The Richard Robbins Show

My next guest has been part of the RRI organization for over 20 years. His dedication to this industry is palpable and what he continues to provide to his team, his clients and to agents across the globe is admirable.

Nathan Dart, a 2nd generation real estate professional has been selling real estate in Maryland, D.C. Metro for 23 years.

He has graced The Richard Robbins Show podcast with his insights once before, sharing his secrets to building the perfect team on Episode 25. It's undoubtedly a worthwhile listen for anyone looking to transform their people-dependent business into a system-dependent one.

In this, our 104th episode, Nathan and I evolve the conversation and focus our attention on a new technology dedicated to revolutionizing the buying and selling experience in the real estate industry. This new property technology company, Final Offer, is a negotiation platform that offers total transparency between buyers and sellers.

"The buyers are winning, the sellers are winning and the industry is winning," Nathan tells me in this very eye-opening interview.

On top of that, Nathan and I discuss the ongoing antitrust lawsuit with NAR, the future of real estate negotiations and how technological advancements in AI will influence our industry immensely, in the not-so-distant future.

Is there anything more important to entrepreneurs than mindset?

In this episode of The Richard Robbins Show, I sit down with Professional Certified Coach, Prosci Change Practitioner, CEO and Founder of The Momentum Institute, Vered Kogan.

Vered is a mindset coach with a deep passion for helping individuals release the mental and emotional obstacles that prevent them from achieving their goals and successfully adapting to change in their life.

"Oftentimes, change fails because of the human resistance to change," Vered tells me. She continues to say, "It's not because there's not enough time or money or the idea isn't great. People actually don't resist change; people resist the transition."

In this podcast, Vered explains why the transitionary moments during a period of change in your life are important to focus on. We talk about why negative emotions are powerful opportunities to learn about yourself and we discuss how your mindset can be trained by playing a quick, fun game.

As an added bonus, about midway through the podcast, join Vered and I in a live and interactive meditation session that will bring your feelings, intentions and awareness to the surface.

On the 102nd episode of The Richard Robbins Show I sat down with a man who not only has 30+ years of real estate experience and is in the Top 1% in Canada for Royal LePage, but he is also a highly respected coach and member of the RRI team.

Bill Parnaby has been a licensed real estate agent since 1992. Working in the Caledon area, he has maintained his #1 ranking for the past 15 consecutive years.

When I asked Bill about his success, he simply told me, "I do everything I can to keep people away from me." He explains that, "I mean that in a good way, I keep people serviced well enough that they never have to ask me a question."

Bill's philosophy of Serve Don't Sell has helped him maintain a loyal clientele and has seen his business flourish. However, it wasn't always like this. As Bill puts it, "I used to be a goal chaser." He did more and more, never hopping off the real estate treadmill, to the point that he was burnt out and wanted to quit the industry altogether.

That was until he switched his thinking and started operating his business differently; not chasing the money but instead, serving his database and his community.

In this episode of The Richard Robbins Show, Bill and I talk about the importance of mindset and how changing his perspective changed his entire life. Bill shares his strategies for effective marketing, offers insight on what the top 3 things agents get wrong and how to fix it and lets us know why committing to a schedule is the best thing you could ever do.

On the 101st episode of The Richard Robbins Show, I sit down with a longtime friend and colleague within the real estate industry, Phil Soper.

Phil is President & CEO of Royal LePage and Bridgemarq Real Estate Services, the largest real estate brokerage firm in Canada, with over 21,000 agents across its businesses and doing roughly $146 billion in property sales in 2021.

With decades of experience in the real estate industry between us, Phil and I share our thoughts on what to expect in the year ahead in terms of sales, pricing and interest rates.

"If we were talking about the American market, our faces would be longer. It would be a more dire situation," Phil tells me. Due to the conservatism of the Canadian banks, we find ourselves in a much safer position moving forward in terms of financial stress on Canadian homeowners.

In this special episode of the podcast, Phil and I are discussing today's real estate market. We talk about what to expect come 2024 and theorize a few possibilities for the Canadian real estate market. We talk about the similarities of 2008 to today, why home prices could see a surge and why immigration is the key to Canada's strong real estate industry.

Interested in hearing more of Phil Soper? Check out episode #2 of The Richard Robbins Show that I recorded with Phil in 2019.

On the 100th episode of The Richard Robbins Show, I sat down with a friend who has lived two lives in the real estate industry.

Mark Arnstein, a 27-year veteran as a real estate agent, began his career in the beautiful city of Vancouver, British Columbia. 8 years later, after growing a substantial business and clientele, he packed up and moved to Toronto with his wife.

It was quite the adjustment for Mark as you can imagine. "You take a big fish in a small pond but drop it inside of an ocean, it takes a while to adjust," he tells me.

Instead of feeling sorry for himself, Mark dedicated himself to understanding this new landscape and learning the Toronto market. "I became a student…I needed to understand the market and know where the value stood."

Mark dedicated himself to doing two open houses a day over the weekends and began to geo-farm an area that he now dominates 19 years later.

On this episode of The Richard Robbins Show, Mark and I discuss the 3 crucial steps to successfully geo-farming an area. Mark shares his process for picking an area, budgeting, frequency and how to get a 10x return on your geo-farming investment!

Creating a brand is one of the most difficult things when starting a business. Your brand holds so much weight, as our next guest describes it, "It's what other people are saying about you when you're not in the room."

