The Real Estate Sessions

By Bill RisserBusiness Entrepreneurship Marketing

The Real Estate Sessions episodes

May 10, 2022 Episode 317 – Stacey Soleil, Head Of Community And Industry Relations, Follow Up Boss

Do you want to thrive? Then you need to learn how to talk to people. Bill Risser sits with Stacey Soleil, the Head of Community & Industry Relations at Follow Up Boss. Stacey shares how social media changed her life because it taught her how to be a connector. You have so much opportunity and power to stand out and connect through these online platforms. Digitize your real estate transactions, and remember to partner up with older real estate agents. Want to hear more? Tune in as Stacey shares more wisdom and insight on thriving through social media.
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Stacey Soleil, Head Of Community And Industry Relations, Follow Up Boss
I'm back after a brief hiatus. I took a little time off through the end of the conference season to recharge my batteries. I'm now back with new episodes and I'm starting off with a bang with episode 317. We're going to be talking to Stacey Soleil. She is the Head of Community and Industry Relations for Follow Up Boss. She has been in the business for a long time and has done a lot of different things. I'm talking about working with tech startups, sales, marketing, sales training with brokerages, and contributing writer for news. She has done some great stuff and doing a whole lot more. It's going to be fun to catch up with her. Let's get this thing started. Stacey, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
It's going to be a lot of fun. We're Inman buddies. I think that's a safe way to put that. Katie Lance got me involved in the Inman world back in 2010 and I've been connected to it ever since. You're now deeply connected here. Not only being an ambassador multiple times, but the WomanUp group does some great stuff at Inman as well. Tell me what it is like and why the Inman community is so important to you.
I was thinking you have probably seen so much change, fun and drama in all the events if you started back in the day. I want to come back and ask you questions. It's funny because people will say to me all the time, "What is that ambassador anyway? What does that even mean?" It means different things to different people. For me, it's way more than a social influencer position. Originally, when Katie had created this role, it was a way to amplify the community, connect people at the events, and try to bring more awareness using the tools that we have in social.
For me, it's even more than that. The reason why is the way I look at everything that I've had the opportunity to connect the dots with inside the industry, everything that has been an open door moment or an opportunity, I take it very seriously. Sometimes people will laugh at me because I take things so seriously. If I say yes to a volunteer opportunity, I go in all the way.
I am that person who's like I'm getting paid $1 million to do this role. I'm a very enthusiastic ambassador. I love connecting with people. In fact, when we were in New York, the very first evening before the event started, there were lobby cons. We all know about that. Everyone is hanging out in the lobby bar area, catching up with each other after post-pandemic craziness.
I was scanning the room. I knew pretty much everyone, which was so fun, but then there were these people that were in between the tables. They didn't look like they knew anybody and they were watching. I got up from the table and excuse myself. I said, "Are you here for Inman Connect by any chance?" They're like, "Yes." I said, "Do you know any of these crazy people talking or is this your first time?" "This is my first time."
I was like, "Okay. What's your goal? What made you decide to sign up?" They told me about what they were doing. I said, "I'm going to introduce you to a few people. Are you ready?" I took him and introduce him. By the end of the thing, I saw them all over the place. Long story short, they got opportunities to move their business forward. That's the Stacey energy right there.
In my opinion, that is the definition of an ambassador. I've taken multiple people to lunch. I headed out to lunch and you see a person standing by themselves in the lobby and you go, "Are you here with Inman?" "Yes." "What are you doing for lunch?" "Nothing really." "Come with us." It's the best way to meet these people. That's part of connecting. It's awesome.
[caption id="attachment_4240" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Social Media: The more you surround yourself with different cultures, the better connector you become inside your community.[/caption]

I feel like you sympathy lunch to me once too. I appreciate you.
It's a connection lunch but that's great. I want to go back to the beginning. You live in LA and lived there for a long time. Are you a native of Southern California?
No. I don't live in LA but I have lived in LA. I live in Temecula which is more inland from San Diego. I have my daughters go to school in San Diego. I'm closer now. I'm not even from California. A lot of people don't know that about me. I am a military brat. My dad was in the United States Air Force and I grew up traveling all the time. I never had roots anywhere. I always tell people that I'm like a gypsy nomad.
Honestly, I have lived in so many places. That is what has helped me to be a social butterfly because I learned at a very young age. You're showing up new to a small town in Ohio or you're over here living in New York, or wherever it is you are, and everyone is already established and has their people. If you want to survive, you had to figure out how to talk to people.
Give me the year in high school that you had to relocate. How tough was that? What city did you move to?
I remember when I lived in Beavercreek, Ohio. I was a beaver. My school mascot was the Mighty Beavers.
Beavercreek Beavers, everybody has heard of them. It's awesome.
It wasn't like Oregon Beavers. When I was in high school, it was the late '80s or whatever. I had this boyfriend. I thought my life was so great because I was going to have a date to the next dance and all the things, and then dad got relocated. I was devastated. "I can't leave. My life is never going to be the same." We relocated to Northern California and I had an accent. Did you know that people in the Midwest apparently have accents?
Ohio is generally pretty bland, but if you get a little bit further north of the Midwest or you get towards Michigan or Wisconsin, there's definitely some accent.
[bctt tweet="When you say yes to an opportunity, go all in as if you’re paid a million dollars to do the role. " username="billrisser"]
Apparently, I had some farmer girl accent which is Northern California. It’s funny because if you live in Southern California, you say that Northern California people sound like farm people. I must have sounded country girl. When I got over there, they said, "What is this girl from Beavercreek, Ohio doing over here?" I had to figure it out and I auditioned for the cheerleading team and that helped.
Somehow, we got to get you to Southern California. Eventually, you ended up living in the LA area region, now in Temecula. How did that happen?
Over time, I did end up getting married and starting my family. My husband at the time got relocated to Southern California. We were living at the time in Portland, Oregon and the relocation happened. I worked in real estate in Portland, Oregon. I worked in a real estate office up in North Hill. For anyone who's reading that is from Portland, you know how the West Hills up in Portland was the old money area.
I worked for the Windermere office. I was the person who would create the ads for the newspaper every weekend when we had the open houses or the new listings would hit. I was doing that old school newspaper stuff way before the internet. That's how it started in real estate for me, but then we got transferred to Los Angeles. My husband's job was moved over there. I found myself living in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles right next to the CBS Studios and right by The Grove.
It was an Orthodox Jewish Community. At first, I had no idea about moving here. It was fascinating because I look around and everybody has a very specific look. I was like, "This is crazy cool." I didn't know that you're not supposed to shake hands. It's against the cultural norm. There was a park across the street from the house and I was trying to meet new people. I walk up to this Orthodox family and I stick out my hand. I'm like, "Nice to meet you. I just moved in." They backed up and it was like, "Do I smell? What's going on?" I then learned that you got to figure out people's cultures before you jump in, but I loved it.
When you think about real estate, you have to connect with everybody. You never know who your client is inside your SOI. The more you're able to surround yourself with different cultures and understand what makes someone tick or what is acceptable and not acceptable, it makes you a better connector inside your community. I'm grateful for those moments. I've been working with real estate agents for so long, helping them to grow their businesses. I always say, "I've made all the mistakes ahead of time for you so that you can avoid them yourself. You're welcome."
You have been in the marketing game for a long time. Marketing was one thing in the early 2000s and it was going to quickly change. It seems to me that you quickly embraced the digital side of marketing and that's carried you well throughout the last several years easily. What was that first gig or first job in the marketing arena?
Do you remember Myspace?
Of course, I do. I let my eight or nine-year-old son have a Myspace account.
[caption id="attachment_4241" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Social Media: You have so much opportunity and power to stand out and connect through social media.[/caption]

I remember when Myspace came about, I started messing around. If you knew simple basic HTML, you could do what was called Pimp My Myspace. I made my page fun and interactive. Soon all of my friends were like, "Can you make mine look like that?" Suddenly, I was helping people pimp their MySpace page. At the time, I had a lot of friends that were up-and-coming musicians. They were playing shows, postering for their shows, and doing all the things in Los Angeles.
I thought, "What if I do a side hustle where I do digital postering for your concerts?" I did it for free for a couple of my friends. I came up with my proof of concept which was to create these interactive digital posters, help them grow their MySpace, and get the word out about their shows. It worked so well that they started telling other people. The next thing you knew, I had this small business running where I was now working with musicians helping them to digitize their show process. It started off as fun and then it became my business. That's how I got my foot in the door with marketing and digital marketing.
I've talked to a few guests that have been in the music industry. Amy Paternite, Marc Davison, and a few other people come to mind. There's got to be a story or two about working with bands, especially up-and-coming bands. Anything you can share?
The first rule of working inside the music industry or with any celebrities whatsoever is you have to know when it's okay to share and when it's important to keep your mouth shut. With that being said, I can share a fun inspirational story. I'm going to keep the crazy ones to myself because those fall in the category of when to keep your mouth shut.
I remember early on I was working with an indie label and they were a subsidiary label off of a major label. They had an artist that was called Saving Jane. Saving Jane had one Top 40 hit with a major label, but then they were dropped because the follow-up didn't do anything. They got dropped down to this next-tier indie label who I happen to be doing digital marketing. I thought there's got to be a way to get this band back up because she was this amazing songwriter and she had this fun energy. It was just a hard time to get that going.
I started to put my marketing hat on. One of the songs that she had was called Supergirl and it felt very empowering like a female mantra. I started thinking about what girls out there would be inspired by this song. At the time, we were getting ready to have the Olympics. One of my favorite parts of the Olympics is the gymnastics.
I went to Twitter and I started to see if any of the Olympic gymnasts that were coming up for that year's competition were on Twitter. I found Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin, and all these different players. I dropped in their DMs and I'm like, "I'm so excited that you're going to be representing the USA. I know you're going to get gold, so I have a question for you. When you get gold, do you already have your theme song picked out for when you go on all the talk shows? If you don't have one, I have an artist that has an amazing song that I would love you to hear. It would be such a great anthem for you."
I heard back from both Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin. At the time, Shawn was super sweet. She's like, "I don't know. I have to ask my manager," and then it never went anywhere. Nastia said, "Talk to my manager." I talked to her manager and became friends with him. She ended up winning gold for the country. The next thing you know she's going on talk shows. I got a chance to be in the green room with her for Jay Leno when she had her words. They played the song, Supergirl, and she walked on stage. I have a picture where I'm wearing all of her medals and I'm standing with her. It was cool.
That is inspirational. That is one you can share and not get in trouble for. Music was fun as it was. We have to get you into the real estate space because that's where you've taken off. What was that first gig? You mentioned you did some work up in Portland. After the music industry stuff in LA, how did you get drawn back into the real estate space?
[bctt tweet="If you want to survive, you have to figure out how to talk to people. " username="billrisser"]
It's so funny because I never thought that I would find myself back in the real estate space because ever since coming back in, it was just being in the music industry. What happened was because I was an independent contractor, I was doing my own hustle and doing my own thing. After five years of me doing my own thing, every label, touring company, and everyone had their own digital department for social media. I was no longer a person you could hire.
At that point, I couldn't go and work for any of these companies because I was doing it my own way. I was used to working my own way. I was like, "What now?" I pivoted and started working with startups. Through that whole transition, I met this woman who said, "You work with startups. I'm getting ready to join this new brokerage and this guy is very tech startup savvy. He wants to digitize everything in real estate and you know how real estate is old school. You probably would get along well with him and maybe you could help him figure out how to make his whole business thrive." I'm like, "Let's talk."
I ended up talking with him and then we partnered up and I started working. That was a RE/MAX office, and I worked with them for 3 or 4 years and helped modernize and grow the brokerage. I did everything from operations to recruiting, to marketing and social, and all the things. That's how I got myself back in the mix.
Was this during the late 2000s as we're heading into the dark days? Is that about the right timing for you here?
Honestly, everything is a blur. I think it was after the dark stages, but it was when we were trying to figure out how to get everything back to a high-performing place. Starting from there, helping them to build up their business, and then consulting, doing that with many different companies too. I have been doing this for so long now that I can't even remember what year was what.
I talk to people who are involved in the marketing side of things. By the way, I have a lot of respect for creatives. I'm going to call you a creative. People that can look at something and then maybe tie something else to it, and then come up with a concept. I'm Mr. Operations guy. That's what I'm good at, the execution, logistics and that sort of thing. I always have to have somebody else that does this wonderful hard work of coming up with the stuff. Because you've been in the marketing world for so long and talk about the massive changes we've gone through, what for you was the thing that made everything different. Can you pick one?
For me, it's social media, especially where we are right now with a lot of people pushing back and being tired of social media. I understand that. We've gone through so much with Facebook and Twitter. Everything has been crazy, but I always tell people that I can't turn my back on social media because my life changed. Because of social media, there were opportunities and doors that opened. There is no other place where you could be a nobody and then have a conversation.
A nobody from Beavercreek has an idea, use social media to reach out to people, and you have celebrities that respond to you. You have gold Olympians that respond to you. It was this conduit of opportunity and that to me was life-changing once I realized that there was so much potential there. Those are big examples. If you think about it from a smaller impact scale that has a bigger feel to it, if I can connect to a celebrity and create results, "What can I do inside my community? What can I do inside of somebody else's business?"
I always tell real estate agents that it's not to be wasted. When you think about it, you have so much power and opportunity to stand out, connect, be memorable, and be something that somebody else would have never thought of. It's you showing out there. For me, it is social media. I'm a diehard. I can't stop myself.
[caption id="attachment_4242" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Social Media: It's wonderful to have an empowering and supportive community that helps the younger generation.[/caption]

