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

Ben Lalez with The Ben Lalez Team discusses how he went from an individual producer to leading one of the largest teams in Chicago. Ben describes how he and his team nurture a lead and the processes they use. Ben also discusses what changes are being seen by him and his team in the market with the changes in interest rates. Ben goes back to the beginning and describes how he got into real estate business and also describes where he sees his team headed in the future. Ben and D.J. discuss what comes next for the real estate market. Last, Ben discusses the interpersonal side of his team.

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

If you’d like to listen to Ben’s first interview with us, click here.

Ben Lalez can be reached at 847-452-9675 and [email protected].

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

D.J. Paris 0:00
How does a top 1% Producer nurture their leads? 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 onto 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 today we have a returning guest, Ben lawless from the bend LoL is team here in Chicago with Compass. And this is a really exciting episode because not only is Ben going to tell you exactly how his team nurtures, leads, and by the way, they have just in the last several years closed 335 million in real estate, but also he I went to his office to shoot this. So if you’re listening to us, check out the video version because Ben’s team professionally shot and edited this and it looks amazing way better than anything we could do. So I want to thank Ben for you know, really taking some initiative and helping us look even better than we normally do, which is not very good. But Ben’s team did an outstanding job and he provides so much value in this conversation that you’re going to love it. So without further ado, let’s just get right to it. My second conversation with one of my favorite people in real estate Ben lawless.

Today on the show, we have Ben Lalas from the Ben Lalas team here in Chicago. Ben’s actually been on the show before. And if I sound in a little different, and if I look a little different, it’s because I’m actually in Ben’s amazing Bucktown office. And he so generously invited me to come along and I’m excited to see you again. Yeah, let’s let me tell you a little bit more about Ben. We’ll keep it short, because we have a lot to sort of talk about. But Ben really started as a general contractor, he went full time in real estate in 2019. And I want you to pay attention to these numbers, because in 2017, he did 4 million in production in 2018 14 million, so a $10 million jump in just one year. The next year he did 24 million another $10 million jump. And in the trailing 12 months, Ben Wallace team has closed 165 million in production. And it’s just incredible. There’s 45,000 Real estate agents here in the Chicagoland area. I’ve yet to see somebody quite grow so quickly and build a team as fast as Ben has. He is a household name here in Chicago amongst agents. But Ben and his team pride themselves on thinking and dreaming big and never getting out hustled. To learn more about Ben and his team, please visit Ben lawless.com. That’s BNLAL easy.com Ben is a real pleasure to be here in your office.

Ben Lalez 4:15
It’s almost like I didn’t provide all of those stats to you.

D.J. Paris 4:19
By my crack team of well, it would be I was gonna say researchers but it was you who sent us this information but really you are all I am on the Chicago Association of Realtors, which is our local association. I’m on our YPN committee which is for young professional network which is ironic because I am 46 I’m I shouldn’t technically be allowed to be on there still look

Ben Lalez 4:40
good. Thank you. That’s the game.

D.J. Paris 4:45
But what’s funny is every year what we do YPN and Ben knows this because he’s been to many of these events is we have these these breakfasts where we bring in top producers and so we have to plan these as an as a committee and your name has come up I’ve been in the maybe two years of my third year will be this next year, your name will come up again, every meeting next year, it came up every meeting this year, because of the explosive growth, people don’t understand it. Other agents are inspired slash jealous of this. It’s really, really cool to be here and to have your attention because you are, I don’t want to say even a rising star, because you’re obviously already one of the top producers here in Chicago. But the fact that you rose so quickly, is just I’ve yet to see it. And in anyone else. So congratulations on the team success.

Ben Lalez 5:32
Man, I didn’t expect so much flattery right out of the gates. But, you know, we appreciate it. It’s, you know, there’s no secret says, you know, just hard work.

D.J. Paris 5:41
Well, tell us a little bit about, you know, we you’ve been on the show before. And this was bad. It was so funny, because after we got done talking, Ben had sort of shared with me, he said, he said we really ready to take this to the next level. And I said, Okay, you know, and I, but you know, most people will say that, right? Like, that’s a very common thing that people who own businesses, or who have a team in real estate will say, Hey, we’re poised to go to the next level. And not everyone does. And then you just legitimately went to that next level, just as you said, you would in the timeframe, you said you would, and I want to know all about how you went from being an individual producer. And it’s in look, it’s not like you work at a little small company, where they just decided, You know what, everyone’s going to work with Ben, because he’s the, he’s the top sales guy in our office, you work for one of the top, you know, producing companies in the industry compass. You know, you are for lack of a better word, a cog in this wheel of compass. It’s an impressive wheel. But you are an impressive cog in that wheel. But you’re also one of 1000s of agents here. And yet you have risen even to the top of compass here in the local market. Tell us? I mean, I just I just love hearing how people do that. So yeah, share with me,

Ben Lalez 7:00
what’s really interesting is, when we first did this podcast, it was in 2020, right before COVID or late 2019. Right? And knows, right when I moved over to Compass, I think it was probably February of 2020 2020. Oh, right. Before we had our 2019 numbers, they were out. Yeah. And I was sitting, you know, on this podcast at my single desk at the compass officer. And, you know, I was just happy to be on the podcast, you guys had reached out to me, and I’m like, Oh, my God, this is unbelievable. And I didn’t know, you know, we didn’t talk about what the title of the podcast would be. But I you know, I remember it, there’s no chance there’s no way you remember, I don’t it was four to 24 million. That sounds right. Two years. Yeah. And, you know, now we’ve gone from 24 to 165, in another three years? And to answer your question, and like, for anyone who’s listening, it’s all about I mean, it’s leads and sales, right. And throughout my entire career, you know, even when I was doing 4,000,014, whatever the numbers were, my whole philosophy has been, you know, grow, organically, whatever feels normal for me, and then make the necessary changes if it feels right, just head in that direction. So what happened with me and, you know, growth doesn’t happen by accident, right, there was a game plan. But what I always tell people is, you know, you’re only as good as your sales, you’re only as good as your leads. So every time we, you know, I personally had too much business to handle, what do you do, you bring on another agent. And then when us three had too much business to handle, you hire another agent, and so on and so forth. And you know, now we have, you know, a large team. It’s one of the largest in Chicago, but it’s only because we have enough business to go around. There are teams out there who are hiring for ego, in my opinion. This has nothing to do with that we’re hiring out of, I only hire out of need, Sebastian is sitting right to our left, hired out of need our second videographer hired out of need, we have two isas. Do you get where I’m going with this is hired out of need, but it’s only because we have enough to go around. And all of these people are necessary to keep, you know, the boat afloat, if you will. Well, it’s

D.J. Paris 9:21
funny because I you hear so much about 10x or 3x 5x, you know, depending on on how much you pay attention to things like valuation and, and growth and a lot of its, you know, for lack of a better word marketing sort of smoke and mirrors Bs, and it’s the promise of something that rarely ever happens. Businesses usually don’t 10x I mean, it’s certainly possible, but you sort of have done that. And I don’t know what the actual x is from 14

Ben Lalez 9:50
to 165. If you want to look at it that way. Yeah, pretty significant. Four years. Yeah, yeah. And four

D.J. Paris 9:54
years so you’ve actually done that. So it’s not just like, hey, we’ve just organically grown I mean, yes. Have, but you’ve organically grown in a way that that’s almost exponential. And that to me is is interesting. And yes, of course it’s leads in business. Everything is leads in business when it comes to growth. But how were you able to accelerate it so much nothing was handed to you now. And that’s the other thing, that’s really important. Because a lot of times, when people get to certain levels of production, things do start to happen for them, things are handed to them. But that really wasn’t your path.

Ben Lalez 10:31
Now, so I’ll answer this two ways. One, people have to, this is my fourth business that, you know, I think if it is a business now, right, I’m not just a real estate agent. This is a business that, you know, I’ve cultivated, I had a business in college, I was a general contractor, I was a property manager. You know, this is now what I consider my fourth business, what you what I’ve learned along the way is, I mean, the most cliche thing ever, you have to spend money to make this kind of money. I mean, you’d be shocked if I showed you what my expense ratio is, you’re absolutely shocked. But you have to be very, very on top of your numbers. So I’m the one hand, I think a huge part of this, as I’m thinking about it a little bit differently, where people don’t come into the business understanding that this hat, I’m a company, we are Ben law, LLC, we’re established, we have, you know, expense reports, we have PNLs. And the average agent listening to this, I would imagine, that’s not how they’re entering, right, I have the benefit of other businesses that either I shut down or have frankly, failed, and you learn from them. The second way I would answer is this. I mean, you’re you’re a perfect example, DJ, right before this podcast started your I think your watch lit up and you got the alert, right? And how I mean, your eyes lit up.

D.J. Paris 11:53
So So yeah, just to peel back the curtain. So I recruit agents. And I got a lead. From one of our web, somebody visited our website said, Hey, I’m thinking about joining your company. I was beside myself for a moment that I couldn’t immediately respond to do we have it

Ben Lalez 12:09
on camera? I think we haven’t. And this is where we insert it right here possible, where you He looked at his watch.

Unknown Speaker 12:14
And he was like, Oh, I was like, oh, so we just started I gotta leave. Yeah.

Ben Lalez 12:17
So you know, however many years in, you know, if we get a lead via any channel, I’m getting the same notification. And, you know, if it’s a fit here, today, $13,000 parking spot, right, come, you know, someone wants to buy a $13,000 parking spot. I am making sure that whoever is getting assigned to is, you know, actually taking care of this client and may not be the sexiest thing in the world, we know it’s not, but you never know where it’s gonna lead. So every single lead, no matter how attractive or unattractive gets handled the exact, exact same way. And I think that’s a huge part of this is what is that way, it’s our system. It’s the, you know, cheesy as hell like the bend. Lala is whacked. I’ve taught it to 22 people. Now, lead comes in, you do a B, C, D, E, and the system, we use Salesforce, like it’s going to tell you exactly what to do. And when, and just do it. And if you continue to do it over and over and over, and we have a you know, funny saying like a lead isn’t dead until they tell you to screw off. Yeah, till I tell you to eff off is what we say. Yeah. And, and we have it for, you know, 365 days is our policy short where I want to, I want proof that you were talking to a wall for 365 days. And then cool, let’s kill it. Like, let’s kill the lead, and then you move on. But how many agents do you know that don’t follow up on a lead.

D.J. Paris 13:46
So I used to work. Before I got into real estate, I worked for a tech company that generated health insurance leads for health insurance agents. So we were at the time the company I worked at, we were producing about 15,000 leads a day. And then we were selling them to agents all over the country. And so one of my jobs was to help educate the lead buyer about because, of course, as a company, we want them to keep buying leads. So we have to teach them how to work these leads. We had millions of leads, data, we had millions of leads that we could go through our data and look through our servers. And actually, we had a CRM that was that would come with it. Now not everyone used our CRM. But for people who did use our CRM, we were able to take a look at that data and see how quickly an agent would drop a lead. And it was shocking. So what we found was that the average consumer when they need to buy health insurance, it would take them about 13 days before they’d actually make a buying decision. It’s kind of complicated. You got to call your doctors are you in network with this Bob? You know, it’s not quite as simple as as as other types of services. So it takes a couple of weeks, so that the buying decision happens on day 13 On average, most of our buyers would give up by day three. So here’s of the leads of the leads. Yeah, I’m sorry. Yeah. So the agents would they would buy these leads, they would, they would call, you know, maybe they’d call 10 times in three days, they’d give up persons not interested, they’d move on, we find, well, that person actually, about another week from now is really going to make that decision. Yep. So I think we’re, you know, we’re sort of saying the same thing, speaking

Ben Lalez 15:20
the exact same language. And, you know, a lot of it is, you know, for the first six months, you know, me or one of our sales managers is looking at every single lead, and we want to see that something was logged, every single day, we have like a whole process for how often before you get to recategorize them, sure, we just, you know, this is what I discovered from four to 14 and 14 to 23 million, okay, this works, and then we just duplicate it and poured gasoline on it and spent more money and, you know, people who are listening who are spending money on I don’t care what lead Ave, like, even agents on my team follow up to three times, if it doesn’t pay right away, they move on. And we have ways to make sure like I’m notified when that occurs. And we track conversion ratios pretty intensely here. So you get a lead, you know, we expect a certain conversion ratio, um, that lead for you know, the year and just do it over and over and over and over again, until you want to rip your hair out.

D.J. Paris 16:21
It’s really funny, I was driving right right down the street here. Because our offices are pretty close to each other I, I drive by this guy has got a billboard. And this is such a perfect example of follow up, although it’s going to be in the, we’re going to have to, you’d have to make a little bit of a mental leap here to to get to sort of get my best DJ. Well, it’s more for the audience. I you and I live here so you, you might have even seen it. There’s this guy’s got a ski cap and and he’s got a billboard needs to be kind of doesn’t look like a celebrity. And his I guess his name is Tim. And it says Tim cast in, which would lead me to think he has a podcast, his name’s Tim. That’s about all I know. And that’s all that it says that it says weeknights, from seven to eight, everywhere podcasts are streamed, and he’s got these billboards, and I go, it’s unusual. I’ve never seen a podcast like that in here in Chicago with a billboard. And I thought, oh, maybe he’s trying it for a month kind of God only knows what it costs. And now it’s a second month. And so finally I was like, just because I drove by it every single day. I’m like, I’m gonna check out what this guy is. Now it turns out, he’s, it’s a political show. And it’s not really my cup of tea at all. But I checked it out. Because he was in a way following up with me by I was seeing his face every day for about two months. And finally, I was like, I gotta figure out who this guy is. And again, that’s not a perfect metaphor. This is not this is perfect. But it’s all about repetition. And it’s about

Ben Lalez 17:46
layering, you’re layering these touch points. So I’m sure he was trying to get on some other your LinkedIn news. Oh, for

D.J. Paris 17:53
sure. Yeah, try. He’s not just doing billboards, I just happen to drive by it every day. But for agents who are listening, I mean, you. This is the wonder of technology. I mean, there’s a lot of things that that we could argue with the particular social media that maybe divide us and make us less happy. But from a business perspective, what a great opportunity to stay in touch with your contacts, know what they’re up to know where they’re going on vacation, and being able to comment on things outside of real estate, as a way as a as a touch point, versus just Hey, you ready to buy yourself, you have all this opportunity information is just be people just give away their lives online. And so you now have reasons to contact them and talk about it. And I’m curious for you how often or what is so you have some you know, lead comes in, you have them at least set up for 365 365 days of contact. Yeah, what do you usually find is, is what is the usually time to? How long does it take before they actually become a client? Yeah,

Ben Lalez 18:52
so I’ll kind of just give it away, because I mean, no one’s actually going to implement it. So lead comes in, everyone knows speed to lead, you need to contact that on the first, you know, we want to do it in the first 30 seconds. Sure, whatever. Once you know, hopefully, best case scenario, they become a client and you’re interacting every single day, and you guys live happily ever after you sell them a home. But if that doesn’t occur, what we want is four touch points the first day, and if they’re complete silence or not interacting, you put them on the shelf for three days. They come back, you hit them four more times, and this is all logged. If you can’t get them to engage. You put them on the shelf for a week, they come back, you know, the system tells you it’s time to reach out to DJ again, right? Hit him for more time. So what at that seven? day mark one week mark,

D.J. Paris 19:36
you have a better sense of where they’re at. Yeah. And then you know,

Ben Lalez 19:39
I let them put them on the shelf for a month. They come back you hit him four more times. Put on the shelf for three months, they come back, hit him four more times, put them on the shelf for six months, and then you know hit them four more times. And then after you aggregate all of that time that was a year they hit they come back after six months you know you try again. And you try to get them to engage. And we, you know, we can talk about exactly how we go about that. But you know, after that a lot of this is like, okay, you can feel good about how much effort you put in. So that’s four times I don’t even know, I think it’s eight. So it’s like 32 attempts to get someone to engage with you feel like that’s enough, don’t you? Yeah, that our numbers prove it, it is enough.

D.J. Paris 20:21
It is enough. And but it’s getting to that 32, right, that that most people aren’t? Well, it’s not that they’re not willing to, they don’t have a system that would tell them, you’re now at step 17. And you’re halfway through the process. And you’re six months, this is totally normal, this person’s blowing you off totally normal, it’s okay. It’s part of the process, it takes the emotion out of it, it’s I’m just running the program, essentially. So

Ben Lalez 20:45
here’s one of the biggest challenges I hear from agents across the city, country, etc, is, you can always do more, your work is never done. People don’t know when their day is done. So the system that we have, you know, I just told you about how people cycled through. So you have top priority clients, you put them on the shelf, they’re ignored, and then they become top priority clients, again, after X period of time, that’s how the system is set up. It’s actually really stupid, really simple. Sure. I you know, some people like brand new, maybe only have 10, top priority clients, Joey helper, and on my team, for example, he probably has 60 top priority clients. And that means that they need some form of contact today. Right. So it’s obviously going to take Joey a lot longer than a, you know, a brand new agent. But for both of them, it’s the same philosophy. After you get done with your top priority clients, your date is finished, it’s done. And that’s like a really big unlock, and a lot of my agent’s heads were like, go to the gym. Yeah, go on, go take your significant other out, like, go do whatever makes you happy. Let me handle the leads, let me handle the infrastructure, let me handle your transaction management, let me handle your social media, your day is done. Right, you may want to work on some other aspects of your business plan, be it marketing, you know, we have a lot of like, where we’re sitting, if you like, look at our videos, like we do a ton of our video here. So people just literally funnel in and out of that door, we handle it, we post it for you, et cetera. But that’s like the, that’s how this was built. I want you know, I wanted to know, when my day was done. Yeah. And it was impossible. Because follow up is theoretically neverending, right? Like you could prospect 24 hours a day, theoretically. But you know, we developed a way to, you know, it was through a lot of trial and error, do this. And you’re done.

D.J. Paris 22:42
You know, we talk about competition, especially around around lead generation. So, you know, we all get emails from, you know, these unknown surfaces that are promising Facebook leads, you know, or you can go there more traditional route with realtor.com, Zillow, etc. And then there’s of course, you know, referrals from existing clients. What What have you found to be because everyone else I talked to who has not grown, I’ve never met anyone who’s quite had the the growth that you’ve had. So everyone else I talked to, has grown strictly organically, but when you talked about pouring gas on the fire, you’re talking about investing into the business? Yep, finding, finding those people that raise their hand and say, I want to talk to a realtor. And and I’m what I’m curious about is what is the competition look like? Meaning understanding that the person who fills out a lead form and in get set your way, good chance that they might have filled out a lead form? And are also talking to another agent? Come on? So of course, all right, so how is it as competitive as somebody who isn’t participating in this sort of space? Or is it less competitive than that

Ben Lalez 23:57
it’s way less competitive, especially we’ll call it at this level, where we are trained, like we are training every single day, about how to go about, you know, XY and Z scenarios, so that when there’s another agent, we have to assume we assume that there’s another agent in the picture. Sure. So like we preach, you know, if you’re going to meet someone for the first time, at some point, you need to ask them for their business. Right? You know, it’s not just all right, nice to meet you know, like, our line right is and we call it a call it like the soup talk after the first showing is Hey, DJ Has anyone ever actually walked you through the home buying process here in Chicago?

D.J. Paris 24:38
And the answer that is almost always no,

Ben Lalez 24:40
especially especially with a lead like a full lead off of Zillow? realtor.com Yeah, like face whatever. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 24:46
definitely a no yeah. Oh, no. Oh,

Ben Lalez 24:49
well, do you have a couple of minutes for us to you know, run through it.

Unknown Speaker 24:53
Perfect. I love it. So

Ben Lalez 24:54
what we see happen is like this a sigh of relief like Oh, thank god someone like a human being is actually going to spend the time to walk me through it. But hey, DJ, Okay, step one is finding a real estate agent, someone like me to walk you through everything, A to Z. So if everything works out, I’d love to be that guy for you. Step one, A, we need to introduce you to a lender. I assume you don’t have $500,000 sitting under a mattress. This is a recording. So like, literally, like we have a recording. Yeah. And everyone needs to repeat a to z, sure, verbatim the way I say it, right? Because it’s your team. Yeah. And then once you have polished, you can put your spin on it, I don’t really care. But like that needs, we need to get to that we call it the stoop talk the right hook, you need to tell them like, Hey, this is who I am. This is what I’m going to do for you. But a lot of people like don’t have you know, a lead starts with a call or click or whatever. But there’s probably 40 steps to actually you know, converting this client into a I’m sorry, converting this lead into an actual client. And we have every single tiny little step formalized systemized, there’s no guessing anymore. And it’s like what I, essentially what I did to go from zero to 14, and then we just copied it. There’s agents on the team right now. I think we have four or five agents doing, you know, 10 plus million. It’s amazing. And some of them have, you should probably be interviewing them, they’re going on like zero to 10, in 12 months. That’s incredible. We have agents who, like got their license and are doing 7 million in their first year, I’m talking about, you know, Mara, if you look on our website, now, all the recruiters are gonna go after her, but

D.J. Paris 26:43
But I mean, it’s, it really is impressive. It’s, it’s, I found in pretty much every area of life, not just specifically to being a successful real estate agent, but it’s discipline and systems, it’s consistency, and it’s about the marathon, right, like, it’s just understanding that, that this is the process. And it takes, I think, I think being reactive takes a huge emotional toll. It wears me out when I’m when I’m reactive. And I know that realtors have to really figure out the balance of being proactive versus reactive, because things are flying at them all day long. emails, texts, you know, and trying to figure out how to bat that stuff away. And, you know, service the client at the same time. Also understanding how do I get this back into this process? How do I just keep this process going? To me processes? It’s funny, I think most back to your point about asking for business. I think most people don’t have any scripts at all. Right, honestly. And now, the people I interview on on this show, yes, they are people that are that they they know their pitch. They know how to present their successful like people like yourself, of course. But for our listeners if you don’t have an elevator pitch, like locked and loaded a 22nd. So when I do, this is how I can be helpful. And then here’s how to get to the next step. Oh, if if you want to give me your your email and phone number, I can send you some more information, or whatever the next step might be, if you don’t have that ready and locked, like you’re gonna just miss opportunity after opportunity after I think most people don’t even have that.

