Keeping It Real Podcast • Secrets Of Top 1% REALTORS ® • Interviews With Real Estate Brokers & Agents

Terrence Murphy talks about his football career in the NFL and how he transitioned to his real estate career. Terrence describes how he scaled his personal business to a team that brokered $1B in less than 10 years. Next, Terrence focuses on his holistic approach into being successful in his business. Terrence introduces his podcast, Real Estate Entrepreneur, and describes what it offers to the listeners. Terrence also talks about how he’s able to focus on all his businesses and endeavors and be successful at all of them and what is he telling his agents to do in order to have a successful 2023. Last Terrence discusses the importance of failure and how that leads you towards success.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Terrence Murphy can be reached at 979.703.1979

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
How does someone grow their real estate practice from zero to 1 billion in production in just 10 years? We’re going to talk about that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solutions so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our show

Hello and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris I am your guide and host through the show and in just a moment we’re going to be speaking with NFL player turned real estate billion dollar producer Terrence Murphy but before we get to Terrance just a couple of quick reminders the best ways that you can help us continue to produce these episodes and reach more audience. Number one, tell a friend to think of just one other realtor that needs to hear what Terrance for example, you’re about to hear what Terrence is saying and send another agent, a link to our show, you can always find us at keeping it real pod.com Every episode can be streamed right there or via any podcast app. And the second part is that you can help us is by please supporting our sponsors. They’re the reason that we can continue to do these shows and let them know how much love you have for them by checking out their products and services. Alright guys, enough about that. Let’s get to the main event my conversation with Terence Murphy.

Today on the show we have Murphy from exp in Texas. Let me tell you all about Terrance. Now Terrence was a second round NFL draft pick by the Green Bay Packers after graduating from Texas a&m University as a three time Academic All big 12 student athlete. Now Terrance, this is amazing has brokered if that that wasn’t amazing enough, Terrence has brokered 1.1 billion in sales volume over the last 10 years. He currently owns 20 companies actually more than 20 companies under the Terrence Murphy company’s brand and Terrance is an investor in more than 30 companies as a venture capitalist. Now investing in real estate is one of the things he is most passionate about, as he currently owns over 400 beds of residential real estate and commercial properties all over the US. Terrence is also a two time winner of Inc. Five 5000 award for America’s fastest growing privately owned businesses and also is a three time recipient of the Texas a&m Mays Business School Aggie 100. For 100 fastest growing businesses in the world. Terrance possesses the same traits that he portrayed on the football field which is integrity, passion, hard work, dedication, loyalty, desire to succeed and excellence all of which help his business continue his businesses continue to grow and his clients to receive superior service to learn all about territory by the way, he has a podcast that he just launched as well because of course he does he does everything but I want you to learn all about Terrence at his website which is Terrence Murphy I’m going to spell Terrence because it can be spelled many different ways. It’s and by the way, we’re also gonna have a link to this in the show notes. So you don’t have to type this in just go to the show notes and click but if you are typing, it’s Terence t e r r e n c e murphy.com. And you can see all of the cool things that Terrance does and you can also follow him on Instagram, which is at Terrence again te r r e n c e realtor also a link to that will be in our show notes. Terrence, welcome to the show,

Terrence Murphy 4:48
man appreciate it, man. Sorry about the long intro my team sent you. But at the same time, they always laugh because they’re like, Well, hell, you’re doing so much we have to make the intro and sighs So it’s fun, man. Thank you. Great job.

D.J. Paris 4:58
Thank you. No, thank you. Oh, and I love reading long intros like that. Or sometimes people it is funny sometimes people we interview will send us things that we have to pare down because we’re like, okay, nobody cares about this. And that everything that you guys sent over was things I’m like, I have to talk about all of this. Because this, I think it was very concise. You just, you just do a lot. And I think that I’d love to talk to you about, you know, the fact that you run so many different businesses, you have so many different interests. You’re a busy, busy guy, and at the same time running the successful real estate practice. But before we get to sort of where you are today, I’d love to learn a little bit more about how you got to where you are today. So I’d love our audience to hear about, you know, sort of your football career and then how you transitioned into real estate.

Terrence Murphy 5:46
Yeah, and so born and raised in East Texas, I grew up with a single mom. And so for all the kids that grew up with single moms, and for all you real estate agents that are single moms, I love you, and I’m proud of you. And so yeah, I just grew up with a single mom, she put a lot into me and encouraged me, pushed me and was very hard on me. And that’s the way that I’ve become who I am as an entrepreneur and as a student athlete, and as a professional athlete. And then just having the heart to help, right, because I’ve lived that life where we went, not having everything. And so I just have the mentality to try to help him like we talked about earlier, DJ. Life is like a boomerang, right? What you put out, you get back. And not only do you get it back, you get it back with precision. And so for many years, I’ve encouraged real estate agents, I’ve, I’ve coached him, I push them, I’ve given them tools. And now I’ve been able to see the benefits from those seeds that I said, as people are starting to join my organization at exp, like crazy. So it’s been cool. But yeah, that’s I grew up there, went to Texas a&m football scholarship, got drafted by the Green Bay Packers with Aaron Rodgers. And back to back end and film EPS as my roommate, my bro. And he’s killing the game. And then I retired and moved into real estate, and just grew and grew passion for it. And to start off as a developer and an investor got my license with the Keller Williams for a year, which we all do. started an independent brokers team and five, I told people I was going to scale. My independent startup brokerage. This was in my early 20s. But no experience. I did seven transactions when I started to evolve. And I said, I’m gonna scale it to a billion in sales in 10 years, I actually did it in a way and people were like, there’s no way you’re in a small town. It’s not possible, you need a franchise. And we did. And that’s that’s how I got into real estate after retirement. And

D.J. Paris 7:39
it’s, it’s incredible. And I know you’re skipping over about a million steps along the way. But I love the fact that here you are. And this idea of scaling is so, so important, especially now where I see agents flocking to teams, or teams have become more and more important, more and more prevalent, more more and more attractive, I think over the years, and we’re seeing this flocked to teams, and I’m hearing well, I’m interviewing a lot of people for the show, and also just here for our brokerage in Chicago that are struggling with scaling, trying to figure out how do I go from being like an individual producer to running a team than to scaling the team? And, and those are different skill sets? And was that difficult for you to get from? You know, well, you said you, you were just done seven transactions, you’re like I’m building a team. I’m gonna I’m gonna scale this thing up to a billion. Well, let me ask you a different question. What gave you the confidence to think that that was possible within 10 years? Because it really shouldn’t be possible, at least, you know, to the sort of my logical mind, right? This that shouldn’t be possible yet. You did it. And you did it faster than you thought. So what gave you the confidence and the courage to do that when really all signs were pointing to? It’s going to take longer than that?

Terrence Murphy 8:56
Yeah. Or even be possible at all right? I think for me, that goes back to just that background of, you know, I tell people when I was five years old, I remember having a picture of me, my mom bought me like one of those little uniforms. And that was my Christmas gift. And I remember telling people that fine, I’m gonna make it to the NFL. And so can you imagine from five to 22, for 17 years, you’re telling people something that is nearly impossible? If you look at the numbers? Absolutely. I mean, it literally is no way. Just from a number standpoint, you should make it to the NFL. And so not only to make it but to make it in the first two rounds. So I had already been there before, right holding on to a dream that coaches opponents, family members, teammates, whoever tried to talk you out of like, Hey, that’s not possible. It’s not real. You might want to do something different. And you just keep fighting for it, man, you keep holding on to it because you know, within your heart as possible. So when I achieved that dream at 22 I tell people I’m okay with playing the long game. It took me 17 years to achieve a dream. Right, right. And when I tell people one day, like I said, Hey, I’m gonna go do one in college football. Well, at that time, this is crazy DJ. My sophomore year, I was the only sophomore varsity. We went, Oh, and team. We didn’t win one day. My junior year, we wouldn’t want a nine. So going into my senior year, we were one and 19. Yeah, we hadn’t signed a D one recruit in 10 years. And I’m telling people, I’m gonna go do you want? And I ended up leaving my high school with 20 Do you want offers. And then I actually had about seven foreign academic offers to like Rice University, and UNC places like that. So I’ve been there before. So in my mind, when I feel it, and I pray about it, I’m like, that’s what I’m doing. I don’t even think about the other option of not doing it. And I would say put me in a desert, I’ll find my way to the water. That’s just the way I’m wired. And I think that’s what people are seeing now as I’m growing one of the fastest organizations in history now. VXp is because I’m giving people the roadmap to get there and get there with the right tools. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 11:08
boy, that is you just said so much in such a short period of time there. Because really, he talked about perseverance. He talked about singularly focused like, almost like, horse was happy when they put the blinders on. It’s like, Hey, I’m going to achieve this. And, you know, there’s certain things that are outside of that were really outside of your control. Right. You talked about the the, you know, the record in high school, like not great, not not your record, but just the overall team record. There was no history of of D one players, you know, any recent history from that school, and yet you did it. And I’m guessing because you were singularly focused. I imagine if you hadn’t have been drafted second round, I imagine that really wouldn’t have changed much for you anyway, because you would have just pivoted, and pointed your Northstar at something else, and made that successful. So I imagine is perseverance. How important is that to you? I mean, I imagine it’s gotta be pretty important.

Terrence Murphy 12:08
Perseverance is very important. But what I will tell you is, you know, the great thing about athletics, the great thing of growing up with a single mom, the great thing with my background is day in and day out, you have to get up and you have to work. Yeah. And, you know, I have successful businesses as an entrepreneur in middle school. Like when I was 12 years old, I had, like, different businesses that I was running. And so just the mentality of, I don’t wake up with the Oh, it’s not possible. I’ll wake up with. Okay, how am I getting there? Like, right now? What steps do I have to take day in and day out? Like, there’s a great book atomic habits, right? It’s just love atomic habits. Oh, man. And so I think the reason why, you know, I’ve been coaching real estate agent now for 10 years. And two things I’ve always said no to is people would ask me to come train their agents. And I would say, I can’t do it. I don’t have a coaching business, or can I invest in your real estate projects, I didn’t raise money, and I didn’t have time to teach. So I would just teach my agents. But as I’ve now started expanding my coaching services, people are blown away, but the athlete in me and the coaching me, I can give you very practical tools, that it doesn’t sound like man, I got to do all of that to get there. It’s like, no, just do this for the next 30 days. And once we get to 5 million in volume over the next year, and here’s how you get to 10 million. And here’s how you get to 18. One of the things I took pride in is I’m real big on studying statistics. And once I see statistics, and then I say, okay, the average agent closes seven to 10 deals a year per year. How do I five extent with my team and my brokerage. And so, for the 10 years that I ran an independent brokerage, we ever started on point five transactions per person. So our per person production was at 40 deals per person. It’s amazing. So we were so focused on just everybody being very successful versus just growing the numbers. Wow.

D.J. Paris 14:04
I mean, it’s, it’s, it is truly incredible. And you’re right, this idea of seeing what is possible, because there are people that do this, right, like, You’re not the first guy to 5x You know, a team’s productions, although you’re probably one of the first people to do it. But you’re probably not the first there’s other people that have done this, you can study some of their habits, oftentimes, you could just reach out to these people and ask, that’s what I do on the show. I’m reaching out to you right now to share, you know, your secrets with with our audience. So it is incredible. How important was it? You know, you’ve been you’ve had coaches, you know, throughout your entire academic life, you know, starting from as early as when he really got into athletics as a young man, and then all the way through, you know, high school, college professional, professional athlete athletics, and then how important is it to be coachable? Because of course, you have the perseverance you’ve got the discipline, but Having a coach, how important is

Terrence Murphy 15:01
that? I think the biggest misnomer about coaches that really shocked me, because when we squat I’m 15 years old on I kind of got removed from the world. Right? Like when we were on campus at Texas a&m Like we they like had us like overheated, like a wager. Your day is planned out. And when you get to the NFL like you see us playing, but no one really gets to personally interact with you. So when I got introduced back into the world at 22 years old, or 23, Once I retired, I was just blown away at the unwillingness to be passionate about what people do every day. It was like, where am I at right now life, because we have the best doctors, the best marketing people, the best publicists, the best everything the best nutritionists. So I just miss being around greatness. And that’s what I wanted to create. And I think the biggest misnomer with that, is that all coaches are all mentors have the right playbook. Sure, because there’s a lot of broker owners, and that’s what blew me away, they became broker owners because they were not good real estate agents. That’s true. It’s like, let me hide behind the desk and say, I don’t want to sell real estate, I just want to be a broker where you are not selling a lot of real estate anyway. And so it blows me away. And it’s like, hey, after the new year, we want to lose 10 pounds, and we show up and our trainers out of shape, well, then I got the wrong trainer. So I’m always telling people, man, when you look at getting a broker or a mentor or a team leader, our sponsor at exp, really make sure they have the successful track record. And that they can communicate it in bite sized pieces to you to follow the breadcrumbs to success. And that’s one of the things that I take a lot of pride in building out the processes and procedures to help people have the same or more success than I’ve had.

D.J. Paris 16:47
Yeah, I think that’s right, and you’re a coach, do you also still continue to get coached I’m sure people would love to, to hear that. If you do or not.

Terrence Murphy 16:55
I don’t it’s but but here’s where I find my, my, my my coaching and my wisdom, you know, in my Bible. And then I’m a book, I’m a book guy. I love tangible books. And and then I just got into podcasts. So that’s really where my books is like my lifeline. Like I read my books, I’m doing a 52 week challenge right now with my organization at exp. So we’re reading one book a week, every week. Wow. And then we meet in a room five days a week, because I do everything by five. We meet in room five days a week and clubhouse and we go over that book. So there’s a lot of accountability there. And it’s been really good man. So they’re digesting so much information at a rapid pace. And that’s been life changing for us. Do you have so far

D.J. Paris 17:43
has there been one book? And I know you’re reading so many that I’m sure they’re all valuable in certain ways, as there have been one, you know, you mentioned atomic habits before? Has there been one in the last, you know, however long you’ve been doing the 52 week challenge where you read a book once a week, that’s really sort of risen to the top of like that one spoke to me more than more than the other so far.

Terrence Murphy 18:02
I’ll give you one, but then I gotta give you five. Is that cool? Right? So the one I would tell every human being that they need to read is untethered. So Oh, yes. Until Oh my gosh. And then he’s got a new version of it. I think living an untethered life. But Untethered Soul really gave me for your, you know, because as athletes as real estate entrepreneurs, as these successful people, right, these brokers, these team leaders, these owners, we have to walk around with our chests out at all times. We got to be peacocks at all times. But some of us are broken, right. And some of us really need to be able to be in a safe place to communicate what we’re going through mentally. But you don’t you got to put this mask on every day, right? And until the soul really breaks that down. And that book is life changing to where you realize, like you need to be breathing, doing breathing exercises every day. You know, we talk about hydration and sleep and all that, oh, no one’s talking about breathing, how important it is. No one’s talking about the mental aspect of life, to be able to meditate and step away from this nauseous world of information and slow the brain down.

D.J. Paris 19:12
It reminds me of that expression. It’s an old musical expression, which is it’s not the notes that make the melody. It’s not the notes that actually create the song. It’s the space in between the notes that it’s like, oh, yeah, of course. It’s the space in between notes. Otherwise, it’s just one continual note. And that’s the silence that we don’t often give ourselves I find, you know, we have a device in our pocket. I was thinking about this this weekend. I’m not the first person to think about this. It’s not a brilliant thought. But it’s almost like a magic. It’s almost like magic. We have magic in our pocket 24/7 And we can use that to summon up whatever we desire. And you have to be really careful because it’s super addictive and it takes time away from being able to sit alone quietly and think and reflect. Do you make meditation or reflection? In a regular practice for you,

Terrence Murphy 20:02
I have, you know, we were taught to visualize as athletes, but we were never taught to meditate and breathe. And I think it talked about, you know, in the US, we are the worst at breathing, right? Our posture is terrible. Look at me right now I need to sit up now. And I’m thinking about it right. And we just don’t breathe, we don’t breathe. Well. We’re continually throughout the day, taking short breaths. And we’re not taking deep, long, continual breaths, we’re rushing to the next meeting. And I always tell everybody, that’s why I started this whole movement, we have to become real estate entrepreneurs. We can’t just be realtors, we can’t just be brokers. We can’t just be team leaders. We have to be real estate entrepreneurs. And when we become real estate entrepreneurs, we’re creating multiple income streams. We’re thinking about legacy, right? We’re not just We’re not just building a business for today, we’re building a business that will give back to our kids kids, right? We’re thinking about other people. And we’re thinking about our mental health, we’re thinking about the impact we want to leave. That’s the real estate entrepreneur piece that I’ve really like went all in on man. Like we even had a day, call rejuvenate day, I brought in all my agents. And we brought in a nutritionist, we brought in a trainer, we brought in a psychologist, like we brought in Enneagram coaches, we brought in massage therapist, a yoga instructor, we started off with yoga, and it was a beautiful day, just like really just putting them outside the box in this place of uncomfortableness, to force them to think about these things. And man, I have so many my agents, it still takes me, man, I’m still using some of the things I learned that rejuvenate days. So that’s really what I’m focused on.

D.J. Paris 21:39
I love that it’s a holistic approach to being successful at business, because you’re you’re really talking about being successful in every area of life. Because if we think of our life as a as a, you know, as a circle, or a wheel, you know, it’s we got to make sure that we’re pretty smooth, smooth, you know, around the edges, we got to make sure that, you know, our family life isn’t in the toilet, if we’re expected to do you know, but our business life is going great, it’s like it all has to be working pretty pretty well not that we don’t have ups and downs because of course, every single person does, regardless of their level of success. We all go through things, but this idea of treating not just the business side of it, treating the human side. And you know, the breathing thing is so, so interesting, because we all know this, like we’ve all heard this a million times we need to slow down or press we need to take deep diaphragmatic breaths we need to you know, and yet, I never really realize the benefit until I read some studies on on breathing, where, you know, I I am I have a lot of anxiety. It’s just kind of, you know, part of my DNA or whatever how I was raised or whatever. But regardless, there are breathing exercises that have been proven to reduce anxiety. And I’m like, Oh, this is so great. I don’t have to think my way out of it. I could do these deep breathing exercises that are super simple. And it’s like, wait two minutes, and then oh my god, I feel better. So it is it is remarkable. But you’re right, taking short breaths throughout the day, nobody talks about this in real estate, at least. It is really a big, big deal. And athletes are taught how to take deeper, longer breaths because of course, you’re also in peak physical condition, which helps. But beyond just working out, you can do this at your desk, you can do this throughout the day. And it really does center. I mean, it’s it’s the basis of meditation, right as breath. So boy, you’re you’re you’re saying you’re saying a lot of really, really great things that I’ve had done a lot of these episodes that people don’t talk about. I mean, sir, certainly we talked about being physically fit and you know, drinking enough water and eating right, but this idea of breathing and meditating and reflecting I think we’re such we’re in such a stimulus response world. And again, the phone in our pocket is going to try to grab our attention every few seconds. This is a way to to shut that out. So yeah, let’s before we get let’s talk about your podcasts. I know this is new real estate entrepreneur with tangents Murphy, so tell us about it.

Terrence Murphy 24:00
Yeah, before we go there, I want to make sure that I’m following up for your audience because I tell them I give them five books and I’m real big. Oh, I’m sorry. Yes. More books. Yeah. So untethered. So why the rich get richer by Robert Kiyosaki great book. A time atomic habits which we talked about earlier, traction by Gino Wakeman. So you got those four, and then good degree, those would be the five I would have people read. And as we pivot to the podcast, I think more than anything. People realize that they need more, especially real estate agents. And you’ve been through a downturn, I would say, a recessive market or a shifting market. I think people will start realizing that again that they need more. And one of the things that I teach my agents and sweat equity versus check equity, truly building a business with the right foundation versus just buying leads right when we saw Open Door Zillow. Redfin, So people were just was buying those leads, they’re in these contracts, real estate agents are stuck in these contracts. They’re paying 2500 a month, 3000 a month and I’m not getting the same.

D.J. Paris 25:09
And even beyond that, what happens if and when Zillow is like, you know, we’re just going to be our own thing. We’re going to have our own agents, we’re going to do our own thing. We’re good. We’re no longer selling leads to agents that day. And this, this is just a gasp, that day is coming. So, so I’m sorry, go right ahead. I interrupted you.

Terrence Murphy 25:26
No, no, you got the same passion for it as I do. They take our information from us and and sell it back to us. So I’m always trying to empower real estate agents, I have a very, very soft heart in a sense that I’ve seen so many of my friends. I worked with agents at Cohen’s. When I started, I was 23. And they were in their late 70s and 80s still selling real estate. And that’s why I would say, when have you been to a real estate agents retirement party, either get out of the industry, or they sell real estate until they don’t know what else to do. And that’s what I’m creating. I’m creating the real estate entrepreneur movement, where, like, I’ll take about on a normal real estate transaction is about 20 to 22. Companies that make money, title, mortgage survey, Home Warranty, I can keep going

D.J. Paris 26:15
right inspection appraisal, yeah, etc. Yeah, it keeps

Terrence Murphy 26:17
going. So I’m teaching my people in my world how to buy those businesses and get owner distributions. I’m teaching them how to invest in real estate, how to start their first investment portfolio because my wife and I bought commercial strip centers, we bought multifamily. We’ve done neighborhoods, we’re developing neighborhoods alongside Jack Nicklaus right now. And so we’ve done and we’re teaching people those exact steps on how to create multiple income streams.

D.J. Paris 26:44
I want to pause for a moment to talk about our episode sponsor are one of my favorite companies out there follow up boss. Now after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country for this podcast, do you know which CRM is used by more than any other by our guests. Of course, it is a follow up boss. And let’s face it, following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort, do not take my word for it. Robert slack, who runs the number one team in the US uses follow up boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 systems, so you can keep your current tools and lead sources. Also, the best part they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help that you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial, which is twice as much time as they give everyone else. And oh yeah, no credit card required. So you can try it risk free. But only if you use this special link visit follow up boss.com forward slash real that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And now back to our episode. Yeah, it really is the way to go as as somebody who I’m not a broker owner myself, although I work hand in hand with with our owner here. And he and I have created several ancillary companies to do exactly what you’re talking about, you know, because for people who might not be realizing, especially people who want to start their own firm, what you might not realize, at least on the residential side, is brokerage is a very low margin business on its own, and to really make a nice business that might be sellable one day, you need to have these ancillary lines. And also, they’re just great ways to increase the bottom line in getting involved in Title maybe lending depending on you know, what state you might be in, you know, again, commission advance, there’s a lot of title, you know, like you were saying, lots of different lines. You’re absolutely so right, because I think people oftentimes want to want to get in, be their own managing broker have their own business, and they don’t realize what the margins actually look like. And then they’re like, oh, wow, this is not the This isn’t like I just broke free from a Keller Williams, which is a great company, but now I’m on my own, I get to keep everything. And it’s like, oh, and now I have all these other expenses as well. So it becomes tricky and and but I think you’re right, this idea of an entrepreneur is Robert Kiyosaki is sort of the guy who really made this as popular as it is, is this idea of residual income and creating streams of income that are more predictable, because as we know, real estate is transactional. It’s so odd to me that no one has figured out how to make it a fee based business like what financial advisors have done, financial advisors, the smartest thing ever, which basically said we’re not stockbrokers anymore. We’re not earning commissions, where you’re going to pay us 1% Or whatever the percent, you know, of all the assets under management. Real Estate hasn’t figured out how to do that. Maybe they never will. So real estate does become very transactional. You need these other businesses just so that you can not freak out on the first of the month, every month, right?

Terrence Murphy 29:59
You and hit a wall, right? You know, it’s like this. I’m gonna draw, I’m gonna create an image one day, I may even create a t shirt. But it’s got these paths, right? And they all have a hamster wheel at the end. But they make you think that this path is better than that path. So it’s like you’re a real estate agent. You’re a brand new agent. Now you become a top producer. Now you lead a team. Now you own the brokerage? Yeah, you’ve made it when in reality, most of the brokers I talk to are the ones that are broke. It’s called broker for a reason, right? And the margins are based, you know, I ran a mastermind of the top broker owners in the world at one point or in the USSR. And, and I ran it in the shadows, and no one even knew I started this group, but I told him to one rule I have is well to if you’re not going to be here, let me know. And two is we can’t talk about this in any public forum. So I was running a mastermind for some of the top brokers in the United States for like three years. No one ever knew about this, uh, we and man we, I mean, you had Keller Williams, you had REMAX you had Coldwell Banker Sotheby’s independent brokers in that room, and I coached him every week. And everybody was saying the same stuff no matter what model they was in, they were in so. And I think that’s why exp is the fastest growing brokerage in the world because it’s figured out how to give agents shares and stock. It’s figured out how to give them new income streams. And it’s a beautiful model. But I know we’re going to talk about the podcasts. I wanted to go back and hit those books.

D.J. Paris 31:27
Oh, yeah. No, and thank you for that. And before we get to the podcast, I think you know what, what exp did is really it’s beyond remarkable because they the way I interpreted is they basically took the Keller Williams model and said it wasn’t quite exactly fully realized in the way that Keller Williams and I’m not picking on Keller Williams, obviously, they’re amazing company, of course. But basically people left Keller Williams and said, We think there’s a better way to do the same sort of thing with, you know, giving people more agency more ownership. And so they figured it out. And holy crap, did they figure it out? They are. I mean, it’s it’s like the results speak for themselves. And anyway, so yeah, let’s talk about the podcast.

Terrence Murphy 32:06
Yeah. Last thing on that I always tell people when they asked me, What’s the difference? And and I know Gary, personally, we actually met years ago, we got introduced by Tim how, because a friend of mine from college, one of their top agents, great friend, great guy. And we were supposed to meet for five minutes, and three and a half hours later. Me and Gary and Josh team, my wife was in the room, it was just us for she checked out. She was like y’all go with it. And as you can see how my mind works. I mean, we were just me and Gary, were just on the whiteboards going at it for three hours. And, man, he’s an amazing dude, sharp guy, genius. Respect for him, man. He’s a genius. And so I always respect him. And he said, Dude, I have 100. And at the time, 80,000 agencies like, You’re different. You’re special. I want to be a part of your story. Anything I can do to help you and Erica, let me know. So always will respect Gary on that. I will say on the model. I will say you explained it this way profit share if you take a p&l statement, whereas profits on the bottom. Yeah, right. And so this person gotta be paid, this person got to be paid, this person’s got to be paid. And finally, we’ll share the profit with the agents where usually there’s not a lot left, right, where exp flipped it upside down and say what’s on the top of will pay at the top? Yeah, yeah, it’s revenue. Yeah. So that’s the difference. But they figured

D.J. Paris 33:19
out how to do it. No one else had figured out how to do that. Now there’s a bit a few copycats that are coming along. Because they’re like, hey, this, this idea of this rev share model works really, really well. So it’s it is it is truly incredible. Yeah. So let’s, let’s talk about real estate entrepreneur, what’s the goal of the podcast? Who were you speaking to? And by the way, everyone should check it out. We’re gonna have a link to this directly in the show notes as well. So you can subscribe right from from the show notes. But tell us about it.

Terrence Murphy 33:45
Yeah, so when I was thinking about a podcast, my wife has really been on to me about celebrating. The overachiever in me, Chief stuff. I don’t even stop to smell the roses. I’m on to like the next one, right? I’m just. And one day, she said you got to celebrate. I said, okay, cool. So we achieved the goal in our 20s that we wanted to achieve, which was buying a strip center, we bought a script center in North Carolina in Nashville. It’s Buffalo Wild Wings, Starbucks and different tenants. So we took a picture in front of it, and I posted it. And like a week later, it had like, a million shares. And I was like, what just happened? You know, like, wow, and people were just so inspired by the story that we tell the piece that I posted. And that’s when I realized, like, what I’m doing and how I’m doing it can help a lot of people. So people started messaging me message me on Instagram, Facebook, and I could not obviously keep up with all the messages. Do you have any book? Do you have a book? Do you have a coaching course? Do you have a podcast? And you know, the crazy thing is at the time, I realized I told my wife and said we don’t have any of these. Like, we have no way to help these people. So that’s when I said alright, let’s start this podcast. And so instead of naming it real estate realtor or builder or broker, real estate entrepreneur kind of embody everything that I’m doing. But the goal is to go after realtors to go after brokers to graph the builders, go after investors and just let them know, these are the fundamental things you need to be learning and reading about and putting in place in order to scale your business. Because the one thing I’m passionate about is scalability. I know how to scale things, and I know how to grow things. And that’s something I’m passionate about doing. So that’s what the podcast is real estate entrepreneur with tears Murphy. And I’m just bringing in people to talk about that.

D.J. Paris 35:30
Yeah, scalability is is really its own skill set, it requires the willingness to probably step away from individual production or to step outside of the constraints of individual production, and which you know, it for anyone who’s a real estate agent is probably hyper focused on their own personal production or their team’s production. And then trying to say, Okay, how do I, how do I want X 2x 510 exes, and which require a whole set of systems, so your systems, your data and systems guy really at heart,

Terrence Murphy 36:05
process and people’s what we say in our organizations, because people always ask me, How do you own 20 companies and you’re invested in another 30 process and be in the cradle? Go ahead, go for Dejan.

D.J. Paris 36:17
So I have a question that I’m sure every single person on this podcast is thinking, how does this guy accomplish and do so much? This isn’t me giving you a compliment, although it is a great compliment, but it’s really, how are you able to to be a podcaster an entrepreneur, run a brokerage all your you you own bought prop lots of properties, you have a team? How is there enough time in the day? So this probably goes back to scalability, but how are you able to sort of keep it all running when most of us, you know, are focused in one or two things and we’re struggling? How are you able to maintain that focus with all the different you know, sort of adventures that you’re into, and oh, and you’re a VC. So we can keep going you do a lot, you can do it all, you know,

Terrence Murphy 37:05
I believe everything we go through in life is to to be a part of your story. And when I was 16, my mom had a heart attack. And so at that moment in time, she made it through for a couple more years after but I was working two jobs in high school, I was the team captain on the football team, I was an honor society with a 3.8 GPA. So I’d already been learning these tools. And when you are 16, I drove myself to school, I fed myself like I literally was at home by myself. And so you just kind of became an adult an early age, I didn’t understand why I was going through that. Like, why was it so hard. But looking back, like those experiences happen for a reason. Same thing with my NFL career, I worked my butt off to get to get there. And I got paralyzed. I mean, I got paralyzed from the neck down. I had a really bad neck injury. And just working my way back from something of that. Oh, man, trauma, right, just learning how to use your arms again to walk again. You know, I had neck surgery. And I’m like, why am I going through this? But it’s not why. It’s how can you use it to inspire other people? And how can you use it to be a better version of yourself. That’s what I tell everybody in my work. You are competing with you, I want you to be the best version of DJ, everybody else has already taken so be the best version of you. And in that my capacity grew. My, my passion for entrepreneurship and real estate grew my one prayer to God when I was in the middle of depression, I mean, deep in depression at 22 years of my dream was shaken when I can’t walk, I’m in a wheelchair, I’m trying to figure this stuff out. It’s just given me a passion. God gave me something that I could be passionate about. And when he gave me real estate, that’s when I knew, Okay, so that’s why when people when they hear me speak, or they listen to me, they’re like, do you just speak with his different conviction? Because when you’re praying to God in the middle of depression, and you paralyze thy God, give me a passion, and he shows it to you. There’s no way I can speak with conviction. So as I think through how we are trying to scale, I’m always challenging myself. The foundation of scalability is number one, you are you operating with the best version of your time I call it TBS, where’s my time best spent on a day to day basis? So I literally meet with my team probably every other week about my schedule with people that think well, you kind of create it and leave it right. Interesting. I mean, and I refined my schedule every two to three weeks, and no one will tell you that because no one’s doing it right. But when people ask me, Well, how did you learn that? Well, I learned it from okay, if I’m a wire receiver, and at practice, I’m running this route, right and I dropped the ball. Well, right after practice, I go right in and I put the tape on I’m like, Okay, if I were to just put my foot here and what this way it would have made it easier. So I took that all I did His take life experiences. And I translated it into real estate entrepreneurship. So that’s why when people are trying to study me, they can’t figure me out. I’m an enigma. Because I’m pulling from life experiences I’m pulling from books, I’m pulling from things that no one it’s I’ve taken, I’ve taken the ingredients of my life and made it into a recipe. And now I’m able to listen to you, I can interview your DJ. And the first thing if you were going to work and be a part of my team, I would want to know your story. I want to know those those points. And I can help you take those ingredients in your life and create it into a successful recipes to scale. So that was a long answer to say, everybody’s recipe will be different. But it starts with time blocking. And then once we understand where we’re putting our time and how we’re managing our time, then it’s processing. And so

D.J. Paris 40:52
you know, it’s so funny, because we do want to make this more complicated. We want as individuals to think, oh, my gosh, my life is so complicated. And yes, it can feel that way. And absolutely, I’m not here to say that, you know, my life is harder than anyone else’s are more complicated, because of course, everybody’s their own unique individual has their own challenges. But you’re absolutely right about this idea that what we have to do is, is constantly evaluate in not in a I’m worthless way, not in a denigrating way, but in a Where is my time best spent today? Where was my time best spent yesterday? Where did I you know, where was I not super effective. What’s another skill I can learn, just trying to keep the tools actually not even sharpen. But adding more tools and more sharp tools to the quiver. You know, this idea of reading 52 books a year, if, if every realtor read five books here, just five books, in fact, read the five that that Terence recommended, but if they just did that there would be massive change, because all it takes is one or two good ideas. And the fact that you’re doing 52 books a year is going to scale you up even faster with that knowledge. So it’s but it’s also but there’s also a limit to how much time there is so I’m curious on so you talked about time best spent TBS this idea of here’s here’s where I can leverage the the most growth within the shortest amount of time. How and, and I also want to go all the way back to your story of you know, you had to be an become an adult much earlier than a lot of us right because of your situation growing up. That’s not an easy thing for a child to have to have to do or teenager you did it you stayed focused, you achieved you know your your professional goals up until you know, and then your life was a lot of it your physical body was taken away from you really, just because that happens, things happen. And it’s it’s awful. And yet, here you are, you’re walking, you’re you’re you’re in shape, you’re you’re now running these successful businesses. And and but you also said depression is part of my story too. Like, yes, I am not a Superman, like even when you know, your whole career gets taken away. That’s going to put anyone in a massive depression. So I’m curious and wanted to ask about one thing about support group, having a support group. And I don’t mean necessarily a building that you go into and sit in a circle with other people, though, that is a version of that. It could be friends, family could be colleagues, how important is it for you to have people in your life that you can share intimately invulnerable, be vulnerable with and say, Hey, guys, I am going through something right now. I am depressed. And yet I’m still I’m still productive. I’m still getting my life together. But this is going on. And this is real. How important is it to have those relationships? And does that help you through the tougher times?

Terrence Murphy 43:52
Wow, that’s good, bro. Man, this is a really good podcast. If people aren’t listening, they need to rewind this episode. I’m gonna go back and listen to it multiple times. So I think it’s really cool man. You know, the cool thing about it is I tell people all the time. I don’t have a brokerage anymore. I don’t really have a team. I have a tribe. Man and I always say Your vibe attracts your tribe. Yeah, being you the authentic you. Not someone else. Man, like that’s gonna attract the right people, the energy and the realness not fake positivity. Like I don’t want to be in the locker room who’s not going to play a snap walking around hooting and hollering like, just day in and day out. We see tears get up at five in the morning and hit it and we see him at the office and we see him in the weight room or whatever wherever you guys are at and you’re just day in and they are just getting up and doing the work. But when you hit a wall because we all hit a wall, you can be vulnerable to and that’s what a true leader and a true because to me when you are able to be vulnerable with right people. And so that’s why I say, man having the right tribe around you, and protecting that energy. Like we’re at a place now we literally call it the zero tolerance rule. You can bring me any problem in the real estate team or organization, but it better have a solution attached. Because if not, then you’re just complaining. And no one is allowed to bring any negative energy into our space. And if you do, we’re gonna call you out unless you have a solution attached. And just creating an atmosphere like that an ecosystem like that, where there’s a lot of successful people, but and I tell everybody leave your pride at the door. No one can come into this space. And when somebody has feedback to help you have ears to hear, and not just ears to reply, because in so many times, everybody just wants to reply, they’re just ready to say something bad, versus slowing down and truly hearing what the person is saying. And I think that’s what we’re so focused on right now. And in those situations, vulnerability, and authenticity, authenticity, and real conversations, we can have a place where we can say, hey, you know what, DJ, thanks for pushing me a couple of weeks ago, and really getting on my ass. I know I can do better. But now let’s have this conversation. Man, I got a lot going on. Man. This is what I got going on. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 46:22
that’s what yeah, this ability, this ability to be honest, and to be vulnerable is, is really I found very helpful when things get tough. Having people around who who care, and that, that you care about it really helps keep it but you’re right about this idea of problems and solutions. I want to just to go back to that for a second. Because that is you just challenged me because I’m well, I’m like most people, I’m a complainer, of course. And there’s always things to complain about, you know, nothing’s perfect. There’s always, you know, I can complain about myself too, which is also not very helpful. But this idea of complaining is only helpful if you’re like, and I think I can figure out a way around, or I could ask somebody who’s been there before me. You know, like I have, I have a personal trainer, you were talking about about being in the gym with a trainer. It’s like, I have a trainer because I don’t want to hurt myself in the gym. And also, I’m not a professional athlete, and I don’t know what I’m doing. So I’ve had a trainer for I’ll probably have a trainer the rest of my life, honestly. And it’s not. It’s because I need somebody who’s like, Do this, do this, do this. That’s their expertise. I pay them for their expertise, and I get the results. If I tried to do I tried to do it all myself my whole life. I never got to the gym. Rarely went sometimes I go sometimes I didn’t. It wasn’t. It wasn’t just something I was able to do myself. So I had to, I had to find leverage. I had to say, Okay, well, if I want to hire if I need to hire a trainer, I need to make enough money to hire a trainer, which means I need to scale up my business. So I totally understand this idea of looking for solution. And and it’s not always easy solutions are not always well, they’re not always right in front of you. But if you have a good circle of people around, you know, sometimes other people can help you with your solutions, too. And this idea of masterminding, we do this. I do the same thing with brokerages, we mastermind with other brokerages that are kind of similar to us all over the country are like hey, what are you guys doing right now? Like, where are you? Where are you guys struggling? What’s working, just doing that alone has helped I get so many ideas. And I’m sort of shocked that so many real estate agents operate in a silo, they sort of operate in their own little world, they work from home, which I get, they’re not really around other agents and less sort of showing or something. And they don’t often know like, there’s lots of great ideas out there. And all you have to do is connect with other other realtors, what, how important is having, having sort of people that you look up to having idols not idle in the religious sense. But just having people that you respect having people that you know, obviously you’re a reader. And you know, you hung out with Gary Keller for three and a half hours. Like, that’s pretty cool. How important is it for you to get access to these people? And how much time has it saved you by reading something, learning something having a conversation so that you didn’t have to reinvent the wheel? Yeah, I

Terrence Murphy 49:17
think at this point, if you’re a real estate agent, and you don’t have someone who’s achieved what you’ve achieved, because always say it’s one thing to get inspiration, right? Like LeBron James did a dunk the other night. I was like, Wow, that’s awesome. I’m inspired by Yeah, but how is that actually helping me, right? So the one thing I’ve tried to become is I don’t want to just be an inspiration to anybody anymore. I want to be an inspiration that inspires you. But then I want to give you the breadcrumbs and the tools and the roadmap to go achieve the success that you want to achieve. So that other piece of puzzle is what I’m building out right now. To truly give people the tools. So now they’re inspired, but then I sell and then I’m inspired but now I plug in. Boom. And then I think That’s been the great thing. Now, because of running an independent brokerage, you kind of feel like you’re on an island somewhere now, like, you know, that was the thing. I remember going to Cabo my first exp event, and it says, making real estate fun again. And I get there. And every step I took, I knew a broker from being an independent broker, I just didn’t know they were at exp. So like, every step, I took them, like, Whoa, you’re here, you’re like a class reunion. I’m like, Oh, this is cool. And so yeah, it’s just been one of those things where, you know, when you get to a place where everybody is successful, it’s like flying with the Eagles. No one’s really like, forwarding the information. They’re not like trying to hold back, they’re just free with it. And then it creates that atmosphere. So I love kind of being in that atmosphere where we’re all gonna succeed. But it’s like, alright, let’s just put all of our tools in the middle of the table, and then you grab out of what you want to grab on. And then like, you know, like a potluck, right?

D.J. Paris 50:58
Absolutely, like a potluck. And you’re a competitive guy, but I suspect you don’t view any other realtors or brokerages as competition at all. I suspect you won’t. You said this earlier, I compete with myself, I want to be the best version of me. Obviously, you’re paying attention to what other firms are doing, of course, because why wouldn’t you? And you want to keep you know, introducing, you know, more and more skills and you know, different avenues of verticals to your business. But you’re not you don’t see the other agencies as as competitors,

Terrence Murphy 51:30
I’m guessing. No, not really, because my value proposition is so unique. You know, I’m teaching real estate agents how to create multiple income streams. I’m teaching them how to build other businesses, I’m teaching them how to invest. You know, I just closed a $45 million apartment 240 units a couple of weeks ago. So I’m doing stuff where I can show these guys and I started off my first investment was 270 $5,000 duplexes. So you can scale that’s why I say I went from that 10 years ago to a 40 $50 million deal. $70 million deal, the 50 million. There’s, there’s just following a system and the process and the breadcrumbs. But like at exp they rank, they rank, the personal attractors, and out of 87,000 agents, and I’ve been at exp now 16 months, I’m number 30. I’m in the top 30. Already, it’s been some people have been there 12 or 13 years or longer. And in the first year and a half or under two years, I’m already in the top 30 Personal attractors. But I don’t really get caught up in being anybody else other than myself. And any goal that I set, it’s gonna be well beyond any what anybody can write down for me anyway.

D.J. Paris 52:33
Yeah, yeah, you’re gonna hold yourself to a higher standard than anyone else could. And I suspect that is a huge reason. You just embrace your standards, your standards are up here. And they didn’t start up here necessarily. They start where everyone starts, and you just kept inching your way up to where you’re like, hey, I can run multiple things at the same time by scaling to two final questions for you. And then I’ll let you get back to running your empire and I do I do consider it an empire because I don’t say that as as just a nice thing to say, although it is like so nice thing to say. But it’s really true. I mean, you’re doing a lot of different things successfully. Which any one of those things is difficult and the fact that you do them all simultaneously with with a lot of help, of course, is is just truly remarkable. Two questions one is every every agent I know again, focused on on the present in the near future is freaking out about 2023 Right we’re like okay, rates are where they are. This is This is bad. Now I’m not I’m not saying it’s bad. I’m saying this is this is what the mentality is a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety, a lot of sort of parent paralyzed agents going i Oh, next year, it’s gonna really be rough. What are you telling? What are you coaching your agents to think about? Because we can’t control rates? We can’t control inventory, we just can’t. But there are things that are within our control. What are what are you telling people to do to focus to have a successful 2023?

Terrence Murphy 54:03
Yeah, it’s really cool. Like I said, I’m an I’m an enigma man, people can’t figure me out. I’m just, you know, I got my real estate license in the middle of the downturn in investment company in 2008. So the worst

D.J. Paris 54:17
time to start an investment company and we’ve did it

Terrence Murphy 54:20
the worst, especially and start a brokerage. So I look at this just like Warren Buffett says, he says real estate recession or stock market downturn or what is

D.J. Paris 54:34
recession proof?

Terrence Murphy 54:35
Yeah, well, the real estate market not a bear market, but a bull market. Bull Market There we go. Sorry, I couldn’t get it out. He says it’s the only time that when something’s on sale, people don’t run to buy I know it’s funny you know what I mean? So like but if it’s a First Friday or what is it Black Friday, you can’t even you get trampled get. So I tell people, you got to switch the mindset and they always start With the mindset, right when I win everything, and that’s what I’m always evaluating is my mindset where it needs to be in order for me to go to that next level, because you can have all the processes you want. But if you don’t have the mindset to receive, going to a billion dollars in sales, or having 500 people in your organization, or whatever it is, it’s not going to be sustainable. You may get there, but you’re gonna go backwards. So what I’m telling my real estate agents, is look at the opportunity that’s in here, study your own hyperlocal market. Is it Arios? Is it new builders, because builders were fine when they were getting 18 offers, but now their agents might have gotten lazy, but they have to still keep selling houses. I picked up five builders in the 2012 13 range, just because I was doing what their agents had gotten tired of doing. Man, I started having these builders hired me, man, that’s when I started scaling, do you get 40 houses per builder or 20? Houses 30 houses? And so you just got to think about looking at your hyperlocal market and find those opportunities? Is it expired? Is it orphan listings, right? An orphan listings, just to listen to goes past 90 days, it’s been expired, people have forgotten about it, you know, and then you just create a value proposition to second to none. And you pick up that market share, because the market share is not going away. It’s just going to trade hands. So if we have the hunter mentality, that we’re gonna go hunt, and we’re gonna go create a value proposition is second to none. And a brand is second to none. That’s when we will take that market share, and it’s just a mentality shift. Right.

D.J. Paris 56:30
And last year, you’re not worried about 2023 at all, you’re just pivoting, pivoting, pivoting. And I only wanted to say that because you’re the only person I’ve talked to thus far, who is like not legitimately freaked out? And I think what you said made absolute perfect sense. Yes, we’ll just change well, we’ll look over here as opposed to over here. And we’ll make it work. I’m sorry. Go ahead.

Terrence Murphy 56:55
No, you hit it on the head, you picked up on it, because truth stands the test of time when you hit true. Well, there it is. Right, like, Whoa, there it is. And so I think once again, when people resonate with my message is because it’s not a woe is me. It’s not I’m scared, I don’t operate out of fear. I operate out of solutions. And at the end of the day, I’m going excited to be truthfully honest, I think there’s a lot of people who have not been coached, right. And when they realize they need the right coaching, they’re going to come to people like me, and I’m going to give them the confidence and the tools to be a competent agent, I call it the three seeds. Competence creates confidence. But if you got an industry in 16 1718, whatever, and you’re getting 17 offers, you never really sat down and created the competence. But now you gotta go create the competence.

D.J. Paris 57:48
Yeah, and nobody likes a confident person who isn’t competent. In fact, we all laugh at those people, we dislike them. Confidence needs to be earned through competence. And I think I think so here’s my last question. My final question. And this is this will be a tough a tougher one, maybe, or maybe not. I, what would you say, to your 22 year old self, or 23 year old self, you know, as you’re exiting your your football career? What do you wish you would have known then that you didn’t know but you but you do know now?

Terrence Murphy 58:22
Think even bigger than I thought. And I was a pretty big dreamer and think, yeah, you’re

D.J. Paris 58:28
already a big thinker. And yet you’re thinking too small back then is what you’re saying?

Terrence Murphy 58:32
Yeah, I remember hitting them came to me going my junior year. And I remember them talking to my parents about a Heisman campaign. Like I was really playing that well, at the time, Reggie Bush was doing really well. And Darren Sproles, and if you look at our numbers, my numbers are just as good as some of his numbers. He was winning the Heisman. And I remember hitting him was talking about at some point coming to my parents about Heisman campaign, and in my mind, I was like me, Heisman winner receiver at Texas a&m. And so I still beat myself up about that, because I’m like, You shouldn’t accept that. And be like, Yes, I am. I am a Heisman. I can’t be one of the I am one of the best players in the nation. And those of us those moments in life that I pull on now or now when I think about an idea of like, it’s possible. And whatever it is five exit in your mind and then go for that.

D.J. Paris 59:23
Well, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s as simple as that as not, it’s not easy, but it’s simple, right? Like, I guess that’s the point. It’s hard but simple. This idea of being able to, to think bigger, allows you it expands your capability. Right? It’s it’s a it’s a simple idea, think bigger, and then then the hard work comes in of trying to figure out a way through it, but you’re absolutely right. We are and we all know this. We’re limited by our beliefs. You know that there’s that old joke of like, what is BS stands for belief systems because it is it is Whatever. It’s an old joke, but But it’s true. We’re all wrapped up in our own BS our own belief systems. And when then you meet somebody like you who’s who seemingly doing things outside of what we believe is capable, but you’ve been doing that your whole life. And so you have this track record of like, oh, yeah, I got paralyzed. Yeah, that was it. I mean, I got through it. First, you know, I got into, you know, I got into college, I got into, you know, playing a pro sports, you did all the things that were already impossible. So I imagine when challenges come your way, it probably doesn’t decimate you like maybe it would somebody who hasn’t had some of those, those challenges along the way. One final question, how important is failure? And what I mean failure, I don’t mean, you know, I just mean not achieving the goal you set out for and how important because I have I have I have a theory, or at least I’ve talked to a lot of agents who say they love failure, because most of the things they do don’t end up working out. But it just takes, it just carries them over to the next thing that eventually gets them closer to working out. So how often you seem like a guy who never fails at anything. I would love to know, what role does failure play in your life? And how do you think about failure?