You now work for Follow Up Boss. I...
33 min
May 03, 2022 Real Estate Sessions Rewind - Sherry Chris - CEO – Realogy Expansion Brands Portfolio
On Episode 290, I chat with Sherry Chris, one of my favorite executives in real estate. I have seen her present numerous times at many different events, including every Inman Connect event since she discovered Inman News at a NAR Conference back in 1999.

Sherry was born in Quebec and moved with her family to London, Ontario at a young age. Real estate became a career right out of university and Sherry spent a number of years with Royal LePage, a large Canadian franchise.

Realogy came calling roughly 15 years ago and Sherry was instrumental in the launch of Better Homes and Garden Real Estate. She has since added ERA and runs the Expansion Brand Portfolio for Realogy.

Time Log
02:10 - You are an Ontario native, right? What part of the province did you call home?
04:50 - What is the biggest misconception Americans have about Canada?
06:15 - You attend university and receive your MBA from Ivey. What were your career plans at this point? Is it safe to say real estate was not part of the plan?
07:35 - How did real estate enter the picture?
10:25 - Very early in your career, you keyed in on remaining humble. Can you share your thoughts on how important this is, especially in today's digital world?
14:10 - After a long run with Royal Le Page, you make the move to the US. What prompted this change in direction?
15:30 - You join Realogy in 2006 and by 2008 you are CEO and President of Better Homes and Garden Real Estate. This is right in the middle of the Great Recession. How did you overcome this challenge?
19:10 - I have seen you numerous times on stage at InmanConnect events. It appears you and Brad have a tight relationship. Is that right?
23:40 - In my research I discovered the values you implemented at BHGRE. theAcronym is PAIGE. Can you share these 5 values?
27:55 - You are now President and CEO of Expansion Brands Portfolio at Realogy Holdings Corporation. What part of this role excites you the most?
31:15 - You serve on the Advisory Board for New Story. This is a great organization. Can you share their mission?
35:40 - If you could give one piece of advice to a new agent, what would it be?

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New Story
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39 min
April 26, 2022 Real Estate Sessions Rewind – Dr. Brad O’Connor, Chief Economist, Florida Realtors
THE REAL ESTATE SESSIONS PODCAST
Episode 291:
Host: BILL RISSER
Guest: Dr. BRAD O’CONNOR
Episode Summary

Meet our guest in this episode, Dr. Brad O’Connor, Chief Economist at the Florida Association of Realtors, currently based in Orlando, Florida.
Live at the Florida Realtors Convention 2021 at the REBarCamp in Orlando, I sit with Brad, who grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and he expounds deeply on the real estate and housing markets. He shares his perspective on the economics surrounding the market over the years and how it relates to the pandemic and current trends.
Top Takeaways:
“Prices are rising very fast… but you’ve got to go a little deeper into why that’s happening; prices don’t always rise for the same reasons.”
– [Dr. Brad O’Connor]
“The best thing you can do is read; read a lot.”
– [Dr. Brad O’Connor]
Don’t try to get there overnight; you’re not going to
– [Dr. Brad O’Connor]
Episode Highlights:
[00:30] Intro to this live episode
[01:24] Meet today’s guest “Dr. Brad O’Connor.”
[03:20] Did you always plan to become an economist?
[07:20] Building the connection with Florida Realtors.
[10:10] What were you thinking would happen as the pandemic started on “March 20th, 2020”?
[13:10] Discussing the reasons for the current housing shortage.
[16:00] How long before the builders catch up with population growth?
[18:10] Comparing the current rise in home prices with a similar occurrence in 2005.
[23:56] What do you see in the next five years?
[26:32] What advice would you give a new agent?
[28:51] How to contact Dr. Brad.
[29:49] Outro
Episode Notes:
Brad shares he didn’t particularly plan to become an economist but had several things he wanted to try out in college, which he did till he finally decided on Economics. After school, he knew he wanted to become an Economics professor. He later moved with his wife to Orlando when she got a job there, after which he got a job opportunity with the Florida Association of Realtors and is now the Chief Economist there.
Before the pandemic hit the U.S, Brad had started to prepare for the possible impact on the economy, and the initial expectation was for prices to remain stable. Fortunately, what was not expected was the speedy recovery of the market, with Florida being at the forefront in the U.S.
The current housing shortage, however, started before the pandemic. This occurred because, at some point, people got the idea that the cost of housing would continue to go up and consequently built a lot more houses than the demand at the time. After the great recession, many building companies were put out of business, while the few that remained have been very conservative in building. Due to the population growth afterward, most of the housing from the previous cycle was absorbed by 2013, and builders have been struggling to keep up with population growth. The pandemic only made the situation worse. The decline in construction due to inadequate building companies, workers, and skilled labor has been a significant factor in this housing shortage; hence the government is now creating incentives and awareness for more people to get involved with this line of business. Another long-term constraint is the inadequate supply of land for building as the population grows.
Brad compares the current rise in housing prices to a similar event in 2005, followed by a massive drop in price. Since 2011, the statewide median sale price of houses has not been down yearly. First, there is an increase in demand for housing because the millennials are more prominent in population size than the previous generation. Secondly, following the pandemic, people now prefer to relocate to other areas because of the flexibility to work from home. So, unlike the previous situation where demand for housing was going up due to business speculation that the price will go much higher, the current rise is due to the actual need for housing to live. Even house flipping is much lower than in 2005, which depicts a much safer situation. It shows that the demand is not majorly due to business interest which can quickly disappear after 2005. Additionally, if the market drops, there is already a shortage in supply, which will cushion the reduced demand on price.
Explaining that the market has gotten to the peak of how frantic it will be, Brad believes as prices keep going up, some of the buyers will step out. Consequently, the price will normalize back to the usual statistical pattern with no expected abrupt shifts over the next few years. In the rest of the year, there might be fewer sales, and the rate of price increase will slow down over time.
Brad’s advice to new agents: Many agents have benefitted from using statistics when working with clients. If it seems daunting, don’t worry, you don’t get there overnight. The best thing you can do is read, read a lot, like the news, Florida Realtors’ newsletters, or just related articles. If you read enough, you get smart and better interpret the statistics, which is a handy tool in your arsenal.

Resources Mentioned:
Connect:
Find | THE REAL ESTATE SESSIONS
At Tresonline.com
Find | Bill Risser
At [email protected]
On Twitter
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Find | Dr. Brad O’Connor
At  [email protected] / [email protected]
On LinkedIn
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31 min
April 19, 2022 Real Estate Sessions Rewind - J Philip Faranda, Owner/Broker J Philip Real Estate
Thrilled to replay this fun chat I had with Phil last September. If this is your first time hearing this, enjoy!
Episode Summary:
Meet today’s guest, J. Philip Faranda, the founder and broker of J. Philip Real Estate based in Westchester County.
In this episode, I sit with Phil, who is based in the suburbs north of Manhattan, and he shares his unique insight on the real estate industry and describes his impactful experience working so far.
Top Takeaways:
“The hospitality industry is the only industry in my opinion that can make real estate look like a walk in the park.”
– [J. Philip Faranda]
“There’s no market you can’t break into if you follow best practices.”
“If the truth can kill it, it needs to die.”
– [J. Philip Faranda]
“Every single one of those 120million leads that are sold to Realtors every year, that’s some agent who didn’t take care of a customer.”
– [Bill Risser]
“It is clear to me that most Real Estate mistakes… it is downstream from something that was unbrokered or under- brokered.”
– [J. Philip Faranda]
“Everything you do today is a love letter to future you.”
– [J. Philip Faranda]
Episode Highlights:
[00:34] Intro
[01:16] Introducing our guest, J. Philip Faranda.
[03:00] About Phil’s background and interests.
[17:26] How Phil started in Real Estate.
[24:53] About Phil’s real estate company, J. Philip Real Estate.
[33:35] Discussing Zillow Real Estate marketplace.
[46:44] The Beverly Carter Foundation.
[53:03] Phil’s advice to new agents
[55:13] How to contact Phil
Email-
[56:25] Outro
Episode Notes:
After studying liberal Arts, Phil thought he would go into writing or teaching. Still, he started his first job was selling supplemental programs to Catholic schools, which he did for seven years while resisting opportunities to go into real estate with his friend. Eventually, he was offered an apartment and a monthly draw to work in Real Estate, and he took up a passion for Real Estate. He also shares that it fit his issues with attention, and he enjoyed the versatility in the experience.
At some point, Phil also took a year off to work as a Bartender and later worked in mortgages for five years. Doing this, he learned that there wasn’t much of a difference between real estate in Westchester and Manhattan, especially if best practices are followed. He took the course and started his company.
In describing the inspiration for his real estate company, J. Philip Real Estate, Phil shares that he had to go by J. Philip to differentiate himself from his father. So, he had to answer to the name J. Philip in school, which later became the name of his company. The brokerage grew and now has close to 100 agents. Phil had picked up blogging to keep himself sane after the market crash in 2008; however, it ended up boosting his brand, growing his following, and helping him recruit more agents as the blog created an impression that the company was more significant than it indeed was. Phil shares that he deeply enjoys blogging and all that comes with it.
Phil shares that his company was the first brokerage in his market to syndicate to Zillow marketplace ahead of everyone else. After he sent an email to Spencer Rascoff, former CEO at Zillow, pointing out a need for a change in the strategy of marketing Zillow, he was asked to be on the advisory board. After working there for a few years, there was some misapprehension towards the changes, but he believed it was necessary.
Phil believes that Zillow will have to reinvent itself to stay ahead of the curve. Addressing the concern agents have about competing with Zillow, Phil explains that most real estate mistakes come from unbrokered or under-brokered deals based on the poor performance of agents; as such, the focus should be directed at such poor practices.
Talking about his work with the Beverly Carter Foundation, where he served as President, Phil narrates experiences that made him realize how agent safety had been under-discussed in the industry. He started blogging on it, and not long after this, Beverly Carter was murdered, which got the industry to realize the need to protect agents. After discussing with Beverly’s son, Carl Carter, the foundation was started.
“Agent safety is a big thing not just from the point of view of getting home alive but going through your day without being harassed or targeted by creepy people.” Bill encourages listeners to listen to the episode with Carl Carter, Beverly’s son, and visit the Beverly Carter Foundation website to learn more.
Phil’s advice to new agents: Stay in touch with your database and past clients. After doing all the work to create a relationship with a client that results in a transaction, you have wasted future efforts if you don’t do any follow-up. “If you care about the future you, then stay in touch with your past clients and database.” Everything you do today is going to have consequences, so monetize your past successes.
Connect:
Find | THE REAL ESTATE SESSIONS
At Tresonline.com
Find | Bill Risser
At [email protected]
On Twitter
On Facebook
On YouTube
Find | J. Philip Faranda
At [email protected]
On LinkedIn
RATE & SUBSCRIBE
At Ratethispodcast.com/REsessions
On Apple Podcasts
On Google Podcasts
On Stitcher
57 min
April 12, 2022 Real Estate Sessions Rewind - Erinn Nobel, Chief Cultural Officer, Real
Episode Summary:
Introducing today’s guest, Erinn Nobel, the Chief Cultural Officer at Real, a national brokerage founded in 2012. Born in Anchorage, Alaska, she now makes Bellingham, Washington, her home.
In this episode, I sit with Erinn as she discusses how she got into real estate and the changing trends in brokerage models that will redefine real estate in the future.
Top Takeaways:
“Culture is non-negotiable.”
– [Bill Risser]
“We really needed to define our purpose statement and our core values.”
– [Erinn Nobel]
Episode Highlights:
[00:32] Intro
[01:16] Meet today’s guest, Erinn Nobel.
[02:11] Erinn shares some of her background.
[04:56] What is the biggest misconception about Alaska?
[06:15] What were you planning to do before you started Real Estate?
[08:40] What encouraged you to join EXP Realty?
[15:25] What is Real Brokerage doing to take the idea of Revenue Sharing to the next level?
[18:04] What are some of the things you worked on as the Chief Cultural Officer of Real Brokerage?
[20:52] The role that Real Brokerage is playing in closing the gender gap in Real Estate.
[22:01] Erinn talks about Real Brokerage listed on the NASDAQ.
[23:56] Erinn’s advice to new agents.
[24:30] How to contact Erinn.
[25:19] Outro
Episode Notes:
Erinn is the Chief Cultural Officer at Real. Real estate was not particularly one of the options Erinn had considered while growing up, even in college. Being the daughter of an architect, she had a passion for quality design and graduated with a degree in Industrial Design. She had worked on space planning and design for offices, but while less busy at some point, she decided to get her real estate license to try to make some money and ended up going entirely into it.
Following the demoralizing recession around 2009, Erinn had decided to focus on implementing more tools to serve her clients better. Later on, she decided to research brokerage models and found the model and technology at eXp Realty to be a perfect fit for her. Her husband, who had a Ph.D. in cognitive science, also joined in at eXp.
The eXp national brokerage model is unique, with one brokerage in a state but many support staff scattered across the country. The traditional model of the bricks and mortar brokerage is not here to stay, agents are usually on the move, and they need a certain kind of technology to support it.
The founder of Real, Tamir Poleg, approached Erinn for insight on his brokerage model, which appealed to her. The brokerage uses both the “capped commission” model and the revenue share model but with an app-based working approach. Based on these new kinds of models, teams will be a dominant force in the industry. As an agent or broker, you can be licensed in one state and operate your team anywhere that the brokerage is open by adding licensed agents in that area under your team name.
Erinn’s first step as Chief Cultural Officer of Real was to carry out a culture exercise to define the business’s purpose statement and core values. The purpose statement is “to build a shared future together.” One of the primary core values of the company is “Work Hard, Be Kind.” Erinn explains that when bringing new leaders on board, they are first given an orientation on the company’s core values.
With over five women in leadership positions at the brokerage, it plays a significant role in closing the gender gap in real estate. This would most likely attract more talent from women looking to find a platform to achieve more in their careers.
Being listed on the NASDAQ is a considerable step for Real, opening the door to many potential investors. It also brings the reputation that the company is solid and they know what they’re doing.
Erinn’s advice to new agents: Interview as many brokerages as you can. You’re going to need support, especially in this market. It’s a tough industry right now, and having a great brokerage to support you as you kick off your career is instrumental.
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26 min
April 05, 2022 Episode 316 – Mackenzie Grate, The Machree Group, LLC

