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In real estate, being a broker is the ultimate dream we’re taught to aspire to, but for most people, it’s a nightmare. If you put the ego and bragging rights aside, you’ll find that most brokers aren’t happy.
They work 80+ hours a week, get very little time with their families, and at the end of the day, have very little to show for it financially. People often say a restaurant is one of the worst businesses to own, but a real estate brokerage isn’t all that different if you really dig into the numbers.
What if we could aspire to a business model that gave us freedom, leverage and more money? What if you could do away with the things that make owning a brokerage so difficult? Mitch Riback did just that and created a model that allows owners to keep more income, have less overhead and responsibility over agents and way more freedom.
You could go from working 80+ hours a week to 30 hours, and sell more homes with less headaches. Ultimately, what most “successful” brokers don’t tell you is how much they hate what they run. By taking a different approach, you can sign up for a business, and not a trap. Today, I’m joined by the Realtor, coach, speaker and author of The Big Lie: Are You On the Real Estate Hamster Wheel? Mitch talks about what drove him to build a different business and how it’s allowed him to pour into what truly matters.
People think working 80+ hours a week is a badge of honor, it’s a badge of stupidity. -Mitch Ribak
Guest Info
Mitch Ribak is a Realtor, Broker, Coach, Speaker and author of The Big Lie: Are you on the Real Estate Hamster Wheel? Most Successful Realtors, Team Leaders and Brokers never truly build a business, they build a crappy job. Mitch teaches agents and brokers how to create a business that not only increases their profits, but also creates a life of freedom. To get the book, get https://a.co/d/1T0qWAt or send an email to [email protected].
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In an industry that celebrates making rain, GCI, units and volume, it’s really easy to lose sight of why we got into real estate in the first place. Most of us got into this for our families and for freedom to spend time with them. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, we forget and find ourselves working too much, prioritizing the next meeting, appointment and commission check.
It’s only when we have a smack-in-the-face moment that we realize that we’re running our businesses all wrong, and that we have to refocus on the original goal. A lot of what we hear from the stage doesn’t share this truth, and what the road to refocusing on what matters looks like.
The great thing about this business is you can build it, find out you built it all wrong, burn it all down, start over and build it right. You can regain the vision and start doing it in alignment with what matters to you. It’s certainly not an easy thing to do, but following through on it is worth it. It gives us a business that puts pressure on the things that really move the needle and nothing else. Shonna Ruble shares her own path through this process, from realizing it was built wrong to building it right in a new city and becoming the top team there.
Smacked in the face
What led Shonna Ruble into real estate was making sure her children could get what they needed, after her son needed a $700 nebulizer she couldn’t afford. Again, her children are the reason she ultimately decided to build a business and stop working all the time. Sometimes, we get so lost in rain making we forget what matters, but a slap in the face moment got Shonna to refocus.
Prioritizing what matters
It’s crazy how much real estate you can do when you’re sitting in your car while your kid is at dance or swim class. Shonna learned how to work while her kids were doing something so that she could be there for them. Then after time with her family in the evening, she’d go back to the office. That level of focus is what allowed her business to grow.
Great people, not-so-great systems
We can have really amazing people on our teams, but if we don’t have systems, everything falls apart if those people aren’t there anymore. It’s so important to take the time to document what has made you successful because that’s what will keep you going through staff changes. From how we do client events to how we celebrate birthdays on the team, you need to have everything written down.
Focus on profit
Leading with profit is something we’re not taught enough in our business. We get caught up in the numbers, awards, units, GCI and volume, not net worth statements, bank accounts and profitability and it gets us in trouble. Shonna learned how to make focus the priority and it gave her staying power while everyone’s business tanked.
Put pressure on the things that matter most
A lot of team leaders think you get a new agent ready by teaching them the CRM. The truth is, we have to put pressure on things that move the needle. The onboarding doesn’t end when they sign a contract, it ends when they get their first deal. We have to get them into production and get them to understand the importance of being prospecting-based. That’s what gets them paid and gets them into a deal.
Even if we have the best recruiting system, it’s impossible to predict who will be great in the long-run. Even the people who interview well can end up just being all talk and nothing more. No matter how detailed your process is, you can never really tell or predict who will be successful. That means we have to open the door for more people, let people prove who they are by their actions, and then also keep the back door open so that the wrong ones get out the door quicker.
For more information, connect with Shonna on LinkedIn or find her on Facebook.
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If you got into real estate 5-6 years ago, you might be forgiven for thinking this business is easy. We didn’t have the low inventory, high interest rates and the commission changes we’re dealing with now.
For any agent who started back then, the 2024 market might as well be a whole new industry you have to learn. It was a great time to get into the business, but in order to stay in the business now, you have to learn how to generate deals in this current environment. Many people are failing to do that, and that’s why we’ll continue to see agents throwing in the towel and leaving the industry entirely.
Mastering the basics of running a solid real estate business is the only way to outlast all the shifts and changes. If you came into the business and immediately started taking shortcuts, you just won’t be able to hack it in the skills-based market we’re in right now.
If you’re an agent who invested in coaching, and found a way to go out and get business, you’ll never have to complain about any market conditions - even the ones that are taking other people out of the industry.
I recently sat down with an agent who built his business the right way, and developed skills that create success under any circumstance. Sammy DeStefano shares how he went from car sales to real estate, and what’s allowed him to do so well.
Why learning the fundamentals matters in this profession
The personality type of most real estate agents is high D, so that means we’re an industry of people who like to do things their own way. Also, real estate is a second or third career for a lot of people, and most of those people don’t like being told to do so they are going to riff and find their own way. That’s why learning the basics is so important.