Terrence Murphy 1:01:14
Man, it’s a good question. It’s a great final question. I think as I think about failure, I always say it’s wins and lessons. There are no wins and losses. It’s only a loss if you quit. Yep. So I mean, they’re gonna win. I’m a learning lesson. Yeah, I’m only win and I’m gonna lose if I quit. And so as long as you keep going, there was a Martin Luther King quote, I know I’m gonna butcher it but he says, If you can’t fly, then run if you can’t run then walk. If you can’t walk then crawl. But by all means, keep going. There Yeah,

D.J. Paris 1:01:52
it boy, I’m not going to do better than Dr. Martin Luther King. So I’m gonna leave it there. One of the greatest thinkers of all time and you perfectly summed some that up I think that’s absolutely right. And also the scoreboard of life or on the field is is only the scoreboard it even if you’re victorious, it doesn’t necessarily mean you played your best right? And I’m sure you probably had games where you lost but you played your best and yes, it’s it’s no fun to lose. But to know that I did my best is is really all that ever really ultimately matters or at least in my opinion, that’s what I found is that you know, you can you could win on the scoreboard but if you didn’t play your best you just don’t feel that good about that victory. Right? So this idea of of of showing up like you’ve said, be your best self I know it’s said a lot in our society, but actually measuring what does it mean to be at my best, what does that actually look like? Boy, Terrance, you gave so much great wisdom on this episode, I need to get you back to where you need to get back to running your empire and I have taken up too much of your time. So thank you for spending as much time on our show talking to our A took not our agents, but our listeners who are agents about what it takes to be successful. Anyone wants to jump aboard the Terrance Murphy train. And you know what if you’re gonna hit your your, your horse to a wagon, it’s a pretty good wagon to hitch to check out all the stuff he does, because he is incredible, and an amazing guy and just a just a great, great guy. So check out Terrence murphy.com. Everything Terrence related is on there, you can learn about his coaching, you can learn about his brokerage, you can learn about his podcast, and of course, his story along the way and all the entrepreneurial efforts he is involved in. And if you’re an agent looking to you know, get coached by somebody, boy Terrence would be right at the top of my list. So definitely check him out Terrence murphy.com. Again, that’s t e r r e n c e murphy.com. Also follow him on Instagram, which is Terrence realtor. So at Terrence realtor, we’ll have links to all of that in our show notes. And Terence, I am super so, so grateful to you for coming on our show. I know our audience got a lot of value out of this. So on behalf of the audience, we thank you. We know how busy you are. We know you don’t have time to do this. And yet you found time for us. Thank you. On behalf of Terence and myself, we also want to thank the audience for continuing to support our show to make it all the way to the end. And we ask everybody to just do one thing. Once you after you visit Terrence Murphy’s website Terrence murphy.com. Tell a friend about this episode. Just tell one other real estate agent about this episode, maybe somebody who’s struggling or maybe somebody that’s looking for the some sort of answer or suggestion to help get them through the end of this year and into next year and shoot them a link over to our website, keeping it real pod.com Every one of our episodes can be streamed there or just anywhere you can find podcasts. We are there as well. Also subscribe to Terrance pod Terrance his podcast real estate entrepreneur with Terence Murphy link to that in the show notes Terrance thank you sir you are an inspiration. I am grateful to you for coming on our show. You are The busiest man I know and you made time for us and so thank you. And we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks,

Terrence Murphy 1:05:07
Terrance. Appreciate you brother. I’m here if you need me on anything, man, God bless everybody keep your hands up, keep pushing, and the scorecard is measuring how many people you can impact in a positive way. Thanks, bro.

Skye Michiels the National Head of Agent Development at Compass and DJ discuss how photos give you a better chance to connect with people and how to use this tool. Skye goes back to the beginning of his career in real estate how he got into Compass and became the head of agent development there. Skye describes how he started the 6amers and built a community around it. Next, Skye discusses how to nurture and deepen your relationships with your past clients. Skye also talks about what he expects 2023 will look like and how agents can talk to their clients about the rates at the moment.

Please check out and subscribe to Skye’s the6amers Podcast here.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Skye Michiels can be reached at [email protected].

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
2023 is the year that you should deepen relationships with your sphere. But how do you do that? We’re going to talk about it today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads in interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your guide and host through the show in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with Sky Michaels before we get to sky. Just a quick reminder that the best way that you can help our podcast well a couple of ways, actually two ways. So there are two best ways. One is to of course support our sponsors who are nice enough to help us continue funding our show. So we love our sponsors, please, we hope you love them to check out their products and services. And then the second best way you can help us grow is also by telling a friend, our goal is to reach as many real estate agents as possible. There’s 1.7 million of them in the United States right now. And I don’t think all of them are listeners, although we would love it if they all were so help us get one more follower or one more listener and turn somebody else on to our show, send them over to our website, keeping it real pod.com. And guys, that’s enough for me. Let’s get to the main event my conversation with Skye Michaels.

Today on the show we have sky Michaels from Compass and let me tell you more about Scott. Scott Michaels is here to connect, empower and cultivate kindness. He’s a dad and entrepreneur. He’s an award winning real estate professional and a national motivational speaker. Now Currently he is serving as the National Head of agent development at Compass and Sky is currently creating a national agent training curriculum based on the principle that real estate is more about creating connection and caring for people than it is about selling houses could not agree more. By the way. Sky is also the founder and host of the popular motivation and accountability group, the 6am errs, which brings together 1000s of agents across the country in the early hours every week to learn frameworks for developing a healthy mindset, reaching their goals and achieving their own happiness. I’m going to give you guys two websites that I want you to go check out about Skye first is his personal website, which is Sky michaels.com. Michaels is spelled a little differently. So there’s a link to that in our show notes. But it is M I C H I E L s.com. So sky with an E, Michael’s anyway, just click on the link in the show notes, but also want you to check out his 6am ers accountability group and podcast. You can find that anywhere podcasts are served, but go to his website, the 6am ers, and it’s the number 6am ers.com. Google it, you’ll find it. I’ll also have a link to that in the show notes. Skye, welcome to the show.

Skye Michiels 4:14
Thank you so much for having me. I’m thrilled to be on I wanted

D.J. Paris 4:17
to very quickly before we get into your story, I’m sort of going to take over for just a moment, which is like super rude and not great. Not not not great etiquette. But I wanted I saw something that really stopped me in my tracks and forced me but not forced me encouraged me and immediately captivated me to learn more about you. So we do obviously prep for the show. Although today I didn’t do my prep that early. And so I was like oh my gosh, I have to learn about sky. And I went to his website, which is Sky michaels.com And he does something that I’ve yet to see any other person in the real estate industry do and I’m sure other people have done this but this is the first time I’ve seen it in five years of looking at other agent websites. For people that are on our show, after 400, some episodes, this is super cool. If you go to his website and you go to his About Us page, he is got something called big moments. And what he’s basically showing you here is different major events in his life that are important to him or significant to his development or about his personal life. And, boy, I love this. And I just wanted to say, I literally got to learn all about your life, not necessarily by reading a bio, which, you know, I get lost after a while when I read somebody’s bio, especially if it’s really long, but I loved this because I could see pictures of each event in your life. And then if I hover over, I can read more about it. And I was like, wow, I really feel like I know this guy. And I thought, What a great idea for other realtors to do this. So please, everyone, go to his website, Sky michaels.com, go to his About Us page and just check out how he really gets intimate and vulnerable. And says, here’s the here’s what’s been most important to me in my life. I think it is super cool. So I just wanted to give you some, some kudos before we before you started.

Skye Michiels 6:01
Yeah, well, I think it ties back into the philosophy that I have around real estate too, that real estate is about people. And you know how many, every realtor that you you’ve seen or that you go and you go to their about page, it’s words and words and words. The reality is like, no client looking at me, it wants to read all that, right. But when they see a visual, and they see a picture of like, divorced, you know what I’m doing what I’m doing, right, there is a, um, I’m explaining who I am as a person. In addition, I’m also creating potential connection with the person like, oh, wow, like, if they had read paragraph and paragraph and paragraph, you know, eventually maybe they get to it. But the visual of that in, you know, the visual, my children are the visual of me rowing in college, or whatever it might be it you connect a lot easier, our brains are wired to connect visually, much quicker than we are connect when we read something. So that was sort of the mindset around it was a really one in a very, very quick situation illustrate who I am as a person, mainly because I want to connect with you as a person as well.

D.J. Paris 7:11
Yeah, it almost felt like I was, it was almost almost like a mini Instagram. Most important moments of your life in a weird way. It’s just, it’s like I don’t have to infinitely scroll through, you know, a million of your Instagram posts, I can literally just see the top 12 things that have happened that are significant. And you you really do talk about everything on there, which I think is is courageous, and a great, a great example of leadership, the ability to, you know, say, hey, not everything in my life has been easy and perfect. And here are some of the challenges and here’s how I overcame them. And I just I’m really impressed by that. And it encourages me to want to be more forthright, you know, with with my own story as well. And by the way, I’m a divorced guy, too. And it’s and as soon as I saw that, I was like, Okay, I feel good. I did, I did, I felt a little drag to do tonight. I don’t have children you do. So I wasn’t able to connect in that way. But But I was like, Oh, I’m a divorced guy that that’s, you know, it’s not really something we like, when we go around bragging about in a way or like announcing, but of course, half the people in this country are. And so even even things like that I thought was really, really

Skye Michiels 8:21
well. And I really think it goes back into owning your story. Right? The best. Realtors are authentic. And authenticity is the most powerful thing we have in real estate. It’s Be your authentic self. And when you own your story, you’re showing up as your authentic self. And, and very similar. Like, when someone is looking at you online. You don’t know what they’re going to connect with. I don’t I didn’t know if you were divorced. But now we have a course in connection. And imagine if I was showing up to a listing appointment at your house, you already feel like you know me a little bit and you have we have a connection and maybe it was the college rowing or maybe it was the children or maybe it was the we don’t know. But now I’m putting my story out there I’m saying this is who I am as a person. And now you it allows you to connect in your terms rather than me trying to force my turns on you. I don’t know if that makes sense.

D.J. Paris 9:14
It makes perfect sense. And also this this idea of vulnerability is is really the gateway to connection and you are vulnerable on this and and I like that because so so many people are desperate for connection and but it’s scary to get vulnerable. It’s scary to put your story out there because of course you know people can judge you for it or people can have a reaction that isn’t what you want. But you’re saying it’s my story. This is what it is i and and but people love that I love it. I love the anyway so we’ll move on from that because I could talk about that all day. But I think that is such a great example of who you are. Is is the the willingness to put something like that out there I think is a really great indicator of your character and and also where you’re at in life. But let’s start all the way at the beginning of your story because I really want to hear about how you got to where you are now. So how did you get started in real estate?

Skye Michiels 10:09
So I was a teacher. So I graduated from Syracuse University, I knew from a very early age, I wanted to be a teacher, like, I love that, you know. And I was inspired by some of my teachers, like most teachers are. And I got into I graduated in 2000, with my master’s degree, and I became a high school history teacher. And unfortunately, I realized very quickly, I was poor, as a teacher, so I needed a side business. And all most teachers have a little side thing, they paint their movers or they coach or whatever it might be. And I had a conversation with a teacher who was just about to retire. And he said, If I could go back and do it all over again, I would get my real estate license and sell real estate part time and then teach full time you get the best of both worlds. So I was like, Sure. So I went online, Google real estate schools, you know, found the closest one. And I literally got my license. And it was one of those, like, all weekend classes, right? So I got it, for weekends, got my license, and I was a realtor. And I started selling. And I always intended it in the beginning to be a part time thing. Like I thought it was just going to be something I sell four or five homes a year, you know, make a little extra money and be a teacher the rest of my life. And I’m also a former college athlete, so I’m a little competitive. So I got into it and actually loved it. Because I think it reminded me a sports, right? Like, if you work hard, you actually get a return here. Right? Right. And there’s a piece of my, my, my soul, so to speak, that missed that competition, right? You every day of your life as a college athlete, you’re competing, and then you leave it, you’re like, Okay, that’s over. And now it’s back in a competition mode. And I just loved it, I gravitated into it, I was successful. And I literally did both for three years as a part time agent, because of the fact that I grew up, you grew up craving stability, like I did, for years there QC University, in my opinion, the best school out there, you know, but at the end of the day, like you, you go to school for five years, become a teacher and you achieve it. And I’m going to leave it to go sell houses at 100%. Commission.

D.J. Paris 12:26
And it was probably probably difficult in a sense to because I imagine with teaching, sometimes there’s there’s a calling, like, it’s like I feel drawn to do this, you obviously could have chosen any career. You know, Syracuse is a great university. And so you could have chosen any any path and did you feel called to teach was that like part of?

Skye Michiels 12:47
Totally. And you know, the last year I stayed as the last year, I literally stayed because of the fact I didn’t want to leave the senior class to that as teaching, because I’ve been with them all for years. And yeah, it’s a relationship. Oh, yeah. The relationship and care about those kids are exactly and then on the surface, when you look at real estate on the surface, it actually it feels very, especially nowadays with like, all the housewives and the HGTV stuff, right? It feels very, like. What I discovered, though, within real estate, is all the skills I applied as a teacher, I can apply in real estate. And that’s what made me successful, between caring about someone learning about who they are making sure I could explain everything properly, making sure they really, really understood the process, right? All the skills of a teacher applied so closely, to me being a realtor, as long as they then applied sort of that competence and the sort of the drive you have as an athlete as well, when those came together really made me who I was. So I did both for three years. And then finally 2005 went full time real estate. And it was made the decision and you know, this was gonna be my career.

D.J. Paris 13:58
And then now you’re in you’re, you’re you’re a corporate guy now now you’re part of you’re part of the biggest real estate company out there right now. So you are the National Head of agent development at Compass and everybody knows compass of course, I would hope by now everyone knows compass. And you know, they just they just are crushing it everywhere. And and obviously, Robert replikins a really impressive guy, of course. And yeah, you guys are always in the news. And I’m always a lot going on with Compass. Um, how did you get to compass just out of curiosity?

Skye Michiels 14:27
Yeah. So over the course of my career, you know, I was an individual agent, oh five and then over. In 2012, I created my real estate team. And it was called Real Estate with heart you know all about caring and cared about people, etc. That team I grew that team into one of the top teams in the Philadelphia market. At the time I was with Keller Williams, which I love Keller Williams is such a great company, some great trainings and awesome culture, etc. But I was at the time I’m as also craving a little something more, shall we say. And compass at that time in 2018, was just starting to launch in the Philadelphia market. So I remember taking my first recruiting appointment only as taking it because I was like, I’m gonna learn about this company so I can recruit against them. And the minute when I walked

D.J. Paris 15:21
in, like, wait a minute, they’ve got everything. I don’t want to compete with those guys.

Skye Michiels 15:26
It was that situation, I walked into the appointment, I met a gentleman named Rob Lehman. And at the end of the day, in my head, I’m like, Oh, my God, why did I take this appointment, because I literally fell in love with a company, the philosophy, the branding, the marketing, there’s so many aspects that I wanted to create, but there’s just so many, it’s so challenging in most real estate companies to create it, because of the fact that, you know, the factors present really holds you back. And the encompass sort of overcame this, really, because of the fact that they invested so many millions of dollars in in supporting agents first. And that was like this philosophy that I had, that I really wanted to sort of pursue. And so at the time, in 2018, I came over to compass I took over as the managing director for the city of Philadelphia, and my team came over as well. And my sister ran my team. And yeah, and we launched in, we launched in June of 2018. And I came over in August of 2018. And as awesome ride, and then over the years, the teacher and me started to come out. And really, this is accentuated in the pandemic. So I’d been doing a little bit of national team teaching that our retreats and things along those lines and the pandemic hits, right. So March 2020, hard to remember it, but it everything shut down. And we’re sitting there, like, what do we do. And immediately myself and a group of probably about 13, or 14 other people were formed. And we launched a thing called coaching at Compass, which was all virtual training. So every single day, all we did was we did all this virtual training. The other thing was, I was drinking a lot, eating a lot, watching Netflix a lot, you know, we would have our virtual happy hour, and then you know, you’re like, alright, six o’clock, like what I do now Mazal just watch TV, there’s nothing to do. And this was in March. So the end of April, I launched a group called sticks hammers, which was sort of a morning and accountability group, just within my market, just within the Philadelphia market. So between the coaching and compass and the six hammers, I started to work a little more nationally, but I was still managing full time as well. And then at the beginning of this year, I was promoted to the head of agent Development here at compass to make a long story short,

D.J. Paris 17:54
no, it’s, it’s, it’s really impressive. You’ve really come full circle you’re teaching again. And and also, you know, you’re you’re obviously super engaged in in the real estate, Industry and Market. So before we I want to get some advice, because our audience are all realtors, I assume, I don’t know who else would want to listen to our show. But we love our we love our audience, of course, but we also are here to help educate them and help get them ready and AI for next year. Right, we have a shifting market that’s already shifted, and we just had a Fed rate increase, you know, a couple days ago. So we’re certainly agents are, well, you know, they’re stressed, they’re worried. And I’m super excited to learn, you know, what you’re telling agents on what to do through the end of the year, all the way into 2023. But before we do, let’s get to your podcast, because I always wait till the very end to sort of say, Oh, by the way, he’s got this, and then you know, not as many people make it to the end. So I want to make sure we get that out there right now. So tell us about the 6am errs.

Skye Michiels 18:59
Yeah, so the six hammers, once again, it was formed in April 2020. And the mindset it actually was the originally like, couple of years prior, I had gotten divorced. And one of my really good friends a guy named Jay Dreyfus at Keller Williams, I was struggling I was in a bad place. Sure. Sorry, can see this. I’ve been

D.J. Paris 19:18
there. I know. Yeah, it’s bad. Even in the best of scenarios, it’s bad.

Skye Michiels 19:24
And I have a beautiful divorce by the way, I have a great like, you know, my kids are we have great beautiful 5050 custody, et cetera, but going through it, it rocks. So Jake wood, he said, Hey, I’m gonna start texting you early in the morning. 5am We followed a guy named Jaco willing Nick, who’s like, sure,

D.J. Paris 19:43
sure. Yeah. By the way, for anyone who doesn’t know who Jocko will, because he’s got a million books. He’s a crazy what ex Navy Seal or? Yeah, I guess you’re never an ex Navy SEAL. I shouldn’t say it’s like disrespectful. I didn’t mean it to be he’s not But anyways, he’s a Navy SEAL. And this guy is hardcore. And he’s all about discipline and anyway, go Correct. Sorry.

Skye Michiels 20:07
So Jake and I formed a group called the Five Amber’s, right? We woke up at five, a couple days a week, we we’d get on a zoom call, we actually launched it like, nationwide, it was really cool. Actually, the Facebook group still exists today, Jake is one of my best friends today. But you know, he moved to Colorado, I went to compass like, you know, so it just sort of, sort of settled in, I guess we could say. So when the pandemic hit, I started just revived it as the six hammers a, it was a pandemic, so you didn’t need to get up at 5am. And 6pm is also the hour that really allows it to be accessible to everyone, you know, a little a little tough. It’s a little hard if you’re not like a crew guy swimmer, like an early morning person to Paperboy, like 5am is just it’s not healthy as well. 6am was a great time. And to make a long story short, what we do is Tuesdays and every month you sign up and you commit to doing one goal for the month, you wake up at 6am. And you get on a zoom call on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And I usually will interview someone motivational on the Zoom call. And then I’ll put a post, I’ll post a question of the day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and workplace, which is our internal Facebook system that you need to answer. And then we also read one book of the month. And the goal is let’s create a community around sort of waking up early and really taking care of ourselves. Because at the end of the day as realtors, what do we do all day every day, what makes us successful is we take care of other people. And that’s good during the day, because of the fact that’s what makes you successful. The challenge we have as Realtors is that usually that spills over into the early morning and in the late evening, because of the fact that we are always on email and text and social media. And we literally wake up from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed. Sometimes we’re on our devices. So the goal of the six embers is really to say to people that you don’t need to be all things to all people at all times. Early in the morning, early in the morning is for you. Yeah, that’s for you. And we coined a term we call Healthy selfish, that you need to be selfish in a healthy way, early in the morning, you don’t get on the phone, you win. And everyone is different, right? For some people, it’s working out for some it’s meditating. For some it’s reading. For some people, it’s folding laundry, because it makes you feel like you’re in control, whatever it is that you need to do for yourself. That’s, that’s selfish, but it’s healthy, selfish. That’s really what we try to preach. And we want people to wake up with a little bit of motivation, a little bit of positivity, a little bit of inspiration early in the morning to carry them throughout the day.

D.J. Paris 22:51
Now, is this open to only compass agents? or can anyone apply for this?

Skye Michiels 22:57
It’s a great question. So it is right. The the live group is only compass agents, right? Because of the fact we use internal communication systems, etc. And over the years, I had hours and hours of interviews that are recorded, and my mom, my mom was like, can you send me that interview? Or like, you know, people would say, Hey, can you send me the interview, I want to send it to my my kids are. And it really it got to the point where I was like, I got to put this out publicly, because there are so many great inspirational moments and interviews and a lot of there’s people within compass, but people outside of compass as well that we interview. So I was really motivated to put something out there that the world could actually see inside what we do as a group and gain inspiration from it as well. And I’ll say it’s, obviously it’s a lot of realtors will be a lot of staff members in there. And the podcast really is not about real estate per se, it’s really about you as an individual in the person, and how do you get inspired and really take care of yourself.

D.J. Paris 23:59
So Podcasts can be listened to by anyone. So we’ll have a link to that in the show notes again called 6am. ers number six. And if you want to be part of the actual accountability group that’s limited to two for currently to the compass agents. So a lot of our listeners are compass agents. So if you don’t know about this, this is a great time to sign up. But let’s talk about right now what’s going on? Because of course, everyone’s focused on what’s right in front of them, which is some challenging times, right. We had, well, they’re challenging times in relation to what we had a couple of years ago. And I think that’s an obvious thing for people to to think back and go Well, that was easy. This is hard. But if we think back maybe a couple years ago, even at 3% interest rates, I don’t know that it was so easy. I think if you were working with buyers, we all remember it was not easy. If you were working with sellers, you had a great run, but now things have changed and we’re now you know rates of course are much higher. Um, obviously business still needs to continue, people still need to move. And but yet I, I’m part of our local association here. And we I’m, I’m in work on some committees that deal with programming around helping agents get through this current time. And boy, everybody I know is a little bit stressed. So as you know, so I’m curious on what you’re telling agents or what you’re seeing out there, how are successful agents sort of continuing to stay focused? Are they putting the blinders on? And just kind of doing the things they were always doing? Or are they are people pivoting? Just curious to get your thoughts on what you’re saying?

Skye Michiels 25:40
Well, the first thing I’ll give everyone is that the solution to anxiety is action. If you’re if you right now are feeling anxious. Anxiety is all about unknown things in the future. And what happens when we feel anxiety is we get, we sort of get frozen in place, almost picture the deer in the headlights, right, and we don’t move. And that is it. That is not a good thing right now. So if you’re out there, and you’re hearing this and you feel anxiety, my challenge to you is what are the actions that you need to take in order to move forward, right, get out of the headlights get out of the blind spot, get out of that frozen mode. Because the reality is there are real estate transactions that are rehab, there’s millions of transactions are going to happen. But in this moment, when you feel that frozen mode, that anxiety is going to kick in, and it’s going to paralyze you. And if you are not in a mode of action every single day, then you are literally going to sort of slide backwards, and it’s gonna get really, really hard for successful agents. And when I’m coaching everyone, this is an opportunity. We have a massive opportunity right now, as professional agents to capture market share and elevate what we do in two years ago, a year ago, let’s be real, if the property is priced right, and you had it in the MLS, like it was about all you had to do. Yeah. So at the end of the day, our role as a as an agent, or an I like calling us like advisors and consultants around real estate sales. it at the end of the day, it really we weren’t able to fulfill our greatest potential, because of the fact that it was it was the market was so crazy, it’s so fueled with, with low interest rates and low inventory, it was hyper hyper growth, right, it was not natural. And so now we’re moving back to a world where there is an opportunity for us to elevate what we do as realtors, and to elevate what we do with an industry to actually embrace that role as the advisor and the consultant. And I I really am coaching agents right now, to figure out everything you can do to be in action. And when you think about like the last two years, a lot of agents probably didn’t work in their CRM, they didn’t update their contacts, they didn’t reach out, they didn’t have those great touch points that made you successful, right, all you did was you done, you did transactions, you show properties, you listen to homes, and you were so busy and so frenetic that you were just running so fast, well, we have an opportunity now to take a step back, and we’re still going to work as hard, we’re just going to work in a different manner. Because the reality is the millions of transactions that are going to happen in this real estate industry are going to happen with people that have real life situations. But if we are not in a relationship with these people, what are they going to do, they’re going to click on a link online, and then they’re going to get connected to someone that’s paying lots of money to a third party company. And the reality is we need to be reaching out to people we know, in a human manner, in a manner that develops our relationships. So when that advisory role comes up, we are elevated and they reach out to us for help. Right when you think about financial advisors, you know, your financial advisor is constantly in touch with you hopefully about your portfolio and what you should be doing. And the reality of real estate transaction that happens once every seven 810 15 years.

D.J. Paris 29:14
But there’s a lot of lead time in between.

Skye Michiels 29:17
And the what most agents do is they they don’t remain in their clients lives as an advisor around real estate beyond the transaction. And

D.J. Paris 29:28
if I pause Can I pause for a second I have a theory about about this number one, obviously we’re talking about the time in between sales which I think is maybe is not even maybe it is more important than when you’re actually working with the client because as you said this this is I mean we’ve all seen the stats the I don’t know you know depends on what study you look at but the certain number of peeps certain percentage of people literally forget who their realtor was like three years after the transaction. My parents are this way it took them. They have a they had a home in North Myrtle Beach and it took years to sell it because it’s just kind of weird timing, whatever. Anyway, took years and many different realtors to finally, finally somebody did it after like five years, it was brutal, but they finally did it. And my parents were like, Oh, thank god, somebody finally got it sold. And my parents are super grateful to this person. I was asking my dad not that long ago, this is a couple years ago, but I said, who wasn’t even a realtor because I thought maybe I had a lead out there. I was just gonna say he goes, he goes, I don’t remember. And my parents liked this person. And they couldn’t remember now they don’t live in North Myrtle Beach, you know, they’re never going to do another transaction there. But still, that was shocking to me. And I went, Oh, yeah, I’m in the industry. Of course, that makes sense. People don’t stay in touch. And what you said, I think is really important. So here was my my thing I was going to suggest for anyone out there that’s going okay. Like Skye was saying, now’s the time to think about how can I deepen my relationships with my connection to these people? Well, that sometimes is is the challenges they might go well, I don’t know, what am I supposed to just call once in a while, or I don’t I know, they’re not they just moved in a year ago, what am I going to do, I could call and say like, what’s going on, or how you doing, and that’s fine. But what I’ve always suggested, especially you talked about your car, like really getting your CRM updated, I think now’s the time to call everybody you know, especially now if you have some extra time, and you probably do call everybody in your database, and literally just update the information be like, Hey, I’m working on my marketing thing for next year, I just want to make sure I have all the right data for you. Find out their birthdays, find out their anniversary, if they’re married, find out you know, where they work, if you don’t know, you know, and this gives you find out what their children names, ages, maybe even birthdays, too for that. So this way, if you have that information, you now have six, seven reasons to pick up the phone next year already automatically built in to your calendar, right? You’re like have the ability to pick up the phone and go, Hey, it’s your wedding anniversary, just wanted to say happy anniversary. Anyway, I was just thinking like, this is the time to get that data in there so that you have all those touch points built into your calendar.

Skye Michiels 31:58
So true. Well, I think two agents struggle with this, what do I say? And I think the reality is because of the fact that we’re looking at that former client as a client, not a human being. And when you go back, and let’s bring it back to the beginning of our interview, right, like my website, you look at it, you get an idea of who I am as a human being. And I think this is a technique you can also use as you put a touch point to do what I call reverse social media. So social media, Instagram, and Facebook, they give us what they want us to see. But we have the ability to go in and actually look at what’s happening in our clients lives. And when you ask yourself the question, well, what should I say, Well, what’s happening in their life and reach out about it? Right? Give them a compliment, give them a piece gratitude. Or you can just say, and this is one of my favorite scripts was you it’s a text or an email, and you just say, Hey, I’m just going through my records. I saw your name, and it made me smile. Just want to say hi, no need to respond back. Just letting you know.

D.J. Paris 32:58
Oh, boy, it Oh, good. Okay, and we want to emphasize only do this, if somebody’s authentically makes you smile, too. Because people are gonna smell you know, something that isn’t honest, but that you are so absolutely right is is using social media, as almost research and development, you can literally just, again, don’t wait for the feed, because Facebook’s only going to serve up things that they think you’re going to want to see. You’re not going to really get a good sense of everything that’s going on in someone’s life. So go through, type in their name, see what see if they’ve been on vacation lately, see what’s going on with their kids. And then my suggestion is don’t you can always comment on posts. And that’s great. And that’s definitely better than doing nothing. My suggestion is pick up the phone and call or text be like, Hey, man, just saw you got back from Cancun. Hope you had an amazing trip. Like, that’s the sort of stuff that people go wow.

Skye Michiels 33:46
Yeah, the other the other brilliant gem I’m gonna give you as well is to ask for help. Yes, I’m coaching next week, I’m actually coaching this within compass. And we’re going to basically be giving we have 1000s of agents signed up for that. So I’m really excited. But it’s five days of giving is the challenge. So I’m going to be basically showing how gratitude but the first thing is agents are going to reach out to their clients and say, Hey, we’re developing a recipe book. Do you have any Thanksgiving recipes that you love that I could share in this recipe book

D.J. Paris 34:20
and everybody has at least one and

Skye Michiels 34:22
even if they don’t? Yeah, what they’re gonna say, oh, you know, I don’t have anyone but that’s awesome. Can you send me that when you’re done? Absolutely. And now you have a digital recipe book you know that you can send out instead of just that the corny Hey, hope you’re having a Thanksgiving like the blast email blast we all get right like the

D.J. Paris 34:42
turkey I’m thankful you’re one of my clients or what yeah,

Skye Michiels 34:45
now like and when we wait, your parents got a Thanksgiving recipe book from their realtor like as a oscillate right? Now we got to get beyond that transaction. We got to think of like what are my clients going to need and the key aspect of asking for help is people like helping other people. And now and you’re not asking for help in a, in a bad way, you’re asking for help in a good way. Imagine that neighborhood guide. You, you ask your clients, hey, I’m building a neighborhood guide, do you have a favorite restaurant in Chicago? Or everybody has whatever, right? And now, what are you doing, you’re interacting with your clients, your former clients in a human way, and what it’s all about being present in their mind in a positive manner. Because while they may not buy or sell a house every 10 years, how many people do they know? In those 10 years that are going to buy or sell and what you want to do as an agent, you want to create raving fans, that when you say, Who is your realtor, I, my clients, they say, oh my god, Sky, you’ve got to call them like, here’s his number. And let me text them right now. Because of the fact I’m present in their lives in a manner that is nothing to do necessarily with real estate. But everything to do with real estate, if that makes sense.

D.J. Paris 36:00
Totally. Now, after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country on the show, do you know what CRM is used more than any other by our amazing guests? Well, you guessed it is follow up boss, let’s face it. Following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time. With less effort. Don’t take my word for it. Robert slack, who runs the number one team in the US use this follow up boss and he’s built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. I am sure Jonathan is hot on their tail. But follow up boss integrates with over 250 different systems. So you can keep your current tools and lead sources. Also, they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help that you need and get this follow up boss is so sure you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial, which is twice as much time as they give everyone else. And oh yeah, no credit card required. That’s how confident they are that you’re going to keep using them. But only if you use this special link, which is visit follow up boss.com forward slash real that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial follow up like a boss. With a follow up boss. Boy, I’m just absorbing what you did, I realized what I need to do is create content from our listeners. I never have asked our listeners to contribute to the show, I asked him to tell a friend and boy, that is all you ever have to do if you’re listening is tell a friend. But I’m thinking you just gave me a great idea. I would love to create a list of tips from our listeners about what’s working for them right now. And maybe what isn’t working, that would be kind of cool, too. But But putting that together and just giving that away to our audience and saying, Hey, here’s here’s all the stuff that you guys told me. So that I love that boy, what a great, great idea. I love that. So so why don’t we think about 2023 Here’s what we know, we know rates are higher than they were I don’t want to say hi, I just want to say higher than they were. Because my parents got got their first mortgage, it was double digits in the in the late 70s. So So again, it’s all relative, but we know that that that people are not as happy with rates as they as they were. So what are we how are we talking about this not just rates? I just mean, how are we talking to clients right now? Or what are you suggesting? agents do to really explain sort of, or rather to sort of set the narrative versus what maybe the media is projecting? Correct?

Skye Michiels 38:34
Well, a the media is always going to put things out there that are going to generate activity, right. The reality is that real estate transacts based around most real estate, but transacts around the life goals, not financial goals. So true, isn’t it? Yeah, we’re not talking about like, investment properties and all that stuff. Like that’s a little different. But for the vast majority of people that buy or sell real estate, they’re doing it not because of finances, but they’re doing it because of life. death, divorce, birth job. Yeah, right, you name it. So so the reality is that most people real estate’s one thing you need, that’s a necessity of life, that’s also an asset that you you need to buy and sell, right air water, like you’re not really buying and selling that it’s just like sort of natural shelter is it is a necessity of life. So one of the key things that I challenge are the realtors that are listening to this is find the people that have those life events that do have that need and with them work with them on solutions. So an entrepreneurial principle we talked about here at Compass is be solutions driven. When you are encountering a problem within your your clients life or your transactions, etc. The more you focus on the problem, the less you can accomplish, the more you focus Some potential solutions, and the pros and cons of each. Well now you can actually move into action. So the bottom line is there’s usually a solution to something. And at the end of the day, that’s what we need to drive that there’s two one buyer announcers. Yeah. Seller held financing. Yeah, there’s the there’s lots of potential solutions. But what are they? Now the one thing I’m, when I think about 2023, I went through 2008, I think you might have as well, like, no, I

D.J. Paris 40:30
got in just after that, but, but I’ve had enough guests on the show that had been through it, too. I feel like I’ve been through it.

Skye Michiels 40:37
Yeah, a, and that was a different because there was a nuclear bomb that went off underneath our feet. This is different, because what we’re doing here is we’re just pumping the brakes on the growth that was not healthy, right? Like, it was not healthy to have offered, you know, double digit growth, like multiple bids like that, that was not a good thing. So the what I’m trying to coach Realtors on, and also this, in essence, like your buyers and sellers, is that, hey, you got to go back into the life goals of what you’re trying to do. And then backfill into the finances, start with life, then go finances rather than being like, Oh, I just watched something on Fox News or CNN. And I’m scared. Well, that’s not, that’s not how you should make a decision. The second thing is that get ready for the bounce, meaning this is a little bit of a correction into normalcy. And at some point, as rates start to go down, demand is still there, we haven’t gotten rid of the demand for housing, right? We haven’t gotten in the inventory is still at an all time lows, frankly, even as we’re starting to increase, we’re still at an all time low for most markets. So the reality is there, there is probably a little bit of a bounce coming, we just don’t know exactly where that’s going to be. And once again, the work you do in the next six months, will probably dictate the next two years of your real estate career. Because if you sit there and once again, that anxiety kicks in, and you just starve your hands and say, Well, I’m just gonna sit here and go on Facebook and Instagram and you don’t give up? Well, you’re probably gonna that’s gonna dictate next two years, your real estate career, you’re gonna live pretty slim. Most realtors that I’m working with right now are are so excited, because of the fact that they actually have time now to help class. They have time to work in their serum, they have time to take those actions. Build the Thanksgiving recipe book, frankly,

D.J. Paris 42:36
they do the fun stuff. Now Now’s the fun stuff time.

Skye Michiels 42:39
Yeah, exactly. And the reality is like, yes, it’s just about getting better as a professional and improving your craft. And as you do that, you’re going to do more transactions, and you’re frankly going to gain a lot of market share. Most, most good agents are actually like, Oh, here’s an opportunity, all those like, if you do research in your local market, look up how over the last 20 months, how many deals were how many agents did one two or three deals in the last 20 months. The reality is those agents are gonna be gone in the next six months.

D.J. Paris 43:15
Like we were already we’re, we have a holding company here. At RT, we have two companies, ones for active producing agents, and ones we just created. Not every state has these. But for people that don’t actively produce or want to keep their license active. They just want to can we in the last, so we have about 700 agents in that in that company in the holding company in the last or maybe 800. Now, in the last month, we’ve added almost 50 agents just because people are exiting the business. So if you are a producing agent, whether you’re part time or full time, now’s the time to really get excited because lots of people are leaving.

Skye Michiels 43:52
That’s right. And I think too We’ll see this accelerate as dues come for like most associations operate on a yearly schedule. So you’ll see that jump in January, probably as well. So it’s, it’s key. And once again, I think it’s the positive is like they’re really solid economics people have equity. People, you know who you are, like, I know, you just got it. I mean, you probably remember doing short sales, right? Where people didn’t have equity in banks were for closing, like, we have a lot of positive economic aspects that are going on right now that are good. And if you’re buying a home, the rial, this is a really great way you can explain to buyers, here are three options, there are three things that are going to happen with interest rates, if you buy today, number one, interest rates are gonna go up and you’re gonna be really happy that you locked in this 7% Or six and a half percent, or whatever it is you locked in. Number two, they’re going to stay the same and then you’re no worse off. Or number three, they’re going to go down and then you’re going to refinance into that lower rate. So the reality is, in either one of these scenarios you’re going to be, you’re going to end up in a good space as long. And that’s a really great way that you can explain to buyers right now, the fact that interest rates going up, it’s just sort of the reality of where we are, as in the in the interest rate market, the reality of interest rates are going to change. And if they go up, and you’ve locked in, I remember I just bought a house actually in in June. And I was so pissed, it was like, Man, I could have walked you missed out. I missed it. And now I’m like, Oh, my, my mindset, like totally changed. Like, Oh, thank God, I like it. And then at the, you know, that 4.25 Like, rate I got I was, at the time, I was so mad. Now, I’m thrilled. But the reality is, no matter where you are, you can explain, one of three things is going to happen, they’re gonna go up, and you’re gonna be happy, they’re gonna stay the same, you’re gonna be happy, they’re gonna go down, and you gotta pay a little money to refinance into the lower rate.

D.J. Paris 45:59
Yeah, it’s you know, and you’re you brought up something a few minutes ago that I just want to step on a little bit, because it’s so important, which is that you said most consumers, most buyers and sellers, aren’t thinking about rates, they are thinking about their life events. And funnily enough, I just got lucky when I bought my most recent condo, which just happened to fall in a time when the rates were that low. That was not the reason I bought, it was because this new development came about. And I was like, I needed to make a move. And it just so happened that I got lucky with rates, it could have been the I was 7%. Either way, I needed to move. And so I just got lucky. So I think as agents, we often we’re so immersed in it, that it’s so much of our life, that we think everyone else is thinking about it. But you’re right. In most cases, people are thinking about what they need for their family. And whatever the rate is, is the rate. And it’ll affect what they can afford, of course, but it’s not going to. I don’t think it’s pushing people away as much as agents might be talking about it right now. Like agents are thinking people are scared, and they don’t want to pay. And I’m like, I don’t know how true that is for the vast majority of buyers and sellers.

Skye Michiels 47:08
You will feel this ad out a little bit too because right now, we probably still have the people that we’re looking at in the three to 4% rate and for those who didn’t get in, yeah, it is real for them. But the people that you will encounter over the next six months, when they meet you and you do your consultation, you explain here’s the process, here’s the payment here’s where rates are for them. That’s just where rates are right

D.J. Paris 47:35
and and and one more thing I was just gonna before I’m sorry, but also to the people who did buy a couple years ago the last couple of years probably overpaid by a significant so that’s another thing you can bring up if somebody’s like, well, rates are where they’re at, say like, well, let me just show you what it would have cost back then to purchase this home. And and you know, and then all of a sudden things get more in line like oh, okay, it’s not sky is falling. Sorry. I’m so glad

Skye Michiels 48:00
no, no, I was gonna almost say the exact same thing. And the other positives are we can actually do a home inspection, we can actually get an appraisal we can actually

D.J. Paris 48:07
you don’t have to buy it sight unseen.

Skye Michiels 48:11
I bought my home with no, I didn’t see it. I just went off the picture. Amazing. I didn’t do an inspection. I didn’t have a mortgage contingency, even though I got a mortgage. So no appraisal contingency, right? And but I knew I knew what I was doing. I’m like, look at it knew what I was basically buying. What’s that scary,

D.J. Paris 48:31
scary.

Skye Michiels 48:32
I’m in the business. And I was really scared about it. But at the end of day, that’s what buyers had to do to get home. The positive now is actually I as a real estate professional can protect you, I can actually do an inspection for you. We can do appraisal, we can have a mortgage contingency, hey, you need to sell your home and buy this one, we can actually make it contingent now because of the fact we’re back. What we’re dealing with, we’re just coming back to the ground. This is like we were we just it was a rocket that took off. And now we’re just sort of settling back into the ground of what’s normal in real estate. It’s normal for us to take 60 days to sell. It’s not normal for it to sell in two or three days back in 2010. You sold the house in two days, right? Whoo. Yeah, that’s great. You know, no, it’s like it’s normal. For this. It takes some time. And that’s what we have to adopt this mindset that we are professionals. And what we do matters. Because if what we do doesn’t matter, then the internet companies are just going to take it over and do it for us at a cheaper rate, frankly, great.

D.J. Paris 49:34
Yeah. And they’re going to do a better job digitally than we can do because that’s their business. What we can do is all the interpersonal stuff, all the we care about you stuff, and if you can be the care about you person and the AI can educate you and read you know, reassess what’s actually going on and re educate you and make you feel cared for and appreciated as a as a human being And then you know, that’s going to win out almost every time over over the tech. That being said, I think this is actually a perfect place to wrap up. So I want a couple of things. The 6am errs, if you are a compass agent, and you want to participate in the accountability group, what’s the best way that they should do? I guess they probably know, internally, they probably know how to get access. I hope

Skye Michiels 50:23
so. But just in case you don’t, you could obviously email me [email protected]. Or you could actually sign up on the website as a compass agent as well.

D.J. Paris 50:32
And if you are not a compass agent, which, of course most people listening are not, let’s listen to the podcast, subscribe to 6am ers and get a steal, you still get all the interviews and all the exciting parts of what Skye does. And by the way, if you are an agent, and you are, you know, not happy at your current firm, or just want to see what else is out there, obviously compass would love the opportunity to speak with you. There’s, you know, reach out to your local compass office, you can reach out to sky as well, I’m sure you haven’t directed to the right, right person. But compass is really doing some great things. And I don’t work for Compass. And I’m impressed with Compass, because I just think they do so many so many wonderful things for agents. So definitely if you’re looking to explore their options, except if you’re one of our agents stay with us. I’m only being silly, of course. But But anyway, if you are exploring other options, check out compass, they are actually a bit different than a lot of what the traditional big firms offer. So check them out, they’re there, they do a lot of great things. So Skye, thank you so much for being on the show. This was a real pleasure and a lot of fun for me. And I can’t I won’t become a compass agent only because I have my feet firmly planted here. But I wish I was only to be part of your six AMS group. So maybe I’ll figure out a way to sneak under the door because I want to I need that accountability in my life. So if anyone out there is a congress agent, you know, definitely Let’s sign up for 6am ers it’s it’s it’s I mean so many people read the how l read book of the Miracle Morning, which is like every like every realtor I know is read that book this is an extension of that and you know specific to real estate. So anyway guys, thanks we want to on behalf of sky and myself we want to thank everyone for listening and supporting our show. As I said earlier, please tell a friend that’s the only thing that you can you need to do to help us continue to grow. And also check out sky Michael’s everything he offers on the on the national stage with with Compass, as well as his 6am ORS podcast and accountability group go to Sky michaels.com link to that in the show notes and also 6am ers which I apologize I forgot the website for that is that 6am or 6am or.com yet and birthday. We’ll have links to that in the show notes. So six the 6am errs.com So anyway, Sky thank you so much and we will see everybody on the next episode. Thank you everyone.

Paul Salazar with Hilton & Hyland Beverly Hills goes back to the beginning of his journey in real estate. Paul describes how he transitioned from working with his mom to selling luxury real estate. Next, Paul discusses how he built his business by cold calling expired listings and how he perfected his skills to get properties sold in record time. Paul also talks about cold calling, door knocking and sending handwritten letter to clients and how these activities helped him build relationships with developers. Last, Paul discusses the the major differences between working with a smaller property size compared to ultra-high-net-worth side.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Paul Salazar can be reached at 310.492.0737 and [email protected].

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
Have you ever wondered how Realtors transition into luxury sales? Well, we’re going to talk about that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents. And for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide, and your host through the show. And in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with top 1% producer and luxury real estate agent, Paul Salazar before we get to Paul, well, it’s the holiday season. So I’m just going to ask for a gift. And don’t worry, though it’s it’s I’m actually going to ask for two gifts. The first is to check out what our sponsors are offering, please, please support our sponsors, we vet them, we only bring to you really high quality services and products that Realtors could use, please support our sponsors, because they’re the reason we can keep making these shows. And the second thing we’ll ask for the second gift you can give us is really simple one won’t cost you anything just tell another agent about the show, especially for 2023 Is it going to be a tough year, we know it’s going to be a tough year. Let’s make it as least tough. Now that’s there’s a better way to say that. Let’s make it as comfortable as possible. By introducing as many people as you can to our show. Our whole intention is really to help you grow your business. And the more people we can reach we really believe the more people we can help so help us fulfill our mission by reaching as many agents as possible in 2023 and let them know about keeping it real. And guys, that’s all I got. Let’s get to the main event, my interview with Paul Salazar.

Today on the show,

our guest is Paul Salazar with the Paul Salazar group of Hilton and island in Beverly Hills. Let me tell you a little bit more about Paul. Now with over 600 million in total real estate sales in over 200 satisfied clients served. Paul Salazar is a real estate veteran with a years of invaluable experience. He has partnered with one of the top luxury firms in the world Hilton and Hyland, Beverly Hills, Paul has had a string of 20 plus million dollar properties sold under his belt, making him a true standout in this highly competitive and fast paced industry. Paul’s an expert in rebranding and relaunching properties that have been lingering on the market. He also works with developers to build luxury spec properties all throughout Los Angeles. Please learn more about Paul two places want you to go visit his website, which is Paul Salazar group. And that’s Paul Pauls a Laz ar group.com and also find him on Instagram. It’s also Paul Salazar group will have links to both of those in the show notes so you don’t have to type it in. So please go visit Paul and Paul, welcome to the show.

Paul Salazar 4:20
Wow, that was a great, quite the intro there. Well, it’s so funny. I was feeling weird hearing all that stuff. Yeah. All right.

D.J. Paris 4:29
It is it is weird. I had somebody recently interview me, which very rarely happens. And they went through, you know, list of things like I was just mentioning you and I was like, Well, I don’t I don’t like to hear that at all. Like, just doesn’t sound right.

Paul Salazar 4:42
I know it feels weird. I mean, it’s great, but also feels weird.

D.J. Paris 4:46
Well, I would love to talk about all of how you got into luxury. But also let’s start at the very beginning of your real estate sort of journey. How did you get into real estate and why

Paul Salazar 5:00
Okay, so let’s start from college, right? Because I will, let’s start from like, like my culture. I’m, I’m Colombian, and almost everybody in my, in my family, they have their own business that are there. They’re entrepreneurs, my dad, my brothers, my cousins, aunts, uncles, right? So it’s kind of in our blood to have her own thing. Not to have a boss not to be told what to do. Right. So that’s one. Two is that in college, I finished college on a study abroad program called Semester at Sea. And that was my last semester of college. I finished that. And then, you know, I went into the real world, and I was like, What am I going to do? Like, I just finished traveling the world with a bunch of college kids having a blast, drinking, partying, you know, traveling, literally circumnavigating the entire globe. And I was pretty depressed. I, you know, I gotta tell you, I was not I was not in a good place. I was working with my dad. He has his own business, but I knew I didn’t want to be in his business. But I also knew I didn’t want to have like a regular nine to five job, right, like so. Like, so like, what am I going to do? Right? I don’t really have any capital to like, start a business. My mom was in real estate. Century 21 beachside in Rancho Cucamonga, which is where I went to high school, and which is where I live while I was commuting back and forth to college at UC Riverside. So I would say about three months after Semester at Sea. You know, I was, you know, I had a few, a few interviews with some regular nine to five jobs. And it just, it just wasn’t clicking for me, you know, and then, you know, my mom came into my room I like I vividly remember this day. And she’s like, you know, she used to call me up. Bobbito. So she’s like, Bobbito Why don’t you you know, you know, come sell real estate with me. And this isn’t Oh, six. Right. So the market is still on fire. She’s

D.J. Paris 6:52
like, the perfect time to get in. Oh, six. Yeah, yeah. She’s

Paul Salazar 6:54
doing really well. Like she’s traveling. She’s, she’s, you know, selling a bunch of real estate. I’m like, You know what, that sounds good. You know, I was like, all right. I was like, Yeah, sure. You know, that’s let’s, let’s do it. You know. And so that’s, that’s how I started to get into real estate is selling real estate in Rancho Cucamonga first century. 21. beachside.

D.J. Paris 7:15
Wow. And you came in at such an interesting time, I actually bought my first condo in 2006. And upon retrospect, maybe, maybe not the ideal time for me to have bought a condo, of course, none of us really knew that back then. It wasn’t like the writing was so obviously on the wall, of course. But But So you started kind of towards the end of the of that boom? And what was it like, you know, starting off in into in 2006.

Paul Salazar 7:43
You know, I, I’m very grateful that I got at least a year of decent market under my belt, you know, of like, doing transactions with my mom, as I’m learning the business. Right. I also helped enhance her business as well, because, you know, I had a business background and in college, right, which helped a little bit, let’s be honest, you know, you don’t really learn a lot in college, at least, it’s specific to real estate. But, you know, I think I was able to use what I learned in college, to help her grow her business. And so we, we created the Salazar team, it was team Salazar, that was the name of our team was me and her and we had a, like, a part time assistant. And, you know, again, I’m very grateful, I didn’t start in Oh, eight, because I probably wouldn’t have made it, and I probably wouldn’t have still be in the business. So it’ll it allowed me to stay in the business to, to have some money saved up for the, you know, for the rainy days of you know, you know, 2008 through 2012. Right. So, you know, again, very, very grateful for it, but at the same time, I was selling very small properties, you know, $200,000 properties 300,000 Every once in a while, will will bring a $500,000 property, and I was really excited about that, you know, but it was it was great, you know, I’m, again, very, very grateful for that for the opportunity that my mom gave me.