Juggling two careers is never easy. For The Machree Group real estate agent Mackenzie Grate, being an educator by day and a real estate agent in her free time is a challenge. But her passion for helping other people settle into their first home, as well as the amount of support she gets around her, fuel her to keep moving forward. “Mack-of-all-trades” Mackenzie sits with Bill Risser in this episode to share her knowledge about real estate investing, interior design, and supporting you in becoming financially independent. Tune in and be inspired by Mackenzie’s story as she walks us through her real estate journey.
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Mackenzie Grate, The Machree Group, LLC
Welcome to episode 316 of the show. Thank you so much for reading. Thank you so much for telling a friend. We are going to talk to the Rising Star of the Year and this was handed out by RateMyAgent as part of our Agent of the Year Awards in conjunction with Shelley Zavitz’s New Agent 365 coaching. Mackenzie Grate is great. She has been an investor, a renovator, a fix and flip, and a fix and hold person for years, but she got her real estate license during the pandemic. She has got an amazing story. I am excited to chat with her. Let’s get this thing started. Mackenzie, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
I am so excited. I think this will become an annual thing. I’m going to have the Rising Star from the RateMyAgent’s Agent of the Year Awards every year on the show. If you read my show, you know I like to get the backstory. I want to find out where people started and where they grew up. You live in Brooklyn, but you work in Kingston, which is way upstate from there. Is New York where you grew up?
I have a pretty interesting upbringing. I was raised back and forth between two states. My father lived in Northern California in a small town called Modesto, and my mom lived in Indianapolis, Indiana. Every time I had off from school, I would fly to Indianapolis to visit my mother. I remember this was in the early ‘90s. At one point, there was even one direct flight from San Francisco to Indianapolis. Me and my sister knew the crew pretty well because they were always on the same flight.
I have never been to Indianapolis, but I have been to Modesto. Modesto is a little town. It is the Northern tip and end of Central Valley in California. If anyone knows it, it is way up there. Modesto is not the most glamorous spot in California. Am I correct on that assessment?
I always joke that it is the armpit of the state because of where it’s located. It is one of those places where it is very close to a lot of cool stuff. The location itself is not super awesome. There are tons of places to go to. It’s close to San Francisco and the Sierra Nevada. I did a lot of hiking and backpacking with my father growing up.
If you are a skier, you want to get to Mammoth. You are right there instead of driving up from San Diego. You go to school there. Where was college for you?
I wanted to get as far away from Modesto as possible. My friends say, looking back, that I had a bad case of senioritis. Believe it or not, I signed up for an acting school in New York because it was easy to get into and it was the furthest place from Modesto. At seventeen, I boarded a plane and came over here. My dad dropped me off, helped me get set up in a small little apartment, and then as soon as he hopped on the plane to go back to Modesto, I went down and unenrolled in college.
I lived in these dorms for schools in the city that do not have their own dorms. I did not tell him at first. There is no need to disclose that information straight away to stress him, but come the second semester, they asked me for my classes and did not have a report to give them. They are like, “I am sorry, Mackenzie, but you can’t keep living here.” I had to go out and find a place. I did what everyone did back then, which was grab a copy of The Village Voice and look for the cheapest apartment.
I found this studio that was tiny in Spanish Harlem. I dubbed it Spa-Ha at the time. I applied for it, and then that is when I had to tell my dad because, in New York, it is serious. You have to get a guarantor, and I did not have any money. I had to call them up and let them know what was up. At that point, we made a deal. He would co-sign on the apartment if I went back to school. I went to the community college, BMCC, for a couple of years and then I got a scholarship to finish up at NYU.
I ask that question to everybody, “Where did you go to college?” You win with the best story. You are on your own in the Big Apple, and you are living your life. I can’t even imagine. What was your degree at NYU?
[bctt tweet="When you work with people, make sure not to overpromise and under-deliver." username="billrisser"]
That is a funny story too. To get the scholarship, there was a list of degrees you could choose from. I chose English Education because I was like, “How hard could that be?” Famous last words. I ended up getting a degree in Education and then going straight into the public city schools here teaching.
That makes sense because somehow we’ve got to talk about the fact that you live in Brooklyn, but you work in the Catskills?
For my real estate, I work in the Catskills.
In Brooklyn, what is your job?
In Brooklyn during the week, I am an Assistant Principal at a middle school in East New York.
On weekends, how far away is your new job and where is that job?
It is 90 miles North of the city. Kingston is the main area, but all of Ulster county, I serviced. That is real estate sales and then I have my own investment properties I work on up there too.
You do own some properties up there. If anyone follows you on social, you are very thrifty but hip and cool, all at the same time. It is super fun. First of all, you were a teacher, and then you worked your way up into administration. Congratulations, that is amazing. Where do you get bit by the real estate bug and the fix and flip, and the important part is the investment part?
I always knew that I wanted to get involved in real estate. I was not brave enough straight out of college because I was looking for steady work, that steady W-2 job. When you get a union job and those benefits, those are hard to walk away from. Being raised by a single dad, on the weekends, we would build fences and roof houses. I always had the bug for sure. I was fortunate enough to be able to buy my spot in Brooklyn years ago. As soon as I bought that, it changed my whole perspective. I was like, “This is doable.” There was a time when I thought I would never be able to afford anything, especially in New York.
Once I bought that, I got the bug and I was like, “I want to buy more properties.” I started researching different areas that were not too far away that had a lower buy and price point. I googled the fastest growing job markets in New York state and two of them are way over by the Great Lakes. I was like, “That is a little far for me.” The third one was Kingston, New York. It had so much going on for it in terms of job growth, people moving up there, interesting culture, lots of city folks are moving up there starting businesses, and tons of art. It was exciting.
I decided to start investing up there. That was in 2017. I bought that first property then I slowly bought a few more. During the pandemic, like everyone else, I started to reevaluate my life and see what I wanted to do. I said, “There is no other time in history. This is the time when I have extra time on my hands. Why don’t I get my license and see where it goes?”
[caption id="attachment_4232" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The Machree Group: Consider every new renovation that you haven't tackled before as a big teaching moment.[/caption]