For a long time, Sammy felt more comfortable cold calling strangers than calling his sphere. That’s because as a new agent he didn’t feel like he had any value, so it felt like he was just asking family and friends to find someone who wants to pay him. Let’s face it, we’re under-competent in our first deal, we just find someone who agrees to work with us. After working an expired and selling it, and earning the social proof, it was easier for Sammy to feel like he’s bringing value, and he could confidently ask his sphere “do you know anyone who wants to use my level of service?”
You need a coach
You’re an idiot if you’re not writing a check to a coach every month. That’s not to say you wouldn’t have figured things out without a coach. But something has to be said for having someone wise who has been there and done that and also has a feel for what other people are doing around the country. It provides a massive amount of value and insight, which makes business easier. It’s really easy to get into our own bubble or just talk to people in your own brokerage and limit your possibilities. Getting exposed to what other people are doing is what helps us grow the most both personally and in business.
Guest Info
Sammy DeStefano is a Realtor in Arizona. After spending 6 years in car sales working for BMW in Phoenix, Arizona, Sammy got accustomed to not only sales but more importantly rain making and prospecting. Initially he got into real estate because he had reached his ceiling at my BMW dealership as a business development center caller, sales guy, and ultimately a finance director. After leaving the dealership and getting his license, Sammy joined Mike Ferry Premier coaching within 90 days and was off to the races. In his first year, Sammy sold 30 homes (all expired and canceled listings that he cold called). In his second year, he sold 35 homes from January to June with a goal of 60 homes sold for the year. The rest is history...
Sammy is proactive and finds his own business, calling and door knocking, and there are more than enough clients to help out there. For more information or to connect with Sammy, call or text 919.454.6482.
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Whether we like what’s happening in the industry or not, we have to learn how to embrace change. Turbulent and uncertain times aren’t as difficult if we can adapt quickly. It allows us to get into movement and momentum a lot quicker and that sets us up for success.
When it comes to embracing change, there’s one formula that can guide us. Intention + mechanism = results. If we’re not happy with the results we currently have, we can reverse engineer the process to figure out what intention led to it or what mechanism (or lack thereof) led to the outcome. We can talk about doing great things all day long, but time and results have a way of proving who had the right intentions and who was doing all the right things.
In order to get this formula to work in our favor, we have to get really comfortable with critiquing ourselves - not out of blame but out of responsibility. If we’re living in a place of constructive self-critique, reflection and asking ourselves the right questions, turbulent times can create massive opportunity.
How do we give ourselves feedback without beating ourselves up? How do you show up 100% when you set an intention?
Speaker, coach and author, Ronnie Doss returns to talk about his new book Colossal Considerations and the formula for success.
Use your past as a university, not a home. Treat it like a tent - don’t build a temple there. -Ronnie Doss
How to create momentum
You can’t get momentum without movement, and you can’t get movement without a positive intentional mindset.
Time reveals the truth about your intentions
Time always has a way of separating who was truly committed from who was just talking and posing.
Don’t commit for compliance’s sake
A lot of people use compliance as a way to blame someone else when they don’t end up getting the result they want.
The power of self-critique
If we’re trying to move forward, professionally or personally, we have to search our own hearts, check if we’re giving our best, and self-reflect to figure out what we need to do.
How to inspire in uncertain times
In times of great turbulence, tension or uncertainty, we have an opportunity to make a contribution that inspires people, lifts them up and makes their lives better.
Guest Info
Ronnie is a speaker, coach, author of Colossal Considerations: 101 Thought-Provoking Insights To Move Your Life Forward, and America’s #1 Teamwork and Performance Specialist. Ronnie trained for 5 years in the realm of human behavior and personal development. His understanding of why people think, feel and behave gives him phenomenal insights into what may be holding an individual back. Ronnie believes the key to building successful organizations begins with building empowered individuals. Over the past decade, Ronnie has led leadership training in countries around the world including Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands.
To buy a copy of Colossal Considerations go to https://a.co/d/88AbDW1. If you’re interested in Ronnie’s Tribe mastermind, send an email to Tribe [email protected].
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One of the key skills of a great salesperson is negotiation, but for the last decade, real estate agents could get away with no having it. Deals were so easy to put together, we didn’t have to fine tune our persuasion and communication abilities. Many agents have never had to do deep negotiation. Even veteran agents who came up in tougher markets need to brush up on that skill too.
With the way commissions structures are changing, understanding negotiations at a high level has never been more important. We have to understand human psychology, collaborate more closely with other agents, handle tough situations, understand the art of communication and resolving conflict.
That’s why the team at Forward Coaching developed a course on negotiation and why they are working on getting this course in front of agents ASAP. The market might look a little different, but take it from an agent who has sold through some really rugged markets: there’ll always be a seller and a buyer looking to make a deal. In order to get to those sales, we might have to change what we do to match what’s currently happening.
If we want to continue to feed our families, give the best service and get the best results right now, becoming master negotiators is non-negotiable. Co-founder and CEO of Forward Coaching, Debbie De Grote joins us to talk about the new course and what it takes to succeed in this tricky market.
Quotes
People think being a master negotiator means playing hard ball. The best negotiators actually have a collaborative technique. -Debbie De Grote
Don’t panic, this will become normal to us one day. -Debbie De Grote
I started in a really terrible market so I really don’t fear markets that change. I’m quick to react to them. -Debbie De Grote
Guest Info
Debbie is the co-founder and CEO of Forward Coaching. She began her career in Real Estate at the age of 18 and within a few short years was one of the top agents in the nation, closing over 156 units annually. At the peak of her career Debbie was awarded the Hall of Fame award by Century 21. In fact, Debbie was the first agent in the Century 21 system to achieve this award. In addition to her sales career she also managed a large office, assisted in recruiting efforts, and wrote strategic plans and launched new office locations for two large brokers in the Orange County area. Debbie’s extensive background attracted many opportunities to speak, train and consult with others, which is how she discovered her passion for coaching. Over the last 20 years, Debbie has been considered one of the top Coaches in the Real Estate industry, coaching some of the most elite salespeople and brokers in North America, as well as mortgage, title, escrow, and insurance professionals. She has conducted over 80,000 private coaching calls, hundreds of webinars and live events, and is a sought after speaker at many national conventions.