Ben Lalez 28:32
I want to play a game, I was actually looking to see if anyone was here, where you I want to like pull on one of my agents. And you just hit him with you know, a common sales objection. Sure. And you know, that person and I would say the exact same words to you at the exact same speed, the exact same tone. And that’s, you know, 22 deep mate, you know, we have four newer agents and zero, we’re still teaching them but the other 18 will say the exact same stuff to you. Yeah. And, you know, we don’t want people to think too hard. This business isn’t rocket science. The what I continue to tell these agents who I’m sending out on appointments is, whoever your meeting is, they got really lucky that it’s you. Yeah, right. As opposed to someone who has absolutely no idea what they’re doing. You have a ton of infrastructure behind you. There’s an absolute even if you don’t know the question, in real time, I’m sorry, you don’t know the answer to the question. And in real time, I guarantee someone here knows and you can acquire that information in under five minutes. Right. So I mean, that’s a huge part of this and a huge part of I think our value proposition under this roof is like you You skipped for years.

D.J. Paris 29:47
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 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 the team teams have have I believe recruiting for realtors is it’s all going to be teams in the next it’s already pretty much is. But it’s certainly trending that way. And teams are just becoming more and more important. Because to the client. There’s there’s an obvious value proposition there. That’s that makes sense. To the agent, there’s an obvious value proposition there because you get the experience, like you were just saying, and the support and the wisdom of the team collectively. And I think you know is is this Do you think this is the death knell of the individual agent? Is that is the individual agent on their way out?

Ben Lalez 31:48
I don’t I personally, I personally don’t think so I think if you’re a good solo agent, I, I think you can still sell your value proposition like, Hey, you’re only dealing with me, every phone call every text, the lender, everything is gonna go through me and I got you. And it all depends if that’s what the consumer wants. Now, something for sure that we know, you know, after doing this for enough time is to get to call it 50 closed clients, it’s going to take you a whole hell of a lot longer to get there. Something that we talk about is dollar per hour. I mean, ad nauseam, like that’s all we talk about. And that’s what I’m trying to do is like, yeah, you may on those your first 20 humans that you close, you may make less money, but you got to those 20, probably four or five times faster than you ever would. And those 20 areas, you know, at least here those 20 are yours. Right. So you you know, for the rest of your career, those 20 you can jump to you know, your company like, right, those 20 are yours. And that’s I think somewhere around 50 or 75 closings is enough to, you know, perpetuate an entire career and you know, nurture those people correctly. It’s a really good

D.J. Paris 33:08
point. Yeah, it is funny. I love hearing those, those stories to where it’s like, I built my whole career off of 10 people or 20 people. And and yeah, absolutely. And but if you if you want to, if you want to grow beyond that, that’s where you got to start reinvesting. And what’s been your experience with with lead providers? I’m curious on on, have you found lead quality going up down staying consistent? You know, what have you found?

Ben Lalez 33:37
Are we familiar with the Zillow FLEX program before we jump in here?

D.J. Paris 33:40
So let me let me just explain to the audience, what we’re talking about. So Zillow FLEX program is basically so OP city, came onto the scene. And as a counter to what Zillow was doing at the time, where Zillow was just selling leads directly to agents price per lead kind of scenario, you know, somebody raises their hand, they want to talk to an agent that’s going to be a certain amount of money. opportunity comes along and says, We’re gonna give you the lead free up front, and you’re going to pay for it on the back end. So free up front, and then we’re going to take so Zillow says, Okay, we’re going to try that as well. That’s the Zillow live transfer. So it’s not available in every market only actually only in a few markets at this point, I believe, but leads free upfront pay at closing.

Ben Lalez 34:26
Yes. So, you know, we can just be I’ll peel the curtain back. So in 2019 2020, I was spending about 20 G’s 20 grand a month on Zillow leads paid up front. Sure, and we were getting something like 35 Live transfers. So there’s calls versus nurture leads, which are, frankly garbage. So of those 35 You know, we were making good enough money I was like, you know, we’re spreading you know, spreading these leads around, and they came a knock on our door and they were like, hey, like, we want you to spend more money. I’m like, get outta here. I’m spending 20 grand a month like, leave me alone. Isn’t that enough for you?

D.J. Paris 35:09
They should erect a statue to you. Yeah.

Ben Lalez 35:12
I mean, there are people who are who were spending way more. Oh, sure. So they’re like, Hey, we think you’d be a good candidate for this program. And I listened and I was really, you know, very scared about it. Because what I was doing was working. Objectively, you know, I was tracking ROI. As crazily as anyone you’ve ever met? I wanted to make sure that this $20,000 A month make sense? Yeah. Go figure. Right. Yeah. So we decided to do it. And our connection volume that 35 didn’t go up right away. But you know, I wasn’t paying for it upfront. I was like, Okay, this feels good. Fast forward. We’re only on it for you know, we’ve only been on it for 1516 months, we get 165 of those live transfers a month. Wow. Has our call quality gone down? Has our lead quality gone down with Zillow who has I mean, right. That’s our bread and butter. We mean 50% of that 165 is not really probably 35% of that 165 is from Zillow leads Sure. Has the quality gone down in the last three, four or five months? Yes, but I don’t think it has anything to do with Zillow or any other lead provider. I think the buyer quality has gone down dramatically. The people who were most serious all did what they needed to do in 21, and early part of 22. Now you have these people who are just like, these wet noodles, like, Oh, I didn’t, you know, interest rates were too low. There was too much competition. Interest rates are too high. Like, why aren’t Why aren’t these properties moving? So I think it’s more about the consumer, like consumer dynamics have changed? Not necessarily I think Zillow is and realtor I think they’re probably doing the same thing they’ve always done or the, I think a just as interesting a question is what is Zillow doing with market based pricing versus Zillow flex, and that’s all conjecture. But, you know, right now, we’re not feeling the burden quite as much as others that you know, I’ve spoken to,

D.J. Paris 37:19
ya know, and it all it the reason I was asking that question was was only because I know your systems are, are, they’re flexible, but they’re also pretty well established. So I was curious if you’ve found in any change, with interest rates, of course, changing. Inventory has changed. What are what are the biggest challenges your team is facing right now? Like, what are you guys dealing with?

Ben Lalez 37:44
Absolutely, no doubt about it. It’s so we are still 75% buyers. Buyers are flimsier. They aren’t as serious. They aren’t. Like once they go under contract, like way more are falling out and not having anything to do with the property. They just get cold feet. They just like oh, I you know, they’re coming up with any excuse you imagine, to fall out. And I think the biggest thing is is so we’re across all our lead sources, our conversion ratio is still about the same. But the time it takes to get someone across that finish line. You heard me talk about dollar per hour. Yeah, dollar per hour is going way down. So it’s taking whereas it may take 30 hours from call to going under contract, like and, you know, we’ve become used to, I think that 30 hours has become 70 hours. Wow. So I mean, in a very real way, you’re making half the money. Right? And, you know, that’s what these things like, they’re not. They weren’t intuitive to me when I first came here. Sure. Like, but that’s how, you know, we’re, we’re training people how to think DJ, let me ask you a question. Yes. Turn the tables, please. What’s your dollar per hour? If you’re sitting at home? Yeah. And you’re, you’re doing something that you love your eye? Right? You’re playing tennis, your work, whatever, whatever, whatever the cases, you’re relaxing? How much does it cost? To have you stop? And come do whatever I asked you to do? For one hour?

D.J. Paris 39:22
Yeah, I you know, that’s an interesting question. I don’t know. I truthfully, don’t know.

Ben Lalez 39:30
Yeah, like, and it’s not it’s not a really easy question. But it’s an important one. Yeah. So and there’s a couple ways that I have my people think about it. And that’s like, just because you may not make, you know, your $200 An hour right there. Right. What is the potential of that hour? Exactly? Right. So for me, like I have to see a path to somewhere around $1,000 an hour for me to do take on a new client. And for me to do this, right, for example, sure, there needs to be a path to $1,000. It may not happen right now. But it could definitely happen in the future. And why? Because especially in the brokerage business, if I’m gonna take on four clients, or I’m gonna take on 10 meetings with leads 10 appointments, that’s at least 10 hours, but we know that only one and a half of them are going to transact, right. So if you’re not, you know, if you don’t value your time, quite enough, you’re just going to be spinning your wheels, right? So, I mean, for all those listener listeners out there, like, what is your dollar per hour like JP, who was sitting out here before? He’s like, Man, I have no idea like 20 bucks, I’m like, okay, and now he’s up to, you know, 200 He needs to see a path to $200 an hour, because it’s probably going to shake out to one 125 or something. After it’s all said and done. And 125 an hour is not a it’s not a bad living.

D.J. Paris 40:57
No, no, it’s a fantastic living. I think that’s just Sure. It’s good. I think this is really interesting.

Ben Lalez 41:11
Yeah, it’s more team lead stuff, then, you know, I don’t know who your primary who’s your

D.J. Paris 41:17
audience are. People want to hear how you do it. So this is how I mean, you’re, you’re, you know, you’re given the recipe. I think it’s, no one’s gonna follow it. You know, it’s so funny. I, when I, when I first arrived in Chicago in 2001, I worked at Morgan Stanley for many years, and the top financial advisor in the office, he would say the same thing he would go, I’m going to tell you guys exactly what I do, and exactly how I’ve become, you know, the number one guy, and none of you are going to do it. And he’s like, you can all do it. But none of you are gonna do it. Yeah. Or he’s like, one of you will do it or something. And he was absolutely right.

Ben Lalez 41:53
I’m a Gary Vee guy. And he says the exact same thing. Like, you know, one out of 1000 people will actually, honestly, you’ve seen all my video. It’s because of Gary Vee. I’m like, fuck it. Fine. I’ll do it. Yeah, but it’s the it’s the same thing. Like the agents on my team. I’m giving you a you should go start your own team for and make, you know, do a 165

D.J. Paris 42:19
Are your but there is shocked that like, there’s other people like you doing it. Like, aren’t you? Like, how’s nobody? Oh, no,

Ben Lalez 42:25
I’m not surprised anymore. And you know, it’s really interesting, man. I’m having like, this weird moment sitting here with you, where I still felt really, really green. When we first did our interview, and I you know, I was like, I felt like I was faking it. Okay, in 2020 when we did our interview, and now I’m just like, man, like, you know, I do know what I’m doing. Yeah. And why? And why no one else is doing it is has become more and more and more shocking. And I think I’ve figured out some of it. Why not? Everyone? Wants to? Yeah, and can lead primarily?

D.J. Paris 43:03
Well, that’s true. It’s a different skill set. It’s actually a totally different skill set. Because you have to be, you have to do systems. You have to manage, you have to hire. Yeah. So it’s a it’s not typically it’s not typically the same skills that would make you a successful individual agent. Yeah. So you

Ben Lalez 43:23
have to come at it from like this completely, completely different perspective, which I think we lead with is, this is a company, we have a marketing department, we have a sales department, we have a transaction company, we have an IT department. And even on an agent level, like a solo agent level, it’s the same thing. You are the marketing department, you are the sales department, you need to get big enough to outsource Yeah, marketing, outsource outsourced sales.

D.J. Paris 43:48
Do you see yourself more as, as a manager or as a as a co leader? Or as a coach? Yeah,

Ben Lalez 43:54
you’re a coach. Yeah, that’s,

D.J. Paris 43:56
that’s always your definition. You’re I’m a coach.

Ben Lalez 43:58
Yeah, I’m a coach. And I’m also a business owner. But if I’m being again, completely honest, and it’s, you know, I told myself that I would just, you know, open book, I’m interested in outsourcing coaching as well. Sure. I want to outsource everything period. As long as the coaches as good as me or better, I’m still providing value to my agents. Right. Right. And if that person is not also, you know, doing all sorts of things, I’m unavailable right now, if that coach is available. 24/7 That’s probably a better situation for the agents on my team.

D.J. Paris 44:37
Where do you get the most satisfaction? Oh, wow. What do you enjoy the most about? Do? Do you do? Yeah. Do you like being in personal production even though you don’t do that anymore? No, no, what’s your favorite?

Ben Lalez 44:51
So I’m gonna reframe your question for the way my brain works. Like when, like, when and how do I get into flow? Yeah, you And for me, it’s like when I’m creating a new

D.J. Paris 45:02
system, you’re like, Yeah, you like systems? Yeah.

Ben Lalez 45:06
Taking something that isn’t working, correctly, finding that software that or hardware or whatever that will make it work, building out the system in order to implement it. That’s what is most interesting to my weird brain.

D.J. Paris 45:27
Yeah. How did you? How did you end? You were in real estate. You were a GC? Yeah. But how did you how did you decide to do just was real estate more of an entrepreneurial path? Or were you? Were you more about like, some people have that in them where they just, they just see real estate and becomes?

Ben Lalez 45:47
No, it’s, um, kind of goes back to something we spoke about earlier, just like what felt organic. So I’ll tell you a story in 2019. When I went full time, I had like the biggest general contracting job that I ever like, I couldn’t believe that I had won it. And I had baked in so much more juice into the pricing than I ever have. Because dollar per hour. And I didn’t I wasn’t enjoying it every time someone called me like, yeah, you talk a little Yeah. And I’m like, well, that doesn’t happen with the real estate brokering side. And I turned down, I mean, I would have made 150 grand on that one job alone. And I picked up the phone, I’m like, Hey, I don’t even remember the guy’s name. I’m like, Hey, I’m so sorry. But like, my heart just isn’t in this job anymore. I’m afraid I’m going to have to decline. Thank you so much for the opportunity, whatever. And I didn’t take on another job that day. And I, you know, went full steam ahead because this felt right, like, making good money. I enjoy it. At the time, you know, the people aspect was more interesting to me, kind of as you progress in this business. It’s really difficult to like manage I’ve I’ve personally close some somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 transactions. Like, I don’t want to manage more than that I can’t manage more than 400 relationships is not in me. Right? Despite how, like, I may not be super tight with someone. Right, but 400 was enough. But managing, you know, what’s now 22 agents and some staff, I get a ton of, you know, a ton of joy from that.

D.J. Paris 47:25
Yeah, I imagine there’s almost it feels almost like you’re creating a legacy. I think, you know, of sorts. And I don’t mean that from an ego perspective, but you’re actually building something that you have full control over the process, or collaborative control over I should say, you know, you’re the people I know, people on your team, they’re very happy. The but I this idea of skill building is really, really important to you, the skills and systems. You know, I think if if every day if I if I woke up every day, and I focused on a certain skill, and I just spent 10 to 20 minutes developing a particular skill. I feel like I feel like my career would be further along. But also, how could it be further along? Well, I just think I just think that it’s something that we stop doing. When we get into adulthood, we stopped developing skill. And I see it as a huge, huge problem. And, you know, there are really important skills that one can no matter what field you’re in, if you can devote your life to skill, and service, boy, I mean, there, you’re right, there just isn’t that much competition, because most people will end up getting comfortable. And just continuing on.

Ben Lalez 48:51
I think there’s something to be said for, like, I’m relatively young for this volume. They’re not four years old. There’s something to be said for the ability to take risks when you’re younger. And like if it doesn’t work out, whatever, even as I sit here today, I’m way less likely to take a risk because things are working. I’m not going to, you know, I’m pushing myself every day to try and do something bigger and crazier. And I kind of think of it as acquiring a new skill doing something I haven’t done yet and trying to make it work. And it gets more and more challenging every year that goes by.

D.J. Paris 49:34
What’s next for you. Where do you see where do you see the team headed?

Ben Lalez 49:37
I was having a conversation today. And I think the immediate next step what feels right because we do have lead overflow, you’ve heard me talk about it over and again is what feels natural is adding some more agents to support to the existing you know, lead in flow and then see from there? That’s it.

D.J. Paris 50:03
Yeah, it’s funny. I, when I asked, I’ve asked a lot of my guests that over the years, like, Okay, where do you what do you see? And they’re like, just, I’m just gonna keep going, you know, and because you know, they’ve built some sort of system or team or process, it works. And, you know, it’s just a matter of juicing it up a little bit.

Ben Lalez 50:23
So the the reason why it’s such a mundane answer is I recognized early, that every single thing that I do has to be built with scale in mind. So everything that we have, kind of like what you have going on, it doesn’t really make a huge difference right now. If it’s we add one or 30 agents, the infrastructures already built, where it shouldn’t be altered, burdensome. So the question is, like we talked about, a lot of this comes down to like, what is next, forget about, like, what I want to do next, like what is next for real estate, and we talk about making sure that we’re specialists still sitting right over there. So like, we talked about us making sure that we’re first, whatever it is, right. So we think we were even though we’re not the best edit in Chicago, we were first to video. We were. So right now, and everything that we do for video has scaled. So you take a look at me and you take a look at David fields, Alex Bach, Joey Halperin, JP Merritt, they all look exactly like me on all of their social channels, because we built machine right, right for editors overseas, whatever. So what is that next thing? So like we talked about being first in virtual if we’re definitely not first, but the first to like, take it to Bob and Sally homeowner? Sure. Right. So what do you think it is? I don’t know.

D.J. Paris 51:56
I don’t know. I, you know, I remember, years ago, I was, I was fortunate enough to be at a birthday party in San Francisco with somebody who was at the time on the board of directors for I’m going to say Guitar Center. But it could have been another company. I don’t remember. But anyway, it was he was also the CFO of of like a like nerd wallet, or one of those companies Jesus, okay. Yeah. Big, big, big deal tech finance guy. And he really nice guy. And I, I said, I’m getting into real estate, not as an individual producer, but just as a business opportunity. And he goes, agents will not be needed in 10 years. And

Ben Lalez 52:42
when was this again? Was that when was this conversation?

D.J. Paris 52:47
Eight years ago? Okay,

Ben Lalez 52:48
still two years for his prophecy to be fulfilled. Yeah.

D.J. Paris 52:51
And he said, agents are not necessary. And I said, and at the time, I thought, well, that that makes logical sense. Because I’m not I wasn’t a realtor. I’m, technically still, I am a realtor, but I’ve never practiced as a realtor. So I don’t really understand what Realtors do. But but the the, I know how they talk, and I have them on my shows, and I have lots of them in our office, but I don’t actually know the process, embarrassingly enough. But I absolutely thought back then that he was right. I thought, you know, why can’t this be what I’ve been through this process? We don’t, we don’t really need people. But I had enough distance from the actual buying and selling process, as a consumer to sort of forget how challenging it is. And then just a couple years ago, I bought again, and I went through the process. And now now now. So the first time I was in a tech space, I was in a tech job, I know experiences real estate. Now, you know, 10 years into real estate 750 agents at our company, you think I would have a better handle on things and I was like, oh my god, I forgot how I’m crazy and stressful. And I absolutely need help on this. And thank God there’s realtors out there to help me. And it was for my own purchase. And and so and so I he was wrong. Thankfully, because the the the challenge I think he was right in in a lot of ways in zillo comes along and basically says okay, we’re going to take all of the the objective stuff and we’re going to take care of that for you we can pretty much handle a lot of a lot of the facts and figures for you companies like Zillow and other tech providers. And then you Mr. And Mrs. Agent can now come across and you’re the interpersonal component, you’re the person you’re the reason that that you’re going to be able to handle people’s emotional reactions, you’re going to be able to guide them through the process. And by the way, oh, this is one of the most stressful processes that a human being can go through. It’s right up there with death, loss of a job it is from from on a stress, psychological stress level. is moving and buying a home and all of that it’s right up at the top with the most stressful events in someone’s life. And that’s the one part that can’t be automated. So he was wrong about that part of it and the significance of that, that that emotional connection that people have to their homes and making a switch, we all obviously, all of us know. And that’s the cool part about technology is technology can kind of take a lot of that other stuff out of of, you know, your, your to do list, and then you now get to focus on hey, I’m here for you, I’m with you. And I think that’s the coolest part about about this industry is you get to help people make really good decisions. Your team obviously is doing that. Can you talk a little bit about about that part of it, like you guys have all these processes for, you know, converting a lead to a client. But I’m curious on the interpersonal side, like, what are you guys doing to deepen those relationships? Because of course, that’s where the juice,

Ben Lalez 56:03
so it’s really funny what so for, I don’t know what what I heard was, like, if you have processes and systems you can’t have as deep and emotional connection with your clients. Is that what you said?