I assume you have a place to live up there when you go up on the weekends.
I do now. For a long time, each property that I would buy, I would crash in there as I was fixing it up and then I would rent it out. I had my little air mattress in the back of the Honda Fit and I would roll up, do a good day’s work, and crash on the air mattress.
You said Honda Fit. I don’t think they make a smaller Honda than the Fit. Am I right?
It is beautiful. I love her. Her name is Rhonda. She is perfect because she fits down here in the parking spots in the city, but her whole back folds down. She also carries anything from Home Depot or whatever I have picked up off the street to use in my next place.
There has got to be a limit to your skills. You do have contractors for certain things like plumbing and electrical stuff, but I saw on the video you did some flooring on your own and figured out, “I can do this.” You’re unafraid to try things that can harm you. How is that?
If it is something that is beyond my realm, I have no problems outsourcing it because I do not want to do it wrong. Even nowadays, some of the smaller stuff, I do outsource because of the time issue, but I love rolling up my sleeves and doing it myself if I have the opportunity.
What is a typical timeline for Mackenzie? It’s Friday. I don’t know in the education world if Fridays are generally an easier, better day or not. What does it look like? Tell me the timeline of from Friday noon to when you show up at work on Monday.
Usually on Friday, school ends. We have after-school tutoring, so I am there for a couple more hours. It depends if my husband is coming upstate, he works on Saturdays remotely. I will stop by the house and pick him up. If not, then I go directly up there. We usually get to the cottage around 7:00 PM or 8:00 and then I try and get a good night’s sleep that first night. They vary week to week, but usually, it is showings, final walkthroughs, networking, meeting up with people to have coffee, and meeting new clients. I will do that all day, Saturday and Sunday, and then we drive back to the city Sunday evening. I go to bed very early so that I can get up and get rested for that next week.
I imagine that by now, you are building up a referral base a little bit. That is starting to happen. They all know you and what you do. You can’t hide the fact that you are 90 miles South of them.
I tell everyone exactly what I do in my day job because if you are going to work with me, I don’t want to overpromise and underdeliver, so I need to be clear about what times I am available. If I am not a fit, I want you to be able to find that fit.
Is it okay for me to ask you that in 2021, how many families did you help up there?
[bctt tweet="Writers can put pen to paper and compel you to do something with words." username="billrisser"]
I closed 23 or 25 deals. Most of them were sales and some were rentals. Sometimes I do work with mostly investor clients. A lot of people who are down here in the city want to do the same thing that I have done. After they close their house, a lot of times, they will ask me for guidance for either fixing it up or for renting it out and helping them secure a good tenant who is going to take good care of the property.
You love finding a diamond in the rough. If they follow you on Instagram at all, it is pretty cool to see that you like finding good bones and running with them.
I get so excited when I walk into a property and you can see the finished product. I love helping my clients to be able to figure out how to do that for themselves as well. That is rewarding.
You are a young woman. Do you come across other young people who say, “I want to do this and you have done it. Can you help me?” All of a sudden, you are their mentor and walking them through this process?
With most of my clients, that ends up being the case because a lot of them, it’s their first property that they are buying. A lot of them are in a similar situation to what I was where you are priced out of the city, but they want to get on the property ladder. A lot of them are within my age or a little bit younger and it’s teaching them the full process of how to buy the home, teaching them about owning a home, and all of the above and working through it.
Some of them do end up using it as a second place. A lot of them like to Airbnb them out. We talk about the pros and cons of the different types of investing, long-term versus short-term and what fits with their lifestyle. The ultimate goal is to find their goals and what will work with their lifestyle and then help get them there.
That is what you should be doing as a realtor. You’re talking to these people, so I know they are watching HGTV. You have got to have some stories where you had that come to Jesus meeting with people about that is not real life or what do you think?
I go back and forth because, in a way, HGTV is real life and these people have established businesses, systems, routines, and giant teams. We do not see any of that in the episode, but it’s there. The conversation is around that and the conversation always comes back to being more realistic about renovation numbers. I even still am working on this myself and learning each time I do a new renovation with a type of home or a part of a home that I have not tackled before. It is a big teaching moment, but a lot of times, people will walk in and be like, “I’m switching out the flooring in this. It will be $10,000.”
I’m like, “Yeah, if this was 2001.” Things will be a little bit more than that in the timeframe. You might have to double or triple that. We talk through that and I do my best to educate them. There are always curveballs. I have this wonderful client who bought a place and it was halfway renovated, not entirely finished. When he started to pull apart the ceiling to start the renovation, it turned out there was a fire that the previous owner had not disclosed.
That was a whole learning curve too because it was not something that came up in the inspection. You do not rip apart the ceiling, usually in an inspection. Learning about that and how they do the testing to make sure that it is safe to continue on or if the structure is no longer good. Unfortunately, learning about the legal process, like what is your recourse after finding out something like that. It definitely always conversations around how much it is going to cost, what the actual process is, finding out if they are handy or not and they are willing to tackle it.
I‘ve got one client. He bought this old tavern that had all of these guest houses above it. It’s a total project. I thought he was going to hire it out. I stopped by and he’s rolling up his sleeves. He is going to do a top to bottom with his dad and his mom. I am like, “I love this. I love everything about this.” I told him, “Whenever I have some free time, you let me know. I’m coming over and I’m going to help.”
[caption id="attachment_4226" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The Machree Group: Your number one goal in building your business should be enjoying every minute of it.[/caption]

You are such a do-it-yourselfer. It is super cool to be able to see that. Social media has changed the world for us on that because now you can document what you are doing and show all these great things. You are so excited when you are walking through something you finished. I love it. I love your Edison bulbs and your lighting fixtures. If you are tuning into this episode, go ahead and check out the blog MackOfAllTradesNY.com. This is a blog that you started. When did you start this?
I started it around 2019 or 2020. There were different versions of it. I used to have a teaching blog long before this, but then once I decided to double down on my real estate and design component, I was like, “Let me document this and use this as a tool to introduce people to who I am before they reach out to me so they have a sense of who I am and how I can help.”
You are very authentic about the way you do things. There is a lead generation aspect to that because if it somehow starts the relationship off earlier or quicker, that’s good for you. My guess is you enjoy writing because it is a part of what you do.
I do enjoy writing. This is a secret. I am very dyslexic. I do have my husband, who is a professional writer, read over everything. If you ever see any errors or copy edits, I did not have him read that one.
I love people who can put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and compel me to do something with words. That is such a cool skill and so powerful. I’m glad you are doing that. My advice is lame as it can sometimes be. It would be, “Don’t stop.” Keep that thing going because it is only going to get bigger and build a lot more love for what you are doing.
It’s fun to look back on the blog posts from the past few years and be like, “That is right. I remember I was doing that two years ago. Look how much it has grown.”
We met because you’re the very first Rising Star of the Year. The award is part of our Agent of the Year Awards at RateMyAgent. We do in conjunction with Shelly Zavitz and her New Agent 365 coaching platform, of which I got to be a part. It is fun. How did you find Shelley? Let’s talk about that program and what it has done for you. You already understood about investing, but how did it help you in the real estate side of things as a realtor?
I found out about it through social media, like everything. What appealed the most was the cheap cost because when you are starting up your own business, you are counting every penny that’s going through. It was a program that I thought would work for me because I did have an investor background, so I knew how to buy and do the rehab stuff. I was trying out real estate sales to see if I even liked it because going into it, I had this negative connotation
32 min
March 28, 2022 Episode 315 – Bennett Clark, RE/MAX Creative Realty

Today’s guest knows a thing or two about overcoming challenges as an aspiring figure in the real estate industry. Bennett Clark is a Realtor with RE/MAX Creative Realty and the Owner of Bennett Clark Properties, LLC. In this episode, he joins Bill Risser to share anecdotes of his career journey, their shared love of sports, his life in Kentucky, and how he got his start in real estate. Bennet shares the obstacles he faced as a young realtor and offers advice for those aspiring to enter the business. Tune in for expert tips and insights to help you get ahead!
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Bennett Clark, RE/MAX Creative Realty
In this episode, I get to talk to somebody going back to my Inman days. I've had hundreds of guests on this show that I met through the Inman world. For this one, it was someone I ran into at an Inman in Vegas when they first were in Las Vegas. It's Bennett Clark. He is with RE/MAX Creative Realty in Lexington, Kentucky. He got some very interesting stories. I love sports. We're going to talk a little about sports. We're also going to talk about how he got into the business and one of his advantages with a little bit of extra knowledge. We'll share that when we get in there. Let's get this thing going.
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Bennett, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
You and I are Vegas buddies because every time we’ve ever met in person or seeing you in person we're in Las Vegas in multiple events. We ran into each other for the first time at an Inman conference. I saw you there in the last couple of years. COVID hits, and we lost touch with you. Sure enough, I'm back in Vegas. We're at the R4 RE/MAX Conference. I hear someone say, "Bill," and it's you. That was cool.
I love being able to walk through those aisles with people left and right and be able to pick out people, especially from years past.
It's because you've been in RE/MAX your whole career.
I've been with RE/MAX and licensed for many years.
You got a lot of connections and referral partners you've built at those conferences, right?
Absolutely. The more you can go to those conferences and spread out your network, the better.
You live in Lexington, Kentucky. I think you're a native Kentuckian.
Yes. I grew up in Danville, Kentucky and I've lived in Lexington since 2006.
I like asking people this question. I've had a guest or two from Kentucky before. Give me the pros about living in Lexington or growing up in Danville. What are the negatives, if there are any?
Lexington in Central Kentucky is one of the most beautiful places around. A lot of times, I tell people who don't know much about Kentucky that it's like Scotland or Ireland of North America. Around here, we have four very distinct and full seasons. You get that changing every couple of months. It's always pretty, no matter what time of year it is. In general, it's a nice area with friendly people. We've got a lot of big businesses coming in. It's a great place for investors and homeowners. We have a lot of fun additional things that come along with being in Kentucky. A lot of that is around the University of Kentucky and the horse racing industry. There's a huge bourbon industry that dominates tourism here.
I can vouch for that because I was in Louisville for another conference and had my first bourbon tasting. It was very cool. I'm a convert. I had a couple of different ways to drink it, whether it was neat, on the rocks or old-fashioned. It's pretty cool.
There's no wrong way to enjoy bourbon. You just need to enjoy it.
I’ve got to ask you the question. You're in Kentucky and there are two big schools in Kentucky. One of them is you mentioned the UK and there's also Louisville. Where do you fall?
Not many people like Loserville. We've been trying to give it away to Indiana for years, but I guess they don't want them either. The state, in general, is heavily Kentucky fans. It’s probably 90%. The Louisville fans are either in Louisville or scattered here and there. Even in Louisville, it's probably 50/50.
I know the Wildcats, but the Blue is everywhere. I know that. I got to see that myself firsthand. I have to ask you this because this will lead to the next question. For you, is it Djokovic, Federer or Nadal? You’ve got to tell me because I know you're into tennis. Which one?
[bctt tweet="The power of before and after pictures is huge. People love that. Even from a marketing standpoint, that helps." username="billrisser"]
It's Nadal all the way. Primarily that's because he reminds me of Andre Agassi. That was my idol growing up. It's the playing style, like long points, hustling to every ball and wearing people down. I've always either had Agassi equipment. I always use those head rackets, or later I started using any of the Babolat rackets that Nadal used. I did start liking Federer a little bit more over the years, but I've never liked Djokovic.
Let's talk about you. You went to college. Where did you go to school?
Centre College in Danville.
You played tennis in college and did some coaching right after. It's a big sport for you.
It ended up being my favorite sport there at the Centre. I played three, so it was a lot on my plate, but tennis ended up being the primary one of the three. Shortly after graduating, I ended up going back and coaching for another five years.
What are the other two sports you played besides tennis?
Football and basketball.
I'm going to guess you're the only guy at the time you were in school that played those three sports.
Yes. There are a couple of two-sport athletes and there's only one other guy that I knew that did three at some point. He was a football, basketball and baseball. You're talking about a full year when you're going in early before everybody else in August. You don't get finished until about a week before finals and maybe in May. Not a lot of days off, weekends off and a fair amount of travel. It was fun. It was great. I wouldn't change it.
You're either playing, practicing or studying. It’s one of the three all the time. Before I wrap up on the history of Bennett Clark, give me your favorite distillery. There are so many that I get to see. I looked at a map and it's incredible. What's happening there? Do you have one you like the best?
There are many to visit on the Bourbon Trail that I haven't been able to go to all of them. We take for granted being from here not visiting some of them. I became a bourbon steward, which is to help educate on the truths behind bourbon and what it is, the different variations of practicing whatever Bourbonism, if you can call it. If I were going to tell anybody coming here, I would make a stop at Maker's Mark and Woodford Reserve because you're going to get a little bit of sense of the true history. It takes you back in time. You see how it was done.
If you go to Maker's Mark, it's like a little Sherwood Forest type of place and you get to dip your own bottle. It's very different. It's a pretty unexpected experience for most people. It's well-known. Maker's Mark and Woodford Reserve are two of the most commercialized and marketed. In my opinion, they may not be the best, as far as taste or profile, but there are so many popping up. Luckily, I've been a part of a new one that was resurrected by RD1 Spirits, the first registered distillery in Lexington. The first product they put out is Old William Tarr, one of the original owners.
[caption id="attachment_4217" align="aligncenter" width="600"] RE/MAX Creative Realty: We have an obligation as fiduciary to do our clients right by what a fiduciary is. We have an ethical commitment to other agents to do the right thing.[/caption]