Go to forwardcoaching.com/negotiations to sign up for the course.
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Selling real estate in 2024 isn’t at all what it was between 2010 and 2022, and a lot of agents are feeling the squeeze. Most of us built and ran our businesses in low interest rate environments, so this market is completely unfamiliar to us. Running a real estate team is a lot more stressful than it used to be. Deals are harder to put together, we have stricter and newer rules to get compensated, and the costs of running a business and paying our people is so much higher.
All of this has left a lot of real estate leaders frustrated and even resentful. The fact is: what made us successful in the last few years won’t work in this current market. Due to all the pressures the market is facing, just being good at putting deals together isn’t good enough anymore. We also have to be really good at bringing people to those deals. What that means is an exceptional sales skill set will have to make a real comeback. Right now, everyone is trying to get their sea legs after all the changes, but when things normalize, you’ll either get out of the business or have a bigger opportunity.
What factors are making real estate so tough? How can leaders navigate these challenges? In this episode, multiple guest Frank Klesitz returns. The CEO of Vyral Marketing and Klesitz Direct shares what he’s hearing from agents across the country, and why it’s harder to sell homes right now.
Marketing doesn’t create motivation, it just finds it. -Frank Klesitz
Guest Info
Frank is the CEO and founder of Vyral Marketing and Klesitz Direct. He is an intellectually curious artist with experience in business, entrepreneurship, sales, marketing, and real estate. Frank started Vyral Marketing in 2009 after successfully implementing their marketing plan for a real estate agent in Omaha, NE. Frank also runs Klesitz Direct, a new business mailing personal, authentic cold letters to homeowners to generate phone calls from those thinking about selling their home. Go to https://getvyral.com/ and https://klesitzdirect.com/ for more information.
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In today’s episode, I’m joined by Bob Stewart of community evangelist at Place Inc, and Active Rain before that. Bob’s got a cool story - he’s been in and around real estate for many years. He was a pioneer in real estate blogging, and community building, and also understanding how to drive traffic to websites in the days before Google dominated everything. Bob comes from a place of contribution, and I even remember the days he’d call ActiveRain clients to help them out with marketing, 14 years later. He’s truly a genius at building and growing communities around businesses and now he’s brought his skills to PLACE.
Bob has been involved in the real estate industry since 2002. He co-founded and was responsible for managing operations for a 150 agent real estate company, and also co-created one of the very first online referral networks. Since 2006, and the beginning of ActiveRain, Bob has been educating, motivating and training real estate agents and brokers around the country. Through live appearances and webinars, Bob has taught thousands of agents the intricacies of online marketing and how to engage online leads and turn them into clients and closed transactions. Bob has successfully instructed agents on a wide range of topics, from the fundamentals of successful agent websites to using social media to enhance an agent’s online profile. He is also well known for his engaging interviews of real estate industry thought leaders. Bob brings his wealth of knowledge and contagious enthusiasm to every seminar, and delivers to his participants the necessary performance skills, the latest, most effective online marketing strategies, and practical lead generation and engagement methods.
Real estate has become so dominated by tech and AI, it’s easy to get confused about what delivers results. Fact is, to extract more deals from our database or any lead source for that matter, the basics still ring true. You just can’t replace calling your database and actually adding value to them.
The team at PLACE have collected data that drives this home over and over again. One crucial stat we need to be paying attention to is database turnover - how quickly you can call your entire database. Unfortunately the database turnover rates of most teams are abysmal, and it’s costing us money. Instead of buying more leads, we could be doing the work to get more deals from relationships we already have.
To find out more about the podcast, head to https://winmakegive.com/podcast-2/.
To do the Wealth Series, go to https://winmakegive.com/wealth/.
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Time is finite but so many of us are just not purposeful with it. People plan how they go to a movie better than they plan their life, the relationships they have. It’s amazing how calculated we are about our movies and vacations but we don’t do the same thing in our personal worlds.
Hard work is a key to success but what’s the point if there’s no true balance? So many of us say we work hard for our families but do we really? Start defining achievement a little differently, you can’t let your work define who you are.
If you count how many winters, Fridays, ocean swims, football seasons, beach days you have in your life, it really puts how finite time is into perspective. If you’ve got 20 years left in your life, and you go snowboarding once a year, you probably have 20 of those days left.
Think about how many more Halloweens you get with your kids when they are little. How are you taking advantage of those moments?
The average kid and parent spends 300 days per year together from the time they are 0-18. Over 18 they spend an average of 30 days with their parents, 10 days a year if they don’t live in the same town. Depending on how old your kids are, you might have spent over 50% of your total time with your kids already.
You have to cheat the system and get more purposeful to get more out of those days.
The key thing is becoming aware that time is finite.
We go through our lives not being purposeful about these things that we deem most important. Cheat the system - do it differently. Think differently to what we usually do in our normal programs of life.
How do we maximize the moments that we have? When you work hard, think about what you’re giving up in its place.
We all have things we care deeply about and we neglect them. The good news is: you can do something about it now.
Now that we know this - what should we do?
Write your own eulogy: connect the dots and design the specific commitments you want to make to leave the impact you desire to leave. What are the things you could be doing better so that you influence that outcome?
Truly start life planning: how do you want to be remembered by your kids, how do you want people to speak about you, think about these things and be honest about where you stand.
Take no days off: every single day you can improve something, whether it’s yourself or a relationship. You can deal with a pain or challenge, and get healthier and smarter.
Get a Memento Mori calendar. It’s sobering, but also inspiring to see how much time you have.