D.J. Paris 56:17
Well, I don’t believe that I just think having those processes allow you to then focus on and we’re

Ben Lalez 56:23
done, we’re done, we’re on exactly the same page, where because we have so much of the BS handled Exactly. All we preach, I just want you to make sure that the end user, the buyer or seller has the best possible experience and my you know, the people here just have more time to actually do what they’re best at. Yeah, I have, like the people on my team, we I tried to hire for EQ, for emotional intelligence, and we do like a personality test profile, or we’re an Enneagram team. Sure. But, you know, that’s the, the agents on my team are better than me now. Like, they’re so much better at handling buyer seller emotions, they’re probably better at value like valuations. So, just by virtue of them having the time and then the skills that we’re teaching them. We probably do too many trainings. Like that’s also my job is like literally sitting in this room up on that screen. And we go over exactly what to say and do in a whole variety of scenarios. We also spend a weird amount of time DJ essentially in a more or less group therapy. So we have a, you know, a session in this room called talk it out where people just come in and bitch and like, sure we listen, and people bounce stuff off. So that people recognize that, yeah, buyers and sellers are going through the toughest emotional situation that they can imagine. And it’s your job to help them navigate it and making sure that you know, you’re keeping things here because it’s not healthy. For you, personally, it’s also not healthy for your clients, to have you at that same level as them your whole job is to stay even keel. And making sure that that’s said to our agents over and over and over and over again. So that they can deliver. I mean, really, what we’re striving for is like a consistent level of service, right? We have deals from hell we have sure shit that hits the fan, you know, we have, I don’t know, if we have like a bad review or two because ship goes sideways. Right? But when you have stuff kind of all set up and already formalized for people, you know, you can spend time sitting here, like Claude is still over there working on the transactions, he’s our transaction coordinator, you don’t have to worry about that BS, you know,

D.J. Paris 58:50
I think that’s the real huge benefit of the team is that, you know, you with a team, you can develop people in certain ways, and you can develop them with their individual interests and talents. And I think that is, you know, in real estate realtor history has not really been something that Ben that prominent. And now in you were saying some teams, you know, grow for ego, reasons size, you know, hey, I’ve got 30 people on my team. And then you know, teams are structured a million different ways other teams are like everyone’s their own individual practitioner. So it’s not even really it’s more like a company or more like a brokerage in that sense. And then other people are like, Okay, I, you know, these are my roles. But what I think teams can really help people do is is is not have to create an influence those systems that you’ve already established and can execute. So, it is really funny. One of my very first interviews I ever had with on this podcast was a woman in the suburbs of Chicago. You And she had said, you can she’s like, you can give me anybody and I will, I will make them six figures by this time next year. But they have to do everything I say, she’s like, I’m she’s like, I’m not. I’m not saying that as an ego thing. She’s like, I legitimately know how to do this. And you sort of have that same mentality. Yeah. It’s really pretty remarkable, actually. Because I know, and I know, a lot of our listeners are, you know, wake up every day going, what do I do today? What should I be doing? Where should I be focusing my time? Oh, my gosh, there’s so many things coming at me. How do I proactively build my business? How do I respond to clients? You know, it’s a lot, it really is a lot. And I think that’s we’re going to see a flight to teams, we’ve already started to see it, this flight to teams, people like you who have these processes in place, they’re like, settle down, I got you, I’m going to create the structure that you need. And I’m going to walk you through this, and you’re gonna have a wonder you’re gonna actually have more freedom through the structure that I’m giving you.

Ben Lalez 1:00:59
Yeah, it’s interesting, because I also see the way teams are run. And we, you know, work hard play hard is a cliche, like there are teams that pride themselves on, like, no days off, worthy. I mean, exact exact opposite. If you can make as if you can make money at a high dollar per hour, and service your clients appropriately. I want you to take as many days off as you can. Because our philosophy is work hard, like rest, heart recharge, yeah, hard. But getting back to one of your other points, the way and this is something I’m still kind of sussing out. So like, there’s 22, agents, the or like, and we’re all sharing in some capacity, a transaction coordinator, videographer, CRM, like it’s a co op in some weird way, this where instead of hey, DJ, why don’t you and I go hire an assistant together, like all kind of handled already. And like, I’ll go like, and if we need a second transaction coordinator, I’ll go, you know, I’ll handle it if we need. Fourth videographer, like I’ll go handle it. And everyone on the team trusts that my hiring processes are also tight, just like every other system. So I mean, pretty, like preaching to the choir here. How tight are your hiring systems?

D.J. Paris 1:02:17
Yeah, pretty tight. You know, for us, if I had, if I had to wake up every day and try to figure out what I was supposed to do that day, I would be a mess, I would be, I probably would have, I don’t know that I would even be on this earth anymore, it would be so stressful, because I have a lot of responsibilities. And I’ve, you know, multiple companies you do as well. And this idea of of having to, you know, create structure, it’s the only way for me, it allowed what structure has done for me as allowed me to be more creative, oddly enough. Because when I when I can devote a specific amount of time to creativity, being that if I can structure my creativity, as crazy as that sounds, it actually works much, much better. And I’m a creative person, I don’t want structure. I don’t like structure. I don’t like doing the same thing over and over and over over again. But it works for me. And it works for probably most of us as well. So I don’t think it’s it’s just, you know, me being the sort of artsy podcast guy, I think most of us in this industry could benefit from, from having a more salary style job. Fortunately, you know, you can join a team and have a similar experience a hybrid experience, a hybrid experience with a lot more income.

Ben Lalez 1:03:35
Yeah. And I mean, that’s what I’m trying to provide to these agents is high dollar power, and flexibility. Some teams like you can potentially make more money, no doubt, but they own your schedule, like you do what I say when I say it, et cetera. And I’m trying to toe this line, and it’s worked so far. Yeah, were like, Yeah, I’d like you to come to these trainings. They’re not 100% mandatory, like, you need to use my CRM, it’s not like 100% mandatory. You don’t have to tell me when you’re going on vacation or anything like that. But at some point, if you don’t do things the way we say, it’s gonna, you know, it’s gonna cause problems for me, right? Because you’re not producing at a level that we all you know, expect at the end of the day. It is a company and you need to bring in money so that I can keep the lights on not only for you, but for everybody, you know, for everybody else.

D.J. Paris 1:04:36
I mean, really, you I think what we’re talking about is is you know, I don’t want to sound pejorative because it isn’t

Ben Lalez 1:04:45
definition of pejorative for those fans, not for me, I know what it means.

D.J. Paris 1:04:50
But for everyone else, it’s a it’s a fancy a fancy word for for, like, being a slight too. Somebody or being critical. This is not a criticism at all, I actually are not being pejorative, I am not being considered. But it does sound what I’m about to say is this is business one on one. And and that is not not to say that it’s simple and easy. It’s not. But it is important, right? So if you’re treating this industry like a business, you then have to figure out systems and you have to figure out processes. And I think that’s systems is really probably the best first place anyone should start is systematizing their business, finding those repeatable tasks that are continually come up, that they can automate.

Ben Lalez 1:05:40
So kind of like boiling this down, I remember our conversation, you asked me something like what is the most important thing you would tell an agent? And I think that’s a good place to kind of wrap up. So I’m leaving for Dallas tomorrow. But what I said last time was like CRM, like if you don’t have a CRM, then what are you doing? And interestingly enough, that hasn’t changed. But I personally think now after I don’t know how many more years and how many more additional sales, if you are in, what percentage of this business do you think is follow up?

D.J. Paris 1:06:21
Oh, gosh. Follow up, I’m going to I place a pretty high value on follow up, I’m going to say 70% of the businesses follow?

Ben Lalez 1:06:30
Exactly. That’s exactly the number that we talked about. So 70%. So get your CRM in place, and focus 70% of your day. On following up. If you can handle those two things, then, I mean, you’re probably I would argue 90% ahead of everyone else who’s just winging it.

D.J. Paris 1:06:50
Just two things. Yeah. It’s hard to things though. I, you know, we I’ve always thought the best people in service are always the ones that call you just before you call them. Right? They call you and they’re like, Oh, hey, that thing? Here’s the answer. You don’t have to call me again about it. You know, that’s essentially what the message is. You don’t have to call me about that thing. I’ve got it. Right. If that can be the client experience that they don’t ever have to dial your number is like, to me that’s a wild success.

Ben Lalez 1:07:22
So let’s listen to the end. You’ll like this should be the clip that we like tease people with. Yeah, make it all the way to the end for the you know, the primary useful piece of information.

D.J. Paris 1:07:32
Never Yeah, that I love it. We’re we’re ending with the most valuable piece. I love that

Ben Lalez 1:07:39
and most obvious and mundane.

D.J. Paris 1:07:42
What most obvious and mundane but you know what John Wooden, who I believe is the most winningest coach shocks tell me you’re gonna tell a sock story? Oh, no, I don’t. So this is the embarrassing part. I know nothing about sports. My, the amount of information I have goes down about one millimeter into the water for sports. I know nothing. But John Wooden was all about systems processes. And oh, like shooting free throws, you know, 500 of them a day.

Ben Lalez 1:08:09
Well, let me give you another one about exciting, but it works. Let me give you the first thing John Wooden taught his players was how to put on their socks appropriately to avoid blisters and athlete athlete’s foot. Sure. Well, you are more basic than that. Yep.

D.J. Paris 1:08:25
In winningest coach in NCAA history. Yeah. Also put your socks on right DJ also never looked at the scoreboard. Because he said the scoreboard didn’t tell him the affirmation he wanted. Yeah. And that’s a really, really interesting point. And so then it’s like, okay, well, if he wasn’t looking at the scoreboard, what was he looking at? He was looking at individual performance, performance. He was looking at each ad because he would say, as you exit the court only, you know, if you played well, you might have won or lost, but you could still feel good on a loss if you played well. And so I think that’s what really what we’re talking about, right? We’re talking about playing well, like the results end up while your results have been

Ben Lalez 1:09:04
if you play well. The volume will show and our industry.

D.J. Paris 1:09:10
Amazing. Ben, thank you for for coming on a second time. I am just completely enamored. You’re younger than me and just doing doing so many cool things in real estate. It’s really impressive. The battle all this team has taken over Chicago.

Ben Lalez 1:09:29
Before you wrap up. I want to be the first to go on record saying that if there’s ever someone to interview you, it’s me. I would love it as you need to be interviewed on the keeping a real podcast because what you have that not everyone has because I haven’t listened to every single episode. Sorry. But you but you have been sitting across

D.J. Paris 1:09:48
how many of me? I think we’ve done about 400 of these. Yeah, so

Ben Lalez 1:09:52
it’s about time. You got interviewed and everyone else can draw out the information from you

D.J. Paris 1:09:59
what But I will tell you is the funniest part of the whole. This whole thing for me this podcast is that I always say, I know the least amount about real estate that anyone who listens as certainly my guests and and probably all the ancillary people involved too. But I what I what I really That’s bullshit. Well, I’ve had conversations with you about real estate. That’s yeah, absolutely not. That’s probably untrue but but it’s true enough in the sense that I just like talking to people who are exceptional. Who knows more about recruiting than you? Well, that’s probably true. Okay, who knows more about title and finance and running a business I call

Ben Lalez 1:10:39
you to, to to pump me up every morning. It’s literally what you did at the start of this. I appreciate it. All right. Hi, on your intro for the next like six months.

D.J. Paris 1:10:48
I I am I’m very, very grateful. And yeah, I probably downplay some of my achievements. But but it is, I’m truly honored to be here and to sit in this in this room with us. What you’ve accomplished, is remarkable. just remarkable. And for everyone out there, you really should be paying attention to what Ben and his team are doing. Go to bends website, Ben lawless.com, B and L A L E z.com. Check out his team. They’re amazing systems. Check out what they’re doing with video to watch them on social Follow. Follow them there. They’re ahead of the curve. Ups. Copy us. Yes, copy them. There. And they’re just they’re just nice, nice people. So anyway, this is very uncomfortable for me, because I am not in my normal chair. So I don’t even know how to reduce

Ben Lalez 1:11:39
Do you normally have like a special I have a

D.J. Paris 1:11:42
I spin and I know and I know. But I’d be half of our audience. I want to say, Ben, thank you for coming on. Again, having here in your conference room to film this episode. This is really special.

Ben Lalez 1:11:56
Do we end with a hug? Or

D.J. Paris 1:11:57
we could end with a hug? Absolutely. Yeah, especially, you know, the best part about doing the show is I get to meet people like that. And honestly, it really isn’t. I don’t I don’t mean that in any sort of, you know, false

Ben Lalez 1:12:13
in a pejorative way. Well,

D.J. Paris 1:12:17
that wouldn’t be a pejorative statement. But, but. But, you know, it’s really fun. Because when I meet people at your level, a lot of times I just find, you know, I built friendships out of this, and I consider you a friend. I’m proud to consider you a friend. And, you know, I’m a big supporter of yours. And I just want to see you continue to grow. And you obviously are and it’s just fun to be part of the ride, I guess. I think that’s what’s most interesting about the podcast is I feel like I just get to be, like passenger in cars, that other people are driving, and I just get to sort of hang out and see what they’re all about. And, you know, maybe it will rub off on me one day, but anyway, thanks, man. I appreciate you being on the show again. Yeah. Great to see you my friend.

Leigh Marcus a Top Real Estate Agent for @properties goes back to the beginning of his career in real estate and explains why he chose this career. Leigh talks about his marketing efforts with branding in particular and also discusses how he builds and maintains relationships with his sphere of influence. Leigh focuses on the importance of showing humor in your branding efforts. Last, Leigh shares his thoughts on open houses.

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

Leigh Marcus can be reached at 312.969.3122 and [email protected].

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

In our August episode of Monday Market Minute, Carrie McCormick from @properties discusses what happens to home-pricing as the market is cooling down. Carrie explains the growth in demand for luxury properties seen especially during the last year. Next, D.J. shares his marketing tip of the month. Carrie also discusses the importance of developing new skills as the market changes and shares her 5 tips on what to do when there is a shift in the market. Last, Carrie shares what not to do as real estate agents based on her personal experience.

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
How does a top producer doing 160 million a year just by yourself deal with low inventory and high interest rates. 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 keeping it real the largest podcast made for real estate agents and by real estate agents My name is DJ Paris I am your guide and host through the show today 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. Carrie is a top 1% producer with over 20 years of experience helping buyers sellers and investors. In fact, in the past 12 months out of 46,000 real estate agents here locally, Carrie is ranked in the top 15 of all producers. And I don’t mean top 15% the top 15 So she is a true superstar and an expert in everything from first time homebuyers, veteran investors and luxury properties. She also works with a lot of developers and is often chosen to represent their high end developments, please visit Carrie at her website, which is Carrie McCormick r e.com. And also follow her on Instagram she is consistently rated as having the best Instagram account for realtors here in Chicago. So at Carey McCormick real estate both of those links are in our show notes. So you can just go to our show notes and tap on the links. Carrie, welcome to welcome to the show. It’s nice to see you again.

Carrie McCormick 2:48
Thank you, thank you, as always, and just on the note of Instagram and thank you for always giving a shout out to my social media. I love love love doing it. Some of you who do follow me may know that my Instagram was hacked like two weeks ago, I saw that, oh, it was unbelievable. And I guess this has been happening to a lot of people where they impersonate you. And they create fake accounts. And that’s very similar. I mean, they really just clone your account and they just read they changed your name by one letter or something and then they started contacting my followers and as you know, apparently I was selling Bitcoin to people and you know, so it was kind of crazy and I filed some reports and Instagram took my account down. They blocked my account, thinking that I was the impersonator and it took several steps and not that I want to be the techy guru of how to get your account back But if anyone does lose their account or gets impersonated in need some tips, please feel free to reach out to me it took me at least 72 hours of digging and researching of figuring out how to get my account back. But successfully I got my account back and hopefully it never happens to anyone.

D.J. Paris 4:11
Well congrat congratulations on getting the account back I know how scary that can be. I’ve had similar things happen in different ways that are very, makes you feel very vulnerable and you’re like

Carrie McCormick 4:22
yeah, and you don’t realize like how attached I was to my Instagram account. I’m losing it I would just I felt lost but again thankful that it’s back. But we’re headed into September which is unbelievable that this year is flown by so quickly, September 2022 And a lot of people been asking about home prices. You know we’re coming off of our crazy 2020 21 And you know record pricing throughout the United States and you know people are saying okay, we’re obviously the market starting to cool down. What does that mean to home pricing and, you know, do a lot of Reading and of course, I’m boots on the ground and seeing everything. But we’re forecasting that home prices are going to continue to appreciate not only in Chicago, but nationwide. And really, it just boils down to the supply factor. So we’re still in very low supply of homes. And we all know that mortgage rates have jumped up. And of course, that has dampened the demand somewhat. But the demand still outpaces the supply. So again, just standard economics of supply and demand. We don’t have much supply here. So it’s keeping prices pretty steady in our market here.

D.J. Paris 5:37
You Yeah, I think we’ve been pretty lucky in Chicago, at least in the city, it seems like pricing has still been relatively steady. I know we’re seeing some pricing drop across the country. Curious, do you think that that will affect Chicago, like city pricing, or even suburban pricing in the upcoming months?

Carrie McCormick 5:58
I think that, you know, some of the sellers, there’s a little bit of a disconnect between sellers and buyers and sellers are still kind of, you know, looking back last year of what the record prices were. And, again, that was a very inflated market. So I think we just need to educate the sellers on where the market is right now. And again, there’s still great prices out there. But we just need to be a little more realistic about the new market conditions. One area, which is surprising is the luxury market. I finally closed my $6.2 million deal last year modulations. So there was a lot of you’ll see there’s just a lot of high end luxury sales going on. And I did some digging, and I found some interesting stats. So in 2020, there was a 2.2% growth in the numbers of individuals that had wealth over $5 million. So think about that. So in 2020, if you had five people who had $5 million in income, or net income in value, there was a 2.2% growth in 2021. So one year later, that number grew by 19.8%. So 19, almost 20% growth of people that have a net value of 5 million plus that’s a huge, I think that’s a huge number huge in one year. So all of these folks that grew their net worth more than 5 million, where are they putting their money, they’re putting their money into an asset, which was a home. So because what that number, what 19.8% equals is 660,000 new individuals that entered a different net worth bracket. Okay, so that that new bracket, again, 660,000 people, and again, that’s across the United States, but we saw that in, you know, the Florida market, the Arizona market, Austin, you know, Chicago, obviously, so there was this huge demand for luxury properties in 2021 and 2022. So, and that, to me, it still continues to go, I see so much, you know, cash injected into this market. You know, some of my listings that are 3 million plus a lot of the demographic are, you know, 3040 year olds, and it’s just, it’s, it’s amazing. So it’s, it’s great to see that that Mark is still thriving.

D.J. Paris 8:21
Yeah, it’s sort of got me to think about, I can actually give my marketing tip of the week right now and then come back to carry to more information from you, because you just sparked an idea that I didn’t realize, as you were mentioning the statistic about the high net worth individuals, sort of the growth there in the last year. And it’s like, wow, I didn’t know that. And I suspect a lot of our listeners didn’t know that either. So I don’t know, of an ease of a better way to do this. But you should first friend, everybody you know who’s in your contact list on Facebook. We’re not just on Facebook, but on LinkedIn, in particular, because this is the place oftentimes where businesses post updates, work anniversary, show up promotions show up, when somebody sells a business, it shows up when somebody starts a new job, it shows up. And so this, these could all be things that oftentimes maybe are talked about, not necessarily somebody’s net worth increasing, but if someone sells a business or if someone joins a new company, or if someone’s you know, some big news at the company they’re at, you know, this is you should be following the companies and following the individuals and then just look on LinkedIn once or twice a day for a couple of minutes. See if there’s any major news there and you can reach out to your clients a hey, I just saw that, you know, you started a new career, you got a promotion, and you’re now you know, a CEO or whatever. And then you can talk to them say, Hey, is anything changing for you from a housing perspective? You know, do you thinking about you know, making a move? I think that’s a fantastic reason to pick up the phone and I can’t think of any other because people don’t always post their professional accomplishments on Facebook or Instagram. They don’t always do it on LinkedIn either, but that’s usually have a place where I see that stuff.

Carrie McCormick 10:01
That’s great. And actually on LinkedIn, there’s a little bell at the top that says notifications. And that’s a great tool because it’ll pop up any of your connections have anything new, whether it’s a birthday, or like you said, a job change. It’s obviously a professional network. And it’s definitely a great tool to use. So I love that tip. Great. Well,

D.J. Paris 10:22
what else do you want to talk about this week?

