yeah, we have a huge goals.
Well, you, my friend, it's, it's, uh, it's a pleasure to, to, to surround myself with, with a, a cleaner like yourself. I'm inspired and it's super fun to be, you know, it'd be a small part of that. So yeah. Thank you for coming on the show today and porn and the things they think that your audience and helping all of us think bigger about what's possible. Um, hopefully we've inspired some people to, um, embrace the cleaner tendencies within them and go make the world a bigger place, a better place.
Yeah, absolutely. I would definitely just recommend checking the book out if you haven't read it. It's amazing. It's a change. A lot of things that I think of differently, um, and spread, uh, put clarity of the things too.
I agree man. Great stuff and I always appreciate our conversations. I'm excited for your future. Let me put up here on the screen really quick. For those who aren't familiar with Jesse and the value that he brings to people, not just in his own business, but, uh, he and his business partner Jackson Wilkie have put together a Facebook group called digital mayor now, uh, which gives amazing social media content and training like all day, every day. It's just fantastic. That's from these guys. So if you're not yet a part of their group, go find it. Um, be a part of it and watch, watch what happens when you start to apply and follow the path that these guys are on. So, um, anyway, appreciate you Jesse, very much. For your time and, uh, I'm sure we'll be in touch very, very soon.
Absolutely, man, thank you so much.
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. My name is Justin Stoddart. I'm your host and my goal, and my mission really, is to help you think bigger and grow yourself so that your business can follow suit. I know that when that happens, you're going to have more options, including the ability to have a greater impact, which is I think fundamental for any of us that want to have a great life. I'm excited today to have a fellow big thinker, with me today from Nashville, Tennessee. Let me tell you about him here just a second, but the topic we're going to cover is house warming parties and what a gold mine they can be if done right. So, I'm excited to have Josh Anderson of Josh Anderson Real Estate Group with me today. Josh actually started his business in 2006, which is, probably, what some would see as an inopportune time to get into the real estate industry. But he's thrived. He did 86 million in volume last year between four agents. They did about 215 transactions and his business is 75% referral/past clients. So, he obviously does some things very, very right and well. Josh, I'm excited to have you here pouring value into the Think Bigger Real Estate audience. Thank you for your time today.
Absolutely. Thanks for the opportunity.
Yeah. I know Josh came highly recommended from a friend of mine and Josh has, let me just kind of lead with this: Josh has a great business that services a lot of referrals from agents, both gives and receives. So if you ever have business in Nashville and you need a great agent, Josh is your guy. So we'll get that out of the way. So Josh, you, aside from being a dad of two young boys, which I'm sure it keeps you on your toes at home, I'm sure, have a very robust real estate team. Tell me, how do you keep balance between the two? That's a passion of mine is home life, being a great leader in the home and outside of the home. So tell us how you find balance among the two.
Yeah. You know, I don't know that I believe in balance, but I think that there's a lot of counter balance that goes on. It's one of those things that you just work around. I work our schedule, very rarely do I work after hours. I don't do a whole lot of weekends. One of it's just doing it and there's times when we have to be in really good communication with husband and wife in so far as who's grabbing the kids.
I love it. That helps It sounds like you've got a great partner in crime.
We're going back and forth and we've got the NFL draft is in town this week and we've got lots going on in Nashville and lots going on in the family part of it. So, it's really just kind of counterbalancing. There's times when the kids come up to the office with me if it's on a weekend or after hours and it helps that my office in my house are 300 yards apart.
It does.
Well, yeah, it's just a lot of counterbalancing and making it work.
Great. Awesome stuff, man. I think great leaders like you are going to create the next generation of great leaders. So thank you for sharing that. Let's get into this concept of house warming parties. I'm enamored, enamored with what you're doing. I hear too few agents doing this and I really think there's a gold mine. Walk us through this concept of a housewarming party. Do you do it for all of your clients or just those that ask for it or those that agree to it? What does this look like?
Yeah, so we offer it to all of our clients. There's a pretty decent amount that don't take us up on it. You know, for whatever reason they're like, "We're too busy... kids... whatever." We've done them for a long time, and we go in and out of doing them at very high levels, or doing big volumes of them versus not. We just did one this past weekend. So it's really great timing on talking about it. It's one of those things that, because so much of our business, is past client and some type of referral, it's the perfect piece for us to finish the transaction, thank them for allowing us the opportunity to work with them and also getting to meet all their friends or their family or whoever's at that housewarming party suits, you know, we really kind of take it and run with it the whole way and do everything for them.
So paint this picture. You've got a past client or an existing client, I should say. I'm actually trying to eliminate the word past client because you want to service them in the future. But this client, right, who's now happy with your service, they're in their home... how many people, for example, this one you had this past weekend, how many of their friends and family were at the event?
So that was the one this past weekend. They had 44 people that RSVPd and I think 100% of them showed up. So it was really awesome. You know, most of them are somewhere... We've always kind of said, we've looked at it and said it's about $250 or $300 that we spend and about 20 to 25 people usually show up. This one was a little bit different. He's one of our top, top referral sources and clients. And so we spent a little bit more with this particular housewarming party. So, we had more people, more food, more drinks, more everything. We usually do real invitations. We also do a paperless post or an e-vite, but our goal is we're capturing all of their contact information because that's who we want to work with and we do all of it to make it really simple.
If it becomes a big chore for the client, they're not going to do it. The whole idea is that we're selling, and we sell it throughout the transaction, we tell them, "Hey, you know..." halfway through the transaction, that it's going to be so great once you guys get settled in and we're going to do the housewarming party for you guys. You aren't going to have to do a thing. So we kind of talk throughout from start to finish and after. So, this particular housewarming party was probably two to two and a half months post-close. So it gave them plenty of time. They did a couple of things after closing and so it gave him time to do that and get really get settled in and the house really where they wanted it to be to entertain and have people over. So, we do invitations, we do the email invite, we call them, we text them. We just want to make sure that everybody shows up that is supposed to be showing up. So it's a good turnout and it's a win for everybody.
So you get from them a client list or guest list. Then, you guys reach out and say, "Hey, on behalf of our client, we're hosting a housewarming party for them. They've requested that you be there. We'd love to have you." Then follow up with of course phone calls and emails, just to remind them, I'm assuming that's kind of what that looks like, the logistics?
Yeah. And it's nothing about real estate. It's literally just reminding them and making sure it's on their calendar and you know, there were three of us that were there from the team. That's partly key also is somebody from the team has to be there. Yeah, and it doesn't necessarily have to be me. I happened to be at that one because it was a friend and you know it was during the day on a Saturday. It was from 12 to 4, and it was just awesome. We had it catered, we had Chewy's, it was great. When we first started out people were throwing out all kinds of crazy ideas. So we do themed party. So, it's Mexican, BBQ or pizza just to make it really cool. From there, that creates the whole theme of the party. So Mexican food, Mexican Beer margaritas, all of those things.
Compare that Josh, with four hours that people spend at an open house where you're hoping to get a few people to come in and potentially have some buyer leads. But again, these are cold leads. I'm not downing the open house strategy. I think it's a good one, but now, there's proof of concept all around you. You're standing inside what you did for this client and you're with them. Typically when people come in to an open house, they come in for a few minutes, right? Maybe they stay 30 minutes, if they love the place and there's really an engaging conversation, but we don't get a lot of time with them. You're saying that there's a several hour period of time that you have a chance to interact with these people? What typically comes from that?
Yeah, we pretty much always get at least a couple of referrals out of it because like you said, it's proof of concept where we're inviting their friends. So it's a really easy conversation. And we probably had at least 10 real estate conversations and those were all woven into other conversations. But you know, the natural conversation was like, "Oh, well, how do you know [so and so] who happened to be the homeowner?" "Oh, we helped him find this place and we helped them sell their last place." And they're like, "Oh my goodness, we're looking right now..." "No, we don't have an agent..." Or, "We have an agent, but we were not committed to them." Or, whatever it is. So it makes the conversation really easy.
Again, very different, right? It's very warm.
And for the amount of time and energy, maybe a little bit more money, but for the same amount of time and energy as an open house. I mean, I'm already talking to people that are my ideal clients because I already know who my current client hangs out with and it's just a built in network of... these are leads. Even if they're not now business, it's still the type of clientele that I want to work with.
Because you've mailed them something, you've got their name, both spouses, you've got the email address, you've got the mailing address, like you've got everything you need. And like you said, they're peers of somebody who's been a good client already. So you've already qualified them as in the right demographic of people that you relate well with and you serve well. There's so many reasons why this makes so much sense.
Yeah. And I think nobody does it. I'm happy to provide, whoever wants it at the end of the show. We've got a house warming checklist.
Cool.
So, I mean, it's pretty simple, but it's, it's one of those things that it just helps hit all those check boxes or making sure when we go to these events, we do everything. We bring everything, whether it's, you know... Like this client in particular really wanted sonic ice. That's one of his things. He doesn't like Red Solo Cups, so we didn't get red solo cups. He's in the music industry and there's a song about red solo cups. So anyway, you know, it's stuff like that, knowing all of those things. We bring koozies that are branded and we bring our corn hole boards that are branded and a tent that has our name on it. So it's all like little pieces that are branding us.
Man, that'd be golden, if you could share that. I'll put that, for those that are listening, in the Think Bigger Real Estate Facebook group. I'll upload that in there so everyone will have access to that. It's really, really valuable stuff. When you say agents typically don't do this or don't do it consistently, is there some other reason why they don't, some other reason why you guys had to overcome something that made this easy? Other than, and maybe it's just the checklist and you just had to figure out the system so that you could do it, but is there anything else that people might be missing? They might run into a wall and be like, "Oh, this is harder than I thought," that you guys were able to work through.
Yeah. I think it's just a system and a process and we have the leverage of doing it. So being on being a team and having administrative people that can help us in the background, set it all up... it makes a big difference. So one of our, my listing coordinator was the bartender for that. That's what she used to do. So like that was built in. Then she helped bring some things over. I went over there Saturday morning at 9:00 AM to make sure certain things were there. And so it's all those things help and I think that that's overwhelming to an individual agent. The idea of putting it all together when they could be lead generating, and what really they don't understand is, we were lead generating, and we get the lead followup and we already knew some of them.
Now we know all of them and it's easier to send out an email and a thank you from that. So I just think that a lot of agents individually don't have the time or energy to do it or they don't think that it would be a good use of their time. It's just something we stumbled on because early on I was helping a lot of first time buyers and they happen to be friends of mine and I was like, "Hey man, you know what we should do once you move in and get settled in? We should just have a party over here." And then it kind of turned into a housewarming party of like being strategic about it.
Yeah, man. Yeah. Such great wisdom. I really, really appreciate it. Josh, this has been been awesome. And I know there's a number of topics that we could talk about that we could extract from you. It'd be wildly valuable for the audience. So I'm gonna extend here, while I have all kinds of witnesses, I'm going to invite you back to be on the show at a later time because I feel like there's tons of value that you can offer people. And again, super grateful for this bit of nuggets that you've given us on housewarming parties. It's fantastic. So, I'm going to put up here on the screen if I haven't already. I don't think I have yet how to get ahold of Josh's team. So info@joshandersonrealestate.com. Is that right? Did I put that up right?
Perfect.
Okay. Awesome. So please reach out to Josh. If you have any business in and around Nashville. What a tribute to the level of service that you offer, right? Your clients will obviously have a good experience if you're willing to throw a party for them afterwards and they're willing to put all their friends in front of you. It's a good testament to the kind of service and business that you guys have. So, again, I want to thank everybody today for tuning into this episode of the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Having people like Josh just cements the value that I can bring to all of you. So thank you again, Josh for your time and attention today. And, uh, I look forward to connecting with you again soon, man.
Thanks. Have a great day.
I'm excited today about today's topic because I think it's essential to what's happening in the real estate market in order for real estate agents to continue to thrive and offer the value to consumers that they'll respect and appreciate enough to allow you to have a business with the margins that you want to have. We're going to go into a topic about how to become the CEO of your business and I have with me today somebody who's brilliant at this topic. Those of you who know him probably admire him first as a loving husband and father, which is something that is very dear to me. Those that work along with him, despite the accomplishments I'm about ready to read, all those that know him best say he's a very humble man to which I would attest to that as well. So, Chris Suarez, he's a real estate agent here in Portland. He's sold himself over a thousand transactions and over $250 million in volume. He actually didn't ask me to say that, so he's probably a little bit embarrassed that I did say that, but nevertheless someone with great accomplishments. He's somebody who has ownership as a broker owner in five different offices for Keller Williams up and down the I-5 corridor, he has an expansion team, meaning other brokers around the country of which he's the CEO. In addition to that, he still goes on buyer and seller appointments and balances that out with his other responsibilities of being a CEO and a big thinker. So Chris Suarez, thank you so much for joining us today. It's a great pleasure of mine to get to spend some time with you and share your genius with the think bigger real estate audience.
Awesome. Well, I appreciate being here. I appreciate the opportunity to connect. We talk a lot face to face, but now we're talking screen to screen and happy to share anything I can. But also I'm really thankful for what you continue to do for the community and our industry as well. It's a love for the real estate industry. I think that drives us both. So I'm happy to be here.
Yeah, no, it's true. I've been asked before "Justin, have you ever thought about getting your real estate license?" And that comes up often and I think my passion isn't necessarily to be with buyers and sellers, it's to be with real estate agents. So all day every day, in my role, I get the opportunity to be knee to knee talking strategy and finding ways to add value to agents. So, I appreciate that, Chris, that means a lot coming from you. Let's get into a little bit here about this topic of becoming a CEO. I've studied your teachings on this and others where there's a real difference between an entrepreneur and a CEO. Would you just share for the audience, what are some tactical differences in mindset in their activities, and just how they show up and be, that really differentiates somebody from being an entrepreneur. Which a lot of people embrace and love, but maybe they're hitting a ceiling and they're tired of hitting a hitting a ceiling and they want to do more in their business and/or just have a better quality of life. Let's talk about the how embracing the role of a CEO will help them.
Yeah. Justin, I think one of the interesting things about our industry is everybody starts as an entrepreneur. Like if that wasn't, if that wasn't our core, we wouldn't be in real estate. And so typically you look at a founder of any, any company, real estate or non real estate, and they have incredible drive. They have natural ability, right? They have intuition. They have enthusiasm. And depending on your level of any one of those things, that's sort of the level of your natural ceiling of achievement or the size of the business that we're going to create that makes a phenomenal entrepreneur. And then as we're really, really good at that, and as we care about people, our business is going to grow naturally. And at a certain point in time, I think our industry has told us, "Well then, you'll naturally be the owner of the business."
And so since you own it, we start putting three letters on our business card and it just says, you know, Chris Suarez, CEO and by nature, the fact that we call ourselves that, we just think that we'll just continue doing what we've always done. And now we're just the CEO of a business because we hired someone or we added people or we've grown. Interestingly enough, I think that was me, early on, right? I sold real estate and I sold more real estate and then more real estate. And I thought, well, "Gosh, I'm going to have people now because I need them to deliver service." And so now I was just automatically a CEO and as I started researching founders of different companies outside of our industry and the founders that, that stayed CEOs of their business versus the founders that hired CEOs of their business--and there are incredible companies that went either way--the founders that stayed as a CEO had to change dramatically what they did, what their skill set was, what they focused on. In fact, they had to go from like dry, natural ability, intuition, enthusiasm. And then all of a sudden their skillset flipped to focus, strategic options, systems, models, accountability. And that's not natural. And one of the things I came across in my research was this statement that the number one reason why tech, I was researching tech, which we might as well just call that real estate now anyway, but I was researching tech and it said, "The number one reason why tech companies failed was because the founder stayed a founder." They didn't become a CEO. And so I thought, "Gosh, well how do we become a CEO?" And the four things that showed up was the CEO is responsible for creating.
And you think, well, so is a founder. A CEO is responsible for truly planning. And you think, well "Yeah, so is a founder," but the next two was implementing and integrating. And that's where I think most real estate agents, right, entrepreneurs fall down. We are great at creating. We love creating. In fact, we create too much and we love planning. And so we all have goals, but it's the implementation and integration that falls on the shoulders of a CEO that ultimately takes a lot of time and we just don't typically put enough time into becoming that CEO or being the CEO for a business. So I know that's a lot, but that, that really sort of reframed my thinking of who do I want to be for my business or any business that I'm involved in. Am I the founder? Like am I the entrepreneur? Like I love being that. But if I'm going to put a CEO title or those letters on any organization that I run, I have to be something different for the business and for the people that I've invited into the business.
It's powerful that you say that, Chris. You're right, there's this concept that an entrepreneur is a noble role, to, which I agree. I think it is. I think many of the problems that are solved in the world come about because of entrepreneurs and business owners who are willing to take a risk in order to create a solution for the market; however, you've pointed out something interesting here, which is that one can't stay in that mode forever or their impact will be limited if they simply get to a certain place where now they've got to become something else and they refuse. And so it's easier to jump to a new venture, which you see oftentimes, which is an entrepreneur jumping from thing to thing to thing without necessarily either bringing in somebody else or becoming somebody else to take that business and impact to the next level. And so what you're saying is you've studied that in big businesses. But you're seeing that even on a micro level within the real estate community, that real estate agents themselves need to become something different than what maybe got them started in the business.
Yeah. I think just going back one second and you said, "Well, we see people that jump from one thing to the next thing, to the next thing." Those are called serial entrepreneurs. And actually that's fun. Like there's nothing wrong with that. As long as we acknowledge the fact that, "Hey, I'm being a serial entrepreneur right now and that's how I'm going to... that's my career. That's how I'm going to make money. I come in, I start something, I launch it, I get it going, and then I'm on to something else." Yeah. I think unfortunately in our industry, in real estate, for real estate agents, what happens is they start something that they get going and they get bored because they don't want to be a CEO of a business. Or maybe they just don't have the support or you're not taught or looked at as a business owner and so that's where you see a lot of transition and movement in our industry. Honestly, it's like, well, stop thinking the grass is always greener. I don't even think it's always that. I think real estate agents think they're just entrepreneurs and no one sits them down... they haven't found the business model, even from a brokerage or leadership perspective of saying, "Hey, let's create a business. Let's teach you how to be a business owner." You just need to become a CEO so that you don't have to be a serial entrepreneur if you don't want to. Sometimes you just fall into it because it's fun.
Well, you pointed the key components of becoming a CEO, which two of them I know aren't always the most fun, right? The implement and the integrate. The first two are more fun: the create and the plan and that kind of describes an entrepreneur. But it's those last two that really define whether someone's going to build a business that lasts, that creates a life for themselves worth having for them and everybody else, right? Where they're not just running around reactively to the requests of their customers, but they've built something that people are willing to wait for. They've built something that people are willing to pay for.
Yeah, I think my philosophy as an entrepreneur. We fix, right? Like we're fixers and so that's why a lot of real estate agents feel like they show up every day and they're putting out fires. As a CEO, I think we identify a complex problem in any industry or for the consumer or any customer and then we develop simple solutions. So instead of fixing, we're actually spending our time developing simple solutions. And it might sound like the same thing, but it's quite different. If I'm constantly fixing that I'm actually not developing. I'm not creating, even though I think I am. I don't even get to stay in my creative space because I'm putting out the fire of the buyer or the seller with the investor or the transaction.
Whereas if I show up every day. It was Gary Keller who gave me advice really early on and he said "The biggest business opportunity any of us have is to find complex problems and create simple solutions." And if we just woke up every day and created a simple solution, then we'd have people lining up to use that simple solution. I think as real estate agents, we feel like, "Gosh, I think we're getting disrupted. I think people are taking our business or our industry away." Well, maybe they are and not just because someone else has created a simpler solution for a buyer, a simpler solution for a seller or a simpler solution for a real estate agent. And so for me, I wake up every day and just say, "Hey, where are the complex problems? What's the simple solution?"
Interesting. I love that, Chris. Thank you so much for sharing that. Let's talk a little bit about functionary versus fiduciary. You shared some interesting stats with me that kind of lay out what a typical real estate agent's day looks like that might help us really diagnose why there are so many tech companies pouring billions and billions of dollars into the space. In fact, I was reading, just two days ago that there's been an 87% increase in venture investment into the real estate tech space in the past three years. That's a massive amount of optimism with investors saying that there's opportunity here. Talk to us about what you've discovered in a typical real estate agent's day that would maybe correlate with that.
Yeah, yeah. I, you know, when I heard this, when I heard this statistic, I thought, well, that explains everything. It was an NAR statistic. You know, there's so much value and truly, I believe that NAR really, really pours back in. We just, we just have to un-package it and find it instead of wondering why we pay dues. The fact is NAR did research around time and the study says from the moment we meet someone, so let's say the moment someone is a lead to the time that they close and they say on average a Realtor spends about 50 hours from lead to closing. So 50 hours and when we take a step back and we think, "Gosh, if I'm closing two deals a month and it's all on my own, there's a hundred hours."
Yeah, that makes sense--four deals a month--then all of a sudden, there's 200 hours and five deals a month. And you think, "Yeah, that's what I'm working. A hundred hours a week. So as I took a step back and NAR said this, what they found was 20 of those hours was before they went into contract before they even were face to face with you. Twenty of those hours was once it was in contract. So, 40 of those 50 hours was completely functionary and 10 hours was spent face to face on average with the customer, with the client
Time out real quick, Chris. That first 20 hours, does that include the lead generation time of finding the lead?
That lead, so lead follow up lead generation, conversations, just not face to face.
Okay, perfect.
And the 20 hours after, let's just say it's a buyer, they found their house, they're in contract, then what. Or there's the listing or the sellers now in contract, they're pending, then what? But the fact is, 10 hours is spent face to face. And so when you say those words, functionary versus fiduciary, the reality is no matter how good we are, 20 hours before the relationship is functionary. Tech, technology, machines can do that. Twenty hours after the house is found is functionary. Tech, machines, process software, hardware can do that. So the most important, and what we truly get paid for, what we need to realize we get paid for, or in the future, the only thing that we can get paid for or will get paid for, is the 10 hours.
And that's what our clients sees as well. So when our clients wonder, "Well, why are you getting paid so much?" They see functionary, functionary, and here's where I get you, here's where you're a fiduciary. What's interesting about that? That's 20% of the total time start to end. It's the 80-20 principle showing up in statistics of our typical, the life of the lead or the life of our transaction. And so as I took a step back, I said, "Well, gosh, you know, the fact of the matter is, if that all does become functionary..." then we need to make sure that a couple of things are going to happen. If machines do it all for us, if the technology does it all for us, and that 40 hours is eliminated, well we say, "Gosh, what's happening to our commission?" There's downward pressure on our commission and maybe there is, or maybe there isn't right now, or there will be in the future, but the fact is is we get paid for our fiduciary.
And if I could take that full 20 here, 20 here and apply that to fiduciary, fiduciary, fiduciary then I have five segments of 10 hours of true fiduciary. I'm not interested in doing the functionary. Like other people can or other things can and I think that's a completely different mindset. Or we have to say, let me figure out which technology will take on that functionary so that 10 hours can expand to 20 with each client. And all of a sudden relationships become the most important thing in our business and always will be because fiduciary will not get disrupted. Our industry is way too big of an investment and then as a wealth determiner in the world, real estate is. So, fiduciary will always play a role.
You know I love that you have highlighted that point. As I mentioned to you before, I've analyzed some of the more professional industries that still demand a high dollar per hour and people aren't flabbergasted when they see the bill. For example, an attorney, a really good wealth advisor. I was inspired by what Ben Kinney said, who I know is a good friend of yours, at Keller Williams Family Reunion this past year, which is that the future of real estate agents, he believes, is that they need to show up as wealth advisors for people's real estate portfolio. As I've dug into that a little bit around this concept of being a fiduciary, and you think about an attorney, they don't answer the calls at the front desk, they even have a paralegal that deals with much of the functionary activities. They show up as a fiduciary and they're well paid and people understand that they're paying for real value.
You know, you look at a wealth advisor. I've been delving into that industry as well to really learn what can be taken from what they do that would really benefit real estate agents. And even studying their KPIs, the metrics that they track, the conversations that they have to see how we as an industry can emulate some of that too in the consumers eyes be seen more as that wealth advisor for people's real estate. And it's been really interesting and some of the topic here of functionary versus fiduciary, really stands out to me because you're right, I think even the portals of the world look to make real estate agents functionaries, right?! They control the funnel if you will, they have the customer relationship and then out the bottom they're looking for people to open doors and write contract stuff that over time, maybe less paid, right? Your dollar per hour on those would be less than if you were face to face with them throughout the process.
But the only, the only way they can do that is by starting with the consumer and the customer. See, as as an industry, as real estate agents, um, sometimes we get caught up in just delivering phenomenal... We just said, "Hey, we did our job, we sold your house...." or "We found your home" and we don't focus enough on the consumer or the customer or their experience in that process and so technology, some even portals have said, "Hey, we're going to own that. We're going to step in there." And the reason why they've been able to show up as the consumer advocate is because they've told that story that they are and all of a sudden the ones that do it the best, honestly Justin's, still are, whether publicly or privately are reaching out to real estate agents to get advice on the value of the homes they're about to buy or get advice on the value of that estimate that they're getting.
So they still see the need for the real estate agent because the real estate is the fiduciary, but they just have focused on the consumer way more than I have, or you have, or our industry has because our industry said, "Hey, there's a lot of moving parts. Do them all." And I haven't been able to focus on the consumer or the "We're the fiduciary or becoming a phenomenal consultant"... because there were so many tasks that I had to get done for them and unbeknownst to us because we didn't streamline functionary faster, technology did that first or very, very quickly. And they said, "Now, let's capture the consumer." And they've told a story of of being consumer focus when at the end of the day, the greatest portals have phenomenal real estate agents behind them and the worst portals have terrible real estate agents behind them and the value of the portal, I still 100% believe, comes down to the value of the agent that they've convinced to partner with them in dealing with their portal.
It says a lot about how much the industry still needs the fiduciary agent, doesn't it?
Yeah. Yeah. Firm believer.
So let's go tactical on this Chris. What's standing out for me, in part, and I don't mean to openly plug Xperience Real Estate, but, what I see you doing with this, which standing back from my perspective, I see updates from your team and you have $40M, $50M, $60M, correct me if I'm wrong, I could be misstating here, $70M/year teams and producers joining your expansion business. And what I'm putting together now is that these teams that are established, meaning you wouldn't think that they would need to partner with another group. But what I'm hearing you say is, or maybe I'm reading between the lines, is that your offer is to help take some of those functionary tasks off the table so that they can focus on being fiduciaries.
Yeah. So I take that same concept I shared earlier and said, "Hey, if I provide simple solutions to complex problems for any segment of any market: buyers, sellers, investors, real estate agents, then people will line up. Look at Amazon. They don't do any fiduciary. It is all functionary. Like they created a really simple solution to a complex problem called the shopping habit. And it's the simplest solution to a shopping habit that we have. And so we line up all day every day and use them and pay membership dues and dues go up and no one cares and no one even notices and no one cancels. Yeah, like when I heard the statistic that they made $1 billion in one day, the day that they raised membership dues and I couldn't even tell you what they raised them for because no one cancelled because the value, the solution was so simple that it was needed.
So I say, what are the problems in our industry? It's hiring good talent. So we do that. It's lead generation systems. So we do that. It's marketing systems. So we do that. It's conversion, which is coaching and consulting, right?! So it's just a platform of services such that any team, 30 million in production, 10 million in production. Like you said, we've had $50M and $70M producers plug into the platform of simple solutions of running a business. Ultimately I believe our real solution is allowing them to become the CEO of their business as opposed to just the founder of their business and many stay as both and many then hire out a CEO. It's up to them. I think one of the coolest things I heard recently, it was Mark Miller, Chick-fil-a. I was studying that company as I was researching for the course, Become the CEO. And I think he was employee, 13 or 16 but he's the VP of High Performance Teams.
That's his title.--pretty cool title. And he said, here's what we have to realize. The blessing or the gift of solving problems is bigger problems, right? You solve the problem, you're going to get a bigger one. You solve a problem, you solve that one, someone's going to come with a bigger one. And so I think that that philosophy sort of just flows through our entire organization. We create it like the name of our team is Xperience Real Estate for two reasons. One, because we believe that the future is the Xperience that the client receives, whether it's online or offline. And also, while we're doing that, we want our agents and our people to be built around this mission that we deserve Xperiential lives while being in an industry that we love. And typically it's one or the other. You deliver Xperience and service to your customers, so our lives are terrible, right? Evenings, weekends, mornings, lunches. Our philosophy is a simple solution for each part of that business and we'll be okay and the consumer will continue to come back.
I love it. Let's talk what someone might take away from today's episode. Hopefully we've convinced some, or persuaded some to see one way forward, what I believe is the best way forward, is to be more professional, more like a CEO. Obviously implementing leverage--identifying what are the functionary tasks and how do I streamline those, whether through another person, system or tool, right. And take at their week and say "How many of these 50 hours a week are really in fiduciary roles," and start to increase that number by leveraging things through people, systems and tools. Would that be something, a very tactical takeaway, and if so, what else?
Yeah, so I look at that and, and when I built out the Become the CEO course, I said phase one is building and building really incorporates systems, tools, models, and people--like setting that up. Like what are the actual systems, operational systems, communication systems, lead gen systems, hiring systems, marketing systems. So we actually go through, "Hey, what are all the systems?" Then, what are the tools? Tools could be software tools, hardware tools. It could be people, right? What are the tools and what are the models? There are a lot of different models of running a business as an individual agent. I love agents that do that. Like I was that person for years and I don't think there's anything wrong if that's the business that you choose to run.
So what is the model that you're going to run your business through and with? And then do you need people? If, so, what are the roles, like how do they launch? How did they succeed? How they begin to lead. So, phase one is building. I think for me, I look at phase one and phase one is building. And then you know as you look at those other phases, phase two, is tracking, because once you've built something, you have to know, "How am I going to attract a customer base and then people to service customers?" So phase two is attracting and that's a week that we go through that. Phase three, is really, integrating. That word integrating... Well what does integration look like now that you have these systems and tools and models and people and customers... how do we integrate? And then phase four is how do I really be a leader, whether I'm a founder leader and in the business or whether I'm now stepping into becoming that CEO or being the CEO of the business? How do we truly lead others and lead the organization through growth phases. So that's really tactically the sort of four steps to really own a business, lead a business and be the CEO of a business should we choose to.
Chris, this has been fun. I know you and I both have classes to teach here in about 12 minutes, so we better wrap things up. Although I'd love to extend the invite already to have you back at some point in the future because you're one of the best guys and smartest guys I know and any chance I get to learn from you, it's a pleasure. Do you by chance have the link, Chris? And if not, I'll put it in the notes of how people can access your course "Be the CEO"
Yeah. So what I'll share with you is that URL Become the CEO. If you go there, you can sign up for the course. It's a four week program. I mean it's pretty intense. It is really a workshop on becoming a CEO. So it's four weeks and you can get some information there, but on that site, there's about an hour webinar as well.
becometheceo.com. Is that it?
Yup, that's it. You got it. There's also an hour of content on that site that you can just watch the first phase that's just free. So you don't have to sign up. You can say, "You know, let me just, let me just learn a little bit more about those beginning phases of becoming the CEO." I truly believe that our industry will not get disrupted the way that some think it will as long as we transitioned from being real estate agents to being business owners and serving our customers and our clients in
a different way. So we go through that a lot in the four week program, but there's a lot of tactical ways to do that in that one hour webinar as well. That's updated, live.
Awesome stuff. I would encourage everybody to go look at it. I know I'm going to be tying into the course. It's a topic that's going help me in all kinds of different areas of life. So, thank you again, Chris, for being on the show. I appreciate you. You've truly helped us to think bigger, which is my mission so that people can have the business and lives that they really want. So, it's been a pleasure and I want to thank everybody for tying in to today's episode of the Think Bigger Real Estate Show.
Let me give a little background on the topic that you and I want to solve today and then I'll give some background on you to speak to some credibility of your story as to why you're the right person for them to listen to on this topic. So, I see agents, as I have a chance to be knee to knee with them all day every day, I see them spending a lot of time and a lot of effort walking past people that already know them, like them and trust them to spend resources, time and money to convince other people to know them, like them and trust them. And I really feel like they're, they're headed out into the diamond mine going down, risking everything, to go down to find these diamonds when they're walking past fields of diamonds right in front of them. Do you ever feel that way Jennie?
Oh, preach! That is, I mean that is so true. And that's been honestly my mission over the past years when I discovered that I truly love to empower agents. That is why, is because we already have all these people that know us, like us and trust us, and we're just not pouring into them more or squeezing them with more love to get referrals and recommendations out of them. So I'm with you on that.
Perfect. Well, we're going to dive into that topic and how agents, some real tactical strategies that you've employed to master this database topic in your business. So some background on Jennie. Jennie and her and her team last year had the privilege of serving 135 families. And that's exactly how she stated it to me, which again tells me a lot about how she feels about her people. She didn't say 'sell homes or houses.' She 'served families.' Okay. So there's probably a, a built in lesson within that. She's been in business for 18 years, but you actually got to a point, Jennie, where you felt almost a little burnt out, like this business is making me not like people. And you said that that's a problem. So talk to us about how with you being so relational, how even you said at times like, "I'm kind of burned out." What, what happened there?