Think about your life accounts: health, relationships, wealth, business, friends, social, siblings, spiritual, travel etc. Some of your accounts have really positive balances and others are overdrawn. Prioritize those accounts accordingly
Health should be number 1, you can’t honor any of the other accounts if you’re not feeling great and alive.
You are going to outgrow certain things and certain relationships as you grow, accept that.
Life is about counterbalance - there are times we’ll have to be in the extreme in certain areas, the key is not to stay in the extreme too long. How long can you be in something until other areas start to suffer and/or deteriorate?
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A lot of people who would be exceptional recruiters don’t do it because it feels like too much of a burden. The idea of building tens or even hundreds of relationships and nurturing them just feels like too much of a logistical nightmare.
And it would be…which is why it’s the wrong way to do it. If you had a recruiting strategy that was based in building community, it would be so much easier.
A recruiting strategy based only on yourself is taxing and unsustainable. It’s like inviting 100 people to dinner and having to make all the food yourself. If you had a community, it would be like having a potluck where everyone brought in a dish for everyone to enjoy.
Instead of having one-on-one relationships, a community-focused approach leverages relationships and takes a huge burden off of you. This is how we were able to build a rev share group of 2400 people. It was about building a room people want to be a part of and allowing everyone to do their part to build and nurture those relationships. That will continue to pay off.
What other misconceptions keep people from the wins of recruiting? How do we bring leverage to our recruiting? Today, I’m joined by Chris Bowers for an in-depth conversation on recruiting and the easiest way to recruit.
Quotes
Don’t take advice from people who don’t have the life you want. -Chris Bowers
There are a few things that are absolutes in my life, everything else is negotiable. -Chris Bowers
You can’t make people change, but you can make them do something different. -Kevin Kauffman
Guest Info
Chris Bowers is a Realtor, Investor and owner of the Bowers Team, and the host of The agentXcel podcast. Chris has been in real estate for over 16 years, but he has been an entrepreneur since his teens. Today, Chris and his wife run a successful team selling over 140 units with half of those being Chris’ personal production. He has also built a solid rental portfolio that continues to grow to this day.
Follow @chrisbowers_realestate on Instagram and listen to agentXcel on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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As driven entrepreneurs and hungry investors, we’re always searching for that big idea or once-in-a-lifetime deal. Then we find ourselves in a bunch of random businesses and investments in a bid to increase the odds of success.
More often than not, that only leads to a loss of focus and ultimately, a loss of wealth. What if getting to that billion dollar idea is as simple as picking something and concentrating on that? There’s a ton of different things we could be doing, the real challenge is learning to focus and be patient.
For Andrew Abernathey, concentrating on one idea allowed his business to ramp up to $250 million in a very short space of time. At one point, he was involved in a slew of random areas. It took losing a ton of money for him to realize that he didn’t know who he was or what exactly he was good at, and that’s why he was trying everything. That was the major turning point that made him think about his billion dollar idea and let go of everything else. The effect of his concentration can be seen in his results, and it’s something all entrepreneurs should think about.
The urge to do everything will never go away for entrepreneurs. If you follow that urge, it might just rob you of the big idea you’re looking for. Instead of searching for the perfect idea and trying to do everything, think about what you can be great at and just focus on that. It’s hard and goes against every instinct we have as investors - just like the instinct to never sit on cash. Ultimately, putting your hands in too many pies and doing a deal for the sake of doing a deal is how big mistakes are made.
Guest Info
Andrew Abernathey is the founder and CEO of Abernathey Holdings (AH), a leading real estate holding company driven by a passion for business and inspired by the value investing approach of Warren Buffett and the simplicity approach of Gary Tharaldson. His investing journey began at the age of 13, exploring a diverse range of public securities. Established in August 2012, AH initially pursued a diverse investment strategy. However, in 2019, they strategically shifted their focus to developing and owning class-A self-storage facilities across the sunbelt region, while also owning the operating companies to ensure vertical integration. This streamlined approach has not only enhanced their returns but also propelled AH to achieve remarkable market-beating results, elevating their assets under management (AUM) to an impressive $250 million.
For more information, go to https://www.andrewabernathey.com/, https://abernatheyfoundation.com/ and https://unseen.org/.
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This year, for the first time ever, I went to the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting AKA Woodstock for Investors AKA Coachella for Capitalists.
Warren Buffett is by far, the world's most successful investor, and I was keen to hear what he had to say about the economy, his investing strategy and his mindset in the wake of the death of his business partner, Charlie Munger.
As usual, Warren had a lot of insightful things to say - things that I’ve been thinking about in my own business and my approach to building wealth. Berkshire Hathaway has made a few surprising moves over the last year, but hearing Warren Buffett talk about the governing strategy, a whole lot made sense.
Today, I share the most powerful lessons I took away from the meeting and how we can apply them to our own businesses.
Key Points
The right way to evaluate a stock
Look at stocks as a business and realize that the market is there to serve you, not to inform you. When Warren Buffett is evaluating whether or not to buy stock in a company, he's evaluating it the same way he would if he was buying the whole company. Whether you're buying a piece of a company or the whole thing, you should be evaluating the decision the same way. The market tells you when it’s a good time to buy or sell, and you should follow that. If you don’t listen to what the stock is saying, you're going to make a lot of mistakes.
It's interesting how many mistakes you can make if you just keep going
If you're in business, mistakes will always be part of the game. If you're not making mistakes, you're probably not doing a lot of things. If you're intelligent and reflective, you'll learn from those mistakes.
Do what moves the needle
With the recent passing of Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett has been thinking about what happens to the company when he passes away. He provided a simple but powerful blueprint for Berkshire's management team after he's gone - increase operating earnings, decrease shares outstanding and have a sizable cash investment for the occasional big opportunity.