Carrie McCormick 10:24
Oh, actually, I was just going to talk about too with the market changing. And as everyone probably knows, I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years. And through the years, you know, I’ve seen a lot of market shifts, and people start, when I say people, brokers, we all start to kind of retract when the market changes, and I always say, you know, what comes up must come down, right, so that, you know, the market continues to change. But when there’s a challenging market or a changing market, there’s always agents that find success, and you have to adapt, and in Pivot, you know, so you’ve got to look at developing new skills. And if you do, figure out your new skills, and how to thrive in the market, your business is going to go is gonna grow. There’s agents that don’t want to change that they stay status quo, or they just kind of put their head in the sand, and they give up, you know, or they say, you know, I’m just going to sit back and wait, you know, for the market, which is fine, if that’s what they want to do. But, you know, for those who do want to succeed, you do have to pivot and make change happen. So I wanted to share with everyone, my five tips on what happens, you know, or what we should be doing when the market changes. So my first tip is to understand the market of what’s happening, and really kind of dive into the stats and why the markets acting, the way that it is, once you understand that is really to successfully communicate that to your clients, they want to hear from you, they want to know what’s going on. And then you know, you look like a trusted adviser. So again, understanding the market and communicating that effectively to your clients. Number two would be to change your marketing plan, when the market changes, you do have to change the way you advertise or your market your properties or the again, the way that you communicate these properties online. So you know, re revamp your marketing plan, look at different ways, and different avenues for advertising. Number three is to be a resource and to be the adviser and LinkedIn is actually a great platform to do that, you know, there’s always different groups to join, or whether there’s, you know, speaking events, whatever the the topic is, people always want to know what’s going on in the real estate market, even if they’re not a buyer or seller, they just like to know, you know, their home is their biggest asset. So they want to know what’s happening. So just be a trusted resource and adviser and provide information. without expecting anything in return, I would say it’ll come around to you at some point. The fourth tip would be to learn to systemize your follow up your communication and I will say I am working on this. I’ve been working on this for years. You know, again, everyone loves communication and loves to hear from you. So if you can systemize it to some degree to make sure that you’re staying top of mind. I think that’s a great thing. If anyone’s got any tips for me on that one. I would love to brainstorm with people because it’s when you have a lot of clients. And you’re you know, it’s it’s hard to make a personal phone call every day to everybody but you definitely have to be organized and be systemized on that. And then my last tip would be number five would be to invest in your business. It’s kind of a hard thing to say at this point, especially when you know the market you know everyone feels like it’s softening or your sales aren’t as high as they were last year. But you do have to invest in your business whether it’s in your systems whether it’s in your advertising, staff now is the time to invest because again what goes up must come down and what’s down comes up eventually. So if you are prepared and ready especially for spring 2023 You have your systems in place your advertising your staff, you’ll be ready to rock and roll spring of 2023

D.J. Paris 14:15
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 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 See, 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, those are all such great suggestions I was thinking about. I spend time with a lot of realtors, of course, because of my job. And of course you do as well. And it seems like agents right now are a little frustrated because businesses slowed for the most part. And, of course rates have gone up inventory hasn’t really changed as much as we would like. So you now have people that may have been looking before, when when the market was was really going strong, and weren’t able to buy something buyers in particular, because of course, we knew how competitive it was with when rates were so low. But now that rates are higher, a lot of buyers have pulled back. And if we look at just even the mortgage application rates have gone down substantially from last year about I think about 20 Some percent. So that’s not a surprise, but is something I think agents can use. Because, you know, if we think back to when rates were in the twos and and the threes, people were were overpaying for properties, there was so much competition, as as we all remember, if we were practicing in the last couple of years, it was it was crazy. It was hard to get people were buying things sight unseen, they were waving inspections, they were they were doing a lot of things that in a normal market, they wouldn’t have been able to do. And so now that rates are, you know, 80% higher than they were back then. People might feel bad about that, like, Oh, I missed my window. But I don’t know that, that so many windows were missed. I think it was really hard to buy a property the last couple of years. So I actually think I’m curious to get your take, is it? What is your sort of perspective on that now? Because do you have clients are like, Oh, I missed the good rates? And I don’t know what to do. And

Carrie McCormick 17:24
yeah, I mean, there definitely is a little bit of remorse, you know, with with the rates, but you know, if they were paying higher for a property, but had a lower rate, now they’re paying a little less for a property a little bit higher rates, you know, the rates are still low, lower, you know, I mean, they’re not that they’re not 3%. But you know, they’re just hovering around five, so they’re not terrible. I just try not to focus on it is what it is, you know, there’s, and, you know, I say just capture the rate that we have now capture the home that you that you want, you know, in a year two or three of the rates do tick down again, then you can always refinance out of it. So I try not to look back, I try to keep keep it positive and look forward, I do want to share one quick thing with everybody that just happened to me. And it’s kind of more of what not to do. If I got to do so in this is a true story. I’m not going to mention any names. So don’t worry, as I start this story. And these wonderful clients that made we went to two showings on a home for them. And my client verbally said to the agent, the sellers agent, you know, he’s like, I really think that this house is really priced way too high. And he’s very analytical. And he kind of gave his reasons why and the agents response was, which was a good one. She said, you know, everything’s negotiable, just, you know, make us an offer. Let’s, let’s get it in front of the seller, and let’s see what we can do. So we felt good about that. We made the offer, never heard back from the agent for two days. kept following up, you know, did you get the offer? Can you please respond? I hope everything’s you know, first reaction is like, is she okay? Is everything okay? You know, and then, you know, two days later, and she says, you know, I’ll get back to you tonight. So she finally got back to us that, you know, two days later, and their response was your offers too low, we don’t want to respond to you. Really? I said, Okay, you know, so I called her and I said, you know, you know, here’s, you know, I hate playing the comp game. But you know, this is why we came in at this price. And again, you encouraged my client to make an offer wasn’t that bad, but you know, it was a little bit lower and not super insulting. And then she wrote back this email to me, that said, you know, in the future, if you want to win, you know, a home for your client, I would suggest that you do XY and Z and she was basically telling me how to do my job and how I should prepare an offer and what I shouldn’t do, and she’s like, maybe your clients will be able to get a house. She’s like, Oh, which agents and I was like, oh my god, like it was like in writing. So rude. And I just thought that is not I mean, I’ve got thick skin. But that is not a way to, I mean, my guess is if they would have countered us, we could have probably come together knowing where my clients would, would eventually end up, which would be a fair deal, but, and I just thought I just I’m, like, so flabbergasted that it just like the tone of the it was just so rude. And I wrote back and I was nice. I just said, Thank you for the advice. You know, like, I don’t know what else to say, you know, thank you for the advice. And then there has been no communication since but I really feel like that seller is missing out. Because they do have a client that is very interested in the home, and just the whole communication. So I guess my point of that story is, as real estate brokers, we all have the same goal, we are fiduciaries to our clients, we have to do what’s right for our client, listen to our clients totally get it. But also just being respectful to each other as brokers. It’s a tough market. And be nice. That’s my underlying message all the time is be nice and be kind to everybody, no, no reason for negativity and rude comments.

D.J. Paris 21:20
Well, that and I almost wonder if that other agent maybe didn’t do their fiduciary responsibility, in a sense, because obviously, this is where reputation comes into, right? Like your reputation as one of somebody who is incredibly successful kind does the right thing for their clients. I mean, obviously, your reputation here in the local Chicago area is is, is perfect, you have this perfect reputation of being a good realtor. And also, who plays well with others. She maybe she didn’t know you, or maybe she didn’t look you up or maybe she knows you. Okay, so who knows, who knows what the dynamic there is, but to go, my client will be insulted or is insulted is really a strange thing. Because what do you say if you get an A just out of curiosity, if you get an offer, so you’re on the listing side now, and you do get an offer that seems really low or lower than that you might worry that this might offend the seller, but I know this realtor, they seem to get things done. What would you do in that situation?

Carrie McCormick 22:28
I’m always trying to put a deal together, you know, kind of attitude. And I always tell my sellers, be thankful that we got an offer someone loves your home, you know, and I have seen deals and put deals together where they’re worlds apart, you know, and then we ended up bringing the deal together. I’m not saying that’s, you know, happens all the time. But you know, let’s try to work. It’s negotiations, you know, and you work back and forth and have conversations with the brokers. And again, at the end of the day, the client decides on what they want to do. And, you know, I mentioned worth the fiduciary here, but you know, you try and you you get it, you, you take it to where you can if the deal doesn’t come together, at least you tried, you know you just but again there’s, you know, there’s no point in in bashing another broker, especially in writing.

D.J. Paris 23:25
Yeah, and then also Yeah, it just and lecturing somebody I think that’s a maybe she was having a bad day or something, but are the Yeah.

Carrie McCormick 23:36
I’ve got a little file of emails from a few brokers that really decided to go off go off the rails, I don’t know what I’m gonna I’m just hanging on to them for a rainy day. But,

D.J. Paris 23:46
but it is such a such a funny thing. It’s like, you know, I think if, if, as Realtors we should be the ones that are less likely to get emotional about things, right. Like our job is to keep things steady and level and then just seems like this other realtor did everything wrong, in my opinion. So

Carrie McCormick 24:05
my tip of the day on that one is just be be nice to each other, you know, and just try to try to work through the deal. It doesn’t come together doesn’t come together. But Right.

D.J. Paris 24:16
Right. And also just trying to tell somebody with 20 plus years of experience like what to do better. That is that is an incredible Wow, that the audacity of that is is almost impressive, in a sense. Like to even think I know better than, you know somebody who’s

Carrie McCormick 24:33
and I always listen to people’s advice. Right? I mean, that’s just that’s life learning is listen to others and I did I write it and I mean, I completely disagree with her. But you know, that kind of that’s, you know, it’s but again, I think there’s a tone of you know, here’s some tips for you versus it was just a very interesting email. I’ll just leave.

D.J. Paris 24:56
So I thought that’s a it’s a great example of how how I’m poor In addition to play nice in the sandbox, you know, and we’re all we’re all in the same sandbox early. So let’s be kind like you said, be kind. And by the way, nothing wrong with apologizing the day after, if you realize you you said or did something wrong? No, you know, oh my god, I had the world’s worst day yesterday. I’m so sorry. I said and wrote those things. I deeply apologize. You know, there. That’s there’s nothing wrong with doing that. But I bet you probably won’t get one of those but but that’s the thing. You never get the apology. But you can always apologize. People are people are funny. But yeah, that’s that’s a great example of how not to make friends and influence people, right? As Dale Carnegie, like the anti Dale Carnegie’s, anyway, well, well, that’s a great place to wrap up. So let’s remember everyone be kind and nice. These are people that are going to help you make money, these other realtors, so help them feel good about themselves. And don’t don’t lecture them unless, unless there’s some really, really good reason to do. So it sounds like there was not a good reason this time. Anyway, so we want to thank Carrie for being on our show. For as long as she has been, she continues to show up every month and provide our audience with, with with tons of valuable insight. And by the way, she is so incredibly busy, she does not have a big team. It’s really just her doing all of these transactions. And the fact that she spends a few minutes with us every month is a really huge honor to us. So we are so grateful Carrie for you. And we are excited to continue to have you of course on the show in the future. So for everyone out there listening, please, please Well, a couple of things. First, if you have any clients that are moving to the Chicagoland area and you don’t work the Chicagoland area because you might be in another state or another country or wherever reach out to Carrie, she is legitimately one of the very highest producing agents here year after year after year. She has a sterling reputation and would love to talk with you. So if you have any referrals, send them to her or if you yourself are a buyer or a seller or renter or an investor you know reach out to hurt you know, my girlfriend who does leasing for a building downtown. She had a broker come in yesterday. And by the way, just to make sure we’re not confusing people in Illinois, every realtor is a broker. So I know that’s not the way it is in every state. But anyway, she had a real what’s called a realtor come in. And the client was a realtor and a practicing realtor. So and that was very interesting. And my girlfriend asked the practicing realtor who really was the the tenants or the future tenant, hey, I’m just out of curiosity, why did you Why are you working with a realtor? And they go I don’t know anything about about luxury leasing. And so I’d rather hire my friend who’s really good at it. And, and I thought, wow, that’s really, that’s really great. So even if you’re a realtor, and maybe you’re looking for some help buying, selling, renting or if you’re not a realtor, but you’re looking for a great agent Carrie would love to chat with you Carrie what’s the best way someone should reach out to you

Carrie McCormick 27:58
always call me 312-961-4612 For those who prefer to text I’m a big texter as well. Or email which is Carrie ca RR ie [email protected].

D.J. Paris 28:14
And please follow carry on social media. So she’s on Instagram, she’s Carrie McCormick real estate. And you can also visit our website Carrie McCormack r e.com. And and I guess I am glad I did not take the Bitcoin as suggested No, I saw that I thought, Oh, she’s been hacked. But I’m glad you got your account back because I know how important that is to you. And I know it’s it’s a great place also to see your activity. It’s really fun because I like following you because I sort of feel like I know what your days look like, which I think is is really helpful for other realtors that want to see. You know, gosh, if I get ever got to that top 1% level, what would my days look like? And I think you do a good job of sharing. You know what it’s like to be a realtor.

Carrie McCormick 29:00
I don’t share everything with you. The days that that I go through, it’d be a fun reality show.

D.J. Paris 29:09
Well, anyway, everyone follow Carrie on Instagram because she is just as impressive work there and she does it all herself as well which is even more impressive. So she doesn’t outsource it. So you can really see what she’s all about at Kerry McCormick real estate. Carrie, thank you so much for being on our show yet again. We love having carry on and she gets so much great feedback from the fans. By the way. If you have a moment everyone listening, please go to whatever podcast app you might be on whether it’s iTunes or Apple podcasts now or Spotify, Google Play Stitcher, any anywhere you find podcasts and if you’re listening through us through one of those systems platforms, leave us a review. Let us know what you think of the show. And also please tell a friend think of one other realtor that could benefit from hearing our show and send them a link over that’s all I got this week. Carrie this was a fun great episode. I know you’re you’re busy. Gotta get back to work. So we wish carry continued success. And thank you on behalf of everybody for coming on our show, and we’ll see everybody on the next episode. Thanks Kerry. Bye

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

In this episode Joel discusses what’s going on in the lending world. Joel focuses on why agents should center their attention on the next 6 to 12 months rather than the next sale they will get. Joel also discusses how with the market slowdown this is the time to start creating content for your clients to provide valuable information. Joel and D.J. discuss the situation in the renting market at the moment. Last, Joel explains what Lender Introduction Template is, how agents can subscribe for it and also discusses his weekly newsletter.

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
With rising interest rates, what do you tell your clients? And more importantly, how do you keep your business thriving? We’re going to talk about that today. 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 Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Harris, I’m your guide and host through the show today, once again is our monthly series called Learn with a lender with Joel shop from guaranteed rate. Now Joel is 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 he gives back part of his commission to the agents buyer on every transaction. So last year alone, Joel gave back $291,000 In closing costs to buyers who worked with him and that puts Joe’s volume in the top 1% Sorry, top 1/10 of 1% of all lenders nationwide. In fact, out of 400,000 loan officers in the United States, Joel is currently ranked ranked number 137. Last year he closed 619 transactions, his highest amount ever for one year for $249 million. And already this year, Joel has closed 243 transactions for 98,000,093% of that were purchases. Now if you’re looking for a loan officer, we cannot more highly recommend Joel, he’s the very best we’ve ever worked with Joel can be reached via email at [email protected] J [email protected]. Or you can call him directly at 773-654-2049. Let’s say hello to the biggest Cubs fan. I know Joel sharp, D Day. Thanks so

Joel Schaub 3:06
much for having me on. And you’re right. It’s very fun when I hear the numbers. But none of that matters. I really like being on each and every month because it’s the time where we can get back and have a gentle literally learn something. Because when you’re in the business, you’re so focused on buying and selling, but sometimes you don’t have that mortgage side. So it’s really good to come on and get back.

D.J. Paris 3:28
Yeah, I think this is a great time to have a conversation about what’s going on in the lending world only because I’ve noticed this because I Well, you do as well. I hang out with a lot of realtors for different reasons that socially. We try not to but yes, they’re everywhere, right? You can’t avoid them. No, but some of my closest friends now are in the in the industry. And I have noticed that there is a general malaise or a little bit of a sort of sadness around the fact that rates are not what they were at the you know, one to two years ago, which of course they aren’t. But I find that agents tend to like carry that residue around with them like this is like horrible, awful news that is just making everybody’s life so much more difficult. And I always think it’s great to like reset and sort of reset and go back to our baseline expectation of what’s going on. Because I just have to think this must influence the way that a lot of realtors interact with their clients. Like if the realtor thinks oh, my god rates are 5% and above, then maybe they bring that energy to their client. And maybe it just doesn’t really help the process.

Joel Schaub 4:37
It doesn’t it’s all about mindset right now. So I’m throwing out the whole narrative that this is a bad problem to have that rates are higher, and the agents that I work with and I teach and I coach, we’ve completely thrown that narrative out that the mainstream media tells you that oh, this is a problem. All right. It’s actually a blessing. All right. I’ve said this to you but For I mean, I like buying my shirts on sale, and I like buying my shoes on sale. And now it’s an opportunity to finally to buy real estate on sale. And by that, I don’t mean that we’re going to see a big drop in values, everybody’s waiting. And I’ll tell you now, if you’re one of these agents telling buyers wait for values to drop, you’re wrong. I don’t anticipate value, they’re going to drop drastically. But what I do know and what we’ve already seen, TJ, is that it’s a hell of a lot easier to get an offer accepted today than it was six months ago when there were 10 offers on the table.

D.J. Paris 5:33
Yeah, I mean, look, it’s sort of the analogy of buying shirts on sale is such a great one. Because I was thinking, as you said that I really rather never buy something full price, right? Like anything in my life. I don’t care if it’s at the grocery store, and it’s a bag of carrots, or, you know, a home, I want something that appears to me psychologically, I want something to feel like I’m not paying full price. And of course, as we saw in that really extremely low, almost an it was an aberration. It wasn’t I don’t even I don’t even think it should be in the same history book as traditional rate rates, because it was so unusual that it really doesn’t, it almost doesn’t even deserve a chapter in history, in a sense, because it really sort of, you know, is going to color people’s expectations today. But you’re right. Yeah, I could have gotten a much lower rate two years ago, but boy, I would have been competing with a lot more people. And I probably would be paid up paid a lot more for that same property.

Joel Schaub 6:29
And why is it DJ that? Buyers? They have this anticipation, right? Let’s think of that. I want to buy something, but I only want to buy a few months ago when everybody was doing it. And now all of a sudden, when people aren’t buying, they’re like, oh, I don’t want to buy either. You see, it’s actually wrong. Right? Yeah, it’s the home and get a deal on the price, where I could refinance the debt down the line, then be the big winner that bought a home 50 grand more than it was worth. So looking forward, if I’m an agent, I’m literally preaching this story. Um,

D.J. Paris 7:03
yeah, it’s a story that that needs to continue to be reinforced, because you’re absolutely right. You know, I was in a former life, I was a financial advisor. And, you know, one of the most, I was not a stockbroker, I wasn’t picking individual equities, or, you know, or bonds, there’s just not what I did, I’m more managed somebody’s net worth. But it is, it is psychologically difficult to think, Oh, I really need to buy when it’s low and sell high. We all know that intellectually, but it is a difficult thing. Because it you know, it’s why a lot of people lost money in crypto, because as as crypto exploded in value, and price, people started to jump in at the end, which was the wrong time to get in. And of course, with crypto, you know, any, any anything can happen. But you know, even in the traditional stock market, this idea of buying something when it’s undervalued is hard psychologically. So I understand the hurdle that the agents and have to sort of jump over for their client. But it’s, it’s a really important hurdle to jump over. Otherwise, you’re going to be as upset as the client might be.

Joel Schaub 8:07
If I’m an agent, right now, the number one thing that I would be doing is planning for the next six to 12 months. And what I mean by this is actionable steps to put out marketing and branding, where you’re not trying to get a sale today. I’ll repeat this, I know how hard it is, we want sales today. But you want to actually be building your pipeline for six to 12 months and think of this net that you could cast if you’re letting buyers know that you’re not desperate for the business today, and that you’re actually in their corner to help them when the time comes to finding the right property. I would work with somebody like that a lot more than somebody that says today’s the right day to buy, now’s the best time to buy. And guess what, when a buyer is working with you, and they want to maybe buy in the next six to 12 months, a good majority of them are gonna buy sooner, they really will, right. But making a strategy and doing social media posts, videos and actually talking about the future. And say, when there’s a little bit of snow on the ground, and I’m talking, you know, we’re here in the Midwest, so it’s not that far away. When we get to November and December here in Chicago, we definitely get snow on the ground. And traditionally, we do see a lot less inventory and the properties that are on sale, actually sell for Left, right. So teaching and educating that there’s an opportunity coming up. And if they buy sooner, that’s great. But I wouldn’t be doing videos once a week right now about are you thinking about buying the next six to 12 month, reach out to me. And then you start building a database of people that are ready, willing and able, some of whom will buy sooner, but you’re teaching and you’re educating about where the properties will be at six to 12 months from now. And there’ll be a lot less offers than there were six to 12 months ago.

D.J. Paris 9:56
I hadn’t experienced yesterday I just really want to quickly share because it was such an unusual experience, I had to go see a dermatologist. It was a specialist down at, at Northwestern. And I hadn’t ever been to this particular clinic before it, it was it was an older gentleman, he was in his 70s. And he actually took me into his office, which I always have seen that movies where you sit across the table from the doctor and you see their office, but I’d never actually realized I’ve never actually been in a doctor’s true office. And he sat down, he was an older man, I’m guessing in his 70s. And we were talking about this really like no big deal thing that that I was there to see him about. And he spent 10 minutes would be and and he did most doctors, you know, they’re so skilled. And they know what you have at the moment you walk in, and they’re like, I know what that is. It’s this, we’re going to treat it with this. But this guy didn’t do that. He was like, I’ve been doing this for two years. And I’m not totally sure what what your situation is right now. And as I was explaining it to him, he was listening. He would pause he would I would he would ask me a question, I would answer him. And he would take that information and pause and look up to the ceiling and go, Oh, okay, huh. And he would pause for about 10 seconds. And I realized I’m watching this guy think. And it was really, really, it was really exciting in a way. And it also was really comforting. And I was like, This guy’s thinking about me and trying to figure out the best solution for me. And he was clearly doing this, this this sort of, you know, intense sort of evaluation in his mind. And I was I was there to watch it. And then he called in, he was like, I gotta call a colleague, and I want a colleague to get his opinion on this. And he calls in his son who happened to work there as well, son comes in, and they’re talking about it. And it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. Because I thought, wow, this guy really cares. He’s really thinking about this silly little problem. It’s not a life or death big. It’s a totally no big deal thing. But he’s really taken seriously. And I just was like, God, I’m gonna be with this guy for the rest of my life. Like, it was such a great experience. And I thought, boy, realtors could do this exact same thing and the good ones do. 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.

Joel Schaub 13:21
I like those awkward pauses. People are afraid to have silence. But think of this, you’re gonna live in a home for 10 years. And you’re afraid of somebody being silent for 10 seconds to think about your situation. The people that actually know what they’re doing take time to think about a situation because they don’t have a predetermined plan. The moment that you reach out, everything should be individualized. So as an agent, the one of the reasons as a mortgage professional, I was able to do 10 and $20 million a month was each scenario was different. I took my time and I listened. Whereas every other mortgage professional just talks and talks and talks. They don’t give the buyer a chance to actually explain what they need. So if you can listen and hear what they need, you’re really going to set yourself apart.