Well, thank you for leading me up to that because I think that's an important part of the story because now people can see where I am or where we are as a team and they can make assumptions that we've just always been this awesome, right? That's not the case. We've had so many fail forwards during the process and like I shared with you in 2010 and 11 is when I took my first BOLD and got to a coach and my production doubled and I was a single agent still. And so what happens when your production doubles? Things start breaking, you start losing your mind and getting pretty stressed out. So I sloppily started building a team, not following any of the proper processes that are lined out for us. And by hodgepodging a team together, I was still, yes, I had some leverage and relief, which was awesome and at the same time, maybe I didn't hold them accountable correctly. I was still learning how to be a leader myself and so then I'm still hanging on to way too many things, not properly leveraged. What does that cause? Frustration and and really just getting to a point of like I shared: hating people, I hated people. I say it out loud in the classroom and people always laugh out loud and I know it is because they have been there and we cannot hate people in this relationship business that we're in. And so that's where I had to take a step back and reevaluate why in the world am I really doing this business? What do I love and how can I apply doing what I love to helping families buy and sell homes.
Let's talk a little bit about the root of this, of this hate and I'm not going to try and be a psychiatrist, but I would imagine, I know you're the loving mother of a beautiful little girl and I would imagine you had people that were imposing upon that time with her and they were demanding. And because you felt like, now this is pre team and I know some teams get a bad rap and that's probably accurate. Other teams don't deserve that bad rap that actually serve clients at a really high level. And I know based on what I've heard about you from Patrick and others and that you teach this business by referral at a high level, that's not you, right? But with these people, while you were just a solo agent you had on 15 hats at a time and the hat that you wanted to wear the most, which is that of being a mom was always on the sideline. Is that what caused the root of that hate?
How did you know all of that?
I am a dad. I get it. Right?!
That it, that is so true. And so many and dads are awesome as well. I can speak to the working moms because I am one. That is our struggle. You know, there's a book on it. It's called the ONE Thing, by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. And by using that book as a tool, it really helps so much along with the Six Personal Perspectives, like we mentioned early on, the whole value of time blocking and knowing your calendar and family is on your calendar. So every day for the past four years, "Pick up Mia" is on my calendar and "Family time" at four o'clock. And so that was real easy for me to say, I'm sorry I've got an appointment at that time. Instead would noon tomorrow or you know, you pick the time that, that works for you. And I think that's it. That's the number one thing is taking control of your calendar. And that allows people to not stress you out. And so if you don't have a calendar, you will allow people in at all times that you get frustrated and you start feeling burnout. So that's key.
Yeah. Let's talk about this. You showed be a little something that you have on your desk that says E to P. Will you pull it out for the audience.
Yeah. My friend Missy Webb from Norman, Oklahoma, she sent this to me. I think it was after I taught a Six Personal Perspectives class and I said that one's my favorite. I love them all. I love all of the perspectives. The E to P though, every bit of our lives, personal lives, business, lives can be plussed and be better and we can have more focus and purpose with them.
Let's talk about what that is. There's probably a group of the audience that knows what that is, right? You and I do. In fact I was teaching it to a group yesterday, but going from like an entrepreneurial style to a purposeful style, and I want to parlay that into what you described, how you had this pivot. I would imagine before, when you were starting to dislike people, it was because you were working more entrepreneurially, right? Where it was like, "Yeah, like bring it on and I got this, I got everything." And there wasn't like a purpose behind it. You weren't being purposeful of like, "Okay, what matters most to my business?" Okay, this is on my calendar, this is what matters. Most of my relationships picking Mia at four o'clock, this is going on my calendar. That was that kind of where you started to to really embrace and implement this concept of E to P?
Yeah, I think so. And even the term counterbalance when that has been shared and if you really think about it as sometimes you do go extreme in your work life and you just have to know that it will come back together. You know, there's a straight line and you get extreme and work sometimes you may go extreme family and that's okay. So the goal is to really keep yourself balancing, counter balancing between the two. And that's where like Mr. Gary Keller says, as you start your year by planning out your calendar, starting with your family time, your vacation time first, and then all the rest gets filled in. And so I think that's key for keeping your head straight in this business.
Let's talk a little, I love that, and I couldn't agree more. I mentioned to you earlier, for those that don't know, I'm a father of six kids. Uh, that wasn't by accident. Yes, we've been asked by every elderly person we know if we know how that works and we actually started off wanting to have six. My wife comes from a family of seven and I always thought it'd be cool to have a big family. I did not come from a big family. So we went that path and we're grateful for it. There's certain times in the night, maybe last night about 1230, when I had a three year old who like having like a scary dream where I was like, "This is crazy." But nevertheless, that is when you have things that matter more than work and you and I both do, you have to move--If those relationships are important to you, if those other things in life are important to you, you have to move to purposeful otherwise business will eclipse all of it. I obviously have a responsibility for business development for a title company. I also have a new brand than a building. Think Bigger Real Estate. It's a movement to help real estate agents think bigger and it takes time and it can, it can encompass every waking minute if I were to allow it to and so I'm passionate about that topic because those relationships all matter more to me then do the business, or the businesses. So I get that. So thank you for sharing that.
I want to talk a little bit about your strategy, Jennie, that I think a lot of agents miss. They see other agents as their competition, right? It's a scarcity mindset of like, "Wait, you're a real estate agent, well I can't talk to you because we're going to be, we're going to be going for the same client. And I don't want to give you any of my secrets, because it's secret sauce. You've taken a different approach. Talk to us about that.
Yeah, absolutely. I, you know, right now, I shared with you a 25% of our business come from out of town, Realtor referrals. And years ago by accident I was using lots of video and my local market for my database, making a video about how maintenance, repairs or things around the community. And by accident one time my agent database accidentally got uploaded and so all my agent friends across the country got my local market videos and I was mortified. I could not believe it. I, oh, it was horrible. And then at the next big event that we had, people came up to me they knew me by name and by face. They knew where I lived and I got back to my room and I went, "Wait a minute, there might be something here." So I pulled up my, my video people and I said, "Hey, um, you know how I do that one blog from my local database? Could I do one of those for my agent database?" And they were like, "Absolutely." And so that's where "Your Journey with Jennie" came from. There's a website, there's a video blog, it's yourjourneywithjennie.com. Then I have a closed Facebook group as well. And that's just where my passion for sharing everything. And we do have a company at Keller Williams that we all share the top of the top of the top agents in our company, get on stage and tell you everything they do in their business and how they've become successful. And so I'm not one of them yet and I still love sharing. And so that's where I get so much. What happened was, Justin, remember I said that I had taken BOLD a lot in other cities outside of my area and it hit me one time when I was starting to feel some guilt because I was getting lots of agent referrals from agents around my area and I thought, "Oh, I'll never be able to repay them."
Like I'm getting so many referrals and I was feeling bad because that's what most agents would want back is a referral back to them. And I said, well, what could I do that will still add value to their lives, to their businesses, even if it's not in the form of a referral. And so that's where you know, I decided to just start adding these local agents to this group. So maybe if they get an Aha or a system or a tip or a trick they can put in their business that would pay them back.
So interesting that you say that. I'm working on kind of a bigger project right now to help real estate agents get referrals from professional sources like wealth advisors, attorneys, etc. And in that process, I had this mentality that, okay, if I can teach an agent how to refer a financial advisor, that financial advisor, will refer back. And I had a mentor say, "Don't do that." Like, if that happens, that's okay. But if you set it up that way, it's going to be very limited. That real estate agent needs to go and start delivering value in resources that help make the financial advisor's role and job easier, not necessarily more business. That may not even be what they want. They may be like a lot of wealth advisors say, "I'm already capped. I'm done." So that might have been not even be an interesting topic to them at all. You could just help them improve the service to their existing client base, maybe that's what they need. And so I love that you've actually employed that strategy with agents, which really is an abundant mentality of like, "I'm just going to give it all away. And if they bring back referrals my way, great." If it just enhances someone's life, it probably aligns with your core values anyway. Right? Let's help make lives and businesses better.
Yeah, absolutely, that's the thinking behind it and so much so that like I told you, I went from E to P on it. That, I mean it's on my calendar every day is to make a post inside of that group, you know, whether it's a motivational post, or "Here's a system we use." It's a part of my 411 and my GPS for my business, which is making sure that I'm adding value. Another thing, talking about the counter balancing and doing what we love is that because I've become a Keller Williams University instructor this year, I now can travel, train and get paid, which helps generate referrals back to my team. So while I'm gone, the team is still working and being funded and fueled by me doing what I love. And now my daughter is out of school during the summer, so guess who's going to come on tour with me this summer? So, you know, I've been asked to teach in Tampa. I'm going to bring her with me and go to the beach. I've been asked to teach in California, Southern California. We'll go to Disneyland together. So now she'll just get to see mom at doing what she loves. I'm excited about.
I love it. That is, what a great life, right? That you're able to build that way. I want to point out something that maybe wasn't obvious to everybody, but you shared with me is, when you started taking BOLD classes, they were available in your town, but you actually chose to drive two hours away to a different town to take those because you knew that not only would you be gaining the insight and the help that that BOLD would provide, but you'd be in a room of a hundred other referral sources that maybe didn't have a resource in your town. Uh, like brilliant! Right? Absolutely brilliant. Like a little more of a sacrifice on the more work, but...
Well it was, it is a sacrifice for sure because I'm getting up earlier and getting home later. Two hour drive was about the average of the locations. It's more of a burden on my family. Yeah, my husband's got it, you know, taking care of Mia to and from school. It's exhausting, you know. If I'm playing "all-in" in the BOLD room, it's physically exhausting and I'm making calls on the way there or on the way home to get in my contacts for the day. So it is a commitment and at the same time while you're there, you have to be purposeful again. So on every break, I would take care of my needs real quick and then I get right back in the room and walk around and meet everybody, personally handshake and give them my card and tell them where I'm from. And every time I stood up in the classroom, "Hi, I'm Jennie and I'm BOLD. I'm from Tulsa." You know, it's just always saying and sharing. And the BOLD coach just thinks it is pretty cool too. So they help promote you as well.
I would encourage, whether you're a Keller Williams agent or not, real estate agents have a tendency to go to classes, If they're good. They're growing themselves. And typically we look for the ones that are the most convenient, the easiest. And what a great idea is to choose ones that are maybe in a different town because that opens up a whole new set of opportunities.
Last topic here I want to cover Jennie. In fact, I was going to go into, you have a very small sliver of your business that comes via online leads and referrals and I'm just going talk about that quickly, because I actually want to get to another topic that I think would be even more valuable for the audience. And your philosophy with that is like "You're open to that but you embrace those people and bring them into your database and so they get the same--like they don't get the redheaded stepchild treatment--because they came in through some other source. You love on them just like as if they were someone you met at Mia's school, right? So it allows you to grow your database in a big way. Do you want to add anything to that before I got to go into the last question?
Yeah. I think that wherever the lead or referral comes from, whether it's a personal referral, an online lead from a source or an open house guests, they all come into our world and have similar touches right off the right out of the gate, which is call follow up, leave notes and those are standards for our team and it is always there. Another thing, I'm actually going to be at spring masterminds coming up and I'm on a panel about interrogating your pipeline. So how are you staying on top of who comes into your world and then making sure that they're put in the right place so that they're taken care of properly in your pipeline and not dropped like you said. So a new, a new piece that we've added is whenever that action plan gets applied to that new person by our lead coordinator, there is an action item for me as the leader has the agent connected just a few days out so that no lead is left behind, because the worst thing ever is to go back through your database and find people that have bought or sold with other agents.
That's the worst... ever!! So let's eliminate that.
So, last topic, and this is going to become part of my show, but I want to hear from you Jennie. Obviously you've done some great things, but at the core of your accomplishments has been an inner transformation, I believe, that has been a journey for you to become a better person. Talk to us about maybe a habit or a practice that you think is fundamental to you thinking bigger and becoming more, which has then resulted in the business growth.
Wow, that's a big question--To think bigger. And I would really think that it has everything to do with trainings and mindset. And honestly, what you think about usually happens. So think the very best of yourself. Put yourself in the way of smarter people that make you think bigger. Put yourself, like I shared with you. I went to this training through Keller Williams that's very expensive. It's $4,000 to attend. It's a lot of money. And most agents would say, I'm not paying that. And the value that I've gotten out of it over the years of the relationships that I've made have gotten me where I am. So that's a huge piece of that. Continue to grow every day, every day, every day.
So, just to kind of recap what I took from that, because I learn best when I, when I speak and teach. So what I'm hearing you say is you aren't afraid to invest in yourself, like courses being around people. You surround yourself with material and people that help grow you. That's awesome. And you audit your thoughts, "How am I talking to myself? "What am I saying about myself?"
And then one more thing I'm going to throw in because this has changed everything for me is have a coach. I have a coach. I've have had a coach since 2011 and I'll never not have a coach of some form because, with having a coach, you must be a coachable person. Yeah, being open to receive. I remember saying that to a coach one time. I'm not going to waste any time and that valuable coaching call that I'm spending money that I'm investing in myself in that time. I'm not going to waste time with excuses or reasons as to why I didn't do something. I either am committed to it or I'm not, and let's choose and let's go or not go and reset because I'm not going to waste any time. Let's get busy.
I love it--so good. Jennie, you've offered more than enough value to make everybody say "She's amazing." So I'm going to do something really quick here. I'm going to put up on the screen and I want to invite everybody to go on Facebook, search the Facebook Group--there's a page that's "Your Journey with Jennie", but more importantly is the Facebook Group. That's where she puts all of her goodies. So I'd encourage you to go find that and I would also say that if anybody has business in or around Tulsa, now you know who to contact. Obviously a dynamite person who will give back to you in very big ways by all the good stuff she shares. So, Jennie, what a pleasure this has been. Thank you so much for taking the time to pour in to the Think Bigger audience. I appreciate you and it's fun to get to know you even better. And I could see why Patrick speaks so highly of you.
It's an honor to know you and let me know how else I can help.
Awesome--I appreciate it very much.
One of Justin's mentors taught him that the faster you are not the only WHO in your business, the faster and greater will be your success.
Brock Worthen, a managing partner of multiple KW franchises in Pasadena, CA, discusses here the key leadership principles for attracting and retaining great talent for your business AND... bonus material on how to be a great leader in the home.
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart and this topic today is very meaningful to me. Even having this guest on today is an exciting thing for me. I'll introduce her here in just a second. But here's the problem that I want this episode to help you solve, which is: There's endless amounts of tactics and strategies and ideas for real estate agents to grow their business. And the opportunity is most of them will work if you grow into being the right person. The challenge is if you don't grow as a person, none of them will work. So I have with me today, Sarita Dua. Let me first of all say Sarita thank you for coming on the show today.
Thanks so much Justin, for having me.
I'm excited to have you here. For those of you that don't know Sarita, let me give a little background on her and I know many of you do. Over the past two years, her team, a very small team, has produced over $130 million in real estate volume. Pretty impressive for a small team. In addition to that, she has entered into the executive MBA program at MIT. For those of you who are familiar with MIT, it's a very prestigious university and to be accepted in means a lot. She loves teaching and training. It's really a passion of hers. Maybe some of you have seen her on some of the biggest stages including Keller Williams big annual event, Inman Connect, the big event that they have multiple times a year. And all over the place on podcasts and other places. So I'm, again, fortunate to have you here today, Sarita, pouring into the Think Bigger Real Estate audience. Thank you for again for your attention and your time.
Of course. I appreciate it.
So let's, let's dive into how are we going to solve this now. I know Sarita, you have developed and followed a growth plan and you say that that is an essential component of helping you to produce at the level that you have and I want to talk through some of the things for you that are a part of this growth plan? And, uh, maybe let's start with something that you put into the growth plan first, which is your fascination with travel. Talk to us about that because most people think that has nothing to do with real estate. That's what you do when you're not doing real estate. But for you, that's been an essential component of helping you produce at the highest level. True?
Yeah, absolutely. And if somebody asked me like what are the three things that mean the most to me and I can't put individual people in my family, then it would be honestly my family, education and travel. And one of the things I love about travel is that it's a perfect intersection between family and education because anytime we go anywhere, we're learning and we're together. And so it isn't this, you know, a quest to fill my passport, although I do love that part of it. What I found is as my kids were young and active and I was working quite a few nights and weekends, we realized that when we connect, the few times we have, let's say we had an hour here or like 30 minutes between appointments, I would try to connect with my family and guess what, they were busy. They'd have soccer games or lacrosse or birthday parties or whatever.
So if it was a good time for me, it may not have been a good time for them. And what we realized is anytime we went anywhere, the four of us, and we reconnected, whether it was a long weekend or for a week, we would just come back synchronized and recharged. And then, my husband especially, he's a bit of a nerd and he loves like these educational field trips. So anytime we go on a trip, he's going to make us go see the largest ball of twine or how cashews are made. And we always, you know, the kids, especially "Daddy," and they roll their eyes. But the funny thing is we started playing this game called Trivia. We were at a restaurant, we were waiting for a two hour wait and I was trying to keep them awake. They were jet lagged. So I was like, "Hey guys, we visited Google today. What were the colors of their logo?" I didn't even know most of the answers. I was asking questions and I didn't even know the answers. Or, "What gate were we at?" Or, "What seats were we in?" Or, "Who was our flight attendant?" And it was so funny because my son was like maybe six or seven, "Momma ask me another question." And since we started doing that too, we've become very observant when we travel. And you're always learning when you're just looking around and your present. Right? So it really did bring our family together. So, one of the best coaches I've had in my career said, "Hey, you don't always have to have a goal of how many houses and what's your production. It could be [for me] how many days, how can you maintain your production and how many days out can you take?" So every year I start with what are all the days I'm going to take out and then I cram all my real estate in in those days that I'm not out of the office.
Which typically is not how it works. If I have time this year we'll go on a vacation. What you're saying is "This is a big rock. Put the big rocks in first and then business will happen around it."
Absolutely.
And the cool thing is is that you have enviable production, Sarita. You would think that someone that started with that, "Let's go play first," they wouldn't have produced. What you're telling us is that actually helps fuel your ability to produce at a high level.
Yeah. I mean I don't know if you guys remember when you were in school or when you have a deadline, the more you have to do, like if you have something due every night, you're going to have to time block and get it done. If you have a month to do it, like let's say taxes, right? There's a lot of us that are going to, probably on the 14th, "Shoot, I got to get these done." But if you don't have time and you have to slot a bunch of other things and you just get it done, right?! So I did find that it actually made me more efficient and more productive.
I love it. An enticing deadline is what you've created. Let's talk about your speaking and teaching. This is part of your growth plan. Obviously you've agreed to come on today to really benefit this audience. You are on stages. You've been a MAPS coach in the past and that's really become a part of your passion in your life. Talk to us about why that's an essential part of agents becoming the person, growing into being the person, that can then grow a business to the level that they want it to.
Okay, sure. I mean, everyone has a different reason. I'm not going to sit here and say, "Golly shucks." You know, I, you know, at the end of the day, like we all have reasons for doing things. Some people want the visibility, some people want referrals. For me, I'm focusing on getting comfortable with the idea of being uncomfortable, right? So the more uncomfortable you can be and start being okay with it, then you always learn. So for me, teaching and coaching has just, you know, there's that phrase, the teacher becomes the student. You actually get way more than you give. Even when I coach a client one on one who might be a newer agent and I'm talking to them about systems and models. I mean, who do you think is learning that? Like for me, it's very difficult to talk about how you should make your contacts and work your database and then I hang up and I don't do that? Then I would feel like a fraud. So for me, it's just another way to sharpen the pencil. I'm not the greatest public speaker. In fact, I do quite a few educational videos to my clients. And I used to really get nervous about, "Well, does my hair look okay?" and "I just flubbed this up," and I should retake it 10 times so that I sound like, you know, like an anchor woman or like the weather person" or whatever. And you know the more authentic, like when you actually screw up and you say, wait, I like lost my train of thought, let me rephrase and you're actually honest and open, people really connect with authentic people. And you don't realize, but right there you're building a relationship with them.
So, I love teaching because I learn more. Like I said, every time and I get great feedback and you just resonate... I think there's a lot of people that take advantage of our industry, right? We can kind of calculate everything too, "Well, if this gets me a deal, I'll do it," because a lot of people, they're looking for this easy button, but the truth is we shouldn't be. If I go see a speaker too, I'm like, "Oh, I should be doing that." And the truth is we should figure out what we're really good at and just amplify or do more of that as opposed to, "Oh I don't door knock. I should start doing that." Nothing against door knocking, it's not my thing. But for me going to a networking event three or four times a day doesn't feel like work. Now there might be the same people who go door knock that don't actually want to chit chat with people at a networking event. So it's about finding... there's so many different ways to slice it in this business. So, finding what fits for you and doing it. So that's been great for me because the speaking and the coaching have brought in my world as well as my connections and I learned so much from my peers as well.
I love it. It's really the focusing question from the ONE Thing which is the 80 20 rule applied over and over and over until you get down to "What really fuels my business and what fuels me?" And for you, you've found a part of that is the speaking and teaching and kind of giving and being comfortable with being uncomfortable. I love that. Let's talk a little bit about, about learning. Obviously we're going to end this based on an invitation for people to create a growth plan. So that's a little preview of what's coming, which is an invitation for each of you to create your own growth plan. But Sarita to talk to us about how you've taken learning to an all new level. When I saw that you were applying and then admitted to MIT, I thought, wait a minute, you've got a massive real estate business, not leveraged by a huge team. You're still an active part of that and getting into and then keeping up with the workload at MIT. That's no small endeavor. Talk to us about why have you done this?
I'm going to also tell you I'm not the most popular person at home. My husband's like, "You're doing what?!" And I told him "If I get in, I'm going." And of course he said, "Well Honey, I love you but you're probably not going to get in. It is MIT." So then of course when it happened, we looked at each other like, "Oh shoot, here we go." But you know, I have a big birthday this year and maybe it's my mid-life crisis, but at the end of the day, I think it's Albert Einstein that said, "The day you stop learning is the day you start dying." And this is the most embarrassing part of this MIT thing. It's an executive MBA. I already have an MBA. I got one like 20 years ago. And there's another phrase, "No man goes through the same river because either the man has changed or the river has changed." Well guess what, school changed since my first MBA. I think we had phones in bags and we would like still fax things and email was just coming out or whatever. Things like AI and Big Data, you know, artificial intelligence and some of these things that we're talking about at school. Those things didn't exist. There are entire fields of business ideas and models that didn't exist. I'm not going to leave real estate, I'm not changing my career, but honestly, I was craving learning and MIT has this mission and it sounds really grand. In fact, I thought "I'm embarrassed to ever repeat it because it sounds really arrogant. And I'm paraphrasing, but it's "To train the leaders that will change the world." This is essentially what it said, which I just thought, well that's kind of a crock, like "Who do we think we are?"
But the truth is if you think really big, you do change the world. And you may not change the entire world, but you'll change your world. And then you become an ambassador when you come back and you talk to your networks and you're changing their world too. We're talking about big things like climate change and big global issues. And so for me you can probably hear I'm super passionate, right? I haven't complained once about the workload because I'm learning. I'm meeting great people. I just anded something pretty big in my real estate business and the reality is it was because I was thinking bigger. So it changed the way I look at things and I even approach it differently. And so I'm already seeing everything you do, if you do it well and you're really present, you can apply it to anything.
So to kind of segway to what you were just asking about a growth plan. Like my challenge to everyone here is you don't need to go to MIT to grow. I mean, I'm just insane and I kind of did it on a dare, but the truth is you need to think about growing all the time and make it a deliberate thing. And it can be very simple. It could be "Who do I admire business-wise, maybe picking three or five people and making sure you connect and have coffee or lunch with them. Nobody really turns you down. If you say, "Hey, I admire your business, can I spend 15 minutes chatting with you and learning from you?" People are flattered to do that. It could be you want to read more. Maybe it's a book or two a month. Literally on the first day of the month, writing down those 12 or 24 books, putting them in literally a table of 12 months, which book am I going to read which month? Putting down, "Hey, I go to my one or two conferences for my company. What are the company conferences outside of my company?" Maybe asking at those coffees, "What conferences do you go to?"
Now here's the deal guys. We can learn all the time. We still got to do, right?! You can actually physically probably go to 52 conferences, one a week and probably never actually be in your business because you're learning. It has to be the right balance. So you might say, "Look, I'm only going to do three conferences this this year." What are the three that are the most important? Why am I picking them? And, and be deliberate about that. And you know what, you can't go wrong. Even if you pick one from that, we're probably going to still meet amazing people and learn from something there. So I do that as a plan because otherwise a repair addendum emergency or something's going on with your kids and next thing you know it's April and now you've got to catch up on eight books, right? So just having it as a plan and being deliberate about it really does make it happen.
I love your point about being deliberate and part of my reason behind Think Bigger Real Estate is, I'm a passionate learner as well. I'm always taking some course, I'm always reading something and what I realized is that learning for learning's sake is good, but what is better or best would be to take that and then like you said, to reteach it. So I'm having a website developed in which I'm going to be taking the books that I'm reading and writing blog posts about how this applies to real estate agents. And I'll be putting that into Think Bigger Real Estate, in part to add to enhance the value that I can offer to real estate agents, but also to be sure that I'm not just reading to check it off my list, which I've been guilty of. "Okay. I did that book. What's the next?"
I said I'm going to read the book. I got to skip through this quickly. Yeah, exactly.
I've put it on like three times speed on Audible just to get through it. But now "How's it making me better and in turn, how can I impact other people?" So thank you for sharing that--deliberate.
Well and that website for you, that's the accountability, right? Like the fact that you're doing that now, you sort of said you're doing it, you're going to do it. Like for me, I tried to take a lesson for school and share it with my network, but by having to reteach it and apply it, it really forces me to like learn it and think about it and be prepared to answer questions. So it takes that accountability to the next level and you know, when you go to school for grades, you just sort of learn how to memorize things and you get the grades. I don't care what grades I get, like I'm not on an employee reimbursement plan where I have to get this GPA to get my money back or whatever. It's amazing to me, the minute you forget about those results and you're just there to learn, you learn so much more.
So good. The last point that I want to talk about here and really your growth plan that I have identified it as an outside observer and you've validated that yes, that has really helped me is your commitment to create. I know for the past year you've given so much of your time and effort to help create and be a part of the Keller Williams Labs in helping them create this technology that I saw firsthand. I've been concerned about what technology would do to the role of a real estate agent until I saw what you guys were creating, which was something that actually gave real estate agents the ability to harness artificial intelligence so that they could be more face to face. When I got that glimpse of what, in the right hands, AI can do it blew me away and gave me great hope for the future of great professional real estate agents. Talk to us a little bit about how being a part of the Labs and creating something, very intentionally has helped you grow, and in turn your business grow.
No, of course. Thank you so much for asking that. So for me, um, my background was real estate, sorry, tech before real estate, 15 years of tech before real estate. So to see this disruption of tech and real estate sort of collide and figure out there's this tech enabled agent and then the agent enabled tech and there's a bunch of people that think you can just press a button and the house will sell by itself and people aren't going to be involved. So I loved that it was sort of coming together and it was sort of blending my world, my old world with my new world. And then having Gary invite us to actually build them from scratch. This is built by agents. It gave me a chance to honestly erase my white board, if you will, and build a system and give feedback for a system that works the way we think as opposed to, "Oh, this is a system. I need a field for the address label for my holiday cards. So let me make up a field." We were basically engineering our systems, working our business processes to fit a system instead of the other way around. And when you have a lot of agents, this isn't even a Keller Williams commercial in any way, you have insights because we have those intuitively, we know how much earnest money to put it or what it takes to win an offer. But if you were to collect, ask 10 people or 15 people or 100,000 people and share those insights, it just makes us all smarter. So it's something, I mean, my production took a hit. I spent a ton of time in Austin and I would do it again in a heartbeat. And what we're building is Gary will say "It's not perfect. It's a work in progress. That's right. It's a lab." But you can probably hear it in my voice, I am so passionate about this industry again. I found my spark between going back to school and then learning and applying from in the tech space. I just sort of found my thing again. It's been really, really exciting. So, anyone out there who has an opportunity to build something or shape something and if you find that it gets you jazzed and you literally can't sleep at night because you're so excited, do it, right?! Don't worry about the consequences. Do it because you end up being personally you develop, professionally, it helps you. So tech actually makes you do what you're supposed to do, right?! Be in front of your clients! So for me, the more tech we use means the more we get to touch our clients in terms of relationship building, which is what tech is all about, enabling that. So nothing will replace the relationship, but it's been really an honor to be part of. Okay.
I hope that everyone listening today looks at Sarita's business and looks at her life and everything that she's done and created and says to themselves, "I can think bigger. I can do more." I can absolutely do more because of her example. And I would encourage everybody out there to create a growth plan, to actually create something that helps you grow into the person that you need to grow into. So I want to thank Sarita. And it looks like we have had a little bit of a technical difficulty here, so I just want to thank Sarita for being a part of this episode. I'm so grateful for her and the example that she sets for everybody in this industry. And again, my passion is to help real estate agents to become the people so that they can have the business and the impact that they want. So again, I want to thank everyone for being a part of this episode, and I look forward to connect with you on next one.
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart. I'm very excited about today. A very good friend of mine a very experienced mortgage loan officer who has been in the business for 17 years. He has been wowing people with value for a long, long time, Mr. Tony Gillard. Tony, thanks for being on the show today.
Happy to be here.
Let's set this up properly. You know, Tony, you run your business like a business and the topic of today is, is really one way in which agents can do that. And I think this term of lead generation is synonymous with real estate agents. More leads, more leads, more leads always seems to be the answer, but maybe it's not the answer. Maybe it's not about more leads, more leads, more leads. Maybe just maybe it's about better converting on the leads you have. We're going to talk some specific strategies around that. Tony, what are your thoughts on this concept of more leads, more leads, more leads?
Well, it's certainly a topic of discussion with every agent. I sit down, every agent, uh, they want more leads and when we start to peel back some of the layers of their business, we find that it's not necessarily more leads that they need, but more conversion on the activities and opportunities that they're already generating. And so, you know, especially when we start talking about like work life balance--can you do more with less? Can you do more things with fewer interactions or really is it a matter of just an equation of pouring in more leads? I don't think that it is based on the conversations that I'm having and specifically I'm just sitting down with the agents and finding out what their track record is and starting to, to ask the questions that are more business related. I know that a lot of agents are in the business because they're really good people.
People's personalities--they're outgoing. They have a servant's heart. And sometimes what is maybe lacking is just the lens, the business lens, looking at their operations and finding out the efficiencies that they could maybe tweak a little bit. And that to me all comes down to what's your longterm client plan because statistically we call this the other 98 because statistically 2% of your database or 2% of the people that you interact with are going to be ready to conduct business right now. And so we always ask, what about the other 98, what kind of client plan do you have in place to incubate these people over time? Just create a relationship of value so that you're the obvious choice when they come back around. And that's in a world of Zillow leads the lead part is really the weakest component of that funnel because the value proposition is being built by Zillow.
You know, they, they come into Zillow's funnel and that funnel provides them a really pretty platform with search tools, a lot of like information and recon, so to speak, for the buyer. And so all the value is being provided by Zillow. And by the time that that buyer wants to make a buying decision, the agent in that equation is the commodity. And so if you're not cheaper, better, faster, if you're not willing to open a door during dinner on a Sunday night, it just gets moved to the next one. And I feel like because of the activities that agents engage in on a really, really regular basis, there's so much opportunity in just those engagements that they're already conducting.
Whether agents are getting their business primarily via referral or via some online lead source, if they're actively growing their business, they're actively in real estate related conversations on a very regular basis, on a daily basis. What would you say Tony, would be the average as you've interviewed agents? What's the average number of real estate related conversations that an agent is in on on maybe an annual basis?
So I have my notes from the last interview that I just did and I'm referring to these because it's fairly common. This is a very kind of common breakdown that I'm coming across in these agent interviews. So this agent I recently sat down with, I asked how many families they helped last year. They said they had closed on 30 transactions last year you know, a mixture of listings and buy side and you know, so it's a decently medium producing type of agent. They were a single operator and I said, how many real estate related conversations of people that are looking to buy or sell do you think you had in order to help those 30 families? And as we started to dig deeper, you know, talking about open houses and barbecues and past client referrals, the networking activities that they engage in, we really kind of identified that they're speaking to about one person a day on a real estate related type of conversation.
Okay. So we're talking about five conversations a week, you know and I'll always kind of lead them down the path of like, well, do you take a couple of weeks off for vacation and so forth. And so in this particular case they had determined that they spoke to about 250 people over the course of that last year to have to help 30 families. Okay.
So about 10%, a little bit higher than that.
But if you look at it, the way that I often like to look at it is there were 220 people that either didn't do anything or did something with somebody else. Right. And so for me, that's where the opportunities are. There's 220 people that showed some level of interest in real estate. These are 220 opportunities that the agent spent time doing and what's in place? What system?