Juliet Wright, Founder and CEO of Tally Creative, is our next guest on The Richard Robbins Show. A Brand Stylist who focuses on empowering you and your business, Juliet is the leader of a dynamic team that has pioneered a groundbreaking methodology for brand development.

"Often times to get a brand off the ground, or a company off the ground, you need someone to believe in you and see that big picture," Juliet tells me.

Today, Juliet tells me that Tally Creative focuses on inspiring belief, activating potential and elevating excellence, taking a company's brand, marketing and advertising to a whole new level.

In this episode of the Richard Robbins Show, Juliet discusses the importance of knowing (and living) your values as a company, and why having a solid foundation rooted in your values is key to your success.

We would all agree that there is nothing better in life than having a wonderful partner. My wife, beyond a shadow of a doubt, makes me a much better person. That said, it doesn't mean that it's always easy!

On the 98th edition of The Richard Robbins Show, I sat down with an amazing, spirited, high-energy person named Annie Lalla.

For the past 15 years, Annie has been a cutting-edge Relationship Coach who maps the complex emotional landscape of relationships.

"Relationships are the hardest thing there is for humans to do," Annie confesses and I think we can all agree with that statement. She helps clients cultivate romantic esteem and develop collaboration skills that go beyond shame, blame & power struggles.

"Conflict is not an indicator that something is wrong," Annie explains during our chat and tells me that, "I teach people how to fight in a way that is healthy."

In this episode of The Richard Robbins Show, Annie and I talk about how to create better relationships in our lives with the people that we love the most. Annie talks about how to optimize relationships in your life, offers some conflict resolution tips and brings a roadmap for creating evolutionary relationships that last a lifetime.

My next guest on The Richard Robbins Show is a familiar voice on the podcast scene but with an exciting and new story to tell.

Mark Faris has had tremendous success in the real estate industry. After only 7 years in real estate, he became Royal LePage's #1 agent in the country and held that distinction for 5 consecutive years before opening his own brokerage, The Faris Team Real Estate Brokerage.

To listen to this awe-inspiring interview with Mark, check out episode #34 from The Richard Robbins Show.

Today's interview, however, touches on the possibilities this industry can offer you.

Mark revealed that his 'why' and his motivation for success have constantly changed. "It was a matter of just putting food on the table, we had our credit cards with $10,000 in debt. My 'why' at that point was to put food on the table and, as a husband, provide."

Mark explains that after all of his success, the thought that constantly came to him was - What If?

"What if I could create a company that I could really be proud of? That idea was extremely motivating," Mark tells me which led to the creation of Faris Capital Partners.

Faris Capital Partners focuses on getting premium returns for their Canadian and American investors by investing in multifamily apartments in Florida. His investors see a 15-20% annual return on their money and the goal is to raise over $200 million in capital by 2025.

In this episode of The Richard Robbins Show, Mark and I discuss how he has gone from selling real estate in Ontario to operating an investment firm in Florida. Mark talks about how to balance your life goals (family, friends, health) with your business goals, he explains the process to opening a new company in a different country and talks about how to continuously motivate yourself.

On the 96th episode of The Richard Robbins Show, I sit down with a former RRI Coaching Member and the President of RE/MAX Canada, Christopher Alexander.

Right from the age of 13, Christopher, in one way or another, was working within the family business. Whether it was at the front desk or the accounting department, he has seen every level of the RE/MAX ladder.

He started selling real estate in January of 2010 and although he had grown up in the industry, he didn't realize how hard it actually was. "I did 3 deals right out of the gate," Christopher tells me, "And thought to myself, 'Wow this is easy'! I didn't do another sale for the rest of the year. It was a really valuable lesson and, in my second year, I really got serious."

His experience selling real estate isn't unique. Christopher tells me that he sees a lot of people enter the industry with a false perception of what it really takes to succeed.

"What I've seen, especially in the last two and a half years, [is] a tremendous amount of salespeople getting their license for the first time, that got into it for the wrong reasons…they see the glamour. I think that's going to wash away because it's a tough business."

In this episode of The Richard Robbins Show, Christopher and I discuss the past, present and future of RE/MAX and the entire real estate industry. Christopher stresses the importance of practising the real estate basics in order to find success in any market, he offers some insight into the future of real estate and tells us why it's important to start today instead of waiting for tomorrow.

On the 95th episode of The Richard Robbins Show, I sit down with a husband and wife real estate team that has taken their prowess for technology to masterfully blend the power of AI with the irreplaceable touch of the human experience.

Tara and Tom Lyons have been married since 1992 and in that time, have created an outstanding real estate business in the town of Belleville, Ontario. While Tara focuses on delivering a seamless client experience during the home buying or selling process, Tom ensures homes get fantastic online exposure, thanks to his love for technology and marketing expertise.

Tom, who Tara affectionately nicknamed 'Tom-dot-com', has brought the dynamic duo into the 21st century.

"If you're not using AI, you will not have a competitive advantage," Tom tells me. "It's not about the technology, it's about the consistency."

And consistent they have been. Tara and Tom have implemented AI into their business flawlessly to ensure their clients are taken care of at every opportunity.

"I was in an appointment and I had 3 leads come in during that time," Tara explains, "They don't know I'm in an appointment because they're getting a response immediately. The technology is available today so you utilize it."

In this episode, the importance of embracing technology in your real estate business is explored with Tara & Tom. They explain why you must adjust your business model to adapt to today's consumer, how to effectively maintain a partnership - which I can certainly relate to - and why AI can be the perfect addition to your follow-up sequence to build a better business.