D.J. Paris 14:10
And I love this idea of creating content. Again, this is probably a time where the majority of our listeners and viewers have more time because the market slowed. You know, of course rates have increased inventory is still low. So there’s a lot of just more free time maybe than you would have and so, Joel, I think you’re absolutely right, such a great time to start creating educational content on social media. Tick tock if you’ve not a tick tock person, like it’s not going away and it’s becoming more and more and more and more popular and it doesn’t mean you have to be a 22 year old doing tick tock but but you want to speak to the next generation of homebuyers which this is the time because it people other realtors are going to start utilizing other platforms, younger platforms to get their message out. And you know the cool thing about places things like Tiktok and Instagram is you can cross post So you can actually take the same content, continue to repurpose it, use it. And you know, people are hungry for information. And I think this is a great a great opportunity to continue to tell people like, I know this stuff, I know what this stuff is, and I can talk about it.

Joel Schaub 15:18
Remember this phrase, right, and this is true, when we buy a piece of real estate, I want everyone to remember that you can marry the home and date the rate, okay, and start using that. And it’s really true. As silly as it sounds, we’re gonna marry the home, we’re gonna find the house that we love. But we know damn well that when rates come down, we’re going to refinance that loan, okay. And that’s the great thing about mortgage financing in the United States, okay. And you can always find a good mortgage professional that doesn’t charge to do a refinance. And now that’s big business, for the banks and all that. But if you’re doing the purchase mortgage, you should be able to get a mortgage professional, that will waive the costs for a refinance. And at a minimum, maybe it cost three or $400 to do an appraisal again, but other than that, work with a mortgage team, and somebody that will absolutely help your clients, buy the home, live in it. And when rates do come down, make sure that they go right back to that mortgage professional to lower the rate. And pick a rate where you don’t have to pay any fees. And maybe it’s just a bit above the lowest rate in the market. But there’s always opportunities that select an interest rate where you’re not paying closing costs. And that’s important

D.J. Paris 16:30
that marry the home date, the rate is such a great expression. And it really is exactly the truth. Because rates, of course, fluctuate, things fluctuate home is pretty, uh, pretty much considered a permanent, at least, maybe you don’t live there permanently. But it’s a permanent structure. It feels like it isn’t moveable. But but you know, when you date somebody, it may work out, it might not right, when you marry somebody, the idea is, of course, to be there for life. So, obviously, everyone understands this metaphor, I don’t need to explain it. But I think it’s such a great one, because it really is exactly the truth, right? The rates come and go, people come and go, the rates come and go, and you’re going to be able to make adjustments along the way via refinance. So that’s that is such, that’s almost enough, I think, just to explain what we’re going to date, the rate, we’re not going to marry the rate, that should pretty much solve a lot of the conflict, I think, between realtors and their buyers at this point and say Don’t, don’t worry, we’re just dating the rate, we’re going to find you the perfect home. And that’s the most important thing. And and again, also, we hear rates are up. But Joel, you always say and I love this is you don’t write a check with the rate on it right to the bank, you really just care about the total amount that’s coming out of your bank account every month. And that’s the most important thing. And those oftentimes aren’t aren’t as exciting of news headlines, right? It’s not as exciting to say, well, the average person’s you know, payment monthly went up $200, you know, from when the rates were lower, whatever that number might be. That’s not exciting news to say, Oh, the rates jumped, you know, do 200 basis points in the last year, whatever. That’s exciting. That’s if it bleeds, it leads, you know, for news. So we have to sort of bring it back to reality, saying, Actually, we’re just going to date the rate. And the rates aren’t that high at all anyway, like they’re still fine. And having that conversation, I think is going to call the buyers down. So I think you’re right, and also just this idea of like, you know, who’s thinking about doing this over the next six to 12 months, that’s really, really great. And Realtors didn’t really have the time to do that maybe so much in the last couple of years. They were they were in go mode, and they didn’t have the time to go wondering who’s going to be buying in the next six to 12 months, they were just trying to get deals closed. So now’s the time.

Joel Schaub 18:41
And DJ in our market right now rents are just going up just as fast if not faster than these mortgage rates. And so at my level 90, I’d say 80 or 90% of the clients that I work with are first time homebuyers that need the education. So agents lean on me to actually help them understand the difference between renting versus buying. And when we run just a three to five year analysis. It doesn’t matter that mortgage rates are no longer in the threes or fours. The rent rate is 100%. When you’re paying a mortgage, you’re actually getting something back when you’re renting every dollar goes out the window and so just re emphasizing for first time homebuyers it’s worth it to take a look and see what we can afford on a monthly basis that’s similar or less than what you’re paying in rent and get ready for an opportunity in the next six months where I could put you on a list and show you different properties where you’re not throwing the money out the way on on rent.

D.J. Paris 19:38
Yeah and just having the conversation to to renters about interest and deductions is is a huge wonderful surprise to anyone when they buy their first home if they’re not aware. It’s a wonderful surprise come tax time. And this is something I didn’t even know before I bought a property I had no idea I mean I just I was in my A you know, I was 30 years old I think and just didn’t know anything about real estate and, and loans and I got one and then I was like, Oh my God, I wish I kind of wish somebody had told me all the cool tax benefits of owning. And it was up to me to figure it out. But this is an opportunity for people to educate, educate renters about it, I’ll leave you with this, my girlfriend who you know, are Aggie, she works at a an apartment building downtown at a like a luxury apartment building. And Joel was saying how rates are for rental rates are going up. And that is true, I can I can attest to that. This is how crazy the rental market is, at least at my girlfriend’s building here in Chicago, the rents the rent prices change, at least about once an hour, and they have 500 units there. The technology is so advanced for some of these management companies is they don’t just like okay, that’s you know, that’s the $2,000 a month apartment. And it just that’s what it is, oh, no, it’s evaluating every other property that in the area trying to figure out how to be competitive, and they all compete with each other, and it actually ends up driving prices up. So they’re constantly trying to squeeze as much as they can out of the renter. And now technology is doing it for them. So that’s another thing to consider too is, you know, is the rental technologies getting so much better, where it’s going to try to squeeze as much as they can. Now not not every landlord uses technology like that. But you know, a lot of apartment buildings do and it’s really, really interesting. So rent prices change, they they’re going to want to, you know, extract as much income as they care as much revenue as they can out of the tenant. This is a great time to think to really educate somebody about some of the benefits of homeownership. And not just it feels good to own a home. But like there’s some legitimate tangible benefits around taxes and, and things that I bet a lot of renters just don’t know all

Joel Schaub 21:49
about education. And if you’ve been a longtime listener of keeping it real podcast, you’ve heard me come on and talk about the weekly update that I send out. And so many of you have emailed us and said, Please put me on your list for that follow up. And they use the information that I put in bite sized pieces to disseminate on video or phone calls. And it just helps them so that you don’t need to be an expert in the mortgage market. But you got to have enough knowledge that you can talk to people about certain things in a way that’s not so cumbersome, and techie. So we’ve taken that list. And then I’ve also created another follow up that people are asking for, which is they want to refer somebody over to us and they want the link so that they can get the $1,500 closing cost credit. So you can email me, and I’ll give it away here. You can literally say send me the lender introduction template, and it’s my email at [email protected]. So J o [email protected]. And that short for guaranteed rate, it’ll come directly to me and you will get a reply from me. And there’ll be a template. So if you have another buyer that really wanting some education, and wanting that first time homebuyer benefit, and somebody that’s really going to look out for them, you can introduce me, we’ll get them pre approved. And then we waive all the fees. So I give a $1,500 credit back. And this will be one of the benefits of you listening to the keepin it real podcast.

D.J. Paris 23:12
Yeah, thank you for that if I were an agent, if I was a listener right now, and I may be a little slower than than I was in the last couple of years, or maybe I’m new to the business and I’m slow because I’m new. I don’t have as much business, I would be signing up for Jill’s newsletter. So just send Joel an email [email protected] asked to be put on the weekly newsletter also asked for his introduction template like he’s he mentioned. And Joel sends out the rate update and sort of the bite sized piece of what agents need to know, every week. And I would watch for that email, I would take several bits and pieces I would use that as the content that I would post on social media. And so you don’t even have to like you were saying you don’t have to think of or analyze or be an expert on what’s going on in the lending world. Just take these bite sized pieces. That’s why Joel and his team make them that’s exactly the purpose is so that you can take them to your client and look like you’re the expert as opposed to Joel being the only expert Joel is an expert, but he also wants the agents to be experts too. So definitely sign up for that just email [email protected] asked to be put on both of those well the list and then also get the template he’ll send it out to you and then there you go. Now you’ve got your social media content content for you know, for the foreseeable future do it forever it I promise you most lenders don’t even do this. I’ve noticed very few lenders on social media even educate other than you know, Joel, I know you do too, but but Joel is one of the few people that even does it in his field. So you can do it, but it’s not a crowded field and your audience wants to learn.

Joel Schaub 24:44
And just remember this, okay, the sky isn’t falling right now you can be the bearer of good news and you can let people know that regardless of where the rates are at right now. Still going to be better than renting and it’s going to be a heck of a lot easier for you as an agent to submit an offer on a property He then it’s not over asking, Okay, now we’re getting back to the point where you could come in under asking and not get laughed out of the room. And as we continue to see these rates at these elevated levels, because it could be this way for two to three years, we will have the opportunity once the Fed gets it right, they’re going to cut rates. So hearing it here first, once the Fed has inflation under control, they have to cut rates. Everybody on our floor that on the trading in terms of mortgages, we’re already predicting when and there’s various ideas as to when the Fed will cut rates. But it’s not a straight shot up from here, when they continue to trend up for a while once inflation is under control, the Fed has to cut rates, and that’s going to be the floodgates are gonna open again. So in the meantime, let’s be happy with where we’re at. Let’s help as many buyers as we can right now. And let’s keep things positive.

D.J. Paris 25:58
Yeah, and just to sort of give one one another quick idea because Joe, you always You are the epitome of this you live this now’s a great time to give back especially if you have more more spare time and to incorporate your your client list or your prospect list, do events around a charitable acts. Maybe you’re maybe it’s even just hey, we want to go support this bar down the street. That’s, that’s struggling right now. So you can do you know, some sort of event there. You can partner with somebody like like Joel, of course, who would love to partner and do events with you. But now’s the time to really, you could do a charitable thing. Now’s the time to really do some good out in the world. And you have the extra time to do it. It’ll generate goodwill with your clients. And you know, again, I just think that that’s the one of the best things you can do to develop a stronger relationship with your contacts is do something together that creates good for the world. And you know, you’re pretty much guaranteed to have that person as a client for life. I think. I love

Joel Schaub 26:58
that you say that too. And you have more time right now you’re not submitting 10 offers right now, how many times do you lose, you submit an offer in the last year or two and your great offer and it reminds me of one of my favorite weird owl songs I lost on Jeopardy. The old my loves in jeopardy remake and it’s true. You put in a really great offer and somebody beats you. And now there’s not as many offers going in so you can help your clients you have extra time find ways

D.J. Paris 27:26
to give back. Well, Joel saying that it’s funny because we we were talking about this ahead of time, I’m actually going to see Weird Al tomorrow night in Grand Rapids of all places. So I am excited. It’s probably the 10th time number

Joel Schaub 27:39
one fan here guys number one fan. Last and something to DJ at the keepin

D.J. Paris 27:43
it real send me a week something weird. related. Anyway, yeah, well, up on it. I’m embarrassed to say how many times I’ve seen it, but it’s been it’s, it’s now double digits. So excited. But anyway, it’s a great, it’s a great point. And so anyway, don’t despair. This is not the time to despair, there may be a time at some point in history that we should despair, but it isn’t now. So don’t worry, shake off some of the the stress from the last couple of years and realize that things are actually easier now and in a way. So you know, embrace the easier, easier part of where we are today. And that won’t you won’t get stuck in the harder part of today as well. So anyway, everyone, yeah, everyone should should sign up for Joel’s newsletter. So just to send an email to [email protected]. Let him know that you want to be on his newsletter, and there’s your social media content. And that’s the end. Here’s your talking points for your clients right now that are that are thinking about, you know, what’s going on in the news. This is how you readjust their expectation. All right, Joel, this is a great place to wrap up. Always a pleasure chatting with you and excited to continue our relationship here on the podcast. So if anyone out there is looking to partner with a with a lending professional Joel’s the very best I’ve ever worked with. So reach out to him. [email protected] you can also call him Joe, what’s the best number for you and your team?

Joel Schaub 29:00
My direct line? 18 years 773-744-1968 You get me directly you just test me. We’re definitely there to help.

D.J. Paris 29:11
Awesome. All right. Well, on behalf of our audience that Joel, thank you very much for continuing. You’ve been with us for years and years. We greatly appreciate it. And on behalf of Joel and myself, we wouldn’t be able to do this without the listeners. So thank you for continuing to support and listen to our show and watch us support our sponsors support Joel support all of our guests that we have on the show. They’re the reason that we have content for the show. And we’re really grateful to Joel for doing that. So support Joel support our sponsors and continue to listen and please tell a friend just think of one other realtor that could benefit from hearing this who’s maybe a little bummed out right now because things are slower send this episode to them it will cheer them up and it will really reset them to you know a more positive headspace. So, anyway, Joel, thank you again and we will see everybody on the next episode. Thank you

In our July episode of Monday Market Minute, Carrie McCormick from @properties emphasizes once again the importance of being your own brand ambassador. Carrie discusses social media content and how to grow your channels. Carrie also shares tips on how to behave during the market slowdown. Last, Carrie shares traits she believes brought success to her.

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, Quality Builders and FollowUpBoss.

D.J. Paris 0:00
What does it mean to be your own brand ambassador? And more importantly, how do you do it? We’ll talk about that today. Stay tuned. This episode 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? We’ll find out why agents across the country come to real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering their clients a real estate sales and marketing solution to generate more business real geeks is easy to use. Their websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for the end user. Real geeks is mobile friendly delivering an excellent user experience on the go. Real geeks includes an easy to use CRM. So once your leads sign up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up triggers. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase your brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod again, real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business. This episode is also brought to you by quality builders are you or one of your clients real estate investors who can’t seem to find a trustworthy general contractor. Are you tired of poor communication, excessive change orders and extensive schedule delays. We’ll look no further because quality builders as a Chicago general contractor focused on helping you the real estate investor grow your portfolio. Each and every product decision is based on quality builders core values of transparency, courage, integrity, and uniqueness which produce sustainable and predictable results that successful real estate investors are looking for. Quality builders uses innovative project management technology to keep you up to date on your projects by providing a client portal to view daily logs schedules and contract and change order updates. Schedule a free one on one consultation by visiting quality builders.com That’s quality builders.com to see how they can partner with you to build your real estate portfolio and now on to our show.

Welcome to keeping your 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 today is our monthly series called The Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick from the Carrie McCormick Real Estate Group with at properties here in Chicago. Now Carrie is a top 1% producer in Chicago with over 22 years of experience helping buyers sellers and investors in the last 12 months out of 46,000 real estate agents in the Chicagoland area. Carrie is currently ranked number I actually I didn’t look but I think you’re in the top 10 I think you’re like number seven, which is unbelievable. So out of all those 1000s and 1000s of agents. She’s a true superstar and an expert in everything from first time homebuyers, veteran investors and luxury properties. She also works with a lot of developers and is often chosen to represent their high end developments. Please visit Carrie at Carey McCormick r e.com. And please follow her on Instagram at Carey McCormick real estate. Carrie, welcome once again to the show.

Carrie McCormick 3:36
Thank you for the intro happy to be here as always,

D.J. Paris 3:40
I did want to real quickly mention that you I was out with another monthly guest Joel Schaub, actually, I saw him a week well, I saw him last night, but it’s um, a week ago. And a week ago, he came up to me we were talking about social media and he says, he said Carrie McCormack has the very best Instagram account I’ve ever seen for a realtor. And so he wanted me to make sure I told you that on as you’re

Carrie McCormick 4:05
such a great guy, I just I adore him. He’s He’s such a great guy. And actually that’s a good way to kind of kick off a conversation. I spend a lot of time obviously on my social media as far as curating what I do and a lot of people do ask me you know, questions about my social media and how it came to be and who does it for me etc. And as probably a lot of you guys listening know I do it all myself. And it’s all organically grown. And I always tell people to be your own brand ambassador and really when you are creating social media posts or doing your own branding, it really mine took off because I started to be more authentic to who I am and what I wanted my brand to be and I think once it comes from within and again, who you are, that will shine through. A lot of people will end up kind copying each other, and I get it, I get inspiration from other, you know, brokers or companies or etc what it is, but you really spin it to who you are and what you’re about. It does definitely shine through and clients and people can can see it.

D.J. Paris 5:14
I was the I’m on the Young Professionals Network committee for the Chicago association here locally, and I’m on this group text, and we’re always chatting back and forth with ideas. And one of our members mentioned, oh, there’s this walking tour of a neighborhood here in Chicago called McKinley Park, which I’m not that familiar with. And so this group text, the one of our committee members was saying, Hey, there’s this, there’s this walking tour this weekend, great opportunity to learn the neighborhood. And also for social media. Content, you know, you can take pictures or videos of of the tour, and I was thinking, Wow, what a smart idea. Yeah, and I know, you do this a lot, too, when you go to showings, or you have a listing, you know, you’re constantly showcasing features of the house, or the property that you’re visiting, and putting it on social.

Carrie McCormick 6:08
Yeah, I mean, it’s every day is realtors, we’re out and about, so why not kind of document what we’re seeing what we’re feeling, you know, what’s out there. So it’s, it’s a fun way to continue to grow your social media. But actually, that’s kind of what I wanted to talk about, on, you know, this, this monthly podcast is, you know, we’re headed into August, July was a slow month, you know, due to a variety of things, and not to keep talking about rising interest rates, and inflation and all that stuff that we know that’s going on the entire market has slowed down across the United States. So it’s, we’re seeing it in all different markets. And because I’ve been doing this for 22 years, I’ve been in and out of a lot of different markets. And it really is a great time for everyone to reevaluate their business and kind of pivot, right. And it’s not a bad thing to slow down, it’s not a bad thing to adjust your business. This is the time where I think is growth happens, and you learn different skill sets. And you really now need to start energizing and working on your business to set up working in your business. A lot of people told me that throughout the years, and I’ve listened to them and say like, yeah, yeah, no problem, I’ll do that. But really, when you think through it in working on your business, instead of in it, it really is a time for growth, and a few things just to share with you guys of what I’m doing through this time is revamping my database, which is a daunting task. I’m going through some of my systems and automating a few things. Again, you hear this all the time to do it, but really sit down and think of the tasks that are redundant or that take up time and really try to automate it. There’s so many different tools out there to do that. And anyone listening, I’m happy to share some of the things I’ve discovered, not to say it’s right or wrong, that what I’m using, but I definitely find it useful. And then reaching out to clients. You know, it’s it’s great to reach out to people for no reason at all, except to check in on them and say hello. You know, instead of asking them for referrals or asking them for something, it’s a great time just to reach out because so, you know, just again, working on your business and pivoting some of your marketing as well. A lot of times during slow times like this agents will do, they’ll step back in their business to the back, okay, no one’s buying no one’s selling, you know, I’m just gonna kind of take it easy, which sounds great, you know, just to kind of take a little bit of a break. And I you know, sometimes there’s days, I want to do that too. But it’s really important. I call it doubling down, you know, really work really hard because I think and this is my small prediction is that we’re going to have a very healthy fall market. I think we’re going through a slow slow time here. Interest rates will probably ease up a little bit I think people will get used to the new norm that we’re in. And I think there’s some buyers on the sidelines that are going to come back to the market so be ready. Take this time to revamp your business. pivot a little bit but be ready for the full market.

D.J. Paris 9:24
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 by 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. I was thinking I was yesterday i Sorry, I was thinking about what you were saying. Because yesterday I received an alert from a news app that I subscribe to that sends me breaking news. And I don’t specifically have it targeted for real estate or financial news, just just world news, really. And so the breaking news alert that I got yesterday was that and this is again, we’re in towards the end of July. And when this podcast goes out, it’ll be more and more into August. But it was when the Fed had their 75 basis point rate hike, which was happened to be yesterday. end of July. And I thought, boy, you know what a great opportunity. So if I’m getting this alert, a lot of other people who are following the news are also seeing this this headline, and maybe are going to start wondering, I wonder how that affects my you know, if I’m purchasing a property, would this affect my how our interest rates? Or sorry? How are our lending rates affected? Our lending rates affected? Have they already, you know, sort of prepared for this rate hike that I think the banks knew were coming. But the average person on the street, and I don’t mean on the street, I mean, the average person who’s not in the real estate industry doesn’t really know that much about how interest rates and lending rates are correlated, and how they interact. And I think it’s just another opportunity to to reach out like you were saying, you know, if you see news, maybe get ahead of it and reach out to your buyers and say you might have seen this in the news. Or well, first, I would guess talk to your lender, find out how it does, you know what you need to know as the agent, but then bring that to the client and say, Hey, don’t don’t worry, here’s, here’s what this means. I just think there’s so many opportunities for agents to reach out when those kinds of events happen.

