Learn For 2.0 with Brandon DeVere

“Karma” 

One thing I know is that I believe in karma. 

But to what extent and how it works is something I am still a little unclear on. 

I’m not sure if it is some outside force maintaining the balance of the world, or just a sum of our actions. 

Meaning that, if I am constantly treating people like garbage and always “taking” while never “giving”, enough people will notice this and treat me as I treat others. Therefore, never offer me a helping hand or opportunity. 

On the flip side, if people notice that I am always doing things for others and treating them respectfully, chances are, they will treat me the same and want good things for me. 

I tend to believe it has more to do with the latter. 

Another thing I know is, that if you have listened to me for any amount of time, you will know that I have a goal to attract the RIGHT people to my team. 

That is why when I see people “making their own luck” I can’t help but get excited. 

Recently, a former colleague of mine Brian Wiltshire, was laid-off during the MGM layoffs a couple months ago that affected over 1,000 families. 

It wasn’t that Brian got laid-off that had me rooting for him. It was how he responded to it. 

As long as I have known Brian, he has always found himself in a good mood, regardless of the situation. Always singing, dancing, and telling jokes. 

Making it impossible for those around him to be in anything BUT a good mood. 

When he learned that he was being “let go”, it was no different. 

Immediately after he found out that he didn’t have a job anymore, he posted a quote on social media that sums up his attitude. He said… 

“There are no tough times, only tough people”. 

Meaning, regardless of the situation, he was going to come out on top, and it was in HIS control. 

This right here, is a special mindset. 

A mindset of someone that I am rooting for. 

There was no “why me?” Or the use of the acronym FML. 

He took a punch, shook it off, and went to work solving the problem. 

As I watched through social media over the next few weeks, he kept us up to date on any job fairs or interviews he was going on and was eventually rewarded for his efforts by landing a new position   

He didn’t say anything negative about his former employer, in fact, he thanked them publicly for the opportunity. And when he started his new job, he shared his gratitude for the new opportunity. 

Congrats Brian on the new job. 

I have been rooting for you and will continue to do so. 

I would love to have 100 of you on my team. 

In terms of success, the question isn’t "will he succeed?” It is "how much will he succeed?”  

It’s stories like this that make me believe that you can create your own luck, create your own success, and create your own… 

Karma 

“The Red X”


A friend of mine and I had a conversation recently about the more options we have, the harder it is to make decisions.

Which, on the surface, seems strange to me.

You’d think that with more options available to you, the more likely it would be that you would find exactly what you were looking for.

But it doesn’t happen that way. We get information overload and start an internal debate about “why this one is better than that one but that one is better than this one”, and so on.

“Collaboration" 

So many times in my life, I was always so concerned about being 100% original and ideas had to be mine. 

I was such a "lone wolf”. 

Then I realized how many pizza restaurants are out there, and new ones popping up every day. 

No one is inventing pizza anymore. 

They are just putting their “spin” on it. 

I am bold enough to say that there are no original Ideas, only ideas that have evolved from something that already existed. 

Take social media for instance… 

You might say that is an original idea, but the reality is that it existed in a more personal, in-person form. 

We used to have people over and share physical photos of our vacations with them. Have face to face conversations and mail letters. 

It is still the same thing, just moved to an online community where our reach has expanded exponentially. 

This is the same with the company I work for. 

We still handle real estate transactions as they have been handled before, but we have moved it to a platform that is much more efficient, cost-effective, and allows us to collaborate without the limitations of geographical borders. 

The amount of collaboration I have been a part of for the last 20 months or so is completely staggering. 

Just last night for instance, I was on a text message thread involving agents that spanned across 4 states. 

We had an agent send a text that read, “URGENT”. 

She needed help and 7 agents jumped at the chance to provide value, right then and there. 

The best part, we were all working toward one goal, working as one team. 

All moving in the same direction. 

No ego, just solutions. 

Although I used to be such a lone wolf and loved working by myself, this group has changed me. 

I am forever grateful for each and every one of them that I have met and have had the chance to collaborate with so far. 

I look forward to all the others that choose to join us in the future, as we build our team without ego, and build with… 

Collaboration. 

Settling to believe who we are, translates into who we will be, will severely limit our growth of who we may become.

"Vacation Intimidation” 

As real estate agents, we work hard with the hope that we will get to play hard. 

The challenge is, when is it time to play? 

For the most part, agents have a tough time “turning it off”. 

Knowing that we typically work with a single input to single output business model, meaning that we work with a client to buy or sell a home, we get paid solely on that home sale and just that one time. 

When working with that particular model, it can be scary, and even intimidating to go “play” or take a vacation. 

We know that if we are not working at all times, we are not generating any income. 

So while we are on vacation we find ourselves checking our phones, stepping away from family and friends to take a call while at dinner. How can we really relax while on vacation? 

I had this exact thing happen last year while my family and another family spent the day at Knott’s Berry Farm. 

While everyone else was having a great time and enjoying each other’s company. I was stepping out of lines for rides and stuck on the phone, putting out fires and trying to respond to new leads.  