D.J. Paris 9:07
Yeah, it’s, it’s a really good opportunity to be able to work with somebody who’s who’s established who’s successful. And also you get to learn, you know, so I imagine your mom was was, I imagine a pretty, pretty great mentor to you.

Paul Salazar 9:23
She was, you know, and we, we’ve always had a really great relationship. And I was living, you know, so my parents were divorced already. So it was just me and her in the house. So, again, if you’re starting real estate, and you have like a bunch of bills and debt, it’s really hard because it’s, it takes about three to six months, maybe a year to get you know, get get going. So living at home really allowed me to I had very, very little bills, you know, maybe the 1000 bucks, maybe $2,000 a month, which is nothing right? And retrospect you know, so if I closed one big deal, big been you know, 300,000 dollars or something like that I would I would keep 5000 bucks and I would have enough money for like three months. And that’s what I would do. I would save up the money and I knew I had enough money to last me another six months. And then I just kept on growing that, that that nest egg to a year to two years and that just kind of kept on going from there.

D.J. Paris 10:17
Wow. And at what point did you decide to to make a shift from from working with your mom or working in Rancho Cucamonga? And then you know, making the shift to? To where you are now.

Paul Salazar 10:29
Yeah, so. So, you know, the crash happened at the end of oh seven and oh eight, right, I started selling some short sales. And that’s what kind of kept me kind of going is just selling short sells, right? And my mom always pushed me she’s like, Bobby, though you can always sell, you know, luxury properties. Like why don’t you go out there and to like Beverly Hills and like start selling some luxury properties. And to me, I always had doubts, you know, like, my mindset wasn’t there. Like I was like, I don’t think I could do that. I don’t know anybody there. I don’t know the market there. I don’t have any connections. And even though we live only an hour away, but I could be from Ohio, it’d be the same thing. You know, like another universe almost. Yeah, completely different universe. And I had no connections like I literally knew nobody that lived in that in that area. My whole family was in Rancho where Pasadena or in this area. Right. So at the time, my girlfriend lived in Brentwood, which is like West. Sure. I still live on the west side. Right. And so I was commuting back and forth, right. And my mom had gone to Colombia in 2000 at the beginning of 2009, or actually, or 2008, or something like that. And she had met her now husband, right? So it was a perfect transition. She’s like, she had called me and she was on vacation for like a month in Colombia. And she’s like, Hey, I want to let you know that I met some guy and like, my heart drops, like we met some guy, you know, Columbia. And she’s like, Yeah, I met some guy in Colombia. And, you know, of course, being the son. And you know, she’s been divorced. I was very protective. Sure. I was, like, I don’t know about this mom. She’s like, Yeah, we’re gonna get like, think about getting married. I’m like, you just met the guy like a month ago, you know? So but it ended up working out. Right. So since I was commuting back and forth, my mom had now planned to move to Colombia to go live with her now husband. It was a perfect transition for me to be like, you know, what, let me move to LA Let me try it out. You know, give it a shot. I had saved enough money for about six months of, of living in LA, right. So so my plan was I moved to LA to downtown LA. So which is kind of like, not in Beverly Hills or not in the west side where I live. But kind of like a like a, like a middle ground because like all my friends and family still live in Rancho right. So I didn’t want to be too far away from them as well. So I moved to downtown LA with with my best friend from college. And we got a place together. And I didn’t have a job. I moved to LA without having a job. And I said, I said to myself, do I want to start selling real estate? It’s gonna take me a while to get going. I don’t have a budget to market myself. I don’t know anybody. I don’t know. Any of the markets. I don’t know any of the areas. I don’t know anything about the motor. Right? So I was starting from scratch. I knew how to I had a closed at that time, probably about 30 deals 30 or 40 deals with my mom over the last couple of years for the last three years. So I knew about the transaction, right. But I didn’t know about the players. I didn’t know about how to sell luxury real estate, which is completely different than selling a house that’s worth, you know, two or $300,000. So, so she moved to Columbia in 2009. I moved to downtown LA. And I said you know what, what I should do is I should probably work underneath a top agent, right? So I emailed my resume to about, you know, 10,000 agents, I downloaded all the emails smart. All the emails from the MLS, in had emailed, and that was emailed every single person, right. I got I got a bunch of interviews, I got about 17 interviews, you know, and my last interview was a call with Chad Rogers, who was at the time on Million Dollar Listing. Yeah, on Bravo. He was one of the original cast members. And he was working at Hilton and Hyland. And when I do my research, I’m like, this is the best firm in LA one of the best firms in the world. Like I really want to be at this firm, you know, and I had gotten no calls from anybody at Hilton. And the last call I got was from chat. He called me he left a message and he’s like, Yeah, I’m on Million Dollar Listing. I’m like, I have no idea who you are. I don’t watch that show. Right, which he actually liked. Right. So yeah, sure. Yeah.

D.J. Paris 14:42
Because you weren’t you didn’t want to hang out with him because he was on TV.

Paul Salazar 14:46
Exactly. Exactly. So So I called him up. We had an interview and it was a match. It was perfect. So and and you know I you know I have to give a lot of you know of attitude and a lot of credit to Chad for giving me the opportunity to be working under him because he was selling big properties, you know, you know, you know, 1518 2021 22 23,020 $3 million properties. So because of him, I was able to get into the luxury market. And I stayed with him for a long time, for about 10 years, I should have left earlier. And I think the reason why I didn’t leave is because again, my mindset wasn’t there, I didn’t feel that I, I can, I could, I could sell real estate on my own, you know. So Chad really taught me how to how to deal with these high net worth individuals, how to deal with business managers, how to deal with how to deal with lawyers, how the transaction works, how to list properties in this in these areas, you know, and his, his community was Malibu colony. And if you’re not familiar with Malibu colony, it’s it’s only 120 houses right on the beach in Malibu. It’s a gated community, Sting lives there. Jason Stata. Pamela Anderson. I mean, so many celebrities call this place home. And his his his family owned a house there. So he grew up in this in this community. So most of the deals that we that we did were in this community. So I really got to know all the big players from from working with him. You know, the only thing the only downside with working with Chad is that he already had a network, right? Yeah. So he wasn’t really out there prospecting, like I do nowadays. Sure. So I really didn’t learn the business side of real estate. Through chat. I just learned how to how to talk to people that are lawyers or CEOs or billionaires, right? I learned how to communicate with these kinds of people, because he would, he would give me a deal. Like, he would say, Hey, Paul, this is my listing. And I will take it on from there. Like I did most of the work, I really helped him run his business. And we did well together. And we did well together. And I think, I think after after 10 years, I think what, what, what helped me make that transition from, you know, the mindset was just like I get, I just didn’t feel, I guess worthy enough, or I didn’t feel I had the capability of going on my own. Like, I feel like I needed somebody to help me out. You know. And so I started to listen to like to like some podcasts and, and Tom ferries podcasts really kind of resonated with me. Sure, I really love to hear what he had to say. And I started to listen to him. You know, he’s like, he was talking about cold calling. And I was like, I’ve never cold called in my, you know, at this time, I think I was in the business for about 13 years. And I had never cold called once in my entire career.

D.J. Paris 17:37
And and probably didn’t want to either. You’re probably like, I don’t want to have to do that. Yeah,

Paul Salazar 17:41
yeah, exactly. I it’s like it was really scary for me. And at that time, when I was working with Chad, I was his assistant. And then after a couple years, it was like a hybrid model. And we also actually had an assistant, so it was me, him and we had an assistant. So he would give me deals, I would hold his open houses, I would get deals through the through that I would get deals now through some like friendships that I had in LA. So I kind of started to grow my business, but I didn’t really grow it that that big. That’s why I was also scared to leave him. So I didn’t really have or big, you know, a big source of business. Because I would also get like a, like a small percentage of his business as well. But if I left him, I wouldn’t be getting that anymore. Right. So that’s how I started. You know, it’s it was a long, it was a long journey with Chad, I learned a lot I should have left earlier, like probably after five years, but I didn’t. And after, you know, listening to tom toms podcast for about three months, I joined his coaching program. And after that, I started cold calling. I got a couple of my own listings, and then I left chat right after that.

D.J. Paris 18:44
Wow, I accent so I have a few questions I want to go actually. Thank you. That is really incredible story. And there’s more to the story. I know, I want to go back to just this really smart idea that in all the episodes we’ve done, I don’t think anyone has ever suggested and it was a really good idea. Be there. So obviously teams are or whether or not you want to be a solo practitioner or a team. Having a mentor, regardless, is a great idea for so many listeners. So Paul did something very creative and something that literally anybody can do, which is he got he will in your case you scraped a list off the mls of realtor emails. You can also buy these lists, they’re really not that expensive, but a couple 100 bucks, maybe for your local area. And then he just fired out 10,000 emails and that is absolutely doable. So if anyone out there is listening, that is essentially how Paul got to into luxury property he invested in reaching out to everyone in his local area and got 17 interviews and I mean it’s it is it is remarkable. I was just talking to one of the very top producers here in Chicago yesterday and I was asking her how often and she’s a solo practitioner And she does about 160 million a year just herself alone. And yeah, she, she’s amazing. And she I was like, how often do people email Realtors email, you asking for mentorship coaching? She’s like, Oh, no. And she’s super nice and very sweet. She’s like, almost never. So it’s one of those things that I guess sometimes we think maybe those people are getting inundated. And maybe they are, but maybe they’re not right. And so I just wanted to honor you for sort of being creative in that step. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that. Now. That’s what US recruiters do we get those lists. Yeah, we want to recruit realtors. So recruiters do this all the time. But individual agents unless unless it’s like, oh, I have I have a listing. And I want to, I want to email every realtor to let them know about it. That’s another reason why sometimes people do it. But as far as like to find a mentor or a partner, boy, what a smart idea. So again, I just wanted to step on that a little bit, because I think it was a really, really smart play. The other thing, too, I want to talk about so many of our listeners, and I’ve obviously you know people who are your peers are probably like, how do you get into luxury? Well, you just told the story of how you got introduced to that world. But then there’s that whole step of like, I didn’t grew up in Malibu, I didn’t I don’t I didn’t grow up in this gated community of 120 homes where everybody knows me because those are my neighbors. And that’s what I grew up with. And, and yes, you were introduced to that world, but then it is this pretty big shift of like, I’m going to cut the cord and try to build my own business. And you said, looking back, you know, maybe you stayed longer than then you needed to. But that does require a massive mind shift change to say, okay, I can I can survive and thrive in that world, even though that isn’t my background, and it isn’t necessarily what I what I’ve known my whole life. So I’m curious on what you learned with Tom ferries coaching program, which everybody who listens probably knows who Tom Ferry is if not, he’s he’s an He’s incredible. His dad Mike ferry is kind of a famous guy in the, in the, in the coaching movement. Brian Buffini is another guy. So it’s usually Mike ferry, Brian Buffini and Tom Ferry are kind of like the three biggest names, and all three of them have have really great stuff to offer, Tom Ferry has kind of kind of having his moment the last like 10 years, he’s kind of been the guy who’s everyone’s kind of paying attention to but what did you learn from from Tom’s coaching? You know, coaching partners about how to shift your mindset.

Paul Salazar 22:30
I mean, so much, right. I mean, there are so many different tips that that that he kind of suggested, you know, affirmations, some books, right. But I think for me, I think the biggest shift was, at the time, you know, I was, I was single, and I had just started dating this girl, who’s now my girlfriend, and she’s an entrepreneur, you know, and she was out there, you know, you know, just like putting yourself out there, you know, and I wasn’t doing that. And so she, she really kind of inspired me to be like, you know, I can do more, right? Like I can, I can do more with myself, like, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t need somebody else to help me. I can do it on my own. You know, and it’s, I think, I don’t know, if there was one thing, I think was just kind of listening to his podcast, and all actually, the interviews just like this, this kind of interview that like Tom would do, and the interviews that that that you do, DJ are so important, because they allow the listeners to get inspired to hear the stories, because to me, those stories really helped me be like, Wow, that person did it. That person did it. And now, I started to say, why can I do it? You know, so those stories really helped me out. And when I was with Chad, I wasn’t really into the business. Like I was more traveling, I was partying. So I wasn’t really focused on my career, I was really more focused on just having a good time, to be honest. So and, you know, since I had a girlfriend, I had more time to kind of focus on my career, instead of, you know, traveling and doing all these other things, right. But I think hearing the stories was really the most important thing for me, in kind of shifting the mindset, right, because I heard all these stories of all these other amazing agents that started from nothing, or they, you know, didn’t have anything or it, there was, you know, everybody has their own story, right. And some stories, I can’t relate to as much as, as other stories, right. So like, like, I may relate to certain people, but I may not relate to other people, right? Sure. But But But listening to those interviews was my favorite thing. And to this day, I still love to hear those interviews because I learned so much about what these people do, how they grew their business, and I always take one or two things, and I implement that in my business.

D.J. Paris 24:47
I want to pause for a moment to talk about our episode sponsor are one of my favorite companies out there follow up boss. Now after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country for this podcast. Do you know which CRM is used by me More than any other by our guests. Of course, it is a follow up boss. And let’s face it following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort, do not take my word for it. Robert slack, who runs the number one team in the US uses follow up boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 systems, so you can keep your current tools and lead sources. Also, the best part they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help that you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial, which is twice as much time as they give everyone else. And oh yeah, no credit card required. So you can try it risk free. But only if you use this special link visit follow up boss.com forward slash real that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And now back to our episode. Yeah, well, boy, that’s exactly our goal on this show. So glad that that worked for you. Because, you know, it’s funny, I was thinking like, oh, it would be really fun to have chat on the show. And it probably wouldn’t, I’m sure he’s, he would be excellent. But the moment people hear oh, like if I say, how’d you get into luxuries? Like, well, but you know, I grew up in this area that, you know, that’s immediately when a lot of our listeners would be like, Oh, okay, well, I didn’t I didn’t grow up in an environment like that. So yes, easy, easy for that guy. And of course, it isn’t necessarily easy if just because you grew up in that environment, but it is not as relatable, right. And so I love to present you that you sort of infiltrated in a good way and sort of went, Oh, I belong here I can I can thrive in this environment, and just learning how to communicate and maybe with people who are in that ultra high net worth space, and understanding their needs, understanding what the goals of people like that, who I imagine there’s people that you have clients that probably have whole teams of people that you have to meet with financial people, accountants, attorneys, agents, whoever it might be. It’s not I imagine it’s not just usually like one single buyer, and one seller, and then the agents on either side. So what would you say? So So anyway, just to continue on in your story. So So you, you decided you got the courage to kind of go off on on your own cut the cord? And then, you know, did you feel at that point that you had made enough headway into your your sphere of influence, that you were able to sort of survive that

Paul Salazar 27:48
way? You know, I, again, I think I’ve always had enough money to survive six or 12 months. And I think that’s an important thing for agents to hear. Right? And I don’t have any kids, right? I don’t have any kids yet. So it’s easier for me to grow that like nest egg, right, just for me. But, you know, for anybody else, that everybody knows how much they need every single month, to be able to say, you know, what, if I’m going to go into a new business or to a new venture, I have this much time to actually excel before I’m like, you know, broke. Right. So I’ve always been comfortable in that regards, where, you know, I could have again, I could have left, you know, five years before leaving chat, you know, because I had that money. I just didn’t have the courage right. So for me it was luckily, the coach I had was very inspiring to her name is Mary Jett. She is now the head of all coaches at Tom Ferry. She is an amazing person. She is like, she’s just like a mom, you know. And she was coaching junk ramen, who was like one of the top agents in the in the nation. She was coaching Gary Gould, who sold the the Playboy Mansion who was at at Hilton and Hyland and Gary was actually the one who recommended me to marry Jeff, you know. So I, again, very grateful to Gary Gould, who’s now a coal banker, because I called him and said, Hey, Gary, I know that you’re coaching with Tom Ferry. And when I’m doing you know, all my research is like, yeah, you know, call my coach Mary Jess, I called Mary jet. She was coaching like 75 people, right? And she’s like, Hey, you know, why don’t I send you, you know, three or four recommendations here at the Tom Ferry coaching network that that may be able to assist you. I talked to those coaches, but I didn’t have the same connection that I had with with Mary jet, you know, so So I call them married yet again. I say, hey, Mary, I know you’re busy. I know you have a lot of clients. I’m very coachable. I am, I am ready to go. And please coach me because I know that you have, you know what it takes to help me grow my business. And she said, You know what, Paul, let’s do it. And so again, so, so grateful. For Mary, because she actually really inspired me to leave chat. She, she, she didn’t push me, she inspired me. That’s the that’s, that’s the difference. I did it on my own. She was actually shocked. After two months of being coached by her, I left chat. And then three months later, I hired my first assistant.

D.J. Paris 30:17
Wow. Yeah, you know, so what I’m really hearing is she gave you the courage to bet on yourself. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s funny too, because betting on yourself is a very scary endeavor, even for the most confident person because it also could, could not go well. And, and in your case, you know, you really have to commit and you did, and, and you made it work. So, so you left, you found the courage to do that. Your coach, of course helped you, you know, change your mindset to this, like, you can do this, but also, I’m not gonna push you to do it, it’s a decision you have to make on your own and whether you do it or not, I’m still your coach. And, and you did it. And, and then and then how did things, you know, blossom from there?

Paul Salazar 31:06
Well, so, again, I didn’t have a network, even though I’d been in LA for a long time. You know, I think my network was really outside of LA, you know, I had a small network in LA from, you know, just kind of meeting people, you know, going out and whatnot. But I really didn’t I I’m not really a networker. You know, that’s not how I get my business. Right. And a lot of people in LA that are successful, actually are good networkers. But that’s not me. I don’t like to go out at night. And like smoothies, that’s not my thing. So when I was, you know, listening to how other agents, you know, grow their business, you know, cold calling expireds was a great way to grow the business. So I started, I started cold calling expireds, you know, and it was, that was so hard for me to start doing that. And I actually started cold calling expireds I think before I hired Mary Jo at the Tom Ferry organization. And then I hired her, but I basically started cold calling expireds every single day. And I was horrible at it. And I was so I was so nervous getting on the phone. Like, it was, like, traumatizing for me. I was like, and my girlfriend is like, why, you know, what’s like, what’s going on? And she’s also a coach herself, you know, so she was kind of coaching me through this whole process. But again, it just like the mindset, like I just wasn’t there. And I didn’t have I guess I didn’t have the confidence yet to really cold call these people. And when you’re cold calling, you know, you know, 2345 and plus million dollar houses. They’re getting calls from everybody in there, everybody. I mean, like people from like, like, an hour away are calling them. It’s nuts.

D.J. Paris 32:44
So you were only calling luxury expireds? Or were you Okay, so So you somehow subscribed? Did you subscribe to a service that gives you those leads? Or did you just find them in the MLS as they would expire?

Paul Salazar 32:55
So at the time, I was using red X, I’m now using Vulcan. But at that time, I was using red X. And I think it was like a filter of doing like, only houses over a million dollars. So I was like, listen, anything in LA right now, right? Anything over a million dollars is like a like a, like a teardown, you know, yeah. So it’s like, I like the word luxury. It’s like, I don’t even know what that means anymore. Because I hear it here in LA is a $2 million property, like a luxury property. Because it’s like a three bedroom, two bath 1200 square foot house in an OK neighborhood. It’s insane. Right? So so with that being said, you know, I started I started cold calling expireds.

D.J. Paris 33:32
And by the way, I want to pause here for a second because because for those of you that have never I feel like that art of calling for sale by owners calling expired listings isn’t as popular anymore. Well, first of all people, you know, look, most people don’t like making cold calls, and calling for sale by owners or expireds. This particular will say just expired. It’s expired. It’s particularly difficult because it was on the market, probably with another realtor. It didn’t go well it didn’t property didn’t transact. And so you may you may be calling somebody who now hates realtors or hates the previous realtor or and as you said, it’s also because it’s a luxury property, at least by the price. It is now you know very attractive to everyone who buys these leads, which is a lot of agents. So you’re right people from an hour away. Sure. I’ll drive in for a $2 million property of course. So now the owner is getting bombarded with you’re probably not the first phone call even of the day. What do you call them? So So can you just talk a little bit about what those calls were like, just because I love the fact that you started calling fizz bows and, and or sorry, expired listings. And were able to you know, still still build a luxury practice out of it.

Paul Salazar 34:46
Yeah, I mean, I I knew that like, that was really the only way that I wanted to do things because I’m not an I’m not a networker. That’s not my thing. I’m not going out at nighttime and going to events, right? So I like to be home during the week. So it’s either open houses door knocking or expireds. And I still don’t have the courage to go door knocking yet. So I started with expireds. Right? That was the that was my first step into building my confidence into doing scary things. And a book that I like to read. That really inspired me was Miracle Morning. Oh, yeah. How Elrod Yeah, yes, exactly. Great book. So highly recommend it for any for any listeners. So me and my girlfriend started doing that. So we were still waking up early, you know, 545 alarm, getting up at five, you know, meditation journal workouts. There’s a couple other things there. I forgot what what they are. But But doing that every single morning, and then that really propels you to a very successful day, you know, so I started doing that, but by making the calls was was really tough, you know? Sure. The good thing is that I, I knew the market. So that was what I knew the market, which is really important. And number two, I was at a great brokerage, Hilton Island, and we only have one office and only 150 agents. So it was only really, in my office is only one other agent that that does expired calls. So if if I’m calling Hey, it’s Paul Salazar, a Hilton and Hyland, I kind of know, not everybody, but most people will know that, that that brand name, and they’ll they’ll say, You know what, there’s only a few agents at that at that brokerage. It’s a very, very popular brokerage here in the area for High Tech High End residential. And so they, they, they gave me a little bit more respect, right. That’s nice. Yeah. So, so that definitely helped me out, okay. But at the end of the day, it’s you just have to know how, you know, you obviously have to have a script that you that you internalized, you have to know it from, you know, you have to just understand the script, there’s only going to be a few different objections. And they have to know how to handle it. And more importantly, it’s the it’s your tonality. Yeah, that’s what I learned is tonality is so important, right. And everybody’s different. I’m really good with a certain demographic, ladies that are like 60 Plus, you know, I just, yeah, that was my sweet spot. So that was my first listing. And, and, you know, it was a, it was a, it was a $2.1 million listing. And they had interviewed the other agent in my office who was like the king of expireds, in in LA, who does a ton of expireds. And I actually beat him, I beat him to the listing, which is great. And, and the way I did it, it was just like, I was just personable, and I in what I started to create after that was, how do I become the best listing agent in LA? What do I have to do to become the best listing agent in LA? So that was really my, my mindset going forward is? How do I create? You know, a great listing, right, so what does that involve? And how do I also, so my next prospect, how I just transformed this property, sold it for record price, you know, you know, you know, shortly that Mark is on the market for six months, I sold it in a weekend, you know, so I started to, to, to create those marketing pieces, to help me get the next listing and the next listing and the next listing, and I started just to just really hone in on my listing skills, and my negotiation skills and my sales skills to really go from expired to sold, you know, and I have, I have, like, you know, like 15 now of case studies of these houses that were once on the market, I transformed them, and I was able to get them sold.

D.J. Paris 38:47
You know, that’s, that’s such a great approach, this idea of sort of what we would maybe call story selling this idea of, hey, let me tell you about this previous thing, versus, here’s why I’m the best choice, which I’m sure you do have that as part of your pitch as well of like, here’s what I’m going to do for you, here’s the XY and Z of what I’m going to do. But let me tell you about this last property I just worked on, here’s what I did to that, here’s the results. And you know, you’re sort of sharing that, that whole journey to somebody and that’s a very powerful approach that I suspect a lot of agents don’t think that way. It’s more like hey, if you look at my reputation, if you look at what I what I do in general, I’m a big deal, you know, without saying I’m a big deal, whereas you’re telling very specific stories of previous experiences you have and that is it’s a very unique approach actually, I think that’s that’s quite quite smart and obviously, is started resonating with these with these expireds and honestly,

Paul Salazar 39:45
like, because of expireds like that’s what helped me grow my business like it’s because of expireds because you know, from there, you hold open houses you find buyers from there you go door, knock the neighborhood from there, you start just started Little by little start building your business. And you know, like, again, I think 60% of my business right now is still expired still new business because I don’t have enough old business to get repeat clients. I don’t I don’t I don’t have the the like the luxury of being like, Hey, Paul, you sold my property two years ago, I want to buy something like I rarely get those calls maybe two or three times a year. Obviously, as I grow my business, I’m getting more and more of those calls. But I still cannot rely on that I still rely on circle dialing on door knocking on sending mailers on calling expireds and doing open houses.

D.J. Paris 40:37
Let’s talk about door knocking, because so few of our guests on, I’ve had a few guests that have that have talked about door knocking I suspect more more have done it, maybe just don’t talk about it. But that is also, I think, a very courageous thing to do. And it’s very difficult. So as you you know, tell us your approach for door knocking just, you know, are you are you door knocking in neighborhoods where you just or you’re currently selling a property or just sold a property? Oh, by the way, I just, you know, I helped your neighbor down the street, just wanted to introduce myself that kind of thing, or how did you go about doing that?

Paul Salazar 41:11
Well, I have a geo form, right. So here here in Venice, in the in the west side of Venice Beach, I have like a you know, like a 500 You know, home, you know, community that I’m constantly working on. Right? So that’s, that’s how I started door knocking, right. And again, this is all from Tom Ferry Mary jet, saying, Hey, you have to have a, you have to have four lead pillars. One is you know, for so when I first started coaching with them, it was geo farm expireds open houses, and then my past clients, which is very, very little, right. So so, you know, door knocking to me is the most effective way of prospecting, hands down. Wow, it can’t be more effective than calling expireds more it’s it just takes a lot of time and effort and energy. And that’s why people don’t do it. Because it’s like, you have to go out there you have to have like a marketing piece. You have to go and doorknob. It’s like it’s a lot of time and effort. You know, cold calling is a little bit easier. You’re at home, you could be in your PJs, you could just you know, get out of bed and do it right. But when your door knocking, you have to you know, I gotta say we got to look good. I look presentable. I gotta I gotta understand the market in this little area. But, you know, I’ve, from one of my door knocking deals is actually doing COVID. Right, where I couldn’t actually door knock, but I was still passing out flyers. And if somebody was out in the front of the door, I was, you know, like, if they’re out in the yard, I would talk to them. So funny story is like, I I wanted to start, I wanted to get into selling new developments. Because Santiago Araunah, who was one of the biggest agents in the nation, he’s here in Brentwood. Actually, you know, he actually interviewed me when I first came to LA and Oh, nine, he didn’t hire me. But he’s a great agent, you know, like, he like I always look up to him, because he’s kind of like me, like, he’s a, you know, Latin guy like me, he came from nothing. And he’s built an amazing business. I mean, he’s, he’s a freaking baller, right? But he, he built his business on door knocking. And, and he found a lot of tear downs. And he was able to sell those to developers. And then the developer built a 20 3040 $50 million house, and now he’s selling those houses, right. So that’s another great way of getting the luxury space, if you’re in an area where there’s a lot of tear downs and development opportunities, right, is to start, you know, door knocking those houses, finding those sellers, finding the the developers, which is super easy, right. So that was one of my first development deals a few years ago, was during COVID. Walking around in my geo farm, I knew I picked this geo farm because it had a lot of tear down potential. And a tear down is going to be three deals, three sides, right? You rep the seller who’s selling the development opportunity, you rep the developer, and then you rep the developer one, they sell it in a good chance that you get a lead out of it, or a buyer and you double ended so there’s possibly 244 sides and one one deal there. Right? So there’s a really, you know, really, you know, good chance that you can make some good money on these on these tear downs. So anyway, so I was doing walking, I met the the the older couple that were super sweet. They knew nothing about real estate at all. Their father just had passed away. So it was it was a trust sell. They had a they had to pay no capital gains. So it was perfect for them. They were going to cash out. I found a great developer that I now have sold multiple deals to. And you know, and that’s how I kind of started right now selling brand new developments was was just by door knocking these houses.

D.J. Paris 44:41
And this idea of cold calling developers not to hey, I want to rep your next project which of course every realtor would want that too. But you’re saying hey, I’ve got a deal for you essentially not not a deal. I’ve got a transaction possibly for you. Not a deal isn’t like I’ve got special offer for you. But I’ve got this property that that you might be interested in Mr. And Mrs. Developer. I’ve never heard of anybody doing that. I don’t know why that has never been talked about that is a brilliant approach to giving providing value to a developer, to which they’re like, hey, this guy’s great. He’s given us business. We’re gonna use them for, you know, maybe other things we’re doing.

Paul Salazar 45:22
Yeah, for sure. And I think, my pitch to these, the sellers that own these tear downs, and there’s not all properties are going to be considered tear downs, you know, sure. I always look out for my clients, no matter what I always look out, like, if I was them, what would I do? Right? There’s some houses that you can slap some paint on, it changed some countertops. And we’ll talk about that a little bit later on. Because I also specialize in like, re, like refurbishing a house, you know, redoing a house, and selling it to an end user, right? But But there’s certain houses that you can’t do that it’s either too small, or it needs too much work. And it’s a perfect teardown, right, like the developer is going to pay more than an end user, right? So so what my pitches to these to the sellers is that I’m going to create an offering memorandum and an OM right. And that’s not really used for for residential brokers, they don’t really understand what that means that that’s for for like commercial agents, you know, that’s our industrial buildings, or office and retail or, you know, other kind of commercial, real estate. So what I do is that I create it with my team, like a 1520, page, PDF, and it outlines, right, this is what we’re selling. This is what you know, what we’re asking, you know, this is, you know, what the what the land, you know, price per square foot, because we don’t look at price per square foot for the house, we look at the price per square foot for the land, we sell them comps of other other land cells that are similar to this in the area. We also saw on comps of what a new development will sell for in the area, we also show them what they can build, per the under built report, which is a company here in the area that can tell me how big of a house I can build on it. And then I email it to developers. And then they’ll say, give me a call. I said, give me a call. And now they they trust me even more, because I created this great marketing piece that took me three hours. And they trust me like this guy’s the real deal, right? And so I start calling these developers, I said, Hey, and it’s so easy to find developers. So there’s no excuse for anybody not to find developer, all you do is you go on the MLS, you find out all the new developments that are sold. You look at public records, you saw who sold them. If it’s an LLC, you look up the LLC, you look at the manager, you find them online, they have a website, you give them a call, it literally takes five minutes, right? Yeah, it’s super, super easy. So that’s how it started. And I luckily sold it to a great developer who I have a great relationship now. And now I’ve already sold them a few other properties that are now being built. And that house, I sold it originally teardown for 1.6 million, so I double that. And then we sold it two months ago for 4.2 million. And, and we put a big sign in front of the house as as they were building it, you know, as they were building the whole house a huge sign a massive sign with a QR code to like a website. And I got I got a buyer lead that I sold another house for 3.1 million, I got other leads that I’m working on right now. So it’s like, every single listing should give you two or three deals. At the minimum one deal. And if you really know how to maximize it, two or three deals. So that’s why I really focus on on on getting listings.

D.J. Paris 48:35
How many other agents do you know who prospect developers with with opportunities like that you put together? I’m curious if that’s a common practice. And if it is, I’m curious on how putting together that 1520 page PDF with literally step by step of like, here’s all the work we’ve done, here’s the options for what you can do mister missus developer. And here’s what we think, you know, estimated profit might might be how common is that? Are you like the only guy really doing that? Is that your sort of secret sauce? Or do you feel like other people are putting together similar packages?

Paul Salazar 49:12
I was it’s not a secret anymore. But But I don’t think anyone else is doing it. You know, again, I really pride myself in being detail oriented. And creating really nice marketing pieces like that. That’s my thing. Like I I really want to have a nice brand. So if you go to my, to my website, it’s very clean. If you look at my at my Instagram profile, I try it’s getting better and better. Right? It’s not easy to like have a nice, clean, bold and sophisticated look. But that’s that’s what we’re trying to build here. But I don’t know anybody else that’s that’s doing that. There are a lot of agents that sell a lot of developments and they’re there and they’re doing this right. And the other way of getting these deals is by sending letters So like, I would drive around a whole area with my assistant, and I will pick out, tear down, tear down, we write the address, we put it on an Excel file. And now we send handwritten envelopes. And we send them a letter, I just close it. I’m actually under contract on a deal right now from a letter that I sent three months ago, and they call me Hey, I got your letter, do you still have that buyer? I’m like, Yes, I do. I put the deal together. And now we’re under contract for another development deal. Right? So not only door knocking, or cold calling these these tear downs, but also sending letters works.

D.J. Paris 50:30
I love that you’re doing all of the things that you would assume a luxury agent probably doesn’t have to do, right? Most luxury agents I know are not calling fizz Bo’s expireds, they’re not cold calling developers. They’re not writing, you know, letters. Or maybe they are and maybe they’re just not telling us on our show. But I appreciate that, that you weren’t born into this sort of luxury business, you really built it, you bootstrapped it and and you you saved up enough money so that you could you could explore that. And, and I just go i Those are the best stories, I think, the so let’s talk about because again, so many of our agents are like, okay, I can start doing some of those things. But everybody wants to be a luxury agent. You know, what, what’s the major difference you found? Because you do 20 plus million dollar properties as well. What’s the major difference between working with you know, a seller of a, you know, let’s say a million dollar property or, you know, in LA, of course, the like you said, everything’s kind of, or at least in the area you service is kind of a million dollars, even the smallest properties? What’s the difference between working on the smaller property side to the ultra high net worth side? Are the are the needs? And the goals basically the same? Or is it is it kind of a different world?

Paul Salazar 51:51
I mean, I think at the core, it’s the same thing, somebody wants to find a home. Right? So so in that, in that respect, there’s there’s going to be an emotional attachment to selling real estate, either in high end, or in a lower price point, right? Sure. I think the only difference is, is that when you’re selling real estate here, a lot of the times they have a business manager, who can make things very difficult a lawyer, writer. And so they have, by the

D.J. Paris 52:20
way, are not emotionally involved in the property that a buyer or a seller might be there emotionally involved in keeping their their position, which their position is, is to very thoroughly review the financial component of this transaction, which I’m assuming is a big deal be so you not only have to win over the emotional side of the buyer or seller, but you also have to win over sort of the more empirical part, the objective part of dealing with now this team, which those are, those are two different very different masters to serve, I imagine.

Paul Salazar 52:51
Yeah. Yeah. And, and I think most of the people that I service here in LA, not everybody, but most of them are just sophisticated. And they, they, they’re, they’re educated. And they’re they’re business owners, they’re very smart people, right? So they may know, they may know about the property more than you do. Like, you know, if you’re showing them property, they may have done all the research. So you have to be prepared a lot more than I was prepared. When I was working in Rancho Cucamonga. I’m not saying you don’t have to be prepared selling real estate in a smaller price point. But all I’m saying is that over here, I feel like you have to be more prepared, because they are going to ask you tough questions. And they and they’re going to expect that you know that they they’re going to expect the you know, the market, they you know, the players that you know about the house, all that stuff. So I think that’s the biggest difference. And then the other thing is, is when you’re listing a property, I feel that, you know, I spend easily, you know, five to $6,000 per listing, before it’s even on the market. You know, we’re spending, you know, a grant that two grand on a photographer, same for a videographer or floor plan, I do everything like we do Instagram ads, or the YouTube ads, we do Google ads for our listings, we want to be the best of the best, right? And that’s how I this is, this is my plan to get to the next level. Like I really want to start growing my business to the next level. I’m not there yet. And I have a long way to go. But I know that if I keep doing this, I will get there because people are going to start noticing that I really take care of you. I’m going to look out for you. And I’m going to get you top dollar or I will get you the best price if I’m repping you as a buyer’s agent.

D.J. Paris 54:42
Yeah, it’s so funny to hear you hear somebody say I’ve sold 600 million in real estate. I’m not quite there yet. I’m just just but that’s that’s the motor that you have that keeps you going 600 million is is just where you’re at today. It isn’t necessarily where you want to be tomorrow. But it’s So funny to hear that that, really, it seems like your your entire career has been so much of put the blinders on do the hard things that are maybe a little scary and uncomfortable, but are healthy, and things that other agents aren’t willing to do like door knocking. I mean, gosh, I would bet less than 1% of agents have ever door knock, or made a cold call, quite honestly. You know, I don’t I don’t think people leave and do that as much anymore. And yet, here’s here’s somebody, you know, like you who who still does it. And, and that is, um, you would think a luxury agent wouldn’t be going door to door, you know, we sort of have our own, you know, misconceptions about what that even means. But it is one of those rare arts, you know, this door knocking and letter writing that, you know, people really appreciate if done the right way. It’s it’s absolutely a lost art and is obviously been part of the secret. Not secret, but part of the reason for your, for your ascent. And so let’s let’s talk about, you know, I’m sure there’s people that reach out to you that goes, I want to break into the luxury market. What What are your thoughts on that? I see, I always think most agents shouldn’t aspire to that unless they want to up their game, like you were saying, now dealing with buyers and sellers who maybe are a bit more sophisticated, maybe are just more business focused, like you said, a lot of business owners, a lot of people who have been successful in their careers, and just have a level of sophistication that, you know, maybe people at lower price points, you know, just don’t have or aren’t as interested in. And so, you know, you do have to appeal to that sort of those qualities of these of these more sophisticated buyers and sellers. You know, what would your advice be to somebody that says, I want to sell $20 million homes just like you

Paul Salazar 56:51
I you know, what, I think people glamorize because of what’s on TV sell Sharon said and Million Dollar Listing and they think it’s just like, so easy. When you go into a luxury market, the competition is at a different level. This is why I have to up my game. Like, the only reason why I’m doing is because when I lose a listing, I I’m like, Alright, why did I lose that listing? What can I do better? Now I’m adding another piece to my arsenal, little by little right. So, you know, being part of the Tom Ferry organization, I see people in much smaller markets selling $500,000 houses that they’re making 10 times more than me, you know, so I think for an agent, you got to think about is it about is it about the glamour of selling luxury real estate or is about the money because you can make a you can make more money selling $500,000 houses with, you know, obviously more units than selling luxury property and selling just, you know, five or you know, or 10 listings or sales per year,

D.J. Paris 57:53
you know, not having to spend 5000 plus per listing the market.

Paul Salazar 57:57
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I again, like if your dream, like, for me, my dream was never to sell luxury real estate like that. I never, you know, got into real estate to be in Beverly Hills, it just kind of fell into my lap, right? My mom kind of pushed me my girlfriend was living here. I got the, you know, I got the assistant position with with Chad Hilton and Hyland, so everything kind of, you know, kind of just, you know, like, like, the road kind of led me there. Right? But it wasn’t like, I was like, I want to sell, you know, 20 monopolistic so that that now I do, right. But But before that, you know, it wasn’t really a big deal for those agents that really, really want to get into luxury real estate because they they love those kinds of houses, they want to work with those kinds of people. That’s great. You should you should do it. I think joining a team is obviously I think, you know, having a mentor joining a team should be the first thing you do 100% You have to learn about how you know what it takes to be a player, learn the players learn the area, learn the markets, who are the buyers who are the sellers, right. And then after that create a plan. You know, how am I going to get you know, open houses is a great way of finding buyers right. You know, cold calling door knocking I mean, there’s so many stories out there. Santiago Irana door knock Brentwood for years. He’s killing it. You know, the guys on Bhandar listing, you know, Parnes, you know, the Bonsu brothers, they also door knock and Bel Air. So there’s so many stories of people that are not even from LA. And they want to do luxury real estate but they but they grinded their way in. You know, you gotta grind your way and it’s super, super competitive. So if you got he got what it takes, and you’re in your competitive and you’re willing to grind, then go ahead and do it. Why not? I mean, anybody can do it. I did it. And everybody, you know, a lot of other people did it too.

D.J. Paris 59:50
Well, I think that’s really such an inspiring message. If we sort of look back at your entire career. Yes, there were opportunities that allowed you to get introduced to different types of audiences that you now work with. But nothing was handed to you at all. You You made your own luck by doing the things that maybe other agents wouldn’t be willing to do, even from starting, you know, with sending out 10,000 emails to other agents. And by the way, not being a guy who’s a self promoter, right, that is something you would think maybe a self promoter or schmoozer would want to do, because it’s a good networking sort of exercise. You were just like, I need to find a mentor here. And and so you earnestly send out all these messages. And then you know, everything, you continue to do things like that, throughout your entire career and continue to do it today. It’s not like oh, now it’s just, I just get calls all day from developers and from luxury, you know, buyers and sellers. You’re still drumming up all this business on your own. And I think that’s just a great a great place to sort of wrap up for today because it is like, it’s like reminds me of that old. This ancient, I think it’s a Zen saying I can’t remember exactly where it comes from. So I apologize if I’m getting this wrong, but but the expression is a good one, which is Before enlightenment, chop wood carry water, after enlightenment, chop wood carry water. You just gotta keep keep doing the, you know, the hard things. Because that’s what keeps everything going. It’s not like you, you don’t feel like you’ve arrived, so to speak, because you’re still doing the same exact things. And that’s oddly, but but also absolutely makes sense of why your continued to be successful. And who knows, maybe one day it’ll all just come come into you without without that much effort. But it’s working for you. And it’s a great reminder of just practicing the fundamentals and consistently applying those just the same way. We built our podcast here. It wasn’t any one interview that got us, you know, it Yeah, it’s just just consistency and talking to people like yourself, and what you what you shared was really super inspiring today. So I hope, I don’t even hope I know our audience has received a tremendous amount of benefit for any agents out there who might be might have clients that are moving to, you know, to the more exclusive areas of LA in the suburbs, and are looking, you know, maybe they don’t service that particular area, maybe they’re in a different state, but they have clients who maybe have second, third, fourth homes, and they maybe want to partner with a top agent like yourself, or if there’s anyone who is in the Beverly Hills and surrounding areas who’s a buyer or seller investor developer or renter who wants to work with you directly, you know, what’s the best way that one of our listeners could reach out to you

Paul Salazar 1:02:43
call me text me email me Instagram, it like I, I check all those things. So like my cell phone 310-387-1976 Call me shoot me a text, email Paul at Paul Salazar group.com. Instagram at Paul Sallows our group, so very easy to get in touch with me. I’ve actually, you know, been, you know, I’ve had people reach out to me to ask for advice. I always you know, you know, give them a you know, a few minutes of my time to because I listen, I respect that, you know, I was there at one point. And I respect people that like, go out there and reach out and like, you know, want to ask for advice. I’ve actually given like, there’s a kid in high school that sent me a long email saying, He wants me to mentor him, I brought him to my open house. Now he helps me out with things. It’s like it when you put yourself out there, the world is gonna give you gifts, you know, and, and I think a lot of people don’t put themselves out there because it’s, it feels vulnerable. You got to get uncomfortable, you got to be durable. And the more vulnerable you get, the more uncomfortable you get, the more difficult things you do, the more you start to feel like empowered by yourself like, well, I can do that. You know, I think that’s probably my biggest tip for any listener here is just start doing small things every single day, that are that are difficult, you know, taking a cold shower in the morning, waking up early, working out in the morning, making a you know, one cold call door knocking one door, you know, going out and just meeting somebody striking up a conversation, and you start to realize that wow, why am I even worried about that? Why was I scared about that, you know, there’s that we just have these these these fears? Because you know, we have this it’s a human condition, right? Sure. But but once you get over this, then you start to get more empowered and you start to do more and more difficult things like I still have a lot of things that I want to do that are that are difficult, that I’m still you know, getting to little by little

D.J. Paris 1:04:44
cold showers is such a great example of a small thing that any anybody can try. And it is shockingly difficult. It’s more difficult than you think it’s going to be thinking about it now. It’s actually two times harder than what you’re even thinking And if you can, if you I want everybody to try this tomorrow and it’s not because having a cold shower in and of itself is anything, it’s it’s the idea of it. And people say there’s some health benefits whatever that that may or may not be. But what there definitely is a benefit is you if you can make it 30 seconds, 60 seconds and complete it you will feel as much jubilation as if you just ran a marathon because it is that difficult. And that is an easy win. It’s not an easy win. It’s a very difficult win. If you can do that daily. I promise. Just do it. Try it once tomorrow try to make it 10 seconds on ice cold all the way to cold. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s tough. It’s I did it for about a year, I need to get back into it. I did it many years ago, took me months to find the courage to do it. Months and months and months. It sounds silly. I know I’m just talking about this one specific thing. But it’s a something that you will again, you will feel unbelievable. As you walk out of that show, you’ll be like, I just did something crazy art. And you’re right then other things, which maybe aren’t quite as difficult. Don’t seem as bad as as they did before. So oh my gosh, what a great thing. So do hard things, people that are healthy, do hard things that are healthy. And Paul, what a great, great place to wrap up. So everyone go please, Paul’s a wonderful guy, reach out to him if you need some assistance. Also, if you have clients that are moving to the Southern California, talk to Paul, he wants he wants to chat with you. And he certainly is a great realtor to have in your in your database. And Paul, on behalf of our audience, thank you so much for coming on our show. We this is such a such a pleasure to have you. And if I fiber make it out to to LA I haven’t been there in many years, I need to come back. I want to say hi to you in person. And yeah, and see you in action dinner. That would be fun. And on behalf of Paul and myself, we want to thank everyone for making it to the end of the episode. Please do us to do us one favor. This hasn’t been an amazing episode, I want everybody to think of one other realtor that needs to hear what Paul had to say. And just send them a link to our either this episode or our website, which is keeping it real pod.com You will help somebody by sending this to some struggling agent in your office. Or maybe you know another agent from a different office that you know that could use, you know, this sort of this sort of past sort of pep talk from somebody who started with really no major help and built this incredible career and is really just getting started. And it’ll be inspiring to to everybody else. He’ll be actually helping people do that. And you’re helping us as well. So please send a link to this episode. Other than that, Paul, I am so excited to continue to watch your journey. And thank you so much for being on the podcast and we’ll see everybody on the next episode. Thanks, Paul. Thank you, Jay. Appreciate it.

Lindsay Barton Barrett goes back to the beginning of her career as a real estate agent and describes her transition from a real estate attorney. Lindsay explains how how she built her business from scratch and how does she get to referrals. Next, Lindsay talks about how to build relationships with developers and describes how she gained the trust of real estate developers. Lindsay also discusses how is she educating her clients to keep her business going today when the rates ae going up and the market is shifting. Last, Lindsay provides advise for realtors on how to build and maintain relationships and how she keeps in touch with her clients.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Lindsay Barton Barrett can be reached at [email protected].

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
Have you ever wondered how developers choose realtors to work on their projects? Well, we’re going to talk about that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show and in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with top producer Lindsey Barton barrette. Before we get to Lindsay, just a couple of quick reminders of will as always a reminder to me to thank you for listening and supporting our show. Thank you for checking out what our sponsors offer. Thank you for continuing to listen and as most importantly, thank you for telling a friend. Think of one other realtor that has not heard of our show that could benefit maybe somebody that wants to work with developers, but hasn’t quite figured out how to crack that code which we’re going to be talking about today and send them a link over to our show. You can always go directly to our website keeping it real pod.com or any place you can find podcasts just search for keeping it real and hit that subscribe button. And also if you’d like to leave us a review that would be fantastic as well especially if you’re on like Apple podcasts or Spotify, Stitcher, wherever. Let us know what you think of the show. We read all your reviews and we take your suggestions into account. But anyway, enough about me and other show. Let’s get to the main event my conversation with Lindsey Barton Barrett.

Today our guest is Lindsey Barton burette from Douglas Elliman in New York City specifically Brooklyn, although she works all of Manhattan, but let me tell you more about Lindsay now veteran New York City broker Lindsey Barton barrette sets herself apart in a crowded field with an astute advisory approach. She has over two decades of award winning experience and an unblemished reputation among her fellow agents. She’s closed and pause for dramatic effect $1 billion in total transactions throughout her career and she and her team have sold four of the six most expensive homes in Brooklyn’s history. Lindsay is methodical and prepared and thanks to her former career as a real estate attorney at a prominent New York firm clients can trust that every step of the process is buttoned up from start to finish. The result of Lindsay is unwavering professionalism isn’t only seen in her steady stream of top producer awards and accolades, but also in the legions of fiercely loyal clients and the extensive referral business she’s cultivated over the years. In addition to assisting buyers and sellers in Manhattan and Brooklyn, with a specialty in brownstone Brooklyn neighborhoods. She’s worked directly with the city’s leading developers. To learn more about Lindsay, please visit her website, Lindsey Barton Barrette team.com And that’s Lindsay with an A y. But don’t worry, you’re not going to have to type it in. We have a link for that right in our show notes. But please do visit it and see what somebody who is at the very very top of the mountain in real estate, what their website looks like. It’s impressive. It’s awesome. It’s elegant. Anyway, Lindsay, welcome to the show. We’re so excited to have you.

Lindsay Barton Barrett 4:36
Thank you so much. I’m happy to be here.