That has since been backed by Coach Mark Stoops, the Kentucky football coach. With his backing, the team doing well and the fanfare that goes with it, that has taken off. It's also a good bourbon. They're coming out with new variations as much as possible. There are so many good ones. Willett is one of my favorites. I like good rye. There are so many. It's hard to pick one. Buffalo Trace is awfully popular.
I learned so much. It's hard to have enough twelve-year-old bourbon on hand because years ago, who knew it was going to blow up like it's blown up now? Some of those things are hard to find. When you find them, they're not cheap.
People need to watch the Bourbon Heist on Netflix.
Tell me, what is your first gig out of college? I always like to ask my guests that.
I was sitting around my senior year, wondering what in the world I was going to do. At the time, it was on Yahoo, not Google. I put in sports and development. On the third page, I came across the Golf Course Architects of America website. There was one guy in Kentucky. I called him up and said, "How do you get going in this business?" He said, "You have interesting timing. I want you to come up and interview." For a little bit less than a year, I did an apprenticeship for that guy and was able to work on some interesting courses and at least see him work on courses that were being revamped and renovated, which included notable ones like Colonial, Southern Hills, Baltimore Country Club and a lot of interesting places that host big tournaments too. To go through and continue on that, you'd have to get an Architecture degree, which is another 4 or 5 years of pretty specific type stuff. It was a very fun and interesting first gig.
Let's talk about you getting into real estate. What happens there?
My father has done quite a bit of development. As a kid, I was always following him around, looking at land, going to auctions, being around it. This was July of 2007. I was going to be doing industrial and commercial development. As soon as I got licensed, that changed. I was young and naive enough to not even know that once you pass your test, you have to put your license with a broker. I went with a company in my hometown named Coldwell Banker back home. I got into residential because that was pretty much the only thing going on. It took a little while to get going.
Even then 2007 and 2008, I was 23 and the next youngest person in the office was 45. We still had to go to each office and physically get the key. The old school real estate was still in play, but not for long. That all changed very quickly. You started to see the actual Bluetooth lockboxes and the different MLS feeds and Zillow popping into the world. It changed quickly and I changed with it. I was approached by a developer who wanted to build some new construction in a golf course community. That led to getting into new construction. I ended up building about ten new construction homes out there in Georgetown, Kentucky. I transitioned from there into renovations with a specialty in historic properties.
Tell me how old when you say historic because I grew up in San Diego and historic means 1930 or 1940. How far back are we talking?
The house I'm living in is the 2nd or 3rd oldest house in Lexington. It is dated 1792. When it was built, it was part of Virginia for a couple of years. That's the oldest one that I've done, but it so happens to be the one I'm living in. I've done the 1880s and 1900s, several in that range, all the way to the 1950s.
I want to ask you a question. You mentioned the age difference. That's a huge advantage for you. People who get into real estate at an early age and understand the potential can move quickly. Some of those changes you said that occurred that all of a sudden tech became important and Zillow pops up. Some of those older agents probably either said, "Whatever," or they couldn't handle it. Talk about that. I'm sure that you had an advantage over others. Even though they might've had those years of experience, you had something else.
[bctt tweet="Documentation of everything you do helps." username="billrisser"]
I ended up getting the boost early on once the recession was over because people gravitated towards the new technology and the want of instant gratification that has become the normal part of real estate in this market. Although I'm not the techiest person, I was much more advanced than the general agent. Now, it's gotten a lot younger and more techie beyond what I understand, but it helped early on. I capitalized on using some of the lead generation sites to introduce myself to people.
Especially if you're young and you look young, like I did, it was hard to get your general 55 or 60-year-old man to work with you. If you could use and utilize tools that would then show a different type of expertise or help you in your performance, then it helped break down some of those barriers. Since then, it's changing again.
I'm trying to always do the opposite almost of what the crowd is doing. This 2021, I've been writing tons of personal notes, having conversations, and not buying leads like I used to. That's more sowing the seeds and waiting to see what pops up. It will prove to be good, especially if we see a lot of agents jump out of this industry in the next few years.
I have always been a fan of agents who look at a relationship as a very powerful piece of the puzzle. When it comes to building a business, it's going to be something that keeps growing and growing. Not only did you have this age difference, but your ability to look at a property for a buyer or even for a seller and your knowledge about construction, renovation and all that stuff. Once again, a lot of realtors can talk about it and maybe gloss over it, but when you're the person who's done that work and still does that work, it has to be another huge advantage.
In certain situations, it has helped. One of the biggest assets I can bring to people is to help see what can become of something. A lot of people can't see through walls, and I can. The best example I have of this is as far as from a sales aspect. I had a lady call me and ask me to renovate her home, which was going to be a big project where she ripped off the roof and was going to go to a lot of costs.
I put the realtor hat back on and said, "You're not going to get your money back out in this neighborhood if you do this, at least for a long time. What's the reason you're going to be doing this?" She said, "My mom's going to be moving in with us." I said, "Would you take X amount for this property? Where's your mom live?"
She lived on the other side of the town. I ended up listing her mom's house and then sold them a property nearby but in a neighborhood that could support that type of renovation. I did the renovation for them. That was one that happened to be two listings, one buyer representation and then another fun project.
The ability to see through walls is awesome because you take that in a lot of different levels just seeing through the walls. Some of those walls are people's hesitation in doing something different or they're nervous about it.
It's not always something that you happen to have. I've had a lot of help. A program that people can use and look into is Houzz. A lot of times, I get one of those Home Depot or Lowe's buckets and sit in the corner for 30 minutes and stare at something in a certain room, flip through and create an idea book of similar shaped or similar style projects that people have already done. I use ideas from that along with sitting there, staring at these spaces to create a good plan of action.
[caption id="attachment_4218" align="aligncenter" width="600"] RE/MAX Creative Realty: You have to have a good reputation and make sure that you've taken care of clients.[/caption]