Carrie McCormick 12:34
Yeah, I agree with that. I think that’s another point of your partnerships and your relationships in this business. Because make sure that you nurture those, like you were just talking about mortgage rates, you were talking about Joel, who’s with guaranteed rates, you know, leverage your relationships with these with these folks have, even if they’re not in position to buy or sell a home, they may be in a position to refinance. And because you’ve you know, given them that information that rates have ticked down, and you know, again, partner with your mortgage lender, they will find you to be a value resource. And again, it’s not just always about buying and selling real estate, but now you become, you know, more of a fiduciary which we are to them, and they find value in what you’re bringing them. I was actually talking with another broker. She was from Atlanta, very sweet woman. And she asked me also to be on her podcast. And it was funny, because I said, How did you find me? You know, because it’s just, you know, when I get calls from people from California, or wherever, it’s just, it’s so interesting. And she’s like, Oh, your social media. And I thought that that was spectacular. And she said, you know, give me your secret weapon. We all want to know what it is of how you became successful? And I thought, well, that’s a loaded question. Because we all know, in this industry, there’s no secret sauce, there’s no one secret weapon, and it’s truly a lot of hard work that goes into this job. But I said, if I had to pick one to answer your question, it would definitely be my network of people around me, you know that. Looking back to everyone who has supported my business and who I’ve networked with, and used and leveraged in my business really, has paid off and those relationships are key. So I would suggest to anyone out there, you know, have a key network out there, grow those relationships, maintain them, and always look for new opportunities with them as well.

D.J. Paris 14:31
Yeah, we’re in the back to school time. So this is a good opportunity for for everyone listening to think about those in your sphere of influence that have kids that are going back to school and maybe, you know, you could work on creating some little, you know, little

Unknown Speaker 14:49
I like that. I’m gonna write that one down like

D.J. Paris 14:51
notebooks, Kranz pens, whatever school supplies or maybe even better asking you’re asking Client, your clients, if the teachers need any supplies, oftentimes teachers, depending on what districts and states, the schools are in, oftentimes are in short supply of things that are needed for the classroom. So anything like that, I think is a great reason to pick up the phone or even just to say, are you excited, the kids are going back to school, having that conversation getting some more, you know, more more mom or dad time alone, versus, you know, the busy summer months. And I will also say something that I use. So Carrie and I are here in the local Chicago market. And I talk to a lot of Chicago realtors, a lot of top producers, people like carrier. And what’s interesting is, is you were talking about your success. And if you had to boil it down to one thing, it would be your network, I will say, a close second will be the way that you are perceived by other agents. And I asked people all the time associate you and I together or associate you to me because of our show, and people will come up to me and they’ll go, Carrie is not only like an absolute superstar. She’s like the nicest person to do a deal with. And I get that across the board. And I think that that matters. Of course, it matters. But it really is something that is probably not coincidental that you’re ultra successful, and, you know, apparently very pleasant to do a deal with, according to everybody I’ve talked to.

Carrie McCormick 16:28
Well, actually now you just reminded me the one thing too is that I talked about when I was being interviewed was, again, some more success stories. And I would say that three other tips would be Have patience. I think a lot of people want to have success, and they want it quickly. And I get it. Because anyone that knows me, I’m a very impatient person. But through the years, I’ve learned to be patient. Ego is another thing, I think in our industry, in sales in general, we’re all type A personalities. And we do have an ego. But my my line is ego doesn’t serve the client. Clients don’t care. I mean, they really don’t, they just they want, you know what they want. So really kind of check your ego and especially to each other as brokers, you know, we’re all in this business together. So you know, set your ego aside is number two. And number three, I say this all the time to people is Be kind, I mean, really be kind to each other. Because you know, I’m sure there were times that I wasn’t kind or whatever it was, but I’ve learned in my maturity of 22 years that again, it sounds so easy, and I truly mean this, you know, authentically is when you are truly kind of people with no, you don’t want anything back from them. You’re just kind to them and you’re giving in you’re doing with best intentions with nothing wanting anything in return, it comes back to you. And that’s again, part of my success is you know, all everything’s been good intentions behind. Don’t have any go work hard. And it’ll come

D.J. Paris 18:14
there you go. Well, it carry you has, by the way we should mentioned carry did was almost 170 million last year, just by herself. So I want to set the stage of just how busy she is. And in fact, she’s so come on. Whoa, my APOP My sincere apologies. I had it backwards. I had 168 which was was very 186 186,000,001 person, no team.

Carrie McCormick 18:41
But I do want to say thank you to my support team. I’ve got the most incredible support team and anyone out there knows we can’t do it without them. It is a team. And they support my vision. They support my brand, and couldn’t do without him.

D.J. Paris 19:00
Takes A Village. It takes a village but but yeah, so Carrie is is truly remarkable. And she has to go right now because she has to do another deal. And she has an appointment right now. So I’m going to say goodbye once again to Carrie, who is just so marvelous to be on our show every year, every month every year since we’ve started. We are so grateful. We’re so lucky to have her. So thank you Carrie Everyone, go follow Carrie on Instagram, Carrie McCormack real estate, find her on Instagram and reach out to her. She’s super helpful and nice and she is wonderful on our show. We appreciate you. Thank you and thank you to all our listeners. Stay tight. Stay stay connected to us and we’ll see on the next episode.

Carrie McCormick 19:45
Have a great day.

D.J. Paris 19:46
Okay

Mridu Parikh goes back to the beginning of her journey into becoming a productivity coach. Mridu shares her recommendations for people that feel some part of their life is not where it should be. Mridu extensively discusses how to organize your to-do list in order to have an effective day and time-management. Next, Mridu discusses how to make space for the most important things in life. Last, Mridu talks about her Podcast and what she discusses there.

Please follow Mridu on Facebook and check out her Productivity on Purpose Podcast here.

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

Mridu Parikh can be reached at 917.699.5495.

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

D.J. Paris 0:00
How do the most successful real estate agents organize their daily to dues? 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 host through the show. And in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with productivity coach Murray do Pareek from Life is organized.com. But before we do, we just always ask our audience to help us do really two things. Sometimes it’s one thing today, it’s two things, but they’re pretty easy, we really would appreciate it. Number one, please tell a friend about our show. Just think of one other realtor, maybe one that isn’t very well organized. And not just you. I know if it’s me I’m not I’m never organized. But I can also think about other people that I know that aren’t as organized. And I’m gonna send them a link to this episode because I want them to get more organized. So think about somebody that you know, maybe in your office that could benefit from getting more organized, send them a link to this episode. And the second thing is just to leave us a review whatever podcast app you might be listening to my voice on right now. Let us know what you think of the show. Leave us a review. Leave us some comments. We always are interested to hear what the audience likes and dislikes so we can keep improving. Okay, enough about me. Let’s get organized with my conversation with redo Pareek.

All right, today on the show we have Brittany from Life is organized.com. And let me tell you more about litho. Now she is the founder of life is organized and Ruth is passionate about getting women the results they want whether it’s doubling their business revenue, losing weight, increasing time for self care, her best selling book and productivity podcast share it’s simple strategies to ditch to ditch overwhelm. Marie through us teachings on mastering tasks and habits have been featured in the Huffington Post, Forbes US News and World Report. And real simple and when she’s not wrangling a list or a schedule, you can usually find this former professional organizer turn productivity pro with her two teens and her husband in Nashville enjoying them all back. Please everyone who is listening follow her whether you’re a man or woman, or nine binary or whatever you identify as please go over to Life is organized.com. That’s the home of everything Marie through she’s got amazing resources. And if you just go to life is organized.com forward slash resources there is and we’re gonna have a link to that in the show notes. So if you’re listening to this on a podcast app, look in the show notes, we’ll have a direct link to that. But she has lots of great resources for you and also follow her on Facebook and Instagram. Also, life is organized. So just find her that way and you can get to everything from life is organized.com and last subscribed to her podcast, which is called productivity on purpose. And she brings on experts in all fields of life to help you get to that next level. So anyway, really welcome to the show. We’re so excited to have you.

Mridu Parikh 4:30
Thank you for having me. That was the best intro and by the way, you nailed my name so you have let’s

D.J. Paris 4:38
we have to tell the audience though, I I wasn’t sure how to pronounce it. And so I’ve learned by miss my past mistakes to make sure and I probably set it in front of me at least 50 times going I just want to get this right and so she had to listen to me say it over and over again. So I glad I got it right.

Mridu Parikh 4:55
Yeah, and I say usually takes like a glass of wine. So I’m telling you either you’re drinking right now. Are you just really have I,

D.J. Paris 5:01
I am 17 beers, and I don’t remember what we’re doing right now. But I did get the name right. And I’m gonna pass out and just let you talk the rest of the time because I’m wildly drunk. I wish I was wildly drunk, but I am sadly I am sober. But let’s, let’s talk about, I think this is a really important topic. And by the way, I don’t have a lot of experts outside of top real estate agents on the show. And I should, because I think this is really important is real estate agents have to wear so many different hats. And they’re essentially, in many cases, most of our listeners probably are individual practitioners, right? They don’t have a team behind them. Maybe they have, the firm they work at maybe has some training, some support, they can get help when they need it, but they’re really on their own most of the time. And that is a ton of pressure, it’s a ton of stress. It’s a lot of different hats to wear. And it can be overwhelming, exhausting. And I would love to talk to you all about some some ways to minimize some of that stress and become more effective and efficient. But before that, I want to learn about your journey. Like how did you get into it into you know, becoming a productivity coach? Tell us your journey.

Mridu Parikh 6:20
Yeah, well, first i What did you want to thank you because I know I’m a little bit outside of the box of your gas. And I you know, hoping to drop a lot of value here. But I like that you started with a story because I think that a lot of real estate agents can probably resonate with it, even though I’m not in that industry. When I had an opportunity, let’s say to leave my corporate career of 10 years was because my husband’s job was bringing us from New York to Nashville. This was 17 years ago. So it’s not the it city. It’s not the cool place to be right. Nobody wants to lose. I don’t want to be here. But the only way he got me here was I had I had a two year old and was on my way with the second the only way he got me here was he said the magic words. You won’t have to work. I thought I hit the jackpot. Right? I was like, okay, Sign me up. Let’s go to Nashville, this

D.J. Paris 7:05
deal with the country music,

Mridu Parikh 7:07
right? We get here and of course store, you know, couple years and I’m like, I’m going cuckoo love my kids. I just you know, I missed my work. I want to get back. But I don’t want to go to that career, that corporate job, let me like on this entrepreneurial journey, and no business, starting a business, but let me start a business. Okay. So fast forward trying to figure out what I want to do. I actually landed on home organizing, as you mentioned, it was a professional home organizer, again, way back before like the containers door homesteaded or a condo, it was like, Oh, gee, and this. And I thought, This is my calling. I love it. And I quickly realized I don’t really love organizing other people’s stuff. But what I love is teaching them and coaching them the skills behind it. Like I don’t really like doing it, but I want to teach them how to do it. So I moved into that. And this is where I think probably some your listeners can resonate is that you know, you start this business thinking, I’m going to have so much freedom, I’m going to have so much flexibility that I want to be home with my kids. Let me start my own thing. And then you realize you’re spread too thin, you’re scattered, you’re exhausted. And then this can really kind of lead you to feel like a failure at times. Sometimes it can make you resentful. Well, that was me. That was definitely me. I was not it was not the freedom and flexibility I was looking for I was handcuffed to my business 24/7. And I was working like crazy. And I was thinking how is it possible that I’m working this hard, and I’m still not getting the results that I want. So I jumped into a completely just personal development, like route and I started learning all things productivity, time management, I just jumped into it all taking classes, tutorials book, the whole thing. And after lots of hits and misses, I discovered what worked for me, especially when I was overloaded, which was most of the time, I thought I can either go back to constantly being reactive and feeling behind or I can embrace some new simplicity, some structure, some new beliefs in my life. And that’s essentially what I did over time. Like I went from feeling really defeated to very much on top of all the demands and all the distractions that as a business owner, but also as a mom and as a wife and a community member and a sister and a daughter and all the things right. And so now I teach those skills to other time strapped top producers who want to take back control of their day to write so they have the self worth they deserve they they actually get the business that they thought they were getting when they when they signed up for it so now I help you or help people like your audience who don’t really wake up with a plan that they can stick to stop procrastinating and stop feeling so overwhelmed and just feel really successful every day.

D.J. Paris 9:45
Yeah, I Boy, that sounds great. I was thinking about you know, in my own life I’m like, boy, there’s a lot of things I as you were talking I was like some changes I would like to make for myself as well. But let’s let’s talk about So thank you that I think that’s really helpful to give our audience an understanding of your path. And your journey. And I talk about, I think life, and I’d love to get your thoughts on this is so much about being off track, I think so it’s, it’s, you know, if balance is a myth, although the strive for balance is great, but to actually achieve it, I’ve never done it, but, but that’s okay. Because we’re imperfect. So I’m okay being a little bit out of balance. But I think I always like, I’ve thought about this a lot, where it’s like, instead of striving for being in balance, what I want to do is notice when I’m out of balance, which is a lot of the time, and then, you know, getting back on track, you know, smoothing out the rough edge, and then another rough edge will pop up, and I need to smooth that one out. But I think that has been, you know, something that has taken the pressure off, I think there’s a lot of pressure on women in particular, but but also men to about doing everything. And women are the most obvious example of this, right? You were saying Mother, Wife, Daughter, you know, friend, business owner, those are a lot of responsibilities. And you know, we just expect, you know, people to be perfect, and you’re supposed to do everything. So let’s I would love to talk about, you know, when you notice yourself being a little bit off kilter, maybe your relationship with your kids is isn’t as great as you’d like it to be, or maybe your business is suffering a little or your physical body isn’t quite where you want it to be. And you notice that and then you go, Oh, you know, I’m, I’m not where I want to be, you know, what do you recommend in that in those situations?

Mridu Parikh 11:41
Yeah, so I’ll give you an in kind of a mindset thing, and then maybe like a really tactical, like, really, you know, here’s what we could do in the moment. And you know, in our day, but, you know, often I think we just kind of take a step back and ask ourselves, like, what is truly most important, I often I can usually look at someone’s calendar. And I can tell you what is most important, even though it’s totally unaligned with what you say is most important, right? And so we might say, Oh, it’s my house, of course, I gotta take care of my health, I can’t take care of myself, I can’t take care of anyone else, or it’s my kids, but I barely seen them, or it’s my partner, but we don’t ever have a date night or you know, or it’s my new business development. But I’m really just stuck in my email, and it’s getting new clients, but you know, it’s prospecting, but it’s something else. And so, you know, it’s really just taking a few minutes and just getting back and checking, like, what is it that I’m doing this all for? Like, what I can say it is, you know, it’s there’s talk, but what is really important to me. So if you start there, and this isn’t, like I’m saying, Go take a day off to figure this out. We pretty much all know this intuitively, right? Like, I mean, we could list this out in two minutes. But I think there is something about that exercise of actually like sitting focusing writing that out, because when you see it down on paper, now tactically, you can look at your calendar and say, Okay, this is this really a reflection, because this is the life I say I want. And then I look at all the things that are going on, I think about my day, and it’s just not congruent, you know? So I think it’s a good place to start to step back for a minute. Like, what is it? That’s really important? And let’s start with those goals.

D.J. Paris 13:16
Yeah, I agree. I ran into this just yesterday, I can tell you, we have this is a silly example. But I think our audience can relate to it. It’s not real estate related. But I Well, in a way, I guess it is. But anyway, we had a torrential downpour for about five minutes yesterday here in Chicago. And it was like a crazy downpour. And one of those really cool summer storms that just last a few minutes. And we have white furniture out on our balcony, which you would want to cover when there’s a downpour. And my girlfriend does not share that same belief with me. Not that she wants it to get rained on. But my thought is like whenever we’re not using it, we’re just going to cover it. And our thought is no, we’re not going to do that. We’re going to we’re going to try to remember when it’s going to rain to cover it. But she’s like, I’m just not going to cover it. Each time I use it. That’s that’s does doesn’t make sense to her. And so I was like, but it makes sense to me. But it doesn’t make sense to her. So now we’re at you know, a loggerhead here where we’re at, you know, we have conflicting beliefs. And my belief isn’t really any more right than her she’s allowed to have her own belief and, and I was like, God, I really feel strongly about this. And then I started to think about, okay, I really want this, she really isn’t going to do it. And or she’s going to be resentful if I like, try to force her to, like, abide by this rule, which of course, is not a good idea, either. But if I and I started, like, you were saying, I had to reflect and think what’s most important here? Is it more important that I save this furniture? And by the way, we’re not talking about a $10,000 couch that be like, Oh my god, like, you know, we’re talking about moderately priced couch that can be it’s probably going to get tossed at three or four years anyway. And I started to think about, you know, maybe I just don’t get my way this time, but, but maybe that’s okay. Because my longer term goal is that I want a really good relationship with this woman. And I’m sort of painting her to be this like person who doesn’t care about her. She totally wants to take care of our stuff, we just have a different belief about it. And we did buy all weather furniture. So in theory, we should sort of be able to keep it outside. So she’s not like totally crazy. We just have a different belief. And by me, taking those couple of minutes to think, what’s most important here, it calmed me down. And it got me to realize, Oh, my God, my girlfriend’s way more important, the stupid couch, I’m not going to let it get ruined, but I’m not going to come at her going, we’re gonna we have this new rule, we gotta cover bla bla bla bla bla, which, by the way, she’s gonna go, Yeah, I’m not going to do that. So I just wanted to use that as an example. Because I think if I hadn’t have taken that time, I would have come in guns blazing going, it read on our couch, that you’re not gonna believe, Oh, my God, it’s all good. You know? And that’s what my my mind was. And my emotions were and then I calmed down, and I went, Oh, this is like, kind of silly. Who cares?

Mridu Parikh 16:07
I love that. I love that you put a personal example, because it’s true. Like this is, every part of every decision. Basically, we’re making Rite Aid comes down to that you’re like, is this really worth the battle? Is this the most important? Do I say it’s the most important, but then I’m not really doing what’s most important. I think that’s really where that incongruency is, and it’s just, it’s good, it’s good. Let’s just check out let’s put ourselves in check. Because no one else is gonna do it. Right. It’s up to us at the end of the day to put ourselves in check. So it’s just it’s a good practice, I think kind of like, on those days, you’re like, I’m just running what’s important, just to ask yourself what’s so you know?

D.J. Paris 16:39
So the first thing to do, I think, like you were saying is, is when things get off balance, which is most of the time we’re a little bit off balance, is noticing what’s off balance, like, where’s my life not ideally, working perfectly in the way that I want it to? And then starting to say, Okay, well, my, you know, hey, I want to lose, you know, a few pounds, or I want to get some muscle or I want to have more energy, or maybe that’s those are physical body stuff, or I want my business to grow a certain percentage, or I want to have more clients, or I want to impact more people. First is identifying, you know, what, what those goals are in relation to values, as you were saying, like, what’s really important to me, like, why am I why do I want my business to grow? 10%? Oh, well, then that will allow me to maybe take more vacations with my family, or donate more to charity, or just have build more wealth, so I can retire early, or whatever it might be. So once you start to identify your values, then then sort of where do we go from there?

Mridu Parikh 17:40
So then, here’s how I feel if it does not work on paper, it’s not going to work in real life. Okay. So if we can’t figure out a way at time or place to, to actually work on or put time and energy and effort towards those goals, we can’t figure it, we can’t even see it, it’s probably not going to happen, right? And so I would say, gotta get tactical and actually start looking at your calendar, look at your week, look at your day and say, Am I making the time? Am I making the space? am I planning that for those goals that I’ve identified? Right? Maybe it’s my health, maybe it’s meal planning, maybe it’s prospecting, whatever it may be? How do I carve out the time for it? And what we’ll find is often is, hey, you know, you might not have any time maybe like, there’s absolutely no way, well, then there’s some decisions to be made. Do we do we scale back on something else are those really your priorities, you know, it’d be really your nose aren’t your priorities, like, there are changes, but again, it’s only with that sort of introspection, and that just want to that simple exercise of, you know, deciding here, my goals, and my making the time and space for it. But what else is really great about this, when you start looking at your day like that, you start realizing well, then maybe there is there are other things I shouldn’t, that aren’t priorities that I’m giving effort to that maybe I can take away, maybe there’s some opportunity here for me to delegate something, maybe I don’t have to do everything in the house or at work or, you know, I can outsource a thing. Maybe some of this stuff is just on my to do list, and I feel guilty about it. So I put it on my calendar every day. And now it’s been a month and never happens. Like maybe it’s just time to delete it altogether. Right? And so there’s, there’s a lot of things that happen when you just kind of just sit with that for a minute and think think through, you know, is this important to me, and I think like as you know, again, as go getters and top producers, there is this sense that in order to be successful, we have to do more just doo doo doo doo doo, right? You’re in the chaos, everything’s coming, the emails are coming in phone calls, you’re like, if I just put my head down, I do more everything, it’ll feel better, I’ll feel better. But I would challenge everyone to think you know, if you really want to be successful, do more planning, plan more and do less. And that’s kind of what I’m saying like look at that calendar and say okay, so if there really is a priority for me to prospect or to work out like I’m actually going to take it from list to do my brain to on the schedule, like put it in there. There was just no massive gap between what we believe we can get done doesn’t matter how smart you are doesn’t matter how many letters you got after your name there is it there’s a gap of what I think and get done. And this is what I can actually get done. And so for some reason until we see it on the site calendar on your schedule until you can actually map it out. You can’t I don’t know why we always overestimate it. We’ll always overestimate how much time we have. And then when you see it, you’re like, oh, wait a second between my for showings today and this appointment that there’s no way I could do these, like, what was it? Oh,

D.J. Paris 20:30
and, and mom duty, wife duty, and, you know, whatever, for self care duty,

Mridu Parikh 20:36
totally, totally weak, you know, you feel like a failure often because it’s just simply one thing. It’s not again, not because you’re not smart, not because you don’t have the skills is because you don’t complete what you set out to do. That’s the only reason right? So you have your list of 10 things in your to do list in your mind. Again, this seems totally doable. I’ll just make my list, I can totally do these 10 things today. And you don’t you get through four, and therefore really good things. But all you’re thinking about the end of the day is a six you didn’t feel like a loser, you feel like losers, you only feel like a failure. But what if, what if your list only had four to begin with? Right? And you map them out in your calendar? You got your four down? Or even if you got three out of the four, what do you end up feeling like a total success at the end the day, right? You feel so much better. And that’s how you stay motivated for the next day. That’s what’s gonna get you inspired to, you know, do the hard stuff in the morning that you don’t feel like doing. And so it really is just this like self defeating thing that we do that is just writing these lists and not really like thinking through and planning, When will I get it done,

D.J. Paris 21:38
I have a theory about why we are a little bit that way where we expect ourselves to be perfect. And it’s just a theory. And it’s not backed by any sort of evidence or science. But I suspect it has to do at least here in America. I’m not sure about other countries, I think there was a whole generation and I think parents are a little smarter today. But but the generation or two ago, I think it was a lot about your special, you can do anything you can do everything any the whole world is available to you. And I think what that did is you’re special, you’re unique. And yes, all of that is true. But you can’t do everything, you can’t be everywhere at once, and you aren’t going to be great at everything. And so I think parents are a little bit sat more savvy now to realize, Wow, if I put that expectation on my child, it might actually create a lot of anxiety and stress around needing to be perfect. And so I think I think there’s a culture of like moms are the perfect example. It’s like, it’s like moms are expected to be perfect in every possible way. And it’s just like totally unfair and not going to happen. And I know it can lead to a lot of moms in particular women who are business owners, or just you know, in the working world, who are also trying to be wonderful moms and wives and and community members. And it just is it’s too much we’re asking too much of people. Or people are asking too much of themselves, you know. And and and I think you’re absolutely right, more, I used to think that the more I do, the better I get to feel about myself. That was the rule I had in my head. What a silly rule. Because I never was doing enough, there was always more to do. And therefore I always felt shitty about myself, quite honestly.