Cash is king
There was a lot of buzz around Berkshire selling some of its holdings in Apple. Warren Buffett said his approach is all about reducing tax and increasing cash. It all goes back to the succession plan - having a sizable amount of cash so they could make an investment when there's a great opportunity. This is how I read deeper into this: Warren Buffett doesn't foresee things getting a whole lot better in the economy, and he foresees some more sales or good deals being available over the next 2 years.
Look for good deals, not just any deal
When asked why Berkshire Hathaway’s cash hasn’t been invested, Buffett said, “I don't think anyone sitting at this table has any idea how to use it effectively, and therefore, we don't use it”. He then added, “we only swing at pitches we like”. If you’re sitting on a lot of cash, knowing where to put it is a big question and it's really easy to get antsy when you want to put the money to work. But when the world's most successful investor says “we only swing at pitches we like”, it's a good reminder to stay patient and look for great deals instead of just putting cash into any deal that comes your way.
Navigating the noise
The world that we live in is full of noise 24/7. When you go on social media, watch the news and read the economic reports, it’s hard to make sense of all the information coming your way as an investor. Warren Buffett’s insights and approaches are very simple. They cut right through the noise. This is not to say that none of the noise matters, but the key to investing is focusing on the things that matter the most.
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There are a lot of stupid people who have been massively successful in real estate. This isn’t an insult, just the reality of how uncomplicated it can be to build a beautiful business. But if you lack in intelligence, there are a few things you can’t lack if you want to succeed.
You can’t be impatient, inconsistent, undisciplined and undetermined. There’s a reason why the most successful agents came up in the toughest markets. It forces you to do all the right things in order to survive and live to sell another home. It forces you to pay attention, become a true student of the industry instead of burying your head in the sand or being stuck in your ivory tower.
When you’ve learned how to do things the right way, it doesn’t matter what’s going on, you’ll always win. High inventory, low inventory, great rates or challenging rates, it doesn’t matter. If you have the right behaviors in place, your business will be market-proof.
Today, I’m joined by real estate industry leader, Dave Fanale. We talk about what it takes to survive and thrive in this business
Quotes
Never put your head in the sand, no matter how successful you are, never sit in the ivory tower. -Kevin Kauffman
Don’t go after the business with the money in mind. See how you can help people and the money will follow. -Dave Fanale
Don’t listen to someone on Instagram just because they have Reels that look good. Actually look at the fruit of their labor. There’s too many people out there that sound like experts but don’t have any results to speak of. -Kevin Kauffman
Guest Info
Dave Fanale is the founder of Real Estate Skill Builder, a new type of coaching company. Focusing on accountability, production, and focus. He has been in the real estate business his entire professional life, spanning actually 6 decades. David has experienced many different markets, from 20% interest rates to the mortgage crisis to the 2022 Shift. Dave’s real estate career has included Realtor, Property Manager, Leasing Manager, Home Builder, Mixed Use Property Developer/Builder/Designer, Developer, Broker/Owner of a Century 21 Franchise Company and Real Estate Coach. Dave believes the most important thing a real estate agent has to have is adaptability. He has helped many agents build businesses as well as reinvent themselves over the years. Go to https://www.reskillbuilder.com for more information and subscribe to the RET YouTube channel.
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Ever since hedge funds started bundles of single-family homes, institutional investors have been demonized. They’ve been blamed for ruining affordability, taking homes away from innocent consumers and killing real estate entirely. Reality isn’t quite as dramatic - that narrative is drastically overblown. In fact, many real estate professionals are missing out on massive opportunities by buying into this narrative.
Here’s the truth: single family has become a huge asset class and it will continue to be one over the next decade. That’s why so many investors are getting into it, but that doesn’t mean that it’s killing real estate as we know it. Ben Riehle saw the opportunity and shifted his business model from a traditional broker/property management operation to asset management in single family rentals.
As a real estate agent, you actually have a huge advantage because of your local knowledge, that’s what these companies are looking for. You could easily add this offering to your business and earn a lot more.
How do you get into a conversation with these companies? Why is the current state of single family decades in the making? Are institutions destroying real estate? In this episode, Ben Riehle returns to talk about the pivot in his business and why he’s bullish on single family rentals. He also gives us the lay of the land in single family investments and how agents can use it to be more valuable.
Guest Info
Ben Riehle is a real estate investor, entrepreneur and managing partner of First Floor Capital Management, a company building institutional grade SFR portfolios across the Midwest and Sunbelt. With 12 years of single family rental experience and over $250MM deployed, and $45 Mil. of assets under management (mostly SFR and a few legacy multifamily assets). Ben and his team are in the process of launching their next fund that will buy quality homes in great neighborhoods in Louisville, Kansas City, Phoenix and Tucson and hold them for the next 10 years. Follow @SFR_investor on Twitter/X, go to https://www.thesfrinvestor.com/ and https://www.ffcm.com/ for more information.
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Whatever industry you’re in, marketing is something we all have to worry about. It’s our job to deliver eyeballs to whatever it is we have to offer. The challenge is, the rules of marketing and the platforms that can get us traffic are constantly changing, it’s hard to predict what will work in a few months.
What we have to be aware of is that people are using these marketing platforms to do their due diligence before they even think of hiring us. We have to be authentic and tell a story that connects because that attracts the right clients and repels the wrong ones.
As much as we use marketing to connect with people and build a relationship, we have to take the emotion out of it. To succeed at the marketing game, you have to focus on the math - the numbers and the dollars behind the strategy. If we get too emotionally invested, it can be hard for us to make the shifts and pivots that give us the results we want.
What are the critical boxes our marketing content has to check? How do we succeed when the marketing landscape is always shifting? In this episode, I’m joined by CEO and Founder of Ezzey Digital Marketing, Michael Hamburger. He talks about the mentality we need to have about marketing, and how working in MLMs prepared him for the industry.