I saw some of your work on a website, RenovateLex.com. It looks like it's in conjunction with Houzz. You've got some of your idea books or projects or whatever they call them there. I remember looking at one kitchen that was pretty ugly. It had some color in it. You probably know what I'm talking about. It had some weird pop-out. Maybe there's a fireplace on the other side or something, but it became this beautiful granite and all kinds of great stuff happened in that kitchen. That's been a huge help.
In that specific website, there are different functions. You can post your projects like portfolios. The power of before and after pictures are huge. People love that. Even from a marketing standpoint, that helps. The mention of the idea books, that's a separate part of what they do. You can create your own and even go in and see mine. If somebody wants to see the evolution and inspiration over time, you can say, "I see where you got that from." They can copy that and do the same thing and create their own idea books, whether that’s an outdoor patio, a new garage with an apartment above it, interior, exterior or whatever it may be. It covers the whole spectrum of remodeling. That's a good fit.
Early on, did you realize the importance of taking photos during the whole process because sometimes people don't do that.
When I first started building in 2010, I ran across a program called Photosynth. I only used it for a short period of time because it was clunky and took a lot of time to piece things together. Over time, I would always stand on a certain manhole in the street and take the same picture every day of the construction, so you see it being built from the foundation to the roof and then the brick and whatever. You then use this program to do a very quick build-out of the project. Instead of 180 days, it might be 18 seconds. That was the start of it, but I had abandoned it because it was a lot of work for a little reward. I've always wanted to use the before and afters, especially in the renovations.
I always have taken a lot of photos along the way. It's important for different aspects. If I got something, I want to see where certain plumbing or how certain walls are supported. A lot of times, I'll be talking to an electrician or a plumber. Three months later, they say, "Where did we put this?" I've got that with the wall open. There are a lot of different reasons, but documentation of everything you do helps.
When we chatted at R4, a marketing director was with you and we chatted a little bit. It's so important to know what you're good at and what you're not so good at. Is that a fair assessment? I'm the same way.
For sure.
Talk about having that piece of the puzzle to your business.
He's come into our office not by me but by other powers of brokers or owners, and he's changed the face of some of the marketing. I'm guilty of not using him as much as I should. He's much more...
30 min
March 22, 2022 Episode 314 – My Colon Cancer Journey – Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month – March 2022
I do very few monologue style episodes, but once a year, as a colon cancer survivor myself. I share my journey, hoping it will get at least one person to get screened. Let's start with a resource that helped me and one I support. The Colorectal Cancer Alliance can be found at CCA.com
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The Mission of the Colorectal Cancer Alliance
To empower a nation of allies who work with us to provide support for patients and families, caregivers, and survivors; to raise awareness of preventive measures; and inspire efforts to fund critical research.
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Celebrate National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month by making a gift to provide access to high-quality screenings, care for patients and families navigating their colorectal cancer journeys and research to find a cure to end this disease in our lifetime.Your gift will be matched by a generous corporate partner, so you can make twice the difference this month!
Insert Episodes
3 words you don't want to hear? -
It is cancer.
Three words. Three life changing words.
According to the American Cancer Society, there will be 1,638,910 new cancer cases in 2012. Break that down daily, and 4552 people each and every day will hear those three words.
Wednesday, August 22nd was my day to hear those three words.
Here is a look at my week:
On Monday, I visited a gastroenterologist for my first colonoscopy. I turned 50 last year, so I knew this screening was necessary. I had put it off, but at my annual physical a couple months ago, Dr. D chided me for not getting it done. He gave me a couple referrals. I picked one and set up the exam for the first day of my vacation. I had heard all the horror stories about the prep work necessary, and I was not looking forward to it. Much to my surprise, the toughest part of the prep was no solid food the day before. I opted for Osmoprep pills, rather than the chalky drinks no one seemed to like. 32 pills and a few trips to the bathroom and I was ready for my appointment.
Other than the IV insertion (I’m a bit of a needle-phobe), the appointment was simple. I was sedated just prior to the exam and woke up quickly in the recovery area. Propofol is an incredible drug.
Dr T. came in to discuss what he found. Two polyps were removed and an “ulcer” was found in the sigmoid colon. He didn’t think it was serious, but he grabbed tissue samples and wanted them checked at the lab. He told Cindy and I he would call with the test results in a couple days.
Everyone can remember where they were when major events occurred in the world. Reagan’s shooting, the Challenger explosion or the Twin Towers falling all bring back vivid memories of where you were or what you are doing. On a personal scale, the same thing happens. I will never forget answering the phone as I drove up the Gilbert Rd off-ramp from the southern Loop 202. It was Dr T.
“We have the test results back” said Dr. T. I replied “OK”. After a slight pause, he said, “It is cancer”.
For me, there was no wave of fear, no feeling of nausea, no flood of tears. It was a desire to ask questions and find out what I had to do next. Fortunately, Dr T. did not feel I needed immediate treatment. His office would schedule a CT Scan (Monday ”“ 8/27). This is important as it will determine what stage my cancer is in, or to put it another way, if it is localized or has spread. Then, his office would schedule a surgery consult with a colorectal surgeon (Wednesday ”“ 9/5). There definitely will be surgery.
I mentioned my upcoming trip next week with Cindy to New York for the U.S. Open. He insisted we go. “Let’s get the scan done before you leave and we’ll get you in with the surgeon when you get back.” The lack of a sense of urgency was calming.
I sat for a moment, deciding who to call first. My wife or my son. I opted to call Kev first since I wasn’t totally sure how I would handle myself during the call and I wanted to “practice” with Kev before I called Cindy. It went very well, and Kev, much like his old man, wanted the facts and details.
The call to Cindy was just as smooth. What do we do next and let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s follow the plan, stay positive, and get to the other side. She left work to come be with me the rest of the day. I told her she didn’t need to, but I’m really glad she did.
So, why this post on TPREG? One, I know Jay. He likes stories about life as much as he likes posts about escrow. He also hates cancer with a passion and I like riling him up. Secondly, this is a great platform to get the message out to all of you over 50 that have put off getting “scoped”. Why wait? Colon cancer, when detected early, has one of the highest cure rates. I’ve heard this many times, and I know you have as well, but I still waited over a year to get my colonoscopy done. If you are reading this and under 50, think of family and friends that need to get screened. Ask them to go get it done.
Finally, I would like to let everyone out there know one more thing. The three words that matter most to me right now?
I will win.
Episode 2 - Top 10 Takeaways from Colon Cancer Surgery - Sep 26, 2012
In last month’s post, I described my feelings and experience when you hear the news that the diagnosis is cancer. Since then, I have had a colon resection, or in regular speak, they cut out about 5 inches of my colon to remove the affected area, and then re-attached the two ends. Colon is good as new.
Below is my top ten list of takeaways as a surgery noob. Yep, 51 years old and I had never been admitted to a hospital before. When looking for clinics treat various conditions,
For some of you, my list may seem obvious. For any surgery virgins out there, keep this handy for your inevitable first time.
10. The surgical staff at Banner Desert Hospital is awesome!I have no other staff to compare my surgery and recovery crew to, but I can’t imagine there is a better team out there. From check-in to pre-op to recovery, they were amazing.
9. Let the student nurse insert your IVWhile getting prepped for surgery, the nurse introduced me to Melanie, a nursing student from ASU (Go Devils!) The nurse asked me if I minded if Melanie inserted my IV. I hate needles as much as anyone, but I figured why not get a little good Karma working my way and let her practice on me? Other than a little blood that spurted on her and the floor, she did a great job.
8. Phlebotomists are modern day vampiresNo one told me how much blood is drawn during a hospital stay and recovery. I made it to my hospital room at 8pm on Friday and by midnight Monday, no less than 12 blood draws were taken. Worst of all, it seems that most draws occurred between 10pm and 4am. Why that time? Easy. The phlebotomists are vampires. A vial for the lab, a vial for them. Combine that with the insane number of draws and it makes perfect sense.
7. Hyperextending your elbow during a blood draw makes it way easierWhile I’m on the topic, one kind, gentle, middle aged, non-vampire phlebotomist gave me a great tip about keeping my arm as straight as possible during the draw. It was amazing how much it helped. I will forever remember her tip and attempt to hyper-extend my elbow every time a vampire phlebotomist comes near me.
6. Walks around the nurses station can get competitiveRegardless of how much you hurt, if another patient is taking a walk at the same time, you become possessed to complete your lap faster than them. It just happens.
5. Time can stand still the first few days after surgeryThis one is unreal. A large clock is across the room from your bed. It is not your friend. I would wake up, look at the clock and the time was 1:15. I would fall back asleep, into what felt like a deep sleep and then wake up, look at the clock, and the time was 1:20. This happened more times than I can remember.
4. Hospitals are for sick people. Get out and recuperate ASAPEnough said.
3. Much like building a business relationship, create bonds with the nursing staff. It helps.Why wouldn’t you want a good working relationship with the people that can make you more comfortable? Banner Desert nurses were incredible.
2. Pain pumps rock!As soon as I was able to understand how the pain pump worked, it became my little friend. When the light turned green, all I had to do was push it for a little morphine in the drip. If offered, always accept the pain pump.
1. There is nothing better than seeing your spouse come through the door.I told my wife prior to surgery that I did not want her holding a vigil in my hospital room. If I was sleeping, take advantage of the time to get home and get some rest or take care of things she needed to do. I told her I had around the clock care so I would be fine. However, to be honest, on the rare occasion she was not there when I woke up, I really wished she was.
Update My surgery was Friday, September 14th. Monday night, September 17th, Dr Buckmire dropped by with the pathology report. He was able to grab 15 lymph nodes near the cancer site. 9 tested positive for cancer. It only takes 1. Much like I knew surgery was going to happen when I heard the words “It is cancer” after the colonoscopy, I knew immediately that chemotherapy was the next step. No ifs, ands or buts.
That process starts this week with oncologist appointments. I will be interviewing at least two, maybe more. From my doctors, and cancer survivors I’ve talked to, I’m looking at treatment that lasts something in the 6 month range.
Bring it on.
Episode 3 - Therapy Treatment Begins - Oct 23. 2012
Let’s do a quick recap.
August 20th – Routine colonoscopy because I’m 51. Find a lesion. Sent to lab for testing
August 22nd – Doctor calls and says “It is cancer.”
August 29th – Take wife to US Open in NYC for our 25th anniversary because doctor said it was ok to go.
September 14th – Get colon resection surgery to remove cancer and part of my colon.
September 17th – Told by surgeon it is Stage 3 cancer and I will need to see an oncologist.
September 25th – Meet Dr Mendoca, my oncologist. She says, “You are a very lucky man.”
October 18th – Get PET Scan (Positron Emission Tomography w/ radioactive sugar water!)
October 19th – Get Power Port installed in my left chest.
That brings me to today. October 23rd. My first of 12 therapy treatments to rid my body of cancer. I know it is “chemotherapy”. I also know everyone calls it “chemo”. I am choosing to use the other part of the word and call it “therapy”. Why not?
Cindy and I arrived at the doctor’s office for my 10am appointment. First, we meet with Dr Mendonca. She confirms the PET scan did not show anything abnormal, which is good. A quick look at my surgery scars and we head on over to the “lounge”. It is filled with patients. One woman is knitting. Another woman is sleeping. Many are reading. I do not see a single laptop, until mine comes out of the backpack. Really good wifi and lot’s of power. It will be easy to get a lot of work done here.
As a newbie, it’s easy to spot the veterans. They arrive, grab a seat, and easily strike up a conversation with the nurses. That will be me soon. The nurses here are awesome. They sit and visit patients, discussing their treatment or asking how their family is doing. I am going to like it here.
Diane, one of the nurses, comes over to say hi and get my therapy started. A special needle is jabbed through my chest into the port. Just a little pinch and it’s in. Cool. I will have this connected to the port in my chest for 48 hours. More on that later.
First, I receive a couple different medications to help with nausea. After that, it’s time for part one of my cocktail. It’s a combination of oxaliplatin and leucovorin. It takes a couple hours for this part of the treatment.
Part two has to be infused slowly, that’s why I have to stay connected for 48 hours. It is a drug called 5-FU (Fluorouacil). This requires a pump or “party ball” as the nurses call it to be installed. This rubber ball will be attached and pump 5ml an hour into me until empty. Cindy and I are still trying to come up with the right way to carry this around. One suggestion, from Lou in Idaho, is to get a chalk bag from REI. These are used by rock climbers and they connect to your belt and are the perfect size for the pump. Lou knows this because she went through the exact same therapy treatment a few years ago and is still cancer free. Two days later, I return to the office to have the empty party ball removed.
The above therapy will happen 11 more times. Every other week until we are done. It looks like I will get a break Thanksgiving week as no one will be around on Thanksgiving Day to remove my party ball. I’m fine with the week off.
The toughest part of therapy is yet to come. I’ve discussed the side effects with Dr Mendonca and the nurses in the lounge. No hair loss, but maybe some thinning. I can handle that. Possible nausea but with today’s meds, it is totally controllable. Neuropathy is highly likely. Tingling, numbness, sensitivity to cold or even pain in the hands, feet, arms and legs are the main symptoms of neuropathy. There is also an overall malaise that many people experience on this regimen. Everyone is different. I like knowing what may or may not happen. I also believe a positive attitude can make a difference.
It really is a simple choice.
Like choosing to call my treatment therapy.
Episode 4 - Chemo and Caffeine - A True Story - Nov 20, 2012
This is part 3 of my ongoing series as I detail my experiences in my battle with colon cancer.
Last month, I covered my first visit to the infusion center. Today, I would like to tell a story that just might help others caught in the same position down the road.
The list of possible side effects for my treatment is long. Fatigue, muscle ache, nausea, neuropathy, constipation, diarrhea (both?, huh?), etc. The list goes on and on. So when I found myself extremely tired with a killer headache right after my first session, I chalked it up to the therapy. A little nausea was handled with the meds supplied by my oncologist. I was expecting these symptoms to last a day or two, based on conversations with the staff at the oncology center as well as past colon cancer patients.
7 days later, I still was not “right”. That’s when it hit me. “It” being the nearly gallon a day of diet soda I consumed over the past couple decades. Due to the immediate onset of neuropathy right after my first therapy session, I could not drink any cold drinks without experiencing a severe scratching sensation as I swallowed. So, I went from roughly 800mg of caffeine a day to zero on the same day I had my first treatment. Combine that with the fact that I had never tried to kick the caffeine habit before, and it’s easy to see that I attributed all of my distress to the chemotherapy. Unfortunately, I do not like hot caffeinated drinks. No coffee or tea. Either one of these would have prevented my caffeine withdrawal symptoms.
Now, this is usually where the lectures about the evils of diet soda start. Trust me, I have heard them all. I have had a total of one can of soda (room temperature) since October 23rd. I have consumed more water in the last 2 ½ weeks than in the last 2 ½ months. I am going to use my therapy as an opportunity to rid myself of the diet soda habit.
As for the caffeine, I am now taking about 250mg a day to keep me level. I will also wean myself off of caffeine eventually. It is just not prudent to try to do it at the same time therapy begins.
My takeaway? I will always ask anyone heading down the chemotherapy path the following question. “Is your caffeine consumption primarily from cold drinks?” If the answer is yes, then they need to be warned about neuropathy side effects and caffeine withdrawal and to be prepared to supplement caffeine when treatment begins. In fact, if you are reading this post, you can now issue the same warning.
Therapy Update
As I type this, I am about a week removed from therapy session No. 2. The symptoms were much more manageable with some caffeine in my system. Neuropathy and fatigue are my main issues. There is a cumulative effect as the treatments continue, so we will have to wait and see if the recovery period starts to lengthen.
Tales from the Infusion Center
At every therapy session, I have to hang out at the infusion center for 3.5 to 4 hours. I get a comfortable recliner, wifi, power, and roughly 12-15 comrades undergoing their own therapies. As you can imagine, it is quite a range of personalities. A few sleep during treatment. A couple like me bring laptops and iPads. Still others sit and visit. But the most entertaining compadre so far was at my last session. We’ll call him Ned. I have no idea what his real name is. Ned and his wife, Nadine (again, made up) are probably in their late sixties, early seventies. He sat next to me and I cleared my stuff off of the table between us to give him some room. Out came a portable DVD player. Good, I thought. I had work to do and I was afraid Ned would want to talk.
So Ned gets hooked up, and he’s full of jokes and one-liners. Some funny, other not so much. His wife and the nurse humored him, so all was well. Ned settles in to watch his movie, inserts his earphones, and upon starting the movie, does not realize he does not have the earphones completely plugged in. The entire infusion center was treated to a scene from, I think, “The Untouchables” for about 20 seconds. It took this long for Nadine to realize what Ned had done and to loudly bring it to his attention. I’m pretty sure Ned just thought the volume in his ear buds was kinda low.
About a half hour later, Ned
33 min
March 15, 2022 Episode 313 – Madeline Hammer, Executive Director Strategic Alliances – RE/MAX LLC
RE/MAX LLC is one of the top real estate firms in the United States, with thousands of franchises. With many partners across the country, RE/MAX has a diverse, talented group of people at the helm. Bill Risser interviews its Executive Director of Strategic Alliances, Madeline Hammer, about all things real estate. Madeline talks about her journey from writing to sales and real estate to venturing into data. Tune in for more real estate insights in this conversation.
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Madeline Hammer, Executive Director Strategic Alliances - RE/MAX LLC
I am interviewing someone from Inman Connect Las Vegas, November 2021. I’m going to be talking to Madeline Hammer. She is Executive Director of Strategic Alliances with RE/MAX. She has a varied background including sales and then pivoting into real estate by way of Trulia and then into Zillow Group. I’m excited to get her story so let’s get this started.
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Madeline, welcome to the show.
Thank you, Bill. I’m excited to be here.
I always start the show the same way. Some people like it but others go, “Change it up a little bit,” and I’m like, “No because I want to find out about you. I want to find out where you come from.” You live in Denver with RE/MAX and it makes perfect sense to be in Denver. Are you a native Coloradan? Is that where you grew up?
No, I am a Midwestern girl. I grew up in Northern Illinois in Rockford, Illinois. I went to college in Iowa.
You are in Denver, Colorado for a reason. How long have you been there?
I moved in 2004.
Tell me what I need to know about Denver that I don’t know already.
Denver has 300 days of sunshine a year. It’s an amazing four-season city with sunshine all the time. As a Midwestern person, I always have multiple snow shovels and in Colorado, I use them literally once a year.
There is always like one big snowstorm that comes through and dumps but for the most part, all sunshine, cold but sunny.
We can get cold weather for sure.
Have you adopted the Broncos and the Rockies?
No. I am still a Minnesota Vikings fan.
[caption id="attachment_4201" align="aligncenter" width="600"] RE/MAX LLC: It is important to buy and have enough insurance without overbuying it and understand how the policies work.[/caption]