It isn't what I wanted to do, but the way my business was built at that time, it was what I needed to do in order to survive. 

No wonder so many agents worry about taking vacation. For most it’s a double edged sword. 

On one hand, you may lose out on business because you are gone, but when you get there, you lose out on family. Running away frequently to answer calls, texts, and emails. 

That is why I have been implementing, a single input to multiple output model into my business. 

This type of model allows me to step away from my business and have it continue to run, giving me my life and time back to spend with my family. Allowing me to not be afraid of vacation. 

By replacing the 1 to 1 strategy that I and way too many other agents had been stuck in, with a 1 to many approach, a whole new world emerged for me. 

One that eliminated the threat of… 

Vacation Intimidation. 

I know. I know. I know.

Stop Learning?

That seems counterintuitive, especially from a guy that hosts a podcast called “Learn for 2”.

But hear me out, what I have learned recently has changed my original thinking on the topic.

It is no question that I am a big believer in educating yourself, but when is it too much?

I used to think that in order to be successful, you needed to read… a lot!

While I still believe that to be true, you must also execute what you’ve learned in order for it to make any significant level of impact.

Recently, I was listening to a podcast by Steve Larsen. He was saying that he was in the execution phase and not the learning phase.

And during this phase, he would only be reading things that solve the current problem he was having. Allowing him to focus on executing the next step, instead of focusing on the next 30 steps.

He learned this “Low Information Diet” from Tim Ferris and attributes his success to it.

This strategy prevents him from overwhelming himself, trying to get too many things done, instead of just focusing on the NEXT step.

This of course made me feel better about my bookshelf that is littered with half-read books.

I have learned more over the last 3 years than I have my entire life from these books, but I didn’t consider myself much of a reader because there so many books that I started but didn’t finish.

On top of that, I belonged to a storytelling group that would make great recommendations almost daily. I couldn’t keep up with them, sometimes ordering 2 or 3 books at a time.

The challenge was, I’m not a fast reader, so I felt like I was falling behind.

Although, I didn’t stop learning I kept jumping from book to book, without implementing.

So the things I would learn, I’d forget about because I never put them into action. Therefore wasting the knowledge I had acquired.

With this idea to stop learning when the time is right, has really opened my eyes as a way to get more things accomplished.

Now that I am also in the execution phase, I need to focus on executing, until a problem arises that is when I will start to learn to solve that immediate problem.

I used to be so much more of a “Thinker” than a “Doer”. But with this strategy, I can force myself to take action immediately without adding more distractions.

Besides, I can’t take step 22, without completing the 1st step.

So if you are working on something and in the “execution phase”…

Stop it!

Stop Learning. 

“Opportunity”

I am lucky enough to have my dad in town for the week as we end our summer vacation and get ready to send the kids back to school.

As we were driving around today I asked him what were some reasons that he thought might keep people from achieving their own success.

One of his answers was opportunity.

“The Fire-Walker”

There I stood, barefoot. Just the bottoms of my feet touching the pavement below me.

I had just made my way through the arena to find myself standing in line.

Drums echoed through the parking lot and the smell of burning coals filled the air.

Slowly, I inched forward and the sound of drums grew louder.

Now it was my turn and a voice yelled…

“Make Your Move!”

With my right hand clenched into a fist I pound my left chest 3 times, arch my back while looking straight into the sky and yell as loud as I can.

I just did it!

I just walked on fire!

This was almost 3 years ago at a Tony Robbins seminar in San Jose.

I would be lying if I said didn’t suffer from anxiety pretty much the entire day in anticipation for this.

I really didn’t know what to expect, the only thing I knew was that I had to do it.

Not for anyone else, but for myself.

As Tony instructed us on how we were about to walk on fire he put an emphasis on the metaphor behind it.

At the time I didn’t really grasp the concept.

It wasn’t until quite a bit later that I fully understood what he meant and how it applied in real life.

A few months after this event, I started training for my first trail race.

I downloaded an app that set up a training schedule for the next 4 months to get me from where I was to where I needed to be.

About 6 weeks in I was scheduled to run 5 miles, something I don’t ever remember doing before that.

But as I left my driveway something incredible happened…

Just as soon as it started, my workout was over.

Not physically, but mentally.

Yes I still had to physically run the route but the mental challenge of finishing it was already complete.

All the dragging myself to get started, the “I don’t want to do this” or “I don’t know if I can do this” was gone.

All it took was that first step, and in my mind, I was already done with the run.

This is when I first understood what he meant that day.

"The only way I could get burned was to stop(quit) or turn back(retreat)."

But the momentum of that first step carried me the rest of the way.

I was reminded of this again this yesterday when Jessica wrote on her Facebook page, sharing her goal to go from not running at all, to completing a marathon. 

All she has to do, is just take that first step.

After all, she can’t run a whole marathon without it.

It is as important to learn from those you don't agree with than those who share your ideology.

"Finding The Right People”

Their philosophy is that they can teach a skill to anyone with the right attitude, but they can’t teach an attitude to someone with the right skill.