D.J. Paris 4:39
We are very happy to Lindsay and I were just talking about some some other things prior to the show, not real estate related. So I’m really excited to learn more about your your path and progress and journey through real estate but I’d love to start all the way at the beginning because I know in your previous career you are a real estate attorney Well, but how did you get involved in real estate to begin with,

Lindsay Barton Barrett 5:05
I would say probably goes back a little before that I grew up in Seattle. And my, my dad was a war lots of hats over the years, but was involved in real estate development and construction a little bit at certain points. And in the hotel business as well. And that just it, it always interested me, because it covers so much ground, it’s really personal, yet also tangible. And so I was, I was intrigued by it from an early age, honestly, the construction part of it, all of that, and then I went to law school, and I went to Columbia, which is a very traditional law school approach, you know, think Paper Chase, you know, we don’t teach you to be a lawyer, we teach you to think like a lawyer. And so it was very theoretical in certain ways. And there was not a lot of specific sort of, there was not, there were not a lot of specific classes that related to practice areas necessarily offered, including real estate. And maybe there was, maybe I missed it. But I didn’t come out knowing that that was what I wanted to do. But I knew that I was interested in real estate. And so I worked as a corporate attorney briefly. And when I would do diligence on transactions, you know, m&a transactions, or something, I was still continued to gravitate to the real estate piece of it. So I ended up laterally between two big firms in Manhattan and moved to another firm where I was in a real estate, dedicated practice. And I really, I was, I loved it, I loved the pieces of the transactions. But I didn’t love the role that I was playing in transactions. I, I think they’re amazing lawyers. But often a lawyer’s job is to pinpoint all the potential pitfalls in a transaction, instead of focusing on keeping parties together and keeping parties moving forward. And I would work on big transactions where there were both commercial real estate brokers and investment bankers on the deals, and just sitting on conference calls or sitting in the room, I would look at what they were doing, and think that’s what I want to be doing. I want to be building things and putting deals together and helping really smart people who know what they want to do get together and do it in a profitable and, you know, they know what they’re doing, you know, our clients really knew what they were doing. And so I often felt that the lawyers were just bringing up the same points every single time that had been resolved in the last iteration of this document. And I just didn’t, I didn’t like the role that I was playing. And it may have been a function of being in a big firm, versus being at a smaller firm. But ultimately, I just felt like between not seeing myself as a New York lawyer, and the various sort of the various limitations that that can present in terms of hours worked and all of those things. I it just became clear to me that I wanted something different in my role and in my, in my hours and all of that and so I and then I bought an apartment with a tiny bit of money. I put 5% down I think on a condo in the East Village, it

D.J. Paris 9:06
which by the way, which by the way, 5% down on a condo in the East Village is still a tremendous downpayment. It was a long time

Lindsay Barton Barrett 9:15
ago, but yes, yes, it was. And so I you know, I put 5% down, I bought a condo in the East Village and then over the years, you know, and that was one thing that I really that has also been a driver for me of what I do is that I do have a very sort of quintessential real estate escalation story of I bought the condo in the East Village turned around and bought a co op in Cobble Hill turned around and bought a relatively you know, for the time and for New York and expensive townhouse that ultimately we got renovated and I sold it this past year for a significant multiple of a The condo in the East Village in 2000, but also what we bought it for. So it really enabled me to do this job, I was able to take out a home equity line of credit, so I had something to fall back on. And so real estate has actually really kind of done for me what I think it does for a lot of people. But what I think a lot of people don’t really believe happens anymore. So that’s sort of my backstory.

D.J. Paris 10:26
Yeah, and there was really a lot there. I just want to unpack a couple of things. Number one, I want to honor you for the courage to walk away from a legal career that you worked. Well, number one, Columbia is not one of the worst law schools in the country. It’s actually one of the very top and that I’m sure that’s how you, of course, how you got to New York. Did you also do your undergraduate in New York as well? Or did you just end up there for law school,

Lindsay Barton Barrett 10:53
I was in upstate New York, I went to Cornell undergrad. So I went to I went to great schools, you know, no complaints here, you know, but it just it this, it, it was a different path. But it brought me to where I am now.

D.J. Paris 11:08
It’s Was it difficult to walk away from working so hard to pass the bar and and of course work in in corporate, you know, the corporate law world, and then to be an m&a activity, mergers and acquisitions and then say, you know, I really, this isn’t my I’m, I don’t want to bill, you know, 1000 hours a year anymore, or whatever, the whatever lawyers are billing these days. Yeah, I know, it’s always a staggering, staggering number. And sort of trading hours for dollars is really what attorneys do, which is why they work so much. Was that,

Lindsay Barton Barrett 11:40
especially, um, it was hardest for my mom, I would say, Sure. My mom was not happy about the decision. What are you doing with your life? Yes, um, and I should be really nice to my mom right now. She’s not doing great, but I she was not happy that I quit my job. Um, it was scary. It was definitely scary. Um, and you know, it’s true, you need a real sort of, you need something to fall back on. And I, I genuinely got that exclusively by doing a home equity line of credit, where I put my job taking that money and knowing that I had it, and then leaving. And so it was definitely scary. I felt like I had maybe one client, maybe two, they were sort of friends that graciously trusted me with their home purchase or home search. I think one of them ended up buying and one of them didn’t. And then otherwise, I really, you know, I think people look at me and go, Oh, you’ve had all these like, lawyers, lawyers are very conservative. I have a lot of law school friends who still rent in New York City, and I graduated from law school 23 years ago. So, you know, lawyers turned out not to necessarily be my sort of go to client base, either. And when I when I left, I knew I didn’t really know what I was doing entirely. So I was very nervous to try to tap that resource and mess it up. And so I didn’t sort of dive back into the law firm world to try to get clients because when you first become a, an agent, your job is getting clients not doing your job. So yeah, so I, I was nervous, obviously, I had a paycheck. And at that point, I had a mortgage. And, but I was excited about it. And I felt like I had the cushion. And I could give it time. And if after six months, it didn’t work out. I will move on. But fortunately it did. It did. I landed in a good place. I had a great support system in terms of my manager and people that I worked with. And you know, I at the time, I was engaged. And then ultimately, my husband was supportive. And now he’s not my husband anymore. And so yeah, I was able to do it. It was scary. But I was really fortunate in kind of, I don’t know why managed to hit the ground running and then just build from there and get referrals from the people that I worked with. So

D.J. Paris 14:37
how did so since you didn’t tap the hey, my friends at the law firm I was at or certainly people who know me in my field, as you were saying, because I was thinking, Oh, this is so brilliant, because she’s all of her clients will be the attorneys. She knows. Yeah. And that turns out, but you you served my question by saying that is not what happened. So I’m actually really interested in and yes, I understand You know, having this previous career that you’d worked so hard for, obviously, you can fall back could have fall back fell back onto that. Very, I’m sure very easily. So that that is there’s some comfort there, I’m sure. But, you know, I don’t know, you know, when you were when you were, you know, practicing law, I don’t know, if you were out there securing clients and going out and sort of shaking the hands and getting business or if more things were assigned to you, but But now, you know, now you’re on your own, you’re in charge of every wearing every hat for the for the business, and also learning how to how to actually be a decent realtor. Of course, you have become an beyond excellent realtor now, but was, what was it like in those first six months? You know, how did you secure you had one friend that turned out to to be a buyer? You know, the other one didn’t? And then it sounded like, you know, you were you were on your own trying to drum up business? How did you do that back then, if you don’t mind sharing?

Lindsay Barton Barrett 15:55
Um, you know, it’s funny, I think back and I, in some ways, I still don’t totally know, I don’t remember. And I will also say, and we get this from agents all over the country. Price points in New York are quite high, you know, and the reality was, at the time, in order to sort of level my real estate salary salary to where my law firm had been, I think I figured out pretty quickly that I needed to sell something like $8 million. And at the time, you know, maybe it ended probably was a little more. I hate to say this, like, that’s not that hard to do in New York. And so even in 2002, I guess. And so my first sale, admittedly, was a million dollar sale, which was a big deal. It was a crappy loft in Tribeca. And then I had a cup, I did what Pete young brokers do, I worked, I worked to open houses for senior brokers for clients. That was probably my second sale was a pretty good sale. Also, I think over a million dollars from somebody that I met at an at an open house. And then I definitely I worked at Corcoran at the time, and there was a place on the website that you could go in and say this is what I’m looking for. And I think that was my third sale. And that was probably a $350,000, co op. And it sort of I mean, and then there were a couple of associates, who I knew at my law firm who referred me to friends. And so sometimes it wasn’t the lawyers, but it was friends of lawyers. And honestly, it just, it went from there. And I was fortunate to have one or two listings early on. And that was really where I got buyers, it and in 2002 people buying a $400,000 apartment, often didn’t that didn’t we’re not working with brokers. And so there were a lot of direct people. And then it you know, I don’t remember entirely, but it just it did start to it starts to snowball. And I remember very early on in my career, a woman in my office was sort of giving this motivational talk and talk about it was sort of like a fence the family tree or like the anatomy of a transaction and more so of the referral network. And she talked about how she sold very inexpensive studio to this actor in New York. And then he introduced her to this person, and they introduced her to these two people, and how from this one like $200,000 Studio sale, she ended up doing like $15 million of business. So it’s really, it’s really acknowledging that and recognizing that there’s always an opportunity, but there’s also a good way to do that and a and sort of an obnoxious way to do that. And so I think it’s finding that middle ground and staying in front of people. Obviously, I’m a huge proponent, and it’s this is a little more do as I say not as I do, because I don’t always get around to it, but newsletters I think are probably the single best source of clients because they’re also free. You know, mailers are expensive, like running an ad in New York Magazine is really expensive. Newsletters are free and you control the content and you control the presentation and you know Up to this day, anytime we send out a newsletter, we get some response, usually some referral.

D.J. Paris 20:07
Yeah, I used to I did a talk once at a conference. That was something I can’t remember the exact title. But it was said, nobody wants to read your newsletter. But that’s not the point. And I talked about how whether or not people read the actual content of the newsletter, is is largely irrelevant, although it’s obviously good to have good content. And hopefully, some some of the people that you send it to might actually read some of the articles, but just this idea from a branding perspective of, hey, this is what I do. Here’s here’s, you know, a little bit of acknowledgement that I know what’s going on in the market. I put this together, I’m sending it out. And you know, it’s always good to stay, if not front of mind back of mine from for your clients. And you’re absolutely right, that consistency does in fact, work. I was thinking about this, like I, you know, I know you work with a lot of new, well, you work with developers, you work with a lot of new developments, I actually was just thinking, so I purchased in a new development a couple year and a half ago. And so I’ve been there a year and yeah, year and a half, a little bit more than a year and a half. And I have not received any communication from any other realtors. You know, usually you start getting postcards and things. And I’m, I understand that, on the statistical side I am people who purchased it on my building probably aren’t going to purchase for the next or sell for the next I don’t know, five years, you know, who knows seven years, whatever it is. So I get it. There’s a long term play here if you want to start introducing, but you know, not one, there’s 45,000 realtors in the Chicagoland area, not one postcard from anyone going, Hey, congrats on your new purchase. By the way, you know, I would love to just learn more about you, I want to keep you updated on you know what’s going on with your place. Again, tons of opportunity, right to like build relationships. And that’s what you do really, really well is is build relationships. You were talking about this how how you know, your friend, one, one transaction, you know, for one person can lead to $15 million in production over time. Yeah, that is clearly the way that you’ve done it. But I wanted to ask you because you said something I thought was very interesting. You said there’s an obnoxious way to sort of build those relationships. And then there’s a way that that is, you know more, you know, gentle and, and non invasive. And do you mind sharing a little bit about how you think about, you know, maybe asking for a referral or maybe you don’t ask maybe you demonstrate value in a different way. But how do you do it in a way that’s most comfortable for you? I want to pause for a moment to talk about our episode sponsor are one of my favorite companies out there follow up boss. Now after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country for this podcast. Do you know which CRM is used by more than any other by our guests. Of course it is a follow up boss and let’s face it following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort. Do not take my word for it. Robert slack who runs the number one team in the US uses follow up boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 systems so you can keep your current tools and lead sources. Also, the best part they have seven day a week support so you’ll get the help that you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial which is twice as much time as they give everyone else and oh yeah, no credit card required. So you can try it risk free but only if you use this special link visit follow up boss.com forward slash real that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And now back to our episode.

Lindsay Barton Barrett 24:05
I definitely am one of those people who is I have a hard time asking for things honestly. They’re probably friends of mine who might say that’s not true. But I you know, I don’t like to be pushy, and I don’t like to be salesy. I remember my mom was not happy when I left my job. And my dad was said to me, you know, you’re really you really don’t have a salesman’s personality. And you know, what I said to him is I don’t feel like I’m going into sales. I’m not chasing people down on the street and saying, Do you want to buy an apartment? I’m, I’m fulfilling the need that they already have. They’re, they’re choosing to at least explore the possibility and I’m working in an advisory capacity. And I view myself as being a professional and not a salesperson. So I think that goes across the board, whether it’s how you’re trying to sell a property, or how you’re trying to sell yourself as a broker is, by and large, I try to be as valuable as possible to my clients so that, of course, they’ll refer me. I certainly have sort of, I guess, the typical call to action to kind of things in my newsletter of, you know, if anybody, if you’re looking, if anybody’s considering a real estate purchase, if you need any advice, call us. But beyond that, we don’t really every once in a while, you know, if I am talking to somebody I know really well. I will say something explicitly along the lines of hey, you know, we always really appreciate referrals. And of course, when I, when I get one, I try very hard to call that person right away. And I think it’s important. And, you know, this is a lesson I’ve learned from other people, but I think it’s I, I’ve learned it for myself to a referral is not about the sale, it’s about the referral. And so you can’t wait until somebody buys and they might not, but you want to, you want to encourage people to refer your business. So even if they refer you a crappy client, you can even call and say I really appreciate the referral, just seeing no, like, that’s not really necessarily the type of business that I do. I can find somebody to refer them to. But if you’re ever talking to someone like this isn’t a great referral for

D.J. Paris 26:45
me. Isn’t isn’t that what attorneys do as well, because attorneys get these calls all the time, because people think, oh, attorneys just can do everything and every specialty. And so this is very much often what happens with attorneys. We’re like, oh, I don’t do that. But my buddy does. And you know what? And nobody says to the attorney who who isn’t able to service that client? Well, gosh, I don’t even know why I called you. You can’t handle that. No, the person goes, Hey, you know what, I’m a specialist in this, but my buddy does this, I’m going to send you over to him or her. And so it really shouldn’t work any differently with with realtors, I think you’re right. There may be this fear of like, oh, no, they’re not going to refer me anyone else because I wasn’t able to help this person. But I think as long as you’re providing value, like you said, just passing it off to somebody who does do that. That’s I don’t see any negative to that at all.

Lindsay Barton Barrett 27:34
Yeah, and that’s exactly it, you want people to recognize you as their go to for anything real estate. And so I think to that end, it’s also really important to have a great referral network yourself. And so if you’re always getting referrals, you know, if people are always calling you who say, Okay, well, I’m looking at Park Slope, but I’m also looking at Montclair, New Jersey, it’s important to have someone in Montclair, New Jersey. And so you know, if you’re, if you don’t do rentals, you need to have a really good rental broker, I say this, again, do as I say, not as I do, because I’ve, I’ve searched for that. And it’s always a challenge, because that markets also changing quickly. And so sometimes your best rental brokers end up deciding, they also don’t want to do rentals. But I think it’s important to have a great referral network. You know, there’s the obvious ones, you gotta have a great lawyer got a great mortgage broker or several of the each, but you also need great referral brokers in other markets that you might cross over with.

D.J. Paris 28:49
Yeah, and again, that’s how attorney attorneys are very good at this, right. I think attorneys are almost better at referrals than any other profession I’m aware of. I mean, they just see, I always ask attorneys, like how do you get business and they’re like, Well, I get a lot of referrals from these different channels. And it is, it seems like so much more of a mystery and how to do it as a realtor. So I imagine with that background, you probably just are naturally more understanding of I do this. And I have this very specific focus, because that’s where I can provide them the most amount of value and I need to have this other almost team in place for anything that’s outside of those, those really strict boundaries because I’m just not going to be as effective as you know, the person down the street who that’s what they do. So that makes that makes so much sense. We talk about that a lot on the show, but I think it can’t probably be talked about enough this idea of having this really strong net, you know, referral network, which hopefully also is two way that comes Yeah, exactly. To you. Yeah, I wanted to ask about so, you know, you being in New York during of course the pandemic and seeing, you know, a lot of people sort of leaving the city because of course So, you know, New York had had a lot of publicity around, you know, COVID. And then the effects that it had you guys were basically sort of the epicenter of the United States, you know, part of COVID, at least at the beginning, and you saw a lot of uncertainty around the city, it seems like that’s changed. And so it seems like people are, are returning more, more so to the city and also to places like Brooklyn. Well, Brooklyn’s always been super cool and awesome. And I imagine, it hasn’t always been but it certainly over the last 2030 years, it’s really changed. But was that was that? Were you concerned at all during that time that Oh, my business might radically shift based on you know, the sort of uncontrollable, you know, sort of things going on in the world?

Lindsay Barton Barrett 30:42
Not for long. I definitely had that moment of just absolute panic that made no sense. You know, I remember very distinctly walking along the reservoir upstate with my kids, because we spent much of COVID at a at our house upstate, like many New Yorkers did. Near Woodstock, and I remember a moment of panic of, what am I going to do. And then really, over the course of the next couple of weeks, I was really focused on trying to get the deals done, that were kind of hanging in the balance. But it also really highlighted to me that real estate, selling residential real estate is a, everyone will always need to buy and sell. You know, and there, I think Barbara Corcoran, at some point said, you know, it’s always a broker’s market, whether it’s a buyer’s market or a seller’s market, if you’re a good broker, you should be selling because things are selling. That being said, I, you know, I, there’s been a lot of talk about all of this, because the market has changed. And I was having a conversation with someone for some sort of pretty well known publication, and it will remain really interesting conversation. And the reality is what you do need for a market as buyers, and if you have no buyers, you have no market. And so that was certainly a different, you know, and the market self correct. So if you don’t have buyers, at some point, you’re going to drop the price low enough where you have buyers, but that was certainly a fear at some point. But I, I don’t know if I’m just a little bit deep down, even though I don’t seem like it necessarily a little bit of a Pollyanna, that I believe that things are gonna work out. But I also I’ve lived in New York for 27 years, 25 years, excuse me. And New York is unlike, you know, I mean, New York is unlike any city, as is Chicago as is, you know, all of these sort of world capitals are unique, and they’re desirable, you know, they have so much to offer. And I will also say that I had a very selfish moment of going, people are really going to want to live in townhouses now. And that was absolutely the case. So yeah, there were certainly concerns, there’s there are always concerns as things change dramatically, like we’re going through right now, frankly, you know, uncertainty is difficult in any market. But I knew even if people left people would come to take their places. And I mean, we’ve already seen people who left during Cova come back. So it, you know, so so no, I was not very worried for very long, I knew that there would be a lot of adaptations, and there was a lot of talk about selling, you know, houses via FaceTime. And this and that, and I didn’t have I didn’t think that was going to last long either. And I think that’s largely the case. I mean, we’ve started we’ve done a few deals, sight unseen. Not many, certainly people who’ve done like a first tour, FaceTime, but you know, it’s a big purchase. And it’s, it’s personal. And I just, I didn’t think that there was going to be much duration of people buying from videos and stuff.

D.J. Paris 34:31
Yeah, and that seems to have kind of gone away at this point. Although what’s nice is for people that are able to do that and willing to do that it’s just much more normalized now. So even though we’re back to being in person, hopefully, that will not change, Although who knows, but at least that that that has been normalized, you know, throughout the last several years. So you do have people that are willing more willing to explore virtual Little conversations. So it’s a nice option that isn’t bizarre or weird, or, you know, it’s just been normalized. So I suspect that’s, that’s been good for agents who do have some clients who maybe are like, You know what, let’s just just show up with the FaceTime and let’s let’s do it virtually. I had a question, I have two questions, because you work with a lot of developers. And so one of the it’s funny, whenever we do episodes, of course, most of the brokers we have on the show are and I say broker, again, synonymous here, and where I’m from with realtor. So if I say broker, not everyone in the country doesn’t always know what that means. We’ll just please excuse my language. Well, that will be realtor. But anyway, a lot of the a lot of the realtors we have on the show, our top producers, almost all of them are, and a lot of them work in the luxury market. And that’s for people who don’t work in the luxury market. You know, that’s oftentimes something they feel like they should aspire to, is to being a luxury broker. But also developers, that’s the other one that people get really excited about, because it’s seen as this. I’ve arrived, if developers are now choosing me to represent their, you know, their developments, and of course, yeah, there’s a certain truth to that. How did you start to get involved with developers? What was it that allowed you to win over their trust in their business?

Lindsay Barton Barrett 36:20
Um, admittedly, in part, I, I started a development company, with my ex husband, so my ex husband was an architect. And I was, you know, I was when we talked about it on our first date, it was very pathetic. Um, so he was an architect, and I was real estate lawyer. And we were both really interested in development. And, and we started a, a real estate development company and did a bunch of condo projects in the area of Brooklyn where we lived at the time. And that really helped me get my foot in the door. And, you know, I was much more in that world of other developers. And so I think people, other developers saw that I really understood and often there is a, there isn’t always an alignment of what the broker wants, and what the developer wants in terms of incentive structure. I mean, as a broker, you’re happy for them to spend, you know, no limit of money on advertising, because it’s going to help bring people in. And of course, yeah, you’re going to be able to sell things for higher prices, if you have more, more demand for the product, and all of those things, but it’s not necessarily one to one, and, but if you’re also invested in just the the ultimate success of the project, and the absolute success of the project, you’re gonna have a different perspective. And so I think that that certainly was important. You know?

D.J. Paris 38:09
Yeah, I just wanted to jump in for a second and say, like, what you just said, is actually quite profound. Because developers want people who understand what the pain points of a developer are, which of course, yes, getting getting the property sold. Yes, obviously, that’s why they’re hiring you. But for the agent to say, or to at least have the mindset of I don’t want, I’m not going to keep coming to you, Mister developer for more ad dollars, or I don’t want to keep investing myself as the agent into, you know, more than I think is reasonable. But understanding that, that it is a business and running it like a business and it goes beyond just you selling the property, having an understanding of what developers deal with since you’ve done that is obviously part of your your family history as well, I think gives you a tremendous advantage. When meeting with developers. You’re like, I grew up with this. Number one. Yeah, I know it. I’ve been on on all sides of it. And I’ve also run my own development company, which which again, it’s it’s funny, I, I hope that our audience is really inspired by that. Because anyone listening candidate can build their own development company as well. And if you don’t, if you’re if your husband isn’t an architect, which of course most most of our listeners don’t have, that in their immediate family go out and find an architect, there are millions of them who absolutely are probably waiting for somebody to partner up with. So it is it is something that, again, is a really smart way to sort of get involved with developers because then you get to say when you’re pitching to other developers, oh, I do this also, by the way, maybe on a smaller scale or maybe on a different a different you know, sector, but this is what I know what you want you deal with and I want to help you. And I imagine that’s a very powerful pitch.

Lindsay Barton Barrett 39:53
Yeah, I certainly think it is. But I also do, you know, I think that one thing, I also believe strongly about being an agent or being a broker or realtor, it’s a job. And so I think it’s, it’s important not to sort of look at it as something where you’re also going to be doing this and also going to be doing this. Like, I think, coming to developers, I think, you know, I think one of the best ways to sort of digest that is to make sure that you do understand that person’s business just like a, you know, when you have a residential client who’s looking for a new home, knowing that they have family overseas, who comes to us today, all the time, and they need a separate place for that person to stay that’s feels a little separate, and they’ve got space, and they’ve got their own little kitchen like that, if you don’t know that you’re going to show people around fit. And so I think, understanding what, how it works as the developer and the profit structure and knowing that if you only suggest the most expensive stager, they may feel like you don’t have their interests at heart, and you don’t even understand what their business is. And so I think it’s really important to communicate that you will protect them by only coming to them with things that you have evaluated yourself and say, okay, the, you know, the juice is worth the squeeze or whatever, like, we’re gonna spend $20,000 on this campaign, but I think ultimately, it’s going to translate into a 2% increase in sale prices, which is $200,000. So, you know, I think it’s acknowledging that that’s their money, and you’re not just going to spend that money because it’s gonna produce better materials, or, you know, so I think that’s the probably the most important part is just this understanding your client?

D.J. Paris 42:15
Yeah, I agree. Yes. And again, that’s probably also the skills you develop as an attorney, it’s probably incredibly helpful for how important it is to get a good sense of what the client wants and needs, so that you can continue working for them in a way that that is most effective for them. Question about sort of today’s market. So we know, of course, everyone listening to the show knows rates have changed, doubled, in a lot of cases, maybe even more than doubled at this point, seems to change almost daily. And I don’t know what it’s at today, but, but it certainly is gone up. So rates are double what they were at the lowest point, which I don’t think is maybe the best metric to measure against. But it’s what people know, because it was so prominently featured in news and social media, how rates were so low, and now people maybe feel oh, I missed out. Except, of course, what they maybe don’t always know is there were lots and lots of buyers and places prices were inflated, and maybe it’s not so different now, even though rates have changed, but, but there just may be a lot more sentiment out there that now’s not the time to make any big moves. So understanding that those are some hurdles that realtors are dealing with all over the country. How have you been dealing with that? How have you been educating your clients and just keeping your business going, despite the fact that there probably aren’t fewer buyers in the market at

Lindsay Barton Barrett 43:42
this point? I think that’s absolutely true. There definitely are fewer buyers and fewer real buyers because even if people I mean it’s, it’s really hard, even if people feel like real buyers, if you were looking a month ago, and then you went on vacation or something and came back and then you find something and then you get your pre approval updated. You know, I think we’re seeing that a lot we’re seeing more deals fall apart. And I think that’s probably part of it is that people are not internalizing or properly sort of analyzing what these rate changes mean. But I will say I think it’s really important to recognize that rates are fluid, and they go up but they are very likely to come down again. And so if you know i I’ve had this conversation with a few clients recently, many of whom said, you know, that’s true. I really hadn’t thought about it that way. And of course when rates are super low, you’re really excited Ain’t it because you can lock in this rate for a long time, and you know what your monthly outlays gonna be. But when rates are high, it’s important to remember, it doesn’t have to stay like that forever. And so, you know, real estate is a long term play almost no matter what. And when you’re buying a home, maybe life does change, and you end up selling it in three years. But, you know, I, for most of my clients, any clients who are not investors, you know, my, my recommendation to them is, you can’t really have any expectation of appreciation, unless you plan to stay in this home for at least probably five years, you never know. And you need to have flexibility on that. Because if the markets in the toilet five years, you want to be able to hang on to it for another two or or, you know, move up. But it’s a long term play. And because rates we have seen have changed so quickly, so dramatically. We don’t know what’s going to happen. And I’m not going to promise anybody that rates are gonna go back down to, you know, 3% for a 30 year fixed, but I can tell people with some degree of confidence that I certainly think they’ll go down, again, in a meaningful way over the course of the next two to three years. So I think it is an opportunity, I think that that will take some time, because sellers are having a hard time adjusting. Sure. So

D.J. Paris 46:35
I can’t get twice the listing price anymore,

Lindsay Barton Barrett 46:39
or I can’t get exactly the same price that they got down the street. And, and then, you know, we work in we work in different markets, we work across a lot of price points. And for New York, you know, I certainly recognize that. And it’s one thing we are seeing is the very high end, Brooklyn, in particular, turnkey townhouse market is stable. There aren’t really many rental alternatives, if you want a really nice townhouse, and Brooklyn Heights, there’s not one to rent. So you may still end up in the sale market. You know, there’s a lot of liquidity at that price point. And so we are really having a hard time getting a meeting of the minds at that price point. But things are staying pretty stable. You know, at lower price points, people are a little bit more understanding that interest rates have really made a big hit. And so you know, I think I’m sure everyone’s going through the same thing. It’s educating your sellers educating your buyers keeping buyers spirits elevated, that what they’re doing is good for the good for their themselves and their family long term.

D.J. Paris 47:59
I think it seems like so many people and it’s so because it oftentimes is a buyers you know, largest asset or one of their largest assets it becomes this idea that it this primary residence is an investment and I think the realtors could I’m curious to get your thoughts on this could really do their clients a favor by readjusting that expectation that number one yes. Okay, maybe technically it’s an investment but it’s you have to live somewhere right and so even if it does go up by you know, two times what you paid for it, odds are you’re not downsizing on your next home. That’s not usually the sort of human nature psychology piece of it is, it’s like well, I’m just gonna bank this extra 500 Grand i just made usually it’s like now we can upgrade to a higher price point property. Maybe once somebody hits retirement age that changes and they downsize and then yeah, they can bank some of that money. That’s not usually what most people do with their profit from their primary residence. At least that’s not been my experience with anybody I know. Maybe maybe the most savvy people would do that. But most of us you know, we don’t buy a 20 inch TV when we’re you know, a teenager and that’s all we can afford. And then when we’re 40 we go you know, let’s go back to a 20 inch TV right? It goes No I want the 65 inch or the 80 inch or whatever. We keep going bigger and bigger until we realize maybe things are too big but but the point is is is it’s my sister did this she her place almost doubled in value in the West Village. She was on Barrow which is like beyond amazing street you I’m sure you know it. And then you know fifth floor walk up no air conditioner, you know a little tiny unit. No amenities really as a co op and fifth floor walk up and it was like 475 square feet one bedroom that includes a one bedroom as just this little tiny nothing place but it was it was lovely but it was just tiny. And everything was miniature and stuff and and then she she she took that money and then But, you know, she goes, Well, now I can’t live in my neighborhood anymore. Because even though her she had made all this money, she had actually priced herself out of her actual street. And so she ended up moving to Queens with it with her fiance at the time, and it ended up working out for them. But, but again, people don’t usually go from a 475 square foot, you know, Co Op to, you know, maybe I’ll just stay at 475 square feet, right. So this idea that people see their primary home as an investment, I think can can be very problematic. And it’s, it’s, I think it’s just not an investment, maybe, unless it is, unless it is something that generates income, or that, you know, you’re going to move to an investment property at some point, but, but this idea that realtors can can really re educate their clients about this, this let’s not think of this as an investment as much as a lifestyle, and, and quality of life sort of situation. I think that would I think that would quell it also dating the rate on the lending side marrying the home, you know, that’s that expression that, that it’s sort of a cutesy expression that people say, but it’s a good expression, because I think it’s exactly right. I mean, rates do change, people refinance. And you know, we’re not in the double digits, right? It’s not the early, early ate late 70s, early 80s anymore, which that was a really difficult times, I can’t even imagine what it’s like to try to be a buyer’s agent when it’s, you know, 12% rates, but people were doing it then, too. So, anyway, I’ve gone on enough of a rant about that, but I really appreciate your thoughts about it. Because I think, you know, for anyone out there who’s going, Gosh, the buyers just aren’t into it. They feel like they’re getting ripped off, at this point, time to re educate yourself as the agent about how to have that conversation to say, You know what, even if you would have tried to buy a place two years ago, you would have, here’s what you probably would have paid over asking for what you’re looking for, I’m going to show you evidence that would have suggested that, you know, maybe it wasn’t such a great time for you. Or maybe it can still be a good time today. And we can refinance in a couple of years. If if Yeah. So anyway, I’m sorry, I will get off my soapbox, rant there. But But I want I want agents to not be so so disheartened during this time, and you have a billion dollar business that you’ve built. And that is beyond impressive. I want to ask sort of my last question, which is, so you talked about newsletters, we talked about client relationships, and how one can lead to one plus one, you know, can lead to dozens and dozens and dozens? What advice do you have for agents who want to further develop those those relationships, make those more intimate, make those more important, really demonstrate value so that in between sales, maybe those people again, you mentioned newsletters, keep your name in front of, but what else are you doing just so that the your clients don’t forget about you, or that they keep thinking about you when they’re talking to other other people who might need your services.

Lindsay Barton Barrett 52:58
I am not as good at that as I should be, quite honestly, and in many ways, because I’ve been fortunate in in building these relationships that largely feed themselves, I mean, and the New York market, it is a unique thing, I know that it has remained strong and times when others have not been I think this COVID experience was really unique in that it was one of the few times that we’ve seen a, you know, somebody selling in New York and buying somewhere else, and they don’t come out ahead and not necessarily in actual like dollars in your pocket. But in terms of the strength of the market, that you know that you’re getting top dollar in New York, and you know that you’re buying at a little bit of a discount wherever you may be going, and that really got flipped on its head. And that was a big adjustment. But it was also a really interesting illustration of what drives people and people were buying because they wanted to move. And so they were able to just say, Look, this is what’s right for me, this is what I want. And I’m gonna do it. And this is the price. This is the price that it is today. And so I think that it’s important for people to remember that that that and this touches on what you were saying it’s you’re doing this for yourself and for your future self and for your family. And, you know, you got to make the choice that’s right for you that is somewhat untethered from is Is this the right investment? And so I’m going to I’m going to go back one second, a little bit about that because I totally understand and agree with you that it is not exclusively an investment but I think another way to look at that and I’ve spoken to clients a number of times is it is a lifetime investment. And very rarely are people selling and then renting unless it’s sort of a temporary, either move for one reason or another, or renovation, or relocation, or whatever it may be, you know, a strategic decision, but people are generally staying in the market. So, you know, I, we get so many people who say I can’t lose money on this house, well, if you’re selling at a discount, whatever you’re buying, in all likelihood is also at that same discount, it’s a lifetime. And so in your, you know, lifetime portfolio of real estate holdings, you’re probably going to come out ahead of the stock market historically, that is what has happened. And so I think don’t like Don’t get so fixated on every one transaction, because that’s not what it is, it’s a lifetime of owning your home. And there are ways to leverage that if you have a rental unit, you can do a 1031 exchange, and you feel like genius, you know, there’s a lot of different ways to leverage real estate ownership. And so I think that’s important to focus on also, and frankly, like you still do get that primary residence interest deduction. So I think that’s something we should really be focusing on right now, too, because if you’re paying more, you’re getting a much larger deduction. So that’s something that’s my that’s my sort of callback to the last one.

D.J. Paris 56:34
No, I appreciate that. And I, I want to just wrap up, because you have been, this has been so valuable to our audience, I, I always like, you know, when I first started this show, all these years ago, it was like, oh, all of these top producers are going to have all of these very specific strategies and tips that the rest of us don’t know about. What I’ve learned after 400 episodes is that is rarely the case that there’s like this little secret magic formula that, you know, we’re going to unearth on the show and, and it hasn’t happened yet. But But maybe, maybe in the next 400 episodes, somebody will have that. But the reality of it is it isn’t much about that at all. And it’s more about consistency and discipline, and also just understanding how people think, who are really at the top of the mountain in as a realtor. And so I think you’ve given us today, you’ve given us some great strategies. But on top of that, just this idea of like, here’s how I think about things, here’s how I keep going. Because at the end of the day, sort of I think mindset and I can that word is I think really overused. And it sort of doesn’t even mean a whole lot anymore, this idea of just the beliefs and the strategies that somebody has that you know, like you were saying Barbara Corcoran saying there’s always there’s always buyers and sellers, there’s always a brokers market. It’s about making sure that that you can pivot and adjust to those changes. And I also want to mention that Lindsay is currently looking for one additional team member now this is a billion dollar team. So she doesn’t, of course, take any and all agents that reach out to her. And in fact, you’d have to probably be somebody that is really impressive. And she did not say that to me, I’m saying on her behalf. Because I know that she’s going to expect somebody who is who is really somebody dynamic and special. But if you are a realtor in the, you know, the New York market, specifically Brooklyn, Manhattan, you know, anywhere there that you think you could be a value and you can be a valued member of her team. Reach out to her, you know, the best way to do that just go to her website, you can submit some information. And also, by the way, for everyone else who’s listening, who’s a realtor, whether you’re in New York or elsewhere in the country, if you have clients that are moving to the city moving to Brooklyn moving to other places in the New York metro area, and you’re looking for a top producer to send them to well, obviously Lindsay is a great choice. She’s at an amazing firm. We’ve we’ve interviewed tons of people from Douglas Elliman over the years and they’re always just really best of the best obviously Douglas Elliman is doing something right in their hiring. But also if you are looking for a broker to refer to Lindsay would love the opportunity to connect with you. Let’s see what is the best way another agent can reach out to you?

Lindsay Barton Barrett 59:22
Website definitely and we have a team email, which we did by necessity I you know, over the years sort of figured out some of the things and the everyone responding to the same email at once and sometimes responding from my email and then I also respond gave rise to the LVB team email. So LVB [email protected] is probably the best way

D.J. Paris 59:51
and we’ll we’ll post a link to that in the show notes as well. So if you are an agent that wants to partner with Lindsay with referrals, or maybe you’re looking to would explore being on a team yourself and you live in that area, reach out to Lindsay to see if you might be a good fit for her. And by the way, she’s not always hiring like most real estate firms like our firm, we’re always hiring. So you can always reach out to me if you want to join our company in Chicago. But Lindsay is not that that kind of agent and doesn’t have that kind of team. It’s a very exclusive small team that she can really manage, you know, work with and make sure that, you know, all of her team members are having success. So definitely reach out to her if you think that would be a good fit. Lindsay, thank you so much for being on the show we had, I had such fun time with you, you really, really appreciate how busy you are. And really just again, walking away from a really, really sort of something that you would work so hard for not walked away entirely, but walked away from that being your profession and your source of income is is truly, you know, it’s really again, this courageous quality that you have, I think is amazing. And so I hope it’s inspiring to our our audience. And also we want to thank Lindsey for her time we know how busy she is. And so on behalf of the audience, we say thank you to you. And also on behalf of Lindsay and myself we want to thank the audience for for not only sticking around throughout the whole episode, but also hopefully finding value here and we just ask that you do one thing which is telephoned, think of one other realtor that needs to hear this, this conversation that we just had and send them a link to our websites keeping it real pod.com We’ll have that link to that in the show notes as well. But please tell other realtors about our show. It’s how we’ve grown over the last five years now and so we want to continue to grow and reach more and more realtors. So anyway, on behalf of everyone Lindsay thank you and we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks Lindsay. Thank you

Welcome to the November episode of Learn With A Lender with Joel Schaub of Guaranteed Rate!

In this episode Joel discusses how to guide buyer agents in helping their clients. Joel also talks about how to convince first-time home buyers to buy in this market. Next, Joel Joel explains the 2-1 buydown. D.J. emphasizes the importance of partnering up with a lender to offer first-time home buyers webinars/seminars to help them in their journey. Last, Joel describes how to talk to sellers about rate buydown.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Joel can be reached at [email protected] and 773.654.2049.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
We all know that rates and inventory are challenging right now. But how do you still speak to first time homebuyers? We’re going to talk about that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show

Welcome to another episode of keepin it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris, I’m your guide and host through the show. And today once again, is our monthly series learn with a lender with Joel Schaub from guaranteed rate. Now, Joel is the vice president of lending at guaranteed rate. He’s been doing loans at a high level since 2003. And he’s got to that level because of what he does specifically for agents, which is that he gives back part of his commission to the buyer on every transaction making you the agent look like a hero. Last year alone, Joel gave back almost $300,000 of his commission to buyers who worked with him and that puts Joe’s volume in the top 1/10 of 1% of all loan officers nationwide. Out of in fact, out of 400,000 loan officers Joel is ranked number 137. Again, out of 400,000 loan officers chosen in the top 200 agents in the entire country. Last year, he closed 619 different transactions, his highest ever this year already, even in a year, we know is a bit challenging. He’s already close to 286 transactions in all the way through the end of this quarter for 116 million. But more importantly than the numbers is Joel’s dedication to education. The way that he built his business is so simpatico to what we tried to do on this podcast, which is trying to educate people so that you can thrive in markets like now. So if you’re looking for a loan officer, or if you’re looking for a different loan officer to partner with, we cannot more highly recommend Joel he’s the very best I’ve ever worked with. And and anyone I’ve ever sent to him says the exact same thing. But Joe can be reached by the way you can reach out to him by emailing him [email protected] J [email protected]. Or you can shoot him a text message or call him at 773-654-2049 Let’s say hello to the biggest Cubs fan. I know Joel welcome. And once again,

Joel Schaub 3:35
DJ, thanks so much for having me on. And those numbers they, when I hear them from you. kind of always blows my mind. But coming on each and every single month. We really like to give back and we really like to share something if I’m an agent listening that can help us get one more transaction, maybe help a new buyer right now in this market, help a seller maybe calm them and talk them off a ledge because properties aren’t selling as fast are they?

D.J. Paris 4:06
Right? Yeah, it’s it seems to be that inventory. Still low properties aren’t selling as fast because of course, interest rates have gone up. And I think it’s important that we talk about this because I know there’s a lot of stress out there in the industry. Right now realtors are stressed loan officers are stressed. And we want to do what we can to alleviate some of the stress and just keep everyone going.

Joel Schaub 4:33
I was having a conversation with an agent that and I fully disagreed with and I think this is a great one to see how many of our listeners agree with this person, right? A little controversial, right? And they had a buyer DJ and they said well, I’m gonna wait until prices come down. And the agent fully agreed that there’s a crash coming. They’ve totally agreed that there was a major price drop happening with mortgage rates going up They were fully on board that we would see an across the board drop in prices. And I said, I have to stop you right there. I’m in the exact opposite camp. And I really believe there’s only two ways for prices and all of the markets to go down drastically, and one would be a lot more inventory. Right. Right. And I said, Well, let’s walk that line for a minute. How do we get a bunch of additional inventory? are sellers going to start selling in droves? When they already have rates that are locked in in the twos and threes? No. So that will be going out there? Are we going to have a lot of new home start, right with the supply chain issues and the cost of goods going up? Are we going to have so many additional back homes where the supply ends up being so high to drive values down? No, probably either of those are going to be there. Right? And then lastly, do we think there’s going to be a big wave of foreclosures? All these people that had their income double and triple checked by a mortgage guy like me, that had good downpayment? Are they somehow going to walk away from home that they put 510 or 20%? Down? Unlikely. So without the big supply, I don’t see values across the board going down. And I explained this, then, you know, we agreed to disagree. But I think in certain markets and in certain individual sellers, we will see price reduction, and we will see buyers getting deals and that’s what I’m really excited for for buyers that are entering this market that maybe haven’t bought before.

D.J. Paris 6:39
Yeah, and I think too, it’s really important that our listeners who are realtors who are in the industry, take a step outside of the industry from time to time and realize that especially for first time homebuyers, you know rates aren’t really as relevant to a first time homebuyer not meaning that they’re not important. Of course, they’re important, but they’re not at the top of usually the list of importance of how to make a decision about buying a property. Right. So we think about the psychology of figuring out, you know, making the transition from renting to buying. I know when I first when I was ready to purchase a property, my very first property I don’t know, Joel, if you can relate to this. He had the same experience. I was ready because I knew I had to save a bunch of money for a downpayment, whatever the rates were, they just were like, it wasn’t like, well, I didn’t, you know, and I think most people sort of work that way. They’re like they save up for years, or however long it takes them for, you know, a downpayment, that’s, you know, 20% or less, or whatever they can afford. And then it’s just Okay, we’re ready, let’s let’s figure it out. And whatever the rates are, you know, that month that, you know, that day is kind of where you’re at, because you’re ready when you’re ready, emotionally. And I just think, you know, it also 7% rates, which is what we’re seeing is, you know, a common common number these days. Is not the end of the world too, right? It doesn’t, it’s not double digits, we’re not, you know, oh my gosh, nobody can afford it. But I just think it’s important for people to think about like the first time homebuyer I know, I didn’t think about it at all. When I was buying my first home, I just went, Okay, I just talked to a lender. And that’s what the rate was, what the rate was.

Joel Schaub 8:24
If I’m an agent, I need to control the narrative. Because if you watch the TV and all you hear our rates are higher. That’s what got a lot of people into the market before when they were rates were low. When rates were so low, people that had no interest in ever buying said well, I better do it because rates are so low. They went in and they bought places 2030 $50,000 over DJ right. They were overspending on the properties. And now that there’s an opportunity for buyers to get a good deal they don’t want to buy change the narrative, right? You’ve heard me say this for years, I like buying my shirts on sale. Yeah, like buying shoes on sale. This is the opportunity for buyers to buy real estate on sale. If you’re an agent, and you can teach the buyers, there is an opportunity. And the fact that we don’t see a major reduction in prices on the horizon that scares people. Right? Why would I buy now? What happens if the value goes down? 20% I just don’t see that happening in major markets across the board.

D.J. Paris 9:27
Yeah, I was reading an article today by on life hacker which the I’ll try to post a link to it but it basically says what a 7% mortgage rate really means for your monthly payment. Now this isn’t an industry you know, publication. This is just a for anyone. Life hack. It’s a great website. By the way life hacker it’s great blog, I really encourage people to check it out. There’s lots of real great tips about how to just live your life more efficiently and effectively. But anyway, they were kind of going through the different you know, rate increases and you know, here’s what monthly payments look like. 3% and 7% 8%, etc. And the article itself is great, but the thing I was most interested in was the very first comment. And I want to just read it is by a woman named Meredith Dietz, just some sort of, you know, you know, person outside of the industry. And she wrote this comment, and I thought it was so perfect, because it’s exactly how I feel she goes, and I’m quoting her quote, I hope to encourage and again, this is not the author of this is just somebody who read the article and is responding to it. So I don’t know if Meredith Dietz is even a real person. But anyway, I’m going to quote her, I hope to encourage you young first time homebuyers, when we bought our first house in the 90s, the rate on our mortgage was eight and a quarter percent. But we were able just a few years later to refinance at about 5%. So even if you end up needing to borrow now at a higher rate, there’s a pretty good likelihood you could refinance at a lower rate down the road. Now, that is exactly what Joel has been saying forever, right. And this is a good thing to to hear from people outside of the industry, you’re not being fed this just from your loan officer, who of course, you know, wants to keep keep the deals coming in. That’s actually true. And it’s exactly what happened to me. When I when I bought my first place in 2005. I don’t remember what the rate was, for something, five, something, whatever it was, a couple years later, I refinanced and I got a lower rate. And then guess what happened two years later, I refinanced again, it was not as big of a deal, because you marry the rate, sorry, you date the rate, you marry the home. And I just thought that was such a perfect comment.

Joel Schaub 11:39
I like to take it one step further. Right. Now I like to marry the home and divorce the hell out of the rate. Okay. All right. All right. These are the highest rates and at the short term problem, which is inflation, right, we know the Fed can get it under control, we just don’t know when DJ, so we can divorce that rate, and it’s going to happen. Okay, I don’t have a crystal ball. But I do. Okay, right. So think of that. I don’t have it. But we know in the industry that the Fed isn’t planning on keeping rates this high. And when they actually say that they’re going to stop with the Fed cycle of increases the Treasury yield, they’re going to drop 100 to 200 basis points. And we literally should see these rates go from the seven, we’re not gonna get back down to the twos and threes, that was during the major problems that we had, because of COVID. But we really truly expect that the rates and the fours and fives, and that isn’t 10 years from now, that’s not seven years from now, literally sometime in the next two to three years will be rate that are considerably lower. And if you can get in now and buy a property, especially if you’re a renter, and you’re in one of these major market areas where you’re paying a lot of money in rent, which does not go down, buy a place now and be able to see the future where you can actually get a lower monthly payment because those rates will come down.

D.J. Paris 13:01
Yeah, to hold totally a 100%. Agree, I think this is something that we need to be very careful as real estate professionals to limit the amount of exposure we have to some of this media information about rates equal fear rates going up equals bad, we have to remember, the economy was in such despair and turmoil that the Fed had to lower rates to keep the economy going. We were at one of we were almost at Great Depression level with respect to you know, unemployment, and lots of lots of issues. Obviously, we all we all live through that. So that was an anomaly. That was a blip. That was we were seeing rates, you know, you know, historic lows, that is not the benchmark that is not what we should be measuring against, we should be measuring against, what is the average, you know, what what has been happening is real estate professionals. We need to look at these cycles and understand and have a story to tell right now. Homes are on sale. Right? As Joel said, I like to buy things on sale. The hardest part about being a financial adviser if anyone knows if anyone is a financial advisor listening or has a financial advisor, the hardest thing a financial advisor has to do is convince people to invest when stocks are undervalued, right? Like, that’s a tough thing. Because you’re like, Oh, this one thing that’s like, it’s undervalued. And it’s it doesn’t seem like a good investment. But it actually is that like Now’s not the time to buy the thing that’s, you know, up 100% in value, right? So it’s the same, same option. Same thing with you just have to overcome the psychology of and explain to people that it’s actually a really good time to get in. And then we are going to, as Joel said, divorced the rate in the future. And we’re going to we’re going to we’re going to bring it back down to a more manageable number. I want to pause for a moment to talk about our episodes sponsor are one of my favorite companies out there. Follow up boss. Now after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country for this podcast, do you know which CRM is used by more than any other by our guests. Of course it is a follow up boss. And let’s face it following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort, do not take my word for it. Robert slack, who runs the number one team in the US uses follow up boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 systems, so you can keep your current tools and lead sources. Also, the best part they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help that you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial, which is twice as much time as they give everyone else. And oh yeah, no credit card required. So you can try it risk free. But only if you use this special link visit follow up boss.com forward slash real, that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And now back to our episode.

Joel Schaub 16:15
In the meantime, there’s a lot of buyers that would like to get lower rates and they feel like they’ve missed out. So we’ve continued to see this reoccurrence of this mortgage option where we can temporarily buy down the rate DJ. Okay, how does that work? And it comes in a couple of different forms. But you’d have to be under a rock to not have heard about this to one buy down, right? Yeah, every realtor and mortgage person recently is talking about how can I get the rate lower during these next couple of years where we anticipate the rate staying high. And a two one buy down isn’t a new idea. It means that for the first year of the mortgage, the rate is 2% lower than the current market. In your number two, the rate is 1% lower than the current market. And then in years three through 30. It was whatever the rate that was locked in at safe and secure. And it’s not an alternative that somebody you can’t qualify with that rate. It’s a way to get the sellers to lower the total cost for a buyer. So let’s walk through this to one guy down. And I want to show the strategy on both sides. Because if you’re listening, and you’re taking notes, this is a really great way to get more buyers. And it’s also a great way to get your seller to sell without making another price cut. Okay. So a two one buy down. Right now, even though the market everybody is saying rates that are in the seven. It’s not that hard with a 20% downpayment. I had a client that locked in this morning at 6.75. We just shopped it around and got a good rate. But from there, we took a seller credit. And we drove the rate down to 4.75. And you’re number one, wow. 5.75 and year number two, and then going forward, they’ll have that 6.75 rate locked in for life. And we just asked the seller to give a 3% closing cost credit.