The Vikings are moving along. They are doing okay. They have had some runs, though.
They have had some awesome runs.
Let’s talk about growing up in the Midwest a little bit because you said you went to Iowa. I have driven across from Chicago to Dyersville, Iowa because that is where the Field of Dreams is. I have been there and that drive there is a lot of corn. When you grew up, you were in Rockford, probably a couple of hundred thousand people in Rockford. It is a nice big town.
About 250,000 people.
Tell me about growing up there a little bit.
I grew up in an area that was called Churchill’s Grove. It was where there was a civil war camp. The names of the streets around me were civil war generals. I grew up on Camp Avenue. It was a historical area. Rockford City is divided by a very wide river and we lived on the West side of town. There was always a thing about the East versus West side of town.
Even the high school have different names East and West.
It was a good place to grow up. A lot of family in Chicago and so I went back and forth into Chicago quite a bit to see cousins.
You went to Iowa. You are a Hawkeye. Hayden Fry, am I right?
He was the football coach.
He was there for a long time so you still follow them. That is your Big Ten team.
That would be my Big Ten team.
I will get all sports for a second but this year, Iowa and Iowa State played each other and both were ranked in the top ten. It’s cool to have both schools because they are in different conferences but I’m sure there is a massive rivalry in the state, Cyclones and the Hawkeyes.
[bctt tweet="Denver has 300 days of sunshine a year. It’s an amazing four-season city with sunshine all the time. " username="billrisser"]
You know your Iowa teams.
I'm going to namedrop Sean Carpenter, who is a good friend of mine and a college football freak and I have to keep up with him. I do my best. Let’s tell me the path you were following as you went to Iowa. What were you going to be? What was your focus? What was your field to study?
I wanted to go into Public Relations. Initially, when I went to college, I thought I was going to be a writer and a journalist and maybe a teacher. My dad was a college teacher. I then realized that I wanted to go more towards business. I thought I was going to go into Public Relations. I did Communication Studies and I did Journalism. I was in the Public Relations Student Society of America. When I graduated, I quickly found out there were three jobs in Public Relations in the town of Rockford so I wound up in sales.
Your first job is in sales. Where you are now in your career, when you look back, all that stuff you have picked up at Iowa was important and then you start doing sales on top of that. Where were you working?
John Deere Healthcare.
The tractor people had a healthcare division?
They did. They started one of the first HMOs and this was in the early ’90s. My first job was selling group health insurance to businesses. I was only in the business for about three years but I have always appreciated spending a good amount of time on insurance because it is so important to buy it and to have enough insurance, not to overbuy it, to understand how the policies work.
You have insider information is what you are saying.
Enough to make my own personal decisions.
I am looking at your career path because I’m able to follow things online and figure stuff out. For me, the way I put it is heavy sales background with a cool pivot into strategic partnerships. Is that the arc for you?
I spent a lot of time in sales and sales leadership in telecommunications. When I got a package from Qwest, I took the money and the pension that I had saved and I put it all towards an MBA. I knew I needed to leave telecommunications. I wanted to go more towards a growth industry.
You did pick one. Let’s talk about that. You spent over seven years and I call it the Trulia-Zillow universe because of that. You were there when Trulia was acquired or partnered.
I was there a couple of years beforehand so I was there for the IPO and I was there for the merger with Zillow. I was there for the first three years as Trulia and Zillow were together and came to the industry as a group.
[caption id="attachment_4202" align="aligncenter" width="600"] RE/MAX LLC: We vet our vendors and partners carefully. In particular, with the Canada expansion too, we look for vendors who can serve both the US and Canada.[/caption]

I’m thinking about some of the things that happened because there was this Trulia was getting reviews and Zillow was getting reviews on their own before they partnered up. I’m in the review space now myself. Was that an issue at that time? How were they going to handle that? Ultimately, they went to both places.
Is it with the reviews that were collected and how we merged the data? I don’t remember there being an issue with it. Being in strategic partnerships and broker relations, gathering reviews and sharing the importance of them was something that I was always speaking about in broker events, industry events and agent events encouraging them to gather them. We had been collecting them at Trulia for two years before we started publishing them to agent profiles so we had quite a library. When the merger happened with Zillow and then we combined the reviews, it became a real powerhouse for agents.
When you think about it now, Zillow Group is still the leader in the number of reviews in that thing. Realtor.com is doing very well as well. We are doing our best to try to catch them both. We will see how that plays. I have to ask you this question because I’m not sure of the timing of when you were at Zillow but was Jay Thompson there when you were at Zillow?
Yes, he was.
Did you ever have to interact with him? I know he had to talk to different people in this space based on what was happening in social because that was his job, industry outreach. He was the ombudsman for Zillow Trulia online. It was very interesting. Do you have any stories about Jay? We love telling stories about Jay Thompson.
He took the bullets for so much online and I was always so impressed with how he handled fired-up people and how he diffused things and talk with them about things in a gentle, articulate way. I was taking some of those same bullets on the broker side and at events. I tried to learn from what he was saying and doing online. I don’t have any good Jay story.
I’ve got plenty. I’ll save them for another time. The way Jay was, he could be gentle but there were also times where Jake could be, not snarky but he could read the room well and know that he could be a little bit more direct. It was very interesting and I always wondered and I’ve never discussed this with Jay. I wonder if he ever had to report back to somebody that wanted to know, “Why did you go that route?” I have a feeling Jay knew what he was doing and did a wonderful job in that role.
I didn’t interact with him that much but I would have to guess that there were conversations inside the tower, as we used to call it, about how to handle things and from a PR perspective, directionally and I’m sure there was a lot of coaching.
I would believe that. You are now Executive Director of Strategic Alliances for RE/MAX, LLC. I love that title. I know what that means because of what I’m doing now with RateMyAgent which is much different than what I was doing at Fidelity. I’m guessing you spend a lot of time on phone calls and in the last few years, you have spent a ton of time on Zoom.
I’m so grateful that we’re able to go back to the office now.
I don’t know about you but there’s some pleasure when you’re trying to connect with somebody to say, “Do you mind if we talk on the phone?” I hate talking on the phone. We are going to love talking on the phone for the next couple of years because we can get together in person if we need to.
Also, shutting your camera off. When you get to Friday afternoon and I want to shut the camera off and not worry about what’s behind me and focus on the meeting because it’s intense to look at the camera and engage with somebody through the camera while you’re looking at content that they’re giving you then you’re taking notes over here, drinking coffee and the dog runs through. It’s also intense.
I want to ask you about what your role is and what it entails. I keep thinking back. PR was a focus here. You go into sales and do well there and then you end up in the Zillow Group, which is amazing. You bring a ton. I can see where Nick and Adam we’re looking, “Look at this background. Madeline fits here.” Can you describe the role for us?
[bctt tweet="Marketing to your sphere and authentically staying in touch is very important in business. " username="billrisser"]
I have the lucky role of looking at technology partners and any type of vendor that is serving the real estate industry and what we have within the approved supplier program as well and bringing in new services. It’s leading our approved supplier program. I also work cross-functionally with our product and our marketing teams as there are products that we know we’re not going to build and we don’t want to have a custom product for RE/MAX then helping bring vendors into the room. Helping organize those conversations where everybody is sitting at the table and we’re looking at vendors and what do we need for our membership to help them grow their business and bring in vendors in that way as well.
In history, there also have been acquisitions when things are a perfect fit. That is always an opportunity.
We are very excited about the first data, the future of AI data and how it can help inform not only the calls but the timing of the calls, emails and the marketing approaches for agents. It helps break through the digital noise.
I think so. I would imagine you are very organized.
I try to be.
I would think there would be a checklist like, “These are the things that we look for that can help our agents,” because it’s about your franchisees and the agent. That’s what you’re worried about. I would think you would go, “This one, it hit 12 of the 15 and this one only hit 2 of the 15.” Is there something that simple?
It depends on the product. We vet our vendors and our partners carefully. In particular, with the Canada expansion too, we look for vendors who can serve both the US and Canada. If you are going to be in the US only, in all 50 states, stability of the company, backing of the company, we look at our RE/MAX agents and brokers already using the product. Also, it’s important to know, “What is the problem we’re looking to solve here? How is it helping an agent’s business? Are they solving it already or is it something that needs to be integrated and brought along to help solve the problem?” Starting there first, “What are we trying to do and accomplish? How’s it going to help that agent with their business?”
You mentioned digital noise and there are so many products and shiny objects floating around that I would think one of your primary concerns is not overloading and saying, “The word strategic is there for a reason. We want to make sure that we’re bringing the value.” That makes sense.
I don’t want our marketplace, which is what we call the landing page, where our vendors are able to display what they have or link out to their sites, to be the NAR Conference floor.
For those who have not been there, it is staggering to walk in the first time to see the expo hall.
I have been looking at products in this industry and a student of the industry since 2011. After two rows, I’m like, “What do they do? How is that different from that?” I completely understand how agents first can buy something and forget that they buy it and it auto bills on their credit card and then not remember what they should be using the product for.
We have a lot of agents reading this but there are also a lot of startups, tech people, tech leaders and things. To have an Alliance with a massive operation like RE/MAX and it is a big part of your world as well, talk about the marketing side of things. It feels there are two sides to that marketing. There’s what your partner is going to be doing but also what RE/MAX does because your marketing is more internal to the agents. How do those two play together?
In the direction we are going in, there are three big places where our vendors can mark it out to our membership. There is the direct push outreach where it can be an email or a call but direct outreach to the membership. There is a marketplace where our membership can come and look at our products. We work hard to pull people to that and then the third place is through our education channels, which is RE/MAX University.
[caption id="attachment_4203" align="aligncenter" width="600"] RE/MAX LLC: Seasonality has fallen out of real estate sales. It is no longer the summer move. People move when they have an opportunity to get the house that they want.[/caption]

We are launching a new platform there. It is a very modern platform that allows our brokers to post and engage on the platform and push classes out to their membership. My vision is to have a place within our RU where we are also educating on our vendors, partners and the solutions that they are bringing to membership.
As a partner now, we have to be very conscious of what your department requires and requests of us in the cadence and the delivery of things. It is always approved, double-checked and that is critical because you can’t have a rogue partner dropping an email a day. That’s not going to work.
It doesn’t work for their message and membership and they will get blocked. When our vendors are reaching out to our membership to have a tight message something current, maybe educational in there first, other resources for them and have a content strategy.
I will use the world verticals. Are there certain verticals now that are pretty important that you’re paying attention to?
There are two main areas that I’m focusing on now. One of them is on the marketing to the sphere. There are so many opportunities that agents have to relay long-term markets out to their sphere and stay connected. We know that there is a change in the market that is coming. Everybody is talking about it. We also know that seasonality has fallen out of real estate sales. It is no longer the summer move. People move when they have an opportunity to get the house that they want.
Marketing to your sphere and staying in touch in an authentic way is very important. That is one set of products that I’m looking at, how they interact with our membership. Are they in our own tech products? Are they integrated with other partners in our ecosystem? That is one area and then the second is our broker services and modernizing their backend, reporting and their...
27 min
March 08, 2022 Episode 312 – Enlai Chu – Founder, Productive App