I actually, it was funny because I've watched your podcast and there's a reference that you've made a number of times and I think you and I were both at the same event where, Mr Lou Raja, the keynote speaker at that event said that "Systems beat intentions all day long." And I would take it even a step further where I think you could be the most well-intended human being, but without a system, I think it's just setting up for failure. And so the question for me then becomes what type of system do you have in place to help incubate those 220? For us in our model to help agents with their business is is just looking at the lost opportunity because if we could only, let's say based upon having a system in place, that agent can convert simply 10% of those lost leads, right? So 220 10% that's 22 additional transactions over the course of that 12 month period of time.
That's a massive impact on a medium producer's business.
And so like 10% that's not, that's not some unreasonable number, right? That's not unbelievable to think that somebody could do that and could convert 10% more of those conversations.
Well this was where it became interesting for me in preparation for today. I, this was last night, I just jotted down based on the notes that I'd taken and then I actually went into my own metrics. So we track our metrics. Our branch initiative is to track our daily activities and find out exactly what our conversions are. We've been doing this since October of last year, so this is a little bit of a transparent moment because I'm really hoping that through the efforts of our branch and the things that we're doing on our path to elite is to increase some of these conversion numbers.
But I just wanted to play these out based on this one agent that I spoke with, which seems to be a fairly common among agents I've spoken with, but when you take a look at those 22 deals with an average commission of about $7,000 that's on a, I think a $350,000 house. So average commission would probably be higher for most agents. I just wanted to be conservative. Twenty-two deals would represent about $154,000 in additional income or gross commission earned. And so I took my conversion metrics to apply to that simply as a funnel. Right? So in other words, if those people simply came into my funnel, how would that look? And so I did 20 conversations a month. My lead to prequal conversation is 22%. Okay? So if I had in a month period of time, I had 20 introductions of people that are interested in buying or selling real estate, then my 22% conversion to a prequal conversation would be 4.4 people--4.4 prequel conversations I would have in that model. My prequel conversation to application--and this is application as in the sense of like a contract. So we call it a little bit different, like a TBD is actually, a prequel conversation. The actual application would be a contract. So prequel conversation to contract. I'm at 58% since last October. So now that 4.4 turns into 2.5. So the 20 in one month out of this equation, which again, this is five calls a week, times four weeks, Five realtor engagements with people over five weeks, excuse me, four weeks is 20 people that they could introduce to me. So prequal, the prequal conversation to contract 58% that 4.4 turns to two and a half, my conversion from contract to funding is 82% within our coaching circle goals. The elite level is converting at about 85% so I have some room to tweak this and to improve on my conversions, but that 2.55 applications or contracts then turns into basically 2.09 funding.
So 20 came in, two came out. Okay. That's with my own specific conversion metrics, my key performance indicators. If you extrapolate that out over a year, that's actually more than a 22 deals that we had determined were lost in that lost leads conversation. So the math plays out and my encouragement, and this is what we're going through as a branch initiative for 2018 is not only knowing your key performance indicators, but really honing in on your key performance actions. And what we've identified daily, is that we record on a daily basis the calls that we're making outbound calls to partners, people that we work with to help generate business. Then how many conversations outbound are we making with our database? Those two will lead to these other events like a prequal conversation, like a contract and a funding, but those are daily metrics that we track.
So,. a word to anybody listening here. If you're envious of the KPIs, key performance indicators that Tony's put in place, he might be a good guy for you to have a conversation with and say, can you share with me the systems you've put in place? It won't be a direct correlation. I'm sure there's some things that you can teach agents on identifying what are the right KPIs for them and also how to have them set them up in a systematic way to where they can be tracking them and knowing their own numbers. Right?
Most definitely the big equation, or the big part of this equation is the client plan. You know, because oftentimes I think agents are really good at focusing on today's business and maybe the fortune's in the follow up on tomorrow's business and that's an area of opportunity where I think that there's quite a bit of leakage. And so yeah, it's, it's about identifying a longterm client plan where you're adding value, you're incubating these these relationships over time so that when they are in a position to make a buying decision, you're there obvious choice.
I think one of the things that you and I have discussed in the past is part of the equation is just simply maintaining communication with these people, right? It's actually staying in contact with them and remaining top of mind. The other component is actually adding value, right? The Zillow model. And of course we're picking on Zillow, but I'm okay doing that. There's this concept of Zillow owns the funnel and they're providing all the value, whether it be through a Zestimate, whether it be through approved lenders and real estate agents. They control the sales funnel and the agents in there don't control the customer. Zillow does. And so what ends up happening is that the agent becomes a commodity and you, and I've talked about this at length over the years and you've really taught me this, is that what ends up coming out the bottom of this funnel is an agent has to be, as you described, ready to respond in a matter of seconds and be an on call doctor without necessarily getting paid like one, right?
Like you've got to be ready to go at any moment and the client is not willing to wait for you because the value is not in you. The value is in what Zillow's provided them, which is a platform of all kinds of 'you's', right? All kinds of people and replace you with at any given moment. And so back to my original point is that it's not a matter of just maintaining communication with these people, but it's a matter of you starting to realize how important it is for you to control your own sales funnel and to be the Zillow and be adding value all along the way so that when they do come, when the time is right for them to make a decision, they're not just going to Zillow, they're not just going to realtor.com or whatever lead portal to get the commodity they're going to you because you have been the one adding value all this time. Right.
You know, I've been in this business long enough to be in the business before Zillow. And so, yeah, right. I freaked my kids out when I tell them I'm older than the Internet.
I've used that on my kids thanks to you and they love it.
There was a world before Zillow, and there is this world with Zillow that is relatively new. And I think agents had a tremendous amount of success. And to a degree, there's still a level of success that agents have with Zillow, but I do believe that the end consumer is getting maybe pickier. They'll utilize some of these tools, but then they'll go their own way because some of the conversations that I've had with agents that have had success with Zillow in the past is that they're seeing a degradation in the leads that they're getting to the point where it's not as lucrative as it once was, where they've had to seek other type of lead gen activities.
And the encouragement would be to do the things that you do that you love doing already. Because the beauty of our business in real estate is that everyone either needs to buy, sell or live somewhere. And so whether you're an enthusiast of mountain climbing or whatever the case may be, you have the ability to, to be in those spheres and to interact with people, engage with them, create relationships and, and then be available to serve them when they have those needs. And so I feel like what's going to occur because of all this massive disruption. It's not just Zillow anymore, right? I mean they're talking about all kinds of different players in this game. Trying to get a piece of this pie which dilutes a lot of these areas, but what is never going to be replaced is the human contact, the human connection, the trust, you know, the advisor role.
Being very knowledgeable in your marketplace, providing value and really the humanity of this business. Because while in some ways we are instant gratification, you know, push button, deliver--Prime, the Prime Life. I feel like when we get into the home, which is much bigger on the scale of emotional connection, I feel that people are starting to turn back to the human element and to seek those relationships and, and someone that's going to provide value to them longterm.
I agree. And I think, like you said, the advisor will actually sat with a gentleman today, who is in the insurance business and he said, we are planning a trip to Europe. And he said, "I was overwhelmed by how much there was to interpret. To the point to where I finally said, I just need a travel agent." And I thought, "Wait a minute, what? I thought those guys were extinct." And of course I know that they're not, but more information and more access to information doesn't necessarily solve the problem. Sometimes it actually makes it worse. And the role of advisor when people want a good experience, and they want a customized experience, not a "One size fits all for the masses experience, that we can deliver to you because our algorithm says so." But someone who really understands, not just where the family is at but where they're headed, they can give customized advice around that. That's a different story. And that's where I think the opportunity for real estate agents and mortgage loan officers really to shine in this information era in which we live.
I agree. In fact, I think the most telling part of that is when you hear a customer and, or an agent, say like "These clients have become my friends," or "My agent is now part of my life." You know, when you start to plan a system around developing and nurturing that relationship over time, I mean, imagine when you even socially stock them. Right? Maybe because I connect with all the kids that I went to high school with via Facebook prior to Facebook, I was unable to do that. The same is true with our network and our sphere and our clients, our past clients. And so when you see that they have a new baby, how impactful would it be to send them a onesy that just said, "Hey, thinking of you, congrats on your new baby." I had a situation where I was speaking with an agent and I said, "Who's your top referer? Like, let's just look at who sends you the most business and what can we do to deepen those relationships?" He told me it was a person that I was familiar with and so we socially stocked them and it turned out that he was that weekend at the University of Oregon, orienting his daughter for her first year in college. They were getting set up in the dorms and so on and so forth. So I said, open up Amazon right now. I know you can search this book that says "What to expect as a parent that has a child first year in college." I said, "This is his firstborn daughter. That's a massive impact on something that's easy and simple to do." And what if we started treating our clients like that? Weddings, birthdays, you know, rather than just a birthday call, do something that's a little bit more special. We get paid really well in this business and I think that it's incumbent upon us to give back. Many of us serve on a high level and provide value, but what would it look like if we all invested back in our clients to ensure that we deepen those relationships?
That's the part that we're kind of ending with here is that control the sales funnel. Know your numbers so that you can serve people at a high level, right? And not so that you can turn and burn and get the JD power for most loans done in a year, but so that I can serve people at a really high level. And I think when that becomes the purpose behind the KPIs is because I know that when I bring people into my world, their world gets better. And if you really truly believe that, feel that, and I think that agents that listen and that are part of the Think Bigger Real Estate Community feel that way... that they generally feel like they can make an impact in people's lives for the better; That they can help improve their lives.
And if that becomes underlying purpose, great. Then how do I just get my arms around more people? How to bring more people into this mechanism that allows me to serve them at a high level, not just pour into them around areas of their life, like key milestones in life, but also be that key trusted advisor that gives them the customized advice. So anyway, it's good stuff, man. I really appreciate what you have to share and in modeling really how to mesh great humanity with a great business mind. And I think that's what's needed. That's the way forward. And I appreciate you sharing what you've shared. It's good stuff, man.
My pleasure. Always great content on your show. So I'm honored to have been invited. I appreciate it.
Yeah, you bet. Should people want to get in contact with you and learn more about these KPIs and learn from you. What's the best way to do that, Tony?
Tony@my mortgageguytony.com. A little bit of a mouthful, but pretty easy to find.
I love it. Good stuff. Tony@mymortgageguytony.com. If you have questions and want to learn from this guy now, I've learned a ton from him over the years. So, I appreciate you man, very much. And thanks everybody for tuning in to another episode of the Think Bigger Real Estate show and I look forward to our next episode and give me and Tony some love. If this has been helpful, please share it, comment on it, like it, all that good stuff. And thanks again, Tony.--appreciate you!
Alright everybody. Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate show. Boy, I feel honored today to have two people with me here today who are making quite the stir in the real estate industry and the kind of a stir that I think the real estate industry needs. I want to welcome today here on the show, Tonya Eberhart and Michael Carr. You may have heard of these names. They're bestselling authors of the book Brandface. We'll be talking a little bit more about that. A little more on their background here in just a second. Before I go into that, I want to talk about the problem that we're going to solve so, and you're going to want to know who these people are. So the problem that I see so often is, real estate agents chasing, hunting and the consumer feeling hunted, feeling chased, which is not necessarily a good position to be in. Whereas what Tonya and Michael teach is a way to brand yourself to where people chase you where people are anxious to try and find time to get on your schedule. I want to thank both of you for coming on today to discuss this very important topic.
Hey, thank you Justin. We are honored to be here. Thanks for having us.
Thank you so much.
Yeah. So, let's get a little bit more into your background and, and they've got such a comprehensive bio that I won't be able to cover it all. Let me start with you Tonya. You really have become synonymous with building brands in the real estate industry and really helping people stand out in this "sea of sameness." I love how you said that. That's so true here. You know, in the market where I work directly, there's over 8,000 real estate agents just in our city and very few of them really stand out. So many of them say the same things, market the same way, have the same tag lines, have the same posts. I mean, it just looks so much the same. I know that you really specialize in helping people stand out.
Yes, yes we do. So, you know, one of the things that I thought I'd start with Justin is kind of what's going on in today's real estate industry. And that is, it's no surprise to anybody listening today that there are tons of new agents coming into the industry. They're entering or reentering the industry. And then you also have lots and lots of new marketing platforms and tools out there that didn't even exist 10-15 years ago. So there's so many ways to market yourself, but the real problem comes when you mix those two together. You've got all these agents using all of these marketing tools and systems exactly the same way, right? To your point, everybody kind of then starts to look the same and that's why we refer to it as the sea of sameness. And that's not really coming from us. It's coming from all the agents we've been dealing with these last several years. They're saying, oh my gosh, everybody around here is marketing exactly the same. And when that happens they tend to kind of blame the marketing platform. Oh, Facebook ads doesn't work. Um, newspaper doesn't work. Radio doesn't work. Google ads don't work. Zillow doesn't work. Right?! And so that really is not always the truth, right? There are some platforms that are better than others, but most of the time if your ideal customers on the other end of that platform, it should work for you. Most of the time what hasn't happened is they haven't set themselves apart. They haven't differentiated themselves in such a way that they stand out from everybody else. And you've got to do that before you can expect to be treated differently.
You know, I'm a big fan of the book Blue Ocean Strategy and what you're talking about sounds sounds similar to that. You know, what they teach there and I'm sure your book, which I'm so excited to read by the way really takes a concept of standing out and really deeply applies it to the real estate industry. Like, how important is that?
Right? It does. And you know what I'm going to hand this one off to Michael because he's actually the first real estate professional that I worked with with the Brandface concepts and that's actually why he's a partner in the company today. So I'm going to hand that one off to Michael.
Hey Michael, before you get started, let me just share with the audience who you are. They're like, who is this Sean Connery looking figure in the middle of the screen. So, some context here. Michael is actually America's top selling real estate auctioneer and the 'Abundant Life Broker.' During your 26 years experience, you've been actively involved in over 74,000 transactions. Like that's phenomenal; And licensed in as many as 27 states in the Continental US. Now let's talk a little bit about how you guys met. You kind of alluded to it, Tonya, that you actually implemented these ideas in Michael's business. True?
It's absolutely true.
Yeah. The way that all worked out is I was an auctioneer by trade. I still am. And the guy that taught me the industry said, get your real estate license because you might want to call a sale, a farm sale or something like that in rural Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama. So I did. So, then I opened up a brokerage in 2000, but mainly I did it to buy my own stuff and help family members. I really wasn't pushing the idea of an arms length transaction brokerage. And then in 2006, I partnered with a company out of Irvine, California, and we brokered a deal in Georgia and it turned into the Bear Stearns residential portfolio when they went under and we thought they would end up being about three years worth of work. It turned out to be six or seven over the course of that time. And so that's where a lot of those licenses came from. I had an office in Atlanta, had an office in Irvine, California, and an office in Seattle, Washington. And we were just trying to liquidate these properties at the time and praying at the same time that our regular arms length transaction businesses would all come back because I was an investor first and a real estate agent/broker second. I was hoping for the recovery just as much as everybody else was but when that happened and we began to see that that was going to happen, I knew that I needed marketing. And so I went about it on my own and I said, okay, I need to stand out. I need to be different. I need people to notice who I am and why.
But I didn't have all those concepts actually pulled down into one concept of differentiation. I had an agent that helped me start the brokerage. She kept saying, you need to talk to my niece. She's in marketing, she's a genius. She's great, she's awesome. And by that time I was so passed it, I was like, I'd already had heard all the stories. I've heard about this is the path for us and none of them are going to work. Like I was too busy building systems and too busy doing this. And so at the same time she was going to Tonya saying, "Michael is expecting your call. Michael is expecting your call." Or, "You got to help Michael. He's waiting on you to help him." And so we laugh about it now because she's still with us but she sort of tricked me and Tonya in to coming together and then the rest is pretty much magic.
When she came into my life, told me what I needed to do I saw right quick, she knew what she was talking about and I'm like, "Okay, this is a person that can conceptualize all of the different platforms and media that you're using to try to get people to come to you and pull them into one message." She had already been doing that through Brandface for other professionals and businesses and she wanted to apply that to me in the real estate business and it continues to work. We still every day practice all of the Brandface principles in this brokerage and it continues to grow.
You know, I appreciate what you shared Michael because I think there's a lot of real estate agents that maybe fall into a similar category as you, which is they're really, really good at the business of real estate. They really understand how to serve people, but I think the disconnect that a lot of people recognize is that if nobody knows that about you, you're going to be constantly hunting. And what I hear you saying is that what Tonya did for you is she took your expertise and put it out to the world to where people recognize the value that you bring so that you could spend less time out chasing and looking for the next deal and more time in your sweet spot, which is serving people at a really high level.
I would definitely say that's well put. That's really well put. That's the idea of it. You know, there's a cost of confusion. And I think that agents get wrapped up in that and they don't really know. They don't have a purpose in getting in every day in the office and in seeking out their ideal customers in ways that while they're working, their ideal customers are seeking them out. And Brandface is all about that. It's all about stopping this blanket of advertising that doesn't say anything except for "I'm in real estate." And it pairs it down to a message to seek out those people for you that are seeking your specific niche in real estate. And it's so important. And then in time you are known for that and people start contacting you for that, for those points of differentiation and like you said, you can reside in a greater fashion why you got into the business, which was helping people with their real estate needs.
The cost of confusion. That's a quotable comment right there, Michael. You're right. I think we probably don't recognize how expensive that really is. How many people would love to use agent X's services. Right?! But they don't stand out. They don't know what that person specializes in. Therefore they don't choose them. That gets really costly when you're talking about real estate commissions.
Let me give you another scenario. You walk into a restaurant and there's Justin a real estate agent, there's Tonya a real estate agent and there's Michael the real estate agent. It would be better that you be known what you're the real estate agent for. "That's the real estate agent that skydives." You know, there's Justin, the real estate agent that does the podcast." And all of a sudden that point of differentiation just elevates you and even though you're in the group of competitors that everybody knows you're in the real estate business, but they don't know exactly what for, or exactly what separates you. But when you can define that and then start putting that into your content, people can find you online and they can understand, "Oh, okay, I get it. I get their principles. I see where they're coming from. I understand and see their heart, their family, their life mixed in with their business and I want to do business with that person." And then you become attractable for a specific reason.
Well, the burden for real estate agents to try and figure that out by themselves and understand all the platforms and be able to still be an effective real estate agent, that's asking a lot, right? I mean I can see the value proposition that you guys bring to the table, which is allow the agent to just be who they are and be really good at it and let us help extract from that agent what makes them unique, what their niche really is and then begin to publish that out to the world so that people can recognize and find you. True?
Dead on.
Absolutely true. And I like to say a little bit more about that, Justin because somebody said, I wish I could take credit for this quote but I can't. Someone said to me one time, "It's hard to see the label when you're inside the jar." And that's so true because it's hard for us to look inside ourselves and see truly what sets us apart. And so to have somebody from the outside looking in that has been doing that for so many years to say, "Okay, I see these great things about you both professionally and personally," because that's what a personal brand is too. It's not just about your accomplishments or the things that set you apart in real estate. It is about your personal life too. And I think you did a podcast about business or family. There was something similar to that topic not long ago that I thought was fascinating because you talked about the fact that you were upset that someone had said something about the fact they want to be known for being a marketer and they didn't really want being a dad on their tombstone. Right? But, but we look at it very differently. It's like, what else sets you apart other than being human, right? Because you can line up 500 real estate agents and they could all have the same technical professional qualifications. But what else is it that makes you want to do business with them? And on the back of our book it says people don't do business with a logo. They do business with a person. And that's what we focus on. We go a little deeper into opening up the personal side just a little bit. So when you walk into a room, people know you beyond just being a real estate agent. Let's face it, that's boring a lot of times, you know, how many real estate conversations does somebody want to walk up to you and carry on?
Not too many, but they will walk up to you and say, "Hey, I heard your podcast on this...." or "I saw that you went hang gliding the other day," or "I see all of your posts about the positive things that you're doing in the community." Something along those lines is so much more powerful and adds to wanting to do business with an individual.
So good. So good. Now, Tonya, you didn't necessarily start off understanding this branding concept and I want to close with this because I think it's super important for people to recognize maybe where I think the real estate industry has gone and I don't know that it's necessarily the best place for them to go. Now your background, uh, is, long, long ago, right before you developed this brand expertise, you were actually the person knocking on people's doors wanting to sell them vacuum cleaners. True story?
That's a true story. And for anybody who wants to know it was Electrolux and it is still the world's greatest vacuum cleaner. Always a salesmen, right? I started doing that to pay my way through college and then I happened upon the house of a radio station engineer one day who said, "Hey, there's a sales position open at a radio station. I think you'd be great for it." And so that catapulted into the next level of personal branding. So first I started out selling vacuum cleaners and I realized really quickly I had to have a story when I went up to that door. Otherwise, I'm just like everybody else knocking on the door. But my story was, "Hi, I'm Tonya. I'm a student at Florida State University. I'm paying my way through college selling vacuum cleaners door to door. I'm not asking you to buy one. I just want to demonstrate one and I get points for every demonstration."
And so that got me in the door and I realized, "Okay, that story worked." You know, that was true of course, but it was telling that story. Then I went into radio actually ended up taking that job and stayed in radio 18 years after that. Very early on in radio was where really the personal branding bug really got me. When I noticed that these local business owners were walking into networking events and they were almost like rock stars. And I thought, what on Earth is going on? And I realized those were people that were the voice of their business. They were the face of their business. They were the spokesperson of their business. And so that's where Brandface came from--the face of your brand.
I love it.
So, when I noticed the things that they had in common, they were doing really three different things which we teach today and we call it the three D's: define, develop and display.
First of all, you've got to define what sets you apart. You know, what is it that separates you from the pack and at the same time will attract your ideal customers. Second, you've got to develop a personal brand wrapped around that point of differentiation. That means everywhere you've got to develop that. You've got to make sure your photos display that image. You want to display your imagery, the photos that you use, your logo, your brand colors, your messaging, which basically is your way to communicate what sets you apart. Once you get those puzzle pieces together, then you make sure your new brand is displayed correctly and consistently across all of your marketing platforms because it is the consistency that really brings the results. So that's what I learned from vacuum cleaners then radio. And that has been the common thread through my entire professional life.
This evolution of your own understanding of how brands are found has been fascinating. I hope that there are some real estate agents in the audience today that are recognizing the fact that, "Boy, I'm showing up a lot like a vacuum cleaner salesperson and I really need to be showing up as a celebrity walking into a room," and say, "Is that the guy?" or "Is that the gal that's... Oh, I've heard of them before. I'd love to work with them. Hopefully they're not too busy for me." Right?As opposed to, "Oh, who's at the door?" Right?.
Yeah. We always like to say, your brand precedes you. And so you want to make sure it's super strong and it portrays what you want to portray--the authenticity inside of you. It really needs to portray that. So that's, that's truly important. Justin
You know, I think the way forward for real estate agents to maintain their margins is to be better at branding, to be more professional and to really understand these principles that you're talking about. I think it's super generous what you've done, which is offered people that are listening to this an opportunity to go to this website, which is: discussyourbrand.com. So, tell us a little bit about what agents will find when they go there, Tonya.
Well we made it super easy for you. So basically you get access to our personal calendars, right? So, you'll see the calendar there and you just pick a time slot. You want to talk about your brand and what that's for, it's for agents who are really serious about setting themselves apart. We will discuss your challenges on the call. We'll discuss any goals that you have. We'll make sure to help give you solid direction on how to get to where you deserve to be because everybody deserves that that stardom inside of you. We like to say, "We don't make stars, we unveil them." And everybody deserves to be a star.
So this isn't just a here, download this paper. Hopefully this will help you. This is an actual conversation.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yep.
So generous. Like I said, it's really an honor for me to have you guys on the show today offering such value to the Think Bigger Real Estate audience. Again, I believe this is what real estate agents need and I wouldn't have you on here and endorse you if I didn't feel like this was really good for the industry. Even hearing more of your story just compels me to want to say, "Please reach out to these wonderful individuals." Take advantage of the help that they're offering. If you plan to be in the business for 3, 5, 10 years from now and beyond, then you need to develop a brand. It's the future of real estate. If you want to be paid well... You can go the route of more like a Barista, right? And open up doors for a certain dollar per hour and I believe there is part of the industry that will go that way, but I believe that there's part of the industry that's going to understand what you guys are teaching and they're going to carve out a very profitable niche for themselves and have a great life with great impact moving forward--which is my mission. And I'm super excited and grateful to have you guys here on the show. So thank you Michael and Tonya both, for your time and attention today. It's meant a lot to me and to my audience and just, thank you so much.
Hey, we love your positivity and we're honored to be on the show. Thank you so much. Yes,
Thank you, Justin.
Well, hey, we will do it again. I look forward to staying in touch with you guys and again, please go take advantage of this really generous offering and I'm looking forward to the value that is going to come to this audience.
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart and I am so excited today to introduce to you somebody who was recently introduced to me who has just created a magnificent legacy in real estate. She's the kind of person that is giving back to the community and I'm privileged and honored to have her here sharing with the Think Bigger Real Estate audience today. So I want to start by welcoming Kendra Cooke to the show. Kendra, welcome. Thank you for coming on today.
Thank you so much Justin. I'm very excited to be here.
Thank you. So, a little background on Kendra. Kendra has been serving annually over a hundred families on a consistent basis while working, this is the kicker, while working less than 40 hours. I'm so excited to dig into that because that's not what most people experience or think is a reality if you're serving that many families. In addition to that Kendra also serves as senior leadership within The Core Training for real estate agents. So again, not only is she producing at a very high level, but she's giving back and serving and coaching and training at a very high level. So again, thank you for being here Kendra. I know some of the questions that are probably in the minds of people is, number one, where do your leads come from? To serve over a hundred families a year, there's got to be some sort of online lead generation mechanism. True or false?
False.
False?
No generated leads from the Internet, 100% percent referral based business.
Wow, and over a hundred families and that's coming by referral.
That's right. And so what you should really try to achieve in your career is to build a relationship based business. So building relationships with people and casting a deeper net versus a wider net. So what I figured out is if I would work with people who knew, liked, and trusted me from the get-go, then they respected my boundaries, they respected my family time, they respected me. And so there wasn't that disconnect. And you shouldn't show me houses 24-7 and you shouldn't always be on call. I got to work with people who, when they were referred to me, were like "Hey, so and so said you are the best I should work with you." So it goes from a relationship of selling them to a relationship of building deeper relationships which warrants continued referrals.
I love what you said Kendra. I want to go into this a little bit more and expound upon your analogy here of "instead of a wider net, a deeper net." Now, I'm not a deep sea fisherman, but I know well enough that these big fish fishing boats in Alaska, they don't just have nets on the surface, but they have nets that go down very deep because that's where the better fish are at.
That's right. We want to chase the bigger fish, right? So you want to have business partner relationships, you want to have VIP relationships and then you will have your database relationships. And so when we talk about going deeper, it's not a surface relationship. So the people that are in my business referral network, or in my VIP group, I know their families, their children, their hobbies, their charities. I want to be in the flow with them if you will. So, you know, if we're going to a charity event and I know somebody is very passionate about that charity event and they are a business partner, referral partner or whatever, I want to bring them with us. So now we connect on a deeper level. Real estate has become such a transactional business for the most part because leads come in from the Internet. We don't really have a relationship. We have a transaction, we get the money and we run to the bank and it's over. And it was always really shocking to me that we tell everyone we want to be your Realtor for life, yet when the transaction is over, we're done. And so I just found that is a really crazy concept. So I feel like if I stayed in relationship with these people and we connected on a common bond, whether it was community involvement or I'm a runner. You might see the medals back there. I love to run, I love to meet people in the community that run. I love to run for charity. So if I can bond on a connection with the charity or a hobby or a community involvement, that relationship is just really consummated on a relationship versus a transaction, if you will.
I love that. So valuable to the real estate community to hear what you're sharing right now. You segmented your database into three different parts. Would you go over that again?
Yes. So the general database is about 400 people in our general database. These are people who have bought and sold with us. Maybe my kids' families or their friends and family. So, their contacts, if you will. I'm one relationship with them, but maybe not deep relationships. Those people may refer you once every three to five years. Okay. So if you have 400 people, let's say you get 15-20% of those that refer every single year. We didn't generate some leads for you but not a plethora of leads. And then we go to the business partnerships that we have and those are people who can refer you a couple times a year. They have the opportunity, whether they're a financial planner or a banker or private banker or something like that.
And then my VIPs are really people that I'm really, really, really in the flow with, meaning that they might refer me four to eight times a year. So that could be a builder or that could be a developer. That could be somebody that you really connect with on all levels of life and they're continuously filling you with referrals. So I think you really have three buckets, if you will. I know when I first got in real estate, my bucket was just to chase everybody and there's only so many hours in the day. I want better relationships and deeper relationships versus just throwing myself out there for everybody. So those are my three buckets if you will, my VIPs who are really in the trenches with us and are very heavy on helping us lead gen, the business referral partners who have three to five per person per year. Then your database is going to turn over some general leads for you every single year.
Those three groups right there are responsible for helping you serve over a hundred families a year.
That's it. That's it. I don't buy any leads from anyone. I won't say I've never tried it. We tried it with a partnership with a lender one time. They're like, we're going to generate all these leads and it was the most miserable 30 days of my life for me and my team. And I just at that point said, that's not my business model.
Let's talk about that a little bit. It's probably a perfect segue into the next topic we wanted to cover, which is creating boundaries. I would imagine that those 30 days were miserable because those boundaries that you had set up so well started to disappear. True?
Yes, and that usually happens when you come from fear or a scarcity mindset, if you will. Where's my next deal going to come from? Where's my next lead going to come from? So, every time the phone rang, you jump. Or every time somebody wants to see a house, even into 7:30 at night, when you're in the middle of dinner with a family member or friends, you have to jump and go. And those boundaries go out out the window. And when you get referral business referred into you, it's usually, "Hey, you saw my neighbor's house, took great care of them, you're involved in the community, etc." When I sit down and do my listing presentation I say "These are our work hours, 8:30 to 5 and we work by appointment only on Saturday. We're closed on Sunday." People accept that. Just set the expectation and tell them what it looks like and then just adhere to it. But what happens is maybe business slows down a little bit and we start letting our guard down. And somebody texted you at seven o'clock at night and you text them back. You just gave them permission to text you at seven o'clock for the rest of the relationship. And when you start breaking down those boundaries, you start losing time with your family, resenting the business. It's not as fun. So you definitely have to set those boundaries up front, lay out the expectations, and then go from there.
And because you've come referred, the fact that you have business hours, people are willing to accept that. Whereas if it were a lead coming in from some online lead source, you're competing against people that will drop everything and go. And so to that audience saying, "My hours are 8:30 to 5," you're gonna, you're gonna get slaughtered. Right? Whereas when you've come referred, the person referring you is saying, "Hey, this person is the best. They're worth waiting for." And people see you more as a professional, right as opposed to a salesperson who they can run ragged. It's a professional worth waiting for.
Right? Well, and there's not that loyalty. Listen, if I refer you to the person who cuts my hair, I'm loyal to that person who cuts my hair. So if I'm going to refer you to them, I'm going to expect you to also be loyal to them, right? And so if you take the appointment, there's that commonality, if you will, that "Hey if so and so trusted them, then I trust them." And so I'm not having to cut my commission or work after hours. I'm not going to say I've never worked till seven o'clock at night. Don't get me wrong, I did it all wrong. I had to fix it. So I'm not saying I always had it perfect, but I think when you start working with people that refer you, they set the expectation for you. Yet. Like you said, there worth the wait. "She doesn't work on Sundays, but Monday through Friday she'll give you 110%." I think when you come highly referred, it's a whole different ballgame.
Wow. You really do get to have not just the business you want but the life you want too. Right?
Right.
I know you're also passionate about eliminating the inconsistencies. I mean we see in our business, the title and escrow industry. We have, now that it is springtime there are commission checks going out. There was a time where there weren't many going out. Some agents were still getting paid, many were not. Talk to us about how you help agents eliminate those inconsistencies.
Well, a lot of it is working a time-block schedule; having a start time, having a go-home time, having a daily team meeting--basically who's on first. But the most valuable thing that we teach is consistent power hour. So prospecting consistently and Realtors are notorious for, "Oh my gosh, we're so busy right now. Well, you know, put that power hour or that prospecting time on the back burner." And we won't worry about that right now because we have all this business and then we get all this business closed and we look over there and we're like, oh my gosh, we have nothing in the pipeline. So then we have to start prospecting. But what you're doing today is not going to warrant a paycheck for 30, 45 or 60 days down the road. So when you stop prospecting for 30 days to close what's in front of you, the next 30, 45, 60 days, is going to be scarce.
So we have that, "Oh my gosh, my best month ever!" "Oh my gosh, I'm starving to death." "Oh my gosh, I got the plaque on the wall." "Oh my gosh, can somebody lend me lunch money." Right. And that sounds crazy, but that's real estate a lot because we have so much inconsistency. So, you know, one of the things that I teach is you cannot remove your power hour off your time block schedule. You have to have a power hour every day. And most people get one hour and then they start thinking, "Oh my gosh, this is really fun." And then they go to two and the three and to four and it gets easier. But from the beginning agent to the top agent, at least one hour a day, you have to put that time into building relationships, looking for leads, you know, planting seeds, cultivating. So you always have that steady lead gen coming in so you don't have those inconsistencies in your income, if you will.