Quotes
Be who you are at all times, whether you’re on camera or not. -Kevin Kauffman
Try to remove all the emotion from the marketing side of things when it’s decision making time. Make it about math. -Michael Hamburger
You have to be authentic to who you are, inauthenticity has a stench people can sniff out real quick. -Michael Hamburger
Guest Info
Michael Hamburger is the CEO and Founder of Ezzey Digital Marketing. He’s dedicated over 20 years to innovating the field of digital marketing. Ezzey Digital Marketing, based in Scottsdale, AZ, is renowned for crafting bespoke digital strategies that drive search engine rankings, generate leads, and amplify revenue across diverse sectors. At Ezzey, they take pride in being a mainstay of full-service marketing. Their forward-thinking solutions enable businesses to excel in the complex and competitive digital environment. Beyond these services, Michale also indulges his passion for coaching and training business owners, corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, and sales teams. Empowering others with tools and insights to navigate the digital age is a mission close to his heart. Go to https://ezzey.com/ for more information and follow Michael on Instagram.
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There’s a reason people keep gambling even though we know the house always wins. There’s a reason we compulsively open apps on our phone without realizing it. Human beings are prone to falling into the trap of behaviors that feel good in the short term but hurt us in the long-term.
It’s the scarcity loop, and some of the ways our world has changed make it easier for us to get caught up in it. From food to slot machines and social media, there are whole industries pouring billions into keeping us stuck in the loop.
In order to escape the trap, we have to embrace short-term discomfort in different ways so we can live better and healthier lives. The good news is, the scarcity loop can be leveraged to work another way - to get us to install and maintain positive habits. Sneaking the broccoli into the Mac and Cheese, if you will. We’re naturally attracted to the scarcity loop. If we can find a way to leverage it for good, that’s the ultimate hack for doing the right things.
Why can't we escape the things that are bad for us? What can we learn from other parts of the world about doing what’s good for us? In today’s Book Club, we’re joined by speaker, professor, and New York Times bestselling author of Scarcity Brain, Michael Easter. He talks about the book, the research that inspired it and interesting insights about habits - good and bad.
The faster and easier you repeat a behavior that’s rewarding to you, the more likely you are to keep repeating it. -Michael Easter
Use the scarcity loop to your advantage
There are 3 parts to the scarcity loop - the opportunity, the unpredictable reward (with a crazy range of outcomes) and repeatability. Once we know what’s going on, we can leverage this loop for our benefit. Humans are naturally attracted to the scarcity loop. If you can find a way to leverage it for good, that’s the ultimate hack for falling into a positive habit. One way we can turn the scarcity loop on its head is to slow down the repeatable behaviors. With phones and apps you use too much, you can use an app like Clearspace to delay the gratification we get from them. Research has even found that having grayscale on your phone reduces your screen time by 40 minutes because colors direct behavior.
Don’t underestimate the insights of experience
It’s easy to do research on the internet but if you’re researching everything that means someone else already figured that thing out too. Experience is one of the greatest teachers that can lead you to experiences that aren’t already out there.
The truth about happiness
There’s no perfect path to happiness, though it often gets communicated to us that there’s a formula. The commonalities happy people have is they figure out what brings them deeper satisfaction, they focus beyond the worldly trappings like possessions, titles and money in the bank. They also have a bigger reason and higher purpose that will help other people. The promise but also the peril of living is you have to find that path for you.
Guest Info
Michael Easter is a speaker, professor, and New York Times bestselling author of Scarcity Brain and The Comfort Crisis. He has made a career of traveling the world to uncover practical ideas that help people live healthier, happier, and more remarkable lives. Michael’s research has taken him everywhere – from war zones to the Arctic to the Bolivian jungle. He’s interviewed thousands of experts, from Nobel laureates to world-class athletes, and pored over countless studies to find the best science-backed tactics you can use to optimize your life. His goal has always been to take these insights from the edge and make them accessible and actionable for readers. Go to https://eastermichael.com/ and sign up for The 2% Newsletter.
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A real estate transaction isn’t just a financial process, it’s an emotional one too. And we’re not just talking about the emotions of the seller and the buyer on the other side. From loan officers and appraisers to inspectors and other agents, there can be up to 35 people involved in every real estate sale, and all of them have their own emotions.
That’s why emotional intelligence has to be part of the skillset we bring to the table as agents. Our success is directly connected to our ability to manage our emotions and the emotions of everyone involved. It eliminates issues before they arise, allows you to be a better problem solver, and ultimately makes for a smoother (even enjoyable) path to the close.
How do we increase our emotional intelligence and how can we apply it to the transaction more effectively? Today, Houston top producer, Nina Patel shares the power of adding a high EQ to your toolbox as a real estate professional.
Key Points
EQ starts with you
Before you can begin to manage the emotions of the people around you, you have to get good at managing your own. There are many ways to heighten our own EQ, but self-reflection and self-awareness are non-negotiable. The better we get at those two, the more intune we become with the emotions of others.
EQ gives you foresight
Emotional intelligence elevates the client’s experience and makes it way more enjoyable because you can anticipate issues and deal with them in advance. It empowers you with foresight on what could go wrong so that you are proactive instead of reactive.
Become an active listener
When we meet people, it’s easy to talk about ourselves in an effort to convey our expertise and credibility and accolades. The problem is, the more we talk, the less we’re actually listening for what our clients need. Allow people to speak and listen actively, not just to what they are saying, but what they aren’t saying. This allows you to create the right solution for them, instead of throwing out your value proposition to see what will stick.
Use silence to your advantage
Many people believe silence is awkward, but it can actually be advantageous. It allows people to process what’s being said mentally and emotionally, so they respond instead of react. In a negotiation, silence shows confidence and strength in the position you’ve taken, which can be huge in setting your client up for success.