D.J. Paris 18:12
Interesting. Interesting. So how does that so how would an agent explore these two one buyer downs?

Joel Schaub 18:21
On the buyer side, it’s very easy whenever we’re submitting an offer, or if we ask for a seller credit up to 3%, it will more than cover the buyer down for the client. So whatever bank they’re working with, every mortgage banker should know how to do this by now. Okay, I was doing it back in 2008. I was on a big development here in the city of Chicago. And the developer was looking for ways to sell more properties, right compete with the buildings that were right next door. And that’s what they did. They said we will buy down your rate for the first two years. And so the seller gives the credit. So let’s go through a scenario so that we can put some pen to paper and understand exactly how to do it and what it saves. And why not just ask for a price reduction. Right. So if we were buying a home at $400,000, and the client got a 3% reduction in the price, their payments about $88 left per month. That’s nice. But if we drove the rate down for the first two years, in year number one, that client payment is $488. Lower in the first year. $250, lower in year number two, and then again, three through 30. It’s still at a low fixed rate. But by that time the hope that we can refinance that loan, right? Yeah. So let’s take a look at this. If I’m a buyer, do I want to save $88 For the next 30 years? Or do I want to front load all of that interest and drive the rate down? Do I want a lower rate? Of course I want a lower rate I’m Yeah, so if I just get that 3% credit from the seller, all I’m getting in terms of a price reduction, I’m saving $88 If it’s just coming off the price. But if I get that inform of a seller credit, the mortgage broker can do a two one buy down. And it’s just a temporary rate reduction for the first two years. And that literally saved them hundreds of dollars. Because we’re front loading the savings and the time that we needed the most DJ. That was That is

D.J. Paris 20:30
a really smart strategy. So to one by Downs is what we’re talking about with with the seller credit. And, wow, that you’re blowing my mind right now with that I actually, I have all these ideas of thoughts about how to how to start marketing that to our agents. But for our listeners, if they wanted to learn more of these creative strategies, and they want to partner with a lender who brings ideas like this to the table, which by the way, for everyone listening, this is what you should be pushing your partners to do. Right, right now, you should be pushing them to say how do I talk to buyers? How do I talk to sellers, Joel just gave you a great option for people that are struggling right now with the high interest rates, you know, talking about, you know, actually has given many different options over the course of the episodes he’s done with us. But this is a great opportunity to reevaluate your relationships you have with specifically with loan officers, there’s a lot of loan officers out there, there aren’t a lot of loan officers who are going to consistently bring ideas like this to the table. But Joel, I also know that you are partnering with a lot of realtors right now and helping them build their business even through these stressful times. So if anyone out there is thinking about reevaluating, seeing what other loan officers offer, what’s the best way that they should reach out to you?

Joel Schaub 21:55
Well, the last time I announced this, I was actually overwhelmed by the number of emails that I got wanting to be added to the marketing list. So I have a weekly newsletter that breaks this down into plain English, and helps agents actually have some digestible talking point. So that you don’t need to know everything dammit, you just need to know enough where you can educate buyers and educate your sellers without getting into all of the deep jargon, right? Yeah, so the last time I did it, I think I had about 200 replies that was absolutely my inbox was full. And so yeah, you can email me and get added to the weekly newsletter. It’s Joel Jo e LL, AP rate.com. And that’s my Guaranteed Rate email address where I will reply, and I’ll add you to the weekly newsletters so that you can get the tip than the trick. And especially if you’re a newer agent, you need some good talking point. And you need to work with somebody in your local market to it’s not just me find a mortgage professional that wants to give to you, wants to meet with you wants to really spend money on you. Okay, there are a lot of RESPA compliant way that a mortgage professional can help a realtor. And that’s how all my relationships are built and finding ways to give back. Okay, if you do have a buyer that you need help with, you can also email me and that same email and say, Send me your lender in production template. And I’ll be happy to work with the buyer, get them pre approved, and then give back part of my commission which is $1,500 to the buyer. It makes you look good. And then we can work together on some transactions for sure.

D.J. Paris 23:39
You know, I think that’s a great idea. I hope everyone reaches out to you and joins your mailing list on your weekly mailing list because they’re going to get these ideas like the one you shared today with the two one buydown. I also just want to throw a last minute idea on there and this is something that Joel and his team can help with. And you know, other loan officers can as well if you if you’re not able to work with Joel, but this is a great time right now to start doing. You know, first time homebuyer webinars, seminars. This is these are guys, these are the people that don’t care about rates. If there’s anyone out there that doesn’t, it’s not that they don’t care about rates. They don’t care as much about rates as the person who’s buying their second, third, fourth home. Right? These are people that I’ve saved, they’re so excited. They need guidance. You can partner with someone like Joel to help you put these together. I know so many people we’ve interviewed on this show have built entire careers as Realtors for just hosting. You know I want to buy my first condo or I want to buy a five first property. You can start doing that on social media and other places and partnering up with a loan officer like Joel is a great idea. Joel you do a ton of these.

Joel Schaub 24:52
And we’re doing them via zoom. We’re doing them in person. It’s a really great way especially when you say they don’t care about rate I’d rephrase it in This way is that yeah, yeah, but they’re not dependent on it. If I’m paying your rent, I’m paying 100% of that rent in the form of interest. Right? Right, all of it is out the window, where the rate of mortgages is 7%, that’s a heck of a lot lower than 100% going out the window. So we can educate and teach. And we want to buy something when rates are higher, simply because we have the ability to refinance it down the road. And there’s a lot less competition to go buy a home right now and over the next 12 to 24 months, then we had the competition, win rate threat two or 3%, you couldn’t even get your foot in the door. So now there’s an opportunity to slow down, teach, and help. And the more people you can teach, and the more people you can help, the bigger your name gets, and the more you spread. And the way that you do this would be seminars, and teaching and education. There’s a lot of ways that we can partner together on those scenarios.

D.J. Paris 26:01
No question and Joe, you’ve been doing this since 2003. Teach help. And wait, right? Teach help, wait, meaning just can’t teach help, repeat, teach, help repeat.

Joel Schaub 26:12
And I need that on a t shirt. I love that word.

D.J. Paris 26:17
You know, it’s I was just I was talking. I was I was telling Joel this offline. I was out with a mutual friend of Joel and I’s the recently and and we were talking about Joel. Joel wasn’t there it was my friend and talking behind her say, right, yeah, behind your back. And so we were saying, you know, it’s so rare to find somebody who’s in a sales capacity, who has a sales job, who actually you don’t think of as a sales person, somebody who is legitimately all about training, education, and being just a good human being giving, giving. And we were talking about that. And we’re like, isn’t it funny that Joel is technically in sales, because you that’s just not what you think of you think of the guy who is constantly giving his time on this podcast, constantly giving to various organizations, various charities, various different things, organizations that that he believes in. And I just think that is that is really been the secret to yours. I mean, obviously, you’re incredibly skilled. And I don’t want to take anything away from your your business acumen as well. But just being a good human being. And giving has really been the secret to your success. I don’t want to speak for you. But that’s about what Mike and I came up with.

Joel Schaub 27:38
I’m terrible at sales. I’m better just being friends with people. Literally. I like making people laugh. I like educating. I like doing that. I remember I couldn’t even I got fired literally from Circuit City. I couldn’t tell. I just the people were like, should I buy this? Like, I wouldn’t buy that? No. And so it didn’t come naturally to me. But what does come naturally is the way that most agents that are highly successful, have grown their business, which is just by the more people you can touch, the more people that you can surround yourself and give back to it that whole givers gain mentality that if I’m listening to this podcast right now, I’m thinking of the five or 10 people that I want to give back to the people that maybe this year, lost out on a home they couldn’t buy when rates were low, because every time they put in an offer, somebody was coming in with cash. Or maybe every time they put in an offer, somebody had a bigger downpayment. And so now these really great couples, these families and individuals that had a low downpayment, that couldn’t compete, they can compete now, let’s go out and help those people. And the more people you help right now and putting your plan together for 2023 is going to really dictate how the next year goes. And it’s all about staying positive, controlling the narrative. And knowing that when rates are this high, there’s an opportunity for buyers. Okay, so one thing though, we got sidetracked, we talked about the two one buy down. And before we go, I got to talk about how that’s helped sellers. Oh, I’m

D.J. Paris 29:12
sorry, you’re right, to talk about sellers.

Joel Schaub 29:15
While you were telling me the story about talking behind my back and I had wanted to hear this DJ, but on the buyer side, it makes sense. Okay, so we have a rate by down for the time in which we think rates are going to be high. Okay, so how does this helps sellers. It really helps them because if a buyer comes in, and they only want a 3% credit, we’d be happy to sell the home at 97% of list today. I can already hear the agents on this nodding their head. Wouldn’t you be happy to get a full price offer? Well, 3% credit back. Oh, yeah. It’s not that the buyers needed it. So it’s a lot different than in the past when we’re submitting an offer and feeling like oh, this The buyer need the credit that close, maybe they’re not qualified. That’s not the story anymore. They’re working with true mortgage professionals that are talking to them about the to one buy down rate program, when they submit an offer, it’s just another added benefit that if you as the seller don’t take, they’re gonna go to the next listing, right. So instead of doing a price reduction, let’s work on seeing if we can put it right into the agent remarks, seller to pay for rate by down for buyer, right. And you’re seeing it in the MLS Wow, a lot lately. And so now, that idea, a lot of agents don’t know they might be hearing this for the first time. And if you see that, aren’t you going to be interested in to buyers? Yeah, what is the rate by down? Okay, so the average rate by down does cost two to 3% of the loan amount. And that’s the reason why we usually do this blanket 3%. Seller credit, okay, talk to your loan officer about the specific details, because I could go into full two hours here about how it helps the seller, and how it helps the buyer. But the average cost is based on the loan amount. So there isn’t a specific formula that I can do here that says, if it’s a $400,000 house, a cost EQ, it’s all about how much the client is putting down and what the loan amount is. But on average, it’s between two to 3% of the loan amount. And so the same thing that I’ve done, and we’ve done literally dozens of these in the last quarter, is get a seller credit for 3% trust the mortgage professional and ask questions so that you’re making sure that you’re taking care of

D.J. Paris 31:33
wow, I am completely blown away by that, that as a marketing guy, that is a brilliant strategy to promote listings. I have not seen that or or heard that. And I am so glad that you’re like what we didn’t talk about, well, how it benefits the seller. This is a this is a great strategy, guys. Obviously, benefits buyers, and it benefits sellers as well. Wow, amazing. I love that. So this is something you can put in the agent remarks. You can you can mention it, and it’ll help the homes hopefully, get a few more eyeballs and, and feet walking through the properties. I love that Joel great as always perfect way to end the show. I know now how I’m going to introduce the show, I’m going to say if you don’t about to one bite down, you got to you got to stay till the end. So when I go back and produce this episode, it’s gonna really we’re gonna make that pop, because that is really, really important. But for everyone out there who isn’t already working with Joel, Joel, we encourage you to get on his mailing list, email him [email protected]. Joel, also, if anyone ever wants to partner with you or work with you, what’s the best way they should reach out?

Joel Schaub 32:40
Yeah, it’s actually crazy the number of people that I’ve talked to in the last year from here and so people say I can’t believe you’re answering the phone. And I do. Don’t give out my direct line like I always do, which is 773-744-1968. You can ask for Joel because I answer and it’ll be me on the other end. And we can talk strategy there. If you do get my voicemail. Just leave me a message and I’ll call back and go through some of the things that you’re dealing with right now. And it’s all about trying to find ways that I can help use my knowledge to help you grow. Maybe get one more deal. Get one more buyer. Help one more seller.

D.J. Paris 33:19
Awesome. Well, he’s reached out to Joel He’s He’s great. He and the entire Guaranteed Rate team is incredible. All right, guys, we will see you on the next episode. Thank you to Joel on behalf of all of our audience, please tell a friend about the podcast. We’re we just crossed over 2 million downloads. We’re very proud of that. And but we need your help. So tell another realtor in your office. Everyone’s stressed right now everyone’s struggling. This is the episode they need to hear about. Send them a link to the episode keeping it real pod.com Or anywhere podcasts are served. Just tell your neighbor tell somebody who you know who needs help. Thanks, guys. And we will see everybody on the next episode. Thanks Joel.

Welcome to our monthly feature, Close-ing Time – in partnership with TheClose.com.

Chris Linsell from TheClose.com discusses the topic he talked about in the NAR Conference in Orlando. Chris talks about marketing strategies that are still taught and used but don’t work on today’s market. Next, Chris and D.J discuss the importance of developing niches that bring you opportunities for success. Chris emphasizes the value of the time aspect of the transaction for your client especially in an unpredictable market. Last, Chris and D.J. discuss how to create a specific niche for yourself to work on and how to create a marketing strategy specific to that niche.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Chris Linsell can be reached at [email protected].

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
What are some marketing strategies that you should absolutely avoid in 2023? We’re going to talk about that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our show.

Welcome to keeping it real the largest podcast made for real estate agents and by real estate agents. My name is DJ Harris, I am your guide and host through the show today is our monthly series called closing time with Chris Lin sell from the closed.com. And this is a partnership between keeping it real in the clothes and let me tell you more about the clothes. Now the clothes.com is the kind of real estate website designed to give agents, teams and brokerages actionable strategic insight from industry professionals. Now they cover real estate marketing, lead generation technology and team building strategies. From the perspective of working agents and brokers who want to take their business to the next level, please visit the clothes.com. Again, that’s the clothes th e clsc.com. And check out some of their articles. Also at the very top of of all their pages, you can subscribe to their newsletter. I’m a huge believer in that. Because if you’re like me, there’s lots of websites that you go I should be visiting that more often, but we just don’t. So if you subscribe to their newsletter, you’ll get emailed every time they produce a long form. Article, which is all the time they have such great content with us, as always is crystallin Sal, he’s a staff writer and real estate coach for the close. Chris is the closes resident expert on real estate topics ranging from marketing, lead gen transactional best practices and everything in between. He’s a licensed agent in the state of Michigan. And Chris has been part of hundreds of transactions from modest rural starter homes to massive waterside compounds. And when he isn’t writing, you’ll find Chris fly fishing or performing on the stage of his community theaters production. Chris, welcome once again to keeping it real. We’re excited to have you,

Chris Linsell 3:06
DJ, glad to have you I never get I never get tired of listening to your introduction about the clothes and about all the stuff that I’m working on. It’s genuinely a pleasure to be here. So glad that clothes can continue to partner with you guys and ready for a good time. Oh, today

D.J. Paris 3:21
it is and and we should say that by the time this episode will be released, you will have already spoken at the National Association of Realtors Conference. So let me be the first to congratulate you on your successful conversation. Which hasn’t actually happened yet. But I’m sure by the time this this is this has been released, it will have been a success. I was at your speech last year and San Diego and I thought it was the best session I went to because you were willing to take a stand and make some bold predictions. And just out of curiosity by again by the time everyone will heard this. It’s already happened. But what was your topic that you spoke about at NARA for this year?

Chris Linsell 4:00
Yeah, absolutely. So I actually am doing two sessions at NAR this year. The first one is on five missed expectations of our consumers specific to the way that technology plays a role in our in our industry. So what are consumers expect to expect from real estate professionals that we miss on a regular basis and we lose business as a result. So lots lots of chat about there. The other session that I will be slash have already delivered is five, five listing secrets from the top producers that I’ve worked with from across the country. And this ranges from everything from lead generation to listing presentations to marketing to closing and after transaction relationships. It is not an accident that the leaders in our space are consistently the same people every single year it’s because they’ve got some stuff that You’re out. And I’m sharing five big secrets about this. But actually, I want to say, you will still if you are listening to this and you are in New York, New Jersey or Pennsylvania, you can get a chance to hear some of this stuff. If you didn’t catch me at night, because I’m going to be at triple play in Atlantic City in December talking about a lot of the same stuff there. With some New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania specific details added. So if you’re in that tri state, come Come check me out at triple play. Well, we can rehash the conversation and get into some more together.

D.J. Paris 5:33
You guys, you know, what you did on the close? Is a and maybe you do have this and I missed it, but you need to have like a calendar or some sort of events, so that all the readers you know, will know about your upcoming speeches? If it isn’t there. Maybe. Maybe you guys could add that because you do speak a lot. And also to na NAR, NAR, I always say it the wrong way. So however it’s supposed to be I used to say NAR and then people that NAR would be like it’s really NAR. So anyway, I don’t know if it matters. But regardless of how you pronounce it, I are those sessions do we know if those sessions are also going to be recorded and available for purchase or for anyone, obviously, for attendees, I suspect they’ll will already had access, but I didn’t know if he could like buy them. So I don’t know if you know,

Chris Linsell 6:20
the recordings of the sessions will be recorded, they will be available on the NAR Conference and Expo website. For members of NAR I want to say it’s free for members of NAR, but it might just be free for attendees and super duper cheap for members that didn’t attend. So if you just can’t get enough crystal and Sal, you can, you can head to the NAR website and just mainline me right into your bloodstream there.

D.J. Paris 6:49
Oh, it’s funny, um, I don’t want to associate you with, with with addictive, destructive drugs. But getting addicted to your content is actually a good idea. So if you’re going to get addicted to anything, Chris’s content is right up there at the very best for real estate marketing, and just really just business and team planning. So I really think what they offer on the close is an actual perspective, an actual point of view. You know, I think realtors are often you know, because of their wanting to grow their business and be as accessible to so many people, there’s this idea of neutrality, that I want to be sort of in the middle, I don’t want to offend or, you know, create any division between myself and the customer. But I love that the close is willing to take a stand, but not just an uninformed opinion. They actually you guys do a ton of research and you arrive at a conclusion. And I often agree with pretty much all of all the conclusions I read on the close. So whether you see Chris live or you you’re able just to read some of the content he provides the clothes.com is really impressive, because you won’t just get a list of like, here’s five ways to spruce up your next open house, it’s going to be here’s what we’ve studied about open houses. And here’s what we know works. And here are some actual tidbits you’re not going to get anywhere else. So I love that the close is my favorite website to read about anything marketing related or business building. So anyway, but we’re not here to talk about how great the website is, because I could do that. I could do that all this all this entire time. But I’m excited to chat with you today. We were talking just before we started about what were we going to chat about today. And I think the topics a very good one. So why don’t you lead us off?

Chris Linsell 8:38
Yeah, so there’s, you know, there’s some shifts that are happening in the real estate market right now. We all know this. We can see it in our local market, we can definitely read about it in in, you know, big national publications, like, you know, the national news and the clothes and Inman, everybody is covering these shifts in the market. And I think the best way to kind of think about this is put yourself as you’re listening to this, put yourself in the shoes of the agent, you were in November 2021. Or maybe let’s go with Memorial Day 2021. Where we were seeing photos in the New York Times of people lined up around the block to get waiting to get into open houses. And we were seeing banks advertised on their website, mortgage interest rates. That would be you could you could basically fit for of inside the current mortgage rates. We were seeing opportunities for buyers and sellers that felt like they were on a different planet than the markets as we’re taping this right now sec. Can we can November 2022. So I want you to think about your business then, and your strategies for success. And I want you to think about your business now. And what I want, what I’m hoping we can chat about a little bit today is how the shift between markets is a heck of a lot bigger than the shift of between strategies. For most agents, most agents, they know the market has changed. They know their consumers needs have changed, they know their opportunities have changed. But have they changed their strategies? Almost, some of them not at all. And most of us hardly at all. And this is a problem. We’re gonna get bit by this pretty soon.

D.J. Paris 10:45
Can we talk about the strategies that are the tried and true older strategies that are adopted by agents who haven’t yet fully adapted to, to their current to the current market conditions and the needs of the of the agents, or sorry, the needs of the customers?

Chris Linsell 11:05
So that said, I say that one more time. So the tried and true strategy? Yeah,

D.J. Paris 11:09
so so maybe we should just define what are some traditional marketing strategies that may or may not make sense today, but are still being taught and taught and touted? You know, throughout the industry?

Chris Linsell 11:20
Absolutely. Absolutely. So I’m just going to use a really basic example. So we can all kind of get our heads around this real estate postcards. There is a ton of content on the internet, the close has some of it, actually, that talks about how to effectively use direct mail and postcards to generate leads. And if you think back to Memorial Day, 2021. If you sold a house in a neighborhood, you could literally just put on a postcard, I sold this house, and this mail it to 500 homes nearby, and you’d get calls because people like oh, wow, okay, this sold for six times more than I thought it would I own a house here, maybe I should sell my house. Sure, you couldn’t spit out you couldn’t walk outside and spit on the sidewalk without accidentally hitting the shoe of somebody else who wanted to buy a house at that point. That is not the case any longer. If you go out and spam blast the 500 closest homes to the latest transaction in a neighborhood. Not only are you taking a you know putting a burn barrel in the front yard and just lighting the money on fire that it cost to send those postcards, you are developing a negative industry reputation as somebody who is not in touch with the current climate and the needs of buyers and sellers. I would say a year and a half ago, we would think about our lead generation as an umbrella and upside down umbrella just turn the umbrella upside down, leads are going to fall into it. We are not in an upside down umbrella of economy and climate any longer. We are now in a samurai sword climate where you need to have Swift, deliberate thoughtful strokes in order to be effective. And you’re only going to hit a small chunk of what you’re swinging at at a time. But it’s going to be effective if you can be thoughtful around it. So in the in the example of postcards, we’re talking about adjusting from this spam blast this what I call evidence of action or evidence of activity and shifting it towards evidence of expertise. You want to show people yes, this house sold and it’s sold in part because you are a specific expert in a particular thing that got this transaction across the finish line. And the people who you are targeting with your marketing would also benefit from that specific expertise. Shifting from a an evidence of action to an evidence of expertise is a tough thing to do. But once you do it, it’s incredibly effective.

D.J. Paris 14:02
Just to make sure this is really clear evidence of action would be based around an accomplishment, right? So in the example of hey, I sold your neighbor’s home that doesn’t have action, or hey, I’m a top producer evidence of action. Well, I guess that could be both right. That could be both expertise. And so yeah, right. We’re not necessarily talking in absolutes, but this idea of I accomplished x, therefore I would be a good realtor for you Mr. or Mrs. Prospect.

Chris Linsell 14:32
That’s exactly right. Yeah, think about I mean evidence of action. The simplest form of evidence of action is your name on the right or outside the sign that’s in the front yard. That now is still that still is true. It’s evidence of action. But think about the message it sends when that sign and that name on that name writer sit in the front yard for six months instead of Six days now, yeah, it is a counter example to your evidence of expertise. The longer that sits there, the longer people are like, Oh, John Doe doesn’t know what the heck he’s talking about. Because this, he doesn’t know how to sell real estate because this house is just sitting right now. Right. So to shift to an evidence of expertise, let’s say that same house, that you’re going to blasts that spam blast that postcard, about the postcard now reads this particular house, you know, we sold this house, and it happened to have a wood Foundation, which is not uncommon for homes in the Midwest that were built in the late late 80s, early 90s. This home happens to have a wood foundation. Wood foundations are perfectly safe and great, actually, for places that get snow. However, property inspectors don’t always like wood foundations, and they can give some tough reports on this sort of thing. I happen to have the expertise to be able to navigate the property inspector, the appraiser, the buyer and the seller, and we got the job done. And if you’ve got a wood foundation, I can get the job done for you, too. This is evidence of expertise. And of course, all of that would be difficult to put on a postcard, specifically, but what we’re talking about here is changing your strategy from that upside down umbrella, to a samurai sword. So you are can you can cut and say this is where I’m effective. This is where I can create value. This is where we can work together. That’s what’s going to be necessary for success in the next iteration of the real estate market.

D.J. Paris 16:41
So let’s talk about how to actually do this. So what we’re really talking about is hyper segmenting your prospect list by expired their needs. And or if you don’t have a prospect list, identifying a prospect list based on need, right? So are we’re talking about going after specific audiences that have similar needs, as opposed to just throwing everything out there. And whoever responds responds, we’re gonna go target and find people who specifically want X, Y, or Z. I’m going to demonstrate my my expertise of x, y and z. So I just want to make sure I’m understanding that correct.

Chris Linsell 17:22
Yeah, that’s exactly right. I mean, the real challenge here is fighting this urge to be everything to everyone. Right? Like, it is difficult for a lot of real estate professionals to effectively niche down because they don’t want to be seen as the one realtor who does the one thing. Well, the thing that we often forget about niching down is that it’s not a mutually exclusive act, you can have lots of niches. In fact, you should have lots of niches, you should be an expert in a handful of things. If you are an expert in a handful of things, you have lots of opportunity for success. Ultimately, I tried to tell agents that I coach, when they’re talking about transitioning their market into what I would consider to be this. It’s just a tighter real estate market, we’re going to see less demand higher interest rates, fewer transactions when we’re transitioning into these tighter markets, we ultimately have to show both our buyers and our sellers that their success is possible, relevant to what we can provide them that it is not just a matter of throwing something on Zillow and waiting for 20 offers to roll in. Success is still a path and we can get you there. This is really a chance to demonstrate your specific expertise value, and agents, even those who are still developing those who are brand new to the to the real estate field, they can still have they still have expertise value. Nobody else has access to the same MLS level data that you do. Certainly people can search properties on Zillow, but they don’t have the back end that you do. They don’t have the connections that you do, they don’t have the opportunity to network with their colleagues the way that you do. And so that right now is the time to start demonstrating that value of expert of expertise to your clients. And the faster you can do it, the more out ahead of your competition you can get, the more transactions you’re going to be capturing in the end of 2022 and the start at 2023.

D.J. Paris 19:37
Can I give you my favorite example of this and it actually comes from years ago so I my the home I lived at just prior to where I live now was a high rise in River North here in Chicago. And only well there were plenty of realtors that would send mailers that were more of the generic type flyers or brochures or postcards kind of thing. And when they would show up and are our mailbox once a month random agents, there was one agent who, every month, we got a eight and a half by 11, front and back, you know, postcard essentially, but it’s, you know, much bigger. And it in it, it basically said, I’m so and so I have sold more condos in this building than any other realtor and he said it in a slightly less direct way. But that was what he said on on the front. Also on the front. He goes here, by the way, are all the condos that have sold in the building in the last month, which was really smart, because you could see what two bedrooms were selling for and one bedrooms, etc. And then on the back, it had a list of every single time he had sold a property in the building, it had a list of all of his accomplishments. And I thought, well, if I was not in the business, and I was looking to sell my property, I was a renter at the time. So it didn’t apply to me. I said, I think I would go with this guy who seems to really know the building, he’s a total expert, or at least he has projected some sort of expertise. I don’t know if he’s actually an expert in the building. But if he’s being honest about his, his marketing, he’s sold more properties within the building, that’s usually a good sign in my mind as a consumer. So anyway, that was my favorite thing. And I’ve yet to really see anyone else ever do that. And again, not now, for anyone listening, they might think, well, I don’t I’m not the biggest, you know, seller of a particular neighborhood or a building like that. So not everyone’s going to be able to do that you have to earn your way there. But he wouldn’t have even had to say that he was the guy who sold the most property in the building. He just happened to be that guy. But he could have also some anybody could have sent everything else that was included all the prices of the places that just sold, you know, and like that’s, that’s demonstrating value. It’s demonstrating, hey, I’m not just blanketing this building, saying, Hey, we’re doing I’m a realtor. Oh, by the way, here’s information that you person who lives in, you know, apartment 1507 Are you kind of 15 or seven cares about? So that’s to me a great example.

Chris Linsell 21:58
Yeah, I totally agree. By the way. Now, we all know that DJ lived in a condo 1507. So what you know, it’s interesting, one thing I want to call out to as a as a power up to agents who are seeking to put this strategy into place is, wherever possible, highlight your ability to not just save your clients time, or excuse me tied to spoil, but not just save your clients money, but save your clients time, the time aspect of a transaction, especially in an unpredictable market is extraordinarily valuable. So your your example of the of the realtor who is consistently sending you marketing about the activity in the building. I think that that could even be taken to the next level to say something along the lines of I’ve done this now 57 times in this building, I know exactly the steps, we are not going to lose any opportunity, we’re not going to lose any time trying to figure out what we do next. Because I know exactly what needs to happen. As a consumer personally, I will go with somebody who is more expensive, if I am very confident that they not only know the steps, but they know the timeline. And they can accurately forecast that, for me, that is critical, especially for folks who have a little bit higher net worth, they can afford to spend more they are not penny pinching specific, like half a percentage point on the commission. But they only have a finite amount of time in their life to dedicate to this sort of thing. Anybody who can demonstrate that they are the best use of their time that they win the listing just about every time especially for those folks who are pushing into the you know, million dollar plus range for property.

D.J. Paris 23:47
I just talked to somebody who just got their license yesterday. And she I said, Oh, what what career you coming from? Because she was like, I’m switching careers and or she was like, I’m gonna stay with my existing career just just for a while before I go full time into real estate. I said, Oh, what are you doing? And she goes, Oh, I work it with surgeons, I work. She wasn’t a nurse, some sort of admin person for surgeons, and she’s been doing that for like 20 years. So she goes, I said, Wow, that’s kind of interesting and hyper specific. And she said, Yeah, I’m only going to work, I’m going to try my best to only work with surgeons. And I said, Oh, I said, Well, that makes sense. And she goes, I totally understand how they think I know what they I know approximately what they earn. I know, you know, she just has all this data about working with surgeons because that’s what she’s done. She goes I want to be the surgeon person. And I’m like that is a brilliant strategy. Because it is hyper specific. You understand the needs of that market, and you have access to that market.

Chris Linsell 24:45
100% I am it’s it’s a great example that you just use there. I have an agent who I’m friends with in my local market, who has signed an exclusivity agreement with the A recruiter for the local hospital system in northern Michigan. This person only takes clients from the recruiter, the recruiters office, she signed this agreement said I’m not going to work with anyone else I will turn away business I will only work with with the buyers and sellers that you send me. You have to send me your buyers and sellers. But I will only work with these people. The thing that this at first, a lot of people thought she was absolutely crazy for doing this because it’s like, you know, people want to work with you, you’re gonna send them away. She said, I am demonstrating expertise in a specific niche. I’m working with people who need to buy and sell they typically have a timeline, they typically have specific things that they’re looking for, like distance to the hospital distance to the to the physical therapy hospital or wherever they’re going. And they typically have a definable range of properties that they’re interested in. I become the expert in this space. She said, Honestly, the the fact that these folks are typically buying homes that are on the upper echelon of value, this is secondary to me, it is that is a distant second to the consistent expertise that I get to establish in a particular niche.

D.J. Paris 26:21
I want to pause for a moment to talk about our episode sponsor are one of my favorite companies out there follow up boss. Now after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country for this podcast, do you know which CRM is used by more than any other by our guests. Of course, it is a follow up boss. And let’s face it, following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort. Do not take my word for it. Robert slack, who runs the number one team in the US uses follow up boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 systems, so you can keep your current tools and lead sources. Also, the best part they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help that you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial, which is twice as much time as they give everyone else. And oh yeah, no credit card required. So you can try it risk free. But only if you use this special link visit, follow up boss.com forward slash real, that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And now back to our episode. Yeah, and there’s just a lot of social proof with that to saying oh, by the way, this is exclusively what I do. I’m basically, you know, a recruiter who only recruits you know, surgeons or whatever, whatever it might be so, so I think if anyone listening is wondering, well, I don’t have that I don’t know what that might be. For me, I have a suggestion, talk to all of your clients that you have worked with in the past, and maybe think about, you know, where there were their clients that you really enjoyed, you know what they did professionally, or you were really excited about, you know, what, maybe they had a hobby or an interest or a neighborhood they lived in or something that was unique to them, that maybe other people might have a shared interest or, or, you know, category of how they live their life that fits in the same category. Because if you if you are somebody that likes working with doctors, now’s the time to go start talking to doctors and saying, Hey, my I, I’m trying to make a shift, I want to work with more people like you or more teachers or more firefighters or whatever, it doesn’t have to be profession, whatever it might be, but I need to really understand your market better, you could spend the next year interviewing as many of those people and you will know, you’ll have a pretty good sense of whatever shared characteristics they have. And then you could create marketing pieces specific to that, that that hyper dialed in, sort of need

Chris Linsell 29:05
absolutely 100%. The the long the short of it is I would kind of put a bow on this conversation. The agents who are going to find the most success and are most likely to continue to be scaling their business after 2023 are the agents who can pivot away from this kind of, like operating like an opportunity vacuum cleaner, because it used to be that we saw so many opportunities in every single place. That I mean, the reality is DJ that the fact that the fact that the market conditions are changing. It doesn’t affect the fact that people still need places to live. We still need to buy and sell people are still going to get new jobs and lose their existing jobs. They’re going to have kids they’re going to get divorces, spouses You’re going to die, there’s going to be a ton of different reasons why real estate still needs to happen. So it’s not that there aren’t the transactions, it is just the accessibility and the approach to those transactions will change. And so if you are stuck operating, you’re upside down umbrella strategies and wondering why you’re not being successful. You should look to see, you know, get your samurai sword out of the closet and start swinging up.

D.J. Paris 30:28
Yeah, not now is the time to think about this to win with the, you know, with the way that we shop, and the way that we the way that we sort of navigate the world, yes, there are places for the big super stores like Amazon, virtually or Walmart, you know, with more of the brick and mortar, yes, there is convenience. And there makes sense to sort of try to be all things to a to a shopper. But the vast majority of us when we want something a little bit more specialized than just going out and getting our groceries or our household needs, we’re usually doing a lot of searching online, we’re doing a little research ourselves, or we’re looking for somebody who can help provide that to us in a much more concise way. Right. And I think I think this is, you know, I mean, if we just look at Reddit, as a great example, I don’t know how many sub Reddits there are, there’s got to be 10s, of 1000s. And these are all hyper specific to a particular interest. And if you don’t know what Reddit is, you guys can look it up. But basically, whatever you’re into, you can go find your community. And so the point is, is that can be extrapolated out to your own business as well figure out what you know, is a is a is something that you want to specialize in. And even if you’re not that familiar with it, you can get familiar with it. You want to work with developers start talking to developers and saying, how does how do agents get in with you? Like, what are they doing? How are they getting? What are your needs? What are you I mean, these are things that you can do first time homebuyers, people who have, you know, divorce attorneys if you want to work with people who are divorced, I know tons of realtors who just do that, who go well, I just get in good with the attorneys. I know the needs of a divorce. See, I understand what that process looks like, I understand some of the, the legal part of it, you know, anyway, I could go on and on. But the point is, is come up with something. And by the way, as Chris was saying, it doesn’t have to be your only niche, right? It could be niche one and the instead of having buckets of different types of of processes for marketing, like I have my farming bucket that I you know, and I have my my customer my referral bucket, you could also have buckets around your niches, right? Mm hmm.

Chris Linsell 32:42
Definitely. All right, well,

D.J. Paris 32:43
we need to we need to wrap up because Chris is is ready to board a flight very shortly. And he’s got some calls to make before he goes to Nar, and blows the blows the room out like I did last year. So anyway, we’re gonna we’re gonna say goodbye to Chris. But before we do want everyone, everyone, please, please, please, this is the website. i By the way, the clothes does not pay us for this at all. And we never, we would never ask for them to pay us. Because we are such big fans of theirs that we want everybody to go read, we actually think you’ll become a better realtor by reading the clothes.com Oh, by the way, like 99% of it’s free. So that’s even better. You don’t have to get pull your card out. Of course, they do have a premium subscription model as well, for the close Pro. We’ll talk about that on our next episode. But the very least go read their stuff, Chris, and the editorial stuff, they are not afraid of going deep, they go wide, and they have an opinion. So it’s not just facts and figures. It’s like and by the way, here’s what we recommend, guys, there isn’t really anything else out there like this that I’ve found. So go go to the clothes.com. And by the way, also, you know, we’ll keep you abreast of Chris’s speaking engagements so that maybe you can go see him live. But Chris, thank you so much for once again being on our show. We would love to, we love to have you of course, again in 2023. We will continue to have this have you on here. And you know, maybe we’ll even make some tweaks to it to to make it even better for next year. But we’re excited to continue the relationship on behalf of everyone because it’ll be the last episode of the year with you. We really appreciate everything you do for our show. So thank you on behalf of the audience.

Chris Linsell 34:20
Thanks, guys. Always a pleasure looking forward to the next time too.

D.J. Paris 34:24
Awesome. All right. Well, this that’ll do it for this episode, guys. We will see Chris in 2023. Either you can see him in person or on our show once a month. So thanks, Chris. Thanks to the audience. Please tell a friend. In fact, tell two friends that would really help us out. It’s the holiday season. Tell it tell two friends about our show. And that’s all we’ll ever ask of you. Thanks, guys. We’ll see you next time. Thanks, Chris.

In our November episode of Monday Market Minute, Carrie McCormick from @properties talks about the slowdown as we near the end of the year. Carrie also talks about the decreases in the market regarding listings and under contract single family and attached homes in Chicago. Next, Carrie emphasizes why now is a great time to start drafting your business plan for next year and shares tips on how to draft your business plan. Carrie also shares 7 tips for marketing strategy for 2023. D.J. shares his marketing tip of the month. Last, Carrie and D.J the importance of building relationships with realtors in other markets.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Carrie can be reached at [email protected] or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Please follow Carrie on Instagram by clicking here.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
Are you worried about 2023? Well, let’s talk to a top producer and see what she’s thinking for the next year. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our show.

Welcome to keeping it real, the largest podcast made for real estate agents and by real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show, and today on the show is our monthly series called The Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick from the Carey McCormick Real Estate Group with at properties here in Chicago. Now Carrie is a top 1% producer in Chicago with over 20 years of experience helping buyers sellers and investors. In fact, in the last 12 months out of 46,000 real estate agents here in the Chicagoland area Carrie is in the top 15 producers on out of 46,000. That’s incredible. She’s in the top like 1/10 or 1/100 of 1% of all the agents here. She’s a true superstar and an expert in everything from first time homebuyers, veteran investors and luxury properties. And she also works with a lot of developers who have to choose her to represent their high end developments. Please visit Carrie at our website, which is Carrie McCormick, r e.com. And also definitely follow her on Instagram, I believe she has the very best Instagram account I’ve ever seen for a real estate agent, which you can find her on Instagram at Kerry McCormick real estate and by the way, those links to her website and Instagram will be in the show notes. So you can find her there. Carrie, welcome once again to the show.

Carrie McCormick 2:52
Thank you, you always have such a nice intro. It makes me so happy. So thanks.

D.J. Paris 2:56
Well, well, I’ll tell you, I’m always happy to talk to you because and I just it’s gonna sound like a like a humble brag. And maybe I guess it is but it’s not really my intention. We’re prefacing this by saying please forgive, please, audience and carry forgive me for the brag, but we just crossed over. Maybe we didn’t. But we’re right on the cusp of crossing over 2 million downloads in the lifetime of the show. And I bring that up because you’ve been with us almost since the very beginning. So part of the reason why we’re now doing even higher numbers than ever before is because of because of you. So thank you for helping us get to

Carrie McCormick 3:30
know amazing, yes, yeah. Awesome podcast, and you’ve got great followers and, you know, continues to grow. So I’m happy to be part of it. So thank you.

D.J. Paris 3:40
Thank you. So what’s what’s going on this month?

Carrie McCormick 3:43
All right, November. And I know we’ve got listeners, not only here in Chicago, but we have listeners all over the United States. So I just wanted to kind of talk about a broad United States market. Data and I know everyone knows this. But as we move into fall, our market continues to slow down. And we know that consumer prices and higher mortgage interest rates are squeezing our buyers and it’s just an affordability challenge and even hearing people talk about not only from homeownership, but you know auto loans and grocery everything, everything seems to be going up and people are getting squeezed. So right now mortgage rates are at 55% higher than they were a year ago. It’s just in I was saying it’s we were going 150 miles an hour last year. And now we’ve come to this I feel like it’s like 50 miles an hour. It’s like this screeching halt. We’re still, you know, driving at the limit or you know, our speeding limit, but it just feels like it’s just so quiet. So it’s it’s tough. And just here in Chicago, for those that are here in Chicago are new listings in the city of Chicago for single family homes. was down 2.7%. And it was down almost 30% For attached homes, which is our condo and townhome market, which that’s a big number are under contract. So that’s was new listings were down or under contracts for single family homes is down 22%. And down 28%, almost 30%, also for attached homes. So these are big decreases in our market. And I know that Chicago acts like a market within a market, each neighborhood is very independent. And again, those stats are just over the city of Chicago as a whole. So we’re down, you know, so it’s a message that we have to give to our sellers, all the stats, all the data, the information, we’ve got to communicate that to our sellers, so that’s important. But every November, I’ve been doing this for 22 years and been a broker here in Chicago for 22 years, every November, I look back at the year and figure out what I did, right, I figure out what I did wrong. And I tried to create a business plan for the next year into 2023. Because with the holidays coming, it’s going to go quickly, now’s a great time to to start your business plan. And it can be a daunting task for a lot of people if you’ve never done one. And I’m going to give you just a few quick tips. And anyone that wants more information or to have a quick phone call, I’m always available to talk to people about it, not to say that what I do is 100% Correct. But what I do for me, at least it works. So let me give you some quick tips on a business plan. Gather your numbers. And when you look at them, figure out what worked and what did not work. That is the important part of it. So think about the number of listing appointments you’ve taken for 2023 I’m sorry, 2020. To look at your calendar, look at the number of listing appointments that you took, look at how many deals that you closed this year, number of buyer appointments, number of days and hours that you worked each week, that’s a hard one. But for me, it’s I don’t know if I can even calculate it. But just look at your calendar of the time that you’ve taken off and look at the days that you’ve worked. Look at your number of conversations you had each day a big one is look at your marketing budget, how much money have you spent, and then look at where you spent the money. And the lead sources that came from what worked, what didn’t work. And again, just look at your GCI and then look at your volume. These are all data numbers. And hopefully through the year, if you were organized with a calendar, or writing things down, this will be easy to calculate. And you’re going to quickly see where you spent money and it didn’t have a good return or you’re quickly going to see oh my gosh, I had you know these 10 listing appointments and they were all came from this one ad that I ran or came from the one postcard that I sent out. And then you know going into 2023 Those are the things that you should double down your marketing money on and focus on so you can get more business.

D.J. Paris 8:16
I’m curious when as you’re reviewing what I would love to ask you what did you think you didn’t do a good that you have room for improvement for next year? Do you have anything as you’re reviewing the year? What you what you wish you would have done different?

Carrie McCormick 8:30
Yeah, I think, you know, I spent, I spent a lot of money online, which, through 2022, I’ve, I’m very focused on what is working with it and what is not working, and I’m constantly changing it. So I think monitoring it, and not waiting six months, you know, but monitoring your online spend monthly is important because you’re gonna those are, you know, quick stat. So you’re going to really see what’s working and what’s not working through engagement through responses on it. So I think that’s something that you do have to focus on, I would say I do a lot of print advertising as well. That’s a little bit harder to gauge the ROI. So to answer your question, I think what I need to focus on is my postcard mailings and just mailings in general of it’s a lot of money to do that. And I’m not getting as good of return. So either I’m gonna cut back on it, or I need to perfect it. And I think I’m gonna perfect it.

D.J. Paris 9:27
You know, what’s funny is the development that that I bought that that you represent, represented as as, as the seller, your group represented, I was just realizing I’ve been there a year and a half and I have I have not received one postcard not from you, because I wouldn’t expect to receive it from you, of course, but from any realtor or anywhere now under understanding that this is a new development that people just moved into. Are we looking to move anytime soon? No, obviously not. Or least we just don’t know. I hope nobody’s thinking of moving. So everything’s going great. We all love the place. But I would think now would be a great time for another agent to sort of swoop in and be like, hey, hope you’re loving your place. I know, you’re probably not going to make a shift anytime soon. But I just wanted to start a relationship because we know that a lot of realtors who represent buyers end up the person buys the home, and they don’t hear from the realtor ever again. Now, my realtor was my boss, so he doesn’t know why he and I did it together. But the point is, is I wouldn’t expect him to send me anything but no, not other one other realtor. And again, it would take just a little creativity for someone to think about that. But I don’t know, it seems like a good idea.

Carrie McCormick 10:37
It does. And you know, that’s another thing is Think outside the box a little bit, I think doing postcards or mailings, templates all over the place, there’s companies that do it, they all start to look the same. So you have to be a little bit creative think outside the box. Because you know, like, if you received something a little bit different than mail, maybe you would open it or it would stand out to you because it was a little bit different than just, you know, a glossy postcard. So again, think out of the box a little bit if you’re going to spend some money on postcards. Another thing is, think about where you’re spending your time and your energy. And this again, sounds very easy. It took me years to start kind of time blocking and looking at things that got me distracted and figuring out where do I need to spend most of my time and what do I like a time audit you know, what, what’s effective of my time what is not effective of my time and and figure that out? And you know, make a daily routine of what works for you and what doesn’t work for you. It’s different for everybody. There is a saying by Tony Robbins and it’s it’s sometimes it’s not what what what you’re willing to do that makes the difference. It’s what you’re no longer willing to stand. So there’s things that are time sucks in our day, right? And I’m just trying to think what it is but there’s there’s definitely things that you know are not productive. And you really have to realize that when it when you’re doing it and avoid it or give that task to somebody else. So they can focus on that and you can do income generating activities.

D.J. Paris 12:13
I want to pause for a moment to talk about our episode sponsor are one of my favorite companies out there follow up boss. Now after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country for this podcast, do you know which CRM is used by more than any other by our guests. Of course, it is a follow up boss. And let’s face it, following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort. Do not take my word for it. Robert slack, who runs the number one team in the US uses follow up boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 systems, so you can keep your current tools and lead sources. Also, the best part they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help that you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial, which is twice as much time as they give everyone else. And oh yeah, no credit card required. So you can try it risk free. But only if you use this special link visit follow up boss.com forward slash real that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And now back to our episode. Yeah, I agree. I think that’s it’s, it’s, you’re right, like we can’t control rates, we can’t control buyer sentiment. As much as we can try to influence it. It’s hard to influence sellers and buyers right now with the state of the market. And deals are falling apart at the last minute, we’re seeing a record number of those. So things are outside of our control, and in a lot of ways. And then there are things that are always within our control, which is our activity. And actually, I have a quick little story I thought I’d share with you and the audience because I think this is perfectly apropos to how it may be what agents can do right now. While maybe things are a little slower than normal, and everyone’s stressed. And yes, all of that is true. And there’s things you can still do. So this just happened yesterday. It was my one of my closest friends and his wife’s anniversary. It was their ninth anniversary. Here’s how I knew that I had put it in my calendar or in the contact list form. Or sorry, the contact. You know, I have for each of them. I have their anniversary date because I was there at their wedding and I wrote it down or I asked them later whatever it was because I thought this is what my closest friends I probably should know when his anniversary is so that all I could no I’m not a Producing Realtor. There’s no I’m not looking for anything here. I just want my friend to feel that I care about him. So I sent so I have in my little calendar every day if it’s Sunday. nice birthday, if it’s one of their children’s birthdays, if it’s an anniversary, it’s the only way I would ever remember to do anything is even my own family with stuff is, you know, I write it down because I don’t when it’s my parents anniversary, I think it’s, you know, April, something, but I don’t always remember it perfectly. So I put all of my friends information and so I sent a text to my friend and his wife yesterday. Oh, hey, happy ninth anniversary, it was literally took two seconds. And his wife who I’m not as close with, I don’t know her as well as I know him. She wrote me back and she’s like, You were the only person every year outside of their, like immediate family that knows it’s our anniversary, and or if they know it, nobody else writes us about it. And it was just took two seconds. And I’m like, that is so easy to do. And, and she was like, how do you do that. And I was like, why just put it in a calendar. And you know, but it’s like, there’s no magic to it at all. But the point is, is is now is a great time to think about your communication strategy for staying in touch with everybody over the next year. And now’s a great time to call your all your clients and say, Hey, I’m just updating my, my contact, you know, whatever my marketing system, I just want to make sure that I have all your data correctly in here. But I want to make sure your birthday is on such and such day. Right? Great. Okay, hey, just out of curiosity, what what’s your anniversary date, I’d love to, you know, just know that. So I can, you know, give you guys a quick hello, or something on your anniversary, like people will tell you this stuff, especially if they’re past clients. I mean, that shouldn’t be any problem at all. But certainly the you what I’m trying to the point I’m trying to make is you want to stack the deck with reasons to reach out to somebody. And it doesn’t have to be, Hey, you want to buy or sell a home. It’s like, Hey, I remember your anniversary, like people care very much when you demonstrate, you know that you care for them and that you’ve taken time to build it into your life that their their lives are important. And really simple and easy. So I know I’m talking about this a lot. But guys, this is a great time to just update your database, call all your clients say hey, I’m I’m just getting my you know, getting some things together for 2023. Just wanna make sure I have the right data for you. You know, and you can say, Oh, by the way, you know, I would even ask if you’re, if you’ll feel close enough asking when their kids birthdays are ask them what grades their kids are in. If not birthdays, ask them, hey, you know what grades are they and so you have an idea so that when school rolls around, you maybe have a list of people to you know, give some you know, care packages for kids in grade school or high school or college or I think there’s lots of cool ways you can demonstrate care, that don’t have anything to do with market conditions. And that maybe will pay dividends when people are ready to buy or sell.