Well that's I think one of the biggest challenges for real estate agents to face. And I think a lot of them have accepted it as, "This is just the way the business is." And what I'm hearing you say is, "It doesn't have to be that way." I had spoken with one of my favorite clients who recently said things are happening for her and I said, "What created such good results?" And she said, "We were really consistent with our lead generation 60 to 90 days ago and we're seeing it now." I said, "Well, what's the biggest thing on your plate right now? What are you facing where I might be able to be of help? What's on your mind?" And she said, honestly, it's just keeping the mindset to keep my foot on the pedal when it comes to lead generation because I know that what I did 90 days ago isn't going to last forever and I've got to be continuing to do it in order to continue to see those results. And that was the biggest thing she was having to say to herself, "Don't let up, don't let up, don't let up, don't let up, because I know what happens if I do."
Yeah. And it happens in every industry. Retail has the booms and the lows and a lot of it is the inconsistency in their marketing. All of us that do it. I think it's a mindset of, "Hey, I'm super busy right now. Why am I going to spend the money to do my mailers," or "Why am I going to pay for advertising?" And you know they have the Christmas boom and then the lull and the Valentine's Day boom and then the lull and then the Mothers Day. We do the same thing. And don't say, "Nobody buys a house around Christmas," or we say that in our mind, but December is one of the biggest relocation months of the year. And so if you psych yourself out in October saying, "Well, I'm not going to prospect from now til the first of the year because nobody's moving anywhere anyway," you're missing a piece of the pie. You have to prospect every single day of every single month. That's what we do. That's sales. And so I think that when I hear it's all about inconsistencies, I'm like, I can put that once a week in your business and it'll take a little time to get some consistency. But once you get it, don't take your foot off the gas. Don't!
I love that. So much value, Kendra. I want to thank you for taking time to come and pour into the Think Bigger Real Estate audience.
Yes, sooner than not. Thank you again. Thanks everybody for tuning in.
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm your host Justin Stoddart and I am thrilled today, I'm absolutely thrilled today, to have with me a legendary real estate trainer, coach, leader, Mr. Don Hobbs. Anybody who's been in the industry for any period of time will know Don's name. In fact, prior to real estate he was, in fact, we were just talking about his personal relationship with Jim Rohn and Tony Robbins, which are some of the biggest minds in personal development. So before we get into the topic, I just want to thank you, Don for taking some time to be here in porn into the audience today.
Hey Justin, I'm so happy to be here. I love your energy. I love who you are and what you're doing and I'm thrilled. It's always a fun thing to get a chance to talk to a group like this.
It's awesome. Well, I know they're going to be thrilled to hear what you have to share with them today. So let's dive in. The way I've set up today's conversation is that there are agents in the country that Don knows, that Don's coached, that are not lowering their commissions amidst industry disruption, they're raising their commissions. They're going 7%, 8%, 9%, even 10%. Is that feasible? It almost seems like that could not be possible in a world where you've got 1% listing offerings everywhere you go on all the billboards and buses that drive by, right?
Or Redfin or whoever, right?
Whoever. Yeah. How are people doing this Don? Is this real. You're telling me that, you know people that are doing this and they're having success with it, not just once on an unassuming buyer or seller. Like they're doing it, they demand that.
Yeah, in fact it was just funny you went for that right away because that's such an interesting thing. There's so much pressure and there's so much sameness amongst Realtors and Justin, that's the challenge, right? We're just a giant commodity group. You know, if you think about any commodity, I don't care if it's, you know, I can buy Lexus here, a Lexus there, but here it's $1,000 cheaper. I mean, if things are the same, then price is the only thing that matters. When things are not the same, we don't mind paying more for more. We don't mind. We don't mind paying more for it--a brand we trust a name we know. But we do mind paying more for the same. And that's the challenge. And Realtors have made themselves that way. So I think the biggest thing I would say is it's really about branding and, and really about building something that people can identify with and hold on to is "She's the expert." Or, he knows my market. He is the guy, or she is the gal, you know that makes it work and we're not afraid to pay for that. I had somebody the other day where I walked in and he said, his listing contract is already filled out at 7%, and he was concerned about the commission and he thought it was going to be a pressure down. And they said, "We thought you'd be more." I just laughed my butt off when I heard that. I was like, how cool is that to think that the expectation of value was so high, they were shocked and surprised pleasantly at 7%. It's really cool, but that has to do with the brand. And you can't do that by just being a Realtor. You can't do that by being one of the multitude. You can't do that by doing what most Realtors do. You can't. It's not going to happen, right?
I love that. You and I have studied some of the same sources and there's this concept about becoming an expert. And I know that's one thing that you, when you coach and teach and train, it's how do people, as you identified, separate themselves from the masses and truly become an expert. Let's talk about this concept of gaining expertise so that one can be moving in the direction that these agents you're talking about are moving, which is we're not lowering our prices. And if in fact we may be doubling down on our value, therefore we're more valuable and can charge more.
Yeah, absolutely. I know you and I talked about a book that we both like and, and have in our libraries called Expert Secrets. So let's start with a recommendation. Let's give our man Russell Brunson a good plug right there and sell some books. But you know, Russell Brunson has got this concept of being the attractive character, the interesting character. You know, that person, and I think that agents don't see themselves that way, which you realize today if you look around, if you're at all observant, you see that there are people with less talent in almost any industry that have made themselves somebody by raising their profile and becoming the expert. One thing I want to make sure, and again, I'm certainly going to promote that the agent needs to get to be good. I mean, they need to be an expert. They need to find out, you know, what that niche is and then everything about that group and that style o property or whatever it is. But the biggest thing is remember that we don't find out if you're good or not good until after we've called you. So the reality is that only leads to the legend of more. By the way, thanks for the word legend. It makes me feel, when you said that was, I think that means I'm old, but I'm alive. I'm living legend, so it's okay. It makes them the legend that this is who we need to call. So it's more the, how we get people, the perception of expertise. That makes me feel like they're the answer to my problem--the solution to my real estate needs. Right, and it comes down to how do we become somebody's Realtor, Justin, before they actually need one. And most Realtors don't think that way. They're like, how do I get to them just as they need one how do I get to be one of the three or four or five being interviewed and I'm saying, how do we just eliminate the competition and get them to call and say, Justin, come list me. Right. That's, that's the end all be all. Yeah, there's Nirvana.
Yeah, where you have somebody calling saying "Don, do you have time to come list my house? I know you're really busy. I know you are highly sought after." Yeah.
And when they do that, what happens, and this is what's so perfect about this scenario is, I call you and say "Come list me." When you come, you're not having to justify your price. You're not having to tell me all the things you're going to do. There's no over promising because it's almost like whenever you do that sells everything we see around here, do that for us. That's what happens when you reach that level of brand and recognition.
And we talked a little bit about that first step in Expert Secrets, right? It's becoming an attractive character. And we're not talking about your physique and how good your hair looks, it's really about taking on a persona and taking on this level of expertise, this leader role, right to where people know that you can get them from where they are to where they want to be and you've positioned yourself over time repeatedly to where people recognize that if I'm here and I want to be there, then Don is the one to get me there. That this agent is the one to get me there. And you become this attractive character to them that you're the missing link in the story that I want to create.
Yeah. That's awesome. Looking at the comments, Chris. I don't know who Chris is but...
Yeah, Chris Angel. Chris Angel. Hey, Chris is validating the way I introduced you and Chris is the real deal. So there you go, Don.
Yes, I think you're right on with Justin. It's really how we get people to see the things, and by the way today, where it used to be that you had to be an expert and then it would take a long time for that expertise to be known, today it's video, it's social media. There are so many ways of demonstrating and it's not bragging, it's personal branding, personal marketing. Any of this that we're talking about becoming that expert is not about bragging and boasting. It's really about demonstrating value. It's about demonstrating who we are. And then it's about presence. How often, if I see you a lot then you must be good. If I see you a lot, you must be a pro. If I see you a lot, then the mind says there's my solution, right? It must be the answer because it's an answer for a lot of people. And so that's literally what we're trying to build is that, that impression, that perception.
I love it. I love it. So the other thing discussed in this book is, is moving to a cause, right? Being cause based as opposed to just doing a profession. It's actually having a mission, being mission based or caused base. How do you see that show up, Don, and people that you coach when they take on real estate in a different way where it's less about "I do this for a living, but it becomes more of a mission and a cause." I'm sure that's kind of part of what you coach and teach people to do.
It is. Right now we're working on a very cool campaign with somebody about their faith based mission and the things that she does that they just see her as such a giver. They want to give to her. And that's so powerful. I'll tell you a fun story. I'm driving through the city streets of Denver, Colorado years ago. Some people have heard this story because it's an old one, but I'm driving through the city streets on my way to a seminar. And on the way I passed this guy on the street who's pulling a poster board that says, "Will sell real estate for food." This is the real deal. It's not a joke, right? But, but I'm passing him on a busy street. I can't stop, but I'm thinking I'm going to a seminar to try and find that guy who's willing to put themselves out there and do wacky stuff and really grab attention.
Right? I wanted to stop and go, "Who are you?" So I get to the group and I'm querying about this guy. And of course nobody likes him, "Oh, that guy. He's degrading our industry. He's horrible... Blah, blah, blah." So about three weeks, none of them know that the story though, all they do is rag on him and just hate him, which is what happens when you're unique. And, so three weeks later, in the mail I get this newspaper, which is the Cherry Creek, so the local, not the Denver Post, but that's localized, you know, local newspaper. On the front cover of the whole newspaper, there's this guy's picture, top of fold, which is prime real estate. And it shows a picture of this guy and the article on page four, a full page article.
And of course when you read it two things are true. One is A), you can't buy the front page B) you can't probably afford to buy a full page article. And yet this guy had it. Now, when you read the article, it was about him, pledging to donate 10% of his personal commissions to the Food Bank of the Rockies. So he in fact sells real estate for food.
Brilliant.
Right?! And in an upscale market. Alison, the love of my life, she's got her a Condo Contessa and in that she gives 5% to Austin Angels, which is for foster kids. And so that's a big part of her campaign, or by the way the charity of the client's choice. So Austin Angels or your choice, right? So we're finding more and more people going in that direction. I think it's a great way. You look at Whole Foods, you look at Tom's Shoes, you look at so many companies that have really become conscious and are really moving that direction. I think it's absolutely even Amazon by the way, has a program for doing that. So I think, yeah, I think it's powerful.
I do too. When you move from being an agent to, to being mission based it is powerful. Yes. The other thing I want to, I want to touch on here is about creating a new opportunity. That's something else that Russell Brunson discusses in his book Expert Secrets is not just having an "I also help people negotiate a buy or a sale, but creating a new opportunity. And I want to set this up with a story that I shared with you. I was with an insurance agent earlier this week and he told me the story that he and his family are preparing to go on this trip of a lifetime to Europe. They're going to go see Stonehenge. They've got all these places they want to see. And he thought to himself, "I'm a smart guy, I've got access to the Internet, I'm going to do research. I'll book the trip and I'll figure it out.
And he said, "I went online and there was so much information that I got lost. I got overwhelmed because there's so many reviews and so many options." And he said, "I finally decided I need a travel agent. I need somebody to help me."
And I think in today's world, sometimes we use travel agencies as being a prime example of an industry that got disrupted and they are no more. And that is true of the masses, right? Those that didn't follow Don's advice of standing out and becoming an expert and being unique, they did what everybody else did all the way down until there was no margin, there was nothing left. Whereas some of them created this profitable niche. And now, people go to the Internet and there not a shortage of information, but there's a shortage of an advisor, helping them interpret that information and make good decisions with it. Let's compare that to real estate, Don. As maybe the new opportunity that's out there that will help these agents start to take on this role of expert and be able to be more valuable to their clients.
Yeah, that's great. Great, great, great topic. So I've always talked about the fact that you need to be different to stand out and so you know there's the guy on the street corner and that stands out, right? There's things that you can do that make you that way. Most people don't have the creative mind for it. They're so busy following the followers and by the way, don't follow Realtors, they are primarily broke. I mean that's not where we want to follow. We want to think outside that box. And so to your point, one of the things that I've noticed is we have to get people to start finding their niche market. And it's so counterintuitive because we think that by going after something specific, we're going to lose the masses. And I'm always joking with them, last night I did a talk and I said, you know, you imagine that you're going to lose all this market like you had any of it. You know what I'm saying? It's kind of like they imagine all the three deals they would've lost instead of the massive amount of influence they can have in one arena. And one of my old friends, Alan Dom was like Alison in which she focuses on condos in downtown Austin. But Alan was in Philadelphia and the Condo King was his mantra or slogan and literally in one building, Justin, I've never heard anybody else do this. In one building now that had 53 listings taken and 52 were his in a whole year. He had 97% market share for that year. And of course then it was expandable to the next building and the next building and the next building. So what happened is he had 97% and 76% and 57%. I mean, as he kept stacking on buildings you know, he did 1200 transactions a year. He's probably higher than that now.
But the bottom line is it's all of that niche playing. And if you were to talk to him, in fact, NAR did an article on him a few years back and what he said was, "I get offers all the time to do all kinds of real estate. People all over Philadelphia call me." But I don't take anything that's not condos. And I refer that out and take a split commission and I stay focused. Realtors are so busy looking, searching, seeking, trying to get the next deal that they'll go anyplace, do anything. I've got a listing 40 miles that direction, 20 miles that direction and a buyer, they're running around town in that direction. I mean they're so desperate. Get out of the scarcity mindset, focus on one thing, really get known for something. There's your expertise by the way. And in that, do you think he can charge more? I mean, do you think he can walk into a condo and charge 10%? I guarantee he can. So this is where we start to really separate what the normal agent does from the rockstars.
I love what you've said and that's a really powerful example that there's an opportunity cost. Every time we say "yes," we're also say "no" to something else and if it's not our niche, then we're going to pay a price for that and we might not know what that price is until we look at an example like you just described. If somebody that said "No to single family residences...," "No to this... not that, not that... because all of that allows me to say "Yes to condos." "Yes, yes, yes." And it becomes, like you said, your brand and your niche and people have to go to you because you're the one who spends all of your time and efforts and energy building the associations and the network and the expertise in that particular area.
Yeah, for sure. That's exactly what it is. And, and I think when people get the simplicity of that, like I would almost say anybody who wants to start a real estate business, I don't care if they're brand new a lot of times they'll go, "Well, let me get some general real estate experience and then I'll figure out what my niche is going to be." And I'm saying like, "What do you want to own? Name it, call it your it." And you know what made the Condo King the Condo King? Had he ever sold a Condo? Did he sell more condos? It's like it doesn't matter. You claim it, it happens and then it's self proclaimed right, it's self sustaining. So I think for you, for all of us, we just need to say that's almost a first step: Identify the market.
When I do seminars I identify it differently and I actually give them an Avatar to avatar questions to really get into like, who am I looking for? This is really the essence of today's success because you're right, there are way too many agents out there. And just like the travel industry we are being thinned out and there's "the haves" and "have nots" and the haves are doing the smart things and it makes sense. It's so counter intuitive and so if you're fear based, it's going to be real hard to let go and really succeed at the highest levels.
Well then, I think that's maybe a perfect segue into the fact that you're coming to Portland, Oregon. And so if you work in Oregon, the state of Oregon, Washington, or any of the nearby states, you're going to get to hear Don give a presentation called The Brand of YOU. I've been asked, and I feel super honored to emcee the event and I'm excited to have you spend an hour going into depth on what we've just scratched the surface on and are really helping agents identify how to build this brand to where they really stand out in the marketplace and they don't have to be fearful of "Do I keep lowering my commissions" and be in that race to the bottom, but creating such value that their clients are surprised when their prices AREN'T higher. Like what a great place to be and what incredible information you're going to share with people. I'm so excited to hear more.
Well I'm, I'm super excited too and I'm glad you're going to emcee it as I really wait to get your energy mixed in with us. It will be spectacular. I'll have a great evening. As I remember, it's kind of an evening event. We're going to get into, and it's a short time. It's not a one day or two day program, but it does get into where we can talk about these very issues and where do we start that process and then what are some of the tools. I always look at it, Justin, that there was, and I'll cover this of course, but there's the niche, there's the target, there's the strategy--how do I get to them...what does that look like? Then there's the tools and then there's the execution.
And unfortunately what most agents get hung up on is the tools. I'm doing direct mail, I'm doing email, I'm doing social media. So to what end with what focus? With what purpose? With, you know, like how do you know if it's a, a good post or a bad post based on what? You don't know your target market, so how would it be based on anything? So we really try and take them from that. We'll be talking about some of those very specific things they can do and you know how they can get their presence way up and get seen way different than they are today. So we're going to have some time to do that. I look forward to it big time and we'll get in some of the tools the tricks and even the mindset because so much of it starts here, right?
We're not going to change your actions until we change your thought process and how we see ourselves and what we are building. We just started an agent in Austin with our team and I said to her, "Today, you're looking for your first deal and in 10 years, the sad part is you could be looking for your next deal. And if you do it right, you won't have to worry about that. And if you do it wrong, you'll be looking for your next deal or you won't be here. Yeah. Right. Does that make sense?
Yeah, absolutely.
That's what we're going to do. So I'm excited about it. I'm really pleased and I agree with you. Anybody that's within driving distance come down because it's going to be a fun event. We're going to be in a cool place with some cool cars and there's an auto collection. I think it's not a showroom, but it's, you know, awesome. Who knows. I'm going to see Mercedes and Ferraris and all kinds of fun stuff in there. And we're going to have a little Don Hobbs time. We're going to have a little Justin Stoddart time and, and I think it will be a really fun event.
That'll be awesome. I love what you shared about the mindset piece. That's really the premise on which Think Bigger Real Estate is about. There are so many tactics out there that people get lost. I've even spoken with some of my closest friends and clients and they're like, "Justin, it's almost overwhelming how many things there are that you could do to generate businesses as a real estate agent." And so I have to think it's not about the "how to," it's not about just the skill set. It's also about mindset. And a big mission that I'm on is to help grow the people so that they have the capacity to choose and implement the right tactics. So anyway,
I'm going to tell you that if we ever get a chance to talk, if we ever get a chance to do something, my time with Jim Rohn and the time, the years that I've had, I'd love to contribute to that Think Big part because there's so much that we can do with our different thinking that will change everything in our lives. So I love what you're doing. It's fantastic. Thanks for even including me today.
Yeah, no, it's been a total pleasure. And I'll tell you, Jim Rohn, between he and Stephen Covey, were probably,... I credit them for getting me down a path where I fell in love with personal development and I fell in love with bringing it to other people. So I'm so excited that I'm now one, just one person removed from the late Jim Rohn, which is exciting. And I can see, much of the inspiration that he brought shining through you. So thank you again for your time, my friend. What a, what a joy. This has been and I can't wait to meet you in person. And we've got a lot of great people here that, said some great things in the comments: Anne Stewart said, "Don is the expert on this. I've learned so much from him." And she is such a great person and producer and that says a lot.
And then again, Chris Angell said, And that's why you're a legend. You've taught this for so long and this is how human nature works." Thank you so much Chris. Maybe we can convince you to make a trip to Portland and come be with us at this event. So anyway, thank you everybody for your comments and others as well and I want thank everybody for tuning in to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show where my mission again, is to help grow you so that you can grow your business. So thanks again Don. It's been a pleasure and I look forward to our next conversation.
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. You're going to notice again that my voice is kind of sexy today. I won't to ask for forgiveness because I know some of you will probably enjoy it. This time of year, we're coming up on the end of the first quarter, and we're at a point where we're checking in to see how we're doing. Hopefully if you're like me, you have a business plan and that business plan had specific goals as to what you wanted to achieve for the year. You probably then broke that business plan down into quarterly and even monthly milestones, or checkpoints. And we can see the end of March. It's just over a week away. And, in that timeframe we have Spring Break. So some of you may be taking off and want to be cognizant of maybe lesser activities during that time.
So right now might be a good time for you to evaluate to see how your first quarter went. And if you're like me, maybe you ran into some things that you didn't expect. I've been out for the past number of days. Maybe that's why you haven't heard from me and why I'm even broadcasting from home today, because I didn't want to get anybody sick. So thank you, or you're welcome that I canceled some appointments with some of you... and kept it with some of you other people. I'm sorry for those of you with whom I didn't cancel. But it was actually per your request that you thought you could handle it. So, I want to go through four points really quickly, as to what you can do, what we can do, if we find ourselves behind on our goals.
So, the first thing that you should not do is, say, "Well, I guess this is going to be a lesser year, so I'm going to adjust my plan down or I'm going to adjust my goals down to meet reality because this is, this is the reality, right?" Because that's what happens a lot of times as we get into this mindset of, "Well, I had these plans but then I got sick," or then the market did this..." So, we start backpedaling on what we committed... To the life that we actually wanted, the business that we actually wanted. And a commitment to you of being a part of Think Bigger Real Estate is to help you get beyond those silly excuses and realize that, "No, you made a commitment to yourself and your family to have a certain business, have a certain life and I'm gonna hold you to it." And I'm going to hold myself to it. We're going to hold ourselves to it. How about that?
So the first thing we need to do is stop with that stinking thinking; To stop telling ourselves, you know, it's circumstantial. It's a result of the circumstances and it's just something that I need to accept. You can accept it or you can choose not to. So step number one is to change your thinking and stop telling yourself, or stop talking about the excuses. Every time you talk about, "Well, the market has done this..." or "I was a little bit sick..." as I cough. See how powerful the mind is. When I say sick, I start coughing. Stop talking about those things. Stop talking about the reasons why you haven't and start filling that void with the reasons why you can and the things you need to do.
So that's step number one, change your thinking. Number two is you're going to need to change your plan. You actually need to readjust the fact that now you've got three quarters left and you maybe have more than three quarters of the work yet to do. So adjust your plan. It doesn't mean you do need to do it all in the second quarter, but it might be a good idea to adjust your plan to where you've now leveled out the rest of the year to equate for maybe where you're behind. Number one change your thinking. Number two, change your plan. Number three is you're going to need to change your activity level. We are going to need to change our activity level. So, what I mean by that is you're going to actually have to work harder. Which really means you're going to have to say no to some things that are pretty comfortable right now and that might be going home early and that might be not showing up late. You're going to have, we are going to have to get rid of some of those things and we're actually going to have to work harder in order to achieve those same goals in less time.
That's point number three. Point number four is is working smarter. You're gonna have to change how well you convert. This means you're probably going to need to be taking appointments with people that can get you there faster. You might need to prescreen your people a little bit better as far as who you're meeting with. I know I am. You probably also, when you're in those appointments, going to need to need to be more effective. Like a two hour sit down meeting is probably going to be too much. You may need to start cutting those appointment times in half and doing more appointment in less time, if that makes sense. So again, that's the fourth point is start working smarter.
My guess is if you had some reason that you really, absolutely had to find success in the way that you set out to at the end of last year, you'd figure it out. For example, let's say one of your children or grandchildren gets cancer. And the only way to get the treatment that they need is by you having a certain amount of money to qualify for the program. My guess is you would figure this stuff out. You'd start thinking differently, your plan would quickly be different, you would probably start working a lot harder and you'd probably start working a lot smarter because you would figure this out. So that may not be your circumstance. But the second that we give ourselves leniency and we stop treating things as if they are serious and pretty soon our life becomes lukewarm and pretty mediocre. So again, my commitment to you is to help you think bigger, have a better business so you can have a better life and greater impact. So, hopefully this has been helpful. If it has, please comment, share, and I look forward to communicating with you in the next video. Have a great day everybody.
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm here with some of my favorite people and they kind of look like me a little bit, don't they? What's up kids? So these beautiful children just got home from school. We're missing one. He must be with his mom. We're missing a few others too. They must also be with mom. I was sitting and listening to a mentor of mine yesterday and he was talking about his legacy and what he wanted to have on his tombstone and how that should correlate with what he shares on social media. And he said, I don't have pictures of my kids on social media because that's not what I want to have on my headstone. I want to have my headstone be sales and marketing guru. And I was like, "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."
At the end of the day, if your biggest legacy is something other than your family? I'm sorry, but I think you're screwing up life, period. You're screwing up life. Like you're missing the big boat. Like, what matters are, is your family. So I'm going introduce you to some people. a little bit six and working mom today I have these beautiful children with me. So, my point is, is that our businesses should simply fund our perfect life. They shouldn't be our perfect life. That at the end of the day, what I want on my headstone, that's where I was going. What I want on my headstone is that I was an amazing husband and father, like too much else doesn't really matter. But
I also want to be known as someone who has stepped out and served a lot of people. And that's where this Think Bigger Real Estate community comes in. And the way that I hope that I can serve you is by helping you achieve a really great business so that you can be a really great parent because that's what matters.
Kids. Do you think it would matter at my funeral if none of us had a relationship, but if you came and heard about all the cool stuff I did with the real estate industry. Would you care?
If I came and heard like a bunch of different things that everyone says that you've done that we don't know because we never were with you. That would actually be sad.
I love it. Corbin, when you think of that, like if you, and I really didn't know each other or didn't get to hang out much, but you came to my funeral and other people said nice things about me...
I would just feel like I didn't have a good connection with you and I'd be sad because I've like spent practically my whole life with you so far. And I just really enjoy having you in the family and I love you Dad.
Oh, thanks Corbin. That wasn't planned. Okay Aretta, what do you think? Do you care more about me spending time with you or me about spending time with other people, helping them with their business? Would you prefer to have me hanging out with you or would you prefer me hanging out with other people? Anyway, she's pretty sweet.
Think about that, like who's getting the best of you and what is your legacy? Do you care about how many homes you sold or do you care more about your family? It, your business, should be a vehicle to help you get a better life, which is impacting more greatly the people that matter the most to you. So enjoy! Kids, thanks for being my impromptu guests and peace--out!
I'm excited about having Laura Gillott here with me today. Laura, thank you for joining me.
Thank you for inviting me.
Yes, I'll start by saying I've got a more sultry voice, than normal. So, if the audience is wondering like, this is really enjoyable, don't worry, I'm not going to charge you for this episode. This one will also be free despite how much you might enjoy my relaxing voice.
So with that being the case, let's dive into the topic, Laura. Let's share some of your statistics, your with the Gillott Home Team out of Lebanon, Oregon.
Yup. Small town.
How many people live in Lebanon?
16,800 people.
16,800 people. Last year from Salem to Eugene, you guys serve 523 families.
526 families.
526 families were served by your team. So one would have to think if you serve that many families, you must have a massive Zillow budget. You must have a massive cold market marketing machine. True or false?
False. Very false.
Okay.
Yeah. We buy no Zillow leads. We are a premier agent on our listings. [engine roaring in the background]. Sorry. We have someone trying to drag race in front of our building.
It is Lebanon!
Right? Yes, good old Lebanon. Our budget is small there with Zillow where we're just a Premier agent with our, with our own leads there. About 80% of all of our business last year was just based off relationships.
Wow. So let's do the math. Let's say 80% of 523. Now, I made a commitment once to never do math in public, but that's gotta be somewhere around 450? I'm assuming somewhere in that range.
Yep, yep. Either past clients or referrals you guys closed. Meaning that's how much business you closed by referral from your sphere.
Yes. We include sphere in that or people who have referred themselves from our reputation and things that. For example if they just came in and said, "Hey, I want to list my home with you." "I'd like you to help us find property." And part of that is because we meet a lot of people through our events and we offer classes to help the community in buying homes. And then that helps us get those people walking in wanting help.
So I think one of the big myths, again, that real estate face is "Do I go quality (sphere) or do I go quantity (cold leads)? Some would believe, "I could never possibly know enough people to generate a mass amount of business by sphere." Right? So let's talk about, it's not just your sphere, right? You have a a great team.
We do. We do. When we get their sphere involved in this too and we market to that sphere. We give them the newsletter each month. We invite them to the events. Of course all of our past clients we offer items of value. We do the pies twice a year our client database. Anybody that gets the newsletter is invited to the rest of the events. We pair up with the Chamber and do National Night Out. Next month we have Biz Expo. We'll invite the whole database to the Biz Expo, let them know if they visit the booth, that we have something special for them. You're just trying to get as much face to face time with their clients as possible.
I love it. That's the goal, right? Face to face time with your clients in an era filled with bits and bytes where there's so much convenience in doing things electronically, that's been your secret sauce is getting face to face with people.
Yes. Getting face to face and then you know, it's for us, we don't do any cold calling, but what we do is lead with items of value or leave with contribution. So we'll call and say, "Hey, we've got an investor class coming up on Saturday. Do you have any interest in coming? Or do you know anybody that does?" And so that way we're just not calling saying, "Hey, give me your business, give me your business, give me your business."
I love it. So again, the way that I see you solving these two problems, or busting these myths, BTW--this episode's gonna be Mythbusters. The first one is that a combined sphere, you've got a good size team and all those people contribute who they know. The second myth that people hold is, "Even if I have that many people, how can I possibly take care of them? How can I possibly get face to face with that many people?" And what I hear you saying is a key to your success has been events, both ones that you're putting on, right? Like client appreciation events and then also events that you're not even hosting. Like the Biz Expo. It's not your event. You've got to space there and you're using it as an opportunity to reach out and invite everybody to come participate at that event.
Yeah, the Boys and Girls Club did a Brewfest and they shut down Main Street. We asked have a booth there and then we gave away a growler and then we invited people to come down to visit us at the event, helped market the event for the Boys and Girls Club and helped them raise money. When they signed up for the growler, we had over 500 people sign up for the growler. A handful of them said, "Yes, I would like a market analysis," or I would like a list of properties and I would like to be on your newsletter."
And now once they say they would like to be on our newsletter, we can continue telling them about the other events that are going to be happening in the area where we're going to be at. So we can continue that connection with folks. You do it on a mass level without spending that much many.
Right! What does a booth at the Biz Expo cost you?
A couple hundred dollars.
A couple hundred dollars turns into probably thousands of invitations and contacts.
Yes.
Hundreds of face to face contacts with a couple hundred dollars and some people staffing an event. Right?
Right, and the agents go and we just take turns, rotating in and out of there. We try to make the most of every event. So even at that event, because there's going to be 150 other booths there, we like to get protein packs, a water bottle and we go around and visit the other booths, give them an option to get something out of our cooler and thank them for coming. We learn a little bit about their business, ask them if they have any clients with real estate needs and let them know that we'd like to be their connection. We connect with them, they connect with us. It's a way to go around and talk to people without just saying, "Hey, we're a real estate team. We'd love for you to give us your business." If instead you go with contribution and give them the protein packs and a water, and of course we have them labeled with our team on there, it's a way to break the ice and to come from contribution.
The intentionality is strong with what you guys do, right? You don't just show up at an expo. We've all probably been a part of some sort of expo where we're like, "This thing is kind of a bust. Nobody's here!" But you're looking another layer below that to say no, there are people here just sitting in the booths like us thinking "This thing is maybe not as strong." And I'm not saying this about their expo. That's a mentality of "What if we go to this expo and there's nobody there?" Well, there's actually going to be somebody there. It is going to be other vendors at minimum, right? Go create some new contacts, offer value to them right now. You brought them into the fold, into the family.
Yup--so there's definitely people there. When we're there we're not looking at our phones, our heads are up and we're engaging. We're asking people to sign up for our drawing. We're offering them a free piece of cake. It is just the little things that we can do just to get the buzz going. And then again, you have to invite your database to come to the event because then people want to stop at your booth because people want to come by.
You know, if I were putting on a big expo, your team would be the first one I would call. I would say, "Get the Gillott Home Team there because there's a lot of people right there. Let's give them a discounted price to get in because we're getting a lot of people through the door just because of how they promote their events.
Yeah, we do have that with different community events here and nonprofits. They're like, "Can you put this in your newsletter or can you invite your database to come to this?" So, we just help get the word out for that and we want to help the community. They support us in our ventures and the more that they can help guide people with their real estate needs to us, the more we can contribute back to them.
At the core of all of that is how do we build and strengthen relationships? How do we serve families? How do we help take care of their real estate needs? Right?
Yeah.
So, it is very powerful. And as I mentioned earlier, that's just part of the equation and making this work. Then when when a client does get referred to you make certain to have the systems in place, that you provide them that a wow customer service from start to finish and with great communication. So when they leave there, they want you to be their Realtor for life. They want to be part of the community of Gillott Home Team and be involved with our events and things. If you don't do a good job, they're not going to come back.
Yeah, you're right, it doesn't matter how good your events are. If the real estate service on the backend isn't great, it doesn't matter. They'll love you as a party planner and as a community organizer, but they might not love you as real estate agents. So tell me how with all the effort you guys put in getting face to face with people, how do you be sure to not take your eye off the ball of "We actually do serve people at a really high level from a real estate standpoint.
So we do have systems in place from, let's just talk about from when a listing, from the very first time they walked through the door saying they have need, all the way to the end. It's pretty much systematized out that there is a person and a checklist and communication that's going to happen all along the way. To the point where like the agents have conversations with their clients weekly, they're doing a recap. The recap goes to the client, to us the leadership team, to the listing success team that helps with the admin. They do that weekly and then the leadership calls twice a month to just check in with our clients just to make sure everything's going well. You just can't let time go by. So they're calling, we're calling and then the success team calls once a week also, or actually once a month. They are just checking to make certain their signs are standing straight that there's no issues. "Did you see the latest advertisement? Did you get chance to review everything?" We do that just to make certain that there's all of that communication going on. So if a ball gets dropped or if someone's having some issues, we can correct it right away and not let it go on.