The Productive App will prepare you for the call before you even answer the call. This app is really useful, especially in real estate, because of all the little details you can have in your calls. The Productive Call Assistant will take notes for you and remind you of all the important info. Join Bill Risser as he talks to Enlai Chu about his Productive app and what it does. Enlai is the Founder & CEO of Productive.app. He has over 20 years of experience in messaging, voice, and video communications. He will show you how to solve one of the biggest pain points for real estate agents; double data entry. Make it so that once you're done with your call, you're done with your work today!
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Enlai Chu - Founder, Productive App
I have got a great episode for you. A piece of technology, first of all, that I never knew existed about. We have got the founder of the company. The tool is called Productive. It is a productive app and it changes the way you will use your mobile phone. You got to read as we are going to be sharing this with you. He is up in the Bay Area, where all the great technology comes out of. He has got some great stuff to share and I can’t wait to get this thing started.
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Enlai, welcome to the show.
Thank you, I’m happy to be here.
You and I met not too long ago and we are both working with EXIT Realty on some cool project they are doing. It was nice to chat with you because 1) You have this amazing technology that I might have drilled you with a bunch of questions about, but 2) It is cool that we have products that are going to be able to play off and help each other. It is a nice situation.
I’m excited to be here and talking to you again. Thanks for the invite.
The very first thing I ask on the show is where you grew up or where you are from, so I will start that off with you. What was home for you?
I grew up in Vancouver, Canada. If you are from the Pacific Northwest, the question is always, “Is that VC or Washington?” I grew up in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I went down and finished off my school there and did my university at the University of British Columbia. I spent a few years working there. My cousins had moved there and liked it. The family decided to head over and my brother as well, so we all went there. Great food and weather if you are okay with the rain. It was a wonderful place to grow up.
It is the trade-off with any of the Pacific Northwest is the rain, but I have been to Vancouver. My wife and I journeyed up there in 1984 for the World’s Fair. You were not there yet, I’m guessing. It is such a beautiful city. I feel it is the most European city that I have ever been to in the United States, is that kind of flow?
It is multicultural, and that was one of the things that were great to explore. You have got the bilingual language thing going on with French and English, and then going to different parts of the country. You feel that European side of the country, but that was one of the big reasons why it was so comfortable, and it was almost like having the experience of traveling the world in a single location.
[bctt tweet="As an entrepreneur, thinking about the strategic reasons why your company can get acquired is good to have in mind." username="billrisser"]
The rain thing was interesting because it does rain a lot, but it is also one of those opportunities for appreciation of sunshine. When the wind stopped, the clouds are parted, you can hear the angels singing, and everybody is out. Obviously, the air outside was clean and fresh almost all the time. I loved it here.
We made the quick trip over to Victoria, which is a whole other world. It is a cool place. If you love to ski, you will love it. I love Vancouver.
Did you get up to Whistler or any of the local mountains?
We were there in the summertime. We did go to Banff and Lake Louise and all that good stuff. That was the fun part and getting up into the Rockies.
You got everything, skiing, hiking, and city life all in the same location.
Let’s get back to work. You get a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of British Columbia. What was the first gig out of school? I had a good friend of mine who said, “It is not the first gig you get out of school. It is the second job that matters more.” I would like to find out what that first one was.
My first gig was in the semiconductor industry, and Electrical Engineering gives you the option to venture into either software or hardware and different industries like Chip Design. I started out in the application side of semiconductors, building software that controls the robots and manufacturing for chips. I got the travel to fabs and where the bunny suits. I did that as my first job out of school.
In high school, you knew you were going to start your own company. You had that entrepreneurial drive in you. Is that right or wrong?
I did. I wanted to invent, create, and build stuff. Interestingly, I did not know what an entrepreneur was. I did not know what that word meant in high school. I remember in one of my college interviews, one of the questions was, “Who is an entrepreneur that you respect the most?” This was back when I was in high school, and I did not know who to say. I said Lee Iacocca because back at that time, he was changing things around. I do not think that was the answer that the interviewer was expecting, but that was the first introduction to that word.
You are right. Once I got accustomed to thinking about it, I had to make a decision on what major I was going to go through in university. It was a choice between engineering or business. I remember my conclusion was that if I started with engineering, I could go off and do an MBA or a Business Degree afterwards, but I couldn’t do it the other way around. I couldn’t do a Business undergrad and then get a grad in Engineering. That was how I started out in engineering.
Let’s continue the path. You then ended up moving down to the Bay Area, San Francisco, South of the Bay in Silicon Valley, and you went to school and got your MBA there.
[caption id="attachment_4184" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Productive App: Productive will prepare you for the call, so you're not trying to remember who or why someone is calling you. They basically prepare you for the call before you even answer the call.[/caption]

I did. I had joined a startup company in the Bay Area. A good friend of mine moved down, and they needed engineers. This was one of the first Voice over IP companies that were starting at that time. Working in telecom has always intrigued me because it is a rapidly growing industry. I jumped at the opportunity to come down to the Bay Area. While I was here, I did my MBA at UC Berkeley because I knew I wanted to round out my skill sets on the business side. I was going to start a company. I came down here and did the engineering thing and the end of the school thing. It was a wonderful experience.
While looking at your CV, you have been involved with seven different companies that have been acquired. Some of those were your companies. I’m going to call you an expert in the process of working at a company that gets acquired. There got to be some pros and cons to that process. It would be neat to know that because I have never been able to ask that question to a guest.
I wouldn’t say that I’m an expert because I did not make them all happen. I have been part of companies that were acquired and they were all acquired for different reasons. The first one was acquired for strategic reasons. The first company I was at was a company that was acquired by Cisco. Back then, the Voice over IP space had started to boom and it was going to drive a lot of data traffic. For Cisco, it was a strategic opportunity, but it has been a whole series of opportunities through the acquisitions. The hostile acquisition is the formal word of having stock bought up of a public company.
What I learned through it all was thinking about the strategic reasons why acquire a company. It was good to have in mind, especially when I started my own company. I had a previous company that was acquired by Skype and to them, it was a strategic reason. We were in the messaging space, Skype was strong in the voice space, and it was a good fit with IP. Going forward, it is always good to have in mind high-level thinking of, “What could potentially happen down the road?” As an entrepreneur, that is critical that you have to think ahead and see what the possible paths for your company are.
It seems to me that a lot of the young entrepreneurs have an idea to get going with it and are thinking too hard about the exit up front instead of maybe working hard on the product.
It is never a bad idea to think about exits, especially if you are raising money. If you are building a company as a cashflow business, you are not as worried about what the outcomes are from an exit perspective, but if you have investors, you want to do it because you are responsible for the stakeholders as well. In the grand scheme of things, it also make sure that you are aligning products either from a competitive perspective or whether it is a synergistic perspective to get partners working with you. It is super important to always plan ahead. It is all part of the entrepreneurial path.
[bctt tweet="It's never a bad idea to think about exit strategies, especially if you are raising money." username="billrisser"]
Let’s talk about what you are doing now. I’m going to call it Productive. I know there is a parent company and some other stuff going on there. You tell a great story. I have heard you say it a couple of different times. Let’s share with the audience the history of the cell phone. How did you talk about that when you were presenting to a room full of people?
I started this company through some personal experience. At my last company, we were one of the early innovators in virtual numbers, which was the ability to procure second phone numbers for your phone calls. These were phone numbers that people could add on and get additional functionality that was not available on their primary cell phone numbers.
What we learned was that people were excited about the second phone number because of the additional feature sets that they got, but they did not want to have to manage an additional number or have to give out a different number because at the end of the day, they always end up either getting confused or people are going to keep using the original cell phone number that they had, so they now have multiple numbers they have to manage.
Therefore, if we were going to provide additional functionality that people were excited about that was truly useful, we would have to do it on the primary cell phone number, which was that number that people have had for years now. If you think back about the very first phone that you got and the phone calls on that phone, or if you got a call, you could do 1 of 2 things. You could either pick up the call or hit the red button, you hang up the call, and it sends it to voicemail. Fast forward, decades for some of us, and your phone rings, you can either hit the green button to pick up the call or you hit the red button and decline the call. That hasn’t changed.
We also learned that it wasn’t the ringing part or the hangup part that mattered. It was the conversation and the information that you exchanged during the call that mattered. The question was, “How do we enable productivity features for people to work more efficiently with these phone calls?” Even now, when you get a call, you are probably scrambling for a notepad or if you are lucky, you are sitting in front of a computer with Evernote open or some note-taking software, and you are able to capture the information manually. That is what you have to do now.
Why are we doing things manually? Why are we capturing information manually? The other forms of communication that you use, whether it is email or messaging, we do not take notes after you read an email or read the text message. This is the last form of communication now that people have to manually do work because there are no features on top of these basic phone calls that we have. I wanted to bring and combine all of the technologies that are available now and enhance the native cellphone calls on your phone.
This works for any salesperson anywhere in the country, right?
It is a lot deeper than that. It is interesting because when we first started, we had a lot of people asking us if anybody still used the phone call. The people who asked those questions are thinking from a perspective of, “I use a lot of video conference calls,” so everything is moving towards video conference calls. They forget that there is a whole segment of people that aren’t sitting in front of the computer 100% of the time nor do people have plans for voice calls 100% of the time. It is very much like when messaging comes out, emails are going away.
[caption id="attachment_4185" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Productive App: Virtual or secondary numbers didn't last because of the extra work. People were excited about the additional features. But they didn't really want to have to manage an additional number.[/caption]

Every single communication medium has its purpose. You can probably think of a time when you have been messaging somebody or emailing back and forth, and all of a sudden, someone decides to give somebody a call because they need to get things done quickly. This is exactly the same. It is never going to replace video calls, like video calls are never going to replace phone calls, because one is planned, one is ad hoc. There are so many reasons. They all serve a purpose.
We are focusing on industries where it is the norm for voice calls to be part of this toolkit that people use to conduct their business. There is a lot of these industries, real estate, sales, legal industry, recruiting, and finance. We have a whole list of industries that have come to us to integrate with their digital workflows.
Let’s talk about real estate and realtors who live on cell phones. We know that. Talk about the pain points that you are solving for them. Even though real estate is not your background, you embraced the real estate world with your product. I love how you can lay out a scenario as to how this works for a realtor.
We did not start in real estate. Interestingly, we started out in sales because we came out of an accelerator called Alchemist, which is a B2B and an enterprise focus accelerator up in the Bay Area. We were exposed to the Salesforce and HubSpot world, the general CRMs, that serve the sales market. We started there, but we started getting a lot of inbound requests for integration with real estate CRMs.
That opened up a whole door of new CRMs. We had never come across and realized that in every one of these industries, there were systems that people have put in place to try to organize their data. They had the need to collect information to get that, what we call the full 360 for every touchpoint, to try to update every customer record and communication. They were having to do this manually on their phone calls.
Every other communication channel had integrations except for this final gap they had. Real estate was a pull and we realized that this was a perfect use case because agents live on their phones. They are not sitting in front of the computer, driving or multitasking. They are really busy. This was a perfect opportunity for us to bring the technology and try to automate the work for a realtor. That is why we are focusing on this industry right now.
Let’s go ahead and walk through a use case. First of all, this is what blew my mind the first time I heard it. These integrations are so deep. Let’s walk through it. I’m driving down the street and I get a phone call. As a realtor, how do I use your product?
[bctt tweet="Phone calls are the last form of communication today that people have to manually do work." username="billrisser"]
The first thing we do is when a phone call comes in, we pull as much information about the caller for you as we can. These are from public sources. If this person is someone you have never talked to before, we try to identify the name of the caller for you. The typical information to get when somebody calls you is a name because this is going to lead to your ability to now go enter the person as a lead in your CRM or even to be able to put them into your address book. We will try to look it up for you, so you do not have to talk on the phone.
If you have a CRM, we call the contact with CRM, pull information about the caller from your CRM to instantly prepare you for the call, so you are not trying to remember. “The name looks familiar,” but you can’t remember what this person’s calling about the last time you talked to them. It could be a few months or years ago. It could be 1 of the 10 or 20 people you are dealing with. We prepare you for the call before you even answer the call.
Now, when you answer the call if you choose, we automatically record and transcribe that conversation for you. It is interesting. We have had someone tell us that they do not answer the call when they are driving because they have nothing to write with, which is mind-blowing because each call is worth tens of thousands of dollars in this industry. People are also dialing down lists of agents and if you do not answer the phone, they are not going to leave you a voicemail. They are going to call the next person.
For us, we want you to be able to be prepared and have the peace of mind that the conversation that you are having is going to new referenceable. If you ever need to go back and look up a piece of information that was conveyed to you, a lot of times, you can’t ask the question again because it sounds like you weren’t listening. It is all available for you.
We help you to capture that information. You can take notes and the notes are automatically organized by the person that you are speaking with. You never have to go at the end of the day, take your long set of notes, and go organize them by a person. It is all automatically already organized per person. At the end of the call, typically when the other side hangs up, your side hangs up and that is a normal phone call, but with our system, the other side could hang...
39 min

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Interviews with real estate industry leaders, hosted by 25-year industry veteran, Bill Risser. The Real Estate Sessions was selected as the 2019 Inman Innovator Award Winner for Video/Podcast Show.

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