Carrie McCormick 17:37
I think that’s so good. And sometimes it’s the little things that matter. And I just wanted to finalize in this, our call by saying the seven tips that I have for marketing for 2023. So I’m gonna say my seven tips will be video video video, you have to do video, you have to do video, I’m I know people don’t like to do it, or they don’t want to be in front of the camera, but it’s just, it’s going to dominate in 2023. So just get used to it and do videos. So that’s number one. Two would be teamed up with a mortgage lender to strategize you know, as we are in this market with these crazy interest rates. We do need a professional on our side to strategize there’s all these different bite down programs and different ways to message it. So definitely team up with a mortgage lender. I’m also going to tell you to create a blog which I don’t have one. So I’m going to try to do that for 2023 newsletters, your website, you know get all of that in, in the right place, refresh your social media profiles. And that’s another thing, these are all good reminders for me to do to you know, make sure that all of your profiles are up to date and refresh your headshots. You know, there’s brokers out there that you know, I’ve looked them up online, so I just know who I’m meeting and I meet them and they look nothing like their head did their picture. So you know, it’s a good time to refresh your headshots, QR codes, use those utilize those in your marketing campaign to capture client information. I don’t know where I’m at with number wise but clean up your CRM, strategize on a system just like you said, to stay in touch with your clients. There’s different tools, you know, you can call people, you can email them, you can send them a survey to get information. And then just I think, finally, a marketing tip for everyone is work on your messaging and what your purpose is. I think when you know, and you can communicate who you are, what you do, what your purpose is, to your clients, they’ll better understand you and what your job is to do for them.

D.J. Paris 19:47
Yeah, I agree on all of those are such such great ideas. So I think you know, great time to take a step back from the craziness of where inventory and rates are and sort of say well, I can’t don’t do much about that right now. But now is maybe a time to invest in some more learning some more skill development, you know, getting the marketing down for next year. And I’ll just give this one final tip for from a marketing perspective. I say it all the time. I’ve said it probably on the show a bunch. So I apologize for the review. But it’s a great fundamental. LinkedIn is really great at a couple of things. And one of those is work anniversaries. So I was talking about romantic anniversaries, you know, wedding anniversaries, dating anniversaries earlier. But work Anniversaries are another thing. So this is something that usually nobody knows it’s their work anniversary. So in a way, if you can find out like, I don’t even know it’s a work anniversary for me until I start getting messages on LinkedIn going, Hey, congrat, right. Like, we never know, most people don’t know, their actual anniversary. So another great reason is you just go to the LinkedIn act activity feed, and you’ll literally can just check it every day. And you’ll probably see when people get promotions, when they get a new job when they have a work anniversary. All of these are things that people would never expect you to, to reach out to except on LinkedIn, when they tell people it’s their work anniversary that you get a lot of messages. But how about a phone call? How about a text message? How about going a little bit beyond and noticing something like that? And again, just demonstrating care. So anyway, I love that, I think, yeah, I think it’s I think it’s a great place to wrap up. We should also mention two quick things. Right now, you know, I think is also a great time to build relationships with realtors and other markets. Right? It’s a wonderful time to really say, okay, my clients tend to move or retire to or have vacation homes in X, Y and Z places. And so for example, if you have if you’re a realtor, and you have people that live or that want to live in Chicago, some time of the year, or maybe a second home here, they’re moving to this area, or you know, down to Florida or Texas or wherever people are moving these days. You know, Charlotte, not Charlotte, but Charleston is a big one Nashville, of course, lots of places are having these big booms. now’s a great time. And so Carrie would love the opportunity to work with you if you have clients that are interested in the Chicagoland area. She’s literally one of the very most successful Realtors here. She does it all herself. It doesn’t get passed over to a team member. It’s literally her so if any and if anyone’s listening who isn’t a realtor, but just a buyer or seller or renter or investor or developer who wants to work with the top realtor here in Chicago, Carrie, we could not more highly recommend her she’s the best. Carrie what’s the best way that someone can reach out to

Carrie McCormick 22:43
always call me 312-961-4612? Or you send me an email at Carey [email protected].

D.J. Paris 22:52
Awesome. Well, we will bring this this episode to a close Don’t. Don’t let it bring you down. As the as the song says. This is this is a tough time most brokerages are down. production is down for agents. It’s just kind of where we’re at. We can’t do a whole lot about that except keep moving forward. Again, people want to work with people who demonstrate competence and care. So up lets up your competence level. Ask more from your from your brokerage about skill development, knowledge training, and then ask more from yourself about staying in touch so that next year, you’re like, Alright, everybody in my database, I have five different times throughout the year that I’m calling them for different milestones or reasons to reach out birthdays, anniversaries. Hey, just checking in how’s everything going? You know, school, starting school, ending whatever it might be, come up with five or six reasons to reach out not real estate related to each person in your contact list. And you’re gonna have a great 2023 At least I hope so. So anyway, I’m Carrie and on behalf of Carrie and myself, as always, thank you to the audience we are, this is our Believe it or not our most our highest month ever is this month as far as number of downloads. I don’t get I don’t say that to brag. I’m just so encouraged. And it’s really we don’t spend any money on on marketing. I wish we probably did, but we don’t. And so we’re so grateful to everyone for telling a friend about our show. Please continue to do that. Think of one other real estate agent, maybe even a new agent who wants to hear cash and wonder how somebody gets to the very top of the mountain like Carrie Well, this is how so definitely send them a link to our website, keeping it real pod.com. And also again, if you know anyone who is looking to buy, sell, rent, or develop in Chicago talk to Carrie. So I’d be happy to carry myself we say thank you on behalf of the audience. We say thank you to Carrie. This is it’s so incredible to get somebody of hers have her skill level and her busyness level to be on our show for years and years now we are so internally grateful. We’re so thankful. So anyway, I’m Carrie thank you again and we will see Everybody on the next episode.

Carrie McCormick 25:01
Thank you guys

Jen McConnell talks about how she got into real estate business. Jen emphasizes the importance systems and people and how these were the key to her success. Next, Jen talks about The McConnell Foundation and what’s that activity all about. Jen also talks about how they brought their services to the next level and the complimentary moving truck they offer to their clients and community. Last, Jen gives advise for new agents and describes what kind of content would she share in her social media if she was a new agent today.

Please check out The McConnell Foundation here.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Jen McConnell can be reached at (843) 300-7585.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
When Top realtors say that systems and processes are the most important part of their business, what exactly do they mean? Well, we’re going to talk about that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solutions so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show. And in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with top producer Jen McConnell. But before we get to Jen, just a couple of quick reminders first, well, a reminder for me to thank you for listening to our show. We’re so grateful and appreciative that you’re listening right now and the best way you can help us continue to grow. And the only thing we ever ask is that you tell a friend think of one other realtor that needs to hear about systems and processes to take their business to the next level because Jen is going to tell you exactly how she did it, and does it and send them a link over to our website, keeping it real pod.com Every episode can be streamed right there. Or if you’re gonna send it to somebody that loves podcasts, just have them pull up their favorite podcast app search for keeping it real, and hit the subscribe button. We would appreciate it. Well that’s that’s really all I got today. So let’s get right to it my interview with Jen McConnell.

Today on the show, our guest is Jen McConnell from McConnell real estate partners in Charleston, South Carolina. Let me tell you more about Jen. Now Jen was fortunate enough to start her real estate career when she was just a junior in college. Now with over 17 years of experience in the industry she has she has particular expertise in luxury real estate and custom homebuilding. She is a certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist through the Institute for luxury home marketing, where she has been awarded the prestigious million dollar Guild Award. Jen has also earned the coveted realtor of distinction award achieving the highest rank possible as a Platinum Award winner through the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors, the Platinum Award Jen places in the top 2% of agents in Charleston and in 2021, Jen and her husband Josh opened their own brokerage on the Isle of Palms in Charleston, South Carolina, and for McConnell real estate partners where she is the broker in charge. Also, they run a foundation which we’re going to be speaking about as well. To learn about everything Jen and McConnell real estate partners visit their website see H s estates Estates is plural ch s estates.com. There will be a link to that in the show notes. You can just go to our show notes. Click on CHS estates.com. And check out everything Jen and Josh. Jana, welcome to the show.

Jen McConnell 4:13
Thank you, thank you for having me.

D.J. Paris 4:16
I am so excited because Charleston is just one of those one of those places that I just feel like everybody who visits it, you know, that I know seems to come back saying Oh, I wish I were to live there and you were telling me off camera that you’re getting like 60 plus people a day move to the Charleston area, which is just incredible.

Jen McConnell 4:36
From elsewhere, but not only that, but there are so many people that come here to vacation and then literally they just stay there like someone will pack up my stuff. I’m just gonna hang here. Here. No big deal. They literally just haven’t say especially during COVID Oh my gosh, the whole state of New York just basically came here and they’re like, Oh, we’re just going to go home. We’re gonna stay here now. We’re gonna move here and buy

D.J. Paris 4:55
so which is obviously great for real estate agents. However, I imagine there’s a lot more real estate agents probably getting their license these days at Charleston, I assume that’s probably I bet the real estate, the realtor populations. I don’t know if it’s doubled, but there’s got to be more Realtors now. So it’s good. It’s good. And it’s also there’s a lot of competition, I’m guessing. Yeah,

Jen McConnell 5:16
I mean, we have close to 7000 licensed agents. But you know, the top like, 500 make up 98%.

D.J. Paris 5:22
Do it out? Yeah, yeah. It’s funny. We do that. In Chicago, here we have about 47,000 agents total and same sort of thing. It’s like the top 20% Do you know most of the, because there’s so many people that get their license as a part time thing, or they just do it to buy and sell their own properties. But what’s really cool about Charleston is you have you have like a lot of advantages, right? You have this beautiful, wonderful city, wonderful weather, you’re you have beaches, you also have vacation rentals, like there’s so Charleston, just in the rich history, but just so much going for it. It’s just so jealous.

Jen McConnell 5:59
There’s so much no matter what your lifestyle is. It’s here in Charleston, I guarantee you no matter if it’s the arts, if it’s, you know, golfing, I mean tennis, everything boating, like everything that you fishing, anything you want to do is here for sure.

D.J. Paris 6:12
I’m so jealous. And I’m a tennis and not as much of a golfer but my dad’s a golfer and, you know, he’s been golfing all over the Carolinas for the last 30 years, like three, four times a year. So we were lucky enough to go to Kiawah Island. Actually not together. I take it back. We didn’t go together. We went we went a different trips. I was thinking we did a father son thing, but we didn’t. But anyway, that’s also right near you as well. That’s amazing.

Jen McConnell 6:38
Yeah. And one of the most impressive courses on the east coast, the ocean

D.J. Paris 6:42
course. Oh, yeah. You know, it’s funny, I’ve not that our audience doesn’t care about my golfing. But I will say, if you if you’re a golfer, you need to have an experience once in your life where you have a caddy. And the first time I ever had an actual caddy, like walk would be through the course, which is very strange experience was was at the ocean course in Cuba. And I was like, thank God, because I was like, What do I do here? It’s like literally one of the hardest courses in the world. And I’m not okay, enough about that. Nobody’s nobody’s logging out to hear my golf stories. So how did you you started, you got into real estate when you were in college, which is not very common for the guests that I have on the show. So how did that happen? And why? Sure.

Jen McConnell 7:28
So when I was a junior in college, I was a marketing and finance major. And I didn’t have an internship. And I don’t know, I just always knew that I was gonna go into real estate somehow. And I don’t know what kind of led me in the new construction realm. But I knew that there was a homebuilder on highway 30, in Ashland, Ohio, which is where the college and where I grew up. And I knew that that sounds like a really cool job, and I can do those internships, and maybe they would pay me maybe they wouldn’t. So I just literally, like walked in, I had my resume. I’m like, 20 years old. And they were like, Oh, we were hiring, but we’re actually we just hired to fill the spot. And I was like, well, that’s just not gonna work. Like, I just need to talk to your manager. Like, that’s all like, I won’t, I promise I’m not here. Like, I just wanted like a job, job or internship, it’d be fine. Like, I just talked with him. And then like, eventually, like, edge my way in and let me talk to the manager and end up getting it for like a sales assistant position. I was like, Okay, well, this is cool. And then it was just I loved it. I loved it. It was custom construction at like, 20 years old, you’re designing these ridiculous houses. In Ohio. You know, they were like, you know, what you kind of see everywhere, like on a farm or, you know, some of the nice houses for sure. But then they opened, right when I was graduating, so a year later, and they’re like, you’re gonna go to Charleston, and we’re going to Wilmington, I was like, Well, you know, I’ve never been to Charleston. Let’s do that. Like, I’ve heard. It’s great. Let’s go there. So I moved down here and didn’t know a person at all isn’t up there for stuff going on location in Charleston. We’ve been down for ever since. And, you know that and I was 21. At that time designing like ridiculous beach houses, multimillion dollar beach houses, like, who gets that opportunity, right? Like it was just, it was wild. So that’s really how I got my start in new construction, and then new construction for 11 years. And then once I got married and started having kids, and I was like, I don’t really want to work six days a week, like, I want to kind of have more flexibility with my schedule. So then I got my general brokerage license in 2008. And then actually didn’t really start doing it full time until like 2016

D.J. Paris 9:22
Wow, because you weren’t you were busy doing mom’s stuff. And you were

Jen McConnell 9:26
really like I actually so I had my kids that I had my daughter when I was still working on new construction, but literally like on maternity leave, I was like, I can’t go back to six days a week. And we’re going you know, we’re just going to general brokerage at that point. That’s when we kind of came back because we’re all saying that on our palms and yeah, the financial protection sensor 2016 When I’ve been in general brokerage

D.J. Paris 9:46
Wow. Well, I you know, as as somebody who I don’t run our brokerage, but I know the work it takes as being part of the management staff at our brokerage and, you know, I almost wonder, are you working even more now now that you run your own brokerage? Are you able to have better balance? Because you have, you know, some of that flexibility.

Jen McConnell 10:08
You know, the work life balance is an interesting topic. And I’ve been in several masterminds about that. But I do feel very close to that balance. So I found that if you’re really stressed and running on fumes, there’s either to do one of two things, or both things missing either leverage or systems. And I was missing both, like in 2016, to like, 2019 it was really just running on fumes, you know, I was doing I was the EAA, I was the assistant, I was doing all the transaction paperwork, I was going to have your clothes and whatever home inspection I was selling, and listing. It’s impossible, right? Like, you can’t keep up with that stuff. And,

D.J. Paris 10:42
oh, by the way, you’re a mom, too. And I have like

Jen McConnell 10:45
a one and two year old. So it’s like, no, it’s not. And I have a marriage, like it’s not sustainable. So I found that really quickly, and we had a major life changed in 2018. That kind of shook our world. And that’s when everything kind of came in perspective, to be honest with you that it was like look like, it’s just not going to operate that way. Like we deserve a better life than that. And things just need to change because we need to savor every moment, we came with our children, our selves, our marriage, you know, everything. So just kind of worked itself out that way. And now I’m just very focused on if we have a pain somewhere in our business, it’s a system or a person that we’re missing. And that’s really what it comes down to, I think,

D.J. Paris 11:21
wow, that’s such a, that’s a really concise, and I was trying to sort of poke holes in it as I was thinking, Is it always systems or people and okay, maybe it’s not always that, but like, probably 95% of the time. So I was thinking, like, it’s true enough, you know, and, and I was, I was just reflecting in my own business, because, you know, whatever, my own struggles, and I was thinking, yeah, she’s right, it’s systems and people. So I think that is such a great point. And I always like to remind our audience too, if if you hear this, you go, well, easy for them. They’re top producers, and they have unlimited resources to be able to, to hire people. And it’s like, well, maybe, or maybe not. But the good news is, for anyone listening, who maybe as a solo practitioner, maybe is newer to the business and doesn’t have those resources, you can hire help from all over the world these days, you know, using like, upwork.com is a great place to look. And the point is, is you don’t if you you know, if you can’t afford someone local, and you can have tasks that can be done, you know, virtually, thank God, there’s so many options now, and people can afford to have, you know, more of that virtual assistant experience at a really nice price point.

Jen McConnell 12:30
Well, yeah, and I would honestly say like, even three years ago, I was not a top producer, like I was doing well, compared to everyone else in my office, I was at a big brokerage, but nothing compared to what I’m doing now. And it’s just because I think it’s more focused on those systems first, and then I heard people that can help with help showing help doing the EAA, work, help a personal assistant role, and really just allowing me to do what I’m good at, which is being in front of my clients, where it helping them get deals, you know, listing homes, I mean, that’s what I’m good at is in front of people not sitting here filling out a dotted box, right? Like, there’s people that can do that, and are way better than I am at that type of work. And I praise them for it, because they just, they know how to do way better, and I could never touch it. So why try.

D.J. Paris 13:12
I couldn’t agree with you more. And it’s, it’s I know, it’s hard to for a lot of our listeners, and even for me as well, I’m not a practicing agent, but I work amongst agents, and just this idea of of giving over part of your business to, you know, to someone else to be able to handle and it’s like, what if they screw it up? What if they make mistakes, and, and I understand the fear there. But was that challenging for you to be able to give up? Because, again, you know, I can’t do everything, but I’m used to doing everything. And if I give up my dotloop docs to someone else, whatever, you know, it was that a fear of yours that like things would just all fall apart?

Jen McConnell 13:47
Oh, 100% and it was so silly. Like I look back and I’m like, Oh, I like literally worked skin involved, like for years, like what was I think he’s like, No, someone will mess up a document and then like, I just it’s a better fit to do it myself. No, it’s not 100% it’s not, there is someone who is better with each skill set and you can figure out what your top 20% should be. And that’s what you should focus on 100% the other 80% that you’re doing that you’re not really that good at you need to leverage that out for sure. Because they’re gonna be there 20% Then

D.J. Paris 14:17
and even with documents like transaction management companies are plentiful, they are all over the charge I don’t know three 400 bucks a deal and you only pay if the deal closes and then that person you know you have to find a good person of course but like you just you know there’s a million ways to find good good people to help with that. It’s like for 400 bucks to never have to deal with paperwork again per deal. It seems like a pretty good deal to me. Yeah,

Jen McConnell 14:41
I mean, again, like I think that just staying in your lane, which I mean husband wife, you know we own our brokerage together. So stay in our lanes is very important. But staying in your lane with what you’re good at and knowing what you’re good at is like the first thing you should find out if you’re just becoming a real estate agent, like know what you’re really good at sometimes those ages It’s far better at the paperwork. And maybe they need to be like an EAA role and just a showing assistant. So when they get that interaction with people, but they can still do their work, which really they love to check those boxes, whereas like, I don’t want to see the box, I just want to talk and I just want to go and I want to go to the houses and lets them into the marketing videos, do the fun stuff, you know. So I think just always finding your role and saying you’re staying in your lane is super important, and knowing what your role is coming into new agent, for sure. But yeah, you definitely do everything started out 100%. And you do that until you’re too tired and worn out. And hopefully don’t get to that as far as I got when I was like every day was working on like, no breaks, you know, that’s just not fun. This is we’re here to live right and give back. And that’s what we I realized kind of just a few years ago, but like I said, like three years ago, you know, my I did like 8 million, like, that’s not really a lot in our market at all. You know. And so I think implementing those things, implementing leverage implementing people and implemented systems like that’s why we are where we are today. So for sure,

D.J. Paris 16:02
yeah, I agree. And I think it’s a good place to talk about your sort of your TrueNorth. And what like, because you, you and your husband have created a foundation, and I want to, you know, whatever you’re willing to share about that, I’d love to share that with our audience. Because I think you know, for somebody to find their why or true north is so critical, especially right now when the real estate market is changed. And people are realtors, a lot of them are struggling in most markets, because inventory is changed and rates have changed. So having that sort of why to be able to kind of keep you going through through some of the more challenging times I think is really important. Tell us tell us what your TrueNorth is and why that’s important to you.

Jen McConnell 16:48
So back in 2018, my son was well 2017 Actually, who was born in July, and it was five months old was diagnosed with cancer here at MUSC Children’s Hospital in downtown Charleston. So that obviously was very earth shattering for us. But that day that he was diagnosed, my I stopped, I did not talk to clients, my phone was off, emails were cut off, social media was cut off. I did nothing but focus on getting him cured. So you know, that’s scary for real estate agent especially I was I was just getting into general brokerage I had just gotten back in general brokerage 2017. So I was just getting back into it, you know, kind of getting a groove going and then you know, that hits and you stop. So we’re didn’t care about that at all. You know, I feel like everything worked out on the end. So he was cured. Fortunately, by his five month Ursu, the 10 month birthday, I guess if you want to call it so by 10 months old, he was cured of cancer, which was of course, like the best, you know, the best thing you could ever hear in your life, like and the fact that they could say cured we were like, wait, wait, did you say the C word like cure?

D.J. Paris 17:53
remission? remission, right?

Jen McConnell 17:54
Like, that’s what we were expecting? Just like no, you know, you’re he’s cure. And if you know that, for us was just, it’s everything, right? So that really propelled our business entirely and changed everything. So my husband left corporate America within six months of my son’s here simply because we just realized, like the grind and being responsible to a corporation who kind of really doesn’t care if you’re here or not sure what’s going on in your life, they want you to be there and be president, that really changed everything. So he came on board, six months later, left corporate America, once our son was able to go back to school, there’s kind of a lag once you’re cured, and when you can go back. I only worked you know, six months that year. And in that six months, I did $8 million. So that was my top here. You know, today that has been that was amazing. Six

D.J. Paris 18:41
months really? I with all of the stress of of what’s going on? Yes,

Jen McConnell 18:46
I did. My phone did not ring and that was kind of something in the middle that you’re thinking like, okay, like I thought I would have had like a call and know what my phone was dead silent. And I’m like, wow, okay, well, you have to start over. Like, it’s alright, I can do that I can start all over again. It’s fine. Like, whatever I got to do just get this boy here. And a week before my son go back to school, my friend said bring it again. Like it was just referrals coming in ages from other markets, sending referrals, repeat clients coming back, like it was a miracle. I mean, he’s a miracle for sure. But like, it was just that to me, I’m very I’m religious. That’s God, that’s nothing to do with me at all. So that that best year was definitely him. And then from there, we just kept doubling our business. And it really comes down to at that point where we realized like, I’m not going to grind 24/7 not see my family, not see my kids, that’s my husband. And then just you worn out like who wants to go through life like that. So we’re very intentional on where we spend our time. But then implementing those those systems and and the people that we really need to be able to run and run at a high rate. So you know, this year we’ll do 45 million. And that was three years ago where I did eight, you know, so

D.J. Paris 19:53
yeah, it’s amazing. And this idea of it’s almost like saving up for a rainy day in a sense because this idea Yeah, that you guys had your your, obviously your your child was struggling with a very serious illness and and that takes up all of your attention. And of course the business does have to go on pause. And then when he said when he come back, it’s like, oh boy, my clients, you know, they’ve sort of disappeared for a while, and maybe they won’t return maybe I do have to start over and this idea of building systems so that when, you know, really unfortunate things like that happen, you know, there’s there’s ways to keep the business to some degree chugging along. And so I imagine that’s probably was motivation for you to that should, should we, you know, should we want to spend more time, you know, at home or with the kids or whatever the the goals of the family are, you now have systems in place to support that.

Jen McConnell 20:47
Right. Well, I mean, I literally used to have my client, like, my, my database was an Excel spreadsheet, like, I mean, that was just three years ago. So it’s like, you have to start somewhere like to say that very humble beginnings. But you know, yeah, it’s just, it’s not sustainable again. So like, why I was running the grind because like, I have to make sure I hit all these people, right? How many times a day, how many different weeks and two weeks out throwing it out on an Excel spreadsheet, it’s not sustainable. So I’m sure most agents have something much more sophisticated than Now, thankfully. But really, what changed our business beyond just that is, is having that Northern Star like we were talking about earlier, and, and that for us is to be able to give back to boaties oncologist. So my son’s name is Bodhi, his oncologist is Dr. Jacqueline, Rebecca and USD and she has one of the only two gastric research labs in South Carolina for cancer. So you know, we Josh and I both had prayed to God, when we were in the hospital, once we found out he was diagnosed, and we were, we just said like, if he gets through this, like, we will do whatever we can, sorry.

D.J. Paris 21:45
Oh, okay. These are these are big things. So I appreciate I appreciate that the biggest things honestly, yeah. So I appreciate your appreciate your emotion.

Jen McConnell 21:57
Yeah. And we just thought we would do whatever we could to give back.

D.J. Paris 22:03
And so and so you started a foundation. And I, the foundation is tell us about actually tell us about the foundation? Well, yeah,

Jen McConnell 22:11
so the first thing that we did, actually, so 2018, he was cured 2019, what we decided to do with our brokerage was we started setting aside a portion of every commission, and donating that to pediatric cancer research. So 2019, we did 20 or $25,000. And then $50,000, the next year, this year, we’re already over 65,000. So I think we’ll be close to like 90,000. And we’ll donate just for the brokerage. So which is awesome, right, and we involve our clients like this is a very transactional business. And but on the buyer and seller side, like it’s a very relationship, relationship based business. And so what really came super clear to us once we knew that we wanted to kind of base our business around, giving back to to Doctor practice research, because we need to really involve them into what we’re doing. And so you know, every email, we update them on where we are with our musc goal for the year and we invite them to our fundraising events. And if we have client events, we’ll have like a donate portion. And you know, it was awesome, because our clients just they come through for us and they’re always so sweet. Like, before we had our foundation, they would literally just like hand us checks and be like, well here like, I want to I want to donate to your cause. And I’m like, Well, I know but I can’t take your your like donation from a brokerage. So it’s like, the way that like I but I knew what to do so much more to write so so we’ll always do you know, from our brokerage set aside that portion that will always give back to Dr. Becker’s research. And the awesome thing is for research to share on national level, by the way, like she shared it with St. Jude and all these wonderful, amazing hospitals across the country. So that’s the cool thing is not just here that her research is going. But then so basically, once clients kept paying that money, and we’re like, guys, like we can’t do it that way. We were like, You know what, we can do it bigger, we got to get bigger, and we just need to start our own foundation. So in 2021, we started our own foundation, the McConnell Foundation, and we had our very first gala last year in June. And we raised $45,000, for our first gala for Dr. Baca, which was like really cool. I know, like, I don’t have a gauge, because I’ve never done that before. But I mean, I had great mentors in the industry. And they were like, Jim, like, that’s really, really impressive. But like, okay, good. Like, I want to double it next year. I’m like, I know, like, I love it. So it’s cool. It’s cool. And we’ve done it with almost $120,000 in the last two years to musc pediatric cancer research. So it’s Yeah. We just Yeah, I mean, and again, like, that’s why like, I feel like I’ve been given the skills in what I do real estate that is helping me give this life to someone else, hopefully, you know, and, and provide that research. So that’s really our that’s our Northern Star like we were talking about earlier. And that’s why we do what we do when we are so clear focus on know what we need to do to be able to provide for the research for sure.

D.J. Paris 24:54
I mean, that’s such an interesting and important thing that you said and I want to make sure that our audience really We heard that because I suspect that when you when when you and your husband and look at your brokerage and come up with sort of ideas of what you want to do for 2023 and beyond, I imagine, you know, a big part of the conversation is, hey, we want to raise X amount of money for, or we want to donate and raise for, you know, this pediatric cancer research. And that becomes a huge motivator to keep the business growing and operating versus just, you know, and there’s nothing wrong with of course, you know, one’s own salary and one’s own own conditions. But it is, I imagine, because of, of how much it impacted your family, that becomes a huge motivator. So it’s so interesting, you said, we just want to be able to donate more. So in order to do that, we have to do more business and raise more money. And I think that is such a such a really a beautiful thing. And I really applaud you for finding that North Star. And, and then taking action, right and realizing that so many people, you know, you know, don’t don’t take that kind of action and not to judge them in a different way but but it’s really something that’s super admirable and and you get your entire community behind you as well. And everyone now is wanting, you know, wanting you to succeed so, so I applaud you for that, for sure. I want to pause for a moment to talk about our episode sponsor are one of my favorite companies out there follow up boss. Now after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country for this podcast, do you know which CRM is used by more than any other by our guests. Of course, it is a follow up boss. And let’s face it, following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort. Do not take my word for it. Robert slack, who runs the number one team in the US uses follow up boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 systems, so you can keep your current tools and lead sources. Also, the best part they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help that you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial, which is twice as much time as they give everyone else. And oh yeah, no credit card required. So you can try it risk free. But only if you use this special link visit follow up boss.com forward slash real that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And now back to our episode. Let’s talk a little bit more about systems. And you know, because you know you were talking about, and I’ve interviewed people on our show that that still work out of an Excel spreadsheet, and that works for them and great. But there are more sophisticated options. And so I’m just curious on like how you went from Excel spreadsheet to more automation, right? I obviously, yeah, let’s just tell me sort of what that journey was like for you.

Jen McConnell 28:08
So the top priority person involved with clients is to write the top tier level experience, like we kind of coined ourselves as a concierge level of real estate. And so we want to, I mean, I think my earbuds are dying, so I’m sorry, if you let me know, if you can’t hear me for some reason, I know you’re you sound great. So to provide that context of real estate, not only just, of course, being in front of them, but everything else. So before they need us, you know, what are they seen on our website? Or were they seen on our social media? So it comes down like for me, I’m the marketing kind of behind our brand. And so I look more at our how we’re presenting ourselves, we have a client moving truck, which is a 16 foot you know, fully branded, moving truck which our clients can use complimentary when they’re moving or even if they just buy something and you know, a new sofa, they want to go pick it up. So just taking kind of the experience to the next level. You know, whereas when we started in general brokerages in 2018, probably 75% of our business was bought leads whereas now I’m at 5% which really I’m not buying those are just major corporations that I pay a referral fee to to help their execs so I do consider that thought but so we’re at a 95% referral for you know, repeat clients base now so what we’ve done but our but our margins have not changed. So what we did we took that money that we were using when you were buying your clients and I put it into the customer experience and that client experience from you know, not just once they meet us all the way through years and years down the road. So that’s your client events but just elevating them and elevating everything that we do like our we have a magazine that we give out so instead of just like a a one page like I used to have like a one page double sided like here’s Jen McConnell and you know, like, I don’t know is nothing impressive, but like we have actual like magazines Like, Apple legit? Yeah, so like, this is the first thing, anyone who needs anyone on, you know, my husband or I or we have another event, you know, that’s the first thing that they see. And then just elevating everything from there. So like a closing book is a hard bound. I mean, this is like a legit book, you know. And so just fully, it’s everything from their inspections to like, if they had invoices from repairs, you know, coming from restrictions, if it’s new construction, we have their manual there. So just elevating everything that we’re doing to give that client experience so much more than they would ever expect. By like, that’s our whole goal is to be able to do that. And then we’re intertwining that with who we really are. So connecting on an emotional level that knew who we are, is we’re a family that’s supporting musc. And by you supporting our business, like we’re able to do that on such a better level. And then they want to get involved as well. So we’re just we’re intertwined. Like we’re it’s not a transaction at all. And it’s not just a buy or sell and or investor like these are people who are in our lives. That’s the best part about it, honestly.

D.J. Paris 31:01
Yeah. Yeah. It’s like you’re almost building a, you know, continuing to add to this giant family. That’s all helping each other. So that, you know, the greater good can be can be accomplished. You said so much here in the last few minutes. I want to just unpack a little bit. No, no, no, no, no, in the best possible ways that you said a lot. I’ve wanted to talk about the truck. Because this is it’s a simple idea, really. But I don’t know I’ve been doing this podcast five years, not one person has ever told me that they do this. I don’t think anyone I’ve ever interviewed does this. So you guys went out and acquired a smaller moving truck for or I couldn’t tell how big it is from from the picture. But it was really good sized truck that your clients can use sort of when they need it. So So what was the impetus for that? Just out of curiosity.

Jen McConnell 31:49
So moving is never fun, like no matter who you are? And like, yes, a lot of our clients definitely have the movers are moving company or relocation company doing the things. But we did find a lot of clients who were just like burning these U hauls, and they break down. And they’re not cute, which is like, you know what I love about ours. But like, you know, they’re just not a fun thing. And you have to go like, all the way across town to get it and can’t return it there. It’s just, it’s a pain. So we’re like, what is one concierge service we could provide that help them in this one issue like this one obstacle that they keep hitting? Well, let’s get him let’s get a movie trailer. Right. So we got this beautiful, like 16 foot brand new movie check. It has hardwood floors in the bed, because oh

D.J. Paris 32:36
my gosh, I didn’t realize it was that nice. Wow,

Jen McConnell 32:40
it’s so pretty. Like it has, you know, the Sand Ocean waves on the side like a sandcastle on the back. Like, it’s just such a cute truck. But the cool thing is, like, all of our clients love it, it’s easy to drive this newer, so it like turns normal, and we feel like there’s driving a big SUV. But we do give it to like the schools and our church whenever they need it. So it’s just a nice tool that we can still give back, you know, to purchase charities, whoever needs it at the time, and then our clients get the full benefit. They don’t have to worry about renting a truck and it’s it’s clean yet. It’s like a little dolly and there’s a ramp and like it’s just ready to go. Like it’s just simplifying their life. Like, that’s what our concierge level is, I would I expect and really requires that we just provide that next level service. So that was just one of the little things that we do.

D.J. Paris 33:21
I love that. And it’s really, really smart, also from a branding perspective, because of course, people get to see this truck driving around town that says, you know, hey, what will you use our truck if you if you use our services, I think that’s, you know, obviously, a constant source of, you know, exposure to the community. But it was interesting that you said sort of you were buying all almost all of your business, you know, three years ago, and it’s not, and now you’re you’re almost exclusively referral based, and it’s not that your margins have really changed, you’re just taking that money and investing it back into the client experience. versus, you know, the the just meeting new people, right, this idea of deepening the client relationship, I’m assuming the theory is that by deepening the client relationship and really going way above and beyond what the client might expect, even after the sale, then you know, they’re more likely to want to tell all their friends and family like oh, you got to support the McConnell real estate business because you know, look at how the all the cool stuff they’re doing for the community and beyond. I’m assuming that was kind of the the overall idea.

Jen McConnell 34:32
Yeah, I mean, we just like we love our clients and I know most agents say that they do like we have fun with our clients like we go to like what we’ve a baseball game, we rent out the mezzanine and like all their kids come like I love seeing their kids grow older and get bigger and it’s like oh my gosh, you know, it’s just it’s sweet are like the families who like moved here during COVID and they don’t have any families like we become their family right and so it’s just like we got to keep up with grandma, grandpa you got to keep up with like the kids and you got to just, you know, it’s just such a fun relationship business. And I think agents forget, like, they’re like, it’s just a transaction. It’s like once it closes like, Oh, here’s your, your card and you’re closing it and like, you know, hopefully you’ll keep my mind but like, what’s the statistics are like what 86%, I think is the set, like, they totally forget who you are, you’re their agent is when they close on the house, because you don’t follow up. And like, it’s not just your follow up, but like, you genuinely should be interested in like, your clients and what they have

D.J. Paris 35:23
going on. Well, you mentioned, you know, paying attention to kids and grandparents and, and all of these things, these require systems, right? Because of course, with hundreds of clients, it becomes more and more difficult to be like, oh, so and so’s child is entering first grade. And I should probably, like reach out than just say, hey, oh, good luck with your, you know, first grade or whatever. But how do you do that? How do you keep it all organized? Because that’s a lot

Jen McConnell 35:48
of work. So, you think about that, right? So if you look at your client base, and you figure out what pods they’re in, so we have the newlyweds, no kids, we have kids, young family with with young kids. We have families with older kids, you have you know, retirees so kind of break everyone up into your paws. And then you say, alright, well, I’m a young family. What do I or if I’m a young couple don’t have kids, I probably would only go to happy hour, right? So like, Alright, we’re gonna target that’d be happier. And we know that, that probably, Jen and Josh aren’t coming because they have been in Bodie at home because they can’t get evicted on a weekday. So like, we know that that’s just going to be our first time homebuyers, younger homebuyers, or maybe even empty nesters will come happy hour. But then we know like the baseball game, right, we know that the kids are going to payments with the kids are going to come to that right? Well, if we go to a brand new restaurant downtown with a water, we know that’s probably going to be more of our NPS. There’s like so look at your pods who your your client base is, and do those events, specifically for them. Like one thing that we do, for instance, for kids, like we were just saying about school, so every August, we take personalized cookie boxes to every single kid of our clients. And it has like three little cookies one’s like a pencil one is like an apple and one’s a chalkboard, it has their name or not. So it’s like, have a great first day of school, you know, Harrison, or whoever, and we deliver those to their house the first day of school. Like, that’s definitely I have to be like, okay, Jonathan has a kid, you may have to has a kid like, I make sure I reach out to them individually. No, they know that every August, they need to look their emails, and they can register for that cookie box. And it’s going to come to their inbox, you know, the first of August, we know that. So it’s just a guaranteed thing. And and that’s a system, right? And I just copy that eblasts for last August, and I changed it to say this year’s date and it’s coming out. So it’s just it’s super easy. So just things like that, like just really being intentional with your touches is something that we focus on. And then what do our clients really want to do? Like, they don’t want to come to my office and like have happy hour? No, I mean, they want to do that. And they want a cool place. Oh my god, I think both of my headphones are

D.J. Paris 37:43
dead, okay, you’re still sounding great. So keep going.

Jen McConnell 37:47
So just really again, like knowing your clients and and targeting your business. So we look at our calendar year, we started November, and we look at the whole next year, and every single month, we plan out exactly how we’re going to touch our clients and what we’re gonna do with them. Like if we’re going to meet up in person, if it’s on person, we’re gonna deliver the cookies, that’s not necessarily in person. And so you just kind of break up and make sure that you’re seeing them, you’re talking to them. And obviously, you’re touching them with your emails, if they’re not gonna, if there’s gonna annoy you with everything else, or at least getting your emails and if not, they’re gonna get your you know, your quarterly newsletter that we mail out, you know, so this will have updates, like, this is a personal letter from me always. We usually always have some, this is about our gala. And then we will say something about the kids and they’re like, this was our baseball. So they’re still keeping in touch with us. Like, even if they want to ignore us. That’s totally cool. But I know that they’re still getting you know, this in the mail. I know, they’re, they’re still getting our E newsletter. And you know, eventually they’ll come out and come play if they want to. And if not, then that’s fine, too. But at least that we’re in front of them.

D.J. Paris 38:42
Yeah, it is. It is interesting. I once interviewed one of the top Realtors here in Chicago, and I was asking her, you know, Hey, why do you think you’re so successful? And she was, she was like, I wish I had a better answer for this. But I reach out and call every single one of my clients every week and just give them an update on what’s going on. And I was like, Okay, and what else she was like well that that’s kind of it she’s like, I obviously I’m do a lot of a million other things. But she goes I actually think that’s the most important thing. And most agents don’t do that. I was thinking as you were saying that to you know, you were talking about sort of even after the sale, you know, doing Hey, every year we have the cookie thing for the kids and in the fall and we you know, we have all these fun events that people can attend and they’re gonna get notified and then they also get on my newsletter and, you know, other pieces of mail from time to time, but it seems like you’re really really are focused on just constantly engaging with your, with your client and your prospect list. And it really seems to be obviously very effective for you. And it’s interesting because you’re still spending the same capital you were before but you’re probably getting a better return I would assume now because you’re now you know now it’s people who who you know who are clients, they’re in love with you for what all that you guys do for them and for the you know, the Right or community, and then you know, they’re going to tell everybody they know. So it’s really, it’s really impressive. And so as a marketing person, what advice do you would you have for somebody who is an individual practitioner, you know, somebody who doesn’t have maybe, you know, a ton of resources, or a team? What might you suggest to them to sort of help make start to make the transition from doing everything to maybe working on some systems or hiring.

Jen McConnell 40:31
Starting out as a new agent so well, for marketing? Like, like you said, marketing? I think social media for sure it’s free. You just need your time, which as a new agent, you have plenty of that would be for sure. But then your systems I think, definitely have to have a good CRM, we use follow up boss, there’s a lot of really good ones out there. We’ve been we’ve been very happy with follow boss, and probably always be with them. But that’s

D.J. Paris 40:54
our one of our sponsors. We’d love follow.

Jen McConnell 40:59
Oh, good. Yeah. Okay, go to the follow up boss conference in November. Yeah, so you have really good CRM, like, even if you’re just starting now, it’s gonna cost you money, but you have to invest, be able to get money out. One book that I would definitely recommend as a new agent would be Profit First go by that like that is really can get you in trouble. If you are a new agent, and you’re just spending spending spending, I gotta have the best business card business yard signs, best Open House signs. And then you don’t even have a deal, like, do not go down that route, like definitely read profit first. But then once you get that money invested in that CRM, and it’s going to be several $1,000, you’re like, for real? Like, I don’t get any of that commission? No, it has to go back into your business, if you’re serious about it. So I think that and then there’s just so many templates and follow bosses, you know, that’ll get you on a good path, if you don’t have a good foundation with your brokerage that kind of says, like, here’s how you really do the transaction. And here’s what you should do for follow up. There’s wonderful templates in that CRM, as as many others I’m sure. That would be my first purchase as a new agent, for sure. And then like I said, social media, that’s how you’re gonna get your big business. If you don’t, if you literally know no one, and you don’t have a good sphere, where you are, and you can’t afford to buy your bit leads, then social media, for sure.

D.J. Paris 42:10
And if you if you were in that situation, I don’t know you’re not anymore. But if you were, what would you put post your marketing person? So I want to I want to press just a little bit and find out what kind of content would you post on social, would you? And again, there isn’t one, you know, right or wrong answer to this. But I’m curious on on if you were starting out what what type of because we, you know, we say that to our agents a lot here at our company, like, oh, you should, you know, really do a lot of branding and promoting on social. And finally, our agents were like, Yeah, that’s great. But like what content you know, and so we had to really just create a whole bunch of content that they could they could borrow and use. But not everyone has that. So I’m curious. And if you were starting out new nobody, and we’re like, Okay, I’m going to do something on social, what kind of content would would you work on.

Jen McConnell 42:57
So I would be the master of my market and your market be very much like where you live, like I live on Iowa palm. So I would be the master of Iowa palms not Charleston. Like, that’s just too broad. So I will be the master bio palms, I would have 100 videos of our palms, I would be doing open houses on our palms, even though they weren’t my listings, I would be going through go and shows and doing video tour. So even if they don’t know that I’m not with a client, they’re seeing I’m doing this $5 million listing over the water and this liquidity pool. And he’s ridiculous details. They don’t know that I’m not actually with clients, but I’m in the real estate world. And they’re going to know I’m in the real estate world by what I’m showing. So I would definitely be showing all of that on social media. But again, knowing your stats, so you need to know the stats for your market and be the expert. Oh yeah, two to three forest trail just sold sold for 2.2. That’s the highest one story that we’ve seen. So not off the ground in two years, like you need to know your stats. And once you become the market expert, and you’re showing that through videos, or reels, or stories, or even just your grid, you know, I think that you gain a lot of credibility that way. And people call on you real quick on Instagram, like oh my gosh, and they feel like they know you, especially if they see you I don’t put myself on my own Instagram a whole lot. Because I feel like I’m like on the truck. I’m like everywhere. So I don’t know, I’m worried about it. But I think that if I were a new agent I for sure would be if if I were just starting out.

D.J. Paris 44:19
I love that is providing content to the community in large about the community restaurants, school districts have, you know, fun things that going on in the area also knowing the market stats and the go and show is such a great idea. That’s so just just we’ll make this our final thing because I think you’ve given us so many amazing tips, but the go and show is so you would reach out to other realtors who have listings and say, hey, I want to promote your listing. May I come over and do a quick video tour or because you if you don’t have a client that actually wants to see it. Have you found that most listing agents are receptive to that do you get some pushback sometimes or are most

Jen McConnell 44:59
back So once you and you basically are showing time, you can actually just say, virtual showing, and you can just go through and video it and then you can add it to your own real or whatever later and you can give them credit which I think most agents appreciate on the left side. You just say like, oh, Jen, just listen to this awesome listing on waterway like they, if that goes far away, and then you get tagged on their, their page as well, which is, you know, good for your page. But no, I mean, I’ve never had pushback, I do a million dollar Monday, every Monday on my social media. And sometimes I’ll use other agents listings for that. And very rarely, there’s been like, three in like four years. I’m just kinda like, okay, that’s fine. If you don’t mean to help market your listing?

D.J. Paris 45:40
No, I guess I guess they won’t help give you exposure to sell. You know,

Jen McConnell 45:42
I know. They’re gonna give you full credit, of course, to whoever it is. So who knows? If I think I lost you.

D.J. Paris 45:58
Ask agents, firms to think up anyway. So we’ve been jet if you can, are you still here? You know, oh, no, no, no, it’s not you it’s Zoom is having an issue. So anyway, this is a great place to wrap up. So I want to mention just a couple of things about Jen. Number one, if you are a realtor, and you have clients that you know, vacation, out in Charleston area, or looking to maybe retire out there, obviously a lot of people do. Jen would love to connect with you. So Jen, what’s the best way or by the way, if there are any buyers, sellers, renters, who are listening to our show, who are you know, either in the Charleston area or moving there or want to explore different you know, home options there. What’s the best way someone should reach out to you.

Jen McConnell 46:48
They can call text directly, my number is 843-300-7585, or my website, definitely check out is CH s estates.com. And honestly, like, we get a ton of vacationers so even if agents are in town, and just to have a local, you know, like coffee session, I would love to meet people from out of town, we have a ton of people relocating here from other areas, you have to sell their home, you know where they are. So yeah, I’d love to have a coffee date with anyone.

D.J. Paris 47:14
Well, I that is the invitation is open. So anyone out there who has business in the Charleston area, or who just wants to have a referral so that if business comes up, you can now say, Hey, by the way, Mr. Mrs. Client, I know you’re looking at are looking to retire, maybe get a vacation home. You know, I know somebody out out in Charleston, who you know, who’s really good. So this is a great thing that you now can bring to your clients just by introducing yourself to Jen and getting connected that way. And vice versa, maybe she’ll have people that are moving to your area. And so you guys can swap leads. So Jen, thank you so much for your your service, in, of course, the foundation that that you guys run and support and the causes that are important to you, and also just being of service to this podcast, we are so grateful to have had you on the show, you’re you’re just a obviously a really honest and compassionate and vulnerable person. And I think that is that is always something that we can all aspire to be more of. So thank you on behalf of our audience, we thank you for coming on the show. And on behalf of Jen and myself, we want to thank our audience too, for sticking around to the end. And we ask that you do just a couple of oh, by the way, Jen, if anyone out there was touched by your story, if they want to help support your foundation, what’s the best way that they can do that?

Jen McConnell 48:36
They can go to the McConnell foundation.com Or there’s links on our regular website as well.

D.J. Paris 48:42
And we will post a link to the foundation in in our show notes as well. So please contribute donate time, money, or both to to this organization to the foundation rather and Jen. So on behalf of everyone, we thank you, we thank Jen we think our audience and we ask that you just do two quick things before signing off. Number one telephone I think of one other realtor that could benefit from hearing about systems people and Jen’s journey through real estate, send them a link to this episode. I mean, also, she talked about her true north, maybe there’s somebody out there who’s struggling trying to figure out their purpose. In real estate. This might just give them you know the incentive they need to keep going forward and finding their purpose. Send them a link to our website, keeping it real pod.com. We would appreciate it and also leave us a review. Let us know what you think of the show. Whatever podcast app, you might be listening to us, let us know. We take all of your comments very seriously because the only way we can get better is if we know what you like and not like or dislike so tell us how we can get better. I’m Jen, thank you so much and we will see everybody on the next episode.

Jen McConnell 49:45
Thank you DJ, appreciate it.

David Neagle the founder of the global consulting company Life Is Now, Inc. talks about his journey in the business world and how he ended up in consulting. David describes three things he changed in his attitude that brought tremendous change and success into his life. Next, David discusses how one can identify mindset challenges they are experiencing and what to do about that. David also discusses how to identify parts of your business you should delegate and how to achieve that. Last David talks about his The Successful Minds Podcast and what information they share there.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
Today we’re going to be talking about three key mindset shifts for your real estate business that will double your revenue without doubling your workload in 2023. Stay tuned this episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents. And for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show. And in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with David Nagle all about mindset. But before we get to David, just a couple of quick reminders, as always, well, first reminder is to remind us to thank you, the audience for continuing to listen and support our show, the best way you can help us grow is by telling a friend just think of one other realtor that you know that is needing to a mindset shift, especially for today’s episode and then send them a link to this episode, you can find all of our episodes on our website, keeping it real pod.com. And in fact, you can also follow us or find us on any place podcasts are served. Although usually podcast apps only will pull up to the last 300 episodes. And we actually have close to 430 I think at this point. So if you want all the episodes we’ve ever done, and we really believe a lot of our content is timeless and really should be something that you can go back to and get really great wisdom and advice. The best way to do that is on our website. So if you’re somebody that wants to go all the way back through our entire library, the websites the best place to do it, but we appreciate whether you listen to one episode or all 427 I think we appreciate you for being here today and please tell a friend about our show. All right enough for me let’s get to our main event my conversation with David Nagel.

Right today on the show, our guest is David Nagel with life is now and let me tell you more about David is really really an impressive guest. David Nagel is the founder of the multimillion dollar global consulting company. Life is now incorporated. He is also the host of the Business Daily News ranked podcast the successful mind. David’s quest is to teach people how to think successfully so they can experience personal freedom. Now being in the personal and professional development industry. For more than 20 years, David has worked alongside other well known mentors like Bob Proctor and Tony Robbins, and his clients include many well known people, including New York Times number one best selling author, Jen Sincero. Now David has helped 10s of 1000s of students from across the globe, and is one of the architects of the personal growth industry. Through David’s mentoring and podcast 1000s of entrepreneurs, experts and self employed professionals have gained the confidence and found the right mindset needed to increase their revenue, turning their endeavors into seven and eight figure ventures and out forever an avid student David’s core vision is to bring expanded awareness and higher consciousness to as many people as possible and to find greater ways of helping leaders make a bigger impact so that they can lead with their greatest possible so that I’m sorry so that they can lead their greatest possible lives and serve the greatest number of people and I want everyone to visit David’s website not only to learn more about David and his consulting services, but to also check out his podcast and successful mine. So for all things David go to David nagel.com and misspell that David Dav Dee and his last name is N E A, G L E, N E ag le.com. So David daigle.com, we will have a link to that in the show notes, as well as a direct link to his podcast, which we encourage you to subscribe to David, welcome to the show.