Emotional intelligence makes you a better problem solver
As agents, we’re constantly solving problems, no matter how many deals we’ve done. With EQ, you can look at things objectively, and see them from a higher perspective which allows us to see all the available options. Instead of being myopic in your decision making, you instantly open up more avenues of solutions. A key part of EQ is the ability to step away so that you can get that higher perspective. When you offer clients options, they feel more in control of the decision they are about to make which boosts their experience.
Guest Info
As a top-producing agent, Nina Patel has earned accolades for her outstanding performance, including the prestigious Icon Award and Top 250 Teams at eXp in just 7 months of joining eXp. But Nina’s expertise goes beyond selling homes. She’s also a certified yoga and meditation teacher, incorporating mindfulness into her daily life and professional practice. This unique blend has honed her emotional intelligence, enabling her to connect deeply with buyers and sellers, understand their needs, and guide them through the real estate journey with empathy and grace. Her approach with real estate has always been to connect authentically and create a joyful memorable real estate experience for her clients. Follow @ninaandneel on Instagram or call or 281-773-5372
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There are two sides to growth, achievement and success - strategies and tactics as well as mindset and self-work. You can know what to do, but not be emotionally, mentally and spiritually prepared for it. This is why the real conduit to business growth is knowing yourself and what makes you tick.
The problem is: people tend to camp out on one or the other, overly focusing on the tactics or overly focusing on mindset. In order to really take off, we have to marry the two sides and work on them simultaneously. It’s often easier to focus on the strategy side of things, because the term “inner work” can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Ultimately, we all have things that get in the way of how we show up in the world. Becoming aware of these areas and working on them is what will drive growth in every corner of our lives.
That’s why Lindsay Fricks created Legacy Agents - a container that combines the tactical strategies with the inner work piece. She discovered that growth, setting boundaries with clients and getting the right opportunities was easy once she worked on herself. Today she shares her journey and how she’s paying it forward with her new book.
Quotes
Setting boundaries and learning yourself and what makes you tick is the best thing you can do for growing your business. -Lindsay Fricks
You can wire your brain for the success you’re looking for, but it’s the beliefs that drive the thoughts which then drive the action which drives the results. -Lindsay Fricks
Key Points
The truth about this business
Coming into real estate with a nest egg is one key factor that set Lindsay up for early success. A lot of people come in without the stability of a good runway and that’s why they struggle. They have a lack of financial finesse because they got into this thinking it’s just about selling houses. You are, in fact, a small business owner and a CEO, being a Realtor is just a job within the business.
Friends with professional benefits
When Angela came into this industry, she had no database to speak of. So she did 100 open houses in a year! That allowed her to build a ton of relationships, but she still has a standard of who she’s going to work with. Because she talks to so many people, she’s able to be more selective about clients, and create friendships that happen to have a business component.
Self-work and business growth go hand-in-hand
You can only grow your business to the extent that you’re physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually prepared for it. It’s not enough to be around the right people or do the right strategies. Until you figure out who you are, what makes you tick, and why you do things, you’ll never be able to grow your business because you’re trying to do what someone else is doing.
The ultimate power of self-work
You can wire your brain for the success that you’re looking for, but the beliefs drive the thoughts which then drive the action, which drives the results. It’s about closing the gap between who you are inside and who you show up as to the world. Once you do that, you radiate at a magnetic level where you just end up calling in the right people and opportunities.
Guest Info
Lindsay Fricks is an Arizona Realtor, Agent Success Coach, founder of Legacy Agents and author of Becoming a Legacy Agent. Legacy Agents provides hands-on, practical guidance on navigating the complex world of entrepreneurship and real estate investment. Whether you have been in the industry since you stepped out of the womb, or you’re just starting, their mastermind and workshops are tailored to meet you at your unique stage, providing you with the tools and strategies to reach new levels of success. For more information follow @lindsay.fricks and @legacy.agents on Instagram.
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The real estate industry has always given people the ability to build a business on their own terms…unless you’re a solo agent who wants to remain that way.
Individual agents who want to grow without starting a team or joining a team have always been left out in the cold. There have never been models, structures and supports that allow them to scale without getting away from what they’re good at.
Their only other option is to stay where they are, stagnate and remain in the shadow of the business models that are hyped up from the stage. Nikki Miller found herself at this crossroads. She was a solo agent who wanted to scale or earn more without taking on all the overhead of starting a team. She also didn't want to give up her own brand for someone else’s. After being told there was no solution, she decided to build it herself, and The LEAD Syndicate was born. After being told it wouldn’t work, the platform quickly grew to 160 locations and recently got acquired by OJO Labs (now Movoto).
It goes to show that not fitting into any industry boxes, can actually be an advantage. A new idea based on your own pain point is worth chasing down because often, you’re not the only one with that problem. Yes, you’ll get resistance and even pushback, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work. In this episode, Nikki shares the story behind LEAD Syndicate, and why serving individual agents should matter to the entire industry.
Quotes
If you build well and show up correctly day-to-day, the success will show up. -Nikki Miller
When you’re coming up with something new, you’re probably on the right track if people don’t think it’s going to work. -Nikki Miller
We’re never solving problems in a vacuum, if we have a problem, someone else does. -Nikki Miller
Key Points
The truth about intentionally solo agents
Solo agents who want to stay solo are every brokerage’s biggest pain point. They are the biggest revolving door, the biggest time suck, and also a growing group. The challenge is they’ve always been underserved in this industry.
Why solo agents are often left in the cold
There are many solo agents who want to remain solo, but also want to have systems, leverage and economies of scale. They just want to focus on what they are good at and nothing more. The LEAD Syndicate was created as a plug-and-play solution for this group of agents. It provides them with consistent support in coaching and training, database management, marketing, transaction management and supplemental lead generation. The agents don’t have to figure anything out, the platform takes that off their plates so they can focus on what they do best.
Focus on what stays the same
When it comes to innovating, most people think about what will change and what will be new in the near and distant future. But sometimes the most innovative things come from focusing on what’s never going to change about the consumer - that’s exactly what Jeff Bezos did.