Mridu Parikh 23:25
It’s not the quantity, it’s the quality, it’s better to do three awesome kick ass things that make you feel really successful rewarded, then 10 Like, you know, whatever, I just I’m just doing it to check things off my list to get my like dopamine hit, but it doesn’t make me feel good. In fact, that’s a one thing. So one thing I share all the time podcasts like clients start every day if you start every day with this simple question. This is going to be your guide post for the day to focus on those those big goals or things that really matter to you. Just start your morning with this question. Okay. So what five things will make me feel most successful when my head hits the pillow tonight? That’s it, what five things make me feel most successful, my head hits the pillow tonight. So there’s a few things I can break that down a bit. When I say five, I typically personally would recommend three for your business and two personal Okay, so and when and if five feels big. I mean, a personal one could be I want to turn off the lights by 1030 tonight, okay, this isn’t have to be like, I’m gonna go, you know, go train for the marathon. This is just like a simple personal thing where like, what if I did that today, my next day would be great. I’d go to bed, I wouldn’t be watching TV till 1am and all the things I would feel so good if I did that one thing, right? And business wise, maybe it’s, it’s, you know, I want to create that, that that customer that CRM tool or that system or I want to, you know, whatever, create that relationship or go to that networking group. And it’s just you know, three but it could be as simple as I just that that email or that phone call that I had been procrastinating for, like forever. I just want to make that and it’s gonna take me five Minutes. I don’t know why procrastinating it, but I’m gonna get that out of my way, right. And so they’re very simple. You’re actually putting them on your calendar we talked about and you feel great at the end at the end of the day. But here’s the tricky thing about it is that you can fall into what feels good to me right now, versus the end of the day, which is why I said before my head hits the pillow, because what you can sometimes focus on is that you only feel really good right now, if I didn’t make that phone call. And instead, I did by email or jumped on social media. I mean, think about what’s gonna make me feel much better right now. That feels really good. But it’s not the thing. When you go to bed. You’re not like, dammit, I go, I

D.J. Paris 25:40
have to do it tomorrow. Yes. I

Mridu Parikh 25:41
wish I spent more time on social media today. You know, we don’t. So you’re really thinking through? Yeah, you were thinking through in the morning before I when I go to bed tonight? What are those five as tiny as they may be as insignificant as they are, but they make you feel the best. And just tap into your intuition. Again, we all know what makes us feel good. It’s the stuff we procrastinate. It’s the stuff that that’s hard, right? I want to go work out. But if I just did a 20 minute walk, it’d be great. And so those are the things and I get it like there’s no doubt in my mind, if you followed, if you asked yourself that question and followed it, your entire life is going to change, you’re just going to feel so energized every day. So like vibrant, you know?

D.J. Paris 26:23
Yeah, because and I think part of its we’re, like you were saying earlier, we’re so used to beating ourselves up for the things we don’t do. The things that we can’t get to the things that works, we think we’re expected to do that we just aren’t able to because there’s only 24 hours in the day. So let’s, let’s, let’s ask that question again. So what can you do give it and then the five things I want our audience really to because this is a brilliant idea. I I’m going to start doing it myself.

Mridu Parikh 26:52
Yeah, what five things would make me feel most successful, or most rewarded when my head hits the pillow tonight. So you might wake up with that on your alarm like something on your phone, you might have a sticky note on your bathroom? Mirror, might put it on your fridge like something just to remind you think that’s true. But do take that next step and actually think okay, if these are them, where will like when will I do it? Get that on the calendar, get it calendar it because if it’s not on the calendar, it’s not gonna happen.

D.J. Paris 27:19
It’s not gonna happen. Yeah, I, I, we were just having this conversation about motivation versus discipline with a friend of mine from grade school this morning, who we were talking about. She, she and I have been friends forever. And we were chatting about motivation. And I said, you know, I’m 46 now, and I said, motivation is not really got me very far in life, I’ve found that maybe it’s just me, my motivation level to do hard things pretty low, is actually pretty low. And I’m 46. And my motivation probably isn’t going to magically just like, shoot up the charts tomorrow, where I’m going to, you know, do some amazing things like I have found for me, discipline seems to really be what gets me to get things done. And so what you were saying is, you know, look, discipline of like asking that question at the beginning of the day. That’s a discipline, a discipline of thinking, Okay, what’s really important to me today, when I go to bed? What do I how do I want to feel? You know, oh, I want to feel like I did. I did some good work. Okay, well, what would I need to do to feel that good work? And then you and then you, you know, you start to evaluate? Like, okay, well, one of my things is, I want my kids to go like, hey, you know, mom did a mom was really was really present for me for you know, some time today? Or, or, you know, or my my clients go, Wow, you really, you know, you really helped me out. And then you realize, oh, that’s what I’m really after. I’m really after, you know, what I get from accomplishing certain things. And I think that is such a valuable resource. So you’ve actually just given me a lot to think about as a great way to start my day, because I have, you know, like out like all of our all of us, we just have a lot going on. And it’s so easy to get caught up. Like you were saying the dopamine hits. It’s like, urgency, things come in at me the emails are flying in, it’s fun to respond, it feels productive. But is it really what I’m really is that really what I should be doing in that exact moment? The answer is, I don’t know. I have to think about it. I have to reflect and determine. And the thing about scheduling, I could not agree with you more. It For Me, at least if you don’t if I don’t put it on the calendar. It does not it does not get done. So I would like to talk about it to do list because this is where I have a lot of problems. So and I’m sure a lot of us do. So I have a I even have a system I used to do list which is what I’ve been using forever, which I love. It’s great. And I tend to push things from day to day to day. It’s like I have like get my emissions tested. My emissions car test, which is really not that important, but it’s been on there for like a month or two. And I’m like, one of these days, I just gotta go do it. But how do you recommend sort of organizing your to do list so that you can have an effective day?

Mridu Parikh 30:12
Yeah. So I say I typically have about two, two different two very different to do lists. One is a call a master list it just like everything in my everything going on, actually, I’ll say three lists, everything going on. So I might have my master list for work. And I personally like to separate it, I do a work one and a personal one. Not everybody wants to do that. But I just have enough going on on each that I just need to separate ones. So that is my place. And here’s why it’s called a master list. It’s the one place the one place, not the 800, sticky notes, not the backs of envelopes, not all the notebooks not all but you know, the scribbles, little pads all over. It’s the one place that I’m getting down on my thoughts and ideas and to do’s, gosh, the sun just came out. I haven’t had to put that down in a minute. Tell me if it gets too bad. So that’s one place. So it can be by the way, what is your one place where I use Evernote, Evernote, which is similar to OneNote. I’ve recently moved to notion but I’d say Evernote for me it was the list making tool. It’s one of the easiest Evernote and OneNote. So what

D.J. Paris 31:14
was it for audience just pause for a quick second or what are for our audience, Evernote is a note taking tool that is free, you probably wouldn’t ever need to pay for it, maybe you would, but most people don’t. And it’s a great place just to capture thoughts. So we know that, you know, we have got 10s of 1000s of thoughts per day. But so thoughts come and go and when they come, there’s a good chance you’ll forget about it in about 15 seconds. So it’s a good, good thing to have is a way to easily capture that to do or the notes. You know, and you can do it with your device. I use Siri which is I have an apple, I’m an Apple user. And I’ve connected my to do list with just try not to activate the Siri by saying her name. But I do that and I just literally say, you know hey Siri, you know, and then I say add this to my to do list. So that’s my master capture system, you use Evernote, but the point is, is have one one place? Yes.

Mridu Parikh 32:15
One. And and what I do love is just some app, I don’t overthink the app, if you’re listening. It doesn’t doesn’t matter what it is just honestly, it doesn’t matter. We’re making a list. It doesn’t use a paper and a pen. But I do I will say I do like it on the phone. And I used to be a keeper persons. I know how hard it is to move, but because our phones are connected to us 24/7 That no pad isn’t. And that’s why we end up with so much paper because nothing’s with us. 24/7 that’s when you have all the different notebooks and different people. Basically, yeah, so I do like that. And I do the same thing. I connect to my Evernote with my audio. So whatever, you know, you can type it in every time you get a thought. But here’s the thing that I’ve told myself, and I’m typically very positive person. But in this case, it’s something that I have now embedded in my head that every time I think I’ll remember that later. Oh, like, oh, you should read this book or you get a follow up this person. Oh, you should just download that app. i Oh, it’s the best movie. Oh, I remember that. Now, I just tell myself, I will not remember that later. I will remember that later. I just go negative there. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 33:18
assume you have the world’s worst memory. Yeah. Because well, I actually do have the world’s worst, or one of the world’s worst memories. i i would love to be tested. They’d be like, DJ, your early stage dementia, I’m sure. But But yeah, so I just go on set. I’m such a moron. I’m going to forget everything. So I am so I have to capture it or it’s gone.

Mridu Parikh 33:37
It’s gone. Right? It is fleeting. And so I just say even if it’s rote, you’ve never ever heard it 100 times. I will not remember that later. And I just get on my phone. And by the way, it’s not rude. That’s another thing I hear from people really you just say Oh, hold on a second. I just want to write that down before I forget. That’s not rude. You know, like the people are going to appreciate that you’re actually taking the time to like take down their thoughts. So do that. So I have that and I have one like I said one for business one for personal and I’m just basically writing down everything, everything all my so let’s say for business, here’s all these like follow ups I’ve got to do with my clients. Here’s some follow up with prospecting, here’s stuff I could do my financials here you know and I’m just writing things down personally as well kids sports is not okay, so you’re getting things down. But here’s the problem was typically when you’re putting things on your list, they’re actually not to dues they’re actually not tasks they are most often projects Okay, so for example, I might just write before I would change the way I do it before I write update website. Okay great. Do financials menu, you know plan the meals or something your grocery shop okay whatever like right? These are all they seem perfectly normal. Like that’s those are all to do’s but when I think about it, I’m like why do i Why have I not done my website in three months? Why do I keep putting this off? Why does it always go on every week I put on my thing and never comes off. It’s because that is a giant project. It’s not just like updating my website, I’ve got to write the copy and get the new imagery and get the testimonials. My clients don’t you know, there’s like, there’s like, 40 different steps for me to do.

D.J. Paris 35:09
Yeah, that might be updating the website might be a 10 hour event.

Mridu Parikh 35:14
Yes, yeah. And even something much smaller, or let’s say you have to, um, you know, get some information to somebody they ask for now, it’s been like a week, and you just keep putting it off. Because even getting that information is gonna require you to make a phone call, request that thing, research it, get the right options, put together a little proposal and send it over to them, right. I mean, it’s, it’s like a project it is it. So I think anything more than with more than one step to me as a project, you have two steps. It’s a project, right? It is more than one thing. And so where I would say we most of us go wrong is go back. Now, now that you’ve heard this, go back to your to do list and look at each task, say does this have more than one step? And if it does, break it down. So now instead of update website, that will be my project update website, and then below that on Evernote, but on really most of these, you can do check boxes, or whatever I do have my check boxes, I’m like, Okay, here’s the 14 different steps I need to do in order to update that project. So that’s the first step is both two steps. Firstly, you brain dump everything going on in your life, then you go back and say, Is this really a to do or is this a project and I break it down project by project by project, it is an exercise, I’m not gonna lie, it just it takes some time, it’s an investment of time. But when you’re done, you have such a more comprehensive list of things you have to get done. And it’s amazing how much clarity you have, after that you’re like, now, oh, I see why I’ve been procrastinating this for months or weeks or whatever. Because there’s so much. And instead of me saying, when I update my website about today, all I’m gonna do is you know, get the image for the About Me page. And that’s right, you just I’m like, I’m just going to actually check off one thing off my to do list, like it’s a real to do like it’s one task instead of an entire project. So that’s, you know, one of the big things Yeah,

D.J. Paris 37:05
I love this because I am behind on building a website. So I can really relate to this, I need to rebuild our recruiting website for our for realtors. And it’s it’s time and I just keep saying I need to rebuild the website that is, by the way, about a 40 hour project for me. So so it when I think about it, we can all relate think we can all everyone listening, think about a project that you want to complete that you just put in one sentence, like I want to build a new website, or I want to get more clients or whatever it might be. And you realize it creates a lot of anxiety, and a lot of overwhelm. And a lot of like, and what Murthy really just talked about was, okay, we’re going to spend a few minutes, it’s a little bit of work. And we’re going to actually list out all of the steps or at least you know, a lot of the steps. And then we can just start chipping away. When we have you know time we’re going to chip away at these things. We’re not going to think of it as this big giant elephant that we have to eat with one bite, we’re just we’re going to piece by piece, you know, define it and then I’ll and what happens when when I do this exercise is all of a sudden I relax. I’m like, Okay, now I know what I actually need to do. And that is very comforting. It is it my anxiety comes way down. And that’s important.

Mridu Parikh 38:27
percent. And similarly, you know, think of your personal life, right? Where our lives are integrated. If you’ve been like I want to clean up the garage and that’s been on there all year. Let me be you break it down. You’re like Oh, I’m gonna do is collect all the balls. This you know it? What are all the balls in the bin and that’s my only step forward for this weekend or today. And that’s it. And then tomorrow, I’ll get all the brooms together. And that’s it, you know, and so it it it really gives you a tool to start making progress to stop procrastinating, but also feel really good. But what if that putting the brooms with the balls is one of your top five things for the day. Now you feel really great because you started making either started doing that that thing? And then I always say you know, it’s we were earlier talking about motivation discipline. For me, I think how you get motivated is action, like action, insights, motivation. You can’t wait around for motivation to take action because they didn’t comment like

D.J. Paris 39:21
me. Yeah, that’s that’s the first thing if there is a God, I’m going to ask when I was like, couldn’t you given me more motivation? That’s gonna be my first question. And he’s gonna go No. Because it’s not really the key is the key is discipline. I at least the way I see it. I’m curious to get your thoughts.

Mridu Parikh 39:37
Yeah, well, I think you know, you take that first action, so I’ll just stick with the garage because I know I’m on the garage right now. But whatever. Okay, so, you know, like, I’m just gonna go the balls together in a bin. That is going to get you motivated. He might just be like, well, since I’m doing that, I’ll just get all the paints and put them in on the side, right? It that is what’s going to get you motivated is take the one small action a little bit You’d be tiny baby step, you know, you can’t get your butt to the gym every day, don’t make that your goal. My action is I just want to put on my sneakers, there’s a good chance. So this is something I did. I’m getting way, way too personal probably here. But I do think I hear about exercise is a major problem for a lot of you know, adults, and everybody wants to do everybody, right. So I wait, I put my, um, should I even be saying this, I sleep in a T shirt. So I put my I put my yoga pants by by my bed set, but my bed every night, like my yoga pants are there. And so I just wake up more than I put them on. Like I just put them on, I just it’s the first thing that I do. And then I bathroom, I come back, I brush my teeth and I put on like my top about my basically my workout outfit is like right there. So even if I don’t go to the gym, even if I don’t go for the walk, I guarantee, I know when I have those codes on, I’m just more active in the morning, I’m like running around, I’m like to grab the dishes, I’m like running outside, I’m gonna get the guard is I am like I literally become a more active person, even if I didn’t actually get to the workout, right? But when I stay, if I just stay in pajamas all morning, like more on a Saturday, I can also tell you, I’m just slower, I’m sluggish, it’s fine, I’m not beating myself up, I’m just telling you the difference of taking a small action, but how it can impact your motivation, right how it can impact your energy. And so that’s why I do it not because I can always go work out. But I know I’m going to have more energy if I’m in the right, like clothes, you know. So my whole point is, all I’m focused on is the first action. And then I will then I will hopefully get more motivated. So you can do this with anything and anything you’re procrastinating. You’re like, when you break it down like that, especially you’re like, I just have to take the first small little action. And then you know, be whatever comes comes by just gotta take an action.

D.J. Paris 41:46
In the in the 12 step world. There’s a saying that says what’s the next right thing. So, which I love. So if you don’t have to build the whole website, you don’t have to, you know, get the six pack abs immediately. You just have to get the clothes on. Maybe that’s the next right step. And then okay, now I got the clothes on, what’s the next thing? Well, now I need to get to the car, and then I’m going to drive to the gym. And and then you know, whatever, whatever you’re able to do. And it’s you know, it sounds silly to this, I want to talk about this with respect to physical exercise, because I think it’s something we can most of us can relate to is we hear about these stories about people who run marathons, but they started like just walking to the to the mailbox, and you’re like, really? Do you just you just walk to the mailbox, and then that was enough. And then next day, you walked a little further and eventually, you know, now then, you know, six months later, you’re running a marathon and and it’s like, no people actually do that. And that there’s there it’s it’s almost something that I think most of us go, Yeah, I’m not going to be the guy that just walks to the mailbox. But like, that’s a great first step. Right. And, and I think we, you know, if you can just go, I don’t have to eat the whole elephant today, I just have to do the first action and then schedule the next action. You know, you’re gonna you’re gonna have a great life. If you can just keep moving forward with these small steps life is most I think, do you think life is mostly big steps or small steps,

Mridu Parikh 43:17
small steps, it’s just it’s a series of small, consistent steps. It’s like instant, I guess discipline, what you’re saying. It’s just that consistency of small things, small things, small things, small things always add up to big changes. Big Impact. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 43:32
let’s talk about time, because time is the one commodity that, boy, it’s probably the most precious commodity that exists because we have a finite amount of it. And, you know, we’re all kind of bound by the same rules of time. So it’s, in some ways, it’s maybe the thing that’s, you know, the great equalizer is time. And of course, some of us get more time on this planet than others. And I’m not referencing that kind of time, I just mean in a 24 hour period, you know, we can only accomplish so much. So I’m curious on how you start to think about how do you manage all these demands on your time?

Mridu Parikh 44:11
That’s so good. So one thing I think about is like, multiplying time, like how can I multiply which often multiplying time is multiplying me like if there’s an How do I create another me because I feel I need to do all these things. Right? I need I want to do it. That’s the list is so long, so that has always stuck with me that like how do I multiply, duplicate, whatever multiply me, you know, and so that is sometimes true. Sometimes it’s like through automation, right? We have all these great technology tools. So something like sending out emails in bulk or send it you know, there’s just so many ways that we can use automation and technology. Sometimes it’s delegating. We know we can. And delegating is interesting. I think that we can I’m gonna tie this back to when you have your project when you actually have your to do list and it’s all broken down. Another huge benefit of that is when you can start visually seeing all the pieces, you can start delegating little pieces of it, right? I think sometimes we think of delegating, you’re like, I can’t have somebody do my website, right? Because I, I’m the only one who knows it. Well, no one’s asking you to delegate the entire project. But you probably could ask an assistant or your kid or your babysitter or someone to go search online for some images of you know, some houses have some stock photography, you know, like, like, there are things but, but in your head, you’re like, Oh, I gotta do my website. When you break it down. You know, now you’re like, oh, wait, it’s kind of multiplying me it’s I can I can get someone else to do it. So there’s just obvious like delegation, outsourcing. There’s a Yeah, I think there’s the main way that it would say automating delegating, outsourcing. Oh, and then sorry, and then also being more efficient, but that has sometimes to do with process sizing and Systemising. So that’s a big thing is how do you just be more efficient with that time? Through not necessarily duplicating yourself, but I believe we’re multiplying your time in that way. So an example might be if someone once we can appointment with you, they might get, like, how I signed up here, you know, for for us to speak I was it was so odd. It was so systemized, it was amazing. I could get on your calendar, I could fill out some forms, I could, you know, and it kind of took you out of that process and someone you know, and it’s just all it’s just a way more efficient than maybe, you know, sending five emails back and forth and having phone calls to get to the same results. So those are all the different ways but that’s sort of like the mindset I have just how can I multiply or duplicate like what I’m doing some other way.