Unknown Speaker 5:14
Thanks for having me, it’s an honor to be here. Well,

D.J. Paris 5:17
it’s an honor to have you, I am always interested, I’ve, I’ve always been fascinated by consultants, because I just love that, essentially, they’re problem solvers. And this idea of, you know, real estate agents are so often their own CEO, their their own customer service team, a lot of times, you know, so many of our listeners, it’s just them, and they’re running the entire company, they have to wear every single hat. And this idea of, you know, getting a coaching sort of experience, or having some third party person come in and say, hey, you know, here’s some tweaks that you may want to consider is very, very exciting. And most of our listeners just don’t have that. So I’m excited to get some insight into you about maybe ways they could improve, you know, their mindset or, you know, part part of their behavior to help actually get the more results. But without just working more hours, I know, that’s a that’s a huge one that one of your tenants is there’s ways to become more productive without just pushing and grinding it out more. But before we get to all that, I want to hear more about you and your story. So can you tell us a little bit about your journey in the business world and how you how you ended up in consulting?

David Neagle 6:25
Yeah, it’s an interesting journey. And it’s a very interesting journey. As we were talking about off air I, I was born and raised in Chicago. And from about 13, on my, my wife was kind of taking a bit of a different twist, because my parents got divorced. And we were kind of just left alone, me and my brother to really kind of bring ourselves up, there wasn’t not a lot of engagement there or near as much as there should have been. So I was I was making a lot of mistakes. And I never liked school. As a kid, I didn’t like to like to read. Now I have a library that’s over 4000 books, and I’ve read them all. So it’s a really, it’s a really weird twist, you know, but at 17 years old, I quit high school, I went to the army, got out of the army came home got married, but I had no skills. Okay. I guarded nuclear bases in the, in the, in the army in Germany. So there, I didn’t really have anything that that transferred over into a skill it didn’t, I finished, I got my GED in the army, but I had no other formal education. So I just went to work got married, we had a couple of kids. And I found out really quickly, that I was creating more responsibility that I had the ability to actually stand up and handle. I didn’t have the skill sets to be able to provide financially for my family, but I didn’t know what to do to change it. And the other thing was that I was around the people that I was around, I would ask for help, like, can you give me some advice as to what to do? And all they would say to me, is you shouldn’t have quit high school. It’s like, yeah, kind of get that now. I realized the error, okay, but I can’t go back and change that. So what you know, what do I do now, but they really couldn’t give me any advice. They would just say, work harder, work all the overtime that you can. In the late 80s, I had a brief stint working for Metropolitan Life Insurance company selling insurance, which was actually going well until the savings and loan crisis hit. And then my policies were dropped, like people were dropping policies left and right, right, they just they just couldn’t afford them. So my paycheck went down so low that I couldn’t stay working there. And the only other thing I could do was drive a truck or drive a forklift. So I went to work for a warehouse in while Illinois key foods and at the time, Mr. Key he was the largest food importer in the country. I mean most of the things that we get and appreciate our because he brought those things in and really supplied especially really heavily supplied them to the Midwest area of the country. So I was working there but it wasn’t doing well. I hated what I did. I didn’t like it. I didn’t see any future for myself. I felt extremely stuck and things are progressively getting worse. So I wake up one morning and our cars repossessed right and and that we end up filing for bankruptcy we have to leave our apartment in the middle of the night because we can no longer afford to live there. So we have to move to a really bad neighborhood way down south by Joliet and I have to work I have to drive in to while to go to work. So it’s it things are getting really bad. And I was I was more and more humiliated by the day where we were living. Where Mike where we were bringing our kids up the stories that I was hearing about what was happening there during the day while I was at work. Sure. And I have a I got to work one day and I got reprimanded twice before I even punched in. So I was already you know, the worst possible mood, I was tired, I was exhausted. I was working six and a half days a week. And I was in this trailer, I was loading food into this trailer and I broke down and just started crying. And I was like, God, please show me something, anything how to get out of this, I don’t know how to turn this around. Because my thought was I have to go to college. But I need time and money to do that. And this is before the internet. I mean, there was no you had to go to a physical building, you had to you know, spend time to go get an education, and it was not a possibility at that time in my life. So I had this voice in my head said change your attitude that night, like it was very it was it was like very loud in my head said change your attitude. And I started playing with that idea. And really long story short, I changed three things in my attitude. And I said, I am really going to see if there’s anything to this, like, can this work? Because it wasn’t that I hadn’t heard that before. That’s what teachers used to tell my parents when I was a kid. You know, like David’s a pretty smart guy. If he would change his attitude about school, he would do well, but I hated school. I just couldn’t stand it. He just hated being there. So I started acting like I loved what I did. I started treating people with respect because actually what it wasn’t that I was a mean person, I was angry and didn’t know what to do with that anger shows taking it out disrespectfully to other people. And I really wasn’t doing the best job that I could because nobody ever showed me how to do that. So I was working to go home. I was raised in a in a in a union environment, so to speak in in Chicago, and it was only about doing what you’re paid for wasn’t there was no attitude about really trying to work your way to the top doing more than you’re paid for. Right? That kind of a of an ideal, I did not have that. So if I change this and make this change, I’m like, I am going to do this for a year and see if, if anything changes in my life because I didn’t know what else to do. In 30 days, I tripled my income. Wow. Yeah. Well, I was right. How did that happen a year? Well, I went from 20,000 a year to 62,030 days. And it so spun my head around that I thought to myself, How can this possibly be how can I how can I make this change and have this happen in in 30 days. And what? What became very interesting to observe was that the opportunity to do that had been around me for two years, but I didn’t see it as an opportunity. Because I was looking through a lens of being angry and blaming and victimized were everywhere that I went. And the what happened was there was this guy that used to come to our doc at key foods twice a week, every Tuesday and every Thursday, and he drove a fuel truck out of Lamont Okay, so a company called Osco fuel. Okay, the big red trucks. You’ve probably seen him downtown. Yeah. Right. So he would come he would come every Tuesday every Thursday, and he filled our trucks with fuel and he also filled the trailers because they were refrigerated trailers, so they had to fill them with diesel fuel. Part of my job was to make sure that he filled the right ones, the ones that we loaded with food to check his ticket off, and then you know, let’s send him on his way. But the guy always read the diesel fuel. Like he really stuck he she had to be outside working, whether it was like 100 degrees and mosquitoes and humans it gets in Chicago, or if it was 20 below out there or if it was pouring rain, he was always out in the element. And we and I used to think to myself, well at least I’m underneath this dock, you know, I get this doc over my head. Like this is some big this guy’s got it real bad. Yeah, right, exactly. And I get to know this guy over two years. His name was drew batty. He used to live in Whiting, Indiana. Now he lives in Michigan. But what but after I make this change, he comes up to me one day, and he says How long are you going to stay here? Because he knew that I wanted to get out that I was looking for something else. And I’m like, Drew, I don’t know. Uh, you know, I have I have absolutely no idea like I would so do something if I only knew what to do. And he said, Why don’t you come to work with me, like coming to work where I’m working. And I’m like, and I started ripping on the guy right in front of him. And I’m like, Dude, you drive a bomb on wheels. You deliver fuel, like, I don’t want to do that. I said, I actually said this. I said this to him. I’m like, has anybody ever died? Driving? That’s a reasonable question. I thought so. Then he says to me, Yes, last year, a guy a guy going down 65 and driving down to Indiana flips it and he burns to death. And I’m like saying, I don’t want to come work for and I want to work with you. And I made this I made the real insulting comment to him. I said, besides all of that, I said how much could you possibly be making? Oh, well, last year I made 50,000 Wow. And I went what Am I get out of here? You didn’t make no 50,000 driving that thing. I don’t know what I was thinking. Like, I didn’t know what I was comparing it to in my mind, but it was pure ignorance on my part. Sure. And he says, I will bring you by check my check stub next week when I come in, I’ll show you if you don’t believe me, I’m like, Yeah, you do that, right. Next week, he comes and he shows me and he had made a little over 50,000. And I’m like, You’re kidding me. So all of a sudden, I’m now looking at this. Like, maybe this is an opportunity pay pay attention here. I had a ton of questions, I had to get over all kinds of personal fear about what this was. Sure. Long story short, though. I went, I went there. Within a week, I got hired, I started working and my income tripled, instantly. Amazing. And the thing was this, because this could have been a story where I went to work there, I acted like I got lucky, I worked really hard and either stayed a truck driver there for the rest of my life, because there were guys that did that, that there spent their whole career driving those fuel trucks. Or maybe I could have gotten into management. It was a small family owned company. So that was kind of rare.

But I didn’t look at it as luck. I didn’t believe in luck. I thought to myself, I did something that caused this. I just don’t know what it is, and what not. So I start I pulled out a copy of thinking grow rich that I had when I worked for Metropolitan Life. And in the introduction, there’s a there’s a thing called the slide disguises of opportunity. And Hill says that most people miss opportunity, because they don’t see it as opportunity. They see it as being unfortunate, or misfortune or temporary defeat, they don’t actually see the opportunity that’s in front of them. And when I read that, I thought to myself, that’s what this is. That’s why I didn’t see this for two years, because I was looking at it as something that it’s not. I got so fascinated by that idea. I’m like, I gotta learn more. So I started reading everything I could get my hands on, I started going to seminars, I went to like Tony Robbins in like 1993. And he’s like, rah, rah, it was I thought it was like, this is the coolest thing in the world. I didn’t even know this world existed. And I was on this path for about seven years. And I started working with people because everybody saw my life changing. It just kept getting better and better and better. I started out at this company driving a truck. When I left, I was in charge of expanding the company across the country. And I never went to school, I just kept learning on the job and playing myself the best that I could. And people would say to me, How can I fix my business? Do you have any idea what I could do different, and I would give them advice and they would do it, they would start winning. And I’m like this is a business. So I so in in it’s actually it’s actually this month 1999, October of 1999 is when I started the business 24 years ago. And I started it I walked away from what I was doing, and I never went back. And it’s been a journey of a lifetime. It’s just been unbelievable.

D.J. Paris 18:05
Well, you have first of all, congratulations on 24 years in the consulting business. And also thank you for your service, as well. I know that you said that earlier in the story, but something that that, you know, I think is important to for us that are not in military service to realize that sometimes, you know, soldiers or people that you know, are in the military, whether they’re soldiers or not, are coming home, they’re finishing up their their commitment, and maybe they don’t I mean, I’m sure there’s more opportunities now for them to develop skills than than existed when you when you were there, but some people come back and they don’t know what to do. And they don’t have those skill sets. So it’s important to remember that, yeah, we and their mess.

David Neagle 18:48
Yeah. So you know, you’re I was interviewing lieutenant colonel and my own podcast a couple of weeks ago. And he told me, he said, you know, we lost about 7000 men and women in the Afghan war, he said, but we’ve lost over 30,000 due to suicide since they’ve come back. unbeli And he was telling me just you know, the PTSD, the mental illness is horrific, and we’re not doing anything to take care of them. So there’s there’s a major issue out there.

D.J. Paris 19:14
Well, and yes, and obviously there is so any of us know veterans and people that come back like let’s Let’s put on our empathy and passion hats and let’s figure out how what we can do to help serve them as they served us. But I also wanted to mention you as you were talking about your own journey, I was thinking about it’s probably the name of a book. It certainly isn’t a phrase I made up although I’d love to say that I did. But it sounded like a lot of it was this gift of desperation, right? You had responsibilities. You know, if you were a had been a single guy and you know early on in life where you’re sort of like, I have a crappy job I’m not you know, I don’t see a lot of room for improvement. But it’s only me I’m only sold dealing with my own self that that maybe isn’t for some People as painful as Oh, I have, you know, a family to support. I have, you know, trying to figure out, I have bills to pay, I have all these responsibilities, and I’m stuck. And I think a lot of even our listeners who, who get in get their real estate license, probably a big chunk of the reason why is they want freedom, they want the freedom to work, when they’d like to, they want the ability to be their own boss. Of course, nobody tells them like, that’s a lot to do. And it’s not the easiest thing to figure out on your own, which is why coaching exists and consultants and but it’s, it’s a really hard thing for an individual practitioner to figure out. But I love the fact that as you sort of, you know, progress through your career, even though you were in what, you know, admittedly lower level or lower skilled jobs, you said, your idea was, well, if if I if I change my attitude, let’s just let’s just test this out and see, is there an empirical result? Is there, you know, is my life actually going to look differently, and it tripled your salary? Because you did identify an opportunity that at first glance was not an opportunity. It was like, Oh, that would be a demotion. If I were to come work for you. I might, I might, you know, have injury or die. And also, there’s no way you make any money. You’re the guy filling our trucks. And sure enough, no, there was because, you know, that person was was kind enough to look past some of the jokey insults and go, actually, I do pretty well, and you should come work with me. And you were smart enough, or maybe desperate, and upper, whatever that part is, to be able to go, oh, okay, this is a real thing. And then take action. And I think you’re right, it’s like mindset really allows people like you were saying, in the Napoleon Hill book, you know, to some of some of operate, some of these opportunities that that come to us don’t seem like opportunities, and they almost might even seem like problems. And this idea of keeping your mind open enough to see a different path is exactly what you did. And then when you went to work for this smaller company, which he said, really didn’t have a lot of obvious opportunity, because it’s a family run business, they’re going to be promoting, probably from within, I don’t know if I’m even going to progress. But you know, the one thing that I’m sorry to keep going on and on, but I just wanted, you reminded me of something that I think is so important, which is, which I wish you know, and my parents did a wonderful job raising me but but one thing I wish it would have been drilled into me a little bit more was that even, you know, I was like a dishwasher when I was a teenager, and I had those sort of super low, low skill level jobs. And it’s really hard work is you know, working in a warehouse is crazy hard, I did construction, I did a lot of those those kinds of tasks. And every boss at any of those companies, whether it’s a small family firm or a large, they really are just looking for somebody to shine in whatever position it is, and like the boss goes, Oh, thank God, this, this person cares. And we’re going to keep our eye on this person. And opportunities do become available. Not every time but but in a lot of instances. Or if the company you’re at, doesn’t recognize how well you’re doing. Other people will, and, and they’ll might extend opportunities to you. So I love that story. Okay, so thank you for that. And I really was just really taken in by by your journey. And it’s really obviously very inspiring. So as you I know, you you, you know, work with with a lot of different businesses and also with real estate agents. I want to talk about mindset, because you really talked about, you know, changing attitude, you know, whether we call it attitude mindset, we’d love to hear sort of what your thoughts are on how somebody could actually start to, to identify maybe mindset challenges that they’re experiencing, and then what they can do about it? Well, let

Unknown Speaker 23:52
me tell you about a couple of interesting things that happened to me with real estate people along my journey very early on. One of the first that I can remember, real estate people that I that that hired me, was a guy who was doing land deals, right. And he was pretty successful here in the states doing land deals. And then the Chinese started to come in. And they were buying up enormous plots of land. These were 100 million dollar deals, and where he was succeeding before he was completely failing. So I don’t remember how he got introduced to me. And I had never really done anything with real estate before. But I had a conversation with him and he hired me. And I said, well tell me what’s going on. He was like, I can’t figure it out. Like I’m succeeding over here. He says, but every, every one of these huge deals that I tried to close with the Chinese, it’s like it’s just going out the window. Well, here’s something that’s interesting. I had some experience working with some Chinese companies, and they do business different. You know, they’re number one. They’re very meticulous about The bottom line and all the different pieces of a contract that may not be important to us here, but they’re very important. It’s very important to that. So anyway, so he’s telling me the story. And I said, Well, where are you losing the deal? And he’s like, it’s at the contract, we’re losing the deal at the contract. We can’t, we can’t seem to agree. And I said, well, like how, tell me what’s going on. So I don’t remember the exact stories. But what he was telling me. And what I I started listening to the story he was telling me it and when became very relevant to me was that what was important to the Chinese was not important to him. And he could not see why these other things were important to that. And it was a cultural issue. So I started talking to him about the reasons why these things were important to them, and that he needed to give great importance to these. And he immediately went out and closed $100 million deal. And then he closed the $200 million deal after that. And the guy just, I mean, that was it. I mean, he was just he was out a rocket ship from that point on. But he said something to me, that was also the huge breakthrough. For me, he’s like, I cannot believe that this was right in front of me, and I couldn’t see it. And I’m literally losing 10s of millions of dollars in commission, because I can’t see this problem. And I’m like, It’s the craziest thing, isn’t it? You know, it’s like we see through this bias of our own. We tried to make everything fit into that. So another another story short one, was that a woman contacted me who was working through some other company that I did work for. And she said, mainly chance, do you work with real estate agents? And I said, Well, I have on occasion, you know, broker here, broker there to everything she said, she said, My brother is in the top 1% of real estate agents with Prudential Realty in the company. And this was right around when the the crisis happened in Oh, eight. And they’re really having trouble, right? Sure. Would you would you talk to them? And I said, Yeah, sure, I’ll talk to him. So I started talking to them. And by shifting what they were focusing on, traditionally, for that not considering what had changed because of this crisis that we were in, they all became stuck. And I had them up and selling within like 10 days from that end, but it but they were so stuck in their mind that nobody would sell because of the crash in the market. Like they had made up their mind that they couldn’t do business. So after reframing it and getting them to reframe the idea of okay, because here’s something that I recognized very early on, were an actually I learned this working with salespeople, salespeople would come up with the idea that because of some situation or reason people stopped buying, right, oh, people aren’t buying because it’s summer, or it’s a Christmas holiday, or their kids are going back to school. And I’m like, That’s all BS, it’s complete BS, there’s two different value systems, you have people that have all the reasons not to buy, because of search situations or circumstances in life, possibly even the amount of money that’s coming in or out of their life, those things that value is higher on their, their priority than somebody else who has a different value set. And what’s more important to them, right? They they buy with a different idea in their mind, if you change who your market is based on, you’re looking for a different value set, instantly, you will move from people that aren’t buying to people that are buying, and they had never thought of that before. So when they would do that they would go from not selling to selling instantly. Just by just by doing that. And of course then you have the people that don’t believe you at all. And they just get us dig their heels in that they’re right. You’re wrong.

D.J. Paris 28:52
Sure. Yeah. No, this makes so much sense. You know, I was thinking back to the Napoleon Hill quote, I forgot exactly how it was phrased the sly, Sly opportunities, this idea of good opportunities at dying surprises of opportunity, slide disguises of opportunity I love that it reminds me of another phrase call don’t call the elusive obvious. It’s like it’s right there but it’s elusive. You it’s right in front of you. And and you’re absolutely right. You know, and that’s happening right now. And in the in most Realtors businesses today we have rates, you know, have doubled since their lows of A Few Years Ago and even though rates are still relatively low in comparison to Two Years Ago, you know, realtors are going oh my gosh, people people don’t want to buy right now. And it’s like okay, maybe the people that wanted to buy two Years Ago with a 3% interest rate Yeah, now that maybe they don’t want to take a loan out for six and a half percent right now even though to me that’s still pretty reasonable, but maybe to them it isn’t. But there are lots of people who who will who will find opportunities to purchase or to sell property now. That that but it You’re right, it results, it requires a shift in mindset for the agent to say, Okay, where are these people that are interested in in taking advantage? It’s almost like buying a stock when it’s undervalued. That’s right. Yes. It’s not, it’s harder to find people that, you know, will do that because it goes against some just general sort of human behavior of oh, it’s it’s, it’s, it’s, you know, at a loss right now, do I want to buy something at a loss? Yes, you do, if you think it’s going to go up, but the vast majority of people don’t maybe operate or think that way. So you do have to change your mindset, and then go, Okay, well, where are these people hanging out, or it reminds me of a quick story I heard from a really successful car dealer, when this was back during the, the oil embargo in the in the 70s, when there was oil, just massive oil, or sorry, gasoline shortages. And so, you know, people weren’t buying big cars, because they it was too difficult to get gas. And so these car salespeople were struggling, and the really successful ones went, Well, where do I Where can I go? Where people don’t care that much about this? Who can still buy luxury cars? Like, oh, what if I go hang out at a country club? What if I drive one of our fancy cars over there? Are those people still buying cars? Probably? Those are people least affected by something like that. So So yes, you’re right. There’s always opportunity. But you’re right. It’s about understanding, how do I how do I shift? And it requires a right a shift in belief and attitude? How do you? How do you suggest people start to examine their beliefs? And then and then change them?

Unknown Speaker 31:30
Well, that’s that. So that’s a great point right there. Because you talked about people coming into being a real estate agent or a broker because they would give them freedom. But psychologically, with the average business person, does that’s going to start their own business, is the sell at the level that they believe is easiest for them? Sure. Right. So they’re so they may not go after the guy that sell the $10 million house, they might go after somebody selling $130,000 house? Because that’s what they see themselves as so part of it is to address that, right? How what lens are you actually seeing the business world through, isn’t at your comfort level, because just like you said, with going to the country club, there are a ton of people out there that want to buy and sell right now, because they have different reasons for buying and selling. They’re not nickel and diming. Their their ideas of what they want to commit to it, that 3% doesn’t mean anything to them, they could care less, right? What the percentage is, they just want to move or need to move for various different reasons. And they’re probably looking at much bigger sales when they actually do that. So the first thing that I say is, if they’re not seeing if they’re actually not seeing that, that opportunity, then I challenged them to look at their own comfort zone for who they’re actually selling to. Right, because now that that opportunity has shifted, the only way that they’re going to be successful is if they grow out of that, if they grow out of that level themselves, then they have to actually start to see the opportunity at a different level. So how can they internally shift their value set to go after a different type of a client maybe even increased their own goals in their life? You know, really go after more? When that starts to click generally you see the the alternative of that go like they’ll start looking at other people. I got a 21 year old kid that that is a broker. He was a friend of my daughter’s and he’s probably doing about 5 million a year right now, man, so he just he would he just goes after commercial real estate. Like he learned. He watched he goes in he negotiates. He finds things he looks for reasons people want to sell and he’s just not going to debt and he’s a young guy with no experience.

D.J. Paris 33:48
I want to pause for a moment to talk about our episode sponsor are one of my favorite companies out there follow up boss. Now after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country for this podcast. Do you know which CRM is used by more than any other by our guests. Of course it is a follow up boss and let’s face it following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort. Do not take my word for it. Robert slack who runs the number one team in the US uses follow up boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 systems so you can keep your current tools and lead sources also the best part they have seven day a week support so you’ll get the help that you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial which is twice as much time as they give everyone else and oh yeah, no credit card required. So you can try it risk free but only if you use this special link visit follow up boss.com forward slash real that’s fine. Follow Up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And now back to our episode. Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s really impressive we, we bring out a lot of agents who are in their 20s, who are killing it. And because I always find like, boy that just impresses me again, most, most people I knew in my early to mid 20s weren’t buying and selling homes. So it wasn’t like I could just, you know, hit up my friends who were buying condos, no, they weren’t buying condos, they were renting, and living with roommates and all of that. But you’re you’re absolutely right. I think, you know, for anyone listening, I think there’s this, if you get a little tinge in your stomach of discomfort, when you think about, well, I would like to sell, you know, maybe it’s more luxury properties, or I want to make the switch to commercial, if I’m residential, or I just want to do something a little different than what is in my comfort zone. You know, if I’m selling homes that are 100. And you know, like you said, 140,000, and I really want to sell homes that are 300,000. And above, you know, it’s, but it scares me like that, I think is is an important thing to note is if you get a little bit scared, but you know, it’s like the next part for you, it’s probably the right path. So there’s a little bit about getting comfortable with discomfort, right? I think that’s like, if you can tolerate that little pittance in your stomach and realize that’s a signal that I’m a little bit scared to the next level, but people get to the next level people do it. And, and so what would you recommend? If you’re like, Okay, I want to get to that next level. You know, and I and I, I’m not exactly sure, you know, but I, you know, I’m scared because I don’t maybe I don’t have the skill set yet to do that. Or I don’t know how to reach those people. You know, what would you what would you recommend?

Unknown Speaker 36:44
So the first thing that I recommend is I asked them what they really want? What are your goals? What do you really want, because if you’re really being honest with yourself, part of your inner direction of what you desire will begin to lead you into the outer possibility of whatever that is that you’re looking for. But most people are not raised in an environment where it’s okay for them to want what they want. Right? So they’re right, you’re you’re kind of raised with this idea, like you don’t need that. Only buy what you need, don’t spend more than you need, or you don’t deserve it. That’s, that’s absolutely, absolutely. So they so they get stuck in a financial freedom in their mind that keeps them at a very low level. And then when they do business there, they’re actually looking for people that are struggling, just like them. So so that’s one of the first things that I do there. And the other thing is, is I kind of reframe the idea of fear, because most people will say to me, David, how do I get rid of this fear, like I just got all the all this fear. And I’m like you don’t, you know, matter of fact, you don’t want to write either is actually a good thing. It keeps us alive. If we removed all of your fear, you probably be dead in a couple of weeks, because you wouldn’t be alert to things that could actually kill you. So the idea is, what is fear doing for you? All it’s doing is it’s saying, Hey, here’s something you should pay attention to. It’s not saying follow the fear. It’s not saying listen to the fear, it’s a pay attention, because there’s something outside of the way that we’re wired. That is possible threat. So pay attention, but then you’re supposed to use your intellect to evaluate whether or not this is a fear? And if so why and if y then what is it that you need to do so that so it’s about teaching a person how to think through the possibility of whatever fear is suggesting, because it’s not an absolute, it’s just a suggestion. And it should be a suggestion, it keeps us on our toes for what we’re doing and helps us make better decisions. The other thing is that if you make a decision, and you made the wrong decision, that’s not a bad thing. It’s a great thing, because it gives you real world data to reevaluate how you made the decision. And then to go back and make a different one. Right? Every entrepreneur fails their way to their success

D.J. Paris 38:58
that I want. I want to pause for a second, because that is the most true thing I have experienced. I’d read that a lot. Certainly when I was growing up, and I yeah, all you see, all I would see is the success. And of course you don’t see the failures. It’s almost like looking on Instagram, you don’t, you don’t see as much of the botched meals that people make, or, you know, the pictures of their spouses that haven’t been retouched in the, you know, it’s like, we’re not seeing videos of them yelling at having an argument with it with their children on, you know, but, but this idea that learning actually comes from failure and failure, not failure is probably the wrong word. But but we’re not getting the results you want. Or if you you know step on your own success and you you know, make the mistake that that you know, feels like it costs you. You’re absolutely right. The most successful entrepreneurs I know are the ones that fail the most.

Unknown Speaker 39:50
Yeah, absolutely. In our in our company. We we my CEO has developed something called sun shining your mistakes which Is your we want you to make mistakes here, right? Because if you’re not making mistakes, we’re not stretching enough. And if we’re not stretching enough, we’re not learning and growing. So it’s constantly, it’s fine to make mistakes. But it’s weird because well, it’s not really weird anymore. But it is an interesting thing, that when people come to work for with us, and they you start to bring them into that culture, they’re a little standoffish about it. And the reason is, is because people are taught mistakes or not, okay, we start learning that message in grade school. And it’s like, no, you’ve got to get it right, you’ve got to get it perfect. You can’t, you know, you’ll never be able to hold down a job if you screw things up, and then up people that are paralyzed in the decision making process, and nothing like you don’t have any information. So you make a decision, you have to make a decision. It doesn’t matter whether it’s right or wrong, just make the decision. And then we’ll pick up the pieces as we go and make new ones.

D.J. Paris 40:56
Yeah, I agree. I really well said I have nothing more to add to that. Because it is so important to what’s like that old expression, feel the fear and do it anyway. Right? Like, yes, the fear is there, pay attention, and then identify as this, you know, someone chasing me with a knife, do I really need to run and get out of harm’s way? Maybe? And then Okay, great. And if it’s if it’s, oh, I’m just worried about failing, I’m worried about, you know, taking my career to the next level. Good. Now you know what you’re afraid of, and now you can work to, to reframe that and learn whatever skills you need. Because, again, fear is, like you said, providing information to us. There’s something that’s stopping me from moving forward. Now, I’ve identified what it is, Oh, it’s this this glitch I have, because my parents always told me I wouldn’t be successful or whatever, whatever the backstory is, okay. That’s your story. That’s, that’s fine. And yes, thankfully, there are paths forward. One of the things I wanted to talk about, because I think realtors, oftentimes, you know, as I said, at the beginning, they’re wearing so many different hats. They’re basically every part of their company. And of course, one person’s skill set, inherent skill set to their, their, you know, makeup, a genetic makeup, is probably not going to be sufficient to do every part of a business, which is why, you know, why, why there are employees and businesses that can do things that maybe other people can’t do. So I want to talk about delegation, like delegating work, because so many realtors are just solo practitioners. And I’m curious about your thoughts about how to delegate and how somebody should identify parts of their business that they should step away from, and and have someone else do for that?

Unknown Speaker 42:37
Great question. So we have a saying, when when there’s a problem that shows up or there’s too much work that shows up the question in your mind should be who not how, who, not how, because you’re not supposed to be doing all the work. The the idea of a self made person is a ridiculous idea. There’s no such thing. And, you know, you’re probably only really good at one or two things, everything else you need to find people that are better than you. So the so that you should be consistently thinking who not how, and I need to build in the direction that I want to go, I should not be hiring based on an emergency in my company, but then it always comes down to well, how are you going to pay for it? Well, first of all, you have to hire strategically. But the idea is that the hiring of a person is supposed to free you up to go make more sales not bog you down to so that you can’t actually pay for the person. And what’s really fascinating is that if you look at companies that really hire in with the idea of in the direction they want to grow as a company, they always find a way to pay people, but you don’t need to pay a person until you make a decision to actually hire the person to begin with. Right. So when you make that decision, you change yourself over to a completely different type of desire and necessity in your life to be happy. So you actually start manifesting more business by taking on more responsibility.

D.J. Paris 44:03
This is a really important point and and it isn’t just a sort of a nice thing to say because it sounds good. This is really important. And I think we all all of us listening have been in a situation where we want it to get to some next level whether it’s our career or relationships are great, a great example so if we’re not in a relationship that we desire to be in one and we really work through what we want kind of partner we want the kind of partner we’re gonna be all of a sudden once that’s kind of worked out and it doesn’t work this way for everybody but for people who really put a lot of time in to going okay, I want to get serious about you know, finding a partner. It does eventually show up at usually the right exact time. But but it does it or some people just get lucky, I guess and it happens, you know when they least expect it. But for most of us once we put our mind to something you’re right, all of a sudden the blinders almost come off, and it’s Like our field of vision expands, almost I know that’s kind of a, you know, a bit of a metaphor, but But it actually sort of does happen. You’re right, opportunities just start presenting themselves. I’ll give you a perfect example. So I’ve always been, I didn’t pick up I realized I was very sensitive. And I didn’t know what that meant. I just knew that I felt things maybe more deeply than, than certain other people in my life. And I, I felt disconnected sometimes. And I was, you know, I cry easily and a few other things. And so I started, I was thinking about it. A couple of years ago, I was in an airport, and I go, I wonder if there’s a condition or not a condition. But I wonder if there’s something that there’s like a category of people, like, I can’t be the only person out there. But my whole life, I just been told, Oh, you’re just too sensitive or whatever. Or and I would tell myself that and then I just got to be some other people out there like me. And so I Google it. Well, sure enough, there’s a whole temperament it affects 20% of the population. It’s not a negative. It’s just the temperament. And it’s called highly sensitive. And it’s actually a legitimate thing. And because I just said, Maybe this isn’t a DJ thing. Maybe there’s, you know, other people that that could, you know, help give me some guidance about what to do with the sensitivity. It’s not a bad thing. It’s just something you have to learn how to cope, right? All of a sudden, I found this whole community and I went, Oh, I’m not one of every five peoples like me. And oh, and there’s all sorts of help I can get to help me learn skills to cope with this thing that I thought is a massive disadvantage. For me. It turns out, it’s not a disadvantage at all. But But this idea of, you know, 44 years of my life, I was like, Oh, this is this awful burden I have to carry. It’s like, actually, you know, now I can, because I opened up my mind to maybe there’s a there’s, this is called something. And it’s like, Oh, wow. And now I’ve gotten immersed in that community. And it’s like, oh, yeah, this is, but you’re right. It’s like it’s about changing one’s mindset and seeing what opportunities exist.

Unknown Speaker 46:51
It’s a it’s a great gift, being an empath. I mean, that your sensitivity allows you to see things in people and read people in ways that other people can’t even begin to understand. Yeah, that is a fantastic gift to have. It

D.J. Paris 47:08
sure is, and, and back to delegating for a second, because did you ever think that we would live at a time where we now can access work from all over the globe, from people who don’t live down the street who don’t live in our local communities, and if you can hire people locally, that’s awesome as well, and ice, but not everyone can right away, maybe the finances just aren’t there. But you know, you need help. I mean, it was a lot tougher to do that, you know, 20 years ago, even. And now, you know, with the with, with us just being connected globally, we can find help from all corners of the of the globe, and oftentimes for less money than maybe that we couldn’t afford to hire somebody locally for it. That’s right.

Unknown Speaker 47:52
That’s right. Yeah. And we teach people how to do that all the time. Because it is a major, it’s a major obstacle in the mind of the person. But I want to challenge everybody that’s listening this like, I’m not saying you have to believe me, do investigate this yourself. Listen, our podcasts and you’ll, you’ll begin to understand it because it does take a bit of time to understand it. But let’s, let’s be aware of something very important. If your parents were not entrepreneurial, you were basically raised middle class working class, the rules and values for surviving financially, when that’s the class that you’re raised by are completely different than if you’re in business for yourself. And I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m not doing a good bad comparison. I’m just saying different. And justifiably so if somebody else is completely in control of your income, you’re working for another person, you have to make decisions based on that reality, because you don’t have the ability to increase your income that will. But when you’re in your business, you do have that ability. So the more you understand that ability, and you have the ability to exercise it, it comes down to this, I only have to be concerned about hiring somebody, even if I don’t have the money, I only have to be concerned about hiring somebody if I’m not willing to do the work to pay for them. If I’m willing to do the work to pay for this person, I can go ahead and hire anybody that I want. And I can make the I can make the determination to make the money to be able to do it. And I become extremely focused in that direction. And we do that with companies every day, every day. And they’re just astounded by the idea that they were just psychologically stuck that they couldn’t do it. Because they didn’t necessarily have the cash in hand to do it. I’m like, you don’t need to have the cash in hand. You need to make the decision to do it. And you need to make the decision that you’re going to work in what your sales to bring the money in to be able to do it. Changes. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 49:46
it really does. And it’s it’s, it almost appears as if sometimes by magic, and it isn’t magic, but there’s a magical element to it that when we put our minds to something and we really commit and You know, like, I’m going to head to the gym here shortly. And I nobody hates the gym more than me. But all I did was I said, Look, here’s the reality, I cannot, I will not go by myself and I’m, at the time was 44 years old. I’m like, I know myself, I would love to go to the gym on my own, it’s not going to happen. And there’s a little defeatist attitude there. But it was very honest. I was like, Look, I’ve been living in this body for 44 years, I pretty much know what I’m motivated to do and not do. But is there a solution? Can I still get fit? Well, I had to go, I’m just gonna have to do the expensive option and hire a trainer. And I thought I can’t afford it. It’s It is an incredible amount of money. And yet, here I am, two years later, it’s not that my income has dramatically shifted, where I just now have so much money that I can hire trainers. No, I did it even when I really couldn’t afford it. And sure enough, the money showed up. It just kept showing up. It’s not like, you know, you know, it’s not showing enough showed up, or I could continue to do that. And here I am now two years later, and I all I did was change my attitude. I just went, I’m going to have to pay for this, I’m going to have to figure out a way to pay for this or else I’m not going to be healthy. And it was really that simple. And you’re absolutely right. Like I never thought I could afford to pay for that. And somehow I did.

Unknown Speaker 51:19
Yeah. Yeah, it’s it’s a, it’s a very interesting dynamic with human beings. When we are split focused on something, all we do is see the confusion and the reasons that we can’t, when we make a decision, we really focus in on what it is that we need. And we have to understand something, we’re programmed to manifest what we need, we will always get what we need. But people aren’t consciously aware of that when you become consciously aware of that everything in your life changes because you’re like, holy crap, I had no idea that this would actually work if I if I did it. But you have to be willing to try it in order to be able to do it, you got to step into those decisions. To do it. It I mean, it completely changed my life. And I got the first semblance of that when I made the decision to change my attitude. And all of a sudden, everything in my life changed because of it. I’m like, wait a minute, what, what thing matrix did I just walk through, this isn’t supposed to happen to a 17 year old dropout? Like it’s not I’m not supposed to triple my income in a month. But then, so that from there, I went from 50,000 a year to 50,000 a month, and then over a million and then beyond that. And it was like it, it just kept getting better. But I kept doing the same principles that I was learning along the way. And it’s everybody else around me could not even begin to understand how this could even be possible. Except for the

D.J. Paris 52:44
people that have gone before you Of course, yes. Who know it and and they look at you and go, Oh, he’s one of us. Yeah, that’s it. And, and, and the good news, too, about pretty much every local community, you know, whether you live in rural Montana, or Iowa, or you’re in a major city, like you’re outside of Charlotte, I’m here and in Chicago, there are people that have done this, and and I would encourage you to beg, plead with them to develop a friendship or relationship or at least take them out to coffee. And say, tell me about how do you start your day? What do you what do you say, when you wake up to yours? You know, when you come across a problem or a challenge? What are you doing? And it’s amazing success leaves clues, doesn’t it? I mean, people will just not even close people will just tell you, this is what I do.

Unknown Speaker 53:30
Yeah. Yeah. And and the higher you go as far as successful people, the more information that they’ll give you, because we want to help people, right? I mean, I want to help people. That’s what I learned how to do what I did when I became aware of it. I’m like, I thought at the time, this is the greatest secret on the planet. Nobody knows this. Right? I found something out, I can’t believe and it was very true that many people don’t know, most people are not raised in that with that kind of a mindset. And people will say to me, Well, Mike, you know, come on mindset really isn’t that like, you know, looky looky are, you know? And I’m like, No, it isn’t. Mindset is the way you do anything. Right? It is the way you think about things, the way that you learn about things and your mindset is biased to the way that you were raised. Yeah. So that’s the only thing that you know, but there’s things way beyond what you know, that can have an amazing impact. Like you said, it’s almost like magic on your life and people just don’t know

D.J. Paris 54:29
it. And it might not come in the timeframe that you’re expecting. In fact, it likely won’t. It’ll either take longer or shorter. So that’s also the another challenge is to is to commit to the activity or the discipline and trust that, you know, the answers will reveal themselves at the right time. It just might not be the time that’s most convenient for you. Absolutely. Tell us about the podcast. So we’ve been talking about it and I want our audience to have a resource where they can go and reset their mind their expectations. And again, this is not from, you know, David’s not a guy who knows the the sort of, you know, cool sounding phrases and things to say he actually consults businesses, he you know, he’s worked with multibillion dollar businesses. This is somebody who is paid to get results. So, so I love that you have a podcast and you’re not just a self help guy, which you know, some self help guys are amazing. But I like people that get results in the real world, too. And so tell us about the successful mind podcast.

Unknown Speaker 55:32
So in 2017, I was I just I got the idea. Like, I want to try a podcast. At that point, there were about 500,000 podcasts today. There’s 4 million alone in in the United States, right. That’s grown that much. Yeah. So I started it. And I was doing it. And me and my partner Steph, to us. What we were having a meeting with Gary Vaynerchuk, in New York, in his office, and we were sitting around just kind of shooting the shit with him. And we were talking and he was like, how’s the podcast going? And we’re telling them, and he says to me, what, what information are you putting out in the podcast? Right? And we had been doing it for about a year at this point. And I was telling him and he said, is that your best information? And I said, What do you mean best? He’s like, is that the results driven information that you would give a private client? I’m like, No. And he said, I want you to start giving. He said, I challenge you to start giving that information for free on the podcast. And I’m like, Are you kidding me? He’s like, my secret sauce. I can’t give that for free. Yeah. So then he says something to me, that really kind of changed my my vision on Sunday, he saw me he said, David, let me ask you a question. He’s just honest, just between us? Is there anything that you teach that if a person knew what it was, they couldn’t find it on the internet? And I’m like, That’s a good point. He’s like, it’s the same thing with me. He said, so they’re not paying for the information. They’re paying for contact, right. So when you get when you consult somebody, they’re paying for contact or paying for strategy, they’re paying for that. But the information itself, they could get anywhere, they just don’t know what it is. He said, so if you give enough of that information, you’re gonna grow your business and

D.J. Paris 57:12
or they don’t know who to trust, they don’t know whose information is accurate. And you can build your brand through a podcast of, Hey, I am an authority figure here, I do actually have real world experience and results. Let me let me tell you what I do. And then you’re right, even though it maybe you didn’t, you know, create all of your own learning, you’ve learned it through others, and through other experience, you still can be of incredible value to people, even if you give away the secret sauce,

Unknown Speaker 57:42
yes. And that. So that’s what I started doing. We’re like, Okay, I’m gonna give this a try and see what happens. Our major concern was that it would piss off our private clients, if they should get angry, because they’re overpaying for this. We never had one of them even even say that it wasn’t even a thought on their mind. But what did happen was that every time that we would do a live event, or a seminar, or a speaking engagement or something, one of the one of the things that we would ask people on a forum would be how did you hear about us? And almost overnight, we started getting tons of people going the Podcast, the podcast, that was our first introduction. Now, it’s hard to measure that as you know, right? I mean, because these aren’t getting as much

D.J. Paris 58:21
data. Very little, unfortunately, very little.

Unknown Speaker 58:24
Exactly right. It’s not like it’s not like your regular marketing campaigns that give you tons of information. But you do get the information on the opposite side, when you ask people, How did you first hear about us? And they tell you, it’s the podcast, you know, that thing is working. And, you know, I mean, we went over 2 million views in a relatively short period of time, without any marketing agenda on our end, just putting it out there. So it’s spread by word of mouth. So it’s, it’s a really great thing. And there’s a ton of teaching on there. And there’s also we just started something new me and Steph tous she’s my CEO of my company. And we’re currently do once a week we’re telling stories based on real challenges that companies that we work with have and how we’re actually fixing those things for people on so so that so we’re doing that and people are loving what they’re loving it so check it out. Yeah, so everyone

D.J. Paris 59:16
I want everyone to consider no I’m not don’t consider just subscribe listen to one episode, see if you like it because you know, sometimes what you what you all you really need is a different voice telling you this is telling you in some cases, things you already know. But if it’s coming from an outside source that you trust and that has authority, a lot of times that can sort of sink in a lot a lot easier than trying to convince yourself of something that you know maybe you read in a book at some point but never implemented. So give give David’s voice and his and his partner’s voice a shot because they get results. So everyone subscribe to the successful mind. Podcast. It is available everywhere podcasts are served, so call couple ways you can find it, just go to whatever podcast app you’re using and search for the successful mind, you’ll find David, and you can subscribe there, or we’ll have a link to it in our show notes. Also, you can visit David’s website, David nagel.com. That’s an E A g l e, also a link to that is in our show notes. So you can learn about all things David, and his company at David nagel.com. Well, David, I think this is a perfect place to wrap up. And really, really appreciate your time on the show, you’ve inspired me to think even for myself outside of the box, this is my fifth year doing this podcast and I, you know, we’ve tried to make improvements and adjustments along the way, but am I putting out my very best content, I need to examine that and think about, you know, what I could be adding or subtracting from the show to to make it better. So the best way that you guys can help me do that is by letting me know what you think of the show. So best way is, let us give us a review. Good, bad or indifferent. We want to know what you think because this show is for you. And if we don’t know what you need, it’s hard for us to make improvements. So let us know. Leave us a review whatever podcast app you use, let us know send us messages, emails to the show that also helps us. And also let David know what you think about the successful mind. Go check out an episode and let him know so that he can better meet your needs on his own podcast as well. So David, thank you on behalf of our audience, thank you. This was a coaching session that you really gave, you know, 20,000 people, and we they appreciate it. So how about doing David a solid and subscribing to his podcast? Maybe you’d get more of this every single time he publishes an episode. I know I’m going to subscribe. So David, thank you for challenging pleasure, man. I mean, in my own comfort zone to do better on this podcast and everyone can always get to the next level. But sometimes you just need a different voice telling you to do certain things. So on behalf of the audience, we thank David for his his time and on behalf of David and myself we want to thank the audience for making it all the way to the end of this episode. One more thing will ask if you telephoned think of one other agent out there that’s struggling to get to the next level and maybe just needs a little bit of encouragement this episode should help them do that and also turn them on to David’s podcasts successful mind for regular you know, regular episodes about exactly that. So sent, let them know about our show. Let them know about David’s show and we would appreciate that. So David, thank you so much. And we will see everybody on the next episode.

Leah Canfield a 30 under 30 laureate for 2022 from Breckenridge Colorado talks about how she transitioned from her skiing career into in real estate. Leah discusses her approach to the real estate market and how she got her name to be quoted in local newspapers. Next, Leah describes how she started working in the new development world early in her career. Leah also discusses gut instinct and how she manifests it in her business. Last, Leah describes why she believes the grind culture kills your creativity.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Leah Canfield can be reached at [email protected] and 970.485.1571.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
How does one of the top skiers in the country transition to real estate and become one of the top Realtors in the country all before the age of 30? Will stay tuned we’re going to find out this episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solutions so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show and in just a moment. We’re going to be speaking with 30 under 30 Winner Lea Canfield. But before we get to Leah just a couple of quick announcements as always, thank you for listening to our show. The best way you can help us continue to do more episodes is by telling a friend so think of one other realtor that you know maybe someone in your office or a Realtor you meet out there in the field that needs to hear from conversations like the one you’re about to hear from Lea telling you how to become a top agent. So tell a friend that’s the always the best way you can help us continue to grow and now on to my conversation with Leah Canfield.

Today on the show we have Lea Winfield from Mountain homes group with Coldwell Banker mountain properties in Breckenridge and all of Summit County in Colorado. Let me tell you more about Lia. Lia Canfield is a real estate agent in her hometown of Breckenridge, Colorado and she grew up ski racing, and was at the peak of her career, the fastest Junior Super G skier in the country. Now she is now one of the top selling Coldwell Banker agents not only in the country, but actually in the entire world. She ranks in the top point 4% of all Coldwell Banker agents worldwide. She has been named to both Coldwell bankers and realtor magazine’s 30 under 30 She loves to ski mountain bike and travel, I want you to visit Leah at her group’s a homepage, which is mountain homes group.com Again, mountain homes group.com That link will be in our show notes. Leah, welcome to the show.

Leah Canfield 3:31
Thank you what what an intro?

D.J. Paris 3:34
Well, I am I will tell you the intro doesn’t even begin to really explain how excited I am. Because, you know, we’ve done I think, I don’t know what number episode this will be some 400 the low four hundreds. And you know I oftentimes this is a little embarrassing, I sometimes don’t get to do the prep for the show until pretty close to to the show. I have people that that helped put together notes for me and I was really excited this morning when I got to the office and started reading about you because not only of course, you know you have this sort of impressive background with with you know, competitive skiing and being an athlete, but also having a tremendous success pretty early on in the business career of being a real estate agent. And you also gave us a some talking points that we’re going to get into about grind culture and your thoughts on that. So I am really, really excited to chat with you. So thank you for coming on the show. I don’t always get to say that or don’t always even feel that sometimes with with all of the guests that we have as much as I love our guests. This one really speaks to me this topic of Brian culture. So I would love to start all the way at the beginning of of sort of where you entered. I’d love to start really at the beginning of competitive skiing and move our way into real estate because I think there’s probably some parallels and some disciplines that that translate it over. But tell us about this. How did Have you been skiing your entire life starting out very young or did you get it? Yeah. When you were

Leah Canfield 5:04
okay. Now Yeah, I started very young. I learned to ski when I was two, my dad actually a whole different story. But he’s an amputee above the knee. He was a big skier. And he was apparently a Paralympian. So he really got me into the sport. And I ski race through my whole childhood, through being a young adult, I got to travel internationally to series, which was very cool. I don’t think I even realized how cool it was until now. And I started to get some really good success. But I was one of those people that was always going like 120%. So that led to actually quite a bit of injury in my career, I had five knee surgeries before I turned 20. And those are really, they have quite a long recovery time period. So sure, like five or six years, I was just under the knife and in physical therapy, and just always trying to get back into sport and then re injuring myself. So that

D.J. Paris 5:57
was where the injuries were the injuries due to like, falling, or were they like wearing out the cartilage or?

Leah Canfield 6:05
Yeah, it was a little bit of both. It was some like coming back to sport too soon or too aggressively. Some certainly crashing. Some actually were due, I think, to some procedures that in the medical field, they thought were going to be very successful and actually had a pretty high failure rate. So some failed kind of installations of, you know, ligaments and so forth. But But yeah, it was it was a lot. So ultimately, that was going to be my career path. I had decided for myself.

D.J. Paris 6:35
Were you thinking like were you looking at Olympics was that?