It's by design, not by chance.
By design, right! It has to be by design with checklists. Anytime there was a break, or there's been something that was missed, then we know we need to up our systems. So that way it doesn't happen again. We make certain that everything gets covered. We fail forward on everything. We view failure as a blessing because when we fail at something, then at least if it was brought to our attention, we can fix it. And that way no one else has to experience that in the future.
I've heard you talking about this before, when it comes to events, you use a very similar methodology. You've got very specific checklists and if something goes awry, it immediately gets added to the checklist "Well, this is the one time, we'll have this problem here." From here on it's going to be solved.
Yeah. Yup. Before I started making it more systemized, I used to just try to keep everything between my ears and try to run it all and delegate everything out. And there was a lot of loose ends and I wasn't being a great agent. I wasn't being a great event host because I just didn't have any systems in place. We were kind of winging it off of our experience, but not writing things down and not having a checklist. So the nice thing is now that no matter if we get a new admin person that's going to come help, they can grab that checklist and start working on it without me having to explain every step. Every step is written down and where the order of things is written down. Everything's there. We just really work it as a system that each year the event can get better and better.
I love what you said about being able to be a good event host. There's nothing probably more frustrating than when something starts going awry. You've got your client base in front of you and you can't focus on that because you're trying to solve a problem. Your role is to get face to face and really have a deep human connection with them and you can't because you're worried about the logistics.
Yes, and that was at the very beginning. I was red faced and running around and tried to get everything done and I was the only person that knew what to do at that point in time. A lot of times things are hosted at my house, so I knew where the extension cords were. I knew where the chairs were, I knew what the ladder was. So, I was the one running around getting everything done and trying to get help. But it was almost faster to do it myself than to ask somebody else to do it. So then that's when I, through coaching got help when they said, "Hey, you need to get some systems down so that way all that stuff's taken care of ahead of time and that you have people on point to help with getting this done. It just makes it a lot easier. Many hands make light work and that's totally true with the events too. The nice thing with events is that they're scalable. So when we first started out, our events were much smaller. As we grew we could just add layer and layer and layer each year. It's not like we started out and did a big event at the very beginning.
Talk to us about that. I would love it if you would share, and I know you've done this in the past, some tool or resource that would help somebody get started. Again, they may not be at a point to scale quite like you are. The checklists are powerful and your systems are powerful. Is there something that we could share with the audience after this?
Yeah, I'll give you our checklist for our Pork and Tunes event. That's our client event. And so that way they can take that checklist and then make it their own and maybe it will remind them, you need three extension cords and do need whatever we have on our list. That just gives you a basis of how to get your list started and how detailed it needs to be. So I can definitely get that emailed over to you after we're done here so we can share that. So when we first started, it was small. It was just a small band and maybe a hundred people, not even probably a hundred, maybe like 80 people. Then it has just grown and grown and grown and grown and grown. Each year we're just able to make it better and add more things to our event. Now we have a car show and then we have closest to the pin. We have lots of games for the kids. There's Texas Hold'em in the shop. There's just a lot more to the event now that we never would have done at the very beginning. But over time has gone on. We are able to have had an add additional layer. We have a face painter, we have somebody that makes ice cream there. It just keeps getting better and better.
Like a carnival--It's like Disneyland in Lebanon. I appreciate this conversation. I guess in conclusion, I'd just like to add that based on your example and your model, you can have both. You can have a lot of production and just work with people that you like and that already know you and trust you without having to delve into chasing internet leads.
They are a lot easier to convert. If you could talk to someone who already knows and trusts you or are referred to someone who already knows and trusts you, it just makes that whole relationship moving forward a lot easier. Then you just maintain that trust all the way through and you can break the barriers and they can know that you are going to go over and above for that client and you are going to have great communication. You're just not doing it for the one and done transaction. You're really wanting to be their Realtor for life and their friends and family. You want to be a valuable resource and you have to explain that to them and you have to ask for business too during that. It just doesn't come naturally for people to refer without you putting it top of mind.
You know, I appreciate you saying that Laura, beause I think one of the big pitfalls of a referral based business is people think that just by serving people and loving on them that the referrals are going to come in as long as I invite them to my event. There's going to be some reciprocation and I wish it were that, that easy. The reality is something else. Right? You actually have to ask. Tell us really quickly. I was going to end but this is so good, I can't stop. Give us an example or two at those events, how you make sure that they know that you want their business and their referrals without sounding salesy.
What we have found to be most effective is at our client event, three or four years ago we started doing door prizes. We have clients come up to our booth that were sitting in the yard with some help from admin and agents that would say, "Hey, please sign up!" We had a bunch of stuff that we bought at community auctions and things that we were letting expire. So it was like, "Let's put all this stuff together and give the stuff away." Who better to give it to your clients than anybody else. So we had everything out. We'd have people sign up and the nice thing is they can then request an updated market analysis, or a list of homes for sale, or if they'd like to receive our newsletter. If there are guests and they weren't already on our newsletter and they could talk to agents right there, face-to-face in the booth and say, "Hey, we'd like to buy some investment property this year." And we would say, "Great," and we write that down. Then we'd go and collect all those and the next week we then can sit down and go through all of the entry forms and figure out, who's gotten needs right now that we can service. Before we had that system, maybe we had a few people come out and say, "I have a need." Then the next day I'd be like, "Oh my gosh, who said that?" I thought I'd remember it, but now I can't remember who came up and talked to me about real estate. This is a way that they at least can write it down. And we have a system to follow up later and before we would get some business from osmosis. But after having them sign in, if they have a need, they're going to tell us right then that they have a need.
What's the question that you asked, and you may have already said it, but I'm going to have you say it again. Once they tell you, you keep track of it, you write it down so that you don't lose it and forget it, but what do you do to get them talking about their real estate needs.
Yeah. So it really isn't a conversation when it's a big event like Pork and Tunes because there's you know, 500 people there. You don't have time to have that at that event. I don't ask them there, I just say, "Hey, how are you doing?" And you'll just have small talk with them at that point. But when they go to the booth, one of the three questions on that entry form to sign up for the door prize item, that's where they write that down on that sheet right there. Before we weren't capturing those leads at that event. Now we have a way to capture. We also couldn't tell if we were to look back and say, "How many did we capture last year? How many did we get the year before?" It gives us a drive like, "Last year we had 230 people sign up, this year, let's try to get more than that. Let's make certain that we're agents when they're standing in the food line that our agents are walking along with a clipboard saying, "Hey, have you signed up for our drawings?" and then sitting there having a conversation when they're standing in the food line because it makes the time go by faster. It's not that they are trapped there to talk to you, but you have a chance that you sit and chit chat with them while they're waiting in the food line. So, just making the most of every opportunity when you have that face to face.
So at the client appreciation events, you aren't necessarily bringing it up except through the drawings, but at the expos and the other events via a raffle form, having them fill out a form. One of the questions is "What are your real estate needs or referral opportunities?"
We find that it's just an easy way to get this back to you.
Then you follow up. This is always so good, Laura. You have so much to share. I know everyone that has ever talked about you thinks, you're number one, a fantastic person. And number two just an amazing producer. So I'm going to put up here on the screen for those that don't know her and would like to get in contact with her. I know our audience is primarily real estate agents, so if you have any referrals between Eugene and Salem, Laura is a great, great resource. I highly recommend her her systems and her team. They really invite you and your referrals into the family and take great care of you, as you can tell. So Laura, I want to thank you again for your time and contributing to the Think Bigger Real Estate audience. I appreciate our friendship and all that you do.
Thank you very much. When I send out that checklist for you, I'll also put in our next event on July 27 and you guys are more than welcome to come down the I-5 corridor and come visit us and come to our event.
I love it. I love it. Thank you for the invite. We'll get that out as well. So, alright, thanks everybody.
I have with me someone who's going to help solve this problem: How do millennials really want to be treated? What is their ideal process? I think there's some myths in the marketplace and I happen to have a true expert with me today, Kristin Messerli. She founded the organization called Cultural Outreach. So first of all, let me start by saying, Kristen, thank you for being on the Think Bigger Real Estate Show.
Thank you so much for having me, Justin. Great to be here.
Great to have you. So I actually met Kristin a couple of weeks ago. She spoke here in Portland at the Oregon Mortgage Broker's Association and I was super impressed. I thought, this is knowledge that more people need to know about. The room was packed, but I'm excited to get this content, and her mission really, out to more people. So let's talk about this a little bit, Kristen. I think that you have spoken on the biggest stages, including Gary V's, big event. I know you're touring around the country sharing this knowledge. Let's dig into a little bit about maybe some of the myths that are utilized to characterize how millennials want to be treated. Is it true that they actually don't want to talk to anybody? They don't want to meet with anybody? They just want to text and use Facebook messenger?
Definitely not. I think that this is something I'm so passionate about because I think people assume that because Millennials are using social media, are texting, want convenient and have access to things, that we don't want the human touch. And we really want to have someone that is going to guide us through this process. I mean, buying a home for the first time, making the biggest financial decision of our lives, we want someone that is going to to help guide us through that process. And I think that texting and convenient communication, Facebook Messenger, all those kinds of things are important to get the communication going and for quick communication, but technology should always be about enhancing the relationship and increasing that kind of connection with your buyer, particularly someone who's a first time buyer and for Millennials, we're seeing that trend even more so with Gen Z where they want that individual relationship with a person or brand. They want to feel like they can trust that person. I think that we miss that a lot of times when we think about our generation.
I love it. So, two big potential risks here is number one, Millennials are underserved, right? That they aren't getting the level of service that they want because of these stereotypes. And number two, that real estate agents are missing a huge opportunity because they're assuming that they want to be treated a certain way and we're giving them something else. So I really appreciate you clarifying that. There are some forms of quick and convenient communication, but it shouldn't stop with that. Is what I'm hearing you say?
Yeah, exactly. I do think it is shocking how much Millennials, well-off Millennials--successful Millennials--don't know anything about buying a home where, or who to talk to about it. And I think there's just this huge gap between them feeling like they know someone who is an expert in that, who is a real estate agent for instance, that they feel comfortable enough to reach out to and not be immediately sold to, not feel like they are stupid for not knowing these things, you know? So I think that element of being underserved, it really is a big deal when we talk about our generation. I think that it doesn't stop with a quick text or with more social media in any respect. It's using that as a way to build your network and provide convenient access to you and then going from there to a person-to-person or video kind of communication that really improves that trust and relationship.
I love it. Let's talk about this now: I know you've been a buyer, in addition to being the founder of Cultural Outreach, I know you're also the editor of Mortgage Women Magazine. So again, you're involved in a lot of places really influencing. Let's talk about even your personal scenario. I know you've been a buyer and a seller before and you described to me how some people tried to earn your business and it didn't work very well. Talk to us about that.
Yeah, so it was interesting because when I bought my home, this is about six years ago or so, maybe seven years now, I remember going through that process and how my real estate agent and I had a sit down at the beginning and I honestly didn't even really vibe with him that much. I thought this guy is like a typical salesman, whatever. But when we started going through the process a little bit, I realized, man, he really knows his stuff. He is educating me on all these things that I feel like I could reach out to him about anything about buying a home. I mean, if he didn't know, he was going to know someone who knew. And so that was super valuable to me. And then also when we were going through looking at homes, he would point out stuff by saying: I know your goals are X and Y, so I don't know if this home is a good fit for you.
So he had my goals in mind and I felt like he had my back. So from that point on, I was totally sold on him. But when I was selling my home I posted something about it and I had already started the business. I wanted to know how real estate agents would reach out to me and, and that kind of thing. And I put my home up on Zillow and I got a million phone calls and I was so annoyed by all of that. And a couple people texted me and said, "Hey, are you available, or can you jump on a call to talk about this?" And then I would respond to the text messages. And one in particular stood out where she sent me a first-time home buyer guide, or rather, it was a seller's guide. And, she texted that over and then said, "Hey, here's a resource for you. Let's chat when you have a second." And I thought, okay, this is the right way where t's convenient for me to schedule something. I don't drop everything to pick up a call and get sold to. And then I'm more prepared, you know. So I think that that was a good example of using technology to get to the relationship.
I'm going to dissect this a little bit. So I think this is super fascinating and it's a perfect case study, right? So you went to buy a home and you found that person. Were they referred to you? How did you find that first Realtor who was your buyer's agent?
Yeah, so my Realtor, the first time was referred to me and I think I approached that a little bit differently than most people my age are in my age range. At the time my dad worked for a mortgage company in the area and so I was taking a referral based on one of his contacts. I do think most people get referrals from someone they know but usually it seems like people are getting multiple referrals and then looking those people up and deciding who they want to contact. The other one was just me posting on Zillow and seeing what happened.
I'm curious the first, agent was not a Millennial, I'm assuming?
No, he was in his forties or something. One thing that he could have improved on was being more authentic. He had his sales pitch ready to go and was in a suit and that's fine wear a suit if you're comfortable in it. But it felt very much like I was getting sold to, As soon as I realized he had my back and was educating me then I didn't care anything about that. And we're still close today.
This is a question you haven't been asked before, rather than going back to that agent, you went about finding a Realtor differently the second time. Why was that?
He moved out of my market. I would have absolutely sent him my business and not even questioned it. I sent him a lot of business after closing as well because he stayed in touch with me. That was a really cool thing that I know a lot of people do this, but he would like text me, call me every couple months when I first bought the home and just say: "Hey, just checking in, making sure everything's cool." And I'd be like, "Hey, I'm actually looking for an electrician. Do you know somebody?" And he was like, "Yeah, let me send you my guy." And it was just so helpful. And then he checked in at a year and then every year after, maybe even six months. But, it was a nice check in. And then we were also friends on Facebook after that. And so I would see his kids playing soccer on my Newsfeed and it would remind me, "Oh yeah, I've got someone I want to refer to him." So I ended up sending him a lot of business just because we stayed connected like that.
Very good--so it wasn't even the fact that you were always seeing him with his real estate hat on, but just the fact that he was present in the social mediums reminded you that "Oh yeah, there's that. There's my my Realtor."
That's why I believe so strongly and staying connected and building your network as much as possible because if people know that you are someone who is trustworthy and you've built that relationship in some way, again, as soon as you can be in person, whether they ended up going with you or not, if you've shown them that you have that kind of expertise and you're trustworthy, then people are going, and if you stay top of mind with them, they're going to refer you a lot of business because they know that you're someone that that can be trusted and that they would want others to be able to have that experience.
Well, I think a mistake a lot of people make is that, okay, if I'm a real estate agent, then when I am on social media, I need to be talking about real estate and that's the equivalent of like listening to the radio and thinking that you always need to be listening to commercials. Like people actually don't want to always hear about what you do for a living. Sometimes they just want to hear about you playing soccer or being a parent or that you ride horses or whatever. Is, that right? Like they want a human being. True?
Actually a big thing with anyone building a personal brand is that you want to have an element of your expertise in there because that is part of who you are. If you are someone who is all about, buying and selling homes and building wealth through real estate, and that's part of what you're providing. But people also want to connect with you on a human level. And I think with social media and all of these things, we have blurred the line between professional and personal, but it's in a cool way. We are getting to know you. So if your way into Portland coffee shops or whatever, you know that every time I'm in Portland, like how many coffee shops am I going to hit? And if you want to show that to the audience that they have something to connect with. So, I would encourage everyone to really think about what are some of the personal, or what are the things that describe me and how can I communicate that to my audience through these social channels? And it's just about you being in touch with your authentic self in a lot of ways
I love it. That's what branding is all about, right? It's talking about who you are and what your value is in helping other people.
Yeah, exactly. And that's what I love about today's marketing. Really, is it's not about having the right sales tactic. It's about you being yourself and just making sure that you're communicating your value and who you are as a personal way that builds meaningful relationships. So with social media, people feel like we've lost so much touch with humanity. And that's absolutely true. There's so many issues around this, but if you do it right, you can build a meaningful network and a message that has huge impact in a way that they connect in an authentic way and you have to be intentional about that.
Well again, going back to your home buying process. You got referred, he provided excellent service and then he stayed in contact using digital methods, but you met with him in person, which I think, again, this is a bit of a myth. A lot of people think that they actually don't want to be with you in person. Now your second real estate agent was interesting because they came at you with value, right? They didn't come at you selling, because you said that you got all kinds of phone calls, right; People trying to get your listing and you didn't go for that. You went for the one person that communicated with you in a way that was them giving value and letting you communicate with them on your terms, not their terms. Right?
Yeah. I can't tell you how many people I met with that because I was seeing what this was going to be like and kind of testing the waters a little bit. And I felt like so many people were trying to work one over on me and I'm like, "You don't have to do that. Why are you trying to get to it quick and this is what I have. And a lot of people were sharing how they could sell my home or market my home and I'm like, "I can do that myself. You know? I mean, I think that was a big eyeopener too, you're no longer the holder of the listing completely. You're no longer the only marketer. Everyone's a marketer in a way.
I ultimately realized was that going through the transaction is extremely complicated and I needed a guide through that. So what's kind of bad is I, I ended up not having a real estate agent to go through the selling process because I did feel like everyone was trying to sell me so hard and I didn't like any of those experiences. And I had a buyer contact me who also didn't have a real estate agent. So we went through that process without one. And I regretted it so bad. I was such a mess and it was so complicated. I didn't know what was going on. I was trying to do all this research about the contract. And I just felt so lost, but we ultimately got through it. I got through it, but I look back and think, man, that was not smart. If someone had communicated to me, "Hey, this is what's going to be going on. And it's not just about taking the right photo of your house, because I can do that. It's about knowing that you're getting the right deal in place and that you know how to manage these types of deals.
People that want to be sold to people want to be guided, right?
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I think being known as the go to resource in your community around everything around home. And maybe for you, you do your way around home design or whatever thing that makes you unique--definitely emphasize that. But I think you also want to have the resources in your network to refer people for anything around home and that puts you at the center of your community.
That's awesome. Great stuff. Just in closing, Kristin, if people are thinking, okay, I get the fact that I need to be more present on these social mediums. I know that there's a lot of reluctance for people doing video. I see more and more people being engaged with social media. What platforms would you say people need to pay special attention to? Maybe top three in order. Like number one would be what?
In terms of social media, right? Yeah, I always say number one is Facebook. I mean it's just where everyone is, from all ages and even Millennials and Gen Z are still using Facebook. They're not using it the same way. They're not going through their Newsfeed like older generations are, but they'll use it to look you up. They'll use Facebook Messenger to hit you up and they're using events and things like that in Facebook. So that's still number one. It's also very intuitive and easy to get going on. I personally like Instagram for its usability and I think Millennials and Gen Z, the trends show that is where everyone is spending most of their time. And particularly with Instagram stories, which also can be on Facebook Stories.
But that's where you get that day-to-day authentic self, taking photos at your Portland coffee shop or whatever. And, and that's where people get to know you really well. So I think those are the top two. And then outside of that kind of depends on where your audience is and where you feel most comfortable. For some people that is Twitter, but Twitter is very conversational and I'm very discussion oriented and it kind of depends on how comfortable you feel. Every platform is kind of like its own universe, or own country at least. And you need to feel comfortable in those norms. But a lot of people are doing really well with Pinterest, but Facebook and Instagram are still number one and two in my opinion. What are your thoughts on that, Justin?
I would say probably number three is become, it didn't used to be this way, but I'm giving more special attention to LinkedIn. I totally agree with you. Facebook one, Instagram two. And I would put LinkedIn is number three. I know you have a presence there. I think because real estate agents, in order for them to not be entirely disrupted, and the industry is being disrupted, but their individual business doesn't have to be disrupted. And I think the way out for them, the way forward is to be more of a professional than less of a professional. And I think part of that is starting to act like a professional and showing up as a guide, as a professional within Linkedin. I think is part of that. That's why I say that one.
Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, I always advocate for LinkedIn with loan officers but in working directly consumers, I hadn't thought about that as much. But I think that as a community, someone that is an advocate in your community and someone who's, you know, building those kinds of community resources, that becomes so important. So, at least at a minimum, having a profile show that you're just a professional and that you are who you are because people will look you up there. Also it allows me to build relationships with other professionals in your community. That would be really important.
I typically don't go this long, but I love the conversation. So if you've got two more minutes to talk about one more topic, I want to hit it. You okay?
Yeah.
Okay, so you and I had this conversation after you spoke in Portland about a pretty controversial statement that Gary Vaynerchuk has said that he didn't know if it made sense for people to buy a home. I know Grant Cardone, who is another big mentor of mine, has said something similarly as well. What's your take on that? Good advice?
I think it reflects a couple of things. One, he had mentioned something about not wanting to invest 20% down on a home and that you instead need to diversify and all that kind of stuff. Or not be tying up your cash like that. And I think that reflects the fact that he didn't understand or didn't think of that you could put way less than that down on a home and it shows the need for education and promoting that. Also I think it does show a shift in expectations and how millennials are thinking too. I mean, he leads a lot of the trends and in terms of customer expectations and, and talking about that. And then I think it reflects that we are not just thinking about home ownership as the American dream or as the next stage in our life. We're thinking, we need to think about or talk about home ownership as a good investment and why that would be a good investment. And so thinking outside the box in terms of how we communicate homeownership and the value of homeownership, I think it's really important for Millennials who are always on the go or who can move easily and don't want to feel tied down, we need to talk about you can buy a home and you can airbnb it out if you want to. I'm in downtown Los Angeles and there's just always sirens coming through. But anyway, that's where my thoughts are on that.
I appreciate you asking. I think if one is looking at some of the things that you mentioned, simply to be free and not tied down, that may make sense, but from a wealth building standpoint, the statistics are irrefutable that those that own real estate, end up with far superior wealth and those that don't. I think part of that, what at least Greg Cardone is talking about, is rent for less and then invest the money. The problem is society has proven that it's not good at saving without it being a forced savings plan. If you were to rent for less, which I don't know, it depends on what market you're in. If that's actually a reality and you actually invest the rest, then that would work. However, with a mortgage you're forced to save money or you lose your house. And so I think if people were awesome savers in general and really good at reinvesting the money in higher return assets, then that might be good advice. But I think it's really bad advice because most people, rather than putting that money in some longterm savings vehicle, they'll put it in the shiny new gadget.
So I think that's a good perspective on that macro level. And I think even on communicating this individually with people in your networks. It really is a good way to build wealth and we need to communicate that and show for you individually, this is what it would look like over the next five years for you to own a home and for someone to tangibly see that, that makes a huge difference too.
Well, those goes back to exactly what you think Millennials want, right? You are saying they want is to be left with true knowledge and data and what a great opportunity for real estate agents, not even just on a one on one but start doing videos about the value of wealth, taking the statistics of people that don't own real estate versus those that do. It's dramatic. I think there's a great opportunity to really be a leader when it comes to that kind of content to be sharing with people. Despite what maybe these digital media figureheads are saying, here's the reality of those that do and those that don't.
You think about today's market where we have a an app for everything. We have so much noise on social media. We can Google search any question we have, but we are in total chaos. I mean you do that and we still don't know the first thing. We are looking for someone who is going to come along and say, "Hey, let me simplify this for you. Let's talk through this together. Let me empower you as the consumer to have the best knowledge and advice that is best for you. So it's about, this is what's best for everyone. This is about me helping to empower you as a consumer."
You're right, there may be some people out there for whom it really does make sense to not own, right? I think you're right, that's where it goes from being able to Google something to being able to sit down with a professional guide that can say, "Tell me your situation," very similar to what your real estate agent did. "What do you actually want to achieve?" Then they can give customized advice that's actually good for you. Not just good for the macro but good for your specific life." I love it. I absolutely love this conversation. Kristin, you're super bright, doing some great things and I look forward to our next conversation. I want to thank you again for all that you've contributed to this audience, the Think Bigger Real Estate audience.
I look forward to our next conversation. And one more thing. Let me put up here if some of the audience here are wondering how they get in contact with Kristin. Her name's been up on the screen the entire show, so go look at that and find her on LinkedIn and then here is her website, culturaloutreach.com. She helps bridge the generational gap as well as helps underserved communities when it comes to the whole real estate process--just constant value. She's a fantastic public speaker. I firsthand can attest to that and I'm excited for the difference and impact that she's going to continue to make in the lives a lot of people. So, thank you. It's been my pleasure. All and we will catch up on the next one. Everybody, thanks again for tuning in.
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Today's topic is going to be on building community. Is it simply a publicity stunt or does good actually come of it? I have with me today a good friend of mine and a Senior Escrow, sorry, not Senior Escrow Officer. I'm used to saying that from my role, Senior Loan Officer, branch manager of Advantage Mortgage, who is making some waves in our marketplace. Kahren, thank you so much for being on the show today.
Hi Justin. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. This is awesome.
Yes. For those of you who don't know Kahren, she recently is a part of a newly launched, I should say, mortgage company here in town and I have to share something before we get into today's topic. I saw something that Derek Hill had posted online that was comparing Quicken Loans to the prices that you guys have. And I think consumers need to know that, just because it has flashy advertising, it's not necessarily the best deal. Even though they may say that it's the best deal and that it's super fast, it may not actually be the best deal. And then I think the phrase was that was quoted that I loved is that "Whenever a big brand has fancy TV commercials, somebody's paying for that and that somebody is the clients." So, before we get going on the topic, talk just a little bit about that--what you're excited about with Advantage Mortgage. And I know you guys have a huge heart. That's what really we're going to talk about today, but you're also doing some pretty cool stuff on the pricing side too.
Absolutely. You know, I think that a lot is changing in the mortgage space and our goal is to provide education and transparency around that. Everybody has choices with their mortgage and with their financing and it's true glitzy commercials or expensive trips or you know, those things cost money and they come from somewhere, and really we want to educate the consumer and let them know that they're paying for that. And so really that's our goal is providing that transparency and giving the consumer the power in this negotiation and really understanding--how interest rates are comprised, how fees are set up and really enabling them to understand really where that comes from. Your large retail lenders in this large space, they're not always going to provide the best value for the consumer. So, we really just want to educate our consumers and talk to people through that and provide as much transparency as we can in that space.
Awesome. So rather than paying for Super Bowl ads and other forms of fancy advertising on TV, you've taken a different approach, which is to get out and build the community. Talk to me a little, talk to the audience a little bit, about how you came to the conclusion that you wanted to build your business this particular way.
I think Derek and I both love people. We love interacting with people. Both our customers our referral partners our people that work for us and work with us and out in the community really getting that excitement and involvement because we love people. So, I think really that's where it all started is just knowing that my super power is working with individuals and I love talking to people. I'm definitely an extrovert in that way. I get my energy from talking to people and from sharing what I'm passionate about. So really that's where it started is really just wanting to connect with other individuals abd connecting in that way that was meaningful for us.
And you believed at your core that you could go contribute to the community and build the community instead of just focusing on building business that you could build community and it would come back around like that. People would appreciate that and value that more than a glitzy commercial on TV.
Yeah. It's, it's kind of more of a service over self mentality and really knowing that giving back so much more comes back to you. As an aside, I became a big sister about 12 years ago at a time where I really felt like I needed to give back. I knew that children were unfortunately not going to be in my future and I love kids and I wanted to spend that time. And so I thought, well, Gosh, I'll go invest my time and improve the life of a child. And I connected with Lindsey who is now in college and we've maintained this connection over almost 12 years now. She gave so much more to me than I gave to her that I really realized years ago that when you give, you receive so much more in return. And that's just a small example of really what giving has done in my life. Derek is very much the same way and it just allows us to really, truly, authentically give and so much more comes as a result. And it feels great. I think she gave me more than I than I ever gave her.
I think that's the beautiful thing when we set out to only pursue our own success, we find that we don't really end up with a whole lot, but when we seek the success through other people or for other people--or rather seek significance--I agree, something magical happens. We change, our hearts change, our priorities change and naturally we begin to attract the people that are like us, people that would like to have that kind of impact in the community as well. I think it's a beautiful way to build business and community. I would hope that those that are listening to this, that may not be in the mortgage or real estate industry at all, may start to choose who you work with differently because of what Kahren is teaching us today. It's not just about who shows up in front of you via fancy marketing, but get to know the people at the core. First of all, the pricing may not be as advertised. You may actually have a better price by going to somebody who does business this way. And in doing so, you're contributing to the community in a much bigger way.
Absolutely. Well, and like attracts like, so it feels great. We're very hyper focused on who we're giving to and why. We choose organizations and we make connections that are very, very local. We're very passionate about certain organizations within the organizations that we live and work. A lot of these organizations--Sparks of Hope, the Canby Center--these places don't have a ton of paid positions on staff. It's really, really important that we're connecting with organizations to where it goes back to the community. It's not paying for all this infrastructure. Just in the same way that we don't want to have this big organization that has all this infrastructure and expensive ads paying for leads and, you know, that's just not in our wheelhouse. It's not in our hearts. We want it to go to the consumer just like we want it to go to the community when we're doing these things. And it really comes back in such big amounts. It's insane. And when it's authentic, and when that's really coming from your heart and that's how you feel it's even more impactful.
Let's say that there some real estate agents out there right now that are hearing this message and it's resonating with them. "I also love to connect people. I also want to actually make a difference, not just in my own business but in my community and actually seek out organizations that help." What would you say would be a key step for someone, a first step to take to get involved and to start to build the kind of business that you guys have built?
You know, I think there's a bunch of different facets that go into that. I started by just really feeling and figuring out what I love to do and what makes me happy. I had a business coach one time, asked me if you could design the perfect world, the perfect day, what would that look like? What would you want to spend your time doing? And you know it was a simplistic viewpoint, but I really said I want to drink wine and pet my dog. That sounds so funny, but you know, I love animals and I love community with people and sharing with people. And that was really the essence of what it was. And has helped color what I'm able to do during the day.
You know, what I love to do is like you said, connecting people, going out into the community, talking to business owners and really leveraging all of those great skills and all those great resources so that we can, get to know each other and get to know our community and know what is needed. There's an incredible amount of need in every community and aligning with different business owners and really getting to know them and frequenting their businesses and supporting them and really working on that local level has been really, really impactful. You get to know people, you get to figure out what the needs are and then you get to spend time with people that you like and that makes work just fun.
What a different scenario in pursuing a lead that you got from the Internet where the people really don't want to talk to you. They just are wanting what you do.
Yeah.
Whereas, on the other hand, you have people in whom you've invested, who you love what they're about, they love what you're about and they come to you, you give them great value, and you get to spend time with people who genuinely, genuinely want to support you as opposed to seeing you as a necessary evil or a means to an end.
Well, it's an experience, right? I think it's Maya Angelou's quote "People will forget what you say, they'll forget what you do, but they'll never forget how you made them feel." And I think that's so true. I want people to leave any mortgage experience with our team feeling confident, feeling taken care of, feeling supported, feeling excited about the process. Something that can be really overwhelming and really daunting and really scary you can feel really positive about. And that just attracts so much more positivity. It's interesting, but that's what I want for people--it's a feeling more so than, than really anything else.
That's powerful. One of my missions with Think Bigger Real Estate is to help people think bigger than real estate. It's not just about how many homes have you sold so that you can have heard called ECI, your ego commission income, also known as Gross Commission Income, to have awards and a statue of yourself. I think any of us, I'll put myself in the same category, that have pursued that realize that it can be pretty empty and pretty short lasting. But when we switch to go from success, either through others, helping others achieve success, or pursuing significance, we really begin to realize just how big this industry can be in the way that it allows us to serve other people and grow ourselves into people that really help to build a community.
Well, you've heard people say you're only as good as your last month. And I think transactionally, that can really be the case--that you're only as good as your last month. You're only as good as your last sale. You're only as good as your last transaction. And it doesn't have to be that way. I feel passionately that we change lives, that we have the opportunity every single day to impact families generationally. And if you lead with that kind of passion and that kind of pursuit of something bigger than just the sale, the month, the income, the check, it's a totally different mindset, a totally different script. It draws people. It's the scarcity mindset versus the abundant. I mean, it draws people to you that have the same passion and that we change lives every single day. When you have that passion and you are investing in your community and you're thinking about the other person and you're showing empathy and you're getting involved personally and emotionally, people gravitate towards that and it's an authentic, authentic experience. There's trust and that's a lifetime relationship. My goal is at the end of the transaction, that's where our relationship starts. I'm just proving myself from preapproval to closing. Once we're closed, that's where our relationship starts because it's a lifetime. I want to be there through births and deaths and anniversary and changes, and that really is possible. I've been in this industry for 18 years and I think to have that kind of staying power, you really need to be invested in that way and it takes being involved in the community. It takes thinking of something greater than yourself and it takes giving back in ways that don't feel like just a normal standard job. I'm passionate about this as a person. I'm passionate about this in our family, with our business and what we're trying to create and what I think we have created on a really big level and in a really big way. It's exciting and I feel really good about it.
I would hope that anyone that's listening to this, whether your passion aligns with the same things with which Kahren's passions align, I feel like there's so much value that you've shared here today in helping all of us again to "think a little bigger" about the impact that we can play in our respective roles, the impact that we have in the lives of our customers and in the community in and of itself. I think this will be one that people want to revisit frequently. So, thank you so much for coming in and sharing what you've shared--always a pleasure. I'm always a better person after our conversations. So thank you for being the community builder that you are and I hope you accept another invite at some point in the future to join us again because it's been fantastic.