D.J. Paris 46:41
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. I think when going back to your earlier point of identifying the projects and all the steps, or at least the big steps or the small steps, and looking at it and then realizing, you know, yeah, so So the initial thought is, oh, I need to build my website or I need to you know, overhaul my business or whatever it might be. And then you’re like, oh my gosh, that’s just too much. It’s overwhelming, I don’t know what to do. And then you list all the steps. And then you go that did using the website example. It’s like, oh, I got to do everything. And then you look at each step and you were saying, but you don’t have to do everything, there are parts of it that you can delegate or you can get a virtual assistant to help with or ask friends and family or co workers or you can actually ask for help. And people can do it like what if somebody could even do half of it for you? Like Wouldn’t that be amazing and thank God we live in a time where there we have the ability to to put these offers out there to in the world and we’re all interconnected. So people from all over the globe can say I can do that for you and I can do it for a reasonable price. Right. And that to me is yes. Is it going to be the level of quality that that your standard? Maybe maybe not. But what if you just what if they got you halfway there or 70% there and they use Chi Minh and and cleaned up the rest? Boy that would that would save me a lot of time for sure.

Mridu Parikh 49:33
For sure for sure. And sometimes you know people will do even better than we did like people have gifts and and here’s the thing they’re focusing 100% on that task which is why often they could do it better than you can Why am I nanny was a better mom in some ways and I wasn’t I was holding my kids because I was also trying to work and do the dishes and do the do the laundry and do the bills and you know and she is just there playing with the kids right like that’s like her only focus and so she was doing a really good job. And so I think, you know, we, we underestimate what focused support were the results that they can actually give us, it’s often better, better that we could do it ourselves.

D.J. Paris 50:11
Yeah, it’s that like one plus one equals three thing, where it’s like, it’s not just, Oh, I’m gonna hire somebody because I don’t want to do it, it’s, I’m gonna hire somebody who specializes in this. And that then frees up some time where I can, if maybe if nothing else, just relax. Or maybe I can spend that time focused in a different direction to achieve something else. Because I want to talk about how to make and I know this is a big hot button for you is how do you make space for the most important things in your life? The priorities? How do you how do you prioritize? So now we’ve got our to do list, we’ve got our projects, we know, okay, here are all the steps of the things I should do. But how do I prioritize this? How do I make space to get these things actually done?

Mridu Parikh 50:57
Yeah. So when they say is, you know, willpower is short lived, we only have so much. And typically for most of us, some, some people are truly night owls and night owls. And their best work is at 10 o’clock at night. But for most of us, our energy is dissipating over the day, like we’re, you know, we’re probably most awake and active in the morning. And by the afternoon, we’re like, I’m going to eat crap. And then by the evening, I’m just tired, right? So that’s happened. So I’d say one thing is, the news isn’t new. But it’s a good reminder that the thing that’s really hard the thing that you keep procrastinating the thing, you know, you know, if I leave this to the end of the day, it’s most likely not going to happen. Do that one first. Just knock it out, right? Like, just do that one first. Because, again, because it does a few things, one, you’re gonna feel really great, you’re gonna get the hardest thing done everything after that is easier. But it also starts it gives you a win, like you’re starting your day, with like a success, right? It’s like a big pat on the back. And it’s like that inspiration. If you start with sort of losses, if you start with this, this, you know, this idea that I’m failing it over the morning, it’s only gonna set up your day, right? That it’s like our energy only gets less and less over the day. So one thing I’d say is commit to that, make it small enough, make it doable enough commit to an action, not the whole project, like all the things we’ve been talking about. But do it first, because that’s just going to build your momentum. So that’s one thing.

D.J. Paris 52:22
I think that’s that’s such a good tip, I wanted to also just really quickly throw in a suggestion. Because I know a lot of us when we wake up, I want to get your thoughts on this. Yeah, I know a lot of us we wake up, the first thing we do is we grab our phones at, I try not to do that. But it doesn’t make me better than anyone. I just try not to because you know, whatever, I have my own routine. But a lot of us reach for our phones. And a lot of us reach for social media. Yeah, that’s going to be part of our routine. And I suspect that for most of us, when we’re for many of us, as we’re waking up, starting our day, and we’re looking at people’s Instagram and Facebook, or maybe tick tock wherever you might be scrolling, and we’re seeing everyone else’s successes. I actually think that could be a demotivator for a lot of people because we see people at their best, or we see what they’re willing to share. And most most people share, you know, their best selves on social media. They’re not sharing the fight they had last night with their spouse, they’re sharing the dinner they had where everyone’s smiling and happy and the kids are everyone’s perfect and, and all of that. And we can tap a button and make the picture look perfect, even if it isn’t actually perfect. I wonder if that demotivates people because I know for me if I looked at that every day, I’d be like, Well, I’m not that happy. I’m not that you know, I didn’t have that night last night. My my night was more rough. So I would encourage everyone to just get a sense of like, how do you feel after if you wake up and you start scrolling through social media, if it’s if it’s inspiring and encouraging, and it gives you energy and you’re like this is what I need to battle the day like awesome, but I think for a lot of us it might actually make us feel less than

Mridu Parikh 54:11
I am 100% with you. When we do like a routine with my clients and that’s the word I use is energize what is going to make you feel energized, what’s going to make you feel excited, what’s going to motivate you it’s going to make you feel vibrant for the day. And I 100% agree even though sometimes people think social media because I love to see my friends I love connecting with them. I completely read that it’s it’s you know you’re seeing oh she sold another $2 million house Oh my god. Right she wanted a perfect vacation and she looks so skinny and her husband is so nice to her but you know just like it is a comparison game. I don’t care what I mean unless you’re just abnormal. I hear you’re comparing. It does not make you feel great. You know there are other ways and like so what is energizing to you for some people it is at going for a walk for someone it’s I just want to Sitting at a coffee by myself, I would love to write, you know, gratitude is a big thing for a reason, right? I just want to read something I’m grateful for so that I can make it through this day. I want to go stare at my child’s crib for a minute. I don’t know, like, there are things that make you really energized. And so to me, I don’t necessarily believe like you have to be up at 5am. I don’t think you need an hour of all this stuff in the morning. I just want everyone to have some big heads, some few little things in the morning, small spurts that make you feel really energized. And I I couldn’t agree with you more. I don’t think social media or the news, quite frankly, is it? I don’t think either one of those serves us well. Yeah. Yeah, there’s a place there’s a place for it and our life. I don’t not first thing in the morning. Yeah,

D.J. Paris 55:38
yeah, I like I have, I have one friend. I know that he just loves seeing every everybody’s social media posts, because he’s like one of those rare people that is just absolutely does not compare himself to other people. So he’s like, the one person I know that does it. But for the rest of us. We’re all like, Oh, yeah. So I think you’re right. So really, the point we’re making is what feeds us, and what debilitates us and knowing what those things are requires attention. We have to write, we have to pay attention to how we feel after we do certain things. And then then that’ll help us go, oh, yeah, I’ll give you a perfect example. I was, this is really funny. So I was, I think we can all relate to this. So I was, I play video games at night sometimes. And I play really stressful games, because I don’t know, I like I like stressful games. And like, you know, not like violent games, really, but just like really hard games. And so I’m like, I was talking to a friend of mine who’s a realtor. And he was he was saying, I go what? He goes, Oh, I play games, too. What games do you play? We were talking about different games and, and he goes, I play golf games, and I go golf game. I’ve never really played a golf game before. Okay, I go, That sounds really relaxing. He goes, Yeah, he goes, what kind of games do you play? And I go, Oh, I play these really stressful, incorrect, you know, incredibly difficult games. And he goes, how does that make you feel? And I go, and my girlfriend was there. And she goes, and I because I was gonna say, Oh, I love it. And she goes, DJ is stressed out all the time, when he plays video games. She because she can see it, she can witness it. And I go, Wait a minute, I actually not that there’s not a place to play stress brain. Like, that’s fine. But she goes DJ is stressed out all the time when he plays video games, and, and the other realtor looked at me who’s a lot wiser than I am. And he goes, Why do you do that to yourself? Why do you play strike? Why don’t you do something that actually relaxes you? And I was like, oh, okay, never thought of it. But it’s about paying attention. Right? It’s about noticing. What result? How do we feel after something? And does this, you know, get us to take action? Or does it get us to curl up in a ball in the corner? And both of those things are valid, but just noticing what, you know, just what does social media do to us? What does the news? What does talking to my mom, you know, or whatever, you know, those kinds of things? Yeah. And the other thing that you said that’s really important is tackling the most important thing first. The hardest thing first hardest thing? Yeah, yeah, the hardest thing, maybe not the most important thing, but the thing that you you’re sort of dreading and in order to get the energy to tackle it, I suspect you have to be in the right mindset. And so what we’re, I think what you’re talking about is setting yourself up so that you have the energy to actually tackle that that big thing.

Mridu Parikh 58:35
100% Yeah, I mean, built, you know, start energetic start with a good vibes are positive, you know, so you’re like, I just gonna knock this thing out and knock this sucker out. And the rest of its gonna be gravy after this, right? If you’re gonna start from a place where you’re a comparison itis and you’re feeling low, and you’re just like, you know, you’re only with that, like, Dread kind of thing. What are you going to have to tackle that hard thing? It’s gonna be even harder, you know? And then chances are you won’t do it later. And then they’ll go back on the list, you feel like a failure. And that’s like, this whole cycle of self sabotage happens. For me, it is always 100% Something to do with my health, like exercise is just kills me. I, I’m 50 years old, I just can I do it all the time. I’m never gonna love it. I’m never gonna look forward to it. It’s just not gonna happen. I don’t like it. But if I don’t do it, and by that, by the way, I mean, like a 20 minute walk. I’m not I’m not running a marathon, but I want to do something that gets me active because I know that gives me the best energy. I know. It gives me the best energy I put on a great podcast, I put on great music. I go for a walk in nature. It just it gives me the best out of my best ideas come to me on that walk. My best. Everything happens to me during that walk. And so I know it’s the hardest thing for me to do. Personally, not professionally, personally. And but I know it’s the best thing for me. It’s the most it gives me the best energy so I’ve just come to terms with I’m not gonna like it. I just got to the first action. I just gotta get my clothes on. And then I can walk out the door and go, you know, yeah, I

D.J. Paris 1:00:01
think so much of life is about accepting your preferences, right, like understanding. I don’t like I don’t like going to the gym. I hate it. Yeah, but I still do it. And and I for for a long time in my life, I thought you had to like everything that you did. And I thought I was a failure because I didn’t like it because I would look at people comparison thing. And I would say, oh, that person built their business way faster than I did. Or they built their body way faster than they seem to get to the gym, no problem, or they’ve saved more money than I have or burned more money or whatever. And, and, and then I realized, like, Okay, well, we all have preferences. And my preference is not to go to the gym, I don’t want to work out. I don’t want to do leg day, you know, on Wednesday, I don’t want to do that. I will like you were saying I, I will probably I mean, it would be awesome. If one day I woke up and I was like, I can’t wait to do leg day. I don’t know if that day is ever going to come for me, it doesn’t really matter. Because I probably you know, if I’m being honest, I probably will just always going to hate working on my legs at the gym. Because you know, whatever. I just don’t like it. It’s painful. It sucks. But it’s important. So how do I get myself to do it? Well, for the majority of my life, I didn’t. Because I thought, Oh, I’m supposed to want to do that I’m supposed to want to and it’s like, no, you just don’t want to do it. But you still should do it. So I made peace with the fact that I was okay that I don’t want to do it. And I’m still going to do it. And I held those two things at the same time. Those two, those two thoughts of I don’t want to do this. And I’m going to do it. And that way, it removed the pressure. Because I think I think real estate agents have this tremendous pressure to just be perfect, right? Like, I’m going to every part of my business is just going to be perfect. And I’m going to love every part of it. And and I’m going to you know, and it’s like no, you’re probably not there’s going to be parts of your business that you just dread. But if you can get yourself to take action, anyway. And honor the fact that Oh, I just don’t like doing that. But I need to do it. I think that’s that’s really the path.

Mridu Parikh 1:02:15
Yeah. And I think what’s important there just just if someone takes this and says, Oh, then I guess I should be doing that thing. I hate doing it doing it anyway. Justin, make sure it gives you the result that you want. Right, so you probably still feel your hate legs, I hit mark them with you never gonna like it. But I know it makes me feel really good. I know, it’s good for my body. I know, it makes me help. But you know, like the results, I’m getting the results, right? Like that is totally better. Don’t do something, though, just because you’re like, well, they said I don’t like it. But I feel like I should do it. And it’s not serving you. So if you’re like, well, I should be on Route mom, because all the other moms are and then you hate it. And it’s sucking the life out of you. And you’re taking away time from your children. And you’re you know, don’t do it just because you know, you think you should and it’s hard. You don’t do it. Because it doesn’t give you the reward. You know what you want it like it isn’t it’s not serving you. So just keep that in mind. If anyone listening, it’s like it also doesn’t really serve you, you know,

D.J. Paris 1:03:11
what you’re saying is so, so important, because we have ideas, we have fantasies of, you know, I’m going to be this type of person, I’m going to, you know, if if I had the expectation that I was going to, like we have about 800 agents here at our firm, if my expectation was, well, we really need to be successful. We need to step 1600. Agents, well, I would feel like a giant failure. We’ve only got 800. But, but when I started, we had no agents. And so it’s like, okay, I know what my goal is. Sure, I’d love to have 1600 agents. But here I am right now at 800. I’m you know, here’s where we are. And I’m going to still try to happily achieve to get to that to get to that number. But I’m not going to feel like a failure. Because I’m I am where I am. I think that’s really one of the biggest challenges is feeling like a failure where you currently are like that is just a big, concrete wall that just stops motivation. It’s like, don’t you think?

Mridu Parikh 1:04:16
Oh, yeah, yeah, if you want to be unproductive, that’s the way good now you’re just like self sabotaging. You’re thinking you’re, you’re, you know, you’re chipping away at your self confidence or self esteem. And it’s yeah, it’s just a negative. It’s a spiraling, like, negative thing going on.

D.J. Paris 1:04:31
Yeah, yeah. So So I think what we’re really talking about is being intentional, I think mindful and really trying to get a sense of we all have preferences, and really thinking about, okay, how does this make me feel? You know, do I look do I, you know, yes, I know, the world says I’m supposed to be, you know, a certain physical shape or a certain financial have a certain financial well being or, you know, spiritual side or a certain amount of friends or money or whatever it might be. Um, but what do I really want? How do I how, what are the steps needed to sort of get there? And how does it make me feel and what’s truly important to me. And I think working through that is, is, you know, again, that’s this idea of happily achieving, you know, this idea of, of, of working through, through in alignment with values. I would love, I want to talk about your podcast, specifically because our audience are podcast listeners. So tell us about your show.

Mridu Parikh 1:05:30
Sure. It’s called productivity on purpose. And it is all about part of what we’re talking about, like the mindset, which I love that we’ve gotten there. Because I think at the end of the day, it’s, you know, we probably haven’t talked that much about time management, you and I, but we’re talking a lot about focus management and distraction management. And so that’s a lot of what I just talked about, too. It’s it’s, it’s, their tools are always there, or they don’t worry about the tools we get so caught up in the right tool on the right list maker on the right project manager tool, it doesn’t matter. It really your mindset and your beliefs. And then like the strategies behind it, all the tools are great. We live in a great now there’s there’s no shortage of tools. So yeah, so I talk a lot about you know, how do we avoid this procrastination? How do we avoid this self sabotage? How do we get out of our own perfectionistic way stop people pleasing you these are get more energy, this is what’s really going to feed to our productivity, this is what’s going to make you you know, feel really great about your day successful, motivated, inspired. So there’s a lot of talk about that. And then I do have guest experts that bring some, you know, their great expertise, whether it’s because my podcast is for is for business owners typically or you know, people that who are like your audience that are basically like their own business. So we talk a lot about you know, how to manage your finances or how to, I had someone say, Oh, she was talking about public speaking, like how to really use your voice in a conversations and take control of the conversation. So there’s a lot of amazing guests.

D.J. Paris 1:06:57
And I the other, I know that you focus a lot on boundaries, too. And I think real estate agents tend it’s been my, my experience with the 1000s of agents that I’ve known, either here at our own company, or just on our show that boundaries tend to be challenging, because we know that real estate happens at nights, nights and weekends. And you know, it’s not uncommon for an agent to get a text at midnight, from a client. And then the agent has a decision and it creates anxiety sometimes, like, do I respond? Do I not respond? You know, how do I set those boundaries. And I know that you go through that, you know, in on your show, you talk a lot about that. And I think setting healthy boundaries, which we didn’t talk about today, is really, really important. And I think that will help guide our listeners into, you know, understanding what’s healthy for you, and everyone’s different. But whatever those healthy boundaries are, you know, Mirtha can help you set those boundaries and so that you can determine what’s healthy for my business, what’s healthy for my personal life. And I just love that. And I think real estate agents boundaries and real estate agents, like, it’s a huge opportunity there to get better at that. Because real estate agents tend to be people pleasers, they tend to want to go above and beyond, because it’s a service industry sort of job. And, and if you don’t have effective boundaries, people will set their own boundaries, and they might not be the same boundaries that you set.

Mridu Parikh 1:08:26
I am so but I can’t be we didn’t we didn’t talk I went to another episode. I’m bad we’re gonna do. Because I have worked with a lot of real estate agents. And I agree, I would, I would say, I’m surprised we didn’t go there, because that’s probably the number one challenge because you’re right there. You know, you’re accessible, quote, unquote, accessible twice all the time. And but you know, it really comes back to those goals, like what is it that you want in life? What is it that’s meaningful to you? Because that’s going to help you set those boundaries. So like, it always starts there, like, what do I really want? You know?

D.J. Paris 1:08:56
Well, I think it’s a great place to wrap up our first conversation, and I would absolutely love to have you on more often. And we can dive into like specific topics. But obviously, you and I had we I love this conversation. So I want to thank you, Matthew for being on our show. And by the way, I want to give a special shout out to you because if I remember correctly, and we are already established, my memory is very poor. But I believe you reached out to us. And I want to say that this is this is something that I encourage everybody to do. If you are inspired by someone or something or you’re a fan of someone or something. You know, we’re so lucky now we live in an age where it’s pretty easy to get in touch with people who we don’t know. And if I remember correctly, Ruth who reached out to us and said hey, I do this daily walk every day. I listen to your show from time to time. I’m a real fan. I’m a fan of what you guys do. I would love to be on your show. That is how we had that is how we found her or she found us that, here we are now. Right? And, and I’m like, Oh, we got to have Ron Moore she’s awesome, right? Take that step, if you’re inspired by people, and I’m not saying I’m, I’m still inspiring, but whatever inspires you reach out to people like that, you know, tell them how much they mean to you tell them, it is, you know, is always welcomed, by, by, especially by people, you know, they love, people love to hear about how they’re inspiring others. So I applaud you for taking the having the courage to reach out to us and, and we get pitched by publicists about maybe 20 or 30 times a week. And we say no to most of them. Because, you know, we just don’t think it would be a good fit. But when somebody reaches out to us and says, I’m a fan of your show, here’s how I it’s impacted my life here. So I think I can add value. It was an instant yes for us. And not just because we want adoration. We don’t care about that. But we appreciate people who go, hey, I can add value to this. And I think I encourage everyone out there whenever you think you can add value to something or someone reach out to them and tell them and you’ll be so shocked at how much what kind of results you get from that. But anyway, shape,

Mridu Parikh 1:11:23
that’s awesome. And by the way that would have been on my list, I’m sure per day as I kept pushing it up and pushing it off. If I was like, this will make me feel so good if I finally reached out to him. So I’m so happy

D.J. Paris 1:11:31
to hear that. Well, you did. And here we are. And we are grateful. And coming up on the end of the episode here. I want everybody, everybody, everybody to please go to Life is organized.com. That’s the hub of everything read through. She is a life productivity coach, a life coach, she’s the real deal. This is a real real deal person who knows strategies, she can help you get out of your own way. And she has a podcast. So get get, get subscribed to productivity on purpose, that and also, the last thing is life is organized.com forward slash resources. We’re gonna put all of these links in the show notes, but she’s got a tremendous number of resources, subscribe to the podcast, check out our website, and hire her to help you get your life organized. Gosh, I you know, nobody’s life is too organized. At least mine isn’t. And I need help. Everybody needs help. And I think you know, this is the way to go. So Ruth, thank you so much for being on our show. We are so grateful you came on. And I’m jealous that you live in Nashville because that’s one of my favorite places. But and I know you love Chicago too. But we are grateful that you were able to talk to us today. And I hope all of our audience goes on and starts subscribing to your to your content. And then also on behalf of our behalf Rita and myself, we want to thank our audience for continuing to support our show, please tell a friend think of one other agent that could benefit from hearing this great conversation with me through and send them a link to our maybe our website, keeping it real pod.com or have them pull up a podcast app search for keeping it real and hit the subscribe button right there. Thank you so much. And I am going to want to have you on again. So we will set up some additional conversations. So thank you so much.

Mridu Parikh 1:13:23
Thank you this this was a gift and you’re amazing and thank you so much. I really appreciate you having me.

D.J. Paris 1:13:29
Alright, we’ll see everyone next time. Thank you