Leah Canfield 6:38
Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that was going to be this was my life. But I decided, hey, look, this is my body’s not designed for this. And this is too much I quit. Yeah, which was tough. But then after that, I wasn’t sure what to do. I worked at a coffee shop down, which is still here and record plants for a few years. And I was like, Okay, I got to, I got to do something. I felt like I had to do something. So I went to a local community college just for like a summer and went to a few classes. I had an economics teacher who says hey, like buy these books, buy these business books. So I bought them. And my now husband at the time was like, what a waste of money like those are going to put you to sleep. You’re never going to read those. I like to tell that story now. Because they literally changed our lives. We just started our journey into learning about, like financial freedom and personal finance, and how real estate can have such a huge role in this developing net worth and like freedom of your own life really had, yeah, all those great topics so

D.J. Paris 7:46
that you mind sharing one of one or more titles. If they changed your life I want to hear about

Leah Canfield 7:52
they did and there’s so many good ones. But like some of the real basics learning, like what an asset is what a liability is. Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I read that, like lightbulb. You know, some people love that book. Some people hate it, but I felt like it was life changing for me.

D.J. Paris 8:06
No question about that book, because I always want to ask someone do is a primary residence and asset. I know this is a debatable topic, you know, what

Leah Canfield 8:15
is your? I? I think it depends. I can’t just say yes or no, because the definition of an asset in my mind, and probably from reading verbatim from the book is something that makes you money, right? Something which this does

D.J. Paris 8:29
not only on the day you sell it possibly could make you money. Yeah,

Leah Canfield 8:33
exactly. And we’ve taken this approach with our primary residence at least that we’ve decided to build this and build it as an investment. But, you know, the fact that we didn’t sell it after a couple years, and we’re still living here, it’s questionable, you know, so it’s a lifestyle someday. It’s a lifestyle investment. But I will say that we were very intentional about the equity we had in our house, the location, making sure that we were treating it not just as a primary residence, but also as an investment. So we had our multiple hat on when we pursued our home. And I think we always kind of will, but it depends. And that’s

D.J. Paris 9:10
the only reason I’m bringing that up is I feel that oftentimes I’ll ask Realtors not so much on the show, but just in my day to day understanding, and sometimes they’ve never been asked that question. And I’ve always thought it’s a really important thing to have a position on whether it’s yes, it’s an asset. No, it’s not or it depends. Yeah, I have an answer, because there are a lot of people who will be having questions like that. And anyway, so I’m sorry, I don’t want to get us in what’s just because you mentioned that I wanted to hear your perspective. Yeah,

Leah Canfield 9:40
I would say that it’s a really important savings account, especially for people who maybe aren’t very actively investing. Having equity built in your home is some of the it’s the only way for some people that they can actually successfully retire. So if you’re not an active investor and you’re not happy buying, you know, cash flowing investment properties and building up your 401k or your retirement plan. Sometimes a home is your only real worth when it comes to net worth. So I think it’s extremely important for a lot of people.

D.J. Paris 10:07
So anyway, you read, read books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad that can change your life. And then how did you decide to get into to get into real estate as not just maybe an investor or somebody who’s going to be selling it?

Leah Canfield 10:20
Yeah. So we started on the investment side, I actually then went to CU Boulder got my degree in finance and real estate, during which time we’ve picked started a very small investment company, like a few people and bought a little house and fix it up and rented it out and then sold it and then did that a handful of times. And after the first time, we bought that house, I was like, we bought this, and I have absolutely no idea what just happened, right? You know, I went to school to study this. And I’m like, what, you know. So then I realized I need to get my real estate license to learn what I’m doing in order to be a real investor who takes herself seriously. So I started and just got my license to support the investment side. And then it really grew from there. And I realized just how, number one, it was much more challenging than I thought it was gonna be. And number two is more lucrative than I thought it could ever be. And more fun. So yeah.

D.J. Paris 11:12
grew and how long have you been practicing as as a realtor?

Leah Canfield 11:16
It’s been almost seven years. So 2015. Yeah. Yeah.

D.J. Paris 11:21
So you got it, you really got into it pretty quickly after. So you say your your ski career sort of came to a conclusion. Then it was college and then right into sort of investing in real estate. Yeah. And being being a realtor. So let’s go back seven years only because seven years doing the quick math on that. Okay. So, yeah, yeah, 2015 ish. I’m just trying to think of what the market conditions were at that time. What was it like starting a career in real estate now? Yes, you you I imagine you have some sort of public notoriety being from Breckenridge being, being a competitive skier that that’s probably been in the newspapers a lot and sort of the, you know, whatever publications, people there read, so I’m sure you’re known to some degree in your community, although there’s probably a lot of competitive skiers there too.

Leah Canfield 12:14
incredible athletes.

D.J. Paris 12:16
But did you know but making a pivot? Oh, I’m sure making a pivot from professional being a professional athlete to then selling real estate in a person in their early 20s. What was that? Like? I imagine that couldn’t have been necessarily an easy thing.

Leah Canfield 12:33
No, it really wasn’t. People did know me for sure. But they weren’t. They knew me as like someone’s kid. They knew my parents, they know me, because I have been here since I was like mine. Right? And so they weren’t, you know, when it comes time for them to sell their multimillion dollar home, they’re not like, Yeah, let’s hire, let’s hire a friend’s kid. That was certainly tough. And not only that, but our market is extremely saturated with agents. There’s like this running joke that, you know, if you are at a dinner party, the cast people that are real estate agents. And so it was highly competitive as well. So my initial strategy actually wasn’t to go after clientele, of local people that I knew because they also already knew a dozen or more agents that have done in a business much longer than me. So that wasn’t my initial approach. I, I started really focusing on one of our our number one feeder market, which is the Denver Front Range area and working on getting those people as they come into town and stroll Main Street, and also making really good connections with the agents that work in Denver that have clients who say, Hey, we’re thinking about buying something in the mountains. So that was my approach. And I think that that really helped me get a foothold in the industry instead of you know, it’s another one of those books that I read. It’s great as the Blue Ocean Strategy,

D.J. Paris 13:47
I felt, I don’t know this. Let’s say that one more time blue ocean.

Leah Canfield 13:50
Yeah, it’s what a blue ocean and it’s just in a nutshell, it’s like, you know, you have your red ocean, which is highly competitive. You know, I think it’s like the

D.J. Paris 13:59
big a local Breckinridge agent is red ocean, competing with

Leah Canfield 14:03
the, you know, for the same clients that everyone is competing for. And the blue ocean strategy is like, hey, what’s a way that you can look at your business a little differently, where you have a lot less competition, and that was the way that I did that was say, Hey, I’m not going to compete for this one client that has, you know, a dozen realtor friends. I’m going to go after this person who doesn’t know anybody and Breck

D.J. Paris 14:22
Yeah, I love that. So you made you made friends with with realtors in the Denver area. Yeah. Because you don’t support the Denver area personally or no. And they don’t support Breckenridge. So this is this is that makes boy that makes so much sense really a great opportunity for any of our listeners who either you know, live in areas where people buy vacation homes, or maybe where they retired to, or in the flip side, you have people that are leaving to go elsewhere and in Illinois, Florida is a place where a lot of for tax purposes people retire for, obviously the weather and you know, whatever other reasons are Um, they might go there. And so that would be, you know, anyone who’s a Florida agent, you should be just calling every realtor, you know, in the country and saying, Hey, if they’re thinking of moving here, so that’s very interesting. So how so? So you then you was more about building relationships. And you also said something also as, as the people from Denver were coming into town, how were you sort of intercepting?

Leah Canfield 15:23
Well, so I don’t know if all offices have like a floor agent. Right. So I was working on floor lot. I was at the end, we have an office right on Main Street. And that was extremely difficult for me because I had to overcome this sense that there was like something wrong with salespeople that they were like, bad people. And I had that somehow ingrained in me that like, if I was going to sell something to someone, I was like, doing a bad thing, right. So I was not a natural born salesperson. And so it was very awkward. The first few times I interacted with people, I like locked up, or someone walked in, they walked out, I was like, what was up and but you know, everything takes practice. And eventually I got the competence to just be personable, and be myself and chat with these guys. And it also took me acknowledging that, hey, I’m not just like, I’m not trying to take advantage of someone I’m trying to, you know, help them because I am and a resource for them. So once I kind of shifted my mindset that a salesperson is not like a parasite, but instead a, you know, a source of wealth of information, and you know, a friend, and someone who can help you with something that you need. Once I made that shift, it was a lot easier for me. Yeah, I

D.J. Paris 16:31
so agree with that. And for anyone out there who’s struggling with what Leah was talking about this idea of, I’m bothering people, they don’t want to talk to me, they think I’m gross, because I’m a salesperson. And nobody likes salespeople and all of that. Yes, there’s truth and all of that, of course. But if you’re not a gross, slimy salesperson, you don’t have to worry about coming off as slimy and gross. It’s what I say to guys all the time who go, I wonder if that girl thinks I’m a creep. I’m like, Are you a creep? If you’re not, you don’t, you can go ask her out, it’s okay. If you’re not a creep, you’re don’t have to worry about being perceived as creepy. And the same thing to salespeople. If you’re not a horrible human being, then you can go ahead and talk to people who by the way, 99% chance they’re going to use a realtor anyway. So this isn’t even something like hey, you really need to get into this bizarre insurance that you don’t even know about. But I’m going to try to convince you you need, which, by the way, is a perfectly fine industry as well. I love insurance agents. But that’s a much tougher sale sometimes because it’s selling things that people don’t even know they need. But in your case, they’re going to use a realtor. So I just wanted to really honor you for saying that. Because I think it’s so easy to forget that everybody, when they when everybody starts out in this business, it’s it’s it’s a little nerve wracking to have your first open house to sit. And I love the fact that you live in an area where people still walk into the offices that is not as common in the country. But it’s a little bit of a trial by fire because they’re coming in and or, you know, they’re walking by and you’re not having to strike up a conversation.

Leah Canfield 18:09
Yeah. Or at the end of it, I would be walking out onto Main Street like, Hey, what are you looking at in this window? Well, let’s talk about it. So yeah, took a little confidence boost.

D.J. Paris 18:19
I love that. So So you, you really jumped in. And again, you’re still a young person. But I guess I guess it too. Makes sense. Because you talked about everybody in town knows me. As you know, I’m a skier, I’m my father’s daughter. I am you know, I’m a kid, you know, and I’m a kid in my early 20s, I’m an adult technically, but people in town, maybe not only do they maybe see me a certain way, they also have, you know, a handful of other agents that maybe they’re best friends with, who are probably going to get the listings, you know, above you just because that’s how things work. So let’s talk about so So you started working at, you know, in the office, and you know, dealing with floor time and sort of trial by fire, I sort of would say is having direct one on one conversations. And then how did you grow from there?

Leah Canfield 19:09
Yeah, so, um, you know, I, I started pretty early on coming up with a business plan. And I think that those two words together cause people some a lot of anxiety. But I don’t remember who said this, it might have been Mark Cuban, but he’s like, Hey, if you can’t come up with a business plan, in the amount of time that it takes you to drink a can of soda, like you’re doing it wrong, and that stuck with me because it was like, okay, don’t overcomplicate it, I get a small piece of paper or a post it note or whatever. And I write down what I want to do in sales. You know, how does that translate? What’s my average sales price? What do I think is attainable? How many sales is that? How many appointments do I need to do? Do I need to make and then I also did some really crude math of how approximately how many people do I think I needed my database? I went to a ninja class. I think they said something like, you know, every person your database translates to something like $10,000 of it. and come or something something along those lines, I might be misquoting. But I, I said look, I need to start building my database like nobody, I need to start putting my name like I can’t feel next to luxury real estate in as many instances as I can. So I started putting more and more people in my database, and coming up with a plan that they saw my face and heard my name next to real estate. I also started doing some, like, something I learned from Barbara Corcoran, which is reach out to your local newspaper like these, these people are just usually young and hungry and overworked and have to come up with content for the newspaper. And they don’t know like, they have to do it every single day. And so if you help them and say, hey, look, this is super interesting. This is happening in our market, nine times out of 10, they’re gonna call you back and say, Hey, can you explain this to me? And can I quote you on this, and then all of a sudden, your name is in the newspaper next to luxury, real estate or whatever you decide, that’s

D.J. Paris 20:54
really, I’m gonna pause you that is incredibly interesting. Nobody has ever, ever made that suggestion on this podcast. So super exclusive for us. So I want to I want to just just sort of unwind that a little bit so that our audience really hits, I thought you were gonna go a different way with it, which is, I do have this kind of cool story about my background as a, you know, a junior skier who was, you know, headed to Olympics and now I’ve pivoted because of injuries. And like, that’s a very interesting story just in and of itself that a newspaper might be interested in. But that’s a one off. And so I thought you were gonna say, Well, I just wanted to sort of trade in a little bit on my notoriety and get some publicity, which that would have made all the sense in the world to me too. But you actually want a totally different way was, I want their their reporters to call me when they need a quote, or or they need help with definitions, or that is beyond brilliant, because you’re absolutely right. These are people that work on incredible deadlines. They’re underworked, they are certain they’re overworked and underpaid. Yeah, sorry. They’re very overworked and underpaid. And it’s a stressful position, and you have can help actually make their lives a little easier. And so people, the reporter started using you in stories, I guess.

Leah Canfield 22:13
Yes. Yeah. And I still try at least once a month to send them something interesting that’s happening because I, you know, pull data for my newsletter every month, I’m looking at, you know, what’s happening this month in our market? What are some, you know, sales that are very interesting, or what, you know, we’ve seen some really crazy stuff in our market, right, like 200% appreciation of this and, you know, this story. Yeah, right. And it’s a headline, so anything anytime I see something, and I’m like, this would be a good headline I send so

D.J. Paris 22:39
often, how often do they ended up using your, your ideas, I’m just probably

Leah Canfield 22:45
70% of the time, you know, everyone’s thing, but most of the time, they’re like, they call me back from it two weeks or three weeks later, and they’re like, hey, just circling back to this. Can you tell me more about that? And then it ends up yeah,

D.J. Paris 23:00
that is that is so incredibly smart. I I’m a little bit sort of gobsmacked with that. I really apps which is a great word that I’m just starting to incorporate more into my it’s one of those words that sort of makes you seem smarter than saying I’m stunned. But But I am I am gobsmacked and or stunned because that that is an absolutely brilliant strategy. So thank you for that. So okay, you started. Yeah, so you started doing that that helped I imagine get your name out there.

Leah Canfield 23:29
It did. Yeah, it helps with more of that. Like my sometimes my older clientele maybe I would get a referral to someone wanted to sell. And they’re like, we keep seeing your name in the newspaper. And so that gives you credibility. So my struggle was credibility. Right? I was maybe they knew my parents. You know, maybe they knew that I grew up here but they certainly didn’t trust me to sell their luxury home and so I had to kind of chip away at that credibility. And my goal is when someone thinks of luxury real estate they think of me so anytime I could put my name next to luxury real estate in people’s minds then that’s a win

D.J. Paris 24:08
because it really what you what you could really do it for those of us thinking well what kind of stories I mean you literally just can look at data and the MLS find it really interesting statistic that is like a little shocking even you send that over go guys, I have an idea for you.

Leah Canfield 24:23
Yeah, and don’t get don’t get in too much. I mean, like I said, these guys are overworked. Don’t put more than five sentences in your email, right? Give them a give them a clip, give them a taste and see if they’re interested. They’ll call you love it. Yeah. So yeah, I did that. I started. You know, I also realized pretty early on that I I was very interested in new construction and developments. And I learned that when a town or a county wants to hire a contractor, they have to go through a very The transparent process because the last thing a municipality wants to be accused of is, you know, like taking kickbacks and hiring their friend for for a job. And so when a town wants to hire a real estate agent to sell a town built project, they have to go through an RFP request for proposal process. And I learned about this pretty early on in my career, like, a year, and year and a half. And maybe, and I had a friend who just got her got her license, and we were like, Should we put a proposal in for this project? We’re total longshot, but it was for a local project, still pretty big $25 million project. And we ended up winning the bid. Because people felt we just went in and created a very professional looking proposal, we took it very seriously. And they felt that we would be a good face for the project, and we got it. So that is also something that’s interesting for people to know is that oftentimes your like towns and counties have are doing some of their own real estate development. Because in so many areas, there’s a lack of employee or locals housing, and they’re trying to address that themselves. Anyone can apply for those for those sales jobs. So that’s how I really got started in the development world and that I learned a ton during that project. And it was a really great experience. And then I faced kind of another challenge after that, which was okay, now people kind of know me as the like employee housing person, how do I pivot, and become, you know, a luxury salesperson, which was more of the area that I was interested in at the time. And so I just kept, kept doing what I was talking about earlier, which is, hey, put my name next to luxury, real estate, we’re sending the newsletter, we have luxury listings in there, right, we make comments, we’re talking about the luxury market, because that’s where you want to be you kind of like Manifest Your, your goals.

D.J. Paris 26:48
That way. Yeah, that makes sense, is you you, you really I think what we’re really talking about is branding. It sounds like you very, very early on, you know sort of developed your brand, you were clear about what you wanted your brand to represent. And yes, you’re not going to turn down a $25 million development deal from a local municipality, simply because it doesn’t necessarily fit the the brand, you know, ideal. But it’s a great opportunity, a great learning experience, and how awesome to be chosen. So you’re going to do that. And then you’re going to you’re going to still return to your North Star, which is luxury. And then your North Star is is. And I want to mention too that a lot of times, Agents, I’m curious to get your thoughts on this. And you see this as well with other agents, I’m sure in your market is a lot of times the way agents think about branding is it’s all about the visual. So they’re doing a lot on social, Instagram, Facebook, there’s a lot of, you know, but you don’t really, that’s not really your path. And that’s a very, that’s a very unique way. So talk about is social a part of your marketing strategy, or I’m just curious what the importance of it is,

Leah Canfield 28:00
I think it’s more important than we give it credit for, we could certainly improve on it. We’re always talking about it, and everyone I’ve sent to build a team, which we can talk about, but everyone on my team is like, we need to do better at this. So certainly, like anyone we’re not perfect. And social media is one of those things that we can really improve on. But we, you know, you don’t have to be good at everything, you have to do everything. Great to be great, you just have to be great at a few things. And so I think we’re kind of leaning into the things that we’re really good at. And, and it kind of makes up for some of our things that we’re not so great at, which is like social media promotion. But

D.J. Paris 28:36
I’m not saying that to identify something that’s that’s you’re not strong. And I was and I hope hopefully you didn’t get that impression that’s like that, no good because I really was saying it as as a huge differentiator, that that that obviously you could always, you know, get good at social if you want to, but that’s not how you built your luxury brand. And really sort of avoided that. Which Which again, you could have traded in a lot of your previous success as a skier as as you could have really leaned into some of these accolades that you’ve you’ve received and made that a big push on social but you didn’t do that. And I think that’s particularly interesting. Again, it it sort of creates a more of a red ocean opportunity for you to find other opportunities to find other than Yeah, yeah, red ocean.

Leah Canfield 29:26
No, we have so yeah, I think branding can be very simple. Honestly, for me, like I said, my, my, my, my mountain to climb was a credibility mountain, right? Because I was young. I was a girl a lot of people knew me as someone’s kid. So I had to, I had to convince people that I was legit. Something I actually haven’t really told anyone which is that when I first started, I didn’t every cent I had was like going towards some investment because we were so into investing. And so I didn’t really ever save up to like buy a nice car. And so I drove this kind of beat up. Little Subaru and I certainly couldn’t You know, with a straight face, bring the luxury client into it and tour them on these luxury homes. So I my parents live in Breckenridge and, and anytime I would have a client or a walk in, I told my mom who drove a Lexus. And I was like, Can I use your best mom ever? She’s like, yes, you can. And so it’s coming right down to just like how, how you present you’re not I’m not trying to say that anyone who wants to become a luxury realtor needs to drive a Lexus or a luxury car, but but presenting yourself in the most professional way that you can, anytime you can, the way that you dress, the way that you speak, that you know, how you arrive, all of that makes an impact. And all of that does a tribute to your branding. It’s not just who you are online, because even though social media has exploded so much, I’m I’m still in the generation where I was here before, you know, the energy and, and your brand really is who you are when you’re standing in front of your client. And so how can you be the person that you want to be in, you know, if you want to be a luxury real estate agent, what does that look like and if you have to fake it until you make it the time to drive your mom’s Lexus or, or, or your friend, you know, you pay your friend 50 bucks every time she lends you her BMW, because you drive a beat up Subaru duel, you know, find ways that you can present yourself as the brand you want to be. And that helped me as well with even it also helps with confidence, you know, dress to impress until you feel more competent. So

D.J. Paris 31:32
yeah, yeah, I agree. That’s, I think that’s, that’s really, really great advice. And so let’s talk about grind culture. Because before we get into this, I want to hear your, your more you are firmly in the anti grind culture camp. And I love that because so often, we hear about out working our competition, working more hours, especially in real estate, where so much happens outside of the traditional business hours. You know, our our listeners are getting text messages, voicemails, you know, all sorts of things late into the evening. Boundaries are hard to set. They’re hard to follow. It’s also an unstructured job from the realtor side. So it’s, it’s, it’s tough. And it’s easy to just keep going and going and going because the text thread really never ends until they get the keys. And then you forget to respond until you forget to respond. Yeah, yeah. And that’s, yeah, so let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about Brian culture and, and what, what, why you’ve taken sort of a stance against it.

Leah Canfield 32:40
Okay, so I live in Breckenridge. I don’t know if the listeners are familiar. But it’s a gorgeous mountain town in Colorado known for skiing, biking, outdoor activities. And when I first started in real estate, I, I was a one one woman show, as most people are, and I really wanted to be successful. And I’m a competitive person, right. So I threw everything at it, just like I did with with ski racing. And I remember, we went on this vacation, my now husband and I, and I just worked the entire time. And we were at the beach, and I was on my computer when I was going back to the room and I was taking calls. And I was and I was just, I was just running. And I was on vacation. And I came back and I was like, that was not a vacation. That was That wasn’t relaxing at all, you know. And then I also really realized, I just did a little bit of reflection and said, like, what do I really want my life to look like? Because I only get one life. And there’s no point in living a life that I’m not excited about? Because like there’s no kickbacks, right? And so I live here in this gorgeous place. Because I love to go skiing, I love to go mountain biking, I love to go for hikes, I love to be outside. And I can’t do all of that if I’m on all the time. And so I decided that this job, you know, there’s multiple things can be true at the same time. Yes, number one, I want to provide a really high level of service to my clients. Right? Number two, i i One of my very first deals I like completely dropped the ball on this thing. And I was like, Oh my gosh, what am I doing? I suck at this. And it helped me realize that I am the person who’s going to do everything at all times. Otherwise my life is not going to be what I want it to be. And so

D.J. Paris 34:27
we should mention that some people can somehow eat that out some people can seemingly do are designed for that. Some people are designed for it. I think the majority of us probably I’m not either.

Leah Canfield 34:40
No. And so and I you know, when I’m out on a mountain bike ride, and I get a call from a client, I want to be able to help them but I also don’t want to take the call because I’m on a mountain bike ride and that’s my time to you know, clear my head and, and so what I settled on was I need help, and I will plug another book that changed my life, called the E Myth. So, yeah, the entrepreneurship myth, I recommend, if you haven’t read it, every realtor should read it. It’s about the importance of building a business, like a real business and recognizing what roles you play. Because if you are a one man show, you are the CEO, you are the CEO, you’re all the whole executive suite. You’re also the receptionist, and you’re the marketing, customer service. You’re the social media per sales team, right? So write it down, say, like, Hey, I’m all these people. Am I good at all? Plus, am I a good receptionist? Or am I bad at answering the phone, if I’m bad at answering the phone, or if I don’t like it, then hire someone helped me with it. And so going back to that project that we did with a ton of brag that, that project, having that almost a guaranteed future income of that development gave me the confidence to bring on my first assistant. And that was a game changer, because I realized that I can provide the level of service that I want to my clients, while also enjoying my life. And not only that, I could provide a better level of service to my clients than if I was just grinding it up alone. Because I started, I think a lot of realtors become a victim of their own success. They’re like, Okay, if only I can reach this sales number. If only I could have a few more contracts, or a few more clients, and then they get there. And we’re like, whoa, I’ve got 10 things under contract, holy moly, and they’re like, going crazy. And then they’re like, I don’t have time to put together a monthly newsletter this month. Like I have 10 contracts, right? I don’t have time to prospect sometimes send these, whatever mailers, whatever your strategy is. And so they start dropping the ball on the things that are not urgent, because you have to, you’re gonna, you’re not gonna drop the ball on your contract, right, hopefully. And so having that assistant, having a team built around you helps so that when you do get busy, your monthly newsletter still goes out on the first of the month, right, and you can have a more consistent, reliable level of service to your clients. Because you have built a system and you understood that, hey, I cannot do it all by myself. And I’m actually I’m doing a disservice to my client trying to do everything myself, because I also get sick, and I also get burnt out. And I also want vacation.

D.J. Paris 37:13
Well, and that that probably is a lesson a lot of a lot of that you probably learned as a teenager being a competitive, you know, Super G skier, because you can pardon the pun, get to the top of the mountain and be on that Olympic team or even when when you know, whatever event of the Olympics you were going for, and then you can I mean, all of those are possible. They certainly were possible in your life. And yet, how happy you know, the happiness that you’re that, that you’re sort of wanting, or the fulfillment you’re wanting, may come at a significant cost. Because yeah, the level of of sort of output that that requires to get to the top of the mountain as a singular person is is well, you know, it’s incredible amount of demand on your body, on your mind, on your time. And so I have a question about texting a very specific question. So you were talking about, you know, you get the phone call, you’re mountain biking now you’re like, Okay, assistants gonna grab that I get it, you’ll you’ll have that routed to the assistant. What about text messages?

Leah Canfield 38:16
Yeah, text messages are tough. They are really tough. I would say that if it’s something that I either don’t have the mental space for, or I have something else going on right now. I will just screen grab that and send it to my send it to my assistant and say, Can you help me with this? Or, you know, I’ll say, Hey, Mike, this this person reached out to me about this, can you help me because and I like to recognize it. I’ve learned at the beginning of the correspondence, because if you’re really busy and you start communicating with your client, and then you try and leave someone in, then they’re like, No, I’m talking to you about this. But if they start asking you about something right away, and you can say, you know, you lose someone and immediately then that person is the point person. So I don’t have a perfect answer. Texting is really tricky. And I would be lying if I said that, you know, haven’t forgotten about a text and woken up in the middle of the night like, oh, never responded to that text, right. But I do love that the new iPhone I think you can like mark them as unread. I don’t have the newest iPhone, so I’m excited to get that so that I can like if I open up a text and I’m not prepared to deal with it, I can mark it as unread and treat it more like a email. I

D.J. Paris 39:25
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Leah Canfield 41:03
I do. I do in my own way, I’m not I don’t do it upfront, I’m not like, Hey, these are my business hours. Some people do that, I I really respect that. But I do it. Sometimes you meet if you have a client or you meet someone who you kind of can tell is like a pusher, you know, they’re gonna kind of push you and push you to kind of see what your limit is. And when I have a client or someone like that, I, I make an effort to not respond like it, let’s say someone who’s whose duck personality type text me, I had a client, and I’ll just give you an example. I had a client who I showed them a property, followed up with them. They kind of ghosted me for like a week. And then a week later, I like 10pm. They texted me and they were like, Hey, we’re ready for an offer. If we could, you know, my husband has work in the morning. But if you could have it ready, you know, before he leaves for work than we can by the morning. And I was like, You know what, I’m not responding to this, because that is in my way, how I’m going to set my boundaries. And if I don’t respond to this, it’s not going to set a precedent that for the whole contract period, I’m available to do work for you during the night hours, right? Because

D.J. Paris 42:07
because you’re in a position, when that text comes in, you’re in a position to either defend why you can’t do it, which is a lose situation, or, or you’re going to grind it out and try to get it done at the cost of sleep and energy and other things. And now also reinforcing their behavior. Now they’re going to they’re going to, it’s not like they’re magically going to snap to going forward, we’re going to, you know, not text you past five o’clock know, you’ve just told them, it’s perfectly okay, what you just did.

Leah Canfield 42:35
So yes, that’s you’re exactly right. I don’t want to reinforce that behavior. And there’s, with some clients, in certain instances, you know, I have a client who is at a surgeon, and his hours are super tough, and you wanted to have a call with me like 830. And it’s like, okay, I get it. And I can tell, he’s not that personality, who’s gonna start calling me every night at 830. So I feel like I can read people. And I don’t set exact hours, I respect the people who do. But I think that it’s important before you, you know, if you don’t feel like you want to respond to someone, because of the time of day or because of, you know, mostly it’s a time of data, right? If you’re on vacation, hopefully you have coverage from someone. But if it’s an in the middle of the night thing, don’t do it. If it’s that person who’s going to just keep, because you work, sometimes you work with these clients for like years, if they don’t find anything, or they can’t sell their house. And so then all of a sudden, it’s a lot harder to reel back. Once you’ve opened those floodgates of yeah, let me get that done for you at 11pm.

D.J. Paris 43:33
I am I I agree wholeheartedly. I just think it’s such a it’s a conversation I like to have because text community text communication really is very complicated in sort of what it what it represents, in different different side parts of the business. And so it’s something that every agent really needs to think through what’s my policy around x y&z And yes, when I have the, you know, the guy who’s the surgeon who, who’s who just got out of a 16 hour surgery and, and he needs to talk to me at eight o’clock at night, I get it, he’s not trying to push my buttons or pushing. He’s just, that’s when he’s available. Of course, we get that. But but we also understand that, you know, there’s certain ways we can set, you know, temporary boundaries around around sort of our general behavior. I also really, and I don’t talk about this enough, but I think we have a lot of women who come on our show, and I oftentimes forget as a guy, I don’t think as much about this, and I should, but I’m going to talk about sort of gut feelings and I know you’re meant to tell me a little bit about the importance of trusting your gut. It I mean, I imagine as an athlete, you have to know, you know, your you have to listen to signals to be a competitive athlete. But um, you know, I’m curious about sort of gut instinct and how that’s you know, manifested in your real estate practice.

Leah Canfield 44:53
Yeah, I’m I’m not a very I would say I’m a more logical person than any else, I don’t know if they call it left brained, I’m more logical. And so it’s easy for me. And I think people like me to dismiss certain feelings that they have, because they’re just contradictory, maybe to the logic, yeah, like, hey, this client is prepared to spend $10 million. And then your, your feeling is like, walk away, right? But your head is like, want me to have that commission before I’ve earned it, right. And so sometimes when you have those conflicting feelings, it can be tough, especially if you’re more of a logical person, because you can dismiss these feelings as just that, right? People have feelings,

D.J. Paris 45:32
the facts, the facts aren’t in yet. But the facts say everything looks okay. But something inside of me that’s more intangible, and, and and invisible, is is giving me pause, and my logical brain is going Shut up other part of you, you don’t you don’t have any facts. This is just, you know, whatever you’re getting scared or whatever it might be. And so the and by the way, this is this happens all the time. So I’m so glad we’re talking about Go ahead. I’m sorry.

Leah Canfield 45:59
Yeah, no, no, that’s, that’s good. So I think there’s a lot of us not to get into biology. But there’s a lot of the human body that I think we don’t totally understand most of us at least. And we are hardwired, with certain instincts, right for eating and registering. And yeah, for all sorts of things that have helped protect us over however many. However long in history, we’ve been a species, right. And so I think, once I recognize that, hey, sometimes that that gut feeling is a culmination of various instincts that my body has, those are legitimate, actually, those are just as legitimate as, as, you know, my logical part of my brain, potentially even more, more so because they’re older.

D.J. Paris 46:44
They’re older, they’re older, and they’re bypassing consciousness which consciousness, consciousness can can steer us wrong, right? As consciousness can tell us, you know, things are not the way they appear. Because we are imperfect. Our brains are imperfect instincts, however, tend tend to once you’re able to identify what an instinct is, and, and what and the difference between instinct and, you know, maybe things, you know, fears and things that may be getting in the way. Yeah, so I’m sorry, I don’t mean to, to Oh, yeah,

Leah Canfield 47:15
you’re right, you’re right. They’re, they’re there to protect you, your instincts are there to protect you, for the most part, so listen to them. Um, you know, being, being a woman in the business, I think, maybe comes at a little bit higher risk. I don’t generally really ever feel unsafe in the business. But I have had instances where it’s become clear to me after working with a client that they’re, they’re really trying to just spend time with me. And not, they’re not a real client. And there was one instance in particular where that happened, I was working with someone for a local selling season, and we ended up putting in an offer on something and and, you know, I referred him to some local lenders that he could call and one of the lenders called me and he’s like, this guy has no has nothing right. And the whole time, he’s of course, hyping himself up like, you know, I just sold this business I have all this money, I believe houses and and so there’s a lot that I learned from that because, you know, the lenders like doesn’t have money for downpayment doesn’t have a job, can’t get a loan, no assets, no one’s gonna loan him anything. And I realized, over the years, I’ve realized that people with real wealth, first of all, don’t flaunt it like that. The people who do that’s an immediate red flag to me, you know, people who will come in the office, and they start talking about how rich and successful they are. There’s very few of those people who actually have the means to become a real client of yours. And, and maybe that’s just our market, I know different parts, different areas are different, right? Have different people. But in our laid back mountain market, the people who can afford a $5 million house aren’t, aren’t talking to you about their net worth, you know, in the first conversation you have with them, and how they how successful they are. So anyways, it turns out this guy that I was working with had like a criminal history, and I should have done a background check on him. And certainly had no means to buy a house. And I had that gut feeling right at the beginning. And I didn’t listen to it. And so I said, Look, I’m just going to, I spent a lot of time with this guy. Who I think was

D.J. Paris 49:08
Yeah, it’s hard to accept something like that. Because, because because it could it could affect your reputation, meaning it could go online and scorched earth. This realtor dropped me as a client, I was a serious buyer blah, blah, blah, they you know, men do weird things when women when they feel rejected.

Leah Canfield 49:26
Oh, yeah. So I was, you know, I ultimately did have to drop him because he came back and wanted to work for me again and I said, Hey, you know, we need to get pre qualified this time. He’s like, Well, you don’t trust me you don’t believe in the money. I’m like, I’m when

D.J. Paris 49:38
people say, Trust me as a question. You can just not trust them. That’s

Leah Canfield 49:42
yeah, so you know, a couple of things I learned from that. Number one, we have a really good resource with our MLS, where you can do like free background checks on people. Yeah, and I think a lot of MLS is have that are working on that. So especially if you’re going to be you know, we have a lot of remote areas with like no cell service and we’re out Showing property, you know, mean, some guy that I met 20 minutes ago. So that’s something that’s key, I think we’re just looking up, I could have found this out by doing a Google search on this guy, and I just didn’t do it. And then, you know, find ways to, yes, you can ask all of your clients for a pre qualification letter, proof of funds prior to looking at homes. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. But there’s also just another layer of, you know, I had a bad gut feeling when I met this guy, and I just didn’t listen to it. And, and there have been instances since then, where I’ve had a similar feeling, and I have listened to it. And I’ve never regretted it, even no matter how much because usually, with these clients, they’re waving, you know, money in your face, which is the first red flag. But you know, it’s become a lot easier for me, as I’ve become more successful to realize, I don’t need this, you know, and it’s not just about that sort of instance, there’s also a lot of people who aren’t respectable, right, or they don’t respect you, as a professional or the industry. You know, I was just going to listing appointment where the guys like, Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I think real estate professionals are overpaid. And I think it’s a whole thing is a racket, and, you know, blah, blah, blah. And I just, you know, I said, you know, to beat you on that I’m going to change your mind.

D.J. Paris 51:12
What are the what are the odds that you’re going to change that person? Yeah,

Leah Canfield 51:15
yeah. And also, I’m not going to, I’m not going to grovel for your business, if you think that I, you know, my place in the industry is unwarranted, because I don’t actually need I don’t need this I, I can find success working with people who are like me, who see the bigger picture and who are respectful. You know, and, and that’s also just been a lifestyle decision for me is like, hey, not only do I want to respect my own boundaries of when I when I want to be working, and when I don’t want to be working. But I also want to set my own boundaries of like, Who do I want to work with, because this is my life, you know, and, and work is a big part of my life. And so I would rather sell 80% of, of what I could sell and just work with, good, you know, honest people. And I’m not saying you know, any, to anyone in the luxury field knows that not every client, not a religious client is easy. I’m not trying to say, hey, this guy’s gonna be hard. Let’s ditch it. Because we work with our fair share of difficult clients. And I can be difficult myself. So we all have our own things, right. But when you get the feeling that someone is, you know, not trustworthy, or trying to trying to lie about who knows what, or just like, not a good person, you get that feeling? I think you should listen to it. Because why spend your time working with bad people?

D.J. Paris 52:37
Question has your gut. Ever since you’ve become a realtor? Has your gut ever steered you wrong?

Leah Canfield 52:43
No, honestly, it hasn’t. And it’s been so hard for me because that’s not my personality. To

D.J. Paris 52:48
Yes, your logical, yeah, oriented look at the data.

Leah Canfield 52:54
And it’s so hard because I can’t explain, you know, I can’t explain, like, why you

D.J. Paris 52:59
can’t walk it back and say, Oh, the reason I had that feeling was because XY and Z, it’s like, no, the feeling showed up before I was aware of anything.

Leah Canfield 53:07
Yeah, and I’m still not perfect. Like, I just, I still have instances where I have this, this gut feeling of like, this isn’t gonna end well, you know, maybe I should decline this. And then I kind of bug work, work past it, and work through it. And then sure enough, my gut was right. And I’m like, okay, so it’s not like I have, you know, just the perfect, you know, instincts that I’m always listening to, sometimes I’m like, that up, I should have listened to, should have listened to how I felt. But, um, I think that’s an important thing that, that we don’t really talk about enough. It just in general is that it’s, listen, listen to how you feel. Because also if, if for nothing less than when, when someone calls you, if you immediately get a pit in your stomach, I mean, you’re gonna get a pit in your stomach every single time you need to talk to this person. And you need to, you need to figure out whether or not you want to live with the pit in your stomach, because that’s not a way to live. Right? So try and find a way try and find a way to, to be at peace with the people that you work with. And it’s okay to say no, sometimes, you know,

D.J. Paris 54:11
so as you’ve stepped away from sort of grinding it out, which I imagine, you know, as the athlete, part of you understands, grinding it out. And that’s achieved. And it really is, you know, in many ways, such a significant part of an athlete’s life, sort of dropping that and trusting that that you can still progress and achieve and scale the mountain without necessarily burning the candle at both ends. What does your life look like now? Is it more balanced? You know, and how are you able to still achieve more which, you know, you’re still in the early early phase of your real estate career where you’re doing more and more and more and obviously, you know, this year is kind of, you know, a different year for most realtors, but you’re still moving forward and achieving. How do you do that? While maintaining balance, what what does that look like for you?

Leah Canfield 55:03
Yeah, well, so. So I will kind of like, there’s this, I’ll mention this adage that I have heard that I really appreciate. I think it’s an old African average. Hopefully, I’m not misquoting it. But it says, If you want to go fast, go alone. And if you want to go far go as a team. And I think what they meant it very literally, like, if you need to get somewhere fast, you better start running by yourself. And if you need to cross a great distance, you better go with a group of people. And I, I really liked that saying, because I am kind of a lone wolf in my by nature, like I only did. I didn’t do team sports, I did individual sports, right. And I was extremely competitive as an individual. And I burnt myself out and was plagued with injury. And the thing that meant most to me at that time, which was ski racing, and I did, I did get to a pretty high level, but I didn’t my career didn’t last very long. You know, I retired when I was like, before I turned 20, I think. And so I realized that, you know, I should take something away from that, which is, life, hopefully, for for most of us is quite long. And if you want to have success in something, and you want to have elongated success, then it’s important that you work with a team, whatever that looks like for you. I’m not saying every single person needs to start a real estate team. But it’s important that you recognize that going at it alone, it’s it’s tough to you know, it’s tough to do stuff alone. So if that just means you have a support group or group of agents that you meet with to like, you know, talks about your, your highs and lows together, whatever that may be. So that wasn’t really the answer to your question. So to answer your question, what my life kind of looks like now is it certainly and my business, it’s not perfect, there’s always things where I’m like, oh, I need to improve on this, or we should be doing this. And, and so, it’s I think it’s always gonna be like that, though. So I’ve just kind of become comfortable with that feeling of this is not perfect, and I don’t love that I’m a little bit of a perfectionist, so but that’s okay. Right. I’m, I have to tell myself, it’s okay that my business is not perfect, because it’s improving. And

D.J. Paris 57:19
you you said something at the beginning that probably skated by a lot of us, but you said, two things can be true, right. And that’s, I think that’s called like dialectical thinking this idea of two things that could be in opposition can also be true, right? We we all know, if we have a romantic partner, we can love that person with all our heart and really be annoyed at something they did at the exact same time. And and letting one of those emotions totally take over is probably not not the healthiest thing is understanding. Yes, there’s times I’m annoyed with you. And there’s times I love you more than anything. And those can be true at the exact moment. Yeah, and so a life can be out of balance. And by the way, I don’t think balance I’m not even sure balance is possible. But the striving to sort of balance is is very, you know, important. And this idea that you can be because you are good at things and also not good at things simultaneously. Right, like,

Leah Canfield 58:16
wow. Right. So So yeah, I would agree. I think finding, I think I’ve heard of it. Maybe it’s like a false dichotomy, where it’s like, well, it has to be this or that. Right? I have to either enjoy my life or have a successful career.

D.J. Paris 58:29
I happy until Yeah, right. Yeah, right. Right. I

Leah Canfield 58:33
can either enjoy my life, or I can save up money, right? And it’s like, well, you can do both, right. So I think, I think it’s extremely important for people in our profession. They take their real estate class, if you’re new in the industry, or if you’ve been doing it forever. There’s no like you said earlier, it’s not really defined, you know, no one gives you like a manual and says, Here’s your job description. They’re like, hey, go, good luck, you know, sell stuff, because that’s how you get paid. So it’s really important to have the headspace to be able to be a little bit introspective, and figure out what you want your life to look like. Because it’s one of the best careers in the world, to be able to design your own life around it. You could say, hey, look, I’m, I don’t really feel that competitive. I only really want to sell enough to pay my rent, and go surfing every day. And you can do that, right? Or you can say like, Hey, I want to become the top agent in this market. You know, let’s start coming up with some ways that you can do that. And also go on for vacations a year, or whatever you want to do. Because the most successful people aren’t going out alone. You know, the most successful businesses aren’t one person. And every single one of us runs a business. So I think we’re just, I think, the grind, you know, grind till you die, lifestyle. It doesn’t take that into consider ERATION that you’re, you’re cutting yourself short, and you’re doing a disservice to your clients, because you really can’t. Like we are human, we have to sleep, right? And we have to take a rest. And if we really want to develop a good business, we need to sometimes take days off so that we can have a creative thought, so that we’re not just like, when’s their earnest money deadline? When it Okay, did I review that title commitment, and oh, God, I gotta get to this appointment. Because if you’re, if your mind is constantly on to do lists, you can’t operate in a creative space, that way, you can’t come up with new ways to do things better than other people. So you know, give yourself some space headspace by taking a few things off your plate. So you’re not just like running around like a chicken with your head cut off. And you can actually have an original thought, like, this is something no one else in my market is doing. What if we did that? Right. And I think that’s only possible if you if you can get some help,

D.J. Paris 1:01:02
and make and make space, right. And getting help oftentimes makes that space as as you were saying, and, and you know, to for those of us listening, who are solo practitioners who are thinking, Well, I can’t afford to hire, you know, a an assistant, well, there as you know, there are websites, where you can post jobs that all over the world, people will bid for your business, and they don’t have to live in your immediate market for for certain tasks. And there’s, you know, there’s lots of things that these are, can be highly skilled people that live in, in in areas where the compensation is much different than it is here, and oftentimes much lower, and you’re offering them an opportunity to make a good living for them, and also get the help that you need, where maybe you can’t afford to get a full time, you know, local assistant, right away.

Leah Canfield 1:01:51
And yeah, there’s a lot of there’s a lot of creative solutions like that. I mean, you can, if you live there College, people need to intern and they don’t, they don’t necessarily even need to be paid. Right? And, or if you have a group of agents in your office, and you guys don’t even work together, but you’re like, Hey, I can’t afford someone salary, but I could afford 1/5 of someone’s salary. What about you? Right? So there’s a lot of different ways you can accomplish this. But I, I do think that if you’re going to take your business seriously, you know, and you pick up the E Myth and you read it, and you realize that you’re both the CEO and the receptionist of your business and everything in between. There’s a better way. Yeah, better for you for your life.

D.J. Paris 1:02:32
I just want to circle back in this last thing I’ll mention because I think it’s really important. And you said this, and it’s quite profound. This idea of making space for ideas to emerge. So you’re talking about it reminded me of of the saying, which is technically a, it’s not even a saying it’s just true, is that the music that we enjoy? It’s not actually the notes that that are that we’re sort of interpreting, we’re actually interpreting the silence between the notes, because otherwise, it’s just one continuous sound, right? Yeah. So we all okay, yeah, we get that. But the point of it is, is that in order for us to appreciate things, we really do have to give it our attention, which means making space, which means putting down maybe the phone or the TV, and blocking out some actual time to sit alone and think for a few minutes here and there. About let’s let’s brainstorm some ideas of making, you know, x better or, or changing y. And, and if you don’t spend that time, it’s unlikely to emerge. Because we do live in this culture of cons. I mean, we have a device in our pocket that is unlimited. It’s unlimited, and its ability to entertain us. It’s completely unlimited. It’s the most powerful thing that we could have ever imagined now sits in our pocket, and you can give us any sort of feeling we wanted any given time, we just can dial it up. So it’s, it’s almost quite, it’s actually quite dangerous, in a sense. So extremely

Leah Canfield 1:03:57
difficult. Thanks a lot, Steve Jobs.

D.J. Paris 1:04:01
It’s all his fault.

Leah Canfield 1:04:03
But I mean, I struggle with it. I will mindlessly open apps on my phone. And I’m like, What am I doing? You know? And I will say that, if it sounds overwhelming to set everything aside and have a brainstorming session, some people are like, what does that even mean? It you don’t have to go forward with always having a purpose to something. And that is something that I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older because you know what, when I was younger, when I was a ski racer, I couldn’t just like go for a stroll, right? I’d have to do like intervals, right? Sprinting for 30 seconds and then recovering and sprinting and recovering and all my friends were like, You’re crazy. Can you just come on a walk with us? I’m like, No, actually, I can’t have to train. And so now it’s okay to just be great if you can figure out a way to just be so if you if you don’t want to turn your phone off and do a brainstorming session for your job, or you know, for your business, turn your phone off and just go for a walk or take a shower or, or, you know, if you’d like to paint paint just make space for you not to be so turned on all the time because all of a sudden, you will be on that walk with no intention of coming up with any ideas for your business. And you will be like, Hey, how did I not think of this sooner, because all of a sudden, your mind has the capacity to actually problem solve. And that’s just burnout, the grind culture doesn’t allow don’t have that space. So you gotta make it.

D.J. Paris 1:05:33
I think that’s perfectly said and great place for us to wrap what I what I would like to say for everyone listening is that Breckenridge is a town where people oftentimes have, you know, a condo that they go to visit and ski it or maybe they have a second home, because they enjoy, you know, everything about that part of the country, which it’s like such a perfect sort of plays. And so this is an opportunity for anyone listening, if you do have clients that love to ski or love to be outdoors and are looking in areas to maybe retire to or even have a second home. You know, Leah and her team would love the opportunity to connect with you, Leah. Or, and of course, if anyone’s listening out there who is looking to purchase or list a property in the Breckenridge and Summit County area. I mean, Leah and her team, obviously are a great choice. They are not only one of the top teams in the area, they’re Leah and her team is literally one of the top agents in all of Coldwell Banker, including not just this country, but the entire world. So if somebody out there is looking to connect with you, and in some way, Leah, what’s the best way that they should do that?

Leah Canfield 1:06:39
Oh, man, you know, here’s the thing about being a realtor, you could just look up my name, and you will find all of my personal information. So you use pretty easy to find my phone number, my website, my email,

D.J. Paris 1:06:51
but what we’ll do is, yeah, we can send everyone right over to the website, which is mountain homes group.com. Again, mountain homes, plural group.com, the link will be in our show notes and you can find all things Leah there, you can connect with her. It should you you know, want to you know, set up a referral system. And by the way, Leah also has I’m sure clients that move from the area as well. So probably a good person to connect with. So and So Leah, we are so excited. Congratulations again on the nar 30 under 30 What a huge, huge honor not surprising for what you’ve accomplished thus far. But also, I’m glad that I’m glad that National Association of REALTORS recognized you because of course, seeming seems very well deserved. And we wish you the very best as you’re, you know, again, you’re sort of going up the mountain as opposed to traditionally in the past always going down the mountain. In your in your other career. But so part part in the silly pun there but but the but but I’m very excited to continue to watch your your ascent and and as you build your business, you know, we want to check back in with you and see how it’s going and what new lessons you’ve learned. Because, you know, your business will continue to evolve, continually evolve. And you’ll have better ideas as well as as things change. So we are excited to keep that keep that conversation going for. So everyone who’s made it all the way to the end. We appreciate you our listeners or viewers. On behalf of Leah and I, we thank you for sitting and listening to us talk. Hopefully this was helpful to you. I trust that it was it was for me. And I know we’ll get a lot of great feedback from our audience. And speaking of feedback, let us know what you think of the show. So best way to do that. If you’re listening through a podcast app, leave us a review, let us know whether it’s Apple podcasts or Spotify, Stitcher, Google podcasts anywhere. Just let us know what you think of the show. We read every comment and on. So on behalf of Leah and I we say thank you. And of course on behalf of the audience, we say thank you to Leah for coming on and really giving us her perspective of what’s been working for her. And there’s been so many great tips in here that I know our audience is going to be thrilled to share this episode with another realtor. So best way to do that just send them over to our website keeping it real pod.com We have every episode we’ve ever done, you can stream it right online. If the person you’re sending over isn’t a podcast person, just send them to our website keeping it real pod.com And thank you again to everyone Lea thanks again and we will see everybody on the next episode.