Well, and I want to thank you for what you're doing Justin. I'm loving all the interviews. I love what you're doing with everything of thinking bigger. You're doing an incredible service to our community and to our peers and really appreciate you.
It's become a passion project of mine to serve a community that I care a lot for us, so thank you for saying that. Thank you everybody for tuning in.
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Realtor safety--is it a real thing? Is it something that you need to be concerned about? That's today's topic. I'm passionate about this topic because I happen to have a lot of real estate agents that are very good friends and I don't know that the world that we live in is getting to be any safer. And so for today's topic I brought on an individual who has a very storied background in self defense. He's a former marine, a former police officer, a current private investigator and a security consultant. I'm excited to have him on the show. I met him a few weeks ago, and I was very impressed with him as I actually heard his presentation on Realtor self-defense that you're going to be hearing more about and are actually going to be receiving an invitation to attend. But in the meantime, I want you to be safe until you have a chance to attend that. So I want to welcome to today's episode, John Jayne. John, thanks for being on the show.
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Yeah, so let's get into this. John is this hype? Are people blowing out of proportion the threats that real estate agents are facing?
Absolutely not. No way. It's a, it's very real. It's very current and it's growing.
Okay. Tell me some evidence behind this. What makes you say that? Is this your gut feel or is there some data to back that up?
No, there's a lot of data out there. It's sometimes hard to access, but what I've found is the National Association of Realtors puts out a report every year on safety and statistics on attacks. A big surge lately, which isn't really my forte has been electronic data security. There's been a lot of identity theft, which has increased over the years. Forgeries, fraud, stuff like that whereas my expertise is in the physical security and those numbers are growing as well. When I first got into this topic, I started going through it.
Let's talk about what some of those numbers are. I know there's 1.2 million real estate agents in the nation today. Is that number right?
Correct. Roughly.
Okay. Talk to me about how many of those on a percentage basis or actual number basis have felt some sort of threat.
So, of those polled, 38% reported being threatened or had felt unsafe during a showing of a home or an open house,
Thirty-eight percent!! So over one in three real estate agents at some point have felt a potential real threat.
Correct. And that could range anything from just the hair on the back of their neck standing up, to an actual attack happening.
Now I know we've heard of situations, actual homicides, terrible tragic stories--a handful of those we've heard about. I know that as you start digging into this to see if this really was a real area of need you uncovered, and not that I want to go into necessarily the gory details, but you found more than what you expected to find, didn't you?
Way more than I expected to find. What really got me started in this area was I was hired to do some consulting for an apartment complex. They had one of their leasing agents attacked showing an apartment. So I kind of started delving into the statistics and some case studies. And then obviously, I know a lot of Realtors as well, and I started looking into this aspect of it. And the number of stories, the new stories, just if you Google real attack on Realtors, it's unbelievable how often this happens and how extreme the attacks are.
Jeez. Okay--so it's real. I know having stayed close to a forum here that's a pretty popular one, Masters in Real Estate that it's not just in other parts of the country, right? There's stuff happening right here in Portland, Oregon. I know my audience extends beyond that and I'm sure that people outside of Portland can validate that as well, that it's happening all around us. I would say in part because of the rise of access to pornography and other things as I'm sure things other than just that it's increasing the number of predators out there. Would you agree with that?
Absolutely. One case that I became familiar with while putting this presentation together, it really unfolded as if it were some sort of a kind of a pornographic fantasy where a real estate agent was showing a home, they made it up to the master bedroom and he attempted to seduce her from the bed as if he had watched this maybe in a video of some sort. And luckily that case didn't turn out to be the case that I used as an example of success. She had been trained, she had practiced and thought through tactics and mindset stuff to where she knew exactly what to do in that situation and made it out safely. But it could've been, it could've been much worse.
So that we don't end on the downside, right, we're here to talk about how to prevent this. So let's give them two points, John. Let's, give them two key points. And obviously you have an entire training that they're going to be invited to in the very near future that will give them a much more kind of robust set of tools to defend themselves, but what are two things? If you had to choose two things to help people really feel safe or safer, what would they be?
Well, it's hard to pick two out of so many that could be helpful. But the first thing that I would tell people is if it doesn't feel right, it's probably not right. Trust your instincts. Trust that little spot in your stomach. That something isn't right here and back out of the appointment, reschedule it. Safety first. And if it turns out that we've overshot the mark and it wasn't a big deal, we can always reschedule and everything will be fine, but you know, we've been given instincts for a reason and we just need to trust that instinct.
If you feel that something is not right--don't ignore it. You're saying don't ignore that. Okay, good.
Yeah. I think the most common thing that can happen is, "Oh, you know what? I'm probably just being paranoid." The moment we tell ourselves that, we're setting ourselves up to be a potential victim.
As you dug into some of these more horrific stories where stuff unfolded, was there a pretty complete consensus of those where bad stuff did happen that they thought ahead of time, "This maybe isn't such a good situation" where instincts were warning them and they didn't listen to them?
Well, unfortunately the most extreme cases of what I looked into where with somebody being deceased. We weren't able to get their feedback, but of the ones where it might've just been an assault where it ended up in a stolen purse or maybe a sexual assault, largely there was the feeling of "Something doesn't feel right."
Yeah, pay attention to those. I love it. Great tip, John. Alright, what would be the second point? Let's say that they find themselves in a bad situation. Either they didn't get the instincts or they didn't listen to them and they find themselves in a predicament, in a precarious situation. What do they do?
Yeah--Get out of the house!! Inside that house once you enter the home with the person that you're showing the house to or the client or whatever, or the bad guy, that door closes and it's like in the ultimate fighting championship when the octagon door closes. I mean it's a free for all in there. If something happens to go sideways, head out into the street and get out in public view and make a scene, yell, scream, get somebody's attention. The longer we're in that house, the more vulnerable we are to an attack.
Throw a chair through the window or, I mean extreme, right?. Getting out of the house, cause a scene. Okay.
Cause a scene. Get out of the house is the most important thing. To follow up on that, it could be hours before the next Realtor comes along or the homeowner returns. I mean, you could be captive in there for hours.
Yeah, yeah--sobering tips John, but necessary ones to protect the people that we care about. People that do so much good for our communities, for our economy and our industry--those wonderful real estate agents, we want to keep them safe and keep you safe. So John, I appreciate you sharing your expertise. I really can't wait for the class or classes that we host. How would someone get in contact with you?
If somebody needs to get a hold of me to schedule this class, with about a week's notice, I can put it together and get it set up. I'll give it to anybody that wants to take it at no cost.
Awesome. John, what's your updated email?
It is John@virtusgroupinvestigations.com--the longest one I could find.
If you have any interest in having John come in and speak, please let him know--reach out to him. If by chance you're a broker in the Portland area and you want to have John, do a class at your location, please reach out to me and we'll get that set up. So, John, thanks again for your time and for all you do. I appreciate your service. We'll start with that, as well as for what you're doing to keep so many people safe at this time I appreciate it very much.
Thank you. You Bet.
Welcome Back to the Think Bigger Real Estate show today you're getting yours truly, just me. If you've not yet read this book, High performance Habits. I highly recommend it. Point number one that he makes is about CLARITY--that every high performer out there creates clarity both in their own life as well as for the people that they serve, that they lead. I'm going through the process right now of having a website built and it's interesting how much I could say. Probably those of us in sales, to my real estate agent audience, there's no shortage of things you could be saying. We talk for a living. That's what we do. And the challenge with that is we tend to overstate everything as opposed to saying what is the one thing that people need to know that would help them to take the next step, or to take action and how few words can I say that in?
And that's typically not how most of us think. I want you to look at your website. I think websites, traditional websites are really in trouble and why is that? It's it's a maze. When you go to anybody's website, there's all these options, there's all these words, there's all these videos, there's all these blog posts and it's kind of a mess.
I think one of the greatest innovations in real estate websites recently has been, you show up to the website and there's a box, enter the zip code where you want to search for homes now, and it's clarity. I'm here because I want to shop for a home and you're giving me that option to shop for a home.
I think beyond just shopping for a home, you need to take a look at your website and say, what else might I want people to do and how can I use that same simple format. Make it so easy that it's not about how much can I say here? How much can I provide? It's "What's the one thing that people need to know now so that they'll take the next step?"
In our noisy, cluttered world, there are so many information avenues coming at people that they're inundated. And if someone shows up to your website and in five seconds can't identify what you do or they can't get clarity on your message before they have to scroll, they're gone. They're gone.
So I would encourage you to go look at your website today. This is the call to action for everybody listening. Go look at your website. Try to the best of your ability to pretend like this is the first time you're going there in five seconds try and identify what it is that you do and what makes you different from every other real estate agent out there. And my guess is that for some of you, you're going to have a hard time because you've been so excited to create this big flowery site with so many options that people cannot come to that conclusion in five seconds and they have to scroll to really figure out what makes you different and/or your website looks like so many other websites that it's just noise. You're a commodity. And so again, clarity is everything.
What, what I'm reminding myself through this process is what is the one thing that people need to know that hooks them, that makes them want to learn more? Think of your website as a resume. When you create a resume, for example. Let's say you're searching for a new job and you create a resume. The purpose of that resume is not to get you the job. The purpose of that resume is to get you the interview and then the interview gets you the job. And so my question to you is, is your website trying to be the interview or is your website trying to be what it's meant to be? Which is the resume. It's supposed to be this thing that gets you in connection with your ideal people. Don't try and turn your website into the one on one conversation with people. Keep your website what it's designed for, which is to help people take one more step that gets them in communication with you, that gets them to accept one more offering from you. Maybe it encourages them to get on a Webinar or to reach out to you or give you their contact info. But again, keep it super simple. That's what people want today. They want simplicity. Yes, they want content, but they want it delivered in a very simple format. So anyway, thoughts, ramblings from me about clarity in this noisy world--the less we can say and the more clear the message can be, the better. Have a great day.
Welcome to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm excited to be broadcasting this week from Kona, Hawaii. That's how committed I am to this audience and really, this passion project for me of delivering value to real estate agents. So, I apologize for any poor a bandwidth issues out here from this rock in the middle of the sea. The topic I want to talk about is this: YouTube advertising, number one, "Why would you do it?" And number two, "How hard is it?" So, I have with me today, Jackson Wilkey with NextHome Realty Group. Jackson is a great real estate agent and really forward thinking when it comes to the digital space. He and Jesse Dau, if you're in the Portland area, you've probably seen them for sure. They've developed a FB group called Digital Mayor Now, which I'm going to really encourage you to go check out. I'm learning things from it every day. They're fantastic guys. And so today, Jackson, thank you for coming on the show. I really appreciate it, man.
Yeah, no, I'm excited to be here.
So let's talk about this YouTube. And I'm gonna come at you a little bit. I want you to defend this because, I'm a guy that does business by referral. I'm very relational and, you're telling me that I should take some of the money that I may be spending on my sphere, or maybe not, maybe you're saying you should come up with new money to advertise on Youtube. So first of all, let's talk about why would somebody do this? What is the point of advertising on Youtube?
Well, YouTube is obviously owned by Google now, as everybody knows. And if you don't, Google owns YouTube. So whenever you're searching anything on Google, they're really trying to push videos upfront, which I actually saw the other day, they were actually putting some Facebook videos up there too. It's crazy, but interesting. I think living in the youtube space that video never goes anywhere. It's there forever. And if you can start really pinpointing with SEO and keyword optimization, things people are searching, your stuff is going to really start rising to the top. Because competing with blogs these days is impossible. There's billions of blogs. So, you know, having that video available is going to help bring you to the first page. And Google and YouTube are super cheap right now. I mean it's super, super cheap because I think it's a really tough thing to learn, but once once you get it, um, and, and in our group, I teach exactly how to do it. You can really start getting in front of a lot of people.
Okay. So let's, let's go back to this. Let's say that I'm a real estate agent in Portland, Oregon or Sacramento, California or Los Angeles. And let's say again that I, I want to do business by referral. Does that still make sense or does this really just work for someone who is buying leads and is doing business more via cold market prospecting?
It's funny because you're going to get a guy who cold calls and feels that's the only way you should do business. And you get a guy who, you know, door knock. So, I'm a video guy. I'm doing videos every day. To me I feel it's so important. We are competing not against other real estate agents in this community. We're we're competing against these huge names, the Redfins, the Opendoors. I mean they're not going away. And I see that as my, my competitor, not these local real estate agents. So I've got to get out there ahead of everybody else. And there's 5 billion videos being watched on Google or on YouTube a day. And so people are living in that space and Google is ranking those videos. I feel if you're not in those spaces, you could get washed away because even your closest friends are starting to see these, Redfin's every day and the Opendoors. My whole premise behind it is just I get out to the masses like really quick, really cheap and I'm getting better at the call to action for these people to start clicking on these ads.
Okay. So I get your point of what you said. Yes. Redfin, Opendoor these companies are starting to infiltrate even our databases. That makes sense to me. Let's say that I've got $30 and I've got someone who's given me 10 referrals over the past three years. Does it make sense to take that $30 that I could go buy a book that is very centered towards what that person cares about and they've given me referrals and instead put it in YouTube to just get in front of a bunch of strangers?! Defend that a little bit.
Okay. And I should have answered that at the start. Here's the thing. I don't know how many people really delve into doing videos. What I would say to that is take that $30 and brand yourself, like you build your brand, take your phone and do a very personal video to that person. I'm starting, I've done that to you know, open house clients or past clients and you will not believe the response you get. It's better than going and giving them a book. They can't believe that you actually shot them a video. It's a very emotional thing that you've done for them. So I would say them a really personal video or say, "I'm sending you this $5 gift card to your favorite spot to go get coffee. But I just wanted to tell you how important you are to me." And then take the other $25 and put into branding. Because again, what's interesting is we're living in a space where branding is going to be huge. I'm sure everybody listening here has listened to Gary V, but we're in that space where your personal brand means so much and keeping those sphere client's happy can be as simple as sending them a very simple thank you video. People love them.
So, what you're telling me is if I had $30, spend $5 on the past client and couple that with a free video that I can send them. Then take the other $25 and put it into branding.
I mean, look, you're going to get people who do bat an eye at that. That's fine because we all have different beliefs. And I think if you're already this ginormous influencer in this town who has worked with hundreds and hundreds of clients, I haven't yet. Yeah, those personal relationships, the Buffini model really works for them. I'm just saying, and I'm an up and comer. I'm coming up. So I've got to get out to the absolute masses. And then I take care of the clients, personally by doing really heartfelt videos and they eat them up. They love them.
So one thing that I want to say that's going to support what you're saying, because part of me disagrees. So I'll, be frank. I think there's people around you who if you delve deeper into those relationships, the ROI on that would be far better than just having views. However, in defense of your stance here, we're entering into an entire new realm of buying, of how people choose who they're buying from and working with. And one thing that I heard you say is that YouTube videos are going to last forever, right? And obviously the more you do, the better you do them. You start to become, for lack of a better term, a 'Digital Mayor,' and you're not just betting on today's business, you're building this catalog of business for the future. Right? If things are trending that way, they're not going to go backwards. People are not going to stop looking at video in order to choose providers. That's only going to increase, is my belief. And so what I hear you saying is that now while YouTube is cheap, it's actually a really good time for you to get in and build this audience. Then, you'll be able to monetize in the future. Is that, is that what I hear you say?
Yeah, totally. Totally. And I'll, I'll take it back a second too, because I'm not like totally saying go away from your, your sphere. Like, absolutely not. You know, advertising. It just makes sense to build your personal brand because you wouldn't believe how many of your sphere watches what you do and is interested in what you do. And you can take a little bit of ad spend and get in front of your entire sphere in one day with a really cool video. So, I'm not just strictly YouTube. I'm diving into it because it's so cheap right now. And quite frankly you don't really see any Google pre-roll ads with real estate agents. You see all these website designers and stuff. But I'm also diving super, super deep into my community and shooting incredible videos of all the most popular spots.
That in turn has led to me shooting a video, which I just posted last night and it went like mini community viral. It's getting shared by every teacher. I went and filmed the fifth grade class of Scholls Heights Elementary as they released a bunch of trout into a lake. They reached out to me and said, "We absolutely love what you're doing in this community. We love your highlights. We would love for you to come and film us. We've done it for years and we've never had anybody film us." And I filmed it, put it out last night and so I'm hitting that entire sphere. Plus all of their friends they're all sharing it. They're all putting it into these groups. So I'm going heavy into video. I'm also doing the Youtube ads, but I'm staying close with my sphere too, I just do it in a different way than taking one person out. I'll just give them a ton of value via video.
You found that there's a way to add value that's different than handing somebody a book, like in the example that I shared that you can actually go highlight their business, highlight their cause, highlight what matters to them, document it via video and add significant value.
Yeah, there's so many ways to do this and in your sphere is super, super important and those people have supported you. I'm not saying don't meet up with them. I'm not. But if we wanted to have this talk about, Google pre roll ads, the space is wide open and it is almost free. I mean it's like 3 cents per view and these people have to watch 30 seconds of your video for YouTube to even charge you. So if someone watches 25 seconds of my video, all my branding is uploaded up front, that was a free video. So it takes 20-30 or even 40,000 impressions to get you're a 200 hundred views. So the money is really well concentrated. And you can also get into your Google Adwords account and see exactly who's watching it. And then you start really funneling your money to hitting the exact people watching your videos.
Here's the part that as I watched your video, and I'm gonna encourage everybody to go find it. In fact, for those that are watching right now, go find the Facebook group, Digital Mayor Now. And just over the weekend probably or maybe Friday, that you posted a video on how to do YouTube preroll ad videos. So for those that don't know what that is, when you go to YouTube and there's this five second video that you have to watch, Jackson talks about how you do that. I thought it was pretty interesting because as you opened up behind the scenes, you show just how targeted you can get, you can go find what people are moving to your zip code. And you can find that info online by searching moving patterns. You can see where people are moving from. Then you could go to that particular zip code, let's say it's in Colorado, and you could target just the people in that zip code.
So again, at the beginning of this video I was saying you're putting this out to a bunch of strangers, just to the masses that you don't know. It's actually a very targeted group that you can get in front of us. Again, keep in mind, I'm a very relationship based guy, but I do believe in the future. I do believe that things are changing and I do believe that you ought to have two strategies. One is love on and care for in a really big way the people that are giving you business now that should never stop. You should always do that. That will always matter. How you go about doing that, may be your own personality. For Jackson, it's pouring into them with very valuable videos. I also think that there's this space that if you're going to be relevant in the future, you've got at least be familiar with.
And I'm the most relationship person you'll find. I mean, I have, incredible amounts of friends and family that are usually over at the house and I am relationship first. I am just a fun guy to be around. But what you said I'm really preparing for the future by leveraging video and then it gets in front of your whole sphere and guess who shares that for you? Your sphere. So it's just a quick way to... and we were talking on YouTube and now we're just talking video... but I see the power in these videos that you can do about your community and the impact it has on some people. It's just a really great way to stay in front of your sphere because it's hard to stay in front of the entire sphere. But we're the number two relocated city in the U.S. So there's a lot of people looking to live here and if you can hit those pain points or answer their questions, they're going to Google and they're going to YouTube. And once they watch your video, they feel like they know you, you trust you, they're going to be calling. So it's crazy to watch. You know, you can target the United States and Canada and then after a week you'll see the exact cities of who is watching your videos, crunched all the way down to the exact people, the exact age, whether males, females, whoever, and then your money is really well spent on that.
I'm going to put up here on the screen for those of you that haven't found this group yet. If you go to Facebook search Digital Mayor Now, you'll see Jackson and Jesse Dau. You'll see these two just pouring content daily into people. If you feel like this is a part of your overall real estate business that you're wanting to expand and you feel like you're going to be in business five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, I don't think you can overdo the attention that you give to this, as long as you don't give up the fundamentals that have gotten you to where you're at. I do think you need to start making some wise investments in showing up in the future--Showing up in front of how people are shopping now and these are great guys as well to learn from. I highly recommend them. So Jackson I want to thank you for your time.Good stuff. Go everybody, find the video that Jackson did on Youtube preroll ads. I think you'd be surprised at how easy it is. It demystified it for me. And it was enlightening to see just how inexpensive it is. So anyway, thanks for your time and I really appreciate it.
Yeah, not a problem. And that group also is not just, you know the extreme out there, it's also your basics from learning how to distribute quick videos on your cell phone and edit them right there that you can do it in a short amount of time, quick edits on I movie. I also go deep into social media targeting, retargeting your area. And then we do live calls every week. It doesn't matter what your question is, we will help you do it, to learn whatever pain point or whatever you want to start learning, whether it's YouTube or Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram. We're teaching it all. So, a really cool spot.
Great stuff, man--tons of value. I really appreciate you sharing this with my community today. So go find these guys and have a great day everybody. Thanks Jackson, I appreciate it.
Yeah, man--have a great day. Go, go have some fun!
Okay.
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate show. I'm excited to be here today in kind of in a unique setting underneath an airplane, apparently. I just saw that. I'm with my productivity coach Jay Puppo. Jay, thanks for being willing to do this--love this guy. He's become a very dear friend of mine and I thought it'd be interesting today, to have this broadcast come from Jay and my coaching session. I think any time you're being coached, it is essential to not just look at the business. I was taught once that if your personal life ends up in shambles, it will act as an anchor to the rest of your business goals. It will really slow you down. So I know that some of the first questions that Jay asks me when we sit down in a productivity coaching meeting is how are things? How's life? How's the family? How's your health--things that he covers, areas that aren't necessarily business--and then we dig into business. I know that I feel strongly that that's by intention, by design--one because we've got a personal relationship, a friendship, a deep friendship. But in addition to that, it's all part of the big picture.
It's definitely part of the big picture. You know, one of the things I love about Mr Keller's book, the ONE Thing is that he starts out by talking about the most important thing, which is your spiritual life. You just have to have a center--this whole thing. And so he says, start with your spiritual life, then think about your body, then think about your key relationships and the very last thing you think about is money, right? Yeah. So you have to start with the core.
I love that. Jay and I were talking in advance of this and there's really seven key areas of life that we focus on that Jay holds me accountable to. And we would encourage, I guess an invitation for everybody here is that habits are the fastest way to change your life. And so, we would encourage, or an invitation, as you think about this concept that if you really want to increase your business, you're going to have to be a better person. You're going to have to improve habits outside of just your business life, otherwise they won't be sustainable. And so we have an invitation, that we want to talk about, which is to take one step forward with something non business related. It's the weekend, and now although many of my real estate agent clients will be working part of the time, but not all the time, hopefully. Jay, what advice would you have for somebody if they're like, "You know, I really want to change either a health habit or relationship habit or a spiritual habit." What advice would you give them?
Yeah, I would encourage you and anybody who might be watching to think about the focusing question. Mr. Keller says, what's the one thing? So we're looking for one small thing. What's the one thing that I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary. I've have been thinking about this. You know, this vessel that I live in called my body and how do I make it healthier? How do I make it stronger? And you know, you can think of a million different things like: eat better, and I have got to go to the gym for 900 hours a day and I have got to do this and I have got to do that. It becomes overwhelming and you do what?
Nothing.
Nothing--Yep. And so this weekend I'm committing, live to your audience and to you, that I am increasing my water intake.
Cool.
Because I've noticed that my skin's a little bit dry or I noticed that my mouth is a little bit dry or I've noticed I'm a little bit low energy and probably I've had too much caffeine this week. So my goal is 100 hundred ounces of water over the weekend, which is way more water than I normally drink. And so we're not trying to change the world overnight, we're just trying to look for that one little habit that you can do that will have massive impact.
I love it. And so I would invite you: Is it your health? Is it your spiritual life? If it's spiritual, maybe it's say a prayer. Maybe it's go to church. If you're not religious in any way, maybe it's go give service. Go find someone to serve and help and tap into that deeper purpose, whatever that looks like for you.
Or have gratitude.
I like that.
You know, just just being thankful. One of the things I teach my clients is when you're sitting in the car and you hit a red light, that's the universe's signal to you to take a timeout and look around and say, "What am I thankful for?" And use this phrase, go like this, "I am grateful for..." And look around you and say, for example, "Man, that tree, I'm grateful. That's a beautiful tree. Holy Cow. I'm grateful for that tree." "I'm truly grateful for the stop sign because it made sure that nobody crashed into me." Just all of the things that you can be grateful for. I promise you, if you get to five, your whole attitude, your whole day will be different. Just be grateful.
Man--powerful stuff. Thank you for sharing that, Jay, again, let's put this into action, right? It's one thing to listen to some people talk about some ideas. My intent is not just to have you thinking bigger, but also acting bigger--implementing these things, improving your life so that your business can also improve. So, this weekend we invite you collectively to pick one area, one non-business area of your life, and start a new habit this weekend. And I think you'll find that business will be better as a result. Your energy will be better and you'll be a better person and a happier person as well. So, Jay, thank you again.
Have a good weekend.
It's a pleasure. Thank you all for tuning in and we'll catch you next week.
So, you hit the nail on the head. You know, over 80% of the businesses that I run into are exactly like what you mentioned. I was exactly like what you mentioned, very entrepreneurial out there doing a lot of the business and not focusing on the back end of this and I got myself in trouble that way and I had that paradigm shift. So yeah. For me and the businesses that I work with it is paying attention to your numbers and that can mean a lot of different things depending on who you're talking to. For me, I pay attention to where my business comes from. It comes from who were my best referral sources. Is it different networking groups. Is it websites? Is it something else, etc. Figuring out where my new clients are coming from, figuring out if they have worked with me over time and things like that.
The second thing I track when it comes to my numbers is that I'm also revenue based. I pay attention to what types of services. For us, it's controller work or consulting or bookkeeping. And is it a bookkeeping cleanup or bookkeeping maintenance or is it some of the other ancillary services.
For real estate agents, is it buying, selling, referral? Is it commercial or residential? You can break this down quite a bit as far as where the business comes from. Does it come from Zillow? Did it come from referral? Did it come from a past client? Things like that. So splitting revenue is a big one. The other part of paying attention to your numbers is simple budgeting, figuring out and making a plan. So number one thing that has helped our business grow is that we do everything in our business with intentionality. We don't do anything by chance.
If you're doing something in your business, you should know why you're doing it. There's the old turkey or the old Christmas ham analogy where the girl asked her, mom, "Why do we cut the ends off the ham?" He says, "Well, I don't know. We've always done it that way." So they go talk to mom, dad and grandma and they say, "Well, you know, my mom always did that and let's go ask her if she's around." She says, "Oh, well, when I was growing up, the pan was too small. So my mom used to always cut off the ends." So it went through four generations and we keep doing the same thing over and over, and we don't know why. So, paying attention to why you're doing things, which for me is I follow that up with all of my spending. So we create a spending plan, we figure out our budgets, and that doesn't mean we always stick to it, but we know what our plan was.
So now I can see what am I spending on advertising per listing. What am I spending for meals or client acquisition, things like that. These tools and managing that money wisely gives you more. At the end, you're managing it better. So it, it helps when you're paying attention to your numbers. You're not driving blind, you're not going somewhere, you haven't gone without a map or a GPS. You're paying attention to this regularly.
So those two things, at the base level for taxes, keep things separated. On the other level, pay attention to your numbers and figuring out what those numbers are and acting with intentionality. Those are the two biggest things that I've found for any business, but especially real estate.
Perfect. I love it. So, again, keep things separate and then also know your numbers and you gave us some great examples there of what the possibilities are with that. You could actually say, this past year I earned this much from my sphere and I spent this much on my sphere, therefore my ROI on my sphere is 'X'. Boy, I ought to spend more on my sphere or grow my sphere further.
And then what I recommend is that this is the content strategy. This is something you can do whether you're you're 18 and freshly licensed or whether you're 70 and been in the business for 50 years. So I would recommend starting off with what is the one type of type of niche in your industry that you love. So let's talk real estate. Let's talk luxury real estate. If you love luxury real estate, they need to start saying no to the mobile homes. You have to actually define your lane, which requires saying no to the wrong thing. And a lot of people say, "Well I have to eat this month." This is a personal opinion, but I'd rather go to the plasma center and be in my lane then selling out. Because the more yeses you say to the wrong thing, the more you repel the right thing. Okay, and that that becomes a downward spiral.
I would agree with that wholeheartedly. There was a Steve jobs quote that said, "For every yes, there were a thousand no's." At some point you have to take a stand for who you are and who you want to serve. And I know a repellent for people is that, if for example, you want to be luxury and they see you list a home that's far from luxury, in their mind you're actually not who you say you are. Yet. It doesn't mean that someone on your team can't service that person. Doesn't mean that you, if you get a referral from a close partner, you don't help them, but maybe your marketing looks different. You may just need to learn to say no and refer it out. That's probably a better strategy because with every yes, there's an opportunity cost. I've learned for myself that every time I'm meeting with an agent, that takes up space, and so that better be a good meeting. It better be a productive meeting and not all agents are productive. And so I have to be very careful with whom I choose to work with because there's an opportunity cost to that. I could be sitting in meeting with somebody and it takes the same hour to meet with somebody that will close 150 homes this year, compared to someone who will close four this year. Same hour, but the result is very, very different. And typically the one that's closing 150 they hear my value offering different and better. And so there's this whole added layer of that's actually even a better fit. It's not even just the opportunity costs. It's actually a better fit for not just who I want to serve, but who I can serve.
Insurance is where I spend a lot of time doing coaching and training and the differences is insurance agents are fishermen, real estate agents are whale hunters. You could get a deal as a real estate agent and pay your bills for three months. You will die as an insurance agent on that strategy. If you get one sale every three months, like you will literally die, you will starve to death. And so it's a different market. We have to get more deals every month in the insurance world. But it's still the same. I want to build that luxury brand and you have to take a deal in let's say a starter home to pay your bills--take it, but don't, don't make it public.
Obviously you have to promote the house to sell it, but like don't celebrate it. Celebrate the luxury homes. Put that out there, make that your brand, communicate that. So this is a content strategy. Once you've defined your lane, you know what you want to stand for, the first thing that you post regularly, 33% of your content should be about the one thing that if you could do this for the rest of your career would make you just ecstatic. If that's luxury real estate, then that's the one thing that you talk about. The next thing is, because there's three parts to this, the next thing is what's the one thing that you absolutely need as a human being to function. To some people that's faith, to some people that's family. So if you have a god that you worship, if you have a family that you fight for every day, what is that one thing?
Your "why" that you need this as a human being. That needs to be something that you share. You have to share. If you want to be successful in 2019 and you'll hear this from anybody, If you watch anything from any, Agent 2021 influencer or marketers sharing the reality of the situation is that if you want to survive longterm, you have to be willing to connect with people. Because if we're not willing to connect with people, and we're going to be them a digital avatar, then we're not going to be able to beat the big brands who have the big budgets, right? So we have to be vulnerable people. And so make your Facebook profile public. And if you've got pictures of your kids and you don't want to share those, make those friends only and that's fine.
But for the most of you, make your profile public so people can share and connect. And then make every three posts, or 30% of your posts, about the one thing professionally that you love. Let's call that luxury real estate.
The next thing is the one thing that you need as a human being, let's call that family, right? And then the third thing is what is the one thing that you like to do outside of work that if you didn't have to pay bills and if you were a trust fund baby, you would just do that. And so let's say that's travel or that's flying, that's the third thing. If you rotate through these three things on repeat like luxury real estate, family, travel... luxury real estate, family, travel.
If you do that you will have success, because what you're going to end up doing, and it's not immediate, and this is just like you and I talked about, it's a long game and that's everything. There's no short game anymore. And so if you play the short game, you will lose always. And so unless you get lucky, but then it's just deceitful to yourself. So when you're playing this long game and you're going through this three categories, the cool part is that stuff starts to get shared in those networks. And you start to attract the other people who like luxury real estate, their family, and travel. And before you know it, not only are you doing more of what you love to do, making more money, now you're actually having fun doing it because you're not flipping mobile homes anymore trying to pay your bills, talking to people who like things that you don't care about at all. Now you're literally spending time with your people because you've defined your lane and you've given them something to fight for. They're going to support you. They're going to fight for you and the people have to be willing to be slightly polarizing, right? It's not about being better than something, but it's about being a professional. A brain surgeon makes more than a general practitioner all day, every day, right? You have to be willing to go, "You know what, it's not that I'm too good for starter homes. It's just not my business model. So I'm going to connect you with one of my partners so that you can be best served for your situation."
And then what ends up happening is that person's gonna respect your honesty and transparency. And when they have an uncle or a cousin or whatever that is in the luxury real estate market, they're going to go, "You know what, I didn't get to work with him, but they sound like they're dope at this, so you should talk to them." And if people start to identify with the fact that this is what you do. So that's, that's really what it's about is, is defining your lane, letting people know what is important to you in work, outside of work and just at your core as a human being. And then those people will orbit around you. And then those people will build a tribe around you. And then once you get that, that audience of people, it just grows on its own. As long as you're consistent.
I love it, man. One thing that came to mind, when you open up Instagram, when you go look at your profile. It shows your nine most recent images. What I'm hearing you say is that three of those ought to be what is important to you in work, three about what is important to you outside of work and then three that are important at your core as a human.