Your “weakness” is an advantage
If you think there's something wrong with you because you aren’t behaving the way everyone else is or you don’t have the strengths everyone else does, think differently. That thing you’re resisting is actually your strength so lean into it and figure out how to use that in order to achieve what you want.
Guest Info
Nikki Miller is the founder of The LEAD Syndicate and the VP of Lever and Agent Programs at OJO Labs. Lever is a first-of-its-kind platform specifically optimized for individual agents. It gives all the support, economies of scale, infrastructure, accountability, and training of a team without having to give up your personal brand.
Follow @the_nikki_miller on Instagram and go to https://lever.movoto.com/ for more information.
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Most of us got into real estate and running our own businesses because we craved freedom and autonomy. The problem is that freedom can be the very thing that leads to us losing our businesses.
In order to have both the freedom and the sustained great results, we need to build constraints around ourselves. If we don’t, at any given moment, our businesses are under the threat of four killers.
No matter how long you’ve been in the game, you can still fall prey to these problems and find yourself going backwards or completely derailed. Our businesses aren’t just in danger when the market is hard, they are in fact most prone when everything is going well and you get complacent.
Today, we’re going to discuss the 4 business killers, how they manifest and how to prevent and address them.
Quotes
When things are good, it’s easier to spend money, to say yes and to not hold standards. We lose discipline in the things that got us to where we were. -Kevin Kauffman
A lack of discipline shows up in not us not repeating the same activity day in and day out. -Fred Weaver
People are assigning hope to an external activity to fuel their business. You can’t do that for that many quarters in a row without finding yourself out of this business. -Fred Weaver
Key Points
The danger of inconsistent discipline
In this industry, it’s really easy to be disciplined when you desperately need the next deal, but what happens when things start going well? We take our foot off the gas. We’re disciplined enough to go out and hustle for the next deal, but not in the long run. Many of us are undisciplined - a good month is based on deals happening and having money in the bank. We have peaks and valleys in our income because it’s a direct reflection of the inconsistency in our activity. When things are good, it’s easier to spend money, to say yes and to not hold standards. It’s really easy to lose discipline in the things that got us to where we were.
Being overly optimistic
We have to accept that fact when the market’s good, our results are going to outpace our effort. Some of our great outcomes are just pure luck - we were at the right place at the right time. The problem is: if we believe that things will stay good, that easy deals will keep flowing in and that rates will stay low, we’ll miss market changes that are obvious. Assigning hope to an external activity to fuel your business isn’t sustainable.
This is a boredom management business
The truth about this business is boredom will creep in the longer you’re in it. If you’re not bored, you haven’t been in business long enough and/or you’re not consistent enough with your activities. The problem is boredom can sabotage our business because we fall into the trap of trying new things, creating chaos and taking our eye off the ball. This ultimately crumbles results in our core business.
How to combat impatience
Impatience is lethal in business because there might be a bigger gap between our effort and results than we expect. So many business owners sabotage themselves because they start thinking whatever they are doing isn’t working. Successful people have mastered the art of outlasting the impatient people.
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The secret to growing a real estate team can be summed up in 4 words: people move the money. If you’re a team leader or broker owner looking to add more transactions to your bottom line, you can’t avoid adding to your agent count.
You could pour more into the agents you do have and try to squeeze more production out of them, but if you’re relying on that for growth, you’re going to be disappointed. Of course, it’s critical to keep developing our people, but there’s only so much more we can get out of them. Even if we give them everything, people will inevitably hit a ceiling, so we have to get more people in if we want to increase our results.
You may get out of production to grow your team, but that doesn’t mean you stop lead generating. Now your lead gen efforts need to be put toward building your agent pipeline, having recruiting conversations and treating agents like your new listings.
A business vs. a job
There are two types of people in real estate: agents who love selling houses and agents who want to build businesses. The ones who want to build businesses grow by bringing more agents on, instead of trying to increase their transactions. The reality is: we could go out tomorrow and start making listings and we’d probably make more money, but we don’t want a business that relies on our effort to grow. We want leverage through people.
Agents are your new listings
Team leaders or broker owners who want to grow their agent count may step out of selling homes, but they still have to lead generate. You have to channel the energy you put into real estate into recruiting people to your team. The activities are the same: you have to get on the phone, set appointments and convert those appointments into closings AKA an agent joining your team.
The good news about the proposed NAR settlement
If you’re a team leader looking to grow your agent count, this NAR settlement presents a huge opportunity. A lot of people aren’t prepared for the changes in the industry and their businesses are suffering. This is a perfect opportunity to step in, have an honest conversation and provide much-needed guidance by offering to bring them on your team.
8 million opportunities
So many people in real estate believe there’s no opportunity in this market, but the numbers don’t lie. In 2023, 4 million homes sold, and that means there were 8 million opportunities. There’s still plenty of transactions to be had for the agents doing the right things.
Guest Info
With a North Carolina Broker's License acquired in 2005, Noah embarked on a remarkable journey in real estate. Selling over 1400 properties and personally listing more than 100 homes in a single year, Noah's expertise became evident early on. Beginning his career with Keller Williams Realty in 2005, Noah took the bold step of founding George Real Estate Group in 2019, an independent brokerage serving Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. Notably, Noah transitioned away from active sales, redirecting his focus towards building the business through training, mentoring, coaching, and recruiting. Starting with 12 agents in early 2023, the brokerage has flourished, growing to 25 agents by the onset of 2024. This expansion has notably propelled productivity even during a challenging real estate environment, boasting a 100% increase in production during the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period last year, directly attributed to the emphasis on team development. To date, Noah's career at KW and the collective efforts of George Real Estate Group have facilitated over $346 million in real estate transactions. Connect with Noah on LinkedIn.
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