So like this is like for me this is more like family. And to be honest, this is also helping people. Like I have to help people, you know. If I'm not working, honestly when I take a vacation by like day four I'm freaking out. I have to be working. And so, whatever that is for you, you need to communicate that. And this is what ends up happening though. This is the cool part is people not only latch onto this, but you start becoming more like obsessed with your work because you've given yourself permission to do what you love. And that's huge. Most people don't love what they do. They do it because they have to.
I think more and more as our lives are becoming more transparent because of social media, people want to do business with other people who they not only know, like and trust, but people that are like them--people that have the same attributes. And this, your strategy is fantastic. It's a great way for people to not only to find that out about themselves, but to start to broadcast it, so as you said, you start to attract this tribe around you press. I want to thank you for what you've shared today. This has been really helpful and I appreciate it. Again, I want to invite the audience that in the Think Bigger Real Estate group, probably later today, there will be a video that we're going to post of Preston on a panel at Gary Vaynerchuck's event. It's going to be gold-filled with all kinds of things to help real estate agents thrive amidst the disruption.
And in addition to that, I would invite everybody here to a friend and, or at least follow Preston. He's coming up with some solutions for real estate agents that are really going to change the game and I don't want you guys to miss out. So find him, follow him. Preston, one more time I just want to thank you for coming on. It's been fun. I can see why you're on big panels with big names. You are a really bright guy.
We've promised the audience to help them identify two blind spots. All of us have blind spots, right? And they're always more apparent in others. Meaning, it's always easier to spot someone else's blind spots than it is our own. Obviously. That's why they're called blind spots.
Yeah. It's hard to see the picture when you're sitting in the frame.
I like that. With the amount of transactions that you've done and the amount of agents that you've coached and taught and helped, there's a couple that probably stand out to you. Would you do me the favor and let's start with the first one. What's the first major blind spot that you think real estate agents struggle with?
The first major blind spot when people get into real estate is they don't realize that they are actually tasked with running a business; That their own personal real estate activity is a business. And the minute that light bulb goes on for them, so many things change in terms of the way that they go about their day. They just see themselves as, "I'm a real estate agent." I don't know if they think that, well, they know it's not a job, but they don't quite realize that it actually is a business and can be run as a business.
I love that you said that because it's true. I think they come in the business saying, "I want to learn how to sell real estate." And so they see themselves as, "I'm a real estate salesperson," just like maybe they used to sell appliances or cars or RVs "...but now I sell real estate." And even though there's this 1099 reality, I agree with you wholeheartedly that there's a little bit of a deficiency in realizing that "No, I'm actually a CEO. I'm actually a business owner," right?
Yes, and the minute they start to realize that, one of the biggest things that changes is they start to think about being in business. A perfect example, I see so many agents, especially newer agents, but I see agents that have been doing this for a while. They'll meet someone, they'll get into a real estate conversation and that person expresses that they're not going to sell their house for probably two years. When their youngest kid graduates high school, they're going to downsize. And that kid is a sophomore and the real estate agent gets frustrated. They're like, "Oh, I keep talking about these great people, but this one's not for six months. That one's not for two years," or whatever their timeline is. The way that people initially respond is there they're not happy because they need a transaction.
"I'm so frustrated. Nobody came to my open house today, right? Like nobody came..."
"...but they're not going to buy it until next year.
"And they're just window shopping."
The shift that happens when you think of yourself as a business owner is "Well I plan to be in business two years from now. I plan to be in business six months from now." So I'm not thinking about while, yes, I do need something to happen this weekend. I also know that I'm going to want to be in conversation and have a closing six months, two years from now, ten years from now. Because as a business you're looking the greater scheme of things. So anyone listening today who's in real estate and has been in real estate for more than six months, think about this.
If six months ago you would have this mindset, what would this weekend look like for you?"
You just got paid two years from now if you have the foresight to see it that way? Right.
The way that I look at it when I'm talking with somebody who has an interest in buying or selling real estate is, I'm not so concerned with when that's going to happen. Is it going to be this weekend? Is it going to be this year? Is it going to be six months from now? I'm more interested in the fact that when they buy that house, I'm the one handing them their keys. Or when they sell a house, I'm the one putting my sign in their yard. As opposed to when exactly that happens. So that's the biggest mindset and there's a lot of other things when you start thinking of yourself as a business owner. It's helpful in terms of how you look at taxes and how I track things but the biggest impact on your bottom line is really keeping track of these people and being excited to talk to anybody about real estate that's going to be buying or selling at any point, whether it's tomorrow or next year or two years from now.
It's almost as if one can say with the right perspective you're not buying for two years from now. That means I get two years to build a relationship with you and get in your referrals along the way. I have more time to have you as a forever client.
Exactly. When someone expresses to me that they're going to buy or sell at any point and my goal is that when they're ready, I'm their obvious choice.
Fantastic. I love it. Let's move on to the second blind spot. What is another major blind spot that you see agents have that we can help with today?
Well, it dovetails nicely with what we were just discussing. So, the second biggest blind spot is the job of a real estate agent. The main job really is prospecting. It's not selling houses. For very obvious reasons, most real estate agents think their job is to sell houses and really that's the byproduct of their job. And that's at the end of their job where the income is, but their main job that creates that income, that gives them that opportunity is prospecting. So, having a daily habit of prospecting. And I think in the book I say two hours a day and that's a little bit but I don't feel like it needs to be a specific number. It might be different for everyone depending on what their goals are.
I feel like somebody starting off, should spend the majority of their day prospecting until you have somebody to show houses to. That's the main thing. I put two hours because people always ask, well, "How much time should I spend?" So, I kind of had to come up with something and I feel like that's a good amount for people just to be coasting on. But the real takeaway that I want people to understand is that your job literally is prospecting. And any day that you did not prospect was a day off. What happens, real estate agents are highly focused on getting a new client, they do whatever activities they do, whether it's open houses or phone calls or door knocking that works, and then suddenly they've got three transactions in escrow and now their hair is on fire.
They stop prospecting because they're dealing with everything. You know, keeping those deals together and getting them across the finish line. Well that happens and now, they just got paid on these three transactions, but their pipeline is empty.
Hence the roller coaster!
Hence the roller coaster. And that's how it happens. And the way to avoid it is to have a daily ritual. The pushback I get from agents is they'll say, "I don't have time to prospect, I've got these deals in escrow." And literally, it happens around three to four deals in escrow. Whereas once you have systems in place, I can have 10 deals in escrow and that's not a problem, right? I just have a normal day.
You just have different systems.
Well, what happens is people think they don't have time to prospect. But when you shift your mind and say, "No, that's your job," everything else fits in around it. So, if you don't have time to do everything on your list, and prospecting is non-negotiable, you realize that maybe you can pay another agent to go sit at that home inspection or put the fliers in your box. Because remember you've got some money coming in. So you, you do have the ability to pay somebody a nominal amount to go do some of these tasks for you. Or you can pay them a small percentage of your commission so you don't have to write them a check today. You can pay them when it closes to fill up your flyers, run your little booty box out to the new listing, and every other little thing. So, when you look at what's filling up your day, what's taking away from your prospecting time--those are the tasks to delegate. The prospecting has to be you and it has to be done. So, everything else may also have to be done, it does not have to be done by you.
I love it. What a great distinction. You know, it's interesting, as you're sharing this, I've seen agents, you've, you've seen agents that got into the business, studied real estate really hard, felt like they could be really good, at least at the part that HGTV shows. The part where you show the house and say "Isn't it beautiful?" "Do you love it? Do you want it? Let's make an offer!" That's the part that TV shows. The part they don't see is the grinding behind the scenes to get that opportunity. And I love how you said that Amy, that is your job. And I would add if you don't get good enough at job number one--prospecting, you never get to do job number two--real estate. And that's why they get out of the business. No one ever told them the hard truth of what you just said. Is it job number one is to go find the business, go build relationships and have conversations about real estate that opens up the door for you to then be able to do job number two.
And what happens, they start selling houses and they stop prospecting and then all of a sudden, once those deals close, they need to start over. So they're constantly starting over, constantly grinding away. And if they don't do it well, their business never grows and they feel like they either have no money or no time. It's like those two things they can't quite get it to. And the way to get the machine turning is to never stop prospecting. Initially it should be all day should be spent, but two hours a day is enough. And for some people have bigger goals, maybe it's four hours a day, maybe it's three. The amount of time isn't as important as the consistency and that you're doing it every single day. I tell people if you did not prospect today, you took the day off. And they'll say to me, "Yeah, but I, I had two closings. I wrote three addendums, I wrote an offer. I took a new listing."
"What do you mean I didn't work today."
Yeah, that's a day off. And a lot of those things could be delegated out and so you took the day off to do them. And then what they need to realize is that when you string too many days off together in a row, that's a vacation.
Some agents have been on vacation for years is what you're telling me.
In my opinion, your vacation should be spent drinking something sweet out of a coconut somewhere, not at the home inspection and running around.
Oh, this has been amazing, Amy. I want to put up, for many of you who are like, "This is gold!" which I feel that way. You can get Amy's book, she's got a free plus shipping offer that I'm going to put up on the screen. Just pay her for the cost of printing the book and getting it to you: getoffthecashflowrollercoaster.com. Go find this book.
If anything that we've said here today has resonated with you and you are like "Oh my goodness, are they talking about me? Are they talking about my life?" This is your chance to go learn more. And then follow her on Facebook, get to know her. She has coaching offerings and a number of other things. So anyway, thank you for your time. I knew this would be a good one. I'm excited to share this out. So again, for those that are watching, please show Amy and me your love by pushing the share button. Get the word out. So thank you again, Amy. It's been a total pleasure, as always, and we will connect soon. Thanks everybody.
Okay, thank you. It's always a pleasure.
Awesome. So one of the videos that I was most compelled by, and I've seen you doing videos where you're setting up these mega open houses that you guys do. One that I thought that was really compelling and it endeared me to your cause and your mission and what you're doing was you sitting on some bleachers that must have been at a nearby high school near to one of the homes where you were at, included some great drone photography was included and it was, you speaking from the heart about why you're at where you're at, why you do what you do and I feel like you displayed that you're a good storyteller. At the end of the day people want to work with people they know, like, and trust. They want to work with people with whom there's an emotional connection, not just a logical one. And in that moment I saw you demonstrating the skills that every real estate agent that I work with or that I teach and train through through Think Bigger Real Estate needs to have this skillset. It's not just about being a master of the market, it's not just about being a master of buyers and sellers scripts, you actually need to emotionally connect with people because it's such an emotional purchase. It's such an important thing for people. Talk us through a little bit, when you're creating a story, what does that look like?
Yeah, those are great points. And the video you're talking about is on Superbowl Sunday when I first did that interview and then it snowed the next morning. So if you do go and watch it, it's a combination of two different days. My thought process, two separate things that why video and to your point it is so important for our audience to know what makes us different. There's so much competition out there and we need to get comfortable in communicating it. And if you're struggling with that, you've got to dig into the passion of why you're in this industry and why you're doing the job within this industry. So for me it's home loans and what makes me different. So my clients come to me for the trust, the communication and the experience and the fact that every time they're working with me they are truly treated like family. So, that's something that is extremely important to me when it comes to just the basics of any video. Some of the things I focus on, and it doesn't always happen naturally, but hopefully some sort of conflict. And then there's a resolution. So it just on the day to day stuff like at the open house, something that's super compelling to watch as a story is what are some challenges? We've all been a little late to getting to an open house. So it's like how am I going to get all of these signs, this, that set up unlocked the foot things. And that's super compelling to watch because it's real. It's not just a picture of the house, everybody's seen that, but people then could see how you handle stress and the fact that this open house is extremely important. So that that's if it aligns perfectly, that conflict resolution timeline is really nice. Some simpler stuff, because that doesn't happen all the time. So, I focus on two main things: have I done this before? In other words, Am I repeating what I've already done in the past and is it better than the last thing I did? Now I can't always hit the mark on both of those. But if I do think in those terms, the trajectory of where I'm going is in a great direction. So some of the focuses for me there.
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. This is Justin Stoddart, your host and I'm really excited to be here tonight in Nashville, Tennessee at Funnel Hacking Live with a good friend of mine Pedro Adao. I even said it with a Portuguese accent.
Wow, I wasn't expecting that. Tell them why you know that.
So, I speak Portuguese. In fact, you're probably my best use of that for the past 20 years, meaning, I haven't used my Portuguese much at all. So this is going to be fun.
He has good Portuguese enunciation. I was pleasantly surprised. He said my name right. It's very hard. It's a very hard name to say. Beautiful Man.
So this guy, very, very successful financial planner and has achieved at some of the highest levels in his industry. He's also built a movement of Christian entrepreneurs. Maybe some of them in fact, who I've seen that have liked your page. You have some fans in Portland, Oregon.
100x Academy has hit Portland.
Yes, 100x Academy. If you don't know what that is go take a look at it. Ben Rose, he was the guy in my area that I remember that had liked your page. Yeah, he's a videographer. He might be watching this and if not, I'm tagging him in this video.
So Pedro, I'm going to talk tonight about financial planners and real estate agents. I work all day, every day with real estate agents, helping them have better businesses and better lives. And this guy, again succeeds at a really high level as a financial planner and as we began to talk, we realized that there's some commonalities, some common struggles and woes that real estate agents and financial planners face and some potential opportunities that you and I are talking about helping them to explore.
Honestly, for me it makes no sense. This is like one of, probably the most under underutilized potential relationships. I know there's BNI and other networking type concepts, but like for real, if you're a Realtor, instead of having to go beg for leads from your mortgage lender, which if you have a lender that will do that--amazing. Alright, I mean that's, obviously still worth pursuing but also having two or three life insurance agents. Then you can network with and you can send them a lead, and guys, an insurance agent, a good insurance agent is in someone's home two, three, four, five times a week! And, and these are people, they obviously own a home or are looking to and they obviously met with their life insurance agent, which means they have some level of wherewithal. They love their family and care about their family and this is like ideal for a Realtor.
I want to expound upon that. You think about when a life insurance agent is inside a home, it's typically when they're getting married, when they're having a new baby, when maybe they are getting ready to retire, all of which are triggers for real estate agents to say, Hey, somebody might be moving here. You're adding a baby to the house, you're getting married, you're thinking about life insurance and you're probably also thinking about a new home. Like there's often like a perfect connection here in that they need both of you at the same time.
And what's happening now is there's a big industry called mortgage protection. Mortgage protection is a whole industry that the life insurance industry has created on the back of loan activity. There are life insurance policy companies that send direct mail to these homes offering mortgage protection.
I get them like weekly probably.
Okay. Hey, if something happens and you can't pay off your mortgage insurance. Most Realtors out there might not not know this, but most of these mortgage protection offers, they're not great plans. These are not awesome. Yeah. This is basically overpriced term insurance. So if you're a Realtor and you care about your client, if you sell them a home, what I would do is as they move, tell them,
"Hey, by the way, you're going to get hit with direct mail for this thing called mortgage protection. Don't do that. Ignore those letters. I actually have so-and-so, he's an expert here in town. He'll go over all the options for you and get you the best product for you at the best possible prices."
Because if you don't do that, your homeowner, is was going to go to the mail, open the letter--and this mail is very deceiving, these companies make their direct mail look like it's from a Wells Fargo or look like it's from Chase Bank. They literally make your mail look like it's from the lender. "Attention homeowner in regards to your mortgage in regards to your loan amount..."
They make it look like it's the lender and in small print at the bottom it says "Not the Lender", but most homeowners are going to submit this form, which becomes a lead for the insurance company. They literally thought they had to fill it out.
That's how deceptive this industry is, so if you're a Realtor or a loan officer, why would you not take one minute to give a heads up to your client and then actually refer them to an integral, high quality insurance agent in your town that can go serve them. And then that agent is going to be like,
"Wow, thanks for the lead. What can I do for you?"
Reciprocity, right? So stop chasing the mortgage guy because he's got 10 realtors wanting his business and there's 100 life insurance agents that no one's talking to. So there's a natural potential marriage here. And the fact is like there's no competition. It can be a great to be a great partnership and it's just instant. I don't understand why, to me, a Realtor, a life insurance agent and a financial planner, it's like peanut butter and jelly.
Here's what we're going to do, for everybody that's in the Think Bigger Real Estate group, I'm going to get these scripts from Pedro and I'm going to put this in the group so that you can actually approach, new buyers of a home and know exactly what to say to them and then also how to approach life insurance agents and say exactly what you need to say to them to add big value to both sides. And then at that point it'll be pretty obvious that if you're working with a right person, there's going to be some reciprocation.
I want to thank you for your time--killer stuff. Again, this guy does a great deal of business in life insurance. He's the guy that really understands this who is speaking from experience. There is opportunity here that's untapped by real estate agents.
And guys, I'm from marketing, like I'm big into marketing and Facebook ads and sales funnels. I am at Funnel Hacking Live. I'm a two comma club winner and I believe in marketing, don't get me wrong. It's not like I'm recommending to just go to your warm market, warm market, warm market. I believe that you should be running traffic and should always be building your list. I mean like why not have a couple of these guys in your Rolodex that you're working with. I mean, it just makes sense.
So yeah, I'll get those scripts to you.
Awesome--thank you for tuning in. I really appreciate it everybody. Again, if you're not yet a member of the Think Bigger Real Estate group, go find it on Facebook. These assets will be there. And if this has been valuable, please share it out. Let's get this out to more people.
Hey, welcome back to Think Bigger Real Estate. I'm excited to be here today with someone who I've known for a long time, my brother Jeremy. Hey there. Thanks for letting me twist your arm to come on the show today.
It took some work but happy to be here.
Yeah, he's been a very close friend and a mentor of mine for a long time--a very bright individual. And tell the audience real quick what you're up to now.
Yeah, I have a very entrepreneurial background, but I've spent the last three years working for a company called Andersen Windows and Doors and I'm actually headed to San Diego. We're opening a new division down there, so I'm going to help open that up and get things up and going down there.
You will be managing a sales team of how many people do you think?
Well, we're going to grow. We're starting with zero, but I've hired six so far and we'll be at probably 20 by the end of the year. We'll probably have a team of 30 sales people by the middle to the end of next year.
Awesome. Yeah. One of the top producers in the country. So, we're here to talk about some things that we're passionate about and it has been helpful for us and we really think it applies directly to real estate agents in helping them grow their businesses. So we're here at a conference and we are learning a lot.
So the three things that we want to point out that are central for real estate agent to have a better 2019 than their 2018 is TO LEARN. What are some of the ways that you learn the best?
I think it's a good question. We were having this conversation and it's interesting, we're already almost two months into the year and when you get out of town, it gives you a chance to look at the year you're having and say, "Okay, where am I at?" And where are my habits are my practices. What am I doing? Am I in a better spot than last year? And I certainly think that the learning component is huge. It makes a huge impact on where you're at and the direction you're going. For me, I, I think there's a combination of things. I end up spending a lot of time in the car and so naturally I have Audible and I, try and be listen to something good at all times. We're obviously at a conference now where there's huge value in that and we are learning from bright people. Someone that would go out and spend enough money to go out of town and learn is typically a person that you want to hang out with and learn from. So between books and podcasts obviously are great and what I spend most of my time on.
Yeah, for me it's the same. I try and read a book a month and really go through it and even go back and listen to it. So for me it's books and podcasts, of which I have a few favorites. Hopefully the Think Bigger Real Estate Show is on your list. A bit of a plug, or shameless self promotion right there. I would also add in conferences. This past week, I've been at two really significant conferences for me and so I appreciate you pointing that out. You do learn differently when you're out of the whirlwind, right? When you're learning in your city, in your environment, it's hard sometimes to really get to the right mindset, but when you're here to a new spot, you tend to buy-in at a higher level.
I think it's distracted right? When you're at home it's, there's so many distractions with work and family and things pointing different directions. Getting out of town allows you to really immerse deep into a topic and work to become an expert at that. And maybe just as importantly some time in the evenings to reflect on where you're at and how to implement some of these strategies in your life. You know, I've set a goal to try and go to one a quarter and as I've done that at certain times of my life, I see great growth. I don't know if it's what I'm learning or the chance that it gives me to reset and organize myself going forward, but it's probably a combination of both.
So point number two in addition to LEARNING is the NETWORKS YOU BUILD. I've been surrounded for the past week with like-minded people that are smarter than me, that are further down the path that I want to be on, and they're able to teach me. Last night we bumped into a friend of mine who is an architect who has built some really cool things in addition to just being an architect. And so it was fun for me to pick his brain and say, what advice would you give me here? There's so much value in having people around you, not just learning from books and podcasts, but also real people you can talk to and mastermind with. Tell me Jeremy, how have you found to best build a powerful network?
Well, I think the challenge is we are very, very busy in our daily lives and so you end up living a life that's fairly reactionary and you end up surrounding yourself with the people that are the easiest to hang out with. Whether they live by you or they're old friends or whatever, and we've all heard the adage that you end up making as much as the average of the five people we align ourselves with. To get where you want to go, you've got to be very strategic about that. You have to determine who are the people that are going where I want to go. And that's not just professionally, that's also as a father or a mother. That's the way I need, or th way I can take care of myself. And it takes work to go out and build those new relationships. It takes getting into different environments then where you're at and putting yourself in spots where you can meet the right people. I've learned firsthand that if I'm not strategic, I could go, or a year or two without building a valuable relationship that is going to get me closer to where I want to go. Right? You've got to do and take the time and map out a plan. Here's who I want to be and then who are those people that I would also want to surround myself with and then how do I begin a relationship? It doesn't just happen by happenstance for sure.
One of the things we learn when people are trying to build a network, they approach people with the mindset of what's in it for me, right? If I'm approaching you I would say in essence, "Hey, I think you'd be good for me. Let's build a network." And I don't think you can make that work by simply looking for that. I've got to be very intentional about discovery in advance, what that person really needs. In fact, we just heard a really interesting scenario, even Russell Brunson who's really kind of runs and leads this whole event that we're at and who masterminds closely with Dean Graziosi and Tony Robbins. So, Dean and Tony, were putting together a mastermind and they had it all set up and were super excited about it and Russell, who had not been invited to join, was a little bit jealous because he wasn't invited to participate in this mastermind. Well, Russell perceived a need that they had and he told them, "You guys need to buy the domain mastermind.com. It's only $1 million. And Dean and Tony, were like, you know, for $1 million "No thanks." Well Russell went out and negotiated the deal and got the domain mastermind.com For $600,000 and gifted it to Dean Graziosi and Tony Robbins. And in exchange for that value, he didn't expect anything from it, but he's smart enough to realize that good things happen when you give massive amounts of value to very powerful people. So, what did they do? Well, they invited Russell to be a part and now it's no longer just a two person but now a three person mastermind in which they going to be teaching some really powerful courses together.
There is a great lesson for all of us, that although maybe you nor I can at this point strike a $600,000 check, to get somebody, something like that, there are things that you can do and I think you could show up very intentionally in advance. And you'll show up differently by coming with what can I give instead of what will you give me?
A lot of times it's stuff that's free, you know, it could be, "I know someone you should meet." Maybe you become a connector, to introduce to some person that would add value to their network. Maybe it's, what I've developed, which is the practice of when I run into certain articles. If I see something that I think would value to them. If I see something that I think would add value, I'll shoot it over to them to say, thinking about you. But I think people in your life that you know are watching out for you and trying to add value in sharing the best of what they come across a certainly changes your view of that person and how you perceive them. So they don't have to cost money. That example is a fun one, but it's not something that we typically end up being involved in for most of us.
So the tactical takeaways from that is you need to be right. Maybe you've identified that there's a certain CPA in town that changes your world by referring, you know, numerous clients a month to you. I promise you it will not take you very much time to get very intentional with the question, "What can I do for that CPA and who does that CPA need to meet?" And very quickly you'll find yourself on the inner circle likely getting what you want.
And maybe sending them customers is a good way to start off, right? That's a pretty good at that kind of speaks to everyone's love language is getting customers.
So, the third point we want to talk about today are the habits that you create to properly leverage the knowledge that you gained from point number one LEARNING and two, the NETWORKS that you build. We just listened again to Dean Graziosi and his book was Millionaire Success Habits. Yes, that's his newest book. I haven't read it yet, but everything that I've been studying for the past number of years, the most successful people in the world will point back to, yes you can learn, yes you can have a great network, but "What do you do--what are your habits?" What do you do that is a system? Not sporadically, sporadically is nice, it's better than not doing it at all. What those people that achieve at really high levels, those are the real estate agents that are successful and will be for an extended period of time. The most successful agents achieving their goals and are able to impact the world in greater ways are those that have really great habits. What have you done to establish really great habits.
Well, what you said or reiterating that the challenge with habits is that if you don't have them, it takes such an emotional toll that you can't sustain anything very long. You'll go through these ups and downs and peaks and valleys, right. There's a guy named Tony Schwartz who years ago wrote a book that I found very, very powerful. It's called Peak Performance or something of that nature, but he taught that we have a self discipline reservoir and that we only have so much of it and the only way to really get where you want to go, because you can't self discipline or power your way through it, is you have to build what he called rituals or habits. Right? And he talks about how he worked with high performance athletes and helped them in a time of duress or stress to build the habits that didn't take emotional energy to settle them down and prepare them for the next event.
And you look at great athletes or business people and they have things they do what almost looks like effortlessly subconsciously they been doing them so long it doesn't take the effort. So I think that the, the key really is defined my, what I've found worked for me is pick one habit. It's sort of like a keystone habit, a habit that if I did this, it would best move all these other objectives forward. The tendency is like, I can change 10 habits, or 20 habits in my life, and you want to go after all of them, which means you go after none of them and you do none of them, right? So, I think you pick one that, ultimately would begin to move the ball in the right direction and then the momentum starts to build. You start to build the confidence in yourself. You start to look and realize I was able to do this one and this one happened to impact another one. Now you've got a couple going and pretty soon you get the one going long enough and no more energy is required and you can focus on the next one. And before you know it, you've implemented four, five, or six new ones over the course of the year, which is radical and dramatic. You dramatically move your business or life forward in all areas.
There's actually an app, that as a resource for watching the show, I'm going to give you an app that has absolutely changed my ability to be consistent with habits. It's called Productive and that's all I'm going to tell you. I am going to offer a short video that highlights my success with it. It's been crazy. I always aspired to be a guy that gets up and works out every day. Realistically, I've been kind of hot and cold, but for the past 20 some-odd days, I haven't missed a day and I don't dare miss a day because of the way this thing is built. I don't want to break my streak. If you're not yet a member of the Think Bigger Real Estate group, apply to join. If you are in the group, watch for this video that I'm going to put in there. It's gonna walk you through how to use it and is going to wildly change your habits and practices. So, I look forward to sharing that with everybody.
Those tools are powerful to help you really keep it top of mind and help you begin to build some momentum to feel good about what you're doing and trust that it's working.
Good stuff. Thank you everybody. Want to thank you guys for tuning into the show today. And thank you Jeremy for taking the time. If this has been helpful, please share this.
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I'm here in the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee at a digital marketing conference, learning some amazing things and I just happened to bump into one of my longtime friends Enoch Sears. He is an architect that actually has a digital media company in which he gives really great resources, consulting and coaching to architecture firms. First of all, thank you for taking a few minutes this late at night.
It's super late where we're at, almost midnight, but this guy keeps it going.
We just keep on rolling; No stopping. We're at this conference and they brought in the founder of Operation Underground Railroad, which is an operation that goes in, a bunch of bad dudes, former Navy Seals, Army Rangers and Homeland Security Officers, that go in and bust up human trafficking rings in other countries. Were you impressed by the presentation?
Blown away--blown away. I mean, I'm a big fan of Navy Seals. The operator mentality, everything they do, I mean, a lot of the guys that are involved in those operations, you know, left the navy seals, left the rangers and now are doing something like that with their lives is... It does make me proud to be an American, but not just Americans. It makes me proud to be a citizen of the world that cares about other people. And man, it was just very inspiring.
So the point, I guess, the message that I would hope that at least that I'm taking away from this is, the real estate industry is a really powerful industry. I think sometimes we don't think big enough and we think in terms of what does my family need, and that's it. And so we don't get really disciplined and good enough to really go bigger. And, and to think that for $2,500, yes that's the cost to actually bring someone out of sex slavery--a child out of sex slavery--and to rehabilitate them to where they have the opportunity to have a good life. If you think about the frivolous things that we spend $2,500 on in the course of a year. I don't know if that thought went through your mind at all.
It is now, let's put it that way. It is now.
But this, this concept of how grateful I am to be part of such a great industry and I hope that maybe all of us start to think a little bit bigger and start to think about growing beyond just what we need and realize that there are some children in some really bad situations in the world right now and that finding great organizations like Operation Underground Railroad that can lift them out, is a powerful thing. Any other thoughts from you?
Yeah, just, I was really struck by the fact that everyone has a part to play, right? So I'm not an ex Navy Seal. I could never survive even the most basic Navy Seal training. But what I do as a businessman, what I do as an entrepreneur, it contributes in a way. So I think the best thing we can do that I was having as I watched that amazing movie premier that we just got to see, and to see the founder, and being here at this marketing conference, is that we all have a part to play. We should all do our best to do it.
Not only to do just mediocre, but excel at what we're doing and realize that it's important. Yeah. Very, very important. And if we just get by with mediocre, we will still live, we'll probably still be fine, but there are people out there whose lives could be touched if we actually put in the effort to be great at it. And it's almost like what Grant Cardone says: "It's our duty and our obligation to have massive success", so that we can not necessarily increase our own lifestyle, although that's one of the benefits of it, but more importantly because of the good that money can do.
You can look them up online, Operation Underground Railroad, they have the trailer on there. It's heart wrenching. I was thinking about, I don't even know if my wife would even want to watch it because it, it is disturbing to see the reality of what's happening in this world. But at the same time it is heart warming to see the rescue and the guy who's leading it, Tim Ballard, who we just saw, he premiered the movie, it started as an idea in his head and he relies exclusively on donations. So it's people like you and I who are willing to say that this is an important cause and I believe in Russell Brunson who's leading this conference, getting everyone together to contribute to that cause. So whether you contribute to that cause or something else, you're making an impact. And I know Justin, here, my buddy has been doing that for a long time.
Thank you, Enoch, Sears. For our audience, if they know of any architects that are great practitioners but maybe could use some help on the business side, how would people get in touch with you? Meaning where would people find your courses.
I would say just to have them search for the Business of Architecture on iTunes. And actually, they might have already heard of it so you can use it as a conversation starter.
I love it. The business of architecture. Find his podcast on iTunes and let people know about it. It's great stuff. And he has his business partner from the UK right here by his side. Let's get Rian in here. So Rian is from the UK. These two guys are business partners. Rian, what was your biggest takeaway from today?
From today? Just today in general? Just the possibility and being able to communicate a powerful story and being authentic with that message that you really can create an audience, you can create a movement. And that's the message that I've gotten from today is that a lot of the businesses that I've seen here are mission-led businesses and they're businesses that have grown organically and they've created movements and audiences, which is such a deep grass roots level that anything can happen and you can change anything. And I think that was reflected as well in the film that we just watched about the real power of entrepreneurship. It's not just about making money, it's actually about making a difference to humanity. And it literally was transformational, very, very inspiring.
I'm really grateful to have bumped into unexpectedly Enoch and for having met Rian, two really bright guys that are making a difference in the world. And hopefully this has been helpful. If it has been, do me a favor and share it. Make some comments and like this video. This message is a really important one to me and that is that real estate is much bigger than just taking care of our own family's needs but can also have a really big impact in the world and in a great way. So, have a good night everybody. Thanks guys for being on the show. I appreciate it.
I've mentioned that the real estate industry is being disrupted. That's right here. That's not hype. That's reality. Yeah. And I've always seen AI as being a real threat to the industry. This weekend, my, my mindset shifted and I started to see that if properly gone about, AI doesn't have to be a threat. It can be the most powerful leverage tool to empower great agents to continue to be well paid and not to be paid like baristas or Uber drivers. But to be paid as they are, but by adding more value. And that's always what I've thought is if agents are going to continue to get paid what they get paid, they're going to have to add more value. And today, this weekend, I had this mindset shift that AI is not the thing that's going to cause them to be marginalized and have their margins compressed, it's going to be the thing that allows them to add more value.
Cool. Well, right in the old story of the Luddites, right? Which is now just a word that means somebody who is against technology. But the Luddites were a group of people who smashed weaving looms. They were actually a group of people and it was like, oh, those looms are taking our jobs of weaving cloth together.
Oh, I haven't heard this story. Maybe some of you haven't either. Y
Yeah. So that's where the term luddite comes from. If you've ever heard that term before. And what we can't do is say, oh, the machines are going to beat us and I need to somehow be against the machines. It's where I'm going to refuse to participate. Instead it's like, wait, how can this machine make my life better? And the reality is there's so many of us that are living with machines that make our lives better, right? And it doesn't have to be high tech. I mean, the shovel made people's lives easier. Before you were using a stick and now you know, my smartphone makes my life better. And, and here's the other interesting thing is I think people are afraid of technology because they think, oh, I have to be tech savvy. But what Apple taught us, what the smartphone taught us is, I don't understand how my phone works. Do you understand how your phone works?
No idea at all.
Right? I don't know how my car works anymore either. And yet I use my car, I use my iPhone? And so it's simply a matter of being willing to commit to the process of learning how to use the technology and then allow the technology to enhance what you already are. So, hey, guess what, I've got birthday reminders in my phone. It actually makes me a better friend and son and brother because I remember my people's birthdays and so the technology makes me a better human being and I have become acutely aware of it.
I mean some of the technology that's being being rolled out in the real estate industry now is similar to why you and I love Amazon. But the reality is your Amazon is different than my Amazon. You go to Amazon, you get a certain experience. I go to Amazon, I get a different experience. We both love it. Same thing with Netflix. And what I realized is that agetns have tried to do that for a long time and that's why they've worked their absolute brains out to try and create a customized experience for their clients. And now using artificial intelligence, they have the ability to offer a very customized experience at scale. And not have to be managing spreadsheets constantly to make it happen.
Yeah. That's a powerful concept. Well, a real simple example of that, right? A good real estate agent will say, Hey Josh, when you're looking to buy a home in the next 30 days, now you've really risen to the top for me as somebody I need to be paying attention to. So now I go in and check out our hot sheets once a day to see if there's any new listings that match your criteria. But that's a highly labor intensive practice and it's a very human practice, so it's just going to take a lot of time, a lot of effort to send you what you need. Yeah, but here's the thing, you're not going to move right now. You might not be moving, looking for a year or two years, five years, but you like looking at houses. Who doesn't? Right? It's like one of the best forms of voyeurism, I'm just looking at other people's houses and you, so we do that, right? We're looking at houses were sort of window shopping for houses, but I can't listen if you're five years out, I can't do that.
Yeah, I'd go broke. Honestly, if I'm five years out, I'm less interested in houses that I am if I'm three years or three months out. Absolutely. You're less relevant to me in that conversation.
And by the way, I've got a huge ramp up period to get to know you and what your preferences actually are in the midst of that, right? Unless I've had this machine sitting on your shoulder for five years, that every time you go in and look at how every time you drive by an open house and you open up your phone and go, Hey, what's going on with that one? And every time you go in and be like, man, I like, I like granite counter tops better than, than Corian counter tops, you know? And I like, um, you know, stainless steel, better white appliances and it is tracking is doing that for you. Now all of sudden it's just like you've had this experience, right? You're on Facebook and all of your sudden you're like, how did it, know I like those shoes from zappos.com right now. First of all, that once you get over the big brother aspect of that, because that feels a little creepy at first, but when you actually embrace that and go, hey, that's actually cool. I actually like that thing and I liked it. It follows me around what if your technology is able to say, Hey, I happened to notice that you like these kinds of houses.
And it starts to deliver me stuff that is exciting to me as opposed to stuff that's irrelevant to me.
Oh yeah, and I think version 2.0 that we're going to see if this is your investor profile, like, hey, this is what I'm looking for from a cap rate? These are the types of properties I like investing in and it's like. Hey, by the way, we have one of those in Boise, Idaho that might fit your criteria and we have one in Corpus Christi, Texas that might fit your criteria. I mean that's how you can become a real big deal in investing too. So this is going to be such a value add for our real estate agents for their clients, right? And hey, this is just one technology platform. We have to think it's the one that's leading the pack right now and we're grateful for what their doing in real estate. If you're in real estate, you have to be embracing the technology and you've got to be paying attention right now. You've got to be paying attention right now because there's a whole lot of travel agents, there's a whole lot of cab drivers that were blindsided. They'll tell you it happens faster than you think it's going to happen.
Hey, welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate show. I'm actually very excited to need to talk about something that I'm obviously passionate about because you hear from me a lot when it comes to video. My personal belief is that your clients, need to be hearing from you a lot through video. I know for a lot of people that's very daunting and a you get stuck in, “I don't like how I look. I don’t like how I sound. I don't know what I'm going to say.” The reality is those really shouldn't be issues at all and I'm here to help you with that.
I've got with me, Shane Ryan, with BombBomb. Many of you who know BombBomb know that it's a big time solution for real estate agents in helping them really take their video game to the next level.
Shane has a couple of tips that are going to help you get started to not overthink it, but just very simple things to get you in action.
The first thing is you can't change the way you look or sound. So the fact that you may be scared to be on video, should not be a thing. The thing to remember is that we don't want to boil the ocean. There’s Facebook live, there's Instagram live, there's YouTube and all these other avenues where you could be using video. Choose one and get consistent with that.
Maybe that's birthdays, or anniversaries starting with just your repeat and referral business. Start with the people that already know, like, and trust you.
This will help you gain your confidence so that you can start doing more of the advanced things that we talk about all the time.
I just want to put an exclamation point behind what he said.oftentimes, there are so many things you could do with video. Just pick one thing and I would suggest with people that already know you, like you and trust you and do a one-to-one video.
You can do it from your phone and send it via text or even a better solution is to check out BombBomb.
The thing that we have found so often, it's just starting with the understanding that people matter, right? Are spoken here is we believe in you when you believe in your clients, and so when you're reaching out to them and you're saying simple things like happy birthday, or I remembered they just got back from vacation and just want to see how it went. Or, the next step in this scenario would be to let them know that you want to hear all about it over coffee. You're rehumanizing your business.
That way when you interact, it's no longer transactional. It's more about them and that's a big deal.
The second point is that you need them to be the hero. You can't allow yourself to try and be the hero. I went to a training just recently in Columbia, South Carolina, and I asked all the agents, I said, raise your hand if you believe you're the hero for your client, and a 95% raised their hands. And frankly, you shouldn’t be. Your clients want to be the hero in their story. They want you to be the guide. The guide is going to stay in people's lives. Everyone wants to be their own hero and so for you guys, that's what you need to start focusing on how do you provide value so that you're helping them with their story.
We’ve ot a question here from Elizabeth Davidson, a friend and client of mine. She asks:
How often should you post videos on social media?
- Shane- I think you start with maybe once a week I work in video and I think you can do it too much. And I think that was a great question because what happens is that if you do it too much and you're not providing value, then they're going to start unfollowing you. But again, with that, I'll put a little bit of a caveat because you do a lot of videos every single day, but if it's valuable, you watch, you tune in, you're tuning in right now at seven 30 in the morning. And so if you can do that every single time that you get on air, if you're providing value, you're not just talking about the weather or something like that, providing value for people, they're going to tune in and you can continue to do those things.
- Justin- that was going to be my point. To get online, just to get online and be heard, I don't think that’s a good strategy. If you have something specific to deliver what you know that has helped people, then do it. I would say that most people do video too infrequently. Can you overdo it? Sure. If you're not delivering value, absolutely 100%. But if you are delivering value, I think sometimes we think that everybody in our network is going to see everything we post. And it's just not true. Facebook algorithms and others, they favor the frequent, they favor the content creators. And so even if you think people don't want to hear from me every day of the week, guess what—they won’t! Even if you post it everyday of the week, they might see it once or twice a week. Yeah. So I wouldn't overthink that part of it. What I would dig into, which is what Shane's talking about is, how do I provide value?
- Justin- And I think a great, a great way to do that is when you get a really solid question from one of your clients, you answer that question because if, if it helped them, then there's going to be value for other people.
- Shane-And I think one of the biggest things that agents can be doing is talking about your struggle because a lot of times you buy and put in the perception that everything is great, right? Everything is easy. Well, I just talked to a physical recently where they were stressing out trying to list their house because they thought, you know, there's a seller's market. I'm just going to sell this thing. I don't need an agent. But within two days into that whole process they want, like they went crazy and they were looking for someone to guide them. So again, your, your clients and your people, potential clients are looking for you to be that valuable asset. And so if you can start answering those questions that people have and helping them understand that.
Marketing is important for marketing properties and the owners care about that. But when it comes to getting business for me it's, I'll give like almost all credit to prospecting. Is that right? Jordan? Did I understand you correctly? Yeah, I mean, we're a prospect based team and we have been for a long time. I've, you know, I believe in marketing. I, it's something I will, I like to look good and something I like to do.
Ultimately earning business, every transaction that we get, it's because we could go out and we get it. I would say that we're prospecting based, marketing enhanced and that's been the key to success for years.
Many think, as long as I'm really good at marketing, I'm going to have all the business that I want. And what I hear you saying is that could be a fallacy depending upon your business type and model. But if you want to get business quickly now, today and actually improve your 2019, you're going to have to go hand to hand combat. You're gonna have to go talk to people.
I believe when I first got into real estate, I wanted to spend a bunch of money, you know, and you know, radio and marketing and flyers and postcards and every, and database mailings and you're sitting there and you're waiting for it.
Earlier in my career I had gotten connected with Mike Ferry and I really enjoyed Mike. I was very involved with him and I liked the idea with Mike was that instead of spending money in waiting for business to come to me, I go out and get it. The marketing can be really great. It's great to have them in Luxury Home Magazine. It's a way of getting in the door. It's part of an elite, a pre-listing package to get us in the door and earn that business. But at the end of the day, we win that business because we’re great at scripts. We know what to say and how to say it and we've called hundreds and thousands of people.
I don't see anybody having a solid career based on marketing. It really, it really needs to be, you need to have earned that database and earn that. Even if your work a database, if you're not calling expireds and cancels, you still need to prospect your database. I know brokers that are doing 50 to 100 million dollars of real estate and some you've had on your show probably and they're calling, they're still calling. They're calling every day. They're calling now. It might be, hey, how's your kids birthday? Or how was your wife's anniversary? Or whatever. They're calling and having those relationships, but they're consistently staying in front of those.
It's a schedule, right? It's following that schedule. Look, if you want to have more business, you're going to have to talk to human beings, right? At end of the day, if you want the real estate business, they're going to want to actually have a conversation with somebody. And the more of those conversations that you can be in on a daily basis, naturally with the right scripts and the right offering, you're going to be getting more real estate transactions.
Let's talk about failing to schedule. Jordan, I know that's one of the key value propositions to your team, right? Last year you close 112 transactions, you've got 13 people on your team, all of them are newly licensed minus you, right? I've got a couple of staff and the rest are new agents. We just hired somebody who got licensed in May and her first 90 days she did six transactions. She'll do 12, 15 million next year--no problem.
So what you're saying is that the differentiator, is you actually have and hold them to a schedule, right? And in the middle of that schedule is contacting people.
I tend to lean towards expires and cancels cause it's my bread and butter. But despite that my business has become more database. We’re now almost at 30 to 40%. The goal this year is to get 50% of our business from the database.
Again, people want to spend a bunch of money on marketing and they want to spend the money and hope that they don't have to do the work. And the thing is, even if you spend five, 10, $20,000 a month on leads, you have to call those people and you get to call them for years.
But again, the gold is in the schedule. Everyone is here at 8 am. Everyone does three hours of log Mojo time, which means that they have to be dialing for 3 hours, not just sitting in front of a phone. They click pause, it stops. We follow that religiously. We have script training every morning. We have team meetings, we have huddle ups. It's like getting a master's degree in real estate so that we can get our agents into production very quickly.
Their number one thing is getting them into a 200 person database as quickly as possible--reaching out to those people. We also do quarterly events, like OMSI, the zoo or Christmas trees or whatever, and inviting people to that. We then follow up with the 20,000 people that we have leads paid for leads hundreds of thousands of dollars with the leads that you have to call 30, 40, 50, 60 times.
Right? So that marketing can be great, but it's, it's like dot. Even that's like the, that's the first base. You know, you have to, you have to do all the time. And, and it's a contact sport, which reaching out to people, talking to people and having that communication. And that's critical. I love it, man. So your agents appreciate that. That's why they come to your team is that they realize, you know, I've tried to do this on my own and I tend to shy away from a schedule, right?
A challenge that real estate agents face is--I'm self employed, I'm free, but oh crap, where's my next paycheck coming from?
What we say is join our team and we're going to hold you to a schedule which is also holding you to receiving income. Am I understanding correctly that that's like you just happen to know what's good for them. If you're on the team this is what we expect, but keep in mind that we're doing this for your own good because if we just give you all the freedom in the world and you don't actually contact people, you're going to be disappointed with the results.
And the key to remember is that don't really have to babysit them. I mean they, the first week or two, they're trying to get into the flow. I mean, again, there are a lot of them are newly licensed where they've been doing it some way. They're trying to do it a different way. I don't really hold them accountable. The team holds everyone accountable. It's a very positive peer culture and they're all cheering each other on. There's so much business out there. There's no fighting over leads or anything like that. It's a lot of opportunity. And so they all kind of hold each other accountable and it's a very positive peer culture.
It’s coming in, making calls, going on appointments. That's what my success has been, is listening to coaches like you and national coaches in real estate and they just tell me what to do. And I do it. The top five jobs of a realtor is prospecting, lead, follow up, going on appointments, negotiating contracts and mastering your skills and dialogues. So our brokers focus on those. If they're not working on flyers or during a blog or a website or messing around with the Facebook page. They're going out and getting business.They're taking it back right there hunting and bringing it back.
It’s not easy, but it's simple. It's super simple. And I love how you guys have made things super simple.
Give us one take-away for everybody listening here today. If they could actually go move the needle in their business today to, to improve what they're 2019 is like in their business and at home, what's the one thing you would have people take away from today's broadcast?
I mean, they needed to get uncomfortable. I mean, let's be honest, people that are listening to this video, you know, 90% of them probably don't want to get on the phones. They may not want to call their database. They might not want to call expireds or prospecting or their neighborhood. My recommendation is that you put an hour, two hours, three hours, five hours. If you don't have any business and be actively every single day, no matter what talking to people. It could sound as simple as: What are your plans? How can I help you? Whether it is in six months, a year or two years, let me follow up with you. And just like that you start building that pipeline. Because if you're not doing that, you're not really in real estate. You're not in business. I mean, you're just hoping and waiting and, and that's not, that's not a plan.
So I would invite everybody just to follow up with what Jordan said. Go get uncomfortable today. They do. Somebody calls somebody, pick up the phone and call somebody who's not your mom. Keep in mind that you have, that you can help people and you're calling to offer them help.
Nick Krautter has solved a problem with which a lot of agents struggle... how do I actually retire from real estate and get something for the many years that I've worked. With the same process, he's also uncovered how, what he calls adopting agents, can scale a business by referral very quickly. Nick's best-selling book and speaking tour on national stages further validates the need for this solution at this time.
My fellow agents, our clients struggle with social media and online marketing. And the biggest thing that they struggle with is often, knowing what to say and what to do and then the consistency of doing that repeatedly. The premise of our company is pretty simple. It's just to take as much of that off of the Realtor’s plate as possible. So, we do a lot of the online marketing for them, email, social media, our websites, blogging. We also coach them and lead them to the water for the things that we can't do for them. Social media obviously is social and so you need to be your best representative of yourself on social media.
It’s not something that you can hire out. But what you can hire out is the coaching and the accountability and the knowing what you should be doing so that it is as easy as possible.
I hear people spending money. In fact I just heard, of an agent on Friday who had, outsourced his social media to other companies. Wouldn't that be the equivalent of sending somebody else instead to your best friend's birthday party and expecting them to like be okay with that?
Once we get our heads around what social media is really about, it's about, relationships, we won’t do that anymore. It's about enhancing relationships that it gets really hard to outsource to like a loved one. It's hard to delegate that to somebody else and have it go well. What you embody is that people need to own it and people need to do it. But you also realize that most people out there aren't doing it at all. Either they're overthinking it or they're spending too much time thinking about it as opposed to just being an action, getting it done.
I think for most of us, social media is not our business. It is a tool of our business. I like to stay in touch with people, but it is not our business. And oftentimes when I see people saying, I'm going to do social media, every other part of their business starts to really struggle and suffer because they spend so much time in their thinking about, ‘Should I post this? Should I post that?
Luminary Agent’s 14 day challenge takes away the, “what should I post, how should I post it, how do I make it sound this way”. Or “should I do it this way or should I do it that way?” All the what if’s. Because those are all the stumbling blocks. So if I can remove all of those stumbling blocks and make it as easy as possible without doing it for you.
With social media, it's meant to build relationships and then those relationships lead to transactions. But social media is not meant to be transactional in and of itself. That's where a lot of people get social media mixed up is because they want to, they want to hire out being themselves on social media thinking that it's a marketing sales transaction tactic and it's really not. It's not a selling tool, if you use it that way, you'll quickly lose all the hours and credibility with people.
If all you're ever doing is selling, for your friends, your followers, your fans, what value are you providing them? If all you're ever doing is posting your listings, your solds, your awards and accolades? What's in it for me? That's the question you should always ask.
Too often, especially this time a year, all of my counterparts in the industry are putting out, “I sold X number of homes. The entire newsfeed is filled with people talking about how many homes they've sold. I don't see anybody else doing that in other industries. My insurance agent isn't doing that. My doctor isn’t doing that. I get that it's been taught that there's this evidence of success concept, where you want people to know you're actually a successful agent. So maybe there's some truth in that and I think it's working for some people, but maybe there's a different way to do it.
I think there's a time and a place for proving your success. I don't think that it is randomly on social media to a bunch of people who may or may not know you very well. That's the thing you have to remember with social media is that it's a huge mix of, your mom, plus somebody that you met at an open house. And so you need to be careful and mindful that those bragging pieces, those experiences pieces, there's a place for those. And it might not be to everybody on social media to share those with. It might be in the middle of an email campaign or a Facebook marketing campaign when you're targeting an actual potential client. With that information, it becomes relevant to that person.
There is a way of telling your success. If you say, “I had a goal of helping this many people last year and I reached that goal,” or “I exceeded it” or “I almost made it, but it was still an amazing year and thank you all so much, you helped me get there.” That's a different post. Then when somebody's just flat out bragging and saying, I sold X number of homes last year, you know, great. I know what's in it for me as the person seeing it.
You might think how that's being received on the other end? And even ask yourself, is there someway for me to say that differently, to get the same information across, but through the right context. If you were at a party and just randomly brought that up, like I sold X number of homes this past year to everybody in the room,it might be odd. Especially if that’s all you said.
I think intent and authenticity have a lot to do with how it’s received. If you are angry, intent is true. If you're saying it in a way that's authentic for you, then I think that makes obviously a huge difference as well. So you just have to go with your gut on that.
Going back to the point of this broadcast of why I've invited you to come on and you graciously accepted that is to let people know about this 14 day challenge, which will help a lot of people that are stuck in social media. They're either not doing it all and, or they're doing it and it's taking up way too much time to do it. How do they find your challenge?
So you can get to the challenge by just going to luminaryagent.com/14day. And that will redirect you to the landing page for the challenge.You can either sign up using Facebook messenger or there is an option to sign up for email. Then, every morning you will be fed a new challenge for the day. Just click on the link and you'll get a video of me explaining that post in a challenge for the day, you'll get tips on how to make the posts, you know, the best that it can be. You'll get examples of other people's posts that have done these types of posts before so that you can actually see them. And then you'll also get your engagement tip for the day as well.
I promise you that you will start to think differently. How quick social media can be, how authentic it can be and how helpful it can be to have a true expert in your corner that is helping guide you along the way.
The first thing that agents need to do in order to maintain their businesses and margins is to actually get better. The best way to do this is to learn from other brokers. Joe Fustolo has dedicated the past seven years to building a powerful Facebook community called 'Masters in Real Estate' with the intent to help this community of real estate agents have better ethics and gain more knowledge. This mindset of helping other agents, even your own competition, get better is a key to a better life, a better business and a better industry.
There comes a point within each of our lives, I believe, when we desire to go beyond success to a place of significance. We want to not just impact our own family's life, but the lives of as many as we can reach. Both Josh Pitts and I have felt this stirring and his Facebook Live show has inspired me to do the same.
In this episode, Josh and I discuss some of the pitfalls that keep people from leveraging this powerful tool, not just to impact their own business and life, but to impact the lives of so many more that they could be reaching and helping.
Jay Puppo is not only a friend, but my personal productivity coach. He has transformed the way I look at the way I spend my time. Rather than choosing the best things to be doing, he has helped me to really focus in on what is my ONE Thing and work to cut out everything else. This will get you thinking about your own personal possibilities when you learn to identify and really focus on it.
For years and years I spent too much time trying to outrun my fork. I wanted to look and feel a certain way and because I did not have control over my eating habits, I spent too much time away from my family, trying to exercise my way to fitness.
When I was introduced to Jon Fuller, I realized that I had been hacking at the branches rather than the root. This man has helped me to understand and live good nutrition so that I can have my time back.
Although the precise timing of a market shift is never totally known, the reality that they do happen is known. As a result, many agents have been preparing for some time on how to best take advantage of the opportunity that is our current real estate market shift.
These kinds of markets require not only the right mindset and energy, but the right vision and leadership.
"As a real estate agent, I know I'm supposed to be creating and sharing content on social media, but what do I create, say and share?"
If you've ever had that question, I've brought on nationally acclaimed video influencer and Newberg, Oregon real estate agent, Brandon Porter to help you get unstuck.
There are two types of discontentment. One is healthy and fuels people like you and me towards our potential.
The other is unhealthy and causes discouragement and takes us away from our potential.
Tune into this short share to hear the difference.
Cody Martens owner of Top Left Creative, a marketing company that offers turnkey solutions for real estate agents and lenders, gives tremendous insight on how to market in today's crowded marketing space.
On this episode, financial industry leader Tim Clairmont of Clear Financial Partners hits on two major topics:
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Going from something that you love, to creating success, to then creating significance.
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How to thrive amidst industry disruption. Teaser- despite the knowledge economy that we're in, EQ (emotional intelligence) will matter more than IQ in the days and years to come.
If you are in a service based industry and are tired of shrinking margins, then this episode is for you.
Mark Savage, owner of Cornerstone Web Studio knows that designing beautiful websites is not enough in today's economy. Mark spends much of his time also acting as a thought leader in his industry and those that he serves.
As service based industries continue to be disrupted by technology, including that of artificial intelligence and automation, becoming a thought leader is a key component in staking out your future. In this episode we cover some ways to do that.
Cody Martens and I have a really fun conversation about what real estate agents are doing right now as marketers of their business to really thrive.
Bryan Welton founded and built the largest name tag company in the world.
In addition he invests and advises approximately 30 small businesses through his private venture capital fund, all while raising 6 children, participating and leading philanthropy projects and causes in other parts of the world and leading a youth ministry of over 1000 kids.
What if every time someone purchased your product or service, charities in your area automatically received the support and help that they so desperately need. Would that change your potential customers' buying patterns?
We've seen this model for years in things like 'Tom's Shoes', or 'Ethos Water' at Starbucks. Would this model work for your product or service?
This episode will expand your thinking to consider how you might be able to forge business and philanthropy both within your own business as well as with those from whom you purchase.
Whenever I get the chance to talk with Nick Hoogendam, I learn SO much. Today was no different, other than I let my audience listen in. If you are growing a business or a brand as an entrepreneur or intrapreneur, the concepts and ideas shared here will give you an inside edge on understanding how to thrive in our current attention economy.
On his deathbed, legendary innovator and business leader Steve Jobs expressed regret in not being a better father. I admire Steve for what he did in the business world and I also want to learn from his regrets.
I have a lot of weaknesses and failures and I'm sure I'll have my own regrets, but at the end of my life, one that I don't want to have is that I missed my opportunity to be a great dad.
For this reason I try and surround myself with great dads from whom I can learn. Tony Gillard, father of 3, one of which has had 4 open heart surgeries, is from whom I learn regularly.
Professional coach Dan Foster shares what shares how his coaching organization, Building Champions, Inc., has made a quantum leap by having different conversations to have different offers for different people.
He also delves into moving topics such as how changing your thoughts, beliefs and feelings is at the root of change and how creating not just a business plan, but a life plan often creates the fuel to achieve your most ambitious business plans.
Whether or not you're ever interested in foster parents, the principles that Chad and i discuss will benefit anyone looking to think bigger about the impact that they can make in the lives of others and truly pursue a life of significance.
Listen in as Chad shares his story of how he and his wife became foster parents and how he also volunteers as a mentor to young men who do not have a father in the home.
A true life success story out of Sherwood, Oregon, Nathan Doyel has been a student and practitioner of success philosophies his entire life. From playing Division I football at a prestigious university, to raising a family of five children, to being a fearless advocate of important non-profits, to building a dentistry that consistently breaks records on production levels AND service levels, Nathan is the kind of guy that you not only want to be around but one that you want to learn from and emulate.
In his research for his new book, Nathan shares multiple examples that demystify why all of us tend to remain within a certain zone of achievement. In so doing, he shares the simple recipe he has used for himself and his team to break through these self-imposed limitations and achieve at all new levels.
US Marine Force Reconnaissance member Steve Brush discusses training that was so tough that he blacked out multiple times, once in shallow water. All of this was preparation for 6 tours in Afghanistan and being on the front lines in machine gun fights with the Taliban. Steve is probably the toughest and bravest human being I've ever met and some of his biggest challenges came upon returning to civilian life.
The lessons in life and business that we pull from his experiences could likely change your life.
Whether it's inspiring large audiences at Nike, HP, OHSU, or taking people to the top of Africa's highest peak, transforming lives is what Lou does. Tune in and you too will hear and feel what I mean.
You'll love my conversation with Trevor Hammond, regional manager of Sierra Pacific Mortgage and Founder of Portland's 10X Growth Summit in which Trevor shares the mind-expanding process he's been walking the Summit's attendees through to make the seemingly impossible goals, seem completely attainable. Tune in to experience it for yourself.
Josh Friberg heads up the Five Doors Network expansion team here in Portland, Oregon. In addition to that, he is a certified ONE Thing Trainer. Listen to how Josh and I are applying the principles of the NYT, Amazon, USA Today best-selling book The ONE Thing in our lives and you too can create new freedoms and possibilities for yourself.
This interview with Jesse Garcia, top Realtor and co-founder of Pipeline Wizard is packed with nuggets of wisdom that will help you THINK BIGGER.
Jesse was leading a life by default, but inside he and his wife knew that he had bigger things to do. With the help of mentors along the way that have helped him to think bigger, he's now leading a life by design.
In a time and era when it is easy to "connect" with almost anyone virtually, we as business people have forgotten one of the tried and true success principles of building business, which is doing so one relationship at a time.
In this interview, we review some of my key takeaways from Patrick's book and discuss how to avoid the commoditization that is happening in mortgage, in real estate, in insurance, and many other industries through a focus on relationships.
Although an icon in the real estate industry, this interview will expand the thinking of any and all that hear this story.
When Marc got into the real estate business in 2006, he experienced less than a year of upside before things got, at least for others, really tough. Despite this, Marc closed 43 transactions in his first year by simply following a proven model and great mentors.
Fast forward to last year and Marc and Fox Property Group closed 266 transactions. He's now to a point where he leads the company and seeks to crelate great success THROUGH others with his powerful perspective on real estate expansion teams that focuses on helping his expansion partners close business sufficient to significantly change their lives.
Tune in to hear the rest of the story, including the many lessons that Marc has learned through his journey thus far.
Tune in for the simple definition of what leadership really is and how understanding this definition can help you to think bigger in every area of your life.
Six years ago Scott LaPlante owned a mechanic shop, was 255 pounds, borderline hypertension, just went through a divorce, and was dealing with stress in some very unhealthy ways.
Fast forward to today and Scott is a physical specimen and one month off from having run his first 100 mile race and consistently does additional ultra marathons.
Listen to his story, together with the amazing stories of his races and the life lessons that come from them, as he totally changed his situation and his life, which all started by being around people who helped him to think bigger.
My 10-year-old daughter asked if she could accompany me on my run this morning she rode her bike. She rode and talked and I ran and listened. I was so impressed with how big is her thinking. She shared with me how she doesn't want to live a life just in a pretty dress holding a girly umbrella, which I thought was hilarious, but she wants to do really important things.
She referenced the movie Hidden Figures, which she has not even seen yet, which led me to share some thoughts on living a life of great impact. There is no doubt in my mind that she will impact and change the world in wonderful ways.
The big takeaway for me, is that you don't have to have a big fancy title, or be a best-selling author, in order to have really big thinking and inspire other people to have a really big thinking. And we often need to look around and take wisdom from those around us who have such a pure and unjaded view on the world and the endless possibilities that exist.
In today's episode I discuss takeaways from my mastermind lunch of which I am a part with a few very successful friends.
We discussed the powerful practice of quieting your mind, whether it be through transcendental meditation or other, the results of many of the world's superachievers speak for themselves.
I also share tidbits from a powerful book called The Power of Full Engagement by Tony Schwartz and how the practice of quietInc your mind, actually helped some of the world's greatest tennis players lower their heart rate in between serves, which then allowed them to be able to consistently outperform their competition.
What is sure to happen when you are on the right path to bigger thinking, bigger actions and bigger impact, is that some people that have been in your life up to that point, will no longer hAve as big of a place, or even a place at all.
As this happens, some people will retreat and go back to their comfort zone, remaining in those same relationships and conversations, due to peer pressure and wanting to remain in everyone's good graces.
Unless we are talking about your spouse, to whom you have made at least a lifelong commitment, I would recommend that you do not to retreat. Rather, see it as evidence that you are on the path to bigger thinking, big your actions, and bigger impact.
I had an experience today that is teaching me a really powerful lesson. Over a year ago I did something unethical with some clients. I started to give a lead source that was not mine to give. My intentions were good but the way I went about it was not. When it all came out, I felt very remorseful and asked a sincere apology from those involved.
Just today I had an encounter with one of the individuals wronged and from it I have learned a myriad of lessons about how holding grudges and forgiveness, or lack there of, can limit our ability to think bigger, act bigger and have a big impact.
Meet Patrick Woods. Patrick began his real estate career in 2002 and is currently an owner and General Manager of 4 Keller Williams Realty franchises with nearly 1,000 associates selling over 7,000 homes equalling approximately $2.5 billion in sales in 2016 alone.
Previously he served as the CEO and Team Leader of the Roseville office. With over 500 associates, the Roseville office has finished as the #1 Keller Williams office in the world in both 2011 and 2012 out of approximately 700 offices worldwide. In 2014 Patrick and his office reached the pinnacle of selling over $1 Billion worth of real estate in a single year.
Our interview with Patrick goes into the rise and fall of his career in the Dotcom world and how that helped him to develop the vision and leadership lessons and attributes to go big in building a real estate and coaching empire. You'll love some of the nuggets shared by this business icon.
I had lunch this past week with a friend who doubles as a very successful individual. His success extends beyond the business world into his faith and family. He is someone definitely worth modeling.
In our conversation, he shared with me that he had told his wife that he wanted to come up with a billion-dollar idea. That lead he and I down an interesting conversation path and has caused me to reflect on it since our time together. From that, I've derived a question and a formula that can dramatically change your thinking, conversations, actions and impact.
In this episode I interview the leader of the top producing real estate team, SELLPDX.com, and best-selling author of the game-changing book The Golden Handoff- How to Buy and Sell a Real Estate Agent's Business.
Nick and I go into a massive paradigm shift that agents can have, either at the start of their career, or as they are nearing the end of their career, when they realize that their real-estate business is something they can one day sell.
There are TWO WAYS to get the bingest and best building in town. The first is to take all of your effort and resources to go build it. The second is to go and try and knock down other people's buildings so that yours remains or becomes the bingest building in town. The first is gratifying, helps you become something great, and is effective. The latter will be ineffective, shallow, short-lived, and comes with an opportunity cost of not spending time improving your brand, offering, business, etc.
Whether in the past, currently, or even in the future, you find yourself spending your precious resources knocking down other people's buildings, stop it! You are only hurting yourself and not serving your customers and your industry in the way that you otherwise could.
Show me your calendar and I will show you how big you are thinking.
In today's episode I tell of the realization that I had as I looked at my calendar and seeing a recurring appointment that is a very common practice in my industry. What I know and remembered is that this may not be the best use of my time in helping me to think bigger and therefore help my clients to think bigger and don more.
I encourage you to look at your calendar and see if there are activities and/or white space there that should be filled with bigger thinking activities and bigger conversations.
As you do, I am convinced that you will like the return.
I was in a meeting today with some clients and the topic came up and of how to get out of conversations when clients are trying to get you to heavily compete with other agents.
Our discussion led us to the solution of letting the client know that we do not compete on those terms, but that we compete at a different level on different terms, that are ultimately more valuable to the client and that we are not sure that we are a good fit.
Essentially, what we are doing, is recognizing that this client is inviting us to be small thinking and in small conversations. We are declining the invitation to be in those conversations and inviting the client to join us in bigger thinking and the bigger conversations.
Often times, we underestimate the cost of being in small conversations. We often only calculate and consider the direct costs, like lowered commissions, etc. What we fail to recognize, is the opportunity cost of being in small thinking conversations... which take the place of a conversation in which bigger thinking could be taking place. That cost has the potential to be enormous.
Just last week I had the opportunity to sit down with a real estate agent in my area, who is not currently a customer, but who is consistently in the top 5 or 10 producing agents in our city.
What I share in this episode are some things that I learned about getting into those conversations, adding value in those conversations, and setting yourself up for future conversations with that person.
With a friendship that extends back to middle school, Steve and I have lots in common, including a shared vision and passion of disruption in our industry. Specifically, we are committed to disrupting the title and escrow industry for the good of Realtors everywhere.
One way in which we do this is by bringing to the real estate industry, regular content that allows our followers and partners to have:
- bigger thinking
- bigger actions
- bigger impact
We will be doing this through interviews with some of the world's brightest and most innovative minds as well as sharing experiences outside of our interviews in which our interviews were stretched.